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Relief Fund Opened in Response to Calgary Flood
During the past week, torrential rains caused unprecedented flooding across southern Alberta, killing three people, forcing 100,000 to flee, submerging parts of Calgary, and causing billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses and institutions. The Calgary Jewish Federation and Jewish Family Service have been working for days, utilizing staff, board members and volunteers to assist those affected by the flood. They have been carting ruined furniture from flooded homes to dumpsters on residential streets lined with identical debris-filled bins.

Drew Staffenberg, former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, has been spearheading the Calgary Jewish Federation’s response to the worst flooding ever to hit the province, with volunteer crews visiting homes to help try to salvage personal items and clean up.

While no Jewish communal buildings or agencies were damaged, many members of the 10,000 strong community have suffered major losses to homes or businesses, many of which lacked flood insurance. (For many in Calgary, flood insurance simply wasn’t available.) Some people remain out of work as well, with many businesses closed indefinitely.

Our Federation has approved a grant from our Emergency Reserve funds to assist with Calgary’s relief efforts, and has opened a fund for community members who may wish to contribute to help the Calgary Jewish Federation respond to urgent needs. To make a donation click here, or call our office at 604.257.5100. We are open today until 3:30 p.m., and we’re back on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.

Jewish Federation Moving Quickly on CEO Transition Issues
Our Jewish Federation leadership is moving quickly and thoughtfully to address transition issues related to my coming move to Jewish Federations of North America. Bill Levine has been appointed as chair of the CEO Search Committee, which will hold its first meeting in a few weeks. The committee will be supported by the Executive Search team at Jewish Federations of North America, which ensures high level professional support for such an important process.

As such a search can take six to nine months, Jewish Federation is also moving forward to identify and appoint an interim CEO. Jewish Federation leadership met with two potential candidates this week and looks forward to being able to announce an appointment soon.

AXIS Launch a Huge Success
Jewish Federation’s new young adult network, Axis, launched last night with a big splash at the CBC Braodcast Centre downtown. Over 200 young adults got together to schmooze and enjoy, and to connect about new opportunities to get involved across the community. Our new Axis Steering Committee, led by Justine Levenberg, has put in countless hours over the past few months getting ready for the launch, and their hard work showed. Energy and enthusiasm were high, and now the group is getting ready to move on to developing new overseas volunteer service opportunities (including Ethiopia in 2014) and leadership development programming. For more information or to get connected, visit the Axis website or contact Dana Troster.

JSA Annual General Meeting
Last night the Jewish Seniors Alliance held their 10th anniversary AGM. One of the highlights of the evening was their recognition of four dedicated volunteers: Rita Akselrod (Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre), Bud Riback (Temple Sholom), and Binky and Frank Segal (Or Shalom Synagogue) who have worked tirelessly for their own organizations as well as the Jewish community at large. Their achievements and their obvious commitment to volunteer work is truly inspiring. Congratulations also to JSA president Serge Haber and his hard-working board. The organization has made great strides over the past 10 years. In particular, the implementation of their peer support services is having an important and positive impact on the lives of socially isolated and vulnerable seniors.

Parashat Pinchas
Near the beginning of this week’s reading, the Torah describes a census, taken after the plague inflicted by God as punishment for the blasphemy and profligacy of the people. In the context of that census, the text enumerates the tribes descended from Jacob’s progeny.

During these summer weeks, our Planning staff is working to analyze the data now coming out of the most recent national census. It is early days and too soon to start reporting out specific details. In broad terms we know that our region continues to see slow and steady net growth of the Jewish population, which stands in contrast to most of the other Canadian Jewish communities. Over the next months, working together with national resources through the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, we will be fine-tuning the analysis of data and making it available to local agencies and synagogues to help guide planning at the community and institutional level.

Shabbat shalom!