The first IsrACTION Day was held on 21st December 2014. A join initiative between North West Friends of Israel and Sussex Friends of Israel that captured the imagination of the whole of Britain with other grassroots organisations joining the initiative.
The idea behind IsrACTION is simple – to counteract the negativity of the BDS movement and to show our support as a community to the supermarkets that had been targeted, buy Israeli products and to help the homeless of all religions at this festive time of year.
The ask was simple:-
* Go into any major supermarket – preferably one that had been targetted by the protesters over and since the summer.
* Purchase any Israeli food items (with a long shelf life), for example, pasta, sauce, soup, cakes, biscuits, tins of beans, pot noodles, etc.
* Donate those items to the homeless.
In Manchester we threw a big Chanukah party and we asked people to bring their donations to our special Chanukah candle lighting ceremony and enjoy not just a lovely religious service celebrating the festival of light but also to enjoy a free supper of Hot Dogs, Latkies and Donuts (after all Chanukah wouldn’t be Chanukah without the tradition of eating latkies and donuts!).
People turned up in their hundreds, whole families enjoyed the events from toddlers in their prams with their parents, grandparents and in some cases great grandparents.
The evening was opened by a speech from NWFOI Vice Chairman Stuart Aillion, with special guest Ivan Lewis, MP for Bury South, thanking the crowd of hundreds for their support for this innovative BUYcott. Finally thanks go to Rabbi Rickman and Rabbi Brown for leading the community through a very special and sentimental candle lighting service. The formal part of the evening was closed by saying prayers for the IDF, the State of Israel and the Queen and was followed by the English and Hebrew National Anthems.
The donations were breathtaking! Take a look through our gallery to see some of the pictures from this amazing night.
With special thanks to our sponsors for their incredible generosity.
Goldstein’s MH Bakery Blooms Brackmans State Fayre Sassons / Noshers Manchester Maccabi
