Luc Roderique as Usnavi and Sharon Crandall as Abuela Claudia in Arts Club’s In the Heights. (photo by David Cooper) Even before the musical starts, the set draws you in. Then the music, the lighting, the actors, the choreography. It’s…
Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield at Limmud Winnipeg. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa) It was a packed room at the Gray Academy of Jewish Education during Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield’s session on gossip at Winnipeg’s Limmud festival in March. Some 80 attendees listened as…
Jewish Icelanders preparing and celebrating Pesach with Chabad last month. (photos from Rabbi Berel Pewzner via Karen Ginsberg) During a trip to Iceland in 2010, I had the pleasure of talking with a small number of Jews who called Iceland…
This photo and caption appeared in the Jewish Western Bulletin, Aug. 23, 1946. May 5, 1945, is firmly etched in my “child’s” mind for that was the day of my family’s liberation or, more accurately, what remained of my family.…
Israel is contributing to efforts to aid and assist the Nepalese government to reach, rescue and treat injured victims of the recent earthquake. The IDF has set up a comprehensive field hospital and also has flown out emergency rations and…
The 2014 Jewish Federation annual campaign has closed with a record achievement of $8 million, which is an increase of $290,000 from last year. Funds will support critical programs and services on which thousands of community members rely. Harvey Dales,…
Growing up, the writer was involved in community campaigns to help free Soviet and other Jews suffering state-sponsored, organized persecution. These campaigns were international and Vancouver youth also participated in them. Here are but two of the many items in…
Editorial in the Jewish Independent’s predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin, March 20, 1931. The JI spoke with four friends of the newspaper from longtime Vancouver Jewish community families about the value and future of a Jewish community newspaper: Gary Averbach,…
The Feb. 5, 1931, editorial, “A cultural program,” in the Jewish Western Bulletin laid out some of the hopes, dreams and challenges to the beginnings of organized arts and cultural programming in the Jewish community of Vancouver. In many ways, today’s…
It is with warm memories and appreciation that I reflect on the opportunity I had from 1970 through 1985 to serve, at different times, as the Jewish Western Bulletin’s editorial assistant, city-desk editor and assistant editor – all the while…
A singles ad placed in the Bulletin by father-son team Ron and Steve Freedman in 1992 led to the engagement (in 1997) of their son/brother David to Betty-Mae Coblenz, who were married in 1998. Ron Freedman, who passed away in December 2014,…
בפועל בלקברי רכשה את חברת הסטארט-אפ הישראלית וואצ’דוג. (צילום: Kārlis Dambrāns via wikimedia.org) בלקברי עושה עלייה מובטחת: תיפתח לראשונה מרכז פיתוח בישראל חברת הסמרטפונס הקנדית בלקברי (שהמטה שלה נמצא בווטרלו אונטריו) תיפתח לראשונה מרכז פיתוח בישראל. המרכז בפתח תקווה ויועסקו…
Eran Riklis, director of Dancing Arabs. (photo from Mongrel Media) Dancing Arabs, which was part of the most recent Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, has its general release on May 15. A multilayered coming-of-age story, the screenplay is by Sayed Kashua,…
Dr. Adele Diamond, left, with Dr. Rania Okby at a Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University-hosted event at the University of British Columbia, in which Okby discussed some of the health challenges facing the Bedouin in Israel. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)…
Torah scribe Rabbi Moshe Druin writes one of the scroll’s final letters with the help of a Temple Sholom family, who won the honor by lottery with five others. Rabbi Dan Moskovitz uses his cellphone to allow the rest of…
Fifth- and sixth-generation descendants prepare to enter the gates of the newly restored Jewish Cemetery at Mountain View. (photo by Robert Albanese Photography) Several generations of Jewish life in Vancouver were represented Sunday afternoon at the rededication of the Jewish…
Duvdevan elite unit veterans who visited Vancouver on the weekend are, left to right, Gilad Waldman, Daniel Kolver, noted singer and actor Tzahi Halevi, who sang at the event, Ariel Rubin and Boaz Faschler. (photo by Robert Albanese Photography) The…
Dr. Rania Okby was in Vancouver last week, speaking to several groups, including students at King David High School. On May 1, she addressed a small gathering at the University of British Columbia. Fittingly, this latter talk was held in…
Innovators Lunch speaker Brian Scudamore with Kate, left, and her mother, Wendy, who received supportive services from Jewish Family Service Agency in a time of need. (Adele Lewin Photography) The 2015 Innovators Lunch raised almost $296,000, with more expected. The…
Michael Geller, left, and Dr. Eric Cadesky. (photo by Binny Goldman) Every year, we look to the Jewish Seniors Alliance Spring Forum for inspiration and the 170 people gathered in the Wosk Auditorium at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater…
When counting blessings, our community has much to celebrate. If proof were needed, there is plenty at the newspaper. Not only have we been sorting through 85 years’ worth of the Jewish Independent in preparation for our special anniversary issue…
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
I was barely 18 when I found myself sitting in the airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, petrified that despite my false Turkish papers, I would be discovered, and returned to Iran to face execution. My forged Turkish passport had brought…
The author and her mother at Matanuska Glacier on a previous Mother’s Day adventure. (photo from Masada Siegel) At a party a few years back, a high school friend approached my husband and cheekily said, “You do realize your wife…
The author at the Great Wall. (photo by Rebecca Shapiro) Finishing university for me, like many others, brought with it employment worries and life dilemmas, alongside the obligatory cheesy graduation shots. My parents had just moved from North London to West…
Hannah Fogel and Daniel Kroft. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa) Held earlier this year in March, Limmud Winnipeg featured a couple of young community members sharing their experiences of volunteering in Kenya. Their talk, Walking the Talk of Jewish Values in…
Chris Alexander, Canada’s citizenship and immigration minister, at the Jewish Cultural Centre and Holocaust Museum in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. The minister visited Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv between April 26 and 28 to reaffirm Canada’s support of a democratic and sovereign Ukraine. (photo…
Ambassador of Israel to Canada Rafael Barak, centre, with his wife Miriam and Foreign Minister Rob Nicholson at the Israeli embassy’s Independence Day reception held at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa on April 29. The more than 600 attendees included…
חברי הליגה להגנה יהודית לקחו חלק בהפגנה נגד ועידת סביל בחודש שעבר בוונקובר. (צילום: Ariane Eckardt) מחממת את הקווים: הליגה להגנה יהודית רוצה לפעול גם בוונקובר הארגון הימני הרדיקלי הליגה להגנה יהודית, בודקת את האפשרות להתחיל ולפעול גם באזור ונקובר.…
Ruth Hoffman with baseball player Arthur Lusala, left, who today studies developmental economics at university, and coach George Mukhobe. (photo from Ruth Hoffman) Vancouver baseball teens and their parents piled into the Rothstein Theatre on Sunday, April 19, for Opposite…
