News – Page 6

What wellness means at JCC

There are places that become part of who you are. For our family, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver has been that place across generations. As JWest prepares to build a new fitness centre that will carry our family’s name, we wanted to share, in our own words, what that space has meant to us, and why what gets built next matters.

Gary Averbach: When we moved from Richmond to the Oakridge area in 1975, joining the Jewish Community Centre was one of the first things I did. I enrolled my 5-year-old daughter in day camp and found my way into the gym shortly after. For the next four decades, until my office and home eventually moved downtown, I was there virtually every day it was open.

photo - Left to right: Justin Averbach, Mike Averbach, Gary Averbach and Benjamin Averbach (in front) — Left to right: Justin Averbach, Mike Averbach, Gary Averbach and Benjamin Averbach (in front). (photo from JWest)

The fitness centre has served this community well for a long time and, now, like the building around it, it’s ready for its next chapter. But, what kept me coming back was never the facility itself – it was the people within it. My community was the health club, and it was filled with friends I looked forward to seeing and connecting with.

I have a weak eye, which meant competitive sports were never really an option for me. Walking became my discipline instead. Over years of daily workouts at the JCC, including the treadmill, and long circuits around Stanley Park, I built myself up to at least 17 kilometres a day. In 2022, I decided to find out what that foundation could hold, and I walked from Calgary to Vancouver. It took about 42 days. [See jewishindependent.ca/ averbach-reaches-kamloops and jewishindependent.ca/averbach-back-home.]

I’m 83 now – and I still show up. My goal is to reach 93 in good health. I don’t want to let the old man in.

When the opportunity arose to support JWest, I knew exactly where to direct my support. It was a natural choice to have our family’s name on the fitness centre. It’s where I spent most of my time.

What I hope for is simple – that the people who walk through those doors feel that this is a quality place. And that some of them, over time, find what I found: not just a gym, but a second home.

Mike Averbach: For me, the JCC gym was a rite of passage, and one that I have many fond memories of.

As a teenager, I spent a lot of time there, working out and goofing around with friends. It added a lot to my life in terms of strength and physicality, but it wasn’t all just physical. The mental discipline of showing up regularly, of pushing yourself in a space surrounded by people you knew, added something to how I understood myself. I grew up in that gym, in more ways than one.

My father has given a lot to the JCC over the years, and this gift reflects a connection that spans nearly five decades. It resonates for me too, because I lived it alongside him.

What I think about now is the next generation – my kids, and the families joining the JCC for the first time. A state-of-the-art fitness facility inside a Jewish community hub is not something every young person gets access to. To offer a space where physical wellness and Jewish community life coexist is genuinely special.

When my kids walk into that gym and see our name, I hope they feel what I felt growing up there: that this place is theirs, that it was built for them, and that the people who came before them believed it was worth building. That belief is what carries a community forward, generation to generation.

Gary Averbach chaired a fundraising campaign in the early 1990s that resulted in a renovation of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and Mike Averbach has served on the RBC JCC Sports Dinner committee for years.

Together in mourning

Geoffrey Druker, who leads the community’s annual memorial ceremony, consoles a young speaker on Yom Hazikaron. (photo from Geoffrey Druker)

Emotions were close to the surface April 20 at Vancouver’s annual Yom Hazikaron commemoration. The Jewish community gathered at Temple Sholom to mark Israel’s day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism – an evening that bridged decades of loss with the raw immediacy of the present.

Geoffrey Druker, who has led the annual ceremony for many years, shared multiple stories spanning decades, reflecting the losses in Israel’s many wars and incessant terror attacks.

A photograph from 2005 showed four young commanders from the Golani Brigade. Within a year, two of them – Benji Hillman and Roi Klein – would be killed in the Second Lebanon War. Hillman died in battle and, six days later, Klein was killed after throwing himself on a grenade to save his soldiers.

Nearly two decades later, the tragedy continued.

On Oct. 7, 2023, the two surviving commanders in the photo – Roi Levy and Yizhack Ben Bassat – rushed from their homes to defend Israeli communities under attack. Levy was killed that day at Kibbutz Re’im. Two months later, Ben Bassat was killed during the war in Gaza.

Col. Yizhack Ben Bassat’s sister, Hamutal, is a member of the Vancouver community and lit a candle in his memory.

In the 40 days of Operation Roaring Lion, the initial war with Iran, Druker said more than 20 civilians and 13 soldiers were killed. Among the civilians killed was Ofer Moskovitz.

“He was better known in the region and throughout Israel as ‘Pushko,’” said Druker. He was a farmer in charge of the avocado orchard of Kibbutz Misgav Am, which is located right on the border with Lebanon, in Vancouver’s partnership region of the Upper Galilee.

“Veteran members of our Federation partnership committee met with him numerous times during visits to the region,” said Druker. “He was 60 years old.

“Tonight we remember them all,” Druker said, as the congregation rose for a moment of silence.

The ceremony moved between individual stories and collective grief, underscoring the scale of loss while emphasizing its personal nature.

The evening became intensely personal with the remembrance of Ben Mizrachi, the young Vancouver man killed at the Nova music festival.

“Ben did not run away to save himself when he had the chance,” his mother had said in a previous address that was recounted. “He showed tremendous courage … as he tried to save others.”

This year, the graduate of King David High School was remembered by his uncle, Mooshon Mizrachi.

Many other stories were read aloud and relatives and community members read Yizkor and lit candles, transforming the ceremony into a living bridge between Vancouver and Israel.

“These past years, Israel has been engaged in wars on five fronts,” Druker noted, referencing the sustained conflict that has affected every part of the country.

The story of brothers Amit and Yigal Vax, killed defending their community during the Oct. 7 attacks, was told as a recollection of that morning – sirens, explosions and the sudden realization that terrorists had entered their village. The account described fear giving way to terror, as residents hid in safe rooms as gunfire echoed outside.

“Amit … heard gunfire … grabbed his weapon … and was killed,” Druker recounted. His brother Yigal, armed only with a machete, was also killed trying to defend their home.

Sivan Keidar, a member of the extended Vax family, lit a candle in their memory.

Throughout the ceremony, music and ritual provided a framework for mourning. Songs such as “Ad Machar” (“Until Tomorrow”) and “Makom L’de’aga” (“A Place to Worry”) reflected the emotional landscape of grief.

Shinshinim, Israeli teenagers participating in a year-of-service program in Vancouver, spoke about the legacy they have inherited – one shaped by wars they did not experience directly, but which continue to define their lives.

Eliyahu Kaminsky of Congregation Schara Tzedeck synagogue recited the memorial prayer El Maleh Rachamim.

Downhill after Trump?

Left to right: Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver chief executive officer Ezra Shanken, Temple Sholom Senior Rabbi Dan Moskovitz and commentator and author Yossi Klein Halevi. (photo by Pat Johnson)

The special relationship between the United States and Israel is at its greatest peak, according to American-Israeli thinker and commentator Yossi Klein Halevi. The bad news is, he predicts, it’s all downhill from here.

In conversation with Temple Sholom’s Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, Klein Halevi warned that, whoever succeeds US President Donald Trump, it is almost inevitable that the next American leader will be less supportive of Israel.

“After Trump, the deluge,” said Klein Halevi. “There really is this sense of this moment as bittersweet. We have never been in a closer alignment with the United States than now.… This is really the culminating moment of the special relationship, that it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Were Vice-President J.D. Vance, a Republican, to become president, Klein Halevi warned, the US-Israeli relationship would almost certainly deteriorate.

“If it is just about any Democrat, it’s not going to be good,” he said. “In some cases, it would be extremely negative. So, there’s a sense that this is sort of the final play.”

Change is inevitable in Israeli politics, as well, he argued. Klein Halevi emphatically believes Netanyahu will not be reelected. The only question, he said, is whether someone else can cobble together a workable majority.

Klein Halevi is scholar-in-residence at Temple Sholom and the event April 23 was presented in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and one of Israel’s most influential and widely read public intellectuals, exploring Israeli identity, Jewish peoplehood, faith and the moral complexities of power. His books, including Letters to My Palestinian Neighbour and Like Dreamers, have shaped critical conversations across the Jewish world, according to Karen Kollins, the institute’s director of Canada, who introduced him.

Kollins described her organization as a leading Jewish think tank and educational centre working in Israel and across North America to “help the Jewish people engage thoughtfully and courageously with the most complex moral, religious and political challenges of our time.”

Klein Halevi co-hosts, with the institute’s president, Donniel Hartman, the think tank’s award-winning weekly podcast For Heaven’s Sake, which focuses on the moral aspects of issues affecting Israel, world Jewry and Zionism.

The stresses of living in Israel, always intense, have been unprecedentedly exacerbated in recent years, said Klein Halevi in his conversation with Moskovitz.

“This has been Israel’s longest war,” he said, noting that reservists have been called up for very long tours, upending families, businesses and society at large. “I think that we’re going to start seeing the cracks in the next generation.”

Even as new olim (immigrants) are arriving from France and elsewhere, he said, more and more Israelis are questioning whether they and their children have a future in the country.

“At what point do Israelis start to say, I – we – can’t do this anymore?” Klein Halevi asked.

Disenchantment is further aggravated by widespread dissatisfaction with the government.

“We’ve never had a government in wartime that more than half the country doesn’t trust,” he said. “When you combine that with the endless pressure, there’s this sense that I think many young Israelis have of, What’s the future here right now?”

In contrast, the post-Oct. 7 societal unity, while fraying over time, remains a uniquely enveloping Israeli phenomenon.

Moskovitz asked if the war with Iran has been successful.

“I think the question is, What were the realistic expectations going into this war?” Klein Halevi replied.

He accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of prioritizing his own political interests ahead of those of the country, as well as raising expectations of not only eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat but deposing the Islamic regime.

“So, he was plugging this idea of total victory,” said Klein Halevi. “There’s not going to be a total victory.”

Setting back Iran’s nuclear ambitions has been successful, but regime change in Iran will come only from internal forces, he said.

From that perspective, he believes that, in the near to medium term, the Iranian regime is finished.

“When you lose the legitimacy of your people or, to put it more strongly, when you massacre tens of thousands of your own citizens, there’s no recovery from that,” he said. “You’ve decisively lost your legitimacy.”

Klein Halevi said that Israel, for decades, has fallen into Iran’s trap, engaging with Iran’s proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis – instead of confronting the source of the conflict, which is Iran.

“This war will be resolved not in Lebanon, and not in Gaza,” he said. “It will be resolved in Tehran.”

Responding to critics of Israel, Klein Halevi said he has high standards for Israeli morality, but all things have context.

“[Israel] was never an exemplar of democracy in an absolute sense,” he said, “but it was very much an exemplar of a democracy in conditions of extremity. No democracy anywhere has experienced the kind of sustained opposition – war, terrorism, siege, diplomatic boycott – that Israel has known since literally the day of its birth. The fact that we have managed to sustain an imperfect democracy is extraordinary.… And then when you bring in wave after wave of traumatized refugees who themselves come from countries with no democratic [traditions] – 90% of Israelis do not come from the West; they come from the Middle East or Eastern Europe, and yet we have managed to sustain a credible democracy. That, to me, is really the glory of Israeli democracy.

“If you strip away the context, which is what the critics of Israel do … they just leave the fact that, well, Arab Israelis don’t have full rights – and that’s true. And, for me, that’s a scandal,” he said. “But it’s also a scandal that I understand, because I can’t think of another more complicated minority/majority dynamic than having as your main minority people who are culturally and even to some extent politically aligned with the enemy you’re fighting.”

Moskovitz asked how Israeli media covers antisemitism in the diaspora and whether Israelis are conscious of the extent of the crisis.

“It is reported the way the Israeli media would cover an Israeli crisis,” said Klein Halevi. “It’s very much seen as a major Israeli story. That’s good news and bad news. It’s good news that the Israeli public really cares about the diaspora more so than in the past.”

Conversely, he said, the traditional Zionist mindset toward the diaspora tends to assume that, if Jews around the world are not making aliyah en masse, the situation they are facing worldwide can’t be that bad.

