Members of the Tikun Olam Gogos show off some of the paddles being auctioned, until Oct. 10. (photo by Paula Simson)
Last fall, Sue Hyde, dragon boat master and member of Tikun Olam Gogos (which loosely translates as Grandmothers Repairing the World), walked into a board meeting with a hand-painted paddle she had decorated herself. Her idea was to sell paddles like it to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, which supports grandmothers in Africa who are raising children orphaned by AIDS.
Tikun Olam Gogos is a Jewish charitable organization, sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple Sholom, and it is dedicated to fundraising for Grandmothers to Grandmothers. The board was in favour of Hyde’s idea – and one of the board members bought the paddle on the spot. Paddles for African Grandmothers was born.
Hyde had access to more than 30 vintage paddles and the Tikun Olam Gogos asked various artists to paint them. The resulting paddles are being auctioned off until Oct. 10 at tikunolamgogos.org/on-line-auction.
“The paddles were done by a selection of different artists, including one stand-up paddle done by a Syrian refugee,” Tikun Olam Gogos member Sunny Rothschild told the Independent. “The rest are meant to hang on the wall. The paddles are amazing, intricately carved as well as painted. Some are two-sided and some aren’t.”
The fundraiser will culminate with an evening concert on Saturday, Oct. 13, featuring the City Soul Choir and a meet-and-greet with the artists. Winning bidders can pick up their paddles then.
Marie Henry, the founder of Tikun Olam Gogos, also spoke with the Independent. The Tikun Olam Gogos are part of the Greater Vancouver Gogos, which includes more than 25 groups.
“I was visiting in-laws in Kelowna, and I went to a public market and saw a stall where women were selling beautiful tote bags. I found out they were supporting the Stephen Lewis Foundation,” she explained. “I came back and joined the group in Vancouver, but the only problem was I was the only Jew in the group and events kept conflicting with the Jewish calendar. ‘This is crazy,’ I thought, ‘I’m going to form my own group.’”
Henry did just that, in 2011. Today, the group, which is named after the Jewish concept of repairing the world (tikkun olam) and the Zulu word for grandmother (gogo) has Jewish and non-Jewish members. Henry said that only some of the members are actual grandmothers, with the rest being “grand others.”
There are a few hundred Grandmothers to Grandmothers groups across Canada, as well as organizations in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. Tikun Olam Gogos has sold more than 2,000 tote bags, with all profits going to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. That’s some $200,000 in donations from tote bags, said Rothschild.
“The admin costs are 11% of all the monies raised, one of the lowest rates of all charities in Canada,” Henry added.
While Henry takes care of notes and minutes and other administrative details for the group, she said, “We have a lot of really talented women in the group, like Sunny, who takes responsibility for part of the group and helps run it.”
Rothschild joined Tikun Olam Gogos almost four years ago, when she was slowing down her career as a lawyer and had more time for volunteer work. She is active in sewing the group’s signature tote bags, as well as taking turns selling them at local craft fairs, where the Gogos get a chance to tell people about their work and the Stephen Lewis Foundation. “That’s the best part,” she said.
“I have a Post-it up in my house – ‘May my life be for a blessing,’” said Rothschild. “This is one of the things that I do because I want my life to be meaningful and to have mattered.”
“The reason that I started this group when I found out what they are doing,” said Henry, “is to help these grandmothers raise up to 15 grandchildren. My grandchildren live a life of privilege and I feel so horribly guilty that these women in their senior years have to suffer so horribly badly. Doing this, I feel useful. In the final analysis, we are performing tikkun olam.”
“I don’t think that the governments in Sub-Saharan Africa understand the revolution that is going to take place because of these women becoming empowered,” said Rothschild. “There are amazing stories of what women are doing, standing up for their rights. It’s really quite amazing what’s happening.”
“The support that we give them helps them to do that,” added Henry. “I see this as the same to the way that suffragettes in North America stood up for their rights, and here it’s happening in a similar way nearly a hundred years later.”
For now, Henry and Rothschild are hoping the community will come out to support Paddles for African Grandmothers at the Many Rivers to Cross concert.
“We’ll be selling tote bags,” said Rothschild. “People can buy a glass of wine, there will be food too – it will be a lovely event.”
Tickets for the Oct. 13, 7 p.m., show at Temple Sholom can be purchased via tikunolamgogos.org/events.
Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the CJN, writes regularly for the Forward, Tricycle and the Wisdom Daily, and has been published in Sojourners, Religion Dispatches and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.
Rae Maté is one of the many artists who have donated work to the fundraiser for a Hornby Island gallery. (photo from Rae Maté)
Hornby Island, in Georgia Straight, is known for its natural beauty. It is no surprise that many of its small population – 1,016, according to the 2016 census – are artists. While the community hasn’t had a regular exhibition space, this is about to change. On Oct. 10, the Hornby Island Arts Council is holding an auction fundraiser in support of building a new art centre.
“A full 40% of residents of Hornby are visual artists, dancers, musicians, poets, actors and writers,” Cheryl Milner, auction chair, told the Independent about the need for a permanent gallery. “For too many years, local visual artists have been using a 1967 mobile home with a small display area to show their work. Otherwise, artists have built their own studios or hung their work in the local co-op general store to get in front of the island visitors.”
About the concept for the fundraiser, Milner said, “The idea came to me because I became familiar with this amazing woman on the East Coast of Canada, Zita Cobb. She lived on Fogo Island, left after high school, made it in the high-tech business and went back home to see how she could help her native island, particularly because the cod fishery had closed. She started a foundation to create greater cultural resilience for the region.”
Milner doesn’t want anyone to compare her to Cobb, but she wants to help Hornby Island and its artists on a smaller scale. “My thought was to marry Vancouver to Hornby Island as Toronto supports Fogo Island. The auction is our first attempt, and we’ll see how it goes,” she said. “The parallel goes only as far as helping support the gallery. We don’t wish to expand things further than that for now.”
