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Art has played an important role throughout Jewish history, and for the second year, we have worked with an artist to visually depict the struggles and hopes of our community. Illustrator Tom Froese beautifully and meaningfully captured the effects of the affordability crisis on local Jews, the challenges faced by community members who live far from Jewish infrastructure yet strive to connect Jewishly, and the struggles of at-risk youth we support in our partnership region in Israel.

Please take a minute to watch Tom’s art and its meaning come to life through animation. And please, make your gift to the Annual Campaign today.

Kol hakavod to Al Szajman and Alvin Wasserman for shepherding this video from concept to reality.

And thank you so much to those of you who were with us on Sunday evening for FEDtalks. We always strive to bring in great speakers, but this year was really something special.

Zoya Shvartzman shared the story of how she and her mother were supported by our Federation when she was a teenager. Little did we know then that Zoya’s experience being helped simply because she needed help would inspire the work she does today with our partner, the Joint Distribution Committee, helping young European Jews connect with their heritage. We were all moved when she explained, “Twenty years ago, you made a 15-year-old girl feel cared for and welcome. I can assure you that that girl who is not so little anymore is doing her very best to give others the same feeling.”

Israeli Olympic judo bronze medalist Arik Zeevi showed us how spectators’ impassioned rendition of Hatikvah at his medal ceremony inspired him to work with underprivileged athletes and to spark the ambitions of all Israeli athletes to strive for gold. Your gift to the Annual Campaign supports Arik’s work in our partnership region in the Northern Galilee.

And if you thought that living with Tourettes syndrome was no laughing matter, then you were in for a surprise when comedian and inclusion advocate Pamela Schuller took the stage. To be honest, she may have single-handedly changed our community on Sunday night. So many people have remarked to us that they left FEDtalks with a better understanding of what it means to truly include people with disabilities and diverse needs in community life. Everyone left ready and willing to say “Yes, and.”

Finally, Rabbi Irwin Kula closed the evening with a rousing call for radical pluralism in this time of relative abundance. “To crave meaning and purpose and community in a context of abundance is different than in a context of scarcity. It calls for a sense of responsibility. Community is a means, not an ends. That’s a new challenge. The community is needed to be the space where people learn the wisdom to be able to contribute to the world massively,” he said onstage.

Enjoy some photos from FEDtalks on Facebook, and if you see yourself, please tag yourself. We are preparing videos of each FEDtalk, and will let you know when they’re ready.

Thank you to our leadership who took the stage: Karen James, our Board chair; Jonathon Leipsic, campaign chair; Megan Laskin, chair of women’s philanthropy; and Stephen Gaerber, immediate past chair. Thank you also to Lana Pulver and Shay Keil, major gifts co-chairs, and yasher koach on a fabulous event. Behind every great event is a great team of Jewish communal professionals. Thank you to our staff, who worked so hard to make FEDtalks a success.

On Tuesday, in advance of Yom Kippur, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stephen Quinn, on CBC’s Early Edition radio show, about the transference of Jewish values from generation to generation, and how our community is working to create diverse entry points into Jewish life not only for young adults, but for anyone who is interested in connecting. Have a listen.

With Sukkot starting Sunday, we wish you chag sameach once more.

Shabbat Shalom.

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

P.S. We’re trying something new! Each week, I will be recording a podcast version of the Shabbat Message. The episodes will be just a few minutes long, and we hope you’ll enjoy the experience of hearing these words spoken out loud. Subscribe today, and new episodes will be delivered to your favourite app automatically (we’re working on getting this up on Apple Podcasts, too).