עשרות בורחים וארה”ב ועוברים את הגבול לקנדה בתקווה לזכות במקלט (צילום: Jimz47 via Wikimedia)
בחירתו של דונלד טראמפ לנשיאות ארצות הברית והכרזתו כי יאסור על כניסת מוסלמים ממספר מדינות וילחם במהגרים הלא חוקיים במדינה, הגדילה משמעותית את מספר אלה שעוברים לקנדה. לפי הערכה מראשית השנה מאות בני אדם עברו את הגבול לקנדה באמצעות נמלי האוור והיבשה, בתוך תקווה להינות ממעמד של פליטים ולזכות במקלט. המגיעים מארה”ב מתחלקים לשתי קבוצות עיקריות. אלה שנולדו במדינות ערב ויש להם מעמד חוקי בארה”ב, אך הם חוששים ממדיניות ההגירה החדשה של טראמפ. הם מגיעים לקנדה בעיקר בטיסות ומוכנים להליך קבלת מעמד של פליטים (הם מצויידים במסמכים ובכסף). על הקבוצה השנייה המסתננים – נמנים בעיקר מוסלמים מאפריקה שאין להם מעמד חוקי בארה”ב, וכצפוי גם הם חוששים לעתידם תחת שלטון טראמפ. הם חוצים את הגבול ושמחים להיתפס על ידי משטרה הפדרלית של קנדה שעוזרת להם. השוטרים בודקים את מצבם, מעניקים להם בגדים חמים ועוזרים להם לעלות את ילדיהם וחפציהם למכוניות המשטרה לאחר שקשרו את ידיהם. לאחר מכן הם מועברים לידי משטרת הגבולות של קנדה שעוזרת להם להתחיל בהליכי הבקשה לקבל מעמד של פליטים ולאחר מכן מקלט.
מרבית המסתננים מארה”ב חוצים את הגבול היבשתי לעבר מחוזות קוויבק ומניטובה (בעיקר לפנות בוקר), כיוון שאזורים אלה נחשבים לקלים “יחסית” למעבר רגלי. אך בגלל תנאי החורף הקשים ששוררים באזור המסתננים מסתכנים בחייהם, וחלקם אף מאבדים אצבעות לאחר צעידה של קילומטרים בקור העז. חלקם (בעיקר אלה שבאים עם בני משפחה וילדים) מצליחים למצוא מוניות, שיעזרו להם לחצות את הגבול, או שהם נעזרים במבריחים (ונאלצים לשלם אלפי דולרים). כל זאת עד לנקודות השיטור של המשטרה. כוחות הצלה קנדיים בהם אמבולנסים, פעילי הגירה ומתנדבים נמצאים באזורי הגבול, כדי לעזור למסתננים ולהעניק טיפול רפואי ראשוני לניזקקים.
לאור הגידול במספר המסתננים מארה”ב הוגדלו תקציבי הישובים הסמוכים לגבול המטפלים בהם. גם ראשי המחוזות נרתמים לעזור בתקציבים ואמצעים, וכן נעשתה פנייה לקבל עזרה מהממשלה הפדרלית. גם סוכנות האו”ם לפליטים החלה לבדוק את תופעת המסתננים לקנדה מקרוב. במשטרת הגבולות הקנדית מעריכים כי מאז נובמבר עת נבחר טראמפ לנשיא, מספר המבקשים לקבל מעמד של פליטים בקנדה עומד על כ-1,500 איש. ואילו בכל 2016 כשבעת אלפים איש עברו את הגבול היבשתי וביקשו מעמד של פליטים בקנדה. זהו גידול של כ-63 אחוזים לעומת שנת 2015. רק בינואר השנה כחמש מאות מסתננים הגיעו לקוויבק ולפחות כמאה וחמישים הגיעו למניטובה, וביקשו מעמד של פליטים בקנדה. לא ידוע על מספר המסתננים לקנדה שלא פונים לשלטונות והם פשוט נעלמים ברחבי המדינה הגדולה הזו.
להערכת גורמים מקצועיים עם השתפרות מזג האוויר ובוא האביב והגברת מדיניות ההגירה של טראמפ נגד פליטים וזרים, מספר המסתננים מארה”ב לקנדה יגדל משמעותית. לאור זאת מונטריאול הכריזה על עצמה בימים אלה כעיר מקלט לפליטים – שזה אומר להתחייב לעזור להם בהסדרת מעמדם החוקי ולא לגרש אותם. קדמו לה: טורונטו, המילטון ולונדון – כולן ממחוז אונטריו וונקובר שבבריטיש קולומביה. ערים נוספות בקנדה שוקלות להפוך לערי מקלט.
פליטים לא יכולים לעבור את הגבול מארה”ב לקנדה באופן חוקי כיוון, שלאור אמנה הבינלאומית בין שתי המדינות “הסכם המדינה השלישית הבטוחה”, עליהם לבקש מעמד של פליטים במדינה הראשונה אליה הגיעו (ארה”ב), לאחר שעזבו את מולדתם. אך אם הם מגיעים באופן לא חוקי הם כן יכולים לבקש מקלט.
Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation’s new executive director, Stephen Shapiro. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
It’s been awhile since Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation had an executive director, but the fundraising branch of the organization is in good hands since Stephen Shapiro took the position in January.
A Calgarian who moved to Vancouver in 2000, Shapiro comes with impressive credentials. He served as president and chief executive officer of St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation for five years, fundraised at the University of British Columbia with former university president Martha Piper for six years and was deeply involved in cultural affairs and youth direction at the Calgary Jewish Community Centre prior to that.
“I feel I’m at a point in my career when I’ve accomplished a lot in the non-Jewish community and I want to give back to my own community,” Shapiro told the Independent. “I really believe in the mission, philosophy and work this particular institution does. I think our Jewish seniors are a very important part of our community and, with the history they represent, they should be treated with dignity and respect in their later years.”
Shapiro intends to grow the foundation from its current annual fundraising target of between $1 million and $1.2 million. He hopes to at least double that target in the coming years and sees lots of potential opportunities to fundraise in the non-Jewish community.
“Much of Louis Brier is publicly funded,” he said. “There are 215 beds this side of the organization that are contracted through Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and 40% of our population is non-Jewish. But 99% of the donors to this organization are Jewish. So, part of my mandate is to bring my knowledge of fundraising in the non-Jewish community to apply here.”
Louis Brier is at a crossroads, he added, with much of the building at the end of its lifecycle. Still, a complete redevelopment plan is a number of years away, which means two distinct fundraising efforts are required. “We’re raising money for what we need in the next five to seven years, as well as planning longer term down the road for a potentially new campus,” he said. “Right now, our job is to look after today’s needs and today’s current residents, until such a time that we can build a new facility.”
Immediate needs include improved lounges, better furniture, new freezers in the kitchen and updated security and computer systems, he said.
“The practice of care has changed and evolved and we have to change with that,” Shapiro explained. “Certain things are no longer acceptable – for example, parking people in a hallway to look out the window all day because there’s not enough lounge space. That kind of thing is not considered OK anymore. With some physical improvements and relatively minor renovations, we can do things that improve our lounges and public spaces.”
Because Louis Brier is the largest contracted facility within the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, now is a crucial time to make these upgrades, he added. “Given the size and demographics of the Jewish community, there’s a whole generation of people who are going to need our services quite soon. If anything, given the aging of our population, I think the Jewish needs at Louis Brier will rise, not diminish.”
Shapiro hopes to motivate non-Jews who have family members at Louis Brier to give back to the institution by finding projects in research and best practices that might be of interest to them. “Whether it’s in partnership with UBC or other institutions, promoting excellence in research and clinical care is the way to go here,” he stated. “Everybody could potentially have an interest in that.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Allen and Karen Kaeja perform their latest lifeDUETS series March 9-11, as part of the Vancouver International Dance Festival. (photo by Zhenya Cerneacov)
As a dancer, how do you tell the story of a couple’s life together that has deep roots but is continually evolving? The Kaejas decided to commission two different pieces from two different choreographers. The result is the latest in their lifeDUETS series, which comprises a structured piece that is more or less consistent in every performance, and another that constantly changes.
Allen and Karen Kaeja established Kaeja d’Dance in 1991. The Toronto-based couple commissioned three duets about 20 years ago, and the newest two were commissioned in 2015 for their 25th anniversary. It is this anniversary pair – one by Tedd Robinson, the other by Benjamin Kamino – that the Kaejas will share at Roundhouse Performance Centre March 9-11, as part of the Vancouver International Dance Festival, which runs March 1-25 at various local venues.
“We’ve always performed together, but improvised, and I suggested this idea of commissioning choreographers,” said Karen in an interview with the Independent over speakerphone.
“We commissioned Claudia Moore … Peter Bingham from out west, and then we did our own lifeDUET, and commissioned Marie-Josée Chartier. Those years of commissioning ended in 2001,” said Allen.
Variations of that program toured throughout Canada, the United States and many other parts of the world. “And then,” said Karen, “for our 25th anniversary, that’s where I thought we should really reinstitute the lifeDUETS and commission more people. At that time, Allen was performing less, so it took a little bit of nudging and, together, we decided on bringing someone into the fold who was highly experienced and created pieces on so many Canadians, which is Tedd, and then someone who was up-and-coming who was in the realm of experimentation.”
“And that was Benjamin Kamino,” said Allen. “And so, two opposites of the spectrum.”
The two pieces were collaborative works. “We created together with both of them, so both choreographers say in their program notes, created with and performed by us,” explained Allen. “They were both created for our 25th anniversary, as Karen was saying, and Tedd’s is called 25 to 1. He talked to a very dear friend of his, Peter Boneham, about, what am I going to do with these two guys?” The semi-joking response, said Allen, was to put the couple in a tent having sex (though less delicately phrased).
