Archer’s Westberry Farms Hive dessert. (photo by Diane Tucker)
Opening several weeks ago, just in time for winter holiday festivities, Archer restaurant is the newest contribution to Vancouver’s fine dining scene from restaurateur Iain Bell, a member of the Jewish community.
Located at 1152 Alberni St., near Bute, the intimate West Coast vibe of the interior perfectly complements the inventive farm-to-table menu created by executive chef Sandy Chen, whose culinary chops include winner of B.C. Chef of the Year and Chef of the Year in the Canadian Culinary Federation national culinary competition. Working together with Chen is director of operations Clement Chan, whose credits are equally as impressive: chef/owner at Torafuku, contestant on Top Chef Canada and Team Canada member at World Culinary Olympics. Their team is ably completed by pastry chef Kiko Nakata and executive sous chef Siosian Tora.
Full disclosure, Iain and his wife Delaina are good friends and a group of us met to enjoy an evening of conversation and great food. We decided to sample the Chef’s Choice menu, as it seemed the best way to test the varied and enticing fare. This menu is available at a cost of $80/person for 10 shared dishes or $120/person for 12 shared dishes, plus tax. The offerings were small plates with local, fresh ingredients.
The burrata and endive salad, featuring warm burrata cheese, roasted beets, greens and toasted walnuts finished with a miso dressing, was my personal favourite. Another pleaser for me was the beautifully presented – in a smoke-filled glass terrarium, filled with objects reminiscent of a West Coast beach on a foggy day – Kusshi oysters on the half shell. The briny taste explosion, enhanced by sour apple, Ikura and miso mayo motoyaki, hit my palate and completed the sensory experience.
Among Archer’s many offerings was a salmon crudo. (photo by Diane Tucker)
Many other shareable courses later, all artfully presented, our group of six argued contentedly about our choices for top three dishes. With consensus reached, in no particular order, the three were: the salmon crudo, local salmon flavoured with compressed jalapeno, black coral, pinakurat coconut nage and topped with a castelvetrano crouton; the dill and coriander chicken wings; and the Westberry Farms Hive, a visually stunning dessert consisting of a meringue hive filled with Westberry Farms blueberry compote, dotted with yuzu curd and lime and Tahitian vanilla crème.
If a tasting menu is not your thing, then the sable fish en papillote with baby zucchini and kabocha squash comes highly recommended, as does the tempura-style rack of lamb with candied shallots. Since the menu changes regularly – remember it’s all about fresh farm-to-table availability – I recommend that you dine here and find your own personal favourites.
The wine list is varied with several wines available by the glass. There is also a decent cocktail and beer menu. Reservations are recommended and can be booked by calling 778-737-6218. The restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 5:30 pm. Visit archerdining.com.
Leanne Jacobsenwas the Jewish Independent’s sales director for more than 25 years and she continues to be an occasional contributor to the newspaper.
Holocaust survivors participate in the candlelighting ceremony at the community’s Kristallnacht commemoration Nov. 9. (photo by Al Szajman)
Commemorating the Holocaust and the sad succession of genocides that have been perpetrated since is a sacred responsibility – but it is not enough, says Liliane Pari Umuhoza. That memory must be the motivation that drives people to make a better world, she said.
Umuhoza was 2 years old when her father and a million others were murdered during the Genocide Against the Tutsis of Rwanda, in 1994. After experiencing trauma in her adolescence due to that familial and communal history, Umuhoza has devoted her life to commemorating and educating about the genocide and encouraging people to dedicate themselves to healing their societies.
“When we remember, we help ensure that the memories and legacies of the victims and survivors continue to resonate for future generations,” she said at Vancouver’s community Kristallnacht commemoration Nov. 9. “When we remember, we learn about the history and create awareness. But that’s not enough. What matters the most is how we use that history to create a better world.”
The annual event took place at Beth Israel synagogue on the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” on Nov. 9-10, 1938, which is the moment when anti-Jewish regulations and systemic discrimination turned into overt violence and murder. It is seen by many historians as the effective beginning of the Holocaust.
The event was presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC), in partnership with Congregation Beth Israel and with support from the Robert and Marilyn Krell Endowment Fund of the VHEC and from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver annual campaign.
Umuhoza arrived in Vancouver several months ago to attend the University of British Columbia, where she is pursuing a master’s degree in public policy and global affairs. She is founder of the Women Genocide Survivors Retreat and is project officer for Foundation Rwanda, which provides funding for education to those who were born from rape during the genocide.
She began by outlining her own family’s history.
“I was 2 years old in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda,” she said. “During this tragedy, my father was killed. Some of my uncles, aunties, cousins and many other members of my extended family are among the million Tutsi who were killed by the Hutu extremists in 100 days.
“One million people were killed in 100 days,” she stressed. “I was lucky to survive with my mother, who managed to escape to a neighbouring country, Congo, holding me, a 2-year-old baby, where we lived as refugees until it was safe enough for us to go back to Rwanda.”
