As they say, its all in the numbers and Edmonton, you don’t disappoint! Thank you to the 563 of you who took the time to full out our strategic planning survey. We are contacting the four gift card winners and will announce them next week.

If you are a young adult (20’s-30’s) we want to hear from you more in depth at our focus group Sunday morning, June 27. Starbucks gift cards  for all participants as a thank you, so please let us know if you can join at  stratplan@edjfed.org.

The final event in our speakers series took place this past Sunday. Robbie Gingras from the Galilee helped us unpack the word Occupation, from three different perspectives. It was an informative talk and we look forward to more speakers like this in the future. Thank you to our  sponsors UJA, ORT and NCJWC for this series that entertained and educated us all year.

This coming Sunday you can take a trip to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, via the Edmonton Public Library. This partnered program along with the Dutch Canadian Club is a free event. 

In case you missed it, I joined my colleague Adir Krafman from CIJA for an interview on the Ryan Jespersen Show Thursday morning. Many of you have written Ryan and myself to ask when he would have someone local to speak who was not Palestinian, as this story thread has continued since the beginning of the conflict. 

As some of you know, Erin and I started our family in London, Ontario. Although we moved here 14 years ago, we still have deep ties to friends in the Jewish community there. The Jewish community, the City of London, and all Canadians are mourning the heinous event that occurred with the brazen murder of a Muslim family leaving a young child orphaned. We have expressed our condolences on behalf of our community to the Muslim community here and have spoken with the Al Rashid Mosque about possible youth exchanges once they have their youth program up and running again.

If you were driving near the Jewish Federation offices parking lot this past Tuesday night you would have noticed a traffic jam on your waze- or perhaps smelled a multitude of bagels. A parade of cars were handled by BBYO parents and teens who delivered pre ordered bagels and raised considerable funds for their program. Congratulations to them and I’ve been told that anyone who wants to be alerted to the next bagel sale should email montrealbagelfairy@gmail.com. 

Our office is gearing up for summer, along with the help of Shira Or, our Canada Summer Student Jobs hire. We will look forward to seeing you at some community get togethers  (following all guidelines and restrictions) as well as a return to Heritage Festival. More details to come next week!

Shabbat Shalom and I hope to see you at the Pride Shabbat this weekend.

Stacey