Jewish Community Foundation

Community achievements, travel & good deeds

Jeffrey and Elizabeth Nider, a local couple from Vancouver, were part of more than 200 North American immigrants to move to Israel on July 4. (photo from Nefesh b’Nefesh)

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The board of directors of Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the board of governors of the Jewish Community Foundation are pleased to announce the appointment of Marcie Flom to the position of executive director of the foundation. Marcie brings more than 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience to the role.

photo - Marcie Flom — Marcie Flom *(photo from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver)*

Marcie previously served as both director of JCF and vice-president, financial resource development, of Jewish Federation, where she was responsible for the revenue functions of the organization, including the annual campaign, special projects and corporate funding of nearly $15 million annually. Prior to that, she had a consulting practice and held leadership roles at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company and the National Ballet of Canada.

“I am very pleased to welcome Marcie into her new role,” said Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of Federation. “Marcie has extensive development and planned giving experience, along with a solid record in major gift fundraising, which perfectly positions her to lead the foundation through the next phase of growth.”

“I am thrilled with Marcie’s appointment and look forward to continuing our strong working relationship,” said Judi Korbin, chair of the foundation’s board of governors. “In addition to her decades of experience and stellar track record, Marcie’s work is characterized by her donor-centric approach. On behalf of the board of governors, I would like to say that the Jewish Community Foundation is extremely fortunate to have Marcie as its new executive director.”

This newly created role is one of several outcomes of the strategic planning process recently undertaken by JCF under the leadership of Korbin and with professional guidance from a strategic management and development consultant. It is a central component of the three-year operational plan approved by Jewish Federation’s board of directors and adopted by the foundation’s board of governors. The foundation’s new strategic and operational plans were driven by Jewish Federation’s 2020 Strategic Priorities, and will serve to support the organization’s overall goals of generating the resources required to address the community’s current, emerging and future needs.

“The foundation is investing in resources, including full-time staff for the first time since the economic downturn in 2008. Re-investing in staff resources will enable the Jewish Community Foundation to grow, which is critical to the long-term viability of the Jewish community. The board of governors remains committed to ensuring the philanthropic goals of the foundation’s fund holders are fulfilled, that our community organizations are strengthened and that the continuity of the Jewish community is ensured through legacy planning,” said Korbin.

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At the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual general meeting on June 20, Karen James became the new board chair, while Stephen Gaerber is now immediate past chair. Marcie Flom was appointed executive director of the Jewish Community Foundation and Diane Switzer was appointed an honorary life director of Federation. The Young Leadership Award was presented to Bryan Hack and Mike Sachs, the Elaine Charkow Award to Lisa Pullan for her ongoing leadership role in women’s philanthropy and the inaugural Bob Coleman Award to Risa Levine for her leadership role on the local allocations committee, positively impacting Federation’s partner agencies.

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photo - Rabbi Philip Gibbs — Rabbi Philip Gibbs *(photo from Congregation Har El)*

Rabbi Philip Gibbs is the new spiritual leader of Congregation Har El in West Vancouver.

Gibbs grew up in Marietta, Ga. He went to college at Washington University in St. Louis and graduated in 2012 with a double major in Hebrew and humanities. After college, he attended rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary, receiving a master of arts in Talmud and rabbinic ordination in 2017. During his time at JTS, he had the opportunity to work in different synagogues and appreciated the warmth and mutual support in synagogue communities.

Following his love of the outdoors, Gibbs led the Jewish Outdoor Leadership Institute at Ramah in the Rockies, and is looking forward to hiking and skiing in the Vancouver area. He served as the secretary to the Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards. Playing violin since childhood, he also had the opportunity to join the JTS house band, the Committee on Jewish Music and Standards, for celebratory occasions.

The entire community is invited to come and meet Gibbs at a Shabbat dinner at Har El on July 28. For more information about the event, click here.

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A true mensch resides in the Vancouver Jewish community, and that person is Aria Smordin. Aria has just returned from a gap year in Israel and, while there, did something that greatly impacted the lives of children with special needs in Jerusalem. Aria participated in the Shalva Ambassadors Program, investing time and energy volunteering at the Shalva National Centre.

At the centre, life-changing services are provided to thousands of flourishing kids every year. As an ambassador, Aria not only volunteered every week, but was responsible for bringing in new volunteers. Many of them ran the Jerusalem Marathon for Shalva, threw parties for the Shalva kids (where they all danced like crazy) and sleepovers, and even got their hands dirty painting the recycling centre and working in the therapeutic garden.

Aria’s choice to be in a position of giving is a true inspiration to us all.

In Aria’s own words, “Volunteering at Shalva was rewarding, uplifting and gratifying. There is a strong feeling of love and homey-ness that permeates the entire (beautiful) building. From the first time I visited Shalva, to all the times I came back to volunteer, these feelings always remained the same. The service Shalva provides and the care they take in doing so is inspiring. I am truly thankful that I was able to assist in carrying out their mission.”

