Their needs were broad, but she wasn’t daunted

Name: Michelle Ciffer

Dream: Provide access to educational and leisure services for every Jewish family

Location: Manchester, UK

2020 has been quite a year; my husband passed away in January after fighting stage-four brain cancer for two years. A few months later, the pandemic arrived and I was sick as well, terrified I’d leave my kids alone.

The years of my husband’s illness were tough, but also very uplifting. We worked to strengthen our emunah and continue to give, give, give. Even on his deathbed, my husband encouraged me to carry on with the vital work I do for our community.

I’m a born-and-bred Mancunian, I’ve lived here my whole life. I’m addicted to my kehillah, helping people however I can. In school, I was a quiet, somewhat mousy girl, and no one would have believed where life would take me. I first worked as a teacher, but I was always drawn to helping people in an even more hands-on way.

I came into my current role about 17 years ago as a very part-time worker, only five hours a week. As part of the government Sure Start program, the Agudah ran a center called The Hershel Weiss Children & Family Centre, and I was hired to help coordinate it.

The Sure Start concept was to provide services for children aged zero to five, things like health care, drop-in play, and nutritional support. The Hershel Weiss Centre was government-funded, but administered by frum people specifically to service the frum population, who wouldn’t avail themselves of a center that wasn’t sensitive to their culture.

I loved the job from the get-go, and have been expanding and adding to the Centre ever since. We’ve built libraries, offer classes, have programs matching volunteers with the elderly — I have more ideas than I can implement, which can be challenging at times!