Lauren Kramer – Page 4

Dialogue to empower women

Caroline D’Amore, left, Hussein Aboubakr Mansour and Emily Austin spoke to an audience of more than 550 at Congregation Schara Tzedeck Nov. 26 for the event Women United. (photo by Kyle Berger)

Some 550 Vancouver women packed the sanctuary at Congregation Schara Tzedeck Nov. 26 for Women United, a talk arranged by Jewish National Fund, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Stand With Us Canada and Schara Tzedeck, and sponsored by the Diamond Foundation. Jewish women were encouraged to bring their non-Jewish friends, and Federation reported that 40% of attendants were non-Jewish.

“The idea was to bring together a diverse range of women from all faiths, to engage in dialogue and empower us to speak up with bravery,” said Megan Laskin, who initiated the concept for the event. She noted that there are just 15 million Jews worldwide “but we are the victims of half of the hate crimes that occur. Our pain, our fear and our loneliness are very real and very deep.”

Emily Austin, 22, an American social media influencer who is the host of a National Basketball Association podcast called The Hoop Chat w/ Emily Austin, was the first speaker. She described how she took a deep dive into Jewish history to understand it better. “One thing Israel will always have on its side is facts,” she noted. “The Palestinians have truly sad videos with no facts, but people tend to overlook the facts because of the emotional nature of the narrative.”

Austin delivered some of those facts to the audience, refuting the Palestinians’ claims of genocide. “Go to UN.org and you’ll see that their population has quadrupled in the last 20 years,” she said.

In discussing land claims, she said, “this is not about land. It’s about Jew hatred.” She argued that, when Israel left Gaza in 2005, the Gaza Strip was a prosperous area filled with resorts, cafés and nightclubs. “They turned it into a terrorist capital,” she said of Hamas.

Austin urged members of the audience to educate themselves so they can address false claims with confidence. “There are no excuses to not be a voice when we have the facts. If you’ve not been vocal, please be vocal now,” she said. “Silence is compliance, and those people who want Jews dead are not being silent.”

Austin warned that this conflict is not just about Israel, or even just about Jews. “When they say kill the infidels, the West is next. The common denominator is hatred, and it’s a disease,” said Austin.

Caroline D’Amore, 39, a single mom, social media influencer and the entrepreneur behind Pizza Girl pizza sauce, was the second speaker. She described herself as “a not-so-subtle, pink-haired, Malibu Italian chick” and a high school dropout. She said learning about the Holocaust and reading Anne Frank’s diary made a deep impression on her, but that she was unaware of antisemitism until Oct. 7, after which she started seeing it everywhere, and felt compelled to speak out.

D’Amore said she published a video expressing her dismay and a fact that was obvious to her. “The terrorists are the bad guys. There is no context on this earth that could justify rape and murder,” she told the audience.

The video went viral and D’Amore received hundreds of messages from mothers who were so relieved that a non-Jew could see what was going on.

“I could feel their pain, sadness and fear,” D’Amore said. “So many people are saying nothing, or shaming Jewish people for feeling this fear right now. Jews are being told to ‘stop playing the victim,’ and even I get accused of playing ‘the Zionist victim card.’ What I want to say to my accusers is ‘how dare you?’

“It’s very clear to me that this is about good versus evil,” she continued. “I dove right in and started screaming about this at the top of my lungs, and though I’ve been attacked online for over a month now, I’m still here, proudly showing my face. I plan on being on the right side of history, which means standing up against terror in the Middle East and against those who are justifying what happened on Oct. 7. My promise is that I’ll continue to use my voice to stand up against evil, to stand up for humans who are suffering, to speak up against terrorism, and to encourage and empower others to use their voices.”

D’Amore said the Jewish community was her inspiration. “You guys find the light and it shines so damn bright,” she said. “You come together in the most beautiful ways, and it’s inspired me in ways I’ve never known possible.”

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, the third speaker, addressed the audience by Zoom from his home in Washington, DC. Now the director of the Endowment for Middle East Truth’s Program for Emerging Democratic Voices from the Middle East, he was born in Cairo, into an environment that he said inspired him and his peers to hate Jews and become jihadists.

