News – Page 2

Rose’s Angels delivers

Left to right: May Stefanov, tenant relations coordinator with Tikva Housing Society, and Courtney Cohen, co-founder of Rose’s Angels. (photo from Rose’s Angels)

Eleven not-for-profits received donations from this year’s Rose’s Angels, including Mamas for Mamas, Richmond Food Bank Society, Jewish Family Services’ Grocery Program (formerly known as the Jewish Food Bank), Tikva Housing Society and Pathways Clubhouse.

Run under the umbrella of the Kehila Society of Richmond, Rose’s Angels was created in 2012 by Courtney Cohen and Lynne Fader. It was founded in memory of Cohen’s grandmothers, Rose Lewin and Babs Cohen, who were both very philanthropic and instilled in Cohen the importance of giving back to community.

Essential personal care items, non-perishable food items, children’s arts and crafts materials, diapers and baby formula were among the donations received by Rose’s Angels this year. For many of its partner agencies, diapers and non-perishable food were among the top priority items.

“Being a mom myself, I can’t imagine what it must feel like to not have the access or means to provide essential items for your child,” said Cohen, stressing the impacts of the rising cost of living and the strain it’s putting on families and single parents.

“Supporting organizations that do such meaningful outreach for families in need is something I’m incredibly proud of,” she said.

Rose’s Angels’ success depends on the support of donors and volunteers. Letters were sent out to partner agencies, family, friends and community members in January, with donations collected in February. Richmond Jewish Day School hosted a hygiene collection drive, and grocery gift cards were purchased last month. This month, all the donations were packaged and delivered by volunteers to the recipient agencies.

“My parents and grandparents … showed me that giving back isn’t just a kind gesture – it’s a responsibility we have to one another as part of a community,” said Cohen.

To learn more about or donate to Rose’s Angels, email [email protected] or call the Kehila Society of Richmond at 604-241-9270.

– Courtesy Rose’s Angels

Living life to its fullest

My Aunt Hazel is 98 years old. They call her “the Queen” at Louis Brier Home and Hospital because, when she enters a room, she commands attention. I visited her in February, and she told me about her life in India, Iraq, Canada and elsewhere.

photo - Hazel Stevens, 98, has had quite the life — Hazel Stevens, 98, has had quite the life. She still commands attention. *(photo from Lisa Stevens)*

Hazel Stevens (née Moses) was born in Bangalore, India, in 1928. By the time she was 18, she had five brothers and five sisters. Her parents, my grandparents, were from Baghdad, Iraq.

Despite being one of maybe five Jewish families in the whole city, they kept kosher and made their own matzah. When Passover was over, their Hindu and Muslim friends would bring them bread.

Hazel’s mother and father ran a clothing store, so, to some degree, the six girls in the family, who were born first, were brought up by the servants. The five boys who came next were brought up by the girls.

What I noticed as a child growing up was that Hazel was clearly the funniest person in the family. When we all got together, she would chant slogans from Gandhi’s National Congress Party with incredible enthusiasm. Everyone would laugh. I think that part of my love for comedy came from her.

photo - Hazel Stevens (née Moses) was born in Bangalore, India, in 1928 — Hazel Stevens (née Moses) was born in Bangalore, India, in 1928. *(photo from Lisa Stevens)*

Hazel was also unequaled in her bravery. One day, a monkey grabbed her sister’s little girl, who was just a baby, and took her up onto the roof of the family’s home. Hazel climbed up to the roof to save her.

“I was frightened because the monkey could bite the baby or throw it off the roof,” Hazel told me. “I had to be very calm. I calmly patted myself and said, ‘Give me the baby.’ Finally, the monkey threw the baby at me.”

Luckily, no harm was done.

A few years later, in 1946, when Hazel turned 18, she visited Baghdad with her parents. It was a time of unrest, just after the Second World War. It isn’t well documented, but my aunt says that there was one week of “hysterical mobs” trying to kill their Jewish neighbours. The Jewish community had faced increasing insecurity for years, including the Farhud (pogrom) in June 1941, during which between 150 and 180 Jews were murdered, 600-plus injured and about 1,500 stores and homes looted, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In the 1940s, about 90,000 Jews lived in Baghdad, notes the museum, making up a significant portion of the population.

During this time, Hazel and others in the Jewish community were given hand grenades by the Baghdadi government. She fearlessly carried an urn full of them on her shoulder, as she went around the city, delivering grenades to Jewish households.

photo - Hazel Stevens in Baghdad in 1946, with an urnful of hand grenades provided by the government, which she delivered to Jewish community members to use in defence against hostile neighbours — Hazel Stevens in Baghdad in 1946, with an urnful of hand grenades provided by the government, which she delivered to Jewish community members to use in defence against hostile neighbours. (photo from Lisa Stevens)

“When you are young you are not afraid … because you could run,” she told me.

One night, Hazel joined her family on the roof, throwing stones down at a malicious crowd, which eventually left. Miraculously, no one in Hazel’s immediate family was hurt during this period.

Before her stay in Baghdad, Hazel had begun dating a young British soldier named Desmond (Steve) Stevens. He lived by the YMCA where she played tennis and he would come over and tell her not to hit or throw the balls so far away because the young Indian men would have to run far to retrieve them.

Steve would visit Hazel when she worked in her parents’ store. This was dangerous because girls weren’t allowed to speak to boys in those days, she told me. Dangerous in the sense that she should have been chaperoned.

Hazel would say to Steve, “Quickly, buy something, my parents are coming.”

The pair fell in love, but Hazel’s parents did not approve, as Steve wasn’t Jewish.

When Hazel was in Baghdad, her grandmother set her up with a man she hoped Hazel would marry. But my aunt was as smart as she was daring. She says that, when she met the man, she made all kinds of faces and threw her arms about. It was a very long 30 minutes, said Hazel, but she succeeded in turning him off.

Her daughter Lisa said: “It was her act of insanity that proved to her parents that she loved my dad. She wired him after her parents acquiesced, and he came over to Baghdad to spend some time with her. She told me they took walks and held hands.”

photo - Hazel and Desmond (Steve) Stevens were married in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1947. — Hazel and Desmond (Steve) Stevens were married in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1947. *(photo from Lisa Stevens)*

Steve promised to convert to Judaism and he did. The two were married in one of the beautiful synagogues in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1947. I remember that Steve was very knowledgeable when it came to almost anything Jewish.

Most of our family left India when it looked like there was going to be a civil war in 1948. Hazel and Steve went to England. I’m not sure of the order of their travels, but Steve remained part of the British army and so he and my aunt lived in various places in Canada and Europe. During this time, their first two children – Anita and David – were born.

Hazel told me that she was a dancer and remembers winning a $50 prize in her 30s – she can still pull one leg over her head. At the parties she threw, she would dress up in a belly dancing costume that she made, turn on Middle Eastern music and perform for everyone throughout the house. All the kids at the parties would crawl behind her, picking the shiny gold beads that would fall off her dress.

Nineteen years after her first child, Hazel gave birth to Lisa in Vancouver and soon enrolled her in dance classes. Today, Lisa is a director and choreographer, based between New York and Toronto.

Steve was a communications engineer at BC Tel (now known as Telus). He worked with new technology and, unknown to the family until after he retired, he provided spy satellites for NORAD. He was responsible for much of the communication capabilities when NORAD was first built, says Lisa.

Hazel was the homemaker for Marpole Neighbourhood House, where she provided in-home care for seniors and for people with disabilities. She won Homemaker of the Year several times. She also spent a lot of time organizing charity events for Vancouver’s Jewish Community Centre and the Hadassah Bazaar.

Steve and Hazel spent much of their spare time in the spring and summer caring for the front and back gardens of their house on Oak Street. Lisa says they often saw people stop their cars in front of the house and take pictures of the abundance of colour and the foliage.

Hazel ran a bed and breakfast out of her home on Oak Street and continued that after Steve passed away about 26 years ago. She also provided a room for out-of-town families who came here to visit their loved ones at Vancouver General Hospital, as the house was on that bus route.

In her late 80s, Hazel moved into Legacy Senior Living, where she says she led the exercise class at least once when the fitness instructor was away.

In a wheelchair now, Hazel lives at the Louis Brier, where she told me all about her incredible life.

I have a tendency to create funny, bold and daring characters when I improvise onstage and I think that maybe, just maybe, I get that from my aunt.

Cassandra Freeman is a Vancouver storyteller and improviser. She wrote this article with files from the Moses family and from Hazel Stevens’ daughter, Lisa Stevens.

Drawing on his roots

Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Ezra Ben-Shalom’s debut solo album, Known and Unknown, was released in 2025. (photo by Michelle Behr)

With his debut solo album, released last year, Kelowna musician Ezra Ben-Shalom shows off his personal side, with a uniquely Jewish touch.

For Ben-Shalom, who reconnected to Jewish ritual practice around five years ago, Known and Unknown – his first solo project – is a deeply personal one. The focus of his music and daily life has become all about asking questions, he said. It’s about finding ways to be of service in the world and creating a connection with something larger than himself.

“I’m doing my best to be of value to the world and to the culture. And, you know, you step in front of a room of people and take a deep breath and open your mouth and sing – I want to offer something that’s real, that’s authentic and that’s meaningful,” the 43-year-old said in a phone interview.

The album is highly Jewish-inspired, owing to his own reconnections – and, he said, he hopes it will encourage empathy among listeners.

“I think the album title was maybe a hint to myself to come from that place of humility, that we don’t have the answers, as much as we think we know or that we learn,” said Ben-Shalom.

The songs on Known and Unknown include some Hebrew words, and the sounds of a shofar on two tracks, though the lyrics are largely in English.

Jewish themes shape much of Ben-Shalom’s interpretation and highly personal expressions; however, he emphasizes that, while his path is Jewish, he sees the disc’s new compositions as something more broadly accessible. The songs, he said, are “about inner experiences and feelings and reflections, and they’re about living in the world as a human being, not as a Jewish human being.”

Themes of transformation, vulnerability and boldness underline the album’s adult alternative and folk-adjacent sounds, and Jewish references abound, with songs titled “Shechina,” “Shake the Dust,” and “El and Gil.”

New name, old passion

Ben-Shalom is the new-ish musical handle of producer and multi-instrumentalist Ezra Cipes, who grew up in Kelowna and has played in bands since he was 14 years old, he told the CJN.

By the time he was 19, Cipes and one of his three brothers co-wrote a song with Indian-born Canadian punk/alternative music icon Bif Naked, who grew up in Winnipeg. He’s also performed regularly and recorded with the Calgary-born indie-pop-folk artists Tegan and Sara. (Bif Naked’s bassist, Chris Carlson, produced, co-wrote and played most of the other instruments on Ben-Shalom’s 2025 album.)

Prior to the new project, another band featuring the musical Cipes family had been nominated in 2022 for a Juno Award in the children’s music category for the second disc by the troupe, called the Oot n’ Oots. The five-piece band comprised Ezra; his three brothers, Matthew, Gabe and Ari; and his daughter, Ruthie, who was the singer.

When that project wound down following the end of 2023 summer festivals, the guitarist and keyboard player turned to exploring a different expressive musical language. He had set out on that musical exploration when the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas in Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, refocused his artistic lens.

“Oct. 7 put a lot of things into focus and showed the ways that, really, we’re all lost in one way or another,” he said.

The way the world responded after Oct. 7 was a “frustrating and painful” experience, he said.

“You think, ‘What can any of us do?’ And none of us can fix it – you can’t completely change all these cultural narratives and people’s ideas and correct the record or bring a higher perspective on our own, but we can do our part. We can stand strong in our own truth and share it, proudly and with strength and humility.”

