News – Page 31

Holding faith at rallies

UBC student Zara Nybo, a non-Jewish ally, holds a poster of Rom Braslavski, as she speaks of his heroism before he was taken hostage to Gaza on Oct. 7. (photo by Pat Johnson)

As negotiations continued in Doha, Qatar, for the release of Israeli hostages, the weekly rallies in support of those held, their families and all Israelis continued Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

“As a university professor and as a Jew, I have been forced to witness the frontlines of a propaganda war to dehumanize and demonize Jews and to delegitimize the nation of Israel,” said Prof. Steven Plotkin, a University of British Columbia physicist.

The Hamas strategy is one of “asymmetric warfare,” he said, in which they bait Israel Defence Forces with attacks and hostage-takings, then use their own Palestinian civilians as human shields, knowing that the casualty numbers and horrible images will evoke sympathy in the West.

“And we’ve seen it,” he said. “The encampment and the protests at UBC quickly turned from advocating for the human rights of Palestinians to a call for the end of Israel.”

On campus, the messages he saw included the now familiar “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” but others on the same theme, including “We don’t want your two states! Take us back to ’48” and “Resistance is justified when you are occupied.” Another common refrain, he said, is “‘Globalize the intifada.’ That means bring terrorism everywhere, including here in Canada.”

“Long live Oct. 7” was yet another slogan the professor saw on his campus.

“Let that sink in,” he said.

When reports of extensive sexual abuse by Hamas and other Palestinians who broke through the border on Oct. 7 became known, he said, “I saw posters at UBC that announced a discussion group for ‘the lies that Zionists spread about the sexual abuse that didn’t occur on Oct. 7.’”

Plotkin reflected back to the days after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City, when people put up posters of their lost loved ones.

“Could you imagine what kind of person would think to tear one of those down? No one would have dreamed of it,” he said. “And now we’re seeing a world whose moral compass has completely lost its direction.”

Posters of Israeli hostages are routinely torn down at UBC, elsewhere in Vancouver and around the world. Plotkin shared a psychological hypothesis for why this desecration is so rampant.

In the identity-centred worldview of many activists, Plotkin said, morality is determined by one’s position in the hierarchy of oppression.

“The less powerful are pardoned, the more powerful must be guilty,” he said. Because Hamas is less powerful than Israel, Israel must be guilty, despite the evidence of Hamas murdering, raping and abducting Israeli civilians.

“A hostage poster, however, throws a wrench into that framework because it forces them to cope with the idea that the people that they thought were oppressed could actually be in the wrong,” Plotkin said. “Their whole simplistic worldview of the blameless oppressed and the evil oppressor is undermined by the ugly facts contained in the posters. A hostage poster induces a cognitive dissonance and, rather than question their own worldview, it’s easier for them to see it as pro-Israel propaganda designed to elicit their sympathy for the Jews in Israel, the bad guys, and so they feel compelled to tear the poster down.”

Eyal Daniel, a Burnaby high school teacher who specializes in Holocaust and genocide studies and who is president of the Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators’ Association, spoke about how his group was denied recognition by the BC Teachers’ Federation.

Representing close to 150 educators, the group applied to become one of the BCTF’s provincial specialist associations.

“Our application was rejected without any given reason,” he said. “Currently, there are no educational resources about the Holocaust and antisemitism for teachers in the province.”

Conversely, Daniel said, the province’s 50,000 teachers are bombarded by their union with materials promoting the elimination of the state of Israel.

The provincial government has mandated that Grade 10 students must receive Holocaust education beginning in 2025 and it is said to be working on curriculum materials.

Despite the lack of recognition from the BCTF, Daniel’s group will continue to work “as if we had been approved,” he said.

“Therefore, these days, we are in the process of constructing a new website, developing useful, meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers, assessing and developing appropriate educational materials and working with the minister of education on the upcoming Grade 10 Holocaust education curriculum framework,” he said.

Daniel spoke of his family’s recent visit to Israel, where they visited the site of the Nova music festival.

“Stepping out of the car into the desert heat, we were immediately surrounded by the haunting silence,” he said, “but, yet, 364 voices called out from the ground: Where is the humanity? The Nova memorial site is a barren killing field where humanity ceased to exist.”

Rabbi Susan Tendler of Congregation Beth Tikvah, in Richmond, spoke of the need for dialogue.

“In civic discourse … we’re yelling more than we’re listening,” she said. “So many of us will talk about the need to listen to one another but instead we’re just angry and have an inability to actually talk to one another.”

She asked people to see the humanity of others as a starting point to dialogue.

“To be a Jew means to respect and understand that every single human being was created in the image of God,” she said. “Let us continue to work for peace in the region that so, so sorely needs healing.”

Zara Nybo, a fourth-year student at UBC, is an ally to the Jewish community, president of the Israel on Campus club, and an Emerson Fellow with the international advocacy group StandWithUs. She shared recollections of a training conference in Los Angeles from which she and scores of other campus activists recently returned. At an LA rally for the hostages, she heard profoundly moving testimonies from family members of those still held in Gaza.

“Most people around me, men, women, had tears streaming down their face,” said Nybo. “We were all holding each other in collective grief.”

The mother of Rom Braslavski spoke of how her son had been a security guard at the Nova music festival and took it upon himself to hide the bodies of murdered women, both so they would not be taken to Gaza and so that they would not be posthumously raped or mutilated, as he had seen other female bodies desecrated. Braslavski was taken hostage in Gaza.

As Nybo and her fellow students prepare for the new academic year, she emphasized the training they have undergone and the determination with which they will return to campus.

“I will tell you we are committed to this fight,” she said.

Richard Lowy, who has provided vocal and guitar inspiration at almost every rally for months, spoke of the hope that a resolution will come through negotiation.

Event organizer Daphna Kedem recounted the rally in Tel Aviv the evening before and expressed hope that the hostages will be released soon and that the weekly rallies she has organized for 10 months will cease to be necessary.

