Pioneer Women having tea, circa 1955. (JWB fonds, JMABC L.12595)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca.
A public service video produced a few years ago and making the rounds again this year hits me close to home. Produced by the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund and called Dear 16-Year-Old Me, the video warns of the dangers of melanoma and the importance of sun smarts and mole checks.
When I was 21, I had just recently returned from a year living in Israel, where I attended Hebrew University. One morning in Vancouver as summer was winding down, I was flipping through the Vancouver Sun at my parents’ kitchen table and paused on a full-page feature about melanoma.
I glanced over at my right forearm. I had long had a mole there, but now I noticed the mole contained one of the warning signs of melanoma: rather than being a uniform brown, it had a darker spot on a medium-brown background. Overcoming my fear of needles and scalpels, I insisted that my family doctor remove the mole.
A week later, back in Montreal for my final year of university at McGill, I received a call from my parents that I should make an appointment with a plastic surgeon as soon as possible. The biopsy results had come back and I indeed had malignant melanoma, thankfully only to a depth of 0.4 millimetres – so far. I was more scared than I’d ever been. One of my best friends scooped me up that evening for a distracting sojourn on St. Laurent Boulevard.
A few days later, I left my flat in the McGill Ghetto and went to the Jewish General Hospital. My surgeon, the late Dr. Jack Cohen, was a much-admired member of the medical profession in Montreal. He was also an excellent amateur whistler, and I asked him to whistle through the surgery to help calm my nerves. He warmly complied before leaving me with a formidable scar: a small price to pay for saving my life.
That night, swaddled and bandaged, I walked over to the McGill Arts Building to hear Canadian author Michael Ondaatje read from his latest novel. As the evening closed, the painkillers began to wear off.
My friends and family know that because of my melanoma history, I am much less fancy-free when it comes to summer fun than many of my fellow Canadians who are desperate for sunlight after our country’s seemingly endless winters.
I take care to wear hats and sunscreen (I seek out favorite brands and stick to them). I constantly seek out shade. I don’t sunbathe. I don’t turn my face to the sun and quip about needing vitamin D; instead, I take oral supplements.
As for sun-smart clothes, this season’s “maxi dress” fashion trend has helped a little. And, with the recent development of vitiligo on parts of my body, my vanity helps me want to avoid the sun for the cosmetic goal of keeping an even skin tone, as well.
When I’m feeling sarcastic, I joke that my Zionism – given the first of three years I spent in Israel – gave me melanoma. Sometimes, I look wistfully at the last photograph of my pre-surgery arm, my near-deadly mole visible as I sport a large backpack, smiling for the camera while waiting for the Egged bus from Jerusalem to take me to kibbutz Urim, one of my favorite weekend hangouts.
When I’m feeling ironic, I think about how the religious laws of modesty that I often privately disdain are actually very prudent for protecting the body from the dangers of the sun’s rays. It is for the reason of modest dress, researchers have inferred, that Palestinian citizens of Israel develop melanoma at lower rates than that of Jewish Israelis.
When I’m feeling especially cautious – which is always, when summer comes – I’m careful to apply sunscreen to my kids each morning. No one said that the sticky, daily ritual was fun. But it’s important.
I try not to saddle my kids with more fear than they deserve to have in their innocent years. Life is scary, and we need to protect ourselves where we can.
Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. This article was originally published in the Canadian Jewish News.
Traveling by car between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in 1973. (photo by Edgar Asher)
In the 1970s, Edgar Asher worked at BBC Television News as a photojournalist. In 1973, he went to Israel to take photos of the country, mainly for the Ministry of Tourism, but also to update the BBC stills library. It was his first trip – he and his family would make aliya in 1975.
There’s almost nothing better than eating outside in the summer. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
Think lazy summer days. Think warm evenings under a star-strewn sky. Think entertaining friends. Think luscious fruits, the chill of ice cream on your tongue, party desserts to tempt your palate. It’s time to be adventurous and try some wonderful summer puddings and desserts.
When the mercury soars, making a fancy dessert can seem like a tall order. The solution is to do most of the work in the cool of the morning or the night before. Finish the preparation at the last minute and present it with a flourish.
Here are a few tips you should keep in mind before trying out the recipes that follow. Egg whites for soufflés and meringues should always be beaten at room temperature, the eggs removed from the refrigerator two hours before beating. They should be fresh and, when you separate the whites, make sure not a speck of yolk gets in. One foolproof method is to break the egg into a saucer, covering the yolk with half an eggshell. Tilt the saucer, pouring off the whites into a clean, dry bowl and use dry beaters. Add a pinch of salt to the whites before beating.