She said a gallery has been on the radar of the arts council for years. “We have some new blood in the organization and want to help make it happen,” she explained. “We are also applying for some matching grant opportunities, which means that we could potentially double the capital we have been scrimping to save. Currently, we have about $180,000 saved. This will give us a good foundation to move forward. We do have a couple of architects on board to support this venture, so there appears to be quite a lot of momentum to get this done.”
Attracting tourists is one of the reasons the auction will take place in Vancouver, not on the island itself.
“Many Vancouverites frequently visit Hornby,” Milner said. “They love the place and their special time there. We are giving Vancouver an opportunity to support the artists they love by helping to build a proper facility to house a permanent gallery, exhibition and workshop space for future generations.”
The artists of Hornby Island are excited about the gallery and the auction.
“Approximately 35 artists donated their works,” said Milner. “About 25 are in the live auction and another 10 in the silent auction, which will focus on items and services of interest to Vancouverites.”
Besides their art, some participants are offering “Hands-on Hornby” artistic experiences to bidders. Among these will be cutting a song with Marc Atkinson at the Barn Studio and a two-day workshop with ceramicist Rachelle Chinnery, which includes a rental stay.
One of the visual artists who donated their work for the auction is Vancouver Jewish community member and well-known local artist Rae Maté. In 2011, she had a solo show at the Zack Gallery, and the Independent published an interview with her at the time. Since then, much has happened in her artistic life.
“In 2015, my third book in the Crocodile series with the author Robert Heidbreder, Crocs at Work, was published by Tradewind Books. My silly crocodiles are back and, this time, they have jobs and professions, which they do in very surprising and funny ways,” she said.
Since the death of her mother in 2017, Maté has devoted herself to art full-time.
“I’m excited to be using oils again as well as acrylics,” she said. “I’m exploring new directions: abstraction, non-figurative works and landscape. This summer, I had a very successful show on Hornby during the art festival in August. I was one of the four artists invited to mentor Hornby children. The children’s art was shown alongside with the mentoring artist’s new works. It was an exciting and rewarding experience for us all.”
Maté’s ties to Hornby Island are longstanding. “Our family fell in love with Hornby Island in the 1980s, when my sons were little, and we spent several summer holidays camping there,” she said. “After my daughter was born, we purchased a small cabin. Five years later, we sold it and bought a larger place with indoor plumbing. We are still there today and we have many Jewish friends who live nearby. For years, we have been having potluck Shabbat dinners at Grassy Point, a wonderful park with a meadow and a beach a short walk from us. It is famous for its sunsets.”
Maté has enjoyed the island and its artistic atmosphere for years. It feeds her creativity.
“I used to tell people that being an artist on Hornby Island is like being a Jew in New York,” she said. “Almost everyone is creative and involved or interested in the arts. I feel very inspired and at home there.”
She also contributes to the arts scene on Hornby. “I regularly sell my art cards at the co-op store and at the farmers markets in the summer. I had a few solo and group shows at the community hall.”
Not only do she and her family spend most summers on the island, but she usually manages to get there for about a week every two months. “I do so much of my painting and illustrating work there, on my deck in the garden, when the weather allows, or in the studio during the colder months,” she said.
When Maté heard about the auction, she knew she wanted to donate her works for it.
“When Cheryl approached me at the market, I said yes immediately. This is a cause I whole-heartedly support. I am offering three paintings for the auction, all new, created especially for this event.”
The Oct. 10 auction will take place at Sage Bistro, which is behind the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia. To learn more, visit hornbyislandartscouncil.wordpress.com.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Colleen Winton as Mrs. Lovett and Warren Kimmel as Sweeney Todd in Snapshots Collective’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which runs Oct. 10-31. (photo by Nicol Spinola)
“To seek revenge may lead to hell, but everyone does it, if seldom as well as Sweeney,” said Stephen Aberle, quoting from the finale of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Aberle plays Judge Turpin in the Snapshots Collective production of the musical, which will take place at Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop, or at least a facsimile of it, at 348 Water St., in Gastown, Oct. 10-31. Most shows are already sold out.
“Part of the power of the piece,” explained Aberle, whose character sets Sweeney on his murderous path, “is that we can identify with all of the characters, see their strengths and their flaws, and observe how much we share with them. That’s what makes it troubling, that irresistible doubt: would I do anything differently?”
Let’s hope most people would, as Sweeney Todd slits quite a few throats in his barber’s chair – providing the main ingredient for Mrs. Lovett’s pies – before getting to the object of his revenge, Judge Turpin, who abused Sweeney’s wife and exiled Sweeney for a crime Sweeney didn’t commit.
“When we decided on doing Sweeney Todd,” director Chris Adams and choreographer Nicol Spinola told the Independent in an email interview, “we knew we wanted Warren Kimmel as Sweeney, so we approached him first to see if he would be interested in playing the title character. He was on board almost immediately and we started moving forward to cast the rest of the show. We next approached Colleen Winton for the role of Mrs. Lovett and held auditions for the rest of the cast. We weren’t shy in letting auditioning actors know that our show was going to be different and that seemed to excite them. We were thrilled with the turnout and were able to cast the show exactly how we saw it.”
And the intimate audience – theatre capacity is about 56 – will be right in the midst of it all.
“The show is staged around the entire venue with some seats being directly in the action,” said Adams and Spinola, who are also co-producers of the show, with Ron Stuart, Wendy Bross Stuart and Kat Palmer. “There will be interactive moments between the actors and the audience, although there is no audience participation required. Sometimes the action will take place right in front of you and other times the action will be across the room.”
Kimmel looks absolutely terrifying in the production’s 44-second teaser.
