Writer and director Adam Bogoch, left, and VTT Alumni Fund chair David Bogoch at the première of Vancouver Talmud Torah Onward: The 100-Year History on Sept. 17. For those who missed the sold-out screening at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre, the documentary can be watched online, via talmudtorah.com/vtt-onward-100-year-history or on YouTube. (photo by Jennifer Shecter-Balin)
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Promoting sanitation
A handwashing workshop in the village of Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India. Sydney Kamen started SOAP in 2012, with the goal of cutting in half the number of children under the age of 5 who die around the world from diarrhea and respiratory infections. (photo from Sydney Kamen)
Every year, 1.8 million children under the age of 5 die from diarrhea and respiratory infections. This number could be cut in half with proper sanitation and handwashing – which is precisely the goal of a 20-year-old Jewish woman from Washington, D.C., Sydney Kamen.
Kamen is working to achieve this target via the nongovernmental organization SOAP (So Others Are Protected), which she established in 2012.
“If you reduce the number of cases and number of deaths, then you reduce the burden on the international public health system … and that funding can go elsewhere to build infrastructure, etc.,” Kamen told the Independent. “It’s inspiring to me to think about the incredible impact one simple solution could have on a global scale.”
Raised in a Reform Jewish home that stressed community service, Kamen is a junior at Dartmouth College, majoring in geography with a minor in global health and ethics.
“When I was in middle school,” she said, “I was in a club and it was about girls’ education. We partnered with this school in Kenya. Once a week, we’d Skype with them and get to know each other. That was my first exposure to the different life experiences of my age group around the world…. It became girls’ and women’s health later, which really segued into this world of global health and wealth disparities … which then led me to the field of development, where I am now.”
In high school, Kamen joined a team of college students in rural Thailand to study marginalized, at-risk youth on the Thailand-Myanmar border.
“What does a white, Jewish girl from Georgetown know about not having access to clean water or not having access to sanitation?” said Kamen. “Nothing at all. So, this was a very eye-opening experience for me.”
Kamen stayed with a host-family in which the mother worked as a nurse clinician at a small rural health clinic. The host-mom explained how frustrating it was to see so many kids coming into the clinic with diarrhea and respiratory infections, but not being equipped to help – there was not enough access to sanitation.
In this remote community, which was, in a sense, an unofficial refugee camp, the people repurposed many things made from plastic and found ways to reuse many items. So, when Kamen came to them with the idea of repurposing unused shards of soap from local hotels, the idea was well-received.
“When I first arrived in Thailand, I was staying at a hotel, getting acclimated,” said Kamen. “I used to always bring home the soap, shampoo and conditioner. And then, I was exposed to this disparity and was told that, no, they don’t have soap. I thought, this is a problem … perhaps with a very simple solution. Simple things are sometimes the hardest things to identify, just because they are so simple.
“It’s something that took some time to come together. It was something I felt strongly about and it was an issue that I saw as a grave injustice. I think access to sanitation is a human right. Of course, this is not something unique to rural Thailand, it’s a global problem – lack of access to sanitation is a huge problem.
“I saw this as something well worth exploring. I came home and started talking to people in Washington about it … and it all came from that. It was definitely a collaborative effort and it’s something that’s very important. You can’t make big changes alone. It’s all about the collaborative group effort.”
Kamen made the link between the hotels and the community and created a win-win situation. The hotel reduced its disposal costs and the community created a business from the repurposed soap. So far, 13 communities and 14 hotels have joined the project and each community has their own way of making it work.
“It’s all about community ownership,” said Kamen. “That’s very important to me. Some communities recycle it one way and do different things with it, and others do other things.”
Once the hotel reaches a sufficient amount of collected soap, the shards are transported to SOAP’s partner communities who then recycle the shards by melting and reshaping them. Ultimately, the product is used to promote sanitation and handwashing in the communities.
Besides providing a platform to support sustainable economic growth and financial independence, this initiative is also helping train women in business, building cooperatives, as well as offering the women some funds to learn about sanitation and how to clean the soap bars. This allows them to become health ambassadors of a sort in the community.
To date, more than 50,000 bars of soap have been distributed.
As for Kamen, while she hopes to one day work full-time on the project, her current goal, she said, is to “learn my place in this field and how to do it to the best of my ability … and to do so humbly and mindfully. Something I’ve become hyper-sensitive to as a student is the ‘white saviour complex’ … and I’m fearful of it becoming a part of my efforts, as I see [it] very prominently in other development initiatives.
“In school,” she added, “my hope is to become aware and knowledgeable of these practices as much as possible. But, my role now is to support the partnerships that have already been made.
“The thing is, it’s a very simple solution to a very large problem. This soap model, if you will, is very mobile. It’s easily tailored to meet community needs, which is very important to me. I want it to be a self-ownership type of thing, where communities support each other and do it themselves. It’s not a hand out. It’s not some white young American going over and teaching people how to wash their hands because there’s this ‘primitive’ divide.”
Interest in Kamen’s idea is growing in general, but most important to her is that one of her partner communities has reached out, saying they want to establish something like this in the community next door.
“It was their own initiative, not something I sought out to implement, which, to me, is the whole point,” said Kamen. “Hopefully, the ownership is assumed by the people who need it and the people who benefit from it. That’s all that matters to me.”
Recently, Kamen was named one of the 15 recipients of the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards.
