(screenshot of IDF Twitter page via israel21c.org)
Smugglers of drugs and illegal migrants using tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border may want to keep an eye on Israel. The American government, after all, is co-sponsoring the tunnel-detection technology now being developed by Israeli engineers.
Described by the Hebrew media as the underground equivalent of Iron Dome anti-missile defence system, this latest innovation made world headlines upon the announcement that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) uncovered a two-kilometre-long, concrete-lined tunnel on Israel’s Gaza border.
While the Israeli government has been funding its development for five years, few details about the new system have been reported until now. News reports say that up to 100 companies – including Iron Dome’s developers, Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems – are involved in assembling the detection system. Military units, Shin Bet security agency officers, civilian engineering, infrastructure contractors and tunnel construction experts are also credited with helping.
“The search for tunnels is at the top of our priority list … and we will not spare any efforts,” said Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, following the IDF announcement that it found a tunnel extending from southern Gaza into Israeli territory.
The fine details about how the anti-tunnel technology works are still under wraps but, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, dozens of Israeli-developed sensors gather information from the field and transmit it to a control system for analysis using advanced algorithms. The system, says the report, can identify the length of the tunnel and its exact location without false alarms.
“We do whatever we can to find a technological solution,” Maj. Gen. Nitsan Alon, head of the IDF operations directorate, said at a briefing. “Dealing with the phenomenon of tunnels is very complex, and the state of Israel is a world leader in this field. This battle demands from us persistence, creativity, and also responsibility and good judgment.”
According to a report in Defence News, Israel’s Ministry of Defence has invested more than $60 million in anti-tunnel technologies. In February of this year, the Financial Times reported that the United States will provide $120 million over the next three years to help develop complementary technologies.
An Israel Today report says Israel is building a counter-tunnel barrier along its Gaza border that “will also feature a state-of-the-art fence, complete with sensors, observation balloons, see-shoot systems and intelligence gathering measures, as well as an underground wall.”
Israel21Cis a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.
Shapira began piloting JFiix in Israel a couple of years ago and it was launched recently in the United States and Canada with an English version. (screenshot)
In 1996, at a time when not everyone had a home computer, Joe Shapira started a dating website – JDate. Today, very few people in the Jewish community have not heard of it. Since its inception, it has been embraced by Jews around the world.
“When I started in the online dating business, I was one of the pioneers of this business on the internet,” Shapira told the Independent. “And I never anticipated it would become such a big business.
“There were a few other dating sites when I started. I hired the programmer and we launched the very first dating site where you could define your preferences. We started marketing and it took off like a fire.”
Shapira was living in Los Angeles at the time. From a conversation with a friend about the difficulty of meeting other Jews in a place where the majority of people are not Jewish came the idea of JDate. Shapira wanted to help Jews meet other Jews, reduce the rate of intermarriage and help ensure Jewish continuity.
Born in Tel Aviv, Shapira went to a technical high school before serving in the army. After he finished his army service, he became an entrepreneur. Four years later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he stayed for some 30 years before moving back to Israel several years ago to spend more time with his kids.
“I think that people, in general, adapted well to the internet dating world,” said Shapira. “It’s a very highly used internet service. I think, in the Jewish community, the need was there. You live in a certain community and, pretty much by the time you’re 25, your connection – whether it’s your mother, grandmother or through mutual friends – we’re expected to meet a Jewish mate there. It’s ingrained in us. But, sometimes, you just exhaust your ability.
“The internet became more and more [popular and] … the style of work that most people do [changed]. You used to meet more people at work and talk to people on the phone. Now, you don’t even go out to the stores to a certain extent. Instead of telephones, we use email or texting. The lifestyle of people created less interaction with others and the Jewish community had a distinct need.”
Although, technically, Shapira launched JDate in Los Angeles, he was quick to point out that it has always been accessible around the world. In fact, the first marriage through a JDate interaction was in Caracas, Venezuela.
“If you are single and looking and you found JDate somehow, you’re going to tell your friends,” said Shapira. “We Jews are a close-knit community. I loved JDate, because of my concern for Jewish continuity, but I left the company in 2006, before smartphones and Facebook.”
Over the last few years, Shapira has been noticing a gap in communication that computer-based sites are still struggling with – that younger people do all their communication via smartphones, not on laptops or in front of computer screens.
“Millennials use the smartphone more than desktop computers,” said Shapira. “You go to work and you have a desktop computer. You work on your laptop at home. Unless you are in your 20s … then, you use your iPhone for everything.”
Internet dating is “a lifestyle thing,” he said. For someone in their 20s, “online dating is like emailing or texting – very natural. When I started JDate 20 years ago, it was not completely natural. In Israel, it took awhile before it caught on.”
Because Jewish online dating sites were not adapting well to mobile phones, Shapira found that millennial Jews were going to non-Jewish sites and this raised again his concern for Jewish continuity. Hence, he started JFiix.
“If you look at the landscape, you have Tinder on one end of the spectrum and the hookup app,” said Shapira. “And then you have apps like JDate or Match.com that are just a smaller [version] of a website.
“One of the big advantages of having an app is you’re always available. You remember JDate – if you wanted to contact someone, you sent them a message and then it took them two to five days to reply. With a mobile, if a woman contacts you, you decide in seconds.”
Shapira began piloting JFiix in Israel a couple of years ago and it now has about 250,000 users. It was launched only recently in the United States and Canada with an English version.
“We are at the stage of acquiring the user base and marketing,” said Shapira. “I think it will be another four months before [we reach] a critical mass of users.”
Shapira promises to wow users with the app’s complex technology, which includes a matchmaker feature. “The matches we select for you are based on the people that you’ve had good communication or chats with,” he said. “We also do a deep learning of photos you submit, so we know your type. People are usually attracted to the same type.”
With JFiix, no nudity or provocative clothing is allowed. The software monitors what people write in their profiles and analyzes the chats, removing any inappropriate content in a manner that is several notches above the competition.
“The purpose of this is to maintain a very positive community, a positive customer experience,” said Shapira. “We can’t prevent non-Jews from being a part of it, as it would be illegal to discriminate based on religion, just as a synagogue can’t prevent non-Jews from joining. However, we provide certain features, especially for women. For instance, women can define who can see them – age, distance, religion – as, when you register, one of the data collected is if you’re Jewish or not. A woman can say she wants only Jews.”
JFiix communities in Canada, so far, include Toronto and Montreal, with only a few individuals in Vancouver, a community he’d like to see grow to allow JFiix to work best.
“I think we provide a very good solution for millennial Jews,” said Shapira. “With the continuity of the Jewish community so important to the Jewish people, I hope I will be able to make a dent in intermarriage’s growing numbers. I think most Jews want to marry a Jew to continue the tradition. In saying that, I hope to, at the very least, help some Jews find Jewish soulmates.”
Israeli ration cards, which were distributed to all citizens, had to be presented at the neighborhood grocery to which a person was registered. (photo from National Library of Israel)
If Rip Van Winkle – or his Jewish equivalent, Honi the Circle Drawer, a first-century BCE scholar who, according to rabbinic tradition, slept for 70 years – had fallen asleep in Israel of the early 1950s only to awaken today, he would be stunned by the consumerism that has taken over the country. Israel has quite literally gone from a country of tremendous shortages to one of plenty. While one should not overlook that a significant part of the population lives in poverty, as they do in other countries, the availability of products and the ability to purchase has radically changed since early statehood.
Shortly after Israel gained independence in 1948, thousands of destitute Jews from Europe and Africa began arriving. These people needed to be settled quickly, as hostilities continuously loomed on Israel’s borders. The new state had low foreign currency reserves, making it hard to acquire the materials necessary for “firing up industry.” To cope with the dual costs of absorption and defence, the financially strapped Israeli government initiated an austerity plan, referred to in Hebrew as mishtar ha-tzena. As hated as the British Mandate had been, according to Prof. Guy Seidman, the newly independent Israeli government chose an austerity plan remarkably similar to the one the British had run in pre-state Israel and in its other colonies.
The tzena officially lasted from mid-1949 until 1959. Israel’s then-socialist-oriented administration wanted all citizens (new and veteran) to have the same basic necessities, so the government instituted both price control and rationing. It gave ration coupons for food staples, furniture and clothing. The emphasis was on using local produce while building up foreign reserves.
Water, which in many places had been distributed by water trucks during the War of Independence, continued to be rationed. One poster from this period shows how, with a 10-litre water bucket, a person could quench their thirst, bathe, rinse fruits and vegetables, cook, wash dishes, mop floors, launder clothes and flush toilets. In maabarot (transitional housing facilities for new immigrants), water ran from central faucets, but it had to be boiled before drinking. Public showers and washrooms were generally inadequate and often broken.
All citizens had to register with a makolet (local grocer). Israelis shopped at their neighborhood store using their government-issued purchasing cards. Prices for all products were translated into a fixed points system.
The government set an average daily calorie allotment of 2,700-2,800 calories. Children and older people received a higher daily calorie allowance. Here is a sampling of an average person’s daily quantities of rationed dry staples: 360 grams bread, 60 grams corn flour, 60 grams white flour, 17 grams white rice and 58 grams white sugar. Monthly, individuals had this imposed ceiling on proteins: 750 grams meat, 12 grams eggs and 200 grams low-fat cheese. “Fillers” such as potatoes had a monthly limit of 3,500 grams.