“It’s always more fun, interesting, to play dark or evil characters than good ones and, for the most part, I am cast as good guys rather than bad guys so this is fun from that point of view,” said Kimmel of playing the title character in the musical, composed by Stephen Sondheim, with book by Hugh Wheeler. “Also, Sweeney Todd is probably one of the most challenging pieces in the musical canon to perform, so that makes it a stimulating and scary experience as well, which is, I suppose, fun in a twisted fashion.”
“I think this is a tremendously important story for our time,” said Aberle, “a time when the power structures that reinforce men’s privilege and women’s presumed subservience (as well as racialized, class-based and other power imbalances) are being challenged by some; desperately defended by others. We read about Judge Turpin analogues just about every day in the news. I think it’s particularly important for those of us who possess power to check in with a story like this and consider our own exercise of that power. To what extent am I being a self-serving brute in this situation? Are there ways I might reduce that extent? The play, it seems to me, asks questions like those pretty insistently.”
About how he has chosen to portray Judge Turpin, Aberle said, “I’m looking for him the way I generally look for a character: by trying to figure out what he wants in the context of the given circumstances. That context, for a judge in mid-19th-century England, was power, privilege and prestige.
“One of the things that makes Judge Turpin interesting, to me, is that he’s not merely a psychopath or even a simple, spoiled narcissist: he tries to do ‘the right thing’ according to social convention and struggles with his desires (though more because of deeply ingrained inner shame than because he really understands his own power to harm, or empathizes with his victims). There are some questions about the man that I’m interested in exploring. What was his blue-sky vision of the perfect outcome when he set this engine of vengeance rolling, 15 years before the play begins? Why, especially given the power of his urges, has he gone through life so far without marrying? Why did he adopt a year-old infant as his ward? There are several plausible answers – and plausible combinations of multiple answers – for each of these, and I’m enjoying playing with them.”
Echoing Kimmel’s assessment of the music, Aberle added, “And, really, let’s face it. This is Sondheim at just about his Sondheimiest. If I can sing the material more or less in time and on pitch, I’ll be pretty happy.”
“The music plays a central role in telling this story,” Bross Stuart, the show’s musical director, told the Independent, “and there is no one more brilliant than Stephen Sondheim to do this for us. Central to the core of this music is the Gregorian chant, ‘Dies Irae’ (‘Day of Wrath,’ ‘Day of Judgment’) theme, heard throughout this work. We hear fragments of this musical motif hidden everywhere. Extended, shortened, pulled out of shape, but it’s there. We know it is the underpinning of Sweeney Todd’s motivation. It helps us understand Mr. Todd’s state of mind; and how revenge morphs into mental illness. When we are in the asylum, in Act 2, some of the ‘patients’ sing a demented version of ‘Dies Irae.’
“Another example is Sondheim’s use of a repeated note for more than 100 bars. Why does he do this? It is Mr. Todd’s obsession with murdering Judge Turpin. Even while the men are having a seemingly ‘friendly’ conversation, Todd is thinking along more sinister lines.”
“Sweeney Todd, as far as we can tell, is a normal man with a wife he adores and a new young daughter,” said Kimmel. “Without spoiling the plot altogether, life deals him a hand that most would find impossible to survive, let alone overcome, and so we have a perfect vehicle to allow us to ask what we would do in his position and, if we are honest with ourselves and had the courage to follow through, we could easily imagine doing the same things he does.”
But, he added, “In the end, I think it is a very moral story and the final destination is morally inevitable – although we feel for him and want to see him get his revenge, and although he and Mrs. Lovett almost get away with what they have done, it cannot be…. The world is set to rights at the end of the piece.
“You could say that this is just a Victorian melodrama, a deliciously dark tale underlining all the Christian moral virtue of the period,” he continued. “However, like all great drama, I think the rules of the game are timeless – first dramatized in Greek times or even biblical times. You cannot fool God; you cannot escape the price that must be paid for transgressing His rules. There is a fashion now to believe that we have moved past these religious moral strictures and that religion has less to offer a modern society but, in the end, this is a morality tale that resonates with very deep archetypal themes. No matter how justified it may seem, revenge will lead nowhere good.
“From a performance point of view, it is always a gift to be able to play someone truly morally compromised and, in a broader sense, I think that is what the theatre is really for: to allow us to watch this story and go through all that life is able to throw at us, to imagine, to understand and even to justify truly extraordinary behaviour, and yet to laugh and cry and cringe and know that, at the end, the moral compass of the world is back on true north.”
An emotional connection to the show is one of the reasons that the Stuarts wanted to be involved in this production. “We saw the original Broadway production in New York City in 1979, with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou,” said Ron Stuart. “It was brilliant and riveting and unique in the genre – like West Side Story was 20 years before or Showboat before that.
“Our co-producers had the concept of an immersive version of the show at a Gastown venue around Halloween, and we thought it was an interesting way to present the work.”
In addition to funding, he said, “with projects of this scale, we are also very hands-on. Our director, choreographer, music director and assistant director are also producers. We readily share our contacts in a variety of specialities, such as costumes, set design, lighting, instrument rental, legal issues, marketing, etc. Moreover, we are a collective under Equity rules, so we all have ‘skin in the game.’”
This is Palmer’s first experience as a producer. “It has been nice to learn from professionals who have been through this journey from beginning to end,” she told the Independent.
Knowing that they wanted this show to be immersive, the venue not only had to work from a mechanical perspective, “but add to the experience,” said Palmer, who is also in the ensemble.
“It’s been a fun challenge,” she said, “to be switching between my assistant stage managing hat and my performer hat – ‘this prop will need to be pre-set here, oh no, this is the lyric, this person has a quick change.’”
Palmer described the show as being very difficult technically, “there is not just Stage Left and Stage Right to worry about, there is a whole building.”
