From left, Brian Pearl, president, JNF of Ottawa; Mark Mendelson,
executive director, JNF Eastern Canada; Barbara Crook and Dan
Greenberg, honourees of 2008 Negev Dinner; Joe Rabinovitch, executive vice-president, JNF of Canada; Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka, master of ceremonies. [Howard Kay photo]

OTTAWA — The honorees at this year’s Jewish National Fund’s Negev Dinner are well-known locally for their philanthropy.

Barbara Crook and Dan Greenberg have supported causes anonymously for many years. The couple have decided to cast aside their anonymity in order to take a leadership role and to encourage others to follow.

Their recent major philanthropic donations have gone to the University of Ottawa, the Queensway-Carleton Hospital and the Great Canadian Theatre Company.

Greenberg is the son of the late Irving Greenberg, a co-founder of Minto Developments Inc., a major local development company that is still run by members of the Greenberg family. No longer involved in Minto, Dan Greenberg is now the president of Otnim Properties Limited.

The Greenberg family has made, and continues to make, contributions to the community.

“If you want to change the world, it is a pretty good family to be a part of,” said Crook, who is also an activist.

Associate director and North American representative of Palestinian Media Watch, Crook is a former newspaper editor and writer who has taught at Carleton University. She is also a theatre producer. Very proud to be known as a “Jew by choice,” she first visited Israel on a mission in 2003 and fell in love with the country immediately.

Dennis Ross, a foreign policy adviser for U.S. president-elect Barack Obama, was the keynote speaker for the dinner, held at the Canadian Museum of Civilization on Nov 24. A career foreign service officer, Ross was the lead negotiator on Israeli-Palestinian issues for U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

“I don’t want to talk about what President Obama will do, but what he is going to face,” Ross said.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian situation, Ross said that the problem is one of disbelief: both sides have lost belief that peace can be achieved. “You have to deal with the issue of disbelief… you have to operate on multiple levels,” he said.

With the funds raised from the Negev Dinner, Crook and Greenberg will support a reservoir project in the Upper Galilee, which will purify and recycle water for agricultural use. The Crook/Greenberg Mishmar HaYarden Reservoir is located north of Lake Kinneret, near Sefad.