freelancer – Page 2

Bard’s varied play mix

Bard on the Beach’s production of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor is an adaptation set at a recreation centre in a Vancouver suburb, where the women’s soccer team has just won the local championship. (photo by Emily Cooper)

World Cup Fever hit Vancouver this summer and Bard on the Beach was not immune as it launched its 37th season with a soccer-inspired version of the Shakespearean comedy Merry Wives of Windsor, which runs in repertory on the Mainstage until mid-September with a dark and dystopian Macbeth.

Merry Wives has been dubbed Shakespeare-Lite and for good reason. It is more of a chaotic farce than a dramatic piece. And Bruce Horak and director Rebecca Northan have taken the chaos one step further in what can only be described as major surgery on the original, setting the play at a recreation centre in a modern-day Vancouver suburb, where the women’s soccer team has just won the local championship. Younger audience members will appreciate the references to influencers, followers, TikTok and Twitter that pervade the script along with some X-rated cheeky moments, while purists may be appalled.

Receptionist Miss Quickly (Stephanie Davis) keeps tight control over the comings and goings of the patrons from behind her centre-stage reception desk and sings up a storm. There’s a yoga class, an art class with a thong-wearing male model, steamy sauna scenes and locker room hijinks.

Washed-up soccer veteran Falstaff (Ashley Wright) has come to town to woo two wealthy suburban housewives – Mrs. Page (Jennifer Lines) and Mrs. Ford (Melissa Oei) – to improve his dismal financial fortunes. However, he sends them both the exact same love letter and the ladies, upon comparing notes and discovering his agenda, set out to extract their revenge on the portly rogue and to teach their husbands a lesson for not trusting their fidelity.

To that end, Craig Erickson is sublime as the cuckolded (or so he thinks) Mr. Ford – although methinks that he doth protest too much. Wright, in his velour tracksuit, plays his part with aplomb (this is his third time in the role at Bard) and you almost feel sorry for him as he suffers the indignity of being hidden in a laundry basket, followed by an unceremonious dumping into muddy False Creek. Lines and Oei are fantastic as the scheming housewives. The entire cast exudes tremendous energy.

Interwoven with the main event is the subplot of Mr. and Mrs. Pages’ efforts to find a husband for their daughter and captain of the women’s soccer team Ann (Rachel Angco). Ann likes Fenton (Cameron Grant), the men’s team captain, but her mother wants a doctor. In this case, chiropractor Dr. Caius (Raf Rogers) – cue the chiropractor jokes … are they really doctors? Meanwhile, Mr. Page (Munish Sharma) wants local influencer Slender (Sara Vickruck) to be his son-in-law. Thus begins the war of the suitors.

Set designer Amir Ofek, who is a member of the Jewish community, has gone to great lengths to provide a soccer environment on a simple set with pentagonal-shaped-tile floors and some furniture, along with the obligatory soccer net and scoreboard. Costumer Barbara Clayden gets the suburbia chic right and sound designer Steven Charles has put together a great play list.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces. Director Steven Drover’s vision of a post-cataclysmic not-too-distant future, with a clash of power, corruption and politics, resonates in today’s world.

In this version, the pot-stirring witches are replaced by three eerie zombie-like, masked creatures with distorted electronic voices providing a futuristic veneer.

photo - Munish Sharma as the title character offers a toast in Macbeth — Munish Sharma as the title character offers a toast in Macbeth. (photo by Emily Cooper)

Munish Sharma is superb in the eponymous role as the conflicted warrior-to-be-king. The production opens with his successful return, armed with the spoils of his triumphs.

Tess Degenstein is an ambitious Lady Macbeth who manipulates her husband into killing King Duncan (Anthony Santiago) so that he can reign over Scotland. Macbeth agonizes over whether to carry out the plot, while his wife laments the fact that, as a woman, she cannot do the killing herself. Once the bloody deed is done, her “out damn spot” soliloquy portends her descent into madness and ultimate death.

Macbeth continues on his murderous path, arranging for the death of his friend Banquo (Sebastian Kroon) and the family of his rival, Macduff (Jacob Leonard). Haunted by Banquo’s ghost, Macbeth becomes paranoid and he, too, descends into madness culminating in a duel with Macduff.

Stephanie Davis provides the only levity in the production as the Porter with her “knock-knock” jokes, as she breaks the fourth wall to tease the audience. Her versatility comes through in her alternate role as a poignant Lady Macduff.

Ofek also designed this set – a bunker that was inspired, as he states in the program notes, by “images of tiled, medicinal-like slaughterhouses, abandoned indoor swimming pools and public shower rooms to create a spotless, underground tiled maze as cleanliness-obsessed Lady Macbeth’s domain.” Juxtapose this with the elevated mezzanine of the set, which exudes a dark, toxic outside-world vibe.

Alaia Hamer’s costumes reflect this juxtaposition, with the below-ground Macbeth household clad in simple white garb (the antithesis of the Macbeths’ aspirations) and the struggling others dressed in camouflage. Mary Jane Coomber’s spooky music provides a powerful soundscape. The fight scenes are fast-paced and energetic – kudos to fight director Jonathan Hawley Purvis for his choreography.

In the smaller Douglas Campbell Theatre, Bard is presenting Antigone and Goblin: Oedipus, adaptations of two plays written by Sophocles more than 2,000 years ago.

In Antigone, a masked Greek chorus sets the scene for the poignant story of a dysfunctional royal family and a sister’s fight to ensure that her dead brother has a proper burial – a struggle between moral courage and allegiance to the state. Yoshie Bancroft plays the eponymous lead and is simply stunning. Jennifer Lines as matriarch Jocasta, Kate Besworth (who adapted the play) as younger sister Ismene, Paul Moniz de Sá as King Creon (the uncle) and Cameron Grant as Haimon (the cousin and dead brother Polynices) find the right balance for each of their characters. The visuals are a feast for the eyes, from the stark white pillars and sand-coloured floor mosaic of the set to the draping earth-toned costumes, all suffused with John Webber’s evocative lighting. Greek tragedies are rarely performed in Vancouver so seize this opportunity to see this excellent production.

In contrast, Goblin: Oedipus is for audiences of 18 and older, as it is a treatise on patricide, incest, self-harm and suicide presented by three goblin-like characters (Moog, Wug and Kragva, playing multiple roles) who, at the beginning of the play, enlist 12 audience members to play the half-masked Greek chorus to tell the story of Oedipus and his descent into hell. There is slapstick, mayhem and bedlam in this interactive version of absurdist theatre and it all ends with the audience being invited to the stage for a dance party. Warning: coarse and suggestive language, not suitable for all.

For tickets to any of these productions, go to bardonthebeach.org or call 604-739-0559.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

Sokoloff releases new album

Recorded in Nashville, Carol Sokoloff’s latest album, Change in the Weather, went live on several streaming platforms in late May and the CD was launched to a packed house at the Coda in Victoria on May 30. (photo from Carol Sokoloff)

Recorded in Nashville, Carol Sokoloff’s latest album, Change in the Weather, went live on several streaming platforms in late May and the CD was launched to a packed house at the Coda in Victoria on May 30. The album represents a new musical direction for Sokoloff, who has played everything from folk rock to children’s music, jazz to new age and devotional, to musical theatre.

“Change in the Weather offers a collection of engaging, affirmative, original songs, reflecting various moods and places or stations on my songwriting journey,” Sokoloff told the Independent. “The title song evokes the optimism of spring but also hints at the changing undercurrents of the times we have lived through.”

Among the other songs are the rocking anthem “Free Spirits,” the honky-tonk dance tune “Sweet Wind” (an anniversary present to her husband), the “Hotel California”-flavoured “You Can Lead a Horse to Water,” the Gordon Lightfoot-inspired “That Sound” and the Dylanesque ramble “Walk Together Again.”

Of the time in Nashville, Sokoloff said, “The experience more or less blew my mind. It all happened so quickly and easily, and the result was so professional and engaging that I was immediately hooked and wanted to come back and record more songs.”

She praised the seasoned Nashville musicians featured on the album, led by Eli Beaird, an Academy of Country Music award nominee. The CD highlights the musicianship of players on acoustic and electric guitar, pedal steel, keyboard, drums and bass, all of whom have performed on recordings of top country stars, such as Shania Twain, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Tim McGraw.

Sokoloff’s musical roots go back to her early days in Toronto, where she was exposed to all types of genres: classical, musical theatre and singers like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr.

“My two older sisters studied piano and, at 4 years of age, I demanded to also take lessons. I learned left from right at the piano keyboard,” she said.

Singing, too, was part of her daily life. With her sisters and father, who had “a powerful, magnetic voice,” said Sokoloff, they often sang multi-part harmony. Her older sisters introduced her to various types of music, including rock and roll and folk music. A guitar found its way into the house, and Sokoloff used her babysitting money to learn how to play it.

“By 15, I was writing songs. I’d been writing poetry, and guitar gave me a way of writing, singing and playing my own songs,” she said.

As a university student, Sokoloff created and performed music for several theatre productions, including at the University of Manchester, England, while a visiting student. She later worked in Toronto theatres and freelanced for CBC Radio, where she gravitated to music-related topics, such as a 90-minute documentary on composer Harold Arlen.

A hankering to go west took hold in the 1980s. First, to a communications job at the Banff Centre, where she was exposed to vocal jazz by singer Jay Clayton, who invited Sokoloff to the final session of her workshop.

“I was enthralled,” Sokoloff recalled. “In 1986, I moved to Victoria and raised children with my husband, poet and playwright Richard Olafson, publisher of Ekstasis Editions. We had met in Banff, drawn together by mutual interest in poetry and theatre.”

In Victoria, she purchased an old piano, hoping to approach the instrument in a different, more improvisatory way, not reliant on reading and memorizing sheet music. For 20 years, she studied with local jazz musician George Essihos.

“I was privileged to study with him,” Sokoloff said. “The understanding of jazz harmony gained enabled me to start writing songs in the style of the great songwriters of the American Songbook standards. At the same time, I realized my greatest interest was in singing my own and others’ songs, with piano a way to accompany myself.”

Sokoloff sang in and then took over the artistic direction of Victoria’s Jewish Community Choir, which gave her the opportunity to arrange and compose choral and prayer music, such as “Lament for Kristallnacht” and a version of “Adon Olam.”

“The choir performed songs I had written, including ‘The Music of the Earth,’ ‘Together and Free’ and a choral version of Karel Roessingh’s ‘Cedars,’ featuring my lyrics,” she said.

At the launch of Change in the Weather, Sokoloff performed with a new group of musicians, the Island Dream Band, which features Sokoloff (rhythm guitar and vocals), Chris Coey (lead guitar), Alex Olson (bass), Martina Peladeau (flute), Dave Pretty (drums) and Kenny Seidman (piano).

Over the summer, Sokoloff is sharing the music widely throughout Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. In the fall, she wants to return to Nashville to complete a second album, which is two-thirds recorded.

“I’m excited by this next batch of songs, which features an old country-style ballad as well as some jazz tunes given an infectious Nashville treatment,” she said.

Additionally, Sokoloff, who has written several books of poetry, will release a middle-grade novel, Kayla’s Song, based on her experience as a girl who loved songs and singing. It is scheduled to come out this fall.

Change in the Weather was released on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and YouTube. The CD comes with a list of the players and their tracks and a booklet with all the lyrics. For more information, visit carolsokoloff.com/music/change-in-the-weather.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Defying expectations

The story of Aloha Wanderwell, an early 20th-century adventurer raised in Qualicum Beach, BC, the first woman to drive around the world – at age 18 – is captured by Victoria Jewish community member Laurel Corona in her newly released novel, Aloha Wanderwell Takes the Wheel.

“I guess I’ve always been a bit of a rebel at heart, and I love stories of women who defied expectations and went off and lived an exciting life on their own terms. Aloha Wanderwell is certainly one of those,” said Corona. “I ran across her in a little book about interesting women in Vancouver Island history. By the time I got to the end of that little three-page profile, I was hooked.”

Born Idris Hall in Winnipeg, Man., in 1906, the family moved to Vancouver Island then to England, Belgium and France. She ran away from her French boarding school in Nice at age 16, changed her name to Aloha and joined the around-the-world automobile expedition of Walter “Cap” Wanderwell. She and Cap eventually married and continued their travels, driving the length of Africa and, on another expedition, across South America, managing to cross the Andes in cars with engines the same size as a ride-on lawnmower today – in an era where there were rarely any defined roads.

The couple intended to continue their adventures by boat, but just before they were set to sail, Cap was murdered aboard their yacht, ending 10 years of travel across five continents.

“But it’s not just about the travel, which was arduous, painful and often terrifying,” Corona said. “My novel is about a teenager coming into a full realization of her power as a woman in the most remarkable of circumstances.”

According to Corona, the key dynamic in the book is Aloha’s relationship with Cap. Ten years older at 26, he was charismatic and wily in how he got around any difficulty that stood in the way. Cap made money for the expedition by making films of their travels and showing them for the price of admission as they went from place to place.

“She was beautiful and statuesque (almost six feet tall) and, over time, it was Aloha the audiences came to see. Over the 10 years they were together, they became quite famous, and she grew from a teenager into a woman confident of her own capabilities and powers,” Corona said.

“She and Cap married a few years into their relationship, mostly to provide legitimacy to their traveling together, but, for me, I think her desire to be wanted, protected and safe left her feeling disappointed with him. The book goes into her issues with abandonment and betrayal by the people closest to her, and I don’t think she was ever sure enough of his love to give hers fully to him.”

Cap, Corona said, could not see beyond his own desires to concern himself with anyone else’s. Their life together ended with his murder in Long Beach, Calif.; how the relationship would have worked out is something that will never be known.

Though she achieved fame a century ago, the story of Aloha Wanderwell is not widely known. When Corona retells the story, audiences express shock that they had not heard about her adventures. Yet, Corona is not surprised.

