Alexis Pavlich

Serving Israel with their life

From left to right: Murray Palay, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University national chair; Israel Defence Forces Unit 669 reserve combat soldiers Leehou Porat and Gai Ben Dor; Prof. Yaacov Nahmias, director of the Alexander Grass Centre for Bioengineering at Hebrew U; 669 reserve combat soldiers Bar Reuven and Dotan Braun; CFHU Vancouver chapter president Randy Milner; and CFHU national vice-chair Phil Switzer. (photo from CFHU Vancouver)

Dina Wachtel, executive director of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University’s Western region, describes the recent fundraising event that attracted more than 300 people to Congregation Beth Israel on July 17 as “a wonderful success.”

The sold-out event raised scholarship funds for outstanding student-soldiers. These individuals are pursuing degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as performing their miluim, or reserve duty, in the Israel Defence Forces’ elite airborne rescue and evacuation unit known as “669.” The Vancouver event drew a diverse and engaged crowd from the community and included academics and members of local search and rescue groups.

Prof. Yaakov Nahmias, director of the Alexander Grass Centre for Bioengineering at the Hebrew University, kicked off the formal part of the evening’s program with an overview of Hebrew U’s history and accomplishments. Founded in 1918 – 30 years before the establishment of the state of Israel – by illustrious historical figures, such as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Chaim Weizmann, Hebrew U ranks as one of the world’s leading universities and boasts seven Nobel Prize laureates. According to Nahmias, “when Hebrew U calls, you answer!”

The Grass Centre was established in 2010. Nahmias, who was at Harvard University before returning to Israel, has won several academic awards for his work in liver research and he is particularly proud of the centre’s successes in “educat[ing] a new generation of multidisciplinary innovators and entrepreneurs at the cutting edge of biotechnology and medical science.” He noted that the centre’s 44 affiliated faculty members undertake research that winds up in the world’s leading scientific journals; interest-catching pursuits such as building a liver outside of a body, predicting in vitro fertilization pregnancy rates, and determining “idiosyncratic drug toxicity” (hitherto unexpected adverse reactions to drugs).

Nahmias also outlined the “startup” element of the centre’s work – an aspect that appeals to students with academic ambitions, as well as giving them market experience and engendering an entrepreneurial spirit. The Israeli government has invested $20 million US in BioJerusalem, or “Silicon Wadi,” to support technological innovation. The outcome? Israel is a global leader in medical devices and pharmaceuticals, he said, and this attracts intellectually curious science students who are also seeking opportunities in business, medicine and engineering. The biodesign program feeds directly into Israel’s economic success and reputation as a technological powerhouse. Remarkable and revolutionary projects to date, he said, include the creation of a specialized infrared gun to facilitate intravenous insertions; digitally made dentures that are inexpensive and quick to produce; and a new 60-second life-saving procedure that improves stabbing victims’ chances of survival by preventing suffocation caused by collapsed lungs.

Nahmias concluded his presentation by highlighting bioengineering as “one of the most fascinating areas, especially for the future of Jerusalem as a city and Hebrew University as the leading university in Israel.” He announced that plans are underway to build a large, new institute on the Givat Ram campus to house the biodesign program.

photo in Jewish Independent - Event emcee and Hebrew University alumna Nava Rosenberg — Event emcee and Hebrew University alumna Nava Rosenberg. *(photo from CFHU Vancouver)*

The evening’s lecture was punctuated with a musical interlude from Vancouver-based Israeli composer and guitarist Itamar Erez. Recipient of the Landau Prize in 2014, as well as the ACUM Prize for special achievement in jazz, Erez’s musical talents blend jazz, flamenco and the sounds of the Middle East.

Following Erez’s performance, four extraordinary young Israelis took centre stage. They detailed their personal experiences serving in the IDF’s 669 and how the service has impacted their lives.

The unit, which accepts only 50 recruits each year out of 10,000 applicants, was established in 1974 following the Yom Kippur War. It is referred to as the “guardian angel of the Jewish people” because it rescues soldiers and civilians alike, both within and beyond Israel’s borders. The unit’s motto is, “Thou didst call in trouble and I rescued thee” and, in the last 40 years, the unit has rescued more than 10,000 injured and saved thousands of lives. Rescue operations are generally extremely difficult and dangerous.

Bar Reuven, Leehou Porat, Dotan Braun and Gai Ben Dor impressed upon the crowd the unique and challenging lifestyle of a Unit 669 reservist, who is “on-call 24/7” and serves an average of 30 to 45 days a year “in peacetime.” When summoned, a civilian university student is instantly transformed into an elite reservist on a mission that can be anywhere in the world. All personal commitments are immediately set aside.

According to Reuven, 27, who served as an officer in 669 and founded an alumni association designed to provide much-needed support to discharged soldiers from 669 transitioning to civilian life, you “can go from eating shakshuka [in Tel Aviv] to Gaza in 30 minutes.”

Thirty-year-old Braun, a fifth-year medical student at Hebrew U and a reserve combat soldier and paramedic in 669, recounted walking to class in July 2012, when he received a command to present himself on base within the next 30 minutes. He soon learned that he would be traveling to Burgas, Bulgaria, to treat and evacuate some 42 Israeli tourists who had been targeted in a bus bombing. (Tragically, five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver were murdered in that terror attack.)

Serving in the 669 instils Braun with a profound sense of pride in Israel, as “there is no other country that cares about the security of all its citizens and at all times,” he said. He – like others in 669 – is also called upon to come to the aid of non-citizens in life-threatening situations, including rescuing sailors in the Mediterranean or treating casualties of natural disasters in far-flung corners of the world.

