Dream comes true for Emanu-El

KITTY HOFFMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

To the sounds of children singing, klezmer music and impromptu belly dancing in the aisles, members of Victoria's Congregation Emanu-El were joined by political and community leaders on Sunday, April 6, to mark the simchah g'dolah, the festive public opening of a long-planned educational and cultural centre. After a century and a half as the only synagogue building on Vancouver Island, the heritage red brick building at the downtown corner of Pandora and Blanshard streets has a new addition.

"This is something that we've dreamed about and talked about since 1982, when we restored the synagogue to its former grandeur," said Bernice Levitz Packford, one of the community's elders and a Victoria resident since the 1950s.

The public opening was itself an occasion for special acts of holiness. To a standing ovation, Grand Chief Ed John of the B.C. First Nations Summit asked for forgiveness for the hurt inflicted by recent anti-Semitic remarks by a Canadian First Nations leader. Many onlookers had tears in their eyes as John remarked on the challenges presented by Canada's ethnic and cultural diversity, and noted that he could think of "no better place in which to apologize than here in Canada's oldest continuing synagogue."

Greetings and good wishes were delivered by political leaders of Canada, British Columbia and the City of Victoria.

Rabbi Harry Brechner, the current spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El, dedicated the new building to "making God's presence greater in our community, our country and the world" and hoped it would be "a place to connect to each other, our heritage and our source." In an interview, Brechner explained the significance of the new building as a "vehicle to allow experiences to come, a place for expressions of holiness that are different from expressions in the sanctuary. It's not about the space itself, but about what happens in the space."

There is already no shortage of events for this new space. The new centre adds classroom, office and social hall space for the growing congregation. The building will also house a library and archives, the rabbi's office and Vancouver Island's first mikvah.

The $1.3 million addition complements the historic synagogue, which was built by 100 pioneer Jewish families during the Gold Rush in 1863. Funding for the new building was secured almost entirely through local and regional fund-raising by the small Victoria Jewish community. The B.C. government provided a $40,000 grant.

With almost 200 family members and 100 students in its Hebrew school, the congregation has been cramped in its one-room shul, which has had to serve as sanctuary, school and social hall combined. Now, walk into the new building on a weekday morning and you'll find the children of the preschool hard at work or at play on the roof-top playground. And on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings, the Hebrew school children and their teachers are already staking their claim.

Michelle Dale, chair of the Hebrew school committee whose own three children attend classes, said the difference is striking.

"It's amazing that the kids will have separate classrooms, rather than the one-room 'chaos' that we used to have," she said. "This shows our children that we value their Jewish education enough to build them a school."

Until the new building was finished, all six grades were conducted in the single sanctuary room, as the historic synagogue building contains no adjacent rooms or offices of any kind. This "one-room shulhouse" was adequate when the community was small, but with increasing numbers of children and teachers, the strain on education, and on the old building itself, was evident.

As well, until the creation of the new centre, there was no on-site room for the year-long b'nai mitzvah classes. For the past few years, these classes have been held in nearby St. John the Divine Anglican Church. Marni Dean, teacher and supervisor of the program in co-ordination with the rabbi, exressed her appreciation of their downtown spiritual neighbor.

"They have been very gracious and accommodating in offering their space," she said. "Now there is the opportunity for the tremendous impact on the students to be in a Jewish spiritual environment for this training and preparation."

Because the synagogue had to be fully used by the Hebrew school, b'nai mitzvah classes had no access to the synagogue or the Torah scrolls while learning to chant from the Torah and lead communal prayers in Hebrew and Aramaic.

"Now there is the opportunity to practise their skills in the shul, with the Torah, during class and tutorial time," said Dean.

One of the most significant and unique features of the new centre is that the groundwork has been laid for a mikvah or ritual bath. Last July, a small group of onlookers watched as concrete was poured, under strict rabbinical supervision, into what will become the first ritual bath ever to exist in Victoria. The mikvah design and concrete pouring were supervised by Rabbi Avraham Feigelstock of Vancouver.

While completion of the mikvah awaits further fund-raising, the centre's large main floor space and kosher kitchen are already in operation for social and community events. One of the key features of every communal religious occasion is the spiritual necessity to "seal" the worship with a sanctified meal or kiddush. These used to be held in the sanctuary itself, where seating would be moved away and replaced by tables groaning with food. Now the sanctuary no longer needs to withstand this pressure, as congregants and friends move over to the new building for their festive meals. There is room to celebrate, eat and shmooze.

Brechner emphasized that this has been a truly community-wide, collective endeavor; the money for the new building did not come from a handful of wealthy patrons, but was raised through contributions from virtually every member of the community.

"An amazing aspect of our building is that we did it together," said the rabbi. "We built it without a sugar daddy or a sugar mama; we did it by the sweat of our collective brow. And people contributed time and energy, a huge amount of sweat equity."

It is this community aspect that most excites Brechner, who views this auspicious beginning as a portent of good things to come.

"We have a place of connection, a retreat from the mundane, regular part of life," he said. "We have an opportunity to bring the holiness of Torah, the Jewish values of goodness, from the sanctuary to this side of the building and to all aspects of our lives."

Kitty Hoffman is a freelance writer living in Victoria.

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