This message has 540 words and takes about 2 minutes to read.

Oh what a week it has been. It is hard to believe that it was just last Sunday when we had our community’s first ever Israel pavilion at the Surrey Fusion Festival. Rachel and I had the pleasure of bringing my parents during their first visit to Vancouver to see the Festival and meet Mayor Dianne Watts who has been such a wonderful supporter of Israel. One of the highlights of the day was receiving the award for best new pavilion of the festival.

Throughout the week we had the pleasure of welcoming supporters of the State of Israel in the form of Retired Canadian General Ed Fitch who wrote a stellar article in the Vancouver Sun and our partners from the Ethiopian National Project who are on the ground everyday changing the futures of new immigrants from Ethiopia. Just yesterday I was thrilled to play host to our passionate and committed CIJA staff as they took over my desk and office for a leadership briefing conference call, co-sponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, with Israel's Consul General to Western Canada DJ Shneeweiss and CIJA CEO Shimon Fogel. More than 50 leaders from around our community joined together to hear and question these two experts on the current crisis and the Canadian response.

As a new CEO wading through my first major crisis, I have had the incredible privilege of having both a stellar staff here at the Federation and the guidance of an Israel crisis team comprised of many community professionals representing organizations and synagogues across our region. I have been blown away by how well our organizations have worked together to respond to each twist and turn of this unfolding situation.

Our goal throughout the crisis is to support our brothers and sisters in Israel by doing everything we can to build and maintain strong public acceptance of Israel’s right to defend herself and to effectively respond to the government of Israel’s request that we intensify our efforts to meet the humanitarian needs of the people of Israel. 

To this end, we are hosting a community gathering along with 13 partners.  We are very honored to have Farid Rohani, chair of the Laurier Institute, who is a strong defender of our shared Canada-Israel values and a real friend of our community join us as a speaker.  We will also have a live feed with a young mother from Kibbutz Magen on the northwest Negev that had to be relocated to the north for safety reasons. We encourage you to join us this Sunday evening at Temple Sholom at 7:30 p.m. to make this an evening of light during this dark period.

Israel Relief Fund
As the conflict continues to unfold, Jewish Federation’s partner agencies are on the ground in Israel providing support to those who need it the most.  The Jewish Agency (JAFI) and the Joint Development Committee (JDC) are helping to ensure that the impact of the crisis is mitigated and people can carry on with their daily lives.

You can respond to the call to support those most in need, including children, their families and vulnerable populations, by contributing to Jewish Federation’s Israel Relief Fund. 

Shabbat Message

This week’s Shabbat message was written by NYL Cabinet members Shiva (2009) and Jarrod Beck (2012) from Dallas.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver