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Affordability, Housing and Homelessness/COVID-19 Recovery
'Functional Zero' – Ending Chronic Homelessness in Victoria
June 6, 2021 June 6, 2021 Lisa Helps
These buildings are samples of the types of homes under construction that will provide transitional and permanent housing for those currently experiencing homelessness or living in supportive housing, freeing up space for people experiencing homelessness to move in. There are thousands of units under construction in our region, including at least 500 with rents of $375 per month.
As I write this, there are approximately four structures remaining in City Parks 24/7, down from over 260 last fall. This is the lowest number of people living in City parks that we've seen in many years. And while this doesn't account for everyone living outside, we are also seeing the lowest number of people sheltering outdoors over night than we've seen in years. It's a real shame that it's taken us a pandemic to secure the housing and health supports we have this past year. But the efforts are working. And we can't let up now.
We can end chronic homelessness in Victoria. It's going to take the same focused effort that so many have put in over the past year. If close to 600 people can move inside in one year, in the middle of a global health pandemic when everyone is already stretched and stressed, surely we can focus on the people remaining outside and set our sights as a community on what's known as "functional zero".
According to a working paper produced by the Homeless Hub, "Functional Zero is achieved when there are enough services, housing and shelter beds for everyone who needs it. In this approach, emergency shelters are meant to be temporary and the goal is permanent housing. While the focus on supports is to prevent homelessness to begin with, this may not always be possible and in such cases, a system that is responsive and acts quickly is essential. A key aim of homeless-serving systems is to provide immediate access to shelter and crisis services, without barriers to entry, while permanent stable housing and appropriate supports are being secured."
When we achieve functional zero, we will have brought and end to the humanitarian crisis of people sheltering in parks and public spaces when they lose their homes.
Achieving "functional zero" requires the creation of what's know as a "By-Name List" or BNL. The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness defines a BNL as "a real-time, person-specific list of all people known to be experiencing homelessness in your community. It includes a robust set of data points that support Coordinated Access and prioritization at a household level and an understanding of homelessness inflow and outflow at a systems level." The development of a BNL is underway in our region as a key 2021-2022 action item in the Community's 2019-2024 Plan to end chronic homelessness.
We're closer than we ever have been before to ending homelessness in Victoria.
We have been operating for many years – and in particular during the pandemic – within a reality where homelessness in Victoria has become normalized. In recognition of this reality, we have accepted the need for people to shelter in City parks even as we worked toward permanent solutions to homelessness. But we haven't been able to collectively envision a city without homelessness. This has to change. We need to re-envision. This past year has shown us what is possible.
We need to keep going to build a robust housing and transitional shelter ecosystem.
We need to continue to work with the Province on complex care housing – for the people who currently don't fit into any of the existing housing options because of their complex needs. We need to ensure that those currently left behind get the kinds of supports and care they need in order to be successful in housing, and to not be evicted back to the streets and parks. The BC Urban Mayors' Caucus is taking an active role with the provincial Ministries of Housing and Mental Health and Addictions to develop a framework for complex care housing and options for investment in complex care housing services or sites in the near term.
And we need to continue to support initiatives like the Regional Rent Bank and the Community Centre Housing Outreach Coordinator program, to prevent people from falling into homelessness.
Think reaching functional zero is impossible? It's not. Medicine Hat Alberta reached that target in 2019 after ten years of effort. This blog post details how they got there. We're following the same steps they took. We're coordinating assessment and access. We're working with people with lived experiences of homelessness. We're prioritizing Indigenous people and working to support the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness in providing culturally supportive housing and a dual model of care, blending both Indigenous and Western medicines.
Everybody is already mobilized in our community and working towards the goal of functional zero. And the federal government and the provincial government are mobilized too. In the almost-decade that I've been at the Council table, there has never been so much money pouring into housing and health supports.
The current Community Plan to End Homelessness says we will hit functional zero in 2024. That's way too far away. COVID-19 has taught us that we can move quickly in a crisis. COVID-19 also revealed the chasms in the health and housing ecosystem in the province, leaving those already vulnerable even more so when the pandemic hit. At the same time, it's been an unprecedented period of investment in housing and health supports. It has also been a time of lasting relationship building and deep collaboration among the City, BC Housing, Island Health, the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness, the CRD, housing and social service providers, peers and people with lived experience of homelessness, and many others.
Nearing the end of the pandemic, and with the hard work of everyone involved, we are closer to ending chronic homelessness in Victoria than we've ever been before. We have fewer people living outside than we've seen in years. This is a moment to keep focused on the goal of achieving functional zero. This means that when people lose their homes, there is a robust social system – and a community – in place to catch them.
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'The Name of the Rose"': What Is Christian Slater Up To Now?
"Adson von Melk" is all grown up today...
Sean Connery and Christian Slater in "The Name of the Rose"
(© imago / United Archives)
August 25, 2019 - 08:00 / Administrator User
It has been thirty years since Christian Slater starred as "Adson von Melk" in the screen adaptation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. The now 49-year-old has enjoyed a lot of success as an actor over the last three decades and has had his fair share of ups and downs in his personal life.
Christian Slater has had an action-packed life. The American actor has experienced various highs and lows, both career-wise and in his personal life, over the last few years. He found worldwide fame in 1986 as "Adson von Melk" in The Name of the Rose, starring alongside Sean Connery, who played the wise Franciscan friar "William of Baskerville". Slater had already acted professionally previously, however.
Christian Slater had quite the career
The New York born Slater had his first acting job when he was just seven years old appearing in the soap The Edge of the Night. During the early eighties he was more than at home on Broadway until he decided to move to Los Angeles. After The Name of the Rose, Slater starred in countless films such as Mindhunter (2004) and Nymphomaniac (2013). He also appeared in several TV series including My Own Worst Enemy (2008) and has starred in Mr Robot since 2015. In 2017 he appeared in the film The Public.
Christian Slater today
(© imago / icon SMI)
The handsome actor has had various run-ins with the law including an arrest for drunk driving in 1989. He also supports several charities. He took part in an educational video produced by Nelson Mandela (†95) aimed at raising public awareness of AIDS and has taken part in humanitarian projects in South Africa.
Christian Slater now has children of his own
Slater has been married twice. He was married to his first wife Ryan Haddon from 2000 to 2007 and the couple have two children, Jaden Christopher Haddon-Slater and Eliana Sophia Haddon-Slater. He has been married to Brittany Lopez since 2nd December 2013.
The Descendants Of Great Performers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


One of the most basic questions you need to address at the beginning of each season is how to set up or organize your team. Let's take a look at some options and the reasons behind them.
Triangles are the fundamental "shape" associated with the game of soccer. Generally, we want the player in possession of the ball to have two options to choose from to move the ball on, and we want defenders to have two points of cover (or one point of cover with a balancing player). In both cases, we are talking about three players who could be described as the three points of a triangle.
As we go forward and discuss a series of team shapes, please note the triangles that form between players. It is also worth noting that when describing team shapes with numbers (i.e. 4-4-2) we always start at the back of the team and move toward the front.
Virtually every country in the world has moved toward allowing younger players to play 7- or 8-a-side soccer. The reduction in numbers from 11v11 allows young soccer players more chance to touch the ball and therefore to develop. Playing with smaller teams and getting kids more time on the ball in games is good for the players and good for the game.
Your small-sided team will eventually become an 11-a-side team, and you will want to have a teaching process that remains consistent and allows for a smooth transition to the bigger field. So, the way you set up your small-sided team has importance for the transition to the larger 11v11 game.
If you have a vision for how the 11-a-side team will play, it becomes fairly easy to decide how to set up your small-sided team.
It is increasingly recognized that playing soccer in smaller teams is beneficial to the development of younger players. At the youngest ages, 4v4 is highly beneficial. Teams playing 4v4 should be arranged in a diamond. If you arrange 4 players in a diamond, that diamond isactually made up of 4 triangles that can be drawn between the players.
While 7v7 (6 field players and a keeper) is relatively rare in the US, it's worth mentioning as a building block for 11v11 teams. Teams playing with 6 field players are most effectively set up using a 2-3-1 shape. That shape replicates the "front six" of a 4-3-3 set up in the 11v11 game. The shape sets up a variety of "natural triangles" between players and provides width, depth (support behind the ball) and penetration (support ahead of the ball).
In the United States, we most commonly play 8v8 (7 field players and a goalkeeper) with our youngest age categories. The choice of 7 field players gives us 2 solid options in terms of the set-up of our team. We could play 3-3-1 or 2-3-2. Both set-ups have potential benefits.
Playing 3-3-1 with 7 field players allows for a smooth transition to either 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. The team's set up is symmetrical, and for the most part, the players can be taught how to interact by playing 3v3's in practice. Having a single forward will force the players in that position to both get behind the defense and to hold up the ball and bring other players into the game. The line of 3 at the back should be able to handle covering the width of most fields defensively, and the 3 midfielders should allow the team to attack across the entire width of the field, "stretching" the opposing defense. Note that when the wingers and backs move forward, the team is organized in 2 diamonds that come together at the center midfield player.
Setting up your team as a 2-3-2 also combines 2 diamonds from 4v4 (center midfielder is "shared" by both diamonds) in the same way that 3-3-1 does with the exception that the diamonds are now side by side instead of one on top of the other. Setting up your team in a 2-3-2 will allow your players to relate to each other as units of 2 and 3. If you are doing a lot of 2v2 and 3v3 in training sessions, you should be able to help the players relate that into the game with relative ease. Playing with 2 backs instead of 3 will force the 2 players to be more active and solve more problems, and playing with 2 forwards will always provide your strikers with closer support. When moving on to 11-a-side play, 2-3-2 allows a fairly simple transition to 3-2-3-2 by adding a back line of 3 additional players.
There are several ways of laying out an 11-a-side team. We will look at three possibilities here. Keep in mind that each option has its own strengths, and each generally concedes something or has a weakness. It is important to realize, though, that the weakness of some set-ups can actually be strengths in terms of improving your players in the long term.
If your team has played as a short-sided team using 2-3-2 as its shape, adding another line of 3 players at the back to move to 11v11 is a simple way to make the step up to playing with a full side. The players are "naturally" arranged in triangles from the start, and you will have a numerical superiority in the midfield in most cases. Players still related to one another in units of 2 and 3, which is very useful for a number of straightforward training activities.
Playing with only 3 at the back has both a cost and benefit. It is difficult for 3 players to cover the width of most fields; however, the need to cover all of that space and solve problems without help will make your defenders more effective when you move to a back four. In the short-term you may give up some avoidable goals, but in the longer-term you will be better defensively.
If you have played 3-3-1 as a short-sided team, you will very naturally transition to a 4-4-2 by adding one player to each line. Having four players in the back and midfield adds width to the team to help spread the attack, and one of the outside backs can get forward while the line of 3 players you've played with in the past remains to guard against counter attacks when the ball is lost. The four players in the midfield and the back four will cover the width of the field relatively effectively while defending.
If you play against teams with 3 central midfielders or with 5 in midfield, you may be numbers down in the center of the field, but you can still defend very effectively with your two banks of four playing in a zone. It may be necessary to designate one of your central midfielders to "hold" in a more defensive role in front of the center backs when attacking.
The 3-3-1 shape employed with a small-sided team also transitions smoothly into a 4-3-3 shape. Playing with 3 forwards allows your team to make the field longer and wider when you have the ball, forcing your opponent to defend the whole width of the field. It also allows for your team to pressure the opponent's defense with 3 players when the ball is lost. Playing with 3 central midfield players often allows for your team to have numerical superiority in the center of midfield where the game is often won or lost; however, your outside backs will need to be able to get up into the flank midfield areas to pressure opponents.
If your team keeps possession of the ball well, the outside backs can be very dangerous getting forward into the attack, but if you struggle to keep the ball, your wingers may need to come back and defend to cover the opens spaces on the flanks of the midfield. When they retreat in this way, they risk being "pinned back" and unable to get forward to support the center forward. When this happens it can be hard to counter attack your opponent.


Increasingly popular, and suited to both large as well as smaller gardens, Japanese garden ornaments come in a range of styles. They are also available in a range of materials, from concrete replicas to more original granite types.
One of the most common forms is the lantern types, these come in a range of sizes, and again in different materials. prices range according to material with concrete being the cheapest.
Bowls are also popular with Tsukubai being placed at the entrance to shines to allow travellers to wash their hands before entering. Other forms include Tetubachi, Kozenibatsi, Ginkakuji Mizu Bachi and Natsumi are other forms.
Guide Posts that can be used as lights beside pathways are also popular, traditionally used with candles, some can be retrofitted with electric lights.
Pagoda statues of versus sizes are also available, again the concrete types being the cheapest.
You can also add a range of Japanese wind chimes and statues, all designed to add to the overall effect in a Japanese style garden design.
We have pictured ornaments from real Japanese gardens. They have a patina of age that can be be recreated on new ornaments by encouraging moss and lichen to grow on them.
The ageing of ornaments will assist with obtaining the element of antiquity which is explained on our video on Japanese garden design.
Lanterns can be found that are pre drilled to allow for easy fitting of lights if required.
Japanese Garden Ornaments are available for sale at the following suppliers.


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Jewish Independent
Where different views on Israel and Judaism are welcome.
עניין בחדשות
A roundup of news in Canada and further afield, in Hebrew.
From the JI
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Coming Feb. 17th …
A FREE Facebook Watch Event: Resurrecting Dead Fairy Tales - Lecture and Q&A with Folklorist Jack Zipes
Worth watching …
A graphic novel co-created by artist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor David Schaffer for the Narrative Art & Visual Storytelling in Holocaust & Human Rights Education project. Made possible by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience is scheduled to open soon.
Ethiopians' long road home
Let's create more land
Chapter soon behind us
A long life working, helping others
Camps plan tentatively
A moving documentary
Demand almost double
Graveyards and Gardens premières
More than meets eye
Critical to take a stand against hate
I owe a Dutch family my life
Kindness a blessing to share
Aliyah despite COVID
Israeli ventilation invention
Books foster identity
Getting rid of landfill garbage
Olive trees have long history
Cookin' old school meatloaf
Fruits for the holiday
קנדה חסמה רכישה סינית של מכרה זהב בארקטיקה
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Tag: Yiddish
Song's enduring popularity
How does a 1940 Yiddish theatre song – probably based on a passage from the Talmud's Tractate Bava Metzia – end up becoming a popular piece sung around the world?
Over a 75-year period, Aaron Zeitlin's "Dona Dona" (in Yiddish, "Dos Kelbl," "The Calf") has been sung by some of the 20th century's biggest English-speaking performers, including Joan Baez, Donovan, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Chad & Jeremy, and countless others. It has been sung in Japanese, German, French (in this version, the calf is replaced by a boy trying to figure out his future) Swedish, Hebrew, Russian, Italian, Catalan and Vietnamese. Zeiltin's original "Dos Kelbl" was put to music by Sholom Secunda; in 1956, Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz translated it into English.
"Dona Dona" was part of Zeiltin's Yiddish play Esterke, based on the legendary relationship of a Jewish woman named Esther and King Casimir of Poland. Zeitlin first published it in 1932 in Globus, the Yiddish literary journal he edited. The play about Esterke and Kazimierz the Great was a Polish-Jewish mystery in four acts. Male and female actors sang "Dona Dona" as a solo, as a duet and as a chorus with orchestration.
Zeitlin was invited to New York for the performance of Esterke, which is an indication of how influential Yiddish theatre was in the pre-Second World War Jewish cultural world. With the outbreak of the war, however, he was unable to sail back to his family. His wife, two children, father and brother were killed in the Holocaust.
This terrible loss haunted Zeitlin for the rest of his life. Indeed, some maintain that "Dona Dona" represents the tremendous suffering and loss of life Jews experienced in the Holocaust. While Zeitlin – who was living in Poland in the 1930s – was certainly aware of the growing threat of Nazism, he composed the song before the Holocaust began.
Over time, the song has been interpreted in many different ways. In a 2010 article in The Jewish Magazine, Mendel Weinberger understands "Dona Dona" as a reference to the struggle between the physical and the spiritual. The calf represents the body, the seat of desire. The body seeks pleasure, wealth and honour, and is a slave to these desires. The calf on the way to the slaughterer is a metaphor for the body's journey towards death. The calf (i.e. the body) is mournful because it has become attached to life and fears the unknown of the next world. The swallow, on the other hand, represents the soul, in Weinberger's interpretation. The Divine Soul is a part of G-d's Being and is not bound by the material limitations of the physical world; it is free to soar in the spiritual realms high above the earthly one.
Baez, who, probably more than anyone else in North America, was responsible for popularizing the English version of the song, has said she was attracted to the "beauty of the melody." At the beginning of her long career, she started singing "Dona Dona" as a civil rights protest song. It appeared on her first album and became a "staple" in her performances.
In 1975, Seoul, South Korea, banned the playing of "Dona Dona." The government considered the song to be leftist and violence-inducing. Two hundred and sixty other songs appeared on this blacklist.
Pointing to how times change or perhaps stay the same, in 2018, Liao Yiwu, a Chinese writer in exile, used "Dona Dona" to boost the morale of someone under long-term house arrest. He had been trying to get permission for poet Liu Xia (widow of Nobel Prize winner, dissident Liu Xiaobo) to immigrate to Germany. In a phone call that year, the severely depressed widow cried continuously, saying, "It is easier to die than to live." Liao Yiwu played "Dona Dona" for his desperate friend, who has since been released and allowed to leave for Germany.
Given that Zeitlin had religious training, the Gemara of Talmud Bava Metzia 85a is a likely inspiration of "Dona Dona" and, therefore, probably best explains the song's true meaning. The Gemara tells the story of how Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishnah, came to endure terrible pains. A young calf, destined for the slaughterhouse, met up with the rabbi. The calf placed its head under the rabbi's coattails and cried. Yehuda HaNasi said to it, "Go! It was for this that you were created." Because he should have shown greater mercy to the calf, the rabbi was punished for 13 years with great suffering. Only when he expressed pity for some baby weasels did his pains leave him.
Deborah Rubin Fields is an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child's Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
On a wagon bound for market
There's a calf with a mournful eye
High above him there's a swallow
Winging swiftly through the sky
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all the their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night
Dona Dona Dona Dona Dona Dona Dona Don Dona Dona Dona Dona Dona Dona Dona Don
Stop complaining, said the farmer
Who told you a calf to be
Why don't you have wings to fly with
Like the swallow so proud and free
Dona Dona Dona Dona … Don
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why
But whoever treasures freedom
Like the swallow has learned to fly
Posted on December 4, 2020 December 2, 2020 Author Deborah Rubin FieldsCategories MusicTags Aaron Zeitlin, China, Dona Dona, Esterke, Joan Baez, Mendel Weinberger, singing, South Korea, theatre, Yiddish
Stories that explore the mind
A husband competes with his oldest daughter for his wife's affections, a man ponders whether he is more attracted to a 10-year-old girl or her divorced older sister, a woman has an abortion she didn't necessarily want, a young man violently rebels against his abusive father. Jonah Rosenfeld tackles difficult subject matter in his short stories, with no compulsion to solve any particular problem or correct behaviours, but to explore the thoughts and feelings of his characters, and thereby offer insight into parts of humanity that we may shy away from contemplating. English readers can now access these stories and ideas, originally conceived in Yiddish, thanks to a newly published translation by Langara College's Rachel Mines.
