While the odd recipe or food-related article can be found in the Jewish Western Bulletin even before it became the Bulletin, regular food columns or special sections seemed to have become a part of the paper under Sam and Mona Kaplan, who owned the paper from 1960 to 1999. The Independent has carried on the tradition, with its annual Food & Drink issue, which you hold in your hand, and with the inclusion of recipes in our three holiday issues, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Passover. One thing that becomes apparent in flipping through the archives is that tastes change, and not every recipe, or recipe name, withstands the test of time.
British barrister Natasha Hausdorff speaks with StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano in Toronto on June 11, as part of a four-city Canadian tour. (photo by Dave Gordon)
British barrister Natasha Hausdorff is challenging prevailing narratives about Israel’s legal rights, arguing that the uti possidetis juris principle of international law – which mandates that newly independent states inherit their predecessor’s borders – undermines claims of “illegal occupation” and “settlements” in the West Bank and Gaza, and exposes what she calls a double standard in global responses to territorial disputes.
Hosted by StandWithUs Canada, Hausdorff spoke June 9 in Vancouver, at King David High School. On June 10, she was in Calgary and, on June 12, Montreal. On June 11, she spoke in Toronto at the Nova Exhibition, which features videos, presentations and artifacts from the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival in Israel. (See jewishindependent.ca/ visiting-the-nova-exhibition.)
Uti possidetis juris “is a universal rule that applies as a default wherever there is no agreement to the contrary,” Hausdorff explained at the Toronto talk. Mandatory Palestine – which included today’s Israel, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza – would, by law, become Israel’s territory, at the time of independence.
In 1967, Israel recovered Judea and Samaria, the eastern part of Jerusalem and Gaza, and expected a forthcoming “land for peace” formula with Jordan, she said. But, in the 1994 peace agreement between the two countries, Jordan stepped back from any demands for territory.
Hausdorff said there are modern parallels, giving as an example the “consensus that Russia has occupied Crimea from Ukraine.” According to international law, once the Soviet Union collapsed and its former states declared independence, the states inherited the previous borders, which means Crimea is Ukrainian territory.
If Ukraine were to recover Crimea from Russia in the same way that Israel recovered East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria from Jordan in 1967, she said, most likely no one except for Russia would complain Ukraine had taken what didn’t belong to them.
She sees world bodies guilty of a double standard, “a total inversion of international law.”
“You cannot have a general rule and an exception for a country you don’t like very much, that you have some political or ideological opposition to,” she said. “You cannot occupy what is your own sovereign territory – it puts the lie to illegal settlements, which is predicated on calling this land occupied.”
Hausdorff, an expert in international law, regularly briefs politicians and organizations worldwide on legal matters, and has spoken at parliaments across Europe.
On the charge of genocide against Israel, she said Amnesty International’s report with the allegation had faulty methodology – including using “local authorities in Gaza,” a codeword for Hamas, as a source. The report cycled through several parts of the United Nations and, in turn, made its way to the International Court of Justice, she said.
The “disinformation cycle” continues to spin its way through the media, who “are complicit in parroting this Hamas propaganda and in snuffing out the realities of the situation,” she added.
Several issues cast a pall over the international court, including that it has no jurisdiction over Israel, which isn’t a signatory – and neither is the Palestinian Authority, for lack of a state, said Hausdorff.
The International Court of Justice lost more credibility when, last year, it called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, she said. “That is unacceptable on every basic moral level. The position that Jews should not live in certain areas simply because they are Jews is what is being advocated by the international community?” she questioned.
The court’s former president, Nawaf Salam, who left his post earlier this year to become Lebanon’s prime minister, had called Israel a terror state while he was an ambassador to the UN. “A judge like that would need to recuse himself,” she said, owing to a clear conflict of interest.
“If we are going to be honest about the drivers of this conflict,” she said, it would be “indoctrination to terror, incentivization to terror – that is what the international community needs to commit itself to counter.”
StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano told the Jewish Independent that the speaking tour’s goal was for attendees “to hear the legal truths buried beneath the headlines.”
“With Israel’s legitimacy and actions constantly under scrutiny, it’s more important than ever to turn to experts who can clarify the facts,” said Primerano.
“What became most clear over the week,” he said, “was this: in a world where truth is often distorted, Canadians are eager for clear, fact-based insight to push back against the rising tide of misleading narratives.”
Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.
