education – Page 4

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.

Post-tumble, lights still shine

I recently celebrated Shabbat morning in a way I don’t recommend. I stepped out of my house for the dog walk, thought, “Oh, slippery!” The next thing I knew, I lost my footing. I fell down several stone steps. I ended up on the sidewalk. I’d let go of the leash. My large dog stood patiently, looking concerned, as I lay on the front walk, assessing the situation.

We’ve had a long and temperate fall here in Winnipeg. The light glaze of ice that covered everything was an unfortunate surprise. I’m very lucky. I was able to get up. I went back up the front stairs with the dog and got help. While I’m bruised and my hands were bloodied, nothing broke. While I would have preferred to go right back to bed, I stayed active enough to manage the rest of the weekend. My kids volunteer at services, so I still had to go there, too. Sometimes, what we want isn’t possible, so we make the best of the situation.

I think about Hanukkah, and the adversity that Jews face, in this way. In the best possible situation, we wouldn’t have to fight physically or verbally to maintain our traditions. We would be able to celebrate in a full-throated way, without hesitation. Yet, that option doesn’t always feel possible, even if we might think that embracing Jewish joy is the best way forward.

The issue arose for me recently when I participated in an accessible “make along.” This event, called Fasten Off, has a period each fall where knitting and crochet designers offer a big discount on their downloadable patterns. It is intended to be as accessible as possible to people with disabilities, as well as those with other challenges. There are multiple categories of challenges: non-gendered, low-vision, sizing for those who are taller or larger than average. For the first time, this year, there was a category on the form that one could tick off that said, “marginalized religious group.” I really didn’t know what to do.

It’s true that my designs include kippot and a hamantashen baby rattle stuffie. I have never hidden my identity. Now, in Canada, Jews are a marginalized group, with documented hate crime numbers and antisemitism rising. However, I wondered what would happen if I checked off this box. Would it mean fewer people would buy my work? More? What benefit would it have? I both ticked off the box and contacted the organizer to mention my concern. I got no response at all, which made me feel even more worried.

My sales stats show what a huge shift the last two years have been. Previously, one of my kippah patterns, as an example, had been a dependable seller. I looked up this design’s sales and found I’d sold only about 16 kippah patterns (all styles) on three sales platforms during two years of the Gaza war. In the previous year, 2022/23, I sold 14 copies of this pattern on only one sales platform. As a result of this drastic sales drop (I have more than 80 designs online), I ended up taking a break from designing. It no longer became cost-effective to sink money into creating new designs when knitters no longer make even these small purchases. It doesn’t mean my business interests changed. The situation has. I’m still marketing my work, offering discounts and trying to attract interest – even while being part of a “marginalized group.”

Our tradition teaches us to pivot when things are challenging. In the Torah parsha (portion) Toldot, Isaac grows successful as a shepherd. (Genesis 26:13 and onwards) However, when he increases his household and flocks, he needs more water. When he digs new wells, he runs into trouble. First, the Philistines fill up his old wells and, then, as he moves onward, digging new ones, other herdsmen object. He pivots, digging new wells in new places until he finds one that works out. Meanwhile, in time, those who objected to him previously seek a reconciliation, seeing Isaac’s divine fortune, and they make peace. (Genesis 26:31)

After hearing this portion chanted in synagogue, a friend reminded me that sometimes being resilient means pivoting or waiting with patience when faced with adversity. Things don’t turn around right away. We both have engaged in a lot of Jewish advocacy and antisemitism education work over the past year together. She is a professional, public figure, while I tend to write and reach out behind the scenes as a volunteer. Sometimes, my efforts net quick responses, and I know what I said mattered. Other times, I have no idea if anyone received my email or if they read it. I keep trying, as I’m invested in this effort to make life better for Canadian Jews for the long haul.

I believe that bringing up issues concerning antisemitism education, equity reviews in schools and school curriculum matters makes a difference. Sometimes my message reaches the right reporter or school official. Sometimes, it doesn’t or it fails. Yet, in every situation, it’s important to pick myself up, dust myself off – and start all over again, even if the setbacks can hurt.

During Hanukkah, we celebrate the triumph of regaining religious freedom and peace. We use candles to illustrate the metaphor of bringing light to dark times. Sometimes that light is sweeter because of the struggle beforehand.

I’m still very sore from tumbling down our icy front steps, but I’m also incredibly grateful. This morning, the dog barked, asking for her walk and, while I may still be hobbling and bruised for a bit, I was able to get outside again.

