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CHW expands helping efforts

Israeli journalist Rolene Marks, chair of WIZO’s Hasbara Division, was the keynote speaker at CHW Vancouver Centre’s Opening Lunch and Fashion Show on Sept. 14. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

“I know that, as a community, you are feeling vulnerable and you are feeling that you have to be the mouthpiece or, as I call it, the litmus test, for however Israel is prosecuting a war so many miles, so far away, from you,” Israeli journalist and advocate Rolene Marks told those gathered at CHW Vancouver Centre’s Opening Lunch and Fashion Show on Sept. 14. “And I want to tell you that, although Israel’s not perfect – even though we are the only country in the world expected to prosecute a perfect war – you can be proud of the state of Israel.”

photo - Left to right: Claudia Goldman, Rolene Marks and Toby Rubin at the Sept. 14 event — Left to right: Claudia Goldman, Rolene Marks and Toby Rubin at the Sept. 14 event. *(photo from CHW)*

Marks, who, among other things, chairs WIZO’s Hasbara Division, was the event’s keynote speaker. Toby Rubin, president of CHW Vancouver Centre, welcomed the 150-plus guests at the Richmond Country Club Sept. 14, acknowledging the presence of Judy Mandleman, Rochelle Levinson and Claudia Goldman – three local Jewish community members who have been presidents of national CHW. She noted that the current national president, Tova Train, would be speaking, as would Lisa Colt-Kotler, chief executive officer of CHW, and Marks.

“This luncheon today is raising funds for two very important projects that we have here locally,” said Rubin. “One is JOLT, and the other is Franny’s Fund [which supports six youth advocacy centres across Canada, including the Treehouse Vancouver Child and Youth Advocacy Centre]. JOLT is the Jewish Outreach Leadership Training program at Canadian Young Judaea, and provides camperships to seven camps across Canada, including our very own Camp Hatikvah. Today, we are honoured to have with us the president of Camp Hatikvah, Joanna Wasel, who, along with the camp director and staff has worked with CHW these past two summers with the campers.”

Last year, Wasel and staff spearheaded making keychains and bracelets for Israeli soldiers, which Colt-Kotler and Train hand-delivered on a visit last January to patients at the Gandel Rehabilitation Centre at Hadassah Hospital, said Tobin.

This year, campers in Hatikvah’s first session created their own version of the Maccabi Games, as a fundraiser for HaGal Sheli (My Wave), “a surfing program that is used to help people combat stress, anxiety and PTSD,” said Rubin. “And you can only imagine, since Oct. 7, how important that program is.”

The initiative raised more than $7,000 for HaGal Sheli, said Rubin, who also noted that the brunch’s table decorations of books, toy cars and pens would be given to Treehouse Vancouver. Many of the books were donated by Vancouver Talmud Torah, she said.

Train, who came to the event from Toronto, spoke about being from Edmonton, calling herself “a Westerner at heart.”

“I never imagined myself taking on the role of national president,” she said, “but I’ve always believed with my whole heart that, if I cannot serve Israel by wearing a uniform, then my obligation is to serve in every other way I can. That’s why CHW speaks so deeply to me. For more than a century, this organization has invested in education, health care and social services. And, today, especially after Oct. 7, those needs have never been greater – Rolene shared with me a statistic this morning that more than 10,000 IDF soldiers have been treated for mental health issues across the country since Oct. 7.”

After a video about CHW’s various impacts, Colt-Kotler presented a plaque to Bernard Pinsky, in his role as chair of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

“CHW, at our core, is philanthropy, and we were founded, as you know, in 1917, by a very dedicated, special woman named Lillian Freiman,” said Colt-Kotler, describing Freiman as “an example of philanthropy” and “of dedication to the Jewish community,” and as “the essence of what a CHW woman is … an empowered woman.”

photo - Lisa Colt-Kotler, chief executive officer of CHW, presents a plaque to Bernard Pinsky, chair of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation — Lisa Colt-Kotler, chief executive officer of CHW, presents a plaque to Bernard Pinsky, chair of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation. *(photo from CHW)*

She continued, “We created the Lillian Freiman Society to recognize individual donors for their generous philanthropy, starting at $100,000, and the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation generously donated to Michal Sela Forum … to combat domestic violence, to provide innovative solutions for the protection from and prevention of intimate partner violence,” said Colt-Kotler.

Pinsky said he pushed the foundation to have women’s empowerment as one of its focuses because, from the time he was a teenager, he has been influenced by his sister, Helen Pinsky, who attended the brunch.

“She’s a real feminist,” he said. “And somebody who taught me that women’s empowerment and women’s protection is very, very important in life, and I think it’s no less important today than it was over 50 years ago, when she talked to me about it.”

When Marks took to the podium, she acknowledged the Israel Defence Forces soldiers, who are “fighting 24/7 to protect the state of Israel.”

“I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the over 900 soldiers who have fallen in defence of the state of Israel and the many who are wounded, both physically and who carry those invisible wounds,” said Marks.

“It is an absolute imperative that I mention that we still have 48 hostages languishing in the hell of Gaza,” she added. “Every second counts…. We want them home now.”

Marks specializes in media, public relations and training on Jewish- and Israel-related issues. She hosts a radio program called Modiin and Beyond and is a contributor on Johannesburg’s Chai FM. She co-founded Lay of the Land, hosts The Israel Brief on YouTube and serves as a national spokesperson for the South African Zionist Federation. She is currently doing a doctorate at Middlesex University London, in media, politics and antisemitism.

