freelancer – Page 85

No slow news days here

In the journalism biz, summer is generally considered slow news season. That’s why our publishing schedule takes a bit of a hiatus. Then there are years like this one.

Rarely in political history has anything so upended American politics than the debate by President Joe Biden against former president Donald Trump June 27. Biden’s performance was deemed so portentous of defeat that a groundswell of Democratic party operatives mobilized to replace him on the ticket mere weeks before the election.

Avoiding potentially divisive competition, the party instantaneously rallied around Vice-President Kamala Harris, who then selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and, according to early opinion polls, the race has been completely shaken up. This week’s Democratic National Convention was the Harris-Walz ticket’s effort at solidifying the momentum that began with her selection a month ago.

Practically the only bad news the Democrats have had during this honeymoon period has been the disruptions at Harris rallies and at the convention by anti-Israel campaigners and those pushing for an end to the Gaza war. As the vice-president said to one group of hecklers, “If you want Donald Trump to win, say that.”

Israel’s opponents are not the only ones agitated by the Democrats position on the Gaza war. At the fringes of the pro-Israel movement are those who believe a President Harris would undermine the US-Israel relationship and those who have particular concerns about Walz. In fact, both candidates are effectively in line with the mainstream Democratic party and larger American consensus, which recognizes the invaluable and special relationship between the two countries.

On the other hand, pro-Trump Zionists, who insist that the former president’s rhetoric and family connections guarantee a degree of loyalty to Israel, premise these assumptions on the flawed idea that Trump has loyalty to anything beyond his own self-interest or that he subscribes to any coherent position on anything. And they ignore his connections to and endorsements of far-right and antisemitic figures and movements. As we saw on Trump’s 180-flipflop on electric vehicles after he was endorsed by Tesla-founder Elon Musk, or on bitcoin or on TikTok after donations and endorsements from other billionaires, Trump has no core principles. It would not be in the interest of Israel, American Jews, Jews around the world, or the rest of the world to trust the future to a person who is demonstrating increasingly erratic behaviour and policies.

The Democratic party’s comparatively speedy defenestration of their incumbent president has inspired some members of Canada’s Liberal party to wonder if such a political decapitation might happen here.

The incumbent government is stuck in opinion polls far behind the opposition Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre. The loss of an erstwhile safe Liberal seat in a Toronto by-election in June has a number of Liberals wondering if self-preservation demands the replacement of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader. This fall’s return to Parliament – and probably the outcome of two upcoming by-elections, especially one in a relatively safe Liberal seat in a Montreal suburb – will almost certainly determine whether the Liberals stand by their man or take a lesson from their cousins to the south.

Still closer to home, British Columbia politics has been heating up over the summer. The BC Conservative party under leader John Rustad is polling higher than that party has dreamed in about a century. Since being thrown out of the BC Liberal caucus two years ago, Rustad has taken the failing provincial Tories – a party that last won an election in 1928 – to opinion poll heights of a few points off top spot.

Kevin Falcon, whose disastrous rebranding of the BC Liberals to BC United seems to have left millions of voters unclear on what party he leads, is now in the single digits and faces complete obliteration, if polls are to be believed. Fears of a split centre-right vote (a perennial driver in BC politics for a century or so) seems to have been obviated by an overwhelming consensus by non-NDP voters to rally around the BC Conservatives.

Of course, campaigns matter. When voters realize that Falcon’s party is the one they used to know as the BC Liberals, some may return to familiar patterns, especially since BC United has frantically prevailed on Elections BC to allow them to include both their new and old names on this fall’s ballots.

It all just goes to show that you should take nothing for granted. With the BC election on Oct. 19, the US election on Nov. 5 and a minority Liberal government with increasingly uneasy backbenchers (and frontbenchers), the slow news season of the summer seems likely to usher in a rather exciting autumn. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Resolving Gaza dilemma

Israel needs to adopt a long-term objective in its response to Hamas’s attack of Oct. 7. Israel’s immediate objective is the defeat of Hamas. The question becomes what is to happen not only to Gaza but also to the West Bank when that happens.

For Israel simply to withdraw from Gaza would lead to a resuscitation of Hamas. For Israel to stay in Gaza would revive the problems which led to its withdrawal in 2005.

The recent negotiations around a ceasefire, release of the hostages, an Arab peacekeeping force and Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state, if accepted, would keep Hamas in power. The May 31 proposal of US President Joe Biden, which would keep Hamas in power in Gaza, is a non-starter. A ceasefire was already in place on Oct. 6, before the Hamas attack of Oct. 7. For Hamas, a new ceasefire would be a rearmament pause before its next attack on Israel. The Hamas leadership has said as much.

Simply putting the Palestinian Authority nominally in charge of Gaza leads to the same dead end. In the 2006 Palestinian elections, Hamas won. There have been no elections since then. With a new election, the result would likely be the same.

For peace negotiations to reach a plausible agreement, both an ideal result in mind and a strategy to reach that result must be in place. The ideal solution is well known – two states living side by side in peace with each other. The strategy should be directed to overcoming the widespread animosity among Palestinians to the existence of Israel and the resignation of Israelis to the reality of that animosity.

To want to live side by side in peace with each other, both populations must want peace. The continued terrorism against Israel and Israelis emanating not only from Gaza but also from the West Bank, as well as the Palestinian Authority’s failure to accept one Israeli peace plan after another, has made the Palestinian Authority not a credible peace plan partner and has generated radicalism within Israel opposing peace.

Among the Israeli residents of the West Bank, there are groups who engage in terrorism against Palestinians in pursuit of the integration of the West Bank into Israel. The government of Israel has been remiss in preventing this terrorism and remedying the consequences.

Current negotiations with Arab states may give the Palestinian Authority again a peace plan offer, this time, one they may accept. The suggestion that they would or even could implement a peace plan effectively is a lot harder to credit.

