• Year after year, UJA provides a much needed safety net for thousands of our community's most vulnerable citizens by lifting them from the challenging circumstances they face, especially during these difficult economic times. Together with UJA's network of agents, including those listed below, we are responding to a dramatic rise in the number of vulnerable people within our community. Demand for service is escalating and the challenges and problems faced by many in the Jewish community are becoming increasingly complex. For example, consider the following:

    Employment: Parnossah WorksCanada (PWC), which assists Jewish job-seekers in Toronto, is dealing with skyrocketing demand. There are currently over 500 clients on the waiting list for employment services.
    Women/Children Abuse: Jewish Family & Child (JF&CS) is reporting a 9% increase in child abuse allegations from January-April 2009 compared to the same period last year. Increasingly, both types of abuse are being attributed to economic crisis and insecurity.
    Intake & Service Delivery: Since the beginning of 2009 there has been a 55% increase in the total number of calls made to Jewish Family & Child (JF&CS) compared to the same period last year.
    Addiction: The economic downturn has triggered such a heightened sense of insecurity and anxiety that more people are turning to drugs, alcohol and gambling to cope. From 2007 to 2009, the number of Jewish clients seeking assistance at JACS (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons & Significant Others) has doubled from 200 to 400 per week.

    Igor Khrapal fled the Soviet Union as it was breaking up. He came to Canada where he met his wife Sue. There were hardships over the years. In 2007, they moved to Toronto to start a new life.

    Despite two university degrees, Igor could not find employment. Seeing her husband grow more desperate and hopeless, Sue contacted JVS Toronto. The next day, through Parnossah WorksCanada - a UJA-funded program at JVS, a counsellor set up an action plan and a job interview for him. Igor got the job!

    "Igor is in a very good place now," says Sue. "I love to look at my husband's face now because his eyes no longer look haunted and old. When I bought Igor a fishing rod to celebrate his new job, he looked at me, his eyes filled with tears, and said, 'Sue, I feel normal now - I'm fifty years old - it's my time now.'"

  • united Jewish appeal, through uia Federations Canada, strengthens israel by investing in vulnerable communities and individuals, by assisting new immigrants, and by leveraging our investments through matching dollars from israeli philanthropists, the israeli government and the Jewish agency.

    Rehovot and Bat-Yam: Initiatives for Ethiopian Israelis include hot lunches for children, educational enhancement, vocational training, job placement and programs for seniors.
    Eilat and Eilot Region: At Israel's southern tip, UJA Federation, in partnership with Eilat-Eilot, is in the process of transforming the region. Through UIA Federations Canada, UJA dollars are invested in higher education, renewable energy, educational programs for young people, career development and healthcare.
    Sderot: The residents of this beleaguered city, neighbouring the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip, have endured more than 7,000 missiles over the past eight years. UJA has responded strategically to Sderot's needs by investing more than $2 million over three years in urgent social welfare and educational projects.
    Overseas Lifelines: Thousands of impoverished Jewish seniors in the former Soviet Union (FSU), rely on homecare, food and medicines that UJA helps to provide through the Joint Distribution Committee.

    By the time Shai was 13, he was already working to help support his family. A child from a divorced home, his school was unable to provide him with the special help he required. Against his wishes he was sent to study in a school outside of his hometown of Eilat. His future was bleak. He was destined to drop out of school and forced into an unbreakable cycle of poverty. However, through the UJA-sponsored Ometz program, Shai was given a second chance. He was mentored by caring teachers who made sure to call him every day while spending long hours tutoring him to rebuild his selfesteem. Shai successfully graduated from high school and is studying to be an engineer.

    "Now I have a future," said Shai. "Because of Ometz I was accepted into a special two-year engineering program. Eventually I will give back to Ometz so others can benefit like I did."

  • With powerful anti-israel and anti-Jewish sentiment on many university campuses, the quality of life for nearly 20,000 Jewish college and university students in Toronto can be challenging. UJA Federation and its affiliated agencies, such as Hillel of greater Toronto and the Canadian Council for israel & Jewish advocacy (CIJA), ensure that Jewish students on campus are never alone.

    UJA Federation: invests nearly $1 million annually for Hillel to engage Jewish students on campus in Jewish issues and Jewish life.
    UJA Federation: provides extensive legal, communications and security support for students to deal with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity.
    UJA Federation: in close cooperation with our affiliated agencies, provides ongoing consultation to Hillel and other Jewish student groups in a wide variety of areas, in order to empower students to make important strategic decisions and improve the quality of life for Jewish students on campus.

    This year, the quality of life for Toronto's Jewish students on campus was threatened far too often. In one case, Jewish students were barricaded in the Hillel lounge at York University by a mob yelling anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs.

    To address such intolerable incidents, UJA Federation, along with its affiliated agencies, CIJA and Hillel as well as the Hasbara Fellowships, formed a commission on the quality of life for Jewish students at York. The commission submitted more than 40 recommendations to ensure that York is once again, a safe and welcoming institution for all students.

  • UJA Federation of greater Toronto safeguards our future, as the north american leader in funding for Jewish education and essential identity programs.

    Jewish day school tuition assistance: UJA provides $10 million to support tuition subsidies for families that cannot afford full day school fees.
    Top Bunk: UJA provides grants for 300 first time campers, who do not attend day school, in order for them to experience Jewish overnight camp, as well as subsidies for more than 650 young people whose families cannot afford Jewish camp without assistance.
    Birthright Israel: Since its inception 10 years ago, UJA has been one of the key partners in this popular, life-altering educational trip to Israel, experienced by more than 12,000 young Torontonians.
    Kachol Lavan Supplementary School: An innovative initiative that focuses on outreach to Israeli Canadians. There are currently 200 students enrolled in the Sunday morning program at two Toronto locations.
    Cultural Education/Outreach programs: Provided by UJA Federation, The Koffler Centre of the Arts, JIAS (Jewish Immigrant Aid Services) Toronto, the Israeli Forum and other affiliated agencies, for Canadian Jews from the former Soviet Union and Israeli Canadians.

    Raphi Massil was 15 when he came to Toronto from his native Mumbai in December, 2004, and like anybody starting a new life in a new country, he yearned to fit in and make friends his own age.

    Thanks to UJA funding, Raphi was able to attend Camp George his first summer in Canada, and his life has never been the same since. "Going to Camp George was a turning point in my life in Canada," he says, smiling. "I made a lot of friends and learned a lot of new things about not only Canada, but about Judaism, too," says Raphi, now studying business at Brock University. "I made so many friends at camp, some even have come to visit me at Brock."

    After having been made a senior counsellor in 2008 at Camp George, Raphi is anxious to return to the camp this summer as a ropes specialist.

    "The Jewish camp experience has given me a lot of good friends and a lot of new Jewish values which will stay with me forever. If it wasn't for camp I wouldn't be connected to Jewish life."