קנדה הפכה לא מכבר ליעד תיירות פופולרי. בנוסף, ישראלים רבים מבקשים לנסוע לקנדה עבור לימודים או כדי למצוא עבודה. אשרות כניסה לקנדה משתנות לפי המטרה שלשמה מעוניינים להיכנס למדינה. עבור כל מטרה המבקשים ידרשו להליך שונה כדי שרשויות ההגירה המקומיות יאפשרו למעוניינים להיכנס למדינה ולשהות בה את הזמן שהם רוצים בו
כמו מדינות רבות בעולם, גם קנדה עברה שינוי במדיניות הכניסה וההגירה אליה. המהגרים הרבים שביקשו להיכנס למדינה גרמו לרשויות ההגירה להחמיר את תנאי הסף הכניסה למדינה כדי למנוע את ההצפה של במהגרים. אם זה נשמע קצת מפחיד, אפשר להיות רגוע. זאת כיוון שבתור ישראלים המצב טוב יחסית לעומת מהגרים ממקומות אחרים בעולם
ממשלת קנדה לא דורשת מאזרחים ישראלים המעוניינים לבקר במדינה לתקופה של עד חצי שנה עבור טיול למשל, להוציא ויזה. כל אזרח ישראלי יכול להגיש בקשה באינטרנט ולקבל תוך כמה ימים אישור שמאפשר לו להיכנס לקנדה ולשהות שם עד חצי שנה. מעבר לזמן הוא יידרש להנפיק ויזה באמצעות קצין הגירה המקומי. הנה מספר דברים שחשוב
לדעת על הויזה הזו וכיצד ניתן לזרז את תהליך הקבלה שלה. כאמור, אזרחים ישראלים לא נדרשים להוציא ויזה כדי להיכנס לקנדה. האישור האמור לעיל מאפשר לשהות בקנדה חצי שנה ולא אמורה להיות בעיה להנפיק אותו. במקרים הבאים ידרשו הבאים להנפיק ויזה מוגדרת ואישור שהייה בלבד לא מספיק: ויזת תייר היא ויזה ניתנת למי שמבקש
ויזת תייר להגיע למדינה לצורך טיול. בדרך כלל אורכה של הויזה יהיה עד שישה חודשים. מי שמבקש ויזת תייר יצטרך גם להוכיח שזו אכן מטרתו האמיתית. וזאת, כדי למנוע מקרים שבהם מהגרים יגיעו למדינה בכיסוי של תיירים. לויזה הזו יזדקקו המעוניינים להישאר בקנדה לתקופה שעולה על חצי שנה. יש לזכור שבעת הגשת הבקשה יתבקשו המעויינים לשכנע את קצין ההגירה שהמטרה שאותה הם מציגים היא המטרה שלשמה הם מעוניינים להאריך את שהותם בקנדה. כידוע חשוב מאוד לא לנסות להסתיר פרטים מקצין ההגירה כדי לא לגרום לדחיית הבקשה לקבלת הויזה. ויזת עבודה מיועדת לאזרח ישראלי שמעוניין להיכנס לקנדה כדי לעבוד בה נדרש להנפיק לעצמו ויזת עבודה. את הויזה ניתן להנפיק בשגרירות קנדה בישראל, ובמקרים רבים הויזה תהיה ספציפית, והיא תהיה מוגבלת למקום עבודה מסוים, סוג עבודה והתקופה שבה המעוניינים רשאים לעבוד במדינה. עבור כל שינוי הם יאלצו לגשת לרשויות ההגירה המקומיות להאריך את משך האשרה
למותר לציין שאין לנסות להפר את הכללים, וחובה על המבקשים לעשות שימוש בויזה בדיוק לפי המטרות שמוגדרות בה. הפרה של אחד מהכללים עלולה לגרום לביטול האשרה ולאלץ את המבקשים לצאת מקנדה עוד לפני המועד המתוכנן
כדי לקבל ויזת לימודים שמאפשרת למבקש ללמוד במוסד להשכלה גבוהה בקנדה, יש להציג מכתב שבו המוסד מקבל אותו ללימודים. כמובן שהמוסד צריך להיות מוכר על ידי ממשלת קנדה. מלבד אישור הקבלה מהמוסד, יצטרך המבקש להוכיח שהוא מסוגלים לקיים את עצמו ואת המשפחה שלו מבחינה כלכלית. יש לזכור שעל המבקשים לעזוב את קנדה מיד עם סיום הלימודים שלהם
ויזה דיפלומטית היא ויזה מונפקת עבור דיפלומטים של המדינה הזרה והיא מאפשרת להם לשהות במדינת היעד שלהם במשך כל זמן השליחות הדיפלומטית שלהם. אם ישראלי ישלח לשליחות דיפלומטית בקנדה, סביר להניח שמדינת ישראל כבר תדאג לו כך שאפשר להיות רגועים בנושא זה
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day will be marked with a community-wide event hosted by Jewish Family Services, in partnership with many other agencies. (photo from nvrc.ca)
According to a World Health Organization study, half the world’s population bears a prejudice against the elderly. Jewish Family Services in Vancouver, which shares that statistic on its website, notes that roughly 17% of people over the age of 60 worldwide are victims of elder abuse. The agency also notes that about 20% of Canadians believe older people are a burden on society, and that approximately 80% of Canadian seniors report discrimination in health care.
On June 15, at 10 a.m., JFS will host a free community-wide event in recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Wosk Auditorium. Rights Don’t Get Old: Let’s Unite Against Elder Abuse will cover what can be done to prevent – what many recent studies have shown to be – a growing problem. Featured speakers include Michael Lee, MLA for Vancouver-Langara and shadow minister for Indigenous relations and reconciliation; Isobel McKenzie, British Columbia’s seniors advocate; and Linda Youk of Seniors First BC.
“A very important element of elder abuse is that it can happen to anyone,” said Cindy McMillan, director of programs and community partnerships at JFS. “We shouldn’t make assumptions about who is at risk and who is not. Awareness that it exists, and that there are supports out there … is what June 15 is all about.”
