Youth full of wisdom and humor

CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Almost every room at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC) was filled to overflowing March 11, as the contestants of the 16th Annual Public Speaking Contest were joined by family, event organizers, volunteers and others, in what was a thought-provoking and energizing community event.

Put on by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and its Israel affairs department, approximately 120 children from grades 4 to 7 spoke on topics ranging from those that regularly make news headlines to communal concerns and more personal reflections. There were 11 subjects from which participants could choose, including Discuss in reference to Israel the idea that every Jew is responsible for each other; Is building a security fence a good plan for Israel?; Your Hebrew name and its significance; and What famous Israeli/Jew has inspired you?

The various grade levels competed in rooms all around the JCC. Most grades were divided into two because of the sheer volume of children competing. There was a moderator and two judges for each group and winners were selected from each group. The evening concluded with everyone coming together in the Wosk Auditorium for some constructive advice on public speaking from two of the judges, a series of trophy presentations and the speeches of the award-winners. The auditorium was standing room only and the excitement was palpable – exploding into screams of joy from fellow students when each winner was announced.

Event chair Larry Barzelai and Yair Tabenkin and Gali Bar, both from Federation's Israel affairs department, ran a well-organized evening. This was truly a community effort and the participants – students, organizers, judges, moderators and award presenters – are too numerous to mention individually.

While several trophies were given out, there were seven first-prize winners. What follows are some very brief excerpts from their speeches.

My Hebrew name is Shmuayl. The name Shmuayl is a very old name. In the 11th century BCE, the prophet and judge Samuel or Shmuayl made Saul the first king. Since he was a prophet and a judge, he must have been a very smart person just like me.

Shmuayl was also my great-grandfathers' names on both sides of my family and I am named after them. My mother's grandfather was very mischievous in school. He once took hot candle wax and stuck his old teacher's beard to the table with it. He was always in trouble. They tell me I am just like him. My father's grandfather used to own a deli and loved to cook and eat. My father says he made the best sandwiches in the world. They tell me I am just like him, too, but I don't believe that because I can't cook.

Sammy Landa, Grade 4A, VTT

Is building a security fence a good plan for Israel? Yes, because it will stop the murders by terrorists. Yes, because the Israeli public overwhelmingly supports the fence. Yes, because protecting lives is ultimately more important than preserving freedoms.

Is building a security fence a good plan for Israel? No, because this fence cuts off hundreds of Palestinians from their families, their land, social services, water resources, schools and places of work. No, because this fence isn't always a fence. In some places it is eight meters or 25 feet high. No, because Jews have spent much of our history inside walls, in ghettos forced on us by others.
Is building a security fence a good plan for Israel? Yes and no. I'm sitting on the fence for this one.

Sam Dunner, Grade 4B, VTT

I would like to talk about the Holocaust: what happened, what can be learned and could it happen again.

FRANCE: 395 physical acts of violence were recorded in a two-month period, ranging from arson against synagogues to attacks on youth.

ITALY: 100 per cent rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents over a one-year period. Graffiti reading "Burn the Jews" was written on schools. A Jewish lawyer was hit with a club on his head and shoulders by two thugs.

UK: four synagogues were desecrated. A boy wearing a shirt with a Star of David was attacked. There were 20 incidents in five months that could have caused loss of life.

We need to ask, "Could this happen again?" Ladies and gentlemen, fellow contestants and honorable judges, all of the examples I have just given have happened in the last few years.

Yes, it could happen again. It is important to be aware of what is happening in the world and step in and help. I hope that we will have the courage to do so.

Zev Dayan, Grade 5A, VTT

Have you ever wondered about the Hebrew language? Why is it so important to us?

It's hard to believe that barely 100 years ago, practically nobody spoke any Hebrew. That was thousands of years after the Bible. Back then, all the Jews spoke it. But after the Bible, people just didn't want to speak Hebrew any more.
Then Eliezer Ben Yehudah came along. He was the person to reinvent it, recreate it and bring it back to life.

