Last month, Governor General of Canada Mary Simon made 88 new appointments to the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest honours. Among those appointed as a member to the Order was Vancouver Jewish community member Marie Doduck.
For more than 50 years, Doduck has been a leader in Holocaust education and philanthropy. A child Holocaust survivor, she is a founding member of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and has shared her history with tens of thousands of students and others. Her memoir, A Childhood Unspoken, was published in 2023 by the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program. (See jewishindependent.ca/survivor-reflects-on-identity.) She champions various community engagement and fundraising initiatives.
“Members of the Order of Canada are builders of hope for a better future,” said Simon. “Each in their own way, they broaden the realm of possibilities and inspire others to continue pushing its boundaries. Thank you for your perseverance, fearless leadership and visionary spirit, and welcome to the Order of Canada.”
New members will be invited to a ceremony at a later date to be invested and to receive their insignia.
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The US Department of State recently announced the selection of international education professional Freeman Poritz for an English Language Specialist project in Israel. The project is one of around 250 that the English Language Specialist Program supports each year.
Poritz, who is originally from Vancouver (and has written for the Jewish Independent), is a teacher trainer and conflict resolution practitioner with expertise in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Previously, he served as an English Language Fellow at the Institute of Rural Development Planning in Tanzania and at Haramaya University in Ethiopia, where he conducted professional development workshops for faculty, provided teacher trainings on differentiation, virtual facilitation and needs assessment, and taught academic writing courses to undergraduate and graduate students. In Israel, he will collaborate with a group of educational professionals to design an English language bicommunal youth peace and leadership curriculum for the Ministry of Education as part of Jerusalem Peacebuilders and Retorika for Multiculturalism’s EXCEL Teacher Training Institute for Partnership and Peace Leadership.
The English Language Specialist Program is an opportunity for leaders in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages to enact changes in the way that English is taught abroad. Through projects developed by US embassies in more than 80 countries, English language specialists work directly with local teacher trainers, educational leaders and ministry of education officials to exchange knowledge, build capacity and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions and communities in the United States and overseas. The program is administered by the Centre for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
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Last November marked a year since the Israel Emergency Campaign Committee began its work, allocating grants to organizations and partners across Israel who are dedicated to addressing the critical needs that emerged in the aftermath of Oct. 7, and the war that has been raging since.
The committee’s work over the summer and the fall demonstrated its continued mission to provide support to the evacuated communities of the Upper Galilee – in education, infrastructure and capacity building – while also supporting projects in the realm of rehabilitation, also in the north.
Broadly, during the first six months, allocations were designated to projects supporting the numerous emergency needs across Israel: $8,853,704 was deployed October 2023 to March 2024, to projects addressing emergency needs in mental health care, food and supplies for vulnerable populations, rehabilitation initiatives, educational frameworks and evacuation infrastructures.
In the spring to the fall, as the committee realigned its focus to supporting the northern communities, with special attention to projects in the realm of rehabilitation, April-October grants totalling $3,011,750 were distributed.
Over the summer and the holiday season, as war continued across the north, IEC grants focused on enabling safe and meaningful programming for youth, children and families, and supporting schools that were preparing for the opening of another school year away from home. These grants came alongside immediate, emergency deployment of funds in support of the Druze communities of the Golan, after the tragic attack on Majdal Shams in July.
With the ceasefire taking effect on Nov. 27, 2024, what was once coined “the urgency of the day after,” has become the emergency of today. Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s partners in the Galilee are taking initial steps to plan their gradual return home, and the IEC committee remains aligned with this evolving reality.
A significant component of this strategy is a pan-Canadian initiative spearheaded by Sarah Mali, director general of JFC-UIA together with Jewish Federation’s executive team, in Israel and in Vancouver, and partner federations from across Canada. Earmarked to leverage collective funds to generate substantial healing and long-term impact in the north, this initiative is a central element in the IEC’s final rounds of allocations that will be developed over the coming months.
– Stephen Gaerber, chair, Israel Emergency Campaign Allocations Committee, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver