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April 3, 2023 | 12 Nisan 5783

13 Green Teams Earn Adama (Hazon) Seal of Sustainability  

 

In March 2022, Jewish Federation brought 13 community organizations together to form green teams and work together towards embracing sustainability. This past March, each organization completed their year-long green team projects, earning them the Adama (formally known as Hazon) Seal of Sustainability! 

 

When we first embarked on this initiative, each team identified projects that could make a lasting impact on their organization's environmental footprint. Projects ranged from education and awareness to waste management and composting and sustainable food practices. Our teams met monthly for opportunities to collaborate, engage and learn from each other.  

 

One of the greatest takeaways from this experience was the shift in mindset that these projects forced us to take. For example, instituting a no food packaging rule at staff meetings, meant not only cutting down on packaging waste but encouraged people to choose alternatives that do not require packaging, like fruits and veggies and in turn moving us to choose whole foods instead of processed ones. 

 

Each green team participated in a number of projects. Here are some examples: 

 

  1. Beth Israel: Lighting Retrofit. The team worked with a consultant to assess the opportunities for more efficient lighting. Lighting will be upgraded in spring 2023. 
  2. Beth Tikvah Synagogue: Tu B’Shvat Dinner. The dinner program focused on themes of stewardship, planting for future generations, and being mindful of natural cycles.  
  3. Camp Miriam: Shabbat environmental education. During the first session of 2022, they ran a weekly program on Jewish perspectives on the environment and the intersection between climate change and LGBTQ+ discrimination to provide campers with a deeper understanding.  
  4. Hillel BC Society: Waste station redesign. Updated their waste station site with compost first, resulting in an increase in composted materials rather than waste into the landfill.  
  5. JCC of Greater Vancouver: Expanded composting and recycling program throughout the building including in the ECE program. Also engaged in Vermicomposting, where they created a sustainable worm habitat to compost and produce work casting fertilizer that is now used in their garden beds. 
  6. Jewish Family Services (JFS): Microgreens workshop. Held a workshop with Dr. Yael Stav to learn how to grow microgreens at home year-round.  
  7. Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver: Departmental environmental impact audits. Representatives from each department sat on the Federation green team and conducted audits of their operations and their impact on the environment. Each department is looking to more sustainable methods from event planning to paper use at the office to reduce the organization's environmental impact.  
  8. King David High School: Green Club. Opportunity for students to discuss sustainability issues, concerns that matter to them and potential solutions.  
  9. Or Shalom Synagogue: Zero Waste Education. Sourced zero waste suggestions from the community and packaged it for people to use.  
  10. Richmond Jewish Day School: Lunch Lab with JFS. JFS provided weekly healthy plant-based lunches for all students. Once a month, the upper-grade students prepared and cooked a plant-based lunch for the entire school while learning about food security, healthy eating and kitchen skills. 
  11. Schara Tzedeck Synagogue: Tu B’shvat Sustainability Awareness Weekend. Held a panel with sustainability experts from the community and worked with a local Kosher caterer to provide a vegan menu based on locally sourced seasonal ingredients.  
  12. White Rock South Surrey JCC: Frock Swap. Held a community clothing swap of gently used women’s clothing.  
  13. Vancouver Talmud Torah: Litterless Lunches. Held monthly student and staff lunches where everyone is encouraged to pack a lunch with as minimal of packaging waste as possible. This program was also implemented for the after-school activities snack.  

Through Their Designated Fund, The Glassmans Are Ensuring Jewish Continuity Through Education.   

 

Taking pride in your Jewish identity is something that Rose Marie Glassman feels is of utmost importance for the Jewish youth of today. The continuity of the Jewish people was a passion for her late husband, Leon Glassman z’l, and this passion is evidenced in the values passed on to the entire family. It is for this reason that Rose Marie Glassman is committed to building the fund established by her late husband in 2017.