Since Oct. 7, Klein Halevi said, there has been an upsurge of spirituality and Jewish observance, as well as a resurgence of creativity in music and art. He also noted a shift within some components of the ultra-Orthodox, with “a whole new ideological stream called Israeli Haredi,” that is, ultra-Orthodox who want to be more integrated into society while maintaining the differences that matter most to them.

Amy Frankel, Temple Sholom president, welcomed the packed sanctuary and said that the program and others like it would not be possible without the generosity of the late Jack Lutsky, whose wife, Susan Mendelson, and brother, Peter Lutsky, recently established Temple Sholom’s scholar-in-residence endowment fund as a perpetual benefit to the congregation and the broader community.

Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, thanked Klein Halevi.

Birth control even easier now

A new vasectomy method is faster to perform, does not require cauterization, may make future reversals easier, and could expand availability to vasectomies in places where cost and accessibility are barriers.

The Pollock Technique™ has garnered Vancouver’s Dr. Neil Pollock kudos in a major medical journal.

Earlier this year, The Journal of Urology featured a study by Pollock and colleagues Jack Chang, Eliana Onishi, Arthur Chatton and Michel Labrecque.

The paper explained how the new approach differs from traditional vasectomies by leaving both ends of the vas deferens – the tube that carries sperm – open while using a layer of tissue as a barrier. This is different from traditional methods, where the tube is sealed or partially removed. This “double open-ended” approach reduces pressure buildup, tissue damage and inflammation – key causes of post-vasectomy pain – while maintaining effectiveness, according to the study.

The doctor, whose Vancouver-based Pollock Clinics has performed an estimated 75,000 procedures, is now offering the new approach, which can take as little as five minutes.

“My mindset has always been to try to improve on the status quo and reserve mind space to try to continually innovate,” Pollock told the Independent. “For the last 30 years, every time I’m in surgery, I ask myself: ‘How can I take this to the next level? Further reduce complications and improve outcomes?’ I woke up one morning at 3 a.m. with the idea for this technique.”

photo - Dr. Neil Pollock — Dr. Neil Pollock (photo from Pollock Clinics)

When Pollock ran the idea by a colleague who is head of urology at a leading hospital in New York, he was told it wouldn’t work.

“But I saw it differently, and wasn’t discouraged,” said Pollock. “Our publication in The Journal of Urology outlines our retrospective clinical study of almost 6,000 procedures performed between 2021 and 2024. The data proved we can achieve gold standard results and effectiveness, while eliminating what was once thought a critical step: significantly damaging and blocking the inside of the vas deferens through thermal cautery [burning of the tissue] or suture obstruction.”

The Pollock Technique™ minimizes inflammation and the fact that it is faster is not just a matter of speed – it reduces infection risks often correlated with length of operating time. Because the tube itself is interrupted without damaging it, successful vasectomy reversal is more likely.

“The Journal of Urology is the American Urological Association’s premier publication,” Pollock said. “Having our work peer-reviewed and published there elevates this technique as an evidence-based innovation in vasectomy surgery that provides the medical community with a simpler, safe and faster pathway to deliver gold-standard vasectomy care.”

This is not the first innovation Pollock has introduced. Pollock Clinics was among the first in Canada to adopt the no-scalpel vasectomy.

“The no-needle, no-scalpel approach focuses on maximizing comfort and minimizing trauma,” said Pollock. “During a no-needle, no-scalpel vasectomy, we locate the vas tubes under the skin and hold them in place. Instead of making a traditional incision with a scalpel, we use a specialized tool to make a tiny entry point, through which we can carry out the surgery. The no-scalpel technique, because it’s minimally invasive, has a lower risk of bleeding and infection, faster healing and a smoother recovery. No stitches are required to close the wound because it’s so tiny. Instead of using a needle to deliver the anesthetic into the scrotum, we use an air-pressure applicator to pass the freezing solution through the skin without an injection.”

Pollock compares the latest innovation as similar to folding one sleeve over your hand.

“Think of the vas deferens, the tube that carries sperm, as a hose,” he said. “In a traditional vasectomy, physicians plug the hose using cautery or tying a knot around both ends of the cut tube. This can create back-pressure leading to congestive pain in the testicle, like tying a knot in a hose while the tap is still on. Our technique leaves both ends of the hose unblocked, but physically separated. We take a thin layer of natural tissue that already surrounds the tube – the fascia, or sleeve – and pull it and secure it over the exit end. It is exactly like pulling a sleeve over your hand. The sperm cannot reach the other side because there is a physical wall of tissue in the way. This allows pressure to dissipate naturally from the testicular end while maintaining the effectiveness of the vasectomy.”

It’s a significant development.

“One of my colleagues called me when he read about it saying it’s a game-changer,” Pollock said. “The vasectomy is considered the ultimate form of male birth control, and we’ve created a faster, less invasive way to do it without compromising effectiveness. This is huge for men and their loved ones who are looking to complete their families, especially because birth control options for women are less safe.”

That’s a big deal for men, said Pollock.

“We like to tell men that the vasectomy is a loving way to step up in the family and alleviate the burden of birth control for their partner,” he said.

It is also significant for doctors.

“It’s safer for them because they don’t have to inhale the cautery smoke, and possibly for their patients, who avoid thermal damage and subsequent inflammation to their vas tube,” he said.

It’s also significant, he said, because this technique can be used in resource-limited settings around the world, expanding access to safe contraception for millions of men.

There are, however, barriers to adoption of the Pollock Technique™.

“The biggest barrier for other doctors to adopt this is getting meticulous training,” he said. “Our technique requires precision in execution and significant practice under supervision to master and then execute safely.”

A change in mindset among medical practitioners is also necessary, he warned.

“Surgeons have been taught for decades that the more damage they do to the vas deferens – by cutting out large segments, burning it or tying it – the more likely the procedure is to succeed,” Pollock said. “We’ve demonstrated that isn’t accurate. Our data supports that fascial interposition [the sleeve analogy] is likely the most critical element for a successful vasectomy, eliminating the need for a more invasive, damaging approach.”

Now, more than ever, Pollock insists, a vasectomy is not something to be feared.

“Techniques are available that are no-scalpel, no-needle and, now, no thermal damage,” he said. “This is a new era of gentle men’s health, where procedures are faster, recovery is easier, and more and more research is constantly coming out documenting the evolution and improvements in vasectomy, as well as other areas of medicine.”

Eco-Sisters mentorship

Reut Mealem, left, and Shahaf Ella Salach are coordinators and mentors for Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Eco-Sisters program. (photo from BGU)

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Eco-Sisters allows graduate students to mentor first-year female students or students considering studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.

“Our involvement in Eco-Sisters is both as coordinators and as mentors,” Reut Mealem, a PhD student in the department of information systems engineering, told the Independent of her and Shahaf Ella Salach’s connection to the program.

As a coordinator, Mealem – whose research focuses on applying machine learning methods to biological data to uncover meaningful insights – helps shape and guide the program’s activities, works closely with the mentors and supports the development of initiatives designed to encourage more female students to pursue STEM fields.

As a mentor, she provides direct support to women at different stages of their academic journey. This includes creating accessible channels of support, offering personalized guidance and building a community where women can ask questions, share concerns and feel less alone in the process.

“We chose to join Eco-Sisters as mentors because it is important to us to be a real source of support for women at the beginning of their journey and to offer guidance at eye level,” Mealem said.

Salach added that an involved mentor can make a meaningful difference by helping reduce uncertainty, organize information, support informed decision-making and strengthen the confidence that it is possible to succeed in academia while also enjoying the process.

“For us, personally, the program has highlighted the power of support and belonging. Meeting candidates and students, listening to them, guiding them and offering both practical and emotional tools has strengthened our sense of purpose. It gives us the opportunity to help other women take their first steps with greater confidence,” said Salach, a master’s student in mechanical engineering, whose research involves understanding the flow mechanism driving the cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.

Eco-Sisters was initiated in 2022 by Prof. Halleli Pinson, who served at the time as the president’s advisor for gender equity at BGU. The program was established as part of a broader national effort to promote gender equity in academia. Israel’s Council for Higher Education launched a five-year strategic plan in response to persistent gender gaps.

One of the clearest findings from the early research was the underrepresentation of women in STEM disciplines, despite these fields being both vital to the economy and offering strong professional opportunities.

“This underrepresentation is not seen as the result of innate differences, but rather as the outcome of long-standing social and educational patterns that often steer women away from STEM and toward more traditionally ‘feminine’ fields, typically associated with caregiving, interpersonal work and lower pay,” said Yael Hashiloni, a professor in the department of sociology and anthropology, who served as the president’s advisor for gender equity until October 2025.

“In response, increasing the number of women studying STEM became a national priority, and universities received dedicated funding to help advance this goal,” Hashiloni said.

Eco-Sisters was created to encourage women to take that first step into STEM fields and to support them along the way. The program does this through dedicated scholarships, mentoring and the creation of peer networks among women. These efforts are grounded in research showing that personal support, community and access to role models can play an important role in driving social change. Additionally, Eco-Sisters promotes women’s entrepreneurship through collaboration with the university’s entrepreneurship centre.

“This reflects not only a commitment to advancing women themselves, but also a broader understanding that diversity strengthens creativity, leads to more innovative solutions and helps address the needs of diverse communities in a more equitable way,” said Hashiloni.

Since its start, Eco-Sisters has supported dozens of female students, according to Hashlioni. And, this year, the program continued to grow, with the number of mentors increasing from 10 in 2025 to 13, and three additional university departments joining: computer science, software engineering and data engineering.

Last year’s program evaluation indicated strong mentor engagement and encouraging signs of increased women’s enrolment in the departments where the program has been active.

Mealem and Salach joined the program this year, so most of what they have seen by way of impact comes from their first conversations with prospective students, particularly during University Open Day, where they ran an Eco-Sisters booth and met young women considering STEM studies.

“Even in brief interactions, it was clear how much personal connection matters. Many were not only looking for information, but also for reassurance, encouragement and someone they could speak to openly,” said Mealem.

According to Salach, last year’s mentor survey reflected the program’s impact. Mentors described helping students with both practical and emotional aspects of the transition into university, from questions about registration and courses to the uncertainty that often comes with starting a degree.

“Many shared that the most meaningful part of the experience was knowing they had helped prospective students feel more confident and less alone,” Salach said of the mentors’ comments.

“From our experience so far,” she continued, “we feel that even a short conversation can make a difference. Seeing someone a little further along the same path can help prospective students imagine themselves there, too. That is part of what makes the program so meaningful: it gives women a welcoming first point of connection and helps them begin their journey with greater confidence.”

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

Unexpected discoveries

Prof. Brian Berkowitz, Sam Zuckerberg Professorial Chair in Hydrology, at his lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science. (photo from Weizmann Institute)

Prof. Brian Berkowitz of the Weizmann Institute of Science recently visited Vancouver and Calgary for meetings with members of the Weizmann Canada community.

Berkowitz, who was born in Edmonton, joined the staff of the Weizmann Institute in 1993. He received his bachelor and master of science degrees from the University of Alberta and his doctorate from the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology. He worked as a research hydrologist for Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture for several years and as a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia for two years before joining the Weizmann faculty. A former head of the department of environmental sciences and energy research (now the department of earth and planetary sciences), he is the incumbent of the Sam Zuckerberg Professorial Chair in Hydrology.

Berkowitz’s research centres around the experimental analysis and computer modeling of ﬂuid and chemical transport in geological formations, with emphasis on soil and groundwater systems. He and his colleagues are developing new models that realistically describe pollutant migration patterns; these models show conditions under which groundwater contamination can occur. He is also developing experimental methods for environmentally friendly chemical treatment of contaminated water.

Recently, he has become involved in research related to urology and treatment of kidney stones, and to the active treatment of lymphedema and related tissue-swelling disorders, including the development of biomedical devices.

Berkowitz – who is married and the father of three children – was first motivated to apply his physical science expertise to the medical field when his son was diagnosed with a serious kidney condition. Because what is the kidney if not a water filtration organ?

He applied his knowledge of fluid dynamics and chemical transport to the development of a ureteral stent that allows urine to drain from the kidneys to the bladder when there are blockages. The preexisting stents often caused pain and irritation in people who relied on them, and Berkowitz was able to develop a much-improved stent that was more comfortable and effective.

Building off that success, the professor has turned his attention to the development of a device that can treat lymphedema and related tissue-swelling conditions. Lymphedema is a condition in which fluid is not effectively drained by the lymphatic system and instead builds up in bodily tissue, often in the arms and legs. This is a common condition following some cancer treatments, among other causes.

Berkowitz worked with Yeda, the commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute, and a medical technology company called Sub-Q Bionics was formed to develop a device based on his research.

Sub-Q Bionics recently received the funding needed to further develop what is a sort of bionic lymph node that has the potential to transform how lymphedema is managed. The device will essentially be a drainage system that is implanted under the skin to help with the painful swelling caused by lymphedema. It would be the first treatment to actively drain lymphatic fluid from the limbs, offering relief to the more than one million people who suffer from lymphedema in Canada alone.

At the Weizmann Institute, which is ranked sixth in the world for research quality, scientists are given wide latitude to follow their curiosity and interests, even across scientific disciplines. As Berkowitz’s research exemplifies, this cross-pollination of ideas can often lead to unexpected and exciting discoveries that might not otherwise be possible.

In addition to being an acclaimed scientist, Berkowitz is an accomplished musician, having played bassoon professionally in the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and in numerous chamber ensembles in Canada and Israel.

– Courtesy Weizmann Canada

Study’s results hopeful

Hebrew University researchers have discovered that non-psychoactive cannabis compounds reduce liver fat and improve metabolic health in obese mice. (image from HU)

A study led by Prof. Joseph (Yossi) Tam, Dr. Liad Hinden, PhD student Radka Kočvarová and Tam’s team at the School of Pharmacy in the faculty of medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found that two compounds from the cannabis plant could help treat fatty liver disease. The research, conducted on obese mice, suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabigerol (CBG), which are non-psychoactive and do not cause a high, can improve liver health by changing how the organ manages energy and cleans itself.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is currently the most common chronic liver disorder in the world. It affects approximately one-third of the adult population and is closely linked to obesity, high blood pressure and insulin resistance. While lifestyle changes like diet and exercise are important, they can be hard to maintain, and there are very few approved medicines available for this condition.

The researchers used advanced tools to show that CBD and CBG do more than just reduce fat. They help the liver function better internally through a unique process of “metabolic remodeling.” One of the most important findings was the impact on the liver’s energy reserves. These compounds increase levels of phosphocreatine, which acts like a backup battery to help the liver stay healthy under the stress caused by a high-fat diet. This is a new discovery.

Additionally, the study showed that CBD and CBG restore the activity of cathepsins. These are enzymes that act like a cleaning crew within the cell’s recycling centres, known as lysosomes. By getting this cleaning crew back to work, the liver is better able to break down and clear out harmful fats and waste. The researchers also found that both treatments significantly reduced harmful lipids, such as triglycerides and ceramides. Ceramides are particularly dangerous because they are known to contribute to insulin resistance and liver inflammation.

The study observed that, while both compounds were effective, they each provided slightly different benefits. Both CBD and CBG were able to normalize blood sugar levels and improve how the body clears glucose. However, CBG appeared to have a more pronounced effect on certain metrics: it reduced body fat mass and improved insulin sensitivity more than CBD. CBG was also particularly effective at lowering total cholesterol and “bad” LDL cholesterol levels.

While these results are encouraging, the team notes that more research is needed to understand how these findings can best be applied to human patients.

The research paper, which was published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, can be accessed at doi.org/10.1111/bph.70387.

– Courtesy Hebrew University of Jerusalem

BGU fosters startup culture

Left to right, at Ben-Gurion University’s Spark to Start-Up gala in Vancouver April 12: David Berson, Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, Michael Fugman, Martin Thibodeau, Caroline Desrosiers, Andrea Freedman and Adam Korbin. (photo from BGU Canada)

Israel is set to catapult into an unparalleled era of economic and creative growth, according to Saul Singer.

Singer is co-author, with Dan Senor, of the bestselling book, Startup Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, and their most recent book, the The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World.

Singer made an analogy to a workout regimen in which people run with weights attached to them.

“The idea is, if you’re running with weights and you take those weights off, it’s really easy to run,” he said. “That’s what’s going to happen with Israel.”

Singer foresees something no less than “an opportunity to re-found the country.”

The generation that has fought in Gaza and in Lebanon are going to return to civilian life and feel like weights have been lifted from their shoulders, he said. “You’re going to see tremendous growth,” Singer said. “A tremendous force of building and optimism.”

Singer was in conversation with Niels Veldhuis, president of the Fraser Institute, at a gala event April 12 for Ben-Gurion University (BGU) Canada. Spark to Start-Up: Resilience Ignites Leaders took place at Beth Israel Synagogue and honoured community leader Michael Fugman. Revenue from the event supports Yazamut 360° Entrepreneurship Centre at Ben-Gurion University (jewishindependent.ca/creating-entrepreneurs).

Like Canada, Israel is a nation of immigrants, Singer pointed out. “Immigrants are natural entrepreneurs,” he said, noting that moving from one place to another takes drive and involves risks.

In their books, Singer and Senor credit mandatory military experience with instilling entrepreneurial skills in young Israelis. Singer has three daughters in the army right now, and one was put in charge of liaising with suppliers around complex weaponries, a subject in which she had no background.

“She said, ‘How am I going to do that? I can’t do it, any of this,’” Singer recounted. “And, sure enough, a year later, she was doing it. Israelis go through this experience time and time again, and it really helps make them entrepreneurs.”

Israeli society also benefits from being a unique hybrid of individualism and collectivity, he said. Most Western societies are becoming more polarized, with citizens dealing with mental health problems, depression and other consequences, which Singer puts down to, in part, “the unbridled march of individualism.”

