Last November, Dror Israel helped evacuees from northern Israel celebrate the holiday of Sigd. (photo from Dror Israel)
Noam Schlanger of Dror Israel is returning to British Columbia to discuss the group’s emergency response after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel. He will speak at Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria on May 28, at 7 p.m., and at Congregation Beth Israel in Vancouver on June 2, at 5 p.m.
“We had been working with many of the affected communities for a long time before the attacks, so, when the war broke, we had the connections and the know-how to immediately set up educational frameworks for evacuated communities, with an emphasis on therapeutic and empowering platforms,” Schlanger the Independent.
“I will also be talking about our work with the tens of thousands of evacuees from the north, who still haven’t returned to their towns and homes. We have been providing day camps, leadership training courses and social-emotional support to many children and teens who have been living in cramped hotel rooms with their parents for seven months.”
Schlanger is an engagement director with Dror Israel, an Israeli organization that teaches leadership and responsibility for both individuals and community. Comprised of 1,300 trained educators in 16 communities on the social and economic periphery of the country, the organization promotes social activism to drive positive change. Educators live in the neighbourhoods they serve to bridge gaps and solve local problems. Through its youth movement, schools and programming in Israel, it helps an estimated 150,000 people a year.
Dror Israel educators have supported children traumatized by previous wars, the COVID lockdowns and the war in Ukraine. During the current war, the organization, in cooperation with local municipalities and the Israel Defences Forces Home Front Command, has established programs to help evacuees and residents who have been hardest hit.
Schlanger shared several stories of how Dror Israel has played a crucial role in allowing life and events in the country to continue as normally as possible under the circumstances. In November last year, they helped evacuees celebrate Sigd, a holiday celebrated by Ethiopian Jews that falls 50 days after Yom Kippur.
This past March, students from Dror Israel’s Tel Aviv high school used their skills in urban agriculture to create community gardens. The portable gardens were made at several evacuee centres for displaced communities and not only provide fresh produce but therapeutic spaces that give solace and connection.
In April, 400 children from the evacuated city of Kiryat Shmona were supplied structure and some fun through a Passover day camp. The children, from grades 1 to 6, who are presently housed in Tel Aviv hotels, went bowling, visited an amusement park and had a picnic near the Alexander River.
Dror Israel has been giving evacuees the chance to have some semblance of a normal life. (photos from Dror Israel)
Dror Israel works with animals as well. Following the Oct. 7 attacks, many dogs ran away or were leftbehind. With the help and care of students in the Dog Training Vocational Course at Dror Israel’s high school in Karmiel, dogs went from being fearful and hesitant to curious and loving, and many are now ready for adoption.
Besides being an engagement director, Schlanger’s involvement with Dror Israel has included leading a youth centre in Kafr Manda, an Arab town in Lower Galilee, and working at the community garden in Akko (northern Israel).
From Schlanger’s standpoint, the essence of Dror Israel is one of an inclusive vision of Zionism that yearns to create space for everyone, and the dream of a just and equal Israel. He believes it is a welcome message amid the polarized discourse that has been prevalent in the country for many years.
Schlanger last visited British Columbia in the summer of 2022 and has maintained a close relationship with both Congregation Emanu-El and Congregation Beth Israel. In October 2023, only a couple of weeks after the Hamas attacks, he wrote to his friends in Victoria, “We will do our best to better people’s lives during these terrible days. Our educators across the country are continuing to assess the safest and most necessary next steps in our communities.”
“The sense of connection goes deep into our community and we have people there, too,” said Susan Holtz, executive director of Emanu-El, about the synagogue’s ties with Dror Israel.
Rabbi Adam Stein of Congregation Beth Israel said, “We are very excited to have Noam come here. Dror Israel is a wonderful organization that has been doing great work for Israeli civil society, especially for those who were evacuated after Oct. 7.”
“I visited Dror Israel in Akko and was very impressed at the programs they offered and the process they undertook,” Beth Israel member Penny Gurstein added. “Their commitment to social justice and partnerships between Jews, Arabs, and all sectors of Israeli society is even more needed now.”
Dror Israel was started in 2006 by graduates of the Israeli Youth Movement, Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, who served together in the IDF and shared a belief in the founding principles of Zionism.
After his talk in Vancouver, Schlanger will travel to Portland to speak at the annual federation meeting there. For more information about Dror Israel, visit drorisrael.org.
Sam Margolishas written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Spending a night in late March at Kibbutz Erez in southwestern Israel was an unforgettable experience. Visiting friends, it was somewhat eerie. Most residents have not returned since the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, and the absence is profound.
The area is like a Canadian suburb. A group of houses surrounds a large grassy area, which has children’s playgrounds and lemon, orange and kumquat trees. This type of living is a rarity in Israel, where most people live in apartment buildings.
While the environment was scenic and comfortable, explosions could be heard in the distance and puffs of smoke periodically arose from Gaza, the border of which is less than a kilometre away. The Israel Defence Forces were entrenched nearby.
Kibbutz Erez fared better on Oct. 7 than many other kibbutzim and towns in the region because they received advanced warning from a neighbouring kibbutz that an attack was underway. Their neighbours had seen hang gliders from Gaza soaring overhead.
The security team of Kibbutz Erez quickly assembled to try to prevent the invaders from entering the kibbutz through the main gate. First, they called the IDF to make sure that the army wasn’t conducting an exercise. Receiving confirmation that it was a terrorist attack, the kibbutzniks asked how long it would take for the army to come – they were told they were on their own.
A firefight involving rifles, grenades and RPGs ensued. According to one of the kibbutzniks, “we fought like lions.” This was no ordinary military engagement, but a battle to protect their children and other family members from the Hamas terrorists. If they failed, they knew that Hamas would hurt their children.
Amir, one of the kibbutzniks, whose wife was expecting their first baby, was killed in the encounter. Danny received a bullet to the neck and Uri suffered wounds to his head and leg.
Liora, a nurse described as having nerves of steel, recognized that neither Danny nor Uri would survive without immediate medical attention. Both were bleeding profusely, and their level of consciousness was decreasing. With the help of a friend, she packed them into a car, drove out of the kibbutz amid a hail of bullets and got them to a nearby hospital, where they received lifesaving treatment. Both survived in relatively good physical shape.
After a fight of close to two hours, the terrorists decided that Kibbutz Erez was too difficult to overcome, and moved on to wreak havoc on the next village. The IDF did not arrive until later that day.
The whole kibbutz was evacuated to Mitzpe Ramon. Many of the families moved into hotel rooms there. After several weeks, makeshift schools were established and members of the kibbutz achieved some measure of normality, as much as it can be normal living in a hotel,totally dependent on caring neighbours, a supportive community and government help. Since then, some of the kibbutzniks have relocated to Kiryat Gat, which is much closer to their home. Some, including my friend, have returned home.
What is the future of Kibbutz Erez? People are slowly trickling back. The telling test will be in the summer, if families return in preparation for the start of the school year in September.
