murder

Drama & more at film fest

Yoav Brill’s documentary Apples and Oranges, about a moment in the history of the kibbutz movement, is mesmerizing. (photo by Avraham Eilat)

The 2024 Vancouver Jewish Film Festival takes place in person April 4-14 and online April 15-19. As usual, a diversity of offerings is included in this year’s festival and the Independent will review several films in this and upcoming issues. The Vancouver Jewish Film Centre also sponsors events throughout the year and some screenings take place before the annual festival begins. Full festival details will be online at vjff.org as April approaches.

Idealism remembered

Amid the euphoric aftermath of the 1967 war and the enduring popularity of the 1958 Leon Uris book Exodus (and its 1960 film incarnation), thousands of Jews and non-Jews descended on Israel to volunteer on kibbutzim.

They came to experience and emulate “the embodiment of man’s highest ideals – the kibbutznik,” as an apparently promotional film clip declares in Yoav Brill’s mesmerizing documentary Apples and Oranges. In just one particular spurt, 7,000 volunteers arrived in Israel en masse from around the world.

Through the recollections of aging Scandinavians, Brits, South Africans and others, and with nostalgia-inducing archival footage, the documentary shines a light on the socialist idealism and hippie adventurism that motivated these people to travel to the farming communities of rural Israel. Many returned, to Sweden, Denmark, wherever, and formed associations to support the kibbutzim and drum up more volunteers. So successful were they that the supply exceeded the demand. One group chartered a jumbo jet to go from Stockholm to Tel Aviv but the Israelis had to admit they had no use for 340 volunteers.

Generally, the spirit of the overseas visitors was welcomed, though the social impacts were not negligible. The temporary nature of their visits was disrupting. A middle-aged man reflects on his perspective as a kid on a kibbutz, welcoming all the strangers who became like big brothers and sisters, only to have his heart broken every time the groups departed from what he calls “the kibbutz fantasy.”

Strangers from another world – blond, exotic, sophisticated and drinking milk with their meals – descended on a cloistered society where all the teens had been together since kindergarten, introducing predictable social and hormonal disruptions. For their parts, many of the volunteers soon discovered they had no aptitude for the tasks to which they were set, although at least one Brit made use of his talents performing Shakespeare for an audience of cattle.

Many of the overseas youngsters were unabashedly out for sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. As one woman interviewed in the documentary says, “If there weren’t female volunteers at [Kibbutz] Mishmar HaSharon, many of our boys would still be virgins.”

In one incident that apparently caused national outrage, a group distributed hashish-laden brownies to an entire community, including at least one 8-year-old child, a crime that is not the least bit funny – but, of course, is hilarious when recounted by octogenarians who experienced it.

With their Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan LPs, the foreigners brought a little bit of Woodstock with them, and took away some Israeli dance routines. But the adventure, as the viewer knows more than do the figures in the old footage, would not end well. Terrorism, including a highly publicized attack in which a volunteer was murdered, would strangle the flow of future volunteers.

The documentary is a masterpiece of the genre, capturing the joy and exuberance of the experience for both Israelis and the visitors, but addressing the serious problems the interactions raised. The clash of cultures introduced existential issues, including around conversion, mixed marriages, secularization and, of course, the collapse of the traditional kibbutz.

The apples and oranges of the title, we are to understand, are the people who came together on the kibbutzim, as much as the produce they harvested.

Critics of the volunteer phenomenon seem to place some of the blame for the collapse of the kibbutz system on the labour underclass they represented, which undermined the egalitarian foundations of the movement.

The kibbutz network has largely petered out, almost entirely in spirit if not completely in form, and some of the Jews and non-Jews who came during the heyday have remained and integrated to varying degrees in the society that Israel has become. In one instance, an aging, bearded former volunteer actualizes his idealism by leading a ukulele orchestra.

The collapse of the idealistic experiment that the end of the film documents is expected but no less depressing for that. The slice of history and the magnificence of the story, so vividly told in the film, will stay with the viewer.

Transcendence of song

photo - In Less than Kosher, the real star is the voice of Shaina Silver-Baird as Viv, an atheist turned cantor — In Less than Kosher, the real star is the voice of Shaina Silver-Baird as Viv, an atheist turned cantor. *(photo from Menemsha Films)*

In Less than Kosher, a number of fairly two-dimensional character sketches come together – but with a redeeming twist.

A feature film that began its life as serialized online videos has the feel of excellent amateurism. Wayward Jewish girl meets rabbi’s bad boy son. Overbearing Jewish mother, well-intentioned buffoonish rabbi, go-along-to-get-along intermarried stepdad and hyper-chatty high school friend flesh out the cast.

Sitcom-like circumstances turn the atheist young woman into unlikely cantor. But the outstanding component of the film, the real star, is the voice of Shaina Silver-Baird, the lead actor and co-producer (with Michael Goldlist) of this cute confection.

The unlikely cantor Viv, whose once-promising pop music career is on the skids, has the voice of an angel and the story is less about her family or her romance with the (married) rabbi’s son than about the transcendent power of song. When she opens her lungs, Viv ushers in a changed world – and Silver-Baird’s voice invites the viewer into it. Music video-style segments, which Viv is dismayed to have dubbed “Judeopop,” raise the film to a different level. Liturgical music goes Broadway. Amy Winehouse does “Shalom Aleichem.”