Braun emphasized that life for 669 reservists, in particular, “is never routine.” Porat, 28, who is both a reserve combat soldier in Unit 669 and a student at Hebrew U, underscored this fact by recounting – with the aid of select video footage – a harrowing evening of back-to-back rescue missions that included evacuating an Israeli soldier from Gaza who had been gravely wounded in an axe attack; responding to a serious car accident that caused seven fatalities; assisting a pregnant Bedouin woman in the advanced stages of labor and whose house had just been washed away by floods; and rescuing a number of individuals trapped in or on cars swirling in raging floodwaters and high winds.

Despite the challenges of balancing the responsibilities of school, work, family, volunteerism and reserve duty, Reuven, Porat, Braun and Ben Dor were all steadfast in their commitment to their unit, and to serving their country and fellow citizens in times of crisis.

It was evident that these four speakers have indeed internalized the core values of the unit, described by Reuven as assisting those in need, social responsibility, and helping make Israel and her people stronger. He engages these values to guide him in managing his Cat 669 Alumni Association, a group that provides emotional, psychological and financial guidance, career mentoring and other material support to fellow unit members transitioning – sometimes with great difficulty – to civilian life. This group also draws upon its superior skill set to “pay it forward” in local communities by, for example, teaching emergency first aid.

Thirty-two-year-old Ben Dor is an accountant and lawyer at KPMG in Israel. As part of 669, he is another example of the positive contributions that 669 reservists make to Israeli society. An avid long-distance runner in his teens, Ben Dor responded to an online ad seeking “a runner with soul.” Beza, a blind Ethiopian immigrant wanted to take up running, and Ben Dor (and his father, also a runner) coached Beza over the next several years. Beza competed in a number of international marathons, and ultimately qualified to compete at the Beijing Paralympics, representingIsrael. Ben Dor, his father and Beza have since climbed to Everest Base Camp together and Ben Dor has established an Israeli not-for-profit organization called 180 Degrees, which hosts running groups for people with physical or cognitive disabilities.

Listening to these four young Israelis who are serving their country in truly meaningful ways and learning about the cutting-edge research taking place at the Hebrew University, it is not surprising that the evening’s fundraising event – to support the reserve soldiers in Unit 669 studying at Hebrew U by relieving them of financial worries – was a “wonderful success.”

Share in collectors’ passions

Yosef Wosk with his collection of circus memorabilia, some of which can be seen in the Museum of Vancouver exhibit All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and Their Worlds. (photo by Rebecca Blissett)

Prosthetics. Menus. Corsets. Artificial eyes. Seeds. Public transit documents. One wouldn’t necessarily think of these items as “collectibles,” yet they form part of a new exhibition that opened on June 23 at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV).

All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and Their Worlds presents wall-to-wall displays of rare and unconventional items from 20 local collectors. Rounding out each exhibit is an opportunity for a fun, hands-on experience and a profile of the collector, including his or her motivations for collecting.

The exhibition explores the questions: Why do people collect and how do private collections touch public consciousness?

“The act of collecting is a fascinating way to engage with one’s identity, history and community,” Viviane Gosselin, curator of contemporary culture at the MOV, said in a release. “This exhibition enables visitors to enter into the rich, often unknown worlds of collectors and to think about how private collections can affect our understanding of the past. In this way, it reminds us of the importance of collectors as memory-keepers.”

Some of the exhibition’s “memory-keepers” include Imogene Lim, an anthropologist who collects Chinese-Canadian restaurant menus. She does so because they connect to her family story and her interest in intercultural history. David Moe collects vintage artificial limbs because they connect to his father’s profession and provide insight into the development of medical technology.

Gosselin noted that many of the collections form the basis for larger conversations about important societal issues. For example, Harold Steves’ collection of heirloom seeds ties to environmental history and issues of sustainability and food security. Prosthetics stimulate discussions about visibility, accessibility, social stigmas associated with disability and prosthetic design developments.

photo - Harold Steves’ collection of heirloom seeds ties to environmental history and issues of sustainability and food security — Harold Steves’ collection of heirloom seeds ties to environmental history and issues of sustainability and food security. *(photo by Rebecca Blissett)*

For Yosef Wosk, whose circus memorabilia was chosen by MOV curators to feature in the exhibition, collecting represents “an assembly of ideas, feelings, interesting people, travels and experiences so that the whole world, in a way, is a great museum.” He believes that the selection of his circus memorabilia for exhibition was “serendipitous,” as he considers the circus a “metaphor for life … usually a joyous place and sometimes an adventure.”

Wosk has been an avid collector of art and other diverse objects for many years. His 20 different collections encompass paintings, sculptures, photographs, furniture, carpets, lamps, textiles, glass, books (subdivided into 15 to 20 categories), toys and religious articles, including Judaica. He cherishes his collection of Torah scrolls from around the world, including Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Morocco and Tunisia.

As a child, Wosk collected coins, stamps, marbles and comics, but he is nostalgic in remembering the purchase of his first piece of “real art” at the age of 16. It was a Japanese scroll that he decided was worthy of his entire summer salary as a junior counsellor at Camp Hatikvah.

Over the years, Wosk built up his collection while studying and working in different cities around the world, such as Jerusalem, New York, Toronto, Philadelphia and Boston. As a student in Toronto, he acquired (with the help of his father) an Andy Warhol screenprint, “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century,” which he kept in a cardboard case under his bed.

Perhaps naturally, it was in Jerusalem that Wosk started to collect Judaica. Noting that, “collecting is an external manifestation of inner thoughts, feelings and spirituality,” he regards his Jewish collections, in particular, as an appreciation of Creation. He points out that the first description of G-d in the Torah is as an artist, as Creator. Moreover, the earth, and everything that fills it, is G-d’s collection. As such, Wosk has a profound appreciation for human creativity as an extension of the individual but, ultimately, of G-d. “That is how I feel about the collection, which is part of the world and the universe, which emanates from the Creator,” he said.

