Jewish National Fund Pacific Region brought in IDF veteran Ari Zecher to speak. The talk, moderated by Geoffrey Druker, left, talked to a group at the Jewish Community Centre on Sept. 22. (photo from JNF-PR)
This Rosh Hashanah, the Vancouver Jewish community was visited by Ari Zecher, who served in the Israel Defence Forces Maglan special forces unit during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza this past summer.
Part of the Jewish National Fund’s High Holiday appeal to help build mobile bomb shelters in Israel, Zecher was invited to share his experience as a soldier and as a young Israeli during this tumultuous time. Speaking at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and at various synagogues, Zecher thanked the local Jewish community for its unfailing and ongoing support, and highlighted the need for young and fresh ideas to move Israel forward towards a peaceful future for future generations.
Ilan Pilo, Jerusalem emissary and executive director of JNF Pacific Region, said: “We are grateful to Ari for taking the time to interact with over 1,000 members across our community and for speaking candidly about Israel’s challenges and hopes. As in the past, this year, JNF will continue to dedicate its work to enhancing the invaluable bond between Israel and the Canadian Jewish community in general, and our Vancouver community in particular. JNF salutes everyone who has made, or will make, a donation towards the important cause of keeping children in Israel safe during such difficult and uncertain times.”
For more information on the JNF’s bomb shelter campaign, call 604-257-5155 or visit vancouver.jnf.ca.
At the debate are, from left, John Tory, Ari Goldkind, Doug Ford and Olivia Chow. (photo from cjnews.com)
There wasn’t much focus on Jewish issues at the CIJA-UJA-hosted mayoral debate Sunday night, but Ari Goldkind, the race’s sole Jewish candidate, arguably stole the show with his caustic barbs directed at fellow candidate Doug Ford, particularly when he confronted the councilor on his brother’s past use of an antisemitic slur.
The debate, held at the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto’s Wilmington campus and attended by several hundred people, featured fringe candidate Goldkind debating alongside leading contenders Ford, John Tory and Olivia Chow.
The debate was moderated by National Post columnist Chris Selley, who gave each candidate several minutes to respond to questions on transit, taxes, community safety and conduct in city council.
Goldkind, a defence lawyer and the fourth-place mayoral contender, had the audience chuckling with one-liners such as “What does Ford stand for? Falsify. Overstate. Repeat. Deny” and “This campaign has turned into a reality show. It’s like the Kardashian show.”
He later took Ford to task for what he said was the former’s failure to apologize for an antisemitic slur uttered by his brother, Mayor Rob Ford – who made a conspicuous appearance partway through the debate – last March.
“Mayor Rob Ford called Jews the ‘K’ word,” Goldkind said. “And then he has the chutzpah to come in here tonight. He might get a free pass from the others on this stage, but not me. When you insult a whole people, you are not setting an example for the city.”
As the audience laughed and booed, Ford responded, “I have a Jewish doctor and a Jewish dentist … my family has the utmost respect for the Jewish community…. We look forward to working with the Jewish community, as we have for the last four years.”
He then added that he had already apologized on behalf of his brother for the remark, adding, “I’ve told [Rob] clearly that those comments were unacceptable.”
On the subject of funding proposed transit projects, Goldkind said, “I’m the only one on stage who’s open in saying we have to talk about taxes. If you believe Tory’s Smart Track plan is going to be free, or Ford’s ‘subways, subways, subways’ will be, or that Chow’s proposed tax increase [to fund transit] will only be on the wealthy, if you accept that math, they’ll earn your vote,” he said sarcastically.
He added: “I will ask each household in the city to pay 50 cents extra per day … then … instead of going to the provincial and federal governments with our hands empty, go to them and say, ‘the people of Toronto have spoken and we have a transit plan worth investing in.’”
Invectives aside, the four took turns laying out their respective visions for transit, with poll-leader Tory emphasizing Smart Track, his London, England-modeled surface rail subway plan. Meanwhile, Chow endorsed building light rail transit (LRT) and a downtown subway relief line, Ford called for subway expansion and Goldkind advocated for a downtown relief line, new LRT lines and replacement of the Scarborough subway line with LRT.