To counter the shortages, many started their own small gardens or built chicken coops. During the first year of the program, Lilian Cornfeld’s cookbook Ani Mevashelet (I Am Cooking) appeared to guide people in preparing meals based on the allowed rations. (Born in Montreal, Cornfeld was one of the first Canadian women to move to Palestine, doing so in 1922.) Ironically, the eggplant recipe for making ersatz chopped liver has become a staple Israeli dish at catered affairs, eateries and take-out facilities. Back then, most Israelis did not have refrigerators and ovens – people cooked and even baked complete meals on gas burners using an aluminum pot, a sir peleh, or “wonder pot.”
In the first year of the program, Israelis as a whole agreed with the government’s approach to the emergency. But, by the second year, some citizens were finding it hard to cope with the food lines and the food points. A thriving black market appeared. In response, the government set up a special unit in 1950 to root out the black market. Hundreds of inspectors were enlisted and special courts judged arrested profiteers.
How did people dodge the restrictions? Zeev Galili, who served as Yedioth Ahronoth’s city editor and deputy chief editor, recalled how his father disobeyed the imposed food ban. His father took him to a relative’s Petah Tikva farmstead and they stashed into a suitcase carefully wrapped eggs, tomatoes, olives and carrots, covering everything with clothes. His father warned him not to reveal what was in the case. When they reached Tel Aviv and food inspectors stopped the bus, passengers fearfully descended, everyone tense about being caught red-handed breaking the law. As “luck” would have it, Galili’s father’s suitcase was at the bottom of the pile of bags strapped to the roof and the inspectors did not open his case.
Other children, however, objected to their parents’ illegal dealings. Media personality Yaron London recalled that his mother bought 10 eggs from a black marketeer who mysteriously appeared at their door. Young London threw the eggs into the garbage. For this, he said, his mother “smacked me across the face. Then she covered her face with her hands and wept. After that, she came to her senses and threw her arms around me. I hugged her back. It was a moment of great joy.”
The austerity plan led to public criticism and outright accusations. Avshalom Cohen, for example, composed a satirical song about the black market; the minister of rationing and supply and minister of agriculture, former Canadian Dov Yosef, was frequently vilified.
According to historian Dr. Mordechai Naor, while the Mapai coalition (National Religious, Sephardim and Progressives) supported the plan, both sides of the opposition objected to it. Leftist Mapam felt the plan did not consider laborers’ voices, especially as the government refused to increase workers’ salaries, while rightist General Zionists and Herut claimed the program interfered with both private initiative and the middle class.
Although Yosef felt the time was premature, beginning in 1952, then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion gradually repealed the austerity plan. By 1959, the program had ended.
According to Seidman, the results of Israel’s mishtar ha-tzena paralleled the outcome of the English austerity program: “an initial success in curbing price and demand during wartime, followed by gradual erosion in the policy’s effectiveness and public compliance, futile criminal measures carried out by the police and the court and, finally, the formal dissolution of the legal edifice of the austerity regime.” While not a huge success, the program did manage to provide its growing population with a modicum of food and other basic necessities.
Today’s Israel is vastly different from the Israel of the 1950s. In the 57 years that have passed since the tzena ended, Israel has changed radically, beginning with a seven percent increase in calorie consumption every 10 years. Rabbi Yaakov Litzman, Israel’s current minister of health, recently launched a program encouraging healthy eating and discouraging the intake of high-fat, high-sugar and salt-filled junk food.
On the one hand, Israel now exports goods and services, and has earned an international reputation as a start-up nation. On the other hand, with its open market policy, it has seen the rise of numerous shopping malls that offer imported products. Like other Westerners, Israelis have become big online shoppers.
Nonetheless, many Israelis have been “left behind,” unable to make ends meet. Hopefully, the still-young state will close the gap between the haves and the have-nots and continue to manage its economy well into the 21st century.
Deborah Rubin Fields is an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
Slackliner Heather Larson in action. (photo from Ashernet)
On May 2, slackliner Heather Larson, from Denver, Colo., traveled the 35-metre distance between city walls at the Tower of David. Wearing a harness attached to the line, in case she fell, Larson demonstrated various yoga poses along her way. In Israel to draw attention to the upcoming Israel Festival, which takes place in Jerusalem every June, Larson was also being filmed as part of a promotional campaign for a new Israeli-designed backpack.
אחינועם ניני בוונקובר: כרטיסים בודדים נשארו למופע של יום העצמאות שיערך ביום רביעי הבא
מרבית חברי הקהילה היהודית של אזור מטרו ונקובר עומדים מאחורי החלטת הפדרציה היהודית של אזור ונקובר, להביא את הזמרת הישראלית אחינועם ניני “נועה”, למופע המרכזי של יום העצמאות, שיערך ביום רביעי בשבוע הבא (ה-11 בחודש), בשעה 7.30 בערב. ניני תופיע ביחד עם שותפה המוסיקאלי הקבוע מזה שנים, היוצר והנגן גיל דור.
