Dave Gordon

Fighting antisemitism

In Toronto, Yoseph Haddad, left, with Daniel Koren, founder and executive director of Allied Voices for Israel, which sponsored Haddad’s Canadian tour. (photo by Dave Gordon)

In recent years, Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad has become known for his efforts to fight antisemitism and present Israel’s perspective to international audiences, and he has taken up this mantle with much greater emphasis since Oct. 7, 2023. This month, Haddad’s Canadian tour, organized by Allied Voices for Israel, took him to Montreal, Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver.

At Toronto’s Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue, Haddad, who leads the Israeli nonprofit Together Vouch For Each Other, which works to bridge the gaps between Arabs and Jews in Israel, covered a few topics. He spoke about how his army service changed his life, how he protested anti-Israel agitators with pro-Israel Concordia students, and what he believes is Canada’s complacency towards antisemitism.

Though he was not obligated to serve in the Israel Defence Forces, Haddad voluntarily enlisted in the army in November 2003, more emboldened to do so after the terrorist bombing of Maxim restaurant in Haifa that left 21 dead and 60 injured. According to Haddad, Maxim was an establishment where the co-owners, employees and patrons were Arabs and Jews. It was an emblem of coexistence in Israel.

Haddad said it was the name of Israel’s army, the Israel Defence Forces, that helped him further understand that the force was defending all people in the country, not just Jews. During his service, he was a commander over Jewish soldiers, and he offered this as one of many examples that punctures the lie that Israel practises apartheid.

He related a story about when he was accused at a public speech of being an “idiot,” of being used by the Jews, and that he would be eventually “thrown to the garbage.” He had an easy rejoinder, he said.

While fighting in the 2006 Lebanon War, he suffered a life-threatening injury four days before the ceasefire, when a Hezbollah antitank missile exploded nearby and severed his leg. At risk to their own lives, his battalion carried him to safety. After treatment and extensive rehabilitation, he can even play soccer. He told the audience, if his unit wanted to throw him away, that would have been the time to do it.

Haddad warned of refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, some of whom, he said, bring extremism to Canada.

“Instead of adopting Western values, instead of adopting Canada’s laws, they’re actually trying to change it to Sharia,” he said. “And that’s the biggest problem.”

Canadian authorities, he said, are “ostriches” who have their heads in the sand.

“When it comes to dealing with extremism and terrorism and terror supporters, zero tolerance [should be the response], and that’s what Canada should do,” said Haddad.

It’s also a lesson for Israel, he added. In June 2023, he said, Hezbollah “infiltrated” Israel and set up in Israeli territory, a situation that Israel dealt with diplomatically. But this gave the terror group the sense that Israel didn’t care much for the land, didn’t care that an enemy had squatted on it, and that Israelis were “scared,” Haddad said. It contributed to Hezbollah’s perception on Oct. 8, 2023, when firing rockets, that “they thought that we are weak, because we presented ourselves as weak.” He said that, if he had been in charge, he would have flown F16s over the tents and bombed them.

The United Nations and the International Criminal Court are “really obvious for bias,” in ignoring the crimes of North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Syria “and other countries who have zero human rights,” said Haddad. The UN “is adopting the narrative of a terrorist organization” when citing casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, he added.

Haddad encouraged Israel advocates to speak out on social media: “If you see content which is anti-Israeli, report it. Leave a comment. Leave an Israeli flag. And if you see a pro-Israel comment, support it, share it, show it to other friends, take part in that, because we’re out there.”

Haddad is active on multiple platforms, including YouTube, and he posts content in Hebrew, English and Arabic, with nearly two million followers.

Haddad said he remains optimistic. What uplifted him especially was having seen IDF soldiers in Gaza last summer who included “all the identities of the Israeli society.” They were, he said, united in two missions: find and free the hostages, and eliminate the terrorists. “And the only way that we can be supported,” he said, “is by being united, left and right, Jews and Arabs, secular and religious. And, I promise you, if society is united, there isn’t one single terrorist organization that can beat us.”

At the Toronto talk, journalist and activist Raheel Raza, a Pakistani-Canadian, was honoured for her decades-long allyship to the Jewish community.

At the Vancouver event, which took place at Temple Sholom, speakers included Daniel Koren, founder and executive director of Allied Voices for Israel, and students Zara Nybo and Ben Morrison. Jaime Stein, whose uncle, Dr. Steve Stein, was title sponsor for the cross-Canada tour, also addressed the audience. Grand Chief Lynda Prince, AVI Allyship Award recipient, spoke of Jewish indigeneity and connections between Indigenous Canadians and Israel. David Bogdonov spoke on behalf of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

Nybo, a University of British Columbia student, is the president of the Israel Club on her campus, though she herself is not Jewish.

“Israel is fighting a seven-front war. We, as students, are fighting on the eighth front of that war – on college and university campuses,” she said. “I am going to war with my peers, my professors, the administration and even the UBC president. I don my hostage pin and head out the door every day into an unknown battlefield of anti-Israel rhetoric, terrorist supporters, and antisemitism.”

Nybo said students are “being brainwashed and fed purposeful disinformation about Israel and the history of the Middle East every single day” while a “prominent” history professor for Middle Eastern studies at UBC wears a keffiyeh on campus, joins pro-Palestine rallies “and encourages his students to do the same for extra credit.”

She said, “I am standing here sounding the alarm about the bias ingrained in the university academic system.”

