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Lessons in Fusion” speaks to the fluidity of Jewish identity in the contemporary world
Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN In preparing to write this review I searched our archives to see whether we had ever published anything previously about Primrose Mayadag Knazan; sad to say, we hadn’t.
It’s about time we made up for that oversight, as Primrose had already established herself as a playwright of considerable talent, having had her three plays been awarded “Best of Fest” at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival on each occasion she premiered a new play at the Fringe.
Her plays have also been produced by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and Sarsavati Productions.
With “Lessons in Fusion”, Primrose enters into the world of fiction writing and, while the book is described as a “Young Adult” novel – not being a young adult myself, I wondered whether I would be as interested in this particular book as much as someone who was in their teens.
It turns out that “Lessons in Fusion” would hardly be limited in its appeal to young readers. As someone who has blended two different cultures in her own life: Filipino and Jewish, Primrose Mayadag Knazan offers readers who might come from a more traditional background tremendous insight into identity, how it is forged over time, and the challenges faced by individuals who, because of the way they look, are stereotyped by others.
The storyline of “Lessons in Fusion” takes place in the pandemic world in which we all now find ourselves, although the action moves back and forth in time as we begin to develop a better understanding of the novel’s protagonist, 16-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad.
Sarah is a precocious young woman who has developed a keen fascination for “fusion” cooking – blending ingredients from different cultures to create dishes that are an amalgam so totally original they lead to her developing quite a following on a blog she had started when she was 14 years old, titled “fusiononaplate”.
Here is how she describes her blog, when asked to give some information about it by the creators of a new online cooking show in which Sarah would like to participate: “Fusion comfort food, a mash-up of East and West and everything in between. Easy recipes of our classic cravings with a twist.”
Now, given Sarah’s interest in food, one would ordinarily expect that is something she might have inherited from her mother, Grace, who is “Filipinx” (the proper term for someone of Filipino descent, we are told, rather than “Filipino”). Grace, however, has almost no interest at all in cooking, especially Filipino food. The reasons for that become clearer as the story develops.
The reviews that I’ve read of “Lessons in Fusion” to date all make a big fuss over how the author introduces each chapter in the book with a recipe. Apparently Primose Mayadag Knazan is quite the food connoisseur, writing a regular column for the Filipino Journal about food in Winnipeg, as well as maintaining an Instagram account devoted to food,@pegonaplate.
As the story unfolds, Sarah is accepted into a competition known as “Cyber Chef”, in which five young people – all under 20, will compete on a weekly basis until only one is left. By the way, the chapter in which the competition is explained in some detail starts with a recipe for Chanukah latkes, so if this review is just a tad too late to influence your latke recipe, you might want to consider buying the book for next year. Just consider some of the ingredients in Sarah’s latke recipe: “sweet potatoes instead of russets. Instead of traditional sour cream or applesauce…raita made with yogurt, green apple, and mint” – I think you get the idea why the book is titled “Lessons in Fusion”.
Now, I’ll be honest: I barely looked at the recipes in this book, although they seemed tantalizing enough. Yet, for anyone who’s really into cooking, I’m sure the recipes in the book would be reason enough to buy it, as many of them are traditional Jewish recipes turned into something so imaginatively different from what I think most of us have come to accept that we would have a hard time recognizing them.
But, more than the recipes and the fastidious attention to food details that the book incorporates, “Lessons in Fusion” is a coming of age story that is so contemporary in its being set during the pandemic that it offers many real life lessons which can be useful for all of us.
Sarah, for instance, is a good student, yet she’s been forced into online learning as a result of the pandemic. Cooking is a diversion for her – as it had become for so many others once we found ourselves being confined to our homes during the many lockdowns that characterized the first year of the pandemic. While she has two good friends, with whom she communicates online (and you have to appreciate how thoroughly the author is familiar with what is known as “textspeak”), we can still appreciate the extent to which the pandemic has truncated what should have been some of the best parts of young people’s lives.
I don’t want to go into any further detail about the cooking show in which Sarah participates, lest I spoil any surprises for readers.
What I was most interested in reading is how Sarah develops her identity as a Jewish Filipinx. She and her siblings all attend what is described as a “Hebrew Immersion program” in a “private school”, where the students wear uniforms, so I’m assuming it’s based on Gray Academy. Sarah has had a bat mitzvah and is quite proud of her being Jewish.
Yet, beyond her interest in Jewish food, what seems to drive Sarah’s Jewish identity more than anything is her closeness to her baba. At the same time though, the book does describe Sarah’s more tenuous relationship with her Filipinx grandmother, her “lola”, and how cooking also brings the two of them together eventually.
One aspect of the book that might serve as a wake-up call for some readers is how Sarah is stereotyped because of her appearance and, although she can understand how she is regarded by almost anyone she meets (including online) as Filipinx, she herself regards her identity as first and foremost Jewish.
At one point Sarah is asked whether she considers herself “White or Filipino”?
She answers: “Jewish” – to which the questioner responds: “That wasn’t my question.”
So Sarah launches into a more detailed explanation: “But that’s what I am. My parents are Jewish. (Grace had converted when she married Sarah’s father.) I was raised Jewish. It’s not just my religion. It’s my culture. I get all the jokes. I celebrate the holidays. I eat and cook all the food. I even speak some Yiddish. I had family that died in the Holocaust. Go back far enough, I had family that were chased out of Russia. It’s in my blood. I carry it on my shoulders. I. Am . Jewish.”
That exchange goes on, with the questioner insisting on finding out whether Sarah identifies as “White” or not, and with Sarah not sure how to answer the question.
As someone who has been writing extensively about identity in this newspaper, and how much Jewish identity is evolving so rapidly as more and more individuals who have either converted to Judaism or live with someone who is Jewish bring with them backgrounds that are not Jewish, I find it quite fascinating to read a quite authentic description of how confusing it must be for a young person who comes from a blend of ethnic identities when asked to explain their own identity.
For that reason alone I would recommend “Lessons in Fusion” as a real eye opener to so many in our community – and well beyond the Jewish community, in helping to understand how someone might identify strongly as Jewish even when that person’s identity is rooted in a background that is quite different than something with which many of us are familiar.
As for how well written “Lessons in Fusion” is, as a first-time novelist, Primrose Mayadag Knazan shows remarkable talent, although given her success as a playwright to date, it should come as no surprise that she has made the transition to fiction writing so successfully.
“Lessons in Fusion”
By Primrose Mayadag Knazan
Published by Great Plains Publishing , 2021
288 pages
More about Primrose Mayadag Knazan
Primrose Madayag Knazan brings an interesting perspective to what it means to become Jewish
By BERNIE BELLAN
As someone who had already established a solid reputation as a successful playwright, Primrose Madayag Knazan knew that she was taking on a challenge of quite a different sort when a publisher proposed that she consider writing a book of fiction aimed at the Young Adult market.
“Writing plays was easier than writing a novel,” Primrose told me during the course of a lengthy phone interview.
“But Great Plains (her publisher) approached me with the idea of writing a book. They said I’ve always been so successful with plays, why don’t I write something – either non fiction or Young Adult?”
The timing was right for her to begin thinking about writing a book, she says. It was the fall of 2020, the Covid pandemic had set in, and she actually had more time to write since she was working from home. Her two young boys were both in school and, while she was certainly busy enough – she had begun writing a food blog as well as writing a regular column for the Filipino Journal about food, Primrose says that she didn’t have any plays in the works, so the idea of writing a book at that time appealed to her.
Around the same time, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis happened, Primrose notes. “It opened people’s eyes about diversity and representation.”
So, the idea of tackling those themes, along with her passion for writing about food, jelled into the basis of “Lessons in Fusion”.
