books

Sokoloff releases new album

Recorded in Nashville, Carol Sokoloff’s latest album, Change in the Weather, went live on several streaming platforms in late May and the CD was launched to a packed house at the Coda in Victoria on May 30. (photo from Carol Sokoloff)

Recorded in Nashville, Carol Sokoloff’s latest album, Change in the Weather, went live on several streaming platforms in late May and the CD was launched to a packed house at the Coda in Victoria on May 30. The album represents a new musical direction for Sokoloff, who has played everything from folk rock to children’s music, jazz to new age and devotional, to musical theatre.

“Change in the Weather offers a collection of engaging, affirmative, original songs, reflecting various moods and places or stations on my songwriting journey,” Sokoloff told the Independent. “The title song evokes the optimism of spring but also hints at the changing undercurrents of the times we have lived through.”

Among the other songs are the rocking anthem “Free Spirits,” the honky-tonk dance tune “Sweet Wind” (an anniversary present to her husband), the “Hotel California”-flavoured “You Can Lead a Horse to Water,” the Gordon Lightfoot-inspired “That Sound” and the Dylanesque ramble “Walk Together Again.”

Of the time in Nashville, Sokoloff said, “The experience more or less blew my mind. It all happened so quickly and easily, and the result was so professional and engaging that I was immediately hooked and wanted to come back and record more songs.”

She praised the seasoned Nashville musicians featured on the album, led by Eli Beaird, an Academy of Country Music award nominee. The CD highlights the musicianship of players on acoustic and electric guitar, pedal steel, keyboard, drums and bass, all of whom have performed on recordings of top country stars, such as Shania Twain, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Tim McGraw.

Sokoloff’s musical roots go back to her early days in Toronto, where she was exposed to all types of genres: classical, musical theatre and singers like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr.

“My two older sisters studied piano and, at 4 years of age, I demanded to also take lessons. I learned left from right at the piano keyboard,” she said.

Singing, too, was part of her daily life. With her sisters and father, who had “a powerful, magnetic voice,” said Sokoloff, they often sang multi-part harmony. Her older sisters introduced her to various types of music, including rock and roll and folk music. A guitar found its way into the house, and Sokoloff used her babysitting money to learn how to play it.

“By 15, I was writing songs. I’d been writing poetry, and guitar gave me a way of writing, singing and playing my own songs,” she said.

As a university student, Sokoloff created and performed music for several theatre productions, including at the University of Manchester, England, while a visiting student. She later worked in Toronto theatres and freelanced for CBC Radio, where she gravitated to music-related topics, such as a 90-minute documentary on composer Harold Arlen.

A hankering to go west took hold in the 1980s. First, to a communications job at the Banff Centre, where she was exposed to vocal jazz by singer Jay Clayton, who invited Sokoloff to the final session of her workshop.

“I was enthralled,” Sokoloff recalled. “In 1986, I moved to Victoria and raised children with my husband, poet and playwright Richard Olafson, publisher of Ekstasis Editions. We had met in Banff, drawn together by mutual interest in poetry and theatre.”

In Victoria, she purchased an old piano, hoping to approach the instrument in a different, more improvisatory way, not reliant on reading and memorizing sheet music. For 20 years, she studied with local jazz musician George Essihos.

“I was privileged to study with him,” Sokoloff said. “The understanding of jazz harmony gained enabled me to start writing songs in the style of the great songwriters of the American Songbook standards. At the same time, I realized my greatest interest was in singing my own and others’ songs, with piano a way to accompany myself.”

Sokoloff sang in and then took over the artistic direction of Victoria’s Jewish Community Choir, which gave her the opportunity to arrange and compose choral and prayer music, such as “Lament for Kristallnacht” and a version of “Adon Olam.”

“The choir performed songs I had written, including ‘The Music of the Earth,’ ‘Together and Free’ and a choral version of Karel Roessingh’s ‘Cedars,’ featuring my lyrics,” she said.

At the launch of Change in the Weather, Sokoloff performed with a new group of musicians, the Island Dream Band, which features Sokoloff (rhythm guitar and vocals), Chris Coey (lead guitar), Alex Olson (bass), Martina Peladeau (flute), Dave Pretty (drums) and Kenny Seidman (piano).

Over the summer, Sokoloff is sharing the music widely throughout Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. In the fall, she wants to return to Nashville to complete a second album, which is two-thirds recorded.

“I’m excited by this next batch of songs, which features an old country-style ballad as well as some jazz tunes given an infectious Nashville treatment,” she said.

Additionally, Sokoloff, who has written several books of poetry, will release a middle-grade novel, Kayla’s Song, based on her experience as a girl who loved songs and singing. It is scheduled to come out this fall.

Change in the Weather was released on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and YouTube. The CD comes with a list of the players and their tracks and a booklet with all the lyrics. For more information, visit carolsokoloff.com/music/change-in-the-weather.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

The hidden hand of hate

Warren Kinsella has spent much of his career studying the darker corners of political life. A lawyer by training, author of about a dozen books and a longtime political strategist, he has written about Holocaust denial, far-right extremism and organized hate movements.

In his just-released book, The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda, he follows these threads down the unseemly rabbit hole that has perplexed many observers since Oct. 7, 2023: the sudden and superficially spontaneous eruption of anti-Israel activism across Western campuses and cities in the aftermath of the horrendous atrocities of that day.

Kinsella’s thesis is straightforward and, to most readers of these pages, probably neither controversial nor surprising. The worldwide surge in anti-Israel protests, he argues, is not organic. Rather, it reflects a long-developed propaganda infrastructure – the “hidden hand” – involving the Iranian regime, Hamas, Hezbollah and a constellation of worldwide activist organizations that have spent years building networks capable of shaping Western public opinion.

Hamas, Kinsella argues, fights two wars simultaneously. One is the familiar military campaign conducted with rockets, bullets and suicide attacks. The other is an information war, waged through imagery, messaging and propaganda. Israel may well win the first war, he suggests, but the second – the battle for global public opinion – is far less certain.

The book opens with the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7. While Israelis were still grappling with the scale of the massacre, demonstrations against Israel began sweeping Western campuses and cities. In the United States, a “national student walkout” took place within days of Oct. 7. Activists insisted these events were spontaneous expressions of outrage over the war in Gaza – but many of them took place before there was even a war in Gaza.

