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Liberal communities around the UK took part in a very successful Mitzvah Day this year. We’ll have full details and pictures in the forthcoming issue of lj today. In the meantime, here’s a rundown and some of the best snaps.
 The Liberal Jewish Synagogue collected goods for a local homelessness charity by asking for donations outside Sainsbury’s in the O2 Centre. The religion school made shoebox gift boxes for Barnardo's and Kabbalat Torah classes visited a care home.
Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich was part of a large group of people, from across all branches of Judaism and beyond, planting trees at Heartwood Forest - England's largest new native woodland.
The staff team at the Montagu Centre, Liberal Judaism’s head office, helped sort and pack old coats for Hands on London – meaning 8, 500 coats could be given to help vulnerable people in London through the winter.
Members of LJY-Netzer, the youth movement of Liberal Judaism, visited Ravenswood Village, a home for Jewish adults with severe learning disabilities run by the charity Norwood. The young people helped the residents to make poppies and cards in recognition of Remembrance Sunday and the AJEX march, and led them in song with guitars, singing and shakers aplenty!
Children and adults Kingston Liberal Synagogue went to Southborough Nursing Home in Surbiton to help serve the residents cream tea and keep them company.
 The cheder children at Woodford Liberal Synagogue performed in a musical show for the community’s Friendship Club, while the whole congregation donated food items for the residents of Jason Lee House – a local homeless support hostel.
Gloucestershire Liberal Jewish Community collected saleable goods that they donated to the Children’s Society shop in Cheltenham.
Crouch End Chavurah visited the Kurdish Centre in Hornsey to perform a musical concert, with 15 children and adults from the community and one Kurdish boy playing their instruments and singing.
The Oxford Jewish Centre was positively bursting with activities on Mitzvah Day, with members making soup, planting bulbs and trees and sifting through mountains of donated winter clothes for World Jewish Relief, spectacles for Vision Aid and toiletries and food items for local asylum seekers.
Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation packed a selection of eight toys and other items, plus a handwritten letter, into gift boxes to send to two Day Care Centres in Haifa, which are part of the Leo Baeck Outreach programme for under-privileged children. There was also an open day and bake sale.
 Finchley Progressive Synagogue had a busy and varied Mitzvah Day, clearing leaves and ivy at Highgate Cemetery and providing an impressive array of musical talent for a concert party at Rosetrees.
Bedfordshire Progressive Synagogue’s Naomi Fellerman joined a group of people from BTJD (Better than Just Dating) to paint a room at Kisharon Adult Day Centre in Hendon.
South Bucks Jewish Community made colourful number books to help children in Uganda to learn to count, before heading to Heartwood Forest near St Albans to take part in their mass tree planting.
West Central Liberal Synagogue’s energetic Dion Lebowitz organised a team of volunteers to collect toiletries and art supplies for the Separated Child Foundation.
The religion school of The Liberal Synagogue Elstree made Chanukkah cards for children at Norwood, while the older generation painted a room in Norwood's HQ and helps turn it into a training room.
Yszi Hawkings (LJS), James Dobias (Woodford) and Danny Kessler (LJS) went to St Mungo's in Swiss Cottage to make lunch for their residential and drop-in clients.
- The North Herts Liberal Jewish Community re-decorated two rooms in the home of two local (non-Jewish) gentlemen with special needs. Their carer, Heather Lipitch is a member of NHLJC and she reported that they desperately needed improvements to their home.
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Guest speakers included Liberal Judaism’s student and young adult coordinator Benji Stanley, UJIA’s Naomi Russell and Ali Bodin from Yachad UK.
