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We’ve been writing a lot lately about the many transitions this late-summer time of year brings. Back-to-school is fast approaching and the High Holidays are upon us in just a few weeks, when we'll look back, make amends, and move forward.

As our community struggles through dramatic changes affecting the affordability and accessibility of Jewish life, our upcoming Federation Annual Campaign will continue the important work we undertook last year to further prepare us and our community organizations to adapt to these changes while ensuring that every community member's needs are met.

The kick-off event for the campaign is FEDtalks, an evening featuring four dynamic, thought-provoking speakers who are sure to spark conversation about a wide variety of pressing issues. Over the next few weeks we’ll share profiles of each of the speakers in our Shabbat Message, and we hope you’ll join us for this can’t-miss event. Tickets are now on sale.

We’re very excited that Rabbi Irwin Kula is part of our speaker line-up. Recognized as one of the leaders shaping today’s spiritual landscape, Rabbi Kula has been identified by Newsweek as one of America's "Most Influential Rabbis."

As we’ve spoken with Rabbi Kula in preparation for his FEDtalk, we’ve explained to him how our community might be different from other Jewish communities he’s visited. While many communities have experienced urban sprawl over many decades, the geographic dispersal of local Jews is coming during a time of very rapid change, and we collectively struggle to keep up with a status quo that seems to be constantly shifting. Where most other cities experience sprawl as an ever-expanding radius from the initial centre, our local geography dictates that sprawl happens mostly in two directions: farther and farther east and south from Oak Street. Add to this shift in the location of our community members a parallel skyrocketing in the cost of living - no matter where local Jews live, we struggle to participate fully in Jewish life.

A seventh-generation rabbi, Rabbi Kula ponders big issues and how innovative thinking can intersect with religion and Jewish wisdom to move communities forward. We are excited to hear his take on how our local community can continue to ground itself in Jewish values as we work hard to adapt to and address the pressing needs that come from such high-speed change.

One of the reasons we appoached Rabbi Kula is that he is the co-president of The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), a New York-based leadership training institute, think tank, and resource centre co-founded by Elie Wiesel z”l. We love that he uses Jewish wisdom to inspire people around the world to live with a greater sense of purpose, virtue, hope and love. His work has taken him across the globe to host a Passover seder in Bhutan, consult with government officials in Rwanda, help build cultural and interfaith bridges in Qatar, and discuss compassionate leadership with leaders as diverse as the Dalai Lama and Queen Noor of Jordan. He received the 2008 Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award for his work "toward equality, liberty and a truly inter-religious community."

Rabbi Kula’s FEDtalk is sure to resonate deeply here in the Lower Mainland, where we are keen to dig deep into our Jewish values as we work together to ensure that we keep our community strong even as the cost of living soars and our community spreads out.

Shabbat shalom,

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver