Category: News

זרים שביקשו לרכוש נדל”ן בקנדה יאלצו להמתין

(צילום: Sam Gusway)

החל מראשית חודש ינואר, קנדה החלה לאסור על מרבית האזרחים הזרים לקנות נכסים לדיור במשך שנתיים. זאת, במקביל בעלייה בביקושים לעבור לקנדה ממדינות רבות בעולם

למשל: בקיץ האחרון, לאחר שבית המשפט העליון בארצות הברית ביטל את פסיקת (רו נגד וייד) ואת ההגנות הפדרליות על זכותן של נשים לעבור הפלה, נהרו המוני אמריקאים לאתר גוגל והקלידו את השאלה: איך לעבור לגור בקנדה. זאת תוך הקפצת מספר החיפושים בלא פחות משמונה מאות וחמישים אחוז בתוך שעה אחת בלבד. החיפושים של איך להפוך לאזרח קנדי מהשורה זינקו בחמש מאות וחמישים אחוז

ההחלטה לעבור ולהתגורר בקנדה נחשבת מזה זמן רב לתגובה כמעט אוטומטית כאשר המצב הפוליטי המקומי הופך לעגום במספר לא מבוטל של מדינות – כולל ישראל, ולא רק בארצות הברית. בבריטניה למשל נרשם זינוק משמעותי בחיפושים איך לעבור לקנדה במהלך חודש יוני אלפיים ושש עשרה. זאת זמן קצר לאחר פרסום משאל העם שבו הוחלט על פרישתה של בריטניה מהאיחוד האירופי (הברקזיט)

אבל יתכן שממשלת קנדה בשלב זה מערימה קשיים על זרים לרכוש נדל”ן בעת הזו – במדינה השנייה בגדולה בעולם מבחינת שטח (אחרי רוסיה). זאת לאחר שהחל מראשית החודש שעבר (ינואר), נכנס לתוקף בקנדה איסור נרחב למשך שנתיים ימים על רכישת נדל”ן למגורים על ידי מי שאינם אזרחי המדינה

כמו מדינות רבות אחרות בזמן מגפת הקורונה, גם בקנדה נרשם זינוק חד הן במחירי הדיור והן במחירי השכירות לאחר שהריביות על הלוואות צנחו לשפל, וגררו עמן מטה את רמות המלאי בשוק. באלפיים עשרים ואחת בעיצומה של מערכת בחירות קשה, המפלגה הליברלית של ראש הממשלה ג’סטין טרודו, הזהירה כי משבר הדיור במדינה הולך והופך למשבר פוליטי. הביקוש לרכישת בתים בפרט ונדל”ן בכלל בקנדה מושכת ספסרים, תאגידים עשירים, ומשקיעים זרים. כך הכריז אתר קמפיין המפלגה הליברלית. בתים נועדו לאזרחי המדינה ולא למשקיעים. לאחר מערכת בחירות צמודה, באביב האחרון המפלגה הליברלית הציגה בשקט בשקט את החוק החדש והמשמעותי, שאוסר על אזרחים זרחים לרכוש נדל”ן בקנדה

הצעת החוק באה בתגובה לתחושות פוליטיות רווחות, אולם נשמעה אבסורדית. כך אמר ג’קי צ’אן, מייסד ומנכ”ל חברת נדל”ן בייקר-ווסט בעיר ונקובר, שמשווקת דירות יוקרה במגדלי מגורים ברחבי קנדה. אמנם ונקובר וקנדה הן רב-תרבותיות, אולם קיימת תחושה כללית לפיה אסייתים, זרים ומהגרים מגיעים לכאן, קונים נדל”ן, זוללים את ההיצע וגורמים לעליות מחירים. מוסיף עוד צ’אן, שבעצמו נולד בהונג קונג והוא מתגורר בוונקובר כבר קרוב לשלושים שנה. מרבית הזרים שרוכשים נדל”ן אינם משקיעים ספקולנטים. אלה לדבריו מדובר רק במהגרים שקונים בתים כדי להתגורר בהם

מלבד זאת, מספר ממשלות מחוזיות שונות בקנדה כבר נוקטות בצעדים כדי לתת מענה למחירי הדיור הנוסקים. במחוז אונטריו שהוא הגדול בקנדה, הממשלה המקומית העלתה את המס על משקיעים זרים ספקולטיבים המשקיעים בנדל”ן, מעשרים אחוז לעשרים וחמישה אחוז. במחוז בריטיש קולומביה נקבע מס של עשרים אחוז על רוכשי בתים מחו”ל. ונדמה היה כי הצעדים הללו נושאים פרי – השקעות זרות בנכסי נדל”ן נפלו משיא של תשעה אחוזים ממכירות הנדל”ן למגורים ביוני אלפיים ושש עשרה לאחוז בודד ביוני שנה שעברה. זאת, לפי נתוני משרד האוצר של מחוז בריטיש קולומביה. אף יזם שפוי אפילו לא חשב על זה, אמר צ’אן. איזה הגיון יש באיסור הזה

עד אמצע שנה שעברה, המחירים ברחבי קנדה כבר החלו לרדת. אבל ביוני, בלי יותר מדי רעש, האיסור על קונים זרים אושר כחוק. למעשה, הוא חמק כמעט לחלוטין מהעין הציבורית, ואפילו מעיניהם של מומחי נדל”ן רבים. מה גם שטרודו ופוליטיקאים אחרים משום מה כמעט ולא התייחסו בפומבי לחוק מאז שנחקק, והוא זכה לכיסוי מועט באמצעי תקשורת המקומיים בקנדה

ייתכן כי הדבר נבע מכך שהחוק עורר טענות בדבר שנאת זרים. בזמן שמספר המהגרים לקנדה שובר שיאים – נתונים שפורסמו באוקטובר חשפו שמהגרים מהווים כעת כמעט רבע מהאוכלוסייה המקומית, כאשר הרוב המכריע מגיעים ממדינות הודו וסין. לדברי מספר וותיקים בענף הנדל”ן המקומי יש לכך קשר שמהגרים או משקיעים זרים ספגו הרבה מהאשמה למשבר הדיור ועליית המחירים, וזה היה נושא פוליטי גדול. כך אמר ברנדון אוגמונדסון, הכלכלן הראשי של איגוד הנדל”ן של מחוז בריטיש קולומביה. אך יש לזכור שמגיפת הקוביד חסמה כמעט לחלוטין, את הגישה לרכישת נדל”ן בבריטיש קולומביה על ידי משקיעים זרים. המחירים עדיין שברו שיאים חדשים, שכך שהוכח שהשחקנים הזרים אינם משמעותיים בשוק הנדל”ן המקומי. ולכן לאיסור החדש לא תהיה השפעה על הענף