Volunteers help rebuild Israel

Vancouverite Gail Mattuck volunteering in Israel after Oct. 7. She found her placements with the help of the Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities Facebook group. (photo from Gail Mattuck)

They’re coming from around the world, taking a leave from their jobs to help rebuild Israel with their own hands. These are volunteers who have filled the labour gaps in the aftermath of Oct. 7, visiting farms or soldiers or hostage families; attending shivas, packing food for reservists and more.

Vancouverite Gail Mattuck is one of tens of thousands of people who have volunteered. But, if it weren’t for the Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities Facebook group that guided her to where she could help, she likely would not have lent a hand.

Led by Hagit Greenberg Amar and Yocheved Kim Ruttenberg in Israel, the group provides a running list to its 35,000 followers of where people can volunteer.

Mattuck chose a Chabad centre that assisted with food security, packing food for evacuees and making sandwiches for children of reservists. She also volunteered at Castel Winery, in the Jerusalem hills, to cut wires for the grape vines to grow on.

“For my friends in Israel, they were really happy to see me, of course, but they appreciated I was there to be there during that time. Lots of people just thanked me for being there. Without that Facebook group, I couldn’t have done it,” said Mattuck.

“One of my friends lives up north,” she said. “There are missiles coming over there all the time. Her sons were in Gaza fighting. It’s very personal for them. For me to be there, they appreciated it. My sense was of a country that was incredibly hurt but not broken.”

Mattuck has a close connection to one of the people killed at the Nova music festival, and made her trip in his memory.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Ruttenberg attended university in South Florida, then moved to Dallas, where she worked in construction sales. She and her brother had plans to go into real estate together after he completed his Israel Defence Forces service. He was scheduled to be released on Nov. 12, 2023.

Her brother was stationed in the south on Oct. 7, and she woke up to a text message alerting her to the attack, and his arrival in battle a few hours later. It was then and there, she felt the need to help. She intended to stay in Israel for a couple of weeks.

“I couldn’t not be here during that time,” she said. Within three days, she was on a plane, carrying 23 duffle bags of donations for soldiers, worth $17,000. Three days before her return flight, she quit her job. “I can’t go home. I need to be here,” she told her boss.

“When the war started here in Israel, we didn’t know what to do,” said Amar. “So, we started to think about what we already know how to do. We started to import. We started with battery power banks, then medical equipment, things the Marines used in emergencies. A lot of special units came to our place. Then, we met [Ruttenberg’s] brother.”

It was Ruttenberg’s brother who introduced Amar to Ruttenberg.

In the beginning, Ruttenberg corralled volunteer information from various WhatsApp groups, Google Translated them and posted them. In late November 2023, the Facebook group formally launched.

Yael Yom Tov Emmanuel joined the page on day one, and matched thousands of volunteers to different opportunities. Since then, two other team members have joined – Ariel Boverman and Sarah Emerson Halford. They have since created a Google Docs document for members, so that prospective volunteers can search by area and specialty.

The initiatives have impacted numerous lives by coordinating farm volunteers, aiding soldiers, assisting at food banks, and participating in reconstruction efforts in the south. The group has emerged as an essential resource for both residents and visitors, linking individuals with opportunities to make a difference.

“It blows me away to see how many people have done something outside their comfort zone in such a big way. People come to Israel for the first time in their lives, alone, in the middle of a war,” said Ruttenberg.

Group members are vetted carefully, something Amar says is one of the challenges in dealing with a hundred requests per hour. They have had to turf some infiltrators.

“It’s a 24/7 operation because we have people all over the world,” said Ruttenberg. “We all have our different roles. Some are more on the Facebook page interacting. A lot of my time is going into the field and meeting volunteers and interacting. But it’s a full-time job – beyond a full-time job.” No one is financially compensated for their time.

When Ruttenberg is not dedicating her time to the volunteers, she works part-time in marketing and sales consulting. She recently finished a US speaking tour and said that, while in Texas, half the room were Christians, they wept at her stories and couldn’t wait to get involved.

“People are sitting at home and feel helpless,” she said. “When your country is at war, when there’s antisemitism through the roof and you are not in the military and are not medically trained, you feel like there is no way to give back. It makes me incredibly proud to see, and incredibly proud to meet, the volunteers who are helping rebuild Israel with their bare hands.”

Amar, who lives in Ramat Gan with her three children, was previously chief executive officer of a brand and strategy company. She is now pursuing a second degree, in social work, at Haifa University, with an aim to offer therapy and mental health services.

“I think this group created a place where you could feel safe and be part of a community. There are real friendships in real life that occurred from the group. If somebody needs something, we always find someone to be with and support them,” Amar said.

“I think part of what we are doing is creating ambassadors, and changing the narrative about how people see Israel, showing Israel as a beautiful place,” added Ruttenberg. “Everyone who comes here meets soldiers and other people who are grateful. Israelis see people come from LA, just to pick tomatoes – we really appreciate that.”

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

CRA “blindsides” JNF

Lance Davis, chief executive officer of JNF Canada. (photo from JNF Canada)

The Jewish National Fund of Canada is fighting the Canada Revenue Agency over the revocation of the organization’s charitable status, accusing the federal taxation department of “blindsiding” them and treating them differently than other charities. The head of JNF Canada sees bias at play.

“Do we think the CRA is antisemitic?” asked Lance Davis, JNF Canada’s chief executive officer, in an interview with the Independent. “No. Do we think there is bias involved here? Yes. That’s actually part of our court application. We have said in writing that we believe there is bias.”

The difference, Davis explained, is that, while CRA officials may not carry prejudice toward Jewish people, their decision may have been influenced by a concerted, multi-year campaign attacking JNF – Independent Jewish Voices Canada has a website dedicated to the campaign.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, JNF Canada obtained the files used by CRA to make their determination.