Kibbutz Hatzerim and Kibbutz Be’eri
Earlier in March, we visited extended family who live on Kibbutz Hatzerim, and heard about their experiences on Oct. 7.
People on Kibbutz Hatzerim awoke that day to sirens and multiple WhatsApp messages from friends and relatives, letting them know that Israel was under attack by Hamas terrorists, who were infiltrating the settlements close to the border. Were the attackers coming to Kibbutz Hatzerim, 20 kilometres west of Beer Sheva? Rumours circulated that they were on their way to Tel Aviv. People were reluctant to turn on their TVs, to protect their children from seeing the horrors that were happening. People received no directives from government sources or from the army. It was an information vacuum.
Some visitors at the kibbutz, who had arrived for Simchat Torah, decided to return to their homes in central Israel, but was it safe to drive there? Nobody knew.
Would the kibbutzniks be able to defend themselves? They did not have many weapons and the kibbutz could be easily infiltrated from several locations. But people on Kibbutz Hatzerim ended up being the fortunate ones. The terrorists were planning to move in that direction but didn’t make it that far. Apparently, they had killed and kidnapped enough people by then – 364 people killed and 44 kidnapped at the Nova music festival alone, mainly young people.
After Oct. 7, life returned to some degree of routine on Kibbutz Hatzerim. However, there were frequent missile attacks, necessitating trips to the bomb shelters. People were called up to do army service (miluim). The IDF was fighting in Gaza and soldiers were being killed. The plight of the more than 240 hostages was on everybody’s minds.
The death and destruction of some of Kibbutz Hatzerim’s neighbours is indescribable. Of special note is Kibbutz Be’eri: approximately 70 terrorists entered the kibbutz. Of the 1,000-plus residents, 97 kibbutz members were killed, 11 people were abducted and one-third of the houses were severely damaged.
Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Hatzerim have a lot in common. Hatzerim is famous for having developed the drip-irrigation technique and has a large production facility at the kibbutz. Be’eri houses one of the largest printing companies in Israel. Both kibbutzim resisted privatization, which many others had adopted as additional sources of revenue.
Hatzerim and Be’eri were both established in 1946 and both were comprised mainly of people on the left of the political spectrum. They looked forward to a peaceful future with the residents of Gaza. Many were involved in a program that transported sick people from Gaza to hospitals in Israel for advanced treatment. One of the residents of Be’eri, Vivian Silver, originally from Winnipeg, had learned Arabic to better communicate with her Palestinian neighbours, but that didn’t save her life on Oct. 7.
Currently, most residents of Kibbutz Be’eri are being housed in temporary locations, such as hotels in the Dead Sea area. They are safe and relatively free from missile attacks, but life is far from normal. Trying to reestablish a kibbutz lifestyle, while living in a crowded hotel with none of the amenities that glue kibbutzniks together, is challenging.
A house in Kibbutz Be’eri after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. (photo by Tomer Persico)
A massive building project is now underway adjacent to Kibbutz Hatzerim. A whole new temporary kibbutz to house the residents of Be’eri is under construction. The plan is to have the temporary kibbutz finished by the summer, so that families can move in before school starts in September.
Some facilities, such as medical clinics and administrative offices, will be shared by the two kibbutzim. Otherwise, the temporary Kibbutz Be’eri will have its own houses, schools and offices. Hatzerim will expand its present dental clinic, seniors lounge and grocery store to accommodate the increased needs from the larger population. In typical kibbutz fashion, members of both kibbutzim have met many times to jointly plan this project.
The ultimate plan is to rebuild the original Kibbutz Be’eri, which was mainly destroyed on Oct. 7. It is hoped that this will be accomplished within the next two years.
Kibbutz Yiron
Look at the label on your kosher wine from Israel. Most likely it comes from Kibbutz Yiron. Next year will probably be different, as the kibbutz is on the Lebanese border and has been evacuated – no one is allowed into the area. As a result, according to one kibbutz member, the pruning of the vines, which usually takes place in the spring, did not happen this year. The same kibbutznik informed me that $20,000 worth of his favourite apple, Pink Lady, was left to rot.
Kibbutz Yiron is an oasis in the desert. We have visited because we have friends who live there, but people come from many other places in Israel and elsewhere to enjoy the mountain scenery, go for hikes and rest in a peaceful environment. Lebanon is visible in the background, but the border was quiet. It is heartbreaking to see this piece of paradise abandoned.
Spring pruning hasn’t been possible at Kibbutz Yiron’s vineyards because of the evacuation. (photo by B. Negin / flickr)
The jewel of Yiron was its Pinat Chai, a literal oasis consisting of a zoo with multiple animals, including a python, which would be taken out on non-feeding days and draped around the necks of unsuspecting visitors. Peacocks, ducks and geese roamed freely. Deer would run around their enclosed area, frequently escaping into the wider area, trying to evade recapture. A lake in the middle of the zoo was a star attraction. Row boats and paddleboats navigated the small artificial lake in a region with no natural lakes.
Kibbutz members looked forward to the day when Pinat Chai would serve as a meeting place for children and families of different origins. They anticipated a day when Lebanese children would enjoy themselves at Pinat Chai together with Israeli children.
But the zoo is now gone. The government also ordered them out of the kibbutz. The animals have been relocated to other places in Israel, and even to other countries.
The evacuation was part of a larger one that included all settlements close to the Lebanese border, like the city of Kiryat Shmona, with 22,000 inhabitants; and the town of Metulla, home of Canada Centre and one of only a few skating rinks in Israel. This area of northern Israel has special significance to the Jewish community of Vancouver, as our partnership region. Since the mid-1990s, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has worked closely with Etzba HaGalil (the Galilee Panhandle).
Kibbutz Yiron was not attacked on Oct. 7. However, the northern border has heated up since then. Hezbollah has been firing many missiles into the region, sometimes 30 per day, killing several Israelis.
Villages, especially in the Gaza Envelope, are receiving government compensation and many have relocated so that they are all living as a group, whether in Mitzpe Ramon or Eilat or the hotels at the Dead Sea. People in the north have not received the same compensation, so they are widely scattered. The kibbutznik with whom I spoke is living in a village close to Haifa. When I asked him when he’s going back to his home, he said anywhere from six months to maybe a couple of years.
There are many in Israel, including government ministers, who think that a war with Hezbollah is imminent. Hezbollah’s arsenal of weapons is much larger than that of Hamas, so a war with them could be even more destructive. The IDF has been stationing additional troops in the north, as tensions rise. Many people are strengthening their bomb shelters.
Looking to the future
Oct. 7 changed Israel in dramatic ways. Stories of neglect, abandonment and destruction are legion. At the same time, Israelis have shown incredible resilience to plan and rebuild for the future.
For many years, kibbutzim have defined Israel’s borders and acted as a protective barrier, both in the north and surrounding the Gaza Strip. But will the kibbutzim be able to rebuild their lives with some semblance of security? Can they ever again trust a government and an army that so dramatically let them down?