בסוף שנה שעברה (שישה חודשים לאחר שהחוק נחקק) הממשלה הפדרלית פרסמה את התקנות לגבי אכיפת החוק והפטורים ממנו. למשל: החוק החדש אינו חל על בתי נופש באזורי קייט. בנוסף פטורים ממנו למשל רוכשי בתים בעלי מעמד של תושבים בקנדה, פליטים, זרים שנושאים לבני זוג קנדיים, אזרחים זרים שרוכשים בתים צמודי קרקע עם לפחות שלוש יחידות דיור. כמו גם סטודנטים זרים הלומדים בקנדה, ועוברים זרים בעלי רשיונות לעבוד בקנדה

יש הטוענים כי התקנות החדשות לא מספקות מענה הולם לדקויות החוק. אין בחוק החדש הבהרות משמעותיות. כך אומר סטיבן קריין, נשיא ומנכ”ל חברת סי.אי.אר.סי. שמייעצת לחברות בנושאי ניידות כוח אדם בשוק העבודה ורילוקיישן של עובדים זרים. משרדי תיווך טוענים כי חוסר הבהירות הזו גורמת בעצם לשיתוק בשוק. במקום למהר להספיק לקנות לפני כניסת החוק לתוקף, מרבית הקונים הזרים צפויים פשוט להמתין לתפוגת החוק בעוד שנתיים ימים. הלקוחות שלנו נמצאים בעמדת המתנה. כך אומרת ליזה קאופמן, מייסדת ושותפה במשרד התיווך סותביס אינטרנשונל רילטי בעיר מונטריאול שבמחוז קוויבק. לדבריה כאשר הלקוחות הזרים שומעים שאפילו המומחים בענף לא מצליחים להבין את החוק החודש, הם פשוט מעדיפים לוותר בעת הזו. קאופמן אומרת שרק לקוח בודד אחד שלה שהוא פנסיונר הגר בארצות הברית (ולא מוכן לחשוף את זהותו), הזדרז ורכש דירת נופש במונטריאול לפני כניסתו לתוקף של האיסור החדש – האוסר רכישת נדל”ן בקנדה על ידי זרים

בה בעת, בערים הגדולות של קנדה נרשמה ירידה במספר הקונים הזרים בשוק. באזור מטרו טורונטו למשל שיעור השתתפות הזרים בשוק הוא, לכל היותר בין שלושה אחוזים לשישה אחוזים. כך טוען קווין קריגר, נשיא מועצת ארגון חברות הנדל”ן של אזור טורונטו. בשיעור ההשקעה הנוכחית של זרים בנדל”ן המקומי, החוק החדש חסר משמעות אם מסתכלים על התמונה הגדולה של הענף, מוסיף קריגר

אבל כעת נראה כי קונים בינלאומיים חדשים לא ממהרים לשום מקום, ומוכנים להמתין עד לסיום תקופת האיסור בת השנתיים. פאולין אונגר ממשרד התיווך רויאל לפייג’ אדוונטג’ בעיר סמיתס פולס במחוז אונטריו, אומרת כי נרשם זינוק בפעילות הקנייה, לאחר הפרסום הראשוני בדבר החוק החדש בחודש אפריל. מאז, לדבריה, הלקוחות מחכים להנחיות, אבל לא קונים. זה במידה רבה מצב הנוכחי – והוא להמתין ולראות מה יקרה

My Way Bikery expands

My Way Bikery owners Moshe and Leah Appel. (photo from My Way Bikery)

Vancouver Island’s only kosher bakery started the new secular year with new owners, Moshe and Leah Appel, and a slightly new name. What was formerly known as the Bikery is now My Way Bikery. The Victoria location, at 8-1701 Douglas, inside the Public Market at the Hudson, remains the same, though the selection has expanded to include more than baked goods.

Certified pareve kosher by Kosher Check and supervised by Rabbi Meir Kaplan from Chabad of Vancouver Island, My Way Bikery encourages customers to “challah” at them anytime. The bakery also delivers to customers and businesses all around Victoria, and people throughout Greater Victoria can place orders using SkipTheDishes, DoorDash and Uber Eats. Beyond Victoria, the bakery delivers as far up Island as Parksville and Qualicum Beach every Friday, with a minimum order of $25 placed by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

“I’m the baker,” Leah Appel told the Independent.

“I’m everything else,” followed Moshe Appel.

photo - My Way Bikery lemon poppyseed muffins
My Way Bikery lemon poppyseed muffins (photo from My Way Bikery)

Originally from Montreal, the couple have known each other since they were 7 years old, but only got together after being in and out of each other’s lives for decades.

“My background is essentially in call centre work – inbound sales, inbound customer service and inbound security, things like that. But I’m extremely active in the Jewish community here in B.C., especially since first moving to Nanaimo,” said Moshe Appel.

“The idea for the business really didn’t come to fruition until I reunited with my childhood friend (and now wife), who is a classically trained baker and someone who has been in market research and management. Coming from Montreal as we both have, we were shocked at the lack of good Jewish food in B.C., and on the Island in particular.”

The Appels, who have always enjoyed cooking traditional Jewish recipes for their friends and family, started selling their goods at local markets a couple of years ago. The realization soon struck that they would need a larger space for their production. Serendipitously, they came across an opportunity last year when their friend Markus Spodzieja, founder of the Bikery, announced his intention to sell the business. The Appels purchased it, merging their original bakery name (My Way Bakery) with the Bikery to, as they say, “keep the nostalgia of Markus’s brand alive while adding our own recipes to the mix.”

According to the Appels, Spodzieja will be moving home to Nova Scotia to care for his grandmother.

The business obtained its first name, the Bikery, in 2017, when Spodzieja sold baked goods out of a 250-pound mobile vending bicycle as part of a pilot project for the City of Victoria’s Mobile Bike Vending Permit. It moved to its present location in 2021.

photo - My Way Bikery challah
My Way Bikery challah (photo from My Way Bikery)

“I met Markus when he first opened the Bikery and I was one of his first customers, but it was purely luck that I asked his advice for starting a business in Nanaimo and he handed us the business in Victoria. Unwilling to miss this G-d-given opportunity, we jumped on the chance,” Moshe Appel recalled.

“We are keeping much of the same menu as Markus did, but expanding it to include soups, salads, more breads and Jewish dishes and, in a few months, plan to expand it to include cholov Yisroel dairy products as well.”