This is part of the attraction for Bross Stuart.
“We, the musicians, are very close to the audience and to the actors,” she explained. “Communication, page-turning, singing as you play – could be problematic. And the action is very immediate and very gripping. Very exciting!”
“My favourite number in the show,” said Palmer, “has to be our opening number, ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.’ Our amazing choreographer, Nicol Spinola, has created something so eerie, unique and unsettling. It immediately brings the audience right into this dark and thrilling world of 1840s London. Not only does it sound fantastic to have our entire cast of 17 singing Sondheim’s challenging music, but it also sets the mood for the entire show. I get chills performing it and I am very confident the audience will have never experienced anything like it before.”
For more information and tickets to Sweeney Todd, visit sweeneytoddthemusical.ca. And plan to have dinner at the venue before the show – pies, of course.
“Our pies come fresh each day from the Pie Hole located on Fraser Street in Vancouver,” said Adams and Spinola. “We are offering a traditional steak-and-stout meat pie, an aromatic Moroccan chickpea vegetarian pie and a delicious Thai coconut curry vegan pie. Pies can be added on when you are purchasing your tickets.”
As we come to the end of the High Holy Days, we set ourselves on paths of new beginnings. On Simchat Torah, we mark both a beginning and an end. The cycle of Torah reading ends and then immediately begins again. It is said that we read the same passages of the Torah every week, every year, but the meanings change because we are different people year after year, experiencing life and the world with different eyes and, hopefully, with increased wisdom.
The Days of Awe are a time of critical introspection. This period of teshuvah invites us to recognize our shortcomings and commit to improvement. This mission is both individual and collective. As a people, we are obligated to repair the world, and this year calls on us with no shortage of issues to collectively confront: inequality and suffering, environmental degradation, inhumane treatment of animals, the pursuit of justice.
On the latter front, our cousins in the United States are absorbed in a drama around the appointment of the next justice of the Supreme Court and things that he may have done many years ago. The senators considering his nomination heard two irreconcilable narratives last week from the accuser and the accused. The testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford echoes the testimonies of so many people, mostly women but also men, who have felt empowered, motivated or obligated to share their most personal experiences in what has become known as the “#MeToo era.”
Yet the senators’ motivations hinge on more than determining who is telling the truth. Political considerations – advancing President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee to the bench before the November midterm elections – seem to be the factor front of mind for some elected officials, regardless of Blasey Ford’s testimony. It seems clear that politics may trump justice in this case.
Politics in Canada is not as brash as that in the United States, but populist and exclusionary ideas may be finding a voice here that they did not have before. A new federal political party seems prepared to amplify views that, until recently, were more limited to online discussions and whispered conversations. Meanwhile, the party that won Monday’s provincial election in Québec mooted during the election campaign the idea of throwing out newcomers who do not gain an adequate grasp of the French language within three years of arrival. Unconstitutional as such a policy may be, even voicing such ideas brings us to a new chapter in Canadian public life.
Immigration and refugees are a perennial issue, with the nature of a society at the heart of the discussion. The groups of people at the centre of the discussion – immigrants and refugees – change generation by generation. In this era, Jewish Canadians have an opportunity to bring hard-learned wisdoms to the debate. The federal government is set to formally apologize next month for a most egregious historical example of exclusion: the rejection of the passengers on the MS St. Louis. Indeed, this memory should inform our reaction to the current discussion and the realities for the millions of displaced people and refugees fleeing conflict around the world.
Personal experiences inform our political ideologies. And, through our personal actions, we can affect political affairs. This can be in obvious ways – like showing up to vote in the municipal elections on Oct. 20 or in advance polls – or in more subtle but profound ways, like educating the next generation, modeling the values we hope to advance and creating ripples of goodness across our circles of influence.
In matters of public policy and in the more private ways we behave in our lives, the holy days remind us to take stock of our own role in advancing justice and a better world.
We may feel insignificant in the grand scheme. How can we affect the powers in the White House or in Ottawa or around the world? But Jewish tradition is clear. “It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either,” said the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Tarfon.
Inward reflection is the first and easiest step we can take as individuals to address faults in our world. Based on this reflection, we may choose to move to action. Where it will end, we cannot always tell at the beginning. But it is our job to get the ball rolling.
By the time you read this, our big run of fall Jewish High Holidays will be over. However, I’m still gathering up bits and pieces about it. What did I experience? What worked out and what didn’t? This isn’t a yes or no question, it’s complex. It takes time to process the intensity of what I learned.
Like many parents with kids, I don’t attend a full complement of adult religious services. Even if I didn’t have younger children, we’d still have to find dress clothes for everyone and make sure holiday meals are ready, never mind actually working for a living. Every fall is a juggling act. Will it work out smoothly? Sometimes it is good planning. Sometimes, it’s luck.
This year, I managed to access several sermons, done by various rabbis I know and respect. Some were published to the internet on the day after the holiday. Others were live-streamed.
Via the internet, I read the Rosh Hashanah sermons of a Long Island rabbi with whom I have studied and become friendly over the past year or two. Rabbi Susan Elkodsi shared several of her sermons as blog posts after the holiday. One sermon covered the confluence of 9/11 with the High Holidays. The other talked about how we connect with our ancestors over the New Year period, and how the “who will live and who will die” metaphor becomes alive for many.
For me, both of these topics struck home. My family in New York City and in D.C. lived through 9/11. Also, every time I sing the holiday Kiddush, it is as though I hear my grandfather, z”l, singing it. He sang it at my family’s holiday table, and he taught me to do it as a young adult. On erev Rosh Hashanah this year, I could hear his voice in my ear, although he died long ago. Thanks to those sermons, I have some Jewish historic context for two strong emotional memories.
