freelancer – Page 417

And the JI’s 18 Under 36 are …

Congratulations to all of the JI’s 18 Under 36 awardees!

(in alphabetical order)

Rebecca Baron
Ezequiel Blumenkrans
Erin Brandt
Marcus Brandt
Ayelet Cohen Weil
Courtney Cohen
Aaron Friedland
Sam Heller
Talya Mallek
Ariel Martz-Oberlander
Logan Presch
Maya Rae
Mike Sachs
Allie Michelle Saks
David Schein
Rotem Tal
Carmel Tanaka
Rabbi Levi Varnai

Thank you to all of the people who submitted a nomination. We received so many incredible entries. There really are a lot of all-around awesome people under the age of 36 in our community. Choosing only 18 was a difficult task.

Special thanks to our external adjudicator Kara Mintzberg, B.C. Regional Director, Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC).

Now that the hard part is done, we hope you will come and help us celebrate these amazing young people and our community. Tickets are only $18 and the event is sure to sell out.

Brave choice to stage Taken

A scene from United Players’ production of Taken at Midnight, which is at the Jericho Arts Centre until Nov. 26. Seen here are Brian Hinson as the Nazi Dr. Conrad and Suzanne Ristic as Irmgaard, Hans Litten’s mother. (photo by Nancy Caldwell)

As a Jew, a lawyer and a child of a Holocaust survivor, I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Hans Litten until I saw United Players’ production of Taken at Midnight, which runs to Nov. 26 at Jericho Arts Centre.

Litten was a brilliant young Jewish-German lawyer, known for his defence of opponents of the Nazi movement. In 1931, he had the audacity to subpoena Adolf Hitler as a witness in the trial of four Nazis charged with murder, and subjected him to a grueling three-hour cross-examination, exposing the Nazi party for what it really was – a murderous bunch of thugs. Litten called Hitler “a cross between Baron Munchhausen and Attila the Hun.”

Unfortunately for Litten and the world, within two years Hitler was in power and he started to exact his revenge on his opponents. At midnight on Feb. 28, 1933, after the Reichstag (German parliament) fire, Litten, along with thousands of others, was arrested or, as the Nazis euphemistically called it, taken into “protective custody” at a series of concentration camps. Litten became known as “Hitler’s personal prisoner” – the cocky Jewish lawyer who had dared to expose the Fuhrer’s weaknesses – and, over the years, was subjected to brutal torture and unspeakable degradation as punishment. Despite the valiant efforts of his mother, Irmgaard, to obtain his release over the five years of his incarceration, Litten ultimately committed suicide in Dachau in 1938, which was a bit messy for the Nazis, as they wanted their political prisoners to die accidentally or naturally, not by taking their own lives.

The irony is that Litten was not technically Jewish. His mother was not Jewish and his father had converted to Christianity (to make things easier). As Litten says in the play, “I am an atheist Jew and, prior to that, I was an atheist Lutheran.” Of course, that made no difference to the Nazis, who went back three generations to ferret out Jewish blood.

Playwright and filmmaker Mark Hayhurst’s 2010 BBC films The Man Who Crossed Hitler and To Stop a Tyrant planted the seeds for this staged work. It had its West End (London, England) debut in 2014. Reviewers called it a “masterpiece of theatre not to be missed.” Now, United Players has taken on the formidable task of presenting this gripping story to Vancouver audiences. From the minute you walk into the theatre, the dark, shadowy, stark set – an elevated wooden platform fronted by barbed wire positioned between two floor-to-ceiling red banners emblazoned with black swastikas – is a harbinger of the grim things to come.

The entire cast, mostly comprised of veteran actors, is stellar and, as an ensemble, makes this a truly remarkable theatrical experience. Particular mention has to be made of the two main protagonists – Suzanne Ristic as Irmgaard and Sean Anthony as her son. Ristic is sublime in her portrayal of this strong, heroic woman who takes on the Gestapo establishment in a relentless battle to free her son. She often takes centre stage to talk directly to the audience, thereby breaking down the fourth wall, making for a very intimate encounter. And Anthony plays his difficult role with dignity, yet shows uncompromising defiance. We ache as we watch his physical and mental decline – his transformation from ordinary citizen to bloodied, head-shaven prisoner; a business suit to the striped concentration camp uniform, replete with the obligatory yellow Star of David.

Supporting, but not lesser, performances come from the rest of the cast.

photo - Irmgaard Litten (played by Suzanne Ristic) tries everything to save her son Hans (Sean Anthony) from the Nazis in Taken at Midnight — Irmgaard Litten (played by Suzanne Ristic) tries everything to save her son Hans (Sean Anthony) from the Nazis in Taken at Midnight. *(photo by Nancy Caldwell)*

Brian Hinson as Dr. Conrad, Irmgaard’s Gestapo contact, portrays a man of culture and intelligence who appreciates this feisty woman and appears to feel affection for her. The scene where they share an ice cream on a summer’s afternoon in a park seems incongruous, juxtaposed against the darkness of this play. Yet it speaks to some form of humanity even in the worst of times.

Litten’s cellmates – Erich Muhsam, an anarchist (played by Richard Hersley) who refers to Hitler as “the Austrian transvestite,” and Carl von Ossietzky, a newspaper editor and winner of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize (played by Jewish community member Michael Kahn) – show the camaraderie and trust that can evolve from difficult circumstances. The triumvirate produces an amusing reenactment of Hitler’s cross-examination, providing an island of levity in their sea of despair.

