News – Page 24

Opportunity for exploration

Jewish summer camps, like Camp Solomon Schechter near Olympia, Wash., aim to give participants a lifelong sense of belonging, leadership, joy and identity. (photo from campschechter.org)

The California-based Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation, commonly known as the Jim Joseph Foundation, has prioritized investment in what it calls “powerful Jewish learning experiences,” in its effort to enable “all Jews, their families, and their friends to lead connected, meaningful, purpose-filled lives and to make positive contributions to their communities and the world.” This commitment is advanced by signature grantees that provide such experiences to young people: BBYO, Foundation for Jewish Camp, Hillel, Birthright Israel, and Moishe House.

Over the last few years, the foundation has partnered with Rosov Consulting to bring a consistent research lens to the experiences provided by these various organizations. The goal of this partnership has been: (1) to identify both the distinct and common contributions made by each organization to participants at different stages of their young lives, and (2) to identify the components of the experiences they provide that make them so powerful.

Rosov’s latest report, Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences, was released in September. Through a series of 10 virtual focus groups, researchers interviewed 48 people, most between the ages of 25 and 35, who had participated in some combination of Jewish camp, youth groups, campus life and post-grad community.

Program alumni remember powerful Jewish learning experiences as having deep personal significance. They learned something new and important about themselves, locating themselves in relation to a larger entity – typically, the Jewish people. They sensed their lives being propelled forward, often in new directions. These experiences didn’t speak to all the alumni in the same ways or with the same force, but all five experiences, without exception, were described in these terms by many. In their own words, alumni recollected:

Youth group: “[feeling] so fulfilled … I had a purpose in some sort of way in that time that wasn’t school or wasn’t what I had to do.”

Camp: “a big sense of independence … getting to do things I personally never had a chance to do.”

College: “[being] taught a lot for my future in terms of, for me personally, building a Jewish life and a Jewish home.”

Israel: “[Gaining a] whole [new] perspective of what it was to be Jewish and to feel accepted. [It was] the first place I felt truly at home.”

Moishe House: “finding my own way in … having a place to be and be Jewish … that completely changed my life.”

The settings in which these powerful Jewish learning experiences occur are not simply substitutes for one another. They take place at different moments in a young person’s life and are infused by the distinct social and educational priorities associated with that developmental moment. At overnight camp, for example, this involved experiencing a model of Jewish community that was either absent or just very different at home. The specialness of the camp community was emphasized by the physical distance of camp from home and the temporal boundedness of the camp experience during specific months of the year.

The experiences provided by the grantees are all highly experiential, involving learning through doing. This outcome was strongly associated with spending time at overnight camp, in large part because the rhythm of camp runs from morning to night, and from Shabbat to Shabbat; it includes mealtimes, prayer times and other opportunities for learning through the performance of ritual.

photo - man with a kappa in front of an audience of youth at camp — “I gained the value of joyous Judaism, social connections … having a community of people that you get to just be with, [is] just amazing.” *(photo from campschechter.org)*

Nearly two-thirds of study participants attended camp at some point. Camp is a place to stretch, to experiment and to explore new experiences, in Jewish and personal terms. This is the theme to which alumni consistently returned most often when talking about camp. They recollect experiencing joy and Jewish learning, and they celebrated the friendships formed, but it was the personal growth they experienced thanks to being given the space to explore that exceeded all other outcomes.

Participant perspectives included:

• “[I was] pushing boundaries in a very safe environment. That’s something that happened at my camp.”

• “I think for me a lot of [the takeaways from camp] were a big sense of independence.… [Camp] really got very different from school…. It gave us a time to just do all the fun things that you don’t always get to do that I personally never got a chance to do. It was a lot of new things that I saw that I’d never seen before or new experiences.”

Their reflections converged around the many lifelong benefits of the Jewish camp experience, such as:

Jewish learning: “I feel like there’s a lot of prayers that I know in my core because of camp and not necessarily because of Hebrew school and Sunday school.”

L’dor v’dor: “All of the camp songs that you’d sing on Shabbat … you take with you for the rest of your life. And I have a son who goes to Jewish preschool now and he is singing these songs, and we sing them together in the car.…”

Independence, joy and friendship: “I gained the value of joyous Judaism, social connections … having a community of people that you get to just be with, [is] just amazing.”

Connecting to Jewish identity: “Camp really helped me understand the importance of Jewish community and continuing involvement with the Jewish community after my bat mitzvah. If it weren’t for camp, I would not have done Hillel in college. I would not have joined Moishe House.”

Belonging, leadership, joy and identity – four of the core building blocks highlighted in the study – were central themes at Foundation for Jewish Camp’s 2024 Leaders Assembly, which brought together more than 800 Jewish camp leaders and advocates from around the world on Dec. 9-11 in Chicago. At the gathering, Rosov Consulting shared more findings from this study, which can be found at jewishcamp.org.

– from Powerful Jewish Experiences,
compiled by Rosov Consulting (September 2024),
and Foundation for Jewish Camp

הסכנה הגדולה של ישראל היא הפילוג הפנימי

ישראל נמצאת כיום במצב בטחוני מסובך ביותר כולל חזיתות רבות. הצבא ומערכת הביטחון נקראים כל העת לפעול לביטחונה של המדינה ובמקביל להכות באיומים מכל הכיוונים

למרות זאת הסכנה הגדולה ביותר שמאיימת על קיומה היא הפילוג הפנימי הגדול שלא ניתן לאחותו עוד. ישראל מחולקת כיום בברור לשני מחנותשמתנגדים אחד לשני: מחנה המרכז-ליברלים-שמאל ומולו מחנה הימין-דתיים-משיחיים

ראש הממשלה הנצחי של ישראל בנימין נתניהו, הוא הנושא באחריות העיקרי ליצירת שני מחנות ניצים אלה. אחדשמתנגד לו ואחד שתומך בו. במדיניות הפרד ומשול נתניהו שולט ביד רמה בישראל, שהפכה לבובת הסמרטוטים שלו