“History is loaded with women who were out doing amazing things and doing them as well or better than the men around them,” she said. “This has always been inconvenient to those committed to a male-dominated telling of history, and it is only in recent decades that this limited view of history has been enthusiastically rejected by women historians, writers and other thinkers and doers, not all of whom are female.

“In Aloha Wanderwell Takes the Wheel, I decided to mix into a narrative that is mostly in the third person two first-person narrations, one by Aloha’s sister, and one by the detective assigned to the murder investigation of Cap,” Corona said. “I also structured the book around two time frames. The first-person narrations are the way the story of the murder through the verdict in the trial of the suspect is told. The third-person narration provides the backstory of Aloha’s adventures, which forms the bulk of the book.”

Corona is the author of four other historical novels – The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi’s Venice, Penelope’s Daughter, Finding Emilie and The Mapmaker’s Daughter – focusing on women forgotten or misrepresented in history. She has written one work of non-fiction: Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance.

Corona believes her next book, The Intuitive, coming in April 2027, will be of particular interest to Jewish readers. Set in New York in the 1910s and 1920s, the character is a socialite who has lost her husband and son in an accident and is non-functional with grief.

Thinking it may help her recovery, she accepts an offer to go to Ellis Island with renowned eugenicist Henry H. Goddard, to assist in identifying “feebleminded” people, so they can be deported before (presumably) they bring inferior genes into the United States.

“She quickly develops moral qualms about what she has done and, in her efforts to atone for one Jewish family she harmed, she becomes aware of all the social issues her wealth has insulated her from,” Corona said. “The book is the story of her growth from the snobbery, bigotry and antisemitism of her social class into a remarkable woman making genuine contributions to causes affecting women, like suffrage, unions and birth control, and filling her life with love again.”

Corona encourages readers to buy books from independent bookstores to help keep them in business.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Group buying platform wins

The Ben-Gurion University student team of BeeShop receives the top prize from Dana Gavish, left, and Gadi Bahat, right. (photo from BGU)

Palpably exuberant crowds, both in person in Be’er Sheva and virtually, assembled on June 24 to watch and vote in Leaders’ Spark Night, a live-pitch session featuring six student teams from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Yazamut 360° entrepreneur program. The teams presented startup venture concepts they had been developing throughout the year.

Originally planned as a live RBC Lions’ Den competition in Vancouver in April, travel disruptions in Israel led to the postponement of the event. In the interim, the students continued building, and last month’s Leaders’ Spark Night showcased the culmination of their work.

Dana Gavish, founder of Yazamut 360°, began the event by offering thanks to the Friends of BGU organizations in the diaspora, making special mention of those in New York, Boston and Vancouver for “pushing the program forward.”

“The past year was extremely challenging for all of us, and especially for our dear students. Yet, even after all the uncertainty that we experienced, here we are today showing you their amazing and incredible work,” Gavish said.

“As the world is transformed by AI, big data and automation, the pace of change often exceeds our ability to predict it. In this reality, the most valuable skill is the ability to adapt. This is exactly what we try to instil in our students – the confidence to navigate uncertainty, embrace it and lead it.”

Before introducing the teams, Gadi Bahat, head of academic programs at Yazamut, said, while the program fosters the development of ideas into fruition, its objective is also to promote leadership, to get students through difficult situations, such as standing on a stage or hearing the word “no” when pitching their ventures.

Each student group had five minutes to pitch their concept. Industry experts from North America then asked questions. Afterwards, audiences in Israel and abroad scanned a code to vote. The three teams with the most votes won cash prizes to help them continue to develop their startups.

The pitches reflected the times, with an emphasis on computer and cellphone applications, as well as harnessing the positive potential of artificial intelligence.

DEXO, an online platform that connects customers and skilled designers to create precisely customized products, led off the proceedings. According to the student entrepreneurs, the venture has already launched in the United States, aims to complete 100,000 projects in 2028 and expand to other countries.

NightLine, a tele-health service linking new mothers with professional consultants for personalized, accessible and immediate parenting support, followed. The group, which will use AI to triage urgency, addressed the universal need for postpartum care and the market it represents.

In the third slot was BuilDEER, whose goal is to change the construction industry through an AI plugin that analyzes design codes and past solutions to generate the engineering fix that is compliant with building regulations, thereby reducing delays and costs.

Heedly, a service that prevents phone scams in real time – before damage is done – came next. Such scams are a problem worldwide, with elderly people most likely to fall victim. Heedly representatives said their fraud detection alerts the victim, a trusted family member and the financial institution when a scam call is taking place.

BeeShop, a group buying platform that hopes to leverage shared demand to lower prices, was the fifth to pitch. The concept behind the venture is that the more people who want a particular product and shop in bulk will force a supplier to reduce the cost of an item, whereas a single shopper is forced to pay a higher markup.

CourtX concluded the pitches. The startup focuses on sports, particularly basketball. Their service analyzes data in real time – i.e., during a game and using AI – to help coaches make quicker decisions than pen and paper allow. Capitalizing on basketball’s popularity internationally, the group plans to market its product in Europe initially and later in North America. They also intend to branch out into other sports.

The atmosphere online and in the Negev turned electric after the pitches wrapped up and voting began on the question: Which venture would you invest in? A screen appeared with the logos of all six teams, and the attendees could watch the results as the votes were tallied.

In the end, BeeShop was the convincing winner with BuilDEER in second and CourtX a close third. The three top finishers received cheques to invest in their ventures.

The three Vancouver industry experts who were slated for the April competition took part virtually, asking questions of the teams. They were Wendi Campbell, president and chief executive officer of Junior Achievement of British Columbia; Ryan Benn, CEO of Alive Publishing Group Inc.; and Shuli Gortler, CEO of SimplyAsk and a BGU alumnus.

Since its establishment in 2018, Yazamut – which means entrepreneurship in Hebrew – has seen more than 240 startups and ventures, with more than 2,000 program participants, 11,000-plus members of its entrepreneurial community, and more than $45 million in funds invested in its companies.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Community milestones … July 2026

On June 26, Governor General of Canada Louise Arbour announced the latest appointments to the Order of Canada, which recognizes people across all sectors of society who have made extraordinary and sustained contributions to the country. Among the recipients were two members of the Vancouver Jewish community: Dr. Trevor Hurwitz and Lorne Segal.

photo - Dr. Trevor Hurwitz — Dr. Trevor Hurwitz *(photo from UBC)*

Hurwitz, a University of British Columbia faculty of medicine clinical professor, was appointed for his contributions to complex brain disorder treatments. Considered the founder of neuropsychiatry in British Columbia, he created the province’s first programs in the discipline, which remain at the forefront nationwide. He is also a patient advocate and advisor on medico-legal and ethical issues in psychiatry.

photo - Lorne Segal — Lorne Segal *(photo from Coast Mental Health)*

Segal, president of Kingswood Properties Ltd., was recognized for his decades of leadership in real estate development, as well as his enduring commitment to philanthropy, mental health advocacy, youth empowerment and community service.

