TORONTO — The Toronto Jewish community provides leadership for the entire Jewish world, said Ted Sokolsky, president and CEO of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto at the organization’s annual leadership retreat recently.
The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto recently held a leadership retreat at Jeff and Lori Rosenthal’s cottage in Innisfil, Ont.
“We want to be the best,” Sokolsky told more than 100 employees and volunteers. “We’re setting the bar up there for other Jewish communities.”
The retreat, held at Jeff and Lori Rosenthal’s cottage in Innisfil, Ont., introduced UJA Federation’s 2009 campaign, which will focus on certain specific areas.
In the first of these, “our goal is to help engage young Jews in Toronto,” said Rachel Lerner, director of strategic community planning initiatives. “Jews should know we have amazing young Jews in the community… and it’s our job to support them.”
One way of targeting the younger population is through the federation’s incubator program, which provides funding and mentorship to social entrepreneurs aged 25 to 35, who are trying to find innovative solutions to social problems.
Jonathan Moneta, a recent graduate of York University, used the incubator program to work with Limmud Toronto, an organization that helps promote Jewish education through an annual festival, discussion groups and conferences.
“The social incubator program supports me financially and professionally,” Moneta, co-ordinator of the one-day Taste of Limmud festival, said at the retreat.
Until two years ago, Moneta was not involved in the Jewish community. Then he spent his senior year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“I discovered my Jewish identity,” he said.
Moneta hopes to turn the Limmud festival into an immersive experience that lasts for several days.
Still with the focus on youth, the federation’s 2009 campaign plans to provide new resources to help enrich Jewish campus life in Ontario and expand new programs, including the Jewish camp incentive program, which helps connect campers with their Jewish roots. The federation hopes to bring in 1,000 first-time Jewish overnight campers by 2011.
Another major aim of the new campaign is to expand the organization’s work with struggling Jewish families. The provincial government recently cut some $1 million of funding from Jewish Family and Child.
“We’re working with poor families, we work with seniors,” said Adam Minsky, chief of community capacity building at UJA. “[We need] to make sure clients don’t bear the brunt of cutbacks.”
The federation also plans to increase its aid to programs that serve Jewish seniors and the working poor. Among the agencies the UJA works with are the Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living and Jewish Immigrant Aid Services Toronto (JIAS).
At the retreat, guests also learned about UJA Federation’s involvement with Israel. With UIA Federations Canada (UIAFC), it runs programs and provides financial aid throughout Israel.
“The UJA is involved in the peripheries,” said UIAFC director general Yossi Tanuri, pointing to the UIAFC’s role in Israel’s educational system. “[Without education] Israel has no future,” he said.
One group the federation funds is the Youth Futures program in Eilat that works with welfare offices, parole offices and schools to help at-risk youth.
Eilat Pilo is a mentor for young people participating in Youth Futures, which shadows the Israeli youngsters to ensure that they succeed every step of the way, from getting to school to having a safe place to socialize.
“Most of these children used to fail all the time – this is all they know. We give them a good vision,” Pilo said. “[The kids] have group activities once a week. We talk about violence, drugs, drinking. My job is to take them and show them the right way.”
UJA Federation also supports after-school study centres for new immigrant youth in Israel and continues to provide financial aid for relief and rescue programs worldwide.
The UJA is not about “being the best for the sake of being on top,” Sokolsky said. “We strive to make the Jewish community a model for a community that cares for itself.”
