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February 13, 2004
Honors for Oberlanders
CFHU event will recognize 50-plus years of support.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
In 1962, Peter and Cornelia Oberlander visited Israel as part of
a congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects.
Although they were there to study the country's water and irrigation
systems, the Oberlanders fell more deeply in love with the land
and its people. Since that time, they have contributed to many different
aspects of the Jewish homeland, but none more than the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus.
The Oberlanders' years of dedication to the educational institution
will be recognized in a special biennial event, March 21, as the
Vancouver chapter of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem (CFHU) hosts its fund-raising gala.
"We honor individuals who have greatly contributed, personally
or professionally, to the Hebrew University, the state of Israel,
Canada or the local Jewish community," CFHU executive director
Maxine Woogman explained. "We are very proud to be able to
honor the Oberlanders with this dinner."
In 1979, while their son Tim was a third-year student at the university,
Peter Oberlander was asked to set up the Canadian Studies Program
on Mt. Scopus. Temporarily living in Israel during this time, the
Oberlanders brought boxes of Canadian textbooks to the school. Cornelia
Oberlander also assisted with the development of the university's
botanical garden, as well as joining a team of planners who helped
the community of Ashkalon accommodate settlers from North Africa
and Georgia, which was then part of the Soviet Union.
Since then, the Oberlanders have visited Israel regularly and have
taken up many important causes in order to help the country's development
as a well-educated, democratic society.
"Cornelia and I are deeply moved by having been chosen as honorees
[for the 2004 gala]," Peter Oberlander told the Bulletin.
"We feel humbled being recognized by family, friends and the
younger generation for our continuing involvement with learning,
teaching and research at the Hebrew University."
Money raised at the event will go to the newly established Endowment
Fund for the Restoration, Conservation and Preservation of the Heritage
Buildings at the Hebrew University at Mount Scopus.
The restoration of these buildings is something in which the Oberlanders
take a great deal of pride.
"Support by friends of the university traditionally focuses
on aid to students and support for faculty research and teaching,"
Peter Oberlander explained. "We wanted to shift the emphasis
to the place and space of the campus which has become a worldwide
symbol for learning, teaching and raising a generation of Israeli
and international students in an atmosphere of mutual trust and
respect."
In need of immediate attention is the university's 75-year-old law
school building, which requires constant and increasing maintenance,
typically delayed under escalating budgetary restrictions.
"That building and the campus itself represent an extraordinary
legacy for the Jewish people and its global commitment to learning
and teaching," said Oberlander. "Mount Scopus is a heritage
site with heritage buildings where Chaim Weizman, Martin Buber,
Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein lectured and where Lord Balfour
spoke with clarity of his government's commitment to the state of
Israel."
Outside of their dedication to Israel and the Hebrew University,
the Oberlanders have a seemingly infinite list of accomplishments,
credits and awards.
The first Canadian to obtain a master of city planning degree, which
he earned at McGill University, Peter Oberlander subsequently received
a PhD in regional planning from Harvard University. He became the
founding director of the University of British Columbia (UBC) School
of Community and Regional Planning and was also the founding director
of the Centre for Human Settlements, which is devoted to planning
research.
In 1995, he was awarded the Order of Canada and in 1998 Canada's
minister of citizenship and immigration appointed Oberlander a citizenship
judge for British Columbia and the Yukon. Currently, Oberlander
is UBC professor emeritus in regional planning.
Cornelia Oberlander is considered to be one of North America's most
accomplished and well-known female landscape architects. She studied
at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, in the first of its classes
that accepted women. During the 1960s, she concentrated her work
on low-income housing and playgrounds, including the Children's
Creative Centre at Expo '67 in Montreal.
Her projects honor the ideal of sustainable development by respecting
surrounding land, water and air resources and creating spaces for
the enjoyment of nature in the city. One of her prize projects is
downtown Vancouver's Robson Square and Provincial Government Courthouse
Complex, with which she created an urban oasis on an accessible
roof of the building, completed in 1980.
The CFHU gala dinner will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 604-257-5133.
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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