Our Table is a beautiful hostess gift for that special occasion or that friend who loves cooking and never tires of inspiring culinary reads.
There are cookbooks you whip out of your kitchen cupboard 45 minutes before dinner in search of something easy, bright and new, and there are cookbooks you take to bed with you for reading pleasure. Our Table (Artscroll, 2016) by Renee Muller falls into the latter category, not because you won’t want to try her recipes, but because there’s a lot of reading involved in many of them.
Muller is a Swiss native who moved to the United States in 2002 and, by winning a recipe contest, landed a regular column in Whisk, a pullout food feature of the national Jewish weekly Ami Magazine. Our Table is a compendium of her favorite kosher recipes, “a cuisine that is heimish yet laced with aromas of my youth,” she writes in the introduction.
The dishes encompass all the usual categories – soups, salads, appetizers, fish and dairy, meat, chicken, snacks, desserts and breads. Many of them are laced with stories about family secrets related to the particular recipe, or how the recipe came into being. For her fragrant standing rib roast recipe, for example, there’s an essay on how and why she created the recipe, as well as tips on how far in advance to make it and how to prevent it from drying out. Her Sugo Della Nonna (Italian-style tomato sauce) contains a half page on the definition of comfort food and the feeling it delivers when she makes it. “I see myself, sitting at Nonna’s table, as a child, feeling nourished and happy,” she writes.
Muller’s insights are written in a conversational style with lots of anecdotes about her family thrown in. By the time you’re finished reading this book, you feel like you know her personally – and you can’t help but like this impassioned chef who adores cooking for her family and friends. That’s because Muller’s enthusiasm is contagious, but also because some of her dishes go way beyond the usual suspects. There is a recipe for onion crisps, a whole page on the art of roasting chestnuts, one on toffee apples, one titled “Really, really good whole wheat challah” and another for brown buttered pear salad. And the pictures? Whoa. They are amazing, mouthwatering bites of full-page color that will leave you salivating as you plan your next dinner party. Most of the recipes are not terribly complex either, they’re just new combinations of ingredients most of us know well and use regularly.
Muller is that friend we all want in our lives – the one whose cooking is fabulous, who isn’t shy about sharing her recipes and whose conversation is full of funny stories, notes from her past and sage bits of wisdom. There are times when the essays feel perhaps a tad too long but, nonetheless, Our Table is a 270-page hardcover recipe book worth having, a beautiful hostess gift for that special occasion (Chanukah?) or that friend who loves cooking and never tires of inspiring culinary reads.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Sasson (Sassy) Reuven serving in the Golan Heights. (photo from Sassy Reuven via Chabad of Richmond)
On Nov. 9, more than 200 members of the community packed into the Executive Inn in Richmond to attend a lecture by retired Israel Defence Forces commander Sasson (Sassy) Reuven, who held the audience spellbound for 90 minutes as he recounted his participation in the 1976 Operation Entebbe.
Reuven, an Israeli from Be’er Sheva, relocated to California after completing his military service, heading up security for El Al before opening a construction development company in Calabasas. As the recession hit, he found work scarce and confided his financial woes to a new friend, the Chabad rabbi in Calabasas. Somehow, it came up in conversation that Reuven had been an elite commander in the IDF and was one of the soldiers sent to rescue hostages taken in the Entebbe hijacking. Before he knew it, Reuven had agreed to give a talk to his community, and that talk jumpstarted his public speaking career, taking him all over the world to recount his memories of Entebbe.
Retired Israel Defence Forces commander Sassy Reuven spoke in Richmond on Nov. 9 about Operation Entebbe. (photo from Sassy Reuven via Chabad of Richmond)
Earlier this month, he stopped in Richmond to deliver a talk sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Chabad of Richmond and Richmond Jewish Day School. Then he was headed to Vancouver Island, Spokane, Wash., and South Africa for more speaking engagements.
The hijacking began on Air France Flight 139, which, on June 27, 1976, was en route from Tel Aviv to Paris via Athens. In Athens, four terrorists boarded the plane and forced the pilot, Michael Bacos, to divert the plane to Benghazi to refuel. Seven hours later, the plane left for Entebbe, arriving at 4 a.m.
“Israel had a good diplomatic relationship with Uganda from 1965,” Reuven explained. That changed in 1972, when President Idi Amin came to Israel, saw the IDF’s jet fighter planes and declared he wanted them for his own air force, “so he could destroy Tanzania.” The diplomatic visit did not go well and, over the course of it, Amin had a psychotic episode and spent time in hospital, Reuven said. When he returned to Uganda, Amin persisted in his demand for the fighter jets, but Israel, a friend of Tanzania, denied his request. When the hijackers requested the cooperation of Amin’s army so they could negotiate for the release of the hostages from Entebbe, the president complied.
Over the two days that followed, the hijackers separated Jews and Israelis from the other passengers. They set their ransom price and threatened to start killing Jewish hostages by July 1 if their demands weren’t met. Later, they extended the deadline to July 4, giving the IDF much-needed time to plan its heroic rescue.