שוחחתי עם אשתו של חבר ותיק שגר בירושלים והיא אמרה לי מפורשות כי הפילוג הפנימי היא הסכנה הגדולה ביותר המאיימת על קיומה של מדינת ישראל. או במילותיה: מדינת יהודה מול מדינת ישראל. לדבריה היום רבים הולכים ונוטים ימינה אך במקביל ההתנגדות לנתניהו ושלטונו גם היא צוברת תאוצה

כבר זמן מה שאני שומע ישראלים שמתבטאים בצורה דומה ורואים איך המדינה שלהם מחולקת כבר לשני חלקים: מדינת יהודה ומדינת ישראל. ולרבים רבים ברור כי כבר לא ניתן לחבר בין שני המחנות והשינאה ביניהם הולכת ומתגברת. נתניהו מעצימה כדי שיוכל להמשיך ולשבת על כיסא המלך, למרות שהוא ראש הממשלה פחות ממלכתי שישראל ידעה מעולם

מספיק לראות את התנהגותם של תומכי נתניהו ממדינת יהודה שלא בוחלים בשום דרך להביע את עמדתם הניצית, ומנסים לפגוע בכל דרך במתנגדים שלהם. הם אלו שרוצים בהפיכה המשפטית כדי למלט את נתניהו הנוכל מגזרות בית המשפט נגדו, ולאפשר לו לשלוט עוד שנים רבות, תוך שהוא הופך את קופת המדינה לכיסו הפרטי

זה מביש לראות את ממשלת נתניהו המושחתת שממשיכה לנהל את ענייניה כאילו לא התרחש אסון השבעה באוקטובר, כאשר בכיריה לא לוקחים אחריות על המחדל הגדול, מתפטרים ונעלמים מעין הציבור. אחד האפסים הגדול ביותר באופוזיציה לנתניהו, גדעון סער, שטען כי אסור לראש הממשלה הזה להמשיך בתפקידו, חזר על ארבע לממשלתו. זה מביש איך זה שטען שהוא בעל ערכים העדיף את ערך הכיסא על ערך האופוזיציה לראש הממשלה הגרוע בתולדות ישראל. סער ודומיו רק ממשיכים לחזק ולתדלק את נתניהו, שממשיך לצחוק כל הדרך לבנק

מבישה ביותר התנהגות פעילי הרחוב של נתניהו שמתקיפים פיזית את משפחות החטופים, יורקים עליהם, מרביצים להם מכות, מנסים לדרוס אותם ועוד. במדינת ישראל של פעם היו ערכים בסיסיים והכל נתנו כבוד למשפחות של חטופים וחללים, ואף אחד לא ניסה לפגוע בהם ולטעון שהם אנשי שמאל אשכנזים שמתנגדים לנתניהו. לא ראינו שנתניהו יוצא להגנת המשפחות של החטופים ומבקר את פעיליו שפוגעים בהם. כל עוד זה משרת את מטרתו להמשיך ולשלוט אז הם יכולים להמשיך ולבזות את המדינה וערכיה

נתניהו ומשפחתו ממשיכה להפעיל את מכונת הרעל הכוללת תעמולה שקרית, כדי להמשיך ולחזק את עמידתה בראש המדינה. לא נראה שאכפת למשפחת המלוכה החולנית הזו כי המדינה – שהם אחראים עליה – הולכת ומתפרקת מנכסיה. הם לא מבינים כי המשבר החברתי-פוליטי הגדול הזה ועוד בזמן של מתיחות ביטחונית נוראית, עוזר להחלשת המדינה והנצחת הפילוג. לא פלא שישראלים רבים נוטשים את המדינה ורבים אחרים נערכים לעשות זאת בעתיד הנראה לעין

אני מציע לישראלים שחושבים שהם חווים רק באיום בטחוני מהשכנים, וכי השבעה באוקטובר הוא עונש מאלוהים להתעורר ולקלוט שהעונש הוא נתניהו

We are in crisis, says Lyons

The federal government’s designated point person on antisemitism raised alarm bells for Canadians following attacks on Jews last month in Amsterdam.

Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism, spoke to the Vancouver Jewish community Nov. 12, in a special online conversation with Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Lana Marks Pulver, chair of the Jewish Federation, explained that the briefing was organized after the attacks on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam Nov. 7.

The antisemitism problem is both local and global, said Lyons, but Canada has a particular problem.

“We were one of the first countries to demonstrate on the streets,” she said. “On our university campuses, unfortunately, certainly online and in some of our other institutions, [there has been] a level of antisemitism that we had never, ever expected to see in Canada.”

People were phoning her from abroad asking what’s happening to Canada. This is a country with a strong democracy and rule of law, she said, and yet 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes target the Jewish community, which makes up 1% of the population.

photo - Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism — Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism (photo from international.gc.ca)

“We need leaders stepping up and a full court press to address the challenges in front of us,” she said. “This is not just about our Jewish community. This is about what kind of country we want as Canadians. I consider this a crisis that we are in that really needs a crisis response.”

Oct. 7, 2023, “shook the world,” Lyons said. “Frankly, what happened in Amsterdam, on another level, has also shaken us. I think we were hoping that, in this past year, since October 2023, in our own countries, we were putting in place some remedies, some actions to address the antisemitism that we were seeing rising in our country and in so many other, particularly Western, countries. But I think what happened in Amsterdam has been another shockwave that I think causes all of us to say we need to double down.”

Canadians may be complacent, Lyons suggested, because we believe in our historical, if possibly mythological, tolerance.

“We’ve got an incredible country, solid governments and good rule of law,” she said. “I have lived in countries that can’t even come close to that description. And we are on the island of North America. We’ve had a pretty good ride. I think that maybe we weren’t paying enough attention to some of the ills within our society.”

When a society or its economy is under stress, antisemitism inevitably rises, said Lyons.