כאלף ושלוש מאות כרטיסים נמכרו כבר למופע שיערך בצ’אן סנטר פור פרפורמנס ארט שנמצא בקמפוס של האוניברסיטה של בריטיש קולומביה. כארבעים כרטיסים נשארו עדיין למכירה (במחיר של 18 דולר לכרטיס). לכן צפוי שכל הכרטיסים ימכרו למופע של ניני שעורר מחלוקת פוליטית קשה בין תומכים למתנגדים בקהילה היהודית, בדומה למה שקורה בישראל.
כמעט כל הגופים הקשורים בקהילה היהודית הסכימו לתמוך בהופעה של ניני, בהם ארבעה גופים שהעניקו תמיכה כספית: שגרירות ישראל בקנדה, הקונסוליה הישראלית בטורונטו, החברים הקנדיים של האוניברסיטה העברית והעיתון הג’ואיש אינדפנדנט. לעומת זאת השלוחה הקנדית של קרן הקיימת לישראל קיבלה רגליים קרות וביטלה את התמיכה הכספית באירוע של הפדרציה היהודית. לא פחות מחמישים ושלושה גופים העניקו את שמם לאירוע על תקן של “שותפים קהילתיים”, למעט סניף ונקובר של השלוחה הקנדית של מגן דוד אדום בישראל, שביטל את התמיכה.
ניני ידועה בדעותיה השמאליות שמועררות לא פעם תגובות קשות בקרב חוגי הימין בישראל. רק לאחרונה הזמרת הביעה את התנגדותה לעצרת התמיכה בחייל שהרג את המחבל בחברון, שנערכה ב-19 באפריל. התגובות של הישראלים, שמראות יותר מתמיד לאן מועדות פניה של החברה בישראל, לא איחרו להגיע: “לכי לעזאזל. רוצחים אותנו פה כל יום ואת מגינה על מחבלים. יא חתיכת פח אשפה את הולכת לגהינום”. “חתיכת אפס שכמותך. החייל מגן עלי ולצערי גם על אפסים כמוך. ואם לא נאה לך ולשאר הליצנים השמלאנים, תתאסלמו, תתנצרו, אין לכם מה לחפש פה. ארץ ישראל היא של היהודים ולא של אחייך המוסלמים”. “ניני זה נאצית. ימח שמה וזכה של הכלבה”. “מחנכת דור של פלשתינים לרצוח”.
מצב חירום הוכרז באלברטה: פורט מקמורי נראית כמו אזור מלחמה ואין הערכה מתי השריפה תכבה
מצב חירום הוכרז בכל רחבי מחוז אלבטרה לאור השריפה ההרסנית שהביאה לפינוי מוחלט של העיר פורט מקמורי. מצב החירום יאפשר לקבל עזרה גדולה יותר מהממשלה הפדרלית, וכן להיערך בצורה טובה יותר לניהול המשבר הקשה על ידי ממשלת המחוז בראשות הפריימר, רייצל נוטלי. אגב נוטלי הגיעה ביום רביעי לפורט מקמורי וסיירה באזור במהלך כל היום.
כאמור השריפה הענקית שהתחילה ביום ראשון כמספר שריפות קטנות שהתאחדו לשריפה אחת, לאור התחממות מזג האוויר והתרבות רוחות החזקות שנושבות באזור, גרמה לכך שכ-88 אלף מתושבי פורטו מקמורי הפכו להומלסים בין לילה. רבים מהם עדיין תקועים בפקקים ענקיים בכבישים היוצאים מהעיר. אחרים כבר הצליחו להגיע למקלטי חירום מיוחדים שנפתחו לאור המשבר, או לבתים של אזרחים שפתחו את דלתותיהם בפניהם, או לבתים של בני משפחה וקרובים.
בשלב זה אין הערכה מתי יצליחו מאות הכבאים בליווי 32 מטוסים והליקופטרים להשתלט על השריפה, שצפויה להמשיך ולהשתולל עוד מספר ימים. התקווה היחידה נעוצה בתחזית מזוג האוויר שמצביעה כל כך שביום שני הקרוב ירד סוף סוף גשם באזור.
כך או כך נגרם נזק אדיר ברכוש בפורט מקמורי שנראית כמו אזור מלחמה. שכונות שלמות נהרסו כליל, בהם בתים, עסקים, רכבים ותשתיות.
כוח גדול של משטרת ונקובר עצר ביום ראשון בלילה שני חשודים שבידם נמצאו חמישה רובים. השניים נסעו במונית בשכונת ייל טאון ונעצרו על ידי השוטרים בצומת הרחובות הומר ודיווי, לעיני אזרחים נדהמים. כחמש עשרה ניידות הגיעו למקום במהירות וחסמו את המונית. החשודים הוצאו במהירות ללא אלימות והועברו בנפרד לשתי ניידות עצירים והובלו למעצר. נהג המונית הועבר לאחת הניידות ונחקר וכן נחקרה בחורה צעירה שעדיין לא ברור כיצד כי קשורה לפרשה. לפי הערכת אזרחים שנכחו במקום משטרת ונקובר קיבלה מידע מוקדם על החשודים עם הרובים שישבו במונית צהובה שנסעה בייל טאון. זה מסביר את כוח המשטרה גדול שהוזעק למקום והכיל למעלה מעשרים שוטרים, חלקם בלבוש אזרחי.