The mood in Israel was very sombre at the time, Reuven recalled. “The entire country was still in mourning after the Yom Kippur War. When we learned we’d be flying to Entebbe to bring the hostages back, our commander told us we needed to bring them back alive – no fatalities and no injuries. We were going to bring the country’s morale back up.”
Asked if he felt ready to embark on such a mission, Reuven said he’d been in training for two years solid prior to the rescue. “The only time we stopped training was for Shabbat,” he reflected. “When I was selected to be part of this mission, I felt like the luckiest person alive, that this was my core existence as a Jewish soldier.”
The hours before he and the other soldiers boarded a Hercules C-130 aircraft and took off for Entebbe were long. Reuven recalled waiting beneath the eucalyptus trees at an army camp where the soldiers were fed hardboiled eggs, pita and mud-like coffee, and given very little information about their upcoming mission. When they finally took to the air, there were four Hercules C-130s and two Boeing 707s, containing a flying hospital and a flying command centre. The soldiers numbered 212 and included pilots, flight engineers, doctors, paramedics, refueling technicians, psychologists and intelligence personnel. Space was so tight on the flight that Reuven was wedged between the wall of the plane and an old black Mercedes-Benz that the IDF had brought along so that its soldiers could masquerade as officials in the Ugandan government if necessary.
At one point in his lecture, Reuven donned a white cap fitted with an elastic beneath his chin. “When we disembarked from the planes, we were wearing hats just like these,” he said. The IDF knew the airport would be in pitch darkness when its rescue mission arrived at 11 p.m. and the white hats were a way for the soldiers to recognize and see one another easily.
The rescue mission soldiers had various tasks. Some, like Yonatan Netanyahu, were sent to Entebbe’s old terminal building, where the hostages were being held. Reuven was instructed to go to the new terminal building. He recalled how the Ugandan soldiers knew something was going on and started raining bullets on the IDF rescuers as they ran towards the terminal buildings. Netanyahu was shot by one of those bullets and died minutes later at the scene.
In total, the rescue mission took 90 minutes and, by 12:30 a.m., the seven hijackers were dead and the hostages were loaded into an aircraft and en route to safety. The mission returned with fewer casualties than had been expected. Among the IDF soldiers, one had died and four were injured. Six hostages had been injured and four had been killed, including 19-year-old French-Israeli Jean Jacques Mimouni. When the IDF had arrived in the terminal building, they’d shouted to the hostages to lie down. Mimouni was so excited to see them, he jumped up and tried to embrace them. Mistaking him for a hijacker, the IDF shot him dead.
While he didn’t spend much time detailing the rescue scene, Reuven said he felt elated as he flew back to Tel Nof in Israel. “I felt like the long arm of the Israeli army was such a great arm that we’d go take care of any Jew, anywhere, in dire straits.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Matthew Segal (front, facing the camera) and his teammates at the Royal Henley Regatta in England. (photo from Matthew Segal)
Matthew Segal was an all-round athlete until the age of 15, when he found his one true love: rowing. He fell in love with the sport while he was a student at St. George’s School in Vancouver and followed it to Yale, where he rowed for the university’s lightweight varsity rowing team. In recent months, Segal, 22, the grandson of Vancouver icon Joe Segal, returned to Vancouver after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale. His most memorable times at school were spent rowing, specifically in the boat’s coveted position of stroke seat.
“Coaches look for a rower’s rhythm, length and the reliability of their endurance when they select the stroke seat,” Matthew explained to the Independent. “It was an honor to fill that role but I think the stroke takes too much of the credit. The success we had is attributable to every single guy on the boat.”
Segal’s father, real estate developer Lorne Segal, said he believes his son has been the only Jewish stroke of the Yale Varsity boat since intercollegiate sport began in the United States. While rowing began at Yale before 1852 and was the first collegiate sport, Lorne Segal said, “The first U.S. intercollegiate sport was a rowing race between Harvard and Yale in 1852; prior to that, Yale would simply race internally. So, the entire intercollegiate sport system started in the U.S. with the Harvard-Yale race, which has become one of the most famous annual races.”
Matthew Segal at graduation. (photo from Matthew Segal)
Segal’s team had an undefeated regular season in 2016 before it went on to compete in the Eastern Sprints, a race against rowing teams of the top 18 schools in the United States. When they won the Eastern Sprints, they were invited to race in the prestigious Royal Henley Regatta in England, where they competed against 72 boats and were the only lightweight team to make it to the semifinal.
Lorne and Mélita Segal traveled to England to see their son compete. “They were racing the Cornell heavyweights who were, on average, 35 pounds heavier. It was a real David and Goliath battle!” said the proud father.
As he reflected on his final season on the rowing team, Segal said it was “one of the best seasons Yale ever had.” No stranger to winning, Segal also set two world records during the winter season, when he and his team were training indoors on ergometers: in the lightweight category for the 500-metre distance and for a one-minute test.