“But then, of course, the whole thing began to evolve, and became this really gorgeous duet. And what was beautiful about that was that neither of them knew that Karen and I, in our dating years, would do wilderness camping up in Algonquin, in Temagami; we’d go out for 10 days to two weeks at a time. We loved wilderness camping, so it really resonated at home with us, but they didn’t have any idea.”
As for the idea that sparked Kamino’s piece, Karen said, “I think his vision came from the concept of ‘becoming’ each other, and that was the initial seed. Because we have this history of all these years, instead of having us do what people know us to do, which is a lot of partnering and so on, he would create a work where we almost never touched each other, where we would become each other to different degrees to a scored creation, because we knew each other so well.”
Karen said that every work created for her takes her off guard – “because it takes me on a tangent that I would not go myself” – and these two were no different. “Ben’s is really quite raw and exposed,” she said, “and that was a very beautiful inter-relational process, of becoming each other – and having him witness, as a choreographer. That process, for me, was like a mindful trio, very different than me and Allen being in the studio creating a work.”
Robinson and Kamino were creating works on a significant and special relationship, she said, and she and Allen “in a way, had to open our door and let them in.”
“Karen and I met in 1981 and started dueting 36 years ago, but started dating 32 years ago … so, our physical connection has a longevity that most people don’t know together,” said Allen, referring to its dance aspect. “As Karen was saying, a lot of our dueting is improvised, so we’re continuously surprising each other, we’re continuously living in this state of unpredictability, and yet a depth of knowledge about [each other].”
“Or catching each other’s predictabilities and challenging those,” interjected Karen.
“That, as well,” admitted Allen. “That being said, Tedd’s piece is tightly, tightly, tightly choreographed, to almost every beat in the music. There is very little room for variation. Whereas, in Ben’s piece, there’s only one moment that’s set and even that is an improvisation, so it really captures our life and our existence together.”
After a brief discussion about how many moments are indeed set – which wasn’t definitely resolved – Allen said, “The emotionality of the work, especially with becoming each other, with Ben’s piece, it’s a very different type of piece because we are continuously asking ourselves questions. For example, I was there when Karen’s father passed away, and so I would ask a question, what would my last dance be for my father’s final minutes, things like that. It’s got an emotional resonance that nobody would know but her. For me, it’s not only a vulnerable place and a personal place, but it puts me into her being, her essence. I’ll never know how Karen is truly feeling … but it allows me a window into her soul, to be my perception of where she is at.”
The Kamino piece is different every night, said Karen, “because we work with imagery that comes to us; it’s not set imagery.”
While not religious, Allen described he and Karen as “Jewish to the core.”
“Some of our works have touched upon that aspect of our lives,” he said. “But, as creative artists, I would say the connection to being Jewish, in a sense, is that connection of always questioning, of not being satisfied with an answer.”
“But I would say that that is universal,” said Karen. “I don’t think that’s particularly Jewish, but that’s what’s led us, our heritage.”
Allen’s father was a survivor, and Allen has done series of works on his father’s life during the Holocaust, including two trilogies of films, he said, some of which are housed at Yad Vashem, in its permanent collection, as well as in the permanent collections of New York’s Jewish Museum, and Museum of Modern Art.
Karen said her parents never approved of her becoming a dancer, and certainly not her marrying one. “Acceptance came later,” she said, “after the commitment to our career went forward and they saw what fruits were coming. It’s a long road, establishing oneself as a dance artist…. But, here we are, 27 years into the company.”
For tickets to lifeDUETS and the full festival lineup, visit vidf.ca/tickets or call 604-662-4966.
B.C. Liberal candidate Gabe Garfinkel. (photo by Larry Garfinkel)
Gabe Garfinkel was nominated Sunday afternoon, Feb. 19, by the B.C. Liberals in Vancouver-Fairview. The former aide to Premier Christy Clark defeated Elizabeth Ball, a Vancouver city councilor. He will be up against incumbent New Democrat George Heyman in the provincial election scheduled for May 9. Garfinkel credits support in the Jewish community for his nomination. “I come from four generations in Vancouver-Fairview,” he told the Independent after his victory. “My grandfather was the kosher butcher on 15th and Oak. My parents have lived here their whole lives and so have I. The community was instrumental in this nomination and I’m so thankful for all their support. I cannot wait to serve the Jewish community in Victoria.”
Garfinkel was profiled in the JI Dec. 2. The paper is inviting all Jewish candidates in the election to be profiled in advance of the election.
Judy Darcy with her father, Youli. (photo from Judy Darcy)
For years, Judy Darcy’s father carried in his wallet a photo of a little girl. It was one of very few mementoes of the man’s past – a murky history that Darcy and her siblings have only partially reconstructed.
Darcy, the member of the Legislative Assembly for New Westminster, went public with her father’s story on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, tweeting: “… my heart is with my dad who lost family members & kept his Jewishness secret from us to keep us safe.”
