The Kitchen is new JFS hub

JFS Vancouver staff member Golriz Boroomand, left, and chief executive officer Tanja Demajo. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Tucked into a neighbourhood of low-rise industrial buildings, warehouses and mixed-use developments west of Main Street and south of Olympic Village is the new locus of Jewish Family Services Vancouver. The Kitchen, which opened mid-April, is the people-friendly hub for many of the programs JFS delivers to hundreds of clients every month.

“The Kitchen is an integration of a number of services that address poverty issues,” said

Tanja Demajo, chief executive officer of JFS Vancouver, which operates the Kitchen. While some components of the Kitchen’s programs are still on hold pending the end of the pandemic, it is already a busy and social environment. Clients can come weekly to pick up supplies from the Jewish Food Bank. While there, if they want, clients can meet with a caseworker to discuss access to government supports, meet with social workers or housing advocates or access other services. Behind the reception area are three private offices for caseworkers to meet with community members.

JFS still maintains a head office on Clark Drive, where some administrative work takes place, and where services best delivered in a less-social environment – such as counseling programs and services to Holocaust survivors – are offered. But the Kitchen really is the beating heart of JFS now.

“For example, with the seniors, they often have complex needs in terms of health, in terms of managing the relationship with the landlord, with different service providers, and the social worker is pretty much a point person and coordinates all that care for the client,” Demajo said. With many British Columbians, including too many seniors, unable to find a permanent family doctor, JFS can help connect them with help and accompany them to appointments if requested, she added.

“People who don’t have a [general practitioner] come and they need a prescription,” said Demajo. “Often, they aren’t comfortable going to just a general walk-in clinic, but often that’s the way to start. In many situations, our caseworkers would also go with the client to see the doctor, if they don’t feel like they can go on their own. We often try to see if we can find someone who will take them as a [patient] and it’s the same thing with the dentist. That’s how we work with people. When people are struggling to pay some of the bills because, of course, there’s a lot of unexpected emergencies, then we support them with that.”

Poverty is not only an economic challenge, she said, but a social one, too.

“It’s important just to acknowledge that people living in poverty are also dealing with a lot of isolation,” she said. So the busy and welcoming space the Kitchen provides is serving more than one need.

While the food bank has been operated by JFS in partnership with Jewish Women International for 15 years, this is the first time the program has had a permanent, purpose-built warehouse. In the back of the building, in a high-ceilinged space, are food-laden shelves, refrigerators and sorting spaces.

A parallel program is meals for those who are not able to prepare healthy dishes themselves, either temporarily due to illness or more permanently. JFS has had a meal delivery program for some time, but it was supplied through a third party. With a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen, JFS is now making their own plant-based kosher meals for delivery.

This component has allowed JFS to build relationships with farmers, which allows food bank clients the opportunity to select fresh produce.

“There are vegetables, berries, whatever is available on the farm,” said Demajo. “Customers can go to this online platform, choose what they want and pick it up from here on Thursday. The nice thing is that, again, people of different backgrounds can come here and connect with each other without knowing what their needs are.”

At the Kitchen, Tuesday is Breakfast Club.

“It’s a day for families,” Demajo said. “What they receive through the program is fresh vegetables and fruit, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, bread, peanut butter and cereals.” (There are dairy products in take-away food programs but the commercial kitchen is strictly pareve.)

Other food-related programs JFS delivers include Cooked with Chesed, through which clients can have five meals delivered every two weeks, featuring plates such as borscht, mushroom penne pasta, vegetarian Cobb salad, coconut chickpea curry and spaghetti and “meat” balls. Also available at the Kitchen are food vouchers that allow people to do their own shopping.

While pandemic restrictions have kept a damper on some of the social aspects, Demajo looks forward to a post-COVID world where the place will be hopping even more than it is now.

“This will hopefully become really a community hub,” she said. “Our hope was really to have a dedicated space for the community that JFS serves because one of the things that we recognized over the years is that JFS clients do not have space for gathering. They could come to different spaces, but they didn’t have their own dedicated space.”

This, she said, is why the Kitchen has a host of homey touches – artwork, photo displays, a play area for kids, a small library and, adjacent the kitchen itself, a café-like space where communal meals will occur when safe to do so.

The combined food programs serve more than 1,600 people. The food bank itself serves about 950 people.

“These numbers are constantly changing because some people stay with us for a long time, some people use the supports temporarily,” said Demajo.

Funding for the programs comes from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, private donors, and some federal and provincial government funding.

“When it comes to food, we’re also trying to build more partnerships and relationships where there is more in-kind food as well,” Demajo said.

Because they have a dedicated food storage space, including plenty of refrigerated shelves, the agency can now take in more perishable items than they could have accepted in the past. That means more fresh and healthy food for clients.

JFS has relationships with four farms – in Langley, Richmond, Pemberton and Chilliwack – that provide seasonal specialties.

“There are a lot of educational opportunities,” Demajo noted. “They have some animals there and provide not just food … so the plan is that down the road we also do some different programming with them as well.”

Familiar face celebrates 100

Goldie Kassen celebrated her 100th birthday on Aug. 12. (photo from Barbara Taranto)

Goldie Kassen, who turned 100 on Aug. 12, was fêted by family and friends from across Canada and around the world.

“My entire family was here for my birthday,” she told the Independent over the weekend. That includes two sons from Vancouver, another son from Alberta and a daughter from Israel, as well as 13 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. In all, about 40 fully vaccinated guests celebrated at the home of son Dr. Barry Kassen.

“A lot of the children of my friends were there,” she added. “My friends are gone, but their children came from Calgary, Montreal.… I had a lot of out-of-town people.”

Kassen was born in D’Arcy, Sask., in 1921. While there were a number of Jewish farm colonies during that era in Saskatchewan, D’Arcy was not one of them.

“My parents were the only Jewish people there,” she said. “My father came to Canada in the early 1900s. He went to Montreal. He worked there for awhile, then he heard about this land that he could get, so he went out to the land with an axe and a hammer and made his start there. Then my mother joined him about four years later.”

The couple had met and married in the area just outside Kiev, Ukraine. “The town was destroyed during the Holocaust – and the people,” said Kassen.

While the family fled Europe well in advance of the Nazi era, they nevertheless experienced tragedy. A daughter in Ukraine died of pneumonia at three months of age. After the migration to Saskatchewan, another daughter also died of pneumonia, at age 10. That left one son, but then came another son and, finally, Goldie.

“I had wonderful parents,” she recalled. “We lived off the land. What we grew, we ate. We didn’t have money. My mother had a huge garden and we ate everything that she grew. My father, of course, eventually got cattle, so we had our own beef. We just lived off what they produced. There wasn’t any money for extras.”

Her father was handy with carpentry and built the elementary school in D’Arcy where Goldie got her primary education. The building still stands, she said, but it is now used as a church.

There was a high school in D’Arcy, too, but it was six miles from the farm, so Goldie moved to Winnipeg, where her elder brother, 13 years her senior, and his wife had set up home. She graduated from St. John’s Technical High School, then returned to the farm. She wanted to go into nursing, but her father said there was no money for a three-year program, so she enrolled in a business course in Saskatoon.

For four years, she was a stenographer for a lawyer.

“I met my husband during the war years,” she said, referring to Abraham Kassen. She and other members of her Jewish youth group would be bused to dance halls to attend events for soldiers stationed nearby. “I met him at one of these dances,” she said.

“He was working in a store called Adilman’s in Saskatoon. It was a huge department store.”

Although the store closed in 1974, the building still stands in Saskatoon and is recognized as one of the city’s finest remaining examples of Streamline Moderne architecture – think art deco rounded corners and sleek silver accents.

“He was the head of the shoe department,” said Kassen. “Eventually, he became the manager of the whole store.”

The couple had twin boys, then another boy and finally a daughter.

“My children all did well for a mother who came from …” she paused and began to laugh, “I don’t know where.”

After raising her family, Kassen was asked by the Saskatoon Jewish community to become the local representative for JIAS, Jewish Immigrant Aid Services.

“The [Jewish] Russians were coming out of Russia in 1979 and they needed someone in Saskatoon,” she recounted. “I met them at the plane and I found places for them to live, I found jobs for them, I took their children to register for school. I settled over 100 Russians in Saskatoon.”

Even though her parents were from the Russian empire, she didn’t know much of the language to ease the work of settling newcomers. “I know two words,” she said, again with her quick laugh.

“I did that from 1979 until I left Saskatoon.”

Abraham died in 1986 and the two sons who live in Vancouver (both doctors) convinced her to move to the coast.

Any regrets about the move? “Never.”

Kassen didn’t know much about Vancouver or the Jewish community here when she arrived. But she did know a number of people from Saskatoon who had retired to the Louis Brier Home and Hospital. So, she walked in and volunteered shortly after arriving in town in 1988.

“I have to have something to occupy my time,” she said. “I worked there for over 25 years. Thirteen of those years I was the manager, the buyer and the bookkeeper of the gift shop.”

Her imprint on the gift shop was very personal. In addition to serving as a sort of tuck shop where residents can buy a chocolate bar or odds and ends, Kassen stocked it with collectibles she assembled from around Metro Vancouver and much further afield. Her frequent trips to Israel resulted in suitcases filled with kippot, tallitot, seder plates, mezuzot and other Judaica and tchotchkes that she thought shoppers might like.

Her time at the gift shop came to an abrupt end on Feb. 4 last year. With the emergence of the COVID pandemic, and on the advice of her MD son, she decided to close up shop. “I didn’t realize at the time that it would be the end,” she said.

The energy she devoted to the gift shop has not dissipated. “I still bake my own bread,” she said. “I gave away about eight challah on Rosh Hashanah. I’m always baking and cooking. I’m happy.”

The Independent spoke to her Sunday, just before she put a leg of lamb in the oven for family guests.

Phyllis and Michael Moscovich have been friends with Goldie since she arrived on the coast. Michael went to B’nai B’rith camp in Alberta with the Kassen boys.

“Her outlook on life is just always positive,” said Phyllis. “She just seems to take everything as it comes and to be cheerful all the time and positive all the time. I think that is who she is. She makes everyone around her feel good. Every time she comes to me for a meal, she brings something homemade with her. She cooks and bakes more than I will do in my lifetime, with ease. She just does it. That’s just who she is.”

Asked the inevitable question about the secret to longevity, the centenarian credits a healthy start and a refusal to settle down.