“I’m the W in the CHW [Canadian Hadassah-WIZO] – I represent World WIZO, Israel’s foremost women’s organization in terms of working for empowerment,” said Marks. “And we have seen, certainly in the last two years, the voices of Jewish women and the experience of Israeli women on the 7th of October completely erased from the feminist landscape.”

Israel is fighting a war on multiple fronts, she said, acknowledging how vulnerable the diaspora community feels because of what is put out in the media, which filters onto the streets and makes it into government policy.

“I know that every day you hear the accusations: genocide, mass starvation, bombing of civilian infrastructure, like hospitals. And I can tell you that, as somebody who is living through the war and covering the war, the situation is not what you are being painted out to answer for.”

Marks was in Gaza a few weeks before the CHW brunch.

“I saw mountains – mountains and mountains – of humanitarian aid marked United Nations, UNICEF, World Food Program, and more. Things like medical kits, baby formula, flour, oil, pasta, hygiene kits, all languishing in the sun. Now, accompanying the few of us that went in, apart from our incredible soldiers, were two journalists from Australia’s ABC [network]…. The IDF said to us, we’re here to answer questions, but, guys, go off, find your stories; there was no interference. And these two journalists stood in front of a big mountain of aid marked United Nations and, in his piece to camera, the correspondent said, ‘This is the image that Israel wants you to see with regards to humanitarian aid.’ And you could hear the collective jaw drop from the rest of us, including colleagues from the Arab media, because we know what we saw. But my point is this: the bias and the narrative-building start in the field.

“I’ve had several instances where I’ve gone into the field with the foreign media,” she said. “And, despite what they have seen, they have turned it into an agenda that they can push to put the pressure on Israel, and to put the pressure on you as a community.”

Marks stressed that “we can hold our heads up high as a community and as a people. There is nothing dirty about the Z word.”

Zionist, she said, “just means a belief in the existence of the nation-state of the Jewish people in our ancient homeland.”

In the fight against antisemitism, everyone must play a role, said Marks, whether “sharing on your social media or writing letters to the press or getting involved in your community organizations. We are a people that have survived millennia of blood libels, persecution, and attempts to erase our history and our narrative.”

This can include something like wearing a Magen David, she said: “When you show your pride and you show your strength, you stand up to the hate, you stand up to the misinformation.”

She added, “The truth always comes, but we need your help to make that happen. When people accuse us of genocide, I can tell you, as somebody who has been working on the ground, the complete opposite is true.… Our army inoculates children against polio in the Gaza Strip, and drops leaflets, and moves civilians out of harm’s way.”

She recommended people follow Israel’s COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) website, where you can track the humanitarian aid going to the Gaza Strip and related news.

Referring to the murder of American activist Charlie Kirk, she said “it was symptomatic of something very, very frightening that is spreading around the world, and that is a move to disengage in discourse, a move to shut down conversation. And it is so important that we have these conversations. It is so important that we interrogate the truth and the facts.”

In the question-and-answer period, Marks suggested the lack of support from allies like Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Australia and others, is “a big campaign to deflect from problems that are domestic.”

“It’s very, very distressing for us in Israel to see our allies taking the side of Hamas, and also treating us like the naughty child of the world,” she said. “And part of that is, we believe, that many countries have forgotten or don’t know what it’s like to live under constant threat. We live under constant threat … wars within wars.”

Marks recalled what Israeli President Isaac Herzog told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a recent meeting: “Friends can sometimes disagree – but don’t reward terror.”

While in Vancouver, Marks also spoke at a CHW-Community Kollel event on Sept. 12.

photo - The fashion show part of CHW Vancouver Centre’s opening event featured local community members sporting clothes from Maison Labelle Boutique and After Five — The fashion show part of CHW Vancouver Centre’s opening event featured local community members sporting clothes from Maison Labelle Boutique and After Five. (photo from CHW)

The Sept. 14 speeches and brunch were followed by an intergenerational fashion show, with models sporting clothes from Maison Labelle Boutique and After Five. Walking down the runway were grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters and friends.

Seeking middle ground

At the local launch for her new book, October 7th: Searching for the Humanitarian Middle, Globe & Mail columnist Marsha Lederman admitted she’s “not doing great.”

“A lot of us in this room can say that,” she said in her opening remarks at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver Sept. 18. “It’s been another terrible week with terrible news.”

Lederman was the Western arts correspondent for the Globe for 15 years, before moving to the opinion section in 2022. Her memoir, Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed, was published that same year. (See jewishindependent.ca/a-story-of-two-families.)

On Oct. 9, 2023, Lederman began writing columns on the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the tide of antisemitism that followed it. When an editor suggested she publish a book containing a full year of those columns, together with other material she’d written on Jewish identity, she began working on October 7th.

The process of collecting material for the book was emotionally wrenching, said Lederman, a child of Holocaust survivors whose intergenerational trauma was triggered by the Hamas attack.

“It was really hard to relive those early days, rereading the columns and remembering what was happening in the world at that time. When I read through older articles I’d written about my Jewish identity, I was shocked at how many times that subject matter had come up and the extent to which they foreshadowed what would happen in the war.”

When she filed that first column on Oct. 9, Lederman said she wrote it in a haze of shock, emotion, upset and fear. “I knew it wasn’t what had just happened, but what would happen next: retaliation, that it would be terrible for Palestinians, and that there would be anti-Israel sentiment. But I could never have predicted that all things would have exploded the way they have and that it would still be there, almost two years later.”

Describing herself as a “progressive Zionist,” Lederman said she believes the state of Israel has a right to exist but is “strongly against the war and the occupation. I’m horrified by what some of the settlers are doing in the West Bank, but I love Israel and Israelis – though not the ones in power right now. I don’t blindly approve of everything Israel does and part of my caring for Israel is what has led me to speak out.”