טרנד חדש/ישן בקנדה: ציבור שלם של מבוגרים החליט שהגיע הזמן להתנתק מרשת האינטרנט לפחות למספר שעות בערבים. וזאת כדי להיפגש עם חברים למשחקי חברה בבתי קפה, ממש כמו בימים של פעם. מתברר שלרבים רבים נמאס כבר מההתחברות האינסופית למחשב ולסלולר, והם מבקשים לחזור קצת אחורה לימים יותר פשוטים וספונטניים בהם היו אנשים נפגשים לשיחות חולין או מתגודדים סביב שולחנות, ומשתתפים במשחקי לוח שונים. בין המשחקי הלוח: מונופול, מחשבת, דמקה, דיפלומטיה, הרמז, פוארטו ריקו, סיכון, שבץ נא, צוללות, קוורטו, שחמט ועוד רבים אחרים.
בעיר קלגרי שבמחוז השכן (אלבטרה) נפתחו כבר לפחות שלושה בתי קפה שמיועדים למי שמעוניין להיפגש עם חבריו למשחקי חברה באוף-ליין, בשעות הערב והלילה. המשחקים מתנהלים בליווי אוכל ושתייה קלה או חריפה שמתפרסמים בתפריטים מיוחדים. בכל בית קפה מוצבת ספרייה עשירה עם עשרות משחקי לוח שונים תוצרת צפון אמריקה או אירופה. תמורת כחמישה דולר האורחים יכולים לשחק במשחקי הלוח כמה זמן שהם רוצים. הצוות של בתי הקפה עוזר למשתתפים למצוא את המשחק המתאים להם ומסביר להם מה הוראותיו, פשוטות כמסובכות. בעלי בתי הקפה מציינים בסיפוק כי לקוחותיהם נראים מחויכים ורגועים לאחר סיימו לשחק ביחד עם חבריהם סביב השולחנות. ובקיצור: משחקי הלוח אין – והאינטרנט אאוט.
דניאל פרירה (31) מטורונטו היה רעב מאוד ונתון להשפעת סמים קשים כך מתברר. אז מה הוא עשה? פשוט מאוד. פרירה חטף אוטובוס ציבורי, שלח מייד את כל הנוסעים החוצה ואילץ את הנהג המפוחד להסיעו הישר לבית קפה. שם פרירה עצר לאכול משהו קל, שתה קפה ולא שכח להתקשר למשטרה ולספר לשוטרים הנדהמים מה שעולל לאוטובוס ולנהג המסכן.”אני נמצא תחת השפעת סמים קשים. חטפתי אוטובוס שנמצא כרגע בחניון של טים הורטונס”, הודה פרירה בשיחת הטלפון שלו עם המשטרה.
בתחנת המשטרה המקומית קיבלו מידע מוקדם שצעיר חטף אוטובוס באיומי סכין חדה בשעות הלילה המאוחרות. הוא אילץ את הנהג לסטות ממסלולו הרגיל ולנהוג מהר מאוד לאחד מסניפי רשת טים הורנטוס. זאת תוך התעלמות מאורות הרמזורים האדומים ושלטי העצור שבדרך. השוטרים שהגיעו במהירות לקפה מצאו בחנייה את האוטובוס והנהג שלו שרעד מפחד. מתברר שהנהג לא נפגע וכן שלום לכל עובדי ולקוחות בית הקפה. כולם נשלחו החוצה עד שפרירה שישב בשקט ושתה קפה נעצר במהירות וללא התנגדות, והובל אחר כבוד למעצר. החוטף הרעב יואשם בחמישה סעיפים פליליים חמורים ובקרוב יעמוד למשפט.
Peter Suedfeld and his mother. Taken at Vajdahunyad Castle, Budapest, Hungary, circa 1939/40. (photo from Peter Suedfeld)
Dr. Peter Suedfeld has devoted his life to the study of how human beings adapt to and cope with challenge, stress and danger. Yet it was many years into his work that he acknowledged his choice of academic pursuit may be related to his personal life history as a survivor of the Holocaust.
Suedfeld, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia, will deliver the keynote address at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre’s community-wide Yom Hashoah commemoration at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on May 4.
Through the years, he has often been asked if his research was influenced by his family’s experience in the Holocaust.
His mother was murdered at Auschwitz; his father survived Mauthausen. Suedfeld was a hidden child in Budapest, living as a Christian in an orphanage run by the International Red Cross.
“My answer always used to be no,” he said, “because my research for a long, long time was fairly straightforward experimental psychology, cognition, perception, memory, things like that.”
