{"id":46640,"date":"2025-05-09T01:47:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=46640"},"modified":"2025-05-09T14:53:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:53:53","slug":"join-jewish-culture-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/join-jewish-culture-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Join Jewish culture festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Festival of Jewish Culture takes place May 25. <\/i>(photo from JCCGV)<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>Throughout May, there are numerous events being held at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in celebration of Jewish Heritage Month. They culminate in the Festival of Jewish Culture on May 25, which features music, food, dance, art, a market, workshops and more at the centre, from noon to 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

While some of the events leading up to May 25 have happened, there are still many activities coming up. Tied into the festival are the Western Canada Jewish Book Awards May 13 (for the list of finalists, visit jccgv.com\/jewish-book-festival<\/a>); an Israeli-style vegetarian potluck Kabbalat Shabbat dinner \u2013 Shishi Yisraeli \u2013 on May 16; a Jewish Street Art workshop for youth on May 22; a joint presentation on May 22 with the JCC Jewish Book Festival, with Ben Shneiderman talking about Journey Through the Spanish Civil War<\/i>, an English translation of his father\u2019s book; and a Shabbat picnic breakfast and tiyul<\/i> (walk) on May 24.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
The Festival of Jewish Culture features live music. (photo from JCCGV)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe main event and pre-event activities have evolved from previous years and successful ideas that people looked forward to, as well as years of the festival being harikud<\/i> [about Israeli dance], and many traditions have stayed from then,\u201d said Nomi Zysblat, coordinator of Jewish and Israeli cultural programming at the JCC, about how this year\u2019s events were chosen. She credited Hila Olya, director of programs, for being supportive and encouraging.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe really is someone who both leads and shines but also gives you freedom for whatever comes to mind,\u201d said Zysblat. \u201cI really have the pleasure of working with some great people here at the J.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Like last year’s festival, this year will have a cooking workshop. (photo from JCCGV)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There will be four workshops offered on May 25: krav maga, where youth, adults and families are invited to train together; Liat Pakes teaches how to make falafel, pita and different styles of tahini; Zohar Hagbi leads an intuitive art session, in which participants will be able to express their inner creativity; and people will have the chance to create their own Havdalah spice bags.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the four blessings of Havdalah is for besamim<\/i> (fragrant spices),\u201d explained Zysblat. \u201cCreating our own spice bags is fun for children, too, as they get to touch and breathe in a\u00a0 <\/span>variety of aromatic spices, and then create their favourite combination.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will also be live performances. Award-winning musicians Yonatan Dror and Itamar Erez will play in different Jewish styles with guitar, piano and several types of woodwinds and brass instruments. The JCC choir, led by Shir Barzel, will sing several Hebrew melodies, and Perry Ehrlich\u2019s ShowStoppers will perform. HaOpziot, a band of local Israeli Vancouverites, will entertain with Israeli rock classics.<\/p>\n

Food trucks will include Planted and Meet2Eat, and there will be around 12 different stalls of local jewelry, textiles, Judaica and sweets.<\/p>\n

Keeping the event safe will be a combination of JCC security, extra paid security, Vancouver Police Department involvement, as well as a team of Bitachon volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s seriously going to be an amazing day, and I\u2019ll be selling my popsicles, too!\u201d said Zysblat.<\/p>\n

For more information on any part of the festival, visit jccgv.com\/program-category\/israeli-festival<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Festival of Jewish Culture takes place May 25. (photo from JCCGV) Throughout May, there are numerous events being held at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in celebration of Jewish Heritage Month. They culminate in the Festival of Jewish Culture on May 25, which features music, food, dance, art, a market, workshops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24029,8149],"class_list":["post-46640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-festival-of-jewish-culture","tag-jewish-heritage-month"],"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\/46640","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=46640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}