Tikva’s rent subsidy program

“Thank you for the gift you gave us this coming year. You made our lives less challenging during these difficult times. We are very grateful for your help and support. We have just received the cheque from you. Thank you so much for all you are doing for our family.”  – A beneficiary of Tikva Housing Society’s Esther Dayson Rent Subsidy Program

Sukkot is a holiday when we think about how fragile and exposed our lives can be without a proper roof over our heads. For many families in our community, living in a temporary shelter is not a short-term symbolic choice for the holidays; it is their permanent reality. Tikva Housing Society helps individuals and families pay their rent through a growing rent subsidy program.

The program began in 2011, when the board approved a subsidy for an individual who could not be housed at Tikva’s Dany Guincher House because there was a shortage of available units. Later that year, the Ben and Esther Dayson Charitable Foundation made a commitment to fund a rent subsidy program that would allow Tikva to extend its portfolio by housing people in private market units. The program thus became the Esther Dayson Rent Subsidy Program and grew large enough to subsidize seven households. In 2013, the Tikva fund subsidized three single and four family households for a total of 19 persons.

Since October 2011, Tikva has been involved in a Richmond development to administer 10 family apartments and, since December 2012, it’s been involved in Vancouver in a development of 32 townhouse units. As construction can take years to complete and the need for affordable housing is immediate, Tikva’s board decided to put greater emphasis into fundraising for the rent subsidy program. In 2014/15, with additional help from donors (such as the PAID Foundation and the Al Roadburg Foundation), Tikva will be able to house nine singles and eight families for a total of 39 persons.

During August and September 2014, the committee received 44 applications referred through the Jewish Family Service Agency, synagogues and Jewish day schools. All applications were point scored to determine the highest need. The top 20 applicants were interviewed. To date, agreements have been signed with 12 applicants. Of the 20 applicants interviewed, four singles and one family were homeless. The subsidy will allow all those funded to look for appropriate rental units to call home.

You may wonder what sort of poverty issues the 44 applicants for Tikva’s rent subsidy program experience. Here is a sampling of some of their stories.

Five of the applicants are homeless, living on the street, in shelters and couch surfing. One of the homeless applicants is a single father with three children who arrived in Vancouver in April 2013 after losing all they had during flooding in Saskatchewan. The Esther Dayson Rent Subsidy Program allowed this family to move out of the shelter where they were living and move into a three-bedroom apartment. The children will now be enrolled in the nearby school and the father will be able to look for work in the community.

A single woman moved to British Columbia from Alberta and does not meet the one-year residency requirement to apply for government rental assistance. Rents in Greater Vancouver are much higher than in Lethbridge, and her $1,100 pension barely allows her to pay $750 for rent, while leaving only $350 for all of her other expenses.

Another family of two parents and two small children lives in Surrey. They were relying solely on a disability pension after the husband was injured in a work-related accident that left him paralyzed. The wife looks after her husband and their small children and, therefore, cannot work outside the home.

While spending a cool evening in the sukkah, remember how important it is for each and every person to have the warmth and stability of his/her own home. For more information about the Tikva Housing rent subsidy program or to donate, visit tikvahousing.ca.

Susan J. Katz is a freelance writer, pastoral-care consultant and musician living in Vancouver. Her website is susanjkatz.com.

The state of impermanence

As a harvest festival, Sukkot is infused with thanksgiving for the bounty that Jews in Canada and, mercifully, in most of the world today, enjoy. The holiday is also an earthy affair, as we move out into our backyards (or, in some cases caused by this hot housing market, our sliver of a balcony) and into temporary shelters inspired by those used by the Israelites during the 40 years of exodus in the desert. The emphasis of the sukkah is on impermanence and inhabiting one, even if just for a meal, inspires reflection on the impermanence in our lives, including life itself.

Sukkot is immediately followed by Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah – and the juxtaposition is striking. On Simchat Torah, we celebrate the most permanent thing the Jewish people have experienced. On this day, we complete the annual reading of the Torah and immediately begin again, missing not a beat between the end of Devarim, Deuteronomy, and the beginning of Bereisheet, Genesis.