As chair of the Coast Mental Health Courage to Come Back Awards for 21 years, Segal has been instrumental in shaping the event into British Columbia’s premier mental health campaign, increasing awareness of the need for more mental health support and raising millions for the cause. Through his involvement, the inspiring recipient stories have reached thousands of people, reminding us all that setbacks do not define us and that courage can transform lives.

For years, Segal has championed the belief that mental health deserves the same attention, understanding and care as physical health. His leadership has helped reduce stigma, open important conversations and create opportunities for people to seek support when they need it most.

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photo - Hannah Marazzi — Hannah Marazzi *(photo from VHEC)*

Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre executive director Hannah Marazzi has been appointed to the international steering board of the newly established Hilda Dajč International Digital Holocaust Memory Award.

Launched through a partnership between Terraforming, a Serbian organization dedicated to Holocaust education and remembrance, and the Landecker Digital Memory Lab at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, the award recognizes excellence, ethical integrity and innovation in the digital memorialization of the Holocaust.

The award honours Hilda Dajč, a Jewish architecture student and volunteer nurse who was murdered in 1942 at the Judenlager Semlin (Staro Sajmište) camp in Belgrade, Serbia. Her four letters from the camp are among the most moving and important testimonies of the Holocaust.

The Hilda Dajč International Digital Holocaust Memory Award was created in response to growing concerns about Holocaust distortion and misinformation in digital spaces, as well as the need to strengthen democratic values through education and remembrance. The award seeks to elevate the relevance of Holocaust memory for younger generations, drive innovation in digital remembrance, establish international standards for digital Holocaust education and foster shared responsibility in countering antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

Projects will be evaluated on criteria including technological sophistication and creativity, pedagogical impact and youth engagement, collaborative digital ecosystems and the amplification of marginalized and overlooked Holocaust histories.

Marazzi joins a board composed of experts from institutions including Arolsen Archives (Germany), the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum (Israel), the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Jewish Heritage Network and European Memory Data Space (Netherlands), iRights.Lab (Germany), the Memorial Centre Staro Sajmište (Serbia) and the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University.

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photo - Sarah Mali of JFC-UIA Canada in Israel, left, and Rachel Sachs of the Jewish Federation of BC’s Israel office — Sarah Mali of JFC-UIA Canada in Israel, left, and Rachel Sachs of the Jewish Federation of BC’s Israel office. *(photo from JFBC)*

This month, Jewish Federation of British Columbia received the 2026 Tel-Hai Dignitary Award, recognizing the longstanding partnership between our community and the Galilee.

Rachel Sachs, executive director of the Israel office, accepted the award on behalf of the BC community. Alongside Federation, the award was also presented to Prof. Mooli Lahad for his lifelong contributions to trauma and resilience, and Prof. Ran Ziv, whose leadership has helped bring technology companies and employment opportunities to northern Israel.

The award reflects the deep relationship our community has built with Tel-Hai and the Galilee over many years. Federation is grateful to Sachs and Adi Kaye of the Israel office for their leadership, the relationships they have built and their on-the-ground presence.

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photo - Katrina Hermann — Katrina Hermann *(photo from VHEC)*

In June, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre’s new research and program assistant, Katrina Hermann, presented on the centre’s symposium on the Holocaust – now in its 50th year – at the Association of Canadian Jewish Studies annual conference at York University, Toronto. Through analyzing the early years of the symposium, Hermann demonstrated the important pedagogical innovations of Vancouver’s survivor and educator communities, contributions rarely discussed in academia. She was awarded the Marcia Koven Award for best student paper for her presentation.

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Each year, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre presents the Meyer & Gita Kron & Ruth Kron Sigal Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education to teachers in British Columbia who have demonstrated excellence and sustained commitment to teaching students about the Holocaust. The award was established in memory of the Kron family, Lithuanian Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who reestablished their lives in Vancouver. Through their lifelong involvement in education and community, the family touched the lives of thousands of students.

The VHEC received a record number of applications and nominations for this year’s award, reflecting both a renewed commitment to Holocaust education in the province and a recognition of the important role it plays in helping students understand the challenges facing democratic societies today. The applications were of exceptional quality, and the centre commends the dedication and skill of all those who applied.

This year’s award recipients are Ryan Holly and Hofit Sabi.

photo - Ryan Holly — Ryan Holly *(photo from VHEC)*

Holly, an educator at Kelowna Secondary School, enables students to understand the Holocaust not only as history, but as an event with contemporary resonances. He confronts a dearth of education about antisemitism in public school with lesson plans inviting students to analyze the continuity and change of historical antisemitism, as well as an in-depth case study of antisemitic propaganda during the Holocaust. His emphasis on evidence-based learning encourages student engagement with primary sources, particularly survivor testimony. Holly has been involved in professional development activities, attending annual conferences and seeking out self-directed opportunities globally. Students and colleagues alike commend his compassion, care and dedication as he handles this difficult subject with nuance and engagement.

photo - Hofit Sabi — Hofit Sabi *(photo from VHEC)*

Sabi, a Grade 6 educator at Vancouver Talmud Torah, is recognized for her ability to translate the complexities of Holocaust history into age-appropriate, inquiry-based learning for younger students. Her pedagogical approach is distinguished by its global scope, particularly her development of a pioneering mini-unit on the often-overlooked experiences of Jewish communities in North Africa to challenge single stories of Jewish identity and show how international political dynamics like colonialism and fascism intersected during the war. Sabi’s curriculum prioritizes evidence-based experiential learning, and she empowers students to become informed, compassionate civic stewards.

An honourable mention goes to Diana Weld of Quw’utsun Secondary School in North Cowichan for her leadership in modernizing Holocaust education within her department and her commitment to school-wide professional development. Weld developed a comprehensive Humanities 10 unit from the ground up. Her curriculum bridges historical context with modern media, using survivor memoir, film and literature to help students navigate complex ethical issues like indoctrination, blind loyalty, complicity and indifference.

The first Jew buried in BC

Cayoosh Flat (now called Lillooet), in 1865. Cayoosh Flat (now called Lillooet), in 1865. (image from JGSBC)

In the Jewish Cemetery in Victoria, there is a small concrete slab on which is inscribed: “In memory of Morris Price. Killed at Cayoosh B.C. Buried May 6 1861. First interment in this cemetery.” Cayoosh, today the town of Lillooet, was, in 1861, a cluster of about 30 buildings with a reported population of 190 people, most non-British. It lay at the end of a difficult trail from the Fraser River via Harrison Lake and Penticton through a series of lakes and portages.

The murder of Morris Price took place on the night of Feb. 1. His body was discovered in his store the next morning with “his throat cut from ear to ear … his nose broken and his buttocks mutilated … numerous stab wounds in other parts of the body amounting to 25 in all,” according to the British Colonist correspondent. The correspondent further wrote: “He was interred today [Feb. 3] by his fellow Masons with every mark of respect and deep-felt sorrow.”

