Sima Elizabeth Shefrin’s new book, Embroidered Cancer Comic, will be launched on Sept. 15 at the Roundhouse.
Cancer is a word often whispered. Sex is certainly not spoken of in polite company. Yet Sima Elizabeth Shefrin tackles both topics in her new book, Embroidered Cancer Comic (Singing Dragon, 2016), which receives its Vancouver launch on Sept. 15 at Roundhouse Community Centre.
The comic begins with Shefrin’s husband, Bob Bossin, coming home from the doctor with a diagnosis of high cholesterol. “Oh, he also said my PSA was up,” Bossin tells Shefrin. After some understandable delays, Bossin gets the needed biopsy. While the couple are enjoying a funny movie together, the call from the doctor comes: prostate cancer.
In a mere 30 pages, with text and illustrations by Shefrin, Embroidered Cancer Comic shows Bossin’s uncertainty over treatment options, his efforts to learn more about the cancer, the emotional stress on him and Shefrin, as well as the effects of the cancer and its treatments on the couple’s sex life.
“The strain of the prostate cancer journey on relationships cannot be overstated, yet patients and their partners are left to figure this out for themselves,” writes Dr. Peter Black of Vancouver Prostate Centre – Bossin’s surgeon – in a brief commentary at the end of the comic, where both Shefrin and Bossin also share more of their story.
Helping others was one of Shefrin’s goals.
“I’m hoping the book will help couples in this situation be able to communicate,” she told the Independent.
Already, it’s had an impact.
“I thought it had potential for being a major project, especially after I got the publishing contract,” said Shefrin. “But then, of course, you don’t leave that in the hands of the gods. Singing Dragon has been very good for getting publicity in Britain, in both the comic and the medical worlds. In Canada, I’ve done most of it myself.
“I believe that this book can do real good in the world,” she said, sharing that a man in Quebec had written her “about what a difference it had made to both him and his wife.”
She said, “That’s what I’m hoping to do. I believe in the comic, so I’m willing to do whatever pushing I need to, to get it out into the world.”
Shefrin is a noted fabric artist, her website name – stitchingforsocialchange.ca – perfectly describing the nature of her work.
“I have often used my art to work through life events and to create awareness and conversation about taboo or contentious subjects,” she writes at the end of the comic book. “But nothing has made me feel as vulnerable as the creation of this comic. At the same time, it has helped me realize that, when you’re there, cancer becomes a part of daily life, like buying groceries or washing dishes.”
It took Shefrin three years to sew the embroidered line drawings, which were then photographed for the book. When asked if she ever thought of creating the images in a more expedient way, Shefrin said, “Fabric is my medium. The books I illustrated are mostly paper collage, but even when I work in paper, I think like a fabric artist. I did drawings first and then embroidered them, and I always liked the embroidered result better than the original drawing.”
The book “started out as a piece of art,” she said. “I thought I might self-publish or maybe simply photocopy a kind of catalogue for a show. But, one day, I came across the Graphic Medicine site and realized that there was a whole world out there of people making comics about medical issues. I’d had no idea.
“So, I started looking at the site regularly as well as at their Facebook page. Occasionally, there would be postings for people looking for comic strips on this and that and, if it was vaguely relevant, I’d send out my work. I do this a lot and often it comes to nothing. But, a couple of months later, I got an email from Jessica Kingsley saying they might be interested in publishing my work. It took me about an hour to figure out who they were and how they found me. They published it through their imprint, Singing Dragon. After that, the focus shifted and became about creating the comic, a story with a beginning, middle and end, instead of an art series. Now that it’s in print, I’m back to creating the quilts for the art series.”
The book has received many very positive reviews, including one in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet – and, according to the book’s Facebook page, it earned “a lovely personal note from Judi Dench,” who is mentioned in the comic. Specifically, when Shefrin asks her husband, “Who really excites you?” his answer is Dench.
The most touching review of the book comes from Bossin. “And because you live with cancer, whoever you live with lives with it, too, as Elizabeth’s comic shows so tenderly,” he writes. “For me, there is no one I would rather live with cancer with. No one.”
Those curious about what Dame Judi said and other stories behind the comic’s creation can ask Shefrin and Bossin at the Sept. 15 launch, which starts at 7 p.m. The quilted original illustrations are on display at the Roundhouse’s Window Gallery until Oct. 30.
Sula Boxall will perform with Flamenco Rosario in Flamenqueando on Sept. 17 at Vancouver Playhouse. (photo by Tim Matheson)
The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival Sept. 10-20 features a lineup of local and international flamenco artists – including local Jewish community member Sula Boxall.
Founded by Flamenco Rosario in 1990, the festival is apparently one the few devoted to flamenco outside of Spain. It features both free workshops and ticketed performances by several different groups and, this year, “celebrates flamenco’s Spanish Gypsy origins with the Vancouver première of Mercedes Amaya Company (Mexico/ Spain).”
Boxall will perform with Flamenco Rosario in Flamenqueando on Sept. 17, 8 p.m., at Vancouver Playhouse. They will open for Mercedes Amaya Company.
“I am honored that Rosario [Ancer] asked me to be a part of Flamenco Rosario’s performance on Sept. 17. These types of opportunities do not come along very often in Vancouver,” Boxall told the Independent. “It is an amazing opportunity to grow as a dancer and be a part of her creative process and experimentation. To be dancing in the same performance as the renowned Mercedes Amaya is humbling and intimidating. Being able to watch other performers and learn from them is a chance for professional development; I’m looking forward to the other performances and workshops that the festival has to offer.”
Boxall was born in Vancouver. “My parents had moved to Canada three years previously from South Africa,” she said. “I grew up in the Kitsilano area, attending Trafalgar Elementary and the Prince of Wales mini school. I moved to Victoria to study at UVic before continuing my studies at UBC. Currently, I am an elementary school teacher in Vancouver and teach children’s flamenco classes at Centro Flamenco.”
She has always wanted to dance.
“Since I was able to walk, I’ve been dancing,” she said. “When I was in preschool, I would create performances in my living room for my parents. I begged for dancing lessons until my parents agreed to start me in ballet at age 5. I continued to dance for the next 11 years. After a nine-year break from dancing, I was drawn back into it with flamenco. For the last eight years, it has grown into another important part of my identity. Dancing is something that is a part of me and I am a better person because of it.”
According to her bio, Boxall studied ballet, modern, jazz and character dance at Arts Umbrella. When she returned to dancing in 2008, “she found a way to renew her love of dance with flamenco at Centro Flamenco” and Ancer’s mentorship was “an integral part of her development as a dancer.”
Boxall started Flamenco Rosario’s three-year professional training program in 2010, she traveled to Spain in 2012 and studied there, she regularly attends workshops in Vancouver and, in 2013, she had her first solo performance. She regularly performs around Metro Vancouver, and also participated in the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival in 2014.
