|
|
September 25, 2009
An ode to Jewish community
A former Vancouverite writes a letter of appreciation and gratitude.
DEENA LEVENSTEIN
After spending three years in Vancouver, I have moved back to Israel. This is no surprise since I never thought I'd be in British Columbia permanently. All of my immediate family is here, in Israel. Also, I figure, half jokingly, that it's hard to run out of writing material in a place like Israel.
Three years ago, I decided to move to Vancouver because I wanted somewhere totally new. I felt the need to get away from Israel and the many stresses I had here – religiously, culturally. I needed to find a place where I felt the freedom to just be myself and figure out who "myself" is. I wanted this new place to be in Canada (since I'm Canadian), naturally beautiful, with temperate weather and a small Jewish community. In retrospect it seems that besides Victoria, Vancouver literally is the only place that fits this description. So I guess it was basherte, destined to be.
Since my first day in Vancouver when I knew no one and had no idea what I was going to do in the city, I have done so much and feel so good about having come to know so many parts of the community.
Thanks to Rabbi Shmuel Yeshayahu, who I heard about even before I set foot on the West Coast, and Rabbi Avraham Feigelstock, my first job was as secretary at B.C. Kosher. There I got to see the work being done in order to supply our small community with kosher food.
After that, I worked with special needs students at Vancouver Hebrew Academy, where I loved seeing the workings of a small, yet vibrant, Orthodox day school that serves a wide range of families and their children, as the sole Orthodox elementary school in town.
I taught in the Beth Israel Synagogue Sunday school, and I had a great time working with the staff as we tried to accomplish the challenging yet vital feat of making Sunday school enjoyable and meaningful. Turns out it isn't impossible, or so I'd like to think. I will never forget my enthusiastic and loving boss, Harriet Frost.
I think, though, that my last year in Vancouver was the most fulfilling. I had two main jobs. I worked part time at the L'Chaim Adult Day Centre. What an amazing program. L'Chaim is a place where elderly people can spend quality time together in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (and one day a week in Richmond). They have extensive programming touching on every aspect of life – spiritual, emotional, physical – and, to me, most importantly, it was an absolute honor to be part of the relationships kindled there. Probably at least once a day, I would look around at the clients and think how lucky I was to have them in my life.
This year I also started writing for the Independent. Writing is my "thing" but I was always too afraid to actually give it a shot. It is while I was in Vancouver that I finally got the courage to try to fulfil my dream. I'm so grateful to the publisher, Cynthia Ramsay, and the then-editor Ron Friedman (now in Israel as well), for giving me the perfect place to really give it a try. Later, I was also given the opportunity to do proofreading for the paper, a job I really enjoyed. I have learned so much and I am happy that I finally found the courage and the place to try to fulfil that dream.
Because I have no family in Vancouver, suddenly friendships took on a whole other level of importance. Thank God, I made wonderful friends. Almost every single friend I have/had in Vancouver, I met at the Ohel Ya'akov Community Kollel. I would venture to say it is the most important Jewish organization in the city for young adults.
I will also never forget the families that hosted me over and over and over again when I needed that most, being without my family. The families that stick out in my mind, though they are not the only ones, are the Dubrawskys, the Yeshayahus and the Feigelstocks. These are people who warmly invited and welcomed me on a regular basis. There was also a handful of key people who always seemed to be there for me and always jumped in with an offer to give me a hand when they saw I needed one.
So, my time in Vancouver is up. I'm fascinated when I think how much I accomplished and gained over the past three years. I'm excited by the prospect that a person can enter a city knowing no one and leave feeling like she is truly part of a community. I am intrigued by the fact that, even so, it still is not my permanent home. I am sad about all the people I have left behind but feel so much that they are a part of me.
Vancouver houses a vibrant community and I hope it continues to be strong and, hopefully, only become stronger. As someone who came from the centre of the world (Jerusalem!), British Columbia always felt like the edge of the world. It was a perfect destination for me at a time in my life when I needed somewhere to go and I will always remember fondly the city and the community in that beautiful corner of the world. I wish you, the community as a whole and each of you individually, to have a wonderful, productive, meaningful and healthy new year.
Thank you for everything.
Deena Levenstein is a freelance writer in Jerusalem. You can visit her blog at blogmidrash.wordpress.com.
^TOP
|
|
