If you’re a member of any law enforcement effort in North America these days you’re not exactly living the dream when it comes to respect.
Stories of corruption and abuse have littered the news the past couple of years with well-known cities like Ferguson and Baltimore fighting off large-scale riots as a result.
On social media it has become the norm to talk about police officers like they are ALL abusive, power-hungry brutes – a label that is a sad contrast to the post 9/11 world.
In Richmond last week, RCMP Corporal Kevin Krygier and his team put on a display that reminded many that the vast majority of our nation’s force are here for much more than crime and punishment. They are here for us.
This particular story started at Tait Elementary School, where Mike Ciu is a fourth-grade student with Down Syndrome. When Krygier visited the school this winter he met Mike, who helped give the corporal a tour of his school.
Soon after, Mike’s educational assistant, Marci Hammer, sent Krygier a video of Mike explaining that when he grew up he dreamed of being a police officer.
“I was so touched, I decided to make his dream a reality,” Krygier explained of what came next.
Krygier rallied his troops, connected with Hammer, started making some plans and put together an assembly presentation for Mike that blew his whole school away.
That day Mike Ciu was named an honorary Police Chief, given a uniform and marched into the gym with his new peers to roaring cheers from his younger peers. It was a day he and his family won’t soon forget.
Corporal Kevin Krygier and Mike Ciu
While the gesture turned into a nice community story, it was also a reminder that many of our uniformed defenders of the law are genuinely here to keep us safe AND make our lives better. So next time you hear a story of an officer abusing his power, share this one of our officers spreading the glory instead.
“I joined the RCMP to make a difference in people’s lives,” Krygier said. “I have done many things as part of the RCMP – some I have had to do and they have been sad and difficult. But this was so enjoyable for me and my colleagues. It took a lot of collaboration to make it happen, but comparably, it was easy and very meaningful for all of us who were involved.”
Rolling Stone magazine recently completely retracted a story purporting to delve into an incident of gang-rape on the campus of the University of Virginia. The story was so devoid of basic journalistic processes and fact-checking that it is destined to go down as an object lesson in journalism schools for years to come.
Other incidents, less egregious but still dubious, popped up in the last few days.
Social media was ablaze last week over news that the federal government was preparing to criminalize critics of Israel, specifically by applying Canada’s hate laws against supporters of BDS, the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel.
Advocates of free speech were up in arms – and rightly so. BDS is a movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel, in the guise of a one-state solution, and is discriminatory in its targeting of products, people and ideas based on their national origin. It is the contemporary equivalent of book-burning. It is deserving of scorn and contempt. But it is not deserving of legal prohibition in a country that respects free expression.
As it turns out, the very idea that Canada was about to criminalize the BDS movement and its supporters was fabricated almost from full cloth by CBC reporter Neil Macdonald. Macdonald, who has been the subject of years of complaints for anti-Israel bias for his reporting from the Middle East and Washington, had a brief (and somewhat snarky) email exchange with a spokesperson for Canada’s department of public safety.
The exchange began because Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney, in a speech to the United Nations, promised to take a “zero tolerance” approach to those who boycott Israel. Macdonald demanded clarification of what “zero tolerance” meant.
In the email exchange, the spokesperson cites hate speech legislation, as well as laws around mischief involving religious buildings, and she noted the security infrastructure program that funds communities, such as the Jewish community, to improve security in communal buildings.
The response from the government was probably inadequate and Macdonald should have gotten a comment directly from the minister explaining what he meant by “zero tolerance,” and not used boilerplate from a civil servant (something he himself acknowledged in his exchange). Instead, he went ahead with an inflammatory story that was more conjecture than news, but which had the effect of rousing the reliably tetchy anti-Israel crowds.
This, too, could be an object lesson for future (and current) journalists. As could a story more visible than either of these: the story that Pope Francis declared Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an “angel of peace.”
The story of the old terrorist being dubbed an “angel of peace” by the head of Roman Catholicism alarmed those of us who have been impressed with Francis’ approach to world affairs. However, the fault did not lie with the pontiff but with the media.
What Francis said was that Abbas could be an angel of peace – if he made peace with Israel. What the Pope said to Abbas – “May you be an angel of peace” – is a far different thing than what was reported. It was a wish, not a declaration. And it is a wish we could not more heartily share.
Journalism struggles today in the changing landscape of media, tighter budgets, fewer staff doing more tasks – we understand all this. But when some of this country’s and the world’s leading voices of reporting get things so wrong, the institution of journalism suffers even more.
In a world where information (and misinformation) has never been so plentiful, what readers really need are the critical tools to discern fact from fiction and half-truths. In a world of 140-character attention spans, though, do we hope for too much?
I always enjoy seeing my kids bring home assignments from Hebrew school, and last week was no exception. On a map of Israel were labeled five major cities whose names the students had to write in Hebrew. For my part, I delighted in reminding my son that we have relatives or friends in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and near Be’er Sheva. There was only one problem with the map, I noticed. There was no Green Line. So, to the untrained eye, it looked like Israel’s borders span from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
As I often do when I want to tease out a political conundrum, I took to social media. On my public Facebook page, I offered to donate $36 to charity for the first person who can show me a Green-Line-indicated map of Israel currently being used in any Jewish educational setting. Laurie MacDonald Brumberg wrote that a Washington, D.C., Jewish day school has a National Geographic map containing the Green Line hanging in the classroom. Karin Klein of Chicago showed me a Green Line map she said was used at a Schechter day school. And from Gabriel T. Erbs I learned that J Street U has launched an initiative to circulate Green Line maps to educational institutions. Apparently, URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs has agreed to champion this among URJ camps and Hebrew schools, according to a March 22 article published on JewSchool by David A.M. Wilensky. Gila Miriam Chait added that Yachad, a pro-Israel, pro-peace group in the United Kingdom, is following suit.
What is at stake in the mapping debate? We all know that Middle East maps are heavily invested with the symbolism of legitimacy and delegitimization. The Palestinians have long been accused of erasing Israel from their school maps of Palestine – both from the Palestinian Authority and from Hamas. An article in the current online Jewish virtual library makes precisely this point. It’s clearly ironic that we are doing the same thing we accuse our adversaries of doing.
Some might argue, however, that since the Green Line is an armistice line, not a border, that there is no need for Israel to include it. It is true that it is not a border, but neither does Israel’s international territory extend eastward from Jerusalem all the way to the Jordan River. The point is, the West Bank is under occupation – whether one sees the occupation as justified or not – and maps should reflect this geopolitical reality.
Now, beyond simply making more accurate and, therefore, educationally useful maps, what might a more politically informed Israel curriculum entail? From my kids, I have heard about the ingenious ways that Israel foiled the Egyptian invasion of 1948, including placing stones in irrigation pipes to create noise simulating artillery. My 8-year-old was impressed. I know that for Yom Ha’atzmaut, their Hebrew school served falafel, and I hoped and expected that my kids will learn some Israeli folk songs. Some folk dancing would be great, too. What I remain less certain about, however, is how much complexity about Israel’s future our kids’ schools are willing to impart. Will kids learn who the “Palestinians” are? I know that I am guilty of frequently muttering to them about “Israel and the Palestinians” without proper context. While narratives of inter-state war can be much simpler to impart, when it comes to the Palestinian civilian aspect of Israel’s founding, and the current military occupation over millions of Palestinians, it’s difficult to know where to begin.
When we learn about the past, it’s equally important to consider the future. In fact, no one knows more about the importance of historical memory in shaping today’s collective political outlook as the Jewish community. As Wilensky writes in the context of the maps, “it’s unpleasant for many to hear, but the final status of a two-state solution – if such a thing can ever be achieved – is going to rely heavily on the Green Line. Putting visual depictions of that reality before the eyes of American Jewry will go a long way toward showing them the somewhat unpleasant truths that will help build a more absolutely pleasant future.”
As for the J Street U’s map initiative, given that Jacobs has pledged to roll them out at Reform schools, I hope he will make Ottawa’s very own Reform Judaism supplementary school an early stop.
Mira Sucharovis an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. This article was originally published in the Canadian Jewish News.
Portrait of Max Malit Grossman, circa 1926, copied from the book The Jew in Canada. Grossman’s mimeographs were the start of it all. (photo from Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia L.00011)
From 1930 until Abraham Arnold’s arrival in 1949, there was a new editor and/or publisher of the Jewish Western Bulletin every couple of years. Arnold lasted 11 years, Sam and Mona Kaplan about 36 all told. My first article ran in the JWB on March 28, 1997. I was listed as a contributor for the next year, becoming editorial assistant in May 1998, and assistant publisher that September. When Kyle Berger, Pat Johnson and I bought the paper, they graciously agreed that I become the publisher. Since that first issue, June 4, 1999, I have held that title. That makes 16 years. The second-longest term in the paper’s history.
