Shelley Rivkin

Shalhevet annual gala

Shalhevet Girls High School will honour Shelley Rivkin at its gala on April 11. (photo from Shalhevet)

On April 11, at its annual gala, Shalhevet Girls High School will honour Shelley Rivkin as a Guardian of the Flame.

“Every year, we honour a Jewish woman who is passionate and dedicated to the Jewish community,” Vivian Claman, president of the Shalhevet board, told the Independent. “Shelley personifies the kind of woman we inspire our students to become – independent thinkers and leaders in their communities. Shelley not only works hard for the Jewish community but for the Vancouver community, as well.

Rivkin is the third woman to be so honoured by Shalhevet. Anita Silber was the first, in 2019, and Sarah Berger was recognized last year.

Rivkin is vice-president of planning, allocations and community affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. She is an adjunct professor of social work at the University of British Columbia and at Langara College, and she is a member of British Columbia’s Multicultural Advisory Committee.

“My parents were a significant influence,” said Rivkin about her choice of career and her participation in community. “My mother was a social activist and early feminist who introduced me to many of the ideas that contributed to my decision to go into social work, while my father was deeply connected to Jewish values and traditions. Both believed in the value of volunteer work and had me volunteering for a variety of causes from an early age.

“My Jewish education at Schara Tzedeck and involvement in both NCSY and BBYO also provided me with a deeper understanding of Judaism and Jewish life that I have carried with me throughout my career.

“There have also been some amazing women who have inspired me along the way,” she noted. “The late Rosemary Brown, who I had the privilege of meeting when I was in university, really opened my eyes to the barriers and obstacles that many women were facing and continue to face in our society.”

Rivkin’s specific areas of responsibility at Jewish Federation include community planning, local grants distribution, Jewish education, partner agency relations and community security. While she was hired in 2007, she had volunteered with the organization for a couple of years before that.

“In 2005, I was asked to chair the poverty coalition,” she explained. “This connection brought me closer to the work of Jewish Federation and, as I took on more volunteer responsibilities, I became more intrigued by the work that Federation did on a daily basis. In 2007, Federation went through a restructuring process to move toward a closer alignment between central planning and financial resource development. A new senior position was created, and [then-Federation head] Mark Gurvis asked me to apply. This was an opportunity to connect my Jewish values to my day-to-day work.

“The most rewarding aspects of the job are when you can move from project inception to project completion,” she said. “The most recent example was the establishment of the Food Security Task Force in 2017. I was responsible for staffing the task force. The task force released their report in late 2018. The report had an important impact in raising awareness about the depth of food insecurity in our community. Through the hard work of Jewish Family Services and many generous donors, we have seen the implementation of one of the key recommendations of that report, the establishment of an integrated food hub. This has been very rewarding.”

Rivkin feels strongly about the benefits of a Jewish education.

“I am setting up an endowment with the Jewish Community Foundation that I hope that Shalhevet supporters will contribute to,” she said. “Over time, the interest earned on the capital can enable Shalhevet to support special projects that are not covered through their general operations.

“I am setting this up because I believe strongly that young Jewish women should have full access to quality general studies and Judaics education. As an Orthodox woman myself, I am committed to ensuring that young Orthodox women living in Vancouver have the best educational opportunities available.”

Currently, Shalhevet has 14 students enrolled for the 2020-2021 school year, and they anticipate around the same number of students for the next year, Meira Federgrun, head of school, told the Independent. “What we lack in student numbers, we definitely make up in enthusiasm and involvement,” she said.

About how the school has been coping with COVID-19, Federgrun shared, “As with all schools in B.C., Shalhevet had to craft a safe return-to-school document that was approved by the Ministry of Education before the start of the school year last September; we have been doing full-time, in-person learning since then. We have sanitizing products available throughout the school and high-touch surfaces, as well as equipment, are sanitized several times a day. Our staff and students wear masks in all areas of the school, including the main room and classrooms, and remove them to eat or drink.

“Because Shalhevet is a small school,” she said, “our entire staff and student body is considered one cohort, so we are fortunate in that we don’t have to worry about a lot of the restrictions and traffic flow that larger schools with multiple cohorts have. As a result, we’ve been able to provide our students with as ‘normal’ a daily school experience as possible.”

The annual gala is the only way the school raises money. “It’s our once-a-year fundraiser,” said Claman. “It’s also a way to bring awareness of Shalhevet’s great contribution to the community and its importance in maintaining a thriving Orthodox community.”

Part of the virtual celebration will be a piece performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which was organized by Danielle Ames Spivak, chief executive officer of the Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

It will include “an introduction from [Irit Rub] the director of KeyNote, the musical education department of Israel Philharmonic, talking about the relevance of education and music,” said Claman. “Every year, we offer some form of entertainment, like comedians, a magician, etc., but we had to find something that would be conducive to online entertainment.”

Also part of this year’s gala, said Claman, “For the first time ever, we will be showing a video taking an inside look at Shalhevet.”

For her part, Rivkin said, “I am so grateful to the Shalhevet community to be honoured this way. It has been so uplifting for me to know about this honour, especially following such a challenging year.”

Talking helps reduce stigma

Left to right: Peggy Allen, Shelley Karrel, Shelley Rivkin, Jordan Bowman and Howard Harowitz. (photo from JACS Vancouver)

The capacity for transformation and healing was front and centre at the event Optimism and Hope: Erasing Stigma of Mental Illness, Addiction and Homelessness.

Co-sponsored by Jewish Family Services (JFS), Tikva Housing and Jewish Addiction Community Services (JACS) Vancouver, the panel discussion on Feb. 26 was held at Temple Sholom. It featured Shelley Rivkin of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Abbotsford entrepreneur and volunteer Peggy Allen, and Jordan Bowman of Last Door treatment and recovery centre in New Westminster.

Temple Sholom’s Rabbi Dan Moskovitz welcomed those gathered by talking about the Aleinu prayer, which, he said, asks us “to go out into the world and do what we’re praying for. And so, if I can make a request of all of us, myself included, it’s to go out from this room and to do and to share what we’ve learned and what we’ve heard tonight with our families and with our broader circle. That’s our shlichut, that’s our sacred mission, beyond just coming here today to get what we need for ourselves.”

JACS Vancouver board chair Howard Harowitz briefly described the missions of each of the event sponsors before introducing the night’s speakers, beginning with Rivkin, who shared the stories of a few community members who have been impacted by the risk of homelessness. She prefaced her remarks by saying homelessness is not limited to people living on the street or who live in shelters. Rather, the growing concern in our community is “relative homelessness, the lack of suitable, consistent and predictable housing,” she said.

She also noted that “it is not a natural equation that addiction, mental health and homelessness are faced by all people” in need. “Each person has to be approached individually and uniquely,” she said, then listed six sources of support in our community: JFS, Tikva Housing, Yaffa Housing, JACS, the Kehila Society of Richmond and the community’s synagogues.

Originally from Regina, Sask., Allen has lived in Abbotsford for a long time. She lives in an area where homeless people have gathered since the Salvation Army moved into the neighbourhood in 2004. A wife and the mother of two children, the situation was very difficult initially. She shared stories of her young granddaughter witnessing people having sex and shooting up, and of being chased out of her home by a crack addict.

“I was quite a happy person and then the homeless moved in and I changed forever,” she said. “I got angrier and angrier and angrier and I ended up making, in 15 years, I made 463 calls to the police. And they came every time and did nothing, because what are they going to do?”

Allen said she became very depressed. Then, she was invited to a meeting at city hall about the homeless. She challenged attendees to come and see the extent of the problem for themselves, and two women from Fraser Health took her up on it. Over coffee, Allen shared with them her concerns and, despite her self-described antagonism to them, they invited her to speak at a meeting of the Drug War Survivors, a peer-based user group that participates in the development of harm-reduction policies, among other things.

Reluctantly, she agreed. Expecting an audience of maybe 10 drug addicts, “there were 110 of them,” she said. “I look around and I open my mouth and I just let it all out. I don’t know what happened, it was a miracle, really. I talked about my father and I talked about him beating my mother so desperately,” waking Allen’s sister, who was told to return to bed by their mother, and did. “That’s what we were raised with,” said Allen. “I had never spoken about it, and I just let it all out,” including how she was kicked out of a school in her teens for selling drugs.

After her remarks, audience members lined up, but she didn’t know why, so she started to leave. “As I’m walking out, the first guy comes up and hugs me. They were all standing there to hug me,” she said, holding back tears.

One of the men recognized Allen from secondary school. He shared with her that he was raised with such anger that he went down the path of drugs, whereas she – who his family warned him about as a teen, since she sold drugs – did not. He said to Allen, “I see now that I, too, can change my life.”

This interaction, she said, changed her life. “I went home, and I was walking up the driveway to get the mail and this crazy lady that lived on the street and was a huge drug addict and was nasty and did not like me, she came running up my driveway swearing and yelling at me with this other guy. I was so emotional, I went running at her, I don’t know what I was going to do, and I stopped. I changed my mind. I turned around and I went home. And my life changed. Everything on our street is still happening and nothing has changed much there, except me.”

Allen started giving to the homeless. She joined the city’s Business Engagement Ambassador Project, which works to build relationships between Abbotsford residents, business owners, homeless and others to strengthen the sense of community. “What I do is I speak all over the place and raise money to help them help themselves,” she said of those who are homeless.

The project is a year-and-half old and she described it as a success. One aspect in particular that is working, she said, is that the program pays homeless people to clean up area businesses and parks.

