Yom Ha’atzmaut – Jewish Independent

Honouring our heroes

Elad Pelleg and his grandmother, Dvora. Pelleg shared his family’s story during the community’s Yom Hazikaron ceremony May 7. (photo from Elad Pelleg)

The sacrifices Israeli families have made for 71 years were marked in Vancouver last week during Yom Hazikaron ceremonies. The tragic losses of life in wars, intifadas and terror attacks were memorialized by hundreds of attendees at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver May 7.

The annual ceremony, led by Geoffrey Druker, specifically acknowledges family members and friends of local community members who have died defending Israel. The impacts of the losses were individualized through the stories of particular families, including numerous who lost more than one member, often across generations and in different wars.

Elad Pelleg, the Dror Israel youth movement shaliach (emissary) to Camp Miriam, shared the story of his grandmother, Dvora Pelleg, a narrative of Zionist longing, loss and rededication.

Dvora was born in Hungary, in 1921, the second daughter in an Orthodox family of seven children.

“As a teenager, she joined a Zionist youth movement, where she discovered a new world, and a new yearning was born: to live in the land of Israel,” her grandson told the audience in the Wosk Auditorium.

He recounted the story as his grandmother had told it to him: “One day, we were invited to see a movie about the chalutzim (pioneers) … I asked my mother to join me, to see for herself what Zionism was all about, and understand my dream of moving there. She came from a very Orthodox family. This was not an easy request for her to fulfil. She deliberated and, in order not to disappoint me, decided to come. She did not want to be recognized, so she disguised herself and joined me for the movie. At a time when antisemitism was rampant, seeing a movie that showed the freedom and spirit of living in the land of Israel brought her to tears.”

Dvora went on to become a Zionist youth leader and received additional training, hachshara, in preparation for aliyah to the land of Israel.

“In the hachshara, she met my grandfather, Yosef,” Pelleg said. “In 1939, the war broke out and their lives changed completely. My grandparents, Dvora and Yosef, decided to move to the capital, Budapest, in an attempt to migrate to Israel illegally. They failed to make this journey, stayed in Budapest and got married in 1942. On the 22nd of August, 1943, their son Michael was born.”

photo - Dvora Pelleg holding baby Michael — Dvora Pelleg holding baby Michael. *(photo from Elad Pelleg)*

When the Nazis invaded Hungary, Yosef was sent to a labour camp, while Dvora fought to survive with baby Michael.

“She had to keep moving between cellars and attics; she suffered from hunger, and ended up surviving only due to her tremendous effort,” said Pelleg. “My grandfather survived a number of labour camps and a death march. After the war, he returned to Budapest to reunite with my grandmother and Michael.”

Dvora lost her parents, Hanna and Yitzchak, as well as three siblings, all murdered in Auschwitz.

“The only thing left from her mother is a single photo she carried on her throughout the war,” Pelleg said. “Being refugees in their own country, they sought a way to Eretz Israel. In 1947, they boarded an unauthorized ship, Geula, with many other Holocaust survivors. The British, who at that time governed the land of Israel, stopped the ship and sent them to an internment camp in Cyprus, where they were held for almost a year.

“It was there, behind barbed wire, that they heard [about] the establishment of the state of Israel, on May 15, 1948,” Pelleg said. “Later that year, they finally made it to Israel, where two sons were born: Shimon and my father, Eli.” The couple Hebraized their named to Pelleg from Pollock when they began working for the Israeli government.

Michael grew up in Israel, graduated high school with honours and served in the army as a combat medic. Following his army service, he enrolled in university and studied accounting. In 1966, he married the love of his life, Ester.

“In 1967, the Six Day War broke out,” Pelleg recounted. “Michael did not receive an army call-up, but his heart commanded him to pack a bag and join his unit. Before leaving the house for the last time in his life, he said to his mother, ‘I can’t stay in the classroom while the army is fighting to defend our country.’

“When he reached his unit, he found that they already had a medic in place, yet he insisted on joining them anyway. On the first day of the war, June 5, 1967, in a fierce battle on the outskirts of Rafiah, his armoured vehicle was hit. Michael Pollock, the uncle I never met, was killed.

“My grandmother had to bear the heavy burden on her shoulders and in her soul, of not only being a Holocaust survivor, but also a bereaved mother. Her family was murdered on European soil and her son died in battle in Israel and, this time, she could not save him.

“When I was born, my parents gave me the middle name Michael, in his memory,” said Pelleg. “Being my grandmother’s first grandson, we have a very special connection and she is a very significant figure in my life. As a child, visiting her in her house, I would ask her many questions: about her family, about the events of the Holocaust, about Michael and why he died in the war. Slowly and with great difficulty, she opened up and shared with me her story, the story of our family.”

When Pelleg was 13, the year of his bar mitzvah, he started participating in Yom Hazikaron memorial ceremonies with his family, and described a typical commemoration.

“We start in the evening with a ceremony at Beit Yad L’Banim, the memorial home for fallen soldiers, in the city of Ramat Gan,” he said. “In the ceremony, they read the names of all the fallen soldiers of the city, sing a few songs and read passages about mourning, bereavement and love that will never be fulfilled. When Michael’s name is called, we light a candle in his memory and listen quietly to Savta crying softly at the end of the row.

“On Yom Hazikaron, the following morning, we meet at the military cemetery at Kiriyat shul. There are thousands of graves there and, around each one of them, a family like mine gathers. We all stand together and listen to the chazzan recite El Maleh Rachamim.”