Instead, those Arab states currently proposed as contributors to a possible peacekeeping force after a ceasefire should agree, along with the Palestinian Authority, on something different. They should agree to deny Hamas’s propaganda, counter Hamas’s allies, and stand against Hamas’s physical and military survival. In areas of Gaza where Hamas has been defeated, the Israel Defence Forces would withdraw, to be replaced by Arab coalition forces, led by Egypt, as governing trustees. The same coalition, led by Jordan, would advise and assist the Palestinian Authority to act consistently in the West Bank with what the coalition is doing in Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly, if the proposed Arab coalition and the Palestinian Authority took the initiative, could authorize the UN Trusteeship Council to supervise the trusteeship over Gaza.

The proposed trusteeship would step into the shoes of the Palestinian Authority, with sole control over Area A outlined in the Oslo Accord, joint control with Israel in Area B and no control over Area C. The boundaries of the West Bank trusteeship, under this arrangement, could be shifted to take into account territorial swaps proposed in various peace negotiations.

To Israel, that sort of agreement would signal commitment by the Arab coalition to the defeat of Hamas and a lasting peace. From an Arab coalition perspective, Hamas’s defeat would mean victory over a common enemy, reining in terrorism based on distortions of Islam, a form of terrorism that has plagued the Arab world. From a Palestinian perspective, such an agreement could provide security for distribution of aid and medical supplies, which, despite the abundance of deliveries, has been to date difficult and dangerous.

Eradicating the terrorist threat completely is unrealistic even in the most peaceful of states. An Arab coalition Gaza trusteeship and a West Bank advice and assistance role would remain in effect until such time as Gaza and West Bank can form a functioning state; until the terrorism threat emanating from these territories is marginalized; and until Palestinians generally are ready to accept Israelis as their neighbours.

This Arab coalition trusteeship for Gaza and advice and assistance role for the West Bank may be lengthy, lasting even a generation. The education of children in Gaza and the West Bank has motivated many Palestinians to seek death through killing or trying to kill Jews in order to become religious martyrs who have earned afterlife redemption. That education must be undone.

Peace between Israel and a Palestinian state is an ideal. Realizing that ideal requires taking steps which address directly the causes of failure of all peace efforts to date.

David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg and senior honorary counsel to B’nai Brith Canada. Noemi Gal-Or is a retired professor of international relations and an international law lawyer based in Vancouver.

Haiku signs in the bathroom

This summer, our main event was a road trip. My husband had a conference at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Since we met at Cornell as undergrads 30 years ago, we thought it might be worthwhile to make this a family trip. We hadn’t been back in 20 years.

When you go back to old haunts, they might not be what you expect. There were so many new campus buildings. I took our twins on a campus tour where a 19-year-old guide talked about economics (her major), business and start-ups. When she asked the alumni in the group about their majors, I told her I was a double major: comparative literature and Near Eastern studies. She said, “So interesting!” in a tone that made it clear she thought I was ancient and bizarre.

I didn’t feel at home in Ithaca, which I used to feel was “my place.” My kids found holes in Cornell’s sustainability mantras that I used to deeply respect. While trying to dry clothing by draping it in the back of the car, for example, they pointed out there were no clothes lines in the dorms where we stayed or outdoors. When we went to buy the obligatory university sweatshirts, they couldn’t believe the campus store stocked tons of branded items made entirely of synthetics – manufactured from petroleum and likely made in poor working conditions.

When we visited a renovated cafeteria, where I had eaten with my husband when we first met, we had to go to the washroom. Each stall had a short message posted. It explained what not to throw down the toilet. It also explained what had happened to require the message to be posted. It was the soul of brevity, a haiku of sorts, but it answered every question that a smart-mouthed adolescent student might ask.

With a smirk, I commented that this was still my kind of place – it offers the full explanation. As an adult, I’ve lived in places without the full explanation. Here’s an example: when an event is announced in Winnipeg, there is a start time, usually with a vague location, and the announcement just assumes everyone knows where it is. There’s also an assumption that you’ll know that, if food will be served, what kind of food, and what else is likely to happen. If there is a contact number at the end, it’s a postscript that reads, “If you are dumb enough to not understand this, call this person – but, guess what, they won’t know either.” Admittedly, I’m paraphrasing a little here, but, inevitably, if I call that number, the person is completely stymied by my questions. They wonder about why anyone would need to know what I am asking. They aren’t used to newcomers who might not know what to expect or who need all the details.

Maybe I’m just that annoying person who likes to know what I’m getting into, but when I hang out with relatives from bigger cities, their event schedule is full of the pertinent details. When I look at my sister-in-law’s fridge, in the DC suburbs, every single school event flyer or invitation has all the information. Maybe it’s a Type A thing? Even if they’re uptight, those are my people.

Recently, we had a visit with a local teacher here in Winnipeg and she mentioned a place run by two nice Jewish guys, called Friend Bakery and Pizzeria, which has delicious cinnamon buns. The bakery’s not near our usual activities. Out on an errand, we stopped in. We were greeted by the owners. They were welcoming, and open to our family deliberations. While we eyed the big $11 challahs, I said it was too bad that we’d already started ours in the bread machine – because it’s summer and I’m so not turning on the oven. The man nodded with understanding. We wished each other Shabbat Shalom. I got a little teary driving home. I had found more of my people.

Finding one’s “people” isn’t easy or without contention. Wandering around Ithaca on our trip, I encountered a Gaza war propaganda sticker with real venom to it. I was upset. For the first time ever, I unpeeled that sticker and threw it away. They might be free to spread misinformation, but I was just as free to see its harmful hate and throw it out.

Summer is for rest, reflection and productivity. I felt physically rested after spending many days in the car. Yet summer is also a time for growing things, embracing learning out of school and in the world. My kids saw lakes, gorges and waterfalls, ate lots of ice cream and watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the first time. (The movie is still funny.) The grandeur of steep craggy landscapes and huge lakes is still awe-inspiring.

