Israel Emergency Campaign

Community milestones … Marie Doduck, Poritz Freeman, Israel Emergency Campaign

Last month, Governor General of Canada Mary Simon made 88 new appointments to the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest honours. Among those appointed as a member to the Order was Vancouver Jewish community member Marie Doduck.

For more than 50 years, Doduck has been a leader in Holocaust education and philanthropy. A child Holocaust survivor, she is a founding member of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and has shared her history with tens of thousands of students and others. Her memoir, A Childhood Unspoken, was published in 2023 by the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program. (See jewishindependent.ca/survivor-reflects-on-identity.) She champions various community engagement and fundraising initiatives.

“Members of the Order of Canada are builders of hope for a better future,” said Simon. “Each in their own way, they broaden the realm of possibilities and inspire others to continue pushing its boundaries. Thank you for your perseverance, fearless leadership and visionary spirit, and welcome to the Order of Canada.”

New members will be invited to a ceremony at a later date to be invested and to receive their insignia.

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The US Department of State recently announced the selection of international education professional Freeman Poritz for an English Language Specialist project in Israel. The project is one of around 250 that the English Language Specialist Program supports each year.

Poritz, who is originally from Vancouver (and has written for the Jewish Independent), is a teacher trainer and conflict resolution practitioner with expertise in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Previously, he served as an English Language Fellow at the Institute of Rural Development Planning in Tanzania and at Haramaya University in Ethiopia, where he conducted professional development workshops for faculty, provided teacher trainings on differentiation, virtual facilitation and needs assessment, and taught academic writing courses to undergraduate and graduate students. In Israel, he will collaborate with a group of educational professionals to design an English language bicommunal youth peace and leadership curriculum for the Ministry of Education as part of Jerusalem Peacebuilders and Retorika for Multiculturalism’s EXCEL Teacher Training Institute for Partnership and Peace Leadership.

The English Language Specialist Program is an opportunity for leaders in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages to enact changes in the way that English is taught abroad. Through projects developed by US embassies in more than 80 countries, English language specialists work directly with local teacher trainers, educational leaders and ministry of education officials to exchange knowledge, build capacity and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions and communities in the United States and overseas. The program is administered by the Centre for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

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Last November marked a year since the Israel Emergency Campaign Committee began its work, allocating grants to organizations and partners across Israel who are dedicated to addressing the critical needs that emerged in the aftermath of Oct. 7, and the war that has been raging since.

The committee’s work over the summer and the fall demonstrated its continued mission to provide support to the evacuated communities of the Upper Galilee – in education, infrastructure and capacity building – while also supporting projects in the realm of rehabilitation, also in the north.

Broadly, during the first six months, allocations were designated to projects supporting the numerous emergency needs across Israel: $8,853,704 was deployed October 2023 to March 2024, to projects addressing emergency needs in mental health care, food and supplies for vulnerable populations, rehabilitation initiatives, educational frameworks and evacuation infrastructures.

In the spring to the fall, as the committee realigned its focus to supporting the northern communities, with special attention to projects in the realm of rehabilitation, April-October grants totalling $3,011,750 were distributed.

Over the summer and the holiday season, as war continued across the north, IEC grants focused on enabling safe and meaningful programming for youth, children and families, and supporting schools that were preparing for the opening of another school year away from home. These grants came alongside immediate, emergency deployment of funds in support of the Druze communities of the Golan, after the tragic attack on Majdal Shams in July.

With the ceasefire taking effect on Nov. 27, 2024, what was once coined “the urgency of the day after,” has become the emergency of today. Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s partners in the Galilee are taking initial steps to plan their gradual return home, and the IEC committee remains aligned with this evolving reality.

A significant component of this strategy is a pan-Canadian initiative spearheaded by Sarah Mali, director general of JFC-UIA together with Jewish Federation’s executive team, in Israel and in Vancouver, and partner federations from across Canada. Earmarked to leverage collective funds to generate substantial healing and long-term impact in the north, this initiative is a central element in the IEC’s final rounds of allocations that will be developed over the coming months.