The success of making good cold and frozen puddings often depends on using gelatin (all supermarkets in Israel and many abroad sell a kosher version). Stir it into cold liquid and only afterwards add to the hot mixture. When turning out a frozen pudding, wring out a towel in hot water and hold it over the mold for a few seconds … it will then slide out easily. Egg custards should never be allowed to boil: cook on very low heat or in a double boiler, stirring all the time.
So, let’s get started!
AMBROSIA
6 oranges
2 red apples
1 small tin pineapple rings
3 bananas
a few cherries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup liqueur or sweet sherry
1 cup chilled, whipped cream
other seasonal fruits as desired
Peel and remove skin from oranges. Slice unpeeled apples into thin rings. Peel and slice bananas. Cover apples and bananas with lemon juice to avoid discoloration. Drain pineapples, remove stones from cherries and halve.
In a glass dish, layer the fruit, sprinkling each layer with a teaspoon of sugar. Reserve cherries for the top. To the pineapple syrup, add liqueur or sherry and pour over the fruit. Cover tightly and chill overnight.
Serve with cream that is passed around in a separate bowl.
MIXED BERRY COBBLERS
6 cups mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, fresh or frozen)
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup instant tapioca
biscuit topping:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp wheat germ
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/4 cup chilled unsalted butter cut into small pieces
1/2 cup milk
1 egg white lightly beaten
1 tbsp sugar
Pre-heat oven to 375˚F.
Mix berries, lemon zest and juice, sugar and tapioca in large bowl until well combined. Let stand 15 minutes. Spoon one cup of the mixture into each of six one-cup ramekins. Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly.
For the topping, stir together flour, wheat germ, baking powder and salt in a medium-size bowl. Cut in the butter with two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk. (The dough will be sticky.)
Remove the baking sheet with ramekins from the oven. Gently stir the filling in each ramekin. Drop 1/4 cup of dough over each ramekin, brushing the dough with egg white. Sprinkle with sugar. Return to the oven, and bake a further 20 minutes until topping is golden. Serve in the ramekins, warm and topped with whipped or ice cream.
APPLE SPONGE PUDDING
4 large cooking apples
2 sticks cinnamon
4 tbsp sugar
300 grams stale cake
1/2 cup thick, whipped cream
Cut up the peeled apples and cook them with the cinnamon and a little water until soft. Grate the cake or crumble to crumbs. In a glass dish, put a thin layer of mashed apple, sprinkle with sugar and cover with a layer of cake crumbs. Continue until all the cake and apples are used up. Spread cream smoothly on top and chill. Serve very cold.
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
250 grams plain chocolate
4 eggs
4 tbsp sherry or sweet red wine
Cut chocolate into small pieces and melt over hot water.
Separate whites and yolks from the eggs. Beat yolks thickly and stir into chocolate until blended. Add a pinch of salt to the whites and beat till very stiff. Fold into the chocolate mixture with sherry. Spoon into glass dishes, chill and serve.
PINEAPPLE SUPREME
1 large pineapple
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp rum
2 tbsp butter
1 cup whipped, sweetened cream
Slice off pineapple top to make a “lid.” Trim base so that the pineapple stands upright. Scoop out flesh and cut into pieces, removing the core. Sweeten with sugar and rum, then put the mixture back into the shell. Dot top with pieces of butter and wrap the pineapple in foil. Wrap the “lid” separately in foil. Stand upright on baking sheet and bake in hot oven (350˚F) for 45 minutes. Remove foil and cover with “lid.” Place pineapple on serving dish and serve with cream or ice cream separately.
GRAPE-PINEAPPLE ICE CREAM
1 cup grape juice
1/2 cup drained, crushed pineapple
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup pineapple syrup
1/2 cup water
Heat the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves completely. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well. Pour into ice trays and freeze until hard. Remove to a chilled bowl and beat for one minute, until fluffy and light. Return to trays and freeze three hours.
Serve in chilled glasses topped with fresh mint leaves.
Dvora Waysman is the author of 13 books. She can be contacted at ways@netvision.net.il or through her blog dvorawaysman.com.
While it might be hard to contemplate cooking on these hot summer days, there are a few recent cookbooks enticing enough to draw you into the kitchen – with savory results.
