Local News
JNF-Canada responds to CRA decision to revoke its charity status
(Posted August 30, 2024) We have been attempting to provide full information as to the ongoing situation in which the CRA has revoked JNF-Canada’s charitable status. Elsewhere on this website you can read stories that outline what has happened.
On August 28, JNF-Canada sent an email to supporters in which it provided a rigorous defence against the decision by the CRA to revoke its charitable status.
Here, in full, is what that email contained:
| Dear JNF Supporters, We thank you for your continued support and attention during this ongoing matter. The number of kind calls, texts, and emails to our offices have been overwhelming. Todah Rabbah. The following is JNF’s official response to the claims made in the CJN. The most upsetting thing about the article is that it plants doubt in our supporters minds. Your generosity and support is not something we take lightly, and keeping your trust is our #1 priority. Thank you for taking the time to read it and as always, we welcome any questions or concerns you might have. In the coming days, we will also be releasing additional documentation that we have submitted to the CRA to further explain JNF’s position. We believe we have a strong legal case, have more than demonstrated cooperation and compliance with CRA, and we are proud of what we have achieved in Israel and across Canada thanks to you – our donors and supporters. You can also read the following statement on our website. |
| JNF Canada’s Official Response to CJN 15+ Million Trees is No Gimmick We wish to respond to the recent coverage in the CJN with respect to our multi-year battle with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). It is time to set the record straight. Although JNF was in regular contact with the CJN reporting team prior to the publication of the article on the history of our relationship with the CRA, we were never asked for our views on critical issues raised in the article. Furthermore, the behaviour of the CRA or their findings, are never questioned or criticized. Rather, it assumes that the CRA is righteous and just, and JNF is the guilty party. Not surprisingly, this leaves the readers with a one-sided and unbalanced impression. A few issues raisedDue to human error, we provided the CRA with documentation on the wrong psychiatric hospital project. We annually oversee funding for multiple projects and at the time, we were supporting two psychiatric facilities in Jerusalem. A phone call would have quickly resolved the matter.Hebrew is the language of work in Israel, the language in which we receive 100s of documents, and a language our leadership can read and work in. While there is no law that requires documentation to be submitted to CRA in English or French, we should have translated certain documents to make it easier for the CRA to review. Again, a phone call would have resolved the matter quickly.A statement from a staff person that trees are simply a marketing trick – what? JNF has planted 15+ million trees over the decades – that’s in no way a “gimmick”. It’s integral to our entire organization and we are proud of this work.And still, these are periphery issues in the matter of our revocation. The CRA revoked our charitable status without a fair process even though we have addressed their principal concerns. Fundamentally, CRA is questioning our charitable objects and therefore our charitable activities in support of the people of Israel. |
| The JNF-CRA Relationship The CJN misconstrues the nature of the timeline between the CRA Charities Directorate (“CD”) between 2014, the year the auditors came, and August 10, 2024, the date of revocation. The CJN article says that the CD, for example:“lost patience”“had known for years … major concerns with how the Charity operates”“warned them again in 2023 and in 2024”“warned repeatedly to clean up its act between 2016 and 2023”The entire CRA-JNF relationship was based, rather, on the premise of investigation/prosecution/sanction. This approach is in accordance with provisions of the Income Tax Act (ITA), read literally, but is not in accordance with CRA official guidance and not in accordance with the treatment afforded to almost all other charities. There were no “repeated warnings”. There were repeated accusations, all of which were addressed by JNF. Over the course of the 10-year process, CRA refused on more than 10 occasions to meet with JNF representatives. Throughout, CRA simply threatened revocation, rejecting all of JNF’s requests to discuss solutions in person. Furthermore, evidence suggests that CRA took a position in the process prior to even conducting the actual audit. As early as 2013 a representative of CRA said to the CRA audit team that the campaigns and complaints of JNF’s detractors provided “excellent background about the Charity…and a view of potential areas of concern for the current audit.” It was not until JNF obtained access to CRA’s heavily redacted audit file in July 2021 that JNF learned of the extent of the role of its detractors in the audit and sanction process. Interestingly, the redacted materials fail to divulge the fact that JNF’s most vociferous detractor had submitted over 100 pages of writing to the Director of the Charities Directorate (CD) and had