People are slowly returning to the kibbutzim surrounding Gaza, but many may never return. For the people along the Lebanese border, the situation in some sense is more dire. They have been exiled from their residences for more than seven months. The agricultural and industrial bases of the kibbutzim economies have been shattered. When will they be able to return? Will the small-scale conflict in progress along the Lebanese-Israel border become a major war?
It’s a very challenging time to be an Israeli, especially a kibbutznik living close to Israel’s borders. Hopefully, their future will include some degree of peace and normality.
Larry Barzelai is a semi-retired Vancouver family physician, who travels to Israel frequently to visit his three grandchildren there. He is presently co-chair of the Jewish Medical Association of British Columbia.
MP Anthony Housefather was in Vancouver last week. (photo from Government of Canada)
Anthony Housefather, the Liberal MP who openly considered joining the Conservatives, made an urgent plea during a presentation in Vancouver last week for Jews and pro-Israel voters to keep a foot on both sides of the political divide.
Housefather, member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, was on the West Coast for a series of meet-and-greets with Jewish organizations and individuals. At Temple Sholom just before Shabbat on May 17, Housefather was open about the disappointments some Jewish Canadians – including himself – have felt with the current Liberal government.
“We’ve seen a government that has had an excellent record on Israel for the past eight years turn away from that excellent record that we all cherish so much,” he said before going into examples he said show his party has been a voice for Jews and Israel.
Since Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party came to power in 2015, Housefather said, Canada has had a better voting record at the United Nations than the previous Conservative government had.
“We voted against 87% of the anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, comparable only to the United States, at about 90%,” he said. “Most European countries were between zero and 10%.”
On antisemitism, Housefather said it was his party that appointed a special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism – first Irwin Cotler and now Deborah Lyons – and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism. The federal government apologized for this country slamming the doors on Jewish refugees before and during the Holocaust, initiated Jewish Heritage Month, and made antisemitism one of four pillars of the federal antiracism strategy, he said.
“I’ve been proud of the record of my party while we have been in government on these issues,” he said.
“Since Oct. 7, I think the Jewish community across the country has felt somewhat abandoned,” he said. In January, the government was “not able to articulate that Israel was not committing genocide,” he said. The decision to restore funding to UNRWA – the UN’s Palestinianrelief agency some of whose employees, evidence shows, were involved in the Oct. 7 terrorism – was a blow to many Jewish Canadians. The turning point for Housefather was the New Democratic Party motion that was widely seen as condemning Israel, including calling for an end to military trade with the country.
“Unfortunately, the decision was made to amend [the motion], which made the resolution better, but it was still bad,” Housefather said. In the end, only he and two other Liberals voted against the motion. What really hurt, said Housefather, was when the NDP member who moved the motion was given a standing ovation, including by Liberal MPs.
This combination of events led Housefather to question his place in the party and to publicly acknowledge he was considering crossing the floor. He decided to stay with the Liberals, in part because the prime minister tasked him with new responsibilities to address antisemitism, but also, he said, because he realized that his voice – and those of other Jewish and pro-Israel Canadians – is needed in the governing party.
“I need to be there to make our voices heard in the party,” he said. “Once you place all your eggs in one basket and you have no allies in the other party when it comes to power, then you’re screwed.”
Housefather has a list of actions he wants from the government and others. He is urging Criminal Code amendments to add “bubble legislation,” which would prevent protests within a certain distance from synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres, after protesters laid siege to a Jewish community building in Montreal and people inside were prevented from leaving for hours.
Police need to be told that they must enforce the law around harassment and hate speech, and university administrations need to act to keep students safe, he said.
Housefather pushed for parliamentary hearings on campus antisemitism, which have now begun.
He urged Jewish Canadians to develop relationships with their elected officials, and he passionately urged them to leave their hatred aside.
Housefather said he gets barraged by hate messages from antisemites and anti-Zionists – including death threats – but it’s the hate from Jews that really upsets him. No matter how much some voters agree with him on issues that are important to the Jewish community, he said, they nevertheless condemn him in extreme terms – “traitor,” “quisling” – for being part of the Liberal party.
“If our community wants MPs to support our community, you have to deal with them in a way that doesn’t send them hate, that doesn’t treat them like dirt.”
Above all, Housefather said, Israel and Jewish issues shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
“We should all fight for them and we shouldn’t be trying to create wedge issues that divide the Jewish community,” he said.
Howard Kallner is being honoured at Schara Tzedeck’s MOSAIC gala on June 4 (photo by kenneth88/wikimedia)
“I have been very lucky in my life to be surrounded by lifelong volunteers and builders of community, both my parents, my in-laws and multiple other role models, and it just seemed natural to volunteer and be involved,” Howard Kallner told the Independent.
Kallner is being honoured by Congregation Schara Tzedeck at MOSAIC, the synagogue’s annual gala, on June 4.
“The first thing that came to my mind was discomfort,” said Kallner about finding out he was being recognized. “I was hesitant to accept because there are so many long-time shul volunteers, donors and community-builders who would be deserving of being honoured.”
Kallner has been a part of the congregation since he was 13 years old.
“My family had emigrated from South Africa when I was very young and their synagogues in South Africa were very similar to Schara Tzedeck,” he explained. “My parents, and now my family, have been members for over four decades. On my wife’s side, her great-grandfather, David Davis, was a founding member of Schara Tzedeck, and her grandfather, Charlie Davis, was a past president.”
Howard Kallner (photo from Howard Kallner)
For his part, Kallner was on the board for seven years before becoming president. He served three years as president and three more as past president, for a total of 13 years. He was serving as president when the pandemic hit.
“When the COVID pandemic hit, we needed to pivot immediately to online programming, online services where applicable, continue live services with restrictions and make sure our community members, particularly our vulnerable ones, were connected and taken care of,” he said of how his role was affected. “One of the programs that came out of this was Shabbat in a Box. We recognized a need amongst our members and others in our community and delivered over 450 meals a week at the height of the pandemic. For the Jewish holidays, we were delivering over 650 meals accompanied by holiday-specific items so they could celebrate the holidays.
“Additionally, Schara Tzedeck, being an Orthodox synagogue, could not have Shabbat services online,” said Kallner. “With the exception of a few weeks when the government would not allow any public gatherings, we continued services in person with some significant modifications. When limited to 50 people per gathering, we moved services outside, in a tent in our parking lot. At times, services were held in sub-zero temperatures, with most attendees wearing ski jackets, toques and gloves. For the High Holidays that year, we had nine services a day for a maximum of 50 people. We had to find three sets of Torah readers, shofar blowers and leaders of the services.
“While, during COVID, it was undoubtedly the hardest I worked as president of the shul, it was also the most rewarding,” he said.
Now officially “just” a member and supporter of the synagogue, Kallner continues to be part of the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board and is a governor of the Jewish Community Foundation, as well.