Ben Shneiderman, a retired computer scientist who lives in Vancouver, is a member of an extraordinary family. Recently, he promoted his Uncle Chim’s photography exhibition at the Zack Gallery, as well as the new English translation of his father’s book about the Spanish Civil War (1937-1939).
Ben Shneiderman (photo from Ben Shneiderman)
It all started with Shneiderman’s grandfather, Benjamin Szymin, a respected publisher of Yiddish and Hebrew books in Warsaw before the Second World War. His daughter Halina (later Eileen) and son David (Chim) grew up surrounded by culture and tradition, inspired by the conversations of the best Polish-Jewish writers, artists and scientists.
“My mother Halina studied at the Warsaw university before she met my father,” Shneiderman said in an interview with the Independent. “After they married, in 1933, they moved to Paris.”
Shneiderman’s father, Samuel, was cut from the same cloth. He is considered one of the first Jewish war correspondents in Europe and America. In the 1930s, he published multiple articles and books in Polish and Yiddish on Jewish issues and social developments in Europe.
Ben Shneiderman remembered that his parents both decided early on that only his father would get a byline. “The times were different,” he said with a smile. “But they worked as a team. Mother did a lot of research. She typed the texts Father dictated, and then she edited and re-typed and fact-checked, until they were both satisfied. When Father went to Spain in 1937 to report on the Civil War, Mother went with him – she had her trusted typewriter with her.”
In 1938, Samuel Shneiderman compiled his reportages from Spain into the book War in Spain, which was published in Yiddish.
“The book included photographs taken by my uncle, Mother’s brother David, the legendary photographer Chim,” said Shneiderman. “Chim was also in Spain at the time, reporting on the war.”
In the past few years, the book has experienced an unexpected revival. “I had nothing to do with it, but I was glad,” said Shneiderman. “The book was published in Polish in 2021. Then, in 2023, it was translated into Spanish. In 2024, the English translation came from the Yiddish Book Centre.”
The English translation’s title is Journey Through the Spanish Civil War (translator Deborah A. Green), and Shneiderman gave a slide presentation on it and his family last month at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, under the aegis of the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival. He explained that his parents left Europe just before the Second World War, but they couldn’t get his grandparents out of Poland. The older generation of his family did not survive the Holocaust.
As soon as his parents arrived in New York, they became immersed in the Yiddish writing and journalism milieu, and they both started publishing in English, as well. Together and separately, they covered the themes of postwar Europe,Israel, and Jewish life in the United States. Shneiderman’s father, in addition to writing articles for such publications as The National Jewish Monthly, the New York Times, Hadassah Magazine and The Reporter, also wrote non-fiction books, poetry and movie reviews. Plus, he edited several books by prominent Yiddish writers.
Growing up in a family steeped in writing and journalism, and with his uncle being a famous photographer, it might have been expected that Shneiderman would follow in their footsteps. His older sister did, in a way. “She moved to Israel in 1963 and taught English there,” he said. But he chose a different path.
“I was always interested in photography, like Chim,” he said. “I even won a photography contest in high school.” But, in college, he studied physics and math. “I had a cousin who was a physicist. He influenced me, but I was never much into physics. Mostly, I was entranced with math and with computers. I worked as a programmer for a couple physicists while still in college. I also took psychology classes, and philosophy. I wanted to know everything.”
He kept taking photos as a hobby, and that interest persists to this day. “I photographed many of my colleagues – pioneers of computer sciences. My pictures of them were published by a number of magazines,” he said. “Overall, I have over 40,000 photos. I also published them in my book Encounters with HCI Pioneers: A Personal History and Photo Journal, in 2019.”
HCI stands for human-computer interaction, which is Shneiderman’s primary field of research. “In 1973, I got the first PhD in computer sciences at my college,” he said.
In 1977, as part of an American delegation, he went to Russia on an exchange program. “We visited Moscow and Novosibirsk,” he said. “I met many interesting people there. One of them, a local computer scientist, Simon Berkovich, told me in confidence that he wanted to emigrate to the US and asked me if I could help. I said I would try. When he left Russia some time later, he had a stopover in Rome, like many other Soviet immigrants. Some of them went on to Israel, but Berkovich contacted me, and I wrote him a letter that I needed him for my work. He was able to come to the US with this letter. We even wrote a paper together. He is a professor now at George Washington University.”