“What is unique about the Jews is that they’re able to balance these two things: to be individual and yet have community,” he said. “That’s kind of our superpower. I think it’s a big chunk of why we survived for 2,000 years … and I think Israel has doubled down on it.

“You understand that you’re part of something larger than yourself,” he said, something that is emphasized by national service. “Service, by definition, is not just about you.”

The evening’s emphasis on entrepreneurship was underscored by Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, president of BGU. Under his leadership, the university launched a 10-year, $1 billion US global development campaign to double BGU’s physical footprint in Beersheva and expand its research capabilities.

Chamovitz described BGU’s venture capital initiative Cactus Capital, which provides funding to undergraduate students. “What’s unique about it,” he said, “is the advisory committee, which is dealing out the money, are also undergraduate students. We take our undergraduate students … train them as analysts and then give them the venture funds for them to fund different undergraduate ventures.”

Last year, three graduates of BGU’s women entrepreneur program addressed the problem that women in religious, traditional communities, whether Muslim or Jewish, tend not to get routine mammograms. The students developed a wearable app that monitors breast density and uses an algorithm to alert a doctor to call the woman in for a mammogram. The company received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, and garnered seed funding of $26 million.

Chamovitz summarized the ethos of David Ben-Gurion and of his eponymous university: “The possible we can do. The impossible takes a little bit longer.”

Given the closure of Israeli airspace due to ongoing conflict, organizers had a backup plan if Singer could not make it to Vancouver. In the end, attendees got a double bill, with Nuseir Yassin joining the evening’s lineup.

Known online as Nas Daily, Yassin is a social media influencer with 68 million followers. He promotes peace and understanding with one-minute videos that focus on stories that highlight humanity and transcend political conflict.

Yassin was the first Arab Israeli to attend Harvard University.

“After 19 years of being alive,” he said, his arrival at Harvard was an awakening. “I made my first Jewish friend, my first Israeli friend, my first female friend, my first gay friend, my first Black friend and my first Canadian friend. And, to be clear, these are not the same person.”

Attending Harvard in the shadow of Mark Zuckerberg, entrepreneurship was in the zeitgeist, Yassin said.

After an unsatisfying time as a software engineer in New York, Yassin quit the 9-to-5 and started pumping out videos. He made a splash posting 1,000 videos in 1,000 days.

“I made a video and I put it on the internet,” he said. “It failed. Nobody saw it. I made another video, it failed. I made another 270 videos in 270 days, and they all failed until video 271 – and that became the beginning of what we know today as Nas Daily.”

In the past 10 years, Yassin has visited 100 countries, but, when he is looking for fascinating story subjects, he realizes, he keeps coming back to Israel.

“Every time I was looking for people who think different to make videos about, I found them in Israel,” he said. “A vegan steak company: Israel. A technology to make cars drive: Israel. A security startup to hack your phone: Israel. Even my Singaporean team asked me, ‘What’s in the water in Israel?’ And I told them, ‘Nothing. It’s not the water, you fool, it’s the air.’ The air in Israel is really different. If everyone around you is thinking of a startup idea, you think of a startup idea, too. If everyone is into tech, you are into tech. Humans are memetic animals. We mimic the people around us. It’s as simple as that. And, clearly, the startup culture is super-contagious.”

Yassin is now moving away from video creation and has launched a new venture. “It’s an AI business platform,” he said. “It helps anybody start a business just by taking a picture of what they want to sell. AI creates the store, it creates the marketing contents, the videos and the pictures and finds the customer.”

Entrepreneurship – and Israeli entrepreneurship in particular – is an antidote to the negativity evoked by world news, he said.

“Open your phone and it’s all depressing,” said Yassin. “But, in these moments, I remember Canada’s greatest contribution to the world: hockey. And, in hockey, you don’t skate to where the puck is. You skate to where the puck is going. That’s what we’re doing today – we’re skating to where the puck is going. Even if today is super-depressing, the puck is going towards more peace, more collaborations, more entrepreneurship, less death, more prosperity…. So, the only option we have is to pick the damn puck up and push it forward together – and that, we can do.”

The Spark event honoured Michael Fugman, a community leader who has served on the boards of many organizations, including the United Way, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Richmond Country Club and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. A former president of his family’s apparel business, Fugman managed more than 100 staff and oversaw $100 million in annual sales. He is now in business development with PearTree Canada, a financial firm that created a system to help people donate to charities in a tax-efficient way. PearTree and RBC Royal Bank were the event’s presenting sponsors.

Honorary co-chairs of the event, Caroline Desrosiers and husband Martin Thibodeau, who is regional president of RBC in British Columbia, presented Fugman with the BGU Canada Award for Outstanding Leadership. They were joined for the presentation by Chamovitz, BGU Canada chief executive officer Andrea Freedman, BGU Canada regional president Adam Korbin and BGU Canada regional director David Berson.

Fugman credited his family – going back to his immigrant grandparents – for instilling in him Jewish values, devotion to family and commitment to Israel. He noted his cousin Mordechai, who died, at age 17, in Israel’s War of Independence. Fugman acknowledged his family in the audience, including wife Kathi.

Simon Margolis, who has known Fugman since Grade 1 at Vancouver Talmud Torah, was emcee.

Rabbi marks 13 years

Over the weekend of May 8, Temple Sholom celebrates Rabbi Dan Moskovitz’s “bar mitzvah” year as leader of the congregation. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Rabbi Dan Moskovitz will celebrate his bar mitzvah for the third time on May 9. Marking 13 years since his arrival as senior rabbi at Vancouver’s Reform Temple Sholom, the congregation is fêting him with a 1980s-themed bar mitzvah party.

Moskovitz may experience a sense of déjà vu, since he had not one but two bar mitzvahs in 1983.

“My dad was president of the Reform congregation and vice-president of the Conservative synagogue,” the rabbi said of growing up in Foster City, in the San Francisco Bay Area. “I’m a Jewish mutt, I like to say.”

He had a Reform bar mitzvah on Friday night and a Conservative one on Saturday morning. The weekend of his Temple Sholom celebration will be similarly packed.

