Gregor Craigie, host of CBC Radio One’s On the Island, interviews Eleanor Wachtel at Congregation Emanu-El on Sept. 15, at 2 p.m., about her career helming the CBC’s premier literary program, Writers & Company. During her 33-year tenure with the show, Wachtel spoke with a Who’s Who of authors, including Saul Bellow, Michael Ondaatje, Mordecai Richler, John le Carré and Kazuo Ishiguro.
“[Eleanor’s] sense of respect, her tact, her utter lack of obsequiousness . . . and her uncanny ability to ask difficult questions have endeared her to readers and listeners,” said Canadian writer Carol Shields, whose book, The Stone Diaries, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1995.
Craigie is both an author and an expert interviewer in his own right. A journalist for more than 25 years, his most recent book, Our Crumbling Foundation, which examines Canada’s housing crisis, is a national bestseller.
The event is part of Emanu-El’s 160th anniversary celebrations, and is a fundraiser for the synagogue, which is undergoing structural and other renovations. Tickets ($36) can be purchased at ticketowl.io/cevbc.
Left to right: Congregation Emanu-El president Ilana Stanger-Ross, MLA Grace Lore, Prof. Richard Kool, Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto, Emanu El’s Rabbi Harry Brechner, MP Laura Collins and MLA Lana Popham on Aug. 18 at the shul’s 160th birthday party. (photo posted on Facebook by Lana Popham)
Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El, the oldest synagogue on the West Coast and the oldest synagogue still in continuous use in Canada, has been commemorating its 160th anniversary with various events this summer, including an evening concert and an afternoon of poetry, music and food.
On Aug. 15, Tehila Nini Goldstein, a soprano based in Berlin, performed Ladino, Yiddish, Spanish, Hebrew and Yemeni songs, accompanied by Robert Holliston of the Pacific Opera Victoria and the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Goldstein has won the Tel Aviv Music Academy Singing Competition, received a scholarship from the America Israel Cultural Foundation and taken home a prize in the Liederkranz Foundation Competition in New York.
On Aug. 18, municipal, provincial and federal politicians, as well as representatives from several religious groups, attended an anniversary ceremony, emceed by Richard Kool, a professor of environment and sustainability at Royal Roads University.
On Aug. 15, Tehila Nini Goldstein performed songs in multiple languages, accompanied by Robert Holliston. The event was part of Congregation Emanu-El’s 160th anniversary celebrations. (photo by Penny Tennenhouse)
The events coincided with a campaign, still underway, by the Conservative shul on the corner of Blanshard and Pandora “to restore, preserve and revitalize” the synagogue. The Romanesque Revival building, a National Historic site, is having work done on both its exterior and interior.
Restoration began this spring, with repairs to the brick outside of the building to ensure structural integrity. Interior restorations include repairing water damage and wall cracks; painting the sanctuary; replacing lighting, smoke detectors, sound and security systems; and refinishing flooring and external doors. Regarding security, Emanu-El plans to set up CCTV cameras, with other systems to improve preparedness.
In August, the congregation held a general meeting at which a motion to increase the complete restoration budget to $1.5 million easily passed, with no objections and one abstention. According to the shul, the meeting filled four Zoom screens, with some members tuning in from Nova Scotia, staying up well past midnight in the Atlantic time zone.
Scores of individuals and families have contributed to the architectural revitalization project. The synagogue offers the opportunity to “buy a brick” with a minimum donation of $54. The Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation, the Victoria City Heritage Trust and the Jewish Federation of Victoria & Vancouver Island are among the organizations supporting the project.
Jews first started arriving in Victoria in sizable numbers in the 1850s, with the majority traveling from San Francisco. During this era of prospectors, fur traders and steamships, those looking for gold needed to stop in Victoria, the provincial capital, for a mining licence, before moving onto the places where gold was discovered on the mainland.
The first Jews in town came with the prospectors, supplying mining camps with food, clothing, household goods and tools. By the end of the 1850s, roughly 200 Jews were living in Victoria and, by 1860, the Victoria Hebrew Benevolent Society, the first Jewish organization in Western Canada, purchased a burial site, which still serves the community to this day.
The congregation came into being in 1862, when community members purchased the synagogue’s present site, and a cornerstone-laying ceremony, attended by the many local luminaries of the time, took place on June 2, 1863. The building was designed by the first professional architect in Victoria, John Wright.
Over the course of Emanu-El’s existence, there have been some leaner times, particularly in the mid-part of the previous century, as Vancouver became the dominant provincial city. In the 1940s, with only a handful of paid-up families, the synagogue was in bad shape. To prevent the building from being condemned, its brick exterior was covered with stucco, its windows were blocked and a false ceiling was installed to help with heating.
In 1978, a group of volunteers decided to bring the synagogue back to its original condition, which cost, at that time, some $370,000, much of it coming from the Jewish community. Completed in 1982, the restoration was celebrated in a way similar to the original dedication in 1863, with people from many cultures coming together to honour the occasion.
In 2003, as the community continued to expand, Congregation Emanu-El added more space to host social and cultural activities. In 2013, the synagogue had its 150th birthday with musical and theatrical events, lectures, an auction, and a gala dinner at the Empress Hotel. There was also a reenactment of the original cornerstone-laying ceremony, including a parade. Today, the synagogue grows still, with hundreds of members of all ages.
On Sept. 15, at 2 p.m., Emanu-El will be the setting for a conversation between Eleanor Wachtel, the writer and broadcaster most known for hosting Writers & Company on CBC Radio One, and Gregor Craigie, who leads the On the Island morning show for CBC in Victoria.
Reflecting on the long history of the synagogue, this year’s b’nai mitzvah class at Congregation Emanu-El wrote: “When you come in the doors, you feel different from how you feel outside. There’s an ancient and respectful vibe here. That’s the sort of feeling we get in this building; we want to honour that age.”
Event co-chairs Lee Simpson, left, and Helen Pinsky. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Celebration and admiration were the overriding emotions Sept. 5 at the Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation’s first community social event since the pandemic.
