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Nov. 18, 2005
Hadassah-WIZO weekend
Vancouverite finishes term as national president.
PAT JOHNSON
When the women of Hadassah-WIZO from across Canada converge in
Vancouver for their convention this weekend, it will be a homecoming
of sorts for the outgoing president of the national organization,
Rochelle Levinson.
Levinson, who is the third British Columbian to hold the national
leadership, completes her three-year term of office when Hadassah-WIZO
turns the leadership over to Calgarian Sandy Martin.
Hosting the national convention, which runs Nov. 19 to 23 at the
Westin Bayshore Hotel on Vancouver's waterfront, is a prestigious
and inspiring honor for the local Hadassah-WIZO chapters, Levinson
said.
"It's a real shot in the arm to the local members," she
said. It is due in part to the strength of Hadassah-WIZO locally
that Levinson follows in the footsteps of two other longtime activists,
Naomi Frankenburg and Judy Mandelman, as head of the Canadian branch
of the Women's International Zionist Organization.
"The organization is strong here," Levinson said. "A
lot of the women are very dedicated."
That dedication was on display Nov. 2, when the annual Hadassah
Bazaar took place at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver. Levinson,
with most of the other local women in her organization, rolled up
their sleeves to sell fresh home-baked goods, handicrafts and new
and used items at the wildly popular bargain- hunters' pilgrimage.
The convention is offering a range of presentations and workshops,
some of which are open to members of the general public. Among the
scheduled guests are British Columbia's Lt.-Gov. Iona Campagnolo,
Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker and Dr. Martha Piper, president
of the University of British Columbia.
The convention will also mark the end of Levinson's term as president,
which has been, she said, a wonderful experience that defies identifying
a single highlight.
"The whole thing has been really good," she said. "I
got to meet a lot of the membership across Canada."
But the real impact, she said, has been visiting Israel and seeing
the success of the many Canadian Hadassah-WIZO-funded projects in
that country. In the three years she has served, she has visited
Israel eight times, building camaraderie between colleagues in Israel,
Canada and worldwide who share the objective of supporting health
and education projects in the Jewish state.
Levinson's first trip to Israel was in 1983, when she went there
as president of Vancouver Hadassah-WIZO. That first trip motivated
her to continue and expand her work.
"It really changed the way I look at things," she said.
"It instilled in me a sense of the importance of the work we
do."
Levinson's rise through the ranks from member of Vancouver's Aviv
chapter to national president began in 1968, when she arrived in
this city knowing not a soul.
"I was new in the community," she said. "I joined
Hadassah-WIZO because that's what you do."
The Hadassah-WIZO convention opening ceremony, on Sunday, Nov. 20,
is open to the public and is to include a special recognition of
Sen. Roméo Dallaire, the retired Canadian general whose book,
Shake Hands with the Devil, tells of his efforts to make
the global community stand up against imminent genocide in Rwanda
a decade ago and the catastrophic aftermath of the world's failure
to act.
Canadian Hadassah-WIZO supports a vast range of projects in Israel
and Canada, including day-care centres, educational projects for
socially disadvantaged and educationally challenged youth, community
centres, basic healthcare, cutting-edge cancer treatment and medical
research. The group's Women for Women Project supplies funds for
a battered women's shelter and a crisis hotline. In Canada, Canadian
Hadassah-WIZO helps train advocates and leaders, through Young Judea,
scholarships, bursaries, grants and endowments.
For more information about the Hadassah-WIZO convention or the group
itself, contact the organization's Vancouver office at 604-257-5160.
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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