That opportunity, to keep digging wells, reaching out to others and continuing to try? It matters. Some might see Jews as marginalized, but it’s also possible to take another read. Rather, we’re lucky and resilient, too, a people offering religious freedom and Hanukkah light to other nations.

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press 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.

Explore Jewish music

On Dec. 3, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz will speak on Harnessing the Potential of Our Comfort Songs, as part of Kolot Mayim Reform Temple’s Building Bridges Speakers Series. (photo from Hadar Institute)

Kolot Mayim Reform Temple’s annual six-part series of free lectures – the Building Bridges Speaker Series – returned earlier this month with the Nov. 2 talk by Dr. Lori Şen of Shenandoah University on Classical Echoes in Ladino: Sephardic Songs Reimagined. It continues Dec. 3, with Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz of the Hadar Institute speaking on the topic Harnessing the Potential of Our Comfort Songs.

The Building Bridges Speaker Series’ theme for 2025/26 is Kolot Zemirot: The Many Voices of Jewish Music. In the wake of the dramatic rise in antisemitism following the events of Oct. 7, 2023, it is more important than ever to celebrate and amplify the rich tapestry of Jewish culture, history and heritage. This series of lectures will explore the role of music in shaping and sustaining Jewish identity across generations and around the world, delving into the diverse expressions of Jewish music – its history, traditions, and its cultural, religious and secular aspects. Music has always been a source of strength, resilience and hope for the Jewish people, and this series will highlight its power to unite communities and inspire pride in our shared heritage.

An educator, practitioner, composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and facilitator of Jewish communal music, Sacks Mintz will explore, on Dec. 3, how Jews use the internal strength we source from singing our own anchor songs to serve our communities in times of disruption. For Sacks Mintz, the power of communal music ignites spiritual creativity, fosters participation and deepens connections within Jewish life.

Historian and lecturer David Benkof, “the Broadway Maven,” will speak in person in Victoria on Jan. 11, with hybrid access for a wider audience. His presentation will dig into Jewish creators, characters and themes that have shaped – and continue to shape – the world of Broadway, revealing how musical theatre reflects and influences Jewish identity.

A leading voice in the study of contemporary Israeli music, ethnomusicologist, Dr. Naomi Cohn-Zentner of Bar-Ilan University observes that Israeli songs about the war and the army have always been about a hope for peace, and this was even more the case after Oct. 7. Her Feb. 8 talk – called Music and War: An Optimistic View – will examine how Israeli musicians have responded to the tragedy, offering an exploration of music’s role in processing grief, inspiring resilience and connecting community in times of crisis.

On March 8, Dr. Joshua Jacobson, author, composer, scholar and founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, will speak on Jewish Music: What’s That? One of the world’s leading authorities on Jewish music, Jacobson will share his expertise in the history and ongoing evolution of Jewish music. His presentation will invite listeners to consider what we mean by Jewish music and how musical expression is a rich part of our identity.

Toronto author and biographer Michael Posner wraps up the 2025/26 series on April 12 with the lecture Hallelujah and Beyond: Leonard Cohen’s Torah of Song. Posner will explore Cohen’s Jewish heritage, philosophy and musical legacy and how Judaism influenced the singer-songwriter’s lyrics, philosophy and life.

The Jewish Independent will feature coverage of the lectures in future issues, including Şen’s Nov. 2 lecture, which can be viewed on Kolot Mayim’s website.

Kolot Mayim, from the Hebrew “Voices of the Water,” is Victoria’s Reform Jewish Congregation. The Building Bridges lecture series is partially supported by the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island and donations are gratefully accepted, with tax receipts available for contributions over $25.

The webinars are free and mostly occur monthly mostly on select Sundays (with the exception of Sacks Mintz’s), at 11 a.m., on Zoom. Pre-registration is required via kolotmayimreformtemple.com.

– Courtesy Kolot Mayim Reform Temple

Anne Frank exhibit on now

Created in 1995, the traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today is on display roughly 300 times a year. Mainly for school groups, people can visit the exhibit at Seaforth Armoury Nov. 11. (photo from Anne Frank House)

The traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today, hosted by the Consulate General of the Netherlands, is at Seaforth Armoury until Nov. 21. An opportunity for school groups to learn about Anne’s story and the legacy of her diary, the exhibit tours have already sold out, but the public is welcome to visit on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11.

While this is not the first time the exhibit has been in Vancouver, its presence at the armoury and museum is poignant. Started in 1920 by Scottish Canadians, infantry from the Seaforth Highlanders were on the ground in Amsterdam on May 8, 1945. They entered the city as part of the Allies’ liberating force.