“I think the fact that I grew up eating from the earth, no toxins, everything was pure, I think that  gave me a good start,” she said. “I’ve always kept myself busy volunteering. I have to be busy. I can’t just sit and sleep. I have to be doing something or making something. I have a determination to keep going and I’m going to work on the next hundred now.”

A special open house

Highlights of the Scotiabank Dance Centre’s 20th anniversary celebration include a performance on the outside wall of the building by aerial dance company Aeriosa. (photo by Louise Cecil)

Scotiabank Dance Centre celebrates its 20th anniversary on Oct. 2 with a special edition of its annual open house. Highlights include a performance on the outside wall of the building by dance company Aeriosa; a creative activation of the Granville Street frontage by Company 605 and guests; free classes, events and exhibits; and the online première of a short film by Milos Jakovic and Hossein Fani.

“The Scotiabank Dance Centre is an important and colourful feather in Vancouver’s cultural cap,” said Jewish community member Linda Blankstein, a former Dance Centre board chair and current Dance Foundation board chair. The facility was built “specifically for dance in all its creative forms, from hip hop to ballet and flamenco to contemporary and everything in between,” she said. “Pre-COVID, the building would see approximately 87,000 people pass through its front door every year. It is extremely important for people of all ages, from toddlers to seniors, and amateur to professional dancers, to have a facility where creativity is shared while nurturing a sense of belonging for individuals seeking activity and connection.”

One of the centre’s studios is named after another Jewish community member, Judith Marcuse, who has had her offices and rehearsal space in the building since its inception.

Some of the highlights of the open house – for which all recommended COVID-19 protocols will be in place – include Aeriosa’s Home/Domicile, choreographed by Julia Taffe in collaboration with visual artists Sarah E. Fuller and Stuart Ward. This new aerial dance work is inspired by moths, and the dancers, wearing “moth” cloaks designed by Fuller, will perform on the north wall.

Company 605’s SPLAY comprises a special program of artists who will animate various spaces of the Scotiabank Dance Centre building. Each artist will create encounters for viewers inside and outside, making their process and practice visible, culminating in a sharing of intimate performance experiences across a variety of formats.

There will also be a performance of excerpts of new works in progress from artists Sujit Vaidya, an exponent of Bharatanatyam (a form of Indian classical dance), and Dumb Instrument Dance. Classes include tap and footwork with Danny Nielsen and Shay Kuebler; flamenco with Kasandra “La China” of Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy; hip hop, breaking, waacking and contemporary with Cristina Bucci of OURO Collective; and AfroBeats with AKS Bison.

The documentary by Jakovic and Fani – which has the working title of Our Dance – will also be screened. It captures the impact Scotiabank Dance Centre has had on the dance community over the 20 years of its existence.

Housing six dance studios and a theatre, Scotiabank hosts hundreds of rehearsals, classes, workshops, performances and events every year.

“It has been immensely rewarding to see how Scotiabank Dance Centre, which began as a dream so many years ago, has contributed to the arts scene in our city and the growth of B.C.’s dance community,” said Mirna Zagar, executive director of the Dance Centre, which operates the building and runs programming. “As hub for dance, it provides high-quality studio space, but it is much more than just a building: we have nurtured a stimulating environment that is supportive of the creative potential of dance artists, contributing to a thriving synergy within the arts sector in Canada.”

Oct. 2’s open house runs from 1 to 6 p.m. at Scotiabank Dance Centre. For more information, call 604-606-6400 or visit thedancecentre.ca.

– Courtesy Scotiabank Dance Centre

Ida Nudel passes away

A cover story in the Oct. 14, 1987, JWB announced that Ida Nudel would be granted her long-sought-after exit visa from the USSR.

In the Jewish Independent’s special 90+1 issue this past May, reader Ronnie Tessler recalled one of the regular features of the JI’s predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin – the Gulag Record. Starting in 1978, the paper regularly reminded readers of how many days certain refuseniks were being held in the Gulag in the former USSR. One of the refuseniks featured, Ida Nudel, died this month, on Sept. 14, at the age of 90.

“The subject of a worldwide campaign to free her, Nudel has been variously regarded as the ‘soul of the Jewish immigration movement’ in the USSR and the ‘mother of Soviet refuseniks,’” reads the Oct. 14, 1987, JWB cover story announcing that Nudel would be granted an exit visa from the USSR.

“During her unflinching efforts to leave the Soviet Union, she has suffered innumerable hardships and indignities: almost four years imprisonment in abuse by the ever-present KGB, combined with travel restrictions amounting to incarceration,” the article continues.

photo - Ida Nudel and her dog arrive on a private Boeing jet, owned by American oil billionaire Armand Hammer, at Ben-Gurion Airport on Oct. 15, 1987
Ida Nudel and her dog arrive on a private Boeing jet, owned by American oil billionaire Armand Hammer, at Ben-Gurion Airport on Oct. 15, 1987. (photo by Harnik Nati / IGPO)

“Occasionally, it was feared that, owing to diminished health, the 56-year-old Nudel would not live to see the Jewish state or be reunited with her sister Ilena Fridman, now residing in Israel.”

Fridman, the article notes, “visited Vancouver in October 1986 to lobby for Nudel’s release at a NETWORK-sponsored Soviet Jewry rally here….”