“So we know what was written in the file that the CRA is using with respect to JNF Canada and it is littered with complaints in an organized and systematic way from anti-Israel groups, unions, political parties, etc.,” he said. “After you read all of this material, one can reasonably say that bias may have come to play into the decision-making process.”

Davis is emphatic that media have so far got the story wrong. The revocation is not about JNF Canada’s support for projects on Israel Defence Forces bases or on the other side of the Green Line, outside of Israel proper. CRA expressed concerns about these projects several years ago and JNF Canada immediately ended those undertakings, he said.

“Yes, we have over the last number of decades built all sorts of public amenities on IDF bases,” he said. “Those amenities include swing sets, playgrounds, parks, play areas … shaded areas, rest areas, all that kind of stuff. We disagree that that is not charitable. Helping the children who have to live on a base … we believe is charitable.”

Moreover, the money for such past projects did not flow to Israel’s military, said Davis. It went to a charity that built the projects.

“Nevertheless, when it was brought to our attention that this is a problem according to the CRA, we stopped doing it in order to be cooperative and collaborative with the CRA,” he said. “That’s not what this revocation is about. It might be an interesting subject for the media or those outside parties to conflate, but this issue that we’re dealing with the CRA is fundamentally about our founding charitable object. They’ve come to the conclusion that it is not charitable.”

The issue, Davis said, is that CRA, after 57 years, has abruptly reversed the 1967 acceptance of the organization’s charitable objective.

In 1967, said Davis, CRA’s predecessor agency accepted JNF Canada’s purpose of funding projects in which economically disadvantaged individuals in Israel, especially new immigrants as well as Palestinians, are hired to complete projects like tree-planting and digging reservoirs, with the intention of keeping them off welfare rolls and combating poverty.

The current troubles between CRA and JNF Canada started during an audit that began in 2014. When the auditor cited the original objective as incompatible, Davis said, the organization immediately set out to negotiate new charitable purposes that would satisfy CRA.

“We presented 10 of them in writing and said, please work with us, let’s pick any or all of these and we’ll get to work,” said Davis. “CRA did not negotiate with us at all about any of those charitable objects.”

Those objectives, he noted, were replicated by JNF Canada from other recognized charities that had received approvals from CRA.

The organization’s leaders say they were “blindsided” by the decision, which was released Aug. 10, via the Canada Gazette, the federal government’s avenue for publicizing legislation and government decisions.

The revocation is the culmination of a crisis that began at the end of June, when JNF was notified that CRA intended to revoke their charitable status. Within weeks, the organization’s lawyers had filed suit with the Federal Court of Appeal.

In every similar instance JNF’s lawyers reviewed, Davis said, CRA refrained from revoking the status at least until the organization had their day in court.

“There is this idea of a presumption of innocence until you’ve exhausted all your appeals,” said Davis. “Why weren’t we given a presumption of innocence? Why weren’t we given a chance to say our piece before the judge? It’s a right that every Canadian business, individual, charity is entitled to.”

For now, JNF Canada is not permitted to provide charitable receipts.

“We are still a nonprofit, we still exist, we’re still an entity,” Davis said.

If the Federal Court of Appeal sides with CRA, JNF could take the matter to the Supreme Court, Davis said. Alternatively, they could potentially restructure the way they do their work.

“We are working through thoughts and plans with our legal counsel as to how we could best continue the work of JNF in a legal, charitable manner,” he said. “But we are confident in our case and we feel that it’s vitally important for us to challenge the CRA and the facts that they’ve presented.”

JNF Canada has not yet publicly released documents relating to the matter, as they await their lawyers’ annotations to provide both the CRA’s perspective and the JNF’s replies to the government agency’s concerns.

In dealing with JNF Canada, Davis contends, CRA has behaved differently than they routinely do with other charities. The due process they should expect has not been forthcoming and the government agency has leapfrogged several steps that charities are generally provided in the progression of an issue, he said.

Living amid continuing war

Band-aids – check. Bottled water – check. Tinned foods – wait. No sooner do I buy canned tuna, pickles, corn and peas and they’re eaten. Need to refresh that one. Flashlight – check. Portable radio – check. Now, this is a cool one. While not available in the groovy colours of the 1970s – bought it in a staid brown – the small, palm-sized handheld radio conjures up fond memories of those catchy songs from Billboard’s Top 10. Although the reason for the checklist is anything but fanciful. With the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatening a major reprisal attack.

In the Star Trek movie Wrath of Khan, the Klingons said “revenge is a dish best served cold.” I can certainly attest to that. As can my more than 9.5 million fellow Israelis. It feels like an eternity since the ayatollahs promised mighty revenge for Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief, Fuad Shukr, and Hamas’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, and the alleged Israeli assassination of Hamas’s politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh. When Iran’s authoritarian regime said at a place and time of their choosing, they weren’t kidding. We are still waiting…. Actually, I think the Klingons were probably quoting Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos, the 18th-century French novelist and army general who is credited with first analogizing revenge as a cold dish.

Speaking of proverbs, I think its origin is Chinese, some claim Yiddish. Regardless, whoever said “may you live in interesting times” was certainly cursing someone. Give me boring. Give me dull. Give me mundane. Give me monotonous. Give me colourless and bland. You can keep the gripping. The riveting. The fascinating. The stimulating. I just want to wake up to another simple day.

This waiting game is immensely stressful. It has the whole world on edge, with an alliance being built between Israel, the United States, Britain, France and Italy to thwart a second potential direct attack on my little shtetl. The first attack – of some 300 drones – was launched against Israel in April. We went to bed facing potential Armageddon and, thankfully, woke up able to just go to work, as Israel, with the help of its allies, knocked each drone out of sky before they reached Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Speaking of work, I am a self-confessed workaholic. And I find myself working even more during this very stressful period, where I fear my fate is out of my control. Will Iran attack? Where? And when? And how? No idea. No authority. No power. Simply unable to influence, in any way. Whereas work, which I am pretty good at, gives me all those things. I am largely in control, able to influence within my environment. Work gives me a calming sense and, if nothing else, allows me to escape into my purchasing processes and contracts. This is my own industrial and organizational psychotherapy. As good an excuse as any for my wife, when she again finds me tapping away at my keyboard at all hours or in another early morning or late evening Teams meeting.