This “overwhelming systemic issue,” she said, can be confronted with education and by empowering students, as she was. Nybo had a campus media fellowship with AVI and HonestReporting Canada. This helped her hone her writing and editing skills, and her pro-Israel articles have been published in the National Post, Jewish Independent and Algemeiner. She was subsequently accused by a professor as being “employed by Zionist entities,” she said.

But challenges such as these can be faced when students are brought together, she said, “under the banner of allyship, building bridges and empowering students to speak out, all while providing community reinforcement.”

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

Human rights, democracy

Left to right: Haleema Sadia, Emily Schrader, Christine Douglass-Williams and Goldie Ghamari formed the panel of the Dec. 4 event in Toronto called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran. (photo by Dave Gordon)

American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader believes it took years for Canada to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps a terror group, as it did in June, because of “moral cowardice.”

She said other Western countries have “refuse[d] to stand up for moral values and their countries and civilizations” and that is “all the reason to vote for those who will protect democracies and freedoms in Canada.”

Schrader spoke in Toronto at the Lodzer Centre on Dec. 4. She was part of a panel with cofounder of TAG TV Haleema Sadia, Iranian-born Ottawa-area Member of Provincial Parliament Goldie Ghamari, and journalist Christine Douglass-Williams, in a talk called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Schrader is an anchor on ILTV in Israel, co-hosts a panel show on Jewish News Syndicate, and is a contributor to ynetnews.com. In her opening remarks, she spoke of growing up “nominally pro-Israel” until her time at the University of Southern California as an undergrad student. “I didn’t realize how much people passionately hate Israel and Jews until I went to university,” she said.

Her first time “really seeing this visceral, irrational obsession with the Jewish state, which really is an obsession with Jews,” was during an Israel Apartheid Week, held by Students for Justice in Palestine. She said she was “irritated” by the “lies they spread across campus.” She joined Students for Israel in response to “this obsessive hatred towards Israel.”

“I always joke that Students for Justice in Palestine – the best thing they ever did was make me the biggest Zionist in the world,” said Schrader. “I would not be Israeli today if it was not for Students for Justice in Palestine. So, I guess I have them to thank for that.”

It was only after making aliyah that Schrader became aware of the historical connection between Iranians and Jews, going back to Cyrus the Great (circa 590 – 529 BCE), who allowed the Jewish exiles to return to the Holy Land. Iranians and Israelis are “really fighting the same evil,” she said.

photo - American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4 — American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

In 2024, Schrader founded the Israeli Iranian Women’s Alliance (IIWA) to promote women’s advancement and democratic values.

She said Iran’s human rights violations have gotten worse. “There are more restrictions and gender apartheid than we have ever seen before.” She added: “The world is not paying attention because of everything else that’s been going on.”

Ghamari said Canada has been “courting the Hamas votes,” meaning immigrants from countries with “fundamentally different values than Canada.”

Schrader added that “the left overestimates the values of these voters” and “they are against the West – whether it’s a right or left government – so courting them is a fundamental mistake.”

“One of the best ways to support Iranians is to support our king,” Ghamari said of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi – son of the late, deposed shah – who visited Israel in April 2023. “He is the one true voice of the Iranian people. He has 90% support,” she said.

A way to battle the anti-Israel forces is to build connections with like-minded allies, said Douglass-Williams. “They want the outreach just as much as the Jewish community.”

Ghamari seconded that: “All your support gave me the motivation to speak out and speak up.”

Sadia’s advice to win hearts and minds was to “multiply the voices” on social media.

Douglass-Williams alerted the audience that Venezuela has now sold a million hectares of land to the Iranian regime. “The IDF says they are developing weapons there that could reach America and Israel,” she said.

The Dec. 4 talk was organized by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, OneGlobalVoice, Allied Voices for Israel, Tafsik, and Canadians for Israel.

In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Independent, Schrader said the new Trump administration will be “excellent” on cracking down on Iran. She believes that moral-minded countries need to “de-recognize” the Islamic regime and ramp up sanctions. “It’s going to be a tall order,” she said of countries who have economic ties.

As for the wave of anti-Israel protests, they are primarily concerned with “support for terrorist organizations and an attempt to infiltrate and undermine Western values and the West,” Schrader told the JI.

If they cared about Palestinians, she said, they would protest the estimated 4,000 Palestinians killed in Syria by the Assad regime during that country’s civil war, she said. The Islamic regime’s “vast majority of the victims” are Arab and Muslim, but again, these protesters are silent.

Law enforcement, she believes, is to blame for allowing “multiple antisemitic assaults and attacks,” because “there’s zero accountability for these crimes that are being committed with a racist, hateful, pro-terror agenda.”

“You have to deter it, or it will only grow,” said Schrader. “And we see that happening. It’s a year after Oct. 7 and, I would argue, that it’s worse.”

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

Mobilizing against Jew-hatred

Ysabella Hazan said phrases such as “the West is next” imply “exactly what the enemies of Israel accuse us of – being a Western outpost in the Middle East, a settled body, which is not true.” (photo by Dave Gordon)

Rage Against the Hate in New York on Oct. 31 had the goal to “gather Jewish organizations, and to find ways to start fighting back, to retake the streets, to retake the campuses, to retake social media, to combat antisemitism in a way that we haven’t,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Israeli nonprofit Shurat HaDin Law Centre, organizers of the full-day conference.

photo - Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Israeli nonprofit Shurat HaDin Law Centre, which organized the Rage Against the Hate conference in New York Oct. 31 — Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Israeli nonprofit Shurat HaDin Law Centre, which organized the Rage Against the Hate conference in New York Oct. 31. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

More than 30 organizations were conference partners and keynote speakers included radio host/author Dennis Prager, attorney Alan Dershowitz, actor Michael Rapaport, activist Shabbos Kestenbaum and NGO Monitor’s Gerald Steinberg.