In addition to a concerted, long-term effort by Jewish groups worldwide, “urging Soviet officials to grant her an exit visa,” Nudel was visited over the years “by numerous delegations and dignitaries, including actress Jane Fonda, to bolster her spirits and encourage her efforts to leave the USSR.

“Under glasnost (openness), Nudel was allowed greater freedom to move and meet with Western journalists and fellow dissidents. Last month [September 1987], she was permitted to travel from her home in Moldavia to Moscow to meet with a group of women refuseniks to discuss their plight.”

Nudel was born in 1931, near Crimea, and “was raised by her maternal grandparents on a collective farm until she was 3,” writes Sam Roberts in the New York Times article about her death. “Her father was killed in World War II fighting German troops near Stalingrad when she was 10.

“After graduating in 1954 from the Moscow Institute of Engineering and Economics, Ms. Nudel worked for a construction company and later as an accountant for the Moscow Microbiological Institution,” notes Roberts.

As a result of her protests in the 1970s, Nudel lost her job and was exiled. When her exile ended, she settled in Moldova. After she was allowed to make aliyah, Nudel “originally lived in a rural settlement,” writes Roberts, “then moved to the city of Rehovot, about 18 miles south of Tel Aviv, to be closer to her sister [who had been allowed to emigrate in 1972].”

Nudel wrote an autobiography, A Hand in the Darkness, which was translated into English, and there was a movie made about her experience.

Novels miss the mark slightly

I was very much looking forward to two recent novels. Both are love stories, but unconventional ones. I enjoyed them, and read them cover to cover – generally, I allow myself to stop reading, watching or listening to whatever it is I’m not enjoying, so that I wanted to know how the stories ended is a compliment to the writers. But I was disappointed in the novels, ultimately. In both instances, I felt a little robbed of emotional impact.

Perhaps, given their protagonists, I shouldn’t have been surprised that the cerebral aspects of the books would outweigh, even quash, the heart-rending effects. Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin (Pantheon Books, 2021) is about an uber-accomplished, hyper-intelligent professor who is struck by early-onset Alzheimer’s. Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson (Other Press, 2020) is about two real-life cultural icons who were in the same social circles as people the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Salvador Dalí.

Love faces adversity

Within the first 20 pages of Morningside Heights, I didn’t particularly like either Prof. Spence Robin or his wife, Pru. He is an all-star academic, winning awards and grants of all sorts; he has ambition and has achieved some power in his world, and carries himself as such. He is Jewish but changed his name early in life, “to escape the Lower East Side.” He is Pru’s teacher, though only six years her senior, and downplays her concerns of being seen on campus as just his girlfriend, not as a person in her own right. And it is only after he semi-proposes that he tells her he has a sister with brain damage, who he visits rarely, and that he’d been married before and has an estranged son from that marriage.

For her part, Pru lets Spence get away with all these things. Worse, she abandons her own beliefs and dreams, basically, to be with him. For example, she keeps kosher before she meets him and in their early days together, but lets that go by the wayside. She has her own promising career that she gives up because her own areas of interest overlap with his award-winning expertise. He lets her become his shadow. He lets her main purpose become supporting him, while not reciprocating or appreciating that support at all, it seems.

So, it’s hard to empathize with the individual characters when their lives are completely upturned by Spence’s Alzheimer’s, which begins to affect him in his late 50s. That said, one doesn’t wish ill on anyone. The challenges both Spence and Pru face are severe, and Henkin brilliantly communicates the difficulties on both sides. Spence’s confusions and his not being able to understand fully the state he’s in are as heart-wrenching as his strong will and refusal to step down from work or admit his frailties are frustrating. Pru’s sadness at the loss of her partner and the heavy responsibilities of caring for him are palpable.

Perhaps the weight of these feelings and circumstances is part of what inspired Henkin to give – in my opinion – too much ink to Spence’s troubled son. Spence and Pru’s daughter Sarah doesn’t figure as prominently, but a lot of time is spent on Arlo and, in some respects, Arlo allows readers to get to know more about Spence. But those story threads interrupted, for me, the potential intensity of the Spence-Pru storyline, which, I have to admit, was both a relief and a letdown. I wasn’t surprised that Henkin has personal experience with dementia. In an online interview with the publication Shelf Awareness, he shares, “Although much of Morningside Heights is invented, it is, in many ways, my most autobiographical novel to date. My father, like Spence, was a professor at Columbia who developed Alzheimer’s, though my father developed it much later in life than Spence did. In writing about the ways Pru lost Spence, I was re-experiencing my mother’s loss, and my brothers’ and my loss.”

The rawness of that real pain is tempered in the novel, perhaps out of personal necessity. And perhaps most readers will appreciate that emotional distance, but I was hoping for a more intimate portrayal.

Not-so secret love

Never Anyone But You also lacks intimacy, even though it is about Suzanne Malherbe and Lucie Schwob, who fall in love and become both personal and professional partners. Thomson writes about the real-life French artists in a somewhat didactic and distanced way. He has done all his research but never fully inhabits or gives full life to his characters, who must have been quite passionate and committed people to have accomplished what they did under the circumstances in which they did it.

The women knew each other from childhood but end up becoming stepsisters when Lucie’s father (who was Jewish) connects with and eventually marries Suzanne’s mother (who was Catholic). Suzanne is immediately captivated by Lucie when they meet more formally; Suzanne is almost 17 years old and Lucie a couple years older than that. Never Anyone But You is told from the perspective of Suzanne.

