Sep-Oct 10 - Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture

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Peretz Papers
Newsletter of the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture
September – October 2010
I.L. Peretz
Gut yontif to you and your family – may you have a sweet and healthy year!
Sunday School & Community Sunday with a Difference
This year, we will be trying something a little bit
different. There will be a weekly Sunday school
class of children ages 8 to 11 led by Miriam Zachs.
Miriam will be helping the children explore their
Jewish heritage
through a mixture of
hands-on activities,
field trips, games,
discussion and research.
Classes will
usually be 10:30-
12:30 on Sundays.
However, the first
class will be held
from 2:30-4:00 on
Sunday, September
12th.
At this point, we may
or may not be offering
a weekly class for
the 5 to 7 year olds.
We will be gauging
the interest of our community before we set up
this class. We are very hopeful that there will be
enough children registering and we will again be
able to offer this class. In the meantime we will
These children are grown up now—several just celebrated their b’nai mitsvahs
in June 2010, and several are in the 2011 class. Whether they come from a
family with two, one or no Jewish parents, they have a strong grounding in
Jewish identity, culture, holidays and traditions
hold monthly classes for this age group during the
"Community Sunday with a Difference." This group
of children will be learning about their Jewish
heritage through stories, arts and crafts, games
and songs.
Another new program
this year will be
"Community Sunday
with a Difference."
These events will
occur monthly and
will be led by Bernice
Kastner and Dena
Dawson. Bernice and
Dena are looking forward
to leading lively
discussions on various
topics with the adults
while the children
(aged 5 to 11) are off
in two groups with
their teachers. The
event will culminate in a potluck lunch.
The kickoff event for the new year will be our High
Holidays observance on Sunday, Sept. 12th, 2:30 to
continued on p. 6
Peretz Centre Secular Humanist Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur
Observance: Sunday, September 12, 2:30 pm. See page 3 for
details.
Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture 6184 Ash Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 3G9
604-325-1812 info@peretz-centre.org www.peretz-centre.org

It’s September …
time to renew or take out your
Peretz Centre membership
You are invited to join the
Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir
Searle Friedman, founder
Sing in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino and English
every Tuesday evening, 7:30–9:45 pm
couldn’t couldn’t hoit!
For information,
hoit!
phone Donna, 604-325-1812
Register Now
for the Peretz Centre’s classes in Jewish
tradition and culture from a
non-religious perspective
Sunday School (ages 8-11)
Bar/Bas Mitsvah Program
Fraytik tsu Nakht
We invite you to participate in our popular
monthly secular Shabbes observance: Candle
lighting, wine, challah, potluck supper, and a talk
by a guest speaker.
To attend, you may bring a dish (couples
please bring two dishes or a double-sized dish)
or pay $10/person. Please RSVP to Gallia,
604-322-6077.
Friday, Sep. 3, 6:30: Our talented youth
group is creating and leading this FTN and welcoming
our early-arriving conference guests from
out of town.
Friday, Oct. 22, 6:30: Seemah Berson presenting
her new book, I have a story to tell you.
Peretz Centre
Annual General Meeting:
Sunday, November 7, 11:00 a m
Yiddish Classes
with Haya Newman
Reading, conversation practice with guest native
speakers, songs and FUN for all levels and all ages
CLASSES STARTING WEDNESDAY,
SEPTEMBER 22.
Int/Adv: 4:30–6:30; Beg. 7:00–9:00 p m
Please call the office for information or to register
Nokhmitogdiker yiddisher leyn krayz
(Afternoon Yiddish Reading Circle)
at the Peretz Centre
3:00 to 4:30 pm, the first and third
Wednesdays of each month.
For further information,
call Shanie Levin at (604) 873-4947
or Al Stein at (604) 731-1193.
The SHOLEM ALEICHEM SENIORS
welcome you to their opening brunch
(bagels, lox, etc.) on Friday, September
24, 10:30 a.m. Bagels and lox luncheon.
Entertainment TBA.
RSVP Lorraine, 604-873-1777
Our beautiful building is available for
rental for your meeting or simcha. We’d
love to help you work out the logistics of
your life-cycle event (baby naming, bar/
bas mitsvah, wedding, memorial service).
Phone our Rentals Manager, Sylvia
Friedman, 604-325-1810.
2 September – October 2010 Peretz Papers

