Mamatefet’s first Mom and Babe Circle. (photo from Mamatefet)
Meirav Galili and her husband Itai moved to Vancouver with their two children from Israel five years ago. When their third child was born here, the family received lots of support from friends, something that helped make up for the fact that they have no extended family here.
When she heard about a plan to create a network of Israeli moms and moms-to-be, she was one of the first to sign up with Mamatefet.
Mamatefet, which has grown exponentially almost exclusively through word of mouth, is a mash-up of “mama” with the Hebrew word “maatefet,” which is a wraparound or embrace. The group welcomes those who want to be an otefet, an embracer, or a ne’etefet, an embracee. Except, the terms are not mutually exclusive.
“Sometimes it’s our turn to give and sometimes it’s our turn to get some help,” said Galili, adding that the success of the group surprised all involved.
“It was amazing because many, many people said, ‘me, me, me, me, me,’ and quickly we established something,” she said. Understanding the added burden of having and raising children without parents, aunts, sisters-in-law or other family around inspired many women to step forward.
Thanks to Mamatefet, one phone call or a WhatsApp message can put a team into action.
“The woman doesn’t need to ask even,” Galili said. “Everything is being done for her. She just needs to tell a friend, ‘My child is sick with me’ or ‘I have to stay at the hospital for tonight,’ and we’ll take it from there, and when they get home they have everything. It’s a very strong, warm feeling that we are not alone and we have this supportiveness.”
That is exactly what Rotem Regev had in mind when she and four friends conceived of Mamatefet in late 2016.
“It was one of those nights,” Regev recalled, “a few friends got together sitting around the coffee table chatting, recounting their individual – which we then realized were quite collective – stories of transition, to Vancouver, to motherhood, and how that intersected. What became really crystal clear to all of us is that we were feeling quite a bit of loneliness at that time, whenever that transition was, coming to Vancouver either pregnant or with a very little one, when there is not a school yet or any sort of structure to fit into…. To top that off, you would also be facing an extra challenge being away from your family and friends in a country that doesn’t yet quite feel like home and a language that doesn’t quite feel like home and a healthcare system that feels very, very different.
“We didn’t want any woman to feel the loneliness that we felt,” she said.
Mamatefet offers moms like Osher Cohen support, including the occasional homemade meal, and friendship. (photo by Lior Noyman)
When they decided to share their idea, they thought maybe five more women would join, perhaps seven. A few months later, they had 70 embracers and more than 40 embracees.
“The word spread out like wildfire really, because I think the need was so great,” said Regev, who is a clinical psychologist. There are a couple of similar groups in Israel and something sort of like Mamatefet in San Francisco and another in New Jersey, but, considering the evident need, it is a surprisingly rare initiative.
Regev and her Mamatefet co-founders Tamara Halamish, Yael Pilo Raz, Yael Mayer and Matti Feigelstock, have now seen their project expand from Vancouver to teams in Richmond, Ladner, Surrey, North Vancouver and East Vancouver-Burnaby, with a new team gearing up in Langley and the Tri-Cities.
In general, Mamatefet volunteers will deliver food, often including a Shabbat meal. There are regular meet-up groups for pregnant women and another for new moms. They are also on call in case of a crisis, like a miscarriage or a stillbirth.
But it’s the informal friendships that organically develop that are as important, said Marina Ingel. Being able to arrange play dates, exchange kids’ clothes, have a coffee with other new moms – this is an important outcome too, she said.
One of the reassuring things is talking to other moms about how the medical system in Canada differs from that in Israel.
“Here it’s totally different. Everything,” said Ingel. “In Israel, every time you’re going to the doctor, you’re doing an ultrasound. Here, you have maybe two the whole pregnancy. A bunch of things that they’re checking in Israel, they’re not doing this at all. But then you realize it’s fine and, if you have any problem, they will check it. Everything is OK, but the thing is that you’re worried about it, because it’s new to you.”
For Galili, cooking is both a hobby and a way to support other new moms.
“They send a message saying there is a woman who is about to come home with a baby and [asking] who is willing to participate,” she said. “I thought, OK, I need to prepare something anyway so I’ll just prepare something extra.”
Baking, homemade granola and yogurt, soups and a main dish, comfort food like chicken and rice, are the sorts of things she preps for new moms.
“If her mother were here, this is what she would probably make for her,” said Galili.
King David High School has more applicants for Grade 8 this fall than they have spaces available, and some parents are upset with the way the school is handling the matter.
On Jan. 28, parents of 52 potential Grade 8 students received a message that their children had been accepted – and that $1,000 was required by Jan. 31 to confirm acceptance.
“The normal course is that King David and the independent and mini schools all release about the same time their acceptance letters,” said a parent whose child was accepted. “They’ll send out the first acceptance letters and then parents will either accept or not and then they’ll send out the second set a day or two later. That way they don’t really have a wait list and the process is relatively painless and takes place over a few days.”
The parent requested anonymity for fear that speaking out could affect their child’s future at the school and the Independent agreed to withhold the name.
“What King David has done suddenly is say we’re moving our process up about a month and to hold that spot now you need another thousand dollars, nonrefundable,” the parent said. The $1,000 deposit is on top of a $500 application fee, which increased this year from $100. Many families apply to more than one school, some of them independent and some of them Vancouver School Board specialty schools, such as mini schools, international baccalaureate or outdoor education programs. Those schools mostly send out acceptance letters in February.
“If they want to fundraise, that’s one thing,” said the parent. “But this seems to be a negative option fundraising scheme. They didn’t tell the families that they were going to do this when they applied originally and gave their deposit of $500. They didn’t tell them they were going to change the rules.”
But Russ Klein, King David’s head of school, said the intention was to alleviate stress for the families with children who are not among the 52 who received acceptance letters. He contests the idea that the $1,000 is to “hold the position.”
“We are not thinking of it as holding,” he said. “We’re thinking of it as accepting.”
He recognizes that many families hedge their bets by applying to several schools.
“They are frustrated, which I can understand, because they’re going to need to pay a deposit. That’s where they’re using the language ‘hold the spot.’ But we have families out there who are on our wait pool who are desperate to get into King David because they are not applying anywhere else. They are very frustrated at some of their peers who are holding spots that they don’t want,” said Klein. “We’re not their first choice. They’d rather get into another school and we don’t judge that. We’d just like the students who would like to be here to get the opportunity to be here.”
The school is using the term “wait pool” as opposed to “wait list” because it does not reflect an order.
“What schools are really trying to do is pick the best cohort for their group,” he said. “If, for example, a male student leaves and you’re trying to balance by gender, then we would try to get another male student in.” A wait pool implies that learning needs, particular talents and other factors that applicants bring to the cohort are weighed, rather than ranking applicants numerically.
Klein acknowledged that the process is new and has been difficult, because the school has never had so many applicants, a factor due simply to the coincidence of a population bubble in the community. Looking at this year’s Grade 6 classes at Jewish elementary schools and in the community, he said, King David expects far fewer Grade 8 applications next year. This year’s Grade 8 cohort has just 35 students.
“This is our first time through this type of challenge and we are learning a lot,” he said. The school has 26 regular Grade 8 positions and 26 accelerated positions, in which Grade 8 students complete Math 8, Science 8, Math 9 and Science 9 in a single year.
The school isn’t releasing exact numbers of how many students are in the wait pool, saying only that it is “more than 10.”
In all, the school now has well over 200 students, said Klein, and, while that presents growing pains, he hopes the demand indicates to the community that the school is successful, and said KDHS may seek to expand in the future.
Holocaust survivor David Ehrlich speaks on Jan. 25. (photo by Pat Johnson)
David Ehrlich grew up in a small city in Hungary, sleeping in the kitchen of the family’s three-room house – “not three bedrooms, God forbid, three rooms” – and it was through the kitchen curtains early one morning that he saw three bayonets before he heard a knock at the door.
“I opened the door, they came into the kitchen and they said to me in German – there were two Hungarian gendarmes and one German soldier or officer or whoever he was – ‘I want you to bring in the family into the kitchen.’”
Young David gathered his parents, sister, three brothers and grandmother and they assembled in the kitchen, where they were told to be on the street in 30 minutes to prepare for deportation to a work camp.
Ehrlich shared his story Jan. 25 at a commemoration marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day (which was Jan. 27). The afternoon event, which took place at the University of British Columbia, was presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Hillel BC, the department of Central, Eastern and Northern European studies at UBC (CENES) and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, with support from the Akselrod family in memory of Ben Akselrod.
After two weeks in a makeshift ghetto on a local farm, the 7,000 Jews were forced onto trains, said Ehrlich. Seventy people were pushed into each car.
“These were not cattle cars,” he clarified. “I wish they had been cattle cars because [cattle cars] are ventilated.” There was one little hole at the top of the car, covered with barbed wire, and a child would occasionally be lifted up to look out to see if the signs outside were in Hungarian, German or Polish.
“But, soon enough, the train stopped,” he said. “They opened up the door … and there were some signs and some smells and some visions that I’ll never forget as long as I live. The place had electric lights … barbed wire all over in all directions.
“Little people – I thought they were little, but they were prisoners – came up to the train and said leave everything there, stand in line, five abreast. And we did that and walked over to this man with a stick in his hand and he was doing the selection. Who is going to live, who is going to die.… They played God. About 10 minutes or so later, we were separated from our family.”
While he was receiving his uniform, Ehrlich got his first lesson in what this place – Auschwitz – was all about.
“Did you say goodbye to your family?” the man asked Ehrlich.
“I said, why should I? I’m going to see them probably this afternoon. He said, while you were taking a shower, your family was gassed and, while we talk here, their bodies are probably being burned in the crematorium.”
Ehrlich’s brothers were almost immediately sent on to Melk, a sub-camp of Mauthausen, in Austria.
