Sam Margolis – Jewish Independent

Israeli pucksters visit

Members of the Hockey Academy of Israel. (photo from Kyle Berger)

The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, along with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, played host earlier this month to 27 young hockey players from Israel’s Northern District who were in town for an eight-day visit.

The stops for the athletes, ages 10 to 14, on their March 5-13 Vancouver trip included a fundraising exhibition game against the JCC league (which had some former NHL players in attendance), the JCC Purim party March 9, which had a hockey workshop for kids in the gym, and a Canucks game on March 10, where Vancouver took on the New York Islanders. The Israeli junior players also had a practice skating session with Barb Aidelbaum, one of Canada’s top power-skating coaches, and ate meals at the Israeli-owned Chickpea and the Palestinian-run Aleph restaurants.

The co-ed group, comprised of youth from a variety of backgrounds – Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze – is part of the Hockey Academy of Israel (HIA). Situated in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town – along the border with Lebanon – the HIA (formerly the Canada-Israel Hockey School) was started in 2010 thanks to the drive and ambition of a local Israeli apple farmer and hockey aficionado, Levav Weinberg, and the initial financial support of Canadian media mogul Sidney Greenberg. Presently funded by donors from around the world, the HIA sees as its goal to make hockey fun and affordable for kids who otherwise would not get the opportunity to play.

Since its inception a decade ago, the HIA has witnessed a growing passion for the game in Israel and now boasts more than 400 young players in its academy, all of whom play at the Canada Centre in Metula, home to the only full-sized hockey rink in Israel. This is the second time a group from the HIA has visited Vancouver, a trip that was organized by the JCC and financially supported by the Jewish Federation. Members of the HIA also have visited other NHL towns, such as Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.

The existence of a camp in an area that has frequently made headlines for regional animosities has shown that much good can arise from sport. Many lasting friendships between players of different ethnicities have been formed at the academy.

“There are few things in the world that bring people together the way sports can,” said Kyle Berger, sports coordinator at the JCC and local delegation head for the Maccabi Games. “Sports bonds teammates together, it bonds countries together and, in some rare cases, sports can even bring peace and unity when such things seems almost impossible. This is the magic of the Hockey Academy of Israel, which brings both Jewish and Arab youth and their families together in the name of hockey.”

The HIA says it has found that, as passion for hockey grows in a region surrounded by political conflict, so too grow the bonds and respect these teammates from different cultural and political backgrounds have for one another.

Berger, along with other members of the Metro Vancouver Jewish community, has visited the hockey academy on several occasions, starting in 2012. He told the Independent that he “was blown away” by what he saw when he first arrived. “I had no idea as to the extent of the passion and the intensity the hockey academy has created for the game in Israel, and how much it has done to unite people of different cultures,” he said.

Hockey in Metula, which was featured in the 2013 TSN documentary Neutral Zone, has had a short, yet storied, history. Before the HIA was created, Canadian coaching legend Roger Neilson taught a camp in Metula in the late 1990s and played an integral role in establishing a fervour for the game in Israel.

The HIA is presently coached by Torontonian Mike Mazeika, who believes “the main goal of the academy is to integrate Jewish and Arab kids together, playing hockey, so that they can understand each other and make a difference for the future. Is that going to get us peace in the Middle East? No, probably not. But, if you don’t start small and take small steps, you’ll never be able to take a big step.”

The JCC and Jewish Federation were helped in various ways to support the HIA’s visit, including by host families, sponsors or venue/activity donors. For more information, contact Berger at [email protected] or 604-638-7286.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Healing powers of song

Seattle-based Iraqis in Pajamas, left to right: Sean Sebastian, Loolwa Khazzoom and Robbie Morsehead. (photo from Iraqis in Pajamas)

How do you take the wisdom of surviving and turn it into beautiful things?” asked Loolwa Khazzoom, front woman for Seattle-based punk rock group Iraqis in Pajamas, during an interview with the Independent recently.

One cannot easily classify Khazzoom, a cancer survivor, in a succinct journalistic fashion. Aside from being a musician, she is a writer, an activist, a polyglot and a journalist. Raised in California to an American mother and an Iraqi father, she was heavily involved in the Jewish feminist movement of the 1990s and the founder of the Jewish Multicultural Project, which provided resources about diversity to Jewish groups.

As with her stage presence, she transmits a raw, infectious energy in conversation, ever more so as Iraqis in Pajamas started this month by releasing a new single.

“Life brings with it an endless number of challenges. Negative experiences can be turned into art,” Khazzoom reflected.

“I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010,” she said. “I rejected the conventional option of surgery – despite a doctor proclaiming that I would die without it. ‘You can’t think your way out of cancer,’ he said, to which I replied, ‘You don’t know what I can do.’”

After the diagnosis, Khazzoom researched natural approaches to healing, and radically altered her diet – pulling everything out of her cupboards and moving to an all-organic and vegan diet. Through these and subsequent diet and lifestyle changes, she said she was able to stop the growth of the nodules, which remained stable for the next five years. The nodules began shrinking when she returned to music – her lost passion.