But, when he was interviewed for the VHEC’s survivor testimony project, he “put it all together,” he said. “I started to think that maybe there really is a connection, because almost all of my research – not quite all, but most of it – has to do with how people adapt under unusual, extreme, challenging, sometimes traumatic environments and situations.”
His early work focused on sensory deprivation, looking at how removal of external stimuli affects things like cognition, studying astronauts, cosmonauts and people who work in polar research stations.
“I also started looking at people who were under stress because they had to make really important decisions in stressful circumstances, such as political and military leaders,” he said. “I realized that might have had something to do with my own experiences. How do people face unusual, extreme and sometimes dangerous environments – which people who have survived the Holocaust have had to do, including me? But, I want to emphasize that, at the time I was doing this research, I never thought this way. People asked me why I do all these things, and I said something interests me and I do research on it, that’s all, and I have a wide range of interests. But then, I thought maybe this does have something to do with my personal history.”
At the Yom Hashoah event, Suedfeld will reflect on his personal experience, discuss the Holocaust more broadly and then address the issue of the long-term adaptation of survivors of the Holocaust, a topic on which he has conducted a series of studies.
Suedfeld has reviewed the psychological reports written soon after the war about the long-term potential of survivors to survive and thrive.
“In general, what I found is that the early reports of psychologists and psychiatrists about how permanently damaged survivors are were, to put it bluntly, wrong,” he said. “Yes, of course, some people were permanently damaged and some people could never put their life back together again. But there are a lot of people who did put their lives together or build new ones, who were quite resilient and still are, did well in their occupation or in education if they were young when they came here, have family lives that are certainly no less happy than anybody else’s, are proud of their kids and grandkids if they have any, don’t think about the Holocaust all the time, don’t let it ruin their life.”
Many survivors, he said, have some post-traumatic stress, but not post-traumatic stress disorder. “Disorder means it really interferes with normal life,” he said. “And very few have that.”
Reviewing the early literature and knowing what he knows from personal experience and acquaintance with many survivors, Suedfeld is more surprised by the early negative prognoses than by the remarkable resilience of survivors.
“What did surprise me was the negativity of the scientific reports, which overlooked or ignored or never got to see any of the people who were so resilient,” he said. “There is now a substantial and rapidly growing literature showing not only resilience but post-traumatic growth and people’s strength instead of just emphasizing the weakness. And, again, that’s not to deny by any means that there are some people who were so terribly affected that they haven’t recovered, but that is not the norm.”
Suedfeld also cautioned that every experience of survivors is unique.
“We talk about the Shoah as though everybody had pretty much the same experience,” he said. “I want to bring home to people that that is also a mistaken idea, that people experienced very different things, all of which are lumped under the label of Holocaust or Shoah, but that’s an incredibly wide diversity of experiences to which an incredibly wide diversity of people responded in an incredibly wide, diverse way, so you cannot talk about survivors or victims as an undifferentiated lump. They’re not.”
Pat Johnsonis a communications and development consultant to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, as well as a member of the Independent’s editorial board. This article first appeared in the VHEC publication Zachor.
The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth comes to York Theatre April 30 and May 1. (photo from Jason Neulander)
The story takes place in 1933. And, were it not the full-color cartoon panels being projected onto a large screen, you might feel as if you were also back in 1933 while watching the live performance of The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth at York Theatre April 30 and May 1.
Target Earth is the first instalment of a trilogy that follows “Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Molly Sloan and her intrepid research assistant Timmy Mendez,” as they “team up with a mysterious librarian … named Ben Wilcott. Together, they travel from Romania to Scotland to the Alps to Tunis to the Robot Planet and finally to Imperial Zygon to defeat a terrible threat to the very future of humanity: an invading force of sludge-monsters from the planet Zygon!”
The dozens of characters are voiced on stage by three actors. They are joined by a Foley artist, who creates all of the sound effects, and a pianist/organist who provides the music soundtrack. The full-color comic book is projected onto a movie screen. In Vancouver, the actors will be Rachel Landon, Brock England and Jeff Mills, with Kelly Matthews in charge of the sound effects and Harlan Hodges on piano and organ.
The series – comprised of Target Earth, Robot Planet and Twin Infinity – is produced and directed by Jason Neulander.
Neulander grew up in New Jersey and went to college at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he majored in theatre.
“Right out of school, I founded a company called Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Austin, Tex., where we developed and produced new plays. The Intergalactic Nemesis came out of that company, originally as a radio play,” he told the Independent.
“I ran Salvage from 1994 to 2008 and built the company up to a point where it’s now something of a local institution. They’re still going strong without me. In 2008, I decided to focus entirely on The Intergalactic Nemesis and got invited to bring the show to the Long Centre for the Performing Arts [in Austin]. The venue there was 2,400 seats and I felt like that was too big to house my little radio play. So, I came up with the idea of projecting comic book artwork to create a visual spectacle to fill the room. That version of the show premièred in 2010 and we’ve been on the road with it ever since.”