As for preparations, I find myself obsessed with buying bottled water, toilet paper and Ajax. The first couple of items, you probably understand. But floor cleaner? I think it’s the Jewish mother in me. I don’t want to leave behind a dirty home. Kind of like Golda from Fiddler on the Roof, who insisted on sweeping their little Anatevka farmhouse before leaving. Although – and I say this loud and clear – we ain’t going nowhere!

Another quirk in dealing with the stress is that I love the music from the hippie generation. For the longest time after that dreadful Oct. 7, I wouldn’t – couldn’t – listen to music. I felt a very deep sadness. Maybe a type of mourning. But now, over the last few days, I find myself blaring my tunes. One of the first songs to pop up in my feed just after Iran’s rulers made their threat of retribution was “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. How foreboding can you get? “I hear hurricanes a blowin’. I know the end is comin’ soon.… I hear the voice of rage and ruin. Don’t go around tonight. Well, it’s bound to take your life. There’s a bad moon on the rise, alright.”

And, I find myself listening again and again – at pretty high volume – to the dark and wonderful song by our own Edan Golan, “October Rain,” otherwise known to the world as “Hurricane”: “Every day, I’m losing my mind…. Dancing in this storm, I’ve got nothing left to hide…. Baby, promise me you’ll hold me again.… I’m still broken from this hurricane….” And then, with hope: “Don’t have words. Just prayers. Even if it’s hard to see, you always leave me one small light.”

On another music note, I find myself chanting, to no one in particular, that snappy little line “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Now, why can’t we come up with something as catchy? With an impressive gene pool of great Jewish songwriters: George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Burt Bacharach, Carole King, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Amy Winehouse, Gene Simmons. Come on! And still, gornisht, nothing. No wonder we’re losing the global PR battle.

Please continue donating to the war and revival efforts. You may have given earlier, when hostilities first erupted and the Gaza war was headline news. Almost 10 months later, war continues – on several fronts. Sderot and Metula – and maybe Tel Aviv and Haifa – are Israel’s front line and Israel is the diaspora’s front line. Am Yisrael chai (yeah, that’s the extent of our solidarity anthem). Bring them home now!

Bruce Brown, a Canadian-Israeli, made aliyah more than 25 years ago. He works in high-tech and is happily married, with two kids. He is the winner of a 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish writing.

Federation’s latest transfer of aid to Israel

Last month, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver transferred $9.3 million from its Israel Emergency Campaign. Additionally, the allocations committee approved a further $1.4 million for transfer.

It has been more than 10 months since Oct. 7, and the situation in Israel remains dynamic and unstable as a full-scale war looms in the north. Rachel Sachs, director of Federation’s Israel office, provided the following update:

“Over the past few months, as the situation in the south stabilized and transitioned into rebuilding, the situation in the north has escalated, creating more complex challenges for displaced communities.

“Mutual fire along the northern border has been steady since October 2023 but has escalated over the past few weeks. This means hundreds of homes along the border have been hit and damaged. Thousands of residents, who were evacuated … are still living in temporary housing or have settled in new homes in new communities, and do not plan to return to the Galilee when the war is over. The communities that were not evacuated have been living in an active war zone since then, under the threat of rockets, drones and missiles.”

Federation was notified by Elad Kozikaro, chief executive officer of the Kiryat Shmona Community Centres, “that a rocket hit close to Beit Vancouver causing some damage to the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but Beit Vancouver is home to thousands of children and teens and has left the community unnerved.”

Considering these developments, the IEC Allocations Committee, chaired by Stephen Gaerber, realigned its strategy to focus on the north. The following organizations are recipients of IEC allocations from February through June 2024: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Tzafon Medical Centre, Taglit Birthright Israel, Galilee Medical Centre, Kiryat Shmona Community Centre, Kiryat Shmona High School, Upper Galilee Regional Council, Tel-Hai College, municipalities in the East Galilee Cluster, Israel Medical Association, Dror Israel, Healthy Minds, JDC and Magen David Adom Israel.

For a full summary of the support, visit jewishvancouver.com/iec-allocations.

CHW’s new year begins

CHW Vancouver Centre’s opening luncheon on Sept. 22 honours longtime members and contributors Bev Corber, left, and Dolly Jampolsky. (photos from CHW)

This year’s CHW Vancouver Centre opening luncheon on Sept. 22 will honour Bev Corber, a past CHW Vancouver Centre president, and recognize the volunteer efforts of Dolly Jampolsky.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing both women for a long time,” CHW Vancouver Centre president Toby Rubin told the Independent. “During Bev’s tenure as CHW Vancouver Centre president, I ran the annual campaign, and I have worked on other committees with her. I am excited for her to finally be recognized for all she has done and continues to do to support CHW and all its projects.

“Dolly is the Energizer bunny in my opinion,” continued Rubin. “At the age of 90, she continues to be our number one volunteer for both obtaining silent auction items and canvassing – no one seems to be able to say no to Dolly. Both Bev and Dolly exemplify strong women and are role models for myself and the rest of the community.”

Rubin has been a supporter of CHW for more than 30 years, Corber has been a member of CHW for almost 40 years, while Jampolsky joined the group more than 60 years ago.

“I had just moved to Vancouver and was seeking friendship and community,” Jampolsky said. “It was also very important for me to do something in support of Israel. CHW seemed to be a good choice.

“Early on, I was very involved with the bazaar. I recall that I would reach out to the better hotels in the city and ask for donations of linens. I also did the pickups of these donations. One time, I was at a very exclusive hotel in downtown Vancouver and I loaded up the elevator with a huge donation of linens. I stepped inside and pushed the button to go down and I got stuck. I was there inside the elevator for one or maybe two hours; no phones at the time. All I could do was press the emergency button and wait and wait.”

