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September 12, 2003
Some extraordinary challenges
This year's Combined Jewish Appeal campaign has an ambitious target.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Combined Jewish Appeal (CJA) kicked off its 2003 campaign this
week with the theme of "Today our Jewish world faces extraordinary
challenges." The fund-raiser hopes to raise $6 million. That's
up $1.5 million from last year.
"It is extraordinarily ambitious," said Mark Gurvis, executive
director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. "We're
doing it because we believe the Jewish world is facing all of the
challenges today that drove us to mount an emergency campaign a
year and a half ago. We're trying, through the Combined Jewish Appeal,
to accomplish this year a response of the magnitude of what we did
in two campaigns last year.
"It's not an issue of confidence [that we can raise the money],"
he stressed, "It's an issue of necessity."
In 2002, the Greater Vancouver Jewish community contributed $6.8
million through Federation – $2.25 million in the Israel Now
emergency campaign and $4.55 million in the annual CJA campaign.
For 2003, the new CJA goal would provide an additional $1 million
to be committed to international issues and another $500,000 to
meet needs in the Greater Vancouver area.
The challenges to which Gurvis referred include terrorism, the poor
state of the Israeli economy, increased anti-Semitism in Canada
and around the world and Jews living in societies facing economic
and social collapse, such as Argentina. The local fund-raising effort
is part of a national Canadian Jewish community effort to raise
$11 million.
"There's been a process nationally to look at the global Jewish
crisis and what the Canadian Jewish community needs do do in response,"
explained Gurvis. "Specific financial targets were set to respond
to the situation in Israel, the situation related to advocacy, the
situation in Argentina and then, consistent with the fund-raising
patterns across the country, targets were assigned to specific communities
to try to achieve."
Internationally, CJA money will be earmarked for continued support
for aid to victims of terror and their families; services to ameliorate
the impact of Israel's economic crisis; social and educational needs
in the Northern Galilee; support of a new national Canadian advocacy
effort focused on supporting Israel and combating anti-Semitism;
and relief assistance in Argentina and support for those making
aliyah from Argentina to Israel.
More than 200,000 Jews live in Argentina. Once one of the strongest
and most self-reliant Jewish communities in the world, the combination
of bombing attacks on Jewish communal facilities and the Israel
embassy in the 1990s and the country's economic collapse have resulted
in a community that is in dire need. According to Federation, Jewish
schools and community centres are closing, more than half of Jewish-owned
small businesses have closed and the caseload of families requiring
relief aid is increasing by 1,600 each month. An additional $100,000
in local campaign funds is planned for the region.
In British Columbia, additional funds will be used to support poverty-related
programs; education programs; services for senior adults; services
to Jewish students on campuses throughout Canada, including expanded
services for the five campuses on the Lower Mainland; and increased
support for services to other vulnerable populations, as well as
community building and arts and cultural programs.
"The local piece comes through the ongoing work that Federation
does with the local agencies to identify needs through a planning
process and to allocate resources through the biennial allocations
process," said Gurvis.
"Because of that," he continued, "we're able to come
to the community and say, 'If we can raise more dollars locally,
this is where it goes. We've looked at the needs, the agencies have
put forward proposals to respond to those needs and this is where
it will go; for the elderly, for Jewish education, for special needs
populations, for youth, etc.' It's a longer term process and an
ongoing process but it allows us the ability – if we can raise
more money – to know that it's going to go where we've determined
the needs are."
According to Federation, one in six members of the Greater Vancouver
Jewish community lives below the poverty line and the community's
high level of in-migration means a higher percentage of people at
risk. It takes four to five times as long for new immigrants to
find their first job in British Columbia than it does in Toronto
or Montreal. Additional CJA funds will go towards expanding job
match programs, improving employment opportunities and helping community
members find affordable housing.
More money will be set aside to ensure that seniors have access
to services that keep them living independently in the community.
As well, funds will be allocated to strengthening the existing educational
programs in day schools and synagogues, and to exploring alternative
frameworks for engaging families and youth. Federation estimates
that there are some 1,500 Jewish students between the ages of six
and 17 who are not in any Jewish education framework.
As part of a national program to increase programs and services
to Jewish university and college students across Canada, CJA funds
will help finance the Israel advocacy and programs director position
at the Vancouver Hillel Foundation, and contribute to a new national
funding initiative to expand campus programs across the country.
Other local social services that are slotted to receive additional
funds are those provided to immigrants; arts and other cultural
programs; and maintaining the community's network of services, which
requires keeping pace with the rising cost of doing business and
preserving the viability of the community's network of agencies.
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