The last speaker, Bowman, now 22 years old, has been clean for just over four years. He is a youth program support worker at Last Door, the centre at which he was set on the path of recovery.

Bowman said he had a good upbringing, went to Jewish summer camp and day schools, was into sports, has lots of friends and has a great family. Having lost his mother to cancer when he was 10, he said, “That was obviously tough, but by no means do I point my finger at that and say, ‘that’s when I started using drugs.’”

He described his life as normal, living with his dad and brother. There were no indications, he said, that he would become an addict. Addiction does not discriminate, he said, and people need to know that. His family, he said, were completely surprised to find out about his drug use and were “unversed in the topic of addiction.” Luckily, he had a cousin who works as a drug and alcohol counselor and “she saved the day” when it came to him seeking help.

At age 14, Bowman started to experiment with marijuana. He couldn’t say exactly why he started using harder drugs, but perhaps he had just gotten in with the wrong crowd. He described the process as progressive. “It went from using once in awhile to using every day, to doing whatever it takes,” he said.

“I’m not going to get too much into the things I did to get to get high every day but it definitely involved a lot of stealing from the people very close to me. It didn’t matter if you would love me, if you would hate me, if you were older, if you were younger, if I had the chance, I would try and rip you off if I was with you, and that was the reality of my life.”

From age 16 to 18, he was using opiates every day, while still going to school, while still trying to cover up that he was an addict. “I wanted help, but I didn’t,” he said. “I wanted help because I knew in my mind that I could be a better person than I’m being right now but, in the other part of my mind, I was scared and I wanted to keep getting high.”

The breaking point came when he stole a significant amount of money from his brother. From that day, when his brother reacted with love rather than anger – Dec. 22, 2015 – the efforts at recovery began, with the help of his father, brother, cousin and others. There were a few false starts, a couple of detox and treatment centres, before he landed at Last Door in mid-January 2016. He has not used drugs since.

Waiting times and the cost of treatment were among the topics discussed in the question-and-answer period. Giuseppe Ganci, director of community development for Last Door Recovery Society, was in the audience. He explained some of the different levels of care, ranging from assisted living residences, for which there are minimal guidelines, to treatment centres, which will have psychiatrists and other professionals on site. The definitions of the levels differ between regions in the province, he said, making the system hard for people to understand and, therefore, access.

“The problem is,” he said, “you always hear there are not enough beds in British Columbia. That’s actually a myth. There are so many beds. Last Door runs probably at 80% capacity every day [and has] for years. We have about 100 beds and only 35 of them are funded [by government]; the rest, there’s no funding for them, so it’s a shortage of funding for treatment, it’s not a shortage of beds.” This means that people who can afford it are able to get treatment within 24 hours, rather than join the queue of six to eight weeks or longer, he said.

After a couple more questions, Harowitz wrapped up the event. Addiction is not a choice, he stressed, citing JACS speaker Steve Whiteside. “It’s not a weakness of character, it’s not anything other than any other kind of disease that people have,” he said, challenging the audience “to keep the conversation going.”

Seniors are a growing force

Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver publishes its own magazine, Senior Line, three times a year.

During the 20th century, thanks to advances in medicine, technology and quality of life, average life expectancy in the Western world increased by 30 years. Adults of the retiring age are now the fastest-growing segment of the population. The 2016 Canadian census showed more seniors (5.9 million) than school-age children (5.8 million). And the majority of these seniors are healthy and active, willing and able to share their knowledge and experience with the wider world.

Unfortunately, many people still apply the same negative stereotypes to older folks as we did decades ago: wrinkled, grumpy, fragile, forgetful, out of touch with reality, a burden and so on. Although “wrinkled” is mostly true, the rest is not, overall. We, society at large, need to change our views and policies towards the elderly, and how we treat the senior population.

“The most pressing issues seniors face are loneliness and isolation, retaining financial independence, staying involved and being physically active,” Ken Levitt, president of the Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver (JSA), told the Independent. He added to that list the lack of affordable or subsidized housing for seniors, inadequate nutrition, and the need to successfully manage personal health problems. He talked about protecting seniors from financial predators, including greedy relatives and unscrupulous investment counselors.

“This broad scope of issues affects all seniors, not just Jewish,” he said, “And the solutions should be all-encompassing, on the federal level. Poverty is a symptom of a greater problem, and we must address the cause. What we do now is just patchwork, temporary solutions.”

JSA does what it can to ease seniors’ problems, given the limits of its budget. It has about 400 registered members and publishes its own magazine, Senior Line, three times a year. “The articles deal with issues and challenges relating to seniors,” Levitt explained. “These issues are not only discussed, but we make recommendations for their amelioration.”

The alliance also offers outreach programs, advocacy and research into the problems of seniors, and peer support services. “JSA advocates senior issues through a number of organizations, including the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of B.C., the B.C. Health Coalition and the B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition,” said Levitt.