She considers herself fortunate in comparison with many of her peers.
“I now have a stepfather and stepsiblings and I cannot tell you how blessed I feel because most of my friends from home grew up without a father or a mother figure in their lives,” she said.
Umuhoza was too young to understand what was happening at the time, she said. “But I grew up facing the consequences of that tragedy in every corner of my life. As many of you may know, psychologically, young children between the age of 0 and 5 are the most vulnerable to the effects of trauma since their brains are in the early development stage. For most people who have been exposed to genocide or war as children, the trauma can become severe at the adolescent stage and adulthood, if it is not properly treated.”
At the age of 12, Umuhoza began to exhibit symptoms of trauma, including depression, post-traumatic stress, nightmares, frustration, anger and confusion. She used the strength of others as an example to recover, including a friend who had to take on the parent role from childhood after she and her younger siblings were orphaned. Umuhoza is now deeply immersed in often deeply difficult aspects of education, such as translating the narratives of other survivors through Foundation Rwanda.
“My role with this organization was to listen to the stories of these women in their Rwandan mother language and translate the stories in English so we could use those stories to create awareness and educate the world about the genocide and its ongoing consequences,” she said. “I found myself in a series of stories I’d never heard before … stories of mass murder, stories of pain, stories of rape.”
One of the lessons she learned from the genocide is to never tolerate injustice, no matter how big or small, Umuhoza said.
“Speak up and raise your voice when you see or hear people denying that the Holocaust happened,” she said. “Speak up when you hear people saying that the genocide did not happen. Speak up when you see minorities being unfairly treated. Speak up when you see women in Tehran being oppressed. Let’s dare to step out of our common comfort zone and cultivate empathy to people around us.”
She concluded: “Individually, we can change our communities. But together we can change the world.”
Liliane Pari Umuhoza speaks with Prof. Chris Friedrichs at the Kristallnacht commemoration, which took place at Beth Israel. (photo by Al Szajman)
Earlier in the evening, Prof. Chris Friedrichs contextualized the history of the Holocaust, emphasizing the importance of synagogues as a place of refuge for Jewish communities. The Kristallnacht commemoration has been taking place in the sanctuary of Beth Israel for more than 40 years, he said.
There were more than 1,000 synagogues in Germany at the time of Kristallnacht, he noted, some many centuries old, while others were newer, having been dedicated in the presence of senior German officials, clergy and others, a testament to the apparent solidity of the Jewish community’s place in the country.
“But then, beginning in 1933, everything started to change,” said Friedrichs, professor emeritus of history at UBC. “Once the Nazis came to power, Germans were taught to shun their Jewish neighbours. Jews were banned from public places. They could no longer go to the theatre or walk in the park or send their children to public schools. But one place was still open to them – their own synagogues, where they could gather to worship or study or simply spend time with their fellow Jews. And so it was until Nov. 9, 1938, when, in one carefully orchestrated nationwide night of terror, hundreds of synagogues all over Germany were set aflame, thousands of Jews were arrested, over 100 were killed. The next morning, Jews found their synagogues turned into empty shells and the windows of their shops shattered into broken shards of glass and the contents plundered. No Jew in Germany ever forgot that night of broken glass, Kristallnacht.”
Irwin Cotler, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism, spoke via video link to the audience.
Of the Holocaust, he said, “It was a continuation and manifestation of history’s oldest, longest, most enduring and most toxic of hatreds, antisemitism, a hatred that mutates and metastasizes over time, which is grounded in one generic, historical, foundational, conspiratorial trope of the Jews – the Jewish people, the Jewish state – as the enemy of all that is good and the embodiment of all that is evil, which led, therefore, to the demonization and dehumanization of the Jew as prologue and justification for Kristallnacht and the Holocaust.”
A parallel between the Holocaust and the genocide against the Tutsis, he said, is that they were preventable.
“Nobody could say we did not know,” said Cotler. “We knew, but we did not act.”
Corinne Zimmerman, president of the VHEC, opened the event. Nina Kreiger, executive director, introduced the speakers and acknowledged dignitaries in attendance.
Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, a child of Holocaust survivors, thanked Umuhoza and reflected on her words and those of other speakers. He understands the idea of trauma being passed down through generations, he said. Reflecting on Friedrichs’ discussion of the centrality of the synagogue in Jewish life, Infeld said his spiritual leadership of the congregation during the construction of the new synagogue building was a form of response to the history of his family and the Jewish people.
Elected officials also spoke at the ceremony. Taleeb Noormohamad, member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, spoke of his first trip to Berlin, where he walked around the streets of the old Jewish district.
“As somebody who had never really seen firsthand until that trip the horrors of what had happened to the Jewish community and to so many others,” said Noormohamad, “in that moment you come to realize the absolute inexplicable horror that was cast upon people and what it does to people, to communities, to families and to the histories of people.”