For a people who have known – who, indeed, have just finished a week of reenacting – historical impermanence, Simchat Torah is a reassurance that, in the face of all historical, social and technological change, at least one thing remains constant: the book that binds us in spirit and practice.

The Torah is a constant in times of change, and it is easy to take for granted that, in the long history of the Jewish people, we are living out one of the most dramatic epochs our people has ever known. For millennia, our forebears yearned for Zion, longing to celebrate next year in Jerusalem and to be a free people in our land. In our generation, this dream has come to pass.

The creation of the state of Israel has changed Jews, Judaism and Jewish practices in small and large ways. One of the most significant ways is the sense of permanence provided by a Jewish homeland. Yet, there have been times of war and terror when the dream has turned nightmarish. And there remain many in the world who would like Israel to be an impermanent way station, merely another sukkah, for the Jewish people.

Jews – in Israel and around the world – are determined that Israel should remain as permanent and enduring as the Torah. Yet, unlike the Torah, which has a definitive beginning and end, Israel’s borders are not recognized by the international community, nor is there a consensus in Israel about where precisely they should be in the event of a final status agreement for a two-state solution.

While Jews worldwide were contemplating construction of their sukkot, the United States and others were condemning Israel’s recent announcement of additional housing construction in East Jerusalem.

Such settlements do nothing to convince the world that Israel is acting in good faith vis-à-vis a two-state outcome. On the other hand, condemning construction as the primary obstacle to peace in the region is a difficult pill to swallow: there are more pressing impediments to peace on both sides of the conflict.

However, while settlements may not be the main impediment to peace, they are an attempt to build something relatively permanent in a region without clear borders. It seems a considerable waste of resources – human labor, building materials, money, time, even Israeli and Palestinian PR efforts and goodwill – to keep building, especially knowing that the area is disputed and, therefore, impermanent.

Such construction also raises the hopes and dreams of those who ultimately will live there – what happens if they are forced to move? Israel has demonstrated its willingness to uproot Jewish residents in Sinai and Gaza in exchange for the faint hope of peace.

Through history and ritual, Jews understand that most things are temporary, like settlements that eventually give way to compromise. We also understand that some things are meant to last, like Torah and like the irreversible redemption of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

Orkestars at Vogue

Members of Orkestar Slivovica include Susan Gerofsky, fourth from the left. (photo from Caravan World Rhythms)

Caravan World Rhythms presents Boban & Marko Markovic Orkestar on Oct. 18 at Vogue Theatre. Opening for Boban & Marko is a collaboration between local bands Orkestar Slivovica and Jack Garton’s Demon Squadron. The main level of the Vogue will be turned into an open dance floor for the whole evening. There will also be reserved seating available for those who prefer to sit and watch.

Boban & Marko, the quintessential Balkan brass band, comes back to Vancouver after again being crowned “Leading Band in Serbia,” a title to which they have been named multiple times since the late 1980s. Their music, performed by a 13-piece strong orchestra, is defined by their gypsy lineage, while giving a nod towards other musical and cultural backgrounds related to Romani traditions. Aside from their numerous awards, the group has performed and been featured in films.

Vancouver’s homegrown Balkan brass band, Orkestar Slivovica, includes Jewish community member Susan Gerofsky. The eight-12-piece brass ensemble plays and sings a diverse repertoire, from insanely fast dance tunes to heart-wrenching songs, often in crooked rhythms and exotic scales. Gerofsky plays tenor horn and accordion and contributes vocals, but she also plays baritone horn and other brass instruments, pennywhistle and piano, and has dabbled with banjo, fiddle and ukulele.

Gerofsky has been involved with folk music and dance for many years, starting with youthful experiences doing Israeli and international folk dancing and working as a volunteer at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto.

When not playing with the band, Gerofsky is a tenured assistant professor in the department of curriculum and pedagogy in the faculty of education at the University of British Columbia. She holds degrees in languages and linguistics as well as mathematics education, and worked for 12 years in film production, eight years in adult education (including workplace and labor education) and eight years as a high school teacher with the Vancouver School Board. Gerofsky has been involved in interdisciplinary research and teaching involving embodied, multisensory mathematics education, garden-based learning, applied linguistics and film. She has studied, researched and taught in England, Brazil, Italy and Cuba. She speaks several languages.

Collaborating with Orkestar Slivovica are special guests Demon Squadron, spearheaded by the musician, songwriter and showman Jack Garton of Maria in the Shower. Their sound is rooted in reggae, funk and folk, and includes the backbone trio of Amrit Basi on drum set, Michael Alleyne on bass and Garton on accordion, trumpet and voice. The trio welcomes frequent collaborators on saxophone, trombone, organ and backup vocals.

The Oct. 18 show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets, $42 (general admission)/$52 (reserved seats), are available in person at Highlife Records, Banyen Books or Boemma Deli; online at caravanbc.com; or by phone, 1-855-551-9747. For music and more, visit bobanimarko.com, orkestarslivovica.org or jackgarton.com/demonsquadron.

Liberal Zionism still critical

Israel Defence Forces soldiers debrief during the Israel-Hamas conflict. New Israel Fund of Canada’s president Joan Garson discussed the painful war of this past summer and the ongoing responsibility of liberal Zionists in Canada to push for Israel to be a model of democracy, pluralism and tolerance. (photo from IDF via Ashernet)

The Jewish state won’t survive without a Zionism that’s liberal and a liberalism that’s Zionist. Such was the recurrent assertion of Haaretz reporter and columnist Ari Shavit at the New Israel Fund of Canada’s (NIFC’s) annual symposium, held on Sept. 14.

Entitled The Future of Israel Starts Here and held at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the free event drew almost 1,000 people and marked the fourth annual symposium for NIFC, an organization founded 29 years ago that describes itself as being committed to fostering the development of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state “as envisioned in her Declaration of Independence.”

The symposium was moderated by Joseph Rosen, who recently wrote an article called “The Israel taboo” in an issue of the Canadian magazine The Walrus.

The event featured Rosen interviewing Shavit via Skype, as well facilitating a lively discussion between Shavit and Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist at the online magazine Al-Monitor, who attended in person. NIFC president Joan Garson also spoke.

photo - Ari Shavit
Ari Shavit (photo by Sharon Bareket)

Shavit spoke passionately about how the Zionist community needs to “talk seriously and honestly about our own mistakes” and to acknowledge where the government of Israel has committed wrongs both on a moral and political level, such as with ongoing settlement building in the West Bank. He argued this must be frozen to give the Palestinians space economically and geographically and “to move toward a two-state solution.”

It’s imperative that Zionists stop treating Israel as being above criticism, he stressed. Zionists must look its sins in the face, address the arguments made on the other side of the conflict and “limit injustice to Palestinians as much as possible.”

Further, Shavit spoke about restoring Israel to its former “state of wonder,” its promise to serve as a refuge for Jews – “a home for our homeless” – and to be as just as possible.

“What happened in 1948 [when thousands of Arabs ran from or were driven from their homes and villages during the country’s founding] was in the context of the brutal history of the 1940s,” he said. “But after that, after we secured our existence at a terrible human cost for us and for them [the Palestinians], to go into the other 22 percent of the land and to try to co-opt it [through occupation and settlement building] is a huge mistake.”

But Shavit also argued that it’s unacceptable to exclusively demonize Israel for its injustices, as its critics often do, or to use the history of its founding to delegitimize it.

“Some of the world’s best democracies were founded on the terrible treatment of indigenous people. Israel can’t be singled out,” he said. “But let us remember our democratic past and try to build a future for the Palestinians.”

Garson discussed the painful war of this past summer and the ongoing responsibility of liberal Zionists in Canada to push for Israel to be a model of democracy, pluralism and tolerance.

“As liberals, we are activists,” she said. “We think it’s our job not just to sit on the sidelines, but to engage … to make Israel the country of its founders dreams…. When we see [Israeli] policies in need of change, we speak and we act.”

She added: “We must be honest with ourselves, our children and our congregations … to bring intelligence and clear thinking to Israel as we do to other issues … and to commit to telling the truth about the country to ensure there will be another generation of lovers of Israel.”

Rosen subsequently posed questions to Eldar and Shavit about whether liberal Zionism is “dead” and about the position of Israeli left-wing “peaceniks.”

Eldar, who described himself as a “radical peacenik,” argued that liberal Zionism is crucial to the future of Israel, but that it can’t coexist with the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

It’s not enough to decry the settlements, he said, “we have to do something about it and call on every government in the world to do something.”

Eldar explained that he, therefore, does not buy products made in the settlements.

“If, God forbid, one of your friends was about to commit suicide, you would do everything to stop it,” he said “This [settlement expansion] is a suicidal project.”

Shavit later spoke about how many Israelis feel that Israeli “peaceniks” don’t care about them, that they’re more concerned with the well-being of the Palestinians than that of their own countrymen.

“We Israelis who advocate for peace need to love all our people, to go out and canvas and tell them why their future is connected to peace,” he said.

Eldar said the central problem is that fear seems to have become more effective than hope in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We on the left are trying to sell hope,” he said. “I’m upset that people are trying to sell fear. Why not look at the glass half full? Look, for example, at how Egypt has worked with us [in the latest ceasefire negotiation between Israel and Hamas] instead of injecting more fear and saying we don’t have partners for peace in the region?”

He said that Israel needs to withdraw from the settlements, but not unilaterally. “We need to do it by making peace.”

 – For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

How mammals respond to novelty

Measuring the response to novelty: A mouse repeatedly touches the object and pulls away (nose and whisker contacts are color-coded; d is the distance of the snout from the object). (photo from wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il)

Put a young child in a new playground and she may take awhile to start playing – approaching the slide and then running back to Mom before finally stepping on. A new model suggests that it is not fear that makes her run back and forth, but simply the fact that her brain is telling her to stop and take in the new information – the height of the slide or how slippery it appears – before going any further.

Drs. Goren Gordon and Ehud Fonio, and Prof. Ehud Ahissar, believe that this is a basic pattern in mammals that governs how we learn. The mathematical model they developed and tested in experiments suggests that our innate curiosity is tempered by mechanisms in our brains that curb our ability to absorb novelty.

In Ahissar’s lab in the institute’s neurobiology department, researchers investigate how animals sense their surroundings. Previous research in which Fonio participated showed that, in a new situation, a mouse would approach an unfamiliar space, retreat to familiar surroundings, and then approach again. When Gordon, Fonio and Ahissar examined how mice used their whiskers to feel out a novel object, a similar pattern ensued: the whisker would touch the object, pull back and then touch it again. Gradually, as the mouse became familiar with one part of its surroundings, it would begin to explore further, moving away from the known part. The pattern was so consistent, the researchers thought they could create a model to explain how a mouse – or another mammal – explores new surroundings.

The researchers based their model on the premise that novelty can be measured and that the amount of novelty could be a primary factor in shaping the way that a mouse – or its whisker – will move through an environment. This model successfully reproduced the results of the previous study, in which the movement of the mouse gradually became more complex through the addition of measurable degrees of freedom. For example, it began with movement along a wall, as opposed to traveling across the open space. Using data from the previous experiments and others for which such data were available, they were able to construct a model that required very few additional assumptions.

The model suggested that novelty, per se, was not the deciding factor, but rather how much the novelty varied within a given situation. Approaching and retreating appear to be a way to keep the amount of new information within a constant range. Like the wavering child in the playground, the mice would absorb a certain amount of new sensory input – the curve of a new wall, for example – retreat, and approach again once the novel information was already starting to become familiar.

To test the model, the researchers designed an experimental setup in which a family of mice was born and raised in a den, and then a gate was opened from the den to a new area in which the pups could freely explore and return to their familiar den. The researchers found that the model was able to predict how the mice would explore their new surroundings. It held true whether it was applied to locomotion or to the motion of whiskers in feeling out new objects. The initial movements explored the most novel features of the new environment. After those were learned, just as the model predicted, the animals moved further afield, exploring the still-unknown parts of their surroundings.

“The mice were not given rewards for their behavior – for them, as for humans, satisfying curiosity is its own reward,” said Gordon.

“This behavioral pattern enables the mice to control the level of sensory stimulus to their brains by regulating the amount of novelty they are exposed to,” added Fonio.

These limits to novelty and exploration may, of course, have another evolutionary advantage: while the urge to explore is necessary for animals that must seek out food, stopping to check out the surroundings a bit at a time could be a prudent survival strategy. In other words, curiosity may have killed the cat, but a whisker pulled back in time might save the mouse.

Does this model apply to humans? Gordon points out that when we learn a new subject, we often need time to think things over before going on to the next topic. Further research might reveal whether young children – babies just learning to crawl, for example – explore their new surroundings in the same way. Even an adult entering a new situation might undergo a similar process.

In the future, a mathematical model of learning might prove useful for teachers and students, as well as for research into neurological issues involving the ability to absorb new information. This model also might someday be used in the field of robotics: robots that learn on their own, like mice, to explore a new setting might be able to function in situations that are too dangerous for humans, such as the aftermath of an earthquake or a nuclear power plant accident, for example.

For more Weizmann Institute news releases, visit wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il.

Memoir more than family history

Alison Pick (photo by Emma-Lee Photography)

Award-winning author and poet Alison Pick comes to Vancouver later this month to participate in two panels at the Vancouver Writers Fest, one of which is already sold out.

As a teenager, Pick discovered that her father’s parents were Jewish. As she tells a rabbi in the first chapter of her memoir, Between Gods (Doubleday Canada), “My grandparents escaped Czechoslovakia in 1939. They bribed a Nazi for visas, came to Canada and renounced their Judaism. They spent their lives posing as Christians…. As a kid I was forbidden from discussing it. But now I’m going back and asking questions.”

In her 30s, struggling with depression, about to be married, and writing the novel that would become Far to Go, Between Gods is about Pick’s life during this period in which she lays claim to her Jewish identity. She spoke with the Jewish Independent via email.

JI: The title of the book is Between Gods. With what vision of God did you begin your spiritual/cultural journey, and how now do you grapple with or appreciate God/Source? Did your concepts/beliefs change when you had a child?

AP: Between Gods tells the story of my conversion from Christianity to Judaism. That said, the conversion was mostly cultural for me – an attempt to reclaim my family’s hidden Judaism. My personal concept of God, ironically, is probably most Buddhist in nature: the idea that there is a presence larger than us; that is it benign or even loving. It seems to me there is something akin to an energy field, and that we can choose to ignore it or to engage with it, and that, in engaging with it, we foster our relationship with it. I like the image of two hands. One is moving, grasping, reaching, touching – that hand is the ego, or the personality. The other hand remains still – it is the witness, both personal and theological.

These concepts didn’t change when I had a child, although I am very conscious of fostering a sense of the divine for and with her. The most important part of our week is Friday evening, when we have Shabbat dinner – seeing her take that for granted (in the best kind of way) is hugely gratifying.

JI: In the acknowledgements, you note that you’ve taken artistic liberty with some of the details, but still, it must have been difficult to write about family, friends. From where came the desire to write such a book at this point in your life?

AP: It didn’t really feel like a choice. Between Gods began as a set of notes I was taking at the same time as I was writing Far to Go. At first I thought the two projects were the same book – then it became clear that they were different. By the time I had finished writing Far to Go, I had converted to Judaism. I just knew that Between Gods was the next book I had to write. As a writer, you have to trust where the artistic energy lays, and so my practice is comprised at least partially of listening to what wants to be written as opposed to what my ego wants to write.

JI: Reading the memoir, your frustration with the conversion “policy” is completely understandable. With the distance of time, how do you feel about it?