Because Hungarian Jews were among the last to be deported to the camps, the Soviet army was already advancing from the east by the time Ehrlich arrived at Auschwitz and the prisoners were sent on a death march westward. He, too, ended up in Melk and found someone from his hometown who knew the fate of his brothers. They had been sent to the hospital a few days earlier. Ehrlich knew that the hospital was a farce and that being sent there meant certain death.
“That was probably my lowest point in the whole deal because I always felt that I’d meet up with my brothers someplace,” he said. “I did, only a week too late.”
As the Russians kept on moving westward, the Nazis marched Ehrlich and the others further, this time to Ebensee, Austria.
“One day – it was a nice sunny day – we went outside and the loudspeaker came on and the president of the camp said, I’ve got good news for you. I have received orders from the Reich that we are to take you into the mine and blow it up with you in it. But I’m not going to do that – that’s the good news. For the first time since I’m in the services of the Third Reich, I’m going to disobey this order.”
He told the prisoners that they were free. The next day, they heard tanks on the cobblestone streets.
“And a guy that was probably 20 years old – like a kid, he looked like me – got out of the manhole and said to us in Yiddish, ‘Ich bin ein Amerikaner Jude,’ ‘I am an American Jew.’”
After liquids, then vitamins, eventually solids, Ehrlich regained some of his health. After two months, he still weighed less than 100 pounds, but he was ready to go home.
“But going home for Holocaust survivors, whether it was to France or to Germany or to Poland, it was the same thing,” said Ehrlich. “Canadian soldiers, American soldiers came back from the war, they came back to their community, to their parents and to their country. We went back and there was nobody there. My sister [who had been liberated in Lithuania] was there but we lost everybody else.”
Ehrlich wasn’t going to stay behind the Iron Curtain. He and a friend wanted to see Paris, planning eventually to head for pre-state Israel.
“But, while we were waiting in Paris, there were rumours that Canada was looking for orphans to go to Canada,” he said. “I went to work as soon as I came to Canada. I was going on 19. I went to work and I’ve been paying taxes ever since.”
The story has a good ending, Ehrlich told his audience.
“I married a wonderful girl – she’s right here, the little grey-haired girl – 65 years ago and we’re still together and we brought up three wonderful sons.”
Rabbi Philip Bregman told the survivors: “We are tremendously aware of how precious you people are who lit these candles and came in today as personal witness.”
The commemoration also featured Prof. Uma Kumar, of CENES, who said the Holocaust is a contemporary issue because antisemitism is a contemporary issue. “For this reason,” she said, “it is everyone’s duty to reflect on what happened.”
The chair of Vancouver Board of Education (VBE) and even the provincial minister of education waded in after Jewish students at a Vancouver elementary school went public with concerns that they were being made to feel excluded by exclusively Christian holiday symbolism.
Students Maya Sontz and Rebecca Weinberg went public last week after asking the principal of General Gordon Elementary, Hope Sterling, to add some Chanukah decorations to the Christmas trees, wreaths and other Christmas decorations up around the school. The girls said they were rebuffed by the principal, who claimed the Christmas decorations were not religious symbols, while a chanukiyah or other Chanukah items would be. The holiday concert was to include songs about Santa, reindeer and trees, which the principal defended as being “cultural” symbols, not religious ones.
The principal’s position drew rebukes over the weekend from Janet Fraser, chairperson of the board of education. “The VBE sincerely regrets any practices at General Gordon Elementary that have negatively impacted a sense of inclusion and representation for students and parents within our school community,” she wrote. “As chairperson, I apologize on behalf of the board to the students and their families who did not feel welcomed and included at their school. We acknowledge that, in the interpretation and implementation of our policies, there has been confusion about what is permitted as part of upcoming winter celebrations, including Chanukah. The board chairperson and school district staff will be meeting with members of the families … to ensure that their children, as well as all others, are included and represented in their school.”
In response to Fraser’s statement, Rob Fleming, B.C. minister of education tweeted: “ALL children, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender should feel and be welcome to celebrate who they are in every single one of our #bced schools.… Thank you for your leadership upholding inclusive schools @VSB39 and @janetrfraser.… Let’s #celebrate diversity this year!”
Administrators were to meet with school officials, parents and students Monday to address the issue.
“It is called a public school, so, if you’re going to invite everybody, you’ve sort of got to include everybody,” 11-year-old Maya Sontz told CTV news.
Fall fun with some of the JI’s 18 Under 36. (photo by Lianne Cohen)
***
Over the past month, each of the JI’s 18 Under 36 honourees has taken the time to do an email or phone interview with Pat Johnson, so we could get to know them a little better. Once you meet them, you’ll understand why these 18 young achievers and community-minded folk were chosen by the JI’s selection panel with the help of external adjudicator Kara Mintzberg, B.C. regional director of CJPAC (the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee).
The first group of honourees at the JI Chai Celebration on Dec. 6 at the Rothstein Theatre were (alphabetically): Rebecca Baron, Ezequiel Blumenkrans, Erin Brandt, Marcus Brandt, Ayelet Cohen Weil, Courtney Cohen, Aaron Friedland, Sam Heller and Talya Mallek. Mazal tov!
*** Rebecca Baron Age 17 Student
As a philanthropy project when she was a student at Vancouver Talmud Torah, Rebecca Baron helped raise funds for Room to Read, a nonprofit that promotes gender equality and literacy in developing countries.
Rebecca Baron
“The ability to provide impoverished girls with quality education had inspired me to continue volunteering and raising awareness for global equality,” she says. “In 2015, I became a student ambassador for Room to Read’s Vancouver branch. As a member of the board, I have raised awareness, planned events and helped fundraise over $1 million. Furthermore, I have kickstarted Room to Read’s Run for Global Literacy, a school event that promotes girls’ education.”
This dedication to equality, combined with her love of biology, has led her to promote female advancement in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“It is an issue that I care about because many young girls have experienced cultural biases and stereotypes within these fields. I believe that someday we will eliminate the gender gap in STEM, but as of this moment there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Her own work in science has gained her national recognition. A science fair project on indoor air quality led to her discovery that a bacteria, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, can help improve indoor air quality. For this, she won the platinum award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in 2015.
That same year, Baron participated in the SHAD program, which empowers exceptional high school students to recognize their own capabilities and envision their extraordinary potential as tomorrow’s leaders and change-makers. There, in addition to winning the best business plan award, she met Betsy McGregor, the founder of a global network of professional women in agriculture.
“As we spoke, I mentioned my interest in developing a nonprofit organization to encourage young girls in STEM. With her support and connections, I have been able to kickstart my nonprofit organization, Because of Her.”
In its preliminary stage of development, Because of Her has already received support from researchers, professors and students.
Earlier this year, Baron won the inaugural Temple Sholom Teen Tikkun Olam Award, which recognizes a young person who “has demonstrated a vision to heal the world and has done exceptional work in the community.”
Her perspective on gender equality is partially due to her Jewish identity and the first words of Torah.
“The creation story is a perfect example of the way in which Judaism values gender equality,” she says. “Throughout this story, the Torah emphasizes the emotional and physical differences between men and women. However, these defining characteristic are not seen as inferior or superior to one another, but instead are considered to have cause for equal celebration. I believe that these values parallel with the issue of empowering young girls in STEM. As a student who has received a Jewish education, I was taught at an early age how to encourage and celebrate differences. For this reason, Judaism has helped me persevere through the cultural biases and stereotypes that litter the path towards an academic career.”
Baron has shared her experiences and interests with large and diverse audiences, including on numerous panels, as a TEDx speaker and on CBC Radio. The long list of her other activities and achievements includes participation in Vancouver Science World’s Future Science Leaders Program and serving on the Kitsilano Community Centre Youth Council.
In addition, she has been a member of the Whistler Blackcomb Freeride Skiing Team, was a competitive jazz and acro dancer and a National Rhythmic Gymnast.
*** Ezequiel (Zeke) Blumenkrans Age 23 Medical Student
A Chassidic teaching says that Reb Simcha Bunim carried two slips of paper (another version says they were stones), one in each pocket. On one he wrote, “bishvili nivra ha’olam,” “for my sake, the world was created.” On the other, he wrote “v’anokhi afar v’efer, “I am but dust and ashes.”
This is a teaching that Zeke Blumenkrans has taken to heart.
“On one hand,” he says, “realize that you been given so much in life and that you need to make the most of it and don’t get scared. At the same time, don’t let the success get to your head. Remember to be humble and realize that, at the end of the day, we are all going to be in some form dust and ash, not too long from now. Just make the most of every day and try to add as much meaning into what you do in your life and try to help the people around you and make their lives a bit better, too.”
Ezequiel (Zeke) Blumenkrans
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Blumenkrans came to Vancouver at the age of 3. Growing up in a home infused with Jewish identity, and graduating from Vancouver Talmud Torah and King David High School, he absorbed ideas of tikkun olam and chesed. In 2011, he began volunteering at Canuck Place, North America’s first hospice for pediatric palliative care.
“Canuck Place allows me to interact with some of the most courageous and incredible children in the world, all while goofing around and helping them have fun and forget about their tough situations for awhile,” Blumenkrans told the Independent last year.
At Canuck Place, Blumenkrans met David, who had been diagnosed with spinal cancer. After David died, Blumenkrans started Generocksity, a philanthropic organization that has now grown to eight branches across Canada and in New York.
“One of my most memorable moments with David was when he was voicing his frustration about how he felt like he simply did not have enough time to do all the things he wanted to do in his life,” Blumenkrans says. “He had always thought, as most of us do, that you can always leave stuff for later and there will always be time in the future. Although he never knew it, David is the reason why I started Generocksity, so every success and achievement my team and I experience, I share with him for being my eternal inspiration.”
Generocksity organizes concert and party fundraisers for various causes and delivers educational workshops that help young adults who want to start their own philanthropic projects.
After completing his undergraduate degree in kinesiology (during which he won a long list of awards and scholarships), and before beginning med school at the University of British Columbia this year, Blumenkrans worked full-time at the Vancouver Native Health Clinic in the Downtown Eastside, which focuses predominantly on people who are current or former injection drug users and people who are HIV-positive. He is also doing research with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, focused on needle-sharing and the spread of HIV in the Downtown Eastside. He volunteered for Magen David Adom, the Israeli branch of the Red Cross organization, and received top marks in the practical and written exams following the organization’s 100-hour first aid training course.
In addition to all of this, he has been a soccer trainer and assistant coach in the Downtown Eastside, vice-president of UBC’s Israel on Campus Club, senior coordinator of children’s events at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and a counselor at Camp Solomon Schechter and at Camp Shalom.
“In Judaism, they say a mitzvah is not a good deed but rather a commandment. I feel that, given all the amazing things that have occurred in my life, it’s really the least that I can do – and it’s not a whole lot,” says Blumenkrans. “But it’s a start.”
*** Erin Brandt Age 30 Employment Lawyer
Community is at the heart of Erin Brandt’s life, and Erin Brandt is at the heart of her community.
“Community has always been very important to me,” she says. “Jewish life is founded in community. All of our religious and ritual practices are centred around community life.”
Brandt grew up in Kingston, Ont., where she was involved with United Synagogue Youth and attended Jewish summer camp. During her undergraduate studies at McGill, she was involved in Hillel and served on the board of the legendary Ghetto Shul, an innovative student-run Jewish community in downtown Montreal.
Erin Brandt
Soon after coming to Vancouver to study law at the University of British Columbia, she founded a Jewish law students’ group. Later, she was a founding board member of Axis, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s network of Jews in their 20s and 30s. Through her role with Axis and, now, as a member of the Young Adult Committee of Beth Israel Synagogue, she has been instrumental in many initiatives for members of the community in their 20s and 30s. She is also an active member of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee.
Brandt sees herself as a “connector,” and is motivated by fairness and innovation. In her career as an employment lawyer, she advises leaders in emerging industries, as well as more established businesses who want to “do right,” and she focuses on finding reasonable, collaborative solutions to workplace issues. As a speaker at the annual Vancouver Startup Week, Brandt is the voice of employment law for many local new business.
She mentors the next generation of professionals as a supervising lawyer at UBC’s Law Students’ Legal Advice Program and supports the professional development of her peers as a member of the executive of both the Employment Law Subsection and Young Lawyers Section of the Canadian Bar Association (B.C.). She presents regularly at the annual Continuing Legal Education Employment Law Conference in Vancouver, speaking on topics such as directors’ and officers’ liability and disability and workplace accommodation.
As a founder of many community-based initiatives, Brandt subscribes to the idea that, if you build it, they will come. “There are always people who want to participate in whatever it is you’re doing,” she says. “You see a need for something and then you create it.”
At this point in her life, being an integral part of her community is not even a matter of personal choice. “It’s a habit that I can’t even break,” she says, laughing.
*** Marcus Brandt Age 32 Chartered Professional Accountant
Marcus Brandt credits those who have come before as the inspiration for his community commitments today.
“Giving back to the community was something that was taught to me at a young age by my parents,” he says. “Having three grandparents who are Holocaust survivors has taught me the importance of community, and perseverance. Looking at the incredible examples that we have in our community, be they lay leaders and/or philanthropists, they have set a good example for this generation to try and follow in their footsteps.”
Marcus Brandt
Brandt’s community involvements are plentiful. During studies at the University of Victoria, where he received a bachelor’s of commerce degree with distinction, he was active in Hillel. He moved to Vancouver and became a chartered professional accountant (CPA, CA), and is now a manager at DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants, in their private enterprise group.
Professionally, Brandt provides assurance, accounting, taxation and business advisory services to owner-managed businesses including incorporated professionals, individuals, estates and trusts.
Even as his career has advanced, his community activities have grown. In addition to serving on the board of Congregation Beth Israel, he leads services, serves on committees and helps run young adult programs.
He is a co-chair of the young professional division at Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and, having been in this role for a number of years, has personally canvassed a large proportion of the community’s young adult philanthropists. In 2014, he was the co-recipient of the Federation’s Young Leadership Award, which is presented in recognition of outstanding leadership in the Metro Vancouver Jewish community. He served on the steering committee of Axis, Federation’s young adult network, of which he was a founding member.
Brandt is on the board of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and serves as its treasurer, and was co-chair of Jewish National Fund’s JNF Futures (previously JNF Young Professionals Network). In his free time, he plays hockey and ultimate Frisbee, bikes, hikes, skis, cooks and entertains.
His future plans are to continue to develop professionally and build a practice within his firm, while continuing to support the Jewish community where he is able and where he is needed the most. “Jewish community and myself are inexorably linked,” he says. “The community is as much a part of my life as anything else, and I would not change that.
“It’s an absolute honour to be recognized in this way by our community,” he says. “Community does not create itself. We must all build it together and ensure that it continues to grow from strength to strength.”
*** Ayelet Cohen Weil Age 34 Campaign Manager, Major Gifts,
Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver
Ayelet Cohen Weil left Vancouver in 2012. This summer, she returned with her husband, Zohar, and their year-old daughter Shai. It is the most recent relocation in a life that has triangulated between Mexico, British Columbia and Israel.
“I am what I call Mexican-born Israeli Jew,” says Cohen Weil. “Being Jewish is what ultimately defines me. It has defined who I am, where I come from, where I’m going, why I am who I am, and who I want my children to be.”
The identity and sense of belonging has been handed down through the diverse and conflicted history of her family.
“I come from a family of very devoted Zionists and devoted Jews,” she says. “From my maternal grandparents, who lost most of their family in the Holocaust, to a great-grandfather from Salonika, who was deeply involved in the early Zionist movement and was to become the first president of the Sephardic community in Mexico and the first president of the Comité Central Israelita de México (the main operating body of the Jewish community in Mexico, the equivalent of the Federation), to my paternal grandparents, who did everything to get to Israel from an Arab country in the ’50s.… I can only dream to get close to the legacy they have left for me to pass over to my children.”
Cohen Weil’s father is Israeli, the son of Iraqi Jews who immigrated to Israel in 1950. Her mother is the daughter of European Jews who migrated to Mexico in the early 1900s.
After high school, Cohen Weil volunteered on a kibbutz for a year and then joined the Israel Defence Forces at the age of 19 as a lone soldier.
Ayelet Cohen Weil
“I did basic training, a course for operational sergeants of the ground forces, and served in the Liaison and Foreign Relations Division,” she says.
The Foreign Relations Division was established to build, reinforce and maintain diplomatic relations and to represent the IDF to other countries. Cohen Weil served in the division’s Latin American and African section.
After her service, in 2005, she moved to British Columbia to complete a bachelor’s degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Victoria. While there, she was an active volunteer in Hillel’s Israel on Campus Club and Jewish Students Association.
After completing her undergraduate degree, Cohen Weil returned to Israel for a yearlong academic excellence programs at the Hebrew University. Then, she returned again to British Columbia, where she took up a position as Hillel director at the University of Victoria for three years before moving to Vancouver and serving another two years as Hillel’s managing director of programs for the province.
Then, she was back to Israel again, obtaining a master’s degree, with distinction, in public policy, specializing in conflict resolution and mediation, at Tel Aviv University.
She served as a research assistant on strategic peace and security studies at the Institute for National Security Studies and, later, as head of marketing and admissions of graduate programs at the Interdisciplinary Centre (IDC), in Herzliya, where she also ran the Latin American desk.
During this time, she also served as a board member and mediator for Minds of Peace, an organization designed to involve the people in the peace process through provoking a public debate over central issues.
This past July, she took up the position of campaign manager, major gifts, for the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
“Through my mixed background, life experiences and years of involvement in Jewish organizations, I have witnessed and, in many cases empowered, young Jews in Canada and abroad to fulfil their Jewish journey in Israel or in their home country,” she says. “Jewish professionals don’t have an easy task, especially in our world today. But, seeing young Jews discover (for the first time, at times) and build their Jewish identity with the support of our local Jewish organizations, witnessing their journey and ultimately meeting them in Israel after they had made aliyah, that is what inspires me. That is what motivates me to keep doing what we do.”
*** Courtney Cohen Age 29 Special Needs Support Worker
When Courtney Cohen’s grandmother, Rose Lewin, passed away in 2012, she struggled to find a meaningful way to honour the memory and legacy of her bobba (grandmother), a survivor of the Holocaust.
She created Rose’s Angels – honouring both Lewin and her paternal grandmother, Babs Cohen – to bring light into the lives of people in the often-dark month of February.
Courtney Cohen
The fifth annual event, this coming February, will see 1,000 care packages distributed to people affected by poverty through 19 service providers, including Richmond Family Place, the Richmond Food Bank, Turning Point Recovery, the Jewish Food Bank and the Light of Shabbat Program. The packages contain non-perishable foods, toiletry items, new socks, pairs of gloves and toques. Operating under the umbrella of the Kehila Society of Richmond, the program has already delivered 2,500 packages.
“I was very close to both my grandmas and they both were highly involved in giving back to the Jewish community of Vancouver,” Cohen says. “They volunteered for Hadassah, always had open-door policies at their homes and were always ready to feed my friends and family. Through their tzedakah, they inspired me to create an event that helps those less fortunate receive care packages full of items and love.”
Earlier this year, Cohen told the Georgia Straight that, even with all of the hardships her grandmother Lewin had known, “she was the most positive person I knew.”
“She always welcomed everybody into her home and, no matter what, she offered them food,” she says. “I wanted to create a token of appreciation for her life and legacy by paying it forward to the less fortunate.”
Cohen chose February for the project in part because it was her bobba’s birthday month and also because many people can feel especially isolated around Valentine’s Day.