actually met with him in October of 2017. This fact was only discovered by JNF in August 2024. Why did the Director of the CD meet with a major detractor, and not understand that it was therefore incumbent upon him to meet with representatives of JNF? Instead, there was unrelenting determination to revoke JNF from the outset, due almost entirely to the CRA’s apparent but unexpressed view that JNF was entirely subservient to Karen Kayemeth Le’Israel (KKL), and therefore that it did not undertake any independent operations. All of the detractors have taken this view. None accord JNF any existence or integrity independent of KKL. We point out that, to address this, we have reduced the number of our projects with KKL, entered into a robust compliance agreement with them, and changed the way that KKL describes its relationship with our charities on its website. KKL works for JNF Canada, just like any other agent that we utilize. (The term “agent” is CRA nomenclature. If a charity is doing work in a foreign country, they need an agent to assist with their charitable work.) JNF’s leadership selects the projects we wish to support, and we always have direction and control over all of the funds, as we only reimburse expenses upon receipt of valid expense reports. In short, we have addressed the CRA’s concerns. In summary, this was a vigorous prosecution from Day 1. There was no discussion afforded to us. Rather, there is evidence of the CRA’s determination to reach a result of revocation from the outset, and there is a reasonable apprehension of bias based on the above and other documents that we obtained through our access to information request. CRA Guidance The CRA’s own published guidelines for applying sanctions highlights the irregularity with respect to the treatment afforded to the JNF. “As a general rule, the Directorate intends to start with educational methods to obtain compliance, and then move progressively through compliance agreements, sanctions, and the ultimate sanction of revocation, if necessary.” Only in cases of “aggravated non-compliance” does CRA decline to follow this approach. CRA has never alleged or maintained that JNF was guilty of “aggravated non-compliance.” There were no educational methods presented nor was there any effort on the part of CRA to develop a compliance agreement. The question for CRA is why it abandoned its own guidance, and whether the detractors played any role in that decision? “Repeated warnings” The recent CJN article mentions a 358-page document. The 358 pages is actually several documents. The sequence of messaging in the documents is not “repeated warnings” – it is CRA’s position repeated several times, in a process in which JNF offered a vigorous defense. CRA actually abandoned several arguments including those related to KKL, as well as to projects on disputed territories and projects situated on IDF land. Nevertheless, we made changes even though we disagreed with the CRA’s legal reasoning. There are several other documents, from both sides, subsequent to the 358 pages of documents. JNF’s full position is stated in multiple submissions, most of which, unfairly, are not referred to in the CJN article. JNF’s last submission of October 2023 is over 90 pages long. JNF presented a detailed and well reasoned legal argument based on dozens of precedents prepared by an eminent lawyer, and CRA’s response did not address these issues at all. The CRA letter of July 2024 purports to deal with the arguments raised in our October 2023, but fails. Our position was ignored. “One last chance” The CJN claims that the CRA gave JNF “one last chance.” The timing and the legal logic are incorrect. JNF had a legal right to object to CRA’s ‘notice of intent to revoke’ letter of August 20, 2019. There is no discretion or power in the CRA to “give” a charity ‘one more chance’. JNF prepared a Notice of Objection to CRA’s notice, on October 18, 2019, and requested that CRA provide JNF with its whole file, as it had a legal right to do. CRA provided a heavily redacted file on July 21 2021, 18 months later. JNF prepared two further submissions as part of this appeals process, the second of which was submitted on December 17, 2021, after it had had a chance to review the heavily redacted file. CRA provided its response to JNF’s appeal in a letter dated July 26, 2023, another 18 months later. JNF responded in October 2023 with its 90-page letter. There was no ‘one last chance’ and the origin of CJN’s February 2023 date is a mystery. Three full years of the delay were caused by CRA. The CJN article makes it appear as though JNF never responded to ‘warnings’ and that the CRA, out of the sheer goodness of their collective hearts, gave the truant ‘one last chance’. The exact opposite is true. We have responded to all of their communications, addressing their concerns or expressing our objection of their position. It’s worth adding that each CRA letter in the process dropped significant arguments that had been sufficiently refuted by JNF, despite their unrelenting drive to revoke JNF’s registration, contrary to its own guidance. Improvements since 2016In 2016, JNF Canada retained legal counsel who has not only represented us to CRA but has also filled the function of a compliance officer. We have worked closely with David Stevens (Gowlings) and his colleagues for over 8 years, to ensure that our undertakings are CRA compliant.JNF Canada has worked side by side with Keren Kayemeth L’Israel for decades. There was confusion about the relationship. To demonstrate that we are an independent Canadian charity, in 2018, JNF Canada fully rebranded to remove any association with KKL.JNF Canada also rewrote, thereby modernizing and strengthening, the agency agreement between the two organizations and utilized this agreement as a template for agreements with other Israeli organizations. JNF Canada has no exclusive relationship with KKL. Rather JNF Canada works with the best organizations in Israel to advance the projects we select. JNF’s leadership make the decisions with respect to projects that we wish to undertake as an organization. There is no KKL “head office” giving instructions to JNF Canada. JNF Canada hired a Senior Representative based in Israel, to enhance our ability to demonstrate direction and control over our projects, represent JNF Canada and oversee our charitable endeavours there.Before undertaking any project, an Israeli lawyer reviews the ownership of the land to ensure JNF Canada is not doing anything in violation of CRA policies.JNF Canada hired a new CFO who has worked with our legal counsel to improve and enhance our record keeping, ensuring that all activities undertaken are compliant with CRA rules and regulations, and that documentation is collected and filed properly. Moving Forward JNF has launched two legal processes to challenge the revocation notice: July 25, 2024: Federal Court of Appeal appeal challenging the CRA revocation decision on the basis of a misapprehension of the facts and law; flawed and unfair process; and bias. August 20, 2024: Federal Court Application for a Judicial Review of the August 10 revocation notice.At the same time, we are calling on our elected representatives to take responsibility.To date, Liberal MPs have situated the actions of CRA as a bureaucratic response to JNF ‘s charitable objects because of audits undertaken in 2014. If elected officials are arguing that unelected bureaucrats have been delegated the authority to make a decision of this magnitude, that was a mistake. The Government should take responsibility. The Minister of National Revenue and the Government of Canada should put the revocation of our charitable status on hold until the courts have ruled, as is customary in situations like ours (based on our lawyer’s review of over 200 cases). JNF Canada should be provided the fundamental value of the presumption of innocence, especially because we are not an aggravated case.While for the time being we are not allowed to issue charitable receipts, please rest assured that we will continue to raise funds in support of building Israel’s social infrastructure to the benefit of vulnerable populations such as youth-at-risk, victims of domestic abuse, children with special needs, veterans and the disadvantaged. Hurting JNF hurts Israelis who need our help the most, especially as they try to recover from the horrors of October 7.There were many opportunities to solve this issue short of the draconian penalty of revocation. JNF would welcome the opportunity to find an off-ramp and will, as demonstrated many times before, continue to do whatever is necessary to satisfy the expectations of CRA. We do not ordinarily post comments to this website. (We received too many spam comments when we allowed comments.) But – if you would like to comment on this story – or any other story for that matter, send an email to jewishp@mymts.net– and if the comment is relevant and not defamatory, we will post the comment. |
Local News
Despite JNF Canada losing its latest appeal in the Federal Court of Canada to have its charitable status restored, it will continue the appeal process all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, if necessary
By BERNIE BELLAN (June 17, 2025) Readers may recall that last August, in what was a shocking decision by the Canada Revenue Agency, JNF Canada lost its charitable status, which meant that it could no longer issue tax receipts for charitable donations. Further, JNF Canada was facing the prospect of having to wind down its operations and disburse all its assets by November 13, 2024, or face a 100% tax.
At the time, Canadian Jewish News reporter Ellin Bessner wrote a detailed examination of what had happened and why it happened.
Bessner noted the following reasons that the CRA had revoked JNF Canada’s charitable status:
“The agency’s findings in the audit ranged from where the charity’s books and records had been kept in 2011 and 2012 (mostly in Israel, which was a no-no), to what language the paperwork and receipts were kept in (mostly in Hebrew, which is not illegal but makes work difficult for auditors), to the conclusion that JNF Canada’s founding charitable purposes of relieving poverty in Israel by paying the salaries of indigent labourers, were not being met.”
Why would the CRA not enter into negotiations with JNF Canada over a new compliance agreement?
In an email received from Lance Davis, CEO of JNF Canada, on June 6, 2025, however, Davis addressed the particular concern to which Bessner referred in her August 2024 article – that JNF Canada was not meeting its “charitable object.”
