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Word choice matters

The Jordan River is “the only river on planet earth that on its good days is a few feet wide, and people claim that it has a bank 40 miles wide.” (photo from Beivushtang via Wikimedia Commons)

Settlements or Jewish communities? West Bank or Judea and Samaria? East Jerusalem or eastern Jerusalem? Those are some of the language choices that journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are faced with each day – and those choices should not be taken lightly, experts say.

“It’s the terminology that actually defines the conflict and defines what you think about the conflict,” said Ari Briggs, director of Regavim, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that works on legal land-use issues. “Whereas journalists’ job, I believe, is to present the news, as soon as you use certain terminology, you’re presenting an opinion and not the news anymore.”

“Accuracy requires precision; ideology employs euphemism,” said Eric Rozenman, Washington director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

At the conclusion of his essay, “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell argues that writers have the power to “send some worn-out and useless phrase … into the dustbin, where it belongs.” Many Jewish leaders, organizations and analysts wish to do just that with the following terms, which are commonly used by the mainstream media in coverage of Israel.

West Bank: Dani Dayan believes the “funniest” term of all that is used in mainstream coverage of Israel is West Bank. Dayan is the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization representing the municipal councils of Jewish communities in an area that the Israeli government calls Judea and Samaria, in line with the region’s biblical roots. Yet, media most often use West Bank to describe the area in reference to the bank of the river situated on its eastern border.

“[The Jordan River] is the only river on planet earth that on its good days is a few feet wide, and people claim that it has a bank 40 miles wide [spanning across Judea and Samaria],” Dayan told this reporter. “There is no other example of such a thing in the geography of planet earth. That proves that West Bank is the politicized terminology, and not Judea and Samaria, as people claim.”

Member of Knesset Danny Danon (Likud) has said it’s “ridiculous” that West Bank – a geographic term that once described half of the Mandate of Palestine – has “taken on a political meaning that attempts to supersede thousands of years of Jewish tradition.”

“The correct name of the heartland of the Land of Israel is obviously Judea and Samaria,” he said.

Rozenman, the former editor of the Washington Jewish Week and B’nai B’rith Magazine, draws a distinction between the context of Palestinian and Jewish communities in the area. “If I’m referring to Palestinian Arab usage or demands, I use West Bank,” he said. “If I’m referring to Israeli usage or Jewish history and religion, etc., I use Judea and Samaria. Israeli prime ministers from 1967 on, if not before, used and [now] use Yehuda and Shomron, the Hebrew from which the Romans latinized Judea and Samaria.”

West Bank is fair to use, “so long as it’s noted that Jordan adopted that usage in the early 1950s to try to legitimate its illegal occupation, as the result of aggression, of what was commonly known as Judea and Samaria by British Mandatory authorities,” added Rozenman.

Dayan, meanwhile, prefers to call Palestinian communities in Judea and Samaria exactly that. “The area is Judea and Samaria and, in Judea and Samaria, there are indeed Palestinian population centres, and that’s perfectly OK,” he said. “We cannot neglect that fact, that yes, we [Jews] are living together with Palestinians. And, in Judea and Samaria, there is ample room for many Jews, for many Palestinians, and for peaceful coexistence between them if the will exists.”

Settlements: Judea and Samaria’s Jewish communities are often called settlements, a term that can depict modern-day residents of the area as primitive.

Settlements “once referred in a positive manner to all communities in the Land of Israel, but at some point was misappropriated as a negative term specifically against those Jews who settled in Judea and Samaria,” Danon said. “I prefer to use ‘Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria’ when discussing the brave modern-day Zionistic pioneers.”

Dayan said that “settlements” is not pejorative, but still inaccurate. “It’s a politically driven labeling in order to target those [Israeli] communities,” he said. “Most communities in Judea and Samaria are not different from any suburban or even urban community in Europe, in the United States, in Israel itself, or elsewhere.”

Read more at jns.org.

The tent is getting smaller

Amid what had been a steady stream of volunteer commitments I had undertaken in the Jewish community, it seems I now have some more free time. I could be pleased by the fact that I am freed from a major board commitment, but I’m not. Because something’s rotten in the state of Diaspora Jewish communal discourse.