A tiki-themed shiva is truly the icing on the sheet cake.

Mysterious case

photo - The Goldman Case is a dramatic reenactment of the case of Pierre Goldman — The Goldman Case is a dramatic reenactment of the case of Pierre Goldman. *(photo from Menemsha Films)*

He was guilty of much, but was he guilty of murder? Pierre Goldman maintained he was innocent of the latter charges and a based-on-a-true-story film explores not only a man’s possible guilt but the intergenerational impacts of Polish-French Jewish life in the mid-20th century and their potential explanations for some unusual behaviours.

The Goldman Case is a dramatic reenactment of a famous (in France, at least) case of the Jewish son of Polish resistance heroes, whose own life was impacted by an apparent need to fill the giant shoes of his parents. The son wanted to be “a Jewish warrior” and so became a communist revolutionary, traveling to Latin America, Prague and elsewhere in search of opportunities for valour.

Charged with a series of crimes, including the murder during a holdup of two pharmacists, Goldman was convicted in 1974 and sentenced to life imprisonment, though he maintained he was innocent in the two deaths. Following the 1975 publication of his memoirs, the judicial system reconsidered his case and major French voices, including Jean-Paul Sartre, took up his cause. This film is a (massively condensed) court procedural of that retrial.

Goldman’s Jewishness was not on trial but, interestingly, his defence team built their case partly around his family’s experiences.

The case – and the film – end with a new verdict. But the dramatic story would continue. Audiences will no doubt race to Google more about Goldman and his crimes and punishments. Enduring mysteries, though, will make the search necessarily unsatisfying. This cannot be said of the film, though, which is a gripping enactment, enlivened by the extremely animated courtroom drama, which suggests the French judicial system tolerates a great deal more outbursts than we expect in Hollywood depictions of North American judicial proceedings.

Honouring others in death

There’s nothing like a tree stump to put things in context. I walk the dog in an area full of mature trees and wildlife. Tucked in a bend of a river, we’ve got a lot of trees here. However, this enormous tree had died. I contemplated its huge stump and growth bands. My impatient dog pulled me towards her usual routine, so I didn’t manage to count the rings to learn just how long it lived, but likely it has existed since long before settlers claimed this land.

One gift I’ve gained from living in Winnipeg, where more than 15% of our population is Indigenous, is a better connection to and respect for the earth and living things. In my urban daily walks with the dog, I’ve seen woodpeckers, ducks, geese, hawks, deer, fox, and more. I’m filled with awe by the wild natural world around us and the contexts offered by Canada’s First Peoples.

However, I’ve also seen the traumas played out through what Canada has done to its Indigenous population. There are unhoused people nearby, living in camps along the riverbank in all kinds of weather. On a warm day, I saw a woman on the ground. I thought she was sleeping and went on my way. Then I struggled, wondering if I should have called for help. Perhaps it was an overdose or something worse. At the time, I promised myself that if she were still there when I returned, I would call for help. The whole walk, I debated whether it was better to involve police or not. Indigenous Canadians aren’t always treated fairly by law enforcement. She was gone by the time I returned. I felt relief because I hadn’t been forced to make a decision. Would sleeping on the ground in an area that was her people’s ancestral land result in an arrest or accusation of criminal behaviour?

This situation, of not being sure if a call to the police was safe, came to mind when hearing the latest news reports regarding the deaths of four women in Winnipeg. These women’s remains were left in multiple garbage bins in May 2022, according to police reports. Some of these dumpsters were sent to Prairie Green landfill on May 16. Jeremy Skibicki is accused of killing these Indigenous women: Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and a fourth woman, unidentified, who Indigenous leaders have named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

Some of Contois’s remains were found at Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill in June 2022; her remains were in at least two dumpsters, one of which was spotted before being picked up by the dump truck. The police didn’t find the other women’s remains and declined to do a search for them, saying it would be dangerous and expensive. They have arrested the man they think committed the crimes and said they didn’t need to find the bodies to press charges. Public outcry, along with the families’ voices, forced the government to do a feasibility study regarding a search of the Prairie Green landfill, which has now been released. It says it could take up to three years and $184 million to search for their remains.

Like many Manitobans, I was horrified by how this has unfolded. The idea that these women’s bodies should remain in the trash rather than have a proper, culturally sensitive burial, is abhorrent. I couldn’t imagine why anyone needed a feasibility study to determine that their remains should be found as soon as possible. I, like many others, couldn’t understand why a search didn’t commence immediately in June 2022. I wouldn’t be alone in saying that it seems as though the decision to not recover the bodies promptly seemed inherently flawed and racist.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new situation. Jewish tradition is rich with historic detail. The Babylonian Talmud, codified by about 500 CE, has already described what to do about it. Even a kohain (priest), who normally must avoid the dead to avoid becoming “defiled” (unable to do Temple sacrifice, during the days when there was a Temple in Jerusalem) is commanded in the Talmud to bury any dead person he finds abandoned on a road. This is called a meit mitzvah. Today, it’s considered a special and important mitzvah (commandment) for all Jews to uphold: if we discover a dead person with no next of kin, we must do the right thing. We must tend to that dead person with respect and bury them properly.

