Category: News

Help financing new startups

Starting a small business can be an exciting prospect that brings with it the potential to be your own boss, follow your passion and create passive income for retirement.

But even the best ideas that generate strong markets can fail if the financial structure doesn’t have a solid foundation. That’s why every new-business owner should make their first priority collecting advice from experts in business planning.

This is especially true if you are looking for startup capital. Most people think three options – personal, family/friends or a bank – are the only sources of funding available. Often overlooked are specific small-business loans and grants from the federal government.

photo - Eli Joseph
Eli Joseph, senior account manager, business and personal, at RBC. (photo from Eli Joseph)

Eli Joseph, a senior account manager, business and personal, with RBC, is often surprised at how few people know about government funding options.

Joseph works with businesses on day-to-day banking, as well as lending solutions through the Canada Small Business Financing Loan (CSBFL) or the Business Development Bank of Canada.

Clients who fall in the “small business” category typically have gross sales under $2 million, with fewer than 15 employees, and who need loans up to $250,000.

“Ninety-eight percent fall under this category,” he said.

The CSBFL has very specific applications, however, such as investing in new equipment or trucks, buying furniture or expanding a business. It won’t cover the cost of hiring staff, a franchise fee or planning a marketing campaign. For that, Joseph suggests looking at a line of credit.

But even before signing up for some fresh cash, Joseph cautions business owners to take stock of where they are.

“Ninety percent start their business asking for money,” said Joseph. “I try to slow down the conversation, I ask, ‘Do we have a business here?’ There were three examples where we had to slow it down and go through the numbers; in all three, after doing footwork, they realized they didn’t have a valid business.

“That’s where people jump the gun – they haven’t done the research; and they don’t have a business plan.”

Tax planner Alexei Schwartzman also underlines how important it is to get professional advice before heading too far into the business.

“It is important to involve someone who understands the tax implication of the business, but it’s essential to get someone involved before the business is officially running,” he said. “Often people do not think of asking the questions until they are already operational and, by that point, it might be too late for certain things.”

This is particularly important if your business has an innovative component that might be eligible for tax credits through the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program (also known as SR&ED). Businesses wanting to take advantage of this government credit need to incorporate before incurring research and development costs. A good tax consultant can help determine if the cost of incorporation and filing SR&ED tax returns, which can be substantial, will be worth the actual money saved.

Also be sure to look at the Public Works and Government Services Canada’s Build in Canada Innovation Program (buyandsell.gc.ca), as well as the National Research Council Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ irap/index.html). Both of these have loans and grants that help kickstart businesses to get their innovative products and services from the lab to the marketplace.

No matter what type of funding you’re looking for, both Schwartzman and Joseph agree that the biggest mistakes business owners make are not having a business plan, not doing proper market research or trying to do everything themselves rather than turning for advice to experts who have already done the legwork.

For general information on government loans/tax credits for small business, contact Rob McGarry, concierge service, National Research Council Canada, c/o Small Business BC, 601 West Cordova St., 604-499-2804, [email protected], concierge.portal.gc.ca.

Baila Lazarus teaches media communications at Small Business BC. Register for her courses at phase2coaching.com.

Upcoming Events

  • Oct. 30: Money Money Money: How to Get It, Manage It and Grow It, a keynote session highlighting how to access different levels of financing to support your business, presented by Futurpreneur as part of the all-day SOHO SME Business Expo at the Sheraton Wall Centre. vancouversme.soho.ca.
  • Nov. 6, 13 and 20, 10:30 a.m.-noon: How to Do Business with the Federal Government, three-part series at Small Business BC, 601 West Cordova St. smallbusinessbc.ca/seminars.

Radical innovation requires changes to law

Left to right: Bo Rothstein, CFHU Vancouver president Randy Milner, Prof. Michal Shur-Ofry and Justice Bruce Cohen. (photo by Michelle Dodek)

The main boardroom at Farris was full of lawyers who had come to hear Prof. Michal Shur-Ofry of the law faculty at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Oct. 6 event began with a brief presentation by University of British Columbia law professor Christie Ford on her experience at Hebrew University in the spring as part of the Mitchell Gropper Law Faculty Professorship Exchange. Bo Rothstein, a partner at Farris, gave a warm welcome and introduced the keynote speaker, an internationally recognized expert in intellectual property (IP).

Shur-Ofry’s lecture was titled From Newton to Shechtman: Can Intellectual Property Facilitate Nonlinear Innovation? She told the story of Dr. Dan Shechtman, an Israeli researcher who observed “quasicrystals” in 1982, a discovery that scientists were convinced was impossible; Shechtman nearly lost his career as a result of publishing his findings. In 2011, however, he was vindicated when he was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry for this discovery. The dramatic story of this Israeli Nobel laureate illustrates aspects of nonlinear innovation, those that shift existing paradigms.

Another example of such a paradigm shift, said Shur-Ofry, was the introduction of cubism by the artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Their movement away from the representational depictions that had previously dominated art was at first ridiculed. Once accepted, however, their innovative contributions became a crucial building block of 20th-century art and beyond.

The world is currently biased against radical innovators, Shur-Ofry maintained, but she believes that “a de-biasing mechanism” is possible through IP law. This area of law, which encompasses copyright and patent law, can help artists, scientists and other innovators to be brave and to contribute their novel innovations without the kinds of risk taken by the Picassos or Shechtmans, she said.

“If an artist first sells a piece for just $900, and then it is resold for $85,000, the artist is entitled to a share of that sale price.”

Citing droit de suite, a law adopted by the European Union and 70 other countries that gives artists protection by entitling them to part of the proceeds of subsequent sales of their art, Shur-Ofry explained by way of example, “If an artist first sells a piece for just $900, and then it is resold for $85,000, the artist is entitled to a share of that sale price.” She acknowledged that while this type of remuneration exacts a cost on doing business, its benefit to artists who are innovators can drive others to produce novel works, instead of commercially proven, formulaic art.

It is this type of law, along with other incentives to inventors, that Shur-Ofry champions. She described patent laws that would grant access to the successful results of works protected through patents, as well as the “negative knowledge” that results in even greater innovation and discovery. Great problems are often solved by discovering an error in the paradigm, she explained. Therefore, access to the challenges and roadblocks in developing technologies may be the key to solving even greater problems. She said that she hopes to convince lawmakers that changing IP laws will encourage non-linear innovation and be universally beneficial.

The Mitchell Gropper Law Faculty Professorship Exchange facilitates annual exchange between Hebrew University and UBC law professors, and enables annual lectures by visiting Hebrew University law professors. For more information about the exchange or the programming of CFHU in Vancouver, visit cfhu.org or contact executive director Dina Wachtel at 604-257-5133.

Sexual harassment still a problem

When Winnipeg lawyer Yude Henteleff tried to change the way in which sexual harassment was viewed in Canada 25 years ago, he had hoped for more change by 2014.

At the time, he was the judge appointed to a case that involved a waitress who was being sexually harassed by another employee at the restaurant where she worked. After going to the owner of the restaurant and asking for his help and getting nowhere, she turned to the courts. While her case followed another with similarities, which ruled that the accused was not guilty, her case landed in Henteleff’s courtroom.

In Janzen v. Platy Enterprises Ltd. (1989), Henteleff found in favor of the plaintiff. His verdict was 144 pages long and included substantial evidence to support his decision, which he hoped would help the case stand the test of time.

photo - Yude Henteleff
More than 25 years ago, Yude Henteleff tried to change the way in which sexual harassment was viewed in Canada. (photo from Yude Henteleff)

The case went through appeals that won but, in the end, it went on to the Supreme Court of Canada, where the verdict was reinstated. It has since been referred to more than 500 times in cases and verdicts throughout Canada.

Henteleff would be the first to say that we have a long way to go until sexual harassment disappears from the Canadian landscape, as it “continues to happen every day to hundreds of thousands of girls and women around the world to an extent that never seems to diminish.

“There are many instances that one can point to, which seem to indicate that, at least in Canada, as a result of the decision in Janzen v. Platy and other decisions which have since occurred dealing with the issue of sexual harassment, that, indeed, positive transformation has occurred – and that is marvelous,” he said.

“On the other hand, when you read recent studies, you really have to sit up and take notice that so much more has to be done, that sexual harassment is still rampant and widespread. We have legislation passed against bullying and the like, but why do these attitudes still persist to such a degree that it’s still so much to the continued disadvantage of women and girls?”

At the time of his Janzen v. Platy decision, Henteleff awarded lost wages plus exemplary damages to each of the two women. He did so because he “felt the economic consequences, amongst others, to women being sexual harassed was quite severe and no previous case I’d read had taken that into account. And, I thought it was about time that employers realized that, not only would they lose a case, but they would lose money out of their pocketbooks.

“Ultimately, I felt it was the strongest message one could give to potential harassers – that, hey you know what, this is going to cost you and you better think twice about doing what you’re doing or think twice about not speaking with your employees in such a way, that they wouldn’t continue to harass co-employees.”

Henteleff added, “When it was appealed to the Court of Queen’s Bench the first instance, they reduced it [the financial aspect] quite considerably,” he said. “When it went to the Court of Appeal, they reduced it even more, to the point where it just became a light slap on the wrist.

“The fact that, for the first time ever, the Supreme Court of Canada not only dealt with this issue, but dealt with it in a way that made it very clear sexual harassment was simply not acceptable.”

Henteleff views the current legislation and policies at various workplaces as quite adequate. But, he said, “Where the fault lies is in attitude. Attitudes have to be changed. The only way you can change it effectively is within the school system and that isn’t being done. But, it also has to be with society as a whole. Why school systems have been so resistant, why faculties of education have been so resistant, is a real puzzle to me.”

While Henteleff acknowledged that nowhere else in the world is doing a better job than Canada with respect to dealing with sexual harassment, he said, “We know it’s bad enough here and that should be enough for us to say we need to do much more than we’ve been doing so far to deal with this problem.”

As for Dianna Janzen, she continues to share her experience, because she knows from her work with Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund that the issue is very much alive.

“She is an example of how a young woman who wasn’t the least bit active in this area has become active because of her own personal experience,” said Henteleff about Janzen. “She isn’t afraid to share all the nuances of it, which shows a great deal of courage on her part.

“On the other hand, we know of thousands of women to whom this happened that are scarred forever, who remain silent, where it continues to eat at them because of how horrible that experience is to them psychologically, emotionally and physically. There are many statistics as to the long-term consequences, the negative ones, the serious ones, on women who suffer sexual harassment. They still have to deal, for the rest of their lives, with this horrific, horrible experience.

“One of the greatest problems facing mankind and womankind,” he continued, “is exemplified by the continued horrible violence against women – and this is because of attitudes rooted in thoughts and ideas that should no longer be parts of who we are as a society.

“Human beings have been searching for human rights, harmony, equality, respect and dignity for all. What we’ve done post-Janzen v. Platy falls far short of achieving these objectives for women and girls.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Untangling the womb maze

Fluid-filled structures in the placenta. (photo from wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il)

The fetus in the womb totally depends on the blood bond with the mother. Spotting irregularities in the flow across the placenta could therefore be crucial for detecting fetal distress,

but currently no reliable method is available for monitoring the flow or detecting other signs of the distress in its early stages.

Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, can be safely performed during pregnancy, but currently available MRI methods are not suitable. Problems include the motion of the fetus or mothers’ breath, the varied structure of placental tissue and the tangled maze formed by maternal and fetal blood vessels.

In a new study in mice conducted with advanced MRI methods, Weizmann Institute scientists have now revealed in unprecedented detail the dynamics of the flow of fluids within the placenta. This feat was all the more impressive, as a mouse placenta is around the size of a dime. As reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they managed to identify three different types of fluid-filled structures: maternal blood vessels, which account for two-thirds of blood flow in the placenta; fetal vessels, which account for about one-quarter of the flow; and embryo-derived cells infiltrating the mother’s vasculature, which account for the rest of the flow and in which the exchange of fluids between mother and fetus takes place. The researchers also found that in maternal vessels, blood flows by diffusion, whereas in fetal vessels, the flow, stimulated by the pumping of the growing fetus’ heart, is much faster. In the cells that have infiltrated the mother’s vasculature, the dynamics of the flow follows an intermediate pattern, driven by both diffusion and pumping.

Two sophisticated MRI methods were combined to enable the study: one geared toward monitoring diffusion and another directed at identifying structures with the help of a contrast material. They could be applied successfully in large part thanks to an innovative scanning approach, spatiotemporal encoding (SPEN), a Weizmann Institute technique. Because SPEN is ultra-fast and makes it possible to separately encode signals from such different materials as air or fat, it allowed the researchers to overcome disturbances created by movement and the variability of placental tissue. If developed further for safe and reliable use in humans, this combined approach holds great promise as a noninvasive means of detecting fetal distress caused by disruptions in the placental flow. It can be particularly valuable when fast decisions about inducing labor need to be made, for example, in such complications of pregnancy as preeclampsia.

The study was a joint effort of two laboratories: one headed by Prof. Michal Neeman of the biological regulation department and the other by Prof. Lucio Frydman of the chemical physics department. The research was performed by two graduate students, Reut Avni from Neeman’s lab and Eddy Solomon from Frydman’s lab, together with Ron Hadas and Dr. Tal Raz of the biological regulation department, and Dr. Peter Bendel of chemical research support, in collaboration with Prof. Joel Richard Garbow from Washington University in St. Louis.

For more Weizmann news, visit wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il.

Soup ladled with love

Sharon Hapton (photo from Random House of Canada) 

When she first got together with friends to make soup for women and children fleeing domestic abuse in Calgary, Sharon Hapton recalled how the chef at the shelter broke down in tears when she saw their delivery of kosher-style chicken soup.