“Flamenco is an art form that has connections to many cultures, including the Jewish culture. I feel that my love of the traditional Jewish melodies is closely tied to my love of flamenco music,” said Boxall about why she is particularly drawn to this dance form.
“Having the opportunity to move and feel through flamenco dance allows me to express myself,” she added. “Flamenco is incredibly complex and diverse and demands lifelong learning. It takes years of study to understand flamenco and, even then, there is always more to learn. The challenge is what draws me to continue and work on improving my skills and understanding.”
As for other aspects of Judaism or Jewish culture that play a role in her life, Boxall said, “When I was growing up, I regularly attended the Peretz Centre in Vancouver. Through the Peretz, I was allowed to explore different parts of Judaism and gain a greater understanding of my cultural background. The culture, traditions and history continue to be very important to me and my identity, in particular the elements of family and community. With my family and friends, I continue to celebrate the holidays and enhance friendships in the Jewish community.
“I’ve especially been drawn to the music and the way it moves my soul. My mother gave me a large book of Jewish music for Chanukah years ago and I continue to find joy in learning new songs.”
It is interesting to connect the secular humanist philosophy of the Peretz Centre with the way in which the weeklong flamenco festival is described on its website. Since it began, the festival has “grown to a mature understanding of Vancouver’s multicultural audiences by nurturing the form’s hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures, and by striving to reflect and connect its diverse sociocultural identity through work narratives underlining flamenco’s universal message of humanistic tolerance.”
For tickets and information about the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, visit vancouverflamencofestival.org or call 604-568-1273.
August’s Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! crew. (photos by Hannes Photography)
This August’s Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! crew did a wonderful job of bringing Perry Ehrlich’s Break a Leg! to the Rothstein stage, as did the July graduates, no doubt. Ehrlich outdid himself on the script, which had more witty lines than groaners, with humor on so many items currently in the news; notably, the presidential race. In Ehrlich’s musical, Fiddler on the Roof’s Tevye actually does break a leg and Golde, who knows all his lines, steps in to take the lead role. She becomes the star, flipping traditions on their head as she rises beyond the theatre and into the political spotlight. Every one of the 76 young performers seemed to have a blast performing the show, and there were many, many talented singers, dancers and actors. The full-house audience certainly enjoyed themselves. The entire Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! faculty is to be commended.
Ziyian Kwan and Vanessa Goodman perform together in Simile, which concludes the Scotiabank Dance Centre’s open house on Sept. 10. (photo by David Cooper)
The Scotiabank Dance Centre’s open house on Sept. 10 culminates with Simile, featuring new work and performances by Vanessa Goodman of Action at a Distance and Ziyian Kwan of dumb instrument Dance.
All three pieces in the show – Kwan’s Still Rhyming, Goodman’s Floating Upstream and the collaboration In Vertebrate Dreams – are connected yet unique, Goodman told the Independent.
“Ziyian’s piece, Still Rhyming, is a beautiful work that responds to Patti Smith’s book M Train, and the piece has an incredible live sound score by Jo Passed,” she said. “It is a whimsical journey for the audience and Ziyian captures and transports my imagination while I am watching the piece. For me, Floating Upstream explores the notion of having one’s head in the clouds in a very simple sense: it is the idea
of being a dreamer, where anything is both possible and impossible. And, in In Vertebrate Dreams, we are creating a surreal world where human and animal instincts are being explored and subverted.
“In many ways, I think all three works are playing with a skewed perception of reality. However, I also believe that all three works are entirely different in their tone and expression. I think this has created a very diverse and engaging program.”
According to its description, Floating Upstream “plays with the fantastic being mundane and the mundane being fantastical.” Goodman explores these elements “through simple actions and coordinations that I employ daily, like walking or speaking,” she said. “In the opening of the work, I deconstruct the act of walking and try to transform it to feel as if I am floating through the space. Or simple gestures that I do while I am talking – with these gestures, I have experimented and distorted how I can embody them until they are unrecognizable.
“Floating Upstream has an original sound composition by Vancouver-based artist Loscil,” she added. “Loscil and I have been collaborating on several works over the last year, including my solo Container that just toured to Seattle’s On the Boards’ Northwest New Works Festival and Portland’s Risk/Reward Festival. It is so great to be continuing our creative process together, as I find creating with his soundscapes so rich and driving.”
Goodman has also been working with Kwan for some time, “supporting one another and collaborating in a number of ways since 2013,” she said. “Simile is, in many ways, a culmination of our interest in each other’s work and friendship. It is always such a pleasure and honor to collaborate with colleagues in new ways, to see where you can grow and be challenged inside your artistic practice.
“The idea for the duet seeded for us when we were doing a photo shoot for the production and we got several props to work with to create some imagery to publicize the show,” she explained. “We started exploring these masks and all of sudden we decided that we were compelled to make this work. What has become clearer for me as this process has gone on is that the work is about how we both are different animals when it comes to creation but, in a strange and wonderful way, we also complement each other and have created something that is unique to us working with one another.”
The evening also features lighting design by James Proudfoot.
Goodman expressed gratitude to the Dance Centre for Simile’s inclusion in the open house, saying that she and Kwan “are very excited to be sharing this program that we have been dreaming up for the last two years.”
The Sept. 10 open house starts at 11 a.m. with an hour class on pow wow, followed by a class on tap and then many other dance styles – including swing, Brazilian, Scottish, hip-hop, ballet – throughout the afternoon to 5 p.m., as well as a workshop on injury prevention. All classes are free and suitable for beginners.
Simile starts at 8 p.m. at the centre, which is at 677 Davie St. Tickets are $25/$20 from Tickets Tonight, 604-684-2787 or ticketstonight.ca. For more information, visit thedancecentre.ca.
Jewish community member Erika Babins co-stars in How to Adult: The Musical. (photo from Coffee & Screaming)
As with the Jewish community Fringers profiled in the last issue of the Jewish Independent, the performers interviewed this week seek not only to entertain audiences but to spur self-reflection and even societal change. And they do so in a range of styles – musical, vaudeville and drama.
How to Adult: The Musical opens Sept. 8 at the Cultch Historic Theatre. It features three 20-something roommates who are trying to get their lives in order.
It is Amy Dauer’s writing debut and it is directed by Eleanor Felton, whose Eurydice received critical acclaim at last year’s festival. Dauer and Felton know each other from university.
“Last year, during the Fringe Festival, I told her she should write me a show to direct. And so she did,” Felton told the Independent. “It’s fantastic because Amy and I are also roommates, so a lot of what is in the script are things I recognize from our lives. I love the mixture of hilarity and disaster that feels very close to my life. And I love that, above all, this show is about the relationships between the characters rather than the events that are going on in their lives.”
Being a new musical, however, posed some challenges, the biggest of which, said Felton, “has been working with an evolving script and score. Peter [Abando] and Amy have worked really hard and the actors have been incredibly flexible, which was a huge blessing in the process.”
