National – Page 2

Many tributes for Rabbi Bulka

Rabbi Reuven Bulka (photo from thecjn.ca)

Rabbi Reuven Bulka, who served as spiritual leader of Ottawa’s Congregation Machzikei Hadas for 48 years, died of cancer early on June 27 in New York. He was 77.

Bulka moved to New York to be closer to his five children following a diagnosis of terminal liver cancer earlier this year. His funeral service took place there later on June 27, a video of which can be watched in its entirety online, via thecjn.ca/rabbi-bulka-obit.

Tributes to the beloved rabbi poured in.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Bulka for his commitment to his country and for inspiring parliamentarians to adopt Kindness Week.

“The Jewish community has lost a giant, the Canadian community has lost a giant and the world at large has lost an unbelievable person,” eulogized Bulka’s son, Shmuel Bulka, at the funeral service.

Shmuel Bulka noted that God “had called for the lefty” – a nod to his father’s love of baseball. “His life’s work was about making the world a better place than it was before he got here.”

He said, “A lot of people today, when they see people who are different, all they do is go toward the differences. Some people make a career out of exploiting the differences. My father was the exact opposite. He would always look for commonalities.”

Sen. Jim Munson, a close friend whose Kindness Week bill, inspired by Rabbi Bulka, received royal assent earlier this year, tweeted that his “heart aches” over Bulka’s death.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson praised Bulka as an outstanding community leader.

“He epitomizes kindness,” said Watson, who knew the rabbi for more than 30 years. “He was a larger-than-life figure in our community. He was a great supporter when the community needed him most.”

Andrea Freedman, president of Jewish Federation of Ottawa, told CBC that Bulka “had this amazing ability to just think through how something could be phrased that would help other people feel better.”

Retired Ottawa Police chief Charles Bordeleau said, “Rabbi Bulka was a pillar in our community and changed our country for the better. He was always there for Ottawa Police and a proud supporter of the men and women who keep Ottawa safe.”

Bulka’s passing “leaves an enormous void in our country,” tweeted CTV chief news anchor Lisa LaFlamme. “He was a man who built bridges and inspired goodness. A healer in a divided nation. I will miss our personal conversations and his public Remembrance Day benedictions.”

At a worldwide virtual prayer service for Bulka in January, former prime minister Stephen Harper said he’d had many opportunities to see the rabbi at local and national public events, and to visit with him.

“It is not for nothing Rabbi Bulka has been called Canada’s rabbi,” said Harper. “Throughout his long life, he has been a credit to his faith, to the wider community and great country.”

Harper said the main lesson he learned from Bulka is to live life from two perspectives, gratitude and hope. “Gratitude for all that we have, all that God has given us, and hope for what the future may bring,” said Harper.

Bulka was born to Rabbi Chaim Yaakov and Yehudis Bulka in London, England, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Two years later, the family moved to the United States, where his father taught at Hebrew schools in Providence, R.I., and Rockaway, N.Y., before becoming rabbi of a synagogue in the Bronx.

Rabbi Reuven Bulka received semikhah (ordination) from the Rabbi Jacob Joseph Rabbinical Seminary in 1965, and earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from City University of New York the same year.

He briefly served as an associate rabbi at Congregation K’hal Adas Yeshurun in the Bronx, before becoming rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa in 1967. He received master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Ottawa in 1969 and 1971, respectively, concentrating on the life and work of Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.

Bulka was an authority on Frankl’s use of logotherapy, which teaches that humans’ search for meaning in life is their prime motivational force. He later became the founder and editor of the Journal of Psychology and Judaism. He authored some 30 books and dozens of columns in the Ottawa Citizen. He was the go-to rabbi for reporters seeking a quote on a Jewish issue.

Bulka’s local initiatives included interfaith outreach and work with the United Way and with Canadian Blood Services.

A fixture at national Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa for many years, Bulka’s name was “synonymous” with Remembrance Day, Maj.-Gen. Guy Chapdelaine, chaplain general of Canada’s Armed Forces, told last January’s prayer service.

He also noted Bulka’s support for Armed Forces chaplains and the Royal Canadian Legion.

Bulka was also awarded the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service “for inspiring sermons, venerable presence and meaningful messages to Canadians during the national Remembrance Day ceremonies.”

The rabbi founded Kind Canada, a nonprofit that encourages kindness. In 2019, the city named Rabbi Bulka Kindness Park in Ottawa’s Alta Vista neighbourhood. The first national Kindness Week is slated for February 2022, and Canadians are called on to carry out acts of kindness in their communities during the third week of February every year.

The week could “potentially raise the Canadian consciousness of the importance of kindness, and the ensuing commitment thereto, to levels that will make our great country even greater and make a large dent in some of the critical issues we face, including mental health, the cost of health care and bullying, among others,” Bulka told the senate committee studying the kindness bill.

In 2010, the rabbi was awarded the key to the City of Ottawa. He was named to the Order of Canada in 2013.

He addressed the COVID pandemic at the prayer service for him, saying that, if anything was learned from it, “it’s that we’re all in this together, and the more together we are in this, the better we’re going to get out of it.”

He said the most important thing in life “is to appreciate each other.” Differences “fade into insignificance when we realize the blessings we have.”

Rabbi Bulka is survived by his wife, Leah, and five children: Yocheved Shonek, Rina Levy, Shmuel Bulka, Eliezer Bulka and Binyomin Bulka. His first wife, Naomi, died in 2001. He is to be buried in Israel in a private service.

– This article originally appeared on thecjn.ca.

Honouring women’s courage

Anne Petrie (photo from Maurice Yacowar)

The University of Calgary has organized a virtual exhibition to honour the efforts of Jewish women in the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War. Called She Also Served, it comprises a series of nine banners by various artists.

Originally scheduled to be displayed at the Military Museums in Calgary during Jewish Heritage Month in May, it has been made available online throughout 2021 and will be physically hung in May 2022. Of the 17,000 Jews who served in the Canadian armed services, more than 275 were women.

Among those selected to display their work is Anne Petrie of Victoria. For her banner, a digital print called “In the Tradition of Service,” Petrie chose to list all the known names of the Jewish Canadian servicewomen. She used a font that is reminiscent of the typewriters of the 1940s. Another layer of the banner has the names of 12 biblical heroines, confirming the tradition of Jewish women’s courage and dedication to serving their communities.

“I was immediately struck by knowing that, although they would not have had to hide their Jewish identity, it was still in those days not something that you would be comfortable being completely open about,” Petrie told the Independent. “Even if it was, at best, very casual antisemitism, it was a reality when they would have signed up. So, there you are fighting (even if it’s only at a desk) for something – a religion, a people, a culture – that you can’t really be openly passionate about.”

image - Anne Petrie’s “In the Tradition of Service,” 2021. Part of the She Also Served exhibit, now online — Anne Petrie’s “In the Tradition of Service,” 2021. Part of the She Also Served exhibit, now online.

For Petrie, She Also Served is an opportunity to reveal and contextualize the “Jewishness” of that other “them, the unsung and – worse – unidentified Jewish-Canadian women soldiers.” She said she is honouring them by naming them in “their doubly suppressed identities, as women and Jews.”

Petrie’s intention was to present the full names and rank (where available) of all the Jewish women known to have served. The collection of names fills the background layer of the 75-by-165-centimetre banner. Each name is in the colour of their respective services: olive green for army, dark navy for the navy and a lighter “air force blue” for the Women’s Army Corps. Emerging from the background in a larger, translucent Hebrew script, and in a camouflage pattern, are the names of Judaism’s biblical heroines, “themselves often subordinated by patriarchal tradition to the male heroes,” said Petrie.

“In making the banner itself, I was struck by how powerful it was to actually write out all the 279 names of the Jewish servicewomen that have so far been identified. I knew none of them personally, of course, but I felt that typing each name was a kind of acknowledgement and, strange as it sounds, I did feel a kind spirit or presence as I typed each of the names. I only wish we did know more about them, but I understand that research is continuing and, hopefully, there will eventually be stories attached to each of these women’s names,” she said.

Petrie thanked Janice Shulman and Rabbi Lynn Greenhough for their assistance with the project.

Prior to beginning her work as an artist, Petrie’s career spanned more than 30 years in radio and television, where she worked as a researcher, producer, documentary-maker, columnist and commentator in news and current affairs. She is also the author of several non-fiction books: Ethnic Vancouver, Vancouver Secrets and Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers.

After retiring from the CBC, she returned to school and obtained a bachelor of fine arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008. Since then, she has had a number of exhibitions. Her next exhibit, said/unsaid, is a two-person show with Jane Coomb – it opens at the errant artSpace gallery in Victoria (975 Alston St.) on July 9.

The other artists whose work is featured in She Also Served are Razieh Alba, Sophia Borowska, Alysa-Beth Engel, Lily Rosenberg, Talie Shalmon, Jules Schacter, Bev Tosh and Susan Turner. The representations exploring the servicewomen’s experiences range from naturalistic to abstract. Some works use archival photographs, while others use media include oil painting and paper-cutting.

