Members of the North Central BC Jewish community were joined by supportive residents from all backgrounds, local print and broadcast media were in attendance, and a segment of the gathering was broadcast live on local Global news. Many local dignitaries attended as well, including Todd Doherty, member of Parliament, Cariboo-Prince George; Shirley Bond, member of the Legislative Assembly, Prince George-Valemount; Simon Yu, mayor of Prince George; Trudy Klassen and Garth Frizzell, councilors, City of Prince George.
Several hundred people gathered for a second night of vigils, as elected officials, diplomats and allies convened in support of Israel and Jewish community. (photo by Pat Johnson)
For the second night in a row, Jewish Vancouverites and allies came together Tuesday for a vigil to mourn those murdered in the worst terror attacks in Israeli history, and to demonstrate solidarity with survivors, families of the victims, and all the people of Israel. The grief that was inevitable at the powerfully emotional event was made additionally anguished by the news several hours earlier that Ben Mizrachi, a young Vancouver man, was confirmed dead, one of about 260 victims murdered at a concert for peace in southern Israel Saturday morning.
In moderate rain at Jack Poole Plaza on Vancouver’s Coal Harbour waterfront, several hundred people gathered to hear from friends of Mizrachi, as well as from elected officials of all government levels, rabbis, a Holocaust survivors, and others.
Ben Mizrachi remembered in friends’ emotional testimony
Maytar and Rachel, who graduated alongside Mizrachi in 2018 from King David High School, shared memories of the young man they called “the life of the party” and “a true hero,” who died helping an injured friend at the scene of the attack.
Mizrachi had served as a medic in the Israel Defence Forces, having volunteered as a lone soldier.
“We understand that, during the attack, Ben stayed back with a wounded friend, keeping himself in danger to care for another,” said Maytar. “He used the training that he learned from his time as a medic with the IDF to tend to wounded people at the festival before he died. That was who Ben was. He was a true hero.”
She spoke of Mizrachi’s contributions to the King David community, to his friends and family.
“He was adored by everyone and known to students much younger and older than he was,” she said. “Everyone knew and loved Ben Mizrachi. Ben was a role model to his three younger siblings and valued his close and loving relationship with his family.”
She shared the memories of a fellow student, Eduardo, for whom young Ben became his first friend after moving here from Mexico City.
“Ben welcomed him, befriended him and taught him how to speak English,” Maytar said. “He told us that ‘Ben was much more than a friend, he was my brother and the type of personality that will cheer you up and make you smile.’ He had such a huge heart and you knew you could always count on Ben.”
She continued: “In school, Ben was always the first one dancing at any assembly and the last one cleaning up at the end, even when he cooked — and he loved to cook.”
He could be found in the kitchen at Beth Hamidrash on Shabbat helping to prepare the kiddush, Maytar said. “His kindness extended to every part of his life from such a young age. We all remember that, if we ever had a gathering on Saturday, the party wouldn’t really start until after Shabbat, when Ben would arrive. He was always the life of the party. This past weekend, that’s what he was doing. He was at a party with his friends. He was doing nothing wrong.”
Friends of terror victim Ben Mizrachi remember “true hero.” (photo by Pat Johnson)
Their friend Rachel spoke of Mizrachi’s commitment to his identity.
“Ben was always extremely proud of his Jewish identity and of being an Israeli citizen,” she said. “He loved to share his love of Judaism and he often invited friends to join him and his family for Shabbat services and meals. As a teammate of Ben, we played on multiple sports teams together and he proudly wore his kippah at every game. In Grade 12, Ben was the president of our NCSY [the youth wing of the Orthodox Union] chapter. He was involved in student council, he led weekly prayer services at our school. After high school, he was proud to join the IDF as a lone soldier. He was so proud to be a soldier in the army and to continue living in Israel after his service.”
Rachel then read a message from one of Mizrachi’s teachers at King David, Irit Uzan.
“Ben always stood out from the crowd,” Uzan wrote. “His happy disposition was infectious. He lit up a room with his positive energy and amazing sense of humour. When things got hard for the students, he always found a way to lighten the mood. He encouraged his peers by sharing his own struggles, but it was what he did beyond his studies that always impressed me. He reached out and offered a helping hand wherever it was needed, be it with a peer, a teacher, a staff member or his own family. He wasn’t asked, he just always knew what to do. Ben’s visits to school to catch me up on his life events were visits I always looked forward to. On his last visit, he seemed more eager than usual and I learned this was because he wanted me to know that he had decided to study engineering in Israel. He was so proud of this.”
In tears, Rachel concluded: “Ben, we are so proud of you and we will always miss you. Please pray for Ben’s family, for all the families who have lost their loved ones, as well as those wounded. Keep believing in the state of Israel and continue to be proud of our Judaism, like Ben always was. May Ben’s memory be a blessing.”
Rabbi Shlomo Gabay, spiritual leader of Mizrachi’s shul, Beth Hamidrash, led the vigil in El Maleh Rachamim, the prayer for the soul of the departed.
Reflections from a survivor
Marie Doduck, a child survivor of the Holocaust who was born in Brussels and came to Canada as a war orphan in 1947, reflected on the terrible echoes of the past the current news brings. She and 30 other Vancouverites who survived as Jewish children during the Second World War gather and, Doduck said, speak about their pasts and the present.
Holocaust survivor Marie Doduck spoke of historical trauma. (photo by Pat Johnson)
“For all the years we have been sharing our stories, for all the years we’ve been teaching tolerance, we know the worst that can happen,” she said. “But it always seems to happen to us. I spend my life as an educator, I share my story and the stories of the Holocaust so that people know and so that the world will remember, so that never again will children lose their childhood to hatred and to violence. And now, this week, I see children being taken from their parents in Israel. I’m reliving what I experienced as a child and it is horrible. I’m watching the news and hearing the sounds that were so terrifying when I was young, the sirens, the bombs falling. I’m seeing warplanes and bomb shelters and I cannot sleep at night.
“I’m seeing it all happen again,” Doduck said. “I see people who do not want peace treating us as if we are not human. I see the children captured. I cannot understand how they use children, how they use women and men like we are nothing. It is unthinkable. It is impossible to believe that humans can do this to other humans. The one place where we are safe they want to destroy. They want to do what the Gestapo did to us in the Second World War.”
With emotion, Doduck posed the question, “Does the world stand for us?”
“I don’t see them standing for us,” she said. “I see it happening again. I am reliving what I went through as a child and all we want, and all we have ever wanted, was peace.”
Support from Ottawa
Harjit Sajjan, president of the privy council and minister of emergency preparedness, spoke on behalf of the federal government.
“I know that everyone’s heart is broken because of this brutal terrorist attack, a targeted attack on the Israeli people,” said Sajjan, who is member of Parliament for Vancouver South. “All of you have witnessed and have seen the news and the atrocity that has taken place. Myself and my colleagues here … stand here with you. But I don’t speak here just as a minister but [I am] also speaking to you as a Canadian, as a human being. It hurts so much when we see images from what has just taken place. Your community has gone through this far too often. When we say enough is enough, sometimes those words seem like they have no meaning. But when we come together like this, it gives me hope that we can get through this.”
Harjit Sajjan promised Canada’s government “is with you.” (photo by Pat Johnson)
Across Canada and elsewhere, rallies, public statements and social media comments have celebrated the terror attacks, some, like the president of the Ontario wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, lauding them as “the power of resistance around the globe.” Hours before a Jewish community vigil Monday, a rally celebrating the violence was held in the same Vancouver Art Gallery location. Along with many speakers at the Tuesday event, Sajjan condemned the expressions of support for the terror attacks.
“Anybody who glorifies what has just taken place, the atrocities that Hamas has committed, I’m here to say that we denounce you and I denounce you,” he said.
Sajjan referenced his military career, from which he retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
“Over the last two decades, whether in politics or even before, [in] my other job in the military, I’ve seen atrocities committed all over the world,” he said. “And your heart breaks every single time. And you think, what can we do? One thing that always gives me hope is that I look back and remember where I live, in Canada, that we come together, we support one another. That’s how we get through this.
“I remember visiting Entebbe [Uganda] where, you know all too well, when Israeli citizens were taken captive and they were rescued at that time, I went to go pay my respects and remember what took place then. To see the atrocities committed over and over again is something that we all feel today. One thing I’m here to tell you: that we stand by you, we call for the captives to be released, we want humanitarian aid to be flown into all those people who are caught in the middle. But one thing is for sure: our government is with you.”
Other federal officials present were Joyce Murray, member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra, and Parm Bains, member of Parliament for Steveston-Richmond East.
Message from the province
Selena Robinson, British Columbia’s minister of post-secondary education and future skills, brought greetings from Premier David Eby and the provincial government. She also emphasized the presence of officials from both sides of the legislature.
Selina Robinson, one of BC’s few Jewish elected officials, spoke emotionally of living in a frightening time. (photo by Pat Johnson)
“All of government and all members of the Legislative Assembly stand with me, they stand with all of you, against the horrific violence that was perpetrated by Hamas, a terrorist organization, an organization committed to indiscriminately killing and indiscriminately wiping out the Jewish people,” she said. “As a Jew, I have never in my life experienced a more frightening time. To see and bear witness to the carnage, to the babies, to the children, to young people at a concert.
“The stories that Jewish families have been telling for generations all come swarming back,” Robinson continued, her voice breaking. “The stories of pogroms in Russia and Poland at the turn of the 20th century, the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi mobile death squads, going house to house killing everyone in their sights during the Holocaust. That is what happened this weekend. This is not a path to peace and it’s not the path to freedom. The Palestinians and the Israelis deserve to raise their families without fear, to grow old with dignity, but this vicious depravity is not the answer. It is not a path for peace for anyone. These last days have been so difficult and there are more hard days to come. So, we ask all of you to please be kind, be thoughtful, be supportive and to take care of each other.”
Opposition leader stands with community
Kevin Falcon, BC United party leader and the province’s leader of the opposition, was scheduled to hold a townhall in Kamloops Tuesday night but he cancelled the event and drove to Vancouver to be present for the solidarity gathering, he said, “Because I think it is important that all public officials stand united in saying … without equivocation, without moral equivocation, to be very, very clear, that we stand with you.”
Provincial opposition leader Kevin Falcon, with MLA Michael Lee. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Condemning terrorist brutality is “something that ought to be really easy,” he told the crowd. “But, unfortunately, in this day and age, it doesn’t seem to be easy for some people to come together and denounce unequivocally the violence and slaughter of innocent civilians in Israel, and to remember the right of that country and those individuals to defend themselves as a fundamental right because we cannot forget.
“We stand with the community and we want you to know that,” he said.
In addition to the government cabinet minister and opposition leader, other provincial officials present were cabinet ministers Brenda Bailey, Murray Rankin, Sheila Malcolmson and George Chow, parliamentary secretaries Mable Elmore and Susie Chant and members of the Legislative Assembly Henry Yao and Michael Lee.
Mayor condemns antisemitism
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim was flanked by city councilors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Peter Meisner, Lisa Dominato, Mike Klassen and Rebecca Bligh as he expressed solidarity with the Jewish community and promised zero-tolerance for antisemitism.
Vancouver mayor Ken Sim, flanked by councillors, committed to fight antisemitism. (photo by Pat Johnson)
“What happened this weekend in Israel was absolutely horrific,” said Sim. “Our hearts are broken, just like yours…. Vancouver is a city of love, Vancouver is a city of peace, Vancouver is a city of inclusion. This is a place where we celebrate our differences in culture and religion. So, it’s absolutely disturbing and incredibly disgusting, in the city that we live in, the city that we are so proud of, that people were actually celebrating what happened. They are celebrating Hamas. That’s not right. Israel has a right to exist. Israel has a right to protect itself. At the City of Vancouver, we stand for all communities, including the Jewish community — especially the Jewish community, during this incredibly brutal time. You are our brothers and sisters, you are our neighbours, you are our friends, you are our family. Let me be very clear — let us be very, very clear — we will not stand for any antisemitic acts or acts of hatred in the city of Vancouver. We mourn with you, we stand with you, we love you and we will always be here for you.”
Dylan Kruger, a Delta city councilor was also present.
Gathered together as one
Tuesday’s vigil was organized by the Rabbinical Assembly of Vancouver, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
Rabbi Jonathan Infeld of Congregation Beth Israel, and the head of the rabbinical assembly, spoke of the relentlessness of antisemitism.
“I am standing here as a neighbour of Ben Mizrachi and his family, in sadness and in grief,” said Infeld. “I am standing here today as the father of a young man who is currently in Jerusalem. I am standing here today as the child of Holocaust survivors who never met his grandparents or aunts or uncles because they were murdered as children because of antisemitism. Never would I have imagined again in my life that we would see 40 children, 40 babies in one day, discovered, who were murdered in cold blood because of antisemitism. Never would I have imagined in my life that we would see almost a thousand Jews in one day murdered because of antisemitism. Throughout the day, I’ve been asked, what is this moment about? This moment today, together, as one people, one community, Jews and non-Jews gathered together for solidarity, gathered together to mourn and gathered together to give strength to one another. We are so grateful to our politicians and to our leaders who really, truly, are leaders. All of you sitting here today, you are the leaders. You are sending the message that there is no similarity in morality, there is no equivalence in morality, between those who celebrate murder and those who are gathered together for peace.”
Iranian community members showed solidarity. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Federation leader sends message from Egypt
Jason Murray, vice-chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, read a message from the board’s chair, Lana Marks Pulver, who, with her husband Doug, is in Egypt, leading a group of almost 100 Canadian business leaders in a mission that was slated to travel to Israel in the coming days.
“I share this with you so you know how close I am to the situation both physically and emotionally,” wrote Marks Pulver. “There were two Israeli tourists murdered by a police officer in Alexandria [Egypt]. We continued on with our tour of Egypt much to the chagrin of family and friends. We continued because we will not allow them to win. Never again.
“As for emotion, our 21-year-old niece and 19-year-old nephew are serving in the IDF and are stationed near Gaza. We are feeling sick about what’s happening in Israel and we are feeling sick about the celebratory rallies happening in Canada, rubbing salt in our fresh wounds. How can Canadian citizens possibly justify the celebration of rape, killing and kidnapping of innocent Jews, online and in public rallies? It’s both horrifying and heartbreaking that this is happening in our own backyard. Jews throughout history have consistently proven that we are resilient. This time is no different. Israel will prevail. We as a people will not allow evil to win. Despite thousands of years of antisemitism and countless attempts to annihilate our people, we always come back stronger and more unified as a community.