Following months of battles and Germany’s surrender, the Seaforth Highlanders offered humanitarian aid to the city’s population. The close ties between the regiment and the people of the Netherlands are commemorated every year.

The school tours at Seaforth Armoury are led by volunteers trained by Phyllis Lewis, a staff member of Anne Frank House, said the house’s director of Canadian activities, John Kastner.

Arriving on Nov. 5, the exhibit required about six people half a day to set up, then there was peer training. The response to the call for volunteers was excellent, said Kastner, as has been the level of interest from local schools.

“I think the premise is from Anne Frank House in Amsterdam – there’s real value for people to become ambassadors of the message. People that are close to the same age as Anne are particularly effective when it comes to relaying the message of the diary,” he said.

Not all the exhibit’s stops are in metropolitan areas. Kastner described its journey to Anne Frank Public School in Vaughan, part of the Greater Toronto Area, then it went to Marathon, a mining community on the shore of Lake Superior, then to All Saints High School in Toronto, before being displayed at Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery (Canada’s national military cemetery) and the Dutch consulate in Vancouver, which sponsored it.

And the exhibition will keep moving, said Kastner. “It’s been very busy in 2025 – demand has been very steady and it has hardly been in storage at all.”

Created in 1995, the Canadian exhibitions are just some of the many around the world, in languages including Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Korean, Macedonian and two forms of Portuguese. In total, the exhibit is on display roughly 300 times a year.

Paired with a 30-minute film, Who was Anne Frank?, the tour takes about 90 minutes. It comprises 11 panels of information that are the same worldwide and the 12th panel is curated specifically for the region. The version that arrived in Vancouver this week references the liberation of Amsterdam and all the panels are in both English and French, which is the case for all the Canadian showings, though the exhibit for northern Ontario is also in Inuktitut.

The docents bear a responsibility as ambassadors for Anne’s legacy and message, said Kastner. “You want people who are in classrooms, at dinner tables, in peer groups at schools, who are aware of the story, that become advocates of fairness, opponents of racism, opponents of prejudice, and we really see it in real life – that those docents become docents of the message of Anne Frank House.

“Every generation that comes through, you create a new generation that becomes familiar with the story and the messaging of Anne Frank – not only what she went through, but her optimism in a world surrounded by hate, prejudice and violence…. As people go through the exhibit, they become aware of what an important story it is,” said Kastner. “They come to realize that it is, by definition, a history for today – that it has relevance in today’s society.”

photo - Anne Frank, in 1941. The traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today is at Seaforth Armoury until Nov. 21 — Anne Frank, in 1941. The traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today is at Seaforth Armoury until Nov. 21. *(photo from Anne Frank House)*

Kastner spoke about his personal connection to Anne’s remarkable outlook and values, referencing her often-quoted diary entry of July 15, 1944: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

“I wish we could all be as optimistic as Anne was,” he said. “It was remarkable.

“There have been many periods since the Second World War when we’ve had many reasons to be pessimistic, and that’s why it’s a history for today. It’s a recurring message that continues. After 75 years, it still has relevance.”

Kastner praised the design of the exhibit, calling it “fantastic.”

“There’s a timeline ribbon that goes down the centre … the date and the year. Above the ribbon is what is happening in the world politically at the time. Below the ribbon is how it’s impacting people – Anne, her family and everybody else,” he explained. “The idea is that [some people think] what you see on the news doesn’t really matter…. This says, it should matter, it does make a difference. And that creates an awareness of current events, of being involved … of speaking out. Even in minor cases of prejudice, it’s problematic and [can lead] to a greater problem.”

When talking about this idea in Marathon, Kastner gave the example of name-calling. “Calling someone a name, a slur, we can see it as problematic but not the end of the world,” he said. Or, “graffiti on a kid’s locker, that’s not very nice, but it’s not the end of the world – but it leads to a huge problem when [such actions] become the norm.”

Kastner spoke highly of the 3D model of the house, which is “one of the great learning tools that goes with the exhibit.” There is power in asking teenagers, “Who can tell us where Anne slept?”

“When I went to Anne Frank House to work there, where my workspace was, I’d be looking at the courtyard and at the Annex, looking at the tree, and it’s absolutely surreal,” he said. “Being in the presence of that kind of history. There’s no replacement for that.”

It’s the same tree Anne would have seen.

“I’d be in her father’s office at the warehouse and there are all sorts of people traipsing through the house,” he said, and he’d think about “how you [would have] had to be deathly quiet, completely stationary, because people were using that office.”

Certain questions come up time and again. Students want to know how the Holocaust started, for example.

