Playing to win
I’m home when my phone buzzes with a text from my son. Playing for the school basketball team in a city an hour away, his five words carry disappointment, sadness. “I’m just a benchwarmer, mom.” I’m not one of those…
freelancer
Bard celebrates 25th
Bard on the Beach’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one cheeky dream. (photo by David Blue) Summer in Vancouver brings the sun and, with it, things like beach time and bike rides, barbecues and picnics. It also brings the magic…
An overdue unveiling
Sarah Haniford’s granddaughter, Alice Campbell, with Schara Tzedeck Synagogue Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt at the unveiling of Sarah’s headstone. (photo from Jewish Cemetery at Mountain View Restoration Project) “You live as long as you are remembered.” – Russian Proverb Fifty people…
Herzliya Science Centre students launch satellite
A group of Herzliya Science Centre students working on Duchifat 1 in the clean room with Dr. Ana Heller. (photo from Herzliya Science Centre) In Israel, high school students helped launch a satellite into space – something typically reserved for university…
A grandmother reflects
On a hot Sunday in June, a grandmother climbs up to a backless seat in the bleachers of a high school gym whose air-conditioning has conked out. Students are handing out water bottles to the sweating crowd. She fans herself…
Balancing kids high-tech wants with needs
The start of a new school year used to just mean dealing with the end-of-summer blues, figuring out which classes to take and which books to buy, and making sure you had a first-day-of-school outfit. For today’s kids, however, there’s…
“The matzav” in Israel
Gaza, July 28, 2014: An Israel Defence Forces soldier examines a newly revealed tunnel in the Gaza strip. (photo by IDF via Ashernet) It’s been awhile since I’ve written. There’s a story I’ve been meaning to share but, unfortunately, circumstances…
Hockey brings peace in Israel
My new friends! A mixed group of Arab and Jewish kids playing hockey together in Israel. I have to admit that it has been tough to concentrate on much these days with everything going on in Israel this month. The…
“Israel is an example”: Premier Christy Clark
Kibbutz Magen member Shunit Dekel speaks via Skype to the almost 800 people who came out to Temple Sholom to show support for Israel. Dina Wachtel, executive director, Western Region, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, is at the podium. (photo…
Hundreds rally in support of Israel
Rally in support of Israel drew a few hundred people to the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday afternoon. (photo by Shahar Ben Halevi) Nearly 300 people gathered around the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday, July 27, at noon, to show support for the…
Gotta celebrate Gotta Sing!
The PNE is hosting a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! and, on Aug. 24, 4:30 p.m., there will be a show featuring 2014 participants in the program, Perry Ehrlich’s ShowStoppers and Sound Sensation troupes, as…
Peretz Centre opens gallery
Left to right: Simon Bonettemaker, Hinda Avery, Claire Cohen and Colin Nicol-Smith. (photo by Olga Livshin) “We decided we’ll be the Peretz Painters,” said Colin Nicol-Smith, one of the collaborators of the inaugural art show that opened on July 16…
Both TUTS shows worth seeing, why not see both?