Douglas Abel plays Fritz Litten, Hans’ father, as a calm counterpoint to his wife’s intense persona. John Harris, with his posh English accent, is Lord Clifford Allen, an English diplomat, patrician and pacifist who Irmgaard seconds in her quest for her son’s freedom. Allen is able to secure a meeting with Hitler to discuss the matter, but to no avail. Allen’s political attitude highlights the European appeasement zeitgeist of the early 1930s – that Germany was just experiencing growing pains and Hitler was an effective statesman, not a threat to the world. If only it had been so.

The play provides an historical lesson in the rise to power of the fascist Nazi regime and the consequences of speaking truth to power, but, at its heart, it is the story of the love of a mother for her son and her fight, at great personal risk, to try and save him.

As director Michael Fera, states in his notes, this is “an informative and deeply engrossing play about the high price paid for resisting tyranny,” and is as relevant today as it was in 1933. “People are living it now, again. History is repeating itself in many ways.”

Taken at Midnight is a tough watch and an emotional ride but well worth a trip to the Jericho Arts Centre. Kudos to artistic director Andree Karas for having the courage to stage this work. The show runs to Nov. 26, Thursdays to Sundays, 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinées Nov. 12, 19 and 26. For more information, visit unitedplayers.com or call 604-224-8007, ext. 2.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

Resettling Eretz Yisrael

Alison Pick discusses her new novel, Strangers with the Same Dream, at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival Nov. 25. (photo by Emma Lee)

“Here they were, she thought, in this remote land of Palestine, far from their homes and families. They had left their lives as they knew them to turn the Balfour Declaration, and the idea of a homeland for the Jews, into truth. They were strangers with the same dream…. But this was the thing: Zionism was not just an idea. It was something that was happening, now and now and now. It was something she could make happen.”

So thinks Ida, one of the three main characters in Alison Pick’s latest novel, Strangers with the Same Dream (Knopf Canada, 2017). Pick will be in Vancouver to open the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival on Nov. 25, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre. Appropriately enough, the title of her conversation with Jerry Wasserman is Idealism vs. Reality.

Ida has come to Palestine, to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, on her own from Russia, having seen her father killed and knowing that the brutal attackers also raped her mother; her sister, “Eva, thank God, had been at school.”

It is 1921. Ida is part of the Third Aliyah, one of many other young idealists, most of whom had no idea at the harsh conditions that awaited them – the heat of the dessert, the abundance of malaria-spreading mosquitoes, the backbreaking work, the relinquishment of individuality and, of course, their new Arab neighbours, who were displaced by their arrival.

The leader of Ida’s particular group is David, who immigrated during the Second Aliyah, in 1910. He “had helped establish the moshava [settlement] at Kinneret, planting eucalyptus trees along the muddy banks, negotiating with the fellaheen [farmers]. Ida heard he had traveled the entire length of Eretz Yisrael on horseback, meeting the Arabs in every tent and marketplace, learning their various customs so as to help in the purchase of land.”

And there is David’s wife, Hannah, who, “like David, had arrived in the Second Aliyah, which meant the halutzim [pioneers] instantly respect her.” While the “historic speeches fell to David; Hannah was left with the logistics.” For example, Hannah was the one to request that the new olim (immigrants) voluntarily surrender all of their valuables “to the enterprise they were building together. She did not want strangers circulating like policemen to take each other’s belongings. Especially not after what so many of them had been through in Czarist Russia.”

Strangers with the Same Dream is divided into three sections, each of which is written from the perspective of one of the three protagonists – Ida, David and Hannah – about the same series of events.

“Following the writing of my memoir Between Gods, I was very interested in the relationship between truth and memory, and the ways in which different people (family members, as one example, or characters) experience the same events very differently,” Pick told the Independent. “I love to challenge myself with each new book and so I decided to try and tell the same story through three different sets of eyes. I wanted the reader to have the pleasure of seeing things the characters did not; that is, miscommunications, misunderstandings, falsely attributed motivations.”

The protagonists could be considered archetypes of a sort. “Although I didn’t set out to write it that way,” said Pick, “Hannah certainly has some of the Mother in her, and Ida has the Maiden. David, I suppose, could be seen as a Trickster, although that might be a generous way to characterize him.”

The novel is introduced by a short prologue, written in the voice of a ghost – a former halutza – who sets up the narrative and then enters it occasionally.

“The ghost is a link between the past and the present,” explained Pick. “Because the three narrative voices were necessarily so limited, I wanted an additional over-arching outside view – outside of time, even – who could reflect both backward and forward. I was also thinking about the idea of haunting – that Israel today (as with Canada, as with many other places) is haunted by history, by the very real lives of those who came before us and influence how we live and how we understand our own stories.”

Pick chose to set the novel in 1921 for a number of reasons.

“I’m not an historian, although I do love writing historical fiction – and, while there is a lot of leeway in fiction as a genre, it is important to me to get the historical facts right. So, I set relatively narrow parameters for myself – all the action takes place roughly over the course of one year. The kibbutz in Strangers with the Same Dream is fictional, but it is loosely based on Kibbutz Ein Harod, established in 1921. While there had been other, smaller attempts at kibbutzim, Ein Harod was the first attempt on a bigger scale, and it is a kibbutz that has, still today, a mythical presence in the collective psyche of Israel.”

The novel took Pick about three years to write, and she did research in Israel.

