Maiya Letourneau has been head librarian of the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library since last November. (photo from Maiya Letourneau)
Maiya Letourneau, head librarian of the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, has always wanted to work with books. “I grew up in Winnipeg,” she said. “My mom worked in a bookstore, and I always liked books.”
Letourneau received a bachelor’s degree in education before completing the two-year library program at the University of British Columbia last summer. Since November 2021, she has been head librarian at the Waldman.
“When I learned about the job at the JCC library, I was excited,” she told the Independent. “I often went to the JCC in Winnipeg as a child, and to work at the JCC in Vancouver felt like a great opportunity to reconnect. And to work with books was all I wanted.”
Before she started this job, Letourneau worked as a student librarian at UBC and as a teacher-librarian at the Vancouver School Board. “A teacher-librarian is a great job,” she said. “You teach the children how to use a library, both its paper and its digital resources. I worked with the elementary school children. We had story times often, and I taught them how to ask questions about the stories we read.”
Letourneau considers reading one of the highest needs and pleasures of any human being. “Not every school has a library,” she said, “but I think all schools should have one. It helps with students’ literacy rates. Reading helps kids down the road in their lives.”
Books have certainly defined her life. She reads a wide variety of genres and on a broad array of topics. She talks about books with shining eyes, like a person with a sweet tooth enjoying a selection of treats in a cake shop. “I’m reading a lot of the books from the Waldman Library. It is an amazing collection. I might not have a deep knowledge of Jewish literature yet, but I have a deep appreciation of it. It’s been great fun for me to read our books, to learn our collection.”
Her latest read was Gary Shteyngart’s Our Country Friends. “It was a bit humourous and very relatable,” she said. “The story was about COVID and the isolation we all experienced recently because of the pandemic. A wonderful novel.”
Passionate about her job, she not only wants to offer patrons the best books and movies but also to find great new material for the collection. “I often go to GoodReads to get a feel of what people are reading, but my main resource is the Jewish Book Council,” she said. “I regularly log into their website. Another resource is when people come in and ask about a book they want to read. Listening to our readers is paramount.”
Letourneau gives a lot of thought to improving everyone’s reading-related experience. “One of our programs involves authors visiting the library. Another is a monthly Jewish Book Club, led by the former head librarian, Helen Pinsky. We also have a grant for an iPad learning program – people could borrow an iPad from the library for several months, and our volunteers would teach them how to use those iPads to access the Waldman’s digital resources. We have over 600 digital books in our collection, and not all of them are duplicated in the paper format.”
Letourneau’s concern over library accessibility is profound. “During the pandemic, we were closed for several months,” she said. “Now, we are open, and more people are feeling comfortable coming to the library in-person again, but I want to do more, to bring books to the people, like bookmobiles. COVID taught us to look for ways to bring the books outside the library.”
One of the new ways to connect readers to books will be a cart the library ordered recently. “We are on the second floor of the JCC,” explained Letourneau. “Nobody is passing the library on the way to their meetings or the gym or the swimming pool. The library is not often a destination by itself, but our research suggests that people would be glad if the books came to them. We are going to have the library mobile book cart roaming around the JCC, in the atrium on the first floor or near the café. I’m sure it will increase our book circulation.”
She also initiated a major change at the Waldman: it is now free to access books, and not only for JCC members but for the general public as well.
“We have something they don’t,” she said, referring to most other libraries. “We offer Jewish authors and Jewish content the city public library might not have. It is especially important for newcomers to Canada. We have many Hebrew books and, when people just arrive from Israel, they want to read the language they know. Their children want the familiar language, as well, before they learn English. That’s why our Hebrew collection is so important.”
Letourneau is not alone in her dedicated work. She has the library’s volunteers to help her.
“The volunteers are the backbone of this library,” she stressed. “The credit goes to the previous librarians. They built such a great group of volunteers. Some of them, about 70%, are over 55, seniors who want to help for various reasons.
“Others are young students who want to learn how a library works. The Waldman is the best place for them. We are a small library and, here, they can learn every aspect and every task in a library, not just one activity, like shelving or front desk, which they might learn from a larger library.”
While many older and longtime users consider the library an access point to information, a quiet refuge and a serious place, she wants to add some new features to attract younger readers.
“I’d like to add a sense of playfulness for the kids,” she said. “Maybe some games, like Dungeons & Dragons. I’m thinking of ways to make the genre of fiction more visible on the shelves, too. There are some wonderful genres of books – fantasy and science fiction – by Jewish authors. Teenagers like those books.”
In general, Letourneau regards it as her duty to promote reading as much as possible and is willing to consider many possibilities of what a library can offer and be. “Whatever gets people reading,” she said with a smile.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Left to right, Alex Monchamp, Aaron Friedland, David Kaye and Howard Blank prepare to draw the 50/50 winner at King David High School’s Golden Thread Gala on May 12. (photo from KDHS)
“The reality is King David took a student who genuinely struggled, exposed me to meaningful ways to make a difference – they gave me passion and purpose, they provided me with academic rigour to realize my dreams, provided me with confidence, and then added a fundamental layer of Jewish and humanist values,” said Aaron Friedland, addressing a full house at King David High School’s Golden Thread Gala on May 12.
“And what is interesting is how unremarkable my story at King David is,” he continued. “There are simply too many grads who King David has helped to overcome the odds and flourish – and it’s the outcome of brilliant and caring educators investing in us.”
Friedland is founder and executive director of the Simbi Foundation, which helps underserved and refugee communities access education. He is a National Geographic Explorer and a PhD candidate in the field of econometrics, focusing on the interplay of economics and education. And these are only a few of the many accomplishments and projects on Friedland’s growing resumé.
He came to King David in Grade 8, he said, after having attended four different elementary schools. “I’m incredibly dyslexic,” he shared, “and there was a time when teachers told my parents I likely wouldn’t make it to university.”
But there is more to King David than preparing students for university, he added. “The world doesn’t just need more university grads. The world needs more global citizens who are passionate about creating positive impact and who have the skill set to realize their dreams. Tonight is about celebrating a school that has developed a tried-and-true approach to developing global citizens who thrive while engaging in tikkun olam, or repairing the world. And I’m not sure if you’ve seen or have been reading the news, but the world could use a little repair.”
Mentioning COVID-19, Russia’s war on Ukraine, the challenge to Roe v Wade in the United States and generally declining literacy rates, he spoke about the need for hope. He then cited primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, whom he had interviewed on Simbi Foundation’s Impact in the 21st Centurypodcast.
“Jane explained, ‘Hope isn’t just wishful thinking – it’s rolling up our sleeves and doing something about the problem.’ And she shared a few pieces of wisdom,” said Friedland.
“When we’re feeling a lack of hope, it’s important to remember just how much power we each possess.
“When we’re feeling stuck, we must think globally and act locally. She means that we must find causes we’re passionate about and start making a difference immediately,” he said. “No action is too small. Jane spoke about the addictive nature of helping. And, once we’re helping, we’re part of the solution and it feels great – so we do more of it.
“And, when I pushed Jane further, she explained that she stays hopeful for three reasons. One, our amazing human intellect. Two, the indomitable human spirit – meaning, we don’t give up. And three, the power of young people.
“Jane believes in the power of young people so strongly,” said Friedland, “that it is where she invests all of her time, specifically high schoolers, because she believes that those are the people who are going to change our planet and change the world. And, after speaking with Jane, it got me thinking about how King David is the exact breeding ground for the types of people who come out and positively impact the world and give us hope.”
