mental health

Sheba Promise here May 7

On May 7, in Vancouver, Dr. Noya Shilo, director of Sheba Medical Centre’s Back to Life Clinic, will share firsthand insights into the journey from trauma to healing. (photo from Sheba Medical Centre)

Following the success of last September’s event featuring Sheba Medical Centre’s Prof. Amitai Ziv, Canadian Friends of Sheba are returning to Vancouver with the Sheba Promise Journey: From Trauma to Recovery, taking place May 7.

The special evening in support of Sheba Medical Centre will feature Dr. Noya Shilo, director of the centre’s Back to Life Clinic and a global leader in trauma recovery. Having led the care of returned hostages – work recognized internationally, including at the White House – Shilo will share rare, firsthand insights into the journey from trauma to healing, and how Sheba’s care extends far beyond the bedside. Additional voices from Sheba will also contribute to the evening’s conversation.

At a time when the need for mental health support is greater than ever, Sheba is leading critical initiatives, including the establishment of a clinic for children in northern Israel who are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. Proceeds from the May 7 event will support these efforts, as well as the Bibas Healing Gardens – therapeutic environments inspired by Yarden Bibas, a survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Bibas was held hostage for 484 days, separated from his wife and two young children, who were murdered by Hamas during their captivity.

The Bibas Healing Gardens will support women and children through counseling, emotional care and nature-based healing. These restorative spaces will serve hundreds of families each year as part of their long-term rehabilitation journey.

The Sheba Promise Journey event will begin with an exclusive VIP reception and meet-and-greet, followed by a curated theatre-style program designed to inspire, inform and connect. Sponsorship opportunities and tickets are available, and everyone is invited to join the event and/or support the initiatives. The Sheba Promise Journey also takes place in Toronto (May 4) and Montreal (May 5).

For a reminder of Sheba’s September event in Vancouver, go to jewishindependent.ca/innovative-approach-to-care. For tickets to the May 7 gathering, go to www.shebacanada.org/news/the-sheba-promise-journey.

– Courtesy Sheba Medical Centre

Women share experiences

Left to right, at CHW Vancouver Centre’s SHE DAY event March 8: Ruthi Akselrod, Laura Lewko (kneeling a bit), Pam Wolfman, Toby Rubin, Jocelyn Brown, Ruth M’Rav Jankelowitz, Tamara Shenkier and Laura Mossey. (photo by Shula Klinger)

On March 8, CHW (Canadian Hadassah-WIZO) launched its first SHE DAY event. Hosted at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, the celebration of International Women’s Day included a panel discussion, a shuk (market) of women-led businesses and kosher refreshments.

CHW Vancouver Centre president Toby Rubin, who introduced the panel, also shared that, starting in October, the Vancouver CHW team would be under the joint leadership of Pamela Wolfman and Jocelyn Brown, who moderated the discussion between Dr. Tamara Shenkier, Ruth M’Rav Jankelowitz and Laura Mossey.

Shenkier, who is an oncologist, educator and advocate, recently retired. Her 30-year career included numerous leadership roles in medical education and governance, and she spent the last decade-plus focusing on breast cancer. She is a founding member of the Jewish Medical Association of British Columbia.

Jankelowitz has spent three decades in commercial and hospitality design, and her portfolio includes many household names, including DKNY, Timberland and Nike. Her company, Janks Design Group, has created the spaces of such eateries as OEB, Nando’s and Tap and Barrel.

Mossey brought her voice as a non-Jewish Zionist and educator to the panel, sharing some of the influences that have helped frame her identity and worldview.

The conversation was dominated by the topic of antisemitism and its marked increase since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel.

“Things were bubbling in the cauldron but, since then, I have felt as though I am ‘the Jew,’” said Shenkier, who spoke of feeling more exposed and more vulnerable in recent months than ever before. She talked about changes to medical curricula that followed consultation with “thought leaders,” rather than medical experts, and how students were being encouraged to contemplate their practice through the lens of race – though, she noted, “Jews were never mentioned as a marginalized, persecuted community.”

Mossey, too, has seen efforts to erase Jewish identity. For example, the Coquitlam school district now asks parents to share their identity in questionnaires, she said, and “Jewish wasn’t included.”

Brown asked panelists about the biggest challenges they have faced – as Jews and/or Zionists – in their personal and professional lives.

“The hardest thing for me was the silence – from colleagues, friends, employees,” said Jankelowitz. “I gave them countless chances to learn and nobody asked. It was pretty astounding. So, I made my voice louder.”

Mossey addressed the dangers of misinformation and disinformation, highlighting the need for strong leadership.

“We are all vulnerable,” she said, describing a history lesson she gave to Grade 10 students. She taught them about the origins of Black Friday: when, on Nov. 18, 1910, suffragists protesting at Parliament in London, England, for the right to vote were physically and sexually abused. Given that today’s students can graduate without being taught about democracy, she said, “it’s imperative that they hear about the challenges that have been faced by women, somehow, from anyone who’ll show leadership.”

Mossey pointed to the hypocrisy of “safe classrooms” after the provincial teachers’ federation donated $50,000 to UNWRA, many of whose teachers and doctors have been shown to be Hamas operatives.

Asked to speak about resilience, all three women talked about the importance of setting boundaries. Jankelowitz said she had let go a client of 10 years. “I designed all of their stores. They had unionized and the team made a statement about genocide and apartheid, citing Amnesty International and Francesca Albanese [of the United Nations]. I don’t want to create spaces that will alienate my own community,” she said.

Jankelowitz also shared a positive experience: meeting a woman at a Business Network International event who asked to be educated about Zionism. “In one week,” said Jankelowitz, “I put together a historical dossier, links, books … to this day, she’ll come and ask me to verify what she’s heard, she tells me, ‘So I can fight it.’”

Mossey also has not been shy about living according to her values. She has worn emblems in support of Israel and shows her solidarity with Jewish students in various ways. When a principal asked her to hide her social media feed from public view, her response was unequivocal: “No.”

She recalled a conversation with a Jewish student, where she explained her purpose: creating a safe learning environment for all kids.

Asked to offer their advice to other women, Shenkier talked about her own life, cautioning against falling into unhelpful extremes: “being in denial, moving ahead as if nothing has happened,” and, on the other side, “absolute paralysis, anxiety, rumination, catastrophizing.” Find a middle ground where healing can really be possible, she said. “You need to acknowledge and sit with your pain. The community will sit with you, without trying to fix it.”

Shenkier advised people to “separate who you are as a human being from your thoughts, feelings and projections.” She added, “expunge the word, ‘should,’ from your vocabulary. Focus on your strengths. Say ‘no.’ Stop comparing yourself to others, do what brings you joy.”

Earlier in the discussion, Shenkier had spoken of the mythical person who can “have it all,” and the damage caused by such a mindset, which she described as “oppressive.” She stressed the importance of “self-awareness gained through introspection.”

Mossey recommended: “carry your burden, share it, talk and let friends help you. Be physical to get through the stress.”

“Focus on what you can control,” said Jankelowitz. “You don’t need permission to use your voice. The room doesn’t decide if you belong to it.”

Mossey asks one question when she is challenged on her position on Israel: “Do you believe in the Jews’ right to self-determination?” She said the response helps her decide, in an instant, whether the conversation is worth pursuing.

“Don’t waste your time talking to people who aren’t interested in learning,” said Mossey, who has read dozens of books about Judaism and Israel, yet said she would not call herself an expert on the topics.

The panelists explored the theme of resilience at some length.

“What does resilience look like in the current climate?” Brown asked.

“Showing up for the community, for my team at work, being consistent in my beliefs,” Jankelowitz shared. “Equip yourself with the facts.”

Mossey responded with stories about her mother – a 17-year survivor of a high-risk cancer surgery – who taught her the word’s meaning: “Lean into your faith, keep your family close, and do something every day” to stand up for your cause.

Commitment to personal values and professional ethics are also vital, added Mossey. “I’m not going to make myself smaller to avoid offending a kid who knows nothing about history,” she said.

Brown asked panelists to share an example of when their identity had felt like a strength as opposed to something they “needed to explain, manage and protect.”

Shenkier’s happy childhood in Montreal was a “grounding, not a cloak I can put on and take off,” she said. She considers herself lucky to have been a physician, a career where “the constant questions, the examination of one’s ethics and the practice of empathy were all congruent with my faith.”

Mossey recalled a meeting where she was asked to “identify herself.” She felt that traditional labels, such as “white,” “heterosexual” and “cisgendered woman,” were unhelpful. On that day, she said, “What differentiates me is my character. So, now I identify as a Zionist.”

Jankelowitz, who was once a logistics officer in the Israel Defence Forces, agreed: “owning the identity is more powerful than hiding it,” she said.

As the questions came to an end, the audience rose in a standing ovation.

Toby Rubin reminded attendees that, if anyone faces antisemitism, they can find support through CHW.

Event sponsors included Sylvia Cristall, Laura Lewko, Ruth Freeman, Brown (Acubalance Wellness Centre), Rubin and Wolfman; the national corporate partner was real estate development company Israel Canada. The afternoon was catered in part by Ricci Leigh-Smith’s team at Perfect-Bite, and organized by Amanda Aron Chimanovitch, community engagement and event officer for CHW, Western Canada.

Proceeds from SHE DAY events – which took place in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Delray Beach, Fla. – went to the Eden Association Trauma Therapy Centre. Founded in 1997, the centre provides trauma care to young women and girls in southern Israel, where the need has increased greatly since Oct. 7.

The next CHW Vancouver Centre event is Games Day on May 6 at Richmond Country Club. Proceeds from it will go to supporting post-traumatic stress disorder therapy at Shamir Medical Centre and psychological rehabilitation at Hadassah Hospital in Israel. To register, go to chw.ca/region/western-region.

Shula Klinger is an author and journalist living in North Vancouver.

Jews in time of trauma

Many Jewish Canadians face unique mental health hurdles right now, and many of the professionals they depend on to help them are themselves struggling with related challenges.

The trauma that has affected Jews in recent years – from the horrors of Oct. 7 to the global explosion of antisemitism societally and in the personal lives of diaspora Jews – has created unprecedented needs in the mental health sector. Professionals in the discipline, including Jewish psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and social workers, are often dealing personally with some of the same issues their clients are confronting.

Dr. Rotem Regev (photo courtesy Rotem Regev)

Dr. Rotem Regev is a Vancouver psychologist with a private practice specializing in trauma, as well as expertise in therapist training, especially addressing practitioner burnout. Burnout in the profession was exacerbated by COVID. Then came Oct. 7.

Within days of the terror attacks, Regev’s inbox filled with requests from Jewish clients, and from therapists. Non-Jewish clinicians approached her about how to counsel their Jewish clients.

She assembled a webinar for non-Jewish practitioners about the intersectionality of trauma and Judaism, called How to Help Your Jewish Client in this Unprecedented Time.

There were 70 non-Jewish therapists in the first webinar.

“At one point, pretty early on, my Jewish therapist colleagues came to me and said, why is this only for non-Jewish therapists? We need to know what to do,” she recalled.

After other collective traumas, like the 9/11 terror attacks or Hurricane Katrina, counselors may have shared trauma with their clients. After 10/7, though, the antisemitism that swept the world meant many clients – and practitioners – did not feel safe seeking the help they needed.

“We can’t turn to our professional colleagues for consultations,” she heard from fellow practitioners. “We feel silenced. We’re unwelcome in places. And then I said, OK, this is unprecedented. There’s nothing about this in the literature. We need to document our experiences.”

Regev sent out questionnaires to more than 250 mental health practitioners in British Columbia who are Jewish. From the responses and her subsequent research, she coined the term “compounded traumatic reality.”

“It’s not only a shared traumatic reality, but it is compounded by the extra layer of antisemitism,” she said. Her paper on the subject was published last month (Nov. 11) in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Behaviour in the Social Environment.

Regev’s career has taken a decided shift. She created the International Centre for Collective Resilience, which trains mental health professionals in culturally responsive, trauma-informed care around these specific issues. In that capacity, she developed the CHAI Method™ for clinical practitioners to balance the needs of their clients with their own connection to the trauma.

The CHAI Method™ is a four-part framework that begins with “Connect,” where individuals recognize what is happening, followed by “Honour,” which acknowledges identity and lived experience, particularly in an environment where others invalidate these experiences. “Activate” moves the practitioner into culturally responsive strategies and setting appropriate boundaries. “Integrate” transforms the experience into lasting capacity for both the practitioner and their client.

Regev has already delivered trainings in the CHAI Method™ at McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal and will offer it in Vancouver on Feb. 8 and 9.

Eventually, she said, the training could be adapted for healthcare providers – physicians especially are facing profound challenges right now, Regev said – as well as educators, clergy and others who are not accredited mental health providers.

Regev was born and raised in Israel, though she spent several teenage years in Vancouver while her mother was doing a master’s and a PhD in psychology here. She returned to Israel, did her army service, but moved to Vancouver permanently at age 28.

Israelis and diaspora Jews are having parallel but different experiences, she said. While many diaspora Jews lost loved ones on Oct. 7 and in the subsequent war, that experience is almost universal among Israelis. The experience with antisemitism in the diaspora, on the other hand, is not something Jews in Israel live with. Above all, she said, Israelis are having a shared experience with their entire society. For two years, it has been impossible to escape the reality, if for no more apparent reason than the ubiquity of hostage posters and memorial placards everywhere in the country. Jews in the diaspora, no matter how connected they may be to their Jewish community, are nonetheless surrounded by non-Jews living a completely different reality.

For diaspora Jews, finding a mental health practitioner capable of addressing their unique needs has come down to word-of-mouth. Regev hopes there will be a systematization, perhaps a database of professionals accredited in her CHAI Method™, which will provide assurances to clients that the counselor they are engaging with is prepared to consider the specific contemporary experiences of Jews.

There is plenty to be done, Regev said, and she has been balancing these new responsibilities with her clinical and training work, taking on tasks that currently have no dedicated infrastructure or funding behind them. She is seeking financial backing to support her initiatives.

To register for the February seminar or for further information about Regev’s work, visit icfcr.ca. In addition to training, she is also available as a speaker.

Ways to overcome negativity

In times of rising antisemitism and violence, fear is valid. When the world feels like it’s unraveling, anchoring yourself in a deeper sense of purpose can be healing. (screenshot)

Fear is not a weakness. It’s a deeply human response to a real or perceived threat. In times of rising antisemitism and violence, fear is valid. But we must not let it be the only voice in the room.

By acknowledging the fear – whether of violence, isolation or helplessness – we reduce its power. At the same time, we also make space for other emotions, such as courage, care and resilience, to emerge.

There are many things we can do to help us overcome the foreboding atmosphere of negativity and fear that is knocking at our door. Focusing on what we can do, gives us a sense of agency when we might otherwise feel helpless and alone.

There is the physical aspect of fear. It is important to be aware of what is happening as you notice you are feeling anxious, by staying present and being grounded. The brain often races into the future during fear: What if this happens to my community? My family? Me? This kind of “catastrophic thinking” pulls us out of the moment and floods our bodies with stress hormones.

It is important to know how to manage physical symptoms as they come up. Have you ever practised mindful breathing or meditation? Going to the beach and being aware of the beauty of our surroundings is a way to relax the constant noise that comes with stressful thinking. It is important to stay informed, but we often tend to keep scrolling for more information when there might not be anything else available. Learn how to say “dayeinu,” it is enough for today.

Build connection, not isolation

Fear thrives in silence. One of the most powerful antidotes to fear is community; connecting with people who understand your pain and can help hold it with you. It is important to build community to fight isolation. Ask yourself:

• Who in my life can I be vulnerable with?

• Is there a synagogue, support group or mental health resource I can lean on?

• Can I be that presence for someone else?

There is strength in the simple act of saying, “You’re not alone.” It may be that your reaching out to ask for help will in fact help someone else.

Not everyone will be on the front lines of activism – and that’s OK. But each of us has a role to play in healing the world, even in small ways:

• Check in on someone who may be afraid or isolated.

• Wear your Jewish identity with pride – a Magen David, a kippah – if it feels right to you.

• Educate others, kindly and clearly, when misinformation spreads.

• Support Jewish organizations and security efforts.

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it whispers, “I will keep showing up.”

When the world feels like it’s unraveling, anchoring yourself in a deeper sense of purpose can be healing. Ask yourself where you can make an impact. Do you have a particular skill that may make a difference to individuals or an organization? Judaism has a rich tradition of resilience, moral clarity and hope. Pirkei Avot 2:5 reminds us that, “In a place where there are no leaders, strive to be that leader.” In other words, act with integrity, even when others do not. This is real courage and takes strength and commitment.

Judaism teaches us to choose hope

Our tradition teaches us to choose hope, again and again. Hope isn’t naïve. It’s an act of spiritual resistance. It’s choosing to believe, even with trembling hands, that goodness still exists and that we are its agents. When you are with friends and family, celebrate moments of kindness. Remind one another of stories, not only of loss, but of survival and joy.

Living Jewishly, publicly and proudly, in today’s world takes immense strength. You are not alone in your fear – nor in your resolve. Fear may visit, but it doesn’t get to move in and take over. Our world needs as many of us to be positive ambassadors as we need those fighting antisemitism on the front lines. As Mahatma Gandhi once expressed it, “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Shelley Karrel is a registered clinical counsellor in Vancouver; you can reach her at karrelcounselling.com.

Jews support Filipinos

Solidarity with and support for Vancouver’s Filipino community have suffused Jewish community events since the tragic deaths at the Lapu Lapu Day Festival in Vancouver April 26.