“I was incredibly honoured and excited,” she said. “The kind of support that award offers is incredible and generous. At the same time, as wonderful as this attention is, I think it’s important you do something good with it. It feels great, but it’s easy to get caught up in the accolades and what other people see and want for you.
“I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to share this story, but, also, I want to encourage my peers to learn about some of these global issues and think more deeply about our actions – especially those interested in development or international volunteerism.”
In her international development studies, Kamen found out that the U.S. military is one of the largest humanitarian actors in the world. As a Dartmouth student, she had the opportunity to become a reserve officer training corps cadet, which she opted to take to learn about the army.
“I grew up with the image of the military being a bunch of uneducated white guys who were trigger-happy and oil-hungry … which is not the case,” said Kamen. “This was the image I grew up with culturally.
“I figured it was time to learn the system from the inside and to humanize it. You can read all about the military and army in books, and you can talk to people about it, but why not try and understand it through experience? So, I joined the program with the hope of learning how it works and learning how they train future generations of leaders.
“I’ve been a part of it for just over two years now, and love what I’ve learned. The whole experience has been very humbling. I’ve learned about patriotism and what it means to serve, especially from my peers. But, I haven’t signed my contract yet, and that’s something I’m thinking about.”
For more information about SOAP, visit the NGO’s website, soothersareprotected.org.
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
Blogging about food, farm life
While food blogger Molly Yeh loves vegetables, she said she feels she has “more to contribute in the world of cake.” (photo by Chantell Quernemoen)
Blogger Molly Yeh, 28, is the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Chinese father. She grew up in a Chicago suburb in a house with great cooking by her mom and great music by her dad, giving her a lasting love and appreciation for both arts, even though it is food that has become her profession.
An accomplished percussionist, Yeh first pursued her musical passion, enrolling in Juilliard School in New York.
“What I discovered when I got to New York was how amazing the restaurant scene there was,” she told the Independent. “That really inspired me to get into food and tasting new things. I started cooking as well. I’d call my mother and ask her to send recipes … and I started baking a lot.”
When she started her blog, it was somewhat an extension of her diary. “I basically just used it as a scrapbook of adventures around the city and hanging out with friends and stuff,” she explained. “It quickly became clear that I only wanted to blog about food. So, I started doing recipe development and learning about food harvest and such. And then, four years ago, I moved from New York to the border of North Dakota and Minnesota, where my husband grew up. He’s a fifth-generation farmer.
“When we first moved here, I had a lot of time on my hands. I didn’t know that many people, I was working at the bakery in town…. But, other than that, I just worked on my blog a bunch and turned it into something that could become a business.
“It became my full-time job and then I also wrote my book, Molly on the Range, which includes a lot of the recipes from my upbringing in Chicago, to my time spent in New York, and then a lot of the recipes that I learned when I moved to where I live now.”
As a kid, Yeh had a penchant for starchy cuisine like challah and rugelach. At home, they marked both the major Jewish holidays as well as Christmas but, Yeh stressed, “I am Jewish. It’s an important part of my life.”
Her mom cooked Ashkenazi and Chinese food. “When she first married my dad, she took a dumpling- and dim sum-making class,” recalled Yeh. “So, I grew up with a stack of recipes she got from that class. Those sort of became the traditional recipes we’d make. On Christmas, we’d make our own Chinese food, and those were the recipes I grew up with.”
Yeh met her now-husband at Juilliard. He was a trombonist and they shared many of the same school friends. They began dating after they both graduated.
“In school, he was the quiet studious type,” said Yeh. “I was more the loud partier type. But, after we graduated, we started hanging out a bunch and I thought he seemed pretty cool. After a few years of dating and living in the city, we were both kind of ready for a slower pace of life … ready to be closer to family.”
Yeh joked that, when they went to visit the farm on which her husband spent his childhood, she told him, “OK. I’m moving here, whether you’re with me or not. I love it here! Let’s do it.”
Looking back, Yeh said, “It was a pretty easy decision, because we were just kind of ready after five or six years of living in New York City, going out every night, trying new restaurants every night and going to concerts and parties…. I was just ready to cook in a nice, big, sunny kitchen and have a garden, and not have to choose between 100 different pizza places. He grew up on the farm with a good relationship to it, but, because he was also playing trombone, he never saw himself going into farming full-time.
“But, both of us, while we were at Juilliard, separately made the decision that we didn’t want to be in an orchestra full-time,” said Yeh. “When you make that decision, there are still so many options for how you can have music in your life. We both like doing lots of different things, not just music.
“When the opportunity to farm came up, he felt strongly about carrying on the family tradition and keeping the farm in the family. None of his cousins or sister expressed an interest in taking over the family farm, so I think that there was big pull for him to come back and make sure it was carried on through the generations.”
The main crops they grow are sugar beets, wheat, soybeans and navy beans.
Yeh is an avid diary keeper, so when she learned that having a diary online was possible and that it was easy to put photos with it, she jumped at the idea of starting a blog. These days, her blog is primarily about food, but much of it is about travel, too.
“I share a lot of recipes that are influenced by Jewish cuisine, Israeli cuisine, and also cuisine in this area, in the upper midwest,” she said. “I also have recipes influenced by my Chinese heritage. I try to do recipes you wouldn’t really find anywhere else and recipes that tell a story, that are meaningful to me.
“I also just like keeping it in a diary format, so talking about what’s happening on the farm and my life these days.”
Yeh loves baking cakes, mostly because she gets to decorate them and they become edible art. She also likes making food that is celebratory, that people might bring to a party or share with others.
