Judah Altman, left, Daniel Fine and Marina Levy all packed up for the bus. (photo from Camp Miriam)
Returning to Camp Miriam every summer is like going home. The kids shouting and laughing for joy, the bright smiles of the counselors, beautiful Gabriola Island – there’s no other place like Camp Miriam.
My first summer at Miriam was 2013. I’ve returned every summer since, more in love with the place and the people each time. I’ve grown up at Camp Miriam. I’ve grown up with the people; they are some of my best friends. I’ve grown up as a person; I’m always learning about myself and the world in ever-changing new ways. Most importantly, I’ve grown up at Camp Miriam having fun – summers at camp are what I look the most forward to most and I never want them to end.
Left to right are “Visionaries” Daniel Fine, Marina Levy, Judah Altman, Mira Macnair, Kieran Macnair and Mica Hastings. (photo from Camp Miriam)
I’ve been a camper, a junior counselor, a counselor and, last summer, a counselor for the leadership training program. Last summer was my favourite summer yet, and I can’t wait for this coming summer. To me, Camp Miriam has always been special for two reasons: the first is the activities, and the second is the people.
This summer, as chinuch (educational director) on our youth-led executive team, or mazkirut, I will be in charge of activities for the entire camp. I could not be more excited. One of the main reasons I continue to return to Camp Miriam is the unique options it provides for campers. There are the classic undertakings – like swimming, soccer, art and music. But then there are the programs that few other summer camps have, such as special days where all camp activities run around a surprise theme, ocean swimming as the sun sets, Jewish learning, and a focus on social justice.
I’m also looking forward to seeing the new and returning campers bond with their cohorts and with their counselors. I know firsthand that Miriam friendships last forever. The people I’ve met at camp will undoubtedly remain my friends for the rest of my life. These are the deepest connections I have.
Judah Altman with friends Meital Smith, left, and Rakeea Chesick Gordis. (photo from Camp Miriam)
After two years of COVID, these connections couldn’t be more important: for counselors like me, and especially for kids. Camp Miriam empowers youth and provides a space for kids to be themselves and to continue to discover who they are. It is a place to make new friends and reaffirm old ones. It is a place to talk for hours on end about all manner of issues, and to play and be silly without fear of judgment. It is a place to learn what true friendship means.
I am excited for the summer because, once again, I will get to meet new campers and counselors and help create the community that is the essence of Camp Miriam. I also can’t wait to see all the familiar faces. I can’t wait to run memorable programming for the kids that will be fun, while also empowering them to grow as people. Camp Miriam is the most important place in the world to me – I feel so fortunate that my parents have given me the opportunity to return summer after summer.
Judah Altmanis a student at Columbia University, studying philosophy and sociology. He will be chinuch, or director of education, at Camp Miriam this summer.
In these uncertain times, JCC Camp Shalom set out to continue to be a constant source of fun and a safe environment for the whole community. For the second year, the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic demanded that the camp’s plans be reevaluated and adapted, as it partnered with King David High School to move the majority of its operations to the school’s building for last summer.
Camp Shalom is an inclusive Jewish day camp serving children, youth and teens from ages 3 to 18 years old, year-round, during school breaks and professional development days. Since the inception of the Inclusive Summer Camp Experience program in 2009, more and more children with diverse needs have attended Camp Shalom and participated in group activities, including overnight camping trips.
The number of children with diverse needs who attend Camp Shalom has grown from a handful to more than a dozen per summer – and the range of assistance provided for families has grown as well. Families are able to access more camp sessions and the camp can now support a wider range of ages and needs. Huge improvements have been made in accommodating campers in a true inclusion model and in providing opportunities for more Jewish programming beyond the summer, including Sunday Hebrew schools for those who did not have access to them prior to their experience with Camp Shalom.
(photo from JCC Camp Shalom)
Thanks to the contributions of the Diamond Foundation and the Snider Foundation, Camp Shalom is able to support more campers and staff with diverse needs by providing special training sessions, mentorship programs and one-on-one support for those campers who need it. Campers who were part of the first inclusive camp experiences are now teenagers and young adults who are still connected to Camp Shalom, and some are now camp staff. This past year’s biggest achievements included engaging about two dozen children, youth and teens with diverse needs and successfully integrating them into the general camp program alongside 120 to 150 other campers in the camp’s preschool, school-age and teen programs.
JCC Camp Shalom likes to think of all youth as being in transition. It pays special attention to campers transitioning from childhood into teenagehood and those teens who are about to become counselors. Work experience is a huge milestone as they enter high school. At camp, they go from being campers to participating in the teen programs, to joining the staff team.
Regardless of their developmental stage and/or maturity level, and taking into consideration their diverse needs, these teens need more support and adaptations than any other group with which the camp works. Careful planning and consideration of their needs has resulted in a successful program that provides them with social and organizational education that will benefit them in the future, as they look for employment, as well as in other areas of their lives.