Let’s back up. After seven years of dedicated service on the board of a large Jewish organization here in Ottawa, where I helped initiate policies around ecological sustainability, reform the board’s governance and procedures, work on LGBTQ inclusion, and reformulate our mission statement to better reflect the organization’s values, I found myself having risen through the ranks of the board’s executive to the position of vice-chair. All this along with teaching adult education classes at the institution, creating an innovative women’s athletic program there and being a regular user, along with my family, of a variety of programs and services. Normal board succession procedures imply that I would be next in line for chair – a position I had made plain to those in charge that I was willing to take on.

But rumblings over the past half-year suggested that I was potentially radioactive in the minds of some donors. Why? Because of my writings on the subject of Israel. In short, the board’s selection committee made clear that they’d be better off without me.

Readers of my columns know that while I am frequently critical of Israeli policies around the occupation and other anti-democratic moves afoot in Israel, I am squarely in the camp of liberal Zionism. This means that, in addition to criticizing the occupation and pressing Israel to make the necessary conditions to engage in a meaningful peace process, I oppose full-out boycott of Israel leading to the undermining of its core identity as a Jewish state. I have publicly debated anti-Zionists and non-Zionists – both in person and in print – on these issues, and I regularly tout the importance of Israel engagement and Jewish and Hebrew literacy. These are all ideas that I also put forth both in my columns in local Canadian Jewish papers and in international media, in Haaretz, the Forward and, before that, in Open Zion at the Daily Beast. Still, it seems that when it comes to positions of community leadership, none of this is enough to establish one’s loyalty to a tent that is rapidly shrinking.

We’ve heard this all before, of course. Witness the stonewalling reaction Peter Beinart received by the Toronto-based Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs when his organizers tried to get him an audience with Hillel on campus during his three-city Canadian tour a couple of years ago. And then there’s the canceling of David Harris-Gershon’s talk at the Jewish community centre in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.

It’s by now a truism that the breadth of policy debate among Israelis themselves far outsizes what is evidently permitted within the Diaspora Jewish community. But then, neither do Israeli Jews have to actively work to inculcate Jewish identity, as I frequently have in my writings, including promoting Jewish education, pushing for the active use of Hebrew, examining the value of synagogue affiliation, defending Jewish and Zionist summer camping experiences and, yes, insisting on the value of a Diaspora connection to Israel.

So, I’m left to ask this: what is it, ultimately, that we, as Jewish community volunteers and activists, are being asked to be loyal to? Are we being asked to promote Jewish community vitality, wrestle with ideas around Israeli politics and policies, encourage Jewish literacy, and consider realities that preserve Israel’s Jewish and democratic character? Or are we being asked to simply support the endless occupation just as we see Israel’s democratic character crumbling before our very eyes, as the country becomes more and more of a pariah state? I think I know the answer. But how I wish it weren’t so.

Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. A version of this article was originally published on haartez.com.

Mendes joins Tapper on 100.5 FM

Marcus Mendes in Yemin Moshe, Jerusalem, last year. (photo from Marcus Mendes)

Marcus Mendes has joined Alan Tapper in hosting The Anthology of Jewish Music, which airs Sundays, 10 a.m., on 100.5 FM and coopradio.org. Mendes will be playing a variety of genres of Jewish music: traditional, pop, religious and especially Israeli artists.

Recently, Mendes was a volunteer at the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library. For a couple of years, as a child, he lived on Kibbutz Gesher Haziv and Kibbutz Dorot. He spent another year in Israel when he was 17, he recently visited there and will be traveling to the country again next year.

“I’m completely in awe of Alan’s dedication to bringing us this great show of Jewish music every week for the last 34 years,” said Mendes. “The man deserves a star on a walk of fame. If I could play a theme song, it might be the Knack’s ‘My Sharona!’ except I’d replace those words with, ‘Alan Tapper!’ and sing them with feeling!”

Cultivating composers

For the past eight years, Turning Point Ensemble (TPE) has taken their Creating Composers music education program into schools across Metro Vancouver. This year, the program has expanded and, with the support of the B.C. Arts Council’s Youth Engagement grant program, Creating Composers will travel to more remote communities in the province.

