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Campaign Leadership in Minsk and Israel
Each year Jewish Federations of North America, our umbrella organization for the Federation system, runs a high-level briefing trip for top campaign leadership across its many communities. The participants include annual campaign chairs and women's philanthropy chairs, along with their staff counterparts. We don't always get our Vancouver leadership there, but we are fortunate this year that Harvey Dales, general chair of the 2013 Annual Campaign, and Judith Cohen, chair of Women's Philanthropy, are participating. They are joined by our campaign director, Cindy Behrmann, and our Women's Philanthropy director, Michelle Pullan. The group started in Minsk, one of the historic centres of Eastern European Jewish experience before the Holocaust. After several emotional days experiencing the work of our overseas partners - Jewish Agency for Israel and Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - the group is now in Israel.

The trip not only inspires volunteer leadership and professional staff as they prepare to launch annual campaigns across North America, it ensures they enter into the task immersed in first-hand knowledge of the impact of your contributions. My colleague, Cindy, has written some beautiful blog posts about the trip, which you can access on our website.

Temple Sholom Group Visits Partnership Region
Rabbi Philip and Cathy Bregman are leading a final Temple Sholom family trip to Israel, as they wrap up their service to the congregation. Earlier this week, they visited our partnership region in the Upper Galilee Panhandle, stopping at the Beit Vancouver youth centre and the Arthur and Ancie Fouks Community Centre in Kiryat Shmona, as well as the Canada Centre in Metulla. Such visits help broaden the circle of community members who are aware of the scope of our impact in this border region. Click here to see photos on our Facebook page.

Join Us at the Federation Annual Campaign Opening
It has been great to see the early interest building for our Annual Campaign Opening Event with Jason Alexander. With two months yet to go before the event, there are already more than 700 tickets sold. We are looking at another great evening, where we gather in strength together to celebrate community, and to enjoy a great performer. Get your tickets now.

Parashat Devarim
With this week’s parasha we begin the reading of the final book of the Torah, Deuteronomy. It begins, on the cusp of the Israelites entering into the land, with Moses recounting the history of the Israelites’ 40-year journey in the desert. As such, and taken together with the weekly readings that follow, it presents an extended text integrating narrative, law, exhortation and poetry.

It is a nation-building moment as Moses prepares the people to enter the Land of Israel, and he’s pulling out all the stops. There is guilt and inspiration, as he reminds them of their chosen status, and the obligations attendant to that status. It starts with the narration of the journey in order to drive home the message that in order to move forward in life, individually or collectively, it is important to take stock of where you have been, and how you got to where you are today.

History is important, and you carry it with you. At the same time, we know from our history that starting something new sometimes requires a break with the past. Moses and the generation that left Egypt together won’t complete the journey in Israel. That privilege comes to a new generation - one shaped by collective history, but able to carry it forward differently.

This is a fundamentally universal lesson that applies to our lives as individuals, and to our collective lives as part of the Jewish people. We carry our history with us to know who we are and how we got here. While it shapes and informs our destiny, it is also the active work of emerging generations that carries us into the future.

Shabbat shalom!