For more than 10 years, I’ve been the sole owner of the Bulletin / Independent. While Kyle still contributes occasional articles and blogs, Pat is on the editorial board with former editor Basya Laye and me, and contributes weekly. I have worked with countless talented and kind people, many of whom have stuck with me, the paper and the community through some tough times, especially since the 2008 economic downturn. It is us, a handful of people, along with a few regular freelance writers, who get this paper to press every week. It is a labor of love for all of us. We do it for very little pay.
Financial struggle is as much a characteristic of this paper as is its Jewish character and its communal foundation, though that is one tradition I would happily leave to the dustbin of history.
Reviewing the 85-year history of the paper affirms my conviction that it is an absolute treasure, one of immeasurable value to Jewish life and this community. Yet, it is largely taken for granted. True, it has its admirers – thank you to all the organizations and businesses who advertise, and to all the readers who subscribe, donate or support our advertisers. But, on the whole, it is undervalued. And it has been almost since Day 1.
The newspaper got its start in 1928 as a mimeographed newsletter whose goal was to generate the funds and enthusiasm for a Jewish community centre. It succeeded in that regard, though the JCC would experience existential difficulties more than once in its life. Today, thankfully, the JCC is a strong and vibrant fixture in the community. When the mimeo became a tabloid in October 1930, its name was borrowed from a 1925 publication that was well-loved but, evidently, not well-funded, as it didn’t last for long.
More than one editor of the JWB has exhorted readers to pay their subscriptions and pleaded with organizations to buy advertisements. The relationship between editors and readers was much more contentious and frank during the 1930s and 1940s than it has been since. Reading these editorials every time I organize a special anniversary issue – this is my fourth – I am both saddened and heartened by the fact that, at their core, the issues remain the same.
This year, I have been particularly affected by the missives of editor and publisher Goodman Florence as he neared what turned out to be his last several months with the JWB. In the latter half of 1948, he starts to air some of the dirty laundry that has obviously been accumulating between himself and the Vancouver Jewish Administrative Council that took over control of the paper when the Jewish Community Centre, Jewish Community Chest and Hebrew Aid Society formed it in 1932, as well as other community organizations and even readers.
In August, he tackles head on the idea that readers have somehow gotten that “the Bulletin is a highly profitable proposition and is fought for. Such is not the case.” He points out that “subscriptions pay for only postage, paper and addressing, if it does that much. An attractive, newsy and acceptable publicity medium such as the Bulletin, is expensive to produce and its cost must be borne by advertisers.” This remains the case today.
That October, Florence’s one-year contract was coming to a close. Among his “many problems and many anxieties” is “the matter of the financial loss so far sustained in publishing for the community” under the terms of his contract, which he describes as “hastily arranged.”
He sums up his difficulties in being the publisher of an Anglo-Jewish weekly in November of that year, yet still holds hope that the situation is improving. In January 1949, he writes about all the ideas he has for the paper’s future, with only “a few final details” to be organized regarding a new contract. “I am hoping in the coming year to be able to devote more time and space to national and international affairs and will express a viewpoint in ‘editorials’ – and will endeavor to get prominent members of our community to also take their ‘pens in hand.’
“It will be my continued policy to assist every organization now in existence and which might come into existence, so long as the purpose is lawful and of good intention – to place itself before the public in as accurate a light as possible.”
After talking about an increase in the price of subscriptions and new help in finding advertisers, Florence concludes, “For 1949 I hope with your cooperation to make of our paper ‘one of the best’ – and to help build a progressive integrated community – and to spread the story of its good works throughout the land.
“For the opportunities of the past and the promise of the future, I wish to say, ‘Thank you.’ I will continue to do my best to serve you well.”
Less than a month later, his farewell editorial was published by the new team at the helm.
“Readers want world news, features, editorials . . . officers of all local organizations want their activities to be publicized. Up to date, I have not yet been able to completely sell the simple fact that to do all this requires considerable revenue,” Florence writes. “Some headway has been made in recent months, and there are now signs that more organizations are becoming aware of the need to place advertising that would be considered commensurate with the amount of news publicity their various activities require. There are signs also that more of the Jewish business men are coming to realize that there is after all some virtue in advertising in the Bulletin and doing business with the members of this growing Jewish Community.
“My decision [to leave] was arrived at after I realized that I had not been getting sufficient advertising support, and that without such assistance, progressive development could not be undertaken. I feel certain that now that the position has been drawn to your attention, the new publishers, Abe Arnold and Asher Snider, will get the support necessary to continue the venture, and I bespeak for them your utmost cooperation.”
When I look at the state of the publishing and newspaper industry today, I take heart that there have always been challenges and, despite the often-dire-sounding editorials of Florence and many of the paper’s other editors and publishers, here we are today. Many recessions have come and gone. Heck, the newspaper survived the Great Depression. Will it survive the internet? I certainly hope so, and not just because I would like to own a successful business.
I have looked through the physical pages of almost every JWB and searched through them online (multiculturalcanada.ca/jwb) ad nauseam for various people and events. I have read every single copy of the JI. Every time I look back at the articles and images in the papers, something surprises me, something sparks my imagination, something makes me think or makes me laugh.
I don’t know anyone who owns a community newspaper or any similar business. When I read that other editors, publishers and owners of the paper have had similar concerns, challenges and joys, there is a sense of solidarity, of not being alone. When I read about what various people in this community have had to endure, what they’ve accomplished, I am inspired. When I attended the rededication of the Jewish section of Mountain View Cemetery earlier this month, I felt like I had personally known many of those buried there. My connection to this community through its newspaper of record for 85-plus years is that strong and goes back that far.
But, ultimately, I didn’t know any of those people. I was born in Moncton and grew up in Winnipeg. My immediate family now lives in the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor and I came to Vancouver from Ottawa in 1992. My Winnipeg-based aunt had lived here in the 1960s. After I got my MA and a job – i.e. once it looked like I was staying awhile – she connected me with the Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir via her longtime friend and former musical colleague Claire Klein Osipov. It was one of my first connections to the Jewish community here and it has, obviously, led to other connections, including being the editor of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia’s annual journal The Scribe for the last seven editions.
I’ve always liked history, and I love having 85-plus years’ worth of it at my fingertips. It wasn’t until this special issue though that I decided to do a search for my aunt’s name – she passed away last fall.
My searches yielded more than a dozen results from 1962 through 1966, including the birth announcement of one of my cousins, her third son. And there was a photo of her, which was published twice, once with the wrong caption, a correction being noted in the following week’s paper. I knew that Aunt Chickie (married to Nathan Frankel at that time) was involved in the Peretz Centre and that she accompanied Claire on the piano, but seeing some of the committees she was on, the events she helped organize, the music she performed … seeing her face – I can’t describe the feeling, except to say, once again, this newspaper is such a vital resource in ways that I’m still discovering after almost 20 years working here.
S.A. Goldston, in the JWB.
The JWB had two fifth anniversary issues, one in 1934, another in 1935. In the first, editor S.A. Goldston writes, “It seems hard to realize that time has flown so quickly. We all remember well the small mimeographed copy first issued in the office of Max Grossman, and we wonder how many thought that the day was not far distant when it would grow to a regular weekly newspaper.”
He wonders whether the Bulletin had “filled the mission for which it was first intended? Is it any use today?” He leaves the answer to readers, “for naturally we are somewhat prejudiced in our personal views on the matter.
“The paper was first produced to act as the voice of the Community and to bring its readers in closer touch not only with the happenings in its own surroundings but with Jewry all the world over – to awaken Jewish consciousness, and if possible to create a deeper sense of unity among the Jewish residents of this City. In this way we can, without exaggeration, say [we] have been fairly successful.”
I love this last sentence, which, to me, shows clearly Goldston’s great humility. Yet his purpose is grand: publishing news of all the city organizations and devoting “considerable space to world happenings,” trying “hard to preach through the columns of this paper the absolute necessity of a United Jewry not only in Vancouver but throughout the world…. We have also, during the past year, continued to spur on our readers in civic, philanthropic and educational services and have received congratulations from non-Jewish communities on our work.”
But, he notes, as others would, “There are two things apart from the reading matter that is necessary to make a paper a success…. We need subscribers and advertisers.”
Of the advertisers the paper did have, he says, “We get a very fair share…. But we also owe a duty to every advertiser who uses our columns. We must give them our patronage whenever possible. They have confidence in us and [we] must show that this confidence is not misplaced. We would therefore respectfully suggest that in making your purchases those who advertise in the Bulletin be given preference.”
Goldston and his colleagues have “the great ambition of doubling the size of the paper,” which was then eight pages, within the next year. He asks for help in getting there, saying he has “much to be thankful for,” despite his “failing health,” and is proud to hold the position of editor.
The very next issue carried a front-page obituary. Goldston had passed away suddenly, at age 63. According to B.C. Archives records, he died April 11, 1934. His given names were Sim Alfred.
David Rome, in the JWB.
