JCC – Page 7

Prayer, protest at JCC

Gabor Maté reads the names of Palestinians killed by the Israel Defence Forces during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza. (photo by Matthew Gindin)

“Each one of them was a full human being, with a full life,” said Rabbi David Mivasair, addressing a dozen or so people, most of whom were Jews, outside of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on May 21, the second day of Shavuot, for Yizkor, the traditional memorial service for the dead.

Organized by Independent Jewish Voices, the group gathered to commemorate the Palestinian protesters who had been killed by the Israel Defence Forces during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza, which began on March 31 and ended May 15 (which Palestinians observe as Nakba Day). They gathered, according to the event’s Facebook page, for another reason, as well: “We will also publicly denounce the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for its continual dishonest manipulation of Canadian political leaders and media sources to silence and minimize Israel’s brutality toward Palestinians and, in this case, shift the blame for the killings to the very people who were killed.”

Those present included Gabor Maté, a physician, author and member of the Jewish community. He and others took turns reading the names of Palestinians who had been killed. Afterwards, he told a story from an article that Uri Avnery, an Israeli peace activist, had written days before. In the article, Avnery described how he, as a teenage member of the Irgun, had done similar things to those of the Palestinian protesters when demonstrating against the then-occupying British forces for Israel’s independence, but the British shot over their heads, not at them. Maté also criticized the JCC for not being inclusive enough of all Jewish voices, saying that, in practice, it was more like “the Zionist community centre.”

“The confusion between Zionism and Judaism is a tragedy,” said Maté. “I’m just glad to be here to bear witness along with the rest of you.”

Shawkat Hasan, a member of the Palestinian community and the B.C. Muslim Association, whose family lost their home in the war of 1948, also spoke, emphasizing that the conflict was not between Jews and Muslims but between Zionism and its “victims,” and calling for widespread resistance to violence against Palestinians.

The group carried out their service peacefully. The idea for it came about only days before, and the organizing of it was rushed to coincide with Shavuot. One sign read, “Murdering innocents is not a Jewish value.” Some passersby stopped to join or listen, as members of the group chanted the names and recited Kaddish, and some to express their opposition.

Mivasair told those assembled that the location had been chosen to protest CIJA, who have their offices inside the JCC. CIJA had launched a campaign calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to apologize for remarks Trudeau had made that the “reported use of excessive force and live ammunition is inexcusable” and his call for “an immediate independent investigation” after a Canadian doctor was shot by the IDF while treating protesters.

“Hamas has left Israel no choice but to use force to protect the tens of thousands of Israelis who live close to Gaza,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, CIJA’s chief executive officer, in a statement May 16. “We are outraged and saddened that Hamas is again using civilian human shields. For Israelis and the Jewish community, Palestinian casualties are painful tragedies. For Hamas, Palestinian casualties are sickening public relations achievements.”

“Everything that CIJA says is contestable,” Mivasair told the Jewish Independent following the service. “The situation in Gaza is desperate enough, due to the policies of the Israeli government, to explain the actions of the Palestinian protesters without imagining that they were primarily orchestrated by Hamas, which they were not. Why are organizations that purport to speak for the Jewish community suppressing discussion in Canada about what is really going on?”

The Yizkor service at the JCC followed weeks of protests by Palestinian solidarity groups outside of federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Vancouver constituency office.

In the conflict at Israel’s border with Gaza, the IDF faced some 50,000 protesters. More than 100 Palestinians were killed and between 8,700 and 13,000 wounded, depending on the source of the data. The IDF’s actions, in particular the use of live ammunition, has been condemned by organizations including B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. According to Israel, most of those killed were members of the terrorist group Hamas, which, the Israeli government says, organized the protests.