A visit to KDHS by farmer J.J. Keki, a leader of Uganda’s Abayudaya Jewish community, was the spark for Friedland’s tikkun olam work and further study. The Simbi Foundation began its life as the Walking School Bus and the organization now builds solar-powered classrooms, known as BrightBoxes, in Ugandan and Indian refugee settlements, with each installation providing up to 6,000 students with access to education and electricity. The foundation’s chief operating officer and co-founder is Ran Sommer, another KDHS graduate.
The Golden Thread Gala celebrated the almost 750 students who have graduated from KDHS since it was established – and it raised $202,491 for the school.
The gala, which was held at Congregation Beth Israel, began with a piano and vocal performance by student Joseph Gabay, and also featured a song performed by students Kailey Bressler, Rachel Gerber, Mhairi Hemingson and Kiera Katz; group member Sara Bauman was unable to attend. Alex Monchamp, deputy head of school, stepped in to welcome the crowd because head of school Russ Klein couldn’t be there either, but Klein’s emcee duties were taken on by actor David Kaye, another KDHS alum. As part of his emceeing, Kaye interviewed on stage two other KDHS grads – Jordan Grubner and Ava Katz – about their time at the school and how it prepared them for the larger world.
Rabbi Stephen Berger, head of Judaic studies, did the blessing over the bread before the meal and gave a few remarks, as did gala committee co-chairs Heidi Seidman and Sherri Wise, and KDHS board members Alain Guez and Chana Charach. Howard Blank led the live auction.
Beverley Kort is a registered psychologist by day and a cartoonist in her off hours. She recently took a course in comics journalism at the School for Visual Arts in New York and one of the assignments was to do a local story. Bigsby the Bakehouse is her local bakery in Vancouver and surviving the pandemic is a current topic. She decided to merge these two interests to create this article.
Jan Cherniavsky, Elspeth Rogers Cherniavsky and Gaby Bettelheim, Austria, 1922. (photo from Alix Morgan)
The Anschluss, Evian Conference, Munich Agreement and Kristallnacht: 1938 was a watershed year in Holocaust history. These events marked a turning point in the lives of the Jews of Europe and on the international stage, where political decisions made by Western democracies would reverberate for generations to come.
Some have argued that the genocide of European Jewry “started with the washing of the streets” of Vienna in the weeks immediately following Anschluss.[1] They assert a “critical correlation between these events and the genocide that lay ahead.”[2] Appreciating what transpired on the streets of Vienna after Anschluss and understanding how those events paved the road to genocide is imperative in the study of the Holocaust.
For Canadian students learning about these events eight decades later, it can be difficult to grasp the horror, fear and disbelief felt by Austrian Jews as they were brought under Nazi rule, overnight. One meaningful way to convey their experience is through primary sources. Personal letters, diaries and photographs from the time can evoke the range of emotions felt by Jewish individuals and families as they struggled to comprehend and respond to the events of 1938.
In 2021, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre was privileged to receive a donation of personal letters which do just this. The donation, arranged with assistance from Elspeth Rogers Cherniavsky’s grandchildren, Alix Cherniavsky Morgan and Nick Gudewill, comprises 39 pages of correspondence written by Elspeth to her mother, in Vancouver, during Elspeth’s visit to Vienna in May and June 1938. With clarity and compassion, the letters give a firsthand account of the circumstances facing dozens of Elspeth’s Jewish friends.
Elspeth Rogers Cherniavsky
Elspeth Rogers was born in Vancouver in 1900 and grew up in her family’s mansion, Gabriola House, which still stands on Davie Street. She attended Crofton House School, volunteered with Alexandra Orphanage and, in her leisure time, rode her horse in Stanley Park.
Elspeth’s father, prominent Vancouver industrialist B.T. Rogers, founded B.C. Sugar Refining Co Ltd. (now known as Rogers Sugar) in 1890. The B.C. Sugar factory remains a Vancouver landmark, its origins and history linked to the completion of the cross-continental Canadian Pacific Railway and the expansion of industry in Vancouver. Elspeth’s mother, Mary Isabella Rogers, was born into the Angus family of Victoria. She became a leading patron of music in Vancouver in the first half of the 20th century and is credited as the de facto founder of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.[3]
Elspeth’s connection to Jewish social circles in Vienna came through her husband, Jan Cherniavsky, whom she wed on June 1, 1922, at St Paul’s Anglican Church on Jervis Street, in the high society event of the season.[4] Jan was a classical pianist with the internationally renowned Cherniavsky Trio of musical brothers: Leo, Jan and Mischel Cherniavsky.
Their father, Abraham Cherniavsky, harnessed his young sons’ musical talents to secure the family’s passage out of Russia, with its antisemitic restrictions, at the turn of the century. The Cherniavskys moved to Vienna in 1904 to study music and gain the support of influential people there. The Bettelheim family of Vienna quickly embraced the Cherniavsky Trio and promoted them in Vienna’s music circles. The Bettelheims used their connections in England to facilitate the trio’s move to London in 1906, launching their international career.[5]
The Cherniavsky Trio: Jan, Mischel and Leo photographed in Minsk, 1904. (photo from Alix Morgan)
Throughout his life, Jan Cherniavsky returned to Vienna frequently and maintained his boyhood friendship with the Bettelheim family, particularly with Karl Bettelheim, who was closest in age to Jan. After Jan married Elspeth, he immediately took her to Vienna to meet Karl and Karl’s wife Gaby.
During the 1920s and ’30s, Jan and Elspeth lived alternately in Vancouver, London and Vienna, as dictated by the international performance schedule of the Cherniavsky Trio. Elspeth and Jan rented a flat in Vienna and lived for a time there with their children. With the Cherniavsky connections in the music world and the Rogers family connections in the sugar industry, Jan and Elspeth amassed a large circle of Jewish friends in Vienna, including composers, performers, sugar refinery magnates, timber products manufacturers, academics, art collectors, lawyers, doctors and engineers.
Letters from Vienna
Elspeth and Jan were living in England in the spring of 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Disturbing news reports of mob violence and persecution compelled the Cherniavskys to travel to Vienna to check on the well-being of their many Jewish friends there, particularly Karl Bettleheim.
Elspeth, by her own description, had always been “mortally afraid about everything”[6] and was particularly trepidatious about visiting Vienna during this “reign of terror” with a husband who was Jewish by birth. But the couple was determined to see their friends and offer what help they could. As Canadians, the Cherniavskys hoped their citizenship would protect them and possibly allow them to assist their friends in their urgent search for a means to flee the Nazis.
So it was that eight weeks after Anschluss, in May 1938, Elspeth and Jan Cherniavsky arrived in Vienna by car. On May 29, 1938, Elspeth wrote home to her mother in Vancouver describing the scene that met them in Vienna:
“It was a mad-house in Vienna and we began to feel, after a few days, that we were losing our senses too…. Hitler’s photograph is everywhere until it stinks and swastikas cover everything. Streicher’s paper, Der Sturmer, on sale at every corner and the pictures in it make you sick…. I walk for blocks to look for a shop that is not marked ‘Aricshes Geschäfft’ [Aryan business].”
Unlike Nazi Germany, where the persecution of Jews evolved over a period of five years, daily life for Austrian Jews changed overnight and their fate was far worse. Anti-Jewish laws rendered Austrian Jews stateless, subjecting them to random arrest and dehumanizing attacks, and denying them protection of the police and the rule of law. The scale of the violence, both planned and spontaneous, and the alarming number of ordinary Austrian citizens who turned against Jews, created an atmosphere of terror in which Austrian Jews, as observed by Elspeth, felt “absolutely trapped and hunted.” Elspeth wrote in her letter of June 6, 1938:
“When we got to Germany, everything seemed peaceful in comparison to Austria. People didn’t Heil Hitler quite so avidly as in Wien…. After five years the people in Germany must be a little tired & yet I believe they are starting there on another wave of persecution. But think how violent it is in Vienna to do in two-and-a-half months what it took five years to do in Germany.”