“Giving back to a community that has given me and my family so much was very important,” he said. “With different experiences in my life and my relatives’ lives, including immigrating to a new country with little means and losses during the Holocaust, strong Jewish institutions ready for whatever the world would throw at them seemed crucial, and I wanted to do my part.”
Schara Tzedeck’s senior spiritual leader, Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt, described Kallner as representing the beginnings of a new generation of leadership. At the time Kallner was getting involved, said the rabbi, “There weren’t a lot of people in their 40s who were stepping up to the highest levels of leadership at Schara Tzedeck.”
Kallner helped take the synagogue from being a 20th-century organization into being a 21st-century organization, said Rosenblatt.
”The backbone of an Orthodox synagogue, certainly in the Pacific Northwest, certainly in Vancouver, is people who have come from much more traditional Jewish communities,” he explained. “For example, Schara Tzedeck has a lot of Holocaust survivors. These are people who came from very traditional Eastern European communities, but you could also have people from Winnipeg or Toronto or Montreal, New York, those places you associate with very traditional, very committed Jewish communities. For a long time, we were able to be a community of people who grew up in that kind of tradition, but there was a recognition at Schara Tzedeck that we needed to be able to be a place which translated topeople who did not have that kind of traditional upbringing.”
Kallner had the analytical, organizational and people skills to help the synagogue do that, said Rosenblatt, highlighting Kallner’s leadership during the pandemic.
“He was practically a paid member of the staff at that point, in terms of generating and developing policy,” said the rabbi. “He was involved in helping us make sure that we were operating on the next level. And he also understood that our organization had to be structured in a way where we could have the manpower to be able to do that, and that outreach. Part of that was that the information technology had to be updated.”
Describing Kallner as “a very humble person but also very hard working,” Rosenblatt said, “one of the things that he was strongest at was helping us transition into a place where we were reaching out more…. One of the programs we developed under his watch was Shabbat in a Box. There were some pre-iterations before that, but it came to its full maturity under him.”
Among the other programs that will benefit from the funds raised at MOSAIC are the synagogue’s education initiatives, some of which reach beyond the shul to the broader Jewish community, such as the series Rosenblatt gave on the history of the Marranos.
“I recognize,” he said, that “one of the great sources of inspiration in Jewish identity is Jewish history.”
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and the subsequent war, his education efforts have been more focused on Israel.
“When Oct. 7th hit, and people started to hear immediately just garbage about colonialization, I realized that there was just so much that people didn’t know or understand,” he said.
The Zionist story most of us have been taught is the inspirational one, he said. “Not that it’s wrong, it’s just not complete, and all histories have complexities. I didn’t want people to be caught flat-footed on these things and be surprised by them.”
He gave the example of a sign he saw on an overpass on the way into Whistler Village recently.
“It says there can be no peace on stolen land. And I’m thinking to myself who stole the land from whom? At what point do you decide that the land belongs to someone? Are you willing to say that 638 is where we’re going to start everything, when Omar ibn al-Khattab conquered Jerusalem, is that the right time? Should we ask ourselves when the Abbasids or the Fatimids or the Umayyads, which one of them? Were the Ottoman Turks? Which one becomes the real owner? At what point do you decide that these things happen? People don’t know – maybe now they do more, but certainly on October the 8th they didn’t know – when was Israel first called Palestine, when did Muslims come to Jerusalem, when were Jews forced out, which empires conquered it … what really happened at Deir Yassin, what were the stages of the War of Independence, what happened? These things, there are a lot of resources on them … and, I thought, Jews didn’t know these things – not to mention that there are libraries full of evidence on Jewish indigenous life in Israel that is far, far older than anything having to do with the name Palestine, and I wanted Jews to be able to know that. I wanted Jews to be able to articulate it. I want Jews to understand a stronger connection to Israel. And I think that has been something that has been a real value added to people’s knowledge base.”
The congregation has several individuals who have gone to do military service in Israel. “They are primarily Israelis who are here for various purposes, as shlichim [emissaries] or for educational reasons, and we’ve had real success in having them share their experiences and stories over the past number of months,” said the rabbi.
These types of programs have been a priority, said Rosenblatt, “to make sure that our communityreally stays close and understands the nuances and the issues. Every time we have the opportunity to give further insight, we do that.”
One of the people from Schara Tzedeck who has gone to serve was Assistant Rabbi Ishay Gottlieb. “He’s a major in the reserves in the IDF, and he left on Oct. 9th and wasn’t really back until the beginning of January,” explained Rosenblatt. “You’re essentially funding a staff member, like many Israeli organizations [are having to do], but there’s lots that had to be compensated for in that context.
“In some ways,” added Rosenblatt, “we’ve doubled our programming – run a regular program plus an Israel program. Not that we’re that different from the other synagogues [in that respect] but everything costs money and this is part of a case for giving. Since Oct. 7th, we really have been prioritizing the connection with Israel.”
He said, “When you walk into Schara Tzedeck, we want you to feel like you’re in a little embassy of Israel in this building. And participating in MOSAIC means that’s what you’re doing, you’re helping to support that – you’re helping to support a branch of Am Yisrael that is in Vancouver.”
To attend MOSAIC, RSVP by May 28 to 604-736-7607 or [email protected].
Fay and Ken z”l Golden, whose support has allowed Jewish Family Services to offer two education scholarships. (photo from JFS)
Thanks to the generosity of Fay and Ken (z”l) Golden, Jewish Family Services Vancouver has introduced the Fay and Ken Golden Annual Scholarship fund, aimed at supporting the educational endeavours of individuals entering accredited post-secondary institutions.
“We are delighted to support the educational aspirations of Canadian students through the Fay and Ken Golden Annual Scholarship Fund,” said the Goldens. “Education is a cornerstone of personal and societal growth, and we hope these scholarships will empower talented individuals to pursue their academic dreams.”
JFS will offer two scholarships yearly, each valued up to $2,500. These funds will be disbursed as a one-time lump sum per academic year, providing financial assistance to qualified recipients.
The 2024 application period started May 15 and goes until June 30. Successful applicants will be notified no later than Aug. 1, 2024.
To be considered for the Fay and Ken Golden Annual Scholarship Fund, applicants must meet the following requirements:
• Be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
• Be 40 years old or younger at the time of application.
• Be a first-time post-secondary student.
• Have an annual household income below $60,000.
• Currently be attending or planning to enrol in a post-secondary academic program provided by an accredited, certified educational institution in Canada.
This yearly scholarship fund embodies JFS’s commitment to fostering education and opportunity within the community. JFS is grateful for the Goldens unwavering support and belief in education. For application instructions, visit jfsvancouver.ca/golden.
With antisemitism rising in British Columbia, professionals from three sectors – health care, post-secondary education and K-12 schools – have started organizing so incidents of hatred in their workplace are challenged at every opportunity.
