Category: News

Noa concert sells out

Achinoam Nini performs for a full house at the Chan Centre on Yom Ha’atzmaut, May 11. (photo from cjnews.com)

Despite the controversy in the months leading up to her Yom Ha’atzmaut performance at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on May 11, Noa’s concert attracted a full house and every one of the 1,185 seats was sold.

“After all the harrowing events leading up to this concert, I am so thrilled to be here and truly grateful to the Jewish Federation [of Greater Vancouver] for not folding and the Israeli ambassador for supporting!” the Israeli singer, whose full name is Achinoam Nini, posted on her Facebook page soon after she touched down in the city.

Performing barefoot throughout, the singer thanked the audience, Federation staff and the Vancouver Jewish community repeatedly during her show “for sticking up for me.”

In February, the Jewish National Fund of Canada, an annual sponsor of Vancouver’s community Yom Ha’atzmaut concerts, withdrew its support, saying it would take a one-year hiatus “due to the views of the entertainment booked for this year’s celebration.”

The organization’s chief executive officer, Josh Cooper, said “the entertainer that has been hired does not reflect nor correspond to the mandate and values of JNF of Canada.” Its decision followed an article in the Jerusalem Post, later retracted, that claimed Vancouver Jews were “outraged” over Nini’s performance and alleged that she supports the boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. She has repeatedly denied the allegation.

After JNF Canada withdrew, the Israeli embassy and the Consulate General of Israel in Toronto stepped in as sponsors. Irit Stopper, deputy consul general in Toronto, represented the state of Israel at the event. It was also attended by Linda Kislowicz, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, Vancouver City Councilor Geoff Meggs and Burnaby-Lougheed NDP MLA Jane Shin.

Outside the Chan Centre, Michael Brosgart, president of the Jewish Defence League in British Columbia, stood with a handful of supporters and a few placards declaring “Terrorists are obstacles to peace; Biblical Zionists are not.”

A folding table held pictures of an Israeli couple murdered by Palestinian terrorists, and Brosgart distributed material to bystanders. The pages contained excerpts from letters expressing objections to Nini’s performance from community member Frances Belzberg and Israel Defence Forces Lt.-Col. Eyal Platek, as well as links to articles about the singer.

“Noa is supporting the most divisive groups in Israel – B’tselem, Breaking the Silence, BDS and JStreet,” Brosgart said. “Unfortunately, Jewish Federation and the Israeli embassy, because they’re funding this, are supporting her. We think this is rotting the Jewish community.”

On JDL’s Facebook page Brosgart elaborated. “This performance will be extremely divisive, distasteful, disrespectful and does not represent the views and interests of the community. Especially at the time we need unity the most. This is not about free speech. Nini can sing her sh—y songs anywhere she wants. However, this is Israel’s Independence Day. To bring an anti-Israel, terror-sympathizing, enemy-strengthening performer on this day is to spit in the face of all who have lost loved ones defending the nation of Israel.”

One Israeli who attended the concert but asked not to be named said she disliked that Nini “does not separate her political views from her artistry. I’m sorry the selection committee didn’t do more research before they chose her, but I think they learned a lesson,” the woman said.

After seeing the Facebook responses of Israelis in Vancouver opposed to the performance, she decided to attend nevertheless. She added that, once Nini was invited to Vancouver, “I think it was the best thing to keep her here instead of canceling the performance.”

The kosher restaurant Shuk Eat & Play hosted an alternative Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration dinner for 110 attendees the same night.

“I heard Noa’s political sayings and I didn’t appreciate it,” said Shuk owner Alon Volodarsky. “So, some people who didn’t like her suggested we hold this dinner for those community members who still wanted to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut but didn’t want to attend the concert.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. This article was originally published in the Canadian Jewish News.

Learning about other faiths

Grade 6 students from Vancouver Talmud Torah – Sophie Chelin, Ava Abramowich, Sayde Shuster, Ruth Nahmad and Rachel Seguin – do the blessing over the candles at an interfaith Shabbat dinner on May 6. (photo by Jennifer Shecter-Balin)

The joy of learning, the excitement of meeting new people, the comfort of community, the satisfaction of a job well done. All of these energies filled the room at Congregation Beth Israel on May 6. And, while that Shabbat dinner marked the culmination of Vancouver Talmud Torah’s Grade 6 Term 2 Tikkun Olam course, it seemed like a beginning as well.

With the knowledge and relationships gained and curiosity and compassion further engrained, these students now have an even more solid foundation from which to carry on their interfaith connections and broaden their experiences beyond the Belief project.

The initiative of Jennifer Shecter-Balin, director of admissions and communications at VTT, who guided the students with Grade 6 humanities and tikkun olam teacher Meghan Davey, the project was inspired by Oprah Winfrey’s seven-part Belief series.

Every week, students watched an episode of the series, explained Shecter-Balin in an email to the Independent. They then “completed related assignments and activities to both deepen their own connection to Judaism and broaden their understanding of other world religions and belief systems.”

“Each week, we journeyed across the globe to learn about different streams of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and other non-traditional beliefs systems,” she explained to those gathered on May 6. “In addition to gaining further grounding in their Judaism, our students expanded their perspectives and worldviews through learning about myriad different spiritual practices, rituals and beliefs.”

“Throughout the term,” added Davey, “we broadened our vocabulary and learned terms such as monotheism, agnosticism and atheism…. We debated the merits of arranged marriages; we compared the divinely inspired versus the scientific; and we discussed the concept of miracles and what constitutes one. But most satisfying was the fact that the students all agreed that being alive and having one’s health is indeed miraculous.”

Davey also noted that, “They have learned to identify similarities across the religions – the importance of water for purification in so many traditions, for example – as well as significant differences between the major world faiths.”

For the course’s final assignment, students had to interview someone of a faith other than Judaism and then write about that person’s beliefs and influences.

“For many students, this was their first time ever interviewing an adult and someone of a considerably different background to them,” said Shecter-Balin.

The result is a nicely designed spiral-bound book of essays on the 40 interviews conducted. A copy of the book was placed at every Shabbat table and Shecter-Balin invited guests – the students’ families and many of the interviewees – to read through it.

“Like us,” she said, “you’ll learn about a host of beliefs, practices and unique life experiences, and you’ll read our students’ enthusiastic reflections about this assignment. Most importantly, their hearts and minds have further opened without compromising the integrity of who they are or where they’re from. In fact, we believe it will only serve to strengthen their identity.”

For many of the guests, the dinner was their first time in a synagogue and their first time attending a Shabbat dinner. Sharing this experience and more about Judaism, said Shecter-Balin, is a way to continue to build bridges of understanding. “This, we believe, is tikkun olam, or the Jewish commandment to repair the world,” she said.

Davey thanked all the parent volunteers who helped prepare the meal with Shlomo and Hagar Yekutieli; VTT head of school Cathy Lowenstein and assistant head of school Jessica Neville “for their support with this initiative and trusting us to think a bit outside the box”; Ellen Wiesenthal, VTT’s director of curriculum and programming, who led everyone in a few Shabbat songs after the blessings; and Beth Israel’s Gaynor Levin, for her help in planning and organizing the dinner.

Lowenstein said a few thanks of her own, including to Beth Israel Rabbi Jonathan Infeld for being so welcoming. She also introduced Rabbi Marc Kasten and his family, who came to Vancouver for the weekend. Kasten – who is currently at Temple Beth Am Day School in Miami – will start in August as VTT’s new school rabbi and director of Jewish life and learning. He spoke about some of the Shabbat rituals before they were fulfilled, mainly by the students: the singing of L’Cha Dodi, the candlelighting, the blessing of the children by their parents, the Kiddush and Hamotzi.

The next step in the project, Shecter-Balin said, is “to send a copy of the book to Oprah along with notes from the students sharing their personal reflections of watching the video series.”

Expert on sundowning

Dr. Brian Goldman (photo from Brian Goldman)

While most people have heard of dementia, many of us won’t have heard the term sundowning before.

According to Dr. Brian Goldman, emergency physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, sundowning is generally part and parcel with dementia of various kinds.

“Sundowning refers to a person who is sleepy during the day and very active at night,” he explained. “Almost as soon as the sun goes down, that’s when they become active. The activity can be not just when awake and walking about in an agitated or restless state.… For sundowning to have its maximum impact on the patient and others – the caregivers and care providers – you have to have dementia [as well].

“A person who is cognitively intact, who is simply sleeping during the day and being up all night, would have the cognitive reserve to be able to handle that. They might feel they have a problem, need to see a doctor, or they might rearrange their lives because, when everyone’s sleeping, they’re up, [but] they’d be able to cognitively make sense of it.”

Goldman explained dementia as “a chronic disorder caused by a brain disease or injury. It is characterized or marked by impaired cognition or thinking, memory and personality changes.”

Goldman – who grew up in Toronto’s North York, the heart of the Jewish community – said he is seeing more elderly people with dementia. Often he is one of the first people to notice the symptoms.

“As an emergency physician,” he said, “I would say that an increasing percentage of the patients I see in the emergency department are frail seniors. When I started out in the 1980s, we would see an occasional patient over the age 90, but now it’s commonplace.

“I have professional experience, but I also have personal experience. Both my parents have passed away in the last two years and they both reached frail senior years. My mother had dementia. My father did not.”

Why some dementia patients also suffer from sundowning while others do not, Goldman said, remains a mystery. As well, the number of people who suffer from this newly defined condition of sundowning is also unknown, with estimates ranging from as low as two to three percent of people with dementia up to more than 60%.

“It has been said that sundowning tends to occur when the person is in unfamiliar surroundings, though it can also occur in the home,” said Goldman. “It’s well known that some people with dementia have damage to the pathways to their brain that recognize light coming in through their eyes and stimulating a part of the brain called the pineal gland. The pineal gland secretes the hormone melatonin.”

Melatonin is secreted somewhere around 2 or 3 a.m. every morning. It resets your body’s circadian rhythm. If that pathway is disrupted, it makes sense that your sleep-wake cycles would be seriously disrupted.

Another theory is that people who sundown are dreaming vividly. They are flipping between the awake and dreaming states quickly and frequently. And, again, because they don’t have the cognitive reserve, they do not know if they are dreaming or awake.

There is not yet a lot known about sundowning and another phenomenon known as delirium.

According to Goldman, delirium is confusion associated with the activation of the fight or flight response along with symptoms that include tremors, shaking, a fast heart rate, sweating and dilated pupils. These symptoms are sometimes also referred to as “toxic delirium.” People with toxic delirium have a rapid, traumatic change in their demeanor. Triggers of toxic delirium are often fever, urinary infection, pneumonia, flu, or even a heart attack.

“You recognize it if you see a sudden change from what the person was doing a week ago,” explained Goldman. “They look sick, sweaty … something seriously wrong … and there is an underlying cause. Treat the cause and the toxic delirium goes away.

“Sundowning is a more chronic pattern that can go on for months. There is no vast dramatic change. The only change in pattern you might notice, wherein dad or mom wander off at night once a month, then it becomes once a week, then every night. It’s a gradual pattern.”

Ways to help this condition, according Goldman, include regularizing a sundowner’s routine: having meals at set times, a set time for exercise (but not at night), set times for bathing and toileting (like washing in the morning or before bed), and the like.

“The experts say that caffeine should be avoided,” he added. “You want people to walk. Walking is good for them. Visitors are good, but probably not close to the time they’re going to bed. Also, reduce noise from TVs and radios and address the lighting in the room, ensuring you don’t have harsh lighting that could cast disturbing shadows on the wall.”