AP: I had difficulty converting to Reform Judaism in Toronto because my fiancé was not Jewish. At the time, it was hard to not take this personally, to not feel rejected. It still, in retrospect, seems odd to me that I was already half Jewish and yet encountered many more obstacles than the other women in my class who were engaged to Jewish men. That said, I do see the very clear benefits that having an entirely Jewish nuclear family offers, not just individually, of course, but collectively. My experience made me more compassionate towards others, in that way that our personal suffering always shines a light on the suffering of the world, and has influenced my decisions around how to practise Judaism with my daughter – we are involved in communities that are inclusive and progressive while at the same time honoring tradition.

JI: Why did you choose, in a memoir mainly about your becoming Jewish, to also write so openly about your struggle with depression?

AP: It seemed to me that the two were intimately related. The more I learned about my family background the more I began to think that my depression was something inherited and that, in some ways, it was the result of the legacy of the Holocaust. I’m not saying that the relationship was directly causal, but that the two things fed off each other, culminating in an existential darkness.

JI: The absence of your mother and sister in the memoir is felt, even though they are mentioned, you share that they were supportive and you address why they don’t figure more prominently. The rabbi was concerned with creating an interfaith nuclear family, but extending this concern, how has your family’s being Jewish fit in/worked with your larger family (and even friends)?

AP: It was a conscious decision to not include very much of my mother, although you’re not the first person to say they would have liked more of her. She was generally extremely supportive, as was my sister. I have heard many other conversion stories in which at least one member of the potential convert’s family was upset, or at least in which the family dynamic was fraught. I experienced none of that. My mother, my sister, and my extended family and friends have really been behind me. Of course, I had many in-depth conversations along the way, but all of them had positive outcomes.

At the Writers Fest, which takes place Oct. 21-26 on Granville Island, Alison Pick participates in two panels about writing based on personal experience, one of which – Writing Back to the Self on Oct. 24 – still had tickets for sale at press time. In addition to Pick, Jewish community members participating in the festival include Cory Doctorow, Esther Freud, Herman Koch, Christopher Levenson, Daniel Leviton and Tom Rachman. For tickets: vancouvertix.com, 604-629-8849 or the box office at 1398 Cartwright St.

Museum of Human Rights hopes to inspire

Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum of Human Rights is now open for visitors. (photo from CMHR-MCDP) 

The Sept. 19 opening ceremonies for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) were broadcast live on several networks, and live streamed on the CMHR website (humanrights.ca). The opening celebrations lasted through the weekend, with more than 40 performances at the Forks market and downtown Winnipeg, including free public tours of the museum and a concert on Saturday night, featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie, A Tribe Called Red, Shad, Marie-Pierre Arthur, Ashley MacIsaac and others.

The excitement among museum staff was palpable ahead of the opening weekend, said Matthew McRae, a museum representative. “Everyone here, whether they started two years ago or two months ago, has put in so much work to make this project happen. It’s truly amazing to watch all the little bits I’ve worked on coming together to make a whole. What’s more, this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

McRae has been with the museum for two years, researching gallery content and gathering background on different feature stories for the museum’s core exhibits. When asked to pick his favorite story from the museum, he said, “There are lots of amazing stories I’ve had a chance to research during my time here, so it’s hard to pick just one. However, the story Wilcox County High School’s first integrated prom, held in 2013, is something I’m very happy it made its way into the museum. The school, located in southwest Georgia, in the U.S.A., had never had an integrated prom.

“In 2013, Mareshia Rucker and her friends decided they wanted to be able to go to prom together, regardless of their skin color or background, and so they fundraised and organized their own integrated prom, despite opposition from some members of the community. Their story got picked up by the international media and, in the end, the school announced it would hold an official prom for all its students in 2014.”

McRae conducted an oral history with Rucker and the young woman’s prom dress will now be featured at the museum. “A prom dress is not something you would normally associate with human rights, but that’s perhaps what’s so neat about it,” said McRae. “It tells people that human rights struggles can come in all sorts of forms, and it tells people they are still going on today, all around us.”

Ensuring people from around the world can access and use the museum’s content and knowledge base has been a major focus. While the museum does not have specific projections for online attendance, McRae said, “We are expecting people to log on from all across Canada and the world. There will be lots of chances for people to feel connected to Canada’s new national museum.”

