Author: Jacob Samuel
Religious stock
Knowing that, in any one day, hundreds of visitors will pass their shops, usually on the way to the Kotel (Western Wall), shopkeepers in Jerusalem’s Old City stock as many items as possible to appeal to all religions. Prayer shawls, rugs, crosses and ritual items of every size and description are available, as are religious paintings and carvings, key holders and the like. (photo from Ashernet)
חסדי שמים עוזרים
חרדים שטסו מניו יורק הצליחו להגיע לטורונטו לפני כניסת השבת. (צילום: acidbomber via en.wikipedia)
האתר החרדי בחדרי חדרים טוען שחסדי השמים עזרו לחרדים שלא לחלל את השבת. לדברי חדרי חדרים קבוצה של חרדים התכוונה לטוס מניו יורק לטורונטו, לקראת השבת באחד מימי שישי האחרונים. הטיסה התעכבה והחרדים שחששו מלחלל את השבת ביקשו מצוות הדיילים לרדת מהמטוס. פתאם “כשלפתע חסדי שמים” טוען האתר, מגדל הפיקוח ניתן אישור המראה למטוס, תוך שאיפשרו לו לעקוף את כל שאר המטוסים, שהמתינו בתור הארוך על המסלול. עם הנחיתה בטורונטו צוות המטוס ביקש מכל הנוסעים להישאר במקומם, וזאת כדי לאפשר לקבוצה של החרדים לצאת ראשונים מהמטוס ובמהירות. האתר מציין עוד כי בזמן שהחרדים יצאו מהמטוס, הנוסעים היהודים שנשארו לשבת כיוון שאינם שומרי שבת, בירכו אותם בברכת שבת שלום.
אזה טעות: צעיר גנב ארנק ממתאגף לשעבר שהראה לו את כוחו
מתברר שצריך לדעת גם ממי לגנוב ולמי לא ממולץ כלל להתקרב. כך למד על בשרו צעיר בן עשרים וחמש, שגנב ארנק מתושב העיר ורנון שבמחוז בריטיש קולומביה. קווין ברקהאוס שהיה בעברו מתאגרף מקצועני, הבחין פתאם כי מהמשאית שלו נגנבו ארנקו, וכן המעיל וזוג הכפפות. ברקהאוס הכועס הזעיק את אחיו והשניים החליטו להסתובב ליד מספר חנויות משכון בעיר, בתקווה שהגנב ינסה להציע לאחת מכן לרכוש את שללו הגנוב. ואכן זה בדיוק מה שאכן קרה. שני האחים הבחינו כי ליד אחת החנויות עומד צעיר שלבש את המעיל הגנוב ובידו החזיק תיק. ברקהאוס התקרב אליו במהירות ודרש שיציג לו את תכולת התיק. בתחילה החשוד הסכים אך אחרי כן הוא חזר בו. ברקהאוס חטף ממנו את התיק ופתח אותו. הוא מצא בתוכו את ארנקו הגנוב והכפפות. לאחר מכן הוא החליט לפעול מהיר והפיל את הצעיר והצמידו בכוח חזק למדרכה. באותו זמן אחיו רץ להזעיק את המשטרה למקום. המתאגרף לשעבר הצליח אפילו לצלם את עצמו מחזיק בצעיר ששכב על המדרכה ללא תנועה. המשטרה עצרה את הגנב והגישה נגדו כתב אישום על פריצה לרכב וגניבת רכוש.