“I am confident that this time is no different,” she continued. “Let us pray this all ends soon, that Israelis move forward with their lives in safety and that we as a Jewish people proudly stand in our fight against hatred and our desire to live in peace. Am Yisrael chai.”
Gratitude for allies
Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, praised the elected officials who attended and the police who provided security at the event.
“Often, we see public officials at our events and it’s special then,” he said. “But it’s even more special now. To have this incredible representation of folks behind us and around us in this moment is not something that I take for granted, not these days.”
Ezra Shanken and Karen James (photo by Pat Johnson)
In addition to elected officials, Shanken noted the presence of consuls general from France, Germany and Italy, as well as representation from the consulate of the United States.
Karen James, chair of the local partnership council for the Centre for Israel and Jewish affairs, Pacific region, lauded the unity of the Jewish community.
“I have always known that we are family, but I’ve never felt it so strongly as I do now,” she said. “Tonight, we are hurting. Our hearts are broken but our resolve has never been stronger.”
Severe audio problems plagued the event, which came a night after an earlier vigil, at the Vancouver Art Gallery, planned by Daphna Kedem, who is the lead organizer of UnXeptable Vancouver, though the event was not affiliated with any group. ( To read more about the Monday night vigil, click here.) At that event, a small group of provocateurs were kept apart from the main vigil by a phalanx of police. Police were also omnipresent at the Tuesday event, while protesters were nowhere to be seen.
Speakers at the event urged people to contribute to the emergency fund for victims and to access available mental health supports as needed. Federation’s website, jewishvancouver.com, is the access point for all relevant local resources.
Jewish Vancouverites and allies came together in grief and determination in a community vigil Monday night, Oct. 9, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Several hundred Jewish Vancouverites and allies came together in grief and determination in a community vigil Monday night outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. The unprecedented terror attacks in Israel that began Saturday brought a large crowd to the public venue in light rain for an emotionally charged hour of prayers, songs and shared stories of tragedy and resolve. The uncertain fate of a young Vancouver man who had not been heard from since Saturday brought the immediacy of the tragedy home. Hours after the vigil, it was announced that the body of Ben Mizrachi had been identified.
“A piece of this community is missing,” said an audience member who addressed the crowd and identified himself as Adam. “His name is Ben Mizrachi.”
Mizrachi, who graduated from King David High School in 2018, was attending a music festival in Re’im, in southern Israel near the Gaza border. An estimated 260 people were murdered as terrorists invaded the event around 7 a.m. Saturday. Mizrachi had not been in contact with family or friends since, according to news reports and messages from Vancouver friends. Late Monday Vancouver time, it was announced that he had been murdered.
The Monday night vigil was organized by UnXeptable Vancouver. (photo by Pat Johnson)
“Every one of us here is feeling grief, is feeling loss,” said Adam. “We are all individuals here, but we are one nation and our nation has one heart. We will look at these candles, we will look at the light, we will look at all the universes they stole from us and we will say, this light will drown out that darkness.”
Leslie Benisz, who spent his first 10 years in Israel, spoke of his own family’s tragedy.
“I have a cousin and her husband who, unfortunately, were killed,” he said, “and, still, at this moment, we do not know the whereabouts of her four children. They were living on a kibbutz near the Gaza area.”
Benisz said his mother, who passed away in March, had advice for times like these.
“My mother used to say, ‘We have to be better than those people who hurt us. Just because they hurt us, don’t do the same thing to them. Maybe even show a level of tolerance and compassion they failed to show us, because there is a fine line sometimes between becoming a human being and becoming an animal and we have to show that we are better than that.’”
A small group of provocateurs carrying Palestinian flags, kept away from the vigil by police, screamed and taunted attendees throughout the event, including during two moments of silence, and vehicles repeatedly circled the venue, their occupants waving Palestinian flags and honking horns. A rally – ostensibly in support of Palestinians – was held several hours earlier at the same location as the vigil.
Monday’s event was organized by Daphna Kedem, who is the lead organizer of UnXeptable Vancouver, though the event was not affiliated with any group. The ad hoc vigil was organized before the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver scheduled a community solidarity event for the following evening, Oct. 10. Coverage of Tuesday’s event, which took place after the Independent went to press, is now online at jewishindependent.ca.
Daphna Kedem, one of the organizers, told the Independent that bringing the community together as soon as possible for mutual support was their priority. While awaiting notification of an event by community leaders, Kedem said, her group decided to schedule a gathering with haste.
“We are not waiting around for the community,” she said. “This is urgent and time-sensitive.”
“We are in the west, but our hearts very much are in the east,” said Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, senior rabbi at Temple Sholom. “We hold our loved ones and our families in those hearts and we come together as a community to pray and to mourn but also with resolve and resilience.”
Speaking above taunts and screaming from protesters on the sidelines, Moskovitz continued: “That’s what we want: to live in peace, to live in our native land in peace, to be together as human beings. Too often, the world ignores us. Too often, the silence is deafening. We who stand here today, we make our presence to call the world to conscience and to see us, to see how once again our people are in danger, our people are being killed and murdered and the world must not be silent again. We will not be silent. We are strong, we are a people with a nation now for the first time in 2,000 years and it will not slip from our grasp, it will not slip from our hearts or our minds or our prayers.”
Ofra Sixto, chef-owner of the Denman Street Israeli restaurant Ofra’s Kitchen, recounted her story of being harassed and of having her life threatened three years ago during a different time of conflict between Israel and Hamas. Then she made a prayer for those missing and for the survivors of those murdered.
“Please God, make them all come back home soon,” she said. “Please God, put solace in the hearts of the people who lost their loved ones.”
Another speaker recalled a year living near the Gaza Strip and hearing the endless sounds of explosions.
Memorial candles were placed in the shape of a Magen David. (photo by Pat Johnson)
“We are here tonight to remind ourselves and our people back in Israel that we are all one country, we are all one family, we are all together in this, united,” said another speaker. “Despite the tough year it’s been, with different opinions, we are all sticking together, especially when it gets tough. That’s our biggest strength.”
She then led the vigil in the song “Am Yisrael Chai.”
“My sister was sitting 13 hours in a shelter room and the terrorists roaming her kibbutz didn’t touch their home,” another speaker from the audience recounted. “It was a miracle.”
He added: “The one thing that our enemies cannot do is put a divider between the Jewish people and eretz Israel. Please remember that. There is no Jewish people without Israel and there is no Israel without the Jewish people.”
“This horrific attack was an attack on Israel,” said another member of the audience who spoke. “Moreover, it was an attack on all of those who value human life. I know that some people are of the belief that you are left to fight this battle alone. I’m neither Jewish nor Israeli and I’d like to tell you that there are millions of people around the world standing together with you. This includes me and many, many, many others.”
“We have a very simple message to the world today,” said Rabbi Shmulik Yeshayahu of the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel. “When we see those guys on the other side, and we see our crowd tonight, state proudly … we are human beings. We treat people fairly. We love Israel, we love humanity, we love the civil world.… We will never let terrorism take over. This is the message of Canada and all the Western world today.”
Yeshayahu lamented the hostages taken.
“We are talking about over 100 people, many of them little kids who were kidnapped, old people who survived the Holocaust and came to the holy land of Israel to live in a free country,” he said. “We are here for them.… No human being can stand by and see those bastards take little kids and kidnap 3-year-old kids and put them in a cage. This is not acceptable in 2023 and we are not going to be quiet about it. The eternal nation is not afraid of a long journey. We will defeat them.”
Rabbi Carey Brown, associate rabbi at Temple Sholom, said the prayer for Israeli soldiers in Hebrew, while a lone soldier who had served in the Israel Defence Forces a decade ago, shared the prayer in English. Rabbi Jonathan Infeld of Congregation Beth Israel led El Maleh Rachamim, the prayer for the souls of the departed.
After the main vigil, the Independent spoke with a number of attendees.
“With the horrors that happened in Israel, and all the innocents killed, bodies desecrated, kids getting kidnapped, I just had to come and show support,” said Adar Bronstein, who moved to Canada from Israel a decade ago. “I think local Jews and Israelis don’t really protest much. We’re actually quite a quiet society overall, so, when something as big as this happens, we have to make some sort of a stand. All my friends over there have been drafted and my Facebook page is full of my friends posting about their killed loved ones. My family is there and they are terrified. It’s been very, very difficult.”
“What brought me out tonight was seeing things that I didn’t think I would ever see in my life,” said Alex Greenberg. “This is my family, this is my people. I came just to show that people in Israel have support.”
Jillian Marks was huddled in a group of young women, some hugging and wiping away tears. The alumna of Vancouver Talmud Torah and King David is now a University of British Columbia student and president of the Israel on Campus club.
“We need to show that we are together, that we support each other in these times,” said Marks. “Just being here is a mitzvah and a blessing. I think it’s quite surreal. I have people fighting on the front lines. I have people missing. I have friends missing and friends hiding in bomb shelters. I’m just sad. But I’m grateful for the community here in Canada. I’m grateful we are all together tonight.”
A small group of Iranian Canadians waved the national flag of Iran – not the flag of the Islamic revolutionary government.
Dr. Masood Masjoody, a mathematician and activist against the Iranian regime, said he came “to show support for Israel and the Israeli people.”
He said he was surprised that anyone would be surprised to see him there.
“We’ve been dealing with the regime that has been behind these heinous attacks for more than 40 years – 44 years – so we know this regime more than any other nation in the world,” he said, referring to the Iranian regime’s support for anti-Israel terrorism.
There are many organizations through which people can donate to help Israel, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s Israel Emergency Campaign, at jewishvancouver.com/israel-fund.
Downtown Jerusalem is deserted apart from Israel Border Police deployed in Zion Square. (photo by Gil Zohar)
It is Oct. 9. My wife Randi calls me while I am riding Jerusalem’s all-but-empty light rail, returning from a bat mitzvah celebration of a forlorn family of tourists from Arizona who are stuck in Israel. We simultaneously hear the air-raid siren blaring as we talk. Fighter jets are screaming overhead. With an edge of panic in her voice, Randi asks me what she should do. I calmly instruct here to follow the Home Front Command orders for civilians, which we have repeatedly reviewed. I’ve downloaded the app on my cellphone.
Our beautiful stone home in downtown Jerusalem, built in 1886, lacks a reinforced steel and concrete bomb shelter, known by the Hebrew acronym MaMaD (Makom Mugan l’Diyur), a protected residential place.
I remind Randi go to the neighbour’s basement apartment quickly but without running, and to wait there. Grabbing Bella our dog, she leaves the apartment door and windows open so that a blast from an explosion will not result in the windows being shattered and glass debris obliterating our house.
Below-grade structures make for poor bomb shelters since poison gas is heavier than air, I think. But there is no alternative. Nine Bedouin children were killed by Hamas rocket fire in the Western Negev. Their village lacked a MaMaD.
We hear the twin boom of Israel’s air defence system, the Iron Dome, intercepting a rocket barrage fired from the Gaza Strip. The strike lights up the sky. The threat is over until the next alert. The media reports that seven civilians living in towns in the periphery of Jerusalem were wounded in the barrage.
At the time of this writing, nearly 1,000 Israeli civilians have been killed, including 260 massacred at the Nova festival near Kibbutz Re’im – an all-night party in the desert. More than 130 civilians and soldiers have been taken hostage and dragged back to Gaza. Apart from 35 Israel Defence Force soldiers who fell in the line of duty, the names of the deceased have not been released.
It remains unclear if Hezbollah will open a full-scale second front from Lebanon. Israel has threatened to destroy Damascus, the capital of Syria, which backs the Shi’ite terror group, should the war broaden to the north.
Families of the kidnapped, missing and 2,200 wounded civilians are begging for news. Israel remains shrouded by military censorship. Nor is the news from the 2.3 million people in Gaza any clearer. Al-Jazeera lists long-out-of-date statistics. Based on data reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry, the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Israeli Medical Services, 560 Gazans have been killed. That number is likely to rise substantially.
More than 48 hours from when Hamas attacked and war broke out at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, the IDF spokesperson announces that the army has neutralized the terrorists who overcame 22 cities and villages near Gaza. Israelis are being evacuated from the border area in anticipation of a ground invasion. Some are being housed in empty hotels near the Dead Sea.
I’ve offered our adjoining apartment. All our Airbnb guests have canceled. Apart from El Al, airlines have stopped flying to Ben-Gurion Airport.
The number of the dead, missing and wounded is surreal. The IDF has called up 300,000 reservists in the last 48 hours for what it has termed “Operation Swords of Iron.” Among them is my nephew Guy Carmeli, a Canadian-Israeli dual citizen and veteran tank gunner who lives in Herzliya with his wife Yael and 2-year-old son Oz. Randi doesn’t know of his callup. Maybe she’ll read it here. My wife doesn’t do well with stress.
A press release from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire. The statement reads: “No message has arrived from Egypt and the prime minister has neither spoken, nor met, with the head of Egyptian intelligence since the formation of the government, neither directly nor indirectly. This is totally fake news.”
The implication? Israelis must gird themselves itself for a “long and difficult war ahead,” according to Netanyahu.
The electronic tom-tom drums uniting immigrant Israelis have been busy. As I write this, nine Americans have been confirmed dead, and 10 Brits are assumed to have been killed.
Adi Vital-Kaploun, the adult daughter of Ottawa native Jacqui Vital and her husband Yaron who live in Jerusalem, was kidnapped from her home by the Gaza Strip. Adi’s two infant children, aged 1 and 3, were also taken hostage but were abandoned at the border by their captors who felt the children would slow down the gunmen’s retreat. [On Oct. 11, after the Independent went to press, it was announced that Vital-Kaploun had been murdered by Hamas terrorists.]
There are other Canadians missing, including former Winnipegger Vivian Silver. And there are Canadians who were killed by the terrorists: Alexandre Look, who grew up in Montreal, and Vancouverite Ben Mizrachi; both young men were among those killed at the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im.
Canadian-Israeli Shye Weinstein, who was at the festival, too, documented how he and his friends fled. He described their nail-biting escape to Tel Aviv: “We only slowed down for checkpoints and bodies.”
Nuseir Yassin, who writes the blog @nasdaily, described his conflict as an Arab citizen of Israel: “Personal Thoughts: (not for everyone, feel free to skip) For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like … wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word ‘Israel’ and call themselves ‘Palestinian’ only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So I decided to mix the two and become a ‘Palestinian-Israeli.’ I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be ‘invaded’ like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets. 900 Israelis died so far.
“More than 40 of them are Arabs. Killed by other Arabs. And even 2 Thai people died too. And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel. That’s where all my family lives. That’s where I grew up. That’s the country I want to see continue to exist so I can exist. Palestine should exist too as an independent state. And I hope to see the country thrive and become less extreme and more prosperous. I love Palestine and have invested in Palestine. But it’s not my home. So from today forward, I view myself as an ‘Israeli-Palestinian.’ Israeli first. Palestinian second.”
Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.
Editor’s note: This article is a reprint of an Oct. 7 Facebook post.
“What the heck?!” I sat up in bed and looked at my husband. There was a siren blaring.
Instinctively, I reached for my phone – but it wasn’t on my night table. I checked under my pillow, where did I put it?
Then I remembered. It was Shabbat and Simchat Torah. We had gotten home late last night after a beautiful celebration with the Torah in the small Chabad synagogue down the road. “Rabbi Heber’s Chabad,” as we called it, was filled with Jews from all over: Israel, Morocco, the former Soviet Union, and a small sprinkling of English-speakers. That night, everyone danced the “hakafot” together in unity, celebrating the beautiful gift God gave to us.
Before heading home, we hugged and told each other we’d be back tomorrow for the day celebrations, when again we’d dance around with the Torah together.
On Shabbat and Simchat Torah we don’t use electric technology, and so when the air raid siren blared, my phone was in my drawer on airplane mode.
My husband and I leaped out of bed. “You get the girls, I’ll get the boys!” I said.
The kids were already awake, all but little Leah had climbed out of bed and began running towards our shelter. My husband grabbed Leah and, within seconds, we were in our bomb shelter, door closed shut.
We were caught completely off guard. The kids were confused.
“Why didn’t you tell us there would be a siren?” my son asked.
We didn’t know. We didn’t expect it. Maybe it was just a fluke? Maybe the Israeli army assassinated a Hamas terrorist and there was going to be a couple rockets in retaliation?
The siren went on for awhile. We heard lots of explosions. When it stopped, my husband stepped out to look at the clock. It was 6 a.m. The sun would be up soon, not a chance of the kids going back to sleep. We sat on the living room couch and said the morning prayer, Modeh Ani, thank you God for returning my soul to me.
We wondered if the sirens would stop soon and if we’d be able to go to the synagogue to celebrate Simchat Torah. Moments later, we were back in the bomb shelter. Sirens, explosions, on and on and on.
During a small break, we returned to the couch and listened to the sounds of war. Early on a Saturday morning, there was no other noise pollution, and so we heard everything for miles around. Sirens in the distance, explosions, military jets taking off, first responders whizzing by.
“Mom, I hear booms, we should go back to the shelter.”
I explained to my kids how to tell if a boom is close or far. If it’s a deep sound, it’s in the distance. The higher the pitch, the closer.
Sirens again, back to the shelter.
“Mom, that boom was very close.”
It was. But it was a thud, no crashing explosive sounds after. It couldn’t have hit a building. The sirens continued, and we stayed put.
On our bomb shelter windowsill are a pair of gas masks, sitting there since the Gulf War of 1991. They’re useless now, but staring at them sent a shiver down my spine.
My husband and I looked at each other. This was no ordinary operation going on. We had already lost count, but were sure that hundreds of rockets had been fired at Be’er Sheva in the past few hours.
It wasn’t just the air-raid sirens; there were nonstop first-responder sirens, too. Way more than we ever remembered hearing during any military operation.
Finally, at 10 a.m., another break. Our bomb shelter gets very stuffy, so we were relieved to step into the living room, where we had all the windows open.
“It smells like smoke.”
My daughter was right. It did. We went out our front door and saw a thick cloud of dark smoke rising behind our home.
Our neighbour walked out of his house, followed by his teenage daughter.
“It’s the park!” she shouted. “The park behind our house is on fire!”
A rocket must have made impact there. Probably the one my son pointed out. Just a few metres away from our home.
Our neighbour looked at us, and realized we probably hadn’t seen the news.
“It’s a balagan,” he said. “They kidnapped a soldier, they’re shooting in Ofakim. Hundreds of rockets. It’s a mess.”
I didn’t process what he was saying. Shooting in the city of Ofakim? Kidnapped a soldier? I probably wasn’t understanding him right.
My son found a piece of shrapnel on the street, right next to our parked car. We went back inside. It stunk of smoke. I closed the windows.
More air-raid sirens. More explosions. Nonstop first-responders. Some sounded different – maybe military ambulances or fire trucks? Maybe there was another big fire and they were all rushing to put it out? I couldn’t imagine why else there would be so many. Just in case, I locked the doors.
More sirens, back to the shelter. We spent most of the morning in that stuffy room. It’s also our laundry room and dairy kitchenette. There were a few dishes in the sink, I washed them, tidied up a little.
We realized there was no going to synagogue today, and began prayers at home. By this time, the sirens were further spread apart, and we were
able to spend most of our time in the living room.
It was Simchat Torah. How would we do the hakafot dancing without a Torah? Without a community come together in joy?
My kids ran towards the bookshelf.
“Look! It’s Torah Ohr! Lekutei Torah! We can dance with these!”
My husband found a mini set of the five Torah books, my oldest daughter a Tanach – the complete Bible set in one.
The Simchat Torah dance goes around the bima, the table on which the Torah is read. First the congregants repeat lines from the prayer book after each other, sharing l’chaims in between, and then begin the dancing.
We gathered around our dining room table.
“L’chaim to the safety of the IDF and all of Israel!”
“L’chaim!”
My husband read the first line, my kids and I repeated.
“Atah horaisah l’dat.…”
Around the table we went, my husband and I, and the kids, each taking a line, some around the table, some in the bomb shelter.
Then we began the hakafot and danced around and around the table, holding up our Torah books. My littlest had chosen a giant Torah Ohr that was almost half her size. I couldn’t help but lift her up and dance around as she giggled away.
We paused in between hakafot, and I told the children a story: After the Holocaust, a few survivors returned to Vilna, in Lithuania. On Simchat Torah, they gathered in the grand
Vilna synagogue, but all the Torah scrolls were gone. There was one child. The survivors picked him up over
their shoulders and danced around with him, “This is our Torah! This is our future!”
We finished hakafot around our table, and ate a Simchat Torah lunch.
In the distance, we heard children singing: “Anachnu maaminim b’nei maaminim!” “We are believers, children of believers! We have no one to lean on but our Father in Heaven!” We sang along.
The sounds of war were loud. Too loud. Jets, explosions – that we knew. But why were there so many first-responders?
My husband stepped outside. Maybe there was another fire? The kids followed him.
A neighbour was pacing back and forth in the street, staring at his phone. My husband asked him why all the sirens.
“The sirens are nothing. Nothing. 80 dead. 800 injured. Who knows how many kidnapped. We are at war! You don’t want to know what you will see when you turn your phone on.”
My son ran back inside: “It’s a war! It’s a war! We need to lock the doors so they don’t come and shoot us.”
I felt like vomiting.
Be’er Sheva has the closest hospital to most Gaza border communities. The nonstop first-responder sirens were ambulances. Hundreds of ambulances carrying patients to the hospital.
