Showcased by Kedem Auction House earlier this month, the Megillah from which the above image is taken features politicians and celebrities as the story’s characters. For example, Osama bin Laden is Haman, George W. Bush is King Ahasuerus and Madonna is Queen Esther. The Megillah was commissioned by an anonymous collector, said Israeli designer Itzhak Luvaton, who was asked to create it back in 2007. Luvaton supervised the project and created the master sketch, which was sent to tens of artists and painters. After all the painting was completed, master scribe Avital Goldner wrote the text. The process took about a year.
Images
תפסיקו ליילל ותתחילו להילחם
ויויאן ברקוביצ’י (צילום: Foreign Affairs/Government of Canada via National Post)
שגרירת קנדה בישראל לשעבר ויויאן ברקוביצ’י: “השימוש בביקורת על ישראל כדי לבקר את היהודים הוא פשוט אובסביבי”
“קל לבקר את ישראל וקל לפעול נגדה. בכל המוסדות באו”ם רואים את הפעילות הזאת. השימוש בביקורת על ישראל כדי לבקר את היהודים הוא פשוט אובססיבי”. את הדברים אמרה שגרירת קנדה לישראל לשעבר, ויויאן ברקוביצ’י, במסגרת ראיון שערך עימה אתר אנרג’י. ברקוביצ’י מונתה לתפקיד על ידי ראש הממשלה הקודם של קנדה, סטיבן הרפר, והיא נאלצה לפרוש מתפקידה לאחר כשנתיים וחצי בלבד (ביולי אשתקד), לאור החלטת ראש הממשלה הנוכחי של קנדה, ג’סטין טרודו, להחליפה בדבורה ליינוס, שהייתה השגרירה באפגניסטן וקודם לכן עבדה בשגרירות קנדה בוושינגטון. ברקוביצ’י שהיא עורכת דין יהודיה מטורונטו היתה חסרה ניסיון דיפלומטי. היא אף גרה תקופתה מסויימת בישראל ופעלה בעבר בין היתר בתחום התקשורת הקנדית. ברקוביצ’י נחשבה מטבע הדברים לפרו-ישראלית בצורה מובהקת, יצאה נחרצות נגד החאמס, הרשות הפלסטינית והמשטר האיראני ויתכן ובממשל של טרודו לא אהבו זאת. בקהילה היהודית בקנדה לא קיבלו את החלפתה בהפתעה של ממש.
בנוגע לעליית הימין הקיצוני והתגברות הלאומיות במדיניות המערב אמרה ברקוביצ’י: “תמיד הייתה אנטישמיות בארה”ב ובקנדה, בדיוק כמו התנועות החברתיות שפעלו בשנות השישים לא העלימו את הגזענות. גם אני עת הייתי השגרירה של קנדה בישראל, הואשמתי בחוסר נאמנות לארצי בשל היותי יהודייה”.
ברקוביצ’י לא מקבלת את הטענות שהממשלה בקנדה מתעלמת מהאנטישמיות. לדבריה: “זה פשוט לא בסדר העדיפות שלהם מפני שזה לא משרת את האינטרסים הפולטיים שלהם”.
באשר לשאלה האם לא נכון לפעול משפטית נגד ההסתה נגד היהודים ברשתות החברתיות, אמרה השגרירה לשעבר: “גם הנוצרים טוענים כך. אנו לוחמים בזירה התקשורתית, והגישה התבוסתנית שזה לא צודק לא תעזור. יש להילחם בצורה מאורגנת תוך שימוש בצעירים מוכשרים למלחמה הזו. אני ממליצה שתפסיקו ליילל ותתחילו להילחם. אנו חייבים להגיב, לפעול עכשיו”.
הג’י.פי.אס אשם: כך טען נהג שרכבו נמצא במנהרה של הרכבת הקלה בטורונטו
נהג שרכבו נמצא תקוע על פסי הרכבת הקלה בטורונטו מאשים את מכשיר הג’י.פי.אס, שלדבריו כיוון אותו למקום. הרכב מסוג מיצ’ובישי כסוף שנתקע גרם לשיבושי תנועה חמורים של מערך הרכבת הקלה בעיר, בשעות הבוקר העמוסות שנמשכו כשש שעות תמימות.
