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Nov. 18, 2005
Maplecrest on Nov. 11
Honoree fought the Nazis on the eastern front.
PAT JOHNSON
On Remembrance Day, last Friday, the residents of Maplecrest seniors
housing in Kitsilano gathered in the dining hall. The building,
operated by a wing of the Royal Canadian Legion's traditionally
Jewish Shalom Branch, marked the occasion with a special ceremony
honoring a Second World War veteran.
But it wasn't a veteran of the Canadian armed forces that the residents
gathered to fête, but someone who had fought the Nazis from
the other side - the eastern front - as a member of the Soviet military.
Yosyp Kabanovsky attended the informal noon ceremony bedecked with
the recognitions of a grateful country.
At age 17, Kabanovsky entered the USSR's military flight academy
and, a year later, in 1944, was sent to the front as a long-range
bombing navigator. In the final year of the war, Kabanovsky carried
out 30 bombing missions against the Nazis. He was decorated with
the Order of the Red Star and a chest full of other medals and commendations.
Several years ago, at age 70, Kabanovsky migrated to Vancouver,
beginning his life's latest adventure without knowing a word of
English.
Last week's Remembrance Day ceremony was a quiet affair, but it
provided visitors with a window into Maplecrest, which is a Jewish
community institution often overlooked or forgotten by others in
the Jewish community. Located at Sixth Avenue and Maple, in a quiet,
leafy Kitsilano block, Maplecrest is home to 120 residents in 102
suites.
Completed in 1976 by the Shalom 178 Building Society, it was originally
intended as a seniors housing complex. Veterans were welcome, but
military service was not a prerequisite to moving in. Neither was
being Jewish.
"It is a really multicultural building," said Alan Tapper,
a past president of the organization who emceed the afternoon event.
Alan Levine, the president of Shalom Branch, was laying a wreath
at the Cenotaph in White Rock on Remembrance Day and so was unable
to attend the Maplecrest ceremony.
About one-third of Maplecrest's residents may be Jewish but, although
the organization that runs the building is primarily Jewish, Maplecrest
has always been a non-sectarian home. It has also opened its doors
to people other than seniors.
"It was for seniors, but we have all different types of people
here now, from 55 and also handicapped people," said Tapper.
The money that originally built Maplecrest was provided by three
levels of government, not by the Shalom Branch itself. In 2003,
the governance structure was altered, to allow equal representation
on the board between the Jewish Nonprofit Housing Association and
the Royal Canadian Legion.
George Minuk, another past president of the organization, said the
building has reached an age when it needs an influx of cash.
"It's a little different now than it used to be," Minuk
said of the structure, which is primarily brick and doesn't show
the wear like some local buildings its age. But the apartments need
upgrading.
"Some of the things need repairs," said Minuk. "The
building is into its 27th year."
"Now you need new cupboards, new fridges, everything,"
Tapper said. "A lot of things have got to be done and we want
to make it as good as possible for people living here.... A lot
of maintenance has got to be done, a lot of renovation work, and
we're very limited for cash."
The Earl Lohn Foundation generously gave $25,000 for upgrades, Tapper
said, but the renovations that the management foresees are anticipated
to cost about $1 million.
After three decades as a lonely outpost of the Jewish community
overlooking Kits Beach, Maplecrest recently got a new neighbor,
in the form of the Jewish Family Service Agency, which has just
moved into the neighborhood three blocks up on Broadway.
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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