Federation Report: The simple truth – A gift to Federation helps all of Jewish Ottawa

Rabbi Reuven Bulka

Karen Palayew

By Karen Palayew and Rabbi Reuven Bulka

As co-chairs of the 2020 Jewish Federation of Ottawa Annual Campaign, we have taken on the important responsibility of leadership in fundraising for our community. In doing so, we recognize, appreciate, and value the over-arching role that Federation plays for every member of our community. Federation ensures that each and every one of us is safe and secure, that we are cared for at every stage of our lives, and that we have access to vibrant, meaningful, and inclusive Jewish experiences.

Federation is committed to us. We are committed to Federation. We feel it is important to bring to our community a greater awareness of Federation’s mandate, and the enormous support it provides.

So, what do AJA (Active Jewish Adults) 50+, Camp B’nai B’rith of Ottawa, the Chabad Student Network, Hillel Ottawa, JET (Jewish Education through Torah), the Jewish Youth Library, Limmud Ottawa, Ottawa Torah Centre, the Sephardi Association of Ottawa, the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge, Jewish Family Services of Ottawa, and Tamir have in common?

All of them are funded by Federation.

That is quite a range. And it does not stop there. Literally every Jewish education institution in Ottawa is funded by Federation. Add to this Birthright Israel, Emerging Generation programs, Holocaust education, Jewish Jumpstart, the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, March of the Living, the Ottawa Jewish Archives, PJ Library, the Shinshinim Program, and the new kid on the block – Jewish Experience Microgrants.

The range is enormous and all embracing. Federation touches everyone in one way or another. If you are involved or value being a member of a strong, supportive, and compassionate Jewish community, then you benefit from Federation.

So, when we launch our 2020 Annual Campaign, we are effectively asking all of us to help each other, to help ourselves. That is the simple and full truth.

However much we do, we can do more. The most recent Campaign, vintage 2019, raised an extra $1 million, thanks in large part to the Challenge Fund made possible by Stephen and Jocelyne Greenberg, Dan Greenberg and Barbara Crook, Roger Greenberg and Robert Greenberg. These gifts have generated impactful new programs to benefit the community.

These same generous people have once again stepped forward to launch another Challenge Fund wherein all new dollars raised over and above last year’s donations will be matched dollar for dollar. We are excited at the prospect of once again generating more dollars to further impact Jewish life in Ottawa.

We hope that those of you who stepped up to the plate last year will do so once again, and even more so.

And those who did not, we hope you will hop(e) on to the Jewish Superhighway for an exciting ride into Jewish community excellence, wherein we are all together, where we all count, where we are all doing our best to enhance our community.

With best wishes for a healthful, tranquil, meaningful, and Happy New Year – A Shana Tova Umetukah.

Karen Palayew and Rabbi Reuven Bulka are the co-chairs of the 2020 Annual Campaign.