The Darcy family had a lot of secrets. Her father had no living relatives and he never spoke of what had happened to them.
MLA Judy Darcy (photo from Judy Darcy)
“My father’s history was very murky,” she recently told the Independent. “Everything about his family and his relatives was murky and he explained it by saying that he fought in the war and there was a lot of bombing and that he suffered amnesia. I knew he had siblings; I didn’t know any details. I didn’t know how they died. I knew he’d lost track of them. And that he’d lost his memory. It was just grey and murky.”
When Darcy was an infant, the family moved from Europe to Sarnia, Ont., where her father worked in the petrochemical industry. With his wife, he raised a family and progressed in his career. Late in life, after he had retired and been widowed, he moved to Toronto, where his grown children had settled.
“And not long after he moved to Toronto,” Darcy said, “he went to Holy Blossom synagogue and met with Rabbi Gunter Plaut, because he wanted to atone for having abandoned his community.”
Darcy knows nothing of what the conversations between her father and the late, legendary rabbi involved, or whether there was one meeting or a series, but she believes her father took great strength and relief from whatever it was Plaut told him.
Her father began attending the Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living, a Jewish seniors facility, and formed a companionship with a Jewish woman. But stories of the past came slowly, and not expansively.
“He didn’t sit us down,” Darcy recalled, “it just became part of what he talked about.”
Through snippets of their father’s recollections, shards of history they already knew and the discovery of a recording he made shortly before he died for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, the siblings pieced together as complete a story of their family’s past as they are likely to assemble.
Jules (Youli) Simonovich Borunsky was born in 1904 in Lithuania to a Russian-Jewish family. He grew up mostly in Moscow but, in the early 1920s, the family moved to France.
“He always said it was because of the revolution,” Darcy said, “which was partly true, I’m sure, because they owned a factory.” She wonders whether antisemitism also propelled them.
Youli served in the French army, was taken prisoner during the Battle of Dunkirk, in the spring of 1940, and was imprisoned in northern Germany.
“He managed to stay alive in the prisoner-of-war camp because they didn’t find out that he was Jewish,” Darcy said. While a prisoner-of-war, Youli regularly received letters from his wife, Jeanne-Helene, a Catholic Parisienne he had wed before the war.
“She sent him letters every day loaded with Catholicisms,” said Darcy. “And sometimes with little Catholic medals, in order to try to pretend that he was Catholic, not Jewish. Again, I only find all of this out much, much later.”
Through some sort of arrangement facilitated by the International Red Cross (one of many aspects of the story still cloaked in mystery), he was released and made his way back, mostly on foot, to Paris. There, he was reunited with Jeanne-Helene, as well as with his widowed father, Simeon.
Paris was under Nazi occupation and Youli convinced his father that he would be safer going to live with Youli’s sister Rosa, his brother-in-law and their toddler daughter, in Kovno, Lithuania.
Judy Darcy’s father, Youli, kept a photo of his sister Rosa’s daughter in his wallet. His niece and her parents were killed in the Holocaust. (photo from Judy Darcy)
Simeon took Youli’s advice. The timing, though, was catastrophic. According to what her father told her, four days after Simeon arrived in Kovno, the Nazis invaded. Pro-Nazi Lithuanians launched pogroms that, later combined with Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), murdered almost all of Kovno’s substantial Jewish population. Youli assumed the victims included his father, sister, brother-in-law and the little girl whose photo he would carry in his wallet for years.
Youli had other siblings, Darcy discovered – a sister and brother-in-law who he believed had fled, or were relocated, to Siberia, and another sister about whose fate he had no inkling at all.
“He carried tremendous guilt,” Darcy said of her father. “The guilt of having survived when others died and the guilt of having sent his father to his death.”
Adding to his grief, Jeanne-Helene died of an illness sometime around the end of the war, leaving Youli to care for their son Pierre, Darcy’s half-brother.
After the war, Youli went to extraordinary lengths to hide his Jewish identity from everyone except his wife.
“None of my mother’s relatives knew that he was Jewish,” said Darcy. “Only my mother knew after the war.”
Youli found work as deputy director of a United Nations Refugee Agency displaced persons camp in Germany. There, he met Else Margrethe Rich, a veteran of the Danish resistance who was also working at the camp, and who would become his wife.
They had their children christened in the Russian Orthodox Church in Copenhagen. Their first daughter, Anne Helene, was followed by Judy before the family migrated to Ontario in 1951. Darcy was christened Ida Maria Judith Borunsky – “he threw in a Maria,” Darcy noted wryly – and her younger brother, who was born in Canada, was named George Christian Simeon Borunsky. The obviously Christian names were an active part of the father’s determination to erase his past.
There were the common struggles that immigrant families experience, as well as particular idiosyncrasies. The family home was filled with art and music and books. The family always had enough to eat, but costly red meat wasn’t on the table. Darcy recalled her father’s philosophy: “For the price of a few roast beefs, Judith, you can buy a good painting. For the price of a few steaks, Judith, you can buy a good book.”