In the 1935 editorial marking “Five years of the Bulletin,” editor David Rome echoes some of Goldston’s remarks. He, too, speaks of gratitude and writes that the Bulletin’s “being taken as a matter of course by Western Canadian Jewry” is “the greatest compliment that can be offered to it,” showing that it “is not a freak venture but part of the life of its readers.
“But this sometimes blinds its readers to the phenomenon of a relatively small community successfully publishing a weekly newspaper for a number of years. Those who are daily in contact with the workings of the community publication realize fully the efforts that have to be made to maintain the standards set and to elevate them.”
Rome thanks all “those anonymous workers who have devoted unselfishly of their time and energy for this community enterprise. The Bulletin is a fairly big business and it needs a large amount of work and application to run this business. This devotion was given it by the members of the [Council’s Bulletin] committee and it is no more than fitting that thanks be given to them for their work.”
He notes that this anniversary of the paper also marks the first year since Goldston’s passing: “It is not at all an exaggeration to say that he worked beyond the limits of health, and the community should honor his memory and recognize his sacrifices for the community newspaper.”
Somehow I feel that, with every issue of this paper, we are honoring the people in this community who have made – and are making – sacrifices for whatever people and causes that are important to them. Every event, interview, photo, birth announcement, obituary … everything that gets recorded is proof of existence, of purpose, of being part of something larger than oneself.
This newspaper has always had a grand, even grandiose, view of the impact it could have on the community. But, looking back at 85 years – 90 if you count the original Bulletin, 87 if you start at Grossman’s mimeo – I’d say it has exceeded even the grandest of its expectations. And I’d like to see it continue to do so, whether or not I’m involved. But, as pretty much every publisher of the paper will tell you, “There are two things apart from the reading matter that is necessary to make a paper a success….” The future of this community treasure is, quite literally, in your hands.
The community has always enjoyed a good contest, JWB, December 1948.
Paging through 85 years of this newspaper reveals a stunning consistency of recurring phenomena, repetitious concerns, familiar family names, perpetually unresolved issues across decades and a solid tradition of community-building from generation to generation. The reporting across the decades reveals a comfortingly familiar refrain of the paper rallying the community to support the UJA Campaign, the Home for the Aged, Israel Bonds,
Hebrew University, Talmud Torah, Histadrut, summer camps, and the full range of communal organizations and causes, many of which continue to thrive today. Individuals are fêted for service to the community, for becoming bar or bat mitzvah, for graduating from university.
So perpetual are some of the issues facing the community and the Jewish world that headlines could be plucked form one decade and dropped unobtrusively onto the pages of the paper many years earlier or later. For fun, try to guess the years when these headlines appeared: “The past year will long be remembered as one of stress and strain;” “Jews must help Israel regain ‘positive image’”; or “Religious storm in Israel.” (Answers: the 1931 Rosh Hashanah issue editorial; 1985; 1950.)
Or these ones: “US won’t accept Likud position on territories”; “The trend of the time is toward the elimination of useless and duplicating organizations”; or “… it has been said that our loyalties are divided. That, in being Zionists, we fail as Canadians.” (Answers: 1977; 1925; 1929.)
Of course, some headlines are unique. On Nov. 3, 1988, the paper’s headline blared: “Israel achieves UN victory.” This was about a failed attempt led by Arab states to have Israel thrown out of the General Assembly.
Philanthropy is a continuous thread joining the decades. As early as 1930, the editorial was acknowledging that “The residents of the Vancouver Jewish Community doubtlessly at times become impatient with the term, ‘A worthy cause’” … before inveigling upon readers to support another commendable undertaking.
Warning of the dangers to communal well-being at the start of the Great Depression, an editorial in December 1930 takes a very Keynesian tone: “The foolish philosophy of tightening the purse-strings during a business depression, although the purse-holder is still well able to spend, becomes a selfish and heartless philosophy when applied to philanthropy. To deny assistance to those who are gripped in the vise of illness or need when the horizon looks darkest, is to display a false attitude to the charitable ideal.”
Pressure, sometimes not at all subtle, urged readers to give generously to the community chest campaign. “Larger Pledges Needed for Success of Chest,” the headline of October 9, 1936 read. “Open Your Door to Your UJA Canvasser,” pitched an issue in 1951.
Also unsubtle, but justifiably so, was the ominous plea for the 1940 campaign aimed at sending aid to the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe: “Vancouver Jewish External Welfare Fund seeks support for Jews in Hungary, Poland, Germany and Romania … Tomorrow may be too late.”
Running in 1930, this headline nevertheless could have been from any decade in the paper’s history: “Bronfman Family Create Scholarship.” In this case, it was for the Talmud Torah and a Jewish orphanage in Winnipeg, but more than half a century later, the Bronfman family was instrumental in the creation of the Birthright-Israel program, which has sent thousands of young Jewish Canadians to Israel.
The paper routinely stressed the community’s loyalty to the Crown, JWB, May 1939. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are pictured here.
In decades when Jewish allegiance to Canada was sometimes implied or openly expressed, the paper routinely adopted a highly patriotic tone. From heralding King George VI to lamenting his death with pages of editorial, there were also major assertions of Jewish allegiance to the new Queen Elizabeth II at the time of her coronation in 1953. Meetings of Jewish communal officials with elected leaders, including prime ministers, have been prominently reported, including just weeks ago when Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Sephardi Canadians in Ottawa.
Emphasizing the responsibilities of citizenship has been a recurring theme. In 1930, the editorialist noted: “Indifferent people are often heard to say, ‘It doesn’t make any difference to me what party is in power, so why should I vote?’ Such a statement is the furthest thing from the truth and reflects an attitude which is to be strongly deplored.”
Although allegiance to Canada has been conspicuous, so too has been this community’s deep connections to the Jewish homeland.
In 1930, the paper reported on the appointment of a commission “to investigate the Moslem and Jewish Claims to the Wailing Wall.”
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, anti-Jewish riots and pogroms in Palestine killed hundreds and shattered hopes of a peaceful existence in the Yishuv.
“As these words are written,” an editorial in 1936 lamented, “Palestine is again the scene of disorders, riots, bloodshed, sniping, isolated attacks and agonized mistrust, fomented hatred and international complications. The land of peace is again being ravaged by hate, and the eternal people of peace is again forced to consider problems of defence and even to raise physical means to ensure its own safety.”
These riots had the intended consequence of leading the British authorities to end Jewish migration to the Mandate. While met with outrage and agitation by Jews worldwide, the catastrophic historical impact of that decision would not be fully recognized until the endangered Jews of Europe suffered the Holocaust.
Even so, the paper recognized surprisingly early on the threat coming from Germany’s far right. In 1930, three years before Hitler took power, the Bulletin was already warning of the threat posed by the Nazis: “The Hitlerites, who, at the recent election in Germany made such tremendous gains, are marching to power on the wave of a dangerous and prejudiced nationalism. Their anti-Semitic policy is definite and has already manifested itself in many outbreaks and disorders of a most distressing kind.”
Concern for Jews all over the world has been constant in these pages. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the paper expressed fears for the Jews in China, noting that … “After Palestine, the United States and Latin America, China was the largest recipient of Jewish refugees in the 1930s.”
Jews and Christians packed Vancouver Lyric Theatre to overflowing after news of Kristallnacht signified what we now understand to have been the unquestioned beginning of the Holocaust.
By 1944, the realization of what had happened to European Jews was widely understood and an above-the-banner editorial held no punches: “To anyone working for one Jewish cause or another it becomes increasingly apparent that there are those among us who are SHIRKING THEIR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES.
“Yes, there are those among us who are too busy with their own affairs to think of their fellow man.
“Many of our fellow Jews never care to remember that somewhere in the darkness of Hitler’s Europe thousands and thousands of men and women and children are hiding in basements, in walled ghettos and in dismal forests in an attempt to escape certain death, while we abide in the glorious freedom and abundance of Canada.
“At this moment half the Jews in Europe are dead. WHAT IN GOD’S NAME WAS THEIR CRIME?
“You know, and I know, that their only crime is that THEY WERE BORN AS JEWS.
“Do you ever stop to ponder that it is only a curious turn of fate that led you or your parents to leave Europe and that you or your children might otherwise be among those who were exterminated by the Nazi slaughterhouses of Europe. WE MUST LEARN TO FEEL THE PAIN AND SUFFERING OF THOSE POOR BROKEN, BLEEDING PEOPLE AND DENY OURSELVES, IF NECESSARY TO SAVE THEM.”
When the war ended and the camps were liberated, the local community came together, helping in different ways, special prayer services among them.
Awareness of the extent of the Holocaust – and the role of Jewish statelessness in allowing it to happen – was made plain immediately after VE Day in an editorial penned by M. Freeman, president of Vancouver Zionist Organization: “For the Jews who have managed to survive this holocaust, Palestine and Palestine alone stands out as their only refuge. Only in a Jewish fatherland will they be safe. Only in Palestine can they start the broken lives anew with hope of ultimate restoration. We can help make this possible. We betray our own birth-right if we do less. No Jew, whatever his shade of opinion can withdraw from co-operating with the resurgence of his people. If we gave everything we ever owned, it still could not measure up to what they have already paid.”
