Shalom My Dear Family and Friends Please join us. The JCC this evening at 7pm Calgary Alberta In light of the worsening situation in the Middle East and the distressing events that took place at City Hall this past Friday, I just received from Bruce Libin, President, Calgary Jewish Federation. I encourage all to attend the solidarity rally at the JCC this Wed July 23rd evening at 7pm and to generously support the emergency fund established by Federation. Thanks for Am Israel Chai, Shalom Sahbra From: Bruce Libin [mailto:bruce@libincapital] Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 11:53 AM Subject: 22.07.14 update 1. We have issued a press release this morning indicating we are appalled at the violence which occurred at Friday’s demonstration and admonishing the police for failure to protect people. I will circulate the final version. 2. We have written a letter to the Chief of the Calgary Police Service decrying the failure by the absence of police. I will circulate the final version. 3. We are issuing a press release shortly with respect to Wednesday’s rally. Presently awaiting clearance from Michelle Rempel’s people for inclusion of her name in the release. (She is a Calgary Member of Parliament and the Federal Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification. 4. The program for Wednesday’s rally is coming together. It will include remarks by Michelle Rempel, remarks from Joe Spier and Drew Staffenberg who are in Israel on a mission, a video from Federations Canada’s director in Israel, remarks from Calgarians just returned from Israel or who have child currently serving with the IDF in Gaza, prayers and songs. Please encourage people to attend – and to attend for the 7:00 start time. It may be helpful if the Board and our family and friends arrive a touch early and park at the House of Jacob. 5. We tried to dissuade supporters of Israel from appearing at the anti-Israel demonstration at City Hall on Friday. To no avail. We understand there will be a further pro-Israel presence at this Friday’s Palestinian demonstration. There are supporters of Israel who are very indignant about what happened last week and who are very motivated. While the view of our professional staff and of our Community Relations Committee (which met last evening; I attended and endorse their view) is we discourage counter-demonstrations (the media portray this as 2 angry mobs yelling at each other; each as crazy as the other) – we likely will have little impact on deterring this. We are working with the police to ensure proper uniformed presence for the protection of all. 6. In response to concerns around security, the Centre has engaged a service so there is a uniformed presence during key hours. 7. The police will be present Wednesday evening. We have no present sense of any particular concerns; we are being prudent. 8. The police were called to the Centre yesterday in what turned out to be an example of security protocols working. A man dropped off an envelop at the front-desk for Federation. Metal was indicated when the envelop was put through the scanner. The police were called. In the end, it turned out to be a donation to the present campaign for Israel’s social service needs. 9. Role of Federation Board: support Israel; donate and urge others to donate; attend the rally and urge others to rally; work to unite our Community; indicate comfort with respect to security issues. 10. As you can see from my seeking final versions of letters and press releases, the world is unfolding rapidly. We will try keep all as apprised as possible. 11. We should count our blessings in having Judy Shapiro on our staff. She is wise, calm, well-connected, indefatigable, a great person with whom to work. Best, Bruce
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 18:35:55 +0000
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