Sunday, May 19, 2:00 pm – Join us in the Sanctuary for an exploration of Emanu-El history and Victoria’s Jewish past as a celebration of Canadian Jewish Heritage Month.
Learn from Amber Woods about Jewish Pioneers and Community Leaders 1859-1900, who established Congregation Emanu-El and contributed to the business, political, and cultural life of a young and vibrant Victoria.
Dr. Brian Pollick will talk about the features of Romanesque Revival architecture, with specific focus on our building, and why this style may have been chosen for the synagogue in his lecture “The Building of Congregation Emanu-El: Architecture as a Sacred and Social Jewish Narrative in Early Victoria.”
Please consider making a donation to our 160th anniversary Heritage Synagogue Restoration Campaign – www.160emanuel.ca
Sunday, April 7, 11:00 am – Kolot Mayim is pleased to welcome Bonnie Stern and Anna Rupert, the mother-daughter co-authors of “Don’t Worry, Just Cook: Delicious Timeless Recipes for Comfort and Connection.” This talk will be a tantalizing exploration of the world of Jewish cuisine, highlighting the deep relationship between Jewish food, culture, and family. Bonnie is one of Canada’s most popular and beloved food writers and cooking instructors. The award-winning founder of the Bonnie Stern School of Cooking in Toronto, she has studied and taught cooking around the world, authored 12 bestselling cookbooks, hosted three national cooking shows, and appears regularly on various television and radio shows across Canada.
Professionally, Bonnie’s daughter, Anna is a highly respected speech pathologist and researcher. She grew up in the kitchen learning from her mother. She used to dream that one day they would have a cooking show together. So in a way, “Don’t Worry, Just Cook” is a dream come true!
Bonnie and Anna will share stories and insights into the role of food in preserving Jewish heritage and how it has evolved to offer comfort and connection.
“Food has a unique way of connecting us to our roots and bringing generations together,” says Bonnie Stern. “We are excited to share our passion for Jewish cuisine and the joy it brings to families.”
Bonnie Stern and Anna Rupert’s lecture is a fitting conclusion to Kolot Mayim’s overarching theme for the 2023-24 Building Bridges series, “L’Dor Vador: From Generation to Generation” aimed at fostering intergenerational dialogue and exploring the transmission of Jewish cultural values and traditions.
Register here for this free Zoom webinar. A recording will be sent to all who register. To learn more about the Building Bridges series, please visit Kolot Mayim’s website at http://www.kolotmayimreformtemple.com.
Sunday, March 3, 11:00 am – Kolot Mayim Reform Temple is delighted to announce an upcoming lecture in its prestigious Building Bridges series, featuring Rabbi Dr. Nachshon Siritsky. This captivating lecture, titled “Our Evolving Understanding of G!d and Gender,” will take place on March 3, 2024, and promises to offer profound insights into the evolving perceptions of divinity and gender within the Jewish context.
Rabbi Siritsky will reflect upon ancient and contemporary understandings of G!d and gender, from biblical days to our own time. They will explore the ways that Judaism’s most ancient teachings about gender can transform our current debates on the topic.
Rabbi Dr. Nachshon Siritsky, MSSW, RSW, BCC is the spiritual leader of the Reform Jewish Community of Atlantic Canada, serving Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. Ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, they are also a board certified chaplain with Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains and a social worker with advanced training from the Post-Graduate Center of Mental Health and a doctorate in ministry and pastoral counseling with a focus on burnout in health care workers. Rabbi Siritsky identifies as transgender and nonbinary. A passionate educator and advocate for 2SLGBTQIA+ justice, Rabbi Siritsky is known for their thoughtful explorations of spirituality and identity.
“Our understanding of G!d and gender is continually evolving, reflecting the ever-changing landscape of our society and culture,” says Rabbi Dr. Siritsky. “By exploring this evolution, we can better appreciate the richness and complexity of Jewish spirituality.”
Rabbi Dr. Nachshon Siritsky’s lecture will contribute significantly to Kolot Mayim’s overarching theme for the 2023-24 Building Bridges series, “L’Dor Vador: From Generation to Generation.” This series aims to foster intergenerational dialogue and explore the transmission of Jewish cultural values and traditions.
To register for this free event and learn more about the Building Bridges series, please visit Kolot Mayim’s website at http://www.kolotmayimreformtemple.com.
Sunday, February 4, 11:00 am – Rabbi Mike Uram is passionate about young people and the future of Judaism. The former Executive Director of Hillel at Penn State University , Rabbi Mike is the author of the bestselling “Next Generation Judaism: How College Students and Hillel Can Help Reinvent Jewish Organizations” which won a National Jewish Book Award. He is presently an associate faculty member of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies based in Jerusalem with programs worldwide.
Rabbi Uram is a distinguished leader in the North American Jewish community, known for his insightful views on the evolving landscape of Jewish identity and engagement especially in regards to the involvement of the Millennial Generation. Known for his wealth of knowledge and visionary approach, Rabbi Uram’s lecture will delve into the dynamics of Next Generation Judaism, exploring the evolving values, interests, and priorities of millennials and how these factors are reshaping Jewish organizations and communities.
“As we navigate the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, it’s essential to understand the perspectives of the next generation,” says Rabbi Uram. “Millennials bring unique insights and values that can guide the future of Judaism in exciting ways.”
Rabbi Uram’s lecture is co-sponsored with Hillel BC at the University of Victoria. Tal Katz, Director of Hillel at the University of Victoria affirms, “I am excited for Jewish students on campus to be exposed to Rabbi Mike’s vision of the role Millennials can play shaping the future of Jewish institutions.”
To register for this free event and learn more about the Building Bridges series, please visit Kolot Mayim’s website at www.kolotmayimreformtemple.com.
Sunday, January 14 – Kolot Mayim Reform Temple eagerly welcomes Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone to speak on the complex topic of Jewish trauma and its impact across generations. Author of the award winning best seller, Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma, Rabbi Firestone is a highly respected Jungian psychotherapist, a leader in the international Jewish Renewal Movement, and a renowned Jewish scholar and teacher. She is dedicated to recognizing and addressing historical and intergenerational wounds within the Jewish community and beyond. As a second-generation Holocaust survivor, Rabbi Tirzah will weave her personal story with testimonies of recovery while also integrating neuroscience, psychology and relevant Jewish teachings to help us understand and heal collective and intergenerational Jewish trauma. As she puts it, “the world is calling us to heal our wounds and harvest the best within us.”
“Jewish trauma is a deeply nuanced and interconnected issue,” says Rabbi Firestone. “By exploring the ways in which trauma has been passed down through generations, we can begin the essential work of healing and understanding its impact on our lives today.”
Rabbi Lynn Greenhough sees trauma daily in her work as rabbi at Kolot Mayim, much of it generational. “The whole realm of epigenetic trauma assumes that our bodies are one with our past and our present, holding the stories of those who came before us. Healing our woundedness also enables us all to move forward individually and as a people.”
Rabbi Firestone’s lecture continues the Building Bridges theme of ‘L’Dor V’dor: From Generation to Generation’, a series designed to foster intergenerational dialogue and explore the transmission of Jewish cultural values and traditions. Rabbi Dr. Firestone’s insights promise to shed light on a path of healing and renewal, providing a roadmap for Jews and all people with trauma history who wish to seize the power to change their lives.
To register for this free event and learn more about the Building Bridges series, please visit Kolot Mayim’s website at www.kolotmayimreformtemple.com.
Kolot Mayim, meaning “Voices of the Water” in Hebrew, is Victoria’s Reform Jewish Congregation. Founded in 1998, Kolot Mayim is a diverse congregation dedicated to promoting and celebrating Jewish life, culture, and traditions. The Building Bridges lecture series is generously supported by the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island.
Sunday, December 3 – Fans of Jewish humour will not want to miss Kolot Mayim’s Building Bridges lecture with Dr. Jennifer Caplan, author of the recent ‘Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials’. Dr. Caplan’s talk is especially relevant to the theme ‘L’Dor V’Dor: From Generation to Generation’ as she looks at the changing relationship of four post-World War II generations of Jewish humour to North American Jewish life. As Caplan observes “Jews have always turned and continue to turn to humour as a cultural touchstone and a way to make meaning.” Her talk will range from the Silent Generation, who demonstrated a post-Holocaust defensiveness of Jews as people, but also a deep mistrust of organized religion and religious institutions through to Generation X, for whom Jews are fair game but ritual Judaism is worthy of protection, and onward to Millennials for whom nothing is off limits.