About JSA’s peer support services, Levitt said, “We have 150 trained volunteers in the peer support services. Each one of them undergoes 55 hours of special training – 11 five-hour sessions. These volunteers offer friendly visits to seniors who are lonely. They answer phone calls. They can’t solve all the problems by themselves but they can help others to solve a variety of problems. They help those in need to reconnect with community. They provide bereavement support, when necessary. That they are seniors themselves adds credibility to their recommendations.”

Of course, there is always more to be done. “We have more demands for our services than we can meet,” said Levitt. “If we secured more funding, we could train more volunteers and expand the peer support services. We could hire more staff.”

He added, “We could, perhaps with a partner agency, create something similar to the Cumming Centre in Montreal. It is a dedicated community centre for seniors. Such a centre could offer comprehensive services, recreational and social programs, and rehabilitation after a stroke. It could offer a wide range of programs for persons with Parkinson’s, aphasia, arthritis, mental illness, etc. The aim would be restorative and maintenance or prevention.”

JSA is engaged in networking to start something similar in Vancouver. “We don’t have to start all these programs at once. We can start small and build up from there,” said Levitt. “Bits and pieces of such programs are already in place at different locations and organizations – we should concentrate them in one place. But, to establish such a centre in Greater Vancouver, there would need to be more cooperation amongst agencies, a willingness to share their services and resources.”

JSA’s funding comes from a variety of sources, from private donations and foundations, plus government grants. About 10% of its funding comes from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Shelley Rivkin, Federation’s vice-president of planning, allocations and community affairs, said that 14% of Federation’s allocations go to seniors. “We fund agencies, not individuals,” she said. “In 2016, all our partner agencies received an increase in their allocation as a result of an increase in the overall campaign. The increase to seniors was approximately two percent, which was consistent with the other increases…. Federation funding for seniors goes to the following agencies: Jewish Family Services Agency (JFSA), contribution toward their seniors department; JCC [Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver], contribution toward the JCC seniors programs [and] we also cover the rent for the JCC L’Chaim program; Kehila [Society], contribution toward their seniors wellness program and the Richmond bus, which takes Richmond seniors to programs; and JSA, contribution toward their advocacy and peer counseling programs.”

Rivkin added, “We provide JFSA with funding for financial support to clients, including assistance with food vouchers and rents. A growing number of those clients are seniors.”

She explained that, while 14% of the funds “are specifically directed toward programs serving seniors, approximately 30% of our funding goes to social services. Seniors who are recipients of social services benefit through these programs also.”

And Federation is trying to help local seniors who face poverty. “According to the 2011 National Household Survey,” Rivkin said, “there are approximately 4,500 seniors in our community, and 16% of them have been identified as living below the low-income cut-off. The majority of them are older, unattached women. We are looking at issues of seniors and poverty through the Food Security Task Force and we intend to hold a forum on seniors in 2018 to gather community priorities.”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Improving our inclusivity

Rabbi Becky Silverstein, left, and Joanna Ware facilitated the Keshet program held in Vancouver last month. (photos from northeastern.edu and Jordyn Rozensky Photography, respectively)

Last month, a group of Greater Vancouver Jewish organizations sponsored a Keshet program for members of the community. Keshet provides training and support for Jewish clergy, educators, youth workers, counselors, allies and lay leaders to ensure that LGBTQ+ Jews are affirmed, celebrated and included in all Jewish educational and community settings.

The Oct. 22-23 weekend of training had its genesis in the efforts of Shelley Rivkin of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and Kevin Keystone, a former board member of Temple Sholom Synagogue, who has since moved to Toronto.

After the Union for Reform Judaism passed a resolution affirming the rights of LGBTQ+ people at their biennial meeting in 2015, Keystone brought a motion to the synagogue board to pass a supporting resolution, and recommended bringing Keshet to Vancouver.

“One of the most important reasons to bring in Keshet,” said Temple Sholom Rabbi Carey Brown, “was to present this important inclusion work within the framework of Jewish values and to address specific challenges within Jewish language and culture.”

When Keystone approached Federation, he found a sympathetic ear in Rivkin, who had previously attended a Keshet program. After being approached by the Vancouver Police Department about declaring the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver an LGBTQ+ safe space, Rivkin had become interested in supporting just such an initiative as Keshet, which she felt was long overdue.

Temple Sholom and Federation met with representatives of the JCCGV, Beth Israel, Or Shalom, Beth Tikvah, Har El, the Jewish Family Service Agency, Yad b’Yad, Hillel BC, and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. An agreement was reached to sponsor a training weekend, with Federation committing to contributing a significant amount of the funding.

“One of the most heartwarming things was to see how many synagogues and institutions said, ‘We want to be there, we want to help sponsor it,’” said Brown.