“I don’t think it’s totally a blog for everyday food,” she said. “It’s definitely a blog for recipes you might enjoy on a weekend, at a party, or when you’re splurging. I love making food that’s inspired by food I’ve had in Israel, because it’s so delicious and also healthy. I make a lot of hummus and salads, but I don’t blog that much about salads. I feel like I have more to contribute in the world of cake.”
Most of Yeh’s followers hail from English-speaking countries – from the United States, England, Canada, Australia, Germany and Israel.
“I love keeping the blog,” said Yeh. “Even if it wasn’t my job, I’d still keep it up. I see myself doing the blog forever. But, the landscape is always changing. Right now, people want more video. I can see videos really help people learn recipes, so that’s something I’m starting to get into.
“The book was really a great experience. I’m working on a smaller book right now. As long as it has to do with making food and being creative, then I’ll be excited about it. Who knows what form that will take on in the future?
“I want to give a shout out to the few blog friends in Vancouver. I’ve always wanted to do the cruise that goes from Vancouver up to Alaska. Vancouver just seems like the coolest place ever. One day, I’ll visit.”
To learn more about Yeh and her endeavours, visit mynameisyeh.com.
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
Mimicking silkworms
A silkworm viewed with an infrared camera. The pale elongated cavity is the silk gland. (photo from © 2017 Natural Materials Group)
Scientists have designed microscopic silk capsules that mimic, on a very small scale, the structure of silkworm cocoons. The capsules can serve as a protective environment for the transport of sensitive “cargo” such as natural silk proteins, antibodies or other delicate molecules. The collaborative research – which was performed by an international team of academics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel; the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Sheffield in the United Kingdom; and the ETH in Switzerland – may lead to a host of applications in the cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical industries, particularly in the delivery of drugs within the body. The findings were reported this summer in Nature Communications.
The use of natural proteins from which silkworms and spiders spin their elastic fibres has been limited, as these proteins have a tendency to clump together once extracted. Until now, researchers have been using chemically processed silk fibres, which have different mechanical properties and are relatively inert compared to the natural ones. Dr. Ulyana Shimanovich – then a postdoctoral fellow supervised by Prof. Tuomas P. J. Knowles at Cambridge and now head of a new lab in Weizmann’s materials and interfaces department – decided to find out what keeps the natural silk proteins from clumping together in the animal prior to the spinning.
The silk proteins are stored in liquid form in the silkworm’s glands before they are spun into the threads used to construct the cocoons. To imitate the natural process of structuring silk protein into protective capsules, the researchers used the principles of microfluidics, a field that deals with the control of fluid flow parameters on the micron-scale level. They placed proteins extracted directly from the glands of silkworms inside microscopic channels on a chip made of a silicon-derived polymer and caused the protein molecules to self-assemble into a gel-like material, exactly as in a silkworm. The gel formed microscopic capsules; within these capsules, the rest of the protein stayed protected as a solution, as it does in the animal’s gland. By controlling the viscosity of the silk protein solution and the forces acting upon it, the researchers have been able to control the capsules’ shape (round or elongated) and size: from 300 nanometres to more than 20 micrometres. Inside these artificial capsules, the natural silk proteins remained intact for an unlimited amount of time without losing their properties or ability to function.
“Making synthetic capsules is normally a complex and energy-intensive process,” explained Shimanovich. “In contrast, silk capsules are easier to produce and require less energy to manufacture. Moreover, silk is biodegradable.”
The tough silk capsules may be used to protect sensitive molecules, such as antibodies and other proteins, preventing them from losing desired qualities. The capsules can be employed, for example, to deliver drugs or vaccines intact to target organs. In particular, said Shimanovich, they may help develop future therapies for neurodegenerative diseases: because the capsules can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, they may enable the development of new treatment for these diseases.
As well, since the capsules are biodegradable, they may have multiple uses. For example, they might be employed in the food industry to incorporate healthful oil particles into bread or other products. Potential applications for natural silk proteins stored inside the new capsules include the development of skin treatments for burns or cosmetic use, and the design of strong elastic fibres for tissue engineering – for example, for the fabrication of improved biological implants.
The research team included Dr. Simone F. Ruggeri, Dr. Erwin De Genst, Dr. Thomas Mueller, Dr. Teresa P. Barros and Prof. Christopher M. Dobson of Cambridge; Dr. Jozef Adamcik and Prof. Raffaele Mezzenga of ETH Zurich; professors David Porter and Fritz Vollrath of Oxford; and Dr. Chris Holland of the University of Sheffield. Shimanovich’s research is supported by the Benoziyo Fund for the Advancement of Science; the Peter and Patricia Gruber Awards; and Georges Lustgarten.
