Avrum Rosensweig

Avrum Rosensweig was the Founding Director and CEO of Ve'ahavta, a Canadian Jewish non-profit humanitarian and relief organization for twenty years.

Rosensweig co-founded Ve'ahavta (Hebrew for 'and you should love') with Stephen Epstein, with a mission to encourage all Jews, and all peoples, to play a role in tikkun olam, 'repairing the world'.

Avraham Yitzchak Flicht, his wife, and many of his children and grandchildren were taken out of their homes by the Nazis at the start of the war, and were shot and killed.

Ve'ahavta medical teams set up clinics in Guyana and in Zimbabwe and responded to natural disasters in Turkey, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Honduras and other places.

Rosensweig and Ve'ahavta were able to bring $12,000 in donated medicine from Apotex and Novopharm, as well as well as emergency shipments when Dr. Michael Seth Silverman and is team encountered malaria and typhoid in children.

"[15] Other areas of operation have included the Caribbean, in Thailand (after a tsunami) and the Philippines (after a hurricane), and advocating awareness about the genocide in Darfur.

[17] Ve'ahavta hosts a yearly gala, honoring Canadians of all backgrounds for their work in social, humanitarian, medical and educational fields.

Honorees and keynote speakers have included, Mia Farrow, CBC's Ron Mclean, Moshe Hammer, Dr. Naomi Azrieli, Dr. Michael Dan, Irwin Cotler, Karen Levine, and Adam Hummel.

"[18][19][20] Rosensweig helped create Ve'ahavta Street Academy (VSA), a school that opened in 2011 for at-risk or vulnerable individuals in the Greater Toronto Area.

[13] The VSA was an idea originally thought up by a recovering addict and sex worker who won a Ve'ahavta creative writing contest.

It argues that Jewish interest in Indigenous matters grew after the Ahenakew incident in 2002, and became even stronger and more widespread after the launch of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008.

[30] In the Zen Judaism book, "The Case Against Contemporary American Phenomenon," author, Christopher L. Schilling cites Rosensweig's Canadian Jewish News article, "Isolated by Loneliness."