Category Life

Mystery photo … April 20/18

photo - B’nai B’rith, 1977

B’nai B’rith, 1977. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.09486) If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by…

Mystery photo … March 30/18

photo - B’nai B’rith, circa 1970

B’nai B’rith, circa 1970. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.09551) If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C.…

Helping more families

photo - On Feb. 20, students at Vancouver Hebrew Academy packaged more than 200 mishloach manot bags full of non-perishable food items donated by the Marine Drive and Grandview Superstore locations

On Feb. 20, students at Vancouver Hebrew Academy packaged more than 200 mishloach manot bags full of non-perishable food items donated by the Marine Drive and Grandview Superstore locations. (photo from VHA) The atmosphere at the Jewish Food Bank on…

Tranquility and restoration

photo - The Upper Galilee’s Mizpe Hayamim is a beautiful place

The Upper Galilee’s Mizpe Hayamim is a beautiful place. (photo by Karen Ginsberg) Unless you are one of the lucky Canadians who lives in the Okanagan Valley or the Niagara Peninsula, chances are that most of the “fresh food” that you…

Unexpected Barbadian find

photo - Nidhe Israel Synagogue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Nidhe Israel Synagogue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (photo by Tasha Nathanson) One of the oldest synagogues in the Western Hemisphere is in Barbados. I was living in Barbados, working on a Canadian agricultural development project, when I tripped…

What is freedom?

photo - “Israel in Egypt” by Edward Poynter, 1867

“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…

Pesach’s lessons for today

photo - Israel's Escape from Egypt, illustration from a Bible card published in 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company

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…

A few Pesach songs’ origins

photo - An illustration by Russian artist El Lissitzky in the book Had Gadya, 1919

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…

Contending with contradictions

photo - “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 native Poland dared take on a project with strong anti-Nazi iconography. He ultimately found a publisher in England. This image of the Four Sons … depicts the Wicked Son as an assimilated German complete with porkpie hat and Hitler mustache”

“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…