Explaining that he’s always needed “a little spiritual medicine in my life,” Ben-Shalom described reading at night, from literature and philosophy to spiritual and self-help books, and had long realized he needed to do that, even before he connected with Judaism.

Pivotal turn to Judaism

Growing up, while his family – who own a successful organic vineyard – belonged to a local synagogue, they weren’t traditionally observant, though he became bar mitzvah and attended Jewish summer camp.

But, as an adult, he reflected, he was “totally disconnected” when it came to traditional Jewish practice and observance.

It was a moment in 2020, early during the pandemic, following a sweat lodge ceremony led by Ron Hall, a longtime family friend who’s an Indigenous artist and biologist, that brought Ben-Shalom an epiphany.

“It [the sweat lodge] was one of those moments that really flipped a switch in my whole life, and it was just a hinge moment. I thanked him [Hall] for the ceremony, and I shared with him how powerful it was and how meaningful it was, how deep it was,” said Ben-Shalom.

“And I said to him that he’s lucky to have the traditions to draw on to connect with his own soul and with the creator and I said to him: ‘All I have is this shallow materialistic Western culture.’

“And he said, ‘What are you talking about, Ezra? You’re Jewish. You come from an Indigenous people.’”

Nobody had ever said that to him before, Ben-Shalom recalled, and it became a turning point.

“I had grown up thinking it was cool to be Jewish and, like, neat, but also vaguely embarrassing to be Jewish, and it was something I didn’t really like to talk about or get into very much because … I always felt othered,” he said.

The COVID-era wave of social justice movements brought a resurgence of ideas “about decolonization and equality,” he said. “It’s good to support the Indigenous people keeping their culture, keeping their language, keeping their tradition, keeping the oral culture alive.”

He felt a tinge of hypocrisy. “And then I realized I was not honouring my own ancestors and I didn’t know my own language. I didn’t know my own story,” he said.

Ben-Shalom now attends the local Chabad, lays tefillin and wears tzitzit and a kippah.

He described one of the first times he performed the new music at a live show at the Kelowna venue Revelry in 2024.

“I got off stage and my whole body was sore, from holding myself and breathing and keeping myself grounded and keeping myself in a state of service,” he said. (Since then, he’s felt “a little bit more relaxed” performing the new material.)

“The songs are almost like prayers, and you have to kind of get into that place to sing them, where there’s a genuine connection and not just notes and not just words.”

Ben-Shalom hopes to bring the album in a live performance to audiences across Canada, and to ensure that includes Jewish audiences, he told the CJN.

“I’d like to play for all audiences that will have me, but, in particular, I want to go and play for Jewish people,” he said. “I want to share these songs with Jewish people. I want to bring inspiration, pride and honour to our tradition, to Jewish people.”

Jonathan Rothman is a reporter for the CJN based in Toronto. This article was originally published on thecjn.ca and is reprinted with permission.

מארק קרני לא ממתין לטראמפ

ראש ממשלת קנדה מארק קרני, הבין מהר מאוד עם מי יש לו עסק והכוונה לנשיא ארצות הברית דונלד טראמפ. קרני קלט מהר שטראמפ הוא נוכל סדרתי ומנהיג שאי אפשר לסמוך עליו. עד עידן טראמפ ארה”ב וקנדה נחשבו לבעלות הברית הקרובות ביותר בעולם במשך עשרות שנים. הגבול המשותף ביניהן שהוא הגבול היבשתי הארוך ביותר בעולם, רק הוסיף לקרבה בין שתי המדינות שנחשבו לאחיות

קנדה נחשבה לשותפה טבעית של ארה”ב בכל נושא ונושא, מהכלכלי ועד הצבאי ומה שביניהם. אך מעת הגעתו של טראמפ הנוכל לבית הלבן הכל השתנה. פתאום קנדה מצאה עצמה במשבר עמוק עם ארה”ב והבינה שהעולם השתנה. קרני ביטא זאת בראיונות לתקשורת כשכאמר שאנו נמצאים כיום במציאות שונה לעומת העבר

טראמפ כהרגלו התחיל לאיים על קנדה לשדבריו עושקת את ארה”ב, למרות שביוזמתו נחתם הסכם מסחרי חדש עם קנדה ומקסיקו בקדנציה הראשונה שלו. אז מה עם טראמפ לא עומד בהסכמים ובמילותיו? הרי הוא גם ביטל את ההסכם הגרעין בין ארה”ב לאיראן שכלל גם את שאר המעצמות ומדינות אירופה. מרבית מומחי הביטחון בישראל ובארה”ב טענו שמדובר היה בהסכם טוב, אך טראמפ שמע בעצת ראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו, וביטל את ההסכם. את התוצאות של המעשה החמור הזה אנו רואים עתה במזרח התיכון שנמצא במלחמה אזורית הרסנית

טראמפ לא רק שאיים על קנדה במכסים גבוהים (שבינתיים הוכרזו כלא חוקיים על ידי בית המשפט העליון של ארה”ב), אלה גם החליט שקנדה היא המדינה החמישים ואחת של ארה”ב. וכדי להמשיך ולעלוב בקנדה הוא כינה את קרני מושל קנדה, במקום ראש ממשלת קנדה

כאמור קרני קלט עם מי יש לו עסק. ואחד שמבין בכלכלה בניגוד לטראמפ הנוכל, לאחר ששימש נגיד הבנק המרכזי של קנדה ושל בריטניה, הוא חיפש אלטרנטיבות כלכליות לארה”ב. קרני הבין שקנדה לא תוכל לסמוך עוד על שכנתה מדרום – לפחות בעידן טראמפ – והוא חיפש אטרנטיבות. בשלב ראשון נחתם הסכם סחר חדש עם סין שכולל מכירת רכבים חשמליים לקנדה. ההתקרבות בין קנדה לסין היא באחריות טראמפ חסר האחריות. קרני לא עצר ובשבועות האחרונים חתם על הסכמי סחר עם עוד שלוש מדינות גדולות וחזקות: הודו, יפן ואוסטרליה

קרני גם מתקרב מאוד למדינות אירופה כולל האיחוד האירופי ובריטניה ולכל אלה יש מחנה משותף אחד. לנהל עסקים ביחד ולהימנע כל ככל האפשר לעבוד עם טראמפ, שכידוע אי אפשר ואסור לסמוך עליו

קרני גם מנסה לארגן מחדש את העיניינים בתוך קנדה בכל הרמות. מצד אחד הממשלה הפדרלית תחת הנהגתו מתקרבת יותר ויותר לממשלות של המחוזות השונים בקנדה. ומצד שני היא עוזרת למחוזות לשנות חוקים ותקנות שונות שיאפשרו להגביר את המסחר בתוך קנדה, ולהוריד חסמים שונים ומשונים

זה לא פשוט להפסיק להיות תלוי בארה”ב הגדולה והחזקה אך כשאין ברירה בעידן טראמפ הנוכל, חייבים להיות עצמאיים. תהליך כואב ונחוץ זה להערכתי יימשך לפחות כעשור ובסיכומו קנדה תהיה מדינה חזקה ועצמאית יותר, ותמשיך להסתכל לכיוון אירופה והמערב במקום לדרומה

גם לאזרחי קנדה יש מה להגיד על מדיניותו החולנית של טראמפ והם נוקטים מעשה: מספר התיירים הקנדיים שמבקר את ארה”ב הולך ופוחת משמעותית מאז שטראמפ נכנס לבית הלבן. מספר התיירים הקנדיים שמגיעים לארה”ב כבר פחת בארבעים אחוז לעומת אשתקד. השינוי המשמעותי הזה גורם לכלכת ארה”ב נזק משמעותי ביותר שנאמד בכמה מיליארדי דולרים

On war and antisemitism

Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, spoke with Canadian media on March 9. (photo from Consulate General of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada)

A terror attack against Canadian Jews on par with the Bondi Beach attack in Australia last December is inevitable if leaders in this country do not address the growing antisemitism crisis, according to Israel’s deputy foreign minister.

In an interview with the Independent Monday, Sharren Haskel reacted to recent shootings at Toronto synagogues and a larger trend of antisemitic acts.

“This will end in blood if the government is not taking serious actions. This is going to end exactly like the Bondi massacre,” she said.

Haskel is attuned to the Canadian situation because she was born in this country – one of only three Canadian-born individuals in Israeli history to sit in the Knesset. Her father lives in Canada and she has other family members here, who she visits frequently.

“I was always so proud of Canada being such a safe haven for Jews,” she said, calling Canada a place where acceptance of minorities, tolerance and coexistence have been strong, defining values.

“And to know where Canada was and where it is today is absolutely devastating,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking for me, and I think that not enough people truly understand the danger the Jewish community is [facing].”

Shootings at Jewish institutions and other acts of vandalism and violence have made Canada, according to an Israeli government report last year, the “champion on antisemitism.”

“It’s insane,” said Haskel.

When a racialized or other minority community in Canada expresses discomfort with a situation, she said, significant steps are taken to alleviate the problem.

Jews do not enjoy a parallel level of empathy, she said. “[Jews] say I am violently being attacked. I’m not allowed to enter my classes. I’ve been beaten. My business was shot at,” she said. “And nothing. Nothing.”

Elected officials have allowed the situation to go too far, said Haskel.

“The government is not setting a very clear red line,” she said. “We are far beyond words. Words don’t matter anymore. This is about actions now.”

The deputy foreign minister added that Canadians, too often, demonstrate inappropriate responses to international events. Critics of Israeli military approaches to Hamas and to the Iranian regime are coming from a place of privilege.

“In Canada, you are very lucky,” she said. “This is one of the most peaceful countries, you enjoy its freedom, and many people in the younger generation have received that freedom on a silver platter. This is not the case in the Middle East. Israel has faced a six-fronted war for the last two years against six different armies – all of them sponsored, trained, armed by this vile, fanatical regime in Iran.”

The Iranian regime has also undermined Israel’s neighbours, she noted, destroying Lebanon’s politics, social fabric and culture. In Syria, Iran backed the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which was overthrown in 2024 after a civil war in which the government explicitly targeted and murdered its own citizens, particularly minorities, killing at least 300,000 people and possibly as many as 650,000.

“It’s very easy to speak from a very comfortable, liberated place,” said Haskel. “But our reality in the Middle East is a very difficult and harsh one, where we are still fighting for our survival, for our freedom, for our rights as minorities here in this region against very extreme, radical, fanatical terrorist organizations and terrorist regimes.”

Haskel hedged on whether Israel’s war aim in the current conflict with Iran is regime change.

“The goal is to take out the long-term existential threat over Israel,” she said. “This is how we define it, and this is the goal of the war.”

That involves taking out Iran’s nuclear program, she said, as well as its ballistic missile program, and neutralizing the experts who are developing, manufacturing and advancing tools for mass destruction. This war is aimed at conclusively ending that threat, she said.

Past Israeli military and covert actions against the Iranian nuclear program resulted in continued Iranian determination to rebuild, according to Haskel.

“They didn’t get the message of our capability, of how determined we are that they will not be able to reach that master plan of annihilation of the state of Israel,” she said. “They’ve been working tirelessly on renovating, on re-creating, on reconstructing, all of that over again. And we are at the point where we say, look, you know, we cannot go every year into an operation like that to eliminate an immediate threat like a nuclear weapon, mass destruction, disruptive weapons.”

Haskel stops short of declaring whether that requires regime change, echoing US President Donald Trump, who has urged Iranians themselves to overthrow their government.