The two-day program was facilitated by Keshet’s Rabbi Becky Silverstein and Joanna Ware. It featured five sessions, including Beyond the (Cis)Gender Binary, which focused on youth workers and others interested in supporting youth in a variety of settings; and (Not So) Straight Talk about LGBT Inclusion, which was for Jewish communal professionals looking to explore LGBTQ+ inclusion from a Jewish perspective, and how it applies to their work. On the last day, there was a lunch and learn with Keshet at Hillel House on the University of British Columbia campus, which was open to students, faculty and community members, and two evening sessions. The Tachlis of Inclusion was billed as a more advanced look at LGBTQ+ inclusion, focusing on how board members can make their institutions more inclusive and embracing of LGBTQ+ families and individuals – participants took home an institutional self-assessment resource for further conversation within their organization. The other session, held at Suite Genius Mt. Pleasant and open to LGBTQ+ members of all ages and allies, was titled Intersections: Sharing Stories at the Intersections of Queer Jewish identities.

The community’s response to the training was favourable, with a post-event survey garnering positive responses and many people expressing gratitude for the training, said Rivkin. “Moving forward,” she said, “one thing we want to do is figure out where organizations are on a continuum towards inclusivity, and we need to look at that inventory and see where we want to be and what are some steps we can take.”

Alicia Fridkin, who self-identifies as a Jewish, queer, white settler activist and works as LGBTQ+ counsel for CIJA, had positive things to say about the event. “It was important to make some space for queer and trans Jews in Vancouver to come together around their identities, and to see that communities are committing to having a space for them,” said Fridkin. “It was a good reminder that we all have work to do, and also that we all have come a distance. It is important to give the LGBQT+ community more visibility. Also, the different Jewish communities in Vancouver tend to operate in silos. This was a good example of people coming together.”

Participants in the program are hoping to carry what they have learned into their institutional and personal lives. A group for queer and trans youth is in the planning stages at the JCCGV. Brown said Temple Sholom has begun a review of its infrastructure and communal language, and noted how the synagogue has already made some changes, such as calling people up to the Torah for aliyot according to their preferred pronouns.

Fridkin celebrates those kinds of initiatives. “People are very interested in being in a religious place that is inclusive,” she said. She hopes that these communal discussions about LGBQT+ people can be a model for becoming more inclusive and progressive on other issues, such as interfaith marriage and Israel/Palestine.

“We need to be open,” said Fridkin, “to the experience of the hurt that people in the community have who have been excluded for any reason, and work to address that.”

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the Forward and All That Is Interesting, and has been published in Religion Dispatches, Situate Magazine, Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

Community expanding

As the Jewish community expands into Coquitlam and other cities in the Lower Mainland, there must be an adjustment in the allocation of community resources. (photo by Greg Salter via Wikimedia Commons)

The face of Vancouver’s Jewish community is changing, with 36% born outside of Canada – the largest percentage in any Jewish population in the country.

In the Grade 1 classroom at Richmond Jewish Day School, half of the class is learning English as a second language, its students hailing from Israel and Argentina and speaking a mixture of Hebrew, Russian and Spanish.

photo - Abba Brodt — Abba Brodt *(photo from Abba Brodt)*

“There’s definitely a growing number of Israeli families in all our Jewish day schools,” said Abba Brodt, principal at RJDS. Among them is the second wave of Russian Jews, comprised of Russian emigrés who made aliyah as children and moved to Vancouver after doing army service in Israel and starting their families. “They maintain strong Russian ties but have an incredibly strong connection to Judaism and Israel,” he said.

The new arrivals place extra demands on Jewish day schools in terms of meeting their children’s language needs, and RJDS has had to shift resources internally so the children of new immigrants can learn successfully in class.

“When people come, what’s our obligation to them?” Brodt pondered. “They want their kids to get a Jewish education as they get established. Many of these parents come without jobs, are not established financially and are trying to adjust, but it takes many, many years. The only menschlik thing to do is to open our doors, figure it out and let them know they’re not a burden at all. I think that’s the right approach for any Jewish organization in town. The faster we help them get on their feet, the better for the community.”

Adjustment is easiest for the youngest children. Brodt recalled a Russian-Israeli family that arrived in June 2014 with a child who couldn’t speak a word of English. “He entered kindergarten and by December that year he was speaking to his parents outside of school hours in English!”

photo - Cathy Lowenstein — Cathy Lowenstein *(photo from Cathy Lowenstein)*

At Vancouver Talmud Torah, head of school Cathy Lowenstein has also witnessed an influx of new immigrants from Israel, as well as from Brazil, Estonia and Hungary. “For students in the younger grades, ESL support isn’t as much of an issue, as they can really immerse themselves in language much faster than students in intermediate grades. But, over the past few years, we’ve increasingly had to allocate budget to students who require ESL support,” she said.

That can be difficult because the ESL needs vary year by year. “Often, these students don’t present until late summer, so we’re left trying to reallocate dollars in August so that we can properly help them transition into the school,” she explained.