Jewish Soul Food: From Minsk to Marrakesh (Schocken Publishers, 2014) is Janna Gur’s third cookbook. It follows The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey (Schocken, 2008), and she also edited and published Fresh Flavors from Israel (Al Hashulchan, 2010).
Gur’s family immigrated to Israel from Riga, Latvia, in 1974. She completed a bachelor’s degree in English literature and art history and a master’s degree in translation and literary theory. In 1991, she and her husband founded Al Hashulchan, a Hebrew food magazine.
In an interview with thekitchn.com, Gur explains that she wrote this new cookbook “to give the North American audience a taste of what Jewish foods could be – how diverse and wonderful they are, and how possible it is to make them a part of our modern cooking.”
Gur’s aim was to make a focused, edited and approachable collection of 100 recipes from as many Jewish communities as possible. She wanted them to be authentic, to fit the modern kitchen and to answer the question, What is the soul of the dish “that makes us relish it and want to make it ours?”
The eight chapters include starters, salads and noshes (23 recipes); cozy soups for chilly nights (14 recipes); meat balls, fish balls and stuffed vegetables (10 recipes); braises, pot roasts and ragus (13 recipes); meatless mains (12 recipes); savory pastries (11 recipes); Shabbat state of mind (10 recipes); and cakes, cookies and desserts (20 recipes).
There are 94 color illustrations, which are beautiful and mouth-watering.
For me, as a cook, the three most useful aspects of a cookbook are all here: every recipe has its country of origin, a brief story and numbered instructions.
And what wonderful countries of origin for these recipes – Morocco, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Algeria, Libya, North Africa, Georgia, Kurdistan, Russia, Persia, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Iraq, India, Yemen and America. As the book’s promotional material notes, the cuisines from most of these countries may be “on the verge of extinction … because almost none of the Jewish communities in which they developed and thrived still exist. But they continue to be viable in Israel, where there are still cooks from the immigrant generations who know and love these dishes. Israel has become a living laboratory for this beloved and endangered Jewish food.” And the hope for Jewish Soul Food is that it will help “preserve traditional cuisine for future generations” by encouraging people to cook it.
For more about Gur, visit jannagur.com.
***
Former Wall Street lawyer Ronnie Fein decided to become a freelance food and kitchen appliance writer. This led to the Ronnie Fein School of Creative Cooking, lecturing and cooking demonstrations – and cookbooks. She has written several, but describes Hip Kosher: 175 Easy-to-Prepare Recipes for Today’s Kosher Cooks (Da Capo Press, 2008) and The Modern Kosher Kitchen: More than 125 Inspired Recipes for a New Generation of Kosher Cooks (Fair Winds Press, 2014) as “more labors of love.”
She writes on her website (ronniefein.com): “They are, like this website, my efforts to bring the world of kosher cooking into 21st-century America. Just as our kosher ancestors cooked the same foods as their neighbors in Eastern Europe or the Middle East or wherever they happened to live, and adapted it to the dietary laws, why shouldn’t we, right here in America?”
Fein says she wrote The Modern Kosher Kitchen “to try to inspire all home cooks who keep kosher and would like to prepare the kinds of foods that informed, sophisticated – hip – folks want to cook today.”
And the focus is, indeed, on modern American recipes – “multicultural, innovative and interesting.” Every recipe is marked meat, dairy or pareve, and every recipe has some introductory remarks, which I think make the recipe so much more personal and interesting. As well, every recipe has a “Did you know?” or serving suggestions and substitutions. Most recipes also have a boxed tip, piece of advice. When a recipe runs to a second page, it is always opposite, so the cook does not have to turn the page while working.
The 12 chapters include appetizers; soups; salads; grains, beans, pasta and vegetarian dishes; fish; meat; poultry; vegetables and side dishes; breakfast, brunch and sandwiches; budget meals; Passover dishes and desserts. Ingredients are listed in imperial measurements as well as metric.
Although there are 127 recipes, there are only 39 beautiful, mouth-watering color photographs – but that is certainly not a reason to pass up this book. My only criticism about the cookbook is that the instructions are in paragraphs and not numbered, which I find easier to follow.
***
Rounding out these reviews is not a kosher cookbook per se, however, by eliminating the cheese or using pareve chicken stock, some of the recipes could be adapted.
Amy Riolo (amyriolo.com) is an Italian American whose ancestors came from Calabria. She is the author of many cookbooks, a chef and a TV personality, so I felt that her most recent publication – The Ultimate Mediterranean Diet Cookbook (Fair Winds Press, 2015) – was worth noting.