She is hopeful that the US-Israel actions will open a path “for the Iranian people to liberate themselves and to change these fanatical tyrants who have been abusing and torturing them for so many years.”

Should the regime be replaced by a Western-oriented government, the impacts would be broader than the Middle East. For example, Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, is engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering in Latin America to help fund their operations, she noted.

Haskel believes that the world should be grateful to the United States and Israel.

“President Trump and Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu are leading right now an effort to protect humanity,” she said. “Every leader and every sensible person around the world needs to ask themselves who they want as their friends and who would come to their help when they really needed it the most.

“During our time in history, when freedom, real freedom, is in danger,” she said, “we are very fortunate to have two leaders like Trump and Netanyahu that stood up and took actions to defend humanity, to defend Western democracies.”

Haskel said that representing Israel carries a profound responsibility not only to the country itself but also to Jewish communities around the world. For her, that responsibility is deeply personal, particularly when it comes to Canada, where she has such close ties. Hearing directly from relatives and friends about rising fear and insecurity has reinforced her sense of duty.

Haskel, who has served as deputy foreign minister since 2024, was first elected to the Knesset in 2015. She was born in Toronto to an Israeli father and a Moroccan mother who met in Paris. The family lived in Canada before moving to Israel when Sharren was a year old. She was raised in Kfar Saba and studied in the United States and Australia. First elected on the Likud slate, she joined Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party in 2021.

Jews shine in Canucks colours

Zeev Buium, top right, and Max Sasson, bottom right, talking to, left to right, Bik Nizzar, Satiar Shah and Josh Elliott-Wolfe of Sportsnet 650 Radio hosts at the JCC Sports Dinner, March 3. (photo by Kyle Berger)

Cheering for the home team is one of the simplest concepts in sports fandom. The players represent the city, wearing its name on their crest, and the fans give those players their cheers and emotional support.

For members of Vancouver’s Jewish community, there is even more of a reason to watch and cheer for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) hometown Canucks. Two current members of the team, Zeev Buium and Max Sasson, are part of a small fraternity of Jewish NHL players.

“One hundred percent,” Sasson answered when asked if it he was proud to represent the Jewish community in the NHL. “Some of the rinks, especially when we got Zeev, there will be signs written in Hebrew during the warms-ups, and that’s pretty cool. Some fans have interacted with me and say I’m an inspiration and stuff, and that means the world to me and my family, having Jewish players in the NHL and representing our community.”

Sasson, who was raised in Birmingham, Mich., where he had his bar mitzvah, said Jewish life, including Shabbat dinners with his grandparents, were a regular part of his childhood and something he still thinks about.

“My dad and I were talking the other day about how my first NHL goal was against [Boston’s star Jewish goaltender] Jeremy Swayman and it’s probably the only first goal ever in the NHL to be a Jewish guy on a Jewish guy,” he said.

Sasson’s pro hockey story is a bit unique, as he wasn’t drafted to the league like most NHL players are. A late bloomer, Sasson was scouted and then signed by the Canucks to an entry-level contract in 2023 after a couple of strong seasons with the Western Michigan Broncos.

He spent most of his first season with Vancouver’s AHL team, the Abbotsford Canucks, leading them to a Calder Cup Championship last season. This season, however, Sasson has spent most of the year with the big club, scoring 11 goals already, and was recently rewarded with a contract extension that will take him through the 2027/28 season.

“When you sit back and think about the journey, it feels really good,” Sasson said about where his pro hockey career currently stands. “Not having anything handed to me, doing it the hard way, getting cut by teams growing up, and even getting to college and not playing a bunch my first year. But I’ve always said I have belief in myself and, every day, I try to improve so that I’m better than I was the day before.”

Though Sasson isn’t thinking too far ahead, noting that goals and milestones get achieved through continual effort and practice, he does hope for a long NHL career beyond his contract. Then, perhaps, he’ll follow that up with a career in the JCC’s recreational hockey league? “I’ll hop in there for sure,” he said with a smile.

* * *

Before joining the Canucks this season, 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium had already made waves around the Jewish hockey world as the first NHL player with Israeli parents.

His mom and dad, Miriam and Sorin, met in Israel when they were 16 and went through their military service together. They fell in love while living in Israel, before moving together to San Diego, Calif., when they were both 23.

“I think my parents just wanted to see what the American dream was all about,” Buium explained. “They came over with one suitcase with both their clothes in it and maybe $1,000, and they moved in with our close family friend’s cousin. My dad started his heating and air conditioning company, and it’s done really well. But they obviously love Israel and we talk about going back there all the time.”

Despite being raised in San Diego, Buium has maintained his own close relationship with Israel, as his parents took him and his brothers, Ben and Shai (a prospect with the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL), there every summer, until he was 15, to visit family and friends.

They also always found ways to keep their Jewishness in their hockey adventures.

In 2018, all three Buium brothers represented Team Orange County’s ice hockey team at the JCC Maccabi Games: Zeev and Shai played on the team and older brother Ben served as an assistant coach.

photo - The three Buium brothers – left to right, Zeev, Shai and Ben – at the 2018 JCC Maccabi Games in Orange County, Calif. — The three Buium brothers – left to right, Zeev, Shai and Ben – at the 2018 JCC Maccabi Games in Orange County, Calif. (photo from Raychel Reilly)

In the summer of 2024, shortly after being drafted in the NHL by the Minnesota Wild, Zeev was brought back to the JCC Maccabi world as a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the games in Detroit.

“It was very nerve-wracking,” Buium said of speaking in front of thousands at the ceremony. “I had never talked in front of that many people before. It was also cool to go back to see the ceremony again and it brought back memories of when I was there. [JCC Maccabi] was such a fun time in my life and getting to do it with my brothers too was so cool and such a fun experience.

“I always tell people,” he said of his JCC Maccabi experience, “if you get the opportunity to go, you gotta do it. It’s something you can’t miss out on.”