The festive occasion, which took place at Heritage Hall on Main Street, brought together supporters of the foundation and highlighted five individuals who have made profound contributions to the community. The question each was asked was “How do you do it?”
Emceed by Ayelet Cohen Weil, executive director of Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation, and hosted by co-chairs Helen Pinsky and Lee Simpson, the evening featured plenty of shmoozing over a kosher buffet.
Pinsky wandered the room, posing questions to individuals who have made a range of contributions to philanthropic life, beginning with Gary Averbach, who raised $600,000 for cancer research by walking from Calgary to Vancouver in weather that ranged from snow and slush to 40 degrees Celsius. His answer to the question “How did you do it?” was straightforward.
“One step at a time,” he said.
Gary Averbach (photo by Pat Johnson)
Averbach walks every day, and it struck him that he could string a lot of days together and make a major trudge across two provinces to raise money for a good cause. When a beloved cousin was diagnosed with cancer, Averbach took the opportunity to do good. His advice to people about getting involved in charitable causes was equally frank.
“I don’t know anybody who gets involved who hates it,” he said, insisting this is true even when the task at hand is something one doesn’t think they like.
“I never really enjoyed fundraising but apparently I was good at it,” he said. “It was always easier for me to write a cheque rather than ask for it. But I enjoyed the camaraderie, being with people, allegiances that were the same as mine. It was one of the most enjoyable periods of my life.”
He deflected the idea that his fundraising walk was selfless.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t enjoyed it, so it was a really selfish thing,” he said.
Marie Doduck (photo by Pat Johnson)
Marie Doduck, who published A Childhood Unspoken, her memoir of being a child survivor of the Holocaust and the life she made in Canada, was asked how she did it.
“It took me 40 years to write this book,” she said. “I’ve been fighting antisemitism my whole life. Since I came to Canada as a child, antisemitism was here. Survival is something survivors do. We have no other choice, so we do it.”
Since the book was released, as part of the Azrieli Foundation Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program, Doduck has been traveling extensively speaking about the book, her life and the lessons to be learned from her experiences.
“The book is still in demand,” she said. “It’s coming out in French. [Doduck’s first language]. And the most surprised person alive is me. Why are people reading my book when it was a personal thing to do for my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren?”
She called her decades of community volunteering, “a love affair” and acknowledged that, like Averbach, there are parts she doesn’t enjoy but she does them because she can.
“Fundraising makes me ill, but I’m very good at it,” she said.
Yvette Porte said she does what she does because she is inspired by the examples of others.
Yvette Porte (photo by Pat Johnson)
“I feel that I get my inspiration from all the people I’ve met, the people who have come before me,” she said. “My mom always wanted to learn. Just before she passed away, a month before, she said, ‘I think I want to learn how to play mah jongg now.’ She was so interested in everything that went on around her.
“My dad, who believed family was the most important thing in the world, that we always had to stick together and support each other – I learned that from him. My kids, they always learned about giving, about supporting the community…. It’s inspiring to be with everyone and I hope to pass on an example of supporting your community and supporting your family to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
Sylvia Cristall spoke of the lesson she gained from her family growing up in Winnipeg.
“I couldn’t afford a lot growing up, but whatever we had, my dad said, even if you have $10, $5, you give it if you can,” she shared. “When you get older and you’re earning money, every bit counts. That’s how I grew up.”
Sylvia Cristall (photo by Pat Johnson)
After moving to Los Angeles and then meeting and marrying Lorne Cristall, the couple started a family in Vancouver. A newcomer to the city, Sylvia asked Lorne as they were driving by 41st and Oak what that building was. He told her it was the Louis Brier Home and Hospital and that they do superb work.
“That was when we were very young,” she recalled, “and he had this feeling for the elderly. He always did. I knew that one day he would be doing something for it.” And he did. The late Lorne Cristall served as president of the Louis Brier, as well as of Vancouver Talmud Torah elementary school and Congregation Beth Israel. She is especially proud, she said, that her children have followed in their parents’ philanthropic footsteps.
Ken Levitt, the former chief executive officer of the Louis Brier and a current director on the board of the Weinberg Residence, was the last one to whom the question “How do you do it?” was posed.
“I wanted to make a difference,” he said. Levitt spoke of his earlier career, which was a two-decade stint in child welfare.
Ken Levitt (photo by Pat Johnson)
“I loved it,” said Levitt. “I worked my way from a protective worker to a senior manager.”
When he was looking for a change, he considered becoming the children’s guardian for southern Alberta but the other opportunity that presented itself was at the Louis Brier. “I fell in love with Louis Brier,” he said.
“I folded laundry and I stacked dishes for the dishwasher,” he recalled. “I got to know our residents – probably hundreds, maybe thousands, that I got to know. People who are Holocaust survivors, doctors and lawyers, people who were janitors, every walk of life. Everyone had a special story to tell because they were all special.”
And, he added: “We had a balanced budget for 16 years.”
Cohen Weil welcomed the audience, explaining that the event was a thank you to donors who have made the organization’s successes possible. While the evening was celebratory, she took a moment to recognize the pain the community has experienced since the Oct. 7 attacks and credited “our peculiar resilience as a people,” Jewish positivity, hope and compassion.
“This evening was to say thank you,” she said. “We all hope our lives will be long and independent. However, for those of us who are not so fortunate in that regard, the Louis Brier is there. We continually strive to be a better, more caring and more compassionate place for those who live here.”
The event also featured video greetings from Dr. David Keselman, CEO of the Louis Brier and the Weinberg, who was out of town, and a video featuring residents evoked the spirit of the home.
Harry Lipetz, president of the Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation, thanked the sponsors, who ensured that no foundation funds were expended for the gathering. These included Cristall Group Investments and the Cristall family, ZLC Financial Group, Porte Communities, the Simpson family, the Marsid Family Foundation, and WestCana Services, which is the culinary provider to the Brier.