The 101 recipes in this book were included because of their taste, authenticity and nutritional value. They are low in fat, cholesterol and sodium, and packed with vitamins, minerals and healthful properties. There are also seven recipes specifically listed as alternatively gluten free.
The recipes are organized according to the Mediterranean diet pyramid with fruits, vegetables, grains, olive oil, beans, nuts, legumes and seeds, herbs and spices at the bottom, for every meal to be based on these foods. Above them are fish and seafood to be served twice a week. Above them are poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt to be served in moderate portions daily or weekly. At the top of the pyramid are the least-served foods – meats and sweets.
Categorizing the recipes to give the reader an idea of what is included, one can find recipes for seven soups, five fish meals, four breads, six pasta, eight appetizers and sauces, five dips, three egg dishes, one sandwich, five poultry meals, eight side dishes, eight salads, eight main dishes, nine vegetables, 10 fruit dishes and six desserts.
Each recipe has a little story, the list of ingredients opposite the instructions (regrettably, not numbered) and a boxed Mediterranean lifestyle tip to “enhance the daily living aspects of the eating plan,” along with meal plans and serving suggestions.
At the end are a glossary with pantry foods defined, a bibliography and a selection of websites, magazine/newspaper articles and journals for further reading.
The 69 color illustrations are so tempting cooks will be motivated to rush to the kitchen to start making these dishes.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly walks in English in Jerusalem’s market.
Goodies from Sarina Chocolate’s kids workshop. (photo by Viva Sarah Press)
Israeli chocolatiers aren’t worried about the reported shortage of the sweet treat despite warnings by the world’s largest cocoa grinder, Barry Callebaut, that a potential chocolate shortage by 2020 is imminent.
“There will always be chocolate,” Limor Drucker of Sarina Chocolate told this reporter. “As long as there’s a demand, people will make it.”
“Originally, only kings were able to get chocolate. As long as people want it, people will grow it. I think reports of a shortage in chocolate are a marketing tool to get people to pay more,” added Jo Zander, co-founder of Holy Cacao.
Visitors centres and chocolate-making workshops like Sarina have popped up around Israel as the domestic gourmet chocolate scene continues to grow. From Sweet N’ Karem in Jerusalem to Sarina Chocolate in the Sharon region, to Galita Chocolate Farm near the Kinneret to De Karina Chocolate Factory in the Golan Heights, to Hagit Lidror’s Vegan Chocolate in the Western Galilee, hands-on workshops on making pralines and other chocolate treats are popular.
Israel has a Chocolate Museum in the Upper Galilee and annual chocolate festivals.
“What’s more important for me than how many chocolatiers there are in Israel, is what kind of chocolate Israelis are eating. There’s more awareness of good quality chocolate,” Drucker said. “The level is going up. Today, people understand what makes good chocolate.”
Israeli cacao trees?
At Sarina Chocolate, the workshop begins at the hothouse. This is the only place in Israel where visitors can see cacao trees.
Drucker had worked as an English teacher before becoming a chocolatier. In 1999, her husband, Gil, who is an agriculturalist and grows oranges, was relocated for a job to Germany and they lived there for six years. During that time, she decided to take a course in chocolate-making at Barry Callebaut Academy.
She was hooked. Fine-tuning her craft came via internships and visits to chocolatiers in Europe and North America. Upon returning to Israel in 2005, she and her husband decided to “build this centre from scratch on our own land” in Ein Vered, a moshav near Netanya. After five years of bureaucracy and licensing procedures, Sarina Chocolate opened at Rosh Hashanah 2010.
The Druckers decided that cacao trees would add an educational element to their venture. On a visit to a nursery not far from their home, they met a salesman who had brought cacao seeds to Israel from Brazil “because he wanted to be able to say that he had every type of tree at his nursery.” He had tried to grow the trees in Israel with little success. The Druckers bought all six of his seedlings.
Though Israel’s weather is not ripe for these tropical trees, the Druckers created a singular hothouse replete with special air-conditioning units, sprinkler systems and drip irrigation. The six cacao trees may need pruning so as not to split open the roof of the hothouse, but their yield is zilch.
“We don’t make our own chocolate. Six trees are not enough to make chocolate,” she said. “So, why do we have this place if we don’t make chocolate? We have them to teach and show people how the process is made. We leave the cocoa fruit on the trees as long as possible for people to be able to see.”
