Sussita entrepreneur Itzhak Shubinsky driving a Sabra Sport car, from the newspaper Barkav, in the 1960s. (photo from Haifa City Museum)
For a trip down memory lane, cruise over to Haifa’s City Museum at 11 Ben-Gurion Blvd., in the German Colony, to see Sussita: The Exhibition. The display, which continues until May 25 (the opening was delayed by Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon), documents Israel’s failed automobile industry during the early decades of statehood.
Alas, the doorways of the museum’s 19th-century Templar building are too narrow to permit restored examples of the fibreglass shell cars to pass through. So, on hand is a stripped-down version of a Sussita, and a trove of fascinating documents and photos. Missing are full-size examples of the Carmel truck and Sabra Sport roadster that Autocars Co. Ltd. assembled at its Haifa workshop and then in the city of Tirat Carmel.
The exhibit was curated by Yifat Ashkenazi, together with filmmaker Avi Weissblei. The latter produced the 2020 documentary Desert Tested, which told the Sussita’s story.
Like Shai Agassi’s Better Place electric car company, which went through almost $1 billion in venture capital before declaring bankruptcy in 2013, Israel’s ultimately insolvent auto industry never thrived.
A Sussita Autocars Co. Ltd. advertisement in the 1960s, featuring its “5 Road Champions!” (photo from Haifa City Museum)
The Sabra’s aerodynamic curves evoke the glamour of early James Bond films. Nonetheless, even though they were jump-started by foreign firms, Haifa’s car business never quite managed to compete with Detroit.
Discussing Autocars’ 1966 Sussita at carsurvey.org, one classic car aficionado noted: “What things have gone wrong with the car?
Almost everything! It was a very cheap car made of a fibreglass body attached to a very simple welded pipes chassis, with a Triumph engine. The car was unstable, seriously dangerous, unreliable and very badly built.”
Folklore has it that camels liked to munch on the cars’ fibreglass body. But the relative paucity of dromedaries in 1960s Israel makes the truth of this story doubtful.
Founded in the mid-1950s with assistance from Britain’s ReliantMotor Co., Autocars initially assembled quirky but popular three-wheeled micro-cars. The first four-wheeled blue-and-white vehicle, the Sussita, was also designed by Reliant.
The Sussita, meaning mare in Aramaic, developed a reputation as a reliable workhorse. By 1960, Autocars was exporting the cheaply priced car – available in estate, van and pick-up models – to the United States and Canada. Rebranded as the Sabra – a genus of cactus originally from Mexico that had become a descriptor of native-born Israelis – the car sold poorly in North America due to its inferior quality.
That year, in 1960, Autocars’ owner Itzhak Shubinsky spotted the coupé Ashley GT at London’s Sports and Racing Car Show. Changing business strategy, he purchased the bodywork moulds and created the Sabra Sport, which made its debut at the 1961 New York Motor Show. The roadster car was also sold as a hardtop coupe. Fewer than 150 were exported to the United States, while a similar number were sold in Belgium.
Reliant also launched the car in Britain. Anglicizing its moniker to Sabre, the prickly cactus morphed into a swashbuckling sword.
Advertising for the Sussita: “You bought Sussita, you were not wrong.” (photo from Haifa City Museum)
Expanding production, in 1961, Autocars introduced the Carmel, named for the mountain that defines Haifa. The car featured a 1,200cc Ford Cortina engine mounted in a Reliant chassis.
By 1965, Autocars declared bankruptcy and was taken over by Britain’s Leyland-Triumph. Revamping the product line, the following year it introduced the Gilboa, a four-door version of the Carmel. In 1967, it produced an off-road, front-wheel drive utility called the Dragoon.
But the red ink continued to spill. In 1971, Leyland severed its ties with its Israeli subsidiary. Three years later, Autocars was bought by Rom Carmel Industries, which brought out its Gilboa-based Rom 1300.
Sputtering along, in 1978, the company was purchased by the Netanya-based foundry Urdan Industries. Restyled again, the Rom 1300 became the Rom 1301. But declining sales could not be reversed, going from a peak of manufacturing more than 3,000 cars annually during the 1960s to just 540 cars rolling off the assembly line in 1980, the last full year of production. In 1981, the plant shut its gates.
For more about the exhibit, visit hcm.org.il/eng/exhibitions/11128/sussita.
I am human. I share many elements of my nature with other beings on this planet. I laugh, I cry, I aspire to things, hope for things, wish for things, work for things. No different than it is for others, I am the amalgam of what I brought into this world interacting with all the stuff that has been incorporated into me through all the years since I got here.
We don’t get through life without having things stirring around inside our heads. In my head, there have always been issues struggling to get out. I long to express them, if only to myself. Gabby to a fault, I have no trouble vomiting it all out.
But getting it right inside my head before I spit it out is the wise thing to do. I must understand what it is that’s itching, burning, stuck in my craw, before I bring it into the light of day. This process can take some time, even years, even a lifetime.
Part of the issue for me is that I am driven to share my thoughts with others. I have illusions of grandeur. I really believe it matters if my ideas are shared. I believe the ideas can change people’s lives, as they have changed mine. Ultimately, though, it is up to others to make that judgment.
We have the daily issues that are urgent, demanding our focused attention in the now. These things come back to the surface when we have the luxury of time for contemplation. Are we on the right track? The decisions we are making about our careers, our partners, our children – are they the right ones for the people concerned? Such questions rise to the surface like a bad penny. We mostly shove them away again and again, not prepared to confront them. Sometimes, they are just too challenging, disturbing the bases on which we live.
If we are fortunate, we get to enjoy our share of the wonderful things in life that give us pleasure. Something as mundane as a good meal, or even a crust of bread when we are very hungry, a glass of cold, clear water when we are very thirsty. How about realizing the achievement of a goal that we have dreamed of for a long time? How about when something that is very painful stops hurting? Isn’t that a joy and a relief?
Holding a newborn in your arms, sensing the potential of new life, how about that? How about when you feel communion with another creature, human or animal, that takes you out of yourself to a union with them? That can alleviate, at least for a while, the essential loneliness that is our fate as human beings.
