At the latest Empowerment session, co-hosted by Jewish Seniors Alliance and JCC Seniors on Jan. 27, Philip Morris offers advice on avoiding fraud, scams and identity theft. (photo by Binny Goldman)
It was interesting to me – a person who still enjoys using one of the “original computers,” namely, the pencil – that I was about to attend a workshop entitled Technology: Give us the Tools to Finish the Job.
On Jan. 27, about 100 people gathered in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Wosk Auditorium to hear three experts in the field of technology at a workshop hosted by Jewish Seniors Alliance in partnership with the JCC seniors department. It was the second session of the current season’s JSA Snider Empowerment series.
JCC seniors program coordinator Leah Deslauriers welcomed the audience and outlined the afternoon’s activities, while Gyda Chud welcomed everyone on behalf of JSA. Chud explained how she was introduced to JSA via the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture four years ago and that JSA is always looking for new partners in its aim to make its workshops easily available and accessible to all who may be interested. Chud added that she hoped the Technology session would help build her own confidence when it came to computers and other aspects of the tech world.
Noting that living is learning, the first speaker, Stan Goldman, demonstrated the simplicity of mobile technology. Once one learns how to use the iPad, the knowledge can be applied to the iPhone, which uses the same system, and one may watch free movies, read free ebooks and newspapers, and get email by accessing the right app. To illustrate, Goldman and Deslauriers used voice commands to ask for directions, dictate an email and do advanced math. Goldman offered a seemingly endless list of things that can be done with this technology, including Skyping with family and friends in other countries, enjoying music, playing games, etc. – all by using apps, many of which are free. The world is, indeed, at your fingertips.
Philip Morris, an expert on fraud, scams and identity theft, spoke next. He said that, once we have let the world in, so to speak, we must be cautious when using our devices – protecting them with passwords, and keeping private our personal information (social insurance numbers, birth certificates, passports, etc.) and not easily accessible to hackers. Morris advised shredding all discarded documents and, when buying a new cellphone, making sure all of the personal information has been deleted from the old phone, as hackers can retrieve data from seemingly wiped phones. It is important to be alert in public places, to keep wallets and purses out of easy reach and to ensure that you have received your own credit card from the server in a restaurant. He also suggested taking a photograph of passports and credit cards in case of theft.
New words have been coined, such as “smishing,” the ability to obtain information from people’s texts. Morris recommended changing passwords annually and, when writing cheques in payment for credit cards, to reference only the last four numbers of the card. To report a theft or loss, Morris gave two numbers to call to check your credit profile: 1-800-465-7166 (Equifax) or 1-800-663-9980 (TransUnion Canada). For instances of fraud, he said to call the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre, 1-888-495-8501.
Mark White, “the gizmo guru,” gave advice on the latest fun gadgets, including some lesser-known ones, and where to get them. As far as finding directions, however, he warned people to keep paper maps on hand in case the technology fails to connect. White added that he reads the Vancouver Sun’s online version, and that the library offers many newspapers online to members. In order to keep Skype conversations private, he suggested using earphones if Skyping in a public place.
Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library librarian Rossana Caritey explained that the Waldman has an extensive collection of ebooks, which can be read on any device – ebook readers, laptops, for example. If someone brings in their device, a librarian or volunteer can show them how to download books. Waldman librarian Helen Pinsky handed out further information to attendees.
Chud thanked the speakers, noting that each of them had exhibited in their talks the mission and ideals of JSA – that of advocating for, inspiring, educating others to be the best they can be.
The audience retired to enjoy light refreshments. Long lines formed at the workstations set up in the auditorium, clearly showing the keen interest in the session. The workshop may have eased many fears, allowing timid souls to venture through the now-open doors leading to new technological possibilities.
Binny Goldmanis a member of the Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver board.
An aerial view of the University of British Columbia campus. (photo by justiceatlast via Wikimedia Commons)
Aaron Devor, a leader in British Columbia’s Jewish community, has been appointed to the world’s first academic chair in transgender studies.
Devor, a professor of sociology who is also the president of the Jewish Federation of Victoria and sits on the board of Hillel BC, assumed his new duties Jan. 1. Devor is also the founder and academic director of the Transgender Archives, which was launched in 2011 and already comprises the world’s largest collections of documents recording transgender activism and research.
Devor defines the term transgender as including a diversity of people.
“Anyone who feels that the gender that was assigned to them on the basis of their genitals is not the correct one, that it’s not the proper fit,” said Devor, who is himself a transgender person. This includes, he said, people who want to present as or become the opposite gender but also many people who reflect “something more creative or original or different, or some combination of what we think of as the two standard genders.”
Aaron Devor (photo by Brian Sargent)
Devor has encountered surprise that Victoria, perceived by some as a parochial provincial capital, has become a global centre for transgender research and study. In his experience, he said, Victoria has always been a progressive community and the University of Victoria ranks high among the educational institutions in the world.
That Victoria would become a centre for transgender academia is due in part to Devor’s ongoing involvement in the subject as an academic and as an activist, but also through the support of the university for his endeavors, he said. Individuals who have been collecting relevant materials know Devor and contact him when they want to contribute them to a legitimate archive, and the imprimatur of the University of Victoria adds to their confidence, he said.
“I know the people who have been collecting and I have approached many of them and many of them have approached me after they started to understand what we have here,” he explained. “It’s all donated by people who have been amassing their own collections and want a safe place to put it.”
Popular culture, he said, has helped bring transgender awareness to a tipping point. In 2014, Laverne Cox, a star of the TV program Orange is the New Black, was on the cover of Time magazine. The program Transparent, in which a family addresses the gender transition of the father, began the same year. The openness of Chaz Bono, who North Americans have known since doing walk-ons on the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in the 1970s, also helped increase consciousness.
