Shabbat Message - May 14, 2021

 

This message has 804 words and will take a little more than 4 minutes to read.
 

Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleynu,ve'al kol Yisrael ve'imru amen.
May the one who makes peace in the heavens, make peace for us and all Israel.


From rockets to riots, the situation in Israel has escalated more quickly than any of us could have imagined, with lives lost on both sides. Today, as always, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Israel, and we pray for a peaceful Shabbat. More than that, we pray for a lasting peace. On Sunday, we invite you to join us at 9:00 a.m. for a national solidarity gathering, as Jewish students and Holocaust survivors from across Canada lead us in prayer. Register here.
 
The toll the violence has taken so far is deeply distressing. Many of you are looking for ways to help, and in response we opened the Israel Under Fire Fund, through which our partner, the Jewish Agency for Israel, will help victims of terror and build long-term resilience. I’ve made a gift, and I hope you will too.
 
We do not wait for a crisis to arise before providing support. Through our ongoing support for the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee, a permanent infrastructure is in place that enables Federations like ours to act swiftly during emergencies. You can read more about other ways we help in e.Yachad. If you aren’t receiving our newsletter, sign up here.
 
So many people in our community have built close ties with people in our partnership region of the Upper Galilee Panhandle over the years. Many of you have visited the area or have even hosted students from our sister schools in your home, and you are surely wondering how they are doing. Since yesterday, there have been three missiles fired from Lebannon, three fired from Syria, and a breach at the fence between Israel and Lebannon. No injuries have been reported, and we are in regular contact with local leadership and our friends in the area to check on them and ask how we can help. They are, after all, our extended family.
 
What happens in Israel has ramifications here, one of the most disturbing of which is the way young Jewish adults are bombarded with antisemitic abuse on social media—not to mention the amount of misinformation being circulated. Concerned with the rapid increase of bullying and online harassment, our advocacy agent, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), held a workshop to support students across Canada last night. 
 
CIJA has also been in constant communication with government officials, media, and civil society leaders across the country, and as a result of their efforts the Government of Canada and the Official Opposition released statements. They also launched an action alert. As is usually the case when conflict erupts in the region, anti-Israel protests are scheduled to take place across Canada, and CIJA is monitoring those.
 
When tensions heat up in Israel, there are often local security considerations, too. Community security has long been a strategic priority for our Federation, so much so that it was the focus of the Annual Campaign in 2016. In 2019, we held over 15 different training sessions on a range of topics with frontline staff, community volunteers, and communal leaders and this past year, we had the largest number of community organizations receive federal government funding to support their security upgrades.
 
Our security director, Daniel Heydenrych-Davis, is a trusted advisor to local Jewish organizations, and over the past few days he has been in regular contact with our agencies to ensure that security protocols are in place to address any concerns as a result of the escalation in Israel.
 
Daniel works closely with our Community Security Advisory Committee, which has been chaired by Bernard Pinsky since its inception. We are very proud to tell you that Bernard was honoured by the Vancouver Police Department on Monday with the Jim and Vicki Chu Community Safety Leader Award! This award recognizes a citizen who has made outstanding contributions towards crime prevention and improving safety at the community and neighbourhood levels, and is a testament to the exemplary leadership Bernard has shown in making our community a safer place.
 
As we light the candles tonight, we stand with our friends and family in Israel who did the same just hours ago, and our collective wish of Shabbat shalom—a peaceful Shabbat—takes on a bigger meaning. Yet, this Shabbat there is an emptiness. Not only are we far from the people we love in Israel and from the country itself, we are still distancing from each other. We need to both give support to and draw support from one another right now, and Sunday is our opportunity for us to do that. Please register and join us.
 
Shabbat shalom and chag sameach.

 

Ezra S. Shanken
Chief Executive Officer