JCC Camp Shalom is the largest summer Jewish day camp for youth in Vancouver, but its responsibility continues, as the engagement with youth extends beyond summer camp to throughout the year. As teens develop, Camp Shalom recognizes their need for adults with whom they can connect, that they can trust and who can be positive role models. Staff from the summer teen camp programs are educated and qualified to sustain positive and appropriate relationships with youth as they age. The inclusion model of camp programming allows campers with diverse needs to have an unforgettable Jewish experience at Camp Shalom.
For more information about the Inclusive Summer Camp Experience or Camp Shalom’s teen programs, contact Ben Horev, camp director, at 604-813-4236 or [email protected].
At summer camp, kids build community, take on challenges, become independent and develop leadership skills. (photo from Camp Solomon Schechter)
There’s a place where kids can simply be themselves. Where they build community, take on challenges, become independent and develop leadership skills. And, through it all, they think it’s just fun and friendships. That’s the magic of summer camp – a healthy dose of nature and nurture.
One year after sleepaway camps across the country were shuttered by the pandemic, many kids packed their shorts and hiking shoes once again, dug out their sleeping bags, and reunited with camp buddies to rekindle fond traditions.
We asked the directors of three Jewish summer camps in Washington state to share their perspective on the role camp plays in the social and emotional health of children, and how it was especially vital in the summer of 2021.
Welcome back to camp
“Welcoming the kids back this summer was extra special,” said Zach Duitch, director at Camp Solomon Schechter in Tumwater. “We could see it in their faces. After being online for a year-and-a-half, they were ready to be outside, with their friends, and having fun.”
Many parents were understandably concerned about sending their kids back to camp this past summer. Attendance numbers dipped somewhat, but families also recognized the value of getting their kids back to outdoor healthy summer fun, Duitch said. Away from everyday social pressures, camp staff works to create an environment that’s a safe place for kids to be their authentic selves.
“Parents trust us with their kids’ safety, security and health – and also with their spiritual and emotional needs. We take that trust incredibly seriously,” said Rabbi Ilana Mills, director at URJ Camp Kalsman in Arlington. “Camp is life-changing in so many ways. It’s an opportunity to grow as a whole person.”
Fun with lasting impact
When kids come home from one, two or three weeks at summer camp, the changes may not be immediately evident. In fact, many campers and counselors only realize as adults how much the experience has shaped them, instilling them early on with courage, compassion and independence. Kids can head off to camp as early as the summer after first grade. Many progress through the years to become counselors, taking on leadership roles as high school and college students, in what many describe as the “best job ever.”
Ask a kid and they’ll say camp is about boating, hiking, arts, sports, cookouts – and the thrill of a high-ropes course. Along with the fun, each camp has its own unique culture with familiar traditions passed down from summer to summer. Camp culture is what ties the community together with singing and celebrations, skits and games. Jewish summer camps also integrate religious observance and community into daily life.
“Camps are these bubbles – their own societies – where kids play a central role,” said Rabbi Kenny Pollack, camp director at Sephardic Adventure Camp in Cle Elum. “Our kids are immersed in the culture of camp, and it helps shape their identity.”
Healthy dose of silliness
When camp directors describe how their programs nurture kids, it can sound pretty serious. But one thing they take extremely seriously is fun.
“At Camp Solomon Schechter we do a lot of ‘shtick.’ Campers love seeing their counselors act silly,” said Duitch, as he explained a beloved trivia game that ends with participants messy and everybody laughing.
Mills described how “we really try to be as outside the box as possible. We push our counselors to teach their passion, be creative and try new things.”
She even got a chance to join the fun, playing a zombie during the culmination of their outdoor survival unit at URJ Camp Kalsman.
Leave real world behind
Kids leave their parents and their digital devices at home when they arrive at camp. There may be homesickness at first but soon their days are consumed by activities and friendships. And, since more and more camps are going device-free, campers get a break from their screens.
“Camp is a place where kids get to be their authentic selves,” said Pollack.
Each summer, as kids are reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, they’re also connecting across borders. Increasingly, camps are bringing counselors from international locations to supplement the programming with games and traditions from their home countries.
“As much as kids love their parents, camp is a great opportunity for them to learn from other role models,” said Duitch, explaining how the camp experience broadens kids’ viewpoints and connects them to lifelong friends.
Many parents, kids and camp staffers found it heartbreaking to cancel camp in 2020. That’s why camps throughout Washington banded together, lobbying the state government to make sure that camp happened in 2021 and that it would be a safe and extra-memorable summer. In the end, it may be difficult to measure the social and emotional impact of returning to camp after a trying year. But parents could no doubt see it in the hugs, the joy and the happy exhaustion as they picked their kids up at the end of camp this past year.
This article, courtesy Camp Solomon Schechter, comes from the Samis Foundation, which was established in 1994 by Samuel Israel, z”l, and is the largest Jewish philanthropy in Washington state. Grantmaking is focused on the foundation’s mission of supporting local Jewish education and initiatives in Israel. Samis is honoured to support the three Jewish overnight camps located in Washington state, working to keep Jewish children and teens engaged in their culture, religion and communities.