Wosk also believes that, as a collector, he has a responsibility to share his prized possessions with others.

“Sharing is as important as the collecting,” he said. “I find that collecting is not just owning, but along with ownership comes responsibility … to the object, the artist and the community.”

Wosk also emphasized, “People shouldn’t be afraid to collect and give it away.” He is a proud patron of the arts, serving on local and national boards of directors for various museums and art organizations (he was a founder of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia), donating art to hospitals and institutions of higher learning, and lending his collections to different exhibitions. His collection of Judaica has been displayed in Philadelphia and Boston, as well as in Vancouver, including at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery. He hopes to coordinate an exhibition in Israel in the future.

Wosk’s remarkable collections, and his enthusiasm to share his “wealth” with diverse communities, warrants his honorific as a “memory-keeper.” For a man who once worked as a teaching assistant for one of the greatest memory-keepers in history, the esteemed Elie Wiesel, this is perhaps not so serendipitous.

All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and Their Worlds is at the Museum of Vancouver until Jan. 8, 2017. If you fancy yourself a collector and would like to participate in this exhibition, the MOV invites the public to post pictures of themselves with their collections on social media using the hashtag #mycollectionatMOV. Images will be projected onto a wall of photos. For more information, visit museumofvancouver.ca.

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.

Nina Simone screens

Jeff Lieberman with Sam Waymon, brother of Nina Simone and longtime band member. (photo from Re-Emerging Films)

It started as an accident,” said Vancouver-born, New York-based filmmaker Jeff Lieberman, describing the evolution of his second documentary film, The Amazing Nina Simone. The documentary has its Canadian première in Vancouver on June 16.

Speaking to the Independent from Fire Island, N.Y., Lieberman said he is a longtime aficionado of this famed American jazz singer, pianist, songwriter and civil rights activist, who passed away in 2003. He grew up listening to Nina Simone’s music and the idea of making a film about her had “always been rolling around in the back of my head, but I never really was quite sure that I could do it or was the right person to do it.”

He continued, “The bigger issue was that I didn’t really know or necessarily understand Nina Simone for a long time and it was only within the last five to eight years that I read both her autobiography and a detailed biography of Nina that helped me understand who she was – but also the amazing backstory of her classical music upbringing, her involvement in civil rights – and realize that there was a much bigger story to tell.”

The impetus for Lieberman to begin work on this passion project arose out of a visit to the southern United States a few years ago. Following a screening of his first documentary film, Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria (which screened at the now-defunct Ridge Theatre in Vancouver in 2012), in Charleston, S.C., Lieberman traveled to Simone’s birth city of Tryon, N.C. He had tracked down a local Simone enthusiast committed to preserving the singer’s memory. He not only guided Lieberman to notable landmarks, such as Simone’s childhood home and a bronze sculpture, but also “basically set up all the interviews for me with people who grew up with Nina. And this was before I had committed to working on the project!”

But Lieberman did commit. He threw himself wholeheartedly into a labor of love, “focusing almost exclusively on [the film] over the last year and a half to two years,” he said.

Lieberman conducted more than 80 interviews, 50 of which are included in the film. “I spent a lot of time hunting people down all over the world and often I was fortunate and interviewed them; other times people had long passed,” he recalled. He described the process as “a lot of work, but it was fun work!”

Lieberman’s “fun work,” or research, led to the discovery that “so many different people had different visions of [Nina]. She wasn’t an easy person to sum up … she was so many different things to so many different people. She was soft and docile to some people, fiery and angry to other people, and she was brilliant to some, and crazy to others.”

He added, “Another thing that was fascinating to me was her struggle with civil rights, in terms of how much time and energy and personal safety to devote to the cause. She seemed quite torn in terms of really wanting to contribute to the movement, but … it was tough for her to reconcile where to be and where she was most effective.”

Simone’s impressive musical achievements are well known. Her music transcends genre, encompassing classical, jazz, gospel, pop, folk and spiritual sounds. The legendary musician recorded more than 25 albums; popular, soulful versions of “I Put a Spell on You” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” and a 1959 Top 20 hit with “I Loves You, Porgy” from George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. Moreover, her politically charged song, “Mississippi Goddam,” was revolutionary. Simone wrote and performed the piece in front of a mainly white audience at Carnegie Hall in 1964 – at the height of the struggle for civil rights in America.

Lieberman identifies “Mississippi Goddam” as one of his favorite Simone songs because she “took the entire United States of America to task on what was going on with segregation and racial injustice and, by name, she called out states and governors and groups of people for not doing enough.” However, he is quick to point out that he has many favorites because “there’s a whole other aspect of Nina Simone which is not controversial or as in your face – it’s beautiful love songs and ballads and haunting, lonely songs. And, lastly, she has songs that are stories that paint pictures of different characters, almost like a play.”

On hand at the Vancouver screening to speak from personal experience about Simone’s musical talent will be local jazz musician and Juno nominee Henry Young. Young met Simone during her three-week stint in 1968 performing at Vancouver’s old Marco Polo Supper Club, the first Chinese smorgasbord restaurant and nightclub in Vancouver’s Chinatown, which hosted the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame) and Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Young successfully convinced Simone that he should join her band as guitarist. He reunited with her in New York two months later, only days before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. Three days following that historic turning point, Young took the stage with Simone at the Westbury Festival and paid tribute to the civil rights hero with a song written to commemorate the fallen leader.