Many of the protests, Kinsella writes, appeared to have been organized rapidly with shared messaging, identical slogans and coordinated materials. Student groups that claimed to be independent grassroots organizations were often connected to larger activist networks. Manuals, posters and protest toolkits circulated almost immediately.

This pattern is central to the book’s argument. What looks like decentralized activism, Kinsella contends, often reveals indisputable signs of coordination.

One of the more striking anecdotes in the book involves Gary Wexler, a California professor who worked with the Ford Foundation on programs in Israel and Palestine during the Oslo peace process. Wexler recalls being warned by a leading Palestinian civil society coordinator that pro-Palestinian networks would one day rival – and surpass – the vaunted Jewish advocacy organizations in their ability to mobilize globally. Funding, the activist reportedly told him, would come from European institutions, Arab governments and wealthy donors.

Years later, Wexler began to see the prediction materialize in movements such as the push for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), Israel Apartheid Week and international flotillas challenging Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Kinsella stops short of claiming a single command centre orchestrating these movements. Instead, he suggests a looser ecosystem in which state actors, activist organizations and sympathetic nongovernmental organizations amplify one another’s messaging.

If there is a common theme running through the book, it is the power of narrative.

According to Kinsella, Hamas and its allies have been remarkably successful at shaping the language through which the conflict is discussed in the West. Terms such as “colonialism,” “apartheid” and “genocide” now dominate activist discourse, particularly among younger audiences. These ideas circulate widely on social media platforms, where emotionally charged content spreads faster than verified information.

The book devotes considerable attention to misinformation and the speed at which it travels. One example Kinsella cites is the widely circulated claim that Israel had bombed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians. The allegation ricocheted around the world within hours, sparking protests and diplomatic condemnations from the highest levels. Later evidence indicated the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad – and that the casualty figures had been exaggerated exponentially. The correction, of course, traveled neither as far nor as fast as the original claim.

Social media algorithms amplify this dynamic, Kinsella argues, pushing users toward increasingly extreme content. The phenomenon is not unique to Middle East politics. The same mechanisms drive conspiracy theories about vaccines, elections and countless other subjects. But, in the case of Israel, he suggests, the misinformation taps into something older and deeper: an antisemitic proclivity to believe the worst and most fantastical allegations about Jews.

In the contemporary context, antisemitic narratives often blend with modern ideological frameworks. In activist discourse, Jews are sometimes recast as embodiments of colonialism or “whiteness,” placing them on the oppressor side of social justice frameworks. The result, Kinsella suggests, is a rhetorical environment in which hostility toward Israel can slide easily into hostility toward Jews.

Polling data cited in the book underscores the generational divide in attitudes toward the conflict. Surveys in North America and Europe have found large numbers of younger respondents expressing sympathy for Hamas or believing that the 10/7 attacks were justified. Other polls show significant numbers of young people convinced that Israel is committing genocide. Such findings shocked even the pollsters who conducted them.

Kinsella argues that universities have played a significant role in shaping these attitudes. For decades, he writes, academic discourse has increasingly framed Israel through the lens of “settler-colonialism.” At the same time, foreign governments – particularly that of Qatar – have donated billions of dollars to Western universities.

The media also come under scrutiny. Western news organizations, he argues, routinely rely on casualty figures supplied by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, numbers that critical analysis suggests are inflated, particularly in terms of non-combatant casualties. Journalists reporting on what’s happening in Gaza frequently depend on local stringers who operate either directly under Hamas authority or in a context where anything but pro-Hamas reporting is existentially dangerous. This situation effectively grants terrorist propaganda the imprimatur of legitimate media platforms.

Because Kinsella is Canadian, The Hidden Hand is rife with Canadian content. This will be interesting to Canadian readers – and a meaningful contribution to the sad litany of incidents in this country – but it is additionally relevant because Canada has been among the worst places for these sorts of offences. Last year, an Israeli government report analyzing the problem worldwide called Canada the “champion of antisemitism.” So, while Canada may not be a major player in many of the world’s foremost competitions or concerns, when it comes to anti-Jewish discrimination, we regrettably find ourselves owning the podium. That makes what happens here – and how (or whether) we confront it – especially relevant.

The thesis of Kinsella’s book, of course, is that these problems know no boundaries (figuratively or literally).

Much of the evidence he presents is circumstantial rather than definitive. He has found no single document or intercepted communication that proves the existence of a centralized propaganda command. The accumulation of connections, coincidences and patterns is what gives the book its force, but Kinsella does not provide the proverbial smoking gun. This is partly understandable because, if there were incontrovertible proof linking ostensibly legal, legitimate activist groups in Canada and around the world with known terrorist entities, surely Western governments would have acted by now.

Ah, but there’s the rub. The very fact that someone like Kinsella, without, say, top-level security clearance, could amass such a damning catalogue of evidence begs the question of just how much effort governments and security services are devoting to this problem. That so many deeply problematic and potentially illegal cases in Canada, including here in British Columbia, have not resulted in charges or even, seemingly, any serious investigation, makes Kinsella’s book especially valuable. If there is this much smoke, where are the governmental and security agencies that are supposed to be the firefighters?

Whether one accepts all of Kinsella’s conclusions or not, The Hidden Hand forces readers to confront the possibility that the global conversation about Israel is shaped by forces far more organized and odious than many seem willing to believe.

If Hamas fights both with bombs and with words, as Kinsella argues, then the information battlefield may prove just as consequential as the physical one. And, on that battlefield, the outcome is still very much in doubt.

Partners in the telling of stories

Robert “Lucky” Budd, left, and Roy Henry Vickers have co-authored close to 20 books together, with more to be released in 2026. (photo from “Lucky” Budd)

As oral historian Robert “Lucky” Budd tells it, his collaboration with First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers, which has produced several award-winning and bestselling books, was accurately summed up during a car ride with Vickers’ sister, Patricia, as a unique version of a father-son bond.

“Roy’s the same age as both of my parents, and I am the same age as one of his sons. So, we do have this relationship that’s very, very close, and there definitely is a bit of a father-son element to it,” said Budd, who is a member of the Victoria Jewish community.

“I consider him one of my closest friends, and I love learning with and from him, and we learn a lot together, and he teaches me something all the time. I’m so deeply interested in the stories he has to share.”

For the past 14 years, the pair has teamed up on a variety of projects, but the path that led them to one another, according to Budd, goes back decades, to when Vickers was in high school in Victoria.

