In spring 2014, an open call was circulated inviting artists to submit proposals for artworks to be included in the new Delbrook Community Centre in North Vancouver. In response, 64 artists from across Canada and the United States submitted expressions of interest. Among the few chosen was Mia Weinberg’s “Close to Nature’s Heart.” The official opening takes place at the community centre June 24, but visitors can see it at the centre anytime.
Weinberg’s “Close to Nature’s Heart” transforms the floor surface of the centre’s main lobby level and adjoining exterior plaza into a giant canvas. A unique cement skimming process was used to embed the image of a magnified leaf skeleton, complete with stem and veins, across the polished cement floors. The artwork invites visitors to “come in and play,” as many of the leaf veins display the names of local streets. For newcomers to the facility, the street names provide a visual prompt to navigate through the space.
As an artist specializing in site-specific public art projects, Weinberg is driven by the belief that art has the potential to make us more present and engaged in our world. Born in London, England, she moved to Vancouver in 1987 and graduated from Emily Carr University in 1994. Since that time, her work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally. Her art practice explores the interplay between the natural environment and the places where we live, our personal memories and our collective civic and cultural stories.
“In my public art projects,” writes Weinberg in her artist’s statement, “I often juxtapose imagery of local plants and maps of the surrounding area to celebrate connections between them, and to uniquely ground each piece in the place where it will be installed.”
About “Close to Nature’s Heart,” she explains, “The big leaf on the floor is a fanciful approximation of reality, not a realistic street map – a visual invitation to engage the imagination. Children, their parents and visitors of all ages will see the individual components of their neighbourhood – the streets where they live – reimagined as vitally connected to each other and part of a living, thriving organism that draws its strength from each individual part and in turn nourishes the whole. It is my hope that the artwork will spark an ongoing sense of play among kids as they seek out their own streets and their friends’ streets. On a more practical level, the veins will provide visitors with a subtle and beautiful visual wayfinding that will guide them into and out of the building and to the reception desk from the elevators.”
For more about Weinberg’s public artwork, visit miaweinberg.com/engraving. For information on the other two works selected by Delbrook Community Centre, visit nvrc.ca.
Left to right: Ali Abu Awwad, Shaul Judelman and Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger. (photo by hiddensparksphotography.com)
By bringing together Jewish settlers and Palestinian refugees, Roots is trying to help achieve peace.
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger is one of the leaders of this group, which was established in 2014 by Ali Abu Awwad and Shaul Judelman. In being involved, Schlesinger said he is following in the steps of Rabbi Menachem Froman, who, “for most of his career, for three or four decades, advocated getting Palestinians who we live among to come to a point of dialogue, reconciliation and understanding.
“Froman’s students started a movement called Eretz Shalom, Land of Peace,” explained Schlesinger. “This organization did some activities to bring together Palestinians and Israelis, but really never made it off the ground. When he died, in 2013 … the students who were following in his footsteps, in terms of dialogue connections between Palestinians and Israelis, felt that they had better do something to continue his legacy…. Otherwise, it’s going to be gone.
“Those students, with his widow, in the last week of January 2014, had a little event together with some Palestinians they’d met, which brought together about 15 people from each of the sides. And, 95% of the people there were Israelis and Palestinians who’d met the other side during their lifetime, [were] involved a little bit in reconciliation. The one person there who had never been before was me.”
Schlesinger was deeply affected by the event. He had lived in Gush Etzion for 30 years, and had never met a Palestinian. And, upon meeting some of them, he realized how distorted his idea was of Palestinians.
“I went into a spiritual introspection of revisiting who I was and what I was doing on this land,” Schlesinger told the Independent. “And I forced myself to begin a journey that was leading me to examine many of my core beliefs – realizing it wasn’t just me and my people, that there was another people here who also belong here.
“Without really meaning to, I found myself creating a movement that was embodying this need to open up eyes and hearts, and continue my spiritual process, as well as help others in the spiritual process … that we, the Jews, are not the only ones in this land … that there are other people here and we need to take into account their existence, their humanity, their needs, their suffering.”
Schlesinger met with Palestinians who had been working toward a solution for more than a decade, but only with secular Israelis in Tel Aviv. Until Schlesinger made the connection, they had not sat down with Jewish settlers.
“They’d never met their own neighbours, who are religious Jews, who are deeply connected to the land in a religious, historical sense,” said Schlesinger.
As was the case with Schlesinger, these Palestinians began to undergo a transformation in their understanding. The Israelis with whom they had spoken before then had explained Zionism as of 1948, sometimes as far back as the 1880s. But the secular Israelis had never explained, because, Schlesinger said, they didn’t really know themselves, the ancient Jewish connection to the land – the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean.
“These Palestinians were getting to know the foundations of Zionism and the Jewish history, culture and religion … just as I was getting to know the fact that there are Palestinians and that they have been living here for many, many years,” said Schlesinger. “Both sides were undergoing revelations.”
Seeing these positive results on a micro-level, with one another, they decided to create a foundation for macro-transformation.
According to Schlesinger, the Oslo Accord did not go far enough. He explained, “It didn’t involve religious Jews or settlers who are deeply connected to the roots of the conflict, the land and history. It marginalized them and swept under the rug, ignoring the roots of the conflict. On the Palestinian side, it didn’t involve observant Muslims. It didn’t involve people deeply connected to the land and history – the people today that they call ‘Hamas.’”
With about a thousand people from each side stepping up and coming to events, Schlesinger understands this is only a drop in the bucket. But, he takes solace in the fact that this is only the beginning.
“Those who do hear of us on both sides, most are critical or skeptical … [seeing us as] ridiculous or traitorous … [because we believe] the other side is worthy to talk to … is human,” said Schlesinger. “It’s really hard going, an uphill struggle. I’ll even say that, especially for our Palestinian partners, it’s particularly challenging. They’re being confronted in their societies and are asking themselves how they can allow themselves to go against the accepted narrative.”
Roots has created different activities with a focus on the youth, keeping in mind the larger goal of transforming Israeli and Palestinian societies.
“For the Palestinians, in their society, ‘dialogue’ is a dirty word,” said Schlesinger. “Dialogue is just a way for the Israelis to buy time before they completely take over their land and destroy them…. Again, their narrative is that Israelis just want to talk and that nothing comes of it.
“When we organize our summer camp and photography workshop, we have to really make it clear to Israelis that the goal is not [only] to get to know the Palestinians. The goal is to get to know them, so that we will have a foundation to bring peace and justice.”
Roots is now working with high school students, where the youth meet three times a month and have joint activities, meals, field trips and conversations about identity, narrative and truth. “This is creating ongoing connections that are powerful,” said Schlesinger.
The group is working to develop political awareness on both sides. They are finding that this aspect is moving much faster on the Palestinian side, as their situation is more dire.
“For the Israelis living here, life is more or less normal,” said Schlesinger. “Every once in awhile, someone is attacked with a knife or a gun and someone may be killed or injured, and that’s a terrible tragedy. But, most people are not killed in terrorist attacks and most don’t have children with relatives killed. Most people have normal lives.
“On the Palestinian side, it’s different. They live under military occupation every single day and they are suffering: suffering from poverty, disenfranchisement and from having their dignity stripped of them.
“I say all that to explain that although on the Israeli side the status quo, is not so bad and most people are willing to live with it … on the Palestinian side, the status quo is insufferable. Our hope is nothing less than peace, justice and reconciliation.”
A documentary has been made about Roots. Called The Fields, it focuses on the founding leaders on both sides – Schlesinger and Judelman on the settlers’ side and Awwad and Khaled Abu Awwad on the Palestinian side. A trailer of it can be watched at friendsofroots.net.
A statue of Amir Timur. (photo by Deborah Rubin Fields)
The 14th century was not a great time for European Jewry, to say the least – there were various kinds of persecution, including forced conversions, expulsions and massacres, especially in Western Europe. Yet, the Jews of what is now Uzbekistan got through this period relatively unmolested.
Turko-Mongol military leader Timur (Iron), who ruled from 1370 to his death in 1405, is also known historically as Tamerlane, from the Persian Timur-i lang (Timur the Lame), and Amir Timur (or Temur).
Timur conquered central Asia and parts of India – today’s Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, large chunks of Turkey and Syria, and the northwestern portion of India. While it is estimated that his armies killed 17 million people, about five percent of the global population at the time, it seems he left Jews alone.
“Over the years, the moral justification for [Timur’s] campaigns … had evolved into a formality,” writes Justin Marozzi in Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World. “If the objects of his attentions happened to be Muslim, as they almost invariably were, then they had become bad Muslims. If they were infidels, so much the better.” Yet Michael Shterenshis, in Tamerlane and the Jews, contends that Timur did not consider Jews as infidels, at least not infidels needing to be violently eliminated, perhaps because they had no political ambitions and all they sought was Timur’s protection.
It would seem that Timur’s Jews were of more service alive than dead – which is a good thing, as Timur once reportedly constructed 28 towers from 70,000 of his enemies’ skulls, each tower consisting of 2,500 heads. According to Shterenshis, the ruler primarily used his Jewish subjects as taxpayers and skilled artisans. Jewish weavers and dyers contributed greatly to his efforts to rebuild the region and to reinstitute the abandoned Silk Road, which connected Europe to Asia.