טלוויזיה של כסף: חברה למיחזור מצאה כסף בטלוויזיה שהוחזר לבעליו
תושב מחוז אונטריו בן השישים ושמונה הופתע ששוטרים דפקו על דלת ביתו באחד הערבים. השוטרים הראו לו קופסא ושאלו אותו אם הוא מזהה אותה. האיש (שהמשטרה לא פירסמה את שמו עד כה) הכיר מייד את הקופסא והשוטרים ביקשו שיפתח אותה. בפנים נמצאו לא פחות ממאה אלף דולר בשטרות וכן אף מסמכים בנקאיים של האיש. השוטרים ציינו שהקופסא נמצאה בתוך טלוויזיה שפורקה במפעל למחיזור. האיש נזכר פתאם שלפני לא פחות משלושים שנה, הוא החביא בתוך טלוויזיה כסף שקיבל ירושה מהוריו וכן מספר מסמכים. הוא שכח בכלל מהכסף ולפני מספר שנים נתן את הטלוויזיה במתנה לחבר קרוב. מתברר שהחבר מאס בטלוויזיה הישנה והחליט להעביר אותה למפעל למחיזור. עובד המפעל שפירק את הטלוויזיה מצא בתוכה את הקופסא. הוא פנה למנהל שלו ודיווח לו על מציאת הכסף והשניים הזעיקו את המשטרה. השוטרים בדקו את הכסף ומצאו שהוא חוקי. לאחר מכן הם איתרו בקלות יחסית את האיש לפי המסמכים שהשאיר בקופסא. לאחר שהתברר למשטרה שאין לו עבר פלילי, והוא הצליח להוכיח כי הוא קיבל את מאה אלף הדולר בירושה מהוריו, הכסף הוחזר לו לשמחתו הרבה. סביר להניח שלהבא אותו אלמוני מבוגר לא יחביא עוד כסף בתוך טלוויזיה או בתוך חפץ אחר.
Diverse selection of artwork
Johanan Herson is coming from Israel to Art! Vancouver. (photo from Johanan Herson)
“I am very much looking forward to seeing all the new artwork coming from around the world,” Lisa Wolfin told the Independent. “We have some giant heads coming from Miami, some art made out of spider webs, metal sculptures and some really crazy stuff – can’t wait to see it all together under one roof.”
Wolfin is the founder and director of Art! Vancouver, which this year takes place May 25-28 at Vancouver Convention Centre-East. She is also an artist herself and will be bringing recent work to the fair.
“Over the past year,” she said, “I have contemplated what to make for the show that is new and unique and have come up with my new series called I Feel. It is a portrait series made from different materials: oil on canvas, mixed media on wood panel, and photography.”
Her current work is contemporary, she said. “What I have found in the many art fairs that I have attended is that artists are using recycled materials and making them into creative art forms. My newest series is made out of my kids’ things they used when they were young. Sometimes, it feels like I am back in kindergarten being free to just play with materials, not thinking what you are trying to make out of it, just doing. Who doesn’t want to be a kid again?”
As more people have become aware of the art fair – this is its third year – inquiries have come from around the world, said Wolfin. And CBC Arts’ Amanda Parris “is flying out from Toronto to host the show and speak in a panel talk on Saturday at 3 p.m. Joining Amanda on the panel is Barrie Mowatt, who presently runs the Vancouver Biennale.”
Art! Vancouver opens on May 25, 7 p.m., said Wolfin, with “The Face of Art, where the artists walk down the runway carrying their artwork, so the attendees can put a face to the art to know who the artist is. People are curious as to who are the makers of the art – at this show, the artists are mostly in attendance, where people can come to meet them.”
Among those artists are several from the Jewish community, including Wolfin. Also presenting their work will be Johanan Herson, who is coming to the fair from Israel, and local artists Michael Abelman, Lauren Morris, Taisha Teal Wayrynen and Skyla Wayrynen.
“I will be showing mostly the soft art, textile art, but will have some of the sculpture works and acrylic paintings as well,” Herson told the Independent about what he’s bringing with him. “Le Soleil Gallery [on Howe Street] is showing the full range of my work and will continue after the fair to handle my artwork.”
Herson said he’s been to Vancouver a couple of times before, when he was a student at Banff School of Fine arts. He is originally from Montreal.
