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What a celebration we had this week! Our community’s biggest event of the year is always the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration presented by Jewish Federation, which was held on Wednesday night at The Chan. We were just a few seats shy of a total sell out, which is a testament to the broad community support there is for this event. Kol hakavod to event chair, Pam Wolfman and her volunteer committee, as well as the Israel and Overseas Affairs director, If’at Eilon-Heiber and her team. You can check out the photos on our Facebook page. (And what kind of a tech-savvy leader would I be if I didn’t ask you to like us while you were there?)

It was my first time celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut in Vancouver, and I was blown away by the energy. Not only was the crowd on their feet, singing and clapping along, but Micha came into the crowd and got us singing into his mic. For the first time, we showed translations and transliterations on a big screen, which broke down language barriers and made it possible for everyone to follow along. We received messages of support from Prime Minister Harper, Israeli President Rivlin, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, which helped make our community feel a part of a much larger celebration. From the young Israeli dancers to the day school students singing the anthems to the surprisingly entertaining video messages from the mayors of our partnership region, Israel was in everyone’s hearts that night.

Our hearts were touched, too, at the Yom Hazikaron commemoration the evening before. Amongst our community members there are so many connections to those who lost their lives defending Israel or as victims of terror attacks. This year, more names were added to the list of those we remember, of those whose memories are now for a blessing. This commemorative event is not only for those whose lives were personally touched by loss, but for our entire community. I hope you will join us to pay tribute next year and every year. The Yom Hazikaron committee, led by co-chairs Geoffrey Druker and Gabi Peled, was a profoundly moving event.

Transitioning from the personal pain of Yom Hazikaron to immense joy of Yom Ha’atzmaut is an experience we recreate in the diaspora, but there’s nowhere you can feel both sides of it more intensely than in Israel. It’s a unique experience that our local students on March of the Living we fortunate to have this week. After an important but very difficult week in Poland learning about the Holocaust, they arrived in Israel to connect with our homeland and to let off a little steam. They are embracing the concept of Meshoah Le’tkumah (from destruction to rebirth) and immersing themselves in the resilience and hopefulness that characterizes Israel today.

In May and June we will give more local young people incredible Israel experiences, but this time on Taglit-Birthright Israel trips. We work closely with the Birthright Israel Foundation of Canada, and met with Chaia Nadel, director of development, and David Engel, board chair, during their visit here this week. And just prior to that more than 60 participants joined us for our biggest orientation event ever. I was struck by diversity of faces in the room, and I left them with a challenge for the trip and a challenge for when they get home.

Challenge #1: The trips aren’t an introduction between an individual and a country, but between a person and their people. There is no greater example than their first visit to the Kottel. I ask them not to back away from the Wall, but instead to turn around and absorb the diversity of the faces they see. We are not here just for the Wall; we are here for the people who surround the Wall. For many of them this becomes a moment on the trip that sticks with them for life.

Challenge #2: We asked them, while they are in Israel, to think about how they can take this experience back to their Jewish community, and what it is they can do to improve whatever part of the community they are involved with.

In a few weeks they will depart as the latest recipients of Jewish Federation and community funding, but they will come back as contributors. That is the great magic of Taglit-Birthright Israel. But you don’t have to go on Taglit-Birthright Israel to recommit yourself to community. We shared highs and lows this week. We remembered those we’ve lost, and we celebrated a hard won freedom. We come together to share moments that are painful or triumphal or a little bit of both, because that’s what it means to be a community. And there’s no better time to recommit ourselves to community than right now.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver