Book launch for Memories

Arash Ben Shaul

On March 10, the Jewish Community Centre hosted the formal launch of Memories and Reflections, a collection of stories, essays and poems authored by Jewish seniors of Vancouver. At the event were roughly 30 community members, JCC staff and contributing writers. Memories and Reflections contains 18 short works ranging in content and format.

Glen Phillips, the publisher and one of the authors featured in the book, opened the event with a short talk, noting that most of the contributors were neither professional writers nor published authors.

"The Internet has really democratized information because it allows people, who could not have normally told their stories, to express themselves," said Phillips. "We gathered all the material, put it on the Internet, and found a printing company to publish the stories that would otherwise have gone untold."

Dan Propp, a retired school teacher, first conceived of the idea of turning the vast collection of unwritten stories of ordinary community members into a book about four years ago.

"There are so many stories to tell by so many ordinary people in the community who are not necessarily writers," said Propp. "We wanted to give them a chance to do so."

Propp, who has already written two books about his life, formed a club known as the Vancouver Jewish Writer's Group in 2004. Club members met at the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library once a week to share their stories and to help each other turn the oral stories into the written word. Memories and Reflections is the result of the group's collaboration.

After Propp's remarks, Elizabeth Stern, who survived several years of prison and labor camps in Siberia, took the stage. "I am a product of the 20th century, when the greatest political and social changes, and the most dreadful events of history took place," she said. "I am a Holocaust survivor, not Hitler's but Stalin's."

Stern left her native Romania for the Soviet Union to flee the Holocaust, but found herself in no better circumstances in the Soviet Union. She was sent to Siberia for 12 years, and only after Stalin's death did she manage to leave the Soviet Union and migrate to Canada. "I have so much to tell, so much to write about," she continued, "and it's a privilege to work with the Jewish Writer's Group because it allows me to do that."

Stern read excerpts from one of her poems in the book titled "Curriculum Vitae." The conclusion of her poem perfectly summed up the purpose of the whole book: "I came to Canada, crossed the ocean, / Seeking refuge and peace / To find freedom of the press, / Because what's the use of language / With ideas you can't express."

Other authors who read selections from their writings were Sally Rogow, Bernardo Berdichewsky, Miriam Joy and Hymie Joy. Berdichewsky, a retired professor of anthrology who taught at the University of Victoria and SFU, told the audience about his newly published book, Latin America's Integration into Canadian Society in B.C. Berdichewsky, who is a native of Chile, also read excerpts from his essay "Cultural Pluralism in Canada" which deals with the history of Jewish integration in Canada.

After the authors' readings, the audience took time to remember the humorist, writer and photographer Ben Katz, who passed away earlier this year. Katz was one of the first members of the Vancouver Jewish Writer's Club. His work is included in Memories and Reflections, and the book is dedicated to him for the pivotal role he played in making its publication a reality.

The event concluded with an open dialogue between the authors and the audience, as the words of author Miriam Joy's poem "My Wish for You" echoed in the gathering: "May your cares be few / May your joys never cease / May you live in harmony / Beauty and peace."

Arash Ben Shaul is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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