The co-chairs, Pinsky and Simpson, spoke emotionally of the contributions the Louis Brier makes to the lives of elders in the community.
Peach-blueberry cake à la Ina Garten, made by the Accidental Balabusta. (photo by Shelley Civkin)
With Rosh Hashanah right around the corner, I’m already thinking of honey cake … but not honey cake. Wanting to ring in the new year with something sweet but not traditional, I found a recipe that might just fit the bill perfectly. Looking around the stores, there is still lots of fresh fruit to be had and, in a final hurray to summer, I decided to indulge in the juicy sweetness of peaches and local blueberries. Add in a few dozen other ingredients and, voila, I produced a cake that my husband declared worthy of a Balabusta column.
Reading the recipe I found online at sweetandsavourypursuits.com, I was initially apprehensive, since the ingredients list reads like a Tolstoy novel. Then I thought, heck, stop being a kitchen-weeny and get the job done. If the internet is to be believed (ha!), this recipe is “adapted from Ina Garten,” the “Barefoot Contessa,” so it was all but guaranteed to be good. And it was. However, I have one caveat: the baking temperature and cooking time are way off. But that’s an easy fix.
Made in a nine-and-a-half-inch springform pan, this cake has got legs. It’s gooey and sticky and holds its own. It’s the opposite of light and fluffy, but you don’t necessarily expect light and fluffy from a fruit-filled cake. Anyway, no more excuses. Just try it. But keep in mind that you will probably need to adjust your temperature up from the stated 350˚˚ F to about 365˚ F or even higher, depending on your oven. The recipe calls for a cooking time of 45 to 55 minutes at 350˚F, but the batter was still wet and jiggly after 55 minutes, so I upped the temperature and just kept adding time until the cake set, which ended up being more like an hour and 15 minutes or so. Flexibility is a must for this recipe. Don’t expect to make it when you’re in a rush. Won’t happen. But darn, it’s worth the time.
PEACH-BLUEBERRY CAKE
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup sour cream at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional, and I didn’t use it)
2 large fresh ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
3/4 cup fresh blueberries rinsed and dried
1/3 cup light brown sugar packed
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
1. Place rack in the middle of the oven and heat oven to 350˚ F (as I said above, I would recommend more like 365˚ F or higher – your call). Line the bottom of a 9 1/2” springform pan with parchment paper or lightly grease it. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cardamom (if using). Set aside.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and white sugar and beat on medium-high for 3 to 5 minutes, until mixture is fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.
5. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.
6. Scrape the side and bottom of the bowl before gradually adding the flour mixture on low speed.
7. Once the flour has been added, increase the speed and beat until the batter is smooth. Don’t over-beat the batter.
8. In a medium bowl, mix the peaches and blueberries with the brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom (if using).
9. Spread the batter evenly into the springform pan.
10. Add the fruit to the top of the batter by arranging the peaches in a circular pattern and scattering the blueberries in the gaps. (At this point, I was so tired, I just threw the whole fruit mixture on top of the batter.)
11. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean or with a few crumbs clinging to it.
12. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes before running a knife along the edge and releasing the cake from the pan.
The recipe says to serve the cake at room temperature, but who are we kidding? As soon as I could touch the cake without burning my fingers, I was stuffing it into my mouth. The recipe also suggested serving it with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, neither of which I had, so we ate it au naturel.
The cake can be stored at room temperature for up to two days and, after that, it should be refrigerated. But, once again, who are they kidding? As if a cake would last two days in our home. Maybe we’re gluttons. Or maybe we just wanted the cake while it was fresh. My money is on freshness. And expediency.
However you parse it, this cake is summer-yummy. And, since I can already feel fall in the air, if I were you, I’d hightail it to your local grocer, buy some peaches and blueberries and get baking. The cake was delicious right from the oven. It was delicious the next morning for breakfast. And it was still delicious that afternoon. Now, it is no longer. I have no idea if it would freeze well or not, but, if so, it would make a refreshing alternative to honey cake for Rosh Hashanah. You could probably substitute berries of any kind in this cake, but I hear that blueberries are a particularly good antioxidant food. If, however, you happen to be pro-oxidant, then skip the blueberries and opt for something less controversial. Whatever. Just try this. Then thank me.
Shelley Civkin, aka the Accidental Balabusta, is a happily retired librarian and communications officer. For 17 years, she wrote a weekly book review column for the Richmond Review. She’s currently a freelance writer and volunteer.
Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver executive director Ezra Shanken, left, and Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs Pacific region vice-president Nico Slobinsky were in Buenos Aires last month. (photo from Jewish Federation)
Nico Slobinsky was a 15-year-old high school student in Buenos Aires when, on July 18, 1994, the principal announced that their Jewish community centre and administrative hub had been blown up in an apparent terror attack.
The Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA) building was attacked by a car laden with 275 kilograms of explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil. The building collapsed, killing 85 and injuring more than 300.
The AMIA attack remains the most significant terrorist attack in Argentina’s history. Two years earlier, though, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was the target of a suicide bombing, on March 17, 1992, in which 29 were killed and 242 wounded.
“I remember vividly the morning that the building was targeted and blown to pieces,” said Slobinsky, now the Pacific region vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). “I remember the pervasive feeling [that] we are no longer safe and what’s going to become of us. I remember the dinner that night at my family’s home, where the bombing, the targeting of the AMIA, was all that my parents were talking about and what was going to happen next. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time and, 30 years later, I can tell you that the same feeling of lack of justice and lack of safety persists.”
The perpetrators of the AMIA bombing have never been brought to justice, nor have the perpetrators of the earlier embassy attack. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the 1992 embassy bombing but it was only this year that an Argentine court ruled that Iran was behind the 1994 bombing, through their international terror subsidiary Hezbollah.
Two of Slobinsky’s friends were murdered in the attack and many in his circles of acquaintances were killed or injured. He attended and helped organize memorial events on the anniversaries of the AMIA bombing when he lived in Argentina, until 2000, and then joined with the Argentine community in Israel when he lived there.