Despite all this, Pelleg said his grandmother’s story is not only a story of mourning and bereavement but also of strength and resilience.

“In memory of their son, my grandparents decided to dedicate the rest of their lives in service of the state of Israel,” he said. “My grandfather worked first as a civilian in the army, and then in the Ministry of Defence. My grandmother worked in the Mossad, the national intelligence agency, until she retired. After my grandfather passed away, she chose to volunteer at a nonprofit called Yad Sarah, which provides medical equipment for those in need.”

Now 98 years old, Dvora is no longer able to attend the memorial ceremonies. On her 90th birthday, Pelleg told her: “Your life shapes my identity, my choices in life, and is expressed through my middle name, Michael, which I carry proudly.”

The JCC Choir, led by Noa Cohen, as well as Ellen Silverman on piano and Kinneret Sieradzky on violin, provided musical tributes. Rabbi Shlomo Gabay chanted El Maleh Rachamim. Rabbi Philip Gibbs said Kaddish. If’at Eilon-Heiber lit a yahrzeit candle for her friend Yaacov Koma and Samuel Heller lit a candle for his friend Adero Ahonim. Yoni Rechter, who was the featured performer at the next night’s celebration of Israel’s independence day, sang his hit song “Tears of Angels.” The event was co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Druker marked the end of Yom Hazikaron at the Chan Centre just prior to the beginning of the community’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration. The festivities opened with the singing of O Canada and Hatikvah by the King David High School Choir, directed by Johnny Seguin, and included remarks by Karen James, Candace Kwinter and this year’s shinshinim (volunteer emissaries) from Israel, Or Aharoni and Ofir Gady, as well as a video of greetings from previous shinshinim and a call for hosts for next year’s volunteers. The JCC’s Orr Chadash and Orr Atid dancers, under the leadership of Noga Vieman, performed, as did the Juice Band, before Rechter and his fellow musicians took to the stage. The annual Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration is presented by Jewish Federation, with hotel sponsor Georgian Court, media sponsor Jewish Independent and 45 other community partners. For an interview with Rechter, see jewishindependent.ca/israeli-music-icon-sings-here.

Israeli music icon sings here

Yoni Rechter will be in Vancouver to perform for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut. (photo from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver)

“I love to know the world through music, and music has brought me to many places …. When I come and play and then I also make connection with the place, I prefer it to being the usual tourist. So, I’m glad I have the opportunity to come back to Canada after so many years … especially to Vancouver, that I heard so much about it,” Yoni Rechter told the Jewish Independent in a phone interview.

Rechter headlines the community Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration May 8 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. While he has toured around the world, he hasn’t ever performed outside of Israel on Israel’s Independence Day. So, why now?

“There are two artists,” he said, “who were previously in this concert – Nurit Galron [2013] and Shlomi Shaban [2018] – they are both friends of mine, I work with them. Each one of them told me how nice it was to be there at the Yom Ha’atzmaut event, so I got good recommendations.”

Since he wrote his first song more than 50 years ago, Rechter has become a virtual icon of Israeli music. The composer, pianist, singer and arranger has created music for solo performances, bands, theatre, film, symphony, dance and opera. He has more than a dozen albums and has collaborated with a large portion of the who’s who of the Israeli cultural arts scene. Yet, he remains humble.

“I worked with the right people. I mean, people that I had the opportunity to learn from them, from the beginning of my musical career,” he said of his success. “I was first in the group Kaveret – you know, Poogy? By the way, we performed in Canada in ’76. We were in Montreal and Toronto and Winnipeg, and I still remember the temperature in Winnipeg. I think it was in winter; it really was the lowest temperature I ever felt. Anyway, then I worked with Arik Einstein, then I worked with Yossi Banai … and then I had the opportunity to work with very important theatre directors, like Hanoch Levin, Nissim Aloni and Miki Gurevich, and, also in movies. Because this is a small country, if you are willing to work, you can do various musical activities…. I had a lot of people to learn from, and really great, great artists.”

He said Israel is different than the United States or Canada with regard to the concept of celebrity. In Israel, he said, “We grew up very simply, and I go every day to swim. It’s not that I live in a protected house and I have bodyguards. It’s not this type of culture in Israel, first of all, but still there are people in Israel who might use their publicity for power or this kind of thing, but my character, I feel that I’m a musician, it’s the music and not me…. I feel that I have what to say in my music, but I never speak about myself; nobody knows about my wife, about my children, my private life. I’m really not into doing something with it, and it’s many years like this, but, I must confess, that I’m also not required by people or by journalists to speak about my personal life. Really, people accept me as I am.”

Rechter almost didn’t become a musician. When he was about to go into the army, at age 18, his father had what was probably the biggest architecture firm in Israel at the time. Even though his parents separated when Rechter was very young and he didn’t live with his father, he said it was a big decision as to whether to follow in his father’s footsteps. But, also, he said, music came easily to him.

“You know, I was just sitting at the piano and I composed, everything flowed, so I thought maybe life should be more difficult, and I should go to places that are more requiring of effort,” he said. “And this feeling I had, I was sure I was going to be an architect, but, in the army, I played in a military group of the artillery … and, when I finished the army, I thought to go to study architecture but then I got a telephone call from the members of what was going to be Kaveret group (Poogy group), and they called me for an audition. I heard the music and I fell in love. In the end, it came out to be [that I became] pianist of this group and a member of this group that changed … my career…. I have a brother who continues my father’s legacy.”

