Israeli musician Micha Biton headlined the community’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration. (photo by Rhonda Dent)
It was just shy of a sellout crowd on April 22 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, as Israeli rock pioneer Micha Biton headlined the community’s main celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut.
Richmond Jewish Day School Choir (photo by Rhonda Dent)
As it does every year, the evening began with the conclusion of Yom Hazikaron, led by Geoffrey Druker. In the singing of the national anthems, Vancouver Talmud Torah Choir was joined by Partnership2gether twin school Alei Givah Choir in Kfar Giladi (by video) for O Canada, while Richmond Jewish Day School Choir and Partnership2gether twin school Hameginim Choir in Kiryat Shmona (by video) sang Hatikvah.
Diane Switzer, board chair, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, which led the celebration supported by some 50 community partner organizations and countless sponsors and volunteers, spoke briefly. She provided an overview of how the funds raised here for our partnership region in Israel – Eztabah Hagalil (the Galilee Panhandle) – are spent.
“Our Gesher Chai (Living Bridge) program aims to deepen connections with Israel on a person-to-person basis,” she said. “It builds lasting ties between our two communities, and is a cornerstone of Jewish Federation’s work.
JCC Or Chadash dancers (photo by Rhonda Dent)
“Through Gesher Chai, we help local day school students build enduring relationships with their peers at their sister schools in Israel. We fund exchanges between local educators and their Israeli counterparts so they can develop a shared curriculum. And we help connect the JCC Or Chadash dancers you’ll see tonight with the Hora Goel dancers from our partnership region. The impact of these programs, which promote Jewish identity and unity for elementary and high school students, can be felt around the world and here at home.
“Etzbah Hagalil is geographically, economically and politically removed from the centre of Israel,” she continued. “It is surrounded on three sides by Syria and Lebanon, and often bears the brunt of attacks when tensions flare. High unemployment and limited opportunities for education and advancement are ongoing concerns, and the area is home to many at-risk youth. Jewish Federation’s strategic investment in this region is aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty, improving living standards and developing the region’s long-term economic prospects.”
Warming up the crowd before Biton’s performance was the Or Chadash dancers. The evening also included greetings by video from Premier Christy Clark, as well as from mayors Benny Ben Muvchar (Mevo’ot Hermon), Giora Saltz (Galil Elyon), Rabbi Nisim Malka (Kiryat Shmona), Ilan Or (Yesod Hama’ala) and Herzel Boker (Metula).
Pioneer Women of Na’amat at tea, circa 1950. (photo from JWB fonds; JMABC L.12587)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca.
ORT Installation eve, 1983. (JWB fonds; JMABC L.14060)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca.
The author enjoying a day of folk music from around the world at Israel’s Jacob’s Ladder festival. (photo from Miri Garaway)
I have always been a folk music aficionado, so when I heard about the Jacob’s Ladder Music Festival in Israel, I planned a trip there entirely around the idea of attending the festival. Not only was it a phenomenal event, it exceeded all my expectations and was the highlight of our month’s stay.
(photo from Miri Garaway)
Established in 1976, Jacob’s Ladder (Sulam Ya’akov) is held twice a year, in May and December, with the spring festival on a larger scale. It is billed as “Israel’s friendliest musical and social event, a unique bluegrass, folk, country, blues, Irish and world music extravaganza.” That it was.
With the venue on the grounds of Kibbutz Nof Ginosar on Lake Kinneret, nine kilometres north of Tiberias, the setting could not be more beautiful and the atmosphere is very relaxed, “green” and peaceful. Approximately 4,000 people attend the spring festival, yet it did not feel crowded or overwhelming.
How wonderful to be able to attend a two-and-a-half-day event and know that there is free camping on site, in addition to the pleasant Hotel Nof Ginosar. From the moment we entered the site, on a Thursday afternoon in May 2014, we could feel the energy of the special event that was about to take place.
The organizers have registration down to a science. We bought our tickets upon arrival, received our fluorescent wristbands and joined the throngs of festival goers entering the site. Considering the volume of people arriving, we were amazed that we only had to wait a short time in the line-up for tickets. Pre-festival online tickets helped to ease any congestion.
And, perhaps only in Israel would they provide free agalot, large wheely carts in the parking lot so you can carry all your belongings into the grounds. I found this so civil and convenient and it was fun to watch the hordes of people streaming in with their tents, barbecues, bicycles, chairs, strollers, blankets, duffle bags, food coolers and other camping paraphernalia.
This is a festival that everyone can enjoy: young families, teenagers, baby boomers, aging hippies and young-at-heart seniors. While it originated as more of an anglophone festival, today, many non-anglophone Israelis and tourists attend, too.
The festival is extremely well organized, with activities such as free early morning outdoor yoga and tai chi classes, holistic treatment kiosks, a craft fair, children’s handicraft workshops, a children’s puppet-making workshop, storytelling, juggling, Irish, tap and square dancing workshops. Food booths are also set up on site with pre-purchased tickets to be used throughout the festival.
We chose to stay at the kibbutz guesthouse, Hotel Nof Ginosar. Although the hotel is fully booked for the festival from year to year, the reservations clerk suggested we put our names on the waitlist (this was in October) with a good chance that a room would become available closer to the date of the festival. In the interim, we booked a nearby bed and breakfast to ensure that we had some accommodation in place. We were fortunate that space at the hotel did open up a couple of months before the festival.
It was convenient to stay on site rather than commuting. The hotel is basic, but clean and comfortable and every room has a fridge. The bountiful and delicious Israeli breakfast, included in the room rate, gave us a great start to the day.
While exploring the grounds, I met my Israeli cousin from a nearby moshav, who promptly invited us to his tent for a communal Shabbat dinner. Suddenly, we were among family and friends for a feast. This unexpected rendezvous was indeed a treat.
Jacob’s Ladder is easy to navigate. The main stage is a huge expanse of grass where you can put down blankets, towels or low chairs to reserve a spot for the entire weekend. This is unheard of at most festivals, since you usually have to collect your things at the end of the day and race for the coveted spots each day. It is an unspoken rule at Jacob’s Ladder that if you are not using your space, anyone can sit in your place until you return. The whole area is covered by an enormous see-through tarp, so the sun does not beat directly down on you. Once you are settled in, it is pure joy to sit back, relax and enjoy the outstanding talent and the incredible music. On many occasions, people are moved to get up and dance. You also get to know your neighbors and it feels like a community within a community. It is interesting to make connections with the people who are around you.
There is also the lawn stage, a smaller space with chairs set up on the plaza outside the hotel lobby. Another music venue within the hotel is Hermon Hall, an indoor auditorium, as well as the balcony stage and the sports hall for music and dance workshops.
The performers are often available to meet right after the concert, at a table beside the stage, where they sell their merchandise.
In addition to Israeli artists, musicians come from all over the world to perform at the Jacob’s Ladder. A sampling of some of the stand-outs for 2014 included the Jammin Divas; Maya Johanna, Shay Tochner and Yonatan Miller in a tribute to Pete Seeger; the Slocan Ramblers; and a variety of singers who belted out a moving medley of the songs of Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton and Ray Charles. From the strumming of the Ukeleles for Peace Children’s Orchestra to the lilting sounds of Nava Tehila singing Jewish world music for Kabbalat Shabbat, this was a festival that moved and energized me.
The hotel kindly allows jamming sessions in the lobby and bar areas and people bring guitars, banjos, violins, flutes, clarinets, harmonicas, drums and an assortment of other instruments to showcase their talent. What a wonderful hive of activity and a delight to hear music wafting throughout the hotel. There are also pop-up jamming sessions on the grounds, away from the stages. People-watching is an activity unto itself.
If you want to take a break, there is a swimming pool, as well as the lake beach of the Kinneret, but we came for the music and it was truly an exceptional experience.
Rabbi Yacob Berezniak in Havana’s Agath Israel synagogue. (photo by Baila Lazarus)
On a small side street in Old Havana, an innocuous sign on a decaying wall announces “Synagoga Adath Israel.”
A few steps away, on Picota Street, an entrance leads into the basement of an old building to reveal a modest but well-appointed synagogue that has been serving Cuban Jews for almost 100 years.
Rabbi Yacob Berezniak greets me, though I’ve made no appointment, and talks proudly about the synagogue, but is distressed at the situation with the Jews in Cuba. The community is dwindling, he says, and aging.
Interior of Adath Israel Synagogue in Old Havana. (photos by Baila Lazarus)
The Jewish community in Cuba started growing with an influx from Poland and Russia after the First World War and continued for almost three decades. At its largest, it’s estimated to have been more than 20,000. Not only was it big enough to build and maintain one synagogue, but, as tends to happen in many Jewish communities, it supported a break-away group that moved into a building next door.
After the Cuban revolution, however, changes in the political and economic structure, as well as restrictions on religious observance, caused many Jews to leave – for the United States, Israel and Mexico, among other locations. Today, according to Berezniak, the community numbers only 1,200 in all of Cuba, with 900 being in Havana.
“Most of the members are very old,” he said. “And they’re very poor.”
Poverty in Cuba is a controversial topic. There are those who talk about how the reforms after the revolution provided an ideal lifestyle. Indeed, there are few who would argue that Cuba has had some of the best educational and health reforms in the world. Many foreigners have been coming to Cuba to get health care they may not find in their own countries.
But good health care does not mean that the poorest can afford medications, Berezniak lamented.
There is definitely a two-tiered system in Cuba. Those who are strictly living in the socialist economy have a token stipend that may only amount to a few dollars a month. They receive their money in Cuban pesos (CUP) that are worth about $0.05 Cdn. Their needs are supposed to be met with ration coupons for food and other necessities that often don’t fulfil the requirements of a large family. They live in homes that have been inherited from their parents. If their family grows, they can’t simply move into another location.
Those who have managed to get business licences, especially if serving the tourist industry, have a different story. They are paid in Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) valued at $1 US. A taxi driver can make 50 CUCs for a half-day’s work taking tourists around Havana.
To help the oldest and poorest, Adath Israel offers free meals whenever they can. Every Friday, for example, they have a free fish dinner that fills the synagogue.
“For many of the people who come to that dinner, it’s the biggest meal they will have all week,” said Berezniak, adding that he is also concerned that the Jewish community will simply disappear. “The community has been getting smaller. There are no young people here to support the older ones.”
The poverty and shrinking Jewish population are two reasons why Berezniak welcomes donations – financial and otherwise – to the synagogue. On my visit, a friend and I dropped off bags of clothing, cosmetics and toiletries – items that we take for granted but are very costly in Cuba. Prescription and non-prescription medical supplies are also needed.
With the decision in January by the Obama administration to lift the U.S. embargo of Cuba, it will be easier for certain Americans to travel and bring some supplies in small quantities, but it’s hard to say how long that will take to impact the small country. As well, larger exports are still restricted. Limited products such as telephone, computer and internet technology are now open to trade, and investment in some small businesses is permitted. But general U.S. travel tourism is not open yet. It’s expected that tourist trips will be limited to supervised groups, and there has been no agreement yet about airline flights.
If you are thinking of seeing Cuba, consider going while it’s still building and renovating its infrastructure for tourism. Havana travel agent Ivan Barba said Havana is already almost at its maximum for the number of tourists it can hold; and it will get worse as the U.S. decision opens the door for more.
Food and lodging are still quite affordable, and there are numerous all-inclusive flight and hotel deals direct from Vancouver.
To contact Adath Israel, call 1-537-860-8242 or email adath@enet.cu. Allow a lot of time for email response, however, as internet service is sporadic.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work be seen at phase2coaching.com.
How fast time flies. Passover is almost here again, and it’s time to prepare a new tutorial, I said to my 7-year-old daughter while getting out a magic box with colorful modeling clay.
At school, we are reading a lot about Passover right now, she said to me. When the Jewish people crossed the dessert, they had camels with them, who carried people and their belongings. Mom, can you teach me how to model a baby camel? Please, mom, can you?
Of course I can, my dear. Come over here, I said, inviting my daughter to join me at the table to work on the model of a baby camel. For the young readers of Jewish Independent, as always, I have prepared pictures to demonstrate the process. Find yourself a comfortable seat and start working on your creation!
1. Take a few pieces of modeling clay and a toothpick. Mostly we will work with orange color, but we will also use some brown, white and black pieces.
2. Prepare equal amounts of clay to form the baby camel’s head, neck, body with two humps and four legs.
3-4. Bend the legs a little in the middle and finish them with brown cushion-like hooves, perhaps parted in the middle front. Connect the neck, body and hooves.
5. For the head, you can use white and black pieces of clay for the eyes. Or blue or green clay, if you have it. Take some brown clay and shape the nose and also give your camel a tuft of hair on top of its head.
6. Cover the tips of the humps and tail with tufts of hair as well. We have made our baby camel! You can now take your new little friend for a walk.
Isn’t it great to make toys with your own hands? You will also make your family happy by adding your creation to the Passover seder table. If you take a picture of your baby camel and print it, you will have a real postcard.
Let your imagination guide you and join our art lab! Send photos of your artwork to curlyorli@gmail.com, and you may have a chance to win Curly Orli Goes to Vancouver, a book illustrated with clay pictures.
Wishing you a kosher and happy Pesach, dear friends! See you next time.
Lana Lagoonca is a graphic designer, author and illustrator. At curlyorli.com, there are more free lessons, along with information about Curly Orli merchandise.
The path to Nounou Mountain is a gentle incline through a forest of magnificent Norfolk pine trees. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
There were only a few items in my grocery basket so, when the cashier asked me for $100, I insisted on seeing the receipt. There it was, a single loaf of ordinary brown bread – no seeds, nothing fancy – listed at $7.50. There had to be a mistake, I thought, walking the loaf to the returns department of a Kauai K-Mart. But no, I was told. That was the price. A loaf that would cost $1.99 anywhere else in the United States was $7.50 on the island of Kauai.
We’d come as a family to enjoy a week in the December sunshine of the tropical island and learned quickly it would be anything but an inexpensive vacation. Our first shock was when we’d tried to book a furnished house or flat, thinking it would be a perfect way to avoid the cost of eating out every day. We checked the usual sites: vrbo and airbnb, and the listings showed beautiful accommodations, close to the beach and within our budget. So we booked air and went back to the website to secure a place to stay. That’s when we discovered that all those listings were controlled by agencies and, though they appeared “available” online, when you actually tried to book them, you discovered they weren’t. The “hard sell” began the moment I called the agencies. “There’s nothing left on the island,” the agents would say by way of introduction. Then, after a moment’s pause … “All I have left is this apartment at $350 per night.” Pictures of said apartments showed rooms last updated in the 1970s, tiny places that looked entirely unappealing. We learned visitors to Kauai book their accommodation up to a year ahead, sometimes more. And they pay premium prices for their island sunshine.
After many hours scouring online we found accommodation at a modest three-star resort, where we crammed four people into a tiny room and filled the excuse-for-a-refrigerator with snacks, lunch and breakfast foods. Still, the mostly lousy dinners we were forced to eat in restaurants, dining on food that was consistently overpriced, were memorable only for their pitiful quality.
The Napali Coast on the island’s north side is one of Kauai’s great beauties. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
Kauai Vacation Lesson 1: Book early, ensure you have a kitchen, then visit Costco in Lihue and stock up.
Price sticker-shock aside, we were quickly bowled over by Kauai’s lush beauty. Drive around the island and there are exquisite beaches around every corner, the palm tree-lined stretches of sand you see in brochures, lapped by warm water that makes swimming pure pleasure. We had brought boogie boards and snorkel gear, and spent our days exploring beaches on different parts of the island. In Poipu, which has the island’s busiest beach, we snorkeled over the shallow reefs, while in Port Allen we marveled at a massive monk seal, stretched in languid repose on the shore. In Wailua, the kids surfed for hours, riding small-but-strong waves onto the beach before venturing back for more. In Princeville, we watched a massive turtle swim leisurely, oblivious to the swimmers and snorkelers nearby. With sunscreen and a picnic lunch in hand, the hours spun by beneath the Hawaiian sun, a perfect tonic after the grey, cold winter back home.
Endless stretches of white-sand beaches with tumbling waves means there’s no shortage of space for kids to boogie board or snorkel. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
Kauai Vacation Lesson 2: The beach is all you really need.
“You have to see Waimea Canyon,” folks told us. We had good intentions of visiting the “Grand Canyon of Kauai” but when we started out and learned it would be close to two hours each way, four kids fighting in the back seat, the canyon felt a whole lot less appealing. Instead, we contented ourselves with a hike up Nounou Mountain, through a forest of Norfolk pines with ringed trunks that felt straight out of a fairytale. The hike was exhilarating and muddy, taking us past locals’ back yards, where orange trees hung heavy with ripe fruit. Never has fruit theft felt more appealing – though we kept our hands to ourselves. Later, at one of Kauai’s farmers markets, we had ample opportunity for tasters. We purchased $5 coconuts from a young man who wielded a machete and expertly sliced them so we could drink the sweet milk before devouring the soft interior. And we gratefully accepted samples of colorful rambutan, miniature apple-bananas, massive avocados and Kauai-made chocolate spreads, jams and honey. There’s a farmers market somewhere on the island every day of the week and when you find one, it’s a great opportunity to interact with locals and stock up on fresh local fruit and vegetables. Just don’t even think about bringing them home. Produce export is strictly monitored at the airport and we even witnessed the confiscation of a small container of peeled mango someone had tried to save for the flight.
The only time we opted for a group excursion with a local tourism vendor, we wished afterwards that we hadn’t. The kayak tour we took mentioned a paddle upriver and snorkeling in a secluded cove. What it didn’t mention was that the river was very unremarkable, and that we’d need to commute an hour each way to reach the excursion. The disappointing outing robbed us of a precious day on one of the island’s better beaches and our dinner later that night, at a Hanalei restaurant, represented a new low in our island eating experience.
Kauai Vacation Lesson 3: Rent a car, buy a guidebook and explore on your own.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
A view of shore from a dive shop in Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt. (photo by B. Simpson via commons.wikimedia.org)
During the upcoming school holidays of Passover, followed by the summer months, many Israelis travel abroad. Europe is only a few hours away by plane, and the beaches of Cyprus and Greece are even closer. Vacations abroad, even including the flight, are often cheaper than local getaways because of the high price of Israeli hotels. However, the Israeli government has issued travel warnings for 41 countries, including Europe and Asia.
“Recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists in Belgium, Canada, Australia, France and Denmark raise concerns over additional attacks against Western targets, including Israeli and Jewish targets, by veterans of the fighting in Syria and Iraq who are affiliated with global jihad (including Islamic State) and by local elements inspired by the terrorist organizations.”
The travel warning, issued by the National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau, noted that is illegal for Israelis to travel to “Syria, Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan), Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.”
The warning comes amid a spate of attacks on Western and Jewish targets including the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Jewish supermarket in Paris, the shooting in Denmark and, just this weekend, an attack on a synagogue in London.
Israeli terrorism experts say Israelis do not seem to be the primary target of these attacks.
“Until now there have been two main targets – governmental targets in Western countries and Jewish institutions,” Reuven Ehrlich, a terrorism expert, explained. “Israelis have not been the target, but I cannot tell you what it will be in the future.”
However, the warnings do not seem to be affecting travel plans. Israelis have one of the highest rates per capita of travel abroad, taking two million trips a year, although there are no statistics about how many of them are travelers who fly several times a year. Israeli travel professionals say they are telling their clients to maintain a lower profile.
“We are asking our passengers to be a little quieter, which is a good thing no matter what,” said Mark Feldman, chief executive officer of Ziontours in Jerusalem. “Israelis tend to be loud and raucous and call attention to themselves. We have several groups going to Europe in the next few weeks and we have told them not to congregate in the lobby, not to speak in loud voices and, if possible, not to speak in Hebrew.”