Judy Darcy with her father, Youli. (photo from Judy Darcy)
When Darcy was 7, Youli took the family to the Lambton county courthouse and changed their surname to Darcy. He wanted something French-sounding, he told them.
What made her father finally open up – to an extent, at least – Darcy can’t be certain. But, in retrospect, there were a couple of hints that only made sense later. A family friend in New York City, who had known Youli in childhood, made a comment to Darcy and her sister during a visit that implied their father was Jewish, then quickly changed the subject when confronted with blank stares.
In Grade 11, when Darcy had an option of studying German or geography, she chose German because, like her parents, she has a facility with languages. Her father hit the ceiling, for reasons she didn’t fathom.
Despite christening his children and giving two of them ostentatiously Christian names, he husbanded a rage at organized religion.
“He would sometimes shake his fist at the sky and say in his heavy Russian accent, ‘If there were a God in heaven, he would not allow the things that happen on this earth,’” Darcy said.
When she moved to Toronto to attend York University, Darcy started hanging out with students who were Jewish.
“When I would go home and I would use some Jewish expressions, my father would completely freak out,” she said, although she knows this only because her mother conveyed the news.
Her father always said that he brought the family to Canada to be safe because there might be another war.
“But, in hindsight,” Darcy speculated, “he did it because he was Jewish and, even though my mother wasn’t Jewish, he wanted to protect us and that’s why he never told us.”
After Youli died in 1997, at age 93, his children found the Shoah Foundation video. The quality of the recording was poor and he was very shaky by then, his memories fading. It contained a few details they hadn’t yet known.
In addition to the video, Darcy and her siblings took notes and recorded parts of their father’s story, but he never shared it from beginning to end. Many pieces remain lost.
“It’s little glimmers of that entire history,” she said.
The photo that Youli carried in his wallet those many years is now framed and sits on Darcy’s shelf at home.
“I don’t know her name,” she says of the cousin she never met, “but her cheeks are like mine and she’s about 4 years old.”
Lyla Canté’s Cristian Puig, left, and Cantor Alty Weinreb. (photo from Chutzpah!)
The best creative ideas often come when you least expect them. This was certainly the case for Lyla Canté, which performs on March 9 as part of the Chutzpah! Festival.
“In the summer of 2012, I walked into a New York City SoHo bar,” Cantor Alty Weinreb told the Independent. He and flamenco guitarist Cristian Puig are Lyla Canté’s front men.
“The room was steamy, hot and teeming with people. I heard the sounds of a guitarist, dancer and singer, and felt the intense passion coming from the stage,” Weinreb recalled. “The guitar is preening and screaming. I was floored by what he was doing without a pick. I hadn’t seen an acoustic guitar played like that. This was raw, urgent and beautiful. I had an epiphany. I started singing Sephardic and (Shlomo) Carlebach melodies over these tunes and they’re working.
“After the show, I approached the guitarist – Cristian Puig – and met with him to see if our musical styles could mesh. They did. We started performing ballads as a duo at chuppah ceremonies [weddings]. We then began arranging dance tunes and added some wonderful musicians: a Cuban percussionist, a blues electric guitarist and a rock-and-roll bassist. The happy result became Lyla Canté, which combines the Hebrew word for ‘night’ and the Spanish word for ‘song.’ We now perform our music at concerts, festivals and private parties internationally.”
While both musicians are based in New York, it was an unlikely encounter, given the men’s diverse backgrounds.
Puig was born in Buenos Aires; his parents also flamenco artists. He began studying classical guitar at 19, in addition to flamenco guitar with his father, before branching out into various other styles. He plays with and has co-founded various groups, and he composes both for himself as a solo performer and for different flamenco companies. He also teaches, composes music for film and works as a flamenco singer.
Weinreb, on the other hand, was raised in New York City in a strict Orthodox, Jewish family, where, he said, “secular music was off limits.”
“As a child,” he said, “the sound of my synagogue’s cantor was some of the first music I remember hearing. Listening to these cantors wail with yearning left an impression on me – this is how a Jew sings.
“Years later, I had another watershed musical moment. Hearing James Brown for the first time felt like a rhythmic ‘burning bush.’
“For the past 20 years, I’ve been cantor at High Holiday services and chuppah ceremonies across the United States. I currently sing with the Simcha All-Stars (jazz klezmer) and Cuban Jewish All-Stars (Cuban klezmer). I teach drums and percussion to children.”
As to where Lyla Canté fits into their busy schedules, Weinreb explained, “The creative process generally starts with me writing an arrangement idea for a song. I then play it for Cristian, who puts it through his blender, which turns it into something else. We then take it to the full group, where it’s further transformed.”
From their solo work and collaborations, it is obvious that both Weinreb and Puig are drawn to the concept of fusion.