The perpetrators were quickly identified as three members of the Shuswap First Nation from the Big Bar area, north of Lillooet. On April 12, Justice Matthew Begbie held a trial of the three and found them guilty. Two, who took part in the murder, were sentenced to death, while a third, who had stood watch, was sentenced to a year’s hard labour.

Although Price’s body had been buried in Cayoosh, this proved a temporary arrangement, as Masons in Victoria raised money to transfer his body to Victoria. The funeral took place on May 6 with “Masonic honors and Jewish rites” and with many participants “who had long known and deeply respected their deceased brother.”

image - Morris Price’s grave marker in the Jewish Cemetery in Victoria — Morris Price’s grave marker in the Jewish Cemetery in Victoria. (image from JGSBC)

The cemetery records state that Price was born in Kepten, Germany, although no town of that name has ever existed. On Nov. 1, Jacob St. Losky of Victoria, Vancouver Island, was granted probate for Price’s estate, as he was “the natural and lawful Brother and next of kin” of the deceased.

In late 2024, Martin Friedland, emeritus professor of law at the University of Toronto, who was studying the criminal case that resulted from the murder, approached the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia (JGSBC) and asked: “Who were Morris Price and Jacob St. Losky?” What follows are the answers to that question.

Other than the probate records, there was no mention of Jacob St. Losky in any of the local newspapers or records. The estate administration files that usually accompany the probate are not in the BC Archives, so the estate’s net worth or how St. Losky disposed of its contents aree unknown. Further searches for St. Losky revealed two UK records: In 1847, he was trading as a cigar manufacturer and importer in Bishopsgate in London and, in 1858, he arrived at the Port of London from Amsterdam.

The name St. Losky was exceedingly rare and only one other UK family had it. Samuel and Hanna St. Losky, who had married in December 1848, were Orthodox Jews in the upper echelons of British society. There was no mention of Samuel St. Losky in any records before the marriage, but, in the early 1850s, he formed a cigar manufacturer and importer in London named Levy Brothers & St. Losky, which also traded as St. Losky, Levy & Co. in San Francisco. This branch of the firm was wildly successful and remitted tens of thousands of dollars of specie to London.

Further searching revealed that Samuel St. Losky’s father was Hirschel Schenkolowsky of Kempen in Posen, Prussia. “St. Losky” was clearly a made-up name created to ease their way in British society. Was the same true of Jacob? Indeed, it was – Jacob Szenkolowski, an American citizen, born in Kempen, arrived at the Port of London on Sept. 27, 1844, after which he seems to have adopted the St. Losky pseudonym. He became a UK citizen in 1847, which meant that he would automatically have been a citizen of any of the UK colonies, including Vancouver Island. Jacob later became an agent for Levy Brothers in 1859 and 1860. The last listing before his appearance in Victoria is a record of “Jacob St. Losky of New York” buying $11,000 of US government debt.

Searching the records found no entries for either Samuel or Morris Szenkolowski (variant spellings included). The breakthrough came when a JGSBC member discovered a newspaper listing acts passed in the Mississippi legislature in January 1846. One line read: “To change the name of Morris Shenkloski into that of Morris Price” – providing the key to understanding the family’s history.

The first record of Morris is dated 1840, when he, under the name Shenkloski, applied to become an American citizen in the state of New York. He had arrived in America five years earlier and, at the time of his naturalization, was 23, having been born circa 1817. Samuel, who also used the name variant Shenkloski, signed the naturalization document as well.

The name Morris was also a pseudonym. Kempen Jewish community records before 1825 do not exist; Morris was almost certainly named Moses at his bris, and is likely to have used the secular name Moritz, as was common in Prussia at the time. From other sources, it is clear that Morris, Samuel and Jacob were sons of merchant Hirsch Szenkolowski and his wife Jette Jereslaw.

Samuel Shenkloski became a US citizen in September 1843, aged 32, and obtained a passport in August 1845, while Jacob Szenkolowski, aged 30, became a US citizen in July 1843 and applied for a passport the same day. There is no evidence that Morris ever obtained a passport.

Morris and Samuel were shopkeepers in New York. A city directory from 1840/41 lists “Shenkloski S. & M. drygoods, 30 Maiden-Lane.” The store does not appear in any subsequent directory, suggesting it was short-lived, a characteristic of many subsequent stores that Morris was involved with.

After his sojourn in New York, Morris Shenkloski next appears in a newspaper listing of peddlers licensed to operate in Georgia from April 1841 to April 1842. This listing also gives some details of Morris’s physical features. The record shows that he was relatively short, 5’ 4 3/4”, with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. His two brothers’ passports show that they had similar features. Samuel was an inch taller and Jacob the same height; both had dark hair and complexions, and hazel rather than black eyes.

Over the next few years, Morris opened a number of short-lived stores in the southern United States. Adverts appear in Savannah, Ga. (November 1842), Columbus, Ga. (June 1843), Little Rock, Ark. (March 1845) and Van Buren, Ark. (April 1845). All were signed “M. Shenkloski” and offered dry goods, jewelry and sometimes cutlery, “all at the lowest prices.”

The next reference to Morris is as Price at Fort Smith, Ark., a few miles west of Van Buren. Fort Smith was on the border with Indian territory (present-day Oklahoma) and the majority of trade was with the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations.

The California Gold Rush of 1849 induced Morris to move on. He is listed in the state census of 1852 as “M. Price,” a merchant, aged 35 (born ca. 1817), an American citizen, born in Prussia, whose last domicile was Arkansas, living in the mining camp of Shasta, Calif. In the same census, his brother, Samuel St. Losky, was enumerated in San Francisco.

image - The notice of Morris Price’s death, 1861 — The notice of Morris Price’s death, 1861. (image from JGSBC)

In 1854, Morris was in the small town of Nevada, Calif. “M. Price” had a store selling cigars obtained from St. Losky & Co., San Francisco. The two brothers were collaborating again, as they had in New York 14 years earlier.

The last California reference is an 1856 newspaper listing of letters that had arrived at the post office of Georgetown – one was addressed to Morris Price. Georgetown is where the richest veins of gold were found, but it is unknown whether Morris ever set up a store there.

When gold was found in the Fraser Valley, Morris was part of the flood of Americans who arrived in Victoria, most traveling from or via San Francisco. From newspaper reports after his death, it seems likely that he arrived in Victoria in late 1858, where he established himself. In early 1860, he moved to Cayoosh, where he set up his store and remained until his death. While many Americans returned from the gold fields disappointed, Morris seemed to have set down roots by buying land in both Victoria and New Westminster. Moses Szenkolowski, known as Morris Price, died at age 43, a well-liked and highly respected member of BC pioneer society.

There are no records or newspaper entries about Jacob St. Losky/Szenkowloski after the probate was issued in 1861 and what happened to him remains a mystery.

Samuel St. Losky outlived his brother by only a few years – he died in London from kidney disease in 1864, aged 52. JGSBC was able to find one of Samuel’s great-great-great-grandchildren in the United Kingdom to share these findings about his family.

This is an abridged version of the story and the research that uncovered it. Readers interested in the full details, and who would like to see pictures of the original documents, can visit the Presentations section of the JGSBC’s website, jgsbc.ca.