The Jewish Academic Alliance of British Columbia and the Jewish Medical Association of British Columbia have launched in the past few months, while BC Teachers Against Antisemitism has grown more active since the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Antisemitism is reaching crisis levels in BC, and we are proud to be able to support the important work of these newly formed groups at this critical time for our community,” said Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
“I am in awe of all of our community members and allies who are stepping up to address what is a clear crisis at workplaces across the province – particularly since employees are uniquely positioned to address workplace issues with their employers,” noted Nico Slobinsky, vice-president, Pacific Region, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
“We have seen an incredible increase in worrying activities – from terror-affiliated organizations like Samidoun setting up an encampment at UBC to teachers making inappropriate comments towards Jewish students in the classroom, to troubling behaviour in our healthcare system. Yet, we have seen little by way of new activity by government,” said Slobinsky.
“The rise of antisemitism inside health care has been chilling. In a profession dedicated to healing people, we’ve witnessed hateful words and actions that have some fearing for their safety,” said Sharon Gershony, clinical instructor, pediatric nuclear radiologist, BC Children’s Hospital. “The Jewish Medical Association of BC is a supportive community for Jewish physicians, trainees and allied healthcare professionals. Together, we will create safe workspaces by confronting antisemitism with engagement, education and promotion of respect and greater tolerance.”
“Post-secondary institutions across BC have been a focal point of antisemitic activities and actions, some of these threatening the safety of faculty, staff and students. There is no place for this in BC,” said David Silver, a University of British Columbia professor who is helping form the Jewish Academic Alliance of BC. “By bringing together Jewish professors, educators and staff from across campuses, the Jewish Academic Alliance of BC will work to ensure that hate is confronted and campuses are again a place where Jews can feel safe.”
“Since Oct. 7th, some horrible things have happened in classrooms and in schools – to teachers and students alike, who have been singled out because they are Jewish and only because they are Jewish,” said Ginaya Peters, founder of BC Teachers Against Antisemitism. “We have had to become more active and will continue to push back against the hatred and discrimination and create a safe learning environment for all.”
Janice Masur and her daughter, Liora Freedman, on March 3, after unveiling the memorial plaque in Nagoya village near Mbale, Uganda. (photo from Janice Masur)
I have just come back from Uganda, where my family used to live, in the Jewish community that existed from 1949 to 1961. My daughter, Liora, had returned 10 days earlier, as planned. I had to stay longer because my passport had been stolen two weeks previously, off my lap while sitting in a slow-moving car. Thankfully, after Liora involved my local member of Parliament, my temporary Canadian passport, processed in Nairobi, Kenya, finally arrived in Kampala, and I was able to leave.
Although still essentially an agricultural economy, Uganda is touted to visitors as the most entrepreneurial country in Africa. Most people in the countryside have a small plot to grow their own food and sell the surplus. Large-scale plantations of sugar cane, tea, coffee and bananas are grown for export. The Pearl of Africa is rich in mineral deposits and China is beginning to drill for oil on the edge of Murchison Falls National Park.
I could not find my way around Kampala anymore. It used to be a self-contained town situated over seven hills. Now it sprawls and spreads in all directions with Ugandan street names I can barely pronounce. My old house has a high fence and a guard at the gate, with a gun slung across his shoulder, who wouldn’t let us enter. I was charmed to find the same small five-petaled purple flowers floating down like tiny propellers, strewn on the driveway just as they had done in my childhood. Across the rutted road, there was a new modern hotel instead of modest houses.
We drove up Kibuli Hill to see Kibuli Mosque. In my day, the mosque was a friendly looking place of worship. I was shocked to see how fortress-like it had become, painted grey instead of white, with the words “None shall be worshipped but Allah. Muhammad is his prophet.”
I tried to find my bearings on Tank Hill – named for the three extremely large round water tanks in the neighbourhood – where we had once lived but couldn’t. Instead of being given help, I was told not to take photos, or I might be thought to be spying on an army unit. Important ministers travel in cars with armed guards seated outside of the cars facing sideways, guns at the ready.
Kasubi Tombs on the Hoima Road, Kampala, Uganda. (photo from Janice Masur)
I visited the Kasubi Tombs, where the kabakas, or kings, have been buried since pre-Christian times. I had never known about this sacred UNESCO site when I lived in Uganda. A steep thatched roof, reaching almost to the ground covered intricate woven designs in the inner ceiling of one of the tombs. It was my absolute luck to have Prince Joseph as my tour guide. When I showed him a photograph, he told me proudly that he was the grandson of Edward, the brother of the kabaka, Mutesa II or Freddy, who was one of the two Ugandan men in the picture.
My purpose for traveling to Uganda was to unveil two memorial plaques for my Jewish community, which had been there from 1949 to 1961. None of the community infrastructure exists today, not even the cemetery, now submerged under real estate.
We placed a plaque in the Nagoya village near Mbale, where the Abayudaya, who converted to Judaism in 1921, live. Conservative Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his wife, Tziporah, and others in the community were so welcoming and warm, helpful and supportive. We had a wonderful Shabbat evening, with lots of music and drumming, and Shabbat lunch under two large mango trees, with stunning views of Mount Elgon.
On Sunday, the whole community was invited to the unveiling of the plaque. We ambled down to a lower flat piece of land after morning minyan in the synagogue. There were speeches by Rabbi Sizomu and by Rabbi Netanel Kaszovitz, a young Orthodox rabbi visiting from Nairobi, who is responsible for administering to all the Orthodox Jewish communities in East and West Africa. The plaque glowed in the dappled sunlight. Two newly planted mango trees and two benches were nearby, offering enough room for a minyan, at Rabbi Sizomu’s request. The white lettering on the black granite looked impressive; beautifully supervised by Ariel Okiror Eyal.
Rabbi Gershom Sizumo and Janice Masur with the Kampala plaque that will be held in storage. (photo from Janice Masur)
I experienced all sorts of conflicting emotions, as you might imagine. At long last a plaque to commemorate the help that my Uganda Jewish community had given the Abayudaya last century was installed. Nothing had marked the presence of the once-vibrant, secular, 23-family Jewish community, which functioned without a rabbi, a Torah or a synagogue. Who would have guessed that, in 2024, a Conservative and three Orthodox Black Jewish communities would exist, interspersed with Muslim villages?
As for the other plaque I hoped to place, it was for the Jews who were buried more than 60 years ago in the Jewish cemetery just off the Kampala-Jinja Expressway, abutting the Christian cemetery. It is not common knowledge that the Jewish cemetery here had been destroyed and Speke Apartments, built by Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, lies on top of where it had been. After many months of trying to contact Ruparelia I finally succeeded while in Kampala. In reply to my request to place a plaque somewhere in the vicinity of the apartments, in a discreet corner or on a less important wall, he said “No! None.”
Speke Apartments in Kampala, which is built alongside an unkempt Christian cemetery and on top of the Jewish cemetery. (photo from Janice Masur)
Perhaps I could mount the plaque at the edge of the unkempt Christian cemetery? It requires a Ugandan minister’s permission to approve a location near the 1972 Entebbe Raid plaque at the difficult-to-access old Entebbe Airport. Maybe at the Uganda Museum? The garden of the Chabad compound was also considered. Unfortunately, none of these placements have materialized.