“The reason the chef was overcome with emotion was that there were Jewish women at the shelter at that time, and she knew how much it would mean to them,” she explained.

Hapton and her friends were overcome, too, but more with surprise than anything else. They were stunned to learn the shelter was accommodating Jewish women. “Not one of us had thought we were making soup for someone in our own community,” she admitted. “It was a humbling and defining moment to know that domestic abuse crosses all cultures.”

image - The Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers Cookbook cover
The Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers Cookbook features recipes by acclaimed B.C. chefs, including Vikram Vij, Karen Barnaby, Rob Feenie and Lesley Stowe, among others.

That was five years ago and since then Hapton has been busy with Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers, her nonprofit social enterprise that organizes soup-making events in some 20 cities nationwide. She visited Vancouver on Oct. 8 to launch her second cookbook, The Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers Cookbook, featuring soup recipes by acclaimed B.C. chefs, including Vikram Vij, Karen Barnaby, Rob Feenie and Lesley Stowe, among others. Hapton’s favorite, though, is the recipe she grew up with, her mother’s potato leek soup. “There’s so much memory and nostalgia in it, it’s really delicious, simple and beautiful,” she says of the recipe.

The mandate for Hapton’s organization is to nurture and nourish women and children fleeing domestic abuse and family violence and seeking shelter in some 30 shelters across the country, including those in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, TriCities, Kelowna, Victoria and soon Penticton, too. Participants pay $55 to attend an event in partnership with a cooking school, where they help to make up to 200 servings of soup under the guidance of a chef facilitator. Afterwards, participants enjoy a meal of soup, salad, bread and wine with other cooks in the kitchen. “It’s a night out where you learn about the shelter you’re supporting and enjoy the camaraderie in the kitchen,” Hapton said. Ninety-five percent of the participation fee goes to the culinary partner, which supplies the ingredients and the kitchen where the soup is made. By uniting with a culinary partner the organization ensures participants will receive good service, fresh ingredients and operational excellence as they make their soup.

Since March 2009, more than 500,000 servings of soup have been delivered to Canadian shelters, thanks to a network of 12,000 participants. Hapton said the need in women’s emergency shelters is endless. “Most of those shelters are unfortunately always full, typically with up to 50 women and children at any time.”

Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers has also been supporting youth in crisis, specifically kids aged 16 to 24 who are transitioning from being street involved. While women being housed in the shelters don’t tend to communicate much to the organization (perhaps because of security concerns, or the stigma associated with being a victim of domestic abuse), the kids are really communicative, she said. “We receive letters from them with thanks, telling us how the soup made them feel, and the results of a simple, simple gift are very tangible.”

Batches of fresh soup are delivered in containers adorned with handwritten labels. Quantities are supplied to last until the next event when soup is made, which can be up to a month away.

“My experience of being a soup maker led me to understand that soup is a very powerful way of taking care of people,” Hapton reflected. “I believed very strongly five years ago that this could be something bigger, and that’s exactly what has happened now.”

These days, she receives emails from people all over Canada who have heard or read about the program. When new communities show an interest in starting the program, she asks to meet three main coordinators for each group and helps them implement it.

“Every city, big or small, has a shelter,” she said. And many of them are now being supplied with tasty, fresh, regular batches of soup.

In Vancouver, Soup Sisters supplies soup to Kate Booth House, Imouto Housing for Young Women and Koomseh transition house, in partnership with the Dirty Apron Cooking School. The next soup-making event is Jan. 25, at 11 a.m. For more information, visit soupsisters.org or email [email protected].

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

 

No more ice scraping

Who would have thought a solution to ice stickiness would come from a semi-tropical country like Israel?

Prof. Hanna Dodiuk heads up the department of polymers and plastics engineering at Shenkar College in Ramat Gan. She specializes in adhesion and adhesives science and technology, characterization and formulation of polymer adhesives, special coatings, surface and interfaces analysis, nanotechnology and aging of polymeric materials.

photo - Prof. Hanna Dodiuk
Prof. Hanna Dodiuk heads up the department of polymers and plastics engineering at Shenkar College in Ramat Gan. (photo from Prof. Hanna Dodiuk)

Born in 1948 in Krakow, Poland, to two Schindler’s List Holocaust survivors, the family made aliyah to Israel in 1949. Dodiuk served in the air force, and then studied chemistry at Tel Aviv University. In 1979, she joined the Israeli Armament Development Authority (ADA), also known as Rafael. From September 1991 to June 1997, Dodiuk was the ADA’s director of its materials and processes department.