“The Holocaust didn’t start with people getting loaded on trains,” Kastner explains to the kids. “The Holocaust started with all sorts of things that Anne talks about – her bike being taken away, not being allowed to swim in the public pool, not being allowed to take public transit, then extended to larger things. Her dad not being allowed to have a job or own property.… It starts by slow increments.”

At Anne Frank Public School in Vaughan, the kids asked Kastner how Anne’s diary got published. He described the return of Anne’s father, Otto Frank, to the Annex, which had not changed since the day their hiding place was discovered. He told the students that Miep Gies, who had helped hide Anne and her family, “had taken the diary after the Nazis had left and kept it, gave it to Otto and he read through it and then said, I should publish this.”

Kastner said the kids marvel at the serendipity, the turn of events that led to “one of the most important books written by somebody under the age of 16.” He added, “The kids say that it’s amazing that [Otto] survived, that he got the book, that somebody wanted to publish it and then the idea that it’s become standard reading for millions of kids 70 years later.”

During the exhibition’s stop at Beechwood Cemetery, Kastner recalled two students asking him, “What is it about Jewish people? Why do they pick on Jewish people?” And, “Why didn’t somebody do something?

Kastner explained the scapegoat theory to these students. “It’s in Shakespearian plays, it’s throughout history: the idea of a common enemy often solidifies a group,” he said.

Each exhibition site brings different opportunities for learning, said Kastner. Getting it to remote locations can be tough but it’s worthwhile. Shipping the panels to Marathon, for example, was challenging, but Kastner applauded the motivation of the school there as “very noble and progressive.”

“Every place it goes, it has a different impact and it’s going there for a different reason,” said Kastner of the exhibition.

“The message,” he said, “is in Anne’s experience, Anne’s death – that has relevance in today’s society.”

Shula Klinger is an author and journalist living in North Vancouver.

OJC hosts Oct. 7 memorial

On the weekend of Oct. 11-12, the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre hosted a memorial exhibit to mark two years since Oct. 7. It was designed as a series of information booths, to allow visitors to engage with the material at their own pace. (photo from OJC)

On the weekend of Oct. 11-12, the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre (OJC) hosted a memorial exhibit to mark two years since the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel. The program brought together Kelowna, West Kelowna and Okanagan area residents, the Jewish community, other faith groups and allies, as well as local, provincial and federal elected representatives and some of their staff.

The exhibit, created by Mila Shapiro and Harley Kushmier, was designed as a series of information booths, to allow visitors to engage with the material at their own pace. Each station explained different parts of the story: the historical context, the scale of the violence and the hatred that drove it. Displays showed how people from all backgrounds – left or right, foreign nationals or Israelis – were targeted and suffered the same nightmare.

One of the most difficult-to-view sections showed video footage recorded by the Hamas terrorists during the attacks. The reaction from visitors was intense, with many saying it was overwhelming, but also something they needed to see to understand the scale of the cruelty.

image - poster showing Canadians who died on Oct. 7 — *(photo from OJC)*

On the Saturday evening, the guest speaker, Nitzan, shared her story of Oct. 7 to a room filled to capacity.

Nitzan, who preferred to go by her first name for this article, grew up in a small northern town in Israel, where having to take refuge in a shelter wasn’t necessarily a scary experience.

“Back then, we didn’t have Iron Dome, we didn’t have an alarm system,” she said. “We heard the whistle and then the boom.

“As we grew older, my sister moved to the south of Israel, where she fell in love and built her life in Kibbutz Be’eri, an amazing peaceful, community. Be’eri made the desert bloom.”

On Oct. 7, Nitzan’s sister sent a photo of her and her family in their safe room. “I called her, asking why they were in the safe room, what’s happening. She said the amount of rockets is insane. We’re in the safe room, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the people partying at the music fest – they have nowhere to go.”

A few minutes later, “She was outside with the kids and, on a video call, I said to her, what if they come?”

The family returned to their safe room, said Nitzan. But the doors to safe rooms don’t lock. “You have to hold the handle up,” she explained.

Fifteen minutes later, texts started flooding in – attackers were in the kibbutz, they were breaking into people’s homes.

“As the night went on,” said Nitzan, “they, Hamas, were burning the houses, smoking people out of their homes, shooting, killing, murdering whoever they could. They broke into my sister’s house five times. She and her husband held onto the door, not letting go, not letting them in.

“As the night went on, her texts were begging for help, saying goodbye, not thinking they were going to make it through the night.

“Her husband’s family all live in the kibbutz – his two sisters and his mom. His mom was hosting her sister, her husband and son. They didn’t make it,” said Nitzan. His mom, Pessi, her sister Hanna, husband Zizi and son Tal were all killed.

“My friend Abouya answered my texts, saying he’s holding onto the door and then he stopped reading my messages. They had shot him in the stomach, and he died at home. He was a close family friend…. His grandkids, two 12-year-old-year-olds, a boy and girl, Ynai and Liel, were being held in Pessi’s house. They were murdered with her. The terrorists gathered 15 neighbours, murdering 12 of them.”

photo - Attendees were asked to light a memorial candle — *(photo from OJC)*

Nitzan knew many others who were killed.

“I ended up in an emergency room,” she shared. “I couldn’t bear the horror. I was throwing up, sweating, shaking. When I got to emerg, the doctor told me he had to give me something to calm me down. I said, I can’t take it. If I need to make the decision to go home, I need to be able to make it. He looked at me and understood. When I saw him a few months after, he asked me, how are you doing? Did your family survive?

“They did, and I am so grateful for that.”

Nitzan spoke about the rising amount of antisemitism in Canada and around the world.

“We have to stick together, we have to find each other, support each other and find why,” she said, mentioning former hostage Eli Sharabi’s book, Hostage, in which he describes meeting Hersh Goldberg-Polin, another hostage, who was murdered in the tunnels of Gaza with five others in August 2024. Goldberg-Polin told Sharabi, “If you have the why, you’ll find the how” to survive. Sharabi talks about how this idea, also expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche (“he who has a why to live for can bear almost anything”) helped him survive 491 days in captivity.

“It has been two long years, years of hurt, of pain,” said Nitzan. “I wish for all our hostages to come home … victims’ bodies are still there. I wish for us to be united, to know that we are stronger together, that we have many friends that support us and that we are not alone.”

photo - Booth thanking community and allies — *(photo from OJC)*

The evening concluded with a Q&A session. Questions and comments ranged from the sharing of personal experiences, to questions for Nitzan, to concerns about antisemitism and the growing fear that many Jewish Canadians are now living with.

On Sunday, Liel, who also didn’t want her surname used for this article, shared her story about Oct. 7. She spoke about the loss of someone very close to her and the continuing impact that day has had on her perspective and sense of community. As well, she discussed the challenges on Canadian and American university campuses, describing how painful it has been to witness the reactions and divisions that have emerged.

“We can’t stop talking about the victims of the seventh of October,” said Liel, the more than 1,200 “innocent people who lost their lives in senseless violence,” and those who were kidnapped.

“We can’t forget about the heroes of that day,” she said, talking about the soldiers and civilians who fought hard that day, the “heroes that saved countless lives by sacrificing themselves. We must keep all of their memories alive by continuing to remember them and talk about them, and share their stories.”

“As a Jew, I carry the weight of my ancestors’ pain and resilience. Our voice must never be silent,” said Kushmier about why it was important for him to help create this exhibit. “The pain in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora has been profound, yet we rise above the hate. We stand as ourselves, stronger and united, showing the world that we will endure, heal and continue to thrive.

“Every generation of our people has faced hardship, but we have never been broken,” he said. “Through centuries of persecution, we have built communities, told our stories, and held onto our faith. Our people are strong, and our unity is our power. In the face of hatred, we choose love and life.”

Shapiro said the Oct. 7 massacre hit very close to home, and her family lost someone very close to them at the Nova music festival.

“My land and my people are suffering and I believe it’s critical to bring historical facts and context to the forefront, so others can truly understand the roots of this conflict,” she said. “Only through education and awareness can we make change toward truth and justice.

“In addition, in the aftermath of such a horrific tragedy, I believe it can be deeply healing to come together in mourning – to honour and remember those who were brutally murdered, massacred, burned and tortured. Their lives were taken in unimaginable ways, and we owe it to them and to ourselves to remember their names, their stories and their humanity. Mourning together is not just an act of remembrance – it’s an act of resistance against forgetting.”

In a city where the Jewish community is small but strong, the exhibit was a chance to learn, to bear witness and to connect, said Kushmier and Shapiro, who thank Nitzan for sharing her story.

They also thank their families and the volunteers, including Bitachon (security) members, who assisted with the two-day exhibit, which was funded by donations from the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, and included material from StandWithUs.

Samantha Kushmier is a member of the Okanagan Jewish Community, and mother of exhibit organizer Harley Kushmier.

