Federation Report: Emerging Generation – The future of our Jewish community

Emma Mallach

Zev Kershman

By Emma Mallach and Zev Kershman

We are excited to share an update on the Emerging Generation (EG) in Jewish Ottawa. EG is a division of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa made up of young professionals aged 40 and under. It’s a crucial demographic since this age group often includes the unaffiliated and less engaged. Until, of course, people start having kids, at which time it is common to form or re-establish links to the Jewish community.

It’s with this outlook that we are co-chairing the EG Division for the 2020 Annual Campaign. We take pride in showcasing the amazing programs, opportunities and people that define our Jewish community. We encourage participation and listen attentively to reservations people might have about getting involved, in the hope we can identify some common ground.

Some defining programs over the past year that served individuals and families include: the annual EG Chanukah party with nearly 100 guests (we’d like to see that number grow at this year’s party on December 14!); this summer’s PJ in the Park event with close to 200 parents and children in attendance; and a growing pool of EG volunteers to help us with EG and PJ events, canvassing for the Campaign, and creating the best quality events for the Ben-Gurion Society, young adults who donate $1,000 or more to the annual campaign.

Thanks to the generous donations of local families who participated in the 2019 Challenge Fund gift-matching incentive, Federation was able to broaden EG grants to create the Jewish Experience Microgrants program, which is now available to individuals as well as Jewish organizations that serve the Ottawa Jewish community. Have a great idea that brings people in the Ottawa Jewish community together? You can get up to $2,500 to make it happen.

These funds are providing seed funding for interesting and innovative programs for young Jews in Ottawa. An example of a recent and ongoing project funded by Federation Microgrants is the Stock the Freezer program. This project is a series of group cooking events in which various community members (b’nai mitzvah students, families, co-workers) come together to cook and freeze healthy meals for later distribution to Ottawa Kosher Food Bank clients. Several successful cooking events have taken place with three more coming up. So far, the grant has supplied lasagnas, honey cakes, and apples and honey packages to 28 families.

Another new program is Jewish Jumpstart. This was a membership incentive grant for Jewish individuals and families who were not yet members of an Ottawa synagogue or the Soloway Jewish Community Centre. Within a few months, the program reached capacity with 118 approved applications!

Clearly, Federation understands that it is people who are at the core of this community. It’s the personal connections that we’re building for ourselves, and which persist over generations, that motivate us to stay involved. Countless volunteers are devoting time, energy, and resources to the community and the Annual Campaign and we thank them for this investment.

EG represents the future of Ottawa’s Jewish community. Over the past seven years since the division was formed, we’ve demonstrated that we are dedicated to the Federation’s goals. Our numbers may be small, but there’s no question we are strong and mighty.

We thank you in advance for your support and hope to see you at our next event!

Emma Mallach and Zev Kershman are co-chairs of the Emerging Generation Division of the 2020 Annual Campaign.

For more information on upcoming EG events and how you can get involved, contact EG Director Jordan Waldman at jwaldman@jewishottawa.com or 613-798-4696, ext. 240.

Woodstock and its relevancy to our community

Jewish Federation of Ottawa President and CEO Andrea Freedman reflects on lessons we can learn from the legendary rock festival.

I recently watched a documentary on Woodstock, produced to commemorate the 50th anniversary, last month, of the legendary 1969 music festival. While the largest crowd estimates were 500,000 attendees, like all seminal events, I suspect that two million people now proudly claim to have been there! And many more have a story they tell about personal connections to the festival; some of these stories might even be true.

Max Yasgur, a successful Jewish dairy farmer who, by most accounts, was a staunch Republican and supporter of the Vietnam War, rented his farm, to the chagrin of his friends and neighbours, so that Woodstock could take place after the festival was not welcomed by other towns in the Catskills.

I suppose an occupational hazard of mine is to view most things through the prism of the work I am privileged to do. When I go to a museum, I spend time looking at the donor wall. I watch a documentary on Woodstock, and begin to ponder its relevancy for Ottawa’s Jewish community. In this case, I believe there are three fundamental lessons.