Dershowitz, 86, said that after speaking to Jewish high school students, he was “stunned by their lack of knowledge” about Israel. To fill the void, he will be giving away a million copies of his latest book, The 10 Big Anti-Israel Lies and How to Refute Them with Truth, to 1,000 universities and high schools across the United States. He lambasted what he called the “educational malpractice” pervasive on college campuses, where professors “give disguise” to Jew-hatred through diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and oppressor-versus- oppressed beliefs.

“I offered $1,000 to anybody who could find me a single protester in any of these protests on university campuses that has ever called for a two-state solution. Nobody has taken me up on it. No protester wants to see an Israeli state,” he said to the audience of 300.

He added that “we are in a fight for our lives. We are in a fight for the future,” because these students will become politicians, corporate executives, media influencers and other types of leaders, and they will have all “been brought up with this kind of knee-jerk anti-Zionism.”

Darshan-Leitner characterized Students for Justice in Palestine as a “propaganda arm of Hamas.” She believes their activity is “actually providing material support to a terror organization” and, in doing so, contravenes the Anti-terrorism Act in the United States.

Kestenbaum – who, last January, became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Harvard University, alleging systemic antisemitism, and has testified before Congress about antisemitism on college campuses – told the Jewish Independent: “Jewish students are fighting a really remarkable fight with limited resources, with limited help and limited funding. It’s the Jewish nonprofits, who raise billions of dollars each year, who could be in a position to do a lot more. And so, I would encourage the Jewish nonprofits not to say, ‘What can the students be doing?’ but to ask themselves, ‘What can I be doing?’ to help students.”

“It is imperative that larger organizations actively support grassroots initiatives that can manoeuvre and mobilize quickly and efficiently, whereby large organizations cannot,” said Amir Epstein, director of Tafsik, a Jewish civil rights group that fights Jew-hatred in Canada and more broadly.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars are donated to large organizations, so it isn’t unreasonable for them to contribute considerable monetary aid to empower these grassroots efforts, so we can create a united front to combat the degradation of our Jewish community’s safety, and address the unprecedented antisemitism we face in universities, K-12 schools, media, politics and the arts,” said Epstein.

Montrealer Ysabella Hazan, who started the movement called Decolonized Judean, said phrases such as “the West is next” and “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East” do not resonate with the younger generation. “They do not speak about us, convey our story or address the accusations that we are facing on the world stage,” she said. “And they indirectly prove exactly what the enemies of Israel accuse us of – being a Western outpost in the Middle East, a settled body, which is not true.”

Columbia business professor Shai Davidai, who has earned renown for calling out Jew-hatred on campuses, told the audience that antisemites have “created the new normal” by making students feel uncomfortable being visibly Jewish.” He said, “If we don’t fight back in the court of public opinion and in the court of law, we’re not going to win this war.”

photo - At the Rage Against the Hate conference Oct. 31, Dennis Prager offered an idea of how to counter the delegitimization of Israel — At the Rage Against the Hate conference Oct. 31, Dennis Prager offered an idea of how to counter the delegitimization of Israel. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

Prager, who did graduate work at the Middle East and Russian institutes of Columbia’s School of International Affairs, said, “I was basically taught by moral idiots, but they were giants compared to who’s teaching in Columbia today, or at Harvard or at Princeton.”

An argument he proposed to use against the delegitimization of Israel is to draw a parallel to the creation of Pakistan, born the same year as the modern Jewish state. “There were two Israels in history,” said Prager, “but there was no Pakistan in history. When it was created, it was wrenched out of India. Nobody ever challenges the right of Pakistan to exist.”

Rapaport, known for his social media posts about Israel, advised: “Fight with your heart, fight with your prayers, fight with your genius, brilliant, Jewish, Zionist minds. Fight ferociously and do not take a step back,” he implored, while also encouraging Jewish education: “The more that I learn about our fantastic, magical history, the prouder I become.”

Journalist Douglas Murray, who is not Jewish, and Darshan-Leitner, shared a question-and-answer session.

Murray lamented how “very senior politicians” and “a generation of Americans” have bought into the “delusion that, if you were to solve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, peace would break out, not just in the region, but around the world.” But a state of Palestine with Hamas leadership “will be another Iranian proxy state nearer to Israel,” he said, and it’s “an obscenity that more people don’t realize that.”

He also said this is “a great opportunity for alliance-building,” and reminded the audience “not to forget the Christian communities” and others “who have been so supportive of Israel.”

Winnipeg attorney Lawrence Pinsky told the Independent that the conference was “inspiring and helpful,” and he plans to create a community “situation room,” he said, “just so that we can have a multi-directional approach to any problem. These will be individuals who may or may not be parts of organizations, who actually want to do, and can do.”

He said the conference helped him realize that activism should involve “no ego,” and that people should jump into action, not feeling they “have to reinvent the wheel.”

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

Volunteers help rebuild Israel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A new way to teach reading

Lisa Gelberman (photo courtesy)

Over the years, Toronto-based educator Lisa Gelberman saw a consistent problem with the education system: it did not address the fact that a third of students in North America have various reading difficulties.

“When kids struggle academically, they struggle behaviourally, they struggle socially, and long-term success becomes more unlikely. It’s a huge spiral,” said Gelberman, principal at Kayla’s Children Centre (KCC).