The stories of 41 Jewish servicewomen are also featured on the website. These accounts were an impetus for the call for submissions for the exhibition, which was curated by the University of Calgary’s Prof. Jennifer Eiserman and librarian emerita Saundra Lipton. They ask for help in “completing the story” from anyone who has more information about the featured servicewomen and any of those identified in the list of names collected.

To view the exhibition, visit live-ucalgary.ucalgary.ca/she-also-serves/exhibition.

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

CABGU gala now sold out

Mitchell Oelbaum, national president of Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University. (photo from in.bgu.ac.il)

Raising nearly $800,000 at a not-for-profit gala is no small feat, nor is having more than 1,200 people register for an event. When you add a pandemic to the mix and make it a virtual event, one might assume that it would be impossible to come close! But that’s precisely what the Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University (CABGU) did in just seven weeks.

“We are a lean but unbelievably keen staff at CABGU, with an incredibly generous and committed group of lay leaders,” said Mark Mendelson, CABGU’s chief executive officer. “Achievements like this make me so proud!”

Mendelson knew that every detail of the event was accounted for, beginning with the star attraction. Israeli actress Shira Haas, star of the popular Netflix series Shtisel and Unorthodox, recently nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Emmy, is the featured speaker. Fresh off her recent press tour for the newly released movie Asia, she will be joining the event live from Israel. Haas will be taking questions from Canada’s Sen. Linda Frum, who will be moderating the conversation along with Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, BGU’s president.

CABGU’s An “Unorthodox” National Virtual Gala for Brain Research at BGU raises money for the Canada Fund to Advance Brain Research. “The fund will go a long way in assisting researchers at the university with conducting groundbreaking and out-of-the-box research,” said Mitchell Oelbaum, national president of CABGU.

“CABGU launched the Canada Fund to Advance Brain Research at BGU in April,” added Mendelson. “We know that there is a strong appetite for the subject of brain research because so many of us know at least one person, if not more, who is impacted by neurodegenerative diseases here in Canada.”

Tickets for the July 7 virtual gala are sold out. However, a few sponsorships are still available at bengurion.ca.

– Courtesy Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University

A new-old agency

There is a new national Jewish community agency with a decidedly retro feel and familiar faces. Several leaders from the defunct Canadian Jewish Congress have founded Canadian Jewish Community Forum, saying they are filling a gap in grassroots activism.

Dr. Michael Elterman, who, in the 1980s and ’90s, was a two-time chair of Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region, as well as regional chair of the likewise defunct Canada-Israel Committee, is a member of the steering committee of the new group. Renee Switzer, a former national executive chair of CJC, is the other Vancouverite on the committee. Other figures leading the group include past national and regional chairs of CJC, as well as senior staff of the agency, including longtime chief executive officer Bernie Farber.

photo - Dr. Michael Elterman — Dr. Michael Elterman *(photo from CJCF)*

The first serious discussions among the group started in January, said Elterman.“What we are interested primarily in doing is creating and resurrecting what was an essential theme that brought us all into CJC, which was that it was primarily a grassroots organization where people could become individually involved in, or take ownership of, the Jewish agenda in Canada,” he said. “I guess the feeling is that we would like to re-create that again and get people more engaged and more involved and feeling personally responsible for what happens to the Jewish community in Canada.”

The focus will be primarily on domestic affairs, he said, although the direction the group takes will be determined, first, by a major survey CJCF intends to undertake of Jewish Canadians and, later, through the sort of plenaries and democratic debates that typified CJC.

While the group boasts a wealth of experience, Elterman stressed that a young cohort is also at the heart of the new group.

With the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), which effectively subsumed CJC and the Canada-Israel Committee in 2004, as well as B’nai Brith Canada and Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Canada has no shortage of national Jewish agencies. Elterman sees room for one more.

“There were many people –– which is why you are seeing such interest in the organization – who would like to be more involved both in the setting of the agenda and in the actual participation in an organization,” he said.

The new group doesn’t intend to detract from existing agencies. “I don’t think this organization is in contrast to or competition with any other organization,” said Elterman. “The emphasis on being a grassroots, bottom-up organization, having the agenda driven by the community rather than by a particular group of people, that I think is what is going to make this unique and that is what made CJC unique.”

Organizers have not reached out to CIJA or the others as yet, he acknowledged. “If they would like to join with us, that’s great, but it’s not something that is being done jointly with any other organization,” he said.

Funding for CJCF is bootstraps for now, with members of the steering committee anteing up for federal incorporation and other essentials. The group will seek charity status to issue tax receipts and Elterman said they hope donors will step forward in time.

