September 4, 2015 | 20 Elul 5775 | Shabbat Candlelighting at 7:31 p.m.
 

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“It’s simply awful, Ezra. And it’s our responsibility as Jews to be there for these desperate souls.”

That’s an excerpt from an email exchange I had today with the CEO of our trusted partner in international rescue and relief, the Joint Distribution Committee, and I couldn’t agree more. The JDC has been assisting Syrian war refugees in Jordan for the past two years, and has just broadened the scope of their work to include migrants and refugees in Europe and the Middle East.

For many of us the plight of refugees is highly personal, our own families having fled dangerous conditions with little or nothing in our pockets, our only wish being for a safe and better life. As Jews, we know what it is to be the stranger. As Jews, we are taught to welcome the stranger. And as Jews, we value every life in crisis. I’ve been touched by the calls we have received from community members asking what we can do as individuals and as a community.

Last year I was on a mission to Northern Israel with our volunteer leadership. We visited the Ziv Medical Centre and witnessed the care they provide to Syrians who were transferred from the Israeli field hospital on the Syrian border. Most of the patients looked to be of military age. Many were suffering gunshot wounds. You can imagine how it happened. But Israel felt it necessary to help them live. I recall being struck by the level of care they were receiving, including ground-breaking technology and top level surgeons reconstructing limbs that surely would have been amputated across the border. After all, there were no more doctors in Syria at the time. Ziv is affiliated with the Bar-Ilan University – Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, one of our Federation’s key strategic investments to improve life in Northern Israel.

Here at home, Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, our advocacy agent the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society in Toronto, and other organizations have been working together for the last several months to resettle Syrian refugees here in Canada where they seek safety. Just this morning, CIJA released information about how you can help. We encourage you as members of this compassionate community to continue to explore ways to help those less fortunate around the world, Jews and non-Jews alike.

Once again, as we pass the September 1st threshold, we enter into the holy work of raising money to help those in need. While the Federation Annual Campaign runs for three months, the truth is we’ve been open for business all year. When refugees need a safe haven in Canada, we’re open for business. When there’s an earthquake in Nepal, we’re open for business. When students in Israel’s periphery lack an avenue for success, we’re open for business. And as kids finish their summer vacations and gear up to start school, we’re reminded that we’ve been open for business all year long.

The interesting thing about an annual campaign is it puts a time frame on something that is truly timeless. As community members we recommit once a year during the campaign, but as an organization we keep going with the work all year to make the world a little bit better, a little bit fairer, and a little bit more compassionate.

We are about to enter a time in our calendar when we reflect on the year that has been and on the ways in which we have acted. We are still in the year we’re about to look back on. Now is the time when we anticipate that reflection and ask ourselves in advance if there is anything more we wish to do. Is there one more act of tikkun olam? Is there one more act of chesed? Is there one more good deed?

We are so fortunate to live in a country with such a long history of peace. For many of us that good fortune is the result of Canada and Canadians having welcomed our families when they came here seeking shelter and a life of peace. In 1986 Eli Wiesel closed his Nobel lecture with the thought I leave you with this Shabbat: “Mankind must remember that peace is not G-d's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.”

Shabbat Shalom,

Ezra S. Shanken
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

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