Formed in 2015, Iraqis in Pajamas combines ancient Iraqi Jewish prayers with its own original style of punk rock sung in English, Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. The band’s songs examine a wide number of social issues – domestic violence, racism, mental illness, family caregiving, national exile – and cancer.

The band received a grant to produce the song “Cancer Is My Engine,” which was released March 1. “Cancer Is My Engine” combines an ancient Iraqi Jewish prayer with original punk rock, sung in Hebrew and English – challenging conventional medical approaches to cancer and putting forth the concept of music as medicine.

The song was produced by Bard Rock Studio, an independent Northwest music producer, and funded by the Lloyd Symington Foundation, which supports people living with and healing from cancer.

According to Khazzoom, singing has the ability not only to uplift but to heal. “This shift in consciousness is why, after hearing a particular song, our mood may change abruptly, or we suddenly may feel transported back in time. Singing bypasses our mental process, both awakening and soothing us at the core, without effort. Among other benefits, we are able to access, release and heal from the experience of trauma, without having to recount and risk getting triggered by painful memories,” she said.

Iraqis in Pajamas, which also includes drummer Robbie Morsehead and guitarist Sean Sebastian, got its name from a reputation Iraqi expatriates in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan had for putting on their pajamas when they had arrived home and the work of the day was completed.

The band is currently developing its next project: a debut double album. One CD will be an original a cappella version of 10 Iraqi Jewish prayers, which the band incorporates into its songs, along with a story about each prayer and why they chose it, while the second CD will be the 10 songs with those prayers woven through them. The project is sponsored by Allied Arts Foundation in Seattle and, in February, the band launched a fundraising campaign to develop, produce and promote the album: secure.givelively.org/donate/allied-arts-foundation-seattle/iraqis-in-pajamas.

Khazzoom’s first book, Consequence: Beyond Resisting Rape (2002), is a look at sexual harassment in everyday life. In 2003, she edited The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage, an anthology of the writings of Mizrahi Jewish women. Her writing has also appeared in the Forward, Tikkun and Lilith, as well as the Jewish Independent and other Jewish publications; she has written several times about Israeli hip-hop for Rolling Stone.

Iraqis in Pajamas hopes to find venues in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island in the coming year. For more information about Khazzoom and the band, and to listen to their music, visit loolwa.com. To purchase their music, go to iraqisinpajamas.bandcamp.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Life with inherited trauma

Dr. Gita Arian Baack, author of The Inheritors: Moving Forward from Generational Trauma. (photo from Gita Arian Baack)

Dr. Gita Arian Baack, author of The Inheritors: Moving Forward from Generational Trauma, was in town earlier this month to speak at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival and hold a three-day experiential workshop with the Second Generation Group in Vancouver.

The Ottawa-based counselor began her festival presentation with a quote from the late Israeli novelist Amos Oz, who wrote, “Our past belongs to us, but we do not belong to it.” For Baack, the quote underscores her message to inheritors of the Shoah – that “we were given life and an obligation to bear witness and honour the martyrs and heroes of the Holocaust. And that we also have the right to live full and joyful lives.”

“Generational trauma stems from devastating events which transpired before we were born,” Baack told the Independent. “In the case of the Holocaust, we have experienced it from birth; it is as if we were there. We carry an unrelenting sadness, sense of absence and betrayal.”

The ultimate question her book explores is: “How can we live a full life despite the difficult trauma we inherited?”

Prior to writing The Inheritors, Baack conducted doctoral research into the subject of intergenerational trauma and resilience, yet what she uncovered did not fit or go deeply enough into either. Often, resilience is described as bouncing back with support from others. But, she said, “You don’t bounce back from the Holocaust!”

She was resolved to unravel answers to these and other questions, such as why are so many of us resilient and compassionate despite our inherited trauma? Do we carry memory from one generation to another? How do we move forward, when the usual therapies for trauma have proven not to work for us?

“We are also faced with the difficulty of piecing together our family stories,” said Baack. “Much of our family stories are full of holes, unknowns and even secrets, our roots destroyed. Understandably, we have strong emotions but don’t know how to deal with them; for example, excessive sadness, fear of authority, worry, lack of trust, lack of safety, etc.”

Further, inherited trauma is often frozen, embedded in the brain stem, also known as the primitive brain – accessing it is difficult, but it can be done, she said.

Baack noted that ancient wisdom, the Bible and new epigenetic scientific research explain that trauma is passed onto generations in the DNA, and even the cells, for as many as seven generations. She strongly believes that this is the case if it is acknowledged and processed; if it is not, then it can take longer than seven generations.

Though Baack’s own experience is being a child of Holocaust survivors, The Inheritors encompasses others who have been victimized: Canada’s indigenous population, survivors of the Rwandan genocide and of several other horrible episodes of recent history. The book also looks at trauma on a personal level, from those who have suffered as a result of natural disaster, an accident, economic hardship, the justice or education system, illness or loss of a loved one.

