Why is it important to you to be involved with the Jerusalem Foundation of Canada?
The Jerusalem Foundation is led by a vision to empower civil society by creating resiliency, embracing relationship building between Jerusalem’s diverse communities, and nurture emerging leadership. This a vision that inspires the heart! Living in Canada at this time, so many of us have our eyes turned to Israel, feeling like we wish there was something we can do to give hope, to send a message for the future, to find some positive way to help.
I was fortunate to have visited one project sponsored by the Foundation in February 2023 and went back for a day touring several projects in 2024. Each one made my heart sing. I feel honoured to be able to assist in keeping this vision strong, and to help it grow, especially at this critical time.
Which Jerusalem Foundation Project are you most excited about now? Why?
I honestly need to talk about my top three, because I truly cannot choose. I first learned of the Jerusalem Foundation when I visited a classroom for the Max Rayne Hand in Hand for Bilingual Education. This is a project that teaches in both Arabic and Hebrew, and holds mixed classrooms of Jewish and Arab students. The classroom we saw was gorgeous, built in Jerusalem stone, and it felt like it held such promise. As a teacher in our local afternoon Hebrew school, I was so touched by the idea of children from East and West Jerusalem learning together and building a shared community at the same time.
I also loved the Jerusalem Intercultural Center. I was deeply impressed by the nature of the projects to assist east Jerusalemites in empowering their own voices, particularly women. I spoke with a woman who had built a network of two thousand women who solved problems by complaining! The program incentivised women to register complaints about potholes in the roads, broken streetlights and other concerns to the municipality, and then tracked municipal response. What is more empowering than seeing the tangible results of your own efforts that benefit your community? I felt that this project was brilliant on so many levels. It was concrete enough to see, it gave voice to those who needed it, and it enabled the municipality to build trust with its residents.
I also fell in love with the Studio of Her Own. This unique, women’s only art collective, studio and gallery is a home to women of all backgrounds, Haredi, secular, and Arab. Women could come for the respite of art in a shared professional space, able to mentor and be mentored, collaborate and critique in a safe environment built for them. In the wake of Oct 7, I saw an amazing embroidery project that felt like a beautiful expression of grief, where women could gather and heal through the transformative process of collective art making.
What do you wish more Canadians knew about Jerusalem Foundation and its programs?
The Jerusalem Foundation sponsors more than 500 programs that meaningfully impact Jerusalem’s civil society, including the city’s most vulnerable. Canadian media often portrays Israel as the aggressor in a binary of us versus them. The Foundation shows us a truer and a more hopeful picture- that Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, is a city of many communities, of many faiths, and many dreams. We can help make those dreams come true.
-Joanna is an accountant who specializes in the not-for-profit and charitable sectors. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Shaar Shalom Congregation and teaches language and Jewish history at the Halifax Hebrew school. Active in interfaith circles for more than 35 years, Joanna is also the Co-Chair of Interfaith Harmony Halifax.