Tuition assistance is provided on a case-by-case basis, Lowenstein said. “Even though we may have allocated our cap, we do our very best not to turn away a family wanting a Jewish education,” she said.

The high cost of living in the Lower Mainland is having far-reaching effects on the 26,250 Jews who call this corner of the West Coast home. Approximately 14,000 of them live in Vancouver, close to 6,000 in Richmond and the remainder in outlying cities including Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Maple Ridge and Langley, where Jewish resources are few and far between. That’s because the high price of housing forces many new arrivals into these outlying areas, where accommodation is a little more affordable.

While RJDS has space available for more students, the challenge lies in reaching those Jewish families who live in the suburbs.

“We know there are 700 Jewish school-age kids in the Tri-Cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody and, as much as the schools may want them, how many families are going to have their kids get on a bus for an hour’s commute each way?” Brodt said. “You have to be super-committed to do that when there are good public schools around. If I could create a pipeline to Burnaby, I’d do it, but the possible customer base there is not ready to make that sort of commitment. They’re managing their Jewish lives out there, as is their right.”

photo - Shelley Rivkin — Shelley Rivkin *(photo from Shelley Rivkin)*

At the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, vice-president of community affairs Shelley Rivkin noted that more than 850 children now live in underserved areas beyond the borders of Vancouver and few are receiving any Jewish education. “With community support, Jewish educators can develop innovative programs via which these kids can access that education, sharing fully the richness of our traditions and strengthening their Jewish identities,” she said.

In one such program, Federation collaborated with the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and funded a pilot project to enable Jewish children living in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody to attend Jewish summer day camp. The project made transportation and fee subsidies available to 22 kids.

Federation has established a regional communities task force that began work last month. In the meantime, the organization contributes to a shuttle bus in Richmond that helps seniors attend various community activities, and Burquest seniors can enjoy another day of programming thanks to additional funding provided to Jewish Family Service Agency. For young families, PJ Library is an important outreach program, Rivkin said. “For many young families who are raising children in interfaith households and/or who live in the suburbs, PJ Library is a primary Jewish connection. Recently, 100 people attended a PJ Library Chanukah event in Coquitlam.”

Federation is seriously focused on the future of the Lower Mainland’s Jewish community and anticipating programming to reach its needs over the next 15 years.

“Our population of seniors is expected to double by 2030 and an increased number of them will be 85 or older, so programs and services for this group will need to be expanded,” said Rivkin. “As issues of affordability persist, we expect there to be more Jews moving to more affordable suburbs that have little or no Jewish infrastructure. We expect these regional communities to play a larger role, and Jewish Federation will increase its focus on programs and services to reach them.”

The cost of living in Vancouver will likely continue to impact those who pay a premium to live near Jewish services and institutions, but find that the cost of Jewish life prevents them from participating. “We expect that increased subsidies for program participation will be needed,” she added.

According to the National Housing Survey in 2011, 16% of the Lower Mainland’s Jewish community lives below the living wage of $36,504. Among Jewish immigrants to the Lower Mainland who arrived between 2005 and 2011, that low-income rate is 25%. As one communal effort in dealing with this issue, Tikva Housing Society will expand the affordable housing stock for the Jewish community by 42 additional units in Vancouver and Richmond by 2017.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. A longer version of this article was published in the Canadian Jewish News.

Ready to welcome refugees

As of Nov. 24, the Government of Canada was processing 4,511 applications for privately sponsored Syrian refugees (not including Quebec, which has its own procedure). The map shows communities where private sponsors have submitted an application. (image from cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome)

Vancouver’s Jewish community is mobilizing to welcome refugees from Syria. The federal government has announced that 25,000 Syrian refugees will come to Canada before the end of February. While most of those will be government-sponsored, groups of Canadians, including many in the Jewish community, are leaping at the opportunity to be a part of the resettlement project.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Anglican church to streamline the process. The federal government has a number of sponsorship agreement holders, which are established, experienced groups that are engaged in aiding refugees on an ongoing basis. To expedite the process, the Jewish community is primarily working through the partnership with the Anglican Church of Canada so that synagogues and other Jewish groups that may want to sponsor can do so efficiently.

“The Anglican diocese, rather than setting up a separate relationship with each of the synagogues, proposed that there be one memorandum of understanding with the Jewish community,” said Shelley Rivkin, Federation’s vice-president for planning, allocations and community affairs. “We will be the holder of the memorandum of understanding so the synagogues will raise the funds and issue a tax receipt. The funds will then come to us and be in a restricted account and, as those funds are distributed, they will go directly through us so that the diocese is not having to deal with multiple parties.”