“Kids, let’s say Psalms. The best we can do right now is pray for the people who were injured or kidnapped, and for the IDF soldiers to be successful.”
We said Psalms. My kids kept asking when we can check our phones. We were inside and safe; I felt we could wait until Shabbat was over. I wanted to wait. I didn’t want to see.
But Shabbat and Simchat Torah came to an end, and I saw.
I still have not processed.
More than 300 dead [at the time of original writing]. Well over a thousand injured. At least 52 kidnapped.
A mass door-to-door slaughter of Jews. In 2023.
I will not process this. It cannot be real.
Three kids are sleeping in our bomb shelter. My oldest refuses. She’s in her own bed, in a much-needed sleep.
I’m still hoping this is some messed-up nightmare and I’ll wake up soon to a good world, with the same amount of Jews alive as there was before Simchat Torah began.
Bruria Efune lives in Be’er Sheva with her husband Mendy and four children. She is co-founder of Ohr Chabad, building a new community in Israel. Born in Vancouver, she is the daughter of Rabbi Tzvi and Nomi Freeman.
The Jewish community worldwide is experiencing pain and despair. Feelings of grief for the murdered, empathy for the injured, rage at the perpetrators and anguish and terror for the kidnapped are overwhelming. The deep heartbreak is palpable.
While events in the past have harmed Israelis’ sense of security and hopes for peace, these attacks seem to have shattered them. The invasion of Jewish homes, the seizing of Jewish people, young and old, reaching for their loves ones as they are dragged away – these are images hauntingly redolent of a stateless past, without a government capable of preventing large-scale, coordinated assaults on the dignity, human rights, freedom and lives of Jews. The magnitude of this terror, with the heart-rending images and videos that illustrate the dehumanization in a way impossible until recent technological advances, means this moment is uniquely affecting.
Israeli politicians and military strategists have largely aimed to “manage” the conflict. Now, there will be calls for a lasting resolution. Israelis will not tolerate a second experience like this. After a decade and a half of successive skirmishes and wars with Hamas, many, including top military officials, are warning this will be the last.
A resolution to the status quo is something everyone – even Hamas terrorists – agree on. What that resolution will look like is where differences emerge. The approach Israel takes will affect not only the reality there but, secondarily, the world’s attitudes and approaches to Israel … and to Jews, as is often the case. There is fear and anger and understandable calls for retribution – actions that, at press time, were partly being tempered by the presence in Gaza of an estimated hundred-plus hostages from Israeli villages and towns.
History has shown one thing to be sure of, and to brace for – the window of empathy for Israeli victims will inevitably close. The author Dara Horn wrote that “people love dead Jews.” What the world seems to welcome far less enthusiastically are Jews, and a Jewish state, that are very much alive, with agency in the world. As Israel’s response rolls out, we can expect much of the nascent public sympathy to evaporate.
We cannot predict the mayhem and pain that seems imminent for both Israelis and Palestinians in the coming days, weeks, months and possibly years as a result of this radically changed circumstance. However, the temptation to assert that “this changes everything” is almost certainly false. Some things will remain the same.
There is a core of intolerance and hatred at the heart of opposition to the Jewish presence in the region and to Jewish national self-determination. Peace has rarely seemed further away.
Not incidentally, some of the central values of Israeli society – providing affected individuals and families with support and resources in times of crisis – have been left to individuals and various networks of mutual aid. The governmental and political failure goes beyond not having been prepared for the terrorist attacks but extends to the aftermath. Families have been left by their government with little communication or intelligence on their lost, possibly dead, loved ones. Among all the sacred things left in ruins today, this may prove to be one of the most shattering remnants from this time. That, at least, was something that Israelis could rely on – and even that has been ripped away.
For Jewish Canadians, this conflict is at once so far away and so close and, for some of us – like the family and friends of Ben Mizrachi, the young Vancouver man murdered Saturday – so very close. Wherever we are, we must be there for one another, across all lines of geography, affiliation, background and, yes, politics. Right now, a resolution forced by military might be the preference of the most vocal people. The middle of a war can be a hard time to talk about peace. A moment of agony and outrage is a difficult moment to encourage reflection and restraint. And yet, lasting peace and justice depends on what happens next and how our institutions react. We cannot control the actions of others, as psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankel suggested, we can only control our responses to these events. This is the choice each of us makes as we assimilate the inhumanity around us and reflect on our deeply held values.
As a kid, I remember sitting through High Holidays with my family at our Reform congregation. We’d hit a section in the services where the English responsive reading, inspired by the Hebrew, used words like “awe,” “awesome” and “supreme.” There were smirks and stifled giggles as we passed this yearly reading. Why? Our family had discussed it at a holiday meal, and we agreed this sounded like a really big pizza special. It was hard to concentrate after that, thinking about pizza.
This moment hit me again when I heard Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe, one of the rabbis at Temple Rodef Shalom in Virginia, give a Kol Nidre sermon about awe, gratitude and wonder. It was powerful. Before I get into the details, we chose to stream services again this year from home in Winnipeg. In part, it’s so we can be a part of two worlds – my parents’ congregation in Virginia, where I grew up, and our Winnipeg synagogue, too. After the holiday, I can discuss sermons with my mom as if I had been sitting beside her during services and this is meaningful. For many people who are apart from their families during holidays, using shared moments to bond is important.
Even though I knew our choice to stay home made sense, I felt pressured to “get back to normal” and “be together again,” especially when a synagogue publication suggested that those who chose to stream did so for “mobility reasons.” (Not all those who choose to stay home have the same challenges. There are multiple reasons to stay home.)
Back to Rabbi Saxe’s sermon, which touched on the ways that the rabbis created liturgy that helps us remain grateful, and even encourages experiences of awe and wonder. If you see a rainbow, there’s a prayer for that. There are specific prayer formulas for eating fruits, snacks, and there’s even, Rabbi Saxe mentioned, a prayer for after you’ve gone to the bathroom. At this, some in the congregation laughed.
I felt shame. Not only is the bathroom prayer something I’ve written about and, yes, recited, but it’s also something I might have laughed at as a kid. Without going into details, thanking G-d for the intricacies of how our bodies work, opening and closing appropriately at the right times, can be absolutely meaningful. If you doubt this, maybe you have been very lucky and never had food poisoning or a stomach virus. Yes, we smirk and laugh when we feel uncomfortable, sure. Also, it’s when we take things like being healthy for granted.
I also felt weird guilt about not being in a congregational community over the holidays, even though we had a holiday meal with another family, dressed up, streamed services and took time off together. I felt strange checking messages over Yom Kippur. Then something happened.
Within a short period of time, two of our close family friends ended up in the hospital. One is in his 80s, in ICU, with COVID. The other friend is 5 years old, and she has a sister who is a newborn.
During Yom Kippur, the 5-year-old was admitted to Children’s Hospital after being up all night in the emergency room.
In the middle of Yom Kippur services, I got up, went to the kitchen and gathered together food for the parents for this unexpected stay. This is why we make the second round challah, I thought, as I threw it in the bag. I left my family, hopped in the car while fasting, and navigated the hospital until I found the room with one dear-to-us child with her oxygen mask, her exhausted-looking parents and their infant. I handed them the food, it wasn’t time for a visit, and rushed out again.