Yu Datkhaev’s The Bukharan Jews is mentioned in Alanna E. Cooper’s Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism. According to Cooper, Datkhaev argues that the term “Bukharan Jews” came to be after Timur moved several hundred Jewish families from Bukhara to Samarkand to assist in overhauling Samarkand, his designated capitol. These Jews reportedly lived near Timur’s recently rehabilitated and stunning Registan.
Timur’s Jewish subjects appear to have been loyal followers. Indeed, while Jews are not mentioned in his court history, there is a preserved letter from Herat physicians who ask the permission of Shah Rukh (one of Timur’s sons) to treat Timur’s injured soldiers. Significantly, they are offering their services to the state army, notes Shterenshis.
Timur seemingly responded in kind. He never issued anti-Jewish proclamations, laws, orders or restrictions. He never oppressed the Jews for being Jews, says Shterenshis. Under Timur, he adds, Jews were able to own houses and land, and they could be farmers – the regime did not impose upon Jews the role of moneylenders.
Jews under Timur’s reign were better off than the Jews of Europe and those in the Mamluk Sultanate, but were worse off than those who lived under the Mongols of China. Under Timur, Jews enjoyed a legal, but inferior status, writes Shterenshis. In contrast to their appointed role in other countries, Timur’s Jews were not particularly used as translators or envoys and their main occupations seem to have been as artisans, local merchants and doctors, says Shterenshis, noting that Jewish doctors under Timur did not enjoy the enhanced status they had previously, from the 10th to 12th centuries. Nonetheless, in local Jewish legends, Tamerlane is painted in a favourable light, says the historian, and is even supposed to have moved the Prophet Daniel’s remains to a tomb in Samarkand.
Some sources indicate that the Jewish presence in Samarkand pre-dates Timur’s rule. Tenth-century Samarkand (as well as Khorezm, Osh and Kokand) apparently hosted famous Jewish scholars, known in the singular as khabr, a word derived from the Hebrew chaver (friend or colleague), “which they used to distinguish themselves from ‘commoners,’” writes Irena Vladimirsky in “The Jews of Kyrgyzstan” (bh.org.il/jews-kyrgyzstan).
Indeed, the notion that Jews had been living in Central Asia prior to Timur’s rise to power is reinforced by the late-12th-century traveling Jewish chronicler Binyamin M’tudela (Benjamin of Tudela), who described this community as having as many as 50,000 members, among them “wise and very rich men.” Furthermore, the Samarkand community apparently appointed someone as nasi (head) of their community, who collected the requisite taxes of a recognized ahl al-demma (protected group).
In that period, Jews reportedly made Samarkand a major Jewish centre, and community members contributed to the construction of Samarkand’s aqueduct.
In the centuries after Timur, Jews came to dominate the region’s textile and dye industry, according to historian Giora Pozailov.
Uzbekistan’s aging Jewish population is now mainly concentrated in the cities of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. Even before the demise of the Soviet Union, Uzbek Jews began leaving, mainly for the United States and Israel. As the JTA article “Dwindling at home, Central Asia’s Bukharian Jews thrive in
Diaspora,” which can be found at ucsj.org, notes, Bukhara’s two synagogues almost never open at the same time, so that at least one of them has a minyan.
Deborah Rubin Fieldsis an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with David Malka, father of Border Police officer Hadas Malka, who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist outside Jerusalem’s Old City on June 16. (photo by Kobi Gideon / Israel Government Press Office via Ashernet)
מלזיה ראשונה במדד המדינות שהטיסות בהן הזולות ביותר. ישראל במקום החמישים ושישה וקנדה במקום השישים וחמישה. (צילום: Laurent Errera)
אתר קיווי.קום לחיפוש טיסות זולות מפרסם זו השנה השנייה את רשימת המדינות בהן הטיסות הן הזולות ביותר. המדד לשנת 2017 כולל שמונים מדינות מהמתוירות ביותר ברחבי העולם. את הרשימה מובילה מלזיה, ישראל ממוקמת רק במקום החמישים ושישה וקנדה אף מאחוריה במקום השישים וחמישה. את הרשימה סוגרת במקום השמונים בלגיה. המדד מבוסס על עלות כרטיסי טיסה בממוצע למאה ק”מ של כמיליון טיסות. הוא כולל מספר פרמטרים ובהם: טיסות קצרות, טיסות ארוכות, עונות חמות, עונות שקטות, טיסות זולות וטיסות עם שירות מלא. כל המרות המטבעות של הטיסות נכונים ל-25 באפריל השנה.
להלן עשרת המדינות שמחירי כרטיסי הטיסה בהן הם הזולים. במקום הראשון מלזיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השני). במקום השני בולגריה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השניים עשר). במקום השלישי הודו ( אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הראשון). במקום הרביעי טורקיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום החמישים ושמונה). במקום החמישי רומניה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים ושבעה). במקום השישי אינדונזיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום החמישי). במקום השביעי פורטוגל (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הרביעי). במקום השמיני תאילנד (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים ואחד). במקום התשיעי שבדיה (אשתקד היא היתה במקום העשירי). ובמקום העשירי ספרד (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השלושה עשר).
להלן מדינות בולטות אחרי העשירייה המובילה. במקום האחד עשר דרום אפריקה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השביעי). במקום השלושה עשר יפן (אשתקד היא היתה במקום השבעים ואחד). במקום הארבעה עשר רוסיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השלישי). במקום החמישה עשר פולין (אשתקד היא הייתה באותו מקום). במקום השבעה עשר ניו זילנד (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים וארבעה). במקום העשרים אוקראינה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעה עשר). במקום העשרים ואחד איטליה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים ושש). במקום העשרים ושניים פינלנד (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השבעים וארבעה). במקום העשרים ושלושה איראן (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעה ושלושה). במקום העשרים וחמישה מקסיקו (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים ושניים). במקום העשרים ושבעה בריטניה הגדולה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השלושים ושניים). במקום העשרים ושמונה סין (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום האחד עשר). במקום השלושים ארצות הברית (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השבעה עשר). במקום השלושים ואחד צ’כיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים וחמישה). במקום השלושים ושתיים יוון (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום התשעה עשר). במקום השלושים וארבעה צרפת (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום העשרים ושמונה). במקום השלושים ושבעה קולומביה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום החמישים ושתיים). במקום הארבעים ושישה מצרים (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השלושים ושמונה). במקום הארבעים ושמונה ברזיל (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השמונה עשר). במקום החמישים גרמניה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישה עשר). במקום החמישים ואחד נורווגיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעים). במקום החמישים ושניים ונצואלה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישים). במקום החמישים ושישה כאמור ישראל (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעים וחמישה). במקום החמישים ושמונה ירדן (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעים ותשעה). במקום השישים ואחד שוויץ (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישים ושישה). במקום השישים ושלושה ארגנטינה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום החמישים). במקום השישים וחמישה כאמור קנדה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השבעים). במקום השישים ושישה דנמרק (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישים ושמונה). במקום השישים ושבעה טאיוואן (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום החמישים וחמישה). במקום השישים ושמונה דרום קוריאה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעים ואחד). במקום השישים ותשעה אוסטרליה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישים וארבעה). במקום השבעים מרוקו (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום הארבעים ושבעה). במקום השבעים ושלושה אוסטריה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישים ושבעה). במקום השבעים ותשעה הולנד (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השבעים ושניים). ובמקום השמונים והאחרון בלגיה (אשתקד היא הייתה במקום השישים ותשעה).
Stratford Hall Sabres and Ultimate Peace leaders-in-training in action this past April. (photo from Ultimate Peace)
Ultimate Peace uses team sports – specifically Ultimate Frisbee – as a vehicle for peace education in the Middle East (and beyond). It starts with throwing a Frisbee but leads to friendship, trust, shared leadership opportunities and powerful life lessons in communities where conflict is rife.
Founded on the core principles of mutual respect, friendship, non-violence, integrity and fun, a group from Ultimate Peace embarks on a North American Friendship Tour every year. Karym Barhum is the Middle East regional director for UP. Originally from Ein Rafa, an Israeli Arab village about 15 kilometres northwest of Jerusalem, he described this year’s cohort of 14 Israelis as “Arab, Jewish, Muslim and Christian youth living in very close proximity. They don’t go to the same schools, they just live in [separate] communities: Arabs with Arabs, Jews with Jews.”
This year, Ultimate Peace added a Vancouver leg to their usual itinerary. Following a stop in Seattle, a group of 15-to-18-year-olds was in Vancouver April 11-16. This part of the tour was made possible by Danie Proby and Ari Nitikman, co-founders of and head coaches at UltiPros; both are alumni of Stratford Hall school on Commercial Drive. Working with their connections, Proby and Nitikman set the ball rolling for an extraordinary experience for both the visitors and their hosts.
UP alumni and leaders visit schools, community centres, places of worship, homes and universities to spread awareness of UP’s Leaders-in-Training program. Barhum said it is a tremendous opportunity to see people “accepting everybody no matter who you are. We hope they’ll come back to the Middle East as ambassadors of UP, so they can educate others on how to accept differences.”
Samantha Gayfer, director of community development at Stratford Hall, said the school teaches students “they have a responsibility to give back and make a difference.”
Having arranged for Stratford Hall to host the UP event, families from the school billeted the 14 visiting students, who also spoke at other schools during their time here.
Gayfer described the billeting experience as “outstanding.”
“Arrangements were made for kosher and halal diets,” she said, “and the Jewish players had Passover while they were here. They organized a full meal with cultural and religious understanding.”
The impact of this gesture was not lost on her. “These are kids from families who live three miles from each other but never visit each other’s homes. Now they’re good friends.”
Naturally, there were questions. Gayfer asked the Arab students what their parents thought about their involvement in Ultimate Peace. The answer was always, “My family supports this.”
While she conceded that liberal parents are the most likely to enrol their kids in programs like this, it doesn’t take away from the power of showing Canadian kids what is possible, even in troubled regions. If such friendships are possible among Arabs and Jews in Israel, what can’t we achieve here in peacetime? she asked. “The more families you touch, the better,” she said, “to show that it’s not an insurmountable challenge, that we could live cohesively together.”
During their stay, Ultimate Peace won a tournament – a highlight of their trip. Gayfer said it was “an amazing experience for the kids.”
UP is an opportunity for youth to educate others about life in Israel. In talking about how one can be part of positive change by learning about multiple perspectives, they are also modeling new kinds of relationships: relationships that are necessary before conflict can diminish on a larger scale.
Stratford Hall student Matthew Chiang said he had an “awesome and unforgettable” experience with Ultimate Peace. “The kids were awesome, super-enthusiastic, funny and kind,” he said. “Personally, the two kids that stayed over at my house, Ohad and Faris, had a lot of common interests with me, such as ping pong, Rubik’s Cubing, playing cards, Ultimate, and even shopping. I had never met a person from Israel and I had no idea that they were so similar to me.”
Asked what he thought of the group as a whole, he described it as strong and cohesive. “The Jewish and Muslim students seemed like great friends who got along really well…. My family and I talked to them about their culture and religion. They seemed open and spoke without conflict,” he said.
“Kids involved in this program can send a message to adults that, although there is heavy conflict and anger here, in the end, we are all people who share interests and hobbies,” he said. “Ultimate really breaks the barrier in that conflict and embraces two different ideas and shares one common goal – to have fun.”
He added, “I think Ultimate Peace has strengthened the bond between Jewish and Muslim people and has started to break the barrier between them.”
As well as promoting physical and mental fitness, Ultimate Peace teaches life skills like leadership and communication and reinforces the importance of hope, kindness and collaboration.
“I thoroughly enjoyed how kind they were and how many common interests we had,” said Chiang. “Ultimate Peace is such a great organization with such an important purpose. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of their journey and I hope that I see them again.”
Barhum is already seeing the impact of UP’s tour on the students. “Many of them are making plans for a twinning program between schools in North America and schools in Israel. This would allow the Israeli kids to take turns playing host to overseas students.” Not satisfied with a single trip to Canada, he said, “They are looking to develop a stable program.”
None of this would be possible with the UP infrastructure behind it. Barhum described a spirit of openness and optimism in the leadership of the program.
“The board of directors trust and allow me and my staff to do things differently, always trying out new ideas,” he said. “They allow us to be open, to learn from others and to be able to change if necessary. This is one of the big things that inspires me and keeps me doing my job.”
The Vancouver stop, he said, was “a highlight – seeing our kids learning new stuff, recognizing that it is possible to live and share their lives with others from a different culture or religion.”
To learn more about and to contribute to Ultimate Peace, visit ultimatepeace.org.
Shula Klingeris an author, illustrator and journalist living in North Vancouver. Find out more at niftyscissors.com.
Shalhevet Girls High School founding board members, left to right: Rabbi Yosef Wosk, Terrance Bloom, Vivian Claman, Tannis Boxer and Marie Doduck. (photo from Shalhevet)
On March 16, Shalhevet Girls High School celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a gala at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue. The event paid tribute to the many accomplishments that this small school has made in the last decade.
Shalhevet works to educate and prepare their students in both Judaic and general studies as strong, grounded and proud Jewish women. The students are taught a sense of community activism and encouraged from Grade 8 to take an active role in their Jewish community. With these tools, the alumni of Shalhevet will be able to create Jewish homes and communities where there is an appreciation of the value of Torah, community and education.