The Rivals and Other Stories (Syracuse University Press, 2020) comprises 19 of Rosenfeld's stories. Born in Chartorysk, Russia (now, Chortorysk, Ukraine), the prolific writer lived from 1881 to 1944, immigrating in 1921 to New York, where he was a major contributor to the Forverts. In total, he wrote 20 volumes of short stories, a dozen plays and three novels. Rosenfeld's "stories provide a corrective to the typical understanding of Yiddish literature as sentimental or quaint," writes Mines in the book's press materials. "Although the stories were written decades ago for a Yiddish-speaking audience, they are surprisingly contemporary in flavour."
The first Rosenfeld story Mines read, in Yiddish, was The Rivals (Konkurentn), six or seven years ago. "I'd only been studying Yiddish for a few years at that point and was reading to improve my language skills," she said. "I was so impressed with the story that I decided, just for practice, to translate it into English. Later on, I found out that an English translation had already been published in [Irving] Howe and [Eliezer] Greenberg's A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, but, by then, I was hooked on both Rosenfeld and Yiddish translation."
Mines was a Yiddish Book Centre Translation Fellow in 2016 and The Rivals was her translation project during that fellowship year. "I'd already translated several stories before that, but 2016 was when everything started coming together in terms of improving my skills as a translator," she said.
The project was her own idea, not work assigned by the Yiddish Book Centre, although the centre did support it.
"I should also mention," she added, "that Vancouver is a veritable hotbed of Yiddish translation (who knew?), with a number of active translators, all of whom have been helpful at various times. Helen Mintz, in particular, was a huge inspiration and support. Her book of translations, Vilna My Vilna, a collection of Abraham Karpinowitz's short stories, was published (also by Syracuse UP) in 2017. Helen and I spent several years together on Skype, regularly workshopping each other's translations and helping each other out with advice and information. We're still doing that, in fact."
It is his exploration of the psyche that attracts Mines to Rosenfeld's work.
"I'm interested in psychology – always have been – and particularly in people's unconscious, and sometimes counterintuitive, reasons for thinking and behaving the way they do. So Rosenfeld's insight into the darker corners of the human mind was an instant draw. I should say that his stories stand up very well to many current theories of human thought and behaviour. For example, the protagonist of The Rivals is a classic malignant narcissist – he ticks all the boxes. It's interesting to note that Rosenfeld's story was first published in 1909, several years before Otto Rank's and Sigmund Freud's theories of narcissism came out. Rosenfeld was an intuitive psychologist, and a very perceptive one.
"Another reason Rosenfeld's stories appeal to me is that they work very well in a 21st-century, multicultural setting," she said. "I've taught a number of the translations to first-year students at Langara, and students are attracted by his stories' takes on immigration, women's rights, male-female relationships, generational conflict, culture clash – this list goes on. Clearly, these ideas are as relevant today as they were when the stories were first written.
"Finally, I like Rosenfeld's attitudes to his characters, even the less admirable ones. He seems interested in and sympathetic to their dilemmas; as an author, he doesn't judge or blame his characters – he leaves that up to his readers. I like that Rosenfeld is more interested in exploring his character's situations and psychology than he is in blaming or moralizing."
Mines, who is retiring this year, taught in the English department at Langara College since 2001. One of the department's main offerings has been a first-year class on the short story, she said. "Around the time I started translating, I started introducing stories with a Jewish theme to my classes. A bit to my surprise, despite coming from non-Jewish backgrounds, my students found the stories interesting and engaging, so I gradually added more and more stories with Jewish content. The last few years, I've been teaching Rosenfeld's stories exclusively. My students love the stories and readily identify with (or at least understand) the characters and their predicaments. We've had many lively discussions!"
In an introductory chapter to The Rivals, Mines poses several questions she hopes keen PhD students or other researchers will take on, including where Rosenfeld's place might be in the American literary canon. With the disclaimer that she is "just a lowly translator," Mines said, "But, if pressed for an answer, I'd have to say it's Rosenfeld's psychological insights. He's not entirely unique – other Jewish and/or American authors of his time were psychologically astute and wrote compelling character studies. But Rosenfeld went a bit beyond, in that his stories are almost Greek tragedies – his protagonists fail in their quests (for love, belonging, security, etc.) not because of external forces, but because of some internal, self-defeating habit of thought that they may not be consciously aware of. Rosenfeld isn't the only author to explore this type of psychological dichotomy, but he does so very consistently."
Format ImagePosted on September 11, 2020 September 10, 2020 Author Cynthia RamsayCategories BooksTags Jonah Rosenfeld, Langara College, psychology, Rachel Mines, translation, Yiddish
Uprising observed
The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver were among 125 partners presenting a global commemoration of the 77th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising recently.
Beginning and ending with stirring renditions of the "Partisans' Hymn," the online event, which also commemorated the end of the Second World War 75 years ago, featured a long list of singers and performers from Hollywood, Broadway and elsewhere, including Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Mayim Bialik, Whoopi Goldberg, Adrien Brody, Lauren Ambrose and dozens more.
We Are Here: A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance and Hope, which took place June 14, was produced by the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Sing for Hope, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
"Zog Nit Keyn Mol" ("Never Say") is generally called "The Partisans' Song" or "The Partisans' Hymn" in English and is an anthem of resilience amid catastrophe sung at Holocaust commemorative events. Written in the Vilna Ghetto by Hirsh Glik after he learned of the six-week uprising by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, its stirring concluding lines translate as, "So never say you now go on your last way / Though darkened skies may now conceal the blue of day / Because the hour for which we've hungered is so near / Beneath our feet the earth shall thunder, 'We are here!'"
Other musical performances included a Yiddish rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," adapted and performed by pianist and singer Daniel Kahn; "Over the Rainbow," from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg, two friends from the Lower Eastside of Manhattan, against the spectre of a darkening Europe; and "Es Brent" ("In Flames"), a musical cri de coeur written in 1936 by Mordechai Gebirtig after what he viewed as the world's indifference to a pogrom in the Polish town of Przycik.
Andrew Cuomo, governor of the state of New York, spoke of his father, the late former New York governor Mario Cuomo, who helped ensure the creation of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the world's third-largest Holocaust museum.
One of the other presenting partners, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, is the longest continuously producing Yiddish theatre company in the world, now in its 105th season. It was founded to entertain and enlighten the three million Jews who arrived in New York City between 1880 and 1920.
Sing for Hope, another partner, believes in the power of the arts to create a better world. Its mission is to "bring hope, healing and connection to millions of people worldwide in hospitals, schools, refugee camps and transit hubs."
The Lang Lang International Music Foundation aims "to educate, inspire and motivate the next generation of classical music lovers and performers and to encourage music performance at all levels as a means of social development for youth, building self-confidence and a drive for excellence."
The program, which runs approximately 90 minutes, is available for viewing at wearehere.live.
Posted on June 26, 2020 June 24, 2020 Author Pat JohnsonCategories WorldTags commemoration, Holocaust, JCCGV, Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, memorial, Museum of Jewish Heritage, performing arts, theatre, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, VHEC, Warsaw Ghetto, Yiddish
Nieces enjoy new kids books
I review a lot of books for the Jewish Independent. Over the years, that has included many children's books. I do my best in these instances but, as much as I like to let my inner child run free occasionally and as much as I'd one day like to create a children's book or two, I'm a grown-up. What do I really know about how enjoyable the single-digit-age set will find a publication? Well, for my latest two reviews, I turned to a couple of experts for advice.
With COVID-19 causing the shutdown of schools, my youngest nieces – Fae, 8, and Charlotte, 6 – were suddenly available to be put to work. With their parents' blessing, nay, encouragement, I scanned and emailed them two recent books published by Intergalactic Afikoman (see jewishindependent.ca/new-publisher-set-to-launch). The assignment was to read Asteroid Goldberg: Passover in Outer Space by Brianna Caplan Sayres and illustrator Merrill Rainey and Such a Library! A Yiddish Folktale Re-imagined by Jill Ross Nadler and illustrator Esther van den Berg. As my nieces were new to the reviewing world, I gave them a handful of questions to answer: What did you like about the books? What did you not like? What did you learn? Would you recommend the books to your friends?
Their mother, Deborah Weiss, sent me summaries of their answers, as well as Fae's handwritten responses – I'd asked her to be the family's scribe for the job.
They started with Asteroid Goldberg, which features Asteroid and her parents on their way home from Pluto for the Passover seder. When the family gets to earth's orbit, they are not allowed to land (for an unstated reason), so they must make alternate seder plans on the fly (pun intended). A few of Jupiter's moons for kneidl, a piece of Saturn's rings for matzah, the Milky Way as their pantry. Who to invite? Family members close by, including Grandma Luna, who was biking on Venus, and Uncle Cosmos, who was hiking on Mars. When they come to the Mah Nishtanah, Asteroid asks, "What makes this night so different?" to which the answer is "Everything!" Caplan Sayres couldn't have known how relevant her Passover story would be this year.
Fae's note on what her mother, Deborah (D.), thought of the book Asteroid Goldberg: Passover in Outer Space.
Both Fae and Charlotte loved the story and the artwork. Even though Charlotte found it a bit too long, Fae recommended it for kids 7 and under.
"I like this book because it was a rhyming book and because it had lots of play-along words," wrote Fae, who explained to her mom that "play-along words are words with multiple meanings."
