Louis Brier Home

Community milestones … Diamond Foundation, JWest, Louis Brier, Waldman Library, Boys Town, IDF & BGU

The Diamond Foundation is leading the way in contributing to JWest, with an historic $25 million gift – and community donors have matched this gift with another $25 million.

The Diamond Foundation’s matching gift is the first philanthropic contribution to the project and it is the largest donation ever made by the Diamond Foundation. Completing the match means $50 million toward the JWest capital campaign target of $125-plus million.

Alex Cristall, chair of the JWest capital campaign, had this response: “I want to thank the Diamond Foundation for this transformational gift. A project of this magnitude will not be possible without the tremendous generosity demonstrated by the Diamond Foundation, as well as philanthropic support from the community at large. It is our hope that the Diamond Foundation’s incredible community leadership will serve as inspiration, and we are now calling on others to work with our team to champion this project in an equally impactful way.”

The Diamonds’ gift will have a significant impact on the plans for JWest, providing a social, cultural, recreational and educational asset for all. This is the most extensive project in the history of the Jewish community in Western Canada and it is estimated to cost more than $400 million. Bringing it to life will require philanthropy, government funding and astute financing.

Gordon and Leslie Diamond, who are honorary JWest campaign co-chairs and members of the Diamond Foundation’s board, shared: “We are pleased to be the first family to make a significant contribution to JWest’s capital campaign. Our family has called Vancouver home for almost a century, and we have always believed in contributing whatever we can to ensure there is a bright future for our children and their children.”

The announcement builds on the $25 million funding provided in 2021 by the B.C. government.

“Mazal tov! I’m so pleased that our government’s shared mandate commitment of $25 million and a $400,000 investment in redevelopment planning has been bolstered with philanthropic support from the Diamond Foundation and community,” said Melanie Mark, Hli Haykwhl Ẃii Xsgaak, minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport. “These generous contributions underscore the importance of a renewed Jewish Community Centre to 22,590 Jews and all people living in this community. It speaks to the power of working together to shine a light on our province’s diversity and inclusion.”

The new space, once complete, will deliver a state-of-the-art community centre, expanded space for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, double the current number of childcare spaces, expanded seniors’ programming, a new theatre, a relocated King David High School and two residential towers that will provide mixed-use rental housing (a portion of which will be below-market rates).

“JWest is the amalgamation of decades of work, and the fact that we saw our gift matched so quickly sends a clear signal that the community stands behind this project,” said Jill Diamond, executive director of the Diamond Foundation. “The Diamond Foundation has had a unifying focus to assist and advocate for initiatives in the Vancouver area that help improve the quality of people’s lives. The impact JWest will have on the Jewish community and the surrounding Oakridge community is undeniable.”

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The Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation has added two new members to its board of directors: Mervyn (Merv) Louis and Michelle Karby. They join an impressive group of volunteers, who for the past decades, have donated both their time and funds to care for the elderly of the Vancouver Jewish community.

photo - Mervyn (Merv) Louis — Mervyn (Merv) Louis *(photo from Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation)*

Louis, a certified public accountant, emigrated with his family from South Africa to Canada in December 1978 and joined a small accounting firm in Vancouver. In the summer of 1979, the firm was acquired by Grant Thornton LLP. In 2016, Louis retired as a partner of Grant Thornton LLP, where he worked for 38 years, of which 33 were as a partner specializing in audit, accounting and business advisory services. Louis advised and worked with clients in many different industries, including manufacturing and distribution, real estate investments and construction, entertainment, and professional practitioners.

After his retirement from Grant Thornton LLP, Louis worked as the chief financial officer of Plotkin Health Inc. and MacroHealth Solutions Limited Partnership until retiring again, in August 2020. During these years, he successfully helped merge a U.S. partnership and a Canadian company to form the parent partnership of MacroHealth Solutions Ltd. Partnership, a medical cost management and solutions provider in North America.