“At Kibbutz Ein Harod, there is an incredible archive about the early years of kibbutz life,” said Pick. “I was able to access first-person diaries, many written by the female pioneers, which I had translated from Hebrew. Both the translator and the archivist herself were wonderful sources of information about the early years, and they introduced me to an elderly man (who has sadly since passed away), who was there at the establishment of the kibbutz in 1921. So, I read, I researched, I listened, I imagined. And then I tried to breathe life into a world of the past, to bring it to life for readers today.”

While some readers might find the ghost an intrusive presence, I found the novel completely engaging, in part because it shows some of the grim realities the halutzim faced, not only from the land and their Arab neighbours, but from one another. Readers will be able to picture what it was like in those early days. If I wasn’t sure before, I am now that I would have made a poor halutza – the hard work and strange surroundings wouldn’t have been nearly as daunting as the high risk of malaria and the challenges of living in a collective with few resources. I came away from the novel with more admiration for (most of) those who worked to make the idea of Zionism a reality. At least one reviewer, though, has imputed an anti-Zionist message to the novel.

“I confess I have been surprised by the (few) reviews that take the novel as anti-Zionist,” said Pick. “Perhaps I’m naïve – and I am certainly a newcomer to Judaism, which is no secret – but I adore Israel. I traveled there three times during the writing of the book and, each time, I fell more madly in love with the place.

“It did not occur to me that exploring the psyche of those early Zionists – who at the very least did realize that the place they were ‘settling’ was already populated – would be construed as anything other than telling the simple truth. I did not start out with a political message and, indeed, I think to do so is anathema to good fiction. The role of art, as I see it at least, is to open, to unravel, to make space for more questions rather than to judge, decide or condemn. Although one of the characters [David] is decidedly a villain, albeit I hope one in whom the reader sees humanity, the other two main players (Hannah and Ida) are, to my mind, hugely sympathetic. Everyone in the novel – Jews and Arabs alike – are simply trying to make do in a both remarkable and remarkably difficult situation.”

For tickets to hear Pick, and for the full book festival lineup, visit jewishbookfestival.ca.

Umbrella Shop to close

Corry Flader, president of the Umbrella Shop. (photo from Corry Flader)

“He went around in Toronto on a bicycle repairing people’s umbrellas,” Corry Flader told the Jewish Independent. “He would knock on people’s doors.”

Flader is sharing how her grandfather Isadore (Izzy) survived and supported his young family in the 1930s. Izzy had come to Canada in 1910 from Poland and, a couple of decades later, married Ida.

“He would sit on people’s stoop and repair their umbrellas, and then move to the next house. It just metamorphosed. He met a guy who was a train porter and he said, ‘You know, if you want to make umbrellas, there’s a city named Vancouver where it rains 365 days a year.’ So, he goes home and says, ‘Ida, pack it up, we’re going to Vancouver.’… They pack up the four kids and enough kosher salami to last the train ride, and there they went.”

Since its beginnings 82 years ago, the various iterations of the Umbrella Shop have accumulated plenty of customers. At times, Flader’s family has sold 20 different styles of umbrellas, each in a variety of colours, designs and prints. For decades, it was one of the most popular places in the city to get your hands on a quality umbrella. But now, the Umbrella Shop, a third-generation business, will close its doors at the end of December.

Flader vividly recalls her family setting up in Vancouver’s Jewish community and opening their first store. “My dad told me he remembers looking for a house, and he finally bought one slated for demolition,” she said. “So him and the two older boys, who I think were between 10 and 13, began saving the place. My dad Charlie would have been around 3.”

That first shop was Vancouver Umbrella on the corner of Pender and Howe, which lasted until 1972. “I was the delivery girl,” said Flader. “I used to go pick up patio umbrellas in my dad’s 1969 station wagon. Many of your readers may remember me coming by to pick up their patio umbrellas for a re-cover, and they would give me a cool lemonade on a hot summer day or something.”

In the 1960s, Izzy’s son-in-law, Peter Hochfelder, was brought into the business. In 1972, Izzy and his son Norman sold their shares; a few years later, Sam retired. From that time, the owners were Charlie and Hochfelder. That shop ran until 1982, on Hastings Street, and then Charlie sold his shares to Hochfelder.

Corry’s brother Glen and Glen’s wife, Nancy, started GF Umbrella Shop Ltd. Corry helped them at the beginning, after which she became a school teacher. GF Umbrella Shop was on Pender between Richards and Seymour for almost 20 years. In 2001, Glen became ill and Corry became a partner and joined him in the business. They opened the Umbrella Shop on Granville Island in 2003.

“I love umbrellas, they are in my soul,” said Corry Flader. “It was my first job and my last.”

Some people have mistaken Vancouver Umbrella, in Richmond, for the Umbrella Shop, because the two independent businesses share the same roots. Hochfelder, his wife Cheryl and daughter Shawna started up Vancouver Umbrella, and Shawna is the company’s current president. In an interview with the Georgia Straight, she assured customers that their shop is not closing down and that they will continue to make and sell umbrellas.

From humble beginnings, the Umbrella Shop became a Vancouver institution spanning three generations. Flader told the CBC that her decision to close was based on health reasons. Since she made the announcement, she has received countless appreciative letters and visits from journalists. It is an establishment that will be missed.

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.

Volunteering connects

Karen James, board chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. (photo from JFGV)

Volunteers are integral to almost every nonprofit organization, and Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver is no exception. With this year’s annual campaign well underway, the Jewish Independent spoke with Karen James, who became Federation’s new board chair earlier this year.

Jewish Independent: You’ve been involved with various organizations over the years, such as the Jewish Family Service Agency and the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee. With which organizations are you currently volunteering?