Eleven people were killed and many more injured, several critically, after a car rammed through crowds at the outdoor festival, which commemorates the historic victory of Datu Lapu Lapu over the Spanish forces led by Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan, on April 27, 1521.

Lapu Lapu is celebrated as the first Filipino hero who resisted foreign colonization and the Battle of Mactan marked the first recorded instance of indigenous resistance against European colonizers in the Pacific island archipelago.

A fund has been created by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver to support affected families and Federation has seconded three staff members to assist the Filipino community with logistical and other supports. Jewish clergy and other leaders, including Jewish Family Services, have been on the scene with support. Vancouver Talmud Torah, Vancouver Hebrew Academy, Richmond Jewish Day School and King David High School have organized a group blood donation campaign. Synagogues have held services.

“This has been an incredibly tough week for our friends in the Filipino community,” Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, said at the Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) ceremony April 30.

photo - Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, which has created a fund to support affected families — Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, which has created a fund to support affected families. *(photo from Jewish Federation)*

He spoke of the many close personal connections between members of the Filipino and Jewish communities.

“We have come together to support our Filipino community from day one and we will continue to do that as long as it takes to ensure that they are secure, safe and thriving,” he said.

The night before, at the Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Remembrance Day) ceremony, Geoffrey Druker also spoke of the tragedy.

“We send our sympathies and condolences to the individuals, families and the Filipino community who suffered horrific losses and pain this past weekend,” he said.

Rabbi Philip Bregman, who is engaged in multicultural and interfaith dialogue, told the Independent that he was among many Jews at several Filipino vigils and solidarity events recently.

“I’m here in support and solidarity for this tragedy,” he told them, “but you’ve got to know how important you are to the centrality of the Jewish community.”

Bregman noted that members of the Filipino community hold crucial roles in the Jewish community. He gave as examples the operational support Filipino community members provide to synagogues, as workers at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital, the Weinberg Residence, as individuals caring for the youngest and eldest in the Jewish community. He added that tens of thousands of Filipino foreign workers in Israel provide support to Jews there, especially the elderly.

Funds raised by the Jewish community and others will assist in the vast challenges facing the Filipino community individually and collectively. There are funeral expenses to be covered, Bregman said, including for those families who are sending their lost loved ones for burial in the Philippines. Many of the deceased were the family’s primary breadwinners and many of the injured will experience damaging loss of income. There will be ongoing rehabilitation and other expenses.

Donations are welcomed at jewishvancouver.com.

Shattering city’s rosy views

The horrific car-ramming that killed attendees at the Lapu Lapu Day Festival on April 26 was Vancouver’s baptism by fire into a club into which no city seeks membership. This urban gem of “Beautiful British Columbia,” where one can ski down a mountain, sail in the ocean, cycle along rolling hills and relax on a beach on the same day, now also is home to a mass killing event. Life for Vancouverites will never feel as rosy again – nor should it.

As a Vancouver resident and mental health outreach worker who hails from the United States – where such events have become far too commonplace – I can only hope that this massacre will serve as a wake-up call to the province for the need for more mental health beds in the region. Specifically, I pray that this event will lead to the political will to reopen a reformed Riverview Psychiatric Hospital, which never should have been allowed to close in the first place.

While the exact circumstances of what led the individual charged with committing this murderous act remain under investigation, it is established that he had been a client in the Vancouver mental health system. The current broken state of that system is at least in part the result of the fate of the closing of Riverview, which was the only dedicated psychiatric hospital serving the Greater Vancouver area.

Riverview was understood to be rife with abuses. I experienced something similar while serving as a chaplain resident at Washington, DC’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital from 2012 to 2013, when it was undergoing a years-long settlement agreement with the US government for mistreatment of patients. Instead of following St. Elizabeth’s successful model of investing in the reformation of a century-old institution, elected officials here chose to capitalize financially and politically on Riverview’s deservedly nefarious reputation. They drew upon the understandable outcry over the violations – as well as the contemporary trend toward deinstitutionalization – to justify closing the hospital altogether in 2012. These excuses offered ample cover for what was at the heart of their motivation to close Riverview: saving taxpayer dollars to become endeared with the voting public.

In the 13 years since that decision, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside has effectively replaced Riverview as an open-air psychiatric hospital. Rather than living in a protected environment, individuals in the greatest need of mental health support are forced to try to survive amid a fentanyl-laced, drug-laden dystopian metropolis. Members of this extremely vulnerable population succumb every day on the streets and in their homes to fatal overdoses of drugs to which their illnesses make them abundantly susceptible. This is an abomination that cannot stand in a civilized nation the likes of which Canada professes to be. Indeed, British Columbia now is the only Canadian province without an exclusive psychiatric hospital. For a province whose largest city – Vancouver – is a hotbed for the suffering and preventable deaths of human beings living with the dual-diagnosis of mental illness and addiction, this is simply inexcusable.

As Riverview prepared to close, community mental health outreach programs opened, partly in the hope of meeting the needs of clients discharging from that moribund institution. Among those initiatives were new, innovative mental health outreach teams, such as the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams on which I serve as a spiritual health practitioner. Despite the best efforts of dedicated professionals alongside whom I am privileged to work on these teams, Vancouver’s “capital” punishment of its mentally ill persists. As I write these words, I have learned that another young client of ours has perished, the latest victim of a broken system plagued by chronically lacking mental health housing and hospital beds – someone whose life might well have been saved by Riverview.

The rebuilding of Riverview hospital will not guarantee that Vancouver will be spared from another horror the likes of the Lapu Lapu Day attack. It will, however, provide some peace of mind to those of us who work in Vancouver’s mental health system every day that our society is taking every reasonable action to buoy the system intended to help support those who are at heightened risk of endangering themselves or others.