אחד הנהגים של הרכבת הקלה שהסיע את הרכבת בסביבות חמש בבוקר נדהם לראות רכב תקוע על המסילה באחת המנהרות בדאון טאון. הוא הצליח לעצור את הרכבת מבלי לפגוע ברכב והזעיק את אנשי התחזוקה. מנוף מיוחד הובא למקום (כיוון שגרר של רכבים גם כן היה נתקע על המסילה) כדי להזיז את הרכב, ולאפשר לחדש את תנועת הרכבות הקלות בעיר.
מסתבר שבעל הרכב שנתקע בסביבות חצות ברח תחילה ממקום האירוע. למחרת בבוקר הוא הגיע למנהרה וכשראה את מפעיל הרכבת הקלה עומד במקום לידה, הוא התחיל לברוח שוב אך נתפס על ידו. לטענתו הוא נהג הישר לפסים שבמנהרת הרכבת הקלה, כיוון שכאמור הג’י.פי.אס ברכבו כיוון אותו לשם. דובר מערך התחבורה הציבורית של טורונטו, ברד רוס, לא מקבל את גירסת הנהג, כיוון שהרכב נסע על פסים קרוב לשמונה מאות מטר אל כיוון תחנת יוניון (שהיא התחנה המרכזית של התחבורה הציבורית בטורונטו), וזה דבר נדיר. לדברי רוס קרו בעבר מקרים בהם בעלי רכבים נתקעו על מסילות התחבורה הציבורית אך אף פעם הרכבים לא נמצאו עמוק בתוך המנהרות. הנהג קיבל דוח ובשלב זה לא ברור אם יפתחו נגדו הליכים פליליים.
Envisioning the world
Brothers Tony and Ryan Smith are in the process of bringing the feature film Volition to the screen. (photo from Smith Brothers Film Company)
Local Jewish brothers Ryan and Tony Smith have worked in the film and television industry in Vancouver for most of their careers, and their latest project, a feature film, is set to begin filming in May 2017.
“Volition is a film about a man named James, who is afflicted with clairvoyance – the ability to see snippets of his future, out of order, before they happen,” Ryan told the Independent. “James gets involved in some shady dealings, using this ability. However, he soon has a disturbing clairvoyant vision: he sees his own imminent murder. At that point, he realizes that, if he has any chance of survival, he must go on the run.”
Tony has always loved metaphysics and both brothers are fans of the cerebral science fiction genre. The inspiration for Volition came during Tony’s film school days, and returned many years later, when he was going through a period in his life where he was feeling stuck.
The idea of the observer being responsible for the existence he or she sees resonated, “so, if I see the world positively, I might see the world positively; if my thoughts are negative, I’ll see the world that way,” he said. “I started to think that, what if where I’m stuck is because of my thought process, and those thought processes are almost creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then I thought, what would it take to get me off my ass and try something different – that turned into the character [in Volition] seeing his own death. What if that is what it takes to finally motivate somebody to change?”
Born in South Africa, and raised for the better part of their childhood in Vancouver, Tony and Ryan were exposed to the magic of illusion at an early age. Both their father and grandfather were professional magicians in South Africa. One of Tony’s earliest memories is of his dad performing a magic trick, ending with his mother locked in a trunk.
When they moved to Vancouver in 1990, their dad continued his work as a jewelry designer but remained a part of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Their dad is still a great storyteller, and is also a budding actor – “Our dad wants to really be cast in it [Volition], but we can’t afford him,” said Ryan.
The early exposure to magic is, as Ryan puts it, related to filmmaking in terms of “what you’re presenting, where the twist is and what the audience is watching, when.”
Oxford Dictionaries defines volition as “the faculty or power of using one’s will.” About how the film’s protagonist will employ this faculty, Tony said, “That’s what it’s all about. James doesn’t believe he has free will, because he sees pieces of his future ahead of time, and his visions always come true. He almost has an arrogance to him, in that he knows something the rest of us don’t. Through the narrative, he’s faced with the daunting task of not only trying to avoid his murder, but of attempting to undo his own belief system. He needs to believe in free will, even though his life has shown him that its existence is an illusion.”