What we can learn from Max Yasgur

It is important to dialogue with the “other” and respect their rights. Yasgur was not a fan of the counterculture. He did not like how hippies dressed or wore their hair, but he respected freedom of expression. He rented his land for money and ended up providing the “kids” with free food and water, for the simple reason that they were hungry.

What I take away from this for Jewish Ottawa is two-fold. Firstly, despite our differences, we should prioritize finding common ground and focus our efforts in these areas. Secondly, we have a responsibility to help others and provide for those who are in need.

What we can learn from Woodstock’s four Jewish Organizers

Dream big and don’t let anything stand in your way. There are always problems and there will always be naysayers who claim it cannot be done. Before the festival, Woodstock’s organizers almost didn’t have a venue. When the festival got underway, problems included hundreds of thousands more people than they prepared for, not enough food, too much rain, too many drugs, and the complete inability for cars to get in and out of the festival grounds – to name but a few. But if your vision is strong and clearly articulated, the impossible becomes possible.

In terms of Jewish Ottawa, the past year has been all about building the Jewish Superhighway. It is a metaphor for meaningful Jewish experiences, where Jewish life is vibrant and no one is left behind. The idea of the Jewish Superhighway has inspired giving at unprecedented levels and through strategic funding – for example, Jewish Jumpstart and Microgrants – it has created tremendous positivity and momentum in our community. I believe the Jewish Superhighway is resonating and people are helping to build it, with more and more people beginning or expanding their Jewish journeys.

What we can learn from the Woodstock attendees

If something is important enough to you, then you are willing to endure and be inconvenienced for it. To be honest, no showers, sleeping on the ground, and having to walk miles and miles to get to the festival site does not sound like fun to me. But being part of something greater than yourself seemed worth the sacrifices to a generation of young people who wanted desperately to believe they could change the world.

Jewish life is not always easy. There are 613 separate mitzvot (commandments) – and 365 of them are don’ts. There are expenses. There are disagreements on how we observe, and we have disparate political points of view.

But when we work collectively to build Jewish life. When we engage newcomers to the community. When we take care of the vulnerable. When a child learns the aleph-bet. When an isolated senior receives compassionate care. When we support the Jewish State of Israel. We truly are changing the world … one person at a time.

I am truly excited to continue building the Jewish Superhighway with all of you in 5780!

$400,000 Challenge Fund returns for 2020 Annual Campaign

The generosity of the Challenge Fund donors and Ottawa’s Jewish community are helping to build and maintain the Jewish Superhighway.

By Matthew Horwood

In advance of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s 2020 Annual Campaign, three generous donor families came together for a second and final year to create a $400,000 Challenge Fund to match new and increased gifts to the Annual Campaign.

Through the Challenge Fund, gifts from new donors, and the increase in gifts from previous donors are matched. Thus, new donors’ gifts are effectively doubled, as are the amount of any increase in the gifts of previous donors.

The 2019 Challenge Fund resulted in $1 million in new funding available for Federation to support four key priorities: Jewish education, Jewish experiences, care for the vulnerable and security.

Ottawa’s two Jewish day schools – the Ottawa Jewish Community School (OJCS) and Torah Day School of Ottawa – received a total of $113,500 in strategic funding and $76,000 for special education support from the 2019 Challenge Fund in addition to other funds.

Jon Mitzmacher, head of OJCS, said the Challenge Fund allowed the school to “better meet the needs of students with diverse learning needs.”

Mitzmacher said with the extra funding, OJCS was able to purchase new furniture and devices for children with special needs (including voice-to-text devices, sound-cancelling headphones, special chairs and desks), to purchase a new diagnostic tool for English-language reading and train the faculty in its operation, and increase resource contact time for children in both Hebrew and French.

