575 guests joined The Fed over seven nights at venues in North and South Manchester for our Dinners With A Difference, each hosting between 60 and 95 guests and launching our 2024/25 fundraising campaign. The incredible, open-hearted response of our donors raised £702,000 to jump-start the drive towards our target of £2.5 million for this financial year to ensure The Fed remains as the Manchester Jewish community’s safety net.
Fed Chairman, Bernie Yaffe, welcomed guests each night and Fundraising, Marketing and Communications Director, Raphi Bloom delivered the appeal calling on donors to support us, in line with the Talmudic maxim “Aniyei Ircha Kodmim” – “the poor of your city come first”.
Guests were shown two films, the first touchingly featuring retired art dealer and former communal leader, Henry Donn, MBE, who recalled the wonderful life he enjoyed with his late wife, Della, and his affection and admiration for his late sister, Leita, both of whom developed dementia in later life. He described the loving care they received at Heathlands Village and the outstanding support he too received from staff at all levels of the organisation.
The second film introduced, Shavana, a young single mother of Elliot aged seven, in which she movingly related the incredible support they received from The Fed’s community teams when Elliot was facing life-threatening illness, including helping her to find, furnish and settle into a new home in the heart of the community. She described what The Fed does for people as ‘beautiful’.
Interposed between the films, guests watched a stark verbatim performance by actor, Marlon Solomon, who powerfully voiced the words of an anonymous member of the community whose friend struggles with extreme depression and whose life has been saved by The Fed’s involvement – his only regret being that he had not turned to us sooner.
Looking back over the packed two-week schedule Raphi reflected: “Following people’s very positive response to our 2022 Dinners With A Difference we knew we had to stay with the more intimate, local formula. Once again guests commented on how much more personally connected they felt to our work by attending a smaller occasion, and how the local venues create a much more relaxed atmosphere. The results speak for themselves. I want to express a heartfelt personal thank you to all our donors for believing in our work and partnering with The Fed to ensure we remain as the community’s safety net.”
Metro Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, attended on the third night, and reiterated his description of The Fed as “one of the jewels in Greater Manchester’s crown”. He paid special tribute to our My Voice project for its work in capturing the voices and sharing the stories and wisdom of its Survivor Storytellers, saying those who led the project had “done humanity a great service”.
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South Dinners Gallery
North Dinners Gallery