Not long ago, the Maccabi World Union (MWU) called on Clive Lawton for help. The MWU, which puts together the Maccabiah Games in Israel every four years, was looking to be more inclusive, so they were curious about whether he knew of Jewish communities around the world who could send athletes to the Games.

As it happens, Lawton did. As CEO of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, he was familiar with tiny Jewish communities around the world not usually associated with Jewish life, such as Lesotho and Mauritius in Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka in Australasia, St. Lucia and Antigua in the Caribbean, and the island of Jersey in Europe.

Lesotho and Sri Lanka each have only two or three families. “There are tiny flags being flown all around the world,” Lawton said.

Each of those communities is part of the 33-member Commonwealth Jewish Council, which was founded in 1983 and whose membership largely parallels that of the British Commonwealth. The council is now “restructuring its operations to provide a more effective global reach.”

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Lawton was in Toronto recently to make the case for the Canadian Jewish community to consider becoming one of four “hubs” in the revamped organization.

Canada would join the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa as a council hub, each with responsibility to foster good relations and to aid with development of small local communities in their region. The U.K., for example, would maintain regular contacts with communities in Gibraltar, Malta, Jersey and Cyprus; Australia with New Zealand, India, Singapore and Sri Lanka; South Africa with Lesotho, Zimbabwe and others; and Canada with Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Lucia and other Caribbean communities.

Lawton met with representative of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the UIA and rabbinic groups. His message was simple: the Commonwealth represents states once settled by Britain who now share common values such as democracy, human rights, freedom and the rule of law.

“The Jews are a cross-Commonwealth reality with a relationship with each other, and we espouse the values that the Commonwealth espouses,” Lawton said.

The larger communities, with their infrastructure and expertise, can play an important role – at little or no cost – in helping smaller communities address issues such as anti-Semitism, anti-Israel agitation and other issues, Lawton said.

He pointed to New Zealand Jews being assisted from abroad when that country considered banning the practice of shchitah.

“The capacity [of New Zealand Jews] to say that the world’s Jews are behind them must have strengthened their hand,” Lawton contends.

In Asia, he added, a Commonwealth Jewish group would provide the “context in which Jews can talk to Pakistan and Malaysian government and leaders of civil society.”

The benefits of such an interaction played out in November 2015 in Malta during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting when Lawton met representatives of Pakistan. They discussed the Jewish connection to Israel and myths held about the Jews.

“We had a couple of very frank meetings where we exchanged views. I’d like to say the stuff they heard from me is stuff they never heard before,” he said.

Lawton said the Commonwealth organization isn’t asking much of the hub nations, only to lend support in advocacy issues when they arise and help with community development, which he suggested could be as simple as linking the Jamaican community to the Birthright program.

Canada’s Jewish community is receptive to Lawton’s proposal, CIJA CEO Shimon Fogel said. There are within the Commonwealth “very small… communities with Jewish life hanging by a thread that could use support.” He said CIJA would seek the support of its stakeholders – Canada’s federated communities – and, assuming they approve, will partner with the council.

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The council was created about 30 years ago by the late British MP Greville Janner and the British Board of Deputies. At the time, Janner called upon his contacts around the world, including Dorothy Reitman, former president of Canadian Jewish Congress, to get the organization off the ground. For years, the council was virtually a one-man show run by Janner, and “as he faded, so did the council,” Lawton said.

Lawton, an educator by profession and one of founders in Britain of Limmud, an adult learning program, said a revived council would be a more collaborative and open organization than it had been in the past.