$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.

Barbara Farber becomes honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Cameron Highlanders

By Matthew Horwood

Barbara Farber has been appointed honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (Duke of Edinburgh’s Own) by Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan.

The Cameron Highlanders are a reserve infantry unit in the Canadian Armed Forces, a part of the 33 Canadian Brigade Group. According to its website, the regiment traces its roots to 1856, and its members have served Canada in “all armed conflicts from the Northwest Rebellion to Afghanistan.”

Farber, a prominent leader in both the Jewish and broader communities, said she was approached several years ago by a friend who was at the time the honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Cameron Highlanders. He wanted to put Farber’s name forward for the same position, and she accepted. The process took 19 months to come to fruition and she officially began her position on May 9.

Farber explained that the vetting process for the nomination goes “up through the various army ranks to the top, and at that point they recommend it to the minister of National Defence, who then approves it,” Farber said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Jackson, commanding officer of the Cameron Highlanders, said the regiment was searching for “someone who had a very prominent role within the community” to be the honorary lieutenant-colonel.

Jackson said Farber’s philanthropic efforts, including her involvement with hospitals, First Nations communities, and the city of Ottawa through various boards, made her a “very prominent choice” for the position.

Jackson said Farber has “quickly jumped into her role as the bridge between the regiment and different elements of our city,” and that she is a natural speaker with a “big heart.”

As honorary lieutenant-colonel, Farber said one of the most important things she will do is help the reservists to secure employment, “because if they are happily employed in Ottawa, they will stay with their regiment.”

Farber said many of the reservists have full-time jobs, while others have recently graduated from university or college. Farber said she will be attempting to “incentivize employers to hire reservists, as they are going to be good employees.”

Farber said she will also be mentoring and giving advice to the reservists, as well as being a consultant to her commanding officer from a “business and charitable perspective.”

“I’ve often been accused of mothering everybody, and that’s kind of part and parcel of the role I will be playing,” Farber joked.

Farber said her approach to the role will be “one of knowledge” with the goal of acquainting people with what the unit does. Farber said she would like to make the Cameron Highlanders “a household name in Ottawa,” as she would “venture to say few people know what the Cameron Highlanders are.”

Farber is the second member of Ottawa’s Jewish community to serve as honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Cameron Highlanders. Former Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman served in the position from 1999 to 2005. Holzman – who said she has known Farber for many years – offered her congratulations and said she expected Farber would “represent the regiment well.”

Holzman predicted Farber will “take great pride in her role,” especially during the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the National War Memorial. Holzman encouraged Farber to dress warmly for the November 11 ceremony, as “her knees will get cold.”

Another Jewish community leader, Roger Greenberg, serves as the honourary colonel of the 30th Field Artillery Regiment, which is also based in Ottawa. 

Farber said she feels “extremely proud” to have accepted this position as a Jewish woman, and hopes she can “bring some of that diversity to the Canadian Armed Forces.”

Farber has already had several meetings with her brigade and hosted a barbecue at her home for the junior officers. She said the regiment now calls themselves her “extended family.”

“I was gratified by the first function I attended. They were concerned about providing a kosher meal for me, and that kind of effort and sensitivity really speaks volumes,” Farber said.

"I want to treat them with the same kind of respect and try to help as much as I can," she added.

Photo: Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Barbara Farber stands in front of the Cameron Highlanders
of Ottawa regimental colours at the Cartier Square Drill Hall. (Matthew Horwood )