From 1945, the issue of Soviet Jewry made top news month after month until 1989, when a new revolution allowed Jews across Eastern Europe to emigrate, changing the face of Israel and Vancouver, among other places.
The pages of the Bulletin also show that global events had unexpected ripples for Israel and the Jewish people. In 1973, the paper noted that, with the ceasefire in Vietnam, left-wing and other protest groups were turning their attentions to “Middle East peace.”
The connection between Jewish British Columbians and Israel leaps off the pages of the paper (including before Israel was “Israel”). The passing of the Partition Resolution was reported with jubilance and, months later, the dangers facing the new state were downplayed, declaring “A Nation Reborn.”
In 1954, in an event typical of discussions in the paper and in the community in the intervening years – and continuing today – a forum at the community centre mooted “What does Israel mean for us here?”
After the 1967 war, before the moral and military practicalities of occupying the West Bank took over the pages, the paper celebrated news of a reunited Jerusalem: “After 1900 Years City of David Returned to Israel.”
The paper has also highlighted the achievements of Jews around the world, from the first Jewish governor of Oregon to the appointment of a Jewish American ambassador to Albania. In 1930, the paper hyperbolically declared: “Of interest to every Jew in Canada is the recent election of David Arnold Croll, 30-year-old Jewish barrister as Mayor of Windsor, Ontario.” This item may not have had the universal interest the author believed, but Croll did go on to serve in the Ontario and Canadian parliaments and became the first Jewish senator in Canada.
Closer to home, the chronicling of events and achievements large and small has been the paper’s life’s blood. “Hadassah Chapter has Successful Year,” said a 1931 headline. “Permanent Camp Site Purchased by Jewish Council Women,” in 1937, was the first of many articles about the birth of what became Camp Hatikvah, originally in Crescent Beach, near White Rock, which was deemed by the reporter to be “the finest bathing resort in British Columbia.”
Since its beginning, the paper has been reporting on community-held contests of various sorts, including photo and public-speaking competitions – the latter still held annually despite worries as early as 1966 that, “These days when the custom of watching television has caused sociologists concern over the possibility of mankind forever losing the art of conversation …” began one editorial.
And, through it all, the community and the paper has managed to keep a sense of humor. From 1958:
Scrap collector: “Any beer bottles lady?”
Lady: “Do I look like I drink beer?”
Scrap collector: “Well, any vinegar bottles, lady?”
This photo and caption appeared in the Jewish Western Bulletin, Aug. 23, 1946.
May 5, 1945, is firmly etched in my “child’s” mind for that was the day of my family’s liberation or, more accurately, what remained of my family. The German occupation had been brutal and, with the collaboration of thousands of Dutch Nazis, 108,000 Dutch Jews had been deported and nearly all were murdered. Of those sent to Auschwitz and Sobibor, approximately 4,500 survived. Of Holland’s total prewar Jewish population of 140,000, fully 80% were murdered.
I had survived with my Christian hiders, Albert and Violette Munnik, and my “sister” Nora, their 12-year-old daughter. When I was reunited with my parents who had miraculously survived also, I had come to love the Munnik’s as my own family, and I was Robbie Munnik, not Robbie Krell. But I was given back, not without protest, a Jewish child who had no experience with Judaism but was nevertheless hunted for being a Jew.
In Nazi-occupied countries, 93% of Jewish children were murdered. Some escaped just before the war, a few thousand during the war through clandestine operations. But overall, no more than one in 10 survived. That is the nature of genocide. Murder the children.
Holland has somehow managed to maintain a reputation of comparative decency during the war years. Some of this good will emanates from the story of Anne Frank who left behind a diary written during her days in hiding in an attic in Amsterdam. The Frank family did in fact receive heroic assistance from Miep Gies, as did I from the Munniks and my father from the Oversloot family.
But of roughly 14,000 Dutch Jewish children in hiding, over half were betrayed. And, of course, so were the Franks. That adorable, intelligent adolescent Anne and her family were deported on the second to last train from Westerbork to Auschwitz on Sept. 3, 1944, three months after D-Day! She died an agonizing death of hunger and typhus in Bergen-Belsen. Only her father survived.
I write this piece on the 70th anniversary of liberation, a gift of 70 years of life. Who could imagine it? During the war, death had been a close companion, confirmed shortly after the war by the chilling reports that came our way from the few survivors that returned and from the photos that formed part of the news. I heard the descriptions of torture and murder from eyewitnesses. They were there. They had seen and suffered. And their lives and ours had been destroyed. No grandparents, no aunts or uncles. Two other children in our family survived, one also spared in hiding, the other, smuggled into Switzerland. That was it.
And what have I learned over these 70 years? The Holocaust imprint never leaves and no day passes without reminders. Had we tried to forget, it would have proved impossible. From the moment that the world discovered what had been done, the antisemites began their effort to deny what happened. Holocaust denial followed the campaign of murder with the effort to murder memory.
No wonder. Nearly everyone had blood on their hands. The British Mandate of Palestine was closed to Jewish immigration, preventing European Jewish refugees from fleeing. Canada and the United States had closed their doors. The Jews of Europe were trapped and murdered with technological efficiency, aided and abetted by Jew-hating collaborators in almost every country dominated by the Nazi invaders. The only way to be freed from guilt would be for the Shoah not to have happened. But the perpetrators were unable to erase the evidence. The Holocaust is the best-documented massive crime of murder and theft in human history.
Over the years, I have also learned of the systematic betrayal of visionary Jewish leadership who fought for the reestablishment of a Jewish nation-state in what is now Israel from the 1890s. No, Israel is not the result of the genocide inflicted upon European Jewry. If it were, Jews would not have had to fight the British colonialists in 1945-1947 to achieve freedom. And Holocaust survivors trying to reach Palestine would not have been incarcerated in camps in Cyprus.
The victory over the Ottoman Empire led to the establishment of a number of Arab states. Only the British promise of the 1917 Balfour Declaration’s intent to establish a home for the Jewish people went unfulfilled. The 1920 San Remo Conference affirmed that intent, only to witness the British carve off 80% of the territory known as British Mandatory Palestine to create the Emirate of Trans-Jordan. To add insult to injury, it was decreed that no Jew could settle there. This travesty resulted in the remaining 20% to be contested by Jews and Arabs to this day.
I was in Israel in 1961. The Western Wall of the Temple, the holiest site in Judaism, was controlled by Jordan and Jews were forbidden access. During Jordan’s illegal occupation from 1948-1967, all the synagogues in east Jerusalem were destroyed. Nor had Jordan advanced the cause of their Arab brethren or established a Palestinian state in the territories held.
I was at the Eichmann trial. I saw the architect of the annihilation of my people. Over time, it appears that a great deal of European posturing over Israel and its policies are an attempt to deflect attention from the horrendous misdeeds of the European past. There is a concerted effort to make Israel look like a nation with a brutal bent and whose activities, even those in self-defence are painted with the brush of Nazi and/or apartheid terminology. How offensive! How cruel! Its practitioners deny antisemitism for they have found a new outlet for Jew hatred, anti-Zionism. Israel has become the Jew of nations.
It is disconcerting, indeed, to witness the dawn of liberation 70 years ago descend into a night of renewed hate. I seek a measure of comfort in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman philosopher. Dr. King wrote, “Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a reality.” And Hoffer, “I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.”
I have to hope that antisemitism will be opposed and extinguished wherever it flourishes and that Israel’s right to exist will be protected. Then our liberation will have acquired meaning.
Robert Krell, MD, is professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, and founding president of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.
Growing up, the writer was involved in community campaigns to help free Soviet and other Jews suffering state-sponsored, organized persecution. These campaigns were international and Vancouver youth also participated in them. Here are but two of the many items in the JWB about these causes: top one is from 1982; below, from 1976.
I was recently reminded of a fashion-activist item many Jewish teens of my generation wore: the stainless-steel Soviet Jewry bracelet. Etched with the name and date of arrest of a single Jewish dissident in the Soviet Union, each bracelet transmitted to the wearer a deep and penetrating sense of social justice and tribal consciousness. I wore mine proudly, and recall being equally pleased to be selected from my seventh grade class to present handmade cards of encouragement to Avital Sharansky, the wife of jailed activist Anatoly Sharansky (later Israeli politician Natan Sharansky), when she visited Vancouver in the mid-1980s on her global campaign to secure his release.
