Remembering Sam Kaplan

RABBI JONATHAN KAPLAN

Publisher and editor-in-chief for 36 years of the Jewish Western Bulletin, veteran Canadian journalist Samuel Kaplan died in Vancouver on Tuesday, July 15, 2008, in his 83rd year. He was buried in Israel on Thursday evening, July 17, at Eretz HaChaim cemetery in the Jerusalem Hills.

Rabbi Baruch Zaichyk, Sam Kaplan's rabbi in Vancouver for 10 years, led the funeral services at which a large gathering of family and friends heard eulogies from Sam's son, Jonathan, and granddaughter, Franny Kaplan, who lives in Israel.

A special community-wide memorial service will be held Sunday, Aug. 17, at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue at 7 p.m. to mark the end of the Shloshim (30-day mourning period).

Born in Winnipeg, Man., on June 30, 1925, Kaplan was the fifth of six children of Rachmiel and Sarah Kaplan, who emigrated to Canada from Kremenchuk, Ukraine. A graduate of St. John's Tech in Winnipeg's famous North End melting pot of Canadian intellectuals and artists, he sang lead roles in Gilbert and Sullivan in high school.

Kaplan joined the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War, where he served as a wireless telegrapher on a Corvette (fast attack boat) stationed in Halifax.

After the war, Kaplan attended the University of Manitoba, where he met his future wife, Mona Rich. They married on May 9, 1948, and saw the headline "State of Israel Declared" on their honeymoon. Still reeling from the Holocaust, Sam's wife recalls how he determined that day to dedicate his life to helping Jews who were in trouble anywhere in the world.

Kaplan's five-decade career in journalism began with a summer job in 1946 as a journalism intern at the daily Winnipeg Free Press. He later worked for five years as editor of the weekly Western Jewish News in Winnipeg and, subsequently, as editor of the English section of the Israelite Press, a Yiddish-English weekly.

In 1960, Kaplan was invited by the Vancouver Jewish Community Council to become editor of its weekly Anglo-Jewish newspaper. Kaplan and his wife, Mona, took over the Jewish Western Bulletin and, within two years, the husband-wife team transformed it into an independent weekly able to cover all its expenses and end a decades-old community subsidy.

In 1979, Sam Kaplan received the Smolar Award for Excellence in North American Jewish journalism for a series of interviews he did in Egypt prior to the Camp David Peace Treaty. He was twice named as runner-up for the same award, and received a 20th Israel Anniversary Award of Excellence for a full-color tourism edition in 1968.

In recognition of his efforts as president of the B.C. Ethnic Press Association and the Canadian Ethnic Press Association, Kaplan received the Canada Centennial Medal, which was presented to him by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Montreal, as well as a Canada 125 Medal.

Over the decades, Kaplan interviewed and wrote in-depth articles on Jewish and international newsmakers on five continents, including two interviews with David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, Moshe Sharett, Israel's second prime minister, Shimon Peres, Nobel Peace Prize winner and current president of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Moses Rosen, chief rabbi of Romania, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Simon Wiesenthal, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who became a personal friend, and activist Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kaplan frequently was interviewed on CBC Radio and Television on events in Canadian Jewish life and Israel.

Kaplan worked with historian Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill, to help free Russian Jews. He reprinted Gilbert's revealing articles on the condition of Jewish prisoners in the Gulag (Siberian prison camps) on the Bulletin's front pages. He also ran a weekly "Gulag Record," chronicling the imprisonment of key Soviet refuseniks in the Gulag for the crime of wanting to emigrate to Israel, and encouraging his readership to write appeals to help win their freedom. Sir Martin Gilbert took editions of the Bulletin into Russia to show refuseniks, and reported the enormous hope it gave them that a newspaper on Canada's Pacific coast was fighting for their freedom. All are now free.

Prior to Camp David, Kaplan and his wife went to Cairo for a series of interviews with Egyptian leaders on the prospects for peace. Kaplan was the first Jewish journalist to be granted an interview with Dr. Butros Butros Ghali, then Egyptian foreign minister and later UN secretary general. He also interviewed Tahshin Bashir, then head of the Arab League, who later became Egypt's ambassador to Canada.

The journalist and his wife undertook a memorable 23-hour train trip from Beijing to Kaifeng, China, to find and interview one of the few living descendants of the ancient Jews of Kaifeng, who came to China via the Silk Route in the 12th century.

Kaplan served as founding president of the Canadian Zionist Federation in Vancouver, was president of Congregation Schara Tzedeck for two terms, headed the Vancouver State of Israel Bonds campaigns for two years and founded the first Vancouver Ulpan Institute to teach conversational Hebrew. He also was very active and held numerous offices in B'nai Brith.

Samuel Kaplan is survived by Mona, his wife of 60 years; his three sons: Frank Barry in Nanaimo, Jonathan and wife Abbe, in Memphis, Tenn., and Rabbi David Kaplan and wife Rochel, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; five grandchildren: Zachary, Franny, Ezra, Yaakov and Tully; his sisters, Esther Finkle and Lily Kaplan, and brother, Jack Kaplan, all of Winnipeg; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

The family requests that donations in memory of Samuel Kaplan be sent to the Pacific Torah Institute in Vancouver (www.ptibc.org) or to Canadian Magen David Adom (www.cmdai.org).

