On Sept. 30, Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre will host Medicine Reimagined, an evening with Prof. Amitai Ziv, deputy director of Sheba Medical Centre and head of its Rehabilitation Hospital, which is the national rehabilitation facility of Israel. Ziv is also the founder and director of the Israel Centre for Medical Simulation (MSR), an innovation hub for improving patient safety and clinical training.
Originally from Montreal, Ziv is spending his sabbatical in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia.
“This will be the first Canadian Friends of Sheba event in Vancouver, as we launch our chapter here, and we are truly thrilled to welcome Prof. Amitai Ziv,” Galit Blumenthal, manager of donor relations and events at Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre, told the Independent. “Our goal is to raise awareness of Sheba Medical Centre and highlight its profound impact both in Israel and on the global stage.”
Prof. Amitai Ziv, deputy director of Sheba Medical Centre and its Rehabilitation Hospital, speaks in Vancouver on the topic Medicine Reimagined. (internet photo)
Sheba Medical Centre was established in 1948. Located in Tel HaShomer, near Tel Aviv, its website notes the facility has 159 medical departments and clinics, almost 2,000 beds and 75 laboratories, and receives about 1.9 million clinical visits and 200,000 emergency room visits a year. Its seven major facilities comprise a cancer centre, an academic campus, a research complex and four hospitals: children’s, women’s, acute care and rehabilitation. It also has several centres of excellence and institutes, notably for cancer, and heart and circulation. It counts 10,000 healthcare professionals, 1,700 physicians and 200 PhD research professionals.
“I support them, along with many other Israeli institutions, as I feel that this is at least some contribution that I can make during these difficult times,” said Tova Kornfeld, who connected Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre (CFSMC), which is based in Toronto, with the Independent.
“I sometimes feel powerless living here in Canada when I see what is happening in Israel,” said Kornfeld. “If I can help in any way, whether by bringing awareness to the work being done by the various organizations or by making financial contributions, then I feel I must. As far as Sheba is concerned, it stepped up to the plate when Soroka Hospital was hit by an Iranian missile and took in all the ICU patients.
“It is also the biggest rehab hospital in Israel and is providing rehabilitation for thousands of soldiers who have been injured since Oct. 7,” she added. “I have family members in the IDF and it is comforting to know that, if something were to happen to any of them, there would be hospitals like Sheba to care for them.”
Ziv’s areas of expertise are medical education, simulation and rehabilitative medicine, and he has served as a consultant and speaker at academic and health institutions around the world. The event in Vancouver will offer a look at Sheba Medical Centre and its innovations in, among other things, the rehabilitation field.
On Sept. 30, Vancouverites will also get to meet Einat Enbar, chief executive officer of CFSMC, which was established in 2017 to raise awareness and funds for Sheba Medical Centre, the care it offers, the research it conducts and the educational training it provides.
For Kornfeld, there is another aspect to supporting Israeli organizations and institutions. She hopes that financial and other assistance from the diaspora “gives the Israelis caught in the fray the message that we have their backs and that we are all in this together regardless of where we live. I would hope that this would be comforting to them when it appears that most of the world is against not only Israel but the Jewish people themselves.”
For more information on CFSMC and SMC, visit shebacanada.org. To attend the Sept. 30, 7 p.m., event in Vancouver (location upon registration), go to weblink.donorperfect.com/ProfAmitaiZivInVancouver. While free to attend, donations are welcome. Readers can email Blumenthal at [email protected] with any questions.
An artist’s rendering of the new Ashdod Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre for which the 2025 Negev Event is raising funds. (photo from jnf.ca/PacificNegev2025)
Hosted by Jewish National Fund of Canada Pacific Region and Israel Magen Fund of Canada, the June 19 Negev Event in Vancouver will feature rescued hostage and speaker Noa Argamani, Australian actor and advocate for Israel Nate Buzz, and editor-in-chief of the National Post Rob Roberts. Funds raised will help build the Ashdod Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre, providing increased levels of care for trauma victims, children with disabilities and children with cancer.
As the name indicates, the new centre will be located in Ashdod, which is about 50 kilometres north of the border with Gaza. With almost 250,000 residents, it is Israel’s sixth largest city. “It is home to the largest Moroccan and Karaite Jewish communities in Israel, and the largest Georgian Jewish population in the world,” notes the JNF.
However, there is a shortage of rehabilitation services in southern Israel, a shortage that has worsened since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and the ensuing war.
The June 19 Negev Event raises funds to help build the Ashdod Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre, thereby increasing levels of care for trauma victims, children with disabilities and children with cancer. (photos from jnf.ca/PacificNegev2025)
“Thirty percent of wounded patients and most of the war victims are residents of the south,” according to JNF. “Fourteen thousand residents were treated in hospitals following Oct. 7, with 42% coming with injured limbs and 35% seeking support with emotional trauma. The system cannot support the hundreds of thousands of children, adolescents and adults who were physically injured and emotionally crushed by horrific traumas that left deep scars.”
There are only 11 rehabilitation centres in Israel’s periphery communities, while central Israel has 43, says JNF. “Currently, wait times for rehabilitation in the south are at least one year…. Southern residents, including recovering patients and children, must travel about an hour-and-a-half to Israel’s centre for care.”