As part of my duties for the ACT teams, I run a weekly spirituality group at the Gathering Place on Seymour and Helmcken streets for clients and staff. Each week, I guide attendees through images, poetry and live music as we explore a universal theme. This week, I was prepared to explore the concept of “springtime,” playing such songs as “La Vie en Rose” by Edith Piaf. Like Vancouver’s rose-coloured veneer in cherry blossom season, that plan, too, was shattered by the Lapu Lapu massacre. Instead, we will be making space for individual and collective mourning for the members of the Filipino community, as well as our fellow client who just passed today, by offering a rendition of “A Tree of Life.” This song by Idina Menzel and Kate Diaz commemorating the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Oct. 27, 2018, will now be used to help make space for the profound need for grief support across Vancouver.

How many more deaths will it take before we break through the mirage of the rosy-coloured hues of British Columbia’s rainforest paradise? Rather, may we grow our own “Tree of Life” here in the form of a new and improved psychiatric hospital on the Riverview grounds. Former Riverview vice -president and assistant administrator Dr. John Higenbottam adroitly mapped out exactly how to achieve this more than a decade ago in his proposal entitled “Into the Future: The Coquitlam Health Campus – A Vision for the Riverview Lands.” (See rhcs.org/media/Into_the_Future_-_the_Coquitlam_Health_Campus.pdf.)

It is high time his advice was heeded.

Cantor Michael Zoosman is a certified spiritual care practitioner with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care and received his cantorial ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2008. He sits as an advisory committee member at Death Penalty Action and is co-founder of L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty. Zoosman is a former Jewish prison chaplain and psychiatric hospital chaplain. Currently, he serves as a spiritual health practitioner (chaplain) for mental health outreach teams, working with individuals in the community living with severe mental health disorders and addiction. He lives with his family in Vancouver. His opinions are his own.

Deep belief in Courage

Left to right: Champion rower Silken Laumann, then-Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan and Courage to Come Back chair Lorne Segal. Sullivan, who broke his neck in a skiing accident when he was 19, has since founded many nonprofits, held various public offices, and more. He received the first-ever Special Courage Award, in 2006. (photo from Coast Mental Health)

This year’s Courage to Come Back Awards, which took place May 7 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, celebrated four people for having overcome great adversity and giving back to their communities. First as an attendee, and then as chair of the awards for 20 years and counting, Lorne Segal knows firsthand the inspiration these award recipients offer.

“I was inspired by the incredible stories of resilience and recovery that define the Courage to Come Back Awards,” Segal told the Independent. “From the beginning, I was moved by the courage it takes to not only face adversity, but to come through it with strength and purpose. The opportunity to support mental health through this powerful platform felt both meaningful and necessary.”

Segal, who is president of Kingswood Properties Ltd., is legacy chair of the annual awards event and co-chair is Eric Carlson, core founder and chief executive officer of Anthem Properties.

Segal took on the role of chair because he “believed deeply in the mission and saw the potential for the awards to grow and reach more people.

“I’ve stayed,” he said, “because of the lives it touches – both those we honour and those who are inspired by them. Each year brings new stories, new hope and a renewed sense of purpose. It’s been one of the greatest privileges of my life.”

This year’s awards were given out in four categories and the recipients were Stanley Price (addiction), David Chalk (mental health), Louisa Bridgman (medical) and Omar Bseiso (young adult).

Price overcame childhood trauma, addiction and gang involvement, and now works in addictions and recovery, as well as being a volunteer with KidsPlay Foundation. Chalk, who hid that he couldn’t read until his 60s, has become an AI expert and entrepreneur – he is currently developing an AI-trained platform that will help others build literacy. Bridgman, a disability rights activist, lives with cerebral palsy, and has faced childhood abuse and systemic discrimination. Bseiso has faced poverty, as well as physical and mental health challenges, and gone from being a struggling student to a University of British Columbia scholarship recipient, with the goal of becoming a doctor.

“The awards shine a spotlight on hope and recovery, challenging stigma and encouraging conversations about mental health and other challenges,” said Segal. “They remind people that they are not alone. By celebrating those who have overcome incredible odds, we inspire others to keep going – and we build a stronger, more compassionate community.”

Segal himself has been changed by his involvement with the awards.

“It’s made me more empathetic, more grateful and more aware of the quiet strength people carry,” he said. “Being surrounded by such resilience has profoundly impacted how I see the world and how I approach adversity in my own life. It has grounded me and continually reminded me of the importance of kindness and perseverance.”

And it’s a family endeavour.

“It began 27 years ago when my parents, Joe and Rosalie Segal, attended the first Courage to Come Back Awards and were inspired to help found the Joseph and Rosalie Segal and Family Health Centre at Vancouver General Hospital,” said Segal. “My wife Melita and our children, Matthew and Chanelle, have supported me every step of the way – attending from a young age and sharing courage stories in their own lives. Their belief in this cause has made my work all the more meaningful.”

photo - Lorne and Melita Segal at the 2018 Courage to Come Back Awards — Lorne and Melita Segal at the 2018 Courage to Come Back Awards. *(photo by Alex Law from Coast Mental Health)*

The cause is mental health in general, but also Coast Mental Health specifically. The Courage to Come Back Awards raise money for the organization.

“Coast Mental Health is one of the quiet pillars holding up those who often feel unseen,” Segal explained. “In the broad landscape of mental health care, we often think first of hospitals, doctors and medication – the primary care that is essential and often life-saving. But what happens after that first step toward healing? Where does someone go when they leave the hospital but still need support, still need connection, still need hope? That’s where Coast Mental Health steps in.

“Coast is not just a service – it is a sanctuary,” he said. “It offers that vital second tier of support: stable housing, meaningful training, compassionate community. It provides a roof over someone’s head, but also restores something far less tangible and even more precious – dignity. With job training programs, resource centres and drop-in spaces where a kind word and a warm hand can change the course of someone’s day, Coast wraps its arms around people who are trying, day by day, to come back.

“Mental health recovery doesn’t happen in isolation, and it doesn’t end at the hospital door. Coast Mental Health understands that healing is holistic. It happens in the safety of a home, in the encouragement of a support network, in the pride of a new job and in the trust of a human connection.

