The notes are carefully removed. (photo from Gil Zohar)
The Kotel – the last remaining part of Herod the Great’s vast Second Temple complex – got a spruce up ahead of Passover. As is tradition, volunteers took to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City to remove hundreds of thousands of the small prayer notes to God tucked into the cracks of Judaism’s holiest site. The papers are ceremonially buried at the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery.
The cleaning tradition is repeated at Rosh Hashanah, to keep the Kotel from becoming too cluttered. The notes are carefully removed using sticks that have been dipped in a mikvah (ritual bath), the whole process overseen by the Wall’s official rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. This year, there were no worshippers or visitors at the Kotel due to restrictions on gathering in large groups amid the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Gil Zohar is a journalist and tour guide who lives in Jerusalem.
The Jewish Food Society’s website has many Passover options: salads, mains and desserts. For people who prefer cookbooks, the society has published The Jewish Holiday Table, which can be purchased online.
The Jewish Food Society was established in 2017. The nonprofit’s main purpose is “to build the largest archive of Jewish family recipes and stories attached to them in the world.” One can get lost for hours on its website, it’s so extensive. With Passover coming, several holiday stories are highlighted, along with some matzah recipes. It’s well worth a visit: jewishfoodsociety.org.
The society was founded by Naama Shefi, who was born and raised in Israel, on Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha, near Petah Tikva. She went to high school in Tel Aviv and did her army service before moving to New York in 2005.
“My kibbutz life made me really understand the power of community. Because we are nothing without community,” she told Tablet Magazine in a 2024 interview.
It also made her crave a wider variety of foods and spices. In a 2021 interview with the Forward, she noted that the bland diet she and other former kibbutzniks grew up with led many of them to develop an interest in food. She was speaking to the Forward because another nonprofit she founded was about to launch – Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel, in Tel Aviv, whose “aim is to explore local food culture and provide a home for research, dialogue and a wide range of culinary experiences. Through a library with 1500+ culinary books, revolving exhibitions, cooking workshops, a rooftop farm, and pop-ups hosted by local and international chefs, Asif will help document and articulate the evolving Israeli kitchen.” You can also lose yourself on its website, perusing the online exhibit, going through its library, reading stories from its journal and, of course, trying out some of the many recipes. If you’re heading to Israel, definitely look at asif.org/en, heading to its “The Flavour Mosaic” section, which features a collection of food establishments “handpicked by culinary experts from across the country.”
For people who prefer a tangible hold-in-your-hand cookbook, the Jewish Food Society has published The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long, by Shefi and the JFS, with Devra Ferst. It comprises 135 recipes, as well as stories from Jewish families. It’s organized by season and highlights the major Jewish holidays, including Shabbat.
In that 2024 interview with Tablet, Shefi talked about the cookbook and what makes it unique.
“The concept of the book is really a celebration of Jewish holiday traditions from all around the world, from places as far apart as Ethiopia and Paris and Buenos Aires to here in Brooklyn,” she said. “So, it was very important for us to showcase the diversity of the Jewish experience. Also, the book follows the Jewish agricultural calendar, so it’s extremely seasonal, which I think is unique. And, for each holiday, we showcase four to five family tables and their menu alongside very personal essays with their history and journey.”
The diversity of Jewish experience is a focus of the cookbook.
“There is no one family with one single origin, so it really serves as evidence about our people,” Shefi told Tablet. “It shows how so many families were forced to flee one place and make a life in another place. And, sometimes, there were a few generations that were successful in the new environment and, then again, challenging circumstances forced them to keep going on their journey. That also affected the cuisine in a very substantial way.”
You can buy The Jewish Holiday Table at amazon.ca and other online bookstores – if you order today, it might even arrive before Passover ends. In the meantime, here are a couple of the approximately 10 recipes for charoset at jewishfoodsociety.org. The website has many options for the holiday: salads, mains and desserts.
CARROT CHAROSET (This recipe was shared by chef Michael Solomonov. It takes about 15 minutes to make.)
4 carrots, peeled and grated 1/2 apple, peeled and grated 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped 2 tbsp fresh horseradish, grated 2 tbsp raisins 1 tbsp white vinegar 3/4 tsp kosher salt
Combine the carrots, apples, walnuts, cilantro, horseradish, raisins, vinegar and salt in a medium bowl. Toss to combine.
Set aside for at least 15 minutes to allow the flavours to combine. Serve.
APPLE AND ASIAN PEAR CHAROSET (This recipe was shared by pastry chef Fany Gerson. It takes an hour and 15 minutes to make.)