(photo from jnf.ca/PacificNegev2025)
Among the services the Ashdod Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre will expand upon is the range of care and support that Rachashei Lev, which was established in 1989, provides in other medical centres. (Rachashei Lev roughly translates as Whispers of the Heart, or Heart of Compassion.)
“I visited Rachashei Lev in July [last year] as part of JNF’s resilience task force, a group consisting of professional leaders and lay leadership from across Canada,” David Greaves, executive director of JNF Manitoba/Saskatchewan and Vancouver/Pacific region, told the Independent. “I was there with Harvey Dales and we were all touched by what this organization did. As well, while touring the facility, we were surprised when Noa Argamani joined us and shared her story and how much support she and her family received from Rachashei Lev after her rescue and repatriation. This is, of course, why we chose this particular project, as Noa will be one of our special guests on June 19.” (Argamani was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2025.)
Greaves will be here for the event, working out of the Vancouver office with the local JNF team and Megan Laskin, the event chair. He took on the additional role of Vancouver/Pacific region head after Michael Sachs left the position to become the director for Western Canada of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
“My first official meeting with the board was mid-December,” said Greaves. “They were so welcoming, I felt like I had been here for months.”
Greaves gave the JI an update on the Canada Revenue Agency’s revocation of JNF Canada’s charitable status.
“We have two pending court dates,” he said. “We have a judicial review scheduled for May 28 [after the JI went to press]. We are calling on the court to overturn our revocation, as we had a commitment from the CRA that our revocation would not be published, which finalizes the revocation process, until we exhausted our legal options. We assert that a pillar of Canadian justice is the presumption of innocence, so taking action to revoke us before the opportunity to appeal to the courts is fundamentally unjust. Our underlying appeal, which will focus on the merits of our case, does not yet have a date set. We have called upon the CRA to settle this matter before we litigate, as this is a waste of time and resources for both the taxpayer and JNF. Disappointingly, the CRA has rejected our offer to settle.”
JNF Canada is partnering with the charity Israel Magen Fund of Canada (IMFoC) for all the Negev events across the country.
“We are sharing the responsibilities in executing these campaigns and galas,” Greaves said. “Both organizations have signed agreements outlining the nature of the collaboration. The IMFoC has an agency agreement with the two organizations in Israel at which these projects will be realized, the Parenthood Home in Sderot and the Ashdod Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre. We have the same passion for Zionism and supporting vulnerable Israelis from all walks of life, so it was sensible to work together as, through this collaboration, we can achieve more.”
Intergenerational support
JNF Pacific board president Shannon Gorski is excited about the Rachashei Lev project. She knows firsthand the impact that JNF initiatives can have.
“In 2017, our family supported the Tzofei Tzamid (Israeli Scouts) centre in Ra’anana,” she said. “The project raised money to remodel the centre to ensure that it was inclusive to all the scouts who participated. This meant providing resources and equipment that made it possible for all teens to be able to participate in the outdoor excursions regardless of physical or mental limitations.”
She visited the centre that same year and saw how the money raised here positively affected the participants in Israel. “It was quite emotional,” she said.
Gorski is in her third year as board president; she was vice-president from 2019 to 2023.
“I began my service on the JNF board in 2017,” she said, “following the 2017 Negev, in which my father [Gary Averbach] was honoured with the support of my brother, Michael [Averbach], and me.”
It truly has been a lifelong endeavour for Gorski.
“My father was JNF president from 1991 to 1992, and I remember many occasions that I spent time at the home of the residing shaliach’s [emissary’s] residence,” said Gorski. “Of course, our home always had a JNF box, which I believe I took trick or treating with me in place of the UNICEF box. Purchasing trees to forest Israel became a gift that I either gave or received to commemorate many Jewish milestones.”
Board vice-president Howard Jampolsky also grew up with JNF.
“As a child,” he said, “I first became involved in JNF raising money for trees and driving around with my uncle, John Eskin, z”l, picking up blue boxes in the 1970s. Uncle Johnny was a tireless worker for JNF and was honoured in 1976 with a Negev Dinner.
“My father, Abe Jampolsky, z”l, was also involved in JNF as a regional president. He, too, was honoured by JNF in 1987 with a Negev Dinner, during which the guest speaker was Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu, who, at the time, was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.”
In 2015, then-executive director of JNF’s regional office, Ilan Pilo, asked Jampolsky to join the executive committee of the local board, and he has been involved ever since, becoming vice-president in 2023. Jampolsky has been on the JNF national board since 2022.
For Jampolsky, helping fund projects like the Ashdod Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre is what we, as Jews, do.
“We value life, and part of valuing life is to ensure that each life is fulfilled in every possible way,” he said. “On Oct. 7, 2023, that fulfillment for thousands of Israelis was dashed when Hamas attacked us. I say ‘us’ because when one of our people is attacked, we are all attacked.
“This centre provides life-saving health care for young cancer victims, but it also provides vital health care for many who were impacted by the terrible events of Oct. 7. Both those with physical injuries and emotional trauma will benefit from this important place.”
