Summary of visit to Canada – February 2008
Naomi Holzer (left), Jewish Agency’s Aliya Center Regional Director for Montreal,
Ottawa and Eastern Canada with Montreal Hillel Director
of Advocacy, Efrat Shemesh.
Although it was minus 14-20 in Montreal during my recent visit, the warmth of the Canadian and Israeli people I met there well made up for the lack of natural heat in the snow packed streets!
Invited to Canada by the Hillel organizations, Hasbara Fellowships and the Israel-Quebec Committee, I not only visited and spoke in Montreal but also in Ottawa and Kingston before returning to New York via Toronto.
The day I hit Toronto the worst blizzard they had known for years decided also to pay a call and all flights were cancelled – except one. I had no chance of getting on that flight – somewhere way down on the standby list – but against all odds I actually did – but that’s another story.
Being met at the airport by Efrat Shemesh, the Montreal Hillel Director of Advocacy and taken to a Lebanese Christian owned and very comfortable hotel close to Hillel House kicked off the first leg of my first Canadian experience.
Efrat filled me in on some of the facts and figures about the Jewish population/community in Montreal and the activities of Montreal Hillel, founded 65 years ago by the way. The attractive building houses 8 students, a kosher restaurant, library, synagogue and offices and during the course of the academic year hundreds of students attend Hillel organized events or pop in to use the facilities.
Over the next couple of days, with Efrat always making sure that I knew where I was going, with whom I would be meeting and where I would be eating (!) I met with Sean Bernstein, Student President Montreal Hillel, Jon Taylor and Mick Mendelsohn, Hillel staff who work directly with students at Concordia and McGill universities as well as other student members of Hillel.
Mick Mendelsohn (left) and Sean Bernstein at the Montreal Hillel
Sean Bernstein is a local boy, born in Montreal and in his last year at McGill University where he is studying political science and economics. He is also an experienced public debater having represented Canada twice at the World Debating and Public Speaking Championships held in other countries.
Sean has been to Israel a number of times on various programs including a stint of study at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. During one of those Israel visits (with Hasabara Fellowships) he participated in an International Department Givat Haviva seminar and tour of Wadi Ara. He vividly remembers that particular learning experience.
“The visit to Givat Haviva was really eye-opening,” Sean said.
“Personally, my experience as a diaspora Jew and student leader has always been to defend the State of Israel on campus. I rarely had exposure to the opposite side and seems that the work done at Givat Haviva does show that inside Israel some Jews and Arabs are working towards a solution not of polar opposites but rather of unified identities.”
“The most effective part of my seminar was standing on the Amir Mountain range seeing East and West Barta’a from above and realizing what you could learn only so much in a classroom and that this seminar has value in a real and practical sense.”
I also met with Eddie Fuchs and Samantha Banks, co-Presidents of Hillel Concordia and have to say was most impressed by the time and effort these very bright and intelligent young people put in to their work for the organization and activism for Israel.
Givat Haviva on the table at Concordia with Eddie Fuchs
An evening meeting at Hillel brought a group of students to hear about Givat Haviva and Israel related topics. With heavy snow falling and the temperatures so low (I didn’t want anybody to tell me what they actually were), those stalwarts should be given a medal for battling through the elements to get there.
Also present was Tal Shieber, a youthful shaliach of the Federation of Canada and Jewish Agency (CJA) Youth Outreach. Tal was most enthusiastic about the presentation with regard Arab citizens of Israel and the general explanation (with maps) given about the Green Line, security fence and communities on either side of the divide. Tal actually said that he thought all the shlichim should be made aware of the possibilities we offer with regard seminars on these sensitive subjects and even though he served in the army in the Dotan Valley said he had learned a great deal that evening.
For many years a group of Montreal women have been regularly meeting in their private homes calling themselves the Breakfast Club. Some of the ladies are Israelis who have been living for many years in Canada and the club was actually founded by one of them. I was invited to join the ladies and after their first speaker of the morning, a rather dynamic young man – David Moss - who is the Managing Director of the Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Montreal, chatted to them about Givat Haviva.