As I explain in my review of the book, the story centres around 16-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad. The fact that Sarah’s name is a blend of Jewish and Filipino names is no coincidence. And yet, while there are distinct parallels in Sarah’s life to Primrose’s, Primrose wanted to make clear that Sarah is largely an imagined character.
Having grown up in Winnipeg herself, Primrose says that, while she was raised Catholic, she didn’t find the Catholic church appealing.
“I grew up at a time when I didn’t fit in with other Filipino kids,” she says.
For instance, she notes that she “always wanted to be a blonde. I knew a part of me always wanted to be White.”
At the same time, she says that “ever since I was a kid, I wanted to write plays, books, poetry.
It was while she was in university here – where she was taking a double major in psychology and sociology, that she also had her first immersion in theatre. Primrose says she fell in love with the theatre and, years after she graduated, she became involved in it again, as an actor, as a producer, and as a playwright.
Her first plays were written for Winnipeg’s Fringe Festival (the first one was written in 2000) and each time she entered a new play there (three times altogether), her plays went on to win “Best of Fest”.
It was also while she was in university that she met the man who would eventually become her husband, Josh Knazan.
Yet, while Josh came from a firm Ashkenazie Jewish background, he didn’t insist that Primrose convert to Judaism before they married.
“It was after he proposed to me that I told him I wanted to convert to Judaism – not before,” Primrose explains.
Ever since converting – in 2002, under Rabbi Alan Green’s tutelage, Primrose says that she has become “very comfortable in being a part of the Jewish community.”
“Judaism is such a beautiful religion that I fell in love with it. With Catholicism there are no shades of gray. Everything is black and white. Judaism is so much more nuanced.”
“I’m an outgoing person,” she says. “I’ve been able to be involved in the synagogue (Shaarey Zedek). I have a lot of new friends.”
And, while Primrose says that she has made sure that her two kids will grow up in a Jewish milieu – her older son was just recently Bar Mitzvahed, she says, the notion of “fusing” Filipino and Jewish culture is something that she is keenly interested in doing.
The story in “Lessons in Fusion” centres around food – and not just Filipino or Jewish food.
Raising two boys, especially one who was now a teenager, did give Primrose a certain insight into how young people think – and how they communicate, especially through texting.
Portions of “Lessons in Fusion” have some of the young characters texting with each other. “When I showed it to my son, he told me that I had it all wrong. No one texts in full words,” he said. “I had to learn textspeak from him.”
Something that Primrose wanted to avoid though, in writing a Young Adult novel, was “writing anything dystopian”. She says that she didn’t want to write yet one more book about “the end of the world”.
At the same time that she wanted to tackle issues of “diversity and representation” in her book, Primrose says that her older son was an “inspiration” for her when he told her he “didn’t want to read ‘issue books’ or books about ‘racism’.”
And, while Primrose and Josh are determined to give their two boys a solid Jewish upbringing, they both want them to be exposed to Filipino culture as well, Primrose says.
“They were both in the Hebrew Bilingual program at Brock Corydon” – the older boy has now graduated and is at Grant Park, but they’re both also involved in “Filipino dance”.
Unlike the character Sarah in “Lessons in Fusion”, moreover, who does not have a close relationship with her Filipino relatives – save one aunt, Primrose and Josh’s boys have close relationships with both their Jewish and Filipino relatives.
Sarah, however, identifies entirely as Jewish. The idea of creating a character who, even though she looks Filipino, doesn’t think of herself as Filipino at all, came to Primrose when she herself wondered what she would have been like had she been “raised exclusively Jewish”?
As noted, Primrose has a real passion for food – experimenting with it, writing about it and, as she explained to me, helping to promote local Filipino restaurants and stores.
“My head is focused on food blogging and promoting Filipino food,” she says.
“But when the pandemic happened,” so many restaurants had to close down, including many Filipino ones, she observes. So, her blog and column in the Filipino Journal became even more important to Primrose. She says that “in the past two years I’ve taken the food blogging seriously. I’ve always wanted to feature Manitoba products” as a way of helping local producers.
And, while “Lessons in Fusion” is largely a coming of age novel, as Sarah participates in an extremely demanding competition where she is required to come up with entirely original recipes for a TV show on a weekly basis, Primrose observes that “the growth in Sarah’s recipes parallels the growth in Sarah as a person to the point where she blends her two cultures” – and feels wholly comfortable in both.
That’s also the story of Primrose Madayag Knazan’s life: Someone who feels totally comfortable in her own skin as she blends Filipino and Jewish cultures into a unique amalgam. And, for someone who is as interested in identity as I am – and how fluid it is, having Primrose as part of the Jewish community offers one more reason why other members of our community should feel warm in the knowledge that the Jewish community is a blend of cultures and one in which people of quite different backgrounds can feel totally accepted.
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Dave Hill’s participation shows that you don’t have to be Jewish to participate in the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s Endowment Book of Life
By MYRON LOVE Despite the impression given by certain biased media, Canadian Jewry has many friends from outside our community. On the one hand, there are the Christian Zionist friends of Israel and the Jewish people – groups such as Bridges for Peace and Christian Friends of Israel (see accompanying article), and individuals such as John and Irene Plantz and Rudy and Gina Fidel, who contribute their moral and financial support to Israel and our local Jewish community. There is also Kevin Klein, publisher and editor of the Winnipeg Sun, whose newspaper is a whole-hearted supporter of Israel and the Jewish People and strong fighter against antisemitism.
Then there is Dave Hill, a prominent local lawyer – a partner in the law firm Hill Sokalski – who has been in practice for more than 50 years. On Sunday, November 2, Hill was one of eight new signatories to enter their names and life stories into the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s Endowment Book of Life.
Hill reports that he has been making donations to the Foundation for the past ten years. “I believe in giving back to the community,” he says, noting that he is also a supporter of the Winnipeg Foundation and several medical institutions. “I have always had a great deal of compassion for the Jewish People who have suffered over 2000 years of persecution.”
The 2025 signers – in addition to Hill – were Jack and Belva London, Jeff and Sarah Morry, Moe Levy, Becky Kaufmann (a former JFM board member who flew in from Toronto), and Stewart Fay – in memory of his late wife, Patricia.
As explained on the Foundation website, the Endowment Book of Life program – which was started in 1998 – “is a planned program that offers participants an opportunity to leave both a financial and historical legacy to the community.”
Donors promise to leave a bequest to the Foundation, in return for which their family story is inscribed in the Book of Life.
The annual official unveiling of new stories this year was held on Sunday, November 2, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue and included brunch, some musical entertainment featuring a talented quartet of singers: Julia Kroft, Alyssa Crockett, Tyler Leighton and Nathanial Muir.
Speaking on behalf of his fellow signers, Jack London noted that, “In Jewish thought, giving tzedakah is not just charity – it’s a moral obligation. An endowment gift is a powerful expression of this duty. It reflects the Jewish principle of tikkun olam. It can be a spiritual act, fulfilling commandments, and enhancing the donor’s connections to their faith.”
The former dean of the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law had words of praise for “the wonderful purpose and mechanisms of the Jewish Foundation and its truly extraordinary staff.”
He noted that the Foundation was established in 1964 by “a group of visionary leaders and has been a beacon of hope and opportunity for decades.” He further pointed out that “its endowment funds have empowered countless initiatives, from supporting education and cultural programs to ensuring the wellbeing of our most vulnerable. Through the Foundation, we see the power of collective generosity, and we remember that when we come together, we can achieve extraordinary things.”
“Giving isn’t just about money,” London observed. It’s also about its impact. Every contribution, no matter how small, has the potential to change and better lives. Every gift by way of endowment results in an endless rate of return from investment which can be employed year after year to support our institutions and assist individuals in need to survive more comfortably and our community to flourish.