Upon reaching Vienna, the Cherniavskys went immediately to Karl Bettelheim’s flat. Karl could no longer practise law, his car was confiscated and his assets registered with the Nazi authorities in anticipation of expropriation. Though he had lived his entire life in Vienna and fought for Austria-Hungary in the First World War, Karl lived in fear of being visited by the SS, molested in the streets or arrested in a raid. He told Elspeth, “he never thought that he would feel like a criminal and a fugitive.”
Karl’s despair and hopelessness radiate from the pages of Elspeth’s letters, as he spoke frequently of suicide. Understanding that his life in Austria was over, Karl was desperate to get himself and his teenaged daughter out of the German Reich, even though it would mean leaving everything behind. But it was “almost impossible” to find a country that would accept Jewish refugees and unlikely for Karl to muster the financial resources to support himself in a new country, with the crippling flight tax imposed on fleeing Jews.
Elspeth and Jan visited many of their friends in Vienna and found them in a similar state of anguish and panic:
“We can’t do anything much, it is true, but we can talk over prospects and perhaps some suggestions…. It was like going from one death bed scene to another, some had lost everything already and felt the worst was over and those that hadn’t waited for it to come…. It is like seeing people drowning slowly (only I think that is too human a way to describe it) and not doing much to help them.”
Elspeth’s letters are filled with stories of their friends’ public humiliation and social isolation: taken from their homes and forced to clean the streets, ousted from their professions, arrested and jailed without warrant, robbed of their assets and businesses, prohibited from public spaces and even turned on by their neighbours and employees.
“Lili Bettelheim, for eight hours, had to clean lavatories with her hands, to pick up dirt on the floor and even more unspeakable things – with her teeth and all the time not be allowed to go to the lav herself….”
“Rosa Lemberger was in prison for three weeks with four other women in a one-roomed cell … and was allowed out only when she signed a paper saying she would give all her money and properties to them….”
“We went to see the Strakosches. Their factory has been taken away. At least bought from them at such a small sum it was practically taken and they have lost everything … Georg Strakosch was in prison too….”
“[Dr. Patzau] had been one of the 4,000 rounded up…. Just before we left Vienna we heard that all they know is that he is either at Dachau or Munich – or Bremen. I think that is rather bad – sometimes they come back from there in urns….”
“We went to see poor Mrs. Dub. She had a small pension 800 sch. from the newspaper her husband [Mortiz Dub] worked for all his life. The first month it was cut down to 400. This month she was told she would have none….”
“Poor Pepi [Josef Hupka] broke down completely when we left – he has so little hope. He has some very fine drawings by Schwind which were exhibited in the Albertina.… He wants to sell them – but a new law by Goebbels says a Jew will be imprisoned if he asks too much for an art treasure – so Pepi is frightened to sell.”
Although the worst of the mob violence had quelled by the time Elspeth and Jan arrived in Vienna, Elspeth observed an atmosphere where the “terrorizing is more subtle and secret and everyone lives in daily fear.” It was dangerous for Jews to go out in public, and equally dangerous to meet in homes, so the Cherniavskys met their friends in back rooms, behind locked doors, using whispers, away from windows where they might be seen or overheard.
During these clandestine reunions, many of the Cherniavskys’ friends broke down in tears, speaking of suicide and swallowing sedatives to survive the daily nightmare. They begged Elspeth and Jan for help in leaving the country. Eight weeks after Anschluss, their friends had moved past denial and were resigned to the necessity of flight, accepting that their fate would be complete financial ruin and the permanent dissolution of their families and community.
Who wants them?
Anschluss brought 185,000 Austrian Jews within the German Reich; almost all lived in Vienna. The ensuant refugee crisis was acute, with hundreds of thousands of Jews seeking protection and very few countries willing to offer it. Jan and Elspeth were determined to use their Canadian citizenship and international connections to help their Viennese friends caught in the Nazi regime. At the British consulate in Vienna, they saw “about a hundred people waiting to get permits to go to England.” Their meeting with a CPR agent regarding immigration prospects in Canada was unsuccessful. Obtaining official permission to leave was difficult and illicit flight was risky.
“We talked with Karl about his plans – how he is to get out & where to go – as we must get him out…. Jan & I have most pessimistic views of his chances of getting out, but we left promising to do anything we can.… We had the usual dismal talk and discussed the possibilities of every country. Jan is a walking atlas and full of geographical information….
Karl Bettelheim and Jan Cherniavsky in Gargellen, Austria, 1922. (photo from Alix Morgan)
“Of course everyone asks us about Vancouver – if we came from anywhere else it would be the same. It is terribly cruel to say, ‘I’m afraid you would have no chance and besides it is almost impossible to get in.’ We try to think of other places where living would be cheaper and where there would be more opportunities. But the trouble now – where to go? Who wants them?”
Elspeth’s observation was confirmed just five weeks later. In July 1938, the Evian Conference addressed the Jewish refugee crisis, and all but one of the 32 countries in attendance refused to relax their immigration restrictions to admit Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. The Western democracies turned their backs on the Jews of Europe. As if in direct response to Elspeth, the Nazi paper Völkische Beobachters, reporting on the outcome of the Evian Conference, smugly proclaimed on July 15, 1938: “Germany has offered the world its Jews. No one wants them!”
Fate of their friends
The Cherniavskys were able to help Karl and his daughter Trauti reach safety in England in 1938. Trauti secured a permit to study and work as a children’s nurse in Northamptonshire, while Karl lived in London. Karl and Trauti stayed in England as registered “enemy aliens” until their immigration to the United States in 1940. The Cherniavskys assisted other Bettelheim family members in building new lives and businesses in Vancouver.
The younger Viennese friends mentioned in Elspeth’s letters made it out of Europe before the start of war, immigrating to England, the United States, Canada and Australia. But, tragically, most of their older friends either could not, or would not, leave Vienna.
Karl’s brother, retired judge Hofrat Ernst Bettelheim, and his wife Elly, were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942. They perished in Theresienstadt within a year.
Mrs. (Gisela) Dub was deported to Theresienstadt and subsequently transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp in May 1944. Mrs. Dub was murdered in Auschwitz.
Following the aryanization of the Strakosch sugar refining factory and seizure of his property, Georg Strakosch committed suicide in Vienna, just weeks after Elspeth and Jan left the city. The remaining family fled to Switzerland and eventually immigrated to the United States.
Pepi (Josef) Hupka, once dean of law at the University of Vienna, fled with his wife Hermine to Amsterdam in 1939, only to be forced into hiding when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940. The Hupkas were caught by the Nazis in 1944 and deported to Theresienstadt, where Pepi died in April 1944. Hermine was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. Decades later, following a legal battle for restitution of the Moritz von Schwind drawings mentioned in Elspeth’s letter, Hupka’s grandsons received what remained of their grandfather’s looted art.
Legacy
Elspeth Cherniavsky was deeply affected by what she witnessed in Vienna in the spring of 1938:
“I don’t think we can ever feel quite the same again … I just wish a few more people could see these things. To read leaves one feeling sorry but still quite cold-blooded about such things – but to see and talk to all these people makes you shudder and think that we should never mind anything, as long as we are free and have enough to eat and exist.”
The sense of chaos and urgency she experienced in Vienna is reflected in the feverish pace of her writing – a “jumbled account I have been scribbling in haste.” Yet her “screeds,” with their vivid details and biting commentary, transport the reader into “the mad-house” that was Vienna in 1938; “that filthy country that is so beautiful,” where “everything is so upside down that no one really knows anything.”
