The delayed celebration of Beth Tikvah’s 50th anniversary takes place April 19, with a night of comedy headlined by Juno Award-winning comedian Jacob Samuel. (photo from byjacobsamuel.com)
Beth Tikvah, the Conservative synagogue in Richmond, was founded in 1973. That placed the 50th anniversary in 2023, and a celebration was planned for October. Then the catastrophe of 10/7 occurred, and the event was indefinitely postponed.
Now that all the hostages are home and the war that began that day has ended (though a different one continues), the congregation thought it was not just appropriate to come together to celebrate the milestone of their community, but necessary.
A communal celebration – with laughter – is something the community needs, Rabbi Susan Tendler told the Independent.
“People just really need to laugh,” she said, and to find strength in community.
Tendler herself arrived as Beth Tikvah’s spiritual leader at the height of another collective crisis – the COVID pandemic. Her family was greeted warmly, but from a distance, as intense social isolation rules were still in place.
Six years later, she is effusive in her love for her role and her adopted community. Beyond the immediate Beth Tikvah and Richmond communities, she said, the relationship among Metro Vancouver’s rabbis is extremely unusual, with deep ties across denominations. Tendler is currently chair of the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, the main conduit for that tight union.
Jews at Beth Tikvah, in British Columbia and worldwide are resilient but tired, she said.
“We are fierce and we are resilient, and we are strong and we are agile and we are constant,” she said. “But we all can feel the weariness from it.”
Coming together to celebrate is necessary, she said, noting that Purim this year seemed to unleash a collective wellspring of joy.
The delayed celebration of Beth Tikvah’s 50th anniversary takes place April 19, with a night of comedy featuring Juno Award-winning comedian Jacob Samuel and emcee Kyle Berger, himself a funnyman of some repute.
Berger’s brother, Tadd Berger, is the synagogue’s president, as was older brother Ryan and mother Marilyn before him.
The Bergers were not founding members of the congregation, said Tadd Berger, but they showed up more than four decades ago.
“Beth Tikvah is a special place,” he said. “It’s always been a special place for me. I was bar mitzvahed at Beth Tikvah, I was married at Beth Tikvah. It has always been a centrepoint of my person, of my growth, of my community. A lot of who I am today is a result of opportunities and programs and events and things that I had at Beth Tikvah.”
He called his leadership role at this moment in the history of the shul and the community a responsibility, an honour and a privilege.
While the celebration next month caps a half-century of growth, Berger is looking to the future.
“Our membership has been growing the last several years,” he said. “I think that we will continue to grow. We’ll continue to find more ways to connect with and service and support the larger Jewish community, especially the Richmond Jewish community.”
Beth Tikvah is the only Conservative synagogue south of Fraser River, Berger noted, so he views the shul as serving a larger geographic region, stretching southward.
He is also proud of the range of programs the community delivers, including food security programs and services for youth and seniors, which are open to members and non-members.
“We see ourselves as Richmond’s synagogue and here to support the whole community,” said Berger. “That’s how we want to continue and, [in] the coming 50 years, I hope that that gets us embraced more and more by the community. “
The solemnity of the period since Oct. 7, which occurred just as the world was emerging from the COVID pandemic, means it has been a long time since a festivity of this type has occurred, according to one of the organizers.
“The event is the first big fundraiser we’ve had in a long time,” said Alisa Magnan, who is co-chairing the celebration with Mindy Zimmering. “We’re raising badly needed funds for programs and it’s a great chance to support the community and get together and have some fun.”
Magnan echoes the rabbi in noting that it is time for the community to kick back and have a good time amid the many challenges.
“I wanted to be able to get together and celebrate our community and find some joy after such difficult times,” she said.
In addition to the anticipated guffaws (induced, the PR promises, by “smart, clean humour”), the event will include a 50/50 draw in addition to food stations featuring pasta, barbecue, salads, Mexican cuisine and crêpes for dessert. Tickets and more information for April 19’s Eat, Laugh, Schmooze: A Night of Comedy & Connection are at btikvah.ca.