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July 8, 2011
CIJA takes over all advocacy
Top-down approach will “clarify and simplify” messaging: Fogel.
ANDY LEVY-AJZENKOPF CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
The reconfiguration of the existing Canadian Jewish community national advocacy structure officially began on July 1. Gone are organizations including Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), Canada-Israel Committee (CIC), Quebec Israel Committee (QIC), University Outreach Committee (UOC) and National Jewish Campus Life (NJCL). Their functions have been absorbed into a greater Canadian Jewish advocacy apparatus under the auspices of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), which had previously acted as the umbrella organization for the above-mentioned agencies.
On June 5, the boards of CIJA and United Israel Appeal Federations Canada (UIAFC) approved a major overhaul of communal organizations. Several senior employees of CJC have lost their jobs as a result: Benjamin Shinewald, CJC’s Toronto-based acting chief executive officer; Wendy Lampert, national director of community relations; Enza Martuccelli, director of community relations in CJC’s Montreal office; Eric Vernon, the director of government relations and international affairs, and Josh Rotblatt, the director of operations, in the Ottawa office; and Romy Ritter, regional director in Vancouver.
Shimon Fogel, CEO of what is being called CIJA 2.0, said the need for wholesale restructuring of the Jewish advocacy system stemmed from the fact that the lines between anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism had become almost indistinguishable.
“The lines and distinctions between what they used to call ‘the domestic agenda’ and ‘the Israel agenda’ have blurred so much that it’s impossible really to tell one from the other,” he said. “When is it anti-Zionism? When is it antisemitism? This is the nature of where things have gone internationally.”
Fogel said these distinctions had become “increasingly artificial,” to the point where it became difficult for CIJA agencies like CJC and CIC to figure out which agency should respond to what.
“We had an opportunity to integrate and consolidate all the thematic agendas – campus, antisemitism, Israel relations, social policy agenda at the local community level – all of those things could be brought into one, holistic institution,” he said. CIJA 2.0 will have “departments” that deal with these different items.
It’s a top-down approach that is being applied in order to “clarify and simplify” messaging on Jewish advocacy, Fogel said.
All the details of the new structure are contained in a document called CIJA 2.0: A Roadmap for the Reorganization of Jewish Advocacy in Canada. A national strategy development committee will report to the CIJA 2.0 board on messaging related to campus needs, Israel, social justice and human rights, the defence agenda and domestic needs, according to CIJA 2.0 internal guidelines. As a national entity, CIJA 2.0 will create policy and messaging for “local partners” throughout the country’s Jewish communities. Each local partner will be “anchored or embedded” in a local federation – in smaller Jewish communities without a federation presence, there will be an alternative. For instance, in Atlantic Canada, the Atlantic Jewish Council will be the de facto local partner. And each community will be represented by a local public affairs committee, Fogel said.
CIJA 2.0 “will provide resources” for all local partners, and the chairs of the local committees will, together, form a national cabinet. This cabinet will convene to coordinate, share best practices, raise local concerns and flag emerging trends or issues for which the national executive will provide guidance.
The new board of CIJA 2.0 will be determined at a meeting, “probably in the first week of July,” when its nominations committee appoints the members, Fogel said. The CIJA 2.0 board will have its inaugural meeting “very soon thereafter.”
CIJA 2.0 will be headquartered in Ottawa. The organization’s official “brand name” will be announced shortly, Fogel said. Among the names still being considered is Canadian Jewish Congress, he said, though CIJA 2.0’s branding committee is still finishing its work.
“Federation is handing over all responsibility for advocacy to CIJA 2.0,” he said. “That means that CIJA national, and all its local partners whose staff are embedded in federations, will be responsible for the whole range of advocacy.”
Fogel would not comment on who comprised the new senior management team for CIJA 2.0, as there was still one post outstanding as of press time, that of communications director. He said an offer had gone out, but was still being contemplated by the applicant.
For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com, where a longer version of this article, written with files from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, can be found.
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