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Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

May 11, 2018 | 26 Iyar 5778 | Candlelighting at 8:25 p.m.

This message has 1015 words and will take about 5 minutes to read.

This was one of those weeks when we start off thinking we know exactly what we want to write about in the Shabbat Message, and then it changes completely. That’s what happened when the situation in our partnership region in Israel shifted significantly partway through the week.

Our partnership region of the Upper Galilee Panhandle, Etzba HaGalil, is bordered by Lebanon and Syria, and if you have been following the news, you know that things are heating up there. Front line IDF posts in the Golan Heights were the target of 20 Iranian missiles launched from Syria, some of which were intercepted by Iron Dome. Israel struck Iranian targets in Syria in retaliation. It has been a very tense time for residents, as people could hear the sound of explosions (both during the Iranian attack and the IDF retaliation). Bomb shelters across our partnership region have been ordered open.

The Upper Galilee Panhandle is geographically, economically and politically isolated from the country’s centre, and is challenged by a lack of jobs, infrastructure and opportunity. Residents simply do not have the same social, educational and employment opportunities that are readily available in the centre of Israel. Our Jewish Federation has strategically invested funds to strengthen this region through education and social welfare programs, capital projects and regional development, and has built enduring relationships between members of our own community and residents of Etzba HaGalil.

Coincidentally, Benny Ben-Muvchar, head of the Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, an area within our partnership region, was in town with us for meetings this week. He is one the many civic leaders in our partnership region with whom we work very closely. He joined us in Vancouver after attending the bi-annual Partnership2Gether meetings where Canadian volunteer leaders and staff from the Coast-to-Coast partnership met with their Israeli counterparts. We are joined in the Coast-to-Coast partnership by five other Canadian Jewish communities: Atlantic Canada, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Winnipeg.

It can’t be easy for Benny to be in Canada right now, so far from the community he represents, but the partnership meetings he was here for are important and affect his constituents. The meetings are an opportunity to review the impact of programs that we fund and for the Israelis to bring forward new programs for consideration, so the group will have the information needed to make funding decisions when it meets again in the fall. Kol hakavod to Candace Kwinter, chair of our Israel and Overseas Affairs Committee; and committee members, Michael and Phyllis Moscovich, Pam Wolfman, Stephen Gaerber, and Dorin Eilon-Heiber for their work in this area.

While the work we do together in Northern Israel is deeply important, so are the relationships we have built over the years, because they make possible the extraordinary level of international collaboration that is needed to make our investments there successful.

We will write more about the partnership meetings next week. Today we want to share with you Benny’s description of life in the region right now:

We, the residents of the Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council, have been living the tension and escalation on the northern border of the State of Israel in recent days.

We are aware of the responsible policy of the Israeli government and the IDF not to be dragged into the chaos taking place less than an hour's drive from us in Syria and Lebanon. The same Iranian forces that base their hold on Syrian soil are doing all they can to ignite the entire region and turn the Syrian conflict into an all-out war that will drag Israel in.

The last decade in the northern periphery of which we are part has been very good. Years of security and peace, tourism prosperity, academic development and significant development in all areas of life.

We are hopeful that we will be able to continue to develop the region and raise the quality of life of the residents without having to devote time to unnecessary wars.

Our hearts go out to the tens of thousands of children whose lives in Syria have become impossible and inhumane in recent years. Children, some of whom were born into a reality of inferno and hunger, of constant threat to their lives.

Sometimes it seems difficult to follow who shoots at whom and why in the "former state" of Syria - Da'ash, the rebels, the Iranians, the Syrian army, the Hizballah - and among these many dubious titles are thousands of children, tens of thousands of children, who are no different from our own children. And this deprives me of sleep as it does the residents on the northern border of Israel.

We are doing everything in our power to promote solidarity and assistance for the wounded from the cursed war in Syria, and at the same time we are preparing for the worst. We hope this day will never come: the day we have to deal head-on with the forces based on the other side of the country's northern border. The same forces that, unfortunately, are not at all concerned about the children of all of us.”

I’m sure that, like me, many of you are looking for a way to connect with Israel right now and celebrate all that we love about our homeland. How fortunate our community is to have that opportunity at Festival HaRikud this Sunday, which our Federation is proud to support. Other than events that take place in the regional communities, we don’t usually promote community events in the Shabbat Message – we save that for our newsletter and social media. But every once in a while we make an exception, and this is one of those times. I hope to see you there.

On a final note, I would like to acknowledge the loss Rabbi Aaron Panken z”l, the president of Hebrew Union College, who was killed piloting a small aircraft last weekend. Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, said, “In a constellation of tremendous Jewish leaders, the star of Rabbi Panken shone forth especially bright.” May his memory be for a blessing.

Shabbat shalom,

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

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