The Druckers received a one-time grant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Israel when they first set up the hothouse, but today all energy and care costs are their responsibility. “It’s worth the investment because we’re the only ones in Israel with the cacao trees,” she said. “It’s special.”
Get your hands dirty
From the hothouse, visitors are taken to a square mosaic at the entrance to the centre. Here, Drucker tells the abbreviated history of chocolate from the Mayans to the Aztecs to Christopher Columbus presenting these brown beans to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, to Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez, who is credited with being the first to add sugar to cocoa beans, to modern-day chocolate habits.
A short film highlights the health benefits of chocolate, and shows how the beans are dried, ground and mixed into chocolate sludge before being cooled, molded and packaged.
Visitors, decked out in aprons and chef hats, are now ready to get their hands dirty.
Eating chocolate is one thing, but actually trying to mold it is a whole other experience. Squeezing the chocolate through a cornetto (funnel) is harder than it looks, as the chocolate quickly hardens.
The kids workshop includes fondue dipping, cupcake decorating and making milk-chocolate discs with outlined white-chocolate pictures, as well as three-chocolate molded lollipops. Adult workshop participants get to play with alcohol fillings, premium ingredients and chocolate-making techniques. Like the other chocolate centres throughout Israel, Sarina has workshops for families, businesses, wedding parties, bar- and bat-mitzvah events and birthday parties.
Drucker – who was born in Congo, grew up in South Africa and immigrated to Israel with her family in her late teens – conducts the workshops in both English and Hebrew.
“The centre is designed to be an experience for all the senses,” she said. When the hardened chocolates are brought out of the refrigerator and displayed on the counter, they look almost too good to eat.
Demand for quality
Whereas mass-produced, low-grade chocolate candy bars used to suffice, today Israelis demand better texture and flavors.
Most of the chocolatiers in Israel – and around the world – use ready-made industrial chocolate processed in Europe. The innovation and creativity kicks in when the imported product is formed into pralines, truffles or flavored confections.
One Israeli company, Holy Cacao, actually imports cocoa beans, grinds them and mixes its own chocolate.
“We’re proud to be Israeli chocolate. Do we do it to be the most profitable? No. We grind our own beans for quality,” said Zander.
“The demand for chocolate has always been more than the supply. The demand for our chocolate is greater outside of Israel. We sell to the health market. I’m not sure why our top sellers are 100% cocoa mass with no sugar.”
Sarina Chocolate, named for Drucker’s late mother, adds its own flavors to fine Belgian chocolate. “I love working with chocolate,” she said, confiding that she prefers working with it than eating it. She also loves the reaction her job elicits from others. “I just tell people I’m a chocolatier, and they start smiling.”
Israel21C is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.
Left to right are artists Robin Adams, Jan Smith and Julie Kemble. (photo by Olga Livshin)
In common perception, the word “manufacture” is associated with industrial production and machinery, but it wasn’t always so. The word’s origins are found in manu factus, Latin for “made by hand,” and the new show at the Zack Gallery, Manufacture: From the Hand, takes visitors back to these roots.
The show presents beautiful handmade jewelry and wall hangings by 33 artists and craftspeople, members of the Vancouver Metal Arts Association (VMAA). Crafts are not a regular sight at the Zack, but gallery director Linda Lando explained, “The Vancouver Metal Arts Association has been welcomed to the Zack Gallery, as they … approach metal in a unique way. They use metal as one would use paint and canvas, so their creations bridge the gap between art and craft.”
The exhibition is eclectic in both imagery and materials, with each piece reflecting its creator’s personality. The entire show emphasizes the participants’ diversity in cultural backgrounds and artistic interests. The only common factor is metal – gold, silver, copper, brass and others – as the basis for their art.
The Independent talked to several of the featured artists. One of them, Julie Kemble, is a recently retired communications teacher from a local university, although she always enjoyed various artistic hobbies. “I started working with metal around year 2000,” she said. “I used to work with fibres. I guess I love body adornment, so it was a natural transition for me from fabrics to jewelry. They both adorn the body.” A Kemble sculpture could be used as a desk decoration or worn as a pendant. In both incarnations, they are charming.
Robin Adams has been a jeweler for more than 20 years. “I owned a jewelry shop before,” said the professional craftsman. “I sold my own jewelry there, but for a shop, you produce several copies of the same pieces. Now, everything I make is one of a kind. I’m an artist.”