Elkodsi’s next blog post covered a “water-optional” version of Tashlich, when people gather to throw their sins or breadcrumbs into the water. She described how Tashlich might be the time to clean up or discard the things that are holding us back or for which we can no longer find a use. In a sense, it’s a “KonMari” cleaning method for our lives. This, too, found resonance with me. I used it as unconscious encouragement – my kids and I cleaned up their art shelf, play room and living room toys before Yom Kippur. This mess weighed me down. Together, we cast it off to have a better start to 5779.
This year, even though we didn’t travel there, we heard Kol Nidre, sung in Virginia, and saw my father, as a past president, holding a Torah on the pulpit of my family’s congregation. How did we pull that off?
On erev Yom Kippur, my kids got into their pajamas. We read stories and got ready for bed. At exactly 7:30 p.m. CT, we started live-streaming the Temple Rodef Shalom Kol Nidre late service. My kids worried that the Torah was too heavy for their grandfather. (I did, too.) Later, my mom told me that past presidents on either side of my dad were spotting for him, and that my dad also recognized that this would probably be the last year he could do this. Torahs are heavy. Nobody wants to drop one. We felt the power of connecting with family, seeing my father do a mitzvah, and something difficult, at a big holiday service.
My kids made it until about 8:15, staying up through the Kol Nidre prayer and the first part of the service before they fell asleep. Using headphones, I listened to the rest of the service until, for some reason, I couldn’t access the live-streaming anymore. By then, I’d heard about how we should see teshuvah (repentance) through the eyes of a failing U.S. criminal justice system. It’s hard to balance the needs of victims, cope with crime and also give people who’ve made mistakes a second chance. Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe, a victim of violent crime, gave the sermon. He explained his social action efforts to advocate for reform with an interfaith clergy group that meets with Virginia’s governor.
I’m mentioning the positive things I can fit in one column. Sometimes accessing diverse voices, from every movement, with different Jewish experiences, enriches our observance. There’s no way my body could have been in synagogue in Manitoba, New York and Virginia. The traveling would have been torture, never mind the cost! However, my mind traveled. This helped me think about new things for 5779.
Some say that the High Holidays are the most important days of the Jewish year, but I’d argue that they are the most intense. Shabbat every week is important. All the other holidays have value, too. The thing about rituals, traditions and observance is that they don’t have an on/off switch. If we shift ourselves just a little, attend a different Jewish service, listen to a new sermon or approach things differently, we can have a startlingly new experience.
Most people attend one congregation all the time, hear one or two rabbis’ sermons and rarely see something new. It’s a lot of effort to break routines. Change is hard. However, every day is an opportunity to look up and find new things in our Jewish landscape. Sometimes, a slight shift in how we see our rituals (dog walks, meditations, synagogue services) can change the way we see the whole world. It’s going to take me time to sort through what I learned and what changed. I hope you, too, can take that time to gain something new, to learn something about the Jewish world, through this kind of exploration.
Joanne Seiffwrites regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. See more about her at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.
Sara Raposo-Blouw, left, and Erin Goldberg taste the chocolate mocha and vanilla blueberry flavours of Thrive. (photo by Ian Blouw)
Erin Goldberg, 30, was only 5 years old when it was discovered that she had rhabdomyosarcoma in her abdomen, attached to one of her ovaries.
Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is an aggressive and highly malignant form of cancer that develops from skeletal muscle cells that have failed to fully differentiate. It is generally considered to be a disease of childhood, as the vast majority of cases occur in those below the age of 18.
Growing up in Winnipeg, Goldberg spent almost 130 days at the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) receiving treatments and recovering from procedures over a two-year span before she was cleared of RMS.
Goldberg’s struggle with the cancer and her unwavering will to make the world a better place have served as a driving force in her life ever since. And her memories from that time, as a child struggling to keep food down, have led to her helping develop a liquid food replacement that would have been priceless to her when she had RMS.
“Basically, everything I ate was making me nauseous, and that was due to chemotherapy,” Goldberg told the Independent. “It sort of alters your taste. And I would also throw up anything I would eat. It was important to have as many bland foods as possible. With liquid nutrition, it’s a lot easier to consume your calories than with anything solid. It’s denser and is a better option in the hospital.”
Goldberg said she went into nutrition because she was interested in disease prevention. After meeting Sara Raposo-Blouw and Lisa Reed, dieticians at the HSC, and them sharing their experiences with one another, they came up with the idea of a liquid nutritional drink. They knew, firsthand, the lack of options people had.
“The beverage options in hospitals were really lacking,” said Goldberg. “Patients find the taste of what there is too sweet. I recently spoke to my friend’s dad, who is a psychiatrist, and he actually prescribes Boost six times a day for one of his patients, because he has a motor disorder … he’s constantly moving, so his caloric requirement is elevated so much. He needs to have six of these beverages in addition to his regular food intake. When you have that much of something that is too sweet and has ingredients that are highly processed, or if you’re vegan or have allergies, you just can’t do it. You need an alternative. And there was really nothing out there.”
Goldberg and partners have developed a new option, called Thrive, that uses local ingredients, two of them being flax oil and pea protein. The formula is completely plant-based and free of major allergens, like dairy, soy, corn and wheat.
The trio solicited the help of a Burnaby beverage developer to help them produce the drink with the necessary specialized equipment.
While competitors have come out with flavoured drinks and drinks that cater to particular groups of users, Thrive differs in that it is a basic formula that everyone can use, adding their own ingredients as desired, depending on their needs.
“Currently, we have one adult formula, but we’re working on one for children,” said Goldberg. “The main difference between the one for adults and the one for children is the protein content. It’s very easy for us to adjust the formula accordingly. And, as far as different patient populations, we don’t have other types of formulas. Basically, if a higher caloric content is necessary, then more of the beverage would be prescribed. But, at this time, we only have one formula.