A priority for CJCF will be to build bridges with other communities on issues of shared concern, something at which Elterman said CJC excelled.

On the new group’s website (cjc1919.blogspot.com), a four-point statement of purpose includes a promise to “engage with other faith, Indigenous, racial, ethnic and cultural communities to find common cause in matters pertaining to the promotion of civil discourse, reconciliation, inclusivity and mutual understanding and to fight against antisemitism, discrimination, racism and hatred in all their forms. Many important issues facing society at large are viewed to be relevant to the Jewish community. If we are to have a voice in the society we are creating together, we must discuss and address issues as they emerge together as Canadians.”

CIJA calls on feds to act now

Signs shown at a recent rally in support of Palestine. (screenshot from cija.ca)

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is calling on the federal government to expand supports for Jewish communal security after a surge of antisemitic violence and vandalism in Canada, and to launch an emergency summit on antisemitism.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, CIJA’s chief executive officer, made the request in a meeting with senior staff from the prime minister’s office and Liberal cabinet ministers and members of Parliament May 20. Later that day, he spoke at a virtual event billed as a national Canadian Jewish community briefing, called Learn, Mobilize, Act: Keep the Conflict Out of Canada.

“We are calling on the prime minister to convene an emergency summit on antisemitism that will include the political leadership at both the provincial and municipal levels, a true all-of-government effort, and establish a comprehensive program to combat Jew-hatred, the oldest and most enduring hate the world has ever experienced,” he said.

CIJA also wants a complementary program to the Security Infrastructure Program, “that enhances the capacity of our community to take ownership of our own security.”

He spoke just hours after Israel announced a ceasefire in its most recent battle with Hamas.

“As we express hope for a durable ceasefire to take hold and an end to the conflict there, we are painfully aware that the battle has moved to our country, to our communities from coast to coast,” Fogel said. “It’s been frightening but we dare not cower and hide. It’s been disturbing, but we dare not be intimidated from asserting our identity, who we are and what we are, and in doing so with pride…. Our adversaries seek not only to erase our ties to the land and history of Israel, they seek to erase the presence of Jews altogether.”

He lauded the additional attention to racial justice that has emerged in recent years. “But, along with the good of that movement has come a contaminated strain that reduces everything to a simple equation of the oppressed and the oppressor, and Jews have been declared the poster child of the oppressors, so they must be rejected and vilified,” said Fogel.

Joel Reitman, co-chair of CIJA, opened the event.

“Over the past two weeks, we have watched with shock as our fellow Jews in Israel have been subjected to attack at the hands of Hamas, a terrorist organization bent on the destruction and the obliteration of the Jewish state of Israel and the murder of Israelis,” said Reitman. “Our sorrow and compassion is extended also to Hamas victims in Gaza, where Hamas has embedded its terrorist infrastructure within densely populated areas, deliberately putting the people of Gaza in harm’s way and where one-third of Hamas missiles have fallen, taking many innocent lives.

“Our outrage has deepened as the violence on our television screens has spilled over into violence and threats of violence directed against the Jews in our streets, in our communities, online and in our places of business, our schools and our houses of worship,” continued Reitman. “Never has it been more clear that Jewish people, whether we live in Canada or in Israel, must stand as one. Never has it been more clear that the ancient hatred of antisemitism does not distinguish between a Jew in Tel Aviv at or a Jew in Toronto. We are all targets…. We will not be intimidated. We will not be discouraged. We will call out the perpetrators of violence and we will call on our many friends to stand with us and we will act together. Together with our fellow Canadians right across this country, we say, enough. We know where antisemitism leads if left unchecked. We know what must be done to stop it. And, together, stop it we will.”

Naomi Rosenfeld, executive director of the Atlantic Jewish Council, said it has been a scary few weeks to be a Jew.

“With all this hatred and fear,” she said, “I hope that we all remember three things. One, it has never been more apparent why we need Israel and why we need a strong Jewish state. Two, if any of you have been going through any of the things that I’ve mentioned, please know that you are not alone. We stand together, a community here to support one another through each of these events. And, finally, as a national Canadian Jewish community, we must remain strong and resilient. We will not cower to fear and we will not hide our true identities and who we are.”

Dr. Gil Troy, professor of history at McGill University and an author of several books on Zionism, spoke of being a parent of two members of the Israel Defence Forces and the betrayal he felt to read a letter signed by 180 rabbinical students comparing the racial reckoning in the United States in recent years directly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We’re told again and again, especially by my friends in the United States, too many of my Jewish friends in the United States, that this is a racial issue between the white Israelis, the white privileged Israelis, and the brown Palestinians,” said Troy. “And we are told that the cause of this latest conflict is Israeli provocations.… We all know that the underlying cause of this is the refusal of Hamas, the refusal of Islamic Jihad, the refusal of the so-called moderate Palestinian Authority to accept the fact, 73 years after the establishment of the state of Israel, that the state of Israel exists.”