Regarding taxation, Ford and Tory both pledged to privatize garbage collection in the city’s east end.
Ford trumpeted his brother’s administration’s slashing of the vehicle registration tax. Chow said she would increase the land transfer tax for houses valued at more than $2 million and raise property taxes around the rate of inflation, and Goldkind suggested congestion fees and road tolls on certain highways to help pay for infrastructure improvements, as well as raising the land transfer tax on homes valued at over $1.1 million.
The candidates also addressed community safety and the recent spike in antisemitic incidents in Toronto.
Chow said the Toronto Police Service hate crimes unit could use more support and training to be able to better work with people, including those with mental health issues. She suggested that her plan to beef up after-school activities across the city could be a good antidote against “young people who get into trouble and get recruited by people who are full of hate.”
Tory brought up the need for better education for “the young and less young,” including more training for police and interfaith initiatives in the community.
Ford said that under his brother’s administration, the city hired more police officers and reallocated a number of officers to the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy. He said the city needs more mentors for young people.
The Toronto mayoral election will take place on Oct. 27.
– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.
“Thank you for the gift you gave us this coming year. You made our lives less challenging during these difficult times. We are very grateful for your help and support. We have just received the cheque from you. Thank you so much for all you are doing for our family.” – A beneficiary of Tikva Housing Society’s Esther Dayson Rent Subsidy Program
Sukkot is a holiday when we think about how fragile and exposed our lives can be without a proper roof over our heads. For many families in our community, living in a temporary shelter is not a short-term symbolic choice for the holidays; it is their permanent reality. Tikva Housing Society helps individuals and families pay their rent through a growing rent subsidy program.
The program began in 2011, when the board approved a subsidy for an individual who could not be housed at Tikva’s Dany Guincher House because there was a shortage of available units. Later that year, the Ben and Esther Dayson Charitable Foundation made a commitment to fund a rent subsidy program that would allow Tikva to extend its portfolio by housing people in private market units. The program thus became the Esther Dayson Rent Subsidy Program and grew large enough to subsidize seven households. In 2013, the Tikva fund subsidized three single and four family households for a total of 19 persons.
Since October 2011, Tikva has been involved in a Richmond development to administer 10 family apartments and, since December 2012, it’s been involved in Vancouver in a development of 32 townhouse units. As construction can take years to complete and the need for affordable housing is immediate, Tikva’s board decided to put greater emphasis into fundraising for the rent subsidy program. In 2014/15, with additional help from donors (such as the PAID Foundation and the Al Roadburg Foundation), Tikva will be able to house nine singles and eight families for a total of 39 persons.
During August and September 2014, the committee received 44 applications referred through the Jewish Family Service Agency, synagogues and Jewish day schools. All applications were point scored to determine the highest need. The top 20 applicants were interviewed. To date, agreements have been signed with 12 applicants. Of the 20 applicants interviewed, four singles and one family were homeless. The subsidy will allow all those funded to look for appropriate rental units to call home.
You may wonder what sort of poverty issues the 44 applicants for Tikva’s rent subsidy program experience. Here is a sampling of some of their stories.
Five of the applicants are homeless, living on the street, in shelters and couch surfing. One of the homeless applicants is a single father with three children who arrived in Vancouver in April 2013 after losing all they had during flooding in Saskatchewan. The Esther Dayson Rent Subsidy Program allowed this family to move out of the shelter where they were living and move into a three-bedroom apartment. The children will now be enrolled in the nearby school and the father will be able to look for work in the community.
A single woman moved to British Columbia from Alberta and does not meet the one-year residency requirement to apply for government rental assistance. Rents in Greater Vancouver are much higher than in Lethbridge, and her $1,100 pension barely allows her to pay $750 for rent, while leaving only $350 for all of her other expenses.
Another family of two parents and two small children lives in Surrey. They were relying solely on a disability pension after the husband was injured in a work-related accident that left him paralyzed. The wife looks after her husband and their small children and, therefore, cannot work outside the home.
