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Aug. 26, 2005
New Fed prez has big ideas
Bernard Pinsky plans to lead an era of growth and success.
PAT JOHNSON
The new president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver
is promising that his organization's success will equal success
for the entire Jewish community.
Bernard Pinsky, a Vancouver lawyer and longtime Federation activist,
was elected president of Federation in March and took over the position
at the end of May, succeeding Arnie Fine.
Pinsky has served several terms as a Federation vice-president and
was Combined Jewish Appeal's campaign chair in 2000. He is also
completing a four-year stint as treasurer of Beth Israel Synagogue.
On top of these roles, Pinsky is also one of two British Columbia
representatives on the national board of CIJA, the Canadian Council
for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, the new national advocacy umbrella.
Pinsky has three major themes for his presidency, the first of which
is visibility.
"It seems to me that people will not buy into an umbrella organization
unless it really actually covers the community," said Pinsky,
adding that will require face time at a range of community events.
"I'm probably going to have to get fat going to all the dinners
and galas, different fund-raising events, speaking events and showing
up at synagogues, just to pray with the different congregations
and showing up at board meetings of the different organizations
to talk to them, tell them a little bit about Federation, how it's
meaningful for them to participate and how it's important for them
to understand that Federation is the umbrella organization and that
by supporting Federation, they're really supporting themselves."
His second priority is cohesion of the community, which is challenged
by the demographic reality of a community spreading across the Lower
Mainland.
"About 50 per cent of the Jewish community does not live in
Vancouver," he said.
The third priority, said Pinsky, is leadership, which he describes
using a hockey metaphor.
"If you've got a bunch of grinders doing their job, going up
and down the wings, then your team's doing OK," Pinsky said.
"But as soon as you bring in two superstars who are leaders
and they can put the puck in the net, then your team turns into
a real contender. I believe the same thing about community.... We
need to train leaders, we need to identify leaders, we need to make
sure that leaders have the opportunity to come to the forefront
and be leaders."
Pinsky takes the helm just as the annual campaign gets underway,
on Sept. 1. This year's goal for the major annual fund-raising blitz
is $6.4 million, up from last year's successful goal of $6 million.
"We've got 24 [local] beneficiary organizations who get money
from us," he explained. "The more money that we can raise,
the more money that they get."
In addition to the local organizations, a portion of the funds raised
goes to the national Federation office to fund Canadian Jewish Congress
and the Canada-Israel Committee, and some goes to fund the Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee's work in the former Soviet Union,
Argentina, Israel and elsewhere.
Recently, the international umbrella UJC-Federations announced an
additional campaign, known as Operation Promise, which aims to raise
an additional $160 million, over and above the existing goals. Operation
Promise will allocate $100 million to resettle the 20,000 remaining
Ethiopian Jews to Israel and provide them with job training and
education, as well as to provide support for Jews in the former
Soviet Union.
Approximately 100,000 Jews have been rescued from Ethiopia since
the early 1980s and the final 20,000 await airlift to the Holy Land.
Israel recognizes that the successful absorption of Ethiopians is
a challenge.
"They're very concerned that, unless this is done, there is
going to be a permanent black underclass in Israel," Pinsky
said. "Those people have had a very difficult time – there
are some wonderful success stories – but they've had a very
difficult time in general absorbing into a modern, industrial, high-tech
country from a very different environment."
The other $60 million will be designated for Jews of the former
Soviet Union, most of whom are elderly. Pinsky illustrated the need
with a story of an elderly, bed-ridden individual who used to receive
30 adult diapers a month from Jewish charities, but has seen this
reduced to 10 a month.
"This is a basic human dignity issue," said Pinsky. "There's
a certain number of people left who are all in their 70s and 80s
who are impoverished, and Jews need to help one another."
The CJA campaign launches Sept. 1 and runs until Nov. 30. The official
launch, on Sept. 8, features actress Marlee Matlin. (See last week's
Independent cover story.)
The decision on whether Vancouver's portion of Operation Promise
will come out of the $6.4 amount or whether a new, higher goal will
be set to meet the international need has not yet been made.
Pinsky sees portents of success in the fact that the capital base
of the Jewish Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation has
quadrupled, from about $5 million a decade ago to $20 million at
present. He also believes that the atmosphere for Jews in Vancouver
and Canada generally has improved since a year or two ago, when
the Middle East conflict added stress to the Canadian community.
"There's lots of things that have really contributed to the
fact that the situation has improved," he said. "First,
the situation in Israel has improved. That results in the press
being not so negative and showing pictures of Israeli soldiers with
guns. Canadians are generally not sympathetic to resorting to force.
Thank goodness Canadians haven't had to resort to force in a long
time and haven't had to fight for their existence. It's a wonderful
country and we're very lucky.
"I don't think they understand the situation that Israel is
in and therefore it's difficult for them to relate to how Israel
has to react to
certain situations. So when things are quiet in Israel, you get
better press and there's less negativity about Israel.
"Second, I think the restructuring of Jewish community advocacy
through CIJA has had a substantial effect on both media and politics,
in terms of effectiveness," Pinsky added. "By putting
that structure into place, it has resulted in more outcomes that
we've wanted to achieve but [also] there's been a lot of buy-in
by the federations and by donors in Canada and we've been able to
fund more requirements, such as a Canada-Israel Committee office
in Vancouver, which we never had before," he said. "That
restructuring has had a positive effect."
Pinsky said he is emphasizing to Federation board members, many
of whom are affiliated with one or more organizations within the
community, that the first obligation of Federation is to act in
the best interest of the community as a whole.
"We need to get that reputation among the constituent organizations
and the other organizations that we will make decisions based on
the best interests of the community as a whole and that's when people
will start trusting us," he said.
Pinsky is also committed to making decisions based on Jewish principles
and Jewish values.
"I'm going to encourage the rabbis - who, by the way, are all
members of Federation's board - they ought to be guiding the board
with respect to Jewish values to take into consideration when we're
making important decisions."
Pinsky, a Winnipeg native, finished high school in Regina, then
returned to Winnipeg to complete a bachelor's degree and law school
at the University of Manitoba. He was married in 1975 to Daniella
Givon, an Israeli-Canadian who is currently president of Vancouver
Hadassah-WIZO. The couple moved to Israel in the late 1970s and
Pinsky articled there.
"It was difficult for me to be a lawyer in Israel," Pinsky
acknowledged. "My language skill wasn't there. I didn't have
connections. My wife said, 'I'll come back to Canada with you, but
not to Winnipeg.' "
They moved to Vancouver, where most of Pinsky's family had already
migrated.
"Our Friday night dinner table is like a half-Council of Presidents,"
Pinsky quips. "It's myself and Daniella and my brother-in-law
Victor Elias is the president of the Louis Brier Home. My second
cousin, Isaac Thau, is the chair of the Jewish Community Foundation
and was appointed to the international board of Hillel."
Pinsky and Givon's sons are both away at university now. Michael,
21, is studying at McGill. Eitan, 20, is at the University of Toronto.
Pat Johnson is the editor of MVOX Multicultural Media,
www.MVOX.ca.
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