Noam Bedein, the director of the Sderot Media Centre, spoke on all three Vancouver Hillel campuses, building understanding of the real challenges facing Israelis living on the frontline of terrorism. Bedein is a young Israeli activist, photojournalist and leader whose message is simply that Israel faces mounting threats not only from Iran’s nuclear preparations, but from Iran’s proxy war against Israel, through Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Noam draws no conclusions for his audiences; he presents the reality of daily life in Sderot and allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the way ahead.

Hillel of GTA had the opportunity to co-sponsor a community event held at Beth Zedek where Dr. Abulaish shared his personal story and hopes for Peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Dr. Abulaish is currently an associate Prof. at U of T, he is a Palestinian- Gazan physician who formerly practiced medicine in the Soroka Medical center in Beer Sheva and the Sheba medical center. He lost 3 of his daughters in an IDF response to attacks from Gaza. He received a common ground award at the Canadian Embassy in DC for his work to promote peace and reconciliation. About 25 students from the GTA campuses attended his talk and participated in the dialogue table discussions that followed. His talk was very emotional and inspiring and a personal connection between students and his two other daughters that are students at U of T was made.

On Friday November 6th 2009, Hillel of the GTA along with the Toronto chapter Faiths Act Fellows hosted an exclusive meeting between thirty prominent institutional leaders and Dr. Eboo Patel.
Dr. Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the acclaimed Interfaith Youth Core based in Chicago and the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Dr. Partel was recently appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Dr. Patel was in Toronto to speak at the Union of Reform Judaism Biennial.

Dr. Patel also spoke with representatives from a range of institutions including university administrations, student organizations, school boards, provincial government, faith-based schools and organizations, as well as organizations focused on community cohesion. The meeting was highly relevant and informative, including an extensive Q & A session with attendees. The central ideas discussed were normalizing interfaith relations and leadership to the level of environmentalism or the civil rights movement, the balance between teaching practice and inspiring pluralistic interaction and social action in religious education, and overcoming the stagnation or conflict of interfaith relations resulting from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The meeting was hosted by the Faiths Act Fellows, an initiative launched by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in conjunction with the Interfaith Youth Core. The fellowship brings together 30 religiously diverse young people from across Canada, the US and the UK to mobilize faith communities towards the Millennium Development Goals, specifically the eradication of deaths from malaria.

The event enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of Hillel of Greater Toronto.

]]> http://campusreport.ca/hillel-of-greater-toronto-toronto-chapter-faiths-act-fellows-host-thirty-prominent-institutional-leaders-and-dr-eboo-patel/feed 1 http://campusreport.ca/jsahillel-of-winnipeg-organize-the-second-annual-bathtub-project-to-support-women-and-children-who-are-victims-of-domestic-violence http://campusreport.ca/jsahillel-of-winnipeg-organize-the-second-annual-bathtub-project-to-support-women-and-children-who-are-victims-of-domestic-violence#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:02:29 +0000 dhadad http://campusreport.ca/?p=348

Since 1983, November 25th has been designated by the UN as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. To raise awareness and support our local Winnipeg community, JSA/Hillel organized its second annual bathtub project to support women and children who are victims of domestic violence.  A bathtub will be available for donations of gently used clothing, household appliances, toys, books and new toiletries will be available at the following locations on the days indicated:

November 25th: University of Manitoba, 1st floor University Centre (near the University of Manitoba Student Centre)

November 26th: Gray Academy Rotunda (2nd floor of the school)

December 2nd: University of Winnipeg Info Booth Foyer

Kol Ka Havod to the Committee Social Action JSA/Hillel Co-Chairs Alix Billinkoff and Lauren Tennenhouse for organizing this successful project.

VISIT NOW

It’s now the roughest and hardest time to be a student on campus due to the lack of jobs available. Thus students on campus cannot even afford to feed themselves let alone tuition.

Responding to this need, Hillel with over 20 other clubs across Montreal campuses will be having a “Students For Students” food drive to help collect non-perishable food items for students. All food will be going to Bon Acceuil. Hillel House and Centre Hillel will be permanent drop-off points and so will SSMU and the CSU.

Montreal Gazette Article : http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/print.aspx?postid=362118

Students from Hillel of the GTA area decided to celebrate TIFF’s (Toronto International Film Festival) spotlight on TLV. Students patrolled the streets of Yorkville (the heart of the festival, where many people stand around hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous film industry attendants), students were wearing Tel Aviv T-shirts and handing out Israeli chocolates with stickers that said “take a sweet break enjoy TIFF Tel Aviv spotlight”.  Students also handed out postcards (designed by UOC) with information about Tel Aviv and the schedule of the films in the series.From Yorkville the students went to the opening event. The message was clear : we applaud TIFF’s decision to highlight Tel Aviv.