“I grew up in Montreal and visited Israel on various occasions before making aliyah,” he said. “In fact, I had come to study at the Bezalel Academy just after the Six Day War and hated it. I traveled the world before coming back to Montreal and the Canadian sense of pluralism and diversity. I came back later [to Israel] to understand the meaning of my Jewishness and fell in love with an Israeli woman, of a 10-generation family, and find myself part of this dynamic society.”
In terms of his artwork, Herson said, “I know that my soft art is a product of being at the right time and the right place, where this technique evolved, and I did look into the possibility of doing it in Quebec, but … the soft art is definitely an Israel discovery and development.
“My Canadian identity is one of respect for everyone, the celebration of diversity and acceptance of the other, and I cherish my Canadian roots and heritage and am proud of my citizenship. My work in Israel and my Jewish identity has always been part of who I am wherever I am and was part of who I am as a Canadian and an Israeli. I hope that my commitment to making the world a better place for everyone would have guided me if I had never left Canada, although perhaps the intensity of living and creating in the Middle East has challenges that are unique to Israel.
“I believe in the good in humanity,” he continued, “and have always sought to defend the less-privileged and suffering … whether they are in Montreal, Tel Aviv, Ramallah or Africa, and seek global communication as a platform to making the world a healthier and safer place of love, respect and opportunity for a better life for everyone. I do so as a Canadian Jewish Israeli artist.”
He gave the example of an exhibit of his work that just closed at the University in Minnesota. The exhibit, he said, was “part of encouraging dialogue between the Jewish student and Islamic student bodies. The message is that we must pray and work for a better world, that tikkun olam is to wake up every day and say that the world has been created for me alone, and that I must make it a better place for everyone.”
Teal Wayrynen is working toward a similar goal – making the world a better place – in a different way.
“I received my associates degree in psychology from Capilano University and am graduating this year with my bachelor’s degree from Simon Fraser University,” she told the Independent. “I will then combine my art with my counseling and do a master’s program for art therapy after I travel for half a year.”
At last year’s Art! Vancouver, Teal Wayrynen featured her Pop Icon collection. This year, she said she is “experimenting with charcoal and acrylic paint and drawing female bodies.”
Right now, her favourite medium is acrylic paint mixed with spray paint, she said. “I just started to mix mediums and use molding paste, acrylic paint and charcoal on top,” she added.
Morris has also been delving into new methods and media.
“I have continued predominantly working on flowers, however, I have introduced a new colour palette, as well as more abstraction within my floral pieces,” she told the Independent. “I’ve also continued with my free, fluid style and introduced some abstract landscapes using the new colours. My inspiration comes from the beautiful flowers that seem to surround me every day. Every season brings on something new and I am inspired by their shapes and colours.”
She has been working on a new series for Art! Vancouver, Morris said, “experimenting with a couple of new techniques and colours. They will be mainly florals and will all coordinate in style so that there is consistency within my pieces. I work predominantly in acrylic.”
She added, “I am hoping that my growth as an artist is shown in my new pieces and that my work continues to evoke my viewers’ emotions through visual imagery.”
Art! Vancouver opens May 25 at the convention centre with a VIP preview at 6 p.m. and the gala at 7 p.m. The show runs May 26-27, noon to 8 p.m., and May 28, noon to 5 p.m. A one-day pass is $15 (online) or $25 (at the door); $8 for children under the age of 14. A multi-day pass is $40 and a VIP pass is $100. Tickets to the opening gala are $30. Visit artvancouver.net.
Halifax “owns” bagel
East Coast Bakery opened in Halifax on May 14 last year. (photo by Alex Rose)
Gerry Lonergan wants to put Halifax on the bagel map. “Why do Montreal and New York own bagels?” he asked. “Two cities shouldn’t own bagels. Why can’t Halifax own them?”