In an hour-long talk moderated by Kathryn Gretsinger, a journalist and associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Lederman discussed her hope for a two-state solution, her annoyance at how people speaking out in favour of Palestinians have been branded antisemitic, and the threats she has received in response to her columns.

“My trauma is nothing compared to what people in the war zone are experiencing, but it’s still a horrible experience,” she said.

Prior to Oct. 7, Lederman said she saw herself as a journalist who happened to be Jewish. After Oct. 7, as she began writing about the attack and subsequent war, she said she put herself on the page, explaining her Jewish background. When she wrote about plastic surgery recently, the Globe received a letter to the editor stating, “how dare Lederman write about that when children are dying in Gaza!”

The book’s subtitle, Searching for the Humanitarian Middle, deals with the quandary of holding several feelings simultaneously: concern for Israel and the Israeli soldiers, as well as Palestinians who are being killed.

“I believe the humanitarian middle is essential, and there are a lot of caring people who want to see an end to this war. The numbers are terrible: 60,000 Gazans have been killed in this war,” she said, citing numbers released by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

“That’s appalling to me,” she continued. “Hostages are still underground and antisemitism has reached a level that’s shocking, even to me, as a pessimistic catastrophizer. The word genocide carries so much weight for us as Jewish people. Israel was born out of the ashes of the worst genocide we have known. So, for Israel to be accused of that very crime is heartbreaking.”

Asked what her solution to the war would be, Lederman said a ceasefire deal is the way to go. “I believe what we’re seeing from Israel is an over-

reaction and I would urge the government of Israel to consider a two-state solution. I believe that’s the answer.”

She said, “My heart aches for the hostages and their families, and for all the people in Gaza. When I think about the intergenerational trauma from this time, it’s shattering. I feel a responsibility to write about this as a Jewish person, a journalist, a mother, as someone who cares about other human beings, and as a child of Holocaust survivors, but I’m feeling the weight of the world in my fingers.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.

Impacts of oppression

Franz was shot in Prague, including near Franz Kafka’s birthplace. (still from film)

Troubled father-son relationships, both literally and metaphorically, are themes of Franz and Orphan, the former a biopic with some quirks and the latter a more old-school period piece. The two movies are part of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs Oct. 2-12.

Director Agnieszka Holland’s Franz is an imaginative film that flits between the “present,” Franz Kafka’s adult years, until his death, at age 40, in 1924, and some formative childhood moments (mostly highlighting his domineering and dismissive father), while also jumping into the future, where tour guides at various institutions and parks tell modern-day tourists all about the influential writer.

In one of these future moments, we learn that the ratio of words written by Kafka and those written by others about him is approximately one to 10 million. Some of these millions of words were written by Kafka’s friend and literary executor, novelist Max Brod, who rescued much of Kafka’s work. Brod’s Franz Kafka: A Biography is apparently a primary source of what we know about Kafka’s life, and he is featured in Holland’s film.

While Idan Weiss, who plays the tortured writer (and insurance lawyer) has gotten kudos from other reviewers for his performance, Peter Kurth, who plays Hermann Kafka, Franz’s father, stands out even more. Kurth plays stubborn and unlikeable well, but also shows Hermann’s vulnerability and how he uses meanness to cover it up.

Franz Kafka was born in Prague, in 1883, and he is witness to world-changing events, including the First World War and the subsequent collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Kafka was drafted, but his employers successfully argued that he was an indispensable worker – according to the movie, they did so at Hermann’s behest. The creation of Czechoslovakia and several other independent states after the war is not an explicit aspect of Franz, but the oppressiveness of the empire (the fatherland, in the metaphor) comes out in Kafka’s depictions of bureaucracy, alienation, anxiety, etc. While Franz doesn’t add any new knowledge to what’s known about Kafka, his upbringing (harsh on many levels), writing (most of it published after his death), love life (engaged for a period, then involved with a married woman), religion (not an observant or believing Jew) and illness (tuberculosis), but it might bring a new generation to his ideas, which remain important.

As Holland told Variety: “the dehumanization of society, the despisal of [certain groups of people] and alienation are once again becoming the main communicative tools,” but, not wanting to “give an interpretation like that,” she said, “Kafka has been interpreted in so many ways, as is shown in the film, but when you compare what he wrote with what was written about him they are poles apart. So, we didn’t want to reinterpret Kafka; we wanted to make him alive.”

And Franz is a success in those terms. It is entertaining and thought-provoking, though sometimes the thoughts are about odd creative choices. There is a lot of male nudity and it’s not always clear why. For example, in one scene at a sanitorium, naked men, some wearing animal head masks, engage in a game of tug-o-war.

László Nemes’s Orphan, which takes place in Hungary, is a more linear and literal form of storytelling, also focusing on a time of upheaval and oppression. While most of the film takes place in 1957 – a year after the Soviet Union crushed the people’s revolt against the country’s communist government – the young Jewish protagonist, Andor (played by a brooding Bojtorján Barábas), was put into an orphanage during the Second World War. We witness his mother and a reluctant Andor reunited after the Holocaust. Her “saviour” was a non-Jew, Berend (played by Grégory Gadebois with nuance), who Andor absolutely hates.

photo - Bojtorján Barábas and Grégory Gadebois in Orphan — Bojtorján Barábas and Grégory Gadebois in *Orphan. (photo © Mostra internazionale d’arte cinematografica)*

Andor cannot forgive his mother for giving up on the possibility of his father’s survival, even years after the war, and, when Berend claims that Andor is actually his biological son (and Andor’s mother never clarifies), Andor’s anger is barely containable and the tension mounts to a climatic Ferris wheel ride. While Berend is an abusive brute, he also seems to genuinely want Andor’s filial affection. Andor and Berend not only represent son and (possible) father, but Hungary’s desire for freedom from its Soviet oppression.