Jewish community member Erika Babins plays Imogen.
“Imogen is your textbook introvert,” explained Babins about the character. “She works from home on her computer all day as a graphic designer and, when she’s done, all she wants to do is curl up on the couch and watch Doctor Who on TV. When her friends suggest they go clubbing for her 25th birthday, it’s the worst thing imaginable. She finds it hard to stand up for herself and voice her opinions and usually defers to the judgment of her outspoken and confident best friend and roommate Holly. Throughout the course of the play, you see her getting frustrated with constantly being talked over and her ideas being vetoed, especially with Holly, who’s always been the alpha in their relationship, but with their other roommate Rosie and her brother, Graham, who suddenly reappears in her life.”
Babins can relate to her part.
“When I first read the character description, I joked that I was being type cast in this role. I even wore my Doctor Who shirt to the audition,” she said. “Like Imogen, I would rather stay home and read than go to a club or a party. I’ve also been able to bring my experiences with anxiety and panic attacks to the role, which has been both enlightening and really hard to explore. I’ve definitely had many moments in the five years since I graduated university where I’ve seriously sat down with myself and thought, ‘What is the point here? What am I actually doing?’ The big difference between Imogen and myself is that, unlike her, I have an amazingly strong support system of family and friends who I know I can talk to and who will either give me great advice or complain and berate the universe right along with me.”
A strong support system is also at the heart of Bella Culpa, where Portland-based circus theatre duo A Little Bit Off – Amica Hunter and David Cantor – must rely on each other, as their comedy shows are not just vaudevillian and slapstick but acrobatic, as well.
Bella Culpa, which opens Sept. 9 at Waterfront Theatre, is set in an Edwardian-era manor house, and Hunter and Cantor play two servants who are trying to finish (unsuccessfully) all of their chores before a big dinner party.
“We tend to approach our work from many angles at once,” Cantor told the Independent about their creative approach. “Once we have an idea for a show, we think of the overarching theme, the props we want to use, the characters, and we tend to approach all of those areas by playing games, or doing exercises. Through the games, we find things we like, which we take and apply some structure to. Once we have a few well-crafted bits, then we start weaving them together and making things flow together, to grow and expand out into a full show.”
Cantor – who is first cousin, twice removed of famed vaudeville and film actor Eddie Cantor – met Hunter at the Circus Centre in San Francisco in 2013.
“We were inspired by many of the same artists, so we started working together,” he said. “When the opportunity arose to travel to Europe and perform in some festivals, we jumped at the chance, and A Little Bit Off was born.”
About the enduring popularity of vaudeville and slapstick, Cantor said, “Language can be a very useful tool when it comes to conveying ideas to other people, but it can also be a mask. While it lets us connect on an intellectual level, it also distances us. Having our work centre around the body, it gets closer to what makes us all human. It’s a way to speak across any language barrier, any generational gap, any cultural differences. Our work is very much about tying people to their humanity and giving them a shared experience with the temporary community that forms any time you see a show in a theatre.”
As to the physicality involved in their performance, Cantor said, “All art takes risks. Our risks are sometimes with our bodies. We take care to use good technique, which mostly protects us, but there is an element of chaos that we choose to include, that makes the slapstick a bit more real, and the audience can see that, and we hear it in their reactions. They gasp at the falls, and then there is a laughter that comes with the relief of tension, as they realize that it was part of the shtick.
“We, luckily, to this point have avoided any serious injuries from our slapstick. We have had other show mishaps. In our last show, Beau & Aero, we use a tambourine as a prop. We were nearing the finale of the show and Amica stepped on one of the tambours, the little metal cymbals, that had fallen off, due to the abuse we put the prop through in the show. It was razor sharp and sliced Amica’s foot open quite badly. She left bloody footprints all over the stage and on my costume as we finished the show with an acrobatic number. Luckily, the footprints were up my back and, hence, not visible to the audience. We left immediately after the show to a pharmacy to get superglue and glue her foot shut. Had we been in Canada, with proper health care, we could have gone to the ER, but we do what we have to.”
Moving from health policy to the environment, climate change is front and centre of the program Generation Hot, which features nine “young artists responding to the climate crisis through new performances.” Guided by The Only Animal co-founder Eric Rhys Miller and mia susan amir of The Story We Be, the mentees have created various works. Divided into three programs, local Jewish community member Ariel Martz-Oberlander’s The Lilacs that Come a Month Early are Still so Beautiful shares Program C with Cosmic Justice by Nelson Ellis and Howard Dai. Program C opens Sept. 10 in the Anderson Street parking lot.
“This piece is vitally personal, there are parts that are deeply vulnerable and, therefore, risky to present publicly,” Martz-Oberlander told the Independent about her play. “I believe strongly that the personal is political, and that we can only talk successfully about large-scale issues by addressing the specific ways these issues are experienced in the small details of the day to day. For this piece, I am working with a cast of six enthusiastic, intelligent actors who fully bring their own worlds to this piece in such a rich way.”
The play’s description reads, “A grandmother, millennials, a woman coming to terms with abuse and ‘The Last of His Kind’ all share the stage. What is the everyday normalcy of climate change, or the deep abnormality of ignoring a crisis so large it already affects everyone? The characters struggle to hold on to the answers even as a world that ended five minutes ago slips away.”
“In the play,” said Martz-Oberlander, “the last of an unidentified species struggles to curate a message that will illustrate the urgency of the situation; however, the vignettes presented always get away from him, and the result is bittersweet.”
She added, “Jewish viewers will recognize a twist on the traditional Passover seder scene halfway through the play, as a young girl struggles to bring social justice to her family table.”
For tickets and information on all the Fringe shows, visit vancouverfringe.com.
Vancouver Hebrew Academy head of school Rabbi Don Pacht, right, presents Joseph and Rosalie Segal with a Stanley Cup-inspired Kiddush cup. (photo by Jocelyne Hallé)
Vancouver Hebrew Academy has outgrown its current facility and is looking to build a new school. It’s in the early stages of a capital campaign to raise $18 million, of which almost 15% has been pledged to date. Its annual Summer Garden Party added to those funds – and it also celebrated the school’s impact, the broader community, and Joseph and Rosalie Segal for their “lifetime of commitment to our Jewish future.”
The party was held on July 21 at the home of Lorne and Mélita Segal. The other event ambassadors were their siblings: Norman and Sandra Miller, Dr. Mark and Tracey Schonfeld, and Gary and Nanci Segal. The night was emceed by Howard Blank and catered by Chef Menachem.
The evening’s program noted that VHA’s facility, which it rents from the Vancouver School Board, “doesn’t provide the space and the tools for modern education,” and doesn’t allow for growth. “The main building was built in the 1940s. Three portables have been added. The current 12,000-square-foot space is insufficient and well below the area standards recommended by the Ministry of Education for elementary schools.” VHA’s vision? “A new home for Torah education.”