My world has narrowed some since Oct. 7. I actively avoid encounters where I suspect my household might face hate or harassment. A friend and ally suggested that it must be even more upsetting when it happens in a place where I’m relaxed and least suspect it. The places where I used to feel safe are painful to be in.

Even so, I’ve felt love, support and outreach from unexpected places. Two close non-Jewish mom friends, who consistently wish me Shabbat Shalom, encourage me to vent and they listen with love. A few of my husband’s colleagues and friends’ parents just contacted us out of the blue to say they care and are thinking of us.

I don’t know “where we go from here” in the middle of a war, and the hate it’s stirred up. I think about the bathroom sign haiku with a weird fondness. It said everything that needed saying. I wish bigger, scarier times allowed for that kind of precise explanation and brevity, but I know it isn’t possible. Smart people disagree, struggle and work to find meaning. This is what Torah and Jewish rabbinic tradition models for us. The key is to keep it up, not lose hope, and to avoid the paralysis that comes with irrational fear.

When we find “our people,” they don’t always agree with us, and things are always changing. A long road trip can remind us that we’ve been stuck in ruts. But, sometimes, the GPS directions are wrong. We need our brains, a hard copy map and common sense to get out of tricky situations; autopilot doesn’t always suffice. However, our personal and historic experiences offer a roadmap of what has gone before and what might lie ahead. With that context, we can go forward: towards a new school year, a new Jewish year, new learning and better times.

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.

Holding faith at rallies

UBC student Zara Nybo, a non-Jewish ally, holds a poster of Rom Braslavski, as she speaks of his heroism before he was taken hostage to Gaza on Oct. 7. (photo by Pat Johnson)

As negotiations continued in Doha, Qatar, for the release of Israeli hostages, the weekly rallies in support of those held, their families and all Israelis continued Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

“As a university professor and as a Jew, I have been forced to witness the frontlines of a propaganda war to dehumanize and demonize Jews and to delegitimize the nation of Israel,” said Prof. Steven Plotkin, a University of British Columbia physicist.

The Hamas strategy is one of “asymmetric warfare,” he said, in which they bait Israel Defence Forces with attacks and hostage-takings, then use their own Palestinian civilians as human shields, knowing that the casualty numbers and horrible images will evoke sympathy in the West.

“And we’ve seen it,” he said. “The encampment and the protests at UBC quickly turned from advocating for the human rights of Palestinians to a call for the end of Israel.”

On campus, the messages he saw included the now familiar “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” but others on the same theme, including “We don’t want your two states! Take us back to ’48” and “Resistance is justified when you are occupied.” Another common refrain, he said, is “‘Globalize the intifada.’ That means bring terrorism everywhere, including here in Canada.”

“Long live Oct. 7” was yet another slogan the professor saw on his campus.

“Let that sink in,” he said.

When reports of extensive sexual abuse by Hamas and other Palestinians who broke through the border on Oct. 7 became known, he said, “I saw posters at UBC that announced a discussion group for ‘the lies that Zionists spread about the sexual abuse that didn’t occur on Oct. 7.’”

Plotkin reflected back to the days after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City, when people put up posters of their lost loved ones.

“Could you imagine what kind of person would think to tear one of those down? No one would have dreamed of it,” he said. “And now we’re seeing a world whose moral compass has completely lost its direction.”

Posters of Israeli hostages are routinely torn down at UBC, elsewhere in Vancouver and around the world. Plotkin shared a psychological hypothesis for why this desecration is so rampant.

In the identity-centred worldview of many activists, Plotkin said, morality is determined by one’s position in the hierarchy of oppression.

“The less powerful are pardoned, the more powerful must be guilty,” he said. Because Hamas is less powerful than Israel, Israel must be guilty, despite the evidence of Hamas murdering, raping and abducting Israeli civilians.

“A hostage poster, however, throws a wrench into that framework because it forces them to cope with the idea that the people that they thought were oppressed could actually be in the wrong,” Plotkin said. “Their whole simplistic worldview of the blameless oppressed and the evil oppressor is undermined by the ugly facts contained in the posters. A hostage poster induces a cognitive dissonance and, rather than question their own worldview, it’s easier for them to see it as pro-Israel propaganda designed to elicit their sympathy for the Jews in Israel, the bad guys, and so they feel compelled to tear the poster down.”

Eyal Daniel, a Burnaby high school teacher who specializes in Holocaust and genocide studies and who is president of the Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators’ Association, spoke about how his group was denied recognition by the BC Teachers’ Federation.

Representing close to 150 educators, the group applied to become one of the BCTF’s provincial specialist associations.

“Our application was rejected without any given reason,” he said. “Currently, there are no educational resources about the Holocaust and antisemitism for teachers in the province.”

Conversely, Daniel said, the province’s 50,000 teachers are bombarded by their union with materials promoting the elimination of the state of Israel.

The provincial government has mandated that Grade 10 students must receive Holocaust education beginning in 2025 and it is said to be working on curriculum materials.

Despite the lack of recognition from the BCTF, Daniel’s group will continue to work “as if we had been approved,” he said.

“Therefore, these days, we are in the process of constructing a new website, developing useful, meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers, assessing and developing appropriate educational materials and working with the minister of education on the upcoming Grade 10 Holocaust education curriculum framework,” he said.

Daniel spoke of his family’s recent visit to Israel, where they visited the site of the Nova music festival.

“Stepping out of the car into the desert heat, we were immediately surrounded by the haunting silence,” he said, “but, yet, 364 voices called out from the ground: Where is the humanity? The Nova memorial site is a barren killing field where humanity ceased to exist.”

Rabbi Susan Tendler of Congregation Beth Tikvah, in Richmond, spoke of the need for dialogue.

“In civic discourse … we’re yelling more than we’re listening,” she said. “So many of us will talk about the need to listen to one another but instead we’re just angry and have an inability to actually talk to one another.”

She asked people to see the humanity of others as a starting point to dialogue.