For JFS, “a nonprofit that supports up to 1,200 seniors annually to live at home safely and with dignity, elder abuse prevention, detection and response is an essential part of support,” she said. “This year, following several years of COVID, and subsequent isolation of many older adults, I felt it was very timely to bring the community together to create more awareness around this issue.”
Elder abuse comprises varying forms of mistreatment, the most commonly reported being neglect, followed by emotional and financial abuse. Physical abuse is also prevalent, with 8.8% of abused seniors experiencing physical violence, according to data provided by JFS. Elder abuse can occur in numerous settings, including within the home, at care facilities and in the community. Most reported cases involve family members, with adult children and spouses being the most common perpetrators.
A Statistics Canada report released in 2019 stated that nearly one in five seniors had experienced some form of abuse. A report from the Office of the Seniors Advocate in British Columbia, using data from 2017 to 2021, found a 49% increase in neglect and self-neglect, an 87% increase in reported physical abuse and a 49% increase in financial abuse over that five-year period.
Neglect is often underreported, both because of a lack of awareness as to what constitutes neglect and the potential stigma associated with the admission of neglect, explained McMillan. Neglect can manifest in different ways, such as providing insufficient food and water, failing to administer medication, leaving an older adult in dirty and unsafe living conditions, and not seeking medical attention for the elderly person when it is needed.
Financial abuse, or the exploitation of older adults for monetary gain, can have serious ramifications. Despite numerous laws in place to prevent it, B.C. seniors lose an estimated $50 million annually because of financial abuse, with only one in five cases reported.
WEAAD was launched in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations.
“JFS has always been involved in WEAAD, primarily through our Better at Home program, where we have partnered with different community organizations to have smaller events that promote awareness,” said McMillan. “Our involvement stems from our connection with the Marpole Community Response Network, who is at the forefront of providing information and education on elder abuse.”
Better at Home is a JFS-coordinated program, administered by the United Way, which helps seniors in Kerrisdale, Oakridge, Marpole, Southlands and Dunbar with non-medical, day-to-day tasks such as housekeeping, transportation, grocery shopping, visits and handyperson repairs. The program’s objective is to assist seniors so that they can continue to live independently in their own homes and remain connected to their communities.
This year’s June 15 event will have numerous resource tables located in the atrium of the JCC. Among the groups presenting are the Alzheimer Society of British Columbia, JQT Vancouver, Kerrisdale Oakridge Marpole Community Policing Centre, L’Chaim Adult Day Centre, ASK Friendship Society and ReAct Adult Protection Program of Vancouver Coastal Health.
In a statement to the Independent, JFS said it “was very grateful to have partners like the Jewish Federation, the JCC, the Better at Home Program and Seniors First BC coming together to put on such an important event.”
To register for Rights Don’t Get Old: Let’s Unite Against Elder Abuse, visit jfsvancouver.ca. Refreshments will be provided.
Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Tikva Housing Society executive director Anat Gogo speaks at the May 24 opening of the Al and Lola Roadburg Residences. (photo filmoit.com courtesy Tikva Housing)
When the Kerrisdale building she has been living in for 24 years went up for sale last year, worried she would be cast out, like so many Vancouverites who have been “renovicted.”
She and other residents of the characteristic midcentury building on West 41st Avenue, many of whom had done no more than nod to one another in the hallways, anxiously discussed their fate, knowing that it was largely out of their hands. The tenants had experienced minimal rent increases over decades, as the elderly family owners provided minimal renovations, and the tenants enjoyed exceptionally low rents for the location.
Anxiety turned to jubilation when they learned that the building had been purchased by a nonprofit – Tikva Housing Society, the Jewish community’s agency for affordable housing.
Speaking May 24 at the official opening of the Al and Lola Roadburg Residences – Tikva’s new name for the building until then known as the Bonnie El – Bernstein said her worries for the future had begun to wear on her well-being.
“I decided to surrender, as the ruminating was truly disturbing my life,” she told the crowd. “All that was left was prayer. I asked many friends and family to pray for the best possible outcome. Lo and behold, we were given the incredible news that Bonnie El had been bought by a nonprofit organization, Tikva Housing Society. The only conclusion I can come up with is that God answers prayers.”
Throughout her life, from her early years in South Africa to her migration to Vancouver and a new beginning at Bonnie El as a single mother, Bernstein said, “I have experienced such incredible compassion, generosity and empathy from throughout the Jewish community no matter where in the world I have been. I am honoured to be part of that community and to witness firsthand what so many do day after day to help make the city a better place.”
All existing residents of the building will be grandfathered, but Tikva officials were surprised and pleased to discover that, by pure coincidence, about a quarter of the existing residents are Jewish.
And that’s not the only Jewish connection. In doing their due diligence on the building, they discovered that it was built in 1961 by the Golden and Averbach families. It didn’t take long to sleuth out more information. Local businessman and philanthropist Gary Averbach explained that Bonnie El was named after his sister, Bonnie, and her husband, Elliott Leyton.
The new Roadburg Residences, made possible by a grant from the Al Roadburg Foundation, includes four studio apartments, 13 one-bedrooms, two two-bedrooms and one three-bedroom suite. The acquisition and renovation of the building brings to 148 the number of units owned and operated by Tikva, with a further 20 opening in Burnaby this summer. Tikva also provides rent subsidies to people living in market housing or facing housing challenges, according to Anat Gogo, Tikva’s executive director. In all, 300 people, including 120 children, benefit from Tikva’s housing solutions. There remain 302 applicants on the community’s Jewish Housing Registry.
“In our mission to provide access to affordable housing solutions, we dream big,” Gogo told the audience in the spacious covered alcove outside the building’s front door. “Our staff and board are committed to tackling housing insecurity, but we can’t do it alone.”
Gogo credited support from across the community, citing, in addition to the Al Roadburg Foundation, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Jewish Family Services and others for bringing the project to fruition.
“Rather than demolishing and building new, Tikva is preserving this 20-unit building that still has many years remaining,” she said, to applause and whoops of approval from assembled residents.
Robert Matas, director of the Al Roadburg Foundation, spoke of his longtime association with the late philanthropist and the Roadburg family’s commitment to causes in Vancouver and Israel. He acknowledged family members in the audience, including Al and Lola Roadburg’s daughter, Lorraine, and Matas’s wife, Alicia, who is a niece of Al and Lola Roadburg.
Rhonda Sacks, board chair of Tikva, thanked the staff of the organization and celebrated the exponential growth of the society and its housing units – up more than five-fold from 28 units in the last several years.
Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, spoke of his family’s experience with renovictions in the city, having twice been forced from homes before purchasing their own.
Tikva board members cut the ceremonial ribbon and Rabbi Carey Brown, associate rabbi at Temple Sholom, said the blessing and affixed the mezuzah to the front doorpost of the building.
Left to right: Jeff Ross and Stephen Kaye, King David High School co-presidents in 2006, and Diane Friedman and Alain Guez, this year’s co-presidents. (photo from KDHS)
“At King David, Jewish memory and education intersect, creating a unique and powerful learning experience that prepares our students for a lifetime of meaning and purpose,” said King David High School board co-president Alain Guez in his closing remarks at the school’s Golden Thread Gala May 18.
The gala is KDHS’s primary fundraising event of the year, and more than 300 people filled the ballroom at Congregation Beth Israel, including some 50 King David alumni, to celebrate the school’s 18 years in its current building, at Willow Street and 41st Avenue. The school itself is double chai (36) years old, its origins being found in Maimonides Secondary School, which opened in September 1987.
“We would not be here today if Maimonides … had not started us on our path, our derech, to where we are now,” said head of school Russ Klein in his opening remarks.
“This evening is to celebrate what our community has built together,” he said. “The Diamond Foundation, who support so many of our community efforts, made King David possible with their generous support, belief in our importance, and their strong Jewish values.”
Rabbi Stephen Berger, head of Judaic studies at KDHS, noted that the event was taking place on erev Yom Yerushalayim. He compared Yerushalayim – “a holy place for all people, all people can worship G-d in this one place” – to KDHS, in that there are many different Jewish schools in Metro Vancouver but only one high school, and this one high school has to serve everybody across the religious and cultural spectrum. “We don’t always get it right, but it is a place where we can try, and respect and show love to everybody,” he said.
Event co-chairs Heidi Seidman and Sherri Wise said a few words about the school, as well. “It is important to note,” said Seidman, “that not one student is left behind and, when you look around the room tonight, you are all part of the village that makes that possible.”
As auctioneer, Fred Lee – who is a regular contributor to CBC, the Province, Boulevard and Vancouver Magazine – stressed this idea. He spoke about the Jewish community and the importance of the high school. He also helped raise funds that will go towards the school’s programs and students. There was a silent auction, a 50/50 draw and other opportunities to donate.
Throughout the Golden Thread Gala, there were musical performances. (photo from KDHS)
The gala featured panelists Stephen Kaye, and Jeff Ross and Reisa Schwartzman, who were integral to the transition of the school from Maimonides to King David, and for taking the school from the portables it occupied on Baillie Street to having its own building on Willow. They were introduced in a video by their respective children, David Kaye and Zachary Ross, graduates of the inaugural KDHS Class of 2006.
Stephen Kaye came to Canada from South Africa, where there is a network of Jewish day schools called King David Schools. He described himself as “very passionate about Jewish education” and said, “The feedback we got from the community was that, if we could show enough commitment from parents to send their kids to a Jewish high school, there would be support from the community.” It was a hard sell, he said, but then the Diamonds bought the land at Willow and 41st.
Stephen and Sandy Kaye shlepped three kids from North Vancouver to King David in Vancouver, noted Klein, who emceed the panel discussion.
Ross spoke of studies showing that kids who have gone to a Jewish high school are more Jewishly knowledgeable and involved. And yet, he said that, in the beginning, there was almost a feeling that you were sacrificing your children to the experiment of a new high school, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. Ross gave Rabbi Mordechai Feuerstein, a co-founder of Maimonides, kudos for his efforts to keep the school going.
When the school was in “the shack” (portables) on Baillie Street, said Schwartzman, there were fewer than 60 kids and now there are more than 270. Back when she was helping bring KDHS into existence, she said she was confident this growth would happen, based on a survey that was conducted at Vancouver Talmud Torah, which would be the main feeder school into the high school. She was president of VTT at the time, and the survey of parents showed that about 50% of the kids from VTT would go to a Jewish high school if there were one.
Quality education was important to everyone, said Schwartzman, and one of the things the group behind KDHS did to ensure quality was to bring Perry Seidelman in as principal. Seidelman, who had some 30 years’ experience in teaching and administration at the time, had been contemplating retirement, but took on the principalship and held the position until 2008; he was succeeded by Klein.
In a video that featured Gordon and Leslie Diamond and their daughter Jill Diamond, as well as Class of 2023 students talking about how the school has positively impacted them, the Diamonds spoke of how proud they were of KDHS, its students, staff, and all the people who have given it its “personality” and contributed to its success. Calling the school “a labour of love for the Diamond Foundation,” Jill Diamond said, “And the most wonderful thing about King David is that it is teaching the Jewish values of tikkun olam, of chesed, of mitzvot and of tzedakah to the next generation of leaders of our community.”
Such has been the growth of the school that it added a modular unit last year, the building of which was funded by the Diamond Foundation. In her remarks with Guez, KDHS board co-president Diane Friedman spoke about how the addition is affectionately called the school’s “East Campus,” and thanked the foundation, as well as the donors who filled the modular with state-of-the art equipment, furniture and technology.
The evening came to a close with Klein and Seidelman. The former principal said he had worked at many schools before King David, and that he liked all of them – but he “loved King David.” He said he felt very proud as he looked around the room.
The gala also featured, under the direction of music teacher Johnny Seguin, the KDHS jazz band, who played at the cocktail reception – Luca Jeffery, Max Kimel, Jesse Millman and Nikki Wiseman – and performances throughout the night by singers Ella Ankenman, Kailey Bressler, Rachel Gerber, Mhairi Hemingson and Nikki Wiseman, with choreography credit given to Shai Rubin.