Somewhere on the drive home, I processed what had happened. I felt a profound sense of awe. I had been in exactly the right place. If I’d gone to services in person, I wouldn’t have been online or known that our friends’ child had been admitted to the hospital. I wouldn’t have been able to rush out and offer food, a quick bikkur holim (visiting the sick), and support her family. Leaving the twilight of their windowless hospital room, I was blinded by sunlight as I left the garage. I parked in front of our house and took a moment to cry.
Our liturgy traditionally links daily gratitude with prayer. This is an automatic check-in with nature, our bodies and the world to see and wonder at what’s around us. However, we’re all too likely to get sarcastic, cynical and, frankly, depressed. Mental health experts recommend expressing gratitude and getting into nature to improve our health, but the rabbis, like other faith traditions, prescribed it a long time ago.
It’s easy to ignore the natural world or our bodily functions. I’ve become increasingly aware of the sensory overload in our society. Some people easily manage very stimulating environments, like a dance club or even a household with the TV and radio on, a dog barking and a phone ringing, all at once. Others cannot manage this much. Sometimes, it’s diagnosed as a sensory processing disorder, but this can mean different things. There’s a person who cannot manage too much input, and the person who needs fidget toys and constant stimulation to maintain equilibrium. Nature or the trendier “forest bathing” can sometimes help us find balance.
As I head into autumn, I’m seeking fewer big events or gatherings. Here’s to quiet moments of awe. One of my kids is a new band student. His enthusiasm about his instrument is contagious. I cannot wait to play sax duets and “honk” together. The other kid has been spotting woodpeckers on our dog walks and pointing out migrating birds as the weather turns.
Rabbi Saxe closed his sermon with Genesis 28:16, when Jacob wakes up and says, “Surely, G-d is in this place and I did not know it!” Perhaps, like Jacob, we can all wake up and discover the joys of small wonders, too. We just have to slow down, open up and look for them.
Joanne Seiffhas written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.
Karina Bromberg during Eden Shabtai‘s Elevate Intensive in Los Angeles in August 2022. (photo from Karina Bromberg)
“I think the difference between my dream as a kid and my wanting to do this professionally was getting to experience the behind-the-scenes of what it means to be a professional dancer and choreographer,” Karina Bromberg, 21, told the Independent. “I fell in love with the journey towards the ‘goal’ of being in a movie or on stage and that’s what made me want to keep pursuing this career path.”
Bromberg is the producer and director of the rishon series, which integrates choreography with live music, videography, photography and fashion. The first iteration, rishon.1, was held this past June and rishon.2 will take place at SKL Design+Vision in Burnaby on Oct. 14, at 1:30 p.m.
“Drawing from the knowledge acquired during the creation of rishon.1 and a careful analysis of the final product, my focus for the second instalment has primarily been on elevating the visuals displayed on screen, refining the choreography and creatively designing the performance space,” Bromberg shared with the Independent.
“Given that rishon serves as a platform for emerging and diverse creatives to converge, the cast for rishon.2 is intentionally different, maintaining a commitment to inclusivity and diversity. While the overarching goal and concept remain consistent,” she said, “the skills honed from the first iteration have empowered me to progress and further enrich what rishon offers to both the audience and the dedicated crew involved.”
The idea for rishon came in 2021, when Bromberg and a friend, during a freestyle session, gave each other different objectives to dance.
“I noticed I would analyze and apply the objective to my dance through the senses: How does it look? How would it feel? What smell would it have? Does it make a sharp, or soft sound?” said Bromberg, who is originally from Karmiel, Israel. “It was then that the idea to create something that will somehow involve the five senses formed. Months of pondering the idea led me to realize it needed to evolve into an in-person showcase, which later took the name rishon, meaning ‘first’ in Hebrew.”
Wanting to stage something different, Bromberg searched for venues that would allow audience members to stand amid the artists. “The ultimate goal,” she said, “was to create an immersive and intimate environment where both the audience and the artists were on the same level. Concurrently, I began working closely with TRS, a music artist, and was involved in campaigns for a fashion brand; getting to know artists from different industries, I saw the potential to bring us all together in one space. I expanded on rishon’s creative framework by bringing in the elements of live music, fashion design, modeling and video content of art created for screen.”
Bromberg has been dancing seriously since the age of 5, doing competitive aerobics in Israel, and, at 12, starting “hip-hop, house, popping and dancehall classes at the local dance studio,” she said. “I was dancing competitively at dance competitions like Hip Hop International in Israel and, upon immigrating to Canada, I stopped for about a year. It took me and my parents some time to understand how things work here and to find a studio we could afford and I could easily commute to alone. So, in the meantime, I learned routines off YouTube and danced in my living room.”
Bromberg was 14 when her family moved to Vancouver, and she admits to having been “resistant and closed-minded about the move … but my parents strived and worked hard to open up more doors and provide a better future for me and my younger brother.
“The story of why Vancouver is pretty funny,” she added. “My mom liked to go on Google Earth and see different neighbourhoods and, when she saw the Science World ball, she decided we were going to Vancouver. It was pretty, and less cold than the rest of Canada – which, coming from Israel, was important to us!”
Bromberg’s resumé now includes dancing in Netflix, Paramount+ and CW productions.
“In 2019,” she said, “there was a big audition for Christmas Chronicles 2, choreographed by Chris Scott. Unrepresented by a dance agency, I attended the audition and made it to the last round. I remember having a lot of fun, but I didn’t set my expectations too high. Two months later, while visiting my family in Israel, I received an email confirming that I had booked the job. It was such a proud and surreal moment. Being my first job, I absorbed a wealth of knowledge and remain thankful for the opportunity extended to me.
“The onset of COVID-19 resulted in a work hiatus until 2021, when I was directly booked for a short dance scene in Honey Girls. Being unrepresented at the time, I diligently pursued and submitted self-tapes to anything I could find. In the same year, I booked Monster High, my biggest commercial job to date. It was three months in length, and one of the best times of my life. I was invited back to dance in Monster High 2 in the beginning of 2023 and, following this gig, I was able to get represented by a local dance agency. I recently wrapped up filming for Riverdale Season 7, Episode 14, marking another milestone in my journey.”
Bromberg said she has always loved performing and would help choreograph end-of-the-year shows in her elementary school back in Israel. “I’ve just always had a pull to perform and dance and move my body,” she said. “I’ve always dreamed of being on the big stages or in music videos ever since I was allowed to watch MTV, but I think the dream became something more solid and realistic in my mind in 2021 when I was visiting LA to perform at a showcase. I have been training with a company based in LA since May 2020, four to five times a week over Zoom in my room or garage. The opportunity to work with the choreographer in person and to be in the room with people I look up to, I remember feeling so in my purpose and starting to believe even more that this is what I am supposed to be doing.”
Falling in love with the journey towards her goal includes a commitment to creating. She has videos on her website of solo dances that she has choreographed.
“I wanted to practise dancing for the camera, as well as start investing in my own ideas,” she said. “I often have a vision for visual art that can be made when I listen to songs, and I enjoy directing these videos and filming them, so I made a promise to myself to go through with every idea that doesn’t leave my mind and I have the itch to create.”
Several of the videos feature the music of Baby Keem.