Tony is a director, writer and editor, whose short film Reflection earned five Leo Award nominations, including for best picture and best director. Ryan is a full-time writer for television (Reboot: The Guardian Code, Mr. Young, Some Assembly Required), which has earned him two Leos.
Reflection and Volition seem to share similar themes of loss, regret, isolation, hope and the need to be understood. Tony said he and his brother like writing redemptive, honest stories. Ryan added that, underlying these two films, “there is a hopefulness of returning to a truer sense of self – the character is going through something, a struggle, and they’re hopefully getting to a place of self-understanding and growth even though it can go through some dark places.”
Tony will be directing Volition and Ryan will be the film’s producer; both brothers are credited as writers. When asked about the challenges of working together closely, as brothers, Tony, who is the oldest, said, “Because I came to this world first and it was my kingdom first,” he has that older brother “of course, I’m right about this thing” mentality. He said he even went so far as to coerce Ryan into signing a contract (with no expiry date) at a very young age, which states, “Ryan will shoot the scene whether he wants to or not, he won’t go crying or wimping.”
Nevertheless, as Ryan grew up, he started speaking his mind. “We have so much video evidence of the short films and the things that we’ve done through the years,” said Tony. “I found this moment when Ryan is an early teenager and he’s starting to give me lip. He’s actually on-camera starting to disagree with me!”
The brothers said they come from a relatively traditional Jewish family. Ryan attended King David in South Africa and then, on moving here, enrolled in Vancouver Talmud Torah. He said his days at these two Jewish schools and his engagement with the Torah stories “were, in a way, early touchstones for story and myth.”
For Tony, Judaism’s spiritualism and mysticism also inspire his storytelling. “I still have my first Bible,” he said.
“I love the Genesis story, I love the Noah story, and my mum, at an early age, I asked her, ‘How did the world get made in seven days?’ ‘Well it’s a metaphor,’ she said. At an early age, she was letting me in on abstract ideas and symbolism,” said Tony.
Filming for Volition is expected to begin in May, and Ryan and Tony are currently in the process of gathering the crew and auditioning for the two lead roles. Veteran Vancouver actor John Cassini has signed on for the role of the villain, Ray, a corrupt businessman, and his brother Frank Cassini will also feature. Tony and John worked on Comedy Network together, and Tony said John is “such a presence … he could read the phone book and make it interesting.” Tony also noted that John brings “an authenticity to the role – it’s not a two-dimensional villain, it’s a very textured antagonist.”
The latest casting announcement came just this past Monday, on Feb. 27. Canadian actor Bill Marchant will play, according to the film’s website, the “mentor character, Elliot Williams, a troubled psychologist with a dark secret.”
The Smith brothers are taking a unique approach to their pre-production process, documenting the journey through semi-monthly webisodes.
Volition is being produced by Smith Brothers Film Company in partnership with Paly Productions Inc., and Paly has been a “driving force behind doing this indie webisode marketing,” said Tony. The brothers, who are normally private about their creative process, liked the approach of “getting to know our audience from day one and welcom[ing] them into the process so we can build a grassroot connection with them.”
Readers can check out the webisodes and follow the brothers’ journey on volitionthemovie.com.
Alice Howell is a graduate of the University of Otago in New Zealand, with a bachelor of arts in film and media studies and a bachelor of science in psychology. She is a writer and actor based in Vancouver.
Wildlife takes over the Zack
The Intersection of Science & Art, now at Zack Gallery until March 24, features the works of Joanne Emerman and Mike Cohene. (photo by Olga Livshin)
The Intersection of Science & Art exhibit at Zack Gallery features the works of two artists – Joanne Emerman, professor emerita of physiological sciences at the University of British Columbia, for whom photography has been a hobby for decades; and Mike Cohene, whose woodcarving unfolded unexpectedly in the past few years, after a lifetime of other pursuits.
Emerman explained that, for her, science and art have always intersected. “I worked for 33 years in cancer research. I only retired four years ago. I’m a scientist. I often used my photo camera, attached to the microscope, to photograph cells.”
Her hobby, especially her photos of animals, seems an extension of her scientific imagery.
