Shabbat Message - January 22, 2021
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We are looking forward to a big announcement next week about the first round of Community Recovery funding. The Community Recovery Task Force, chaired by Risa Levine, met this week to review applications from local organizations that have been hit hard by COVID. The task force will seek approval for their recommendations from our Board on Monday evening. From there, we will work to get these funds into the hands of organizations as quickly as possible. Our staff are already working to make sure we are prepared ahead of time. We know how important it is to put your donations to work in the community right away.
If you want to be the first to hear the news, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and then watch your inbox for our e.Yachad newsletter.
Speaking of news, we are very pleased to let you know that the District of Squamish and the Resort Municipality of Whistler have both proclaimed January 27, 2021 as 'International Holocaust Remembrance Day.' This is the first year that Squamish and Whistler have done so, and they are joined by Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver. Look for BC Place and Vancouver City Hall to be lighted up in yellow to evoke the flames of memorial candles. At a time when extremism is on the rise, we hope there will be other communities to announce soon, too. Many thanks to our advocacy agent, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and our partner, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) for the work they have done on this on behalf of our community.
One opportunity to mark this important day is to join us and the World Jewish Congress in posting a photo of yourself with #WeRemember. It is a small but significant way we can each help make sure the Holocaust is not forgotten. Find out more here.
Year in and year out, the VHEC does a remarkable job of commemorating the past and educating 25,000 students and teachers annually—and much more. We always encourage you to support our partners in addition to your Annual Campaign gift, and supporting the VHEC’s work is another great way to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
If you watched CBC’s The National last night, you’ll know that religious leaders who visit long-term care (LTC) facilities can qualify as essential visitors and begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. We are pleased to inform you that this week, some of the rabbis in our community, along with other spiritual care providers from across religious faiths, received their first dose of the vaccine. This was administered under the “essential visitors” category and is a first step toward a hopeful, eventual return to providing spiritual care to members of local congregations and those in our community who reside in LTC facilities.
When will rabbis be visiting LTC facilities?
Current provincial health guidelines prohibit visitation by spiritual support workers to LTCs. It is anticipated that as more data become available about the protection provided by two doses of the currently-available vaccines, clergy, in their role as spiritual care providers, will be permitted to return to bedsides to do their sacred work. No set date has yet been given for this.
Will clergy visit all Jewish patients in LTC?
Rabbis who are associated with a particular synagogue generally visit only their congregants in LTC care. We anticipate that this will continue to be the practice, if and when visitations are once again permitted. There are, of course, always exceptions, and all of our rabbis endeavour to provide spiritual support to any member of our community on an emergency basis.
Why did rabbis get the vaccine?
Vancouver Coastal Public Health has already vaccinated health authority spiritual care staff who go into LTC facilities to provide the same kind of support that rabbis provide. These vaccinations are part of a broader effort to vaccinate additional spiritual care providers across the faith communities. For example, Providence Health Care has begun to include their Catholic spiritual care visitors in the vaccination program.
Did all rabbis get the vaccine?
To qualify, rabbis had to engage in hospital and LTC home visitation as a regular part of their sacred work. Rabbis were not required to get vaccinated, and for those who did, it was a personal choice.
On a final note, we teamed up with the JCC and Jewish Family Services for the first BeyachadBC event this week. More than 80 families and individuals, all of whom are new to our community, attended via Zoom, and I am proud to be among those who welcomed them. They learned about important services available in our community, and met key staff from each organization. The breakout rooms in Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and English were a definite highlight, with one participant remarking that it gave her “a true sense of belonging and we were able to feel the sincere hug even given that the event had to take place over zoom.” You can’t ask for a better outcome than that! If you are a newcomer, or know someone who has just arrived in our community, more information about this valuable program is available here.
Shabbat shalom.
Ezra S. Shanken
Chief Executive Officer