UJA Federation comes to the aid of survivors seeking restitution

By Daniel Horowitz--

At the time of the 2001 Census there were 28,000 Jewish senior citizens living in the Greater Toronto Area, close to one half of whom (12,815) were Holocaust survivors.
So, when the United Restitution Organization (URO) – an independent world-wide legal aid organization which assists victims of Nazi persecution to submit financial claims against the German and Austrian governments – decided to close down its last Canadian office, UJA Federation quickly stepped in. While URO’s Toronto office – housed on the third floor of the Lipa Green Building for Jewish Community Services - did, in fact, close on March 31 this year, the service re-opened seamlessly and without interruption the very next day. This time it was under the auspices of UJA Federation’s Jewish Information Service of Greater Toronto (JIST), part of the Latner Centre for Jewish Knowledge and Heritage.
“After URO decided to shut down their offices across North America, including Toronto, it was incumbent on us to do whatever we could to keep this essential service operational,” said UJA Federation president and CEO Ted Sokolsky. “Our community owes these survivors of the Shoah a deep debt of gratitude as it was those very same survivors who, in rebuilding their own lives, helped create a vibrant Jewish community here in Toronto. We simply could not - and would not - let these important members of our community be stranded with no recourse.” “This is an office that specializes in overcoming barriers,” said Elly Gotz, a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp who, thanks to the efforts of JIST, recently received a social security pension for his forced labour in the Kovno Ghetto. “There is such a morass of legal difficulties in getting money from Germany. Only the knowledge and skills of this office make it possible. If this service was not here, it would be virtually impossible to succeed in our quest for restitution.”
Without the assistance of UJA Federation, Toronto-area Holocaust survivors like Gotz would have had no alternative but to seek advice on restitution matters from the URO’s two other remaining offices in New York and Israel.
“In 2001 JIST helped survivors complete forms for slave labour compensation. Having JIST - with support from the Holocaust Centre of Toronto - take over the functions of URO was the next logical step,” said Susan Jackson, executive director, Latner Centre.
“It is wonderful that UJA Federation has stepped forward,” said Nate Leipciger, co-chair, Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Canada. “Working with people locally, survivors and their families can speak with someone face-to-face. It would be very hard to discuss such painful and personal experiences with an unknown voice at the other end of a long-distance call.”
For more information about restitution services, call 416.630.2920.

Jewish Toronto reaches out to the people of Peru

By Daniel Horowitz--

Shortly after a massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Peru on August 15, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto responded by establishing the Peru Earthquake Relief Fund. Proceeds will be distributed to victims - regardless of religion - by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The JDC is working with other disaster relief agencies including IsraAid, which sent an Israeli medical team to Peru last week. So far, more than 500 people have been reported killed, close to 2,000 injured, and tens of thousands are homeless as a result of the quake.
The JDC has a century-old history of providing relief to those in need. It collected $19.6 million for the relief effort following the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004 and $800,000 for the Pakistani earthquake in 2005.
“Natural disasters are quite indiscriminate and, be it Jew or non-Jew, the amount of human loss in Peru today is so very sad,” said UJA Federation board chair David Engel. “We are fortunate to be the conduit for Toronto’s generous Jewish community, giving people the opportunity to reach out to the families of those killed, or to those who have been injured or displaced by this tragedy. This is simply UJA Federation honouring its ongoing tradition of tikun olam, repairing the world.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, there had been no injuries reported in the 3,000 member Jewish community in Lima nor to the 130 or so Israelis now in Peru. After the Second World War, most members of Peru’s Jewish community moved to Lima where they were able to establish a few key institutions including a Jewish school which houses 80% of the Jewish community’s children. Three synagogues – one Ashkenazi and two Sephardi – were also built, as well as two homes for the Jewish elderly. Even though the Jewish community has been dwindling since 1970 when it reached a peak of 5,200 members, Jews still own many businesses in Peru.
One of those business owners is Toronto’s Marvin Zeifman, 52. Zeifman, the owner of Kaita Natural Health Products and the H Wood Flooring Company – travels to Peru every six to eight weeks on business, something he’s been doing for 30 years. “Our offices in Lima are housed in a brand new four-storey office building which, like all new buildings there, are built up to earthquake standards,” says Zeifman, who will be heading back to Peru in early September. “When the earthquake hit, our employees – around 50 of them – ran out of the building to the parking lot where all the cars were rocking back and forth. I was caught in an earthquake in Colombia 15 years ago and, believe me, when the ground shakes, you can’t quite believe it.”
To make a donation visit www.ujadonations.com/Peru. Donations can also be made by calling 416. 631.5705.

Myths and facts about fair funding for education

By Dr. Seymour Epstein--

In recent letters and articles critical of public support for faith based schools that meet provincial standards, there is a perception that those who favour such funding do not also support the public school system. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed we believe that faith-based schools need to be included in the public system in order to make it a more “public” system of education. During the course of debate on this issue there have been many myths perpetrated. These deserve to be confronted and factually addressed.

Myth # 1 – Funding for faith-based schools violates liberal democratic principles.Liberal democratic principles permit and require public funding of qualifying faith-based schools. In other Canadian provinces and most western jurisdictions outside of the USA, public funds are given to faith-based schools. In fact, even in the United States where the separation of church and state is a constitutional principle, there is a great deal of government assistance to faith-based schools.

Myth # 2 – Funding faith-based schools will confer benefits to religious organizations that are not available to non-religious organizations.Inclusive Public Education provides those in society for whom religion is all-important with the benefits of general education which are available to the non-religious. No academic logic can turn around the fact that a small percentage of faith-based parents are not receiving the full educational rights they are paying for with their taxes. Ontarians understand that in the year 2007 we cannot discriminate against faith communities. As a responsible pluralistic society that honours and treasures our faith communities we cannot simply “grin and bear” such a serious inequity.

Myth # 3 – The province already has the power to supervise education at faith-based schools without public funding. Although most Jewish day schools already adhere to provincial standards, by law, a private elementary school in Ontario does not have to do much more than obey certain fire codes. Provincial inspection of private secondary schools offering a diploma varies greatly in intensity and depth, mostly at the discretion of the school itself. An inclusive public system would provide universal accountability and oversight to ensure that what is taught at faith-based schools conforms to provincial regulations and Canadian values.

Myth # 4 – Public funding for Jewish day schools will lead to academic mediocrity. There is no evidence that government-funded faith-based schools tend towards mediocrity; not here in Canada and not throughout the world. Clearly, some fear that religious education goes against the grain of liberal society in that it divides more than it unifies. For this, too, there is no empirical evidence. Those of us who believe in and support public education but also want it to be completely inclusive are convinced by what we have seen elsewhere. Children who are reared in one specific environment can more easily appreciate the values of another atmosphere. What I believe, as a Jewish educator deeply rooted in my own culture, its literature, and its values, and equally devoted to Canadian pluralism is that my perspective allows me to look in the eyes of any other Canadian or citizen of the world and appreciate profoundly how they see the world from their own individual perspective. Canada has always been proud of the mosaic rather than the melting pot, and in a mosaic each colour is magnified by the others around it.

Dr. Seymour Epstein is senior vice-president, The Centre for Enhancement of Jewish Education, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.