The menu lists dozens of items. There are savoury pastries and shakshuka, halva and combos (including pita and Leah Appel’s hummus). Some of the popular items are the My Way Sandwich, potato salad, kimmel rye, peanut butter cookies and Israeli salad. A current hit is Those Darn Cookies, a sweet made with chocolate chips and almonds.

photo - My Way Bikery tahini cookies
My Way Bikery tahini cookies (photo from My Way Bikery)

Among the new touches are jelly chal-nuts, Leah Appel’s take on a jelly donut; challah dough stuffed with sweet jelly and topped with raw cane sugar; and Oyvegg, a roll with Daiya “cheese,” an egg, garlic aioli, lettuce and tomato.

The Appels are even offering goodies for canines – Dunstan Donuts. “Named after Dunstan, who was a very good boy,” the menu reads, “these certified-kosher pareve dog treats are made with oats and bananas and taste amazing! Dunstan’s Donuts are delicious enough for you, but made just for your four-legged friend!”

Favourites from the Bikery, including numerous varieties of pretzels and bagels, lemon-poppyseed muffins and challah in all shapes, sizes and flavours, are still available.

The Appels say they are in preliminary talks to open a storefront location in Nanaimo.

My Way Bikery is located toward the back of Victoria’s Public Market, which is situated close to City Hall and Centennial Square – a few blocks away from the Empress Hotel and Parliament – in a building that operated for several decades as a Hudson Bay department store. It is open Monday to Thursday, 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Friday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday hours will be extended in the spring, as the days grow longer.

For more information or to place an order, visit mywaybikery.ca, call 778-430-2453 or email contact@mywaybikery.ca.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Dutch survivor shares his story

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim (third from right) lit memorial candles with Holocaust survivors (from left) Rita Akselrod, Amalia Boe-Fishman, Marie Doduck, Claude Romney, Peter Suedfeld and Ella Levitt. Behind are Nina Krieger of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and Cantor Shani Cohen of Temple Sholom. (photo from VHEC)

Until 1943, Amsterdam’s Hollandsche Schouwburg theatre was used by the Nazis as a deportation centre for Dutch Jews. The youngest children were placed in a Jewish orphanage across the street. A tram would come at 10-minute intervals, providing a brief window of time during which the Nazi guards outside the theatre would lose sight of the orphanage.

The Dutch underground, in cahoots with the nurses at the orphanage, would smuggle babies and toddlers out of the orphanage during this fleeting moment. A member of the resistance would ride by on a bicycle pulling a garbage can and a nurse would pass a child through a ground-floor window into the receptacle and replace the lid.

One of those children was Peter Voormeij, who shared his Holocaust survival experience with a standing-room audience at the Bayit in Richmond, Jan. 29, marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“My mother’s family were Orthodox Jewish and my father’s Roman Catholic,” he said at the event. Both families were against the union, partly due to the religious differences but perceived differences in social status were also a factor. “In any case, they got married and I was a result of their union.”

Soon after Peter was born, in late 1940, his father was arrested by the Nazis, suspected of being a spy, and was incarcerated at a Gestapo facility in Berlin.

Peter’s mother’s extended family fled into hiding, but his mother mistakenly believed that her marriage to a Catholic man, even an accused spy, provided her some security from deportations.

“She refused to wear the yellow star as was demanded of the Jews,” Voormeij recalled. “But a girlfriend of hers told the local police that she was a Jew, they confronted her and insisted that she should wear the yellow star. She did and, as a result, I clearly remember that we were not allowed in the park playground, which I was so looking forward to. No Jews allowed.”

He was only 2-and-a-half when he was separated from his mother. She was taken to Westerbork, the Nazi transit camp in the Netherlands, and transported by cattle car to Sobibor. “I often think of her alone, without her little boy, to have her beautiful blond hair cut and forced into a shower with many other women,” said Voormeij. “But no shower – gas.”

At the end of the war, Voormeij’s father returned to the Netherlands. Through his connections in the underground, he located his son, who had survived in hiding – and who, not yet 5, didn’t know he was a Jew.

Peter was raised for a few years by his beloved paternal grandmother. “There, I grew up in a Catholic household, went to a school attached to the church,” he said. “My memories of the time are reasonably good, albeit one time I was sexually molested by a [Catholic] brother – what else is new?”

When Peter was 12 years old, his grandmother died. He then returned to his father’s home, but now had a stepmother who he detested – and the feeling was mutual. One day, during a row, she yelled at him: “You are a typical Jew!”

“From that moment on, my life changed,” he said. “I realized that I am indeed a Jew. I looked at the church in a different way and I couldn’t understand why the Jews were persecuted and killed.”

However, he understood the implications of his new identity. “I became afraid of being a Jew and kept my mouth shut from then on,” he said. “Nobody will ever know that I’m a Jew.”

He indeed kept his identity largely secret. He excelled in school and received a scholarship to art school in Adelaide, Australia – four years with all expenses covered. He became a noted painter and art teacher, completing a master’s degree at what would become Concordia University, in Montreal, and later moving to New York City and back to the Netherlands. A turning point came in the early 1980s, during a conversation with a Dutch gallery owner who was to exhibit some of Voormeij’s work.

“She told me she despised the Jews,” he recalled. “At that point, something broke in me and I told her I was a Jew and left the gallery for good.”

He contacted his uncle, a brother of his mother who had survived by escaping to Switzerland. “My uncle introduced me to what it was like to be a Jew,” he said. “He gave me my first kippah and taught me some Jewish prayers. He also took me on my very first visit to a synagogue.”

At times, when he was alone with his uncle, he would ask about his mother. “I was dying to know more about her,” he said. “He was the only one that could remember. There was nobody else I could ask. Each time I brought her up, he would cry and I would cry with him while holding his hand.”

Eventually, Voormeij and his wife moved to British Columbia and he met a member of the Child Survivors Group that operates out of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC). He joined and found a place among fellow child survivors.

The Jan. 29 event was the fourth annual commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Richmond. It was co-sponsored by the Kehila Society of Richmond, the VHEC and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Rabbi Levi Varnai emceed the ceremony and spoke as a child of a survivor, noting that his grandfather was murdered when he was younger than Varnai is now. Cantor Yaakov Orzech recited the memorial prayer El Moleh Rachamim.

Parm Bains, member of Parliament for Steveston-Richmond East, brought a message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government. Kelly Greene, member of the B.C. Legislature for Richmond Steveston, brought greetings from Premier David Eby and the provincial government. Members of the Legislative Assembly, Henry Yao and Teresa Wat, were also in attendance. Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie spoke and four councilors – Bill McNulty, Chak Au, Andy Hobbs and Laura Gillanders – also attended.

Pascale Higham-Leisen, VHEC program coordinator, introduced Voormeij. Bayit president Keith Liedtke introduced the mayor, who noted that the day of the commemoration – Jan. 29, two days after the official International Holocaust Remembrance Day – was also the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque, in which six worshippers were murdered.

