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“Israel in Egypt” by Edward Poynter, 1867. (photo from Wikimedia Commons) There is a certain inherent ambivalence when we think of the meaning of freedom and its association with the holiday of Pesach. One of the essential features of the…
Israel’s Escape from Egypt, illustration from a Bible card published in 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company. (photo from Wikimedia Commons) We begin Passover – which starts this year on the night of March 30 – with two seders, and…
An illustration by Russian artist El Lissitzky in the book Had Gadya, 1919. (photo from getty.edu) We sing them every year, but from where did Passover songs such as “Chad Gadya” originate? “Chad Gadya” or “One Little Goat” is a…
“The Four Sons,” Arthur Szyk, 1934. According to Wikimedia, Szyk “originally intended his Passover story of persecution and deliverance (told through the traditional text of the Haggadah) to be a strong statement against the Nazis, but no publisher in his…
מדד המדינות המושחתות בעולם: קנדה במקום השמיני וישראל רק במקום השלושים ושתיים. (צילום: Cynthia Ramsay) בימים האחרונים התפרסם מדד המדינות המושחתות בעולם לשנת 2017. המדד כולל מאה ושמונים מדינות שנסקרו, ומיקומן נקבע על פי השחיתות במגזר הציבורי, באמצעות שלושה עשר…
Samara Carroll, second from the left, with Dawit Demoz, right, and members of his host family – Sunita and her daughter Persia. (photo from Samara Carroll) Soon after Samara Carroll returned from a yearlong program in Israel, she took action…
Left to right: Yoo Ra Kang (Asaka, Mother of the Earth), Ricardo Pequenino (Agwe, God of Water), Alexandra Quispe (Erzulie, Goddess of Love) and Sari Rosofsky (Papa Ge, Sly Demon of Death) in Fabulist Theatre’s production of Once On This…
For a people who make up a fraction of one percent of the world’s population, Jews sure do gather a lot of attention and get credit for an extraordinary amount of bad doings on the planet. Last week, Russian President…
“It’s not for me.” “I’m too busy.” “I’ll volunteer when I’m retired.” All of these responses (excuses?) are familiar to me. Because, at one time or another, I hid behind each one of them. I never felt I was good…
Itay Exlroad as Dancer Soldier. (photo by Giora Bejach, Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics) An audacious work of art that melds raw emotion and absurdist allegory into a blistering assessment of contemporary Israel, Samuel Maoz’s Foxtrot deserves to be seen and…
Jerusalem Marathon winner Kipkogey Shadrack (No. 1) led the field from the start. (photo from Ashernet) More than 35,000 runners, including some 4,000 from 72 countries outside Israel, participated March 8 in this year’s Jerusalem Marathon – the largest to date.…
האם קנדה עומדת לפני משבר כלכלי גדול לאור מה שמתרחש בענף הנדל”ן? (צילום: Cynthia Ramsay) יש סיכוי סביר שקנדה תתמודד עם משבר כלכלי חריף בקרוב לאור מה שמתרחש בענף הנדל”ן המקומי. כך מעריכים אנליסטים שעוקבים מקרוב אחר מה שקורה בכלכלה…
Amy Amantea and Jake Anthony in Sequence, which runs March 14-24 at Presentation House Theatre. (photo by Tim Matheson) “To direct this play requires a willingness to grapple with the concepts, to accept that sometimes questions are more important than…
Ava Lee Millman Fisher at the opening of her solo exhibit, I See Music, on March 1. (photo by Olga Livshin) The new solo exhibit by Ava Lee Millman Fisher, which opened at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery on…
Last year, the Students’ Society of McGill University, in Montreal, barred the reelection of three Jewish members of the board of directors. The issue, according to a report undertaken on behalf of the university, was not the students’ Jewishness, but…
This time of year, we read Torah portions in the Book of Leviticus. It’s full of information about how to do sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem. It’s a good reminder – things have changed in the Jewish world, haven’t…
Team Kosher are Marat Dreyshner and Barbi Braude. (photos from Dreyshner and Braude, respectively) Within three months of its launch, more than 700 people in the Greater Vancouver area had signed up to receive Team Kosher Vancouver’s weekly e-publication. The…
In preparation for Purim, students of White Rock South Surrey JCC Religious School baked hamantashen to take home and share with their families. (photos from WRSS JCC)
On the 14th floor of Edmonton’s Our Parents’ Home, one can enjoy panoramic views. (photo from OPH) In 2015, Edmonton opened Our Parents’ Home (OPH), still the only kosher seniors home between Winnipeg and Vancouver. OPH offers 80 independent living…
A sapling seeded by Anne Frank’s horse-chestnut tree in Amsterdam is growing at Yad Vashem, near its International Institute for Holocaust Research. (photo by Gil Zohar) treJerusalem and its environs have many historic trees, including the grove of gnarled olives…
Diane von Furstenberg was born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin in Brussels, Belgium. (PR photo) Character. Intelligence. Strength. Style. That makes beauty.” These timeless words of wisdom were expressed by the iconic Diane von Furstenberg. Born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin in…
Inception’s collaboration with FashionTV brings viewers backstage. (photo from Inception) Netflix has become the go-to service for finding the latest and greatest movie and television programming. An Israeli startup called Inception wants to do the same for virtual reality. The…
Left to right: Michael Rubenfeld, Mary Berchard and Katka Reszke in We Keep Coming Back, which plays March 13 and 14 as part of the Chutzpah! Festival. (photo by Jeremy Mimnaugh) At first, we expected the piece to focus mainly…
Anna Levy (photo from Yarilo Contemporary Music Society) My mother’s maiden name was Levy, my dad’s surname was also Levy. My story is about life. None of my family was killed during the Holocaust. I am alive because I grew up…
Andrew Scheer was two days old when Joe Clark was elected prime minister of Canada in 1979. In that election campaign, then-Progressive Conservative leader Clark promised to move the Canadian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Cabinet documents…
Rabbi Deborah Waxman, PhD, president of Reconstructionist Judaism, recently released a statement about rebranding. Instead of calling the rabbinical college and umbrella congregational movement the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, the header now is “Reconstructing Judaism.” The tag…
This academic year marks the second session of Writing Lives, a two-semester project at Langara College, coordinated by instructor Dr. Rachel Mines. Writing Lives is a partnership between Langara, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and the Azrieli Foundation. Last fall,…
Russ Klein recently marked his 10th year as head of school at King David High School. (photo by Pat Johnson) Russ Klein resisted becoming King David High School’s head of school. Ten years ago, he was a vice-principal in the…
Barbara Stegemann’s 7 Virtues perfumes help farmers in war- or weather-torn countries rebuild. (photo from Barbara Stegemann) Barbara Stegemann (née Rabinovitch) was born and raised in an Anglophone neighbourhood in Montreal. While her Catholic mother disallowed any practise of Judaism,…
Former Vancouverite Harvey Sandler opened Harvey’s Smokehouse in Jerusalem a few months ago. (photo by Barry A. Kaplan) Kansas City, Mo., is my hometown. Well, Overland Park, Kan., is more accurate, but Kansas City, the home of barbeque, is just…