“There are huge limitations, in a way, to communicating effectively through popular culture,” said Devor, but “one of the things that happens through popular culture is people tend to feel like they know the stars, know the personalities that they see on television and in the movies and that they follow on the internet and so on. Even if they’ve never met them, they start to feel like they know them. So, when public figures in popular culture say and do things, it becomes real for a lot of people. One of the things that we know helps to undermine prejudice is when you feel like you know someone of that particular type, whatever that type is that you’ve been prejudiced about.”
Many people still don’t understand it, he added, but are willing to keep an open mind.
“My sense of the public attitude that we’ve reached just very, very recently is that, by and large, the public takes the attitude of, ‘I don’t really get this but I guess it’s OK and I’m willing to go along with it,’” he said. “I haven’t done a survey on this but I’m a keen observer, a well-placed observer … that’s my take on it.
“I think we’ve reached a tipping point in terms of people holding goodwill toward trans people, and I don’t want to overstate that,” he continued. “We’ve just reached a tipping point, but I think in terms of knowing what to do to actualize that goodwill, I think people have very little idea what to do, which is why we need more research and more translation of that research into the real world.”
As the world’s first chair in transgender studies, Devor hopes to be a part of advancing understanding. He hopes that the research being developed will aid in the creation of better laws and policies, while also “changing hearts and minds.”
“There is law and there’s policy and there’s practice,” he said. “Individual members of societies put all of this into practice. You can have good laws on the books but it doesn’t necessarily mean that what’s going to happen in everyday life will very well reflect what those laws are.”
Legally, most provinces have some protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression.
“The province of British Columbia is not one of those, which is surprising,” he said. Some people contend that the word gender in the human rights code is sufficient, but most of the provinces, he said, have enacted legislation that specifies gender identity as a prohibited grounds for discrimination. Still, he prefers the term “gender expression.”
“Discrimination is based on what you look and sound like more often than on how you actually feel about yourself,” he explained. In other words, heterosexual people may experience bullying or violence if they exhibit what are perceived as traits of homosexuals.
In the Jewish realm, Devor said, religious organizations are addressing trans inclusion. Just last November, the Union for Reform Judaism passed a resolution on the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people. The resolution affirms the Reform movement’s commitment to the full equality, inclusion and acceptance of people of all gender identities and gender expressions.
The Conservative movement has a responsum from 2003, which Devor consulted on, and may address the matter in future.
Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond speaks at the fourth session of “How to Love a Child,” the Janusz Korczak Lecture Series. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
“Rights are paper tigers, just pieces of paper, unless there are people courageous enough to defend them, and unless there are mechanisms to enforce them and compel them. The child who has a right to be heard but no one listens to, and disappears without ever being heard, never really had a right to be heard,” warned B.C. representative for children and youth Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond at the fourth session of “How to Love a Child,” the Janusz Korczak Lecture Series.
The Jan. 21 lecture at the University of British Columbia, which is part of a six-part series co-organized by the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada and UBC’s faculty of education, focused on The Human Rights of Aboriginal Children. Also speaking was Dr. Mike DeGagné, president and vice-chancellor of Nipissing University, who was the executive director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF), which was established in 1998 with a grant from the federal government and wound down its work in 2014. Its mandate was “to encourage and support, through research and funding contributions, community-based aboriginal-directed healing initiatives which address the legacy of physical and sexual abuse suffered in Canada’s Indian residential school system, including inter-generational impacts.”
Dr. Grant Charles, associate professor at UBC School of Social Work, acted as moderator, and Janusz Korczak Association president Jerry Nussbaum also spoke, explaining briefly who was Janusz Korczak. The educator, writer and orphanage director – after whose book How to Love a Child the lecture series is named – not only wrote about his theories, but lived and died by them. When the Nazis created the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, Korczak’s orphanage was forced to move there, and Korczak went with the children. In 1942, he and the almost 200 children in his care were taken to Treblinka, where they were murdered.
Nussbaum reminded the audience of Korzak’s philosophies on the rights of children and their direct influence on the content of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Korczak believed that every child has a right to love, said Nussbaum, and that “children offered love and care will reciprocate with love and care.” Children have a right to be taken seriously, to education, to protest an injustice, among other rights. Nussbaum explained that Korczak believed that the health of a society could be gauged by the health of its children.
Despite protection under the UN convention, there are many children and youth who are marginalized and, in Canada, First Nations children are among those who are the most at risk. Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald, associate dean for indigenous education at UBC, gave an example of one of the research programs at the university’s faculty of education that is trying to ameliorate this situation. Called Awakening the Spirit, “it’s about revitalizing canoeing at Musqueam,” she explained. There is cooperation among different faculties and some students are involved, “but the most important part is the Musqueam communities that partner in this research. They are the ones who determined this particular project because they felt that they wanted to have something positive in their community for the young people, for the youth.”
Canoeing, she said, was a very important part of the community lifestyle, “it was a way to build family and community cohesiveness and also have fun and learn about the environment at the same time.”
The benefits of the research project, she said, “will be realized in educational materials, in the way of revitalizing important values, the Musqueam language, ensuring we have intergenerational learning.”
Mike DeGagné (photo from nipissingu.ca)
DeGagné has had 20 years of experience working with the repercussions of residential schools. He said his views about rights, “especially indigenous children’s rights, I color it with the history of residential schools.”
Often when there is a conversation within the community about indigenous issues, he said, it begins with the high rates of suicide, poverty, over-representation in the justice and child welfare systems, “the rosary of our grievances.” Given that indigenous children have rights, yet the grievances continue, he asked, “How can we be sure those rights are being supported and upheld?”