Gala committee members were Cyndi Ankenman, Dalia Bressler, Laura Feldman, Andrea Foxman, Nicole Ginsberg, Margaret Hemingson, Anna Herman, Ruth Jankelowitz, Joelly Simkin and Annie Simpson. Other volunteers were Lina Chernov, Kim Fisher, Jessica Forman, Simon Karsyente, Matilda Rosman Levsky, Melina Baum Singer, Gaenor Vaida, Jacqueline Wener and King David students Danielle Agulyansky, Eden Almog, Ali Fadida, Tamir Gini and Yuli Kabazo.
Rabbi Chalom Loeub and student Sagiv Fadida put on tefillin at the weekly Chabad booth at the UBC campus. (photo from Chabad at UBC)
This year marks a milestone, as the Chabad Jewish Student Centre at the University of British Columbia (UBC) celebrates its 10th anniversary. As part of the global Chabad on Campus movement, UBC Chabad has remained steadfast in its commitment to providing a warm and welcoming home for every Jewish student, regardless of their educational or religious background. UBC Chabad offers opportunities to build meaningful relationships with other Jewish students, deepen their connection and sense of belonging to their Jewish heritage, and strengthen their Jewish pride.
Rooted in the mystical traditions of the Hasidic revival of the late 18th century, Chabad-Lubavitch continues to try and make Judaism accessible and personally relevant to Jews worldwide. The teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, also known as the Rebbe, emphasize the importance of caring for the spiritual and material needs of all Jews, from Vancouver to Berlin to India and beyond. Inspired by his philosophy, Chabad emissaries, or shluchim, have established thousands of Chabad Houses, providing all Jews a home away from home.
Chabad on Campus students from Western Washington University, University of Washington and University of British Columbia at an annual U.S.-Canada get-together. (photo from Chabad at UBC)
Over the past decade, Rabbi Chalom and Esti Loeub, the shluchim at UBC Chabad, along with their five children, have supported Jewish students’ physical and spiritual needs. They have hosted many fun and meaningful events, including weekly Shabbat dinners, Lunch & Learns, interactive tabling, and Grill the Rabbi barbeques. They have led holiday programs with lavish kosher meals, hosted a monthly Jewish Women’s Circle, and led educational initiatives such as the study of the Tanya (Chabad’s foundational book), Sinai Scholars (an eight-week series on the introduction to Judaism) and a course on the Six Day War (in partnership with the Jewish Learning Institute).
One of the many weekly Lunch & Learn sessions that take place at the UBC campus. (photo from Chabad at UBC)
However, the true measure of their impact lies in their ability to help Jewish students connect with their Jewish identity by performing mitzvot (good deeds). By encouraging students to give tzedakah (charity), wrap tefillin(phylacteries, or black leather boxes containing parchment from the Torah), light Shabbat candles, affix mezuzot (small pieces of parchment with a verse from the Torah rolled in a container) on their doorposts, and keep kosher, UBC Chabad has made a difference in the lives of countless Jewish students on campus.
“When I first came to university, I felt a distance between myself and the Jewish community,” said Gabby Tselos, president of UBC Chabad on Campus. “I always had my family and synagogue at home, but I felt like I was missing a piece of me when I came to UBC. Thankfully, in my second year, I became involved in Chabad and that has changed my whole college experience. Not only do I feel I have a Jewish family at UBC, but one that will remain with me as I continue to explore the world and my future.”
A recent BBQ hosted by Chabad at UBC. (photo from Chabad at UBC)
Baruch Eckermann, outreach chair of UBC Chabad on Campus, also spoke about the positive impact Chabad has had on him.
“Chabad at UBC has helped awaken the Jew that was dormant inside my heart,” he said. “Without the love and care I received from Rabbi Chalom and Esti Loeub, I would not have become the Jewish man I am today. They work so dedicatedly for the students on campus, going far and beyond, not only in relation to religious needs, but in personal matters. They care about every Jew so much, it is beautiful to watch. All I can say to them is thank you. And please keep on doing your amazing work. We need you!”
To me, Rabbi Chalom and Rebbetzin Esti are like family. Whether on campus or at their Chabad house, they always put Jewish students’ needs first. What I love is that they genuinely see the inherent goodness in every Jewish student and believe that, by encouraging students to do more good deeds, the students will bring more blessings into the world.
For more information or to connect with the Chabad Jewish Student Centre at UBC, follow them on Instagram (@chabadubc) or visit their website, chabadubc.com.
Eitan Feigeris a student at the University of British Columbia, Class of 2024. He is vice-president and treasurer of UBC Chabad on Campus.
Left to right: Gyda Chud, Carol Ann Fried and Tammi Belfer at Jewish Seniors Alliance’s Spring Forum May 28. (photo from JSA)
The first in-person Jewish Seniors Alliance Spring Forum after a pandemic-imposed hiatus was held at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture on May 28. It got people out of their seats, moving about, meeting others – and laughing.
Laughing Matters was presented by Carol Ann Fried, an energetic and inspirational speaker and consultant. She was introduced by Fran Goldberg. Tammi Belfer, president of JSA, welcomed the 40-plus people in the audience. Belfer spoke about JSA’s partnerships with other organizations, but especially with every person in the room and all its members.
Most of us who attended Laughing Matters did not expect to have to change tables, to speak to strangers, to scream at others, and then tell them they are awesome. But this is exactly what happened! The session was a whirlwind of movement, playfulness and laughter. Meeting new people is cause for celebration – to do so in the form of a game involves even more fun.
So, we played games. In one, we each took the lead and, while introducing ourselves, made announcements at our respective tables. How else would we learn that Gyda Chud’s mother would turn 100 next Saturday? Or that Naava Soudack’s daughter would be acting in Henry V at Bard on the Beach this summer?
We also imagined holding a cellphone with a photo of an important event in our lives and described it to the group. We learned about mother-of-the-bride/groom wedding dresses, about grandchildren and about trekking trips. All these exchanges were accompanied by laughter and delight.
We then switched tables and initiated a conversation with a total stranger, with the objective of finding commonalities. Some of us discovered that their tablemates grew up in the same city, same neighbourhood and went to the same school, but they had never met – how wonderful to finally do so!
At my new table, we were asked to complain. About what? My partner, whom I had only just met, complained about American politics, but then found a silver lining about the States. In turn, I complained about Israeli politics, but then described the beautiful country I grew up in. Yes, there are always two sides to each coin. We ended our encounter with a high five, exclaiming: “You are awesome!” It was a nice way to make a new acquaintance.
Throughout the entire session, Fried delighted us with her good humour and charm, her creativity of mind and spirit. Gyda Chud, past president of JSA, thanked Fried for introducing us to new people, new friends and new activities.
Tamara Frankelis a member of the board of Jewish Seniors Alliance.
A brochure about antique coins from Zak’s Antiquities.
Israel’s central role in the global antiquities business was the subject of a Zoom lecture on May 2 sponsored by the W.F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research in Jerusalem and the Palestine Exploration Fund, headquartered in London.
Entitled The Antiquities Trade in Israel and Palestine: Same as it Ever Was?, the joint presentation featured Michael Press, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway, specializing in the archeology of ancient Israel, and Morag Kersel, an associate professor of anthropology at DePaul University in Chicago, Ill., who studies the relationship between cultural heritage law, archeological sites and objects, and local interaction.
Press offered a scholarly overview of how the trade in antiquities burgeoned in the 19th century as tourism and Holy Land pilgrimage reached a mass scale, while Kersel spoke about how the quasi-licit trade functions today.
The Ottoman Empire enacted its first antiquities law in 1869, prohibiting the export of the empire’s heritage, Press noted. Yet, the first English-language Baedeker guide to Palestine and Syria, published seven years later, detailed the sum of baksheesh – a paltry few francs – needed to grease the palm of a customs officer to smuggle out a centuries-old souvenir.
The discovery in 1868 in Dhiban, Jordan, of a monumental Iron Age inscription mentioning King Mesha of Moab triggered an explosion of forgeries, continued Press. Notably, in 1873, Jerusalem antiquities dealer Moses Wilhelm Shapira (1830-1884) hoodwinked Germany into purchasing a trove of 1,800 fakes, he said.
Most pilgrims were interested in acquiring objets de piété, or items related to religion. A popular article was the widow’s mite, the least valuable coin circulating in Roman Judea, which Jesus mentioned in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4. The market in ancient coins included a brisk trade in forged gold and silver coins. Some pilgrims carried with them valuable numismatic items (rare coins, tokens, etc.) from Europe, which they sold in Palestine to fund their journey.
The evolving trade included Samaritan, Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, gems and seals, and ancient lachrymatories – perfume vials that widows would ostensibly fill with their tears and place in tombs as symbols of mourning for the deceased.
Press showed advertising from an American newspaper for the Phoenician (ie. Roman) glassware of Azeez Khayat (1875-1943). Born in Tyre, Lebanon, then part of Ottoman Syria, Khayat arrived at Ellis Island in 1893 and became a United States citizen five years later. Using the small collection of ancient glass he had brought with him, he became a dealer on Rector Street in Manhattan’s Little Syria. On repeated trips to his Middle East homeland, he was able to bring back thousands of artifacts – often excavated by his own workmen – and sell them in a gallery he opened first on West 11th Street and, later, at 366 5th Ave., opposite the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Many notable U.S. museums acquired important objects through him.
The market for Holy Land antiquities – both counterfeit and real – also included pottery vessels and oil lamps, said Press.
Bringing the story to the present, Kersel said the restrictions imposed by Israel’s Antiquities Law of 1978 forbid the sale of any human-made item from before 1700 CE. However, the act grandfathered the sale of items already in the inventory of the country’s 50 or so licensed antiquities dealers, she said. Since those catalogues are often nondescript and include unclear photographs, and since the lists are rarely updated when an item is sold, there is considerable opportunity to introduce newly and illegally acquired items, Kersel explained.
Underfunded and overstretched, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s anti-theft unit does its best to monitor dealers’ illegal activities, she said. Most shops are located along the Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem and resemble Aladdin’s cave of treasures. Those in luxury hotels are decked out with elaborate displays resembling those in prestigious museums. All provide a certificate of authenticity cum export permit with each sale, she noted.
Typical is Zak’s Antiquities, run by Zak Mishriky, located in the Old City’s Christian Quarter Road, which advertises: “Invest in biblical antiquities. Ageless, timeless & priceless.” Fine print about the source of the merchandise notes: “The majority of our ancient artifacts come to us through private collections and auctions here in Israel.”
As an archeologist, Kersel has devoted two decades to tracking how the illicit trade in unprovenanced objects extends from the ground to the consumer. In a network that extends from the United Arab Emirates through Jordan, the West Bank and Israel to the United Kingdom and the United States, shady operators, she noted, are pillaging the Middle East’s cultural artifacts. Their criminal enterprise results in the destruction of archeological sites, the desecration of ancient graves and theft from museums. Moreover, it compromises the understanding of the past, she said. Some tie the business to funding terrorism.
Kersel categorized those buying these items into four groups. The first she called explorers, some of whom volunteer on archeological excavations, who generally purchase low-cost items from a cabinet of curiosities in the Old City and do so in search of an authentic exotic cultural experience. While not condoning their behaviour, she excoriated the second group – the elite. She was particularly critical of billionaire Steve Green of Oklahoma. The evangelical Christian, whose family owns the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, used his fortune to establish the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., which opened in 2017.
“There were a lot of red flags,” she said of the museum’s acquisitions. All 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments Green purchased proved to be forgeries, she noted, explaining how the antiquities enthusiast’s agents mislabeled the thousands of artifacts he purchased. Shipping them in small batches to various American addresses, they hoped to stay below the radar. The scam was finally stopped thanks to a tip-off from a FedEx agent, she said. Some 3,450 items were seized by U.S. authorities.
Kersel was similarly harsh in discussing disgraced Wall Street financier Michael Steinhardt, who, during a period of high inflation in the 1970s, conceived that antiquities were a commodity likely to appreciate quickly. Like Green, Steinhardt sought to gain validation for his purchases – including a group of Neolithic masks perhaps looted from caves by the Dead Sea – by donating them to museums. Steinhardt was a major benefactor of the Israel Museum.