His art teacher, realizing that there was little to teach his student, tasked the young Vickers with delving into the art of the Tsimshian and the Haida. Missing his home on the Skeena River, in Hazelton, Vickers started his research, but his efforts yielded no results until he met cultural anthropologist Wilson Duff.

Through Duff, Vickers was able to locate books and recordings, such as those produced by CBC journalist Imbert Orchard, who, from 1959 to 1966, recorded interviews with BC pioneers and those from First Nations. On the cassettes, Vickers listened to stories of the people of the Tsimshian and was moved.

“Over the years, he ended up losing those tapes, but it stuck with him. And so, around 2009, 2010, he went on a mission to try to find those recordings,” Budd said.

Vickers got in touch with the BC Archives, but nobody there knew what he was talking about, until he spoke to someone who said, “Oh, I think the person you’re supposed to be talking to is Lucky Budd.”

Vickers called Budd, asking for help in retrieving the recordings, and their work together began.

Budd holds a master’s in history from the University of Victoria; he is also a rock musician with a penchant for recording everything. At the time of Vickers’ call, he was digitizing audio recordings owned by the CBC and the BC Archives.

“The crown jewel was the Orchard Collection,” said Budd. “And it hit me very early on that I was supposed to turn that material into a book because I was getting an education on the history of the province that no one had ever heard before.”

Budd’s first book, Voices of British Columbia, was based on those recordings, and many of the ones that interested Vickers were in the book.

Budd returned Vickers’ call, telling him, “I know exactly who you are, I know exactly what you’re looking for, I can help you find those stories. It’d be my pleasure to do so.”

By this time, Budd had started a business, Memories to Memoirs, where he interviews and records people to help them tell their stories. He asked Vickers if he had thought of sharing his.

“He said, ‘Oh no, no, no, I’m way too young to do a thing like that,’” Budd recalled. “I was joking with him, and I took a little risk, and I said, ‘Hey man, didn’t you just release a print called “65 Years”? Doesn’t that mean that you get an old-age pension?’ And I started laughing, and he said, ‘OK.’”

After deciding that he had found the right person to work on his story, Vickers invited Budd to visit him in Tofino on Nov. 11, 2011.

“We hit it off like old friends. Roy, in that moment, was, like, if this isn’t the voice of the Creator saying that we ought to be working together, I don’t know what it is,” Budd recalled.

“Lucky has been an inspiration for me since the day we met,” Vickers told the Independent. “His enthusiasm and positivity is uplifting. Lucky has impressed upon me the importance of writing my stories.”

In the 14 years since their first meeting, the duo has co-authored close to 20 books, with more to be released in 2026. Their published titles, such as Raven Brings the Light (2013), Cloudwalker (2014), Orca Chief (2015) and Peace Dancer (2016), have sold well and brought home awards.

The two have also put together board books for children featuring Vickers’ artwork: Hello Humpback! (2017), One Eagle Soaring (2018) and Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue (2019). In 2026, Harbour Publishing will be releasing Summer Brings Berries, a board book using rhyming text and colourful imagery to explore and celebrate traditional foods of the West Coast.

Additionally, Budd and Vickers have two other books coming out next year: a children’s colouring book and an art book celebrating Vickers’ 80th birthday.

“I am an oral historian,” said Budd. “I work in the medium of storytelling, and he’s one of the best storytellers I can imagine. We get on the phone and we start talking and, the next thing I know, 45 minutes or an hour has gone by, and he’s told me a ton of different stories.”

Besides his books, Vickers is recognized as a printmaker, painter, carver, designer, author and keynote speaker. Among his numerous accolades is a nomination for a Grammy Award in 2019 for his artwork on a box set of Grateful Dead recordings.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

An activist by necessity

Dr. Ted Rosenberg speaks with an audience member at the Medical Outcomes of Emerging Antisemitism event held at Beth Israel Sept. 4. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Dr. Ted Rosenberg never imagined he’d become an activist but, after the anti-Zionism and antisemitism he witnessed at the University of British Columbia faculty of medicine after Oct. 7, 2023, he couldn’t keep silent.

The 30-year practitioner, who resides in Victoria, addressed a group at Congregation Beth Israel on Sept. 4.

Rosenberg resigned from his post as clinical assistant professor at UBC’s faculty of medicine in January 2024, after repeated attempts to get the school to address antisemitism were essentially ignored. Since Oct. 7, he has written blogs, testified about the antisemitism before the House of Commons and, most recently, self-published the book Ayekha, Where Are You?

After Oct. 7, Rosenberg said he noticed that Jewish doctors weren’t regarded the same way they had been. Before that day, he’d experienced the odd antisemitic comment from patients. After it, he knew that a torrent of hatred towards Jews was coming, and that he needed the language to deal with it.

His activism began after 225 UBC medical students signed the petition “A Call for Action on Gaza,” which called for a ceasefire, condemned Israel as “a settler-colonial state,”

accused Israel of “collective punishment through indiscriminate bombing of civilians” and claimed that “Palestinian people have been continually abused, traumatized and killed by the settler state of Israel and its Western allies for over 75 years.”

In response, Rosenberg wrote to UBC president Benoit-Antoine Bacon, dean of the faculty of medicine Dermot Kelleher and other university officials.

“I assumed they didn’t understand these complex issues,” he said. “I explained to them that antisemitism leads to dehumanization, and I suggested we work together to meet with the students, talk about the petition and about antisemitism.”

Rosenberg described the dean’s response as a “boilerplate letter.”

“He said I could file a complaint through the university’s DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] program – which has nothing about Jews or antisemitism,” Rosenberg noted.

Demoralization set in as further incidents in the faculty failed to garner any action from the university.

Some 284 physicians wrote to the dean, describing the dangerous environment at UBC for Jewish students, faculty and patients. They received no response. Then, a professor Rosenberg worked with posted a picture of Jesus in the rubble of Gaza on social media. Rosenberg made the decision to resign.

“I’d been begging these leaders to stand up and speak about this, to model respectful dialogue, and no one was saying anything,” he said. “I realized the faculty of medicine had adopted hardwired ideological positions, and I felt I had to opt out and make a public statement about it.”

After his resignation, Rosenberg received a call from a retired dean, who admitted, in tears, how badly he’d felt about his colleague’s treatment. “He said the senior administration at UBC had silenced him and others, tying their hands. He spoke of how people were intimidated to speak out even when they shared my views, because they feared they’d be marginalized. He was looking for absolution.”

In May 2025, Rosenberg received a call from Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, requesting he testify in Parliament the following week about the antisemitism he’d experienced. Rosenberg felt an enormous responsibility to get his testimony right. “In my work as a physician, I look after old people. I’m not a genocidal maniac,” he said. “But that’s what my students are thinking about me.”

While antisemitism has not subsided, Rosenberg is optimistic that truth and sanity will ultimately prevail. In his work with Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism, he’s been writing letters to different medical departments, but, for the most part, those letters have been dismissed.

“I think there’s a systemic bias in the Western world against Israel and Zionism and a lingering bias against Judaism,” he said. “The title of my book, Ayekha, is a question to the world: where the hell are you? People need to wake up and look at the truth.”

Rosenberg noted that one requirement of entrance into medical school at UBC right now is a demonstration of your social justice activism.

“The epitome of evil in the social justice narrative is settler-colonialism, and the worst settler-colonialism is Zionism,” he noted of the school’s view.

“This means Jews are not going to get into medical school. I’ve had Jewish medical students email me to say they changed their names to non-Jewish names, just to get in. This is real, and BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] is happening. We need to speak out against it and be aware that DEI does not include us as Jews.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.

Ruta’s Closet reissued

Lady Esther Gilbert speaking at Vancouver City Hall April 8, when Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim proclaimed Ruth Kron Sigal Day in the city. (photo by Keith Morgan)

Ruta’s Closet, the Holocaust narrative of the late Vancouverite Ruth Kron Sigal, is being reissued for a new generation of audiences – and the book’s author is ensuring the survivor’s inspiring story of survival and resilience reaches the widest possible global audience.

Vancouver journalist Keith Morgan, who completed the book shortly before Kron Sigal’s passing, at age 72 in 2008, has updated the publication – and created an extensive range of multimedia projects to expand the impact of the written volume.

First issued as a fundraising initiative for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Ruta’s Closet was later published in the United Kingdom, with distribution there reaching new audiences.

The book recounts the harrowing survival story of the Kron family, imprisoned in the tiny Shavl (Šiauliai) ghetto in Lithuania, through the eyes of the youngest daughter, Ruta (later Ruth). Their survival against Nazi persecution hinged on the courage and resourcefulness of her parents, Meyer and Gita Kron, as well as the bravery of non-Jewish rescuers. Depicted with novel-like narrative power but rooted in rigorous research and eyewitness testimony, the memoir vividly portrays atrocities such as mass murder, a Nazi ban on Jewish births and the deportation of children to Auschwitz, while also shining a light on courage, compassion and human resilience amid the evil.

Kron Sigal didn’t live to see the book in print but she saw the final draft.

“She said to me shortly before she died, ‘You are going to carry on telling my story, Keith, aren’t you?’ And I said, of course I am,” Morgan told the Independent. “So, I took that on as a mission.”

Surveys indicating widespread ignorance of Holocaust history, combined with skyrocketing antisemitism, motivated Morgan to launch a series of Ruta’s Closet-related projects.

“We updated the book and decided it was time to go basically worldwide with this,” he said.

In addition to the re-release of the hard-copy, Morgan and his small team of colleagues recorded an audiobook and released an ebook. They revamped the existing Ruta’s Closet website and made it more interactive.

Working with Bill Barnes, a local radio producer, Morgan developed a 25-segment podcast.

“We are doing Zoom interviews with people around the world who are a part of a driving force behind an imaginative, creative initiative in spreading Holocaust awareness and education,” he explained. “I’ve got Ruth’s kids – Michael, Marilee and Elana – each week doing an introduction for book clubs.”

The VHEC has produced a downloadable guide for book clubs, as well as a teacher’s guide to the book, which makes it additionally relevant as British Columbia’s education curriculum mandates Holocaust education this year for the first time as part of the Social Studies 10 coursework.

“The beauty of it, for British Columbia, is it’s technically a local story,” Morgan said. “It’s about Ruth. It’s about somebody who came here and did a lot for her adopted society.”

photo - Journalist Keith Morgan, author with Ruth Kron Sigal of Kron Sigal’s memoir, Ruta’s Closet, is ensuring that her story of survival and resilience reaches the widest possible audience — Journalist Keith Morgan, author with Ruth Kron Sigal of Kron Sigal’s memoir, Ruta’s Closet, is ensuring that her story of survival and resilience reaches the widest possible audience. *(photo from Keith Morgan)*

Morgan, who spent many years as the crime reporter at the Province newspaper, met Kron Sigal when his editor asked him to take on a more uplifting assignment and begin a series about people doing good works at home and abroad.

“Somebody said, ‘Oh, you should talk to Ruth Sigal,’” who was sharing her Holocaust story with students. “I went to meet her. I was very impressed. She told her story and it had an amazing impact on me. I just knew this was an important story to tell.”

He found immediate support from Dr. Robert Krell, the founding president of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

“Robert Krell kind of took me under his wing – he was a close friend of Ruth – and he said, ‘I’ve got just the guy to introduce to you, who will be really helpful to you for pulling the story together.’”

The person was renowned historian Sir Martin Gilbert.

“The British schoolboy in me thought, ‘How do I curtsy?’” Morgan joked.

Morgan met Sir Martin in London and got a one-on-one master course in writing about the subject.

“He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘You have to tell the story as though you were writing it for your newspaper and make it accessible to all people,’” Morgan recalled. “Sadly, Martin died [in 2015], but Lady Esther Gilbert took up his mantle and, since then, she’s been an ally and was very important in this edition in terms of going through it, adding bits here and there.”

She spoke at a ceremony at Vancouver City Hall on April 8 this year, when the mayor proclaimed Ruth Kron Sigal Day in the city.

Kron Sigal’s story resonates profoundly with people, according to Morgan.

“We can all relate to what happened to Ruth and her sister Tamara,” he said. “It also tells us compelling stories about how, through their own devices, they basically survived and helped others along the way. We also see what other members of the family did to help the broader community.… We get this family story, which, in itself, is very dramatic, but we also get this wider picture of how a community in the ghetto work with each other, help each other.”

Morgan sees Kron Sigal’s narrative as an inspiration not only because of her survival against the Nazis but in all she did after becoming a Canadian.

“Ruth came here, an adopted country, and spent 25 years at the Women’s Resource Centre and the VHEC Child Survivors Group,” said Morgan. “That’s an example to everybody: come into a new society, an adopted country, and just roll up the sleeves and get working. Isn’t that an example to anybody that comes in?”

