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April 26, 2002
A life of community interest
JCFGV’s Women’s Endowment Fund hosts Sen. Sheila Finestone.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
It is hard to think of a more appropriate person to address this
year’s Women’s Endowment Fund social and fund-raising
event than Sen. Sheila Finestone, who has dedicated much of her
life to helping others, especially women and minorities.
“I come from a family of committed and involved community leaders,”
said Finestone, who was appointed to the Senate in 1999.
“It was all part and parcel of growing up, of how tzedakah
fit into daily lifestyle. It was a Conservative Jewish home with
[one] grandfather who was president of one congregation and one
who was the founder of another, so it was just a part of my life,”
she told the Bulletin in an interview from her home in Ottawa.
Finestone’s early public service was as a volunteer within
the Jewish community of Montreal but, in the mid-1970s, her volunteerism
moved outside the boundaries of the Jewish community. She was involved
in the Yvette Movement, the women’s movement to keep Quebec
in Canada, and she was the only woman to serve on the “No”
Committee during the Quebec referendum of 1980.
She was elected in 1984 as the Liberal member of Parliament for
Mount Royal, and was re-elected in 1988, 1993 and 1997. In 1993,
she was sworn in as Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and
the Status of Women and, in this capacity, led the Canadian delegation
to the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women, in Beijing, China.
“My first experience with the United Nations’ women’s
sector was in ’85 in Nairobi, which was ... like a mini-Durban,”
said Finestone, referring to the conference on racism that took
place in South Africa last fall.
“Fortunately, there was a really good, strong delegation of
Jewish organizations at the conference,” she continued, including
women’s groups such as Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish
Women and ORT. Recognizing that one of the topics was to be Zionism
equals racism, which originally came out of the 1975 Mexico conference
on women, Finestone said, “We fought the good fight. It was
not a pleasant experience at all and it became pretty obvious that
if you discussed anti-Zionism, you discussed anti-Semitism because
the two of them were almost as synonomous then as they are today.”
Finestone has just completed her term on the 13-member world executive
of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which is the organization of world
parliaments.
“Canada has been extremely helpful towards trying to get Israel
a seat [with] western, like-minded nations,” she said. “It
has taken us five years. It took a concerted effort, both on my
part and the members of my delegation and it includes being able
to invite Avraham Burg and [Meir] Sheetrit and top-leading members
of the Israel Knesset to come to world meetings as a guest and to
present the case for Israel.”
While Finestone has recently retired from the Senate, she will be
keeping herself busy.
“I intend to keep a very active portfolio going in the anti-personnel
landmines. It’s a key undertaking. All Canadians should be
very proud of Canada’s accomplishments in that field,”
said Finestone, who is a special advisor in this area to the Canadian
government and the last three ministers of foreign affairs.
In her Women’s Endowment Fund (WEF) address, Finestone said
she will talk about what she believes to be Canadian women’s
role, particularly that of Canadian Jewish women.
“We have been brought up to be respectful of our neighbor and
to treat our neighbor as ourself,” she said. “I believe
that these are very trying times and it’s not always easy to
love your neighbor, but you don’t have to love them, you have
to learn how to respect difference.”
A second message that Finestone said she will be delivering is that
people should become involved, not only in the Jewish community,
but in the wider community.
“My sense has always been that you need leadership in the general
community, to be a partner in that community in which you live,”
said Finestone.
The WEF is a designated endowment fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
of Greater Vancouver. It provides grants for the support of programs
that directly benefit or are of great importance to women in the
Jewish community.
The evening with Finestone takes place Wednesday, May 8, at Temple
Sholom, 7190 Oak St., with a kosher dessert reception at 7 p.m.
in the social hall. The program begins at 8 p.m. in the sanctuary.
The cost is $18. For more information and reservations, call 604-257-5100
or fax 604-257-5110.
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