Jeff Rosenthal, the other co-chair of CIJA, asserted that “Jews and only Jews have the right to define what constitutes antisemitism.” He said, “We’ve always known that there is no distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Our lived experiences and the experiences of our forefathers and ancestors confer a unique alertness to this threat.”

He called on viewers to mobilize and directed people to the Action Centre on the website cija.ca.

HIPPY fêtes trailblazer

Carol Slater (photo from mothersmattercentre.ca)

Carol Slater, a former vice-president of National Council of Jewish Women of Canada, was presented with the first-ever Trailblazers Award for helping bring to Canada an innovative Israeli-founded education program that empowers mothers of preschool children.

The award, presented by the Mothers Matter Centre, was part of a virtual event May 5. (See jewishindependent.ca/mothers-importance.)

Slater was one of a small group of people who brought the program Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) to Canada two decades ago. The initiative, which has taken off in countries worldwide, began out of the Britannia Community Centre and Britannia Community Secondary School, in East Vancouver. The national headquarters of the program remains in Vancouver, under the auspices of the Mothers Matter Centre. HIPPY Canada changed its name in 2017 to the Mothers Matter Centre to reflect the fact that they deliver a range of programs, although HIPPY remains the core of the organization.

Slater spoke with the Independent recently, along with Wazi Dlamini-Kapenda, a Vancouverite who was the first HIPPY director in Canada and remains head of the national program.

HIPPY was started in 1969 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by the late Dr. Avima Lombard.

“When the first wave of African immigrants came to Israel and spoke no Hebrew, [Lombard] realized the disconnect between the children and the parents,” Slater said. “The parents didn’t know what was expected of the children, or of the parents.”

Slater and Dlamini-Kapenda take pride in the relative simplicity of the HIPPY structure. A new program is developed when a community identifies HIPPY as a program that would be of benefit to mothers and children. The community then approaches the Mothers Matter Centre to help with starting it up. In other cases, MMC approaches the community to let them know about the program and support them in implementing it, providing seed funding to get it off the ground, said Dlamini-Kapenda. The community can start with a minimum of two to four home visitors, depending on the size of the community, then each visitor recruits 10 to 12 families. The home visitor drops in on each family every week for at least an hour during the school year, and teaches the mother the week’s activities using the HIPPY curriculum. The lessons are taught using role-play, in which the home visitor and the mother take turns being the teacher (mother) and the student (child), practising the lesson before the mother teaches the week’s lessons to their preschooler.

“The basis of this program is that all parents want the best for their children, all parents want their children to succeed and to enter school ready to learn,” said Dlamini-Kapenda. “The parents themselves can play a role in this in building capacity within the home. Instead of parents relying on sending their children to preschool, which some parents couldn’t afford, we could go into the home, which is actually important because the home is where success begins. We all know that.”

“One of the very critical things,” Slater said, “is giving the parent the confidence that she can go to [her child’s] school because what has very often happened in immigrant situations is that the mother may not speak the language very well and, if she doesn’t go to school, she doesn’t follow her child and if she doesn’t follow her child, her child can fall behind and she doesn’t know about it. One of the most important things is the empowerment of the parent to understand that she is the first teacher of her children. It’s a fantastic concept when you think of it. So simple.”

The program is offered free to mothers and all supplies are provided, although almost everything that the mother will need to do activities can be found in the home. The families targeted for the HIPPY program are those with low literacy or deemed “at risk.” Special emphasis is given to immigrant and refugee communities and Indigenous populations. HIPPY has separate streams for multicultural and Indigenous families, recognizing different approaches to learning. Home visitors will usually be recruited from within the linguistic communities they serve.

Slater’s award recognizes her work in getting HIPPY off the ground in 2001.

“Carol was very instrumental in getting the funding and knocking on doors and talking to every person in a position to be able to get us the first funding to run the first four or five years of the program here in Canada,” said Dlamini-Kapenda. “I don’t know, without Carol, how far we would have gone.”

Dr. Debbie Bell, founding director of Simon Fraser University’s community education program, was working on developing strategies to create access to education for low-literacy communities. Slater and Bell connected after Slater happened upon a brochure about the nascent program. Slater, who has lived in Israel, Vancouver and, now, Montreal, saw it as an ideal fit for National Council of Jewish Women.

