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screenshot - Vancouver Jewish community's Public Speaking Contest-a short film
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Tag: Leamore Cohen

Community show at Zack

Community show at Zack

“Open Doors” by Marcie Levitt-Cooper. (photo by Daniel Wajsman)

The group show Community Longing and Belonging, which opened Jan. 15 at the Zack Gallery, marks Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM).

“I heard about community art shows in celebration of JDAIM in other communities,” said Leamore Cohen, inclusion services coordinator at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, who was the driving force behind the local exhibit.

“I thought an unjuried exhibit would be a fabulous way to honour our community-wide commitment to remove barriers, to celebrate our community members’ creative capacities,” she said.

The main idea was to open up participation to everyone – professional artists and amateurs, people of different skill levels, abilities, perspectives, faiths and socioeconomic status.

“To make participation truly inclusive,” said Cohen, “we provided each artist with a 12-by-16 wood panel. We have also been taking direction from Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture and its artistic director, Yuri Arajs, as we wanted to ensure that this event is fully accessible.”

The JDAIM inclusion initiative and month of advocacy began throughout North America in 2009, explained Cohen. The idea for the art exhibit started to take form last spring, when Cohen approached Zack Gallery director Linda Lando.

“Linda was really receptive to the idea of the show.… Once I had the green light from her, the support and use of the gallery,” said Cohen, “I began to focus more on the theme.”

The theme of community and inclusion prompted her next steps. She reached out to many different organizations and communities and invited artists from all over the Lower Mainland to participate. The call for submissions went out in late September, and the response was remarkable. Fifty-two artists are included in the show.

“We have artists from Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, North Vancouver, and even as far out as Cloverdale,” said Cohen. “I’ve had the good fortune to meet all these new and amazingly creative people, welcome them to our community centre, and make new friends along the way. It’s been a joy. It broke my heart that I had to turn many away because of the limited space in the gallery. I have artists who want to sign up for the next year. There is so much excitement and so much more to say on this issue.”

photo - “Embrace” by Evelyn Fichmann
“Embrace” by Evelyn Fichmann. (photo by Daniel Wajsman)

To frame this exhibit, Cohen posed two questions, which are being used in its promotional materials: “How do we make meaning of the concept of community, the real and the imagined spaces we inhabit? What does community longing look like and what are the possibilities for belonging in an ever-changing world?”

“This show was a challenge and an invitation to look at social problems creatively and critically,” Cohen told the Independent. “It was also an opportunity for artists living with diverse needs to exhibit their work in a professional venue and to receive exposure.

“I don’t think we are going to resolve the problems of longing and belonging, or longing for belonging, any time soon. I think we’ll always have people who are better situated and people whose social networks are more tenuous. We should just keep having the conversations and build up those connections. We create new platforms and new access points, new opportunities for people to engage and tell their stories, whatever they look like and from whatever lens, whether it be through mental health, sexual identity, ability or socioeconomic status. We all have a story to tell.”

Cohen shared one example of how the show’s theme relates to her own life.

“The ‘longing’ part of the theme resonates with a lot of people,” she said. “It resonates with me as well. It emerges from my own story of disconnection from the Jewish community during my youth and young adulthood. Fortunately, so, too, does the ‘belonging’ part of this show. The JCC is a wonderful place, a place for belonging.”

photo - “Veselye u Selu” by Daniel Malenica
“Veselye u Selu” by Daniel Malenica. (photo by Daniel Wajsman)

The theme allowed for a number of different approaches, and the skill of the various participating artists varies widely, but the utter diversity becomes its main attraction. Although the size and shape of the canvases – the wooden boards provided by the organizers – are universal, the content is anything but, and so is the media. Some pieces are oils, others acrylic; still others, mixed media. There are abstracts and figurative compositions. Some have narratives. Others evoke emotions. Some have Jewish connotations. Others don’t. Some artists participated solo, while others enrolled as a family group.

Marcie Levitt-Cooper represents one such family. Her painting “Open Doors” depicts a colony of colourful birdhouses. Every door of every birdhouse is open, creating a welcoming avian village, a festive metaphor that makes you smile. No birds appear in the image, but you can almost hear them sing. The artist’s three daughters – Rebecca Wosk, Teddie Wosk and Margaux Wosk – also exhibit in the show.

Another family of artists is mother Elizabeth Snigurowicz and son Matthew Tom Wing. “They regularly come to the Jewish Community Centre inclusion services Art Hive drop-in program, a low-barrier, free art program,” said Cohen.

Daniel Malenica doesn’t have a family in the show, but her charming, pastel-toned piece is a jubilation of the artist’s Croatian roots and her LGBTQ+ community. Two girls embrace each other in the painting, both wear Slavic costumes. The title, “Veselye u Selu,” is the English phonetic spelling of a phrase in the artist’s mother tongue, meaning “Celebration at the Village.”

In Evelyn Fichmann’s painting “Embrace,” the artist, a recent immigrant from Brazil, has incorporated words in English and Hebrew. “Encourage,” “include,” “educate,” “respect,” “engage” and “support” surround the image, all fitting descriptors of what we should strive to do in our communities.