In her view, the need was so great to help those falling through the literacy cracks, that she took matters into her own hands to find a way to solve the problem. Over time, she developed an online reading program called Literacy Decoded, which launched in 2022. Its aim is to train teachers to support students with learning disabilities, dyslexia and other developmental delays. Several Toronto Jewish schools (including Bais Yaakov High School and Eitz Chaim Schools) have purchased the course and adopted its curricula. She has sold it to hundreds of educators across North America.

Comprising mostly Jewish students, KCC is a school, therapy clinic, recreational centre and camp for children with special needs, and some students, including those who have extreme delays, have learned to read because of the program.

“The Jewish community sees the importance of supporting children with learning disabilities and dyslexia,” Gelberman said. “There are going to be fewer kids leaving the Jewish school systems for secular schools, because now their own schools have the training and resources needed. Now their needs are being met and [the program is] changing their educational outcome,” she contends.

The mother of five began her career as a teacher at a public school, teaching first grade for three years, then, having taken various course qualifications, she began teaching special education. Later, she led a class for students with learning disabilities, dyslexia or severe ADHD. Afterwards, she taught children with autism.

“I was always very passionate about teaching children to read,” she said. “Developing curricula and exploring different paths to teaching kids to read is my purpose.”

Up until about five years ago, Gelberman said, most schools across North America used a methodology called the “whole language approach.” But a full third of children do not pick up reading from this method, she argues. “So, kids struggle, and I just knew there’s something I had to do about it.

“Every year,” she continued, “I got so close to teaching this one child to read [but] he came back after the summer and it was like everything I taught him was lost. I didn’t understand why. That’s when I started to look for other programs to help.”

She discovered the Orton-Gillingham approach, and, on her own dime and with a year-and-a-half of study, she became certified to teach it.

After being hired by Kayla’s, Gelberman applied the Orton-Gillingham methods with the institution’s kids and found success in teaching children who previously had found it incredibly difficult to read.

Building upon the program, she videoed her own son, who showed signs of dyslexia and was having trouble reading, learning with the approach and used it to show teachers and parents how to implement it.

“He’s jumped three grade levels in six months. And even his teacher at the time couldn’t believe it,” she said.

“And that’s how I actually was able to improve upon the program…. I was training the teachers, and other schools were asking me to come in [to do] staff training, but I simply didn’t have the time. So, I decided to develop a course of my own.”

image - Lisa Gelberman has created an online teaching program, Literacy Decoded, based on the Orton-Gillingham method. (image from Lisa Gelberman) — Lisa Gelberman has created an online teaching program, Literacy Decoded, based on the Orton-Gillingham method. *(image from Lisa Gelberman)*

It was important for Gelberman to gear her own program towards Jewish day schools, which she claims have fewer resources, in general, to divert to kids who are lagging. Particularly for the Jewish community, she’s made a special effort to ensure the content – words and images – is appropriate.

According to Gelberman, the two years of remote learning during COVID made the program more relevant and needed, given how so many children who require in-person interaction to absorb materials were denied this interaction during a critical time in their learning.

“I’m just so happy that the children who would have fallen through the cracks are now able to read,” she said, adding that KCC children are being mainstreamed, when they ordinarily would not be.

Four years in development, “huge pieces” of Gelberman’s program do not involve memorizing words, nor looking at pictures, tools she said have been relied upon heavily as teaching aids. Instead, in her course, what seems to work is the sounding out of words, learning different sound combinations, and learning syllable types.

The program is asynchronous, that is, it proceeds at the teacher’s pace, and each lesson is through video, so the lessons feel “live.” In addition, Gelberman offers monthly coaching sessions with teachers, where they share with each other their struggles and problem-solving methods.

“I truly feel the right training from the right teachers can and will teach kids to read,” she said.

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

United against antisemitism

Among those on stage as Irwin Cotler received a lifetime achievement award from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs last month were, left to right, Yves-François Blanchet (Bloc Quebecois leader), Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ariela and Irwin Cotler, David Posluns (one of the event co-chairs), Steven Kroft (one of the event co-chairs), Pierre Poilievre (Conservative Party leader) and Shimon Koffler Fogel (head of CIJA). (photo by Dave Gordon)

It was a conference months in the making, but Antisemitism: Face It, Fight It took on heightened poignancy in light of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel and the subsequent spike in Jew-hatred globally.

Produced by Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the conference took place in Ottawa Oct. 16 and 17. Speakers included activists, politicians, experts and analysts on antisemitism. In attendance were 250 student leaders and some 600 others, Jews and non-Jews, according to organizers.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive officer of CIJA, noted there was an outpouring of support from the major political party leaders, as well as from minority, faith and other groups – “a uniform conclusion about Hamas and their actions, and we should embrace that.”

This message was echoed throughout the two days of the conference.

“It can’t just be Jews who talk about the rise of antisemitism. It can’t just be Muslims that talk about anti-Muslim hate,” said Farah Pandith, senior advisor to the Anti-Defamation League. “It can’t be. Whether we are talking about LGBTQ or issues of heritage or gender, we’ve had to stand up for each other. As a Muslim, it’s what my religion tells me I must do for the other.”

Former premier of Alberta Jason Kenney, who was elected as an MP in 1997, said he became a supporter of the Jewish people after the “unravelling of the Oslo process,” and learning of the antisemitism coming from Palestinian mosques and leaders.