הקמפיין ששמו “תפס אותך”
משטרת ההיכרויות: טיפים למי שמחפשים אהבה ברשת כדי להתגונן בפני נוכלים. (צילום: vancouver.ca/police)
תופעת הנוכלים ברשת ידועה. ככל שעולה מספר המשתמשים בשירותי און ליין, בעיקר באתרי היכרויות ובאתרים החברתיים – כדי להכיר מישהו, כן גדל מספר הנוכלים שמנצלים את תמימותם וגונבים מהם מידע אישי וכסף, או מפעילים אלימות. השתכללות הטכנולוגיה מאפשרת לנוכלים להגיע בקלות יתר לקורבנות. לפיכך החליטה משטרת ונקובר בצעד יוצא דופן לצאת בקמפיין בטיחות שכולל טיפים והנחיות לתמימים שמחפשים אהבה ברשת, כדי להגן על עצמם בפני נוכלים מתוחכמים. “אתם יכולים לחשוב שמי שהיכרתם ברשת הוא בן הזוג האידיאלי שלכם, אך עליכם לזכור שהוא עדיין אנונימי עבורכם. קחו את הביטחון בידיכם כאשר אתם ברשת ותורידו משמעותית את הסיכויים להכיר מישהו שחפץ לנצל אתכם”, אומרים במשטרה. הקמפיין ששמו “תפס אותך” כולל אתר ברשת עם סרטון קצר שהופק על ידי מחלקת פשעי מין של המשטרה (שהועלה ביוטוב), וכן סיפורים אישיים של שמי שנפלו קורבנות בידי נוכלים.
המשטרה מציעה לאלה שמחפשים להכיר בן או בת זוג באמצעות אתרים ברשת להיזהר מאוד. להלן מספר צעדים שמומלץ לנקוט בהם כאמצעי ההתגוננות להקטין את האפשרות לפגוש מישהו מאוד שונה ואולי אף מסוכן “ממה שמכירים”: 1). פרסם מידע מינימלי בפרופיל שלך שנמצא באתר בו אתה משתמש. 2). העלה תמונה לפרופיל שאינך מתשמש בה בשום שירות אחר באון ליין, כדי למנוע מהנוכלים לחפש באמצעות אפליקציית תמונות של גוגל אינפורמציה חיוניות עליך, במקומות אחרים ברשת. 3). השתמש בכתובת אימייל יחודית לאתר ההכרויות שבו אתה מפרסם את הפרופיל שלך, שאינה קשורה לאימייל הרגיל שלך. 4). צלם את הפרופיל של מי שמתקשר אליך ועשה עליו חיפוש יסודי בגוגל. 5). השתדל לצלצל למי שיצר עימך קשר כאשר מספר הטלפון שלך חסום. 6). היפגש עם בן הזוג הפוטנציאלי במקום ציבורי ורחוק מאזור מגוריך. 7). ספר לחבר קרוב על המפגש הצפוי עם האלמוני הנ”ל ומסור לו את כל האינפורמציה הידועה לך עליו. 8). בדוק כל אינפורמציה שהדייט שלך מסר לך בפגישה באמצעות גוגל. 9). מומלץ להיפגש את הדייט שלך מספר פעמים נוספות במקומות ציבור בטרם עוברים לשלב הבא. 10). אם הדייט שלך מבקש ממך כסף צריכה להידלק מייד נורה אדומה אצלך ועליך להפסיק מיידית את הקשר עימו. 11). עליך לזכור שלמרות שאתה משלם דמי חבר לאתר זה לא אומר שהוא בטוח.
במשטרה אומרים שאין אפשרות להצביע איזה אתרים ברשת נחשבים לבטוחים יותר או פחות. זה ידוע להם שיש לא מעט נשים תמימות שהופכות להיות קורבנות של נוכלים מתוחכמים שפועלים ברשת, והן נמצאות בסיכון גבוה של פשעי מין, אלימות והונאה. הם מדגישים כי פשעים אלה קורים שלא באשמת הקורבנות. “זה לגיטמי מאוד לנסות ולהכיר בן זוג ברשת באמצעות אתרי הכרויות שונים, וזה מצער שהנוכלים משתמשים בפלטפורמות מצויינות עבורם כדי לבחור חפים מפשע ולפגוע בהם פיזית וכספית”.
במשטרת ונקובר מציינים כי הם בטוחים כי רבים ממקרי האלימות וההונאה ברשת לא מדווחים, וזו הסיבה העיקרית להשקת הקמפיין “תפס אותך” והעלאת הסרטון עם הטיפים והאזהרות כיצד להתגונן מנוכלים. “אנו מעוניינים שהקורבנות יפנו אלינו וידווחו לנו על מה שקרה להם. כך נוכל להקצות את המשאבים המתאימים כדי להגן על אחרים מלהפוך לקורבנות ברשת. איננו יכולים לעזור על מה שלא דווח לנו. זה אף פעם לא מאוחר לעשות זאת. אנא בואו וספרו לנו על מה שקרה לכם”, מוספים עוד במשטרה.
מלחמת דוד בגוליית
קנדה נאבקת על עתידה של בומברדייה מול בואינג האמריקנית שמנסה לחסלה. (צילום: Jean Gagnon)
בעידן דונלד טראמפ קנדה נכנסת לכוננות כללית וממשלתה הליבראלית בראשות, ג’סטין טרודו, מנהלת בין היתר מאבק קשה למען עתידו של קונצרן התעופה בומברדייה איירוספייס מקוויבק, שהענקית האמריקנית בואינג מסיאטל מאיימת לחסלו. מאבק האיתנים הזה מתנהל בשולי הדיונים בשינויים בהסכמי הסחר החופשי של צפון אמריקה (נפטה) שהיקפם מוערך בלמעלה מטריליון דולר, המתנהלים בימים אלה בין ממשלות ארה”ב, קנדה ומקסיקו, לאור דרישותיו של הנשיא האמריקני. שלושה סבבים התקיימו כבר בין נציגי המדינות והדרך עוד ארוכה להגיע להסכמות אם בכלל, בזמן שהמשבר הגדול סביב פרשת בואינג-בומברדייה משאיר טעם מר אצל הקנדים, שחוששים מאוד מהתנהלותו המטורפת של טראמפ, המנהל מלחמות עם כול העולם ואשתו, ללא סימפטיה אפילו עם מדובר במדינה הקרובה ביותר לארה”ב בכל המובנים.