New fall lecture series

White Rock South Surrey Jewish Community Centre’s first-ever Fall Speaker Series, starts Oct. 29, with a talk on Jewish immigration to Canada. (image designed by Chloe Heuchert)

On Oct. 29, I will help launch White Rock South Surrey Jewish Community Centre’s first-ever Fall Speaker Series, which will also feature presenters from the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia and the Jewish Museum and Arch-ives of British Columbia over the coming months.

For my presentation, I will give an introduction to the history of the Jews in Canada and some of the adversities they have had to face. I start off with the first known Jewish settlers, who came here in the 1760s, following Britain’s conquest of New France. So, Jews first came to Canada when it was under the British colonial rule. While there were no legal restrictions on them, the opportunities for integration into public life and to hold public office were limited.

One of the earliest Jewish settlers was Aaron Hart, a fur trader who lived in Trois-Rivières, Que. The Hart family was influential over generations and laid the groundwork for Canada’s first Jewish community, in Montreal, in the late 1760s.

Most formal Jewish communities – which grew into the ones we inhabit now – were established in major Canadian cities during the 19th century. Most of these Jewish Canadians would have been small business owners, farmers and traders. While small in number, they established the first synagogues and communal organizations.

During the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a significant surge of Jewish migration from Eastern Europe occurred. Between 1880 and 1920, Canada’s Jewish population grew from a few hundred to tens of thousands. These individuals found jobs as garment workers, shopkeepers and tailors, among other things, contributing to the industrial economy. They formed organizations, published English and Yiddish newspapers, held social gatherings, etc. In the larger community, Jewish immigrants were regularly at the forefront of labour, social justice and human rights movements, in part because of their own experiences with marginalization.

While Jewish immigrants had thriving communities, they also faced adversity. Antisemitism dates back millennia, before there was even a word for it. In the context of the first Jewish settlers in Canada, Jews were often treated with suspicion and faced social exclusion. Certain professions, institutions and clubs were closed to them. Different publications and political figures depicted Jews as a threat to Canadian morality and economic stability. Restrictive measures were put in place in the 1910s and 1920s, as Jews were seen as “undesirable.” The 1923 Immigration Act severely restricted Jewish and other immigration. (Most notably, it effectively banned Chinese immigration.)

Antisemitism continued to be prevalent during the interwar years, becoming more organized and explicit. Hotels, social clubs and resorts often displayed signs barring Jews and there were several groups advocating for even more restrictive policies. The government of William Lyon Mackenzie King was antisemitic and, during the Second World War, only permitted a small percentage of Jews into Canada – the attitude of “none is too many,” in reference to Jewish immigrants, applied. Many Jewish boys and men were put into internment camps and the government imposed strict financial responsibility requirements on those wanting to sponsor others to enter the country or be freed from internment. While immigration policies began to loosen after the Holocaust, antisemitism is an ongoing challenge in Canada.

White Rock South Surrey Jewish Community Centre’s new speaker series was created to highlight and celebrate Jewish heritage and identity in Canada. Its goal is to engage the community in exploring Jewish genealogy, culture and history, while encouraging intergenerational dialogue and a personal connection to the past. Ideally, it will serve as a platform for education, reflection and preservation of Jewish life in Canada, inspiring attendees to delve into their own histories and contribute to the broader communal narrative.

To register for any of the series talks, go to wrssjcc.org.

Chloe Heuchert is an historian specializing in Canadian Jewish history. During her master’s program at Trinity Western University, she focused on Jewish internment in Quebec during the Second World War.

Human rights in sports

The seventh annual Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights, organized by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Vancouverites Zena Simces and Dr. Simon Rabkin, and Equitas-International Centre for Human Rights Education, takes place Oct. 23, at noon, via Zoom. It tackles the topic of The Match-up Between Human Rights and Sports: How Both Can Win Well in Today’s Landscape.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “sport is anchored in human rights values. It promotes fairness, non-discrimination, respect and equal opportunities for all. As it reaches billions, including young people, it is a conduit for societal change through empowerment and inclusion.” Despite being anchored in human rights values, sport also faces human rights-related challenges through various forms of discrimination be it sexism, racism, ableism, classism or others. The Oct. 23 dialogue will explore the benefits of sport as a force for good in upholding human rights, the challenges currently faced by the Canadian sport system, and pathways to strengthen the balance between sports and human rights so that both win by promoting well-being for all.

The expert panelists featured will be Bryan Heal, Jeff Adams and Armeen Kadwa. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and share comments.

Heal is social impact research lead with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), heading such initiatives as the MLSE Foundation’s Change the Game research program for youth in Ontario.