Karen James: When I took on the role of chair of Federation, I let go or passed on most of the other things I was doing. I had been on the board of JFSA and chaired for the past year, but have passed that on. I am still representing Vancouver on the Jewish Agency for Israel board of governors meetings but that is the only other thing I am doing. That still connects to Federation, as we support the agency and Vancouver now has a stronger voice with the agency. I still support CJPAC and JFSA in any way I can.

JI: How do you balance volunteering with working? Is it a challenge?

KJ: I am very fortunate to have a business that does not demand too much time of me right now. Mostly, the balance is between volunteering and time for myself and time for a social life.

The board chair is a significant role. There is no question that I would not be able to do much else. There are many different and moving parts to Federation and this role. I couldn’t imagine having a full-time job and doing this. I want to learn and support everything going on in our community but there are limits to my time and energy sometimes.

JI: How and when did you become involved in Federation, and in what capacities to date?

KJ: I first became involved at Federation in 2007 when I came back from a Federation-led mission to Israel. I took on the role of vice-chair for community and sat at the campaign table. After that, I was women’s philanthropy chair, then chair of financial resource development and then, in 2013, chaired the Israel and overseas affairs committee for four years before stepping into the board chair role…. Because of my involvement over the past 10 years, I can see the full picture of what Federation does and what is happening in the community.

JI: What motivated you to take on the role of Federation board chair?

KJ: I like working with people and the move to chair of the board did seem like a natural progression. I also know that Federation is looking at longer-term succession and was looking at me possibly filling the role, so it wasn’t a surprise…. I want to give back. I have the time and energy to give to my community. Community means everything to me. I was disengaged and, when I moved back to Vancouver, I said I wanted to be part of community, that it was missing from my life. We can be there for each other in times of need and in times of celebration and naches.

JI: In what ways have you witnessed Federation evolving with the community and its needs?

KJ: The 2020 Strategic Priorities. As we developed [it], we sought input from a wide cross-section of community stakeholders, partner agencies, etc. – 2020 is a commitment to more flexible funding models and more grassroots.

I have witnessed that we all [are affected by] the affordability issues in our city. We not only need to address this within our community in the city but also in the suburbs of Vancouver, where our Jewish population is moving to. Over half of our community now lives outside of Vancouver. How can we address their needs, because, if we don’t, we run the risk of losing them entirely? We will need to provide services and programs closer to where this population is living.

It’s also expensive being involved in community life in the city. Housing payments, food, transportation, these are all issues that affect our community members. And then, the cost of Jewish day school, synagogue membership, JCC membership. It all adds up. We have to be able to support these families and individuals, too.

JI: What excites you most about this year’s campaign?

KJ: Incentive and the opportunity it represents to grow the base of support. If we’re going to help everyone, we need everyone. Everyone has a role to play. Tzedakah is a mitzvah you have to do yourself.

Sense of urgency: the community is at a turning point. If we can connect people – either by bringing programs and services to where they live or by keeping the programs and services affordable and offering subsidies – then we can keep them connected to community. Otherwise, we’ll lose them. We only have so much time to make a real difference.

JI: What, if any, of the 2020 priority items speak to you personally, or most?

KJ: Food security and affordability, but especially regional communities and reaching out them. I lived in White Rock/South Surrey for almost 30 years and was there when the WRSS JCC got started. There was nothing out there when I was raising my children and it was a long drive into Vancouver. I know how important it is to provide Jewish [options] outside of Vancouver…. The affordability issues are driving them out there, now we have to take care of them.

JI: When you’re talking to people about the campaign, what do you say to them about the benefits of contributing or volunteering?

KJ: I get more than I give. It is rewarding to me and I feel so lucky to be able to volunteer and give of my time and my resources. The rewards for being involved, for giving and helping are the connections to my Jewish family/community.

JI: If there is anything else you’d like to add, please do.

KJ: I know what it feels like to be disconnected from community, and it has been so valuable for me to connect. I barely knew anybody and, by getting involved, I’ve learned what community is all about.

One of the incentives to which Karen James was referring is that annual campaign chair Alex Cristall and his family will donate an additional $250 to the campaign for each gift from a donor who missed last year’s campaign or who is making a first-time gift. For more information on this initiative, the campaign in general and the types of programs and services Federation supports, visit jewishvancouver.com.

Trouble with the census

These are not easy days for print media, so it was with a bit of dark humour that your devoted scribes here at the Independent reacted to the latest tranche of Canadian census information released last week.

According to the census, the number of Jews in Canada fell to 143,665 in 2016 from 309,650 five years earlier – a precipitous decline of more than 50%. Looking on the bright side, we concluded that, by that measure, this newspaper’s circulation had just doubled based on the proportion of Canadian Jews who subscribe. Great news, right?

But the census figures are actually not a laughing matter. Governments at all levels rely on this information to make determinations about spending allocations, policy determinations and all manner of decisions. Likewise, nonprofit organizations, think tanks and academics base their research and outreach on the figures, providing Canadian society, decision-makers and legislators with evidence-based policy recommendations and solutions to tough problems.

The Jewish community in Canada faces a number of challenges, including assimilation, de-affiliation and low birth rates among most denominations. But a decline of 50% in five years does not reflect any or all of these issues. There is a larger structural concern. To have a population decline with such speed is clearly a sign of flawed science, an issue immediately identified by various experts when the numbers were released.