“To be a Jew means to respect and understand that every single human being was created in the image of God,” she said. “Let us continue to work for peace in the region that so, so sorely needs healing.”

Zara Nybo, a fourth-year student at UBC, is an ally to the Jewish community, president of the Israel on Campus club, and an Emerson Fellow with the international advocacy group StandWithUs. She shared recollections of a training conference in Los Angeles from which she and scores of other campus activists recently returned. At an LA rally for the hostages, she heard profoundly moving testimonies from family members of those still held in Gaza.

“Most people around me, men, women, had tears streaming down their face,” said Nybo. “We were all holding each other in collective grief.”

The mother of Rom Braslavski spoke of how her son had been a security guard at the Nova music festival and took it upon himself to hide the bodies of murdered women, both so they would not be taken to Gaza and so that they would not be posthumously raped or mutilated, as he had seen other female bodies desecrated. Braslavski was taken hostage in Gaza.

As Nybo and her fellow students prepare for the new academic year, she emphasized the training they have undergone and the determination with which they will return to campus.

“I will tell you we are committed to this fight,” she said.

Richard Lowy, who has provided vocal and guitar inspiration at almost every rally for months, spoke of the hope that a resolution will come through negotiation.

Event organizer Daphna Kedem recounted the rally in Tel Aviv the evening before and expressed hope that the hostages will be released soon and that the weekly rallies she has organized for 10 months will cease to be necessary.

Volunteers help rebuild Israel

Vancouverite Gail Mattuck volunteering in Israel after Oct. 7. She found her placements with the help of the Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities Facebook group. (photo from Gail Mattuck)

They’re coming from around the world, taking a leave from their jobs to help rebuild Israel with their own hands. These are volunteers who have filled the labour gaps in the aftermath of Oct. 7, visiting farms or soldiers or hostage families; attending shivas, packing food for reservists and more.

Vancouverite Gail Mattuck is one of tens of thousands of people who have volunteered. But, if it weren’t for the Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities Facebook group that guided her to where she could help, she likely would not have lent a hand.

Led by Hagit Greenberg Amar and Yocheved Kim Ruttenberg in Israel, the group provides a running list to its 35,000 followers of where people can volunteer.

Mattuck chose a Chabad centre that assisted with food security, packing food for evacuees and making sandwiches for children of reservists. She also volunteered at Castel Winery, in the Jerusalem hills, to cut wires for the grape vines to grow on.

“For my friends in Israel, they were really happy to see me, of course, but they appreciated I was there to be there during that time. Lots of people just thanked me for being there. Without that Facebook group, I couldn’t have done it,” said Mattuck.

“One of my friends lives up north,” she said. “There are missiles coming over there all the time. Her sons were in Gaza fighting. It’s very personal for them. For me to be there, they appreciated it. My sense was of a country that was incredibly hurt but not broken.”

Mattuck has a close connection to one of the people killed at the Nova music festival, and made her trip in his memory.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Ruttenberg attended university in South Florida, then moved to Dallas, where she worked in construction sales. She and her brother had plans to go into real estate together after he completed his Israel Defence Forces service. He was scheduled to be released on Nov. 12, 2023.

Her brother was stationed in the south on Oct. 7, and she woke up to a text message alerting her to the attack, and his arrival in battle a few hours later. It was then and there, she felt the need to help. She intended to stay in Israel for a couple of weeks.

“I couldn’t not be here during that time,” she said. Within three days, she was on a plane, carrying 23 duffle bags of donations for soldiers, worth $17,000. Three days before her return flight, she quit her job. “I can’t go home. I need to be here,” she told her boss.

“When the war started here in Israel, we didn’t know what to do,” said Amar. “So, we started to think about what we already know how to do. We started to import. We started with battery power banks, then medical equipment, things the Marines used in emergencies. A lot of special units came to our place. Then, we met [Ruttenberg’s] brother.”

It was Ruttenberg’s brother who introduced Amar to Ruttenberg.

In the beginning, Ruttenberg corralled volunteer information from various WhatsApp groups, Google Translated them and posted them. In late November 2023, the Facebook group formally launched.

Yael Yom Tov Emmanuel joined the page on day one, and matched thousands of volunteers to different opportunities. Since then, two other team members have joined – Ariel Boverman and Sarah Emerson Halford. They have since created a Google Docs document for members, so that prospective volunteers can search by area and specialty.

The initiatives have impacted numerous lives by coordinating farm volunteers, aiding soldiers, assisting at food banks, and participating in reconstruction efforts in the south. The group has emerged as an essential resource for both residents and visitors, linking individuals with opportunities to make a difference.

“It blows me away to see how many people have done something outside their comfort zone in such a big way. People come to Israel for the first time in their lives, alone, in the middle of a war,” said Ruttenberg.

Group members are vetted carefully, something Amar says is one of the challenges in dealing with a hundred requests per hour. They have had to turf some infiltrators.

“It’s a 24/7 operation because we have people all over the world,” said Ruttenberg. “We all have our different roles. Some are more on the Facebook page interacting. A lot of my time is going into the field and meeting volunteers and interacting. But it’s a full-time job – beyond a full-time job.” No one is financially compensated for their time.

When Ruttenberg is not dedicating her time to the volunteers, she works part-time in marketing and sales consulting. She recently finished a US speaking tour and said that, while in Texas, half the room were Christians, they wept at her stories and couldn’t wait to get involved.

“People are sitting at home and feel helpless,” she said. “When your country is at war, when there’s antisemitism through the roof and you are not in the military and are not medically trained, you feel like there is no way to give back. It makes me incredibly proud to see, and incredibly proud to meet, the volunteers who are helping rebuild Israel with their bare hands.”

Amar, who lives in Ramat Gan with her three children, was previously chief executive officer of a brand and strategy company. She is now pursuing a second degree, in social work, at Haifa University, with an aim to offer therapy and mental health services.

“I think this group created a place where you could feel safe and be part of a community. There are real friendships in real life that occurred from the group. If somebody needs something, we always find someone to be with and support them,” Amar said.