Lonergan’s East Coast Bakery celebrates its one-year anniversary May 14. Since he opened last year, he’s been churning out quality bagels. The bakery came in third in a local newspaper’s poll for best new business after being open for only 45 days – and the voting had started two weeks before the store’s first day.
Although Lonergan is from Montreal, he is adamant that his bagels are their own style, which he calls East Coast. There are a few things that set them apart.
The first is sourdough: Lonergan is the only baker he knows who uses it for his bagels. The second is that his bagels are kosher, even though Lonergan himself isn’t Jewish.
With a laugh, he noted that Chabad Rabbi Mendel Feldman “said if I do become Jewish I wouldn’t be able to open on Saturday, so it works for everybody in the community.”
About his decision to go kosher, Lonergan explained, “If I went kosher, it was another level of auditing, of standards, of quality that I felt a lot of people would have trouble following my example, so it would give me a leg up in it from a business standpoint. But, also, I thought it was the right thing to do, it would just add that extra bit of authenticity to these bagels.”
Halifax Jewish community member Josh Bates helped Lonergan get started. The two met when a mutual friend told Bates he had to try Lonergan’s bagels, when Lonergan was still making them from home.
“In terms of becoming kosher, I also introduced him to the Chabad rabbi who kosher-izes his bagels, if that’s the word,” said Bates.
Bates works in the mayor’s office and, although he didn’t help Lonergan in any official capacity, he was able to use his knowledge to help in other ways.
“He had a few questions around building code, getting approvals, finding a location. I introduced him to the executive directors of a couple different business improvement districts in Halifax,” explained Bates.
With a background in the electronics industry, where he streamlined production processes, Lonergan knew how he wanted his bakery to function and what he would need to make it happen. The entire back of the bakery is open concept, so the customer can see as the bagels and challot are made every step of the way.
It was important for Lonergan to find the perfect place to set up shop, in part because his machines need three-phase power, which wasn’t available in every potential location. One of those machines turns tubes of dough into rings, which are then each individually hand-stretched before being boiled in a pot of honey-water. The machine churns out the rings at a rate of 3,600 an hour, or one a second.
While living in Montreal, Lonergan visited Halifax a few years ago and knew it was the place he wanted to be.
“I came for a five-day trip and I just fell in love. I just said, ‘Wow the people are so nice, the ocean is amazing.’ I just saw lots of opportunity here, and I saw there was a need for what I wanted to do here. There was a need for artisanal bread, artisanal bagels,” he said. “Within 48 hours of that trip, I said, ‘That’s it, I’m moving.’ I came home and put my house up for sale within about five days.”
In less than a year, East Coast Bakery has become something of a Halifax institution. Aside from his bagels and challot, which are based on old family recipes, Lonergan hopes to add hamantashen by next Purim. But even if he keeps the menu the same, Bates said the quality of Lonergan’s baked goods should ensure the bakery’s success.
“No matter how good a bagel is, it’s always better when it’s fresh out of oven…. I like a thin sweet bagel right out of the oven and, until East Coast Bakery opened, you couldn’t get that in Halifax,” he said.
And the challah? “Best challah I’ve ever had,” Bates said. “When I go in there and buy a bag, I have hard time not finishing an entire loaf on my walk home.”
Alex Rose is a master’s student in journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax. He graduated from the same school in 2016 with a double major in creative writing and religious studies, and loves all things basketball. He wrote this article as part of an internship with the Jewish Independent.
Artists’ views of friendship
Orly Ashkenazy’s “Strings.” (photo by Olga Livshin)
The Festival Ha’Rikud group exhibit at Zack Gallery, Celebrating Friendship, presents 23 artists in a variety of styles and media. Each artist, in his or her own special way, explores the theme of friendship.
Photographer Judy Vitek interpreted the theme literally. The children in one of her photos and the texting teenage girls in another live hundreds of miles apart, on different continents, but their friendships are unmistakable.
