UJIA Annual Dinner raises £2.2 million

This year's UJIA Annual Dinner and Campaign Launch was another huge success, raising a phenomenal £2.2 million in like-for-like pledges - a 10% increase on last year - towards UJIA's core programmes for young people and education in the UK and northern Israel. The event on Monday 8 November 2010 was held at the London Hilton on Park Lane and attracted over 700 guests including former Conservative Party leader, Michael Howard, Deputy Ambassador of Israel, Alon Roth-Snir and Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks.

Having returned from Israel a few days earlier, guest speaker Foreign Secretary William Hague described Israel as a "friend" of Great Britain and explained how his visit to the country was spent "celebrating the close ties between Britain and Israel and looking for ways to strengthen them in the future." He told guests at the dinner:

"There is no more rewarding investment that any society can make than its young people. So it is wonderful that UJIA and its supporters give so generously to help others to have a strong start in life. It exemplifies the Jewish community's contribution to our national life in all its dimensions."

UJIA Chairman, Mick Davis, likened programmes for regenerating northern Israel to the prophetic ideal of "beating swords in ploughshares". He described the proximity of Shlomi, a town where UJIA has funded a new high school, to the Israel-Lebanon border and how Hezbollah missiles rained down on it in 2006. Mick Davis said:

"Where war had cursed the land only a few years before, the people of Israel and the citizens of Shlomi chose to build a school and bring their children to learn of a world whose future can be peace and harmony. They did not bring guns or a brigade of soldiers to protect themselves from the hostile forces of Hezbollah - they brought the hope of children and an army of teachers."
(You can read Mick Davis' full speech here.)

James Burchell, Chair, UJIA Annual Dinner Committee, commented:

"This year's Annual Dinner and Campaign Launch reinforced UJIA's position as the UK's leading Jewish charity, creating a better future for the people of northern Israel and connecting young Jews in the UK with their heritage. The largest attendance for several years saw so many people come together to support UJIA. Our guest speaker, Foreign Secretary William Hague, made the evening a truly memorable one, putting his support firmly behind Israel and the work that UJIA is doing there. The remarkable sum raised will go some way to ensuring that our work will go even further next year."

To see photos from the event visit our picture gallery.