No less a triumph, Morgan said, is the family Ruth and her husband, Dr. Cecil Sigal, created.

“You look at that family and you think, ‘Victory!” he said. “Because they beat Hitler.”

Enduring horrors together

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Richard Lowy shared his father Leo’s story at Congregation Schara Tzedeck. (photo © Silvester Law)

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Richard Lowy stood in the spot where his late father, Leopold Lowy, davened and kibitzed for decades after arriving in Vancouver as a young man who had survived some of the most grotesque inhumanity history has known. Leo Lowy was a “Mengele twin” and a survivor of Auschwitz.

“This is where my father sat in synagogue,” Lowy said Jan. 27 to a packed audience at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue, beginning a unique and emotional commemoration that doubled as the launch of Kalman and Leopold, Lowy’s book about his father’s survival.

Leo Lowy was just one of many survivors who joined Schara Tzedeck after their arrival on the West Coast in the late 1940s and 1950s. They didn’t burden others with their stories of survival, the son told the audience.

Wearing his father’s tallit and carrying his siddur, Richard Lowy shared a little of his father’s story. The complete narrative of Leopold’s survival in Auschwitz – and the relationship the 16-year-old developed with a 14-year-old boy named Kalman Braun – is detailed in the book, which took Richard Lowy years of work to complete.

As twins, Leopold and his sister Miriam, as well as Kalman and his sister Judith, were of special interest to physician Josef Mengele, known to his victims and to history as Dr. Death.

“My father was a boy when he arrived in Auschwitz,” said Lowy. “He and his twin sister Miriam were sent to the twin barracks, torn apart from the rest of their family.” Leo and Miriam’s parents, grandparents, eldest sister and the sister’s baby were murdered on arrival. His three other sisters were taken to a forced labour camp.

Leopold and Kalman were recruited as servants in the guard barracks.

“In that unimaginable darkness, they became brothers, bound by a hope to survive,” Lowy recounted. “In Auschwitz, my father became Kalman’s protector, not because he wanted to, but because he had no choice. Kalman was a naïve, religious boy. He was dangerously unaware of the brutal reality they faced. His innocence threatened to draw the attention of the SS guards. Leopold knew that even the smallest misstep could lead to a beating or worse. Leo, my father, wanted to be invisible. When there was a roll call, he would go to the back of the line. He didn’t want to draw attention. He refused to make friends. He was unwilling to endure the anguish of getting to know someone and then they would end up on the pile. He buried his emotions deep, forcing himself to see the heap of bodies as nothing more than lumber. Yet, despite his efforts to remain detached, he was now compelled to guide Kalman, shielding him as a means of survival. What began as a necessity slowly evolved into a bond of friendship. Together, they endured the horrors of the SS guards and Mengele’s experiments.”

When the camp was liberated, the survivors parted with little fanfare. Kalman and Leopold assumed they would never see each other again.

In 2000, Richard Lowy produced a documentary film, Leo’s Journey, about Leopold’s survival. A year later, it aired on Israeli television.

Reading from his book, Lowy described the moment that Kalman Bar On (né Braun), by now an elderly Israeli, was stunned to see a photo of the young Leo on his TV. There was not a doubt in Bar On’s mind that this was the boy whose protection and friendship had saved his life.

A few months later, Richard reunited the two.

“Their reunion was a moment beyond words,” he recalled. “Two men, now in their 70s, embraced as if no time had passed at all, as if the decades of separation had simply melted away. In that instant, they were no longer old men. They were boys again, transported back in time to when their survival depended on each other.

“For the first time in over 50 years, they stood face-to-face with someone who truly understood the horrors that each of them went through and endured. In each other, they found more than the shared memories,” said Lowy. “They rediscovered the unshakable bond of two souls who had witnessed, experienced and survived the unimaginable together.”

Leo Lowy was a collector of cantorial recordings, which Richard Lowy entrusted to Vancouver Cantor Yaacov Orzech, who chanted El Moleh Rachamim at the book launch. Also at the event, Lowy presented to Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt a 78 RPM recording of the rabbi’s great-grandfather, the renowned Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt.

Speaking to the audience, Rosenblatt reflected on the amount of desensitization that has to happen to get to the pinnacle of evil that Leo Lowy experienced.

“Our presence here tonight is our attempt to ensure that our culture does not approach even the distant horizon of the periphery of such atrocities,” he said.

Peter Meiszner, Vancouver city councilor and acting mayor, brought greetings from the city.

“May we work together to ensure that the tragedies of the past are never repeated and that the principles of justice and equity guide our way forward together,” he said.

Selina Robinson, former BC cabinet minister and author of the recently published book Truth Be Told, introduced Lowy.

“Richard’s work is a call to action,” Robinson said. “It challenges each and every one of us to remember, to teach and to prevent hatred and antisemitism from taking root. That’s incumbent on all of us as we bear witness. It reminds Jews of our ability to overcome these hatreds. In sharing Kalman and Leopold’s journey, their memory lives on, guiding us to build a more compassionate and tolerant world.”

The book is available at kalmanandleopold.com, where the video of Leo’s Journey can also be viewed.

Revisiting magic in Victoria

Linda Dayan Frimer signs books at the Indigo in Victoria’s Mayfair Mall. (photo by David J. Litvak)

Victoria has always been a magical place for BC artist and author Linda Dayan Frimer. She has exhibited her art at the Empress Hotel and participated in a concert with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. It was an agent from Victoria who helped kickstart her career and, more recently, she connected with the Victoria editor who worked on her latest book, Luminous. On a trip this fall to Victoria to promote that book, Frimer rekindled her special relationship with British Columbia’s capital.

“Victoria is a place of very special memories and wondrous new happenings for me and my art,” said Frimer.

Recalling her early days, she said, “My large watercolour paintings depicting the landscape of British Columbia, placed in the window of Northern Passage Gallery by the owner and my Victoria-based art agent Valerie Pusey, seemed to fly out the door in swift succession.”

Pusey “was astonishing in helping my art champion many causes,” said Frimer. Those causes included Margaret Laurence House for women leaving an abusive partnership, breast cancer research, and arts and science benefits. With Pusey’s help, Frimer was chosen as the first artist to represent the Trans Canada Trail, with her painting “The Golden Journey, 5000 Miles of Freedom.” That long-ago concert with the Victoria symphony was a fundraiser, with Frimer being invited to paint on stage just behind the orchestra.