1 cup honey 1 shallot, minced 3 celery stalks, minced 2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and diced 1 Asian pear, diced 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped (about 2 sprigs) 1/2 cup red wine vinegar 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, separated (about 3 medium oranges) 1 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh horseradish, grated
In a medium saucepan over low heat, gently warm the honey until it begins to bubble, about five minutes.
Add shallots and celery, stirring for one minute until well incorporated. Add vinegar and stir to combine.
Add apples and pears and reduce heat to very low stirring constantly and making sure the mixture does not get too hot. During this time, the fruit will release water. Continue to stir until the water is completely reduced/evaporated, 45 to 60 minutes. It is important to watch closely and stir often to keep the sugar from burning.
When the water has completely disappeared and the mixture is dark and caramelized, add 3/4 cup of orange juice and reduce again, mixing and smashing the fruit, about 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in remaining 1/4 cup orange juice, chopped oregano and one tablespoon of fresh horseradish.
Transfer to small serving bowl. Garnish with one teaspoon fresh horseradish. Serve immediately.
Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, spoke with Canadian media on March 9. (photo from Consulate General of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada)
A terror attack against Canadian Jews on par with the Bondi Beach attack in Australia last December is inevitable if leaders in this country do not address the growing antisemitism crisis, according to Israel’s deputy foreign minister.
In an interview with the Independent Monday, Sharren Haskel reacted to recent shootings at Toronto synagogues and a larger trend of antisemitic acts.
“This will end in blood if the government is not taking serious actions. This is going to end exactly like the Bondi massacre,” she said.
Haskel is attuned to the Canadian situation because she was born in this country – one of only three Canadian-born individuals in Israeli history to sit in the Knesset. Her father lives in Canada and she has other family members here, who she visits frequently.
“I was always so proud of Canada being such a safe haven for Jews,” she said, calling Canada a place where acceptance of minorities, tolerance and coexistence have been strong, defining values.
“And to know where Canada was and where it is today is absolutely devastating,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking for me, and I think that not enough people truly understand the danger the Jewish community is [facing].”
Shootings at Jewish institutions and other acts of vandalism and violence have made Canada, according to an Israeli government report last year, the “champion on antisemitism.”
“It’s insane,” said Haskel.
When a racialized or other minority community in Canada expresses discomfort with a situation, she said, significant steps are taken to alleviate the problem.
Jews do not enjoy a parallel level of empathy, she said. “[Jews] say I am violently being attacked. I’m not allowed to enter my classes. I’ve been beaten. My business was shot at,” she said. “And nothing. Nothing.”
Elected officials have allowed the situation to go too far, said Haskel.
“The government is not setting a very clear red line,” she said. “We are far beyond words. Words don’t matter anymore. This is about actions now.”
The deputy foreign minister added that Canadians, too often, demonstrate inappropriate responses to international events. Critics of Israeli military approaches to Hamas and to the Iranian regime are coming from a place of privilege.
“In Canada, you are very lucky,” she said. “This is one of the most peaceful countries, you enjoy its freedom, and many people in the younger generation have received that freedom on a silver platter. This is not the case in the Middle East. Israel has faced a six-fronted war for the last two years against six different armies – all of them sponsored, trained, armed by this vile, fanatical regime in Iran.”
The Iranian regime has also undermined Israel’s neighbours, she noted, destroying Lebanon’s politics, social fabric and culture. In Syria, Iran backed the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which was overthrown in 2024 after a civil war in which the government explicitly targeted and murdered its own citizens, particularly minorities, killing at least 300,000 people and possibly as many as 650,000.
“It’s very easy to speak from a very comfortable, liberated place,” said Haskel. “But our reality in the Middle East is a very difficult and harsh one, where we are still fighting for our survival, for our freedom, for our rights as minorities here in this region against very extreme, radical, fanatical terrorist organizations and terrorist regimes.”
Haskel hedged on whether Israel’s war aim in the current conflict with Iran is regime change.
“The goal is to take out the long-term existential threat over Israel,” she said. “This is how we define it, and this is the goal of the war.”
That involves taking out Iran’s nuclear program, she said, as well as its ballistic missile program, and neutralizing the experts who are developing, manufacturing and advancing tools for mass destruction. This war is aimed at conclusively ending that threat, she said.
Past Israeli military and covert actions against the Iranian nuclear program resulted in continued Iranian determination to rebuild, according to Haskel.
“They didn’t get the message of our capability, of how determined we are that they will not be able to reach that master plan of annihilation of the state of Israel,” she said. “They’ve been working tirelessly on renovating, on re-creating, on reconstructing, all of that over again. And we are at the point where we say, look, you know, we cannot go every year into an operation like that to eliminate an immediate threat like a nuclear weapon, mass destruction, disruptive weapons.”
Haskel stops short of declaring whether that requires regime change, echoing US President Donald Trump, who has urged Iranians themselves to overthrow their government.
She is hopeful that the US-Israel actions will open a path “for the Iranian people to liberate themselves and to change these fanatical tyrants who have been abusing and torturing them for so many years.”
Should the regime be replaced by a Western-oriented government, the impacts would be broader than the Middle East. For example, Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, is engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering in Latin America to help fund their operations, she noted.
Haskel believes that the world should be grateful to the United States and Israel.
“President Trump and Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu are leading right now an effort to protect humanity,” she said. “Every leader and every sensible person around the world needs to ask themselves who they want as their friends and who would come to their help when they really needed it the most.
“During our time in history, when freedom, real freedom, is in danger,” she said, “we are very fortunate to have two leaders like Trump and Netanyahu that stood up and took actions to defend humanity, to defend Western democracies.”
Haskel said that representing Israel carries a profound responsibility not only to the country itself but also to Jewish communities around the world. For her, that responsibility is deeply personal, particularly when it comes to Canada, where she has such close ties. Hearing directly from relatives and friends about rising fear and insecurity has reinforced her sense of duty.
Haskel, who has served as deputy foreign minister since 2024, was first elected to the Knesset in 2015. She was born in Toronto to an Israeli father and a Moroccan mother who met in Paris. The family lived in Canada before moving to Israel when Sharren was a year old. She was raised in Kfar Saba and studied in the United States and Australia. First elected on the Likud slate, she joined Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party in 2021.
Zeev Buium, top right, and Max Sasson, bottom right, talking to, left to right, Bik Nizzar, Satiar Shah and Josh Elliott-Wolfe of Sportsnet 650 Radio hosts at the JCC Sports Dinner, March 3. (photo by Kyle Berger)
Cheering for the home team is one of the simplest concepts in sports fandom. The players represent the city, wearing its name on their crest, and the fans give those players their cheers and emotional support.
For members of Vancouver’s Jewish community, there is even more of a reason to watch and cheer for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) hometown Canucks. Two current members of the team, Zeev Buium and Max Sasson, are part of a small fraternity of Jewish NHL players.
“One hundred percent,” Sasson answered when asked if it he was proud to represent the Jewish community in the NHL. “Some of the rinks, especially when we got Zeev, there will be signs written in Hebrew during the warms-ups, and that’s pretty cool. Some fans have interacted with me and say I’m an inspiration and stuff, and that means the world to me and my family, having Jewish players in the NHL and representing our community.”
Sasson, who was raised in Birmingham, Mich., where he had his bar mitzvah, said Jewish life, including Shabbat dinners with his grandparents, were a regular part of his childhood and something he still thinks about.
“My dad and I were talking the other day about how my first NHL goal was against [Boston’s star Jewish goaltender] Jeremy Swayman and it’s probably the only first goal ever in the NHL to be a Jewish guy on a Jewish guy,” he said.
Sasson’s pro hockey story is a bit unique, as he wasn’t drafted to the league like most NHL players are. A late bloomer, Sasson was scouted and then signed by the Canucks to an entry-level contract in 2023 after a couple of strong seasons with the Western Michigan Broncos.
He spent most of his first season with Vancouver’s AHL team, the Abbotsford Canucks, leading them to a Calder Cup Championship last season. This season, however, Sasson has spent most of the year with the big club, scoring 11 goals already, and was recently rewarded with a contract extension that will take him through the 2027/28 season.
“When you sit back and think about the journey, it feels really good,” Sasson said about where his pro hockey career currently stands. “Not having anything handed to me, doing it the hard way, getting cut by teams growing up, and even getting to college and not playing a bunch my first year. But I’ve always said I have belief in myself and, every day, I try to improve so that I’m better than I was the day before.”
Though Sasson isn’t thinking too far ahead, noting that goals and milestones get achieved through continual effort and practice, he does hope for a long NHL career beyond his contract. Then, perhaps, he’ll follow that up with a career in the JCC’s recreational hockey league? “I’ll hop in there for sure,” he said with a smile.
* * *
Before joining the Canucks this season, 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium had already made waves around the Jewish hockey world as the first NHL player with Israeli parents.
His mom and dad, Miriam and Sorin, met in Israel when they were 16 and went through their military service together. They fell in love while living in Israel, before moving together to San Diego, Calif., when they were both 23.
“I think my parents just wanted to see what the American dream was all about,” Buium explained. “They came over with one suitcase with both their clothes in it and maybe $1,000, and they moved in with our close family friend’s cousin. My dad started his heating and air conditioning company, and it’s done really well. But they obviously love Israel and we talk about going back there all the time.”
Despite being raised in San Diego, Buium has maintained his own close relationship with Israel, as his parents took him and his brothers, Ben and Shai (a prospect with the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL), there every summer, until he was 15, to visit family and friends.
They also always found ways to keep their Jewishness in their hockey adventures.
In 2018, all three Buium brothers represented Team Orange County’s ice hockey team at the JCC Maccabi Games: Zeev and Shai played on the team and older brother Ben served as an assistant coach.
The three Buium brothers – left to right, Zeev, Shai and Ben – at the 2018 JCC Maccabi Games in Orange County, Calif. (photo from Raychel Reilly)
In the summer of 2024, shortly after being drafted in the NHL by the Minnesota Wild, Zeev was brought back to the JCC Maccabi world as a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the games in Detroit.
“It was very nerve-wracking,” Buium said of speaking in front of thousands at the ceremony. “I had never talked in front of that many people before. It was also cool to go back to see the ceremony again and it brought back memories of when I was there. [JCC Maccabi] was such a fun time in my life and getting to do it with my brothers too was so cool and such a fun experience.
“I always tell people,” he said of his JCC Maccabi experience, “if you get the opportunity to go, you gotta do it. It’s something you can’t miss out on.”
While Buium hasn’t had the opportunity to play hockey in Israel, he recalls watching his brother Ben play in the Maccabiah Games there in 2017, and he loves seeing the sport becoming more popular in Israel.
“It’s cool to see [hockey] growing there and, hopefully we can have more Jewish athletes and Jewish hockey players,” he said, noting that some of the Jewish hockey players in the NHL, like Edmonton’s Zach Hyman, have reached out to him as well. “The Jewish community is small and so is the hockey world – and you put them together and it’s even smaller,” said Buium. “So, it’s cool to run into those guys and share that together.”
Buium has a tattoo on his arm with the dates, written in Hebrew and based on the Hebrew calendar, of his previous hockey championships, though he admits he can’t speak the language as well as he’d like.
“I feel embarrassed speaking Hebrew because my accent is so bad,” he laughed. “I mispronounce words so much, but I try to keep up with it. Especially growing up, my parents’ English wasn’t great, so they would speak Hebrew to us a lot and we responded in English, so it helped all of us out. I’m glad that we never lost touch with understanding it.”
Less than a year after being drafted 12th overall at the 2024 NHL entry draft as his season with the University of Denver wrapped up, Buium was invited by the Wild to join the NHL club for the playoffs, ending his college career and beginning his professional one. He showed well in the 2025 playoffs, leading into his first full season as an NHLer for the 2025/26 season.
Referring to his transition to college and then the NHL as a “whirlwind” time in his life, Buium said he trusted himself, as well as the people close to him, to find his way through it all.
“I’ve always been where my feet are and focusing on what I need to do,” he said. “Everything went really smoothly those two years at Denver. I love that place a lot and it was hard to leave but I can’t pass up an opportunity like that, when Minnesota comes calling and telling you that you’re going to play in the playoffs. So, it was a special moment for me and for my family. It was cool to sit back that summer and reflect on everything that happened and went down, and just be appreciative and grateful for where we are.”
Continuing the whirlwind, 31 games into this season, Buium became the centrepiece player in a blockbuster trade that sent sure-fire future Hall of Famer Quinn Hughes from the Canucks to Minnesota. While Buium admits he wasn’t expecting the trade when it happened, he has embraced the opportunity to be part of a young, rebuilding Vancouver Canucks team.
“Minnesota is a very veteran team with a lot of older guys and a lot of experienced players,” he said, noting, “It’s a different atmosphere here, with younger players and a lot of us trying to prove ourselves and, obviously, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs with young guys. But we know that, and I think it’s cool to be able to try to put all this together and become something special.”
Kyle Berger is Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver sports coordinator, and a freelance writer living in Richmond.
Brenda Bailey, BC minister of finance, delivers the government’s 2026 budget. (photo from flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos)
British Columbia’s 2026 budget sends a message that should concern every family in this province: seniors can wait. Indefinitely.
Seven scheduled long-term care projects have been delayed. These designated projects were to be built in Abbotsford, Campbell River, Chilliwack, Kelowna, Delta, Fort St. John and Squamish. They now have no completion dates. Are these “delays” just another broken government promise?