Davis wrote: “The revocation is based on the CRA’s belief that our current charitable objective is no longer an acceptable charitable objective (after being acceptable for almost 60 years). It is not that the objective isn’t being met. It should be noted that we offered 10 new charitable objectives, which were previously approved for other charities, but the CRA never acknowledged these new objectives and continued to reject our requests for a compliance agreement. “
The CJN article offers more reasons for the CRA decision to revoke
Bessner’s article continued: “Another major issue was that because of missing paperwork and superficial oversight on the ground in Israel, it was felt the Montreal-based JNF Canada hadn’t been in control of or directing its own operations overseas. CRA believed the charity was acting merely as a funnel of money to the Jerusalem-based agency, the Jewish National Fund/Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, which ran the projects.
“A further red flag for auditors were several projects in 2011 and 2012 that benefited the Israel Defence Forces, such as construction of buildings and green areas on IDF military bases. Registered charities are not permitted to support a foreign military financially, under Canadian laws. Some other projects were located in the West Bank and on other disputed land, the CRA found, something which Canada’s foreign policy frowns on.
Bessner further noted that “JNF Canada disagreed with the CRA’s view of that last category—and still does. But in 2019, the charity assured the public that it had stopped funding both kinds of projects after 2016, in order to comply with CRA requirements in good faith.”
A 2019 internal CRA memo says JNF Canada’s charitable status would not be revoked until the appeals process was exhausted
Immediately upon learning that the CRA had revoked JNF Canada’s charitable status, representatives of JNF Canada launched a series of legal appeals to have that decision reversed.
What is even more perplexing, however, notwithstanding the various reasons the CRA may have given for revoking JNF Canada’s charitable status, is why the CRA took that step when apparently, in August 2019, senior administrators within CRA had decided not to revoke JNF Canada’s charitable status until such time as JNF Canada had exhausted all its appeals including going so far as appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In an internal email circulated among three CRA employees in August 2019 (shown here), and which was written by Melissa Shaughnessy, who is currently listed as the “Acting /Manager, Charities Directorate, Compliance Division | Canada Revenue Agency,” Ms. Shaughnessy wrote: “I confirmed that our process would then be to await the decision of the objection and any possible subsequent FCA (Federal Court of Canada)/SCC (Supreme Court of Canada) appeals before taking any further steps toward revocation.” (emphasis ours)
As Lance Davis noted in an email sent to me on June 6, JNF Canada had already begun an appeal process to avoid having its charitable status revoked by the CRA. When the August 2024 decision to revoke its status was suddenly issued, notwithstanding the decision among CRA administrators, evident in the memo seen here, to await the results of the entire appeals process to which JNF Canada was entitled before revoking its charitable status, JNF Canada was blindsided.
Davis noted, with reference to what was written in that August 2019 CRA memo: “This approach was consistent with past practice of the CRA as reflected in its policies, publications and internal communications, and we relied on this assurance in our decision-making. Nonetheless, in 2024, the CRA published our revocation despite our Appeal 1 being active. …Appeal 2 is the appeal that we’ve now had two hearings on, both of which ruled on jurisdiction but not yet on the merits of revoking our status. We are currently determining with our leadership if we will proceed with another hearing to rule on the merits of our case, which we still believe are strong.”
We asked the CRA why that August 2019 memo which said revocation would not take place until JNF Canada’s appeals process in the courts was exhausted was reversed?
We contacted the CRA media department on June 10 to ask why, if the August 2019 memo gave clear indication that the CRA was not going to revoke JNF Canada’s charitable status until such time as all appeals by JNF Canada in the courts had been exhausted, the CRA had gone ahead in August 2024 and revoked JNF Canada’s charitable status? (We attached a screenshot of that August 2019 memo in case the CRA would take the position that there had never been any decision to await the results of JNF Canada’s appeals process.)
It took six full days for a media representative of the CRA to respond. In a typically Kafakaesque manner the CRA media representative simply entirely avoided dealing with the question about the memo, writing instead:
“The confidentiality provisions of the Act prevent the CRA from commenting on specific cases; however, we can provide you with the following general information.
“As mentioned in our response of August 30, 2024, we can confirm that the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund of Canada Inc. / Fonds National Juif du Canada Inc. (the Organization) was revoked effective August 10, 2024, in accordance with the Act.
“The CRA’s decision to revoke an organization’s charitable status is not taken lightly. Every organization facing revocation has the right to seek recourse.
“For more information about revocations, please visit: Revoking registered status – Canada.ca.
