Skip to content

Where different views on Israel and Judaism are welcome.

  • Home
  • Subscribe / donate
  • Events calendar
  • News
    • Local
    • National
    • Israel
    • World
    • עניין בחדשות
      A roundup of news in Canada and further afield, in Hebrew.
  • Opinion
    • From the JI
    • Op-Ed
  • Arts & Culture
    • Performing Arts
    • Music
    • Books
    • Visual Arts
    • TV & Film
  • Life
    • Celebrating the Holidays
    • Travel
    • The Daily Snooze
      Cartoons by Jacob Samuel
    • Mystery Photo
      Help the JI and JMABC fill in the gaps in our archives.
  • Community Links
    • Organizations, Etc.
    • Other News Sources & Blogs
    • Business Directory
  • FAQ
  • JI Chai Celebration
  • [email protected]! video

Search

Archives

Support the JI 2021

Worth watching …

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

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

Recent Posts

  • Wide range of films offered
  • Plays explore future of love
  • Silence can’t be an option
  • Inclusion matters – always
  • The “choosing people”
  • Mussar & tikkun olam
  • Reform shuls partner
  • Kitchen Stories Season 2
  • Arts enhance inclusion
  • Waldman thrives
  • Kirman Library spans the arts
  • BI hosts Zoom scholar series
  • Canadian Jewish art?
  • The first of several stories – JMABC @ 50
  • Community milestones … Rosenblatt, Klein, Cohen Weil
  • Looking for Sklut family
  • Combat online hate
  • Youth during the pandemic
  • A livelihood, not a hobby
  • Court verdict on Grabowski
  • Happy Purim!

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @JewishIndie

Tag: Eli Winkelman

FEDtalks launches annual campaign

FEDtalks launches annual campaign

Left to right are Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver CEO Ezra Shanken, campaign chair Dr. Neil Pollock, women’s philanthropy chair Lisa Pullan, board chair Stephen Gaerber and major donors co-chairs Alex Cristall and Andrew Merkur. (photo from JFGV)

On Sept. 17, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver kicked off this year’s annual campaign with a new event: FEDtalks. Featuring brief TED-style talks from four speakers – the Hon. Irwin Cotler, Eli Winkelman, Dafna Lifshitz and Rabbi David Wolpe – more than 700 community members attended the event at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

photo - Audience members take their seats at FEDtalks on Sept. 17
Audience members take their seats at FEDtalks on Sept. 17. (photo from JFGV)

“Each speaker delivered a message that was Federation related, from the refugee and migrant crisis, to caring for those facing hunger, to leveling the playing field in Israel’s periphery, to inspiring people to connect more fully with their Jewish identity and values,” said Jewish Federation chief executive officer Ezra S. Shanken. “Their messages were our messages, and they reflected the soul of who we are as a Federation.”

Cotler addressed issues important to the Vancouver Jewish community – and, indeed, to the world – with particular emphasis on Syria and the refugee and migrant crisis. As a well-respected parliamentarian and human rights lawyer, he brought depth and breadth of knowledge on the crisis.

Winkelman shared her story of turning the simple act of baking challah into acts of social justice by founding Challah for Hunger, which now has 90 chapters on college campuses in three countries. Her work was recognized by President Bill Clinton, who highlighted Challah for Hunger in his book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.

Lifshitz, CEO of Appleseeds Academy, addressed her organization’s work bridging the digital divide in Israel’s periphery and, in particular, the [email protected] program that is supported by Jewish Federation. Through [email protected], at-risk youth in our partnership region of the Upper Galilee receive specialized computer training that catapults them into highly-skilled, well-paying jobs, thus helping break the cycle of poverty.

Wolpe, who was named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine, also addressed the refugee and migrant crisis, but from a Jewish perspective. He closed the evening with an inspirational message that united the community through the shared values of chesed, tzedaka and tikkun olam.