This is not a minor policy adjustment. It is a policy choice with real consequences. The reality is that this reinforces an all too familiar pattern: the fastest-growing demographic in the province continues to receive the slowest response. What is government waiting for?
When long-term care beds are delayed, the need does not disappear. It shifts. It shifts into overcrowded hospitals, onto exhausted family caregivers, and into the homes of seniors who are increasingly isolated and struggling to cope without adequate support.
Despite the fiscal challenges facing the province, delay of critical infrastructure for seniors leaves seniors living in isolation and without proper supports. Government knows this produces worse outcomes for seniors.
The province is aging faster than its systems are evolving. Every year of delay widens the gap between need and capacity. While governments talk about sustainability, the current approach is neither sustainable nor strategic. Even with the completion of these planned beds, demand for long-term care beds vastly outpaces availability. It always will.
Delaying long-term care without rapidly expanding home support is not a cost-saving measure. It not only shifts the burdens of care, but the costs. It shifts costs to emergency departments. It shifts costs to family caregivers who reduce work hours or leave the workforce. It shifts costs in its impact on seniors’ physical and mental health as isolation deepens. And, ultimately, it shifts even greater costs back onto the health system.
This is why the 2026 budget was a missed opportunity for bold solutions.
If capital projects must be delayed, then investment in home support should surge. Instead, innovation in home and community care remains an afterthought – despite overwhelming evidence that it is the most cost-effective way to support aging populations.
Jewish Seniors Alliance of British Columbia knows that most seniors want to age at home. Supporting them there is dramatically cheaper than institutional care. Preventing crises is cheaper than responding to them. Keeping people connected is cheaper than treating the consequences of isolation.
The math is not complicated. The policy response should not be either. This is why JSABC has long been a leading advocate for universal free access to home support for all BC seniors.
Across British Columbia, community organizations are already proving what works: volunteer-driven wellness checks, culturally appropriate outreach, transportation assistance, social programs and coordinated home-support initiatives that keep seniors healthier and independent longer. These are not luxury services. They are preventive health care in its most practical form. Yet they remain chronically underfunded, and our community organizations can’t keep pace to support our seniors’ needs province wide.
Home support is not a side program. It is the backbone of a modern seniors care strategy focused on providing alternative service delivery models and providing support for people to age well in place.
It is time for government to prioritize seniors. Ignoring the problem today won’t change the system for when we ourselves are looking for extra support not so far into the future.
Jeff Mossis executive director of Jewish Seniors Alliance of British Columbia.
The stars of Stacey Tenenbaum’s documentary Tough Old Broads, playing at VIFF Centre March 14 and 17: Kathrine Switzer, left, Sharon Farmer, centre, and Siila Watt-Cloutier. (screenshots from film)
If you’re feeling hopeless about the state of the world – or you just want to know more about some incredible people who have spent their lives making the world a better place – head to VIFF Centre March 14 or 17 to see Stacey Tenenbaum’s Tough Old Broads.
The feature-length documentary features Sharon Farmer, the first woman and first person of colour to be director of White House photography; Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon; and Siila Watt-Cloutier, the first woman to connect climate change to human rights (garnering a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for that work).
Watt-Cloutier, who calls Kuujjuaq, Que., home, also lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, for 15 years or so. She was a pioneer in fighting for environmental protections, starting in earnest in the 1980s, when it was realized that pesticides and other toxic chemicals were poisoning the marine mammals that the Inuit were eating, ending up in the breast milk of Inuit women. At the time, Watt-Cloutier was head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia, on international matters. She has been instrumental in several actions that have changed how people think about climate justice.
In the documentary, she talks about negotiating with the United Nations from the perspective of being a mother. She says, “How could Inuit women be carrying this burden of, if I eat my country food, I’m going to poison myself and my children? At each UN talk, I continuously intervened to educate people on the importance of Inuit culture and how the world needs to do things differently.”
More than 40 years later, she continues to speak internationally, educating people about Inuit culture and the environment. In the film, at a conference, she shares one of the lessons she has learned: there will always be tough moments and “it is really about sticking with it and not giving up during those periods of time because those are the moments that you are meant to be at to raise your next level of consciousness, those are the moments that are making you, not breaking you.”
Not giving up is a key message from Farmer, too. The photographer was part of the civil rights movement in the 1970s, capturing images of the protests at Ohio State University; she was a student there at the time. Her career was spent fighting for social justice and documenting key moments in American history with her camera, including when she was at the White House (during the Clinton administration). She continues to do so.