Last month, Slobinsky traveled to Buenos Aires for ceremonies marking the 30th anniversary of the atrocities. He was joined by a small delegation of other Vancouver Jewish community leaders, including Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, and his wife, Rachel Shanken, director of operations at Jewish Family Services Vancouver; Karen James, who is on the national board of CIJA and also on the board of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI); and Candace Kwinter, who is on the board ofJAFI, as well as the board of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, and her husband, Alan Kwinter, who is on the board of Congregation Beth Israel.
The anniversary of the terror attack coincided with a meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Buenos Aires, which the Vancouverites attended.
It is widely believed that there was government complicity in the AMIA attack. Police who were routinely stationed in front of the building departed before the bombing. Rubble from the building, which should have been preserved for investigation, was dumped in a river. In 2015, Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor leading the AMIA investigation released a 300-page report accusing then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other political leaders of covering up Iranian involvement. Hours before Nisman was to present his findings to parliament, he was found dead in his apartment. The government declared it a suicide.
James was impressed with the panoply of world leaders who attended the AMIA commemoration and the WZO conference, particularly Javier Milei, the new president of Argentina, who has made justice for the AMIA terrorists a belated priority. The presidents of Uruguay and Paraguay were also in attendance, as were Jewish parliamentarians from around the world, including Liberal Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, and special envoys for antisemitism from scores of countries, including Canada’s Deborah Lyons, Deborah Lipstadt of the United States and Michal Cotler-Wunsh of Israel.
Family members of the bombing victims spoke and time has not lessened the agony of the attack, said James.
“They were sobbing and some couldn’t finish speaking,” she said. “There’s never been closure for them. It was so emotional. I was in tears.”
Candace Kwinter said that standing shoulder to shoulder with the families affected 30 years ago was an act of bearing witness.
“We’ve all been to Israel since 10/7 and it just feels like another deep, dark, awful part of our history,” she said.
Supporting Slobinsky in the return to the time and place of the bombing was a motivator for those who joined the trip, according to Alan Kwinter.
“It was important certainly to support Nico and also, in this time when there is rising antisemitism and there are so many people that are turning their backs on the Jewish people, I feel that it’s important for us to come together as a community, a global community as well as the local community, and for us to be there with those families that lost their loved ones and have never had justice,” he said. “It was important for me that we show solidarity with them, that they feel that they’re not alone.”
Slobinsky acknowledged the emotional impacts of the commemoration and drew contemporary connections from lessons of the past.
“It was difficult to be there with thousands of Argentinians on the streets still asking for justice 30 years later,” he said, noting that this early life experience reinforced his commitment to taking a leadership role in Jewish life.
“For those who argue that Canada should embrace the Iranian regime by reestablishing diplomatic ties, the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing that we just attended is just another painful reminder that Iran and its proxies like Hezbollah must be held accountable not only for the horrific attack on the AMIA [but] for their export of terrorism around the world,” said Slobinsky. “In memory of my friends Viviana and Christian and to the victims, the survivors and their families – I will never forget.”
Left to right are Rachel and Ezra Shanken with their children, Vancouver city councilors Sarah Kirby-Yung and Mike Klassen, and Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver board chair Lana Marks Pulver. The City of Vancouver proclamation designated June 25, 2024, as Ezra Shanken Day, in honour of Shanken’s 10th anniversary as head of Federation. (photo from Jewish Federation)
On June 25, Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, celebrated his 10th anniversary at the job and was presented with a proclamation from the City of Vancouver by councilors Sarah Kirby-Yung and Mike Klassen declaring that day “Ezra Shanken Day.” The event took place at Federation’s annual general meeting.
Earlier this month, Shanken spoke with the Independent about the past decade, and his enthusiasm looking ahead.
The Teaneck, NJ, native, who arrived in Vancouver in his early 30s, remains one of the youngest CEOs within the 140-strong network of Jewish federations. He is quick to credit those who have helped him get to where he is today.
“A lot of it has to do with fantastic people who were around, who believed and supported me,” Shanken said. “It helped me bring my unique self to the work and the journey. They took a chance on me 10 years ago, and I have felt incredibly privileged and thankful for the confidence that people put in me at a young age.”
Shanken is equally thankful to have tremendous people around him at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and feels “lucky to have incredibly talented staff at a senior level who allow for a two-speed operation. We have levels in which people are able to dig deeper into issues in a substantive way,” he said.
Shanken represents the third generation in his family to have a career in the Jewish community: his father worked for Jewish organizations and his grandfather was a Conservative rabbi. Before arriving in Vancouver, Shanken spent several years at the federation in Denver, Colo., and the UJA Federation of New York.
He likens the job of Federation CEO to that of a mayor of a small town, one that requires dealing with diverse opportunities and crises, which are presented or emerge at different times. Not to mention the myriad daily tasks he performs in his position. His work stretches through many different organizations and extends across several time zones.
A day might see him connecting with partners in Israel and others overseas in the morning, then with national colleagues. He’ll spend a portion of the day building up the community’s organizational culture, delivering what, he hopes, is a collective vision for vibrancy and care to more than two dozen partner agencies throughout Greater Vancouver and the province. He meets with community members who contribute to this vision and he engages, on behalf of the community, with allies in the public and private sectors, individuals, institutions and organizations, who work with Federation.
Looking back, he said some of his favourite memories come from Shabbat dinners over the past 10 years in which he has met with everyone from law enforcement to premiers, and countless others from various backgrounds, who have had a chance to experience and understand “who we are and, more importantly, who we are not.
“That for me has been a real blessing, now more than ever,” he said.
As it has with so many people, the post-Oct. 7 period has been a pivotal time in Shanken’s tenure at the helm of Federation. Since that tragic day, he has made three trips to Israel with public officials, parliamentarians and leaders of the local community. He plans to make a fourth trip in November.