ועל מה נסוב המשבר בין שתי יצרניות המטוסים: בואינג טוענת כי בומברדייה קיבלה מענקי סובסידיה מהממשלה הקנדית (373 מיליון דולר) וממשלת קוויבק (מיליארד דולר), שמנוגדים להסכמי הסחר בין המדינות. גם ממשלת בריטניה העניקה סובסידיה לבומברדייה, כיוון שמפעל גדול שלה נמצא בצפון אירלנד ומעסיק כ-4,500 עובדים. כזכור ראש ממשלת בריטניה, תרזה מיי, הצליחה להקים שוב ממשלה, בזכות המפלגה היוניוניסטית הדמוקרטית מצפון אירלנד, והיא רוצה להראות להם שעושה היא הכל למען בומברדייה.
לטענת בואינג הסובסדיות עזרו רבות לבומרדייה להוריד את משמעותית את המחיר בעיסקה עם דלתא (חברת התעופה השנייה בגדולה בארה”ב) שנחתמה ב-2016, לרכישת 125 מטוסים מהסדרה סי שהיא מייצרת. מדובר במטוסים לא גדולים (עד 150 מקומות ישיבה) שמיועדים לטווחי טיסה קצרים ובינוניים בלבד והם נחשבים לחסכוניים בדלק.
בואינג הגישה תביעה כנגד החברה הקנדית למשרד הסחר האמריקני, שפתח בחקירה מואצת ועדיין לא הסתיימה. המשרד החליט עקרונית להטיל מכסים בשיעורים חסרי תקדים של 219% על מכירות מטוסי סדירה סי של בומברדייה, לדלתא ולחברות אמריקניות נוספות, דבר שיהפוך את העיסקות ללא כידאיות. אם באמת יוטל המס הזה יביא הדבר קרוב לוודאי לחיסולה של סדרת הסי, למעט אם בומברדייה תצליח למכור את מטוס הנוסעים החדיש שלה לחברות אירופאיות וסיניות. התאיד הקנדי גם כך מקרטע ולא ברור כלל אם הוא יצליח לשרוד בשנים הבאות, לאור תחרות הולכת וגוברת עם שתי יצרניות המטוסים הענקיות בואינג וארייבוס האירופאית, והיצרנית באותו גודל אמבראר הברזילאית. גם חטיבת הרכבות של התאגיד – בומברדייה טרנספורטיישן (שמספקת רכבות וקטרים לרכבת ישראל) מתקשה לעמוד בתחרות עם יצרניות רכבות שונות, בהן מסין ולאור המיזוג בין סימנס הגרמנית ואלסטום הצרפתית.
הממשלה הקנדית החליטה להשיב מלחמה לכוונות האמריקנים וטרודו לשם שינוי בנאום חריף לתקשורת, הודיע כי ממשלתו לא תדון עם בואינג שתובעת את הממשלה, על עיסקת רכישת שמונים ושמונה מטוסי קרב חדישים לחייל האוויר הקנדי, בהיקפים של בין 15 ל-19 מיליארד דולר. טרודו אף ציין כי ממשלתו נהגה כשורה ובסך הכל היא העניקה הלוואות לבומברדייה. כך טענה גם מיי. הפרמייר של קוויבק, פיליפה קולרד, יצא בחריפות גדולה נגד בואינג על הכוונה לפגוע בבומברדייה, שהמעסיקה אלפי עובדים במחוז. בצרוף כל ראשי האופוזיציה קולרד הודיע כי ינהל מאבק עיקש נגד הגזרות האמריקניות, ושום מטוס או אפילו חלק של בואינג לא יכנס לקנדה כל עוד לא יבוטל המכס הכבד נגד בומברדייה.
בינתיים מתברר כי גם ממשלת ברזיל החליטה לצאת למלחמה נגד בומברדייה באותו נושא שפוגע באמבראר, והיא פנתה כבר לארגון הסחר העולמי.
A novel born of heartbreak
Nathan Englander will be in Vancouver on Oct. 22 to discuss his latest novel, Dinner at the Center of the Earth, at a salon hosted by the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival. (photo from Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival)
You won’t have to travel to the centre of the earth to meet award-winning, bestselling American author Nathan Englander. On the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 22, he will be in Vancouver for a writers salon hosted by the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival.
The Jewish Independent spoke to Englander by phone last week. He had just arrived in Seattle by train, his flight there having been canceled. In the midst of a tour for his latest novel, Dinner at the Center of the Earth (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), he spoke to the JI between back-to-back events.
Englander’s novel is a compelling read in which he explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via five characters. To simply quote from the publishers, who sum it up succinctly: “A prisoner in a secret cell. The guard who has watched over him a dozen years. An American waitress in Paris. A young Palestinian man in Berlin who strikes up an odd friendship with a wealthy Canadian businessman. And the General, Israel’s most controversial leader, who lies dying in a hospital, the only man who knows of the prisoner’s existence.”
Each of these characters is fascinating, and Englander displays a remarkable talent for being able to put himself inside people’s heads, to clearly and realistically explain their feelings, their motivations. The characters both set events in motion and are carried along by events out of their control. One of the main characters, “the General,” lies in a coma and yet Englander fully develops him as a living, breathing human being.