The intent of The Inheritors is to serve as a tool for moving forward, said Baack. The book is filled with dialogues, poetry and stories from people of different backgrounds. Readers are invited to explore their story, and there are questions at the end of each chapter to help them process that story and, in so doing, transform their pain. At the least, in the end, they will have a written story as a legacy to their descendants.

The Inheritors has had other, unexpected, impacts. For example, the conductor of the North Carolina State University orchestra commissioned composer and flutist Allison Loggins-Hull to write a piece for an upcoming performance and she has chosen to write a work inspired by the book – Inheritors Overture will première on April 5 in Raleigh, N.C.

The group dialogues that Baack conducts offer a means of validation through other people with similar experiences and various experiential tools that can help further a deeper exploration of their trauma stories, the “undiscussables” and the unknowns. Group participants, she said, are often surprised by the creativity, laughter and camaraderie that arise.

The Inheritors is dedicated to (and inspired by) Baack’s two half-siblings. “From my earliest beginnings, I remember carrying a great sadness for my siblings, Henush and Halina Arian, who were only 4 and 3 years old, respectively, when they were killed,” she writes. There was no information about the circumstances of their death or burials, “But their existence was real and has mattered to me in an extraordinary way. And so I don’t fight the sadness; I embrace it. It has a special place. I am the carrier of their memory. This burden is the most cherished of all my burdens.”

At the age of 4 or 5, Baack had what she describes as a “knowing” or “inherited memory.” A “felt sense” told her, even at that young age, that her siblings, two of 1.5 million children killed by the Nazis, had both been shot in the back. When she asked her father how her half-siblings died, he said he didn’t know. Nonetheless, the memory (and feeling) she had inherited persisted, and could be placed on a spot in the middle of her back, with a knowing that her half siblings had been shot in that place.

Her research revealed that the timing of their deaths was before gas chambers had been built, and children under 5 were regularly shot. In 2019, a tour guide in Krakow pointed to the very street where the children and their mother were shot. To Baack, it was a stunning confirmation of her lifelong memory.

Baack has been consulting and coaching individuals and organizations for more than 30 years. She recently founded the Centre for Transformational Dialogue to help individuals and communities that have inherited devastating legacies. She also has written a book of verse, Poems of Angst and Awe, published in 2017.

For more information, visit gitabaack.com. Baack continues to research inherited memory and wishes to hear from others on the subject. She can be reached at [email protected].

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Increased cancer risks

Libby Znaimer was the keynote speaker of the inaugural BRCAinBC event One in 40: From Awareness to Empowerment. (photo from zoomerradio.ca)

An estimated 200 people gathered at Congregation Beth Israel last month for One in 40: From Awareness to Empowerment, the inaugural event of a project to increase knowledge of the cancer risks connected to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.

The Jan. 8 event title is based on the fact that, for people with Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, there is a one-in-40 risk of carrying the BRCA genes, which increase the risk of genetically linked cancers. This rate is 10 times that of the general population. Elizabeth Wurzel, author of the bestselling memoir Prozac Nation, who passed away in January from breast cancer and was found to carry the gene mutation, called BRCA “the curse of the Ashkenazi Jews.”

One in 40 was organized by BRCAinBC, a provincial group spearheaded by members of the family – wife Jane and daughter Catriona – of Geoff Remocker, who died of aggressive prostate cancer. BRCAinBC’s objectives are to increase awareness among community members and health professionals, educate community members about genetic testing options and reduce the fear and stigma that can surround genetic testing. (See jewishindependent.ca/brcainbcs-inaugural-event.)

Toronto-based broadcaster Libby Znaimer, the keynote speaker, led the audience through her story. In January 2009, after enduring a six-and-a-half hour operation, the only possible cure for pancreatic cancer, she didn’t consider the odds of survival that favourable. Pancreatic cancer is the only form of cancer for which the survival rate is in the single digits, said Znaimer in her talk.

She not only has survived pancreatic cancer, but breast cancer, which was also BRCA-related.

Znaimer has made a film about her experience, Cancer Saved My Life. “It’s more than just a catchy title to get eyeballs on my documentary. It’s true. And I am living proof that, when it comes to the BRCA mutations, there is good news, in addition to the bad news,” she said in her remarks to the audience, which she shared with the Independent.

When Znaimer found out she had breast cancer in 2006, she was not surprised. Because of her family history, she knew that she was at a greater risk. However, she said, she did not think breast cancer would kill her.

“I remember being at a boozy dinner just a few days after being told I had cancer. I was very lucky that a former neighbour of mine was visiting,” she said. “She was working in the States as the head of breast radiology at one of the famous Mayo clinics and, based only on what she knew about my family history, she pointed her finger at me and said, ‘Sweetheart, you have bad genes and, if I were you, I’d bite the bullet and have both my breasts and my ovaries removed … as quickly as possible.’”

Znaimer cited a study in Toronto in which Jewish women were tested for the mutation regardless of family history. Fifty percent of those who tested positive would not have qualified for testing because of their family history. Results from similar studies in the United Kingdom and Israel produced similar outcomes.