“From an early age, there was a story I heard everywhere, that there are people who epitomize wickedness, want to destroy Arabs and Muslims and steal our land, and want to destroy everything that is good and sacred. Those people are the Jews and Zionism is the embodiment of that ideal,” he said.

Curious, he started teaching himself Hebrew and learning about Jewish history. That led him on a long journey that transformed his relationship with the world and turned him into an ardent Zionist and supporter of the Jewish people.

His metamorphosis and his insistence on publishing, blogging and talking about what he learned, has cost him dearly. He was disowned by his family, was arrested on suspicion of being a Zionist spy, and was tortured in Egyptian jails before receiving political asylum in the United States in 2012.

“I spend every day of my life thinking about how to help end this epidemic of antisemitism that’s been going on for so long,” he said. While the massacres on Oct. 7 destroyed much of his optimism, Mansour said he still believes a change for the better is possible.

He ended his remarks by saying that he is proud to be a friend of the Jewish people and of the state of Israel. “And I have no doubt that I’m not the only Arab who feels this way – I’m just ahead of the curve,” he said. “There will be more who will see this truth.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.

A call for toughness

Rabbi Dr. Michael Berenbaum spoke at Congregation Schara Tzedeck on Nov. 5. He said: “We can’t raise a generation that is scared of being Jewish.” (photo from kolotmanagement.com)

The mood at Congregation Schara Tzedeck was solemn Sunday night, Nov. 5, when parents, grandparents and students from the Jewish community gathered to listen to Rabbi Dr. Michael Berenbaum, an American professor who is considered one of the world’s preeminent Holocaust scholars. Berenbaum came to discuss the importance of campus conversations, and specifically how to handle the critics of Israel who are voicing their support of Palestinians vociferously on college campuses throughout Canada and the United States.

Until the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Berenbaum said, our children had never known serious difficulty as Jews. “They’ve had the privilege of living in the greatest time to be Jewish, maybe in the history of the Jewish people,” he said. “Now, we’re asking our kids to toughen up, because they’re now going to face difficulty, pain, anguish and danger – physical or intellectual – for being Jews. This is our test of the hour, and it comes with the shattering of easily held assumptions about Jewish life.”

The Oct. 7 pogrom, he said, was worse than the 1906 Kishinev pogrom and worse than Kristallnacht in 1938 in terms of the number of Jews killed and the vehemence with which they were killed. “We believed Israel was founded to protect its people from these pogroms, and yet we were not safe.”

Berenbaum said it is crucial for Jewish students to be armed with accurate knowledge so they can counter the anti-Israel rhetoric they hear on campus. That means refuting claims that Israel is committing genocide. “Understand that this is war, and it has both direct and collateral consequences,” he said. “You cannot deal with war at this point without significant civilian casualties. While Israel is taking significant steps to avoid that, it’s unavoidable.” He noted that, since March 2011, the conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of 500,000 people – “and the rest of the world has heard nothing about this.”

On the claim that Israel is “occupying Gaza,” he clarified that Israel left Gaza in 2005, displacing 8,000 settlers so that Gazans would take control of their lives. “Israel is the only country in the world who has sacrificed land for normalization. We gave up Sinai for normalization with Egypt, and the reason the invasion happened now was because it appeared Saudi Arabia would establish a certain kind of peace with Israel,” he said. “Normalization represented a danger to the lateral forces in the region and that’s why this broke out now.”

On the claim that “Jews are colonizers,” he noted that Jews have never forsaken their connection to the land of Israel, and that there have been five cities with a permanent Jewish settlement in Israel. “When they came to Israel, they settled and worked the land, which is the opposite of colonization,” he said. “They didn’t take its resources and export it elsewhere.”

He noted that Palestinians were offered a state in 2000 and again in 2006, and they turned both opportunities down. “The Palestinians have never lost an opportunity to lose an opportunity, because their leadership is weak and corrupt,” he said.

