This month I am excited to begin my tenure as chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the advocacy agent of Canada’s Jewish federations. Having been involved in advancing the interests of the Jewish community in Quebec for many years, and having served on CIJA’s board and worked closely with my colleagues across the country, I can only summarize the current landscape of Jewish Canadian advocacy as one of extraordinary opportunities and challenges.
Our community enjoys unprecedented freedom and equality in Canada, matched by remarkably strong Canada-Israel ties backed by cross-party support on Parliament Hill. At the same time, our Jewish friends and family in Europe and Israel face shifting, multifaceted, and often urgent security threats – as seen in the recent horrific anti-Semitic attack in Paris. As Canadian Jewish advocates, we must do all we can to support our fellow Jews overseas, while continuing to make a strong contribution here at home by advancing policies and causes that benefit all Canadians.
CIJA’s work consists of both advocacy and community building. Our focus is primarily on those segments of Canadian society – including the political sphere, media, and civil society – that shape public policy and frame how issues are debated. Effective advocacy requires seeing these key actors as partners for our community in advancing a shared vision of Canada at home and Canada’s contribution internationally.
Effective advocacy also depends on having a strategic plan based on sound research, independent data, and methods that have stood the test of experience. This is the basis of the successful “shared values” approach that has characterized CIJA’s work and has in turn been adopted by other Jewish advocacy organizations around the world.
I am pleased that we will be conducting new public opinion research in the coming year. The goal is to test our assumptions about what drives Canadian attitudes toward Israel and the Jewish community, and how we can most effectively build support for our cause, which is to improve the quality of Jewish life in Canada by advancing the public policy interests of our vibrant community.
I anticipate a very busy agenda this year. While security and the anti-terrorism file will continue to be a priority, our team is involved in a range of policies and causes that do not often make headlines but are of crucial importance to our community. For example, CIJA has been working diligently to resolve the issue of availability and cost of kosher poultry in Ontario. This issue alone directly affects the pocketbooks and quality of life of thousands of Jewish families across the province.
At the same time, CIJA is working on various human rights causes in keeping with our community’s tradition of fighting bigotry. This includes legislation to ban genetic discrimination as well as legal provisions to protect transgendered Canadians.
Advocating on behalf of the Jewish community can be very rewarding, and very challenging. Our community has a diversity of views and concern that all views are not heard. We also struggle to fight adversaries who are unconcerned about truth, freedom and justice, and these struggles are often faced most vividly by our youth, at our universities. To continue to support them, and our entire community, we need your ongoing support. Every member of our community has the potential to make a difference.
As CIJA chair, I want to create more opportunities to leverage the talent, energy, and experience of every community member who wants to get involved. Please connect with me at [email protected] to share your thoughts on how we can best advance our community’s interests.
David Cape is chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).