In the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sotah, on page 45b, we learn that we’re responsible for burying bodies that we find. We must find body parts and bury them together. There’s a rabbinic discussion about what the proper rituals and procedures are “if he was strangled and left in a garbage heap.”

Walking by that enormous tree stump with its yearly growth rings reminds me that we have only a set time here on earth to do the right thing. Jewish tradition teaches us to be upstanding while we’re here. The families who lost their loved ones in these awful crimes deserve to have their rituals around death observed. These include a proper burial and send off of their loved ones’ spirits. Deuteronomy 16:20 reminds us “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” That sometimes requires us to dig at a landfill, i.e. a modern-day garbage heap, to pursue it.

It’s sometimes expensive and hard to do the right thing. It’s even more expensive and harder to correct an error like this one, when someone believes certain bodies on a trash heap are somehow less valuable or important. The police force took an unacceptable approach – to stall, and then find excuses for why we shouldn’t treat every person equally, and value every life taken.

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.

Solving a family cold case

Wayne Hoffman’s latest book is about his efforts to solve the 1913 murder of his great-grandmother before his mother’s dementia takes full hold of her mind.

Well into his book The End of Her: Racing Against Alzheimer’s to Solve a Murder, Wayne Hoffman notes that it wasn’t until his mother was admitted into a nursing home that he began to read books and watch films about the disease, finding comfort in other people’s stories.

Hoffman’s nonfiction account of his mother’s decline – and his search for his maternal great-grandmother’s killer – was released this past February by Heliotrope Books. Perhaps coincidentally, I only cracked its proverbial spine (I have an electronic copy) a couple of weekends ago, the same weekend my father moved into a retirement home.

I was drawn to The End of Her both as the daughter of a parent with dementia and as a former Winnipegger. It was indeed comforting to read about how Hoffman’s family dealt with his mother’s dementia, how her dementia presented itself and how difficult the medical system was to navigate. There were many commonalities with my family’s experience, despite this part of Hoffman’s story taking place in the United States. Originally from Maryland and now living in New York, Hoffman is executive editor of the Jewish online magazine Tablet. He is a journalist, who also has published three novels, which almost guaranteed the The End of Her would be a compelling read.

Admittedly, I did not follow all the connections between Hoffman’s relatives across generations, nor find that part so interesting. But I did understand how Hoffman discovered more family during his research than he knew he had, and that this was a silver lining, though it could never compensate for the lost relationship with his mother.

Hoffman’s mother loved to tell stories and one of the more intriguing ones was of how her maternal grandmother, who had lived in Winnipeg, had been shot by a sniper while sitting on her porch nursing her new baby. Never believing the story, Hoffman kept his thoughts to himself until a video he made at Passover in 2010 revealed that his mother’s memory was failing. He thought about how the Passover story is handed down through generations, and how his family’s stories also become a part of history. He decided to challenge his mother’s – and his aunt’s – narrative about the 1913 murder of their grandmother, Sarah Fainstein. And his mother returned the challenge – asking him to tell her, then, what had happened.

Over the next 10 years or so, Hoffman searched, in fits and starts, for the true story of his great-grandmother’s death, finally finding information when he searches for Feinstein instead of Fainstein. The death certificate notes that it was, indeed, homicide. The amount of information Hoffman is able to piece together from a wide variety of sources, including conflicting newspaper reports and official documents, is impressive. He figures out the mystery to his satisfaction, but its veracity is unlikely to ever be known.

Unfortunately, by the time he reaches his conclusion, his mother’s dementia is to the point where she cannot absorb it. The photos and stories that his mother shared with him throughout his life are now his responsibility. A responsibility he takes seriously.

Condolences, friendship

The mass murder of Muslims in two New Zealand mosques last week is a tragedy that transcends words. But, of course, humans being what we are, we need to struggle to try to understand this sort of evil. As a natural consequence, billions of words have been shared, some thoughtful and empathetic, others attempting to score political points off the misery.

No amount of words can turn back time and prevent the horror. Our only way forward is to share our deepest condolences with Muslims in our communities and worldwide, while striving for a better world.

Empathy should be a natural response to Jewish communities in North America, as we can so easily put ourselves in the positions of our Muslim neighbours. In some ways, Muslim British Columbians must be feeling something similar to those feelings experienced by Jewish people after the murder of six people in a Pittsburgh synagogue less than five months ago.

Again, there is no way to turn back time and change history. Lives taken cannot be brought back. But, when faced with an act of such grievous hatred and violence, from which it seems nothing good could ever emerge, there are things we can do to ease the grief and remind survivors and others affected that the world is not defined by the acts of one, or a few, terrible people.

After that act of terror in Pittsburgh in October, many of us experienced feelings of isolation, the sorrowful kinship of being part of a targeted community, the comprehension of how interchangeable we may be with the victims in the eyes of murderous haters. These feelings were eased in small but meaningful ways by acts of understanding and sympathy. Synagogues, day schools, Jewish community centres and Jewish individuals all over the world received notes and other gestures of solidarity and sympathy. A “solidarity Shabbat” that took place the following week saw congregations throughout North America swell with non-Jewish friends who were moved to demonstrate support and friendship.