“This has been a deeply personal journey for me and so many in my office,” he said. “I think that Oct. 7 has fundamentally changed every one of us, me included, on the soul-based level. It is part of my core responsibility to keep Ben Mizrachi’s name on the community [mind] for time immemorial. His heroic loss is one we will never forget,” he said.
Mizrachi was killed while trying to save others during the Nova music festival.
In his 20 years of working in the federation system, Shanken has been through a hurricane that knocked out power in New York and had people climbing the stairs of 40-floor apartment buildings to save the lives of elderly Jews by getting water and other supplies to them. He helped close the campaign in Seattle after the federation there was attacked in 2006. And, in the two decades, there have been multiple attacks on Israel and, of course, the pandemic.
Yet, none of his previous experiences prepared him for Oct. 7, he said.
“The sheer brutality of it and the images of it, which I have had the unenviable task of bearing witness to, has changed me fundamentally as a human being and has reinforced the need of centrality in community,” he said.
“It also reinforced for me why I am here and what we are doing,” he added. “It could not be more clear as to why Jewish community is not just important but precious. We are going to show strength, continue to do good and put light out into the world.”
Shanken believes the next decade, in many ways, will be defined by more opportunities for engagement in Jewish community, regardless of where someone might live in the province.
“I am hoping that, as we move through the next 10 years, we will be able to look back and see a much more vibrant provincial Jewish community, as opposed to a Jewish community that is set in Victoria, Richmond and Vancouver,” he said.
Among the key things he envisages in the coming years, as Federation enters a campaign season, are coming together to push back against those who would cause harm, and creating a stronger foundation for the Jewish community.
“This is going to be about how we can be positively proud Jews,” Shanken said.
Tied to this vision, he explained, is ensuring, among other goals, that people in the community have different ways to connect, that vibrancy is built into the community, that schools are as accessible as they can be and that new people feel welcomed into the community.
The JWest project is a major part of the future. The planned 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art community centre, the largest infrastructure project in Vancouver’s Jewish history, will serve as a hub for more than 20 organizations, including the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and King David High School, as well as provide housing and child-care spaces.
As Shanken describes it, JWest will be “the physical manifestation of our community’s vibrancy in the core of Vancouver’s second town centre. It is a monument of who we are projecting onto the street.”
More broadly, he added, the growth the community will see in the next decade will be game-changing. “The next 10 years will make the last 10 years seem as though were standing still,” he predicted.
Kicking off the next decade is Federation’s annual campaign launch Sept. 12. For more information and tickets ($36), visit jewishvancouver.com.
Sam Margolishas written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
UBC student Zara Nybo, a non-Jewish ally, holds a poster of Rom Braslavski, as she speaks of his heroism before he was taken hostage to Gaza on Oct. 7. (photo by Pat Johnson)
As negotiations continued in Doha, Qatar, for the release of Israeli hostages, the weekly rallies in support of those held, their families and all Israelis continued Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
“As a university professor and as a Jew, I have been forced to witness the frontlines of a propaganda war to dehumanize and demonize Jews and to delegitimize the nation of Israel,” said Prof. Steven Plotkin, a University of British Columbia physicist.
The Hamas strategy is one of “asymmetric warfare,” he said, in which they bait Israel Defence Forces with attacks and hostage-takings, then use their own Palestinian civilians as human shields, knowing that the casualty numbers and horrible images will evoke sympathy in the West.
“And we’ve seen it,” he said. “The encampment and the protests at UBC quickly turned from advocating for the human rights of Palestinians to a call for the end of Israel.”
On campus, the messages he saw included the now familiar “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” but others on the same theme, including “We don’t want your two states! Take us back to ’48” and “Resistance is justified when you are occupied.” Another common refrain, he said, is “‘Globalize the intifada.’ That means bring terrorism everywhere, including here in Canada.”
“Long live Oct. 7” was yet another slogan the professor saw on his campus.
“Let that sink in,” he said.
When reports of extensive sexual abuse by Hamas and other Palestinians who broke through the border on Oct. 7 became known, he said, “I saw posters at UBC that announced a discussion group for ‘the lies that Zionists spread about the sexual abuse that didn’t occur on Oct. 7.’”
Plotkin reflected back to the days after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City, when people put up posters of their lost loved ones.
“Could you imagine what kind of person would think to tear one of those down? No one would have dreamed of it,” he said. “And now we’re seeing a world whose moral compass has completely lost its direction.”
Posters of Israeli hostages are routinely torn down at UBC, elsewhere in Vancouver and around the world. Plotkin shared a psychological hypothesis for why this desecration is so rampant.
In the identity-centred worldview of many activists, Plotkin said, morality is determined by one’s position in the hierarchy of oppression.
“The less powerful are pardoned, the more powerful must be guilty,” he said. Because Hamas is less powerful than Israel, Israel must be guilty, despite the evidence of Hamas murdering, raping and abducting Israeli civilians.
“A hostage poster, however, throws a wrench into that framework because it forces them to cope with the idea that the people that they thought were oppressed could actually be in the wrong,” Plotkin said. “Their whole simplistic worldview of the blameless oppressed and the evil oppressor is undermined by the ugly facts contained in the posters. A hostage poster induces a cognitive dissonance and, rather than question their own worldview, it’s easier for them to see it as pro-Israel propaganda designed to elicit their sympathy for the Jews in Israel, the bad guys, and so they feel compelled to tear the poster down.”
Eyal Daniel, a Burnaby high school teacher who specializes in Holocaust and genocide studies and who is president of the Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators’ Association, spoke about how his group was denied recognition by the BC Teachers’ Federation.
Representing close to 150 educators, the group applied to become one of the BCTF’s provincial specialist associations.
“Our application was rejected without any given reason,” he said. “Currently, there are no educational resources about the Holocaust and antisemitism for teachers in the province.”
Conversely, Daniel said, the province’s 50,000 teachers are bombarded by their union with materials promoting the elimination of the state of Israel.
