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“Jews have always turned and continue to turn to humour as a cultural touchstone and a way to make meaning,” said Dr. Jennifer Caplan, author of Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials,…
The Jewish Independent briefly spoke with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver about what support local campers could receive, if they needed it. JI: Does Federation work with the Foundation for Jewish Camp at all? JF: One Happy Camper is…
“This summer, the grounds of Camp Hatikvah will echo with laughter, song, and the spirited expressions of Jewish and Israel pride”: Liza Rozen-Delman, camp executive director. (photo from Camp Hatikvah) For decades, Camp Hatikvah has been a cornerstone of the…
Lifelong friends can be made at summer camp. (photo from Camp Kalsman) Fun is in all that we do,” Rabbi Ilana Mills, director of URJ Camp Kalsman, told the Independent. “Our staff creates dynamic programming that lets campers laugh and…
Campers being silly at Rockbrook Camp for Girls. (photo from rockbrookcamp.com) Today, the word of the day is neoteny. It’s really a term from evolutionary biology, but it describes the retention of childlike attributes in adults. You might think of a…
The Foundation for Jewish Camp serves more than 155 Jewish summer camps, close to 80,000 campers and 11,000 counselors across North America every summer. Among its initiatives is the One Happy Camper program, which is run in partnership with Jewish…
A vigil in solidarity with Israel took place on the Dayton Street pedestrian overpass in Kelowna on Nov. 19. (photo from vigil organizers) About 100 people held a vigil in solidarity with Israel in Kelowna on Nov. 19, which proceeded…
Pierre Anctil, left, and Richard Menkis with a copy of their new book, In a “Land of Hope”: Documents on the Canadian Jewish Experience, 1627-1923. (photo by Pat Johnson) The first Jew known to have set foot in what is…
Author Norman Ravvin’s grandparents, Yehuda Yoseph and Chaya Dina Eisenstein, around the time of their engagement, in 1928. (photo from Who Gets In: An Immigration Story) Relentless perseverance, continual pressure on select politicians and some key allies are what helped…
Hanukkah is a reminder that darkness can be transformed into light, and that miracles are possible. With so much conflict, misery, anxiety and hopelessness in the world, we need some miracles. There have been a few rays of hope in…
If we fear “advertising” our identities, we should do everything we can to maintain our inner light and self-worth in trying times. (photo from PxHere) Years ago, my husband lost both his grandmother and his great aunt. Several years apart,…
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets in Casablanca with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, 1994. (photo from flickr.com/photos/government_press_office/6324960139) With all the darkness surrounding us since Oct 7, since the shattering of that tranquil Shabbat, have the people of Israel witnessed a miracle?…
Many Jewish students are worried to go to campus in view of threatening and hateful messages and even open hostilities at some Canadian campuses. These are taking place within a wider context of antisemitic incidents in the wake of the…
When we look at our calendars – especially that darkest of recent days, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 – it’s hard to imagine that that now-infamous date is part of a millennia-long continuum. About 2,200 years ago, the Maccabean revolt against…
Steffanie Davis, who plays Belle, with a couple of the young actors in East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, at the York Theatre until Jan. 7. (photo by Emily Cooper, illustrations by Cindy Mochizuki) Every year, the Cultch and…
Laura Rosenberg and Andy Muchin co-founded the Victoria Jewish Culture Project with Farley Cates. Here, the two participate in the group’s 2021 Passover seder (screenshot) In late 2019 and early 2020, before the pandemic struck and lockdowns took effect, a…
“Jerusalem Market, 1959,” watercolour and pencil, by artist Pnina Granirer, a graduate of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Granirer will have a table of her artwork for sale in the atrium of the Jewish Community Centre of…
Joshua Greenstein, vice-president of the Israeli Wine Producers Association, showcases the array of wines produced in Israel. (photo from IWPA) The world of wine in Israel, perhaps the oldest wine-producing region in the world, has become collateral damage of the…
Left to right: Kara Mintzberg, Maurice Moses, Cyndi Mintzberg, Sheila Gordon (a friend of Haber’s), Gyda Chud, Grace Hann and Tammi Belfer, with Marilyn Berger in front. (photo from JSA) On Nov. 19, Jewish Seniors Alliance held their Fall Symposium…
Loolwa Khazzoom (photo by Moriel O’Connor) “Dear Hostages, as the world rallies to celebrate your desecration I will not forsake you,” begins the poem written by Seattle-based multimedia artist and educator Loolwa Khazzoom. Posted on her Facebook page, with a…
ARC Ensemble (photo from Royal Conservatory of Music) Over the span of three decades, the ARC Ensemble (artists of the Royal Conservatory) has provided a voice for exiled composers who had graduated from Europe’s finest conservatories and enjoyed successful careers,…
According to the Babylonian Talmud (Eruvin 53b), the Hebrew-speakers of ancient Judea were so precise in their speech that they would never describe a cloak they were trying to sell as merely green, but would tell you instead that it…
Inscribing what the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas might call espace vital (the space we can survive), Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings (2023) is an exploration of openings in a (never quite) post-COVID world. Written by poet, performer and cultural theorist Adeena Karasick and…
The past can consume you if you let it. And reality isn’t as easy to discern as you might think. Two recently published thrillers from Simon & Schuster share these themes in common, but their authors address them in completely…
In 2019, NASA astronaut and scientist Jessica Meir was part of the first all-woman spacewalk. According to : Jewish Women who Rocked the World, she “celebrated Hanukkah in space by wearing festive holiday socks and sending a Happy Hanukkah message…
Theodor Herzl, during the First Zionist Congress, in Basel, Switzerland, 1897. (photo from mfa.gov.il) Sometime before 1223, the first bridge spanning the Rhine River at Basel was constructed, funded through a loan to the town’s bishop by a Jewish moneylender.…
The Ben-Gurion family in their Tel Aviv home, 1929. From left: David and Paula with youngest daughter Renana on Ben-Gurion’s lap, daughter Geula, father Avigdor Grün and son Amos. (photo from National Photo Collection of Israel / Government Press Office)…
Sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) for Hanukkah have come a long way, and now come in countless variations. (photo by Avital Pinnick / Flickr) In Israel, sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) have gone through a major revolution. For years, they were injected with strawberry jelly and…
There is no particular history associated with apple latkes that I can find, but they make a great accompaniment to any Hanukkah meal. Here are a few of my favourite recipes. DAIRY APPLE LATKES (makes 12) 2 large tart, unpeeled,…
Cheese puffs (photo from jewishlink.news) For a Hanukkah night gathering or on Dec. 31, as we move into a new secular year with a celebration, small or large, appetizers are a wonderful addition to any party. Here are some quick…
