Keeping CJA ball rolling

Campaign chair says that "family" theme is the key.

KYLE BERGER REPORTER

This year's general chair of the Combined Jewish Appeal (CJA) campaign has a simple key to success for 2001: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Gary Averbach, referring to the "We are family" theme from last year's campaign.

While the CJA had hovered just below the $4 million fund-raising mark since the mid-1990s, last year's campaign finally took a financial step forward by raising a total of $4.3 million. Averbach said he thinks the emphasis on family struck a responsive chord with the community.

"I really feel that we are a family that takes care of one another because we care about each other," he said. "I care. And that's why I'm doing it." Averbach said he is also motivated by the idea of building on last year's success.

"I'd been asked to [chair the campaign] for years and I figured it was inevitable that I would do it one day but I thought now was a really good time," Averbach said. "Last year, the campaign moved above the $4 million mark for the first time in years and that made me feel a little better about taking on the role."

As a past president of the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) of Greater Vancouver and the Canadian Council of JCCs, Averbach said his biggest strength as the campaign's leader is his unequivical love for the community.

"The Vancouver Jewish community has always been very important to me and I worry very much about its future and continuity." With that said, Averbach told the Bulletin that his personal focus will be on creating a community environment that is both accessible and attractive to the entire community.

"Being Jewish is becoming exceptionally expensive and many young middle-class families are finding out that the cost of being Jewish is expendable so they've decided to opt out of being active," he said. "Unless we make our community both accessible and attractive to these people, then I'd say in two generations we'll be lucky if the only Jews left are the very devoted or the fairly affluent.

"We've got to do something about making the community something people can belong to without busting the bank," he said, suggesting that a successful CJA campaign will provide opportunities for community organizations to offer more for less.

Almost half of the funds raised in the CJA campaign go to programs that organizers refer to as "strengthening Jewish identity." This includes core funding for the Jewish Community Centre and grants to a long list of community agencies including Hillel, Shalom B.C. and the Jewish Historical Society, as well as educational institutions such as day schools and supplementary Jewish education.

Thirty-eight per cent of funds go to "assisting the vulnerable," which includes core funding and specific program funding to the Jewish Family Service Agency and the L'Chaim Adult Day Centre. It also includes more than $500,000 sent to overseas programs in the former Soviet Union and aliyah preparation projects around the world. Another 13 per cent - about $370,000 - is devoted to rescuing Jews from dangerous situations, sometimes through covert operations. Administration of the Combined Jewish Appeal takes 11 per cent of funds.

Averbach will be assisted throughout the campaign by this year's women's campaign chair, Brenda Karp. A recent retiree, with her fair share of experience in lay leadership, Karp has set her sights on bringing the campaign into what she called "21st-century thinking." Specifically, she hopes to change the way the canvassers work with community members to increase their annual gifts.

"There are a lot of people out there who think that an $18 gift is acceptable because we've accepted it but the $18 may just be the tip of a potential $1,000 gift," she said. "In general, people are not sure what is an appropriate gift so we are training our canvassers on the guidelines of what is appropriate."

Karp said that, according to Statistics Canada, almost half of the Jewish community of British Columbia has a household income of $150,000 or more. This is the group on which she thinks the campaign should really focus its attention.

"Their gifts are either not there at all or they are giving very minimally at $18, $36 or $100 dollars," she said. "If that group alone could increase their gifts to $1,800 or $1,000 we would see a significant increase in our campaign because there are a lot more people in that income category. That is where our energy and our focus need to be."

Before moving to Vancouver in 1990, Karp served as the president of the Calgary JCC. She then served as the assistant executive director of the JCC of Greater Vancouver until 1995. Her experience with professional and lay leadership has given her a good understanding of the importance of Jewish communal agencies.

"I strongly believe that the institutions or agencies of this or any Jewish community are the hallmark of continuity of our culture and religion," she said. "If we don't have a successful campaign then we will be in dire straits."

Approximately 10 per cent of last year's campaign dollars went to help the impoverished Jewish community in Kiev, Ukraine. A similar amount will be sent again after this year's CJA.

"In Kiev, poverty is too loose a word," Averbach explained. "These people, most of them being elderly, are living in a state of total abject misery. They don't have enough medicine, they don't have enough food and they don't have sanitation."

He said that, besides food and medicine, the support offered by our community also helps the people of Kiev feel better by showing that the rest of the world cares about them. "I think we're giving them a gift with that alone," he said.

For more information about the CJA campaign or to make a donation, call 604-257-5100.

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