Louis has been married for 46 years and has two sons. He and his wife love to travel and are particularly fond of cruises; they have toured North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Southern Africa. Louis is an avid sports fan and, while his playing days are over, he loves watching all sports, notably hockey, golf and rugby.

photo - Michelle Karby — Michelle Karby *(photo from Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation)*

Karby is an experienced wills, estates, trusts and corporate lawyer heading up the wills and estates group at Owen Bird Law Corp. She helps clients plan, build and protect their legacies. Prior to developing her expertise in this area, Karby spent many years in and out of a courtroom honing her skills as a commercial litigator.

While born and raised in Vancouver, Karby’s adventurous spirit and love of travel translated into 18 years studying and working in places that included Montreal, Toronto, Israel, Cape Town, Melbourne and Sydney. Now settled in Vancouver with her husband and two teenage sons, Karby enjoys the beautiful natural environment, being close to her family and giving back to the community that she grew up in.

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Kimberley Berger has joined Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver as its new outreach worker in the regional communities. In particular, she will focus on White Rock, South Surrey and New Westminster.

Berger has worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 30 years, focusing on community development and family support. She has held many roles, ranging from frontline work to executive director of South Vancouver Family Place. She also dedicates time to supporting parents whose children are undergoing cancer treatment at B.C. Children’s Hospital with the West Coast Kids Cancer Foundation.

Berger believes that a strong sense of connection makes both individuals and communities more resilient. Building relationships is central to her role at Jewish Federation and in her own personal life with her family of four in East Vancouver.

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This year, the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library raised more than $30,000 for the library. These funds will help it purchase new books and supplies for programs. Thank you to all of the Friends of the Library, and to the volunteers who helped make the fundraising a huge success.

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photo - Boys Town Jerusalem ranked in the top 10% of 838 high schools examined over the 2021-22 academic year — Boys Town Jerusalem ranked in the top 10% of 838 high schools examined over the 2021-22 academic year. *(photo from Boys Town)*

The Israeli Ministry of Education has granted Boys Town Jerusalem an Award for Excellence. The school ranked in the top 10% of the 838 high schools examined over the 2021-22 academic year.

In releasing its findings, the Israel Ministry of Education cited Boys Town Jerusalem (BTJ) for reaching outstanding achievements in the academic and social realms, as well as for instilling crucial ethics and values. BTJ principal Yossi Cohen noted that the prize reflects the ministry’s findings of the extraordinary efforts by BTJ instructors to spur students to reach a high academic level, avoid dropout and advance to Israel Defence Forces enlistment and higher education.

This marks the third time in the past decade that Boys Town Jerusalem has been awarded the prize for excellence, and the first time in which the school has reached the top-echelon rank. The Ministry of Education Award for Excellence includes a monetary reward for teachers among the highest-scoring schools.

In saluting BTJ’s instructors, Cohen stressed the COVID-related hardships over the past two years, which have demanded exceptional efforts to keep students focused and excelling despite the increased illness, poverty and strife they face at home.

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photo - Cutting the ribbon, left to right, are Ruvik Danilovitch, mayor of Beer Sheva, Israel Defence Forces Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Ben-Gurion University president Daniel Chamovitz and Avi Jacobovitz, Gav-Yam real estate company director general — Cutting the ribbon, left to right, are Ruvik Danilovitch, mayor of Beer Sheva, Israel Defence Forces Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Ben-Gurion University president Daniel Chamovitz and Avi Jacobovitz, Gav-Yam real estate company director general. *(photo from Canadian Associates of BGU)*

A ceremony dedicating the new home of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Communications Branch School for Software and Cyber Security was held in August at the Advanced Technologies Park (ATP) located at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

BGU president Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, IDF chief-of-staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, head of the communications branch Col. Eran Niv, Be’er Sheva Mayor Ruvik Danilovich and other officials and guests were in attendance.

The school’s new location will enable collaboration with BGU and the high-tech companies in the ATP. The school is the first of the communications branch units to move south as part of the national move to strengthen the Negev following the government decision to move the IDF south. The branch’s new main base is under construction alongside the ATP.

The move will assist in the preservation, development and empowerment of the technological human-power in the IDF while creating opportunities and a space for new collaborations in the south.

Inspiring songs and stories

Inspired by Story and Song – this was the topic of the JSA Snider Foundation Virtual Empowerment Series session held on Dec. 2, in partnership with the Louis Brier Home and Hospital.