“My photographs show how animals adapt to their environment. Every feature you see in the pictures is a result of natural selection, the survival of the fittest,” she said. “The individuals with adaptations suited to their environment will live long enough to breed and pass down those traits to their offspring, whereas the individuals that don’t adapt will die off. For the natural selection to work, several factors must be present, including the overproduction of offspring. They must ‘reproduce like rabbits.’ Also beneficial are variations due to mutations. They increase the likelihood of survival.”
Because of her scientific leanings, Emerman tries to capture in every shot the most significant characteristics of each animal, the ones that contributed to the survival of the species, like the stripes of a zebra, the legs of a tortoise or the fins of a turtle. She also documents the endless variations in nature in her thousands of photo frames.
Of course, to photograph exotic creatures, she has had to travel widely.
“I’ve always traveled a lot,” she said, “all over the world, and photographed during my travels…. I love animals but I love them in the wild. I never photograph animals in cages. The pictures in this show are all of animals and birds in their natural habitat. I took them in the Galapagos Islands and several South African game reserves. I tried to get as close to the animals as I could with my camera.”
The quality of the images reveals Emerman as a master photographer, although she is mostly self-taught. “I never took any classes on photography until I retired four years ago,” she said. “Then I decided to learn, and enrolled in a basic photography course at Emily Carr. I thought I would know everything they had to teach, or almost everything – I mean, it was called basics – but I learned so much!”
Eventually, the time was right for this show, her first gallery exhibit. “I was retired. I thought, maybe I should exhibit my pictures. I never did before. I submitted to the Zack Gallery, and the jury accepted me.”
Another first for her was meeting Cohene. Linda Lando, the gallery director, introduced them.
“Linda said, ‘We have a wonderful carver. He carves fish and birds. His works will complement yours.’ She put us together,” explained Emerman.
Cohene’s artistic journey started in 2009.
“In the summer of 2009, I visited Steveston Farmers Market,” he recalled. “They had a booth of the local woodcarvers club. I looked at their works and thought, outstanding! I could never do anything like that. I’m not artistic, though I always whittled. Professionally, I had a clothing business until I sold it awhile back. The man in the booth talked to me and said, come to the club in September. You can do it. So I went.”
His first carving was a baby bear, and he loved it. After that came a dolphin and then some fish.
“I felt good about my carving but I wanted to learn more,” said Cohene. “I started attending woodcarving classes at the Richmond Carvers Society – enjoyed it so much, took a course at Emily Carr.” He also participated in an intensive 10-day workshop with world-renowned master fish carver Dale Barrett of Redmond, Ore.
Cohene carves what interests him: wildlife, fish and birds mostly. “I’m a fisherman, have been all my life, but I never studied the fish anatomy before. I caught a fish and tossed it into a bucket. Now, I catch a fish and study it: the fins, the tail, the colour of scales. I look at fish from a different perspective now.”
To carve and paint his creations as realistically as possible, he uses reference material. “I take photos of what I catch or search for photos online,” he explained. “Sometimes, when I take commissions, people send me photos of the fish they caught and they want me to carve it.”
An active member of the Richmond Carvers Society, he regularly participates in the carvers’ juried exhibitions in British Columbia and Oregon. He has already collected a few “best in the show” awards for his work. However, as with Emerman, the exhibit at the Zack is his first gallery show.
Cohene has a second line of woodcarving, totally unrelated to his life-like creatures: Judaica. “A couple years ago, I brought 12 kilos of olive wood from Israel,” he said. “Each piece of wood was reclaimed from trees that had been in the fire of Har Carmel. I make mezuzot and dreidels from this olive wood, and people like them.”
To learn more about his carving, visit his website, mikecohene.com.
The Intersection of Science & Art opened on Feb. 23 and runs until March 24. Emerman is given an exhibit-related talk – Looking through the Lens of a Microscope and the Lens of a Camera – on March 21, 7 p.m., at the gallery. The suggested admission is a donation of $5. For more information, visit jccgv.com/content/jcc-cultural-arts.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Dance that speaks out
Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion’s The Gettin’ is among the repertoire the company will be bringing to Vancouver March 11-13 for the Chutzpah! Festival. (photo by Jerry and Lois Photography)
Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion is bringing to Western Canada for the first time a sample of its acclaimed repertoire, including The Gettin’, Quiet Dance and excerpts from the company’s newest work, Dearest Home. They will perform at the Chutzpah! Festival March 11-13.