In 2011, during that census, Canadians were asked to identify their ethnicity and “Jewish” was among the 24 examples offered. More than 250 ethnic identities were reported, however, and the examples on the 2016 census form were determined based on the most prevalent responses from 2011. This did not include “Jewish.”

Without “Jewish” as a choice, some scholars and policy analysts suspect that many Jews selected “Canadian” as a response or may have entered their or their ancestors’ countries of origin, for example, “Russian” or “French.”

Calculating the number of Jews in North America has never been an exact science. A century ago, some jurisdictions estimated the number of Jews based on school absenteeism during the High Holidays.

But technology and systems for assembling and analyzing data have improved over time so that estimates of populations and identities should have become easier and more reliable. That said, we cannot expect to arrive at accurate answers if we do not ask the proper questions. No matter how advanced the systems, software or algorithms, bad data will result in bad analysis.

While it makes some sense that Statistics Canada failed to include “Jewish” as an example – given the reasonable explanation that the examples they chose were based on the most common responses from the previous census – the problem raises the issue of how much the prompts given, or the wording of the census questions in general, affect the results. It also raises concerns about the lack of understanding and consensus about Jewish identity. This confusion is not limited to government apparatchiks, but to many Jews ourselves.

Judaism is a religion. Jewish is an ethnic identity. There are Jews who are atheists and do not adhere to Judaism, but this does not negate their Jewish ethnicity. (This is additionally problematic, it should be noted, because identifying Jews – and using proscribed genealogical theorems to do so – has been a tool used to discriminate against us and in the service of genocide.) Even discussing ethnicity is a fraught topic today, with a hearty discussion taking place right now over the inclusion of Jews under the larger “white” umbrella.

If there is one thing we can perhaps agree on it is that ticking boxes on a form, by definition, literally forces people into figurative boxes. This may not raise difficulties if one identifies straightforwardly as, say, “French” and “Roman Catholic” or “Scottish” and “United Church.” It may be easy for an individual who is a religious Jew to identify themselves as Jewish both in religion and ethnicity. But those whose religious identity may not align precisely with their Jewish ethnicity can stare at a census form and choose an identity that does not entirely comport with their reality.

Even the foregoing statements, broad generalizations that they are, should raise some debate over the accuracy of self-definition and the meanings of the term “Jewish.” While we may not have captured everyone’s interpretation of what the term “Jewish” means to them, this is evidence of the larger case: that forcing people with complex identities to tick one box on a form is to force square pegs into round holes. It creates a challenge for Jewish Canadians. And, in a country that prides itself on encouraging self-expression and welcoming diversity, the census problem raises questions that go to the heart of multifaceted identities and Canada’s willingness to recognize them.

Before the next census, in 2021, Jewish Canadians should have a collective discussion that helps us clarify our own relationships with the terms “ethnicity” and “religion,” and then ensure that the government understands that counting populations accurately requires a recognition of the complexities.

Lifelong Jewish relationships

Awhile back, I was talking on the phone to my mom in Virginia. Oh, she said, your dad is busy. He’s out at the cemetery. It turned out that he had taken one of my brothers with him. The two of them used their fix-it skills to mend a broken gravestone. The next time I visited the Jewish cemetery in Alexandria, Va., my dad pointed out the neatly mended marker. The person had died 100 years before. Despite good records, they couldn’t find any surviving family to maintain the gravestone. So, my dad and brother stepped up to the job.

Reading the Torah portion for this Shabbat, Chayei Sarah (Sarah’s Life), Genesis 21:1-25:18, makes me think about this cemetery story. This week’s portion is full of family lifecycle events. Here’s a quick summary from the ReformJudaism.org website:

Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah in order to bury his wife Sarah. (23:1-20)
Abraham sends his servant to find a bride for Isaac. (24:1-9)
Rebekah shows her kindness by offering to draw water for the servant’s camels at the well. (24:15-20)
The servant meets Rebekah’s family and then takes Rebekah to Isaac, who marries her. (24:23-67)
Abraham takes another wife, named Keturah. At the age of 175, Abraham dies, and Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave of Machpelah. (25:1-11)

There is so much in this portion that it’s lucky we reread it every year. The first thing I noticed is how the Hittites, who owned the land around Machpelah, honoured Abraham. They valued him so much that they tried to give him the burial land for free – but Abraham honoured them back, and made an effort to pay for it. This exchange reminded me of how careful we need to be in managing Jewish burial sites. My mom has often had the opportunity to help families who need a cemetery plot and don’t have one. “Real estate” in Jewish cemeteries can be expensive. Sometimes it’s hard to get a spot when there’s an unexpected family death. The bottom line? Nobody comes out of this alive, so let’s help each other when dealing with death.

Next issue: finding the right life partner. Abraham works hard to find Isaac the right wife. Although love matches are usual these days, your family’s opinion is often pretty useful in making such a big choice. Rebekah makes a good impression.

Abraham then remarries. Rashi indicates that Keturah is actually Hagar, although other commentators disagree. In any case, this brings up another issue. Some people vilify Hagar, but here it seems that some believe she and Abraham are actually a likely couple. They go on to have several more children. How does that work? When one marries again and has more children, does parenting differ? Do religious differences work themselves out? How is it that some people outlaw intermarriage, and refuse to incorporate kids from intermarried families, when it was clearly prevalent in the Bible?