Besides these steps and before turning to sleep medication, Goldman advised exploring some other preventive approaches. Light therapy has shown some promise, he said, affecting patients in a similar way as those with seasonal affective disorder. This involves getting special light-generating therapy units, which are available without a prescription and come with instructions on use.

When it comes to lost brain pathways, Goldman sees the technique as especially helpful when approached in a “use it or lose it” fashion. “If you want to build up a reserve, this might be a way of doing that, with year-round light therapy,” he said.

“Certainly, making them busier during the day with exercise and other stimulation is the way to go. Somebody with dementia wants adventures in the same way that everyone wants adventures, something new. Keeping to the same routine everyday is helpful for structure, but the novelty factor can be helpful as well.”

Goldman said these practices can offer some relief of the effects of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, the most common cause and form of dementia.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Difficulties with conceiving

At Limmud in Winnipeg earlier this year, Bryan Borzykowski talked about his and his wife Lainie’s difficulties in having children. (photo from Rebeca Kuropatwa)

At this year’s Limmud in Winnipeg, on March 13, Bryan Borzykowski spoke about the miscarriages he and his wife, Lainie, experienced and, in particular, the anxiety they felt during her pregnancy after multiple miscarriages.

A woman’s body innately senses the starting point of pregnancy and it recalculates, again and again, throughout the pregnancy, often determining whether or not it is possible by week 12 to carry a baby to term. This is why women are cautioned not to mention a pregnancy until after that point.

Miscarriages and difficulties in conceiving occur more often than we know – in large part because of our discomfort in speaking openly about the topic. Recently before his Limmud talk, Borzykowski – who is a freelance writer in the field of finance – had written an article on his family’s experiences in Today’s Parent magazine.

Borzykowski and his wife had their first miscarriage before their first child, a second one between their first and second child, and three more between their second and third child.

“The first miscarriage was 10 years ago,” he said. “We’d been going through pregnancy issues for a decade. So, after we realized we had this miscarriage, it was really terrible. But, once we started talking about it, everybody said, ‘I’ve gone through this as well’ … which was really nice to hear.

Apparently, 10-20% of women go through miscarriages. I think it’s got to be higher. Pretty much everyone I know has had one.

“The problem is when you have more than one, especially when you’re dealing with your wife going through this terrible situation. You just want to be there for her. There’s not a lot of time to go talk to friends about it.”

The couple went through IUI (intrauterine insemination) treatments in the hopes of getting pregnant again after their first child. Through these treatments, they discovered they had lost their second child’s twin, which apparently is somewhat common.

“They did tell us that a lot of people have twins, but one disappears … literally, disappears,” said Borzykowski. “At eight to 12 weeks, when they do the ultrasound, it’s already gone. Sure enough, we found out that we lost this twin, which was actually really difficult. We were happy we had one, but the strange thing about this is how attached you get to this thing before it’s even a real thing.

“But you do, you get attached to the idea of the baby. It’s hard to articulate to people who haven’t gone through it. You feel stupid, dumb, getting attached to something that’s not this thing. You start thinking about ways to … avoid the thought process.”

Borzykowski has found that it gets harder to talk about miscarriages the more they happen, but the couple was determined to try for a third child. They did succeed, via in vitro fertilization, which raised questions about the $15,000 cost.

Borzykowski found himself getting into financial conversations with friends. “It’s awkward, talking about your financial situation, about how you’re paying for it,” he said.

The couple’s last miscarriage occurred at 16 weeks. They took a test that showed the baby had Down syndrome. They ended up having only a couple of days to contemplate their options before they learned they had another miscarriage. At that point, they reevaluated their desire for a third child.

“It sounds silly,” said Borzykowski. “A lot of people can’t have more than one. We fully admitted we have an amazing life and are blessed with two kids, but we wanted three. That was hard, because a lot of people would say, ‘You have two, why do want a third?’ I don’t know. We wanted another, but we were pretty close to giving up until, one day, we decided to try. We just didn’t use protection. Somehow, Lainie got pregnant – no fertility [treatments], nothing. But, we didn’t talk about it for three months … not connecting, trying not to feel like you’re going to have a baby. You don’t want to jinx it. If something happens, you don’t want to feel the pain.”

Only after the three months had passed did the couple begin, little by little, to feel a sense of hope, that this was really going to happen.

“We took this test again,” said Borzykowski. “There’s this great test. It tells you everything…. It came back negative. We immediately breathed a sigh of relief. I don’t know. Something changed.

“As time went on, we came to terms with the fact that we were having a third baby … and we started connecting to her, although we didn’t fully think it was going to happen until I was holding her.

“When she came out, it was a miracle. I appreciate her. I appreciate all my kids, but there’s something about what we had to go through to get her that just makes it special … enough to make me realize the importance of opening up, which is difficult still. It helps.”

According to Borzykowski, research and statistics show that talking about miscarriages helps you get through them and that, while men usually get over the experience faster than women, it does affect men as well, with long-lasting effects.

From his family’s experiences, Borzykowski also learned that it was OK to go for what they wanted, as long as they felt they could manage the emotional possibility of having another loss.

“We knew we wanted a third,” said Borzykowski. “That was never the question. It was just … the emotional toll. We didn’t want to break up our family. I don’t think it would have, but I can’t say for sure. But, it worked out for us. I’m glad we went for it. I’m glad it worked out well. It’s easy to say now, but I’m glad we didn’t stop.”

Something else Borzykowski learned from these experiences was the significance of he and his wife being there for each other. These were experiences that made them even closer, he said. As well, for Borzykowski, having people to talk to about it was key – whether a family member, a friend or a professional.

“It also forces you to deal with death on a more regular basis and, in a sense, gives you an advantage over some of your peers in the future,” he said. “People often don’t understand the depth of loss that comes from losing an unborn child and the only way for them to understand it is by talking about. Then, maybe people would understand that, if we need more time, that’s OK.