Kersel identified the third group as religious tourists. Like their 19th-century forebearers, they, too, are interested in small-scale items like the widow’s mite, or lachrymatories.
The fourth group Kersel identified comprises members of a charter, such as alumni of a university or members of a sports or social club on an organized tour, who are driven by a group psychology. If one person buys an artifact, that leads their peers to do so, too, she said. And those items must be “cheap, portable and dustable.”
Citing Nelson H.H. Graburn, a professor emeritus in sociocultural anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, Kersel said such charter tourists will knowingly purchase a replica in order not to lose face with their fellow travelers.
“Afghanistan’s Law on the Protection of Historical and Cultural Properties (2004) strictly regulates the excavation and sale of antiquities: allowing private ownership of only registered antiquities, and prohibiting export except by the state,” said Press. The result has been to drive the business underground – would the result be any different were Israel to declare the antiquities trade illegal, revoke dealers’ licenses and nationalize their inventories?
Kersel cautioned such a radical solution would not end the trade. In an email, she wrote: “I don’t think that the demand for biblical antiquities will ever end, everyone wants something from the Holy Land, but I do think we can create better collectors, who only buy from licensed dealers and who ask about provenance, the origin stories, of the piece.”
A band of clouds above the equator, created by the rise of air within the Hadley cell and responsible for heavy rainfall in this region. (photo from Weizmann Institute)
Why do parts of earth become rainforests, whereas others turn into deserts? A new study exposes the far-reaching impact of human activity on a global airflow phenomenon that crucially affects earth’s regional climates.
In the tropics, above the equatorial rainforests and oceans, the strong solar radiation hitting earth propels a stream of warm, moist air far upward. Once reaching the upper atmosphere, this stream moves in both hemispheres toward the poles; it then descends in the subtropical regions at around 20 to 30 degrees latitude, contributing to the creation of massive deserts like the Sahara in northern Africa. From there, the stream – known as the Hadley cell – returns to the equator, where it heats up and rises again, embarking on its circular journey anew.
The two Hadley cells – the northern and the southern – circulate most of the heat and humidity across low latitudes, greatly affecting the global distribution of climate regions. When the warm, moist air rises, it cools down, allowing water vapour to condense, which leads to heavy rainfall deep in the tropics. In contrast, the streams of air that descend toward the earth in subtropical regions are accompanied by warm, dry winds that reduce rainfall. In essence, the Hadley cells determine which regions in the tropics and the subtropics will have arid deserts and which will be blessed with abundant rainfall. Israel is located on the margins of the northern Hadley cell, which contributes to the country’s semiarid climate.
Because of their huge significance, the Hadley cells are of great interest to climate scientists. However, while there is plenty of global data about rainfall and temperature, measuring airflow throughout the atmosphere is next to impossible. Adding to the quandary, the various models seeking to make sense of the Hadley cells have been found to contradict one another. Global climate models, which are used for climate projections, indicate that the northern Hadley cell has weakened over the past few decades, whereas observation-based analyses suggest the exact opposite.
An uncertainty over a system that is so essential to earth’s climate detracts from the researchers’ ability to assess how much humans have contributed to recent climate change. This, in turn, undermines the credibility of climate projections, making it ever harder to formulate policies required for dealing with the climate crisis. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the most important document in the field, makes a special point of this issue.
In a paper published in Nature, Dr. Rei Chemke, of the earth and planetary sciences department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Dr. Janni Yuval, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, address the uncertainty that has plagued the existing models for the past two decades. They propose an observation-based method for measuring the intensity of airflow in the Hadley cells.
To tackle the challenge, Chemke and Yuval looked for readily available data they could use to formulate a new way of measuring the cells’ intensity. After examining physics equations describing airflow, they identified a relationship between the Hadley cell intensity and a constantly monitored parameter: air pressure at sea level. They then examined observational data collected over several decades and reached the conclusion that the intensity of the northern Hadley cell has indeed been weakening – just as suggested by global climate models. Moreover, they were able to show, with more than 99% certainty, that this weakening has been the result of human activity and will likely continue.
What, then, is to be expected? Over the coming decades, the weakening of the northern Hadley cell is likely to mitigate the projected precipitation changes at low latitudes. It will act to temper both the increase of rainfall in equatorial regions and the reduction of rainfall in the subtropical regions. This tempering, however, might only reduce, but not overcome, the projected aridification and desertification of Israel.
“In our follow-up study,” said Chemke, “we will examine whether a similar weakening in the Hadley cell has happened in the past thousand years owing to natural phenomena – and that will allow us to assess how unprecedented these human-induced changes are.”
With the help of Jewish Family Services, Belmont Properties and others, the Zubrys family – Alexander, holding Artem, Sophie and Katrina – are getting settled in Vancouver. (photo from JFS)
For Oleksandra Liashyk and her family, who fled the Ukraine-Russia war last year, resettling in Vancouver was an opportunity for a new, though unexpected start. The family of three, who have an apartment and have enrolled their son in public secondary school, are learning English and navigating the ropes that come with resettlement. Still, Oleksandra admitted that it hasn’t been easy, that simply adjusting to a new culture, community and language has been a challenge. “This is absolutely another world,” she said.
It’s a sentiment shared by many of Vancouver’s newest immigrants from Ukraine. Fedor and Yulia, who came from wartorn Chernihiv with their two children, had good jobs as a real estate broker and a fitness instructor. While their children aren’t yet old enough to attend school, the kids are struggling with socialization. “The hardest thing to adjust for our children here was lack of communication with children of their age,” they said. “[E]verything looks quite unusual here.”
Like Fedor and Yulia, many others have left behind established businesses and jobs, professions that will be hard to restart in Vancouver. Lawyers, real estate brokers, accountants, social workers and business owners will need licences, education and a practised familiarity with Canada’s certification processes. But first, they need a place to live and a way to support their families.
According to Tanja Demajo, chief executive officer of Vancouver’s Jewish Family Services, the Ukrainian resettlement program was already in the planning stages when Russia formally announced its intended occupation of Ukraine in February 2022. Well-versed in creating programs to assist new immigrants, JFS knew the program would have to be versatile and able to address the many challenges faced by refugees on the move. Not all immigrants would be able to plan ahead before leaving Ukraine; many would arrive unprepared for their new home.