While Buium hasn’t had the opportunity to play hockey in Israel, he recalls watching his brother Ben play in the Maccabiah Games there in 2017, and he loves seeing the sport becoming more popular in Israel.

“It’s cool to see [hockey] growing there and, hopefully we can have more Jewish athletes and Jewish hockey players,” he said, noting that some of the Jewish hockey players in the NHL, like Edmonton’s Zach Hyman, have reached out to him as well. “The Jewish community is small and so is the hockey world – and you put them together and it’s even smaller,” said Buium. “So, it’s cool to run into those guys and share that together.”

Buium has a tattoo on his arm with the dates, written in Hebrew and based on the Hebrew calendar, of his previous hockey championships, though he admits he can’t speak the language as well as he’d like.

“I feel embarrassed speaking Hebrew because my accent is so bad,” he laughed. “I mispronounce words so much, but I try to keep up with it. Especially growing up, my parents’ English wasn’t great, so they would speak Hebrew to us a lot and we responded in English, so it helped all of us out. I’m glad that we never lost touch with understanding it.”

Less than a year after being drafted 12th overall at the 2024 NHL entry draft as his season with the University of Denver wrapped up, Buium was invited by the Wild to join the NHL club for the playoffs, ending his college career and beginning his professional one. He showed well in the 2025 playoffs, leading into his first full season as an NHLer for the 2025/26 season.

Referring to his transition to college and then the NHL as a “whirlwind” time in his life, Buium said he trusted himself, as well as the people close to him, to find his way through it all.

“I’ve always been where my feet are and focusing on what I need to do,” he said. “Everything went really smoothly those two years at Denver. I love that place a lot and it was hard to leave but I can’t pass up an opportunity like that, when Minnesota comes calling and telling you that you’re going to play in the playoffs. So, it was a special moment for me and for my family. It was cool to sit back that summer and reflect on everything that happened and went down, and just be appreciative and grateful for where we are.”

Continuing the whirlwind, 31 games into this season, Buium became the centrepiece player in a blockbuster trade that sent sure-fire future Hall of Famer Quinn Hughes from the Canucks to Minnesota. While Buium admits he wasn’t expecting the trade when it happened, he has embraced the opportunity to be part of a young, rebuilding Vancouver Canucks team.

“Minnesota is a very veteran team with a lot of older guys and a lot of experienced players,” he said, noting, “It’s a different atmosphere here, with younger players and a lot of us trying to prove ourselves and, obviously, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs with young guys. But we know that, and I think it’s cool to be able to try to put all this together and become something special.”

Kyle Berger is Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver sports coordinator, and a freelance writer living in Richmond.

Shooting response

Jewish leaders and public officials across the Greater Toronto Area are warning that a series of shootings targeting synagogues has pushed antisemitism into a far more dangerous phase, prompting urgent calls for action from police, governments and civil society. Community organizations said the attacks were not isolated acts of vandalism but part of a broader climate of escalating hatred that has left many Jewish families feeling exposed, shaken and abandoned.

Groups including CIJA and UJA Federation said symbolic condemnations are no longer enough, arguing that officials must respond with stronger enforcement, more visible protection and a clearer strategy for confronting extremist incitement before more serious violence occurs. Their message was that when shots are fired at houses of worship, the issue is no longer only about one community’s fears, but about whether public institutions are willing to defend basic safety and democratic order.

Prime Minister Mark Carney described the attacks as “criminal antisemitic assaults” and said federal agencies would support investigators in identifying and prosecuting those responsible. Other civic leaders publicly denounced the shootings as an attack on the right of Jewish Canadians to gather in safety. Together, the reactions reflected a growing consensus that these recent events are not just alarming, but a national test of whether repeated anti-Jewish violence will finally trigger a more serious response.

Dogs help war veterans live again

When Achiya Klein awoke after surgery, doctors began asking simple questions. Could he see this? Could he see that? “First, take off the bandages,” he told them.

“We already did,” they replied.

Klein was injured during a 2013 military operation near the Gaza border. His team discovered a two-kilometre, reinforced tunnel extending 400 metres into Israel. Klein led an Israel Defence Forces mission into Gaza to investigate further. As he approached an opening above the tunnel, a hidden booby trap detonated, with Klein, at the front of the team, taking the worst of the blast. The explosion caused severe burns, multiple facial fractures and catastrophic damage to his eyes, leaving him permanently blinded. He was evacuated under fire while rockets and gunfire erupted in the area.

Klein, now 34, grew up on a small religious kibbutz in the Judaean mountains. His childhood unfolded during the Second Intifada, surrounded by soldiers and a culture that expected young Israelis to serve. As a teenager, he and his friends competed to see who would make it into the most elite units.

In hospital, Klein initially believed surgery would fix the damage and allow him to return to his command. Realizing he could not see forced him to confront a completely different future.

Instead of dwelling on what might have been, he focused on recovery. Within months, he began rehabilitation through sport – cycling on tandem bikes, swimming, and running with guides. Eventually, he joined Israel’s para-rowing program and went on to compete internationally, representing Israel at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, in 2021.

A turning point in his independence came when he received his first guide dog from the Israel Guide Dog Centre. The dog, Knight, allowed him to navigate campuses, travel independently and rebuild everyday life.

photo - Achiya Klein with his guide dog Joy — Achiya Klein with his guide dog Joy. *(photo by Pat Johnson)*

Today, Klein lives in Toronto with his guide dog Joy. For him, the dog represents far more than mobility – she makes it possible to work, travel and be fully present with his children, like walking them to school.

Klein shared his story with the Independent on a previous visit to Vancouver (jewishindependent.ca/freedom-and-friendship) and he shared it here again recently as part of a cross-Canada tour sponsored by Canadian Friends of the Israel Guide Dog Centre. He and Joy were joined by fellow IDF veteran Nave Rachman, and his dog Jack.