“And, having one of those mutations doesn’t just mean you’re at an exponentially higher risk of getting those cancers once,” she warned. “You are also more likely to contract a second cancer, not a recurrence – a completely new other cancer.

“It is especially gratifying for me that my case has helped others and to be here to talk about the importance of getting tested,” she said. “It is the dawn of a new decade. My second decade as a survivor since Cancer Saved My Life.”

The Jan. 8 educational evening also included panelists Dr. Rona Cheifetz, medical lead of the Hereditary High Risk Clinic, B.C. Cancer Agency; Dr. Intan Shrader, co-medical director, BCCA Hereditary Cancer Program; Len Gross, president of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of British Columbia; and Tovah Carr, a BRCA carrier.

BRCAinBC arose from the realization that many in the Jewish community are not aware of the risks of carrying the BRCA genes. They hope to support improvements in access to genetic testing throughout the province for members of the Jewish community, and to protect BRCA carriers from the potentially negative consequences of positive carrier status; in obtaining insurance, for example. For more information, visit BRCAinBC.ca.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Community planning critical

Alex Cristall, chair of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. (photo from JFGV)

Long active in the Jewish community, Alex Cristall started his current volunteer position as chair of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver in June 2019. He spoke to the Jewish Independent about the role, and where he sees the organization as it enters a new decade.

JI: Could you go over your professional background and your work with Jewish organizations?

AC: I grew up in this community and was always surrounded by a culture of volunteerism. My professional background is in real estate investment, and my family’s values always drove our approach to business and to community involvement. From my grandparents to my parents to the way my wife Jodi and I are raising our children, giving back and getting involved with community has always been a priority, both in and out of the office. I started volunteering as a young adult and it’s grown from there.

JI: How did you become chair of Federation?

AC: Before taking on the role of board chair, I held a number of other leadership positions with Jewish Federation and with other organizations. At Federation, I served as chair of the 2016 and 2017 Federation annual campaigns, as chair of major donors, chair of men’s philanthropy and as a member of the board.

Anyone who knows me knows my love of sports, so my previous involvement with the JCC Maccabi Games and with Maccabi Canada came about very naturally. I also chaired the JCC Sports Dinner.

Serving as vice-president and then president of the JCC [Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver] was instrumental in giving me a unique perspective that has been indispensable as chair of Jewish Federation. I got to see firsthand how important the partnerships between the organizations are, and how much partners rely on the community planning and fundraising expertise that Jewish Federation brings. At the time, Jewish Federation organized local missions, where we visited various partners, including the Jewish Food Bank and Tikva Housing Society, and learned about the range of needs in our community – and the range of responses.

It was very eye-opening, and that was when I got involved in men’s philanthropy at Jewish Federation and decided to learn more about the community. That ultimately led to a role on Jewish Federation’s allocations committee, where we were fully immersed in the entire breadth and depth of need – and opportunity for impact – in our community.

In my mid-30s, I was fortunate to travel to Ethiopia with members of Jewish Federation’s National Young Leadership Cabinet to see the work we were doing there with two of our international partners, the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel. That was where I really began to understand the big picture of what we can accomplish for world Jewry in need.

More recently, I was able to visit our partnership region in Israel and learn about the particular challenges of living in the north, and the impact we’ve been able to make there as the result of a long-term strategic focus.

I’ve been in Israel many times, but, in terms of our partnership region and Beit Vancouver, this past spring was my first visit. It’s such a successful country overall, but I really saw the inequity that exists in the periphery. To see the contributions of our community and the future development plans of the region was inspiring, as was seeing what our Israel and overseas affairs committee, through annual campaign funds, and many local families are doing there with their investments…. It was very rewarding.

We need to continue to raise up that entire region…. Every mayor of our region came to greet us and that’s how you know how important our dollars are for youth. So many different things going on. When you see the respect that the different mayors have for the work we do and the people involved, it’s clear that our impact matters.

JI: What are your goals looking ahead?

AC: Our community is growing and changing all the time. As a Federation, we have been changing alongside it, which is positioning us to effect positive change in ways that can make an impact now and into the future.

We have a unique role in the community in terms of our planning function, and it’s a critically important piece that we bring to the table. We are focused on planning strategically to identify and prioritize needs locally, as well as in our partnership region in Israel. Our donors and fund-holders at the Jewish Community Foundation help us meet these needs. The partnerships we have developed over the decades are key to being able to get the work done in ways that are going to create lasting change.

We have made progress on every one of the areas of opportunity we identified in the strategic priorities, from affordability and accessibility, to seniors, engagement and, of course, community security. With big picture issues like these, the outlook is for the long term and so the work is ongoing.

At the end of the day, I would like people in our community to say that we made it easier for them to live Jewishly – whether that’s because we helped make a Jewish program more affordable, because we reached out to them where they live, because their aging parents were able to access a seniors’ program, or what have you.

JI: What challenges do you see before you?

AC: Our community is growing and its needs are constantly evolving, so there is always a lot of work to do, and that makes it exciting. I love a good challenge, and there are challenges everywhere we turn.

This community looks so different from when I was a child here. Even in the last decade it’s changed considerably. We’re more spread out and we’re more diverse.

More than half of our community is comprised of children, youth and young families, many of whom are really crunched by the high cost of living, and many of whom see their Jewish community engagement in ways that are very different from previous generations. At the same time, we have a growing population of Jewish seniors who need to stay connected and supported as they age. These are two of the big challenges facing our community right now. We also need to continue to meet our community’s needs through diverse revenue sources.

And last, of course, is the upcoming redevelopment of the JCC site into a true community hub. It’s still in the early stages, but Jewish Federation is poised to play an important role in this when the time comes. We’re proud to have entered into a memorandum of agreement with the JCC. [See jewishindependent.ca/historic-jcc-fed-agreement.]

JI: What excites you about the role?

AC: I feel very fortunate to work with an incredible group of volunteer leaders and professional staff, all of whom genuinely care about this community and about Israel.

From a personal perspective, some of the best lessons I’ve learned have come from volunteering with different community members and working with the Federation staff…. It’s very rewarding to meet with people in the community and see the reach and the impact of the good work we’re doing.

JI: What accomplishments are you most proud of thus far?

AC: One thing I am very proud of is how our donors have come to rely on Jewish Federation for our breadth of knowledge of community needs, our strategic approach and the strong relationships we’ve developed. Many of them trust us with all of their Jewish community philanthropy, and they come to us first when they have questions about where and how they want to make an impact.

I think we can be very proud of how we have taken a very strategic approach to growing the financial resources we generate, whether that’s through the annual campaign, through special project funding, or through legacy giving at the Jewish Community Foundation. As a result, our partners have more ways to access funding for the vital programs and services that align with high-priority community needs.

Community security is an area where we wish we didn’t have to focus our attention, but the reality is that we do. It was the first thing I really championed as chair of the annual campaign in 2016, and it was one of the first areas of strategic investment that we addressed from our 2020 Strategic Priorities [ourcommunity2020.jewishvancouver.com]. Since then, our community security advisory committee has taken an active role in addressing needs in this area and, on their advice, we hired a director of community security. Together, they are creating a culture of security consciousness.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Hurdles to become a doctor

Ruth Simkin with her dog, Kelly. (photo by Chris Wilson)

Feminism is really true equality between women and men; nothing more, and nothing less,” Ruth Simkin writes in her new book, Dear Sophie: Life Lessons in Feminism & Medicine, a memoir dedicated to her great-niece.

“There are many people who scoff at the word ‘feminism,’” Simkin adds. “But consider this – when I was in my first year of medical school, I, and any other woman, could not get a credit card in our own name. Until 1974, a husband’s signature was needed for women to have credit cards. At that time, I met women who were teachers who lost their jobs because they and their husbands wanted to start a family and they became pregnant – a no-no for working teachers until 1978. I could go on and on with examples like this to show why feminism was, and still is, such an important part of all our lives.”

Born in Winnipeg in 1944, Simkin has prevailed over many obstacles throughout her life and career. In Dear Sophie, readers join her as she struggles to get into medical school.

“There was stiff competition to get into an innovative medical program launched at the University of Calgary in the late 1960s,” she told the Independent from her home in Victoria. “I was one of 32 of roughly 1,200 applicants to be accepted.”

Admission to the program, however, would turn out to be an easier hurdle than those that were yet to come during her schooling and subsequent training. The length of her time in med school is replete with stories of sexual harassment and discrimination by both fellow classmates and senior members of the faculty.

“Male doctors, on more than one occasion, did all they could to get me expelled from med school, but I stood my ground,” Simkin said.

She managed to complete her residency, despite being blocked at almost every step, and clashing with the established medical community. But she prevailed. She was the first U of C med school graduate to open a practice – one that thrived – while also working as a professor and preceptor at the school.

In the memoir, Simkin details her experiences from that time to the present and uses her account as a way to demonstrate to Sophie, and to other women, how to live a happy, feminist life. She hopes that Sophie, a pre-adolescent during the time Simkin was writing the book, will learn from her experiences before entering adulthood.

Simkin’s long and varied career has seen her undertake many ventures. In the 1980s, she learned acupuncture in Shanghai and, ultimately, became the first physician to be approved by the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons to incorporate acupuncture in a medical practice. Later that decade, she went to London, England, to study with Dr. Katharina Dalton, who brought premenstrual syndrome to the world’s attention and also coined the term.

Upon her return to Canada, Simkin opened the first PMS clinic in Western Canada. She also has opened Western Canada’s first hologram gallery, produced concerts, been involved in theatre projects and started the lesbian and gay political action group CLAGPAG.

In the 1990s, she moved to Salt Spring Island, where she became a farmer – growing “yuppie” veggies. A return to medicine saw her become the first fellow to study palliative care at the University of British Columbia. In 2014, she was honoured with a life membership from the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Among her other published works, Simkin has written What Makes You Happy, a collection of short stories, both autobiographical and fictional; The Y Syndrome, a medical thriller set in 1990s Calgary; and Like an Orange on a Seder Plate, a feminist Haggadah. The Jagged Years of Ruthie J (2012) is an autobiographical account of her experiences in Winnipeg before medical school.