Seizing the moment, Slater beat the bushes for financing. Bell was emphatic that they should not launch HIPPY without a budget for several years of programming because that would be unfair to participating families. Slater went to Ottawa and, with the help of several key figures, obtained funding from the federal health ministry to get HIPPY up and running.

She credits Dr. Hedy Fry, member of Parliament for Vancouver-Centre, as an early supporter.

“She was so excited about the program,” Slater recalled. “She met Debbie and myself and we used to meet in her office. She sat me at a desk, she gave me a list of all the cabinet ministers and their secretaries and their private phone numbers. I just sat there and I phoned.”

An assistant to Allan Rock, who was then minister of health, was equally supportive. Slater left the meeting with a commitment for $250,000, which jumpstarted HIPPY Canada.

Slater also credits late Vancouver philanthropist Jack Diamond and the Diamond Foundation for crucial support that got the program started. The Vancouver Foundation also committed to four years of funding, something they had never done before, said Dlamini-Kapenda, who was then hired as the first HIPPY coordinator in Canada.

At the awards ceremony earlier this month, Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, and Dr. Cindy Blackstock, a Gitxsan activist for child welfare and a professor in McGill University’s School of Social Work, received the Because Mothers Matter Award for their noteworthy professional accomplishments while giving back to their community. Two HIPPY mothers with extraordinary stories, Nusrat Awan and Jessica Seegerts, were also honoured.

$100K raised for Sheba

Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of the Office for Science and Society, McGill University, presented on The Chemistry of Wine and Its Many Benefits, at Canadian Friends of Sheba’s virtual event on May 2. (screenshot)

Canadian Friends of Sheba hosted Sheba Under the Stars on May 2, raising close to $100,000 for Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre. More than 100 guests attended the virtual evening featuring live entertainment, wine tasting and presentations on lifestyle choices from leading world experts.

Guests received a complimentary gift bag of wine and chocolates, and were treated to numerous performances from host Stacey Kay, Juno Award-winning singer/rapper and finalist on America’s Got Talent. The hour-long show also featured live wine tasting with Michael Avery, winemaker at Galil Mountain Winery, in Israel, as well as a presentation on The chemistry of Wine and Its Many Benefits, by Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of the Office for Science and Society at McGill University.

Prof. Yitshak Kreiss, director general, Sheba Medical Centre, opened the event by highlighting Sheba’s global fight against the coronavirus through its recent support of missions to India, northern Italy, Cyprus and Uruguay, and called on the guests to be “inspired by Sheba’s vision to transform into the city of health.”

Presentations from “Sheba’s stars” included Redefining the Field of Lifestyle Medicine by Dr. Rani Polak, founding director of Sheba’s Centre of Lifestyle Medicine, and from Prof. Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of Sheba’s Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Centre, who shared tips on how wellness and lifestyle affects the brain.

To watch the full recording of the show, visit youtube.com/watch?v=QE2TRvm3G4Q.

Ethical responsibilities in business

Writer and filmmaker Joel Bakan takes part in an online Canadian Hadassah-WIZO fundraising event May 30. (photo from Penguin Random House Canada)

The Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW) Vancouver Book Club invites all CHW supporters, family and friends to an exclusive opportunity to be part of a conversation with Vancouver’s own Joel Bakan, an internationally recognized and award-winning author, producer, professor and legal scholar. Brunch with Bakan, which is a national CHW fundraising event, will take place May 30, at 11 a.m. PST.

Journalist and author Adam Elliott Segal will ask his own, as well as your questions, about Bakan’s hard-hitting book, The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations are Bad for Democracy, which won the silver medal at the 2021 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Ethics and is shortlisted for the B.C. and Yukon Book Prize for 2021. Segal’s roots are in Vancouver, though he now lives in Toronto, where he writes for the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Reader’s Digest and a host of other newspapers and magazines.

The New Corporation traces the consequences of a world close to losing its foundation of democracy. Bakan says the onus is on us to make the necessary connections and to actively be part of meaningful solutions if we want to leave our children and grandchildren a positive future. The Q&A with Segal will have a special focus on Jewish values, and ethical responsibility in business and corporate governance.

There are various ticket tiers for the Brunch with Bakan event, from $18 for the Zoom talk only to $118 for the talk, access to stream the film, a copy of the book (minimum two-week turnaround time for delivery) and name recognition. All ticket tiers include a tax receipt for the maximum allowable amount and the film, called The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, will be available May 25-28 for ticketholders to stream.

Over the last century, CHW has been involved in all aspects of Israeli life, supporting programs and services for children, women and healthcare in Israel and Canada. To tickets to the Brunch with Bakan fundraising event, visit chw.ca/thenewcorporation.