Shneiderman recalls fondly his visit to a synagogue in Moscow: “Several of us went. I was concerned about our safety, but nothing bad happened. It was fun,” he said.
On the professional front, Shneiderman has always maintained that the current trend of developing artificial intelligence (AI) as autonomous machines wasn’t the way to go. In 1980 – 45 years ago – he even wrote a book on the subject, called Software Psychology: Human Factors in Computer and Information Systems.
“AI should be a tool, not a creator,” he said. “I don’t think a software should write books or paint pictures or drive cars autonomously. I think it should make people’s jobs easier, assist humans, not replace them. After all, a camera doesn’t take photos – I do. But my smart camera helps me manage the focus, the lighting and other parameters. Apple agrees with me. I worked for them as a consultant for five years.”
Shneiderman has been a firm proponent of this point of view for decades. He has expressed it in his publications and at industry conferences. In 1982, he co-founded what is now known as the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. He also coined the term “direct manipulation,” which is the way we move objects on a screen with a mouse or a finger. He thinks humans should be an integral part of computer interactions, because only humans can make ethical decisions. No AI can ever know what it feels like to be a person. “There is no ‘I’ in AI,” he joked.
Shneiderman and his wife have been living in Vancouver since 2020, when they moved here from Bethesda, Md. “My daughter teaches anthropology at UBC,” he said. “We visited her often for years and even bought an apartment here. We liked it here. Then, COVID happened, while we were visiting, so we stayed in Vancouver. My wife was born in Canada and always had a Canadian passport, and I became a citizen last year.”
From Warsaw at the beginning of the 20th century to Vancouver 100 years later, this family continues to share stories.
“Grandfather told them in Yiddish,” Shneiderman said. “My uncle told them in pictures. My parents told their stories in words. And I told them in data, using computers as my medium. We are a family of storytellers.”
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
בתור אחד שגר בישראל ארבעים וחמש שנים אני מכיר מקרוב את היהירות הישראלית שרק הולכת ומתעצמת כל הזמן. הישראלים יודעים הכל, הם מבינים הכל, ישראל היא המדינה החשובה בעולם, והישראלים יכולים להסביר בקלות ללא ישראלים: מה צריך לעשות, כיצד לפעול, מה חשוב באמת ועד כמה הישראלים הם מה שבאמת חשוב
נראה לי שהניצחון הגדול במלחמת ששת הימים שהפך את ישראל למעצמה צבאית עליונה, כאשר כל מדינות העולם מכירות בהצלחתה הגדולה, היא נקודת הציון המשמעותית, כאשר מאותה עת היהירות בישראל הלכה וגדלה, הלכה והתעצמה
אנו זוכרים היטב את הכבוד הגדול לו זכרו הבכירים בצבא לאור הניצחון במלחמה שארכה רק שישה ימים. כל הדלתות נפתחו בפניהם, כולם רצו להיצמד אליהם וליהנות מחברתם. מאז גם מדד השחיתות בישראל החל לעלות וכיום הוא נוגע בשמים
תוצאות המלחמה הביאו את ישראל לשלוט בשטחים הכבושים ומאז נולדה תנועת המשיחיות שהקימה התנחלויות באזורים אלה ופגעה קשות באזרחים המקומיים הפלסטינים. גם אצל המתנחלים שמספרם הולך וגדל במשך השנים, היהירות היא תכונה בולטת אשר גורמת לנזק גדול למדינה ואזרחיה
בין הבודדים שיצא נגד חגיגות הניצחון במלחמה היה פרופ’ ישעיהו ליבוביץ’, שטען כי הניצחון ובעקבותיו אחזקת השטחים הכבושים יביאו נזק גדול לישראל בהמשך הזמן. נביא הזעם ליבוביץ’ צדק וישראל הולכת בכיוון הלא נכון, אזרחיה מפוצלים ללא אפשרות של איחוד, ממשלתה מושחתת והיא מבודדת יותר מתמיד בעולם
לאור היהירות הישראלית בעקבות תוצאות מלחמת ששת הימים, ישראל לא הייתה מוכנה וחטפה על הראש מהמצרים והסורים במלחמת יום כיפור. לממשלה, לצבא ולאזרחים בכלל היה ברור כי אף אחד לא יוכל על ישראל ואין סיכוי שהיא תופתע. המציאות הוכיחה אחרת
