Tag: JFS Vancouver

JFS reflects on Segal’s impact

The Jewish Food Bank operates out of Jewish Family Services’ the Kitchen, on East 3rd Avenue. (photo from JFS)

Like so many other individuals and organizations since Joseph Segal’s death on May 31, Jewish Family Services Vancouver has been reflecting on the impact he has had.

“Joseph Segal was a very generous supporter of the program,” said Carol Hopkins, coordinator of the Jewish Food Bank, which was one of the two organizations people were asked, at Segal’s funeral, to donate to in his memory; the other being Yaffa House.

“He touched the lives of many people through our Seniors Home Support program and annual Passover holiday campaign. However, food security and food access was his passion and a clear priority,” said JFS in a statement. “His dedication to help underwrite our food voucher program was notable. This was a special program for many, especially in the early days, before we had satellite food hubs across the Lower Mainland.”

Those vouchers allowed people to purchase groceries near where they lived. Further, the program presented recipients the opportunity to maintain anonymity and a sense of dignity – by not having to line up at a local food bank or use discount coupons at a till. Segal placed great value on a dignified means of accessing support.

More recently, JFS has directed its efforts towards mitigating food insecurity in the community to the food bank, of which Segal was an ardent and magnanimous backer. Currently, the food bank, which operates from JFS’s the Kitchen, at 54 East 3rd Ave., serves more than 800 clients regularly and delivers more than 10,000 kilograms of healthy food every month.

On its website, JFS notes, “While not a kosher food bank, the Jewish Food Bank does not offer any meats, poultry or shellfish. In addition, for those clients who do keep kosher, it ensures that kosher items are available to them.”

Since its inception, the food bank has been operated in partnership with Jewish Women International-BC. It started with a few volunteers and has operated from various locations since the mid-2000s. It first served clients from the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Later, it switched to the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, where it was based until COVID-19 hit.

At the beginning, the food bank was mostly a walk-in model. Clients would come in and people would select the items they needed. This changed to an all-delivery model during the pandemic: bags were packed and then dropped off to clients who needed support.

The number of clients has grown since March 2020, with deliveries going across the region, including the North Shore, Surrey, Coquitlam and Burnaby. In April 2021, the food bank made its move to the Kitchen, where it maintains a warehouse facility with refrigerators and freezers, allowing JFS to keep perishable donations until they are ready to be used.

In addition to providing people the chance to pick up food at the Kitchen, JFS can distribute directly to clients and to its hubs across the Lower Mainland. Food is brought into the Kitchen on Mondays and sent out to different locations from Tuesday to Thursday. In an average week, more than 40 volunteers help the program.

“We are seeing more and more the challenge of food prices going up in conjunction with expensive housing, not to mention seniors on a fixed income,” said Hopkins. “People are having trouble supplying food. Our grocery service allows people to get support and the nutritious food that they need. We really pride ourselves on that.

“JFS is fortunate,” she said. “Distributors supply us with the best pricing that they can. This allows JFS to stretch the financial contributions it receives and buy in bulk.”

JFS depends largely on donations, both monetary – to buy supplies – and of items such as food, soap, shampoo, toilet paper and diapers.

JFS estimates there will be 150 new families accessing the food bank in the coming year, given economic trends; costs are increasing and needs are growing. Rising food prices are changing the perception and the reality of who needs the help of the food bank.

To donate to JFS’s Food Security program in Segal’s memory, visit jfsvancouver.ca/joe_segal.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

BI scholar-in-residence

Rabbi Eliezer Diamond (photo from jtsa.edu)

“I am particularly interested in the way that Torah can help us look inward. Each of the topics is about religious character formation, various ways in which we create a more godly character and personality,” said Rabbi Eliezer Diamond in a Zoom conversation with the Jewish Independent ahead of his visit to Vancouver next month.

Congregation Beth Israel will be hosting Diamond as its scholar-in-residence for three in-person talks under the collective title Making a Life of Meaning. A professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in New York, Diamond will speak on Addiction and Judaism (April 28, 7:30 p.m.), the Power of Gratitude (April 29, 6 p.m., with a dinner to follow) and Seeking and Granting Forgiveness (April 30, 9:30 a.m.).

