{"id":26185,"date":"2017-10-06T03:58:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T10:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=26185"},"modified":"2017-10-05T00:03:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T07:03:26","slug":"a-widening-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/10\/06\/a-widening-community\/","title":{"rendered":"A widening community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Cristall, general chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver\u2019s annual campaign, has pledged $250 for every new donation this year or donation from someone who didn\u2019t donate last year. (photo from JFGV)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The hashtag for this year\u2019s Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver annual campaign is #WeCan\u2019tAffordToLoseThem. \u201cWe want to make everybody feel needed and part of the community. For the health of our community, we need everybody,\u201d explained Alex Cristall, general chair of the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, due to the times, we focused on security. This year, it\u2019s about affordability and connectedness,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you live in the core, where we have a lot of infrastructure, it is extremely expensive, even people of means struggle. When you add being Jewish on top of that \u2013 sending your kids to Jewish day school, going to summer camp \u2013 it\u2019s costly. It\u2019s also very expensive for seniors. People are making decisions that it\u2019s too expensive to be Jewish. That\u2019s a big issue. We want to make it easy to live a meaningful Jewish life.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this year\u2019s campaign, Cristall has pledged $250 for every new donation or donation from someone who didn\u2019t donate last year, a fact he\u2019s eager to get out to the community. \u201cThe last couple of years, we\u2019ve had some real success with the growth of our campaigns, but we\u2019ve also had a number of donors that we\u2019ve lost,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want people to know that every donor counts, no matter what the dollar value is, because when people get involved and give, that\u2019s how you grow community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federation has been working to expand its reach to the Jewish communities developing in regions outside of the city. \u201cThis is the first time that half of our growing population lives outside of Vancouver,\u201d said Cristall. \u201cWe have to figure out a way to get services out to Surrey, Burnaby, Langley, the Tri-Cities, North Vancouver. We\u2019re going to see continued Jewish growth in the suburbs. The big push is to help our partners reach these people and connect them to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo that end,\u201d he said, \u201cthe Federation has had events in Port Moody, [and supported] a camp out in the Tri-Cities, with kids coming in from Langley. We\u2019re increasing our subsidies to schools, camps, the JFSA [Jewish Family Service Agency], so that everyone who wants to participate can find a way to participate. If you live in the city, we want to make it affordable and accessible and, if you live out in the suburbs, to make them feel part of the community and to embrace them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the second year of Cristall\u2019s time as campaign chair. \u201cI have a great cabinet with me,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re all equals but, for these two years, I\u2019m the voice of the campaign. The core message we\u2019re trying to convey is \u2018building community,\u2019 helping people to live meaningful Jewish lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the centrality of fundraising to the Jewish Federation\u2019s activities, giving money is not the only way to help Federation serve the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteering, reaching out to more donors, canvassing, boards, different agencies, coming to events \u2013 our job is to fundraise for these agencies, give up some time. There is a spot for everybody to help,\u201d said Cristall.<\/p>\n

Asked how he got involved serving the community, Cristall pointed to his parents, Lorne and Sylvia Cristall, decades-long philanthropists and volunteers in the Jewish and general communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid,\u201d he added, \u201cI also went to Jewish day school, to summer camp. I was always very involved in the community. I\u2019ve benefited from being part of the community and it feels good to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about the campaign and to donate, visit jewishvancouver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matthew Gindin<\/strong> is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the <\/em>Forward and <\/em>All That Is Interesting, and has been published in <\/em>Religion Dispatches, <\/em>Situate Magazine, <\/em>Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Cristall, general chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver\u2019s annual campaign, has pledged $250 for every new donation this year or donation from someone who didn\u2019t donate last year. (photo from JFGV) The hashtag for this year\u2019s Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver annual campaign is #WeCan\u2019tAffordToLoseThem. \u201cWe want to make everybody feel needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7433,5432,3649],"class_list":["post-26185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-alex-cristall","tag-annual-campaign","tag-jewish-federation"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}