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Jun 28, 2024 | 
thecjn.ca | Janice Arnold
A sefer Torah believed to have been written in Central Europe 230 years ago has been given a final resting place in a Winnipeg museum after its most recent users in the Montreal area gratefully returned the scroll to the Prairies after three decades. The Torah had been given to the now defunct South Shore Jewish Community (SSJC) in 1994 by a closed synagogue in Melfort, Sask., that had been built by descendants of Jewish farmers who settled in the area in the early 20th century.
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Dec 1, 2023 | 
jewishindependent.ca | Janice Arnold
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A vigil in solidarity with Israel took place on the Dayton Street pedestrian overpass in Kelowna on Nov. 19. (photo from vigil organizers)About 100 people held a vigil in solidarity with Israel in Kelowna on Nov. 19, which proceeded without incident.
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Nov 24, 2023 | 
jewishindependent.ca | Janice Arnold
0 Flares 0 Flares × Book designer Barbi Braude and filmmaker Cory Bretz, both experienced in family history preservation, have launched FamilyMovieStoryBooks.com, to help “do-it-yourself family historians in crafting and publishing compelling family storybooks and producing cherished family movies.” (photo from Barbi Braude) Irene Jacobson put the months of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic to good use, researching and publishing the history of her Jewish family’s long settlement in...
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Nov 7, 2023 | 
thecjn.ca | Janice Arnold
A suburban mayor is defending his municipality’s proposal to make it illegal to damage or remove posters of hostages being held in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi announced on Nov. 2 that the town council will adopt a bylaw introducing a $1,000 fine against anyone found vandalizing or tearing down such a poster in a public place. The town’s public security team, which is now on duty 24/7, will be empowered to issues tickets for the infraction.
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Oct 27, 2023 | 
jewishindependent.ca | Janice Arnold
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Aren X. Tulchinsky is Vancouver Public Library’s new writer in residence. (photo by Jeff Vinnick / VPL)As this year’s writer in residence at the Vancouver Public Library (VPL), Aren X. Tulchinsky proudly represents his two cherished identities as a transgender man and as a Jewish person. “I bring all of my lived experience into the residency,” said Tulchinsky in a Jewish Independent interview.
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Oct 11, 2023 | 
thecjn.ca | Sam Margolis |Janice Arnold
Ben Mizrachi, the Vancouver man killed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, is being remembered as a bright, joyful and compassionate young person whose life tragically ended far too soon. He was 22. “Ben was one of those kids with a big smile and a wonderful heart. He was a centerpiece that made everyone around him smile,” said Russ Klein, head of school at Vancouver’s King David High School, where Mizrachi graduated in 2018.
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Oct 3, 2023 | 
thecjn.ca | Janice Arnold
Lawyer and philanthropist Gordon Echenberg traced his dedication to human rights back to his childhood in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where his family was a member of the small Jewish community. He liked to tell the story that when he was six he got into a fight at school when someone called him a “dirty Jew.” The Second World War had just ended and Hitler had been defeated. Little Gordon was not going to stand for antisemitic slurs, and he told the school principal as much. Echenberg died Sept.
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Oct 2, 2023 | 
thecjn.ca | Janice Arnold |Sam Margolis
Dusty Vineberg Solomon, who died at age 96 on Sept. 23, was a trailblazer for women in Canadian newspaper journalism. Despite her conservative upbringing, Solomon had an independent spirit and pursued an unconventional life for women of her generation. In 1949, she went to New York to study journalism at Columbia University—one of the few women in her class—and later became a reporter and columnist at the Montreal Star, then the leading English-language daily in the city.
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Sep 24, 2023 | 
thecjn.ca | Janice Arnold
Jewish groups applauded the 15-month prison term given to a Montreal man found guilty of inciting hatred against Jews, saying its exemplary nature sends a strong message of deterrence to antisemites and other racists. On Sept. 22, Quebec Court Justice Manlio Del Negro sentenced Gabriel Sohier Chaput to a far more severe penalty than the three months in jail recommended by both the defence and prosecution lawyers. Following his incarceration, Chaput will be on probation for three years.
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Sep 18, 2023 | 
thecjn.ca | Janice Arnold
Younger generations may find it hard to believe that less than 50 years ago LGBTQ Jews in Montreal were denied space at the Jewish community centre—and even the most liberal congregation waffled on giving them a platform. That relatively recent period is illuminated in a new zine entitled Not Going Anywhere: History and Continuity in Queer Jewish Montreal, which its creators hope will spur scholarly treatment of this largely forgotten chapter.