So, with all the pleasures and pain we are heir to, with all the wonders and horrors arrayed before our eyes and flooding into our minds, is our function only existential, is that why we are here, simply to live? Can we find some comfort and purpose in the belief in a deity that has concern for us personally? Or are we simply another life form improbably trial-and-errored successfully on this one planet out of countless more in the cosmos. The mind reels with the possibilities if we abandon our human-centred hypothesis of a caring life-force paying attention to our minuscule spot in our galaxy.
I had such simple goals when I was younger. I was going to sacrifice myself to achieve something much larger, greater, than myself. Martyrdom was my method, blood and sweat cast upon the dry soil, watering it so that flowers would bloom. So many die for no purpose. My sacrifice would have a purpose, I thought. Wasn’t that a worthy price to pay for the gift of life? Thankfully, I grew up!
Still, surely life must have a purpose beyond just breathing in and out, shouldn’t it? Is it just to be a matter of surviving? Should it be? Don’t we have a responsibility to do something about improving the world around us? These were the thoughts in my head as a young man. So many other men and women have left something behind – invention, industry, music, art, literature, leadership. We read about them. Surely, we ourselves can make a mark upon the wall of time like they did, can’t we?
I went off, like Don Quixote, to do battle, trying to subdue all the windmills I came across for the betterment of my fellow man, and to make my mark, of course. I am looking back now, very much closer to the end of my journey than to my beginning. It is not too soon to assess the results of my crusade. I did all the ordinary things, worked at several jobs I believe contained value, got married, had children. All of these were important in their way. But have they built an immortal edifice to my passage on this earth?
I face my life partner and my children and tell them that my aspirations were elsewhere and essentially were for naught. How much of the attention that I owed to them was spent on pursuing my ego-driven drive to find the building blocks of the Giza-like edifice I was determined to construct? And how ironic! My only long-term claims to fame and immortality reside in the lives I was privileged to be a part of. All my vaunted achievements with which I had consoled myself, labeling them as being worthy of merit, have vanished like dust scattered by the wind.
I retain my nostalgia for those breathless instants at the barricades. I am one of the lucky ones. I believe I have left something worthwhile behind.
Max Roytenbergis a Vancouver-based poet, writer and blogger. His book Hero in My Own Eyes: Tripping a Life Fantastic is available from Amazon and other online booksellers.
Light projections on the internal walls of the Tower of David, in Jerusalem, part of the Night Spectacular. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Tourism to Israel plummeted after Oct. 7, 2023. For example, January 2024 saw an 80% drop in visitors from a year previous. Those who did travel to Israel were often on solidarity missions or volunteer programs.
In March, I visited for 10 days, speaking with scores of Israelis about the situation, their grief, determination and changed attitudes, among other things. During that period, there was not a single siren in central Israel, though, days after my departure, the ceasefire ended and war in earnest began again.
It may seem frivolous or disrespectful to speak of “tourism” or “sightseeing” in moments such as these. The example of Israelis, however, is, as ever, resilience and getting on with it. Museums are open and, no matter what brings you to Israel, making time for recreation is necessary and, in many cases, adds depth to the understanding of what is happening now. A few of my destinations and choices are a bit odd – not what every visitor might choose – but others, like the Tower of David, should be on your must-see list.
Story of Jerusalem
The Tower of David Museum tells the story of Jerusalem. With a multimillion-dollar investment in new technologies upgrading the experience, the centrality of the city of Jerusalem in multiple traditions is underscored by the imagery of the city as the “navel of the world.”
From 5,000-year-old idols and 3,000-year-old stamps indicating a thriving bureaucracy, to Theodor Herzl and the modern state, the museum tells the story of a place with more history than geography.
A not-to-be-missed component is the immersive, after-dark sound and light show called the Night Spectacular. Perhaps less informative than just, well, spectacular, the 40-minute program projects the epochs of the city’s history (that is, its litany of invasions) onto the interior walls of the imposing citadel. Combo tickets to the museum, permitting evening entry for the show, are available. The effect is all-immersing, more powerful and moving than I could have anticipated. It will captivate visitors of every age.
History of Jewish militias
Like the Haganah Museum in Tel Aviv (see below), the Museum of the Underground Prisoners Jerusalem takes a politically ecumenical approach to the history of Jewish militias fighting the British in pre-state Israel.
Located in the former British Mandate-era jail, the museum tells the story of resistance fighters from the Haganah, the main defence force of the pre-state Jewish community, the Revisionist Irgun (Etzel) and the more radical Lehi (“Stern Gang”).
Jewish prisoners were captured and punished for sabotage against the British, including the smuggling of Holocaust survivors and others into Palestine. Some of the prisoners were executed in the prison yard and these lives are commemorated movingly.
Holocaust remembrance
Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre is always a moving pilgrimage. The primary exhibit space – an A-frame hall with windows at the peak, reminding us that the events took place in full view of the world (and, arguably, God) – provides a chronological history of the Shoah. The slash across the top of the Moshe Safdie-designed building also represents the permanent scar this history has left on humankind.
Like the Tower of David, Yad Vashem has had a huge infusion of money to update the exhibits and add high-tech components.
The eternal flame, at Yad Vashem. (photo by Pat Johnson)
A simple, but crucial, aspect of the exhibit is at the start, after visitors traverse the “bridge to a vanished world,” and a short film loops the story of the pre-Shoah Jewish civilization that was destroyed. This contextualizing of what was lost is an irreplaceable part of the experience.
The permanent exhibit, including the emotional Hall of Names, is what the public most often sees and it provides the history of the Holocaust for people of all levels of knowledge. The vast work of the centre remains mostly out of sight, with archives, research, recording and publication being a less visible but no less important component of Yad Vashem’s mandate.
Har Herzl Pathway
For a British Columbian, it is hard to fathom what Israelis call “mountains.” The Mount of Remembrance (home to Yad Vashem) and Mount Herzl (or Har Herzl) are hardly recognizable as distinct geographic places, let alone mountains.
Monument to Israeli victims of terror, part of the many cemeteries on Mount Herzl, final resting place of soldiers, leaders and the fallen. (photo by Pat Johnson)
In any event, from Yad Vashem, it is a relatively short walk to the Herzl Museum, which is adjacent to the grave in which the founder of political Zionism was reinterred in 1949 from his original resting place in Vienna.
Between these two destinations are the resting places of most of Israel’s leaders, as well as cemetery after cemetery filled with soldiers and civilians killed in Israel’s successive wars and terror attacks.
