Posts Tagged Eastern Europe
Tomorrow Campaign
The Tomorrow Campaign is the story of a community’s journey. Although this story is focused on the present and the future, neither could exist before understanding some of the history of Toronto’s Jewish community.
The Jewish community of Toronto can trace its roots back to the 1800s. As the Jews of Eastern Europe, living under oppression and persecution, fled their towns and villages, many arrived in Toronto seeking freedom and a brighter future.
Regardless of which shtetl the new Torontonians came from and any hardships they faced, they all shared one common vision: a city that could sustain a growing population and fulfill their need to live vibrant Jewish lives.
In 1917, Toronto’s first Jewish federation — the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies — was incorporated, replacing the unorganized collection of individual Jewish charities, each knocking on doors and raising funds for their own causes. The Federation’s primary responsibility was fundraising for what was to become United Jewish Appeal.
As Toronto’s Jews became an increasingly organized, unified force, so too did their dreams. Understanding that the Jewish community would continue to grow due to the waves of immigration flooding into Toronto, their dreams turned to building a city where Jews could flourish and succeed.
In 1930 the YMHA (Young Men’s Hebrew Association)was born, offering members various programming opportunities in rented rooms in the Brunswick Avenue and College Street area. By 1953 a new facility was built — the Bloor Street “Y” at Bloor and Spadina — today the Miles Nadal JCC, to house the growing membership of a burgeoning community.
As Jewish life began moving north up the Bathurst Street corridor, so too did the Jewish facilities and services. 1958 saw the groundbreaking of the North “Y,” the current Bathurst Jewish Community Centre.
Building for the
Next Generation
A tradition of one generation building Jewish infrastructure for the next was born. Many of the visionaries who worked tirelessly to ensure that the North “Y” was built, would never use the facility, live near it, or benefit personally from it. Nor would their own children. But these visionaries understood that a strong Jewish identity is fostered in a robust Jewish city, and the way to keep a community thriving is to keep meeting its needs.
UJA Federation’s Tomorrow Campaign is the next logical link in the chain that has connected Toronto’s Jewish community from one generation to the next. It is the Campaign that has worked to revolutionize Jewish Toronto, bringing our community to the forefront of innovation. It is the Campaign that will raise $350 million dollars to continue the tradition of building infrastructure to preserve and enrich Jewish identity and culture. It is the Campaign that will change the landscape of Jewish Toronto forever.
reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO
http://tomorrowcampaign.com/index.php?action=history&camp_id=2
Moishe Alexander Donates to Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak
Moishe Alexander donated $360.00 CDN to Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak in 2008.
About Ohalei Tzadikim:
Throughout the Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Turkey, Greece, Morocco and Bulgaria are scattered hundreds of kivrei tzadikim – neglected, desecrated, and dishonored for decades. Ohelim have been destroyed, gravestones desecrated and entire cemeteries turned into pastures for cattle.
From the time that the splendor of European Jewry was destroyed and that Communist darkness descended over Eastern Europe, the cemeteries in the towns and villages, the kivrei tzadikim scattered there – and the communal graves found there – have been completely neglected.
Slowly, slowly the fences have disappeared, trees have grown wild, monuments have been broken – accidentally and on purpose by neighbors – and cemeteries have been entirely plowed over. The ohelim of tzaddikim from past generations and their gravestones have been smashed and destroyed. Often there has not even remained a sign that here, in this place, is buried one of the Gedolim of the generations or that in this place there was once a cemetery.
Instead of preserving the memory and the dignity of the deceased, the righteous of previous generations who were murdered in wild riots and unspeakable calamities, there have emerged high-rise buildings, parking lots and pastures. The clock is ticking, and most of the Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe have been desecrated.
There is now a hand erecting a fence around a cemetery, building another ohel over the gravesite of a tzadik, purchasing another piece of land, installing lighting, improving pathways, cutting down wild trees, maintaining and most importantly rescuing the gravesites of the great and glorious of our nation, whose resting places have been disgraced.
That hand is Agudas Ohalei Tzadikim.