High Holidays
Community Sunday,
September 12,
2:30:
Something for all
ages
On Sunday, September 12,
2:30 pm, the Peretz Centre
will hold our annual High
Holidays Observance. The
first Sunday School class for
8-11 year olds will take place
at the same time (after this
week, class time will revert to
our usual 10:30–12:30).
While our adult community
celebrates Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur with readings, a
sing-along and a yisker service,
our 8–11 year olds will
have a Sunday School class,
and younger children (4-7)
will be led in activities related
to the holidays in the second
classroom.
After the holidays observance,
all the children will
join us for apples and honey.
So if you are looking for a
meaningful secular humanist
celebration of Rosh Hashana
and Yom Kippur, please attend,
and bring your children, grandchildren and friends.
One of the basic concepts of the high holidays is tsedoke (a.k.a. tzedakah), or charity. So please bring a contribution
for the Jewish Food Bank.
Project Isaiah: the Jewish Food Bank
Rosh Hashanah is the time of year when the Jewish Family Service Agency, along with Jewish Women International–
BC, launches the annual Project Isaiah appeal for donations of non-perishable foods for the Jewish Food Bank. This
gives you an opportunity to perform tsedoke (tzadakah) during the High Holiday season.
JFSA suggests you contribute from among the following high nutrition-density items. Note: please check “best
before date” on products. Expired products cannot be accepted:
♦♦Canned fish (tuna, salmon, sardines
♦♦Peanut or nut butter (plastic bottles only)
♦♦Canned fruit or vegetables
♦♦Cooking oil (plastic bottles only)
♦♦Whole grain pasta, rice, cereals
♦♦Legumes (canned or dried)
♦♦Dried fruit (prunes, apricots, etc.)
♦♦Toiletries
Peretz Papers September – October 2010 3

Time to reserve a space for
your child in B’nai Mitsvah class
of ’12 starting in September.
Our B’nai Mitsvah program helps your
child develop his/her Jewish identity
through exploration of topics ranging from
the Ten Commandments to Jewish humour
from tsedoke to the Holocaust and Ghetto
uprisings, from Jewish literature, music and
art to Israeli history and current events.
The two-year program culminates in a
secular bar/bat mitsvah ceremony.
B’nai Mitsvah class of 2010;
(Left to right): Samantha Krystal, Simon Marriott,
Jake Adler, Talia Berson, Henya Rosen, Erica Luce,
teacher Bob Heyman, Hagar Bach.
Absent: Hannah Madden-Krasnick. Photo: Darren Luce
All children with any Jewish family ties are
welcome.
For more information, please contact the
office: 604-325-1812, info@peretz-centre.
org.
Seemah, on the publication
of your latest book!
I have a story to tell you is about Eastern European
Jewish immigrants living in Montreal, Toronto and
Winnipeg in the early twentieth
century. Basing her work on extensive
interviews, Seemah recreates
these immigrants’ stories of their lives
in the Old Country and the hardship
of finding work in Canada, and
she tells how many of these newcomers
ended up in the needle trades.
A brief glance at the book’s table
of contents will show you many
familiar Vancouver names—even
though the original immigrants
landed in the above-mentioned cities,
several of them, as well as their
descendents, wound up in Vancouver.
Amongst these are several
founders of the original Vancouver
Peretz Institute.
The book promises to be wonderful as well as educational
reading about Jewish immigration, the needle
trades, the trade union movement,
and much more.
Seemah Berson, a long-time active
member of the Peretz Centre,
was born in Calcutta, India. She
arrived in Vancouver in 1954
and received her BA and MA
from UBC. She is co-editor with
Henry M. Rosenthal of The
Canadian Jewish Outlook Anthology
and several children’s books,
in addition to regular contributions
to Outlook magazine.
For more information about I have
a story to tell you, please contact
Seemah at scberson@telus.net.
4 September – October 2010 Peretz Papers

c
A Sheynem Dank!
The events of last Spring seem a long time ago,
but nevertheless, there are a few thank-yous still
to be said.
pp
First of all, a sheynem dank to Louise Miller
for filling in for me during my much needed
and totally enjoyed holidays.
And thanks to the following people, who helped
produce the Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir’s
spring concert back in June:
pp
pp
pp
Demet Edeer, the Turkish Choir and Musiki
Parea, for contributing so much to the concert,
in spite of the political incidents at the
time creating many challenges
Al Stein, Bernice Kastner, Bluma Field and
Marcia Beekil (door); Rivka Stein (raffle);
Shane Dyson (house manager); Arlene Jackson,
Gloria Díaz, Tammy Neuman (kitchen);
Clivey Kaplan (lights); Victor Neuman (script,
troubleshooter, general all-around helper);
Adriana Byrne (sound); Leslie Dyson (stage
manager); Alan Le Fevre (ticket sales).
And of course, major thanks to conductor
David Millard and accompanist Elliott Dainow
for all their hard work over the season, and to
our regular and guest soloists: Stephen Aberle,
Andi Alexander, Peter Alexander, Peter Kendall,
Ethan Minovitz (who was unable to perform
at the last minute due to illness), Tristan Pearson,
Cynthia Ramsay and Janel Snider.
If the passage of time has erased your name from
my concert memories, please let me know.
to:
Pnina Granirer, whose work, Out of the Flames,
has been included in Israel’s Yad Vashem art
exhibit, which features work by survivors.
Faith Jones, who recently won an award for the
best student paper of the Association of Canadian
Jewish Studies conference. Her paper
was titled “’Di ershte un greste Yidishe bukh
stor”: Miller’s Books advertising, 1910-1920”
— Donna Becker, Program Coordinator
lqnyc stnedyzerp
On behalf of the Executive,
let me welcome all
of you back to the Peretz
Centre. Alas, the summer
is almost over, and I hope
you and your families
have had an interesting
and exciting time. You
will see in this Newsletter that there are many
exciting and interesting events coming up. As
usual, I urge you to be involved in any way
you can.
Let me suggest some possibilities. Please
renew your membership as soon as you can
and commit yourself and your family to attending
as many events as you can. When
they are announced, please volunteer. Help
with set-ups and clean-ups, lend your special
talents to appropriate events, and inform
your friends and associates about those in
which they might be interested. Invite them to
accompany you to the Centre for particular
ones of interest. Enroll your children in our
programs. These possibilities and more offer
opportunities for your help. Don’t wait to be
asked. We need you! We need your friends.
Actually, we certainly could use younger
people in leadership roles.
Guess what? We are having a very special
event over the Labour Day weekend (Sept.
4-6), called Jew-West: Connections and
Continuity. It will involve secular Jews
from the west coast of Canada and the US
and will explore a variety of issues related to
Jewish secularism across generations. The
newsletter contains much more information,
and you can check our website. I urge you
to attend as much of this event as you can
and by you I mean you and your families. It
should be a memorable event. If you are unable
to attend, please consider a donation so
that additional young people can attend.
continued on page 6
President’s Corner
Peretz Papers September – October 2010 5