As to music and the projects he takes on, Rechter said there are a couple of factors he considers, notably the seriousness of the request and whether he has something to contribute musically. He gave the example of the Israeli Opera, who asked him to create a work for them, which will play again next year. He based the opera, Schitz, on the play by Levin.

“To write an opera,” he said, “it’s a year of 12-hours-a-day work; it’s really very [intensive]. It was an 80-minute opera, symphonic – I made all the arrangements and orchestration and I worked with the singers; it’s a huge work. It takes one year to do it, so, the first condition is that I know the project is serious.

“I have to find the right text,” he added, “because I really connect it to lyrics, to text, and I feel I have something to say in this. It’s a process. So, I start to improvise on this and I see if I have something to say musically. And, when I feel it’s all connected, I start to work on it. For example, the other [opera] … it was by David Grossman. Itamar Pogesh Arnav, it’s called, Itamar Meets a Rabbit. It’s a for-children opera, we made it with the Israeli Philharmonic. Of course, David Grossman, I knew he’s a very interesting man and I can find a way to connect with him, to communicate.”

Rechter said it is hard to define “Israeli music.” From the state’s inception through the 1970s, he said, “before the great internet and … we became one global ‘forum’ … [Israel] developed its own voice, which was, I would say, influenced by Russian music, from the immigrants that came, and also by music from the east, from Sinai, from Jordan, from all our neighbours. I think I grew up with influences of this spirit – sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t like it. It depends on the people; for example, there was Sasha Argov, who was a very famous composer, and I really liked his music, which was very rich harmonically. Today, I think, after this explosion of communication, I don’t think it’s different from other places.”

That said, Rechter singled out some Israeli jazz performers, like Avishai Cohen, who is now based in New York, and others. “So, there is something here,” he said. “I think that living under pressure all the time [has something to do with it] … your life, all the time, is in danger because you don’t know when the next missile will fall in Tel Aviv. In my life, it has happened already two or three times…. Last week, there was one missile or two that fell near Tel Aviv. So, our life is, all the time, not protected, in a way. I believe it influences in a positive way our art, because we make art – all the Israeli artists – like you must survive. It gives us some very different energy than Europe, that used to be very calm.” He said, “The good artists that are serious become very known in the world [outside of] Israel.”

Music is important, said Rechter, “because it, especially in this time, I think that music should be a messenger. It has a task, and the task is to bring people back to real feeling, to themselves, to touch their souls, their energy, their spirit. Music is a force of nature, something that comes out of real creativity, at its best. Sometimes, I go to a concert and I cry from the music, it touches me so deeply. And that’s what I want to make. I don’t want to be somebody who’s going there to make lots of money; it doesn’t interest me. I want to touch people and, when it happens, for me, it’s the best prize.”

Rechter is coming to Vancouver with a band, “all of them Israeli, who live in New York” – singer Tammy Scheffer, saxophonist and player of multiple woodwinds Eitan Goffman, guitarist Shahar Mintz, bassist Uri Kleinman and drummer Shay Wetzler. “I sent them all the notes and the recordings of what I plan to play in Vancouver,” he said. “They’ll practise and we’ll meet at the beginning of May for two rehearsals n Manhattan.”

The audience at the Chan Centre can expect some of their favourites, said Rechter.

“I started to write songs when I was like 14, because of the Beatles,” he said. “I fell in love with the Beatles…. The first songs [of mine] were written in this age. I think the most famous song was – there is a song called ‘Dma’ot Shel Mal’achim,’ ‘Angels’ Tears.’ It became a song of memorial, and I wrote it in high school … with my friend who was sitting near me, his name is Danny Minster, he wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music. I tell this to you because I will sing it in Vancouver at the Yom Hazikaron memorial.”

Rechter will perform just the one song at the memorial May 7, 7:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. On Yom Ha’atzmaut, May 8, 7:30 p.m., at the Chan Centre, he will perform more than 20.

Presented by Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Yom Ha’atzmaut is supported by 46 community partners, with the Jewish Independent as the media sponsor and Georgian Court Hotel as the hotel sponsor. For the first time, there will be a party after the concert, though there is limited space available and only guests who attend the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration may purchase tickets to the party. Visit jewishvancouver.com/yh2019.

Yom Ha’atzmaut love, spirit

Shlomi Shaban will be joined by Ninet Tayeb (right) at Metro Vancouver’s celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut on April 18 at the Chan Centre. (photo from Jewish Federation)

Two award-winning veteran musicians, not to mention good and longtime friends, will be headlining our community’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration on April 18 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Tel Aviv’s Shlomi Shaban will be joined by Los Angeles-based Ninet Tayeb.

“I have performed once outside the country on Yom Ha’atzmaut,” Shaban told the Independent. “It was Israel’s 60th anniversary. It was in Stockholm, Sweden. A lot of musicians and myself traveled over there, like Beri Sacharov, Eran Tzur and many others. We had a great show over there. But, beside that, I can’t remember performing outside Israel on Yom Ha’atzmaut, mostly I’m here in Israel, performing across the country or just being with my family, it depends.

“I’ve never been to Canada before, so, naturally, I’m very, very excited,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of really great things about Vancouver and I’m really looking forward to just hang there, travel around and explore the place, although we’re going to be there for too short [a time] I’m afraid, two days, but I hope to catch as much as I can.

“I remember my friends Jane Bordeaux performing there last year,” he added, “and they came back really excited about the crowd and the place.”

Shaban was born in Tel Aviv and has lived there his whole life, except for a few years, when he was in London, England, to study classical piano. “I’m in love with Tel Aviv,” he said.