With the last of the Jewish communities having been freed from state-sponsored, organized persecution (other campaigns as my generation was growing up included the freeing of Ethiopian and Syrian Jews), there is little in the way of that Soviet Jewry bracelet campaign to bind today’s Jewish teens together in such a single, uncontroversial way. The modern state of Israel represents an ongoing cause, of course, but that issue is much more fraught: should a Jewish teen wear a bracelet etched with the name of a fallen Jewish soldier, or the name of one of the 182 Palestinian children currently (as of February 2015) being held in Israel detention – according to data provided by Defence for Children International? When it comes to social justice and activist solidarity, the issue of Israel is clearly complex.
I decided to poke around to see what Jewish teens these days are concerned with when it comes to issues and activism. What I found was a dizzying array of causes. From the website of the Orthodox NCSY (National Conference of Synagogue Youth), I found reports of teens volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and with Oklahoma tornado victims. Both USY (Conservative Judaism’s United Synagogue Youth) and NFTY (the Reform movement’s North American Federation of Temple Youth) select an annual theme to guide their social action and tikkun olam efforts: for 2014, USY chose “a focus on acceptance and tolerance including but not specific to gender, special needs, LGBTQ and racial equality,” according to its website. NFTY chose a similar theme for 2014-15: sexuality and gender equality. Habonim-Dror, which has various active local chapters, or kenim (nests), included a Maryland referendum initiative, for example, to campaign for undocumented high school graduates to become eligible to pay in-state university tuition fees.
Other Jewish educators I polled from the Jewish educators’ network JEDLAB reported that their teens are involved in various issues, including suicide prevention, food banks, poverty, water issues, peace/conflict resolution, mental health awareness and advocacy, women’s rights and empowerment, LGBTQ activism, medical marijuana, vaccines, human trafficking, transgender acceptance, orphans in western Kenya and child soldiers.
A report from the Jewish Teen Funders network attempts to aggregate data from 71 Jewish teen foundations in the United States and Canada during 2013-14, showing where the total of nearly $1 million in philanthropic dollars went. Across 362 grants awarded, the top five issue-areas in descending order were: youth, education, special needs, chronic illness and poverty.
And none of this even begins to capture the array of charitable and social awareness efforts represented in today’s mitzvah projects popular among 12- and 13-year-olds marking their bat and bar mitzvahs, a trend that was absent in my generation, as I recall, anyway. As a complement to that, here in Ottawa, my own shul has been running a monthly b’nai bitzvah class by Cantor Jeremy Burko, which has been including discussion of Jewish-history-informed social justice topics, such as labor conditions in the fashion industry.
What’s the takeaway from this big picture? On one hand, there is no longer a single cause (if there ever was one) that unifies Jewish teens. And that means that tribalism is likely being replaced by a sense of universalism: the sense that social justice must necessarily cross ethnic and religious boundaries. On the other hand, today’s Jewish teens are no doubt indeed being united in the very belief that through Jewish social action, they can repair the world in a global, nuanced and holistic sense. So, while I admit to feeling some nostalgia for the simplicity of the worldview embodied in the Soviet Jewry bracelet I wore with pride and even some excitement, I think we should feel buoyed by the youthful energy and optimism in our midst that the world is ours – and theirs – for the repairing.
Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. This article was originally published in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.
Editorial in the Jewish Independent’s predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin, March 20, 1931.
The JI spoke with four friends of the newspaper from longtime Vancouver Jewish community families about the value and future of a Jewish community newspaper: Gary Averbach, Shirley Barnett, Bernie Simpson and Yosef Wosk. We asked each the same four questions and they replied by email. Their responses are printed below.
Not only are the community members interviewed here longtime Vancouverites but they have been involved in communal life for decades. The announcement on the right is from 1959, and comments on how a group of youth including Gary Averbach brought “AZA No. 119 back to its strength of a decade before.”
GARY AVERBACH
1. Is it important to have a Jewish community newspaper? If so, what are some of the reasons?
It’s difficult to answer this question because it seems so obvious that having a community newspaper is vitally important. We need a forum and a notice board for opinions and events in the community and, if there was not a publication dedicated to providing that forum and bulletin board, our community would suffer an irreplaceable loss.
2. What do you think the JI/JWB specifically has contributed (contributes) to the community?
For the most part, the JI/JWB has always been a bulletin board for the Jewish community, informing us about major – and minor – events and happenings. Whether they be reports on events that have occurred in the community – including the greater Canadian and worldwide Jewish community – or just informing us of births and deaths, b’nai mitzvahs and weddings, or local upcoming happenings. If not the JI/JWB, where would this come from?
3. In what ways, if any, is having a print version of value, versus only having an online publication?
For the next decade at least there will be a demand – albeit likely a decreasing one – for a printed version of the JI. That isn’t so much to provide for the very few people who still don’t or can’t use a computer, but to those of us who still prefer to hold a newspaper in their hands
4. Do you think that a Jewish community paper will be relevant for your grandkids’ kids?
I don’t even know what my grandchildren will be using to access their news in 10 years’ time, never mind what my great-grandchildren will prefer. But I’m fairly certain it won’t be print media as we now understand it. However, that in no way diminishes the need for a community forum and bulletin board giving a Jewish viewpoint on matters of local, national and international events – specifically items that directly involve Jews and, of course, Israel. So, whether it’s an online version, as we now know it, or some further refinement that we can barely imagine now, there will still be a need to inform our local Jewish community by the JI or some similar outlet.
SHIRLEY BARNETT
1. Is it important to have a Jewish community newspaper? If so, what are some of the reasons?
Among Shirley Barnett’s many community involvements is helping Vietnamese refugees come to Vancouver. This article is from June 1984.
Yes, for sure. I would like more reporting of issues in the community rather than just of events.
2. What do you think the JI/JWB specifically has contributed (contributes) to the community?
Exactly that – a sense of community and interaction.
3. In what ways, if any, is having a print version of value, versus only having an online publication?
For me, for sure. I like to read it over a morning coffee, and still cut and clip.
4. Do you think that a Jewish community paper will be relevant for your grandkids’ kids?
Probably not.
BERNIE SIMPSON
1. Is it important to have a Jewish community newspaper? If so, what are some of the reasons?
It is extremely important for the Jewish community, which is spread throughout the province, particularly the Lower Mainland, to have a Jewish community newspaper. There is no question that the viability of printed media has been affected by easy access to online papers, however, it is noted that just about every ethnic community in British Columbia still has printed media, which is read primarily by the older generation.
This article from 1959 is but one of many recording Bernie Simpson’s participation in Habonim and other community organizations, including the Jewish Western Bulletin.
For example, in the Indo-Canadian community there are at least one dozen papers, half of which are in Punjabi. However, two of the most prominent papers, the Voice and the Link, have been in existence for more than 30 years, and are able to attract substantial advertising and are thriving within the community.
The Korean community has at least six papers, primarily in Korean. The Vietnamese community has at least four papers. The Chinese community has a countless number of newspapers, which attracts readers from the various regions from where the Chinese community has come, including Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong.
Admittedly, however, those communities have far more significant numbers than the Vancouver Jewish community, and that may be the reason why those papers are more economically viable.
The Jewish community newspaper, by definition, helps promote a community by giving news as to various events that are happening, not only in Vancouver but in outlying areas.
It is also a vehicle to announce important fundraising activities and to give proper recognition to those who are honored in the community.
The reporting of international news particularly as it relates to Israel is important, and also the editorial content. I believe that we are fortunate in having editorial content that is objective. The letters to the editor, by and large, are articulate and represent, on occasion, a different view than the mainstream Jewish community may have, particularly with regards to Israel, and this view should be welcomed as it serves as a catalyst for thoughtful thinking on sensitive subjects.
The stature of the Jewish community would be diminished considerably in the eyes of the non-Jewish community if there was not a Jewish community paper. There is still the view that the Jewish community is well organized, speaks with one voice on contentious issues, is socially active in liberal causes and even responds to tragedies throughout the world, and I would think that the image of the community will be tarnished considerably if a community paper did not exist.
2. What do you think the JI/JWB specifically has contributed (contributes) to the community?
To a certain extent this question is partially answered by my response to Question 1.
I believe that this paper helps keep the community focused and together, and it takes into consideration all aspects of the political spectrum as it relates to the three levels of government and objectively reports what is happening in Israel.
We are indeed fortunate to have the publisher (working with various editors), who is an outstanding journalist as is evident by the many awards that the Jewish Independent has won.
If it would happen in the future that the Jewish Independent did not exist, then that void very well could be filled with a community publication that lacks the objectivity that the present Jewish Independent has. For a brief period of time several years ago, such a paper did exist, and it was quite clear what the agenda of that paper was. In the Jewish Independent’s small way, it does help the debate with regards to the peace process in Israel between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the concept of a two-state solution.
3. In what ways, if any, is having a print version of value, versus only having an online publication?
I think, at this point, the majority of the readership are still of the generation where they don’t naturally gravitate every day to their computer or their mobile to see what news comes out this week in the Jewish Independent.
Longtime members of the community have had ingrained in them that towards the end of the week, the Jewish Independent will arrive. It often stays around the house until the next edition. I would think also that it would be harder to get advertising revenue if you’re only online.
