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April 5, 2002
Gurvis set to head Federation
New director wants agency to focus on leadership and raising revenues.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Vancouver has one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in
North America. This presents many challenges, but it also offers
opportunities that have not yet been fully exploited, according
to the man who will help lead the community through the years to
come.
Mark Gurvis took over as executive director of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Vancouver March 18. He visited Vancouver earlier last
month to attend the Federation's annual general meeting, at which
he outlined what he sees as the challenges and opportunities facing
the community. He expanded on some of those issues in an interview
with the Jewish Bulletin.
The role that federations play, he said, comes in large part from
their ability to attract the leaders and the financial resources
to meet the needs of the community.
"While the Vancouver Federation has had much success in broadening
participation in the annual campaign and other community activity,"
Gurvis said, "it hasn't yet succeeded in increasing significantly
the funds needed to meet its needs, or those of our Jewish brothers
and sisters in Israel and other communities. So my biggest challenge
is helping the Federation and the Greater Vancouver Jewish community
in moving forward towards that achievement."
The growth of the Vancouver community is of particular interest
to Gurvis because, he said, it makes it particularly easy to get
involved. From his limited time in the city, he has felt a great
deal of warmth and openness, he added. Vancouver is a markedly different
place than Cleveland, where Gurvis has spent close to 18 years,
lastly working as vice-president and assistant director of the Jewish
Community Federation of Cleveland. Where Vancouver's Federation
is 15 years old, Cleveland's is about to celebrate its first century.
"Vancouver is facing an exciting period of growing its community
resources and infrastructure to deal with a new population,"
he said. "Another difference is the classic difference between
rooted, traditional communities and newly emerging, Western communities."
Western North America tends to be a destination for migrants not
only from other countries, but from the eastern part of the continent.
Among those people who opt to leave the cities of their birth, there
is a strong sense of individualism. This creates a strange dynamic,
Gurvis noted.
Many of the Jews who move to a city like Vancouver are getting away
from the models of their past. Some choose not to affiliate with
the organized Jewish community.
Conversely, those who do get involved tend to be more traditionally
oriented, he said, meaning that they are more likely to send their
children to Jewish day schools and to identify strongly with traditional
denominations.
Though Gurvis is a native of Long Island, N.Y., he is well acquainted
with Canada, as he is married to Leah Pomerantz, a native of St.
Catharine's, Ont. They have three daughters.
Canadian Jewish communities are generally younger than their American
cousins; closer to the immigrant experience, Gurvis said. Like Jewish
communities around the world, however, Americans and Canadians share
a familial concern for the situation in Israel.
"A local federation, in partnership with the Canadian Jewish
Congress and other partners, has a significant role to play in raising
consciousness within the Jewish community and beyond about the severe
threat to Israel's security and survival, especially with respect
to advocacy with the government about what positions it takes in
the international arena," said Gurvis. "The federation
also, of course, must help the community mobilize to respond to
the very real human service needs that flow from this crisis - aid
to victims of terror and ensuring continued services to Israel's
most vulnerable populations who are affected when government services
are curtailed and shifted to security needs. Finally, we must help
our Israeli family feel less isolated, through people-to-people
exchanges and visits to Israel."
Over his years in Jewish communal life, Gurvis has worked extensively
on issues such as advocating for Soviet Jewry and encouraging young
Jews to visit Israel.
In his past positions in Cleveland, Gurvis directed planning for
a new Jewish community museum, managed the Jewish Education Centre
of Cleveland, headed strategic planning for the Federation and worked
closely with volunteers on the annual fund-raising campaign.
Gurvis is enormously enthusiastic about his new position and about
serving the Jewish community in general.
"From an early age I have found my involvement in Jewish communal
life the most enriching and meaningful things I can be doing with
my life," he said. "Being able to make a difference in
the live of our community and our Jewish people - I can't think
of anything I'd rather be doing."
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