Last month, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa celebrated some of the people making a huge difference in the community by awarding Community Service Awards in three categories. Honouring volunteerism, young adult engagement, and professional leadership, these awards are about recognizing the remarkable talents of our community.

Anna Silverman won this year’s Rabbi Reuven Bulka Shem Tov Community Volunteer Award. She has been an active volunteer since she was 14 years old.

Within Jewish Ottawa alone, her impact has been felt at numerous organizations, including at Federation, Tamir, the Ottawa Chevra Kadisha, and the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge. Beyond the Jewish community, Silverman has helped raise funds for the Queensway Carleton Hospital, which were directed to its acute care unit. She also, along with Rabbi Bulka z”l and others in the community, helped raise over $1 million for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).

On being involved for so many years, Silverman said “I have been very fortunate to have had a lot of good mentors in my life.”

Speaking of her parents, her grandparents, and her siblings, she said she was surrounded by volunteerism her whole life, and that it was normal for her to be involved with a wide variety of charities.

One of her longest volunteer commitments has been to the Chevra Kadisha. Having spent over three decades there, including spending the last decade as Head of the Women’s Division, Silverman has worked to ensure that members of our community are cared for with love and kindness at life’s most difficult moments.

“The first night I went to sew shrouds, I knew that it was my calling,” she said. “I’m very honoured that the mentors had when I started at the Chevra have entrusted me to bring in the next generation.”

Silverman says that the work she does isn’t for the kavod, but instead about the positive effect that doing something good has on others.

 The Chevra Kadisha “plays an immensely important role in our community … and this work has been incredibly meaningful for me,” she said.

This year’s Freiman Family Young Leadership Award and Greenberg Young Leadership Development Award went to Adam Zaret, a Federation Board member who currently serves as its treasurer.

Zaret has chaired major Federation initiatives such as the Annual Community Campaign kickoff and the annual golf tournament.

“I am truly humbled to receive these awards, most notably because of the list of past recipients,” he said. “I have had the chance to work with many of these leaders and be mentored by them.”

He says that his involvement is largely driven by his wish that Jewish Ottawa continue to thrive well into the future. 
“If we don’t step up, who will?” he said. “It is incumbent upon me to give back to the community that has given me and my family so much.”

To other young people, Zaret encourages them to not underestimate the value they bring with their ideas and talents. He says that the community belongs to us all, and that we all speak up and get involved in supporting our organizations and one another.

“My message to the generations ahead of us is to keep giving people like me the mentorship, guidance, and opportunities to be involved,” he said.

Lastly, Michael Reznick was presented with the Jewish Communal Professional Leadership Award. As the VP of Development at Federation, Reznick has created new programs like the Dorot Legacy Reception and the Capital J Donor Society and has enhanced pre-existing ones like J-Fellows. In the short time he has been at Federation and the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation, he has transformed ideas into meaningful action and has inspired numerous individuals to deepen their connection to Jewish life and community.

Reznick says that not only is he grateful to receive this award, but he also sees it as a reflection of the people he has had the privilege of working with.

“None of this work happens alone,” he explained. “It happens because of the colleagues, volunteers, donors, community leaders, and families who care deeply about Jewish life in Ottawa.”

He explained that this recognition takes on an even deeper meaning for him, since he and he and his family came to Canada only a few years ago.

 “The Jewish community is much more than a professional space,” he reflected. “It became a place of belonging, support, and purpose.”

Reznick says that Jewish communal work goes beyond day-to-day tasks. Whether it’s fundraising, building relationships with donors, supporting schools and programs, or helping families feel connected, the goal is always bigger than one person or organization.