“When people start opening up more,” he continued, “that changes some of the cultural thinking around it…. If you knew, before the miscarriage, that everyone went through it, maybe it wouldn’t feel as shameful or you wouldn’t feel as lost.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Research into psychedelics

Jordan Sloshower (photo from Jordan Sloshower)

The use of psychoactive plants and mushrooms for sacramental and religious purposes has been widespread throughout the world’s cultures for centuries. More recently, in the 1950s and 1960s, academic centres investigated the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic compounds – primarily lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) – to treat forms of mental illness and addictions. After producing thousands of papers, the field came to a halt in the 1970s, due to the “war on drugs” and the classification of psychedelic drugs as a Schedule 1 drug in the United States. Nonetheless, the past 10 years have seen a resurgence of interest in the field of psychedelic science.

In the last decade, research has resumed at prominent universities, such as Johns Hopkins University, University of California-Los Angeles and New York University, where clinical trials have examined the use of psilocybin (the psychoactive component of “magic mushrooms”) to treat cancer-related end-of-life anxiety, as well as addiction to alcohol and tobacco. And, a recently formed group at Yale University – the Yale Psychedelic Science Group (YPSG) – is exploring the science behind such research.

YPSG was formed with the aim of reviewing and discussing academic research in the psychedelic sciences via examining academic articles and papers, as well as hosting leading scholars in this field from across the country. The group is working to host an interdisciplinary forum in which clinicians and scholars from across Yale can learn about and discuss the reemerging field of psychedelic science and therapeutics.

One of the leaders of this resurgence is Winnipeg-born and -raised Jewish community member Jordan Sloshower, who is currently a second-year resident physician in Yale’s psychiatry program.

“I first thought I was going to do infectious disease, which is a more typical path for someone like myself interested in global health,” Sloshower told the Independent. “But I found that, clinically, I was most interested in interpersonal relationships, so social dynamics and psychiatry was feeling like a better fit.

“What actually happened was I was able to go do a psychiatry elective in Peru – both in Lima and in a smaller city in the mountains – and, for six weeks, I got to interact with different aspects of their mental health care system there. It was really my first exposure to what we call ‘global mental health,’ and I learned that this is actually a very vibrant field.”

Sloshower found that mental health was a hugely underserved area, with not only a lack of access to care, but with human rights abuses. With a lot of work needing to be done in the field, he decided to combine his interest in global health with his clinical interest in psychiatry. This led to his working in Nepal’s mental health system as well, at the end of medical school.

Regarding the field of psychedelic science, Sloshower dates its inception back to when Albert Hoffman synthesized LSD.

“Now, the way I think of it is as a broad interdisciplinary study of how these molecules act biologically, socially and economically,” he said. “I think there are also political, arts and anthropological angles. I think the term psychedelic still brings up thoughts of art and music from the ’60s. It’s a broad term.”

According to Sloshower, the term psychedelic means “minds manifesting,” which some refer to as “hallucinogen.” In context, this refers to compounds that cause perceptual alteration.

The province of Saskatchewan, as it happens, was one of the leaders investigating LSD for the treatment of alcoholism and cancer-related anxiety. In Europe, psychedelic drugs were used for psychotherapy. Thousands of papers were published on this until, Sloshower said, “things got shut down when psychedelic drugs were classified as illegal drugs.”

Psychedelic drugs went from being perceived as potential wonder drugs to something awful, and then just disappeared. Then, about 10 years ago, Dr. Rick Strassman in New Mexico did a study looking at dimethyltryptamine, a psychedelic drug found in many species of plants as well as in our own bodies.

“There’s a huge need for new treatments that work rapidly in a sustained way, and we need treatments that are not toxic,” said Sloshower. “So, it makes a lot of sense that we should look at these drugs, which actually have safety profiles that were demonstrated to be excellent back in the original wave of research and, increasingly, in controlled settings.

“There have been several trials using psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms to treat cancer-related anxiety, which, again, picks up from the ’60s. There’s been a promising study with psilocybin to treat alcohol and nicotine dependence.”

While Sloshower said he is not an expert in the matter, he was willing to explain the basics of how these compounds work on the brain. He said that psychedelic drugs activate a subtype of serotonin receptor in the brain and that “serotonin is one of the key neurotransmitters in mood, attention and a range of different things.”

He said, “Typical antidepressants usually act on the serotonin system as well. One potential mechanism of how psychedelics exert peculiar effects on thought and perception is by interrupting something called ‘the default mode network,’ which is kind of like a neural correlate of the ego. It’s a network of neurons that fire together in your baseline consciousness when you’re doing self-referential thinking. In people with depression who have a lot of ruminant thoughts, you see an increased activation of the default mode network and, with both the use of psychedelics and mindfulness practice, you actually see a decrease in activation of the default mode network.”

Among the speakers YPSG has hosted is a speaker from Johns Hopkins who discussed his work using psilocybin to treat tobacco addiction. Another expert, from NYU, was part of the trial done on psilocybin for cancer-related end-of-life anxiety. The results from both studies look promising.

Sloshower anticipates that some Canadian universities will soon become more interested in researching psychedelics. “Actually, the Canadian medical journal, I noticed on the front cover a few months ago, had psychedelics on it,” he said.

When asked about any possible connection between psychedelics and the increased interest in medical marijuana, Sloshower said they are not explicitly connected, although both are part of a search for new therapeutic approaches.

“From my point of view, it’s not so much a matter of the drugs (antidepressants) being overused as much as it is that the drugs don’t work as much as we’d like,” he said. “In a lot of cases, we don’t have great treatment. In depression, for instance, the medications either work partially, take a long time to start working or have a lot of side effects.

“In these cases, the treatments we have aren’t really adequate. We need new ones. We don’t really have good drugs for substance use disorders either. Actually, something that’s been interesting with psychedelic drugs is that the model being proposed, unlike typical antidepressants, is based on a very limited number of drug exposures over a very short period of time.”