There are a few things we can do now to ensure we are strong, he continued. One is to educate ourselves on the history of the state of Israel and Zionism. Another is to ensure we have solidarity by reaching out to one another.

“These are not easy times and we need Jewish toughness and resilience,” said Berenbaum. “We can’t raise a generation that is scared of being Jewish. I want our Jewish students to be proud, tough and confident enough to accept the animus that will come their way, but to have the human capacity to respond to it.”

He ended his talk by calling Jews the “canary in the coalmine. You want to know if a society is healthy? See how it treats its Jews. We’re living in a world that’s fundamentally unhealthy, but it’s important to remember that we have many friends, we are not alone. We have to cultivate and respect those friendships, and not take them for granted.”

The events of Oct. 7 precipitated an earthquake, he added, “and the ground won’t settle for awhile. But earthquakes give the opportunity to build in a different way. We are in for a tough and difficult time, which will demand the best of us. But I fundamentally believe we have it in us to rise to the occasion.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.

Petitioning for change

Richmond educator Alisa Magnan is petitioning Richmond city council to create, adopt and publish a truth and reconciliation policy. (photo from Alisa Magnan)

On Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Richmond educator and Jewish community member Alisa Magnan hoped to attend a commemoration event in her home city – but couldn’t find one. Instead, she went into Vancouver for a special naming ceremony, where Trutch Street was renamed Musqueam View Street.

“[Former] Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart spoke about being a settler himself, and about wanting to do more for reconciliation,” she recalled. “On the City of Vancouver’s website, they have a whole policy and framework for reconciliation, but the City of Richmond’s website has nothing, and even their history starts with settlers in 1860. There’s almost no mention of Musqueam except that they came to Richmond to work in the cannery!”

Magnan, a teacher at Spul’u’kwuks Elementary in Richmond for the past 10 years, initiated a petition with her co-worker, Katherine Myers, that she plans to present at a Richmond city council meeting on Nov. 21. The petition requests that Richmond city council adopt a truth and reconciliation policy that includes signage around historically significant places like the midden at Spul’u’kwuks Elementary, a commemorative event in the city for the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and a policy on the city’s website that shows what Richmond is doing.

Last month, Magnan attended the all-candidates meeting in Steveston, where she asked Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie what he did on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She said Brodie’s response was that he had worked on his campaign.

Magnan also reached out to Richmond city councilor Carol Day to ask why there was no land acknowledgment made prior to council meetings. Day responded that the city is in litigation with both the Cowichan and Musqueam First Nations and that, until it has been resolved, making the land declaration would compromise the city’s legal position. Particularly with the litigation with the Cowichan tribe, Day wrote, “it’s very, very serious, affecting private land that regular people own, land owned by the Port of Vancouver and city-owned land. The court case is groundbreaking and, if the Cowichan win, it will set a precedent for the entire country.”

The Richmond School Board has been very proactive on truth and reconciliation, said Magnan, doing land acknowledgment and scheduling professional development days where educators learn about truth and reconciliation and pass that onto their students. “Our kids are learning about this but not their parents,” she noted. “One parent commented that there was so much negative being taught about the residential schools. ‘Aren’t there any positives?’ the parent wondered.

“In order for Indigenous voices to be heard, you have to know what they’re going through. People need to be educated without having to go searching for it,” Magnan said. “Our goal for the petition is to encourage the City of Richmond to create a truth and reconciliation policy that’s public, so we can see what’s being done, or at least to show they’re working towards it. We want to be proud of what Richmond’s doing, not embarrassed that there’s no ceremony on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.”

To sign the petition, go to change.org/t-r-policy.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Brightening education

Students in Uganda at work in a BrightBox, a solar-powered classroom. (photo from Simbi Foundation)

This year’s graduating class at Vancouver Talmud Torah made a significant impact to the lives of thousands of refugees in the Bidibidi refugee settlement in Uganda. Their connection to the refugees on the African continent is a story that goes back to two young Jewish men who grew up in Vancouver and are determined to enhance education and create lifelong change in the lives of displaced people.