Now back at home and focusing on his career, Segal’s body is adjusting after being used to a rigorous schedule that saw him training 11 times a week. “I have different priorities right now but I’ll always hold rowing close to my heart,” he said.
These days, his attention is keenly focused on a series of mobile apps he’s developing with his company, Lipsi Software Development Inc.
Lipsi is an anonymous messaging app geared at high school and college-age kids that facilitates interactions that might not otherwise occur. “It’s supposed to be a fun platform for approaching people under the veneer of anonymity,” he explained. Another project is a gift-giving app that facilitates random acts of kindness by allowing givers to send recipients a small gift via text message.
In both of these endeavors, Segal is the mastermind behind the ideas, concepts, app layouts and legalities, but he has outsourced the technical component to programmers he describes as “some of the most brilliant people I know.”
Coming from a family such as his, you might think Segal is under extraordinary pressure to succeed.
“It’s always lurking in the back of my head that I need to try and live up to my dad and grandfather’s achievements,” he admitted. “In my life, I’ve tried to focus on the things that have meant the most to me, pursuing them to the highest level possible. And my parents have always been very supportive with regard to anything I’ve pursued. They’ve never told me I need to follow a certain career path, they’ve just told me to do what I do, and do it well. I think that’s the best approach in life.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
The Jewish Community Centre of Quito is a magnificent building containing two synagogues, its architecture reminiscent of Old Jerusalem. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
It was Friday night in Quito, Ecuador, and, as dusk fell, my husband and I approached the Jewish Community Centre, a magnificent one-hectare complex whose light stone walls and graceful architectural arches are reminiscent of Jerusalem. We joined the community for Kabbalat Shabbat, singing the same Ashkenazi tunes we knew so well from Vancouver as an impassioned, young Brazilian rabbi led the service. With us was Pedro Steiner, a member of the Ecuadorian Jewish community who’d graciously offered to pick us up from our hotel and drive us to and from the synagogue that night.
I admit, it had felt odd sending out an email requesting hospitality over Shabbat a few weeks prior. But, as the melody of L’Cha Dodi washed over the large synagogue, its domed roof meticulously hand-painted and inscribed with the words of the Shema, I figured it was well worth it. We were 4,000 miles from home, but we felt very much closer in the warm embrace of Quito’s Jewish centre.
Our host was a first-generation Ecuadorian whose Czech and Austrian parents had arrived in the country just before the Second World War. They were among 4,000 European Jews who found refuge from the Holocaust in Ecuador, granted entry permits on the proviso that they work in agriculture. Most of those Jews had been merchants, industrialists and businessmen and, while they were grateful to escape the war, most had no interest in pursuing an agrarian lifestyle. After the rich culture they knew in Europe, Ecuador seemed small and culturally impoverished. Perhaps that’s why at least half of those new immigrants left by 1950 for lives in Israel, America, Argentina and Chile.
Steiner’s parents opted to stay. “My dad bought a book on agronomy and read it while on the ship to Ecuador,” he recalled. “After arriving, he found work on a farm south of the city and, by 1955, he’d established a small dairy factory in Quito.” Years later, he sent his son to college in the United States and Pedro spent a decade there with his wife before the two returned to Quito to raise their children.
There are some 600 Jewish families remaining in the city. “I realized that, in coming back to Quito in the 1970s, we were delaying the decision to move for another generation,” Steiner reflected.
Until the early 1970s, most Jews in Quito sent their children to American School, a liberal institution created by Galo Plaza Lasso, one of the country’s past presidents. Then a student at the school won a prize for his review of Mein Kampf and the Jewish community, insulted this could happen, determined it was time to establish a new school. In 1973, Collegio Alberto Einstein was founded with “an atmosphere of Jewishness.” The K-12 school, ranked among the top educational institutions in Ecuador, offers classes in Jewish studies but “it’s not a religious school,” Steiner emphasized. Of the 700 students at Alberto Einstein, only 10% are Jewish.
That’s where Steiner’s kids were educated. And, firmly committed to building Jewish life in Quito, Steiner helped obtain the funding and donations necessary to build the Jewish Community Centre in 2000. He proudly toured us around the impressive site. With a ballroom, conference rooms, two synagogues, a kosher kitchen, a swimming pool, large sports grounds and rooms for Jewish youth movements and Hebrew classes, the JCC is an enviable facility. “But it’s underutilized,” Steiner said, his voice tinged with regret.
Days before Steiner picked us up from our Quito hotel, we had spent time in the Ecuadorian highlands two hours north, at Hacienda Zuleta, the family home of the late Lasso. Built in the 1600s, the expansive property is set in a bucolic valley surrounded by the Andes Mountains. Cows bellowed gently outside our bedroom window, a fireplace lit the 17th-century paintings on the ancient stone walls at night and hot soups with traditional Ecuadorian dishes warmed our bellies at meal times.