It was only by happenstance – well, if you are arriving by foot, you can’t miss it, but those arriving by vehicle might – that I discovered a memorial walking path between Yad Vashem and the Herzl Museum, snaking through these sad, chronological rows of graves.
The trail, as a distinct entity, is a bit of a mystery. A post-trip web search indicates there is seemingly not even an agreed-upon name for the path. The information at the entryway says that it was developed by Jewish youth movements but the specific groups go unnamed. The signage is likewise a bit perplexing, without always clear directions or explanations. The larger message, though, does not require plinths: Israel and thousands of Israeli families have paid an enormous price for the country’s existence.
Learning about Herzl
Having meandered through the sombre cemeteries of Israel’s war dead and the resting places of most of the country’s prime ministers, presidents and other historical greats, you arrive at the imposing grave of Theodor Herzl. Nearby, the museum bearing his name tells the story of the man with the crazy dream of a Jewish state.
Replica of Theodor Herzl’s office, including his original desk and other artifacts, at the Herzl Museum, Jerusalem. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Museum-goers are given a guided tour from room to room, following a cheesy video of a pair of dramatic impresarios didactically directing an actor preparing for the role of Herzl but who has no idea who the man was. The actor (and, not at all subtly, the visitor) is educated on the Dreyfus Affair, which was the polarizing moment when the secular, assimilated Herzl concluded the Jews would never be free without a state of their own. The displays take visitors through his activism, and we eventually join delegates at the First Zionist Congress.
The museum includes the re-creation of Herzl’s home office and many important relics of his life.
Connecting past, present
Gush Katif Museum is an unexpected little museum in Jerusalem’s Nachlaot neighbourhood, which tells the story of the 17 Jewish settlements that were evacuated during the “disengagement plan” from Gaza in 2005.
The Israeli government withdrew from Gaza two decades ago in hopes of allowing a sort of pilot project in Palestinian self-government. In the process, and amid (yet another) emotional national dialogue, Jewish settlements in the enclave were evacuated.
With a decidedly political agenda, the museum finds relevance today, as many Israelis look at the situation in Gaza and, with 20/20 hindsight (or something like it), question every decision that may have led to today’s realities.
In an interesting thought experiment, a Jewish resident evacuated from Gaza, speaking in the museum’s introductory film, inverts the common perception of Jewish settlements in the area. Rather than the probably prevailing view of Jewish settlements as an imposition on Palestinian land, he makes the case that Israel gave 90% of Gaza to the Arabs and some still wanted to erase the Jewish presence entirely. (Ignoring the ideological point and contesting the details, Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip took up something around 20% of the land in the small area.) It’s a perspective that challenges the idea that, even absent a negotiated two-state solution, the Palestinians deserve 100% of the occupied territories. Presumably, it is just this type of questioning the museum hopes to engender.
The Gush Katif Museum explores more than modern history, of course, going back to the earliest Jewish settlement in the area, and the successive expulsions by the Romans and the Turks.
Origins of the IDF
Moving on to Tel Aviv, the Haganah Museum tells the story of the Jewish militia that morphed, upon statehood, into the Israel Defence Forces.
The museum is located on Rothschild Boulevard, in one of Tel Aviv’s oldest buildings, originally the home of Eliyahu Golomb, a founder and ideological leader of the Haganah.
The home of Eliyahu Golomb, founder and ideological leader of the Haganah. This was the site of many clandestine and pivotal meetings of the underground resistance. (photo by Pat Johnson)
While there were other military operatives, the Haganah was the de facto militia of the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community. The museum, though, takes a broader view, beginning with the role of “tower and stockade settlements” on the peripheries of the proto-state, through the First World War Zion Mule Corps, the Jewish Legion (which helped the rise to prominence of Revisionist leaders like Ze’ev Jabotinsky), and touches on the roles of Revisionist Etzel (the Irgun) and its breakaway group Lehi (the “Stern Gang”) in taking the fight to the British. In an ideological and military skirmish after independence, these groups would be forcibly unified into the IDF.
The museum includes the crucial role the Haganah played in the Aliyah Bet, the illegal migration of Jews into pre-state Israel during the period of British blockade of Jewish refugees.
At the entry to the building is a relief mural by Israeli sculptor Moshe Ziffer, with figures in traditional kibbutz-style clothing, linking the movement to the pioneering Zionist ethos, as well as fighters shielding and defending Jewish families. There are also ancient symbols in the artwork, implying the Maccabean revolt, and including modern symbols of the transition to statehood, in 1948.
Statues of David Ben-Gurion and his wife Pola, by artist Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov, on Tel Aviv’s Independence Trail. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Independence Trail
The Haganah Museum is a central part of the cobbled-together tourist route branded “Independence Trail.” What would ostensibly be the centrepoint of the trail – Independence Hall, the home of Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, and the place where David Ben-Gurion read aloud Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948 – is surrounded by scaffolding amid ongoing renovations without a set date for reopening.
An easy-to-follow map of the ambling tour is available at the tourism kiosk in the pedestrian boulevard between the Haganah Museum and Independence Hall. The tour begins (if you want to do it in un-Israeli orderly fashion) at the city’s first kiosk, a restoration of which still serves refreshments to Tel Avivians and tourists.
The site of the first kiosk in Tel Aviv. The location is still a destination for refreshments. (photo by Pat Johnson)
The walk continues past the Nahum Gutman Fountain, which depicts the history of Jaffa and its sister-city-come-lately Tel Aviv, from the setting-off place of Jonah on his way to the fish’s belly, through Egyptian invaders, Crusaders, Napoleonic forces on up to Herzl and to the Declaration of Independence that took place a few steps away.
Other stops on the trail include the site of Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, the world’s first modern Hebrew-language high school; the Palatin Hotel, the resting stop for famous names of the 20th century; Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue; several buildings that are notable more for being examples of the Bauhaus or International Style of architecture than for historical import; the Tel Aviv Founders Monument; a statue of Dizengoff, astride his horse; and several others. The map and trail provide a quick and easy guide to important sites that you might otherwise overlook in a small area of central Tel Aviv.
Tragic walking tour
An unusual, if not terribly uplifting, activity is the Tragic Tel Aviv Walking Tour, which visits sites in the city centre where terror and even Second World War attacks killed civilians.
