Atlantic Jewish Council hiring part-time social worker

The Atlantic Jewish Council in Halifax is seeking a social worker to fill its new director of Jewish family services position.

It’s a part-time job which will see the successful candidate provide support to community members in the four Atlantic provinces.

The inaugural director is to do a needs assessment of the Jewish community and research family-service models in similar-sized Jewish communities. Part of the assessment will involve surveys and focus groups.

A job posting on the council’s website says the term of employment runs from May 1 to Dec. 31. Applications must be received by April 18.

The director will help with community members’ needs, the job posting says, including “crisis management, navigation through existing local human service support agencies, referrals, and follow-up” when necessary.

Naomi Rosenfeld, the council’s executive director, said Wednesday a position such as this has been discussed for a couple of years.

One of the reasons she and her colleagues are moving forward now is the coronavirus pandemic has “shed light on just how much need there is for human service support in our community.”

Asked if applicants have to be Jewish, Rosenfeld said no. But candidates’ “knowledge of Jewish community/customs is considered an asset,” she told HalifaxToday.ca via email.

The council is a nonprofit organization that, among other things, strives to reinforce “the regional identity of the Atlantic Canadian Jewish community.”

It provides such services as support for Jewish university students in the Atlantic region and for seniors, funds for needy community members and Holocaust education programming.

According to its 2018-19 annual report, the AJC “helped four Holocaust survivors in need receive home care” and supported seven Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) ceremonies in the region, including in Halifax and Sydney.

This year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day in Canada will be observed April 7 to 8.

More information about the family services director’s job can be found here.

Michael Lightstone is a freelance reporter living in Dartmouth