SUMMER FLING
Members of “Gen X” (if you don’t know what it means you’re too old) are invited to a “Summer Fling” at the Aloft Hotel in Dorval, 8 p.m. Dancing to retro music with a live DJ. One drink included in admission.Tickets, [email protected].
FOR JOB SEEKERS
Motivational speaker Peter Davison of Halifax discusses “How to Talk True: Virtues at Work” at the Agence Ometz Networking Club, 1:30-4 p.m., Cummings House, Suite 310. Registration, 342-0000, ext. 3029
MARRIAGE INFORMATION
Couples considering intermarriage or conversion to Judaism by one partner are invited to attend an information meeting at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom at 5:30 p.m. to learn about its policies and practices from Rabbi Leigh Lerner. 937-3575
…Et Cetera…
The Jewish Eldercare Centre received the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) 2009 Certification Employer Recognition Award for “its ongoing support of registered nurses in their pursuit of continuous education opportunities” through the CNA certification program. The Jewish Eldercare Foundation awarded more than $10,000 in bursaries this past year to nurses wishing to learn more about gerontology… The 2008 documentary Leaving the Fold by Eric Scott, about disenchanted young chassidic Jews who choose a secular life, recently had its Canadian broadcast premiere on CBC’s digital channel Documentary. The film is scheduled to be shown on TV in Finland, Australia and Belgium. The French version, Quitter le Bercail, will air on Radio-Canada, which commissioned the film, later this year…
Danse Danse launches its 2009-2010 season of contemporary dance with the troupe the Hofesh Shechter Company, Oct. 1-3 at Place des Arts’ Théâtre Maisonneuve. This is the troupe’s Montreal debut. Hofesh Shechter, an ex-dancer with Israel’s famed Batsheva Dance Company, founded the London-based troupe in 2003 and it has quickly become an international sensation. The double bill includes Uprising, an energetic piece danced by seven men, and In Your Rooms, which stages 11 dancers and five musicians playing music composed by Shechter… Radio Shalom, 1650AM, has launched a phone-in show on the economy and personal finance called Parlons d’argent, Tuesdays, 4-5 p.m. The hosts are veteran financial affairs journalist André Hains, stockbroker Jacynthe Deschênes and financial adviser François Morency. The phone number is 738-4100, ext. 200, or questions can be submitted by e-mail at [email protected]…
The national student journal Yalla, which publishes articles by Jewish and Arab university students in an attempt to foster understanding and dialogue, has a new website at www.yallajournal.com. Submissions will be published online, but a printed journal will also come out in the fall… Jewish history is given some mention in the exhibition Le patrimoine funéraire, un héritage pour les vivants on at the Château Dufresne Museum, near Olympic Stadium, until Aug. 30. It’s noted that a Jewish cemetery was established in 1776 in Montreal, one of the first in North America, at the northwest corner of Peel and Lagauchetière streets. The burial place was moved to Mount Royal in 1854…
Côte St. Luc honoured Miep Gies, one of the people who hid Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam for two years during World War II, with a plaque on the Human Rights Walkway in Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park. The plaque was unveiled as part of the city’s Canada Day celebrations. The Vienna-born Gies, who recently turned 100, also preserved Frank’s diary after the family’s deportation. She is the ninth human rights activist immortalized on the Walkway. The most recent was South African anti-apartheid leader Helen Suzman…
Researchers at McGill University and the affiliated Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital announced that they’ve discovered a new diagnostic technique that may greatly simplify the detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Hyman Schipper and his colleagues found changes in blood plasma using a new minimally invasive technique called near-infrared biospectroscopy to identify changes in blood plasma very early after the onset of Alzheimer’s, and possibly before. Currently, there is no accepted blood test for Alzheimer’s…
Montreal’s Les Violons du Roy recently gave two concerts at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, under the baton of Jeanne Lamon, conductor of the Toronto-based baroque orchestra Tafelmusik,, during the 11th Felicja Blumenthal International Music Festival. Mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel was the featured soloist, performing extracts from Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans Oratoria, among other arias…
Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen is celebrating its 80th anniversary by inviting people to share their stories about the fabled St. Laurent Boulevard smoked meat emporium on its website, www.schwartzsdeli.com. Hy Diamond, who calls himself “the current curator,” relates that Schwartz’s opened just a few doors away from its current location on Saturday, Dec. 31, 1928. It was kosher then, and the curtain rose after sundown. Other anniversary events include a musical play based on Bill Brownstein’s lively history Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen: The True Story, starring Bowser & Blue, at the Centaur Theatre in October. It will be a fundraiser for Diamond’s favourite cause – MOI (Montreal Ovarian Cancer Initiative). Diamond has brought in his granddaughter, Jennifer Wieskopf, from Toronto to help co-ordinate activities for this milestone. Besides commemorative mugs and T-shirts, she’s toying with a limited-edition new product – smoked meat knishes – which some may view as heresy.
Yoav Talmi, artistic director of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec since 1998, has been named an officer of the Ordre national du Québec.Talmi was cited for his reinvigoration of the orchestra and for his contribution to the province’s musical scene. Talmi was in his native Israel recovering from surgery and was not present for the investiture ceremony at the National Assembly with Premier Jean Charest. A new date is to be announced…
Herzliah High School (Snowdon) graduate Sivan Raviv is now the spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman with foreign media. Born in Israel and raised in Montreal, Raviv earned a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University and has worked as a TV reporter and producer, freelancing for such outlets as CNN and the BBC. Two-time Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman will co-star in the movie adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s final novel, Barney’s Version, which begins shooting next month in Montreal and the Laurentians, as well as Rome and New York. He’ll play the father of protagonist Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti), a retired cop…
There’s a lot of buzz about a new memoir of Natasha Bookalam Gordon. Waiting for the Third Act (PublishAmerica). Written with Virginia Fisher Yaffe, the book is a candid exploration of the ups and downs of Gordon’s 60-odd years, including divorce, single motherhood, sudden widowhood and, finally, serenity in a late third marriage. She has been able to pick herself up after each challenge and evidently never lost her sense of humour and extroverted nature…
Romy Shiller has a new book out titled Again! (Trafford Publishing), offering her ideas on reincarnation. Shiller, who had an offbeat career as a writer and actor, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in her 30s. After surgery, she lapsed into a five-month coma, finally emerging stricken with akinetic mutism, a devastating paralysis that makes it difficult to move and talk. Her intellect and zest for life is intact, however, and she wrote movingly about her experience in the memoir You Never Know last year. Shiller, who holds a PhD, has gained a different perspective on life since her illness that she wants to share…
Yet another Montreal writer, novelist Tecia Werbowski was honoured by the Czech Republic with its foreign ministry’s silver commemorative medal. Born in Poland during World War II, Werbowski lived in Czechoslovkia for some years and still spends time in Prague, a city to which she has a strong attachment. Czech Consul General Jaroslava Jeslinková thanked her for spreading the good name of the Czech Republic abroad. The presentation took place at the Polish consulate on Europe Day.