Easily missed: A monument to one of Tel Aviv’s many terror attacks. (photo by Pat Johnson)
On Sept. 9, 1940, Italian war planes operating from the island of Rhodes, made sorties over Haifa and Tel Aviv, killing 137 people, with many more injured. The attacks targeted no Allied (that is, British) military infrastructure and shattered what, to then, had been a feeling of relative isolation from the European war among the residents of pre-state Palestine. The monument to the bombing in Mikhoels Square, at the corner of Levinsky and Aliyah streets, is modest and easily overlooked if you are not explicitly seeking it – or even if you are.
Led by former Torontonian Jeffrey Levi, the tour then proceeds through sadly seemingly endless locations of suicide bombings and other terror attacks, many of which took place during the Second Intifada. In some cases, the historical events that left Israelis dead or wounded are not commemorated at all, or are marked by likewise inconspicuous markers.
If there is an uplifting message in this tour, it is in the innocuous manner in which most of these historical tragedies are commemorated (or not). As Levi recounts the devastations of the past, Tel Avivians hustle by, literally and figuratively moving past the past.
חברת התעופה הלאומית של קנדה, אייר קנדה, תחזור לטוס לישראל במהלך חודש מאי הקרוב. זאת, בכפוף למצב הביטחוני שישרור באזור הנחשב לאחד המסוכנים העולם. ואם המלחמה תסתיים סוף סוף ולא צפויים משברים נוספים קרובים
במקור הייתה אמורה אייר קנדה לחזור לטוס לישראל במהלך חודש אפריל, אך כאמור לסוף הוחלט בחברה הקנדית לדחות את הטיסות לתל אביב בחודש ימים. כך מסבירה מנכ”ל אייר קנדה בישראל, רות בן צור. היא הוסיפה: “יש לנו ביטחון מלא בקו, ברגע שיכולנו לחזור זה הדבר הראשון שעשינו”
אייר קנדה הפסיקה לחלוטין לטוס לישראל לאור המשבר הביטחוני הקשה במזרח התיכון, המלחמה בעזה והמלחמה בלבנון, במהלך חודש אפריל שנה שעברה. אז אמרו בחברה הקנדית כי: “הפעילות של אייר קנדה לתל אביב וממנה תישאר מושעית לעתיד הנראה לעין, לאחר מעקב אחר ההתפתחויות באזור. אנו מתחייבים לחדש את הטיסות לישראל וממנה ונעשה זאת ברגע שזה יהיה בטוח עבור לקוחותינו והצוותים שלנו”
כאמור במהלך חודש מאי הקרוב, אייר קנדה צפויה לחדש את הטיסות מטורונטו ומונטריאול לתל אביב. יצויין כי כיום אין טיסות ישירות מקנדה לישראל, לאחר שחברת התעופה הלאומית של ישראל אל על, הפתיעה בהודעתה כי החל מחודש אוקטובר שנה שעברה, היא ביטלה את הטיסות הישירות לטורונטו ומונטריאול. וזאת, מחוסר כידאיות כלכלית בזמן שעדיף היה להסיט את המטוסים לקווים רווחים יותר. בקהילות של הישראלים והיהודים באזורי טורונטו ומונטריאול קיבלו את הפסקת הטיסות הישירות של אל על מישראל לקנדה ובחזרה, בתדהמה ובכעס רב
בשנת אלפיים עשרים ושלוש הטיסה אייר קנדה כמאה ותשעים אלף נוסעים בקווים בין טורונטו ומונטריאול לתל אביב. שנה קודם לכן מספר הנוסעים בקווים אלה עמד על כמאה שבעים וחמישה אלף
במקביל הודיעה לאחרונה אייר קנדה כי היא מוסיפה קו חדש בין קנדה לפורטוגל, שיכלול טיסות בין מונטריאול לפורטו. הטיסות שיחלו בארבעה בחודש יוני, במשך ארבעה ימים בשבוע, ימשכו כל הקייץ ועד סוף חודש ספטמבר. באייר קנדה מאמינים שקוו חדש זה יהיה רווחי במהלך הקיץ של שנה זו. יצויין כי לאייר קנדה יש טיסות קבועות בין טורונטו לבירת פורטוגל – ליסבון, וכן בין מונטריאול לליסבון. קווים אלה הוכיחו את עצמם בשנה שעברה ולכן התווסף גם קו לפורטו
באייר קנדה קיימת אופטימיות בנוגע לטיסות לשווקים שונים באירופה כולל פורטוגל, תוך הוספת קווים חדשים והגדלת הקיבולת בקווים קיימים של החברה הקנדית. בנוסף לקו לפורטו אייר קנדה מתכננת להוסיף קווים חדשים גם לאיטליה וצ’כיה, בהם בין טורונטו לנאפולי, ובין טורונטו לפראג. מדובר בשלוש טיסות שבועיות שיחלו במהלך חודש מאי
לעומת זאת באייר קנדה נערכים לקיצוץ בטיסות שבין קנדה לארה”ב לאור מלחמת הסחר נגד קנדה עליה הכריז נשיא ארה”ב דונלד טראמפ. לא מעט קנדים התבטאו לאחרונה על רצונם להחרים את ארה”ב ובמסגרת זו, לא לרכוש עוד מוצרים אמריקאיים ולא לטוס לארה”ב
לאור הירידה המסתמנת בביקוש לטיסות בין קנדה לארה”ב, באייר קנדה נערכים לקצץ במספר הטיסות בין שתי המדינות השכנות. בין הקווים שעשויים להיפגע – באם הביקוש לטיסות לארה”ב יקטן – הם לאזורים “חמים” המיועדים לבילויים כמו פלורידה, לאס וגאס ואריזונה
בסקר אחרון שנערך הודיעו כחמישים ושישה אחוז מהקנדים כי הם מוכנים לבטל את הטיסות שלהם לארה”ב, או להימנע מלטוס לארה”ב. באם טראמפ יחריף בסנקציות נגד קנדה, אחוז הקנדים שיסרבו לטוס לארה”ב צפוי לגדול משמעותית
Tamar Eisenman, left, and Sagit Shir bring their children’s music project, City Birds, to Vancouver for a March 23 concert at the Rothstein Theatre, as part of Chutzpah! Plus. (photo by Javier Ortega)
Looking for fun, positive music for your kids that will get you moving to the beat and singing along with them? Check out City Birds on March 23, 11 a.m., at the Rothstein Theatre.