אחרי מלחמת יום כיפור ועדת החקירה הממלכתית, חשבנו לרגע שתהיה ירידה משמעותית במדד היהירות הישראלי אך טעינו. לא מעט ישראלים ירדו מהמדינה לאור השבר הגדול שנוצר אז, אך בחו”ל הם המשיכו לנהוג ביהירות ושחצנות לא פחותה מזו שבישראל
ואם לא הספיק המחדל הנוראי של מלחמת יום כיפור, כעבור חמישים שנה שוב היהירות והשחצנות הישראלית, הביאו את המחדל הקשה ביותר בתולדות המדינה והוא של השבעה באוקטובר. בישראל חשבו שהצבא מוכן, שהמודיעין יודע, שהגדר האלקטרונית תגן על ישראל ובעיקר יודעת הכל ממשלת נתניהו היהירה והמושחתת – וכמובן כל המערכות קרסו מול מחבלי החמאס הנוראים
אייר קנדה לא חוזרת לישראל
אייר קנדה חברת התעופה הקנדית, שהייתה אמורה לחדש את טיסותיה לישראל במהלך חודש יוני הודיעה על דחייה נוספת וצפויה לחדש טיסותיה רק בספטמבר. זאת בעקבות המצב הביטחוני והטיל ששוגר מתימן ונחת בשטח נמל התעופה בן גוריון
מנכ”לית אייר קנדה בישראל, רות בן צור, אומרת כי לאחר בדיקה מעמיקה עם גורמי הביטחון, הוחלט בחברה שלא לחדש את הטיסות לישראל. אייר קנדה מחוייבת לישראל ולהמשיך לטוס אליה, כי שהיא עושה כבר למעלה משלושים שנה. כמובן החברה מחוייבת גם ללקוחות הרבים שלה. אייר קנדה תמשיך לפעול בנחישות כאשר יתאפשר לה לחדש את הטיסות לישראל, ולספק את השירות המקצועי והאיכותי שהלקוחות רגילים אליו. אליו הערכים החשובים לאייר קנדה
כזכור אל על הפסיקה את הטיסות הישירות לקנדה במהלך חודש אוקטובר לפני כשלוש שנים. באל על הסבירו את ההחלטה על רקע חוסר כדאיות כלכלית, והמטוסים הוסטו ליעדים רווחים יותר. מדובר בהחלטה תמוהה במקצת לאור כך שבקנדה יש את אחד מהריכוזים הגדול של יהודים וישראלים בעולם
Elana Wenner (with folder) leads the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia walking tour of Jewish Strathcona. (photo from JMABC)
Having taken the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia’s tour of Jewish Strathcona, I know firsthand how interesting and worthwhile it is. This summer, there will be a little more swing to the July 27 tour – Kol Halev Performance Society will once again take part, but in an expanded role.
“Kol Halev has created a script for theatrical additions to the tour, along with musical components. Actors in full period costume will accompany the group and act out key scenes from the stories told along the way,” Elana Wenner, director of programming and development at the museum, told the Independent. “A full musical dance number is included as well, along with a reenactment of a wedding that mirrors cultural traditions from the past.”
Wenner got in touch with Sue Cohene, co-founder and current president of Kol Halev, after having taken some theatrical tours produced by other museums in the city and elsewhere.
“In the past,” said Wenner, “Kol Halev has put on productions based on BC Jewish history in conjunction with JMABC, before I worked here.”
“Kol Halev has been involved with the Jewish Museum since 2006, performing at their various galas and special events over the years,” Cohene explained. “In 2017, the museum created a photographic exhibit, shown alongside Kol Halev’s historically based play, Two Views from the Sylvia, which was presented at the Waterfront Theatre.
“Kol Halev Performance Society and the Jewish Museum and Archives have a long-standing collaboration and we update the museum on a regular basis about our shows, community teachings and future plans.”
A couple of years ago, said Cohene, Marcy Babins, interim executive director of the museum, suggested that she meet with Wenner, then the newly appointed director of programming and development, to discuss possible joint ventures.
“Connecting with Elana has been like carrying on a family tradition,” said Cohene. “Elana’s grandmother, Irene Dodek, was instrumental, along with Dr. Rabbi Yosef Wosk, in bringing Kol Halev on board to provide entertainment and theatrical historical education for Jewish Museum projects. Elana’s mother, Dr. Gail Wenner, has danced with Kol Halev and continues to share her creativity by creating historically influenced hats for our performers.”