Young toured with Simone for a few years, performing across Europe and for the King of Morocco. Ultimately, he decided to return home to Vancouver. He will join Lieberman in a post-film Q & A session on June 16 and will perform a musical tribute to Simone with the Henry Young Quartet, featuring Vancouver vocalist Candus Churchill.

Since the release of The Amazing Nina Simone just under a year ago, the film has screened in more than 75 different venues: in France, Denmark, the Netherlands and across the United States in Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Berkeley and Philadelphia. Lieberman recalled a notable screening that occurred in Harlem: a free, outdoor, public screening that also included a performance by Nina’s musician brother, Sam Waymon, and a Nina Simone Dance Party.

Lieberman said there are upcoming screenings of the film in Korea and New Zealand, but he is particularly excited for the Canadian première of his latest film in his hometown. He credits his Jewish upbringing in Vancouver as inspiration for much of his work, commenting that it “has always given me a value of social justice and wanting to try and do something meaningful and impactful with my life.”

He said that his previous film “and this one both touch on diversity and racism, trying to create a more just world, and breaking down barriers to see people for who they really are. I think those are Jewish values that come right from the Torah, but also the community that I was brought up in. So, that always factors into my thought process.”

Re-Emerging Films’ The Amazing Nina Simone screens at Vancouver Playhouse at 7 p.m. on June 16. Tickets are available at amazingnina.com.

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.

Learn ballroom, Latin

Dmitry Rusak with Diane MacKenzie win first place silver level at the Grand Ballroom Competition in Richmond on June 23, 2012. (photo from Dmitry Rusak)

Crimea may seem an unlikely place to embark on a journey into the world of competitive dance, but that is exactly where Dmitry Rusak discovered his passion and launched an international career.

Rusak, a local ballroom and Latin dance instructor, was born and raised in the city of Sevastopol. He began ballroom dance lessons at the age of 7 after a well-known (Jewish) dance instructor and his wife had moved into town and opened a dance school. Rusak’s father – a ballroom dancer himself – encouraged the young boy to take lessons. By the age of 10, Rusak was hooked. He decided to forgo other interests, such as soccer and swimming, in order to commit to dance. He hasn’t looked back.

Rusak’s first dance partner was a girl named Helena. She would bus an hour each way to attend lessons at the school. When they were 10 years old, the pair started to travel around the former Soviet Union to compete in both ballroom and Latin dance. They danced together for approximately five years, progressing through the different divisions and often placing first. They also competed in formation dance, a style of ballroom dance that is characterized by eight couples shadow dancing in a formation team. In fact, Rusak’s first international competition was in formation dance, which took him to Germany at the age of 17.

After high school, Rusak served his two years of mandatory military service as a dancer in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Black Sea Fleet. The troupe focused on national dance so, when traveling abroad to perform, Rusak was given special dispensation to join his former partners from the Sevastopol dance school to compete in ballroom dance.

After completing his army service, Rusak made plans to move to Israel in search of better opportunities than those that existed in Crimea. He made aliyah at 21 and describes it as an easy process. Although he missed his family, the transition was facilitated by his connection to a Jewish Moldovan dance instructor with a studio in Bat Yam.

Rusak settled in Holon, integrated into the dance community and partnered with a dancer named Viktoria, also originally from Crimea – the two were already acquainted from having competed against each other in earlier years. They married three years after becoming dance partners and, by this time, Rusak’s parents and brother had joined him in Israel.

Rusak lived in Israel for 15 years. During that time, he and his dance partners were Israel’s reigning champions in ballroom, Latin and Ten Dance (waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, tango and Viennese waltz, along with rumba, samba, paso doble, cha-cha-cha and jive). He competed internationally for many years, including in Holland, France and Germany, and won prizes and accolades at each turn.

Rusak had a studio in Rishon LeZion, where he taught ballroom dance to approximately 100 students of all ages, from young children to septuagenarians.

In 2010, Rusak and his wife decided to move to Canada. The financial crisis of 2008 had taken a toll on the viability of the dance studio and Rusak was keen to take his skills elsewhere. The couple also was tired of the matzav, or situation, and wanted to raise their children somewhere more peaceful. Laughing, Rusak added that they found Israel’s climate “too hot” and struggled to adapt because “the mentality is so different.”

The couple settled in Burnaby, where they have family. Since their arrival, Rusak has been teaching group and private lessons at dance studios in Burnaby and Vancouver, including at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCCGV).

For the past three years, Jewish community members Aron and Neri Tischler have been taking ballroom and Latin dance lessons with Rusak at the JCCGV. The couple, married for almost 34 years, was motivated to take group lessons because they “thought it would be fun to have a regular date night and learn something new together.” When they discovered that they “really enjoyed Dmitry’s lessons, dancing with one another, and wanted to get better,” they decided to take private lessons as well, to “ensure couple time and improve our dancing.”

Neri Tischler said Rusak “breaks down the steps so well that even the clumsiest person can catch on!” Moreover, she added, the women in her class refer to the lesson as “therapy” because it “takes you out of everything that is going on in your life, forces you to focus on the beat of the music, the steps and your partner, and just be in the moment, which is pure joy.”

Rusak’s dance skills are varied. He choreographs wedding dances for couples and teaches ballroom and Latin dance to students of all ages and abilities, including those in wheelchairs. In addition to private and group lessons for adults, his plans for the fall include ballroom dance classes for children as well as for women interested in participating in pro-am (professional-amateur) competitions across Canada. He prides himself on working to meet the different goals and needs of various students, including improving strength, endurance, coordination, posture and sense of rhythm. He believes that “being active and able to perform meaningful dance movements to different musical rhythms is necessary for the harmonious and balanced development of a person and their dance skills.”

