Bernie Farber

Bernie M. Farber (born 1951) is a writer, commentator, and the former chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress and a social activist. He has testified before the Canadian courts as an expert witness on hate crime. He was appointed CEO of the Mosaic Institute, a Canadian NGO that promotes pluralism, peace and conflict resolution internationally, in August 2015 and has announced his retirement, effective October 1, 2017, though he will remain on the NGO's advisory board. Farber was previously CEO of the Paloma Foundation, an NGO which works with homeless youth shelters until his appointment with the Mosaic Institute. He also writes on human and civil rights issues for the Huffington Post and NOW Magazine, as well as various newspapers across Canada, and is frequently interviewed on these topics by the media.

Farber was born in Ottawa, Ontario. His father was a Polish Jew who lost his first wife, two children and other family members in the Holocaust. Farber cites his father's experience as a major motivation in his life, saying, "the pain my father endured during the war is what drove me to fight for social justice today.”

Farber received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton University in Ottawa where he was involved in many social causes. He was a student leader with Ottawa's Jewish community and was also involved in the campaign to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate. As the director of Ottawa's Jewish Community Centre, Farber also directed its day camp in the mid 1970s.

He graduated in 1975 and found a job with the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa-Carleton. While working for the Children's Aid Society in the early 1980s, Farber served as president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 454, representing over 300 social and child-care workers.

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