Last summer, Kol Halev added a Yiddish dance performance to complement one of Wenner’s Jewish Strathcona walking tours. This summer, actors from the performance group will portray early Jewish community leaders during the tour, in addition to weaving in some traditional dance pieces.
Cathy Moss, one of Kol Halev’s main writers since the group was established, worked with the research provided by Wenner to create a script.
“Elana shared the tour route and basic information about Strathcona historical community leaders from the early 1900s to the 1940s,” said Cohene. “She kindly led Kol Halev on the tour, where we all looked at locations that could accommodate acting and dancing.”
“Elana did a great job compiling the research on the area,” said Moss. “Once I took the tour, it was easy to see what a compelling cast of characters inhabited Strathcona in the early days. It was fun to write dialogue for such interesting and lively folks.”
Moss relied on the museum’s material for each location along the tour, writing the dialogue for the characters based on the biographical details and context Wenner provided.
“The tour is great and informative on its own,” said Moss. “I would add that inviting Kol Halev to be part of it was an excellent idea. It adds another dimension that makes the experience that much more enjoyable. The wedding dance in particular will be appreciated by the tour-takers. It’s very entertaining.”
Kol Halev rehearses the Patsh dance, choreographed by Santa Aloi. The group will dance and act in the July 27 JMABC Strathcona walking tour. (photo by Adam Abrams)
Kol Halev has several on-site rehearsals planned before the shows in which they’re participating – the July 27 public tour and a private tour in late June – “particularly to familiarize dancers and actors who were not involved last year,” said Cohene.
“We will have between eight and 10 dancers this summer and a few actors,” she said. “It’s a small working production that has room to grow.”
Cohene will be part of the performances.
“I’ll be playing a mother-in-law role in the 1940s wedding dance, which was choreographed by Tamara Thompson Levi,” she said. “I’ll also tap dance in the Yiddish Patsh dance choreographed by Santa Aloi.”
Wenner leads the Strathcona walking tours.
“This tour is a journey through the footsteps and choices made by the first community leaders in Vancouver,” she said. “It follows in the footsteps of community-building, highlighting the institutions and people who laid the groundwork for today’s thriving Jewish Vancouver institutions. Along the way, we see buildings that held components of the first Jewish community organizations, as well as the homes of some of the first leaders. We also explore the ideas of what Jewish community requires in general, and what it was like to live as a Jew in this part of the world at the turn of the last century. The tour is a synthesis of past and present, weaving together the origins and future of Vancouver’s Jewish community.”
The Jewish Museum has four different walking tours on offer this summer. In addition to the Strathcona neighbourhood tours led by Wenner on July 13 and 27, Aug. 10 and 24, Daniella Givon leads tours of the Mountain View Jewish Cemetery on July 6 and Aug. 10. In Victoria, Amber Woods leads both the Downtown (July 6 and Aug. 10) and Jewish cemetery (July 20 and Aug. 24) tours. All the walks start at 10:30 a.m. For tickets, visit jewishmuseum.ca, email [email protected] or call 604-257-5199.
Hastings Mill Store was part of this year’s Heritage Discovery Day. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
This year’s Heritage Discovery Day – which has been hosted by Vancouver Heritage Foundation since 2003 – featured nine sites in Kitsilano, highlighting, but not confined to, the Craftsman style of house, which, according to the self-guided tour book, “is characterized by decorative brackets, exposed rafter ends, mock trusses in the gable ends, expansive low-pitched gable roofs and a rich variety of finishing materials and textures.” Saturday, June 7, was an ideal day for the event and this year’s Summer cover features photos taken throughout the neighbourhood, while going house to house. Driving home along Cornwall Avenue, the number of people enjoying Kits Beach was incredible. When it’s sunny here, the people emerge!
City Farmer Garden’s Cob shed, made with clay from Haida artist Bill Reid. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)One of the heritage homes on the tour. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)Kits Beach on June 7. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
Kits directional post. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
A cyclist amid the flowers. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
Pelicans and cranes gather at Hula Lake in Israel. (photo from commons.wikimedia.org)
Beginning with the Book of Genesis, we read about the raven and especially about the dove: “After 40 days, Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then, he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water all over the surface of the earth; so, it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
“He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there, in its beak, was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.”
In Deuteronomy 32, we read that God Himself is compared to a bird: “Like an eagle who rouses its nestlings / Gliding down to its young / So did [God] spread wings and take them / Bear them along on pinions.”
