Mijal Ben-Dori

Chief Planning Officer , Jewish Federation of British Columbia (JFBC)

Mijal Ben-Dori has lived in some of the world’s great cities — Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, London, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, New York, and Toronto — where Jewish life is everywhere and there are countless ways to connect. 

Then she relocated to Nanaimo, BC. 

On Vancouver Island, Mijal discovered what Jewish life looks like when there isn’t a Jewish institution on every corner. 

Today, as Chief Planning Officer at the Jewish Federation of British Columbia (JFBC), Mijal works across four impact areas — Jewish Identity & Education, Resiliency, Critical Social Services, and Israel & Global Jewry — bringing together community planning, funding, convening, and programming to strengthen Jewish life across British Columbia. 

A major focus of her work is developing a new model for how federations can serve networks of small Jewish communities spread across vast geographic areas: building shared infrastructure and resources while preserving the local relationships and character that make each community unique. She oversees JFBC’s Regional Communities program and has helped spearhead its evolution into a truly province-wide Federation. 

Mijal brings nearly three decades of Jewish communal leadership to this work, including senior leadership at the Jewish Agency for Israel in Canada. Her career has also taken substantial turns, from marketing and coaching to founding a decade-long initiative exploring culture and emerging trends through pop music.