3409 Bathurst St Toronto On M6A 2C1
Tel. 416-913-1774 Fax. 416-913-1779
Under the auspices of Rabbonim of Toronto

1 KH Meoroth $26,146.00 CDN

2 Gates of Mercy $16,840.00 CDN

3 Bni Tzion $8,320.00

Total $51,306.00

The Big Picture
Few things in life inspire more awe or hope than the miracle of a newborn child. When well nurtured and cared for in their earliest years, children are more likely to survive, to grow in a healthy way, to have less disease and fewer illnesses, and to fully develop thinking, language, emotional and social skills. In just one generation, these human gains can help break the cycles of poverty, disease and violence that affect so many countries.

Out of 100 children born in a year, 30 will most likely suffer from malnutrition in their first five years of life, 26 will not be immunized against the basic childhood diseases, 19 will lack access to safe drinking water and 40 to adequate sanitation, and 17 will never go to school. In developing countries, every fourth child lives in abject poverty, in families with an income of less than $1 a day.

The most egregious consequence is that nearly 11 million children each year – about 30,000 children a day – die before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes. Of these children, 4 million die in their first month of life.

Even when children do survive, they too often do not thrive, suffering from diminished learning capabilities and other disadvantages that limit their overall prospects for reaching their full potential.

The process of giving children the best start in life begins even before birth. Poor nutrition and ill health on the part of a mother can lead to low birth weight in her children, putting them at much greater risk of developmental delay, malnutrition and death.

Circle of Care is dedicated to supporting independence and of the quality of life of individuals in their homes. Circle of Care is a community based non-profit registered charity that has been serving Toronto and area residents since 1974. Over 450 staff and more than 300 volunteers are available to provide assistance in your home.

Offering a wide range of home and community programs, including homemaking and personal support, social work and volunteer supported services, we strive to help clients live as comfortably as possible in their own home environments, and reduce the challenges they face due to physical, emotional, cognitive or mental health issues.

Circle of Care’s outstanding staff and volunteers care about our clients. We strive to enhance quality of life and ensure safety and dignity. We respect privacy, cultural diversity and the unique needs of each client.

Circle of Care is an accredited agency of Accreditation Canada, a member agency of the United Way Toronto and an affiliate of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Circle of Care provides service on behalf of four Community Care Access Centres (Central, Central East, Central West and Toronto Central) and the City of Toronto’s Homemakers and Nurses Services Program. Circle of Care receives grant funding from the Central Local Health Intregration Network (Ministry of Health and Long Term Care), Community Services Grants Program of the City of Toronto, United Way Toronto and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Purpose of the Patient Registry:
Foundation Fighting Blindness-Canada and CIBC have awarded Dr. Héon a grant to develop a National (Canada) Children’s Vision Research Registry, which is a medical information database that will capture patients affected with retinal dystrophies.

The purpose of capturing these patients is to better understand the natural history of retinal dystrophies, standardize clinical assessment, and most importantly identify patients that could be eligible for clinical trials and/or other therapeutic opportunities that may become available in the near future.

This registry has the potential of expanding into a multi-centered project, but for now it will only involve patients at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).

Description of the Research:
The FFB/CIBC Children’s Vision Research Registry is an internet-based medical registry for retinal dystrophies. Retinal dystrophies are a group of genetic eye disorders that affect the retina of the eye. The retina is an important layer at the back of the eye, which picks up light and sends images to the brain. People who have a retinal dystrophy cannot see as well as other people because their retina is not working properly.

You are asked to be part of The FFB/CIBC Children’s Vision Research Registry. This medical database will allow scientists/physicians access to large amount of medical information that will allow them to better understand the natural history of retinal eye disorders such as the one in your family. This project will ultimately provide you and other patients, with retinal eye disorders, the opportunity to be studied by other doctors, which will allow them to determine you eligibility for clinical trials and/or new treatments that may become available in the near future.

No immediate benefit from participating in this study is expected. However, when clinical trials and other therapies become available in the future, your eligibility for treatment will be determined and you will be managed following the standard of care protocols in place at SickKids. If we also find that you are eligible for any new Foundation Fighting Blindness and SickKids Research Ethics Board approved research projects that develop from the FFB/CIBC Children’s Vision Research Registry you will be notified.

You will be informed of any changes made to the study or new information that might affect your willingness to continue to participate in the research.

Posted by Moishe Alexander

Multiple sclerosis affects the entire family. Spouses, mothers, fathers and children as well as friends become caregivers — integral to the health and well-being of people with MS. Unfortunately, caregiving can have negative effects on the health of caregivers themselves and their own financial security.

Circle of Care is a community-based, non-profit, registered charity that has been serving Toronto and area residents since 1974. Over 450 staff and more than 600 volunteers are available to provide care in your home. Circle of Care provides care to multiple communities, ethnic and religious groups in more than 20 different languages.

