News – Page 281

Take a virtual tour of Jewish Montreal

The three current Museum of Jewish Montreal tours can be taken online or while in Montreal, either self-directed using a mobile device or led by museum staff.

The Museum of Jewish Montreal was created when the city’s Jewish community turned 250 years old in 2010. While it may contain material dating back to the 1760s, it presents the information using the latest technology.

An online and mobile museum, its activities include “connecting exhibits to personal stories, narrations, songs, poems and films”; and “creating a virtual museum and mobile applications so that the viewer can interact with our community’s history at home or on the street.” So, if you’re in Montreal, you can take the museum’s tours with museum staff or self-direct your own. From Vancouver, you can simply go online.

One of the current tours, Work Upon Arrival, gives visitors an idea of the challenges faced by immigrants who worked in Montreal’s garment industry from 1914-1941. It does this through the stories and photographs of six people, supplemented by archival images and text/audio providing the broader historical context.

The oral history excerpts in the exhibit were recorded in the 1970s by Vancouverite Seemah Berson. They are among the interviews Berson conducted with Eastern European Jewish immigrants to Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver in the first part of the last century, which form the basis of her book I Have a Story to Tell You (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010).

Berson’s work came to form the foundation of the exhibit when Montrealer Harold Gordon wrote Berson to praise her book. They kept in touch and he introduced her to a friend, who introduced her to museum director Zev Moses. Later, Berson was introduced over the phone to museum research director Stephanie Tara Schwartz and exhibit curator Sarah Woolf. For them, she told the Independent, she was “available for queries and questions. I suppose were I younger and more agile, I would have loved to be on the spot and physically part of this. They were amenable to my suggestions, etc. Essentially, I needed to keep in mind the important fact that a great part of the purpose of my book was to disseminate these stories and keep the voices of my storytellers alive.”

Berson explained that Schwartz and Woolf “researched and found children and grandchildren – one in Israel – which was so great for me because his grandmother was not known to me when I went to Montreal to interview people. I had walked into a nursing home where she lived and she talked to me. I didn’t know anyone in her family, so it was great to connect.”

The six interviewees and locations featured in Work Upon Arrival are Hyman Leibovitch, Midway Photo Play, 1229 St. Laurent (1914); Jennie Zelda Litvack, L. Holstein and Co., 1475 Bleury (1925-26); Rose Esterson, International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, 395-397 Ste. Catherine O. (1933-1954); Sidney Sarkin, Sam Hart and Co., 437 Mayor (1925); Ena Ship, Jacobs Building, 460 Ste. Catherine O. (1934); and Norman Massey (aka Noach Puterman), Parkley Clothes, 372 Ste. Catherine O. (1937-1941).

image - Work Upon Arrival exhibit takes visitors along Rue Ste. Catherine Ouest and through its garment-industry history. — The Work Upon Arrival exhibit takes visitors along Rue Ste. Catherine Ouest and through its garment-industry history.

“Exploring the open expanses of downtown Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles, it’s difficult to believe this was once a bustling garment district. Packed with factories and sweatshops, tailors and seamstresses, manufacturers and union executives, the relatively small Rue Ste. Catherine corridor between University [Street] and Boulevard St. Laurent was a hotbed of clothing production, class confrontation and radical politics,” the exhibit begins.

“Picture Ste. Catherine on a busy day in the 1920s and 1930s: steam billowing out of factory windows and grey snow covering the muddied streets; children ferrying newspapers and bales of cloth from building to building; thousands of weary workers flooding the streets for a brief lunchtime break; the mingling sounds of French, English, Yiddish, Italian, Russian….”

Work Upon Arrival explores such questions as “… how did these immigrants find work with little financial support and few personal connections at their disposal? How did so many Jews end up in the garment industry, working as cutters, machine operators and even as manufacturers? And how did so many Jews get involved in labor politics?”

Each oral history section has a summary of the subject’s arrival to Canada and their first jobs (at least), how much they were paid, the working conditions, etc.; a couple of brief excerpts from Berson’s book, along with their transcriptions; and photos of the interviewee and relevant buildings and/or documents. The parts between each oral history provide a broader context, and direct tourists (virtual and literal) from one location to the next. The combination of the personal and more general makes for a memorable learning experience. There is something special about hearing someone’s voice, even if you don’t know them, and it gives the exhibit more impact than images or text alone would have provided.

Work Upon Arrival has 20-odd sources, and Berson’s recordings appear courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Seemah C. Berson Collection. Among those thanked are Berson and the Betty Averbach Foundation.

The other current MJM tours are Between These Walls: Hidden Sounds of Hazzanut in Montreal (1934 to 1965) and A Geography of Jewish Care: A Virtual Tour of 150 Years of Jewish Social Services in Montreal. The website is imjm.ca and in-person visits can be scheduled by emailing [email protected].