A smaller, invitation-only ceremony was held Jan. 27 at Vancouver City Hall. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim lit memorial candles with six Holocaust survivors: Rita Akselrod, Amalia Boe-Fishman, Marie Doduck, Ella Levitt, Claude Romney and Peter Suedfeld. He also expressed condolences for a terror attack that happened earlier in the day at a Jerusalem synagogue, where seven people were killed. Bridges and buildings around the province were illuminated in yellow that evening to mark the memorial day.

Nina Krieger, executive director of the VHEC, which partnered with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver to organize the civic event, thanked the assembled city councilors for recently adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism. Cantor Shani Cohen of Temple Sholom recited El Moleh Rachamim.

Survivor receives ovation

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz speaks at Government House on Jan. 19. (photo from ltgov.bc.ca)

On Jan. 19, Lillian Boraks-Nemetz received a standing ovation for her speech at an event hosted by the lieutenant governor of British Columbia, Janet Austin, at Government House in Victoria.

In a mere 12 minutes, Boraks-Nemetz took the audience through the horrors she suffered during the Holocaust: the rise of anti-Jewish laws, the killing of her younger sister, the escape from the Warsaw Ghetto, the separation of family and the loss of identity – each with its own devastating consequences. She also spoke about the trauma that accompanied her after moving to Canada.

She began by quoting the words of Janusz Korczak, the Polish doctor, educator and head of an orphanage in Warsaw, who was killed with his charges at Treblinka in 1942. He wrote, “the well-being of a country is as good as the well-being of its children.”

To that quote, Boraks-Nemetz added, “When you look around, it seems that the world itself is not in good standing on this issue. I know this to be true as a childhood witness of the Holocaust and as an adult witnessing the present lives of strife for many children in various countries: fighting wars, poverty and hunger.

“My own childhood ended the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Our happy lives ended and I became an adult at the age of 6. All Jewish children were automatically sentenced to death by Hitler and the Third Reich, and I was one of them. A million and a half Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust – among them almost all my cousins and my sweet little sister.”

Boraks-Nemetz described her experiences as both a First and Second Generation survivor. She spoke of bearing not only her legacy, but the legacies of her parents, who survived the Holocaust but were not the same parents as before, mourning the loss of their young child and other tragedies. She discussed the interval following the war to the time the barbarity of what occurred began to register.

“The hidden child gnawed at my soul wanting to get out. I chose to live for many years like a good Canadian housewife and mother, but when I reached the age of 40, all hell broke loose. I fell apart and there was no help,” Boraks-Nemetz said.

“Trauma,” she added, “leaves behind a deep wound that, when unhealed, will eventually begin to start creating an emotional pain which won’t let you cope with an ordinary life. [It’s] a pain that few understand.”

The ensuing breakup of her family, she recounted, took many years to repair. At a certain point, she was able to put the pieces back together and begin to understand the root of her pain through telling her story to students and adult groups, and through writing novels and poetry. Boraks-Nemetz is the author of several books, including The Old Brown Suitcase, Mouth of Truth and, most recently, Out of the Dark, a collection of poetry.

“I wanted to understand how the past shaped my present and, above all, I wanted to mend my relationships with my children of whom I am so proud – my Second Generation children who also bore the brunt of my pain and whose forgiveness and understanding mean more to me than life,” she concluded.

The moment Boraks-Nemetz finished speaking, the crowd rose to its feet.

Titled Reconciliation and Holocaust Remembrance: Conversations on Intergenerational Trauma and Healing in Jewish and Indigenous Communities, the evening included short presentations by Nina Krieger, executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and Chief Robert Joseph, ambassador for Reconciliation Canada and a former member of the National Assembly of First Nations Elders Council.

Afterwards, Austin led a dialogue between panelists Marsha Lederman, arts correspondent for the Globe and Mail and author of Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust Once Removed, and Carey Newman, a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist, master carver, filmmaker and author. Their discussion explored experiences of healing across communities that have suffered intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust, residential schools and racism.

“I am grateful for the courage of these survivors and their children for the gift of their stories and sharing such intensely personal experiences so generously. In the pursuit of truth, we must deepen understanding and seek to connect in our hearts, to heal together,” said Austin.

“It is always my honour to sit with Holocaust and residential school survivors, as well as distinguished advocates for hope, help, healing and reconciliation. Acknowledging and addressing trauma is the key to better health and recovery. A good friend of mine once said to me: ‘We must always work together in dialogue and never compare trauma,’” said Joseph.

The Government House event was held in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, and the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island.

“With discrimination and racism on the rise here in B.C. and around the world, it is now more important than ever that the experiences and lessons learned from the Holocaust, residential schools and other forms of discrimination and racism remain present in the public mind so that history does not repeat itself,” said Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of Vancouver’s Jewish Federation. “Only by learning from the past can we prevent such hatred and atrocities in the future.”

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

JDC’s Ukraine efforts

Marina Sonkina shares her experiences as a volunteer with the JDC in Poland last year, helping Ukrainian refugees. (photo by Masumi Kikuchi)

This year’s annual Raoul Wallenberg Day in Vancouver honoured the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) for “its courageous support for Ukrainian refugees.”

“In addition to vast internal displacement, from a population of 41 million Ukrainians, eight million (mostly women and children, and some seniors) have fled to Europe and other parts of the world,” said Alan Le Fevre in his opening remarks.

Le Fevre is on the board of directors of the Wallenberg-Sugihara Civil Courage Society, which hosts the Wallenberg Day commemorations. This year, the event was presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Israel, and it took place at the synagogue on Jan. 22.

The JDC’s work helping Ukrainian refugees “continues its illustrious history,” said Le Fevre, noting that, “since its founding in 1914, the JDC has provided support for refugees whenever and wherever needed, propelled by Jewish values and a commitment to mutual responsibility.”

The City of Vancouver’s proclamation of this year’s Wallenberg Day was read by Deputy Mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung, attending on behalf of Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. She was joined by Councilor Mike Klassen.

Kirby-Yung had helped celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year that morning, and still had on the red jacket she had worn for that event because the Asian community “has suffered much in the past few years, [with] anti-Asian hate and, sometimes, that plight has been very analogous to what our Jewish community has suffered” and one of the best things about the city, and what she sees in the work of the JDC, is “communities and cultures, and people of different faiths and backgrounds, who come together to stand against injustice and to support each other.”

photo - Vancouver Deputy Mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung reads the city’s proclamation of this year’s Wallenberg Day, the framed copy of which is being held by Councilor Mike Klassen
Vancouver Deputy Mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung reads the city’s proclamation of this year’s Wallenberg Day, the framed copy of which is being held by Councilor Mike Klassen. (photo by Masumi Kikuchi)

WSCCS board member George Bluman introduced the afternoon’s guest speaker, Dr. Marina Sonkina, a local educator and writer. “Soon after Russia attacked Ukraine, Marina applied to volunteer with the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, as someone who speaks Russian, Ukrainian and other languages and as someone who has been a refugee herself,” he said. “Almost immediately, she was accepted and flew to Poland at the end of March.