The public acts of cruelty and dehumanization, the uncontested violence carried out in broad daylight, the disintegration of the rule of law, and the collapse of basic human morals – all these elements described in Elspeth’s letter were on full display in Vienna in May 1938 for those who cared to see. But it was the “cold-blooded” indifference of bystanders and the international community that emboldened the perpetrators and demoralized the victims, setting the stage for genocide.
Elspeth’s perspective on the history she witnessed is unique. She was removed from the events, protected by her Canadian passport and non-Jewish status, yet also deeply connected through her intimate relationships with the victims. Elspeth’s perception was also coloured by her belief that, as a Canadian, she ought to be in a position to help. Her letters resonate with growing frustration that she could not do more. Elspeth’s refusal to simply stand by and watch history unfold distinguishes her from other non-Jewish North Americans who witnessed the atrocities in Vienna in 1938.[7] Though she did smuggle some valuables out of the country for Karl Bettelheim and Pepi Hupka, Elspeth never got over the fact that she was too much a “coward” (in her own estimation) to smuggle Mrs. Strakosch’s conspicuous diamond necklace past the border guards.
During her life, Elspeth was invariably described in relation to the others: “the sugar king’s daughter,” wife of the distinguished pianist, or daughter of Vancouver’s patron of the arts. When described in her own right, it was often as a “socialite” or “Vancouver society girl.”[8] Michael Kluckner writes: “Throughout her life, Elspeth was frustrated by her inability to accomplish anything which she felt to be sufficiently worthwhile – she called herself stupid for her lack of self-confidence.”[9]
And yet, 34 years after her death, on the 80th anniversary of Anschluss, Elspeth’s letters were published in German by a small press dedicated to the voices of strong and inspiring women. In an anthology entitled 1938: Why We Must Look Closely [10], Elspeth’s letters are presented as a summons to moral and civil courage.
Elspeth’s wish that more people could witness the dehumanizing cruelty of the Nazi regime and understand the dangers of indifference has not fallen on deaf ears. With the donation of her letters to the VHEC and their presentation in our online collections catalogue, the preservation and accessibility of this historic correspondence is ensured for future generations.
The VHEC is grateful to the Cherniavsky and Gudewill families for entrusting Elspeth’s letters to its care and for the opportunity to introduce them to students, researchers and historians around the globe.
Lise Kirchnerhas worked with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre for two decades in the development and delivery of education programs with special focus on the pedagogical use of the VHEC’s collection. For this article, which was originally published in Zachor, Spring 2022, she thanks Beth Harrop, Ben Cherniavsky, Nick Gudewill and Alix Morgan for their generous assistance and support.
ENDNOTES
Sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka as quoted in James E. Young, The Texture of Memory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 110.
Ilana Fritz Offenberger in The Jews of Nazi Vienna, 1938–1945: Rescue and Destruction (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 43.
David G. Duke, VSO 100: A Century of Memorable Moments (Vancouver: Vancouver Symphony Society, 2018).
Vancouver Daily World, June 2, 1922, page 7.
Felix Cherniavsky, The Cherniavsky Trio ([Edmonton]: Felix Cherniavsky, 2001), 44-46.
All quoted text taken from the letters of Elspeth Cherniavsky unless otherwise noted.
For example, Helen Baker, an American woman in Vienna during Anschluss, wrote in her letters home to family: “My feelings about the Jews are equally mixed. I feel so sorry for them, but would like to boot them out of America.” See: Erin Harper, “Accidental Witness,” March 31, 2021, 12 Days that Shook the World, podcast, United States Holocaust Museum, accessed April 6, 2021.
Vancouver Daily World, Dec. 16, 1921, page 6.
Michael Kluckner, M.I. Rogers: 1869-1965 (Vancouver: M. Kluckner, 1987), 118.
Barbara Schieb and Jutta Hercher, eds., 1938: Warum wir heute genau hinschauen müssen (Munich: Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, 2018).
The new Beth Israel building welcomes people from 28th Avenue, while the original building (below) had its entrance on Oak Street. (photos from Beth Israel)
Congregation Beth Israel celebrates its 90th anniversary with a gala on June 12. It will feature “a walk down memory lane through each of the past nine decades,” as well as music, cocktails, dinner and other activities.
While the congregation’s history began in the 1920s, it wasn’t formally established until 1932. In a feature article in The Scribe (2008), community historian Cyril Leonoff, z”l, quotes an Oct. 9, 1931, editorial in the Jewish Western Bulletin, the predecessor of the Jewish Independent. A meeting had been held at the Jewish Community Centre, which was at Oak Street and 11th Avenue in those years, to discuss the possibility of a new congregation. The editorial commented:
“There can be no doubt in the minds of anyone that there is a distinct need for a Conservative or semi-Reform congregation in Vancouver. There are hundreds of Jews and Jewesses and their children who are so far removed by environment and training from the strictly Orthodox service that they have no inclination or desire to attend the synagogue now in existence here. The absence of [such a] synagogue carrying the services at least partly in English, has created a void in the religious life of many of our Jewish people…. The consensus of opinion in the community is … that a new congregation will be welcomed.”
The Jewish Community Centre was considered the best location initially, as the synagogue’s founding was during the Great Depression. Leonoff again cites that Oct. 9, 1931, editorial: “That the Community Centre, situated, as it is, convenient to all residential districts, would be the ideal place in which to set up the new congregation until such time as there are sufficient funds available for the erection of a separate building.”
The original building, dedicated in 1949. (photo from Beth Israel)
It wasn’t until the end of the Second World War that the land along Oak Street between 27th and 28th avenues – where the synagogue still stands – was bought. As Beth Israel’s website notes, “by the late 1940s, both a rabbi (David Kogan) and a building site – at 27th and Oak – became available and, in 1949, Beth Israel’s synagogue was dedicated.”
The June 2, 1968, graduation class photo and the caption on the back (below) were given to the Jewish Independent for this article. (photo from Beth Israel)
The congregation grew over the years and, for three of those first several decades, the synagogue was led by Rabbi Wilfred and Rebbetzin Phyllis Solomon, Cantor Murray Nixon, z”l, and Ba’al Tefillah, Torah reader and teacher David Rubin z”l.
Programs increased, as did the participation of women, beyond a bat mitzvah ceremony. According to the BI website, “In the late 1980s, it became clear that women, now well-educated in Jewish ritual and study, were ready to move up to the bimah and take their place as full participants in synagogue ritual. By 1989, women were called to the Torah for their own aliyot, were counted in the minyan and acted as sh’lichat tzibbur (prayer leader). Beth Israel was the first major Canadian Conservative congregation to become fully egalitarian.”
The notation “3 Cols ‘Beth Israel’” would have been written by Jewish Western Bulletin staff probably, as the announcement in the paper (below) ran over three columns. (photo from Beth Israel)
The synagogue’s current senior spiritual leader, Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, and his wife Lissa Weinberger came to Beth Israel in 2006 via Ohev Shalom Synagogue in Marlboro, N.J. He told the Independent at the time: “We are very excited about moving to Vancouver, taking on an exciting challenge and being part of this community. I didn’t really know much about Beth Israel when we visited Vancouver, but after doing some research, I realized what a wonderful synagogue with a rich history it was.”
The June 7, 1968, Jewish Western Bulletin article announcing the year’s graduates from Beth Israel.
“It has been a pleasure working with Beth Israel as its rabbi for almost 17 years,” Infeld told the JI last week. “I remember the first day I walked into the synagogue. The congregants were wonderful. They were kind and welcoming. But the building was dated and literally falling apart. Everyone knew that we needed a new space for our spiritual home. After a few years, we were able to build an incredible and beautiful new synagogue that will last us for generations. We built a synagogue building for a new millennium…. Beth Israel has always been at the heart of the Vancouver’s Jewish community. I am proud to be part of that. I am sure that the spirit of Beth Israel will be strong for at least another 90 years. I look forward to helping to nurture it for many years to come.”
