history – Page 6

From the archives … JCC, 1937

It was the big black square on the cover of the June 11, 1937, Jewish Western Bulletin that caught my attention initially. Then, as I flipped backwards and forwards through the archived papers, it was the weekly drama – that kind of left me hanging – and the sheer bluntness of tactics that drew me in to the JWB’s coverage of the 1937 campaign to raise funds for a second unit of the Jewish Community Centre, then located at Oak and 11th. (The building still exists, the home of the BC Lung Association for a long time now.)

The campaign action plan came out of a shareholders’ meeting in March of that year, at “which over one hundred men of the community were present,” according to the March 12, 1937, JWB, the JI ’s predecessor. I’ve no idea who the shareholders of the centre were. Nor if any women were at that planning meeting, but Lillian Freiman Hadassah, Council of Jewish Women and the Schara Tzedeck Auxiliary were among the organizations that helped solicit and collect pledges.

The appointed campaign committee set a quota of $12,500 (or $271,217 in today’s dollars) and collections were divided into three divisions: donors of $100-$250 (Group A), $25-$100 (Group B) and up to $25 (Group C). The “keynote” of the campaign was “that each give according to his ability,” and every organization on the committee committed “its intention of getting whole-heartedly behind the task ahead.” Meanwhile, “The proposal submitted to shareholders by Schara Tzedeck Congregation of taking over the building has been tabled for a period of three weeks.”

While that proposal obviously fizzled out, I couldn’t find any later mention of it. As I’ve often found when looking through the paper’s archives, it’s easy to find when things start, but harder to find out how they ended up. What is clear is that there was a hard push to raise the $12,500, and, while the March 12 article noted that, “possibly, for the first time in community history, there is no division of opinion concerning the necessity of and the urgent need for doing constructive work for [the] community Centre,” the JWB did feature some disparate views as soon as the next issue.

Rabbi J.L. Zlotnik summed up those concerns in a March 19 article: the quota was too much, given other community concerns and organizations that also needed financial support; and the quota was too little, given that actual building costs are almost always larger than planned, and the community would, therefore, become even more indebted as a result.

“After a period of ten years, twenty thousand dollars are still to be paid before this building can truly be called our own,” wrote Rabbi Samuel Cass in the March 31 issue, about the existing centre, while also pointing to the need for a second unit. He observed, “First, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past,” so the second unit should “be paid for in cash to the very last penny, before the first sod is turned. Second, the campaign must go beyond the amount necessary to erect the contemplated addition.” Lastly, he said, the whole community must agree that the debt on the first unit be paid off “even speedily, and at a near time.”

The advice seems to have gone unheeded. In the same March 31 paper as Cass’s article, the page 2 headline read, “All Organizations Endorse Second Unit Campaign.”

The next edition’s cover blared, “2ND UNIT CAMPAIGN IN FULL SWING,” with the news that more than $3,000 had come in on the campaign’s first day, “collected from twenty men.” The building plans were also outlined in the April 9 paper: a two-storey building with a balcony was envisioned. The lower floor would be a gymnasium and banquet room, with “kitchen, showers, wash room, steam rooms, cloak-room, etc.” The upper floor would house an “Auditorium and Ball Room, cloak-room and lounge.” The balcony would be divided into small meeting rooms. “This present building is 33 feet 11 inches on 11th Ave. The addition would be 47 feet 9 inches or more than 40% larger,” the article stated.

By the April 23 issue, the A Division quota was “already assured.” A couple of weeks later, in the May 7 paper, a completely fictional piece was published on the cover, titled “Will You Make This Dream Come True?” It was written as if the second unit of the centre had opened, with a banquet, a highlight of which was the announcement of a $5,000 gift from an anonymous donor to pay for all the unit’s furnishings and appliances. The article imagined what meetings and other banquets were already being held in the new building and the great number of athletics classes available now that “the use of the gymnasium was available to all persons in the Community.”

By the end of May, though, the JWB was asking whether everyone had “done their share.” By June, the optimism hit a wall.

The cover of the June 11 issue featured the large black square that caught my eye. The label-sized caption with a white background read: “700 Jewish families in Vancouver can and must give towards the building of the Second Unit of the Community Centre.”

The dramatic editorial choice was explained in the June 18 paper:

“The editorial staff of the Bulletin was bombarded with heated criticism for allowing such a hideous, melancholy, morbid and depressing thing to appear on the front page of the paper. Jewish people in all walks of life shouted words of rebuke, prominent Jewish business men cried ‘Shame, Shame,’ and Jewish society matrons muttered ‘Oh, how awful, it nearly frightened me to death.’

