Pat Lidiker reports on her memorable visit to Jewish Care’s Sugar & Ronson Campus
When the Essex Jewish News was invited by Jewish Care for an incredibly tasty salt beef lunch and personal tour of the charity’s new Sugar & Ronson Campus in Redbridge, both this paper’s editor Simon Rothstein and I thought we’d wandered into a five-star hotel by mistake.
I’m seldom at a loss for words, but trying to describe this incredible building leaves me in danger of running out of superlatives!
New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has described Jewish Care as the “gold standard” for the adult social care sector, and it’s easy to see why.
First impressions are of spacious, welcoming, stylishly designed and decorated eating and meeting areas, café’s, lounges, wide corridors and sheer comfort for all who make this their home, or their home from home.
The Sugar & Ronson Campus brings together care, community and support services for the local Jewish community under one roof, continuing the legacy of more than 50 years of Jewish Care services on the site.
The 66-bed Sugar Family Care Home provides residential, nursing, dementia and end-of-life care, as well as respite stays.
Alongside it is The Ronson Community Centre, a vibrant hub offering a programme of activities including live entertainment, dancing, card games, exercise classes, bridge, yoga, table tennis and Jewish festivals and community events.
One resident, Corinne, had just had her hair and nails done in the ground-floor salon available to care home and community centre members.
“It looks like a hotel, never in a million years did I think I’d be in a place like this!” she beamed happily.
Michael, a resident at The Sugar Family Care Home, added: “The whole building is fabulous. There’s everything here, they’ve done a wonderful job and the garden’s gorgeous too.”
Jewish Care continues to make the most of a unique opportunity to create a new hub for the whole new community in the heart of Essex.
At The Ronson Family Community Centre on-site café, members of the community can meet friends for breakfast, lunch or tea and join in a variety of different events.
People of all ages can come in simply for a coffee, or a meal with their relatives. And the Campus is designed as a gentle pathway to attend an activity, while also having access to services such as social work, Meals on Wheels, specialist dementia support and mental health services from Jami if and when they need them.
The Dennis Centre, specifically designed for people living with dementia, is also part of the campus. Dementia-informed design runs throughout this part of building – that has its own secure entry and exit – with furniture, flooring, lighting and colour choices helping to support orientation, safety and independence.
One regular member there, Rita, was blown away when she first arrived, saying, “It’s really wonderful and the staff can’t do enough for us.”
Our lunch was hosted in the excellent café, open to the wider community, and serving kosher meat meals, somewhere that it’s easy to meet, eat and socialise. This includes an incredibly tasty salt beef lunch which will be on the varied menu once a month and will also features at the legendary Salt Beef Suppers.
Richard Shone, Jewish Care’s Interim Director of Property and Hospitality, was one of our guides as he was last year when we toured what was then a building site full of promise.
‘Walking around with Richard – an Essex resident himself – and Community Hub Manager Neil Rebak, it was clear just how proud everyone is of what years of hard work have achieved.
And Daniel Carmel-Brown, CEO, acknowledges deep gratitude for those who have made this new chapter possible, “All this would not have been achieved without the generosity of our cornerstone donors, the Sugar family, and the Ronson family through The Gerald & Gail Ronson Family Foundation, alongside a number of other key donors, and the support of the local community.”
Jonathan West z”l, Jewish Care’s late Director of Legal Affairs, Property and Procurement, was mentioned frequently. The new campus is a wonderful testament to his legacy.
One of the things that Simon and I loved most was seeing how the Jewish is being put into Jewish Care. From carefully chosen artwork reflecting different aspects of the Jewish experience, to classic Judaica loaned by local people, there are reminders of Jewish life everywhere.
Even the practical details have been carefully considered, for example in the way red and green tiles, plates and utensils are used throughout the campus to differentiate between meat and milk.
Jewish Care’s pastoral and spiritual lead, Rabbi Menachem Junik, already well known to many of the residents, says how wonderful it was being able to greet them, telling us: “Several admired the Jewish artefacts in the display case at the entrance. Many said that seeing that, and the mezuzahs we blessed on every door, made them feel truly at home.”
He was particularly moved by one lady’s request, adding: “She asked me to say a prayer with her to celebrate her move. It warmed my heart.”
The Sugar & Ronson Campus is open to anyone from across the Jewish community, with the needs of all Jewish affiliations covered, and services and activities designed to be inclusive and accessible.
Maureen Valins, who volunteers at both The Sugar Family Home and The Ronson Community Centre, said: “I just love it that everybody can now be together in the one building.”
This includes the young volunteers and participants of the MIKE youth leadership programme onsite – nurturing the community leaders of today and of the future. The building itself is a striking transformation of the site formerly occupied by Sinclair House, affectionately known as ‘Club’, and has been designed with Jewish life in mind. It is light, bright, spacious and fully accessible, while visual reminders throughout the campus recognise the history of the community and the services that came before.
The familiar Jewish Care staff and teams remain in place, providing continuity and trusted relationships for people who have used their services for years.
The Ronson Community Centre will also be available for community functions and events, including birthdays, bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, anniversaries, meetings and shivas, with bookings available from February 2027.
And, importantly, this is not simply a place for people once they reach a particular stage of life. It has been designed to grow with them, offering opportunities to remain connected to the community and access support at different points in their lives.
I hope to revisit The Sugar & Ronson Campus after the Yom Tovim, when many more prospective residents will have completed their move in time for Chanukah.
Shana Tova to them all – and watch this space!
• For more information visit jewishcare.org/sugar-and-ronson-campus or contact 020 8922 2222, helpline@jcare.org
Pictures courtesy of Jewish Care