“I think part of what we are doing is creating ambassadors, and changing the narrative about how people see Israel, showing Israel as a beautiful place,” added Ruttenberg. “Everyone who comes here meets soldiers and other people who are grateful. Israelis see people come from LA, just to pick tomatoes – we really appreciate that.”

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

CRA “blindsides” JNF

Lance Davis, chief executive officer of JNF Canada. (photo from JNF Canada)

The Jewish National Fund of Canada is fighting the Canada Revenue Agency over the revocation of the organization’s charitable status, accusing the federal taxation department of “blindsiding” them and treating them differently than other charities. The head of JNF Canada sees bias at play.

“Do we think the CRA is antisemitic?” asked Lance Davis, JNF Canada’s chief executive officer, in an interview with the Independent. “No. Do we think there is bias involved here? Yes. That’s actually part of our court application. We have said in writing that we believe there is bias.”

The difference, Davis explained, is that, while CRA officials may not carry prejudice toward Jewish people, their decision may have been influenced by a concerted, multi-year campaign attacking JNF – Independent Jewish Voices Canada has a website dedicated to the campaign.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, JNF Canada obtained the files used by CRA to make their determination.

“So we know what was written in the file that the CRA is using with respect to JNF Canada and it is littered with complaints in an organized and systematic way from anti-Israel groups, unions, political parties, etc.,” he said. “After you read all of this material, one can reasonably say that bias may have come to play into the decision-making process.”

Davis is emphatic that media have so far got the story wrong. The revocation is not about JNF Canada’s support for projects on Israel Defence Forces bases or on the other side of the Green Line, outside of Israel proper. CRA expressed concerns about these projects several years ago and JNF Canada immediately ended those undertakings, he said.

“Yes, we have over the last number of decades built all sorts of public amenities on IDF bases,” he said. “Those amenities include swing sets, playgrounds, parks, play areas … shaded areas, rest areas, all that kind of stuff. We disagree that that is not charitable. Helping the children who have to live on a base … we believe is charitable.”

Moreover, the money for such past projects did not flow to Israel’s military, said Davis. It went to a charity that built the projects.

“Nevertheless, when it was brought to our attention that this is a problem according to the CRA, we stopped doing it in order to be cooperative and collaborative with the CRA,” he said. “That’s not what this revocation is about. It might be an interesting subject for the media or those outside parties to conflate, but this issue that we’re dealing with the CRA is fundamentally about our founding charitable object. They’ve come to the conclusion that it is not charitable.”

The issue, Davis said, is that CRA, after 57 years, has abruptly reversed the 1967 acceptance of the organization’s charitable objective.

In 1967, said Davis, CRA’s predecessor agency accepted JNF Canada’s purpose of funding projects in which economically disadvantaged individuals in Israel, especially new immigrants as well as Palestinians, are hired to complete projects like tree-planting and digging reservoirs, with the intention of keeping them off welfare rolls and combating poverty.

The current troubles between CRA and JNF Canada started during an audit that began in 2014. When the auditor cited the original objective as incompatible, Davis said, the organization immediately set out to negotiate new charitable purposes that would satisfy CRA.

“We presented 10 of them in writing and said, please work with us, let’s pick any or all of these and we’ll get to work,” said Davis. “CRA did not negotiate with us at all about any of those charitable objects.”

Those objectives, he noted, were replicated by JNF Canada from other recognized charities that had received approvals from CRA.

The organization’s leaders say they were “blindsided” by the decision, which was released Aug. 10, via the Canada Gazette, the federal government’s avenue for publicizing legislation and government decisions.

The revocation is the culmination of a crisis that began at the end of June, when JNF was notified that CRA intended to revoke their charitable status. Within weeks, the organization’s lawyers had filed suit with the Federal Court of Appeal.

In every similar instance JNF’s lawyers reviewed, Davis said, CRA refrained from revoking the status at least until the organization had their day in court.

“There is this idea of a presumption of innocence until you’ve exhausted all your appeals,” said Davis. “Why weren’t we given a presumption of innocence? Why weren’t we given a chance to say our piece before the judge? It’s a right that every Canadian business, individual, charity is entitled to.”

For now, JNF Canada is not permitted to provide charitable receipts.

“We are still a nonprofit, we still exist, we’re still an entity,” Davis said.

If the Federal Court of Appeal sides with CRA, JNF could take the matter to the Supreme Court, Davis said. Alternatively, they could potentially restructure the way they do their work.

“We are working through thoughts and plans with our legal counsel as to how we could best continue the work of JNF in a legal, charitable manner,” he said. “But we are confident in our case and we feel that it’s vitally important for us to challenge the CRA and the facts that they’ve presented.”

JNF Canada has not yet publicly released documents relating to the matter, as they await their lawyers’ annotations to provide both the CRA’s perspective and the JNF’s replies to the government agency’s concerns.

In dealing with JNF Canada, Davis contends, CRA has behaved differently than they routinely do with other charities. The due process they should expect has not been forthcoming and the government agency has leapfrogged several steps that charities are generally provided in the progression of an issue, he said.

Living amid continuing war

Band-aids – check. Bottled water – check. Tinned foods – wait. No sooner do I buy canned tuna, pickles, corn and peas and they’re eaten. Need to refresh that one. Flashlight – check. Portable radio – check. Now, this is a cool one. While not available in the groovy colours of the 1970s – bought it in a staid brown – the small, palm-sized handheld radio conjures up fond memories of those catchy songs from Billboard’s Top 10. Although the reason for the checklist is anything but fanciful. With the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatening a major reprisal attack.

In the Star Trek movie Wrath of Khan, the Klingons said “revenge is a dish best served cold.” I can certainly attest to that. As can my more than 9.5 million fellow Israelis. It feels like an eternity since the ayatollahs promised mighty revenge for Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief, Fuad Shukr, and Hamas’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, and the alleged Israeli assassination of Hamas’s politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh. When Iran’s authoritarian regime said at a place and time of their choosing, they weren’t kidding. We are still waiting…. Actually, I think the Klingons were probably quoting Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos, the 18th-century French novelist and army general who is credited with first analogizing revenge as a cold dish.

