Saskatoon Jewish Foundation

In the 1970s and 1980s Saskatoon's Jewish Community lost, through deaths and relocation, a number of long-time members who had been very active in the community. Also at that time, some Jewish congregations throughout Canada found their memberships had declined to the point where they could no longer finance their institutions. Some of the members of Congregation Agudas Israel felt that a long-term solution to the financial problem would be collecting, retaining and investing money and using only the income to meet appropriate needs. Advice was sought from the board of directors of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, a foundation that had been formed many years before to assist the Jewish communities in Manitoba and that had been able to amass a significant capital base. As a result of the investigation, a motion was approved in the fall of 1986 to establish the Saskatoon Jewish Foundation. The motion stated that “the purpose of the foundation is to receive donations of money or property; and to invest the money or manage the property; to utilize the money from the investments and the property to maintain or enhance the religious, cultural, education, welfare and other activities of the congregation and the Saskatoon Jewish community.” The Foundation has made grants to Congregation Agudas Israel members, and children of members of Congregation Agudas Israel have been assisted with grants enabling them to attend a B'nai Brith Camp in Pine Lake, Alberta. Children of Congregation Agudas Israel and of the local Jewish community have also been helped to join in the biannual “March of the Living” to Poland and Israel, and also to participate in a program which includes Holocaust education and a tour of the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, as well as to attend educational programs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and educational institutions on this continent and in Israel.

Gladys Rose