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"The Basketball Game" is a graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada animated short of the same name – intended for audiences aged 12 years and up. It's a poignant tale of the power of community as a means to rise above hatred and bigotry. In the end, as is recognized by the kids playing the basketball game, we're all in this together.

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Tag: Michael Levitt

Jewish Heritage Month

Jewish Heritage Month

York Centre Liberal MP Michael Levitt and Sen. Linda Frum hold copies of Bill S-232, the Canadian Jewish Heritage Month Act. (photo from CJN)

From now on, May will be Canadian Jewish Heritage Month across the country. The bill proclaiming the annual event passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons on March 28. The vote was unanimous.

The Canadian Jewish Heritage Month Act, known as Bill S-232, passed in the Senate before heading to the House. It received royal assent and became law on March 29, making this month the inaugural Jewish Heritage Month.

Sponsored by Conservative Sen. Linda Frum and Liberal MP Michael Levitt, the bill was introduced in December 2016, though the groundwork for it was laid in 2015, when former Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler introduced the substance of the bill.

Canadian Jewish Heritage Month “will provide an opportunity for all Canadians to reflect on and celebrate the incredible contributions that Jewish Canadians have made to our country, in communities across Canada,” said Levitt in a statement.

“I am delighted that Canadian Jewish Heritage Month will be enacted into law in time to celebrate in May,” Frum said in a statement to the CJN prior to the royal assent being given. Jewish Heritage Month “will provide many opportunities for all Canadians to learn about the significant contributions of the Jewish community in Canada.”

The evening before the bill’s passage, several MPs spoke warmly of the Canadian Jewish community’s history and contributions to the country.

Referring to Toronto’s Jews, Toronto Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin said, “We have made our mark in the city, showing all the things we can contribute in so many ways through our cultural centres, art and food.”

She noted Toronto’s many Jewish cultural offerings, including the Ashkenaz Festival, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and classes at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre. Jewish Heritage Month “is going to be a chance to celebrate so much of what we have,” Dabrusin said.

British Columbia Conservative MP Dan Albas said, “in virtually every Canadian endeavour, in virtually every decade since the 1930s, Jewish Canadians have made significant and important contributions to virtually every area of Canadian life.”

It was a “proud moment” in February 2016 when 229 MPs passed a motion condemning the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, Albas stated. He made special mention of those running the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre in his riding.

London, Ont., NDP MP Irene Mathyssen mentioned Canada’s “none is too many” policy in regards to the admission of European Jews between 1933 and 1945, and of the ship MS St. Louis, which carried 907 German Jews and was refused entry to Canada in 1939, sending 254 passengers to their deaths in the Holocaust.

In the years following the Second World War, nearly 100 Holocaust survivors found their way to the southern Ontario city. Many “became active in the life of London as business leaders, doctors, academics, retailers, developers and political activists. They also developed religious organizations, corporations and charities,” Mathyssen said.

She noted the launch, in 2006, of the Shoah Project at London’s Jewish community centre to record survivors’ testimonies, and she quoted from them.

Luc Berthold, a Quebec Conservative, noted that Canada is not the first country to create a Jewish heritage month. In 2006, former U.S. president George W. Bush signed a resolution proclaiming the month of May as the time to celebrate the contributions of the American Jewish community.

Berthold praised Quebec’s Jewish community and listed many household names from the province: poet and singer Leonard Cohen; television host Sonia Benezra; Alan B. Gold, who, in 1970, became the first Jew appointed chief justice of the Provincial Court of Quebec (now the Court of Quebec), and then the chief justice of the Quebec Superior Court in 1983; Dr. Victor Goldbloom, the first Jew appointed to a provincial cabinet; Maurice Pollack of Quebec City department store fame; real estate tycoon Marcel Adams; grocery magnate Sam Steinberg; and the Reitman family, owners of the women’s clothing chain.

In his remarks, Levitt paid lengthy tribute to Cotler, his “dear friend and mentor” and “one of the world’s preeminent international legal minds and human rights advocates.”

This type of initiative “helps Canadians understand one another by allowing different communities and cultures to be showcased and celebrated,” stated Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “Understanding and appreciating the contribution different communities make to Canada brings us close together as Canadians.”

To mark passage of the bill, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre released a 72-page resource guidebook, available to community groups and school boards across the country, to enhance participation in Jewish Heritage Month.

Ontario passed the Jewish Heritage Month Act in 2012. It, too, sets aside each May to mark various events on the Jewish calendar, including the UJA Walk for Israel, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Jewish Music Week and Israel’s Independence Day.

