MONTREAL — The rapidly rising cost of living and a skittish economy are major hurdles this year’s Combined Jewish Appeal (CJA) leaders must contend with, but general chair Michael Etinson and women’s division chair Pascale Hasen hope these factors will spur the relatively fortunate to help those who are hurting the most.
Women’s division chair Pascale Hasen and general chair Michael Etinson head up the 2008 Combined Jewish Appeal. [Howard Kay photo]
“If the economy is hard for us, think how it is for those who are truly in need,” said Hasen.
“If we only give when times are great, this community would not survive,” added Etinson. “How much of an impact is giving another $1,000 going to have on most people’s lives? For the recipient, however, that $1,000 may change their lives.
“Giving is not only a mitzvah, it’s a duty.”
Etinson said an additional $4.8 million is needed for local agencies and services alone, including $2 million to enable low- and, increasingly, middle-income parents to send their children to Jewish day schools. Currently, FEDERATION CJA allocates $2.8 million to subsidize tuitions. About half of the approximately 7,500 students at day schools receive full or partial assistance, he said.
Another $1 million is needed for direct allocations to the Jewish poor, he said, as a result of soaring food, rent and transportation costs.
“There are 17,000 Jews living below the poverty line. That’s a massive number, but we have become de-sensitized to it because we have repeated it so many times,” Etinson said.
At the same time, the Montreal Jewish community has to maintain its current level of support for social programs in Israel, he said. The Canadian dollar has lost 20 per cent of its value to the surging shekel, so donations are not going as far as they used to.
During a CJA mission in May, Hasen and Etinson saw Montreal dollars having a direct impact on the quality of life in Israel, especially in the Negev desert city of Beersheva and environs.
“The Israelis really appreciate what we are doing. They thanked us for our generosity and participation,” she said.
“We think Israel is doing really great [economically], but we saw that the government’s priority to security is hurting social services,” he added.
There are other local funding areas earmarked for significant funding increases. Seniors, who number 20,000, a significant proportion of whom are Holocaust survivors, need more help, especially with health and home-care costs, to the tune of $300,000.
Camp B’nai Brith is also seeking $300,000 more. Fully 80 per cent of the 950 kids it serves each summer are subsidized, Etinson said.
Another $200,000 is sought for programs aimed at reinforcing Jewish youth’s identification with Israel. One thousand teens and young adults from Montreal now take part in programs run by the Bronfman Israel Experience Centre, the biggest of which are the March of the Living and Birthright.
Etinson, 59, a pioneer in the computer software industry, became involved in CJA after participating in a mission to Israel in 1993. He served on and is a past chair of the federation’s community planning and allocations committee, an experience that he says provided him with an understanding of the needs of the community.
He and wife Janie have five children, four of whom live in Montreal– one is currently studying in England – and five grandchildren.
Hasen has a lifelong history of community service. She worked professionally as assistant director of the federation’s Young Adult Division and in the 1990s, was women’s chair of the CJA Sephardi campaign.
She and husband, Jack Hasen, a past CJA general chair and the incoming federation president, have six children. The three eldest are involved in the campaign’s campus division, which daughter Sari chairs.
The campaign is officially launched Aug. 21 and closes Nov. 25, but the work is already underway.
Last year’s mainline campaign grossed $40.5 million, and $37,730 was distributed in this year’s federation budget. Sixty-three per cent was spent locally, 26 per cent went to Israel and elsewhere overseas, and the remainder to national organizations, largely devoted to advocacy for Israel and the Jewish community.
The women’s campaign raised close to $7 million in 2007. Montreal has one of the highest number of members in the women’s lead donors category, known as the Lions of Judah, in North America, Hasen pointed out. The minimum gift is $5,000.
Hasen said the women’s division is becoming an increasingly important component of the campaign as women become more financially independent. “Women increasingly want to make a contribution in their own names, setting an example for their families and their peers.”
Etinson noted that Montreal is one of the top three communities in North America for per-capita giving to federation campaigns, and one of the most broadly based with nearly 20,000 individual donations. It also spends the lowest percentage on overhead, he added, thanks to hundreds of volunteers and the underwriting of event and marketing costs by corporations.
To encourage people to dig deeper this year one of the community’s most generous philanthropists, Alvin Segal, has offered to match the increase to last year’s donations, up to a maximum of $1 million in total.
The first major event, NOW (New Outreach to Workers), June 25, is aimed at attracting new volunteers, especially younger people, to the campaign.
Also on the calendar is the Super Sunday telethon Sept. 14; an evening with former Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy Sept. 17, open to all divisions; the women’s division main event, Choices, Sept. 22, with guest speaker sex guru Ruth Westheimer; another women’s event Oct. 29, What’s Cooking? featuring chef Dave Lieberman of the Food Network; and Night of 100 Dinners Nov. 6, which will be held at the Old Port’s Belvedere, rather than at private homes as in the past.
