Children at synagogue make cards for police officers hurt in attack (From Times Series)

Children at Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue make cards for police officers hurt in attack in Kingsbury for Mitzvah Day

9:10am Wednesday 23rd November 2011 in News By Suruchi Sharma

Juliet Schneiderman, Bob Blackman MP and Rabbi Mendel Lew

CHILDREN at a synagogue in Stanmore made cards for police officers injured in an attack in Kingsbury for a good-deeds day on Sunday.

The cards were made for Mitzvah Day, at Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue, in London Road.

Young people who were already making Chanukah cards for children in foster care in Israel decided to send their good wishes to four officers who were hurt on Saturday, in Kingsbury Road.

Mitzvah Day is an annual good-deed day that calls on thousands of volunteers to donate time rather than money to charity and community projects.

Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow West, also attended the event to help serve tea to members of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen (AJEX).

Organiser Juliet Schneiderman said: “When Bob came along he was speaking to my husband and it came up in conversation about the police officers.

“I hadn’t actually heard what had happened but felt that the police do so much for us at the synagogue that we must show our gratitude.

“On high holy days they are so supportive and protective of us and we wanted to show our thanks by sending cards to the men who were injured.

“The kids that created the cards were a variety of ages, some were Brownies and Rainbows and others were teenagers. We will be sending the cards shortly to the officers and wish them well in their recovery.”

Other Mitzvah Day projects done by the synagogue included collecting food for the Watford New Hope Trust for the Homeless outside the Broadwalk Centre, in Edgware.

Members also knitted blankets for impoverished families in Eastern Europe and collecting Lego for children with terminal conditions.

A group of the synagogue’s teenagers also spent a part of Sunday afternoon cleaning up the Watford New Hope Trust’s market garden by removing stones and debris to enable the soil to be cleared and ready for planting in the spring.