As co-founders of the Simbi Foundation, Ran Sommer and Aaron Friedland have established a template for BrightBoxes, which are sustainable solar-powered classrooms that are shipped to refugee settlements in Uganda and other countries. Each box costs $55,000 Cdn and includes a shipping container with solar panels, laptops, projectors and digital aids, as well as all the installation costs at its destination.

The foundation has installed five BrightBoxes in the Bidibidi settlement, where 240,000 refugees reside, and one in the Palorinya settlement, where there are 170,000 refugees. Each week, a BrightBox serves 6,000 learners.

“We’re able to reach that many learners because we connect the solar energy from the BrightBox to other classrooms in the area. They all become connected by the electricity and wi-fi generated by the BrightBox, which means the entire school population is connected simultaneously. The power of this 40-foot shipping container is its ability to connect the surrounding school blocks,” Sommer explained.

Back at VTT, the school established the Grade 7 Mitzvah of Valuing Philanthropy program in 2008. Each year, the graduating class chooses charities or causes that are meaningful to the group and fundraises to support those causes. This year, the school decided to fundraise exclusively for the Simbi Foundation.

“After learning about the power of a BrightBox to dramatically transform lives in the Bidibidi refugee camp in Uganda, we decided to go bold and big by dedicating all money raised to this one cause only,” said Jennifer Shecter, director of communications and admissions at VTT. “We wanted to make a giant impact this one time.”

The Grade 7 class dedicates several months of study and exploration to the MVP program and Shecter said the students become emotionally invested and feel genuine pride in their fundraising efforts. “In years past, students ran bake sales, garage sales, babysitting services, movie screenings at VTT and other initiatives to boost their MVP contributions,” she said. “This year, all those options were not available due to COVID so several of our students passionately worked the phones (or texted) family members and friends to donate.”

Several students contributed in excess of $1,000 each to the program, with the average donation ranging between $180 and $250 per student. A total of $38,000 was raised.

Shecter said the students’ connection to Friedland and Sommer, and their understanding of the scope of this project, enabled them to convince others to jump on board and donate to the cause.

The two co-founders spent time in the classroom with the Grade 7 students, explaining the purpose of the BrightBoxes and the extent of the research that motivates the Simbi Foundation’s decisions. The students were assigned to groups to study solar energy, the BrightBox curriculum and other topics relevant to education in the refugee settlements.

“We had two elements happening in parallel: the students were learning about our program and fundraising for it,” said Sommer. “So, they knew exactly what their fundraising efforts were contributing to. Because of that, they were able to surpass their fundraising goal. We were extremely impressed and honoured with VTT and the students’ efforts.”

Shecter added that VTT has had a relationship with Friedland for the past five years.

“VTT students meet with Aaron every year to learn about new initiatives and participate in his programs, like the Simbi reading and literacy program, and they find Aaron and Ran to be enthusiastic, approachable and relatable,” she said. “Our students thoroughly enjoyed each interaction with them and felt a sense of pride knowing members of their community are creating avenues for real change for individuals with many barriers to education and prosperity.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Help find son, brother

Bernard Grempel with his sister, Ettie Shurack. (photo from Grempel family)

Ettie Shurack’s life has been upside down since May 14, her emotions a chaos of desperation, pain, anxiety, frustration and grief, peppered with pinpricks of immense gratitude, appreciation and, always, a glimmer of hope.

May 14 is the date her brother, Bernard Grempel, age 28, went missing. He was last seen at 11 p.m. on the SkyTrain and on bus 340, heading towards the North Delta/Surrey area. Since that time, Shurack, her husband, her parents, friends and volunteers in the Jewish community and beyond have been searching relentlessly for any traces of the young man who mysteriously disappeared. They have scoured the bus routes, knocked on the doors of strangers in those neighbourhoods, interviewed commuters on the transit system and sought out footage from video cameras in relevant areas.