“Think of it like planting seeds. You may not see the tree grow overnight, but one day someone will sit in its shade benefitting from the kindness you showed today. In fact, l’dor v’dor, (from generation to generation) is another core Jewish concept. Endowments embody it by supporting those future generations. It is a way for donors to leave not only the currency, but the legacy of Tzedakah (charitable giving), a mitzvah deeply rooted in Jewish ethics.
“So, let’s put some leaves on the ‘tree” of giving’.
“Today’s signers,” London concluded,”have added our familial names, our memories and our promises in support of the Foundation’s good deeds. May good triumph and may peace prevail.”
In his own remarks, John Diamond, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s CEO, described the Endowment Book of Life program as one of the Foundation’s “most meaningful and most successful initiatives”.
“By entering their and their families’ life stories in our book,” he said, “our donors both honour those who came before and inspire those who will come after us.”
In his closing remarks, the JFM’s chair Dan Blankstein reported that the Endowment Book of Life book currently contains over 800 stories. Echoing John Diamond, Blankstein observed that “Our Endowment Book of Life is both a living history of Jewish life in Manitoba and a guide to the future”.
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Second annual Canadian Magen David Adom fundraising evening fit the very definition of a gala
By MYRON LOVE In “Casablanca”, one of my favourite movies, the hero – after sending off to safety the woman he loves with another man and killing the bad guy Nazi major is last seen walking into the mist with the police chief – en route to their both joining the Free French forces – and uttering these immortal words to the police chief: “this is the beginning of as beautiful friendship”.
One could say the same about the close ties between the Winnipeg chapters of Canadian Magen David Adom (CMDA) and Christian Friends of Israel. On Thursday, October 23, the Christian Zionist group held its second Stand With Israel evening (see accompanying story). Among those in attendance were Israeli-born Sharon Fraiman, the Calgary-based CMDA director for Western Canada and her CMDA Winnipg team members, who were on hand to accept a cheque for $30,000 from the international Christian Zionist organization.
On Tuesday, November 4, the emcee for CMDA Winnipeg’s second annual fundraising gala was none other than Jared Esser, FOI’s newly-appointed director for Manitoba, with several other FOI supporters also on hand, including a few who are also CMDA volunteers.
It clearly is a “beautiful friendship” between Israeli/Jewish and Christian Zionist charities.
This second CMDA evening – hosted by the Lubavitch Centre – was a gala evening that outdid last year’s event. The chairs and tables were covered in white linen – with an attractive floral arrangement on each table. The meals were first class. There were multiple servers to deliver said meals efficiently. And an outstanding violinist imported from Calgary serenaded the estimated 200 guests/supporters throughout the reception prior to and throughout supper.
The evening’s entertainment was provided by 21-year- old Nevo Abutbul, who has been acclaimed as the world’s youngest professional mentalist, who was flown in from Israel.
Notable among the guests were: Conservative Party MLAs Kevin Goertzen and Wayne Ewasko; Markus Chambers, Winnipeg’s Deputy Mayor; Sidney Benizri, CMDA’s national executive director; Uri Shacham, Chief of Staff to the Director General of CMDA; Raphael Herbst, MDA Deputy Director of Fundraising & International Relationship Department); and Chaim Dagan, MDA Executive Board Deputy Chairman and Head of Volunteering in Yarkon Region.
For readers who may be unfamiliar with MDA, the organization doubles as both Israel’s Red Cross and the country’s blood services organization. The MDA was founded on June 7, 1930 and acquired its first ambulance a year later. The MDA has over 4,000 staff and has on its roster 34,000 volunteers representing a cross section of Israel’s religious communities and people of all ages. The organization operates over 2,000 ambulances, first responder scooters, helicopters and life-saving boats.
The really remarkable fact is that the MDA operates without any financial support from the Government of Israel. That is why it is so important that donors such as those at the gala have to step up. The goal of the evening, according to Ami Bakerman, the Winnipeg chapter president, was to raise $150,000. As of the time of writing this, the local group has raised a bit over $$100,000 toward the $140,000 cost of one ambulance.