“After arriving in Warsaw, about five hours later, Marina was at the Polish-Ukrainian border, where she served in a camp as a frontline responder, offering fleeing refugees medical and psychological support.”

Sonkina, who has relatives in Russia and Ukraine, said most of her family is out of Russia at this point.

“If we are talking about why didn’t Russians resist,” she said, “I think those more than one million people who left Russia when the draft, conscription, was announced, that is the only accessible form of not revolt, but saying no to Putin. Otherwise, it is pretty much a fascist state.”

While Putin is the person who launched the war, she wondered about others’ culpability: all those who overlooked Putin’s actions over the 22 years of his being power, which has seen him poison his opponents and annex Crimea, among other things. What was the West’s role, she asked, as they worked with Putin as a business partner first, putting his authoritarianism second?

In Warsaw, Sonkina was one of the people who met Holocaust survivors being extracted from Ukraine, to be housed in Germany. The next day, she worked in a refugee camp, where there were already more than two million refugees. (For more on Sonkina’s experience in Poland, read her account at jewishindependent.ca/helping-ukrainian-refugees.)

JDC helped everybody, said Sonkina. A moral responsibility to repair the world, tikkun olam, is part of JDC’s mandate and she saw this responsibility in action. She remarked on the goodwill of people from around the world, of a range of ages, who were helping in different ways, including taking refugees into their homes. The strength and independence of the refugees also left an impression on Sonkina – they didn’t want to take handouts, she said, and they wanted to know whether they could get jobs in the country that harboured them.

“One of the things that I quickly realized – a part of persuading them to go to this country or that was just the human contact that was so important,” she said. The refugees she met had experienced such trauma, and her acknowledgement of what they had gone through allowed some of them to cry. “It was sometimes hard,” Sonkina admitted, visibly emotional. “But there were also funny stories,” she added, sharing a couple of those stories before WSCCS board member Gene Homel took the podium.

An historian teaching about Europe in the 20th century for many years, Homel had been in Ukraine eight or nine years ago, and he echoed what Sonkina had said about Ukrainians’ “intense loyalty” – “the attachment to the land, culture and language” – but, he said, “I want to make the point that, in Ukraine today, the focus of loyalty is a civic one, it’s on the national state rather than ethnicity, it’s a pluralistic and multiethnic society that’s being created, forged largely as a result of Russia’s criminal attack on Ukraine.”

Homel provided a brief overview of the JDC’s work from its founding in 1914 to its current work with Ukrainian Jews and non-Jews, and he introduced businessman and philanthropist Gary Segal, who became familiar with JDC’s work in 2007, on a Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver trip to Ethiopia, led by JDC professionals. He’s been a board member since 2012.

“I marvel at the compassion, intelligence, resourcefulness and resolve with which the dedicated staff and volunteers carry on their sacred work,” said Segal, noting that JDC helps communities of all backgrounds and faiths, and doesn’t just respond to acute situations, but also to endemic poverty, food insecurity and the plight of refugees, as well as antisemitism.

“Since 1914, we’ve rescued more than one million Jews in danger, from places like Ethiopia, Yemen, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ukraine,” said Segal, who spoke about various JDC initiatives, including its medical programs in countries like Ethiopia.

photo - Gary Segal, a board member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, speaks about JDC’s history and his involvement with the organization
Gary Segal, a board member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, speaks about JDC’s history and his involvement with the organization. (photo by Masumi Kikuchi)

It was on that 2007 trip that Segal met Dr. Rick Hodes, JDC’s medical director in Ethiopia, whose care for kids with severe spinal deformities (with Ghanaian spine surgeon Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei) inspired Segal to get involved, too. He brought a young Ethiopian to Vancouver for back surgery and established in Vancouver the organization Bring Back Hope, which has raised some $3 million to support spine surgeries, preventative screening, and more. (See jewishindependent.ca/oldsite/archives/jan11/archives11jan14-02.html and several articles on jewishindependent.ca.)

Returning to JDC’s work in Ukraine since the war began, Segal noted that, to date, the organization “has cared for 35,000 vulnerable and elderly poor; it evacuated 13,000 Jews from Ukraine; provided over 40,000 refugees with food, medicine, trauma support; received over 19,000 incoming calls at the emergency centre; and provided over 1.3 million pounds of humanitarian assistance.”

Segal then brought his talk around to Raoul Wallenberg, Sweden’s special envoy to Hungary in 1944, who saved tens of thousands of Jews from deportation and death. “The original fund of $100,000 that [Wallenberg] received from the War Refugee Board came from the American Joint Distribution Committee and, when that was finished, he received additional funds from the JDC,” said

Segal, who concluded, “I would say, so much of what JDC does is giving hope. Hope is a powerful word, an essential element in everyone’s life…. Hope can give us the strength and the will to continue in our darkest moments, to aspire and believe that things can and will be better.”

On behalf of the JDC, Segal accepted, with thanks, the Wallenberg-Sugihara Civil Courage Award from Le Fevre.

Other components of the afternoon included a few words from Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, a short documentary on Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen, who received the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of displaced persons after the First World War, and a compilation of JDC’s work in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

WSCCS board member Judith Anderson introduced the videos, giving more of Nansen’s background and achievements, including “the repatriation of 450,000 prisoners of war, mostly held in Soviet Russia” and “[in] response to a severe famine in Soviet Russia, Nansen directed relief efforts that saved between seven million and 22 million people from starvation.”

Anderson said, “The Nansen story is directly relevant to Ukraine. The headquarters for Nansen’s mission to Russia was in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, and Nansen donated part of his Nobel Peace Prize money to establish a major agricultural project in Ukraine.”

She thanked the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Nobel Peace Centre for permission to show the videos about Nansen and JDC staff members and directors – Shaun Goldstone, Solly Kaplinski and Alex Weisler – for compiling the material for the Ukraine Crisis video.

The Wallenberg-Sugihara Civil Courage Society is named after Wallenberg for his actions during the Holocaust, and Chiune Sugihara, who, as vice-consul in Lithuania for Japan during the war, issued transit visas that allowed thousands of Jews from Poland and Lithuania to escape. For more information on the society and to see videos of the Jan. 22 event, visit wsccs.ca.