“Since I love many different styles of music, I naturally incorporate them into the music I write and arrange,” said Weinreb. “Also, I don’t want to copy all the wonderful Jewish music that I love (including Jewish fusion). By being true to my musical myself, I can’t help but be original. Like everyone alive, I’m blessed with unique experiences and influences.”
Puig said his idea of “fusion is to have a musical style (flamenco, for me) and take elements of other musical cultures and experiment.”
About whether the Judeo-Spanish element changes the traditional flamenco melodies and/or rhythms, Puig said, “It does not really change my approach much, since the flamenco art is a mix of different cultures, among them Jewish. Many melodies and harmonies are similar in both Jewish and flamenco music.”
As for how flamenco influences traditional Jewish melodies and rhythms, Weinreb said, “Flamenco adds a tremendous musical and historical component to our music. Flamenco, which has deep Jewish roots (and Arabic, Gypsy, Moorish and Roman), is really the intersection of Eastern and Western Jewish culture.
“Paco De Lucia, considered the greatest flamenco guitarist in recorded history, said he discovered ancient Sephardic music transcriptions in Spain and was struck by the profound influence Jewish music has had on flamenco music.
“Musically, Cristian’s flamenco guitar adds a fiery energy to our music with its immediacy and earthiness. He then can turn on a dime and be heartbreakingly beautiful as well. I’m fortunate and grateful to play with him.”
Lyla Canté performs March 9, 8 p.m., at Rothstein Theatre. For tickets ($29.47-$36.46), call 604-257-5145 or visit chutzpahfestival.com. In addition to other musical offerings, the festival also features dance, theatre and comedy.
Sound of Dragon Ensemble plays at Orpheum Annex on March 9. (photo from Sound of Dragon Ensemble)
Sound of Dragon Ensemble takes the name of its upcoming concert, Consensus, from a work of the same name by Vancouver composer John Oliver. Oliver’s “Consensus” will be featured in the ensemble’s March 9 performance at Orpheum Annex, along with a number of other works, including one by Israel-born, Vancouver-based Itamar Erez.
In its mission to preserve the traditions of Chinese music, the Sound of Dragon Society “celebrates diversity and creativity in the contemporary applications of this music…. By presenting musicians and ensembles from different ethnicities, nationalities and musical trainings/genres, Sound of Dragon Society redefines Chinese music and reflects Vancouver’s multicultural environment and a highly creative music scene.”
According to the concert’s promotional material, Oliver’s “Consensus” “is a metaphor for inter-cultural music making…. Regardless of where [musicians are] from, there is one thing most can agree on: music was born of about four or five notes in all cultures. This idea inspired Oliver to build his piece on four notes with ever-changing rhythms between different instruments to create great complexity.”
On March 9, the ensemble will also perform pieces by local composers Mark Armanini, Farshid Samandari, Bruce Bai and Lan Tung; Toronto composer Tony Leung; and Italian composer Marco Bindi. The concert includes Vancouver conductor Jin Zhang and dancer/ choreographer Dong Mei.
Erez’s “Rikkud” is described as “a kind of a chaotic, ecstatic dance, with some moments of relief until the very exhausting end.”
“This piece is based on the last movement of my ‘Piano Trio,’ which was premièred by members of the Standing Wave ensemble back in ’99,” Erez told the Independent. “It is a very rhythmic and playful piece, influenced a lot by East Indian rhythms, and based on a simple pentatonic motive, which is a scale used often in Chinese music. Rikkud simply means dance in Hebrew. I had to rewrite the composition in order for it to work for the unique instrumentation of Sound of Dragon Ensemble.”
Erez, on guitar, is also part of the ensemble’s “plucked strings” section, with Zhimin Yu on the ruan (Chinese lute). The ensemble’s bowed strings are played by Tung and Nicole Li on erhu (Chinese violin) and Marina Hasselberg on cello; winds, by Charlie Lui on the dizi (Chinese flute) and Mark McGregor on the flute; and Jonathan Bernard plays percussion instruments from around the world.
“I played with the ensemble in last year’s festival,” said Erez. “Lan got in touch with me few months before, asking if I would be interested in taking part in this – of course, I was delighted.”
This year’s concert program features two poetry-inspired works: Armanini’s music is set to two poems by China’s Wong Wei (circa 692-761 AD) and Bindi’s “Hymn to Aphrodite” gets its inspiration from Greek poet Sappho (circa 630–570 BCE).
Bai’s “Fall” is locally inspired, by a Vancouver autumn, and Tung’s “Oriole” takes “a 1940s Chinese pop song and pays tribute to Shakti, the highly influential 1970s
Indian fusion band led by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain.” The choreography of Mei, one of whose specialties is the Uyghur style, “developed at the crossroad of the ancient Silk Road in northwestern China,” adds her touch, both traditional and modern, to Leung’s “Desert Dew” and Samandari’s “Breath of Life” (which is described as “a metaphor for how Persian and Western music have influenced each other”).