When Abraham dies, Ishmael helps Isaac bury him. However, Isaac’s name is mentioned first. Why? Some rabbis indicate this is because Ishmael repented and acknowledged Isaac’s superiority, even though Ishmael is older. Others indicate that, since Sarah was Abraham’s wife, her son should go first, before Hagar’s. While this sort of discussion about whose name is first seems out of date, we need only look at the succession of the British (Commonwealth) monarchy to acknowledge that we still look at birth order with some importance. How has our view of this changed over time?

Also, if Ishmael is the father of Islam, was this an interfaith funeral? Or just two brothers who loved their father?

This week’s portion also relates to Remembrance Day. How do we dal with profound issues of life and death? How do we confront mortality, embrace issues of loyalty and honour, while embracing our family responsibilities to the living? What are our priorities? Why?

As my family walked through that old cemetery in Virginia, we passed familiar names on gravestones. My dad told stories about the different family friends he knew during their lives. My uncle, visiting from Boston, chimed in. The conversation continued. We also celebrated another important milestone in life with my uncle. He and his high school friend Don were celebrating 50 years of friendship this year, too.

Someone recently said that my newspaper columns are about relationships. I’d suggest that the primary relationship I explore here is with Judaism. Many of us associate our religion with other people, in a sort of club or tribe mentality. However, what if we saw it as a tool? Imagine Judaism as a tool that helps us navigate life’s events and how to behave with others.

If so, we can often use a Torah portion as a guide – just as we might do with other kinds of literature or non-fiction – on how to respectfully bury our dead, and maintain meaningful relationships with family members and also in the wider Jewish and non-Jewish communities. We can offer support, as the Hittites did, in a time of grief. We can build new or rekindle relationships, as Abraham did with Keturah.

Sometimes, doing the right thing might mean repairing a gravestone for someone who is long gone. Maintaining long relationships with friends or with communities takes a different kind of work – emotional as well as physical upkeep. Do we put the same amount of effort into our relationship with understanding Judaism as well?

Joanne Seiff writes regularly for CBC Manitoba and is a regular columnist for Winnipeg’s Jewish Post and News. She is the author of the book 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.

Merging psychology, acting

Jed Weiss plays Mr. Gibson in UBC theatre’s production of Wives and Daughters. (photo from UBC theatre)

University of British Columbia’s theatre program has a tradition of presenting historical plays. The current production, Wives and Daughters, based on an 1860s serial novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, was adapted by Jacqueline Firkins and directed by Courtenay Dobbie. It promises to be “a charming romp of love convoluted by hidden desires and expectations.”

One of the actors in Wives and Daughters is Jewish community member Jed Weiss. In his final year at UBC, Weiss will graduate in May 2018 with a dual degree in psychology and acting. A transplant from California, he moved to Vancouver in 2013.

“I first moved here to go to UBC,” he told the Jewish Independent. “And I would definitely like to continue living here for awhile after graduating. I’ll always go back to Northern California to visit, but Vancouver is a second home to me. Part of what made UBC so attractive was the tuition price. I was able to finesse a dual citizenship a month before I applied here, thanks to my awesome mom, who kept her Canadian citizenship after moving to the States.”

Since his arrival, he has been very busy with work and study. Among other activities, he was a radio host for several years. “Between 2013 and 2016, I was hosting my radio show called Crescendo on the UBC radio station CITR 101.9. It went live for one hour every Sunday night. The program played eclectic music, starting with chill and down tempo, and building in intensity through the hour. I also used the time on the show to interview local bands, which was a really fun time. It was a live show, which was later podcasted, and some of the shows are archived on the website. Sadly, during the last couple years, I’ve gotten increasingly busy with acting and music and had to let go of the show, but I still drop by to support the station.”

He also donated his time to the nonprofit organization Generocksity.

“Generocksity is a nonprofit organization that originated at UBC and has since spread internationally,” he explained. “Its purpose is to create philanthropic opportunities, increase philanthropic culture, and throw live events featuring local musicians, with every dollar made from those events benefitting a local charity. A few years back, I worked as a talent coordinator, so I spent time reaching out to Vancouver comedians and musicians to volunteer their time to perform at our events to benefit local charities. At this point, I can only help out when I’m not too busy. I almost feel like Generocksity’s dead-beat stepdad, but I’d encourage everyone to look into them.”

When asked about acting, and what attraction it holds for him, Weiss said, “As an actor, you get to be whoever you want. You get to lose yourself in the escapism while simultaneously chasing this high of complete connection with an audience. It didn’t occur to me as a viable option until my ninth grade drama class and, since then, it’s been step by step. In 10th grade, I had to inform both my wrestling coaches that I was quitting mid-season to join the cast of my high school’s production of Beauty and the Beast, which were two very ‘fun’ conversations. After high school, I began working with the UBC Players Club and other campus productions. Eventually, a close friend of mine pushed me to audition for the UBC BFA program, and the rest is history.”

Weiss enjoys both of his areas of study. “If I can make enough money from acting to feed, house and at least partially clothe myself, I’d be set! That being said, I would honestly feel that something was missing if I didn’t spend some time continuing to study psychology. I wouldn’t even mind Frasier-ing it and landing a radio or podcast psychology advice show that would utilize both of those fields,” he said, referring to the main character’s jobs on the television comedy Frasier, which ran from 1993 to 2004.

Weiss said that psychology is a useful skill for an actor, and that the opposite is also true. “There has been a rise in the implementation of theatre into therapy,” he explained. “There is significant power in using theatre and performance in clinical settings, so it’s great to see theatre being recognized for how therapeutic it can be.”

