Jewish family hail 'totally amazing' Muslim nanny as she shares story of overcoming prejudice

Leyla Ridha, 23, grew up being taught to be suspicious of Jewish people and wants to help combat stereotypes 

A Muslim student who overcame prejudice working as a nanny for a London-based Jewish family is sharing her story to inspire others “at a time when there is a lot of bad stuff in the news”.

Student Leyla Ridha, 23, moved to London from the Middle East aged 16, having been taught as a child to be suspicious of Jewish people.

Her family settled in Barnet, and last September the Birkbeck University journalism student took a part-time nannying job for a family in the area.

The Grossman family and their three young children, who live in Cricklewood, are Jewish and ended up changing the student’s perspective “overnight” as they forged a special relationship.

Today, Ms Ridha is a familiar face picking up Marley, five, and Bela, three, from after-school Judaism classes (Cheder) and Friday is “even more special as I pray at noon in the mosque, and pray Shabbat in the evening with the children at dinner”.

Ms Ridha has even inspired Marley to want to learn about Islam and try on her nanny's headscarf.

She told the Standard: “I realised I was literally brainwashed to fear them [Jewish people], and literally misunderstood who they are.

“I thought my experiences need to be out there, someone needs to hear this stuff.

“In my culture it is a taboo to go and be a nanny in another man’s home, and also they were Jewish, it was a big thing.

“I love the family. They don’t treat me like ‘hey you work for us’, sometimes I'm just sitting downstairs with the baby watching Spongebob. We have a great time together."

City lawyer Tara Grossman, 35, said she thinks the student is “totally amazing”.

She said: “Just reading it [the blog post] I feel really proud, really proud of her. She’s just totally amazing, she really is. It was just lucky that we found each other. It wasn’t until I read it though that I thought how unusual the whole relationship really is.

“When we met Leyla, as a person she came across as so capable and so friendly, and we just offered her the job straight away.

“My daughter Marley and Leyla talk about religion, and they learn so much. We have Friday night dinner and do the bread and the candles, and she’ll come and sit with us, and I just find it so touching because there’s so much hatred out there.

“Last Chanukah, Leyla got presents for each day of Chanukah for the kids, even though we do Christmas presents for them. I was pregnant at the time and it just blew me away.

“It’s just so nice that we can have a relationship and be friends and family, and I think it’s really special. I would love her message to get out.”

This week Ms Ridha wrote a blog post for London-based platform The Muslim Vibe, stating: “If someone had told me just a few years ago that I, a Muslim student from Kuwait, would end up working for a Jewish family as their nanny, I’d never have believed them.

"Working with a Jewish family has allowed me to grow as a person, and I also believe I’ve helped the family grow too by looking at Islam from a new perspective. My understanding of the Jewish faith is something I now see as a privilege – a privilege many in the Middle East don’t have. It’s funny to think that it is accepting that job as a nanny that gave me all of this.”

A spokesperson for site said: “We hoped that by sharing one woman's beautiful journey of multi-culturalism, we could help foster a commitment from the wider community to tackle racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism."

Ms Ridha found the nanny role through Koru Kids, a platform matching working parents with flexible, part-time nannies for after-school hours, whose staff encouraged the student to share her story.

Founder and CEO Rachel Carrell, said: “I loved this story because it’s just such a great example of the way two cultures can be bridged... People are so desperate for good news at the moment and so that’s why I think it’s struck a chord.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in