The proposed model includes providing treatment in clinics only, with people requiring only one or a handful of drug-therapy sessions linked with psychotherapy, as studies have shown both rapid-acting and prolonged effects of psychedelics.

As for the cancer anxiety research, it has shown improvement in patients’ mood six months after having received a single dose of psilocybin.

“That’s why I think there’s a lot of interest,” said Sloshower. “I don’t think it’s going to be a miracle, but another tool we’d have alongside other treatments we already have.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Improving celiac care

Following several months of research, discussions and consultations, the Canadian Celiac Association (CCA) is celebrating 2016 Celiac Disease Awareness Month with the unveiling of a detailed algorithm to be distributed to all family doctors across Canada. With awareness and understanding of celiac disease varying greatly within the medical community, the result until now has been a hodgepodge of treatment and follow-up plans that leads to confusion and, in many cases, continued illness and suffering.

The new best practices algorithm, developed by the CCA’s Professional Advisory Council, aims to bridge this gap by clearly outlining the diagnosis and follow-up regimen for a Canadian with celiac disease.

“We hear it all too often,” said Anne Wraggett, CCA president. “Some doctors give the patient their diagnosis and simply send them on their way. Others recognize the need to monitor vitamin and mineral absorption levels, watch out for bone density problems, and be aware of the connection between celiac disease and other serious disorders such as type 1 diabetes and thyroid disease.”

“This is all about creating a standardized regimen, based as much as possible on evidence-based medicine,” added Sue Newell, operations manager for CCA. “We hope that this will lead to a consistent approach among all medical doctors, naturopathic doctors, gastroenterologists and other medical professionals. We need everyone ‘singing from the same songbook’ on this, so those diagnosed with celiac disease get the support they need.”

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the absorptive surface of the small intestine is damaged by gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. As a result, the body is unable to absorb nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals, which are necessary for good health. An estimated one percent of Canadians are affected by celiac disease and an estimated additional five percent of Canadians suffer from non-celiac gluten sensitivity, which is an intolerance rather than an autoimmune disease but nevertheless requires a gluten-free diet.

Symptoms of celiac disease can include gastrointestinal distress, migraines, fatigue, extremely itchy skin rashes and more, or there may be no overt symptoms at all. For celiacs to continue to ingest gluten puts them at risk of serious associated medical conditions, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, infertility and malnutrition.

Medical professionals, patients and others can download the best practices algorithm from the CCA website (celiac.ca), which also contains up-to-date scientific information and details of CCA’s programs to support all Canadians with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

 

Couples need to talk about sex

Doreen Seidler-Feller, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who has decided to focus her practice, in part, on the underserved population of Orthodox Jews. (photo from Doreen Seidler-Feller)

While sex is vital to our existence, it remains a topic many people are not comfortable discussing. Yet it is critical that we at least feel comfortable talking about it in private with our partners. It is even more fulfilling if we are able to enjoy the act of it with them, too.

Unfortunately, some newlywed Jewish Orthodox couples find themselves unable to consummate their marriages in an enjoyable way, due to a lack of sexual education and some misguided sexual advice from their peers. Enter sex therapist Doreen Seidler-Feller, PhD, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist who has decided to focus her practice, in part, on the underserved population of Orthodox Jews.

“I’m the last resort for everyone in this area,” Seidler-Feller told the Independent. “Nobody likes to come and face the situation in which they need to talk about something as intimate as their sexuality and their relations with their partners.”

Since people often only go to Seidler-Feller after they have exhausted all the options they can think of to solve the difficulties by themselves, she sees more complicated cases.

“It’s rare that I see a man alone,” she said. “It’s more likely that I’d see a man together with his wife, presenting as a couple, or that I’d see women alone. The reason for this is that, frequently, the problem is identified as theirs [the woman’s]. If it is an issue of painful intercourse or the involuntary contracture of the vaginal musculature that denies entry to the man … any sort of pain condition inside the vaginal vault or inability to tolerate intercourse … it makes sense that she would present alone.”

As treatment progresses, Seidler-Feller brings her patient’s partner into the process, as there is always some bridging required to bring the couple back into harmony and aid in their sexual choreography. Sometimes, the partner, too, may have a problem undiscovered until that point. In that case, his individual problem becomes addressable.

“The issue that causes the greatest anxiety is the inability to consummate marriage – a pain condition and an inability to tolerate insertion are conditions most likely to bring them into treatment,” she said. “These conditions not only deny the couple the opportunity for the mitzvah pru u’rvu [being fruitful and multiplying]. They deny them the opportunity for pleasure, the sensations of adulthood, and related normalcy.”

According to Seidler-Feller, the next most likely causes for seeking treatment are if the man has erection or ejaculation control difficulties, while the least likely cause is a woman being unable to achieve orgasm.

The majority of Orthodox couples and individuals Seidler-Feller sees are between the ages of 21 and 35.

“People, usually women, also sometimes want to come to me to talk about something in their past that they haven’t been able to talk to anyone about, that may be relevant to their sexual dysfunction,” said Seidler-Feller. “In that case, my being a stranger to her – not necessarily part of her community – is a plus, not a minus. That is because usually it enables the patient to maintain a certain kind of anonymity. At the same time, it enables her to raise the question of to what extent an experience of either subtle or outright sexual abuse might be relevant to her sexual difficulty.”

Since the work is so intimate, Seidler-Feller works strictly in person – not over the phone or electronically – partially to challenge the taboo around frank sexual discussion in the Orthodox world. Also, because of the inhibition that exists around both the language and activity involved in human sexuality, one-on-one discussions are most useful.

In a world where oblique language supplies the vocabulary, Seidler-Feller is not a fan of maintaining the status quo. One of her objectives is to train couples to be completely open with each other, to say what they mean and mean what they say.

“They can deal with the rest of the world in euphemism and indirection, that’s fine,” she said, “but I don’t want them, with one another, to talk in euphemistic and inhibited language, as it may lead to difficulties and misunderstandings.”