I traveled to Uganda to place two memorial plaques, but my mission was not fully accomplished, and the second plaque lies in storage with Rabbi Sizomu. The Chabad Rabbi in Kampala, Moshe Raskin, said he would try to place it somewhere, perhaps in the future grounds of the new plot of land they will buy for Chabad, because Rabbi Moshe says Chabad is in Kampala to stay.
That I couldn’t find a place to mount the second plaque greatly saddened me. In many parts of the world, history is important and physical spaces or buildings are repurposed and feature plaques to show that a mikvah is buried here or a synagogue was once there. Today, few Ugandans know their local history, including that former governor (1952-1957) Sir Andrew Cohen was a British Jew. He was the first governor not to plunder Uganda’s wealth and he encouraged education and self-rule.
Now it is my task to contact my East African friends and perhaps schools and associations because Albert Kasozi, executive director of Buganda Heritage and Tourism – to whom Prince Joseph introduced me while we drank African tea at my hotel – would like as much 19th-century Bugandan history collected as possible for a new museum that has just been built in Kampala and will be formally opened soon. The banner exhibit I created, Shalom Uganda, will find a home in this new museum and I am very happy about the prospect. And the Kampala memorial plaque? To be determined….
Janice Masuris a Vancouver author and speaker. Her book, Shalom Uganda: A Jewish Community on the Equator, tells her story of growing up in the bygone Ashkenazi Jewish community of Kampala from 1949 to 1961.
Rabbi Arik Labowitz will step forward as Or Shalom’s rabbi when Rabbi Hannah Dresner retires.
Rabbi Arik is presently serving as the congregation’s half-time assistant rabbi and has signed a two-year contract as full-time rabbi, beginning Nov. 1. Rabbi Hannah’s partnership with Rabbi Arik will facilitate a smoothtransition of leadership as Or Shalom navigates renovating their building while maintaining the congregation’s vibrancy.
The synagogue has already enjoyed Rabbi Arik’s breadth of Torah learning, the depth of his davening and meditative offerings, his musicality, his sensitive pastoral manner, his delight in children, his commitment to intergenerational programming and the new enrichment he brings, focusing on the spirituality of the congregation’sCascadian outdoors.
As Jewish Renewal’s oldest synagogue, it is meaningful that Rabbi Arik is a second-generation Renewal rabbi and that his presence ties the congregation back to the rabbis who raised and schooled him, including Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Reb Shlomo Carlebach. Born into a legacy of Jewish Renewal, with parents Rabbi Phil Labowitz and the late Rabbi Shoni Labowitz z”l, Arik’s formative years were enriched by learning from Reb Zalman and his early students during weekend retreats at his family’s South Florida home.
Eager to delve deeper into his spiritual path, Arik journeyed to Israel to immerse himself in traditional life and studies, spending transformative years at Yeshivat Machon Meir and Darche Noam/Shapells in Jerusalem from 1995 to 1997. Returning to North America, he continued his studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, embodying a commitment to a diverse and enriched understanding of Jewish tradition.
Over the past two decades, Rabbi Arik has played pivotal roles in various Jewish leadership capacities. From 2007 to 2021, he served as the spiritual leader of Congregation Eitz Or, and as a regular visiting leader for several communities along the West Coast.
Rabbi Arik, along with his wife, Aliza, and their two sons, Judah and Noah, recently relocated to Vancouver, drawn by the desire to be closer to family as well as the beauty of the water and mountains.
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Marsha Lederman, winner of this year’s Max Wyman Award for Critical Writing. (photo from Max Wyman Award)
Arts and culture critic and commentator Marsha Lederman is the winner of this year’s Max Wyman Award for Critical Writing.
The annual award celebrates critical commentary on the visual, performing and literary arts in the province of British Columbia. The winner receives a prize of $5,000 and a gold and emerald pin designed by Vancouver artist Robert Chaplin. A mentee, named by the laureate, receives a $1,000 prize. This year’s mentee is Ming Wong, an emerging writer and illustrator.
The award was established in 2017 by philanthropist Yosef Wosk to honour the career and lifetime contributions of the Vancouver author, arts critic and commentator Max Wyman. It recognizes writers who have amassed a significant body of work. Eligible subjects of criticisminclude the visual arts, architecture and design, theatre, literature, dance, music, film and television, as well as more general cultural commentary.
Lederman is an award-winning journalist and author. She has been with the Globe and Mail since 2007. For 15 years, she served as its Western arts correspondent, covering visual art, theatre, music, dance, books and publishing, film and architecture. In 2022, she became a full-time columnist for the newspaper, but continues to write about arts and culture. Her memoir Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2022. It was a national bestseller and last year won the Western Canada Jewish Book Award for biography or memoir. She has won several journalism awards, including the 2019 National Newspaper Award for Arts and Entertainment, and the inaugural Webster Award for Arts and Culture Reporting in 2023. Before joining the Globe, Lederman held a variety of positions with CBC Radio, including national arts reporter. Born and raised in Toronto, she has lived in East Vancouver since 2007.
“Marsha Lederman’s writings over the years have provided a consistent and powerful demonstration of what she has called ‘good journalism’s power to inform, guide and potentially change the world’ – precisely in line with the aims of this award, which seeks to honour informed and compelling writing that stimulates critical thinking and demonstrates the value of creative commentary in our understanding of the world around us,” said Wosk. “I am delighted that she has been chosen as this year’s laureate.”
The jury citation reads: “Marsha Lederman has made significant contributions to the field of journalism and literature through her extensive writings on social issues seen through the lens of arts and culture and social justice. The jury is unanimous in its appreciation of her ability to engage and inspire her readers, through lively and accessible writing that opens eyes and minds to fresh insights and creative thinking.”
Ming Wong is this year’s mentee. (photo from Max Wyman Award)
Wong is an art director, graphic designer and journalist at the Globe and Mail, where she produces and edits visually-driven stories for print, online, social and beyond. Her design work has been recognized by the Society of News Design and the Digital Publishing Awards. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Burnaby, she currently lives in Vancouver.
“I began working with Ming Wong as a mentor in 2022,” said Lederman. “She was particularly interested in writing about pop culture. And she has been fantastic, showing enormous creativity, drive and dedication as a writer. She is curious and smart, and writes interesting, intelligent and highly readable pieces about popular culture from her millennial perch. I can’t wait to read more from Ming over the years.”
Previous winners of the Wyman award are critic and educator Jerry Wasserman; Dorothy Woodend, arts editor of the Tyee; freelance art critic Robin Laurence; and author, critic and former University of British Columbia gallery director Scott Watson. Previous mentee award winners are Paloma Pacheco and Angie Rico.