Another jeweler in the show, Jana Kucera, currently manages a pub. “Art, making jewelry, is a hobby for me, but I hope it could become more,” she said. “I’ve always been an artist at heart. I graduated from the VCC [Vancouver Community College] Jewelry Art and Design program in 2005 and I enjoy making jewelry. I sell through shows like this one.” Her original copper necklaces are delightfully graceful.
The exhibition showcases not only jewelry but other metal art, as well. One full gallery wall is dedicated to Dana Reed’s series of hanging disks. Each about the size of a hand, the disks combine copper etching, enamel and photography.
Reed has been working with metal for a few years. “My day job is in administration and tech support,” she said, but “I’ve always made stuff; my whole family made beautiful things.” Her brother is a metalworker, too, and although Reed doesn’t have a formal artistic education, she has been taking classes in different artistic media. “I find metal to be pleasing to work with. It stays in place,” she joked before turning serious. “I can achieve precision with metal, while enamel allows more of a free-fashion imagery.”
Among the other wall pieces in the show is a selection of life-sized garden tools, made of Damascene by Karin Jones – a decidedly unexpected item – and a small but picturesque installation called “Changing Values,” made of pennies by Peggy Logan.
Logan has been a professional artist for 30 years. Currently, she is teaching jewelry art at Langara. “I started collecting old pennies when they went out of circulation,” she said. “Before 1993, all pennies were made of copper, and I used them for this piece.” The pennies, strung together and covered with multicolored enamel, glint on the wall, defying the government’s decision to stop producing them.
Another professional artist in the show is Jan Smith, VMAA founder and past president. Her elegant enamel and silver jewelry is represented by galleries in Montreal, San Francisco and Seattle.
“I’ve been an artist for over 20 years,” she said. “It’s not easy to make a living as an artist, especially not here in B.C. I’ve often had to supplement my income by teaching art or working as an art therapist. I’m a member of the International Enamel Association. It’s a small world and we all know and talk to each other. I must tell you that other countries support their artists much better than Canada. Britain, even America, offers better conditions to artists. Their art donations are larger. I’d love to have my art better known here but, so far, collectors in the U.S. know my art better. Even the East Coast is better for artists; I have representation in Montreal but not here. Maybe it is because Vancouver is such a young city.”
Three years ago, Smith founded VMAA to improve the situation. Current VMAA president Louise Perrone told the Independent a little more about the association. “The VMAA was founded by Jan Smith in 2012. Before moving to Salt Spring Island, she lived in Seattle, where there is a thriving metal arts guild. Jan felt Vancouver needed something similar. Unlike Seattle, there are no specific jewelry galleries and no jewelry and metal BFA programs. There is no community of artistic jewelry collectors in Vancouver supporting us either. That is why we started VMAA – to give art jewelry a platform and educate the public, to build a community of jewelry and metal artists.”
Manufacture: From the Hand opened on June 25 and will continue until July 26. To see a selection of the jewelry on display, visit jccgv.com/content/metalart.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.
When focusing on Israeli-Palestinian relations, as I do for a living, it’s nice to have a good news story to relay once in awhile. On June 22, the annual Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East (run by the New York-based Institute of International Education) was awarded to Yehuda Stolov and Salah Aladdin, two leaders of the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA). To many outsiders, inter-ethnic encounter experiences seem a no-brainer when it comes to grassroots, peace-building efforts. But not everyone is so convinced, particularly the “anti-normalization” faction of the Palestine solidarity movement.
The Goldberg Prize recognizes “outstanding work being conducted jointly by two individuals, one Arab and one Israeli, working together to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East … [by] bringing people together and breaking down the barriers of hatred toward ‘the other.’” It comes with $10,000 US.
IEA brings together Israelis and West Bank Palestinians to engage with one another in an “interactive, interfaith encounter” context. The organization has run 1,900 programs over 13 years, with 4,000 individuals participating in 2014 alone. Stolov is executive director of IEA, and Aladdin has taken on various leadership roles in the organization, most recently as assistant director.
The so-called “anti-normalization” movement is amplified by elements of the Palestine solidarity movement who associate with BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions). For example, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel guidelines urge that Israeli-Palestinian encounter-type initiatives be boycotted under the rubric of “anti-normalization.” The guidelines go on to suggest that “events, projects, publications, films or exhibitions that are designed to bring together Palestinians/Arabs and Israelis so they can present their respective narratives or perspectives, or to work toward reconciliation, ‘overcoming barriers,’ etc., without addressing the root causes of injustice and the requirements of justice” be boycotted.