Her research led to the creation of a surface to which ice cannot stick, a material she created while on sabbatical with a large bio company in Germany. “They invited me to develop surfaces that don’t adhere to anything, that are easy to clean, and that have super-hydrotropic surfaces,” she said. The company needed this to develop what Dodiuk referred to as “a microfluidic machine.”

“This small machine can only work with very small water droplets at minus-12 degrees,” she said. “To take such a little amount, you have to ensure the fluid is not absorbed on the surfaces.”

In her research, Dodiuk turned to biology and nature, studying how leaves react with water.

“While most leaves are weighted by water, lotus leaves, even if in mud and water, aren’t, so they remain fresh and clean forever,” she said.

Using a high-resolution microscope, Dodiuk found that the morphology of the lotus leaf is very unique. “It has small mountains of microns that have a very small circle in the diametre of a nano range, which is 10 to minus-nine metres. A water drop cannot enter the width between two nano particles, so it begins to fall off and slide. Therefore, the water doesn’t add weight.”

Dodiuk said this is not a new chemistry concept. It has been used in Teflon-like materials for years. But, while Teflon works well with oil, water can still get it wet and weigh it down.

Early on, Dodiuk found great success with the lotus leaf. Three years into the research, ADA asked her to help create a super-hydrotropic coating usable on glass to prevent ice from interfering with navigational systems by sticking and blocking the view. Dodiuk found a lab that would allow her to imitate ice adhesion in Quebec, where she conducted the experiments.

“We’re the only [technology] in the world that can reduce the adhesion of ice,” said Dodiuk. “You cannot avoid it totally, but you can reduce by a factor of 18. If you reduce the adhesion of ice by a factor of 18, you really avoid ice adhesion.”

This surface has numerous significant applications. “Airplane wings can take off, but the special coating that was so great at reducing the adhesion of ice was simply not durable,” she said. “If, for example, they were to apply very high winds, it would start coming off and nano particles would be lost, as the adhesion of the micro and nano particles wasn’t good.

“With the lotus plant, if its surface is damaged, it will repair itself. But, technology doesn’t know [how] to repair itself, so they had to find another solution. That is when the University of Massachusetts stepped in with funding and lab facilities.”

Aided by two university students in the plastics engineering department working to create a special film with the right properties at a very low cost, Dodiuk said they are now halfway to completion. The final product will be a stick-on film, like Scotch tape, but with nano particles on one side, not visible to the naked eye. It will be able to be applied to anything, from windows and wings of airplanes to car windows during the winter.

“We always laugh at the end of the day,” said Dodiuk. “Israel [doesn’t] have an ice-adhesion problem, yet we invented the solution.

“Once you talk about super-isophobic, easy-cleaning or self-cleaning [technologies], everyone is sold.

“Even with textile, it would be one that never gets dirty. For things to get dirty, the dirt has to adhere. If you avoid adhesion, you’ll stay clean forever. Can you imagine not needing to wash your things, as nothing will adhere to [them]?”

“Can you imagine all of New York and Vancouver never needing to be cleaned?”

The potential application possibilities are endless and multi-directional, with spin-offs that can be used in elemental technology, like car or high-rise windows with no need to clean off dust or dirt. “Can you imagine all of New York and Vancouver never needing to be cleaned?” asked Dodiuk.

“With this special coating, those windows will remain totally clean. Just a little bit of rain will take off all the dust. The rain won’t stick to the window, only to the dust.”

Through it all, Dodiuk emphasized, she succeeded in accomplishing all of this work, to date, in a “male-dominated environment. I really think [women] should go into science and technology. [Many women] are going into many areas today, but not science and technology.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

 

 

Doctor trailblazes in Toronto

With its Centre for Bedouin Studies and Development, Israel’s Ben-Gurion University (BGU) encourages Bedouin students to enrol at the Negev university by providing financial assistance and programming aimed at retention and academic success. One of the first students to go through the BGU program is Dr. Rania Okby, who is currently doing a fellowship in advanced obstetrics in Toronto.

At the young age of six, Okby, who was born in Be’er Sheva, decided she wanted to become a pediatrician, because, she said, “I really loved my pediatrician. I never had any problems going there when I was a kid, and I kind of wanted to be like her.”

photo - Dr. Rania Okby at the Asper Campus in Winnipeg earlier this year
Dr. Rania Okby at the Asper Campus in Winnipeg earlier this year. (photo by Ariel Karabelnicoff)

Okby’s parents divorced when her father expressed his desire to marry another woman. “Polygamy is a common practice in the Bedouin community,” she told the Independent. “About 30 percent of Bedouin women are in a polygamy system. My mom didn’t agree to that. She said, ‘OK, whatever, you want to get married? OK. But, I’m going to leave the house.’ She left the house with six kids – four girls and two boys.”