David Scriven is a long-time member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia and sits on its board.

SFU honours Gloria Gutman

Laurel Weldon, dean of Simon Fraser University’s faculty of arts and social sciences, and Dr. Gloria Gutman at the April 22 reception celebrating the naming of the university’s Gerontology Research Centre in honour of Gutman’s service and lasting impact. The event was held at SFU Harbour Centre. (photo from SFU)

Simon Fraser University has honoured Dr. Gloria Gutman, a pioneer in the field of aging, by naming the Gerontology Research Centre, which she founded, after her. They have also bestowed upon her an honorary doctor of laws.

This is not the first recognition of Gutman’s work in her areas of research, which include, but are not limited to, seniors housing, health promotion, elder abuse, LGBTQ+ aging, age-friendly hospitals and communities, and advance care planning. She has been awarded the Order of British Columbia and a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and been appointed to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour.

“I really feel grateful for the opportunities that SFU gave me, and the honorary degree in particular – universities very seldom honour their own,” she told the Independent in a recent interview. “Usually, if you look at who are the recipients of honorary degrees, it’s people from elsewhere.”

Almost as a proof of point, Gutman received an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Ontario in 2010 for her work “as an international authority in the field of gerontology.”

Part of the appreciation for such awards is that they highlight her field, said Gutman. “That’s the important thing for me, that it puts the word gerontology, or aging, or the concepts that I’ve worked on, or areas that I’ve tried to work on, brings them forward, gives them visibility. So, the honours are really a way of continuing to promote the organizations, the academic units, that I work for.”

Laurel Weldon, the dean of SFU’s faculty of arts and social sciences, which includes the gerontology department, has known Gutman for a few years. “But,” Weldon told the JI, “I first heard her on the radio being interviewed about Martha Stewart’s cover for Sports Illustrated!”

In 2023, Stewart became the oldest model to be featured on the magazine’s cover. In her convocation address last month, Gutman expressed the goal of a future of “aging without ageism,” which “involves making assumptions about a person’s abilities, values or role in society based solely on age rather than their individual characteristics.”

While their research areas overlap, including on gender and age discrimination, Weldon said, “the real way I’ve got to know Gloria has been as dean of the faculty in which she is a very active retired faculty member, applying for grants, running conferences, giving me her input and background on the department of gerontology and the Gerontology Research Centre.”

By the time the JI reached Gutman for a 10 a.m. Zoom interview on June 18, she had already been a panelist in an international webinar on witchcraft (in the larger context of financial abuse of the elderly) and attended a webinar on the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. It was a typical start to the day for Gutman, who was heading to a FIFA watch party in the afternoon.

“I’m essentially a curious person, and I attend a lot of different webinars, some where I know nothing about the topic, mainly because I want to learn,” she said.

In her convocation address, Gutman talked about “not being afraid to undertake work in an area or sub-area that is unfamiliar. In my case, it was being invited to lead a research project on seniors’ housing. When offered that job,” she recalled, “I blurted out, ‘But I don’t know anything about seniors’ housing.’ I was told, ‘You have 90 days to learn.’ I read everything I could lay my hands on and became a 90-day expert.”

After having been invited to the FIFA watch party, Gutman told the JI she used AI to learn all the fundamentals of soccer and how the World Cup worked – she became “a three-day expert,” she said.

In her knowledge on aging, however, Gutman is a decades-long expert, though she attributes her career choice to happenstance.

“It was serendipitous,” she said of becoming a gerontologist.

Gutman lived in Calgary for some of her childhood – though she was born in Seattle – and her late husband, Gary, was from the city. Because of these connections, she did part of her post-secondary schooling there, at the University of Alberta’s satellite campus (which became the University of Calgary in 1966).

Gutman, who had majored in English and psychology at the University of British Columbia, said she went to the U of A English department and was told, basically, “Why don’t you go home and have a baby?” (She and her husband would have three children.) Her experience with the psychology department went differently.

Faculty member Dr. A.E. David Schonfield, a pioneering figure in gerontology and the psychology of aging, suggested Gutman do a master’s in the field – and she did.

After about five years in Calgary, the Gutmans moved back to Vancouver. Her husband continued to build his practice as an accountant and Gutman started her PhD at UBC. “At that time, nobody was doing aging, so I had to do it in social and developmental psychology,” which then covered ages 0 to 14, she said.

After finishing her PhD in 1971, Gutman taught Psych 100 for 10 years at UBC. She developed the first psychology of aging course ever to be taught in the province. She was a part-time assistant professor when she asked her dean for a full-time position. He refused, describing the study of aging as a “flash-in-the-pan phenomena.”

“The next day, I called out to SFU, made an appointment with Jack Blaney, who, at the time, was the dean of continuing education, and I went to see him,” said Gutman. “I was called the coordinator of programs in aging, but my first job was to create a program to coordinate.”

photo - Dr. Gloria Gutman with Dr. Jack Blaney at the April 22 reception at SFU Harbour Centre. Blaney hired Gutman when he was dean of continuing studies at Simon Fraser University — Dr. Gloria Gutman with Dr. Jack Blaney at the April 22 reception at SFU Harbour Centre. Blaney hired Gutman when he was dean of continuing studies at Simon Fraser University. *(photo from SFU)*

While still at UBC, Gutman had written a proposal for the development of a research centre on aging in response to a call for proposals from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The competition was delayed, and there was a second call for proposals when she was at SFU, so she wrote one – the Gerontology Research Centre at SFU was established in 1982.

Gutman also wanted to create a gerontology department, and she did. It began as a post-baccalaureate diploma, grew to a master’s program, followed by the addition of a minor and a PhD.

“I would define myself as an academic entrepreneur,” Gutman told the JI. “The people that have developed research centres, or who have developed a teaching program, tend to have similar kinds of characteristics and part of it is curiosity. And the other is identifying a gap and leaping in.”

And yet another, she identified in her convocation address, is: “You can’t be a one-person show if what you develop is to be sustainable. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team to develop successful academic and research units.”

Despite all her successes, Gutman had to retire after she turned 65, as mandatory retirement was a widespread policy in that era. She was director of the GRC and the department of gerontology until 2005.

“The way the Gerontology Research Centre is structured is that it has a director and it has research associates, so I stepped down as director, but could still be a research associate of the centre,” she explained. “And, having been a full professor in the department, could be a professor emeritus…. But I never used the term for the first 10 years after age 65, because people roll their eyes sometimes when they see it. They figure you’re passé.”

When Gutman wrote the proposals for the research centre, she identified three areas in which it would specialize.

“The first one was housing for the elderly, which is what I had started and where I became the expert at UBC,” she said. “The second one, I looked around the campus, [and asked] who’s doing what? And there was a professor in the criminology department who was interested in crime and victimization of the elderly … and the third one, there was a professor in sociology who was interested in changing demography and lifestyles.

“We started out with those three and, gradually, then I added health and aging when I realized I was a health promoter,” said Gutman. “And, subsequently, I got interested in technology, so we added a fifth theme to the research centre, which was gerontechnology.”