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the CJN, writes regularly for the Forward, Tricycle and the Wisdom Daily, and has been published in Sojourners, Religion Dispatches and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

Holiday baking

In preparation for Purim, students of White Rock South Surrey JCC Religious School baked hamantashen to take home and share with their families. (photos from WRSS JCC)

Rejuvenation of mah jongg at the JCC

Melanie Samuels, left, and Pam Wolfman were the winners of this year’s mah jongg tournament at the JCC. (photo from JCC)

On any given day and evening across Vancouver, Jewish women are gathering in sets of four and playing mah jongg. But, until recently, only a small number considered the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver a place to play and learn the game. In December, however, the JCC began offering mah jongg tutorial classes – and more than two dozen women joined in. Friendships are being made around the table, and mah jongg is helping build a women’s social network.

This game has been passed from generation to generation, including renewed interest from younger players, some of whom remember their moms and grandmas playing the game but only now have the interest and time to learn it themselves. On Jan. 28, more than 50 women attended the first-ever mah jongg tournament at the JCC (at least the first in a very long time). The proceeds benefitted Orr Vancouver Israeli Dance School and Festival Ha’Rikud. Pam Wolfman and Melanie Samuels were the tournament winners.

So, how did this centuries-old Chinese game of tiles become such a fixture in the lives of Jewish women in North America? There is much speculation, but one fact is known: Jewish women created the National Mah Jongg League (NJML) in 1937 to create consistency in rules and hands. This stability helped the game survive and spread. Jewish organizations selling cards generate charitable donations to causes of their own choosing, a feature of the league that encourages the quest for new players. In Vancouver, local sales of the game cards generate needed funds for the food bank at Jewish Family Services.

Historically, Jewish women found mah jongg to be an inexpensive form of communal entertainment, particularly in the urban setting of New York, and the game’s popularity spread from friend to friend, mother to daughter, according to Anita Luu and Christi Cavellero’s book Mah Jongg: From Shanghai to Miami Beach. And now, younger women learning the game are getting a newfound understanding of why their mothers were so passionate about the game that they and their friends played for decades together.

Players of all levels are welcome to join Mah Jongg & Margaritas, on March 8, 7:30 p.m., at the centre. The no-admission event is underwritten by the Marion Seeklus Mah Jongg Fund, a newly established endowment for mah jongg programming at the JCC. To attend, contact Lisa Cohen Quay at 604-638-7283 or [email protected].

JCC site to be redeveloped?

An aerial view of the proposed redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver site, looking south. (image by Acton Ostry Architects Inc.)

On Feb. 7, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver was packed with community members, as well as some area residents. For the three-hour open house hosted by the City of Vancouver, visitors worked their way through the crowded atrium, reading the numerous poster boards about the proposed redevelopment of the centre site, and how that redevelopment fits in with the massive changes proposed for the Oakridge neighbourhood.

While it is still early in the process, the City is looking for public feedback by March 30 on the rezoning application it has received for 950 West 41st Ave., i.e. the JCC.

The proposed redevelopment comprises a nine-storey building to replace the current JCC, a 13-storey replacement for the Louis Brier Home and Hospital and a 24-storey residential building.

image - The rezoning application proposes that the redevelopment starts with the building of most of the new JCC on what is now the existing centre’s parking lot, then moves to the construction of the underground parking, followed by that of the new Louis Brier Home and ending with the residential tower and the rest of the JCC — The rezoning application proposes that the redevelopment starts with the building of most of the new JCC on what is now the existing centre’s parking lot, then moves to the construction of the underground parking, followed by that of the new Louis Brier Home and ending with the residential tower and the rest of the JCC. *(image by Acton Ostry Architects Inc.)*

According to the rezoning proposal, the new JCC would include “recreation space, including pools and gyms; ground-level commercial space; an Early Childhood Education Centre, including 104 private daycare spaces; cultural arts, auditorium and theatre space; [and] nonprofit office space.”

The new Louis Brier would have “266 senior assisted living, complex care and memory care beds,” and the residential building would have “160 secured market rental units,” including 64 studios, 40 one-bedroom units, 40 two-bedroom units and 16 three-bedroom units. “Underground parking, with 693 vehicle parking spaces and 250 bicycle parking spaces, is proposed.”

