SA doctor celebrates Rosh Hashanah with British Prime Minister

TALI FEINBERG

It has been a long and very fruitful journey – one that many have gained from – but certainly not an easy one for this doctor and humanitarian who hails from South Africa.

When she received the invitation card that read: “The Prime Minister requests the pleasure of your company,” she was surprised but honoured.

Being invited to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with Theresa May, is an acknowledgement of the tireless work she has done for her daughter and so many others with serious learning disabilities.  

“It’s very exciting, but I don’t see it as a personal honour – rather a reflection of my team,” Jacobson (whose maiden name was Phillips) told the SA Jewish Report from London.

“Over recent years, prime ministers have hosted receptions like this for Chanukah, and there have been similar events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. I believe this is the first event in recent times marking Rosh Hashanah,” says Philip Rosenberg, director of Public Affairs at the British Board of Deputies.

“Being invited to these events is a great honour and represents the value that the Government places on working with our community and with our organisations.”

The Rosh Hashanah tea falls on Jacobson’s daughter Talya’s birthday, which felt for her like she had come full circle as it was Talya who led her to become CEO of Kisharon, for which she is being recognised.

Kisharon is a Jewish organisation founded in 1976 to provide an education, support and equality for children and adults with complex and profound learning disabilities. Similar to Selwyn Segal or Astra Centre in South Africa, individuals supported by Kisharon are taught the skills they need to live independently within the community and to lead fulfilling lives.

“When, on Yom Kippur of 5755, Talya was born, having contracted a Group B meningitis and septicaemia, she rallied against all odds and pulled through with the help of medical intervention, life support and Hashem’s blessing. She did, however, suffer extensive damage to her brain, which left her with mild quadriplegic cerebral palsy, a severe visual impairment and learning disabilities.

“Suddenly I found myself catapulted into what was, for me, the unseen world of disability,” she writes in the British Jewish News Online website.

“Talya’s early years passed in a blur – therapy, stimulation, frustration. Tentative attempts at nursery and school settings, and the all-too-frequent rejections. Medical consultations, assessments and form filling. Navigating local council bureaucracy.

“Advocating. Negotiating. Tribunals and legal challenge. Each transition became a fight for Talya’s rights. It was a very draining and lonely path. And in the background was a young alienated family with subjugated needs,” she continues.

These challenges led Dr Jacobson to Kisharon, which showed her that “with the right support, an individual with a learning disability can take control of his or her life and achieve just about anything”.

She explains that before Talya’s birth, she had experienced little contact with disability, and she now hopes that Kisharon and similar organisations can change that reality for others.

With this vision in mind, Dr Jacobson set about improving and expanding the organisation. Says Kisharon Chairman Philip Goldberg: “Not only has Bev revolutionised Kisharon’s operating culture and efficiency over the past eight years, but her energy and ambition for individuals with learning disabilities is palpable, and outstanding outcomes are being achieved.”

Having qualified and worked as a doctor in South Africa prior to moving to the UK where she completed a Master of Business Administration at the London Business School, “South Africa’s loss is London’s gain”, say her parents, Ros and Bentley Phillips.

“We all should be proud – she has done enormous things. And now her work is being recognised by the broader community.”

Delving into her past, Dr Jacobson explains that “the most interesting part of my life is that it did not go according to plan”. While she was working as a new doctor in South Africa she suffered an HIV needle stick injury, and “there was not a lot of support” in the medical community in dealing with it.

She then chose to do her MBA in England and stayed in London. “Learning of Talya’s global disabilities was a real blow and I had no support structure,” says Dr Jacobson. Emerging eight years later when her daughter finally started to walk and talk, she wanted to “give back”.

“Joining Kisharon was empowering and cathartic, and helped me make sense of a difficult situation,” says Jacobson. Her daughter now enjoys the infrastructure that she has worked to put in place, and “she leads a very independent and full life”.

Jacobson adds that it was community support that got her through her darkest times.

Her passions and talents are broad – she recently ran a marathon through the Antarctic ice to raise money for a new Kisharon-supported living home for young people with learning disabilities.

The Antarctic Ice Marathon sees participants run two 21km laps of the Union glacier at the South Pole while braving temperatures between minus 15 and 35C as well as winds at 50 km per hour. She was the fifth woman back with a finishing time of 6 hours 43 minutes and the winner was Olympic marathon runner Gary Thornton. 

“It’s taking on a challenge like this that has helped me get through tough times,” says Jacobson. She advises that others who are going through difficulties take on something that can help them regain their confidence and take their mind off things – although maybe not such an extreme task!

As someone who has endured challenges, Bev’s Rosh Hashanah message is that “there is a silver lining to everything” and that if you want to reach out to others, “small gestures are what change the world”. 

In a Rosh Hashanah message to the South African Jewish community, Rosenberg says: “We share many common challenges and collaborate well together, including the Board of Deputies in both countries.

 “The South African Jewish community’s own Diaspora is well represented in London, with many prominent members – not least our Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis – who keep us up-to-date with the challenges and triumphs of Jewish life in South Africa.” Rosenberg told that the British Board’s Chief Executive, Gillian Merron,  is heading for South Africa later this year to meet the Jewish community here. “May our communities grow ever stronger and closer in the coming year. Shana Tova!”