“We already had, before October 2023, an increase in antisemitism in Canada,” she said. “Where we are now, after October 2023, is a level of antisemitism that is completely unprecedented in our country. What do we do with that? Well, clearly, we fight it. But we also have to take this as an opportunity and say, alright, some of that was lying beneath the surface. It’s now very much exposed. We have the opportunity. We need to turn this into a catharsis. We need to take this moment when all of this is exposed, when no one can deny that antisemitism exists, when no one can deny that it requires intensive effort to combat it and that it requires a systemic approach.”

She congratulated British Columbia for committing to mandatory Holocaust education, but that is a step in the right direction, not an end, she said.

“We need to do work on not just Holocaust remembrance but on antisemitism itself and making sure that teachers and school boards and faculty actually have the right perspective as they are trying to help the children understand what the Holocaust means, not just historically but in terms of today,” she said.

Those combatting antisemitism need to be doing more work with law enforcement, she said, noting that Vancouver Police and RCMP in British Columbia recently underwent training with Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Prosecutors also need to be empowered, she added.

“We need to do work on social media and we’ve got a campaign underway there,” said Lyons, noting that the federal government is working on an online harms bill, which could strengthen data collection, among other steps.

Noting positive signs, Lyons cited information that, “by far and away,” a majority of Canadians support the Jewish community and support Israel’s right to exist.

Exceptions emerge among younger Canadians, she said, “our 18-to-24-year-olds, kids who might not have adequate knowledge of the Holocaust, have a tendency to be disposed toward antisemitism.”

Lyons recently met with the president of the University of British Columbia and the chancellor of Simon Fraser University.

“I think university presidents and university administrations struggled after Oct. 7 in a way that many of us struggled,” she said. “It was almost a shock to see the reaction on a number of the campuses. I think we saw that with other leaders in other segments of society, that people almost needed time to get their bearings, to try to figure out what was the right response. We all want freedom of expression, we all want freedom of speech, we all want our young people to be … debating new ideas and pushing the envelope. But it has to be done in a respectful environment. It has to be done with a certain dignity and sense of acknowledgment of the other’s point of view.”

Among the shortcomings that emerged in the past year, according to Lyons, was an absence of recourse to deal with concerns from Jewish students.

“What we found was there was not the recourse in place, the systems in place, for the university administrations to actually follow up on the concerns of our students in what I would consider to be a substantive way,” she said. “I think there are better systems being put in place now to make sure that every student who has a concern or feels an unease can make their feelings known and can have that responded to substantively and with respect. I think also the presidents in many cases were challenged with their own codes of conduct and how they were to be implemented. I think that, over the last several months, particularly over the summer when they had a bit of a pause, there’s been this understanding that these codes of conduct really do need to be administered.”

Lyons is one of about 35 national envoys addressing antisemitism worldwide.

“We work together to share experiences in our countries and also to identify some remedies,” she said. “We’ve just recently published, this past summer, the global guidelines for fighting antisemitism.”

Lyons’ office and the broader federal government recently released the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which she said is a vital tool. It is based on an earlier European Union document and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. She urges Jewish people, but especially potential allies, to use it.

“Learn about antisemitism. Try to understand it. Try to understand what’s happening in our country,” she said.

A visit to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre is a place to start for people who seek to be allies to Jews, she said. Then, she urged people to step outside their bubbles.

“Get to know your Jewish neighbours and stand up if you see something happening that you think isn’t right,” said Lyons.

Shanken noted that Lyons is not Jewish and asked how she ended up in this role.

“I grew up in rural, northern New Brunswick and community mattered,” said Lyons. “And people mattered. Your neighbours mattered. Looking after one another mattered.”

She also remembered as a child hearing about the Holocaust.

“I can remember how it marked me, how I could not believe that the humanity that I belonged to had created, planned and carried out such horrors over such a long period of time,” she said. “So, years later when, as a diplomat, I was leaving one post and getting ready to go to another and I got the call that I could go to Israel [as ambassador, 2016-2020], I jumped at the chance, because I thought, what an incredible opportunity to really engage in a country that I’ve always been fascinated by and with a people that I have huge admiration for. My time in Israel, I think, even deepened my experience as, I suppose, an ally.”

We have power, voice

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Rolene Marks had a heartrending plea to the hundreds of people who attended a virtual event titled Stop the Violence.

“As our hostage plight fades from the minds of the world, we plead to you, be the voices of our hostages,” she said. “We know what our women and girls are enduring – they’ve been sexually violated and continue to be violated. The impact on their mental health is unfathomable. Don’t let your government or the world forget that there are 101 hostages and we need them home now. We are a devastated nation, deep in trauma. Unless we get them home, this will be a wound that will never, ever heal.”

Marks, a South African-Israeli consultant and journalist, was one of two panelists interviewed by Dana Levenson on Nov. 25 in a virtual event organized by CHW (Canadian Hadassah-WIZO), Na’amat Canada, Momentum Canada, Canadian Women Against Antisemitism and National Council of Jewish Women of Canada. She was joined by Jay Rosenzweig, a lawyer dedicated to advancing safety for women, in speaking out about violence and femicide.

Globally, in 2023, a woman was killed every 10 minutes. In 2022, 133 women or girls were killed daily by someone in their own family. And one in every three women experiences physical or sexual violence in their lives. But statistics don’t resonate, Marks insisted. People remember stories, not numbers.

Both panelists said the silence from the United Nations and the media with respect to the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against women in Israel is – and continues to be – deplorable. Marks said that, in October 2024, when members of the foreign press visited the sites decimated by Hamas terrorists, she saw a complete lack of empathy. “It was like they were ticking something off their to-do list by being there. They’ve completely lost any impetus to report and tell the truth,” she said.

But it’s possible to “fell an elephant with a mosquito,” she continued, citing an African proverb. “We’re not powerless or voiceless. We need to become that mosquito, to demand that journalists employ the ethics of good journalism. We’ve got the law and ombudsmen there to adjudicate, and we need to make use of the tools available to us, remembering that every one of us has power.”