As for UBC’s current production, Weiss said Wives and Daughters “is based in a small English town in the 1830s, centred on a determined girl, Molly, who is reaching for adulthood. It’s a very period-specific piece, but it does a great job of relating to the universal human experience of family dynamics. Our crew and production team have done a phenomenal job of helping create this universe through the use of costuming, lighting, sound and stagecraft.”

Weiss plays Molly’s father.

“I play Mr. Gibson, the town doctor and Molly’s widowed father,” said Weiss. “I read the novel and also watched the BBC adaption, then researched what medical knowledge was available to doctors in the early Victorian England. You need the research to fuel the technique but you can’t play any of the research during the actual performance. You play the wants of this person filtered through his age and the time period. Mr. Gibson may want to tell someone else to get lost, but with his 1830s gentility, he would word it in the kindest and most astute way possible.”

Weiss is passionate about theatre. He likes everything about it: researching, rehearsing, performing. And, of course, the audience response. “Nothing beats the visceral elation of connecting with an audience,” he said. “A group of people connected to the story you are telling and [the] feedback of connecting with that focus is an incomparable high.”

In addition to all of these pursuits, Weiss is part of a local band, Cheap Flavor. So, what does he want to be?

“I want to be freakin’ everything!” he said. “The hardest part of growing up for me has been acknowledging that I can’t do everything. I’ve been able to trim it down to acting, school and music only, and forcing myself to focus on those areas, but it’s always a work in progress. In the future, I would like to keep up with psychology, acting and music equally, and, when it comes time to let one of those fields go, I’ll have to make peace with that sacrifice.”

Wives and Daughters runs until Nov. 25 at Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC. For tickets and more information, visit theatrefilm.ubc.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Orwell’s vision timeless

Bernard Cuffling as George Bowling in Leslie Mildiner’s adaptation of George Orwell’s Coming Up for Air, at Kay Meek Studio Theatre Nov. 16-25. (photo by Stephen Courtenay)

Award-winning actor Bernard Cuffling portrays George Bowling in Leslie Mildiner’s award-winning adaptation of George Orwell’s Coming Up for Air. Presented by Kay Meek Studio Theatre and One-O-One Productions, the one-man stage play opens Nov. 16.

First published in 1939, Orwell’s novel centres on 45-year-old insurance salesman George Bowling, “who makes an escape from ‘Hilda and the kids’ in London for a few days following a win at the races,” explains the promotional material. “George visits his boyhood village in an attempt to recapture childhood innocence, but finds it changed beyond recognition by the effects of modern life. His feelings of loss are intensified by the threat of war looming on the horizon.”

“Prose is the most intimate of writing – nothing separates the writer from the reader. Plus, there are no physical limitations to the setting, time, etc.,” Mildiner, a member of the Jewish community, told the Independent about the challenges of taking a novel and turning it into play. “Theatre is both a physical medium and collaboration. Physically, the storytelling is constrained by the limits of the performance space, restrictions of real time and the physical limitations of the actor/s in that space. So, the challenge is to take the unbridled narrative possibilities of prose and contain them on stage. Specifically, a stage play can only cover so much of the story unraveling over the length of a novel, so large sections of the narrative have to be edited or tossed aside. But, thankfully, whatever the medium, all stories have a beginning, middle, end – or three acts. What’s lost [are] certain subtleties and nuances of the story. What’s gained: the director (me!), actor and designers get to bring the story to life whatever way we choose.”

Leslie Mildiner (Courtesy of Kay Meek Studio Theatre)

As a teenager, living in Britain, Mildiner published his first novel; he published his second novel when he was 22. In those years, according to his bio, he “was immersed in the British fringe theatre/alternative comedy scene as a writer and performer. On arriving in Vancouver in the early ’80s, he was drawn to the scene here when he was engaged as a comedy performer at Expo 86.” His scripts have been produced by Vancouver companies like Arts Club, Touchstone and the Firehall Arts Centre, and across Canada. He has also written for TV animation shows, including Kid vs. Kat and Class of the Titans.

So, what interested him in adapting a novel and, in particular, Coming Up for Air?

“The main character George Bowling’s struggle to do ‘the right thing,’” said Mildiner. “He’s a bit of an ass – and you probably wouldn’t want to meet him in real life – but he has a solid moral core and struggles against his need to be ‘the messenger,’ the canary in the coal mine. I found this fascinating. Also, it makes him a modern-type anti-hero. Also, because he is flawed, the audience get to see themselves reflected in him when he is forced to make choices.”

The anxieties and tensions described in Coming Up for Air are still relevant, almost 80 years after its publication.

“Coming Up for Air was published in 1939, a couple of years after Orwell’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War, where he witnessed the hope of people’s revolution turn into totalitarianism, with the threat of Hitler and Germany looming,” explained Mildiner. “In 2017, post-9/11, we live in an increasing paranoid world where even in the West, individual rights (seem) to be eroding. Plus, we have an unstable, narcissistic leader of the Free World, daily making attacks against minorities and those with no power, blaming ‘the Other’ for everything that’s wrong. Also, with the [President Donald] Trump insistence that everything in opposition is ‘fake news,’ including his own lies, Orwell’s ‘Newspeak’ has been brought to life.”

That said, added Mildiner, “Despite Trump, international terrorism, racism, corporate mentality and consumerism, I don’t think Orwell predicted the rise of modern humanism – our real desires and efforts to look after each other. For example, the conservation movement, eco-awareness, fight for indigenous rights, children’s rights, [the] LGBT movement.”

But Orwell did foresee many aspects of the future accurately.