Shurack has created a Tehillim (Psalms) signup sheet with the goal of having the entire book of Tehillim recited until Grempel has been found. She has launched weekend searches, posted flyers, liaised with RCMP in multiple cities of the Lower Mainland and her family is offering a $20,000 reward for anyone with information leading to his safe return home.

She’s emerged, five weeks into the search, feeling very disillusioned with the efforts of the RCMP to help locate and bring her brother home. She noted that the photograph of Grempel initially used was more than a year old. She was also concerned that a police release requested the public’s assistance in locating a missing person who, the release stated, “is apprehendable under the Mental Health Act.”

“Yes, he has mental health problems, but he was living on his own prior to disappearing. I’m confused why they would state he should be returned to the hospital,” she said.

“A mental health diagnosis does not equate to suicide,” she said, responding to one of the theories of what might have happened to Grempel. “My brother was taking his medication daily, seeing his counselor regularly and attending appointments with his psychiatrist. His mental health team had seen him the week he went missing.”

If determination had a face and name, it would be Ettie Shurack. She, her husband and parents are deeply committed to continuing the search for their missing son and brother and thank those who share their quest.

“I ask the public to continue helping with our search parties and to share our search on social media. In Surrey, 64th and Scott Road, and 72nd and Scott Road, are our focal points but we ask that anyone and everyone in the Lower Mainland continue to keep their eyes out for him.”

She asks that anyone with information or the ability to help email her at bringbernardhome@ gmail.com or call 778-838-5095. She has a WhatsApp group at 631-320-8225 and a Facebook page called Let’s Find Bernard Grempel.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Casting positive impact

Aaron Friedland, creator and host of the podcast Impact in the 21st Century. (photo from Aaron Friedland)

If you’re looking for a new, uplifting podcast to cast away the oppressive weight of pandemic blues, consider Impact in the 21st Century, recently launched by Vancouverite Aaron Friedland. The Vancouver-based founder of the Simbi Foundation, which promotes literacy and education worldwide, felt it was time to give voice to the inspiring things that people are doing.

“There’s a lot of really bad news and horrible things going on and, as a species, we seem to be more interested in those stories,” Friedland told the Independent in a recent interview. “There are lots of podcasts available that celebrate big businesses and a very capitalist ideology. Our goal is to help showcase the amazing, impactful things that many brilliant people are doing and that often go unnoticed, and to mainstream what positive impact really means.”

To date, Friedland has interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and scientific educator; David Suzuki, an academic, broadcaster and environmentalist; Maryanne Wolf, a Jewish author and Harvard academic researching the brain; Ndileka Mandela, the granddaughter of Nelson Mandela; and Alex Honnold, a rock climber and subject of the movie Free Solo. “It’s so nice to be the one doing the interviewing, and the people I’m speaking with are such brilliant minds with brilliant insights to share,” Friedland said. “I feel deeply privileged to be getting that information firsthand.” The plan is to release a new podcast every two to three weeks.

The Royal Bank of Canada has sponsored Impact in the 21st Century, but Friedland said he’s always looking for more sponsors. “Our goal is to reach a point where we have enough podcast sponsors that, with each episode we release, we can build another Bright Box,” he said. The Bright Boxes, which cost $55,000 per box, are classrooms comprised of shipping containers, refurbished with solar technology and aimed at enhancing learning in overcrowded classrooms in places that have little or no access to electricity.

Friedland’s next podcast will be an interview with Canadian cultural anthropologist Wade Davis. His dream interviewees are Elon Musk and David Attenborough, but he’s biding his time until those happen. “It could be they’re not ready yet,” Friedland quipped. “We look for subjects who have a track record of creating longstanding positive impact, and whose vision and values really align with ours.”

Listeners can stream Impact in the 21st Century anywhere they access their podcasts, or online at simbifoundation.org.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Choices event will inspire via Zoom

Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver women’s philanthropy co-chairs Sue Hector, left, and Shawna Merkur. (photos from Jewish Federation)

There’s good news and bad news for the annual Choices gala, which celebrates Jewish women’s philanthropy in Metro Vancouver. The good news is Choices will be held this year, despite COVID-19. The bad news is it will be held exclusively on Zoom, as there is no alternative safe way to convene a large gathering during the pandemic.