4. Do you think that a Jewish community paper will be relevant for your grandkids’ kids?
Frankly, I’m not terribly concerned about the answer to that question, nor is it really relevant to the present situation. I am a senior member of the Jewish community now; my grandchildren are 6, 3, 2 and 1. It’s impossible for me, who on my best of days has difficulty directing my attention to the immediate past, to focus on whether the paper will be relevant for my grandkids’ kids, which would be around 30 years in the future.
I don’t think that we should be too concerned about that question, but what we should be concerned about is how we can make the Jewish Independent more economically viable.
One obvious answer is an increase in subscriptions. Perhaps, an active volunteer campaign could be conducted by members of the community to try to sign up more subscribers. This will make it easier to get advertising revenue.
It may be that there should be “an advisory board” set up to advise the present publisher as to how to make the paper more attractive to advertisers and to readers.
There is a great deal of talent within the Jewish community (well-known reporters who are still active, retired reporters with national papers, etc.); this is a resource that perhaps should be called upon.
Also, an advisory committee of individuals – businesspeople – can lend help financially, if the situation arises.
RABBI DR. YOSEF WOSK
1. Is it important to have a Jewish community newspaper? If so, what are some of the reasons?
Yosef (“Jerry”) Wosk’s decision to donate funds to Vancouver Talmud Torah on the occasion of his bar mitzvah in 1962 drew the attention of editor Sam Kaplan.
Yes, I feel it is important to have a community newspaper. It helps to gather and focus information about the extended family that is the community. It covers diverse topics, such as social events, politics, education, births and deaths, special interest groups, as well as emotional and intellectual concerns.
2. What do you think the JI/JWB specifically has contributed (contributes) to the community?
The newspaper has tried to be a neutral newsgathering and dissemination site. It carries articles that represent the full spectrum of the community, thereby fostering information and conversation.
3. In what ways, if any, is having a print version of value, versus only having an online publication?
The value of a print edition is that it can be read on Shabbat, it is easily accessible to everyone, including technophobes. It is always open and easy to read. Articles can be cut out and distributed. Having a hard copy on your desk or table gives it an immediate physical presence and material voice. In addition, a newspaper or magazine laying around in a public common area or even in a private home will attract readers who may not open an electronic device and search for a particular media address. The electronic edition may provide a number of supplementary links and also be available through a quick search, but it does not negate the value of a printed edition.
4. Do you think that a Jewish community paper will be relevant for your grandkids’ kids?
Who knows? However, newsgathering and dissemination in one form or another has always been of interest to the human condition and, so, I project that a community newspaper will still maintain its value in the future.
The Feb. 5, 1931, editorial, “A cultural program,” in the Jewish Western Bulletin laid out some of the hopes, dreams and challenges to the beginnings of organized arts and cultural programming in the Jewish community of Vancouver. In many ways, today’s challenges echo the challenges of 84 years ago: arts and culture requires participation and support. They also require belief; belief that they form the bedrock of any healthy, sustainable community and are a way to celebrate and connect to the past while envisioning a brighter future.
The JI spoke with the directors of five mainstays of the local Jewish arts and culture scene in 2015 – the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, Chutzpah!, the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, the Vancouver Film Centre and the Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir – and asked them the same five questions. Their responses follow.
CHERIE SMITH JCC JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL Nicole Nozick, director
1. Could you give a brief history of your organization?
The JCC Jewish Book Festival (JBF) was founded in 1984 by a small group of book club friends led by Vancouver writer and publisher Cherie Smith. The group decided to create a forum to showcase Jewish writers to Vancouver audiences. After Cherie passed away, the Smith and Rothstein families established an endowment fund in her honor to support the festival in perpetuity and placed it under the stewardship of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
The first book festival, Jewish Western Bulletin, May 1984.
The JBF – which celebrates its 31st year this November – has grown into a literary event of some magnitude, featuring award-winning international authors, showcasing Canadian writers, supporting local authors and publishers, and encouraging a love of reading across all generations. Despite its exponential growth, the JBF has not lost sight of its original core values and mission. The mostly volunteer-led operation echoes the passion of its original founders, many of whom continue to attend and support festival events to this day.
2. When did you become involved with it and what drew you to it?
I have always been an avid reader and, at a very young age, I recall making a solemn declaration to my classmates that “books are my best friends.” To this day, you’ll never find me without a book in my bag to keep me company wherever I may be. When the position of festival director presented itself in 2008, it was the perfect opportunity to marry my professional experience in management and production with my passion for reading and writing. Equally important, the part-time hours of the position allowed me to have the time I wanted to be with my young children.
3. What are some of the ways in which your organization has contributed to the community over the years? ie. Why is it important for the community to have/support?
As bearers of the auspicious moniker “The People of the Book,” it is hardly surprising that literature plays such a significant role in the Jewish community, and our Vancouver Jewish community has shown itself to be more erudite than many in North America. The Vancouver JBF is on an equal footing in terms of participating authors, events, duration and audience as festivals from much larger Jewish communities, including Atlanta, Houston and San Diego. Further, the Vancouver JBF far exceeds other Jewish book festivals in Canada such as Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary in its scope, outreach and operations. This is testimony to our community’s passion for literature and learning, and the arts.
It has been a pleasure to introduce our already well-read audiences to new writers – and to welcome old favorites. The festival’s focus on Israeli writers has had an important impact not only on our Jewish community but has had far-reaching impact on the community at large – both in Vancouver and across Canada. Etgar Keret, one of Israel’s foremost “new generation” writers credits his appearance at the JBF and subsequent interview broadcast on CBC’s Writers & Co. with his increasing success in Canada and sold-out speaking engagements in Toronto and Ottawa. (Keret will appear at the 2015 Vancouver Writers Festival.)
4. What are some of the challenges in keeping it going? Are there specific ways in which community members could help with those challenges?
The book publishing world has gone though unprecedented change and upheaval in recent years. Increasingly, sophisticated technologies that introduced us to tablets, smartphones and e-readers have taken a heavy toll on the simple pleasure of reading a book. In this new age of shortened attention spans and 140-character communication, fewer and fewer people are making the time and applying the focus required to read a book. This is evident not least in the closure of countless bookstores and the bankruptcy of many publishing houses. One of our most important challenges at the JBF is to keep books and reading relevant not only to our current society but to generations to come.
The JBF has adapted to these changing circumstances in order to remain current and vital. Examples include collaborating with Chapters/Indigo to introduce e-readers to our bookstore, changing the scope of the bookstore’s inventory, creating new programs that incorporate digital technology. The JBF also incorporated emerging technologies to showcase international authors: for example, Etgar Keret, whose opening night gala interview was presented via international video-conferencing.
Of course, other important issues such as budget constraints have a detrimental effect not only on the JBF but on many arts and culture organizations. In times of economic uncertainty, arts organizations often bear the brunt of decreased funding, as both government and private sector funding is impacted. At the JBF, we are very blessed to be supported by a loyal and strong donor support base who recognize the crucial role literacy and literature plays in our society. This generous base has helped to keep the JBF sustainable.
5. What are some of the benefits, in your opinion, of the arts in general and why it’s important to have arts and culture in one’s life?
Without the magic of art and culture in our lives, the world would be a drab and dreary place, indeed. Though misquoted, the great bard, William Shakespeare, declared that “music is the spice of life,” and he was right – though certainly his reference was to all of the arts. Reading a good book opens our minds to new worlds, feeds our souls, impacts us in the way that little else can.
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CHUTZPAH! FESTIVAL AND THE NORMAN AND ANNETTE ROTHSTEIN THEATRE Mary-Louise Albert, artistic managing director
1. Could you give a brief history of your organization?
The Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre (NRT), housed in the Jewish Community Centre, is a professionally equipped 318-seat performing arts proscenium theatre. It was established to enhance the cultural life of both the Jewish and general communities and is one of the Lower Mainland’s few mid-size proscenium theatres. The annual Chutzpah! Festival, Chutzpah!’s Creation Residencies, workshops for urban and rural youth and young adults program and Chutzpah!PLUS are our main professional programming activities.
Part of an ad in the JWB, February 2001. Current Chutzpah! Festival director Mary-Louise Albert is the dancer featured.
The Chutzpah! Festival, established in 2001 and named in honor of the late Lisa Nemetz, is one of the most respected international festivals in B.C. and Canada. Chutzpah! is known for presenting world and Canadian premières; supporting the creation of new work by way of multi-week dance residencies in the NRT with confirmed presentation of the residency work; and 2015 brought satellite dance festival residencies, youth workshops and performances to the North Island region of B.C., an exciting area of program growth and outreach.