Like Tel Aviv, music has always been a part of Shaban’s life.

“I started learning how to play the piano when I was 6 years old,” he said. “I started privately, like a lot of kids. Then I went to a conservatory, and studied there for 10 years. And then, in London … I received an artist’s diploma from the Royal College of Music. I’m very proud of that, though I haven’t looked at that diploma since I got it.

“I always wrote little songs, since I was 10, I think, and always considered that as kind of a hobby, or kind of an intermission – I was practising a lot of piano, five hours a day, six hours a day, and more and more, and I always saw that as kind of a comic relief from practising…. When I was 21, I started thinking, maybe I went the wrong direction, so to speak, and the little hobby that I considered to be a comic relief, might be my main interest, and tried to publish my songs. I was very lucky, I was signed by a major label, here in Israel, of course, and faded away from the classical world, and never went back.”

Shaban now has four albums under his belt, and has won several awards for his work.

“In terms of career highlights,” he said, “I would mention two. As I said, I left the classical world but, five years ago, or six years ago, I was approached by the Israel Philharmonic. They celebrated their 75th year, and they asked me to do a concert of my music, my songs, with the orchestra.

“It was a great closure for me because, when I was 17, I played with the orchestra as a classical pianist with Maestro Zubin Mehta. I was a kid, so, naturally, very excited and very nervous, and now I came back through the main door with my own songs. It was another exciting and, again, nerve-wracking in a way, event for me. I had to practise piano again because I played my own songs and a little classical music we mixed throughout the songs. That was definitely a highlight.

“Nowadays, I’m touring with Chava Alberstein,” he continued. “She’s Israel’s, let’s say, Edith Piaf. I don’t know. She’s Chava Alberstein – she has more than 60 albums. I recorded a song with her four years ago, and asked her to consider touring with me and being her pianist – just me and her, she sings and I play…. We planned to do four or five shows, and now the tour has evolved and it’s sold out, and we are adding more and more shows. I sing only one song during the show, the song that I wrote for her…. It’s a great, great pleasure for me and I learn so much and enjoy so much doing it. So, that’s another big highlight for me.”

Shaban has been inspired by many musicians.

“I’ve covered many artists, Israelis and non-Israelis,” he said. “Mostly, I tend to cover storytelling songs, people like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen … I’m going to play a few songs by him in the show.

“I was trained as a classical musician and, when I left it and began hearing popular music, in a weird way, my heart went to very simple music, very text-based music, people, as I say, Dylan and Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, all that gang. And, during the years, they have remained my main love and inspiration, but I have listened to a lot of other music – new music, old music, jazz. I love jazz pianists and composers, people like [Thelonious] Monk … Miles Davis, and many, many others. I’m not interested in a specific genre, just getting as much inspiration as I can from different genres. But, as I said, my main interest always was the lyrics, funnily enough, and the story that the song conveys, and that hasn’t changed.”

In terms of his creative evolution, however, Shaban has been focusing more on the music. He described his early composing as “very functional,” something he used mainly to help the story to come across. “Nowadays,” he said, “I’m writing more rich music. I think, in that way, I’m heading backwards to the classical time and thriving on inspiration from all kinds of music, and not just folk music or rock music.”

photo - Ninet Tayeb — Ninet Tayeb *(photo from Jewish Federation)*

Shaban is excited to be performing in Vancouver with Tayeb, who he described as “one of the best singers I have ever heard.” He added, “She’s a great friend of mine, so that’s another bonus, meeting her in Canada – she’s in L.A. now and I rarely see her, so I’m looking forward to that, and meeting you all.”

For her part, Tayeb has recorded five albums and, like Shaban, has been recognized numerous times for her work. Also like Shaban, music has been a lifelong passion.

“Music has been my life ever since I was a little girl,” she told the Independent. “I started writing my own music at the age of 23. To be able to express myself through music is the most amazing gift I could have.”

Tayeb said, “My style is a mixture between Israel, L.A., Berlin and New York, kind of a Middle Eastern rock ’n’ roll with a slight hint of electronic. Music keeps evolving all the time and so do I – thank God! – and, for me, the most important thing is to keep moving forward and keep my mind open.”

It was this drive to continually enrich her knowledge and creative spirit that took her to Los Angeles, she said. She moved there from Tel Aviv.

On Yom Ha’atzmaut, said Tayeb, “The show will be me singing with Shlomi and Shlomi will sing alone, as well. One thing I can promise you – the show will be full of love and true spirit.”

For tickets ($18) to the April 18, 7:30 p.m., concert at the Chan Centre, visit jewishvancouver.com.

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.

Gathering with community

Participants in last year’s Inclusion Journey at the Knesset in Jerusalem, in front of Marc Chagall’s painting “The Exodus.” (photo from JCC inclusion services)

The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver is part of the international network of Jewish communities celebrating persons with disabilities throughout the month of February. And, on Feb. 6, the entire community is invited to Share the Journey: An Evening of Inspiration, which will feature the screening of My Hero Brother, selected as the leading film for Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. The event will also include remarks from the Hon. Shane Simpson, the provincial minister of social development and poverty reduction, and a slideshow and presentation by Leamore Cohen, coordinator of the JCC’s inclusion services, about the trip they led to Israel last year.

Many traditions exist within the Jewish community, and we must all work to ensure the accessibility of these traditions for all members of the community. It is within this context that the JCC’s inclusion services led the first-ever Canadian JCC diverse-ability and advocacy Inclusion Journey to Israel, with the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Gesher Chai Committee and community donors.

Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month reminds us of the importance of cultural connections, inclusive community and accessibility in all traditions and for all people. For its part, the JCC’s inclusion services has organized a number of awareness and visibility initiatives throughout February, including a Ronald McDonald House volunteer initiative with the JCC’s youth programs on Feb. 4 and a “Challa-Luyah” challah bake for the Jewish Food Bank with Axis Vancouver on Feb. 8.

Starting the month’s activities off is the Feb. 6, 6:30 p.m., screening at the Rothstein Theatre. For young Israeli adults, traveling after military service is a right of passage, and My Hero Brother emphasizes that such a right must be available for all young people. In drawing a parallel between local experiences and those highlighted in the film, the JCC hopes to bring attention to the abilities of all persons when community works together.

– JCC inclusion services

***

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver-organized Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration is the community’s biggest gathering of the year, and the committee, led by Pam Wolfman, has booked two Israeli performers to help us celebrate Israel’s 70th anniversary: Shlomi Shaban and Ninet Tayeb.

Shaban is performing at the upcoming Red Sea Jazz Festival, where he is described as having “the ability to create buoyant virtuoso harmony between classical music, rock and pop…. His characteristic straightforward sense of humour frequently moves on a fine line between black tie concert halls and sweaty smoky rock-n-roll stages.”

Tayeb was the winner of Kochav Nolad (Israeli Idol). Music critic Garreth Browne saw her perform in New York and wrote, “it’s safe to say that the entire audience was fixated and almost hypnotized by her presence.”

Tickets went on sale this week for the April 18 celebration. Visit jewishvancouver.com.

– Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

***

The Jewish Family Services’ 2018 Innovators Lunch guest speaker will be Leonard Brody. The award-winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist and bestselling author is co-founder and executive chair of Creative Labs, a joint venture with the largest sports and entertainment agency in the world, CAA in Los Angeles. His group is responsible for building new ventures for some of CAA’s most important film, TV and sports celebrities. He also happens to be a community member in Vancouver.

Brody will be talking about The Great Re-Write, his upcoming book in partnership with Forbes magazine, which addresses this unique social and economic moment in history. With rapid social and structural changes have come many challenges for communities, but also opportunities. How do we make the most of this time to invest in our community, uplift society as a whole and ensure we don’t leave people behind? He’ll encourage people to think as innovators to bring about meaningful and lasting social change.

The Innovators Lunch will be held on April 24 at the Vancouver Hyatt. For more details, visit jfsvancouver.ca/innovators.

– Courtesy of Jewish Family Services

The future we seek

A different approach to Yom Hazikaron took place Sunday in Tel Aviv. An alternative form of marking Israel’s remembrance day for fallen soldiers – bringing together Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members to decades of conflict – was the 12th annual such gathering.

About 4,000 participants crowded into an arena for the ceremony convened by Combatants for Peace and Parents Circle-Families Forum, a grassroots organization of bereaved Palestinians and Israelis with the slogan, “It won’t stop until we talk.” Regardless of one’s politics, their website – theparentscircle.com – is a testament to the ability of families who have suffered the worst imaginable tragedy to get beyond anger and try to find or create something constructive in the aftermath.

On the other hand, whatever one’s politics, one should condemn the behaviour of a few dozen apparently far-right thugs who protested outside and disrupted the proceedings. Screaming “traitor,” “enemies” and “Nazis,” the protesters threw sand and spat at attendees, including a member of the Knesset. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, one individual shouted at those entering the arena: “I hate Hitler – not for what he did but for not finishing the job and killing you.”

Across whatever divides exist among Jews, there should be a clear consensus that language and behaviour like this has no justification.

Yet, while 50 or so individuals with no sense of decency made the experience shockingly unpleasant, remember that 4,000 people came together across lines of race, religion and experience based on two things they share in common: grief and the certainty that something has to change if our respective peoples are to ever know lasting peace.

We can argue whether what the participants did helps advance that ideal future, but we can’t argue that everything done before has achieved it, because it has not.

After hundreds of community members filed out of the Chan Centre at the University of British Columbia Monday night following an uplifting and uncontroversial celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut, anyone tuned to CBC Radio One heard an interview with David Grossman, re-broadcast from 2010. Grossman, considered one of Israel’s preeminent authors as well as a leading voice for peace, spoke about losing his son Uri, in the 2006 war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, about the necessity of Israeli military strength and about the efforts by then-U.S. president Barack Obama to broker some sort of peace in the region.

The interview was, sadly, timeless. There has not been a U.S. president who has not tried and failed to find peace between Israelis and Palestinians. There is not an Israeli parent who has not feared for their child in the Israel Defence Forces or when a terror attack strikes. One does not need to be a victim who has lost a family member, Grossman said, to be victimized by the circumstance where that kind of anxiety hovers over every day.

There is no doubt it is controversial for the parents, children or other loved ones of dead Israeli soldiers and the parents, children and other loved ones of Palestinians who have died in the conflict to come together. There is a whole range of reasons why many people would find this idea threatening, profane or wrong. But those who came together for the event should be granted by everyone the most minimal acknowledgement: it’s worth a try.

It might not work. But everything else has failed.

It is arrogant in the extreme to assume that we have the only answer. It is equally arrogant to assume there is no solution just because we ourselves can’t conceive of one.

If the current generation – of Israeli leaders, of U.S. presidents, of Diaspora leaders, commentators, activists, diplomats and anyone else – does not have solutions to this conflict, there is one encouraging light. There are young Israelis, Palestinians, Canadians and others who are trying new things. These ideas, too, might not work. But we have to keep trying.

