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Selling bagel sandwiches at a Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver Chanukah event, circa 1990. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.18422) If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish…
Prof. Mark Eidelman, director of the pediatric orthopedics unit at Rambam’s Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital, second from the left, with African colleagues at the Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa. (photo from Rambam Medical Centre) Dozens of doctors from Ethiopia…
If I wrote that I had been trying to get a review copy of Rising: The Book of Challah by Rochie Pinson (Feldheim Publishers) since November 2016, readers would find that hard to believe, but the book only arrived at…
Gabriella Goliger’s Eva Salomon’s War is an intriguing novel. (photo by Ben Welland)) Award-winning Canadian author Gabriella Goliger has written Eva Salomon’s War (Bedazzled Ink Publishing, 2018), an intriguing novel set between the rise of the German Nazi state and…
Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS, with Hannah Alper. Mycoskie is one of the role models Alper features in her book Momentus: Small Acts, Big Change. (photo from callmehannah.ca) In Momentus: Small Acts, Big Change (Nelson Trade, 2017), Toronto-based teen activist…
Emanuel Lottem, left, and Sheldon Teitelbaum. (photo by Roni Sofer) After four years of hard work, Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem have completed the first instalment of Zion’s Fiction: A Treasure of Israeli Speculative Literature. Today, Montreal-born Teitelbaum lives with…
There are many puzzling things about the book God is in the Crowd. It is published by a prominent Canadian publishing house (McClelland and Stewart) but was printed in the United States. It is written by an American-Israeli, Tal Keinan,…
(photo from Joy) An old folk proverb says, “Chanukah latkes teach us that one cannot live by miracles alone.” Jewish food writer and cookbook author Joan Nathan contends that the word latke is not Yiddish, as everyone presumes, but stems…
(photo by Brandon Martin-Anderson) According to my research, some type of pancakes was made by ancient Greeks and Romans, or even earlier; Christians made them before Lent to use up foods they could not otherwise consume. The earliest pancakes were…
Everyone has their favourite soup when the fall weather turns into winter. Mine is potato soup. I don’t remember who made this for me, whether it was my grandmother or my mother, or when or how it became my favourite.…
Ralph Lauren in 1978. (photo by Edgar de Evia) Born 79 years ago, in New York, to Frieda and Frank Lifshitz, immigrants from Belarus, Ralph Lifshitz, better known as Ralph Lauren, has become a universal household name. The youngest of…
The mikvah at Herodian, which was apparently built during the Second Temple period (530 BCE and 70 CE). (photo by Deborah Rubin Fields) The Dark Ages weren’t given their name for nothing. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, sanitation…
Moving into a condominium forced the writer to modify how she approached the holiday season, including the purchase of an electric chanukiyah. (photo by Libby Simon) For Jews, the celebrations of Chanukah arrive on Sunday evening, Dec.2, and close on…
(photo by Jon Sullivan) In the village of Chelm, just before every Chanukah, the ancient debate begun by the two great rabbis Hillel and Shammai resumed. Do you start the festival by lighting one candle and counting up, or with…
“The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus” by Peter Paul Rubens, between 1634 and 1636. (photo from Wikimedia Commons) One of the richest statements found in the Talmud about the meaning of Jewish identity is the following: “He who does not feel…
The light of our chanukiyot must shine as a commitment to discovering a Judaism of ideas and values as an integral part of our journey. (photo by David Williss) Chanukah is a holiday with an identity crisis. From the beginning,…
Mattathias and the Apostate (1 Maccabees 2:1-25) in Gustave Doré’s English Bible 1866. The time has not yet come when we no longer need the warrior Maccabee. (photo from Wikimedia Commons) Before the rebirth of the modern state of Israel…
Each Matana gift box focuses on a different vendor. (photo from thematanashop.com) Matana, a subscription box company from Israel, has a new mission-driven brand and vision. Formerly called Blue Box, Matana, the Hebrew word for gift, signifies the mutually beneficial…
Tina Turner, the late Leonard Cohen, TV presenter and comedian Bill Maher, the bands Madness and Led Zeppelin, actor Richard Gere and others have recently been added to the list of celebrities like actors Tom Selleck and Ben Stiller, musician…
עמותת ידידות טורונטו עוזרת במלגות לסטודנטים חרדים כדי “ליצור אליטה אקדמית מקצועית רחבה באיכות ובכמות, התורמת רווחתה הכלכלית של החברה החרדית ולפיתוחה של הכלכלה הישראלית“. (צילום: Wikimedia Commons) עמותת ידידות טורונטו תומכת בסטודנטים מהמגזר החרדי בישראל ומעניקה להם מלגות בשווי…
University of Ottawa’s Prof. Jan Grabowski delivered the Rudolf Vrba Memorial Lecture at the University of British Columbia Nov. 15. (photo by Pat Johnson) Jan Grabowski, a University of Ottawa professor who is a leading scholar of the Holocaust, delivered the…
Olga Campbell (seated) takes a break from signing books at the opening of her exhibit A Whisper Across Time, which also served as a launch of her book by the same name. (photo by Gordon E. McCaw) The impacts of…
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood in the House of Commons this month and apologized for his predecessors’ decision to turn away more than 900 Jewish refugees on the ship MS St. Louis in 1939, he also made a plea…
If you’ve got grade school-aged children, chances are they come home recounting fights on the playground and in their classrooms. Sometimes, it involves them, and other times, they are bystanders. There are kids who are hitting, name calling, mimicking and…
Anyone who buys a first-time subscription to the Jewish Independent as a gift for themselves or for a friend, family member or colleague by Nov. 28 will be entered into a draw to win two free tickets to hear Yefim…
At risk of universalizing a book with a particular theme, The Aging of Aquarius: Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder is valuable not just for those who are retired or pondering it – though it has plenty of age-specific…
Dr. Jessica Zitter has both written a book and a movie about death and dying. (photo by Rikki Ward Photography) Dr. Jessica Zitter, who works as an attending physician at a public hospital in Oakland, Calif., struggled with her job’s…
Courage in Motion 2018. (photo from Beit Halochem Canada) More than 100 Canadian cyclists participated in the recent Courage in Motion (CIM). The fundraising ride, now in its 11th year, has grown steadily in popularity over its first decade and,…
The displays at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History educate visitors on natural history, as well as current-day environmental issues. (photos by Ashernet) Just over a year ago, the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History opened the doors of its purpose-built…
Gifts can range from superhero socks to a journal to time with family and friends. “When you consider the meaning of Chanukah, it’s about the Jewish struggle to maintain observance within a non-Jewish world,” writes Deena Yellin in the article…
