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Bulletin
Serving Grvater Vaitcotnvr since 19J0
$1.00 includes GST JUNE 25,1999/11TAMMUZ 5759
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Ob Canada Day
In honor of Canada's birthday,
Bridging time tlirougli illustration
New display at Holocaust centre draws on personal experiences.
BAILA LAZARUS EDITOR
A new exhibit at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre depicts the memories, experiences and liopcs of survivors and members of tlic second generation. In the first part of a two-part scries, the Bulletin focuses on the artwork of tlic survivors.
It's not often you hear singing at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. But last Sunday night, to herald the culmination ofyears of effort by a dedicated group of people, music marked the moment, bringing smiles of compliments and tears ofemotion.
The words, "All my world is a very narrow bridge which we must cross over, but the most important thing of all is do not fear," sung in both English and Hebrew, ushered in the opening of the Gcshcr Project An Inter-Gcn-erational Holocaust Project Creating Bridges of Hope, an exhibit ofart and poetry.
The Gesher Pix)ject, which gets its name finom the Hebrew word for bridge, brou^t together Holocaust survivors, child survivors and children of survivors in what may be the first program of its
kind in Canada, if not North America.
People from the three groups participated in weekly workshops, using storytelling, writing and painting to explore their experiences and feelings about the Holocaust.
The result is one of
the most visually en-_
gaging and emotionally diaj*ged exibits the centre has ever hosted. Because the participants are all members of the Lower Mainland community, friends and relatives filled the Holocaust centre for the opening, scrutinizing the .unusual use of personal letters, photographs, handwriting and oil paint that covered the canvasses, hugging each other for support and congratulations, holding tissues to moist eyes.
The images they came to see tell the personal stories of surviving the Holocaust or of learning about it through a parent or relative; of fear, anger and denial or of the frustration of wanting to know more but being met wiSi silence.
Each participant in the Gesher Project was given a portion of a 19-foot-wide canvas on which to paint their Holocaust experience and its aftermath. The result is "The Bridge" (above).
In one composition, painted barbed wire wends its way around the canvas, wrapping itself around the feet of an angry-looking little girl. Another piece is titled, "My mother escaped the Holocaust, I didn't"
Along with Andrew Jordan's work, titled, "Oh Mother," is a poem he wrote, which says, "Feelings came in waves, growing waves and spilled onto paper in words and images... It's a mighty tall order to surf these waves, yet anything else is mere lamentation."
Survivor Frances Hoyd lost her mother and sister in the Holocaust. On her work, "My Family," she writes, "Until my last breath on this earth I will miss them with all my heart" Addressing the crowd Sunday night, Hoyd, 81, called herself the "mother of the group" and said, "I am sure I survived Auschwitz to tell what
See GESHER on page 4
Hate goes unreported
CJC urges B.C.'s govemment to step up sentences.
KYLE BERGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
in the first status report presented by the British Columbia Hate Crime Team, it was estimated that only five to 10 per cent of hate or bias crimes that take place in Canada are reported to police.
This statistic prompted Sgt Rick McKenna and his Hate Crime Team to focus on the importance of teaching people what a hate crime is and how to rejwrt one.
"Our biggest concern is educating the public and have them come for%vard to their local police agency," McKenna told the Bulletin.
In order to achieve this, the team has been organizing conferences, workshops and media events hoping to get their message to the public
As defined in the status report, a hate or bias crime would "include a wide range of offences committed against a person, a group of people or property which is motivated by the suspect's hate, prejudice or bias against an identifiable group based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or any other similar factor."
Please see CRIMES on page 2
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