Over the years, she has written scores of medical papers and contributed to textbooks, as well as mixed media presentations. Having travelled extensively, she has an (as-yet) unpublished book, Come Away with Me, about her journeys through China.

Dear Sophie received the 2019 Rainbow Award in the LGBT biography/memoir category. In its review of the book, the prize committee said, “Dear Sophie is a flawless memoir that is not only a story of Dr. Ruth Simkin, but a story of feminism and women in Canada and the field of medicine, skilfully woven together with valuable life lessons.”

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

The comics rise again on Feb. 20

Kyle Berger, left, and Scotty Aceman, co-producers of Rise of the Comics. (photo from Rise of the Comics)

The outer limits of the laugh-o-meter will be tested on Feb. 20 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Rothstein Theatre, when a group of Canada’s top funny people step on stage for A Night of Shticks & Giggles, presented by local comedy producer Rise of the Comics. This will be the third Shticks and Giggles show to raise money for the JCC Maccabi Games.

Headlining the event is Julie Kim, a two-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee for stand-up, who has performed at comedy festivals around the continent and appeared on CBC’s The Debaters and Laugh Out Loud. Her YouTube videos have amassed millions of views and, in 2018, she released her debut comedy album, Outside Voice.

Among other topics, Kim’s routine delves into modern parenting and various cultural issues, sometimes involving life seen from an Asian perspective. Yuk Yuk’s comedy club co-founder Mark Breslin called her “smart, funny, with enough self-awareness to deconstruct her life in a very sophisticated way.”

Other acts in the show, which Rise of the Comics describes as its “best line-up to date,” include Robert Peng, who bills himself as “an unemployed engineer who turned to stand-up comedy out of desperation”; New Zealander Sophia Johnson, “the one who keyed your car but probably shouldn’t have told you that”; Sean McDonnell, who Canadian comedy star Norm MacDonald has praised as “a fantastic talent”; and Brett Nikolic, a maven on Mountain Dew-flavoured weed.

Rise of the Comics is the brainchild of Vancouver stand-up comedian Scotty Aceman, who will also be on stage at Shticks & Giggles. Starting off as a weekly 30-minute program on Shaw Cable with the same name in 2015, the show has highlighted the work of many stand-up comedians who got their start on the local scene, such as Dino Archie and Ivan Decker, who has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Aceman, a University of British Columbia and B.C. Institute of Technology graduate, switched to comedy five years ago, after a 20-year stint in a sales job with Rogers in the corporate wireless phone department.

“Leaving the cellphone business after 20 years was a tough call,” he said. “But you have to chase your dreams. People would ask me, ‘What about my dignity and respect?’ I’d say dignity and respect went out the window the minute I had a Thursday morning bar mitzvah!”

In 2019, Aceman brought in Kyle Berger as co-producer of Rise of the Comics. Berger, sports coordinator at the JCCGV, will be the master of ceremonies for the Feb. 20 Shticks & Giggles.

Before joining the crew, Berger, in his role as JCC Maccabi Games delegation head, had hired Rise of the Comics for a fundraiser. He credits Aceman for allowing him to get his stand-up feet wet, with a debut performance at the Charqui Grill in Kitsilano in 2018.

“Stand-up was one of those things on my bucket list to do by the time I turned 40,” Berger told the Independent. “Scotty (and my then-girlfriend, now fiancée) were both big helpers in getting me up there on stage for a five-minute routine. My fiancée had had enough of me saying I was going to do it.”

Berger said, “Scotty’s reputation within the local comic community is a great asset. Nowadays, Rise of the Comics does all sorts of things, including parties in people’s living rooms. And, last year, we were hired by the Chutzpah! Festival to put on a show.”

Rise of the Comics currently works with a roster of more than 50 stand-up performers of all styles and experiences, and tailors its shows to any situation. They have created performances at such diverse venues as Hy’s Steak House, the Jericho Arts Centre and Ronald McDonald House, among others. Their gigs can cover everything from clean to dirty, social commentary to observational, but always, they say, with an emphasis on the funny.

Berger promises that he and fellow Shticks & Giggles comedians are likely to make mention, in one way or another, that their show is backed by the foundation created by Dr. Neil Pollock, a leading Vancouver male sexual health and circumcision expert, and his wife Michelle.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at m.bpt.me/event/4499277. For more information about Rise of the Comics, visit riseofthecomics.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Eclectic Jewish sounds

Andy Muchin with a record from his collection. (photo from Sounds Jewish)

The American South may not be the first place you would consider tuning the dial for an hour-long radio program that runs the gamut of Jewish music and many other audio facets of Yiddishkeit. That the show is assembled half the year on Vancouver Island might add another element of unexpectedness to the equation.

“I realize it might appear a bit incongruous,” Andrew Muchin told the Independent, from his Victoria home. “But, thanks to the internet age, things like this are no longer that difficult to do.”

Fifty weeks a year, Muchin goes through his collection of more than 1,000 vinyl records, scores of CDs and hour upon hour of digitized music to produce Sounds Jewish, a weekly radio program for Mississippi Public Broadcasting, based in Jackson, Miss. The show is broadcast on Sunday afternoons there and heard anytime online.

Having celebrated its ninth anniversary at the end of last September, Sounds Jewish focuses on a relevant theme, often within the Jewish and secular calendars. Avid listeners soon realize the problem for Muchin is not finding material but sifting through all the material that is out there. It takes several hours to select music for, record and produce each show, and programs often contain a range of offerings, anything from a 1960s comedy routine to Israeli hip-hop.

For American Thanksgiving in late November, Muchin spun a number of discs, including a Ladino number, “These Beautiful Tables” by the Ruth Yaakov Ensemble, and “Tish Niggun” (“Table Melody”) from the band Klezmer Plus! The show then mixed in songs of gratitude, such as a melodic rendition of Psalm 118 with Israeli singer/keyboardist Idan Raichel and Malian singer/guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and a counting of blessings from British singer Daniel Cainer – who opened the 2019 Chutzpah! Festival – in “How We’re Blessed,” from his album Jewish Chronicles.

In October, Muchin prepared a World Series show dedicated to Jews and baseball, and particularly to the home cities of the two teams involved in this year’s Fall Classic, the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals. This show featured a country version of the prayer Modeh Ani from Houston-born country singer-songwriter Joe Buchanan; a cut from Kramer’s The Greenberg Variations, an instrumental tribute to Detroit slugger Hank Greenberg; and ballpark favourites “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “God Bless America” belted out in Yiddish by Mandy Patinkin.

In marking recent holidays and occasions, Muchin has taken his listeners on a musical tour of Jewish labour songs ahead of Labour Day, rhythmically reminded them of many sins to avoid during the month of Elul, leading up to the High Holidays, and melodically explored the ongoing desire for self-improvement ahead of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

“I try never to be preachy, but I like to inform my listeners of various Jewish or Jewy practices they can incorporate in their lives – or not. Mostly, though, Sounds Jewish presents the diversity of Jewish music across time and space. To my ear, Jewish music is the ultimate world music, since Jews have lived almost everywhere on earth, blending the native music with Jewish themes,” he said.

A native of Manitowoc, Wis., Muchin was raised in a traditional Jewish home, growing up versed in Hebrew and liturgical melodies. He later learned Israeli songs at a Zionist summer camp, but said he didn’t become steeped in Jewish music until long after the klezmer revival of the 1970s.

Muchin has been active in Jewish media and Jewish life since 1986, when he started as an assistant editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He moved back to his home state to serve as editor for the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle in Milwaukee and edited and co-published (with Marge Eiseman) Jewish Heartland magazine. He also has written for the Forward, Moment, Jewish Week and numerous other publications.

In 2009, Muchin landed in Jackson, as the cultural program director of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, a nonprofit that provides a variety of educational, cultural and religious services to underserved Jewish communities throughout the South. There, he met the director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s radio division, Jason Klein, who also happened to be Jewish, and Sounds Jewish took flight.

In Victoria, Muchin served as director of the 2019 Victoria International Jewish Film Festival and has written and presented two Purim shpiels (plays).

As for the future of Sounds Jewish, Muchin hopes to continue adding to his Jewish music collection – he said he accepts donations of LPs – and to broaden and deepen the content of the show.

“I expect the show to have an increasingly Canadian feel as I learn more about the very creative Canadian Jewish music scene and its history,” he said.

Sounds Jewish can be heard at mpbonline.org/soundsjewish, exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish and radio-j.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Campaign wraps up

“We’re making our final push toward another record-breaking campaign,” Jonathon Leipsic, chair of Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign, said when the Independent caught up with him last month, as the 2019 fundraising drive was entering the home stretch.

The campaign’s goals for the year are “to continue to grow to meet the ongoing needs around security, education, affordability and beyond.” The distinguishing message of the 2019 campaign, when it kicked off on Sept. 1, was to amplify the impact of donors’ giving and to “create a ripple effect.”

That amplification can be seen on several fronts, such as affordable housing, the most pressing concern of Lower Mainland residents. In 2007, long before real estate prices reached the levels of the late 2010s, Jewish Federation helped establish the Tikva Housing Society. Tikva serves all those who have been impacted by the high costs of rent – families, young individuals and seniors. The society now manages 98 affordable housing units, 37 of which came about in late September through a joint project with the YWCA – awarded by the City of Vancouver – for rentals at the new Arbutus Centre at 4188 Yew St.

Jewish Federation’s work encompasses all phases of a person’s life by providing community planning expertise, developing partnerships and raising funding for critical programs and services throughout the region. These are delivered through its many partner agencies, including programs that support seniors, Jewish education, arts and culture, and services for youth and young adults.