The museum will continue working with various community groups, human rights organizations, academics and stakeholders. There are plans to organize and participate in many events, including lectures, panel discussions and art projects.

“This will involve anything we can think of to build awareness and education about human rights and to encourage public discussion from multiple perspectives,” said McRae. “We will pilot a national student program in 2015 and hope to eventually bring students from across Canada here for an immersive educational experience in human rights.”

The museum has also developed programs for school groups and the public, so all ages can make the most of having a human rights education hub in Winnipeg.

“Above all else, the museum will be a place of inspiration where people can learn about the many different ways people as groups and individuals have worked to promote human rights, resist violation and overcome adversity,” said McRae. “This is the only museum in the world solely devoted to human rights awareness and education, and we explore human rights concepts with an international scope, but through a uniquely Canadian lens.

“As the first national museum established outside the National Capital Region, the CMHR will be a source of Canadian pride – not to mention an iconic piece of architecture already being noticed around the world.”

“Gail Asper fought to have her father’s dream become a reality,” said Stephanie Lockhart, who attended the opening ceremonies with her husband. “She brought this incredible dream to life. What a tremendous gift for our children, our children’s children, and for many generations to come. To be able to visit this place and have the opportunity to learn all about our human rights – the history, for good and bad – their view of human rights will be transformed and actualized because of what they will have learned in this spectacular place.

“For me, the museum truly represents one of the most significant accomplishments articulating the dignities of humankind. All human beings are born free and equal with dignity and rights.”

MLA Andrew Swan, minister of justice and attorney general, said, “I was truly inspired by the opening ceremonies…. As a lifelong Winnipegger and Manitoban, I am fiercely proud that the CMHR is located here, the first national museum outside of Ottawa/Hull.

“My favorite moment was watching [singer] Maria Aragon – a young woman from a local school and daughter of an immigrant family – perform at the opening.”

Winnipeg City Councilor Jenny Gerbasi was also in attendance. “There was a significant inclusion and a feeling of deep respect for Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis communities throughout the event,” said Gerbasi. “I was very moved by the words of Dr. Wilton Littlechild, when he talked about ‘a new spirit and a hope for positive change … a call to action and honoring the human rights of all people.’

“The umbrellas had to come out as rain started prior to and throughout the ceremony … but it did not dampen the spirits or the sense of excitement of the audience.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Asper vision spurred action

(photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)

Miracle at the Forks: The Museum that Dares Make a Difference, which chronicles the 14-year journey to plan, build and open the Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR), was launched on Sept. 22 at the museum with Gail Asper, Moe Levi, Stuart Murray, and co-authors Peter C. Newman and Allan Levine. The 200-page book, released by Figure 1 Publishing, officially hit the bookstands on Sept. 23.

In her remarks at the launch, Asper said that she was pleased with the volume’s title. “I love it because it is miraculous … being inside this museum we’ve talked about for 14 years … this is a really great time for Winnipeg, Manitoba and the world.”

She continued, “We started on this journey to find a way to educate our youth about our human rights violations that occurred in our history and to inspire people to take action. This has been a long, often challenging, and many times miraculous journey from dream to reality. That’s why we’re thrilled that non-fiction writers Peter C. Newman and Allan Levine are here and have written a compelling book, recounting the story from the day Dad – Israel (Izzy) Asper – dreamed of a centre for human rights and gave Moe Levi the mandate to make it happen, to the completion of the building this year.

“During the dark days after my dad’s passing, it was Moe’s support, his ridiculous optimism and resolve, that kept us going…. And, of course, thank you to the federal government under the leadership of Stephen Harper, this maverick person whose courageous decision to make this a national museum ensured our going forward. Also, thanks to our 8,200 donors who’ve made this day possible.”

Newman described the book’s overarching purpose. “Canada was built on dreams as well as appetites. This country was founded by waves of immigrants with big ideas and big dreams. The [Canadian] Museum of Human Rights will dramatically alter Winnipeg’s skyline. But its name is a misnomer; museum is too limiting a description. That’s a venue people visit to remind one another of past lives … memories that can light up a rainy Sunday afternoon.