Construction on the current building began in 2012 and it was dedicated in September two years later. Along with Infeld, Beth Israel is currently led by Rabbi Adam Stein, Ba’alat Tefillah Debby Fenson and youth director Rabbi David Bluman.
“According to Mishna Pirkei Avot,” said Infeld, “a person is strong at the age of 80 and bent over at the age of 90. Beth Israel certainly has shown that 90 is the new 80. We are stronger than we have ever been. We are a synagogue built on the shoulders of giants. Many great women and men have dedicated their time, sweat and tears into building Beth Israel to be the synagogue that we are today. We greatly appreciate that. We could not be where we are today if it were not for them. And we greatly appreciate all of the people who continue to support us so that we can continue to grow and serve the Vancouver Jewish community. Ninety years is a big milestone in the life of synagogue. We really look forward to celebrating our 100th anniversary in 10 years.”
The 90th anniversary gala chair is Dale Porte and committee members are Howard Blank, Alexis Doctor, Jean Gerber, Myrna Koffman, Debby Koffman, Alan Kwinter, Debbie Setton, Leatt Vinegar and David Woogman. To purchase tickets to the June 12 celebration, call the synagogue office at 604-731-4161 or visit bethisrael.ca.
Shabbat In a Box preparations. Left to right are Jenny Rivera, Moshe Maurice King (from JFS), Rachael Lewinski, Michelle Pascua and Freddie Santiago. (photo from Schara Tzedeck)
At this year’s Mosaic gala May 29, Congregation Schara Tzedeck will celebrate the team that oversees and orchestrates the synagogue’s In the Box meal program – the people who “have sustained and nurtured our community through the pandemic.”
Just over two years ago, as the pandemic started in March 2020, Schara Tzedeck launched In the Box. The program delivers meals to congregants and other community members in an effort to provide support for those living alone and those in need.
Every week before Shabbat, as well as during the holidays – Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Passover – 32 drivers set out from the synagogue’s Oak Street location and deliver kosher meals to 250 households throughout the Greater Vancouver area.
“In an extraordinary partnership with Jewish Family Services, our donors and members, together with our staff and volunteers, have delivered more than 25,000 meals since the program’s inception in March 2020. Through the holiday and Shabbat In a Box initiative, we have not only nourished our shul family and wider community with hearty Jewish cooking, we have nourished them with constant personal connections,” Schara Tzedeck president Jonathon Leipsic wrote in a message to congregants.
In recognition for their efforts throughout the pandemic, volunteers and drivers will receive a challah board made especially by Schara Tzedeck spiritual leader Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt.
Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt making one of the challah boards that will be given to honour In a Box volunteers. (photo from Schara Tzedeck)
The 2022 Mosaic gala coincides with Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), a national holiday in Israel that commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City following the Six Day War in June 1967. As such, this year’s gala will have an Israeli vibe, or, more precisely, the feel of “the shuk,” the Jerusalem marketplace. Food will consist of Moroccan salmon, kebabs, burekas and other delicacies that would be sold by vendors in the Holy City. There will also be candy stations, dried fruits, a spice market and fresh breads.
“This is the first gala since the pandemic started, and it is an interesting twist that what started as a program during a time when we were far apart from one another in terms of spacing is now bringing us back to the same physical space,” said Rachael Lewinski, facilities director at Congregation Schara Tzedeck, which had been hosting in-person Mosaic galas for more than a decade before COVID-19 struck.
Juleen Axler will be one of the drivers who will be honoured at the gala. Axler, who has been delivering meals to seniors and those with low incomes since the beginning of COVID, gets to the synagogue around noon on Fridays. She then takes the meals – consisting of a starter, an entrée, a dessert and a challah – to eight or nine homes each week.
The meals, Axler said, vary from week to week and, at holiday times, contain food symbolic of the occasion. For example, during Hanukkah, a box is certain to carry potato latkes.
“It’s an extremely rewarding process to be helping and to be doing my part during COVID. It has not been easy for many seniors to get a meal made and to have human connection for two years. Even now that is easier to move around and gather, seniors are still isolated. And, for my part, it is nice to witness the appreciation people have and to establish a relationship with them,” Axler said.
Despite the pandemic, Schara Tzedeck created a memorable event in 2021 through Zoom with Israeli President Isaac Herzog as their featured speaker. The evening also included footage of Shulem, the Orthodox singer; Rabbi Naftali Schiff, chief executive officer and founder of Jewish Futures; and a pre-recorded conversation between Rosenblatt and Leipsic.
Now back in person for the first time since 2019, this year’s Mosaic starts at 6:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased, and donations can be made, by visiting scharatzedeck.com.
Sam Margolishas written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Doors Open Richmond is organized by the Richmond Museum Society and the museum will welcome event attendees. The Kehila Society will be participating as an online site. (photo from Richmond Museum)
The Richmond Museum’s 15th annual Doors Open Richmond (DOR) returns next month as a free hybrid event. All in-person activities will take place June 4-5, and will be complemented by virtual content available June 2-5. This year’s edition features 35 sites representing the city’s cultural diversity and rich heritage, including 21 that will welcome visitors in-person. There are five new sites that are participating in DOR for the first time, including the Kehila Society of Richmond.
“This is the first year that the Jewish community of Richmond has been involved and for us it is a milestone to be included,” said Lynne Fader, co-executive director of the Kehila Society, which has been in operation since 1999. “Richmond has the second largest Jewish population in B.C. and yet sometimes we are a hidden gem in this city. Kehila has worked hard to bring the Jewish community to the forefront and increase awareness of our culture. To be included in such a diverse cultural event that showcases all the multi-ethnic groups in our community is an honour.”
The Kehila Society will be participating as an online site. The Doors Open Richmond team has worked closely with the society to produce a video that introduces the organization. The video will be available to view from June 2 on the event website, richmondmuseum.ca/ doors-open.
“Richmond is one of the most diverse cities in Canada, with more than 60% of residents born outside of the country,” said Jaeden Dela Torre, vice-chair of the Richmond Museum Society. “Doors Open Richmond is a chance to celebrate this diversity and a way to bring together the many communities that comprise the city. The event offers the public an inclusive platform to become more familiar with our local businesses, organizations, museums, places of worship, and more. Doors Open Richmond celebrates the very essence that makes this city a welcoming place to live.”
The in-person program offers visitors a range of activities. Saint Germain Bakery, another of the new sites this year, will give tours of their central facility where cakes and pastries are produced; tours will conclude with sample tastings. Richmond Media Lab will show how to bring drawings and figurines to life using the magic of stop-motion technology. Visitors can experience a day in the life of a firefighter at Fire Hall #1, Richmond’s largest and busiest fire hall, with hands-on activities and demonstrations. Family-run restaurant Anar Persian Cuisine will offer an introduction to Persian food, customs and traditions.
Anar Persian Cuisine will offer Doors Open Richmond attendees an introduction to Persian food, customs and traditions. (photo from Anar Persian Cuisine)
A special shuttle tour will be available on June 4, taking visitors to various places of worship along No. 5 Road, also known as the “Highway to Heaven.” The tour will stop at the Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre, Lingyen Mountain Temple and the Richmond Jamia Mosque.
Among the many other participants are Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond City Hall, Richmond Public Library, Richmond RCMP, Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia, London Farm Heritage Site, Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple, Richmond Olympic Experience and SUCCESS Richmond Service Centre.
