Pacific CIJA office open

PAT JOHNSON

The major new national Jewish umbrella group has opened a Vancouver office and is inviting people to an advocacy event Sunday.

CIJA – the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy – was founded to create a unified voice among the diverse Jewish and Zionist organizations in Canada. CIJA-PAC, the group's public affairs committee, is the grassroots activist wing, which encourages individual members of the Jewish community to get involved in political and community activities.

Typical of the sort of events CIJA-PAC is undertaking is a conference this Sunday, May 15, called Advocacy in Action. Aimed to coincide with next week's provincial election, the event will be a launch pad, of sorts, for the federal election expected to be called any day. Three members of Parliament are slated to attend, including a Liberal, a Conservative and a New Democrat.

The conference is a day-long affair, taking place at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jeff Bradshaw, who recently took up the post of Pacific program co-ordinator, said CIJA-PAC is a non-partisan organization, but one that will help people get their voices heard - whatever their viewpoints.

"If you want to fight for an issue," he said, "we'll help you fight for the issue."
Since the West Coast office opened April 5, Bradshaw has been doing outreach in the Jewish community, letting people know that his organization is here and ready to work on Jewish issues. The response has been positive, he said.

"We're finding that people are really engaged and stoked to have this organization in town," he said.

But what is a Jewish issue?

"If it's important to Jews, it's a Jewish issue," said Bradshaw, whose work in the Jewish community began on campus at Simon Fraser University. As a student, Bradshaw was a president of the Israel Advocacy Club and later interned with Canadian Jewish Congress before taking on his full-time role with CIJA-PAC.

Mark Waldman, national chair of CIJA-PAC, welcomed Bradshaw and said the new West Coast office is a sign of the community's strength.

Waldman said CIJA-PAC is set to confront what he sees as a tendency in the Jewish community over the past several decades to become more complacent, while other cultural groups have become better organized.

"We want people to get educated on the issues," Waldman said in a telephone interview from Toronto. "And, as good Canadian citizens, to get involved in the process, volunteering, supporting whoever it is that they choose, educating the candidates on our issues and reaching out to our friends, whoever they are."

For more information about Advocacy in Action, see www.feduja.org/evites/advocacy-in-action or call Bradshaw at 778-881-0140 or Noreen Dodgson at 604-257-5100. CIJA's website is www.cija.ca.

Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.

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