– Stephen Gaerber, chair, Israel Emergency Campaign Allocations Committee, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

Federation’s latest transfer of aid to Israel

Last month, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver transferred $9.3 million from its Israel Emergency Campaign. Additionally, the allocations committee approved a further $1.4 million for transfer.

It has been more than 10 months since Oct. 7, and the situation in Israel remains dynamic and unstable as a full-scale war looms in the north. Rachel Sachs, director of Federation’s Israel office, provided the following update:

“Over the past few months, as the situation in the south stabilized and transitioned into rebuilding, the situation in the north has escalated, creating more complex challenges for displaced communities.

“Mutual fire along the northern border has been steady since October 2023 but has escalated over the past few weeks. This means hundreds of homes along the border have been hit and damaged. Thousands of residents, who were evacuated … are still living in temporary housing or have settled in new homes in new communities, and do not plan to return to the Galilee when the war is over. The communities that were not evacuated have been living in an active war zone since then, under the threat of rockets, drones and missiles.”

Federation was notified by Elad Kozikaro, chief executive officer of the Kiryat Shmona Community Centres, “that a rocket hit close to Beit Vancouver causing some damage to the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but Beit Vancouver is home to thousands of children and teens and has left the community unnerved.”

Considering these developments, the IEC Allocations Committee, chaired by Stephen Gaerber, realigned its strategy to focus on the north. The following organizations are recipients of IEC allocations from February through June 2024: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Tzafon Medical Centre, Taglit Birthright Israel, Galilee Medical Centre, Kiryat Shmona Community Centre, Kiryat Shmona High School, Upper Galilee Regional Council, Tel-Hai College, municipalities in the East Galilee Cluster, Israel Medical Association, Dror Israel, Healthy Minds, JDC and Magen David Adom Israel.

For a full summary of the support, visit jewishvancouver.com/iec-allocations.

More aid sent to Israel

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has made a new transfer of more than $1 million from its Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC). This is its fourth transfer of funds and brings the total transferred to Israel to approximately $7.5 million.

It has been 125 days since Oct. 7 and Israel is facing challenges that continue to evolve and deepen as time goes by and the war continues. The IEC allocations committee, chaired by Stephen Gaerber, has reviewed funding proposals with great care to ensure that this latest round of allocations addresses the developing needs on the ground.

To give local community members a sense of what Israelis are facing at this stage, Federation asked Rachel Sachs, director of its Israel office, to provide this summary:

“As the army continues to fight in Gaza, the loss of soldiers’ lives and the ongoing state of captivity of 136 Israelis in Gaza is a growing and unbearable burden that is taking its toll on Israelis across the country. In the last few weeks, many reservists have been released from duty, with the understanding that they may get called up again. Their return home, after months in the battlefield, has sparked a new set of challenges in their families, their professional paths, academic journeys, and more.

“The evacuation of approximately 130,000 Israelis from the north and the south continues. Some remain housed in hotel rooms across the country, often miles away from home. Some residents of these frontline communities remain determined to return home the minute they will be allowed to, some remain determined that they will never go back, and others are trying to determine what it will take for them to return, both in terms of their sense of security, and actual security itself.

“Many of the devastated communities of the Gaza Envelope have either found, or are seeking, sites to which they can relocate together. Until their home kibbutzim are rebuilt, that is. They have been taken in by communities across the country, where they are, hopefully, experiencing a small sense of home for the first time since they fled their real homes months ago.

“The mental and emotional toll of this extended situation is growing, as the need for ongoing care and therapy for survivors, bereaved families and evacuated communities continues in multiple locations across Israel.

“In our partnership region of the Upper Galilee, the state of emergency continues.

“There is great uncertainty and concern over when the ‘day after’ will be and what will it look like. There is ongoing outreach to evacuated residents, with the understanding that community resilience is a critical factor in bringing people back home and offering them a hopeful future, together, in the north.”