“The palatability really stands out for our product compared to these other competitors,” she said. “A lot of the ingredients they use are bitter. They are trying to mask that bitter taste with the sweetness, coming up with flavours like chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.”
Because of its mild flavour, Thrive also can be used to make solid food, similarly to milk, but with a much higher nutritional punch. For those seeking a flavoured drink, they can choose to add whatever flavour they wish to the degree of sweetness they like.
A couple of months ago, Goldberg flew to Montreal to accept the Social Mitacs Entrepreneur Award and a $5,000 cheque, in recognition of what she and her partners are doing. Different levels of government have also stepped up with funding, as has North Forage.
“We’ve been receiving support from North Forage, a business incubator in Winnipeg,” said Goldberg. “They’ve helped us get off the ground and understand the business side of things, because we are coming at it from a science background. So, the three of us needed some input there.
“We are currently looking for investors,” she added. “We have a couple that are interested, but we need more to move on to our next phase and are looking at government funding. Once we are up and running, our first year, we are planning on having online sales direct to the consumer.”
Based in Winnipeg, their initial target is to partner with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, as well as other health authorities across Canada. Goldberg is confident that, once they taste the product and look at the nutritional information, the authorities will sign on.
The partners are also confident that their target timeline of production by next summer can be met, even with the need to do a scale-up and validation trial in Quebec because no facility in Manitoba is currently capable of doing this.
“We require very specialized equipment when it comes to the aseptic packaging that we require, because we want our product to be shelf-stable, so it doesn’t have to be in the refrigerator,” said Goldberg. “That equipment is very expensive and very specialized. They have it in Quebec. Once we scale-up, we will go to Toronto and that will be our facility to actually produce the product on an ongoing basis.”
At the moment, the partners are working with their lawyers to set up the deal structure to bring in investors for the validation tests (costing $250,000).
Elliot Kimelman’s C-Spray is available online at amazon.ca. (photo from Elliot Kimelman)
Going for a swim is something many people enjoy. But, many times, even if you shower right after, you can still smell the chlorine. If only there was a way to prevent that. Now, thanks to Winnipegger Elliot Kimelman, there is.
Kimelman attended Gray Academy of Jewish Education for elementary and high school. He took to swimming as a child and kept it up, eventually becoming a swimming instructor in Grade 10.
“I was really enjoying my job, but that’s how the idea for C-Spray started – because my skin started getting really irritated by the pool water,” he explained. “I have quite sensitive skin, so it bothered me a lot. I knew I had to be in the pool for work, but, at the same time, I could literally feel the damaging effects on my skin, which I didn’t like.”
He tried various products, but didn’t find them very effective. So, he researched the topic more deeply and found that certain combinations of minerals and vitamins have the potential of eliminating chlorine molecules. And, with help from some friends who were studying chemistry at the University of Manitoba, he developed a chlorine-eliminating body spray.
“Basically, I found that Vitamin C is one of the active ingredients in a solution I created that eliminates chlorine on skin, hair, swimsuits, or anything,” said Kimelman. “I felt that this was cool and very interesting.
“I started creating the solution, just for myself, and I used it and loved it … and didn’t think much of it. Then, I was discussing it with my coworkers and friends, and they all said, ‘Elliot, you have a really interesting product there. Why don’t you try bringing it to market?’ So, I thought to myself, ‘That sounds great. But, how do I do that?’”
He was in high school at the time.
In Grade 12, Kimelman enrolled in an entrepreneurial program for students, called Junior Achievement. When his group was looking for an idea for a product or a service to create in a four- to five-month period, Kimelman pitched the idea of C-Spray and the group liked it.
“They all thought it was quite unusual,” he said. “They didn’t really understand it. I don’t think I understood it at that point. But, they didn’t have any other interesting ideas, so we thought, ‘Why not?’ That’s when C-Spray was born.
“I was the president of that entrepreneurial group. And so, we met every week for five months. We created this product – the beta version, the testing, the prototype – and we brought it to market, in the sense that there were a few trade fairs that were organized for us that we sold the product at … which was all very exciting.”
Then, Kimelman found his first client – the owner of Swimming Matters, a swimwear accessory outlet in Winnipeg. They were interested in the product and agreed to carry it on a trial basis.
But, being part of a short-term program, C-Spray was shelved when Kimelman’s Junior Achievement stint ended. He went off to business school but soon decided to re-launch C-Spray, which he did this past summer.
“At that point, I’d studied business for almost two years,” he said, “so I had a better sense of what accounting was, what marketing was, how operations worked, etc. And, I felt I might as well try to start this business up again when I come home for the summer…. I arrived back in May and I put the pedal to the metal, and basically started C-Spray again. I started Winnipeg production, getting all the pieces moving. Then, of course, the most difficult part – getting the sales. I started talking to everyone I knew, every store I could think of – a store for luxury swimwear, cheap swimwear, anything related to aquatics whatsoever.”
Kimelman has been getting feedback from a wide range of customers, from high-end swimwear retailers who are worried about chlorine on their swimwear, to people who swim all the time and are worried about the chlorine’s effect on their skin and hair.
C-Spray has been on sale via amazon.ca, as well as at 10 other retail outlets in Winnipeg and Toronto. The product comes in two spray bottle sizes, 240 millilitres, which should be good for about 160 uses, and half that size.
“How it works is, after you swim, whether in a chlorinated pool or hot tub, you get out, hop in the shower and rinse off whatever pool water you have on you,” said Kimelman. “Then, you spray an ample amount of C-Spray all over your body and hair – anywhere you’d like to eliminate chlorine…. It doesn’t actually turn soapy … there aren’t any additives in it whatsoever. You spread it around your body and hair, and then shower as usual. You can use whatever products you’d like. At the end of the process, you’ve completely eliminated chlorine, which soap alone doesn’t do.”