Okby, while in high school, spent one day a week at BGU, part of the university’s recruitment programs for Bedouin high school students. One such program, Seeds of Medicine, helps identify the best students, those who have a chance to be accepted into medical school.

“We were two female students who did very well in the project,” said Okby. “We went through interviews like other candidates for medical school. And, that’s how I became a medical student.”

In her first year in medical school, Okby had the opportunity to help deliver a baby. “I remember how it felt to be part of giving birth, dealing with birth and helping women … so, I fell in love with obstetrics and gynecology … and that’s how I decided to do that,” she said.

As it happened, Okby went on to become the first female Bedouin doctor in the world.

“My whole family was proud I was accepted,” she said. “They saw how hard I worked. I studied in high school five days a week and then I went another day to study in the university. And, you know what? On the seventh day, I would volunteer on a few projects.”

Financing was not an issue, as BGU covered expenses and the university is supporting Okby while she is doing her fellowship in Toronto.

“Being at the university at large, the fact that there’s more and more Bedouins going to BGU – especially girls – because of the Centre for Bedouin Studies, connects the Jewish community with the Bedouin community in an interesting way,” said the doctor.

The way Okby sees it, “If you’re more exposed to different people or cultures, you understand that they are human beings, just like you. It doesn’t matter if they’re Jewish, right? So, being exposed to one another at the university, for sure, makes it better. And the more educated people are, the more they will hopefully accept one another.

“There are many friendships between Arabs, Bedouins and Jews. It’s normal, because if you’re in contact with people, you become more comfortable with them. There’s a lot of Jews who volunteer in the Bedouin community, and there are some Bedouin who volunteer in the Jewish community – not necessarily in their own community.”

What is paramount in Okby’s mind is, “Education, education, education. To become equal, we have to first become empowered. Bedouins suffer from very low social economic, education and health status … everything is lower. So, to become equal, we have to be empowered.”

Life in Toronto

During the first two months Okby was living in Toronto, a friend stayed with her, and the doctor’s mom also joined her during the second month. Since September, Okby has been living on her own, along with her two daughters, in an area referred to as “the Kibbutz.”

According to Okby, “There are about 35-40 families, Israeli families, in the area, and 97 percent of them are Jewish. Most of them are doctors who came to do their clinical fellowships, but some of them are post-doc. We live in the same area and most of our kids go to the same school, so the older kids help the new kids adapt to school.”

Okby’s youngest daughter just started Grade 1, and the parents had a party for all their kids who were starting first grade.

“Now, during Sukkot, everyone is celebrating,” said the doctor. “On exchange day, everyone who has things they don’t need brings them, and everyone picks what they need. We support each other, help each other, do trips and Friday night dinners together.”

Understanding the issues

Bedouins make up 25 percent of the Negev population. But, Okby said, “In labor and delivery, we’re about 55 percent, because we give birth to a lot of kids (the average is six to seven kids), we suffer from a lot of gynecological problems, we have a high rate of relative marriages and we have a high rate of malformation.

“We have three times the rate of neonatal deaths compared to the Jewish population. Forty percent of that is due to malformation, which is a result of relative marriages. Bedouin women [also] suffer from postpartum depression – 30 percent compared to 10 percent in Jewish society.

“It’s similar to the indigenous people here, in Canada. We have many of the same problems as the aboriginals.” This is one factor Okby plans to focus on when she returns to Israel. “The university is very interested in the issue, too,” said the doctor. “Maybe we’ll have a minorities health department or something like that to research it further, to make the situation even better for those kids and mothers.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Vancouver NCSY welcomes Steins

Rabbi Josh and Laura Stein with their daughter Yehudis at Niagara Falls. (photo from Josh Stein)

Josh and Laura Stein come from similar backgrounds – both grew up as unaffiliated Jews just a few kilometres from each other in Toronto, both became more interested in their Jewish heritage as teens through National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), and both ended up learning in Israel, where they met. Now, the married couple (along with their 10-month-old daughter Yehudis) has moved to Vancouver as Rabbi Josh Stein takes on a new role as the NCSY chapter coordinator in Vancouver, hoping to give back what they both gained from NCSY.

“I attended Jewish elementary day school and a public high school. I had no affiliation really,” he told the Independent. After becoming involved with an NCSY rabbi, he said, he learned about a Jewish heritage that he never had experienced before. After high school, Stein chose to spend two-and-a-half years in a yeshiva in Israel, where he became Orthodox.

“Going to Israel for the first time really opened my eyes to a different aspect of Judaism that I never experienced before,” said Stein. “That, coupled with a week in Poland [through a trip organized by his yeshiva], really opened my eyes to my Jewish heritage and kind of endowed with me the exploring of Judaism further from there.”