The 16-year-old event raises tens of thousands of dollars each year for Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign. Last year, 240 donors raised $52,302. Average attendance is 500 and has been as high as 620 some years.

“Every year, the amount raised varies, based on the different expenses of the event and the amounts raised through games, raffles and silent auctions,” said Sue Hector, who co-chairs Federation’s women’s philanthropy with Shawna Merkur.

“Choices is, at its essence, an event that inspires women of all ages to give to the Jewish community or to get involved in our community,” Merkur said. “It’s all generations in the room, all coming together for Jewish Federation to help our community. It’s really quite a beautiful thing.”

In fact, Choices has been so successful over the years that there have been complaints from the men’s campaign because they have no event like it, Hector said.

When the event is in person, the cost per person is $54, which covers the expenses of the actual event, while the Federation fundraising component comes from raffles, silent auctions and games held during the event. However, women need to make their Federation annual donation when they register for Choices and the minimum donation is $136. That said, no one is turned away based on their inability to afford that donation.

This year, because there will be no food served and no physical venue required, there’s no cost to the event. Instead, organizers are asking women to make an optional $54 donation to Federation’s COVID relief fund.

“That fund is being used to help agencies in the Jewish community manage the stress of the pandemic, from the Jewish schools to the Jewish food bank,” Hector said. “A task force has come together to work on this, interview the different agencies to find out what their needs are and determine how they’ll distribute the funds raised.” (See jewishindependent.ca/the-road-to-recovery.)

The virtual event Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. will feature a community speaker, Hannah Amar, a young single mother who benefited from Tikva Housing’s programs. She will share her journey from near-homelessness to a new home at the Ben and Esther Dayson Residences. “I think her story will really speak to the women watching,” Merkur said.

A main event speaker, Michelle Hirsch, will deliver her talk from Cleveland, Ohio. A member of Jewish Federations of North America’s national women’s philanthropy board and the Jewish Agency for Israel North America, Hirsch organized the Amazon Prime initiative on behalf of the National Youth Leadership Council in response to Hurricane Harvey. (For more on both speakers, click here.)

“In some ways it’s easier this year because we don’t have a lot to organize – no raffle, no caterer or venue and no silent auction,” Hector said. “But, we still wanted everyone to come together in some fashion, and Zoom is the only way. In such crazy, uncertain times, it’s nice to have something familiar and, hopefully, this virtual event will uplift people and give them courage and hope to face what we still have to face.”

To register for Choices – chaired this year by Courtney Cohen, Leanne Hazon and Sherri Wise – visit jewishvancouver.com/choices-form.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Childbearing choice

Michael Scholar Jr. directs Lungs, which is at Studio 16 Nov. 13-22. (photo from Mitch and Murray Productions)

If you’ve not been to the theatre in many months, consider treating yourself to a COVID-19-safe performance of Lungs, opening at Studio 16 in Vancouver Nov. 13, and running to Nov. 22. Michael Scholar Jr. is the Jewish director of the play, which stars real-life married couple Aaron Craven and his wife, Kate Craven, who is also a member of the Jewish community.

Audience numbers will be limited to 25 in this two-actor performance, in which the couple discusses whether or not they should have a child. The discussion takes place over many years and the debate is over whether childbearing is the morally correct choice in a world brimming with overpopulation, hatred, racism and climate change.

“The ideas and issues brought up in this piece really resonate right now in the pandemic, with regards to questions like, Are we taking care of the planet, our neighbours and ourselves?” Scholar told the Independent. “This really resonates with us as artists and, to approach this during the pandemic, seems really timely.”

Lungs was written by Duncan McMillan, a British playwright, and debuted in 2011. Aaron Craven, the co-producer and owner of the Vancouver theatre and film production company Mitch and Murray Productions, determined a two-actor play starring a husband and wife would satisfy COVID-19 safety protocols. With small audiences and barriers between the actors and audience, the show will go on.