Eagles are so important to our culture that Israel’s 1949/50 rescue of 46,000 Yemenite Jews was named Operation on the Wings of Eagles.
Jews had lived in Yemen for millennia, experiencing both relatively good and more oppressive times. In the 20th century, especially following the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947, conditions worsened. Arab rioters in Aden – then a British protectorate on the southern tip of Yemen – killed at least 82 Jews and, in early 1948, accusations that Jews murdered two Muslim Yemeni girls led to further violence and looting of Jewish homes and businesses.
When news of the young state of Israel’s planned evacuation reached Yemeni Jews, they walked and walked, some from hundreds of miles away, to a refugee camp in Aden. Few of them had seen an airplane before and, to convince them to go aboard, someone painted an eagle with outstretched wings over the door of each craft, reflecting Isaiah’s prophesy: “They shall mount up with wings as eagles.”
Despite the attempt to keep the evacuation secret, the planes going from Yemen to Israel were routinely fired on by Egyptian forces. Pilots were warned that, if they were forced to land in enemy territory, the passengers and perhaps the crew risked being executed. Luckily, this never happened.
Di goldene pave, or the golden peacock, refers to a mythical bird that is a common symbol in Yiddish poetry. For Itzik Manger, the golden peacock symbolized Jewish resilience and optimism, and Israeli singer Chava Alberstein sings a song about the golden peacock, which you can listen to on YouTube.
There is a legend that King Solomon gave the hoopoe – Israel’s national bird – a gold crown, after the bird spreads its wings to protect the king from the sun’s rays. But then people began hunting the hoopoe for its crown. When the bird told this to the king, the king replaced the crown with a crest of feathers.
Although there are several negative comments about the raven and the ostrich in Jewish texts, there are also some positive statements made about them. For instance, the raven brought Elijah bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. (I Kings 17:7)
In his prophecy, Micah (1:8) uses the ostrich to show what will become of the faithless. But, while the ostrich generally receives a “bum rap” in Scripture, there is no mention in any sacred Jewish writing of ostriches hiding their heads in the sand. When a threat does appear, the ostrich flattens itself on the ground. With its colouring, it is often able to camouflage itself. Furthermore, when an ostrich senses the danger is too close, it can rapidly run away.
A section of the Bird Mosaic, a large mosaic floor that was apparently part of a Byzantine villa. (photo from commons.wikimedia.org)
Storks are mentioned in Psalms 104:16-17 and in Jeremiah 8:7 for their beauty, grace and devoted parenting: “Storks in the sky know their seasons; swallows and cranes their migration times; but my people do not know the rulings of Adonai!”
Further, the stork appears on decorative Torah wimpels, long strips of fabric used to bind the scroll when it’s not in use. Once, they were made from the swaddling clothes of a newborn baby. (This custom began in the second half of the 16th century and lasted for a few hundred years.) After the circumcision ceremony, the fabric was cut into segments that were sewn together to form a long sash, which was embellished with painted or embroidered inscriptions and images and donated to the synagogue.
Most storks use Israel just as a stopping off point on their way to and from Europe to Africa. Sadly, according to Israeli wildlife veterinarian Dr. Rona Nadler Valency, many migrating storks are killed or injured along their journey. She blames Israeli electric and wind turbine companies, which, she claims, do not invest in measures to protect the birds.
Although the type of bird is not mentioned, it is said that birds guided the Jewish people and kept watch over their crossing during the splitting of the Reed Sea.
Psalms 84 mentions the sparrow and the swallow: “Even the sparrow has found a home / and the swallow a nest for herself / where she may have her young….”
According to Uzi Paz, author of The Birds of Israel, there are about 470 bird species in Israel today. There are three main reasons for why Israel is a haven for birds. First, for European and West Asian birds, Israel is located on a main migration route to and from Africa; these birds stay in Africa during the European winter and return to Europe when spring comes in Europe. Second, Israel provides a range of habitats. And, third, Israel stands at the crossroads of three continents and assorted climate zones.
When you visit Israel, stop near Caesarea to see the remains of a large mosaic floor that was apparently part of a Byzantine villa. It is called the Bird Mosaic because the centre part of the floor features 120 medallions, each of which contains a bird.
Deborah Rubin Fieldsis an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
King Charles was in Canada this week, delivering the Speech from the Throne. It was a monumental moment in many ways, not least because it was the first official visit by the monarch since he ascended to the throne. For those of us whose entire lives have been lived under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, it remains a fascinating and jarring challenge to the tongue to hear the phrase “the King of Canada.”