London Farm Heritage Site is one of 35 sites participating in this year’s Doors Open Richmond. (photo from London Farm)
The local event is part of the Doors Open Canada program supported by the City of Richmond, Public Art Richmond, Richmond Heritage Commission, the B.C. Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia and the Government of Canada. The event is organized by the Richmond Museum Society.
Most in-person programs require advance registration, with a select number of sites offering drop-in activities. Visitors can plan their weekend in advance by visiting richmondmuseum.ca/doors-open for more information.
Students in Anna-Mae Wiesenthal’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies class at King David High School discuss the graphic memoir Maus. (photo by Pat Johnson)
In January, the school board in McMinn County, Tenn., voted to remove the graphic novel Maus from its eighth grade curriculum.
The book by Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 under a special category created specifically for Maus. The two-volume collection of previously serialized comic-style narratives was viewed at the time as revolutionary for its approach to a subject like the Holocaust in a medium more commonly associated with superheroes and humour.
In the books, racial and national identities are represented through anthropomorphized animals. Jews are depicted as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, Americans as dogs, British as fish and so on. In each instance, the characters have the bodies of humans and the heads of the respective animals. This form has been criticized by some critics over the decades as overly simplistic but has caused particular discomfort to many Poles, who do not appreciate being depicted as pigs.
Spiegelman, the author, called the McMinn County decision “Orwellian,” but has seen sales of his books skyrocket since the ban thrust the works back into the spotlight.
The Independent joined in a class discussion with the five students in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies course at King David High School, led by teacher Anna-Mae Wiesenthal. Discussing the Tennessee book banning, students questioned the sincerity of the school board’s grounds for opposing the book.
In a graphic memoir dealing with the attempted annihilation of a people and which touches on history’s most horrific acts of inhumanity, students found it “absurd” that the board’s primary concerns appeared to be a couple of instances of mild profanity and the depiction of a nude cartoon cat.
The book follows the true journey of the author in pressing his father, Vladek, to share his Holocaust experiences openly for the first time.
Nitzan Berger, a great-granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, observed that many survivors hesitated to share their narratives and that the graphic novels capture the challenges of the younger generation in approaching the subject, as well as the reticence on the part of the older generation to relive the horrors of their past. While the passing down of these stories is important, it can be painful for both generations.
“It’s interesting for us to hear about the stories, but we don’t think about the other side,” she said.
Ethan Dreyshner was struck by the speed with which an entire society, down to its youngest members, could be transformed.
“It just really shows how this whole society was changed to think the Jews were terrible people,” he said. “Six years earlier, Jews were regular citizens. It’s crazy to think that a whole society, a whole population, can just turn on their neighbours that quickly.”
Noting that young people need to begin learning about this challenging subject at some point, students contrasted Maus with Anne Frank’s diary, which for generations has been an entry point to discussion of the topic.
Olivia Levsky said a graphic novel that is intense but not particularly long may be a good starting point as well, especially for young people who rebel against assigned readings.
“It’s a very interesting way to learn something that’s very important to learn,” she said. “I didn’t feel like it was incredibly graphic or too much when I was reading it. It was graphic at times, but the Holocaust was graphic. I didn’t feel it was overly triggering or traumatizing. I didn’t feel it was inappropriate.”
Levsky also noted that Spiegelman, in some respects, depicted the national groups through the eyes of the victimizer.
“He drew each character and each race in the way that the Nazis saw them,” she said, noting particularly the Nazis’ association of Jews with vermin. “I imagine toward the end [of the war], the Americans felt like threatening dogs to the Nazis.”
Students concurred with Wiesenthal that there also may have been a practical purpose to depicting each group as a type of animal. It made each character’s identity more immediately understandable to the reader without having to repeatedly point out the race or nationality of each individual – in one instance, a Jew (mouse) hides in plain sight with the mask of a pig (Pole).
Wiesenthal noted that the second volume, which the class has not read together, is somewhat more explicit in its violence.
The teacher also stressed that the book tells the story of the Holocaust experience and intergenerational trauma through one family.
“We often talk about numbers – six million – which can serve to depersonalize what is really an impossible number to grasp,” the teacher said. “I think that we need to remember each of them had a name, each of them had a family. It’s very impersonal, often, the way we attach the number to the Holocaust.”
Maus includes situations in which non-Jewish people assisted in the survival of Jews. While it is not addressed in the book, students discussed the fact that Yad Vashem’s criteria for designation as Righteous Among the Nations excludes people who received compensation for their often-life-endangering efforts.
Shai Rubin noted that, in some cases, Jews may have given valuables voluntarily as gratitude to their rescuers. He also noted that, in addition to risking their lives, many non-Jewish helpers were experiencing economic destitution due to the war and what small amount of food they could provide to Jews in hiding may have come at a great price to their own families.
Of one woman in the story, Rubin said: “There’s a difference between doing something for money and doing something and getting money for it. She did it out of the goodness of her heart.”
In what was a shocking sequence for students, Art, the author, discovers that his father has burned the diaries of Art’s mother, Anja, who committed suicide. In response, the son lashes out at his father: “Murderer!”
This opened a discussion of what Wiesenthal called “the murder of memory” and raised the quote by Elie Wiesel (not mentioned explicitly in the book), who said of the Holocaust and its victims, “If we forget, the dead will be killed a second time.”
The Grade 12 students analyzed the content, style and medium of Maus. They observed that, often when the wrought iron gate to Auschwitz is pictured, the focus is on the words themselves, Arbeit Macht Frei, while, in this book, the eye is drawn to the individual people in the frame, a reminder that the Holocaust can often be depicted in broad strokes but it is, ultimately, about the killing of individuals.
On the medium itself, all the students concurred that it is an effective avenue for conveying challenging material.
“I think this is a really effective form of teaching the Holocaust, especially to kids,” said Dreyshner. “Something like the diary of Anne Frank, you might feel a little disconnected, you can’t see it, you can’t understand it because it’s hard to show actual images of the Holocaust to children. I think a graphic novel really does the job because you can see what happened, you can get a sense of what happened, without seeing the horrific things exactly.”
Richard Helper agreed, but subtly criticized those who are concerned about the graphic nature of the book.
“This is easily digestible, it’s effective, it has quite a bit of information on the specifics of the Nazis’ war machine as well,” he said. “While some people, I think, try and attack it for being either too simplistic or too graphic, we’re teaching a book on the Holocaust.… It’s the Holocaust.”
Wiesenthal, who has a master’s in Holocaust and genocide studies and is pursuing a PhD in the same field, pioneered the course three years ago. Until then, the Holocaust was dealt with as part of the larger Jewish history curriculum.
She acknowledged that most King David students come to the subject with some familial or other knowledge of the subject, whereas non-Jewish students, such as those in places like Tennessee, might have no knowledge of the history.
Four decades ago, Chaya Harel was approached by one of the teachers at her son’s Jerusalem high school. The son, Yuval, who was in his final year of school, had come to the teacher seeking advice. He was in love with Sigal, but knew the importance of succeeding in the upcoming matriculation exams. How should he allocate his time?
The teacher asked the mother for her advice and promised to pass it along as coming from the teacher, rather from Yuval’s mother, Chaya.
The mother’s advice was to spend more time with Sigal. Yuval, she reasoned, could always improve his grades later.
Tragically, Yuval Harel was killed in 1982, during the First Lebanon War. Later, in grief, Chaya Harel would say, “I had some comfort knowing it was my best advice.”
The story was shared May 3 by Geoffrey Druker at Vancouver’s annual ceremony marking Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s official day of remembrance for those fallen in war and victims of terror attacks.
