H eadlines
Jewish Vancouver
The Vancouver Rowing Club is one of Stanley Park’s attractions.

Float planes fly out of Vancouver harbor, offering convenient and frequent transportation to
Victoria, Port Angeles, Washington and elsewhere around the region.
Photos by Jeff Orenstein
VANCOUVER IS CANADA’S third-most populous city and also has
the third-largest concentration of Canadian Jews, with more than 7%
of the nation’s Jewish citizens.

The face of Vancouver’s Jewish community is changing rapidly, with
36% of its population born outside of Canada — the largest percentage
in the country. It is one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in
the world, despite the high cost of living in British Columbia. Eighty
percent of the Jews in the province live in greater Vancouver.

While the metropolitan area does not have the Jewish gravitas of
Toronto or Montreal, the community has numerous synagogues, kosher
restaurants, a Jewish Community Center and a typical big-city array of
Jewish organizations and agencies to serve its population and visitors.

Early Jewish settlers arrived around the 1880s, drawn by the harbor
and the railroad and the promise of commercial growth. While they
were largely isolated from the Jewish centers of Eastern Canada,
they were deeply involved in the growing civic and commercial life
of Vancouver. The city’s second mayor was David Oppenheimer, a
German Jew who was in office from 1887 to 1891 and who is widely
recognized as a significant figure in city history.

By the first decades of the 21st century, there were 15 Jewish
congregations in the Greater Vancouver area representing all Jewish
movements, with the Conservative congregations boasting the largest
number of members. Reform congregations follow in the second
place, with the Orthodox and Chabad congregations attended by a
dedicated minority. However, approximately half of the Jews living
in the Vancouver metropolitan area are not affiliated with a religious
congregation. Vancouver also boasts a Hillel House at the University of British
Columbia. Today, the Vancouver Jewish community continues to develop.

Sephardic Congregation Beth Hamidrash opened a new synagogue in
2004, while Congregation Schara Tzedeck, the largest in B.C., celebrated
a century of existence in 2007. There are also other Orthodox, Reform
and Conservative congregations in the city and in surrounding areas,
including Victoria, and many of them are growing. l
— Jeff and Virginia Orenstein
A CALL FOR HELP
Jonathan Newman is in dire need of a new kidney – and he and his family are
praying he will find an altruistic donor to save his life.

Newman, who is 39, has polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a genetic disorder that
took the lives of his grandmother and great-grandmother. Fortunately his mother
and maternal uncle found donors and have gone on to lead healthy lives.

Since this is a genetic problem, and not due to an illness (e.g. diabetes), a do-
nated kidney will not be attacked, and is expected to last many years, if not the
patient’s full life time. It is expected that once Jonathan receives a new kidney,
he will be able to lead a normal life – and enjoy every moment with his wife as
they raise their young son.

Jonathan is currently listed for transplant at University of
Pennsylvania and two other institutions.

For further information, please contact Jonathan Newman’s father, Edward
Newman at enewman591@aol.com or (201) 265-2939.

PA I D A D V E R T I S E M E N T
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
JULY 22, 2021
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