Jewish Seniors Alliance co-president Gyda Chud welcomed the 45 Zoom participants, as well as the 35 Louis Brier residents, who joined to hear Shanie Levin’s stories and Myrna Rabinowitz’s singing.

Rabinowitz opened with a Chanukah song in Yiddish, “Drei Zich Dreidele” (“Spin Yourself Dreidel”), which was followed by Levin reading Sholem Aleichem’s Hanukkah Gelt (Hanukkah Money). In this story, Motl and his brother take part in the beloved customs of a favourite holiday: the lighting of the chanukiyah, eating potato latkes, playing dreidel, and the gift of gelt.

In the course of the program, Rabinowitz sang songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish. She sang “Oh Hanukkah,” a song in Judeo-Spanish about the holiday’s eight candles, as well as more personal songs, including one she wrote on the occasion of her grandson’s birth and one she wrote for her father. She offered the audience a treat by singing the classic and sentimental Yiddish song by the Barry sisters from the 1950s, “Wie Nemt Men a Bissele Mazel?” (“Where Can You Get a Little Luck?”).

Levin chose the story by Abraham Karpinowitz titled Jewish Money, from the book Vilna My Vilna, which is a volume of his work that was translated into English by local storyteller Helen Mintz. Karpinowitz was known for his detailed and vivid descriptions of the city of Vilna and the odd characters who lived there.

The Spice Box is an anthology of Canadian Jewish writers and Levin read an illuminating story written in 1968 by Larry Zolf, who was a CBC personality and writer for the program This Hour Has Seven Days. The story, Boil Me No Melting Pot, Dream Me No Dreams, deals with the difference between the American and Canadian immigrant experiences.

Preposterous Papa, the final story read by Levin, was an excerpt from a book by Lewis Meyer. Meyer’s father grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, which had very few Jewish families. Unable to commute to the synagogue in the larger city, his father bought a house and converted it into a chapel, offering a place for the few Jewish families in nearby towns to socialize and pray on High Holidays.

Rabinowitz ended the program with an upbeat song in Yiddish, the title of which translates as “We Are All Brothers and Sisters.”

Nathalie Jacobs of the Louis Brier thanked the performers and expressed her wish to partner again with JSA in the future.

Tamara Frankel is a member of the board of Jewish Seniors Alliance and of the editorial committee of Senior Line magazine. She is also a board member of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

Louis Brier garden project

Left to right: Nicole Encarnacion, Ruthie Shugarman and Lisa Ford. (photo from Louis Brier Home and Hospital)

This summer, the Louis Brier Home and Hospital celebrated the transformation of part of its outdoor space into a place of beauty and quiet.

On the morning of June 30, the wider community came out to support the Louis Brier Home and Hospital’s community of residents living with dementia. The special care unit, which is home for 17 residents who live with severe dementia, has its own outdoor space for the residents and their families. Dubbed the “secret garden,” this space has been tended by residents’ families and, now, thanks to the vision and support of local realtor Ruthie Shugarman, it received a major overhaul.

The project was spearheaded by former master gardener Lisa Ford, who visits her mother, Laura Ford, a five-year resident of Louis Brier, several times a week. Since her mother moved into the special care unit two-and-a-half years ago, Ford has been planting and caring for the space. With Shugarman’s help, the private courtyard has become a welcoming space for families to spend time together with dementia-friendly design components recommended by the Louis Brier’s nursing lead, Nicole Encarnacion.

Just prior to the June 30 gathering at the Brier, the Government of Canada announced its National Dementia Strategy: canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/dementia-strategy.html.

At controversy’s centre – Louis Brier

Louis Brier Home and Hospital has accused Dr. Ellen Wiebe, who specializes in medically assisted dying, of wrongdoing, for providing a medically assisted death to 83-year-old resident Barry Hyman, without the consent or knowledge of the care facility.

The home accused Wiebe of “borderline unethical” behaviour and has filed a complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, but Wiebe is adamant that her actions were not unprofessional.