Currently, Gutman – who has held many high-profile roles in national and international associations – is the vice-president of the International Society for Gerontechnology, is on International Longevity Centre-Canada advisory committees and is a member of the Research Management Committee of the Canadian Frailty Network. She has a long list of monographs, articles and books.

“What I said in my convocation address,” she said, “is there are the people that retire and are happy to sit in their rocking chair; the people who unretire themselves and go back to work, but in something different; and then there’s the never-retires.”

She’s in that last category. “It’s still interesting,” she says of her work, “and these issues come up, new issues, every day.”

That said, she makes sure she leaves the house every day. Up at 6 a.m., she usually shuts off the computer by 3 p.m. and goes out to do her 6,000 steps. She watches TV in the evenings. Her six grandchildren, ranging in age from single digit to university-age, don’t live in the city, “so I don’t have access to grandkids here,” she said.

In the Jewish community, Gutman (née Chertkow) was on the original advisory committee to develop the L’Chaim Adult Day Centre. She noted that Leah Deslauriers, who heads the program, is an SFU gerontology grad.

Gutman’s father attended L’Chaim, which brought Gutman back onto the board. “And,” she said, “when my husband [was] in his last years, that was a lifeline for me, as I cared for him at home in his last six months. It was one of the few places that I felt it was safe to leave him…. It gave me respite.”

She also has been on the board of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital, consulted with JQT (Jewish Queer Trans) Vancouver and other organizations. Notably, B’nai B’rith was a family endeavour of sorts.

Weldon, the SFU dean, describes Gutman as “an impressive, energetic, brilliant person. She is great at identifying important research topics and themes and has incredible persistence.”

“I am so happy that SFU was able to recognize and elevate Gloria Gutman in this way,” said Weldon. “It is so well deserved and, in this day and age, it’s wonderful to see someone who has worked hard, been a conscientious contributor and mentor, and who has done so much for her students, colleagues, the university, discipline and community, be recognized.”

Lifting people’s spirits

Lone Tratt’s solo exhibition, There’s a Crack in Everything, which was inspired by the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s song “Anthem,” is at Zack Gallery until Aug. 10. (photo from Lone Tratt)

Lone Tratt’s current show at the Zack Gallery, There’s a Crack in Everything, was inspired by the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s song “Anthem.”

“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in,” Cohen wrote in 1992. His adherence to hope and optimism in the face of bleakness resonated with Tratt, even though the poem was published more than three decades ago.

“Every word of this song is still relevant,” she said in her interview with the Independent. “Sadly, there are wars and suffering all around the world. Our world is not in good shape. Lots of darkness. But I wanted to focus on the light. Light is possible. That was what Cohen said, and I believe it.”

Every painting in the show is a celebration of light, a statement of possibilities. And there are cracks in each image, just like in Cohen’s song, allowing the light to burst in, to suffuse the pictures. With her artwork, Tratt explores not only pain and loss, but the chances of healing as well. Sunny yellows and cheerful blues smile at viewers from the abstracts on the gallery walls – all part of the artist’s interpretation of the famous song. She has even printed the verses and attached the printout to the wall to augment the exhibition, which is her personal tribute to the great Canadian icon.

“I’m a positive person,” she said. “Have been all my life. With this show, I want to convey my positivity to others. I want to spread joy, despite all the ills of the world today. I feel it is my duty as an artist to tell people that there is light in our lives, to lift people’s spirits.”

photo - “Uplifting” by Lone Tratt is part of the artist’s current solo exhibition at Zack Gallery — “Uplifting” by Lone Tratt is part of the artist’s current solo exhibition at Zack Gallery. *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

Like many Canadians, Tratt wasn’t born in Canada. She is a transplant from Denmark. She came to Vancouver at 23, planning to be here for a little while, and she’s stayed, also living in Montreal for some years. She raised her children in Canada, studied art in Canada and has taught art here for many years. Through the Dundarave Print Workshop on Granville Island, she still offers occasional printmaking classes. “I love teaching,” she said, “love helping people create their art, express their vision. It is my way of giving.”

Another way of giving for her is that she often donates her artwork. A few years ago, she was deeply affected by the war in Ukraine. She wanted to help, to contribute, and the only way she knew how to do that was through her art. “I put up an auction of my paintings for 50% off the original prices. I realized $5,500 and sent the money to Ukraine via Red Cross.

“I also frequently donate my paintings to hospitals,” she said. “People need positivity there, and not only the patients. Once, a big local hospital had a reception for artists who donated their art. A doctor came to talk to me. He said it was important to him after a hard day to walk along the corridor and see our paintings. They made his job easier.”

Occasionally, like everyone else, Tratt needs a renewal of spirit and creativity, and her native Denmark is often the source of such a rejuvenation.

“I visit Denmark every year or two,” she said. “I love it there. I have family and friends there. A dose of Danish is always welcome. Besides, Denmark is good for artists. My brother is a sculptor in Denmark, and so is his wife. They both have always been able to make a living with their art. In Denmark, by law, every public building has to dedicate 5% of their building budget to art. There is art everywhere, in every school and every office, and not only donated either. I wish it was the same in Canada.”

Tratt found her own ways of dealing with the financial challenges. One of those ways was teaching. Another was offering her art for rent.

“I participate in the Vancouver Art Gallery Art Rental program,” she explained. “It is a great way to make people aware of my art.

“I also do commissions. I like them. It is a collaboration” she continued. “People who commission my paintings already know my style. That’s why they come to me. We speak at length. They tell me what they want. And then I invite them to visit my studio halfway through the process, so they can see how the painting develops, tell me what works for them and what doesn’t. Once, I worked on a commission for a client and I didn’t like what was emerging. She came for a visit, and she didn’t like it either – then, she saw another painting on the other side of my studio. It was already finished, and she loved it. She asked to buy it instead.”

Tratt’s paintings are mostly abstract, a compilation of colours and shapes and light, although there was a period in her life when she painted huge flowers. “They sold very well,” she said.

During the interview, a woman came into the Zack Gallery to view the exhibition. She approached Tratt. “I adore your art,” she said. “I have a couple of your paintings, the flowers, in my house. Bought them years ago. When I learned you have another show at the JCC, I knew I had to see it. Beautiful.”

Tratt grinned. “I love such moments,” she said.

There’s a Crack in Everything is on display until Aug. 10. To learn more, visit the artist’s website, lonetratt.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.

Wedding a ray of light

This week, Sasha Troufanov and Sapir Cohen were married. The couple had only recently begun building a life together in Ramat Gan when terrorists burst into the home where they were visiting with family on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023. Troufanov was beaten and stabbed. Cohen hid beneath a bed, wrapped in a blanket, but was discovered. They were dragged into Gaza separately.

Cohen was released after about two months, during the November 2023 ceasefire. Troufanov remained in captivity for more than 400 days. During that time, he believed he would never return home.