Paging through back issues of the Jewish Western Bulletin, which preceded the Jewish Independent, one of many striking things is the efforts that Jewish individuals, businesses and other advertisers have taken, over the decades, to express loyalty to king (or queen, as the case more commonly has been) and country.
Knowing what we know of antisemitic tropes, we suspect that this had more than a little to do with the stereotype of “dual loyalty.” Throughout history, Jews have been accused of being more loyal to their “tribe” than to their countries of domicile. Since 1948, this antisemitic idea has been applied to Israel, whose interests Jews today are often accused of prioritizing above the interests of their own countries, like Canada.
The sort of hyper-patriotic and monarchist messages we saw in the pages of this paper in decades past have largely disappeared. The trope of dual loyalty is not the most prevalent or dangerous threat to Jewish security in Canada or most other Western countries at the moment. Put succinctly, those who want to take offence with Jewish Canadians are less likely to go the extra step and accuse us of dual loyalty. They just cut to the chase and contend that any support for Israel at all is evidence of ill-will or immorality.
As we have turned the pages of the past in preparing for this special anniversary issue, that is just one small example of social change reflected from issue to issue in 95 years as an institution in this community.
As much as things have changed, so a great deal has remained the same. It is amusing, heartening and sometimes frustrating to see the repetitive nature of (we suppose) humankind in general and Jewishkind in particular across 10 decades. So many of the same discussions and arguments that our people were engaged in locally and globally 60 or 70 years ago remain on our lips today. More encouragingly, the leaders, activists and influencers (we certainly didn’t use that latter word until far more recent issues) of our community have often shared the same surnames, from the 1930s through to today, and so many new surnames – Jews from myriad different backgrounds – have joined the list of community contributors. The continuity combined with the growth in number and diversity is reassuring.
So much has changed in 95 years, such that the originators of the newspaper you hold in your hands (or, by a previously unimaginable magic of futuristic wonder, are reading on some whirring space-age illuminated rectangle) could not have foreseen.
These are not easy days for print media or, really, legacy media of any variety. We believe, and we hope you share our certainty, that the product we put out, as the latest iteration of a 95-year commitment to informing and reflecting our community, has value today, as it has across most of the past century.
As attention spans have shortened and the media landscape has refracted, keeping eyes on these pages is a challenge. At times, we content ourselves with the belief that the stories we write today will only increase in value as, at some unimaginable future time, and perhaps using some heretofore unimagined technological phenomenon, researchers or people with an avocational curiosity about the past, will finger through what we have written to understand better who we were and, therefore, how the Jewish community of the future became what it is, just as a review of our archives helps us understand how we came to be who we are today.
That a small, plucky newspaper operating on a shoestring at the remote edges of the Jewish universe could survive, and occasionally thrive, across 95 years is, even in the context of the much longer, always extraordinary, history of the Jews, something of a miracle.
This is a moment for us to thank everyone who made this possible, many of whose names have appeared in these pages across the years and many who have not. As a reader and supporter of the Jewish Independent, you are now part of that long legacy of people who have made this moment happen. Thank you for making this milestone possible. More importantly, thank you for making possible our present and our future.
When does something begin? I’ve been thinking about that as I go through 95 years’ worth of Jewish Independents. Well, 20 years of JIs and 75 years of its predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin. The JWB also had its predecessors – mimeos and letter-sized versions. The paper’s founders started counting on Oct. 9, 1930, the official first tabloid edition, when they could have started July 15, 1925, “the natal issue of the Vancouver Jewish Bulletin.” Or maybe earlier. Who knows when the idea that brought into existence what would become, through thousands of issues, the paper you today hold in your hands or read on your computer.
Making the cover of this special issue, where six stories jump to the inside and the rest of the stories are blurbs that direct readers to pages on the inside, was an organizational challenge. There was no way I could replicate the brevity of the 1930s articles, but I could mimic the style.
I know I’ve mentioned this fact in previous anniversary issues, that the JI could be considered five years older than the age we have deemed it to be. In looking through so many beginnings – and endings – throughout the years, it struck me again. So many organizations have multiple possibilities for the equivalent of their first edition. For example, the Louis Brier Home and Hospital was organized in 1945, but the idea for it probably came even earlier and the home didn’t open until 1946.