“Dearest Home is a new evening-length work that is broken up into solos and duets dealing with love, longing and loss,” explained Kyle Abraham in an interview with the Independent. “Some of the themes, and movement itself, were derived from the workshops and conversations that took place during residencies. The excerpts that are shown in this program were made during a residency at the Hopkins Centre for the Arts, Dartmouth College.”
Politics, identity, justice and freedom are some of the other themes Abraham explores in his work.
“I try to create work that reflects society as I see it,” he said. “Sometimes people see hope in that and sometimes people see the disparity that is in closer correlation to my experience growing up in this country. But, there is also purposefully the possibility of seeing both hope and disparity in my work; I think that speaks to the conflict and tensions that have been in this country for a long period of time. There are stories that are from an earlier time, but the work winds up correlating with current events basically because of the cyclical nature of history repeating itself over and over again. With that work so often comes a direct smack in the face that there is still so much more progress to be made. I like to make work that speaks to all those things.”
Religion also plays a part in some of Abraham’s creations.
“Since my parents passed, and since my mother’s more recent passing, I have had a really conflicting connection with religion and spirituality in a larger sense,” he said. “I was very curious as a child when it came to religion. I think there’s so much history in religion, in so many different ways. My parents were of different Christian faiths: my father was raised in an Episcopalian church, my mother was raised in a Baptist church, and I purposely chose to go to Hebrew school. I think that shows that I was really interested in learning about different faiths and trying to figure out where I fit in.
“It’s a tricky thing. Just because your parents believe something doesn’t mean that’s what you will believe. Just because your friends believe something doesn’t mean that’s ultimately what you’ll wind up believing yourself. But, I’ve always been curious about religion and faith in some way, shape or form, and have spent time in different religious spaces through points in my life. The last religious space I was in was a (Jewish) temple; that was in October for a friend of mine’s mother’s passing. And then, before that, it was my mother’s passing, in a Baptist church.”
While his parents weren’t artists per se, Abraham said the arts were encouraged at home, and that his parents “were really creative people because they worked in education and they had to come up with inventive ways to really push education forward in the public school system.”
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Abraham’s education in dance started relatively late in life.
“I started studying dance the summer I turned 17, when I took a boys jazz class,” he said. “The catalyst for this was seeing the Joffrey Ballet performing in Pittsburgh to Prince’s music, which was the first dance performance I ever saw. I also had some good friends that were in musical theatre that I went to raves with, and they suggested that I audition for our high school musical.”
Though he has made a career of dance, before Abraham started on that route, he studied music. And, when he took a break from dancing for a few years, it was to music he returned.
“For so much of my life, music has been my first passion,” he said. “When I was a senior in college, I thought about moving to England to study studio composition, to make electronic music, but, during that same year, I started taking company classes with Bill T. Jones. I was later offered an apprenticeship, which led to joining the company very briefly after college.
“That experience was very telling for me, because it helped me realize that even though I really loved that company and wanted to be around them, I preferred being a part of the creative space around the dancers rather than being a dancer myself within the company. I had a very hard time with making mistakes with an artist’s work that I respected so much. I felt like I was ruining the possibilities for people to be inspired by messing up, which is such a heavy burden to bear that I needed to find a healthier way into dance.
“When I quit dancing,” he said, “I started working in record stores; I would meet up with friends and I would maybe sing over some records for friends while playing around in the studio making songs. I also worked at the Andy Warhol Museum as an artist educator. During that time, I thought about different facets of my artistic interests growing up; for example, bringing in music at times, bringing in movement and finding ways we could connect those art forms to Warhol’s work. That’s primarily what I was doing with that time off.