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com

Format ImagePosted on May 18, 2018November 20, 2018Author Ron Csillag CJNCategories NationalTags Canada, Jewish culture, Jewish Heritage Month, Judaism, Linda Frum, Michael Levitt
Six Jewish MPs part of Parliament

Six Jewish MPs part of Parliament

New Canadian MPs, clockwise from top left: Jim Carr, Michael Levitt, Karina Gould, Anthony Housefather, Julie Dabrusin and David Graham. (photos from cjnews.com)

The Liberal tide that swept away the Conservative government of Stephen Harper brought in what is believed to be a record six MPs of Jewish lineage – one of whom was appointed to cabinet.

Winnipeg South Centre MP Jim Carr was named minister of natural resources and will have responsibility for overseeing hot-button issues such as the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as Northern Gateway, which the Liberals opposed prior to the election, and Energy East.

Carr, 64, is a former provincial politician in Manitoba and served as president of the Business Council of Manitoba. He was also a founding board member of the Canada West Foundation, a public policy and research nongovernmental organization.

Of the incoming MPs, two hail from Quebec, three reside in and around Toronto, while Carr is the sole Westerner.

At the same time, a handful of prominent Jewish MPs departed the scene. Longtime Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, who served as justice minister and attorney general in earlier Liberal governments, announced his retirement prior to the election. He was first elected in the Montreal riding in 1999.

Conservative MP Joe Oliver, who served as finance minister in the outgoing government – the first Jew to ever hold the position – was defeated in Eglinton-Lawrence, while his Tory colleague, Mark Adler, was similarly ousted in York Centre. Both ridings run along Toronto’s Bathurst Street corridor and are home to thousands of Jewish voters.

In interviews with the CJN, the incoming MPs described their background, their ties to the Jewish community and how their Jewish heritage and being the children or grandchildren of immigrants helped inform their political views.

***

Jim Carr is well aware of the immigrant experience. His family’s experience in Canada dates back to czarist times. Carr is the grandson of immigrants who fled Russian pogroms in 1906.

“They came with nothing – no skills, no money – just a thirst for freedom for their children and grandchildren,” he said in an interview prior to being selected to cabinet.

Carr grew up in a middle-class household in the River Heights neighborhood of Winnipeg. He had his bar mitzvah in 1964 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

“I’ve been part of the community all my life,” he said.

He’s also had a rather eclectic career, playing oboe in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, working as a journalist for the Winnipeg Free Press and the CBC, and he was the founding chief executive officer of the Business Council of Manitoba. He also served in the provincial legislature as a critic in the areas of energy, education, urban affairs and constitutional matters.

Outside of politics, he was a founding member of Arab-Jewish Dialogue of Winnipeg, and he calls himself, “a passionate supporter of the state of Israel, which I have visited many times.”

Those life experiences shaped the values that he will bring to Ottawa.

“I can’t separate my values and political views from my identity as a Canadian and as a member of the Jewish community,” he said.

***

Michael Levitt had a traditional Jewish upbringing, just not in a traditional Jewish setting. The incoming MP for York Centre, Levitt attended synagogue and participated in youth groups in his native Scotland, where the Jewish community was small, tight-knit and traditional. It wasn’t until his family moved to Canada when he was a teenager that he was able to partake in the full array of communal activities.

And partake he did. His resumé listing his involvement in things Jewish is extensive. Among the most impactful was his participation in a leadership training program under the auspices of the United Jewish Appeal. “I found it absolutely fascinating,” he said.

He went on to serve as chair of the young adult division of the United Jewish Appeal and assisted in the UJA fundraising campaign, which raises money for a variety of Jewish agencies and for Israel.

He is a founding member of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee and he co-chaired Liberal Friends of Israel.

For Levitt, a partner and vice-president of business development for the Benjamin Group in Toronto, his Jewish heritage “absolutely” shaped the values he brings with him to Ottawa. Imbued with the spirit of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, he has particular empathy for seniors on fixed incomes, refugees and young people looking for jobs.

Levitt has visited Israel three times in recent years and expects his knowledge of the country will put him in a good position to inform his caucus colleagues about the challenges it faces.

***

Karina Gould calls herself “a fresh voice for Burlington,” her hometown. Although she is “not an active practitioner of Judaism,” she maintains her heritage through the celebration of Chanukah, Purim and Yom Kippur.

Gould is Jewish on her father’s side. Her paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia. Her grandfather was deported to Theresienstadt, then to Dachau and Auschwitz. Though separated during the war, her paternal grandparents were reunited afterward.

Her father met her mother, who is from Germany, while both were in Israel volunteering on Kibbutz Naot, where the sandals are made. While in Israel, her father visited her grandfather’s lifelong friend, a man who had been left for dead in a pile of corpses, but who had been rescued by her grandfather.

Gould visited Israel on a Birthright trip and stayed longer for a personal visit. Although she doesn’t consider herself a Zionist – “it’s not something that I thought about” – Gould admires the Jewish state.