Orphan is slow-paced, capturing the heaviness of the period, the incapacitating fear and oppression of 1957 Hungary. Twelve-year-old Andor doesn’t go to school, roams the streets, amuses himself at home, seems bored silly at times, and has nowhere positive to channel his frustrations and his feelings of abandonment.

While Franz and Orphan are two very different movies, they cover overlapping themes that are sadly all too relevant. Franz screens Oct. 7 and 11, and Orphan plays Oct. 2 and 4.

For tickets to either film and the entire festival line-up, go to viff.org.

Flawed drama popular

A scene from Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, which screens at the Vancouver International Film Festival Oct. 9-10. (still from film)

Bethlehem-born filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s historical epic Palestine 36 had its world premiere Sept. 5 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It screens at the Vancouver International Film Festival Oct. 9-10.

While Jacir is an accomplished filmmaker and spokesperson for her people, her flawed drama is unlikely to bring clarity to events then – or now.

Shot in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, and incorporating colourized archival footage from the 1930s, Palestine 36 tells the story of the Arab Revolt against the British Mandate from 1936 to 1939 through the eyes of Yusuf, played by Karim Daoud Ananya. Other stars include Jeremy Irons, Hiam Abbass and Liam Cunningham.

Depicted in Palestine 36 are characters like British High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope and anti-insurgency experts Maj.-Gen. Orde Wingate and Sir Charles Tegart. Alas, they are all depicted as cartoon characters protecting Britain’s imperial interests even as they violently suppress the revolt and implement the emergency measures acts still used in Israel today. While Wingate was a Bible-quoting, onion-chomping eccentric, Jacir’s depiction of his behaviour and absurd haircut are egregious.

What struck this reviewer most was the lack of nuance about Arab society in 1930s Palestine. (At the time, Jews called themselves Palestinians while Arabs avoided that name.) The country’s foremost leader in the years before the bloody revolt, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, does not appear in the film. Nor does rebel leader Fawzi al-Qawukji. Both escaped the British dragnet and made their way to Iraq, where they staged a pro-Nazi coup in 1941, then fled to Berlin during the war. Their bitter rivalry is well documented.

Since neither man graced Jacir’s film, there was no need to explain the clan divisions, mutual contempt and assassinations that characterized Palestine and prevented the country’s Arabs from uniting. A militant Muslim triumphalist and genocidaire, al-Husseini aimed to destroy Palestine’s Sunday People once he had dealt with the Saturday People. Perhaps surprisingly, given that Jacir is Christian, this detail was omitted. Instead, the film falsely gives the impression that, rather than being marginalized, her co-religionists fought alongside their Muslim neighbours as equals.

The natural hero of Izz ad-din al-Qassam is also missing from Palestine 36. A teacher from Syria who bravely faced the British soldiers and their bloodhounds until hunted down in the Galilee, al-Qassam’s name graces the missiles today’s Gaza terrorists lob at Israel.

Typical of Jacir’s striving for accurate details while omitting the big picture, she depicts British customs officers in Jaffa Port uncovering a barrel of smuggled Mauser rifles, but fails to mention the guns’ German source. Indeed, there’s the rub of this movie – while correctly pursuing the policy that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the Palestinians’ alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy is not part of the story.

Judging from the 10-minute standing ovation at Roy Thompson Hall, such a huge omission is unlikely to spoil the impact of Palestine 36 in Vancouver and elsewhere. In Pallywood – and the rest of the film industry, for that matter – facts can’t stand in the way of a good story. Indeed, Zionist mega-hits like Exodus and Cast A Giant Shadow are both kitsch films with a huge impact. Palestine 36 is likely to join them.

Survival in the forest

The harrowing new memoir by Vancouver’s Evelyn Kahn, They Never Left Me: A Holocaust Memoir of Maternal Courage and Triumph, written with her daughter Hodie Kahn, tells of a family’s survival while hiding in the forests of Eastern Europe.

They Never Left Me includes some of the most debasing inhumanity imaginable. Perhaps most shocking, though, is that human beings can withstand what the author and her family experienced and somehow endure and begin again in a post-Holocaust world, to raise a successful family and find meaning and happiness.

image - They Never Left Me book cover — Evelyn Kahn wrote They Never Left Me: A Holocaust Memoir of Maternal Courage and Triumph with her daughter, Hodie Kahn. On Oct. 19, at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue, Evelyn Kahn will talk about the book with Dr. Robert Krell.

Stories of Chava’s (Evelyn’s) early years, typical of traditional Eastern European Jewish shtetl life – her father’s preparations for morning prayers, her mother baking round challah for Rosh Hashanah, a live fish floating around in preparation for gefilte – read as ominously ordinary, knowing as we do a little of what is to come.

From their hometown of Eishyshok, a shtetl in Poland that historically had shifted between Lithuania, Poland and then, tragically, between the Nazis and the Soviets, the family moved a few dozen kilometres to Lida, in what is now Belarus. This relocation, an economic move driven by her father’s proficiency in the Russian language, was the least dramatic move of Chava Landsman’s young life. Nonetheless, that move might have been the first of many near-miracles that saved the lives of Chava and the women in her family.