“My way back into dance started when I was dating a visual artist. At the time, we both wanted to move to England so we thought that the best way for us to do that would be for both of us to get into school in England. I also applied to NYU [New York University], just as a backup plan in case I didn’t go to Europe – maybe I would go to NYU and see what New York was like again. We both ended up going to school in London, where I attended the [Trinity] Laban School. I went to Laban for maybe a couple months, but I was frustrated by the lack of opportunities I had to really dance: to make dance, take classes, etc. So, I left school and spent the rest of my time there focusing on trying new things (i.e. singing). I eventually moved to New York to go to NYU to figure out what my relationship to dance could be.”
Abraham received his bachelor in fine arts from the State University of New York at Purchase (2000) and his master’s from NYU (2006). He is a multiple award-winner, for both his choreography and performance. He has performed with many notable companies, and his works have been performed not only by his company, Abraham.In.Motion, which he founded in 2006, but others, as well, throughout the United States and abroad.
About one of the pieces set to have its West Coast première next weekend, Rachael Carnes of eugeneweekly.com wrote, “… The Quiet Dance, a quintet set to Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Some Other Time,’ this work built organically around simple gestures, from the swivel of knees and elbows side to side, to the slow descent of a head, alone, or against another. Abraham played with connection here, relating dancers to self and other, finding moments of counterpoint, without being heavy-handed or glossy. His organic style delved into lovely canonical structures without feeling artificial or contrived, as he boldly carved the stage space into two separate fields of vision.”
About The Gettin’, she wrote, “set to Robert Glasper’s interpretation of Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, Abraham plows even more deeply into the roots of racism, exploring the similarities between apartheid South Africa and the U.S.
“Jazzy and lyrical, yet pointed and gripping, this piece sings from a deep, guttural place.”
Abraham.In.Motion performs March 11 and 13, 8 p.m., and March 12, 7 p.m., at Rothstein Theatre. For tickets ($29.47-$36.46) and the full Chutzpah! schedule, call 604-257-5145 or visit chutzpahfestival.com.
We must be united
More than 100 headstones were vandalized at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in University City, Missouri. (screenshot from cbc.ca video )
We do not need to delineate the full roster of antisemitic incidents that have made the news recently. Toppled headstones, bomb threats against Jewish institutions, spray-painted swastikas, defaced mezuzot, hate messages left on doors, physical assaults in France.
On the one hand, there is a necessity to catalogue and condemn each and every incident – and police and Jewish community organizations are doing this. On the other hand, for the sake of our own individual and collective sense of security and peace of mind, we must try to assimilate these incidents into some sort of coherent narrative that, hopefully, does not lead to panic.
For the sort of individual who would desecrate a cemetery after dark, there could be a perverse thrill in making global news for what may have been little more than a drunken act on a Saturday night. The fact is that these acts – in North America certainly – are perpetrated by a tiny number of individuals. A somewhat larger number of dedicated antisemites will take cruel pleasure in the grief and fear these acts instil in Jewish communities and individuals.
The most important thing is how the great majority of people react to such incidents. It is deeply heartening to see Muslim communities uniting with Jewish communities to make right as many of the toppled gravestones as possible in St. Louis and Philadelphia. This is a model of unity in the face of hatred.
It is also necessary for the broader public – those neither Jewish nor Muslim or having membership in other targeted groups – to express their outrage and opposition to such expressions.
The situations in which Jewish and Muslim Americans find themselves are different. Muslims are being specifically targeted not only by racist individuals and groups, but by agencies of the state. This is a particularly frightening scenario. Jews are being targeted by apparently random acts of desecration and hatred. This is frightening in a somewhat different way, in that government actions, ideally, are subject to the checks and balances set out in the U.S. Constitution and we hope that those safeguards survive and thrive in this era.
Imagine deplaning after a domestic flight in the United States and being met by security officials demanding to know “Are you a Jew?” This is an immensely chilling prospect. And this is precisely what some Muslim travelers have experienced in recent days: officials of the state demanding identification papers and inquiring as to whether travelers are Muslim. Additionally alarming is the fact that many people would probably never have heard about these incidents had one of those who experienced it not been Muhammad Ali Jr. Thank goodness, at least in this context, for America’s celebrity culture.