He committed to standing with the Jewish community against discrimination and noted the diversity of the audience, which included himself, a Muslim Canadian; Michael Lee, a Chinese-Canadian member of the legislature; and Ken Sim, a Chinese-Canadian mayor.
Parm Bains, member of Parliament for Steveston-Richmond East, was also present, as was Marc Eichhorn, consul general of Germany in Vancouver.
“Antisemitism is not a problem, a fight, that is for the Jewish community alone,” Noormohamad said. “When you look in this room today, we are all in this together. This is our community. You are our family and the remembrance of what happened is our responsibility as much as it is yours.”
Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre president Corinne Zimmerman, left, and VHEC executive director Nina Kreiger with MP Taleeb Noormohamad. (photo by Al Szajman)
The Kristallnacht commemoration was the first official community event for Sim, who was sworn in as mayor of Vancouver three days before. He, too, spoke of visiting Germany, along with his wife and their four sons, where they witnessed the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and pondered the Stolpersteine, the “stumbling stones” that have been installed to mark the places where victims of Nazi extermination or persecution lived. The family, he said, has also visited Auschwitz, in Poland, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, D.C.
During the recent election campaign, Sim promised that, as mayor, he would promote the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism, which the previous council failed to do. He repeated his commitment at the ceremony, and council passed the motion on Nov. 16. (Click here and here for stories.)
Sim was joined at the event by Vancouver Councilor Sarah Kirby-Yung, who Sim credited as a stalwart ally of the Jewish community. Together, they read the official proclamation from the City of Vancouver.
“Out of the shards of destruction, in this case the glass on the night of Kristallnacht, often are born the glimmers of hope,” said Kirby-Yung, “and I think that is what keeps all of us going. It is the resilience and faith and the hope of the Jewish community that I think embodies the spirit of what we aspire to deliver here in the city of Vancouver.”
Reuben (Rube) Sinclair, centre, with Rabbi Levi Varnai and head of school Emily Greenberg. (photo by Tybie Lipetz)
In front of hundreds of students, staff and guests at Vancouver Talmud Torah elementary Nov. 11, Canada’s oldest veteran of the Second World took an honoured place and laid a wreath at the school’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony Nov. 10.
At the age of 111, Reuben (Rube) Sinclair is not only the oldest war veteran but certainly one of the oldest people in Canada. Soft-spoken and hard of hearing, Sinclair nevertheless quipped with family and reporters before the ceremony and beamed with pride at times throughout the midday event.
Sinclair was born in 1911, on the family farm near Lipton, Sask., a Jewish farm colony underwritten by Baron Maurice de Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Association. Sinclair’s parents, Yitzok and Fraida, received property from the association but the farmland was poor so they saved up money Yitzok earned working for the Canadian National Railway to purchase better land nearby.
It was a vast undertaking – more than 2,500 acres, with milking cows and 42 horses. Among young Rube’s tasks was collecting the eggs from the chickens. He was driving vehicles at the age of 12.
Yitzok Sinclair (né Sandler) had migrated from Ukraine and was a leader in the small Saskatchewan Jewish community. He donated land and helped construct a school, which doubled as a synagogue.
Rube Sinclair was no longer a kid when he signed up for the war effort. At the age of 31, in 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he became a corporal pilot and taught other pilots to take off and land in the dark using a “standard beam approach” that, in the days when radar was rare, involved a navigation receiver that lined the aircraft up with the runway.
The forces redeployed him to the West Coast and, after the war, with his youngest brother Joe, the siblings opened Sinclair Bros. Garage and Auto Wrecking in Richmond, just across the two long-disappeared Fraser Street bridges from Vancouver. Rube trolled in a tow truck, collecting old cars to salvage and the brothers refurbished and sold surplus military vehicles.
For three decades, from 1964, Sinclair and his wife, Ida, lived in southern California, where Rube worked in a family furniture business. Their philanthropy included raising more than a million dollars for a cancer hospital and research facility.
They returned to Vancouver, and Ida passed away in 1996. Rube is a great-great-grandfather and, among other recognitions, is a lifetime member of Congregation Schara Tzedeck.
At the VTT commemoration, Sinclair waved and grinned at students as his daughter, Nadine Lipetz, pushed him in a wheelchair, escorted by a bagpiper, to the place of honour at the ceremony in the school gymnasium.
Reuben (Rube) Sinclair with students at Vancouver Talmud Torah on Nov. 10. (photo by Tybie Lipetz)
Also present were representatives of the lieutenant governor of British Columbia, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Vancouver Police, the United States Secret Service and the Royal Canadian Legion Shalom Branch #178. All these guests laid wreaths, as did representatives of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the VTT board of directors and VTT staff.
