Jewish newcomers being courted to settle in Windsor
Written by Trevor Wilhelm in the Windsor Star. Click here for original story.
Dan and Vika Robenko, who left Israel in the midst of the war with Hamas, are visiting Windsor this week as they look for a new home. They are in Windsor through a program started by the Windsor Jewish Federation to bring more Jewish immigrants to the city. PHOTO BY TREVOR WILHELM /Windsor Star PHOTO BY TREVOR WILHELM /jpeg
Just two days after fleeing Israel in the midst of war, Dan Robenko’s search for a new home may have ended in Windsor.
Robenko and his wife Vika are among nine people, including other families from South Africa and the U.S., receiving the red carpet treatment this week as the Windsor Jewish Federation tries to lure immigrants to the city.
Dan and Vika Robenko, who left Israel in the midst of the war with Hamas, are visiting Windsor this week as they look for a new home. They are in Windsor through a program started by the Windsor Jewish Federation to bring more Jewish immigrants to the city. PHOTO BY TREVOR WILHELM /Windsor Star PHOTO BY TREVOR WILHELM /jpeg
“It’s not easy to leave everything behind — family, friends — and start over, hopefully to find a better future for my kids” said Dan Robenko, 39, who arrived in Windsor on Sunday after leaving Kfar Yona in Israel’s Central District. “It became unsafe. There is a war and I don’t want my kids to be influenced by this war in the future, the influence on their character, on their behaviour. I want to protect that.”
The families are spending a week in Windsor as the Jewish Federation introduces them to local community members and shows them around the city in an effort to convince them to settle here. The organization held an event for them Monday night at the Jewish Community Centre to meet people, including others who recently made the move.
More information on the J Welcome Home Windsor program can be found here.
It’s part of a program the Federation started about a year ago, helping people find jobs, housing, and education, to bolster Windsor’s declining Jewish population.
“The Windsor Jewish community is the only Jewish community in Canada that’s shrinking,” said executive director Dan Brotman. “We shrunk by 15 per cent between 2011 and 2021. It’s also the oldest community demographically in the country. If we don’t replenish soon, we’re not going to have a Jewish community in this city anymore. So we started an immigration program.”
Families from Brazil and South Africa also visited last month. Brotman said the people being courted through the program are not refugees.
“We bring in highly-skilled people,” he said. “So they have to be eligible to immigrate to Canada. We do whatever we can using our connections in the city to try to match them with prospective employers and get them set up.”
“Canada is bringing in a million immigrants over the next few years. Some of them will be Jewish. But most of them don’t know about Windsor. They’re just going to go to the GTA. So we’re proactively marketing Windsor as a destination.”
The plan seems to be working. Dan Robenko, his wife, and their two young children arrived in Toronto on Sunday before taking a train to Windsor the following day.
“The more I know about Windsor, I’d like to stay here,” he said Monday.
“It’s pretty quiet here. So far I like it.”
Marion Zeller and her family moved to Windsor from South Africa in December 2022 through a program started by the Windsor Jewish Federation to bolster Windsor’s Jewish population. PHOTO BY TREVOR WILHELM /Windsor Star PHOTO BY TREVOR WILHELM /jpeg
The first Jewish family to settle in Windsor through the program arrived in December 2022.
Marion Zeller left Johannesbrug with her husband and two children amidst growing concerns about turmoil in South Africa.
They were among the group of people gathered at the Jewish Community Centre on Monday to welcome the recent newcomers.
“We picked Canada largely because we liked the diversity, we liked the education,” said Zeller, 37. “And we were looking for a place where there is a Jewish population we could integrate into. So Canada ticked a lot of those boxes for us. The community has been fantastically supportive and we just like the general feel of the people. It’s a great country.”