“Do not take for granted the positions being expressed here in Ottawa today,” said Kenney. “You must redouble your efforts intelligently to build coalitions across the pluralism of this country, and to be a voice of clarity and courage with our political leadership.” Citing examples of possible coalitions, he told the JI that “the Jewish community has to continue to reach out to Muslim and other communities, find allies.”

“I know we can best tackle what we are seeing when we work together, when we are not siloed,” said Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani, an Ismaili Muslim, in his speech. “Hatred and intolerance against any minority community is a risk to every minority community. That’s why groups promoting equity have to have each other’s backs.”

Emily Schrader, digital strategist and senior correspondent of Ynet News, observed, “We see now that all over the world there are Iranians organizing and participating in rallies to support Israel … despite knowing that the Iranian regime is the biggest supporter of Hamas. The Iranian people have a complete rejection of the regime.”

Canadian human rights advocate Irwin Cotler received a lifetime achievement award from CIJA “in recognition of his enduring commitment to the pursuit of justice” and “the advancement of human rights for the world’s most vulnerable and oppressed.”

In his acceptance speech, Cotler applauded the multi-partisan groups standing up against antisemitism, “who heed this call to action, where we act in concert on behalf of our common humanity.”

Cotler was a parliamentarian from 1999 to 2015 and is a former minister of justice. Over the course of his legal career, he represented clients such as Natan Sharansky and Nelson Mandela. Until recently, he was the government’s special envoy on antisemitism. He said “2023 is not 1943” and “there is a Jewish state as an antidote to Jewish powerlessness.”

“In 1943,” he said, “the Jews could not get a meeting with the president of the United States, and, in 2023, the president has been a leader in calling out this [Hamas’s] moral evil.”

Cotler told the JI that young Jews should bravely step forward to “call out antisemitism when they see it, unmask it, expose it.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out Hamas as a “terrorist organization that launched an attack of unspeakable brutality” and said “Canada supports Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law.” He said the only thing Hamas stands for is “more suffering for Israeli and Palestinian civilians.”

In addressing “scary rising antisemitism,” Trudeau said “families are worried about what they face if they go to synagogue, and I’m sure you are all seeing hateful rhetoric online.” He ended by saying, in Hebrew, “gam zu l’avor” – “this too shall pass.”

Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, head of the Conservative Party, vowed that his party would stand with Israel, and acknowledged the fears of many Jewish Canadians. About Oct. 7, he said, “the terrorists that carried out this attack did so as part of a deliberate agenda: to maximize bloodshed not only of the Jewish people, but actually to maximize the bloodshed of Palestinians and Muslims as well. These are the actions of sadistic, criminal terrorists who can only be defeated and not negotiated with.”

Poilievre added that, especially in light of Iran’s fingerprints being on the attacks, governments must “respond with crippling sanctions – the strongest legal action – and by criminalizing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party, said, “These are horrific attacks and we strongly condemn them. There is no place in our world for terrorism. The international community must work together to ensure that there is an end to terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Singh acknowledged that Jews in Canada are “deeply afraid” and “worried about their safety.”

“It’s wrong and I’m deeply sorry it’s happening,” he said.

In noting pro-Hamas rallies around the world, Singh said, “We’ve seen horrible celebrations for the attacks on Israelis civilians. This is abhorrent. This is antisemitism. Violence against civilians is never justified.”

He concluded: “I know that not everyone will agree with our position on a ceasefire, but I believe the only way to peace is to talk to each other.”

Historian and author Gil Troy encouraged the audience to not forget the courage of “our citizen’s army, our plainclothes commandos, our kibbutzim Rambos and our army,” who saved innocents from much worse.

“When I heard these stories, I shift[ed] from the victim mentality to the Zionist mentality. The Zionist is one that says ‘yes, we sometimes suffer,’ but we are not passive and we are not victims. The Zionist story says we are not alone. We can’t let them win.”

Calgary-based communications consultant Emile Scheffel, who is not-Jewish, told the JI: “History shows that those who threaten the Jewish people are enemies of freedom and dignity for the rest of us as well. I stand with Israel because the Jewish state embodies the values of freedom, democracy and pluralism that are important to me.”

He added, “the conference was an important call to action for non-Jews to stand with our Jewish friends and neighbours in opposing hatred and discrimination. A united front is essential to making sure that antisemitism doesn’t gain any more ground in Canada, and that Jewish Canadians can live in peace and security.”

Attendee Nika Jabiyeva, member of the Network of Azerbaijani Canadians, said she was proud to “stand against hate, shoulder to shoulder with our friends in the Jewish community and many multifaith allies.”

“Our voices carry more weight when we speak up for one another,” she said, “especially during trying times.”

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

Uncovering Israel’s wonders

Igal Hecht filming Secrets of the Land. (photo from Chutzpa Productions Inc.)

The Western Wall area, with thousands of metres of subterranean space, contains much that is yet to be discovered. The latest find in this space is a market. While not open to the public, people can get a glimpse of the ancient market on the new Yes TV documentary series Secrets of the Land, directed, produced and written by Israeli-Canadian filmmaker Igal Hecht.

Each episode of Secrets of the Land, which is presented by Chutzpa Productions Inc., takes viewers behind the scenes of substantial excavations in Israel, and features some of the region’s top archeologists and most historically significant sites. The series debuted March 15, and runs each week for 13 episodes.

In addition to on-site discoveries, Hecht visits the labs that explore the meanings of each artifact.

“I realized that the way archaeology is explored today is very CSI,” said Hecht, referring to the popular television series. “The excavations themselves might be low-tech, but everything that comes after, such as carbon dating and things along those lines are very high-tech.”