“Families reach out in many different ways,” Demajo explained. “Sometimes they call us from abroad and they are trying to understand the Canadian systems and how to actually come here. Sometimes we receive a call from other [Canadian] cities when families have already left [Ukraine] and they are thinking about relocating to the Lower Mainland. And sometimes we receive calls from families that are already here and are trying to navigate their next steps.”
According to Demajo, more than 80% of Ukrainian refugees enrolled in the resettlement program have advanced educations, but lack fluency in English, so JFS partnered with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control to provide its Food Skills program. In it, participants learned how to read labels in grocery stores and purchase food, which then became the ingredients for new Western-style dishes, which they cooked in the JFS Kitchen. “Throughout the cooking, they were also learning English,” Demajo said. “We also had childcare provided as well.” The classes were so successful that JFS is looking at expanding the program.
But the greatest challenge facing new immigrants to Vancouver has been the city’s housing shortage. Residential vacancy rates, which now stand at less than 1%, and the disproportionate cost of rental apartments have made it harder to find housing.
JFS partnered with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control to provide a Canadian food education and cooking class that doubled as an English class for new immigrants. (photo from JFS)
JFS settlement worker Tanya Finkelshtein helps connect new immigrants with “welcome circles” of volunteers that can help get them settled. “Housing is the number one problem in the Great Vancouver area, especially for newcomers. We [are] able to support some of our clients, but it is a serious issue,” said Finkelshtein, who works with about 70 Ukrainian families in JFS’s settlement program.
Affordable housing is key to creating adequate living conditions, including suitable employment.
“We have a family that was initially living outside of Vancouver,” Demajo said by way of example. The family’s efforts to connect with the Vancouver Jewish community were hampered by distance, as was their effort to find suitable employment. By connecting them with Tikva Housing and Temple Sholom Synagogue’s volunteer network, JFS was able to help the family resettle closer to employment opportunities and Jewish community programs. Tikva has since set aside two other units for JFS’s resettlement program.
But the search for housing continues to be a problem for new arrivals, so Demajo reached out to a property management company with well-known connections in the Jewish community. Shannon Gorski, whose family owns Belmont Properties, said JFS was looking for a couple of apartments that could provide temporary housing for Ukrainian immigrants. Gorski, who also serves on the JFS board and is the managing director of the Betty Averbach Foundation, reached out to Belmont’s board of directors “and then I learned … that they had been approached by someone in the rental world, Bob Rennie, and they had already stepped up to the plate.” Gorski said the board agreed to provide four units free of charge for four months.
The offer couldn’t have come at a better time for Alexander and Katrina Zubrys, who had been living out of a hotel since arriving from Kherson. The 1,200-square-foot apartment meant the couple could enrol their two children in a Jewish day school close by.
“The school is located 10 minutes from our house,” said Alexander, who acknowledged that, for his 5-year-old son Artem, “the biggest problem is English.” With the school’s help, Alexander said Artem and Sophie, 13, are adapting to their new surroundings and new language.
According to Gorski, the Zubrys family is the only one so far to request temporary housing from Belmont. “My concern is there are so many other families out there that don’t know that the Jewish community is here to help them,” she said. Thus, the challenge isn’t just finding available housing for current clients, but getting the word out to those arriving who don’t know who or how to ask for help.
As for finding new housing for the program, Gorski encourages other companies to get involved. “We are proud to be able to help the Zubrys family and we would like to help other families once identified,” she said. “And we challenge other property management families to step up as well.”
She is confident that, once alerted that Belmont Properties has donated temporary accommodations to the program, other property owners “would answer the call. I have no doubt that they would.”
Demajo said the settlement program wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without the assistance of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, which sent out an emergency appeal to the community to fund the project.
“Our community and our Federation have a history of responding quickly and generously whenever and wherever help is needed and we can be incredibly proud of the way our community responded to the crisis in Ukraine,” said Federation chief executive officer Ezra Shanken. “We didn’t spring into action the day the war broke out – we work year-round building communities and partnerships around the world and here at home so that we have the systems in place to make an impact.”
Demajo said Temple Sholom and Congregation Schara Tzedeck are playing a role in supporting new immigrants. Both run their own programs and have collaborated with JFS to make sure new arrivals are supported, she said.
“We continue to support these families now, helping some find vehicles, others looking for new jobs,” said Temple Sholom’s Rabbi Dan Moskovitz.
For the Zubrys family, the support system is what made the 9,100-kilometre migration possible. It’s Gorski’s “big heart” and the help of JFS and other volunteers that made it possible to finally find a new home, said Alexander.
For information about how to offer temporary housing and other help for Ukrainian refugees, contact Tanya Finkelshtein at 604-257-5151.
Jan Lee is an award-winning editorial writer whose articles and op-eds have been published in B’nai B’rith Magazine, Voices of Conservative and Masorti Judaism and Baltimore Jewish Times, as well as a number of business, environmental and travel publications. Her blog can be found at multiculturaljew.polestarpassages.com.
Congregation Schara Tzedeck is celebrating 20 years since Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt and Dr. Cirelle Rosenblatt arrived in Vancouver, and 115 years as the city’s flagship Orthodox congregation. (photo from Schara Tzedeck)
Members of Congregation Schara Tzedeck are celebrating 20 years since Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt and Dr. Cirelle Rosenblatt arrived in Vancouver. And, while gala festivities are slated for June 14, the rabbi wants members of his congregation and the larger community to focus less on the individuals than on the role the synagogue has played in the past – and could play in the future.
Schara Tzedeck, which is marking 115 years as the city’s flagship Orthodox congregation, has been a central institution of the community, though Rosenblatt balks at the word “institution.”
“It’s more than a registered authority with CRA,” he said. “It is more than an organization with a letterhead. It’s even more than the sum of its membership because plenty of people who feel a connection with Schara Tzedeck may not currently be paying members but they may have a historical connection. They may live elsewhere now but feel very close to Schara Tzedeck.