Starting off the formal portion of the evening, Elizabeth Nider, co-chair of the VHA board of directors, thanked Joe and Rosalie Segal, “not just for being our honorees, but for providing an inspiration and example to our community of what it means to give.” She said this is a value that the teachers and staff of VHA are effectively imparting to students.
By way of example, Nider related the story of what happened three years ago, when her father-in-law, Marvin Nider, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Her son, Yosef, who was 6 at the time, asked her and her husband what he could do to help. Over the course of a few weeks, Yosef planned and held a violin concert, raising more than $10,000 for the B.C. Cancer Foundation, “knowing that this money might not help his grandfather, but would maybe help others with cancer in the future.”
The most meaningful part for the family, she said, was that her father-in-law could watch the concert on Facetime from his hospital bed. “To us, giving back means giving and not expecting anything back. It means giving because you know it’s the right thing to do. And I thank Vancouver Hebrew Academy for teaching our children the importance of giving, and I also thank Joe and Rosalie for leading by example.”
In his dvar Torah, Rabbi Don Pacht, VHA head of school, gave a brief lesson on the mitzvah of charity, “the commandment to give and to offer assistance.” One of the most known lessons is that of the half-shekel, he said. “Everyone in the community was invited to participate and the funds raised would be incorporated into the treasury of the Temple and would benefit the entire community equally.”
“Charity is a two-way street,” he added, talking not only about those who give – making special mention of the evening’s honorees – but the receivers. “For those of us who do receive, it creates an obligation, wherever possible, for us to give back. And that is the value we try to impart at the Hebrew Academy for our families, for our students.”
VHA class of 2008 alumna Kira Smordin said, “VHA gave me the values and the skills of a Torah education, a love for my Jewish heritage, the ability to navigate across the broad spectrum of the Jewish world and the tools to engage and thrive in the secular one.”
Smordin spoke of a couple of teachers in particular who inspired and encouraged her to become a teacher herself.
“This past April,” she said, “I finished my second year of a five-year dual degree arts and education program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.”
As part of the curriculum, she has to do an annual teaching practicum and, this year, she chose VHA. “My teaching practicum was the perfect opportunity for me to give back to a school and a community that has given so much to me,” she said, adding that the most important lessons she learned at VHA were about chesed (compassion) and tzedakah (charity), and that the Segals “are those lessons come to life for me…. You demonstrate by example what it means to give back. You set the bar high and challenge all of us to reach for it.”
Judy Boxer-Zack, VHA class of 1996, added her reflections.
She compared a community to an orchestra, in which everyone has a part to play. She then shared why VHA is close to her heart, and a bit about Chimp (Charitable Impact), the organization for which she works.
At VHA, she said, students were taught to treat everyone with respect, dignity and a sense of inclusiveness. “What naturally flowed from this for us was a distinctive sense that we had a responsibility for our local and broader communities. This was one of the many ways that VHA was setting the stage to inspire the next generation of Jewish leaders.”
And it specifically inspired Boxer-Zack in her career path. She has worked for a variety of nonprofits, leading up to her job at Chimp, and she was visibly proud to introduce Ariel Lewinski, vice-president of Chimp, who was the next speaker.
Recently, Lewinski and his wife, Rachael, had met with Joe Segal, learning a bit about Segal’s life and business endeavors. “What struck me,” said Lewinski, “is how Mr. Segal was so proud to mention that his children and grandchildren have carried on in this tradition of giving back, and thus creating a family legacy of giving.”
Lewinski noted, “We are all here tonight, in some capacity, because we value the importance of Torah education and recognize that, regardless of how each of us chooses to raise our children, a Torah education and an institution that serves that purpose is at the foundation of any vibrant and diverse Jewish community.”
Lewinski’s wife is a VHA alumna and currently sits on the executive board; his mother-in-law, Ruth Erlichman, was the board’s first president and currently sits on the board of governors; and his son, Yaakov, will be starting school at VHA in September. He said that he and his family are such strong supporters of VHA because not only does it provide a strong Torah education but also an excellent secular education.
Lewinski spoke about Chimp, and its objective of reversing the trend of declining charitable giving in Canada by creating and nurturing “a culture of giving by making charity accessible and an everyday part of life.” Everyone at the garden party was given a $100 gift from Chimp to give to any charity, or charities. During the proceedings that followed, Hodi Kahn challenged attendees to give to VHA, saying that the Kahn Family Foundation would match all donations, up to $10,000. As of Tuesday, with 15 days left in the fundraiser, more than $17,000 of the $20,000 goal had been donated.
Another type of donation was also presented during the evening, with Dr. Peter Legge and his wife, Kay, providing a copy to every family in attendance of his book Lunch with Joe, which features a biography of Joe Segal, shares some of Segal’s philosophies on business and life, and includes the stories of more than 90 people who have had the chance to lunch with Segal at the Four Seasons Vancouver.
Addressing the honorees, Erlichman said she has had many meetings with Joe Segal over the last 18 or so years. “I always came away not only with material support, but practical suggestions to move the needs of our school forward,” she said. “You and Rosalie have been and continue to be incredible mentors – so many of us have benefited from your leadership and generosity of spirit.”
Pacht then presented the Segals with a Stanley Cup-shaped Kiddush cup. Just as the blessing over the wine helps us transition into Shabbat, said the rabbi, “you have also taught us how to take the mundane and to elevate it to the spiritual. The way that your family supports the community is exceptional in every way. It’s inspiring for every one of us here, and countless generations of children and families at the Vancouver Hebrew Academy have felt and will always feel the impact of your family.”
The inscription on the cup recognizes the Segals’ “lifetime of commitment to our Jewish future.”
When Joe Segal spoke, he acknowledged that, while he and his wife had received many accolades during the night, they were not the only ones deserving. “Everybody in this room, I’m sure, has had a special affinity,” he said, “something that was important to them [to support]…. The important thing in life is to do what you can. And the measurement is not how you do it or how big you do it, but doing it the right way.”
Segal described VHA as a “very worthy institution” because it is a “nurturing breeding ground of understanding and of belonging and of responsibility.”
He added – sharing part of a conversation from earlier that day – that Jews comprise such a small percentage of the world’s population. And so, he said, holding back emotion, “This is directed to you, Rabbi Pacht, because what you’re doing is so important – you’re planting the seeds for the evolution and the continuation of the race. Thank you.”
Sergio Toporek made Beware of Images to educate people about the power of images. The documentary’s poster includes the pipe from René Magritte’s 1929 painting “The Treachery of Images,” which shows a pipe and, under it, the words, “This is not a pipe.” The Beware of Images website notes that, when Magritte was told he actually had created a pipe, he responded, “OK, you should try filling it with tobacco then.” (image from Sergio Toporek)
Sergio Toporek worked in advertising for more than two decades before realizing he had a problem – “I had become a tool of the market,” he admits in a 2013 CreativeMornings Vancouver talk that can be seen on YouTube. He decided then to become his own client, and to educate people about how images are being used. The result is the feature-length, animated documentary Beware of Images, which premières at Vancity Theatre July 27 and 28, with Toporek answering audience questions after each screening.