In his remarks, Uri Shacham described the MDA as “the heartbeat of Israel.”
“What we have had to deal with over the past five years has been unprecedented, “ he noted. “First there was Covid, then October 7. The MDA spearheaded Israel’s emergency response efforts. While the Israel Defense Force is responsible for protecting our nation’s borders, MDA is responsible for saving lives.”
On October 7, Shacham recalled, MDA volunteers rushed into the danger zones – despite the terrorists purposely targeting their ambulances.
And, during the brief, 12-day war with Iran in June, MDA volunteers responded to the shell-shocked and the wounded who had been hit by Iranian missile strikes. At one point, Shacham recounted, MDA was required to provide special buses to move patients from Beersheva’s Soroka Hospital after it was hit by a missile.
But, it is not only in conditions of war where the MDA shines. During the period of time in the summer when wildfires were devastating northern Israel and forcing large scale evacuations, MDA was on the scene.
“We at MDA have the best emergency response times and best technology n the world,” Shacham noted.
As to the current situation, he cautioned that the ceasefires with Hezbollah in Lebanon and in Gaza do not mean that the fighting is over – as reports indicate that, despite strong IDF pressure, the terrorists continue to try to rebuild their forces and armaments.
“If you are asking what you can do for our Jewish homeland,” he noted, “continue to donate to the MDA and allow us to bring about more happy endings.”
To finish the evening, Sharon Faiman recognized major local MDA donors Ida Alpern, Larry and Tova Vickar and Ruth Ann Borenstein, as well as Candice Tenenbein. Fraiman also had special praise for Linda Filbert, the Lubavitch Centre’s administrator, who played a major role in ensuring that the gala was a success.
“The men and women of the MDA are our heroes,” Fraiman concluded. “But they can’t do what they do alone. We need your continued support. There is nothing more important than saving lives.”
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National Christian Zionist organization holds second annual evening of solidarity with Israel, donates $90,000 to Israeli charities
By MYRON LOVE In these stressful times – where levels of antisemitism in words and deeds have – since October 7, 2023 – reached levels that most of us have never before experienced, it is good to know that many of our fellow Canadians still stand with Israel and the Jewish People. Among the staunchest of our non-Jewish supporters are the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministries Canada (FOI).
On the evening of Thursday, October 23, the Christian Zionist organization hosted its second annual “Stand With Israel Night,” the highlight of which was the presentation of $30,000 cheques to three Israel-based charities.
The event, which was held in the Multipurpose room at the Asper Campus, attracted about 100 people – comprising both members of our Jewish community and Christian supporters of Friends of Israel. Jared Esser, FOI’s newly-appointed director for Manitoba, the emcee for the evening, bade welcome and thanked those in attendance for coming together to show their support for Israel and the Jewish People.
The evening began with music by Myron Schultz and his Klezmer Trio.
Esser began the evening’s program by introducing Robert Gottselig, FOI’s Canadian director. Gottselig, who lives in Regina, pointed out that FOI was founded in 1938, fully ten years before the establishment of the Jewish State, in response to the plight of the Jews of Europe.
“At the outset,” Gottselig noted, ”FOI formed a relief committee to raise funds for food, clothing and shelter for Europe’s endangered Jews. We also worked to provide passports for those who wanted to escape.
“We believe that God has kept his covenant with the Jewish People and brought his chosen people back to their ancestral land,” he said. “The land of Israel and the Jewish People are inseparable. As Christian Zionists, we stand unequivocally with the Jewish People.”
He added that those who accuse Israel of such “sins” as “colonialism” and oppression of the Palestinians are lying. “Those who fight Israel are fighting God,” he stated.
Following a break for refreshments, Esser introduced one by one the recipients of the $30,000 donations. The first was the Canadian Magen David Adom, Israel’s world leading and largely volunteer driven, national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service.