Stephanie Rusen, immediate past president of CHW Vancouver Centre, recalled Jampolsky’s involvement with the Hadassah Bazaar, including that her chapter had the clothing booth, then moved to linens.

“After the bazaar,” said Rusen, “Dolly switched to Pro-Am [golf tournament] and the silent auction. She has continued with the silent auction, expanding it to the Aviva Games Day and then to the openings. For a number of years, she sold the entertainment books.”

According to Rusen, “Dolly said that I was the one to get her calling donors, first for annual campaign, then end-of-year, and finally SOS. Give her a list of 20 names to call and a day later she wants more names. Three years ago, when she asked for yet another list, I only had one with 100 names and told her to call just the first 20. She called them all!”

Corber also joined CHW after moving to Vancouver and, in her decades with the organization, she has contributed in many capacities, including helping create CHW’s Legacy Circle, which allows donors of varying incomes “to create a philanthropic legacy for a cause they care deeply about.” She was active in the Hadassah Bazaar, has served as chapter and centre president, been convenor of multiple fundraisers and events, and participated in different committees, among other things. In 2021, she completed her role as CHW Vancouver Centre’s immediate past president.

“Over the years, I have made lasting friendships with women of all ages,” she said. “I value the opportunity to work with others to support our projects in Israel. With each additional commitment I have made to the organization, I have found that I have been amply rewarded for my efforts. I have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to make a difference (tikkun olam) while connecting to others in the Jewish community.”

For Jampolsky, CHW has met all the goals she had when joining.

“I was able to form many wonderful and lasting friendships that I still treasure to this day and to fulfil the promise I made to myself to support my community and Israel,” she said. “Joining CHW gave me the satisfaction that I could lend my time, energy and creativity to support Israel and set an example for my friends, my community, my children and grandchildren.”

One of the reasons Rubin was attracted to CHW was that it was a women’s organization, “bringing together like-minded women and supporting causes close to women’s hearts.

“It is an organization whose projects in Israel are not only about things that are important to all women – helping at-risk children, empowering women and providing vital health care – but also supports our local community here in Canada,” she said. “CHW looks at what the current needs are, finds the gaps in support and fills them. I am proud to stand strong with CHW and all it does to proudly support Israel and Canada.”

Rubin, who is beginning her third year as CHW Vancouver Centre president, writes on the CHW website: “Since coming in as CHW Vancouver Centre president in the fall of 2022, we have held an almost sold out Games Day, heard World WIZO chairperson Anita Friedman and cookbook author Adeena Sussman, have held SOS (Starting Over Safely) Walks, surpassed expectations on our campaigns, and we continue to try and grow the under-40 chapter.”

She also notes that there have been some tough times, notably Oct. 7.

“I think Oct. 7 has done the complete opposite of what Hamas and other terror groups thought – it has brought Jewish people together, not pulled them apart,” Rubin told the Independent. “I have found that people want to be together more than ever and are not afraid to attend meetings/events at the JCC, shuls or public places. We are always showing people how CHW is not the same organization it was when our grandmothers were involved and, since Oct. 7, more people are looking to belong to a community like CHW.”

In addition to honouring Corber and Jampolsky, the CHW opening will feature remarks and a Q&A livestreamed with Idit Shamir, consul general of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada. CHW chief executive officer Lisa Colt-Kotler will talk about her recent trip to Israel, where she visited CHW projects and bore witness to the atrocities of Oct. 7. Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit CHW partner Michal Sela Forum (MSF).

“MSF uses technology and innovation to improve the lives of victims of domestic abuse and helps them and their children take back their lives,” explained Rubin. “MSF is about keeping at-risk women safe in their homes instead of relying on shelters. The safety programs, like Michal Sela Canines, also allows women to return to their daily lives without fear of violence – this is so important. Also, everything MSF does, creates and establishes are things their CEO, Lili Ben Ami, wants to share with the world!”

For tickets to the Sept. 22, 11 a.m., opening lunch at Richmond Country Club, go to chw.ca/luncheon.

The science behind addiction

Every year, more Canadian teenagers die by suicide than by all medical diseases combined, including cancer, diabetes, asthma and infections.

Dr. Yaron Finkelstein, a professor of pediatrics, pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Toronto and a staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children (known as SickKids), shared this fact with the Jewish Independent in advance of Bridging Hope: Science and Testimonial in the Fight Against Addiction. Presented by Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, King David High School (KDHS) and Vancouver Talmud Torah (VTT), the Sept. 26 event at KDHS will also feature Dr. Yonatan Kupchik, senior lecturer, department of medical neurobiology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU), and Dr. Rami Yaka, head of the School of Pharmacy at HU, discussing the science of addiction. The testimonial part of the gathering will be shared by members of the Epstein-Bogdonov family. In this issue of the Independent, we talk to the doctors. Next issue, we will meet Elana Epstein and David Bogdonov, who, with their son, Noah Bogdonov, will speak in September about their family’s experience with addiction.

“Drug overdose, led by the opioids crisis, is an immense public health problem in BC, Canada and globally,” Finkelstein said. “Effectively addressing the loss of so many people for overdose daily, a largely preventable condition, must be a national priority. Indeed, youths are also highly affected, and we see them in the emergency departments, in clinics and, sadly, on the streets. Further, some youths use overdose as a common means of self-harm and suicide attempt.”

Finkelstein added that “most medications administered to children, particularly in hospitals (up to 85% in some acute care settings) have not been properly studied and approved in this population. Rather, we ‘borrow’ them from our experience in adults, scale the dose down to the child’s weight and hope to achieve the same effects and outcomes. However, we know this is not always the case, sometimes the outcomes are unwarranted, and I have personally noticed that repeatedly over the years. The goal of my research program is to work hard and close this knowledge gap – find the safest and most effective medications for children, and tailor their dosing regimens to the pediatric needs.”

photo - Dr. Yaron Finkelstein — Dr. Yaron Finkelstein *(photo from Sickkids website)*

At Bridging Hope, Finkelstein will discuss “the impacts of cannabis legalization on pediatric poisonings – trends and severity (for example, many do not appreciate that edible cannabis products can kill a child) – and on mental health, including addiction and the risk of developing schizophrenia in youths and adults.”

