A message from Geoffrey Mayer, Vice Chair, Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA

by Geoffrey Mayer, Vice Chair, Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA

(Edmonton) – For Jewish communities in Edmonton and across Canada, our relationship with Israel is not abstract. It is personal, practical and rooted in shared responsibility. We see Israel not only as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, but as a living community of families, educators, students, seniors, new immigrants, and neighbours whose resilience continues to inspire us.

On a recent Jewish Federations Canada-United Israel Appeal (UIA) board trip to Israel, that relationship came into focus in a profound way. The trip was deeply informative because it allowed us to sit with and listen to thought leaders from across Israeli society: mayors, NGO leaders, community builders and professionals working every day to help people grow back stronger. Again and again, we were met with positive and practical conversations about psychological resilience, healing and the programs supported by Federation funds that are evolving to meet urgent human needs. It reminded me that there are things one cannot fully understand from afar; sometimes, you must get to Israel to see it and feel it.

Two moments during this visit, and a visit several months back, crystallized this truth. The first was standing at the Nova site. We can read the reports and hear the testimony but being there made the magnitude immediate and human in a way no briefing ever could. The second was seeing a program that brings Jews to Israel and welcomes them into absorption facilities with education, support and dignified housing. It was described to us as a modern expression of welcoming back a lost Jewish tribe: practical, emotional and deeply Jewish.

Those experiences gave shape to the broader work we heard about: initiatives addressing mental health and wellbeing, educational programs designed to give children stability and continuity, and social infrastructure that allow people to rebuild with dignity. This is where the partnership between Canadian Jewry and Israel becomes most meaningful. Through Jewish Federations Canada-UIA and local Federations, including Edmonton, our communities help fund programs that respond directly to people’s lives.

For Edmonton, this connection has always mattered. We may be geographically far from Israel, but our sense of peoplehood closes that distance. When we support Israel, we are not sending help to strangers. We are standing with partners, friends and extended family. We are also teaching our children that Jewish identity includes responsibility beyond our own city, and that solidarity must be expressed through action.

That is why this relationship matters so much. It is not only about emergency response, although that remains essential. It is about building the people-to-people connections that sustain Jewish life in both directions. In Edmonton, the Shinshin program is a powerful example: Israeli teens spend a year in our community, sharing their lives, stories, Hebrew, culture and love of Israel with our children, schools, camps and families. They become a living bridge, helping our community know Israel not as an idea, but through real relationships. Strengthening those local connections is how we ensure that the bond and Jewish responsibility for each other, between Edmonton, Canadian Jewish communities, and Israel remains vibrant, resilient and deeply human.