Pam Wolfman is chair of the Yom Ha’atzmaut committee and Geoffrey Druker leads the Yom Hazikaron committee. (photos from Jewish Federation) For many years, Vancouver has been home to North America’s largest celebration on erev Yom Ha’atzmaut. While Israel’s Independence…
“Sometimes Being Human … Can Be Hard” by August Bramhoff. The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s inclusion services’ third annual art exhibit at the Zack Gallery is on display this month. And people can meet the artists at a…
Spring and the holiday of Passover are all about renewal and hope. This year, as our elders begin receiving the coronavirus vaccines and our economy appears to be recovering from the most critical disruption in living memory, things seem promising.…
Times Square in New York City, 2018. (photo from eveningofwonders.com) Illusionist Vitaly Beckman fooled the famous Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller on his first appearance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, in Season 3. Now, four years later, he…
Anton Lipovetsky is among the professional artists working with Studio 58 to develop Monoceros: A Musical. (photo by Dahlia Katz) In the face of a pandemic and all its associated restrictions, the show is going on at Langara College’s Studio…
Yvette Gagnon holds one of her works. (photo from Yvette Gagnon) Yvette Gagnon, a local French-Canadian multimedia artist, uses a unique technique: she combines acrylic paintings with mosaics. The glass shards she glues to her canvasses create a three-dimensional effect,…
I recently was appointed board chair for Tikva Housing Society. When I was asked to join the board three years ago, I knew nothing about Tikva or their invaluable work. However, as a real estate professional, I did have a…
When we think of Pesach, the theme that emerges is: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” As slaves, we endured years of torture and hardship, with no…
One of my twins is always looking for something new to learn online. For awhile, he was fascinated by a Massachusetts service dog project, where Great Danes are trained to provide support to those with balance and mobility impediments. He…
Outside Richmond Jewish Day School, Courtney Cohen accepts a donation to Rose’s Angels, which was collected by RJDS students and staff. (photo from Rose’s Angels) This past February, the eighth annual Rose’s Angels event took place, although it looked very…
In the kitchen, left to right, are Stacey Kettleman, Leah Reghatti, Francie Steen, Deborah and David Freedman, Shelley Ail and Linda Rothberg. (photo from Beth Tikvah) This Purim, Beth Tikvah Congregation packaged more than 240 holiday bundles, delivering one to…
On March 2, Lianna Philipp and Michael Solomon were recognized with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s 2020 Young Leadership Awards, for their commitment and dedication to the Jewish community and the value of tikkun olam. Philipp chaired Jewish Federation’s…
Sorel Etrog’s sculpture in Odette Sculpture Park, in Windsor, Ont. Etrog was one of four artists featured in Prof. Jennifer Eiserman’s March 7 lecture, Is There Such a Thing as Canadian Jewish Art? (photo by Matt Glaman) Is there such…
Then-Vancouver mayor Mike Harcourt and members of National Council of Jewish Women in front of the first Mobile Hearing Clinic, outside Vancouver City Hall on June 11, 1984. After raising the funds to build and operate the clinic on a…
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the start of a cabinet meeting this past January in Jerusalem. The two outside flags are the Moroccan national flags, placed there to celebrate the fact that Israel and Morocco had just established diplomatic relations. (photo…
Six-year-old Biniyam Tesfahun with his family shortly before being transported to Israel for heart surgery. (photo by Basleel Tadesse) Last month, while Israel was still in lockdown, an urgent flight from Ethiopia arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport. The airport was closed and…
Left to right: Rabbi Dov Bakst, presidential advisor, Yitzhak (Buji) Herzog and Rabbi Shlomo Raanan at the March 4 launch of the Ayelet Hashachar initiative to create a promenade in Kiryat Shmona to commemorate Jewish COVID victims from around the…
Sandy Shefrin Rabin’s debut novel is a far-reaching account of Jewish life in a small town in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Targeted to young adult readers, Prairie Sonata may focus on 11-year-old Mira’s friendship with her school (and…
Near the beginning of her acting career more than 50 years ago, Beth Kaplan wanted to improve the world through art. “I believe in the theatre as a tool for social change,” she told the director of the London Academy…
Sweet Potato Wedges with Avocado Drizzle, as made by Miriam Pascal, author of More Real Life Kosher Cooking. (photo by Miriam Pascal) Many people have probably never heard of Miriam Pascal. I was one of them, but now am happily…
A postcard of the legendary Kutsher’s resort. After the Lower Eastside of Manhattan, there is perhaps no place that holds so enormous a place in the imagination of Jewish life in North America as the Catskills. The Catskill Mountains, really…
Having spent so much time with my Israelites for last year’s Passover cover photo shoot, I thought it would be nice to see where they ended up. They successfully exodused from Metaphorical Egypt, as COVID was just getting started, and…
Chicken soup with matzah balls is a staple of the Ashkenazi Passover seder; for meat-eaters, at least. (photo from onceuponachef.com) My father used to start the seder with a joke. One I remember was: Abe goes to see his boss…
Ask any young child, and even some of the older ones, what is the best part of the seder, and the answer will probably be – looking for the afikoman. The afikoman is the name of the middle of the…
Cabbage matzah never tasted so … good? (photo from pixabay.com) Have you ever eaten cabbage matzah? Probably not. But, in Chelm, the village of fools, they still talk about it…. Many winters ago, to battle an outburst of influenza, the…
An image from the author’s 1941 Passover Haggadah by Saul Raskin. Although they are not specifically mentioned in either the Haggadah or in the Torah, Egyptian pyramids have come to be associated with the Pesach story. That many modern Haggadot…
(photo from pngkey.com) Imagine that you are sitting at your kitchen table, sewing masks for your family so that you can go outside. There are no more masks left in stock in any store near you so you are left…
שאול גורדון הסייף הישראלי שאול גורדון ייצג את קנדה בתחרויות הסיף באולימפיאדת טוקיו שתתקיים בחודש יולי הקרוב. אחד עשר סייפים נוספים ייצגו את קנדה באולימפיאדה ביפן. גורדון יליד תל אביב בן ה-26, גר בעיר ריצ’מונד שליד ונקובר בריטיש קולומביה מאז…
Prof. Simon Devereaux (photo from Twitter.com/UVicHumanities) The belief in far-fetched plots is not a new phenomenon. There have always been people who gravitate towards and embrace conspiracy theories. In a Feb. 18 talk, hosted by the Jewish Community Centre of…
Rabbi Steven Wernick (photo from cjnews.com) Toronto’s Beth Tzedec Congregation, one of the largest Conservative synagogues in Canada, announced last month that its rabbis will officiate at same-sex marriages. While Beth Tzedec is not the first Conservative synagogue in Canada to…
