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March 30, 2007
A whole century of Zionism
Ben Dayson is honored for lifetime of supporting Jewish causes.
PAT JOHNSON
When Ben Dayson rises to be acknowledged as this year's honoree
at the Jewish National Fund's annual Negev Dinner, it won't be for
the first time.
In 1990, Dayson and his beloved wife Esther, z'l, were similarly
honored for their lifetimes' contribution to building the Jewish
state. When one lives for a century and fills it with selfless acts
of tzedekah, honors like this one are not uncommon. But being honored
by the agency that has played such a profound role in the creation
and continued viability of the Jewish state holds a particular resonance
for Dayson, whose life story exemplifies the familiar journey from
poor beginnings, through tireless labor, to New World success, community
leadership and philanthropy.
"We – I and my father and my family – prayed for
2,000 years to get a little space for the Jewish people," Dayson
said in a recent interview with the Independent. "The
JNF is important to me and to my family because we feel that we
are living in a beautiful country called Canada and we feel most
Jewish people should have a country [as beautiful]."
Everything he does and every honor he receives is shared in his
heart with Esther, to whom he refers as "my beautiful wife."
Their shared story is one of remarkable coincidence and continuous
activism.
Dayson's early life was one of hardship. He was born Boruch Dizik,
in the Ukrainian village of Svatatroiske, near Odessa, in 1907.
Svatatroiske had about 250-300 Jewish families – making up
about half the population. Young Ben attended one of the two shuls
every week and went to cheder daily after public school. Though
poor and struggling to survive, the family were Zionists, a sign
of social awareness that foreshadowed Dayson's later-life philanthropy
and community leadership. Pictures of Theodor Herzl were among the
family's possessions.
Dayson's father, a flour miller, died of typhus shortly after the
1917 Russian Revolution and young Ben watched as his uncle was slain
by Jew-haters on horseback.
Along with other boys in the village, the appeal of the New World
captured Boruch Dizik. To prepare Ben for his new life, his mother
sold almost every article of furniture and clothing. A cousin from
Svatatroiske had migrated to the golden medina of Kamsack, Sask.,
and, in 1926, leaving his mother, whom he would never see again,
and his sister, whom he would not see for another 30 years, Ben
began his journey. From his village, he made his way to Rotterdam,
where he worked for a year to earn his passage, then travelled eight
days at sea to Halifax, where he boarded the train to Canada's pioneering
prairie. At stops in Montreal and Winnipeg, representatives of the
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee boarded the train to provide
the throngs of Jewish travellers with food to sustain them.
Upon his arrival in Saskatchewan, Dayson's ingenuity and resolve
served him well. The opportunities for an enthusiastic immigrant
were not lost on him as he helped farmers bring in the harvest in
season and worked in local stores in the off-season. Learning English
from reading the labels on canned goods, it was not long before
Dayson was selling provisions to the townsfolk in several small
prairie towns. He managed to set aside the time and money to make
a trip to the West Coast. Here, he met and was immediately infatuated
with a young Esther Nemetz. The two had crossed paths before. Esther
and Ben both came from the same village in the Old Country and,
as Dayson says now, everyone there knew everyone else. Married in
a large formal wedding at the Jewish Community Centre in Vancouver
in 1936, the newlyweds relocated to Viscount, Sask., where Ben had
purchased a general store. With two small children, Philip and,
five years later, Shirley, they happily lived there for 13 years,
becoming pillars of the small community and active in all organizations.
Esther was Worthy Grand Matron of the Order of the Eastern Star,
sewing dolls and packaging clothing, blankets and food for the war
effort. Dayson would occasionally travel the short distance to Humboldt
to attend meetings of the Histadrut, the Jewish trade union movement
that would play a founding role in the 1948 creation of the Jewish
state.
Dayson recalls that he never experienced anti-Semitism on the Prairies
– except for one time, after the screening of the film King
of Kings – a Cecil B. de Mille movie that elicited an emotional
response. That night, windows in Dayson's shop were smashed.
Dayson eventually purchased a butcher shop in Saskatoon – he
wasn't a meat-cutter, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one.
However, a year later, in 1949, with Esther yearning for her large
family back home, they moved to Vancouver and immediately immersed
themselves in various causes, joining the Schara Tzedeck the day
they arrived. Together, the Daysons became leaders in the Jewish
community – B'nai Brith, Camp Miriam, Youth Aliyah, Hadassah
and the JNF.
After a short stint in the retail business in Marpole, Ben moved
into apartment construction and property development as Vancouver
boomed in the 1950s and '60s.
As the family succeeded, the Daysons gave back to their community.
The Jewish Family Service Agency, the Jewish Community Centre of
Greater Vancouver, Congregation Schara Tzedeck, the Louis Brier
Home and Hospital, the Richmond Hospital, the Richmond Public Library
and the Vancouver General Hospital Prostate Centre have been among
the beneficiaries of the Dayson family's philanthropy. One of the
family's priorities has been the Jewish National Fund, their support
for which is being recognized by this year's annual Negev Dinner
on April 29.
"The JNF is important to me because our people are entitled
now to a place they call Yisrael," Dayson told the Independent
recently in the memento-filled study of his Kerrisdale home. A poster
of Herzl, given to him by his brother-in-law David Nemetz, a founder
of Canadian Zionism, looks down from the wall, as it did a century
ago in Dayson's first home. Opposite the Zionist idealist is a framed
photo of an ambulance the Daysons donated to the Magen David Adom.
Plaques and trophies recognizing the contributions of Ben and Esther
Dayson to Jewish and other agencies fill the shelves of the neatly
arranged office. Dayson, who seems unable to sit still, leaps from
his chair to share mementos and clippings from his remarkable life.
A century of Zionist activism is undiminished by current conflicts
in the Middle East. Through Dayson's life, he has seen Herzl's dream
become reality – followed by 60 years of unanticipated challenges
to the legitimacy and security of Israel. But the plaintive hope
of the early Zionists rings no less true for Dayson today.
"People should acknowledge that we have a right to live and
mix with all the people in the world," Dayson said.
For more information or for tickets to the Negev Dinner, contact
the Jewish National Fund at 604-257-5155.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, director of development
and communications for Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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