While there have been innumerable antisemitic incidents in recent years, those who are not immersed in such news are often only dimly aware of the frequency and increasing severity of these events. When a Jewish friend posts news of a new attack on social media, you will thankfully see condemnation from Jewish and non-Jewish friends alike. But you are as likely to see shock and disbelief.
More important than what Martin Luther King Jr. called the strident clamour of the bad people, in times like these, is the appalling silence of the good people. Part of this is caused by the refraction of media and the isolated silos of information in which we have surrounded ourselves, so that we do not encounter ideas or news from outside our respective bubbles. There are many people who simply do not yet know the extent of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents taking place.
Those who do know are elected officials in positions of power. It is heartening to see Canadian leaders and many in the United States Congress expressing solidarity with the victims and condemning the perpetrators. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence has been at the frontline of showing solidarity with targeted Jewish communities, at least. Getting appropriate remarks out of President Donald Trump has been troublingly difficult.
We may not be able to pre-empt the actions of individuals who are driven to topple gravestones or call in bomb threats. But the finest antidote to such incidents is for ordinary people to come together in condemning these acts and speaking out in favour of the values of respect and inclusiveness. As a targeted community, Jewish Canadians and Americans have a unique role in both making others aware of what is happening and showing our Muslim friends and fellow citizens that we stand with them, as they are standing with us in communities where desecrations have taken place.
Acknowledging – and demonstrating – that we are all in this together is our best hope for thriving in these times.
United against racism
Artur Wilczynski, Canada’s ambassador to Norway, gave the keynote address at the Feb. 22 SUCCESS community forum. (photo from SUCCESS)
SUCCESS’s Safeguarding Our Communities, Upholding Our Shared Values: A Community Forum on Immigration and Racial Discrimination was a full-house event at University of British Columbia Robson Square on Feb. 22.
The keynote speaker, Artur Wilczynski, Canada’s ambassador to Norway, shared his family’s story about how they survived the Holocaust and came to Canada. “I am a Polish, a Jewish, a Quebecois. Most important, I am a Canadian,” he noted.
“Diplomacy doesn’t give you immunity from discrimination but gives you a platform to speak against it,” he said.
“It is important for Canadians to speak out against various forms of discrimination and xenophobia. As an immigrant to this country and the son of Holocaust survivors, I have been privileged to serve my country as an ambassador and senior official. It is why I feel it is my obligation to work towards a more inclusive and respectful Canada.”
He thanked SUCCESS for allowing him to share his story at the forum.
Wilczynski’s keynote address was preceded by two panel discussions. Panelists included, among others, Dr. Robert Krell, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre founding president and outreach speaker; Dr. Gurdeep Parhar, University of British Columbia faculty of medicine; Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, Reconciliation Canada ambassador; and Sarah Al-Qaysi, program assistant, SUCCESS. SUCCESS chief executive officer Queenie Choo welcomed the audience to the forum. Among the sponsoring organizations of the event were the Jewish Independent, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
At the facilitated discussion for Call for Actions, a group of young audience members raised questions on how they could share the knowledge they learned at the forum with those who were not able to attend.
SUCCESS will be launching a series of community roundtables across Metro Vancouver. These facilitated conversations will create a platform for community members to share and reflect on thoughts on diversity and inclusion, while engaging them in thought-provoking discussions regarding cultural integration in our community – to build safe, strong and enlightened neighbourhoods. Each session will be held at one of SUCCESS’s local offices or another accessible community location.
SUCCESS will also create a documentary video, featuring interviews with immigrants and community leaders, about the value and contributions of immigrants in Canada. The video will be distributed through multiple channels, including a special screening video launch, online and social media networks, and grassroots outreach through high schools and universities to help educate future generations about the stories of immigrants in Canada, who we are and where we are from.
Guichon visit RJDS
The Hon. Judith Guichon with Richmond Jewish Day School students. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
Students at Richmond Jewish Day School were thrilled to receive a visit from the Hon. Judith Guichon, lieutenant governor of British Columbia, on Feb. 22. Guichon addressed students on her role in Canada’s constitutional monarchy and shared her ideas about a healthy, sustainable future. To mark the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation, the lieutenant governor is visiting 150 schools across the province.
