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The Canadian Jewish News published an article this week on the cost of living a Jewish life in communities across Canada. More an interesting reflection than a vigorous statistical study, the article provides some food for thought. One chart in particular jumped out at us immediately: the one representing real estate costs in historically Jewish neighbourhoods across the country, and generally throughout a city.

Though of course the bar representing the extraordinarily high-priced neighbourhood around Oak Street towers over all the other bars in the chart, the lower bar for the citywide average cost of real estate in Vancouver is still dramatically higher than it is in any other city in the country.

It’s this unavoidable reality of life in Vancouver that keeps us focused on addressing the affordability crisis. Because though more and more Jews live beyond the historically Jewish neighbourhoods around Oak Street, the extremely high cost of living across the region affects individuals’ and families’ ability to afford programs and services beyond the basics, including the costs of remaining or becoming involved in Jewish community life.

The cost of challah here may be comparable to the cost of challah in Calgary or Regina, but the extremely high cost of living in the Lower Mainland may make it harder for local Jews to afford a loaf.

Your gift to the Annual Campaign helps us and our partners to keep the cost of participation in Jewish community life affordable to our entire community. Please make your gift today.

We will of course be hearing many opinions about how to address the affordability and housing crises in coming weeks, as the municipal elections of October 20th approach.

Last night, The Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) hosted Meet Your Next Mayor, at Beth Israel. The event provided an opportunity for community members to engage with mayoral candidates, to speak about the issues affecting our community, and to learn more about volunteering in the upcoming municipal elections. In attendance were candidates Shauna Sylvester, Wei Young, Hector Bremner, and Sarah Kirby Yung (representing Ken Sim). The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) co-hosted a pre-reception with community members and candidates. Over 70 people attended.

This week we welcomed Amy Wasser and Daniel Weinberg of Prizmah, the Center for Jewish Day Schools. While in town, Amy and Daniel met with Federation board members, and they visited all of our local day schools. They expressed a very positive impression of the schools, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with them.

We also welcomed Rachel Sachs, from Tel-Hai College, to town this week. Located north of Kiryat Shmona in our partnership region, Tel-Hai is the leading public academic college in Northern Israel and serves as an engine of growth and change for the educational, economic, and social development of the Upper Galilee.

Because of the region’s location so close to Syria and Lebanon, many people who move there eventually move away. The constant threat from unfriendly neighbours and the relative isolation of the area, far from the resources available in Central Israel, contribute to the Upper Galilee being the most underprivileged region in Israel. Our work, with support from donors in our community, focuses not only on addressing the struggles faced by residents in the area, but also on trying to make it more enticing for young adults and families to stay long-term.

Tel-Hai College plays a key role in our Federation’s work to attract young adults to study, work, and permanently settle in the region. Donors in our community have provided instrumental support to the college as it has expanded its physical campus, and local donors also support a variety of scholarships to the college.

We learned that there was a fire in the offices of the Mevoot HaHermon Regional Council early this week. Council Mayor Benny Ben Muvchar visited our community recently, and we enjoyed his quick smile and unwavering dedication to serving the people of the region. Our thoughts are with him and his entire community, and we’re looking forward to seeing him, along with our other partners in the region, during the Partnership2Gether meetings in Israel in a couple of weeks.

With Thanksgiving coming up on Monday, we continue to reflect on all we are grateful for, and on the impact we can have on our community together when we come from a place of gratitude to listen, understand, and help.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Thanksgiving.

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

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