“I hope that they feel a little bit of love, to have a gift coming to them on Valentine’s Day, when you might not have a loved one around,” Cohen told the Straight. “It’s about letting them know that there is someone out there that cares about them.”
Earlier this year, Cohen was honoured with Canadian Hadassah-WIZO’s Heroes Among Us Award. (A decade ago, she received the Rick Hansen Leadership Award.)
In addition to running Rose’s Angels, Cohen is also on the board of the Kehila Society, Richmond Jewish Day School, Richmond Homeless Connect, Richmond Poverty Response Committee and Axis Vancouver. She recently organized a young adult event for Jewish Family Service Agency (now called Jewish Family Services), educating peers about the work JFSA does around mental health outreach. She was also co-organizer of the young adult tables for JFSA’s Innovators Luncheon earlier this year.
“My parents and grandparents instilled in me at a very young age that it was important to give back to others,” she says. “It was even more meaningful to give to others whom you know could never repay you. Growing up with such giving family surrounding me, I chose to get my education in the not-for-profit sector, and it ultimately determined my career path.”
Cohen is a special needs support worker with Vancouver School Board and, as one of her nominators said, “Courtney continues to exude a passion for helping people. Her family’s strong values and her bobba’s teachings taught Courtney at a very early age to ‘always see the best in people’ and to ‘treat people who are less fortunate as equals.’”
Her near-future plans are for a very successful 2018 Rose’s Angels event and planning more tikkun olam projects for young Jewish adults.
“Through my volunteering, I hope to get more young adults involved in giving back within the Jewish community,” she says.
*** Aaron Friedland Age 25 Founder/Executive Director, The Walking School Bus
When Anderson Cooper presented Aaron Friedland with the Next Einstein Award, the CNN host commended the Vancouverite for helping students in developing countries access education by reducing barriers in a sustainable way.
To reach school, kids in many countries have to walk several kilometres, which presents a primary barrier to their advancement. Friedland created the Walking School Bus organization, intending to purchase buses, to address that part of the problem for benefiting schools. But he soon realized that, in addition to getting to school, additional barriers were presented by hunger and poor literacy.
Aaron Friedland
The Walking School Bus (TWSB) evolved into a three-legged initiative addressing access, nutrition and curriculum. TWSB’s economic model is to make school buses self-funding because, when not shuttling kids to class, they will generate revenue as taxis in the community. The organization confronts the hunger issue through a complex of water collection systems, chicken coops and community-supported agriculture, providing students with nutritious meals. Solar-powered classrooms address the availability of power. Finally, TWSB developed an app through which students in places like Vancouver record themselves reading aloud, creating audio books that peers around the world can use to enhance their English language proficiency by seeing the words and hearing English-speakers reading them.
The three communities in Uganda where the organization started are in primarily Jewish schools serving the Abayudaya Jews indigenous to Uganda. A new team is beginning operations in India, focused on research in conjunction with four Indian universities.
The Walking School Bus is reinforced by Friedland’s love of economics. Each component was developed using economic models developed by Friedland and fellow econ students at the University of British Columbia and elsewhere. The organization now has partnerships with several universities and is aiming for more. There is also a think tank where ideas for further programs are imagined and modeled.
An economics lecturer at Coquitlam College and a PhD candidate at UBC, Friedland’s personal experiences inspire his work. Born in South Africa and brought to Vancouver at the age of 1, Friedland’s anti-apartheid parents, he says, ensured that he understood that, “regardless of the social norms wherever you are, you know what right looks like.”
Friedland also had to overcome challenges in his own education.
“As someone who has grown up with dyslexia and has struggled academically with dyslexia, I know how much I realize the kind of social safety net I was given in Vancouver – the extra lessons, the extra tutoring, this incredible social safety net that I think we often take for granted. I realize how fortunate I was,” he says. When he visited Uganda, India and other places, he realized that, had he been born there, he probably wouldn’t have received an education at all.
“My parents likely wouldn’t have been able to justify that educational expenditure because, if you’re not a good student, we’ll send one of your siblings to school,” he says.
Friedland and his team, which boasts an advisory group of leading thinkers and doers, has plans for expansion. In the next year, TWSB aims to purchase more buses, put in place two more solar-powered classrooms, and set up more chicken coops, water catchment systems and community-supported gardens. By 2020, the goal is five more buses, five more solar-powered classrooms and 20 more water systems, as well as more community gardens and chicken coops. On the think tank side, Friedland hopes to have 40 academic or research institutions generating 120 research papers a year.
Personally, in 10 years, Friedland would like to be a tenure-track professor of economics.
*** Sam Heller Age 32 Managing Director, Hillel BC
Judaism and the history of the state of Israel are integral to Sam Heller’s identity. A longtime camper at Habonim Dror’s Camp Miriam, and later a staffer there, Heller went on to become the president of Hillel’s Israel Action Committee at the University of British Columbia. But, before he completed his degree in political science, he took a major detour.
Camp and campus helped shape his already strong Jewish and Zionist identity, but he was motivated to go deeper.
Sam Heller
“Sitting and debating the nitty-gritty political issues of the day really helped me understand that being connected to the community is more than just having a superficial understanding,” he says. “You gotta get your hands dirty and challenge yourself with ideas that may make you uncomfortable.… I left for Israel right after I finished my last summer working at camp.”
He served in the Israel Defence Forces’ Nahal Infantry Brigade, Battalion 50, from 2010 to 2012, and received the Exemplary Soldier Award at the end of advanced training. When his service was complete, he worked for a time in the financial sector in Israel, but realized his calling was elsewhere. He returned to UBC to complete his degree, with the intention of rededicating himself to Jewish community service. His degree in hand, Heller didn’t leave campus. He became a staffer at Hillel, now in the role of managing director, overseeing programming across British Columbia.
These have not been easy years for Jewish and Zionist students. Heller coordinated the responses to three anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns – with a 100% success rate.
Heller’s Jewish and Zionist commitments did not emerge from nowhere. They were passed down from generation to generation.
“I grew up in a religious and Zionistic home,” he says. “My father, Ilan Heller, was born in Israel and grew up in Montreal when there were still signs up saying ‘No Jews, No Dogs Allowed.’ My mum, Gail Heller, was born and raised in Vancouver and was very connected to the community. She passed away when I was 13 and, since then, I always felt that I needed to be involved. I do a lot of what I do with her in mind, always.”
His maternal grandparents, Regina and David Feldman, survived the Holocaust and have been a strong influence on him.
His paternal grandfather, Benjamin Heller, was born in Romania and survived the war in Russia, though his parents, two sisters and a brother were killed by the Nazis; he made it to Israel in 1948, was an officer in the artillery corps of the IDF and was involved in the 1956 Suez campaign. Heller’s paternal grandmother, Haya Novik Heller, was born in Mandate Palestine and, along with her brothers, was involved in the founding of the state of Israel.
“My great-uncles, Yehuda Harari and Moshe Marienburg, were with the Jewish underground,” he says. “My savta [grandmother] was with another group in the underground, and my great-uncle Rafael Algor (where I get my middle name) was in the Haganah. Basically, they were all involved with the founding of the state and I grew up on their stories. I felt a need to go and explore my roots, which is how I ended up in Israel.”
Heller says he is motivated by a belief in Jewish peoplehood.
“I feel that if you care about your fellow human (and fellow Jew) then you inevitably will care about Israel and other Jewish communities around the world,” he says. “We need to reconnect to Jewish peoplehood. I want to make sure that my great-great-grandchildren will grow up learning and connecting to Jewish traditions and thought that have been around for thousands of years.”
A friend once said something that has stuck with Heller: “I don’t want to live a life that’s been lived a thousand times over.”
*** Talya Mallek Age 33 Museum Programs Coordinator and Heritage Harbour Master,
Vancouver Maritime Museum
Talya Mallek is devoted to education, a commitment she is realizing through her work as a museum professional.
“Building community relationships and engaging students in meaningful and inspiring learning experiences is my passion,” she says. “I believe that teaching critical thinking skills will build more proactive citizens and a brighter future.”
Talya Mallek (photo by Lianne Cohen)
Born and raised in Vancouver (with a couple years living in Israel as a kid), Mallek taught Hebrew and Judaic studies at Or Shalom and at Temple Sholom religious school. After double majoring in international relations and English literature at the University of British Columbia, she obtained a master’s of education degree in museum education there.
Before joining the Vancouver Maritime Museum, she worked at Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre, North Vancouver Museum and Archives and Burnaby Art Gallery. She has had two academic papers published on the topic of youth art apprenticeships.
Mallek researched and wrote a significant paper about Holocaust survivor Rudolf Vrba, interviewing him and contributing primary research to the story of the man who escaped Auschwitz and warned the world about the extent of the Final Solution. Vrba, who immigrated to Canada and became an associate professor of pharmacology at UBC, is credited with saving as many as 200,000 lives, though he believed that more could have been saved were his warnings shared more widely within the Hungarian Jewish community.
Mallek participated in the Canadian Arctic Expedition, traversing the Northwest Passage during the summer of 2015, then published a blog exhibit called Across the Top of the World: Words and Photos from the Arctic. She also researched, wrote and presented Extreme Explorers, an adult education program about the history of Arctic exploration with particular focus on the Franklin Expedition. The program continues to be presented by museum staff in Metro Vancouver and in the Arctic.
In addition, she helped create partnerships in the Jewish and Japanese communities and did research for Invisible Threads: Lifesaving Sugihara Visas and the Journey to Vancouver, a Vancouver Maritime Museum exhibit about Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese government official who, during the Second World War, helped thousands of European Jews flee Nazism via Lithuania and Japan.
An alumna of Vancouver Talmud Torah, Camp Miriam and volunteer positions at Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver summer camp, she is now carrying on the tradition to the next generation.