The anti-normalization tendency may be understandable as a philosophical commitment, particularly if one believes – as those BDS activists do – that justice points to the amelioration of only one side’s lot. But even if one believes that the only justice to be served is that of the Palestinians, the anti-normalization tendency is a misguided way to hope to achieve it.
Psychologists have long shown the importance of the “contact hypothesis” for reducing intergroup prejudice. Recent studies have even shown that even “imagining a positive interaction” with an outgroup member can be just as powerful in reducing prejudice as face-to-face encounters can be. And the first step in getting Israelis to realize the power their country wields over Palestinian life and dignity is to render the Palestinian experience visible.
Stolov agrees. The only way to end the occupation, Stolov explained when I reached him by phone in Israel, is to increase the sense of human connection between Israelis and Palestinians. Aware of the anti-normalization pressures some participants may feel, participation in IEA is kept “under the radar,” press access is restricted and meeting spots are chosen so the events can appear as inconspicuous as possible.
As the lead Palestinian drafter of the 2003 Geneva initiative, which sought to lay out a two-state plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, Ghaith al-Omari has every reason to be jaded. And having advised the Palestinian negotiating team from 1999 to 2001, al-Omari knows firsthand how little has emerged from the halting peace process. Still, he has recently declared his opposition to the anti-normalization movement in a moving essay in Fikra Forum, reprinted on the Third Narrative website (thirdnarrative.org/israel-palestine-articles/ills-of-anti-normalization), where I serve as co-director of its scholars for Israel and Palestine affiliate group. People like al-Omari and the founders of IEA and even the Goldberg peace prize visionaries realize the possibilities inherent in hope rather than cynicism. And if you have to choose among them – as it seems you do these days – I’d rather be on the side of hope.
Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. This article was originally published in the Canadian Jewish News.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre at the Jan. 11, 2015, rally in Montreal in support of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting. (photo by Gerry Lauzon via commons.wikimedia.org)
A hate crimes department within the city’s police force might be a good idea, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said following a meeting with Jewish community leaders from Quebec and France at Montreal’s city hall on June 25.
Coderre and members of his executive committee held a two-hour closed-door session to discuss what role cities can play in combating antisemitism in Montreal and globally. He underlined the frequent link between antisemitism and radicalization and its violent expression.
Unlike forces in many North American cities, the Service de Police de Montréal (SPVM) does not have a unit dedicated to investigating crimes suspected to be motivated by hatred of identifiable groups. Coderre said he will meet the SPVM to pursue the possibility.
“We have good people [in the police] who are doing a good job now, but we have to look into whether we can do things a better way and learn from best practices [elsewhere],” he said.
That was the most concrete suggestion coming out of the meeting.
The mayor’s main message after the meeting was that “we have to call a spade a spade.… Antisemitism exists, here and around the world. We have to denounce it, we have to talk about it, we have to understand that clearly something is going on and we must be there to fight it.”
The meeting was the fulfilment of a promise that Coderre had made to leaders of the French Jewish community when he visited Paris in February, shortly after the murderous terrorist attacks at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office and Hyper-Cacher kosher grocery store.
Present at the meeting, from France, were Serge Dahan, president of B’nai B’rith France, and Yonathan Arfi, vice-president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, as well as leaders of Federation CJA, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the Communauté Sépharade Unifiée du Québec and B’nai Brith Canada.
Julien Bauer, a Université du Québec à Montréal political science professor, and Mount Royal MP and human rights activist Irwin Cotler participated as experts on antisemitism.
Coderre hopes that Montreal and Paris can cooperate especially closely on strategies to combat antisemitism and make their cities safer.
Coderre called antisemitism “the oldest and most persistent” form of racism and warned against a tendency to “trivialize” it. He also recognized that anti-Zionism often cloaks contemporary antisemitism.
The meeting was also a followup to the June 10-11 Montreal Summit on Living Together, a gathering of 23 mayors from around the world convened by Coderre to examine how municipalities can prevent radicalism and ensure security, starting by promoting respect for diversity and harmony among the different cultural groups in their citizenry.
The City of Montreal, also in the wake of the Paris attacks, announced plans for a new centre aimed at preventing violent radicalism. So far, it consists of a telephone hotline to report information on suspected radical activity. Coderre said that the centre can play a role in preventing antisemitism. He wants to form partnerships with the schools, civil society and others in this endeavor.
Coderre said he plans to make the discussion on antisemitism an annual event, and believes that Montreal can serve as a model of how to combat racism and radicalism, while achieving “a balance between openness and vigilance.”