Unique testimony on stage

Kalman Bar-On, left, and Leopold Lowy at their reunion in 2002. (photo from Richard Lowy)

An SS guard walked down the line of prisoners gathered for roll call at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 and randomly picked two boys out of the line. Kalman Braun and Leopold Lowy would spend the next six-and-a-half months together working as servants in a guard shack, giving them a unique viewpoint on what was happening in that place during some of the final months of the Second World War.

The boys, who each had twin sisters and were, therefore, of interest to the infamous Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele, would survive the Holocaust, as would their sisters. Lowy moved to Canada and settled in Vancouver, Braun moved to Israel and became Kalman Bar-On – the two would not see each other again for more than half a century.

Their story was shared at the Rothstein Theatre Jan. 26, the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Richard Lowy, son of the late Leopold (or Leo) Lowy, presented an immersive experience that included first-person testimony, with Richard Lowy speaking the words, variously, of Bar-On, Leo Lowy and himself, as the son of Canada’s last surviving “Mengele twin,” who passed away in 2002, just a few months after he reconnected with Bar-On. Next year, Lowy intends to release a book based on hours of interviews he did with Bar-On.

The testimony, which Lowy presented last year in a similar format in Tel Aviv, is extremely rare, he contends, because of the unique vantage point his father and Bar-On had on concentration camp operations for half a year.

“This is these two Jewish kids, 15 years old,” Lowy told the Independent before the presentation, “cleaning the [SS] barrack, staring over the shoulders of the SS guards, at the front window looking out into the camp and watching the things that are going on, the selections, the liquidation of the Gypsy camp, the uprising of Crematorium IV, which is about 100 yards away from them. They can hear the fire pit and the people screaming.”

The reunion of Lowy and Bar-On, 57 years after liberation, almost didn’t happen. Richard Lowy had produced a documentary on his father’s Holocaust experiences, called Leo’s Journey. (This film and a shorter one about the reunion are available at leosjourney.ca.) The program aired on the National Geographic Channel in Israel and Bar-On happened to see it. He didn’t recognize the older Lowy, who he knew only as “Lippa,” but when a photo of the younger Leopold flashed across the screen, Bar-On was astounded.

“He’s looking at the screen and saying, ‘It’s my Lippa, it’s my Lippa,’” Richard Lowy said. Bar-On, who credited Leo Lowy for helping him survive the Holocaust, made a few calls and, before long, the telephone rang in the Lowy condo in Richmond. By this time, Leo was experiencing some dementia and it took time for him to realize who he was speaking with.

A reunion was quickly planned and Bar-On flew to Vancouver, where TV cameras captured the emotional meeting. As Bar-On shared his recollections, Lowy’s memories were also sparked. Subsequently, the younger Lowy recorded hours of testimony at Bar-On’s home in Tel Aviv.

“Kalman has a crystal clear memory of dates, times, places,” said Lowy. “By the month, by the week, by the day, by the hour, by the minute of things that were going on.… The guards treated them like mice.”

The teenagers witnessed and overheard things that they then shared with others in their barracks, where they returned at night from the comparative comfort of the heated guard shack.

“It put them in a very unique situation, but still dangerous,” said Lowy. “Think about it. You’re in a guard shack with SS guards. You do something they don’t like, they beat the crap out of you. But they do it in such a way that they are not going to break your arm, they are not going to kill you, because you are a ‘Mengele twin.’”

The building where the boys were assigned was particularly central.

“Leopold and Kalman’s guard shack was right at the top of the camp, outside of the hospital, right beside Kanada [where valuables stolen from prisoners were stored], right beside Crematorium Number IV, and you are able to see and hear all the different comings and goings,” he said. “Kalman gives us an overview of an area of the camp, the hospital camp, that I have never really read before.”

Leopold protected Kalman by, for instance, covering for his friend at work when Kalman could not move an arm after being injected with an experimental substance.

Bar-On has provided videotaped testimony to Yad Vashem, said Lowy, but it is about 35 minutes long, like many other survivor testimonies.

“I have about 14 hours of testimony,” said Lowy, “which basically takes me back to the time he was born, what his family was like, what it was like going to the yeshivah.”

Organizations like Yad Vashem that collect survivor testimonies do not have the resources to go into the depth with each individual that Lowy did with Bar-On, he said.

“I’m not interviewing thousands of people,” he said. “I don’t see how it would be possible to get 14 hours of interviews from every single survivor. I think that would just be an incredibly difficult challenge.”

Individual stories, though, are critical to understanding the Holocaust experience, said Lowy, noting monographs written by people like Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi, the more than 100,000 hours of testimony assembled by the USC Shoah Foundation, which was founded by Steven Spielberg, and films such as Sophie’s Choice, The Pianist and Schindler’s List.

At the event last month, projected images and video footage illustrated the narrative, while Lowy spoke, accompanied by violinist Cameron Wilson and cellist Finn Manniche.

The event was presented by Ward McAllister and Michelle Kirkegaard of the development firm Ledingham McAllister, who are friends of Lowy’s and funded the production. Volunteers from Na’amat Canada helped with the logistics.

JP’s legal correspondent

Michael Starr (photo from Michael Starr)

Canadian Michael Starr, who joined the Jerusalem Post in 2021, started a new position last month: that of legal correspondent.

Starr was born and raised in Toronto, but has a B.C. connection. His parents, Steven Starr and Iris Green-Starr, both doctors, moved the family to Victoria, where they still live, “because it is a lovely place and there is more nature there.” It was in Victoria that Starr attended high school.

Starr made aliyah at the age of 18 and joined the Israel Defence Forces later in the year, at the age of 19, serving in the infantry from 2009 to 2012.

“I grew up in a religious and Zionist household, and Israel was a large part of my cultural heritage,” he told the Independent about why he made aliyah. “My grandmother was born in Israel and my grandfather served in the Haganah and IDF. Further, there comes a time in every young man’s life in which he needs to leave his father’s home and put himself in a new environment to truly allow him to become himself.”

His brother, Joseph, came in 2012 and served in the Israeli army; today, he is in the Canadian military. Starr’s younger brother, Sam, is currently part of the IDF’s Golani Brigade.

Starr received a bachelor’s degree, majoring in government studies, and a master’s in terrorism and counterterrorism operations from Reichman University in Herzliya. (Reichman is Israel’s first and only private university, founded in 1994 as the IDC or Interdisciplinary Centre, a private college, before being rebranded in 2021.)

When a friend mentioned that there was a job opening at the Jerusalem Post, he applied and got the job.

“I never set out to be a journalist,” he said. “My interests are security and diplomacy.”