Friday night Shabbat services are open to the entire community, with speakers reflecting on his tenure, something that makes Moskovitz feel awkward.

“It’s weird to say, ‘Can you talk about me?’” he said. “I love showering praise on others. I truly don’t want to be the centre of attention.”

He understands, though, what the moment represents, not just for him, but for the congregation.

“I recognize that I play a significant role in people’s lives at the most important times,” he said. “That’s a privilege.”

Letting people say thank you, he added, is part of that relationship.

Moskovitz, commonly known as “Rabbi Dan,” has no similar reluctance when it comes to the menu for the Friday night Oneg, which will be stocked with his favourite desserts – Rice Krispie squares and caramel apples.

Saturday morning will belong to someone else entirely: a bar mitzvah boy whose thunder Moskovitz is not about to steal. “This is all about you,” the rabbi assured him.

The Saturday night party will be ’80s nostalgia – but tasteful, Moskovitz promised. Members of the congregation will speak, as will Rabbi Philip Bregman, Temple Sholom’s rabbi emeritus, and leaders of the broader community. Tickets are available on the shul’s website, templesholom.ca.

Sunday morning will feature a bagels-and-brunch gathering for the religious school’s 220 kids and their parents.

The festivities are in support of causes that are close to the rabbi’s heart. Funds raised will go into two endowments.

The first is a pastoral care initiative, led by Rabbi Sally Finestone, whose sole focus is seniors, including regular visits, supporting their families, even driving people to appointments. As the congregation has grown to more than 1,000 households, Finestone is able to take some of the burden off Moskovitz, Associate Rabbi Carey Brown and Cantor Shani Cohen. This program, and Finestone’s position, began through an endowment in memory of Michael Jacobson.

The second endowment, originated by Susan Mendelson and her husband, the late Jack Lutsky, supports a scholar-in-residence program, which has allowed Temple Sholom and the broader community to learn from Israeli writer and thinker Yossi Klein Halevi for the past several years.

Though Moskovitz’s visit to Vancouver before being hired was in a typical Vancouver rainstorm, he instantly felt he had found a home.

“I just fell in love with this congregation,” he told the Independent.

What stands out most, he said, is that, in Vancouver, congregants don’t simply attend services, they participate. “They own it,” he said.

It’s a contrast, he suggested, to parts of American Reform Judaism, where it can feel like congregants outsource their religion to the rabbi, drop their kids off at shul and pick them up after. “I call it drive-by Jewing,” said Moskovitz.

“Our congregation shows up. The parents don’t just drop off their kids. They come in the building. They stay for minyan,” he said.

Something else that surprised him about Vancouver is the level of collaboration among Jewish institutions, exemplified by the inter-denominational Rabbinical Association of Vancouver. It’s a model, he believes, that could reshape Jewish communal life elsewhere.

Of course, not everything has been easy. Rising antisemitism in Canada has forced him into a more public, defensive role than he ever expected. It’s not why he became a rabbi, he said, but it has become part of the job.

Thirteen years in, Moskovitz has no plans to leave.

“I never want to,” he said.

Neither, apparently, does the congregation ever want him to go. They gave him a life appointment, or to age 67: “Whichever comes first,” he said.

Aside from missing his extended family and Trader Joe’s, Moskovitz has no regrets about the move to a new city and country – the citizenship test for which, he noted, he aced, with 20 right answers out of 20.

“My parents are older now. It’s hard for them to travel,” he said. “My father-in-law is older also, so that’s hard. My kids grew up without that drop-by grandparenting, which is so special. So that’s been a trade-off.”

His family has likewise found a home at Temple Sholom, Moskovitz added. His wife, Sharon Mishler, is a true partner in the work, he said.

“When I’m in the front of the congregation leading the synagogue and services, she’s in the back of the congregation creating relationships and connecting people,” said the rabbi. “She takes brides to the mikvah. She meets with our seniors. She takes people out to lunch. She makes phone calls. She’s a great source of information for me when people tell her things that they think I should know about somebody being sick or whatever it is.”

Their son Judah, 20, studies political science and history at the University of Ottawa and works on Parliament Hill for Vancouver Granville Member of Parliament Taleeb Noormohamed. He was just selected as the co-chair of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee Fellowship.

Son Levi, 18, graduates from King David High School this spring and was accepted early to Western University’s Ivey Business School.

Daughter Estee, 14, also a student at King David, has an aptitude for science and, like her brothers, is very involved with BBYO (formerly B’nai B’rith Youth Organization), where she is vice-president of the chapter board.

“I never thought that I would be the rabbi of a synagogue that I’d want to join,” Moskovitz said. “I thought that I would always have to compromise my spirituality to serve the masses of my community.”

At Temple Sholom, he is truly at home.

“It is Judaism in the way that I like my Judaism,” he said. “It’s traditional but inclusive and egalitarian. Progressive in what I think are all the right ways in terms of trying to adapt and respond to modernity, but not watered down Judaism in the process. And it’s a loving, caring congregation.”

Keeper of VTT’s history

David Bogoch, second from the left in the second row, is one of three generations of his family to attend Vancouver Talmud Torah. (photo from David Bogoch)

“David has been so dedicated to VTT,” Vancouver Talmud Torah head of school Emily Greenberg told the JI about why the school is honouring David Bogoch at their May 14 gala.

“From his dedication to our archives and to his preserving our traditions and our history, to being really forward-focused and really understanding what the school needs to be successful,” she said.

“He’s also been very dedicated to our alumni and, as an elementary school, having an engaged alumni is a bit more challenging than a high school, just inherently, but he’s really been an advocate,” she added, noting that Bogoch has been a mentor to her.

“I came here seven years ago, and he was one of my very first meetings that I had,” she recalled. “He and I meet semi-regularly and he’s somebody I can pick up the phone and call at any time and say I need your advice on this…. And what I know is that he has no other agenda than VTT must be a successful place, and we must make sure we’re doing well to serve the community and to serve Vancouver’s Jewish future.”