Hasan (Nadeem Phillip) tells Haseena (Risha Nanda) about his dream of playing cricket in Canada. (photo by Emily Cooper)
I have to admit I’ve never seen a cricket match in all the years I’ve lived in Vancouver. I’ve seen games in other countries – but I never knew Stanley Park had a field for cricket going back to the 1890s and a clubhouse that just turned 100.
In fact, the pitch at Brockton Oval is considered rather hallowed ground by some and forms a focal point in The Men in White, the current production at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage.
Playwright Anosh Irani takes the audience from India, where dreamers see Canada as a land of refuge; to Canada, where dreams don’t always turn out the way people hope; to the world of cricket, where even a “duck” doesn’t hurt too badly as long as you don’t have to borrow a “box.”
Based partly on the author’s true experience at a chicken slaughterhouse, the play is set in two different locations – a chicken stand in Bombay and a cricket clubhouse in Vancouver.
In India, 18-year-old Hasan dreams of becoming a famous cricket player and playing in Vancouver with his brother. As he laments his lot in life, he admires a local girl from afar, trying to woo her, despite becoming tongue-tied and awkward whenever she comes by. His adoptive father, who owns the shop, looks after him, trying to impart wisdom about life, albeit in rather unorthodox ways.
In Vancouver, Hasan’s brother, Abdul, has been living and working in a restaurant illegally, after arriving on a tourist visa. He’s embarrassed to tell his brother of his circumstance, and the only thing that keeps his spirits up is to be able to play his favourite sport on a beautiful grass cricket field – a privilege for which he is immensely grateful. He’s particularly impressed because Don Bradman, a renowned cricket player, had said in 1948: “The Brockton Point ground is the prettiest upon which it has been my pleasure to play.”
In the clubhouse, Hasan and his teammates discuss the game, each other’s lives and the issues of the day, but come to blows when racist sentiment arises. A doctor who had emigrated from Bombay takes issue with Abdul. His angry outburst ends with him declaring, “I will not allow Muslims in this country!”
The scene is disturbing in its familiarity, given President Trump’s machinations, but also very touching, as the other team members rally around Abdul in support.
While thought-provoking, the play doesn’t offer up any answers. Its forte is in the writing and directing. The performance is jam-packed with witty repartee, sarcastic barbs and playful insults that are tossed at one another like verbal confetti.
Irani has a skill in wordplay and humour that leaves the audience feeling at once unsettled by some of what’s being said, while appreciating its delivery. With six of the cast members almost talking over one another at times, the outcome could have been rather messy, and the play needed the deft hand of Rachel Ditor at the helm to direct the characters in their split-second timing. The set design by Amir Ofek is minimalist, but in some ways reflects a cricket game. The two locations share one stage and action alternates between the two, as it would in a sporting match. Ofek’s design enables the sets to coexist, while still being visually separated by the few props and use of different lighting.
The Men in White runs at Granville Island Stage until March 11 (artsclub.com). Irani’s work – he is also an author – has gained national and international acclaim and honours. Take the opportunity to see it for yourself.
Baila Lazarusis a freelance writer and media strategist in Vancouver. Her consulting services are at phase2coaching.com.
Rebecca Baron gave a TEDx talk last year, calling for more encouragement and more opportunities for women in the STEM fields. Her nine-minute talk can be viewed at tedxkidsbc.com/rebecca-baron. (screenshot)
Rebecca Baron, a teenager who does research on air quality and speaks out about the gender gap in the sciences, has won the inaugural Temple Sholom Teen Tikkun Olam Award.
Baron will be given the award on March 5 at Temple Sholom’s Dreamers and Builders Gala, honouring world-renowned landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.
“We are incredibly proud to be able to offer this Temple Sholom Teen Tikkun Olam Award to Rebecca,” said Temple Sholom Rabbi Dan Moskovitz. “Even at a relatively young age, Rebecca had demonstrated a passionate commitment to using her intellect and Jewish values to repair brokenness in our world.”
Baron, 16, is currently a Grade 11 student at Prince of Wales Mini School but has already been recognized nationally for her experiments on air quality. She won top medals at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in 2015 for research on whether bacteria found in household plant roots filter formaldehyde from paint fumes. Last summer, she won an award for the best business plan at a national student program focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
Baron said in an interview that she became aware of a gender gap in the sciences as early as Grade 3. As an example, boys and girls were interested in dissecting a fish when she was in kindergarten – she was so excited about the project that she decided at that moment to become a scientist. But when her class did a similar experiment in Grade 3, many girls were no longer interested. In subsequent years, she noticed how stereotypes, social pressure and cultural biases pushed many young girls away from the sciences.
She felt the curriculum that she experienced was not geared to encouraging girls to pursue studies in STEM. For instance, women were seldom portrayed as scientists in textbooks.