While spending a cool evening in the sukkah, remember how important it is for each and every person to have the warmth and stability of his/her own home. For more information about the Tikva Housing rent subsidy program or to donate, visit tikvahousing.ca.
Susan J. Katzis a freelance writer, pastoral-care consultant and musician living in Vancouver. Her website is susanjkatz.com.
Israel Defence Forces soldiers debrief during the Israel-Hamas conflict. New Israel Fund of Canada’s president Joan Garson discussed the painful war of this past summer and the ongoing responsibility of liberal Zionists in Canada to push for Israel to be a model of democracy, pluralism and tolerance. (photo from IDF via Ashernet)
The Jewish state won’t survive without a Zionism that’s liberal and a liberalism that’s Zionist. Such was the recurrent assertion of Haaretz reporter and columnist Ari Shavit at the New Israel Fund of Canada’s (NIFC’s) annual symposium, held on Sept. 14.
Entitled The Future of Israel Starts Here and held at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the free event drew almost 1,000 people and marked the fourth annual symposium for NIFC, an organization founded 29 years ago that describes itself as being committed to fostering the development of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state “as envisioned in her Declaration of Independence.”
The symposium was moderated by Joseph Rosen, who recently wrote an article called “The Israel taboo” in an issue of the Canadian magazine The Walrus.
The event featured Rosen interviewing Shavit via Skype, as well facilitating a lively discussion between Shavit and Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist at the online magazine Al-Monitor, who attended in person. NIFC president Joan Garson also spoke.
Ari Shavit (photo by Sharon Bareket)
Shavit spoke passionately about how the Zionist community needs to “talk seriously and honestly about our own mistakes” and to acknowledge where the government of Israel has committed wrongs both on a moral and political level, such as with ongoing settlement building in the West Bank. He argued this must be frozen to give the Palestinians space economically and geographically and “to move toward a two-state solution.”
It’s imperative that Zionists stop treating Israel as being above criticism, he stressed. Zionists must look its sins in the face, address the arguments made on the other side of the conflict and “limit injustice to Palestinians as much as possible.”
Further, Shavit spoke about restoring Israel to its former “state of wonder,” its promise to serve as a refuge for Jews – “a home for our homeless” – and to be as just as possible.
“What happened in 1948 [when thousands of Arabs ran from or were driven from their homes and villages during the country’s founding] was in the context of the brutal history of the 1940s,” he said. “But after that, after we secured our existence at a terrible human cost for us and for them [the Palestinians], to go into the other 22 percent of the land and to try to co-opt it [through occupation and settlement building] is a huge mistake.”
But Shavit also argued that it’s unacceptable to exclusively demonize Israel for its injustices, as its critics often do, or to use the history of its founding to delegitimize it.
“Some of the world’s best democracies were founded on the terrible treatment of indigenous people. Israel can’t be singled out,” he said. “But let us remember our democratic past and try to build a future for the Palestinians.”
Garson discussed the painful war of this past summer and the ongoing responsibility of liberal Zionists in Canada to push for Israel to be a model of democracy, pluralism and tolerance.
“As liberals, we are activists,” she said. “We think it’s our job not just to sit on the sidelines, but to engage … to make Israel the country of its founders dreams…. When we see [Israeli] policies in need of change, we speak and we act.”
She added: “We must be honest with ourselves, our children and our congregations … to bring intelligence and clear thinking to Israel as we do to other issues … and to commit to telling the truth about the country to ensure there will be another generation of lovers of Israel.”
Rosen subsequently posed questions to Eldar and Shavit about whether liberal Zionism is “dead” and about the position of Israeli left-wing “peaceniks.”
Eldar, who described himself as a “radical peacenik,” argued that liberal Zionism is crucial to the future of Israel, but that it can’t coexist with the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
It’s not enough to decry the settlements, he said, “we have to do something about it and call on every government in the world to do something.”
Eldar explained that he, therefore, does not buy products made in the settlements.
“If, God forbid, one of your friends was about to commit suicide, you would do everything to stop it,” he said “This [settlement expansion] is a suicidal project.”