Rachman trained in flight school before serving in an elite combat unit. During a military operation, what should have been routine turned into an ambush. Several soldiers were severely injured and Rachman helped evacuate them under fire.

Physically unharmed, Rachman initially continued with his life, even moving to Hong Kong for work. But the trauma lingered. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) symptoms gradually emerged – depression, anxiety, avoidance and difficulty with relationships. Without visible wounds, he received no immediate treatment and tried to push through alone.

Over time, his condition worsened, straining his marriage and leaving him isolated. After his wife left, Rachman sought professional help and began intensive therapy. His recovery took another turn when he was paired with Jack, a service dog from the Israel Guide Dog Centre.

At first, Rachman doubted he could care for a dog – but Jack soon became essential in his life. The yellow Labrador helps him manage anxiety, navigate crowded environments and detect rising stress before panic sets in.

Rachman and Klein shared their stories with invited guests at the home of Ellen Wiesenthal and Eyal Daniel on Feb. 26. They were joined by Noach Braun, who founded the Israel Guide Dog Centre 40 years ago, and Atarah Derrick, executive director of Canadian Friends of the Israel Guide Dog Centre. While in British Columbia, they also spoke at Congregation Schara Tzedeck and at Vancouver Talmud Torah, as well as at a ski-and-learn event in Whistler. Their tour included presentations in Calgary and Toronto.

Braun said he was motivated by his love of people and dogs in founding the Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind, drawing on his experience training dogs in the IDF.

Each year, he said, the centre raises about 150 puppies, many of them Labradors. After two months with their mothers, the dogs spend about a year with volunteer families – often university students – who provide early socialization and care before the animals return to the centre for formal guide-dog training.

Expanding out from service dogs for the visually impaired, the centre also provides animals for emotional support and other needs, with PTSD being an increasingly common condition for which service animals deliver a range of supports.

The rise of PTSD in soldiers and civilians after Oct. 7, 2023, is putting added strain on the Israel Guide Dog Centre, Braun said. Training dogs is an intensive, multi-year undertaking and maintaining quality while increasing quantity requires significant investments of money and human resources.

“It will take time,” Braun said. “We need more money, more people, more dogs, more land, more vehicles.… We need to build it properly.”

Pop-up exhibit popular

Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia director of programming Elana Wenner and JMABC executive director Eli Klasner at the Feb. 11 launch of the museum’s pop-up exhibit You Can’t Spell Delicious Without Deli. (photo from JMABC)

Omnitsky Kosher Delicatessen has been in business for more than 115 years. A community institution, it is the perfect location for the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia’s pop-up exhibit You Can’t Spell Delicious Without Deli: A Look Behind the Counters of Vancouver’s Historic Jewish Delis.

Patrons can grab something to eat – at the restaurant or to take home – and peruse the photographs and blurbs about five different delis that have made their mark on Vancouver history. There’s a printed guide available, which has more information about the exhibit and the delis featured. There is also merch: T-shirts. One has a bowl of matzah ball soup, one a deli meat sandwich, another an assortment of containers, a cereal bowl and a block of cheese with the words, “I can tolerate a lot of things. Dairy is not one of them.”

The exhibit launched Feb. 11, filling the restaurant, the night hosted by the current owner of Omnitsky, Richard Wood. The deli has seen only three owners in its long history: it was started in Winnipeg by Louis Omnitsky in 1910; bought some seven decades later by Eppy Rappaport, who brought it to Vancouver in the 1990s, running it here until 2023; and Wood.

Omnitsky has been in a few locations in Vancouver, including on Oak Street near 41st, where it took over the space of Kaplan’s Deli, when that community institution closed in 2014.

Kaplan’s was started by Ida and Abrasha Kaplan in the 1960s; Serge Haber ran it from 1981-2000, Marshall Kramer for a dozen-plus years and Howie English for its last year or so.

Kaplan’s is one of the five delis featured in the exhibit, along with Omnitsky, which is now on Fraser Street between 18th and 19th avenues. The others are Oscar’s (1943-1956), Rubin’s (1955-1981) and Max’s, which has been in operation since 1949 on Oak Street at 15th Avenue, with various owners over the years.

More than dates and names, the exhibit shares tidbits about each establishment, like where Ida Kaplan learned how to make her famous cinnamon buns, some of the many celebrities that visited Oscar’s and how Rubin’s was a late-night hotspot, open to as late as 3 a.m. in its heyday.

“Sometimes I find myself browsing through the stories of our past, and certain items or documents just speak to me in a way that screams, ‘Tell my story!’” Elana Wenner, director of programming at the Jewish Museum and Archives, told the Independent about the how the deli exhibit came about.

“In this case, I was visiting Omnitsky’s at their new location on Fraser Street, and I had just recently come across some photos in our archives of the old Kaplan’s Deli on Oak Street…. As I browsed the shelves in the new Omnitsky’s storefront, it occurred to me just how poignant it was to be living through this unique moment in Vancouver’s Jewish history.

“As a Vancouver native and historian of local Jewish culture, the transitions of any local Jewish establishment always trigger a certain chord of interest for me,” she explained. “The major move of Omnitsky’s from Oak Street to Fraser Street was a transitional moment that would surely become a marker in the future telling of Vancouver’s many chapters of Jewish culture and growth.”

Wenner leads the museum’s walking tours of the Strathcona neighbourhood.

“I always conclude [them] with an ‘epilogue’ of where the community moved next, as there was a pretty abrupt collective move from Strathcona over to Fairview in the 1940s, and then a slow progression along Oak Street through to the new millennium,” she said.

The story is, of course, still being written.

“As young families continue to populate the areas east of Fraser, the residential centre of Jewish life in Vancouver is transitioning starkly eastward,” said Wenner. “So, while Omnitsky’s move from Oak to Fraser may have seemed like a shock to many of the old-timers … it makes a lot of sense in the grander scheme, in the way that the community seems to be moving now.”