Camp Kalsman has almost 300 acres, perfect for a wide range of activities. (photo from Camp Kalsman)
Rabbi Ilana Mills, director of URJ Camp Kalsman, started attending camp when she was 8 years old. “I remember being uncertain what the experience would be like, trying to picture how it would feel to live in a bunk. It was greater than I ever imagined,” she said.
“Jewish camping helped me learn more about myself and my Jewish identity,” she added. “I learned independence that served me my whole life and what it means to be part of a community. I have experienced the powerful impact camp can have on someone’s life and now get to watch my children experience it as well.”
(photo from Camp Kalsman)
Camp Kalsman knows kids need places to be celebrated for who they are and places that help them grow. Camp Kalsman is one of those places – where a child can feel comfortable being their true self and learn independence while they climb the tower, play pool volleyball, and tie-dye.
Located in Washington, the camp has almost 300 acres, perfect for a wide range of activities: arts, sports, team-building, hiking, high ropes, guitar, and so much more. Each camper can explore all aspects of camp and participate in various programs, while exploring and gaining pride in their Jewish identity. Camp isn’t just a fun thing for kids to do when they’re out of school. Studies have shown that camp is one of the most powerful tools in a parenting toolbox for successfully launching an adult.
Discover new passions
Camp Kalsman strives to make every camper’s experience nurturing and fulfilling, and does so by making sure that every child feels welcomed and supported, while challenging themselves. Campers engage in activities and programs, develop lifelong friendships and live with a super staff. Jewish values infuse everything the camp does and, each year, new and returning staff members bring unique chugim, activities, based on their passions, so there are always more options being added to an already long list.
Arts: painting, ceramics, improv/drama, guitar, song writing/leading, digital media, Kalsman musical, photography, dance, cooking.
(photo from Camp Kalsman)
Sports: balloon volleyball, giant soccer, archery, Gaga, tetherball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, softball/kickball, Kalsman football (extra special/silly combination of sports).
Waterfront: pirate ball on the lake, cardboard box boat-making, mermaid contest, water polo, canoeing, kayaking, pool volleyball, pool basketball.
Unit programs: Israeli cooking, ice cream pool party, messy night, scavenger hunt, and so much more.
Shabbat shalom
Everyone can feel the magic that falls over Camp Kalsman every Shabbat. The entire camp community changes into white clothes and cleans up after a very busy week. The camp joins together in a Shabbat walk that ends at the outdoor beit tefilah (sanctuary). There are interactive services, a traditional Shabbat dinner in the dining hall, with challah and grape juice, and the night ends with Shabbat Shira (song session), where campers and staff alike can dance and sing the night away.
Since it is still Shabbat, Saturdays also look a bit different at camp. There is chofesh, free time, where campers can choose activities more freely and for longer amounts of time than during the full schedule of the rest of the week. They can focus on finishing their art project, challenge themselves on a different path on the high ropes course, or even chill on the quad with friends and really rest and reset for the days ahead.
Michael Gliksberg, left, and Prof. Gil Levkowitz are among the researchers who have discovered that oxytocin in a developing zebrafish brain determines later social behaviour. (photo from Weizmann Institute)
Whenever we decide to throw a party, invite in-laws to dinner or embark on a cruise, we are driven by the most basic component of social behaviour: the desire to hang out with other humans. Considering that the drive to form groups with members of one’s own species has been conserved throughout evolution, it’s evident that social behaviour is governed by genes, at least to some degree. But our parents and teachers help us hone our social graces, so teasing apart the effects of nature and nurture on this behaviour is hard, if not impossible. By studying zebrafish, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, in collaboration with scientists in Portugal, have managed to solve part of the riddle of how social behaviour is hardwired into the developing brain.
Zebrafish are perfect for studying the inborn basis of behaviour because they receive zero nurturing from parents. “Some fish species take care of their young, but not zebrafish,” explained Prof. Gil Levkowitz of the Weizmann Institute’s molecular cell biology and molecular neuroscience departments, who headed the research team together with Prof. Rui F. Oliveira of Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Portugal. “The female zebrafish spawns several hundred eggs, which are fertilized by sperm released into the water by the male. She does provide her offspring with a ‘lunchbox’ – a protein sac, or yolk, that makes up part of the egg – but, otherwise, her message to her children is: manage on your own.”
At about four weeks of age, the centimetre-long juvenile fish, just out of the larval stage, begin to socialize. Though not as exquisitely synchronized as the schools of moonfish in the movie Finding Nemo, they do exhibit a strong tendency to swim together as a group, termed a shoal. Much like humans, they have an incentive to seek company; in their case, the group provides them with advantages in searching for food, overcoming currents, avoiding predators and finding mates. The shoaling behaviour of zebrafish requires sophisticated processing of visual and social cues, very similar to that which takes place in the brains of socializing humans. In particular, the zebrafish must be able to identify other fish as belonging to their own, “friendly” – as opposed to different or, worse yet, predatory – species.