The creative and talented duo with seemingly boundless energy is coming to Vancouver for the Chutzpah! Plus Spring Edition, which runs March 19-23.
“Our goal is to weave a musical tapestry that captivates the imagination of the children and to accompany them on their mammoth journey of growing up, while also resonating with the hearts of older kids and parents,” write Tamar Eisenman and Sagit Shir on their City Birds website. “Our work is a celebration of families and about telling stories where children and parents find comfort, joy and inclusion.”
Even people without kids will appreciate the music’s playfulness, its folk and rock rhythms, and unique lyrics, all intended to uplift.
“It’s a lot of fun, and the inclusive elements are a key part of our craft – whether it’s mentioning all types of families, using different pronouns, or embracing a creative, childlike perspective that also serves as a wonderful reminder for grownups,” Eisenman told the Independent.
Both Eisenman and Shir are accomplished musicians. Eisenman has released multiple albums over the years and is currently touring with a couple of shows, including City Birds. Shir is the co-founder of the indie rock duo Hank & Cupcakes, and she teaches music and songwriting, specializing in early childhood music education. They each have some 20 years of music writing and touring to their credit.
“We met through Ariel, Sagit’s husband/partner,” said Eisenman. “Ariel and I went to high school together, and we’ve been really good friends ever since. I think I was about 18 or 19 when I first saw Sagit perform. She was singing with her trio in small music venues around Jerusalem, covering my favourite songs by Tori Amos, Suzanne Vega and others. Her voice and performance completely blew me away!”
“I remember that cover band!” said Shir. “Tamar was always a musical presence I was aware of beyond her years-long friendship with Ariel (who was also her bassist at some point). I remember being in awe of her musical and performative talents and generally admired how she ‘had it together’ at an age where I was just starting to seriously explore my musical tendencies.”
After Shir and her family moved back to New York City, she and Eisenman reconnected and started meeting up more often, sometimes with their kids.
“If I remember correctly, in September 2023, Sagit invited me to a friend’s show in the Lower East Side, where we first talked about the idea of writing and composing songs for kids and families, with LGBTQ awareness at the core. I personally felt there was a gap in family entertainment in that space,” said Eisenman.
“Sagit had her ukulele with her and, after the show, we hung out outside the club, brainstorming our first ideas for the project. From there, we each worked individually on some concepts, exchanging demo recordings, lyrics and ideas back and forth. As the songs took shape, we rehearsed, and, once we had about six songs ready, we performed at our daughters’ schools for the first time.”
The feedback was wonderful, said Eisenman. “That’s when we knew we wanted to keep folk Americana as the foundation of our sound – while adding some punk rock, of course. We wanted the music to feel close to home, reflecting the styles we personally connect with,” she said.
“It was also important to keep it organic and live, creating something that we, as adults, could relate to just as much as kids,” she continued. “The music is for everyone – it exists in that ‘in-between’ space: for kids growing up, for parents who were once kids, and for all of us witnessing that journey. It’s a fascinating timeline when you think about it. And then there’s our secret ingredient – Ariel. He’s such an incredible musician and he plays bass and other instruments on the record.”
While the meeting at the club may have been the first time the two musicians sat down together and brainstormed about writing and performing music geared towards children, Shir said the idea for City Birds came earlier.
“Tamar brought it up when our families went on a small vacation in upstate New York some time before,” said Shir, “and I was so excited at the prospect of collaborating with Tamar, whom I secretly admired, that I wrote the first lines of ‘The Family Song’ that very night.”
That Shir had worked on some songs already helped when the two started working together. For those pieces, Eisenman said, “we refined the lyrics, arranged the music together and made adjustments as needed.
“Other times, we each brought in songs, fragments or ideas and we’d have a little creative ‘ping-pong’ session to develop them,” she added. “For example, I wrote the verse of a lullaby I was working on, and Sagit added the B section musically, then we expanded the lyrics together from there. There’s really no single format or structure; we try to keep the process open, flexible.”
While their being Jewish doesn’t necessarily inform their music, Eisenman said their cultural heritage is an inherent part of who they are – “both in a traditional sense and as part of our roots,” she said. “The Hebrew language is, of course, dear to our hearts and, as my native language, it’s especially meaningful to me. Being able to incorporate it into our songs is a lot of fun as well.”
Shir’s background in early childhood music education no doubt plays a key role in their songs’ appeal.
The daughter of two teachers, Shir said, “I’ve found myself specializing in teaching language through music, especially Hebrew. I find that, with very young students, teaching them Hebrew through music almost works like magic. They find themselves learning important basic concepts such as colours, body parts and feelings without even realizing it’s happening. Music makes the language-learning process effortless and fun. I started the company Global Kids Music LLC a year ago and feel lucky to have found my calling.”
The March 23 Chutzpah! show will be City Birds’ Canadian premiere. The two musicians are “so happy for the opportunity to share our music with the Vancouver community and go on this musical journey together,” said Eisenman. “We’ve got a few surprises planned – including a special tribute to the music from back home.”
Chutzpah! Plus Spring Edition includes theatre March 19 (Iris Bahr), comedy March 20 (Talia Reese), dance March 21-22 (Belle Spirale Dance Projects & Fernando Hernando Magadan) and music March 22 (Yamma Ensemble).
The creative team of Bema Productions’ staging of Rite of Passage, with director Zelda Dean (centre). (photo from Bema Productions)
Victoria’s Bema Productions is staging Rite of Passage, a story of family, grief and coming of age by Los Angeles-based playwright Izzy Salant, at Congregation Emanu-El’s Black Box Theatre March 19-30.
The play centres on Harold, an autistic youth preparing for his bar mitzvah. His mother is suddenly absent and others are not sharing with him why she is not there. Harold’s father struggles with whether he should tell Harold the truth.
“The complex and incredibly human characters go through terribly hard times, yet handle it with grace and humour, even when things are in turmoil and the stakes are high,” Dean told the Independent.
At a young age, Jesse Wilson, who plays Harold, became involved in the local theatre scene that worked with the Victoria Society for Children with Autism. Noticing his passion for the arts, his mother encouraged and supported him in taking classes and performing.
Wilson appeared in Bema’s 2019 production of O My God, in which he played the autistic son of the lead character. He has also performed with a Victoria-based summer Shakespeare company.