On the other hand, Seidler-Feller does not advocate the use of clinical or vulgar language. Her intention is simply to help a couple speak clearly to each other, so they can effectively express their desires.

“Once the dysfunction is behind them, they are left with a world of possibilities about how to enact their sexual relationship,” said Seidler-Feller. “Some find, at that stage, that they want to have a more ample, open and variable sexual relationship. For that to be realized, they need to be strong internally and know what they feel and want. This way, they can refer to their experience clearly and can effectively achieve their wishes.”

Seidler-Feller’s treatment is short-term behavior-oriented psychotherapy and involves focused discussion, not actual activity of any sort in a session. Her patients are given a series of exercises designed for them, specifically based on what their diagnostic assessment reveals and what are their halachic (Jewish law), cultural and value considerations. The exercises, which the couple completes in the privacy of their home, are the subject of each session. Usually, the person who has the dysfunction begins by doing self-directed exercises. Later, the couple performs partner exercises together.

“Over the course of the week, I expect my patients to do the exercises three or four times, and journal,” said Seidler-Feller. “Then, they bring back their journals or good memories, as the case may be, and we talk about what they did over the course of the week. And, I put in my two cents about how to enlarge it or differently shape it.”

In this broad way, Seidler-Feller approaches numerous issues wherein primary medical causes have been ruled out or are limited in their effects.

Seidler-Feller would like to see a standardized curriculum in Orthodox day schools.

“I’d like to see Orthodox day schools become more courageous, to face the fact that we live in a modern world where people of all kinds get their sexual information and values from all sorts of places,” she said. “It’s still true that most get information from their peers, which is variable, and, even when the information is good, is never enough.

“A sexual ethic involving a modern Jewish approach to sexual values must be developed to have a chance of captivating the imagination of both young Orthodox men and women, as well as the non-Orthodox. Otherwise, we condemn our young to the values either of the street or the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law].”

Seidler-Feller sees talking about problems surrounding sex, and giving young people especially a way to think about sex as something that is spiritually and emotionally enriching, is critical. She also thinks it will reduce a lot of personal anguish and marital tension.

“I’d like to see public forums in the Orthodox world, where people like me are invited into synagogues, panels or programs, offering the opportunity to talk about responsible human sexuality in the Jewish context, Orthodox context, in a straightforward, unapologetic way,” said Seidler-Feller. “This could help rabbis in the institutions that have failed us, to the extent that they consider all public discussion on sexuality as somehow immodest and prohibited. My dream is that when they come to the chuppah [marriage canopy] and to the world of marriage beyond, couples are truly prepared.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

האם יש שכירות בחינם?

בתקופה האחרונה מתפרסמות מודעות מסוג חדש להשכרת חדרים ודירות משותפות בוונקובר, באתר האינטרנט עם לוח המודעות המקוון קרייגליסט. (צילום: theprovince.com)

האם יש שכירות בחינם?
לא בדיוק – השוכרת תאלץ “לענג” את המשכיר

בתקופה האחרונה מתפרסמות מודעות מסוג חדש להשכרת חדרים ודירות משותפות בוונקובר, באתר האינטרנט עם לוח המודעות המקוון קרייגליסט. המשכירים מטבע הדברים גברים מציעים להשכיר חדרים או דירות ללא תשלום. הם מבקשים לקבל “רק” קצת מאסג’ים או עינוגים אחרים מהשוכרות. במילים אחרות סקס במקום דמי שכירות.

לדברי פרופסור למשפטים באוניברסיטת יו.בי.סי, ג’נין בנאדט, הגברים המשכירים מנצלים את המצב הקשה בו השוכרות נמצאות, כיוון שמחירי השכירות בוונקובר מרקיעי שחקים וקשה מאוד למצוא חדרים או דירות להשכרה במצב השוק כיום. בנאדט: “לא מדובר במערכת יחסים בין בני זוג שחולקים דירה במשותף. שכירות תמורת סקס היא אקט לא חוקי והמשכירים יכולים להסתבך גם עם חוקי זכויות האדם והטרדות מיניות”. דוברת הארגון לסיוע לנאנסות ומקלט לנשים בוונקובר, סמנתה ריי, מוסיפה כי הגברים משתמשים בטקטיקה חדשה של מסחר בשכירות, עבור קבלת שירותי מין כדי לנצל נשים. ריי: “הגברים משתמשים בכוחם ומנצלים את הייאוש הכלכלי של הנשים בעיר. נשים צעירות ומהגרות יכולות בקלות ליפול בפח של המשכירים”.

לעומת זאת טוען דובר משטרת ונקובר, בריאן מונטגיו כי לאור צורת הניסוח המודעות, אין בהן משום עבירה על החוק. מונטיגו מציע לנשים להתעלם ממודעות שמציעות שכירות חינם תמורת שירותים מפוקפקים ואל להן לקחת סיכונים מיותרים.

האם יש גזענות בעבודה?
קורות חיים אנונימיים צפויים להגביר את שוויון ההזדמנויות בתעסוקה

קנדה נחשבת למדינה ליברלית ומכניסת אורחים כלפי זרים שמהגרים אליה ועבור פליטים שנקלטים בה. אך מתחת לפני השטח מתברר שכמו במדינות מערב אחרות, גם בקנדה המתקדמת אין בדיוק שוויון הזדמנויות בתעסוקה לכל האזרחים, ללא קשר למוצאם. לפי נתונים ממשלתיים המיעוטים בקנדה מהווים למעלה מ20% מהאוכלוסיה, אך לעומת זאת הם מקווים בקושי 14% ממצבת העובדים בשירות המדינה. מחקרים שונים שנערכו בארה”ב ובקנדה מצביעים על כך שלמועמדים לעבודה ששמותיהם אינם אנגלו-סקסים, יש סיכוי קטן יותר להיות מועסקים.