As for lessons learned, Fae "did not learn anything." However, her sister, who can be a pistol, said she learned that one should "never go on a rocket before Passover."
As for their mom's thoughts, Deb said, "I really liked this book. As we get ready for a Passover that will be very different this year, I loved reading about a family that had to change their Passover plans and still had lots of fun and found new ways to celebrate. This really resonated with me!"
Deb and the girls also enjoyed Such a Library! "I thought this was a really clever and imaginative take on a well-known folktale," said Deb, who noted, "Both girls liked the funny text, the story and the artwork. We also liked the clever name of the librarian."
In Such a Library!, Stevie heads to the public library to read his book – "With three brothers, two sisters and a baby at home, Stevie's house was never quiet." As he starts to read, though, he hears pages turning, computer keys tapping. He tiptoes to the librarian, Miss Understood, and says, "This library is too noisy." He tells her, "It's like a party in here." Thinking that a party sounds like a wonderful idea, she opens a book: "Hundreds of colourful balloons flew from the pages, followed by party hats and horns."
Each time Stevie goes to Miss Understood to complain, she opens another book and the library becomes a zoo, then a circus, as the characters jump out of the pages of the books she opens and take over the library. Only once the characters are all returned to their books can Stevie enjoy reading his, to the relatively quiet sounds of the pages turning, computer keys tapping.
Such a Library! is an interpretation of the Yiddish folktale about a man who thinks that his small house is too crowded with his wife and many children. The rabbi recommends that the man also bring into the house the family's cow, chickens, goats, geese and ducks. When the man can't take it anymore, the rabbi tells him to kick out all the animals, after which, the small house seems quite big and spacious.
Fae would recommend Such a Library!, once again, to kids age 7 and under, while Charlotte really liked it and would recommend it to anyone.
As for what the girls learned, Deb said, quoting Charlotte, "We learned that, if you're looking for a quiet place to read, to not to go to the library when it's full of acrobats!"
To order either book, visit intergalacticafikoman.com/books.
Format ImagePosted on April 3, 2020 April 2, 2020 Author Cynthia Ramsay with Fae and Charlotte Ramsay and Deborah WeissCategories BooksTags children's books, Intergalactic Afikoman, libraries, Passover, Yiddish
NFB offers 4,000 titles
The National Film Board of Canada (nfb.ca) offers a selection of some 4,000 short and feature-length films, whether you're looking for animation, documentary or fiction. Explore the Cartoons for Kids section for the latest releases.
The Jewish Independent has reviewed several NFB films over the years, which have been made by Jewish community members, such as Ryan Sidhoo's docuseries (now feature film) True North, which looks at the youth basketball scene in Toronto, and David Fine and Alison Snowden's animated short Animal Therapy, which explores some of the pros and cons of following our natural instincts versus doing what is socially acceptable. There are also films on Jewish people or subjects, such as the documentary Ladies and Gentlemen … Mr. Leonard Cohen and the animated short My Yiddish Papi by Éléonore Goldberg.
Enjoy searching the many choices available from the NFB, Jewish-related or not. Recently added titles include Where the Land Ends, a documentary feature by Loïc Darses, about the places that created Quebec, exploring the historical narrative, as a group of young people who were not old enough to vote in the 1995 referendum express their views; Ice Breakers, a documentary short by Sandi Rankaduwa on the Black athletes who helped pioneer modern hockey, through the story of Josh Crooks, an African-Canadian player; and The Great List of Everything, an animated webseries by comic book artists Cathon and Iris Boudreau, as well as Francis Papillon.
New films are being added to nfb.ca all the time, and they're always free to view.
Format ImagePosted on April 3, 2020 April 2, 2020 Author JI and NFBCategories TV & FilmTags COVD-19, documentaries, Judaism, movies, National Film Board of Canada, Yiddish
Heart-felt and pain-filled memoir
From the page before the opening of Moishe Rozenbaumas's incisive, heart-felt memoir, we already feel the pain that will inhere in much of his story. Even before we begin reading this autobiography, we see a photocopy of the author's dedication, handwritten in Yiddish, to the memory of his mother and three brothers, with the dates they were murdered by the Germans' Lithuanian collaborators in August 1941, in Telz, where Rozenbaumas (1922-2016) was born.
Many people know Telz as the name of the famous yeshivah that was located there, but The Odyssey of an Apple Thief (Syracuse University Press, 2019) by Rozenbaumas – translated from the French by Jonathan Layton and edited by Isabelle Rozenbaumas – takes us into the city, depicting a vibrant Jewish culture, zeroing in on housing, way of life, learning and sports. The title comes from little Moishe's sneaking into the bishop's orchard next door and nabbing apples, and the author gives us an historian's sweep of an area, with a memoirist's penchant for detail.
For instance, his description of a middle-class household's Sabbath meal. Although Jews lived "in poverty, hand to mouth," middle-class Jews had munificent Sabbath meals. Typical to Eastern European towns, the housewife prepared the cholent pot at home, then brought it to the baker, whose oven was heated all Friday night long throughout the Sabbath. Then, around noon on Shabbat, the woman would go and pick up her cholent. Most Jews didn't have the sort of meals that Rozenbaumas describes, which are at odds with the reigning poverty in Telz.
When the Germans occupy Lithuania, Rosenbaumas accents the avid cooperation between the Lithuanians and the Germans, who murdered 90% of Lithuania's Jews. He writes that the situation of the Jews in Lithuania was no worse than in other countries; they weren't loved but they were tolerated. However, in the very next sentence, we read that once, when the president of Lithuania addressed an antisemitic rally, he said that nobody should be stupid enough to slaughter a productive cow while it's still giving milk.
Rozenbaumas provides what he considers a needed reassessment of the yizkor bikher, the memorial books that survivors of various towns assembled after the Holocaust, which always accented the people's "piety, purity and morality," even though there were all kinds of individuals. What is often omitted from these yizkor bikher, Rosenbaumas states, is the miserable poverty of Jews who lived in lightless cellars, had only black bread dipped in powdered sugar for food, froze in winter, and dressed in rags.
During the financial crisis in the late 1920s, his father's successful fabric shop began slipping. Rather than declaring bankruptcy, the father ran away to Paris, where he had sisters. Despite continuing promises, the father never sent any support to his wife and children, and was unaware of what happened to his family until after the war.
Without a father, the author's mother and her four boys slowly sank into poverty and hunger. Rozenbaumas becomes an apprentice to a poor tailor with 10 children who live in squalid quarters. Soon, he is the sole breadwinner for his family. But, when the Germans invade, he flees eastward to the Soviet Union, just like his father had fled westward. But the author doesn't notice the irony of the breadwinner again fleeing alone. True, Rozenbaumas asks his mother to come, but she refuses; he doesn't ask any of his brothers to join him in his flight.
In the Soviet Union, life wasn't easy. First, Rozenbaumas served four years on the front, undertaking dangerous reconnaissance missions; he was wounded and decorated several times. He regrets that Jewish former soldiers from other lands never mention the half million Jews who fought with the Red Army, including hundreds of Jewish generals and other high-ranking officers.
When Rozenbaumas's unit liberates Lithuania, first thing he does is go to his house in Telz, where he finds Lithuanians occupying his now-emptied home. He learns where his family was massacred and longs for revenge, which soon comes. After volunteering as a translator for the Russians, he gets the satisfaction of hunting for the Lithuanian murderers, finding them, watching their trials and immediate executions. He even found the murderer of his youngest brother, Leybe, "who may have been," Rozenbaumas adds, "his playmate."
When Rozenbaumas finally decides to leave communist-controlled Lithuania, he describes the nightmare of leaving, taking the great risk of paying an exorbitant fee for forged papers that would guarantee his exit. He makes it, finally, across the border into Poland, with suspense and fright accompanying him like a second skin. It was not until he got to Vienna that he could breathe freely.
One day, Rozenbaumas met a man who knew about his father in Paris and thus was able to find him. But the father-son relationship was uneasy. The father never expressed a word of emotion regarding the murder of his wife and his three sons.
Coincidence also plays another crucial role. Rozenbaumas, by chance, bumps into his old girlfriend, Roza, and later marries her.
Rosenbaumas concludes his touching narrative with the hope that the stories of the European Jewish civilization that was brutally erased from the face of the earth will not be forgotten.
Curt Leviant's most recent novel is Katz or Cats; Or, How Jesus Became My Rival in Love.
Format ImagePosted on April 3, 2020 April 2, 2020 Author Curt LeviantCategories BooksTags history, Holocaust, memoir, Moishe Rozenbaumas, Yiddish
Inspired through story, song
Musician Myrna Rabinowitz, left, and Jewish Senior Alliance's Shanie Levin. (photo from JSA)
The theme of this year's Jewish Seniors Alliance-Snider Foundation Empowerment Series is "Be inspired!" and the first of four sessions was called Be Inspired through Story and Song.
Held at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture on Nov. 29, Gyda Chud, co-president of the JSA, introduced the two presenters, referring to each as "a gift to our community": storyteller Shanie Levin, who is a member of JSA's executive board and on the editorial board of JSA's Senior Line magazine, and singer-songwriter and guitarist Myrna Rabinowitz.
Rabinowitz opened with the Yiddish song "Abi Gezunt" ("As Long as You're Well") and the audience echoed enthusiastically the refrain, "As long as you're well, you can be happy."
Levin followed with a story by Kadya Molodowsky, the first lady of Yiddish poetry. A House with Seven Windows is about a proud, strong heroine in the mid-19th century who embraced the dream of "normalizing" Jewish life through a return and settlement in the land of Israel.