“No one, however, said ‘That little message in white, standing so pure, apart from that black hideousness was TRUE. Every body should give to the Centre – How we need that second unit – How essential it is to our Youth to have a proper meeting place.

“What our Community needs is more players, and less bench criticisizers. More workers, and less kickers.”

It concluded: “If you have a conscience, if you have the true community spirit – come through and show it. If you haven’t already given your contribution to the Second Unit – Mail it in to the Centre – tell them this article made you feel your responsibility. If you have given your donation, send in notification to the Centre to have it doubled. No matter what you give, make it as much as you can afford. Don’t let us be criticisers – LET’S BE BUILDERS.”

Over the summer, a couple of meetings were held about the centre. There was a large notice on the cover of the July 2 paper about a July 5 meeting, but I couldn’t find a report in the paper about what transpired. Nor could I find out how the Sept. 22 “mass meeting” on “the Future of Vancouver Jewry” went – its Sept. 14 front-page notice declaring that “By your attendance … YOU SHALL BE JUDGED!”

There are no August or October 1937 papers in the bound archival collection I have, and I don’t know if they were lost to history or never published. Until June 1937, the reporting had been detailed and consistent, but the next mention of a campaign, in the Nov. 12 paper, is “the Recent Centre Drive” – not the second unit drive. In this campaign, there were seven grades, ranging from Grade A ($500 and up) to Grade G ($1 to $49). The Grade A donors were listed by name in that paper, the Grade Bs in the next issue, the Cs in the next, through to the Gs in the Dec. 24 issue, wherein the committee was congratulated for its work and the community for its “whole-hearted support to the campaign.”

Since there is no useable digital archive of the paper, sadly, my time-limited flipping came across no more mention of a second unit. The editorial two years after that campaign, on June 23, 1939, started, “Much water has gone under the bridge since our Centre Building has been re-financed. Inside and outside improvements on the building, in addition to the Amortization Plan itself has gone forward.

“Never have local Jewish efforts been more active, and the response greater, nor has the attendance within the building itself been so large. Much of the success is due to the liberal atmosphere of the Centre itself, which means the use of this building for any and all worthy Jewish efforts with but one thought – helping others to help themselves. One shudders to think of what might have happened to Jewish efforts in our city had not our fellow-Jews responded to the call for funds when it was made.”

The editorial also noted: “Some, however, have through oversight or neglect failed to send their payments in as yet.” It was hoped that “the pledgors in arrears will … see that their respective remittances are made … upon receipt of the notices.”

As far as I know, the second unit of the Oak and 11th JCC never materialized. It would be more than two decades later that a new centre would be built, at Oak and 41st, opening in 1962.

The Dark Lady enlightens

Arghavan Jenati as Emilia Bassano and Nathan Kay as William Shakespeare in Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady, now playing at Bard on the Beach. (photo by Tim Matheson)

There has always been a controversy over whether William Shakespeare was the sole author of all his works. He penned 37 plays and 154 sonnets, with 25 of the sonnets referencing a “Dark Lady,” with raven black brows and wiry hair. Perhaps she contributed to his writing in more tangible ways?

Current thinking is that the Dark Lady was Emilia Bassano, a Jewish woman whose father was Italian and mother Moroccan. She was headstrong and wanted to find success in her own right – something unheard of in Elizabethan England. She was the first woman there to have a work published, her Salve Deus, Rexum Judaeum (Hail G-d, King of the Jews).

In The Dark Lady, playwright Jessica B. Hill invites audiences to imagine what could have happened if Bassano and Shakespeare had met, particularly early on in his career, around 1589. At that time, Bassano was also starting on her quest to be a published poet. Hill postulates that Bassano enchanted Shakespeare and became his muse, collaborator and lover – and bore his child.

Bard on the Beach brings this Canadian work to the Douglas Campbell Stage under the steady hand of director Moya O’Connell. With only two characters and 90 minutes long with no intermission, it is an opportunity for the audience to invest in the all-consuming tension, both intellectual and sexual, between the protagonists.

photo - Arghavan Jenati as Emilia Bassano and Nathan Kay as Shakespeare. The opening scene of Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady, with the couple’s Elizabethan pas de deux is a precursor to their complex relationship dance — Arghavan Jenati as Emilia Bassano and Nathan Kay as Shakespeare. The opening scene of Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady, with the couple’s Elizabethan pas de deux is a precursor to their complex relationship dance. *(photo by Tim Matheson)*

Bassano is an intelligent match for Shakespeare and has no difficulty exchanging witty repartee with him. She challenges him to portray his female characters in a stronger light. At one point, he tells her, “Collaborate with me, I need your mind.” And she willingly gives him the benefit of it. However, despite her contributions, she watches his career flourish while her work remains unrecognized. Ironically, her influence becomes apparent in Shakespeare’s later works, where he does pen female characters who defy traditional stereotypes.

