This issue of Shared Values provides a summary of some of the advocacy initiatives we undertook in 2009. As you will see, our community has been active on a broad number of fronts.  That said, much more has been, and continues to be done than we ever could, or should discuss publicly.  Advocacy is not only about public statements and news releases, important as these sometimes are.  It is also about building relationships, working discretely on certain issues, and mobilizing others to work on our behalf, and it would be imprudent to catalogue our activities in these aspects. Our advocacy agencies, overseen by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) and funded through FEDERATION CJA, are very effective on the public and private fronts, both here in Quebec and at the national level, ensuring that our community’s positions on issues of concern are being advanced and given due consideration.

One last word of introduction.  Although I am encouraged by the progress that we have made on the advocacy front, we should not allow ourselves to become complacent or smug.  On the contrary.  The demographic and political landscape is changing rapidly, and our approaches to advocacy must be adapted to respond to the new challenges that confront us.  From an organizational perspective we currently are reexamining the manner in which our advocacy activities are delivered to ensure that we operate in the most effective and efficient manner possible.  We are also engaged in an ongoing review of our strategic priorities, about which more will be said in a future issue of Shared Values.  We are also revisiting the question of the right balance between public and private advocacy, and the role of public activism in advancing our community’s interests.  The stakes are too high for us to stand still.

For the moment, I invite you to read the various reports in this year-end retrospective.  It has been a year of some important achievements upon which we hope to build in the year to come.

Winter 2009 Spring 2009 Summer 2009 Fall 2009