After his release, Troufanov told Cohen that, throughout his captivity, he prayed not for himself, but that Cohen would find another man to love. He wanted her to have a future, because he had lost hope that he would have one.

On Sunday evening, surrounded by family, friends and fellow former hostages, they were married.

“I want to thank you for coming today to share this joy with us,” the groom told the guests. “You’ve been with us every step of the way. Thank you so much. I love you.”

For the pair, and for those who love them, this must have been a deeply meaningful simcha. For those of us who do not know them, it is also a ray of light emerging from a time of worldwide Jewish anxiety and grief. To know that two people who had endured such suffering are celebrating love and committing to a life together is uplifting.

Much has been said about the fact that, for the released hostages, and anyone who has endured prolonged trauma, the end of the ordeal is rarely the conclusion of the suffering.

Jews worldwide celebrated the return of hostages, thousands embraced them on their arrival home, we felt vast relief that, for the surviving hostages, the worst was behind them. We did not, though, assume that the future would be entirely rosy. We understand trauma now in ways we did not in times of earlier Jewish catastrophes. We know that each survivor will experience varying consequences from what they experienced.

For Troufanov, there is also the knowledge that, while he survived, his father, Vitaly, was murdered on Oct. 7. His mother and grandmother survived captivity. Countless others in their circle did not.

The road ahead will not be easy. Probably not for the happy couple and not for thousands of other families who have lost loved ones and experienced a range of tragedies. But every long journey begins with a single step. This wedding was one of those steps.

Judaism has always understood that joy is not a life without suffering. Joy is an obligation despite suffering. In Deuteronomy, Moses conveys G-d’s command to the Israelites: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life.” That injunction, u’vacharta ba’chayim, is not addressed to people whose lives are uncomplicated. It is addressed to a people whose story has already been marked by slavery, wandering and loss. Choosing life is not always easy.

Jewish tradition insists on remembering and re-experiencing. At every wedding, a glass is broken to remind us that even at the height of personal joy, the world remains imperfect. But the converse is also true. Even in the deepest darkness, we insist on making room for joy. The defiant slogan of the Nova survivors was “We will dance again.”

There are people who imagine resilience as stoicism – the refusal to cry or to be affected by pain. Jewish resilience permits grief. It sanctifies memory. It insists that mourning has its time and place. Then, slowly, even painfully, it asks us to re-enter life, to love again, to laugh, to rebuild. This response, we understand, is not because the past does not matter or that it no longer has a hold on us. It is because the present and the future matter too; that what is past and what is to come are a balance, like joy and grief.

Sasha Troufanov and Sapir Cohen may have been, to some, symbols of unimaginable suffering. This week, for one evening at least, they were not former hostages. They were simply a bride and groom. That is worth celebrating.

In Jewish tradition, we often speak of bringing light into darkness. It is an image that can become so familiar we risk overlooking its profound meaning. Light does not eliminate the darkness all at once. It pushes it back, one candle at a time – this wedding was one such candle.

May there be many more joyous occasions, as survivors, their families, their friends and everyone affected by this tragedy – and that means all of us – rededicate ourselves to building the future.

Indigeneity and Zionism

Pat Johnson and Dr. Sheree Trotter at the University of Victoria on June 14, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island. (photo by Janet Dirks)

“What we’ve seen happen in New Zealand with our indigenous movement is that Palestine has been held up as a way to fight against what’s happening in our country with our indigenous people,” New Zealand writer and academic Dr. Sheree Trotter told those gathered at the University of Victoria on June 14.

“So, what we do is that we identify with the Palestinians and we see them as brown, oppressed indigenous people; we see Israel as the Western foreign colonizers.” In this context, she said, the antizionist argument is reduced to one of settler colonialism, despite the differing histories of places like New Zealand, Canada and Palestine.

At the Victoria event, which was hosted by the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island, Trotter, who is of Te Arawa iwi origin, spoke on the topic Indigeneity and Zionism Versus Settler Colonialism.

“Each of these topics could be a whole university course,” Trotter acknowledged at the outset. Before talking about Zionism, she explained its standard definition: the right of self-determination and statehood for Jews in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.

Trotter said there have been several streams of thought that have led to the current antizionist movement, including the views of the Nazis, who saw Jews as conspiratorial subversives, and Soviet antizionism, which depicted Zionism as a global and racist conspiracy. Added to the mix, Trotter said, are Arab nationalist and Islamic movements and, more recently, Western settler-colonial theory.

Settler colonialism, Trotter said, is an ideology that has developed within academia as a particular kind of colonialism. The key feature of it is an imperial power that has sent its people to a foreign land to settle permanently.

“In this way, you create this binary that you’ve got two classes of people. You may call it the oppressor and the oppressed, the colonizer or the colonized, these sorts of ideas. This binary erases complexity. It’s not accurate. It’s not true to history,” Trotter said.

Using the example of the Māori in New Zealand, Trotter explained some of the problems in the settler-colonialist argument.

“There’s no room for nuance or complexity, no room for indigenous agency – the fact that, in my case, Māori embraced many of the new things that came, new technologies, modernity, certainly literacy,” she said. “In embracing Christianity, Māori turned away from tribal warfare, from cannibalism, from slavery, because they adopted a new way of thinking. Under settler colonialism, you don’t get to hear any of the good things that might have happened. It’s all just labeled as oppression and bad.”

More broadly, she argued, the settler-colonialist theory does not fully consider that many of the people who arrived in places like Canada and New Zealand were poor immigrants who do not fit the settler-colonialist power paradigm.

Regarding Israel, the settler-colonial standpoint is a tremendous stretch, said Trotter, because Jews, with more than 3,500 years of continuous connection to the land, are not foreign to Israel.

“In Māori thinking, we have a concept called ahikā, which means keeping the fires burning. If a tribe wanted to keep their connection to a piece of land, it would keep a fire on that land. It’s symbolic of the idea that somebody stayed on the land, even in small numbers,” she said. “Now, we’re finding the fact that there’s always been a Jewish presence in the land. Even though very small at times, they’ve kept ahikā, they’ve kept the fires burning, they’ve kept a continuous connection.”

Trotter is the co-founder, with former member of New Zealand’s House of Representatives Alfred Ngaro, of the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem and the Indigenous Coalition for Israel, nonprofits established to provide representation in Jerusalem for indigenous peoples from around the world. Her latest book, Zionism at the Ends of the Earth: A Story of Humanitarianism and Identity, chronicles the social history of the Zionist movements in New Zealand to 1948.

Following her talk, Trotter sat down for an interview and to answer audience questions with journalist Pat Johnson, a member of the Jewish Independent editorial board and founder of Upstanders Canada, an organization working to encourage non-Jewish Canadians to take a stand against antisemitism and antizionism.

The event attracted some protest. According to organizers, the technician who was scheduled to work that evening walked off the job before the event started because of their objection to the subject matter. And, in the middle of Trotter’s talk, a few members of the Jewish Faculty Network of Vancouver Island held up signs rejecting claims of Jewish indigeneity in the Middle East and protesting Israel’s military actions; the group was escorted out of the auditorium without incident.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.