Last night, UJA Federation held our 2024 Annual Meeting, providing a special opportunity to reflect on the past year and mark an important leadership transition.
We are pleased to share that Ken Tanenbaum was elected Chair of the Board of UJA Federation and Sarena Koschitzky was elected Vice Chair. As they begin their two-year terms, I’m grateful that all of us at UJA will be able to benefit from having leaders who reflect such a remarkable depth of complementary leadership qualities.
Ken brings a uniquely high level of strategic thought-leadership from many years of private-sector expertise in dealing with government and complex challenges. In addition to his dedication to improving the quality of Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism, Ken’s leadership reflects an ability to think several steps ahead—and a long-term vision of strengthening Jewish life in Toronto and Canada.
Sarena brings exceptional community knowledge, insights, and leadership experience, having served in key roles at the forefront of a range of Jewish causes over many years. In addition to her passion for Israel, Jewish education, and social services, Sarena exemplifies a leader who is a unifier—someone with a remarkable ability to unite people from across the spectrum in common cause.
In both Ken and Sarena, our Board will benefit from two leaders who are deeply familiar with UJA’s work, with each having served on our Board, as Annual Campaign chairs, and in various committee roles focused on core community priorities. I am grateful they have agreed to step up at this pivotal time and look forward to working closely with them.
The Annual Meeting was also an opportunity for Hakarat HaTov—recognizing the good—in regards to Jeff Rosenthal, as we thanked him for his terrific and tireless leadership as Chair of the Board over the past two years.
Post-October 7th, our Greater Toronto Jewish community has been tested in ways few of us could have imagined prior to that dark day. Without hesitation, Jeff rose to the challenge, together with our entire Board, staff, volunteers, donors, and partner agencies. I encourage you to read our 2024 Annual Report for highlights from the past year, including a financial report.
As I look back on Jeff’s service, there are many qualities I have appreciated in his leadership. Jeff’s ability to instantly recognize hard truths, his willingness to adapt and make difficult decisions, his honesty and moral clarity, and above all his kindness and generosity of spirit raised the bar for all of us at UJA.
Last night, our team of UJA volunteer leaders and professionals rededicated ourselves to the mission of making our community stronger and more resilient in a changing world. We did so with the confidence that, under the leadership of Jeff and our Board in 2024, we have made important progress in building a foundation for transformative change in key areas of community need.
The past year has seen the largest Walk with Israel in the history of our community, the launch of the Jewish Security Network of Greater Toronto, Legal Task Force lawsuits against those failing to protect our community, new initiatives to mobilize our allies in the fight against antisemitism, and growing day school enrolment requiring the opening of three new kindergarten classes in our partner day schools—to name just a few milestones.
To be sure, we live in a world that remains broken and unpredictable. Our community will continue to face new and dangerous tests in 2025. There is much more work to be done to secure our future here in Greater Toronto, across Canada, and around the world. At this critical moment for the Jewish people, our purpose as an organization—to unite and mobilize the full strength of our community—has never mattered more in my lifetime.
But when I see the extraordinary leadership throughout our community—from hundreds who take on leadership roles to thousands who donate and volunteer to tens of thousands who rally in the streets—it gives me confidence that our community has what it takes to meet any test that comes our way.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Shabbat Shalom,
Adam Minsky
President & CEO
UJA Federation of Greater Toronto