At the local Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration Monday, children – some even toddlers – participated in songs of peace. Children of all ages danced and, even when they weren’t on stage as part of the performance, they filled the aisles with exuberant moves. The main musical attraction, the young Israelis who form the uplifting musical group Jane Bordeaux, chose to spend Yom Ha’atzmaut in Vancouver – their first concert outside Israel.

Will these young people hasten the future we seek?

Providing mutual support

Sara Omer and her kids lost their husband/father Reuven in 2008. (photo from IMP Group)

May 1 was Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day), May 2 celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) and this month marks the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem. For the widows of Israel’s fallen soldiers, who paid the ultimate price so that Jews all over the world could revel in the modern-day rebirth of the Jewish state, these anniversaries stir varying emotions.

At 94 years old, Devorah Arkin Roth is one of the country’s oldest war widows. Her husband, Mordechai Arkin, was killed while defending Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem just weeks before the official outbreak of the War of Independence in May 1948. She shares fond memories of her husband, as she stares at the photo album of their wedding and the newborn pictures of their first child.

“He was a very talented man who wanted to go to Columbia University in New York to study physics,” she recalled. “But the deteriorating security situation in the country wouldn’t permit him to leave. He worked at Hadassah Hospital and doubled as a guard when he was killed. At the time of his death, I was already pregnant with our second child.”

photo - At 94 years old, Devorah Arkin Roth is one of Israel’s oldest war widows — At 94 years old, Devorah Arkin Roth is one of Israel’s oldest war widows. *(photo from IMP Group)*

Though Roth remarried and feels privileged to be a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she still gets the jitters each time one of her grandchildren goes into the army. “It’s difficult to see your grandchildren being drafted into the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] after what I had to endure, and even more so because one of my grandchildren was injured as well in battle,” she said.

The Six Dar War was an astounding military accomplishment, as the IDF beat back the armed forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan – but 776 IDF soldiers lost their lives.

Pte. Yossi Mori was killed on the first day of the Six Day War (June 5, 1967) after his unit was shelled in a minefield. His widow, Dania, recalled, “We had a great group of friends and, to this day, we meet every Memorial Day at his grave. During these years, you keep going, building your home, raising children and grandchildren. You don’t just sit all day thinking about your loss, because then your life would stop.”

First Lieut. Yehuda Ram died while liberating the Golan Heights on the last day of the war (June 10). “Yehuda died when he was 23 years old and we had only been married for a year. It was young love, an innocent one,” Shoshana, his widow, remembered. “I actually came back from the war filled with guilt. Why did I survive and he didn’t? Those feelings disappeared with the years because you can’t keep living like that.”

Even in between wars, when IDF soldiers constantly train in order to be ready for the next conflagration, there are inherent dangers, which can exact a toll.

For example, Sara Omer’s world was nearly destroyed in 2008, when her husband Reuven was killed in the midst of a training exercise as part of his IDF reserve duty. She had to face life alone with her three young boys, twins Nadav and Yotam, who were 6 years old, and Guy, then 2 years old.

“The unexpected loss of my husband was indeed shocking and, when Yom Hazikaron comes around every year,” she said, “it is a difficult day for all of the widows, but my children, who are now teenagers, attend a special ceremony at the Knesset, which is both uplifting and inspiring.”

Run by widows and orphans, the IDF Widows and Orphans organization (IDFWO) creates a support network to help them through difficult times. The organization provides services that touch every aspect of their lives, from a communal bar/bat mitzvah service at the Kotel, to professional training courses.

One of the most important activities of the IDFWO is to bring together people with common experiences for mutual support. Regular retreats give widows a break and a chance to benefit from mutual understanding. The IDFWO Otzma Camps give orphans the same opportunity.

“Once a war widow, always a war widow, even if you remarry and love your second husband. The IDFWO gatherings and activities are very important for a very specific reason,” one of the widows explained. “We might not always agree with each other’s opinions about different things, but we all speak the same language and understand each other, as widows. Since we have all experienced the same loss and trauma, we can speak to each other in our language and help each other when we need to, especially on Yom Hazikaron, when we all could use a hug and a smile.”

To learn more about the IDFWO, see idfwo.org/eng.

Israel at 69 – “love forever”

Jews all over the world celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day – even those who have no intention of ever making aliyah and many of whom have never even visited Israel.

“It’s a kind of insurance policy,” one overseas friend told me. “By supporting Israel financially and emotionally, I know that its sanctuary is available to me or my children or grandchildren should the need ever arise.”

I find this kind of thinking very sad, because Israel is so much more than a refuge for persecuted Jews. Not every immigrant who has built a life here was escaping from the horror of the Holocaust, the tyranny behind the Iron Curtain or the cruelty of life in an Arab country. Many of us – the ones Israelis refer to as “Anglo-Saxim” – lowered their standard of living significantly when they settled in Israel, yet found something here that enhanced our quality of life even as we struggled with inflation, mortgages and trying to make miniscule salaries stretch to the end of the month.

We have found here a family – our own people. Of course, just like any family, we fight – about religion, politics, the settlements. The fights can be very bitter yet, at bottom, we care about each other and bond together when we face a common problem or enemy. We celebrate together and sometimes even have to grieve together. Basically, when the going gets rough, we are on the same side. We express our identity as Jews in different ways, but it is the same identity.