Early on, the two decide to collaborate – Lucie’s words and Suzanne’s drawings. Lucie transforms herself into Claude Cahun before Suzanne reinvents herself as Marcel Moore. But the new persona cannot heal Claude’s bouts of depression and, throughout her life, she struggled to stay alive.

Claude and Marcel were unofficially (because they weren’t men) part of the Surrealist scene in 1920s Paris but their artistic (notably, photographic) success was tempered by the Second World War. They leave Paris in the late 1930s and take refuge in Jersey, where they use their talents to unsettle and educate the Nazi soldiers who occupied the island from 1940. It was their hope that their leaflets would demoralize the soldiers, and even cause some of them to desert. Marcel was fluent in German, so they could make the subversive material appear as if it were coming from one of the soldiers. Eventually, the two would be discovered and arrested. Though they would suffer imprisonment, they survived the war.

The bravery of Claude and Marcel is remarkable, as is their dedication to each other, though Claude is depicted as being unlikeable at times, between her mental health issues and her being more fluid with her sexuality than Marcel, ie. she had other relationships. Nonetheless, for Marcel, there was never anyone but Claude, though it is difficult to see why there was such devotion and loyalty on her side, and Thomson’s novel doesn’t answer that question. Ultimately, the two were together for more than 40 years, until Claude’s death in 1954, so there was, I guess, really never anyone but Marcel for Claude, either.

We share same fate

Do you realize that everyone you know will die? Of course you do. All of us know that. But, most of the time, we don’t think about it. We forget about it insofar as it motivates our actions, our interactions with the people in our lives, and the people we meet. If we were wholly cognizant that some of these people were to be gone tomorrow, or next week, wouldn’t it result in some of our behaviours being modified?

We usually have no inkling of when our time will come, or that of our friends or neighbours. When tragedy strikes and we get the bad news, we often react in a drastic way. If we have hates on, we usually stifle them. If we care, we redouble our efforts to connect in ways that might be more useful to the object of our emotion. Even if we don’t have a real link to the person who has died, we may go out of our way to exhibit some form of kindness. We instinctively feel, there, but for the grace of God, go I. Imagining how we would feel in the same situation, we have the urge to do something, anything, to alleviate the pain, the fear, the horror, of the unknown forthcoming.

When the end comes unheralded, suddenly, without warning, it is a shock to the system. Somehow, that person’s passing puts us, ourselves, right in the target zone. The immediacy of something that could happen to anyone, the result of biology or chance, reminds us we are not ready to go. We are chastened by the event.

Attitudes to our final exit vary widely, and certainly evolve over time. When we see some of the reckless behaviour of young people, we have to believe they feel they are immortal. Many out there have the belief that this current “vale of tears” is but a temporary phenomenon, with the best of existence yet to come. My Jewish background and belief system offers no such panacea. We are enjoined to do all we can to get the most out of our current existence.

In my late 80s, I must, of course, accept that I am much closer to the exit scenario than many of the people on this planet. Acceptance is the closest emotion I can discern, having enjoyed a larger slice of life than most.

The people I know have very mixed feelings about the transition we all face. Many are apprehensive. Most of us are happy to do what we can to put off the “evil” day, worried about the experience, and more than reluctant to give up whatever shred of living that we may have in the now, all of our fleshly and mental pleasures, regardless of our pains, potential and real.

What exercises me much more than some of the above is the greediness I feel about engaging with the spirits of all those still around me. Knowing that the time we share is limited by circumstance, more than anything I want to reach out to those souls whose existence I value.

Many of the people I care about have not shared a word with me for decades. My fault, their fault, who knows what were the forces that caused us to drift apart. How strange might they feel about my making an uninvited approach, out of the blue?

If I were to write them a blog like this as a general invitation to reach out and make a contact, some might respond. We all share a common fate. Maybe we also share a sense of the value of our past contacts. Maybe some of you out there are thinking of doing the same thing, reaching out before it is too late? Every week there are some of my contacts that I must erase from my mailing list. So, here I go: how are things for you today? What’s the story? Will we make contact today before the unknown tomorrow comes?

Max Roytenberg is a Vancouver-based poet, writer and blogger. His book Hero in My Own Eyes: Tripping a Life Fantastic is available from Amazon and other online booksellers.

Sukkot a time for happiness

As a kid, Sukkot wasn’t a holiday we observed at home. Our congregation was where I decorated and visited a sukkah, but it wasn’t a big festival for us. The temple did feel like an extension of my house since my mom worked full time there – but it wasn’t my house.

By contrast, as a married adult, we’ve really embraced Sukkot at home. We’ve built a sukkah in the backyard of each home we’ve lived in. We’ve more than 20 years now of experience in inviting guests for big sukkah dinner parties and having quiet family meals together, too. We enjoy buying a lulav and etrog so we can “shake it in the sukkah!” on our own.

It’s brought us lots of pleasure, which is apt because Sukkot is the only festival that is labeled “z’man simchateinu” or “our time of happiness.” It’s literally our time to party. In Tractate Sukkah, it describes the special “in the place of the drawing of water” celebrations at the Temple on Sukkot as the party to end all parties. In Tractate Sukkah 51a, it says this twice, in both the Mishnah and Gemara, “One who did not see the celebration … never saw celebration in his days.”  The Gemara goes further to explain: “One who did not see Jerusalem in its glory, never saw a beautiful city. One who did not see the Temple in its constructed state, never saw a magnificent structure.”