Shalhevet alumni have been leaving their mark worldwide. In Israel, New York, France, Toronto, San Diego and here in Vancouver, these graduates are active members of their Jewish communities. As they continue their higher education in the universities of their choice, they are finding places to make kiddush Hashem (glorification of G-d’s name), making Shalhevet, along with the Greater Vancouver Jewish community, proud.
At the gala, the five founding board members of Shalhevet were honoured. These remarkable individuals are Rabbi Yosef Wosk, Marie Doduck, Vivian Claman, Terrance Bloom and Tannis Boxer. This group came together and made their dream of creating Shalhevet a reality – a flourishing place of academia and growth. They created yesh me’Ayin, something concrete from the imagined, and it is because of their hard work and dedication that Shalhevet can celebrate 10 successful years.
Shalhevet is excited for what the future holds, as the school continues to grow and add depth and diversity to their program. The board, staff, students, parents and other school supporters are all looking forward to many more years of service to the Vancouver Jewish community.
Shabbat Dîner en Blanc attendees, left to right: Dana Troster, Brent Davis, Eliane Nevares and Emily Holzman. (photo by Ori Nevares)
On June 2, approximately 90 Jewish young adults from the Greater Vancouver area gathered for Shabbat Dîner en Blanc at VanDusen Botanical Garden. People came dressed in their finest whites, enjoyed the gardens and mingled with new people. Although a wonderful opportunity to schmooze and unwind, the event had a bigger purpose.
The dinner was an introduction to a new initiative coming to Vancouver at the end of this month. On June 25, Vancouver will host its first Community Hackathon. Modeled after Hackathon events in tech companies that use software and inter-professional efforts to solve problems in a short period of time, the Community Hackathon will tackle pertinent issues facing our community and try to solve them collaboratively.
The project will be facilitated by UpStart, an organization based in San Francisco that aims to inspire and advance innovative ideas that contribute to the continued growth and vitality of Jewish life. More than 20 cities in North America applied to have a Community Hackathon and Vancouver, along with Portland and San Diego, were fortunate enough to be granted the opportunity.
The Hackathon will be a full-day event where young Jewish adults will use design thinking to generate project ideas. The top three projects, as determined by a panel of judges, will receive seed grants of $3,200 each, as well as training and mentorship from UpStart over the months to follow.
This is a rare opportunity for younger community members to meaningfully engage in positive and sustainable change. If you are in your 20s and 30s and are interested in participating in the Hackathon, which will take place at Museum of Vancouver June 25, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., go to jewishvancouver.com and click on “YVR’s Community Hackathon.” For more information, email Eliane Nevares at [email protected].
With solar panels, Innovation: Africa – founded by Sivan Ya’ari, centre – is helping bring light and water to African villages. (photo from Sivan Ya’ari)
“Growing up in Israel, we were a poor family,” recalled Sivan Ya’ari, founder of Innovation: Africa. “But the poverty I saw in Africa was true poverty. We can’t compare.”
Ya’ari spent part of her childhood in France, which later helped her land a job with Jordache, a jeans manufacturing company based in the United States that had some factories in French-speaking African countries.
“After spending time in villages and traveling to other countries, I realized that the main challenge in Africa, the main reason why Africa is still in poverty, is the lack of energy,” she told the Independent. “Because there is no energy, they can’t get access to medicine, vaccines – because there is no refrigeration. Because there is no energy, people don’t get access to good education. But, most importantly, people don’t have access to water.”
Ya’ari had imagined Africa to be a continent with little water, but she discovered there is actually plenty of water in Africa. However, the water is located in aquifers and, to get to it, you need to pump it – and to do that, you need energy.
“Growing up in Israel, I remember seeing solar panels on every building,” she said. “So, when I came and learned a bit more about energy, I thought, maybe we just need to transfer some of the knowledge and some of the technology to remote villages to give them a chance to access water and education.”
Ya’ari enrolled in Columbia University’s master’s in energy program and began fundraising to bring energy solutions to Africa.
As a student, Ya’ari started in one village, and then another, continuing to the point that, today, she has brought the technology – a large pump run by solar panels – to about 140 villages, and counting. The water is pumped into a large holding tank and then, with the help of gravity, flows to different taps that are installed throughout a village.
“Usually, we’re putting one tap two kilometres from the water pump system, another tap four kilometres from it and another … in all directions,” said Ya’ari. “So, with one water pump system, we’re able to reach many villages and people.”
Once the concept proved successful, Ya’ari founded Innovation: Africa, which operates in seven African countries. “In every country, we have an office with a local manager,” she said. “In Uganda, for example, we have seven full-time local people working who have all been trained. They are managing and doing the work on the ground.
“We first hire a company that does geological surveys. This provides information about how deep the aquifers are, how much water we can find and where would be best to drill. Then we hire a drilling machine company and have local contractors do the rest – installing the pump, the water tank, involving the community (meaning, the villagers) who decide where to instal the different taps.
“Once this is all installed, sometimes, in some villages, we instal an extra tank – only for irrigation technology (Netafim) that we bring from Israel – and then we provide irrigation pipes to the village.”
Each pump provides 30,000 litres on average per day per system.
Innovation: Africa recently received an award from the United Nations for their remote monitoring system – another technology that came from Israel.
“It’s off-grid, remote monitoring, so, at any point, we are able to remotely know how much water we’re pumping into every village,” explained Ya’ari. “If something breaks, meaning a pump hasn’t pumped water in 24 hours, we are notified about it by the system; not only us, but the local contractors and the local managers.”
Most of the funding has come from individuals and foundations, often with one individual or family sponsoring a village. On Innovation: Africa’s website (innoafrica.org), there is information about how to become a sponsor.
“We have a bar or bat mitzvah … choosing an orphanage to adopt and then they are traveling with their parents to be there when the kids get light for the first time,” said
Ya’ari. “We have families adopting villages. It’s very transparent, personal and concrete. The donors appreciate that they also have access to the remote monitoring. At any point on their phone, they are able to see how much energy was produced or consumed and how much water was pumped. They also know if something breaks. They are connected to the villagers. They go back and visit.”
According to Ya’ari, many children, especially girls, are kept out of schools in Africa so that they can walk the great distances necessary to get water.
“I believe that the best return on the investment is when we bring water to a village,” said Ya’ari. “What we found is that people are spending hours a day looking for water. Most of the time, the water they find is dirty and is not good for drinking. Once we bring clean water, the people are healthier. The changes we see … the children are going to school. We see a lot more girls going and getting an education. We see that they are growing food.
“What inspires me is the number of businesses villagers are able to grow with access to water. They are able to grow food and sell it in the market. They are making bricks and making their homes, no longer made with mud. We see livestock…. They are making more money.
“And, for the medical centres, it’s tremendous,” she said. “Once we provide a little energy and we buy a small fridge, then people come in from the capital to the village to help. The doctor, with energy, she can actually work.”
When it comes to the cost to make this happen, it is about $5,000 to light a classroom and $18,000 to light a whole school, including the homes of the teachers. To bring water to a entire village, it costs around $50,000.
No governments are involved in these projects. It is all about people on one end of the world helping out people on another end.
“Unfortunately, there is no shortage of villages waiting,” said Ya’ari. “In the seven countries that we operate, we have a long list of schools needing light and water centres. It has a lot to do with funding and people to adopt the villages. We have the people on the ground and the technology.”
Paul Shore gets a little help from his daughter at a recent book signing. (photo from Paul Shore)
Cultural pastimes, like pétanque, “recharge our joie de vivre, our delight in being alive; they free our minds; and they fuel our chutzpah for adventure. We must protect these beautiful little gifts, tie a bow around them, love and keep them safe,” writes Paul Shore in Uncorked: My Year in Provence Studying Pétanque, Discovering Chagall, Drinking Pastis and Mangling French (Sea to Sky Books, 2016).
The title pretty much describes the basic content of this delightful 164-page book, and gives a hint of the light touch with which Shore writes. His story will make readers reflect on their own pivotal life journeys, if they have been lucky enough to have them. Perhaps it will also make us recommit to what we’ve learned from such experiences – the need to stop and smell the proverbial roses, for example, and the joy and fulfilment that can come from opening ourselves up to new places, people, cultures – the list goes on.
It was his job that took Shore to Saint-Paul in 1999. When the Vancouver-based software company with which he worked opened an “outpost in the Nice area” of France – with him “as its sole initial employee” – he leapt at the opportunity. Telling his firm he wanted to live in a “cute small town,” he found himself in Saint-Paul de Vence.
“Little did I realize,” he writes, “that I was about to take up residence in a village that could be best described in summer as ‘gaudy tourist central’ because it was so famous and magical…. Nor did I know that the brilliant modernist painter Marc Chagall had lived, worked and was buried in my soon-to-be-surrogate hometown. Nor did I have a clue that Saint-Paul was tantamount to a holy site for an odd game called pétanque.”
“I lived in Saint-Paul for almost exactly one year – from January 1999 to late December 1999,” Shore told the Independent. “I had visited Nice the year before on a short business trip and dreamed about the possibility of someday spending a longer stint in the region. And I had been in the south of France years earlier, in 1990, as a Euro-Railing new university grad.”
Shore grew up in Ottawa, but has called Vancouver and its environs home for many years. He, his wife, Talya, and their two children have lived in Whistler since 2003.
“We are longtime members of Temple Sholom,” he said. “In Whistler, we get together with Jewish friends for major holidays and we visit Temple Sholom and family in Vancouver from time to time, too.”
There are a few Jewish terms and references in Uncorked and a pivotal exchange between Shore and a woman named Adele, the manager of an art gallery in Saint-Paul – she is the one who informs Shore that Chagall had lived and painted in the village. She also shares with him that Chagall was a Russian Jew and that she, too, is Jewish and her family came from Russia. “Comme ma famille [Like my family],” writes Shore, who explores his heritage further in the latter half of the book.
While there are various entertaining and touching tangents, the focus of Uncorked is Shore’s quest to learn the mysteries of pétanque, which he describes “for the uninitiated,” as looking “a little like the Italian game of bocce, or the British game of lawn bowling, or even the winter sport of curling that is popular in Canada,” though, he advises readers “not to suggest such similarities out loud while standing on French soil, unless you have no desire to try to play the game, no desire to be welcomed into a café, no desire to gain the friendship of a local, and you desire to have the nickname Monsieur Con – the polite translation of which is ‘village idiot.’”
Shore was determined to “gain entry into the arcane world of this ancient game with its half-understood rituals and ancient codes.” With help from a friend (Hubert) and a lot of practise, he works his way up from spectator to furtive nighttime learner to solid daylight player to confident owner-of-his-own-ball-set player. He knows he has been accepted fully into Saint-Paul life when he is invited into Le Cercle (The Circle), “the private bar that was off limits to everybody except registered pétanque players of Saint-Paul,” and receives his member card.
Unfortunately, by that time, his work was going to need him back in Vancouver. In talking with one of his friends in France a couple of weeks before his return to Canada, Shore vows, “I’ll swim in the fast lane awhile longer … but not forever … France has taught me it’s not worth the personal sacrifice.”
“When I returned to accept a new role with Broadcom in Vancouver, I unfortunately couldn’t swim in a slower lane for the seven years I stayed with the company,” Shore admitted to the Independent. “I worked ridiculously hard, traveled too much for business, while being within the core of the high-tech industry and spending a lot of time in Silicon Valley during those years. It was exciting and I learned a lot, but it troubled me that I wasn’t able to apply what I had absorbed during my year in France about living a well-balanced lifestyle…. Since I departed Broadcom in 2007, I have lived differently – working hard in intense environments at times, though not for long periods of time and with far more varied interests and time off to vacation and to help raise a young family.”
For the past year, he said, “I’ve been doing a little business consulting, while focusing on marketing my book and pursuing new interests in the renewable energy world. I also manage a vacation rental property that we own on the northern Sunshine Coast in the town of Lund – we call it ‘The Shores at Lund.’”
He has returned to Saint-Paul with his wife a couple of times. “And we plan to visit again next June – the first time with kids, ours are 9 and 5,” he said. “I will definitely bring my pétanque balls back to play there again. I have always stayed in regular contact with Hubert, even though I haven’t seen him in person since 2006. I have a couple other French friends who I speak to less often, though we also stay in touch – one now lives in Montreal and we have seen her a few times over the years.”
Shore has played pétanque in Whistler on Bastille Day, though not lately. “I will definitely teach my kids,” he said, “once they can safely handle the heavy metal projectiles.”
As for his motivation to write this book almost 20 years after his stint in Saint-Paul, Shore said, “I have wanted to try my hand at writing for ages, though I never seemed to make the time. On the flight home in 2003, I made some notes about my year in France four years earlier, just so I wouldn’t forget all the humorous and fond memories. Those notes sat in my desk drawer at home until the spring of 2015 when I had a surgery that caused me to be immobile for several weeks. My wife brought me the notes to my lawn chair in the middle of the living room and told me that now was the time to write – and so it began.
“I wrote a lot for about two months and then set it aside until the next spring, when I departed a job and had a health scare around the same time. I then picked up the writing again, determined to finish. I didn’t know if I’d ever publish it, until I was with a friend named Joel Solomon at a workshop at Hollyhock (on Cortes Island) and he encouraged me to get it out there one way or another. Joel introduced me to a small firm, named Page Two Strategies (co-founder is Jesse Finkelstein), who I hired to assist me with the pursuit of a self-publishing path.”
Shore is obviously tenacious.
“I encourage people to pursue challenges and not to accept ‘no’ for answer,” he said. “‘Why not try?’ is a philosophy that I have attempted to live by for my entire adult life.”