At the same time, his wife to be was going through a similar journey: she also had left her native Toronto to study in Israel, eventually meeting her husband through the same rabbi who they both met in high school and had sparked their Jewish quests.

After graduating with smicha, a bachelor of arts in Judaic studies, a bachelor of talmudic law and a teaching certification from the Israeli Ministry of Education, Josh Stein and his family moved back to Toronto. Recently, they found their next role, joining the Vancouver Jewish community.

“There are so many people who have helped us along the way in becoming Orthodox that we really felt that it was part of our duty to give back to the community and allow other students to be as fortunate as we have been in discovering our Jewish heritage,” said Stein.

As part of his new role, he’ll be organizing educational and social events for Jewish students in Vancouver, from Shabbatons to paintball sessions and weekly learning classes.

“Essentially, my job is to work alongside Rabbi [Samuel] Ross and bring in new energy to the younger kids coming in,” said Stein. They’ve already held the first Vancouver Shabbaton of the year, which brought together about 100 kids from Western Canada, as well as Seattle and Portland, to spend a Shabbat together in Vancouver.

“The kids had a blast, there was so much camaraderie and this feeling of being part of a greater community,” he said. They have also started weekly Torah High learning classes and have many programs lined up for the year.

NCSY, which has been in Vancouver for about 50 years (and is now in its 60th year nationally), aims to help Jewish teens discover and connect with their Jewish roots through fun, informative and educational programming and mentorship. Although Vancouver is known for its high intermarriage and assimilation rates, the number of Jewish youth involved in NCSY has grown in the past few years, which is one of the reasons why the chapter brought in the Steins.

“We brought them in due to sheer growth,” said Ross, NCSY Vancouver city director. “We are now seeing well over 200 kids a year. Perhaps five [or even two] years ago, kids were coming in here and there; now, the kids are coming in for two, three, four or five times every week for programs.

“In order to be able to continue our growth, we felt this was the right time to bring in the next couple who would complement what Gila, my wife, and I are presently able to offer.”

The Steins are looking forward to being part of the growth of Vancouver NCSY.

“NCSY to me is a family that unites our community as a whole. It’s an organization that really brings Jews together from all different aspects of life and makes them feel like they’re part of a family, no matter their religious level,” said Stein. “We hope to allow each student to find their own uniqueness about Judaism and internalize it for themselves.”

Vicky Tobianah is a freelance writer and editor based in Toronto. Connect with her on Twitter, @vicktob, or at [email protected].

Vancouver now home for Liran Kling

Julia Glushko and Liran Kling at last year’s U.S. Open. (photo from Liran Kling)

Israeli tennis coach Liran Kling now calls Vancouver home. He moved here after being invited to do so by Canada’s No. 2 female tennis seed, Sharon Fichman.

Kling, 33, has played and coached tennis since he was a kid.

Born in Ramat Gan, he was one of the top junior players in Israel. After three years of army service, he attended College of Charleston in the United States on a tennis scholarship and then began coaching, in 2006, staying on for two years at the college before returning to Israel.

In 2010, Kling began coaching one of Israel’s promising young female players, Julia Glushko. Over four years, Kling helped Glushko become Israel’s No. 1 seed, a ranking she shares off and on with fellow tennis star, Shahar Peer.

After the 2014 Australian Open, however, Kling and Glushko parted ways. “It was a great experience for both of us,” said Kling of their time together. “We achieved a lot in the four years we worked together. There was just a mutual feeling that our partnership had run its course and we both felt it was time for a change. Julia is a great player and I wish her all the best in the future.”

 Moving to Vancouver

“When I stopped working with Julia, Sharon contacted me to see if I was interested in coming to work with her and her team in Vancouver,” said Kling.

“Sharon is Canada’s No. 2 player, after Eugenie Bouchard. She is ranked 127 in the world in singles and 90 in doubles. Her somewhat low ranking is due to the fact that she is coming back from knee surgery and, in the past, she had a number of wins against top 50 players, so we know she has the potential to do that and more.”

About working with Fichman, Kling said, “We believe she can be ranked among the top of women tennis.” He added, “Our Israeli background helps us find common ground and to develop a strong working partnership.”

Fichman was born in Toronto to Israeli parents and has an older brother who was born in Israel. She began playing tennis at age 5 and, at 13, became the youngest player to win Canadian nationals for girls 18 and under. Later, at 14, she became the youngest player in Canadian history to play on the Canadian Federation Cup team.

