Thursday, February 16,1989 — THE BULLETIN ~ 9
CJC meet
By ETHAN MINOVITZ
The messagie was simple but profound: don't let the truth fall by the wayside.
The source: Roy Miki, a Japanese-Canadian interned during the Second World War because of his race.
"Our community went underground in the '50s," Miki, confmed to a Prairie camp by federal authorities, told the triennial general meeting of Canadian Jewish Congress (Pacific Region) recently. "But it's extremely important that the story of victims be heard."
Miki, president of the Japanese-Canadian Redress Committee of the Japanese Canadian Citizens Association (Greater Vancouver chapter), ended a decade-long struggle to obtain compensation for his people when Canada's Multiculturalism ministry offered a financial settlement last August.
But his main message wasn't lost on the audience of 25 who braved icy conditions to come to the Jewish Community Centre's Zack Gallery. "We don't create history; we're born into it. But we can change the course of it so that history may help our children."
A member of the Nisei (second generation of Canadians of Japanese origin), bom on a Manitoba beet farm, Miki enlisted the support of his family, his community and, eventually, the media and general public while successive cabinet ministers gave offers of cash to compensate for the loss of liberty, land and property! "(I had) a feeling of utter loss, utter discontinuity," he reminisced.
"There are those who would like to deny injustices. These details are becoming a part of Canadian history and consciousness," he said.
"It's important that Japanese-Canadians be seen as making a contribution to this community and that we don't shrink back. At the same time, we have to be responsible and react to the denial of the Holocaust."
Clinical psychologist Dr. Michael Elterman, acclaimed at the meeting as regional CJC chairman (Pacific Region) for 1989 to 1992, was quick to note the parallel. The recent trial of Toronto publisher Ernst Zundel for spreading hatred through his literature, he said, reflected a tendency among modern anti-Semites to affect sophistication. To answer hatemongers, he sug-
Japanese Mishna?
JERUSALEM
Re-
searchers from Japan, Spain and England joined with Israeli scholars at the Hebrew University recently to study Mishnaic Hebrew.
The group of eight scholars, Jews and non-Jews, was one of three specialized research groups at the Hebrew U's Institute for Advanced Studies.
It was the first time one of these international study groups had conducted all its sessions in Hebrew.
The study group included a ; Japanese scholar with a Ph.D. in Hebrew language from the Hebrew University, who now teaches Hebrew at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
ELTERMAN
gested, Jews must take the high road.
"There's a trend to say that these writings are part of 'freedom of expression.' We've said. . .that the Holocaust is not a question of opinion."
Elterman, chairman for^ three years of Pacific Region's Joint Community Relations Committee, credited members of the media for becoming "more sensitive" to accusations of sensationalistic reporting during Zundel's second trial. "We saw a marked change — I think that Congress had gotten to the media and objected," he stated, adding police and reporters have availed themselves of CJC to obtain accurate information on hate groups.
We've seen a much closer connection with the police.
"The whole furore over (Aryan Nations leader) Terry Long's proposed camp in Alberta drew the attention of the national police forces and the Canadian iSecurity Intelligence Service. Before, there had been little attention to examining these groups. We became the repository of information on them," he elaborated.
Recalling a boycott campaign by the B.C. Free Speech League that claimed funds from the sale of kosher foods are earmarked for Israel, Elterman stated that several reporters revealed the effort as a sham aimed at consumers.
An "American-style" questionnaire distributed by Pacific Region's Jewish Parliamentary Affairs Committee to candidates during the federal election last fall bore mixed results, he said. "I was amazed at the trouble some of
i- r
the MPs went to. . . and some of the trouble they didn't go to," he commented. Survey results were published in The Bulletin (Now. 17, 1988).
The existence of J-PAC marks "a recognition that the status of the Jewish people has changed. We're a group trying to become part of the mainstream political process."
Awareness of the Jewish experience begins in the schools, said new national CJC vice-president Dr. Robert Krell, a co-founder of the Standing Committee on the Holocaust in 1976.
"At that time, there were very few educational programs. We envisioned a way to teach high-school students about anti-Semitism specifically and racism generally," he told his audience.
"In a sense, it became a forward-looking program. We did not anticipate though, that Holocaust denial would be as big as it has become."
Krell cited Dr. Graham Forst for helping lead symposia on the Holocaust — and giving them status as vehicles to fight racism. "We were asked to teach by the Vancouver School Board. Roughly 25 percent of our community's 300 Survivors have become educators. There's an intersection between education and remembrance."
Pacific Region vice-chairman Daniel Shmilo-vitch, head of the Small Communities Committee for the past three years, told of continuing efforts to serve such localities as Tumbler Ridge, where the Jewish population consists of one teacher, and the Okanagan region, where there may be as many as 80 families.
When Shmilovitch joined the CJC in Abbortsford 10 years ago, "there was a feeling in small communities that persons from a large city didn't understand what it was like." Since then, he related. Congress has sought to promote leadership: "People who work in small Jewish communities generally come from elsewhere in the country and are inexperienced in developing community."
Members of the Small Communities Committee,
said Shmilovitch, have set up multiservice workshops in which those with special skills can reach out to Kelowna, Burnaby and other centres. "Seven years ago. Bill Gruen-thal stood up at a CJC meeting and said. The community doesn't stop at Cambie street.' We came up with songs, dances and dramas. It allows them to feel much better about how they fit."
But Pacific Region's interest in fellow Jews extends across oceans as well as city limits. With help from Vancouver Action for Soviet Jews, families from Russia stand an increased chance of reuniting with their Canadian relatives.
"The Mark Grauer family will be leaving the Soviet Union in the next two or three weeks," VASJ chairman Rita Cohn informed listeners. "We're always on the search for more, people."
Nevertheless, the road to freedom for Soviet Jews has been rocky, Cohn said. "Contrary to popular perception, things are not getting much better for the Refuseniks. There is much more glasnost, information — there are a number of Refuseniks who have been given exit visas.
"But the number leaving has been just a drop in the bucket," she regretted.
Cohn hopes that a planned VASJ trip to Odessa will
KRELL
result in increased contacts with Jews in Vancouver's Sister City.
The election of Pacific Region's seven executive officers and 20 executive committee members by acclamation didn't please UBC sociology professor emeritus Werner Cohn, who stressed that he did not intend to criticize the body's nominations committee. "I want to suggest that the committee be charged with having more than one candidate (for each post)," Cohn remarked. "I hope there will be more people here three years from now,"
"We did canvass widely," responded Dr. Moe Steinberg of the nominations committee, "but there were very few responses. Many were from persons we had already recommended."
Cohn's request for a contested executive "could (be taken) under advisement for
the next two years," suggested Jack Kowarsky, named to the executive committee.
Officers also chosen at the meeting were Marvin Stark and Renee Bellas, vice-chairmen; Ronnie Tessler, secretary; and Eddie Rozen-berg, treasurer. Dr. Robert Krell is immediate past chairman.
Among others named to the executive committee for three-year terms were: David Berger, Jeffrey Bernstein, Cathy Bregman, Rabbi Martin Cohen, Dr. Victor Dim-feld, Norman Fages, Ken Glasner, Dr. Michael Isaacson, Richard Israels, Leon Kahn, Sharon Kates, Matty Khalifa, Phyllis Moscovitch, Helen Pinsky, Esther Grossman Rosenhek, Horst Sachs, Abe Sacks, Mark Weintraub and Mordecai Wosk.
A Great 6ift
, FOR
ibiy Occasion!
Birthdays, Bar-Mitzvahs, Waddingsj, Anniv«r»ai1*«, Condbl«nc«s, In .Memory, CongratulatU)ns, Holiday WIshM.
Hillel House 224-4748 -
~ TAX DEDUCTIBLE RECEIPTS \
Build Jewish Life
For Vancouver'a , Yo^ngAdult8~~
I THE VANCOUVER TALMUD TORAH I
t ANNUAL GOLD PLATE DINNER |
JL FUN EVENING OF FABULOUS PRIZES «^
g» $5,000CASH. COMPACT DISC PLAYERS, COLOUR TELEVISIONS «^
X AND HILARIOUS ENTERTAINMENT BY ^
T DAVE BROADFOOT ^
^ STAR OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FARCE <^
^ FOUR SEASONS HOTEL — PARK BALLROOM A
^ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1st, 1989 ^
,a» COCKTAILS 6:15 P.M. — DINNER 7:30 P.M. T
S|» © $110.00 DONATION licence #69652 ^
gj^ • $ 90.00 DINNER AND PRIZE DRAW
• $ 50.00 SPOUSE
m
for the
m
Introducing out all new
Your choice of:
CHICKEN 1/4 chicken, oven roasted in an exquisite morinode, subtle but delicious.
RIB EYE STEAK — charbroiled to perfection. Need we soy more? .
PACIFIC SALMON STEAK — served m a velvety lemon, butter ond mustard sauce.
SPARERIBS — o full rock of baby back ribs borbeCjued In our own zesty sauce.
All Dinners include Tossed Salad. Vegetable and delicately seasoned Rice, or French fries.
Scrumptious Desserts available.
from 5 p.m. EVERY DAY
TA3(I ADVANTAGE OF our New York style Deli menu. Great smoked meat, corned bed. pos'rcmi & mony delicious delicacies.
KENNY COLEMAN
Kenny Coleman — Thursday, Friday^ Saturday 9 p.m. -1 a.m. with the Sax Sounds of Stu Loseby and Co.
Frank Sinatra says about Coleman's new album: ">^dreamscape . . glorious ... a loving experience . .. totally musical."
Also Tuesdayand Wednesday the Great Jazz Song Stylist Denny Clark and Stu Losebyand Co.
i I . ' . ; 1 1 Fully Licensed