On their own, the incidents may not seem like much, but small things add up and contribute to an overall negative effect, she said. Statistics Canada in 2014 reported that women account for only 22% of the STEM-related workforce. Baron gave a TEDx talk last year calling for more encouragement and more opportunities for women in the STEM fields.
Baron attributed her unflagging interest in math and science to encouragement from family and friends. “It may be harder for others who do not have as much support as I have,” she said. “I just pushed through it.”
As her fascination with science developed, Baron began to conduct experiments at home, working on the kitchen counter. After winning awards, she “cold-called” academic researchers to ask if she could use their labs. Eventually, she found someone who said yes.
She now conducts her experiments after school in a lab at the University of British Columbia’s Life Sciences Institute. She also takes part in Science World’s Future Science Leaders program.
She linked her intellectual curiosity and social activism to values instilled by her parents and inspired by Judaism. She sees Judaism as valuing the strength and wisdom of women.
“The Torah emphasizes the emotional and physical differences between men and women,” she said in her submission for the Tikkun Olam Award. “However, these defining characteristic are not seen as inferior or superior to one another, but instead are considered to have cause for equal celebration.”
Baron went to Vancouver Talmud Torah for kindergarten, and from grades 3 to 7. Her bat mitzvah was at Masada, the Israeli mountaintop that symbolizes the determination of the Jewish people to control their own fate. As she stood amid the archeological ruins and looked toward Jerusalem, she felt a strong connection with the Jewish people. “It was a really neat experience,” she said. “I definitely did not expect that.”
She intends to use the Tikkun Olam Award money to help develop a nonprofit organization to encourage young women to pursue STEM and familiarize them with job-related opportunities.
Moskovitz said the annual Temple Sholom award is for a Jewish teen who is “doing the sacred and important work of tikkun olam,” regardless of affiliation or religious congregation.
The award was made possible by Temple Sholom members Michelle and Neil Pollack, who initiated efforts to create a prize recognizing teens who make a difference. Their generosity enabled Temple Sholom to make the Dreamers and Builders Teen Tikkun Olam Award an annual celebration and recognition of one of many inspiring Jewish teens in Vancouver.
Robert Matas, a Vancouver-based writer, is a former journalist with the Globe and Mail.
Justine Balin had to think quickly on her feet to win Chopped Teen Canada. (photo from Chopped Teen Canada)
Vancouver Grade 12 student Justine Balin recently walked off with the top prize at Chopped Teen Canada, leaving the reality television show with a $10,000 award for dishes she prepared at the studio kitchen last June. “I’ve watched the show forever, so to be on it was a dream come true, and winning was the cherry on top,” the King David High School student admitted.
Balin entered the competition last summer at the encouragement of Hilit Nurick, her food instructor at school, and had to pass a series of interviews before learning she’d be one of 16 teen contestants accepted on the Food Network program.
Balin and her mother, Jennifer Shecter-Balin, flew to Toronto for the taping of the show, which consisted of three rounds in which each contestant was given a mystery basket of ingredients and asked to prepare a dish of their own creation.
Balin’s first basket contained canned flaked ham, gorgonzola cheese, dried tart cherries and chocolate mint cookies. “The ham threw me off a bit!” the 17-year-old said. “I’ve never had that before. But I made a salad and used the ham, cookies, herbs and egg in a patty to go with it.”
That dish sent her to the second round, where her ingredient basket included clams, wasabi cocktail sauce, dehydrated vegetables and watermint. Her resulting concoction was a seafood soup with watermint pesto and grilled bread.
“They knew she was Jewish,” said Shecter-Balin, “and when they presented her with tinned ham and gorgonzola, I thought to myself, she’s lost it. But to see her think quickly on her feet and come up with a flaked ham fritter – I was beyond impressed!”
Balin’s dessert dish was cookies and cream ice cream with June plum compote and caramel brittle.
Cooking has been a passion since she was a child, Balin said. “Even at age 2, I was helping my mom, stirring the pots. At 5, I started cooking with my mom and grandma, Linda Shecter, and I never stopped. Even now, I’m always in the kitchen, often making dinner for the family if I come home earlier than my mom. And, every year, I host thanksgiving for 20 girls in my grade.”
In her application, Balin made it clear she was Jewish-Italian and communicated her pleasure in attending a small, independent Jewish day school that also offered a foods program.
“Being Jewish is a strong part of who she is and we weren’t going to gloss over it,” Shecter-Balin said. “But dietary restrictions mean nothing on this show – they spare no one. I’ve seen vegetarians being forced to work with protein and people of different cultures being forced to prepare foods they’d never usually prepare.”
Balin said she would recommend the show to any teens who can perform well under pressure, who love to cook and who feel confident in front of a camera. “It’s scary to be on national television cooking but it was such an incredible experience,” she said. “The best part was seeing how a show like that operates. They build a story and want you to stick to it. I found it really interesting to see how the show runs.”
Balin is saving her prize money to travel the world after she completes her university studies in public health.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. This article was originally published in CJN.