The provincial government has mandated that Grade 10 students must receive Holocaust education beginning in 2025 and it is said to be working on curriculum materials.
Despite the lack of recognition from the BCTF, Daniel’s group will continue to work “as if we had been approved,” he said.
“Therefore, these days, we are in the process of constructing a new website, developing useful, meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers, assessing and developing appropriate educational materials and working with the minister of education on the upcoming Grade 10 Holocaust education curriculum framework,” he said.
Daniel spoke of his family’s recent visit to Israel, where they visited the site of the Nova music festival.
“Stepping out of the car into the desert heat, we were immediately surrounded by the haunting silence,” he said, “but, yet, 364 voices called out from the ground: Where is the humanity? The Nova memorial site is a barren killing field where humanity ceased to exist.”
Rabbi Susan Tendler of Congregation Beth Tikvah, in Richmond, spoke of the need for dialogue.
“In civic discourse … we’re yelling more than we’re listening,” she said. “So many of us will talk about the need to listen to one another but instead we’re just angry and have an inability to actually talk to one another.”
She asked people to see the humanity of others as a starting point to dialogue.
“To be a Jew means to respect and understand that every single human being was created in the image of God,” she said. “Let us continue to work for peace in the region that so, so sorely needs healing.”
Zara Nybo, a fourth-year student at UBC, is an ally to the Jewish community, president of the Israel on Campus club, and an Emerson Fellow with the international advocacy group StandWithUs. She shared recollections of a training conference in Los Angeles from which she and scores of other campus activists recently returned. At an LA rally for the hostages, she heard profoundly moving testimonies from family members of those still held in Gaza.
“Most people around me, men, women, had tears streaming down their face,” said Nybo. “We were all holding each other in collective grief.”
The mother of Rom Braslavski spoke of how her son had been a security guard at the Nova music festival and took it upon himself to hide the bodies of murdered women, both so they would not be taken to Gaza and so that they would not be posthumously raped or mutilated, as he had seen other female bodies desecrated. Braslavski was taken hostage in Gaza.
As Nybo and her fellow students prepare for the new academic year, she emphasized the training they have undergone and the determination with which they will return to campus.
“I will tell you we are committed to this fight,” she said.
Richard Lowy, who has provided vocal and guitar inspiration at almost every rally for months, spoke of the hope that a resolution will come through negotiation.
Event organizer Daphna Kedem recounted the rally in Tel Aviv the evening before and expressed hope that the hostages will be released soon and that the weekly rallies she has organized for 10 months will cease to be necessary.
Vancouverite Gail Mattuck volunteering in Israel after Oct. 7. She found her placements with the help of the Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities Facebook group. (photo from Gail Mattuck)
They’re coming from around the world, taking a leave from their jobs to help rebuild Israel with their own hands. These are volunteers who have filled the labour gaps in the aftermath of Oct. 7, visiting farms or soldiers or hostage families; attending shivas, packing food for reservists and more.
Vancouverite Gail Mattuck is one of tens of thousands of people who have volunteered. But, if it weren’t for the Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities Facebook group that guided her to where she could help, she likely would not have lent a hand.
Led by Hagit Greenberg Amar and Yocheved Kim Ruttenberg in Israel, the group provides a running list to its 35,000 followers of where people can volunteer.
Mattuck chose a Chabad centre that assisted with food security, packing food for evacuees and making sandwiches for children of reservists. She also volunteered at Castel Winery, in the Jerusalem hills, to cut wires for the grape vines to grow on.
“For my friends in Israel, they were really happy to see me, of course, but they appreciated I was there to be there during that time. Lots of people just thanked me for being there. Without that Facebook group, I couldn’t have done it,” said Mattuck.
“One of my friends lives up north,” she said. “There are missiles coming over there all the time. Her sons were in Gaza fighting. It’s very personal for them. For me to be there, they appreciated it. My sense was of a country that was incredibly hurt but not broken.”
Mattuck has a close connection to one of the people killed at the Nova music festival, and made her trip in his memory.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Ruttenberg attended university in South Florida, then moved to Dallas, where she worked in construction sales. She and her brother had plans to go into real estate together after he completed his Israel Defence Forces service. He was scheduled to be released on Nov. 12, 2023.
Her brother was stationed in the south on Oct. 7, and she woke up to a text message alerting her to the attack, and his arrival in battle a few hours later. It was then and there, she felt the need to help. She intended to stay in Israel for a couple of weeks.
“I couldn’t not be here during that time,” she said. Within three days, she was on a plane, carrying 23 duffle bags of donations for soldiers, worth $17,000. Three days before her return flight, she quit her job. “I can’t go home. I need to be here,” she told her boss.
“When the war started here in Israel, we didn’t know what to do,” said Amar. “So, we started to think about what we already know how to do. We started to import. We started with battery power banks, then medical equipment, things the Marines used in emergencies. A lot of special units came to our place. Then, we met [Ruttenberg’s] brother.”
It was Ruttenberg’s brother who introduced Amar to Ruttenberg.
In the beginning, Ruttenberg corralled volunteer information from various WhatsApp groups, Google Translated them and posted them. In late November 2023, the Facebook group formally launched.
Yael Yom Tov Emmanuel joined the page on day one, and matched thousands of volunteers to different opportunities. Since then, two other team members have joined – Ariel Boverman and Sarah Emerson Halford. They have since created a Google Docs document for members, so that prospective volunteers can search by area and specialty.
The initiatives have impacted numerous lives by coordinating farm volunteers, aiding soldiers, assisting at food banks, and participating in reconstruction efforts in the south. The group has emerged as an essential resource for both residents and visitors, linking individuals with opportunities to make a difference.
“It blows me away to see how many people have done something outside their comfort zone in such a big way. People come to Israel for the first time in their lives, alone, in the middle of a war,” said Ruttenberg.
Group members are vetted carefully, something Amar says is one of the challenges in dealing with a hundred requests per hour. They have had to turf some infiltrators.