On the other end of the spectrum, the abstract canvas by Lauren Morris could be seen as a medley of lines and colours, intertwining and mixing like friends at a party. Or perhaps it is a firework explosion. Or a flower bouquet a friend brought one summer afternoon.
Flowers bloom in Carl Rothschild’s paintings as well, but there is nothing abstract in his imagery. Maybe the artist glimpsed his poppies and lilies in a friend’s garden or on a neighbouring street. Cheerful and unblemished, his flowers are his friends. They wave their bright petals in recognition of their creator’s love for his home city.
In contrast to Rothschild’s decidedly local milieu, Gaye Collins’ painting, “Friendship through the Sands of Time,” feels like an exotic metaphor. Two black figures stroll away from the viewer through a vague landscape, reminiscent of yellow dunes or poetic imagination. The painting is dreamlike, and the figures undefined. Friends or lovers, they tell a story everybody knows, but nobody remembers.
Another metaphor, Jennie Johnston’s small and elegant quilt, is a labyrinth, a place of search and contemplation, a path leading into the heart. Whose heart? Everyone must decide for themself.
Between conceptuality on one hand and photographic precision on the other, two paintings stand out – two of the few where faces play the major role. While Yodhi Williamson’s “Chance Meeting on 4th Ave” conveys the simple joy of accidentally bumping into an old friend, Lori-ann Latremouille’s “Flowers of Friendship” channels a more complex narrative. In it, undertones of doubt and surprise mingle with recognition and kinship in the artist’s deceptively transparent double portrait.
Faces also appear in Sima Elizabeth Shefrin’s two tiny fabric panels, but here they resemble primitivistic art, innocent and childlike, ideas rather than portraits. In both panels, an Arab and a Jew refuse to succumb to the current political facts – they want to be friends.
Hope also emits from Alina Smolyansky’s shining piece “Jerusalem Domes of Faith.” Three temples of three different faiths grow out of the same root, united inside one hand, one hamsa, one finite world.
Pamela Cohen explores a different aspect of hope: an aerial view of a brightly coloured patchwork of countries and borders. Could friendships develop across those delineated borders, as the artist implies? Or is it wishful thinking?
Orly Ashkenazy’s composition “Strings” doesn’t feel very hopeful, although its meanings resonate on many sublayers. At first glance, the painting is a random collection of rough face drawings. They look like pencil sketches. A tangle of cotton strings stretch and intersect, cross and turn, connecting those faces. The strings bind them, bind us all; however, a splash of red paint runs from top to bottom of the painting, dividing it into two separate parts like a river of blood. No string crosses the river, no connection manifests between its two sides.
Another work, a tapestry by Vladimira Fillion-Wackenreuther, pays tribute to Prague, the city of the artist’s youth. Tinged with nostalgia, the woven image is playful, uplifting. It reflects Prague’s medieval architecture, its culture-infused streets and traditional Czech marionettes. The city is indisputably the weaver’s friend, and she invites all of us to join in the friendship.
Many other artists are featured in the show – Aurel Stan, Ava Lee Millman Fisher, Beryl Israel, Claire Cohen, Gail Davidson, Joel Libin, Joyce Ozier, Monica Gewurz, Marion Eisman, Patricia Haley-Tsui, Sidi Schaffer – and each has enriched the concept of friendship with his or her unique perspective, talent and skills.
The exhibit opened May 4 and runs until May 22.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Unnecessarily divisive
Donald Trump’s first international trip as president of the United States will include Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Vatican. This breaks a longstanding tradition of a new U.S. president shuffling north or south to drop in on one of America’s nearest neighbours.
The snub of Mexico, if that’s what it is, is not surprising. Trump has built his political career on demonizing Mexicans. If his first official foreign visit is also a snub of Canada, that also should not surprise, given Trump’s recent extemporaneous attacks on our supply management system and his general beefs with NAFTA.