We have found here a beautiful country, unique in the variety of its scenery and climate. Mediterranean beaches banded by azure and indigo water and white sands, coral reefs, dense forests, wooded mountains, deserts and rivers and waterfalls, the shimmering mirrored glass of the Dead Sea, fields carpeted with wildflowers – and Jerusalem, the priceless jewel.

Some of us have found here a spirituality that we would never have been able to achieve abroad. Anyone who has been in Israel on Yom Kippur, when the whole country comes to a standstill for the day, cannot doubt the kedushah, the holiness of Eretz Israel. It is intangible, yet it is an undeniable presence.

We have found here a pride in the remarkable achievements of our relatively smaller and less-developed nation. We teach agriculture to the world, and come to other people’s rescue in times of natural or human-made disasters. We are rich in poets, writers, musicians, actors and artists. We can boast industrial and high-tech entrepreneurs and brilliant scientists. When any new Israeli invention captures the world’s imagination, somehow we all bask in the reflected glory.

Israelis have always been compared to the sabra, the cactus with the thorny exterior but the soft heart. We celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut in many ways: campfires and singing, picnics, a Bible quiz, concerts, music and dancing in the streets. We spend the day with family and friends and relish every moment of it. But it is more than just enjoyment.

On every building and on almost every balcony flies the Israeli flag, its blue stripes and Magen David bright against the white background. For days beforehand and a week afterwards, the flag flies from every car on the road. Ceremonies open with the singing of Hatikvah, The Hope, Israel’s national anthem. Most of us sing it standing straight and proud, and often with tears in our eyes as we remember the broken people who found a safe haven here, and those who never managed to reach its shores and died with the dream of Zion in their hearts. And we also remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in all of Israel’s wars and in the pre-state days, the fighters and pioneers who fashioned this wonderful land that we have inherited.

Shin Shalom, one of Israel’s greatest poets, expressed it for all of us in “Mother Jerusalem Singing,” which he wrote a day after the Yom Kippur War in 1973: “Love forever, glow forever / cherish, yearn, preserve the kernel / of an everlasting nation, of a heritage eternal.”

Dvora Waysman is a Jerusalem-based author. She has written 14 books, including The Pomegranate Pendant, which was made into a movie, and her latest novella, Searching for Sarah. She can be contacted at [email protected] or through her blog dvorawaysman.com.

Help celebrate Israel’s 69th

Jane Bordeaux – Amir Zeevi, left, Doron Talmon and Mati Gilad – perform at the Chan Centre on May 1. (photo from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver)

What better way to bring folks together in song and celebration of Israel’s 69th birthday than with folk music. And what better band to unite Diaspora Jews than one that writes and performs American-style country-folk songs in Hebrew!

Tel Aviv-based Jane Bordeaux – Doron Talmon, Amir Zeevi and Mati Gilad – will headline this year’s community Yom Ha’atzmaut concert at the Chan Centre on May 1, 7:30 p.m. The trio regularly plays to sell-out crowds.

Their debut album was well-received, with songs such as “Eich Efshar” (“How is it Possible”) and “Whisky” radio favourites, and the video of their song “Ma’agalim” (“Circles”) went viral. A second album is nearing completion and is expected to be released in June.

Talmon and Gilad met in 2012 at Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. It was in a contest of original songs. “The idea was to perform some of my songs, and get some practical experience of a band format – you know, finding musicians, getting a name for the band and that sort of thing,” Talmon told the Jerusalem Post in a 2016 interview.

“We kept on playing after that one,” Talmon recently told the Independent, “and, when we needed a new guitar player, Amir, who’d been serving with Mati in the military band, had just returned from the U.S., and joined the band.”

Though the band has only been together five years ago, they have all been performing for much longer than that.

“I’ve been singing since I was a little child, always had the attraction to writing songs and singing them,” said Talmon. “After I returned from a long trip in South America, I decided to go and study music professionally, so I went to Rimon school for three years, learning music, songwriting and how to form a band, eventually.”

“I’ve been playing since I was 5, piano and then bass guitar,” said Gilad. “When I went to Thelma-Yellin arts high school in the jazz department, I started also playing the double bass. After high school, I served in the military in an army band and simultaneously studied at the Tel Aviv music conservatory. After the army, I started learning in Rimon school and was there for a year learning both classical, jazz and pop music.”

As for Zeevi, he has been playing the guitar for as long as he can remember. “My high school in Holon had a music major, that’s when I started taking the guitar more seriously, meeting great players and teachers,” he said. “In the army, I’ve played in the air force band and, after my release, I decided to go and learn music in the New School university in New York City, learning both jazz and country music.”

Usually, it is Talmon who comes up with the idea for a song, both the lyrics and melody, then the group starts playing with it, sometimes changing its harmony or structure, and building the arrangement. “Since we perform a lot,” they said, “we often try these new songs in shows, to get the feeling of what it is like to perform with them onstage and how does the crowd react, and each time improving and adjusting the song till it feels complete.”

In true country music fashion, many of Jane Bordeaux’s songs have to do with love and loss – ol’ American hurtin’ songs with a modern, Israeli twist.

“American folk-country, the way we see it, is storytelling, about the dark and the bright sides of life, wrapped in beautiful harmonies and joyful rhythm,” the band members agreed. “How can you not get excited from it? Also, we are addicted to the banjo’s sound and it’s going to feature a lot in our new album.”

“The songs are inspired from life, of course, mine and my friends,’” explained Talmon. “Sometimes, a song may be very close to a personal experience or feeling I had and, sometimes, it can be an idea I borrowed from a book I read or a movie I’ve seen, even a sentence I’ve heard.”

