Shabbat Message - March 12, 2021

This message has 853 words and will take about 4 minutes to read.

Yesterday was a national day of observance to remember the more than 22,000 Canadians and 2.5 million people around the world that have died from COVID-19. It’s hard to believe it has been one year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. In some ways, it feels much longer.
 
Like us, you are probably waiting to hear whether the next round of public health orders will allow us to gather in larger groups in time for Pesach synagogue services, Yizkor, and the seders. I, along with many of our community’s rabbis and other faith leaders, was part of a call this week with Dr. Bonnie Henry, and she is aware of the timing of these key aspects of Passover. We will keep you posted when we know more.
 
Over the past year, our community has come together like never before, and your support has enabled us to inject a total of nearly $1.1 million and counting to help our community in ways that are strategic, targeted, and build the strength of the community.
 
When 9/11 hit, the Federation of New York was able to play a huge part in the community’s recovery when tragedy struck. After I started working there they shared this saying: “We were able to help on 9/11 because we were there on 9/10.” That still resonates with me today. Our Federation has been able to respond to COVID because we were already immersed in this work for so long before the pandemic struck.
 
Years of strong leadership from our key volunteers helped put us in a position of strength pre-pandemic, and we took the opportunity this week to meet with our past board presidents and chairs. (Newer leaders are strengthening our community, too, and we’ll get to them in just a moment.) Jonathan Berkowitz, Mitch Gropper, Karen James, Bernard Pinsky, and Ted Zacks joined our current board chair, Alex Cristall, and key members of our staff team for an update and discussion led by Risa Levine, chair of our Community Recovery Task Force. With the first round of funding complete, the task force is now looking at how they can enhance community sustainability through initiatives like increased collaboration and the sharing of resources and best practices.
 
Some of the impacts from the first grant round have been very personal, like the one Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS) shared with us. Students with different learning styles have been at risk of being left behind during the pandemic. One student at RJDS—we’ll call him Jamie–has a learning disability and benefits from assistive technology. The technology that Jamie had been using was outdated and did not enable him to fully access some of his programs both at school and at home. Thanks to the grant RJDS received, they were able to upgrade the device Jamie uses. He was so excited!
 
Students like Jamie are tomorrow’s leaders, and as he and his peers grow up they will have the opportunity to shape the community of our future. Young adults in their 20s and 30s are already doing that, and we were delighted to recognize two of them on behalf of our Federation and our partners. If you weren’t able to join us in person, take two minutes to hear from this year’s award recipients Lianna Phillip and Michael Solomon.
 
There’s something extra special about the video, too, which is that it features Lana Pulver, one of the most dedicated leaders in our community and a past recipient of the young leadership award herself. We always like to close the Shabbat Message with some good news, and today we are thrilled to announce that Lana has agreed to take on the crucial work of leading the 2021 Annual Campaign!
 
Lana comes to this role with vast volunteer experience. She has served the past two years as major gifts chair and served as both chair and vice-chair of Women’s Philanthropy. She served on our Board of Directors for five years, including on the Executive Committee, and she served on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Community Foundation for 12 years, during which she chaired both the Professional Advisory and Development Committees – not to mention the numerous roles she’s held with other organizations and her impressive professional accomplishments. Lana will bring vision, passion, and drive as she prepares to lead the next campaign, and we hope you will join us in congratulating and thanking her for taking on this role.  
 
Before we close the current campaign and dig into planning for the next, we get to celebrate Israel’s 73rd birthday in some exciting new ways. One of them is our community song, and we want you to participate. It’s so easy. Just take a video of yourself singing our unique version of Bashana Haba'ah. You can choose your favorite part, so it could be just a sentence, a verse, or the chorus. Send us your video and we’ll combine it with others in a Koolulam-style video and show at our virtual Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration on Wednesday, April 14th. See you there!

Shabbat shalom.

Ezra S. Shanken
Chief Executive Officer