With a desire to help people and a deep sense of responsibility for his community, Noah Switzer, a CJA Grade 9 alumnus from the Class of 2000, carries both into his personal and professional life. More than 25 years after graduating, he still values the friendships he made at CJA and believes “you can’t put a price on” those lifelong connections. Today, he lives in Edmonton with his wife and three daughters and works as an upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon.
For Noah, it’s easy to label what made his time at the CJA so special. It taught him “what it means to be a Jew,” and the community values that come with that responsibility. It’s not just about treating people with respect, but also passing that on to future generations. He believes that when the world can be harsh, having that community, especially as a young person, is so important. “To have that really strong sense of identity and have it be unwavering,” says Noah, is crucial.
The relationships from his time at the CJA, however, are what have impacted Noah’s life the most. He met his three closest friends at the CJA, including Jordan Balaban, CJA’s current CEO. Noah comments on how the Jewish community allows you to create bonds that cannot be broken. Those bonds deepened for Noah while playing sports as a CJA Hawk, where he became part of a close social circle within the Hawks athletic teams. Being a CJA Hawk introduced him to the importance of moving his body and sparked his continued interest in basketball. Staying active remains important to Noah, and he and his wife participate in HYROX in their free time.
Being part of the Jewish community also means being a visible representative beyond the community. As a visibly Jewish person in his workplace, Noah values the opportunity to represent the Jewish community and be a role model for younger Jewish people. He wants to be someone others can turn to with questions and to answer them honestly and with integrity.
That same drive to help others has carried Noah into a successful career in medicine. An Associate Professor of Surgery and upper GI and bariatric surgeon at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, Noah also conducts research and advances new approaches to patient care.
He describes himself as someone who enjoys “using my hands more than my mind”. Combine that with his passion for helping people and his willingness to take on a challenge, and becoming a surgeon is a no-brainer (pun intended). Today, Noah brings his full self to work each day while staying fully present in both healthcare and the Jewish community – and the values that have stayed with him since his time at CJA.