The rezoning application is being considered by the City under the Oakridge Transit Centre Policy Statement.

The City of Vancouver explains on its website that the Oakridge Transit Centre, across from the JCC, “was formerly home to 244 trolley and 182 diesel buses, and employed over 1,200 transit staff including drivers, mechanics and administrators…. With the completion of the Vancouver Transit Centre on the Eburne Lands in 2006, almost all services moved out of the OTC” within several years and TransLink determined that the OTC was no longer required as a transit centre. TransLink approached the City about the redevelopment of the site: “Council approved a cost-recovered planning program to create a policy statement for the site in February 2014 and the program was publically launched in June 2014.”

The statement was approved in December 2015, after “an 18-month process involving community engagement at key points, and technical planning and design work.” It guides “the rezoning and redevelopment of the Oakridge Transit Centre,” as well as that of the JCC, the Petro Canada Station at the corner of 41st and Oak, and Oakmont Medical Centre (809 West 41st).

The JCC rezoning application was coordinated by Acton Ostry Architects Inc., the JCC and the Louis Brier Home. In the application, which is on the City’s website, Acton Ostry explains that the “surrounding context is in a state of transition and transformation from a low-density semi-urban neighbourhood to a high-density urban centre. Transit is a driving force at the heart of the new town centre with the Canada Line on Cambie Street and a new B-line proposed for West 41st Avenue.” The document notes that King David High School, which is east of the JCC, on Willow Street, uses and “shares many spaces in the existing JCC and is intended to have a dedicated gym in the proposed new JCC, in addition to access and use of many other activity spaces.”

image - How the space in the three proposed new buildings might be used — How the space in the three proposed new buildings might be used. *(image by Acton Ostry Architects Inc.)*

According to the timeline on one of the posters at the February open house, there was a pre-application open house in November 2016 and the rezoning application was submitted in December 2017. With the City-led open house now having been held, there will be a public hearing, “pending staff review and feedback,” followed by a council vote, again “pending staff review and feedback.” If the rezoning is approved, “the proposal becomes a development application.”

Development and building permits would take months to years to procure, and the construction itself would also take a few years. Since the JCC cannot be non-operational for that long, the project is envisioned in phases. The existing JCC would remain in place as the main building of the new JCC is built on what is now the centre’s parking lot, followed by the construction of the new underground parking lot. Once the new JCC was operational, Phase 2 would start with the new Louis Brier Home, to be located at the opposite end of the development site, then move to the construction of the residential tower and the rest of the JCC, located in between the main JCC and Louis Brier.

The entire rezoning application can be found at rezoning.vancouver.ca. Feedback can be submitted online.

Happy Purim 2018!

Inclusion is our future

At Share the Journey on Feb. 6, before the official program started, left to right: Carmel Tanaka, Leamore Cohen, Penny Gurstein, Shane Simpson, Alisa Polsky, Tammy Kalla and Clark Levykh. (photo from JCC inclusion services)

“Inclusion is the framework for our community’s future,” said Shannon Gorski, executive member-at-large of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver board of directors, at Share the Journey: An Evening of Inspiration. “The JCC was my second home volunteering since childhood,” she said in her opening remarks. “We want to make sure the JCC grows to support all who depend on its presence.”

The Feb. 6 event at the Rothstein Theatre was one of several initiatives being led by the JCC during Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). It featured a few speakers, including Shane Simpson, provincial minister of social development and poverty reduction, as well as the screening of a video of the Bagel Club’s trip to Israel last year and of the film My Hero Brother.

