{"id":37644,"date":"2021-10-22T01:44:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T08:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=37644"},"modified":"2021-10-21T18:52:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T01:52:35","slug":"citys-only-jewish-firefighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/10\/22\/citys-only-jewish-firefighters\/","title":{"rendered":"City\u2019s only Jewish firefighters?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Firefighters Daniel Greenberg, left, and Adam Bender. (photo from Adam Bender)<\/em><\/p>\n

There are not many Jewish firefighters in Vancouver \u2013 but two of them serve together in Fire Hall #2 in the Downtown Eastside.<\/p>\n

Being Jewish is not all Daniel Greenberg and Adam Bender have in common. They are also both Ontario-born men, about 40, who came to firefighting comparatively late in life after other careers. And both have young families who they get to spend quality time with because the shift work inherent in their profession offers a flexibility that the 9-to-5 grind does not.<\/p>\n

The two met while stationed together in the Downtown Eastside, a posting unlike any other in the city. The vast majority of calls to which they respond are drug overdoses and related emergencies. The leading minds of politics, policing and healthcare have not been able to resolve the epidemic of addiction that grips the neighbourhood and, if firefighters had the solution, it would have been implemented by now, but they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue is often discussed amongst the firefighters,\u201d said Greenberg. \u201cWe obviously don\u2019t know the solution. It\u2019s a terrible situation. It is difficult to see. You are seeing human beings living in a state that, honestly, you don\u2019t expect human beings to live in…. Safer places for them to go, more permanent housing situations, access to treatment programs \u2013 any and all of the above sound wonderful and ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vancouver Fire and Rescue recognizes the toll that serving in this challenging hall can take and they have a limit of 80 shifts \u2013 or about a year \u2013 before being transferred to a more conventional hall.<\/p>\n

When he started, Greenberg got some advice from a veteran firefighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t make their emergency your emergency,\u201d he was told. This may be easier said than done, of course, and Greenberg said the fire department takes the risks seriously. During recruitment, trainees go through resiliency training to prepare them in advance for what they might encounter, and the department is sensitive to the impacts tough calls can have.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we witness a particularly troubling call, you are essentially taken out of service and you are provided with counseling,\u201d said Greenberg.<\/p>\n

This is a major advancement from the old-style approach, which Greenberg characterized as \u201cTough it up, shake it off, on to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all made to feel really supported,\u201d he said of the current atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Greenberg became a firefighter in Ontario after working in construction and teaching physical education and kids with special needs. He moved west when his wife, Emily Greenberg, was hired as head of school at Vancouver Talmud Torah. They have three kids, ages 12, 10 and 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really searching for a career path that I\u2019d be very passionate about, that would suit my strengths and my interests. Frankly, also, a job that could support my family and my wife not only financially but also me being able to be around the family a lot more than a simple 9-to-5,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jewish people may be overrepresented in many helping professions, but not this one. Greenberg isn\u2019t sure why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, historically, whether I\u2019m generalizing or not, most Jews are steered towards professions that are more of the white-collar variety: lawyers, doctors, builders, entrepreneurs,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly anything that involves a level of danger, perhaps, doesn\u2019t speak to Jewish people. Mothers are probably a key ingredient there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming to firefighting after wider experiences, Greenberg has no regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exceeded my expectations,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery firefighter I speak to truly loves the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sees his work as an embodiment of the value of tikkun olam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fortunate to have a job and a career where I may not be helping the world at large per se, but to an individual in that moment, in their most dire moment, it feels pretty good to be there with my crew helping them and potentially saving lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Greenberg also picks up some shifts as a supply teacher and he is starting a new side business involving cosmetic tattooing for hair loss. He noted that he may be the only Jewish vegan firefighter in North America.<\/p>\n

Greenberg met Adam Bender at the hall. It was a total coincidence that two practising Jews \u2013 maybe the only ones on the job \u2013 would end up in the same station.<\/p>\n

Bender was born in Oakville, Ont., but spent formative years in Israel. His parents moved there when he was a year old and they returned to Canada around the time of the first Gulf War, when Bender was in Grade 1.<\/p>\n

In Hamilton, Ont., at this point, Bender admitted he was not a model student.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say that I was kind of a piece of crap would be an understatement,\u201d he said. He was kicked out of school and, to avoid being kicked out of his house, he made a deal to go on a five-month ulpan on a kibbutz in Israel.<\/p>\n

But Bender\u2019s parents got more than they bargained for when he returned home from ulpan with a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did something my parents I don\u2019t think thought was part of the deal when I signed up for ulpan,\u201d he said. \u201cI signed up with the Israeli army. I broke the news to them when I came home that I was going back in a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

He served two years (since he was joining at age 21, rather than 18, he was not required to commit to the usual three years) and made it into the paratroopers and special forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial forces unit [was] probably the biggest influence on my character in terms of understanding the ability to accomplish goals,\u201d said Bender. He returned to Canada, intending to study at the University of Toronto but, again, school wasn\u2019t a good fit and he joined the Canadian military. There, he also served in the special forces.<\/p>\n

He met his now-wife and proposed shortly before a six-month deployment in Iraq. The understanding was more intuitive than explicit that, for the marriage to work, a career other than the military was required.<\/p>\n

They married in 2017 and now have two kids, 3 and 1. He joined Vancouver Fire and Rescue in 2018.<\/p>\n

Like Greenberg, Bender isn\u2019t sure why more Jews don\u2019t choose their path, but suggests \u201cthe Jewish grandmother card\u201d may play a role. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of other professions that are a lot more attractive, let\u2019s say, and safer. Firefighting is a blue-collar job at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Greenberg and Bender families hope to get together for Shabbat dinner one of these weeks, but the pandemic has thwarted that hope so far. Meanwhile, Bender said, it\u2019s a happy coincidence that the two tribe members ended up together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere obviously wasn\u2019t any strategic implementation of putting the two Jewish kids together on one crew,\u201d said Bender. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of lucky that that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Firefighters Daniel Greenberg, left, and Adam Bender. (photo from Adam Bender) There are not many Jewish firefighters in Vancouver \u2013 but two of them serve together in Fire Hall #2 in the Downtown Eastside. Being Jewish is not all Daniel Greenberg and Adam Bender have in common. They are also both Ontario-born men, about 40, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20945,20944,140,20943,20942,6977,1959],"class_list":["post-37644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-adam-bender","tag-daniel-greenberg","tag-downtown-eastside","tag-firefighters","tag-firefighting","tag-healthcare","tag-tikkun-olam"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}