Kimelman said that, even in saltwater pools, high levels of chlorine are used, so you should follow the same process.
While other products on the market claim to eliminate chlorine, Kimelman has found that they mostly just mask the smell.
C-Spray differentiates itself in a few ways. First, it is made with a combination of vitamins, minerals and stabilizing salts. “There are no additives, parabens (preservatives), perfumes, colours or sulfates,” said Kimelman. “It’s a completely natural, raw formula, which a lot of customers like.”
Second, he said, “When you do chemical tests to other products specifically marketed as being chlorine-eliminating shampoo and body wash … in beakers, you see the concentration of chlorine via these DPD tablets…. C-Spray eliminates the chlorine instantly, but these other products either don’t or they only mask the smell of chlorine, but it still exists. So, C-Spray is more effective than most sprays on the market.”
The only reason you will not find C-Spray in retail stores in other places in Canada, including Vancouver, is because Kimelman has not yet had time to spread the word.
“I’m happy to work with any retailer, to give some samples or give an introduction remotely,” said Kimelman. “My plan is now to primarily focus on maintenance and building the company slowly and organically while I finish school.”
Israel’s IVC Research Centre concludes that, with each passing year, some 16% more companies have at least one Chinese investor. (photo by Dave Gordon)
With headlines proclaiming the largest trade war in history, the United States and China began dueling tariffs July 6, and the ongoing row threatens hundreds of billions of dollars of product distribution. But, while China has locked horns with our neighbours to the south, it is partnering more and more with Israel.
According to Thomson Reuters data, Chinese investment in Israeli corporations tripled in the past few years to $16 billion, with about $600 million directed specifically to startups. Israel’s IVC Research Centre concludes that, with each passing year, some 16% more companies have at least one Chinese investor. The Jerusalem Post has stated that it will be no time before China surpasses the United States as Israel’s main foreign investor.
The Chinese “are leveraging Israeli tech to fuel their economy. Israel is held in high esteem as a hub of innovation,” said Hagai Tal, chief executive officer at Tel Aviv-based Taptica, an Israeli mobile advertisement company. “Many Israeli companies also see important opportunities in the East, and the meeting point of these two approaches is what produces such successful business partnerships.”
Israeli Shimi Azar, who runs mobile advertising Spotad’s Asia-Pacific operations, said he has seen “China becoming an innovation power in only a few years.”
China has 232 of the world’s 2,000 largest companies, up from 43 in 2003, according to Forbes magazine. Of the top 20 technology giants, China has nine, including Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Financial, Baidu and Didi. (The United States has 11.) C-Trip International is larger than Expedia, and China produces more online sales than anywhere else, says Market Watch.
“Big cities like Shanghai or Shenzhen already feel quite Western in almost every respect so, culturally, we are becoming closer every year,” said Azar. “The younger generation is eager to learn English and travel the world, so I’m convinced that any significant cultural differences to speak of will soon be a thing of the past.”
Ronen Mense is vice-president of Asia for AppFlyer, a mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform, which went to market with an Asia-first model. “In today’s digital and mobile-first world,” he said, “the Chinese mobile market is like no other. The numbers are staggering: about 800 million mobile users, nearly 500 million users making payments with their phones, nearly $2 billion quarterly revenue in the Chinese iOS App Store – more than any other country in the world.”
Lee Branstetter, professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, said Israel is “doing truly world-class research” in microchips, security and machinery. Adding to the reasons why China and Israel are collaborating more is the political clampdown sweeping through the United States; notably, concerns over security, trade, foreign debt and foreign corporate control.
The bilateral cooperation was echoed at the political level when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu signed a memorandum in 2015, agreeing to partner in the technology sector.
For the past four years, the China-Israel Innovation Summit has taken place with the support of their respective countries’ governments. In the past two years, two Israeli companies entered the Chinese stock exchange for the first time: Alma Lasers (bought out by XIO Group in 2013) and Sisram Medical, in part owned by China’s Fosun Pharmaceutical. Major acquisitions are now legion.
In 2016, a Chinese consortium, led by Giant Network Group, paid $4.4 billion to acquire Playtika, an Israeli video game company. A year prior, China’s XIO Group ponied up $510 million for medical device firm Lumenis.
Last year, Kuang-Chi Group – whose stated aim is to “invest in and collaborate with innovative technology projects worldwide” – announced it was looking to base its headquarters in Tel Aviv. Its chairman, Dr. Ruopeng Liu, told Forbes that it all had to do with Israel’s “global reputation for innovation,” coupled with China’s strength in the global market.
Forbes also has reported that Ogawa, a healthcare leader in China, is earmarking $10 million for wellness technology investments in Israel.
Peggy Mizrahi, a Chinese citizen who now lives in Israel, sees two nations who have a similar view of the world. Mizrahi is vice-president of Indigo Global, an Israeli boutique investment advisory firm, with activities and operations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She said the “Chinese are [known for] long-term planning, conservative and hierarchical, unlike the commonly recognized Israeli mindset as fast, innovative, impatient, flexible and [with a] lack of respect for authority. However, paradoxically, both countries share something deeper than that: the refugee mindset – a people suffered for decades in wars, exiles, and Holocaust, massacres; struggled for independence and peace; respect of culture, history and the power of knowledge; and, most importantly, both Israelis and Chinese believe that economic progress and technological advancement will ultimately bring peace and prosperity to the world.”
David Maman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Binah.ai, recently sold one of his companies, HexaTier, to Chinese conglomerate Huawei. According to Maman, it’s not unusual for scores of delegations each month to visit Israel from the biggest corporations in China – including Fosun, Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu – to explore investments and other ventures with Israeli startups.
Just as sure as tech can be used for the good, one expert had concerns about increasing collaboration.
Branstetter, who served as the senior economist for international trade and investment for the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers, added there must be care ensuring technology isn’t misused.