To learn how the social behaviour of zebrafish develops, the researchers focused on the hormone oxytocin, one of the most important neurochemicals known to enhance social interactions, including bonding. Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ana Rita Nunes and doctoral student Michael Gliksberg created a system for exploring the effects of oxytocin on the developing brains of zebrafish larvae. They produced transgenic larvae whose oxytocin-making neurons harboured a bacterial gene encoding fatal sensitivity to antibiotics. The researchers could then eliminate these neurons from the brains of the larvae at different stages of their development by adding antibiotics to the water, and they later observed the zebrafish behaviour as they became adults.
The scientists discovered that the larvae whose brains lacked oxytocin early on – specifically, in the first two weeks of life – grew into adult fish with an impaired capacity for social interaction, namely, swimming in a shoal. Although their brains regenerated the oxytocin neurons later in life, this capacity was not restored. This meant that, for adults to be capable of social behaviour, their brains had to be organized by oxytocin in a certain manner during a critical time window of brain development in which the social traits are established.
The researchers further discovered the mechanisms by which oxytocin primes the growing brain for socializing. They showed that oxytocin-producing neurons were critical to the birth of another type of neuron, one that releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is known to regulate feelings of reward and motivation. Zebrafish whose brains had not been exposed to oxytocin during the first two weeks of life had reduced numbers of dopamine-making neurons, as well as a reduced number of connections to these neurons, in two distinct brain areas.
One of these areas was responsible for processing visual stimuli, apparently of the kind essential for recognizing potential swimming partners. An analogous area in the brains of mammals, including humans, is involved in processing visual cues in social situations. It controls eye movements that scan, for example, different elements of the face in a particular order to decipher facial expressions. This pattern is often absent in people with autism, suggesting that their brains respond to social-based visual cues differently.
The other dopamine-deficient brain area in the zebrafish was analogous to a major reward centre in the mammalian brain, which is involved in the positive reinforcement of social interactions.
A lack of oxytocin in the critical early developmental period also disrupted a system of neuronal connections known as the social decision-making network – a group of brain areas that work together to process social information. In fish whose brains had developed without oxytocin, the synchronization patterns of neuronal activities among these centres were completely different from those of regular fish.
Nunes summarized: “Oxytocin organizes the developing brain in a way that’s essential for responding to social situations.”
Most everyone on the planet has now heard of mRNA, thanks to the vaccines against COVID-19 from Pfizer and Moderna, which are based on messenger RNA. But, before mRNA was used to address COVID, research was conducted into how it could fight cancer. Now, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have discovered a key connection between mRNA, peptide proteins and tumour progression.
Messenger RNA codes for different proteins, each with a unique function. There are both “long” and “short” peptides. Until now, scientists were not sure if short peptides had any biological function.
Prof. Etta Livneh of BGU’s Shraga Segal Department of Immunology, Microbiology and Genetics has shown that single short peptides in fact have a very important role – as a kinase inhibitor that can slow tumour growth and invasion, cancer cell survival and metastasis.
Proteins (and protein kinases in particular) propagate signals that carry instructions to the cells and dictate cell fate. There are more than 500 different kinases in the human body.
With cancer, a kinase erroneously tells the cells to divide and reproduce in a rapid and uncontrollable manner. But the flipside is also true: if a kinase can be inhibited, it should block the proliferation of cancer cells.
And that’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” said Livneh, whose discovery has been a decade in the making. “Now that we know that at least some peptides have a biological function, we can begin to discover the roles of many more.”
Kinase inhibitors are already one of the hottest areas of cancer research, in some cases replacing chemotherapy. Livneh’s research will allow scientists to better understand how to control this cancer-fighting technology.
The research was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation and published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).
Israel21cis a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.