The announcement was made by the program’s founder, Jeremy Berkman, who is TPE’s new director of education and community outreach. What’s the Score! will take members of the ensemble to Prince George and Terrace to work with young creative artists ages 13-18 to give them the skills to be a composer. The workshops will not only focus on creative composition in general, but will focus on orchestration by augmenting the Turning Point Ensemble with members of the local musician community and the guidance of two of the province’s most renowned composers for orchestral forces, Jeffrey Ryan and Rodney Sharman. The Prince George concert will take place on Dec. 7, 2 p.m., in Vanier Hall with Sharman, TPE mentor composer, and a Terrace concert will take place in April.

In Vancouver, the orchestration workshops will now include nearly the entire Turning Point Ensemble collaborating with Vancouver Pro Musica to develop and present a program of new compositions as part of Pro Musica’s annual Sonic Boom Festival that will be performed March 29.

The Creating Composers youth music education program returns to schools in Metro Vancouver in 2015. The ensemble members love taking part in it, and are excited to welcome Mark Haney and Dorothy Chang as mentor composers this year.

In brief, TPE musicians and mentor composer help students develop creative ideas to write a composition in a supportive learning environment that includes a dialogue with the artists, who will then interpret and perform the young composer’s work. In addition, Remy Siu is TPE’s emerging composer in residence, assisting with the Creating Composers programs, as well as coordinating a competition for young composers.

Music is a universal language and students can develop confidence through self-expression, regardless of economic, language or cultural barriers. TPE provides the catalyst to spark the interest in music or the arts in general.

For more information on the ensemble, its programs and performances, visit turningpointensemble.ca.

When Men Talk …

To the women reading this post, brace yourself for the following comment: It’s not easy being a man!

Take a minute. OK. Breathe. Sit back down. And we can continue.

The North American male lives under a lot of pressure with high expectations when it comes to their role in relationships, an assumed level of strength, decisive behavior and success.

Yes, it’s true! Stop laughing!

The truth is, there isn’t a whole lot of time or space for sensitivity, vulnerability or exploration of feelings when it comes to thriving as a man in our society. That’s where ManTalks, a new Vancouver-based, community-themed speaker series, steps in.

Connor Beaton founded ManTalks
Connor Beaton founded ManTalks.

Developed by Connor Beaton, a sales/operations manager for Apple, ManTalks came to be after Beaton’s own personal “rock-bottom” had him bounce back, looking for more truth and support in his life.

Once a world-traveling opera singer, Beaton walked away from the stage to pursue other interests and his life was set adrift, leading to some tough decision making.

“I had made some really poor choices in my relationship and had lied and cheated on the woman I was with at the time,” he explained. “Instead of coming clean I tried to keep lying.
“The problem was,” he continued, “I had been lying to my friends, family and myself about what was happening in my life. I wasn’t living the life I wanted, but I had convinced myself and everyone around me that my life was amazing. I had convinced everyone that I had an amazing career, an amazing partner, had money in the bank and was on the path to huge success. But it was all a lie.”
Beaton went on to explain how he realized he’d lost track of who he was, digging a hole deeper than he could pull himself out of. He eventually made a conscious decision to promise himself two things: “First, I would speak my truth and live it,” he said. “Second, I would make sure that other men didn’t have to face their challenges and darkest moments alone.”
The goal of ManTalks is to create the largest resource “for men looking to live a powerful, authentic and honest life, contributing to the success of others.”
A few ManTalks sessions have already taken place, with participation from more than 100 men and women (pretty sure the women were there on a recon mission). The last one, earlier this month, was focused on fitness, body image and work/life balance. It featured three speakers with different perspectives or stories about how they conquered some extremely vulnerable moments in their own lives, while audience members shared with each other as well.
Starting in January, ManTalks will take place once a month, each with different themes. January will be themed Wealth Mindset, February will be What Women Want (featuring all female speakers), March will be Spirituality, April will be Fatherhood and May will be Masculinity. More info on Mantalks can be found at www.mantalks.ca
Beaton will also be speaking at the upcoming Recharge Conference taking place at the JCC, January 11. www.sparkenergizeempower.com

Haim Peri honored for bravery

An aerial photograph of the Vancouver International Airport. (photo by Alejandro Erickson via en.wikipedia.org)

On Oct. 21, Governor General of Canada David Johnson awarded Haim Peri, a member of the local Jewish community and a former Israeli, with the Canadian Medal of Bravery. Five other heroes from the Greater Vancouver area received the award along with Peri – all for saving passengers from a burning airplane that crashed at the Vancouver International Airport three years ago, in October 2011.

In an interview with the Jewish Independent, Peri talked about that afternoon, when he and the others witnessed a plane crash and participated in the rescue of its seven passengers.

photo - Haim Peri received the Canadian Medal of Bravery for his heroic actions in October 2011 to rescue passengers from a burning plane at Vancouver International Airport
Haim Peri received the Canadian Medal of Bravery for his heroic actions in October 2011 to rescue passengers from a burning plane at Vancouver International Airport. (photo by Olga Livshin)

“It happened about 200 metres from where I work. I’m a driver for Amre Supply. I just finished my workday and took a smoke outside when I saw the entire thing happen right before my eyes. As I later learned, the plane took off for Kelowna and immediately encountered a mechanical problem. It had to turn back. The pilots tried to land the plane on the runway but couldn’t. I remember hearing the engines struggle. They roared. The plane was too low and coming down at great speed. One of the wings clipped a lamp post, and then the whole thing made a sharp left turn and hit the ground. The cockpit was instantly engulfed in flames. There was choking black smoke, and spilled jet fuel could ignite at any moment…. It was as cinematic as it was horrific, and then there was silence.”

According to the reports later available to the media, several people saw the crash and tried to get away as fast as they could. The fire was spreading, the heat was intense and an explosion could have occurred at any moment. Despite the imminent danger, Peri and the other rescuers rushed towards the burning plane.

“I didn’t know how many people were on board, or who had survived the crash, but letting people die was not an option,” he recalled. “There were no fire fighters or medics there. They all arrived a few minutes later, but a few minutes is a long time in such situations.”

He remembered running towards the plane the moment it crashed. “By the time I arrived, the door had just been opened, and someone was already trying to drag out a passenger. He was struggling, and I told him we could lift her together.” He stepped into the plane to pick up the passenger’s legs, while his partner lifted her shoulders. They carried the injured woman some distance from the wreckage.

“I had had first-aid training so I checked her for bleeding first,” he said. “There was none, but she was in terrible pain, and I feared she may have suffered internal injuries and broken bones. By that time, other rescuers had stepped in to get the remaining passengers off the plane, so I focused my attention on the woman, talked to her, tried to make her as comfortable as possible.”

Six weeks before the plane crash, Peri had received sad news: his 30-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. “As I sat with the woman I saved, I prayed to G-d,” he said. “I told him: ‘I’ll take care of this woman. Please, you take care of my baby, help her.’ He did. She is better now, free of cancer. She recently had a new baby, my eighth grandchild.”

Eventually, emergency crews arrived and took control of the crash scene, and the injured were taken to the hospital. “And I walked back to work across the street,” Peri recalled.

That daring rescue wasn’t the first in his life. When he served in the Israeli army in his youth, he was a landmine specialist, trained to spot and disarm mines, as well as plant them. He and a group of others were assigned to rebuild a barbed-wire fence in the Golan.

“The Syrian military had planted thousands of mines on the Golan Heights,” he said. “We were told that the area was already clear of the mines, but I decided to look around anyway. That’s when I saw the spherical shape of the top of an anti-tank mine. ‘Don’t move!’ I shouted to the others. They all held still. I slowly retraced my footsteps back to the main road. One by one, I had the other soldiers follow my tracks, until all 15 of my men were out of harm’s way. I later discovered four additional landmines were buried along the same path.”

The events of that day and the plane crash of 2011 were separated by more than 30 years, but the man was still the same, keeping others safe. While both pilots unfortunately died in hospital, all of the passengers survived because of the rescuers’ swift actions.

“The City of Richmond presented all of the rescuers with the awards for bravery,” Peri said, displaying his medals. “The recognition continued with the Lions Club’s Medal of Merit and the RCMP award. And now, Canada’s Medal of Bravery. It has my name on it.”

The other five B.C. recipients of the Canadian Medal of Bravery were Peri’s fellow rescuers, who ventured into the burning aircraft with him on that autumn day in 2011 to save its seven passengers: Jeremy Kerr, Lonney Lee, Shawn Nagurny, Francis Nand and John Redmond.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.

