Two North York residents are in the running to become Jewish community heroes.
Israel "Yummy" Schachter and Avrum Rosensweig have been nominated for the inaugural Jewish Community Hero Awards, launched by the UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America.The awards celebrate the selflessness and courage of individuals who are bettering their communities through service and outreach.The winner will receive $25,000 (US) to put toward his or her work and four additional finalists will be recognized at the UJC's 2009 General Assembly Nov. 8 to 10 in Washington, DC, where a panel of judges will select the Jewish Community Hero of the Year from among the finalists.Launched in August, the awards have seen more than 250,000 votes have been cast online to date. Nominations and voting will be accepted through Oct. 8.Any individual or group can nominate a hero through an open, online submission process.Nominees must be at least 13 years of age and residents of Canada or the United States. Their work must impact a community in North America.After screening, a profile of each nominee is posted on the Jewish Community Hero Awards website at www.jewishcommunityheroes.org where people can vote for their favourite hero.Schachter said he wasn't aware of his nomination until he started to get emails from friends.The entrepreneur, who grew up in New York and lived in Israel before making North York home three years ago, was involved with many community organizations on a volunteer basis before moving to Canada. Shortly after moving to the city, Schachter said he was approached by Zareinu Educational Centre of Metropolitan Toronto, a Jewish day school and treatment centre for students with physical and developmental challenges, to help with a golf tournament and auction.Schachter ended up soliciting 180 items for the event. "Soliciting items is way easier than soliciting funds from people," he said. "We were extremely successful in soliciting items for the auction but I was upset because I thought we could have done better with how much was raised. With a live auction the bidding is limited to the people in the room. I wanted to figure out how to change it, to open up the bidding to others."The end result was website charitybids.org, a site where charitable organizations can monetize in-kind donations by auctioning off items to bidders around the globe. Launched in April, the site allows charities that conduct live or silent auction events to pre-market their auction lots to both their supporters as well as to the world at large to ensure the success of the auction is not strictly dependent on the participants at the live event."We are not in it to make money," Schachter said of his website partners. "We all have successful careers. The site was built with the best interest for the organizations."Schachter, who shuns the spotlight, said the Jewish Community Hero Awards will hopefully motivate others to get involved with community work."It's a great initiative," he said. "I'm flattered someone nominated me and sees me as a hero, but I don't feel I'm a hero."Rosensweig founded Canadian humanitarian and relief organization Ve'ahavta 13 years ago after seeing what he says was a lack of response from the world, and specifically the Jewish community, during the 1994 Rwanda crisis. "My organization has done work all around the world and in Toronto with the homeless," he said. "I'm proud of our work. I had a heart attack last year at 48. This past year has been a introspective time. Thank God I'm still alive but if it went the other way, I've done a good job here on Earth."Rosensweig spent three days on the streets with the homeless and it helped shed a much-needed different perspective on the problem, he said. "People are just trying to survive," he said. "I walked the streets of Toronto and interviewed a lot of homeless people. There is an awful lot of hope, I discovered. It reminded me why I am doing this (running his organization)."Rosensweig, who was nominated for the Jewish Community Hero Award by his niece in Israel, said he doesn't consider himself a hero. "Someone who runs into a burning home or works in a war zone is a hero," he said. "I see myself as an activist. I strongly believe evil has a loud voice and goodness is quieter. It's imperative to highlight good folks doing good work and I am delighted and proud to be nominated."Adam Smolyar, senior vice-president of strategic marketing and communications for the UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America, said community heroes often go unnoticed."The Jewish Community Heroes initiative aims to spotlight devoted individuals who work incredibly hard for others, whether their efforts affect five people or 5,000," he said in a release.