Before becoming a professional, Fichman was ranked as high as No. 5 in the world for girls 18 and under, winning the Australian Open and Roland Garros titles in doubles, and reaching the quarter finals in singles of two grand slams. As a professional, her career high ranking to date has been 77th in the world in singles and 48th in world doubles.

Fichman competed in the 2005 Maccabiah Games for Canada and won the gold medal in the women’s open singles event. She was the flag bearer for the Canadian Maccabiah Team.

“The Canadian Tennis Federation has been very supportive of me and my tennis career and I am proud to play for Canada,” said Fichman.

Kling and Fichman first met on the Women’s Tennis Association tour, when Kling was still Glushko’s coach. When Fichman began looking for someone to join her team in Vancouver, she said Kling was her first choice. “The fact that he is Israeli is simply a bonus,” she said.

“He is very observant and has a great eye for the game of tennis,” said Fichman about Kling. “As a former player himself, he understands what it takes to be successful as a professional tennis player, so I take a lot of confidence in his input and feedback on and off of the tennis court.”

Both Fichman and Kling are new to Vancouver. Fichman said both she and Kling “would like to be better introduced to the Vancouver Jewish community,” while Kling said, “I’m enjoying my time here…. As far as the winter season goes, I was told to bring an umbrella. I look forward to learning how to ski this winter.”

The two are working out of a tennis centre in Surrey.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Food as delight and comfort

Yotam Ottolenghi is in Vancouver on Oct. 21 for a sold-out pre-Jewish Book Festival event to promote his newest cookbook, Plenty More. (photo from Yotam Ottolenghi)

Israeli-born chef, restaurateur and TV personality Yotam Ottolenghi has made a name for himself by bringing creative Middle Eastern and gourmet vegetarian cuisine into the homes of everyday cooks. His debut cookbook, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, published in 2008, co-written with fellow Jerusalem native Sami Tamimi, features nearly 150 recipes selected from his restaurants. Ottolenghi has since published two other bestselling cookbooks, Plenty, which focuses exclusively on vegetarian cooking, in 2011, and Jerusalem, co-written with Tamimi, in 2012. The star chef and author is in Vancouver on Oct. 21 for a sold-out pre-Jewish Book Festival event to promote his newest cookbook, Plenty More, which was published this week by Random House.

“I always enjoyed food very much since I was very young, but never considered it as a career option,” Ottolenghi told the Independent. “But when I finished my studies at university, I decided to see if I could make it into the profession, so I enrolled in a culinary course in London in 1997 and really loved it. I thought it was very liberating and very immediately gratifying as opposed to the things I did before. It felt great feeding people and getting immediate feedback from them.”

After graduating from culinary school, Ottolenghi worked in various restaurants, but a defining moment arrived when he teamed up with a group of people and started a deli in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood that specialized in fresh food and pastries.

image - Plenty More book cover“I really enjoyed doing it, it became extremely popular very early on,” he said. “We made some nice vegetable dishes, things with pasta and grain that are deeply ingrained in the Middle Eastern food culture,” and it took off. Since then, he’s convinced millions around the world to open up their palates and culinary appetites and take a chance on Middle Eastern food.

In his newest book, Plenty More, vegetables are again the focus and he writes about his cooking methods and gives readers a glimpse into his process. “It was an organic process – the recipes are based on those I write for the Guardian newspaper’s weekend magazine – but the inspiration, or ‘penny-drop’ moment, came when I realized I wanted to organize the chapters around cooking methods rather than ingredients. Certain vegetables can get pigeon-holed – a courgette gets steamed, a squash gets roasted and so forth; focusing on the cooking method, instead, really allowed me to showcase how much more versatile vegetables are than this,” he said.

His next project is already in the works, he said. “I am working on a new book with our head chef at NOPI [in London] and we have plans to open a new Ottolenghi deli in East London next year. That’s keeping the big picture busy, and then the day-to-day work in the test kitchen continues on apace,” he said.

Ottolenghi said he hopes to continue immersing himself in the food world, and do the work that he loves to do – while preparing his own favorites, as well.

“What I love in food is the ability to surprise, delight and comfort all at once. My favorites will change depending on the context, so it will be meatballs cooked with dried Iranian lime one day and tinned smoked oysters tipped onto toast and eaten for breakfast the next,” he said.

Perhaps he’ll even gain a new favorite while he’s in Canada. “Festivals are just a great place to exchange ideas and enthusiasm with like-minded people so I’m looking forward to just being there, having a good time and learning about more ways I can get some great maple syrup into my cooking,” he said.

For more information about the Cherie Smith JCCGV Jewish Book Festival and a full schedule of events, visit jewishbookfestival.ca.

Vicky Tobianah is a freelance writer and editor based in Toronto. Connect with her on Twitter, @vicktob, or at [email protected].