Right after the 2024 election of Donald Trump, Farmer, who lives in Washington, DC, comments on the lack of people at the White House gates.
“If you don’t register displeasure,” she says, “everybody thinks what happens is OK – and I mean around the world, too. I don’t want that tale of woe to be our legacy. Our legacy should be we still have courage, we still don’t like what’s going on and we’re not giving up. I don’t see that happening down here today, and that’s the disappointing part.”
The third subject of Tough Old Broads is Switzer, who, while running the Boston Marathon in 1967, was literally attacked by race official Jock Semple, so outraged was he by her participation. Switzer’s coach, Arnie Briggs, running alongside her, body-checked Semple out of the way and she finished the race. This was the seminal moment in her life of activism, which has included helping bring the women’s marathon event to the Olympics (1984) and founding the nonprofit 261 Fearless, “261” having been her bib number in the 1967 marathon.
Switzer continues advocating for and mentoring women, pushing for equality. She says in the film: “There is so much to do and I still feel responsible…. It hasn’t been finished yet, and it is very simple. If you put the hard work in, if you pay attention, if you ‘work the phones,’ as we used to say, if you show up, is the biggest thing. That is the key point. It’ll happen. I’m not saying you have to be patient, I’m just saying we have to be persistent.”
Watt-Cloutier and Farmer would likely agree.
Tenenbaum, who is a member of the Montreal Jewish community, said in the press release: “I made this film to share the wisdom and experience of older women with a new generation and to inspire all people to remain vital and outspoken as they age.”
At tougholdbroads.com, people can read more about the film, find some data on the status of women’s equality and download a discussion guide. It is hoped that the documentary “will spark a movement of women, both young and old, to embrace their power, speak out and demand attention.”
For tickets to the Vancouver 1 p.m. screenings, go to viff.org.
Synthia Yusuf stars in Kat Sandler’s Wildwoman, which runs March 26 to April 4 at Gateway Theatre, a co-production with Alberta Theatre Projects. (photo by David Cooper)
“Wildwoman is a story that celebrates women who refuse to be silenced and reminds us that theatre can be funny, wild, fearless and alive. With such an amazing cast and design team, we are thrilled to bring this sumptuous theatrical production to life on our stage,” said Barbara Tomasic, executive artistic director of Gateway Theatre, where Toronto Jewish community member Kat Sandler’s play can be seen March 26 to April 4. (Sandler also wrote Yaga, which Crave is making into a series.)
Wildwoman reimagines 16th-century French history, specifically the story that helped shape the legend of Beauty and the Beast. It centres on Catherine de Medici, the new wife of King Henry II of France, who is played at Gateway by Synthia Yusuf. Eager to be on the king’s council, Catherine quickly learns that her political aspirations matter far less than her ability to produce an heir. Surrounded by scheming courtiers, a powerful royal mistress and a male-dominant court obsessed with legacy and control, Catherine feels trapped inside this patriarchal world. That is, until she meets Pete, a wildman kept in the dungeon as one of the king’s caged oddities, who awakens her wild side.
“When I first read this play, it was like my body was filled with bees; I felt inspired, furious and delighted,” said Jamie King, director of the local co-production with Alberta Theatre Projects. “The play looks at power, at fertility, at legacy, all unflinching and full of humour. It’s inspiring to find new plays that are able to speak about both our human history and contemporary issues with such insight and still make it feel alive and fun. This is an urgent play that needs to be seen.”
Tickets start at $37, with a pay-what-you-will option. Go to gatewaytheatre.com or call 604-270-1812.
Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia director of programming Elana Wenner and JMABC executive director Eli Klasner at the Feb. 11 launch of the museum’s pop-up exhibit You Can’t Spell Delicious Without Deli. (photo from JMABC)
Omnitsky Kosher Delicatessen has been in business for more than 115 years. A community institution, it is the perfect location for the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia’s pop-up exhibit You Can’t Spell Delicious Without Deli: A Look Behind the Counters of Vancouver’s Historic Jewish Delis.
Patrons can grab something to eat – at the restaurant or to take home – and peruse the photographs and blurbs about five different delis that have made their mark on Vancouver history. There’s a printed guide available, which has more information about the exhibit and the delis featured. There is also merch: T-shirts. One has a bowl of matzah ball soup, one a deli meat sandwich, another an assortment of containers, a cereal bowl and a block of cheese with the words, “I can tolerate a lot of things. Dairy is not one of them.”
The exhibit launched Feb. 11, filling the restaurant, the night hosted by the current owner of Omnitsky, Richard Wood. The deli has seen only three owners in its long history: it was started in Winnipeg by Louis Omnitsky in 1910; bought some seven decades later by Eppy Rappaport, who brought it to Vancouver in the 1990s, running it here until 2023; and Wood.
Omnitsky has been in a few locations in Vancouver, including on Oak Street near 41st, where it took over the space of Kaplan’s Deli, when that community institution closed in 2014.
Kaplan’s was started by Ida and Abrasha Kaplan in the 1960s; Serge Haber ran it from 1981-2000, Marshall Kramer for a dozen-plus years and Howie English for its last year or so.
Kaplan’s is one of the five delis featured in the exhibit, along with Omnitsky, which is now on Fraser Street between 18th and 19th avenues. The others are Oscar’s (1943-1956), Rubin’s (1955-1981) and Max’s, which has been in operation since 1949 on Oak Street at 15th Avenue, with various owners over the years.
More than dates and names, the exhibit shares tidbits about each establishment, like where Ida Kaplan learned how to make her famous cinnamon buns, some of the many celebrities that visited Oscar’s and how Rubin’s was a late-night hotspot, open to as late as 3 a.m. in its heyday.
“Sometimes I find myself browsing through the stories of our past, and certain items or documents just speak to me in a way that screams, ‘Tell my story!’” Elana Wenner, director of programming at the Jewish Museum and Archives, told the Independent about the how the deli exhibit came about.
“In this case, I was visiting Omnitsky’s at their new location on Fraser Street, and I had just recently come across some photos in our archives of the old Kaplan’s Deli on Oak Street…. As I browsed the shelves in the new Omnitsky’s storefront, it occurred to me just how poignant it was to be living through this unique moment in Vancouver’s Jewish history.
“As a Vancouver native and historian of local Jewish culture, the transitions of any local Jewish establishment always trigger a certain chord of interest for me,” she explained. “The major move of Omnitsky’s from Oak Street to Fraser Street was a transitional moment that would surely become a marker in the future telling of Vancouver’s many chapters of Jewish culture and growth.”
Wenner leads the museum’s walking tours of the Strathcona neighbourhood.
“I always conclude [them] with an ‘epilogue’ of where the community moved next, as there was a pretty abrupt collective move from Strathcona over to Fairview in the 1940s, and then a slow progression along Oak Street through to the new millennium,” she said.
The story is, of course, still being written.
“As young families continue to populate the areas east of Fraser, the residential centre of Jewish life in Vancouver is transitioning starkly eastward,” said Wenner. “So, while Omnitsky’s move from Oak to Fraser may have seemed like a shock to many of the old-timers … it makes a lot of sense in the grander scheme, in the way that the community seems to be moving now.”
The 2018 edition of the museum’s journal, The Scribe, had the theme of Jewish restaurants. Most of the original content for the pop-up exhibit came from this publication, said Wenner, “all based on oral history interviews with the restaurateurs themselves.”
The initial concept was to feature all the local Jewish-owned restaurants throughout Vancouver’s 140-year history, but there were simply too many, she said. “So, the project shifted to become focused on just Jewish-owned delis.
“As I put the word out that we were looking for more information, I quickly discovered that there had been many more delis owned by Jewish families in Vancouver than I had ever expected,” she said. “We chose the five featured in the current exhibit based on the extent of information available to us, both from existing archival materials, as well as new information collected from interviews with family members, descendants, and gleaned from secondary sources outside the museum.”
The museum’s archives include oral histories, copies of menus, newspaper articles and even some handwritten notes of sale and purchase lists, said Wenner.
Response to the exhibit has been positive.
“On the one hand, we wish we had complete stories for each and every single deli,” said Wenner, “but it’s actually really satisfying when people pop out of the woodwork and say, ‘But wait! My grandparents owned this place!’ and then they have all this new information for us to delve into about a deli that had previously not even been on our list.”
As part of the exhibit, the museum asks visitors to share any information they may have on Pheasant Deli, Barer’s Deli, Lindy Fine Foods, Triangle Café, Moishe’s Deli and Leon’s Kosher.
“We wanted to highlight the fact that we do know they existed, but the archives are only as good as the material we receive, and these are stories we haven’t yet collected,” said Wenner, who expects more pop-ups in the museum’s future.
“What makes this exhibit so interesting,” noted Eli Klasner, executive director of the JMABC, “is the collaboration with a business that is such an important part of our local Jewish history. The museum is committed to preserving Jewish history and retelling our stories in unique and interesting ways, including with entertaining pop-up exhibits in a range of locations and venues.”
Two of the T-shirts for sale at the exhibit, which runs to April 1. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
The T-shirts are proving to be a popular aspect of the current exhibit, which runs to April 1.
“In terms of the T-shirts – honestly, people are obsessed,” Wenner said. “There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the deli exhibit in general, but the limited-edition T-shirts being sold alongside the display have garnered a lot of unexpected public attention. We keep receiving requests for more, and plan to release a new line of designs in the coming months to meet the demand.”
Wenner urged readers to check out the new JMABC website, jewishmuseum.ca, where there is information about upcoming programs, including for Jewish Heritage Month in May, as well as many online exhibits.
“Our summer 2026 season of walking tours is coming up soon,” she said, noting that the tours sell out quickly.
The museum offers four different tours throughout Vancouver and Victoria, she said, “each telling the fascinating stories of early Jewish life and community in BC, from 1858 to present day.” They also offer private tours, which can be booked by emailing [email protected].
Anat Gogo, executive director of Tikva Housing. This year’s campaign was the most successful to date. (photo from Tikva Housing)
Tikva Housing Society’s annual fundraising campaign has concluded with its most successful result to date, raising more than $75,000 to support innovative, affordable housing solutions. The campaign brought together donors, volunteers and community supporters who share a common belief: that everyone deserves a stable place to call home.
“Our community showed tremendous generosity and engagement throughout this campaign,” said Anat Gogo, executive director of Tikva Housing. “Every gift helps us continue providing safe homes and strengthening community connection. We are deeply grateful to everyone who chose to stand with us.”
This year’s total represents a new milestone for the organization and reflects Tikva’s growing impact on community members across Metro Vancouver. Over the past year alone, Tikva expanded its housing portfolio by 45 units through the landmark acquisition of the Ronald S. Roadburg Residences in Richmond, the city with the second-largest Jewish population in the Lower Mainland.
“With ongoing support, we hope to continue to grow,” said Gogo. “Our goal is to build on this momentum and create more affordable housing solutions across the region.”
Support from donors and partner organizations has helped people like Olexandr, who fled the war in Ukraine with his family in search of safety and stability. After first relocating to Israel, his family once again faced the uncertainty created by conflict and ultimately decided to rebuild their lives in Canada.
In May 2025, Olexandr arrived in Vancouver ahead of his family to begin the immigration process and establish a new home. One of the biggest challenges he encountered was finding affordable housing.
With limited resources, he could only afford shared accommodations and was forced to move between three apartments in less than six months. Eventually, with the help of Jewish Family Services of Greater Vancouver, Olexandr connected with Tikva Housing and was offered a home large enough to reunite his entire family.
“This apartment with Tikva Housing means safety and freedom for me, and a comfortable life with my family,” he said. “I’ve met many people from Israel and Ukraine in this building. We speak about our lives, our housing and our Jewish connection. It feels like a big family, and we help each other.”
Donor support has also helped expand the reach of Tikva’s Rent Relief Program, which provides short-term subsidies to individuals and families living in market housing who are experiencing a temporary financial crisis.
When Elisheva moved to Vancouver from Israel with her family, they were initially able to support themselves using the limited savings they had brought with them. However, the high cost of housing for a family of five quickly drained those funds, leaving them uncertain about how long they could remain in their home.
“We started becoming very stressed about our situation and about being able to pay our rent,” she said. “Tikva Housing came just in time and saved us.”
Through the Rent Relief Program, Elisheva’s family was able to remain in their apartment while they worked to stabilize their finances.
“We have a roof above our heads and we don’t need to move from place to place,” she said. “My three young girls already moved from one continent to another. They had so many changes. Having stability means everything for our family.”
The annual fundraising campaign plays a vital role in supporting Tikva Housing’s work throughout the year. Donations help maintain existing homes, support residents through cultural and educational programming, and ensure the organization can continue responding to housing needs across the community.
The campaign’s success also reflects the dedication of volunteers, board and committee members, and community advocates who helped share Tikva’s mission and encourage participation. From spreading campaign updates to inviting friends and family to contribute, their efforts helped make this record result possible.
While the campaign has officially wrapped up, the need for affordable housing remains significant. As of February 2026, 499 applicants were registered on the Metro Vancouver Jewish Housing Registry, including 125 families with children and 173 seniors seeking stable housing.
“This campaign shows what is possible when our community comes together with compassion and a shared commitment to helping others,” said Gogo. “With continued support, we can ensure that more individuals and families have access to the safety, dignity and stability that come with a place to call home.”