Other songs by Rabinowitz included the Yiddish translation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," as well as "Sleep Little Boy," a Yiddish song that she wrote eight years ago for her first grandson. She ended with the Yiddish rendition of "Sunrise Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof (Tog Ayn Tog Oys).
Tall Tamara by Abraham Karpinowitz, both sympathetically comic and painfully tragic, was another inspiring story of Vilna's poor and the unexpected dignity available to one woman through a chance contact with Yiddish literary culture.
Levin also shared Ted Allan's Lies My Father Told Me, about the relationship between a 6-year-old child and his grandfather that transcends the differences in ages with deep connection. This story was made into a Golden Globe-winning film of the same name.
The last story Levin read – If Not Higher by I.L. Peretz – was about a rabbi who demonstrates that doing good deeds on earth may be a more exalted activity than doing God's will in heaven.
Chud thanked the performers and urged the audience to attend upcoming JSA events, the next one being the screening of the movie Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep, at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on Jan. 15.
Marilyn Berger, who initiated the Light One Candle project and designed a card to help JSA celebrate Chanukah, encouraged the audience to spread the light and make a special donation to help JSA continue its peer support program, as well as its advocacy work.
For more information about JSA, visit jsalliance.org.
Tamara Frankel is a member of the board of Jewish Seniors Alliance.
Format ImagePosted on December 20, 2019 December 18, 2019 Author Tamara FrankelCategories LocalTags arts, literature, music, Myrna Rabinowitz, seniors, Shanie Levin, Yiddish
Women and education
One of the family cards, produced 100 years ago, that is currently on long-term loan in the folklore department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on Mt. Scopus. It is from the Chaya and Chana Gitelman Collection.
Not too long ago, I was flipping through a collection of old family cards, all of which were produced 100 years ago in Eastern Europe. On the cover of one card, a young girl sits at a table writing in a notebook. Her mother stands over her, looking on. From a modern perspective, there is nothing unusual about a woman knowing how to read and write. But less than 200 years ago, this would have been considered somewhat revolutionary.
Just how revolutionary? In the article, "The History of Jewish Women in Early Modern Poland: An Assessment," Prof. Moshe Rosman reported that, at the end of the 19th century, more than half of all Jewish girls could not read, not even in Yiddish. Rosman noted that not only was limited attention given to educating Jewish women, but that those who first wrote the history of this period, deemed it hardly worth dealing with the subject.
In early modern Poland, education for Jewish girls and women was largely designed to make them into faithful Jews who would keep female rituals. For the most part, their education was informal and conducted in Yiddish. Brenda Socachevsky Bacon states that a learned woman was an aberration and considered outside the norm. In analyzing Shmuel Yosef Agnon's story "Hakhmot Nashim" ("The Wisdom of Women"), which was published in 1943, Socachevsky Bacon says a woman's very presence in the beit midrash causes the men to be uncomfortable. "They view the realm of Torah study as their own, even as their own hypocritical behaviour belies their dedication to it," she writes. "The men will not allow this discomfort to continue, even if it involves transgressing the Torah's commandment not to embarrass another person publicly."
Fortunately, this was not the whole story of this period. Rosman explains there were secularized school settings in which Jewish girls learned both Yiddish and European languages. The objective of these schools was modernization and general knowledge. Girls read classic European literature. In this instance, the scorn was sometimes transferred, with traditional Jewish literature viewed contemptuously.
According to Prof. Eliyana Adler ("Rediscovering Schools for Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia"), private schools for Jewish girls were a crucial ingredient in transitioning Russian Jewry into modernity. She reports that, from 1844 to the early 1880s, well over 100 private schools for Jewish girls opened in cities, towns and shtetlach throughout the Pale of Jewish Settlement.
The educators who opened and ran private schools for Jewish girls pragmatically balanced their ideological motivations with very real concerns about funding and retaining communal goodwill. Thus, those who ran private schools offered a variety of student tracks. Rich Jews (like their wealthy Christian neighbours did elsewhere) could pay to board their children. Many schools offered weekly instruction in both music and French as paid electives.
Adler goes on to say, "at the same time, families of modest means were offered tuition payments on a sliding scale. Noteworthy, poor students were actively recruited for scholarship positions. Other schools offered less sophisticated fee scales, but clearly worked within the same framework. The rewards for having a robust student body became clear as both the government and certain private and communal bodies began to award subsidies to successful private schools."
These private schools for Jewish girls designed Jewish studies curricula to meet the expectations of the Russian Jewish communities from which they drew their students. The curricula had to be modern and useful without being radical. Thus, efforts were made to introduce training in practical crafts; that is, crafts that could be put to use in the marketplace. In 1881, the first trade school for poor Jewish girls opened in Odessa. Thereafter, both trade schools and sections within other schools that offered more in-depth training in such skills as sewing opened with increasing frequency.
By the end of the 1890s, in Odessa alone, more than 500 girls studied in four communally funded vocational schools for Jewish girls. Jewish educators responded to the growing interest in interaction with the surrounding society by opening their private girls schools to Christian girls and by offering to teach courses in the Jewish religion in Russian schools. Prayer served as the common denominator of religious courses – the major focus of religious education was on prayer.
The teaching of Jewish history rather than simply the Torah allowed for an unprecedented degree of interpretation and even mild biblical criticism. Hebrew reading was also offered in many of the schools. Almost all Jewish girls schools offered penmanship and arithmetic.
Every private school for Jewish girls in the Russian Empire required extensive instruction in the Russian language. It was not uncommon for all general studies subjects to be taught in Russian.
Examples of the above educational transformation may be found in the bigger cities of Eastern Europe. In Plonsk (located some 60 kilometres from Warsaw), for example, toward the end of the 19th century, organizations such as Kahal Katan (literally, Small Community), educated the poorer strata of society. Also during this period, the city (which had a Jewish majority) opened a primary school for Jewish children, where some 80 pupils, mostly girls, studied in Russian. (See yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/plonsk/jewish_education.asp.)
Vilna is another example. In 1915, the Association to Disseminate Education established three schools – one for boys, one for girls and one mixed – whose language of instruction was Yiddish. Also in 1915, Dr. Yosef Epstein established the Vilna Hebrew Gymnasium (high school), which was later renamed after him. The informal educational system included literature, drama, music, industrial arts and other courses. (See yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/vilna/background/20century.asp.)
According to Dr. Ruth Dudgeon ("The Forgotten Minority: Women Students in Imperial Russia, 1872-1917"), Russian women, aided by sympathetic professors, created educational institutions that evolved into universities and medical, pedagogical, agricultural and polytechnical institutes for women. Moreover, in 1916, the Ministry of Education overcame its bias against preparing women for public activity, rather than the home, and mandated the equalization of the curricula in the boys' and girls' gymnasia.
In the 1870s and 1880s, Jewish-Russian enrolment in the courses for women was between 16% and 21%. The imposition of quotas in the 1880s, however, reduced the number of Jewish students. But, in places where the quota was lifted, the number of Jewish women in the courses soared.
In the restricted Pale of Settlement, young Jewish women wanting to study did everything to establish residency elsewhere. The "everything" included registering as a prostitute. According to Dudgeon, one brother found out about his sister's actions and then drowned himself in the Neva; the grieving sister, in turn, ended her life by taking poison.
As circumstances for Jews in the Russian Empire deteriorated in the 1880s, those Jews who stayed in that part of the world came to embrace new ideological solutions to the situation. In an atmosphere of violence, deprivation and brutally strict quotas in education and professions, Russian-Jewish parents wanted their children enrolled in schools where the course of study offered some hope for the future.
By the turn-of-the-century period, educators were no longer opening private schools for Jewish girls based on the old model. The schools they opened – whether they were trade schools where Zionism was taught, religiously mixed schools devoted to full acculturation, or Yiddishist schools committed to inculcating socialism – promised more than basic literacy.
In Poland, Gershon Bacon writes, "the education of Polish Jews in the interwar period was characterized … [as] the 'victory of schooling.' The compulsory education law of the reborn Polish republic had brought about in one generation what had eluded generations of prodding by tsarist officialdom and preaching by Jewish maskilim (people versed in Hebrew or Yiddish literature). Whether in the public schools or in the various Jewish school networks, Jewish children in Poland were educated according to curricula that deviated in almost every respect from that of traditional Jewish education. [Notably,] religious families had no objections to sending daughters to secondary schools, even though they objected to exposing sons to secular education.
"What is most striking," continues Bacon, "are the differences in enrolment figures in institutions of higher learning. There was a much larger proportion of Jewish women students among female students as a whole (36% in 1923/1924), as distinct from the percentage of Jewish men among male students (22% in 1923/1924). It would seem that we have here but another example of a phenomenon observed in other countries, where Jewish women entered institutions of higher learning earlier and in greater proportion than their non-Jewish counterparts." (See jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ poland-interwar.)
So many factors about these educational statistics still need to be explored. Nevertheless, one can observe that an outcome seems to have been the creation of a modern Jewish Eastern European woman who "opened her mouth with wisdom." (Proverbs 31:26)
Format ImagePosted on December 13, 2019 December 12, 2019 Author Deborah Rubin FieldsCategories WorldTags education, history, Judaism, women, Yiddish
Envying South African Jews
During the Goldene Medina exhibit this past summer, the documentary Leah, Teddy and the Mandolin was screened. It will be shown again on Dec. 8 at Congregation Beth Israel. (photo from Steve Rom)
I have a bad case of South African Jewish envy. This condition developed when I moved to Vancouver from the North End of Winnipeg. I can't remember meeting even one South African Jew while growing up in the Prairies – the majority of Jews in my hometown were from Eastern Europe. However, I met oodles of South African Jews when I moved here in the early 1990s and I was impressed by their knowledge of Judaism and their commitment to Jewish life. There seemed to be something unique about their community and it seemed exotic compared to Winnipeg's. Many of them became my good friends, perhaps because, as a Litvak (my last name literally means a Jew from Lithuania), I share a common ancestry with my South African co-religionists, who predominately hail from Lithuania.