In regard to addiction, the rabbi compares the 12-step process of Alcoholics Anonymous with the laws of repentance by Maimonides and notes the parallel paths taken towards sobriety and repentance: acknowledgement, regret and acceptance.

“Not drinking and being sober are not the same thing. To recover from alcoholism, one has to change one’s way of living and thinking,” said Diamond, who discusses addiction from both a personal and professional perspective.

“I am a recovering alcoholic and I know about addiction from the inside,” he said. “Even though I am not a therapist or addiction counselor, what I can do is help people to be honest with themselves and say ‘I have a problem,’ which is an acknowledgement of the sin and a step towards repentance. It is important to help people see where they are at so that they can begin to make changes.”

It is also helpful, he added, for his rabbinical students to know that their teacher is a recovering alcoholic because there is frequently a shame involved in addiction and a sense that one is a diminished person as a result.

“I am there to say to them, those may be the cards one has been dealt. You can still be a productive human being and, if you take the steps you need to take to deal with addiction, there is no reason for shame. On the contrary, there is a reason for pride. You have been faced with a challenge and you have addressed it,” he said.

Diamond pointed out that, in a broad sense, there has been an acknowledgement in the past couple of decades within the Jewish community that Jews, like everyone else, have problems with addiction.

“We are not immune to addiction, as people think or would like to think,” he said. “In my own lifetime, the community has become more open. The founding of Jewish Addiction Community Services [JACS] is an example of that.”

In addition to Congregation Beth Israel, Diamond’s talks in Vancouver are being sponsored by JACS Vancouver, Jewish Family Services Vancouver and Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Diamond’s discussion on gratitude is tied to the teachings of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, an early 20th-century leader in the mussar (Jewish ethics or values) movement, who saw giving as being at the heart of the religious personality. In Dessler’s teachings, God, by providing life, is the ultimate giver. Therefore, to follow in God’s path, we must be givers ourselves. There are times, however, when we must also be receivers, and the best way to receive is through gratitude, Diamond explained.

Expanding on the theme of gratitude, Diamond added, “Ultimately, whether or not we experience ourselves as wealthy or poor is intimately connected to finding happiness and satisfaction with what we have. If we focus on what we have and the happiness that it can bring us, then we can feel wealthy. This is a choice that all of us, especially in a first-world situation, have.”

On forgiveness, the rabbi cited Christian theologian C.S. Lewis, who spoke of the human desire to seek forgiveness yet the difficulty humans have in granting it.

“Forgiving is a hard thing to do,” said Diamond. “What does it actually mean to forgive someone? Because, unless we lobotomize ourselves, we are not going to forget what happened. The essence of what I will be talking about is the relationship between forgiveness and recognizing the essential humanity of every human being, including those who have wronged us.”

What often stands in the way of forgiveness, he said, is the inability to view another person as anything other than evil, and not as a flawed individual who has stumbled, as we all stumble. The path towards forgiveness, according to Diamond, is to make that distinction.

Amid social and political divisiveness, which causes rifts in families and communities, Diamond further emphasized the importance of being able to listen to and appreciate the inherent humanity and sincerity in belief of those with whom we may strongly disagree.

“Rabbi Diamond is one of most well-respected scholars in the Conservative movement today,” said Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld. “He is exceedingly bright, knowledgeable and eloquent. He is also passionate about the human value of gratitude and the importance of recovery. Considering the fact that drug and alcohol addictions and overdoses have been less spoken about during the pandemic, we knew that Rabbi Diamond should be our first in-person scholar-in-residence since the beginning of COVID-19. We are so happy that other community agencies are joining us. We look forward to welcoming Rabbi Diamond to Vancouver and learning from this incredible rabbi.”

To register for the April 29 dinner, visit bethisrael.ca.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Community milestones … Pikuah Nefesh Award, community food program, Klein-Thompson wedding, Jerusalem Talmud

Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, left, Dr. Patricia Daly and Dr. Eric Grafstein (photo from Temple Sholom Twitter)

On Feb. 26, Temple Sholom awarded community members Dr. Patricia Daly and Dr. Eric Grafstein with the Pikuah Nefesh Award (to save a life) for their leadership and dedication to our community throughout the pandemic. Mazel tov to both of them! You can watch the presentation on the synagogue’s YouTube channel, along with the evening’s concert featuring Israeli cellist Amit Peled performing “Journeys with my Jewishness.”

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The pilot of the new Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS) and Kehila Society of Richmond food program to enhance students’ access to healthy and nutritious food is now in progress. With start-up funds provided by Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and TD Bank, once a week, JFS Vancouver delivers hot meals to RJDS at no cost to the students or their families. In addition, the funds were used to purchase a community fridge and pantry cupboard that will be kept stocked by JFS, Kehila and the Richmond Food Bank. Students and their families can access healthy snacks, dry goods, fresh produce and meals, during school hours.

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photo - Aden Klein and Nikki Thompson
Aden Klein and Nikki Thompson (photo from their families)

Denise and Wayne Thompson and Gerri and David Klein are thrilled to announce the engagement of their children, Nikki and Aden. A fall wedding is planned.

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photo - Paul and Pamela Austin
Paul and Pamela Austin (photo from CFHU)

The Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University recently announced a transformative gift to establish the Pamela and Paul Austin Research Centre on Aging at the Centre for Computational Medicine at the faculty of medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Pamela and Paul Austin Research Centre on Aging will implement an approach to combating disease by integrating computational data analysis into medical research and practice, and by preparing the next generation of computation-science-trained doctors and researchers. It will bring together leading researchers to leverage the power of data-driven analyses, applying computational methods to study and help combat a variety of age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s; pain; psychiatric disorders; genetic disorders; congenital impairment; immune and inflammatory diseases; cardiovascular aging, and the effects of aging on cancer, osteoarthritis, pulmonary disease and metabolic disease.

The Centre for Computational Medicine and its research programs are specifically designed to enable data information flow and collaborative interdisciplinary research efforts with the most advanced equipment and a disease modeling unit, all in proximity to a major medical centre.

Globally, the number of people over the age of 60 is soon expected to outnumber children under the age of 5. As life expectancy rises, so does the prevalence of age-associated diseases, posing a central challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. The gift from the Austins will go beyond the centre, establishing scholarship opportunities for students and an annual lecture.

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A new edition of the Jerusalem Talmud is now available in Sefaria’s free library of Jewish texts – available on sefaria.org and the Sefaria iOS and Android apps.

The Jerusalem Talmud, also known as the Talmud Yerushalmi or Palestinian Talmud, is the sister text to the better-known Babylonian Talmud. It was compiled in Israel between the third and fifth centuries from oral traditions. Like the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud is a textual record of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, structured as a commentary on the Mishnah. However, a language barrier (it is written in a different dialect of Aramaic), reduced elaboration, and complex structure can make it difficult to study.

The new Jerusalem Talmud on Sefaria includes:

  • Complete English translation,
  • Fully vocalized text to assist learners in reading the distinctive Aramaic dialect,
  • Extensive interlinking to the Bible, Babylonian Talmud and other works, providing connections that help with understanding the work and placing it in context,
  • Topic tagging, so searches on Sefaria will surface references from the Jerusalem Talmud,
  • Six of the standard Hebrew commentaries included in the Vilna edition of the Talmud available and linked on Sefaria, including Korban HaEdah, Penei Moshe, Mareh HaPanim and others,
  • Standardized organization of the different published formats of the Jerusalem Talmud so readers can more easily find their place in the text.

The only fully extant manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud was set down by Rabbi Jehiel ben Jekuthiel Anav in 1289, which formed the base for the first printing in Venice by Daniel Bomberg in 1524. Sefaria has manuscript images from both of these editions visible in the resource panel, to see the original format of the texts alongside the modern, digital version.