One of many examples is when archeologists found grape seeds in 2,000-year-old donkey feces and, through that, determined the types of people who lived in the area.

photo - Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef speaking with colleagues in the archeology lab at Tel Aviv University — Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef speaking with colleagues in the archeology lab at Tel Aviv University. *(photo from Tel Aviv University / Chutzpa Productions Inc.)*

Hecht and his crew – which included Lior Cohen, Gabriel Volcovich, Nikki Greenspan and Julian Hoffman – take viewers on a journey through various parts of the Holy Land. Hecht said he learned something every step of the way.

“I had very little knowledge [of archeology],” Hecht told the Independent. “In fact, in the show, I don’t pretend that I do. That makes the show work. I am there experiencing the discoveries in the same manner that the audience does, as they watch at home.”

Among many sites, the crew visited Timna, the location of Solomon’s Mines, where Hecht was awed by the landscape. “The rock formation is something you’d see in Petra in Jordan or the Grand Canyon,” he said. “There’s so much beauty and history to explore there.”

Other locales included Tower of David, also known as the Citadel, located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. There’s also an episode about Shiloh, in Samaria, or the West Bank, where the Israelites, prior to King David’s time, set up a sanctuary and city, and where the Ark of the Covenant was housed for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, Magdala is home to an ancient city from the first century, where recent excavations revealed the Migdal Synagogue, dating from the Second Temple.

Over the past quarter-century, Hecht has been involved in the production of more than 50 documentary films and more than 20 television series. His projects have appeared on Netflix, BBC, Documentary Channel, CBC, HBO Europe, and others. Secrets of the Land is the latest in a string of Jewish-themed films, such as A Universal Language, which taped six comedians performing in Israel. An upcoming project includes The Jewish Shadow, a documentary that explores the lives of Soviet Jews in 1970s Ukraine.

For Hecht, Secrets of the Land wasn’t merely a project, but very much a passion to do his part to help the Jewish people.

“I think the biggest takeaway for Jewish audiences is the historical and unbreakable connection of the Jewish people to that land,” he said. “That archeology truly proves that the Jews were, in fact, living in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem and all over the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago.”

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

Living amid rocket attacks

Adele Raemer lives in Kibbutz Nirim, near the border with Gaza, which means the community has had to build safe rooms for protection from rocket attacks. (photo from Adele Raemer)

Tens of thousands of rockets have been fired regularly and indiscriminately at Israel from Gaza since 2001, and they continue. Adele Raemer is a community member of Kibbutz Nirim, just two kilometres from the Gaza border – so close that, she says, “there is zero to 10 seconds’ warning” of a rocket attack on her neighbourhood.

As spokesperson for the community, Raemer moderates a Facebook group called Life on the Border, about the kibbutz. She teaches English as a foreign language, and is a counselor for the Israeli Ministry of Education. In addition, she is a trained medical clown in the pediatric ward of the hospital in Ashkelon. She was invited in November 2018 to be on an independent investigative committee for the United Nations, to discuss living at the border, and, in December 2019, she addressed the UN Security Council. She has filed stories for CNN, particularly during the Pillar of Defence conflict in 2012.

While attending the Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem this past December, the Jewish Independent spoke with Raemer.

JI: What compelled you to move to Nirim, and when was it?

AR: I came to Nirim [from the United States] in the framework of my army service in 1975. I fell in love with the community and decided to stay.

JI: At the summit, you mentioned a joint bike marathon with Gazans. Can you talk about that?

AR: I have been in touch with Rami Aman, a Palestinian from Gaza, for a number of years. He is one of the founders of the Gaza Youth Committee, a group of people who work with youth in Gaza in order to improve their quality of life and education, and to teach them that those who live on the other side of the border [Israelis] are not their enemies. One of the activities I participated in with them was a [joint] marathon. I am not able to discuss activities happening now, for the safety of my contacts. Unfortunately, doing activities such as these, on the other side of the border, can cost one one’s freedom, even one’s life.

JI: How did you get invited to speak at the UN Security Council in 2018?

AR: In light of the map of [Gazan-initiated] fires that I put together at the time, the interviews I gave to the media, my blogging and the Facebook group Life on the Border with Gaza, people in Israel who work with the American embassy turned to me. At the time, the U.S. were the hosts of the UN Security Council, and President Trump was interested in putting the situation in Israel in the spotlight.

photo - Adele Raemer’s granddaughter stands outside a safe room — Adele Raemer’s granddaughter stands outside a safe room. *(photo from Adele Raemer)*

JI: Nirim began building concrete safe rooms to protect against rocket fire. What is the ratio of safe rooms to homes, and how many people typically fit in one? What is the cost of a room?

AR: Each home typically has one safe room, about the size of a small bedroom, about nine square metres, and costs about $44,000. Safe rooms in people’s houses usually have beds in them, so, depending on how much furniture is in the room, it varies how many people fit in. Certainly the entire family will fit.

JI: How many casualties have there been in your community from rocket fire?

AR: Two members were killed in 2014 and, if I am not mistaken … fewer than 10 were wounded, mostly lightly. That, of course, does not take into account the many who have suffered psychological damage.

JI: Who is your member of Knesset, and how are they involved in ensuring the safety of the community?

AR: It doesn’t work that way – we do not have regional representatives, like you do. All of the MKs should be working towards the good of our communities. The current ministry for the development of the periphery of the Negev and the Galilee is Yitzhak Wasserlauf, but he has just taken office so I cannot say what he will be doing yet. The office itself has done the following in recent years: reinforced all schools within the Gaza envelope, developed Ale Negev [a rehabilitation hospital in the Negev] and programs for developing psychological support and resilience centres.

