Shabbat Message - December 4, 2020
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There was another exciting announcement this week that should make our entire community proud. After a decade of work toward a common goal, our partners, Jewish Family Services (JFS) and Tikva Housing, have launched the Jewish Housing Registry. Also involved in this collaboration are the Vancouver Jewish Building Society, Yaffa Housing Society, Haro Park Centre Society, and Maple Crest Apartments.
For organizations that offer housing, the Jewish Housing Registry will support coordination and reduce duplication of efforts. For those community members who lack safe and stable housing, it will provide a single source for applications. It will also provide housing organizations with a more accurate way of determining the scope of need for housing in our community, which, in turn, will feed into a more accurate and efficient community planning process.
Jewish Federation provided some initial funding for the registry through allocations from the Annual Campaign, and the Jewish Community Foundation provided a grant to support the implementation. We are proud of the support we provided that led to this week’s launch. It is not possible to talk about those early days, when the idea first took hold, without acknowledging the vision and work of Susana Cogan (z’l), who was Tikva’s executive director during that time, for it was she who really took the lead and ran with the concept.
Housing has been a critical issue in our community for the past several years, and we know how important it is going to be in the ensuing recovery from the impact of COVID. Coming together as a consortium has the potential to make this group a contender for bigger projects that could result in a larger scale work. We also want to acknowledge the contributions of our colleague, Shelley Rivkin, our vice president of global and local engagement, who played a pivotal role in setting the stage for success.
Typically, when someone closes their eyes and paints an image of what they dream of, housing is a part of that, and this reflects the importance it holds in the human experience. Safe, stable, affordable housing is the foundational element for so many other things. That is why it is considered by many to be a basic human right. That’s also why it is a big part of the work we support, and why we are so proud of what JFS, Tikva and all the local Jewish housing societies have accomplished.
Whether it is last week’s announcement of the Jewish Food Hub or this week’s launch of the Jewish Housing Registry, it would be easy to think these projects are in place as part of a response to the impact of COVID. That is not the case. These were in the works for years prior to COVID. While COVID has certainly exacerbated these issues and many others, it didn’t take COVID for us to know we need collaboration and innovation. We and our partners have been proactive in developing these solutions and in working with donors to bring them to life.
In the spirit of recognizing collaborations, there are two more we want to highlight.
The first of these was spearheaded by our partner, the Jewish Agency For Israel. Yesterday, 316 olim (immigrants) arrived in Israel from Ethiopia, and another 100 landed today, as part of Operation Zur Israel. They are among 2,000 members of the Ethiopian Jewish community that will arrive in Israel by spring 2021 to be reunited with family members after decades of separation.
“For years, families both in Ethiopia and Israel have been pleading and praying to rejoin their loved ones. We will continue this airlift of 2,000 olim who will reunite with their families in Israel after many years of separation,” said Jewish Agency chairman of the executive Isaac Herzog.
The second is the tremendous job the day schools did in coming together for the Day School Day of Giving. We know that these are different times and many of our partners are starting to engage within the community to find support. There is no greater friend to these organizations than our Federation, and we encourage you to answer their call. We said it at the beginning of the pandemic, and we’ll say it every year: we hope you will direct some of your tzedakah to the community organizations whose work touches your heart.
On a final note, we want to recognize Dr. Carol Herbert, president of our partner the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC, who was made a Member Of the Order of Canada last week. Mazel tov to all those who were honoured.
Shabbat shalom
Ezra S. Shanken
Chief Executive Officer