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image - A graphic novel co-created by artist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor David Schaffer for the Narrative Art & Visual Storytelling in Holocaust & Human Rights Education project

A graphic novel co-created by artist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor David Schaffer for the Narrative Art & Visual Storytelling in Holocaust & Human Rights Education project. Made possible by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

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Tag: Beyachad

Welcome, newcomers

Welcome, newcomers

A screenshot of the recent BeyachadBC welcome event’s main room.

The types of immigration that Vancouver’s Jewish community is experiencing right now differ from those of 10 or 20 years ago. Community leaders recognized that these different demographics call for changed approaches in the way the community welcomes and integrates newcomers.

On Jan. 20, a virtual event took place, representing the launch of a new community partnership called BeyachadBC – beyachad means “together” in Hebrew. No fewer than 80 devices tuned in to join the event, many with more than one participant.

BeyachadBC is really an evolution of Shalom BC, Gesher Welcoming Services and other initiatives over the years meeting the needs of new community members, said Ayelet Cohen Weil, who, as associate director, community engagement, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, spearheaded development of the group. (On Feb. 1, Cohen Weil began a new role, as executive director at the Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation.) Operating under the auspices of Federation, BeyachadBC was created with the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, Jewish Family Services (JFS), Aleph in the Tri-Cities, Mamatefet and Women’s Empowerment (WE). The latter two groups are organizations primarily of Israeli-Canadian women, WE to network for career opportunities and Mamatefet to support mothers, especially of newborns.

Cohen Weil undertook consultations, including roundtables with community professionals who work with newcomers and with people who have experienced what newcomers face.

For many years, Vancouver has been one of North America’s fastest-growing Jewish communities. Breakout rooms at the virtual event included sessions in Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and English. The largest group was of Israelis, followed by those from Spanish-speaking Latin America. About equal numbers of participants joined the English and Portuguese breakout rooms. A couple of decades ago saw waves of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and, while there are still a number of new Canadians who originated in the FSU, almost all of those are now arriving via Israel, having spent years there. They communicate primarily in Hebrew, making Russian-language services less necessary than they were a few years ago.

Another noticeable change from the past is that many of the newcomers are arriving with work at the ready, not landing here in hopes of finding a career path. A sizeable number of immigrants from Israel and elsewhere have been drawn here by jobs at Amazon’s Vancouver hub, for example.

The different character of newcomers means that, rather than requiring some of the basic needs that earlier migrants required – housing assistance, social services – many are now seeking professional networking and connections for their families. (New arrivals who do require those additional services are, of course, served by various organizations, including Federation and JFS.)

When the pandemic is over, in-person social gatherings will take place with opportunities for mingling in each participant’s preferred language. Meanwhile, those who want it can be paired with a longer-established family based on criteria they determine, such as the ages of kids in the family or the professional track of the parents.

Of course, there is no one at the airport directing Jewish newcomers to BeyachadBC. Identifying Jewish immigrants is a matter mostly of word-of-mouth. This was aided by the fact that Cohen Weil’s portfolio at Federation also included regional community development. Given the cost of housing in Vancouver, many Jews are settling in the Tri-Cities or other suburban areas of Metro Vancouver. While geographic diffusion is a challenge long addressed by Federation, BeyachadBC plays an added role in reducing isolation and encouraging inclusion by explicitly targeting newcomer families outside the traditional “Jewish neighbourhoods” of the city.

BeyachadBC is envisioned as a service for those who have arrived in the past three years. “But I can tell from the faces that I saw, they were from the last year mostly,” Cohen Weil said. “They had to be newcomers during COVID, which created another layer of difficulty and challenges.”

Another fact struck Cohen Weil – there were young couples, families with kids, single young adults, seniors and middle-aged participants on the Zoom event.

She knows herself what it is like to live in different places. Cohen Weil arrived in 2005 as a student at the University of Victoria, having grown up in Mexico and having served as a volunteer in the Israel Defence Forces. She worked at Hillel in Victoria beginning in 2008 and returned to Israel in 2012 to continue her education before returning to Vancouver in 2017. Returning with a husband and a 10-month-old daughter was an entirely different experience that came with many challenges, even though she had connections and friendships from the past.

A more typical experience might be that of Yael Mayer, an individual and family therapist and a postdoctoral research fellow in the faculty of medicine at the University of British Columbia. She came to Vancouver five years ago, after her husband, an engineer, took a job here. Having left an established counseling career in Israel, Mayer was in a new country, at home, with two kids, including a 6-month-old baby.

“It’s very lonely and very hard to start everything again, to build a career again, to find a network,” she said. She set about cofounding Mamatefet and then founding WE because she realized that many women were in a similar boat. “Like me, there were many, many Israeli women who come here with academic backgrounds, with a lot of experience, and they struggle to rebuild their life here.”

If BeyachadBC had existed just five years ago, she said, her landing here might have been softer. “I think it could have been really different because BeyachadBC will provide a platform to easily connect and find information about different topics, about education, about synagogues, about activities, about social life,” she said. “It is all centred in one place, in one resource.”

Mayer was inspired by the initial BeyachadBC event, an enthusiasm she believes was shared by many based on the fact that everyone who signed up to attend actually showed up – and then stayed for the entire event. Registrations were coming in even after the event began.

“The beautiful thing about it is it really answers a need in our community and I think it is a very special project,” she said. “It identifies the common needs of the Jewish community but, at the same time, it also allows people to maintain some of their culture and their language so, in this way, it connects but it also makes everybody feel like they belong there. That’s the beautiful way that this project is built.”

The central clearinghouse for resources is beyachadbc.com and, Mayer added, while the site is intended for newcomers, longtime residents are also encouraged to explore it because assistance and social connections are welcome among the entire community, new arrivals and B.C.-born alike.

Format ImagePosted on February 12, 2021February 11, 2021Author Pat JohnsonCategories LocalTags Ayelet Cohen Weil, Beyachad, immigration, Jewish Federation, newcomers, Yael Mayer
A shift to inclusion in Israel

A shift to inclusion in Israel

The 2017 Select Fashion and Totto bags’ Back to School ad campaign, in collaboration with Beyachad, featured Israeli children of varying abilities. (photo by Nechama Orah Photography)

In 2010, Gabrielle Markowitz set up a Facebook account in the name of her then-newborn daughter, Hallel. Called Hallel Mini Supermodel, the page is part of Markowitz’s goal to change the public perception of people with disabilities. And she has made some progress.

Hallel has Down syndrome. Set to start Grade 1 this September, she was chosen, along with several other Israeli children of varying abilities, to model the 2017 summer collection in Select Fashion and Totto bags’ Back to School ad campaign. The shoot was in collaboration with the Israeli organization Beyachad, which works to increase and strengthen society’s inclusion of people with disabilities.

Beyachad was started by Channie Plotnick, a New Yorker who has been concerned with this issue since she was 9 years old.

“I was living in New York,” said Plotnick, who now lives in Israel. “Not far from the home where I was growing up, there was a home for adults with disabilities. I was going to school every day and doing my thing. I’d pass by the home and I could see the people with disabilities through the windows. I could see them just sitting around and pretty much doing nothing – being locked in that home for many, many hours, just sitting around.

“I saw this a couple times a day, every day. I felt that these people are jailed in this place. I figured, I have to figure out a way to get them out of this. One day, I asked my mom if I could invite them for Shabbat morning. My mom said to give them my phone number and see. So, one Friday, they actually called and said they wanted to come over for Shabbat morning.

“I can remember myself sitting at home at the window and looking out that morning, and waiting anxiously for them to come. It was sort of a big group. I think there were eight adults with two staff accompanying them.

“We had a wonderful Shabbat meal. We played games and they became part of the family. For me, it was like a victory to see them out of jail and … part of a community, of our family.”

Plotnick has high expectations of herself as well as of others. Where some see disability, she sees ability.

As an adult, Plotnick made aliyah. She attended Tel Aviv University and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in special education. From then on, it was no longer enough for Plotnick to be able to see ability in all people. It was now about figuring out how to care for these abilities and shape them toward everyday integration into society.

photo - An image from the Select Fashion and Totto bags’ Back to School ad campaign
An image from the Select Fashion and Totto bags’ Back to School ad campaign. (photo by Nechama Orah Photography)

“When I came to Israel, I was working as a supervisor in a special ed school,” she told the Independent. “I saw children who I thought could learn in regular schools, with help and support. I started looking around for schools and support, and I realized there were no services for children who wanted to be integrated in regular schools.”

So, in 2008, Plotnick started up Beyachad Foundation, to aid in the empowerment and inclusion of people with special needs.

“When someone wants to be in a regular school, we help them with resources, information, advocacy and case management, connecting them to the right people, figuring out how to get them resources from different departments,” said Plotnick.

The Knesset calls Plotnick when they are considering disability inclusion-related laws.

“In Israel, there’s a lot of welfare state taking care of people with disabilities,” explained Plotnick. “I call it a ‘stifling hug,’ as they’re taking care of the needy. But, it’s a situation where they are … making it so they are dependent, as opposed to helping special needs people be independent and able to contribute to society.”

According to Plotnick, the welfare system disperses benefits according to labels – it puts people into a box labeled “Down syndrome” or “autism.” These labels carry with them a set of expectations, and the people become the label.

“Today, when a social worker gets a person in front of him/her who has Down syndrome, she/he looks at his/her lists and says, ‘OK, we have schools with special education that focus on children with Down syndrome. And, when they are adults, we have what’s called workshops. This is what we have.’ You’re not looking at individuals and their abilities. You’re looking at a person with Down syndrome. You’re not even looking at the person. On the flip side, when you complement abilities, you look at individuals. That change of looking at a person and saying, ‘You’re an individual. Let’s see what your abilities are and let’s see what you can do with your abilities.’ That’s the change we are trying to make.”

Beyachad does not want to compete with, or put out of business, special ed schools or workshops. Its aim is to offer more options.

“It’s a lot easier for us, as society, to adapt to the needs of the less-abled than it is for the less-abled to adapt to our society,” said Plotnick. “As such, we have a duty to adapt to their needs.

“I’ll give you an example. If today we go out onto the street and all of the signs are in Braille, you and I would be the ones who are disabled, as we won’t be able to read them. Society has the ability to change people into disabled – and society has the ability to create people who are more able.

“As long as we adapt things in society for people with disabilities, they will end up being less disabled. If I come to a regular school and I’m a person with disabilities and the curriculum is adapted for me and school accessibility is adapted for me, I will be less disabled.”

Change will come slowly, but Beyachad has the motto ‘If it is to be, it’s up to me,’ and they work to provide the support individuals need to make accessibility possible. For more information or to lend support, visit beyachad.org.il.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Format ImagePosted on September 1, 2017August 30, 2017Author Rebeca KuropatwaCategories IsraelTags Beyachad, Channie Plotnick, fashion, Gabrielle Markowitz, Hallel Markowitz, inclusion
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