“Today, our community gathers to remember, pay our respects and appreciate the freedoms we have been granted by the sacrifices of others,” said Emily Greenberg, VTT head of school. She urged students to recommit themselves to being students of history and humanity “so that you can steward and inspire peace and compassion.”
In a d’var Torah, Rabbi Levi Varnai, the VTT school rabbi, held up the veterans as a model.
“What we can learn from their courage and their bravery is that we too should and could be brave and courageous, to always stand up for what’s right,” said Varnai. “Whenever we see something happening in the world, remember you have a voice and you can stand up and you can say always what’s right. That would be a legacy to their memories.”
Students sang and a video was screened of VTT students holding photographs of ancestors who had served in the military.
On Nov. 16, Vancouver city council became the latest Canadian jurisdiction to adopt or commit to using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The decision received support from organized Jewish community representatives, including both the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).
“Defining antisemitism is an essential step towards recognizing its manifestations and being able to counteract it,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and chief executive officer, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “Today’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism by Mayor Ken Sim and Vancouver city council is a clear stand against the rise in acts of hatred against members of the Jewish community.”
Developed by IHRA’s Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial, the IHRA working definition of antisemitism is grounded in the research of the international experts on antisemitism and the Holocaust. It is supported by the United Nations, the European Union and 30 countries, including the United States and Canada.
“History has repeatedly shown, what begins as hatred of Jews never ends as hatred of Jews. Canadians must stand united with the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism,” said Fogel. “The decision made by Vancouver city council today is a victory for all who stand against hate – no matter which group is the immediate target.”
“Today, Mayor Sim and the vast majority of Vancouver city council sent a strong message that antisemitism has no place in society,” said Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. “To combat antisemitism effectively, it must first be defined. The IHRA definition will help the people of Vancouver identify and combat antisemitism in all its forms. The rise of antisemitic hate crimes across the country has meant that fighting antisemitism must be a priority for all Vancouverites and Canadians, not just members of the Jewish community.”
Councilor Sarah Kirby-Yung introduced the motion to adopt the IHRA definition.
“Nobody should have to live in fear because of who they are. It was an honour to bring this motion forward to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism,” she said. “We stand united with Vancouver’s Jewish community in the ongoing fight against antisemitism and the troubling rise of hate incidents in our city.
“The best means to combat hate is through education, and the IHRA definition can help foster a deeper level of understanding,” she said. “Education is more powerful than any punitive actions could ever be.”
“We are proud to stand with the Jewish community both in Vancouver and around the world,” said Sim. “Antisemitism has no place in our city, and today we take an important step towards building a more inclusive and safe society for all.”
In his weekly email message Nov. 18, Shanken wrote, “In 2019, when the IHRA working definition of antisemitism was first brought before council [by Kirby-Yung], thousands of you wrote letters and signed up to speak in favour of the motion. From community members and leaders to elected officials, clergy, partners agencies, and more, your words were powerful and you were heard by this council – even if your letter was from 2019.”
Shanken highlighted the work of several community leaders: Nico Slobinsky, senior director of CIJA-Pacific Region; Geoffrey Druker, chair of CIJA’s local partnership council; Candace Kwinter, board chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver; Lana Marks Pulver, chair of the Federation annual campaign; Nina Krieger, executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (who has been a member of the Canadian delegation to the IHRA since 2012); and Corrine Zimmerman, president of VHEC.
Independent Jewish Voices Canada posted an open letter to Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim on their website before the Nov. 16 city council vote, expressing concern over the intention to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
While applauding council’s intention to fight antisemitism, Neil Naiman, chair, IJV Canada, Vancouver chapter, wrote, “We are of the view, however, that the IHRA definition serves to deflect attention from real antisemitism by focusing on criticisms of Israel. It does so by adding to the basic definition of antisemitism what it deems to be 11 ‘examples’ of antisemitism – seven of which relate to Israel.
“The existence of these examples and the focus on defending Israel have led IJV and a host of other organizations to oppose the IHRA definition. These include the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, 40 faculty associations, the Jewish Faculty Network, and many others. More than 650 Jewish academics across the country having signed a petition urging the rejection of the IHRA.”
The letter states, “The IHRA definition raises issues which have been debated in the Jewish community for more than 100 years, issues about which there is no community consensus. For example, many of IJV’s members join with Palestinians and others in condemning Israel as a ‘racist endeavour’ (to use one of the IHRA examples). The basis for this charge is that 750,000 Palestinians were expelled when Israel was founded, that it subjugates the inhabitants of the Occupied Palestinian Territories under military rule and subjects Palestinian citizens of Israel to second class status. The IHRA definition would deem these IJV members to be ‘antisemitic.’ By adopting the IHRA definition Vancouver council will be condemning some of its citizens as racists and antisemites based on their legitimate political views of the situation in Israel-Palestine. This would be unconscionable.”
Rabbi Allan Finkel of Winnipeg’s Temple Shalom spoke about addiction in the Jewish community and Jewish-based recovery during a Nov. 6 Zoom presentation organized by Kolot Mayim Reform Temple in Victoria.