Canada became the second country to legalize cannabis for recreational use in 2018, he said. “This ‘natural experiment’ has led to numerous unanticipated outcomes, many have negative impacts on public health, and particularly on children.”

Finkelstein’s main research is centred on pediatric therapeutics in acute-care settings, with the long-term goal of optimizing drug safety.

“During my clinical clerkship in medical school, my passion to help children grew tremendously, and I was inspired by my mentors,” he shared. “Children have immense resilience, and their recovery is often fast and remarkable, and provides hope. I was always fascinated by the mechanistic actions of drugs on the human body, and combining those passions felt natural.”

“From the early beginning of my studies, I was thrilled to understand how the brain functions,” said Yaka, who not just heads HU’s School of Pharmacy but conducts research as well. “The brain reward circuitry is the most important system in any living creature, since it is responsible for our survival and reproduction, therefore, our existence. My main research is focused on synaptic function in health and disease.”

photo - Dr. Rami Yaka — Dr. Rami Yaka *(photo from HU website)*

Yaka joined the School of Pharmacy in 2003 and has served in many capacities. “Since I feel that the School of Pharmacy is like my second home and I really care about its future, and since I have all the necessary experience to take this mission, I volunteered to head the school,” he said. “Maintaining the right balance between the administrative duties and the research (my main cause of being here) is challenging. I work harder and try to pay the same attention to both tasks without reducing any effort for either.”

On Sept. 26, Yaka will talk about “‘out of the box’ research to battle drug addiction.”

“Since addiction to drugs, screens, food, etc., is very common and spreads all over the world very easily, this subject is very popular among laypeople,” he said. “Therefore, for me, it’s easy to adopt lay language to explain in simple words what the problem is and what we can do to avoid having it. I think that a huge part of the problem is the lack of knowledge among users (mainly young) about the adverse effects and negative impact that drugs have on the brain.”

With respect to educating youth and engaging them more broadly in science, Kupchik sees his role as a principal investigator at a leading university as “not only to generate new knowledge that may lead the world forward but also to plant the seeds for the next generation of principal investigators.”

“In Israel,” said Kupchik, “there are several programs that select the top high school students in the country and expose them to academia at their early age. This is excellent, but … there are many excellent students that we may be missing as a society just because they live in underprivileged places. Therefore, we try in the lab to specifically target those populations of students, and we do it in various ways. For example … [we] started an initiative that invites local high school students to scientific conferences taking place in their vicinity. For many students, this is the first interaction with science and many of them reported later that it induced interest in the scientific world. We also invite high school students to our laboratory and provide an interactive experience in which they learn about the brain and how scientific research is performed.”

photo - Dr. Yonatan Kupchik — Dr. Yonatan Kupchik *(photo from HU website)*

What most intrigues Kupchik about neurobiology “is how a biological organ, composed of billions of neurons that communicate with each other, generates such complex phenomena as behaviour, emotion, thoughts, etc.” His lab at HU researches the changes occurring in single neurons or in brain circuits in drug addiction or obesity. Among other things, they are currently collaborating with two neighbouring labs.

“One is with the laboratory of Dr. Shai Sabbah, an expert in the neurobiology of light processing in the eye. It is known that exposure to light can affect mood and the neural activity in brain areas related to emotions. We are investigating in this collaboration whether light exposure could also affect drug-seeking behaviour.

“Another collaboration is with the laboratory of Dr. Danny Ben-Zvi, an endocrinologist and expert of the bariatric surgery. As bariatric surgery decreases the craving for rewarding foods, we are now investigating together whether the bariatric surgery drives permanent changes in the reward system of the brain and whether it could affect the craving for other, non-food, rewards.”

Kupchik said, “We believe that there are many similarities between behaviours that may reflect addiction, such as drug dependence, overeating, gambling, hoarding, computer gaming, social media use and so on, and hope that understanding the neurobiological mechanisms in one kind of addiction could hint about the mechanisms of other addictions. We chose to focus on drug addiction and on obesity both because these are two main global health challenges that remain unsolved and because these are conditions that can be modeled in laboratory animals.”

At King David High School, Kupchik “will try to show some of the permanent changes we found that occur in the reward system after using cocaine, and after withdrawal.”

For tickets ($18) to Bridging Hope, visit register.cfhu.org/bridginghope.

New KDHS head of school

Dr. Seth Goldsweig (photo from KDHS)

The start of the school year is always a time of fresh beginnings. This is especially true at King David High School this year. On Sept. 3, Dr. Seth Goldsweig will welcome new and returning students as the school’s top administrator. It is the first time in 16 years – a lifetime in student years – since KDHS has had a new principal.

Goldsweig arrived this summer from an extensive period as a teacher and administrator in Toronto, replacing Russ Klein, who retired as King David’s head of school. (For more on Klein’s career and retirement, see jewishindependent.ca/king-david-head-retires-soon.) In a conversation with the Independent, the new head of school raved about the Vancouver community and the embracing welcome he has received.

“The transition has been amazing because of the people here,” said Goldsweig. “People have gone out of their way to make me feel good and to feel supported. I have Shabbat dinner plans for as long into the future as I can want.… You get a sense that it’s a very warm Jewish community here just by how warm and kind everyone has been to me.”

Goldsweig taught in Jewish day schools before becoming vice-principal at Toronto’s Robbins Hebrew Academy and then vice-principal at the Leo Baeck Day School, where he spent the past 11 years.

