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I hope you’ve had a chance to put our AGM on your calendar for June 19th, so you can join us as we honour our volunteers. Our Board chair, Karen James, says, “People always say you get back more than you give, and it’s true. Volunteering is rewarding, and it’s brought me closer to community. It’s a big community and volunteering makes it feel smaller.” We are always happy to hear that our volunteers love what they do, because working with them is rewarding for us, too. Organizations like ours rely on community members who give of their time and talents to lead, so we are thrilled to give them some well-deserved kavod at the AGM.

Alex Cristall - Harry Woogman Award
Jewish Federation created the Harry Woogman Award to recognize a volunteer who leads consistently and conscientiously by example and has long-standing and diligent campaign involvement. This year’s recipient is our outgoing Annual Campaign chair, Alex Cristall. His dedication and commitment to leadership excellence has made an enormous impact on our Federation and on our community as a whole.

Judi Korbin - Arthur Fouks Award
The Arthur Fouks Award recognizes leaders who demonstrate dedication to the goals and principles of Jewish Federation and who provide outstanding leadership to the Annual Campaign. This year, the award will be presented to Judi Korbin, who is the outgoing chair of our endowment program, the Jewish Community Foundation, and is a past chair of the Federation Annual Campaign.

Judith Cohen - Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award
As a past volunteer chair of Women’s Philanthropy, Judith Cohen is no stranger to philanthropic work. Judith draws the inspiration for her community involvement from having grown up seeing her parents “pour their time and energies into the Jewish community.” She received the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award from Jewish Federations of North America for demonstrating the highest ideals of leadership and involvement.

Courtney Cohen - Young Leadership Award
Courtney is being honoured for her extensive volunteer work with many Jewish organizations around Greater Vancouver. Just two examples among many are her involvement in our Axis program for young Jewish adults as the co-chair of the Leadership Development pillar, and her founding of Rose’s Angels, a care package project created to honor her grandmother.

We are thrilled to elevate these incredible volunteers for what they contribute as leaders, and for their impact on our organization and the community.

We will also honour the Vancouver Police Department for their ongoing support. Community security is one of the key areas of investment highlighted in our 2020 Strategic Priorities, and the VPD has been a great partner to us. They have worked closely with our Community Security Advisory Committee, chaired by Bernard Pinsky, and with our director of community security, Daniel Heydenrych. We’ve built a solid working relationship with them over many years, and it is time to recognize them for their support.

One example of this support is from last March when Jewish Community Centres across North America were receiving bomb threats. Concerned that our JCC might be targeted next, our Community Security Advisory Committee reached out to the VPD and asked for their assistance in conducting a practice building evacuation. VPD assigned five officers to the drill and, as Bernard Pinsky has pointed out, not only did they observe the drill, they spent over 90 minutes with our team and JCC personnel debriefing after the evacuation and providing practical tips on how we could improve. Four days later, when the JCC received the first of two bomb threats, staff and volunteers were prepared and VPD was familiar with the site and our procedures.

It continues to be of strategic importance that Jewish organizations build relationships beyond those we hold in our community. A great example of this is the annual #Israeli wine and #BC cheese reception hosted by our advocacy partner, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee. On Monday, they hosted over 50 Members of the BC Legislative Assembly and political staff at the Fairmont Empress Hotel.

Local Jewish community leaders also attended, and I was there with Karen James and Shelley Rivkin, our vice president planning, allocations and community affairs. Before the event, we paid a visit to Chabad House in Victoria, and met with the Victoria and Vancouver Island Jewish Federation to discuss how we might share resources and collaborate on some upcoming events.

In Israel, violence along the Gaza border continued to escalate this week. Mark Gurvis, whom many of you will remember as the former CEO of our Federation and who is now executive vice president of Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), provided us with an update on the situation and how various international Jewish organizations are responding. JFNA’s Israel office is in close contact with our partners and with the Israeli government (through the National Emergency Authority), monitoring the situation and assessing needs on the ground. As we close out the week, we wish all of you and everyone in Israel a peaceful Shabbat.

Shabbat shalom,

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver