Local – Page 46

Stories of resilience shared

A family fleeing war, aided by acquaintances from a lifetime of hospitality. A person’s choice to be the light in a dark world after a loved one was murdered. The creation of a vital medical resource as a tribute to a father who died too young. These three stories were shared at the event A Night of Hope, which was held at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver Nov. 30. The three stories of resilience were intended to give hope in response to the trauma Jews worldwide have experienced since Oct. 7.

Rabbi Susan Tendler, spiritual leader of Beth Tikvah Congregation in Richmond, shared “the unlikely story” of how she became a rabbi, in part because of the trauma of having experienced the murder of a loved one.

In the year 2000, she recalled, “I was living my best life.” She thought she knew who she would marry, she had a dream job as a teacher in Israel and was planning on making aliyah.

photo - Rabbi Susan Tendler — Rabbi Susan Tendler *(photo by Pat Johnson)*

“I returned to the United States to get my affairs in order before making the big move as the Second Intifada broke out,” she said. Global conflict was compounded in the personal realm when her engagement was broken off. With foreign students avoiding Israel, her job was suddenly eliminated. Things began looking up, though, when she met Mike, “who showed me what partnership might look like.”

“And then, one night, he was brutally murdered,” she said. Five young men, joyriding, had crashed a car and needed another vehicle.

“They came upon Mike and murdered him, not even for his wallet. Just for fun,” Tendler said. “Just to take his car a few miles down the road before they ditched it.”

The murder plummeted her into depths of darkness.

“I couldn’t understand how such palpable evil could exist in the world,” she recalled. “How could a human being, created in the image of the divine, not understand life as sacred? What were the lives of those individuals that they didn’t hold this basic value as truth? And, by doing so, those five young men took the sanctity out of this world for me, for Mike’s family and his friends. I really didn’t care to live in a world with such sheer evil. It wasn’t that I was suicidal – I knew the difference and I wasn’t – I just really didn’t care to live or to die.”

She cited the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, who wrote that the Jewish people are “infected with hope.”

“We are taught to love others, to embrace others and to share our burdens with others,” Tendler said. “We need not struggle alone…. So, as I held on, people rallied, surrounded me and guided me through the darkness.”

Overcoming this and other personal and geopolitical traumas led her to an important insight.

“I came to realize that, if I didn’t like living in a world full of darkness and evil, then I needed to be the light,” she said. “I needed to choose life. I needed to choose hope and spread kindness, goodness and godliness to others.

“The world needs us right now,” she continued. “We all have hope coursing through our veins. Certainly, it has been weakened and doubted [since Oct. 7], but that is exactly what they want. We won’t let them win. Let the light created by our hope and optimism join forces, knowing indeed that we are not alone and that this positive energy be magnified as it draws others in. May our light be a beacon for the world.”

Tanja Demajo, chief executive officer of Jewish Family Services, shared her family’s history of survival in the Holocaust and the personal story of her family’s escape from the post-Yugoslavia war in Bosnia, where she was born. She had not shared any of this publicly before.

As a child in Mostar, young Tanja would often come home from school to find strangers at the table. Anyone passing through or needing hospitality was received in their house and welcomed with food.

photo - Tanja Demajo — Tanja Demajo (photo by Pat Johnson)

“My family always kept the door open,” she said. This openness, she believes, helped save her family when war exploded.

In 1992, when she was 11-and-a-half, everything changed, seemingly in a day.

“There were explosions everywhere, there was shooting everywhere, the army was everywhere,” she said. “The city emptied.”

Getting away from the fighting was not easy. Roadblocks were set up by different militias and Demajo could see the fear in her father’s expression as they confronted each successive barrier.

“We had to stop at three different points and at three different points we came across some people that my parents knew through their life,” she recalled. Keeping an open door meant there were people who knew the family and remembered their hospitality. “In each of these three situations, these friends came forward and put their lives on the line so they could let my family pass through.”

After the war ended, the family reconnected with her grandfather, who they had not seen in years.

“That was the first time actually that my grandfather shared with us his own story,” she said. From a community of 300, the grandfather and an uncle were the only survivors of the Holocaust.

She asked him why he was so cheerful, despite all he had gone through.

“He had this beautiful way of just hugging people and he would hug me and say, what are the things you remember as a child?” She recalled spending weekends with her grandfather, the meals and stories they shared. “And he said, well that’s how you survive. Because those are the things that matter. The people you have in your life, the friendships that you share with them and the food you share with them.”

The connections she saw her parents forge at the table – which proved potentially lifesaving as the family fled war – are a lesson she has always carried. It is something that Jews worldwide can remember now, she said.

“We need allies and we need to have these conversations to bring people together,” she said.

Jaime Stein shared the story of how the death his father, Howard Stein, in 2006, from acute leukemia, inspired him to help create Canada’s first public

photo - Jaime Stein — Jaime Stein *(photo by Pat Johnson)*

Early in the last decade, when Stein helped launch the $12.5 million campaign to create the facility, Canada was one of only two G-20 nations that did not have such a service. Umbilical cord blood contains blood-forming stem cells, which can renew themselves and differentiate into other types of cells.

Working with Canadian Blood Services, Stein and the fundraising team for the project decided on a big focal point for the campaign – climbing Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

“We got 25 people to sign up [to climb] and everybody had to raise a minimum of $10,000,” Stein explained.

Stein, in his 30s at the time, when $10,000 was a daunting sum, organized weekly 9 a.m. hikes with friends and strangers, at which he would offer career advice, listen to his hiking mates or otherwise engage, then write a blog post.

“People started donating and people started telling their friends as well,” he said.

In the end, he raised $27,000, second only to the chief executive officer of Canadian Blood Services among the 25 climbers. Of course, the money turned out to be the easy part. They still had to ascend the mountain.

Like many others who climb tall mountains, Stein experienced altitude sickness – so severely he almost had to turn back.

“I could barely make it to camp,” Stein recalls of the onset of the crisis. “I just remember thinking about my dad, thinking of my family, thinking of the training, thinking of everything I did as I tried to get to camp.”

Slowly, his oxygen levels climbed and he was able to complete the trek.

The trip itself raised $350,000 and, eventually, the team raised all the funds necessary. Canada now has a fully functioning umbilical cord blood bank, with four collection sites, including one in Vancouver.

Alan Stamp, Jewish Family Services clinical director, and Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, contextualized the stories as lessons in resilience community members can use to confront trauma.

Jewish comedy history

“Jews have always turned and continue to turn to humour as a cultural touchstone and a way to make meaning,” said Dr. Jennifer Caplan, author of Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials, which was published earlier this year.

photo - Dr. Jennifer Caplan spoke Dec. 3, as part of the L’dor V’dor lecture series organized by Victoria’s Kolot Mayim Reform Temple — Dr. Jennifer Caplan spoke Dec. 3, as part of the L’dor V’dor lecture series organized by Victoria’s Kolot Mayim Reform Temple. *(photo from Kolot Mayim)*

Caplan, who is an associate professor and the Jewish Foundation Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati, was the second presenter of the 2023-24 L’dor V’dor (Generation to Generation) Zoom lecture series organized by Victoria’s Kolot Mayim Reform Temple. On Dec. 3, she spoke about the past several decades of Jewish humour. Similar to the approach she took for her book, her presentation explored the changing relationship to Judaism of four generations of Jewish funny people.

According to a 2013 report by the Pew Foundation, called A Portrait of American Jews, 42% of American Jews thought that having a sense of humour was integral to their Jewish identity, said Caplan. In the survey, in terms of what American Jews deemed important to their identity, a sense of humour came out far behind Holocaust remembrance and intellectual curiosity, just under support of Israel, and well ahead of belonging to a Jewish community or eating traditional Jewish food.

“The report set off little bells in my brain which pushed me to say that there’s something here and that there’s something I want to think about,” she said.

There were Jewish commentators who pointed to the Pew survey as an alarm bell for the dangers of the rise of cultural Judaism. To Caplan, the TV show Seinfeld, which premièred in 1989, encapsulated what worried some about the culturally Jewish experience.

“It was this group of people who seemed Jewish, even though Jerry (the title character) is the only character on the show who is actually Jewish,” she said. “They all sort of felt Jewish, but they never did anything Jewish and nobody ever went to synagogue and they didn’t even have a menorah like Rachel and Monica did in their apartment on Friends.”

In Caplan’s view, this fear of cultural Judaism aligned with the way that Jews were being portrayed in popular comedy and media, as Seinfeld led to a boom in Jewish sitcom characters – in shows like Mad About You and Anything but Love, for example. She thought there was something important in the way Jewish comedians were using Judaism in their humour to think about themselves and their Jewish identity, and what it means for them to be Jewish.

Moving forward to the present and, according to Caplan, one finds that the younger generation, the millennials, are even more culturally tied to their American generational cohort and less so to being the grandchild or great-grandchild of Jewish immigrants.

“It’s a story about comedy and it’s a story about the way that Jewish comedians have related to Judaism in their comedy, but it’s also a story about Americanization. It is a story about the way that Jews in the United States became more and more embedded within their broader cultural milieu,” Caplan said, explaining the thought process that led her to write her book.

Caplan pointed out that counterculture, in Jewish comedy, was represented in the 1950s – a time generally associated in the popular sense with Leave It To Beaver and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet – by books like those by Philip Roth. His works, well before the broader 1960s counterculture movement, were critical of institutions but defensive of the Jewish community – viewing organized religion as something that was hurting Jews, but seeing the need for Jews to be protected.

What intrigued Caplan was that the pendulum had swung in the other direction for Generation X. “What I found was a fascinating reincorporation of Jewish ritual into the writing and the movies and the comedy of Generation X comedians. Jews themselves are being made fun of, but their engagement with Judaism is actually the thing that humanizes them,” she said.

In the 2001 film Kissing Jessica Stein, for example, the characters can be perceived as stilted, neurotic, self-absorbed Jewish caricatures, yet scenes at a Shabbat dinner and a wedding ground the characters and are not the subject of ridicule.

“It’s not that Generation X suddenly believes in God more than the previous generations did. It’s that they believe more in the power of ritual and tradition because it binds you. You’re not doing it necessarily because you have some sort of theological belief,” Caplan said.

As for millennials, among whom the oldest in the cohort is presently 42 years old, their story is still being written, she said.

“It seems as though they are willing to ridicule both Jewish identity and Jewish religious interaction at various times, depending on what suits the comedy,” she said. “They neither have a sense of oppression about their Judaism, nor do they have a sense of embarrassment about their Judaism.”

Caplan is currently researching and writing her next book, Unmasked: Jewish Identity in Comic Books.

The next speaker in the L’dor V’dor series is psychotherapist and author, and member of the second generation, Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone on Jan. 14. Firestone will talk on the topic Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma. For more information, visit kolotmayimreformtemple.com.

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

Local camper grants

The Jewish Independent briefly spoke with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver about what support local campers could receive, if they needed it.

JI: Does Federation work with the Foundation for Jewish Camp at all?

JF: One Happy Camper is a grant program run through the FJC and federations to provide a $1,000 grant to first-time campers. In communities such as ours, where Federation does not sponsor OHC, PJ Library families are able to apply and receive this grant through PJ Library.

JI: To what camps does Federation give grants and why?

JF: Camp Miriam, Camp Hatikvah, JCC Camp Shalom and Camp Gan Israel. Through our Connect Me In program, we have provided grants to run camps in the regional communities or to pay for transportation for children to attend the day camps in Vancouver.

The Jewish Community Foundation has designated funds established by fundholders to support Jewish summer camps and camperships, and fundholders with donor advised [funds] also make distributions to camps.

Camps can apply for funding through the [Jewish Community] Foundation’s Unrestricted Grant Program for qualifying projects. Recently, the foundation supported Camp Miriam’s Water Security Project through this grant program.

JI: Do they support any individual campers, or how do families with lower incomes access camp for their kids?

JF: Approximately one-third of families receive camperships to send their children to Jewish summer camp. Odds are that if your family did not receive a campership, your child made friends at camp with someone who did. Families can apply for camperships funded by Jewish Federation directly through the summer camp of their choice. The camps then review the applications and make the decisions.

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

More important than ever

“This summer, the grounds of Camp Hatikvah will echo with laughter, song, and the spirited expressions of Jewish and Israel pride”: Liza Rozen-Delman, camp executive director. (photo from Camp Hatikvah)

For decades, Camp Hatikvah has been a cornerstone of the Jewish community, serving as a summer haven where traditions are cherished, friendships blossom and identities are proudly embraced. It has always been more than just a recreational retreat; it has been a powerful catalyst in shaping the future leaders of the Jewish community.

Developed in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Hatikvah was created to produce proud, happy Jewish youth who were committed to the rebuilding of the Jewish people and a homeland in Israel. As a 1949 article in the Jewish Western Bulletin (the predecessor of the Jewish Independent) stated, Camp Hatikvah provided early participants with a “place where they could live and express themselves as Jews, unhampered with fear of others and free from the out-of-place feeling that is so often a part of North American Jewishness.”

Today, as we witness a disheartening resurgence of antisemitism, the original mission of Camp Hatikvah seems to be as important as it was at the time of the camp’s creation.

“The need for a space where children can feel safe, embrace their heritage and express their identity without reservation is, once again, vital” said Liza Rozen-Delman, the camp’s executive director. “I am devastated by the current state of the world, but we are dedicated to rising above it and playing a critical role in combating hate.”

The camp’s leadership recognizes the need to renew its dedication to its original mandate, emphasizing that, in the face of external threats, the camp becomes not only a refuge but a dynamic force in cultivating resilience and unity.

“In response to the current crisis, this summer promises to be a rallying point for Jewish pride, a resolute stand against the hate we have seen, and a celebration of every aspect of who we are as a people,” said Joanna Wasel, board president.

As they begin preparing for summer, Rozen-Delman explained that the camp staff are gearing up to create an immersive experience that fosters a sense of pride, belonging, and love for all things Jewish. Through carefully curated activities and the camaraderie that comes from being part of a supportive community, campers will leave with not just memories of a fun-filled summer but also a strengthened sense of identity.

photo - Kids working on a project at summer camp — Kids working on a project at summer camp. *(photo from Camp Hatikvah)*

Camp Hatikvah also plans to intensify its Israel programming this summer in an effort to empower its campers with a more profound understanding of the Jewish state’s history and culture but, most importantly, its necessity. In a world where misinformation and delegitimization about Israel is rampant, Camp Hatikvah is determined to ensure that its campers and staff are equipped to advocate for the right of the Jewish people to live in peace and security in a homeland of their own.

“This summer, the grounds of Camp Hatikvah will echo with laughter, song, and the spirited expressions of Jewish and Israel pride,” said Rozen-Delman. “From the youngest to the oldest, everyone will be encouraged to stand tall, speak loud, and embrace every aspect of who they are.”

The importance of Camp Hatikvah extends beyond the traditional camp experience; it is a cornerstone for fostering resilience, unity, and an unapologetic celebration of one’s identity. Camp Hatikvah continues to play a pivotal role in creating a space where yet another generation of Jewish youth feel not only safe but truly at home.

– Courtesy Camp Hatikvah

Encouraged to be oneself

Lifelong friends can be made at summer camp. (photo from Camp Kalsman)

Fun is in all that we do,” Rabbi Ilana Mills, director of URJ Camp Kalsman, told the Independent. “Our staff creates dynamic programming that lets campers laugh and play in a way that doesn’t happen anywhere else. Where else can you spend a day with your friends and your evening doing messy night with a slip-n-slide, water balloons, shaving cream, and more?”

Summer camp is a unique experience for children and young people, for campers and counselors. While fun is at the forefront of programming, so is learning. In the case of Jewish camps, there is the added element of Shabbat observance and other elements of Judaic practise and values.

Looking at the example of Camp Kalsman, which is located north of Seattle, one can see the breadth of activities summer camp can offer. A typical day at Kalsman includes singing, pool time, prayers, and activities that range from canoeing and kayaking on the lake, to climbing the camp’s tower and/or high ropes, to farming or gardening, to painting or having a cook-out.

The camp has chugim (electives), which usually run three to four days, and campers do a project during them, said Mills. “Campers will get to rank their choice from a list of options and we do our best to give campers their choices,” she said. Chugim includes such things as pottery, embroidery, hiking, water aerobics, yoga or soccer.

And older campers have “Sababa Time,” said Mill. “Sababa Time is an hour each day where older campers get to choose their own activities from a number of creative options that changes each day. Those might include volleyball, board games, outdoor cooking, or spa days.”

The camp schedule also carves out free time for campers.

“Life is so busy and camp is as well. Free time enables campers to choose what they need on any given day,” said Mills. “Whenever we have free time, we have options for campers to choose which option best fits their needs. Some campers need to get energy out, so they play basketball or go to the pool. Others may need down time, so they may read a book in the trees. Campers use free time to relax, recharge and have fun in a manner that best suits them. Recreation can be a time to re-create, to rejuvenate.”

photo - Kids at Camp Kalsman get ready to take a canoe out onto the lake — Kids at Camp Kalsman get ready to take a canoe out onto the lake. *(photo from Camp Kalsman)*

In addition to obvious practices, such as the celebration of Shabbat and group tefillah (prayer), Kalsman tries to impart Jewish values and culture throughout activities.

“We design our programs to foster a holy community through connection between campers, between campers and staff and between campers and the larger community,” said Mills. “We believe connection is important on every level, so our cabins do cabin time every night to form connections and, every week, we have all-camp programs, where campers of different ages can get to know one another. When we eat, pray and sing together, we connect to the larger community.”

Camp Kalsman ends each night in siyum, “a special closing prayer where we pray Hashkiveinu and Shema using a special tune written just for Camp Kalsman,” said Mills.

When asked what summer camps in general – and Jewish camps specifically – can give kids that schools can’t, Mills shared a quote from a 10-year-old camper, who said, “Kalsman lets me take off all the masks I have to wear at school and really be me.”

“At Kalsman, our campers know that they are valued, honoured and supported for who they are,” said Mills. “Camp enables kids to be kids, to be free, and to have fun in a way that they don’t get anywhere else. It frees them of the burdens of school and competition and allows them an outlet to be part of a great community. Kalsman campers disconnect from their devices and connect to a larger, holy community. Campers learn independence and problem solving, they learn they can make mistakes and how to manage mistakes in a safe environment. Camp is the place where kids can explore who they want to be in the world.”

Kelowna vigil for Israel

A vigil in solidarity with Israel took place on the Dayton Street pedestrian overpass in Kelowna on Nov. 19. (photo from vigil organizers)

About 100 people held a vigil in solidarity with Israel in Kelowna on Nov. 19, which proceeded without incident.

The two-hour gathering on the Dayton Street pedestrian overpass, which straddles Highway 97, was organized by members of the Jewish community, following a series of peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstrations since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The organizer (who asked that their name be withheld because of security concerns) said that, in addition to community members, the participants included representatives of at least two churches, as well as Kelowna city councilor Ron Cannan, a former Conservative member of Parliament for Kelowna-Lake Country.

The vigil was encouraged by Rabbi Shmuly Hecht, director of the Okanagan Chabad Centre, who led men present in the putting on of tefillin in a display of Jewish confidence.

The organizer said the pro-Israel public demonstration was the first of its kind in the area. The main purpose was twofold: to give the area’s small Jewish population an opportunity to unite and have its voice heard and to show other citizens that there is “another side” to the Israel-Hamas conflict not reflected by the public activities of Palestinian supporters.

One week earlier, around 300 people held a pro-Palestinian demonstration that started on the steps of the courthouse and concluded with a march. That event, which received local media coverage, was organized by the Okanagan chapter of Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, a Montreal-based anti-Israel lobby group.

The organizer said they and the other organizers decided not to alert the media to their event in order to avoid attracting any conflict with the other camp. There were no tensions, and the only show of disagreement came from a motorist driving under the overpass displaying a Palestinian flag and honking, they said.

There were a few honks of apparent approval and passersby did engage with those in the crowd, asking questions, they added.

The demonstrators carried Israeli and Canadian flags, and placards mostly reading “We stand with Israel” and “Bring them home now,” referring to the hostages taken by Hamas, but also “Hamas (equals) ISIS” and “Rape is not resistance.”

The organizer said those supporting the Palestinians and condemning Israel are getting attention in the Okanagan because of the frequency of their protests and the media coverage. The result is people “only hear one side of the story.”

The Palestinian demonstration outside the Kelowna courthouse Nov. 12 was especially visual: an individual identifying themselves only as Haneen, a Palestinian studying locally, unfurled down the steps a computer printout listing what was said to be the names of every Palestinian civilian casualty between Oct. 7 and 26.

Kelowna is home to about 1,000 Jews, and an equal number are scattered throughout the Okanagan. At the time this article was written, the organizer said they did not feel any antisemitism in Kelowna or hostility as a result of the war and, in fact, finds a fair degree of sympathy for Israel’s position. “We haven’t removed the mezuzah from our door or things like that, like in other places. We feel quite comfortable.”

They said of the Chabad Centre, with which they are also involved: “There has been nothing there so far, but we need to be vigilant. It’s an easy place to find.”

Unlike elsewhere in British Columbia, Okanagan elected officials have generally remained neutral or understanding of Israel’s position. The area’s MPs, Tracy Gray for Kelowna-Lake Country and Dan Albas for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola are Conservatives, and have not strayed from that party’s stance supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. Right after the Hamas attack, Albas issued a clear statement “I stand with Israel” and condemned those in Canada who “celebrated these terrorist actions.”

In contrast, some 60 British Columbia politicians, at three levels of government, have signed a parliamentary e-petition sponsored by Quebec New Democrat Alexandre Boulerice calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to demand an immediate ceasefire (before one happened), as well as an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Over 286,000 signatures appeared on the petition by the Nov. 23 deadline. The only Okanagan official among the signatories is Penticton city councilor Isaac Gilbert.

At home, Rabbi Hecht is appreciative of the “care and assistance” the Kelowna RCMP detachment has shown to the Jewish community from the start, increasing its presence around the Chabad Centre and the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre, which houses Beth Shalom Synagogue.

Overall, he said, the Jewish community has “displayed incredible resilience and pride” as the conflict goes on.

Hecht has been urging greater public expressions of Jewishness during this time, such as putting up mezuzot and wearing kippot on the street.

“We have to shine our Jewish light right now; retreating is not an option,” he said. “We all need to be more outwardly Jewish, not less.”

The OJC did not play any role in the vigil but, in its latest newsletter, states “many members of our community” took part, that it was peaceful and received “a great response from drivers and passersby.” There is an accompanying photo.

“Everyone is praying for a swift conclusion to the war, an end to the violence in the region, and for the safe return of the hostages,” the newsletter states, continuing with the proviso: “Please note that the OJC is a social and religious community. We stand for Judaism and peace. Political events and activities of individual members are at their own discretion and are not organized by the OJC.”

OJC past president Steven Finkleman, who currently chairs several synagogue committees, told the the Jewish Independent, “We are all Jews here, and we do not want to be divisive amongst ourselves.” He emphasized that he was speaking personally and his comments do not necessarily reflect OJC policy.

“I am not on the board, so I can’t answer officially from the board’s point-of-view but only as an individual member of OJC,” Finkleman said via email. “I do know that there were several members of OJC at the event, but I’m not certain how they were made aware of the event, perhaps they are on Chabad’s emailing list.

“There is a fairly strong and active pro-Palestinian group whom I monitor, far outnumbering the group of Jews that were at the vigil. I personally think that flag-waving and asking members of the community to participate only contributes to possible division in the greater Kelowna community.

“We have had a lot of supportive emails (about 50), mainly from Christians, and have received zero negative communications. I think we have to be cautious about lowering ourselves to the level of flag waving and demonstrations that the opposition has done on a few occasions here in Kelowna.”

Finkleman, a retired pediatrician originally from Winnipeg who has lived in Kelowna 40 years, said he has had “some very gratifying contacts with Muslim students” and engaged confidentially with Palestinian supporters at the University of British Columbia campus in Kelowna and in the community,” private dialogue that he believes is more productive than public demonstrations.

Janice Arnold is a freelance writer living in Summerland, BC.

Editor’s Note: This article was edited after publication in print and online, in response to a request for anonymity because of security concerns.

Canadian Jews’ first years

Pierre Anctil, left, and Richard Menkis with a copy of their new book, In a “Land of Hope”: Documents on the Canadian Jewish Experience, 1627-1923. (photo by Pat Johnson)

The first Jew known to have set foot in what is now Canada was Esther Brandeau, who arrived in Quebec City in 1738. Jews were forbidden from migrating to New France, but the young woman’s religion was not the only thing she was concealing. She was also dressed as a boy.

Interrogated by authorities on arrival, Brandeau was the subject of high-level consultations before she was sent back to France the following year.

Although they are certain there were Jews in the land that would become Canada before 1738, professors Richard Menkis and Pierre Anctil say Brandeau’s case is the first documented proof of a Jewish presence here.

The historians shared Brandeau’s story at a book launch in Vancouver Nov. 21, following the annual general meeting of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia. Menkis, an associate professor in the departments of history, and classical, Near Eastern and religious studies at the University of British Columbia, and Anctil, a University of Ottawa history professor, co-edited In a “Land of Hope”: Documents on the Canadian Jewish Experience, 1627-1923.

The book spans three centuries through the lens of more than 150 documents, many of them never before published.

Menkis emphasized the efforts made to provide geographical diversity in the volume.

“If we want to appreciate the Canadian Jewish experience, we’ve got to move beyond – believe it or not – the borders of Quebec and Ontario,” he told the audience at Temple Sholom. “We have offered texts that represent the experiences from west to east. We offer an excerpt from the minute book of Congregation Emanu-El, in Victoria, recording a debate on whether to include the Freemasons in a cornerstone-naming ceremony. We have documents from the other ocean, from a controversy in Halifax, where the local SPCA argued that kosher slaughtering was cruel and that the local shochet (kosher slaughterer) was accordingly charged.”

Anctil, who is francophone, emphasized the uniqueness of the Jewish experience in Quebec and noted that shared interest between Catholics and Jews led to one of the first legislative acts of Jewish emancipation in pre-Confederation Canada. In 1832, the legislature of Lower Canada (later Quebec) passed a statute making British subjects who are Jewish equal under the law to all other British subjects in the jurisdiction.

“It’s a foundational document,” said Anctil. “It’s the first time that Canada and most British colonies allowed Jews to have political and civil rights.”

The motivation may have had less to do with Jewish rights – there were only about 150 Jews in colonial Canada at the time – than self-interest among French Catholics.

“They were Catholics living in a Protestant world and they knew that, if the Jews had more rights, the Catholics also had more rights,” Anctil said.

The Quebec education law of 1903 had lasting impacts on the province, especially for Jews and their place in the “distinct society.”

“The Quebec government decided that Jews would be considered Protestants for the purpose of education,” said Anctil, “and [Jews] were all sent to the Protestant school board of Montreal and did not receive a Catholic or French education, which proved problematic in the decades ahead.”

Brandeau, the young Jewish woman who tried to masquerade as a non-Jewish boy, was only the first documented case of Jews coming up hard against Canada’s explicitly or implicitly racist immigration laws. The theme runs through the 400-page book.

Canadian immigration policies reflected the agricultural dominance of the Canadian economy into the 20th century and, since most European Jewish migrants were not farmers, this was an inherent, if not unwelcome from the perspective of immigration officials, bar to many Jews.

The editors address Jewish farmers in the book – those who had experience in the Old Country as well as those who, successfully or less so, took to the land after migration – but prioritize the economic experiences of Jews in peddling, retail and the garment industry.

The preference for immigrants with farming backgrounds was an implicitly, possibly even unintentionally, anti-Jewish component of Canada’s immigration approach. Other examples were less subtle. It was not so much that legislation said Jews were not permitted to migrate, but that unwritten rules, “administrative refinements” or policies that were open to interpretation could be used to block Jews from entering the country.

There had been rumours of a deliberate anti-Jewish immigration policy, and Menkis said their research found evidence that instructions had been sent to immigration officials in Europe that Jews were to be considered undesirable applicants.

In 1923, an order-in-council was passed by the federal cabinet, which said that only farmers, farmworkers and domestic women servants would be allowed to immigrate to Canada, effectively closing the door to Jews and many other communities from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Anctil and Menkis pointed out that Jews were far from the only group excluded under Canada’s immigration policies.

“Asians and Africans – out completely,” said Anctil. “Almost nobody got in. In 1923, we have the Chinese Immigration Act, which made it extremely difficult for financial reasons for Chinese people to migrate to Canada. So, we had a really racist immigration policy until the ’60s, ’70s. Not just Jews.”

Many of the documents included in the book were translated into English by the editors, from the original French, Yiddish or Hebrew.

“It’s very important to work in four languages,” Anctil said. “English, French, Yiddish and Hebrew – there is no way of doing Canadian Jewish history if you leave one out. All these four languages are represented in the book and serve an essential purpose of allowing the full flavour of this story to be told.”

The pair’s decade of research for In a “Land of Hope” uncovered some unexpected treasures.

“Usually, we hear of social welfare from the minute books of established members of the community and their organizations,” said Menkis. “I was reading one of these minute books on one occasion in Toronto when a piece of paper dropped out.”

It was a desperate appeal from a woman seeking help from a Jewish women’s aid organization, specifically asking for chickens for the Passover seder.

“Please let me know if you’re going to send me the Paisez [Pesach] order and if you’re going to send me what you promised me,” read the handwritten letter. “I hope that you’re going to be kindly for my sick husband and my six little children because I just leave it to you and you should help because there is nobody to help accept [sic] you. I hope you won’t forget us and send us an answer right away. Because I could not tell you very much & That is the first time in my life that I should ask for help. But everything can happen in a lifetime. Yours […] Mrs. Green.”

The book closes in 1923 because that was a turning point in Canadian Jewish history and in the larger story of Canadian immigration. As a result of an economic depression following the First World War, nativist sentiments led to what was an effective end to large-scale immigration into Canada, itself a response to a parallel development south of the border.

“One of the reasons it happened in Canada was that they knew the Americans were closing down [open immigration] and they didn’t want to get all those Jews that the Americans weren’t accepting,” said Menkis.

A second volume of the work, picking up from 1924, is due to be released in 2026. Anctil said the unique experiences of Jews in Quebec will be even more pronounced in that book.

“The Jews living in Quebec faced a different situation than Jews living elsewhere,” he said. “The majority of [Canadian] Jews were in Quebec until the ’60s and it’s not only the French and Catholic issue, it’s the issue that the school system was separated between Catholics and Protestants and Jews could not find a place easily in the public school system.”

Bias against Jews also has a different strain in each of Canada’s official linguistic communities, Anctil added.

“Antisemitism among the French is not the same as among the British,” he said. “The logic’s not the same and the results are not the same. Often, when you read histories of Canadian Jewry, you have the impression antisemitism is all the same, whoever is antisemitic. It’s not true. [There are a] number of subtleties and complexities in that.”

In a “Land of Hope” was released by the Champlain Society, a publisher of scholarly Canadian books. This is the first book the society has published about a community that is not French or English in its 115-year history.

“I hope at least I’ve convinced you of the value of the book, without being crassly commercial,” Menkis said at the end of the presentation, adding: “Although, I do want to say that In a ‘Land of Hope’ would make a great Hanukkah gift.”

JSA celebrates Serge Haber

Left to right: Kara Mintzberg, Maurice Moses, Cyndi Mintzberg, Sheila Gordon (a friend of Haber’s), Gyda Chud, Grace Hann and Tammi Belfer, with Marilyn Berger in front. (photo from JSA)

On Nov. 19, Jewish Seniors Alliance held their Fall Symposium at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. The event honoured Serge Haber, JSA’s founder.

Haber passed away in October of this year at the age of 95. Throughout his life, he never lost his vision of there being in the community an organization that would see seniors helping seniors. He worked tirelessly to achieve this goal. Many of the speakers that Sunday afternoon mentioned that Haber would never take no for an answer. He managed by the force of his personality to involve people in the alliance and to find donors and foundations to support its work.

Gyda Chud, a former co-president of JSA, was the symposium’s emcee. She introduced Tammi Belfer, the current president, who welcomed the 50 people in the audience and the 22 watching online. Former JSA presidents Ken Levitt and Marilyn Berger spoke about what they had gained from working with the organization and what they had learned from Haber. Cyndi Mintzberg and her daughter Kara Mintzberg, cousins of Haber, representing the family, spoke of how much they enjoyed spending time with Haber. They particularly mentioned Shabbat dinners. Haber’s children, in Toronto and Washington, were watching on Zoom.

Two videos of Haber were shown. The first had been prepared for his 90th birthday, and featured a collage of photos from different periods and events in his life. Some showed him in Romania before the war; others in Montreal, where he married; and some from Vancouver, where he lived for many years. The second video was of a speech that Haber gave to the Fraser Health Authority in which he explained the importance of dealing with the loneliness that afflicts many seniors, and how the Peer Support Program of JSA can help with these issues by providing emotional support.

Rabbi Adam Stein of Congregation Beth Israel, who is a JSA board member, offered remarks on behalf of the synagogue, where Haber was an active member for many years. Stein described visiting him in hospice. Instead of talking about himself, Haber wanted to know how the rabbi and his family were doing.

Marie Doduck, another member of the JSA board, brought greetings from the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, where Haber was active with the survivors group.

Grace Hann, the trainer for the Peer Support Program, described her first interactions with Haber, saying she was frightened of him until he took the training and easily fit into the group. She felt the force of his dedication and said she learned a lot from him.

Maurice Moses, a long-time friend, sang a moving rendition of “Eli, Eli.” He also led the group in the singing of the Partisans’ Hymn, which Marilyn Berger had suggested as a reminder of the Holocaust and the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

Belfer shared some of the JSA’s plans, including the possible hiring of an executive director and the organization’s 20th anniversary gala, to be held in February at Temple Sholom. She spoke again of Haber’s vision and of the three pillars of JSA – education, advocacy and peer support – and noted that there were donor cards on the tables, which people could use to donate to the Serge Haber Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver. The formal part of the event closed with the singing of Hatikvah.

Shanie Levin is a Jewish Seniors Alliance Life Governor. She is also on the editorial committee of Senior Line magazine.

Gathering marked 30 days

The steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery were illuminated by lights representing those murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, as the community gathered Nov. 7 to mark shloshim, 30 days of mourning. Here, Ohad Arazi addresses the crowd. (photo by Pat Johnson)

The steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery were illuminated by hundreds of lights representing lost lives, as the community gathered Nov. 7 to mark shloshim, 30 days of mourning, after the unprecedented terror attacks in Israel.

Among the lives lost on that single day was Ben Mizrahi, a 22-year-old Vancouverite, for whom Rabbi Shlomo Gabay of Congregation Beth Hamidrash recited El Moleh Rachamim.

“The past 30 days have been some of the most difficult of our lives,” said Ohad Arazi, who spoke at the gathering. “They have been difficult for some of us as Jews, for others as Israelis. They have been difficult for all of us as humans.

“There are not two sides here. It is not about politics, history, land, religion or anything in between,” Arazi continued. “This is about one thing and one thing only. This is about humanity. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the horrific crimes that were committed 30 days ago. I do not know what comes next from the region as Israel and its allies must now fight to end Hamas’s regime…. But one thing I do know is that we here in Vancouver, here in Canada and elsewhere, we have a voice. We have a voice to stand up for humanity and to cry out against the senseless massacres that were carried out a month ago.

“For now, we need you, all of you, to stand up for Israel. Speak up. Your voice matters. Call them terrorists, not militants, for crying out loud. Do not give up hope that we will bring home all 242 hostages. These are dark days for Israel, but it’s an even darker time for the world, as many choose to side with evil or to not take a stand unequivocally in support of humanity.”

Another speaker, Moti Kotik, is an Israeli who has lived in Vancouver for 20 years. His friend’s daughter, Agam Berger, was kidnapped to Gaza on Oct. 7.

“Tonight, I don’t want to talk about the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas,” Kotik said. “Nor do I want to speak about those crimes against humanity that so many failed to condemn. Instead, I’d like to share some personal thoughts and realizations that I’ve had in the last 30 days about what it means to be an Israeli Jew in the diaspora.”

For Israelis abroad, he said, it’s challenging to witness events from afar. He cited the Yom Kippur War, which began 50 years to the day before the October pogrom, calling it “a war that changed the lives of our parents.”

“This is our Yom Kippur and it’s already changing us,” he said. “For the first time, I was able to look from the outside and imagine what life for Jews would have been if there was not the state of Israel.”

Kotik said there has traditionally been a division between Israelis and other Jews in the community.

“Many times, we don’t mix with the local community,” he said. “For me, that is done. There is no more duality. I realize that I cannot escape from what I am, from what we are, which is one people, Jewish people, one community that supports each other, that makes us stronger.”

Kotik said the soldiers defending Israel on the frontlines today carry a burden of history.

“They are not there for their families and friends or neighbours, they are not even there just for the people of Israel or even for all of us,” he said. “They are there right now, risking their lives, in the name of every Jew that ever lived. Every Jew throughout history who did not have someone to protect him, who did not have someone to defend him, for every Jew throughout history, they are risking their life and putting it on the line. But they feel us and they feel our warmth and our support and our unconditional trust and they know, while they are on the front, we have their back and it helps them carrying that weight.”

photo - The community gathered Nov. 7 to mark 30 days of mourning — The community gathered Nov. 7 to mark 30 days of mourning since Hamas’s terror attacks. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, welcomed elected representatives and said he does not take for granted the presence and support of government officials and police.

Michael Lee, member of the Legislature for Vancouver-Langara, said he has been hearing from parents whose children in public schools and at universities are experiencing antisemitic taunts and bullying. He commended the City of Vancouver and the Government of Canada for adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism and said he has been advocating for years that the province of British Columbia likewise adopt it, so that Crown counsel and law enforcement have that tool to aid in prosecuting hate crimes.

John Rustad, leader of the B.C. Conservative party, said he was disgusted that Canada has allowed pro-Hamas rallies to take place.

“It should never, never happen in this country,” he said. “I will do everything I can to stand with you, to stand for peace and to make sure that people understand history.”

Lenny Zhou, a Vancouver councilor, brought greetings from city hall.

“This is not about Israel and Palestine,” Zhou said. “It is not about Jewish or Muslim. It is about Israel and Hamas. It is about civilization and terrorists.”

Rabbi Susan Tendler of Beth Tikvah Congregation read a prayer written for the shloshim and spoke of the anxieties felt by Jews worldwide.

Rev. Doug Longstaffe, a United Church minister and a founding member of the Multi-Faith Summit Council of BC, but speaking on his own behalf, said he believes it is a mistake that more non-Jews are not stepping up in solidarity.

“No group has had power used against them for so long, systemically and lethally, in such a variety of ways and places and it is staggering,” he said. “While I am not arguing that it is harder to be a Jew than to be Black or Brown or Asian – how would I know? I’m white – but it is different. I see that. And it is different mostly because of the history of antisemitism, which I have been privileged to learn about and horrified by.

“There are more hate crimes today against Jews in Canada each year than [against] any other group,” Longstaffe said. “I think our first responsibility as gentiles to Jews is to understand that, considering their unique history, the right of every group to protection under the law needs to be applied most rigorously to Jews.

“Second, considering this unique history of the Jewish people, we need to lose our naivety, so that we do not unconsciously jeopardize Jewish safety by thinking they should simply assume goodwill,” he said. “Third, we need to be especially understanding, as gentiles, of Israel’s need and right to self-defence when surrounded by terrorist groups who wish to destroy all Jewish citizens.”

Regular weekly rallies to free the hostages continued Sunday. That vigil, which emphasized the approximately 40 children held hostage – including an infant born in captivity last week – recognized United Nations World Children’s Day Nov. 20. Four Vancouverites whose cousin, 17-year-old Ofir Engel, is a hostage in Gaza, attended, with one giving a moving sketch of the youth, who was visiting his girlfriend at Kibbutz Be’eri when the attacks occurred. Attendees then marched down Robson Street to Denman, where they amassed outside the restaurant Ofra’s Kitchen, whose proprietor, Ofra Sixto, has been subjected to hateful anti-Israel harassment.