Jennifer Caplan is Associate Professor and the Jewish Foundation Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati. As the child of an itinerant actor and circus clown, she grew up steeped in classic Jewish humour developing a deep respect for comedy as an art form. As an academic, she became a scholar of American religion and popular culture specializing in American Judaism. She works extensively with film, television, internet media, humour, graphic novels, video and board games and other sites of pop culture engagement. Funny, You Don’t Look Funny was released in 2023 to enthusiastic reviews. Simon J. Bronner, distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore Emeritus describes her book as “a provocative, cultural history, and at the same time a clarion call for future generations of a people connected to the joke, as well as the book.“ Dr. Caplan is currently researching and writing her next book Unmasked: Jewish Identity in Comic Books.
Sunday, November 5 – Kolot Mayim Reform Temple is pleased to welcome Dr. Joshua Grayson to speak on “In Search of Lost Roots: How One Researcher Traced His Family across Three and a Half Centuries.” The lecture will be presented on Zoom, November 5, 2023 at 11:00 am PT, launching a new season of the Building Bridges speaker series on the theme of L’dor V’dor: From Generation to Generation. Dr. Grayson will be the first of six dynamic leaders from across the North American Jewish community highlighting the importance of transmitting Jewish cultural values and traditions that strengthen inter-generational understanding and communication.
Dr. Grayson has always been fascinated by family history. Ever since his childhood, genealogy connected him with his beloved grandparents—although back then, he had no way of knowing that it would become an obsession that would change the course of his life. Thanks to research skills honed in a doctoral degree at the University of Southern California as well as fluency in five foreign languages, Dr. Grayson was able to trace one branch of his family history back to approximately 1660, and many other branches to the early 1700s. Through his research, he learned about the many contributions his family made in fields as diverse as science, art, medicine, feminism, and Zionism. Dr. Grayson’s efforts also led him to reconnecting with living relatives he never knew he had.
Wanting to use his skills to help others, Dr. Grayson founded Lost Roots Family History, a website (https://www.LostRootsFamilyHistory.com), virtual museum, and research service devoted to helping other Jewish families reconnect with their roots, discover their past, engage with the present, and preserve their heritage for the future. On the theme of From Generation to Generation, Dr. Grayson observes that “No matter how much things may change, something of the achievements of those who came before us–some piece of what they have built–will live on forever to inspire and educate future generations.” Kolot Mayim’s Rabbi Lynn Greenhough adds, “Many of us participate in what we call ‘Jewish geography,’ trying to establish long-lost connections with each other through familial ties. Some of us who have chosen Judaism can sometimes feel outside these geographical memories, but the information we receive from all our collective ancestors can inspire all of us to treasure what we hold today.”
This online lecture will offer invaluable insights into the vast array of resources available for Jewish genealogical research including archival records, immigration documents, letters, oral histories, and digital databases. As well, Dr. Grayson will provide expert guidance on how to navigate these resources, overcome obstacles, and piece together the intricate stories of Jewish ancestry.
Sunday, April 9, 2023 – Kolot Mayim Reform Temple’s six part speaker series wraps up on April 9 with an uplifting talk by Rabbi Suzanne Singer of Temple Beth El in Riverside, California. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Rabbi Singer is keenly aware of the need to make our world a better place. In the midst of a global pandemic, war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, and the rise in anti-Semitism and hate crimes, it can be hard for many people to feel optimistic. Rabbi Singer believes that we need hope now, more than ever. She agrees with Jane Goodall, the foremost expert on chimpanzees, that “Hope is not a Pollyannish attitude towards life, believing that problems will magically disappear; It is a choice about actively tackling problems.” Originally inspired by Goodall’s The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Rabbi Singer finds hope to be a particularly Jewish value. With reference to our traditional stories as well as modern voices such as Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, her talk will focus on the deep roots of the Jewish commitment to believing in and building for a better future.
Many Kolot Mayim members will know Rabbi Singer from her time In Victoria — more than twenty years ago — as a student rabbi. She now serves the Reform community in Riverside, California where she has been active on many fronts. Rabbi Singer recently served as a member of the Reform movement’s Commission on Social Action and as President of the Pacific Area of Reform Rabbis. She served on the City of Riverside’s Task Force on Police Reform, as well as a commissioner for the City of Riverside’s Human Relations Commission. She has led advocacy efforts through local interfaith organizations to develop alternatives to incarceration as well as aid-in-dying legislation. Rabbi Singer has been named a Riverside “Champion of Justice” as well as a Riverside “Woman of Distinction”. She has published a number of essays and Op Eds, in addition to serving both as Director of the Introduction to Judaism Program for the Pacific Southwest Council of the Union for Reform Judaism, and as Coordinator of a leadership initiative at Hebrew Union College’s (HUC) Los Angeles campus.