Funding for this round of allocations is focused in four areas: emergency and humanitarian needs, respite for evacuees, economic support, and targeted populations. The following organizations are recipients of this round of IEC allocations:

Adler Institute: support programs for returning reservists and their families to address the specific needs related to returning from service, as defined by the reservists themselves.

Haruv Institute: a leader in training professionals who treat children suffering from trauma, abuse, and neglect, the institute is providing training for Eshkol Region healthcare professionals who are treating children.

Yeelim Centre at Ein Yael: nature therapy for survivors of the Nova festival, families of soldiers, evacuees, and more.

Ziv Medical Centre: funding to expand the centre’s emergency mental health work, so the hospital – itself in the line of fire and operating in emergency mode – can respond to the evolving needs and growing numbers of patients.

Kiryat Shmona Psychiatric Unit: currently operating from a temporary location in Tiberias, funding is to build a safe room at the Kiryat Shmona facility to ensure they can keep up treatment with patients when they return home.

Upper Galilee Hospice: support for terminally ill evacuated patients and their caregivers.

Yozmot Atid: support for the growing number of businesswomen who have been evacuated, some of whom also have spouses who have been serving as reservists for the past three months.

Israel Diving Federation: therapeutics diving excursions for survivors and evacuees from both northern and southern Israel.

Taglit-Birthright Israel: week-long respites for residents of the Eastern Galilee.

Road to Recovery: transportation for evacuees from across the country to reach their treatment sessions in their home regions, which are now often miles away.

Hannaton Education Centre: support for Kibbutz Hannaton to continue to house families of asylum seekers from Sderot, who were evacuated and have nowhere else to go.

Beit Issie Shapiro: rehabilitation and therapy programs for displaced families of individuals with disabilities.

To donate to the Israel Emergency Campaign and for a full summary of the support given to date, visit jewishvancouver.com.

– Courtesy Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

More funds to Israel

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has made its third transfer of funds – just under $1.6 million – to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The latest transfer brings the total transferred from Federation’s Israel Emergency Campaign to just under $6.5 million. To date, Jewish Federation has raised more than $17.3 million through the campaign.

Israel and its citizens are transitioning from emergency mode to emergency routine. To meet the current circumstances and provide impactful assistance, the Israel Emergency Campaign allocations committee has developed a framework for allocations and includes support in the following areas:

• Addressing the basic needs of survivors, evacuees and all Israelis during the war, including emergency assistance to those directly impacted by the Oct. 7 attack.

• Addressing the immediate needs of people from evacuated communities who have been displaced for an unknown duration of time, so they can regain a semblance of normalcy and build resilience, through educational programs, respite and related supports.

• Providing emergency care to survivors and evacuees who have experienced traumatic events and require immediate support. Supporting medical centres on the frontline to increase their ability to address emergency situations along the country’s borders.

• Supporting strategic approaches to minimizing the drastic negative effect of societal challenges such as divisions between groups of the population, destruction of community life, loss of livelihood and a significantly decreased sense of resilience and security, all of which are sources of concern and anxiety for many Israelis.

• Supporting vulnerable groups with unique, disadvantaged circumstances.

The recent $1.6 million has been allocated as follows:

Sha’ar HaNegev: young adult retreat for a second group of attack survivors.

Pitachon Lev: emergency humanitarian aid.

Shahaf Foundation with Kiryat Shmona Community Centre: capacity-building for evacuated municipalities.

Summer Camps Israel, Morris and Rosalind Goodman Family Foundation: winter camps for evacuated children.

Yozmot Atid: mentorship for women small business owners.

Elem: safe spaces for at-risk youth.

Kishorit: support community of adults with disabilities on the northern frontline.

Beit Halochem: therapeutic services for veterans and newly wounded.

Leket Israel: supporting food distribution from farms in the south to vulnerable populations.

Israeli Hostages Advocacy Fund: supporting frontline work and international advocacy to release the hostages.

Shalva: emergency housing for evacuees.