Likewise, members of the Jewish community and many diverse members of the broader British Columbia community came together at a number of vigils and events in recent days, trying to alleviate the isolation and feelings of being targeted that our Muslim neighbours must be experiencing.

Part of the shock of the attack, which killed 50 people, is that it happened in a place so unaccustomed to hatred and violence of this magnitude. For many Canadians, the murders brought back memories not only of the Pittsburgh attack, which is so fresh in our minds, but also of the Quebec City terror attack of two years ago, when six Muslims were murdered and 19 others injured during a similarly motivated hate crime. Whatever self-image Canadians have as a peaceable people was challenged by that act. Likewise, New Zealanders, who, despite being a world away from us, share much of our colonial and post-colonial history and a common parliamentary foundation, must be coming to terms with the reality that they are not at a remove from the world’s worst ideas and people.

In an era when everyone’s reactions to every event, however monumental or insignificant, can be broadcast to the world through social media, we have seen responses that are beautiful and others that are inappropriate. An Australian senator famously blamed the victims.

Each of us can make a small difference by sending a message to our Muslim neighbours – whether we know them or not. Google “Vancouver (or Richmond or Surrey or wherever you live) mosque” and send kind thoughts to the congregation. Reach out to Muslim friends and let them know that the feelings they are having are understandable.

But there is one other thing. As noted, this is not a time for politicizing. So try to accept this suggestion as it is intended, as a humanitarian, rather than a political, statement: when a community of people is attacked, people of goodwill need to stand with that particular community and, for a moment or whatever length of time seems respectful, avoid universalizing the tragedy.

When elected officials or other well-intentioned people declare that “an attack on Group X is an attack on all of us,” it diminishes the experiences of the targeted group. When Jews were murdered in Pittsburgh, people needed to express (and Jewish people needed to hear) condemnations of antisemitism and words of support. Today, we need to face Islamophobia and white supremacy. We need to express (and Muslim people need to hear) words of support and condemnations of anti-Muslim violence.

There is a time for universal messages of solidarity and unity. In the aftermath of a catastrophe specifically targeting an identifiable group, we need to deal in specifics.

טקס יום הזיכרון ואירוע יום העצמאות

טקס יום הזיכרון ואירוע יום העצמאות המרכזי בוונקובר יערכו בג’ואיש קומיונטי סנטר ובמרכז צ’אן סנטר

טקס יום הזיכרון לחללי מערכות ישראל ולנפגעי פעולות האיבה 2018 יערך כרגיל מדי שנה בג’ואיש קומיונטי סנטר של אזור מטרו ונקובר, בשיתוף פעולה עם הג’ואיש פדרשיין של מטרו ונקובר. האירוע יתקיים ביום שלישי ה-17 באפריל החל מ-7.30 בערב והכניסה חופשית. בכך יפתח יום הזכרון בוונקובר ולמחרת יחול יום העצמאות השבעים להולדתה של ישראל. הג’ואיש פדריישן תקיים את האירוע המרכזי ליום העצמאות של ונקובר, במרכז צ’אן לאומניות הבמה בקמפוס של אוניברסיטה של בריטיש קולומביה. זאת, למחרת יום רביעי ה-18 באפריל, גם כן בשעה 7.30 בערב. באירוע החגיגי לאחר הנאומים, יתקיימו הופעות של האמנים הזמרת נינט טייב והזמר שלומי שבן.

טייב (בת ה-34) היא זוכת העונה הראשונה של תוכנית הטלוויזיה ‘כוכב נולד’. מלבד שירה היא גם משחקת ואף שימשה שדרנית ברדיו. ביולי 2016 טיבי ובעלה (יוסי מזרחי) ובתם עזבו את ישראל ועברו לגור בלוס אנג’לס.

שבן (בן ה-41) הוא זמר יוצר וגם פסנתרן ואף זכה ברפס אקו”ם. הוא נשוי לשחקנית יובל שרף ולזוג שני ילדים.

עלות מחירי הכרטיסים (רבים מהם כבר נמכרו): 18 דולר, 36 דולר או 70 דולר.

פשע בקנדה: תמונת הסלפי הסגירה את הרוצחת שחגרה חגורה בה רצחה את חברתה הטובה

מי היה מאמין שתמונת סלפי תמימה של שתי חברות טובות שהועלתה בפייסבוק, תביא להרשעתה בדין של אחת החברות שרצחה שעה קלה לאחר מכן את חברתה. סיפור הרצח המזעזע כאילו לקוח מאחד הפרקים של הבלש המיתולוגי הבריטי שרלוק הולמס.