When I first moved here, my South African friend Geoff Sachs, z"l, two Montrealers and I organized Tschayniks, an evening of Jewish performing arts at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. It was at the JCC that I met another South African friend, Steve Rom, who was working there at the time, and helped us set up our events. About a month ago, Steve brought a fascinating exhibit to Congregation Beth Israel. Prior to being mounted in Vancouver, the exhibit, Goldene Medina, a celebration of 175 years of Jewish life in South Africa, was displayed in South Africa, Israel and Australia. Thanks to Steve, Jews in Vancouver got a taste of South African Jewish life, as well.
A unique feature of the exhibit was that nobody was named or personally identified on any of the displays. This approach helped tell the story of all South African Jews, and made the exhibit simultaneously particular and universal.
Stories were depicted on a series of panels, and traced the South African Jewish community from its origins in 1841 – when Jews first settled in South Africa – to the present. On one of the panels, I recognized the son and daughter in-law of Cecil Hershler, who has South African roots and is well known in the Vancouver Jewish community as a storyteller. His son married a woman from Zimbabwe and the wedding in Vancouver, which I attended, was a joyous blend of South African and Zimbabwean cultures. Seeing the panel brought back memories of that happy occasion and gave me an unexpected personal connection to the exhibit (other than identifying with my Lithuanian landsmen).
Other panels depicted various aspects of Jewish life in South Africa. While I was fascinated by the differences between the South African Jewish community and my experience growing up in Winnipeg, the exhibit was really a microcosm of Jewish life in the Diaspora. For example, the panel on Muizenberg depicted the resort town located near Cape Town, where throngs of South African Jews flocked to during the summer. The photos of crowded beaches told a thousand stories. However, that panel also reminded me of the stories that my dad, z"l, told me about taking the train to Winnipeg Beach in the summer with other Jews from the city to escape the summer heat. Like at Muizenberg, there was a synagogue at Winnipeg Beach. I am sure that Jews from New York have similar stories of escaping the city heat by going to the Catskills. In addition, the Jews of America, like the Jews of South Africa, referred to their new home as "the Goldene Medina." Ultimately, all three places – Canada, the United States and South Africa – represented a new start for Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe.
The Goldene Medina exhibit gave me an opportunity to learn about Jews from the land of my ancestors in Lithuania, who were able to reinvent themselves on the African continent and create a thriving Jewish community, which, at one point, reached 120,000. This resiliency is a characteristic of Jews and Jewish communities all over the world. And this resilience was evident in the film Leah, Teddy and the Mandolin: Cape Town Embraces Yiddish Song, which screened at Beth Israel during the exhibit – and will be shown again at the synagogue on Dec. 8.
Using 10 years of archival footage, Leah, Teddy and the Mandolin showcases the Annual Leah Todres Yiddish Song Festival, which was held in Cape Town. The documentary features stirring renditions of classic Yiddish songs like "Romania Romania" and "Mayn Shtetele Belz," as well as two original songs written for the festival by Hal Shaper, a renowned songwriter, which are sung with passion by talented South African Jews of all ages. The songs featured in the film evoke a yearning for a Jewish world that no longer exists in Lithuania and Eastern Europe and highlight the power of the Yiddish language and music.
While the South African Jewish community has shrunk since its heyday in the 1970s to approximately 50,000, it is still an important Diaspora community. In addition, South African Jews make important contributions to every Jewish community they move to, and bring their unique culture to their new homes.
Seeing the exhibit and the documentary cemented the kinship I feel with my South African brothers and sisters. A few of my South African friends even dubbed me an honourary South African Jew at the exhibit, an honour I gladly accepted. One day, I hope to make a pilgrimage to the land of the Litvaks to experience South African Jewish life firsthand. Until then, I will have to continue to learn about South Africa vicariously.
The Dec. 8 screening of Leah, Teddy and the Mandolin at Beth Israel takes place at 4 p.m. Admission is a suggested donation of $10. For more information, visit leahteddyandthemandolin.com.
David J. Litvak is a prairie refugee from the North End of Winnipeg who is a freelance writer, former Voice of Peace and Co-op Radio broadcaster and an "accidental publicist." His articles have been published in the Forward, Globe and Mail and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His website is cascadiapublicity.com.
Format ImagePosted on November 29, 2019 November 27, 2019 Author David J. LitvakCategories LocalTags Diaspora Jews, film, Goldene Medina, history, Leah, Lithuania, migration, Muizenberg, South Africa, Steve Rom, Teddy and the Mandolin, Yiddish
Yiddish Fiddler draws crowds
Steven Skybell and Jennifer Babiak in the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof, which is slated to run through January 2020 in New York City. (photo by Matthew Murphy)
It's no wonder the current Fiddler on the Roof on stage in New York City has been extended several times since it debuted Off-Broadway last summer. The immense draw isn't just the splendid choreography, the well-known beloved music, the compelling, stellar cast, the emotional dialogue – it's the authenticity that strikes a chord. Based on a collection of vignettes by Yiddish literary icon Sholem Aleichem, this production of Fiddler is entirely in Yiddish, the guttural tongue that the people on whom the characters are based would have used in real life.
This is the first time in the United States that Fiddler is being staged in Yiddish. Directed by the venerable actor Joel Grey, it opened at the Lower Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage in July 2018 and transferred to the more commercial Stage 42 near Times Square in February 2019. It's expected to run through January 2020. It has both English and Russian supertitles.
"When Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish first premièred last summer for a limited eight-week run under Joel's vision, it was a show that moved people to tears and I knew it had to be seen by as many people as possible," producer Hal Luftig told the Independent.
Set in 1905 in a Jewish shtetl in the town of Anatevka, on the outskirts of czarist Russia, Fiddler is centred around Tevye (played by Steven Skybell). He's a poor dairyman with a wife and five daughters. Three of his daughters are of marrying age and the expectations are a matchmaker will find them a husband.
But, despite tradition, the strong-willed girls have their own idea of who they want to marry – and it's all for love. Their marital choices give Tevye plenty of tsouris (aggravation). Eldest daughter Tsatyl (Rachel Zatcoff) marries a poor tailor in need of a sewing machine. Second daughter Hodl (Stephanie Lynne Mason) falls in love with a penniless Bolshevik revolutionary who winds up in Siberia. And though Tevye convinces his wife, Golde (Jennifer Babiak), that it's OK to break from the matchmaker tradition, it is too much even for him when his third daughter, Khave (Rosie Jo Neddy), falls in love with a gentile – he banishes her from the family, declaring her dead.
Meanwhile, the political climate is very antisemitic. There are pogroms, and the czar is expelling Jews from the villages. At the end of the musical, the Jews of Anatevka are notified that they have three days to leave the village or they will be forced out by the government.
The original Broadway production opened in 1964 and, in 1965, won nine Tony Awards including best musical, best score, book, direction and choreography. Zero Mostel was the original Tevye. The music was by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and book by Joseph Stein. The original New York stage production was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. In 1971, there was a critically acclaimed film adaptation that garnered three Academy Awards, including best music.
The Yiddish translation was originally performed in Israel in 1965. It was crafted by Shraga Friedman, an Israeli actor who was born in Warsaw, escaped the Nazis in 1941 and settled in Tel Aviv.
In the New York production, the set design, credited to Beowulf Boritt, is simple. The word Torah (in Hebrew) is painted across the main banner and is torn apart and sewn back together as a symbol of what the Jewish people have endured.
From the very start, the audience gets drawn in when the cast forms a circle and sings "Traditsye" ("Tradition"). Another familiar tune – "Shadkhnte Shadkhnte" ("Matchmaker Matchmaker") has the audience moving in their seats. While most of the music and lyrics are basically the same, there are some changes. "If I Were a Rich Man" becomes "Ven Ikh Bin a Rothshild" ("If I Were a Rothschild").
While most of the cast is Jewish, some are not, and very few of the actors actually knew Yiddish before the show. Jackie Hoffman, who brilliantly plays Yente the Matchmaker, grew up with some Yiddish in her home but was far from fluent in it.
Jackie Hoffman plays Yente the Matchmaker. (photo by Matthew Murphy)
"I didn't learn the language for my role, I learned my lines," admitted Hoffman, who grew up on Long Island, N.Y., in an Orthodox home and attended a yeshivah for nine years. "It was difficult, but when I'm hungry to learn a role, that helps a lot. We have great coaches who are relentless. I did hear Yiddish in the house growing up, my mom and grandmother conversed, and I'm now grateful for every word I've learned."
Hoffman and the cast were taught the language phonetically. Many had seen Fiddler performed in English in various theatrical productions, as well as the film. "It feels bashert this is the first production of Fiddler that I have ever been in and it is clearly the most meaningful," said Hoffman, who has been in dozens of television shows and films, including Birdman, Garden State and Legally Blonde 2. "It merges the Jewish part of my life with the career part," she told the Independent.
It is hard to leave the theatre without thinking of the similarities between Tevye's Anatevka and many parts of the world today, including the United States. Jewish traditions are often challenged and antisemitism is once again on the rise.
"I don't think that antisemitism ever went away, but it is a very scary time now," said Hoffman. "It is mind-blowing how current the piece feels in that way."