“Because autism presents in such a diverse way, depending on the individual, I worked closely with Jesse, who is on the spectrum, to ensure that we portrayed the character in an honest way,” Dean said.
Salant, who will be in Victoria for opening night, said the play follows his family’s story. His mother died by suicide in 2007, and he had written extensively about the experience and his grief. But, he said, he had not explored his family’s grief as well.
“I sat down with my father and aunt for around six hours in the fall of 2016 and, later that same year, I wrote the first draft of the play in a playwriting class as a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,” Salant, a journalist and social media manager at Jewish News Syndicate, told the Independent.
Rite of Passage playwright Izzy Salant. (photo from jns.org/writers/izzy-salant)
At the time, the play was called From the Point of View of a Journalist. Several drafts later, it became Rite of Passage. After numerous workshops and rewrites, the work remains focused on the central premise of how to move forward amid grief.
In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Salant and his writing partner, Ryan Dunn, posted Peace Talks on New Play Exchange, a digital library. Written in 2019, the play explored the Arab-Israeli conflict and how it extended to college campuses.
Shortly afterward, Dean reached out to them asking about rights. Bema performed the piece on Zoom and, later, live at the Victoria Fringe Festival in 2022.
“My working relationship with Zelda has been amazing and she’s served not only as an amazing confidant and director, but mentor,” Salant said. “So, when I told her about Rite of Passage, she was overjoyed. She watched a live reading of it via Zoom back in 2022 and told me she wanted to do the play, and, three years later, after many rewrites and discussions, here we are.”
The first full reading of Rite of Passage took place at the University of Massachusetts in 2018, and Salant produced it the same year. During the pandemic, he met Noah Greenstein, an actor and theatre producer from Boston, and sent him the script. Punctuate4, a company for which Greenstein associate produced, liked the script and organized different readings throughout the United States.
Regarding the Victoria production, Salant said, “I’ve been incredibly involved from a writing standpoint. I’ve had almost weekly calls with Zelda about what’s working, what may need to be tweaked, rewritten, etc. The script has gone through around three draft changes from the time Zelda told me she was going to perform it this season to the show that you’ll see live.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Zelda for putting on this production, as I am to Punctuate4 for all their work, in part because numerous other theatres in my career have told me they loved the play but don’t know if they could realistically stage it, somewhat because Harold is autistic.”
Besides Rite of Passage and Peace Talks, Salant has written Balagan, The Scenic View and Unrequited. He also has penned several short plays and one-act plays, including 2082, which follows two best friends on a road trip to New Mexico in the aftermath of a breakup. It premiered in 2023.
Currently, Salant is putting together a piece titled Catatonic, which his friends have called “Zionist Angels in America.” It’s a two-part play about the post-Oct. 7 world and Salant’s experience covering it as a journalist.
Salant is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Alliance of Jewish Theatre. He is a graduate of the Kennedy Centre Playwriting Intensive and an Abby Freeman Artist in Residence at the Braid, a nonprofit Jewish literary organization in Santa Monica, Calif.
“I consider myself a Jewish artist through and through. Judaism is a core of my identity and I never want to shy away from expressing it,” Salant said.
Tickets for Rite of Passage can be purchased through the Bema Productions website at bemaproductions.com.
Sam Margolishas written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
There has been a great deal of handwringing about antisemitism on campuses in North America in recent years. Since Oct. 7, 2023, with protests against Israel, some of which have turned violent and many of which have been condemned for making Jewish and Israeli students targets, the problem has intensified.
It is often said that politicians do not see the light until they feel the heat. University administrators are politicians in a broad sense, and the withdrawal of funds from donors may be among the reasons (ethics and decency being among other conceivable explanations) why some university administrators have tried to find a balance between the rights of free expression and the safety and security of Jews on campuses across North America. Criticism from government has also been a factor in pushing college leadership to address, to varying degrees, the problems faced by Jewish students, faculty and staff.
A notorious US government hearing – and the perceived weakness of college presidents to respond adequately to the problem – led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
Now, the US government, under the leadership of the reelected President Donald Trump, has summarily cut off a chunk of funding to Columbia University, with threats of more such punishments to come unless institutions of higher learning get their perceived issues with antisemitism under control.
“Since Oct. 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation and antisemitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in announcing the funding freeze. “Universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”
Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, called this a “time of great risk to our university” and said that the loss of funds would be felt in “nearly every corner” of the institution.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the university, impacting students, faculty, staff, research and patient care,” Armstrong wrote in a statement.
A sum of $400 million is an almost inconceivable number to most ordinary people, so to put it in some context, Columbia has an annual operating budget of $6.6 billion, of which more than one-quarter comes from federal sources. Unlike most Canadian universities and the American state college systems, Columbia is a private institution – and an elite, Ivy League one at that. In other words, that is a massive amount of public money flowing into a private institution, though that is a topic perhaps for another day.
Columbia was an epicentre of last year’s campus protests and the genesis of a network of encampments against Israel and its war against Hamas, encampments that spread to campuses here in British Columbia, to consternation from Jewish students, their parents and communal organizations.
With the withholding of $400 million from Columbia, which is promised as a first major salvo in what could become a larger battle between the US government and higher education, the preponderance of handwringing may have shifted from Jews and their allies to the figures responsible for higher education.
Among Jews – in the United States, Canada, Israel and elsewhere – there are massively polarized opinions about Trump. But, whatever your position, it is true that something needs to be done to force universities to address the undeniable crisis facing Jewish students and faculty.
That said, this recent move against higher education is part of a larger effort to discredit liberal institutions, attack expertise and dismantle government programs designed to buttress democracy, liberty and the global order. Legitimate criticism of campus antisemitism is being weaponized by an increasingly cynical US government to stifle and punish speech and threaten the academy and its sources of knowledge production, including scientific discovery and advancement. We should be wary of aligning with these forces and their attempts to cover up their real agenda.
This move – and possible additional ones that seemed implied threats in McMahon’s announcement – will force a showdown. Jews likely will become a bargaining chip in this coming confrontation and that is deeply concerning for Jews of all political and ideological persuasions.
Elected officials and university administrators in Canada – where the vast majority of students attend public institutions – will no doubt be watching very closely to see what changes the financial penalty has on American institutions’ approaches to the problem. So will Jewish students and faculty, their families and others who care about them.
