Notice Board

remembering the anschluss

Generation2Generation and the Wiener Library will be holding an on-line event to remember the Anschluss. 85 years ago this month, Germany took over Austria and was enthusiastically welcomed by the majority of Austrians. For more information and how to join, visit www. wienerholocaustlibrary.org/event/virtualevent-85-years-on-from-the-anschluss/

G2G is an FPS sponsored charity this year. We look forward to seeing you at these and other events. If you would like to hear our news and event updates please visit www.generation2generation.org.uk/getinvolved/keep-in-touch/ homeless night shelter news

FPS’s Night Shelter once again went live in December, after having supported our guests in hotels during the Covid period. Although we had room for up to 17 guests, the average number who actually came was about 11. What has been particularly pleasing is that 7 people left us to move into long-term accommodation! Everything was so successful that we are back on duty for March and April, sharing responsibilities with the West London Synagogue volunteers who borrowed the building to cover extra nights in December. This time, we will be running on Sunday nights.

For those who don’t know about us - we open our doors at 7pm and the guests are welcomed with a hot drink. At 8pm, a hot meal, prepared by our volunteers, is served and the guests spend the rest of the evening watching TV, playing board games, or chatting till they go to bed at 10ish. In the morning, the breakfast team cooks and serves breakfast, with the guests leaving by 8.30am.

We are looking for cooks, hosts, sleeper overers, bag schleppers, and breakfast shift. The dates will be:

Sunday 19 & 26 March; Sunday 2 & 9 April

Monday 10 April (Easter weekend); Sunday 16 & 23 April. We will by sharing with West London Synagogue.

For further information and to volunteer contact Andrea Narcin andrea_narcin@yahoo.co.uk / 07969 471522 jewish belarus event at fps in january

What a wonderful afternoon of communal sharing and eating! It was the first event organised by FPS in collaboration with the Anglo-Belarusian Society, aiming to promote friendship between the Belarusian and Jewish communities in Finchley. FPS is very close to the Anglo-Belarusian Centre in Holden Road, with the little wooden church that they built a few years ago.

We heard about the long history of Jews in Belarus from a Belarusian historian and about the once thriving Jewish community in Mogilev, a major industrial centre where FPS has been twinned with ‘Keshet’ - a small but vibrant Jewish Progressive community. We also viewed film and photographs of our twinning, as well as the city and its buildings of historical interest. We were greeted by video link by Rabbi Grisha Abramovich, and Mila Izakson with her young students in Mogilev. We also learned about a new digital Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Centre from its founder. And our guests prepared an amazing feast of traditional Belarusian food for us, enjoyed by all!