Like any spare, ancient text, we can read this several ways. My first tendency is to recall overhearing university acquaintances laughing. When they saw me, as they laughed, they explained that their fraternity bash was “the party to end all parties” and “they were so blasted” and “it’s a shame you weren’t there!” Then I’d feel some shame. I hadn’t been invited, feeling left out and uncomfortable. Then, as an introvert, I’d privately admit relief!  I didn’t have to deal with the noise, drunks, drugs and cigarettes, either.

Yet this is not at all the negative, emotional reading that I think the rabbis intended. The talmudic sages were describing a truly joyous, amazing, mind-blowingly big celebration. It’s hard during the pandemic to wrap my brain around this huge way of celebrating. The Temple in Jerusalem and its way of observing the festivities are also long past, but there are still big sukkahs out there in the world, full of party-goers, no matter the year.

Many of us struggle at times to find the joy in our lives – the world news, natural disaster and ongoing pandemic waves can leave us reeling and wondering when things will get better. When we can gather, many people are flooded with joy at a crowded wedding or a big festive event. However, modern-day Sukkot can bring us joy even without the enormous shindig or party to end all parties at the Temple in Jerusalem.

For me, being outside, at any time of year, helps me find that inner calm, contentment and grounding. I’ve also recently observed moments when I start feeling anxious or sucked into negativity. At those times, I’m consciously trying to step away from the news and the social media feed. I’m giving myself time every day to read a book, cook, study Talmud, knit, and watch my kids and dog play. I need to make space for finding that joy.

This summer, we’ve had a lot of wasps outside in Winnipeg, along with heat, drought and wildfire smoke. It was so bad that our difficult-to-assemble patio table never made it out onto the deck. We used the matching chairs, but gave up on eating outside. I recently tested the waters with my husband, asking if he felt it would be worth it to assemble everything for Sukkot anyway. After all, three out of four family members have gotten wasp stings in the yard so far. It hasn’t been auspicious.

He responded positively, as only a biology professor who studies insects might, noting that wasps weren’t active at night, that cooler temperatures and winds helped, and that we should set things up as usual. He was right. By planning to build a sukkah despite everything, we could optimize our chances at “our time of rejoicing.” Studying Tractate Sukkah this summer made me anticipate the holiday so much that I couldn’t wait for this joyful holiday this time around.

Towards the end of August, the weather started to turn. Our lawns have finally gotten enough rain to turn green again and, as the temperatures drop, the wasps are less active. Winnipeg isn’t a place where many people consider sleeping in the sukkah, or even insist on eating every meal there. It’s often just too cold, but that also kills wasps! Once or twice since we moved here, it’s even snowed during Sukkot.

In Tractate Sukkah 26a, the talmudic rabbi Rava suggests leniency in terms of dwelling in the sukkah. Sick people are exempt from this commandment, but Rava suggests that, if you’re suffering, you too are exempt. His examples include biting flies or a foul-smelling sukkah floor but, when comparing the weather in Israel or Babylonia to Winnipeg, Rava would likely suffer here. Our freezing fall temperatures are sufficiently uncomfortable that many seek only a brief moment in the sukkah rather than a camp out.

I’m still drawn to crisp, clear fall evenings outside in the dark, however. We’ll be wearing our coats and smelling the leaves turning. It’s not the right year to invite lots of guests for parties. We’ve got kids too young to be vaccinated yet. We’re being very cautious.

Still, Sukkot gifts us with excuses to stay up late and enjoy the outdoors each autumn just a little bit longer. The chance to celebrate, this time of our happiness, is upon us. Give yourself that chance to let go of the negativity, worries and anxieties. Have a completely legitimate, Jewishly commanded break outdoors. It’s that time of year to get out into nature and party!  Sukkot is here. Enjoy.

Joanne Seiff has 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.

A most ancient dish

“Stuffed vegetables – a most ancient Sukkot dish, probably having its genesis with the grape leaves remaining on the vine after the harvest that were then filled and simmered until tender – are common sights on holiday tables in all communities,” wrote the late Gil Marks. “As there were few or no grapes in much of northern and eastern Europe, the prevalent cabbage became a handy substitute.”

Perhaps we stuff foods on Sukkot to remind us of the harvest and abundance in the fields, as well as the multiple blessings we have been given in life. Here are a few recipes I have in my files.

SHARA’S STUFFED TOMATOES
(This is my daughter’s recipe.)

halved tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
grated Romano cheese
basil

  1. Grease a baking dish. Preheat oven to 300°F.
  2. Place tomato halves in baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  3. Combine breadcrumbs, olive oil and garlic in a bowl. Spoon onto tomato halves.
  4. Sprinkle on cheese and basil.
  5. Bake (or broil) until brown. Serve immediately.

RUTH’S IRAQI STUFFED PUMPKIN
(My longtime friend made this recipe. It makes 4-6 servings.)

