More than 3,000 staff and volunteers from North American Jewish federations met last week just outside Washington, D.C., for the General Assembly (GA). The annual event, dubbed “the premier leadership retreat for federation volunteer leaders and professionals engaged in the business of Jewish philanthropy,” offers a chance for Jewish community leaders to learn from each other, brainstorm new ways to engage Jews and discuss challenges in fundraising. 

In the federation world, the GA is the event of the year, a chance to showcase its best and brightest. That’s why The CJN asked two Canadian federation leaders, Morris Zbar, president and CEO in Toronto, and Deborah Corber, CEO in Montreal, to relate their experiences there.

The GA stressed “coming together for one another,” Zbar says, even if “we all have our opinions, and… certainly don’t agree on everything… 

“In today’s world,” he writes, “do we really have a choice?” 

Given the challenges facing Jewish communities worldwide, Zbar argues, “it’s vital that we put aside our differences – petty or not – and focus on the one thing that truly matters, and that is the well-being of the Jewish People.

“Those of us who work day in and day out in the business of Jewish philanthropy have the ability to effect meaningful change,” he concludes. “It’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly.”

Montreal’s 50-plus GA attendees experienced “a singular opportunity to connect, learn, engage, exchange and make common cause with fellow Jews who share a love of the Jewish People and a desire to ensure a bright future for us all,” Corber writes. 

This year’s Montreal delegation “included women and men, young adults and seasoned veterans, secular and observant, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, English- and French-speaking – a representative sample of the diversity that makes Montreal such a unique Jewish community,” she explains. And in that sense, the GA was “an eloquent expression of the power of community.”  

Whether you’re a Montrealer or a Torontonian – or a Vancouverite, Calgarian or Haligonian – your Jewish life has almost assuredly included some meaningful connection to your local federation. (For me, it’s the memory of floor hockey games on Sunday afternoons at the late Bathurst Jewish Community Centre.) There is an undeniable comfort in that shared relationship, and an important reminder that we are all responsible for each other.

But not everyone would paint as rosy a picture of Jewish federations as Zbar and Corber did. Some question the continued viability of the federation model for a younger generation with changing priorities, while others growl about federations’ uncritical support for Israel (or complain about operational spending figures). Some simply don’t feel their federation has anything to offer them. When that connection is threatened, federations must redouble their efforts to engage as many Jews in their communities as possible. In turn, alienated individuals would do well to try to set aside their differences.

“By learning and sharing together,” Corber writes of the trip to Washington, “we discovered that collectively, we can accomplish great things.” That’s an important lesson for all of us to remember as our federation representatives begin the process of implementing what they learned at this year’s GA.— YONI