On March 9, community members gathered to bury sacred Jewish texts at Beth Israel Cemetery. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay) According to Jewish law, no sacred texts and objects are allowed to be thrown out. This includes anything with God’s name…
Pat Johnson, founder of Upstanders Canada. (photo from Upstanders Canada) Pat Johnson, the founder of Upstanders Canada, addressed the importance of standing up to antisemitism during a March 5 Zoom lecture organized by Kolot Mayim Reform Temple in Victoria. Upstanders…
The Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation announces David Zacks, KC, as chair of the 2023/24 The Brier, Their Home campaign. Born and raised in Vancouver, Zacks has been an active member of the Jewish community for more than five decades.…
Creating an endowment fund with the Jewish Community Foundation is not solely an enterprise taken on by high-net-worth individuals and families. (screenshot) Established in 1989, the Jewish Community Foundation now has more than 350 endowment funds and $85 million in…
Jacob Balshin (photo by Emily Cooper) Just For Laughs Vancouver and CBC have announced that original series The New Wave of Standup is returning for Season 3 beginning March 24 on the free CBC Gem streaming service. The third season…
Next month marks the centenary of the birth of a psychiatrist whose work on antisemitism deserves a fresh reading. Theodore Isaac Rubin was born 100 years ago April 11. He died at 95, in February 2019. His 1990 book Anti-Semitism,…
Israeli journalist Yair Cherki (photo from Facebook) Bravo Yair Cherki, the popular, ultra-Orthodox TV news reporter. He recently came out as gay in a wonderful social media post. In part, he said: “I write these words shaking, postponing to tomorrow.…
Hüttenbach in Medan in 1880s. (photo from KITLV Album Or. 27.377) Jewish communities in Indonesia have always been tiny, though their history is long. Jewish merchants are recorded in Sumatra as early as the 10th century, and diasporic and Israeli…
For the this year, Steveston, B.C., artist Merle Linde, chose to create a Haggadah cover that would look old and hand drawn. To achieve this authentic feeling, Linde used Taiwan linen paper, traditional Chinese watercolour paints and brushes. The calligraphy letters…
Beverley Kort is a registered psychologist by day and a cartoonist in her off hours; she has a private practice in Vancouver. Leland Bjerg is a freelance comic writer, editor and letterer; he lives in Kelowna with his wife and…
There are as many ways of celebrating Passover and the Pesach seder as there are Jews, and then some. Over the years, I have collected articles on different customs from around the world. Here are just some of the traditions…
Leftover chicken can be used for more than matzah ball soup. (photo from flickr / Edsel Little) There is a tradition of having chicken for the seder meal, as well as for dinners on other Pesach evenings. Here are some…
למרות המשבר החמור מאוד בישראל והפגנות גדולות במדינה נגד הרפורמה המשפטית של הממשלה, שנמשכות כבר למעלה מחודשיים, בקהילה היהודית בוונקובר עומדים מהצד ולא נוקטים בצעדים מעשיים. מדי שבוע בימי ראשון נערכת הפגנת הזדהות של יהודים בוונקובר עם המאבק של מתנגדי…
Lihi Shmuely of Israel Hofsheet and Ben Murane of the New Israel Fund of Canada. (photos from the organizations) Binyamin Netanyahu is the longest-serving Israeli prime minister and should be a known quantity. The government he leads now, however, is…
“Nostalgia” by Lovena Galyide (photo by Olga Livshin) Community Longing and Belonging, the fifth annual exhibition in celebration of Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, is now on at the Zack Gallery. Curated by Leamore Cohen, coordinator of Jewish Community…
If a member of your family were in crisis, would you abandon them? Even if the crisis were partly self-inflicted, of course you would stand by them. In a metaphorical way, this is the issue facing Diaspora Jews in considering…
B’nai Brith Canada has returned to Vancouver. This time with a local office headed by Aron Csaplaros, who was born and raised in Vancouver. B’nai Brith and its now-defunct newspaper the Jewish Tribune last made their presence felt here in…
Attendees at UBC Hillel House’s Rosh Hashanah dinner to start the 2022/23 school year. (photo from Hillel BC) Hillel BC celebrates its 75th year with a celebration March 30 at the University of British Columbia Hillel House. Hillel BC was…
The Metro Vancouver Jewish community continues to struggle with housing insecurity. There is an urgent need for affordable, safe and stable homes, with more than 300 applicants on the Jewish Housing Registry’s growing waitlist. Of those, 71 are families with…
Alegría screens at the Rothstein Theatre March 19, and online March 19-26. (photo from vjff.org) You can pick your friends, the old saying goes, but you can’t pick your family. For Alegría, a prerequisite of adulthood is distancing from relatives…
In March ’68, the shocking events of the Polish political and social crisis of that time are dramatized through the eyes of two families. Hania, a young woman who is Jewish, is in love with Janek, a boy whose father…
(photo by Matt Reznek – Reznek Creative) Excavation Theatre presents What a Young Wife Ought to Know by Jewish-Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, at Performance Works on Granville Island March 24-April 1. It’s Ottawa in the 1920s, pre-legalized birth control. Sophie…
People are living longer and, ideally, they’d be living longer at home. Pragmatically, this means that they and their primary caretaker(s) would need support not just for medical care, but for errands and companionship, as well. Enter Rona Goodman and…
Sasha Kaye (photo from B’nai Mitz-Van) Sasha Kaye recently launched B’nai Mitz-Van, a tutoring service that prepares b’nai mitzvah students for their Torah and Haftarah readings. She also offers basic voice training, performance anxiety management and d’var Torah writing support. Kaye…
Millions of dollars have been lost through the schemes of fraudsters who take advantage of trusting, isolated and vulnerable senior citizens, said guest speaker Patrick Harkness at the latest Jewish Seniors Alliance – Phyliss and Irving Snider Foundation Empowerment Series…
Prof. Dr. Morton Weinfeld was the latest speaker in Kolot Mayim’s 2022/23 series. (photo from Twitter) On Feb. 5, Morton Weinfeld, a professor of sociology at McGill University in Montreal, presented the talk The Jewish Glass Is Half Full, as…
The Vancouver action group UnXeptable has been rallying on Sundays, at noon, at Robson Square, as part of an international grassroots movement to save Israeli democracy. (photo from Daphna Kedem) We are a group of Israelis and Canadian Jews watching…
Protesters in Rishon Le-Tzion Demonstrating against judicial reform February 25, 2023. (photo by Hayden) It was a valuable experience to attend a protest rally in Rishon Le-Tzion. Several hundred people gathered in a city square to express concerns about the…
In Tel Aviv on Jan. 28, Israelis demonstrate against their government’s judicial reform proposals. A majority of Canadian Jews also oppose the proposals. (photo by Oren Rozen) A new poll shows that most Canadian Jews oppose policies favoured by the…
