Thanks go out to Fern Helfand, Barb Pullan and Lisa Schwartz for organizing and volunteering at OJC’s cultural booth at the recent West Kelowna Multicultural Days on June 24, 2023. We were one of dozens of ethnic communities represented at this great event, which brings us all together as part of Canada’s pluralistic society. Go you, OJC, for participating.
The May 7th Sisterhood Luncheon featured Vancouver artist Linda Dayan Frimer who gave an excellent talk about her artistic career, including her historical roots in Romania and her “pioneering” childhood in the Caribou region of British Columbia prior to eventually settling in the Lower Mainland. The stories and artwork presented on the screen were extremely uplifting. Anyone interested in receiving the Sisterhood emailings, please contact Anne in the office at [email protected] to be added to the list. Wouldn’t want to miss out on any of these exciting monthly events!
Great attendance of about 40-50 persons at our Yom Ha’Atzmaut party celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. Great turn-out and support from the Israeli contingent in the Valley. Thanks to Hilla and Oren Shlomi for organizing the event. The food was great with freshly-prepared Shakshuka along with other Israeli delicacies. Thanks to Fern Helfand for leading us in some Israeli Dancing. A fun event for young and old!
What a great Purim Carnival! The place was packed with dozens of members and friends from far and wide, as the synagogue and social hall were turned into a festive carnival setting. The event featured wines from various Jewish wineries in the Valley, hamantashen galore, costumes, treats, face painting and games for the kids, along with a festive Megillah reading accompanied by lots of loud graggers. Special thanks to Abbey, Mark, Mondy and David for the tremendous amount of work they put into the event to make it a smashing success.
Seventeen persons, young and old, gathered at OJC on Sunday morning, February 19th, 2023 to get experience in creating a meaningful Hamsa design with watercolours. The program was led by local artist, Olya Krasavina, who led us in the design, choice of theme, the drawing and painting of our creation. A lovely, pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning being creative. Thank-you to Olya for presenting this project to us.
OJC’s Annual Summer picnic/bar-b-que took place on Sunday, July 10th at Bertram Creek Park. Spectacular weather enabled the 50 or so attendees to thoroughly enjoy the event, one another’s company and the delicious food that was both supplied and brought by members. Very special thanks to Mondy Challmie and David Spevakow for arranging, shopping, transporting and working the bar-b-que! Hope to see you all out again for our repeat Summer event at Sarson’s Beach on Sunday, August 28th.
OJC made their presence known at two summertime Multicultural Events in the City. June 25th, West Kelowna hosted a multicultural event and on July 1st, OJC participated at the Annual Folkfest at Prospera with a cultural display and with the sale of bagels, cream cheese and lox. It was great to participate at these events after a 2 – 3 year period of lockdown during the height of the pandemic. It’s always of great importance to have a visible presence at these public events as one of many of the multicultural communities in the Kelowna.
OJC hosted one of our ”Traditional Shabbat Dinners and traditional Kabbalat Shabbat service” run by Rabbi Tom, on Friday evening, June 10th. This brings back one of the important events that OJC hosted prior to COVID shutting the building and food service down. Twenty-six persons attended and were delighted to welcome back that feeling of connection with one another and with Judaism that we are trying to rebuild after COVID activity is hopefully settling. The food, the company and the ”feeling” of the evening was warmly appreciated. Stay tuned as OJC hopes to run these 1/month. Please note them on your calendar and DO come out to share with your Community.
Thank-you to Evgenia Kempinski of Haifa, Israel for her informative, live, private presentation that she gave to OJC members and friends on Sunday, June 5, 2022. Besides presenting history and cultural information about the shtetl system and society, she was able to present on a good handful of the specific communities that we had submitted from where our grandparents came from. Great research by Evgenia and great photos. Did you see your grandparents in the photos that she presented from the early 20th century?
Members and friends were excited on being together for the first live, in person, seder in 3 years. About 120 persons met at the Harvest Golf Club to enjoy the service, the food and each other’s company. Others at home were able to join by ZOOM. Thanks to all who helped in the organization of the event, including Rabbi Tom for his innovative seder, to Barb Finkleman for helping to organize the food component and to David Spevakow for bringing the whole seder together. Next year again, at the Harvest!