הרופאה המומחה החליטה שעלי לעשות בדיקת אם. אר. איי. לאזור הצוואר שלי לאור מוגבלות מסוימת שאני חש בו. בדיקת הסי. טי. שעשיתי בבית החולים סנט פול לא הייתה מספיק טובה מבחינתה, והיא התעקשה על בדיקת אם. אר. איי. שהיא הרבה יותר מקיפה. הרופאה הזכירה לי, בביקור במרפאתה בסוף חודש נובמבר, כי התור לאם. אר. איי. הוא ארוך מאוד, ולכן כדאי שארשם לכל בית החולים שעושים אותה באזור ונקובר. אני סירבתי בכל תוקף ואמרתי לה שאני מוכן לעשות את הבדיקה רק בשני בתי החולים המרכזיים של ונקובר: סנט פול וונקובר ג’נרל – כיוון שלהם יש את ציוד הטוב ביותר
המזכירות הרפואית במרפאה בה עובדת הרופאה רשמה אותי לבדיקה וידעתי שיתכן ואאלץ להמתין חודשים ארוכים ואולי אף יותר מכך לבדיקה המיוחלת. לכן מספר ימים לאחר הפגישה עם הרופאה המומחית התקשרתי למזכירות וביקשתי מהם לרשום אותי גם לתור של ביטולים באחד משני בתי החולים בעיר. מניסיוני לאחר שבע עשרה שנים של מגורים בוונקובר, אני יודע שברוב המקרים זה עובד מצוין. מטופל נאלץ לבטל תור לבדיקה מסוימת או אפילו לניתוח, ואז מי שנמצא בתור הביטולים מקבל התראה קצרה על תאריך פינוי לביצועה. קנדים רבים כאן לא חושבים כלל על האופציה של תור הביטולים והם ממתינים בשקט לתור שלהם, גם אם זה כרוך בחודשים רבים מאוד. אני כבר הבנתי מזמן את הפרינציפ: צריך להיות קצת קריאטיבי ואז אפשר להשיג את מבוקשתך
במקביל להמתנה לבדיקת האם. אר. איי. במערכת הציבורית, החלטתי לנסות ולבדוק מה המצב במכונים הפרטיים שבעיר. מצאתי בסך הכול שני מכונים בלבד שמבצעים בדיקה שכזו, והעלות יקרה מאוד: קרוב לאלף דולר. החלטתי לשמור את האופציה היקרה הזאת למקרה שאאלץ להמתין חודשים ארוכים לבדיקה באמצעות המערכת הציבורית. ולשמחתי זה לא קרה. ביום שני בשבוע שעבר (שחל בשבוע האחרון של דצמבר) קיבלתי פתאום טלפון ממספר לא מזוהה. תחילה חשבתי שמדובר בעוד שיחה של נוכלים שמנסים באמצעות תרגילים שונים לגנוב כסף. אך לא כך הוא. על הקו הייתה אחת העובדות במזכירות הרפואית של בית החולים סנט פול, שאמרה לי כי התפנה תור לבדיקת האם. אר. איי למחרת – יום שלישי בשעה שתיים לפנות בוקר. כמובן קפצתי על המציאה והסכמתי מייד. העובדת הסבירה לי כי בשעות שכאלה בית החולים סגור ואפשר להגיע למכון לבדיקת האם. אר. איי. רק דרך חדר המיון. כיוון שהבדיקה בשעות מאוד מאוחרות בלילה היא שאלה אותי היכן אני גר? ואז עניתי לה בפשטות: במרחק חמש דקות הליכה בלבד מבית החולים
ביום שני בלילה בשעה אחת וחמישים אחרי חצות צעדתי בקור המקפיא של ונקובר אל סנט פול. הגעתי כעבור חמש דקות לחדר המיון, ומשם הופניתי אל המכון לבדיקת האם. אר. איי. הלכתי במסדרונות הריקים והכמעט חשוכים של בית החולים עד שמצאתי את דלת המכון. המזכירה הרפואית קיבלה אותי בסבר פנים יפות וביקשה ממני לשבת ולמלא מספר טפסים פשוטים. במקביל היא בדקה את פרטי האישיים. המזכירה הסבירה לי שהבדיקה לוקחת כחצי שעה ובתוך כשבוע הרופאה המומחית ורופאת המשפחה שלי יקבלו את תוצאותיה. המתנתי כעשר דקות ואז הופיע טכנאי נחמד בשם פול שהזמין אותי לחדר הבדיקה. קודם לכן נאלצתי להחליף את בגדי בבגדים של בית החולים. הבדיקה נמשכה כחצי שעה ואז יצאתי לחופשי
King David High School student and Climate Education Reform British Columbia member Sara Bauman (photo from Sara Bauman)
Weather events like the recent floods across British Columbia and last summer’s record fire season are prompting questions about how to plan long-term for the changing environment. One King David High School senior has come up with part of the answer: create a climate curriculum that prepares tomorrow’s leaders for addressing climate change.
Sara Bauman is a member of Climate Education Reform British Columbia (CERBC), a group of approximately 20 high school students who believe that the world’s pressing environmental challenges deserve a place in the province’s education system. Bauman says lessons about the physical climate system and the science behind phenomena such as greenhouse gases and sea-level rise should be a standard part of what students learn in school.
CERBC is pushing for a new curriculum that includes mandatory courses on climate-related topics and for the subjects to be taught across K-12 grade levels. At the present time, Grade 11 and Grade 12 students have the option to take environmental sciences, which contains a certain number of units relating to climate change. But the elective aspect, Bauman explained, means that not all students are learning about climate science or its implications.
“We want to get students to understand the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to act now,” Bauman told the Independent. “[If] not every student has to take it, different students are going to be receiving different knowledge, some less than others. [We] need the whole generation to be prepared to combat climate change, not just a few.”
A 2019 study conducted by researchers at Lund University, in Sweden, found that Canadian schools as a whole fell short when it came to educating students about climate change. In British Columbia specifically, research indicated that schools often failed to teach three core concepts: that the climate is warming, that there is consensus among experts that climate change exists, and that human-driven solutions are possible. The researchers also noted that there is no consensus among provinces or school districts when it comes to teaching students about climate change.