“This museum is to make a difference. This book is about how this idea, which seemed far too risky to be Canadian, actually came about. Its purpose is more significant than its contents…. If you consider this notion, it really defines what this is all about. Its existence will turn focus on its mission. The key to this great achievement is the image you get of a long time ago.”

Co-author Levine said, “I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with Izzy Asper and listen to him talk…. He told me often, one of the secrets of success came down to perseverance. He just never gave up on anything he did.

“The CMHR project gave new meanings to that. As Peter and I were researching and writing the book, I was struck by the amazing perseverance of Gail and Moe, and other members of the Asper family and foundation. They refused to quit, and are standing in the museum today.”

Levine read aloud excerpts from the book’s section “A Magnificent Conception,” about the delay in getting the museum off the ground.

“You see, Asper was not a journey-to-the-destination type of person. He was a just-get-to-the-destination kind of guy. So, if you’d told him in 2003, prior to his death, that more than a decade later the Museum for Human Rights would not be open, he would have been appalled.

“Back in 2000, once the initial idea of the Museum of Tolerance, as it was first referred to, began to germinate, and after Asper had found a spot at the Forks where he wanted to build it, plans advanced methodically and purposefully.

“Asper’s vision, although not clearly articulated initially, was to establish a museum that would teach the lessons of the Holocaust as well as examine human rights in a Canadian context against the backdrop of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There was a part of Canada’s history that had never been told, and he spoke really with as much passion about the Holocaust as he did about the Japanese, Chinese and Aboriginal societies, in particular.

“The project Asper envisioned was unique for several other reasons, factors that would prove a stumbling block difficult to hurdle, the grandeur of the museum Asper had in mind was akin to the Guggenheim Museum in Spain.

“One misconception that stands out is how people believe that he intended this to be a private museum … the opposite is true. Right from the beginning, he stated that he only wanted to spearhead this project, not run it or control the agenda.

“In the early years, Asper had underestimated the opposition he was to face from just about every corner – skeptical politicians who questioned the need for such a mammoth and expensive museum, academics and journalists who did not believe the museum of human rights could be done properly, or whether it was even necessary.

“Ottawa bureaucrats protested loudly about placing a national rights museum anywhere but in Ottawa, and a collection of naysayers who questioned the use of the Asper Foundation’s use of tax-payer money as part of an alleged scheme to advance so-called Jewish interests.

“Yet, even if he had known of the obstacles that stood in his path, Izzy would never have quit. Always he had persevered. As Gail recalls about her father, there’s a great quote that comes ‘Do it: do or do not. There is no try. Let’s just get the job done.’

“At the same time, there had been times when he had tried and tried and tried, and he failed. But the bottom line is, if you keep trying, the perseverance will pay off somewhere.”

When finished reading the first book excerpt, Levine shared, “Izzy, by the way, dictated things. Gail was instructed by her father that she was to dedicate half her day, every day, to the museum.

“So this, I quote, from Izzy’s letter to his daughter: ‘You must get up and end every day and ask yourself, what did I achieve in finding 60 million needed from the private sector for the museum? You are not to take any calls, answer any letters, or have any meetings with people who are seeking donations from the Asper Foundation. That is Moe’s job, and not to be duplicated.

‘I’m spelling all of this out because this is your opportunity to prove that you can act like a senior executive, and not to be distracted by everything that happens to go by. I hope you can exercise for us and discipline the outlined above.

‘This is the way I’ve operated all my life and, in my opinion, the only way you can accomplish things that everyone thinks can’t be done.’” Levine added, “And Gail obviously followed that [instruction].”

“Working with Allan and Peter has been one of the joys of putting this whole project together,” Levi added in his remarks. “It made me reminisce with Gail, and many times we laughed and cried thinking back [on] this incredible journey. I think it’s a great book. The key thing here is all the proceeds of this book go to the Friends [of the CMHR]. Anytime you buy it, you’re helping a child come to visit the museum in Winnipeg.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.