Based on an original idea by Ray Patrick Colgan, the touring show was adapted from the radio drama by Colgan, Neulander, Jessica Reisman, Julia Edwards and Lisa D’Amour. The comic-book artwork for Target Earth is by Tim Doyle with Paul Hanley and Lee Duhig; the sound effects were created by Buzz Moran; and Graham Reynolds was the composer. Others, of course, helped bring the whole production to fruition.
For his part, Neulander said his biggest inspiration for The Intergalactic Nemesis was his kids. “I wanted to make something that I could enjoy with them,” he said. “That’s actually worked out pretty well! Artistically, this show is all about pushing my own inner-kid buttons. I was 7 when Star Wars came out (the first one) and 12 when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out and I love that kind of storytelling.
“One of my favorite memories as a kid was watching the old Flash Gordon serials and the old Ray Harryhausen movies on TV with my dad on Saturday mornings. When I was a little older, I got really into golden-age sci-fi short fiction, like Bradbury and Asimov and those guys. When I was a young adult, I discovered golden-age Hollywood movies for myself – His Girl Friday hugely influenced our script. I kind of backed into both radio drama and comic books, so maybe those are actually a little less influential on the show than those other things.”
While there is no overt Jewish aspect to the story, Neulander said his sense of Jewish heritage played a role in its creation.
“This show is all about the heroes defeating the bad guys more through smarts than through violence,” he explained. “The main male character is a librarian, so I feel like there’s got to be some Talmud in there somewhere. But, more than that, I think my upbringing taught me that if you work hard, you can succeed against all odds. I’m not sure if that’s solely a Jewish thing, but it’s definitely what the story of this show is all about.”
And Target Earth won’t just take you to another time, but place.
“It’s so much fun!” said Neulander. “It’s like getting to watch an animated movie and seeing how they do it all at the same time. The visual images are just beautiful to look at and then you have three voice actors playing so many characters, often in the same scene, you have one person using all these unusual objects to make sounds you never thought they could make (my favorite is a trail from a box of mac and cheese), and the music just soars. You really do get taken to another world.”
While Neulander is taking a creative break from the Intergalactic world – “I’m just wrapping up a script for a thriller, which will be my film directing debut” – the series’ shows keep touring. This summer, said Neulander, “we are taking Twin Infinity to the fringe festival in Edinburgh in what we think will be a very splashy U.K. première.”
But first, Target Earth and target Vancouver.
“We’ve been itching to get to Vancouver for a few years now,” said Neulander. “I think that your city really is one of the ideal places for this show. I just think audiences are going to eat it up! Can’t wait to get there!”
Shows are April 30, 4 and 7 p.m., and May 1, 2 p.m. Tickets start at $25 from tickets.thecultch.com or 604-251-1363.
Irwin Cotler told those at the launch of the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy’s Pursuing Justice Project on March 31 that his current focus is the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal. (photo by Dave Gordon)
Irwin Cotler was honored on March 31 for his dedication to human rights activism. Attendees at the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy event learned how Jewish values drove, and intersected, with Cotler’s career in pursuing justice.
“My father used to say to me: the pursuit of justice is equal to all the commandments combined. This is what you must teach to your children,” said Cotler.
The gala at Toronto’s Omni King Edward Hotel served to launch the Pearson Centre’s Pursuing Justice Project, “which is focused on increasing the understanding of Canadians about justice, diversity and inclusion.” The centre describes itself as a centrist think tank, addressing policy issues related to justice, health and social services, with the goal “to engage Canadians in an active dialogue about a progressive future for Canada.”
Among the speakers offering introductory remarks at the launch were former prime ministers John Turner and, via video, Paul Martin.
“John Turner had the temerity to give me my first job out of law school,” Cotler shared.
In addition to serving as Liberal member of Parliament for Mount Royal in Montreal from 1999 to 2015, Cotler also served as federal minister of justice and attorney general during his career.
In a discussion with Indira Naidoo-Harris, Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly for Halton, Ont., Cotler spoke about a 10-year-old idea that never bore fruit, wherein justice ministers from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Egypt all agreed to convene with Canada’s justice minister, in Canada, to foster dialogue. A “justice summit” he dubbed it, “which I hoped would have a peace dividend.”
He would like the Trudeau government to revive the concept, because “educating each other in the culture of peace is important,” Cotler told the Independent. Palestinian incitement, in contrast, “is a threat to peace in the Middle East, threatens Palestinians’ right to self-determination … and glorifies terrorism.”
As an international human rights lawyer, Cotler served as counsel to many high-profile political prisoners, including South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Israel’s Natan Sharansky, who was released from a decade in the Soviet gulag 30 years ago February, and became a member of the Knesset and an author.