In October, CERBC met with B.C. Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside to discuss its proposal. The students outlined six needs that they felt would be essential to a successful K-12 climate curriculum, including enabling students to “understand the urgency of the climate crisis” and to recognize that there are ways to mitigate or slow climate change.
Bauman said the program needs to be interdisciplinary because climate change has social implications as well. “We want students to understand the relationship that climate change has with social justice issues,” she said, noting that environmental advocacy “can’t be separated from other movements, like the Black Lives Matter or Indigenous rights movements, because, at the end of the day, climate change does come down to systems and how we structure our lives. And we also want to inspire students to start to critically engage in politics and see how they can create policy change.”
KDHS head of school Russ Klein said CERBC’s call for a mandatory climate curriculum reflects a wider sentiment among today’s students that the topic needs to addressed. Even though Bauman is the only KDHS student representing CERBC at this time, other students at KDHS are finding their own ways to raise social awareness.
King David High School head of school Russ Klein (photo from KDHS)
“[In] the last two or three years, especially with Greta Thunberg and the climate protests, we’ve had a whole bunch of students actively engaging with the school, the [administration], climate protests and [other types of] activism,” said Klein.
Students at KDHS have a variety of avenues in which to get involved, including the youth groups Sustainabiliteens and the Green Club, which are aligned with addressing social and environmental issues.
Klein said Bauman brings an important quality to this dialogue. “She lends a Jewish voice of perspective to some of what she’s been doing, which I think is also very relevant for other people,” he said. “We need more diversity in the room.”
Of course, students aren’t the only ones who want to see a curriculum that reflects today’s challenges. Many teachers do as well. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation publishes downloadable “Climate Change Heroes Lesson Plans” to help teachers develop new learning modules.
Still, Klein said, many schools want the province to lead this effort. “There are so many different things and priorities for schools to do, and I think this one has to be very high on the list. And how we do that, of course, is [we] look to government. These things must be mandated,” he said, pointing out that, until the province implemented LEED-compliant building codes requiring contractors to adhere to sustainable practices, “builders weren’t doing anything. Because why would they? But when it’s the law of the land, they have no choice.”
Last week, Whiteside’s office issued a statement acknowledging that it is working with the BCTF and the Climate Change Secretariat to increase climate-related resources for teachers. It noted, “The flexible nature of B.C.’s curriculum provides many opportunities in which topics like climate change can be explored in various levels of detail.”
The ministry maintains that both K-10 and 11-12 curricula contain resources for “possible connections” to climate change that allow teachers to introduce new study topics. The elective nature of 11 and 12 grade courses, it said, “offer[s] interested students an opportunity to delve deeper [and] encourage exploration from a local to a global scale.”
While the ministry did not say whether it will invite the students to participate in writing a new climate curriculum, Bauman said she hopes the ministry will accept CERBC’s input – “Because we are the students. We know what is best for our generation [when it comes to] learning. I think the ministry doesn’t realize what an asset we are to helping this process.
“We want to create a relationship with them,” said Bauman. “We want to partner with them [and] help the process in any way that we can.”
Bauman said it’s important for students to be part of the solution.
“The most important thing, at least for me,” she said, “is to get students to envision a better world and help them feel inspired, empowered and engaged because, a lot of the time, we hear about climate change and it’s a lot of doom and gloom. [Working] with CERBC has allowed me to put my climate anxiety into other things and channel it into meaningful action, and I want other students to have the chance to do the same.”
Jan Lee’s articles, op-eds and blog posts have been published in B’nai B’rith Magazine, Voices of Conservative and Masorti Judaism, Times of Israel and Baltimore Jewish Times, as well as a number of business, environmental and travel publications. Her blog can be found at multiculturaljew.polestarpassages.com.
Markus Spodzieja, owner of the Bikery, the first and only certified kosher bakery on Vancouver Island. (photo from the Bikery)
Victoria’s Jewish community and area foodies received welcome news for their taste buds this summer. For the past four months, the Bikery, the first and only certified kosher bakery on Vancouver Island, has been operating at a permanent address, the Victoria Public Market, 1701 Douglas St. Until now, local households that wished to keep kosher would either bake their own breads or order from Vancouver.
As its name implies, the Bikery had, before moving to the market, been selling its goods from a bicycle – a 250-pound mobile vending bicycle to be precise – as part of a pilot project for the City of Victoria’s Mobile Bike Vending Permit. Started in 2017, the program gave local business owners the chance to operate a service via bicycle.
“I figured that the streets of Victoria could use more pretzels, so I rented out some kitchen space and built a box for the back of my bike, becoming a pedal-powered pretzel peddler,” Bikery owner Markus Spodzieja told the Jewish Independent.
In 2020, Spodzieja, along with his business partner Kimanda Jarzebiak, established a connection with Rabbi Meir Kaplan of Chabad of Vancouver Island. Though COVID-19 arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, the positive trajectory of the Bikery was not derailed.