”I first conceived of the idea for a media literacy documentary about 10 years ago, but started working on it two years later,” Toporek told the Independent. “At first, I was doing it part-time, but gradually it took over most of my time.
“The documentary is based on a 24-hour course I teach at Vancouver Film School. The documentary and course have been influencing each other for the past decade and have evolved in parallel. The original script was five hours long, but I have been distilling it to its current 2.5-hour format.
“While the original idea was more focused on current technologies, the final piece has evolved to include much of the history of mediated representation,” he said. “The idea is that the best way to truly understand our current media environment is to understand how it came to be. There are explicit and suggested similarities between past and present technologies throughout the film. My hope is that we will be able to create a better media landscape by learning from past mistakes, mostly by encouraging the audience to be active participants to its future.”
In the 2014 Kickstarter campaign video for the documentary, which can also be seen on YouTube, Toporek explains that his aha moment came when he was given the opportunity to work on a Budweiser commercial in 2007. The way in which the advertising objectified women started him thinking differently, not to mention that he would be working to increase awareness of a product that didn’t need any more awareness, in his view. Add to that the fact that serious issues – many caused, in his opinion, by the corporations hiring him, such as consumerism, environmental pollution, racial stereotyping and glamorized violence – receive little attention, and are even “intentionally underreported.”
“The documentary is divided in 14 interconnected chapters,” said Toporek. “My hope is that educators can address specific media literacy subjects by screening its corresponding chapter. While the best way to experience the film is to watch it in full, short chapters on propaganda, advertising, race/gender representation, etc., can be very helpful to educators to set up and start a conversation.”
He will be promoting the film by screening it in educational and community settings around the world, he said. “I’m interested in the potential post-screening dialogue it can generate. After a year or so of touring with the documentary, I’d like to start writing a new film about the history of automation and its current implications.”
Toporek was born and raised in Mexico City. There, he studied photography and graphic design and earned the bulk of his living designing CD covers for Latin American musicians, work that dwindled after he moved to Vancouver in 1996 because of distance in part, but mainly because of changes in the music industry as it went digital. He was mainly earning his living in advertising by 2005, and joined the Vancouver Film School faculty in 2006. He has a master of education from Harvard University and “completed the thesis for Beware of Images at Stanford University based on research he conducted at the University of British Columbia,” notes the short bio on the film’s website.
“I grew up in a Sephardi-Ashkenazi family in Mexico City,” Toporek told the Independent. “Even though I became an agnostic at a very young age, my Jewish background has been essential…. The great value placed on education during my formative years was instrumental in fostering the constant pursuit of knowledge that has led me to embrace all culture – Judaism included – as a single field of studies.”
Since leaving advertising, making a living “has been one of the most difficult aspects to address,” Toporek admitted. “Commercial design and advertising can be very lucrative careers, particularly when compared to the severely underfunded educational sector. That said, there are many fulfilling rewards in education, even when they can’t be monetized. For now, I’ve made peace with the fact that my income will remain more modest than when I was serving the corporate world.
“For the past years, my income has come from teaching at VFS and from the odd commercial project I do when money becomes an issue. I am very lucky, though, to have a very supportive life partner. She has been an amazing champion of this project, helping it come to life with her constant understanding and encouragement.”
And what an ambitious project, trying to educate people about the power of images. Not only is he up against wealth and power, but ignorance. As he explains in the 2013 CreativeMornings talk: most people believe they can tell the difference between images and reality or are too sophisticated to fall for advertising campaigns, but our reaction to images is emotional not intellectual, and we like the illusions they create. It is our belief that we are immune to images that makes us so vulnerable to them, he contends.
So, he’s up against seemingly insurmountable odds – and others have tried before him (Naomi Klein and Adbusters, for example). In what ways will his efforts be unique or different?
“This is a great question, and one that I ask myself constantly,” he said. “I think that we all have a part to play in the media literacy discourse. There are no simple solutions or absolute victories, and there will never be. It is all just tendencies and gradual improvements. I see my work as a small contribution to a vast field of studies – studies that are as ancient as the Taoist cautious examination of language and as new as virtual reality.
“I greatly admire the work of Naomi Klein and the Adbusters Media Foundation, as well as that of media scholars such as Neil Postman and Jacques Ellul. I think that my work differs from theirs mostly in the way it is being delivered. While I think that the book is still the most nuanced and comprehensive medium we have to address complex issues, we are gradually shifting towards a visual and short-attention-span culture. In that respect, I think that Beware of Images talks about its subject in its own language and terms: images about images.”
For tickets to the July screenings, visit viff.org.
Matt Montgomery as Tony and Jennifer Gillis as Maria have a great chemistry and energy on stage. (photo by Tim Matheson)
Love conquers all. Then again, sometimes, it just isn’t enough. Theatre Under the Stars explores the power – and limits – of love in its two productions this year: Beauty and the Beast and West Side Story.
Love’s transformative power plays front and centre in Beauty and the Beast. The story begins at a prince’s castle, where he refuses to help a beggar. It turns out the woman is a sorceress and she puts a curse on the household, turning him into a beast and all the house staff into objects. It’s a slow-acting spell though, so everyone is in a state of transition, which will be complete when the last petal of a rose falls – unless the prince-cum-beast can fall in love and be loved in return.
Meanwhile, Belle lives in a village with her inventor father – the townspeople think he’s crazy and she’s odd, as she rarely has her nose out of a book. But she is beautiful, as her name suggests, and the most-sought-after man in the village, the handsome, muscle-bound and narcissistic hunter Gaston, is smitten. He is determined to have Belle for his wife.
In the TUTS production, Jaime Piercy as Belle is the strongest singer by far, though the overall best actor in the show is, hands down – combining acting, singing and dancing – Victor Hunter as Lumière, the slender and bendy maître d’ who is transforming into a candelabra; his comedy partner, Steven Greenfield as Cogsworth, the butler becoming a clock, also stands out.
Dane Szohner as Gaston is hilarious and his singing is energetic and enthusiastic, if not always on key, and Sheryl Anne Wheaton as Mrs. Potts – the cook becoming a teapot – is delightful, her rendition of the title song perfect. Jewish community member Bodhi Cutler does a fine job as Mrs. Potts’ young son, who spends most of the night wheeled around in a tea trolley with only his face seen in the body of the teacup into which his character is transforming. Fellow Jewish community member Julian Lokash shows his dancing skills in a few numbers, including as an unidentifiable household object in “Be Our Guest,” which is wonderfully performed by numerous cast members – and the orchestra, which was great throughout, led by musical director Wendy Bross Stuart, another Jewish community member involved in the production.