Rosenzweig said members of the Jewish community need to do more in leveraging technology to confront injustice.

“We can do better when it comes to communicating online, because technology and the digital world can be a neutralizer,” he said. “Dialoging outside of our community can also help turn the tide, so we should be reaching outside the Jewish community to find commonality with other communities, for example the Indigenous community. We can find common cause with them by speaking as one indigenous people to another.”

Marks suggested participants host screenings of the documentary Screams Before Silence. She encouraged younger members of the community to get involved by “adopting a hostage” or a victim of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and becoming familiar with their lives.

“By making those stories very personal, it is easier to share with others and to connect with peers from other communities,” she said. “Tell the stories of Naama Levy, Daniella Gilboa and the other girls being held hostage. They are stories of teenagers who went to dance for peace, and our teenagers can connect to these people. These stories help to humanize us as a people at a time when dehumanization is so pervasive.”

To watch the event, go to YouTube and search “Stop the Violence – A Collaborative Virtual Event.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.

Human rights, democracy

Left to right: Haleema Sadia, Emily Schrader, Christine Douglass-Williams and Goldie Ghamari formed the panel of the Dec. 4 event in Toronto called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran. (photo by Dave Gordon)

American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader believes it took years for Canada to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps a terror group, as it did in June, because of “moral cowardice.”

She said other Western countries have “refuse[d] to stand up for moral values and their countries and civilizations” and that is “all the reason to vote for those who will protect democracies and freedoms in Canada.”

Schrader spoke in Toronto at the Lodzer Centre on Dec. 4. She was part of a panel with cofounder of TAG TV Haleema Sadia, Iranian-born Ottawa-area Member of Provincial Parliament Goldie Ghamari, and journalist Christine Douglass-Williams, in a talk called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Schrader is an anchor on ILTV in Israel, co-hosts a panel show on Jewish News Syndicate, and is a contributor to ynetnews.com. In her opening remarks, she spoke of growing up “nominally pro-Israel” until her time at the University of Southern California as an undergrad student. “I didn’t realize how much people passionately hate Israel and Jews until I went to university,” she said.

Her first time “really seeing this visceral, irrational obsession with the Jewish state, which really is an obsession with Jews,” was during an Israel Apartheid Week, held by Students for Justice in Palestine. She said she was “irritated” by the “lies they spread across campus.” She joined Students for Israel in response to “this obsessive hatred towards Israel.”

“I always joke that Students for Justice in Palestine – the best thing they ever did was make me the biggest Zionist in the world,” said Schrader. “I would not be Israeli today if it was not for Students for Justice in Palestine. So, I guess I have them to thank for that.”

It was only after making aliyah that Schrader became aware of the historical connection between Iranians and Jews, going back to Cyrus the Great (circa 590 – 529 BCE), who allowed the Jewish exiles to return to the Holy Land. Iranians and Israelis are “really fighting the same evil,” she said.

photo - American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4 — American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

In 2024, Schrader founded the Israeli Iranian Women’s Alliance (IIWA) to promote women’s advancement and democratic values.

She said Iran’s human rights violations have gotten worse. “There are more restrictions and gender apartheid than we have ever seen before.” She added: “The world is not paying attention because of everything else that’s been going on.”

Ghamari said Canada has been “courting the Hamas votes,” meaning immigrants from countries with “fundamentally different values than Canada.”

Schrader added that “the left overestimates the values of these voters” and “they are against the West – whether it’s a right or left government – so courting them is a fundamental mistake.”

“One of the best ways to support Iranians is to support our king,” Ghamari said of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi – son of the late, deposed shah – who visited Israel in April 2023. “He is the one true voice of the Iranian people. He has 90% support,” she said.

A way to battle the anti-Israel forces is to build connections with like-minded allies, said Douglass-Williams. “They want the outreach just as much as the Jewish community.”

Ghamari seconded that: “All your support gave me the motivation to speak out and speak up.”

Sadia’s advice to win hearts and minds was to “multiply the voices” on social media.

Douglass-Williams alerted the audience that Venezuela has now sold a million hectares of land to the Iranian regime. “The IDF says they are developing weapons there that could reach America and Israel,” she said.

The Dec. 4 talk was organized by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, OneGlobalVoice, Allied Voices for Israel, Tafsik, and Canadians for Israel.

In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Independent, Schrader said the new Trump administration will be “excellent” on cracking down on Iran. She believes that moral-minded countries need to “de-recognize” the Islamic regime and ramp up sanctions. “It’s going to be a tall order,” she said of countries who have economic ties.

As for the wave of anti-Israel protests, they are primarily concerned with “support for terrorist organizations and an attempt to infiltrate and undermine Western values and the West,” Schrader told the JI.

If they cared about Palestinians, she said, they would protest the estimated 4,000 Palestinians killed in Syria by the Assad regime during that country’s civil war, she said. The Islamic regime’s “vast majority of the victims” are Arab and Muslim, but again, these protesters are silent.

Law enforcement, she believes, is to blame for allowing “multiple antisemitic assaults and attacks,” because “there’s zero accountability for these crimes that are being committed with a racist, hateful, pro-terror agenda.”

“You have to deter it, or it will only grow,” said Schrader. “And we see that happening. It’s a year after Oct. 7 and, I would argue, that it’s worse.”

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

Hear from Wexner scholars

photo - Sefaria’s Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld speaks Dec. 15 and Jan. 12, as part of Our Story, Our Heritage: A Speaker Series with Wexner Scholars — Sefaria’s Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld speaks Dec. 15 and Jan. 12, as part of Our Story, Our Heritage: A Speaker Series with Wexner Scholars. (photo from facebook.com/thejewishnetwork)

Our Story, Our Heritage: A Speaker Series with Wexner Scholars launched here in September. It features top Jewish educators from across North America who teach in the two-year Wexner Heritage Program, which focuses on Jewish learning and leadership training. While in Vancouver, the scholars give a talk that is open to the public, and also hold learning sessions with the local Wexner cohort, a diverse group of young local community members set to steer the community.