“The more we talk about it, the more it will have a positive effect,” he said.
CIJA Quebec vice-president Luciano Del Negro applauded Coderre’s commitment in taking on the “challenge” of combating antisemitism.
He especially appreciated that the mayor recognizes the distinctiveness of antisemitism among forms of racism, and that antisemitism is not only a phenomenon of the extreme right, but also the far left.
Similarly, Cotler applauded Coderre’s “exemplary leadership” and recognition that “municipalities not only have a role, but a responsibility, to combat antisemitism.”
– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.
The Islamist group ISIS is the most technologically and media-savvy terror group ever. Their propaganda employs the highest calibre of videography and documentation. The images they capture – and successfully disseminate to the world – are among the most gruesome imaginable.
Just last week, well-produced films showed the group drowning five men in a cage and included footage of the men’s deaths captured by underwater cameras. The same video showed men being bound together at the neck by a fuse connected to explosives, like a chain of firecrackers.
On the very day that these horrendous images were leading every newscast, federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau appeared on the CBC in an interview with veteran reporter Terry Milewski. Trudeau, who voted a few weeks ago against extending the Canadian military’s contributions to fighting ISIS, insisted that, were he to win the election this October, the Canadian military’s efforts against ISIS would end.
“If you don’t want to bomb a group as ghastly as ISIS, when would you ever support real military action?” asked Milewski.
The would-be prime minister’s reply to this legitimate and, indeed, crucial question: “Terry, that’s a nonsensical question.”
The nonsense is Trudeau’s.
It is true that Western powers cannot cure the world of every despot and dictatorship. The United States military has worn itself out and tested the dedication of military families trying. Yet there are times when action cannot be avoided.
Milewski gave Trudeau the opportunity to clarify what he was saying, to ensure that this was not another of the Liberal leader’s rookie mistakes. But, no, this was what Trudeau had come on television to say.
Whether one adheres to ethical pacifism or not, it is a coherent ideology. But this is not what Trudeau is proposing. He is not suggesting that Canada abandon its military or become a neutral state. He is saying that Canadian forces should not be deployed against ISIS. OK, then. If our admittedly limited military force is not mobilized against ISIS, what cause would we mobilize against? In what circumstances does “Never again” come into play, if not against the actions of a group such as ISIS?
It must be noted, of course, that Trudeau’s position mirrors that of New Democratic party leader Thomas Mulcair. The New Democrats also voted against extending the mission against ISIS and this position is equally flawed. But it is at least consistent with the worldview of a party that has never been burdened with the mantle of government. NDP governments at the provincial level have often risen to the occasion and discovered pragmatism when power has been thrust upon them. Should some current polls bear out and Mulcair were to become prime minister, the confluence of common sense, the magnitude of power and the need to reach out to experienced hands would almost certainly adjust their foreign policy. Perhaps we are being too generous, but Mulcair has taken a party whose foreign policy (especially vis-a-vis Israel) had become a fringe circus and brought it more in line with European parties of the left (for whatever that is worth).
Unfortunately, the Liberal case is quite different. Say what one will about the value of the Senate these days, those who served as Liberals in the upper chamber represented a cache of experience at governing that Trudeau desperately lacks. Last year, Trudeau threw them out of his caucus in a showy spectacle meant to demonstrate leadership. He is left with a caucus of 36 MPs, most of whom, in the immortal words of a former prime minister who happens to have been the current Liberal leader’s father, are “nobodies 50 feet off Parliament Hill.” It is not clear that he is seeking out or receiving rational foreign policy advice from anyone.
What makes Trudeau’s position most atrocious is that it seems to have been taken for the worst reasons. The Liberals, as is a perennial problem for opposition parties, must oppose. But foreign policy is a tricky area in which to plant a political flag. Foreign affairs should not be off limits, by any means, to criticism and differences of opinion. Yet neither should the serious issues of foreign policy be subject to knee-jerk political considerations. But this seems to be part of the explanation for Trudeau’s position.
Another likely motivating factor is that the NDP has been peeling anti-Harper votes away from the Liberals. There is a very real possibility that, if polling trajectories continue, the majority of Canadians who seek to end the Conservative government’s tenure will move en masse to the party that polls suggest is most fit to achieve that end. To stanch the flow to the NDP, Trudeau seems ready to abandon the victims of ISIS.
The irony of this entire balagan is that Trudeau’s actions will probably have precisely the opposite effect on potential Liberal voters.