“The production on the songs and Baby Keem’s delivery have stuck out to me since the first time I heard him, and the pull to choreograph and create to his music has been unstoppable since,” she explained. “I recently watched an interview with him, where he talks about constantly living in his art and taking inspiration from anything he does … and I feel very much the same. I go to concerts and watch for the creative direction, the choreography, the show flow, or I will put on a movie or a TV show and look at angles it was shot from and the editing. I am constantly playing music no matter what it is I’m doing and I often hit the ‘go to radio’ feature on Spotify to discover new artists and genres to continue the creative flow and keep an open mind. The inspiration comes from everything I do, consume and engage with.”
In this context, it is easier to see how Bromberg conceived and mounted the multifaceted rishon.
“From a technical standpoint, bringing rishon.1 to fruition in June required extensive research, numerous emails, location scouting, securing funds and making quick adjustments,” she said. “It was a significant learning experience for me, considering I had never organized an event before…. Building a team was crucial to me, and each member brought unique and specialized knowledge, contributing to the success of the show.
“Reflecting on the process, I almost forget the hard and consistent efforts, along with the many no’s I encountered while seeking funding and assembling my team,” she said. “Looking back, the overwhelming feeling is how right everything felt…. Creatively, outlining the show came naturally. I knew I wanted the soundtrack to be one album, and the ideas just flew to me. I went with my first thought, leaving no room for second-guessing. Whenever anxiety or ‘imposter syndrome’ crept in, I looked back at the progress I’d made, refocused on the work, and found it dissipating.”
Juno-nominated klezmer group Oktopus brings their unique sound and high energy performance to Massey Theatre on Oct. 21. The New Westminster concert is the culmination of a BC tour that includes Oliver, Quadra Island, Duncan, Nanaimo, Salt Spring Island and Victoria.
Oktopus’s eight virtuoso musicians meld various components of classical, Quebecois and jazz repertoires. Their distinctive music is undeniably rooted in the klezmer tradition, reflecting the rich history of a thousand-year-old community, its persecutions and celebrations, tears and laughter, or both at the same time. Musicians of yesteryear incorporated in their repertoire the music they encountered on their journeys and, just like them, the members of Oktopus are inspired by the music they hear throughout their own travels.
The Montreal-based Oktopus octet was formed in 2010 at the initiative of clarinetist Gabriel Paquin-Buki, creator of musical arrangements and several original compositions. (See jewishindependent.ca/blues-klezmer-at-mission.)
After releasing its debut album, Lever l’encre, in 2014, Oktopus released Hapax in 2017, which earned nominations as Instrumental Album of the Year at the Juno Awards and World Music Group of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. For more on the ensemble, visit oktopus.ca. For tickets to the Oct. 21 concert, go to masseytheatre.com/event/massey-presents-oktopus.
Music and pop culture journalist Eve Barlow will speak at Choices on Nov. 5. (PR photo)
Two large-scale philanthropic events are slated for the coming weeks as part of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign. On Oct. 22, men’s philanthropy will host the inaugural Texas Hold’em Poker Night, which will take place in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Wosk Auditorium. And, on Nov. 5, women’s philanthropy will host the 19th annual Choices event, which will be held this year at Congregation Beth Israel.
Know when to hold ’em
“We wanted to create a new event that brought people together to strengthen their commitment to the community through tzedakah,” said Michael Nemirow, men’s philanthropy chair. “Knowing our community, and the men’s division in particular, our campaign chair, Shay (Shy) Keil, organized a poker tournament … as a way to increase participation through a fun event that people will look forward to attending. We have already received a tremendous response from the community, as well as requests for when the next one will be. If you haven’t yet reserved your spot, please register now at jewishvancouver.com to be part of this special event.”
One of the more popular forms of poker, Texas Hold’em can consist of between two and 10 players. Each player is dealt two private cards (known as “hole cards”) that belong to them alone. Five community cards are dealt face-up, to form “the board.” All players in the game use these shared community cards in conjunction with their own hole cards to each make their best possible five-card poker hand.
Pollock Clinics, which specializes in men’s sexual health, among other things, is presenting the poker event along with Federation. Dr. Neil Pollock and his wife Michelle have a long-standing history of supporting a diverse range of philanthropic causes. Michelle Pollock currently serves as co-chair, with David Fox, of Federation’s Israel and global engagement committee.
Other poker night sponsors include InstaFund, Glotman-Simpson Consulting Engineers and ZLC; beer will be provided in-kind by Mark James of Red Truck Beer Co. There will be three cash prizes – $750, $500 and $250, respectively – for the top three finishers.
Registration for the Texas Hold’em event and a deli dinner begin at 5 p.m., with the tournament starting at 6 p.m. The cost for a poker seat, which includes dinner and drinks, is $180.
Strength of Jewish women
Two weeks following the Texas Hold’em Poker Night, Choices takes place, starting at 11 a.m.
“We are honoured to have the opportunity as co-chairs and friends to bring women from our across our community together to celebrate the strength of women’s philanthropy,” said Choices co-chairs Lisa Averbach and Jaclyn Dayson. “As we are always looking for new ways to engage our community, we have a fresh new format this year. We invite everyone to join us for brunch and to hear from the incredibly impactful speaker, Eve Barlow. Eve will be joining us to speak on the important conversation of antisemitism and how important the ‘Power of Together’ is in our community, families and greater society.”
“Power of Together” is the theme of this year’s annual campaign, and tickets for Choices are $85 plus a minimum donation of $154 to the campaign – or a $36 minimum donation for first-time attendees. In addition to purchasing tickets for themselves, donors can buy an angel ticket (or tickets) to ensure that any Jewish woman who wants to can attend Choices, regardless of their income.
This will be the first time that Choices is held as a brunch, rather than as a dinner event. The main speaker, Barlow, is a music and pop culture journalist. Based in Los Angeles, she is a powerful advocate on social media in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Zionism online.
Originally from Glasgow, Barlow lives in Los Angeles. She has served as deputy editor of New Musical Express, or NME, an entertainment periodical in Britain, and she is a regular contributor to New York Magazine, the Guardian, Billboard, the Los Angeles Times and GQ, among other publications.
In 2020 and 2021, Barlow was selected by The Algemeiner as one of the top 100 people positively impacting Jewish life. For that distinction, the journal cited a quote from a 2020 article Barlow posted on medium.com, which read, “My Zionism is what makes me pro-Palestinian because how could I deny someone’s right to self-determination? I am a Zionist and I am pro-Palestinian.”
The goal of Choices is to engage women in the community “towards the fulfilling work of making the world a better place,” notes the press material. Speakers at previous Choices have included Ellen Schwartz, the founder of Project Give Back; philanthropist and entrepreneur Jill Zarin; and Michelle Hirsch, a Cleveland businesswoman who spearheaded fundraising efforts to help the Jewish community in Houston following Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Funds raised from Federation’s annual campaign support numerous organizations and causes both locally and internationally, and help seniors, vulnerable families and low-income individuals, among other things. To register for Texas Hold’em Poker Night and Choices, go to jewishvancouver.com.
Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Members of the North Central BC Jewish community were joined by supportive residents from all backgrounds, local print and broadcast media were in attendance, and a segment of the gathering was broadcast live on local Global news. Many local dignitaries attended as well, including Todd Doherty, member of Parliament, Cariboo-Prince George; Shirley Bond, member of the Legislative Assembly, Prince George-Valemount; Simon Yu, mayor of Prince George; Trudy Klassen and Garth Frizzell, councilors, City of Prince George.