לפנכי כשבועיים בית המשפט המחוזי בסיסקצ’ואן גזר על שיין אנטואן (בת ה-21), מהעיר ססקטון, שבע שנות מאסר על רצח חברתה הטובה בריטני גרגול (שהייתה בת 18 במותה), בחודש מרץ לפני כשלוש שנים. לפי חקירת המשטרה מתברר כי שתי הצעירות יצאו לבילוי משותף וביקרו במספר פבים ושתו הרבה וכנראה גם עישנו סמים. לאחר מכן התגלע וויכוח מר ביניהן, ובמהלכו אנטואן חנקה את גרגול והשליכה את גופתה בסמוך לאחד הכבישים בססקטון. ליד הגופה החוקרים מצאו חגורה שחורה גדולה.

במסגרת חקירה מאומצת חוקרי המשטרה בדקו את דף הפייסבוק של אנטואן ומצאו תמונה משותפת שלה עם גרגור, שצולמה זמן קצר לפני הרצח. אנטואן כדי להסתיר את העובדה כי היא הרוצחת הוסיפה לתמונה את הכיתוב: “לאן נעלמת חברתי הטובה?” החוקרים בדקו שוב ושוב את התמונה מקרוב, ולבסוף הבחינו גם בכלי הרצח: אנטואן חגרה את אותה חגורה שחורה גדולה שנמצאה ליד גופת חברתה שרצחה.

גזר הדין “הקל” באופן יחסי נקבע לאחר שאנטואן הודתה באחריות לרצח, אם כי היא ציינה שהיא אינה זוכרת שחנקה למוות את גרגול. היא אף לא יכלה להסביר לבית המשפט את המניעים שלה להרוג את חברתה הטובה, שכאמור שעה קודם השתיים בילו ונהנו ביחד. התביעה וההגנה הגיעו להסכם (עיסקת טיעון) על תקופת מאסר בת שבע השנים שהשופט כאמור אישר אותה. ההגנה ציינה כי אנטואן גדלה בבית הורים מאמצים וסבלה מהתעללויות במשך שנים רבות, דבר שהביא אותה לצרוך סמים ולשתות אלכוהול בדחיפות רבה. עורך דינה של אנטואן קרא בבית המשפט את הצהרתה בה נאמר בין היתר: “אני לעולם לא אסלח לעצמי על מה שעשיתי ושום דבר לא יחזיר לחיים את חברתי הטובה. אני מאוד מאוד מצטערת ודבר כזה בשום פנים ואופן לא היה צריך לקרות”. חרטה מאוחרת.

הזוג שרמן נרצח

בארי והאני שרמן. (צילום: jewishtoronto.com)

סוף לשמועות: הזוג היהודי–קנדי שרמן נרצח בכוונה תחילה. במקביל: מנכ“ל “אפוטקס” של שרמן התפטר בחשד לקבלת סודות מסחריים של טבע.

המיליארדר הקנדי היהודי-קנדי בארי שרמן (77) ואשתו האני (75) נרצחו בכוונה תחילה, ב-15 בדצמבר. כך נמסר ע”י משטרת טורונטו ביום שישי לפני כעשרה ימים והדבר הביא לקיצן את השמועות שהזוג אולי התאבד.

במסיבת עיתונאים מתוקשרת מאוד של משטרת טורונטו התקיימה עם עיתונאים רבים נוכחים, ודוברה הייתה סוזאן גומז (ממחלקת הרצח במטשרת טורונטו) שאחרית לחקירה. נמסר על ידה כי לאחר חקירה ממושכת שנמשכה שישה שבועות, הגיעו החוקרים למסקנה שהזוג שרמן נרצח. גופותיהם נמצאו ישובות בסמוך לבריכה במרתף ביתם והם נחנקו באמצעות חגורות.

המשטרה מנסה לפתור עתה את הסוגיה הכפולה החשובה ביותר: מה המניע לרצח של השניים ומי אחראי/אחראים למעשה החמור. במשטרה ציינו כי החקירה מתמקדת ביומיים האחרונים (13-15 בדצמבר) שקדמו למותם של השרמנים. במסגרת זו החוקרים מנסים ליצור רשימה של כל מי שהגיע לביתם של הזוג באותם יומיים. ואז לדבר עם כל אחד מהם (אם טרם נחקרו עד כה).

בחקירה המשטרתית הושקעו עד כה למעלה מאלף שעות, נחקרו והתקיימו ראיונות לקרוב לכ-130 עדים. וכן נבדקו עשרות ממצאים בהם מספר סרטי וידאו ומכשירים סלולרים (במקרים אלו המשטרה נאלצה לבקש את אישור בית המשפט לשים את ידה על החומר). משניסתיימה החקירה הארוכה בביתם היוקרתי של הזוג בארי והאני שרמן (שהוצע למכירה לאחרונה תמורת כשבעה מיליון דולר) הוא הועבר לידי בני המשפחה.

בני משפחת השרמן לא היו מרוצים מחקירת המשטרה כיוון שלא הביאה לתוצאות עד כה, ולאור השמועות שהוריהם התאבדו. לכן הם שכרו חוקרים פרטיים שהגיעו לאותה מסקנה כי הזוג נרצח. לדעת החוקרים הפרטיים יותר מאדם אחד היו מעורבים ברצח.