“Ma’agalim” is a bittersweet song about life: “It’s not me that’s progressing / It’s just the time that’s moving on.” The video features a wooden doll in a penny arcade. As the cylinder turns, she walks along her track, bundled up in a coat and scarf, passing people in various stages of life, from cradle to grave. Produced by Israeli animators Uri Lotan and Yoav Shtibelman, it really is a must-see (vimeo.com/ 162052542).

“The minute Uri and Yoav, the creators of the clip, showed it to us,” said the band, “we were so amazed by the beauty and sensibility of the video they made, so we can’t really say we were surprised that it went viral – we never had seen such animation before. We feel that there’s a unique connection between the music and the visuals that’s very moving, so people get excited by it, even without understanding the lyrics.”

No doubt a similar connection will be formed between the band and their audience in Vancouver, where they will sing in both Hebrew and English.

“It’s not going to be the same as in Haifa or Tel Aviv,” they said about the Yom Ha’atzmaut concert. “We love adjusting our set to best fit the place we are going to perform. Since the show date is Israel’s Independence Day, and we guess some of the crowd is English-speaking, in addition to our originals, we’re going to play some English covers and Hebrew all-time favourites – and even some special surprises for the Canadian crowd that obviously we can’t tell in here!”

The group starts their tour in Vancouver, then they have a few shows in North America, including one in Toronto.

“We are super-excited about the show in Vancouver,” they told the Independent. “It’s going to be the first show of our first tour outside of Israel and we’ve got a lot of great stuff planned specially for it, so we’re hoping to see you there!”

Tickets for the May 1 community celebration ($18) can be purchased at jewishvancouver.com/yh2017. In addition to this year’s co-sponsors – Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, Consulate General of Israel in Toronto, Georgian Court Hotel, the Jewish Independent and Jewish National Fund – the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver event is supported by 46 other community organizations.

Noa concert sells out

Achinoam Nini performs for a full house at the Chan Centre on Yom Ha’atzmaut, May 11. (photo from cjnews.com)

Despite the controversy in the months leading up to her Yom Ha’atzmaut performance at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on May 11, Noa’s concert attracted a full house and every one of the 1,185 seats was sold.

“After all the harrowing events leading up to this concert, I am so thrilled to be here and truly grateful to the Jewish Federation [of Greater Vancouver] for not folding and the Israeli ambassador for supporting!” the Israeli singer, whose full name is Achinoam Nini, posted on her Facebook page soon after she touched down in the city.

Performing barefoot throughout, the singer thanked the audience, Federation staff and the Vancouver Jewish community repeatedly during her show “for sticking up for me.”

In February, the Jewish National Fund of Canada, an annual sponsor of Vancouver’s community Yom Ha’atzmaut concerts, withdrew its support, saying it would take a one-year hiatus “due to the views of the entertainment booked for this year’s celebration.”

The organization’s chief executive officer, Josh Cooper, said “the entertainer that has been hired does not reflect nor correspond to the mandate and values of JNF of Canada.” Its decision followed an article in the Jerusalem Post, later retracted, that claimed Vancouver Jews were “outraged” over Nini’s performance and alleged that she supports the boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. She has repeatedly denied the allegation.

After JNF Canada withdrew, the Israeli embassy and the Consulate General of Israel in Toronto stepped in as sponsors. Irit Stopper, deputy consul general in Toronto, represented the state of Israel at the event. It was also attended by Linda Kislowicz, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, Vancouver City Councilor Geoff Meggs and Burnaby-Lougheed NDP MLA Jane Shin.

Outside the Chan Centre, Michael Brosgart, president of the Jewish Defence League in British Columbia, stood with a handful of supporters and a few placards declaring “Terrorists are obstacles to peace; Biblical Zionists are not.”

A folding table held pictures of an Israeli couple murdered by Palestinian terrorists, and Brosgart distributed material to bystanders. The pages contained excerpts from letters expressing objections to Nini’s performance from community member Frances Belzberg and Israel Defence Forces Lt.-Col. Eyal Platek, as well as links to articles about the singer.

“Noa is supporting the most divisive groups in Israel – B’tselem, Breaking the Silence, BDS and JStreet,” Brosgart said. “Unfortunately, Jewish Federation and the Israeli embassy, because they’re funding this, are supporting her. We think this is rotting the Jewish community.”

On JDL’s Facebook page Brosgart elaborated. “This performance will be extremely divisive, distasteful, disrespectful and does not represent the views and interests of the community. Especially at the time we need unity the most. This is not about free speech. Nini can sing her sh—y songs anywhere she wants. However, this is Israel’s Independence Day. To bring an anti-Israel, terror-sympathizing, enemy-strengthening performer on this day is to spit in the face of all who have lost loved ones defending the nation of Israel.”

One Israeli who attended the concert but asked not to be named said she disliked that Nini “does not separate her political views from her artistry. I’m sorry the selection committee didn’t do more research before they chose her, but I think they learned a lesson,” the woman said.

After seeing the Facebook responses of Israelis in Vancouver opposed to the performance, she decided to attend nevertheless. She added that, once Nini was invited to Vancouver, “I think it was the best thing to keep her here instead of canceling the performance.”

The kosher restaurant Shuk Eat & Play hosted an alternative Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration dinner for 110 attendees the same night.

“I heard Noa’s political sayings and I didn’t appreciate it,” said Shuk owner Alon Volodarsky. “So, some people who didn’t like her suggested we hold this dinner for those community members who still wanted to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut but didn’t want to attend the concert.”

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