The talk was the first of Kolot Mayim’s 2022/23 lecture series entitled Hineini: Answering the Call to Heal the World. It widened the definition of addictions to go beyond those that are substance-based to include dozens that are behavioural. Finkel also explored new research on the causes of addiction, particularly childhood trauma.
“My name is Allan and I am an addict,” he began. “This was a huge hineini, when I first said ‘here I am.’ This was my declaration 13 years ago. At that time, hineini meant here I am at the bottom of a drug addiction, I am broken and I am open to an unknown path that might lead to recovery.”
That path, starting at Narcotics Anonymous, would take him on a spiritual journey, reconnecting him with his Judaism and leading him to become a rabbi.
For his rabbinical program, Finkel wrote his thesis on addictions in the Jewish community. “I was curious to know what we might learn as rabbis, and how we can carry our journey forward in terms of serving our congregations,” he said. “It is a mental health issue, and there wasn’t very much known about it…. And there are certain issues, particularly within the Jewish community, that made it a topic that I wanted to explore.”
Finkel discussed a 1962 study of the Jewish community in the United States that tried to find out what percentage of the Jewish community was addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. The answer was zero, compared to a 10% addiction rate in the overall population. Clearly, the study indicated a denial within the Jewish community that Jews can also be addicts. A 1995 study in the United Kingdom produced similar results.
Beginning in the early 2000s, research began to demonstrate that, to understand addictions, one needed to look beyond substances and towards behavioural addictions, which can encompass many areas: shopping, food, internet and gambling, among them. More recently: cellphone use, online gaming and video gaming.
From this standpoint, the number of people demonstrating addictive behaviour reaches 47%, according to studies Finkel cited, though he suggested the number is likely far higher. A commonality among people with addictive behaviours is the inability to stop, no matter what harm it does to those around them and to themselves.
Returning to the denial of addiction in the Jewish community, Finkel proposed that one cause is the long-standing fear of shame, which could be triggered by an admission of a problem at a synagogue, Jewish school or other institution. Looking at areas of the Torah, such as the story of Noah, he explained, one sees that “the Jewish denial of addiction is social and cultural, it is not religious in orientation.”
Within the past decade, there has been a broader consensus within Jewish institutions that addiction is not a moral failing, but instead can be caused by the same factors that result in other mood and psychological disorders.
Using the work of Vancouver physician Dr. Gabor Maté, Finkel noted that all addictive behaviour can be traced to something that happened when a person was very young. “Not everyone who was traumatized becomes an addict, but every addict was traumatized.”
One conclusion Finkel draws is the need to destigmatize the word “addiction.” He stressed that an addiction, as stated in the American Psychiatric Association’s 2013 manual on mental disorders, is a means of coping no different from any other mental health disease.
A second takeaway is that adults and not children bear much of the responsibility for addictions; in other words, no child ever dreams of becoming an addict. Children do not have the rational skills to take on and cope in a non-destructive way with trauma that happens to them.
Further, Finkel argued that real recovery is not simply about stopping addictive behaviour, but about going back to one’s past and taking care of the fears and resentments of childhood, as well as the habits that build up over a lifetime.
Finkel told the audience that it has been more than 10 years after his last relapse. He said the rewards of recovery have been immense and have brought incredible relationships with his children, himself and life.
Finkel is an outspoken advocate for interfaith engagement and for the building of strong bridges and partnerships across all denominations within the Jewish community. He currently chairs the Winnipeg Council of Rabbis.
Our Jewish Recovery: Facebook group, with 16 active Jewish recovery meetings and classes, virtual retreats, individual and group coaching, led by Rabbi Ilan Glazer
Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah: A Daily Spiritual Path to Wholeness
Rabbi Kerry Olitzky and Dr. Stuart Copans, Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery, and other of Olitzky’s books, including with co-authors
Rabbi Paul Steinberg, Recovery and Jewish Spirituality: Reclaiming Hope, Courage and Wholeness
Rabbi Shais Taub, God of our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery
A scene from Mary Magdalene in Conversation with Lilian Broca, produced by Adelina Suvagau. Lilian Broca works as Mary Magdalene, portrayed by Adriana Villi, stands to her side. (image from marymagdaleneresurrected.com)
The Canadian Ethnic Media Association (CEMA) recently announced the winners of its 44th Annual Awards for Journalistic Excellence. CEMA asked Canada’s ethnic media to enter their best work, and they did. An independent panel of multilingual media experts screened all submissions and the winners present a national showcase of Canada’s best ethnocultural journalism from Vancouver to Halifax.
There were various categories of work for which the winners were recognized. In the documentary category, Adelina Suvagau of Vancouver was awarded for her work as producer of Mary Magdalene in Conversation with Lilian Broca.