“As a trilingual school, we have always been looking to be able to match what we do in English, French and Hebrew. We were able to begin doing more of that last year thanks to this gift,” Mitzmacher said.

The Challenge Fund allocated $225,000 to support Jewish Jumpstart, a two-year incentive grant meant to encourage unaffiliated individuals and families to join the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (SJCC) and Ottawa’s Jewish congregations.

For synagogue membership costs, the Jewish Jumpstart grant covers up to 75 per cent in the first year and 50 per cent in the second year, while for SJCC membership costs, the grant covers up to 60 per cent for the first year and 40 per cent for the second year. Of the over 125 Jewish Jumpstart applicants, 57 per cent are families with children, and nearly 60 per cent recently moved to Ottawa.

Jewish Jumpstart has incentivized families and individuals to join Kehillat Beth Israel, Congregation Machzikei Hadas, Temple Israel, Or Haneshamah, Ottawa Torah Centre Chabad, Young Israel of Ottawa, Adath Shalom Congregation, Congregation Beit Tikvah – and the SJCC.

Rabbi Eytan Kenter of Kehillat Beth Israel said Jewish Jumpstart made membership possible for some families “in a way it hadn’t been before” and gave others “the impetus to take the plunge.”

Rabbi Kenter said he is grateful to Federation for the Jewish Jumpstart program. “I think it is a wonderful opportunity for families to find a Jewish home in a place they feel is right for them.”

Stacy Goldstein, director of community building at Congregation Machzikei Hadas, said Jewish Jumpstart has been “really enriching for a lot of people.”

“I spoke to people who have been coming to our shul for years for services and never got a membership, but because of this program they decided this was the year they would join,” she said.

Patrice Berdowski, the SJCC membership director, said over 30 families have joined the centre thanks to Jewish Jumpstart, including “many young families, a base we want to reach out to.”

Berdowski said several families have told her they had been wondering how to fit the SJCC into their budget, “and Jewish Jumpstart came along and made it affordable.”

Now that these families have memberships, Berdowski said the SJCC must continue to engage with them, show them “all we have to offer” and convince them to retain their membership.

Other allocations from the Challenge Fund have included $50,000 for security enhancements; $105,000 for Jewish Journeys; $70,000 for Jewish Experience Microgrants; $240,000 for increased care for the vulnerable; and $25,000 to a fund for excellence in supplementary schools.

“The Challenge Fund is a unique way of encouraging others to give so our Jewish community can continue to flourish,” said philanthropists Barbara Crook and Dan Greenberg, who created the $400,000 Challenge Fund in 2018 with Roger and Robert Greenberg, and the Stephen Greenberg family.

Rabbi Reuven Bulka, co-chair of the Annual Campaign, said last year’s challenge fund was “successful beyond our imagination.” Rabbi Bulka said he is confident the community can meet the high bar that was set last year.

Rabbi Bulka credited some of the success of the Challenge Fund to Aviva Ben-Choreen, co-chair of the 2019 Annual Campaign, and to Karen Palayew, the 2020 co-chair, who he said are both “terrific and hard workers.”

Rabbi Bulka said he hopes the 2020 Challenge Fund will “set the tone for the next generation to realize that community doesn’t get built out of nowhere, and everyone has a part to play.”

Jewish Federation of Ottawa President and CEO Andrea Freedman said she feels “ecstatic” that the generosity of the Challenge Fund donors and Ottawa’s Jewish community are allowing the Jewish Superhighway to be built and maintained.

Freedman said Federation aims to use the Challenge Fund to make investments that are “strategic, nimble and not permanent allocations,” but which are infusions of cash that make a difference for community members and the organizations that serve them.

As this is the final year the Challenge Fund will take place, Freedman said the community has “one final opportunity to recreate and reimagine the level of sustained funding for our community going forward.”

Visit https://jewishottawa.com/giving/challenge-fund for more information on the Challenge Fund or to donate to the Jewish Federation of Ottawa 2020 Annual Campaign.