אחד מחבריו הוותיקים של בארי שרמן אמר בראיון לתקשורת, כי המשטרה לא מצאה סימני פריצה בביתו, כיוון שכל מי שהכירו אותו היטב ידע, כי הוא היה פותח את דלת ביתו מייד וללא חשש לכל מי שהיה נוקש עליה. שרמן לא ראה שום סכנה שמאיימת עליו ועל אשתו.

שרמן הקים את חברת התרופות הגנרית אפוטקס שפועלת מאז שנת 1974. החברה מעסיקה כאחד עשר אלף עובדים ברחבי העולם, וההכנסות השנתיות שלה נאמדות בכמיליארד דולר. שרמן נחשב לאחד האנשים העשירים בקנדה והוא ממוקם במקום השתיים עשרה והמכובד ברשימה. הונו של שרמן נאמד בלמעלה מ-3.7 מיליארד דולר (אמריקני). הזוג עסק בפעילות פילנטרופית רחבה ותרם כספים רבים לגופים יהודים, לבתי חולים ועוד.

אחד מהעיתונאים החוקרים את פרשה מטעם הרשת הטלוויזיה הציבורית הסי.בי.סי. ציין, כי לשרמן היו אויבים רבים בתחום יצרניות התרופות, כיוון שחברתו חתכה מחירים ופגעה קשה בהכנסותיהן. במקביל היו לו סכסוכים רבים עם בני משפחה שונים, ובעבר הוא נתבע על ידי אחייניו בטענה שגרם להם נזק של כמילארד דולר בהתייחס לאפוטקס. הם הפסידו במשפט ואולצו לשלם לו כשלוש מאות אלף דולר.

ללא קשר לפרשת הרצח, גם כן באותו יום שישי (של ה-26 בינואר) הודיע נשיא ומנכ”ל אפוקטס ג’רמי דסאי, על התפטרותו. זאת לאור התביעה שהוגשה נגדו ונגד החברה, בגין קבלת סודיות מסחריים של חברת טבע גנריקה (בעלות חברת טבע הישראלית). בתביעה נאמר כי סמנכ”ל רגולציה לשעבר של טבע גנריקה ברינדר סנדהו, ניהלה קשר רומנטי ולאחר מכן הפכה לבית זוגתו של דאסי. במסגרת היחסים ביניהם היא העבירה לו את המידע המסחרי החסוי של טבע גנריקה.

Can murder become extinct?

The Mercy Journals is a new novel by Claudia Casper, author of The Reconstruction and The Continuation of Love by Other Means. In it, she creates a compelling post-climate change West Coast, where nations no longer exist. Her hero, Allen Levy Quincy, lives in Seattle, now called Canton #3, Administrative Department of Cascadia, and the novel consists of the journals he writes in a desperate attempt to evade suicidal urges, brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder. In this layered, hopeful post-apocalyptic novel, Casper looks at the future through the story of Cain and Abel. In fact, one of the early titles for the novel was The Last Murder, as a bracket to the story of that first murder.

Jewish Independent: The novel takes place in the (near) future in a climate-changed world. Is it a dystopian novel, science fiction or eco-fiction? How would you describe it?

Claudia Casper: Genre-bending fiction was being written well before the advent of ebooks, Amazon and the internet’s stretching of the forms of fiction, but I would say there are a number of writers who pay less mind to the dictates of genre and simply go wherever the story takes them. One example would be The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. [Michael] Chabon combines detective noir with fantasy or alternative history to create a miraculous new, possibly one-of-a-kind thing.

Science fiction readers have proven a generous and open-minded community and seem to have embraced the new raft of novels whose driving force is the environment and climate change. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Hilary St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven – all are “literary” (I use the air quotes not to comment on these novels’ literariness, but because “literary fiction” is an over-precious, stifling term for a genre) novels written in the future, with only Atwood using some of the classic tropes of science fiction. This kind of writing, trying to find a place in the speed-of-light marketing world, calls itself variously eco-fiction, cli-fi, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, speculative fiction, each sub-genre carrying its own nuance. I would place The Mercy Journals in all these categories except dystopian, as the government imagined in 2047 is actually pretty good.

JI: While the book does not explicitly make reference to Judaism, there are parallels between the story of Allen Quincy and Leo (Quincy’s brother) and the biblical tale of Cain and Abel.

CC: I read the story of Cain and Abel closely, using the Jewish Publication Society of America translation, and studied the midrash on the text. The language is so rich and layered, from “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to “You shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” The story in the Torah is short but its power resonates throughout our literature and our culture.

In The Mercy Journals, I sewed in references to Cain and Abel throughout the text. At one point, when Leo, the long-lost, nihilistic brother of my main character, Allen Quincy, returns, Allen says wryly, “I suppose that means I have to keep you?” The earth drinking blood, also an image I use at least twice. The final scene, which I cannot give away, reenacts Cain going out to the field.

What I wanted to do in this novel was bookend the Cain and Abel story with a metaphorical last murder, as opposed to the first murder, to write the murder of Cain by Abel, a closing of the circle. Of course, I could not believably write about a time when humans completely stop murdering each other, but I do carry the narrative of our species to a possible turning point, where we turn away from murder and its practise becomes truly taboo and despised in every context.

