TORONTO — On Sept. 11, 2001, three things happened in Joelle Adler’s life: her husband, who was suffering from cancer-related complications, had his leg amputated; she found out about the terrorist attacks in New York City, and she watched a commercial about starving children in Africa.
Joelle Adler [Rita Poliakov photo]
“It hit me: the value of that child and the value of my husband was all the same value. Zero,” Adler, CEO of Diesel Canada, told a group of young Jewish professionals on Nov. 19, during the Jewish Urban Meeting Place’s (JUMP) relaunch week.
Adler told the audience she spent Sept. 11, 2001, with her husband in the hospital, trying to convince his doctor that he would survive, even though she was constantly being told otherwise.
“There was no value for a human life. The decisions made in the hospital and… in Africa were economic decisions. It’s cheaper for my husband to die, for the kids in Africa to die,” she said.
That night, Adler’s mind wandered to a poster she saw in the hospital with the words, “Save one life, you save the universe.”
“What does it really mean? [It means] every life has the same value. That is a lesson for us to understand,” she said.
The idea led Adler, whose husband beat his cancer but eventually died from a relapse, to found ONEXONE in 2005, a charity that helps feed, clothe and educate children worldwide.
Adler’s lecture was one of five events that marked JUMP’s relaunch after the two-year-old organization moved from Yonge and Centre streets in Thornhill to a storefront location on Yonge Street just north of Davisville Avenue in mid-town Toronto.
JUMP, which is funded by private philanthropists, moved to new digs last month to be closer and more accessible to its users, said program and marketing manager Shoshana Allen.
Adler’s talk also helped launch Jewish Employment Toronto (JET), a joint program between JUMP and Birthright Israel. The program will include lectures, workshops and networking events catered to young Jewish professionals aged 21 to 34, Allen said.
“I’m not an economist, but I think it’s always a good time to be working on professional skills. It’s not only for people who are unemployed,” she said.
As a businessperson and philanthropist, Adler was the perfect speaker to start up the program, Allen said, adding that the CEO can teach the audience about the importance of professional motivation and philanthropy.
“That’s why we chose Joelle Adler. Her story is so inspirational.”
Adler’s charity, ONEXONE, has created breakfast programs, set up organized sport events and helped provide clean drinking water to children worldwide.
“We’ve been to Africa, Haiti – we’ve seen the worst and we’ve seen hope,” Adler said.
During her talk, Adler emphasized the importance of passion, not just in work but in life.
“One of the things I think changes… lives is living a life of passion. Passion is an act, not an emotion. It’s opening your heart… to something that you know is a risk,” she said. “The word ‘no’ has not been an option for me… since 2001.”
Julia Savitch, 29, who works in a marketing research company, attended the lecture partly because she wanted to meet Adler.
“I thought the opportunity to network and listen to somebody who has achieved so much would be useful,” she said.
Ronen Geisler, 26, who works for a marketing company, was impressed by JUMP’s event, which included time for socializing before the lecture.
“I think it’s a good way to reconnect with the Jewish community,” he said. “As we grow older, we grow apart… having these types of events is really good.”