The end of an era for the JWB

ARIELA FRIEDMANN

The following article was written to mark the Kaplans' first retirement from the Jewish Western Bulletin, in 1995. Since it summarizes so well some of the many contributions of Sam and Mona Kaplan, the Independent reprints excerpts from it, in honor of Sam z"l.

Dash-three-zero-dash (-30-).

The universal journalistic symbol that denotes the end of a story prior to publication also marks the end of an era for the Jewish Western Bulletin.

Publisher/editor-in-chief Sam Kaplan and his wife, senior editor Mona Kaplan, have retired after 35 years at the helm of British Columbia's weekly Jewish community newspaper.... This interview for the Canada Day edition takes place in Sam's office at the paper's old address on Heather Street at 16th.

His office is typical of one whose hands are permanently stained with newsman's ink: mewspapers are piled everywhere, hibernating in corners and spilling over shelves; his desk is a clutter of news releases, clippings, more papers, photographs and the usual assortment of office supplies; there's hardly any surface desk to be seen. The office walls are lined with awards, plaques, posters, calendars and photographs.

Recipient of a Canada Centennial Medal and a Canada 125 Medal, Sam sits behind his desk, wearing his trademark grey pants, white shirt, tie and kippah. Mona has joined us from her own office, which is tucked away in a corner near the production/layout area.

So interconnected are the couple – both as husband and wife and as work colleagues for more than 35 years – that, when answering questions, one generally starts while the other finishes off the thought.... It is this sense of partnership and duality that has been a part of their lives together since the beginning. Asked how they cannot only live together but also work side-by-side in the same office for so many decades, the answer is simple. "He's my best friend," Mona explains. "And vice versa," Sam confirms. They share a look and a smile.

Beginnings

Sam was born in Winnipeg. He attended the University of Manitoba as pre-med student but stopped his studies at age 18 to join the Royal Canadian Navy. He served as a wireless telegrapher in Halifax and Esquimalt. After the war, he returned to his third year of pre-med studies.

In the fall of 1945, Mona Rich (born in Regina, Sask.) had just turned 16 and was starting first-year arts at U of M.

They were introduced by a mutual friend in January 1946. He asked her out to a university dance and the rest, as they say, is history.

The duo, notes Sam, were "fated to go into journalism" – thanks to a Jewish woman named Fanny Hoffer. The late Fanny, then a night editor at the Winnipeg Free Press, was residing with Mona's family, so she could live in a kosher home. That spring of 1946, Fanny asked Sam if he wanted a summer job as a cub reporter with the Free Press. He agreed.

Sam loved being a part of journalism so much that, when he was offered a full-time reporter position with the daily, he jumped at the opportunity, choosing not to continue towards a medical degree.

Meanwhile, Mona continued in her university studies, specializing in languages and Shakespeare. Later, she managed her sick father's fur store. On May 9, 1948, the couple married in Winnipeg – the same month that the press was trumpeting forth the founding of the new state of Israel.

It was shortly thereafter that the late Sam Berg, then a publisher of the Western Jewish News in Winnipeg, wooed Sam Kaplan to join his firm as editor. Though Jewish journalism had never been a consideration until then, Sam liked the idea of melding his journalism and his Jewishness. He accepted what he terms "the challenge," meeting it for the next five years....When the late Harold Margolis offered Sam the position of sales manager with Kromar Printing Co., Sam felt it was time for a change and accepted. It was another five-year liaison in which Sam learned sales and the printing business.

Occasionally, he indulged in his first love and wrote for Winnipeg's third Jewish paper, the Israelite Press, which published both an English and Yiddish section.

"Journalism was always in his blood," Mona explains. He agrees, explaining in three words why he left Kromar to return to a newspaper: "I missed journalism."
On the side, Sam started his own business, called the Bureau of Printing and Advertising and did public relations for local groups, including the United Jewish Appeal campaign. Mona worked as a freelance writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, Canadian Home Journal, CBC and various Jewish media.

Golden opportunity

Sam remained at theIsraelite Press until December 1959, when he was offered an answer to a dream – to take over as publisher of the Jewish Western Bulletin in Vancouver.... Sam met with the then-Jewish Community Council of Vancouver. Conditions laid out were simple: he wouldn't be paid a wage. If the paper made money, it was his to keep; the same went for all losses.

The late Lou Zimmerman, then executive director of the council, told Sam that, in exchange for having a regular publication, the council would offer the paper free rent and a monthly subsidy, the same conditions that had existed previously.
"We knew it was risky," Sam recalls, "but we said yes."... With their two young sons (Barry and Jonathan) and Mona's ailing mother in tow (she lived with them for 16 years), the Kaplans uprooted, to settle in Shaughnessy, so that their children could walk to Talmud Torah.

Milestones

July 1, 1960, marked an historical milestone for the JWB. That's when Sam took over officially, publishing a struggling paper then housed at the old Jewish community centre, at Oak and 11th.