Rusak described life in Canada as “great” and reserved special accolades for Vancouver’s Jewish community, who “welcomed us here and helped us to get settled.” He enjoys teaching at the JCCGV for two main reasons, he said. First, he recognizes the influence of his Jewish dance instructors on his career and he is eager to share his skills and passion with members of the Jewish community. Second, he is impressed by the level of commitment of his students at the community centre, many of whom he has taught for several years – their skills will be on display at the Dena Wosk School of Performing Arts year-end show on June 5.

For more information on dance classes with Rusak, call him at 778-928-4086, email him at [email protected] or visit ballroom4u.com.

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.

Making healthy connections

High-tech entrepreneur Galya Westler is at TEDxStanleyPark on May 28. (photo from Galya Westler)

The social media available to help us connect with one another are ever-increasing, but they are not always effective. In fact, they often have the opposite effect – when we realize the relations they engender are illusory, we experience feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. So says Galya Westler, a local high-tech entrepreneur, who is creating a simpler, more intimate solution to connect people with their respective communities.

In keeping with the theme of “Ideas to Action,” Westler – along with 14 other local thought leaders – will take the stage at the third annual TEDxStanleyPark on May 28 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. She will deliver a talk entitled Social Media Obesity and Loneliness. She will discuss the growing phenomenon of social media addiction, recount her personal experiences in trying to connect with others during a particularly traumatic period in her life and explore how to use technology to overcome a social media addiction.

According to Westler, too many people suffer from what she terms “social media obesity,” or an addiction to social media, and are “pigging out on selfies of attention.” Moreover, in their effort to be noticed, social media addicts often lose appreciation of how they act in the online world – and exaggerations serve only to enhance the gap between online personas and reality. The ultimate consequence: feelings of inadequacy, disappointment, depression and loneliness.

Westler examines the subject from the point of view of a social media developer with a decade of experience in creating or enhancing online communities. This summer, she will launch Plazus Mobile Social App Builder, her most ambitious social media application platform to date.

Born in Montreal, Westler grew up in Ra’anana after her Israeli parents returned home upon her father’s completion of his PhD at the University of Montreal.

She served as a commander of a radar post in the Gaza Strip during her mandatory military service with the Israel Defence Forces. She describes her experience as “amazing” and “life-changing.” Introverted and lacking confidence in high school, she said her army service – carried out in a male-dominated environment – enabled her to blossom into an outgoing and hardworking soldier who rose to challenges. She would carry this learned lesson with her as she pursued higher education.

Despite an affinity for the humanities, Westler enrolled in Shenkar College’s four-year software engineering program. She had been counseled to do so by her father, a senior high-tech professional in Israel, who told her: “If you study software engineering, the doors will open for you.”

The program was challenging and Westler struggled – not only with the material, but also with the pressure from those around her who suggested she give up and drop out. This discouragement only strengthened her resolve and she persevered to finish the program. Of the 40 students who had enrolled with her, only 11 completed their studies. Westler was the only female graduate.

After a year of working in Israel’s high-tech industry, Westler decided to move back to Canada, settling in British Columbia. She worked for a number of tech companies before opting to incorporate her own, giving her the independence she sought. “I did the corporate-ladder thing, but never quite fit in,” she said.

Since incorporating her first company, 2Galvanize Ltd., in 2008, Westler has built close to 100 websites, mobile applications and backend systems for different companies, including the Yellow Pages. She specializes in creating private social “ecosystems,” or networks, that enable people to communicate on an “authentic” level, unlike other social media sites that she describes as too big and overwhelming to navigate and digest. Her mission is to create systems that support efforts that enable people to communicate in a manner emblematic of times past: “more intimate, more humbly and, very importantly, in small groups.” This led to her involvement with Bazinga, an app that connects building residents to their strata councils, and Wag Around, an app that connects dog owners and facilitates interactions offline.

Simplifying genuine communication between people and their respective communities is what motivates Westler to develop new tools. “The reason I do the work I do is because I truly want to connect people, and the best way to do that is to give them an excuse to connect based on common interests,” she explained.

Westler’s newest commercial development, Plazus Mobile Social App Builder, applies the principle of connecting people in the business realm as a means of facilitating dialogue or enhancing brand. The name combines the words “plaza” and “us,” a tongue-in-cheek homage to more traditional ways of communicating.

Set to launch at the end of June, Plazus is a B2B (business to business) social media tool that will provide a company or organization with an easy, structured and relatively inexpensive way to connect with their customers and communities in their own social ecosystems. It seeks to do this functionally, interactively and in an esthetically appealing manner.

Westler is filled with anticipation as her two seed investors, a team of 10 techies and more than 60 early-adopter customers, eagerly await the launch of Plazus Technologies’ beta product.

Westler credits many of her entrepreneurial successes in Canada to her Israeli chutzpah. Although she misses Israel, particularly Tel Aviv’s culture and lifestyle, and acknowledges that research and development thrives in Israel because of wonderful talent, she said that her seven years in Vancouver have been “amazing … it’s paradise.”

Westler’s goal is to continue to grow her business and open offices in both Vancouver and Tel Aviv, which would enable her to travel regularly between the two places in the world she loves most.

She said it is important for her to stay connected to Israel for both personal and professional reasons, and she has spoken in Israel about her work and her entrepreneurial path on more than one occasion, including to a women’s Lean In Circle at Google’s office in Tel Aviv and at StarTAU, Tel Aviv University’s Entrepreneurship Centre.

True to her commitment to connect individuals with like-minded community members, Westler herself is involved in a number of different groups and causes. She serves as president of the Vancouver Entrepreneurs Toastmasters Club and is active in several other local business organizations.