Magen David Adom: ambulance purchase.

Dror Israel: youth programs and respite.

To donate to the Israel Emergency Campaign, go to jewishvancouver.com.

– Courtesy Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

Funds to help Israel pour in

Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver chief executive officer Ezra Shanken on Victoria Rumble Room Oct. 14. Shanken has very much been the face of the Jewish community in recent days. (screenshot)

An emergency fundraising campaign in response to the devastation in Israel raised more than $15 million in Metro Vancouver in less than two weeks.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver is spearheading the Israel Emergency Campaign. In his weekly email last Friday, Oct. 20, Federation chief executive officer Ezra Shanken announced the record total that had been raised to that point. By comparison, last year’s entire annual campaign raised $10.2 million.

Shanken told the Independent that, within the $15 million-plus total, is another new record for the local community: nine gifts of $1 million and a gift of $2 million.

Despite the great success, Shanken said the money will barely begin to approach the needs created by the human and material destruction caused by the Hamas terror attacks and the ongoing aftermath.

“As excited as I want to be,” he said, “I felt like $20 million, which is where we would like to get to, is not even going to be enough. The destruction, both in human life and in physical property, is so immense in the south, the risk is so high in the north, the mental health needs are so huge over there, that those alone are multi-, multi-million-dollar needs.… The damage is so deep that it’s going to take a lot for us to be able to make an impact.”

The Jewish Federations of North America set a goal of $500 million for the combined campaign and was already well past the two-thirds mark at the end of last week. Other Israel-based and Israel-supporting charities are also raising money and delivering support through funds and on-the-ground projects.

The speed and magnitude of the local emergency fundraising effort, Shanken said, may be a consequence of the community campaign already underway for the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. He calls it the “JWest effect,” referring to the name of the redevelopment project. Sensitizing philanthropists to community needs may have sowed the field for the extraordinary generosity shown when this unanticipated catastrophe occurred. The feeling that this is an unprecedented historical moment is also a factor.

For media in British Columbia and at public events, Shanken has very much been the face of the Jewish community in recent days. Speaking personally, he described the flood of contradictory emotions he has experienced.

“This time has been a mix of incredible pride and incredible pain,” he said. “They come in different waves. I have incredible moments of pride and incredible moments of resolve and strength and incredible moments of weakness and pain and depression.”

Shanken continued: “It’s a tough time for all of us, it’s a tough time for me.… But I believe more than ever that these are the moments where we are really forged in these fires and we will be a stronger community because of what we’re going through in this moment.”

The inhumanity witnessed not only in Israel but closer to home, with protests and statements effectively supporting and celebrating the mass murders, has stiffened his resolve, he said.

“I feel a need to stand up against those who are really trying to push us down in this moment,” he said. “I feel strong, I feel determined, I feel righteous in this moment in pushing back against those who are going to minimize the deaths of these folks, that are going to make us feel that we don’t have a right to grieve, we don’t have a right to defend ourselves, we don’t have a right to care for each other. I have no stomach for that anymore and we’re not going to keep our mouths shut on this.”

Funds raised will be allocated through several different projects working directly in Israel (click here for story). While most of the devastation from the Oct. 7 attacks is in the country’s south, the Vancouver Jewish community’s partnership region, Etzba HaGalil, the Galilee Panhandle, and other parts of northern Israel, have experienced attacks from the terror group Hezbollah, from their bases in southern Lebanon. Kibbutzim, villages and towns within a several-kilometre range of the Lebanon border have been largely evacuated. In all, about 200,000 Israelis from the north and south have so far been displaced by the crisis.

“The north is a major, major concern for Israel, it’s a major concern for us,” said Shanken. “So, we are trying to get them prepped up and ready, get emergency war rooms together in community centres, those kinds of things. We’re looking at some other kind of resiliency-building pieces in subsequent tranches of money that will be sent.”

Donations to the Israel Emergency Campaign can be made at jewishvancouver.com/israel-fund.