Thank you, Aria. We at the Shalva National Centre are looking forward to seeing what you do next and to writing about next year’s fleet of mensches from Vancouver!

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Jeffrey and Elizabeth Nider, a local couple from Vancouver, were part of more than 200 North American immigrants to move to Israel on July 4, on a chartered Nefesh b’Nefesh flight, the organization responsible for removing or minimizing the financial, professional, logistical and social obstacles of immigration to Israel.

The charter flight took off from JFK Airport in New York City and is in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel and Jewish National Fund-USA.

The Niders will be moving to Beit Shemesh with their four children, ages 10, 7, 5 and 2. Both Jeff and Elizabeth will enrol in Hebrew classes and Jeff will be looking for work in pharmaceutical sales or in business development for a medical startup.

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The 35th Annual Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards were held on June 26 at the Commodore Ballroom, saluting excellence in theatre. Among the winners was Itai Erdal for O’wet/Lost Lagoon, presented by Alley Theatre in association with Full Circle: First Nations Performance, in the category of outstanding lighting design, small theatre.

With numerous theatre companies in the small theatre category, eight companies earned a Jessie, with Reelwheels (Rena Cohen, managing artistic director) leading the group with total of three for their production of Creeps, which co-starred David Bloom and David A. Kaye. The winners were Lauchlin Johnston for outstanding set design; the production itself for outstanding production of a play; and, for significant artistic achievement, Paul Beckett, Bloom, Genevieve Fleming, Brett Harris, Kaye, Aaron Roderick and Adam Grant Warren, recognized for outstanding ensemble performance.

Among the nominees for other awards in the small theatre category were Erdal for Walt Whitman’s Secret, the frank theatre company (outstanding lighting design) and Cande Andrade for am a, Mindy Parfitt and Amber Funk Barton Present (significant artistic achievement, outstanding innovation in video design).

In the large theatre category, Ryan Beil was nominated for outstanding performance by an actor in a lead role (Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Arts Club Theatre Company), Erdal for outstanding lighting design (Moonlodge, Urban Ink) and Amir Ofek for outstanding set design (Pericles, Bard on the Beach).

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In recent decades, many individuals and organizations in Germany have raised awareness of a once-vibrant Jewish history and culture in their communities through educational programs, exhibitions, restoration of synagogues and cemeteries, installation of Holocaust memorials, genealogical research, development of websites, publications, stolpersteine, public programs and other activities. They have forged meaningful relationships with former residents and descendants of those who once lived in their towns. They are teachers and engineers, publishers and judges, artists and bankers, lawyers and business executives, and they come from every corner of the country. These volunteers have devoted countless hours to such projects.

The Obermayer Awards recognize and encourage those who have been devoted to such activities and bring international attention to their work. Five individuals and/or organizations are honoured each year.

The award program was initiated in 2000 by Dr. Arthur S. Obermayer and the awards are co-sponsored by the Berlin Parliament and the Leo Baeck Institute. They will be given in the Parliament’s Plenary Chamber on Jan. 22, 2018, as its principal Holocaust Memorial Day event. They follow in the tradition of recognizing righteous gentiles who protected Jews during the Holocaust.

Many American Jews have been beneficiaries of the work of these dedicated Germans, and the majority of the nominators have been American Jews – Canadians are also eligible to receive the award.

For more information, visit obermayer.us/award. A hard copy of the call for nominations can be requested by sending a letter to the attention of Betty Solbjor, Obermayer Foundation, 15 Grey Stone Path, Dedham, MA, 02026, or by email to [email protected]. The deadline for submission this year is Sept. 12.

Ring to fund students

Olga Ornstein, the mother of Frank Ornstein. Frank gave his friend, George Szasz, his mother’s ring, which George is hoping to sell to fund a scholarship in the Ornstein family’s name. (photo from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver)

Last summer, community member George Szasz approached the Jewish Community Foundation, hoping to establish a scholarship endowment fund to honour a dear friend’s memory. The friend, Frank Ornstein, z”l, survived the Holocaust and eventually immigrated to Vancouver. With no children or living family members to speak of, Frank bequeathed a family ring saved from the Holocaust to George, which George is hoping to sell to fund a scholarship in the Ornstein family’s name.

Lipot and Olga Ornstein, both of blessed memory, were an affluent couple in the Hungarian city of Szeged and doted on their only son, Frank. Born in 1924, Frank grew from a skilled boy scout to a star athlete with a wide range of friends. They lived peacefully with their non-Jewish neighbours, and Frank began dating a non-Jewish girl.

Even as anti-Jewish sentiment grew around them, the city’s residents lived amiably together. It was a shock when laws mandated division by 1943. Jews, including the Ornsteins, were evicted from their homes, stripped of their property and segregated in ghettos. As a fit 19-year-old, Frank was sent away to a labour camp. Lipot and Olga were forced onto an overcrowded cattle car without food or water for a three-day journey to a concentration camp in Austria.