Vancouver mosaics artist Lilian Broca, “in spiritual alliance with the biblical figure Mary Magdalene weaves a wondrous, animated and engaging tale recounting her long and arduous creative journey,” notes the film’s website, marymagdaleneresurrected.com. The director notes that the film is a cinéma vérité dialogue between Broca and the artist’s subject, Mary Magdalene: “In the director’s concept for this documentary film, Mary Magdalene travels from her ancient time to the present in order to meet with the artist in her Vancouver studio. The spiritual connection and personal bond between them, apparent in all mosaics in the series, is based on Lilian Broca’s personal journal and her research on Mary Magdalene’s varied representations over the centuries in art and in biblical literature.”(For more on Broca’s Mary Magdalene Resurrected series, see jewishindependent.ca/brocas-latest-mosaics.)
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Sheila Heti’s Pure Colour won a 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language fiction. (photo by Margaux Williamson)
On Nov. 16, the Canada Council for the Arts revealed the 2022 winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks). Among the 14 best books published in Canada between Aug. 1, 2021, and July 31, 2022, were Pure Colour by Sheila Heti (Penguin Random House Canada) in the English-language fiction category and, in the translation (from French to English) category History of the Jews in Quebec, the translation by Judith Weisz Woodsworth (University of Ottawa Press) of Histoire des Juifs du Québec by Pierre Anctil.
“We are living in a turbulent social climate, marked by struggles against inequalities,” said Simon Brault, director and chief executive officer, Canada Council for the Arts, in the press release. “We are confronted daily with many complex phenomena that are more worrisome than ever, including misogyny, gender-based violence, colonialism, racism, the search for identity, and mental health. These are but some of the contemporary themes that are explored by these brilliant GGBooks winners. Once again, I invite you to celebrate the immense talent of these authors and to take a look at these invigorating works that challenge, redefine and question moral and social norms.”
Judith Weisz Woodsworth (below) was honoured for her translation into English of Histoire des Juifs du Québec by Pierre Anctil. (photo by Egan/Dufour)
The GGBooks winners were selected by peer assessment committees that followed a rigorous process to choose them from among the 70 finalists in seven categories, in both English and French. Each writer, translator or illustrator whose book is selected as winner receives a $25,000 prize. Publishers receive $3,000 to promote the winning book; finalists receive $1,000 each.
Vancouverite Jack Scher is a student at Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of Environmental Studies. (photo from Masa Canada)
Born in the United Kingdom, Jack Scher grew up in the south of France from the age of 6 till he was 13, far away from any Jewish community. Now, he is surrounded by community – and living like a local, while studying in Israel with Masa Israel Journey.
After moving to Vancouver, Scher attended St. George’s and received an athletic scholarship to play rugby. Following high school, he followed a traditional British path by taking a gap year, and went on to play rugby in New Zealand. While there, he went on a Canadian delegation Birthright trip to Israel.
“That was the first time I saw with my own eyes the soldiers and Yad Vashem, and it was also the first time where 30 other Jews from Canada surrounded me,” he recalled. “To meet young Jews from Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto; it was unbelievable.”
It was then that he knew he wanted to return to Israel and live there.
Last year, when he was in his final stretch of a bachelor of arts at the University of British Columbia, Scher shortlisted top schools for master’s programs in England, Canada and the United States. Then, his father, a board member at Congregation Schara Tzedeck, read about Masa opportunities in a synagogue eblast.
Upon hearing about Masa Israel Journey – a joint initiative of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency that aims to cultivate Jewish connectedness through long-term, immersive programs in Israel – the rugby player registered to study abroad at Tel Aviv University.
Scher’s life story is a unique one. However, his Masa Israel Journey experience is similar to that of thousands: taking the risk of a new opportunity and growing both personally and professionally while connecting to Jewish identity and Israel.
In the short time that Scher has been in Israel, he has connected to a community and already feels like he belongs. “I’m not just studying,” he said. ‘Through Masa, I get to attend social events and see Israel in a real way. I am living here like a local.
“The Porter School is where I have my environmental studies [classes], and the building is a world-class building in terms of sustainability…. It is the first building that is LEED certified in Israel,” he continued. “The entrance to the building is facing west, the wind comes off the sea and goes through the building. The shape is cool, the air comes in where the building is wider, and then the air spins and goes up. The building thins as it goes up, which means that the building does not require air conditioning or light[ing] because of the windows. All the pipes are facing the sun and get heated that way, and that is how the building receives heat as well. There is a rooftop garden and patio.”
The message Scher wants to impart to his peers is this: take the risk, inquire about your options, including Masa, which offers a range of programs lasting from a few months to a year – volunteering, studying, career development and teaching.