Both former prisoners were beacons of “hope and the vision and the inspiration,” with respect to “two of the great human rights struggles of the second half of the 20th century,” Cotler remarked.
The release of political prisoners, he added, is “such an overriding commandment that you’re allowed to breach the Sabbath” to free them.
Cotler’s current undertaking is growing the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal, which he founded. Among its many objectives, he told the Independent, are “promoting human dignity, combating racism, hatred and antisemitism, and defending political prisoners.”
Dave Gordonis a Toronto-based freelance writer and the managing editor of landmarkreport.com.
Left to right: Dana Chappellaz, Susan Weidman Schneider and Yelena Maleyev. (photo by Shayla Fink)
The first-ever Winnipeg Jewish Women’s Symposium was held at Rady Jewish Community Centre on April 9 and 10, bringing together women of all ages to explore the different ways in which women can make a difference in the Jewish and general communities.
The event was the inspiration of Rady JCC executive director Gayle Waxman and assistant executive director Tamar Barr.
“Gayle and Tamar approached me to co-chair the symposium on behalf of Rady in the fall of 2015, and it’s been a flurry of activity ever since,” said Lindsay Sawyer, a financial planner and a Rady JCC volunteer, who co-chaired the event with Yelena Maleyev, a product manager at Manitoba Telecom Service and a leader in National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) in Winnipeg.
“We’ve taken great care to ensure that our speakers cover a wide range of topics to appeal to women of all ages in our community – from new volunteers to seasoned community leaders,” she said.
According to Sawyer, although women are talented, dynamic and committed people, they are still too often underrepresented at the board level of the Jewish community – something she and others involved in the symposium are setting out to change.
“If we don’t invite ourselves to shape the direction of the community we live in, we’ll wind up missing too many valuable voices at the table,” said Sawyer. “Our hope is to engage and inspire talented woman of all ages who, due to lack of opportunity, direction or support, may not yet be having their voices heard, while also celebrating the achievements of those who are playing key roles in their organizations.
“We are elated to have had Susan Weidman Schneider join us this year as our keynote speaker. Susan, an expat Winnipegger, is the founder and editor-in-chief of Lilith magazine, an award-winning Jewish women’s quarterly. It was our privilege to celebrate such an accomplished and dynamic talent and to be able to claim Susan as one of our own.”
Maleyev, who is Winnipeg NCJW’s treasurer as well as the creator of its young women professionals branch, also wants more women to get involved.
“We have seen successful events, such as SHE Day, grow over the years, and agreed that we should provide a similar opportunity for women in our community, but approach it from a Jewish perspective,” said Maleyev. “We aim to empower and educate the younger generation, while ensuring all women are involved and encouraged to remain involved. We want to match the energy of the younger generation with the experiences of those who have been in leadership roles for awhile now. Like Sheryl Sandberg mentions in her book Lean In – the more women help one another, the more we help ourselves. Acting like a coalition truly does produce results.
“We want to encourage the power of mentorship and how sharing our experiences at any age can help uplift one another,” she continued. “Women make up over half of the population and yet not even close to half the leadership roles in management or on boards. We need equal representation to ensure our voices are heard. We need mentors, sponsors, role models and supporters to help us achieve our professional goals, as well as balance in our personal lives.”
The symposium kicked off with Havdalah and a performing arts showcase on April 9 and, on April 10, the learning sessions took place. About 150 women attended.
“The performing arts showcase was absolutely exceptional,” said Sawyer. “It was honestly just an absolutely incredible experience to hear the stories of so many very talented and passionate women … about the importance of community and making sure our voices are heard. I left on Sunday with such incredible enthusiasm for both where our community is and where we’ll be going with the next generation of leadership coming into contributing volunteer positions.
“Certainly, at the top of my list, was one of the opening panels, with Dianne Glass, Debbie Hoffman, Laurel Malkin and Baillie Chisick. Their views of being a voice at the table and women in community leadership was so inspiring and uplifting.”
Sawyer also lauded Weidman Schneider’s keynote address about where women have come from and where they still need to make inroads.
“It’s my hope that this event will continue and that we can continue to reach out to our community and inspire others to join us in continuing to make our Winnipeg Jewish community a special and welcoming place,” said Sawyer.
Maleyev, who found the symposium “phenomenal,” said, “The panelists were all incredibly inspiring. They shared many personal and professional stories, and provided varied opinions and experiences…. Susan brought such good perspectives on the topic of feminism and urged us to be allies in our feminist journey. As well, attendees received many opportunities to mingle and network, and meet new people in the community.”
Maleyev is hopeful that, with support from women mentors, more young women will see that there is room for them to grow their skills and get involved with whatever organizations align with their values.
“Our very sincere thanks to the leadership of Gayle Waxman, Tamar Barr, Cindy Lazar [NCJW] and all our tremendously talented and dedicated volunteers in bringing this event to fruition,” said Sawyer.