“During the pandemic, as people became isolated at home, I pivoted my roadside-vendor business model to a delivery service and expanded my menu to include breads, buns and, most importantly and coincidentally, challah. After a few months of biking bread around the city, my now-business partner contacted me requesting weekly challah for her community’s Shabbat dinners,” Spodzieja said. “As the weekly orders began to grow, we arranged a meeting to discuss the need for a kosher bakery in Victoria, and spent the following nine months working out of Chabad of Vancouver Island perfecting our new menu.”
Since the Bikery’s pretzel beginning, the choices have expanded. Spodzieja’s selection now includes bagels of all sorts: poppyseed, cinnamon raisin, plain, and everything seasoning.
In addition, the Bikery presently offers classic challah loaves, braided challah, honey-apple challah, mini challahs, pocket pitas, pretzel buns, and hamburger and hot dog buns. It also serves up confections reminiscent of the Old World, such as rugelach filled with a home-made hazelnut spread, lemon poppyseed muffins, linzer cookies, kipferl cookies and a “personal-sized, decadently spiced” honey cake.
And there are still pretzels of all kinds on the menu, from the original “sweet and salty and chewy” to the chocolate drizzle pretzel “dedicated to the sweet tooth in all of us.” There is a roasted garlic and rosemary pretzel, each batch of which contains an entire head of garlic. As well, there is a cinnamon sugar pretzel, which, as the Bikery’s website asks, “Who needs a mini donut when you’ve got a pretzel with an ample dusting of sugar and locally processed cinnamon?” There is even the blending of two baked worlds – a pretzel bagel, which the Bikery touts as offering “the soft chewyness of the bagel combined with the salty flavour of the pretzel.”
The child of a German-Polish household, Spodzieja spent a lot of time in his youth in the kitchen. Both of his parents went to culinary school and his father ran a bakery in Campbell River.
A kosher challah made at the Bikery in Victoria. (photo from the Bikery)
“Little did I know that, growing up, baking would become a sort of unconscious habit. And while now I hold a BFA in acting, it gave me the life skills I needed to turn my baking hobby into something that better benefits my community,” he said.
For the time being, Spodzieja said, his focus is “working to establish ourselves into the Victoria Public Market, work on some new menu additions and [to] ensure the integrity of our products as we continue to grow. Rest assured, we have plenty of ideas coming down the pipe. We’ll just have to wait and see as they arrive.”
The Bikery is certified pareve kosher by BC Kosher Check and supervised by Chabad of Vancouver Island. Besides being kosher, most of the items sold at the Bikery are vegan as well.
The Bikery also strives to be environmentally friendly. Not only is its kitchen 100% electric powered, but all deliveries are made by a combination of bicycle and EV car. Its minimum fee for delivery is $10. Deliveries usually cover a radius of five kilometres, but it has temporarily expanded to 15 kilometres.
Victoria’s Public Market is situated close to City Hall and Centennial Square and is a few blocks away from the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Buildings. It is housed in a building that operated for several decades as a Hudson’s Bay department store. Located toward the back entrance (near free two-hour parking), the Bikery shares the market with, among others, a high-end chocolatier, a vegan butcher shop and an exclusive kitchenware store.
For more information or to place an order, visit thebikery.ca.
Sam Margolishas written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Debbie Setton Tabenkin sees travel, genealogy and fun with grandkids in her future. (photo by Jocelyne Hallé)
Debbie Setton Tabenkin, one of the most familiar faces to anyone who has frequented the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in the past three decades, is retiring at the end of January.
Tabenkin began teaching English as a second language at the JCC in 1995. In conjunction with that role, she was instrumental in creating the drop-in child-minding program for kids of parents using the centre’s facilities or attending programs. In the succeeding quarter-century, she has served in a variety of roles and retires as director of programming and strategic initiatives, where she oversees about 10 program areas and 12 budgets.
Tabenkin’s interesting family history plays a role in her approach to her work. Her parents’ lineage is from the Syrian and Turkish Jewish communities and, in the early part of the 20th century, parts of her family migrated to Jamaica and Panama. Because there was a polio pandemic in Jamaica when her mother was pregnant, they traveled to Panama, where Tabenkin (née Setton) was born, returning to Jamaica as a babe in arms.
“I was used to what the community centre meant in Latin America,” she said of her philosophy around the work she does. “It was a social place where you came and you met people.” The “living room” of the community, she calls it. That is what she believes she has helped foster in Vancouver.
But there was a winding road before she ended up here.
The Setton home in Jamaica was the holiday destination for any Jews who happened to be on the island, whether American Peace Corps volunteers or Israelis helping the nation with agricultural infrastructure.
When she was 16, the family left Jamaica, where violence was becoming frequent, and moved back to Panama.
Her grandfather owned the kosher supermarket in Panama City, where family members – she has about 100 first cousins – still operate it. The store moved into new digs that include a kosher sushi restaurant just two weeks ago.