“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 1941, Eishyshok’s Jews were rounded up and locked in the synagogue and two schools. After three days, they were herded to the horse market.… Over the next two days, the Jews were taken in groups of 250 – first the men and then the women and children – to the old Jewish cemetery. They were ordered to undress and stand at the edge of large open ditches, where they were shot to death by Lithuanian police. Babies were bashed to death against headstones or tossed into the air for sharpshooting practice led by the chief of police, Ostrauskas, before their tiny lifeless or quivering bodies were thrown into the killing pits to join their parents. Everyone was murdered.”

The final victim of the massacre was the town rabbi, “shot after being forced to witness the murder of his entire flock.”

As the Nazis invaded Lida, the family witnessed the aerial bombardment and made the decision to flee. They headed south, and sought refuge in another shtetl, Zhetel. But this was a brief refuge – not an escape. Death was chasing them.

Chava’s father was rounded up during a cull of intelligentsia on July 23, 1941, barely a month after they arrived.

“We watched in misery as Papa climbed into the back of a truck and was driven away,” she writes. “I never saw my father again.”

Chava’s Uncle Chaim and Rivke’s husband Shael were conscripted into the Red Army, leaving the women as the only family together in the Zhetel ghetto, which was created in February 1942. Chaim was captured by the Nazis, but incredibly escaped a POW camp and returned to Zhetel, where he became a Partisan in the forest and was killed. On April 30, 1942, the first liquidation began in the Zhetel ghetto.

“My own memory of the procession along the street is of being corralled into a narrow funnel and of feeling smothered by the crush of human bodies around me,” she writes. “I remember telling my mother I could not breathe. I was worried I might pass out and be trampled. People were on top of one another – on top of me – crying and tearing their hair out. I wanted Mama to pick me up, but it was impossible. We were compressed like livestock in a cattle chute. I just held onto Mama’s hand and prayed that mine would not slip out of hers.”

In terror, Chava told her mother she was being suffocated.

“She bent down close to me and I will never forget her tearful words,” Kahn writes. “My child, it is better that you should suffocate here than my eyes should witness you being murdered.

“I took in what she said and then simply asked, ‘Does it hurt to die, Mama?’ She assured me it was a peaceful experience. ‘Neyn mayn kind, es iz vey a feygele, git a brum’ (‘No my child, it is like a chirp of a bird’).

“Her answer quieted my fears and calmed me. I was never afraid of death from that moment on. I never remember feeling despair. On the contrary, I was exceptionally calm and clear throughout the nightmare to come.”

Somehow, the women survived the first liquidation. When the second and what would be the final liquidation of the ghetto began on Aug. 6, 1942, 3,000 Jews were herded to the Jewish cemetery and murdered. Knowing what was to come, Chava’s mother Basia decided to risk going into hiding – a choice between instant death and likely later death for disobedience. Again, it was a lifesaving decision.

Basia, Chava and her grandmother (Bobe) Hoda fled to the forest. Miraculously, with the help of a non-Jewish friend of the family, they were reunited with Chava’s Aunt Rivke, and the three adult women and Chava would endure the horrors of life in the woods for two years. (Shael fought with the Red Army through the war and survived, but he and Rivke did not reunite.)

The women largely fended for themselves with some assistance from Partisans and the occasional righteous non-Jew. Like other Jews in the forests at the time, they formed fluctuating ad hoc survival “family groups” of a dozen or as many as 20 people.

“We had learned the rules of the ghetto and we had survived. Now we would have to learn the rules of the forest. And we would have to learn them very, very well and very, very quickly. We could either adapt and hopefully live or not adapt and definitely die.

“We lived with the constant nervous anticipation of being discovered and killed at any moment. We were careful to speak quietly. We were always alert. We became as hypersensitized and wary as the creatures of the forest.”

In winter, they sheltered in holes in the ground.

“Needless to say, hygiene and maintaining our health in the forest was hugely challenging,” Kahn writes. “We were malnourished and vitamin deficient. We were unwashed and unkempt. We wore the same clothes day after day with no relief. We were filthy skeletons, bulked up only by the layers of our lice-infested clothing, which we wore 24 hours a day. I often wonder how we managed to survive those two years without bathing.”

Basia’s doggedness saved her family. Even at 40 degrees below zero and with snow to her thighs, she would trudge out of the woods to beg or steal provisions from local farmers.

“It is true that many (most) farmers were unfeeling or, worse, informers. But it is important to acknowledge that there were those who hung onto their humanity during the war, righteous gentiles who were sympathetic and compassionate and gave us food and other necessities,” Kahn writes.

It is estimated that only one-half to one-third of the Jews who hid in forests survived to liberation. And, when “liberation” did come, and the Nazis were defeated, antisemitism remained. Many ordinary Russians, Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians thought they had seen the last of the Jews and were not welcoming to the few straggling remnants who found their way back home.

The three generations of women – Bobe Hoda, mother Basia, Aunt Rivke and Chava, as well as Rivke’s baby, Joseph, who was born in and knew life only in the forest – remarkably survived and proceeded through a series of displaced persons camps, with schooling and vocational training for the young survivors. They had no family in the new state of Israel and so America seemed the more logical destination. At age 16-and-a-half, Chaya/Evelyn, her mother, aunt, cousin and grandmother were greeted at New York by the Statue of Liberty and a coterie of cousins. Eventually, Evelyn reconnected with a young man from Eishyshok, Leon (Leibke) Kaganowicz, who would become Leon Kahn and, because of American migration quotas, a Canadian who lived in Vancouver. Together, they became stalwarts of the Vancouver community.

Leon Kahn passed in 2003. His memoir, No Time To Mourn: The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter, was published in 1978 and reissued in 2004. It will be released again this fall.