Shavit later spoke about how many Israelis feel that Israeli “peaceniks” don’t care about them, that they’re more concerned with the well-being of the Palestinians than that of their own countrymen.
“We Israelis who advocate for peace need to love all our people, to go out and canvas and tell them why their future is connected to peace,” he said.
Eldar said the central problem is that fear seems to have become more effective than hope in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We on the left are trying to sell hope,” he said. “I’m upset that people are trying to sell fear. Why not look at the glass half full? Look, for example, at how Egypt has worked with us [in the latest ceasefire negotiation between Israel and Hamas] instead of injecting more fear and saying we don’t have partners for peace in the region?”
He said that Israel needs to withdraw from the settlements, but not unilaterally. “We need to do it by making peace.”
– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.
Measuring the response to novelty: A mouse repeatedly touches the object and pulls away (nose and whisker contacts are color-coded; d is the distance of the snout from the object). (photo from wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il)
Put a young child in a new playground and she may take awhile to start playing – approaching the slide and then running back to Mom before finally stepping on. A new model suggests that it is not fear that makes her run back and forth, but simply the fact that her brain is telling her to stop and take in the new information – the height of the slide or how slippery it appears – before going any further.
Drs. Goren Gordon and Ehud Fonio, and Prof. Ehud Ahissar, believe that this is a basic pattern in mammals that governs how we learn. The mathematical model they developed and tested in experiments suggests that our innate curiosity is tempered by mechanisms in our brains that curb our ability to absorb novelty.
In Ahissar’s lab in the institute’s neurobiology department, researchers investigate how animals sense their surroundings. Previous research in which Fonio participated showed that, in a new situation, a mouse would approach an unfamiliar space, retreat to familiar surroundings, and then approach again. When Gordon, Fonio and Ahissar examined how mice used their whiskers to feel out a novel object, a similar pattern ensued: the whisker would touch the object, pull back and then touch it again. Gradually, as the mouse became familiar with one part of its surroundings, it would begin to explore further, moving away from the known part. The pattern was so consistent, the researchers thought they could create a model to explain how a mouse – or another mammal – explores new surroundings.
The researchers based their model on the premise that novelty can be measured and that the amount of novelty could be a primary factor in shaping the way that a mouse – or its whisker – will move through an environment. This model successfully reproduced the results of the previous study, in which the movement of the mouse gradually became more complex through the addition of measurable degrees of freedom. For example, it began with movement along a wall, as opposed to traveling across the open space. Using data from the previous experiments and others for which such data were available, they were able to construct a model that required very few additional assumptions.
The model suggested that novelty, per se, was not the deciding factor, but rather how much the novelty varied within a given situation. Approaching and retreating appear to be a way to keep the amount of new information within a constant range. Like the wavering child in the playground, the mice would absorb a certain amount of new sensory input – the curve of a new wall, for example – retreat, and approach again once the novel information was already starting to become familiar.
To test the model, the researchers designed an experimental setup in which a family of mice was born and raised in a den, and then a gate was opened from the den to a new area in which the pups could freely explore and return to their familiar den. The researchers found that the model was able to predict how the mice would explore their new surroundings. It held true whether it was applied to locomotion or to the motion of whiskers in feeling out new objects. The initial movements explored the most novel features of the new environment. After those were learned, just as the model predicted, the animals moved further afield, exploring the still-unknown parts of their surroundings.
“The mice were not given rewards for their behavior – for them, as for humans, satisfying curiosity is its own reward,” said Gordon.
“This behavioral pattern enables the mice to control the level of sensory stimulus to their brains by regulating the amount of novelty they are exposed to,” added Fonio.
These limits to novelty and exploration may, of course, have another evolutionary advantage: while the urge to explore is necessary for animals that must seek out food, stopping to check out the surroundings a bit at a time could be a prudent survival strategy. In other words, curiosity may have killed the cat, but a whisker pulled back in time might save the mouse.
Does this model apply to humans? Gordon points out that when we learn a new subject, we often need time to think things over before going on to the next topic. Further research might reveal whether young children – babies just learning to crawl, for example – explore their new surroundings in the same way. Even an adult entering a new situation might undergo a similar process.
