a miraculous moment – a real together plan

By Debra Brunner, co-founder and CEO

 

It has been 11 years in the making to come to this long awaited moment, but what a moment it was and what a road it has been to get to this point. At midnight on the 18th May as we went into the 19th, the clock on our crowdfunding campaign page stopped counting down and the page went live! Over £18,000 had already been raised of the £200,000 goal. There were 46 hours ahead of us until the close of the campaign as our campaigners, our crowdfunding champions, in the USA, Canada and Australia started their fundraising! On Sunday 19th May at 10am our UK and Europe champions joined in.

 

Collectively 100 people located in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, Netherlands, Greece and Israel pulled together to reach the goal and what a pull together it was! It really was an amazing and extraordinary ‘together plan’. 

 

 

With £100,000 already pledged or donated to the campaign, the mission was to raise the remaining 50% of the funds neded to build a significant memorial at the site of the Brest-Litovsk (Brisk) Jewish cemetery in the south of Belarus. Over 80 years ago, the entire cemetery was completely destroyed, first by by Nazis and then, what was left, by the Soviets. The gravestones were desecrated and repurposed, erasing a vital piece of history and to this day there is nothing at the site to say that this was, and still is, a Jewish cemetery. In 2014, The Together Plan stepped up to support this project and help in some way when they understood how local citizens of Brest were finding remnants of the discarded gravestones all over the region, doing what they could to return them to the Jewish community. With more than 1200 remnants of headstones that once stood in the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery safely in storage in Brest, we photographed and catalogued every piece. With the support of the son of one of the few survivors of the almost 30,000 strong Brest Jewish community massacred between 1941 and 1943, a stunning design for a memorial was commissioned and applications to the Brest authorities were submitted and approved. All that was left was to raise the funds and then build! It was a perfect campaign for crowdfunding – but we needed to build the crowd!

 

 

In October of 2023, I travelled to the USA to garner support for the campaign and I had hoped I would be able to meet with people and give some talks. But this plan was curtailed in the shadow of October 7th. I did travel to the USA, the flights had been booked, but it wasn’t the trip I had planned. Nevertheless, the people I met were keen to help and pointed me to forums where I could reach out and try to connect with people with ancestry in Brest. My sincere thanks to JewishGen who signposted me in this endeavour. 

 

With the help of one of our wonderful volunteers, Sam Wirth – we were able to connect to people around the world and invite them to a series of talks that I gave at the beginning of 2024. The fantastic Qesher organisation also helped to amplify our voice giving us a talk on their programme of events to find more people.

 

We reached out to people in our own network who had been to Brest on previous trips with me and to long-term supporters of The Together Plan inviting them to participate in the crowd, and then I presented the campaign to my BNI business network. 

 

For the last 11 years I have been a member of the BNI Chipping business networking Chapter, a phenomenal group of 57 business professionals who have always been an incredible source of support to The Together Plan. The response from the chapter to this campaign was overwhelmingly positive. But more than that, they decided to go all out and do their own challenge to keep the campaign energised! Rachel Brown of Action Coach Cheshunt (the chapter’s business coach) suggested the idea ‘let’s do a 36 hour challenge’ she said! I came up with the idea of a 36 hour exercise bike ride – but realised I didn’t have an exercise bike which was a small problem. Within a blink, Hak Huseyin of Absolute Print (the printer in the chapter) said he knew of someone looking to donate an exercise bike…and just like that the bike was sourced. Mike Segall of Money Collectors (who also happens to be the Chair of Trustees at The Together Plan) then suggested we simulate the bike ride as a ride across Europe to the site of the memorial. Who would get there first, the bike to site or the crowd hitting the fundraising goal? With the seed of an idea planted, Andy Mihaleto (who is located in Greece), one of our trustees and also head of our events team, jumped to it and plotted the route across Europe, creating all the digital assets for the social media posts. Jack Baum, trustee and IT guru at The Together Plan created a sign up sheet and the BNI members jumped in to particiapte. A cycling rota was put together, fundraising links were created and everything was set. At 10am on Sunday 19th May – I got onto the bike and started the journey. Every hour we photographed the bike rider and sent the image to our amazing team member Sonya Shaipak in Minsk who posted updates on the route and the campaign to social media. The BNI Chipping Chapter, a phenomenal group of individuals of all faiths and none, really made a huge difference raising £14,199 and keeping the crowd energised day and night! A huge thank you to all the members with special thanks to Josh Leitner of Evertex Linens who was my adviser and wing-man on the campaign, to Vijay Chandras of Quality Conveyancing for the incredible donation of food at campaign HQ and for doing an hour on the bike, to Jade and Zena Nairi of Angel Cafe for the beautiful cakes, to Andrew Andreou of Assessment Hive to David Jacobs of SRJ Accounting for bringing in so many donations and the amazing support and to Ankit Govind of TAG Media for the fabulous photography – check out the photos here. Finally a special special thank you to Rak Patel who used to be in BNI Chipping and who played a key role in keeping everyone fed, watered and looked after at HQ – day and night – and for giving me the chance to get 2 hours of sleep!!

 

 

 

 

As for the outcome – yes we hit the target with just a few minutes before the campaign was scheduled to end at 10pm UK time. It was a nailbiting ‘ride’ – a real rollercoaster to the very end as we all pulled together. What an incredible achievement all round and I am so deeply grateful to everyone who played some small part proving that it really does take a village. Read the article in the Jewish News here.

 

 

We will now process all the donations and set the wheels in motion to begin the project in Belarus which is incredibly exciting and as things develop we will keep everyone updated of progress.

 

For over a decade, The Together Plan charity has been dedicated to advocating for marginalised communities in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, striving to uncover hidden truths and amplify silenced voices. Eleven years ago we took steps to lead this unprecedented initiative, bringing together individuals of diverse backgrounds to reclaim and share the untold story of Brest’s Jewish community and here we are moving into the last phase of development to bring the memorial and this story into the light. This project isn’t just about restoring stones; it’s about revitalising a rich cultural heritage and fostering unity, education, and economic growth. It’s a humanitarian endeavour that transcends borders, empowering communities and bridging gaps across the globe.

 

This memorial will serve as a testament to Brest’s vibrant Jewish heritage, honouring the lives extinguished and educating visitors about the enduring legacy of Brest’s Jewish community today. This is about resilience, remembrance, and resistance against oblivion. Together, we are reclaiming history and reaffirming our commitment to never forget.

You can still support the campaign by clicking this link