2 pounds cleaned pumpkin
margarine pieces
cinnamon for sprinkling
3 cups cooked rice
ginger to taste
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts
brown sugar

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a baking dish.
  2. Place pumpkin in baking dish. Dot with margarine pieces. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 30 minutes.
  3. In the meantime, oil a frying pan. Fry rice with cinnamon and ginger until brown. Add two cups water and simmer.
  4. Spoon rice into pumpkin and bake one hour.
  5. Fry raisins and nuts a few minutes and add to pumpkin. Sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake until pumpkin is soft.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI
(makes 6 servings)

1 1/2 pounds zucchini, halved and quartered with pulp removed
1 1/2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce with onion
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan, add zucchini quarters, cover and cook until lightly brown. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 10 minutes more. Transfer to a baking dish.
  2. Place pulp in a bowl and stir in breadcrumbs. Spoon breadcrumbs into the zucchini. Top each with one tablespoon tomato sauce. If using cheese, sprinkle each with one tablespoon cheese.
  3. Broil three inches from heat source for three to four minutes, until sauce bubbles (and cheese melts, if using it).

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, editor of nine kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and a food writer living in Jerusalem. She has written the kosher restaurant features for janglo.net since 2014 and leads weekly English-language Shuk Walks in Machane Yehuda.

הקוביד מראה את ההבדלים בין קנדה לדרום אמריקה – חלק ב

המכר של מדרום אמריקה מנסה להסביר לי מדוע עדיף לגור ביבשת שלו ולא במערב. מה הוא אומר: “החיים במערב לחוצים פי כמה מאשר במדינות הלטיניות, זה ברור. אני מדבר על הכלל. אדם צריך לעבוד קשה כדי להתפרנס, מה שלא צריך פה עבור אדם כמוני שבא עם סכום כסף מסוים ולא צריך להיות מודאג כלכלית. אגב, גם אתה כמובן צריך לעבוד לא מעט או קשה, תלוי בהגדרה. כל אחד עושה מה שמתאים לו. אני עצמי לא הייתי עובר לחיות במדינה מערבית ועובד שם קשה. זה לא בשבילי. אני מבהיר מראש שאני לא אומר את זה בנימת ביקורת עליך. זה פשוט לא מתאים לי. אני לא אהגר למדינה אחרת כדי לעבוד קשה יותר מכפי שעבדתי בישראל. היגרתי כדי לשנות לחלוטין את אורח חיי, לחיות בקלות ובנינוחות ובלי לחץ ולהגשים כמה מטרות וחלומות שהיו לי, ואני עושה את זה גם בימי מגפה”. אם כן ידידי הלטיני שכח את מה שהוא מספר לי כל הזמן על המדינות הלטיניות שלו: מדובר במדינות עניות שברובן הדיקטטורות שולטות, בלגן ושחיתות אינסופיים. במדינתו אפילו את התרופות גונבים ואחר כך מוכרים אותן בשוק שחור. הוא לא מפסיק להתלונן על השכנים המרעישים, על רעש קבוע מהרחובות ובקיצור אין דין ואין דיין.

האיש הלטיני מספר לי כי הוא גר במקום יפה עם הרבה טבע נהדר ולי זה נשמע ממש כמו וונקובר. הוא מזכיר סוף סוף גם את המגרעות: “התיירות מביאה איתה דינאמיות אך יותר רעש. התיירות מביאה גם בעיות, כידוע. החיים כאן לא לחוצים בכלל. מאיפה קיבלת את הרושם הזה? הוא חוזר ואומר: בעיר תיירותית יש יתרונות וחסרונות. החסרונות באים לידי ביטוי בימי מגפה, הרבה פחות בימים כתיקונם. מצד שני, אילו הייתי נביא וידעתי שתפרוץ מגפה ספק אם הייתי עובר לכאן, כי התיירות מביאה יותר נדבקים כידוע לכול. באוקטובר 2019 כשאמרת לי בלחץ: תצא מהמדינה לא הבנתי בכלל מה אתה רוצה וממה אתה לחוץ. הייתי יחד עם עוד ידיד איטלקי היחידים בבריכה ושחיתי בכיף. בריכות לא חסרות כאן, מפלים, נחלים. לא היה שום סיכון. ידעתי שזה יימשך שבוע או מקסימום שבועיים, וכך קרה. את דרום אמריקה ויתרונותיה אינך מכיר מספיק. על חסרונותיה בימים אלה דיברנו מספיק. הייתי רוצה להבהיר כשדברתי על “חיים לחוצים” בחייו של המכר מדרום אמריקה, התכוונתי לכך שמפגינים חסמו את כל הכבישים הראשיים ואי אפשר היה לזוז לשום מקום. אלימות קשה. בתקופת הקוביד כל אחד עושה כרצונו, אנשים מסתובבים ברחובות ללא מסכות, כמות הנדבקים עצומה ורוב מוחלט של החיסונים מגיע מסין ומרוסיה וכידוע איכותם נמוכה ביותר. האיש שכח להזכיר שבמשך חודשים ארוכים הוא כמעט ולא יוצא מהבית בגלל המגפה הקשה.

כדי להצדיק מדוע הוא בחר דווקא לגור באחת מהמדינות העניות ביותר ביבשת הדרומית, הוא אומר: “את העולם המערבי אני מכיר היטב. ביקרתי בארצות מערביות לא מעטות. עזבתי את המערב מרצוני וידעתי למה. אם המגפה הזו תימשך אולי אחזור אליו, אבל לא מאהבת מרדכי. המציאות בעולם משתנה כל הזמן ולא לטובה. מה שהתאים לאתמול, לא בהכרח מתאים להיום, ומה שמתאים להיום, לא בהכרח יתאים למחר”. שוב שכח האיש את העובדה שבעולם המערבי יש יציבות בחיים ובמשטרים, לעומת חוסר יציבות קשה מאוד במרבית מדינות הדרום, שזקוקות לעזרה מהמערב כל הזמן.