– Courtesy CHW Vancouver

Summit on online hate

Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King delivered the keynote address at the Action Summit to Combat Online Hate, April 14 and 15. The son and daughter-in-law of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. have both been deeply involved for many years in fighting racism, antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.

The summit was organized by the Canadian Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, an initiative of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and funded by the Government of Canada.

King reflected on the legacy of Black-Jewish alliances in the civil rights movement and quoted his late father’s words: “Rabbis of Jewish congregations took their places on the frontlines as the Old and New Testament ethic of social justice flamed with a fire that had once transformed the world.”

King has worked in Israel and Palestine, educating young people to advance nonviolent resolutions to conflict.

“It was a wonderful experience and everywhere I went I experienced great hospitality and kindness from the people of Israel,” he said. “My father and mother, Coretta Scott King, were very concerned about the spread of antisemitism, racism and all forms of hatred, prejudice and bigotry, particularly among young people. Both of my parents made a commitment to doing everything that they could to help educate people about their shared vision for greater interracial understanding, cooperation and goodwill. Long after my father was assassinated, my mother continued to speak out against antisemitism and remain active in building the Black-Jewish coalition of social justice and human rights in Atlanta and throughout the world.”

Waters King worked for years at the Centre for Democratic Renewal, an organization that monitors and reports on hate groups, also delivering a broad range of educational programs to combat hate groups in the spirit of nonviolence that empowered the American civil rights movement.

“I have learned that the proponents of hate never sleep and our struggle against racism, antisemitism and all forms of bigotry and prejudice must remain ever-vigilant. What we can and must do is declare war on the ignorance that fuels hatred and the only known and proven cure for ignorance is education.”

King spoke about the advent of technologies over the past decades that hate groups have used to disseminate their messages. “But let’s remember that this communications revolution we have all lived through also gives us powerful tools to combat online hate,” he said.

The summit also featured keynote presentations by Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission coordinator on combatting antisemitism, and Steven Guilbeault, federal minister of Canadian Heritage. More than three dozen others participated in two days of sessions, lectures, workshops and panel discussions. The Kings’ presentation is available online at actionsummit.ca.

Stunning Concordia apology

In 2002, when the once and future prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, visited Montreal, a violent riot by anti-Zionists erupted at Concordia University. That was a turning point in a now two-decades-long period of anti-Israel and, in some cases, anti-Jewish activism on Canadian campuses.

Universities across Canada would go on to host events such as Israel Apartheid Week and, on multiple campuses, countless peaceful and less peaceful attacks on Israel and its supporters have occurred. As all of this has transpired, Concordia has had the reputation of having probably the most anti-Zionist and antisemitic campus culture in the country. So, many Jews and other observers were stunned when the Concordia Student Union issued an apology to the Jewish community. Released the day before Yom Hashoah, the statement from the CSU began: “Today, we strive to acknowledge our mistakes and begin the process of correcting ourselves.”

The 500-word letter of apology was an unequivocal denunciation of past CSU actions and approaches.

“Overall, our mistakes can be described in one word, indifference,” it reads. “Indifference to one of the world’s oldest forms of discrimination. Indifference to the concerns of our Jewish students. Indifference to the struggles they have faced. While a common topic of our meetings has been how the CSU can tackle other forms of discrimination or support certain minority groups, the Jewish community and antisemitism are seldom brought up.… The CSU has assisted in fostering a campus culture where Jewish students are afraid to openly identify as Jewish…. Our silence on these issues only benefits the oppressors and sets the belief that these acts are somehow justifiable, which encourages the oppressors to continue this behaviour. This behaviour continues well outside the boundaries of our campus and into a society where they may harm many more individuals.”

In addition to the apology for past behaviours, the statement promises concrete action now and in the future. All elected student union officials will receive training on antisemitism every year. Executive members of all Concordia campus clubs will also receive annual training to identify antisemitism and help foster an environment where Jewish students and members of the community can feel safe and fully included. A bystander prevention program is being developed to help students “identify and safely intervene and/or support Jewish students if they witness an act of antisemitism.”

“While we stood idly by in the past while acts of antisemitism occurred, we hope not to repeat those mistakes again and hope the Jewish community will give us another chance to support them in the future,” the apology concludes.