“This is the quiet, essential work of Coast Mental Health – and it is work that changes lives,” Segal said. “It is not just about surviving. It is about returning to life with dignity, with purpose and with courage.”

There have been so many memorable Courage to Come Back moments for Segal over the last two decades. “There are countless,” he said. “Standing ovations for recipients who once struggled to leave their homes, families reunited in tears and the thunderous applause of a community coming together. But perhaps the most memorable moments are the quiet ones: personal notes from recipients saying, ‘You helped me believe in myself again.’”

photo - Lorne Segal has chaired Coast Mental Health Foundation’s Courage to Come Back Awards for 20 years — Lorne Segal has chaired Coast Mental Health Foundation’s Courage to Come Back Awards for 20 years. *(photo from Coast Mental Health)*

Under Segal’s stewardship, the annual event, which began in 1999, has grown to be Western Canada’s largest gala, with more than 1,700 people attending. It has raised more than $27 million for mental health and celebrated 153 British Columbians. But its success wasn’t guaranteed.

“One of the greatest challenges the Courage to Come Back Awards faced was simply staying alive in its earliest days,” said Segal. “I still remember stumbling across the event 27 years ago – not really knowing where I was going or what to expect. I sat down at a table, noticed a Kleenex box in the centre, and quickly understood why it was there. The stories I heard that evening moved me to tears. These weren’t just stories – they were everyday miracles. I walked out of that room thinking: everyone needs to hear this. Everyone needs to feel this hope.

“But, at the time, there were only a few hundred people in the room. The organization was struggling, and the idea of shutting the doors on the awards was very real. There simply wasn’t enough awareness, enough support or enough belief that it could become more.

“That night lit a fire in me,” he said. “I started telling everyone I knew – sharing the stories, the impact, the emotion. And, slowly, over the years, the event grew.”

As for what keeps him involved, Segal said, “Because it matters. Because it changes lives. Because I’ve seen firsthand the power of sharing stories of resilience, the ripple effect of one person’s courage igniting another’s hope. For two decades, I’ve had the privilege of helping shine a light on individuals who prove, year after year, that no matter the hardship, comebacks are possible. It’s not just about honouring the brave – it’s about showing others what’s possible. And that purpose, that impact, keeps me coming back, too.”

The work gives back more than it takes, he said. “In a world full of noise, the Courage to Come Back Awards are a rare and powerful reminder of what truly matters: resilience, humanity and hope.”

To learn more about the impacts of the awards, which are presented by Wheaton Precious Metals, visit coastmentalhealth.com.

Meet new director of JACS

In February, Jewish Addiction Community Services (JACS) appointed Rabbi Joshua Corber as its new director. The Vancouver-born Conservative rabbi spent the last 10 years as a congregational rabbi in Calgary, Vaughan, Ont., and Louisville, Ky., before returning home in July 2023.

“Practically the entire time I was serving congregations, I was in recovery,” Corber said. “Prior to that, I was in active addiction. I’m in a unique position to serve the Jewish community in this way because I have the personal experience of having suffered from addiction, but I also have experience from my congregational service with pastoral counseling and, in particular, people going through severe life trauma. That will be of immense value to me in serving this community.”

Rabbi Joshua Corber is the director of Jewish Addiction Community Services Vancouver. (photo from JACS)

Corber noted that the Jewish community faces an acute risk when it comes to substance abuse. One reason is the misconception that Jews are immune to addiction, but another is the prevalence of alcohol in traditional religious observance. “There’s no religion other than Judaism in which alcohol is so present in almost all aspects of religious life,” he said.

“Alcohol is prescribed, sanctioned and encouraged in Judaism, and not just on Purim,” he continued. “There’s always a Jewish excuse for a l’chaim. For me, as a rabbi, that posed a unique danger because I could always justify it. Though halachic authorities strongly discourage drunkenness, that message won’t be absorbed by the addict, who will make a beeline for the l’chaim table – every single time.”

Corber’s polysubstance addiction, including alcohol, became acute during the pandemic. He said the most concerning addictions, that pose the most immediate threat to life, are opioids and fentanyl.

But, just as Judaism presents a risk in terms of addiction, it also has resources for recovery, the rabbi noted.

“Most of the recovery world, such as 12-step programs and AA, consider an addiction to be a spiritual problem, and spiritual problems require spiritual solutions. I have a deep knowledge of the ways in which Jewish tradition and Jewish wisdom teachings can be leveraged as a critical aid in recovery.”

Corber’s first community event will be held on April 15. The Third Seder: Understanding Addiction and the Path to Freedom is a communal, seder-like meal where the rabbi will discuss the connection between addiction, recovery and spiritual freedom. “We’ll leverage and focus the Haggadah around addiction and recovery,” Corber said, adding that “everyone should come.”

“This is not just for people who are in recovery or struggling with addiction,” he said. “It’s really important that the whole community be involved in the conversation around addiction. It can’t be that shivas are the only place that we’re talking about addiction.”

For more information or to book a seat, visit jfsvancouver.ca/events.

New umbrella for JACS

When Jewish Addiction Community Service was established in 2016, its role was to help members of the community suffering from addiction. Eight years after its inception, in 2024, the organization came under the umbrella of Jewish Family Services, meaning that, operationally, it will be under the auspices of JFS.

“We needed infrastructure and clinical support, so this is a big operational shift that integrates addiction-related services with other services that JFS provides,” said Tanja Demajo, chief executive officer at JFS. “When a client comes to JFS or JACS for support, we examine their needs holistically and connect them with different resources based on their needs. Going forward, it means people can get the support they need in one place instead of going to two.”

Demajo and her team hope the new development will remove barriers to service access and eliminate the shame and discomfort associated with requests for support, because the need is certainly there, she said.