At the end of each performance, it's clear by the enthusiastic applause and the long standing ovations, that the audience feels they have experienced something great. "They seem blown away by it," said Hoffman. "They are impressed that we've pulled off a three-hour musical in Yiddish and they're staggered by how pure and emotional an experience it is."
At Stage 42 on 422 West 42nd St. in Manhattan, Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish runs just under three hours with one intermission. For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or visit fiddlernyc.com.
Alice Burdick Schweiger is a New York City-based freelance writer who has written for many national magazines, including Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Woman's Day and The Grand Magazine. She specializes in writing about Broadway, entertainment, travel and health, and covers Broadway for the Jewish News. She is co-author of the 2004 book Secrets of the Sexually Satisfied Woman, with Jennifer Berman and Laura Berman.
Format ImagePosted on September 13, 2019 September 16, 2019 Author Alice Burdick SchweigerCategories Performing ArtsTags Fiddler on the Roof, Jackie Hoffman, musical, New York, theatre, Yiddish


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The Midwest Muslim-Catholic Dialogue explores the issue of religious freedom
Neil Sloan
The annual meeting of the Midwest Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims took place on last October in north-western Indiana. It was hosted by Calumet College of St. Joseph in the Diocese of Gary and the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center. "In the Public Square: Catholics and Muslims on Religious Freedom" was the topic participants examined.
Fr Thomas Baima, provost of the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, Illinois, presented a paper titled "The Logic of Why: What the Declaration on Religious Freedom Contributes to the Idea of Religion in the Public Square". Basing his arguments on the Second Vatican Council document Dignitatis Humanae, and the US constitution, Father Baima explained how Catholic doctrine on natural law and revelation put people and their inalienable rights, including freedom of religion, at the centre of things. In the history of the United States every time a conflict between religious practices and civil law unfolded, the principle of accommodation was applied so that "some people may be exempted from generally applicable laws for reasons of conscience," Father Baima said.
Mohamed Elsanousi, director of Community Outreach and Communications of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), analysed accommodation and religious freedom in a paper titled "Comparative Analysis of the American Legal Structure as it Relates to Integration and Religious Accommodation with Islamic Law". In it he examined some recent controversial cases involving the courts and the US Senate over restricting or extending the principle of accommodation for religious minorities.
Other ever-recurring topics in US law were also discussed in Midwest Muslim-Catholic Dialogue such as whether rights are inherent in people or conferred to them by the consent of the governed.
Daniel Lowery, Ph.D. and vice president for Academic Affairs at Calumet College, compared the immigration experience of Catholics and Muslims in the United States in his paper "Can the Immigration of Catholics from Europe Be Instructive for Muslim-Americans?" In it he focused on important sociological factors like demography, work ethic, religious observance, willingness to pass on one's cultural tradition to one's children, degree of assimilation to US social norms. Studying immigration patterns showed that sometimes a religious community's resistance to assimilation can unexpectedly contribute values to the host society for long periods of time.
Sayyid M. Syeed, Ph.D. and ISNA national director addressed a public session on "A Common Word," a recent, broad-based Muslim outreach to eminent Christian leaders on the topic of love of God and neighbour. Mr Syeed urged the audience to use this document to stimulate inter-faith discussions at all levels.
The next meeting of the Midwest Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims is set for 25-27 October, next year, in Milwaukee and will focus on "The Nature of the Human Person". During the open session there will be a lecture on "Faithful Citizenship: Catholic and Muslim Engagement in Civic Life".


Join the African Impact team at one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Victoria Falls, and work alongside local teachers in rural primary schools that are overwhelmed with children wanting to learn. This is an opportunity to give individual attention to children who really need it, gain some valuable teaching experience abroad and visit the 'Adventure Capital' of Africa with other international volunteers from around the world.
As a Livingstone volunteer, you will be fully immersed in the rural community every day. Your mornings are focused on teaching whilst in the afternoons you will join in a variety of development projects that help uplift the community including After School Care, Reading Club, Adult Literacy Class, Life Skills workshops and more! This gives you a well-rounded experience, exposes you to all parts of the community and is ultimately what makes being a Livingstone community volunteer so unique.
Each morning, you will work with one specific class, however throughout the week there is a wide range of community projects and involvement so volunteers get a taste of everything.
You will spend your mornings at a primary school in one of Livingstone's rural communities, supporting a local teacher in their classroom. During your stay, you will remain with the same class so that you can get to know the children, identify problem areas and provide individual support to the students. You are also there to share your skills with the local teacher so that they are better able to educate the children in their care. Through general classroom assistance, you will improve the learning experience for all.
In overcrowded classrooms it is very easy for students to fall behind, especially when there is normally only one teacher to – on average – every 50 students. Volunteers therefore provide an absolutely essential role in identifying those struggling students and providing one-to-one attention that they would otherwise not receive. This will involve taking individuals, or groups of children, outside of the classroom and repeating the lesson at a slower rate with greater repetition to enhance learning and retention. It is an extremely rewarding way to contribute to a student's education and future.
After-school programs help a great deal in the development of children, in their motor skills, reading, literacy and creative development. Part of your volunteer work will include teaching children the alphabet, phonics, spelling, pronunciation and general reading and comprehension skills. You will also conduct and develop outdoor games and art projects and just have some fun interacting with the kids.
Improving adult literacy subsequently improves chances of employment. If you would like to, you will get a unique volunteer opportunity to gain first-hand insight into a different culture – and to make new friends from the community – by facilitating structured lesson plans and tests in our adult literacy course. A certificate is issued to students upon successful completion of the course, and they are really invested in their ongoing education.
During your stay at your "home" in Livingstone, the Livingstone Backpackers, you have the opportunity to play volleyball with the locals, explore the variety of restaurants and cafes in town, have a "movie under the stars night", and BBQ with your group of new friends. The backpackers has a beautiful big swimming pool and bar area which is a great place to relax after a hard days work.
When there's so much to experience in Victoria Falls throughout December, the question is, why aren't you joining our team of volunteers?


Malaysian economy grows at fastest quarterly, as private investments rose by 7.4 %.
Malaysia: The Malaysian economy continued to power strongly at an annualised 5.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2017.
The 5.8 per cent was the fastest quarterly growth since the first quarter of 2015.
Beating market expectations, the gross domestic product overall recorded a 5.7 per cent growth for the first half of the year.
Bank Negara Malaysia governor Datuk Seri Muhammad Ibrahim announced that the full-year growth will be above 4.8 per cent.
Minister of Finance Datuk Sri Najib Razak will announce the revised growth projections during the tabling of Budget 2018.
"Growth prospects will continue to be driven by domestic demand with some lift from exports," Muhammad told a media briefing today.
He was referring to the steady wage and employment growth, ongoing implementation of infrastructure projects and continued external demand.
The strong and resilient fundamentals of the economy will enable Malaysia to manage the current challenges.
On the second quarter, he said all the economic sectors, led by the services and manufacturing sectors, continued to expand between April and June.
Private consumption rose by 7.1 per cent supported by improvements in labour market conditions.
Private investments also rose by 7.4 per cent during the period.
Inflation moderated to 4 per cent during the second quarter and will decline further in line with lower oil prices.
"But we need to watch the oil prices," he added.


Many agents request that new clients email images of the cardholder driver's license/passport and images of the front and back of the credit/debit card as proof that the client information is real. Unfortunately, fraudsters are often adept at digitally altering such documents to make themselves appear legitimate.
If you suspect a customer has emailed altered documents, contact ARC Fraud Prevention at 855.358.0393 or StopFraud@arccorp.com.


text:
'Do the right thing'
Dineo Bendile
Jacob Khawe, ANC Gauteng's secretary, wants to have the PECs Qedani Mahlangu and Brian Hlongwa appear before the party's integrity committee. (Felix Dlangamandla/Netwerk24/Gallo Images)
Gauteng provincial executive committee (PEC) members Brian Hlongwa and Qedani Mahlangu have been called on to "introspect" and "make the right decision" following the public furore over their election to the committee.
The province's newly elected provincial secretary, Jacob Khawe, has also asked the ANC's integrity committee to have the two leaders appear before it.
Hlongwa is under investigation for alleged corruption during his tenure as health MEC between 2006 and 2009, and Mahlangu has been widely blamed for the deaths of 144 Life Esidimeni psychiatric patients.
"From the perspective of revolutionary morality, I leave [it] to both of them to look at the matter, look at themselves and look at the ANC, and then take the right decision which will seek to advance the interests of the party," Khawe said.
"Revolutionary morality … it's where it is not necessarily just about justice and internal processes, it's about having individual consciousness. Are you listening to what people are saying? Are you listening to the cries of the people?" the former ANC Youth League leader said.
Hlongwa and Mahlangu were elected at the party's Gauteng conference last month.
Khawe said it was important for the ANC to treat everyone fairly and to follow due process before making a decision. But the party had to act swiftly on these and other issues to show it had "moved away from arrogance".
"On the internal organisation processes, I have pressed upon the integrity committee and its chairperson, Trevor Fowler, that we request this matter to be resolved with speed.
"This also includes the matter of the former mayor of Emfuleni, comrade Simon Mofokeng [who is accused of sexually grooming a teenager]. On behalf of the PEC, I said I want these matters to be processed with necessary speed," he added.
In the 2016 local government elections, the ANC lost 8% of its national support and 13.8% in Gauteng. It also lost the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros to the Democratic Alliance.
At the time, an internal ANC report showed voter dissatisfaction had partly been caused by the party's failure to deal with corruption and its protection of wrongdoers among its ranks.
Political observers have warned that the election of Mahlangu and Hlongwa to the PEC would similarly alienate voters if the Gauteng ANC did not act.
Khawe said the ANC was committed to renewal and proving itself to be a "listening party".