“The courts provide Canadians with an independent review of disputed issues, and court decisions serve to clarify the law or resolve disputes between the CRA and taxpayers. The CRA does not comment on the specific details of court cases to respect the confidentiality provisions of the Acts we administer. Publicly available information on this case may be obtained from the courts.”
However, as we noted in a previous article on our website, the CRA did release 358 pages of documents to us pertaining to its decision to revoke JNF Canada’s charitable status, following its decision to revoke. As Jonathan Rothman, writing on the CJN website, noted: “The communications branch of the CRA recently provided 358 pages of its correspondence with JNF Canada. Officials said that due to confidentiality restrictions in the Income Tax Act, the CRA can release this material only after revoking a charity’s status. ”
So, it is somewhat specious for the media spokesperson to claim that “The CRA does not comment on the specific details of court cases to respect the confidentiality provisions of the Acts we administer” when, in fact, the CRA was quite willing to release 358 pages of documents explaining why it had suddenly revoked JNF Canada’s charitable status in August 2024. The question remains: What changed from the time that memo was circulated in August 2019 among CRA administrators and August 2024, when JNF Canada’s charitable status was revoked, without any prior notice given to JNF Canada that was about to happen?
The appeals process continues to take its course
It is somewhat confusing to follow the appeals process which JNF Canada undertook. One was an appeal through the Federal Court and another was an appeal through the Federal Court of Canada.
As Ellin Bessner explained in a November 10, 2024 article which appeared on the CJN website,
in November 2024 the Federal Court turned down JNF Canada’s request that the CRA’s decision to revoke its charitable status be reversed. Bessner wrote that “Jewish National Fund of Canada has lost its first major legal battle to stop the tax department’s revocation of its charitable status, which came into effect three months ago.
“Late in the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 8, a Federal Court judge dismissed JNF Canada’s application for a judicial review—and the judge also dismissed a request for an injunction to force the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to remove the official revocation notice that was printed in the Canada Gazette on Aug. 10.”
But, as Lance Davis noted in his June 6 email to me, “the November decision was not on the merits of our case. It was simply that the Federal Court was not the correct court to rule on our case and so the motion was dismissed and we were advised to take our case to the Federal Court of Appeal.”
However, early in June, JNF Canada lost its appeal to the Federal Court of Canada to have its charitable status restored.
Again though, as Davis explained to me, “This recent ruling was again only on jurisdiction. We appealed the Federal Court’s first decision that it did not have jurisdiction. The reason our lawyers chose this route was we truly believed the Federal Court was the correct place to start our judicial review. Time is of the essence as we do not want to operate as a non-profit indefinitely. Both CRA and JNF agreed that since the FCA was hearing our case, they should rule on the merits and not on whether or not the FC had jurisdiction. They declined to rule on the merits and instead, simply upheld the FC ruling that the FCA is the correct court to hear our case.”
Letter sent to JNF Canada supporters on June 4 about the most recent court decision
However, with that most recent court decision going against JNF Canada, a letter was sent to JNF Canada supporters on June 4 by Lance Davis, and Nathan Disenhouse, President, JNF Canada. That letter noted that “This week, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed our appeal, concluding that the Federal Court did not have jurisdiction over our claim that the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) actions deprived JNF Canada of procedural fairness.
“The merits of our case – our arguments as to why the process afforded to us lacked procedural fairness – have still not been ruled on.
“While we are, of course, disappointed by this result, and while it is not the result we had expected, we always knew it was a possibility. For this reason, we have been actively planning next steps.
“When the revocation of our charitable status was published in the Canada Gazette on August 10, 2024, we indicated that we had been blindsided. This is because in 2019 the CRA clearly and explicitly assured JNF Canada that the CRA ‘would not proceed with a revocation until JNF had exhausted their appeals process in Federal Court of Appeal or Supreme Court of Canada.’ (emphasis ours) This approach was consistent with past practice of the CRA as reflected in its policies, publications and internal communications and we relied on this assurance in our decision-making.
“It is also important to emphasize that over the past decade JNF Canada has attempted to engage without success with the CRA in the hope of finding a mutually acceptable path forward. Approximately two weeks ago, JNF Canada made a settlement offer in advance of this hearing, which was rejected without a counteroffer or any type of dialogue. We urge the CRA, under the leadership of the newly appointed Honourable Wayne Long Secretary of State, Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions, to engage with us in the hope of our arriving at a mutually satisfactory agreement.
