The state of impermanence
As a harvest festival, Sukkot is infused with thanksgiving for the bounty that Jews in Canada and, mercifully, in most of the world today, enjoy. The holiday is also an earthy affair, as we move out into our backyards (or,…
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Orkestars at Vogue
Members of Orkestar Slivovica include Susan Gerofsky, fourth from the left. (photo from Caravan World Rhythms) Caravan World Rhythms presents Boban & Marko Markovic Orkestar on Oct. 18 at Vogue Theatre. Opening for Boban & Marko is a collaboration between…
Liberal Zionism still critical
Israel Defence Forces soldiers debrief during the Israel-Hamas conflict. New Israel Fund of Canada’s president Joan Garson discussed the painful war of this past summer and the ongoing responsibility of liberal Zionists in Canada to push for Israel to be…
How mammals respond to novelty
Measuring the response to novelty: A mouse repeatedly touches the object and pulls away (nose and whisker contacts are color-coded; d is the distance of the snout from the object). (photo from wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il) Put a young child in a new…
This week’s cartoon … Oct. 17/14
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
… צה”ל קורא לך
ראש ממשלת קנדה סטיבן הרפר וראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו, בנמל התעופה בן גוריון בחודש ינואר (Ashernet :צילום)
Memoir more than family history
Alison Pick (photo by Emma-Lee Photography) Award-winning author and poet Alison Pick comes to Vancouver later this month to participate in two panels at the Vancouver Writers Fest, one of which is already sold out. As a teenager, Pick discovered…
Museum of Human Rights hopes to inspire
Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum of Human Rights is now open for visitors. (photo from CMHR-MCDP) The Sept. 19 opening ceremonies for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) were broadcast live on several networks, and live streamed on the CMHR website…
Asper vision spurred action
(photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa) Miracle at the Forks: The Museum that Dares Make a Difference, which chronicles the 14-year journey to plan, build and open the Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR), was launched on Sept. 22 at the museum with…
My Rabbi – about us, not others
Joel Bernbaum and Kayvon Kelly are good friends who’ve drifted apart in My Rabbi. (photo by Derek Ford) Religion, family, even something as innocuous as a book club or a sports team – any group to which we belong creates…
People-centred vision
Entrepreneur Brian Scudamore’s success is due in part to lessons he learned from his grandparents about how to treat people. (photo from O2E) When Brian Scudamore addressed business owners at Small Business BC’s Inspire event, held Sept. 29 at the…
Netanyahu at UN: danger, opportunity ahead
Last week at the United Nations, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas once again accused Israel of heinous crimes, including “genocide.” And, once again, the global community demonstrated its collective gullibility. It was left to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday to…
Israel Horovitz calls “action!”
Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith in Israel Horovitz’s My Old Lady. (photo from Cohen Media Group) Arobust 75, the award-winning playwright, theatre director and screenwriter Israel Horovitz isn’t in the market for a new career. Too bad, for his moving…
Storytellers excel at Fringe
Sold out. That pretty much describes every show the Jewish Independent saw during the Vancouver Fringe Festival last month – two even made the Pick of the Fringe, which ran the week after the festival. There were at least five…
Museums must identify assets’ origins
Engaging in issues pertaining to economic aspects of the Holocaust is never an easy task. However, it is morally incumbent upon us as a society, as a people and as a nation to deal with these issues. In addition to…
Habonim Day Camp helps alleviate strike stress
Habonim Dror Camp Miriam madrichim (counselors) partnered with Temple Sholom during the recent teacher’s strike, with the formation of a Habonim Day Camp. Lior Bar-El, a madrich at Camp Miriam and Habonim Day Camp, and a University of British Columbia…
Israel hopes tourists return
Temple Mount Western Wall on Shabbat. (photo by David Shankbone via en.wikipedia.org) Robin and Jon Sirkin prepared to celebrate their son Eitan’s bar mitzvah in Jerusalem last weekend. There was a Dr. Who theme and an ice-cream bar planned for the…
Kids get ORT games benefit
World ORT’s Nechama Kenig, a Kadima Mada professional from Israel, was here in May with colleague Udi Gibory. (photo from ORT Vancouver) On Wednesday, Oct. 22, ORT Vancouver hosts its Annual Card Party at Richmond Country Club. All funds are…
CHW Vancouver opens in style
Sandy Chernoff, left, with honoree Bonnie Belzberg. (photo from CHW Vancouver Centre) On Sept. 21, Vancouver Centre council of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW) held its opening event, a brunch with a fashion show and a program honoring volunteer Bonnie Belzberg. The…
This week’s cartoon … Oct. 3/14
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
Shalom Sesame for Chanukah
Available Oct. 14, SISU is re-releasing the 12 episodes of the 2010-11 season of Shalom Sesame in a new six-DVD thin-pack gift box. Included in the re-release is a bonus DVD featuring two episodes from the classic Shalom Sesame series,…
Beth Israel comes home
The new LEED Gold-equivalent synagogue now faces 28th Avenue. (photo by Jan Lee) The energy was palpable last Sunday, Sept. 14, as congregants from Vancouver’s oldest Conservative synagogue gathered outside the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Everything was ready…
Butt Kapinski – not your children’s clown
Deanna Fleysher as private eye Butt Kapinski. (photo from Deanna Fleysher) Think you’re going to go sit and watch Butt Kapinski at the Cultch next month? Think again. You’re going to be an integral part of the show. An award-winning hit at…
Hundreds attend Met protest of Klinghoffer opera
Demonstrators protest the New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of The Death of Klinghoffer on Monday. (photo by Amelia Katzen via jns.org) Several hundred protesters gathered at New York’s Lincoln Centre on Monday to protest the opening night of the New York…
Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles offers 4,000 laughs
Nathan Barrett and Nicola Cavendish in Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles. (photo by David Cooper) I can be quite nervous going to see a play that relies on only one or two main actors to carry the production, particularly when those one or…
Time to parade your views with pride
With our own civic and municipal elections in British Columbia weeks away, it may seem odd to take time to consider the impending civic vote in Toronto. Of course, the entire world has devoted some of its attention to Toronto…
Siegel wins travel-writing award for article in JI
Masada Siegel, a journalist and media personality known as “The Fun Girl Correspondent,” has won silver in the Personal Comment category of the 2014 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. The award, sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation,…
Mystery photo … Sept. 26/14
Women with thrift sale goods, National Council of Jewish Women, 1960. (photo from JWB fonds; JMABC L.13961) 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…
Time for dynamic on-campus discourse on Israel/Palestine
With September upon us and the Gaza war behind us, university students may be facing Israel-on-campus discourse this semester with some extra trepidation. I often hear Jewish parents wondering about how we can best prepare our kids to “face” Israel…
Schiffer photograph on display for first time since 1999
Arthur Erickson, circa 1970, Vancouver. (photo by Fred Schiffer; JMABC) Thanks to the B.C. History Digitization Program and the Young Canada Works program, the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia (JMABC) now has more than 1,700 photographs from the…