Speaking of proverbs, I think its origin is Chinese, some claim Yiddish. Regardless, whoever said “may you live in interesting times” was certainly cursing someone. Give me boring. Give me dull. Give me mundane. Give me monotonous. Give me colourless and bland. You can keep the gripping. The riveting. The fascinating. The stimulating. I just want to wake up to another simple day.

This waiting game is immensely stressful. It has the whole world on edge, with an alliance being built between Israel, the United States, Britain, France and Italy to thwart a second potential direct attack on my little shtetl. The first attack – of some 300 drones – was launched against Israel in April. We went to bed facing potential Armageddon and, thankfully, woke up able to just go to work, as Israel, with the help of its allies, knocked each drone out of sky before they reached Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Speaking of work, I am a self-confessed workaholic. And I find myself working even more during this very stressful period, where I fear my fate is out of my control. Will Iran attack? Where? And when? And how? No idea. No authority. No power. Simply unable to influence, in any way. Whereas work, which I am pretty good at, gives me all those things. I am largely in control, able to influence within my environment. Work gives me a calming sense and, if nothing else, allows me to escape into my purchasing processes and contracts. This is my own industrial and organizational psychotherapy. As good an excuse as any for my wife, when she again finds me tapping away at my keyboard at all hours or in another early morning or late evening Teams meeting.

As for preparations, I find myself obsessed with buying bottled water, toilet paper and Ajax. The first couple of items, you probably understand. But floor cleaner? I think it’s the Jewish mother in me. I don’t want to leave behind a dirty home. Kind of like Golda from Fiddler on the Roof, who insisted on sweeping their little Anatevka farmhouse before leaving. Although – and I say this loud and clear – we ain’t going nowhere!

Another quirk in dealing with the stress is that I love the music from the hippie generation. For the longest time after that dreadful Oct. 7, I wouldn’t – couldn’t – listen to music. I felt a very deep sadness. Maybe a type of mourning. But now, over the last few days, I find myself blaring my tunes. One of the first songs to pop up in my feed just after Iran’s rulers made their threat of retribution was “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. How foreboding can you get? “I hear hurricanes a blowin’. I know the end is comin’ soon.… I hear the voice of rage and ruin. Don’t go around tonight. Well, it’s bound to take your life. There’s a bad moon on the rise, alright.”

And, I find myself listening again and again – at pretty high volume – to the dark and wonderful song by our own Edan Golan, “October Rain,” otherwise known to the world as “Hurricane”: “Every day, I’m losing my mind…. Dancing in this storm, I’ve got nothing left to hide…. Baby, promise me you’ll hold me again.… I’m still broken from this hurricane….” And then, with hope: “Don’t have words. Just prayers. Even if it’s hard to see, you always leave me one small light.”

On another music note, I find myself chanting, to no one in particular, that snappy little line “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Now, why can’t we come up with something as catchy? With an impressive gene pool of great Jewish songwriters: George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Burt Bacharach, Carole King, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Amy Winehouse, Gene Simmons. Come on! And still, gornisht, nothing. No wonder we’re losing the global PR battle.

Please continue donating to the war and revival efforts. You may have given earlier, when hostilities first erupted and the Gaza war was headline news. Almost 10 months later, war continues – on several fronts. Sderot and Metula – and maybe Tel Aviv and Haifa – are Israel’s front line and Israel is the diaspora’s front line. Am Yisrael chai (yeah, that’s the extent of our solidarity anthem). Bring them home now!

Bruce Brown, a Canadian-Israeli, made aliyah more than 25 years ago. He works in high-tech and is happily married, with two kids. He is the winner of a 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish writing.

Federation’s latest transfer of aid to Israel

Last month, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver transferred $9.3 million from its Israel Emergency Campaign. Additionally, the allocations committee approved a further $1.4 million for transfer.

It has been more than 10 months since Oct. 7, and the situation in Israel remains dynamic and unstable as a full-scale war looms in the north. Rachel Sachs, director of Federation’s Israel office, provided the following update:

“Over the past few months, as the situation in the south stabilized and transitioned into rebuilding, the situation in the north has escalated, creating more complex challenges for displaced communities.

“Mutual fire along the northern border has been steady since October 2023 but has escalated over the past few weeks. This means hundreds of homes along the border have been hit and damaged. Thousands of residents, who were evacuated … are still living in temporary housing or have settled in new homes in new communities, and do not plan to return to the Galilee when the war is over. The communities that were not evacuated have been living in an active war zone since then, under the threat of rockets, drones and missiles.”

Federation was notified by Elad Kozikaro, chief executive officer of the Kiryat Shmona Community Centres, “that a rocket hit close to Beit Vancouver causing some damage to the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but Beit Vancouver is home to thousands of children and teens and has left the community unnerved.”

Considering these developments, the IEC Allocations Committee, chaired by Stephen Gaerber, realigned its strategy to focus on the north. The following organizations are recipients of IEC allocations from February through June 2024: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Tzafon Medical Centre, Taglit Birthright Israel, Galilee Medical Centre, Kiryat Shmona Community Centre, Kiryat Shmona High School, Upper Galilee Regional Council, Tel-Hai College, municipalities in the East Galilee Cluster, Israel Medical Association, Dror Israel, Healthy Minds, JDC and Magen David Adom Israel.

For a full summary of the support, visit jewishvancouver.com/iec-allocations.