“In looking ahead, JNF Canada will continue to challenge the CRA’s revocation of JNF’s charitable status and its decision to publish notice of the revocation when it did in 2024. We have a multi-pronged strategy in place which will ensure that all reasonable legal processes are engaged to protect JNF Canada’s rights.
“While the court ruling was surprising and disappointing, please rest assured that we remain committed to helping address the needs of Israelis during these troubling times and to pursuing justice through the judicial process.”
Davis added this, in his June 6 email to me:
“While we are disappointed with the outcome of our appeal, it is important to clarify that our main/underlying appeal is still in the court system at the Federal Court of Appeal. While we do not have a set date yet, we are expecting our case to be heard in late 2025 or early 2026.”
What has the impact of the CRA decision been on JNF Canada the past 10 months?
So, how have JNF Canada’s operations been affected since that August 2024 decision by the CRA to revoke its charitable status?
Davis wrote, in his email to
“JNF Canada has certainly experienced difficulties since we were revoked on August 10, 2024. It is evident that our revenue has diminished. For example, major gifts from charitable foundations cannot be donated to JNF Canada as these gifts can only be sent to a registered charity. However, we are pleased to share that thousands of Canadians from coast to coast have made contributions to JNF Canada without a charitable receipt. They believe in our mission and mandate so much that they forgo the benefits of a charitable receipt. To us, this demonstrates strong support from our community, and we are as motivated as ever to find a resolution.
“In the meantime, JNF is continuing to proudly operate as a non-profit and support the projects and programs we know are of deep importance to our community here in Canada. Thankfully, we have collaborated with like-minded charities. We are pleased to support three critical projects right now: the rehabilitation of Canada Park’s forests, the Ashdod Rehabilitation & Therapy Centre and the Sderot Resilience Centre. “
Manitoba/Saskatchewan division of JNF Canada carrying on
We also contacted David Greaves, Executive Director, JNF Canada, Manitoba/Saskatchewan, to ask him what impact the CRA August 2024 ruling has had on the Winnipeg office?
Greaves was upbeat in his response. He noted, for instance, that rather than laying off employees in the Winnipeg office, the number of positions there had increased from 3 1/2 to 4.
As well, Greaves observed that the Manitoba/Saskatchewan division was coming off a very successful Negev Gala – despite not being able to issue tax receipts for attendees at the Gala or donors who did not attend the Gala but still wanted to support JNF Canada, and that the office here was already planning next year’s Gala.
Finally, Greaves explained that JNF Canada was now working with a charitable organization called the Israel Magen Fund (which is also known as “Zaka”) to continue working on two projects that JNF Canada had already initiated within the past couple of years and had not been completed: the Ashdod Rehabilitation Centre and the Sderot Rehabilitation Centre.
Greaves advised that anyone wanting to donate to either of those two projects contact the Israel Magen Fund of Canada.
Local News
Simkin Stroll founder Bill Brownstone honoured prior to this year’s stroll
By BERNIE BELLAN (Photos courtesy of Keith Levit) On Thursday, June 12, the Simkin Centre held its 13th annual Simkin Stroll.
Over the years the Simkin Stroll has grown into a huge event incorporating entertainment, food, children’s activities, a silent auction and, of course, the actual stroll itself, which sees residents accompanied by friends, family members, or Simkin Centre staff members walking – or being pushed in wheelchairs around the beautiful LInden Ridge neighbourhood.
This year marked a special occasion as the individual, Bill Brownstone, who actually came up with the idea for the Simkin Stroll, was honoured in a ceremony held in the adult day program lounge prior to the stroll.
In the past, Brownstone has served on the Simkin Centre board, also as interim Chair for a time.
We were able to catch up with Brownstone before he was honoured to ask him how he came up with the idea for the stroll.
“I came up with the idea (in 2011) because I had friends at the Baycrest in Toronto,” he said. “They had what they called the ‘board walk’ where members of the board would walk to raise money. And when they raise money in Toronto – they raise money!
“So the first year (which would have been 2012) I came up with the idea for people walking. That first year we had about four people walking.
“The next year I came up with the idea for the ‘Simkin Stroll’ – and boom, we had walkers and it began to take off.
I said that I remembered Murray Gilfix was always manning a barbeque in those early years.