Or Shalom Synagogue has already raised two-thirds of the funds necessary to sponsor three families. Natalie Grunberg, a member of the Or Shalom Syrian Refugees Initiative, said they are expecting their sponsored refugees as early as January. The group has launched a series of events, including a concert of Syrian music, to raise awareness and money for the project. The federal government estimates the cost of sponsoring a refugee family for a year to be about $30,000, but Vancouverites involved in the process are working on an assumption of about $40,000, based on housing costs here.

Or Shalom is working through existing partnerships they have built over the years. Rather than going through the Anglican church, they are working with the United Church of Canada. Grunberg acknowledged that some in the Jewish community have differences with the United Church’s stand toward Israel, but the priority was to expedite the refugee sponsorship process and they believed working through existing relationships would be most effective.

Grunberg is noticeably proud of her congregation’s efforts so far.

“We’re a very small synagogue and we’re sponsoring three families,” she said.

Through existing relationships with the Syrian community here, Or Shalom will focus their sponsorship efforts on reunifying families that already have some members in Metro Vancouver and also on members of the LGBT community.

Temple Sholom is also rallying for refugees. Almost immediately after announcing the idea during the High Holidays, the synagogue raised enough money to sponsor one family.

“We’ve now decided to sponsor a second family,” said Rabbi Dan Moskovitz.

He acknowledges that there have been some anxieties among his congregation about bringing Syrian refugees here.

“I met with every person that voiced that concern to me,” he said. “I met with them personally. We talked about it. We talked about the people that we are bringing in – they were concerned about terrorists coming across – we talked about the difference between private sponsorship, as we are doing, and what we’ve been seeing in Europe with refugees flooding across borders … that we were sponsoring families with young children, that our sponsorships were family reunification, so they would have real roots here in B.C., particularly in Vancouver. We acknowledge the fears but at the same time we also recognize that this is a crisis and that the Jewish tradition teaches us quite clearly to love the stranger. Israel is doing things for refugees on the Syrian border right now with their hospitals and we had to do our part.”

Moskovitz cites Torah as the basis for his enthusiasm.

“Thirty-six times in the Torah, in the Bible, it says to love the stranger because you were once strangers in the land,” he said. “The Jews were once refugees ourselves and this goes all the way back to the land of Egypt and the slavery of the Israelites under Pharaoh, where we were running for our lives; in that case from the famine, according to the biblical story, and the Egyptian people welcomed the Jewish people, welcomed us in and gave us food and shelter and we lived there for 435 years, according to the Bible. From that and so many other times in the Bible, the most often-repeated commandment in all of Jewish tradition is to love the stranger, to love the immigrant; love the stranger, because that was you once.”

More modern Jewish history is also a factor, he added.

“We are largely still here even though throughout our history people have tried to destroy us because at critical times in our history some people took us in,” said Moskovitz. “We like to think we did it all by ourselves and there is no doubt that there is a tremendous resiliency of the Jewish people but, at the same time, we have been the beneficiary of others sheltering us at times of mortal danger.”

Congregation Beth Israel has created a task force to look into possibly sponsoring a Kurdish Syrian refugee family. Executive director Shannon Etkin said the group will analyze the resources available within the congregation community to provide for a family beyond the minimum requirements set out by the federal government.

Other synagogues, organizations and individuals who may not have the resources to directly sponsor a refugee or family are being encouraged to support on-the-ground efforts by the Joint Distribution Committee, which is aiding refugees in Turkey and Hungary. This support is being organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

“They’re doing a lot of direct aid for women and children and also doing some work with frontline responders,” Rivkin said.

JSA honors dedication, hard work

Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver board and staff 2014-15. Standing, from left: Janet Kolof, Timothy Newman, Marilyn Glazer, Barbara Bronstein, Lyle Pullan, Claire Cohen, Gyda Chud, Ida Gitlina, Rubin Feldman and Binny Goldman. Seated, from left: Karon Shear (staff), Shanie Levin, Ken Levitt, Serge Haber, Marilyn Berger, Milton Adelson and Rita Propp (staff). Missing from the photo are Debbie Cossever, Marie Doduck, Lionel Fishman, Sylvia Gurstein, Sylvia Hill, Pamella Ottem, Rita Roling, Edith Shier and Jackie Weiler, as well as peer support staff Charles Leibovitch and Grace Hann. (photo from JSA)

As the Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver marked its 11th annual general meeting on Sept. 11 at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, it was indeed an evening of celebration inspiration and innovation.

JSA past president Serge Haber welcomed a standing-room-only crowd and led them in a minute of silence to honor those who had passed away during the year.

photo - Natasha Likholatnikov, nominated by Chabad of Richmond, has been a volunteer since her arrival in Canada from Ukraine — Natasha Likholatnikov, nominated by Chabad of Richmond, has been a volunteer since her arrival in Canada from Ukraine. (photo from JSA)

Adolf Zilbershtain, president of the Most Bridge Russian seniors group, brought greetings and extended thanks on behalf of its 150 members for the financial support JSA had given them.