JI: When Quincy, a soldier, is ordered by his superiors to do something against his own moral code, he obeys, though reluctantly, and with some subversive evasions. Although genetics and environment affect who we may become, Judaism teaches us that we have free will and can choose to do right or wrong. Quincy suffers from PTSD partly because of the unresolvable internal conflict following those orders causes in him. What influenced you to make your main character an individual suffering from PTSD? How do we reconcile liking him with the fact that he is complicit in two of humanity’s worst sins?

CC: After the genocide in Rwanda and post-9/11, I felt deeply uneasy at the rhetoric used by the media and by politicians, in which it was implied that only “those” people, “those” cultures – read Africa, Cambodia, Germany, the Arabs – commit atrocities. First Nations people must have read those articles with a deep sense of irony. Because the lens through which I look at the world is always informed by evolution, I believe that genocidal behavior, for example, is a part of our species. It has been documented in chimpanzees and any behavior that exists both in living primates and ourselves is behavior that was very likely present in our ancestors.

There’s a kind of implied self-righteousness and superiority in that kind of distancing rhetoric that seeks to separate us from the behavior of the “bad” cultures. I felt very deeply that, if we are to have any hope of truly limiting atrocities within our species, we have to accept that they are part of who we are. Part of the reason The Mercy Journals was set in the future in the first place was because I wanted to write about a genocide that hadn’t happened yet, and that happened in North America, that was committed by “our” culture, “our” team.

Allen Quincy is a good man, a decent man, even though he’s haunted by the sins – and he counts them as sins – he has committed in the past. His brother Leo, the Cain figure, also is pushed towards sin, and there is even a scene where Leo literally crouches at Allen’s door and Allen writes wryly in his journal, “Salvation comes in many forms.” The novel really is about whether Allen Quincy, standing in for our species, has the possibility of moving forward, of living a life with his dark legacy.

JI: Quincy carved a covenant on a rock, which seems a very Jewish thing to do. After Cain murdered Abel, God said to him: “… your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the earth.” As the word used for blood is plural, does this mean that what cries out is not only Abel’s blood but all of his descendants that will never be born? Was that what Quincy was saying about murder when he said the murder of one is the murder of all? How does a person atone for murder?

CC: Yes, Rashi says that the plural here indicates also the extinguishment of all Abel’s descendants with his murder. Because The Mercy Journals is about the future of our species, compressed in the suspenseful tale of a West Coast, post-apocalyptic, post-climate change tale, I take it one step further. The murder of Abel, the murder of anyone, is expanding the place of murder in our species, is further entrenching its place in our repertoire. Thus, the murder of one is the murder of all. Thinking about climate change shows us again how deeply connected we all are, that we can never really escape each other, we have to find a way to deal with one another, and murder is always a failure. There is no possible atonement for murder in my mind, it is irrevocable, yet still, short of suicide, one must find a way forward. Who is without sin? And whose life exists without the legacy of murder at its very root? God’s punishment of Cain seems to acknowledge this.

JI: Quincy’s brother Leo was jealous of Quincy as was Cain of Abel. Why did God reject Cain’s offering? Why did Leo’s parents reject him?

CC: Without being an expert in midrash, I believe one of the main interpretations these days is that Abel, as a shepherd and a man who did not gather possessions, represents a nomadic, hunter-gatherer existence, while Cain, as a farmer who cultivated the fields and, therefore, had property, represents an agrarian one. God’s preference for Abel’s offering can be understood to be preferring nomadic values over agrarian ones, or the old ways over the new.

That being said, if we interpret God in this story as in a parental role, the choosing of favorites is always destabilizing to family unity, creating deep wounds and lasting resentments. From an evolutionary perspective – so, viewing our behavior with the understanding it arose in a pre-birth control context – such favoritism can result in a life and death situation for an individual. We are living in a time of relative wealth, but it wasn’t long ago when a family could easily have eight or nine children and be faced with drought or famine. The favored child would thus be the one who received a little more food, a little more medicine, the one who would be picked, even if unconsciously, to be prioritized to survive. Studies of mothering behavior in human evolution bear this scenario out.

When I reread the story of Cain and Abel eight years ago as I was beginning this novel, I felt sympathy for Cain, and felt that God was shirking responsibility a bit. Why can’t God see Cain’s pain? Surely telling the less-favored child to not worry about the advantages their sibling is getting and take their own good behavior as its own reward, doesn’t pass muster in a family. Why doesn’t God see Cain murder Abel? Why doesn’t God punish Cain with death? Why does God decide, when Cain cries out that he will surely be killed by strangers if he’s banished, to put his divine mark on him to protect him from death? Is there an implicit acceptance of the fact of murder in this story? And, if so, I wanted to imagine forward to a time when God would find murder utterly unacceptable, as taboo as incest, for example. In our society, murder is still seen as inevitable between human beings in certain circumstances; in wartime, it’s accepted. What would the world be like if humans were starting to evolve past murder, past genocide? Those seeds are at the core of The Mercy Journals.

Barbara Buchanan, QC, is a Vancouver lawyer who provides practice advice to other lawyers. She and Claudia Casper are longtime friends who are in the same book club. Buchanan recently attended the Los Angeles launch of The Mercy Journals with Casper, who was introduced by actress Jamie Lee Curtis, a big fan of the book.