“I have carried this on in my own young family, with Shabbat dinners and celebrating Jewish holidays,” she says. “Professionally, being part of an ethnic minority has allowed me to engage with other diverse communities and to understand and appreciate each of their unique circumstances, and adjust appropriately to their learning needs, goals, and interests.”
Mallek, who is currently on maternity leave from the museum, aims “to progress professionally and concurrently to raise a happy, healthy Jewish family.”
Fall fun with some of the JI’s 18 Under 36 continued. (photo by Lianne Cohen)
***
Over the past month, each of the JI’s 18 Under 36 honourees has taken the time to do an email or phone interview with Pat Johnson, so we could get to know them a little better. Once you meet them, you’ll understand why these 18 young achievers and community-minded folk were chosen by the JI’s selection panel with the help of external adjudicator Kara Mintzberg, B.C. regional director of CJPAC (the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee).
The second group of honourees at the JI Chai Celebration on Dec. 6 at the Rothstein Theatre were (alphabetically): Ariel Martz-Oberlander, Logan Presch, Maya Rae Schwartz-Dardick, Michael Sachs, Allie Saks, David Schein, Rotem Tal, Carmel Tanaka and Rabbi Levi Varnai. Mazal tov!
*** Ariel Martz-Oberlander Age 24 Theatre Artist and Community Organizer
Ariel Martz-Oberlander describes herself as “a theatre artist, writer and teacher.” As a “Jewish settler on Coast Salish territories with diasporic and refugee ancestry,” her practice is rooted in a commitment to place-based accountability through decolonizing and solidarity work. She divides her time between theatre and community organizing, and specializes in creative protest tactics on land and water.
Ariel Martz-Oberlander (photo by Lianne Cohen)
Those values have led her to co-found Kids for Climate Action while in high school, and to become vice-president of Fossil Free U of T, a leader of B.C. Sea Wolves, a Vancouver-based “kayaktivist” group, and an organizer of Paddle for the Peace (against the Site C hydroelectric project). She worked with aboriginal activists re-occupying and protecting their traditional land, Unist’ot’en Camp, in northern British Columbia, was a founding member of the Peace Camp at BC Hydro offices and has staged protests against the Kinder Morgan TransMountain pipeline.
This year, she received the (Vancouver) Mayor’s Arts Award for Community Engaged Arts in the emerging artist category. Her award citation stated, in part: “Martz-Oberlander is a facilitator with the True Voice Theatre Project, producing new shows by residents of the Downtown Eastside and vulnerably housed youth, in collaboration with the Gathering Place and Covenant House. Her most recent work, created with support from the LEAP program, won a research and development prize from the Arts Club. Martz-Oberlander is also the associate producer for Vines Festival, presenting accessible, free eco-art in Vancouver parks.”
She received a community grant to screen environmental documentaries at Gordon Neighbourhood House, and theatre fellowships involving writing and directing original works. She has directed, written and acted in plays, and was a program director for Vines.
She has guest-taught senior students at King David High School on issues of social justice and volunteered as a facilitator for Or Shalom’s Dialogue Project, as well as leading children’s services at Or Shalom.
“My work seeks to invite people to take global issues personally. As the descendant of diasporic refugees, it is my desire to fight for the right of the people of this land to maintain their ancestral homelands and inheritance,” she says. “Community, belonging, my inheritance all give me a sense of my right to be in this world.”
Her future goals? “To get a puppy.”
*** Logan Presch Age 21 Business Student
Logan Presch
Logan Presch is a University of British Columbia student and a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the traditionally Jewish fraternity.
Presch, who is from Salmon Arm, B.C., is also a member of the Jewish Students Association, although he is not Jewish.
“Throughout my life, members of the Jewish community have always accepted me, been my friend, and helped shaped who I’ve become,” he says. “I care deeply about my friends, brothers and mentors, and want to reach out and help in my fullest capacity.”
Putting that caring into action, Presch has been a leading opponent of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanction movement at UBC. He filed a petition that stated, in part, that the BDS referendum question “creates a toxic atmosphere for students supportive of the state of Israel, and is destructive of open and respectful debate on an important issue.” He went on to say that the campus referendum “drove a wedge between religious groups on campus who had previously enjoyed inter-faith outreach and collaboration.”
After university, Presch hopes to follow his passion to work in the music industry, as a manager, agent or touring manager, and possibly pursuing a career in singing as well.
*** Michael Sachs Age 36 Wholesaler of Diamonds/President of The Bayit
The Bayit describes itself as a warm and vibrant synagogue in Richmond committed to making everyone feel included and, as the name suggests, at home.
The suburban shul has recently seen a dramatic uptick in membership due to the leadership team of Michael Sachs, the synagogue’s president, and spiritual leader Rabbi Levi Varnai.
Michael Sachs (photo by Lianne Cohen)
Born in Stamford, Conn., Sachs moved to Vancouver in 1993. Three years ago, with his wife Shira and two children, he moved to Richmond. While his day job is as a wholesaler of diamonds with ERL Diamonds, since last year he has been busy not only with the routine business that comes with the job of a congregational president, but with tasks that go above and beyond.
“I can be caught on my drives to or from work, calling members of our community to see how their job search is going,” he says. “Dealing with other professionals in the community, seeing how the apartment hunt is going for a family, checking in with someone who may be under the weather, touching base with the Bayit team on the status of current projects.”
One of his nominators calls Sachs a “problem solver, creative thinker, a sort of advisor at times, and often a sounding board to both individuals and organizations.”
In addition to raising a family and taking care of business, Sachs is also founder of Marc’s Mensches, an initiative directed at youth to encourage and reward good deeds, and is the political liaison for the Kehila Society of Richmond.
“Judaism is the core of my life, from keeping kosher to attending synagogue, and even for guidance in difficult decisions,” he says.
And his efforts have been noticed. He was co-recipient of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s 2017 Young Leadership Award.
“After moving to Richmond almost three years ago, and experiencing all that the Jewish community offers in Vancouver,” he says, “I felt a calling to jump in and serve to do whatever I can to help the Richmond Jewish community to continue to grow. My goal is simple: keep growing the Richmond Jewish community. Our community is growing every day at record rates, especially with the higher cost of living in Vancouver.”
Says Sachs of his fellow recipients of the JI’s 18 Under 36 Awards, “Every one of these 18 members of our community is an ambassador of the Jewish people. Every positive ambassador from our community creates a ripple effect across the world.”
*** Allie Saks Age 29 Occupational Therapist
As an occupational therapist working in hospital settings with people who have Parkinson’s disease, Allie Saks saw a problem.
“The medical system tends to treat patients once they are already quite progressed in the disease,” she says. “In reading the research, I knew that exercise can delay the progression.”
She heard about a program called Rock Steady, which was founded in Indianapolis by Scott Newman, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 39. Newman discovered that non-contact boxing training lessened his symptoms.
Allie Saks (photo by Lianne Cohen)
Rock Steady boxers train to improve overall fitness and strength, as well as speed, balance, agility, reaction time, hand-eye coordination, mental focus, and range of motion. The ultimate goal is to delay the progression of the disease and improve overall quality of life. The movement has now expanded to almost 500 affiliates worldwide, helping people with Parkinson’s “fight back.” One of those affiliates is Rock Steady Boxing Vancouver, which Saks founded in May 2016.
“I wanted to provide that to people living with Parkinson’s in our community,” says Saks, who also practises as an occupational therapist in Fraser Health Concussion Clinic. In this role, she provides intervention and follow-up services to individuals who have experienced a concussion or mild to traumatic brain injury, in order to manage symptoms and facilitate speedy recovery.
“In addition to the physical benefits, Rock Steady Boxing also provides a means for people to build social connections and community,” she says. “This is especially important for the Parkinson’s population, that can often become quite reclusive.”
Helping people with Parkinson’s live better lives accounts for Saks’ motto that, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade.
“I was always taught being diagnosed with Parkinson’s can be the ultimate ‘lemon.’ I hope I can make a meaningful contribution to my boxers, to delay the progression of the disease with Rock Steady Boxing, and make those ‘lemons’ a little sweeter,” she says.
Her Jewish heritage and commitment to tikkun olam also play a role in making Rock Steady accessible to all.
“Soon after starting our program, people with Parkinson’s started to call saying they could not afford the cost of the program,” she says. “I felt I could not turn people away because of this, and that everyone should have equal opportunity to participate, despite financial barriers. I decided to create a scholarship program, where people pay what they can, and the remainder is covered by funds raised during Rock Steady fundraisers. We have held three successful Rock Steady fundraisers to date, which have helped cover anywhere from 75% to 100% of the cost of our classes for a number of our boxers.”
Saks’ future plans are to expand Rock Steady to reach as many individuals living with Parkinson’s disease in Vancouver as possible.
*** David Schein Age 28 Director, Food Stash Foundation
When David Schein saw the documentary Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story, it had a profound impact on him.
The film follows a Vancouver couple, the filmmakers Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustemeyer, as they survive for six months only on discarded food in order to draw attention to massive food waste in North America.
Seeing people living with hunger while tons of food went to waste, motivated Schein to found Food Stash Foundation. The group has a straightforward, twofold mission: “to rescue food from producers and suppliers that would have been destined for the landfill, and to deliver edible food items to food-insecure households and individuals in Vancouver.”
David Schein (photo by Lianne Cohen)
Food Stash picks up edible food from bakeries, restaurants and grocery stores, things like imperfect produce, day-old bread and grain products, items that aren’t moving quickly off the shelves and food that has reached its best-before date but remains fine. The food is subsequently delivered to households and individuals who need it, and to charities that feed people. Suppliers include Whole Foods, the August Market, COBS Bread, Rosemary Rocksalt, IGA, Cupcakes, Tractor, Windset Farms, Virtuous Pie, Nesters, Terra Breads, Elysian Coffee, and many other shops, restaurants, cafés and bakeries.
Among the agencies Food Stash supports are the Island Refugee Society of British Columbia, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, the Kettle Society, MPA Society, Steeves Manor, Watari, Masjid Al-Salaam and Education Centre, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society, Directions Youth Services, AMS UBC Food Bank, Atira Women’s Resource Centre, and South Granville Seniors Centre, among others.
“I think change happens by starting small in one’s community and setting an example that other communities can follow,” Schein says. “I don’t want to wait for government policy to change or be the driver in creating more sustainable communities, but instead think that we can help and contribute to making our communities better in whatever ways are most important to us.”
Last year, Food Stash was responsible for rescuing and redistributing 167,110 pounds of edible food – and the amounts are rising daily. The foundation has only one paid employee, a part-timer who is a refugee from the Philippines. A volunteer team of 16 does the rescuing and delivery. Schein has recruited students to support Food Stash, including some from King David High School, where he previously taught French and Spanish.
A new pilot program is underway, in partnership with Jewish Family Services. The Grocery Box Program will deliver fresh food to those most in need. The pilot will initially provide 10 Richmond families with four boxes per month of healthy, fresh, quality food. These include produce, bread, dairy and juice, items not frequently available at the food bank because of a lack of ability to store perishable foods.
Of Schein, one of his nominators stated: “His humility is a measure of the loving kindness of his food justice mission and of his acknowledgement that he’s at the beginning of a journey to learn more about how to solve a complex and systemic problem and how to build community partnerships.”
*** Maya Rae Schwartz-Dardick Age 15 Student/Musician
Maya Rae Schwartz-Dardick recorded her debut album this year and has already been recognized by CBC Music as one of Canada’s Top 35 Jazz Musicians Under the age of 35.
Under the performing name Maya Rae, she was just 13 when she performed at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. While her voice has wowed audiences, it is also her philanthropic spirit that is gaining attention. She routinely performs at fundraisers for organizations and causes, raising $20,000 to date. Of this, $6,000 was raised to help resettle two refugee families in British Columbia. Other causes for which she has shared her talents include support of homeless youth, anti-bullying campaigns and a fundraiser for Nepal earthquake victims. The CD release party for her first album was a fundraiser for Covenant House, which helps youth 16 to 24 who have fled physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse or are street-involved.
Maya Rae Schwartz-Dardick
“I like to use music to make the world a better place,” she says. “I like the way my music touches people.”
A member of Temple Sholom’s Youth Board, Schwartz-Dardick enjoys singing at synagogue and reading Torah during the High Holidays. She plays regularly at Louis Brier Home and Hospital to bring music to seniors in the community.
Now working on her second album, she plans to tour in 2018, and “continue to use my music to help raise awareness around important community issues.”
“The world of jazz has been blessed with child prodigies for as long as the genre has existed,” CBC Music writer Scott Morin wrote of Schwartz-Dardick. “Maya Rae is faithfully continuing the tradition of young, prodigious voices taking their incredible talents to the jazz art form, and at only 15 years old she has an incredibly bright future ahead.… Her debut album, Sapphire Birds, produced by Cory Weeds, one of the hardest-working cats in the business, was released earlier this year on the Cellar Live label, and shows a supremely gifted artist who is able to phrase like Sarah Vaughan but write a lyric like Joni Mitchell. Watch out for this talented singer and composer.”
“If my music can make a difference towards helping people and making the world a better place, I can’t think of anything else that I’d rather be doing,” Schwartz-Dardick told the Independent last year.
*** Rotem Tal Age 34 Restaurant and Food Truck Owner/Entrepreneur
Rotem Tal was born in Haifa, Israel, and has been in Vancouver since 2008. But the décor in the Main Street restaurant Chickpea, which he cofounded with fellow sabra Itamar Shani, shouts “Israel!”
The entrance sports a Dizengoff Street sign, winking at the Tel Aviv hotspot, and a mural features David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Theodor Herzl and Golda Meir crossing Abbey Road.
Rotem Tal
After traveling the world following his military service, Tal settled in Vancouver for its laid-back vibe, yoga classes and mountains. He studied at Simon Fraser University, where he was active in Hillel and, after graduation, took a job as Hillel’s outreach and special events director. That involved a lot of cooking and hospitality. He was also a founding resident of Vancouver’s Moishe House, a hub for young Jewish adults.
Tal is committed to environmental sustainability. At Hillel, he replaced all plastic utensils with reusable ones and instituted a composting program.
He also made a very personal commitment to the health of children in the developing world. He raised $3,500 in a fundraising effort for Save a Child’s Heart by cutting off his signature dreadlocks. Save a Child’s Heart is an Israeli charity that provides life-saving heart surgeries to kids in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Tal left Hillel to follow his dream of becoming a professional full-time chef and restaurateur. With his friend Shani, Tal started the Chickpea food truck, an Israeli vegetarian option that gained quick fame and a strong following. Earlier this year, they opened the 2,400-square-foot storefront restaurant on Main Street and took the vegetarianism a step further, eliminating eggs and dairy to make the place vegan. Even the shakshuka replaces eggs with a spicy vegetarian sausage.
While running a restaurant has been a long-term goal, now that he has realized it, there’s another vision on the horizon.
“Myself and Itamar – aka Chickpea – are going to open a few more restaurants and raise money for our ultimate goal: opening up a farm/retreat-wellness centre/space for music festivals and arts,” he says. “We are working towards finding a piece of land around 200 acres and designating it to being a community space. We will grow our own food (within the limitations of the seasons), have our Chickpea community live there, and hold space for healing and rejuvenating others. Think permaculture, Burning Man, yoga centre = Chickpea.”
Tal’s connection with his Judaism emerged largely after he left Israel. “I was traveling for many years by myself, or would meet friends in different countries like Australia or the States,” he says. “I noticed that, although Judaism never played a major role in my upbringing (since I was raised in Israel and Jewishness is just all encompassing), wherever I landed, no matter where I came from, the Jewish community always welcomed me with open arms. I was always able to find a place to stay, work, and friends.
“Although I truly believe that connection and helping others is a human attribute,” he continues, “I think that it is strongly ingrained in Jewish culture … probably because we were persecuted for so many years and we had to stick together. I myself try to bring this vibe to everyone, not only the Jewish community. I believe that the Jewish community is a special one within the human community, and I strive to make connections with everyone.”
*** Carmel Tanaka Age 30 Community Relations Manager, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Pacific Region
Carmel Tanaka credits her unique family history with helping form her worldview and ability to meet people on their own terms.
“Turns out, I’m pretty good at connecting people and building bridges,” she says. “Might have something to do with my eclectic professional background and varied personal interests and experiences, which helps me relate to anyone.”
She found this out, she says, while serving as the director of Hillel Victoria, where she enhanced the connections between the Jewish students organization and other individuals and groups on campus. That bridge-building was on full display during Hillel’s Holocaust Awareness Week at UVic last year.
Carmel Tanaka (photo by Lianne Cohen)
Tanaka created an imaginative and moving commemoration. As is traditional, six candles were lit in memory of the six million Jewish lives lost in the Shoah. A seventh candle was lit to symbolize hope. To light the candles, she brought together the diversity of the campus community, including representatives of First Nations, African, German and Slavic communities. UVic’s Multifaith Services participated, as did the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island and advocates from the Sexualized Violence Task Force. UVic Holocaust educators and representatives of the administration lit candles, as did children of Holocaust survivors. Student leaders, including some who had returned from the university’s I-witness Field School, which takes students to Central Europe to explore how the Holocaust is memorialized, joined the ceremony.
In another symbolic act, recollecting Kristallnacht, participants took shards of a broken window and pieced them back together, creating a “resilience window” that has been used at subsequent community commemorations.
During the ceremony, Tanaka spoke about her family’s history. She is a granddaughter, on her mother’s side, of survivors of the Holocaust. On her father’s side, her Japanese-Canadian grandparents were interned during the Second World War, losing everything, including a prosperous fishing and cannery business, which was confiscated by the federal government. “It takes a community to overcome trauma and rebuild a peaceful future,” Tanaka said at the commemoration. “It also takes a community to prevent trauma from happening in the first place.”
During her time in Victoria, Tanaka also assisted the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island’s Yom Hazikron and Yom Ha’atzmaut events. To help raise funds for a Syrian refugee family sponsored by Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El, she performed as the Fiddler, as well as volunteering as the music director, in a staging of Fiddler on the Roof.
Tanaka recently took the position of community relations manager at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Pacific Region, another role that requires making connections. “In many ways, my new role is a natural progression from what I did at a local level, just now at the provincial level,” she says.
Recently, she says, she has been putting her health first, “becoming part of the Megaformer (Lagree Method) fitness family, shedding 30 pounds and counting, strengthening my core and breaking under 200 pounds on my 30th birthday! It’s going to make the upcoming ski season so much more amazing.”
Her family history also reflects her food choices. “I identify as ‘Jewpanese’ and it permeates everything that I do, especially in my cooking,” she says. “Soy sauce and chicken schmaltz are my two secret ingredients in just about every dish.”
*** Rabbi Levi Varnai Age 29 Rabbi, The Bayit
The Richmond synagogue known as the Bayit has its roots back a few decades in the Eitz Chaim congregation, an early institution in the emerging Jewish community of the southern suburb.
As young families have been priced out of the Vancouver real estate market, a large number of them have moved across the bridge to find more affordable housing. In response, a plethora of Richmond-based organizations have popped up to meet the demands of the growing Jewish population.
Rabbi Levi Varnai
The Bayit, though, had fallen on difficult times for a few years. After a series of rabbis, the congregation went a spell without a spiritual leader until July 2016. That’s when a new congregation president and a new rabbi took the helm, ushering in a younger leadership team and sparking what has been, so far, a dramatic renaissance in the life of the shul.