While some of the household items are hard to discern – including one talented cart-wheeling rug (?) – and the angry wolves that beset people in the forest look more like black cats, in general, the costumes by Chris Sinosich are spot on, as per the Disney movie on which the musical is based. As Belle comes to dinner in one of the final scenes, adorned in her signature gold ball gown, one young audience member couldn’t contain her excitement, happily exclaiming, “She’s wearing the Belle gown!”
By that point in the opening night show, the Beast, played by Peter Monaghan, had settled into his role. In the first half, with only limited lines, it was hard to tell what Monaghan was trying to do with his character, his grunts and hunched-over movements not scary or funny. In the second half, however, he found his feet and his attempts to woo Belle – with the very amusing help of Lumière and Cogsworth – were well done.
Most of the princesses in the audience – several girls dressed up for the show – enjoyed the over-the-top acting, as did the adults, but there were a couple of frightening moments. At the beginning, Gaston is hunting and a gunshot goes off, which put at least one little girl into tears momentarily. And there was a lot of quiet in the audience much later, when Belle’s father is almost hauled off to an insane asylum by a jilted Gaston. To stop that from happening, Belle shows the crowd the Beast through a magic mirror to prove that her father really had seen a “monster” and isn’t crazy. This sets the mob, led by Gaston – who is now also jealous because he realizes that Belle loves the Beast – to the castle and the ultimate fight between the two men, which leads to a dire end for Gaston and near-death for the Beast. There were audible gasps when the Beast becomes human again, as do all his servants.
There is no such happy ending in West Side Story, of course. On opening night, the Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale of gang rivalries turned deadly was intensely and movingly acted. The reality – as much as can exist in a musical – was increased by having some Spanish-speaking actors who get to reel off several lines in Spanish and, with some exceptions (such as Jewish community member Kat Palmer as Consuelo), having non-white actors playing the Puerto Rican Sharks and their entourage, while the Jets and their friends, as well as the police, are played by seemingly white actors. Normally, color doesn’t matter in casting, but the whole point of this musical is that fear and racism can be fatal, and the visual clues are helpful in sending this message home.
While the acting in this production is top-notch, the only performer who is a triple threat – singing, dancing and acting very well – is Daniel James White as Riff, the leader of the Jets. The Sharks’ leader, Bernardo, played by Alen Dominguez, doesn’t get much chance to sing, but handles himself well in the other two departments.
The doomed romantic duo, former Jets leader Tony (Matt Montgomery) and Bernando’s sister Maria (Jennifer Gillis), have a great chemistry and energy on stage, and they really do seem head over heels in love – and then completely lost and distraught when the rumble between the gangs goes lethally wrong. Montgomery has a lovely tenor voice but some of his notes/words are lost, while Gillis has some beautiful moments – Maria is a hard, high part to sing, and Gillis makes a valiant effort.
On the acting front, Alexandra Lainfiesta, who plays Bernando’s girlfriend and Maria’s confidante, is fabulous and almost steals the show. She plays a range of emotions convincingly, from the genuine joy and mischievousness she has in the song “America” to the defiance and anger she has in the upsetting and disturbing “The Taunting.” (Parental advisory: in this pivotal scene, the Jets’ sexual assault of Anita is more than implied.)
As much as there is heartbreak and horror in West Side Story, there is humor and hope. While cheesily done, this production has a young actress representing hope and her role at the end will choke people up a bit, as will the solo reprise by Daren Dyhengco of the song “Somewhere” for the appropriately subdued finale.
Among the highlights of this production, directed almost perfectly by Sarah Rodgers – the only scene that drags is the one in which Tony and Maria declare their intention to marry – is the choreography by Jewish community member Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg. Off-kilter movements, unique body angles, more use of the hands and shoulders than usual, judicious use of slow-motion (in the scene where Tony and Maria first meet) and other Friedenbergesque touches inject life into the musical, which is heavily dance-based.
Beauty and the Beast and West Side Story run until Aug. 20 on alternate evenings at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl. For tickets, visit tuts.ca or call 1-877-840-0457.
Historical fiction is a great way to learn about the past and, while aimed at younger readers, many an adult will enjoy and learn from Ellen Schwartz’s Heart of a Champion (Tundra Books).
For Schwartz, a TV documentary led to her novel about the fictional Sakamoto family, set in the very real time when Japanese Canadians were interned during the Second World War. It was in watching this documentary that Schwartz first found out about the Asahi baseball team.
In the author’s note, she explains that asahi means “morning sun.” The team was established in 1914, winning their first title in 1919, the Vancouver International League championship. They won the Pacific Northwest League championships every year from 1937 through 1941.
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and declared war on Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, writes Schwartz, “In Canada, Japanese Canadians were branded ‘enemy aliens’ and quickly lost their rights. The government, fearing that they would be loyal to Japan and would share war secrets with the enemy, took away their fishing boats, cars, radios and cameras. The Japanese were subject to a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
“In the spring of 1942, the Canadian government began to remove Japanese Canadians from the west coast of British Columbia. Men between the ages of 18 and 45 were sent to road camps in the Interior to build roads. Women, children and older people were sent to internment camps, many in abandoned mining or logging ‘ghost towns.’ Small, primitive shacks were hastily built to house them. The people lost their homes, businesses and possessions, never to get them back.”
In her research for the novel, Schwartz told the Independent, “I learned so much. In addition to the Asahis, I delved into the history of the Japanese-Canadian community in Vancouver and then in the internment camps. I hadn’t realized how established and prosperous the Japanese-Canadian community was in the pre-World War II years. Although there was a lot of discrimination – for example, Japanese Canadians didn’t have the vote, they were paid less than Caucasians for the same work and they often suffered racial slurs – these were middle-class families who were integrated into Canadian society. That’s why it was such a shock when they were uprooted and sent to internment camps in the Interior.
“I had heard about the internment camps but I didn’t realize how awful they were until I went to the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre in New Denver [on Slocan Lake in the Kootenay region] as part of my research. When I stepped inside the original 1942 shack that is preserved there, I was shocked at how primitive and barren it was. In that moment, the second half of the book came to me, as I experienced what it must have felt like for Kenny and his family.”
In the novel, 10-year-old Kenny (Kenji in Japanese) aspires to be an Asahi like his older brother, star player Mickey (Mitsuo). However, Kenny has been diagnosed with a heart condition, which means he has to practise secretly, so as to not worry his parents. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, dreams of baseball are replaced with the nightmare of having to register as an enemy alien, of being subjected to a curfew, of having his father’s business closed, of his father being sent to a work camp and of being evacuated to an internment camp, only allowed to bring minimal belongings. In Kenny’s case, he, his mother, older brother and younger sister (Sally) are sent to New Denver, where Kenny and his mother manage to find the strength to inspire others in the camp to hope – and play baseball again.