Adams, a labour, employment and human rights lawyer, is a Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame inductee. He won three gold medals in the Paralympics: twice in the 800-metre (1996 and 2000) and once in the 1,500-metre (2000) wheelchair racing events.

Kadwa is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Hijabi Ballers, which is dedicated to creating positive sport experiences for Muslim girls and women.

The panel will be moderated by Wendy MacGregor, a consultant, educator and lawyer, and founder and executive director of Athlete Zone. She has a master’s in law on abuse and maltreatment of athletes. Her published work focuses on the root causes of sport violence, maltreatment prevention, power imbalance and wellness in sport.

To register for the free public event, go to humanrights.ca/event/matchup-between-human-rights-and-sports.

– Courtesy Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights

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.”

Teaching about Shoah

Lise Kirchner, director of education of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, demonstrates the online exhibition Fragments in Focus: A History of the Holocaust (photo by Pat Johnson)

The school year that begins next month is the first in British Columbia to include mandatory Holocaust education in the curriculum. As teachers throughout the province prepare to address this challenging topic in the classroom, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre has unveiled a wide-reaching online exhibit to both assist educators and to launch students into independent exploration on the complex network of moral and historical issues the subject raises.

In October 2023, the BC government announced that Holocaust education would be mandatory in the Grade 10 social studies curriculum beginning in the 2025/26 academic year. Many teachers were already addressing the topic as part of Social Studies 10, which covers the Second World War. An elective course, Genocide 12, also exposes students to the history of the Shoah. However, this is the first year that it will be impossible for a student to complete Grade 10 in the province without some exposure to the Nazis’ attempts to destroy the Jewish people and other groups they deemed undesirable.

While mandating that the topic be covered, the ministry of education’s guidelines for learning outcomes are extremely vague. Lise Kirchner, director of education of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, said teachers have great flexibility in how to address the topic – and how much time to give it.

“The teacher can choose to spend four minutes, four hours or four months on the subject,” she said.

Given that many teachers will be seeking trusted resources to teach this material for the first time, the VHEC’s exhibit promises to deliver everything educators need to address the subject effectively, no matter how much class time they allocate to it.

“Over the last 18 months, the VHEC has been working with the ministry of education to articulate this new learning standard for Social Studies 10 and also to develop teaching resources to support educators as they implement Holocaust education in the classroom,” Kirchner told attendees at the VHEC’s annual general meeting in June, where she demonstrated the new online resource.

The exhibition is called Fragments in Focus: A History of the Holocaust. It has been produced with the support of the Digital Museums Canada investment program and the financial support of the Government of Canada. The website is in English and French and meets accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

The online exhibit showcases more than 160 primary sources, including artifacts, survivor testimonies and archival records from the VHEC’s collections, presenting the history of the era through these items.

Fragments in Focus explores Jewish life in Europe before the war, the Holocaust and its impacts, and postwar Jewish life. Users can explore digital 3D models of artifacts, engage with an interactive map and hear from survivors – most of those featured settled in British Columbia after the war – adding human faces and stories to the artifacts and the broader history.

Accompanying the Fragments in Focus exhibit are 20 integrated learning activities and a comprehensive teachers’ guide, providing everything required to navigate the exhibit, construct a complete unit on the Holocaust or supplement existing lessons using unique primary sources, according to the VHEC.

The VHEC’s education team is also available to support educators as they prepare to cover these topics, offering training workshops throughout the province.

Textbooks, which earlier generations might associate with high school, are mostly a thing of the past. Online resources have replaced most hard copy resources, making Fragments in Focus both relevant and accessible.

Historical introductions to each of the exhibit’s sections lead into artifacts, and students can then pursue their own explorations by finding out more about the individual associated with the item, their experience of survival and their life after the war.

For example, students can view a recipe book created by Rebecca Teitelbaum while she was an inmate in Ravensbruck women’s concentration camp. Risking her life, she stole paper, pencils and thread to compile the collection of favourite foods. The tiny booklet became a source of comfort for the women in Ravensbruck, allowing them to imagine a future of well-being and plenty.

The late Alex Buckman, Teitelbaum’s nephew and himself a survivor of the Holocaust, inherited the recipe book, which he eventually donated to the VHEC. During speaking engagements to young audiences, Buckman would share his aunt’s recipe for gâteau à l’orange and some students would make the cake at home, while sharing with their families what they had learned at school.

With the new exhibit, students can explore the recipe book, expand the image to see the stitching that held the book together, and then read transcripts of the recipes. More than this, they can then dig deeper and learn about the family’s story, of Rebecca’s survival and her reunification with her husband, Herman, and daughter, Annie. They can hear Buckman’s story of how he survived but lost both his parents and was raised by the Teitelbaums.