The statement was issued after a process of listening to Jewish students express their fears and experiences with antisemitism at the university. It was drafted by Eduardo Malorni, currently the student life coordinator of the CSU, who will assume the role of general coordinator (the equivalent of union president) in June.

screenshots - From top: Concordia Student Union councilors Eduardo Malorni, Nicole Nashen and Harrison Kirshner spoke to the Independent via Zoom about the CSU’s apology to Jewish students — From top: Concordia Student Union councilors Eduardo Malorni, Nicole Nashen and Harrison Kirshner spoke to the Independent via Zoom about the CSU’s apology to Jewish students. *(screenshots)*

“We got feedback that it was very appreciated,” Malorni told the Independent. “Some people brought up that it was too little, too late, which is a fair criticism for an organization that’s been around as long as us. But our feedback all seems to be positive.”

Two Jewish campus leaders who also spoke with the Independent were emotional.

“I cried the first time I read it,” said Nicole Nashen, an elected CSU councilor and incoming president of Concordia Hillel.

“We cried together,” said Harrison Kirshner, a vice-president of Concordia Hillel, a CSU councilor and incoming executive member.

“As a student, when I first came to Concordia, I knew in my mind what type of institution this is and I knew that I had to hide part of myself in a sense,” said Kirshner. He would think twice, he said, before mentioning celebrating Jewish holidays, for example. Part of the progress that culminated in the apology, he suggested, was students like him opening up and sharing their experiences.

“I realize that conversation and speaking to people about what we face is a much better way than hiding it and not talking about it and not addressing those issues,” he said. “Because, if we don’t address them, nothing is going to change. But, if we do address and we do talk about the experiences that we face, change can stem from that. That’s what we are seeing happening.”

The campus climate is significantly better than he expected when he arrived.

“I noticed that people were receptive to those discussions, people that I thought maybe wouldn’t be receptive to those discussions were receptive to those discussions,” he said. “Part of the reason is because, instead of going in with a fighting attitude, we need to go in with a respectful attitude, a dialogue attitude, an attitude that allows us to open up a conversation with our fellow councilors who I consider to be allies, friends.”

Nashen also acknowledged a feeling in the pit of her stomach when fellow students would raise the topic of ethnicity.

“I didn’t know how I was going to be labeled or what the reaction was going to be or what assumptions are going to be made about me because of the fact that I’m Jewish,” she said. Elected to the CSU recently for the second time, she said she never foresaw being so welcomed.

Both Kirshner and Nashen credit Malorni, who is not Jewish, for encouraging them to share their stories and for making other Jewish students comfortable to come forward and share their experiences. The letter, they said, came from his heart.

“It did come from the heart,” Malorni admitted, “but it only came from the heart because Harrison and Nikki were so open about talking about the issues they faced and also in setting up meetings with other Jewish students who would never have come near the CSU with a 10-foot pole, setting up meetings and saying it’s safe, you can explain it to them, they’re not going to bite your hand off, because students would never have told us 95% of what they told us, unless those meetings were facilitated by both Harrison and Nikki. That’s why I think, in terms of writing the apology, when it came down to it, it became – I wouldn’t say it was easy to write it – but the words were a little easier to come from brain to paper.”

The letter, of course, comes from a new group of CSU leaders, not from the individuals who were involved before and perpetrated some of the extreme activities, such as a Passover Against Apartheid event a few years ago. The current crop of leaders was elected in a campus vote that saw extremely low turnout. However, Malorni noted, student union votes at Concordia and most universities are notoriously and chronically low, so the small number of voters who endorsed the current leaders is commensurate with the number who voted for the earlier, problematic representatives.

“The majority of messages that I’ve received are shock,” Nashen said. “I would have never imagined this could have ever happened at Concordia.… I think a lot of people, especially maybe people who went to Concordia and were involved in Concordia 10 to 20 years ago, but haven’t kept in the loop about CSU affairs, were just utterly shocked, could not believe it. Then, a lot of current students were reaching out to me saying, ‘I just had shivers reading this.’ I can’t believe that our issues are really being taken seriously and that the CSU really cares to help us fight antisemitism.”

She acknowledged that the apology is the beginning of a process, not the end.

“I don’t think this was a fix-all,” she said. “I think this was the first step that the CSU is taking toward telling the Jewish community that they do care about us now and they are ready to start listening to us and taking our issues seriously. What really put the cherry on top was not just words but it came along with actionable steps.”

Malorni said Concordia has had a national reputation as a tough campus for Jewish students, but he is well aware that other campuses have also had their experiences with conflict.

“While we had the worst reputation for it, it’s not something that doesn’t exist at the other universities,” he said. When the apology was posted, he said, commenters from all over North America recounted their own experiences with antisemitism at their universities.

“It’s not a thing limited to Concordia, despite our little extra bad reputation,” he said. “It’s something that seems to have crossed the bounds of our land.”