The Sakamotos’ neighbors, and dear friends, are the Bernsteins, who have two daughters, Susana and Brigitte (aka Gittie). This allows Schwartz to draw parallels between the treatment of Jews in Europe leading to the Holocaust and Japanese in Canada during the war.
“I wanted to point out that the treatment of Japanese Canadians, although obviously not nearly as lethal or horrific, was comparable to that of Jews in Europe,” explained Schwartz. “In both cases, a minority was being persecuted simply because of their religion or nationality. Giving Kenny a Jewish best friend would make both characters sympathetic about this issue.
“The other reason I made Susana Kenny’s best friend is that, because of his heart defect, he would not have been able to keep up with other boys and might have had a girl as a best friend. Initially, Susana was a minor character, but I really liked her – she had chutzpah – so I gave her a bigger role in the story. It’s her courage and loyalty that give Kenny the impetus to find his own.”
Schwartz herself didn’t have a particularly religious childhood. “My mother was religious; my father wasn’t. We went to High Holiday services and that was about it,” she said. “But we lived with my grandparents when I was little, and my grandfather was observant and I adored him, so I grew up with a real fondness for Jewishness. I loved the family seders with everyone together and my grandfather chanting the Haggadah. I feel Jewish inside even though I’m not observant now.
“When I’m thinking of characters, I don’t set out to make them Jewish, but sometimes they emerge that way. Even if a character isn’t identified as Jewish, I know that that character is, and that gives the character an inner richness for me. For example, my first novel series was about a girl named Starshine Shapiro. I never mentioned that Starshine’s family was Jewish, but in my mind they were, and some of the humor in the books had a definite Jewish flavor.”
Schwartz hasn’t always been a writer.
“After I stopped teaching elementary school in the late ’70s, I started writing educational stories. That was my first foray into writing,” said Schwartz, who grew up in New Jersey and moved to Canada in 1972 with her husband, Bill. “I wrote stories for kids about energy conservation and the environment, which were important to me. I suppose I started with educational writing because I was comfortable ‘talking’ to and teaching kids. I sold the first educational story to the government of B.C. and the second one to the National Film Board. Then I decided to try to write a regular story, and that became my first book, Dusty.”
Schwartz teaches creative writing at Douglas College and she also works as a corporate and technical writer and editor, she said. “My husband and I own a small communications company called Polestar Communications. We do all kinds of writing and editing for public agencies and companies – reports, brochures, articles, educational material, technical material, web writing, etc. We also do marketing and organize events. That’s how I spend most of my writing time.
“I also write magazine articles, mainly for the Costco Connection, the magazine of the Costco corporation,” she added. “The editor usually assigns me stories about books and authors, which, of course, I love. I have interviewed and written about some great authors, including Ann-Marie MacDonald, Richard Wagamese, Linden MacIntyre and Alice Munro.”
On her website, Schwartz notes that she hasn’t even always wanted to be a writer.
“Dancing is my favorite thing,” she said, “and I often tell kids that if God tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘You can be a professional dancer tomorrow if you give up writing,’ I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute. I take a jazz class once a week and love it.”
While her career path may have changed a few times, Schwartz said the process of getting an idea to publication hasn’t changed much since she published her first book more than 30 years ago.
“Essentially, it’s the same,” she said. “I get an idea, mull it over for awhile, make notes and then plunge in. Many drafts later, I send it to a publisher and hope for the best. Once a manuscript is accepted, I work with an editor (I love working with editors) and do another rewrite. Then the book goes into production, which I have very little to do with other than approving the cover. (I have no artistic talent – my abilities extend to stick figures – and don’t illustrate or do any book design.)
“Of course, now I can submit work electronically, and it’s a lot easier to bounce ideas back and forth with my publishers before I send them the story,” she continued. “And I do a lot of research on the internet rather than in the library, though, for most stories, I still read many print articles and books for background information.”
And she does more than that.
Linda Kawamoto Reid, research archivist at Nikkei National Museum in Burnaby, writes in the foreword of Heart of a Champion that Schwartz “thoroughly researched the times by talking extensively with members of the Japanese-Canadian community. She met Kaye Kaminishi, our last Asahi baseball player, who was a rookie in 1941, and sought out the facts by conducting interviews, reading books and watching films. The story has surprising elements of reality, from the food eaten to the description of events following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.”
Japanese Canadians were not allowed to return to the coast until 1949 and it wasn’t until 1988 that the Government of Canada formally apologized for the treatment of Japanese Canadians during the war. As for the Asahis, the team was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 and into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2005; in 2008, the team was designated an Event of National Historical Significance.
So, is the country in which we’re now living less, more or similarly susceptible to the factors that allowed the refusal of Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust and the internment of the Japanese, as but two extreme examples of the racism of those decades?
“Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I think we’re less susceptible to that kind of racism and exclusion in Canada,” said Schwartz. “The recent acceptance of the Syrian refugees is a heartwarming example. When my kids were in school in Burnaby in the ’90s, there were kids of every color and nationality in their classes and no one thought anything of it. We can’t ever take tolerance for granted, but I think that Canada in 2016 is a pretty welcoming place.”
Ellen Schwartz will be at Word Vancouver on Sept. 25, at the Vancouver International Writers’ Festival Oct. 18-23 and at the Calgary Jewish Book Festival Dec. 4-11.
Dr. Robert Krell, left, listens to Prof. Elie Wiesel, as Wiesel addresses the capacity crowd that came to the Orpheum in 2012 to hear him speak (photo by Jennifer Houghton). Elie Wiesel passed away on July 2. May his memory be for a blessing.
The following article was originally published on Sept. 21, 2012, and initially reposted on July 2, 2016. The photographs were added with its republication in the newspaper and online July 15:
“The Jewish people is based on what is called in the Prophets, ‘Edim atem l’Hashem,’ ‘You are witnesses to God.’ Says the Talmud something horrible: the Talmud says God says, ‘If you are my witnesses, I am your God. If not, I am not your God.’… That is the importance of testimony.”
This was part of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel’s response to a question about the role of March of the Living alumni. “You are now the witnesses,” he said. “Remember, to be a witness to the witness is as important as to be a witness.”
Wiesel was in Vancouver to launch the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign on Monday, Sept. 10. The event, which was held at the Orpheum, featured Wiesel in conversation with his friend, fellow survivor Dr. Robert Krell, as well as a presentation of another of Wiesel’s friends, Robbie Waisman, who accompanied this year’s March of the Living program to Poland and Israel. Participant Jenna Brewer read the account written by Monique de St. Croix of Waisman’s emotional return to his birthplace, after which Waisman himself addressed the nearly 2,700 people in attendance.
The campaign launch was the culmination of Wiesel’s day here, which included a proclamation from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson declaring Sept. 10, 2012, Elie Wiesel Day.