I share this as a caveat because, as I went through the paper’s archives, looking for other community organizations that are celebrating a significant anniversary this year, I no doubt have missed some. But my intent was good – I wanted to share the JI’s “special day” with others.
Unfortunately, I was hampered in my goal because the search function of the online Jewish Western Bulletin archives (newspapers.lib.sfu.ca/jwb-collection) is basically dysfunctional. If I had a 95th birthday wish, it would be to have the funding to have all the newspapers back to 1925 re-digitized and re-indexed, so that this priceless resource could be more accessible. In the meantime, I hope readers can embrace the random smattering of “clippings” that represent my attempt to show how the newspaper has grown with the community – our success being directly attributable to our collective success.
I continue to wish that the founders of the newspaper had started counting in 1925, when the “natal issue of the Vancouver Jewish Bulletin” was published.
Going through the pages of the newspaper over 95 years is both an inspiring experience and a sobering one. Countless people, organizations, businesses and events no longer exist, but there are always new people coming into the world, coming into the community; new groups being created, new businesses popping up, new ideas being discussed, new events being organized. If the size of the Community Calendar is any indication, there is more happening in the community today than there has ever been.
During my 26 years as publisher – or, one of my other beginnings, 27 years since I was hired by the paper – there have been recessions, wars, a global pandemic, and seemingly inexhaustible antisemitism, which has increased greatly since Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. I am still processing that massacre, the ensuing war and all the other violent conflicts happening in the world, the hate and the anger that threaten to overwhelm. It never ceases to amaze and sadden me, humanity’s ability to be as destructive and cruel as we can be creative and compassionate. I won’t dwell on the negative here.
In running the newspaper, I have tried to maintain a middle ground, to be inclusive but also respect my own boundaries. I think there are concerns that should be played out in public, and others that should be dealt with privately. The JI is not a gossip rag, it is not sensationalist or alarmist. That is a decision I have made, and that our editorial board (Pat Johnson, Basya Laye and me) considers every issue.
While not ignoring the hurtful, the divisions, the controversies in our community or the larger universe, we try to cover stories in a way that doesn’t depress and paralyze action, but rather opens the door for solutions or at least positive attempts at change. We don’t want readers to put down the newspaper in despair, but rather to think about what they can do to contribute to a better world, whatever that means to them. One ad in this paper heralds the JI for being the bearer of good news – it makes me happy that people think that, even as we report the news that’s not so good.
The Jewish Independent has survived so long because of one thing: community support.
In 95 years, there has been much to mourn, that is true, but there also has been so much to celebrate. Personally, during my tenure as publisher, I have benefited from many kindnesses, from generous landlords and donors to loyal subscribers and the people who support the paper through purchasing ads.
I have met, worked with and/or become friends with some truly amazing people. I consider myself lucky to have joined the paper early enough to have met in person several of the visionaries who built the organizational foundations of this community, not to mention those of the province, even of Canada, in some instances. There are afternoon teas, lunches and gala dinners I’ll remember forever, if the mind stays healthy.
The people I work with are smart, talented, dedicated and should be earning a lot more than they are. I might own the paper, but by no means do I run it alone. The people whose names you see on the masthead every issue are integral to publishing the paper. And all the people who have been on that masthead over the years – and the many more who have not been recognized in print – have helped keep the paper going, from its first days to today. I thank you all.
I am not a journalist per se, nor an entrepreneur. I’m trained as an economist, and still make myself chuckle when I think of the most uneconomical choice I have made in my life – to buy this newspaper. But it has kept me clothed and fed, with a roof above my head. It has taught me so many things and, though I’ve not always been a willing student, I am better for the lessons.
Most importantly, I am better for all the people I have encountered on this journey. I have made many friends and acquaintances. Not all my encounters have been pleasant or easy, but I have come to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older that, behind the organizations serving the community are simply people. Maybe people I don’t always agree with, but people who are undeniably committed. They are people who believe in community so much that they give of their time, either as volunteers or staff or both, working in one place, volunteering in others. Or they give of their financialresources, funding causes in which they believe, choosing to give away some of their money rather than letting it sit in the bank or using it for personal wants and needs.
It is a privilege to do what I do for a living. I am proud to be part of this extraordinary community. Kol hakavod to us all. May we go from strength to strength….
Now let’s party. Happy anniversary to all the other Jewish organizations celebrating a milestone this year!
