Leeds Jewish Care Services

Current

LEEDS JEWISH WELFARE BOARDS CELEBRATES 130 YEARS OF SOCIAL CARE

2008-01-01

Leeds Jewish Welfare Board, the city’s only provider of culturally sensitive Jewish social care services, is this year celebrating 130 years of caring for the Community. The Board was formed at a meeting held on the 28 February 1878 in Leeds. Known as the Board of Guardians, the object of the organisation was to provide a broad system of relief to those who needed it. That steady stream of needy soon became a flood in the mass immigration years that followed due to pogroms in Russia. For those who know Leeds Jewish Care Services as it exists today with over 100 professional staff and many hundreds of volunteers across dozens of management committees, it is a far cry from the initial days when The Board of Guardians had no professional staff and relied only on volunteers and potential clients putting themselves in front of the ‘panel’ to stake their claim for welfare and support. The turbulent years of the second world war obviously brought much strain and hardship for the Board Of Guardians including a large immigrant Community coming into Leeds. In the 1940’s a fresh intake of talent from Leeds Jewish families also arrived to undertake voluntary work and a new constitution was formed towards the end of 1942 which forms the basis of the constitution of the company today. In March 1973 the old Queenshill Centre was opened. The Centre acted primarily as a place for socialising with skill tuition and leisure activities covering a wide variety of themes. The Day Centre concept was designed to make life for the elderly less lonely and the opening of the new facility did much to uphold that, these original values also forming the foundation for the current ethos of the Marjorie & Arnold Ziff Community Centre.
  
In 2005 the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board split to become two organisations as it is today. The former organisation remains as a fundraising trust with activities such as The Variety Show, the recently launched ‘thewellfairshop’ Charity Shop and The Marjorie & Arnold Ziff Community Centre under its remit. All of the care service delivery side and welfare and social care including Mental Health Services, Children & Family Services, Older People’s Services, Moorcare Home Care Service and the Rainbow Project for the learning disabled, is delivered by Leeds Jewish Care Services. The core values of this new organisation are as deeply entrenched as those of its founding board and it concentrates solely on care and supporting those in need within the Leeds Jewish Community.

For further information about this and other services please contact us on 0113 268 4211 or email theboard@ljwb.co.uk