Winnipeg’s garment industry still going strong

Marissa Freed (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)

The garment industry has played a vital role in the development of the Jewish community, the city of Winnipeg, and even the province of Manitoba over several generations.

On May 8 at Rady Jewish Community Centre’s Berney Theatre, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada hosted a panel discussion on Winnipeg’s Garment Industry – Past, Present and Future. CBC Radio’s Terry McCloud was the moderator, panelists were Bill Brownstone, Marissa Freed, Howard Raber, David Rich, Bob Silver and Gary Steiman. From the discussion, it seems as though most of the panelists did not plan to get into the industry, but stumbled into it by chance.

Brownstone, for example, took over for his father after his father had a heart attack. “I was home for the summer, in June, and was to make one trip to his territory…. So, I made the one trip and, 55 years later, I made the last trip,” said Brownstone. “That was how I got into it.”

Freed also grew up in the business. “It was around all the time, certainly because of my father and, more so, because of my grandfather and my great-grandfather,” she said. “I’ve always loved fashion, so that was the exciting part, but certainly not the business part.”

Freed’s great-grandfather started a sewing and pad factory, which was, over the years, transformed into more of an outerwear and ladies wear company, also offering tailored items, like uniforms.

“Something we’ve been doing for a long time is government uniforms,” said Freed, listing some of their clients, such as the RCMP and Parks Canada. “For the Canadian Olympic teams, we made the opening ceremony jacket for the athletes. And in the HBC stores, we did all the replicas.”

Raber’s grandfather started in gloves in 1924. “My zaida started being a glove cutter,” he said. “In 1934, the partner came to the realization that no one was manufacturing dress gloves in Western Canada. So, they started a company, called Perfect Fit Glove [and he was involved there from] around 1934-1941, manufacturing the majority of the dress gloves for people like the Eaton’s bale order, which at that time hosted 90 percent of the retail shares in Canada.”

In 1941, when Raber’s grandfather’s partner’s son and Raber’s father finished school, his zaida suggested they buy him out, which spawned the company Raber Glove that same year.

“Now, we make all domestic leather gloves and mitts for many uses, for many customers: the RCMP, the military, police departments across Canada,” said Raber. “We also supply a lot of independent stores from coast to coast that stick to [us because of] the quality we make, and we’ve existed that way … 99.99 percent of all gloves coming into North America come from offshore.”

Rich’s father started his business, with four operators and himself, in 1939. It was called Winnipeg Pants and Sportswear, with one of the main buyers at the time and for many years following being Eaton’s.

“Today, we have a factory in Winnipeg,” said Rich. “We still manufacture high-quality work outerwear. We also deal in Asia, Bangladesh, China and Cambodia. People ask us how we can make a living dealing with people [worldwide] like that. I tell them I come from the North End [of Winnipeg] … [so] if I can’t deal with these guys, nobody can.”

Silver recalled his closest neighbor driving up at eight o’clock in the morning, informing him that his dad had died. “I made my way back to Winnipeg and a lot of people were pointing fingers and wondering who would take care of the business,” said Silver. “I said, ‘Not me. I’m going back to B.C.,’ but my great-uncle, who was around at the time, asked me to come in and help him sell the business. That was 37, 38 years ago and I have yet to be able to sell it.”

Silver discovered that no one was willing to buy unless he was willing to stay and manage the company, spurring him to do just that. “So, I bought it with some partners and then the drive for success kept me going,” he said.

Weston Glove Works was established around 1921 by Silver’s grandfather and three great-uncles and, in the beginning, exclusively manufactured gloves.

“In 1921, gloves were one of the most important parts of work wear, because all work was outside with your hands,” said Silver. “Then, they branched off into coveralls, overalls and other types of work wear. Then, they got into casual wear, and then into polyester leisure suits.

“I was interested in developing a brand that could sell a large volume of merchandise for Victoria Beckham, and the jeans were about $300. I thought we could do about 20 to 25 million dollars globally.

“At the same time that I was making garments for Victoria Beckham that sold for $300, I was making jeans for Walmart that sold for $15. People would ask what the difference was between the two, and I’d say $285 – except the ones for Walmart would last longer.”

“At the same time that I was making garments for Victoria Beckham that sold for $300, I was making jeans for Walmart that sold for $15,” he continued. “People would ask what the difference was between the two, and I’d say $285 – except the ones for Walmart would last longer.”

Last but not least, Steiman spoke about how he got into the industry. His grandfather started one of the first garment companies in Winnipeg, making, among other things, buffalo coats for the Winnipeg police force as early as 1900. Steiman came into the business in 1962.

“I remember, as a young boy, I hated to go up to his shop to get a leather jacket, which I had to do every two years, because it stunk, was noisy, was sweaty, and people yelled at each other. It was the last place I could envision myself having a career.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Canadians pray for teens

As three abducted Israeli teens ended their first week of captivity, communities from across Canada and around the world held vigils, gathered in solidarity and said prayers for their safe return; prayers that continue.