When AHF began, he said, grant applicants would ask, for example, whether the foundation had an approved list of elders that they could use. “We were astonished. Can you imagine in your own community … in your own spiritual context, asking if your priest was OK, if your rabbi was OK? This is the making of the colonial mind. After years of being subjected to doing it someone else’s way, even when we came along, we could not engender people doing it their way.” He described this as “a learned helplessness,” and a lack of trust in their own culture.
To move forward, it is important to talk of the past, he said. He used the metaphor of a pebble being dropped into a pond to describe the effects of the residential school system. The child’s abuse at the hands of an adult is at the centre, it is the pebble being dropped; the next ripple out is one child at a residential school abusing another child (“learned behavior”); the next is when that person leaves the school and returns to their community and starts a family in which violence takes place; then the violence between that family and another in the community. As we look at the outcome, standing on the outside, we see the high rates of suicide, family violence, neglected children, but we, as observers, “can’t see anything but the dysfunction and so infrequently do we get to examine what happened in the middle, what happened in that first instance of violence, what happened when that child’s human rights” were disregarded. “This is why we talk about history,” this is why 100 years of residential schools is important, he said.
To change the situation, he pointed to two necessities: the establishment of fairness, “the money that we spend on First Nations child welfare should be equal to the money that we spend in the rest of the population’s child welfare systems”; and transference of control to First Nations peoples of their lives, agendas and resources.
DeGagné commended the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on capturing the hearts and minds of Canadians and drawing them to indigenous issues, and for talking about system reform as opposed to tweaking or just adding money to a dysfunctional system. But, among his criticisms of the commission’s recommendations is that they do not make him uncomfortable. “It turns out that, in the reconciliation between you and me, indigenous people and non-indigenous people, that 93 of the 94 recommendations require that you do something…. I’d like to feel a lot more uncomfortable reading these recommendations because reconciliation is going to require that I work and that you work, and not that you come to stand by me, but that somehow I come to stand in the middle with you. And so, I think, too often with these recommendations, and this could be a reflection of the colonized mind, we are calling upon someone else to fix the problems with our community. That’s a concern of mine.”
The TRC, he added, also describes issues as if there has been no progress in the last 20 years – by the churches, universities, governments and others – towards reconciliation. “We have much to do, but we have to start by acknowledging the good work of all us and how much progress we’ve made.”
Turpel-Lafond spoke about how long it takes to change systems. “You have to really make that investment [in change], and it takes time,” she said.
AHF “laid the groundwork for thinking about healing” and the view of storytelling and its importance in healing, she said. “Stories, particularly the stories of grievances that aboriginal adults have – and many of our parents and grandparents have – are stories that needed to be told, that needed to be heard, that needed to be listened to.” AHF “gave resources for people to validate that process of allowing individuals who had been through residential school, their personal experience and their collective experience, to be told and listened to in a very sincere way in which they were supported, but also could create that medicine toward healing.”
Turpel-Lafond’s great-great-grandparents were the first two students at St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, Sask. She spoke of the difficulties in sharing some of the stories with her own children. “Children are not always ready to hear those stories. I’m not trying to be over-protective, but we need to think about children’s well-being … how we tell the stories to children, when we tell stories to children, and how we can put those stories in a context.”
She then went on to speak about Korczak and the lecture theme, “How to love a child.” For her, Korczak represents what it means to love children, even “where it was extremely unpopular to love and support some children, who were considered to be less worthy, who were considered to be disposable…. And also to bring forward the idea that love is a kind of medicine with respect to our society…. We express our love for our own society and its furtherance by how we love our children because we create a vision of something we may not even be here to enjoy, that we create through that very values-based process.”
We’re not talking about creating the perfect system or bureaucracy, she said, noting that Treblinka was an attempt at a perfect system, “we’re talking about values.”
The love that Korczak represents for her in the context of indigenous children is an approach that does not come from a perspective of shaming, blaming, contempt or judgment. This is “a really serious problem that we continue to have for the current generation of indigenous children, which is, we want to save them but we still want to blame their parents, and that’s a very unhealthy attitude.” We need to come “from a perspective of love and understanding and context, and seeing … [how] multiple shocks … can just devastate families, not every family, but some families.”
A second lesson she takes from Korzcak’s views is “the idea that nobody owns your story, that you have to have the courage to say it.” People may relate to your story in various ways, “but the story, and telling it, the courage to do that, to talk about the difficult things, is a very important instinct related to love and, if you can’t bring that out and you don’t have enough people in your society who are courageous, then your society is doomed. And how do you build courageous people? … [I]t’s about love and acceptance and space, but it’s also about having very strong adults to allow people like kids to tell stories.” Korczak “represented that right to be heard,” she said, and he went even further, going against the mores of the day in that he wanted “no corporal punishment of children.”
She said that many indigenous children have been “raised in an environment deprived of the type of unconditional love, culture, language and the right to know who they were and where they were…. If you love people and you’re prepared to understand that grievance and suffering is not permanent, it can be redressed.”
But, adults who love children must see something in the children that the children may not see themselves because they’re mired in rejection. “There have to be positive, healthy adults who see their potential and support them to get to their potential. That’s a very important concept because, not surprisingly, guess what, some of the children who have been most abused and ill-treated can be the most challenging to engage with in terms of their emotional regulation, in terms of their contact with adults, in terms of their anger.”
The government label is that these children are “service resistant,” she said, which means, “we will leave you alone because you’re too angry for me even to listen to your story. But, if you take a page from Andrew Solomon [author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity] and Janusz Korczak, what would you say? I am able to rise above it and listen to this story and, if I’m a good, healthy adult that’s coming from a place of love, I can probably see what’s in the story and see how it can be a medicine for the future.”