“As I think many of us are right now, I am feeling sense of trepidation, endangerment and uncertainty about the future that I have honestly never felt before in this way. My faith in the future and humanity’s ability to call in a future that I want (for myself and also for future generations) has been shaken to the core,” Alexis Fletcher told the Independent. “And yet, my spirit knows that hope, togetherness, connection – they are all necessary. Indeed, they are what propel the world, evolution, the cosmos and each other forward. Everything and Nothing asks what hope and resiliency mean to me – as a woman, as an artist, as a citizen – at this moment in history.”
Fletcher is co-director with Sylvain Senez of Belle Spirale Dance Projects. Their March 21-22, 8 p.m., Chutzpah! Festival dance double-bill at the Vancouver Playhouse, called Universus, also features Fernando Hernando Magadan’s Statera.
The title of Belle Spirale’s Everything and Nothing comes from a poem Fletcher wrote several years ago, “exploring the idea that we are at once both the entire universe and a tiny speck of almost nothingness within the vastness of that universe. That we are both ‘everything and nothing in the same split-instant,’” she said.
Acknowledging that this was a broad place from which to start, she and the dancers asked themselves, “Who are the leaders of the future that we actually want? How can we create an imagination-based, artistic response to these important questions and feelings? I see so many qualities of this leadership in each and every person who is making Universus with us,” said Fletcher. “I have been curious about what the archetypes, or the energetic qualities, these future leaders would embody, and how could they usher the world forward into a new and more hopeful paradigm.”
To explore these questions, Fletcher came to the studio with “movement phrases,” she said. “The dancers then took these movements and made new sequences which combined the original phrases with their own responses to the text, images and perceptions about the subject matter.
“We also use structured improvisation to explore different states of being and allow those to inform the choreography,” she added. “Then, everything gets layered together and composed into different sections, working with the music, the design aspects, and how that all relates in space and time to where the audience will be. It is a truly collaborative process, with each artist contributing hugely to the final outcome.”
This includes “the images of the natural world and the cosmos that Sylvain has so exquisitely crafted with his visual design,” said Fletcher. “These images, to me, represent our shared origin point in the cosmos, reminding us that our journey is mystical as well as concrete or tangible. While this is all explored in an abstract way very open to interpretation, we hope to evoke a sense of possibility, of awe and wonder with this work.”
Another important collaborator is Marisa Gold, who Fletcher and Senez met some time ago. “Immediately, I was compelled by her stage presence and the insightful, kind, courageous way she conducts herself in the world,” said Fletcher, noting that Gold has been part of Everything and Nothing from its beginnings in 2023. As the piece has developed, Fletcher felt that a live, spoken-word element “could act as a counterpoint to the inherently more abstract and image-driven metaphor of the dancing body and the choreography.
“Inside of this desire for text, I had a gut feeling that it wasn’t supposed to be my voice or my writing,” said Fletcher. “I needed to bring a different voice into the mix, with different lived experience and perceptions than my own. What came out of this was expanding and amplifying Marisa’s role within the work by commissioning her to create and perform original poetry and spoken word throughout Everything and Nothing. And … she still does a phenomenal amount of dancing, and she is incredible in that too! I can’t wait for everyone to share in her journey. What Marisa has created is truly special – profound and insightful. I gain something new from the text every day.”
For Gold, Everything and Nothing has a powerful message.
“Personally,” she said, “the subject matter and poetry of Everything and Nothing align very closely to my interests as an artist and human being in a volatile world. As a collective humanity, the depth of our connection to Earth is reflected in our ability to deeply connect with ourselves and each other. This work addresses not only our inner/personal world, it also drives home the mirroring effect and metaphor which surrounds us in nature. From my perspective, these images are incredibly supportive to the healing so needed on our planet today.”
The scope of the work wouldn’t have been possible, said Fletcher, if she and Senez weren’t artists in residence at the Chutzpah! Festival.
“We have been fortunate to receive residency, creation and presentation support from the Chutzpah! Festival since 2019,” she said. “Each of these years provided us with stage creation time, financial contributions to our projects and the opportunity to premiere new works; this relationship has been instrumental to our artistic practice.
“Theatre and studio residencies are critical to artists collaborating and developing their craft. In addition,
having a presenter invest in a project from research to presentation creates an environment grounded in solidity and consistency,” she said.
“I really cannot over-emphasize not only how rare, but also how needed and important it is, what Chutzpah! is doing with their residency program.”
This season, Belle Spirale had a couple weeks on stage to rehearse and create, then a two-week, full time technical residency, where the visual and lighting design for the performance was created, so the company could mount the show at the Playhouse.
“The art we make together is a way of life for us, and inseparable from our relationship,” said Fletcher about husband and fellow artist in residence Senez. “While we have different strengths that make us a great team, we also share a profound kinship with regards to our artistic sensibilities and reverence for this art form.”
The two were with Ballet BC for many years, and started creating and producing work together in 2015.
“As a couple – both in our personal story of coming together and in our creative partnership – we have always made each other brave, right from the start, dreaming big and diving into creative ventures without fully realizing the scale they would eventually take,” said Fletcher.
“Tackling meaningful subjects and focusing on the humanity that touches us all, we initially began with quite intimate work,” she said. But, as their exploration continued, so did their desire to integrate other creative voices alongside their own. Formally bringing Belle Spirale into being “became a necessary next step,” and the company was launched in July 2023. The not-for-profit structure allows them to create community networks and garner the support they need. “This comes in the form of our board of directors, and our partnerships with like-minded creative spirits such as our sister company Dance//Novella,” said Fletcher.
“Most importantly,” she said, “Belle Spirale was born from our desire to expand our ability to support a range of artistic voices through commissioning new work, creating our own work, fostering and celebrating Vancouver’s exceptional freelance artists, and presenting/producing both our own, and others’, creations…. We truly believe in the power of the live performing arts to bring people together, to create community and a lifeline for the spirit – a space to contemplate, reflect and be moved – during these complex times we live in.”
One of the aspects Fletcher and Senez like most about cross-disciplinary work is the ability “to reach a broader demographic of audience members,” said Fletcher. “Every person feels connected, or has their heart opened, in different ways by different things. Human beings are layered and complex, and we use different mediums, such as film, set design, text and lighting design, to reflect this complexity in our stage environments.