Danish rescue at 80

At the Nov. 9 Kristallnacht commemorative event, left to right: Dr. Janus Møller Jensen, Nina Krieger, Prof. Chris Friedrichs and Abby Wener Herlin. (photo by Rhonda Dent)

The rescue of Danish Jews during the Holocaust – an operation that mobilized almost the entire strata of Denmark’s population – is one of the bright lights in the history of that dark era. That extraordinary event, which took place 80 years ago last month, is one of the reasons Denmark had one of the highest survival rates of any country during the Shoah. Even this uplifting story, though, has its “shadows,” according to an expert who spoke in Vancouver Nov. 9.

Dr. Janus Møller Jensen, an historian and director of the Danish Jewish Museum, was the keynote speaker at the annual community-wide Kristallnacht Commemoration, presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and held at Beth Israel Synagogue.

Denmark has an unusual history in the context of Nazi occupation. After the Nazis invaded the country with minimal opposition, in April 1940, politicians and the king, Christian X, surrendered, but managed to negotiate terms that allowed the Danish democratic system of government to continue in a so-called “peace occupation.” Importantly, one of the Danish demands was that no Dane be singled out according to their race or faith, said Møller Jensen.

This status quo fell apart in 1943, after a series of strikes and uprisings around the country. Amid the Nazi crackdown came rumours at the end of September that an action against Danish Jews was imminent. At the same time, word spread that Sweden was prepared to accept Danish Jews as refugees. A mobilization of fishing boats began – as did the Nazi mobilization – in early October. Up and down the coast of Denmark, small and larger boats carried their cargo of Jewish Danes across the straight to neutral Sweden. In all, an estimated 7,220 Jews and 686 non-Jewish spouses were transported. Of all Danish Jews, 472 were captured by the Nazis and transported to Theresienstadt, in present-day Chechia, a waystation to the extermination camps. Of these, all but 53 survived the war, in part because the Danish government persuaded the Nazis to allow food and medicine packages to be delivered to the Danish inmates.

Another stunning reality was that, when the Danish Jews who survived – estimates of survival range from 95% to 99% – returned to Denmark, almost all found their homes and possessions intact – a stark difference from what Jews elsewhere in Europe discovered if they returned to their places or origin.

Not all of Danish history is so bright for Jews, said Møller Jensen. A long history of Catholic and Lutheran theological antisemitism permeates Denmark, and immigration policies before the Second World War prevented many Jews from elsewhere from reaching refuge.

“We have letters of refusal in our collection, of people who we know later died in the camps,” said Møller Jensen.

In addition, Danish companies and agricultural producers provided materials to the German war effort, although this was required of all occupied countries, he noted.

Not all rescuers acted on altruistic motives, either, Møller Jensen added. Some fishers took money to transport Danish Jews, but he also noted that, while hindsight suggests the Nazi occupiers turned something of a blind eye to the rescue operation, those involved at the time did not know this and would likely have assumed they were risking their lives.

photo - BC Premier David Eby spoke at the Kristallnacht event — BC Premier David Eby spoke at the Kristallnacht event. *(photo by Rhonda Dent)*

In addition to the hands-on rescue, Danish society rose up against the Nazis’ action. “Organizations from the entire strata of society – doctors, professors, students, lawyers, industries, working unions – protested,” he said. “The Danish church promulgated a so-called ‘Shepherd’s Letter’ to be read aloud in all of the churches in Denmark the following Sunday, stating that this was an unchristian act, that all people were the same in the eyes of God and that this was wrong and the congregation should assist and protect their fellow human beings…. One of the priests remembered, having read the letter aloud, that the entire congregation spontaneously rose to its feet and shouted ‘Yes!’”

Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld thanked Møller Jensen and reflected on his words.

“The Danish people,” he said, “did exactly the opposite of what happened in Poland. When the Jews came back to Poland, they were murdered and their property was stolen, and when the Jews came back to Denmark, dinner was waiting for them on their tables. That is righteousness.”

BC Premier David Eby spoke at the Kristallnacht event, saying he wanted to provide assurances that all parties in the Legislature are committed to ensuring that the Jewish community in British Columbia is protected from antisemitism and feels safe. He acknowledged the proximate anniversaries of Kristallnacht and Remembrance Day, and noted that his government had just announced that Holocaust education will become mandatory in the BC school system.

“The thing about remembering is you can’t remember something you’ve never learned, you can’t remember something you were never taught,” Eby told the audience. “I’m proud to stand with you, to support your community, to stand against antisemitism, to stand against Islamophobia, to stand against all forms of hate, for British Columbia to be a beacon of hope in the world of what is possible at a time when those who want to promote division and hate seem to be on the rise just about everywhere. We have lots to be proud of in this province and part of what I’m incredibly proud of is the strength of our Jewish community here and I’m very honoured to be with you here this evening.”

Before the keynote address, Prof. Chris Friedrichs, emeritus professor of history at the University of British Columbia, contextualized Kristallnacht and called the Danish rescue “the most spectacular episode of rescue in the entire history of the Shoah.”

The Kristallnacht gathering was presented in conjunction with Congregation Beth Israel and funded by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, with support from the Robert and Marilyn Krell Endowment Fund of the VHEC. Møller Jensen’s visit was facilitated by Norman Gladstone and Birgit Westergaard.

Corinne Zimmerman, president of the board of the VHEC, introduced a procession of Holocaust survivors, who carried memorial candles. Nina Krieger, executive director of the VHEC, opened the event and read greetings from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Cantor Yaacov Orzech recited El Moleh Rachamim. Councilor Sarah Kirby-Yung read a proclamation from the City of Vancouver. Taleeb Noormohamad, member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, sent video-recorded greetings from Ottawa. BC cabinet ministers Selina Robinson and George Heyman were in attendance, as was Michael Lee, member of the Legislative Assembly for Vancouver-Langara.

The event drew a record crowd, according to organizers, of 420 in-person attendees and an additional 120 watching via livestream, including groups at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital and the Weinberg Residence.