From Halifax to Vancouver, Jews gathered in support of Gilad Shaar, 16, Naftali Frenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, who were kidnapped by suspected Hamas terrorists while hitchhiking near Hebron June 12.

The largest of the events was held June 19 in the Toronto area, where as many as 1,000 people came together at the Schwartz/Reisman Centre at the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Jewish Community Campus. The rally was sponsored by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto in conjunction with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).

MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler spoke. He was in Israel when news of the teens’ abduction broke. Reports in Israeli newspapers were dominated “by a sense of angst and anguish,” he said.

Cotler attributed the kidnapping to Hamas, pointing out that the Islamic terrorist group is pledged to destroy Israel and kill Jews. He noted that, even before the kidnappings, Israeli media had reported that security forces had foiled 44 attempts to kidnap Israelis in the last year alone.

He said former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, whom he met during his visit, stressed how important it was for his family and for him to know that Jews from around the world were rallying to his cause when he was in a Soviet prison.

Cotler said the operation to locate the teens is code-named “Brother’s Keeper,” and Israelis of all denominations are united in praying for the boys’ safe return.

Demonstrating support for the families of the three victims was a key motivation for many of those at the rally. “Those kids could have been any of ours,” Roz Lofsky said. “We all feel for those boys and we want to show solidarity with them.”

“We’re here to say that we are in support of those parents so they know they are not alone,” added Gladys Isenberg.

Conservative MP Mark Adler brought a message from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and drew a loud round of applause when he said, “Canada will stand with Israel through fire and water.” He called on the Palestinian Authority to disarm Hamas, take control of smuggling tunnels in Gaza and demonstrate its commitment to peace by reuniting the boys with their families.

Consul General D.J. Schneeweiss spoke and, in addition to members of the Jewish community, the event was attended by Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, vice-president of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, Ontario Region. Messages of support were received from the United Macedonians Organization of Canada and from Dominic Campione, past national president of the National Congress of Italian Canadians.

In Halifax, Rabbi Ari Isenberg, spiritual leader of Shaar Shalom Congregation, in conjunction with CIJA, officiated at a community-wide vigil of hope for the boys’ safe return. At the same time, Rabbi Amram Maccabi of Beth Israel Synagogue said special prayers for the teens.

In Montreal, about 400 people attended a June 15 prayer vigil at Congregation Beth Israel-Beth Aaron in Côte St. Luc. The vigil was sponsored by Israeli Consul General Joel Lion in cooperation with CIJA. Chana Landau, a relative living in Montreal, relayed the thanks of the Frenkel family to Jews around the world for their expressions of solidarity. Chaviva Lifson read a message of gratitude from the Shaar family, who live a block from her sister in Israel.

In Hamilton, Temple Anshe Sholom, in conjunction with the Hamilton Jewish Federation, hosted a community gathering “in solidarity with the families of the three Israeli students.”

In Winnipeg, congregations Shaarey Zedek, Etz Chayim, Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun, Chevra Mishnayes and Temple Shalom co-sponsored a prayer vigil in conjunction with the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.

The vigil, held at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, included a candlelighting ceremony, the recitation of psalms, a prayer for captives, the singing of Hatikvah and cantorial renditions of “Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael ” (“All Israel are Brothers”) and “Bring Back our Boys,” a song written in the last two weeks in Israel.

Rena Elbaze, Jewish engagement specialist at the Winnipeg Federation, said the participation of a range of community organizations spanning a variety of denominations shows “we pray as a community and we’re united as a community when faced with these problems.

“We prayed for the sake of the boys, but also to make people present feel they are not alone and to show the families of the people who were kidnapped that people care about them.”

The Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and other community organizations, sponsored a community prayer service at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

Valder Belgrave, a spokesperson for JFGV, said, “Our sympathies are with the families, and it’s sad that they are drawn into the larger issue. They’re innocent victims in the larger scheme of things.”

– With files from Janice Arnold in Montreal. A longer version of this article can be found at cjnews.com/node/126049.

Tooshaaya all natural

Tom and Tzameret in studio. (photo by Galit Reismann)

An Israeli mother and daughter duo have combined to create designer pieces that use exclusively natural textile, with a focus on nature, and creations that become an extension of the wearer of any shape or size.

Tzameret, 50, and Tom, 28, began their business from home when Tom was at Israel’s Shenkar College of Design, in her second year of studies (2009). Tzameret, an art therapist by profession, was looking to do something different, and building this business with her daughter was the perfect fit.

The pair began the work little by little while Tom was finishing school. After Tom graduated with honors in 2011, with a bachelor of design, she and Tzameret invested all the time, energy and resources they could into their brand. For the past 18 months, they have been working out of a studio in Jaffa.

Tooshaaya is a design studio for eco-textile accessories with the driving concept of “body, home, soul.” For now, they create accessories like scarves, shawls and cardigans, but they plan to soon also design accessories for the home and soul.