גבי בעולם הלטיני אומר האיש יש ספרות, תרבות, מחול ומוסיקה ותיאטרון משובח. יצירות לטיניות ומכל העולם, כולל אופרה וכל דבר. אם לא הייתה בו תרבות, הוא לא הייתי נשאר לגור שם. אגב, רמת הספרות במדינות הלטיניות גבוהה מאוד ואתה יכול לפגוש כאן אינטלקטואלים וסופרים מהשורה הראשונה. בדרום אמריקה יש ירידי ספרות יותר מאשר בישראל ובמדינות רבות אחרות. בטוחני שהוא מדייק הפעם לשם שינוי בנושא התרבות, אך אי אפשר לטעון שבעולם המערבי אין יותר תרבות מאשר בדרומי. למשל בוונקובר עד לפריצת המגפה, באופן קבוע הלכתי עם בת זוגתי לקונצרטים, אופרות, הופעות מוסיקליות, סרטים ותערוכות. בתקופת הקוביד אנו ממשיכים מדי מספר שבועות להגיע למועדון הג’אז ‘פרנקי’, והאווירה בו ממש מצוינת ומזכירה מועדונים דומים בארה”ב ואירופה.

המכר חוזר לדבר שוב הפעם על המגפה שממאנת להסתיים והוא אומר: “אתה צודק שחובה להתחסן אבל השאלה מה הלאה. המגפה רחוקה מלהיגמר, אחוזי ההגנה נמוכים יותר מטענת דוברי פייזר, הדלתא גרם לנזק קשה הרבה יותר, כמות הנדבקים גדולה ולא רק בין אנשים שלא התחסנו. שים לב שבישראל היו הרבה מאוד נדבקים. מדינות רבות חוזרות לתקנות חירום, הגבלות ואף סגר כולל ארה”ב. ולגבי חיסון שלישי? ככל הנראה יהיה, וכל זאת בגלל שילוב של התנהלות שלומיאלית של הממשלות, התנהגות שערורייתית של הציבור וכמובן התפשטות וריאנטים. זכותך כמובן לחשוב אחרת אבל המציאות ברורה. טוב לשמוע שבוונקובר המצב טוב. אבל המגפה רחוקה מלהיגמר. גם בישראל המצב היה טוב עד שהדלתא הגיעה לשם. העולם רצה כפר גלובאלי כפי שכתבתי לך פעם וקיבל אותו ישר לפרצוף”. אני אגב מסכים עם המכר שהמגפה רחוקה להסתיים אך לדעתי, שמגובה בעמדת הרופאים הבכירים בעולם, זאת כיוון שאחוז סרבני החיסונים גבוה מאוד. טענתי לפני חודשים ואני טוען גם כיום ביתר שאת כי כולם מחויבים להתחסן, למעט אלה שאסור להם להתחסן מסיבות רפואיות. ומי שלא מוכן להתחסן – יש את הצורך להגבילו. טוב לדעת שמספר הולך וגדל של מדינות מתחילות לנקוט בעמדה תקיפה נגד מתנגדי החיסונים.

האיש הלטיני טען שאני מזלזל במסכות אך הזכרתי לו שרכשתי מאות מסכות כאשר המגפה החלה. הוא ממשיך: “במחוזות רבים בעולם לצערנו המסכות הן חיוניות, לפני מתן החיסונים ולצערנו גם לאחר קבלתם. עד כמה הן עוזרות כפי שאתה כותב, זו שאלה באמת טובה. במשהו הן מן הסתם עוזרות. אבל בוא נגיד לסיכום: להשתמש רק במסכה זה עלול להיות לא להספיק, לסמוך רק על החיסון בלי המסכה, גם זה לא בטוח שיספיק בגלל הבהמות, ואתה יודע יפה שהאנושות היא כרגע הגורם המרכזי של הפצת המגפה”. אני מסכים לחלוטין עם האמירה שבגלל התנהגות רשלנית של תושבי העולם המגפה עדיין חייה וקיימת. אם זאת אחזור ואציין שוב הפעם כי החיסונים הם הפתרון היחידי והקבוע למגפה. אנו נאלצים כיום להתחיל ולקבל חיסון שלישי, כיוון שרבים מסרבים להתחסן. אם מספר המחוסנים לא יעלה משמעותית נאלץ לקבל גם חיסון רביעי וחמישי ויתכן וזה יהפוך לנוהג קבוע – חיסון שנתי לקוביד במקביל לחיסון השנתי להשפעת.

שמח אני לגור בוונקובר ובמחוז בריטיש קולומביה שבו מספר המחוסנים כיום הוא הגבוה בעולם. לא הייתי רוצה היום ובכלל אף פעם לגור באחת ממדינות

דרום אמריקה. הבעיות שם הן כה גדולות, חוסר המשמעת של התושבים, העוני, האלימות והפשע ועוד צרות ללא הפסק. עדיף לגור בבריטיש קולומביה היפה שלנו.