2. When did you become involved with it and what drew you to it?
My first involvement in the Chutzpah! Festival was performing in the very first Chutzpah! in 2001. The founding artistic director of the festival, Brenda Leadlay, also put me on the poster. I was a professional dancer for over 17 years, and, after my second child was born, I left company life and freelanced as an independent dancer doing project and solo work, mainly. My company years had been with Anna Wyman Dance Theatre, Karen Jamieson Dance Company, Judith Marcuse Dance Company and apprenticing with Les Grands Ballet Canadian. My show in the inaugural Chutzpah! Festival was a shared evening with Toronto’s Kaeja d’Dance.
Shortly after this performance, I transitioned out of dance and studied arts management and business administration at Capilano University and BCIT. About a year after graduating from BCIT with a post-diploma of technology in business administration, the JCC hired me as the artistic managing director. My first Chutzpah! Festival as the AMD was the 2005 one, and I will never forget the fun photo shoot with Boris Sichon as the photographer snapped (I’m revealing my age) away for that year’s perfect poster image.
3. What are some of the ways in which your organization has contributed to the community over the years? ie. Why is it important for the community to have/support?
For the past 10 years, Chutzpah! has been programming Israeli artists to the point where they make up the most numbers of our international artists. The importance of connecting Israeli artists to B.C. (and in most cases to Canada for the first time) helps develop an understanding of Israeli culture and the amazing complexities of its arts.
The exciting and entertaining multifaceted ways the performing arts accomplishes this understanding of Israel is a mainstay of the festival. No other festival in Canada programs the range or number of artists from Israel as we do. We have brought known artists and large groups such as Batsheva Dance Company, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Balkan Beat Box and the Idan Raichel Project, which we have presented in progressively larger productions. Many of our Israeli artists have been unknown to Canadian audiences, but we have still given these eclectic talented performers the opportunity to tour internationally, such as with Idan Sharabi and Dancers, Zvuloon Dub System, giving Yemen Blues and Maria Kong their first North American shows, Ish Theatre, Dudu Tassa, Itamar Boracov, Uri Gurvich and many more.
These artists perform in our home, the JCC, in the Rothstein Theatre, as well as off site and out into the general community. It is a sharing of Jewish arts and culture with the Jewish and general communities. The Lower Mainland Jewish community is integral in helping us with this and the loyalty of the Jewish community and its willingness to take a chance with artists they don’t know is so appreciated and keeps us going. When I looked out into the audience of our Chutzpah!PLUS concert with Ester Rada at the Imperial this year, my heart melted as I saw so many familiar faces. We can’t do what we do without this support.
Another area we are proud of is our commitment to programming world premières by B.C. artists, as well as our multi-week Creation Residencies. Supporting artists this way is paramount to artistic growth. This past year alone saw three world premières by B.C. artists and the year before we had three, as well.
4. What are some of the challenges in keeping it going? Are there specific ways in which community members could help with those challenges?
One of the biggest challenges is that with a festival the size of Chutzpah!, most artists (and, in particular, international artists) have to be programmed and committed to before most granting and donation revenue is secured, often one or two years in advance. Maintaining and increasing corporate and donor sponsorship is important to the sustainability of the festival. We have yearly support for our programming from government funders, such as Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Heritage. A challenge is that we are a Canadian festival that programs many artists from another country, Israel. We are very grateful for annual support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Israel Consulate, for instance, who help us with expenses relating specifically to our Israeli programming, as they know how important our Israeli programming is to the community. And … the community helps us so much by attending shows!
5. What are some of the benefits, in your opinion, of the arts in general and why it’s important to have arts and culture in one’s life?
The arts engage on multiple levels, such as opening up new dimensions and developing creative expression as a stimulus for spiritual and ethical understanding. Exposure to the performing arts allows for the nurturing of inventiveness as a tool to develop self-discipline, self-motivation and self-esteem. Participating in artistic activities helps to gain the tools necessary for understanding the human experience, adapting to and respecting others’ ways of working and thinking, developing creative problem-solving skills, and communicating thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways.
The strength of Jewish arts and culture embraces and promotes the blossoming of divergent forms and points of view, and shares it with audiences from diverse communities. Many Jewish artists connect us to the differing aspects of the Jewish Diaspora. Exploring beautiful tensions and contradictions in these juxtaposed, but parallel, experiences helps feed a rich and engaging life.
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SIDNEY AND GERTRUDE ZACK GALLERY Linda Lando, art gallery director
1. Could you give a brief history of your organization?
The gallery began as the Shalom Gallery in the Jewish Community Centre; the then size of the gallery was 19’ by 40’ (760 square feet). The current size is 22’ by 40’, with excellent lighting and a high ceiling with skylights.
The Zack Gallery started life as the Shalom Gallery, JWB, May 1982.
In 1988, the gallery received a donation from the Sid and Gertie Zack family, and the gallery was renamed the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. At that time, the gallery was designed as part of the overall Phase II renovation project of the JCC.
The gallery has as goals: to create and promote a gallery of stature in which only high-calibre artwork (in all media) is shown, featuring artists of local, national and international reputation; to encourage the serious Jewish artist; to promote understanding of contemporary artistic concerns; and to participate in multi-cultural events.
2. When did you become involved with it and what drew you to it?
I have been an art dealer with a gallery presence in Vancouver for 30 years. It was time for me to make a change in my life, to have less responsibility and to become more a part of the community. At one time, I was a board member of the JCC and I was on the Zack Gallery committee for many years, as well, so I have always been drawn to the JCC and the gallery. As you can well imagine, I am very comfortable running the gallery, dealing with artists, having openings, etc.
3. What are some of the ways in which your organization has contributed to the community over the years? ie. Why is it important for the community to have/support?
The Zack Gallery opened with a group show, JWB, June 1988.
The Zack Gallery has supported Jewish artists for many years. There have been shows that relate specifically to Jewish and or Israeli themes, as well as shows by Israeli artists. The gallery is a venue for Jewish artists who are not necessarily mainstream to show their work. It is unique in the city. It is important to support the gallery, as arts and culture are a huge part of the glue that holds the community together.
4. What are some of the challenges in keeping it going? Are there specific ways in which community members could help with those challenges?
Artists are always underfunded/underpaid. Part of the cost of having a show falls upon the artist. Funding is always a challenge.
Community support would be wonderful. I would be happy if more people supported the gallery by coming to the many openings, talks, poetry readings, etc. That would be very satisfying.
5. What are some of the benefits, in your opinion, of the arts in general and why it’s important to have arts and culture in one’s life?
As I stated, arts and culture are community glue. They bring together artist and patron, student and teacher, ideas and realization. Creativity is what is left when there is nothing else.
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VANCOUVER JEWISH FILM CENTRE Robert Albanese, executive and artistic director
1. Could you give a brief history of your organization?
Jewish films were first brought to Vancouver [by what is now known as the Vancouver Jewish Film Centre] under the umbrella of the Jewish Festival of the Arts, a community organization that was founded in May 1984. Films were sought out that showcased the diversity of Jewish culture, heritage and identity. In 1988, the Festival of the Arts morphed into the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival and, as demand from community organizations for Jewish film grew beyond an annual festival, the name was changed in 2013 to the Vancouver Jewish Film Centre to better reflect the breadth of offerings presented year round.
2. When did you become involved with it and what drew you to it?
In 2009, I was approached by the CEO of Jewish Federation and asked to take a meeting with the executive committee of the board of directors of the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival. The board was conducting a search for a new executive director.
The Jewish Film Centre developed out of the Jewish Festival of the Arts Society, JWB, February 1989.
At the time, I had held the position of director of exhibitions for the Vancouver International Film Festival for the previous 10 years. I had also been a general manager for Cineplex Entertainment. I was a successful photographer with a background in film-set photography and had previously been the managing director of Montreal’s premier repertory cinema.
The offer from the board of the Jewish Film Festival would allow me to bring to the organization 30 years of professional experience in all aspects of the film industry. In addition to the executive director position, I would also be their artistic director. The opportunity to make a difference, to contribute to the arts in our community was the “icing” on a long career in the film business. The added opportunity to grow the organization was a challenge I was eager to undertake.
3. What are some of the ways in which your organization has contributed to the community over the years?
The film centre has held an annual Vancouver Jewish Film Festival for 27 years; it is the longest-running Jewish film festival in Canada. We have engaged our community by bringing the best quality films that inspire, entertain, educate and connect us to the diversity of Jewish culture. The Vancouver Jewish Film Centre was founded to preserve and showcase our Jewish culture, heritage, identity, and we reach all members of the community. Our annual film festival is presented in a mainstream cinema, a secular environment, and is open to all who want to attend. It is a major social event that brings the community together. Film is the most reasonably priced form of cultural entertainment available today.
Film accesses and engages the broadest community. We are deeply committed to outreach and we work tirelessly with community organizations to bring films to their stakeholders. Generally speaking, the film centre is an organization with the potential to reach the whole Jewish community.
It’s Jewish continuity through storytelling in today’s visually oriented world.
4. What are some of the challenges in keeping it going? Are there specific ways in which community members could help with those challenges?