Life in the camp was grim. Lipot and Olga wrote Frank postcards, holding onto hope that, after the war, the family would be reunited and return to their life in Szeged. In March 1945, the camp buzzed with news that Russian soldiers were near and the captives desperately hoped for liberation. The day before the soldiers arrived, however, German guards marched the camp’s prisoners, including Lipot and Olga, to a local gym and blew them up.

Frank was liberated from the labour camp and, in late 1945, returned to Szeged, sick but alive. There, he found out that his parents, and most of the city’s Jewish residents, would never return. Frank’s girlfriend’s family had secretly stored some of his parents’ valuables, including his mother’s diamond ring, and returned them to him: memories of a life that had vanished.

Realizing life in Szeged would never be the same, Frank took his few possessions and family mementoes and immigrated to Israel. In Israel, he trained as an airplane mechanic and found both a love and an affinity for the trade. He worked for Israel’s El Al Airlines and immigrated to Vancouver in the late 1950s, as a chief mechanic for Canadian Pacific Airlines and, later, Air Canada.

After Frank’s death in 2006, George was bequeathed the Ornstein family’s mementoes. Frank’s life was marked by trials and resilience, and George is determined to honour the Ornstein family’s history and heritage. Of the Ornstein family keepsakes, Frank’s mother’s ring is of particular value, appraised at between $30,000 and $50,000, and George is determined to sell the ring to establish a yearly scholarship for deserving Israeli students studying Frank’s life passion: airplane mechanics.

If you are interested in assisting George to create the Ornstein family legacy, contact Marcie Flom, director of the Jewish Community Foundation, at [email protected].

This article was originally published by Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver in e-Yachad and is reprinted with permission.

Plan your giving in Leave a Legacy Month

If you don’t have a will, get it done. That’s the message of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, an organization that’s designated the month of May as Leave a Legacy Month. Calvin Fong, chair of the national program titled Leave a Legacy, said the program’s goal is to raise awareness of the importance of having a will, as well as the idea that people consider leaving a gift to charity in their will.

“If you die without a will you really have no control over how your estate gets distributed – legislation will dictate that instead,” Fong told the Independent. “Without a will, for example, you have no way of leaving a gift to your favorite charity or creating a trust for your spouse. Having a will ensures your wishes are articulated and carried out after your death.”

Just six weeks ago there were changes to the Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA) with important implications. The minimum age to create a will has been lowered from 19 to 16, wills created prior to marriage are still valid after marriage, and the courts have been granted authority to recognize non-compliant documents as wills, and ensure that a deceased person’s last wishes will be respected. For example, legislation now allows for the possibility that electronic versions of wills might be recognized. “The changes modernize legislation created over 100 years ago and streamlines things for the public,” Fong explained.

Tax savings is another reason to consider creating a will. Gifting money or assets to charity makes your estate eligible for a tax deduction upon your death, while creating a trust in your estate allows you to defer taxation of certain assets.

If considering gifting money to charity, start by figuring out what you want your personal legacy to be, advised Marcie Flom, director of the Jewish Community Foundation, which is housed at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. JCF works one-on-one with donors to create their legacies, using bequests, gifts of life insurance, gifts of cash and in-kind donations, annuities and charitable trusts. To date, it has 330 endowment funds and assets of $42 million that it manages on behalf of donors in the community.

With gifts of life insurance, donors name JCF as the owner and beneficiary. Upon their death, the proceeds of the policy enter an endowment fund they created during their lifetime, supporting causes that were important to them. “Some donors have various life insurance policies and discover that they no longer need them, so they decide to donate them to the foundation,” Flom explained.

With bequests, individuals stipulate a gift to the foundation in their will to support those causes. “It can take various forms, such as a set amount or a percentage of their estate,” Flom said. “It’s very personal, and usually people meet with me to talk about what they want to do, the idea being that we want to help increase your current income or estate value, while also creating a lasting legacy for the community.”

That legacy can involve donations to Jewish and non-Jewish causes, as the JCF distributes funds to both. And there’s a broad range of donors, Flom said, with some funds established with as little as $1,000, or no assets at all if it’s a planned gift. “Some donors make a modest contribution to their fund each year to build it over time,” she explained, “but legacy planning is not limited to those with means. Anyone can establish a fund in any amount and build it over time or establish a fund with a planned future gift.”

Some individuals use their legacy to involve and engage their children in active philanthropy. “They work with us on their philanthropy during their lives, but also use it as a method to engage their kids to take over that philanthropy after they’re gone,” Flom said. The children continue their parents’ legacy of lifetime giving by working together to direct support to their parents’ favorite charities and/or the charities that they are passionate about.

For more information, call the Jewish Community Foundation at 604-257-5100 or visit jewishcommunityfoundation.com. For more on Leave a Legacy Month, WESA changes and more, visit leavealegacy.ca or cra-arc.gc.ca.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.