For more information about TEDxStanleyPark, visit tedxstanleypark.com or email [email protected].

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.

Hillel BC to Rwanda, Israel

The Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, centre, addressed Project Tikkun participants at Hillel BC on March 13. (photo from Hillel BC)

As the academic year winds down on university campuses across the province and students gear up for exams and summer jobs, 15 student leaders from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University are also preparing for a totally different experience: a 16-day experiential learning and service trip to Rwanda and Israel.

Project Tikkun was developed by Hillel BC to challenge students to “understand the essence of hate by breaking down stereotypical thinking.” It is a yearlong program of learning that allows participants to explore the root causes of racism and antisemitism, culminating in a service trip to Rwanda and Israel between May 3 and 18.

The overseas component will enable participants to bear witness to how the diverse citizenry of two relatively young nation-states have grappled with a legacy of genocide. It will provide a firsthand examination of conflict resolution and reconciliation through the humanitarian work and activism pursued in each country to build durable and bonded communities.

According to its website, Project Tikkun brings together “undergraduate students of different ethnic backgrounds, religious practices, sexual orientation and personal beliefs to establish a caring and committed community of change-makers.”

Rebecca Recant, program director at Hillel BC, noted that the intent of the project is also to “build a local community of allies that can support each other when a [hateful] incident comes up, no matter which community.”

Student interest in the program exceeded the limited number of spaces and, last fall, a diverse group of 15 participants was selected. The group includes students of Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian, Korean, Persian and Rwandan backgrounds and a mix of the Jewish, Sikh, Baha’i and Christian faiths. The religious affiliation of the Jewish students varies – some come from secular homes whereas others were raised Orthodox; some have visited Israel and, for others, this will be their first trip to Eretz Yisrael.

Over the course of the year, the participants have been getting to know each other and examining their biases through intensive group learning sessions in which they have explored the history of Canada, Rwanda and Israel. A number of guest speakers, ranging from academics to community activists, have facilitated discussions. Of note, Dr. Andrew Baron, an assistant professor of psychology at UBC whose research examines the cultural and cognitive origins of unconscious bias, structured tests for Project Tikkun participants based on the Harvard Implicit Bias Test that he helped create. Jordana Shani, managing director of Hillel BC, explained that the testing of participants’ level of bias takes place at three different intervals: at the outset of the program, prior to departure and one to two months after return to Canada. The testing provides a way “to measure what we’ve done and how effective the program has been,” she said.

Certainly, much time, effort and money has been channeled into the program, especially the service trip. The journey begins in the capital city of Rwanda, Kigali, where local guides will accompany the students on a tour that will highlight the many landmarks and memorials of the 1994 genocide. The students will then travel to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV), where they will spend the bulk of their time. Established in 2008 as a residential community-home to protect and nurture Rwandan children who were orphaned during and after the genocide, ASYV now cares for approximately 500 of Rwanda’s most vulnerable high school-aged students. It is modeled after Yemin Orde, an Israeli youth village founded in 1953 to care for orphans of the Holocaust, and it provides a family-like environment for at-risk youth.

The Rwandan students “grow up in this youth village hearing about the youth aliyah village in Israel that [ASYV] was based on,” said Recant. “It’s an Israeli model that is part of the connection between the two countries. They even know Hebrew words, like tikkun olam.”

At the youth village, Project Tikkun participants will learn and live side by side with the ASYV students and volunteer in the classrooms, on the farm and in the kitchen. They will accompany the ASYV students during their foray into town to fulfil a weekly community service commitment.

Libia Niyodusenga, a second-year UBC economics and geography student who was raised at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, is looking forward to returning to Rwanda as part of Project Tikkun. “I think the country itself has the best ways and methods of teaching people through so many organizations that are based in Rwanda and so many history-based sites that you can learn from,” he said.

From Rwanda, Project Tikkun participants will travel to Israel, arriving on Yom Ha’atzmaut, where they will celebrate Israel’s independence in Jerusalem. Later, they will commemorate the victims of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, tour the Old City and observe Shabbat before moving on to explore other parts of the country, including the Yemin Orde Youth Village. All the while, participants will learn from and volunteer with Israelis who are committed to combating intolerance and inequality – political, religious, ethno-cultural and socio-economic – to effect positive change within Israeli society.

The Israel portion of the trip will demonstrate that complex issues – both regional and domestic – defy the simplistic characterizations often portrayed by the media and that “you can love the country and be critical of it at the same time,” said Shani. The participants, she added, “will meet with people who believe in the right of Israel to exist and who are engaged to make it a better place.”

Jasmeet Khosa, a fourth-year student of international relations at UBC whose Sikh parents immigrated to Canada from Punjab, India, said: “I know that this project focuses on Rwanda and Israel as case studies [for conflict resolution and activism], but what I’ve learned so far is that this extends far beyond – [the message] is universal.”

By all accounts, Hillel BC is pleased with the results of the project thus far. Participants are inspired to help create positive change both at home and abroad and have developed a profound sense of strength through their diversity. As Khosa observed, “… the great thing is that we come from such different backgrounds – academically, culturally, religiously – that everyone brings their own perspective and we get a really great mix in that everyone has something unique to contribute to discussion and friendships, in general.” Niyodusenga added that the connections between program participants are already “deep and intimate.”

In reflecting on the many experiential learning and service trips that she participated in during university and how integral they were to forming her identity, Recant said, “Trips like this are life-changing.”