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Ellen Schwartz’s Galena Bay Odyssey has won a 2024 Historical Writing Award (photo by William Schwartz)
Galena Bay Odyssey: Reflections of a Hippie Homesteader by Ellen Schwartz (Heritage House, 2023) has received a 2024 Historical Writing Award, presented by the British Columbia Historical Federation.
On May 4, the recipients were announced and acknowledged at the BCHistorical Federation annual conference and awards dinner, where author Ellen Schwartz was in attendance to receive the honour.
Galena Bay Odyssey traces Ellen’s journey from a born-and-raised Jewish urbanite from New York who was terrified of the woods to a self-determined homesteader living on a communal farm in the Kootenays. Throughout the memoir, Ellen reflects on what her homesteader experience taught her about living more fully, honestly and ecologically. (For a review, see jewishindependent.ca/a-hippie-homesteader-in-b-c.)
Schwartz is an award-winning author of more than 18 books for children. In addition to writing books, she works as a corporate writer and editor and as a freelance magazine writer. She and her husband live in Burnaby.
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The Arts Club Theatre Company has commissioned six new scripts as part of their Silver Commissions program, celebrating the company’s 60th anniversary. Founded in 2006 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first world première of a Canadian play at the Arts Club, the Silver Commissions program is designed to foster the creation of new Canadian scripts. Through this initiative, the Arts Club has commissioned, developed and produced 20 new plays.
The 2024/25 Silver Commissions includes Beware the Glunkus: A Christmas Musical, by Ben Elliott and Jewish community member Anton Lipovetsky. The other commissions are An Enemy of the People by Colleen Murphy, Fan Tan Alley by Jovanni Sy, Florida Social by Bronwyn Carradine, Little Darling by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton, and Murder on the Pacific Spirit Express by Frances Koncan.
The story of the Glunkus is a legend that Joe’s dad used to tell him as a kid about a mischievous gnome that hates Christmas. Once a heartfelt artist, Joe now exclusively makes corporate jingles and generic reality TV soundtracks. But when Joe’s niece discovers his unproduced musical in a drawer and stages a reading with his neighbours in the living room, Joe’s distaste for the holiday spirit goes big – and he starts to transform into a Glunkus (complete with pointy ears and an elf-like voice). With the help of Bella and his dad, he must open his heart before it’s too late!
Elliott is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist living in Vancouver. When not working in the theatre, he writes, records and performs his own music, animates his own music videos and composes for film, TV and radio.
Lipovetsky is a songwriter, actor, musical director, sound designer and educator based in Vancouver. He has performed on stages nationwide and his original musicals have been shortlisted three times for a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award.
Together, Elliott and Lipovetsky have written the musicals The Park (with Hannah Johnson) and The Best Laid Plans (with Vern Thiessen).
מפעל בונדס ישראל בקנדה מגייס כספים למען ישראל כאשר כלכלה ניזוקה קשות לאור המלחמה הארוכה בעזה
הבונדס שהוא בעצם מפעל מלווה העצמאות והפיתוח עוסק במכירת איגרות חוב של מדינת ישראל ליהודים ברחבי העולם, ובעיקר בארצות הברית וקנדה. מפעל הבונדס הוקם בשנת אלפים תשע מאות וחמישים ביוזמת ראש ממשלת ישראל דאז, דוד בן גוריון. לפרוייקט היו שותפים גם שר האוצר דאז אליעזר קפלן, גולדה מאיר ושמואל רוטנברג
עד כה גייס מפעל הבונדס כחמישים מיליארד דולר (אמריקני) והכספים מיועדים בעיקר לתקציבי הפיתוח של ממשלת ישראל. בין הפרויקטים שהוקמו בישראל בכספי הבונד: המוביל הארצי, מיפעלי ים המלח, תחנת הכוח אורות רבין בחדרה, פיתוח נמלי הים בחיפה, אשדוד ואילת, עזרה בעלייה הגדולה מברית המועצות, הרחבת נמל התעופה בן גוריון, שיפור תשתיות כולל של רכבת ישראל
קיים ויכוח מתמיד בין התומכים במפעל הבונד ובין השוללים אותו. התומכים אומרים כי בונדס ישראל נחוץ לקיים את הקשר והזיקה בין היהודים בעולם רוכשי אגרות החוב לבין מדינת ישראל. ואילו השוללים טוענים כי הריבית של בונדס ישראל גבוהה מאוד והיא מהווה נטל בלתי מוצדק על תקציב מדינת ישראל
נשיא הבונדס בשלוש השנים האחרונות הוא דני נווה (שמונה על ידי שר האוצר לשעבר איווט ליברמן) ועל מועצת המנהלים בקנדה נמנים: מייק פלורנס, ג’ורג’ כהן, אורה סלוטוביץ’, רוברט אייסמן, עליזה פגן ורחל צפתי. ואילו המנהלים של בונדס ישראל בקנדה הם: וורן קייל (באזור מטרו טורונטו), לן שפירו (באזור מערב קנדה), הרב אהרון פלנצ’ריק וברנלי גלאס. לבונדס יש ארבעה משרדים ברחבי קנדה שנמצאים: בטורונטו – לאזור מטרו טורונטו, במונטריאול – לאזור קוויבק, באוטווה – לאזור מזרח קנדה ובוונקובר (בבניין הג’ואיש קומיוניטי סנטר) – לאזור מערב קנדה
:להלן הריביות לאגרות הבונדס השונות
אגרות ג’ובילי (מינימום השקעה עשרים וחמישה אלף דולר): שנתיים – 4.83%, שלוש שנים – 4.74%, חמש שנים – 4.98%, עשר שנים – 5.25% וחמש עשרה שנים – 5.50%
אגרות מכבי (מינימום השקעה חמשת אלפים דולר): שנתיים – 4.68%, שלוש שנים -4.60%, חמש שנים – 4.83%, עשר שנים – 5.10% וחמש עשרה שנים – 5.35%
אגרות סברה (מינימום השקעה חמשת אלפים דולר): שנה – 4.88%
אגרות סברה (מינימום השקעה אלף דולר): שלוש שנים – 4.87%
אגרות מזל טוב (מינימום השקעה מאה דולר): חמש שנים – 5.17%
אגרות מזל טוב (מינימום השקעה שלושים ושישה דולר): חמש שנים – 5.27%
אגרות שלום (מינימום השקעה מאה דולר): שנה אחת – 4.88%
אגרות שלום (מינימום השקעה שלושים ושישה דולר): שנה אחת – 4.98%
מאז תחילת המלחמה של ישראל בעזה גייס הבונדס למעלה ממאתים מיליון דולר (אמריקני) בעיקר בארצות הברית. מרבית הסכום (כמאה וחמישים מיליון דולר) גוייס ממוסדות שונים בהן מדינות ורשויות. היעד של הגיוס השנתי עמד אשתקד על כמיליארד דולר (אמריקני) והוא הושג במלואו ואף יותר מכך. יו”ר דירקטוריון הבונדס בארה”ב הווארד גולדשטיין אומר: “המסר שלנו לאחינו ואחיותינו בישראל הוא חד-משמעי. עמדו חזק, אתם לא לבד. אנחנו כאן איתכם ותמיד נהיה איתכם. אנו עומדים לצד ישראל עכשיו יותר מתמיד. ארגון הבונדס הוכיח שוב כי הוא מרכיב מכריע בעמוד השדרה הפיננסי של ישראל”
בישראל נשמעת לא מעט ביקורת על מפעל בונדס ישראל שהפך למקור לג’ובים למקורבים, עם הוצאות תפעול גדולות בארצות הברית וקנדה. עלות תפעול הבונד מגיעה לכשלושים וחמישה מיליון דולר קנדי בשנה
Child survivor Lillian Boraks-Nemetz speaks at the community’s Yom Hashoah CommemorationMay 5. (Rhonda Dent Photography)
The pogrom of Oct. 7 and the hurricane of antisemitism that has swirled since then added resonance to commemorations of Yom Hashoah this week.