JI: You’ve said the kibbutz was “95% heaven.” Why do you feel that way?

AR: The region is a desert that has been made to bloom, a modern miracle of development, while protecting and preserving the nature and wildlife, despite multiple challenges including, but not only, security challenges. The community in which I live is not only beautiful but it is crime-free, and [it is] safe for children to play on the lawns, without worry of being run over or kidnapped. But, above all else, it is the sense of community – our kibbutz, as well as the other communities in the region, which support each other … make it a friendly, warm environment in which to raise families.

JI: What is the main industry of the kibbutz?

AR: Our kibbutz is mainly agricultural, so we have farmers and workers in the different branches that support the agriculture, but our people also work as professionals in all different professions, just like anywhere else in the world. We have doctors, nurses, lawyers, mechanics, teachers, social workers, chief cooks and bottle washers.

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

Summit covers tough issues

Author and former politician Michael Oren addresses the Jewish Media Summit, which took place in Jerusalem Dec. 19-22. (photo by Dave Gordon)

The Iranian threat, the new Israeli government, BDS, terrorism, and the challenges of aliyah, were just some of the discussion topics last December, at the fifth annual Jewish Media Summit, which took place in Jerusalem Dec. 19-22.

The nearly 100 attendees hailed from Israel and across Europe, as well as from South Africa, South America and North America, and included the Jewish Independent. Most panels and keynote addresses consisted of official spokespeople, politicians (incoming and outgoing) and organizational heads. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Government Press Office.

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Michael Oren spoke about one of his pet projects. Oren is a former member of the Knesset and the author of several books, including Ally: My Journey Across the Israel-American Divide.

Several years ago, when Oren was a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, he proposed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Israel have a blueprint leading into the state’s 100th birthday – Oren’s book Israel 2048 will be published in April.

To write the publication, Oren investigated different areas of Israel’s future: social, education, health and foreign policies; Israel-Diaspora relations; Palestinians, Arabs. “We found experts in every field. It was a tremendous undertaking,” he said. “I would not shy away from any issue, controversial, even explosive.”

About Israel, he noted “we don’t have sovereignty over large areas of our territory,” referring to the 60% of the country that is the Negev Desert. As an example of what this means in terms of governance, he said there’s no application of Israeli law regarding housing there and so there are some 400,000 illegal Bedouin structures in the Negev.

“But if I built a two-millimetre addition to my balcony in Tel Aviv, I have a police car there, within seconds, giving me a big ticket,” he said. Additionally, he said there’s “an inability to enforce [other] Israeli laws” there, so there’s no control over guns, drug or human trafficking, and polygamy is rampant, despite it being illegal.

Of concern, he said, is that more Bedouin are being influenced by Islamic extremism and the Palestinian narrative.

“It’s critical that the 2048 initiative is not the initiative of religious people, of secular people, of right-wing, left-wing, Ashkenazim, Mizrahim. It’s everybody together,” he said. “If you want Israel to have a second great century … we have to work on it. And we have to work at it by talking to one another, about real solutions.”

Oren spoke with the Jewish Independent about how he thinks Israel will ease challenges to aliyah.

“What shocked me is that large segments of the population are no longer interested in large-scale aliyah,” he said. “I couldn’t get people in Israel and [in the] Israeli government to be very interested in encouraging aliyah from France.”

The predominant reason for this lack of interest in welcoming new immigrants from France or any other country in the Diaspora, he said, is that Israelis are becoming increasingly angry at how the many costs of new olim (immigrants) are offset by the state.

“This is going to play out now with Russia and Ukraine as well,” he noted. “So, while everyone’s focused on the grandfather clause [of the Right of Return], I asked a deeper question: to what degree is aliyah still a central tenet of our raison d’être of the Jewish people? Because, from my perspective, if we are not encouraging large-scale aliyah, we’ve lost a big sense of why we are here. And I see this as a danger.”

The largest section of Oren’s new book, however, deals with the Palestinians. Oren said he was involved in one way or another with “every peace initiative since 1993.”

On another topic, Oren noted that Benny Gantz, then-minister of defence, proposed a solution to the Iranian threat: “force our international partners” into offering “military intelligence and diplomatic cooperation.”

“Our actions must be preventative, before it is too late,” said Oren.

On a tour of the Tz’elim IDF base, a 10-minute drive from Gaza, Gen. Bentzi Gruber spoke about the ethics of combat, stressing that the army makes enormous effort to minimize innocent casualties. In contrast, he said, only two Hamas rockets hit the base, while thousands hit civilian areas.

Gruber added that he fights a psychological battle, too.

“I fight all my previous wars every night in my sleep. My wife wakes me up when I’m yelling,” said the deputy commander of the IDF armoured division. “Every soldier that fought in a war carries the scars with them. If you killed a terrorist or a civilian, that never leaves you.”

The tour included a mini-Gaza mockup city, a training area for the Israel Defence Forces.

Kibbutz Nirim, a few hundred metres from Gaza, has been hit by rocket fire from Gaza in recent years. The kibbutz’s spokesperson, Adele Raemer, who addressed the United Nations Security Council in 2018, said the village had to build safe rooms, as residents have just a few seconds to get out of harm’s way. One terror tunnel discovered nearby was 75 feet deep, 1.1 miles long, and made of 500 tons of cement.