The Bagel Club is a JCC inclusion services program. According to the website, the group is “a social club for adults with diverse needs that focuses on social and recreational activities while promoting Jewish heritage, education and community engagement.” Activities include yoga, Israeli dancing, arts and crafts, outings and music appreciation. The Bagel Club also runs a community kitchen focusing on creating “delicious and nutritional kosher-style meals” together. Eleven Bagel Club participants were present on the night of Feb. 6, with Lyle Lexier offering a few remarks on the use of language regarding differing abilities and David Benbaruj introducing the film screening.

photo - Left to right: Kathleen Muir, Harriet Kositsky and Shannon Gorski — Left to right: Kathleen Muir, Harriet Kositsky and Shannon Gorski. *(photo from JCC inclusion services)*

Many at the event, including Simpson, when he took to the stage, were wearing the black T-shirt the JCC made for JDAIM, which says, “Labels are for clothes,” on the front. In his remarks, the minister spoke about the importance of inclusion and diversity work throughout all of the communities of British Columbia and highlighted the work of his own department, which focuses on community-building and poverty reduction within its greater mission.

Simpson shared some of the results of the fact-finding mission his ministry had recently undertaken in 28 communities in British Columbia. He highlighted the urgent situation in the province with regard to poverty and inequality: “678,000 people live in poverty in British Columbia,” he said, “which is 15% of the population. Forty percent of those are the working poor; one in five children live in poverty. If you are indigenous or have special needs, you are twice as likely to be poor.”

The minister said “social isolation is a key piece” that needs to be addressed throughout the province. “After people with disabilities in this province tell me they don’t have enough money, they tell me they want a job, they want to contribute,” he said. “When employers reach out and hire a differently abled employee, they tell me after they made the fit, they got a remarkable employee.”

Leamore Cohen, inclusion services coordinator at the JCC, introduced the video on the Bagel Club’s Israel trip. As Omer Adam’s “Tel Aviv Habibi” pulsed in the background of the video, the audience clapped to the beat.

Tammy Kalla and Penny Gurstein then read a list of Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver Inspiring Inclusion grant recipients. Congregation Beth Israel was given funds to hire a tutor so that children with learning challenges could learn to read Torah; Beth Tikvah to hire the appropriate professionals to enable children and youth with invisible disabilities to participate fully alongside their peers in a range of programs; the JCC for a new program called Family Yoga Fundamentals; Richmond Jewish Day School to offer a fully inclusive music program; and Vancouver Hebrew Academy to instal a wheelchair ramp to the playground equipment that has been specially designed for children of all abilities.

The evening concluded with the 2016 Israeli film My Hero Brother, directed by Yonatan Nir. It follows a number of Israelis whose siblings have Down syndrome, as they take their brothers and sisters hiking in the Indian Himalayas. In introducing the screening, Benbaruj spoke beautifully about love, community and his wish that the inclusive communities we had learned about throughout the night could be a model for the world.

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the Forward and All That Is Interesting, and has been published in Religion Dispatches, Situate Magazine, Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

Increasing awareness

Eldad Goldfarb, executive director of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, and Jewish community member Shirley Barnett show off their “Labels are for Clothes” T-shirts. (photo by Leamore Cohen)

February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month and the shirts are available for purchase ($18) at the JCC. The message on the back of the shirts reads, in smaller print: “100% human / Treat with care and love / Learn before you assume / Do not separate / Do not label / #jccincludesme.”

Gathering with community

Participants in last year’s Inclusion Journey at the Knesset in Jerusalem, in front of Marc Chagall’s painting “The Exodus.” (photo from JCC inclusion services)

The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver is part of the international network of Jewish communities celebrating persons with disabilities throughout the month of February. And, on Feb. 6, the entire community is invited to Share the Journey: An Evening of Inspiration, which will feature the screening of My Hero Brother, selected as the leading film for Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. The event will also include remarks from the Hon. Shane Simpson, the provincial minister of social development and poverty reduction, and a slideshow and presentation by Leamore Cohen, coordinator of the JCC’s inclusion services, about the trip they led to Israel last year.

Many traditions exist within the Jewish community, and we must all work to ensure the accessibility of these traditions for all members of the community. It is within this context that the JCC’s inclusion services led the first-ever Canadian JCC diverse-ability and advocacy Inclusion Journey to Israel, with the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Gesher Chai Committee and community donors.

Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month reminds us of the importance of cultural connections, inclusive community and accessibility in all traditions and for all people. For its part, the JCC’s inclusion services has organized a number of awareness and visibility initiatives throughout February, including a Ronald McDonald House volunteer initiative with the JCC’s youth programs on Feb. 4 and a “Challa-Luyah” challah bake for the Jewish Food Bank with Axis Vancouver on Feb. 8.

Starting the month’s activities off is the Feb. 6, 6:30 p.m., screening at the Rothstein Theatre. For young Israeli adults, traveling after military service is a right of passage, and My Hero Brother emphasizes that such a right must be available for all young people. In drawing a parallel between local experiences and those highlighted in the film, the JCC hopes to bring attention to the abilities of all persons when community works together.

– JCC inclusion services

***

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver-organized Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration is the community’s biggest gathering of the year, and the committee, led by Pam Wolfman, has booked two Israeli performers to help us celebrate Israel’s 70th anniversary: Shlomi Shaban and Ninet Tayeb.

Shaban is performing at the upcoming Red Sea Jazz Festival, where he is described as having “the ability to create buoyant virtuoso harmony between classical music, rock and pop…. His characteristic straightforward sense of humour frequently moves on a fine line between black tie concert halls and sweaty smoky rock-n-roll stages.”

Tayeb was the winner of Kochav Nolad (Israeli Idol). Music critic Garreth Browne saw her perform in New York and wrote, “it’s safe to say that the entire audience was fixated and almost hypnotized by her presence.”

Tickets went on sale this week for the April 18 celebration. Visit jewishvancouver.com.

– Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

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The Jewish Family Services’ 2018 Innovators Lunch guest speaker will be Leonard Brody. The award-winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist and bestselling author is co-founder and executive chair of Creative Labs, a joint venture with the largest sports and entertainment agency in the world, CAA in Los Angeles. His group is responsible for building new ventures for some of CAA’s most important film, TV and sports celebrities. He also happens to be a community member in Vancouver.

Brody will be talking about The Great Re-Write, his upcoming book in partnership with Forbes magazine, which addresses this unique social and economic moment in history. With rapid social and structural changes have come many challenges for communities, but also opportunities. How do we make the most of this time to invest in our community, uplift society as a whole and ensure we don’t leave people behind? He’ll encourage people to think as innovators to bring about meaningful and lasting social change.

The Innovators Lunch will be held on April 24 at the Vancouver Hyatt. For more details, visit jfsvancouver.ca/innovators.

– Courtesy of Jewish Family Services

Mystery photo … Jan. 26/18

The Vancouver Jewish Community Centre doing a children’s baking program, Jan. 18, 1974. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.11635)

If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting [email protected] or 604-257-5199. To find out who has been identified in the photos, visit jewishmuseum.ca/blog.

Serving his country

The Grade 1-3 class of Israeli dancers from Richmond Jewish Day School who participated in Festival Ha’Rikud on May 14. See more photos below. (photo by Lauren Kramer)

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In every community, and ours is no exception, there are folks who frequently capture the spotlight for their work while others quietly get things done behind the scenes, flying below the media radar. In our Kibitz & Schmooze profile, we try to highlight members of our community who are doing outstanding, admirable and mention-worthy work out of view of the general public. If you know of profile subjects who fit this description, please email [email protected].

For Victoria resident Ed Fitch, the Canadian Armed Forces did more than make him a major-general. It made him more of a Jew.

Growing up in Montreal, Fitch says he took his Judaism for granted. At 17, when he joined the armed forces, it was a wake-up call. “I realized if I didn’t respect my own religion, how could I expect anyone else to? It was the beginning of my journey to become more Jewish,” he says.

photo - Retired major-general Ed Fitch — Retired major-general Ed Fitch. *(photo from Ed Fitch)*

Fitch was open about his Judaism and, over the course of an illustrious career that saw him rise high through the ranks, he helped create institutional change that would benefit other Jews, too. There had last been a Jewish chaplain in the forces in 1945, and Fitch was determined to change that. “I made a proposal to the armed forces’ governing body for chaplains in 2003, and I asked them, do you want to be followers or leaders? Build it, and they will come!”