Lokash cast in musical’s title role

Julian Lokash plays the title character in Carousel Theatre’s James and the Giant Peach. (photo by Tim Matheson)

When asked how long he’s been an actor, 11-year-old Julian Lokash didn’t hesitate. “Since I was born!” was his immediate response.

The young actor is the star of the upcoming Carousel Theatre production of James and the Giant Peach. As James, he’s in every scene, which has meant that he has been in rehearsals for two months, from 9-5 each day, except on Mondays, when he has the chance to go to school like other children his age. He is in Grade 6, in the French immersion program École Jules Quesnel in Point Grey.

Julian is not only an actor. He is what the theatre world calls a triple threat. “I dance and sing as well,” he said. “When I was just 1 or 2 years old, I was always dancing around and singing, even before I could talk,” he explained when asked about how his parents knew he was interested in the performing arts.

Julian shook his head emphatically (perhaps even a bit theatrically) when asked whether anyone else in his immediate family has any talent for musical theatre. He did say that his father’s cousin works for Dreamworks and that his dad also has an aunt who played in an orchestra but, as far as Julian is concerned, he’s an anomaly in his family.

Looking outside of the family for performance role models, Julian said he is a big fan of many of the actors on the TV show Glee because he thinks they have great voices. He also loves the Disney movie Frozen and, specifically, Idina Menzel, the voice of Elsa.

When he was younger, Julian was involved in Stage Coach, a theatre arts program that developed his interest and talent for musical theatre. More recently, he spent his last two summers in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! musical theatre summer school run by Perry Ehrlich. “Perry was the one who told me to try out for James and the Giant Peach,” said Julian. “He’s sort of like a musical theatre agent because he’s watching out for things for me.”

In fact, Julian has had an acting agent in the past. Through that agent, he did a commercial for Crayola. “I’m at a pause right now because I don’t have time for TV or commercials right now,” he said. He admitted that, at this point in his life, he prefers musical theatre but thinks that, in the future, he may have to do some TV. He’s confident that he’s found his calling and already has part of his acceptance speech ready for his Tony or his Oscar. “My friends wanted me to tell you that they are really supportive. My family is so supportive, too,” he said.

With theatre such a big part of his life, Julian does ballet, tap and jazz dancing, as well as voice lessons. The busy schedule of rehearsals, not only for James and the Giant Peach, but for any production, requires strong family backing. Luckily, his parents are happy to see their son doing what makes him happy.

It’s not all about the arts, however. Julian likes to be active and he gets that through dance as well as regular family ski weekends at Whistler. “I love to ski but I think this winter my brother and I are both going to tone it down and maybe only ski Saturdays,” he said. He admitted that he’d like a bit more time to spend with his friends.

Despite his busy schedule, Julian has found time to participate in a Jewish education class organized by a number of parents in his neighborhood. All of the students are kids living in Point Grey who attend public school and whose parents want their children to have some Jewish education without formalizing a connection to a synagogue. He mentioned that he’s not very religious but he does like to celebrate the Jewish holidays.

James and the Giant Peach tickets are available through Carousel Theatre for Young People. The musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel is at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island from Dec. 6 to Jan. 4, after which Julian will return to the life of a regular, but talented, Grade 6 student.

Michelle Dodek is a freelance writer and community volunteer living in Vancouver.

Thousands of B.C. archeological sites

Hartley Odwak holds a 1,000-2,000-year-old stone projective point recovered from one of the sites on which he has worked. (photo from Hartley Odwak)

What is fascinating and striking is that it’s largely unknown to most Vancouverites and British Columbians that there is a plethora of documented archeological sites in and around the Lower Mainland and all over B.C. – quite literally, thousands,” said archeologist Hartley Odwak.

Odwak, 48, grew up in Winnipeg and earned his bachelor’s (with honors in anthropology) at the University of Winnipeg (U of W), before moving to Vancouver for graduate school at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and later moved to London, England, for his PhD. He now calls Vancouver home.

“All the houses at Locarno Beach and south, up the hill a block or so, are on top of one of the most important archeological sites in the province – the Locarno site – which dates to at least 3,300 years ago,” said Odwak. “There are 45 archeological sites in Stanley Park. I don’t believe any are marked by interpretive signage, which makes knowing about them all the more unlikely. The same is true for all of the major cities, towns, villages and Gulf Islands in B.C., from Victoria to Nanaimo, Saltspring Island, Pender Island, Sechelt and Campbell River.”

According to Odwak, there are many archeological consulting firms in British Columbia – 30 or more – some very large and some very small. As for what types of archeological sites exist in the province, he said they include everything from winter and summer villages to seasonal camps, fortification sites, hunting sites, sacred sites, resource-gathering sites and rock art sites. “All these sites document the traditional use of the lands and waters of B.C. by First Nations people back several thousands of years … and we keep finding older and older sites.”

Road to archeology

After completing his BA, Odwak sought a graduate program with a strong human evolution component for his master’s. Although he felt he had received excellent training from Chris Meiklejohn at the U of W, there was no U of W graduate program at the time and the University of Manitoba also did not have a strong human evolution component.

“At the time, SFU’s archeology department had one of the best programs in the country and, as I wanted to stay in Canada, I thought it would be an interesting place to live and study,” said Odwak. “I’m not sure of the exact moment I decided to become an archeologist or if it was entirely intentional.”

At U of W, Odwak was drawn to anthropology, particularly the very early prehistoric periods and human evolution. Anthropological training gives a broad background in many sub-areas, such as archeology, biological anthropology (prehistory and evolution), linguistics and cultural anthropology. Odwak focused on biological anthropology and archeology and, early in his academic career at U of W, held summer jobs with Parks Canada as an archeologist. This provided him with diverse experiences, including traveling to excavate in the Yukon and in Saskatchewan (at Batoche).

When Odwak moved to Burnaby for his MA in 1990, he specialized in human evolution. As part of his thesis, he went to Israel to conduct research and excavations. At SFU, he said he hoped to do what every student of human evolution dreams of – “excavate at an early human site in the old world … and, given [his] Jewish background, love of Israel and grasp of Hebrew, Israel was [his] obvious choice. Israel contains many famous prehistoric archeological sites and fossils critical to the story of human evolution.”

According to Odwak, the oldest sites in Israel are nearly 400,000 years old (before the appearance of modern humans) and several sites contain evidence critical to our understanding of the appearance and evolution of modern humans.

Starting up a firm

When Odwak was hired by B.C. archeological consulting companies, he began working with local First Nations to collect archeological information from their territories.

“I felt an instant connection with the First Nation communities,” said Odwak, who was on his way to becoming an academic biological anthropologist, specializing in prehistory and human evolution in Israel, before his consulting career took on a life of its own.

“It really almost happened by accident,” he said. “When I was doing my MA at SFU, I needed to make some money and was asked by a colleague to help him on a very small archeological project on the Gulf Islands of B.C.”

This led to another project, and another, and, eventually, Odwak was hired by other firms to do work around the province. In 1997, one of the First Nations on Vancouver Island, with whom Odwak had been in the field earlier, asked if they could retain him exclusively. He accepted and, with a partner, started up the firm Sources Archeological and Heritage Research Inc.

Most archeological consulting in Canada, including Odwak’s, involves assessing proposed development areas for the presence of archeological sites. The firms locate, record and map sites to protect them during construction and development.

Making a new home

Coming from a tight-knit community in Winnipeg, it took Odwak a little while to get rooted in Vancouver but, once he and his wife, Anthea Lee, settled down in the Commercial Drive area in the early 2000s, he started to feel more comfortable.

“It’s a very diverse, welcoming neighborhood where, in my experience, you get recognized by the ‘people in your neighborhood,’ as the Sesame Street saying goes, more than other places I’ve experienced here.”

When the couple had children they became more connected to the Jewish community and have since made some very good friends through their kids – sons Noah and Sam – being enrolled at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver day care.

Odwak’s sister, Mindy, moved to Vancouver shortly after he did and now lives a few blocks from them. She and her partner, Nina, are loving aunts to Noah and Sam.

Having outgrown day care, Noah, 6, is now active in after-school programs and classes at the JCCGV, while Sam, 2, has been at the day care for several months. “It’s an absolutely wonderful program,” said Odwak. “Noah and Sam’s growth, development and strength of character gained so much from the teachers, administrators and overall day-care philosophy. This has helped our children develop an early group of community-based friends who, including their parents, are becoming very much like extended family to us.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.