“Hearing the symphony inside my heart while painting in harmony with them was an exquisite experience,” Frimer shared.

Frimer’s memoir, Luminous: An Artist’s Story as a Guide to Radical Creativity, follows the history of her ancestors from Romania, Lithuania and Russia, as they experienced cultural turmoil and fled to North America, and delves into the stories of renowned artists and the artworks they produced in response to social injustice and war. The book includes exercises designed to help readers connect with these artists, and to inspire readers to get in touch with their own inner artist and the art of their own story. (See jewishindependent.ca/how-to-be-radically-creative.)

photo - A painting by Linda Dayan Frimer from her “Wonder” series, which is in Luminous. At a recent signing, a young girl was entranced by this series and Frimer’s art — A painting by Linda Dayan Frimer from her “Wonder” series, which is in Luminous. At a recent signing, a young girl was entranced by this series and Frimer’s art. *(image from Linda Dayan Frimer)*

While Frimer has traveled across North America promoting Luminous, this recent trip was her first event in Victoria promoting it. As people passed by the table where Luminous was displayed at Indigo in the Mayfair Mall, they couldn’t help but notice it. One young fan could not take her eyes off it.

“My book was blessed by the appearance of a little 7-year-old girl who appeared at my signing table,” said Frimer. “She began to turn each page of the book intently. After a few minutes, her mother asked her if she would like to go to the toy department. No, she responded, I want to stay right here. She seemed mesmerized by each colour-filled page and, as she pointed out her favourite painting, entitled ‘Wonder,’ I felt a rush of awe. When her mother returned after some time shopping, I gifted the little girl my book and when she received the book, she hugged it tightly. Her mother was in tears and said to us that this was a seminal moment in her daughter’s life that would guide her future.”

Frimer was moved by the encounter.

“This was the best gift my life and art could receive – for I know that each of us is the artist of our own story and, when we are inspired to reach the foundational core of ourselves, we discover true meaning and purpose,” she said. “That afternoon, I realized that, if I had only written my book to bring wonder to this little girl, it had served its purpose.”

In addition to the event at Indigo, Frimer got together with Ellen Godfrey, the editor of Luminous, and Pusey while she was in Victoria.

“I vividly recall my first glimpse of Linda Dayan Frimer’s artwork and my feeling of awe at the interplay of emotion and passion, intelligently expressed through paint on paper,” said Pusey. “That glimpse confirmed all that critics had previously observed: her distinct ability to cultivate colour, light and motion within the watercolour medium. Linda Frimer’s artwork is so fundamentally powerful that it transcends esthetic beauty to express a depth of spiritual awareness and sensitivity. Her message is one of reverence for all of creation.”

During the rest of Frimer’s time in Victoria, seeds were planted for a future event at Congregation Emanu-El and possibly an artist residency at one of the local hotels. For more information about Frimer and her work, visit lindafrimer.ca.

David J. Litvak is a prairie refugee from the North End of Winnipeg who is a freelance writer, former Voice of Peace and Co-op Radio broadcaster, “accidental publicist,” and “accidental mashgiach” at Louis Brier Home and Hospital. His articles have been published in the Forward, Globe and Mail and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His website is cascadiapublicity.com.

Israel’s war is unique

French writer, filmmaker and human rights activist Bernard-Henri Lévy was in Vancouver at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue Nov. 6, in conversation with the National Post’s Tristin Hopper. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Bernard-Henri Lévy, a public intellectual so well-known in France that he is generally referred to simply as BHL, has thrown his energies into an “emergency” effort to defend Israel in a moment of history when the world has turned against the Jewish state.

Lévy was in Vancouver at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue Nov. 6, in conversation with Tristin Hopper, a writer for the National Post.

Throughout his career as a reporter, commentator, filmmaker and activist, Lévy has written and spoken extensively about humanitarian crises in Bangladesh, Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia and many other flashpoints. Now, he said, “I am pleading with all my energy for Israel and for the defence of Israel.”

His latest book – his 47th or 48th, he thinks – is Israel Alone.

Israel’s war is unique, he said, because it involves enemies who are not driven by ideas but by the nihilistic aim of destroying a nation and a people. The differentiation between antisemitism and anti-Zionism is irrelevant to Hamas and Hezbollah, said Lévy, noting that many of those killed on Oct. 7 were among Israel’s leading peace activists.

“Those crimes have nothing to do with seeking a political solution to the suffering of Palestinians,” he said. “They don’t care about peace. They don’t care about a two-state solution. They don’t care about the fate of the old people. They only care about killing Jews. [The victims] could have been right-wing Jews. It happens that they were left-wing Jews, but they just don’t care. For Hamas, there is not left-wing or right-wing Jews. There is just Jews who deserve to be hated, tortured and, if possible, killed.”

Lévy urges the world not to be misled into thinking that Hamas and Hezbollah are national liberation movements. “They are the proxies, the puppets, of a very powerful country, which is Iran,” he said.

Lévy is optimistic because Israel is winning the war.

“What makes me a little less optimistic, and even pessimistic, what sometimes discourages me, is the reaction of the world,” he said. “Instead of saying bravo to Israel, instead of saying thank you to Israel, instead of standing at the side of Israel, who is waging an existential war for [itself] but also a useful war for the rest of the world – instead of that, the rest of the world, sometimes the allies of Israel, mumble, object, groan, accuse and ask, demand, beg, require from Israel ceasefire, compromise, negotiation.

“When you think about it, I don’t see any precedent of a just war, a fair war, which is treated by the allies of the country that is waging it, with such strange behaviour,” said Lévy. “It is unique.”

The West is responding like cowards to the threat of Iranian-backed Islamist terror, he argued, which has formed an alliance with Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime. Part of this refusal to stand with the victims is an ingrained tendency in Western civilization, he said.

“There are a lot of people in the West who love Jews when they are victims, who love to support them and to shed tears on their face when they are beaten, wounded and sometimes killed,” he said, “but who don’t like to see them proud and strong and behaving with heads up.”

On the positive side, Lévy believes, most people in Europe and North America are not irreversibly antisemitic or anti-Israel but are influenced by biased commentary. His new book is a tool for these people and those who engage with them, he said. “Those [people] can be addressed with reasonable arguments, with historical facts, and … can be not only addressed but convinced, I’m sure of that. That is the aim of this book.”