Circle of Care is an accredited agency of the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, a member agency of the United Way of Greater Toronto and an affiliate agency of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Circle of Care provides service on behalf of four Community Care Access Centres in the GTA (North York, Scarborough, Toronto, and Etobicoke/York), as well as, for the City of Toronto’s Homemakers and Nurses Services Program. Circle of Care receives grant funding from the Ministry of Health & Long Term Care Division, Province of Ontario and through the Community Services Grants Program of the City of Toronto.

Moishe Alexander is helping the Circle of Care and many of its affiliates.

Director Rabbi Aaron Yarmush, of Bais Chomesh Girls High School thanks Moishe Alexander for his generous support.

Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam is presently Rabbi in the Bobover synagogue in Brooklyn.

Moishe Alexander is an admirer of the Bobov Toronto community.

Misunderstanding and prejudice between Jews and Christians remain today, in large part, due to a lack of communication between the two groups. This is particularly true in Jewish relations with Evangelicals. Issues inevitably arise that create tension and ill will between the communities. In addition, many opportunities for inter-religious cooperation through joint programs on behalf of shared concerns are lost due to this lack of communication. It is against such a 2,000 year backdrop of fear, ignorance and mistrust that the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada carries out its bridge-building work.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada was founded by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein to promote greater understanding between Jews and Christians and to build Christian support for Israel and other shared concerns. Like its sister organization in the U.S., the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada operates under the leadership of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, and is governed by an independent Board of Directors representing both faiths who share our strong belief in building bridges between the Christian and Jewish communities.

Moishe Alexander is a supporter of Israel.

He is miffed that the government of Israel is seemingly Welsching on several million dollars that it pledged to help the Heftsiba school system in the FSU.

Heftsiba, which was started as a covert operation run out of the office of Israel’s prime minister during the 1960s as a way to sneak Zionist education, Hebrew education and Jewish religious supplies to Soviet Jews, became its own school system after the fall of communism. It was run out of the Israeli Education Ministry for nearly 20 years before being handed off to the Jewish Agency for Israel about two years ago, according to Eckstein.

Last year the 26-school Heftsiba system looked like it was going to be a casualty of the economic downturn, the Madoff scandal and the Jewish Agency facing an $80 million budget cut. But then in February Eckstein’s IFCJ stepped in with emergency funding.

Eckstein said that he would match up to $5 million in funding over the course of this year to keep the schools afloat, so long as other Jewish donors matched the funds. The Israeli government pledged to pitch in $1 million. Based on that pledge, the fellowship cut a $1 million check to Heftsiba.

According to Eckstein, Israel has yet to pay up, even though it said it would do so immediately.

“The bottom line is that the government said it would take care of Heftsiba, but it hasn’t even sent the money it owes from six months ago, and yesterday I get a letter from the school in Kharkov, Ukraine, that they are closing their doors,” Eckstein told The Fundermentalist on Tuesday. “They never got the money from the government of Israel and have no reassurance they will be able to get funding in September, so there goes 125 Jewish kids in Harkov, who don’t have a Jewish future.”

Eckstein said that he has been pushing the government to come up with the money. But the responsibility for paying the $1 million is being passed from ministry to ministry, with no one wanting the money to come out of their own budget, Eckstein said.

He had a meeting with Knesset members on June 2 to press for the money. He was unable to get an answer, but was told that the Education Ministry will take over the Heftsiba system from the Jewish Agency next fall.

The Israeli government pledged to “give $1 million, and it hasn’t even done that yet, and they are going ahead and accepting commitments for next year before they have even honored their commitment from past six months,” Eckstein said, chiding the Israeli government. “Who is to believe them? I certainly don’t.”

The money to Heftsiba was part of an $12 million pledge that the fellowship made to save three Jewish school systems in the FSU, including $6 million to keep the Chabad school system running. The Chabad system was heavily financed by Lev Leviev, the diamond mogul who saw his stock plummet by 90 percent, losing him a half a billion dollars over the past year.

The fellowship also gave $1 million to the Shma Yisrael school system, which had been heavily financed by the Reichmann family of Canada.

While most charities are floundering, the fellowship is on pace to raise more money this year than it ever has. Last year the organization took in roughly $90 million; this year, Eckstein said, it is already 20 percent above pace. He project that the fellowship will end up raising between $110 million and $120 million in 2009.

But Eckstein wants to know why the Jewish community is not stepping up to offer more assistance to Jews in the former Soviet Union, after spending 20 years of helping to build a community there.

“The Jewish community can’t come up with $2 million for future of Jewish children?” he said.

Even taking into account the Madoff scam and the economic crisis, Eckstein said it was a “shonda” — or shame — “that world Jewry, can’t pay for the $2 million and it has to have Christians from California or from Florida pay.”

http://blogs.jta.org/philanthropy/article/2009/07/14/1006538/eckstein-wants-to-know-why-the-jews-arent-saving-fsu-jewry

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC Canadian funding corp CEO