“I’ve always wanted to be head of school,” he said. “On top of my PhD, I’ve done additional programs to train educators to be leaders of Jewish day schools and so this has always been something that I’ve aspired to do. When this job came up, it certainly sounded appealing being in a place with beautiful mountains and amazing people, but also the timing worked out because my kids, Danielle and Josh, are graduating from the Jewish high school in Toronto, called TanenbaumCHAT, and they’re going on to university, so the timing worked out.”

His route to Vancouver was circuitous. He was born in smalltown Vermont to parents who left New York City for a rural life. (Were they hippies? “They would say no. I would say yes,” Goldsweig replied.)

“I grew up on a dirt road in a town with just a few thousand people and two or three Jewish families,” he said.

At 18, he left to do environmental studies at Binghamton University in upstate New York, then lived in Israel for five years, doing a semester at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheva and another semester at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies on Kibbutz Ketura, which is located in the Arava Valley.

He then returned to the Arava Institute the next year as a staff member, followed by three years at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. In the Pardes educators’ program, he studied Judaic texts coupled with a focus on Jewish education toward a master’s degree from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His PhD, in educational leadership and administration, is from Lesley University, and he has a related certificate from Hebrew College and studied education at Harvard as well. His PhD dissertation was on Jewish day school financial sustainability.

In Israel, Goldsweig met his wife, Amy, who is from Toronto. The pair taught in Boston for a time before moving to Ontario to be close to family when they learned they were having twins.

Goldsweig became bar mitzvah at a Reform synagogue in South Burlington, Vt., and belonged to a Conservative congregation in Toronto. His educational career included stints at schools affiliated with both movements and he is excited by King David’s pluralistic approach.

“I’m a big believer in Jewish pluralism,” he said. “I think there’s a great importance in leading and connecting with Jews that are like you and not like you.”

This year, he plans to visit all the synagogues in town “just to get to know the entire Jewish community in Vancouver.”

In Toronto, Goldsweig said, there are many different schools to choose from.

“You are not trying to be everything for everyone, you’re trying to do what you do really well,” he said. “Here – and I really love this – everyone’s in one building. So, the goal is to find ways to make everyone feel welcome and heard and connected and I really think that’s a beautiful thing.”

Goldsweig lauded his predecessor.

“Russ was an incredible head of school and is still an important member of our community,” said Goldsweig. “He’s done amazing things with the school.”

This year’s enrolment of about 270 students is on par with last year’s and Goldsweig does not foresee any dramatic changes in the near future.

“My job for this year is really to spend a lot of time learning from everyone in the community and getting a sense of what the Jewish community in Vancouver is all about and what King David High School is all about so we can make sure we’re meeting the needs for the community now and well into the future,” he said.

Education a main focus

Syd Belzberg, left, founder of Stable Harvest Farm in Langley, and farm manager Kristjan Johannson. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

The Jewish Independent visited Syd Belzberg at Stable Harvest Farm in Langley last week, taking a tour of the 65-acre property with Belzberg and farm manager Kristjan Johannson. Much has happened since the JI last visited, in 2021, just a year after the reimagined farm opened.

The land had laid empty for many years, having previously been a horse farm. An organic produce farm for the past four years, its focus is education. (See jewishindependent.ca/hands-on-learning-at-farm.)

About 100 students a day visit from late April to the end of June, then again from the first week of September to the end of October.

“We’ve got it down to a science,” said Johannson. “About an hour-and-a-half a session, two hours. They come in, they get a welcome speech. We have picnic tables up in the main season. We do a 12-station immersive tour, partnered with BC Agriculture in the Classroom [Foundation], so it’s all specific to the curriculum of the province.”

There are elementary and intermediate student groups who do the sessions. Participants receive workbooks and, every six or seven minutes, a cowbell rings and they move to the next station, where another agriculturalist meets them. University students lead the programs.

The farm also runs harvest projects for the kids. “Radishes were a big hit this year,” said Johannson. There were six beds of radishes planted and harvested.

Over the summer, it’s camp, church and other groups that come to the farm, said Belzberg, and they have different reasons for doing so: perhaps to see the bees, or the butterflies. “This summer, we kept the amount of guests down because we are developing and changing so many things,” he said.

The growing process begins indoors. “We’re able to push the season in that way,” said Johannson. “We start all our plants indoors in the nursery tunnel and that way we get a 30- to 60-day head start, and then it allows us, in a short season, to get two crops of most produce.”

photo - Rows of produce are planted alongside rows of flowers, so that the flowers take the brunt of the bug activity — Rows of produce are planted alongside rows of flowers, so that the flowers take the brunt of the bug activity. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

In addition to the planting beds, there are gardens. Belzberg’s friend David Bogoch, another member of the Jewish community, started the Biblical Garden, as well as a couple of other flower beds, which Bogoch maintains with the Stable Harvest Farm team.

“Rabbis normally spend 20 to 30 minutes in here,” said Belzberg of the Biblical Garden, which features four of the seven plants the Hebrew Bible uses to describe the land of Israel – wheat, barley, figs and grapes. “We can’t grow dates, pomegranates or olives, but we’re working on pomegranates and olives!” said Johannson, referring to a greenhouse that’s under construction.

Johannson also noted that there was a “very happy, healthy ‘Tree of Knowledge,’” an apple tree, but though the “Fujis are looking very good,” the fruit is not quite ready for harvesting.

Vancouver Talmud Torah probably brings the most kids to the farm, said Belzberg. Grade 3 students, for example, may come in and plant vegetables in spring and then they come back in the fall, as Grade 4s, to harvest what they planted.

When students participate in an education tour, they leave with something the farm produces. That might be honey from one of the 30 hives on the farm (1,500 pounds of honey was extracted a few weeks ago by 40 to 50 volunteers) or bee-forage bookmarks with seeds embedded in them.