CHW’s new year begins

CHW Vancouver Centre’s opening luncheon on Sept. 22 honours longtime members and contributors Bev Corber, left, and Dolly Jampolsky. (photos from CHW)

This year’s CHW Vancouver Centre opening luncheon on Sept. 22 will honour Bev Corber, a past CHW Vancouver Centre president, and recognize the volunteer efforts of Dolly Jampolsky.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing both women for a long time,” CHW Vancouver Centre president Toby Rubin told the Independent. “During Bev’s tenure as CHW Vancouver Centre president, I ran the annual campaign, and I have worked on other committees with her. I am excited for her to finally be recognized for all she has done and continues to do to support CHW and all its projects.

“Dolly is the Energizer bunny in my opinion,” continued Rubin. “At the age of 90, she continues to be our number one volunteer for both obtaining silent auction items and canvassing – no one seems to be able to say no to Dolly. Both Bev and Dolly exemplify strong women and are role models for myself and the rest of the community.”

Rubin has been a supporter of CHW for more than 30 years, Corber has been a member of CHW for almost 40 years, while Jampolsky joined the group more than 60 years ago.

“I had just moved to Vancouver and was seeking friendship and community,” Jampolsky said. “It was also very important for me to do something in support of Israel. CHW seemed to be a good choice.

“Early on, I was very involved with the bazaar. I recall that I would reach out to the better hotels in the city and ask for donations of linens. I also did the pickups of these donations. One time, I was at a very exclusive hotel in downtown Vancouver and I loaded up the elevator with a huge donation of linens. I stepped inside and pushed the button to go down and I got stuck. I was there inside the elevator for one or maybe two hours; no phones at the time. All I could do was press the emergency button and wait and wait.”

Stephanie Rusen, immediate past president of CHW Vancouver Centre, recalled Jampolsky’s involvement with the Hadassah Bazaar, including that her chapter had the clothing booth, then moved to linens.

“After the bazaar,” said Rusen, “Dolly switched to Pro-Am [golf tournament] and the silent auction. She has continued with the silent auction, expanding it to the Aviva Games Day and then to the openings. For a number of years, she sold the entertainment books.”

According to Rusen, “Dolly said that I was the one to get her calling donors, first for annual campaign, then end-of-year, and finally SOS. Give her a list of 20 names to call and a day later she wants more names. Three years ago, when she asked for yet another list, I only had one with 100 names and told her to call just the first 20. She called them all!”

Corber also joined CHW after moving to Vancouver and, in her decades with the organization, she has contributed in many capacities, including helping create CHW’s Legacy Circle, which allows donors of varying incomes “to create a philanthropic legacy for a cause they care deeply about.” She was active in the Hadassah Bazaar, has served as chapter and centre president, been convenor of multiple fundraisers and events, and participated in different committees, among other things. In 2021, she completed her role as CHW Vancouver Centre’s immediate past president.

“Over the years, I have made lasting friendships with women of all ages,” she said. “I value the opportunity to work with others to support our projects in Israel. With each additional commitment I have made to the organization, I have found that I have been amply rewarded for my efforts. I have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to make a difference (tikkun olam) while connecting to others in the Jewish community.”

For Jampolsky, CHW has met all the goals she had when joining.

“I was able to form many wonderful and lasting friendships that I still treasure to this day and to fulfil the promise I made to myself to support my community and Israel,” she said. “Joining CHW gave me the satisfaction that I could lend my time, energy and creativity to support Israel and set an example for my friends, my community, my children and grandchildren.”

One of the reasons Rubin was attracted to CHW was that it was a women’s organization, “bringing together like-minded women and supporting causes close to women’s hearts.

“It is an organization whose projects in Israel are not only about things that are important to all women – helping at-risk children, empowering women and providing vital health care – but also supports our local community here in Canada,” she said. “CHW looks at what the current needs are, finds the gaps in support and fills them. I am proud to stand strong with CHW and all it does to proudly support Israel and Canada.”

Rubin, who is beginning her third year as CHW Vancouver Centre president, writes on the CHW website: “Since coming in as CHW Vancouver Centre president in the fall of 2022, we have held an almost sold out Games Day, heard World WIZO chairperson Anita Friedman and cookbook author Adeena Sussman, have held SOS (Starting Over Safely) Walks, surpassed expectations on our campaigns, and we continue to try and grow the under-40 chapter.”

She also notes that there have been some tough times, notably Oct. 7.

“I think Oct. 7 has done the complete opposite of what Hamas and other terror groups thought – it has brought Jewish people together, not pulled them apart,” Rubin told the Independent. “I have found that people want to be together more than ever and are not afraid to attend meetings/events at the JCC, shuls or public places. We are always showing people how CHW is not the same organization it was when our grandmothers were involved and, since Oct. 7, more people are looking to belong to a community like CHW.”

In addition to honouring Corber and Jampolsky, the CHW opening will feature remarks and a Q&A livestreamed with Idit Shamir, consul general of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada. CHW chief executive officer Lisa Colt-Kotler will talk about her recent trip to Israel, where she visited CHW projects and bore witness to the atrocities of Oct. 7. Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit CHW partner Michal Sela Forum (MSF).

“MSF uses technology and innovation to improve the lives of victims of domestic abuse and helps them and their children take back their lives,” explained Rubin. “MSF is about keeping at-risk women safe in their homes instead of relying on shelters. The safety programs, like Michal Sela Canines, also allows women to return to their daily lives without fear of violence – this is so important. Also, everything MSF does, creates and establishes are things their CEO, Lili Ben Ami, wants to share with the world!”

For tickets to the Sept. 22, 11 a.m., opening lunch at Richmond Country Club, go to chw.ca/luncheon.

The science behind addiction

Every year, more Canadian teenagers die by suicide than by all medical diseases combined, including cancer, diabetes, asthma and infections.

Dr. Yaron Finkelstein, a professor of pediatrics, pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Toronto and a staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children (known as SickKids), shared this fact with the Jewish Independent in advance of Bridging Hope: Science and Testimonial in the Fight Against Addiction. Presented by Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, King David High School (KDHS) and Vancouver Talmud Torah (VTT), the Sept. 26 event at KDHS will also feature Dr. Yonatan Kupchik, senior lecturer, department of medical neurobiology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU), and Dr. Rami Yaka, head of the School of Pharmacy at HU, discussing the science of addiction. The testimonial part of the gathering will be shared by members of the Epstein-Bogdonov family. In this issue of the Independent, we talk to the doctors. Next issue, we will meet Elana Epstein and David Bogdonov, who, with their son, Noah Bogdonov, will speak in September about their family’s experience with addiction.

