{"id":42333,"date":"2023-10-12T18:21:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T01:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=42333"},"modified":"2023-10-12T18:40:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T01:40:46","slug":"the-fun-in-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/10\/12\/the-fun-in-fundraising\/","title":{"rendered":"The fun in fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music and pop culture journalist Eve Barlow will speak at Choices on Nov. 5. (PR photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

Two large-scale philanthropic events are slated for the coming weeks as part of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver\u2019s annual campaign. On Oct. 22, men\u2019s philanthropy will host the inaugural Texas Hold\u2019em Poker Night, which will take place in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver\u2019s Wosk Auditorium. And, on Nov. 5, women\u2019s philanthropy will host the 19th annual Choices event, which will be held this year at Congregation Beth Israel.<\/p>\n

Know when to hold \u2019em<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to create a new event that brought people together to strengthen their commitment to the community through tzedakah,\u201d said Michael Nemirow, men\u2019s philanthropy chair. \u201cKnowing our community, and the men\u2019s division in particular, our campaign chair, Shay (Shy) Keil, organized a poker tournament \u2026\u00a0as a way to increase participation through a fun event that people will look forward to attending. We have already received a tremendous response from the community, as well as requests for when the next one will be. If you haven\u2019t yet reserved your spot, please register now at jewishvancouver.com<\/a> to be part of this special event.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the more popular forms of poker, Texas Hold\u2019em can consist of between two and 10 players. Each player is dealt two private cards (known as \u201chole cards\u201d) that belong to them alone. Five community cards are dealt face-up, to form \u201cthe board.\u201d All players in the game use these shared community cards in conjunction with their own hole cards to each make their best possible five-card poker hand.<\/p>\n

Pollock Clinics, which specializes in men\u2019s sexual health, among other things, is presenting the poker event along with Federation. Dr. Neil Pollock and his wife Michelle have a long-standing history of supporting a diverse range of philanthropic causes. Michelle Pollock currently serves as co-chair, with David Fox, of Federation\u2019s Israel and global engagement committee.<\/p>\n

Other poker night sponsors include InstaFund, Glotman-Simpson Consulting Engineers and ZLC; beer will be provided in-kind by Mark James of Red Truck Beer Co. There will be three cash prizes \u2013 $750, $500 and $250, respectively \u2013 for the top three finishers.<\/p>\n

Registration for the Texas Hold\u2019em event and a deli dinner begin at 5 p.m., with the tournament starting at 6 p.m. The cost for a poker seat, which includes dinner and drinks, is $180.<\/p>\n

Strength of Jewish women<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two weeks following the Texas Hold\u2019em Poker Night, Choices takes place, starting at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honoured to have the opportunity as co-chairs and friends to bring women from our across our community together to celebrate the strength of women\u2019s philanthropy,\u201d said Choices co-chairs Lisa Averbach and Jaclyn Dayson. \u201cAs we are always looking for new ways to engage our community, we have a fresh new format this year. We invite everyone to join us for brunch and to hear from the incredibly impactful speaker, Eve Barlow. Eve will be joining us to speak on the important conversation of antisemitism and how important the \u2018Power of Together\u2019 is in our community, families and greater society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPower of Together\u201d is the theme of this year\u2019s annual campaign, and tickets for Choices are $85 plus a minimum donation of $154 to the campaign \u2013 or a $36 minimum donation for first-time attendees. In addition to purchasing tickets for themselves, donors can buy an angel ticket (or tickets) to ensure that any Jewish woman who wants to can attend Choices, regardless of their income.<\/p>\n

This will be the first time that Choices is held as a brunch, rather than as a dinner event. The main speaker, Barlow, is a music and pop culture journalist. Based in Los Angeles, she is a powerful advocate on social media in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Zionism online.<\/p>\n

Originally from Glasgow, Barlow lives in Los Angeles. She has served as deputy editor of New Musical Express<\/em>, or NME<\/em>, an entertainment periodical in Britain, and she is a regular contributor to New York Magazine<\/em>, the Guardian<\/em>, Billboard<\/em>, the Los Angeles Times<\/em> and GQ<\/em>, among other publications.<\/p>\n

In 2020 and 2021, Barlow was selected by The Algemeiner<\/em> as one of the top 100 people positively impacting Jewish life. For that distinction, the journal cited a quote from a 2020 article Barlow posted on medium.com, which read, \u201cMy Zionism is what makes me pro-Palestinian because how could I deny someone\u2019s right to self-determination? I am a Zionist and I am pro-Palestinian.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal of Choices is to engage women in the community \u201ctowards the fulfilling work of making the world a better place,\u201d notes the press material. Speakers at previous Choices have included Ellen Schwartz, the founder of Project Give Back; philanthropist and entrepreneur Jill Zarin; and Michelle Hirsch, a Cleveland businesswoman who spearheaded fundraising efforts to help the Jewish community in Houston following Hurricane Harvey in 2017.<\/p>\n

Funds raised from Federation\u2019s annual campaign support numerous organizations and causes both locally and internationally, and help seniors, vulnerable families and low-income individuals, among other things. To register for Texas Hold\u2019em Poker Night and Choices, go to jewishvancouver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sam Margolis<\/strong> has written for the <\/em>Globe and Mail, the <\/em>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music and pop culture journalist Eve Barlow will speak at Choices on Nov. 5. (PR photo) Two large-scale philanthropic events are slated for the coming weeks as part of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver\u2019s annual campaign. On Oct. 22, men\u2019s philanthropy will host the inaugural Texas Hold\u2019em Poker Night, which will take place in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5432,7549,3128,3649,2763,21305],"class_list":["post-42333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-annual-campaign","tag-choices","tag-fundraising","tag-jewish-federation","tag-philanthropy","tag-poker"],"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\/42333","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=42333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}