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Aug. 18, 2006
Museum to open in March
The long-awaited Jewish archives will take over JCC's third floor.
PAT JOHNSON
The third floor of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
has become a construction zone. The former home of the Jewish Family
Services Agency has been gutted and is now almost completely renovated
to house the new British Columbia Jewish Museum, which will open
on March 25, 2007.
The museum has been the dream of a small group of dedicated volunteers
for years and the reality is now taking shape.
Donna Bryman, a museum consultant who has been working on the project
since January, said the museum will realize the dream of the Jewish
Historical Society of B.C. to fulfil its mandate as both an archive
and a museum of the community in this province.
"[Since] the Jewish Historical Society was founded in 1971,
it's been basically an archive," said Bryman. "It has
a lot of archival holdings – in fact, spectacular archival
holdings. What we're hoping to do is create a museum collection
that will be on that level."
The society is collecting even more artifacts as the date approaches
for the official opening.
"The Jewish Historical Society wants to become the repository
for Judaica, for anything about the history of Jews, actually, in
British Columbia," said Bryman. "We don't want to be sorry
years from now that we didn't collect these things."
One of the most treasured artifacts already in the collection is
the Torah reader's desk from the first synagogue in Vancouver, B'nai
Yehuda, which went on to become Schara Tzedeck. It was located at
Pender and Heatley streets in the Strathcona neighborhood. The desk
dates from 1911. It will form part of an introduction to Judaism
at the beginning of the permanent exhibit.
The 1,600-square-foot exhibit space will be comprised mostly of
a permanent exhibit, with one-fifth of the museum dedicated to changing
displays. The first temporary exhibit will be a locally created
one, focusing on Jewish foods.
"The permanent exhibit starts out with a very basic introduction
to Judaism, which would be especially important to people who come
to the museum who are not Jewish," said Bryman. "The bulk
of the permanent exhibit is about the history of the Jews of British
Columbia, from the gold rush era, starting in 1858, until today."
Much of the historical work that will be displayed in the museum
is based on decades of research by Cyril Leonoff, the B.C. Jewish
community's recognized historian, who has spent hours helping prepare
material for the new museum.
Trasolini Chetner is executing the construction, based on plans
by noted designer Richard Henriquez. Aldrich, Pears and Associates
is designing the exhibition space. Irv Nitkin is supervising the
project and Catherine Youngren is doing the interior design.
The museum is one of the most significant projects undertaken by
the community in recent years and is a huge leap forward for the
historical society, under whose auspices the museum will operate.
"For 35 years, very few people knew we existed," said
historical society president Bill Gruenthal. "Even the community
didn't know. Now, the whole community is going to know and people
are already talking about it."
From a 200-square-foot office crammed with filing cabinets, the
historical society has moved to a much more visible presence. In
addition to the third floor of the JCC, the organization now has
a working archive and storage space in the nearby Lubavitch Centre.
The third-floor site will also include offices for an enlarged staff
and a research room where members of the public can delve deeper
into local history, including a bank of computers and a segregated
listening room for the 400 oral histories recorded by the historical
society over the years. The Jewish Genealogical Institute will be
involved as well, offering regular sessions for people researching
their Jewish family trees.
Bryman said the museum is intended to be accessible to people with
all range of backgrounds.
"The idea is to present Jewish history and culture to everyone
in British Columbia and tourists, and that includes people who know
nothing about Judaism or their Jewish neighbors," she said.
"They can come and learn about [Jewish] culture and history.
But [it's] also for the Jewish people who live here."
Most local Jews probably don't know that the first Jewish people
who came to British Columbia came with the first non-native people
around the time of the gold rush in 1858, Bryman explained. "It
would surprise people that there were Jewish residents of Gastown
at the time of Gassy Jack."
Victoria was the first hub for Jewish British Columbians.
"They came for the gold rush, but not necessarily to be prospectors,
but to be entrepreneurs - to be merchants to the prospectors,"
said Bryman. Very shortly after that period, when the transcontinental
railway arrived, the first Jews came to the mainland.
"They were fur traders and in the seal hunting business,"
Bryman said. "They established themselves in Gastown as merchants,
and in Steveston."
While many of the Jews who arrived in Victoria were from the United
States, the sharp growth in the population of Jewish Vancouver,
after 1880, came primarily from Eastern Europe.
The two world wars also helped populate the West Coast. Many Canadian
servicemen were discharged through Vancouver and settled here after
the war, Bryman said.
In addition to static displays, the museum will feature interactive
exhibits, including an activity centre for crafts and other hands-on
projects.
"When school groups come, besides getting the tour of the exhibit,
we want to involve students in what they're learning," Bryman
said.
Gruenthal, who has shepherded the project through many years as
president of the Jewish Historical Society, promises the museum
will be a destination for Jews and non-Jews from British Columbia
and afar.
"We hope it will have a huge impact on the community –
the community at large," he said, noting that the museum is
still seeking financial donations, as well as artifacts for the
collection. A roster of volunteers is also being compiled.
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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