Sylvain Abitbol is an engineer and entrepreneur in the telecommunications industry as CEO of NHC Communications Inc but is best known as an activist in Jewish affairs and was co-president of the

Canadian Jewish Congress The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC; ; ; ) was, for more than ninety years, the main advocacy group for the Jewish community in Canada. Regarded by many as the "Parliament of Canadian Jewry," the Congress was at the forefront of the struggle for Hum ...

from 2007 to 2011. Abitbol graduated from

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

's Ecole Polytechnique in 1973 with a degree in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering. He was employed by

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

for six years and received training in telecommunications at the company's training centre in

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

. Abitbol is a member of Montreal's

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

Jewish community and became president of Montreal's Federation CJA in 2004. His family immigrated to Montreal from

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

after the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abitbol, Sylvain Living people 20th-century Moroccan Jews Businesspeople from Montreal Canadian Jewish Congress members Moroccan expatriates in Canada Canadian people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Engineers from Quebec Canadian mechanical engineers Canadian industrial engineers École Polytechnique alumni 20th-century Canadian engineers 21st-century Canadian engineers Year of birth missing (living people)