The Vancouver Jewish community’s central fundraising initiative, the annual campaign supports critical social services, Jewish education, seniors programs and young adults programs, and fosters ties with our partnership region in Israel. To donate or volunteer, visit jewishvancouver.com/what-to-give/annual-campaign.

Posted on September 25, 2015September 24, 2015Author Jewish Federation of Greater VancouverCategories LocalTags campaign, Dafna Lifshitz, Eli Winkelman, FEDtalks, Irwin Cotler, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Rabbi David Wolpe
Help bake a difference

Help bake a difference

Eli Winkelman (photo from Eli Winkelman)

Eli Winkelman was just looking for a way to fit in at college. But her quest for a niche resulted in an international philanthropic phenomenon.

Winkelman’s passion for making challah caught fire with fellow students and she ended up founding one of the most familiar – and foodie-friendly – philanthropic endeavors in the Jewish community today.

Challah for Hunger is now known to thousands of students on campuses throughout Canada, the United States, Australia and elsewhere. Volunteers gather to make the irresistible braided loaves, then sell them to fellow students and divide the profits between a local charity and a designated national cause.

Winkelman, who founded the international movement, will be one of four speakers at FEDtalks, marking the launch of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign Sept. 17. She will speak on Chesed (Loving-kindness).

Winkelman’s expertise in challah came, as it has for centuries of women, through her mother. But where some recent generations have let the challah thread drop – who has time to knead, braid, bake? – Winkelman’s choice to become vegan sort of changed history.

“I decided to become vegan in high school and [her mother] said, ‘OK, but you’re making your own challah,’” she recalled.

When she arrived at the Claremont Colleges outside Los Angeles in 2004, Winkelman started baking challah for Shabbat dinners at Hillel.

“People heard that I was baking and they showed up to learn from me randomly,” she said. “And every week they came back and they complained that all their friends were eating their challah. So, I saw that there was demand for bread and demand for the activity of making the bread and I thought that we should scale up and do it for a good cause.”

Within two or three months of starting school, Winkelman had launched Challah for Hunger, selling 15 loaves. Her group started out baking in the dorm kitchen, then moved into the kitchen of the campus interfaith centre. They eventually got permission to use the dining hall kitchen.

The national charity is MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. Local chapters can determine the cause to which they want to allocate the other 50% of profits. Some chapters, like at Emory University in Atlanta, have been supporting the same cause for years (in Emory’s case, a refugee assistance agency). Other campuses operate differently. At Stanford, for example, the chapter partners with other clubs every week and they choose a different designated recipient each time.

“Different chapters approach it differently, which I really love because they are figuring out how they want to be givers,” she said.

Winkelman is no longer operating the organization’s day-to-day activities – she’s started a business in Austin, Tex. – but she is on the board of directors and closely follows the progress. There are now more than 70 chapters worldwide, each baking 30 to 300 loaves, usually weekly. Sometimes they defy tradition and add chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar, sun-dried tomato or other innovations. Canada’s sole chapter is in Montreal.

Baking and sharing bread is an ancient, symbolic and ritualized process. Challah for Hunger makes it social in a way that may be particularly suited to undergrads finding their place and new friends.

“Part of how I define Challah for Hunger is doing it together and doing it on a regular basis so that it becomes a community,” she said. “For me, that is core to the organization. That’s how people learn and grow, by interacting with each other. Especially when you’re baking bread, your hands are engaged in something so you’re busy and that means that you can have a conversation or not have a conversation or have whatever kind of conversation you want with the person next to you. It really doesn’t leave any awkward quiet time.”

For more information about and tickets to FEDtalks, visit jewishvancouver.com. Interviews with fellow speakers Irwin Cotler and Dafna Lifshitz appeared in previous issues of the Independent, and Rabbi David Wolpe will be featured next.

Format ImagePosted on September 4, 2015September 2, 2015Author Pat JohnsonCategories LocalTags Challah for Hunger, Eli Winkelman, FEDtalks, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, tikkun olam
Proudly powered by WordPress