The speaker series began Sept. 22 with Yonatan Cohen, the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, Calif., and a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. His talk, titled Our Texts in Tense Times, offered insights into Jewish texts that help frame recent experiences, particularly as the first anniversary of Oct. 7 approached.

Cohen spoke again on Nov. 17, giving a lecture called Agree to Disagree: The Seeds of Jewish Pluralism Revealed in Talmudic Debate. In it, using classic cases from the Talmud that elucidate the rabbinic approach to makhloket (debate or dispute), he considered how the rabbinic tradition distinguishes between “ultimate truth” and “public policy,” and how ancient texts might help guide the way one operates in a contemporary pluralistic Jewish community.

Next up on the Wexner speaker circuit is Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld, chief learning officer at Sefaria, the free online library of Jewish texts, on Dec. 15. Her topic will investigate how ancient wisdom might offer insights into navigating the realities of social media. Wolkenfeld will return on Jan. 12 to examine tikkun olam, repair of the world, what it means and why it is important.

An alumna of the David Hartman Centre at the Hartman Institute of North America, Wolkenfeld also serves as scholar-in-residence at Ohev Sholom Congregation in Washington, DC. Her current research and writing focus is on the intersection between Jewish ethics and technological advancements.

photo - Dr. David Shyovitz, a professor of history and Jewish studies at Northwestern University, gives online talks Feb. 9 and March 2 — Dr. David Shyovitz, a professor of history and Jewish studies at Northwestern University, gives online talks Feb. 9 and March 2. *(photo from from davidshyovitz.com)*

Dr. David Shyovitz, a professor of history and Jewish studies at Northwestern University, will talk on Feb. 9 and March 2. His first lecture will look at Jews and Muslims from an historical perspective. His second asks, “Has there ever been a ‘Judeo-Christian’ tradition?” and digs into what the registration page for the talk describes as “an uneasy alliance.”

“Obviously, these are both very big and complex topics, so there is no way we will do either of them justice fully,” Shyovitz told the Independent. “But they are also topics about which many people have limited knowledge or dramatically oversimplified assumptions, so the goal will be to share some interesting ideas and sources and give participants a glimpse of the rich and nuanced history of inter-religious relations.”

Rabbi Dr. Tali Zelkowicz, director of curriculum and research at the Wexner Foundation, is slated to speak on March 16. She will revisit a debate in Jewish education.

photo - The Wexner Foundation’s Rabbi Dr. Tali Zelkowicz, speaks on Jewish education on March 16 — The Wexner Foundation’s Rabbi Dr. Tali Zelkowicz, speaks on Jewish education on March 16. *(photo from Wexner Foundation)*

“It has become a widely accepted fact that, across every age and stage, the field of Jewish education has split between the sub-fields of so-called ‘formal’ versus ‘informal’ (also known as ‘experiential’ education) or, alternatively, between ‘education’ versus ‘engagement,’” Zelkowicz said. “But how did we get to this default assumption, and is it helping us?”

By taking a closer look at assumptions about how learning works in Jewish life, Zelkowicz hopes to show how we are mired in what she sees as a “nonsensical debate” around which kind of learning setting is most needed or effective in Jewish life while avoiding the much more important question, what counts as great learning?

Devin E. Naar, a professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington, winds up the series with lectures on March 30 and June 2. His first will study the formation of Sephardi Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire.

“This lecture traces the trans-Mediterranean journey of the exiled Spanish Jews to the sultan’s realm and the cultural and political dynamics that shaped the communities they created and developed over the subsequent centuries. In short, it explores how the descendants of Spanish Jews eventually became Ottoman Jews, and the implications of those transformations today,” Naar told the Independent.

photo - Devin E. Naar of the University of Washington winds up the Wexner series with lectures on March 30 and June 2 — Devin E. Naar of the University of Washington winds up the Wexner series with lectures on March 30 and June 2. *(photo from University of Washington)*

Naar’s second session will probe how the history of Middle East Jews might change the perception of Israel.

“This talk moves beyond polemics to delve into the history of the long-standing Jewish presence in the geography that now forms the state of Israel,” he said.

“The talk situates Jewish experiences within the broader framework of the Ottoman Empire (which ruled from 1517-1917) during which Ladino – not Hebrew, Arabic or Yiddish – largely remained the primary Jewish language of Jerusalem,” Naar continued. “The talk also introduces some of the key challenges that Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews confronted with the establishment of the state of Israel. What are the lingering effects of those transformations today?”

The Wexner Heritage Program has returned to Vancouver after a 24-year absence thanks to the support of the Diamond Foundation, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and alumni of the first local cohort.

“It was a transformative experience for me. Because of Wexner, I became a better Jewish leader,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, a member of the original cohort, and a former Vancouver Federation president and chair of Federation’s annual campaign. He was an instrumental figure in rebooting the program in Vancouver.

To register for any of the lectures, go to jewishvancouver.com/wexner-speaker-series.

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

Is this your moment?

Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch spoke on the topic Just for this Moment: Stepping Up to Lead. (screenshot)

Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch kicked off the fifth season of Kolot Mayim Reform Temple’s Building Bridges lecture series Nov. 3 with the topic Just for this Moment: Stepping Up to Lead, which drew on her experience and insights into leadership for women, particularly within Reform Judaism.

Hirsch, who hosts the Just For This podcast, is the chief executive officer of Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ), a position she has held since 2023. Started in 1913 as the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, WRJ is the women’s affiliate of the Union of Reform Judaism and it represents thousands of women in hundreds of congregations throughout North America.

Now based in Cincinnati, where WRJ was founded, Hirsch spoke about the name of the podcast. The title, Just for This, comes from the point in the Book of Esther when Mordechai tells Esther to reveal her identity and step up to lead: “Who knows, maybe it is just for this moment that you find yourself in a position of leadership.” (Esther 4:14)

In each episode, Hirsch speaks to women who stand out in their field(s) and asks her guests to describe their “just for this moment” or when they found themselves in the right place and time to take on a leadership role.

