JQT Vancouver

Community needs survey closes March 29

Twice Blessed 2.0: The Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ Initiative 2026 is an ongoing partnership between JQT Vancouver and JFS Vancouver that began with conversations between the two organizations in 2020 regarding diversity education and ensuring that JFS supports the social, physical and emotional wellness of all people and is a welcoming and inclusive organization for the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ community. As part of this initiative, JQT and JFS conducted a community needs assessment in 2022: jqtvancouver.ca/twice-blessed-2.

It has been a handful of years since this assessment was conducted, and JQT is now updating its survey to understand what progress has been made on the group’s 13 Calls to Action for BC Jewish community organizations, what still requires improvement, and what may be completely new needs for the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ community in 2026. JQT wants to update the Calls to Action to reflect any changes.

The survey link went live on Feb. 1 and will remain open until March 29. It is open to all members of the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ community residing in British Columbia. In 2022, several allies participated as well, and allies are once again invited to fill out this survey, too. JQT also wants to include parents and caregivers of Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ people.

Please share the survey links widely in your professional and personal networks, social platforms, “watercooler” channels, etc. so that it can reach as many people as possible across the province’s diverse Jewish community.

The survey can be found at s.surveyplanet.com/h44tdqiv and jqtvancouver.ca.

– Courtesy JQT Vancouver

Sharing, listening together

photo - Alycia Fridkin leads two JQT Mental Health Support Series workshops: Facing Emotions and Healing Relationships on March 30, and Queering with Our Kids on April 6 — Alycia Fridkin leads two JQT Mental Health Support Series workshops: Facing Emotions and Healing Relationships on March 30, and Queering with Our Kids on April 6. *(photo from JQT Vancouver)*

JQT Vancouver is hosting two supported and spiritually grounded workshops in partnership with JFS Vancouver, as part of the JQT Mental Health Support Series: Facing Emotions and Healing Relationships on March 30, and Queering with Our Kids on April 6. Both three-hour, free gatherings will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at Little Mountain Neighbourhood House.

In the first workshop, participants will explore how they have been wrestling with some relationships since Oct. 7, 2023. Drawing on open-hearted sharing, deep listening and collective wisdom, they will process this tension and arrive at insights together for how to manage the emotions within themselves and with their families, friends, colleagues and other people in their lives. The goal of this gathering is to listen to one another, as participants share their lived experiences navigating relationships in conversation around Israel and Palestine and/or being Jewish. Come learn how to build capacity as a community to create an intentional, supportive, safe and healing space for diverse voices to be heard.

The second workshop is for parents of queer/trans youth and queer/trans parents to share, listen and learn from one another as parents in the Jewish community. The goal of this gathering is for participants to listen and learn how they can support themselves and their children facing tensions in the Jewish and/or queer/trans communities. This could include issues related to Israel and Palestine, gender diversity and sexual orientation. The workshop aims to build capacity as a community to create an intentional, supportive, safe and healing space for families and caregivers.

Both workshops will be led by Alycia Fridkin, an experienced facilitator on equity issues and a member of the Vancouver queer Jewish community, who led JQT’s Listen & Be Heard a year ago.

Fridkin is an equity and anti-racism consultant who supports individuals and organizations to address inequities in health care and other sectors. She has facilitated engagement sessions and workshops on systemic racism, whiteness and white fragility, meaningful involvement, stigmatized topics such as substance use and decriminalization, and the Palestine/Israel conflict. Her training includes a PhD in interdisciplinary studies and a master’s in health science, and she is a certified transformational coach.

To register for either or both workshops, and for information on JQT, its events and activities, visit jqtvancouver.ca.

– Courtesy JQT Vancouver

Mental health series begins

The first session in the new JQT-JFS mental health series will be facilitated by Alycia Fridkin, left, and supported by Anat Kelerstein. Listen & Be Heard takes place Feb. 11, 1 p.m., at Or Shalom.

“JQT and JFS are working together to answer the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ community’s explicit request for more mental health support in our newly launched JQT Mental Health Support Series,” said Aviva Rathbone, JQT chair. “This series will offer a steady flow of targeted workshops and events throughout the calendar year to get the JQT community talking, moving, crafting, laughing, vibing and healing together.”

The new JQT (Jewish Queer Trans) Vancouver and Jewish Family Services Vancouver program begins Feb. 11, 1pm, at Or Shalom Synagogue with Listen & Be Heard, a gathering for Jewish queers, transfolk and enbys in an intentional space for sharing and listening to each other’s perspectives on the Palestine/Israel conflict, including recent events in Gaza.

Facilitated by Alycia Fridkin and supported by Anat Kelerstein, the three-hour session will address “the elephant in the room – the Israel/Palestine conflict,” said JQT executive director Carmel Tanaka. “This was already identified in our 2022 community needs assessment as an extremely taxing topic that continues to negatively impact our community’s mental health, regardless of one’s stance. It is important that we create spaces that are not binary and welcome all perspectives.”

Fridkin is an equity and anti-racism consultant in health care. Kelerstein is a registered social worker and clinical counselor.

The JQT Mental Health Support Series, made possible with the support of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver and private donations, was developed in partnership with JFS Vancouver, following a 2022 community needs assessment that identified mental health support as a critical service gap for the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ population. The new mental health series as a whole answers nine of the needs assessment’s 13 calls to action. (See jewishindependent.ca/thirteen-calls-for-action.)

Future programs in the mental health series currently include (subject to change) a mindfulness kiddush cup clay workshop with Reuben King; a spoken word/music jam evening with fanny kearse; a screening of Sarah White’s documentary film Not Quite That; a cross-cultural history talk and demo of mahjong with Tanaka; a theatrical performance of Florida! You Kill Me! with Berlin’s Nana Schewitz (sponsored by the Goethe-Institut); a belly dancing workshop with Rathbone; a townhall conversation on the needs of parents of JQT youth; a JQT Pride Party; drop-in group therapy sessions; and the launch of the JQT Mental Health Toolkit.

The next session in the series is JQT Death Café at Mountain View Cemetery on Feb. 25, at 1 p.m. A townhall-style conversation on the status of Jewish queer trans dying and death services in British Columbia, people are invited to come learn, bring questions and voice their ideas at this hybrid event hosted by the JQT Seniors Initiative.

Registration for the mental health series events is free and required in advance. Details can be found at jqtvancouver.ca/events. To donate to the series, visit jfsvancouver.ca/donate and type in “JQT Mental Health” as the designated program. To learn more about the series, go to jqtvancouver.ca/jqt-mental-health.

– Courtesy JQT Vancouver

Check out JQT Artisan Market

(photos from JQT Vancouver)

The JQT (Jewish Queer Trans) Artisan Market on May 15, 6-9 p.m., at the Peretz Centre features several local artists, and international performer Stav Meishar presents Oy Slay! at 8 p.m. For more information on the market and other JQT Heritage Month events, including the launch of the B.C. JQT Oral History Project at the Zack Gallery on May 28, visit jqtvancouver.ca.