Rabbi Singer grew up in New York City and holds three Masters Degrees: a Masters of Arts in Hebrew Letters and a Masters of Arts in Judaic Studies from Hebrew Union College (HUC); and a Masters in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Rabbi Singer was ordained by HUC in 2003. Prior to attending HUC, Rabbi Singer spent twenty years as a television producer and programming executive, primarily for national public television (PBS) and primarily in news and public affairs. As executive producer of a national documentary series, POV, she won two national Emmy awards.
How Do We Find Hope in a World with Unending Problems is the sixth and final lecture on the theme of Building Bridges: Hineini – Answering the Call to Heal the World. Rabbi Singer’s talk will be offered free of charge on Sunday, April 9/23 from 11 am-12:15 pm PT on Zoom. Last year, over 400 participants from across the country and around the world attended. This lecture is co-sponsored with Temple Beth El in Riverside, California and offered with the support of the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island and the Isaac and Sophie Waldman Endowment Fund, held at Vancouver Foundation.
Thursday, March 23 – Join multiple teaching award winner Dr. Kristin Semmens for a public talk, “Defying Hitler: Resistance by the Persecuted,” and the launch of her new book, Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany, which students helped to shape. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Stay for light refreshments to celebrate!
Please register here for the event, which will be held at the UVic Campus, David Strong Building, Room C 103, from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm.
Summary of event details
Date: March 23, 2023
Time: 4:30 pm to 5:50 pm
Where: UVic Campus, David Strong Building, Room C 103
Sunday, March 5, 11:00 am – Standing Up to Anti-Semitism is the timely topic of Pat Johnson’s Zoom talk on March 5/23 for Victoria BC’s Kolot Mayim Reform Temple. Johnson is the Vancouver founder of Upstanders Canada (UpstandersCanada.com) which was founded “to mobilize non-Jewish Canadians to stand up against anti-semitism and anti-Zionism.”
“Antisemitism, race-hatred and bigotry against Jewish people is being normalized, even here in Canada,” Johnson says. Upstanders represents Canadians of every background, belief, religion, gender, orientation and ideology. He observes that “Too often, Jewish people are left alone to face and fight prejudice and Upstanders thinks that is wrong.”
Statistics reveal that antisemitism, including violent attacks, are rising significantly worldwide, including in Canada. While elected officials and law enforcement are quick to speak out, and ordinary people are disturbed at the trends, citizens have limited means to constructively oppose antisemitism, especially the anti-Zionism that crosses into bigotry. Johnson states that “Upstanders Canada creates a place for Canadians, especially non-Jews, to take a stand against bias and hatred against Jewish people in Canada, in Israel and worldwide.” To Johnson, standing with the Jewish people includes standing with Israel. He believes that “Jewish people have a right to national self-determination that is central to Jewish identity and opposition to Zionism is dangerous and regressive.”
The ardent supporter of Israel has observed a widening split between many progressive left leaning movements and the Jewish community in recent decades. He regards this as a betrayal by a movement that Jewish people helped to build. This presentation will offer coordinated steps anyone can take to support the Jewish community.
Pat Johnson is a writer, organizer and entrepreneur who tells stories to advance causes, organizations and socially responsible businesses. He has written for the Jewish Independent newspaper for 25 years, was religion and spirituality columnist for the Vancouver Courier and has been published in scores of media outlets including the Globe and Mail and the National Post. He has worked with Hillel, Canadian Jewish Congress, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and many other Jewish and Zionist organizations.
This is the fifth lecture in the six-part series on the theme Building Bridges: Hineini –Answering the Call to Heal the World, sponsored by Kolot Mayim Reform Temple. Talks are offered free of charge on scheduled Sundays from 11 AM -12:15 PM PT on Zoom. Last year, over 400 participants from across the country and around the world attended. This lecture is being offered with the support of the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island and the Isaac and Sophie Waldman Endowment Fund, held at Vancouver Foundation. To register, please use this link https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtfu-hrzIsGtKSrqqY3rzqUWR6VMt5y5fI or visit the Kolot Mayim website at https://kolotmayimreformtemple.com/2022-23-lecture-series/
Congregation Emanu-El News 