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Lithuania’s ambassador to Canada, Darius Skusevičius, greets participants in pre-recorded video. (photo from Lithuanian Community of BC)
As a young teen growing up in Vancouver in the 1960s, I used to be puzzled by Remembrance Day. We were given red poppies at school to honour the soldiers who served Canada during the First and Second World Wars. But I knew my parents had also experienced war, and their families – my grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, even my half-brother and stepsister – had been horribly murdered. Why were there no red poppies for them and the six million others who had died in the Holocaust? Where were their memorial parades, their wreaths?
In Vancouver’s Peretz School, which I attended a couple of afternoons a week to learn about Jewish culture, we commemorated Yom Hashoah, which was established by the Israeli government in 1959. Our commemoration was a small event, important to staff, students and families, but ignored by Canadian society in general. It was not until 2005, when the United Nations General Assembly established Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, that non-Jews as well as Jews began to join in collective memorialization – or so I thought until quite recently.
In 1994, the Lithuanian Parliament established Sept. 23 as National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews. Every Sept. 23, the anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilna (Vilnius) Ghetto, commemorative activities are held at Lithuanian memorial sites, in schools and in other educational institutions. Government institutions, with the support and involvement of local Jewish communities and survivors’ groups, shape the content of these activities, and Jewish and non-Jewish Lithuanians regularly participate in them.
A few years ago, I joined the Lithuanian Community of British Columbia (LCBC), where I currently serve on the board of directors. This year, on Sept. 22, with the support of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) and generous volunteers from Lithuanian and Jewish communities, LCBC and its partners, National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews was commemorated. The event, which took place at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture in Vancouver, was held for the first time in Canada.
Participants were welcomed by Algis Jaugelis, president of the LCBC, followed by opening remarks by Nina Krieger, the executive director of the VHEC. The ambassador of Lithuania to Canada, Darius Skusevičius, kindly provided a recorded welcome to the event, followed by a written statement from Christopher Juras, the honorary consul of Lithuania in Vancouver.
LCBC member and historian Dr. Gene Homel presented an overview of Jewish life in Lithuania from the 1300s to the present day. I gave an illustrated presentation on the Jewish community in my father’s ancestral town in Lithuania, using photos and information found in my research.
Rachel Mines characterizes the lives of the Jewish residents of Skuodas, Lithuania. (photo from Lithuanian Community of BC)
Helen Mintz, a Yiddish translator, read a selection from one of her translations of Abraham Karpinowitz’s short stories. Karpinowitz, the son of a theatrical family in Vilna, survived the Holocaust and later wrote several volumes of stories memorializing prewar Jewish life in Vilna.
The ceremony ended with the singing of the “Partisans’ Song” / “Zog Nit Keynmol,” written by Hirsh Glick in the Vilna Ghetto, which was followed by a recording of Glick’s words translated into Lithuanian and read by high school student Giedrius Galvanauskas under the auspices of Eli Rabinowitz’s We Are Here! international educational project.
The ceremony ended with the singing of “Zog Nit Keynmol.” Left to right are Celia Brauer, Alan LeFevre, Victor Neuman and Kathryn Palmer. At the piano is Cathrine Conings. (photo from Lithuanian Community of BC)
Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian participants found the remembrance ceremony both educational and emotional, and emphasized the importance of dialogue and reconciliation. According to Jaugelis, it was “an important and moving event, an opening of doors and minds, with great potential for future intercultural and bridge-building events.” Andrea Berneckas, another LCBC director, wrote, “It was such a privilege to be part of this solemn, yet beautiful and hopeful event. I look forward to being part of the Lithuanian community’s strengthening of ties by the sharing of stories and experiences.”
“I look forward to more opportunities to bring the communities together,” said Krieger. And Celia Brauer, a local Yiddishist whose parents survived the Holocaust in Latvia and Poland, summed up the general feeling: “We are far away from the original homeland, yet this event brought people closer together – which is incredibly important.”
National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews is now on LCBC’s yearly calendar of events and the next memorial will take place in September 2023.
More information about the Lithuanian Community of British Columbia can be found at lithuaniansofbc.com.
Rachel Mines, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, was born and raised in Vancouver. As a child, she attended classes at the Peretz School (now the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture) and served on Peretz’s board of directors 2015-2016. Mines, whose Lithuanian citizenship was reinstated in 2022, now serves on the board of directors of the Lithuanian Community of British Columbia.
Richmond Jewish Day School preschool children gather for Shabbat celebration, with Sara Solomon assisting. (photo from RJDS)
Sara Solomon, Richmond Jewish Day School’s new program director for early education, knows firsthand the importance of a community-centred Jewish day school. She can remember making the daily half-hour bus ride each way from Richmond to Vancouver to attend the nearest Jewish elementary school. It wasn’t until 1992, when RJDS opened its doors, that she could attend school closer to home. But it isn’t sentimentality that has drawn her back to RJDS. It is the school’s novel and forward approach to teaching elementary education.