לאור זאת חבר פרלמנט מטעם המפלגה הליברלית, אחמד חוסיין, טוען שהגיע הזמן שקנדה תאמץ מדיניות חדשה בתחום התעסוקה, לפחות במגזר הציבורי, שבו יקלטו עובדים לפי כישוריהם באמצעות קורות חיים אנונימיים, ועל ידי כך תקטן תופעת האפלייה.

התזמורת הסימפונית של טורונטו אימצה לפני שנים את המדיניות לקלוט נגנים חדשים באופן אנונימי. המועמדים לתזמורת נבחנים בזמן שהבוחנים לא רואים את פניהם, לא יודעים מה מינם ומה שמם. כתוצאה מכך כיום לפחות 50 מהנגנים בתזמורת הם נשים, ורבים שייכים לבני המיעוטים. לאחרונה מספר בתי ספר בקנדה אימצו מדיניות דומה בוגע לבדיקת מבחנים ועבודות של התלמידים, שמוגשים ללא שם לבוחנים.

החיפושיות בהתכתבות
קורס באוניברסיטה על סיפור הצלחתה של הלהקה הבריטית

הביטלס ממשיכים להצליח גם באוניברסיטה של מחוז נובה סקוטיה. 66 סטודנטים נרשמו לקורס חדש בתחום המוסיקה שעוסק בסיפור הצלחתה של הלהקה הבריטית. לאור הפופולריות של הקורס הוא יתקיים שוב גם בשנה הבאה.

פרופסור למוסיקה באוניברסיטה קווין ברנקורסט, מעביר את הקורס המעניין שעוסק בחיי הלהקה ובתקופה בה היא פעלה. הסטודנטים יבחנו כיצד הביטלס נולדה ובתוך תקופה קצרה הצליחה בצורה אדירה והפכה להיות הלהקה המשפיעה ביותר בהיסטוריה של המוסיקה והתרבות בכלל. הקורס כולל צפייה בסרטים, וידאו קליפים וראיונות עם הביטלס. ברנקורסט מציין כי אף אחד לא היה מצליח לכתוב את סיפור הצלחתה של הביטלס שהיה כל כך בלתי צפוי, וזה לבד הופך את הקורס לכל כך מעניין.

VHEC marks anniversaries

Robbie Waisman, left, and Éloge Butera will be the keynote speakers on May 26. (photo from Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre)

At a first-in-a-decade gala dinner this month, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre will mark three significant anniversaries.

“It’s more than 40 years since the first Holocaust symposium for high school students at the University of B.C.,” said Nina Krieger, VHEC’s executive director. “It is more than 30 years since survivors of the Holocaust formed the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society for Remembrance and Education with the vision of creating a permanent legacy in the form of a teaching museum. And it is now just over 20 years since the doors to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre opened.”

Krieger said it seemed like an appropriate time to invite the community to celebrate the achievements of the past, learn about the diverse programs in which the centre is currently engaged and also the ambitious plans for the future. The event, titled Looking Back … Moving Forward, takes place May 26, 5:30 p.m., at Congregation Beth Israel.

“As an organization, we are at a turning point,” she said. “What started as a small Holocaust museum on the edge of the continent has grown into an institution that is renowned in its field for innovative, impactful pedagogy, exhibits, programs and collections.”

Thanks to a grant from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and a legacy gift from the estate of Edwina and Paul Heller, she said, the centre is digitizing its artifacts and archival collections, including one of the earliest extensive collections of audiovisual survivor testimonies.

“When Dr. Rob Krell began interviewing survivors on videotape in the 1970s, he was among the first to do so in North America,” Krieger said. “The collection now includes more than 200 testimonies, which have been shared with other archives, including Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, and are currently catalogued into a new VHEC system that will support access to these first-person accounts of the Holocaust.

“With these digitization projects, we are going to be able to reach exponentially more scholars, students and members of the general public in Vancouver, in Canada and around the world,” she continued. “The impact we can have on Holocaust studies will be enormously increased. More importantly, thousands more people will be able to access our impressive collections. Furthermore, thanks to a related project in which we are developing complementary pedagogical materials, educators worldwide will be able to access multimedia teaching resources at age-appropriate levels to share this history in impactful ways.”

Krieger said Looking Back … Moving Forward will introduce attendees to the power of firsthand eyewitness testimony. The keynote speakers will be Robbie Waisman, a survivor of the Holocaust, and Éloge Butera, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. Their stories of survival are examples of the kinds of VHEC programs that reach more than 25,000 B.C. students annually.

The event is also intended as an opportunity for attendees to learn about the breadth of VHEC programming.

“People are often surprised at the diversity of the programs and services we deliver,” Krieger said.

Earlier this month, the 41st annual Symposium on the Holocaust at UBC brought about 1,000 students from across Metro Vancouver to the university for two days of meetings with Holocaust survivors and historians. In addition to this annual event, VHEC now delivers similar “satellite” programs in 10 school districts and sends outreach speakers to schools all year round. Teachers’ conferences, learning resources and hands-on Discovery Kits help teachers educate about the Holocaust at age-appropriate levels. School groups and the general public visit VHEC to experience locally and internationally developed exhibits. Survivors access services including financial, medical and social supports. Scholars and other researchers use Western Canada’s largest collections of Holocaust-related materials. Four annual commemorative events – International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, the High Holidays cemetery service and the Kristallnacht Commemorative Lecture – provide opportunities for both mourning and learning.

“We hope that attendees of Looking Back … Moving Forward will come away with a deeper appreciation of the work we are doing,” Krieger said. “And with our deep appreciation that everything we accomplish is due to the support of people who understand the value of what we are doing.”

The event is co-chaired by Mariette Doduck, Shoshana Lewis and Helen Heacock Rivers. Honorary chairs are the four past presidents of the organization: Waisman, Krell, Rita Akselrod and Jody Dales. For tickets, visit vhec.org.