Evelyn has two sons, Mark and Saul, and daughter Hodie, as well as seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

The idyllic start of Chava’s life, surrounded by a tight and loving family and community, juxtaposes horrifically with the abrupt cataclysm of history that would follow. The survival of three generations of women in the forests of Eastern Europe is a monument to human resolve and resilience. They Never Left Me is a momentous contribution to the literature of the Holocaust.

An event featuring Evelyn Kahn in conversation about the memoir with Dr. Robert Krell will take place on Oct. 19, 2 p.m., at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue, presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Ronsdale Press and Schara Tzedeck.

Milestone performance

photo - The Jerusalem Quartet, left to right: Kyril Zlotnikov, Alexander Pavlovsky, Ori Kam and Sergei Bresler — The Jerusalem Quartet, left to right: Kyril Zlotnikov, Alexander Pavlovsky, Ori Kam and Sergei Bresler. (photo © Felix Broede)

The Vancouver Recital Society welcomes the multiple-award-winning Jerusalem Quartet back to the city for a concert at the Vancouver Playhouse Oct. 19. The program features works from Hadyn, Janácek and Beethoven.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Jerusalem Quartet. Since their first appearance for the VRS in 2001, the ensemble has become a regular and beloved presence on the world’s concert stages. They have appeared many times in Vancouver, and a highlight in the annals of the VRS was their five-concert performance of all the Shostakovich string quartets in the Telus Theatre at the Chan Centre in 2006. They are returning to Vancouver to perform the same program they played in their Wigmore Hall debut 25 years ago, an appearance that launched them to international fame. It features Hadyn’s Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”); Janácek’s Quartet No. 1 (“Kreutzer Sonata”); and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130, with the Grosse Fugue finale, Op. 133.

The Jerusalem Quartet is Alexander Pavlovsky (first violin), Sergei Bresler (second violin), Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) and Ori Kam (viola). Both individually and as the quartet, the musicians have performed around the world, garnering numerous accolades.

Born in Ukraine, Pavlovsky immigrated with his family to Israel in 1991, and is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

Bresler was also born in Ukraine. He started to play violin in age of 5 and, at the age of 12, gave his first recital. He immigrated to Israel in 1991, where he studied at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem.

Zlotnikov also studied at the Rubin Academy, having begun his studies at the Belarusian State Music Academy, and Kam, who was born to Israeli parents in La Jolla, Calif., grew up in Israel and studied there, as well as in the United States and Germany. Kam started his musical education at the age of 6, began playing the viola at 15 and had his debut at age 16.

The Jerusalem Quartet has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices. This approach allows them to maintain a healthy relationship between individual expression and a transparent and respectful presentation of the composer’s work. It is also the drive and motivation for the continuing refinement of their interpretations of the classical repertoire, as well as exploration of new epochs.

In 2019, the quartet released an album exploring Jewish music in Central Europe between the wars and its far-reaching influence, featuring a collection of Yiddish cabaret songs from 1920s Warsaw, as well as works by Schulhoff and Korngold. The second instalment of their Bartok quartet recording was released in 2020. Starting this year, the quartet began recording exclusively for BIS records, with their first release featuring three quartets by Shostakovich: Nos. 2, 7 and 10.

Although the Quartet No. 2 was composed in 1944, it makes no direct reference to the war; yet, this is a substantive work, dark, powerful and, at times, dissonant. Quartet No. 7, consisting of three short movements played without interruption, is an enigmatic and deeply personal work dedicated to the memory of the composer’s wife. For all its questioning and complex inner references, Quartet No. 10 is among the most immediately appealing of Shostakovich’s later works. By this stage in his life, his music tended to speak in a quieter voice and to a more intimate audience.

The Jerusalem Quartet’s performance at the Playhouse on Oct. 19 starts at 3 p.m., but there is also a pre-concert talk, at 2:15 p.m. For tickets, visit vanrecital.com.

– from vanrecital.com and jerusalem-quartet.com

Vrba monument to be unveiled

photo - Rudolf Vrba, in the 1960s — Rudolf Vrba, in the 1960s. *(photo from University of British Columbia. Archives)*

Rudolf Vrba’s escape from Auschwitz and testimony helped alert the world to the horrors of the Holocaust, and Vrba is credited with saving the lives of more than 100,000 Hungarian Jews. On Oct. 26, 2 p.m., at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Chapel in New Westminster, a commemoration ceremony will be held for Vrba. The program will feature reflections on his life, legacy and enduring impact from Dr. Robert Krell and Dr. Joseph Ragaz, and will conclude with the dedication of a memorial monument in Vrba’s honour.

Chutzpah! opens on Nov. 12

Lorin Sklamberg, left, Sasha Lurje and Craig Judelman close the 10-day festival of comedy, music, theatre, dance and storytelling on Nov. 23 with Yiddish Songs of Social Change. (photo from Chutzpah! Festival)

The Chutzpah! Festival returns for its 25th anniversary with a mix of festival favourites and new discoveries in a lineup of performances Nov. 12-23, showcasing music, theatre, comedy, dance and storytelling through a multicultural Jewish lens.

“This Chutzpah! Festival is one of collaboration and celebration, combining past artistic managing director Jessica Gutteridge’s vision and my own,” said the festival’s new artistic managing director, Shayna Goldberg. “Chutzpah!’s legacy over the last 25 years has been to share diverse work from a multitude of Jewish perspectives, and the offerings this year are just as thrilling and exciting as any other. For 10 days this November, come and experience the best of what Canadian and international artists have to offer.”

photo - Israeli-American comedian Modi Rosenfeld brings his Pause for Laughter Tour to Vancouver on Nov. 12 to open the festival — Israeli-American comedian Modi Rosenfeld brings his Pause for Laughter Tour to Vancouver on Nov. 12 to open the festival. *(photo from Chutzpah! Festival)*

The festival opens Nov. 12, 8 p.m., at the Vogue Theatre with Modi Rosenfeld, presented in partnership with MRG Live. The Israeli-American comedian brings his Pause for Laughter Tour here for the festival.