The General is obviously based on former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who died in 2014 after having been in a coma since 2006. Englander’s character is a large man, he has been in a coma for years, he once ruled the country and was a tough, controversial military figure (“an unrelenting warrior”), his wife was named Lily, one of his sons was shot and killed, etc., etc. Nonetheless, Englander was adamant that the character not be seen as Sharon, but as “inspired” by him.
Englander said he knew people would come “locked and loaded with [their] politics to this story…. I thought it was really important that, wherever the parallels are [from] one reality to my fictional reality, that my general be his own character … so that I could fully empathize and fully get into his head. Even for me, I needed to build my own person, whatever the warring personal parallels are.”
Reading Dinner at the Center of the Earth, one does get the impression that Englander was trying to sort out his own views about the conflict, rather than make any pronouncements or come down on any particular side.
“It was imperative to me that this not be didactic and not be a big lecture,” he said. “I have a 500-page version of the book that I cut in half. I just wanted it to be story-driven and character-driven, for people to be able to enter into the discussion or to reflect on where they entered the book and where they left it, on their own positions.”
For his part, he said he’s learned a lot about the book from being on the road. One of his first tour events was with fellow writer Jonathan Safran Foer, who commented on the parallels between the dinner of the book’s title and a dinner that takes place between the guard and the prisoner; an aspect that Englander hadn’t considered. “I wish I had been smart enough to consciously think of it,” he said, “but the subconscious takes care of that for you.”
While Englander insists that “there’s no position in this book,” one woman, after a tour event, argued that it takes “a position on peace,” that it’s hopeful about the prospect. From this and other exchanges, Englander admitted, “I really do believe that the more it [peace] seems impossible, the more I believe we have to make it possible.” But, he said, about writing any messages into the book, “I can’t tell you how much of it was conscious intent versus subconscious work. For me, all my conscious intent was this idea of it to land on no side, for us to explore.”
For Englander, two lessons learned from being a reader himself helped shape this novel. One is that a well-functioning book represents a shared experience between an author and a reader. “I used my brain to write it and then there’s this physical thing that you can pick up and read,” he said, and so, in writing Dinner, he fought “against all punditry and ‘mansplaining’ and lecturing and … didactic” inclinations.
The other aspect he keeps in mind while writing, he said, is all the unanswered questions he had as a boy growing up in a religious environment. “It’s the books where people were brave enough to wrestle with the questions that changed me. All of the books that changed my life, that saved me, none of them had answers, they just were by authors who truly were willing to wrestle with terrifying questions. So, for me, I really wanted to structure this [novel] to swing back and forth and back and forth…. I wanted to mirror the circles of the conflict, these unending cycles.”
The story of Dinner at the Center of the Earth had been percolating since Sharon became prime minister of Israel in 2001. About the Second Intifada and Sharon’s election win, Englander said, “That was my first adult political heartbreak of that size…. All those years of work [on peace], it was right there.”
The more distant we get from peace, he said, the more “you may think it’s impossible, but it was really right there for the taking. I just couldn’t shake it. I was desperate to explore this unending conflict. So, yes, it may be just the tiniest glimmer of optimism [in the novel] but I do think it’s optimistic in the end, however dark some of the turns are.”
He hasn’t been writing the novel for 16 years, of course. He had the idea and needed a structure for it, which he found on his last book tour, while in Israel. The front page of the newspaper he was reading had a story on “Prisoner X, this Australian guy [who had a life] so similar to my life in a lot of ways – maybe he got more Zionism and I got more Bible but [he was] a religious, Anglo Jew who ends up moving to Israel.” This man not only “adopted an ideology” but joined Mossad, did “scary deep undercover stuff and then becomes a traitor.” His situation made Englander wonder, “What would it take to flip someone for empathy, out of feeling for the other side? That’s what would interest me,” so Prisoner X became Dinner’s Prisoner Z.
The other notion about Prisoner X that intrigued Englander was that the public only found out about Prisoner X’s existence after the man hanged himself. “He only lived in the moment he died, and there was no X and no cell until the moment he hanged himself.”
Englander’s imagination seems to know no bounds. His stories and novels are set in various countries (Russia, Israel, United States, Argentina, to name a handful) and his characters range from an Orthodox rabbi who supplements his income by being a mall Santa Claus – one of the many people readers meet in Englander’s first book, the collection of short stories For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999) – to the General of Dinner, his fourth book. Englander is also working on a second play because, he joked, with 10 years between his first and second book, he had to tell people he “wrote book” for a living and, since his first play in 2012, he’s been writing “books and play.”
One theme that runs through all his work, regardless of form, topic or setting, he said, is that they explore “grey space, or Schrödinger’s cats, multiple realities.”
“As the books go by, I see that I’m clearly … obsessed with this grey space, which I think is probably from having a black-and-white education and growing up in a black-and-white reality,” he said. “Especially now, I can’t understand people who can’t see the other side.”
By way of example, he said, “I learned that in Israel, where I was a Jew living in Jerusalem, whose holy site was the Temple Mount … it became clear to me this wasn’t a disagreement, or something on a spectrum, that my Palestinian neighbour, she is living in Al-Quds and Haram al-Sharif is her holy site. We were living in the same physical space but in literally separate realities.”
This is also the case in the United States now, he added. “There are regular citizens that, because of the dual realities we now have here … you could show them two pictures of an inauguration, one with more people and one with less, and you’d have regular folks say, yes, the picture with less people has more people in it. That’s not an opinion, that’s inhabiting a different reality.”
Human beings can make anything happen, said Englander. “We’ve sent people to the moon and brought them back,” he said, and our cellphones have far more power than did any Apollo mission. So, you want to make peace? “Everyone knows the math there. Don’t anybody pretend they don’t know who’s going to trade what. There are some very minor, tweakable things. Don’t tell me everybody doesn’t know what they need to do to make that peace happen tomorrow, if they wanted it to happen.”
Englander immerses himself in his work. For The Ministry of Special Cases (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), a novel about Argentina’s Dirty War, he did years of research. “You need to own that world,” he said, in order “to drop my own ministry on top of that city [Buenos Aires].” He said it is akin to being an artist in, say, Cubism: “You need to know how to paint before you can put both eyes on one side of the face.”
With Dinner at the Center of the Earth, Englander said he was returning to familiar ground, which required much less research.
“I’ve had so many different sides of the experience, from the Jerusalem of the Bible that I had my whole life, to living in Israel in the First Intifada to getting a degree in Judaic studies to living in Israel for another five years, to watching the news a million hours a day to reading the papers.” He’s also on the faculty of New York University, which has taken him to cities like Paris and Berlin, both of which are integral places in his latest novel. “I was very interested in exploring territories that felt like ‘my territories,’ including historical [ones],” he said.
For things he didn’t know, he sought advice, such as speaking to a doctor friend about what it means to be in a coma and learning about boats and the mechanics of sailing from people who knew about those things.
As for the writing of the book and how it came out, he said that he reworked the rough draft of the novel for almost a year, while he and his family were in Zomba, Malawi, where his wife, Rachel, was doing research for her PhD. “It was an extraordinary place for me to be, somewhere so far and so radically different from my own realities and where I’d lived…. It was a very special place from which to imagine these places and draw off memory.”
The pre-book festival salon will take place Oct. 22, 2-4 p.m., at a private residence (address will be given to ticket buyers). Tickets are $72, which includes copy of Dinner at the Center of the Earth and a reception. Visit jewishbookfestival.ca to reserve your place at the salon and for more information about this year’s festival, which takes place Nov. 25-30.
A widening community
Alex Cristall, general chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign, has pledged $250 for every new donation this year or donation from someone who didn’t donate last year. (photo from JFGV)
The hashtag for this year’s Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver annual campaign is #WeCan’tAffordToLoseThem. “We want to make everybody feel needed and part of the community. For the health of our community, we need everybody,” explained Alex Cristall, general chair of the campaign.
“Last year, due to the times, we focused on security. This year, it’s about affordability and connectedness,” he said. “If you live in the core, where we have a lot of infrastructure, it is extremely expensive, even people of means struggle. When you add being Jewish on top of that – sending your kids to Jewish day school, going to summer camp – it’s costly. It’s also very expensive for seniors. People are making decisions that it’s too expensive to be Jewish. That’s a big issue. We want to make it easy to live a meaningful Jewish life.”
For this year’s campaign, Cristall has pledged $250 for every new donation or donation from someone who didn’t donate last year, a fact he’s eager to get out to the community. “The last couple of years, we’ve had some real success with the growth of our campaigns, but we’ve also had a number of donors that we’ve lost,” he said. “We want people to know that every donor counts, no matter what the dollar value is, because when people get involved and give, that’s how you grow community.”
Federation has been working to expand its reach to the Jewish communities developing in regions outside of the city. “This is the first time that half of our growing population lives outside of Vancouver,” said Cristall. “We have to figure out a way to get services out to Surrey, Burnaby, Langley, the Tri-Cities, North Vancouver. We’re going to see continued Jewish growth in the suburbs. The big push is to help our partners reach these people and connect them to the community.
“To that end,” he said, “the Federation has had events in Port Moody, [and supported] a camp out in the Tri-Cities, with kids coming in from Langley. We’re increasing our subsidies to schools, camps, the JFSA [Jewish Family Service Agency], so that everyone who wants to participate can find a way to participate. If you live in the city, we want to make it affordable and accessible and, if you live out in the suburbs, to make them feel part of the community and to embrace them.”
This is the second year of Cristall’s time as campaign chair. “I have a great cabinet with me,” he said. “We’re all equals but, for these two years, I’m the voice of the campaign. The core message we’re trying to convey is ‘building community,’ helping people to live meaningful Jewish lives.”
Despite the centrality of fundraising to the Jewish Federation’s activities, giving money is not the only way to help Federation serve the Jewish community.
“Volunteering, reaching out to more donors, canvassing, boards, different agencies, coming to events – our job is to fundraise for these agencies, give up some time. There is a spot for everybody to help,” said Cristall.
Asked how he got involved serving the community, Cristall pointed to his parents, Lorne and Sylvia Cristall, decades-long philanthropists and volunteers in the Jewish and general communities.
“As a kid,” he added, “I also went to Jewish day school, to summer camp. I was always very involved in the community. I’ve benefited from being part of the community and it feels good to give back.”
For more information about the campaign and to donate, visit jewishvancouver.com.
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.
Three Vets closes this month
Jerry, left, and Keith Wolfman. (photo by Matthew Gindin)
I’m vacillating between anxiety and bliss,” said Jerry Wolfman. After 50 years of working alongside his younger brother Keith in what was once their father’s store, Vancouver’s Three Vets is coming to an end.