Sam worked with a skeleton staff but soon called in Mona to come aboard in September temporarily – only until he could locate an assistant. It's taken her 35 years, she laughs, to leave her temporary job.

"I wasn't a journalist – I was a writer. Sam taught me everything." Sam smiles. "Mona was a better writer than I. She's got more talent, more feeling."

But the going was tough. "Those early years were difficult," Sam recalls. "They were horrible years," his wife adds. So horrible, in fact, that in order to meet salaries, production, mailing and printing costs, the Kaplans often couldn't cash their own paycheques.... But they didn't sink. Though they initially lost thousands of dollars pulling the paper out of its financial hole, through "hard work and know how," they gradually turned things around.... One of the Kaplans' most satisfying moments took place ... on Dec. 31, 1962, when they declined their community council subsidy and the Bulletin became an independent newspaper....

Advocacy journalism

Once the Jewish Western Bulletin became independent, the Kaplans began to fulfil their dream of advocacy journalism – using the paper to raise awareness on behalf of Jews worldwide and to emphasize the importance of Jewish education.

"We had lost six million in the Holocaust and Jews in different places in the world needed help," says Sam.... "We felt that never again could Jews be without a voice. The Jewish people needed a means of communication so that, if Jews were in danger, there would be a voice to raise awareness and cry for help."

They advocated for Jewish education, on behalf of Israel and for local Jewish causes and institutions. Among many appeals over the decades, they moved the community to help a young Israeli boy, son of a former Canadian, who needed a live transplant, and to assist a young Jewish woman who required a bone marrow transplant match.

Then came the struggle for Soviet Jewry. With weekly headlines, articles and a special editorial box called "Gulag Record," they spotlighted the plight of various refuseniks ... and asked the community to appeal for their freedom.

In fact, when asked later to recall their most memorable front page, the duo didn't hesitate to name their edition of Oct. 22, 1971, when Alexei Kosygin, then Russian prime minister, was visiting Vancouver. The front page was partially set in Russian type, with bold red lettering proclaiming: "Kosygin: Let our people go!" Below the type was a front-page editorial by Sam, entitled, "An open letter to the man who could become known as Kosygin the Great."... The Bulletin's main front-page story called on the community to come out for a midnight rally ... Hundreds assembled for the vigil ... more than 350 stayed all night.

Many causes followed, including advocacy for the plight of Syrian Jewry – and promoting Israel's survival throughout wars and years of terrorism.

For Israel's 25th anniversary (May 1973), when Sam was president of the Canadian Zionist Federation, the couple spearheaded the first and only Yom Ha'atzmaut parade in Vancouver history. Some 1,500 people, Jew and gentile, paraded through Vancouver streets that were lined with thousands of viewers.... In recent years, the Kaplans are probably best known for their passionate advocacy on behalf of Jonathan Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst. Pollard was imprisoned for life 10 years ago for passing classified information to Israel. "It's a classic case of anti-Semitism and injustice on a government level," says Sam adamantly....

Paper policy

In addition to their advocacy journalism, as important is the fact that there were some stories and issues that the Kaplans did not publish. Mona revealed, for example, that, like many Jewish media, the paper held back stories when Ethiopian Jews were being secretly airlifted out to Israel. It was only once they were safe, that the news broke.... In some cases, the duo didn't publish sensational facts or unedifying issues that had the potential to cause great personal stress or harm to individuals or institutions here and in Israel.... As Orthodox Jews, the Kaplans are the first to acknowledge that their religious outlook has played a role in the Bulletin's style and content.... They acknowledge that their right-wing political views have also shaped the paper, but Mona shudders: "I hate labels. Politically," she says, "the paper has always been pro-Israel and has always been weighted towards the bottom line of the survival of Judaism and Jews. If that's being right wing, then so be it."...

Reflections

Now, 35 years later, what do they consider as their greatest accomplishment? Mona doesn't hesitate: "In my view, it's having been able to help other Jews through the paper, through advocacy journalism."

What about their greatest disappointment? The "internecine strife between Jew and Jew," they agree. "There's so much misunderstanding between Jew and Jew. And there's so much apathy and indifference. Not enough people respond or place enough importance on helping other Jews in the world," says Sam.

Mona looks over to Sam. He smiles at her and adds: "Assimilation. We're losing a lot of Jews. We're disappointed that...."

Mona picks up on his words: " ... that we have not been able to connect with or attract enough younger Jews to care."

But they tried. As a newspaper whose "raison d'être is the survival of the Jewish people," the Kaplans offered free personal ads and subscriptions to Jewish singles, as well as free subscriptions to Louis Brier Home residents and many indigent people....

If they had a magic wand, what would they change or do differently? For Mona, it would have been to be able to print larger editions, "so that we could have given much more coverage of what was happening in the Jewish world and in Jewish education."

Sam nods in agreement. "Jewish education and the Jewish home are the two pillars of Jewish survival."... Reflecting on how they would both like to be remembered ... Sam reflects on the concept that even one small ripple has many potentially larger consequences. "I hope," he says quietly, "that we made a small ripple in the life of Am Yisrael – for good."...

Dash-three-zero-dash.

^TOP