Trump’s choice of Israel and Saudi Arabia is strategic. He is signaling support for the countries he sees as America’s leading allies in the war on terror. Of course, while Saudi Arabia produces its share of terror (including most of the 9/11 perpetrators), it is officially a close ally of the West, in spite of its atrocious human rights record, in part because it is the regional bulwark against Iran. On Israel, Trump has been bombastic, insisting when he was still Candidate Trump: “I’m going to be great for Israel.” Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has hit it off better than most world leaders have with Trump, so the coming visit will probably cement that chummy relationship. (The Vatican? God only knows what that meeting will produce.)
Israel and Saudi Arabia, for their vast differences, are the most important allies of the United States in the Middle East. With Saudi Arabia, the friendship is certainly a matter of pragmatism over principle. The West needs their oil and the stability and counterbalance they provide in the region.
The Israeli relationship is quite different. While American politicians and diplomats will focus on military and intelligence cooperation, as with Saudi Arabia, they also salute Israel’s democracy and our shared values. The long history of friendship between the United States and Israel also frequently comes up. What is less prominent in words of friendship is Israel’s Jewishness. This is common even among pro-Israel voices. We extol Israel’s democracy, diversity, the immense contributions to science and medicine, technology, culture, foreign aid – even Tel Aviv’s funky nightlife. But we don’t always emphasize the foremost case for Israel’s existence: that the Jewish people deserve and require self-determination in our ancient and modern homeland.
This is an interesting tendency. Are we acknowledging that, perhaps, Israel’s democracy, scholarship, vibrancy and beaches are all great selling points, but its Jewishness is not? Maybe we are. And maybe we’re right. But, by not continually promoting Israel’s right to exist as the Jewish homeland, we undercut the most important case we can make and, in the process, probably bend our position somewhat to suit the tastes of casual antisemites.
We need to make the case forcefully that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and deserves to exist for that reason – first among the many reasons Israel deserves to exist and be respected. However, there is an effort afoot in Israel to affirm its Jewishness in a way that is divisive, exclusionary, even possibly racist.
On Monday, Netanyahu threw his support behind a so-called “nation-state” bill proposed by Likud Knesset member Avi Dichter that would enshrine Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people.” This statement is undeniable – or it should be. But the bill goes on to declare that “the right to realize self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people” and would revoke Arabic as an official language in Israel. These latter aspects of the bill deliberately insult and diminish the rights of non-Jewish citizens of Israel.
Here is the difference between the case we made about Israel’s Jewishness and the bill’s intent: Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people – but Israel is also the homeland of people who are not Jewish, up to one-quarter of the population. These two things need not be exclusive, but the bill would make it so and, in the process, expressly deny the equality of minority populations.
The prime minister called the bill “the clearest answer to all those who are trying to deny the deep connection between the People of Israel and its land.” This is a morsel of red meat for hungry Zionists because we are tired of people diminishing or outright denying the right of Jewish people to live in Israel. So, the bill might deliver a frisson of delight for those of us who bristle at the latest United Nations nonsense or campus apartheid week.
Yet, whatever the merits of such a bill, it is an unnecessary and intentional hot stick in the eye of Israeli minorities – and indeed those of us in the Diaspora who make the case for Israel as a diverse, welcoming, multicultural and multifaith place. Though the comfort of Diaspora Zionists should not direct Israeli policy, this example is merely harming Israel’s cause with no commensurate upside.
That said, one person who would see this kind of exclusionary, divisive, unnecessarily nasty bill as a good idea is going to be visiting there soon: the president of the United States.
Jerusalem, the Eternal City
Today I arose early and took a few minutes to look at the pearly dawn through my bedroom window. A bit later, I walked to the nearest grocery store and bought fresh bread for breakfast before I began my work day. All trivial, mundane things? Yes, but there is a difference, for I was doing them in Jerusalem.
No matter what ordinary events shape my day, the fact that they are happening here, in the Eternal City, somehow endows them with an extra dimension.