The third lesson she takes from Korczak, her experience as an indigenous person and as an advocate for children is that “rights are an important medicine.” Rights are so important because “rights are a way to reframe incredible vulnerability and systematic disempowering … into a different context that overnight takes, for instance, that residential school experience and now makes it appalling, completely unacceptable, who would ever do that to children? Because they have a right to learn, they have a right to be safe, they have a right to be heard, they have a right to their language, [to their] culture transmitted from their parents to them, and there’s nothing threatening or harmful about that.”
In British Columbia, we have a long way to go. Of the children in care, more than 60% are indigenous children. While Turpel-Lafond said we are in a better place as a society than when she left home and went out in the world, “we are not in a place where indigenous children can in any way be guaranteed equal opportunities with other children in British Columbia. By accident of birth, they’re going to be born with significant disadvantages that will only be overcome based on what we decide to do.”
In the half-hour question and answer period that followed, one of the listeners shared her story of how her child had been abused by foster parents and, when she tried to remedy the situation, she could not find help, no matter to whom or to which government office she turned. Turpel-Lafond was at a loss to respond, other than to empathize and say we don’t have the answers, “but we’ve got to find a way to get them.”
The fifth lecture in the Korczak series takes place on Feb. 18, 7 p.m., and focuses on the topic Social Pediatrics in Canada and Vancouver. The final lecture on April 6 provides a summary of the series. To register and for more information, visit jklectures.educ.ubc.ca.
As the Jewish community expands into Coquitlam and other cities in the Lower Mainland, there must be an adjustment in the allocation of community resources. (photo by Greg Salter via Wikimedia Commons)
The face of Vancouver’s Jewish community is changing, with 36% born outside of Canada – the largest percentage in any Jewish population in the country.
In the Grade 1 classroom at Richmond Jewish Day School, half of the class is learning English as a second language, its students hailing from Israel and Argentina and speaking a mixture of Hebrew, Russian and Spanish.
Abba Brodt (photo from Abba Brodt)
“There’s definitely a growing number of Israeli families in all our Jewish day schools,” said Abba Brodt, principal at RJDS. Among them is the second wave of Russian Jews, comprised of Russian emigrés who made aliyah as children and moved to Vancouver after doing army service in Israel and starting their families. “They maintain strong Russian ties but have an incredibly strong connection to Judaism and Israel,” he said.
The new arrivals place extra demands on Jewish day schools in terms of meeting their children’s language needs, and RJDS has had to shift resources internally so the children of new immigrants can learn successfully in class.
“When people come, what’s our obligation to them?” Brodt pondered. “They want their kids to get a Jewish education as they get established. Many of these parents come without jobs, are not established financially and are trying to adjust, but it takes many, many years. The only menschlik thing to do is to open our doors, figure it out and let them know they’re not a burden at all. I think that’s the right approach for any Jewish organization in town. The faster we help them get on their feet, the better for the community.”
Adjustment is easiest for the youngest children. Brodt recalled a Russian-Israeli family that arrived in June 2014 with a child who couldn’t speak a word of English. “He entered kindergarten and by December that year he was speaking to his parents outside of school hours in English!”
Cathy Lowenstein (photo from Cathy Lowenstein)
At Vancouver Talmud Torah, head of school Cathy Lowenstein has also witnessed an influx of new immigrants from Israel, as well as from Brazil, Estonia and Hungary. “For students in the younger grades, ESL support isn’t as much of an issue, as they can really immerse themselves in language much faster than students in intermediate grades. But, over the past few years, we’ve increasingly had to allocate budget to students who require ESL support,” she said.
That can be difficult because the ESL needs vary year by year. “Often, these students don’t present until late summer, so we’re left trying to reallocate dollars in August so that we can properly help them transition into the school,” she explained.
Tuition assistance is provided on a case-by-case basis, Lowenstein said. “Even though we may have allocated our cap, we do our very best not to turn away a family wanting a Jewish education,” she said.
The high cost of living in the Lower Mainland is having far-reaching effects on the 26,250 Jews who call this corner of the West Coast home. Approximately 14,000 of them live in Vancouver, close to 6,000 in Richmond and the remainder in outlying cities including Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Maple Ridge and Langley, where Jewish resources are few and far between. That’s because the high price of housing forces many new arrivals into these outlying areas, where accommodation is a little more affordable.
While RJDS has space available for more students, the challenge lies in reaching those Jewish families who live in the suburbs.
“We know there are 700 Jewish school-age kids in the Tri-Cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody and, as much as the schools may want them, how many families are going to have their kids get on a bus for an hour’s commute each way?” Brodt said. “You have to be super-committed to do that when there are good public schools around. If I could create a pipeline to Burnaby, I’d do it, but the possible customer base there is not ready to make that sort of commitment. They’re managing their Jewish lives out there, as is their right.”
Shelley Rivkin (photo from Shelley Rivkin)
At the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, vice-president of community affairs Shelley Rivkin noted that more than 850 children now live in underserved areas beyond the borders of Vancouver and few are receiving any Jewish education. “With community support, Jewish educators can develop innovative programs via which these kids can access that education, sharing fully the richness of our traditions and strengthening their Jewish identities,” she said.
In one such program, Federation collaborated with the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and funded a pilot project to enable Jewish children living in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody to attend Jewish summer day camp. The project made transportation and fee subsidies available to 22 kids.