Still, she said, she “has nothing against ordinary Gazans,” and locals participate in Project Road to Recovery, where Jews shuttle Arab patients to local hospitals “because we care about our neighbours.”

President Isaac Herzog encouraged Jews around the world to fight the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanction) movement, whether espoused by foreign governments or the media, on college campuses or elsewhere. He commented on those who disagree with Israel’s new government.

“Israeli democracy is vibrant and strong,” he said. “The many voices that compose us do not point to the weakness of our democracy, but our strength. The rule of law, freedom of speech, human and civil rights, these have been and always will be the wall of our democratic state.”

In a non-political talk, Neta Riskin, who plays Giti Weiss in Shtisel, spoke about the surprise hit, which has run three seasons. At first, the show’s publicist told them “there’s nothing to work with” and it wouldn’t last, but word of mouth and good reviews bolstered the show, she said.

For her, Shtisel “has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with people – longing, hope and people’s desires. The cultural restraints of the show made it more interesting. No dead bodies. No sex.” She said she was pleased that women’s stories were also being told in the show.

Shtisel is popular in the Haredi community, with people watching it on their phones, according to Riskin. “The show managed to bridge an un-crossable bridge,” she added, noting how popular it was among all stripes of Jews and non-Jews alike.

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

Goldstein wins 5,000km race

Leah Goldstein is the first woman, and the first Israeli, to win Race Across America. (photo by Vic Armijo / RAAM)

Leah Goldstein became the first woman to win Race Across America in its 38-year history. The Vernon, B.C., resident also became the first Israeli to win the cycling tournament.

The 5,000-kilometre race – from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md. – must be completed in under 12 days, and Goldstein completed it in 11 days, three hours and three minutes, rolling past the finish line at 9:41 p.m. on June 26.

“Race Across America (RAAM) is like no other race,” Goldstein told the Independent. “I’ve done the equivalent of the Tour de France for females. I’ve done major races and other ultra endurance races of 500, 800 miles, and nothing compares – because it’s not a matter of if, but when you’re going to experience all sorts of discomforts, back, neck, knee, constipation, diarrhea, swelling, some major saddle sores.”

This was the latest in a lifetime as a top athlete. Goldstein won the 1989 World Bantamweight Kickboxing Championship and was Israel’s duathlon champion. As a youth, she was a kickboxing champion and a Taekwondo champion. Later in life, she competed in a string of professional cycling events. That toughness carried forward to her becoming an officer in the Israeli commando and elite police unit.

This year’s race was particularly extreme, during a heat wave that punished riders with temperatures of more than 40°C; not just through the desert, but for the first eight days.

“That can break people down, where they almost feel defeated before they start, but that’s the thing with RAAM, those things are going to happen whether you like it or not, and you have to prepare for them,” said Goldstein. “It’s really something that pushes you far beyond your limits. You’re going to have more bad days than good days, and that’s just the challenge.”

During certain parts, she said she had hallucinations and her “brain felt like a potato.”

“I didn’t know what I was doing on my bike. I didn’t know where I was. And then you kind of snap out of it,” she explained. “It’s that element of the mental challenge of really pushing forward, knowing that whatever you’re doing, you just can’t get off the bike, no matter what the situation, the temperature, no matter what kind of pain you are in.”

It helped that this was her third RAAM, she said, and the crew was able to analyze past performance to build on it.

“We wrote down every single mistake that we made in 2019, with weather conditions, navigational problems, bike positioning, training, with sleep patterns, and we tried to perfect it as much as possible. And because of COVID last year, I had an extra year to prepare for this. I trained as if RAAM was still going to happen.”

Her onboard crew included a medic, a kinesiologist, massage therapists and nutritionists. “I think they know how I roll, and know how to read me on the bike, when I’m starting to fade or things are going sideways, or I’m low on nutrition,” she said. “We won as a team.”

photo - Leah Goldstein during the Race Across America — Leah Goldstein during the Race Across America. *(photo by Vic Armijo / RAAM)*

Whereas riders fought the heat this year, they fought “uncontrollable rain and hail” two years ago. The crew prepared her with specialized clothing and pre-tested water-resistant equipment, just in case those conditions would prevail again.

“Prepare for the worst that possibly can happen, no matter how fully prepared you think you are,” she said. “It’s a matter of how badly do you want it, and how much are you willing to sacrifice.”

And Goldstein has experienced severe challenges. In 2005, during the Cascade Classic, she was involved in what she calls “the mother of all crashes” – she landed on her face at 80 kilometres an hour, “breaking practically every bone in my body, ripping my face right off.” Doctors were astonished she survived. In 2008, she was hit by a car, ejected 25 feet in the air and, in an attempt to cushion the fall, put her arms out, breaking both of them.

Neither accident kept her down. She returned to the racing circuit in 2011, winning the women’s solo category of Race Across America, breaking the previous record by 12 hours.

In 2016 she published a memoir, No Limits, outlining the triumphs and tragedies of her athletic life.

While the naysayers – who called her “insane and crazy” – said she was “past her prime,” the 52-year-old proved them wrong.

“Don’t use your age as an excuse or your past experiences as an excuse,” she said. “We don’t get second chances. What we got is what we got and, if you have a desire to do it, goddamn do it. What are you waiting for?”

Because of the high temperatures, the latest race took her a couple of days longer than expected, but she said the next one she plans on doing in under 10 days – and she’ll keep competing until she can’t anymore.

“If I’m alive at age 90 and I can still pedal my bike, I’m doing that race,” she said. “That’s my biggest goal.”

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