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Supporting Israel for 101 years
CYMTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
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Israel is not alone. That was the message delivered at the Jewish National Fund of Canada's Negev Dinner Sunday ni^t and that is the message that Israeli Ambassador to Canada Haim Divon said he will take back to his govemmenL
Undeterred by the 70-odd pro-Palestinian protestors who mardied in front of the Four Seasons Hotel, where the dinner was held, approximately 450 people came together to celebrate 101 years of the JNF, to honor Rabbi Dr. Yosef Wosk, to pay tribute to the late Morris Wosk and to thank JNF supporters.
After Bonnie Belzberg, president of JNF, Pacific Region, welcomed eveiyone to the dinner and Arnold Sehvyn sang "O Canada" and "Hatikvah," emcee Jack Blaney gave his opening remarks. Blaney, senior fellow of the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University, praised his friend Morris Wosk, z"l, and spoke ofYosefWosk as "one of the gentlest, kindest persons youll ever meet." He outlined some of Yosef Wosk's accomplishments, including the popular Philosophers' Cafo, his donation of more than 1,000 trees in Israel for students in local Jewish schools and his initiative to twin the Fraser and Jordan Rivers.
Blaneys comments set the tone for the evening which combined joy with sadness. The event mourned the recent passing of Morris Wosk, honorary patron of the dinner, while pajing homage to the accomplishments of his son, Yosef Wosk, who was not in attendance, as he was sitting shiv-ah. The evening represented a celebration of the JNF as much as it did a communal prayer for the safety of Israel and Jews around the world in the face of what keynote speaker Prof Irwin Cotler, MP, called the new anti-Semitism, or anti-Jewishness.
Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen took to the dais after Blaney.
"Yosef is a friend of ours and he is a friend of many people," said Owen, who acknowledged Israel's great need for water and lauded Wosk's involvement with the JNFs Water for Life project.
The JNF, which is probably best known for its tree-planting efforts, also focuses on Israel's water shortage. According to a short video presentation, the JNF has built more than 100 dams and reservoirs in Israel. JNF of Canada has undertaken the development of the Ne'otTcmarim Reservoir, which is south of the Dead Sea. The reservoir will provide enough water for about 14,000 people a year.
"We have to support the land of Israel and its institutions," said Yosef Wosk in the video, which also outlined Wosk's many achievements: five post-graduate degrees, being named one of the top 10 thinkers in British Columbia, appointment to the Or-
Irwin Cotler
der of B.C., the founding of the Academy for Independent Scholars, Philosophers' Cafe, and work with libraries, music programs, galleries, museums and many other projects.
Ran Bagg, Jerusalem emissary of the JNF, captured the feeling of the crowd when he stated how difficult it was for him to be at the dinner without the Wosks. In addition to thanking everyone who attended and those v/ho organized the event, Bagg referred to the protestors outside as people who did not believe that Israel has a right to exist.
"We will carry on. We will overcome," he said.
Divon echoed Bagg's determination and applauded the JNFs work in Israel.
"Keep up this good work. Now more than ever it is so important, so important that we know that you are there," said Divon, who remarked that he is taking back to Israel the message that all around the world, Israel has friends and supporters. Sandra Posluns, national JNF president, rxetved great applause when she said that the Jevrish people vrill walk on Israel's soil "forever."
After the Birkat Hamazon, led by Dr. David Freedman, Naomi Frankenburg, past president of the national JNF and honorary chair of the Negev Dinner, said a few words about Morris Wosk, describing the "twinkle in his eye" and his boyish excitement at receiving an honorary doctorate fiiom Hebrew University in 1989. She said Wosk knew how to overcome obstacles, an ability which allowed him to become a great philanthropist.
Frankenburg also presented the Hon. Grace McCarthy with
the Bernard M. Bloomfield Medal for outstanding community service.
"She has served this province better than anyone I know," said Frankenburg, adding that McCarthy has been an exceptional and unique friend to the Jewish community.
Former lieutenant governor Garde Gardom paid tribute to Yosef Wosk, calling him "a truly remarkable man." Two of Wosk's children, Avi and Elishe-va, accepted a plaque on his behalf and Wosk responded to the honor via a video recorded earlier in the day.