Fernando Polanco, grandson of the late Ecuadorian president Galo Plaza Lasso, holds a Tanach given to his grandfather on a diplomatic visit to Israel in the 1970s. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
The Lasso family library contains more than 1,000 books but, minutes after arriving, we’d extracted the only one of Jewish significance: a Tanach inscribed and given to Galo by a chief rabbi when he visited Israel in the 1970s. In another book documenting his political legacy, we found a photograph of Golda Meir welcoming him to the country. “My grandfather was loved by the Jewish community of Ecuador because he helped Jews relocate to Latin America,” said Fernando Polanco, Galo’s grandson, who now runs the Lasso family home.
Hacienda Zuleta hosts visitors for overnight stays, horseback rides into the mountains and bike excursions on its cobbled roads. During our stay, we explored the organic vegetable garden, toured the cheese factory, cycled past the dairy farm with its herd of 500 cows and marveled at the size of caged condors at a rehabilitation project to help protect this critically endangered bird. Most of these are initiatives Galo put into place.
In the ornate Lasso hacienda, we perused portraits of a family that helped shape Ecuador, marveling at Galo’s generosity of spirit. This was a man who helped shape the policies that welcomed Jews to the country, and who divided up his own 50,000-acre fertile estate, giving parcels to the Zuleta locals who lived and worked there.
“My grandfather’s clear vision, environmental responsibility and social consciousness back in the 1940s made him one of Ecuador’s best presidents,” said Fernando, beaming with pride. “Zuleta was his trial and error, his conscience.”
If you go: Adventure Life, a company specializing in travel in Ecuador, coordinates itineraries throughout the country, including Quito city tours, highland hacienda adventures, Galapagos island cruises and visits to the jungle (adventure-life.com or 1-800-344-6118).
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. This article was originally published in Canadian Jewish News.
Susan Mendelson launched Mendelson’s Kosher Gourmet from the kitchens at Vancouver Talmud Torah earlier this fall. (photo from Susan Mendelson)
Susan Mendelson, the entrepreneur at the helm of Lazy Gourmet Catering for the past 38 years, debuted Mendelson’s Kosher Gourmet from the kitchens at Vancouver Talmud Torah earlier this fall.
Mendelson and her team of six are now serving a selection of 25 lunches a week to VTT children and offering the Jewish community their kosher event catering services, as well as the opportunity to purchase BCKosher-certified challahs, babkahs and cinnamon buns.
Months ago, Cathy Lowenstein, VTT’s principal, approached Mendelson and asked her to help create a request for proposals that the school could use to obtain bids from potential caterers.
“I felt this would be a great opportunity to get back into the Jewish community,” Mendelson reflected. So, she put in a proposal, her bid was accepted and she worked with the school to create a kitchen space that would work.
Construction finished just as the first orders needed to be prepared, which meant the timing was tight and every detail needed attention. “When we need to order sheet pans and dishes, they have to be dipped three times in the mikvah before we can use them, so it’s much more complicated than anything I’ve done before,” she said.
Step One was finding a great team. Vancouver chef Marat Dreyshner is presiding over the kitchen while his spouse Ella Dreyshner is managing the operation.
Since both are mashgichim, all the kosher details are fully supervised. “They’re fabulous people and I’m lucky to have them,” Mendelson said.
Students were audibly impressed by their pre-ordered meals, which were based on focus groups with VTT kids earlier in the year. Lunch options include hot dogs, burgers (made from scratch), roasted turkey sandwiches, chicken noodle soup and sushi. There are gluten-free and vegan options daily, and the Mendelson’s Kosher Gourmet team is dedicated to healthy meals, with grains made from sprouted whole wheats and treats like banana chocolate chip bread served only on Fridays. “The rest of the time, it’s Caesar salad, kale chicken wraps, Israeli salad and dishes like that,” she said.
Sustainability is another key word for Mendelson, so you won’t find any take-out containers in her serving materials. Instead, the children are using regular silverware and melamine dishes for their meals.
Mendelson has spent her lunch hour walking around the school, creating systems and processes to streamline service and gauging reactions to the food. “It’s exciting to me that the kids are really enjoying this healthy food,” she admitted. “Today they were coming back for second and third portions of soup and, if there’s extra, we’re happy to give them more.”
The kosher catering orders are also coming in fast, leaving Mendelson fully energized, engaged and up planning from 3 a.m. She credits Lowenstein for getting her involved. “She’s an extraordinary partner, a brilliant, kind, thoughtful and accommodating woman who is always looking at how to make things work. If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t have pursued this,” she said.
Meanwhile, Lazy Gourmet Catering is still going strong with a staff of 170 and contracts for conference work downtown with Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. There’s the womb-to-tomb events Mendelson’s been catering the past four decades and a new Chinese website is helping secure business from Vancouver’s Chinese community. “For one Chinese wedding, we had six days to cater for an event with 200 people,” Mendelson said.
