A Brit Shalom—Covenant of Peace

Shabbat Message from CEO Ezra S. Shanken
 

It is great to be home! I arrived back last night and want to share some highlights from the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors (BOG) meetings and the meetings we organized in Tel Aviv that were focused on how we are impacting people’s lives in the periphery. These trips are jam packed and every second is precious. We use every moment to bring value and represent our community and you.

I attended the BOG meetings with Karen James, who has been a member of this body since 2018. A former Olympian, Karen also participated in the Opening Ceremony of the Maccabiah Games yesterday, along with Team Canada and the many local athletes who are competing. You may remember that our board chair, Candace Kwinter, is also very active with the Jewish Agency, serving on three of their committees.

It is always interesting to talk with someone whose background and point of view are different from yours, and I was impressed with the variety of voices at the Jewish Agency meetings. Members represented communities from Israel and around the world through Keren Hayesod (20%), Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA, 30%), and the World Zionist Organization (50%), and there is considerable diversity within each of these organizations.

This diverse group came to the unanimous decision to elect Doron Almog the new chairman of the executive.

In addition to a storied career in the IDF (he was first in and last out in Operation Entebbe), Doron is an advocate for people with disabilities. We are working with his office to bring him to our community at the earliest possible opportunity.

Doron will serve alongside Mark Wilf, the new chairman of the Board of Governors and immediate past chair of JFNA. Also, we owe a huge todah rabah to Michael D. Siegal, who extended his term as chairman of the Board of Governors during the pandemic.

In response to the recent incident at the egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel, the Jewish Agency called on the Israeli government to work together to secure worshippers and prevent disturbances there. For background on the Jewish Agency’s involvement in the Kotel’s egalitarian prayer space, you can read this Shabbat Message from 2017 and this op ed by Karen.

To be a true “start-up nation” Israel still has a long way to go to be more inclusive of those living in the periphery and those with economic disadvantages, so our Tel Aviv meetings focused on providing children in Israeli’s periphery with greater access to tech education.

We bring organizations together to create new synergies and promote innovation in Israel, just as we do locally.

Together with our friends from Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and Tnuva (a food tech innovator in Northern Israel) we are collaborating to give young people entrepreneurial skills through a program called Unistream. The magic happens when we connect these entrepreneurial skills with the tech skills they hone through Appleseeds’ Net@ program. We are thus able to create a synergy that provides young people in Northern Israel with enhanced opportunities to meet their full potential. We met with leadership from both organizations, and, after presenting to Unistream’s board, I am proud to report that they are very interested in our work in the north.

Whether kids end up in the tech sector or not, these are skills that will be needed for every job in 20 years.

Even today, the biggest tech employer in the country is not in the tech sector; it’s a bank. 

Capacity building is a central part of our work in the region, and that includes not just major economic drivers, such as the medical school we helped get off the ground in Tsfat or Tel Hai Academic College, but human capital. That is why our Israel and Global Engagement Committee, chaired by Michelle Pollock, included in its new new strategic priorities a focus on excellence in education, opportunities, and options that give every young person an equally strong chance to succeed now and in the future.

Speaking of Israel’s future, they are heading back to the polls, and you are invited to a panel discussion on Monday hosted by our advocacy agent, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, where they will touch on all the major issues.

While in Israel I was honoured to be part of Rabbi Infeld's Five Minutes of Torah video this week, which is based on the Israeli Torah reading cycle since that is where we were when we filmed it. You can watch it here and find out why our Shabbat Message is titled Brit Shalom.

We are going to save most of our local updates for next week's message, but this one is urgent. It is wildfire season and there is one raging just 2km outside of Lytton right now. Our BC Wildfire Relief Fund is always open, and now is a great time to help us get a head start on generating the funds people will need for recovery.

On a final note, we are about to enter the three weeks—a period of mourning for our community during which we commemorate a number of tragedies in our history—and I want to wish you a meaningful fast.

Ezra S. Shanken 
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

P.S. Mark your calendar for September 8 and be sure to join us for the Annual Campaign opening!