After Shakespeare’s death in 1616, Bassano comes across his folio of published works and is surprised to find that many of his female characters are named Emilia – clearly a tribute to her – which surprisingly appears to satisfy her thirst for recognition.

Arghavan Jenati plays Bassano with passion and fury, while Nathan Kay infuses the Bard with the right mix of angst and joy. The opening scene with their Elizabethan pas de deux is a precursor to their complex relationship dance and its inherent power struggle. One memorable scene is their experiment with cross-dressing, as trousered Jenati becomes an aggressive alpha male and Kay an innocent maiden.

While I enjoyed both performances, Jenati was more one-dimensional in her presentation, while Kay provided a more varied interpretation. The dialogue, while mostly classical, is peppered with modern jargon. Throughout, there are references to Bassano’s Judaism, including her grandfather’s forced conversion to Catholicism, his translation of the New Testament into Hebrew, the persecution of her people and her placing of a stone on Shakespeare’s grave in the final scene.

Ryan Cormack’s sparse set is simple, a series of stacked crates containing various props and costumes. Flowing red silks become bed sheets for the lovers while a cape morphs from a picnic blanket to a shawl to a baby’s coverlet to a shroud. The lighting plays dark or light as needed. Bespoke music by composer and sound designer Anju Singh becomes the third actor in the play, as it accompanies the couple through their 30-year relationship. Alaia Hamer, the costumer, outfits Bassano in a whimsical white frock covered with a suede drawstring bodice while Kay is given a period look for a gentleman of his time.

This is a production well worth seeing. As artistic director Christopher Gaze notes in the press release, “The Dark Lady invites us to consider how stories are shaped and who gets to shape them.” Director O’Connell sees the play as “an opportunity to shine a light on Bassano and spend time in her orbit.”

Running on alternate nights with The Dark Lady on the small stage is the fast-paced, slapstick romp through all of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised][again]. Jenati and Kay, along with Craig Erickson and Tess Degenstein, share duties with a different combination of three of them taking the stage each night. Director Mark Chavez is at the helm of this irreverent take on the Bard’s repertoire.

On opening night, Kay, Erickson and Degenstein were on stage and were hilarious in their efforts to cover all of the Bard’s works in 90 minutes to avoid a penalty (an offstage voice counts down the minutes). Rife with contemporary references to all things Vancouver and Bard, the audience was in nonstop laugh mode from the start. The second act is all Hamlet, done forwards, backwards and upside down – a credit to the talented, energetic thespian trio. Warning: audience participation is part of the shtick, so you may not want to sit in the front rows.

Cormack’s set is lined with shelves of props from past Bard productions and Hamer brings back statement pieces from the past for the show. Jewish community member Anton Lipovetsky provides the sound design.

This show is probably the most fun you will have at Bard this season. And, if you’ve hated Shakespeare since your high school English classes, it might just change your mind.

For tickets to all the Bard shows, which run to Sept. 19/20, go to bardonthebeach.org or call 604-739-0559.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

From the JI archives … education

Not surprisingly – “People of the Book,” and all – education is an always-relevant topic that has been covered in the Jewish Independent / Jewish Western Bulletin. The paper seems to have steered clear of editorially supporting any particular Jewish school or type of Jewish schooling, but rather consistently stressed the need for Jewish education, especially for children, but also for youth and adults.

A 1956 editorial noted that “an estimated 50 percent of Jewish children in Canada do not get any Jewish education whatsoever.” While admitting that there were no data to suggest Vancouver fared better than other Canadian cities in this regard, it noted that there were several types of schooling available here, day school, evening classes, religious and secular options. “Only the anti-Semites try to cast all Jews in a common mold, a hateful mold,” it noted. “But the Jews among themselves have always followed diverse paths in the perpetuation of their history, ideals and spiritual heritage.” So, it concluded, “Register your child in the Jewish school of your choice. And, if your child is already enrolled, remind your friend or neighbor about enrolling his child.”