Erik Angel, also an Israeli-American comedian, brings his project Comedy for Peace to Chutzpah! on Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre. Aimed at uniting communities through humour and mutual understanding, Comedy for Peace brings together stand-up comedians – Jewish, Christian, Muslim – for a show of “no politics. just laughs.” Joining Angel will be Ashley Austin Morris, Natan Badalov and Zara Khan. (See jewishindependent.ca/comedy-can-unite-and-heal.)

Chutzpah presents the West Coast debut of 8 Gays of Channukah: The Musical (Canada) at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. Blending Broadway-style musical numbers with comedy, drag artistry and Jewish joy, eight stories are brought to life by show creators Gila Münster, Sarah Freia and Yan Simon. The show includes an opening act by a local artist and there will be an 8 Gays of Channukah Shuk, featuring the work of local artisans, where you can pick up some gifts for the holidays.

Lea Kalisch’s Shtetl Cabaret (Switzerland/United States/Canada) is a night of collaborations featuring Tobias Moss and local Vancouver artists including Mike Braverman and Jason Overy. This show, which takes place Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m., at the Beaumont Studios (19+ venue), presents Jewish music, from forgotten melodies to original songs, and mashups from rap to rumba and folk to feminism.

Yiddish Songs of Social Change (United States/Germany/Latvia), presented by the Golden Thread Septet, explores Yiddish music as a tool for and reflection of social change, and features Lorin Sklamberg and Sasha Lurje, with arrangements by Craig Judelman. Judelman has arranged the Yiddish and English songs in a style that reflects the context of the songs themselves and honours the centuries-old tradition of using all these influences to inform the creation of new Yiddish music. In addition to the performance on Nov. 23, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein, Sklamberg, Lurje and Judelman will lead a free workshop about Yiddish music and dance that same day, at 2 p.m. Come explore both traditional and contemporary versions of Yiddish music and learn how you can dance along.

Back by popular demand, Chutzpah! and Vancouver Opera present Ne. Sans Opera & Dance’s Take This Waltz: Celebrating the Music of Leonard Cohen (Canada/Israel). This operatic and contemporary dance performance inspired by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was originally presented in 2022 as a Chutzpah! Plus event. Created by local choreographer Idan Cohen and bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch, it features Okulitch alongside dancer/musician Ted Littlemore and a virtuoso live ensemble of strings and accordion. Take This Waltz is at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 15 and 16, 7:30 p.m. (See jewishindependent.ca/celebrating-leonard-cohen.)

On Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre, Chutzpah! presents the North American premiere of Common Place (Australia/Israel) by power-duo dancer/choreographer Omer Backley-Astrachan and multiple-award-winning dancer Jana Castillo. Common Place is a physical exploration of belonging and togetherness, delving into shared action, collaboration and synchronization.

Deb Williams returns to Chutzpah! with the Flame, an evening of storytelling, on Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre. The Flame is a grassroots series where real people share their personal, true stories in front of an audience under Williams’s direction. This edition will feature a multicultural group including Karen Segal, Dhana Musil and others. Williams will also host an in-depth weekend workshop prior to the event (Nov. 15 and 16, at the Post at 750) to help storytellers hone their craft.

On Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein, Chutzpah! presents I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce (United States), a one-man show exploring the life and battles of one of the most groundbreaking comedians of all time, Lenny Bruce. Created and performed by Ronnie Marmo and directed by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna, this show threads Bruce’s original comedic bits with insights from his writings.

Other workshops and talkbacks with festival artists, facilitated by members of the Vancouver arts community, will run throughout the festival. Visit the festival website for updates and registration information.

Most single tickets for Chutzpah!’s live performances are offered at a pay-what-you-will price, with the levels at $18, $36, $52 and $70 (+ gst/sc). I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce is $40 (students/seniors), $54 (general) and $72 (VIP) (+gst/sc). ChutzPacks are also available, for $136: see four different regular-price shows of your choice. Tickets for Modi can be purchased through admitone.com/events. For tickets to any of the performances and more information about any of the events, visit chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.

– Courtesy Chutzpah! Festival

Be more solution-oriented

Leaders are simply people, of course. And all people have strengths and weaknesses. Just like the traditional approach to weaving Persian rugs with an intentional mistake, we must remember that only the Almighty is perfect.

But some leaders become lionized and celebrated, their human failings swept under the rug (sorry). However, we’re in a political moment where some leaders’ mistakes are all too obvious. No need to name anybody. Many fit this description. It’s upsetting and confusing to realize that even those chosen as “the best” or “brightest” fail sometimes. It’s a useful learning experience, too.

Awhile back, I was discussing politics online with other Canadians. I came upon something that stopped me cold. A poster criticized a political leader. I asked what she saw as solutions. The questions I asked were how, if she were in charge, she’d do things differently.

Her response surprised me. She said the only thing she could do was vote and complain. That, essentially, it was her right to find fault, but not her obligation to offer solutions. Her opinion was that she wasn’t passive because, well, she voted consistently and complained vociferously.

From a Jewish perspective, we have plenty of examples of whiners. Remember the Israelites, wandering in the desert, who wanted to go back to Egypt because they didn’t have meat, fish, onions, garlic, leeks or cantaloupes? (Numbers 11:4-5) It’s a normal response to crave foods when you’re unable to get them. As a high schooler studying abroad, I craved M&Ms so much that my mother brought them when she visited. They were superfluous, but I wanted them.