In March of 2021, he started writing for the Jerusalem Post magazine and the Post itself. From March 2020 through December of last year, he was on the breaking news desk.

“When the legal affairs correspondent position opened up, the end of November, I accepted because I wanted to be a journalist and it was a promotion, a step up,” he said. “I also like writing and this would be an opportunity to do more.”

On Jan. 1, Starr started that new position, “where I am reporting on the judicial reforms, which are not just one proposal but many different provisions. It was lucky I studied international law; this is a new field for me.”

Although Starr admits, “I’m a bit of a workaholic,” he runs for enjoyment and takes long walks.

Sybil Kaplan is a Jerusalem-based journalist and author. She wrote Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel, set against the history of Israel in the 1970s, and Hatzaad Harishon, A “First Step” Love Story, relating her experiences as the first youth leader of the first black Jewish youth group in New York. She has edited/compiled nine kosher cookbooks and is a food writer for North American Jewish publications.

Land of milk, honey …

Toward the end of last year, Israel signed an historic agreement with Lebanon, enabling both countries to enjoy an abundance of natural gas located deep below their respective territorial waters.

Now, Israel can continue exploring its northern Karish gas field without the risk of Hezbollah missiles overhead. And Israel will receive indirect royalties from Lebanon’s Kana field – with no peace treaty (yet), royalties will be paid via a third country. Add that to potential revenues from Israel’s other natural gas finds in the Mediterranean, and there’s the opportunity of Israel replacing Russia as Europe’s main natural gas provider. Israel will become more than just the land of milk and honey.

Optimistic forecasts of a natural gas Sovereign Wealth Fund are for billions of shekels in tax revenue. Trusting that the new ruling gas triumvirate – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Energy Minister Israel Katz – will optimize our natural gas and its wealth fund, then Israel becomes the land of milk, honey, natural gas and an overflowing wealth fund.

Hopefully, Lebanon’s natural gas opportunity will help their economy. Then it, too, will be a country overflowing in natural gas and with its own wealth fund.

***

Israel’s 2022 inflation rate was 5.3%, its highest since 2008.  Within the OECD, Israel had the third lowest rate, behind Japan’s 3.0% and Switzerland’s 3.3%. How’s that for our little shtetl! Can’t even compare these rates with the much poorer performing OECD countries such as Estonia at 23.6%, Lithuania at 24.1% and Turkey at 83.5% (yikes!).

Israel’s rate was even lower than the 6.3% of Canada, whose neighbour to the south experienced a similar level. As for Israel’s neighbours, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were at 4.4% and 3.3% respectively … pretty good. Egypt suffered a 24.4% inflation rate, Syria a rate of 105% and Lebanon 189.4%, one of the highest in the world! Israel, the land of milk, honey and competitive inflation rates.

***

Then there’s the judicial reforms bonanza. Israel’s new justice minister, Yariv Levin, is looking to overhaul the system by granting the government – through a simple majority vote – the right to overturn High Court decisions and by giving politicians more power in appointing Supreme Court judges. Detractors are concerned this gives the government way too much say over legal matters and threatens our democracy.  Supporters – largely those who voted for the new government – believe these changes will strengthen the legislature’s ability to enact the will of the electorate. Theirs, anyway.

Karnit Flug and Stanley Fischer, former Bank of Israel governors, are firmly in the former camp. They’re concerned these reforms will harshly undermine the High Court’s authority and concentrate too much power with the government, hurting Israel’s sovereign credit rating, destabilizing the economy and reducing the standard of living.

Netanyahu – the free market czar who revolutionized Israel’s economy as finance minister and who extracted natural gas from our sea as prime minister – believes his judicial reforms will rejuvenate the economy by reducing excess regulation and judicialization.

Adding to the festivities. Israel’s anti-reform (and largely anti-government) movement had its third weekly 100,000-person protest in Tel Aviv last month. A sea of people storming the city square, waving flags of blue and white, singing folk songs and Hatikvah and shouting slogans of support for the high judges. Israel, the land of milk, honey and a real judicial balagan.

***

It’s here! 7-Eleven opened its first store in Israel. In downtown Tel Aviv (of course), with plans to roll out hundreds of branches throughout our little shtetl over the coming years. Hello, Slurpees! Those multi-coloured slushies were a staple of my Canadian childhood. Although now  I am more a fan of the fresh Dole bananas sold at the stores in the United States and Japan, which I’d buy as a healthy snack while on overseas business trips. Looking inward, does this mean the demise of Israel’s famous mom-and-pop stores, found in neighbourhoods across the country, the Bella’s and Yankela’s, which add to Israel’s heimishe-like atmosphere? That would be a pity! Israel becoming the land of milk, honey, Slurpees … and Dole bananas.

***

On a much lighter note, what about Israel’s maple syrup revolution? It was once only available from specialty food stores, and at an exorbitant price. But what’s a poor Canadian immigrant to do? I paid the ransom and our family enjoyed Shabbat morning French toast, pancakes and waffles. Whenever visiting Canada, I stocked up with the stuff, packing carefully bubble-wrapped bottles of both real and imitation maple syrup into my suitcase.

But, thanks to free trade. Real maple syrup – the organic kind from Canada – became super cheap in Israel, even less expensive than in Canada! And it’s available everywhere, even at Bella’s and Yankela’s. Now when I return to Canada, I take back Canadian maple syrup as gifts. Dare I say it … Israel, the land of milk, honey and Canadian Maple Syrup, eh.

Bruce Brown is a Canadian and an Israeli. He made aliyah … a long time ago. He works in Israel’s high-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. Brown is the winner of the 2019 AJPA Rockower Award for excellence in writing, and wrote the 1998 satire An Israeli is…. Brown reflects on life in Israel – political, social, economic and personal.

Navigate golden years

On Feb. 15 at Beth Israel, there will be two opportunities to hear Dr. Mielu Rabinovici speak on the topic of The Know-How to Navigate Through the Golden Years and Retirement, and Preparedness also Towards an Increased Longevity and a Better Quality of Life.

Rabinovici is an author and educator who has lived and worked across Canada and on three continents. He has degrees from various institutions, including the University of Toronto, faculty of education.

He has written and taught on several subjects, his areas of speciality being accounting, marketing and management. He is also the author of several books especially designed for seniors, about retirement, longevity and towards a better quality of life.

Now in his mid-80s, Rabinovici is still writing and sharing his knowledge with many groups, including seniors, helping them navigate through the modern complexities of life, characterized by climate change and rapid technological changes.

To register for one of Rabinovici’s Feb. 15 talks (2-4 p.m. or 6-8 p.m.), call him at 604-725-1376.