Around the world, Jewish communities united in different ways to mark the annual Holocaust remembrance day. Sunday night, May 5, the local commemoration at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver featured child survivor Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, who reflected on the unmistakable parallels across time, of “Broken families, broken bodies and minds and the poor frightened children and much more.”
Recently, said Boraks-Nemetz, she heard the words of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilan Erdan, who reflected on how a sunny Shabbat morning in Israel turned, in a matter of seconds, into hell.
“On just such a sunny morning, in Warsaw, I lost my childhood,” said Boraks-Nemetz, who was introduced Sunday night in a touching tribute by her son, Stephen. “The day Nazis invaded Poland, I remember German bombers flying low over my head against an innocent blue sky and as World War Two began on Sept. 1, 1939, I had to become an adult at the age of 6.”
In the war that began that day, she said, 1.5 million Jewish children were murdered. She suffers guilt and questions around her survival when so many, including her little sister, did not live.
“Some of us were younger than others. Some older,” she said. “Nevertheless, we were all traumatized – as our brothers and sisters are today, in Israel, and in a world that won’t learn history and its lessons. We don’t feel safe anymore around our world. Thousands protest against us as they have always done, just looking for a reason to express their hate for Jews.”
Boraks-Nemetz shared parts of her Holocaust history, from the earliest time, when her mother took her to a favourite café only to find a sign declaring Jews were forbidden from entering – signs that then proliferated in parks, recreation areas, theatres, streetcars and elsewhere.
“We were beginning to lose our humanity,” she recalled. “Thousands protested against us with words such as ‘Death to Jews,’ ‘Final Solution’ and more.”
Today, she said, similar words are directed at Jews.
“This is being allowed to flourish unpunished, using our freedom of speech for their purposes,” she said. “But surely there are red lines where free speech ends and hate speech begins that must be punishable by law.”
She recalled seeing the wall around the Warsaw Ghetto being constructed, higher and higher, as she watched.
“I asked my father what this wall means,” said Boraks-Nemetz. “I asked many questions. I was almost 7 years old. This wall, he replied, will eventually enclose a part of Warsaw where we will be forced to live.”
That day came when, through a window, she saw a long car with officers and a bullhorn ordering Jews to enter the ghetto or suffer severe consequences.
“From the day I and my family entered our one room within these close, shabby quarters, I felt as if I had stepped out of sunlight into darkness,” she said. “I felt as if I was being stifled and the feeling of being stifled stayed with me as a memory and a trigger all of my life. The wall meant confinement, exclusion, isolation, fear, hunger and quarantine of a disease called typhus.”
Boraks-Nemetz shared the story of how she was to be smuggled out of the ghetto by her father, who had bribed a non-Jew but, when the day came, she was ill and instead her sister was sent out, never to be seen again.
“The streets were treacherous, with children dying of hunger and disease, poor and starved people peddling what little they had for a few potatoes and stealing what they couldn’t buy,” she said.
While smuggling a child out of the ghetto was a life-threatening act for all involved, so was remaining in the ghetto, she said. Eventually, thanks to an enormous bribe, young Lillian was passed through the gate of the ghetto, where she survived on the outside in the care of her grandmother, who had secured a false identity.
“That day, I felt as if I had lost my family, my home and any degree of safety I had felt,” she recounted. “I became numb and frozen. As a child, I didn’t understand why was I being sent away, alone, into a hostile world. I felt I wasn’t wanted by family or society. That day, I lost my identity as a Jew and a human being, a daughter.”
A forged piece of paper gave her a new, false name, false parents, a false age.
With a small blue suitcase in hand, she walked the short distance from her father, past the bribed guards, who looked the other way, into the care of a waiting stranger who would whisk her to a new, still very hazardous, life outside the ghetto.
“Although it was a very short distance, today I think of it as the longest walk, from impending death to the possibility of life,” she said.
Eventually, she started a new life in Canada, married at 19 and took on the role of a typical Canadian housewife, she said. At 40, she had a crisis, during which she was forced to confront the realities of what she had experienced, a struggle she has addressed ever since, through poetry, sharing her story with students and other means. For her, and for so many others, she said, Oct. 7 brought back from the mists of time the collective consciousness and memory of the past.
“We are still persecuted, blamed, hated,” she said.
Rabbi Carey Brown, associate rabbi at Temple Sholom, spoke earlier in the evening, expressing the need to be careful in drawing parallels between historical events, but acknowledging that the traumas of the past inform reactions to the present.
“It is difficult to distinguish between remembering the past and living in the present,” she said. “It feels inseparable.”
The current generation, said Brown, owes it to the memory of those who perished in the Shoah, as well as to the generations yet to come, “to take seriously and be steadfast in our commitment to ‘Never again.’”
Singers Erin Aberle-Palm, left, and Cantor Shani Cohen and cellist Eric Wilson were part of the music program produced by Wendy Bross Stuart. (Rhonda Dent Photography)
The solemn ceremony began with Holocaust survivors in a procession escorted by King David High School students who are descendants of survivors.
Shoshana Krell-Lewis, a member of the board of directors of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and a daughter of the centre’s founding president, Dr. Robert Krell,welcomed the audience and acknowledged elected officials and survivors. In recognition of survivors from the former Soviet Union, Irena Gurevich translated into Russian.
Sarah Kirby-Yung, deputy mayor of Vancouver, represented the city.
Cantor Yaacov Orzech recited El Moleh Rachamim.
A moving musical program by artistic producer Wendy Bross Stuart featured Eric Wilson on cello and singers Erin Aberle-Palm, Cantor Shani Cohen, Lisa Osipov Milton, Matthew Mintsis, Kat Palmer and Lorenzo Tesler-Mabe.
The program was presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, funded through the Jewish Federation annual campaign and by the Province of British Columbia, and supported by the Gail Feldman-Heller & Sarah Rozenberg-Warm Memorial Endowment Fund, Temple Sholom Synagogue and the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