The opportunity to complain is always available, but it’s unattractive, especially if there’s something you can do to fix the problem yourself. Since that high school moment, I’ve lived many places where I’ve craved food but couldn’t buy it locally. As a result, I’ve become a more creative cook. When traveling, it’s good to “load up” on cravings if they’re available. Not to hoard, but just as an extra pleasure.

Worldwide political upheaval made me study the Babylonian Talmudic tractate of Horayot with more interest. It’s a small part of the Talmud but it’s about how people in charge (kings, high priests, judges, teachers, etc.) can make amends or do the right sacrifices or actions to atone for their mistakes. This text assumes that there will always be errors in judgment. People in certain important positions have societal roles to play, and that means their atonements to seek forgiveness for errors must be bigger sometimes than if they were private citizens.

This may sound irrelevant but consider the role of a teacher. Teachers make mistakes. The best resolution to this would be a public acknowledgement of the error and a demonstration of how to fix it. We might shrug and get on with things after a private math mistake. Yet, if a math teacher makes this error in front of the class, the best lesson is having a student find and correct the error. Then, the teacher can perform the act of learning from their error, thank the student, and acknowledge that no one is perfect.

In our lives, even if we are not teachers, parents, supervisors, or in any authority roles, it’s a great idea to try to practise this approach: to remember that no one is perfect and that it’s all our jobs to find solutions. As Rabbi Tarfon teaches, “that it’s not upon us to complete the work, but neither are we free to stop doing it.” (Pirkei Avot 2:16)

This sounds simple. But, in the tractate of Horayot, there’s a very powerful ending about how our pride and ego can get in the way. It’s about three rabbis and their leadership roles: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel (Rashbag) was the leader of the Jewish community in the Galilee during the late second century, after the Bar Kochba Revolt; the head of the court was Rabbi Natan; and a great scholar at the time was Rabbi Meir.

Rashbag is upset with a lack of protocol in the Torah academy. He wants everyone to stand when he comes in until they’re told to be seated. Rashbag suggests that, for Rabbi Natan and Rabbi Meir, who he perceives as less important, those studying should rise when they enter, but students can sit down again right afterwards. Rabbis Meir and Natan try to put Rashbag to an intellectual test to prove that he isn’t above them, but Rashbag finds out in advance and bests them.

Rabbis Meir and Natan are expelled from the Torah academy and forced to study outside. However, the academy couldn’t continue without their expertise, so there was the ancient equivalent of paper airplane communication happening. The expelled rabbis would throw questions into the academy, students would try to answer. If the students couldn’t, they’d ask for more help.

Obviously, this was a bad way to learn. Rashbag was forced to readmit the scholars, but only with the proviso that their rulings couldn’t be under their own names. Essentially, the glory of Torah was more important than the glory of Torah scholars. This remained true for all except for Rashbag and his descendants, who insisted on maintaining their grudge and hereditary leadership and denying these two learned men their due.

Where does that lead us? Leaders are fallible. Each of us has the potential to uplift, lead and find solutions. When necessary, we need to stop being passive and lead more. Sometimes, that means trying to avoid big egos or coming up with creative responses to difficult problems. It can feel uncomfortable to raise our voices and act, if we’re used to letting others do the hard work. Also, we need allies to help make change. This means building connections with others, particularly outside the Jewish community.

The pressing example for the Canadian Jewish community is our political leaders’ refrain after antisemitic incidents: “This isn’t who we are as Canadians.” Well, in fact, it is who we are, as evidenced by the dramatic rise in hate crimes. We have leaders who aren’t acting to solve this problem. It’s getting worse. In response, we must step up and ask our allies to do so, too. Nobody’s perfect. People make mistakes. That said, we must hold leaders – and all those passive followers – to account if we expect to remain safe in Canada. It’s time to find solutions. Complaints alone don’t cut it.

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press 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. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.

Community milestones … October 2025

Jewish Addictions Community Services (JACS) welcomes two members to its team.

Jordana Jackson, JACS’s new addictions specialist, is a certified addiction counsellor. In addition to having a wealth of experience working in addiction and recovery spaces throughout Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities, she is the founder and director of AWARE (Addicts With Aspirations Recovery Entertainment), a therapeutic performance-arts program. Jackson is already making a difference at JACS, creating navigation support structures and providing counseling for clients.

Elana Epstein, JACS’s new group facilitator, is a certified recovery coach. More importantly, she has years of experience being a mother of a child who struggled with addiction and is now in recovery. At JACS Family Circle, Epstein is using both her spiritual and professional skill sets to hold space for individuals whose friends and family have been affected by addiction. These group counseling sessions are an important aspect of JACS.

* * *

Elvira Molochkovetsk takes on the role of a community connector in Victoria. This position is a joint Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island (JFVVI) and Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver project. Her goal is to connect and engage all community members but, in particular, those who do not attend any existing synagogue or Jewish association.

Over the past two years, Molochkovetsk has been part of the JFVVI as a PJ Library parent, volunteer, connector and, for the past year, as PJ Library coordinator for Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. PJ Library has focused on connecting people with children up to the age of 13 and, in her expanded role as a connector, Molochkovetsk will be expanding it to reach out to teenagers, seniors and young entrepreneurs.

The parents of four kids, Molochkovetsk and her husband, Dimitri, have run family businesses for the last decade. Almost three years ago, they moved to Victoria from Winnipeg, where they lived for seven years. They both grew up in Israel and have family there.