When Fiona (Lindsay Warnock) asks her savior to take off his helmet so that she can meet her prince, Shrek (Matt Palmer) is reluctant. (photo by Milan Radovanovic) An ugly ogre and a beautiful blonde. You wouldn’t think they’d have much…
Gena Perala plays Harmony Arts
Gena Perala plays at Harmony Arts Festival on Aug. 3. (photo from Gena Perala) “Creating songs, writing music and poetry, is its own reward,” said Gena Perala. The young poet and songwriter is still striving to find her niche in…
Remembering Reb Zalman
I was 15 during the summer of 1962 when a visiting Lubavitcher rabbi named Zalman Schachter came to Camp Ramah. He sang his soft and expressive melody for the first blessing of the Birkat HaMazon (Grace after Meals), which I…
Maggidah Shoshana Litman entertains at L’Chaim
L’Chaim Adult Day Centre member Shirley Kort, right, and her friend Zoe Oreck, who came to visit, listen to Kort’s daughter, Shoshana Litman, tell a story. (photo from L’Chaim) I was invited into a very special world on June 30…
Canadian political support of Israel notable
As the conflict rages in Israel and Gaza, so it does, in a different way, worldwide. As is always the case when Israel is involved in a conflict, the rage level escalates swiftly among commentators, social media, street activists, politicians…
More Than Just Mrs. exhibit online
NCJW members unload boxes of toys headed for Israel as part of the Ship a Box to Israel program launched by NCJW Tikvah branch, Vancouver Harbor, 1947. (photo from JMABC L.11998) Much of the work of Jewish women in Vancouver…
Jared Miller: Victoria Symphony composer-in-residence
Jared Miller has been appointed by the Victoria Symphony as its new composer-in-residence (photo from Jared Miller) Jared Miller has always loved music. “When I was around 3 years old, I would beg my parents every single day to watch the…
Pandora’s Collective co-founder talks to JI
Bonnie Nish also started Summer Dreams. (photo by Robin Susanto) “I have a passion for writing poetry,” said Bonnie Nish, a local poet and an executive director of Pandora’s Collective. “But I also want to build a community of writers. Writing…
Okanagan Jewish community small, close-knit
The sanctuary of Kelowna’s Beth Shalom Synagogue, which was founded in 1990. (photo from OJCA) Kelowna boasts a small but tight-knit Jewish community, with its synagogue, Beth Shalom, located in the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre (OJCC). Although it’s estimated that more…
New Jewish cemetery on Vancouver Island
The entrance to the newly established Jewish section of Cedar Valley Gardens Cemetery. (photo from OJKMS) On July 9, in beautiful sunshine, a little bit of history for the Jewish community in central Vancouver Island was made when the new…
Kesher Hadash teaches about Israel in all its complexity
The 2014 Davidson School group on Vision and Voices, the 10-day trip that precedes Kesher Hadash. The goal of this day in January was to explore the connection to the land and visit Ben-Gurion’s Desert Home in Sde Boker. The…
Travel B.C.: unique places, unique views
A ziplining selfie: Dangling over river gorges in Clayoquot Plateau Provincial Park. (photo by Baila Lazarus) The mission: to explore British Columbia from as many geographical perspectives as possible. The means: a 10-day road trip on Vancouver Island. The locations: whatever…
Mystery photo … July 25/14
Unidentified group of young men, B’nai B’rith, Vancouver, 1950. (photo from JWB fonds; JMABC L.12155) 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…
VanDusen hosts Sculptors’ Society exhibit
The art of Jesse Rubin, above, and Suzy Birstein will be among the work displayed at the summer exhibit of the Sculptors’ Society. (photo courtesy of Jesse Rubin) From larger than life to the minute details of life, the artwork that…
Chabad honors Rebbe
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin speaks to the Vancouver audience via webcast. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay) Empowerment. Scholarship. Connection. Each of these words was used more than once to describe the Rebbe – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, z”l – and his impact…
Internet mostly good thing
What can we possibly add to the billions of words shed on the topic of the Israel-Hamas conflict? If this paper is in your hands – or you’re reading this on our new website or in our affordable and environmentally…
Zach Braff’s new film funny, spiritual, existential
Zach Braff, left, and Jim Parsons at the première for Wish I Was Here. (photo from facebook.com/wishiwasherefilm/photos_stream) Zach Braff is unabashedly and proudly Jewish. One might not deduce that, though, from the caustic attitude toward organized Judaism expressed at the…
New book is first Jacob Dinezon work in English
Jacob Dinezon (1856-1919) was a Yiddish novelist and short-story writer, as famous during his lifetime as were his contemporaries, the three pillars of late-19th- and early-20th-century Yiddish literature, Mendele Mocher Sforim, Y.L. Peretz and Sholem Aleichem. All of these masters…