Speaking of the JNF projects with which he is involved, Wosk described himself as someone who, bom 10 years after the state of Israel, took its existence for granted. But his generation has learned otherwise, said Wosk, who pledged to plant 100 trees for each of the Gardom, Blaney and Owen families.
"Hope is a waking dream," he said, but hope is not enough. We need to continue to search for knowledge and wisom, said Wosk. The next generation must come forward, however reluctantly, and say "Hineni, Here I am," he concluded.
The final speaker of the busy evening was Cotler, who went through the events leading up to and following the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which took place last fall. Cotler warned that the hatred and anti-Semitism manifested at the conference - the equation of Zionism with racism, for example - is a sign of things to come and that the Jewish people must be aware of it in order to confront it and prevail over it. While Cotler himself noted that his keynote address v.'as somewhat depressing, he said his view was hopeful.
"As we approach the 54 th year of Israeli independence, as we i-e-call the 4,000 years of Jewish peoplehood, let us remember that despair would not only be a denial of the Jewish past, it would be a betrayal of the Jewish future," said Cotler.
"Whatever 2002 may be, it is not 1942. There is a Jewish state today as an antidote to Jewish powerlessness. There are Jewish people today with untold moral, intellectual and material resources. There are non-Jews and representatives of people here this evening who are prepared to stand up and be counted because ultimately this is not simply a Jewish cause but a just cause." □
Israel Asper
Norman Spector
Asper and Spector talk
Scholarships for B.C. students to study at Hebrew U.
Lawyer, political leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist Israel Asper vvill be in Vancouver May 5 to lavmch a Canadian Friends of Hebrew University scholarship campaign. Asper, founder of the National Scholarship Endowment Fund, will be joined at the CFHU, Vancouver chapter, gala dinner by syndicated columnist Dr. Norman Spector.
Best known as executive chairman of CanWest Global Commu-I nications, Asper was a lawyer by training and was leader of the Man-' itoba Liberal party for five years in the 1970s. His first foray into broadcasting was in 1974 when CanWest was awarded a licence to operate CKND-TV in Winnipeg. From those small beginnings, CanWest is now Canada's leading integrated media company and the country's largest daily newspaper publisher.
Asper has served on the boards of several leading companies and has participated in a wide variety of community service and philanthropic undertakings. In 1995, Asper was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame and, in 1993, he established The Asper Foundation, of which he serves as president.
A columnist for the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun and other newspapers, Spector began his career working in the Ontario public service and, eventually, served in British Columbia as deputy minister-to Bill Bennett from 1982-1986. He then joined the federal public service.
In 1992, Spector was appointed ambassador of Canada to Israel and, when he returned to Canada in 1995, Prime Minister Jean Chretien appointed him president of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and chair of the board of directors of Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. He resigned from the public service a year later and was the publisher of the Jerusalem Post for a time. In addition to being a syndicated columnist, Spector is a regular panelist on Right On! and on CBC Newsworld's Politics program.
The Vancouver CFHU scholarship committee will be chaired by Sam Hanson. CFHU is looking for community contributions to a scholarship campaign that will enable young people from British Columbia to study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The funds raised in the B.C. community will be matched by the Asper National Fund.
The May 5 gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel starts at 5:30 p.m. vrith a reception. The evening will be co-chaired by Dr. Howard Stein and Harold Groberman. For more information, call Dvori Bal-shine at 604-257-5133. □
without words
The Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery presents an art exhibit and film viewing this week and next. Without Words is an exhibit of the works of Claudine Pommier, which opens at gallery April 24 at 7 p.m. It runs until May 23. Admission is free, there will a be reception following the opening and a chance to talk to the artist. Pommier believes that the works of art belong to each viewer and the strength of the visual arts lies in their power to communicate without spoken words.
Recalling the Future: Art in Contemporary Africa, by Claudine Pommier, is a film that will be screened at the Norman Rothstein Theatre April 29 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5-8. Call the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver at 604-257-5111 for more information, □