רצח מקומי

רצח מקומי: ישראלי נרצח בקנדה קרוב לוודאי על רקע רומנטי

גבר ישראלי נרצח בעיר קוקויטלם ביום חמישי לפני שבועיים, קרוב לוודאי על רקע רומנטי. גופתו של הישראלי ביחד עם גופתה של אישה מקומית בת חמישים ושש, נמצאו באותו בית ברחוב אלפין ליין, כאמור בשישה עשר ליולי. שמה של ההרוגה הוא אירנה גבליס (ילידת 1959) שהייתה גם בעלת הבית. גבליס היא קנדית ממוצא אוקראיני שהיגרה לקנדה לפני שמונה עשרה שנים. היא החזיקה בחברת הייעוץ ‘נביגייטור קונסלטינג‘ מוונקובר – לאספקת שירותי ראיית חשבון וניהול חשבונות ומיסוי.

המשטרה הפדרלית (האר.סי.אם.פי) בכוחות מתוגברים משלוש תחנות שונות פתחה במצוד נרחב אחר הרוצח, וביום רביעי (לפני כעשרה ימים) הוא נתפס סוף סוף. החשוד בן החמישים וארבע ושמו מוריו (“מו”) סהלי (ממוצא איראני) גר בריצ’מונד, ניהל בעבר מערכת יחסים רומנטית עם גבליס. סהלי הואשם כבר בשני סעיפים של רצח מדרגה ראשונה, והובא למחרת (חמישי) לבית המשפט המקומי לשם הארכת מעצרו.

ששמו של הישראלי ופרטים נוספים עליו טרם הותרו לפרסום והמשטרה רק ציינה, שהוא הגיע לקנדה בארבעה עשר ליולי שזה בדיוק יומיים לפני שנרצח.

רצח מההיסטוריה: באיחור של שישים ותשע שנים קנדי בן תשעים ואחד הודה ברצח אישה אנגליה ב-1946

פוענחה חקירת מקרה הרצח הארוכה ביותר בתולדות המשפט הפלילי באנגליה. תושב קנדי בן תשעים ואחד ממחוז אונטריו הודה לאחרונה ברצח אנגליה בשם מרגרט קוק, שבוצע לפני לא פחות משישים ותשע שנים. הקנדי שמצבו הבריאותי קשה והוא סובל מסרטן עור חשוך מרפא, שוהה במוסד רפואי לחולים סופניים. הקשיש החליט פתאם שהגיע הזמן להתוודות על מה שעשה בעבר השחור שלו. באחד הימים הוא נכנס לתחנת משטרה מקומית באונטריו והודיע לשוטרים הנדהמים, כי בעשרה בנובמבר 1946, רצח נערת ליווי אנגליה שעבדה בסוהו של לונדון, ושאת שמה הוא כבר לא זוכר. המידע הועבר ממשטרת קנדה למשטרה האנגלית. ולאחר שהחומר החקירה נבדק לעומק שני חוקרי הסקוטלנד יארד טסו לקנדה לחקור את החשוד הקשיש. הם הציגו בפניו מספר תמונות של נשים שנרצחו באותה עת בסוהו של לונדון, והוא הצביע במדויק על זו של מרגרט קוק שהייתה אז בת עשרים ושש. החשוד (שמו ומקום מגוריו המדוייק נאסרו לפרסום בשלב זה), סיפר לחוקריו כי ניהל וויכוח סוער וקולני עם קוק על כסף, לאחר שטען כי היא רימתה אותו. בשלב מסויים כשהוויכוח התלהט הוא החליט להוציא מכיסו אקדח רוסי (שיוצר בתקופת מלחמת העולם השנייה) ובמהירות ירה בה למוות. לאחר מכן הרוצח התערה בקהל הגדול שהסתובב ברחוב ונמלט ברכבת התחתית. הוא חי חמש שנים נוספות באנגליה ובשנת1951 החליט להגר לקנדה, התחיל חיים חדשים והקים משפחה.

לאור מספר מקרי רצח דומים של נערות ליווי שאירעו באותו זמן בסוהו, במשטרת לונדון חשבו שמדובר אולי באותו רוצח, אך לא הגיעו לחקירת האמת. אך בציבור הרחב נפוצו כבר שמועות משמועות שונות כי מסתובב בסוהו רוצח סידרתי אימתי, שדומה לג’ק המרטש. חברים של קוק סיפרו אז לעיתונאים כי הם מאוד חששו לחייה, כיוון שעבדה ברחובות החשוכים והמסוכנים. קוק הייתה אגב נשואה ובאופן רשמי עבדה כביכול כרקדנית אקזוטית באחד המועדונים.

הפרקליטות האנגלית פתחה בהליכי הסגרת האזרח הקנדי לאנגליה, תוך תקווה שתצליח להביא להרשעתו בדין. לעומתם גורמים בכירים במערכת המשפט המקומית מעריכים, שלאור גילו ומצב בריאותו הרופף של החשוד הקשיש, לא בטוח כלל שבית המשפט הקנדי יאשר את בקשת ההסגרה.