Federation honours community power couple

LIz and Ted Sokolsky

TORONTO — UJA Federation of Greater Toronto will be honouring Ted and Elizabeth Sokolsky for their leadership and vision with a dedication ceremony to name the Ted and Liz Sokolsky Community Square, at the Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Jewish Community Campus in Vaughan.

The May 3 event will feature a community dessert reception hosted by Julia Koschitzky. 

“I hope many people will come out to celebrate the dedication, because what Ted and Liz have done has been of great benefit to this community,” said Morris Perlis, chair of UJA Federation’s board of directors.

The Ted and Liz Sokolsky Community Square will be an attractively landscaped outdoor square at the heart of the Lebovic Campus. The facility was built during Ted’s tenure as CEO of federation and houses the Schwartz/Reisman Centre, the northern branch of Bialik Hebrew Day School, the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto’s Kimel Family Education Centre, as well as a number of community social service agencies. 

“The campus is a roaring success. We have approximately 7,500 to 8,000 members. It’s a gem in the crown of the Jewish community today,” said Leo Goldhar, a past UJA Campaign chair and past federation board member who was active in the campus’ planning and construction.

 “We wanted to honour Ted and Liz for their visionary work that they have done.”

Ted Sokolsky, 63, retired last September after 28 years with the federation, the last 10 as president and CEO. Prior to that, he served as senior campaign associate, associate campaign director, annual campaign director and vice-president for integrated fundraising.

His accomplishments include managing the extraordinary growth of UJA’s annual campaign, which has increased from $32 million in 1995 to more than $56 million today, making it the third-largest campaign in the North American federation system, surpassed only by New York and Chicago.

Ted also spearheaded the planning and implementation of Jewish Toronto Tomorrow, a $350-million capital project known today as the Tomorrow Campaign, the largest-ever redevelopment of Toronto’s Jewish community infrastructure. As well, he oversaw the growth of the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto, which resulted in the rapid expansion of its assets from $120 million in 2004 to $253 million today, with another $300 million in planned gifts (bequests and gifts of life insurance).

In 2013, Ted became president of the World Conference of Jewish Communal Service Workers.

Elizabeth (Liz) Sokolsky, 55, has been a Jewish communal professional for 30 years. She began her career in Jewish experiential education as the assistant director of BBYO in Montreal. From there, she spent three years in Ottawa at its Jewish community centre, where she was responsible for youth and teen programs, and summer camp. 

After marrying Ted, she moved to Toronto, where she spent nine years at the JCC, culminating in her position as branch director. Her roots at BBYO led her to leave the JCC and to become national director of BBYO Canada for the next three years. 

In 1996, Liz became the national executive director of the newly created Canada Israel Experience, which was established in order to significantly increase both the quantity of participants and quality of Israel experience programs for Canadian teens and young adults.  

Liz is currently vice-president of education and operations for Taglit-Birthright Israel in North America. She has been with this innovative and highly successful program since its inception in 1999.

“Liz has been an incredible force in the Birthright program and is an outstanding community person,” Goldhar said.

To RSVP for the event, contact Livana Ohayon at 416-631-5725 or [email protected].