Yuval Harel was one of two young men of the same name who died in the same war, a few days apart. They were two of more than 24,000 killed over 74 years, whose memories were honoured at the Vancouver event and at similar ceremonies worldwide.
“This year, as in previous years, we remember our fallen,” said Druker, who is chair of Vancouver’s Yom Hazikaron committee. “And the list painfully keeps lengthening. These past months, Israelis and foreign citizens, Jews and non-Jews, men and women, were killed on the streets, in the pubs, gas stations [and] shopping strips in Israel by terrorist attacks. Fifty-six people were added this year to the list and 84 injured soldiers [who] passed away are recognized as fallen soldiers.”
Druker shared the story of Yigal Amster, a son of Holocaust survivors who lived with asthma.
“When he joined the army, he tried to hide it,” said Druker. “He asked to join the tank corps. He wished to become an officer.” When his commanders noticed his difficulty breathing in poor air quality, Amster was assigned to a medic course.
“When the Yom Kippur [War] broke out, in 1973, he was sent to help the troops in the Suez Canal. While in an armoured vehicle, he was hit and later died from his injuries. He was 20 years old.”
Amster’s cousin, Vancouverite Charlotte Katzen, read Yizkor in his memory and in memory of all the fallen.
“May the nation of Israel remember its sons and daughters, faithful and courageous,” Katzen read the prayer in English. “The soldiers of the Israel Defence Forces, members of the undergrounds, members of the intelligence community, security and policemen, who fell in the wars of Israel, and all of whom that were killed – within Israel and outside of Israel – by terrorists. May the people of Israel keep them in their memory and be blessed with their seed; mourn the splendour of youth, the altruism of valour, the dedication of will and the dignity of self-sacrifice, which came to an end in the heavy battles. May our fallen be sealed forever within the hearts of all Israel, in this generation and forevermore.”
Michael Balshine read Yizkor for his father, Avigdor Balshine, a member of the Haganah and a pioneer in Israel’s water sector. On Feb. 23, 1948, while working with Mekorot, the national water company of Israel, Avigdor Balshine and his colleague Mark Feigin were ambushed and killed in Wadi Milik. Michael Balshine was 6 years old.
Ilene-Jo Bellas lit a candle in memory of her cousin, Fern Rykiss, who was a 17-year-old from Winnipeg who was murdered on a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 1989.
Tamara Frankel lit a candle in memory of her family member Amnon Shapira.
Photographs were projected of family members and friends of members of the Vancouver community whose lives are among those lost in the past 74 years.
Idit Shamir, consul general of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada, sent video greetings.
“On this day, Israelis and Jews around the world remember the pain the bereaved families carry with them every day,” said Shamir. “We remember that our independence has come with a heavy price. We bow our heads with eternal gratitude to those who have paid the price, Jews and non-Jews, Israeli-born and immigrants, all those who have fallen for the state of Israel. We know that we are here because of them…. We thank the fallen sons and daughters who have protected us. We embrace their families and all the bereaved families who have sacrificed so much. We promise that their immense sacrifice will never be in vain and we pledge to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the privilege they have given us, we will give to others, to our children, their children and to the countless generations to come, the privilege of standing tall. The privilege of standing proud. The privilege of standing strong. The privilege of being a free people in our land.”
In attendance at the ceremony was Commander Robert D’Eon of the Royal Canadian Navy.
In Volume 28 of the Jewish Seniors Alliance’s Senior Line magazine, JSA members Kenneth Levitt and Larry Shapiro debated some of the arguments for and against for-profit long-term-care facilities. They offered their personal opinions in the debate, as JSA does not have a position on this topic. Their views are reprinted here, with permission.
For-profits here to stay by Kenneth Levitt
The COVID-19 pandemic with its various mutations has caused a justified focus on long-term care (LTC) in Canada. Organizations such as the B.C. Health Coalition, the NDP, unions and other left-leaning activists or progressives, as well as some physicians, have called for the abolition of all for-profit (FP) facilities, recommending that they be taken over by provincial governments or government-approved not-for-profits (NP). This will not happen in the near future. For-profits (FP) are here to stay and, furthermore, provincial governments support them with LTC operating agreements.
The two main issues are profit and quality of care. In British Columbia, there are 27,000 persons in LTC. Approximately one-third are in each of government-operated, NP and FP facilities. When an FP builds or upgrades a facility, there is no government capital fund support. Capital funds for FPs come from investors and shareholders, whereas NPs depend on governments and their own fundraising efforts. FPs have saved governments billions of dollars in capital costs.
In general, residents are financially responsible for their room and board. Their care is paid for by the local funding authority. Should residents pay from their assets (as in the United States) or continue to pay based on income testing? Should residents who are capable contribute more for their room and board? Many NPs raise funds to subsidize care; others permit paid companions to provide extra care for residents. Should investors who put up their own risk capital (with government “ipso facto” approval) be permitted to make a profit? Is it immoral?
FPs did not do well in terms of COVID-19 deaths. Horrendous stories from Ontario and Quebec came to light that noted the squalor and the shameful living conditions of many vulnerable residents. In British Columbia, a number of NPs and FPs had too many COVID infections and deaths. Staff were not exempt from contracting COVID. How do we account for this? When we factor in those facilities with two or more residents per room, the number of COVID-19 infections, complications and deaths increase dramatically for NPs and FPs. In most cases, staff and visitors were responsible for importing the virus. Governments/health authorities were totally unaware, at the outset of the pandemic, of the extent of the problems. However, most care homes planned well, had few infections with a high percentage of vaccinated staff, and are faring well during the pandemic.
It is not just a move to single beds that will solve the problem of COVID and seasonal flu outbreaks, it is the design of the facilities. We need new and upgraded buildings now. It is also imperative that all staff be vaccinated, and that they be supported by management to better prepare for future health crises.
Canada needs FPs. FPs have the capacity to provide needed accommodation for older adults who qualify, and can build more LTC beds faster than governments. They can provide improved efficiency and greater innovation than NPs. The naysayers want to nationalize all private-sector nursing homes in Canada. The National Institute on Aging at Ryerson University in Toronto recently noted, “Some of the FPs are doing well because they have deeper pockets and much better planning procedures than NPs. It is not clear that one class of ownership is better than the other.”
In an April 2021 report, Isobel McKenzie, B.C. Seniors Advocate, criticized FPs for apparently short-changing the number of direct care hours for which they were paid and making a profit by doing so. At the same time, McKenzie noted that capital costs (building maintenance) is one area where FPs outperform NPs.
There is one FP LTC operator in Ontario, Schlegel Villages, that is at the cutting-edge of services and programs for their residents. Schlegel is a family-owned company that has about 5,000 residents and about 5,000 staff in 19 villages. It did not escape COVID-19, but they have excelled in what is known as “best practices”:
Their philosophy: a purposeful life for each resident.
Each village is accredited.
Staff are unionized and pay is the same as at NPs.
Owners are committed to providing exceptional care, and are good corporate citizens who are involved in and contribute to the communities they serve.
Newer villages are 60% private rooms and 40% with two persons per room. Moving forward, all new construction will be single rooms with ensuites.
Each resident has two bathing opportunities per week.
Villages have several neighbourhoods, with 32 residents residing in each self-contained neighbourhood that is well-supported by seven staff with a variety of skills.
Each village has programs and space open to outside community organizations and they encourage locals to hold events in the available space.
How can we move forward in a constructive way that includes government-operated facilities, not-for-profits and for-profits?
The federal government, in partnership with the provinces, needs to develop and to legislate a set of standards of care and service that will be enforced with consequences. This can be done through accreditation, which is currently voluntary. Once the feds have placed standards of care and service into law, each province should enact similar legislation to require that all LTC facilities be accredited. A provincial accreditation body would be responsible for accrediting, monitoring and enforcing standards.