“We love to create textured, visually impactful and theatrical settings which are completely immersive for the dancers,” she continued. “Everything is crafted to highlight the humanity, athleticism and journey of the dancing body – this human instrument is always the focus of our work…. In my pieces, I work co-creatively with the dancers, with Sylvain as visual/set/film designer and with Belle Spirale’s lighting designer Victoria Hunter Bell.”
In Universus, Fletcher also has gotten to work with Magadan – she co-created and dances in Statera.
“Sylvain and I both met Fernando in 2014, when he created White Act for Ballet BC,” Fletcher explained. “I was an original cast member of this work and Sylvain was his rehearsal director, as well as assisted with some of the visual design. We all just clicked … and it has always been a dream of ours to work with Fernando again. When we commission work at Belle Spirale, I am fortunate to get to be one of the performers we bring together.”
Universus would not exist, said Fletcher, without Belle Spirale’s partnership with Chutzpah! She also noted that, thanks to the company’s partnership with Vancouver International Dance Festival, they are able to offer general admission and sliding scale ticket prices, which start at $25. Visit chutzpahfestival.com.
Tikun Olam Gogos’ O Canada! bags proclaim dedication to the ethic of improving the world in friendship with other nations, raising much-needed funds for grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa who are raising their grandchildren due to the HIV & AIDS pandemic. (photo from Tikun Olam Gogos)
As proud Canadians and fundraisers for the Stephen Lewis Foundation Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, Tikun Olam Gogos have launched a special edition line of O Canada! tote bags – determined to respond to the threats American tariffs pose to Canada, and to the suspension of USAID, which is devastating to the Gogos’ partner organizations in Africa.
According to Stephen Lewis, “Lives will be lost. Our best contribution at this perilous moment is to attempt to replace the resources that America has expunged.”
Tikun Olam Gogos’ response to the White House is to raise more funds by intensifying its efforts to handcraft and market its O Canada! line of large tote bags, zippered and drawstring pouches.
Tikun Olam Gogos (TOG) is part of the Greater Vancouver Gogos, which includes about 20 Gogo groups across the Lower Mainland. Gogo is the Zulu word for “grandmother” and tikkun olam is Hebrew for “repair of the world.” TOG is a volunteer group of grandmothers and grand-others (non-members who help out the group periodically) in Vancouver that was founded in May 2011 and is sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple Sholom. Its mission is to raise awareness, build solidarity and mobilize support in Canada for grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa who are raising their grandchildren due to the HIV & AIDS pandemic.
In 14 years of operation, Tikun Olam Gogos has raised more than half a million dollars for the SLF Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. With its partners in Africa reeling from the withdrawal of other international programs, TOG is more determined than ever to fulfil its motto: “we will not rest until they can rest.”
Priced at $50, just $5 more than TOG’s original signature totes, the O Canada! bags proclaim dedication to the ethic of improving the world in friendship with other nations. So, wear your maple leaf and your heart proudly on your O Canada! tote. You are telling the world “Canada cares.”
To order your O Canada! tote bags, zippered pouches and drawstring pouches, visit tikunolamgogos.org or call Joyce Cherry at 604-261-5454.
From 1925 to today, Na’amat volunteers across Canada and the United States continue to empower women and children in Israel and abroad. (photo from Na’amat Canada)
At a time when charities are fighting to survive, an organization that’s been helping women and children in Israel and North America is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Na’amat Canada and Na’amat USA, which began as a North American chapter in 1925, will mark the centenary at a gala conference in Toronto in May with delegates from across Canada and the United States.
“It’s a huge deal. It’s a milestone,” said Vivian Reisler, executive vice-president of Na’amat Canada. “We’ve come a long way from Golda Meir sending a message that we need $100 to build X, Y, Z.”
The forerunner of Na’amat was founded in 1921, in what would later become the modern state of Israel, to empower women, including providing vocational training and advocating for improved working conditions and equal pay.
Four years later, a North American branch was born and Na’amat chapters were formed across Canada and the United States over the ensuing decades. Today, thousands of volunteers are continuing to empower women and children in Israel and abroad.
“The success of the organization is due to the dedication of the members, volunteers and donors – because, without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Reisler.
Na’amat Canada president Susan Inhaber, a member of the organization for 25 years, agrees.
“We just want to keep building, get our name out there, build the membership and thank all the donors, supporters and members who are making everything possible,” she said. “This is an exciting time for us to be together. It’s nice that we have an organization that’s lasted so long.”
While the North American branch of Na’amat (a Hebrew acronym for “Movement of Working Women and Volunteers”) began in 1925, Na’amat Canada and Na’amat USA became two autonomous divisions in 1965.
“We were together, we split, and now we’re back together (informally, at the Toronto conference) celebrating 100 years,” said Reisler.
Na’amat is the largest women’s organization in Israel. It provides a wide variety of services, including a daycare network for thousands of children, legal aid centres, technological high schools for students who have trouble succeeding in other classroom settings, boardingschools for underprivileged students, and the Na’amat Canada Glickman Centre for Family Violence Prevention.
Na’amat Canada members at the Glickman Centre for Family Violence Prevention. (photo from Na’amat Canada)
Established in 1993 in Tel Aviv, the Glickman Centre was the first women’s shelter in Israel. It has three distinct sections: the shelter, a counseling and treatment area, and the Rhodie Blanshay Benaroch Children’s Centre wing, a haven for children living in the shelter.
The Rhodie Blanshay Benaroch Children’s Centre houses a computer room, baby nursery, kindergarten, audiovisual education corner, library, learning centre and outdoor playground, named in honour of Rhodie’s granddaughter, Rho Schneiderman. A musical playground was built in honour of Rhodie’s two granddaughters. Blanshay Benaroch was a dynamic third-generation Na’amat member who was committed to building a safe, loving environment for children who needed it most.
Recently, Na’amat Canada was instrumental in building a new middle school at Kanot Youth Village. More than 300 students will now have a state-of-the-art school to enhance their education.
In the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel needs Na’amat’s help as much – or even more – than it did a century ago, said Doris Wexler-Charow, past national president of Na’amat Canada.
“I think that Oct. 7 changed everything,” she said of the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
Everyone in Israel is suffering from PTSD, said Wexler-Charow, a retired social worker. “Everybody’s been traumatized,” she said,explaining that Na’amat is providing more counseling services than ever. “Israel needs us. It’s important for us to keep going. The cause is a good one and I think we need our young people to continue where we leave off.”