Bogoch also connected VTT with Stable Harvest Farm. Syd Belzberg has a named space at the school, so was already a big supporter, but, in recent years, he has focused his philanthropic efforts on the nonprofit community farm. VTT’s partnership with Stable Harvest has been central to the school’s plant-based learning program and most of the students are out there at least once or twice a year, said Greenberg.

“We now have curriculum across all grades where our kids are integrating and learning through plants … not just the growing cycle but environmental technology, environmentalism, how to care for the land, the agrotechnology that’s coming out of Israel – drip irrigation, for example, it’s in our garden and it’s something that Syd uses…. The partnership with the farm and then our Jewish Community Garden … has been just an amazing marriage.”

Plant-based learning is one of the school’s hallmark programs, what differentiates VTT from other schools, said Greenberg. Funds raised from the gala will go towards it, as well as the school’s hallmark athletics, arts and other programs.

“Then, of course, there’s always tuition assistance – that’s a piece that we want to continue to support so that all families who want a Jewish education are able to attain it,” she said.

“This coming year, we’re introducing a universal lunch program, so all of our kids are going to be on a meal plan,” Greenberg said, which means the kitchen will need outfitting and the dining hall updating so that the school can “feed about 600 people a day a kosher, healthy lunch that will be tied into some of our plant-based learning…. That’s definitely a high undertaking of the school that we’re hoping to fund.”

For his part, Bogoch said, “I would love to see record amounts of money being raised – and I’d like to see record amounts of attendance and satisfaction.”

Bogoch’s father, Dr. Abraham (Al) Bogoch, was “Mr. Talmud Torah,” spearheading multiple building campaigns on behalf of the school, among many other things. And David Bogoch has followed in those footsteps. He’s been the keeper of VTT’s archive for more than 20 years and is responsible for the alumni portfolio.

“Why? Because it’s a good puzzle,” he told the Independent. “Trying to find every person that went to TT since 1918, trying to identify them, whether they’re living or dead, what’s their current email address and phone number, their mailing address.”

He noted that, every decade or two, the names one sees on various boards and in other community activities and volunteer positions change. For example, when more Israelis started coming, there were more Israeli names. “Same thing happened in the ’50s, when all the Hungarian kids showed up, so they had different names. When Soviet Jewry ended up leaving Russia and coming over…. When Yugoslavia broke up, there was an influx in kids at Talmud Torah with unusual last names.”

photo - David Bogoch, curator of Vancouver Talmud Torah’s archive, will be honoured at the school’s May 14 gala — David Bogoch, curator of Vancouver Talmud Torah’s archive, will be honoured at the school’s May 14 gala. *(photo by Jennifer Shecter)*

It is from exploring the school’s archives that Bogoch sees such trends.

“Every time somebody adds something to the archives, whether it’s photos or documents, it’s always adding to the inventory, so now we’re well over 50,000 documents, photos, in the archives,” he said. “And it’s growing like crazy because we haven’t included [yet] a lot of the digital stuff that Jenn [Shecter] or the other people at the school are taking. And, each year, there are new alumni.”

The archives has benefited from past presidents keeping material from their time on the school’s board, said Bogoch. He also has gone through every Jewish Western Bulletin/Jewish Independent from 1925 to about 2010, copying every mention of Vancouver Talmud Torah.

“We got so much of the information about the history of the school through the Jewish Independent, through the Jewish Western Bulletin,” he said, listing off some of the many types of fundraisers the school has had over the years. “The most weird one,” he said, “was a Gentleman’s Smoke, where they got together, they drank some whiskey and they smoked, either cigarettes, cigars or pipes.”

Seeing how the community has evolved and how the city has changed are two of Bogoch’s favourite aspects of working with the archives, “finding out the early stories of Strathcona,” and stories from when most of the Jewish community moved “to False Creek, and then to Oakridge, and spreading all over the Lower Mainland.”

In preparation for the gala, he’s been going through material with his son, Adam, who knows the school’s history as well as his dad and grandfather, having not only attended VTT but also having written and directed the one-hour documentary Vancouver Talmud Torah Onward: The 100-Year History, which was released in 2017, as part of the school’s centenary celebrations.

While the most visible Bogoch link to VTT is via the paternal side, from father to son to grandson, David Bogoch’s mom, Margaret, was also involved – in the PTA and in fundraising – as well as with other Jewish organizations, such as Hadassah.

The gala event honouring Bogoch is aptly called The Roots We Share.

“There are families that have four generations who have gone to TT. That’s pretty amazing,” he said.

“Right now, the school is so strong, I could not see it failing. You never know what happens in the future, but I can almost guarantee that, if you have people in the background who are willing to step up and make sure it doesn’t fail, it’ll stay. That’s the way I look at my role – behind the scenes. I don’t like to be up front, that’s why this is so unusual, to be up front,” he said about being honoured.

He hopes that people will be inspired by what fellow community members have done to keep Jewish communal life going. He wants people to feel as excited about the school as he is.

At the May 14 event, guests will enter through a passageway of photos from throughout VTT’s history. Adam Bogoch also will create a video tribute to his dad, as well as a video for the night’s formal fundraising ask. He has been tasked with creating other event exhibits that highlight his dad’s archival work.

“Time capsules, in a sense,” said the younger Bogoch. “Guests will be transported into different decades of the school’s history, seeing themselves as children, their parents/grandparents and their old teachers/colleagues, visually experiencing where the school has been, where it is today, and hopefully how it will continue.

“The event is called The Roots We Share and, whether those are old roots or ones just taking shape, what will hopefully be realized is a continuum of values, experiences and purpose.”

“When we understand that we’re part of that history,” said Greenberg, “we understand the purpose of what we’re doing – and no one understands that more than David – that we are linked to our history, we’re linked arm and arm with it, and that’s what will help propel us into the future. We have to have that proper respect and honour for the past, and also the shoulders we stand on, and he really understands that…. He’s such a bridge in so many ways for the school.

“He’s a bridge between the past and the future, he was a bridge to Stable Harvest Farm, he’s been a personal bridge for me to this community and I’m just so grateful for his ongoing engagement in the school,” she said. “He obviously gets great joy from it and I always tell him, he’s not allowed to go anywhere.”

For tickets to the gala, go to talmudtorah.com.