Scholar notes that Lungs is a much-loved play to mount not just because of its relevant subject matter, but also because of its production simplicity. “The author’s notes say there’s not to be any costume changes, furniture or set pieces, so 60 scenes happen without any indication as to where and when they are,” he said. “They keep jumping forward in time and it’s up to the audience to figure out where and when they are taking place. So, theatrically, it’s a relatively simple, low-fi production.”

While there’s no overtly Jewish content, Scholar believes that to be a Jew is to wrestle with G-d and, at the heart of this play, is a wrestling match about childbearing in a morally tenuous moment in time.

For ticketing information, visit mitchandmurrayproductions.com.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Unpacking Israel education

Dr. Noam Weissman, senior vice-president of OpenDor Media. (photo from OpenDor Media)

King David High School is one of 50 Jewish high schools worldwide participating in Unpacked for Educators, a series of educational videos and podcasts on Israel created by OpenDor Media with the goal of providing a nuanced, thoughtful and thorough approach to Israel education.

“Theirs is high-quality material available for free, and usually those two things don’t go hand in hand,” said Rabbi Stephen Berger, head of Jewish studies at KDHS. “OpenDor Media is passionate about education and Israel and we are blessed to be able to work with them.”

The videos, approximately 10 minutes each, deal with a wide range of material that ranges from lighthearted topics like falafel, Eurovision and hip-hop music to contemporary conflicts, terrorism and the Israeli settlements. The goal is for educators to select the subjects they want to address with their students and use the videos and podcasts as points for discussion, debate and engagement.

“For years, Israel education has been behind other education, so our goal here was to sandwich nuance with love and to educate rather than indoctrinate,” said Dr. Noam Weissman, senior vice-president of OpenDor Media. “We want our students to end their sentences with question marks, to foster curiosity and deepen exploration by showing multiple sides to an issue. We love Israel and, yes, it’s complicated and nuanced, with lots to debate. We have to allow our young people to make up their own minds and deliver good education.”

OpenDor’s mission is to change Israel education the world over and make Jewish and Israel education available and accessible to everyone, regardless of their location. Other participating schools are in South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel, Hungary and the United States. In Canada, KDHS is among six participating schools.

OpenDor is working on increasing the number of podcasts and videos in its repertoire, and hopes to reach a point where Jewish schools, of all religious denominations, can be unified about how to engage their students with Israel education. To that end, in terms of sharing resources and improving pedagogy, Weissman said, “We make a whole suite of videos and podcasts you can pick from, so, if you don’t like one, pick another. We’re not telling schools what to teach – we’re trying to help them develop tools for how to teach.”

That’s a great resource at KDHS, Berger said. “Sometimes, our teachers don’t know all the information either, and these videos help our educators develop professionally. The videos are there to spark thought, and then to stop, explain and discuss with students. It’s not a movie. What OpenDor is doing is so well needed.”

Weissman said Seth Rogen’s opinions on the Israel education he received growing up in Vancouver are telling. “The Seth Rogen fiasco is another example of a Jew going through an educational institution and saying, ‘they did a disservice to me,’” he said, referring to a conversation between Rogen and Marc Maron in an episode of Maron’s WTF podcast in July. In that podcast, Rogen stated that he was “fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life.”

“I don’t blame Seth Rogen, but I think the Jewish community needs to look inwardly and ensure Israel content and education is accessible to everyone,” Weissman said. “Israel education is at the point where we as a field know how to do this well. We have the resources, confidence and context to make a nuanced experience possible for all students.”

The videos and podcasts are targeted at ages 18 through 34. They are freely available on YouTube and are an educational resource for Jews of any age seeking to understand events in Israeli history. For more information, visit opendormedia.org.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

The world needs us to change

Nigel Savage, president and chief executive officer of Hazon, is one of the keynote speakers for Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign opening on Sept. 8. (photo from JFGV)

Nigel Savage, president and chief executive officer of Hazon, is looking forward to addressing the Vancouver Jewish community Sept. 8 as one of the keynote speakers for Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign opening. “The pandemic is a reminder of why we have and why we need central institutions like federations for the Jewish community,” he said.