“If an American pilot were ever shot down by a Chinese missile powered by Israeli technology, it would be a real problem for the Israeli government.”
Dave Gordonis a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world.
A Canadian delegation was among some 6,000 participants in the International Christian Embassy’s annual Sukkot march through the centre of Jerusalem last week. (photo from Ashernet)
מספר גדול של קבוצות של ישראלים בקנדה פעילות בפייסבוק. הקבוצה העיקרית היא של “ישראלים בקנדה”.
הישראלים בקנדה שמספרם הולך וגדל בשנים האחרונות מפעילים קבוצות רבות באתר של פייסבוק. הקבוצה העיקרית היא של “ישראלים בקנדה” ובנוסף יש קבוצות לישראלים בתחומים שונים וכן בערים השונות.
כשבעת אלפים ושבע מאות חברים בקבוצה הסגורה “ישראלים בקנדה”, שנוסדה לפני כחמש שנים על ידי ליעד בן דוד. את הקבוצה מנהל דן והוא מציין כי היא נוסדה כדי לעזור לחברים במידע הקשור בקנדה, הגירה, מציאת עבודה, איתור חברים ועוד. דן מבקש מחברי הקבוצה “ללא יוצא דופן, לגלות סובלנות בשיחות. אף אחד לא מוכרח לענות על פוסט שנראה לו מטופש, אך לאף אחד אין זכות לדבר בצורה לא מכבדת לחבר קהילה אחר. מי שיגיב בפוסט כל שהוא בצורה לא מנומסת יסולק מהקהילה באופן מיידי. מי שיתקל בתגובות לא הולמות בכל שרשור שהוא, מתבקש לדווח לאחד המנהלים ואנו נטפל בזה וכמובן לא נזכיר את שמכם”.
בנוסף פועלת קבוצה פתוחה של “ישראלים בקנדה” שמתמקדת בעיקר בנושאי הגירה, והיא מיועדת גם לכאלה שעדיין גרים בישראל. בקבוצה זו שנוסדה לפני כשלוש שנים חברים כאלפיים ושבע מאות איש.
יש קבוצה פתוחה נוספת של “ישראלים בקנדה” שנוסדה לפני כאחת עשרה שנים על יד כרמל מנדל, וחברים בה רק כתשעים איש.
כאמור יש גם קבוצות בפייסבוק שמיועדות לישראלים בערים השונות. ובהן: “ישראלים בוונקובר והסביבה”. מדובר בקבוצה חברתית סגורה שכוללת כאלף שבע מאות וחברים, והיא נוסדה לפני כחמש שנים על ידי שי רוקח-פן.
בנוסף יש את הקבוצה “ישראלים בוונקובר”. מדובר גם כן בקבוצה סגורה שכוללת כאלפיים חברים והיא נוסדה לפני כשבע שנים. הקבוצה מתמקדת בעיקר בחלוקת מידע, שאלות, טיפים, המלצות וכל מה שרלוונטי לישראלים בוונקבר ובמחוז בריטיש קולומביה.
קיימת קבוצה שלישית של “ישראלים בוונקובר” הפתוחה לכולם. לדברי הנהלת הקבוצה היא פתוחה לכל, מותר לפרסם בה כל דבר ולא מוחקים את הפוסטים שבה. בקבוצה חברים כאלף איש והיא נוסדה לפני כשנתיים.
בטורונטו יש מספר לא מבוטל של קבוצות עבור הישראלים בפייסבוק. הקבוצה הראשונה ומהגדולות ביותר “ישראלים בטורונטו” נוסדה לפני שמונה שנים על ידי אמיר שובל, וחברים בה כחמישה עשר אלף איש. מדובר בקבוצה סגורה שמתמקדת בפרסום של עסקים שונים, שרותים ומודעות דרושים, וכן גם אירועים מיוחדים לקהילה הישראלית בטורונטו והסביבה.
קבוצה נוספת נקראת “ישראלים בטורונטו והסביבה”. מדובר בקבוצה סגורה שנוסדה לפני כשנה על ידי אייל מלמד וחברים בה כאלף איש. הקבוצה מיועדת לעזור לישראלים הגרים בטורונטו, או בכלל לישראלים ויהודים שמתכוננים לעבור לקנדה או או לטייל בה.
קבוצה שלישית נקראת גם כן “ישראלים בטורנטו” והיא פתוחה לכל. הקבוצה מתמקדת בתחומים העיסקיים עבור ישראלים באזור טורונטו, חברים בה כשלושת אלפים ומאתיים איש והיא נוסדה לפני כשנתיים על ידי אנט גייצ’ן. קבוצה רביעית נקראת “הישראלים בדאונטאון טורונטו – החיבור הישראלי”. הקבוצה משמשת מקור מידע לפעילות של הישראלים הגרים במרכז העיר טורונטו ולקשר ביניהם. הקבוצה נוסדה לפני כארבע שנים על ידי לירז רוט-רולניצקי וחברים בה כשמונה מאות איש.
קבוצות נוספות לישראלים בטורונטו: “קצת אחרת-טורונטו”, “אירועים בעברית-טורונטו”, “משפחה מאמצת-טורונטו קנדה”, “מעגל נשים טורונטו”, “משפחות מתחברות-טורונטו והסביבה”, “מוסרות בכיף טורונטו והסביבה”, דוברי עברית בטורונטו”, “ישראלים צעירים בטורונטו”, “טורונטו”, “ישראלים פוגשים ישראלים בטורונטו”, “מסיבות ישראלים בטורונטו”, “אמהות מבשלות טורונטו והסביבה”, “טורונטו למטיילים”, “נוער חובב תנ”ך טורונטו”, נדל”ן טורונטו”, “טיפים למטיילים בטורונטו” והכולבוניקים טורונטו”.