“The anxiety comes from thinking about what happens the day after the doors close,” Jerry explained to me from behind one of the two cash registers at the front of the store. “The bliss comes from the freedom that will follow.”
The camping equipment and military surplus store first opened its doors 70 year ago, at Prior and Main streets. The building of the Georgia Viaduct forced the store’s move to its current location, on Yukon Street at 6th Avenue, which will close Oct. 29. A giant banner over the front door announces, “Closing Out Sale: Up To 70% Off!”
Inside, the shelves are still littered with camping goods, gadgetry, clothing and hunting equipment. Through a small door on a side wall, First Nations masks and decorated wooden paddles can be glimpsed, belonging to Jerry’s other business, selling indigenous arts and crafts, which, he said, he plans to continue.
Keith is a little more sanguine about the future, at least on the surface. “What am I going to do? I’m going to take a chair yoga class and go swimming at the JCC.” He said he might also help members of his family with their business or kibitz around with other side projects.
Both Keith and Jerry grew up helping in the store, which was founded by their father, Bill Wolfman, and two other army veterans. Wolfman senior began the business with the idea of ending a shortage of bedding in logging and mining camps by using military surplus.
Keith and Jerry’s early trajectories seemed to point away from involvement in the business. Jerry went to college to study anthropology but didn’t see a future in it. Keith went traveling, at one point backpacking overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu through Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Both brothers made their way back to their father’s store in their 20s, however, and haven’t left.
Jerry said it was their love of camping and the outdoors that resulted in the expansion of the store from a military surplus provider to “the great outdoor store” their sign declares them to be. Eventually, their range of merchandise expanded even further, to include housewares, emergency preparedness supplies, rain gear, travel accessories and other odds and ends that struck the brothers’ fancies. They also offered repairs for lanterns and stoves. The business often served police officers, firemen, ambulance personnel and film crews.
Some years ago, Keith and Jerry were approached by a land developer to sell the store, but they refused. The next offer they received was too good to turn down.
Other factors influencing their decision to close up shop, said Jerry, was the increase in big-box competitors, the growth of the online marketplace and increasing property taxes.
Earlier this year, on April 24, Three Vets announced the closure on its Facebook page. “It has been an absolute pleasure helping all of you with your outdoor needs,” said the statement. “We have enjoyed helping you get ready for camping trips, hiking treks, summer camp and other outdoor activities and we loved hearing about your adventures when you returned home. We can’t thank you enough for all the support you have offered us over the years.”
The Wolfman brothers have not just received support but given it in abundance, supporting a number of causes and organizations in the Jewish and general communities.
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.
Magic to amaze and educate
Partial proceeds of Randy Charach’s Oct. 14 show at the Rothstein will be donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association. (photo from Randy Charach)
Anyone who has seen Randy Charach perform will swear he can read people’s minds. He certainly is attuned and sensitive to his audience, and those brave and lucky enough to become part of his high-energy, humour-filled show, which he will be bringing to the Rothstein Theatre Oct. 14, at 7 and 9 p.m.
“It has been five years since I’ve done a public show in Vancouver,” Charach told the Independent. “Most of my work is in the United States, as a corporate speaker and entertainer. The performances I’ll be doing at the Rothstein Theatre on Oct. 14th is my newest show. I’ll be blending my life’s work as a comedian, mentalist, magician and hypnotist. I’m looking forward to providing a memorable experience for my Vancouver audience.”
According to the press material, Charach has been entertaining people since he was 5 years old, “inspired by his uncle, a Las Vegas magician.” He has performed around the world, including on major television networks and even in film. A certified practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming and a certified hypnotist, Charach invites people to join him on stage: “As the excitement grows, the crowd watches in amazement as other audience members enter a hypnotic state and become stars of the show.”
“I love to amaze people,” said Charach about what he enjoys most about performing. “The art of magic has been a passion since childhood, and something I see as analogous to life. As a society, we constantly thrive to have our expectations met. When we are surprised, delighted and amazed, we often become elated. This feeling occurs in performance, in personal interactions and in business. When we surprise people, we become memorable.
“I write of this in my latest business growth book on Amazon, Client Centric,” he said. “I teach it in the book and at my corporate presentations, All Business is Show Business and All Life is Show Business. When we continue to amaze others by exceeding their expectations, it’s not magic, but it works like magic. This is an example of how art imitates life and my analogy of how magic is present in all our lives.
“Performing magic has evolved for me to the point where I have taken my interpretation of the art to a new level. While on stage, I am in a heightened state of consciousness, which I am unable to replicate any other way. Magic is present in every aspect of my life, and it pleases me to share it during my performances.”
Despite this love of entertaining, Charach said there were years when he didn’t perform at all.
“My decision to return to the stage,” he said, “was made at a group event hosted by Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman of Chabad in Richmond. The rabbi stated we must share our talent with others. It was at that moment I looked at my wife Chana and said I would be performing again. I suppose it’s in my blood. Entertaining and educating is part of my life’s purpose.”
Partial proceeds of the Oct. 14 show will be donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
“Mental illness is prevalent in our society, and I don’t feel this condition receives the attention it requires,” said Charach. “I’ve personally dealt with depression over the years, and am aware I am not alone. I do my best to raise awareness and plan to do more. I hope the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination stop.”
For more information, videos and to reserve your seats at one (or both) of the Oct. 14 shows at the Rothstein, visit randytickets.com or call 1-800-838-3006. Tickets are $36 (plus service charge).