In addition to his role as party secretary, Khawe is mayor of the Emfuleni municipality, a position he took over from Mofokeng in November last year. In May, he and Gauteng premier and ANC chairperson David Makhura found themselves at odds when Makhura decided to place the municipality under administration for its failure to deliver services and manage its finances properly.
Khawe's supporters accused Makhura of abusing state resources to target his political opponents before the provincial conference.
"We were completely not understanding each other. For me at some point I thought it was a statement of no confidence in me. That you sent me to a place that has long collapsed to revive it. I'm there for [only] five months and then you come up with such an intervention," Khawe said.
He did not agree, however, that Makhura was targeting him and said they had resolved their misunderstandings.
"My relationship with him is an okay relationship. Of course, we are not friends; we are comrades and we have mutual respect for each other."
The two leaders will have to work together to reverse the ANC's lost ground. A recent survey by research company Ipsos has projected the ANC would receive 58% of the vote in Gauteng next year. But it will be a tight contest because both the Economic Freedom Fighters and the DA have also set their sights on controlling the country's economic hub.
Khawe said he would prioritise four key areas — generational mix, political education, quality of leadership and the revival of its branches — to strengthen the ANC's election machinery. In particular, the branches needed to stop being complacent and reclaim their role of social activism.
"The weakness is that we got used to interacting without our people as government and we lost our ability to mobilise them even on issues that we know that here is not a purely ANC matter, it's an administrative issue," he said.
"I believe in an ANC that is always on the side of the people. Even if the premier is a premier of the ANC, but if the people think they are not being listened to, the ANC branches must lead the people in the fight to ensure they are heard and their demands are listened to."
Dineo Bendile works from Johannesburg. Political reporter. BLACK. Dineo Bendile has over 2712 followers on Twitter.
Anc Gauteng
Brian Hlongwa
David Makhura
Emfuleni
Jacob Khawe
Qedani Mahlangu


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PELOSI WILL NEVER BE PRESIDIENT BECAUSE THE LINE OF SUCCESSION IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Source: TTN
by: TTN Staff
Joe Ravi [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
There is an endless amount of misinformation about who becomes President in the event where the sitting President is impeached or is no longer to perform the duties of the President. The Rules of succession are actually pretty simple and if Trump is somehow removed from office, although that is certainly unlikely, we may see the Supreme Court battle of the Century.
As things are now, after Trump the Vice President would take a seat in the Oval Office. Common Knowledge suggests that Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, would take the office next… but this may not be constitutional or even logical.
In the constitution, it states that Congress will designate which Officer comes next. Note that Officer is capitalized, this is very important in the constitution. This term, Officer, is used to describe officials who have been appointed to a cabinet position. This being considered, the Speaker of the House is not the one who would be appointed to the office of the President in the case of the removal of the President and the Vice President.
The process of Presidential Succession has always been problematic and heavily debated but the constitution has the answer. James Madison, the father of our founding documents, heavily criticized the original act in 1792. Madison criticized it for not being constitutional and being a move drowned in politics. At the time no one in Congress wanted to see Thomas Jefferson or Alexander Hamilton become the President due to an unexpected passing of the President.
With all this in mind, it is not unreasonable to think that if President Trump and Mike Pence were removed from office the Republican Party would take the fight to the Supreme court. Unfortunately for Pelosi, the evidence is on the side of the RNC and a Trump Appointee would likely be put in the position.
With all this out of the way, here is the official order of Presidential Succession:
1.) Vice President
2.) Secretary of State
3.) Secretary of the Treasury
4.) Secretary of War
5.) Attorney-General
6.) Postmaster-General
7.) Secretary of the Navy
8.) Secretary of the Interior
Beyond this it comes down to the order in which the office was established, the cabinet officer would be selected to take over the office of the President. Don't worry too much about impeachment, it is unlikely that Trump is going to be impeached and if he does Pelosi won't become the President.
Read more at https://trumptrainnews.com/articles/pelosi-will-never-be-president-because-the-line-of-succession-is-unconstitutional#Jjy5lRD6jTg7LXIC.99
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Wycliffe > International School
Curriculum Provisions
How do I Apply to Join the Prep School?
How much English is needed?
The International Pupil Programme
What do International Pupils Study?
What Exams are Taken?
Development Year
Overseas Travel Arrangements
Pre-Sessional Week
What is Studied?
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International Boarding School - Wycliffe
Wycliffe is a culturally diverse and cosmopolitan international boarding school. We celebrate the diversity of our pupils and look forward to welcoming new pupils from across the world.
Wycliffe School & College is an International Boarding School based in the UK …
Whether your child would like to join us at Year 9, Year 10, Development Year or Year 12, the application process is the same.
We will first ask to see copies of their last two school reports, and if they have Special Educational Needs, we will ask for copies of their Educational Psychologists Report or Individual Education Plan (IEP). We ask for this to ensure that we can meet your child's needs.
Following this, we will invite you to both visit us (if possible) and to register your child, by completing the registration form and submitting the required registration fee.
We will then ask your child to take our diagnostic entrance tests. These tests are completed to ensure that your child can successfully access their chosen curriculum.
The tests consist of three online Computerised Ability Tests (CAT), which assess verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial reasoning; and a hand written essay question, to assess your child's level of English comprehension. These tests can be taken at your child's current school, at an Educational Agent's office or at another officiator office. In order to maintain exam conditions, we regret that the tests cannot be taken at your home.
Once the tests have been completed, our academic team will assess the application in full and will be able to advise if an offer of place can be made.
The first international Head of College, Sergey Zaprudin, reflects on his time at Wycliffe as he embarks on his final year. I joined in Year 9 after spending two weeks at a Summer School, at Wycliffe. I thought School would be just focused academic study and that it would be really strict.
Stephanie is the first to say that she comes from an unconventional background. Many of her family work at a fairground and she is the first of them to study at Sixth Form level.
Tom loves his football and one of the key things he enjoyed about Wycliffe was the range of activities going on outside the classroom, not just in sports but singing in the School Choir which has over 70 pupils.
Isla is 5 years old and enjoys lots of different things about life at Wycliffe - including drumming in her weekly music lessons!
Mikey moved here from London to join Wycliffe at the start of Year 3, and has made lots of friends already. On a Thursday he gets to choose an afternoon activity - this term it is Book Club, whilst his friends do Fencing and Gymnastics.
William is in Reception and has lots of friends who he enjoys learning and playing with.
Chloe is 12 years old and is currently in Year 7 at Wycliffe. She joined in September 2017 from Hong Kong and her favourite lessons are Maths and Science.
Sohil
For Sohil, life at Wycliffe has given him a home in one place where he can develop strong friendships and be part of a supportive community. Before joining, Sohil had a Taster Day and Overnight Stay to make sure Wycliffe suited him. It did.
Moving from a school abroad to Wycliffe in Year 7 was a challenge for Isabella. "I was so shy and didn't know anyone". So she decided to push herself out of her comfort zone and joined Drama. It was the turning point for her. "I found a good group of friends and I discovered I quite liked being on stage. It has helped my confidence."
When Olivia started Senior School she was determined to make the most of every opportunity - in and out of the classroom. That pioneering spirit has resulted in Olivia discussing the subject she hopes to go on to study at University - Geography. "I didn't like Geography but my teacher in GCSE said 'stick with it' and he was right. Now I enjoy it and hope to go on to study Geography at university when I have completed my A Levels. You feel that you can go to your teachers or tutors to talk to them. They always listen to you."
When Head of School in 2018-2019, Noah was asked his advice for future Wycliffe pupils he didn't hesitate "take risks and find your 'pioneering spirit'". "Wycliffe is a school of opportunities" he says. "It doesn't matter if your friends don't want to do the same activity, club or trip as you, in fact it's sometimes better if they don't.


Below you will find our quick guide to 2019's featured events; but don't forget that there is a lot more happening being added to our city's programme every week; as you will discover by visiting our What's On Section which is edited and updated every day by our friends at the Inverness City Advertiser.
If you would like a glimpse behind the scenes, wish to make a comment or have a question ask, can we recommend that you head over to Facebook and discover "Diary of an Event Manager" when you have a moment.
NEWFLASH - Have a look at this wonderful video which has been produced by VisitScotland. Nice job folks - we love it!
A brilliant 10,700 Flingers attended this year's IRHHF - a much appreciated and significant show of support for our event as it meant that for the first time we had overtaken the 10,000 capacity Hogmanay concert in Edinburgh and could call ourselves Scotland's #1 Hogmanay Concert.
OK - we know that they had a few more folk standing outside in the street waiting for their fireworks; but it really was a special moment in our Control Room as the numbers came in and we realised the significance of what we were hearing.
Our wonderful host Craig Hill hosted Calum Mackenzie Jones and the Trad Project, Blazin Fiddles, Tide Lines and surprise guests the Highland Voices Gospel Choir singing Auld Lang Syne. All three bands went down a storm and you check out our photo gallery elsewhere on this site for some of the great photos that we have collected from an unforgettable night.
You can also see our wee movie on the show by visiting the home page of this site.
What an amazing turn out for our 2018 Winter Wonderland Show as we revealed our new look lighting scheme courtesy of our friends at Limelight Event Services. The feedback that we have received for this event has been wonderful and we have to thank each and every one of the Toddlers who turned up on the night with their parents because we have never had such a litter free event ever. You left Whin Park immaculate and we cannot tell you how appreciated that was!
Hard to believe that fog would roll just as we commenced our Fireworks Display but that is one of the joys of outdoor events in the Scottish Highlands. An estimated 18,000 folk attended our display and had a great time despite some of our higher fireworks vanishing from sight.