JDA CHAIRWOMAN RETIRES AFTER 40 YEARS

The Chairwoman of the Jewish Deaf Association, 86-year-old Mrs Evelyn Gee, was honoured with a retirement party on Sunday 2 December, to mark her 40 years at the head of the charity that her father established over 55 years ago.

Evelyn, whose husband George is President of the Association, has stepped down in December at the JDA’s AGM.  Her daughter, Trudy Kling, who has been Vice Chairwoman for the last two years and Evelyn’s and George’s son, Duncan Gee, will remain on the board, together with their parents, continuing a third generation of family involvement in this small, independent and totally unique charity. 

Evelyn Gee has been highly involved at all levels in the work of the Jewish Deaf Association. Together with George, she was responsible for raising a major part of the £600,000 needed to build the charity’s new community centre in Finchley, which opened in 1998.  A truly ‘hands-on’ Chairwoman, she has been an enthusiastic helper at the weekly Day Centre for elderly Jewish Deaf people and never misses the JDA’s annual signed celebrations of Jewish festivals. She has shaped future policies of the JDA and spread the word about its work, helping to raise its profile in the Jewish and wider communities.  In later life, she learned British Sign Language to enable her to communicate better with Deaf people.

Patron Lord Janner joined around 200 guests, including members of the JDA, benefactors, staff, volunteers and close family and friends – many of whom are also involved in the charity – at an evening event that combined the Association’s annual signed Chanukah festivities, which were fully accessible to all Deaf and Deafblind people who use various forms of communication.

Alan Greenbat, representing the Chief Rabbi (who is a patron of the JDA but was unable to attend as he was in Hong Kong) read out a message of congratulations, which included the following extract:

“Evelyn Gee is among the most dedicated and self effacing voluntary workers in the Anglo Jewish community.  Her time, effort and enthusiasm know no bounds.  Evelyn’s amazing achievements are familiar to all who know her, but her natural modesty has rarely allowed her name to be placed in the spotlight.  Tonight is a small remedy, an opportunity for those who have benefited from her lifetime of service to the hard of hearing to express their thanks and admiration.”

 Patron Lady Jakobovits was also unable to attend, due to illness, but sent a fond and emotional message, which was read out by Trudy Kling.  This was followed by tributes from the previous Executive Director, Pat Goldring, members and volunteers, some of whom have known Evelyn since the early days of the JDA, and Evelyn’s sister, Hélène, who has a hearing loss and for whom the JDA was originally founded.

Evelyn was then presented with a beautiful garden bench, the result of a collection made by JDA members and bearing a plaque with their good wishes.

 An ‘album of memories’ was presented to her and the evening was concluded with an entertaining mime sequence by BBC2 See Hear presenter, Memnos Costi.

In keeping with the JDA’s objective of total inclusion, all speeches were sign interpreted, whilst a palantypist converted them to text, enabling them to be shown on a screen so that everyone could follow the proceedings.

Further Press information from: Sharon Graham, Tel 020 8952 4676 Email: familygraham@aol.com

 

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