“[RJDS’s] family-centred culture of the school and the progressive approach to education … aligned with my own values,” said Solomon, who graduated from Langara College in 2010 with a diploma in early childhood education and a certificate in special needs. She said the school’s focus on innovative teaching methods for individualized education aligns with her own practice of “emergent curriculum” – a teaching method that supports the belief that children excel when they are permitted to learn at their own speed and according to their own strengths, interests and abilities – was a deciding factor when it came to applying for the position.
RJDS offers two preschool programs: Gan Alef, for infants and toddlers (0-3 years old) and Gan Bet, for children ages 3-5. For both, the school employs what RJDS principal Sabrina Bhojani refers to as a “constructivist play-based approach” to education. Instead of using teacher-led lessons and activities, educators use curiosity and inspiration to nurture the child’s development. “This provides opportunities, experiences and materials that are responsive to children’s interests and passions,” said Bhojani.
Richmond Jewish Day School principal Sabrina Bhojani. (photo from RJDS)
Although the children are usually in group settings, individuality of expression is encouraged. “We also weave Judaic concepts and history through storytelling; language and traditions are experienced through holiday celebrations and Hebrew songs,” Bhojani explained.
“We try to incorporate [the curriculum] in as natural a way as possible without it seeming like we’re inputting information,” Solomon added. The curriculum often uses Jewish holidays to inspire exploration of colours, themes and Hebrew words. “For Sukkot, [we had] a picture of a sukkah and there was a discussion about what the sukkah is, how it’s used,” she said by way of example.
The school also had a small sukkah outside that the students could visit. “The younger children were given some natural materials the teachers collected from outside,” along with some paints. “The older group were given the leaves or needles from an evergreen tree for the roof, some popsicle sticks and a few other things. There was no expectation for it to look like a sukkah,” Solomon explained, noting that the kids weren’t given specific exercises or told to decorate the structure. But the materials were provided for creative expression and exploration that eventually led to decorating the sukkah.
Bhojani said the new RJDS-run early education centre was created to overcome several challenges facing the Richmond Jewish community. The first was to expand access to early childhood education, an urgent need that is being felt throughout the Metro Vancouver area and beyond.
According to Bhojani, infant-toddler spaces are in high demand across British Columbia. “In the last few years, the number of childcare spaces has simply not been enough to meet the needs of families. This has been a province-wide issue, but it has been far worse for families in Richmond, particularly those families seeking a place they could be assured that their Jewish children could express themselves in an authentic manner.” At the moment, she said, “RJDS Early Learning Centre is the only Jewish child care in the Lower Mainland that accepts child under 18 months old.”
The new centre will support continuity of education for children throughout the elementary school experience.
Sara Solomon when she was in sixth grade at RJDS. Solomon was one of the school’s first graduates. (photo from Sara Solomon)
Bhojani said the previous preschool was run by an independent contractor that rented space from RJDS, but its curriculum wasn’t synchronized with what was being taught in the upper grades. “[Being] that it was a third-party organization, we had no authority or oversight in the daycare’s programming,” she said. With the demand for childcare spaces, the former preschool also wasn’t able to guarantee availability for families that wanted to enrol all of their children at RJDS for preschool through Grade 7 attendance.
“We realized quickly we needed our own licensed facility,” and one that fit with the new lesson plans, Bhojani said. “Soon after, we made a commitment to building our own learning centre in order to be able to better serve our community.” That included renovating parts of the school.
The improvements were paid for by two local grants, one of which was specifically tailored to increasing the number of childcare spaces in British Columbia. The B.C. New Spaces fund, offered through the provincial government, helped cover the cost of structural renovations in the preschool area.
The second grant came from the Jewish Community Foundation, which provides unrestricted grants for a wide variety of community needs. While the school did not disclose the amounts they received from each grant, Solomon said the two grants allowed them to make targeted upgrades in time for the 2022/23 school year.
“So far, we have been able to repaint the building, put in all new flooring, upgrade the lighting, and the next steps are going to be some plumbing upgrades,” Solomon said.
The school will still have some further additions to make, such as a new washer and dryer, a sink in one of the classrooms and some improvements in the outdoor play space. Solomon said she is hoping the school will be able to develop an engaging play area, where classes can be held outdoors, too. “We have the most beautiful property here,” she said. “We are on farmland and we are really hoping that we can incorporate that into our outdoor play space.”
Bhojani said the school’s new early education program director comes with the life experience and drive that will help make the new preschool a real success. “As an original RJDS graduate, current school parent and former board member, Sara Solomon has an unparalleled dedication and commitment to our school,” said Bhojani. “She, along with a highly qualified and experienced staff, in the short time that we have been open, have created beautiful spaces in which children feel nurtured and loved.”
Jan Leeis an award-winning editorial writer whose articles and op-eds have been published in B’nai B’rith Magazine, Voices of Conservative and Masorti Judaism and Baltimore Jewish Times, as well as a number of business, environmental and travel publications. Her blog can be found at multiculturaljew.polestarpassages.com.