“I’ve wanted to have my own business since I was a little girl,” said Tom.

During the summer between her second and third year at Shenkar, Tom said, “I wanted to make my own products, like scarves, and sell them. My mom was at a point when she wanted to take a small break from therapy.

“As always, I shared my prototype with my mom. We started talking about it and the idea to work together came up. I thought it was a great idea.

“Me and my mom are complete opposite in a lot of things. That can make us feel crazy sometimes, but it also makes us perfect business partners and designers. Also, we always know how much we love each other and that we want the best for each other.”

photo - A Tooshaaya bamboo cardigan modeled by Lior Sachar — A Tooshaaya bamboo cardigan modeled by Lior Sachar. *(photo by Ami Bornstein)*

Tzameret has always loved art, creation and design. Also, she said, “I love Tom, believe in her, and appreciate her talent. Since she was four or five years old, it has been very clear she is gifted in art and has her own unique way of looking at things.

“We decided to join forces and talents, and create an exciting journey together. Although it’s not always simple to be a business partner with your daughter, it’s a huge privilege. I’m very proud.”

When Tom was in college, she “learned the textile industry is the second-most-polluted industry in the world.” She said, “As a textile designer, I see it as my responsibility to design and create ecological textile.” Tooshaaya’s motto is “Touched by nature.”

Tom and Tzameret chose to work only with natural materials, especially with new eco-fibres like bamboo and soy. “These fibres, in addition to the eco part, have special and very important qualities, like UV protection, hypoallergenic, temperature adjustments and [the] creation of amino acids, which is healthy for the skin,” explained Tom. “They’re good for the world and the body. Of course, we also believe in sustainability and love the energy of natural materials around our bodies.”

Tooshaaya designs are inspired by the sights, shapes, textures and colors of nature. “With each of our designs, even when there are few similar items, no one [item] is the same,” said Tom. “Each has its own unique design and process of production, which is mostly handmade.

“We believe that, when we feel comfortable, it’s easier to be connected to nature and express who we are.”

It has proved challenging to find natural materials, however. “Yarns are imported by us,” Tom said. “Also, producing natural materials is slower and more complicated than it is with synthetic or mixed yarns.

“Israel is a small and challenging market, in general, and particularly for niche designers,” she added. “We’re glad to have local [from Israel] and international loyal and return clientele who love our designs, appreciate our work and share our concepts.

“When I look at nature, I see infinite organic beauty composed of stability and softness, a tension between order and disorder, and the changes wrought by time, giving everything its unique character.

“My art and designs are a constant search for this organic esthetic. When I design an item, like a scarf, I create a second skin that looks organic and feels like a natural continuation of the body. The item’s unique character comes from the person who wears it, through movement and over time.”

Each item is made using special knitting techniques, with fine and delicate threads, hand dying, embroidering, weaving and felting. The items can be worn with a variety of clothing types and styles. Most are one-size-fits-all, suitable for sizes 36-44 (EU).

“Our ability to create custom-size orders, including plus sizes, is also somewhat unique,” said Tom. “Our items can fit almost anyone. And our ability to ship worldwide is very exciting. We send packages to all continents of the world, from the U.S. to Turkey, Russia, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and Italy.

“We love our work. What is most satisfying is when customers tell us how much they enjoy wearing our items, and we can see how our ideas are reflected in reality and bring happiness to others.”

For more information on Tooshaaya, visit toosha.com, toosha.com/#!video/c65q, or like them on Facebook, facebook.com/toosha.eco.design.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Waves of Jews to East Asia

Shanghai’s famous Bund district, where most of the buildings were built and owned by wealthy Sephardi Jewish families. (photo by Anthony Hartman via Wikimedia Commons)

It was a long trek: 6,000 miles by boat from central Europe to East Asia. But the towns of East Asia opened their gates for the waves of Jewish emigrants who had to find shelter from the tragic problems they faced first in Russia and, later, in Europe.

Though some believe their story still flies under the radar when compared to the prevalence of other Holocaust-related discourse – perhaps because most of Shanghai’s Jewish residents viewed their time in the city as a transient stage – historians now know there once was a large and thriving Jewish community in China. Records of immigrants kept by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which operated in Asia from 1917-1950, paint an inescapable picture of Jewish refugees who survived the war in Shanghai.

“The United States, Canada, Australia closed the doors to Jews and other immigrants in the 1920s.… HIAS had to … find other places that were willing to allow Jewish refugees to live there,” explained Mark Hetfield, HIAS president and chief executive officer. “Desperate measures called for creative thinking.”

photo - A plaque at a house in Shanghai that was formerly the residence of Jewish refugees, including W. Michael Blumenthal, who went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter — A plaque at a house in Shanghai that was formerly the residence of Jewish refugees, including W. Michael Blumenthal, who went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter. *(photo by H. Barrison via Wikimedia Commons)*

The first Jews, Silk Road traders, arrived in China in the eighth century and settled in Kaifeng. The next Jews were those who arrived under British protection following the First Opium War. Many of these Jews were of Indian or Iraqi origin, due to British colonialism in these regions, and they became the largest dealers in opium. These included David Sasson (the “Rothschild of the East”), philanthropic businessman Sir Eli (Eliazer) Khadori and real estate lord Silas Herdoon. According to most accounts, the number of Sephardi Jews in China totaled around 1,000.