Time to make hamantashen
When Eastern Europeans immigrated to America, they brought their hamantashen recipes with them. (photo from Infrogmation via Wikimedia Commons)
When it comes to Purim pastries, hamantashen are what most of us think of first. The word is taken from the German mohn, meaning poppy seeds, and taschen, referring to pockets. Some say the pockets refer to Haman, who stuffed his pockets with bribe money.
The original name, mohntaschen, and the tradition of eating them, may date back as far as the 12th century. Israeli historian, caterer and cook Shmil Holland says that, when Jews fled Germany for Eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages, they took the poppy seed pastry with them and added the Yiddish prefix ha, thus making it hamantash.
In the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Gil Marks (z”l) writes that Eastern Europeans and their foods came to dominate the Ashkenazi world in the 19th century, and “hamantashen emerged as the quintessential Ashkenazic Purim treat.” The original dough was kuchen, a rich yeast dough, and common fillings include poppy seeds, chocolate, prunes or other fruit fillings. When Eastern Europeans immigrated to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the idea came with them.
(An aside: In 18th-century Bohemia, Jews added a prune filling. The story is that a local merchant was accused of selling poisoned plum jam; when he was cleared of the charges, his family marked the occasion as a holiday, called povidl Purim, or plum jam Purim.)
In addition to the pocket imagery, several other explanations have been suggested for the triangular shape of hamantashen. Some say they represent a triangular-shaped hat worn by Haman, the villain in the Purim story, and that we eat them as a reminder that his cruel plot was foiled. Others say they represent Esther’s strength and the three founders of Judaism: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as a midrash says that, while reflecting on his plan to get rid of the Jews, Haman realized the three Patriarchs would intercede.
Yet another explanation lies in the cookies’ name in Israel, oznei Haman, Haman’s ears – perhaps referencing an old custom of cutting off the ears of criminals before they were executed. When the resulting treat became known as Haman’s ears for Purim is unknown, although it is mentioned as early as 1550. However, according to Marks, historical oznei Haman were strips of dough fried in honey or sugar syrup – a 13th-century Andalusian cookbook has a recipe for this “ear” dish and it was adopted by Sephardim.
Whatever their name, the reason behind eating hamantashen remains the same: remembering how close the Jewish people came to tragedy and celebrating the fact that they escaped death.
Here are some recipes from my family for your own celebration of Purim, which starts this year on March 12. My grandmother (z”l) made the most beautiful-looking yeast hamantashen.
GRANDMA’S PRUNE FILLING
1 1/2 cups finely cut prunes
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
- Place prunes in a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until soft.
- Mash prunes, add sugar and lemon juice.
GRANDMA’S POPPY SEED FILLING
1 cup ground poppy seeds
1/4 cup milk or water
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
- Place poppy seeds, milk or water, butter or margarine, raisins, nuts and honey in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until milk or water is absorbed.
- Add vanilla.
GRANDMA’S YEAST HAMANTASHEN
4 tsp dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
4-5 cups flour
vegetable oil
Day before baking:
- Dissolve yeast in a bowl with warm milk. Let stand.
- Beat eggs and sugar in a bowl. Add yeast mixture, butter or margarine, salt and sour cream and blend well.
- Add four cups flour and mix thoroughly. Gradually add the rest of the flour and knead until the dough is smooth and does not stick to your hands.
- Grease a large mixing bowl and add the dough. Turn the dough until it is covered with the oil. Cover with a cloth and refrigerate overnight.
Next day:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet.
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured board to 1/4-inch thick.
- Cut into 16 squares. Place a spoonful of filling on each. Fold to form triangles. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise one hour until double in size.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until brown.
MOM’S COOKIE HAMANTASHEN
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
juice of half an orange or 1/2 cup sour cream
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet.
- In a mixing bowl, blend eggs, sugar and margarine.
- Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.
- Add vanilla and orange juice or sour cream and blend into a dough. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
- Roll out dough 1/4-inch thick. Cut into three-inch circles. Place one tablespoon of filling in the centre of each and fold to make a triangle. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer and food writer in Jerusalem. She created and leads the weekly English-language Shuk Walks in Machaneh Yehudah, she has compiled and edited nine kosher cookbooks, and is the author of Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel.