“It’s a 24/7 operation because we have people all over the world,” said Ruttenberg. “We all have our different roles. Some are more on the Facebook page interacting. A lot of my time is going into the field and meeting volunteers and interacting. But it’s a full-time job – beyond a full-time job.” No one is financially compensated for their time.
When Ruttenberg is not dedicating her time to the volunteers, she works part-time in marketing and sales consulting. She recently finished a US speaking tour and said that, while in Texas, half the room were Christians, they wept at her stories and couldn’t wait to get involved.
“People are sitting at home and feel helpless,” she said. “When your country is at war, when there’s antisemitism through the roof and you are not in the military and are not medically trained, you feel like there is no way to give back. It makes me incredibly proud to see, and incredibly proud to meet, the volunteers who are helping rebuild Israel with their bare hands.”
Amar, who lives in Ramat Gan with her three children, was previously chief executive officer of a brand and strategy company. She is now pursuing a second degree, in social work, at Haifa University, with an aim to offer therapy and mental health services.
“I think this group created a place where you could feel safe and be part of a community. There are real friendships in real life that occurred from the group. If somebody needs something, we always find someone to be with and support them,” Amar said.
“I think part of what we are doing is creating ambassadors, and changing the narrative about how people see Israel, showing Israel as a beautiful place,” added Ruttenberg. “Everyone who comes here meets soldiers and other people who are grateful. Israelis see people come from LA, just to pick tomatoes – we really appreciate that.”
Dave Gordonis a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.
Lance Davis, chief executive officer of JNF Canada. (photo from JNF Canada)
The Jewish National Fund of Canada is fighting the Canada Revenue Agency over the revocation of the organization’s charitable status, accusing the federal taxation department of “blindsiding” them and treating them differently than other charities. The head of JNF Canada sees bias at play.
“Do we think the CRA is antisemitic?” asked Lance Davis, JNF Canada’s chief executive officer, in an interview with the Independent. “No. Do we think there is bias involved here? Yes. That’s actually part of our court application. We have said in writing that we believe there is bias.”
The difference, Davis explained, is that, while CRA officials may not carry prejudice toward Jewish people, their decision may have been influenced by a concerted, multi-year campaign attacking JNF – Independent Jewish Voices Canada has a website dedicated to the campaign.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, JNF Canada obtained the files used by CRA to make their determination.
“So we know what was written in the file that the CRA is using with respect to JNF Canada and it is littered with complaints in an organized and systematic way from anti-Israel groups, unions, political parties, etc.,” he said. “After you read all of this material, one can reasonably say that bias may have come to play into the decision-making process.”
Davis is emphatic that media have so far got the story wrong. The revocation is not about JNF Canada’s support for projects on Israel Defence Forces bases or on the other side of the Green Line, outside of Israel proper. CRA expressed concerns about these projects several years ago and JNF Canada immediately ended those undertakings, he said.
“Yes, we have over the last number of decades built all sorts of public amenities on IDF bases,” he said. “Those amenities include swing sets, playgrounds, parks, play areas … shaded areas, rest areas, all that kind of stuff. We disagree that that is not charitable. Helping the children who have to live on a base … we believe is charitable.”
Moreover, the money for such past projects did not flow to Israel’s military, said Davis. It went to a charity that built the projects.
“Nevertheless, when it was brought to our attention that this is a problem according to the CRA, we stopped doing it in order to be cooperative and collaborative with the CRA,” he said. “That’s not what this revocation is about. It might be an interesting subject for the media or those outside parties to conflate, but this issue that we’re dealing with the CRA is fundamentally about our founding charitable object. They’ve come to the conclusion that it is not charitable.”
The issue, Davis said, is that CRA, after 57 years, has abruptly reversed the 1967 acceptance of the organization’s charitable objective.
In 1967, said Davis, CRA’s predecessor agency accepted JNF Canada’s purpose of funding projects in which economically disadvantaged individuals in Israel, especially new immigrants as well as Palestinians, are hired to complete projects like tree-planting and digging reservoirs, with the intention of keeping them off welfare rolls and combating poverty.
The current troubles between CRA and JNF Canada started during an audit that began in 2014. When the auditor cited the original objective as incompatible, Davis said, the organization immediately set out to negotiate new charitable purposes that would satisfy CRA.
“We presented 10 of them in writing and said, please work with us, let’s pick any or all of these and we’ll get to work,” said Davis. “CRA did not negotiate with us at all about any of those charitable objects.”
Those objectives, he noted, were replicated by JNF Canada from other recognized charities that had received approvals from CRA.
The organization’s leaders say they were “blindsided” by the decision, which was released Aug. 10, via the Canada Gazette, the federal government’s avenue for publicizing legislation and government decisions.
The revocation is the culmination of a crisis that began at the end of June, when JNF was notified that CRA intended to revoke their charitable status. Within weeks, the organization’s lawyers had filed suit with the Federal Court of Appeal.
In every similar instance JNF’s lawyers reviewed, Davis said, CRA refrained from revoking the status at least until the organization had their day in court.
“There is this idea of a presumption of innocence until you’ve exhausted all your appeals,” said Davis. “Why weren’t we given a presumption of innocence? Why weren’t we given a chance to say our piece before the judge? It’s a right that every Canadian business, individual, charity is entitled to.”
For now, JNF Canada is not permitted to provide charitable receipts.
“We are still a nonprofit, we still exist, we’re still an entity,” Davis said.
If the Federal Court of Appeal sides with CRA, JNF could take the matter to the Supreme Court, Davis said. Alternatively, they could potentially restructure the way they do their work.
“We are working through thoughts and plans with our legal counsel as to how we could best continue the work of JNF in a legal, charitable manner,” he said. “But we are confident in our case and we feel that it’s vitally important for us to challenge the CRA and the facts that they’ve presented.”
JNF Canada has not yet publicly released documents relating to the matter, as they await their lawyers’ annotations to provide both the CRA’s perspective and the JNF’s replies to the government agency’s concerns.