Rabbi Levi Varnai was assistant rabbi at the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel on West Broadway, providing spiritual care and connections especially for young families. Then, Michael Sachs, who had recently moved from Vancouver to Richmond, became president of the Bayit and, at the first board meeting, the congregation hired Varnai as rabbi. In little more than a year, the synagogue has grown exponentially.
“Richmond is becoming a pretty big place,” says Varnai. “There are many, many young families here and, of course, you’ve got Richmond Jewish Day School. We do a monthly Friday night dinner, which is very, very popular for young families. We get an average of 100 people for such an event. On the holidays, we’ve got 250, 300, sometimes even 350.”
Varnai laughs that, as a born Vancouverite, moving to Richmond meant breaking down a stigma. But it wasn’t the biggest move in his life.
When he was 12, his family made aliyah. He studied in yeshivah in Israel, then went to New York for rabbinical studies. He married an Israeli woman and served as chaplain to the elite, top-secret intelligence unit 8200.
“Of course, I had nothing to do with the unit itself,” Varnai clarifies. “I just ran the synagogue and supervised the kosher food in the kitchen.” Nevertheless, he adds, “It was quite an experience.”
Because of economics, Varnai says, the Richmond Jewish community is diverse and comparatively youthful. “You talk about the young South African family, the young Russian family, the young Israeli family or a family from Montreal,” he says. “You’re moving to B.C. because it’s a beautiful province and you have the option of either living in Vancouver or paying 30% or sometimes 40% less in Richmond. It’s like a no-brainer.”
Reaching young families is key to the future, he says. “If our parents are involved but we can’t get our kids involved, where is the future of Judaism?” Religious services are only part of the Bayit’s appeal, he adds.
“In English, we say synagogue, in Yiddish we say shul. The word in Hebrew is beit haknesset, meeting place,” he says. “A gathering place. When Jews gather, obviously one of the things they do is have services. But the main point is the gathering place. That’s where the emphasis is. A place where the Jewish community is together, to laugh, to have fun, to gather together, to have social events and whatever it may be that provides community and takes care of one another.
Left to right, panelists Dr. Tommy Gerschman, Dr. Thuso David and Randi Weiss at the screening of A Heartbeat Away in Vancouver on Nov. 2. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
More than 4,400 children from 55 countries in the developing world have received life-saving heart surgeries because of the efforts of volunteers associated with Save a Child’s Heart Foundation. Thousands more have been saved by doctors trained by the organization’s volunteers.
The Israel-based organization is aiming to expand its reach in British Columbia. A screening of the film A Heartbeat Away in Vancouver on Nov. 2 shared the anxious, sometimes tragic and often uplifting stories faced by medical volunteers associated with the agency.
Marni Brinder Byk, executive director of Save a Child’s Heart Canada, introduced the film and moderated a panel discussion afterward. She explained that when Vancouverite Lana Pulver joined the national board of the organization, it presented an opportunity for more on-the-ground activities in the city.
Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) has another strong Vancouver connection. Vancouverite Randi Weiss recently moved back after spending several years in Israel, where she served as a full-time volunteer with SACH.
The foundation is committed to saving children’s lives by improving the quality and accessibility of cardiac care. Israeli medical experts, and some from other countries, provide free, life-saving surgeries to children from developing countries and also train surgeons and medical teams from those countries, helping them build their own skills.
Entirely as volunteers, SACH doctors travel to Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and other parts of the Middle East to assess potential candidates. A few less urgent cases are treated on the spot, while more serious cases are transported to Israel, where the child and a parent can spend weeks or months during surgery and recovery. A new home, accommodating 61 patients, family members and medical staff, recently opened near the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, where the Save a Child’s Heart medical facilities are based.
The film depicted the heartbreaking choices doctors are forced to make during their trips abroad, as young patients whose cases are simply too advanced for an encouraging prognosis have to be rejected. But the film also follows the story of Julius, a kindergarten-age boy from Tanzania, as he travels to Israel and gets a fresh lease on life after a harrowingly complicated surgical procedure.
Weiss said that about half the kids SACH treats are from the Palestinian Authority or other places in the Middle East. About 40% are from African countries, including Ethiopia and Tanzania, she said, while others come from Romania, Moldova and wherever there is a need not being met.
Weiss was joined on the panel after the film’s screening by Dr. Thuso David, a pediatrician from Botswana who arrived in Vancouver in early August to continue his training at B.C. Children’s Hospital. He noted that, in many African countries, there are few medical specialists, so a complex medical issue like congenital or acquired heart disease is rarely treated.
Dr. Tommy Gerschman, another Vancouverite, was also on the panel. He volunteered as a medical intern for SACH in Israel a decade ago.
Save a Child’s Heart Canada was founded in Toronto in 1999 by the late A. Ephraim “Eph” Diamond. Brinder Byk said that SACH’s annual budget is about $6 million US, about one-sixth of which is provided by Save a Child’s Heart Canada. The Canadian contingent has also stepped up in a big way to help fund a new wing at the Wolfson Medical Centre designated especially for SACH’s use.
“We have a lot to be proud of as Canadians, that we will be helping that many more children and training that many more doctors,” said Brinder Byk. “The children of Israel are also going to benefit because, if they live in the catchment area of the Wolfson Medical Centre, they will be able to use their services as well.”
Soup is not just food. It’s an experience, a sustenance, a simple yet magnificent meal, if done right, which is generally easy. Probably every culture on earth has a signature variation and, in the Jewish tradition, there is nothing more iconic than chicken soup.
When Sharon Hapton, a Jewish woman in Calgary, had the idea eight years ago to make a great vat of soup and carry it to a shelter for women escaping domestic abuse, she defaulted to that dependable chicken soup recipe. As reported in the Independent in 2014 (jewishindependent.ca/soup-ladled-with-love), that act elicited a deeply moving reaction. The chef at the shelter broke into tears when she saw the offering. There were Jewish women in the shelter and the chef knew the emotional significance and comfort the simple soup would bring.
The nonprofit social enterprise – a movement, really – that emerged from that first gesture is called Soup Sisters and it is a network of more than 40,000 people who have created one million servings of soup since the program began in March 2009. Each month, more than 10,000 servings are delivered to women, children and youth in shelters across Canada and in a couple of nascent cities in the United States. Hapton has been recognized by Chatelaine, CityTV and the YWCA for her vision.
In the interest of gender equality, there is also now Broth Brothers. And, a new iteration of the program, called Souper Kids, encourages young people from age 8 to 17 to participate in helping families and individuals who need it most.
The Soup Sisters Family Cookbook is the third in a series of publications the group has compiled, and it is aimed directly at this next generation. Edited by Hampton, with Gwendolyn Richards, and subtitled “More than 100 Family-friendly Recipes to Make and Share with Kids of All Ages,” it is a great addition to the shelf. Most recipes have only a few ingredients and are ideal for young people first venturing into the kitchen (with supervision from an adult of even limited cooking capabilities).
The volume includes contributions from celebrities, including Ruth Reichl, David Hawksworth, Nigella Lawson, Michael Smith and Elizabeth Baird, as well as from children from across Canada.
In addition to several variations on chicken soup (the B.C.-based singer and songwriter Jann Arden offers up a Kitchen Sink Chicken Soup), there are classics like Grandma’s Russian Borscht and Easy Creamy Tomato Soup. Kid-invented recipes include Every Bunny Loves Carrot Soup, Posh-tasting Red Pepper and Coconut Soup and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Dragon Soup was contributed by a Grade 2 Class in West Kelowna, B.C. Many or most recipes can be made kosher, Cheeseburger Soup notwithstanding.
Jerusalem/London food superstar Yotam Ottolenghi offers Chickpea, Tomato and Bread Soup. Vancouver chef and cookbook author Vikram Vij contributed Indian Comfort Food Soup, sometimes called “Indian Mac-and-cheese,” not because it contains macaroni or cheese, the introduction explains, “but because it’s value-for-money comfort food, and a favourite with kids.” Earls Restaurants contributed their Tortilla Soup recipe.
I made to the Roman “Egg Drop” Soup with ingredients around the house on a cold, rainy autumn afternoon. There is almost nothing to it, but it turns out surprisingly revitalizing and a little bit fancy. It’s really nothing but eight cups of chicken stock (kosher cooks could substitute vegetable stock), four cups of packed spinach leaves (I didn’t want to leave the house, so I used frozen – it would benefit from fresh), 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt, four eggs, and one third of a cup freshly grated Padano cheese (I used the Parmesan I had on hand and it added more salt than ideal).
Once the broth is simmering and the spinach is added, the eggs, cheese and quarter of a teaspoon of the salt are whisked together in a bowl, then slowly whisked into the soup in a traditional egg drop motion more commonly associated with Chinese cooking.
The book includes a preface about making your own stock, as well as basics on slicing, chopping, peeling and prepping – good for kitchen newbies as well as a refresher for oldsters who still slash ourselves too frequently in the kitchen.
The Soup Sisters Family Cookbook is meant for families to come together and cook as a group, which is, of course, what Soup Sisters (and Broth Brothers) is all about. Founded on the simple belief in the power of soup “as a nurturing and nourishing gesture that could make a tangible difference,” Soup Sisters holds year-round programs where participants, who have paid a registration fee, join a soup-making event in a professional kitchen under the guidance of a chef. The social process produces 150 to 200 servings of soup that are then delivered to local shelters.
“Events are social evenings with lively conversation, chopping, laughter and warm kitchen camaraderie that culminate in a simple, sit-down supper of soup, salad, bread and wine for all participants,” says the website.
Vancouver has two Soup Sisters chapters. One is in partnership with the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts and supports Kate Booth House, a Salvation Army-associated agency that has provided a safe refuge for more than 4,000 women and children from 83 nationalities fleeing domestic abuse. It offers up to 30 days of housing in a supportive atmosphere that includes support services. This chapter also supports Imouto Housing for Young Women, which provides supportive housing in the Downtown Eastside for girls and young women who are homeless or in unsafe housing and who face risks including violence and abuse, exploitation, substance use, racism and other dangers.
Another chapter is in partnership with the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver and supports Sereenas House for Women, a residential support program in the Downtown Eastside that allows women to live independently of violence, abuse and substance use and to access services and become involved in their community.
There are also Soup Sisters chapters in Burnaby, Surrey, the Tri-Cities, Victoria, Penticton and two in Kelowna, among other locations in Canada and the United States.
This recipe will become a cold-weather regular in my kitchen:
WHITE BEAN, CABBAGE AND SAUSAGE SOUP Contributed to The Soup Sisters Family Cookbook by Laura Keogh and Ceri Marsh, cookbook authors and bloggers at sweetpotatochronicles.com.
2 tbsp olive oil
3 Italian sausages, cut into bite-size pieces
one onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
half a Savoy or green cabbage, cored and thinly shredded (4 to 5 cups)
4 cups chicken stock
one can (15 ounces) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese [easily omitted in kosher kitchens]
1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the sausages and allow them to brown, pushing them around so they get colour all over. Remove the sausages from the pot and set aside on a clean plate.
2. Add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook, stirring often, until the onion starts to soften, around four minutes. Add the cabbage and stir it around for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the stock, beans, thyme and bay leaves. Return the sausages to the pot and allow everything to come to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Fish out and discard the bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Ladle the soup into warm bowls and serve with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. [Or not.]
Raised by American parents in Montreal, Adam Gopnik moved, with his Canadian wife Martha, to New York City in the 1980s. There, he began a career as an art critic, editor and writer for such publications as GQ and The New Yorker, and with Knopf publishers. At the Stranger’s Gate: Arrivals in New York (Knopf, 2017) is his chatty memoir of those years.
There are many figures from the art and publishing worlds in this book, appearing in harmlessly gossipy anecdote after name-dropping anecdote. Gopnik is an amusing artist of the character sketch, as shown in his depiction of his wife.
“Someone once called her in print the most innately polite person she had ever met, and the truth is that in each of us natural sociability had been overlaid with Canadian politeness, and hers with a further code of Icelandic courtesy, producing a veneer of politeness so extreme that many took it for disingenuousness – which of course, in another way, it was.”
He can also neatly capture entire generations through their relationships to something inanimate.
“My grandparents had belonged to a check-cashing generation, proud to be engaged in it,” he writes. “To have an institution as large as an American bank in effect endorse their signature on a little bit of paper as equivalent to money meant to be taken seriously as a citizen. My parents, in turn, were credit card cultists – they loved having them, signing them, showing them, using them. For those who came of age in the boom times after the Second World War, the whole notion of credit, of sharing in a limitless improving future – of being trusted to buy now and pay later, since later would be so much richer than now – had some of the same significance that the notion of being trusted with checks had for my grandparents.
“We, in turn, generationally, had regressed, I realized,” he continues, “back into a cash economy – we used checks just to pay the utilities. The [bank] machines were one more instrument of that infantilization; we went to the machines for something that felt, at least, like our allowance.”
As much as the individual characters who inhabit the pages, the protagonists are often the miniscule homes the Gopniks inhabited – and the insects and rodents with whom they cohabited. He credits their first tiny apartment, at least in part, for their marital contentment.
“One reason we didn’t fight was that the studio was so small, so small that you could never get sufficient perspective for the fighting to happen. In order to really have a quarrel, you have to sort of step back three steps and eye the other person darkly. There was just no room for that. We were on top of each other, not in that that sense – well, in that sense, too, at times – but we were also colliding with each other all the time. I don’t have any mental image of Martha from those years, except as a kind of Cubist painting, noses and eyes and ears.”
A later loft apartment seemed too sweet to be true in a New York of radically rising rents, a suspicion that appeared fulfilled when thick, dark liquid began dripping from the ceiling.
“For the next two weeks, the ceiling kept hemorrhaging,” Gopnik writes. “Sometimes, we would wake up and find it dripping slowly, slowly. At other times, it would really be coming down, as though a whole new vein had been opened, or else as though – and this thought struck us both about the same time – a new corpse had just been stowed away under the floorboards upstairs.”
“That’s not blood,” a neighbour told them, “it’s just molasses.”
The building had been a candy factory at the turn-of-the-century and for inexplicable reasons it would sometimes ooze ingredients. Gopnik decided to find this charming: “It was thrilling, like the moment when they opened up the Dead Sea Scrolls and found them pristine. Sugar syrup from a century ago, bubbling out of the walls, and still so sweet.… I felt happy; I was living on the big Rock Candy Mountain.”
The couple were less charmed by another discovery. A pest control officer announces: “You got them, all right. You got the big boys. You got the super-rats.”
“What do you mean, the super-rats?” Gopnik asks.
“‘Well, let’s put it like this,’ He thought for a moment. ‘These rats, if you see one, they look at you like you the problem.”
Leaving the apartment, Gopnik homes in on two of the phenomena of the 1980s that impacted his life in the Big Apple.
“The two great technological gifts of the ’80s were the Walkman and the hyper-developed sneaker, which, together, turned walking into an all-encompassing emotional activity,” he writes. “For a long time in the 1980s, I seemed to do nothing but walk around Manhattan. The modern sneaker, rising from Nike and Adidas, constructed with more architecture inside than most apartments, now allowed even the flat-footed to stride, Hermes-like, on what felt like cushioned air.… And then the Walkman made every block your own movie.”
Eventually, like rats in a too-small apartment, the couple became overwhelmed by the city and they left to raise a family where there are lawns and gardens.
This is a highly sentimental book, which is not a bad thing, especially for a New York-o-phile. Some shortcomings are too-frequent hackneyed phrases (“dense as a hockey puck,” “impossibly beautiful women”), the oddly repetitive use of some esoteric words and a style that sometimes evokes Lake Wobegon, Minn., more than New York, N.Y. In other words, it’s a cute book, which may sound like faint praise, but, given current events, that can be a refreshing break.
ORT Vancouver will honour Rabbi Dr. Yosef Wosk and Shelley Lederman on Oct. 18 at Congregation Schara Tzedeck. (photos from ORT)
For nearly 140 years, ORT has been equipping people around the world with skills to succeed. The history of the organization in Canada is being celebrated at a gala luncheon next month honouring Rabbi Dr. Yosef Wosk and Shelley Lederman.
The Vancouver region of ORT began in the 1970s and was led by Lederman, who served successive terms as president of the local region and later became co-president of ORT Canada. Carrie Katz, who was Lederman’s co-president, will be the keynote speaker at the event on Wednesday, Oct. 18.
ORT (a Russian-language acronym sometimes translated as the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) is the world’s largest Jewish education and vocational training nongovernmental organization. Beginning in Russia in 1880, World ORT now operates in 37 countries and engages 300,000 students per year. Originally focused on developing skilled trades among the people, the organization now focuses on high-tech education.
It is ORT’s origin and history – and his own family’s roots – that attracted Wosk to support the organization.
“My father’s family is from Odessa, so I felt a personal connection to the history of the organization and the people they help,” Wosk told the Independent. “Also, the appreciation for the memory of the Jewish community who would not abandon others who needed assistance.”
ORT is founded on the axiom that if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day but if you teach him how to fish he will eat for a lifetime. This is another factor that appealed to Wosk.
“What I was impressed with historically was that it’s not just giving funds,” he said. “It was also educating the people, whether in agriculture or trades and other skills, so that they would be able to eventually help take care of themselves and sustain themselves.”
Local regions, like Vancouver’s, raise funds for ORT educational initiatives in Metro Vancouver, in Israel and around the world.
When Lederman was founding president of the region, there were actually three local branches created, including a Hebrew-speaking group and a Spanish-speaking cohort.
“We created a very strong organization here in Vancouver,” said Lederman, adding that local regions support vital initiatives worldwide, projects that change according to needs over time.
“When people were under duress in Europe during the war and they couldn’t sustain themselves, ORT teachers taught them how to survive as tailors, electricians, as plumbers,” Lederman told the Independent. “And then, in Israel, ORT schools continue to do the same thing. They are teaching those who weren’t going to university but who wanted to come out of high school and be able to support themselves and their families. ORT schools provide education plus trade teachings.”
While she herself did not go to an ORT school, she saw the good works the organization does while growing up in Israel. Being honoured by the organization now means a lot, she said.
“It means a lot because being recognized by your friends and fellow members is really a recognition of all of us,” she said. “By recognizing one person, it’s recognizing the many people who contributed to the success of ORT in Vancouver.”
The honourary chair of the Oct. 18 ORT gala is Dr. Saul Isserow. (photo from ORT)
The theme of the gala is Building Minds Through Inspiration. While ORT began as an educational body teaching skilled trades and crafts, it is now a leader in high-technological training and education. Keeping with this commitment, a percentage of the revenue from the gala will support an ongoing Smart Classrooms initiative at Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS), as well as provide scholarships for students at the Technological College of Beersheva, in Israel.
Smart Classrooms integrate learning technologies that allow increased interactivity. “The investment by ORT is about allowing Jewish day schools and Jewish schools in Israel to keep pace with technology,” said Abba Brodt, principal of RJDS. “It allows us to marry the best of educational practice with the best of technology for the best possible outcome for students.”
Without the Smart Classrooms funded by ORT, he said, “our students will get a great education but would not be as technologically literate as they should or could be, and they would not be keeping up with changes.”
The gala luncheon takes place at on Oct. 18, 11 a.m., at Congregation Schara Tzedeck. Honourary chair is Dr. Saul Isserow. Master of ceremonies will be Howard Jampolsky. Tickets are available from 604-276-9282 or [email protected].
Pat Johnsonis on the organizing committee for the ORT gala.