Federation has established a regional communities task force that began work last month. In the meantime, the organization contributes to a shuttle bus in Richmond that helps seniors attend various community activities, and Burquest seniors can enjoy another day of programming thanks to additional funding provided to Jewish Family Service Agency. For young families, PJ Library is an important outreach program, Rivkin said. “For many young families who are raising children in interfaith households and/or who live in the suburbs, PJ Library is a primary Jewish connection. Recently, 100 people attended a PJ Library Chanukah event in Coquitlam.”
Federation is seriously focused on the future of the Lower Mainland’s Jewish community and anticipating programming to reach its needs over the next 15 years.
“Our population of seniors is expected to double by 2030 and an increased number of them will be 85 or older, so programs and services for this group will need to be expanded,” said Rivkin. “As issues of affordability persist, we expect there to be more Jews moving to more affordable suburbs that have little or no Jewish infrastructure. We expect these regional communities to play a larger role, and Jewish Federation will increase its focus on programs and services to reach them.”
The cost of living in Vancouver will likely continue to impact those who pay a premium to live near Jewish services and institutions, but find that the cost of Jewish life prevents them from participating. “We expect that increased subsidies for program participation will be needed,” she added.
According to the National Housing Survey in 2011, 16% of the Lower Mainland’s Jewish community lives below the living wage of $36,504. Among Jewish immigrants to the Lower Mainland who arrived between 2005 and 2011, that low-income rate is 25%. As one communal effort in dealing with this issue, Tikva Housing Society will expand the affordable housing stock for the Jewish community by 42 additional units in Vancouver and Richmond by 2017.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. A longer version of this article was published in the Canadian Jewish News.
Zeke Blumenkrans, chief executive officer of Generocksity. (photo from Zeke Blumenkrans)
Zeke Blumenkrans, a 21-year-old University of British Columbia student, is establishing a philanthropic younger generation one fundraiser at a time.
Blumenkrans is co-founder and chief executive officer of Generocksity Inc., a nonprofit that organizes concert and party fundraisers for a variety of causes, as well as educational workshops and help for young adults who are wanting to start their own philanthropic endeavor. It has held events across Canada and in Europe, and has active branches in Ontario (Kingston and Hamilton) with plans to expand to Montreal and Victoria later this year.
In operation since November 2013, Generocksity has received more media attention over the last year, as its events have become more popular and, therefore, the organization has been able to raise greater amounts for charities across the board. In January 2015, the organization was chosen as the best of the highlighted projects at UBC’s Student Leadership Conference and, in November, Blumenkrans was honored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Vancouver chapter with the 2015 Giving Hearts Award for outstanding youth philanthropist.
“I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and came to Vancouver with my brother and parents when I was 3 years old. Since our arrival in Vancouver, my family has been heavily involved in the Jewish community,” shared Blumenkrans about his background. “My siblings and I attended Talmud Torah for preschool and elementary school, and King David for high school…. I love discovering new music, watching documentaries and weird foreign films, outdoor rock climbing and playing any team sport I have time for, especially soccer.”
Blumenkrans noted that his passion for volunteering began at an early age, and he has been volunteering at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice for the past five years.
“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. It’s very easy to get tunnel vision and just focus on your career or academic pursuits, and sometimes it’s important to see the bigger picture and what’s really important in life,” he said.
Generocksity was formed after the death of his friend David, who he had met as a fellow volunteer at Canuck Place. When Blumenkrans met David, David had already been diagnosed with spinal cancer.
“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. He had only recently been diagnosed, so 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.”
Blumenkrans combined the inspiration of David’s life with his own experiences. While he was a student at King David High School, Blumenkrans was positively influenced by events such as Random Acts of Chesed Week and Mitzvah Day. RAC Week was inspired by the life of alumna Gabrielle Isserow.
“I always looked up to Gabi Isserow and her incredible leadership working with my brother, Dan, on Mitzvah Day when I was in the eighth grade,” said Blumenkrans. “As a lowly eighth-grader, she was one of the only seniors who ever took the time to say hi or smile at me when I would see her in the halls. Although she was always an important leader in the school, she had a certain level of kindness and humility that I have seldom seen in my life and, although she likely never knew it, I always viewed her as a role model.
“RAC Week is one of the most beautiful examples of how one can find love and inspiration in the darkest of places,” he continued. “In Judaism, we are taught to always celebrate life and I genuinely feel that Gabi’s life will be forever celebrated through things like RAC Week and all the mitzvot done by those kids she unknowingly inspired just like me.”
While Blumenkrans is pensive about his past, he is very much looking forward to the future. He believes that the true impact of Generocksity will only be seen in the next couple of decades.
“Many of the young adults who attend our events will go on to become very successful business owners, lawyers, doctors, etc. My goal is that when their time comes to decide how much money they’d like to give to charity, they will remember the positive experiences they had associated with philanthropy and how easily they are able to integrate charitable giving into their day-to-day lives,” he said.
“I don’t want our charity parties to be an anomaly. I want it to become the norm. I want there to be so many people doing this type of thing that it’s oversaturated. I want every weekend when you go out to party or let loose with your friends, if at least part of the proceeds aren’t going to charity, people will think, ‘this is kind of messed up.’ I want it to get to that point and I think that we have proven that it can.”
When asked how he would respond to millennials who believe that they are above philanthropy, Blumenkrans said, “If you think that you are too good to attend a charity event, then you have probably been scarred by a really boring and dull charity event and/or never found an event that was benefiting a cause that really meant something to you. We are trying to redefine how people view charity – to make it something exciting, cool and really fun while still making it very meaningful and personal. I want people to not feel conflicted about dancing and letting loose with their friends while supporting a hospice or homeless shelter. I want them to see that you can help disadvantaged members of one’s community while having lots of fun!”
To learn more about Generocksity, and their future events, go to generocksity.com.
Jonathan Dickis a freelance writer living in Toronto. His writing has appeared in the Canadian Jewish News, and various other publications in Canada and the United States.
Nine B.C. Chabad rebbetzins were among the 3,000 women attending the annual conference of Chabad shluchos. (photo from Lubavitch BC)
The annual conference of Chabad shluchos (female emissaries) ended on Feb. 1 with an affirmation of the preeminent place of the woman in Jewish life and community. Some 3,000 women from 87 countries attended the International Conference of Shluchos at Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn.
Nine Chabad rebbetzins from British Columbia participated in the five-day conference: Henia Wineberg of Vancouver, Chanie Baitelman of Richmond, Simie Schtroks of Surrey, Malkie Bitton of Downtown Vancouver, Miki Mochkin of North Vancouver, Esti Loeub of the University of British Columbia, Fraidy Hecht of Kelowna, Chanie Kaplan of Victoria and Blumie Shemtov of Nanaimo.
Each embracing multiple roles and responsibilities, the women explored relevant issues and learned from professionals and colleagues with years of experience. Among the diverse topics were raising a large family, mental health issues, events marketing, understanding troubled relationships, fundraising, inclusion, and a conference within the conference for Hebrew school and preschool directors.
Sessions were targeted to address the different demographics served by Chabad. Campus leaders, for example – there are at least 240 women serving in leadership positions on campuses in the United States and abroad – attended sessions on raising a family on campus, life on campus, psychodynamic counseling for anxiety, and Chabad House on a budget.
Organized and planned by a board of women, each a Chabad representative, the conference included a parallel track for lay leaders. “These are the pillars of our community who are true partners with us,” said a Chabad representative from Argentina who was joined this year by two members of her community.
Lectures and workshops aside, the opportunity to spend time with other like-minded women from so many disparate countries and cultures who are part of a worldwide project inspired by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, gave the participants, especially those going back to far and isolated outposts, an exhilarating sendoff.
“This was truly a larger-than-life experience that will sustain me for a long time,” said Sashi Fridman, an American who is now a Chabad representative in Moscow. “It illuminated the power of the Jewish woman to lead – drawing on the strength of our tradition – with wisdom, as it focused on women who effect real, meaningful change with courage and creativity.”
Planned giving – the allocation of funds to charity in a will – is the lifeblood of many charitable organizations. But proper planning can deliver excellent financial benefits to the donor during their lifetime, too.
Aeronn Zlotnik, a financial advisor with ZLC Financial, said proper planning can ensure more money for a donor’s favorite charity and less money for Canada Revenue Agency.
“There’s a whole bunch of different vehicles we can use to make the experience much more tax efficient and better for the client,” he said. “For instance, you might be able to make a donation but then they’ll turn around and buy you an annuity so that you have some income on a go-forward basis.”
Buying an investment fund that is willed to the charity is another alternative. It could be structured so that the donor receives income tax-free. For instance, Zlotnik said, a $100,000 investment might provide $100 a month in income, which is designated return of capital, rather than new income, and is, therefore, tax-free.
“There are rules in place where you could donate securities and not have to pay for capital gains and so, effectively, you could increase your income today and make a charitable donation later and everybody wins,” he said.
The top rule of thumb, Zlotnik explained, is having a conversation with an advisor about intentions. There are other ways to decrease or eradicate taxes owed on an estate. Better still, there are ways to maximize the benefits while we’re still around to appreciate them.
Designating registered retirement savings plans or a registered retirement income fund to charity means the estate will avoid being taxed at the highest marginal tax rate of the deceased person, while at the same time generating a tax benefit for the plan’s total value. The dead have a tax advantage over the living, in that a tax credit arising from a bequest can be applied in its entirety to the estate’s tax bill, compared with a rate of 75% for a breathing taxpayer.
Transferring a life insurance policy to a charity allows the premiums to qualify for a tax benefit. Annuities, if arranged properly, can benefit the donor during life by providing interest income and a tax receipt for the donation to boot. In the end, the charity gets the principal.
The significance of planned giving to charities is crucial, according to Marcie Flom, vice-president, financial resource development for the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
“These planned gifts ensure the long-term stability and viability of not-for-profit organizations,” she said. “They provide resources that the charity can count on as a stable source of funding to carry out its mandate, its charitable work. By having a stable source of funding for their core mandate, it enables them to allocate resources to take some risks, to try new programs. It provides that stability.”
Endowed funds, which are a common product of planned giving, let an organization breathe a little easier, knowing that there will be guaranteed income at a certain level each year.
“Obviously, that’s the benefit for those agencies,” Flom said.
For the donor, in addition to the tax benefits, this approach is also a statement of philanthropic vision, which can continue even after they are gone.
“It’s a wonderful way,” said Flom, “for them to create a legacy in the community that reflects their charitable giving through their lifetime … and then, again, for the organization, it provides that long-term, stable funding that is so critical to the organization’s operations.”
Peter Barnett, fourth from the right, with the Variety telethon crew, in the 1970s/80s. (all photos from the Barnetts)
Variety – The Children’s Charity is holding its 50th Show of Hearts Telethon this year. The 23-hour event Feb. 13-14 will feature inspirational stories, live music and other entertainment. The funds raised will help Variety continue its support of B.C. children with special needs and the organizations that provide them care and services.
While the B.C. tent (or chapter) celebrates its 50th year, the international charity is almost 90 years old, having been started in 1927. There has always been strong representation by the Jewish community in Variety, including locally. As but examples, Howard Blank, who first volunteered when he was 13 years old, is the current B.C. president, and both Jeffrey and Peter Barnett are members of the local board of governors – they have been active in the organization for more than 45 years.
Jeffrey Barnett
“Variety’s roots were in the entertainment industry, when it all began with a baby being left in a theatre in Pittsburgh,” explained the Barnett brothers. “There were many Jewish people in the entertainment industry, from managers, performers, theatre owners, filmmakers, distributors, in the early ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. As a result, the backbone of membership was Jewish.”
Peter was the first of the Barnett family involved with Variety, said Jeffrey. “Peter first heard of Variety when he was 15 years old in London, England, where he was an apprentice at the Savoy Hotel in the food and beverage industry,” Jeffrey explained. “At the hotel, the Variety Club would host fundraising luncheons, and he would peek around the curtains to see the entertainers attending, and got a knowledge of what the charity was about and who they helped, and said to himself that he wanted to be involved in the organization.
Peter Barnett
“He moved to Vancouver and saw a notice in the Vancouver Sun looking for new members and volunteers. So, he showed up. They said, do you have $35? He said yes, and became one of the early members of the newly established tent of the Variety Club of Western Canada. It started out with 15 men who gathered together to support special needs children.”
In its early days, explained the Barnetts, membership required that a certain amount of your income be related to the entertainment industry in some way, but the charity has since expanded. Anyone can become a member for an annual fee of $75, which gives you a vote at the annual general meeting, the chance to be elected to the board of directors and membership rates for events. Volunteers, of course, are always welcome, and there are partnership opportunities for businesses, as well as for people to hold their own fundraisers for Variety and to donate at telethon time.
Left to right, Jeffrey Barnett, Big Miller and Jack Barnett, in the 1970s/80s.
Peter got Jeffrey involved with Variety, and Jeffrey became part of a small group that began to organize fundraising events, such as bed races on Granville Street, getting children involved with penny drives, luncheons and the annual telethon. Their father, Jack, was also a longtime volunteer, and all three men have served as chief barker/president of the Show of Hearts Telethon – Peter in 1973, Jack in 1976 and Jeffrey in 1980. Peter and Jeffrey’s mother, Edith, was a founding member of the Variety Ladies Auxiliary.
Both Peter and Jeffrey were encouraged by their parents – who served as role models in this regard – to help and contribute to the community. The brothers said their first involvement was with the Boy Scouts.
“It becomes a part of your life, relationships are developed, there is a camaraderie, and there is a lot of fun,” said Jeffrey. “It’s nice to do something selflessly to help other people. It makes me feel good.”
Among other endeavors, Jeffrey was involved in the B.C. Restaurant and Food Association, and is still involved with the annual Jewish Community Centre Sports Dinner. The Hebrew Free Loan Association has been one of Peter’s main concerns.
They both said they “enjoy the wonders of charity,” supporting, helping, contributing, and the fun they have in fundraising. Their biggest wish for Variety?
“To capture and engage young people to carry on the work that we have worked and nurtured over the many years,” said Jeffrey.
For Peter: “A wild dream – for medicine to catch up with the ills of today, that there would be no need for organizations like Variety.
Until that happens, however, there is a need, and people can help fulfil it in many ways, including by volunteering with, donating to and/or attending the Show of Hearts. Advance tickets for the telethon’s live performances at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Saturday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m. (54-40, Aaron Pritchett, Five Alarm Funk and Vancouver Theatresports League, among others) and Sunday, Feb. 14, 2:30 p.m. (including Jim Byrnes, Chilliwack, Shari Ulrich and Colleen Rennison) are $50 and can be purchased via variety.bc.ca/ events/_entry/telethon. The entire telethon will be televised on Global BC.
Shuk owner Alon Volodarsky, left, and chef Evy Swissa. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
Shakshuka is not a dish that’s easy to come by in Vancouver. Until recently, that is. When Shuk opened its doors on Oak and 41st in early December, this favorite Israeli breakfast item made it to the menu, among a host of other Mediterranean foods, including house-made hummus, Moroccan fish, falafel, borekas, labneh and hatzilim.
Shuk’s owner is the multi-talented Alon Volodarsky, 35, an Israeli from Haifa who moved to Vancouver eight years ago and has had careers in professional dance choreography, carpentry and home renovation. He also has owned a store selling remote-controlled toys.
In addition to great food, Shuk has space in the large dining room to keep the 2- to 6-year-old crowd entertained. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
Soon after he arrived here, he tasted the food of chef Evy Swissa, who worked at Café 41, and quickly recognized his expertise. Volodarsky also noticed a dearth of establishments where parents could shmooze, enjoy good food and know that their kids were playing safely within eye- and earshot. So, when the opportunity arose to take over Café 41, he jumped at it. He invested $100,000 in a complete remodel and added a space for kids, with climbing structures in the large dining room to keep the 2- to 6-year-old crowd entertained. Then, he found a slab of cedar, cut and varnished it and made it a centrepiece bar in his new restaurant, Shuk. It’s a fabulous piece of carpentry.
Volodarsky hasn’t spared any expense transforming Shuk into a more sophisticated space, adding a state-of-the-art coffee machine, excellent lighting, a beautiful color scheme and quartz countertops. Dairy products are all chalav Yisrael and many of the ingredients he uses come from Israel, including
Israeli rosewater, tehina, za’atar, Moroccan spices and Turkish coffee by Elite. The kitchen is under Chabad supervision.
My shakshuka ($14.50) arrived on a skillet, presented on a wooden board accompanied by French fries in a neat stainless steel basket. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
My shakshuka ($14.50) arrived on a skillet, presented on a wooden board accompanied by French fries in a neat stainless steel basket. It was also served with pita that Volodarsky was quick to point out is deliberately Israeli-style, sourced from Toronto, and hummus, which Swissa makes in five-litre quantities daily and was so good I had to bring a container of it home. Other items on the menu included the $7 boreka plate (three borekas served with boiled egg, tahini and pickled cukes), the $14.95 falafel plate (seven balls with a side of hummus, fries, Israeli salad and pita), hatzilim ($14.50, served on top of tahini with tomato salsa and pita) and za’atar focaccia ($14.50). There’s also poutine ($7.50), French toast ($8.95), eggs benedict with salmon and avocado ($14.50), pasta and wraps containing fish or falafel.
The food is a mix of Mediterranean, Russian and Yemeni influences, Swissa said. “It’s comfort food that brings you back to Israel,” he confided, adding that the menu is fairly simple with daily specials bringing new items to the mix. The two specials the day I came in were Persian fish balls with couscous, spinach and carrots ($17.30) and flatbread with caramelized onion, goat cheese and pesto ($14).
Volodarsky looked pensively towards the children’s area, where his 3-year-old often releases energy on rainy Vancouver days. “The idea is to attract families with kids,” he said quietly. “Out front we have a quiet area for coffee and meetings, but in the back are most of our 76 seats, and Sundays it’s packed in there.”
The fact that the restaurant is kosher is a big drawcard for Vancouver’s Jewish community and Volodarsky and his team of nine are fighting the perception that kosher means “super expensive.”
“We’re really trying to keep our costs reasonable,” he said. Still, some 55% of diners are not Jewish, Swissa noted. “And they love hummus!”
Don’t miss the desserts – there’s a fabulous selection of delicacies including tahini ice cream, chocolate-banana mousse cups and butter popcorn mousse.
And, if you don’t have the time or energy for a Friday night meal, Swissa can handle that in a heartbeat, complete with the challah, for any orders, even as small as a family of one or two. “I need just 20 minutes forewarning,” he said. He makes 12 challot each Friday in three different flavors, and they disappear fast, so pre-orders are crucial.
Shuk is open Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fridays, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; and Sundays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. There is free underground parking and free wifi. Before Feb. 10, Shuk’s grand opening, access to the kids play area is free. After that date it’s $5 per child, $2.50 per sibling or $30 for a month-long unlimited membership. For more information or reservations, 604 563-4141.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
“Panty By Post is about shipping a piece of self-love in a little package,” says Natalie Grunberg. (photo from Natalie Grunberg)
Underwear. We all wear it and it’s not something most of us think too deeply about – until our own pairs look too disheveled, torn or worn out to warrant further use. But Vancouverite Natalie Grunberg thinks a lot about underwear – panties, specifically.
She started considering these hidden pieces of apparel on a trip to France in 2009. “I was inspired by the lifestyle I saw,” she told the Independent. “I loved the way the women dressed, the kind of confidence they have when they’re walking down the street and looking so lovely, even if it’s just to get a baguette.” As she spent time in French stores, she noticed the beauty of French underwear and lingerie and, not long after she landed at YVR, she started her own company, Panty By Post (pantybypost.com).
“I feel like there is value in putting yourself together well, and it starts with your underwear,” she said. “Panty By Post is about shipping a piece of self-love in a little package – the sexiness, self-respect and confidence of the French comes to your doorstep like self-esteem in a box.”
Grunberg, 39, is a native Vancouverite and member of Congregation Or Shalom who has been vacationing in France since the age of 14. That French influence had a profound impact on the Grunberg kids. Paul, Natalie’s brother, owns the French restaurant L’Abattoir in Gastown, while Natalie, formerly a high school teacher, gave up her day job two years ago to focus on her business. The learning curve was steep and those first five years, she said, were “like a mini MBA where I taught myself the skills I needed.”
At first, she imported sexy, lacy panties. Then she surveyed her customers to find out what they were looking for in terms of panties and bras. She learned that her mostly North American customers wanted beautiful underwear that was comfortable and durable, “nothing poofy or scratchy. They need to be able to wear them under their business suits or under their jeans,” she explained. So, she created her own label and forged a manufacturing relationship with a Colombian company. “I prefer working with Colombia over China because they offer really great working conditions and give their workers health care and support for single moms,” she said.
Monthly subscriptions start at $15 and increase depending on the style and type of panty. (photo from Natalie Grunberg)
Who buys panties by post? It’s an admittedly unusual way to source your underwear but Grunberg’s demographic ranges from 25 through 65. “Sometimes, it’s a mom buying for their daughter or themselves, other times a husband or boyfriend is purchasing for their partner, but this is not for the bargain shopper,” she insisted. “Our customer is not the Costco shopper who buys a Haines pack of 10 underwear. Rather, these are women and men who understand the quality and value of a good panty.”
The Panty By Post transaction starts on the internet with monthly panty subscriptions starting at $15 and increasing depending on the style and type of panty. Grunberg includes a handwritten note in each box of panties she ships and can personalize the notes if her customers have a specific message they want to relay. Some have been monthly subscribers for the seven years she’s been in business. Others prefer to use Panty By Post for special occasions like a bridal shower gift or Valentine’s Day treat.
There’s a massive difference in the mindset of French versus American women, Grunberg noted, and it goes well beyond the panties they choose. “French women focus on buying good quality instead of volume. They 100% understand the value of wearing beautiful underwear, not just for your partner, but for yourself. North American women are more focused on comfort and don’t see the value of those little details. We don’t care as much about quality because we’re more focused on buying a lot.”
Grunberg is determined to change that mindset. “It’s not OK to sacrifice beauty for practicality because we can have it all,” she said. “It’s not about impressing a man, it’s about taking pride in your appearance. I’m on a mission to change the panty drawers of North American women. I want to bring the experience of France directly to your door.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