“The thing that I want our community to appreciate and to value and perhaps give more attention to is that they are part of this very long story and, if they treat it well, it can play a very important role in their lives,” the rabbi said. “It can play a very significant role in their future and in the security of their family and the emotional health of their family.”
While Rabbi Rosenblatt has been tending to the spiritual and other needs of his congregants, Dr. Rosenblatt has been tending to the medical needs of individuals with brain injuries. As founder and director of Advance Concussion Clinic, she is a leader in the field of neuropsychology and has applied interdisciplinary expertise in concussion as a neuropsychologist and consultant to amateur and professional athletes and teams, including in the Olympics, the National Football League and the National Hockey League.
Reflecting back on two decades, Dr. Rosenblatt believes that it was no accident they landed in Vancouver.
“The primary feeling I have is one of gratitude,” Dr. Rosenblatt told the Independent. “I’m really grateful – I guess it’s appropriate for a rabbi’s wife – I’m really grateful that we were guided to Vancouver. I have a very strong sense of faith and belief that we were meant to be here and that there was a plan in place for us. [I’m] really grateful that God led us to this place but really also to the community and for the community and for the opportunities that Vancouver specifically provided for us and for our family.”
It is partly because of Dr. and Rabbi Rosenblatt’s scientific and theological intersections that the guest speaker for the gala, which is called Mosaic 2023, is Yeshiva University’s president, Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman.
“The reason that we thought it was such a good idea,” explained Rabbi Rosenblatt, “is that Yeshiva University’s motto is ‘Torah Ummada’ [‘Torah and Science,’ or secular knowledge]. The idea of sophisticated wisdom and intellectual disciplines coupled with Torah is going to be something that makes them both better on some level.”
Dr. Rosenblatt was educated in the Yeshiva University system from high school, through her undergraduate studies, to her doctoral work.
Rabbi Rosenblatt, a native of Baltimore, Md., received his smicha, rabbinic ordination, from Yeshiva University. He earlier completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry and English literature and a master’s in bioorganic chemistry at Columbia.
Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt and Dr. Cirelle Rosenblatt (photo from Schara Tzedeck)
The gala will celebrate the two decades of the Rosenblatts’ service to the community but also the much longer history of Schara Tzedeck, which began as B’nai Yehuda, in 1907, and has been at the heart of Jewish Vancouver almost as long as there has been a Jewish Vancouver. But the rabbi worries that social changes are affecting his congregation and all religious assemblies, and community groups more broadly. Among these are declining engagement at religious services, the omnipresence of social media, the alienation from community connections and related phenomena that author Robert D. Putnam outlined in his 2000 book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.
“Those kinds of group spaces, those kinds of community living, are extremely powerful for the need of the individual in terms of their emotional health,” he said. “That, too, is under threat.”
For 115 years, under successive rabbis, Schara Tzedeck has been much more than the sum of its parts, said Rosenblatt.
“You have this network, this community, this thriving ability to provide help and resources and support in a rotating fashion,” he said. “The value of this community has lent emotional and financial and physical and every other kind of support you can possibly imagine. That’s severely threatened now in the 21st century.”
Being spiritual leader of Schara Tzedeck is to play a leadership role in maintaining the infrastructure of Jewish life in the city, including the mikvah (ritual bath) and the cemetery, as well as what is, in the context of those two community assets, a far more recent addition: the 32-kilometre eruv, the spiritual boundary that allows observant Jews to carry certain items outdoors on Shabbat, which Rabbi Avi Baumol created more than 20 years ago.
Taking wisdom that has been passed down for millennia and making it “speak in a modern voice” is what Rosenblatt calls his stock-in-trade, with the late chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sachs, being a model he cites.
“We also try to do things that are a little bit on the creative side in terms of how people can access these mitzvot, but have very long-standing or deep roots in the Torah,” he said, citing a “sukkah-raising” that allowed people to get involved hands-on in the tradition.
“I guess that’s the Jewish equivalent of a barn-raising,” the rabbi said with a laugh. But the congregation also took the opportunity of the ancient tradition of constructing a temporary shelter to discuss the very modern reality of housing security.
Food security is another area that Rosenblatt has emphasized. For years, volunteers from the shul were involved in a vegetable garden at Yaffa House, Vancouver’s Jewish group home and centre for adults with mental illness. The rabbi would take bar mitzvah classes to the garden and talk about the importance of food and sustainability. He also takes great pride in the long presence of members of the Schara Tzedeck community as volunteers in groups like Yaffa House, Tikva Housing and other agencies.
Rosenblatt has trouble believing his family has been here for 20 years, but that passing of time has a very physical manifestation, in the form of the youngest of the Rosenblatts’ five children, the daughter the rabbi calls their “anchor baby,” who was born a few months after the family’s arrival.
“It’s hard for me to believe that her entire life is here,” he said, noting that all five (now adult) children love Vancouver. “They think it’s a really special place.”
As come-from-aways themselves, the Rosenblatts understand the long history of newcomers arriving, often from inhospitable places, to start a new life here. In the days of Schara Tzedeck’s Rabbi Nathan Pastinsky, who began his long service in 1918 and continued until his passing in 1948, the spiritual leader would meet migrants at the train and set them up with a cart from which to sell wares and begin a career.
“I’m not giving people carts anymore,” said Rosenblatt. But he is still very much involved in easing the way for newcomers to navigate the immigration system, find a job and housing and settle into the community.
Shelley Rivkin, vice-president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, is just one person with accolades for the contributions the Rosenblatts have made to their chosen home.
“Rabbi Rosenblatt is a consummate bridge-builder,” Rivkin told the Independent. “He is always willing to reach out and have a conversation with anyone regardless of religious practice and beliefs. When you attend his Zoom classes, you see participants from across the Jewish community who are actively engaged in what he has to say.
“Cirelle (Dr. Rosenblatt) is a role model for modern Orthodox women,” Rivkin continued. “She is very learned. She is a highly respected professional and successful businesswoman and she is the mother of five children. When she gives a class, she is able to effectively weave together Torah study with contemporary issues.”
Rabbi Rosenblatt, though, deflects back to the longer history of the shul.
“I want people to understand that the anniversary of this milestone is a moment to appreciate how valuable this institution is,” he said.