“By far the most important thing is the patient,” Wiebe told the CJN. “The second is the family. Mr. Hyman’s wish was to die in his home. People have all kinds of wishes and desires, but dying wishes are held to a higher standard than other wishes.”

Asked about the family’s agreement to abide by Louis Brier’s policies, and the dispensation given by the B.C. Ministry of Health for institutions to refuse the provision of services that go against their religious beliefs, Wiebe said, “I’m not part of those agreements. My agreement is purely with my patient, not the facility, and since I don’t have visiting privileges at Louis Brier like I do at Vancouver General Hospital, I am not required to abide by the agreement between Louis Brier and the ministry.”

Wiebe was invited into the facility by Hyman’s daughter, Lola Hyman, and his other immediate family members, who wanted to honour Barry Hyman’s long-held wish to die on his own terms. Disabled by a stroke and diagnosed with lung cancer, Hyman had asked to die at the care facility, which had become his primary residence. Lola Hyman had broached the topic with David Keselman, the chief executive officer of Louis Brier, who told her it was against their policy, which is formulated according to Orthodox Jewish law.

Lola Hyman told the Globe and Mail that she wanted to honour her father’s wishes in a place that was comfortable for him, not somewhere that would be unfamiliar to him.

On the night of his death, she said, “the room was very quiet. We just held his hand and stared at him. My sister was sobbing, just sobbing. I was a stone. A complete stone. My heart was racing that someone would open the door.”

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Criminal Code prohibition on physician-assisted dying in 2015 and the federal government passed legislation legalizing it in 2016. The court recognized that doctors should not be coerced into performing the procedure against their will, but did not specify whether health-care organizations could refuse to comply.

In British Columbia, the Ministry of Health made an agreement that allows members of the Denominational Health Association (DHA), which includes the Louis Brier, to refuse to provide services that are inconsistent with their religious values.

“Anyone who comes here knows what our policy is and, if they don’t like the policy, they should go somewhere else,” Mark Rozenberg, the chair of the ethics committee of Louis Brier’s board, told the Globe and Mail.

Keselman declined the CJN’s request for comment, saying that the board was in meetings to decide how to respond to the media exposure. The home’s rabbi, Hillel Brody, said he was not permitted to discuss Louis Brier’s policies with the press.

Shanaaz Gokool, chief executive officer of Dying With Dignity Canada, told the CJN that organizations like Louis Brier are not being asked to take part in medically assisted dying, but simply not to obstruct residents from a medical service to which they have a right.

“The doctors bring in their own equipment. The health-care facility has no involvement in the procedure. By not allowing this, they are undermining the rights of the residents of Louis Brier who call it their home,” Gokool said.

It is not clear if institutions that refuse to allow medically assisted deaths on their premises enjoy the same Charter-protected religious freedoms as individuals who refuse to provide the service, because the issue has not yet been tested in court.

A joint statement issued by Dying With Dignity Canada and the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers said, “We support health-care professionals who, as a matter of conscience and compassion, help their patients overcome unfair barriers to access.… And we will defend clinicians who are attacked or punished for their participation in the lawful provision of MAID (medical assistance in dying). These courageous individuals should be applauded, not penalized, for putting their patients first.”

Louis Brier is one of a number of faith-based organizations that are in a quandary: although the centre is run in accordance with Orthodox Jewish law, not all residents are religious Jews, and it also has non-Jewish residents.

A 2014 Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of Dying With Dignity Canada showed that 84% of Canadians were in favour of allowing physicians to help someone die, if that person is suffering and wishes to die.

There is also the issue of public funding, as “67% of the Louis Brier’s funding is public,” said Gokool. “They are funded by taxpayers and should abide by Canadian law.”

Lola Hyman told the Globe that she was left feeling distressed, both at the possibility of Wiebe suffering on account of helping her father, and at having upset the front-line staff at Louis Brier, who were shocked by Barry Hyman’s sudden death. She said that all of this could have been avoided if British Columbia went the way of Quebec and stopped allowing publicly funded organizations to obstruct the rights of their residents.

“Everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs and traditions and customs,” Hyman told the Globe. “But, when it comes to somebody who is very sick and dying, we need to have a different approach.”

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. This article was originally published by the CJN, cjnews.com.