Canada has been a safe haven for generations of Jews, he said. But now, Canadian Jews hear fellow citizens calling for their destruction.

“What is the future of the Jewish communities in France and in Canada?” he asked. “I will tell you one thing. I know very few Jews who do not have, somewhere in the back of their mind, the precise or vague or very vague idea that they could go one day to Israel. This is the state of Jewry since 1948. To be a Jew means to be a good Canadian citizen, a good French citizen, but to have somewhere, even remotely, in the mind, the idea that Israel could be an option.”

The global condemnation of Israel is a reincarnation of a long-familiar trend, Lévy said. “The new argument of antisemitism, the new form, the new phase, the new name of the virus is anti-Zionism,” he said.

The best and “only efficient way to be antisemitic today” is to be anti-Zionist, he argued. Blaming Jews for deicide or some of the other historical justifications for antisemitism is no longer effective, he said. “If you say that today, honestly, you will not meet with great success. If one wants to hate with efficiency the Jews, there is only one way left.”

Israel has few supporters among non-Jews, he said, even among ostensible allies, whose support he described as often coming with conditions.

Lévy called the former and future president of the United States, Donald Trump, “a true ally of Israel, for sure, no doubt on that.” But he also reminded the audience of an incident in the election campaign, during which Trump warned a Jewish audience that he would blame them for his loss if he were defeated.

“And if you are responsible for my defeat, within two years, Israel will disappear,” Lévy paraphrased Trump. “It was a slip of the tongue probably. [But it meant that, in Trump’s mind], the Jews deserve to be protected, but conditionally, if they supported [Trump], if they were good guys and good ladies, if they gave him victory.”

Schara Tzedeck’s Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt welcomed the audience and acknowledged members of the Ukrainian, French and other communities in attendance. He also credited Robert Krell and Alain Guez for Lévy’s visit to Vancouver.

Focus during distracted times

As a freelancer, I often find interesting work opportunities that don’t pan out. I spent time in December applying for an editor gig that involved editing summaries of literature to provide students with educational support. I used to think these supports were “cheating,” using these kinds of guides, but now I know differently. Students with special needs deserve access to these stories. I recognize that every student has the right to learn, read great pieces of literature and access education, even if they struggle along the way. So, I dutifully filled out the form, sent off my CV and submitted an application. One application question irked me. “What’s your favourite piece of literature and why?”

Two things bothered me. One is that this response had a word limit on the form, so nobody could wax eloquent about whatever they chose. The second thing is that, as someone in mid-life who reads voraciously, I thought it was ridiculous to ask what someone’s all-time favourite was. I couldn’t possibly name only one, but I thought about it. I’ve been reading Talmud daily for about four years. I must like it. Further, it has helped me gain a lot of insight into the ancient world, and reflects further on ancient cultures, law systems and storytelling.

I tried to fit this into the form, but I had reservations. The organization had a big “We do not discriminate” statement on its page but, after Oct. 7, I wondered if I was risking something to say that the Babylonian Talmud was my current favourite. My concerns might have been warranted. On Dec. 25, in the morning, I received a vague form email telling me my application hadn’t been successful. My household laughed about the timing of the form letter. What were they indicating? That Jews should work as usual on Christmas, a North American statutory holiday? Or that my choice of literature was so egregious they couldn’t wait for a business day to reply? Perhaps something else about my qualifications didn’t meet their needs. It’s best not to work for a place that isn’t a good fit. Although this part-time gig had great potential, I wasn’t a contender. That’s OK.

This experience made me reflect on my lifelong relationship with reading. I’ve always loved to read. One of my undergraduate majors was in comparative literature. A favourite moment during my graduate work in English education came when the professor put different things on a table and asked us to list which things were “literature.” The professor included newspaper articles, fiction and nonfiction, plays and song lyrics, advertisements, and more. Her point was that we often couldn’t predict what piece of writing would stand the test of time. Further, all of us would have different answers to this question about how to define literature and its meaning. She was right.

Since Oct. 7, I’ve had a hard time focusing. For a long time, I couldn’t read a book. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve been glued to the news and social media, reading many articles and much political analysis. I listened to completely “fluffy” fiction audio books as I cooked but, eventually, I had to stop renewing a book I’d checked out from the public library. It was nonfiction, a book about the US Great Migration called The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson. It was well-written and engaging. I felt like apologizing to the author. I couldn’t focus enough to remember the various narrative threads or finish it.

Later, on Dec. 25, I managed to complete reading On the Way Home, the short diary of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which recounted her trip from South Dakota to her new home in Mansfield, Mo., in 1894. This brief chronicle transported me, giving me a window into travel during a period of US history that I could only imagine. Was it literature? Perhaps, because it worked the way literature should. I spent time in my imagination in a different place and time. It offered a brief respite. Perhaps it’s the start of being able to focus on reading again? I can only hope.

I wondered why I’d made it through this (admittedly short) volume I’d found at a neighbourhood Little Free Library. It made me reflect on what aspects of literature are valuable and what allows us to focus on it. Perhaps it’s about escape or the imagination. Maybe it helps us learn about relationships, history and culture.

Four years ago, I resolved to start Daf Yomi, reading a page of Talmud a day, on Jan. 5. It was my birthday and close enough to the start of the secular new year to be a “resolution” that truly stuck. After four years of reading a page a day, I am still immersed in this experience. Even though I read mostly in English, and barely skim the surface of each page, I’d argue this is a good read. I’ve learned a lot, but it has taken work and research to make meaning. Sometimes, I have to struggle with finding connections with the rabbis who lived 2,000 years ago. Even as the rabbis struggled with practical issues, I sometimes have to read commentaries and make a leap to figure out how the issues applied then as compared to today.

Great literature is about history and context, as well as mystery, and it’s all there, wrapped up for us like a big gift in Jewish literature. Religious texts like Torah and Talmud, as well as all the other Jewish stories that came afterwards, add meaning and depth to our lives. Surprisingly, I haven’t had trouble focusing on these narratives.

Here, too, is another lesson that literature is teaching me – we Jews are a small people but have incredibly rich literary and spiritual resources. As Israel struggles physically with war, these texts remind me what we’re fighting to maintain. Doing the work to understand these texts offers us so much history, context and tradition, I’m grateful to have the opportunity. It’s the least I can do when so much is at stake.

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.