Jerusalem got its name because it has been the city of the Jewish people since the days of King David and his son Solomon, who built the First Temple here. Generation after generation continues to pray: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.” Devout Jews the world over turn towards Jerusalem three times a day in prayer, as the focus of their longing.
Five thousand years ago, a group of settlers chose to make their homes on the steep ridge called the Ophel, south of today’s Old City. Two thousand years later, David captured it from the Jebusites and, by bringing the Holy Ark here, he established forever its sanctity for Jews.
Jerusalem’s history spans 4,000 years. In 2000 BCE, Abraham offered his son Isaac for a sacrifice on Mount Moriah – ready to carry out the ultimate renunciation until the angel stayed his hand. A thousand years later, David captured the city and, from 961 BCE to 922 BCE, Solomon constructed the First Temple. In 537 BCE, Jews returned from Babylon, where they had been exiled by Nebuchadnezzar and, in 517 BCE, the Second Temple was completed. After that, Alexander the Great took the city and then Antiochus ruled it, until the Maccabees liberated it. In 63 BCE, Pompey captured Jerusalem and, over a period of 33 years, Herod reconstructed the Second Temple.
Jerusalem’s history continued to be a story of conquest and destruction by a chain of occupiers lusting for this precious jewel: the Romans, the Greeks, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, the Jordanians … a succession of nations who wanted to rule this battle-worn city that possesses no material riches – no gold, no precious metals, no minerals, no oil, nothing to enrich their coffers. So what does it possess?
I don’t know the answer but, in 1907, Hermann Cohen, in his Religiose Postulate, put forward the idea that they had no choice: “All nations, without exception, must go up with the Jews towards Jerusalem.”
Prior to that, in 1882, Peretz Smolenskin wrote, in Nekam Brith, a prophecy about its conquerors: “This shall be our revenge; we shall quicken what they shall kill and raise what they shall fell…. This is the banner of vengeance which we shall set up, and its name is – Jerusalem.”
Jews and non-Jews alike have always felt a magnetic pull towards the Holy City. It is written in Midrash Tehillim 91:7: “Praying in Jerusalem is like praying before the Throne of Glory, for the gate of heaven is there.” Every Jew who prays at the Western Wall feels an unusual closeness to G-d. Judah Stampfer, in his book Jerusalem has Many Faces (1950), expressed it poetically: “I have seen a city chiseled out of moonlight / Its buildings beautiful as silver foothills / While universes shimmered in its corners.”
There are many enchanting cities in the world, and I have visited many – Venice, Avignon, Bruges, Hong Kong, Paris, all have a magic that transforms the senses. Yet there is something extra in Jerusalem that I simply can’t define. It is a beautiful city, but there are many that exceed it. It is dignified, ancient, historic – all adjectives that can be applied to other cities, like London and Rome. Jerusalem, however, is an emotion, a state of mind even more than a place. It arouses dormant passions. It nurtures the soul. It is spiritual and inspiring.
To call Jerusalem home for the past 46 years is, for me, an enormous privilege. I am always aware of the history under my feet. I never forget the nameless heroes who fought to retain it for the Jewish people. And so, let us pay homage to the Maccabees, to those who withstood the Crusaders and Saladin and the Ottomans. And, in our own time, our Jewish soldiers who reunited Jerusalem in the Six Day War in 1967, 50 years ago. So many heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice so that those of us in Jerusalem today could live out our lives in the Eternal City.
Dvora Waysman is the Australian-born author of 14 books. She came with her family to live in Jerusalem in 1971. She can be contacted at [email protected] or through her blog dvorawaysman.com.
End-time visions
Are we living in the “end times”? Many would agree that, some days, it feels like it. Vancouver School of Theology’s Inter-Religious Studies program will host an apocalyptically themed conference this month called Visions of the End Times. Presenters will invite attendees to explore their fears and hopes for the future.
