TORONTO — To highlight the daring and creative character of Israeli culture, several leaders from prominent Jewish organizations are hosting a panel event featuring three diverse Israeli speakers.
Talking Tachless: Israeli Speakers Night is being held April 22 at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre’s Al Green Theatre in honour of Israel’s 67th Independence Day – Yom Ha’atzmaut.
Panelists Maj.-Gen. Orna Barbivay, the highest-ranking female officer in the Israeli Defence Forces’ history; Prof. Raphael Hofstein, the Israeli-born president and CEO of Toronto-based MaRS Innovation; and Yaniv Waizman, Tel Aviv city council member and gay rights activist will discuss their career trajectories and accomplishments in the context of what they feel it means to be Israeli.
The event is being organized by Irit Stopper, Israel’s deputy consul general in Toronto; Eran Shafir, regional representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel; Lee Mes, director of Israeli-Canadian outreach and engagement at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, and Dan Horowitz, federation’s editorial director and senior writer.
“The message for the whole evening is that Israel is very daring, and that’s what makes it so successful and contributes to its survival,” said Mes.
The event is part of a larger initiative led collaboratively by the Jewish Agency, UJA Federation and the Israeli Consulate to mark Yom Ha’atzmaut in an innovative and all-encompassing way.
The idea for what the group has dubbed Toronto Celebrates Israel came about a year or so ago, when Shafir and Mes started talking about wanting to do something different for this year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.
With that, Shafir said, “a unique partnership” between UJA, the Israeli Consulate and the Jewish Agency was born, and, as a group, they began discussing, “Why do just one event? Why not use the love for Israel in the [Toronto Jewish] community as a vehicle to bring people together?”
So, in addition to directly organizing the April 22 event, the group decided to create a platform where all Yom Ha’atzmaut events in the city can be advertised in one central place.
Several weeks ago, they launched the official Toronto Celebrates Israel website, which features a calendar and descriptions of upcoming Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations by schools, synagogues, community centres and even private events held at people’s homes.
As of April 8, the website had about 30 events listed, and Mes said they hope to collect more.
She and fellow organizers have been reaching out to organizations – both those they’re already affiliated with and those they haven’t previously worked with – across the city and spanning the religious and political spectrum.
Part of their goal is to emphasize the diversity that exists within the Toronto Jewish community, Mes explained.
“We’re not saying there is one way to celebrate Israel or emphasize the holiday – that is the beauty of this,” she said.
Shafir noted that the advantage of advertising a wide variety of events “under one umbrella” is that it will engage a wider reach of people and build strength in the community.
“It’s a capacity-building tool… We’re showing that we’re much stronger when we’re together and that we’re all part of something bigger than ourselves,” he said.
Yom Ha’atzmaut events currently listed on the website run the gamut from a film screening about Zionism at Ryerson University to a celebration for kids at the Schwartz/Reisman Centre’s supplementary Hebrew school to a “lunch and learn” with the host of TVO’s The Agenda, Steve Paikin, presented by Beth Tikvah Synagogue.
The organizers of Toronto Celebrates Israel hope the initiative will happen annually.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.jewishtoronto.com/torontocelebratesisrael.