“Hazon is working to turn the Jewish community outwards, address environmental sustainability and to use that process to strengthen Jewish life,” explained Savage in an interview with the Independent. “I think of the Vancouver Jewish community as one made of people who choose to live in the Pacific Northwest and have a sensibility of caring for the world and its natural resources, so I want to sketch out what may be possible for all of us in the long term.”

Savage was a professional fund manager in London, England, where he worked for NM Rothschild and was co-head of UK equities at Govett. After nine years in the financial world, he opted to take a sabbatical year and study at Pardes in Jerusalem. “I had an amazing time and stayed on in Israel as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” he recalled.

A friend invited him to join a hike from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee, and Savage, who described himself as “a chubby, nerdy, intellectual English kid who grew up in Manchester and never really set foot outdoors,” agreed. He loved the hike and, as he began doing more physical activities outdoors, recognized it as a great way to bring Jewish tradition to life and connect with others. “We didn’t enter Jewish history in a synagogue or JCC. We entered it in relationship to the land of Israel, with a relationship to food, land, climate, language. That’s what the Torah is a record of,” he said.

Savage’s time in Israel was the impetus for the creation of what is today one of the largest faith-based environmental organizations in the United States. Hazon’s goal is to strengthen Jewish life and contribute to a more environmentally sustainable world. It calls itself the “Jewish lab for sustainability” and strives to effect change through immersive experiences and by inspiring individuals and communities to commit to change – particularly with respect to food systems.

Hazon is focused on Jewish outdoor, food, farming and environmental education (JOFFE) and, since its inception in 2000, has been dedicated to helping establish and inspire change. “In the Bay Area, there’s Urban Adama and Wilderness Torah, and, in north San Diego, there’s Coastal Roots Farm. In Boulder, there’s the Milk and Honey Farm and, in Toronto, we have Shoresh,” he said.

“In each place, people are doing slightly different programs with similar goals,” Savage explained. “Those goals are to reconnect the Jewish community to land and food, to reconnect people to Jewish tradition, to reconnect people to each other and to use that process to strengthen Jewish life and create the kind of world we believe in.”

Savage’s list of accolades suggests that he is achieving his goal at Hazon. In 2015, he was awarded an honourary doctorate by the Jewish Theological Seminary and he’s been named a member of the Forward 50, the annual list of the 50 most influential Jewish people in the United States, on two occasions.

He noted that September 2022 is the start of a new seven-year cycle in Jewish life. “Imagine if the Vancouver Jewish community began to envision Jewish life in Vancouver over the next seven years. If we wanted the Vancouver Jewish community to be on the cutting edge of Jewish communities around the world around issues of sustainability by 2029, what would that look like?”

Savage suggested that every Jewish institution in the city could begin a process to establish a coherent food plan over the next seven years. It might include policies regarding use of plastic bottles, whether to serve meat and soda, carbon neutrality goals for community buildings, and other actions in relation to food and land use.

“At Hazon, we want to treat these questions as real questions and involve people in the Jewish community, from teenagers to rabbis. We want to start a real conversation which draws on Jewish tradition, the best of what’s happening in Vancouver and Canada, and use that process so that, by 2029, the Vancouver Jewish community has integrated food polices in all its institutions that reflect our values.”

Hazon’s goal is to invite communities to unpack questions like these and to act as a resource on matters of sustainability and Jewish efforts to promote it.

“If we think about the nature of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, these are chronic illnesses,” Savage noted. “The world needs us to slowly and steadily change how we’re living so that all these people can live sustainably on this planet. Right now, we have a 10- or 15-year window to change the trajectory of Jewish civilization. We can’t complete this task by ourselves, but neither are we free to desist from it.”

Savage will be joined at the Federation campaign launch by fellow keynote speaker Sarah Hurwitz, author of Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality and a Deeper Connection to Life – in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There) and former speech writer for the Obamas. To register for the event, which starts at 5 p.m., go to jewishvancouver.com/faco2020.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.