Community Longing and Belonging runs until Jan 27.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Format ImagePosted on January 18, 2019January 16, 2019Author Olga LivshinCategories Visual ArtsTags art, disabilities, inclusion, JDAIM, Leamore Cohen, painting, Zack Gallery
Bagel Club travels to Israel

Bagel Club travels to Israel

The Bagel Club will volunteer at Shalva, the Israel Association for the Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, when they are in Israel. (photo from shalva.org)

The mission of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s inclusion services is “to educate, engage, train and support members with diverse needs and their families in our community.” One of the ways in which they do this is with the Bagel Club, described as “a social club for adults with diverse needs” that promotes Jewish heritage and education. In just over a week, 11 club members will experience the ultimate Jewish heritage and educational experience – a trip to Israel.

As part of its overall mission to “enhance positive identification with Jewish life and Israel and to develop good citizenship and a sense of community and belonging through various partnerships with communities in Israel,” JCC inclusion services coordinator Leamore Cohen told the Independent that, over the last 15 years, “the JCC has arranged for various cohorts, including counselors-in-training, dance troupes and specialty interest groups to experience Israel, sometimes for the very first time. Unfortunately, many of the people with diverse needs, accessing programs through inclusion services at the JCC, had never been to Israel, and many of them are older adults.”

The idea of an inclusion trip – “to allow for this group to travel in a cohort of peers, semi-independently, for a first-time trip, much like young adults do with Birthright or Taglit” – had been percolating for awhile. “We knew we wanted it to happen. It was just a matter of timing,” said Cohen.

The group leaves on Feb. 26, and will be in Israel for 10 days.

“Visiting Israel, including sites that define Israel and the Jewish people, is such an important rite of passage for Jews living outside of Israel,” said Cohen. “The potential for self-discovery and Jewish cultural connection through a trip to Israel is immeasurable. Such trips are essential to our social, cultural and religious preservation and should be shared with all members of our community – that is why the JCC is so fully invested in this trip.”

The trip is being funded by a number of sources, she said, including “the participants, the JCC, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and Partnership2Gether – an initiative that pairs Diaspora communities with regions in Israel to strengthen ties between Canadians and Israelis – and incredibly generous community members.”

Accessibility was, of course, a main consideration in the trip’s planning. In addition to the programming, Cohen said the cost also needed to be accessible.

“The reality is that this population lives on fixed incomes and has limited income-earning capacity. We wanted to correct for that,” she said. “The trip is highly subsidized so that no one who wanted to come would be priced out of the opportunity. We wanted to do things differently and make this an inclusive trip in every sense of the word.”

What makes the Bagel Club’s 10-day trip unique, said Cohen, are “the opportunities we have developed for cross-border community-building, collaboration and disability advocacy. The programming is intended to create friendships across borders and to show an Israel that is inclusive of each individual and yet supportive of individual differences. Our intention is to empower travelers and support their agency through semi-independent travel, while at the same time emphasizing and strengthening community connections through learning collectively, exploring collectively and even volunteering collectively in the Jewish homeland.

screenshot - “Every bucket could hold a treasure waiting to be discovered,” reads the caption in the brief video about Israel’s Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, where visitors can help with the excavations. As part of their trip to Israel, the Bagel Club will take part in the park’s Dig for a Day
“Every bucket could hold a treasure waiting to be discovered,” reads the caption in the brief video about Israel’s Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, where visitors can help with the excavations. As part of their trip to Israel, the Bagel Club will take part in the park’s Dig for a Day. (screenshot from mfa.gov.il)

“During our time in Israel,” she said, “we will volunteer at Shalva, the Israel Association for the Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities; meet with the Access Israel disability advocacy organization; visit the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and meet with Knesset members. We will join an established theatre group of adults with diverse needs for a drama workshop. We will visit Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park for Dig for a Day and take part in an active dig. We will pray at the Wailing Wall and remember at Yad Vashem.

“We will also be spending part of our trip in the Galilee Panhandle, which is our partner region in Israel. During that time, we will participate in an arts and crafts workshop at [the] inclusion occupational centre Ma’arag, together will local residents. We will visit Beit Israel and meet with Krembo Wings youth group (a youth group that works with children with special needs). Also on our itinerary is a visit to the Bereshit apple factory to learn about agriculture and the production process.”

Cohen said she is “honoured to be able to experience Israel with this group.” The 11 participants are David Benbaruj, David Berger, Frederick Dexall, Marc Estrin, Mark Fugman, Julie Huber, Harriet Kositsky, Alisa Polsky, Clark Levykh, Evan Lipsky and Gail Rudin. Joining Cohen in the support-staff capacity are Kathleen Muir, assistant coordinator, inclusion services and youth services at the JCC; Shannon Gorski, managing director of the Betty Averbach Foundation and JCC board member; and Alex Krasniak, community support worker with 26 years in the field.

Cohen noted that February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, “a unified effort amongst Jewish organizations worldwide to raise awareness and foster real and meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities and those who love them community-wide.”

She said the JCC is holding a traditional Birkat HaDerech (Blessing for the Way) ceremony for the Bagel Club travelers on Feb. 19, 11 a.m., at the JCC.

“The invitation is wide open,” she said. “We want to share this simchah with the whole community. It is going to be such a joyful sendoff. We’ll have the Orr Vancouver Israeli Dance troupe performing to commemorate the occasion. Can you imagine a better way to celebrate this month than helping these Jews exercise their birthright?”

Format ImagePosted on February 17, 2017February 15, 2017Author Cynthia RamsayCategories LocalTags Bagel Club, disabilities, inclusion, Israel, JCC, Leamore Cohen
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