“In seemingly incidental ways,” said Mildiner, “Coming Up for Air is prophetic: the main character encounters urbanization (his small village is now a large suburb), box stores – he complains about new chain stores and the advent of fast food joints. ‘Everything is streamlined and sleek – comfort doesn’t matter,’ he complains at one point. People from that era would be appalled at the idea of an eatery posting signs telling you [that] you can only stay for a set period of time!”

Coming Up for Air runs at Kay Meek Studio Theatre in West Vancouver Nov. 16-25. Tickets ($29-$45) can be purchased at kaymeek.com/coming-up-for-air.

Artists open doors for Crawl

Norbert Mantik and Rebekah McGurran of the Hive Printing. (photo from Rebekah McGurran)

The Eastside Culture Crawl is an annual tradition. This year marks the 21st time that artists and craftspeople on Vancouver’s Eastside have opened up their studios to the public in the fall. The Crawl runs Nov. 16-19, and includes more than 500 artists in 80 locations. Among the artists featured are Jewish community members Ideet Sharon-Martin and Rebekah McGurran.

Sharon-Martin hails from Israel. She studied computer animation and, since graduating from the Vancouver Film School in 1998, she has been working as an animator full-time. But, she has always loved art and, in the last couple of years, has resumed painting, as well. Visitors to her studio (204-1000 Parker St.) will be delighted by her mixed media representations of origami birds soaring through various images.

“I find the Eastside Culture Crawl beautiful,” she said in an interview with the Jewish Independent. “The artists are so welcoming and open. Actually, the Eastside Culture Crawl is what brought me back to painting. I started attending it in the last five years, and what began as ‘feel good’ inspiration became this strong need to create with the more traditional mediums than the computer, which is my day job. After three years of attending, I started stalking the art supply shops. At that time, I had a lot of self-judgment; I didn’t think I really had anything to offer to the art industry besides animation. When I finally finished procrastinating and started painting, I was amazed at how exciting and fun it was. I had a feeling that I arrived ‘home.’”

She paints on weeknights and weekends. “Animation and painting are each their own entity,” she said. “During my animation job, I explore and implement acting, physics and body language into the characters I am animating, but I work exclusively on my PC. When I am at my art studio, my inner child comes out and gets messy with the paints and papers and glue. I lose myself in the process and, as a result, find myself.”

The origami birds appeared in her paintings a few months after she picked up the brush again. “The birds symbolize freedom,” she explained. “I woke up one day around that time and realized that I had the freedom to make the choices concerning my life. It was empowering. I began questioning whether I was living the life I wanted or if I was doing what everyone else wanted me to do. The birds have accompanied me on that journey, or personal growth. They ascend, and I imagine myself with them.”

photo - Ideet Sharon-Martin — Ideet Sharon-Martin *(photo from culturecrawl.ca)*

Sharon-Martin’s children inspire her birds, as well as her dreams, but there is also another inspiration, one that seldom appears in artist statements: quantum physics. “I am a quantum physics nerd,” she said. “I read a lot about it. It fascinates me that, at the quantum level, everything is connected. Us, the trees, the animals, the chair I am sitting on – they are all parts of a unified field. I think a lot about the connection between energy and physical form, how each seems to affect the other. It definitely affects my art: energetic and geometric layers and patterns explored on canvas.”

In addition to selling original paintings, Sharon-Martin also sells prints of her paintings. “I’m not the only one,” she said. “Artists do it to bridge the gap between art and people. Many people don’t feel that original art is accessible to them. Perhaps it isn’t affordable. In some cases, the art world is so foreign to them that they are unsure how to approach it. I am so happy that I offered prints last year. I noticed that many people felt more comfortable to flip through the prints rather than look at the originals. My prints led to connections and to many great conversations, which may not have happened otherwise. Last year, a woman who bought a print contacted me a few months later to purchase the original.”

Affordable artwork takes many forms, not just prints to hang on a wall. McGurran and her partner Norbert Mantik sell custom-made T-shirts, towels, bags and other merchandise, all printed with their original designs. Their small artisan studio at 1895 Powell St. is called the Hive Printing.

“This is our third year doing the Crawl,” said McGurran, who was born in Vancouver, but lived in Toronto for a time before returning to live here. “I think it’s an amazing event for both the public and the artists. It gives the public access to spaces and studios they may not otherwise see and a chance to meet artists on their own ground instead of in a craft show setting…. For artists, it is a lower-barrier way to introduce their art to the public than some of the more expensive juried craft fairs.”

McGurran has a degree in urban planning and environmental studies from Toronto’s York University.

“My partner and I moved to Vancouver from Toronto five years ago and decided we wanted to try something different,” she explained. “We looked into a few businesses and loved the idea of going creative. We bought an existing screen printing shop with the idea to do our own line of design. Before we took over, the shop just did custom printing.”

The Hive does both custom printing and original designs. “My partner actually executes the designs, with feedback from me,” said McGurran. “He has a background in industrial and graphic design, as well as a little bit of experience with screen printing, but, for the most part, we both sort of learned screen printing on the fly. It was a lot of research, trial and error, as well as assistance from some local experts in the field. Running a small business is challenging, but I come to work every day with my partner and my dog and I’m never bored.”

According to McGurran, one of the nicest aspects of being a craftsperson is participating in artisan events such as the Crawl.

“I love the Crawl,” she said, “because it means that people come to us and see the process, as well as our space. The studio is in an old bank building, complete with a vault we use as a darkroom. I think people have a much better appreciation for the work we do if they see us in action.”

To learn more, visit culturecrawl.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].