Bernard Jackson, president of Jewish War Veterans Shalom Branch – one of only three branches in Canada – followed and gifted JSA with greetings and a monetary donation.

Treasurer Milton Adelson reported that JSA is in good standing but that adequate funding remains an ongoing challenge and priority.

Attendees learned from Pamella Ottem that JSA’s peer support program is now the largest in the city, and that JSA is looked to for guidance, mentorship and support by many organizations offering similar services. Ottem lauded the peer support leadership of Grace Hann and Charles Leibovitch in building the program, which now serves more than 150 seniors and includes peer counseling, a home visiting program, phone calls to isolated seniors, an information and referral phone line, transport to medical appointments and a new bereavement support group.

Representing the membership committee, Lyle Pullan reported that JSA gained 46 new members this past year. He encouraged attendees to consider themselves as committee members, and to “Sign ’em up!” The goal is 100 new JSA memberships for the next year.

Joining the meeting was Shelley Rivkin, associate executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, who spoke about how much JSA and Haber are valued. She said Haber served as a mentor not only for Federation, but for all who advocate for the well-being of the community’s elders, who number 5,000 and whose numbers are expected to double in the next decade.

photo - Stacey Kettleman was put forward by Congregation Beth Tikvah. — Stacey Kettleman was put forward by Congregation Beth Tikvah. *(photo from JSA)*

As JSA celebrated its 11th year and Haber’s nine as president, his report highlighted JSA’s numerous accomplishments in advocacy, outreach, the Seniors Line Magazine, the Empowerment Series, fall symposium and spring forum, where JSA has achieved a 25 percent increase in attendance. He honored the work of executive coordinator Karon Shear, his “right hand,” for her conscientious hard work and dedication, and the commitment of Rita Propp, office assistant. Together with the 4,000 hours of JSA volunteer activity, this is what makes JSA the “best of the best,” he said.

Ken Levitt, board vice-president paid tribute to Haber. Levitt asked the audience to ponder how many 86-year-olds they know who are such exemplary leaders and contribute with such vitality on a tiny, shoe-string budget. Very few, he suggested. Haber was elected president emeritus in a unanimous vote.

Certificates of merit were presented to “retiring yet always rewiring’’ board members, Pullan presented the nominations slate of returning and new board members and the election included the executive board for 2014-15.

Incoming JSA president Marilyn Berger, in her acceptance speech, concluded the AGM with the message, “Let’s do this together, as JSA continues to grow, flourish and thrive.”

After the meeting, there was dinner in the Wosk Auditorium with entertainment by Tzimmes, after which four honorees were celebrated, each of whom were nominated by their individual organizations for their contribution in service to others and ensuring that they enjoy life to the fullest.

Natasha Likholatnikov, nominated by Chabad of Richmond, has been a volunteer since her arrival in Canada from Ukraine. She volunteers in an ongoing capacity often several times each week. According to Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman, Likholatnikov spends more hours at Chabad than he does. She is involved in the Women’s Art Club, whose participants are from the former Soviet Union, and in Chabad’s Community Kitchen. She cooks for Chabad community activities, helps coordinate volunteers, and much more.

photo - Binny Goldman, left, Serge Haber and Edith Shier also were honored — Binny Goldman, left, Serge Haber and Edith Shier also were honored. *(photo from JSA)*

Stacey Kettleman was put forward by Congregation Beth Tikvah. She has been a part of Beth Tikvah for many years, and works hard to help many seniors and people who are isolated and need assistance. She thinks nothing of whipping up a meal, whether it be for Shabbat, a Yom Tov or just a warm dinner, and then delivering it to a senior in need. She also ensures the senior has food in his or her home, getting groceries for them if they do not. If Kettleman hears about a senior perhaps not attending an event, she will make a point of getting that person a ride – trying to make sure the senior is not alone, but part of the community.

As a writer, photographer, tribute-card creator and honorary JSA life member, honoree Binny Goldman brings an enthusiastic and positive presence to the many activities she undertakes for JSA. She rarely misses meetings, voluntarily undertakes assignments with devotion and the results are extraordinary.

Last but not least, Edith Shier created Senior Line Magazine, now published three times each year. To quote Haber, the magazine “is the only written communication to the seniors in the Jewish community and continues to receive rave reviews as the best of the best.”

Concluding the festivities, Haber was presented with a gavel and plaque by Berger for the work he has accomplished, the legacy he leaves and the contribution he will continue to make to JSA. He received a standing ovation. For his outstanding contribution to JSA and in memory and honor of his late wife Elinor, the Serge and Elinor z”l Haber Peer Support Fund has been established.

Haber urged everyone to be here and there with all our heart, and to press governments at all levels to play a much stronger role in the well-being of seniors.

Dinner co-chairs were Bernice Dorfman and Regina Boxer.

Gyda Chud is secretary of the Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver executive and board of directors.