Creating a family heirloom

Book designer Barbi Braude and filmmaker Cory Bretz, both experienced in family history preservation, have launched FamilyMovieStoryBooks.com, to help “do-it-yourself family historians in crafting and publishing compelling family storybooks and producing cherished family movies.” (photo from Barbi Braude)

Irene Jacobson put the months of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic to good use, researching and publishing the history of her Jewish family’s long settlement in South Africa.

With that ambitious project completed, the retired schoolteacher thought it was time she put together her own story, which began in South Africa and carried on in the United States, where she raised three children and continued her career, after immigrating in 1977.

But, like many people, Jacobson did not feel she could write an autobiography on her own – all that ordering of memories, distinguishing between fact and anecdote, and selecting from photos and documents amassed over the years seemed overwhelming. The technological tools now available to make that task easier and the finished product more professional-looking are not widely known or may seem intimidating to the amateur.

So, Jacobson, who lives in the Chicago area, turned to a new online platform created for people like her by book designer Barbi Braude and filmmaker Cory Bretz of Vancouver, both experienced in family history preservation.

The website FamilyMovieStoryBooks.com, which they launched after a year’s development, is intended to enable anyone to craft an heirloom that they can feel proud to hand down to future generations, say Braude and Bretz.

They believe that telling stories in an appealing and lasting format, whether book, film or both, provides a sense of fulfillment to the author and can inspire their descendants.

photo - A few examples of books about Vancouverites – Ben Dayson, the Nemetz family and Lou Segal – with which FamilyMovieStoryBooks has helped — A few examples of books about Vancouverites – Ben Dayson, the Nemetz family and Lou Segal – with which FamilyMovieStoryBooks has helped. *(photo from Barbi Braude)*

The platform can serve as a step-by-step guide for those who want to work independently, or Braude and Bretz can arrange to have clients accompanied as much or as little as they want throughout the process.

If someone already has written a draft or taken home videos, they can be polished into a finished product, or the pair will take on the project from the very beginning, doing interviews online and going through possible imagery, shaping the material for the client.

“This innovative website aids do-it-yourself family historians in crafting and publishing compelling family storybooks and producing cherished family movies,” said Bretz. “The platform offers an array of valuable resources, including unwavering support, educational courses, interactive workshops led by experts, and professional design services.” Prospective users can take a free trial, and initial consultation is available without charge.

Jacobson had worked with Braude on her first book. “It’s fabulous. It is about my great-grandparents who went to South Africa with their four adult children, of whom one was my grandmother. We could not go further back than the great-grandparents, so we went forward and did a history book of the four siblings, their lives and descendants.”

The book about the Mierowsky family on her mother’s side, who were from Lithuania, is more than 400 pages long, with numerous photos. A copy was deposited with the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia.

“The book I’m doing now through FamilyMovieStoryBooks is much less complicated and much smaller,” said Jacobson. “It is basically my biography, which I had written over a few years. As I’m older I felt I needed to get it done soon and in a simpler fashion. It’s my memories in chronological order.”

Jacobson (née Albert) was born in Port Elizabeth, a fifth-generation South African on her paternal side. She was a high school teacher there.

She and her husband came to the United States in 1977, where her children were born. Jacobson taught middle-school math and science at Jewish day schools.

“As my mother’s family is in my first book, I am going to have a small chapter, as an addendum, on my father’s family in my biography,” Jacobson said. After her autobiography is finished, she hopes to do a more comprehensive story of her Albert ancestors.

“I’m doing this book for me and my children and grandchildren. I will give copies to two friends I grew up with, as their children might find it interesting,” Jacobson said. “My first book is about how my parents’ generation grew up in South Africa. Mine is about how I grew up in South Africa and then my life in the US. I think everyone should do something for their family, especially if they have an interesting story to tell. Stories should be told, not lost.”

Jacobson chose FamilyMovieStoryBooks because it’s easy and affordable. “Barbi brainstormed a theme, so that helped me organize my thoughts. She also told me how to organize my photos to help me make choosing them easier,” said Jacobson.

“I am not particularly computer literate, but getting everything online has been easy to do. I could not find another place that did the same quality work. I wanted photos and more design. My brother-in-law worked on his memoirs with a ghost writer and it’s very dull with no design or photos. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product, which is still a few months away, as I do what I can between traveling.

Braude said all communications with Jacobson are done remotely using Zoom for conversations and Google Drive for sharing chapters and images.

“At first I had to tutor Irene on how to use Google Drive. We are always happy to meet clients where their skill sets are computer-wise. We have the patience to empower our clients to use the internet.”

Working on the design remotely is fairly straightforward, said Braude, who employs the user-friendly Adobe Cloud for proofing feedback. FamilyMovieStoryBooks aims to serve people worldwide.

photo - A peek inside the book about Ben Dayson shows what FamilyMovieStoryBooks can do — A peek inside the book about Ben Dayson shows what FamilyMovieStoryBooks can do. *(photo from Barbi Braude)*

Clients receive a high-quality hardcover book with glossy pages that reproduce photos and documents like birth certificates, immigration papers and letters in the best definition.

The movies directed by Bretz have the advantage of preserving the living presence and voice of the storyteller, he said. “It’s surprising how little people at shivas know about their deceased relative.”

Distance has not precluded close collaboration, both Jacobson and Braude attest. “A wonderful relationship does form between FamilyMovieStoryBooks and our clients,” said Braude, who is also currently designing a book for a Vancouver family. “The story is a collaboration between a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor and her daughter. The daughter said to me the other day, ‘What am I going to do when we complete this project? I have so enjoyed working with you as much as seeing my mom’s story come to life.’”

Asked if the platform can be especially valuable to Jewish families in general, Braude replied, “Absolutely! I’m reminded of a quote by Sue Monk Kidd from her book The Secret Life of Bees. It goes like this: ‘Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.’

“Jews have lived in challenging times. We are the sum of our family legacy and life’s experiences. What better gift to give to future generations than the stories that made their families who they are,” said Braude.

Bretz commented that such a meaningful experience is “a testament to the power of bridging generations through the art of storytelling.” The FamilyMovieStoryBooks platform shares publishing and cinematic know-how with the general public that can transform what might be soon-forgotten family lore into a cherished artifact, he said. Along the way, family members wherever they are can bond and share a laugh or tear while exploring their common heritage, made possible through an innovative digital environment.

Janice Arnold is a freelance writer living in Summerland, BC.