Peretz Centre Schedule, September — October
* no classes October 10 (Thanksgiving)
Youth
p B’nai Mitsvah ’11: First class: Sunday, Sep.
19
p B’nai Mitsvah ’12: First class: TBA
p Sunday School for 8-11 year olds: every Sunday
except as noted above, 10:30–12:30. First class:
Sep. 12, 2:30 pm.* For 4-8 year olds: activities
at our monthly Community Sundays. First class:
Sunday, Sep. 12, 2:30 pm*
* High Holidays Community Sunday
Adults and Seniors
p Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir rehearsal: Tuesdays,
7:30–9:30 p m. First rehearsal: September 7.
p Yiddish Class: Wednesdays, 4:00–6:00 (Advanced)
and 7:00–9:00 p m (Beginners). First
classes: September 22.
p Fraytik Tsu Nakht (Friday night Secular-Humanist
Shabbes celebration): First FTN, Sep. 3, 6:30
p m. Bring a joke to share. Oct. 22, 6:30: Seemah
Berson talking about her new book (see Peretz Papers
page 4),
p Sholem Aleichem Seniors: Fridays, 10:30 a m.
First meeting: September 24. Bagels and lox
luncheon, entertainment TBA.
continued from p. 1: Sunday School
approximately 4:00. While the adults are participating
in the observance the children will go
with the teachers to learn about Rosh Hashonah
through stories, games and craft projects.
The children will rejoin the adults and listen to
the blowing of the shofar. The youngest children
will then have the chance to welcome in
the new year by blowing their own homemade
shofars.
The first official Community Sunday will be held
on October 24th.
— Tammy Neuman
Special Events & Holiday Observances
Sep. 3–6
Sep. 3, 6:30 p m
Sep. 12, 2:30 p m
Oct. 22, 6:30 p m
Oct. 24, 10:30 a m
Nov. 7, 11:00 a m
Nov. 14 , 1:30 p m
Nov. 19, 6:30 p m
Nov. 28, 2:00
Dec. 3, 6:30 p m
Dec. 5, 10:30 a m
Dec. 12, 6:00 p m
Jan. 16, 11:00 a m
Jan. 21, 6:30 p m
Feb. 18, 6:30 p m:
Mar 13*
Mar. 18, 6:30 p m
Mar. 20, 11:30 a m
Apr. 10*
Apr. 23, 5:30 p m
Apr. 3, 6:30 p m
May 13, 6:30 p m
May 22*
Jun.*
Jun. *
* Date and/or time to be confirmed
continued from page 5 President’s Vinkl
J-West Conference
Fraytik tsu Nakht
High Holidays observance and
Community Sunday
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Community Sunday
Annual General Meeting
Latke-making bee
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Chanuka in Chelm: Peretz/Kol
Halev joint Khanike celebration
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Community Sunday
Annual Banquet
Tu b’Shvat Seder
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Homentashn bake
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Purim Party
Second annual Great Matzo Ball
Cook-off
Third Seder
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Fraytik tsu Nakht
Lag b’Omer Picnic
B’nai Mitsvah dress rehearsal
Choir spring concert
So, although it is somewhat early, let me wish you all
a happy and prosperous New Year for your families and
loved ones and indeed for all of us here and abroad.
See you on opening day, September 12, at 2:30 for our
Rosh Hashona, Yom Kippur observance at 2:30 pm.
Our community must grow and it depends on all of us.
— Richard Rosenberg
6 September – October 2010 Peretz Papers