Building understanding between peoples

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This article was published 11/01/2019 (2459 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local volunteer who has brought together communities separated by geography, language and faith to relieve suffering is being honoured for his work.

Michel Aziza received the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding on Jan. 7.

The award is presented annually to an individual who best embodies understanding between all religious groups.

The Tuxedo resident is one of the founding volunteer members of Operation Ezra, a Jewish-led multifaith coalition that privately sponsored 55 Yazidi refugees to come to Winnipeg between 2015 and 2017, and is currently providing settlement assistance to 35 government sponsored Yazidi families, while raising funds to bring at least 13 more individuals to Canada.

“As much as we think we’re alike, we don’t do a lot together as a multifaith community,” Aziza said. “And this, Operation Ezra has seemed to have touched a chord with many faiths. It’s unique in the sense that it’s brought Jews, Christians… and Yazidis together. Not one of us are talking about religion.

“We’re all focused on helping a different religion — a religion we know nothing about.”

Operation Ezra was founded in early 2015 following a presentation by Nafiya Naso, a local Yazidi community member, to a group from the Winnipeg Friends of Israel, of which Aziza was a member. Naso described the 2014 destruction and genocide of the Yazidi people, an ancient religious ethnic minority, on Mount Sinjar in northwest Iraq at the hands of the ISIL, Aziza recalled.

Naso’s plea for help stirred members of the group to action, by first reaching out to immediate contacts to raise funds, and then connecting with the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, and eventually bringing multiple organizations on board in short order.

“Most of us, if not all of us, knew nothing about Yazidis and what was going on, sadly enough,” the 57-year-old said. “We felt we could help and wanted to help with sponsoring a family. We thought we could easily raise the funds to sponsor one family, and raise awareness.”

Today, Operation Ezra (Ezra is the Hebrew word for help) encompasses a network of 42 different entities and hundreds of people, donors, and volunteers across various faiths. The organization has ties to Jewish Child and Family Services, local synagogues, cross-denominational Christian churches, the Manitoba Multifaith Council, community schools, the Mennonite Central Committee (which initially offered two dozen sponsorship spots to Operation Ezra), and individuals across Manitoba and Canada.

Operation Ezra also provides English-language classes to about 120 Yazidi refugees in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (505 Academy Rd.). Food and other community resources are also offered through Operation Ezra to the newcomers.

“Most of the government sponsored families are single moms with lots of kids,” Aziza said. “And in most cases they’re single moms who were severely traumatized themselves; they were victims of ISIS, they were captives, so these families came here with severe trauma.”

Aziza said many are still separated from loved ones and partners who remain overseas.

“One of the big things that we’re trying to do now is reunite the families,” he said.

“The more people we can get involved the more we can do,” Aziza said. “It’s quite rewarding to see that people can rally around a common goal, and the goal has nothing to do with us… It’s completely selfless.”

The time and proximity the various organizations have spent with one another has also encouraged people to get to know one another and build friendships, Aziza said.

“It’s allowed us to work outside of our community,” he said. “I think we’ve changed perceptions: perceptions that we’ve had of other people and people had of the Jewish community.”

Past recipients of the award include, Ray Dirks and Manju Lodha, Devon Clunis, Lloyd Axworthy, and Mae Louise Campbell.