Hirsch played excerpts from her podcast to give the Zoom audience an idea of what her program is all about. The first clip was of Abigail Pogrebin, an American writer and the president of Central Synagogue in New York City from 2015 to 2018.

Pogrebin is the author of several books, her latest – It Take Two to Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses – having been released just this past September. While Pogrebin didn’t provide a specific “Esther moment” that took place in her life, she did say it is something one should think about regularly. She said perhaps the question should be asked instead as, “Where do I have a role to play?” For Pogrebin, her purpose is to be a bridge between the person who knows a lot and the person who is afraid of what they don’t know.

“There are many smart Jews out there who have an anxiety of ignorance,” she said. “Sometimes people opt out because, though you are a smart person, you don’t want to appear in places because you don’t know the difference between Sukkot and Shavuot.”

Pogrebin addressed the reluctance at times for women to step into leadership roles out of fear of not having enough experience or expertise when, in fact, they do. She praised Hirsch’s podcast for providing female role models, women who confidently and assertively demonstrate their abilities.

A second clip spotlighted an interview with composer, instrumentalist and prayer leader Elana Arian, who delved into the power of connection. She believes that music can allow for people to connect, even in this time when there are so many issues that polarize individuals.

“It is starting to be quite countercultural to go into communities with the express purpose of bringing people together through music,” she said. “It is really not normal these days to get people to sing together to get more connected to faith, so I feel I bring something to this moment that is specific.”

The final segment Hirsch played for the audience came from a discussion with Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a post-doctoral fellow at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who specializes in gender, conflict resolution and peace. She established and leads Israel’s Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children.

Elkayam-Levy said she felt compelled to do her work, not from bravery but rather that the necessity of the moment called for it. “I wanted to give a voice to the victims and be respectful to their memories,” she said. “I felt that, despite the fact it was difficult, I just felt that this was what I needed to do. That this was my mission.”

Hirsch concluded her talk by saying that “just for this” moments happen for everyone and encouraged listeners to consider when such times have occurred in their lives.

Hirsch was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Among other things, she has been a pulpit rabbi and she was the founding co-chair of Religious Action Centre of Reform Judaism, Massachusetts. She serves on the National Council of Jewish Women’s Rabbis for Repro Rabbinic Advisory Council and played a key role in the 2020 campaign to pass the ROE Act in Massachusetts. A prolific writer on social justice, spiritual practice and trends in Jewish life, Hirsch has contributed chapters to several publications, including The Social Justice Torah Commentary. Her podcast can be heard at justforthispodcast.com.

Victoria’s Kolot Mayim synagogue titled this year’s speakers series Kvell at the Well: Celebrating the Joys of Being Jewish in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, believing “that it is more important than ever to highlight our proud and strong Jewish culture, history and heritage.”

The series press release also explains the symbolism of a well: “It is the source of life-giving water, a community meeting place and a place for divine revelation. Our goal with this series is to inspire and empower Jews to draw from the well of our collective experience and proudly celebrate (kvell about) our shared identity as a people.”

The second speaker in the series was Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, one of the first female Reform rabbis in Canada, and author of ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a Feminist Lens, on Dec. 8. On Jan. 12, 11 a.m., Ben Freeman, author of the Jewish Pride trilogy, will discuss his latest book, The Jews: An Indigenous People, set to be released in February, in which he puts forward the position that Jews are unequivocally indigenous to Israel.

To register for any of the series lectures, visit kolotmayimreformtemple.com/2024-25-lecture-series.

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

Up-and-coming pitcher

Jake Finkelstein’s repertoire includes a fastball, curveball and changeup. (photo by Justin Morash)

Pitcher Jake Finkelstein is looking forward to his third season in the Victoria HarbourCats lineup next summer.

Finkelstein, a 2020 King David High School graduate, told the Independent the decision to return to the region was a “no-brainer” and that it “feels great” to be coming back. During his first year with the club in 2023, the HarbourCats took home the WCL North Division title and nearly won the WCL championship. The team was knocked out during the 2024 North Division semifinal series, leaving what Finkelstein described as a “tremendous hunger to win it all” in 2025.

The HarbourCats are part of the West Coast League, a collegiate baseball circuit that was started in 2005.

“The past two summers I’ve played there have been some of the most fun I’ve had,” said Finkelstein. “One reason why Victoria is such a great place to play is the fans. They create one of the most electric atmospheres in all of summer ball and it’s a privilege to get to play for a city that cares about the team the way Victoria does.”

The left-handed pitcher credits Victoria head coach Todd Haney, a former Montreal Expo, for recruiting not only players who can perform at a high level but who are team players, making it very easy to build relationships during the short WCL summer season.

photo - Jake Finkelstein has played two summers with the Victoria HarbourCats — Jake Finkelstein has played two summers with the Victoria HarbourCats. *(photo by Christian J. Stewart)*

“Victoria is also such a great place to play because of the coaching staff. They do a great job of keeping everyone on the same page while making sure we enjoy our summer. The HarbourCats are a team that wins, and I believe that the relationships that the players gain with one another, as well as the coaching staff, are a major reason as to why,” Finkelstein said.

Now spending the academic year at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) in Lawrenceville, a suburb northeast of Atlanta, Ga., Finkelstein has also played for Montana State University Billings and Spokane Falls Community College.

The move to GGC was a big decision for Finkelstein. However, after numerous conversations with the GGC coaching staff and some with the players, the lure of suiting up for a college baseball powerhouse ultimately won him over.

“GGC baseball has one of the most knowledgeable coaching staffs in the nation,” said Finkelstein.

“While winning is a huge part of the program, and our track record proves it, development and unlocking an athlete’s full potential are the top priorities. Everything we do on a day-to-day basis reflects that,” he said.

“Speaking with my now-friend and -teammate Austin Testerman before I decided on GGC, I was able to get a glimpse into the mindset that one must possess and the way one must act to be a GGC Grizzly. This was my selling point. I didn’t know much about the minor ins and outs of the program, but I knew that I was walking into a place where I had a chance to be a part of something special.”