– Courtesy Temple Sholom

New housing partnership

Yaron Komari, a resident at Dogwood Gardens, speaks at the development’s opening ceremony Jan. 10, as Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim looks on. (photo by Al Lau)

Yaron Komari grew up in Israel, served in the Israel Defence Forces and moved to Canada in 2009. He was pursuing a career as an apprentice electrician and was hopeful for the future when he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2018. A year later, the diabetes progressed into serious neuropathy and his career was effectively halted.

“I had no financial safety net and soon found myself in tough times,” he said. “I quickly found myself living in a rooming house with drug addicts and prostitutes as my neighbours. I felt very unsafe. Just walking up the 12 stairs to my room became a daily challenge, never mind the chronic insomnia.”

Komari shared his story at the official opening Jan. 10 of Dogwood Gardens, an affordable housing development on West 59th Avenue near Cambie. The 138-unit building, part of the larger Cambie Gardens development, is a partnership between Tikva Housing Society, SUCCESS and the City of Vancouver.

“Even my doctor became concerned,” Komari recounted at the ceremony. “Without access to a kosher kitchen, my diabetes became unmanageable and further affected my overall health. I’m an observant, kosher Jew and my living situation simply added more stress to my everyday life.

“I never in my worst nightmares thought that I would live in an unbearable and unhealthy environment and rely on community generosity to help source kosher food and meals,” he said.

Komari knew of Tikva Housing, which has the mission of providing “access to innovative and affordable housing solutions for all those in the Jewish community who need it.” However, he thought that there were people in greater need.

“With the persuasion and the help of Tikva Housing and Jewish Family Services, I applied for housing,” he said. “You cannot even begin to imagine what I felt when I got the call from Tikva Housing that my application had been approved. There was no hope for me.… [But] the keys are now in my hand. I walked into my new home. I couldn’t even believe that was happening to me. It was emotionally overwhelming…. I have a fridge that I can store my food in. I have a kosher kitchen where I can prepare my own meals and I have the peace of mind that I am safe and secure. For the first time in years, I have slept through the night. Tikva Housing has changed my life. I’m proud of where I live…. My world feels more open and I no longer feel shame or embarrassed of where and how I live.”

Komari’s is just one of the lives positively affected by the opening of the new facility, which was made possible under the city’s inclusionary housing policy, which requires developers to provide social housing as part of large redevelopment projects. SUCCESS and Tikva will co-manage the facility, which also includes an amenity space, children’s play area, parking and storage. Of the 138 units, 30 are designated for Tikva and 108 for SUCCESS. There are studio apartments and one-, two- and three-bedroom units. About half the units are offered to tenants at 10% below market rents, while the rest are adjusted to income, based on provincial guidelines. The larger Cambie Gardens development, of which Dogwood Gardens is a part, will see a total of 540 affordable units when the project of more than 3,000 total apartments is completed on the 10-hectare (25-acre) site. The redevelopment is on the location of Vancouver Coastal Health’s former Pearson Dogwood complex, which housed adults with physical disabilities and seniors with complex needs.

Anat Gogo, Tikva’s executive director, told the Independent that about 90% of the homes designated for members of the Jewish community are now occupied, with the rest of the residents expected to move in within days. Earlier, she told the audience, which included elected officials and community leaders, that stable, affordable housing is a basic need that allows people to move from merely surviving to thriving.

“This project makes me feel like we can have a meaningful and long-lasting impact and actually make a difference in people’s lives,” she said. “At Tikva, we are committed to tikkun olam, repairing the world, and we do this one home at a time. We are committed to building community.”

Rhonda Sacks, chair of the board of directors of Tikva, also spoke, highlighting the power of partnerships.

“While Tikva and SUCCESS serve diverse populations, we share a common passion for supporting our communities and making a genuine difference in their lives,” she said. Sacks also offered special thanks to lead supporters, including the Diamond Foundation, the Ben and Esther Dayson Charitable Foundation, the Al Roadburg Foundation and the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

“Dogwood Gardens is perfectly positioned to inspire meaningful connections and provide a strong sense of belonging,” said Sacks.

photo - Supporters of Tikva Housing in one of the units at Dogwood Gardens on Jan. 10, left to right: Stephen Gaerber, Gord Kushner, Bernard Pinsky, Rory Richards, Anat Gogo, Ezra Shanken, Rhonda Sacks, Sheila Sontz and Daniella Givon
Supporters of Tikva Housing in one of the units at Dogwood Gardens on Jan. 10, left to right: Stephen Gaerber, Gord Kushner, Bernard Pinsky, Rory Richards, Anat Gogo, Ezra Shanken, Rhonda Sacks, Sheila Sontz and Daniella Givon. (photo by Al Lau)

Dogwood Gardens is not the first partnership between Tikva and SUCCESS. With other partners, the two agencies opened the 129-unit Diamond Residences (Storeys), in Richmond, six years ago. Last year, YWCA Metro Vancouver, the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of B.C. and Tikva opened xʷƛ̓əpicən, a 125-unit complex at Arbutus Centre. Tikva’s portfolio also includes the 32-unit Ben and Esther Dayson Residences, in south Vancouver’s River District, and Dany Guincher House, an 11-unit building for people at risk of homelessness and persons with disabilities who can live independently, which was Tikva’s first building. The house was built in 1970, purchased by Tikva in 2007 and began operations in 2008. With Dogwood Gardens now open, Tikva’s portfolio includes 128 units.

Currently under construction in Burnaby is the next Tikva initiative, Susana Cogan Place, which is named after the woman who led Tikva until her passing in 2017. This project will add another 20 units of affordable homes.

In addition, Tikva Housing has a rent subsidy program that provides eligible low-income singles and families with cash assistance towards their monthly rent, within available funding.

At the Dogwood Gardens opening, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim was joined by city councilors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Rebecca Bligh and Christine Boyle.

Sim noted that he grew up about a half-kilometre away in what was “effectively affordable housing” and said this new housing complex means that “the next generation of Vancouverites who may not have a lot … can still live in an amazing area like this one.”

The project is part of sprawling changes along the Cambie corridor, including the Oakridge redevelopment and smaller projects that increase density along the thoroughfare. JWest, the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver campus a few blocks to the northwest, is a major component of the changing face of the broader area, which has traditionally been home to many of Vancouver’s Jewish residents and community institutions.

“The City of Vancouver is committed to delivering much-needed quality housing while developing collaborative relationships with community partners,” said Sim. “We applaud the work of SUCCESS and Tikva, who have helped expand options for culturally appropriate housing across our city.”

Queenie Choo, chief executive officer of SUCCESS, chaired the opening ceremony and acknowledged other representatives of her organization, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and has grown from a small charity in Chinatown to one of Canada’s largest social service agencies.