In the future, a mathematical model of learning might prove useful for teachers and students, as well as for research into neurological issues involving the ability to absorb new information. This model also might someday be used in the field of robotics: robots that learn on their own, like mice, to explore a new setting might be able to function in situations that are too dangerous for humans, such as the aftermath of an earthquake or a nuclear power plant accident, for example.
Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum of Human Rights is now open for visitors. (photo from CMHR-MCDP)
The Sept. 19 opening ceremonies for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) were broadcast live on several networks, and live streamed on the CMHR website (humanrights.ca). The opening celebrations lasted through the weekend, with more than 40 performances at the Forks market and downtown Winnipeg, including free public tours of the museum and a concert on Saturday night, featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie, A Tribe Called Red, Shad, Marie-Pierre Arthur, Ashley MacIsaac and others.
The excitement among museum staff was palpable ahead of the opening weekend, said Matthew McRae, a museum representative. “Everyone here, whether they started two years ago or two months ago, has put in so much work to make this project happen. It’s truly amazing to watch all the little bits I’ve worked on coming together to make a whole. What’s more, this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
McRae has been with the museum for two years, researching gallery content and gathering background on different feature stories for the museum’s core exhibits. When asked to pick his favorite story from the museum, he said, “There are lots of amazing stories I’ve had a chance to research during my time here, so it’s hard to pick just one. However, the story Wilcox County High School’s first integrated prom, held in 2013, is something I’m very happy it made its way into the museum. The school, located in southwest Georgia, in the U.S.A., had never had an integrated prom.
“In 2013, Mareshia Rucker and her friends decided they wanted to be able to go to prom together, regardless of their skin color or background, and so they fundraised and organized their own integrated prom, despite opposition from some members of the community. Their story got picked up by the international media and, in the end, the school announced it would hold an official prom for all its students in 2014.”
McRae conducted an oral history with Rucker and the young woman’s prom dress will now be featured at the museum. “A prom dress is not something you would normally associate with human rights, but that’s perhaps what’s so neat about it,” said McRae. “It tells people that human rights struggles can come in all sorts of forms, and it tells people they are still going on today, all around us.”
Ensuring people from around the world can access and use the museum’s content and knowledge base has been a major focus. While the museum does not have specific projections for online attendance, McRae said, “We are expecting people to log on from all across Canada and the world. There will be lots of chances for people to feel connected to Canada’s new national museum.”
The museum will continue working with various community groups, human rights organizations, academics and stakeholders. There are plans to organize and participate in many events, including lectures, panel discussions and art projects.
“This will involve anything we can think of to build awareness and education about human rights and to encourage public discussion from multiple perspectives,” said McRae. “We will pilot a national student program in 2015 and hope to eventually bring students from across Canada here for an immersive educational experience in human rights.”
The museum has also developed programs for school groups and the public, so all ages can make the most of having a human rights education hub in Winnipeg.
“Above all else, the museum will be a place of inspiration where people can learn about the many different ways people as groups and individuals have worked to promote human rights, resist violation and overcome adversity,” said McRae. “This is the only museum in the world solely devoted to human rights awareness and education, and we explore human rights concepts with an international scope, but through a uniquely Canadian lens.
“As the first national museum established outside the National Capital Region, the CMHR will be a source of Canadian pride – not to mention an iconic piece of architecture already being noticed around the world.”
“Gail Asper fought to have her father’s dream become a reality,” said Stephanie Lockhart, who attended the opening ceremonies with her husband. “She brought this incredible dream to life. What a tremendous gift for our children, our children’s children, and for many generations to come. To be able to visit this place and have the opportunity to learn all about our human rights – the history, for good and bad – their view of human rights will be transformed and actualized because of what they will have learned in this spectacular place.
“For me, the museum truly represents one of the most significant accomplishments articulating the dignities of humankind. All human beings are born free and equal with dignity and rights.”
MLA Andrew Swan, minister of justice and attorney general, said, “I was truly inspired by the opening ceremonies…. As a lifelong Winnipegger and Manitoban, I am fiercely proud that the CMHR is located here, the first national museum outside of Ottawa/Hull.
“My favorite moment was watching [singer] Maria Aragon – a young woman from a local school and daughter of an immigrant family – perform at the opening.”
Winnipeg City Councilor Jenny Gerbasi was also in attendance. “There was a significant inclusion and a feeling of deep respect for Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis communities throughout the event,” said Gerbasi. “I was very moved by the words of Dr. Wilton Littlechild, when he talked about ‘a new spirit and a hope for positive change … a call to action and honoring the human rights of all people.’
“The umbrellas had to come out as rain started prior to and throughout the ceremony … but it did not dampen the spirits or the sense of excitement of the audience.”
Entrepreneur Brian Scudamore’s success is due in part to lessons he learned from his grandparents about how to treat people. (photo from O2E)
When Brian Scudamore addressed business owners at Small Business BC’s Inspire event, held Sept. 29 at the Telus World of Science, his Jewish grandparents, Kenneth and Florence Lorber, were on his mind.
The founder of 1-800-Got-Junk? says they were the source of his inspiration, first-generation Americans who lived in San Francisco, owned a store called Lorber’s Surplus and, whenever possible, recruited the help of their grandson.
“I spent every summer and holiday working there and I learned a lot, especially from my grandfather,” Scudamore told the Independent. “He really cared about his employees and treated them like part of the family. Both my grandparents had a reputation on the street for being lovely people. They treated everyone with respect and would do anything to help other people. Even when homeless people came in to ask for money, they would listen to them, ask how they were and care about them.”
From his grandfather, Scudamore inherited the drive and ambition that would lead him to establish the company O2E, which stands for “Ordinary to Exceptional,” and includes the brands 1-800-Got-Junk?, Wow 1 Day Painting and You Move Me. The latter was created in 2013, inspired by a less-than-desirable experience with a local mover. In Scudamore’s version of a moving company, uniformed, trained movers bring coffee for clients on moving day and leave a housewarming plant when they go.
For 1-800-Got-Junk?, Scudamore’s goal is to double the company’s revenues from $100 million to $200 million by 2016. “We’re nearly there,” he said of the company that began in 1989 with $700 and a beat-up truck. Today, it’s the world’s largest junk removal service.
“It’s always about finding the right people, ensuring we consistently hire top-performing, A-players,” he said.
Back in 1994, not long after he started the company, he let go all 11 of his employees and started over from scratch. “I felt I hadn’t hired the right people and hadn’t spent time training them,” he recalled. “Today, we hire great people who have the potential to do great things.” What’s more, he goes out of his way to keep them happy.
He’s quick to attribute his success to his roots and the lessons he learned about how to treat people. Kenneth Lorber would take his employees out for a meal to thank them for their hard work. But, when you have 300 employees in Vancouver and Toronto, and 3,000 when you include the 200 franchise partners that stretch across North America and in Australia, a thank-you dinner isn’t quite possible. So, the innovative entrepreneur created the 101 Life Goals program, where his employees could list their measurable, specific goals and he could help them achieve them, when rewards were warranted.
“One employee wanted to get his scuba certification, so we signed him up for lessons. Another wanted a ride in a hot air balloon and a third wanted to read the book Anna Karenina in Russian, her father’s mother tongue. I found a copy in Moscow and had it shipped over to her. It’s just a little, creative way to thank someone with a personal connection that has meaning outside of the company,” he said.
Scudamore also attributes his success to having a clear vision of what he wants the future to look like. It hasn’t always seemed so bright and promising and he admitted there have been dark places in his life when he felt he wasn’t as successful as he wanted to be. “At that time, I sat down and sketched my vision for the future. It called for my company to be in 30 cities in North America, even though we were only in one at the time,” he explained. “We wanted to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, too. All those things came through, and I believe that having the vision is a big piece of the puzzle.”
Adopted into a Jewish family as an infant, Scudamore said his Jewishness keeps him connected to his family and gives him a deeper appreciation of “the culture of community and connectedness. I’m not a very religious person,” he admitted, “but I’m very connected to the religion and community side of my mother’s side of the family.”
Habonim Dror Camp Miriam madrichim (counselors) partnered with Temple Sholom during the recent teacher’s strike, with the formation of a Habonim Day Camp.
Lior Bar-El (photo from Lior Bar-El)
Lior Bar-El, a madrich at Camp Miriam and Habonim Day Camp, and a University of British Columbia student, explained, “We thought it was important to support both the parents and the teachers during the strike by providing affordable child care to whoever needs it.”
Camp Miriam and Habonim Day Camp madricha Carmel Laniado, also a UBC student, explained, “The purpose of Habonim Day Camp is to create a space where children can be supervised and enjoy activities of experiential education [by donation]. We are not replacing teachers or school, but rather offering an alternative while the strike [is on].”
Talking to the JI while the camp was still ongoing, Laniado said that the day camp was open to all children, “regardless of association with Camp Miriam or religious background.”
“At different times of the day, different age groups do sports, music, arts and crafts, and experiential education on a topic of the counselor’s choice,” Bar-El said. “There is also an hour for lunch and half an hour for recess.” He added that the camp was “available to anyone grades K-11” and that more than 30 children had registered.
Carmel Laniado (photo by Sydney Switzer)
Yossi Argov, Habonim Dror Camp Miriam shaliach, shared that his “favorite part has been seeing how … so many people mobilized for the mission. The madrichim came with the idea, the camp committee [supported them] and we start[ed the ball rolling], and [we received] more help and support from the Jewish community. Temple Sholom gave us their building every day, while parents sent supplies and items like books and board games with their kids.”
Starting this initiative “was exciting and nerve-racking,” said Bar-El. “I’ve never had as much support in starting a project from so many dedicated people…. There was a lot to do – emails, advertising, lesson plans, registration, schedules – and everyone took on what they could, and made it all happen.”
Habonim Day Camp included the involvement of “a little over 20 counselors that came in at different times of the day,” Bar-El shared. “Everything was structured in hour blocks to allow us to coordinate times” because many of the madrichim “are full-time university students with varying schedules, when one of us [needed] to go to class, someone [would come and take] your place.”
Yossi Argov (photo from Yossi Argov)
Melody Robens-Paradise, a member of the Camp Miriam personnel committee and mother of four Camp Miriam campers, shared, “I think it is amazing how Temple Sholom offered its space for this idea. What a collaboration. It is a sign of true community, and it is so inspiring to see the mutual support of the parents, the kids, the counselors, the Temple, the youth movement.”
She added that Habonim Day Camp “has been such a relief.” Speaking to the Independent when her kids were still attending the camp, she said, “My kids are safe and happy, engaged, and the level of stress caused by the strike is greatly reduced. My colleagues who have school-aged children were completely blown away by the innovation and generosity and [support] of the Habonim Dror counselors. They kept asking me, ‘What camp is that?’ No one could believe that Grade 12 and university-age counselors would volunteer their time to support their community in that way. It is so admirable.”
The students responsible for starting this initiative are all members of Habonim Dror, which, Bar-El explained, is “a worldwide Jewish socialist labor Zionist youth movement whose main focus is youth empowerment and collective responsibility and decision-making…. We believe that equality and social justice are intrinsic values of Judaism, and we strive to do tikkun olam (repairing the world) wherever we see a need.”
During the year, Habonim Dror and Camp Miriam are involved in both the local Jewish and social justice communities. Bar-El elaborated, “We run something called the Ken (‘nest’ in Hebrew), where we run activities twice a month for different age groups throughout the year. It’s a great opportunity for kids who are nervous about jumping straight into a three-week session in the summer to try out Camp Miriam, and to make friends with other kids who will also be there.
“We also run free tutoring at the JCC [Waldman Library] on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4:30-6 p.m., and three weekend-long seminars during the school year, and we are members of the Metro Vancouver Alliance (MVA). If you want your child to get involved in Camp Miriam and the Vancouver Ken, please contact Yossi Argov at [email protected].”
Zach Sagorin is a Vancouver freelance writer. He is involved with Habonim Dror in various capacities.