[Hebrew is] the Jewish people's language, nobody else's. That's what makes it so special to us. And think about Israel. When you go there, what language is everybody using?

Hebrew is Israel's language, one of the most special things that we have, a real language, all of our own.

Eleanor Milman, Grade 5B, VTT

[Where] did my first name – Doron – come from? One day I decided to ask my mom's friend Uli, because I know she was involved with choosing my name. This is the story she told me.

Uli met my mother on a kibbutz in Israel when they were both 18 years old, and visiting Israel. However, unlike my mother, Uli was a German and a gentile.
Uli told me how, when she first came to the kibbutz, she couldn't speak Hebrew or English, so the kibbutz secretary placed her with a family who spoke German. Big mistake. The parents in this family had survived the Holocaust and had no love for Germany, her language or her people. They refused to speak to Uli and they simply ignored her.

Then one day their only son came home on leave from the Israeli army. He came to Uli's rescue. He became her good friend and insisted that his parents got to know her. The son's name? You guessed it. Doron, which means a gift from God.

On Oct. 6, 1973, the Yom Kippur War broke out. Doron was one of the first soldiers to get killed.

Doran Satanov, Grade 6A, RJDS

My topic tonight is "Why my mom won't let me go out on Friday nights." About a month ago there was a Valentine's dance at the Steveston Community Centre. I really wanted to go. When I found out about the dance, I didn't know it was on a Friday night. When I did find out, I tried to hide it from my mom until the last second so I could go. But you know moms, always talking to each other, finding out what's for homework so you always do everything. Sure enough, she found out that it was a Friday night. I begged her to go for almost a week, but still she said, "It's Shabbat and we are Jewish so you can't go." Then she gave me this lecture four days before the dance. It was something about Jewish people sticking together or something (I didn't really listen too well). I was mad at my mom for a while for not letting me go.

In the end, I realized that she was right, that we have such a special religion, that I should be proud of being Jewish. I also love being with my family on Shabbat.
The day of the dance when my friends asked if I as going, I was proud to say "No, I am not because it is Shabbat and my family and I celebrate Shabbat."

Josh Stiller, Grade 6B, RJDS

Many people believe that the Diaspora Jews are responsible for the Israeli Jews or that the Israeli Jews are responsible for the Diaspora Jews. But we are all responsible for each other. What would the Israeli Jews do without our tzedakah and what would we do without the Israeli army's protection? You see, we might not survive without each other.

The Israeli army has been a source of pride for Jews around the world from the time that it was an underground movement in Palestine. Its existence is especially meaningful to Holocaust survivors who always felt that they might have had a chance to defend themselves if only they had the arms to do so. The Israeli army has shown that it is there not only for the protection of Israelis, but also for the protection of Jews everywhere. Two examples of this are Operation Magic Carpet, where the Israelis flew to Yemen and rescued all the Jews from there, and the Entebbe raid where the Israelis got in quickly and saved both Israeli and Diaspora Jews with only one casualty.

Jeffrey Shafran, Grade 7, VTT

What follows is a summary of the winning Hebrew speech:

My grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, made aliyah 55 years ago. Since then, she hasn't travelled by train because of her memories of the Holocaust. My mother is anxious about travelling because of terrorist attacks. One day I heard my grandmother say, "If after so many years of living in our own state, my daughter and grandchildren are afraid of travelling by bus and by train, for me, it's as if it's the beginning of another Holocaust."

I started to think, "Is it really possible for another Holocaust to happen in another way?" Are we paying attention to what is happening in the world? There was hatred in Rwanda. In three months, one million people were slaughtered. In North Korea, they sent entire families to concentration camps.

In a world where there is a lot of hate and anti-Semitism, it would be easy to create the environment for another Holocaust. And who would care if there were another Holocaust? In the world today most people only think about themselves. One million Muslims live surrounding eretz Israel with a single purpose: They do not want there to be any Jews in Israel or in the world.

I think that my grandmother is correct. If we do not have unity of belief and purpose, hate will return.

Yael Mansour, Grade 6 Hebrew, RJDS

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