The English translation of the Yerushalmi was completed in 2015 by Heinrich Guggenheimer, a mathematician who also published works on Judaism. He spent the last 20 years of his life working on translating the Jerusalem Talmud. With his blessing, Sefaria approached his publisher, de Gruyter GmbH, who agreed to partner on this open access version of Guggenheimer’s historic work. Guggenheimer passed away on March 4, 2021, at the age of 97.

Twice Blessed 2.0 survey

JQT Vancouver and JFS Vancouver are partners – with support from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver – on Twice Blessed 2.0: The Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ Initiative.

The purpose of the initiative is to understand the current needs of the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ community. The agencies involved are committed to creating an inclusive community and survey feedback will inform the changes they need to implement. The self-identification survey is open to all members of the Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ community and can be accessed at tinyurl.com/twiceblessed2.

In 2004, Jewish Family Services (then Jewish Family Services Agency) conducted Twice Blessed: The Jewish LGBT Project – Needs Assessment of the Jewish LGBT Community in the Greater Vancouver Area. For full transparency, this survey was conducted, but only resurfaced in 2021 during an interview for JQT’s B.C. Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project with Jacqueline Walters, who conducted the 2004 survey. (JQT, pronounced J-cutie, is a Jewish queer and trans nonprofit dedicated to “queering” Jewish spaces and “Jewifying” queer spaces to make them more inclusive.)

It has been nearly two decades since this 2004 assessment was conducted, and JQT and JFS apologize that its findings were not acted upon, and want to honour those who participated in that survey by amplifying their voices today.

JQT has been contracted by JFS to update the assessment, using the same or similar questions and adding new questions as language and needs have evolved, in order to compare data, compile, analyze, report and make recommendations on next steps for LGBTQ2SIA+ initiatives.

This new initiative began on Nov. 15, 2021, with a full day of JFS staff training, at which JQT presented on Jewish organizational LGBTQ+ inclusion information collected during the oral history project. JQT will present to the JFS board in early 2022, followed by a JQT-led JFS virtual townhall on April 10, 6-8 p.m., with the findings from the updated survey.

According to a 2020 Simon Fraser University survey of 4,000 Canadians, 10% of respondents identified themselves as part of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community. Further, Statistics Canada and United Jewish Federations of Canada estimate the population of Jewish people in British Columbia at 35,000 with 26,255 in Vancouver, meaning that approximately 2,626 Jewish queer and trans people live in the city. This number is likely higher, given many queer and trans Jews come from mixed families (multicultural, multiethnic, multifaith), patriarchal Jewish families (traditional Judaism follows matriarchal descent), are in diverse relationships, may be unaffiliated to the Jewish community and/or vary in how they identify Jewishly. Currently, JQT’s reach is approximately 1,000 in the Vancouver area, or 38% of the estimated total JQT community.

This latest survey is for people living in the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the online questionnaire is 100% anonymous, and optional, though JQT and JFS strongly encourage community members to participate. The higher the number of participants, the more confidently JQT and JFS can create strategies to affect real and necessary change.

JQT and JFS will not collect personal information such as your name, address or IP address, in order to protect your confidentiality. All information gathered will be securely stored by JQT, accessible only by JQT founder and executive director Carmel Tanaka and shared with JFS chief executive officer Tanja Demajo.

The survey is open for submissions until March 27, 2022. It has a total of 45 questions and will take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The first question is required but the rest of the questions may be left blank – though JQT and JFS encourage people to complete the survey to the best of their ability. Please check all categories that apply, or specify in point form in the comments field. The examples listed are designed to illustrate some of the possible answers and are not intended to be exhaustive.

Language and terminology on ethnicity, race, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and many more identities are constantly evolving. JQT has prepared a glossary resource for reference.

If you are a parent of LGBTQ2SIA+ Jewish youth, you may fill it out together with them (noting in the comments that it was jointly completed). If anyone requires assistance in filling out the form – needs to do it over the phone or have it translated, for example – email [email protected].

People should feel free to share this survey with their Metro Vancouver Jewish queer/trans friends, whether they be un/affiliated to the Jewish community, in newsletters and at places of work.

– Courtesy JQT Vancouver and JFS Vancouver