For more than 75 years JNF UK’s legacy department has provided will and estate administration services to clients, alongside pastoral care. In the course of this work, I had the pleasure of meeting an extraordinary man. Robert was born in Berlin in 1924 and grew up in a traditional Jewish home. In 1937, due to the increasing Nazi threat, his parents sent him to Sweden, to a school with Zionist leanings. He continued to live in Sweden, supported by his uncle, who was a delegate at the second and third Zionist Congress.
Robert’s father fled Berlin in 1938, after a tip-off by a neighbour that the Gestapo were searching for him. He escaped to Lithuania and then to the UK, where his wife and daughter joined him. Robert joined the family in the UK in 1947. He read English at Bristol University and relocated to Northamptonshire to teach English and woodwork. He had little connection to his Jewish roots but was a staunch supporter of Israel, spending time teaching in a school in the Golan in the 1970s, where his love for the country flourished.
Through engagement with KKL, in particular with David Goodman, director of community relations, he slowly embraced his Jewish roots. We regularly visited Robert in Northampton and celebrated his 100th birthday together last year. David had the privilege of visiting Robert in hospital in December and they sang Maoz Tzur together. He passed away a few days later during Chanukah. He had left a letter asking to be buried in Israel.
The department worked tirelessly under difficult circumstances to make the necessary arrangements to have Robert buried in Israel. He was laid to rest on the last day of Chanukah in Israel, family members along with JNF UK colleagues in attendance to bid farewell to this wonderful gentleman and recite Kaddish. Through Robert’s love of the Jewish homeland, his memory will live on in the projects created in his name in Israel.
Carolyn Addleman is director of legacies, KKL Executor & Trustee, carolyn@kkl.org.uk, 020 8732 6126
Registered charity 225910