The 2018 edition of the museum’s journal, The Scribe, had the theme of Jewish restaurants. Most of the original content for the pop-up exhibit came from this publication, said Wenner, “all based on oral history interviews with the restaurateurs themselves.”

The initial concept was to feature all the local Jewish-owned restaurants throughout Vancouver’s 140-year history, but there were simply too many, she said. “So, the project shifted to become focused on just Jewish-owned delis.

“As I put the word out that we were looking for more information, I quickly discovered that there had been many more delis owned by Jewish families in Vancouver than I had ever expected,” she said. “We chose the five featured in the current exhibit based on the extent of information available to us, both from existing archival materials, as well as new information collected from interviews with family members, descendants, and gleaned from secondary sources outside the museum.”

The museum’s archives include oral histories, copies of menus, newspaper articles and even some handwritten notes of sale and purchase lists, said Wenner.

Response to the exhibit has been positive.

“On the one hand, we wish we had complete stories for each and every single deli,” said Wenner, “but it’s actually really satisfying when people pop out of the woodwork and say, ‘But wait! My grandparents owned this place!’ and then they have all this new information for us to delve into about a deli that had previously not even been on our list.”

As part of the exhibit, the museum asks visitors to share any information they may have on Pheasant Deli, Barer’s Deli, Lindy Fine Foods, Triangle Café, Moishe’s Deli and Leon’s Kosher.

“We wanted to highlight the fact that we do know they existed, but the archives are only as good as the material we receive, and these are stories we haven’t yet collected,” said Wenner, who expects more pop-ups in the museum’s future.

“What makes this exhibit so interesting,” noted Eli Klasner, executive director of the JMABC, “is the collaboration with a business that is such an important part of our local Jewish history. The museum is committed to preserving Jewish history and retelling our stories in unique and interesting ways, including with entertaining pop-up exhibits in a range of locations and venues.”

photo - Two of the T-shirts for sale at the exhibit, which runs to April 1 — Two of the T-shirts for sale at the exhibit, which runs to April 1. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

The T-shirts are proving to be a popular aspect of the current exhibit, which runs to April 1.

“In terms of the T-shirts – honestly, people are obsessed,” Wenner said. “There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the deli exhibit in general, but the limited-edition T-shirts being sold alongside the display have garnered a lot of unexpected public attention. We keep receiving requests for more, and plan to release a new line of designs in the coming months to meet the demand.”

Wenner urged readers to check out the new JMABC website, jewishmuseum.ca, where there is information about upcoming programs, including for Jewish Heritage Month in May, as well as many online exhibits.

“Our summer 2026 season of walking tours is coming up soon,” she said, noting that the tours sell out quickly.

The museum offers four different tours throughout Vancouver and Victoria, she said, “each telling the fascinating stories of early Jewish life and community in BC, from 1858 to present day.” They also offer private tours, which can be booked by emailing [email protected].

An invite to join JWest

If you’ve been through the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver lately, you may have noticed a simple question appearing in the hallways and around the building: “Are you in yet?”

It’s the invitation to join JWest, the re-construction of the JCC and King David High School, but it didn’t start as a marketing slogan. Its origins are more personal.

Some time ago, Shirley Barnett – a longtime JCC visionary and supporter who regularly works out there – made an observation that stuck with me. We were talking about the campaign, and she said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that made it easier to start a conversation about what we are building here? The community centre is full of people who recognize each other from being there regularly. You see the same faces in the gym, in the hallways, or in the change rooms. But, often, you just smile and move on.”

That idea resonated with me. What if the campaign had a line that felt natural for one person to say to another to get them engaged? Something simple and inviting: “Hey, are you involved in the project? Have you thought about contributing?”

From there, we worked with Traction Creative, a small agency that has deep ties in the Jewish community. They came back with a few ideas, including the one I had penned, and when we saw “Are you in yet?” with some sample layouts, we knew that was indeed the one. It’s friendly. It’s direct. And, most importantly, it sounds like something people would actually say.

The creative team had some fun with the idea by tailoring messages to different parts of the building. For example, in the long hallway between the gyms, one sign reads: “Less long hall, more pickleball,” a nod to the multi-use athletic courts planned for the new space. Wherever you see the signs, they all tie back to that same question: “Are you in yet?”

Over the past several years, the JWest project has raised close to $200 million from governments, foundations, and donors from the Jewish community and beyond. At one point, many people believed government funding at a significant level for a project like this would be impossible. Eldad Goldfarb, the executive director of the JCC, doggedly courted them. After years of making our case, both the provincial and federal governments stepped up at the early stages of the project, and it was a moment of elation. This could and would be a reality.

photo - Alvin Wasserman in front of a model of the proposed JWest development — Alvin Wasserman in front of a model of the proposed JWest development. (photo from JWest)

Now the campaign is in its public funding phase, with an invitation extended to the entire community. Yes, major gifts were instrumental in getting us here, but JWest has always been about something bigger than that. It’s about participation. When someone contributes, whether it’s a “good luck multiple of $18” gift or a larger one, they’re signaling, “I’m a part of this.”

This sense of belonging is exactly what the centre has always been about. I often describe it as the living room of the community, a heimish space to come together. On any given day, you might see kids from daycare singing, seniors gathering for coffee and students from KDHS stopping by between classes. The mix of ages, backgrounds and activities is inspiring. It’s like a small, vibrant city inside one building. The JWest project will make that experience even stronger and ensure its continuity.

So, if you see the campaign message and wonder whether to get involved, my answer is simple: you’ll want to be part of this. It’s going to be amazing.

I encourage community members to give at whatever level feels comfortable. Remember, stretching always makes you feel better. What matters is being able to say, years from now, that you helped build something that will serve the community for generations.

So, are you in yet?

Alvin Wasserman is a JWest Foundation and Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver board director, and was a two-time board chair of the JCCGV.