I am writing this greeting as the newly appointed President of JIAS Canada.  After 3½ years of dedicated service in this position, Leslie Wilder has found it necessary to reduce her time commitment to the organization and the Board has asked me to serve in her place until our upcoming Annual Meeting in December.  We owe a debt of gratitude to Leslie that we will never be able to repay.  She has led us through the most difficult times we have ever faced – with skill, intelligence and sang-froid.  Her performance always reminded me of the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” – “If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”.  Toda Raba, Leslie!!!

Over the past two years, following the creation of independent JIAS’s in Toronto and Montreal, JIAS Canada has been under strong pressure from its principal funder, UIA/FC, to significantly reduce its operating costs by reducing the services it has been providing to immigrants – both directly and through local agencies across Canada.  The JIAS Canada Board acknowledged the new landscape and the need for change and commissioned an outside consultant to undertake an in-depth strategic review which was described in the April newsletter. 

The report of the Planning Group was presented to the UIA/FC leadership, its Planning and Allocations (P & A) Committee and the UIA/FC Board at its meeting in June 2005.  The decision taken at that meeting was that immigration is not a priority of the national Jewish community, given other demands on its resources.  The P & A Committee’s recommendation that JIAS Canada funding for 2005/6 be reduced to a level which would not even support a 3 day a week operation was overwhelmingly endorsed by the UIA/FC Board.

JIAS Canada views a 3 day per week operation as totally inadequate, given the tasks it believes the organization must perform to properly serve the community and the cause of Jewish immigrants. The Board has extensively debated, therefore, whether or not JIAS Canada should stay in business.  We are convinced that if we truly see ourselves as a Canadian Jewish community, the fact that immigrants to Toronto and Montreal are adequately served locally is not sufficient.  

At this time of year, as we approach the High Holidays and reflect on our past and on our future, we must look beyond our own parochial and immediate needs.  Without JIAS Canada, our ability to serve those less fortunate than ourselves will diminish, and the survival of our community will be placed at risk.  Members of the Canadian Jewish community who believe in the importance of immigration must make their voices heard within their Federations and local communities.  Now is the time you must offer your support.  In the words of Rabbi Hillel "...if not now, when then?"

          “ If I am not for myself, who is for me?
            And if I am only for myself, what am I?
            And if not now, then when?” 

Finally, on behalf of my family as well as the entire Board and Staff of JIAS Canada, I want to wish all of you

Shanah tovah u'metukah
            May you and your families have a good and sweet year!

Shlomo Mayman
President