Shani and Recant are grateful for a grant from the Diamond Foundation that made Project Tikkun possible. While participants will pay a fee, the cost of the program is heavily subsidized to ensure that finances do not pose any obstacles. However, because of the decrease in the value of the Canadian dollar, Hillel BC is continuing to seek financial support for the program. For more information about Project Tikkun, visit projecttikkun.hillelbc.com; to make a donation, call 604-224-4748.

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver-based freelance reporter.

Personally tailored workouts

Ariel Ziv (photo from Ariel Ziv)

Although it seems like just yesterday that many of us were making our New Year’s resolution to hit the gym more often, the first day of spring has already come and gone and summer is just around the corner. Yet much work still lies ahead to achieve that “beach bod.” Not to worry, Ariel Ziv, a Vancouver-based health educator, fitness trainer and developer of Warrior Kickbox, can help.

Ziv, 31, was born in Calgary and lived there until the age of 6, when his Sabra parents, educators at Jewish day schools, returned home after 30 years in Canada. Raised in Jerusalem, Ziv completed his schooling and then did the mandatory stint in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), serving in an elite unit in the navy. As an officer, he trained new recruits for combat, ensuring that they could cope mentally as well as physically in high-pressure situations that require integrity and teamwork. Ziv described his five years of military service as a “life-changing opportunity where I met my best friends for life. It is a privilege to serve our country and contribute as best we can.”

Like many young Israelis, Ziv went traveling upon completion of his IDF service, embarking on a four-month trip to South America. However, he was atypical in that, “I was the only backpacker that was working out!”

In Bolivia, he went to a gym for a drop-in session despite the “crazy altitude” that made it hard to breathe. Also in Bolivia, his travel buddies were chauffeured from site to site on a three-day jeep tour of the salt flats while Ziv ran alongside the vehicle. In Colombia, he ran on the beach every day.

Ziv returned to Israel from his post-army trip and enrolled in an intensive, six-month personal training course at the Wingate Institute, Israel’s National Centre for Physical Education and Sport. All aspects of the education were holistic in scope and took into consideration the different needs and abilities of diverse clients, including pregnant women and those with many different types of injuries. Ziv complemented his personal training certification with further accreditation at Wingate in group training for kickboxing, spinning, pilates, core and stretch classes.

From there, Ziv pursued an undergraduate degree in business management at Ben-Gurion University. However, “before I even set foot on the campus, I applied for a job as a personal trainer at Great Shape, the largest gym in Beersheva!” Ziv worked there for two years, during which time he met Chen, his wife, who is a dietician and yoga instructor. He was subsequently promoted to the position of gym manager at the Rehovot branch, where he supervised 20 personal trainers and hired and trained new instructors. Ziv also taught at fitness conventions across Israel. In fact, in 2014, he was one of only four kickboxing instructors from across Israel selected to participate in the first annual Kickboxing Convention in Tel Aviv, where he was voted best instructor by attendees.

Ever committed to continuing education, Ziv traveled to Finland to study CrossFit, a fitness regimen based on constantly varied functional movements – the core movements of life – performed at relatively high intensity. At the time, CrossFit – now a global phenomenon – had not yet arrived in Israel, so Ziv received his Level 1 and Gymnastics certification in Helsinki.

Back in Israel, Ziv channeled his passion for health and fitness with his education and training into developing a unique fitness concept called Warrior Kickbox. The practice combines simple, non-contact martial arts movements with functional training exercises that mirror daily actions – sitting and standing, pushing and pulling, lifting and carrying, bending and squatting. According to Ziv, Warrior Kickbox highlights the importance of “how to use one’s body correctly in day-to-day life” to prevent injury. He taught Warrior Kickbox in Israel until his move to Vancouver in late 2014.

Ziv had decided that he wanted to share his fitness talents outside of Israel. Although it was hard to leave “home,” he and his wife had visited Vancouver several times (his sister lives here) and he said it “was always in my mind to move here,” in part because of the health-conscious, fitness-oriented lifestyle of Vancouverites. His goal is “to do the maximum and have a positive impact on the community.”

Certainly, Ziv has kept busy since arriving here. He acquired his mortgage broker’s licence and works with Averbach Mortgages, he volunteers with the Canadian Red Cross and, of course, he is a personal and group fitness instructor to clients of all ages and abilities. He teaches fitness classes for seniors at the Legacy Senior Living retirement community – and was interviewed on CTV Morning Live about the benefits of fitness for seniors. He leads a family-oriented fitness class at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCCGV) and has taught krav maga (Israeli self-defence) to elementary school-aged children through Temple Sholom. Ziv also teaches his Warrior Kickbox at the JCCGV twice a week and, recently, Inside Vancouver recognized the class as one of Vancouver’s top workouts.

The fun, high-energy, calorie-burning workouts attract a diverse group of people of different ages, gender and abilities. Accordingly, Ziv provides options for each exercise, catering to the range of different fitness levels in a class. He circulates regularly among clients to ensure that they are employing the correct technique.

A 60-minute class at the JCCGV passed quickly because of Ziv’s motivating enthusiasm and that of those in the class, including one middle-aged woman who amusingly shouted out general words of encouragement throughout the hour. The upbeat workout music, which ranged from Israeli classics to club electronica, also helped.

Rachel London, a 33-year-old mother of two and a JCCGV member, started personal and group training with Ziv approximately three months ago because she “saw him training other clients at the gym and was so impressed by how hard they worked and by the results they were getting.” She said, “Since starting training with him, I have not only gained physical strength and increased my fitness level, I have also gained confidence in my ability and potential to surpass what I thought were my limits. He is a master of creating just the right workout for you, whether you are a first-time exerciser or an advanced athlete.”

Ziv is committed to the success of his clients and finds personal training meaningful and rewarding.

“For me,” he said, “that’s the main thing – changing people’s lives [and helping them] keep healthy lives.”