“I’m exhausted,” she admitted. “But I’m energized. With Mendelson’s Kosher Gourmet I thought to myself, this might make a difference. If I can turn these kids on to a healthy way of eating, maybe I’ll make a difference in this world.”
Potential Apparel co-founder Shane Golden. (photo from Shane Golden)
There’s one thing on the mind of Vancouverite Shane Golden, 24, and that’s tikkun olam. The Richmond native is co-founder of Potential Apparel, a sports clothing company that donates a portion of sales from each of its garments to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and has contributed $20,000 to the charity over the last three years.
“Since my earliest days at Jewish elementary school, even when I was a toddler at Beth Tikvah preschool in Richmond, I was taught the ideology of repairing the world,” Golden told the Independent. “It was reinforced through my family’s actions in the Jewish community. From my earliest memories, I grew up knowing that every action I take has an opposite and equal reaction. I’ve always asked myself, how can I use these physics to help the world around me, to help repair the lives of individuals I’ve never met, and faces I’ll never see?”
Golden and David Dotan founded Potential Apparel three years ago, while Golden was studying engineering at Simon Fraser University. He switched to marketing management at B.C. Institute of Technology but left 18 months ago to work on Potential Apparel full-time. The concept behind the company was Dotan’s, he said. “David used to play professional hockey in the NHL, and we thought we could use his connections and network to start developing the brand.” Those connections include professional athletes Brendan Gallagher, Martin Jones and Ryan Johansen of the Nashville Predators.
The concept behind Potential Apparel came from company co-founder David Dotan. (photo from Shane Golden)
“We develop the shirts with them to create a product that they want to wear,” Golden explained. “Sure, they might have deals with Nike to wear clothes, but they’re wearing Potential Apparel when they want to be comfortable – and they’re definitely influencers.”
To date, Potential Apparel has sold more than 200,000 shirts, most of them in Canada. The clothing, which includes hats and hoodies, is made in Burnaby – which costs more, he conceded. “It’s interesting having to spend a bit more money to manufacture locally but we find people really appreciate locally made products,” he said. “Between local manufacturing and donating a portion of sales to charity, our business has been an interesting challenge, but we’ve figured it out, and we’re making money.”
One thing that’s helped is the charitable golf tournament the pair began last summer in Whistler (whistlerinvitational.com). They matched participants with NHL players for a round of golf and raised $16,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This summer, the tournament will be held Aug. 5-7 in Whistler, hosted by Johansen and fellow NHLer Brenden Dillon of the San Jose Sharks. “This year, we’re hoping to double last year’s donation,” Golden said.
Asked why he and Dotan selected Make-A-Wish as their charity of choice, Golden said, “At one time, I asked Ryan Johansen why he chose to spend so much of his free time working with charities. He told me that were it not for the privileged lifestyle in which he was raised, with parents who could drive him to the rink every morning and buy him new gear every couple of years, he wouldn’t be where he was today. Make-A-Wish grants terminally ill children the ability to achieve their dreams, and that ability to empower a child is what resonates with us. Whether we choose to stay with Make-A-Wish or, down the road, swap over to helping another charitable organization, it will always be to help kids.”
Golden’s hopes are that Potential Apparel will become a household name that makes a statement. “The statement is that you’ve chosen to reach your potential and help others achieve theirs as well,” he said. “Potential Apparel, since day one, has always been more than just clothing. We are a movement empowering people to take a leap of faith and inspire others while doing so.”
Golden said he’s always looked up to entrepreneurs and philanthropists Mark Cuban and Elon Musk, but that it’s his parents and grandparents who have shaped his character. “My grandmother Marie and late grandfather Sidney Doduck created a legacy called the Marsid Family Foundation, which actively contributes to the Jewish community and causes which they deem important,” he said. “I plan on following suit in a similar manner.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Muizenberg, South Africa, was a hub for Jewish families from the 1900s onward. (photo from Stephen Rom)
For Vancouverites who hail from South Africa, the name Muizenberg carries significant resonance. The small seaside town was a hub for Jewish families from the 1900s onward, a place where children played on the long stretch of white-sand beach, young people fell in love, business deals were discussed, family relationships deepened and friendships nourished. So, when the Memories of Muizenberg exhibit opens for its 15-day span at Congregation Beth Israel on July 10, there’s an excellent chance of hearing South African accents in the voices of attendees.
The exhibit was created in 2009, when it debuted in Cape Town, chronicling the Jewish presence in Muizenberg between 1900 and the early 1960s. After that, it began a whirlwind tour to Johannesburg, London, Israel, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto and San Diego before it finally landed in Vancouver. For each of its moves a former South African Jew adopted the exhibition, gathering fundraisers, assistants and exhibit spaces in their respective cities. In Vancouver, that man is Stephen Rom, originally from Cape Town, who immigrated to Canada in 1986 and moved to Vancouver in 1992.
“I’m just a shlepper that was interested in the exhibit,” he said with a laugh. “When a friend told me the exhibit was in San Diego, I thought we needed to get it trucked up to Vancouver. I think it’s important to keep Memories of Muizenberg circulated – a hell of a lot of research went into it and it’s beautifully put together.”
The exhibit opening in Toronto. Created in 2009, Memories of Muizenberg debuted in Cape Town and has been to Johannesburg, London, Israel, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, San Diego and, now, Vancouver.
Rom arranged for the crate containing the 40-panel exhibit to be stored in the warehouse of fellow former South African Lexie Bernstein, and solicited donors to cover the costs associated with transportation and opening night festivities. Muizenberg has a special place in his heart and memories, he confided.
“It was a place my family and extended family spent every Sunday – you loaded the car, took the food and you didn’t need to look for friends – they were always there,” he reflected. “No one phoned to say, are you going to Muizenberg? You just knew, everyone in your community was going to be there. You’d go swimming, get attacked by bluebottles, get knocked over and soaked by a wave from the creeping high tide, have the wind blowing in your hair and eat homemade rusks (cookies) mixed with sand. It was part of our DNA.”
Bernstein, who moved from Cape Town to Vancouver in 1987, recalls catching the train with his friends in the summer months to get to Muizenberg. “When the train pulled into the station, the conductor would shout out ‘Jerusalem!’” he said. “I think ex-South Africans in Vancouver will love this exhibition, and other Jews in the community will be fascinated about where we come from.”
Rom’s only regret about the exhibit is that it ends in 1962 instead of continuing. He’s asking former South Africans in Vancouver to email photographs that pertain to their history in Muizenberg and that might be shown as a slide show at the exhibit’s opening night, July 10, 7 p.m. To submit your memories, email Rom at srom@shaw.ca.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Aaron Friedland’s Walking School Bus garnered the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s 2016 Next Einstein award. (photo from Aaron Friedland)
When Vancouverite Aaron Friedland, 23, heard his Walking School Bus digital reading program was the recipient of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s 2016 Next Einstein competition, he was surprised to say the least. Studying for his master’s dissertation on applied economics at the University of British Columbia, he’d entered it into the contest without ever thinking his would be the $10,000 grand prize winner out of 1,400 submissions.
Friedland was born in South Africa and immigrated to Vancouver with his family in 1993, when he was a year old. In 2011, while he was attending King David High School, he and his family visited Uganda’s Abayudaya community on a “voluntourism” project that would change his life and inspire the Walking School Bus.
“Three things left an impression on me during that trip,” he reflected. “One was the distance Ugandan students were walking to school, with many traveling five to eight kilometres each way. They needed a school bus. Then, I noticed their daily nutrition of maize meal and wondered, what’s the point in bringing them to school when they haven’t eaten anything for breakfast? And when the curriculum at the school is almost nonexistent?”
Back in Vancouver, Friedland had two goals: to raise awareness of the plight of Uganda’s students by publishing a book, The Walking School Bus, and to use the money from book sales to buy a school bus. An Indiegogo campaign raised $12,000 and Friedland is negotiating publication of the book with a major publisher. “But I received so much interest in what I was doing that I realized the efforts should end with an organization, not a book.”
He learned the tools of creating such an organization at McGill, where he studied economics and economic development, and, later, as an analyst in a fellow position at United Nations Watch in Geneva. It was in Geneva that he became determined to form an organization around The Walking School Bus that might accomplish all three of his goals: not just the school bus, but agricultural training that would enable locals to grow more nutritious food and an enhanced school curriculum that would engage students better in learning.
The Walking School Bus was incorporated into a nonprofit foundation in 2015 and is presently in the throes of conducting economic research. “We’ve raised $25,000 to buy our first school bus, developed the models we need to ensure that bus can be sustained in the community and raised awareness in Vancouver, North America and parts of Australia about what it is to access education,” he said. He will soon lead a group of 18 economists, professors, educators and volunteers to Uganda to deliver the school bus.
In the Walking School Bus’ digital reading program, volunteers create audiobooks that are shared with partnering schools in Uganda, Canada and the United States – a total of 40 schools to date. Friedland has also created a Hebrew textbook, read by students at KDHS, that will help Ugandan Jewish students learn Hebrew. “We’re looking for students to help us create more books,” he said, and encouraged Canadian teachers to learn more about helping out with the reading program online at thewalkingschoolbus.com.
The prize money from the Next Einstein competition is being used to create a downloadable app that will allow people anywhere in the world to read books and poems from their cellphones. “They will be able to see text and even record themselves and send it in to our servers. Our team will engineer those recordings and send them on to empower literacy for students.”
Far from limiting his sights to Uganda, Friedland’s vision for the Walking School Bus is global. When he delivered a TEDx talk in India in recent months, he toured the Dharavi slum in Mumbai and noticed again the distance children were walking to school. He immediately assembled a team, comprised mostly of students from the Delhi Technological University, to investigate the possibility of building a suspension bridge. With a bridge across the river, students could walk 100 metres instead of the five-kilometre route around it. “We’re doing our due diligence right now, scoping out project locations and conducting cost-benefit analyses,” he said.
Friedland said his parents, Phillipa and Des, laid the foundations for his work by teaching their children “how everyone was equal, regardless of what the media said or what the social norms of the time were.”
He said, “My entire life I’ve watched my incredible parents do good things, whether it was my dad picking up earthworms so they wouldn’t be crushed by traffic, or my mom giving money to every single homeless person she saw. I saw how they were able to positively impact people, and how good it made them feel. That motivated me to apply those same principles as an adult.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. A version of this article was originally published in the Canadian Jewish News.
Making Movie History panelists during DOXA Industry Day at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on May 7, left to right: Michelle van Beusekom, head of the National Film Board of Canada’s English-language production branch, and filmmakers Mort Ransen, Bonnie Sherr Klein and Anne Wheeler. Panel moderator was Marsha Lederman of the Globe and Mail. (photo by Fortune Hill Photography courtesy of NFB)
When it comes to their own history, Canadians haven’t had a great track record for recording their success stories. So, when Michelle van Beusekom had an opportunity to produce Making Movie History: A Portrait in 61 Parts, an anecdotal history of the National Film Board of Canada, she was thrilled to jump on board. Told through portraits of legendary artists and filmmakers who have worked at the NFB since its establishment in 1939, the free iPad app was released last month at the DOXA Film Festival in Vancouver.
Present at the launch were B.C.-based filmmakers Mort Ransen, Bonnie Sherr Klein and Anne Wheeler, who participated on a May 7 panel with van Beusekom, who is head of the NFB’s English-language production branch. The panel was moderated by Marsha Lederman of the Globe and Mail.
It took five years to make Making Movie History, which consists of 30 profiles in French and 30 in English, and van Beusekom is hoping movie lovers will watch it.
“It delivers a fascinating look at the origins of cinema in Canada and insight into the stories of early founders of cinema craft in this country,” she told the Independent.
The portraits are of individuals who participated in the NFB from the 1940s through the 1980s, with a special focus on the earlier years, when the NFB was founded as a government-funded but independent organization with a vision to primarily create documentaries in the public interest. “It created this space where talented people could practise their art, develop a filmmaking tradition in this country and use this art form in the public interest,” she explained.
Over the course of working on the app, van Beusekom gained a keen appreciation of the role of women at the NFB from early on.
“As young men went overseas to fight in World War Two, it created opportunities for women in secretarial roles, cinematography, camera, editing and directing, and many were recruited to the NFB,” she said. “When people talk about women’s cinema in Canada, they talk about Studio D, which started in 1974. Until now, the 1940s generation of pioneers of women in Canadian cinema has almost been forgotten. I learned about Gudrun Parker, Evelyn Spice Cherry, Jane Marsh Beveridge and Laura Boulton, which was huge for me. These were names we didn’t know much about and it changed our perception of women’s roles in Canadian cinema.”
The intention of the app is not to be a comprehensive overview, but to provide a portrait that ideally captures the spirit of the individuals profiled and the spirit they brought to the organization. One of those individuals is Klein, who came to Canada with her spouse as a conscientious objector and worked at the NFB. One of her projects was Challenge for Change, where she used film to address social problems such as chronic poverty. Klein was also a foundational figure at Studio D, which operated from 1974 through 1996.
She recalls the NFB as “a Mecca for documentary films, the only place in the world with a government-funded but independent filmmaking agency” in 1975, when she became involved. “We were using films to give people a voice, people who hadn’t spoken for themselves before on screen,” she told the Independent.
Newly graduated from Stanford University at the time, Klein remembers that, back then, the only documentaries around were those made by National Geographic. At Studio D, Klein helped make films by, about and for women, training and nurturing filmmakers, including camera and sound women in this country for the first time.
Things have changed since then for women in the industry, but not that much, she said. “Now, it’s superficially better. There are a lot more women in the film world and graduating from film schools and a lot more diversity among those women. But, are women really getting a chance to tell their own stories, as opposed to just being in the workforce and working on the same old stories?”
Klein noted that nine out of 10 of the last Telefilm Canada (government-funded) films were directed by men. “Women will tell you there’s still a glass ceiling,” she said. “They can only make films up to a certain budget, and they’re not making series, so it’s not great. But the NFB just made a historic commitment for gender equity across the board in all its projects. That commitment sets the bar and challenges other agencies who have lots of money, to do the same.”
According to the Women in View On Screen Report (October 2015), of the 2013-14 fiscal year’s feature-length films by Telefilm Canada, women represented 17% of directors, 22% of writers and 12% of cinematographers credited; in the under $1 million category of film investment, women directors constituted 21%; in the over $1 million category of film investment, women directors constituted four percent. Of the English-language drama TV series between 2012 and 2013, 17 of the 29 series did not have a single woman director on any of their 151 episodes, and not one of the 293 episodes employed a female cinematographer.
The Making Movie History app is available from the iTunes Canada app store, as well as at nfb.ca/makingmoviehistory.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Rebecca Denham, director of services for Jewish Addiction Community Service of Vancouver. (photo by Wendy Oberlander)
The first comprehensive effort to reach Jewish individuals suffering from addictions launched this month in Vancouver when the Jewish Addiction Community Service of Vancouver came into being. Its goal is to approach substance abuse issues – specifically alcohol and drugs – within a Jewish context.
The first two services being offered by JACS Vancouver are a support group for families living with substance abuse and navigational support, to help direct individuals and families to the right channels in the support system, whether they want access to recovery programs, counseling or other resources. But those services will expand rapidly to include community education and awareness building.
“We want to teach people how to identify when someone is in trouble with substance abuse, and to get them to the right services,” said Rebecca Denham, director of services for JACS, who will be providing assistance from an office at JHub in Richmond (8171 Cook Rd., Suite 212).
Denham is planning to do this outreach at schools, synagogues and camps by hosting events that promote awareness. “We want to start conversations” she said, “because that’s where it has to begin: people talking about addiction, where they’re seeing it and how substances are being used and abused.”
Calls for assistance are beginning to come in as Denham reaches out to Lower Mainland addiction service providers, psychologists and counselors to inform them that JACS exists and the kind of support it offers.
“We want to let people in the Jewish community know that there will be services that incorporate their traditions and values, and acknowledge that some of their circumstances may be unique,” she explained. If someone needs to enter a treatment facility, JACS would like to ensure they have access to kosher food and rabbinical support, if they want it. When they’re exiting such facilities, JACS can offer help on moving back to the community safely, and on how to attend Jewish events that may incorporate alcohol, for example.
Denham, an Ottawa native with 15 years’ experience in mental health, addiction and youth at risk, moved to Vancouver in 2010 and worked with Jewish Family Service Agency in its mental health outreach program. She is available to take calls for appointments Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
JACS Vancouver will offer some of the programs provided by JACS Toronto, founded some 15 years ago. There are other JACS programs in cities including Winnipeg, Seattle and Chicago, and Denham is looking forward to partnering with Jewish services across North America and emulating some of their successful programs.
JACS Vancouver’s funders include the Jewish Community Foundation, the Betty Averbach Foundation, the Diamond Foundation, the Kahn Foundation, the Al Roadburg Foundation and the Snider Foundation, as well as private donors. For more information, call 778-882-2994 or email info@jacsvancouver.com.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Alcohol use in Canada – data from Health Canada
The following are excerpts on alcohol use from the Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, which was an annual general population survey of alcohol and illicit drug use among Canadians aged 15 years and older that ran from 2008 through 2012. There is much more information contained in this survey, which can be accessed at hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/drugs-drogues/stat/_2012/summary-sommaire-eng.php. The Independent was referred to it by Rebecca Denham, director of services for Jewish Addiction Community Service of Vancouver.
In 2012, 78.4% of Canadians reported drinking alcohol in the past year. Similar to previous years, in 2012, a higher percentage of males than females reported past-year alcohol use (82.7% versus 74.4%, respectively) while the prevalence of past-year drinking among adults aged 25 years and older (80%) was higher than among youth (70%).
In November 2011, the Canadian federal, provincial and territorial health ministers received Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines, which consist of five guidelines and a series of tips. Low-risk drinking guideline 1 (chronic) is defined as people who drink “no more than 10 drinks a week for women, with no more than two drinks a day most days and 15 drinks a week for men, with no more than three drinks a day most days. Plan non-drinking days every week to avoid developing a habit.” Low-risk drinking guideline 2 (acute) is defined as those who drink “no more than three drinks (for women) or four drinks (for men) on any single occasion. Plan to drink in a safe environment. Stay within the weekly limits outlined [in guideline 1].”
In 2012, among people who consumed alcohol in the past 12 months, 18.6% (representing 14.4% of the total population) exceeded guideline 1 for chronic effects and 12.8% (9.9% of the total population) exceeded guideline 2 for acute effects. A higher percentage of males than females drank in patterns that exceeded both guidelines.
The guidelines were exceeded by youth aged 15 to 24 years at higher rates than among adults aged 25 years and older. One in four (24.4%) youth drinkers versus 17.6% of adult drinkers exceeded the guideline for chronic risk, while the acute-risk guideline was exceeded by 17.9% of youth drinkers and 11.9% of adult drinkers.
In 2012, for the first time, CADUMS asked about four harms people may have experienced in the past 12 months due to someone else’s alcohol use. Types of harm include being verbally abused, feeling threatened, being emotionally hurt or neglected and being physically hurt. One in seven (14.2%) Canadians aged 15 years and older experienced at least one of these harms as a result of another person’s drinking. Verbal abuse was the harm reported by the largest percentage of Canadians (8.9%), followed by being emotionally hurt or neglected (7.1%) and feeling threatened (6.3%), while being physically hurt was experienced by 2.2%.