“The percentage of people impacted by addiction in the Jewish community is very similar to the wider community: we know that every third community member is impacted by someone affected by addiction. But there’s a lot of stigma and judgment, so it’s not easy to ask for help,” Demajo told the Independent. “Education and awareness are things JACS and JFS really need to work on, to normalize the need to ask for help. The more conversations we have, the more it normalizes the need for help.”

JACS has hired Corber as a full-time director, and is relying on eight therapists contracted through JFS. Demajo said, as community needs shift and change, the organization will examine taking on additional therapists if needed. “We’re at the early stage of building a full program and bringing new energy to it,” she explained.

Demajo added that she’s deeply grateful to Howard Harowitz, the founder and chair of JACS, who advocated for addiction services in the Jewish community for years.

JACS’s mission is to increase education and awareness, provide community direct service, and offer guidance and referrals. For more information, visit jacsvancouver.com.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.

Sharing, listening together

photo - Alycia Fridkin leads two JQT Mental Health Support Series workshops: Facing Emotions and Healing Relationships on March 30, and Queering with Our Kids on April 6 — Alycia Fridkin leads two JQT Mental Health Support Series workshops: Facing Emotions and Healing Relationships on March 30, and Queering with Our Kids on April 6. *(photo from JQT Vancouver)*

JQT Vancouver is hosting two supported and spiritually grounded workshops in partnership with JFS Vancouver, as part of the JQT Mental Health Support Series: Facing Emotions and Healing Relationships on March 30, and Queering with Our Kids on April 6. Both three-hour, free gatherings will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at Little Mountain Neighbourhood House.

In the first workshop, participants will explore how they have been wrestling with some relationships since Oct. 7, 2023. Drawing on open-hearted sharing, deep listening and collective wisdom, they will process this tension and arrive at insights together for how to manage the emotions within themselves and with their families, friends, colleagues and other people in their lives. The goal of this gathering is to listen to one another, as participants share their lived experiences navigating relationships in conversation around Israel and Palestine and/or being Jewish. Come learn how to build capacity as a community to create an intentional, supportive, safe and healing space for diverse voices to be heard.

The second workshop is for parents of queer/trans youth and queer/trans parents to share, listen and learn from one another as parents in the Jewish community. The goal of this gathering is for participants to listen and learn how they can support themselves and their children facing tensions in the Jewish and/or queer/trans communities. This could include issues related to Israel and Palestine, gender diversity and sexual orientation. The workshop aims to build capacity as a community to create an intentional, supportive, safe and healing space for families and caregivers.

Both workshops will be led by Alycia Fridkin, an experienced facilitator on equity issues and a member of the Vancouver queer Jewish community, who led JQT’s Listen & Be Heard a year ago.

Fridkin is an equity and anti-racism consultant who supports individuals and organizations to address inequities in health care and other sectors. She has facilitated engagement sessions and workshops on systemic racism, whiteness and white fragility, meaningful involvement, stigmatized topics such as substance use and decriminalization, and the Palestine/Israel conflict. Her training includes a PhD in interdisciplinary studies and a master’s in health science, and she is a certified transformational coach.

To register for either or both workshops, and for information on JQT, its events and activities, visit jqtvancouver.ca.

– Courtesy JQT Vancouver

Leaving a legacy of wellness

Vancouver Talmud Torah students in the new Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre. (photo from VTT)

“It was a dream that came true,” said Jeffrey Barnett of the new Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre at Vancouver Talmud Torah.

The centre, named in honour of his late wife, was dedicated last November.

“As a graduate of Vancouver Talmud Torah and as a teacher of over 30 years, and also being a child psychologist, she knew the value of supporting kids in a Jewish environment,” said Barnett of Hildy, who died April 25, 2024. She and Jeffrey were married 47 years; they have two children and four grandchildren.

Hildy Barnett specialized in education for children with special needs. She worked with the Vancouver School Board for three decades and, after retiring, continued to work with children and teens in various capacities. She volunteered at Canuck Place and with the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, among other things. She helped start Jewish Family Services Vancouver’s Innovators Lunch, with friends Naomi Gropper Steiner, z”l, and Kristina Berman.

Shortly before Hildy Barnett passed away, she and Jeffrey made the decision to fund the wellness centre at VTT. Hildy had asked Shirley Barnett, who had a relationship, via her sons, with Shane Foxman, associate director of development at VTT, to inquire about legacy opportunities at the school. Foxman connected Shirley with Emily Greenberg, VTT head of school.

“When Shirley first told me about Hildy, I asked her to tell me a bit more about what she did, her passions, her career,” Greenberg told the Independent. “It became almost immediately clear that she should be part of realizing the vision for the wellness centre. As her health diminished rapidly, Shirley came to the school and I told her to film me speaking about my vision for the space, the children it would serve and the reason we needed to create such a space for our students. I knew what I wanted it to look like, but I wanted to paint that picture for her. I remember, when we stopped recording, I had goosebumps because I could feel how special this room was going to become.

“We hurriedly sent the recording over to Hildy’s daughter, Mira, to show her in her hospital bed,” continued Greenberg. “I remember Shirley got a text back from her within a few minutes. She said that it was exactly what she had hoped for. Hildy, unfortunately, passed away just a couple hours later, but I have always been so grateful that she knew about the wellness centre before she left this world. I think this has made this work even more sentimental. We really wanted to get every detail right.”

photo - Before she died last April, Hildy Barnett, with her husband Jeffrey, decided to fund the building of a wellness centre at Vancouver Talmud Torah, which has been named in her honour — Before she died last April, Hildy Barnett, with her husband Jeffrey, decided to fund the building of a wellness centre at Vancouver Talmud Torah, which has been named in her honour. (photo by Alexandre D. Legere)

A VTT newsletter leading up to the centre’s November dedication noted, “Approximately 20% of our students require some form of extra assistance to fully engage in the curriculum and to meet their full potential…. Over the last several years, we have completed a landscape study to understand best practices for supporting students with learning needs and have implemented several new layers of services to help create unique learning pathways.”