“Drug overdose, led by the opioids crisis, is an immense public health problem in BC, Canada and globally,” Finkelstein said. “Effectively addressing the loss of so many people for overdose daily, a largely preventable condition, must be a national priority. Indeed, youths are also highly affected, and we see them in the emergency departments, in clinics and, sadly, on the streets. Further, some youths use overdose as a common means of self-harm and suicide attempt.”

Finkelstein added that “most medications administered to children, particularly in hospitals (up to 85% in some acute care settings) have not been properly studied and approved in this population. Rather, we ‘borrow’ them from our experience in adults, scale the dose down to the child’s weight and hope to achieve the same effects and outcomes. However, we know this is not always the case, sometimes the outcomes are unwarranted, and I have personally noticed that repeatedly over the years. The goal of my research program is to work hard and close this knowledge gap – find the safest and most effective medications for children, and tailor their dosing regimens to the pediatric needs.”

photo - Dr. Yaron Finkelstein — Dr. Yaron Finkelstein *(photo from Sickkids website)*

At Bridging Hope, Finkelstein will discuss “the impacts of cannabis legalization on pediatric poisonings – trends and severity (for example, many do not appreciate that edible cannabis products can kill a child) – and on mental health, including addiction and the risk of developing schizophrenia in youths and adults.”

Canada became the second country to legalize cannabis for recreational use in 2018, he said. “This ‘natural experiment’ has led to numerous unanticipated outcomes, many have negative impacts on public health, and particularly on children.”

Finkelstein’s main research is centred on pediatric therapeutics in acute-care settings, with the long-term goal of optimizing drug safety.

“During my clinical clerkship in medical school, my passion to help children grew tremendously, and I was inspired by my mentors,” he shared. “Children have immense resilience, and their recovery is often fast and remarkable, and provides hope. I was always fascinated by the mechanistic actions of drugs on the human body, and combining those passions felt natural.”

“From the early beginning of my studies, I was thrilled to understand how the brain functions,” said Yaka, who not just heads HU’s School of Pharmacy but conducts research as well. “The brain reward circuitry is the most important system in any living creature, since it is responsible for our survival and reproduction, therefore, our existence. My main research is focused on synaptic function in health and disease.”

photo - Dr. Rami Yaka — Dr. Rami Yaka *(photo from HU website)*

Yaka joined the School of Pharmacy in 2003 and has served in many capacities. “Since I feel that the School of Pharmacy is like my second home and I really care about its future, and since I have all the necessary experience to take this mission, I volunteered to head the school,” he said. “Maintaining the right balance between the administrative duties and the research (my main cause of being here) is challenging. I work harder and try to pay the same attention to both tasks without reducing any effort for either.”

On Sept. 26, Yaka will talk about “‘out of the box’ research to battle drug addiction.”

“Since addiction to drugs, screens, food, etc., is very common and spreads all over the world very easily, this subject is very popular among laypeople,” he said. “Therefore, for me, it’s easy to adopt lay language to explain in simple words what the problem is and what we can do to avoid having it. I think that a huge part of the problem is the lack of knowledge among users (mainly young) about the adverse effects and negative impact that drugs have on the brain.”

With respect to educating youth and engaging them more broadly in science, Kupchik sees his role as a principal investigator at a leading university as “not only to generate new knowledge that may lead the world forward but also to plant the seeds for the next generation of principal investigators.”

“In Israel,” said Kupchik, “there are several programs that select the top high school students in the country and expose them to academia at their early age. This is excellent, but … there are many excellent students that we may be missing as a society just because they live in underprivileged places. Therefore, we try in the lab to specifically target those populations of students, and we do it in various ways. For example … [we] started an initiative that invites local high school students to scientific conferences taking place in their vicinity. For many students, this is the first interaction with science and many of them reported later that it induced interest in the scientific world. We also invite high school students to our laboratory and provide an interactive experience in which they learn about the brain and how scientific research is performed.”

photo - Dr. Yonatan Kupchik — Dr. Yonatan Kupchik *(photo from HU website)*

What most intrigues Kupchik about neurobiology “is how a biological organ, composed of billions of neurons that communicate with each other, generates such complex phenomena as behaviour, emotion, thoughts, etc.” His lab at HU researches the changes occurring in single neurons or in brain circuits in drug addiction or obesity. Among other things, they are currently collaborating with two neighbouring labs.

“One is with the laboratory of Dr. Shai Sabbah, an expert in the neurobiology of light processing in the eye. It is known that exposure to light can affect mood and the neural activity in brain areas related to emotions. We are investigating in this collaboration whether light exposure could also affect drug-seeking behaviour.

“Another collaboration is with the laboratory of Dr. Danny Ben-Zvi, an endocrinologist and expert of the bariatric surgery. As bariatric surgery decreases the craving for rewarding foods, we are now investigating together whether the bariatric surgery drives permanent changes in the reward system of the brain and whether it could affect the craving for other, non-food, rewards.”

Kupchik said, “We believe that there are many similarities between behaviours that may reflect addiction, such as drug dependence, overeating, gambling, hoarding, computer gaming, social media use and so on, and hope that understanding the neurobiological mechanisms in one kind of addiction could hint about the mechanisms of other addictions. We chose to focus on drug addiction and on obesity both because these are two main global health challenges that remain unsolved and because these are conditions that can be modeled in laboratory animals.”

At King David High School, Kupchik “will try to show some of the permanent changes we found that occur in the reward system after using cocaine, and after withdrawal.”

For tickets ($18) to Bridging Hope, visit register.cfhu.org/bridginghope.