Shabbat Candlelighting 4:00 p.m.                                             Friday, December 21, 2012/8 Tevet 5773
 

This message has 821 words, and will take about three to four minutes to read.

Reasons to Believe
Since you can’t open a newspaper or magazine these days without somebody’s year-end list of top news stories, or personalities, or cocktail recipes, I thought I’d offer my list of top reasons to believe in the power of Jewish Federation and collective community action:

1) Jewish Federation is a strong manifestation of core Jewish values of tzedakah (charity), g’milut chesed (acts of loving kindness), and kol arevim ze’bazeh (all Jews are responsible for one another). The core of our Annual Campaign is focused on a process through which one Jew asks another Jew to help a third Jew neither of them know. You can magnify that by more than 300 volunteers reaching out to thousands of community members, to help literally tens of thousands of people here in our community and around the Jewish world.

2) Jewish Federation is effective. As I shared last week, The Vancouver Sun ranked Jewish Federation one of the top 20 BC charities. When you read the article, you will see that we have among the lowest fundraising and administrative costs compared with the other charities on the list. Thank you to our volunteers who play a vital role in Jewish Federation’s success!

3) Our impact is both broad and deep. Our 25 local constituent agencies reach thousands of members of our community, providing meaningful services, meeting social and educational needs, and connecting people with Jewish life, culture and community.

4) We help you respond to Jewish needs that you could never reach on your own. Through the Joint Distribution Committee we are helping care for more than 160,000 impoverished seniors in the former Soviet Union, and there are 70 other countries around the world where JDC is active with our support and on our behalf.

5) We build community partnerships and coalitions to tackle needs that no one institution can address on its own. A key approach to our work is convening networks of service providers. On any given day in our offices you might find the day school principals of our community meeting together, or the camp directors, or representatives of agencies serving senior adults, or those working with youth.

6) We help foster our community’s deep relationship with Israel through our extraordinary partnership with the Upper Galilee Panhandle, through our deep philanthropic impact in Israel, and by convening our own community to celebrate and commemorate important events related to Israel, such as Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom HaZikaron.

7) We are the biggest tent the Jewish community has. Through the Federation process, hundreds of community volunteers engage in governance, fundraising and committee activity - and they represent all walks of Jewish life and expression. And when the community needs to gather together at moments of crisis, it is Jewish Federation that serves as convener. With a focus on unity, but not uniformity, we celebrate the diversity and breadth of our community.

8) We take the long view, through our Planning Council’s work on identifying and closing service gaps in our community, and through the Jewish Community Foundation’s gift planning work with donors to build a philanthropic legacy for our community.

9) Our work is your work, and we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you to the almost 3,000 donors who have already made their gifts to support our community through the 2012 Annual Campaign. If you haven’t yet made your gift, act now to be counted in. Make a secure online gift here or call us at 604.257.5100. Ensure payment by December 28th to receive your 2012 tax receipt.

More Diamond Jubilee Award Winners
Last week we shared news of several Jewish Federation leaders who were recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, an award offered by the Canadian government to recognize outstanding achievements and service. That led to our learning of numerous other distinguished members of our community who have been similarly recognized, including:

Roberta Beiser
Sheldon Cherry
Marian Dewitt
Dr. Larry Goldenberg
Dr. Paula Gordon
Dr. Robert Krell
Dr. Jack Rootman
Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt
Gary Segal
Lorne Segal
Dr. Dorothy Shaw-Millman
Rabbi Yosef Wosk

Mazel tov to them all! If there are others who we have missed because we didn’t know, please accept our apologies.

In the Wake of Unimaginable Horror
In the wake of last Friday's tragic mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, I have been struggling to wrap my head around the horrific event, and find meaningful and appropriate words to share. In the end I failed to bring any new thoughts to add to this sad, sad subject, and so I turned to a rabbi and teacher who I respect greatly. I was gratified to find that indeed he had something both meaningful and appropriate to say. I encourage you to read Rabbi Brad Hirschfield's call for "senseless love" as the only sane response to insane hatred.

Shabbat shalom!

 
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