As part of the conference, which runs May 23-25, the keynote speaker, psychologist Dr. Lionel Corbett, will give a free public lecture. In the May 23 talk, Corbett will discuss the psychology of apocalyptic thinking and religious violence.
On the mornings of May 24 and 25, more than a dozen regional scholars will speak about concepts of the “end times” found in sacred texts, film, popular music and contemporary culture. Afternoon activities will include a multifaith panel of local religious leaders and a creative writing workshop.
The conference had its genesis about three months before the U.S. election in a conversation between Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, the director of Inter-Religious Studies at VST, and Harry Maier, professor of New Testament and early Christianity studies. The two professors contemplated why zombies are such a popular motif in contemporary culture. Are they a metaphor for soul-less humanity, for consumer culture consuming itself or a political world that has no awareness or conscience? This led to a discussion of the possibility of an academic conference on zombies in popular culture.
“Then,” Duhan Kaplan explained to the Jewish Independent, “we remembered we’re faculty at a theology school, and that zombies sort of appear in the Bible, in Ezekiel’s prophecy about the resurrection of the dead. So, we broadened the topic to Visions of the End Times and made the conference a VST project.”
Duhan Kaplan said she expects the conference will yield lively discussion. “My prediction for the thread that runs through the conference [is that] we will debate whether the world is getting worse or better, or heading in any direction at all.”
She said speakers will address topics such as extremism and religious violence, visions of the end times articulated by religious traditions, the meaning of end-times themes in music and film, the nature of utopian thinking, and a deeper look at end-times teachings in Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures. There will also be an open mic Tuesday evening featuring music and poetry of the end times, which Kaplan hopes will be “whimsical and fun.”
“I do believe that eschatological concepts [ideas resulting from the study of the end times] are helpful metaphors,” she said. “They place even terrible events into a hopeful vision. When something bad happens, they say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a blip on the way to a good end.’ For example, when something bad happens, many Jews say, ‘These are the footsteps of Mashiach.’ Personally, I take great comfort in Isaiah’s vision that ‘the lion will lie down with the lamb.’
“I don’t think human beings will ever make a [peace] treaty that holds indefinitely,” she continued. “But, while peace holds, people do experience a bit of ‘the World to Come,’ as we sometimes call the end times in Jewish thought.”
Corbett’s public talk is at 7 p.m. on May 23 at Chapel of the Epiphany on the University of British Columbia campus. For more information, visit vst.edu/event/vision-of-the-end-times-an-inter-religious-conference.
Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the Forward and All That Is Interesting, and has been published in Religion Dispatches, Situate Magazine, Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.
Preschool at the JCC
In the JCCGV’s program for 2-year-olds, there are only a few spots left for September 2017. (photo from Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver)
Hidden at the end of the hall on the garden level of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver there is a preschool program for 2-year-olds with just a few spots left for September 2017.
Shalom Aleph and Shabbat Shalom are small classes especially designed to be a child’s first introduction to school, a chance to learn through play with other children in an environment rich with materials to spark creativity and critical thinking skills.
Children are welcomed by early childhood educators and invited to choose what learning centres they want to spend time in. There is a place to glue things together, paint and play with play dough. There are blocks for constructing, a toy house for imaginative play, books to look at and enjoy, as well as sand and water for sensory exploration. Songs, stories and conversation fill the room, as children begin to learn how to be together in a group, how to take turns and how to negotiate and share, with kindness and compassion.
This preschool program and all the licensed early childhood programs at the JCCGV’s Simkin Family Child Development Centre are inspired by research from the preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and guided by the B.C. Early Learning Framework from the Ministry of Education. The Child Development Centre is a Sheva cornerstone community and a designated lab school community – Sheva is the Jewish early learning framework of the Jewish Community Centre Association of North America, which celebrates children as competent, capable and curious.
Director Susan Hoppenfeld would be delighted to take interested parents on a tour and share more details about the preschool program. She can be reached at 604-257-5162.