One exceptionally noteworthy success story is of an overweight middle-aged man in Israel with whom Ziv worked for several months to help lose 40 pounds responsibly so that he could donate a kidney to his son.

Of teaching fitness in Vancouver and in the Jewish community, in particular, Ziv said, “I want to have a positive impact in the community [and] I really feel that [the JCCGV] is home for me. I love coming here. I love the people. I love saying Shabbat shalom, speaking in Hebrew, and playing Israeli music in my classes.”

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver-based freelance reporter.

Online magazine with a twist

Mashu Mashu is a labor of love for Laura Goldstein. They recently celebrated the first anniversary of their online arts and culture magazine – described as “a cultural cocktail with a Jewish twist” – and are pleased with the interest it has generated in that time.

“We’re thrilled – we went from zero to over 100,000!” said Goldstein about the magazine’s readership.

Laura Goldstein (photo by Ema Peter Photography)

Originally from Toronto, Goldstein has worked in both Canada and the United States for more than 25 years as a performing arts, design and celebrity publicist, and as a professional writer, contributing to national newspapers and magazines such as the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Chatelaine, Nuvo, Canadian House and Home and many others. But it was her Tel Aviv-born husband, an IT professional who manages the technical aspects of the website in his free time, who encouraged Goldstein to start Mashu Mashu.

“It was my husband’s idea because I’d always come up with 10 ideas to pitch to a magazine and they’d pick one, [which was] so frustrating. So, he said to me, ‘Why don’t you do this for yourself?’”

And so she did. Goldstein parlayed her love of the arts and writing into the founding of Mashu Mashu, which translates roughly from Hebrew to “something really special and unique.”

Goldstein’s features cover a broad range of themes, including arts, culture and style, design, food and wine, and travel. This involvement brings her into contact with people at the local, national or international level who contribute or link to a vibrant Jewish and Israeli life.

When asked which area of the arts is she drawn to most, Goldstein answered enthusiastically, “I’m equally excited about everything! The only thing we don’t do is politics. We don’t need to dip our toes into that. Frankly, there are so many Jews and Israelis that are involved in every aspect of culture and the arts and high-tech, I think let’s leave the politics and focus on the fun stuff and the interesting people.”

To date, Mashu Mashu has almost 100 diverse features that include profiles of many noted Vancouverites, such as designer Omer Arbel, philanthropist Jacqui Cohen, restaurateur Herschel Miedzygorski, as well as Vernon resident and extreme athlete turned motivational speaker Leah Goldstein (no relation).

Goldstein’s profiles also include Israeli photographer Asher Svidensky, who wowed National Geographic Traveler readers with his photos of young Mongolian eagle huntress Ashol Pan. More recently, Goldstein highlighted Svidensky’s photo of female Israeli soldier Moria Bross, which was included in Jeep’s 60-second Superbowl Sunday television commercial.

Of all the pieces Goldstein has written, two in particular stand out as perhaps the most meaningful to her, “because there’s so much history there.”

First, her piece on the recent Hollywood film Woman in Gold, about the famed Gustav Klimt painting stolen by the Nazis. For this, she interviewed British film director Simon Curtis and L.A. lawyer Randol (Randy) Schoenberg (played by Vancouver actor Ryan Reynolds in the movie), as well as author Anne-Marie O’Connor. The piece has attracted more than 10,000 readers.

Another memorable profile for Goldstein is food enthusiast, cookbook author and television personality Nigella Lawson, who “comes from a fascinating Jewish family.” Lawson’s father, for example, became British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor of the exchequer, and her maternal grandfather was a member of the catering corps’ famine relief during the Second World War. Moreover, research undertaken by Lawson at the Imperial War Museum indicates that he may have been attached to one of the regiments that liberated the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

“I’m constantly researching – all the time. I’m reading, reading, reading,” said Goldstein about her inspiration. “Because I come from a TV/researcher background, and as a publicist, I always look for information that other journalists might not find.”

Goldstein points to her well-earned reputation as an arts writer, as well as Mashu Mashu’s mission and established success to date, for her ability to secure interviews with high-profile personalities, including William Shatner and Christopher Plummer. That, and, “I never give up. If someone says no, it’s no for now, not necessarily in the future. I’m persistent and persistence pays off!”

Goldstein posts new features on Mashu Mashu approximately twice a week, depending on the amount of research the piece involves or “how quickly things come up.”

Her posts attract readers – Jewish and non-Jewish – “from all over!” According to the analytics, the magazine has readers from across North America, in Europe, notably the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, South Africa and South America. The site also has “likes” from countries across the Middle East, including Iraq, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan. Goldstein noted that her piece about Vancouver painter Joyce Ozier’s depiction of the Jewish legacy of the village of Chefchaouen gained traction among readers in Morocco. Her interview with the star of the Israeli television series Fauda caught the eyes of readers from the United Arab Emirates, as did her piece on luxury floating homes.

Beyond Mashu Mashu’s global reach, another point of pride for Goldstein is the large, colorful photographs that accompany each of her pieces. No longer constrained by the space limitations she had when writing for print media, Goldstein delights in her newfound freedom to include “huge” pictures that dramatically complement her features. “They’re so important,” she said. “If you just have reams of copy, who’s going to be interested?”

As Mashu Mashu enters its second year, Goldstein reflects on the niche the site fills by providing an international audience with contemporary, modern stories and features – whether on design, food, film, photography – that have a Jewish twist (and often a Vancouver connection). She genuinely enjoys researching and profiling people and expositions, and discovering new links to stories.

“That’s what excites me – to make all these connections!”

Alexis Pavlich is a Vancouver freelance writer.