Pat Johnson is communications and development consultant at Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, as well as a member of the Independent’s editorial board.

JFSA lunch raises $266K

Hootsuite’s Ryan Holmes speaks to an attendee at the Innovators Lunch on May 4. (photo by Sandra Steier)

More than 550 people at the Jewish Family Service Agency’s Innovators Lunch on May 4 raised more than $266,000 for the important services JFSA provides.

Starting the event at the Hyatt Regency, featuring Hoosuite founder and chief executive officer Ryan Holmes, was Beth Israel Rabbi Jonathan Infeld who, before the motzi, said a few words about volunteer Elayne Shapray, whose funeral had been that morning. Incoming JFSA board chair Karen James also spoke about Shapray’s contributions, noting that she had been “honored with the highest volunteer award from JFSA, the Paula Lenga Award, for her quiet strength and years of support.”

photo - Innovators Lunch committee members, left to right, Shannon Ezekiel, Hillary Cooper and committee chair Sherri Wise with keynote speaker Ryan Holmes, CEO and founder of Hootsuite
Innovators Lunch committee members, left to right, Shannon Ezekiel, Hillary Cooper and committee chair Sherri Wise with keynote speaker Ryan Holmes, CEO and founder of Hootsuite. (photo by Sandra Steier)

When event chair Dr. Sherri Wise took to the podium, she thanked everyone involved in making the lunch possible, including her co-chairs, Shannon Ezekiel and Hillary Cooper. Richard Fruchter, senior management consultant at JFSA, added his thanks and, after a video about JFSA’s impact, introduced Dr. Neil Pollock who, with his wife Michelle, matched all new and increased donations to the lunch up to $20,000.

Pollock spoke about his family’s involvement with JFSA. In particular, he spoke about Dorita Flasker, who came to Vancouver from South America as a senior, having had all her wealth expropriated by her home country’s government. In the years since JFSA connected them, she and the Pollocks have become family, and they all recently celebrated her 80th birthday together.

Shay Keil of Keil Investment Group of ScotiaMcLeod, one of the lunch’s co-presenting sponsors, introduced the keynote speaker. Holmes founded Hootsuite in 2008, said Keil, taking the company from a small startup “to a global leader in social media with over 13 million users, including 800 of the Fortune 1000 companies.”

“My parents were both teachers – they left teaching in the ’70s to get back to the land, to become farmers,” said Holmes. “They bought a hobby farm. I grew up with goats, chickens … kerosene lamps, a water well in the Okanagan Valley.”

He discovered computers – “magical things” – at the library. The librarian noticed his enthusiasm and suggested he enter a schoolwide programming contest. Two months later, he won the contest – the prize, an Apple IIc computer, which had to be connected to the family car’s battery, as their home had no electricity.

His first business was a paintball company he started in high school. He went to university to study business, but dropped out and opened a pizza place, which he ran for a couple of years. After selling the restaurant, he moved to Vancouver, bought a computer and started learning how to build HTML websites. He got a job at a dot-com that crashed about six months later, so founded his own agency, Invoke. He continued to learn his craft and eventually hired employees. They had customers to whom they would provide computing services and they built a number of products, such as product-management and e-commerce systems.

“Around 2008, we started to do marketing on social media for our customers,” he said. “What we realized very quickly was that there weren’t very many tools out there to manage social media…. We needed a tool to help manage multiple team members and multiple social networks all from one place, and that was the aha moment for Hootsuite.”

Soon thereafter, Hootsuite was launched. Investors were found about a year later – “Remember, this was at a point when people were asking, ‘Is Twitter just a fad?’ ‘Is Facebook just the next MySpace or the next Friendster, is it going to be obsolete in a year?’ People didn’t know if social media was relevant and was here to stay.”

Hootsuite – which has about 800 employees – is headquartered in Vancouver, but has offices around the world. “We send 28 million messages a week and these messages reach three billion users across the planet every week.” Among those users have been the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements, and the White House.

“We’re in an era of unimagined disruption,” he said, pointing to three trends driving it: social (sharing videos, for example, which can go viral), a more collaborative economy (businesses like Uber) and mobile.

“Sixty percent of people who complain on Twitter expect a response within one hour,” said Holmes. “So, if you’re a brand, if you’re a business, and you’re not there … it’s like you don’t have a website, like you don’t have a telephone…. The thing about social is there is an implied contract: you’re naked and transparent….” If customers do not get a response, “they’re going to talk about it over and over again and, so, you’re going to be brought into the open as a business.”

Holmes compared various communications technologies. “The telephone took 75 years to reach 50 million users, radio 38, television 13, LinkedIn six-and-a-half, Twitter four, Facebook three, Instagram 1.7. Adoption is happening quicker and quicker.”

He then talked a bit about Snapchat, and showed the audience how to use it.

About the next big thing, he hopes that, like “the PayPal mafia” – “a group of alum … [who are] driving a lot of the innovation that’s happening in Silicon Valley” – there will be a “maple syrup mafia.”

“I would love to see the alum of Hootsuite go on to create the next 10 Hootsuites within Vancouver and more within Canada,” he said.

Already, the B.C. technology sector employs more people than the mining, oil and gas, and forestry sectors combined. To create an even better ecosystem for innovation, he said, there are three key requirements: capital (money to build companies), environment (places for people to live and work) and talent (education and immigration, as there currently is a lack of supply).

“There is huge opportunity for people who want to head into this industry,” he said, predicting an increasing demand for these types of jobs.

During the question-and-answer period, Holmes responded to concerns about privacy – he believes the good aspects of technology outweigh the bad; housing – a problem for every business, he said, putting the onus on the government to increase supply, create more diverse product (not just 500-square-foot living spaces) and implement policies to control demand; and corporate responsibility, which he thinks will become more of an issue. To him, the lack of what once were basic skills – such as writing – is simply the evolution of language, the next steps being the keyboard and more voice-activated technology.