My late friend Martin Kirsch was on the board of JVS before me and he encouraged me to join the board so I did. One of his sons may have been in the Workshop, and it seemed like a worthwhile agency to volunteer for. I had been involved in different committees before and after my time at JVS.

The main project/happenings that took place during my period at JVS was the change in policy of the government whereby they required that we pay minimum wage to the employees/clients in the Workshop. The government subsidized the wages that we would be paying the clients. That was a major change for the clients; they would be receiving a much higher income. I also remember the move from a 4-5 storey building, to a ground-level building that was much more convenient for everyone. Those are the two things that stand out to me when I look back on my time at JVS.

After JVS, I continued playing my part in the community. I was national chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress Committee for Ethiopian Jewry. That was very time-consuming and we were involved in the issue of Ethiopian Jews, to the point of creating a Canadian project whereby we managed to get permission to receive approximately 100 Ethiopian Jews, most of whom are currently in Montreal. After that, I was the founding chair of a family-to-family project in the community that matched recent immigrants to a local family in order to help them in their integration to the Canadian way of life.

My hope is that Ometz will continue the current set-up whereby the three agencies are merged into one. It’s working very well and will continue to work well into the future. I encourage anyone interested in donating to the community by donating to Combined Jewish Appeal and to whatever agency interests the donor.