Accreditation would ensure every LTC facility is delivering the hours of care and support for which they are receiving funds.
Wages and benefits for full-time staff should be uniform for all LTC facilities and part-time staff should be equally entitled to the same wages and benefits.
Hours for home care and Better at Home need to be increased. The financial threshold needs to be lowered to allow more persons in need to take advantage of such a service. This has the potential to put less strain on waitlists for LTC admissions.
When an FP is for sale, give preference to a quality NP to purchase it or allow a local (new) society to purchase and operate it.
Require all LTC facilities that plan to expand to have only single rooms with ensuites.
Develop a timetable and a budget for NPs to upgrade/replace current outdated institutional/hospital-style buildings.
Healthcare leaders, their boards of directors and seniors should be the ones who are advocating and pushing for changes. The status quo is not acceptable.
To eliminate FPs is specious and politically and/or ideologically motivated and is a short-sighted non-pragmatic position. Canada’s Parliament last year voted against such a proposal put forth by the NDP. The issue is not between the NPs or the FPs. The issue is how to ensure that the interests of the residents come first.
The billions of dollars that would be required to eliminate the FPs can better be used for increased and quantifiable quality programs and services. This would be the best and the most ethical way to honour those lost in the pandemic and to ensure it will never happen again. The issue is how we treat our most vulnerable older adults. After all, is it not a matter of human rights and choices?
My goal in this debate is to paint a comprehensive picture illustrating conclusively why many of the for-profit long-term-care facilities (LTCFs) are squandering public funds, with little transparency or few accountability requirements to honour any predetermined set of standards in the areas of quality of service, accountability and profit. We need to see profit taken out of long-term care and need new investments in public and nonprofit beds so that we can reduce our dependence on the private, for-profit sector.
Decades of budget cuts, underfunding and privatization by successive governments have resulted in the catastrophic state of the many private care facilities that have been the sites of the loss of a great number of our loved ones. Nobody should be profiting from the care of our senior citizens. Policy decisions going back 20 years have encouraged raising the profits of private LTCFs by replacing union staff with contract workers, which has resulted in personnel shortages, declining working conditions and less access to public funding. The centre of most COVID-19 outbreaks in British Columbia and throughout the rest of the country have been in our LTCFs.
Let us examine the causes and effects of some of the common characteristics of for-profit LTC facilities that negatively affect the quality of care being dispensed to our seniors. Statistically, 67% of LTC in British Columbia is supplied by both nonprofit and for-profit organizations with the remaining 33% being supplied directly by provincial health authorities. The practice of sub-contracting care services occurs when service providers like LTCFs and assisted living facilities, which are contracted by regional health authorities to provide care, proceed to sub-contract with other companies that offer care workers, kitchen staff and maintenance crews.
These sub-contractors are able to bid lower than qualified unionized staff would cost, all to the detriment of the senior residents who are being served by these workers who are receiving lower wages and poorer benefits and who enjoy fewer full-time positions. The prevalence of sub-contracting in elder care began about 22 years ago, when the B.C. government, by virtue of Bills 29 and 94, stripped out no-contracting and job-security provisions from the collective agreements governing healthcare workers. These laws resulted in the loss of 8,000 jobs by the end of 2004. These laws (which were repealed in 2018) provided health-sector employers, including private LTCFs, with unprecedented rights to lay off unionized staff and hire them back as non-union workers through sub-contracted companies. Predictably, this negatively impacted wages and working conditions.
Reduced funding for and access to publicly funded seniors care, from the early 2000s, resulted in the rationing of care. This meant that access to publicly funded care is limited to those with more acute needs, leaving seniors with less complex needs without access to support services that could keep them from deteriorating and requiring institutional care. So, as staffing levels have declined, the care needs of many LTC residents have increased. More of the publicly funded services are being delivered by for-profit companies, often in LTCFs that combine publicly funded and private-pay beds. The latest data shows that more than 35% of beds are run by the for-profit companies. The health authorities pay for the services through block funding, which accounts for the direct care hours that each resident is to receive per day, and the cost of other services and supplies such as meals. There are no restrictions on how operators spend these dollars and health authorities do not perform payroll or expense audits to ensure public funds are actually spent on direct care.
A report from the Seniors Advocate exposed the fact that most direct care (67%) is delivered by care aides, the lowest paid care workers. For-profit care companies generate profits by underpaying the workers who provide most of the direct care, despite receiving funding based on the assumption they pay union rates contained in the master collective agreement (industry standard). Operators are not monitored to ensure that they are providing the number of care hours for which they are being paid. Without adequate oversight and reporting, companies also make profits by understaffing, which impacts the amount and quality of care that residents receive.
Many LTCFs have a combination of publicly subsidized and private-pay beds, but the co-located private-pay beds are not consistently included in the calculation of care hours delivered. This practice results in publicly funded care hours used to cross-subsidize the care of private-care residents who pay out-of-pocket (for the generation of greater profits) and, at the same time, exacerbates staffing shortages, as companies use the same staff to cover both publicly funded and private-pay beds, which should have their own dedicated staff.
Notwithstanding that the last period for which data is available is 2017-2018, it is noteworthy that while receiving, on average, the same level of public funding, contracted not-for-profit LTCF operators spent $10,000 more per resident per year than did for-profit providers. In addition, and not surprisingly, the for-profit LTCFs failed to deliver 207,000 funded direct-care hours while the nonprofit LTCFs exceeded direct-care hour targets by delivering an additional 80,000 hours of direct care beyond what they were funded to deliver.
Low staffing levels and resulting poor working conditions deteriorate the quality of care, as low staffing places both workers and residents under increased stress and reduces the amount of time care workers can spend with residents. The combination of low pay and understaffing makes it difficult to recruit and retain staff. There is adequate proof that staffing levels and staffing mix are key predictors of resident health outcomes and care quality, and that care provided in for-profit long-term care facilities is generally inferior to that provided by public- and nonprofit-owned facilities.
The B.C. government’s long-standing reliance on attracting private capital into the seniors care sector has benefited corporate chains with the ability to finance and build new facilities. In the decade between 2009 and 2018, British Columbia invested less than one half of one percent of the total healthcare capital spending (which is not very much money). More than one-third of all publicly subsidized and private-pay long-term care and assisted living spaces are controlled by large corporations, while the balance is owned by either nonprofit agencies or health authorities.
Corporate chain consolidation in seniors care has become popular among investors in this sector because the business is real estate-focused, resulting in care facilities being treated and traded as financial commodities. This being the case, the care chains are prone to engage in risky business practices. These chains are routinely bought and sold after using debt-leveraged buyouts, ultimately leaving the chains with debt-servicing costs that revenues, including the government funding, cannot cover, resulting in financial crisis and creating disruptions that undermine the quality of relational care due to high staff turnover.
The evidence is clear: profit-making has no place in seniors care. Public dollars are flowing into profits not into frontline care as intended.
Let us strive to provide the care and support for our parents, grandparents, siblings and others who gave us so much and for whom we care so much. Nobody should be profiting from the care of our seniors and that, dear readers, is why profit should be eliminated from long-term care.
Kenneth Levitt is a past president of Jewish Seniors Alliance, former chief executive officer of Louis Brier Home and Hospital, and a past chair of Camp Miriam. In 1985, he co-edited, The Challenge of Child Welfare, the first textbook on child welfare in Canada. Larry Shapiro studied accounting and worked at major firms as well as with the federal government. In 1977, he studied real estate and opened his own business. Since moving from Montreal to Vancouver, Shapiro has been an active member of the JSA board.