The Leon Glassman Fund for Jewish Continuity through Education provides tuition assistance for Vancouver’s Jewish day schools. Glassman believes that every Jewish child is entitled to a Jewish education and that cost should not be a barrier. She feels strongly that having a Jewish day school education is fundamentally important for a strong Jewish identity and enables young people to take pride in their Jewish identity even in the face of rising antisemitism. 

 

Glassman was five years old when she first encountered antisemitism. She was playing outside in front of her house when two boys across the street started taunting her with antisemitic slurs and throwing pebbles at her. Horrified, Glassman immediately went inside to tell her mother what had transpired. Rather than cower inside in fear, her mother told her “go back outside and tell them you are proud to be a Jew.” This has stuck with Glassman throughout the course of her life, and she encourages others to cultivate this same pride in their Jewish identity and that of their children, grandchildren, and generations to come – “Investing in Jewish education for all Jewish youth, regardless of family income is critical to Jewish continuity and will ensure our Jewish legacies live on.” says Glassman. 

 

On why the Glassmans chose the Jewish Community Foundation at which to start the fund, Glassman does not hesitate – “this is who we are!” Both Rose Marie and Leon Glassman were heavily involved in the Jewish community throughout their entire lives, volunteering and contributing to nearly every Jewish agency in the community. It is due to this deep connection that Glassman knows having a fund with the Jewish Community Foundation goes beyond a sound investment and financial stability – it also speaks to the continuation of the strong Jewish community in which she believes so strongly. 

 

Are you interested in investing in Jewish education? Establishing a Field of Interest Fund, or making a contribution to one, is one of the best ways to support the areas and efforts you care about most.

Learn more about opening your own fund or make a donation today to the Jewish Education Fund. Invest now, provide Jewish education opportunities for generations to come.  

 

While the Jewish community in Canada watches with interest the ongoing developments in Israel,  our advocacy agent the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has prepared a number of resources to provide you with the most relevant information and timely updates. 

 

  • If you would like a refresher on the judicial reforms, what has happened and how we go to this point, click here.
  • If you’re interested in a deeper look into what changes were proposed, there’s also an informative infographic available here.

 

CIJA has also released a new resource, Have Your Say, where they have put together a list of key political contacts in Israel. Should you have thoughts you wish to share as Israel faces the challenges ahead, their contacts are available for you to send messages of support, constructive criticism, and concern.

Also included is a complied a list of mainstream English news services that regularly report in Israel, so you can learn a little more about the issues of the day from an Israeli perspective. 

Jewish Federation is proud to partner with organizations across our community in celebrating 75 years of Israel. Experience the best of Israeli arts, culture, food, music, dance, speakers, and more at a three-week community wide celebration from April 25 - May 14, 2023.

With events taking place from the Northshore to Langley, Vancouver, the Tri-Cities and Abbotsford, visit jewishvancouver.com/israelhere to find an event near you.

Teapacks tickets are on sale now!

Jewish Federation is thrilled to once again be able to bring you top talent from Israel. Israel’s favourite pop band, Teapacks will be live in concert on May 14 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. 

Sunday, May 14, 2023
Queen Elizabeth Theatre - 630 Hamilton St. 
6:30 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.)
Tickets $18

Join our partners the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and Temple Sholom Synagogue for a community-wide commemoration of Yom HaShoah. This year’s commemoration marks the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and provides an important opportunity for survivors to remember and mourn, and for all of us to recommit to our promise to never forget. 

 

Keynote Speaker Janos Benisz  

Monday, April 17 I 7:00 p.m. 

JCC Wosk Auditorium - 950 W. 41st Ave, Vancouver

Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Centre present a memorial service for Israel’s fallen soldiers and civilians killed in war and terror attacks.  

 

Monday, April 24 I 7:30 p.m.  

JCC Norman Rothstein Theatre - 950 W.41st Ave, Vancouver 

 

Registration is required to attend both the in-person ceremony at the JCC and the live broadcast. Seating is limited.