By 2031, it is predicted that the number of Jewish seniors in Greater Vancouver will double to 6,200. With this comes the challenge of helping them keep living independently and stay engaged within the Jewish community. As part of its strategic planning process, Jewish Federation co-hosted the second annual Changing Landscapes Forum on Nov. 26, which focused on three areas to address the high-priority needs of elderly community members: aging in place, caregiver support and social connection.

As for Jewish education and educational programs, Jewish Federation currently partners with Jewish day schools, summer camps and supplementary school programs across the region. As well, its vision reaches beyond the metropolitan area, to Israel. More than a decade ago, it identified at-risk youth in its partnership region of the Upper Galilee as a group in urgent need. It then invested in tech education, which has allowed other organizations to build on its success. The Israeli government recently selected an international consortium of venture capital groups to develop a food-tech centre in Kiryat Shmona, the Upper Galilee’s largest city. The centre will benefit residents of the region and position the area as a global hub of innovation.

Jewish Federation’s work also extends to eastern Russia, home to some of the most impoverished Jews in the world. Through its partnership with the Joint Distribution Committee, an international rescue and relief organization, Federation provides needed services to 27,000 Jewish children and their families and more than 165,000 elderly Jews. As the nearest federated community to these Jews, Federation’s efforts help bring humanitarian aid in the form of food packages, medicine, heating fuel and home-care visits, among other things.

For his part, Leipsic said, “I am always humbled by the generosity of our Jewish community and the incredible volunteerism exhibited by the army of volunteers and canvassers that give their time in support of Am Yisrael.

“It is a privilege and honour to serve,” he added, in explaining why he took on the role as campaign chair, on top of having a full schedule as a physician, radiologist and professor of radiology. “I try to live my life in accordance with the talmudic saying klal Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh – all of Israel is a guarantor for each other.”

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Two new scholarships

In an effort to lighten the financial challenges presented by the growing costs of higher education, Hillel International announced in November that it is launching two annual scholarships for students attending college anywhere in the United States and Canada. The two merit-based scholarships will total $4,000 US (roughly $5,200 Cdn) each and are available to any student who identifies as Jewish. The deadline for applications is March 15.

The Handeli First-Year Scholarship will be awarded annually to graduating high school students who demonstrate a record of leadership and volunteerism and are preparing to enter a four-year college or university. Students currently on a gap-year program are also eligible to apply.

The Hillel Campus Leadership Award, meanwhile, will be presented to full-time college students in their freshmen, sophomore or junior year who exhibit exceptional leadership skills and are pursuing a degree at an accredited school.

“Thanks to the estate of a wonderful donor, David Handeli, we were able to create the two new scholarship opportunities. Four students will receive awards this year, and we’ve already received more than 200 applications since the application went live in November and more than 1,000 applications have been started. Our hope is to expand these scholarships down the road, since we will have way more demand than supply,” Etan Harmalech, Hillel International’s vice-president of marketing, told the Independent.

For both scholarships, applicants must have a grade point average (GPA) of 2.5 or above to be considered. A full list of eligibility requirements can be found on the Hillel International website, hillel.org/college-guide/hillel-scholarships/eligibility-requirements-and-faqs. The applications for the respective scholarships can be also be found on the site, at hillel.org/college-guide/hillel-scholarships.

Like their counterparts throughout North America, Jewish college students and their families have had to contend with ever-mounting educational expenses, the increase in which over the past 20 years has exceeded the rise in household income.

The daunting cost in the United States, for example, was cited in a recent report by the College Board, an American nonprofit whose goal is to expand access to higher education. The report noted that the annual tuition for a college student had increased by more than 25% in the past decade for both private and public institutions. In several states, the cost for a year’s tuition competes with average income.

The average Canadian undergraduate pays close to $7,000 a year in tuition. Surveys conducted by Macleans in 2017 and 2018, however, found that the average cost of post-secondary education – with all of its expenses, such as rent, tuition and food, included – came in at just under $20,000 per year, with the commensurate level of debt rising with each additional year of study.

In British Columbia, students are confronted with one more challenge: finding affordable lodging near campus in an overheated housing market, an obstacle that is further exacerbated by the scarcity of available units, often leading to crowded living conditions or dwellings located far from the schools students attend.

“I am happy to see that these scholarships incentivize student involvement in Jewish life on campus. Hillels are a hub for Jewish life and often act as the last gas station before students head off into the working world,” said Sam Heller, the executive director of Hillel BC. “If we don’t get to them in college, there are fewer opportunities for Jewish young adults to engage with the community in an easy way and we may not see them until they start to have families and so on.”

Founded in 1923 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Hillel is the largest international Jewish student organization, with representation at more than 550 colleges and universities around the world. In British Columbia, a Hillel presence can be found at University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, Langara College, Quest University Canada, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

All applications will be reviewed by Hillel’s scholarship committee following the March 15 deadline. The recipients of the scholarships will be chosen and announced on May 1.

Students looking for more scholarship opportunities should visit Hillel’s Jewish Scholarship Portal (hillel.org/college-guide/hillel-scholarships/jewish-scholarships), which contains information on several hundred scholarships available to Jewish students.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.