A very interesting group of ladies indeed and hope to see some of them visit us when they are next in Israel.
Naomi Holzer is the Jewish Agency Aliya Center’s Regional Director for Montreal, Ottawa and Eastern Canada and she was most interested to hear about the MASA to the East study program launched by the International Department. We discussed Givat Haviva in general and Israel related topics and hopefully Naomi will see her way to advising young folks to consider a seminar or MASA program with us.
Breakfast with Jonathan Kalles and Co.
Another breakfast meeting, but this time in Hillel House and attended by Romy Schnalberg-Litwin, Executive Director of Montreal Hillel and Jonathan Kalles, Program Director of the Israel-Quebec Committee, Efrat Shemesh and other Hillel staff members. Also present were a number of people looking to found an organization somewhere on the lines of the Joint and Mazal Renford, the Director of the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center in Haifa.
The Haifa center is part of MASHAV, the Center for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mazal, who speaks fluent French, had been giving talks in Quebec as a guest of the Israel-Quebec Committee.
Both Mazal and I spoke about our organizations and answered questions with regard our work from those present who thanked us for coming to Canada during “these freezing times” as one person put it!
Samar Kerem, a young Lebanese living in Montreal only 18 months works in the
hotel coffee shop. We chatted about the Face to Face program and he
was pleased to receive material to show his friends
Surprise, surprise … more snow during night in Montreal
Moving on to Ottawa by train, I met with a very friendly group of students (some having been on seminars with me in Israel) after Dov Ben-Reuven, Ottawa Hillel co-director met me. The gathering was held at the local Hillel where I also met the Viennese born Hillel director Sam Lonig who is doing his masters on Bruno Kriesky.
The students spoke a great deal about the pressures they face on campus from anti-Israel elements and the difficulties they face when there are student days organized by those elements on campus. Hopefully some of my suggestions with regard hasbara on the super sensitive issues we deal with will be of use to them.
The following day saw me on my way to Kingston. Seemed to be even colder!
Again marvelous group of young people including:
Hayley Edwards from Toronto who studies at Queens University and President of the Queens Israel Peace Initiative; Leah Dacks also from Toronto who is on the QIPI executive committee and Cindy Lutterman, director of Kingston Hillel.
Some of the students and some older folk who came for the evening at Queens – the talk having been entitled Relations with our neighbors – had been on seminars at Givat Haviva and as always so interesting to hear peoples comments about that experience within their Birthright or Hasbara trip – usually extremely positive comments I must say.
As always there were a number of ‘in-between’ experiences with people I met during the train journeys and hours of waiting at Toronto airport and never cease to be amazed at how small the world really is – who would have thought you would meet a close friend of someone recently met in Santa Monica in a blizzard bound Toronto airport!
And how does one get to even find out they know each other? Elementary my dear Watson as Sherlock Holmes would say.
I sat down next to a gentleman chatting to a young lady on the other side of him. He asked me where I was from. Israel I answered of course. Really he says, so is this young lady, moves back in his chair and introduces me to a young Russian born Israeli and rather attractive young woman, a biologist presently living in Toronto who is on her way to visit her grandmother in New York.
The man in the middle introduces himself and tells me he deals with special effects for films and comes to Israel quite often for business at the Jerusalem film studios.
I jokingly said I only know one person connected to film making, that he lived in Santa Monica and had a number of Oscars for his cinematography.
The gentleman almost fell of his chair. You mean so-and-so he asks. Now my turn to fall off the chair! Turns out that although he lives in New York he is frequently in Los Angeles and really a close friend of the gentleman I had lunch with in Santa Monica.
My 6-day visit to Canada was a marvelous experience and truly hope that I will have the opportunity to do more work with the organizations and individuals I met along the way – only in spring or autumn next time please.
Ottowa from 16th floor of hotel
Reflections in Montreal