“Israel is a beautiful country. It’s unique in the world. It has difficult challenges.” She particularly admires the country’s diversity and hopes for a solution that will allow it to peacefully coexist with its neighbors.

Gould believes her family heritage plays a big role in shaping her political values. “My family was accepted and welcomed into Canada after a difficult experience,” she said. “Canadian values of tolerance and diversity were not just important for my family, but for others. Canada provided the opportunity to grow and to thrive.”

***

Before incoming Jewish MPs can play Jewish geography with their colleague David Graham, they might well be better off studying the science of geography, as in maps and charts. That way they’ll be able to find the riding the Quebec MP represents. Graham was elected to represent Laurentides-Labelle, northwest of Montreal in the middle of cottage country and en route to the skiing venue Mont-Tremblant.

His family has lived in small-town Quebec for many years, he said, and his grandmother was an Olympic-level skier in her day. His great-grandfather, Hersh Wolofsky (Wolowski), was founder of Keneder Adler, a Yiddish-language newspaper that served the largely Jewish immigrant population of Montreal in the early 1900s.

Graham, 34, attended weekend Hebrew school as a young boy and today considers himself “a Reconstructionist Jew … culturally very Jewish.”

“I happen to be a Jew who happens to be in politics,” he said. “Jewish culture is a very community-oriented culture by nature. It had an enormous impact on my values,” he said, with the feeling that “community comes first.”

That has led him to champion a number of community initiatives, from promoting free software and calling for better public transportation.

Advocating for his community will be job one when he gets to Ottawa, he said. “My priority is my community.”

Laurentides-Labelle is “a poor riding” with an older population that lacks internet and cellphone connectivity, he said. Getting government to provide infrastructure support is necessary for the future of the area. “How are you going to keep youth if they can’t get the internet?” Graham asked.

As for the Middle East, he said, “I absolutely believe in Israel’s right to exist,” adding that the region is a very complicated place and he would defer to the government leadership in crafting policy in the area. “I have great faith that [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau knows who to turn to for the best advice.”

***

Julie Dabrusin grew up in Montreal, but moved to Toronto to attend law school. She met a guy, got married and never moved back. Today, she lives in the Danforth area of Toronto and will represent Toronto-Danforth in Parliament.

Growing up, she attended Hebrew school regularly and remembers it as “an important part of my week.”

Her Jewish identity is an important part of her life, as is her feeling of being part of a larger multicultural community.

“What I take from my Jewish background is a lot of study and learning, debate and advocacy,” she said. “That ties into being involved in politics.”

Dabrusin has visited Israel twice, first as part of a CEGEP (a publicly funded post-secondary, pre-university college) program that included volunteer work on a kibbutz and, later, while attending McGill University, on an archeological dig that unearthed a Byzantine church.

“Israel is a beautiful country with a strong and resilient population…. As a mother [of two], I understand Israelis wanting to be safe and secure,” she said.

***

The origins of the family name Housefather are lost in the mists of time but, according to family lore, there was probably an innkeeper or someone who ran an orphanage somewhere in Bukovina, Romania, who adopted the name, or at least the pre-anglicized version of it. But that connection to the Austro-Hungarian Empire is way in the past – all of Anthony Housefather’s grandparents were born in Montreal, as was he. Housefather, who has served as mayor of Cote-St.-Luc since 2005, was recently elected MP in the Liberal bastion of Mount Royal, the seat vacated by Irwin Cotler. The riding has a higher proportion of Jews than any in Canada, he said.

Like his predecessor, Housefather has substantial links to the Jewish community. He attended Herzliah High School and is fluent in Hebrew. He served on the executive of Canadian Jewish Congress’ Quebec region and was part of a group tasked with finding ways to retain young Jewish Montrealers who were leaving for greener pastures.

He also has longstanding ties to the Maccabi movement, with his first exposure to the Jewish sports organization as a teenager attending youth games in Memphis. At the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel, he won seven medals, two silver and five bronze, in a variety of masters swimming events.

“Being involved in the community, Jewish and non-Jewish, is an important part of our [family] values,” he said.

Given his role in local government, he sees himself as an advocate for municipal interests at the federal level.

He also considers himself as someone who will speak up for the Jewish community and reflect their concerns over the well-being of the state of Israel.

“I’m passionate about the state of Israel, and I certainly [understand] the security issues [it] faces, given its borders and the narrowness of the country…. I’m pretty well attuned to the policy issues on Israel. We committed in the election that we’d have Israel’s back, and support for Israel is a Canadian value,” he said.

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

Format ImagePosted on November 20, 2015November 17, 2015Author Paul Lungen CJNCategories NationalTags Anthony Housefather, David Graham, Jim Carr, Julie Dabrusin, Karina Gould, Liberals, Michael Levitt
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