“There was no barbeque that first year” of the Simkin Stroll, Bill clarified. The barbeque came later. The past couple of years the barbeque has been replaced by volunteers and Simkin staff serving food indoors as the number of people attending would have led poor Murray to be overwhelmed for sure.
At the ceremony in which Bill Brownstone was honoured with what Rabbi Matthew Leibl said was the Simkin Centre’s inaugural “community leadership honour,” Rabbi Leibl paid tribute to Bill Brownstone’s ongoing dedication to the Simkin Centre. “What began as his vision to raise vital community funds has blossomed over the past 13 years to become a joyful, vibrant, and popular event,” Rabbi Leibl said.
“This event connects residents, family, staff, and the broader community in support of a place we all hold dear. Bill’s contributions have enriched the lives of so many and his legacy of compassion and community spirit is deeply felt. As such, it is only fitting that he is the first recipient of our first community leadership honour.”
Rabbi Leibl also acknowledged Bill’s wife Fay, and his children, Rob, Gary, Lisa, and Andrea.
“The Brownstone children in particular have each contributed generously and creatively this year in honour of their dad,” Rabbi Leibl noted.
This year’s Simkin Stroll ended up setting a new record for fundraising with over $100,000 raised – both through donations and the silent auction. Thanks were also issued to two major sponsors of the event: The Asper Foundation and Ellery Broder.
Funds raised will go to support recreation and quality-of-life programming.
Past Chairs of the Simkin Centre Board
(Sitting:) Bill Brownstone & Gordon Pullan
Standing (l-r): Jonathan Kroft, Ted Lyons, Saul Greenbeg, Selma Gilfix, Avrum Senensky, Gerry Kaplan, Al Benarroch
Local News
Shaarey Zedek Sisterhood 60th anniversary interfaith luncheon
By MYRON LOVE On Wednesday, May 28, the Shaarey Zedek Sisterhood hosted its 60th annual interfaith luncheon – with 170 supporters on hand to break bread together, celebrate the Sisterhood’s 95th year in operation – in addition to the luncheon’s diamond anniversary, and enjoy an inspiring presentation by Indigenous business leader and consultant Lisa Lewis, who spoke about the kinship between her people and ours.
The program began with greetings from Lieutenant-Governor Anita Neville and Gail Asper, representing the Shaarey Zedek’s Board of Directors. Asper – the consummate community volunteer – spoke of the importance and benefits of the satisfaction gained from being a volunteer, as well as the important role that the Sisterhood has played in the life of our Jewish community’s oldest and largest congregation – a subject that was subsequently expanded upon by Marisa Hochman – one of the Sisterhood’s three co-presidents (along with Sandy Polanski and Louise Raber).
(Hochman and Raber also co–chaired the luncheon, along with Amy Karlinsky.)
“Our tradition teaches that it is important for us to be part of a community,” Hochman noted in her remarks. “Our Torah teaches that, while G-d is one, it is not good for man to be alone.”
She emphasized the importance in Judaism of balance and harmony as reflected in our rituals and observances – lighting two Shabbat candles, for example, the Commandments being written on two tablets, and in bringing together the four species of plants for the celebration of Sukkot.
“The mitzvah (of the four species),” Hochmanpointed out, ‘is not complete until all four of the elements are brought together – symbolizing that it takes many kinds of people to make a world – and that each of us brings something special to the table. It is only when all of us are working together that we are complete.”
Hochman provided a sampling of some of the ways that the Sisterhood contributes to its members, the synagogue and the wider community: the book club, the tallit-weaving program, monetary donations to the synagogue, support for theological seminaries and other Jewish educational institutions, and Jewish Child and Family Service.
“To me,” she added, “Sisterhood is friendship, community, the power of women working together to create, build and share and the passing on of wisdom and traditions – L’dor V’dor – from generation to generation.
“It is multigenerational, with members ranging in age from 16 into their 90s. A common thread that binds our members is that no matter their age or life circumstances, they are vibrant and engaged with the world around them. They love to learn and help others. They each contain a spark that illuminates.
“Like the glow of the Shabbat candles, we know that, together, we can bring more light and goodness into the world. Together, we definitely shine brighter than we do on our own.”
Following a delicious Shaarey Zedek lunch – salad, party sandwiches and dessert, keynote speaker Lisa Lewis stepped up the microphone. The speaker is a successful business woman, having started “Beyond Excellence Creative Consulting,” which provides tailor-made training and management assistance to a wide range of organizations.