In dealing with JNF Canada, Davis contends, CRA has behaved differently than they routinely do with other charities. The due process they should expect has not been forthcoming and the government agency has leapfrogged several steps that charities are generally provided in the progression of an issue, he said.
CHW Vancouver Centre’s opening luncheon on Sept. 22 honours longtime members and contributors Bev Corber, left, and Dolly Jampolsky. (photos from CHW)
This year’s CHW Vancouver Centre opening luncheon on Sept. 22 will honour Bev Corber, a past CHW Vancouver Centre president, and recognize the volunteer efforts of Dolly Jampolsky.
“I have had the pleasure of knowing both women for a long time,” CHW Vancouver Centre president Toby Rubin told the Independent. “During Bev’s tenure as CHW Vancouver Centre president, I ran the annual campaign, and I have worked on other committees with her. I am excited for her to finally be recognized for all she has done and continues to do to support CHW and all its projects.
“Dolly is the Energizer bunny in my opinion,” continued Rubin. “At the age of 90, she continues to be our number one volunteer for both obtaining silent auction items and canvassing – no one seems to be able to say no to Dolly. Both Bev and Dolly exemplify strong women and are role models for myself and the rest of the community.”
Rubin has been a supporter of CHW for more than 30 years, Corber has been a member of CHW for almost 40 years, while Jampolsky joined the group more than 60 years ago.
“I had just moved to Vancouver and was seeking friendship and community,” Jampolsky said. “It was also very important for me to do something in support of Israel. CHW seemed to be a good choice.
“Early on, I was very involved with the bazaar. I recall that I would reach out to the better hotels in the city and ask for donations of linens. I also did the pickups of these donations. One time, I was at a very exclusive hotel in downtown Vancouver and I loaded up the elevator with a huge donation of linens. I stepped inside and pushed the button to go down and I got stuck.I was there inside the elevator for one or maybe two hours; no phones at the time. All I could do was press the emergency button and wait and wait.”
Stephanie Rusen, immediate past president of CHW Vancouver Centre, recalled Jampolsky’s involvement with the Hadassah Bazaar, including that her chapter had the clothing booth, then moved to linens.
“After the bazaar,” said Rusen, “Dolly switched to Pro-Am [golf tournament] and the silent auction. She has continued with the silent auction, expanding it to the Aviva Games Day and then to the openings. For a number of years, she sold the entertainment books.”
According to Rusen, “Dolly said that I was the one to get her calling donors, first for annual campaign, then end-of-year, and finally SOS. Give her a list of 20 names to call and a day later she wants more names. Three years ago, when she asked for yet another list, I only had one with 100 names and told her to call just the first 20. She called them all!”
Corber also joined CHW after moving to Vancouver and, in her decades with the organization, she has contributed in many capacities, including helping create CHW’s Legacy Circle, which allows donors of varying incomes “to create a philanthropic legacy for a cause they care deeply about.” She was active in the Hadassah Bazaar, has served as chapter and centre president, been convenor of multiple fundraisers and events, and participated in different committees, among other things. In 2021, she completed her role as CHW Vancouver Centre’s immediate past president.
“Over the years, I have made lasting friendships with women of all ages,” she said. “I value the opportunity to work with others to support our projects in Israel. With each additional commitment I have made to the organization, I have found that I have been amply rewarded for my efforts. I have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to make a difference (tikkun olam) while connecting to others in the Jewish community.”
For Jampolsky, CHW has met all the goals she had when joining.
“I was able to form many wonderful and lasting friendships that I still treasure to this day and to fulfil the promise I made to myself to support my community and Israel,” she said. “Joining CHW gave me the satisfaction that I could lend my time, energy and creativity to support Israel and set an example for my friends, my community, my children and grandchildren.”
One of the reasons Rubin was attracted to CHW was that it was a women’s organization, “bringing together like-minded women and supporting causes close to women’s hearts.
“It is an organization whose projects in Israel are not only about things that are important to all women – helping at-risk children, empowering women and providing vital health care – but also supports our local community here in Canada,” she said. “CHW looks at what the current needs are, finds the gaps in support and fills them. I am proud to stand strong with CHW and all it does to proudly support Israel and Canada.”
Rubin, who is beginning her third year as CHW Vancouver Centre president, writes on the CHW website: “Since coming in as CHW Vancouver Centre president in the fall of 2022, we have held an almost sold out Games Day, heard World WIZO chairperson Anita Friedman and cookbook author Adeena Sussman, have held SOS (Starting Over Safely) Walks, surpassed expectations on our campaigns, and we continue to try and grow the under-40 chapter.”
She also notes that there have been some tough times, notably Oct. 7.
“I think Oct. 7 has done the complete opposite of what Hamas and other terror groups thought – it has brought Jewish people together, not pulled them apart,” Rubin told the Independent. “I have found that people want to be together more than ever and are not afraid to attend meetings/events at the JCC, shuls or public places. We are always showing people how CHW is not the same organization it was when our grandmothers were involved and, since Oct. 7, more people are looking to belong to a community like CHW.”
In addition to honouring Corber and Jampolsky, the CHW opening will feature remarks and a Q&A livestreamed with Idit Shamir, consul general of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada. CHW chief executive officer Lisa Colt-Kotler will talk about her recent trip to Israel, where she visited CHW projects and bore witness to the atrocities of Oct. 7. Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit CHW partner Michal Sela Forum (MSF).
“MSF uses technology and innovation to improve the lives of victims of domestic abuse and helps them and their children take back their lives,” explained Rubin. “MSF is about keeping at-risk women safe in their homes instead of relying on shelters. The safety programs, like Michal Sela Canines, also allows women to return to their daily lives without fear of violence – this is so important. Also, everything MSF does, creates and establishes are things their CEO, Lili Ben Ami, wants to share with the world!”
For tickets to the Sept. 22, 11 a.m., opening lunch at Richmond Country Club, go to chw.ca/luncheon.