“You take the bee off [the bookmark] and plant it in the ground and they [still] have our bookmark with all our information on it,” explained Johannson. “Basically, you have a bunch of kids guerrilla gardening, chucking paper and pouring water on it and having plants that turn into bee forage. Then, they also get popcorn from us or they get sunflower seeds, so, if you’ve got a garden at home, you can plant the corn and plant the sunflowers. If you don’t, you can eat the sunflower seeds and pop the corn.”

Johannson and Belzberg have been working together since the retrofit in 2020, when the farm was converted from housing horses to growing produce.

“We do lots of cover crops and set-asides,” said Johannson, standing next to a field (block) that is lying fallow for a year. “That’s how we build fertility here organically. There are three different types of clover … and all this clover fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere in the ground and then all of this down here will be our organic matter for the next season. We’ll do that on rotation. There are five blocks, so this block here was a cover crop last year.”

Farm heritage chickens and Nigerian Dwarf goats, as well as other animals that pass through or unofficially make their home somewhere on the farm, help keep the soil healthy. “They’ll end up eating all this down and then pooping it [around],” explained Johannson.

We drove past some wheat, which is grown especially for Lubavitch BC’s Model Matzah Bakery.

“Originally, we would just supply the wheat and they would do their thing,” said Belzberg. “In the last year, we changed it…. Everything here was planted by the kids in May. They’re coming back Sept. 8 to harvest it. Then we will store it for them and, at Pesach time, they’ll use it … [in] making the matzah with the bakery, so they’ve got the full cycle.”

For the Lubavitch BC program, some of the wheat harvested by the kids in September won’t be put through a thresher, but rather, in the weeks before Pesach, at the Matzah Bakery, the kids will learn how to remove the grain from the chaff by hand. They’ll put the grain in a stone mill and grind it into flour. “For the sake of expedience, we already have the dough ready,” noted Johannson. “And the kids grab it, it goes onto some sheets and then goes into a pizza oven. They are so good, very efficient,” he said of Lubavitch BC. “They’re the same as our [education] project out here, you’re in and out in an hour and 15.”

photo - Stable Harvest Farm has Jewish and non-Jewish community partners — Stable Harvest Farm has Jewish and non-Jewish community partners. *(photo by Cynthia Ramsay)*

Stopping at several “tunnels,” in which there are rows of flowers alternating with produce – melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. – Johannson picked some treats for the Jewish Independent while talking about the layout.

The flowers are good for pollinators, but also attract the aphids and other bugs, he said. “We come through when they’re all pest-affected, we bag [the flowers] up and remove the pests out of the game.”

There have been challenges over the years – notably, in 2021, both the heat dome and the atmospheric river – and there have been some less successful crops. Johannson pointed to a field of Phacelia. “It’s still going to flower, but … it was too hot when they went in. A lot of the time, with vegetables, with life, with people, if you don’t have a good start to things, things don’t end up well.” The area will become a different cover crop next year, he said.

And there have been other learning opportunities. “This we called the Coyote Area,” said Belzberg as we passed another part of the property. “But we had to change it about a month ago because we had a group of kids out and they were afraid to come [see it]. Now it’s called Beaver Park.”

Belzberg would like to see even more school groups come to the farm, and he’d like to see multiple events happening at one time. In progress are many significant initiatives, from planting more trees (for birds and shade), to grooming an area of the farm for scavenger hunts and orienteering, to building a nature-based playground, to creating an overnight camping section, to adding a picnic area, and to converting what used to be a riding arena into a place where kids can come and do educational projects when it’s raining.

The education aspect of the farm gives Belzberg the greatest satisfaction and enjoyment, he said. “That’s my passion.”

While all the activities at the farm are at no cost to visiting groups, busing kids out to Langley can be expensive, so the farm takes some of their programs to the schools themselves. Belzberg gave Talmud Torah as an example: a program held at the school can reach 500 kids in one or two days, he said.

As well, Belzberg and his team are trying to get funding for a program that would help schools with the cost of busing. “We’re looking to be able to subsidize some or all of that cost,” he said.

As to what Belzberg gets from all these efforts?

“It’s a work of love,” he said. “It’s coming out here, developing it and seeing it grow and become more beautiful [and], mostly, when you get the kids out here.”

Creating adjoining schools

Left to right: Anne Yu, school board president, Pythagoras Academy; Michael Bouchard, head of school, Pythagoras Academy; Sabrina Bhojani, head of school, Richmond Jewish Day School; and Michael Lipton, school board president, Richmond Jewish Day School. (photo by Briana Bolt)

As the 2023/24 school year ended, Pythagoras Academy (PA) and Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS) announced a collaboration aimed at enhancing educational opportunities for students in the upcoming school year. The new partnership will see the two institutions merge their efforts to form adjoining schools.

“We are excited to cultivate this unique and transformative journey with Richmond Jewish Day School,” said Michael Bouchard, head of school at Pythagoras Academy. “This partnership represents a bold step forward in education, where collaboration and shared values pave the way for enhanced teaching and learning opportunities.”

The schools will integrate elements from both institutions’ educational philosophies, promoting a harmonious environment where students can thrive academically, socially and emotionally. By leveraging the strengths of each school, the partnership aims to set a new standard for educational excellence in Richmond.

As part of the announcement, school leaders from both Pythagoras Academy and Richmond Jewish Day School participated in a ceremonial handshake, symbolizing their commitment to this partnership. Members of the board and key stakeholders were also present to mark this milestone.

“This collaboration is not just about combining physical resources, but creating a beautiful synergy,” said Sabrina Bhojani, head of school at Richmond Jewish Day School. “Together, we can better support nurturing environments where students can learn, grow and succeed.”

This move is based on successful precedents set by joint schools like those in Ontario, where similar partnerships have demonstrated increased student engagement and academic achievement. The integration of diverse perspectives and educational methodologies will enrich the learning experience at the new adjoining schools.

For more information and to arrange interviews or school tours, contact RJDS at 604-275-3393 and Pythagoras Academy at 604-370-0199.

– Courtesy Pythagoras Academy