The study comprised a review of what many other schools are doing for student support services, said Greenberg. “There were many takeaways,” she said, “but one of them was that the spaces we create can really enable the programming and support we want to offer. The wellness centre has catapulted our counselors from being in a windowless, uninspiring, tiny office to in a centre that exudes safety, support, belonging and comfort.”

Over the past five years, VTT has gone from having a half-time counselor to two full-time counselors: Donna Cantor and Shakaed Greif. The two are both experienced counselors who are helping “to better support our students, parents and, sometimes, staff, as they navigate the many pressures and challenges of life, especially in a post-Oct. 7 world,” said Greenberg.

The counseling team “has been imperative in helping our many new Israeli students settle into life at VTT. They also run many support groups, including our Free to Be Me club, Chesed club and more,” she said.

The Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre allows Cantor and Greif to have their own offices, as well as a shared space for working with small groups and families.

“When I look back, in a very quiet way, Hildy did what she loved and, having the facility at TT is the ultimate,” Jeffrey Barnett told the Independent. “It brought smiles to her face. She knew that she wasn’t going to be around. She knew that the legacy she was doing would benefit so many youngsters, including the fact that our own grandchildren would be at the school, and that not only this generation but future generations [would be helped]. And it made me feel good that she felt good. It’s still very sad, very touching, and we miss her a great amount.”

Barnett spoke of Hildy’s approach to education, which was based on the methods of the late Dr. Reuven Feuerstein, with whom Hildy Barnett had studied.

Feuerstein was a psychologist from Romania, who trained with the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, explained Charlene Goldstein, who, with Hildy Barnett, years ago established with the Vancouver School Board a learning centre for speech language pathologists, teachers, counselors and others, which has since faded away. Goldstein is a registered psychologist in the neonatal follow-up program at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre; she also has a private practice.

“Reuven came to Israel right after the Holocaust and he began to work with children from the Holocaust, as he did with children from Ethiopia,” Goldstein told the Independent. “And what he saw was that these children only lived in the present, that they had limited memories of the past and very few [visions] of the future, and that was because, to protect them, their parents didn’t want them to know too much, plus they had a lot of losses. So, he had a group of volunteers together who would sit by the beds of these children, so if they had nightmares, they would calm them.

“Then, he began to notice that some people were saying that these children were incapable of learning, that type of thing,” she continued. “But what Reuven and Vygotsky believed in [is that] you can have direct learning, where, let’s say I’m a child and I’m looking at putting some blocks together and I figure it out and nobody has to tell me what to do. Or, you could have mediated learning, which is, someone is between the child and the activity helping them to learn what to do.

“So Reuven, and I still do this now – when a child says to me, I can’t do this, I say, well, what do you already know here? What do you already recognize? What about this is new? And I start asking questions about things. So, what do you call this? Oh, my goodness, look at all of these things that you already know. Reuven would also say to teachers, think of the child, and his logo was ‘just a minute … let me think.’ Because he believed, as I do, that everybody has the potential to think, everyone has the potential to learn. We may not all learn everything the same, but we have potential to learn. And that everyone has potential to give back to society.”

Part of the funds raised by the Hadassah Bazaars – which Hildy’s mother, Marjorie Groberman, helped start here and in other places across Canada – were sent to Israel to support Feuerstein with his work, said Jeffrey Barnett.

Groberman, who was “Mrs. Hadassah-WIZO for many years,” had heard Feuerstein speak at a Hadassah convention, said Goldstein. He was brought to Vancouver by Hadassah-WIZO and Variety Clubs International, with which Jeffrey Barnett was involved, she said.

Feuerstein came back to Vancouver many times, said Goldstein. When here, he trained many educators, including those who worked with Indigenous children.

“Some of the children would think he was Santa Claus and would call him that because he had a long, white beard and his beret,” said Goldstein.

Among the people in Feuerstein’s sphere was Dr. Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams, an expert in Indigenous language revitalization and education. Williams met Goldstein and Barnett in the mid-1980s, when she was hired by the Vancouver School Board as a specialist in First Nations education.

“I was looking at Reuven’s work because of his ideas around what happens with children when they get separated from the knowledge, from their parents,” Williams told the Independent. (People wanting to know more about this aspect of Williams’s work should watch the 1994 National Film Board of Canada documentary The Mind of a Child.)

Williams said Hildy Barnett was focused on “supporting all children to learn and enable them to overcome all their trauma. She just was so dedicated to that kind of work.”

Barnett knew how to move things along, said Williams. “She was able to bring people together in such a beautiful way.”

She added, “I really honour her for all the help she gave me and that she gave many other people. She was very quiet but she was very strong.”

Goldstein, who knew Barnett from having grown up in the local Jewish community, before they connected more in Hadassah-WIZO and with Feuerstein’s work, echoed Williams’s observation.

“Hildy had the most gentle voice, she had a great sense of humour, but she had strong determination,” said Goldstein. “In Star Trek, there’s one person who says, ‘Make it so,’ and that’s what Hildy was like. She would say, ‘Make it so,’ and you just didn’t say no to Hildy because Hildy listened to everybody and had such compassion, such compassion.”

photo - Rabbi Philip Bregman, at back, and Jeffrey Barnett, middle, hang the mezuzah at the door of the Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre, along with Barnett’s daughter, Mira, and son, Joel, who is holding one of Barnett’s grandchildren, Blake — Rabbi Philip Bregman, at back, and Jeffrey Barnett, middle, hang the mezuzah at the door of the Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre, along with Barnett’s daughter, Mira, and son, Joel, who is holding one of Barnett’s grandchildren, Blake. *(photo from VTT)*

The Nov. 24, 2024, dedication ceremony of the Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre was originally envisioned as a small family gathering to honour Barnett’s legacy, said VTT’s Greenberg. “But, to our delight, she was so beloved in the community that many more people attended.

“I think it was an opportunity for many people to pay their respects to her powerful legacy of believing in children, and the Hildy Barnett Wellness Centre has become a healing place in so many ways, including for those who are grieving Hildy’s loss.”