She was the black sheep of the family, she cheerfully admits.
“I came from a very traditional family where the girls got married,” she said. “One [sister] got married at 19 and one got married at 17 – and I knew I wanted a different lifestyle.”
She did a two-year associate’s degree at the American college in the Canal Zone and then taught Grade 2. She wanted to further her education and her parents said she could either go to New York City, where a sister had moved, or to Vancouver, where her brother, Victor Setton, had settled in 1975.
She completed her bachelor of education at the University of British Columbia, but the federal government at the time did not have a program that allowed her brother to sponsor her to remain in the country. So, she returned to Panama and taught English at the Jewish day school, Instituto Alberto Einstein.
She decided to pursue a master’s degree and, in 1980, was accepted at both Columbia and New York University. She got her MA at Columbia in the then-new field of educational technology and media.
“I lived in New York for five years and, you know, everything is for a reason,” said Tabenkin. “I’m so happy the Canadian government didn’t take me because that gave me five years in New York and those five years made me the person I am.”
She drank in the cultural offerings of the city and became very involved with the Sephardi association there.
“I became very proud of being Sephardic,” she said. “I really learned the history of the rich culture that Sephardic Jews have. I took multiple classes. I accessed everything and that’s when I learned Hebrew.”
She returned again to Panama but, then aged 30, set her sights on a new conquest.
“I really wanted to have a child and I really wanted to get married,” she said. “I decided, OK, I’m going to go to Israel. My mother was delighted when I left to Israel.”
She had taken up scuba diving in Panama and poked her head into a scuba store in Tel Aviv looking for information about opportunities to pursue the sport. She chatted with a young man named Yair Tabenkin.
A few days later, a friend invited Debbie to tag along to a Purim party and a scuba expedition in Eilat being organized by a young man. When the friend described the pal who was planning the trip, Debbie replied, “I think I met him.”
When the mutual friend told Yair who she was bringing along, he said, “Oh, is that the girl with the beautiful blue eyes?”
“He remembered my eyes – and that was it,” she said. “The rest is history. We met that Purim and we got married in August.
“On the year anniversary that I had moved to Israel, I was married and pregnant,” she said. “Let’s put it this way: I accomplished my goal.”
Before that happened, there had been some snooping. Yair Tabenkin had some family in Panama and queried about the Setton family. A similar investigation was happening in reverse.
“My mother went to the rabbi and said, look, my daughter is dating this guy named Yair Tabenkin,” she said. “And the rabbi said ‘Tabenkin? It’s like marrying a Kennedy.’”
Yair’s grandfather, Yitzhak Tabenkin, was a founder of the kibbutz movement and a leading figure in the creation of Mapai, the precursor to the modern Labour Party, along with David Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson, and was a member of the first Knesset.
After Debbie and Yair married, they were speaking with Debbie’s brother in Vancouver, who said he had an opportunity for the new husband. The couple moved here in 1990.
Her responsibilities at the JCC expanded quickly from that first ESL gig. She began organizing events – something she had been doing since her teenage years, when she created a Purim party in Panama.
On New Year’s Eve 2003, Tabenkin organized a multi-generational event at the JCC, where kids were entertained by camp counselors in the gym and pool while parents dined and discoed before everyone came together at midnight.
In 2004, she began Festival Ha’Rikud, a celebration of Israeli culture through music, dance, food, art, workshops, literature, family activities and marketplace. This year saw the festival’s 18th iteration.
In 2008, she spearheaded the Israel at 60 festival in Stanley Park, one of the largest and most visible public celebrations in Jewish community memory.
As director of programming and strategic initiatives, she has a finger in pretty much every pie at the centre, but a particular point of pride is the inclusion department.
“Debbie’s had a very distinct impact on many people’s lives in the community,” said JCC executive director Eldad Goldfarb. “She’s a very caring person, both to her staff and team and to the members of the community, always trying to find what she likes to call the ‘magic moment,’ basically trying to find something good out of the bad and trying to solve problems and make people happy.”
Tabenkin holds a great deal of institutional memory not only of the JCC but of the entire community, Goldfarb added.
“She’s definitely someone whose big shoes are going to be difficult to fill,” he said. “She’s someone who’s got not just the history, but the personal connection to a lot of people in the community.”
In retirement, Tabenkin may do some consulting, spend more time with her three adult children and two grandchildren and she hopes to get back to some exotic adventures. Just before COVID, she returned from Ethiopia. Before that, she visited Uzbekistan. She wants to delve deeper into genealogy and would love to spend a month in Turkey investigating that branch of her family.
She looks back with more than fondness.
“I truly love this place,” she said. “My whole family has benefited so much. I always say a membership to the JCC buys you 15 extra years of your life. You’re keeping healthy, you’re working out, you’re with people, you’re not isolated. It’s truly a place where everyone can be together, it doesn’t matter what your socioeconomic background is, it doesn’t matter your religion. It’s a place where we all get to be together. It’s our living room.”
