President's Page

SILVIA LULKA and her husband, Marc, have been married for 20 years and have three teenagers, Sam, Matthew and Renee.  All three are graduates of MJDS and now attend Earl Haig. They have grown enough that Silvia is the shortest member of her family.  They joined Beth David in 2016.  As a former USY and Hillel  leader, it didn’t take long for Silvia to get involved at Beth David.

For her “day job” Silvia is Assistant Vice President of Employee Engagement and Enablement at IGM Financial (Mackenzie Investments and IG Wealth Management).  She is responsible for learning and development, employee surveys, hybrid work, performance management, talent and succession management, change management and other employee programs.  

Silvia is also a certified executive coach.  Her work in creating coaching cultures has been widely recognized and she has spoken at conferences at Harvard University, Columbia University, as well as in Brisbane, Madrid and across Canada.

Silvia recently picked up running and proudly displays 7 race medals behind her during zoom calls.  Her next race is a Half Marathon in May.

IGOR ELLYN and his wife, Libby, arrived in Toronto in 1971. They belonged to Shaar Shalom Synagogue for 36 years until it closed in 2016.  Igor was born in Romania and lived in Israel before coming to Montreal at the age of 5. 

They have two daughters and five grandsons. They enjoy power-walking, hiking cycling, travelling and family get-togethers. Igor plays golf (badly) and is a fan of the Leafs and the Blue Jays.  He speaks five languages.

Igor has a long history of volunteer Jewish leadership. He held executive positions at Canadian Jewish Congress-Ontario Region for 15 years.  He chaired three theatre night fundraisers and co-chaired Shaar Shalom’s Grand Opening in 1991. He participated in two UJA Missions to Israel.  He was Vice-President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and chaired its Human Rights Conference in Toronto. 

In his professional career, Igor is a business litigation lawyer, arbitrator and mediator.  He was president of the Ontario Bar Association, Chair of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Toronto chapter, and belongs to other legal organizations.  He is the author of three legal books and has been a speaker and advocacy coach at legal education conferences in Canada, Israel, USA and internationally.