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July 15, 2005
Friendly recollections
Paper has collected many supporters since it began.
PAT JOHNSON
When you've been around as long as the Jewish Western Bulletin,
people tend to have well-formed opinions about you. Though the community
and the newspaper that serves it have changed a great deal over
the decades, the Bulletin has provided a constant forum for
Jewish British Columbians to communicate with one another across
time and other barriers.
Gerry Zipursky, executive director of the Jewish Community Centre
of Greater Vancouver, thinks of the Bulletin as a child of
his organization – grown-up and independent, but an offspring
nonetheless.
"I'm mindful of the fact that the Bulletin started at
the centre," said Zipursky. "It was the organ of the JCC
[the Jewish Community Centre]. So it wasn't just a matter of the
JWB being a community newspaper, it actually had its genesis
at the centre."
As program director for the centre more than three decades ago,
Zipursky first recognized the importance of the community's newspaper.
As executive director for the past two decades, he has viewed the
Bulletin as a dependable forum for communication.
"When I look at the last 20 years when I've been with the centre
[as executive director], what's wonderful is that the Bulletin
is there," Zipursky said. "It is one of the few things
in our community that has remained a constant. Having a newspaper
that is helping to build community, it helps inform people about
what is going on in the Jewish community and we need that. The Bulletin,
through its leaner years and difficulties – and I'm mindful
of how difficult it is to have a community paper when it's a small
community – it's been there. I wouldn't want to even think
about what it would be like to not have a Jewish Western Bulletin.
"It's a special celebration, 75 years of helping to build community.
It may not be the organ of the JCC, but it has, in some ways, remained
an organ of the community, a way to communicate and let people know
what's going on."
Yossi Darr, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) shaliach (emissary)
to Vancouver, said he wouldn't presume to speak on behalf of the
local community, but said he personally views the paper as an important
source of information on the local community.
"As a shaliach, I would say I have a very positive outlook
toward the Bulletin," said Darr. "It is important
to the Jewish community that it have a paper that can deal with
all the matters regarding Israel and the Jewish community."
Darr's colleague, Bill Gruenthal, who has been a longtime leader
in the local branch of JNF and who now is president of the Jewish
Historical Society, said the paper has been an important part of
his life.
"The Jewish Western Bulletin has been a part of my life
ever since I've been in Vancouver, which is some 50 years,"
said Gruenthal. "I am very lucky that they have managed to
print some of my letters to the editor."
Offering advice for the future, Gruenthal said the paper should
reflect the reality of Vancouver's increasingly spread-out Jewish
community, suggesting more coverage should be devoted to outer suburban
communities.
"The Bulletin, which represents all of us, has got to
realize that the community has grown beyond 41st and Oak,"
he said, adding that coverage of the organizations he's been involved
with has been thorough.
"The coverage that I've always looked for, for example at the
JNF and the JHS, has always been very useful and very representative,"
Gruenthal said. "Long may it continue to represent us."
Mordehai Wosk, a leading activist in the Hillel movement and a Vancouver
businessman, doctor of psychology and philanthropist, said the Bulletin
pulls the diverse threads of community together.
"It is the one consistent, central source of information that's
linked the Jewish community both locally and with Israel for the
past 75 years," said Wosk. "It's like a thread that's
been woven through a wide spectrum of social, cultural, political
and religious issues. Being pluralistic, not just coming from one
point of view – although it has had its emphases in different
years, from different points of view – it's always addressed
different issues and identified them. It's like a weaving in a way,
reporting in a somewhat pluralistic way what the issues are, socially,
culturally, politically and religiously. That's been very useful."
The Bulletin grew up alongside a number of long-standing
community institutions, among them Camp Hatikvah. Joanna Wasel,
whose relationship with the Okanagan camp began at age eight, as
a camper, and continued into adulthood, when she served for a time
as an administrator of the organization, said the camp and the campers
– along with parents – have depended on the Bulletin
to draw participants and to keep families informed about events.
"They're our source to connect with the Jewish community in
Vancouver," said Wasel. "They certainly keep the parents
up to date. Without them, we wouldn't have as much access."
While the Bulletin celebrates three-quarters of a century,
Camp Hatikvah has marked more than a half-century.
"We're about to celebrate 50 years in its current location
and I think they had another eight or 10 years in another location,"
said Wasel, who is no longer on staff. She recalled that, in the
days before high-tech communication, the Bulletin sometimes
served as a letter from camp to parents back home.
"Back in the day, the Bulletin was a huge part of Camp
Hatikvah – or vice versa," she said. "When there
was only a few campers and it was a different-sized community ...
they would do stories about everything that was going on during
the summer."
Parents now keep up to date from the camp's website, Wasel said,
but the camp still depends on the community's newspaper to get out
the word about their summer programs to families who cannot otherwise
be reached through Jewish day schools or synagogues.
Another of the city's longest-standing organizations reflected on
its relationship with the weekly paper. Daniella Givon, president
of Vancouver Hadassah-WIZO Council, said the Bulletin plays
a unifying role in her large organization. Hadassah-WIZO, the Canadian
arm of the women's international Zionist organization, has been
in existence since 1917 and the first Vancouver chapter formed in
the 1930s, making it something of a peer of the JWB.
"It has a very important place in our community," said
Givon. "It keeps us together, it informs us about each other
and I find it has very important role to play to keep us in touch
with each other. I am thankful that it is here to do that. We definitely
try to use it every opportunity we can. We see it as one of the
major tools to reach our community. We have hundreds of members
in the city and this is an important way of getting to many of them."
Mel Lehan, a veteran of various political campaigns and a community
activist, spoke of the paper's continuity.
"It's good to have it. It's wonderful that we have such a valuable
resource for the community," said Lehan. 'It's been 75 years
in this city. Mazal tov and we'll have it for another 75 years."
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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