Around 4,000 Jews would then arrive as refugees from the Russian Revolution of 1917. Finally, a surge as large as 18,000 Jews arrived as refugees from the Holocaust in the late 1930s and 1940s. According to Peter Nash, a child survivor from Berlin who found refuge in Shanghai from 1939-1949, about 8,000 of these refugees originated from Germany and about 4,000 came from Austria.

Listening to her patients

Toronto physician Sharon Baltman treats her patients by listening. Author of the self-published memoir Escape from the Bedside, Baltman, 66, takes readers on the journey of her decision to go to medical school until she ultimately gave up being a general practitioner so she could have more time for her patients.

photo - Dr. Sharon Baltman — Dr. Sharon Baltman *(photo from cjnews.com)*

Currently maintaining a two-day-a-week psychotherapy practice, Baltman, who is divorced with one daughter, said that she escaped “from the ivory tower of the hospital into private psychotherapy practice in order to listen closely to my patients, and hear their stories.”

She said that when she first announced her plans to enter pre-med at University of Toronto, she was told she’d never be a doctor, “because of her long painted fingernails, her big breasts, and the ‘three Ms: marriage, motherhood and medicine.’” She persevered, however, and went into emergency medicine, then family practice.

“I left emergency medicine because I didn’t have enough time for my patients,” she said. “I barely met [them] and rarely saw them a second time.”

She switched to a general practice, she said, “so I would have longer-term connections, but ran out of time trying to deal with both the physical and emotional needs [of the patients].

“In order to hear more about people’s lives, and what made them tick, I finally chose full-time psychotherapy work, so I could have time to listen to their tales in a quiet, un-rushed venue. I chose not to be a psychiatrist, because I did not want to go through another residency.”

While she started with classic Freudian analytic work, she said, she later moved to cognitive behavioral therapy, “to teach patients to deal with the here and now in a concrete way – to reframe their thoughts more positively, and to find the grey zone between the black and white extremes of life.”

It’s only in the last 10 years, Baltman said, that medical schools have trained doctors in narrative medicine, a method whereby physicians do not merely treat medical problems, but take into account the specific psychological and personal history of the patient.

“It is a way of listening closely to patients’ stories about their illness. Instead of asking, ‘Where is your pain?’ narrative medicine has physicians asking patients to tell them what they need to know about them. By telling us a story, we get a lot more information about [our patients] and their illness.”

For example, she said, if someone comes in complaining of chest pains, “a doctor typically asks where, for how long, and if they’ve had it before. With narrative medicine, the doctor keeps interrogating until they get the whole story. Maybe it’s stress-related, maybe it happens after a certain activity. They try to dig into the story.”

Patient care is much better, said Baltman, if physicians know everything that is going on. “On the [other hand], patients feel heard. An important piece of narrative medicine is that everyone is humanized.”

She said that there are doctors who have been practising narrative medicine for years, “but now it is an important part of medical school curriculum. When students learn about eye disease, they may also read a story about someone losing their vision, so students get an idea of what the patient is going through. They learn about a patient’s experience by reading about them.”

Baltman said that, in retrospect, her career was headed in the direction of her current practice from the beginning. “My career took me here because I wanted to listen. Now, I have the opportunity to talk to my patients.”

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

How LGBTQ inclusive are Toronto shuls?

Created in 1984, Holy Blossom Temple’s “rainbow chuppah” was inspired by imagery from the story of Noah’s Ark. (photo from cjnews.com)

Had they gotten engaged one year later, Orrin Wolpert and his husband, Mitchell Marcus, would have been married by the rabbi at the downtown Toronto synagogue to which they now belong, the First Narayever Congregation.

The traditional egalitarian synagogue changed its policy on allowing same-sex weddings in June 2009, 10 months after the couple planned their ceremony. At the time, Wolpert and Marcus were involved with the Narayever, but weren’t members, unwilling to belong to a shul that disallowed gay weddings. They asked a Reform rabbi they both knew to officiate at their August 2009 wedding, and subsequently joined Narayever in accordance with the synagogue’s new stance.

“I feel really strongly about the shul,” said Wolpert, who comes from a traditional background. “It’s an amazing community of passionate Jews who are very traditional in their practice yet very inclusive in their approach … the membership is very intellectual, very socially progressive … we feel totally included there.”

Wolpert worked on the Narayever’s board for two years, ran its social action committee, helped draft the language on its website and attends services with his husband and their two-year-old twins about once a month. The congregation honored them with an aufruf prior to their wedding, a brit milah for their son and a simchat bat for their daughter.