Students also can see the correspondence Rebecca received while in hospital after the war, informing her that both Herman and Annie had miraculously survived.

These artifacts and records help put this almost inconceivable history into context, said Kirchner.

“They now are reading these intimate letters between husband and wife, where they are dreaming of being together again with her daughter,” she said. “I think it brings a whole different dimension to how we understand history, the importance of these primary objects.”

The fact that almost all the objects have a BC connection adds richness to the experience, she said.

As director of education, Kirchner has led a team in bringing Fragments in Focus to fruition. Though the exhibit was in development before the province announced the curriculum change, the shift helped guide the VHEC team to make the resource especially responsive to the needs of educators and students.

Fragments in Focus is based on an earlier physical exhibit developed by former VHEC director of education Ilona Shulman Spaar, former executive director Nina Krieger and others, including Kirchner, who has been involved with the VHEC for about 25 years in various capacities.

“We mounted In Focus – we didn’t call it Fragments in Focus – as the first exhibition in the new renovated space,” Kirchner told the Independent, referring to a major upgrade to the museum in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Centre, which substantially increased the capacity to display items from the collections. “It was kind of a celebration of the fact that we had just digitized our entire collection – that was a very big project. With the new visual storage facilities, it gave us the ability to actually have multiple artifacts on display, over 100, so that was a pretty big deal for us.”

The ongoing digitization of the VHEC’s entire archives allows global audiences to access its collections. For BC students, starting within days, Fragments in Focus will open doors for self-guided learning.

“We give them just enough information so they can put it in context, but also pique their curiosity a little bit so that they start to see themselves as the ones that ask these questions and start to make sense of this history and to give it meaning. It’s taking ownership of that history,” said Kirchner. “We are just planting seeds and making sure they have enough information to ask the right questions and to see the complexity of that history.”

The online exhibit launched Aug. 20 at fragmentsinfocus.ca and is available to everyone.

The school year ahead

Back to school is a time of excitement and anxiety for parents and kids. It is a time of new beginnings. For Jewish people, it generally coincides, as it roughly does this year, with the new year and the High Holidays. This confluence creates a somewhat chaotic frenzy in many households.

Jewish tradition is deeply tied to cycles of time, weaving renewal and return into every layer of life. The turning of the calendar is reflected not only in Shabbat, the progression of holy days and the annual cycle of Torah reading, but also in agricultural rhythms, the monthly sanctification of the new moon and daily prayers mapping sunrise, midday and nightfall.

This year, as we move from the beginning of the school year through the procession of holidays, we approach the anniversary of Oct. 7, and the terrible realization that the surviving hostages in Gaza have been held for nearly two years – as well as the continued reality facing Israelis, Palestinians, Jews worldwide and everyone who cares about human life.

As the new school year begins, Jewish families have additional anxieties, knowing as we do that the public school system – not least some teachers’ unions in Canada, including the one in British Columbia – in many cases have not only failed to address the unique challenges faced by Jewish students but exacerbated existing problems while creating new ones. Almost everyone has heard anecdotally of insults and distress faced by Jewish students in public schools, and the situation on post-secondary campuses locally and internationally has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for most of the past two years.

Additionally, this school year marks the first in which British Columbia’s education system officially mandates the teaching of the Holocaust. Most students did learn about the Holocaust before, but it had been left up to the discretion of individual teachers. Now, the Social Studies 10 curriculum requires that the topic be included. (See jewishindependent.ca/teaching-about-shoah.) This is something that the Jewish community and others have long promoted.

It does, however, create new openings for challenges. Given the allegations of genocide in Gaza, and overheated rhetoric against Israel in the public discourse – often invoking the memory of the Holocaust, the mantra “never again” and the appropriation of Jewish historical experiences for political advantage – there is a real possibility that individual teachers in the comparative privacy of their classrooms will attempt to inculcate anti-Israel narratives in the guise of genocide education. We expect there will be reports of inappropriate comparisons made between the Jewish experience in the Shoah and current tragedies in the Middle East – and we know that most such incidents will never be reported.

It should never have come to this with regard to antisemitism, but powerful new generations of Jewish leaders have been forged on university campuses and, yes, in high schools and even elementary schools, rising to occasions they should never have had to meet, but doing so in ways that often have surprised even themselves. As tough as the past two years have been, all evidence so far points to young Jews continuing to rise to every challenge.

When all is said and done, we hope that the next generation of our community grows up stronger, smarter and more determined, individually and collectively. To students and parents: May you go from strength to strength this year and always.