Forgotten music performed

Through a chance conversation with a curator at the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum, conductor and composer Leo Geyer came across musical scores composed by concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust. June 3 to 7, at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, the music Geyer documented was played for the first time in 80 years. (photo from Sky Arts)

In 2015, London-based musician and composer Leo Geyer was commissioned to write a tribute honouring British historian Sir Martin Gilbert, who had recently died. Visiting Oświęcim, Poland, to better understand the Holocaust historian’s research, a chance conversation with a curator at the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum led Geyer to a trove of forgotten musical scores composed by prisoners who had been forced to perform in the SS-run orchestras in the Nazi concentration camp, where more than 1.1 million died in gas chambers, mass executions, torture, medical experiments, exhaustion and from starvation, disease and random acts of violence.

The deteriorating and fragile sheets of music, written in pencil, were faded and ripped. Many had burn damage. Intrigued, Geyer devoted nearly a decade of detective work to studying the documents and filling in missing gaps, and the music formed the basis for his doctorate at Oxford University. From June 3 to 7, at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, the music Geyer documented was played for the first time in 80 years, to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz in January 1945. The opera ballet included the unfinished scores that Geyer completed and choreography by New York-born choreographer Claudia Schreier.

“The musicians took incredible risks to make brazen acts of rebellion. When good news of the war [of the Allies’ June 6, 1944, D-Day landings] reached the men’s orchestra in Auschwitz I, they performed marches not by German composers but by American composers,” Geyer said in an interview with France 24’s daily broadcast Perspective.

The guards couldn’t distinguish between a Strauss waltz and a John Philip Sousa march.

The musicians “would also weave in melodies from Polish national identity such as St. Mary’s Trumpet Call (a five-note Polish bugle call closely bound to the history of Kraków). We also know of secret performances [that] would take place, which would principally encompass Polish music, but we also know Jewish music was performed as well,” said Geyer.

The story of the orchestras at Auschwitz was popularized by Fania Fénelon, née Fanja Goldstein (1908-1983), a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer whose 1976 memoir Sursis pour l’orchestre, about survival in the women’s orchestra at the Nazi concentration camp, was adapted as the 1980 television film Playing for Time. The orchestra, active from April 1943 to October 1944, consisted of mostly young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners of varying nationalities. The Germans regarded their performances as helpful in the daily running of the camp in so far as they brought solace to those trapped in unimaginable horror. As well, the musicians held a concert every Sunday for the amusement of the SS.

Geyer explained that the SS organized at least six men’s and women’s orchestras at Auschwitz, and perhaps as many as 12. The groups principally played marching music as prisoners trudged to the munitions factories and other industrial sites, where they worked as slave labourers, he explained.

“Musicians had marginally better conditions than other prisoners,” he noted. Nonetheless, he said, “The vast majority of the musicians and composers did not survive the war.” Most of their names are lost. Geyer was able to track down the composer of one unsigned composition by comparing the handwriting to a document found at a conservatory in Warsaw.

Adding poignancy to the performances in London, the musicians played from copies of the original scores.

“We poured our heart and soul into these performances,” said Geyer. “I am neither Jewish nor Romani. But I am human.”

Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.

* * *

A replica of Auschwitz

Due to conservation issues, the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum no longer permits the filming of movies at the historic site. Using advanced spatial scanning technology, the museum employed a team of specialists, led by Maciej Żemojcin, to create a digital replica of the Auschwitz I camp. The project was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival.

Museum spokesperson Bartosz Bartyzel told Euronews Culture that the replica was created “out of the growing interest of directors in the history of the German camp.”

“The Auschwitz Museum has been working with filmmakers for many years – both documentary filmmakers and feature film directors,” he said. “However, due to the conservation protection of the authentic memorial site, it is not possible to shoot feature films [there]. The idea to create a digital replica was born out of the need to respond to the growing interest in the history of the Auschwitz German camp in cinema and the daily experience of dealing with the film industry. This tool offers an opportunity to develop this cooperation in a new, responsible and ethical formula.”

– GZ

From the JI archives … BC

It is sometimes hard to look back over the pages of the Jewish Independent and its predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin, knowing what has happened since the articles were published. From the 1933 optimism that there was hope for German Jewry, to the enthusiastic welcome of a seemingly short-lived El Al office in Vancouver, to colleagues who have passed away.

From the JI archives … yum

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.

Israel and international law

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.

A family of storytellers

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).

photo - Ben Shneiderman — 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].

From the JI archives … oh, Canada

היהירות הישראלית עולה ביוקר

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