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May 14, 2004
JNF fetes Marie Doduck
Negev Dinner includes a talk on Israel's challenges.
JANNETTE EDMONDS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
An emotional Marie Doduck, this year's honoree at the Jewish National
Fund of Canada's Negev Dinner, took the microphone after all the
tributes were given. Usually she is the one organizing such events,
now she was on the receiving end.
"This is the hardest job for me," said Doduck, "to
have my life opened up in public like this.... But you have brought
comfort to that 12-year-old girl who arrived here over 50 years
ago. My cup runneth over."
It was an evening filled with tributes to a woman who arrived in
Vancouver an orphan of the Holocaust. From her painful beginnings,
she moved on to a life of volunteer work and involvement in the
community. She gave her time to the Red Cross, Vancouver Talmud
Torah, the Woodlands school for special needs children and the Jericho
School for the Hearing Impaired. She is a life member of Hadassah-WIZO
and a founding member of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.
She was president of ORT and has worked for the JNF since the inception
of the state of Israel. And the list goes on.
Doduck was quick to turn the attention from herself. Instead, she
spoke about the Marie Doduck Education Wing at the Asper Family
Community Action Centre in Ofaqim, Israel.
"This wing represents the best we can offer," she exclaimed.
"And it is a privilege to be able to help. Proceeds from this
dinner will go to the function of several classrooms, to equip them
with computers and furniture and pay teachers' salaries.
"This circle of family and friends represents my life,"
she continued. "And together we have the power to make a difference.
Tonight you have met the challenge. It is not my [Doduck] wing.
It is our wing!"
On hand to emcee for the evening was good friend and fellow founder
of the Holocaust Education Centre Dr. Robert Krell.
"Your experience will ultimately not depress, but inspire,"
he told Doduck, "not diminish but enhance, not hurt but heal
the hearts and minds of those gathered here to honor you. Rather
than give in to despair, you grasped onto life with all your energy."
Giving the evening's main tribute, he told of her "unfailing
good judgment in overcoming obstacles to the creation of the Holocaust
Education Centre" and how "she gave of her story."
"I have heard her speak to children [about the Holocaust] and
she finds words to describe the indescribable," he said. "She
speaks of survival like a coat that she can never take off. Children
are riveted by her account and the manner in which it is offered."
In introducing his wife to the podium, Sid Doduck said, "tonight
she is your honoree, but I must say she has been my honoree for
the last 50 years."
No Jewish National Fund event would be complete without an update
about Israel. This was provided by Gideon Meir, deputy director
for public affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. He
discussed the many challenges in presenting the truth about Israel
to the world and called the media a third component in the conflict.
"The camera is used as a weapon," he said, as in what
was reported from Jenin, and that Israel's public relations is a
"strategic component to Israel's national security."
"What we see in the media is not always right," he said.
"The challenge to present the truth lies in a combination of
things, the [one-sided] criticism of the government of Israel ...
and the way the foreign press, especially the European press, presents
the situation in Israel. We are trying to present Israel much better,
but a picture is worth a thousand words ... and tanks are not photogenic.
"If our choice is to have security ... or a better image, we
will always choose security," he announced.
Meir spoke about the perception of the humanitarian hardship placed
on Palestinians, and remarked "this is true, but you have to
put this in context." If there were no terrorists blowing themselves
up and killing Israelis, he said, there would be no need for cumbersome
roadblocks and the disruption of livelihoods.
Also affecting Israel's image is the growing anti-Semitism of Europe,
he added, where there is "an erosion of collective memory"
and a temptation to think of Jews as oppressors, thus absolving
most Europeans of the guilt of history. There is also the reality
of Israel's democracy, which can be used against it.
"In Israel, the media has access to whatever they want and
can report on whatever they want," said Meir. "On the
Palestinian side, they are only allowed to show what the [leaders]
want them to show.... Their credibility is never questioned."
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