The film exhibition industry has changed dramatically in just a few short years. Everything is now digital, and the technology required for state-of-the-art presentation is very expensive. Film costs and venue rentals have risen through the roof; movie theatres with the proper screening equipment are in short supply. In spite of all of this, we have responded to the increased demand for more film presentations from our greater Jewish community. We travel to community organizations with projector and screen in hand to bring the films directly to them. We are co-presenting Victoria’s first Jewish film festival this November. We are facilitating film with the Okanagan Jewish community. We’ve facilitated numerous fundraising film events throughout the community for Jewish organizations of all kinds. All of the above means increased costs for us at the same time that our community in general is faced with aging infrastructures with large capital campaigns in place. That often means cultural entities are left struggling to attract funding from the community, funding required to keep us vibrant and relevant.
Our attendance has been growing year over year and is a direct result of the quality of both the films and the presentations. However, since relocating the annual film festival to the Fifth Avenue multiplex cinema we’ve seen a number of community members walk by our screenings to attend a “Hollywood” film in the next auditorium. The most obvious way to help is to attend the films we present; the old mindset of what constitutes a Jewish film no longer applies. The films we present are world class and just as good, if not better, than any other film showing in that multiplex today.
We always welcome more help from volunteers. Assisting us to bring our offerings to the community is a real way a community member can help.
Finally, we are soon launching our first-ever endowment campaign with matching funds from dedicated donors. We hope and trust the rest of our community will support this effort.
5. What are some of the benefits, in your opinion, of the arts in general and why it’s important to have arts and culture in one’s life?
There is a mountain of documentation from researchers all over the world about the benefits of having art and culture in one’s life. In my opinion, in the case of the Jewish Film Centre, we bring people together. Film opens a dialogue where none may have existed before. It can fill us with pride, self-esteem; it can literally break down barriers by allowing us to experience the life of the other. Film can help foster a sense of belonging and pride within a community. Film can preserve a collective memory and foster a continuing dialogue about the past.
The Vancouver Jewish Film Centre exists for this, we convene an inclusive community that celebrates, educates, entertains and inspires through thought-provoking films. We present the stories about the many diverse aspects of Jewish life. We aspire to be a cultural organ of the Jewish community in Vancouver, in British Columbia, and to act as a repository of culture for future generations.
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VANCOUVER JEWISH FOLK CHOIR Donna Modlin Becker, program coordinator, Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture
1. Could you give a brief history of your organization?
The Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir of the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture was founded in 1980 by conductor/arranger/ composer Searle Friedman with the aim of keeping Jewish music alive and educating both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences to a world cultural treasure. The choir has about 25 members, both adults and seniors, and at present performs between eight and 10 times per year, both at the Peretz Centre and at venues within and outside of the Jewish community.
2. When did you become involved with it and what drew you to it?
Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir third season ad in the JWB.
In the late 1990s, I was looking for a choir to join, and found the Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir. I was excited to be singing in Yiddish, which I grew up surrounded by, and pretty quickly felt very at ease with the other choir members. The older people reminded me of the grandparents I lived with growing up in a Jewish community in Brooklyn; politically, and in many other ways, I was very culturally comfortable in the choir. And it gives me great pleasure to be singing in the language of my ancestors – I feel I am honoring them with my music. And I love the beautiful minor mode of so much of the repertoire.
3. What are some of the ways in which your organization has contributed to the community over the years? ie. Why is it important for the community to have/support?
Some of the ways in which the choir has contributed to the community, in no particular order:
• Thanks to founder Searle Friedman and current director David Millard, the choir is keeping the Yiddish repertoire alive. (Not only to entertain the old people, but also for the sake of future generations, I think keeping our Yiddish roots alive and visible as long as possible is hugely important.)
Both Friedman and Millard have arranged traditional and contemporary Yiddish music (and other Jewish music) for choir. Over the years, the choir has focused more and more on Yiddish, and exposed audiences to a wide variety of songs in that language, as well as major works by Srul Irving Glick, Mordecai Gebirtig, Max Helfman and others.
• In addition to regular performances at the Peretz Centre, which include holiday celebrations and an annual major concert, the choir also performs a Chanukah concert annually at two seniors homes – the Louis Brier and South Granville Park Lodge. In the last few years, the choir has also performed its Pesach repertoire at the Louis Brier. We hear from the people who work with the residents at both venues that many people who are very cognitively impaired in other areas can still relate to music, and people who can no longer speak are still able to sing. The joy we feel in the audience at the Louis Brier as we offer them songs both familiar and new is palpable.
• The choir gives people who like to sing a chance to sing in some of the languages of our people – Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino and English – and an opportunity to socialize with other people who also enjoy singing this music. Many of the people in the choir have no other connection to the Peretz Centre.
• The choir has also performed at other venues, such as the Jewish Community Centre, the Richmond Seniors Centre, CityFest, VanDusen Festival of Lights, and the Federation of Russian Canadians. In this, we provide an outreach to the broader community, and expose wider audiences to Jewish music beyond modern Israeli or religious music or klezmer.
4. What are some of the challenges in keeping it going? Are there specific ways in which community members could help with those challenges?
The main challenge is cost. At present, the conductor, accompanist and three section leaders are paid on a weekly basis. We often have to hire additional voices for major concerts, as well.
Two major ways that community members could help with those challenges: join the choir, and come to the concerts! Another way: write support letters that the choir can use in grant applications.
5. What are some of the benefits, in your opinion, of the arts in general and why it’s important to have arts and culture in one’s life?
I touched on some of this previously in regards to stroke victims and other cognitively impaired people responding to music long after they are no longer able to respond to other forms of communication. But, in more general terms, what would life be without arts? The question is so huge; all I can think of to say is: “Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses, too.”
It is with warm memories and appreciation that I reflect on the opportunity I had from 1970 through 1985 to serve, at different times, as the Jewish Western Bulletin’s editorial assistant, city-desk editor and assistant editor – all the while helping report on the world’s ongoing number-one story: the Middle-East situation … and the Jewish people, their survival, culture, religion and history.
The Greater Vancouver and B.C. Jewish communities were growing rapidly during those years and its diverse members – with, at that time, no internet, email or 24-hour all-news TV channels – primarily looked to the paper as a key source of information for major local, national and international Jewish issues and stories.
Bringing those stories to Bulletin readers during those pre-computer days, with its absence of word-processing and page-layout software, was often a very arduous endeavor, with copy that had to be typewriter-written and then often retyped, and pages that could only be slowly hand-designed. Additionally, the then standard usage of large linotype printing machines (running in the back of the Bulletin offices, and operated by four persons) resulted in a much longer and more involved production process than the one found today, where late-breaking stories can be readily included using digital technology.
Description of Bob Markin, JWB, 1970.
Guiding the paper with excellence were the exceptionally dedicated and talented publishers and senior editors, Sam and Mona Kaplan. One goal was prevalent in all of the JWB’s undertakings during those years: to extensively and objectively cover important news and issues that affected the well-being and life of the Jewish people; to serve and advance, as best as possible, the B.C. and Canadian Jewish community, its individuals and organizations and, of course, Israel and world Jewry.
In serving the community, the Bulletin often focused on supporting Zionism, alerting the readership to antisemitic threats and incidents, and reporting on immigration issues. Readers could regularly find wide coverage of local community events and organization happenings, feature articles on community issues, in-depth profiles of local personalities and leaders, etc…. and the Lazar (Between Ourselves) column, with its breezy, informal style of “breaking” community news-gossip, was usually a must-read for JWB readers.
The culture scenes were far from neglected, with reporting by theatre, art, music and, yes, Jewish stamps, columnists and reviewers. The full-range of lifecycle milestones, such as births, b’nai mitzvahs, engagements, weddings and obituary announcements, were regularly printed.
Jewish news from across Canada and worldwide was extensively covered, with emphasis, of course, on the ever-changing situation in Israel and the Middle East, as well as the special plights at that time facing Soviet Jews and Ethiopian Jewry.
Throughout my 16 years at the paper, I found that participating in each issue’s production was truly an ongoing highlight, resulting in a strong feeling of exhilaration as the approaching deadlines brought with them an intensity in office visitors, copy submissions, planning, writing and editing, phone calls, the sounds of typesetting, etc. Other memorable times included the privilege of meeting visiting and local VIPs for stories and feature profiles, and taking part in a special Jewish Agency-sponsored tour of Israel for North American Jewish journalists, during which participants met many key leaders.
The staff always came through. When heavy snows closed offices around the city, we were at the JWB ensuring that the paper got out. When postal strikes thwarted distribution, we made arrangements for copies to be picked up, free of charge, at key community locations. And when large holiday editions saw production-time pressure, the typesetters would work all night to make sure that the paper would be in readers’ hands on time.
The Bulletin always respected the challenge of objectively and completely reporting on the full spectrum of what was happening in the Jewish world.
It was very interesting, challenging work and an utmost privilege and pleasure to work with this wonderful community.
