MONTREAL — After three decades of decline, the Montreal Jewry is “stable,” say Federation CJA leaders, who believe the community is no longer aging and is retaining and even attracting young people.

Having reached this state of equilibrium, the federation thinks it’s a good time to take the pulse of the community and examine its role in it.

The federation has begun a process that it calls “strategic revisioning,” which entails reviewing its operations and goals, and planning for how to better serve the community in the future.

Immediate past president Marc Gold, who is heading the project, said the federation recognizes that it has to be open to change in order to be relevant to Montreal Jews, especially the younger generation and those not involved with the organized community.

“This an exercise to better understand what the community wants and how it sees its future and what role we can play,” he said. “We want to listen to what people have to say, and the federation board and executive committed to act on what we learn.”

He heads a steering committee made up of people with different backgrounds and ages.

Now is an ideal point to undertake such a process, he added, because the federation has a new executive director who has experience in taking stock of Jewish communities in transition.

Argentine-born Andres Spokoiny, who assumed the post this past summer, worked for the previous 12 years with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, based in Paris, with responsibility for the revival of Jewish communities in the Baltic states and Poland.

The process has been launched by sounding out focus groups composed of representatives from its agencies and other community groups. Early in 2010, this inquiry will expand to try to reach all segments of the community through one-on-one interviews, town hall meetings and a formal survey, conducted by independent consultants. The federation is looking for innovative ideas.

“The world has changed dramatically. We have to change, too,” Gold said.

The federation, which was founded more than 90 years ago, has to keep pace with a rapidly moving world, and that includes mind-boggling advances in technology, he said.

While the federation has much to be proud of, it’s committed to doing things in new ways, if that’s what people want.

“It’s not about making the federation bigger or stronger,” said new federation president Jack Hasen. “It’s about making the community stronger.”

Gold is a firm believer that the federation must be more inclusive and recognize that Montreal Jews are now more diverse due to the influx of immigrants from South America, France and the former Soviet bloc over the past decade.

“We hope to break down some of the barriers, real or perceived, and find ways for them to get involved in Jewish life whether with the federation or elsewhere,” he said.

Gold also emphasized that this is being done not only for the benefit of the federation, but to strengthen the community as a whole. He said it’s clear there are many Jews in Montreal who have a strong sense of Jewish identity, but aren’t connected in any way with the federation or other organizations.

He’d like to find out why.

“Jewishness remains important for younger people, but they are different in the way they identify than their grandparents, who needed to join with others who came from the same shtetl.”

The project will also include informal conversations. Gold mentioned that he’s holding a dinner to which he’s inviting academics and artists who feel strongly that they’re Jewish but have no community connections.

“I want to find out what is keeping them from getting involved or from feeling welcome… How do they see the Jewish community, what do they like and not like.”

Gold and Hasen also stressed that this project is not just about a lot of talk and the eventual writing of a report that will collect dust.

A year from now, Gold and Hasen believe the federation will have a good snapshot of where the community is at and probably have some pilot projects ready for implementation.

The preliminary focus groups now underway are identifying themes that will aid in developing the questions to be put to the community at large.

“We will act, and act quickly, on the ideas that come out of this,” Hasen added. “The Jewish community of Montreal is strong and vibrant today. We want to continue to be the best we can be.”

2009 The Canadian Jewish News

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