The 22-year-old HarbourCat veteran, whose repertoire includes a fastball, curveball and changeup, sees his biggest strength as being able to throw strikes consistently. A pitcher’s job, he said, is not about simply throwing hard, but getting the ball to “end up wherever you want while making it do weird things.”

That control, coupled with composure, according to Finkelstein, are tremendous assets on the mound.

“Being a pitcher is very stressful and can be very humbling at times,” he acknowledged. “I’ve always noticed that the best pitchers keep the same body language and demeanour no matter what is happening in the game. Even if a home run was just hit off of them, they’re right back at it, throwing strike one to the next guy. That is what I pride myself on and try to embody every time I am on the mound.”

As he continues to hone his craft, Finkelstein would like to finish innings on fewer throws.

“Getting every batter you face out, but throwing five or more pitches to each of them adds up and tires you out. Being able to keep your pitch count down is essential to maintaining longevity on the mound. So, I would say that my biggest facet of pitching that I am working on right now is being able to get hitters out early more consistently,” he said.

Turning professional is Finkelstein’s ultimate goal – whether it be affiliated, independent or overseas baseball. Academically, he is working towards a degree in business management with a minor in finance.

The HarbourCats are also excited to have Finkelstein back for another summer.

“Jake’s a great kid. First and foremost, he is a quality individual who has been a tremendous teammate and a competitor. He is a pitcher not a thrower, he wants to get hitters out,” said Jim Swanson, the HarbourCats managing partner.

“He works a good curve that is especially problematic for left-handed hitters and his fastball has more than enough to get guys out,” said Swanson. “He has always played very well for us and been a gamer.”

For Swanson, a game during the 2023 divisional playoffs against the Bellingham Bells stands out. Victoria trailed 6-0 when they brought Finkelstein in and, thanks to his tenacity on the mound, and HarbourCats hitters finding their way around the bases, Victoria came back to win 9-7.

Finkelstein, a college junior, earned academic all-America team accolades at NCAA Division II Montana State University Billings and is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honour Society. (His sister Leann played collegiate softball for Long Island University Post and Simon Fraser University.)

Last season, Finkelstein made 11 appearances, including nine starts, threw 38.1 innings, struck out 23 and won two games.

The HarbourCats 2025 home opener is June 6 against the Port Angeles Lefties.

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

Krell families give to JWest

The Krell, Lewis, Kallner and Singerman families are excited their gift will help in the creation of an expanded Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. (photo by Rachel Topham)

The JWest capital campaign cabinet is grateful to Dr. Robert and Marilyn Krell and their families, Shoshana and Shawn Lewis, Simone and Howard Kallner, and Michaela and Matthew Singerman, for supporting the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver site. The individual gifts from each of the four couples reflect two generations equally committed to building a strong Jewish future in Vancouver.

The Krell family has deep roots in Vancouver. Marilyn’s Polish grandfather, David Davis, who arrived in 1909, was one of the founding members of Congregation Schara Tzedeck. Robert, born in Holland, was hidden during the Holocaust and, after reuniting with his parents, arrived in Vancouver at age 10, in 1951. Both Robert and Marilyn were influenced by their parents’ involvement in the synagogue and a variety of Jewish organizations.

“Vancouver is where I became a Jew,” said Robert, who participated in Habonim as a child and became actively involved with the Canadian Jewish Congress as an adult. In 1971, he and Marilyn were married by Rabbi Marvin Hier, who was Schara Tzedek’s rabbi at the time. The couple raised their three daughters, Shoshana, Simone and Michaela, in a traditional Jewish home where Shabbat was always celebrated. The Jewish values that began at home were reinforced at Vancouver Talmud Torah, Camp Hatikvah and at the JCC.

Robert, a founder of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC), mobilized the survivor community from a concept in 1983 to a reality in 1994, when the centre opened as a museum and educational institute that ignited Shoah learning in British Columbia and beyond. The Krell daughters grew up witnessing the VHEC board meetings in their living room and attending award ceremonies that recognized their parents’ contributions to a variety of Jewish organizations.

“Through their actions and deeds, they taught us that you give when you can and volunteer when you can,” Simone said.

Now with children of their own attending local Jewish institutions, the Lewis, Kallner and Singerman families have assumed leadership roles in the VHEC, VTT, Schara Tzedeck, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Jewish Community Foundation. As they saw their parents’ commitment to support JWest, they knew they were also ready to answer the call to help build a new infrastructure to support the future of the region’s Jewish community.

“We are excited to contribute to such an important and pivotal project that will be utilized and cherished not just by future generations of our Jewish community, but of the greater community as well,” said Michaela.

Her sisters expanded that idea by saying, “The JCC has played a role for five generations of our family and it shapes many of our fondest memories.”

The family is excited that their gift will also assist in the creation of an expanded Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, an institute close to their hearts and lives. Founded with a mandate of Holocaust-based anti-racism education, the VHEC welcomes more than 25,000 students, educators and members of the public each year.

While it plays a crucial role in conveying the ongoing relevance of the Shoah, this teaching museum has long been challenged by a small footprint and its limited visibility in the lower level of the JCC. JWest will protect the legacy of the VHEC by significantly increasing its square footage and visibility. The new VHEC will be visible from West 41st Avenue and will feature state-of-the-art exhibit space for permanent and rotating exhibits. It will also have dedicated research and programming space to facilitate workshops that enhance learning and engagement. Its prominent location in the JWest campus’s Arts & Culture Centre will ensure that the VHEC remains a vital presence in the community well into the future.

“The VHEC was at the forefront of our upbringing and experience and it’s a highlight to see it being incorporated as an important component of JWest,” Simone said.

Shoshana echoed those sentiments. “It’s exciting to envision the future JCC as a hub that will encompass so many important institutions,” she said. “We want a safe space to house our next generation of Jewish institutions, so there’s an urgency for us to support this project as a commitment to the future of our children, our grandchildren and the community at large.”

