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April 12, 2002
Kallah’s future unclear
Enthusiasm is high, but the turnout remains low.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Jewish community centres in Vancouver and across North America
will decide whether to proceed with the Kallah program after next
week’s final event of the year.
Kallah: The Gathering is an interactive program begun last year
by the Jewish Community Centre Association. A live audience at the
92nd Street Y in Manhattan is linked via satellite to similar audiences
in JCCs across the continent. Kallah allows a large number of geographically
diverse Jews to learn together in a series that has included some
of the top names in academia and literature. The program began last
year amid much fanfare and participants seemed enthusiastic. However,
attendance never reached the levels organizers had hoped for and
last year’s network of 30 JCCs dwindled to about half that
this year.
Reisa Schneider, adult Judaic program co-ordinator at the Jewish
Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, said her agency will consider
participating again next year after discussions with staff, board
members and interested parties.
That is, if the program is still happening next year. Schneider
said the central organizers are also likely to reconsider the whole
effort.
Schneider could not explain why a project that seemed such a good
idea did not catch the imagination of more North American Jews.
The sense of unity created by groups of Jews in different centres
having a shared intellectual experience was an excellent potential
source of community building, she said. Moreover, it gave people
outside Jewish centres like New York the opportunity to see and
hear personalities that rarely make it to places like Vancouver.
For example, on Tuesday of this week, the guest speaker was Dr.
Ruth Gruber, who, during the Second World War, posed as a military
general and escorted Jewish survivors through Italy to New York.
Next Thursday, April 18, the final presentation in this year’s
series brings together Prof. Elie Wiesel and Mario Cuomo, former
governor of New York, to discuss God: Personal Thoughts. They will
be joined by Kallah’s moderator, Rabbi David Woznica. They
will discuss the role of God in everyday life, reconciling the notion
of a loving God in the face of evil, and share their experiences
of crises of faith.
Rita Weintraub has been to most of the Kallah programs and she hopes
the community will show greater support for it. One suggestion she
had was that, after the satellite broadcast, a local moderator could
continue the discussion in the theatre.
“I do feel that, at the end, it would be good to have a discussion
so that some of these issues aren’t left in limbo,” she
said.
On the whole, though, she thinks that Kallah has been a great success.
“It brings people together in a positive and stimulating [way],”
she said.
Fay Hassall has been to two Kallah events this year and likes the
fact that they bring great minds together, such as one session this
year discussing the Ten Commandments.
“I’ve done a lot of study about the Ten Commandments,
but it’s always fascinating to hear different points of view,”
she said. “And there were three people with very different
points of view.”
It also gives her a feeling of being part of a larger happening.
“It’s a nice feeling linking up,” she said.
Zev Shafran, whose family provides the funding to make Kallah possible
in Vancouver, said he is glad to support Kallah.
“I just thought it was a great idea, conceptually,” he
said. “We live in one neighborhood today and when these things
came across last year, I just thought it was a great thing because
New York’s got such fantastic programming going through their
92nd Street Y.”
One problem he acknowledged was that time differences have added
to the difficulties in getting people to the events. Because the
presentations originate from New York, most have been scheduled
for late afternoon on the West Coast, making it inconvenient for
some people to get to the JCC.
So, despite the enthusiasm shown by those who have attended the
presentations, Shafran will be one of those people considering the
future of Kallah in the next few months.
“Hopefully, we’ll get some more people and we can continue
to underwrite it,” he said. “We only have limited dollars
in this community and, if it’s not being spent in the most
diligent way, we’ll try to find other things to do with our
money.”
The next Kallah takes place at the JCC of Greater Vancouver, April
18, 6 p.m., on the topic God: Personal Thoughts. Tickets are $10/$8
for JCC members. Call 604-257-5111 for information.
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