Wolpert and Marcus’ sense of total acceptance by their synagogue is not anomalous, but neither is it the norm.

Given the traditional Jewish view that homosexual sex is biblically prohibited, the issue continues to be sensitive for many synagogues and, in some cases, one that requires an overhaul of entrenched values.

Over the past decade or so, as Canadian legislation and large swathes of public opinion have come to recognize the rights of homosexual couples to marry and access attendant legal benefits, Canadian synagogues across denominations have been confronted with the expectation to assert where they stand on LGBTQ inclusion. Given the traditional Jewish view that homosexual sex is biblically prohibited, the issue continues to be sensitive for many synagogues and, in some cases, one that requires an overhaul of entrenched values.

And it’s not just the question of whether to allow same-sex marriage. Synagogues and rabbis across the board are increasingly establishing – both formally and informally – positions on their overall approaches to including LGBTQ congregants in matters such as ritual participation, educational programming and use of language.

While levels of acceptance vary widely among synagogues and rabbis – even within the bounds of a given denomination – there appears to be a general shift toward emphasizing practical inclusion of LGBTQ congregants above rigid adherence to biblical text. Reform, Reconstructionist and progressive, non-denominational synagogues across North America have generally embraced LGBTQ members as equal participants, both by officiating at same-sex weddings and offering full involvement in ritual and executive proceedings.

In 1999, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the principal association of Reform rabbis in Canada and the United States, green-lighted same-sex marriages, but left the decision whether to officiate at them up to individual rabbis. For some Reform leaders, therefore, change has been more gradual.

This past April, Rabbi Yael Splansky became senior rabbi at Toronto’s Reform Holy Blossom Temple and the first rabbi in the synagogue’s history to perform same-sex weddings. “For years here [as an associate or assistant rabbi], I wouldn’t, out of respect for my senior colleagues, officiate at same-sex weddings,” she said.

Splansky explained that Holy Blossom has long supported the LGBTQ community in other ways. The shul is an ongoing sponsor of Jewish LGBTQ group Kulanu’s Pride Parade float and it supported gay Jewish men afflicted by AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s.

While gay marriage itself remains a sticking point for a lot of rabbis, there are many who nonetheless view the welcoming of LGBTQ Jews as both an ethical and practical imperative.

The drawing of lines around “acceptable” and “unacceptable” forms of inclusion continues to be quite common among synagogues. While gay marriage itself remains a sticking point for a lot of rabbis, there are many who nonetheless view the welcoming of LGBTQ Jews as both an ethical and practical imperative.

“If someone with an interest, commitment or curiosity about Jewish life knocks on our doors, we’ve got to let them in,” Splansky said. “Some [rabbis] do it with full pleasure, while others do it grudgingly, but everyone’s got to do it … just looking at the numbers, we can’t afford to lose anybody.”

Her comment is in reference to the 2013 Pew report on American Jewry, a survey that indicates rising rates of secularism and intermarriage. Perhaps for this reason as well, the Modern Orthodox world has also seen a shift toward shelving views on homosexuality as sin and ushering LGBTQ Jews into the fold.

In 2010, close to 200 Orthodox rabbis signed a statement of principles regarding homosexual Jews. Drafted by Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, a member of one of the largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis, the Rabbinical Council of America, it affirms that although same-sex unions are “antithetical to Jewish law,” individuals with “homosexual inclinations should be treated with the care and concern appropriate to all human beings,” including acceptance in synagogues. It further acknowledges that homosexual Jews in the Orthodox community often face serious emotional and psychological challenges and that, especially among teenagers, the risk of suicide is greater.

Rabbi Aaron Levy, a Modern Orthodox rabbi at Makom, a non-denominational, grassroots Jewish community congregation in downtown Toronto, won’t perform gay marriages, but he said Makom is “a very queer-inclusive community,” with a number of active LGBTQ members. Last summer, Makom held a Shabbaton to honor the upcoming same-sex wedding of two members, which included an aufruf and learnings on queer issues and Judaism.

“Nature provides a minority of people whose sexuality is different, and halachah has to, at some point … come up with a credible response.”

“In terms of where I am vis-a-vis my own approach to traditional Jewish law and my understanding of where the Orthodox community is in grappling with LGBTQ issues … I don’t think I can perform a gay wedding,” said Levy. Still, he noted, “Nature provides a minority of people whose sexuality is different, and halachah has to, at some point … come up with a credible response…. Even if communities aren’t thinking as much about queer issues on the level of possible reinterpretations of halachah, they’re thinking about the social dynamic of becoming more welcoming.”

Boston-based Rabbi Steve Greenberg has garnered recognition for being the only known, openly gay Orthodox rabbi. Author of Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition and executive director of Eshel, an American organization that functions as a national support network for LGBTQ Orthodox Jews who wish to remain committed to tradition, he has performed a same-sex, halachically observant wedding for a Toronto couple and will officiate at another one in Toronto in August.

“ … it’s premature to expect the Orthodox world to sanctify or celebrate what most in it still believe is a prohibition…. I think it’s sufficient to have Orthodox rabbis support a same-sex couple’s Jewish life once they’re married.”

“I do it because, being gay myself, I feel a responsibility for young people, that there should be some way to commit in a fashion that’s real and that your family can celebrate,” Greenberg explained. “But I think it’s a mistake to presently expect [other] Orthodox rabbis to do this … it’s premature to expect the Orthodox world to sanctify or celebrate what most in it still believe is a prohibition…. I think it’s sufficient to have Orthodox rabbis support a same-sex couple’s Jewish life once they’re married.”

Greenberg emphasized that Orthodox rabbis have a responsibility not to dismiss LGBTQ individuals by telling them to pursue a heterosexual marriage or to opt for a life of celibacy. Such responses, can, particularly for young people, cause extremely harmful outcomes, such as depression, self-harm or substance abuse, he said.

“This cannot be a process by which we throw arguments at each other. We need to take a human read of what it is to discover oneself to be gay, lesbian or transsexual and figure out if the community can find ways – either within halachic norms or within a sense of responsibility to shift them – to make way for people who aren’t choosing their sexual or gender identity, but living it.” He suggested that Orthodox rabbis can instead say things such as, “God is merciful. There are 612 mitzvot you can still try to do to the best of your ability … join my shul.”

Aviva Goldberg is the ritual leader at Shir Libeynu, an unaffiliated, inclusive congregation that formed in the late 1990s in Toronto as a place for LGBTQ Jews to worship comfortably. Raised in a Modern Orthodox home, she turned to Reconstructionist Judaism as an adult and came out as a lesbian at age 38 (she’s now 65). Goldberg recalled how, two decades ago, even at a Reconstructionist synagogue, she and her partner weren’t allowed to come up for an aliyah together to mark their anniversary. While great strides have been made, she said, the community still has a way to go overall.

“I’ve heard some rabbis say, ‘Anyone can come to our shul.’ Sure, but do you talk about issues affecting LGBTQ members? Do any of your liturgies relate to them? Do you perform same-sex weddings? The answer is, of course, ‘No.’ It’s more like, ‘You can come to our shul, but leave your life behind.’”

“Toronto’s Jewish community is generally very conservative…. I’ve heard some rabbis say, ‘Anyone can come to our shul.’ Sure, but do you talk about issues affecting LGBTQ members? Do any of your liturgies relate to them? Do you perform same-sex weddings? The answer is, of course, ‘No.’ It’s more like, ‘You can come to our shul, but leave your life behind.’”

For some LGBTQ Jews, this perception sparks a rejection of “mainstream” synagogues in favor of wholly inclusive, non-denominational congregations like Shir Libeynu. For others, like Wolpert, a more traditional synagogue that accepts LGBTQ congregants, but doesn’t strictly define itself as a “gay shul” holds greater appeal.

“My gay identity is only one part of me,” he said. “The rest of me also has to be satisfied by my religious home.”

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

UNESCO finally runs “Holy Land” exhibit

Canadian participants in a meeting earlier this month with French President François Hollande came away impressed with the French leader’s sincerity and determination to address the terrorism and antisemitism that has France’s Jews on edge.

Avi Benlolo, president and chief executive officer of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, and Member of Parliament and former justice minister Irwin Cotler said Hollande was empathetic to the concerns of the country’s Jews and was forthright in discussing the threat posed by French-born jihadists returning from Syria.

“Hollande spoke about the barbaric attack on the Jewish museum in Belgium” and about the protection of Jewish schools, synagogues and other community buildings, Cotler said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.

Cotler and Benlolo were part of a 20-member delegation assembled by the Los Angeles-based

Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which met with Hollande prior to officially inaugurating an historic exhibition at UNESCO’s Paris offices. The exhibit, mounted by historian Robert Wistrich, is titled, People, Book, Land: The 3,500-Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land.

The exhibit was sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre along with the governments of Canada, Israel, the United States and Montenegro, and it launched this month after pressure from Arab countries forced its cancellation in January.

Benlolo said the reception by French officials and Hollande at the Élysée Palace was warm and welcoming. The delegates were anxious to express their concerns about the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels by a French gunman, who killed four people.

“Hollande believes there are more than 1,000 French nationals who went to fight in Syria and joined radical groups,” Benlolo said. Three hundred remain. Many came back and he’s concerned about their radicalization and if they will take action against the Jewish community.

Mehdi Nemmouche, the man accused in the Brussels attack, is believed to have spent 2013 fighting with Islamic radicals in Syria.

Hollande assured the delegates that he is working closely with intelligence and security services to track returning jihadists and to ensure the safety of the country’s Jews.

“I believe Hollande was very sincere,” Benlolo said. “The Jewish community received substantial grants to secure their schools and synagogues,” he added.

Cotler, who has visited France three times in the last six months, said, “People spoke well of Hollande and his genuineness, his commitment to combat antisemitism, to bring perpetrators of antisemitism to justice and his appreciation of jihadist acts as threatening to French Jews and France alike. He took the position that it’s a joint struggle, a part of the protection of French democracy and all of France.”

During the meeting, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Wiesenthal Centre, told the president, “We meet at a pivotal time in history, when the Jewish community and France’s democratic values are under unprecedented attack by the forces of extremism both from the far right and from extreme Islamist purveyors of religious intolerance and murder.”

He applauded Hollande and his predecessor, president Nicolas Sarkozy, for denouncing an earlier terrorist attack in Toulouse that claimed the life of a rabbi and four children, but he lamented the failure of Muslim religious leaders to condemn the attacks.

Meanwhile, Cotler was effusive in his description of the Wistrich exhibit, which he called “historic.”

“It is a remarkable dramatization of history and heritage, of people, book, land, memory and state,” said Cotler.

In 24 panels, the exhibit traces Jewish history back to the patriarch Abraham, through Moses, King David and all the way through to the struggle for Soviet Jewry, the birth of Zionism and the reconstitution of the state of Israel.

The nine-day exhibit had been scheduled to open last January. Pressure from 22 Arab countries, who argued it would prejudice the peace process, prompted UNESCO to cancel it.

Responding to that decision, Hier stated, “It is ironic that, while the Arab League was trying to kill this exhibition and all the attention was focused on Paris, the UN headquarters in New York [was] hosting an exhibit entitled, Palestine, based entirely on the Arab narrative, which was not criticized as an interference with Secretary [John] Kerry’s mission.”

Following public criticism from Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and U.S. envoy Samantha Power, the exhibit was rescheduled to open early this month, but with the name Israel removed from the title and replaced with “Holy Land.” UNESCO also required the removal of an image of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which had been part of the initial exhibit prepared by Wistrich, a professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

Israeli company builds floating desalination plants for Japan

Environmentalists usually agree that making fresh water from brackish (salty) water is a last resort. Building desalination plants requires millions of dollars in technology, and it’s costly to produce potable water – both in terms of energy to run the plants and the environmental pollution the factories emit.

The Israeli company IDE Technologies – already planning the biggest desalination plant in the United States – is pushing the borders in this domain closer to sustainability in Japan, where it is working to produce floating desalination plants.

The new approach will breathe new life into Japan’s stagnant shipbuilding business and help the Japanese fulfil short-term freshwater needs, according to Bloomberg News.

Udi Tirosh, a business development director at IDE, told the business media outlet, “Floating plants will not replace the land-built ones, but floating plants can become an alternative that does not saddle a country with the burden of maintenance once local water tables improve.” This could be welcome news in parched regions of the United States, like California, which is experiencing an historic drought.

Palestinian prof. resigns after Auschwitz trip

The Palestinian professor who touched off a maelstrom of controversy by taking a group of students to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Poland is now at odds with his former employer after the school accepted his resignation.

Dr. Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, who headed the American studies department and served as chief librarian at Al-Quds University, stirred up controversy among Palestinians who felt the March trip was inappropriate. Although the participants were all students at Al-Quds, Dajani said that the trip itself was under the aegis of Wasatia, the nongovernmental organization that he heads whose goal is to “promote a culture of moderation and reconciliation between the Israeli people and the Palestinian people.” But when the trip became a public issue, criticism was leveled at the school and the professor. Dajani said he received threats and the employee and student unions, to which he did not belong, formally banned him from membership. On May 18, Dajani submitted his resignation from Al-Quds University.

Incoming university president Imad Abukishek said he was surprised by the resignation, given the lengths he said the school went to on Dajani’s behalf. “We thought he noticed what we did for him and that he would respect what we did for him,” Abukishek said, citing two university-assigned security guards hired to protect Dajani and the school’s attempt to confront the unions to demand the rescinding of the ban issued against the professor.

Dajani, however, said he saw the university’s response in a different light. In his letter of resignation addressed to outgoing university president Sari Nusseibeh, Dajani charged that as a result of the fallout from the Auschwitz trip, “the educational environment on this campus for teaching and learning is not available at your university, which makes it difficult to practise my mission to educate and practise academic freedom.”

In a statement, the administration strongly disagreed, citing the school’s efforts to “act promptly and effectively to deal with the actions” of the two unions and the hiring of the bodyguards. The administration insisted that Al-Quds did all it could do “to deal with the repercussions of his visit,” and did so even though it “was being made to deal with ‘an external activity carried out by Prof. Dajani in his private capacity as the CEO of an independent NGO, which he runs [that] … had nothing to do with the university.’” The statement added that the school did all it could “to ensure that individuals, including Prof. Dajani, had the right to express their views freely, and to act freely within the confines of the law, without fear of intimidations or threats.”