Alex Cristall, chair of the JWest capital campaign, had this response to the gift: “With five generations of active involvement in Vancouver’s Jewish community, the Krell, Davis, Kallner, Lewis and Singerman families continue to demonstrate the depth of their commitment through their gifts and volunteerism. Their generous gifts to JWest will secure and revitalize our Jewish institutions and we are deeply grateful for their support of this project.”

As one of the largest capital projects underway in Vancouver, JWest is only possible with the support of donors and the encouragement of the community. In the coming months, the JWest capital campaign cabinet will continue to update and advise community members on the campaign’s progress and on opportunities to contribute to its philanthropic goal of $161 million.

For a full list of JWest donors, visit jwestnow.com.

– Courtesy Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

Unity in tough times

Thousands of rabbis pose for a group photo in front of Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, on Dec. 1. (photo by Shmulie Grossbaum/Chabad.org)

Some 6,500 Chabad rabbis and Jewish leaders from around the globe gathered Nov. 27-Dec. 1 in Brooklyn, NY, for the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, the largest rabbinic gathering in the world.

Attending from British Columbia were Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman (Chabad Richmond), Rabbi Binyomin Bitton (Chabad of Downtown Vancouver), Rabbi Mottel Gurevitz (Tri-Cities Chabad), Rabbi Shmuel Hecht (Okanagan Chabad House), Rabbi Meir Kaplan (Chabad of Vancouver Island), Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld (BC Regional Hebrew Schools), Rabbi Bentzi Shemtov (Chabad Nanaimo and Central Vancouver Island) and Rabbi Yitzchok Wineberg (Lubavitch BC).

While the yearly conference has a celebratory feel, welcoming rabbinic leaders from Alaska to Zambia, the past year was a difficult one for the Jewish people, seeing tragedy in Israel, and elsewhere. For Jews around the globe and the family of emissaries in particular, the days just prior to the conference were especially difficult: on Nov. 25, Abu Dhabi-based Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan was buried in Israel, after being murdered by terrorists in Dubai at the age of 28.

Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries, known as shluchim, are husband-and-wife teams who dedicate their lives to strengthening Jewish life in communities worldwide, often in remote locations without established Jewish infrastructure. They aim to reach both affiliated and unaffiliated Jews, welcoming Jews from all walks of life.

The annual conference, also known as the Kinus Hashluchim, unites rabbis and lay leaders from all 50 US states and more than 100 countries and territories around the world for four days of workshops, networking and spiritual uplift. The conference concludes with a gala banquet, which brings all the Chabad rabbis and their guests together in a giant conference centre in New Jersey.

The Thursday was a day of catch-ups between colleagues, as well as the first of a series of workshops on contemporary issues that ran over the weekend. Topics included disaster relief, combating hate, education, counseling and dealing with grief. Conference-goers who serve students on college campuses where Chabad has become part of Jewish life participated in a separate track, discussing issues specifically relevant to campus communities.

The Friday visit to the Ohel, in Queens, NY, the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, marked the pinnacle of the conference. The emissaries came to pray for their families and communities, carrying with them countless prayer requests. Many came with handwritten letters from Jews in their hometowns and read them by the holy site. The Ohel visit culminated in the reading of the pan klali (“general letter”) that was signed by all emissaries and contained prayers for Israel, the Jewish people and humanity at large.

photo - Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis pray at the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, in Queens, NY, on Nov. 29 — Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis pray at the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, in Queens, NY, on Nov. 29. *(photo by Shmulie Grossbaum/Chabad.org)*

With the onset of Shabbat on Friday evening, the emissaries spent the Jewish day of rest in prayer and brotherly camaraderie, often in the company of family and friends.

Sunday morning saw the snapping of the annual “class picture” under the iconic gables of 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and perhaps the most recognizable Jewish building in the world. The photo, featuring thousands of black-hatted rabbis, represents not just an annual tradition but also the many faces of the Chabad rabbis who bring Judaism to the world, from wartorn Ukraine to the towns along Israel’s hostile borders, to anti-Israel-filled college campuses across North America, to sleepier towns in quieter places.

The capstone of the conference was the gala banquet, held at the New Jersey Convention and Expo Centre, a powerful moment of remembrance and resilience. Speakers honoured Kogan with emotional tributes that emphasized the importance of continuing their global mission. The conference linked by video with the home of Kogan’s parents in Jerusalem, where his family was sitting shiva, and all 6,500 gathered shared the traditional text of comfort with the family.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chair of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch – Chabad’s educational arm – greeted the audience, sharing words of consolation with Kogan’s family and the emissaries, his “extended family,” and sending prayers for the Israeli soldiers defending the Holy Land, as well as the hostages still held in Gaza.

A video tribute was made for Rabbi Moshe Kotlarksy, the vice-chair of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, who passed away after a lengthy illness on June 4. Kotlarsky was well-known for his role in the annual Kinus Hashluchim, directing an army of planners, staff and volunteers to ensure every detail of the massive event was perfect.

Among the most inspiring presentations of the evening was that of Rabbi Yehoshua Soudakoff, director of Chabad for the Deaf Community in Israel, who spoke of his path to finding his Jewish self as a deaf Jew.

“The voice you hear is not mine, but the words definitely are,” he said through an interpreter. “It is hard for a deaf person to find a place within the community. Torah and mitzvah while deaf are difficult. That is why I established Chabad for the Deaf Community. There are deaf Jews and Jews with various disabilities throughout the world. Let us continue our holy work to reach out to every single one of them and inspire them, just as I was once inspired,” he said to applause.

The gathering culminated in a roll call of Chabad emissaries. The event featured multilingual welcomes from emissaries around the world, including a notable announcement that a new Chabad couple had been dispatched to Andorra, highlighting Chabad’s ongoing expansion.

The evening concluded with dancing, the assembled rabbis united in their determination to continue their mission of Jewish outreach and community building, regardless of the challenges they face.