May 29, 2015 | 11 Sivan 5775 | Shabbat Candlelighting at 8:47 p.m.
 

This message has 760 words and will take about 5 minutes to read.

Over the past year, our Board of Directors has undertaken an important conversation with more than 100 members of our community, as part of the visioning exercise we announced last fall. Those conversations, along with an analysis of the latest National Household Survey data and the development of planning reports, like the one recently completed by the Jewish Education Task Force, are informing our work for the future. It’s helped us understand what people are interested in community-wide, which then feeds into how we are positioning ourselves as a future facing organization. Our professional team and our leadership team are looking ahead - not just to next year, but to 2020 – and building the plan that will get us where we want to be as a community.

It’s something you’ll hear a lot more about in detail at our Annual General Meeting on June 18th. I encourage you to join us.

Recently, in the Jewish Independent’s 85th anniversary issue, they reprinted articles from the 1930s that reported on community meetings similar to our AGM. In and amongst the business that was reported what struck me was the passion and commitment those community leaders had. It’s no different today, and we’ll be honouring four volunteers who have made an indelible impact on our community:

Karen James, Arthur Fouks Award
Alvin Wasserman, Lou Zimmerman Award
Harvey Dales, Harry Woogman Award
Mira Robin, Young Leadership Award

Today, I’d like to tell you about award recipients, Karen James and Mira Robin, who, in many ways, represent Jewish Federation in our roles as funder and convener. Karen_james.jpg

Every day I walk into the Jewish Federation Fouks Wing and then past Sondra Green’s photo on our wall of past board chairs. And I am reminded of the legacy of the Fouks family. We are so proud to be presenting the Arthur Fouks award to Karen James at our AGM on June 18th. Karen’s service to our community and to our Federation has been both deep and broad, and she is a modern interpretation of what this award is all about. Karen has worked tirelessly to guide our Israel efforts, and to strengthen both our Annual Campaign and other financial resources that fund programs and services thousands of community members rely on. She has chaired the community and women’s philanthropy divisions of our campaign, and chaired the financial resource development committee of our Board.

Karen currently serves as chair of the Israel and Overseas Affairs Committee, where she is playing a key role in building the relationship between our community and our partnership region in Israel along with other Jewish communities around the world. In this role, Karen provides the leadership we need to ensure strategic investment in educational and social service programs in Israel and abroad, to facilitate cross-cultural exchanges between Vancouverites and Israelis, and to promote local initiatives that help our community engage with Israeli cultural activities. There’s no doubt her accomplishments are great, and as we build our plan for 2020, we hope Karen will help bring it to life.

When we talk about the Young Leadership Award, you might think of a budding leader with lots of Mira-Robinpotential. Mira Robin is so much more than that, for she is already an established leader in our community. Mira is a member of the Axis steering committee – and Axis is the ultimate convener, acting as a hub for young adult activities across our community. She has also been the co-chair of the Axis Tov (tikkun olam) committee since 2013, she was a Choices table captain, and is a Leadership Lab alum. Leaders of our Axis program, like Mira, are convening the totality of our young Jewish community while working alongside our partners. But Mira’s involvement isn’t limited to our local community. She sits on the Canadian National Young Leadership management team and earlier this year attended a national conference in this role. She attended Jewish Federations of North America’s TribeFest last year – the largest gathering of young Jews in North America – and represented Vancouver at a Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA national leadership conference in Montreal in 2012. Mira, and young leaders like her, will provide continuity of philanthropy and leadership for our community far beyond 2020.

As we approach our AGM we’re not focused on the past, but on where we will be and what we can accomplish by 2020. If building community together is important to you, too, then join us on June 18th at King David High School, where you’ll hear much more about it both from our board chair, Diane Switzer, and me.

Shabbat Shalom,


Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

 

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