Accepting the cheque on behalf of Canadian Magen David Adom Canada was Israeli-born Sharon Fraiman, the Calgary-based CMDA director for Western Canada.
“The Magen David Adom’s history reflects the history of Israel,” she commented. “Every dollar CMDA raises counts.
”Our organization in Israel has the support of 34,000 volunteers who are available 24 hours a day every day,” she reported. “We treat over one million Israelis a year in peace and war. It’s who we are and what we do. Our volunteers are our heroes. “
Fraiman added that, since October 7, 2023, the number of Israelis with mental health issues that MDA has responded to has grown exponentially.
She noted that CMDA raises money in Canada to buy ambulances, medical equipment, supplies and blood testing kits to support the life saving efforts of MDA in Israel. She singled out Ida Alpern, a member of the board of CMDA Winnipeg who, with her late husband, Saul, contributed funding to pay for two new ambulances and one scooter. She further praised Ami Bakerman for his leadership of local CMDA efforts.
The second recipient of a donation from FOI was Christian Friends of Leket Israel, which raises money in support of Leket Israel – an organization which has been feeding the hungry in Israel since 2003. In a video appearance, Ray MacDonald, the director of Christian Friends of Leket Israel, expressed his appreciation for FOI’s donation and spoke about the organization’s work on behalf of disadvantaged Israelis.
“We provide about 175,000 needy Israelis weekly with nutritious food and meals,” he reported. “We supply over 300 non-profit partners that feed the poor.”
MacDonald added that 20% of Israelis live below the poverty line, that one-third of Israeli children go to school hungry – and that the situation has worsened over the past two years due to the war.
He described Leket Israel as a “food rescue” organization that gathers its food from a variety of sources. “We work with over 500 farmers that share their crops with us,” MacDonald said. “We also source food from hotel and resorts.”
According to the Leket website, “millions of tons of healthy, fresh food are wasted or destroyed because of excess quantity, minor imperfections, or financial cost.
“Food waste has severe consequences for society, the environment, and the economy. Food rescue addresses these problems by productively using surplus food instead of destroying it. With Leket’s fleet of 27 refrigerated trucks and vans, our staff and volunteers transport thousands of tons of rescued food throughout the country.
“All rescued produce is brought to the logistics center or other cold storage facilities, where it is sorted, stored, and prepared for delivery to one of our 330 nonprofit partners.
“All rescued cooked food is either brought directly from where it was cooked to a recipient nonprofit partner, or brought to one of our regional hubs to be stored overnight and reheated the following morning for timely service of a hot lunch. The food rescued by Leket Israel is distributed to 296 nonprofit organizations, including homeless shelters, soup kitchens, elderly centers, battered women’s centers, community help organizations, and schools for at-risk youth.”
The final recipient of the FOI’s largesse was Operation Lifeshield, whose mission is to provide bomb shelters for threatened Israeli communities. Rabbi Shmuel Bowman, the organization’s executive director, was also one of the founders of Operation Lifeshield. Winnipeg pediatrician Dr. Matthew Lazar, a cousin of Bowman’s, is president of Operation Lifeshield Canada.
Operation Lifeshield was formed in 2006 by a small group of American olim and Israelis who were visiting the Galilee during the second Lebanon war in 2006 and found themselves under rocket attack – along with thousands of others – with no place to go. They decided to take action.
In a presentation that Bowman made last year – while in Winnipeg to accept a donation from FOI last year, he noted that “our shelter construction design and manufacturing processes conform with the strictest guidelines and approval of the Israel Defense Force Home Front command. Several types of shelters are available in order to best protect schools, kindergartens, synagogues, parks, sidewalks, bus shelters and senior centres.”
Lazar reported that Operation Lifeshield, over the years, has built or updated more than 1,000 shelters – making sure that they all have up to date fire fighting and communications equipment, that the shelters are water-proofed, and the walls fortified.
Jared Esser is looking forward to next year’s Stand With Israel evening.