The result was the appointment of Rabbi Chaim Mendelsohn to chaplaincy and, a few years later, the succession of Rabbi Captain Lazer Danziger. “Rabbi Danziger will be leading Shabbat services at Alberta’s Area Support Unit Wainwright (one of the country’s busiest army bases) … with a full minyan!” Fitch says with delight.

Fitch’s proposal didn’t just benefit Jews in the armed forces. Today, there’s a Muslim chaplain serving, as well.

Fitch served Canada for 43 years in a career that spanned from 1966 through to his semi-retirement in 2006. During that time, he received the Meritorious Service Medal for his work in the former Yugoslavia, facilitating NATO’s entry. He was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Military Merit in June 1999, the military equivalent of the Order of Canada.

As a colonel in the mid-1990s, Fitch was in the former Yugoslavia when the United Nations’ peacekeeping force, of which he was part, was contracted out to NATO. “It was an astounding change that had never happened before: an in-place transition from a UN command to a NATO command,” he reflects. “It was December 1995 when we all removed our UN badges and rolled over to this NATO force, with a completely different set of rules. As a combat engineer on the land force, I was the guy on the ground preparing for the incoming 50,000 troops who needed minefields cleared, bridges built and accommodations created.”

At 50, Fitch was promoted to brigadier general and was in command of a division of 12,000 members of the military and civilians, and a land mass that stretched from Thunder Bay to Vancouver Island and up into the Arctic. “My staff enjoyed telling me that it was the largest military district in the world – happily, a fairly benign one,” he jokes. The division’s responsibilities were domestic – attending to forest fires and tornadoes – as well as deployed operations, and Fitch regularly prepared troops of 1,000 to 2,000 to fly to Bosnia, Afghanistan and other countries where they were needed.

In 2001, Fitch was appointed major-general, a rank third from the top in the Canadian Armed Forces, and relocated to Ottawa. Here, he supervised planning the restructuring and modernization of Canada’s army reserves.

Fitch had just relocated to Victoria when, in 2006, he was called up from the Supplementary Reserve in support of Operation PODIUM, the Canadian Armed Forces’ support to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. His primary duty was the leadership of the Games Red Team, a project in which he and his team synthesized a terrorist cell and created practice scenarios to prepare Olympics planning staff for a potential attack.

“Our goal was to improve the capacity of the armed forces to deal with some potentially devastating situations,” he explains. “The model behind it is, train hard, fight easy. We disciplined ourselves to be real and started giving Olympics planning staff gentle problems, upping the ante to present them with tougher and tougher problems.”

When asked if he ever experienced antisemitism in the armed forces, Fitch says that his rise through the ranks is evidence there is none. “What the forces did with me proves there is no antisemitism,” he says. “I think the Canadian Armed Forces is the purest meritocracy in this country.”

After the Winter Olympics, when his full retirement came into effect, Fitch dedicated himself to community work. As a qualified civil engineer, he was instrumental in helping with the construction of the Centre for Jewish Life and Learning (Chabad), the first new synagogue to be built on the island since 1863. He volunteers with the Victoria Jewish Cemetery Trust and the Vancouver Island Chevra Kadisha, and serves as chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ national community security committee. He’s been house committee chair and treasurer of Congregation Emanu-El and a board member of the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia.

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The 14th annual Festival Ha’Rikud took place at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver May 12-14 and Israeli dancers from Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS), Vancouver Talmud Torah, Temple Sholom, Or Chadash, Orr Ktanim and a group from Miami entertained a packed house in two performances. The theme for this year’s festival was friendship and a celebration of Israeli culture in its Canadian context, in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday. Dancers delivered polished performances that testified to many hours’ practice and a great fondness for Israeli folk dancing.