Among Wiesel’s many activities was the receipt of an honorary degree from the University of British Columbia, where he spoke to university administrators, students and Holocaust survivors. A formal academic procession led Wiesel into the hall and a short panel discussion followed his remarks, involving the university’s president, Prof. Stephen Toope, Prof. Richard Menkis, a professor of modern Jewish history, and Barbara Schober, a graduate student. UBC Chancellor Sarah Morgan-Silvester presented Wiesel with the doctorate.
Also on Wiesel’s itinerary was a morning interview with the Jewish Independent; one of only two interviews he granted while here, the other being with the Vancouver Sun.
As editor Basya Laye and I introduced ourselves, Wiesel admitted his dependence on the New York Times, a copy of which he had not yet picked up that day. Once the “bible of journalism,” according to Wiesel, he lamented the Times’ decline in quality as the newspaper industry itself has declined. He wasn’t worried about the change to internet media, however.
“Our stories are not dominated by concern with the press, it’s person to person,” he said. “If you relied on the New York Times, the New York Times’ background, record in those years, is not the best, during the war.”
Wiesel recounted how, years ago, he complained to the Times about how little there was in the paper about the Holocaust while it was happening. Subsequently, he was invited to a luncheon, at which he gave them a piece of his mind. As a result, said Wiesel, in the paper’s offices, they have a plaque/letter saying, “We failed,” as a reminder to themselves.
Yet, admission of failure on the world level – that countries did not do enough to prevent the Holocaust – has not resulted in the prevention of other attempts at genocide.
“Can human nature change?” Wiesel said about that fact. “It’s society. Whatever the issue we have is, for instance, believe me that, I say, a sex story will have the front pages. Not what we try to say, but the sex story will have the front pages. It is our culture. We go with what is easy, what is cheap, and what is accepted as interesting by more people than before. And that goes everywhere, that’s in literature, that’s in the movies. I don’t know where we are heading.”
For his part, Wiesel has spent most of his life – as a witness, storyteller and teacher – trying to ensure that “never again” is a promise kept.
Born in Sighet, Romania (which was in Hungary during the war), Wiesel was 15 when he and his family were taken to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister were killed there, his father died in Buchenwald, where Wiesel also was imprisoned when the war ended; his two older sisters survived. Wiesel’s book about his experiences in the camps, Night, was first published in 1956. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages, with millions of copies being sold.
A professor at Boston University since 1976, Wiesel was founding chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which created the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and, with his wife, Marion, he established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity soon after he received the Nobel. He has written more than 50 books, and his lengthy resumé continues.
When asked how he would categorize his body of work, Wiesel told the Independent, “Not enough.”
“What would you like to have been able to do?”
“More.”
“In terms of?”
“More,” he repeated. “Not enough. Look, look, on the surface, I’ve done a lot, published many books. Many books have been published about me, and so forth. I have approached presidents and kings, but all of that, somehow, it is not enough. Maybe, deep down, all of us who have survived have had a feeling, if we told the story, the world would change, and the world hasn’t changed. Does it mean that we did not tell the story? Or not well enough? Simply, we did not find the words to tell the story? Had we told the story well enough, maybe it would have changed the world? It hasn’t changed the world.”
“Do you feel like you have failed in some measure there?”
“Not failed,” Wiesel replied quickly. “I didn’t say fail. Failing, if I had not tried. Look, I know I tried. I still try.”
Complementing his activism for human rights, Wiesel is a dedicated student of Talmud and has a deep appreciation of Chassidic and biblical stories, which the Independent referred to as “old” in asking a question about such stories’ relevance today.
“They are not only old, they are immortal,” said Wiesel. As to specific lessons we could learn, he added, “It depends what area. If it’s the Bible, then the eternal truth, or at least the eternal quest for truth. The Talmud, it’s my passion – I grew up with the Talmud and, to this day, every day, I study – I love it. I love study.”
Wiesel explained, “There is so much beauty in all that. There is so much….” He paused. “Truth is a difficult word because my truth may be mine, but not yours, but learning, the quest for truth, is extraordinary. For me to teach those texts is so rewarding, so rewarding. And we take a theme, a talmudic theme or a biblical theme or a prophetic theme, and it can go on, it can last for us for hours and hours and hours in class.
“Come on, the beauty of an Isaiah, the tragic sense of a Jeremiah, and the immortal dimension of a Habakkuk. It is all these. They survived. The very fact that they survived, you know, how did they survive? These are texts conceived, written and spoken 3,000 years ago or so, 2,500, and they survived. What made them survive?”
The concept of truth came up again when the Independent asked Wiesel’s opinion – as a former journalist himself – about how much a newspaper should reflect extremes within the community it serves.
“I gave up journalism. Do you know why?” asked Wiesel. “I liked journalism at the beginning; I loved it. It was to be at the nerve centre of history, come on, I loved it. Then I realized, what, two things. Number one, I repeated myself – which means I changed the names, but the words remained the same.” He paused, then continued, “I am going to spend my life like that? Second, I realized the people that I loved and admired; occasionally, they had such an attitude of fear and respect for the journalist – I said, I don’t want that, I don’t want to inspire that. That’s when I moved to the academic. I gave up, for that reason.”
Hesitant to give advice, Wiesel eventually said, “Young lady, your truth is truth. Listen to it. It’s your truth that matters. Don’t accept somebody else’s truth. And, if you are a journalist, if you have the respect for your own words, that will be read by hundreds or thousands of people, who will read it and maybe be influenced by it – you, just you, don’t listen to [anyone,] not even to your editors. Don’t tell them, don’t even listen to that,” he said, looking at Basya as he made the comment, and laughing. “You decide. When you publish an article under your byline, it’s yours.”
Despite having wondered aloud as to the effectiveness of his efforts to change the world, Wiesel still gets up every morning to do just that. “What is the alternative?” he asked rhetorically. “What is the alternative? There is no alternative. True, I fought many battles and lost. So what? I’ll continue fighting. Look, my life is not a life of success or victory, much more of failures. I tried so many things and failed, you have no idea. Of course, so what? I’ll continue. The only area where I feel I must continue is, first of all, education. Whatever must be done in Jewish life, and in life in general – not only for Jews – education must be a priority. Not the only one, but the main priority, education. Let’s surely aim for that. And then, Israel, to me, of course is – the centrality of Israel in my life is here,” he said, putting his hand over his heart.
A few moments later in the conversation, Wiesel returned to the topic of journalism.
“You know, as a journalist, my love would be to interview, not for news, [but] to have the interview. And that’s really what I loved about it, to meet people, to have real conversations, I mean, real dialogues – not questions and answers, because I know now about you more than you think, simply by the questions that you ask. But that’s the journalist in me.”
“So, you obviously have faith in human nature … and you like to know more about people?”
“I do,” he said, with hesitation. “In spite of. It’s not because of, but in spite of.”