Fraytik tsu Nakht Cultural Shabbes & Potluck

Fraytik tsu Nakht Cultural Shabbes & Potluck is open to all, beginning with our community's Secular Humanist Shabbes observance (songs and readings) followed by a potluck dinner and an engaging speaker to stimulate our after-dinner learning and discussion.

Friday, January 16, 2026 (6-9pm)

Gallia & Ben Chud Auditorium (Peretz Centre)

6184 Ash Street, Vancouver

➤   How to Get Here / Building & Accessibility Information

Free street parking and underground parking available (elevator access).

Doors close at 7pm: The front door and underground parking lot will be closed automatically at 7pm. If you are running late, please make sure you have a friend you can contact to come downstairs and let you in.

Admission: a contribution to the potluck OR pay $18.00 per person (children 13 and under are free).

Please register before Monday, January 12 so we can make sure there's enough food for everyone.

This community shabbes event is open to members and friends of all ages. There will be an alternative hang-out space for kids organized by the Peretz Child Activities Committee.

This month's after-dinner topic:

How Colonization Dismantles Food Systems

A food system is the network needed to ensure a society can feed itself, from field (or landscape) to plate. Think about your local grocery store, the farms and factories the food comes from, the trucking company that delivers it, your local farmers market, your backyard food garden, as being a part of your food system. From the Pale of Settlement to Palestine, the systemic and intergenerational destruction of food systems is an important tool for colonization.

In fact, colonization the world over has always included intentional food system disruptions, like dismantling communal land and diverting resources from local populations towards trade and export for profit. In territories stolen by Canada there are examples of this everywhere.  Indigenous nations over thousands of years created a vast and complex food system that supported an abundance of food resources for its large populations, many of which have been hidden in what most people think of as "wilderness."

David Catzel will briefly present historical and current examples of food system destruction, focusing on the land of Turtle Island, followed by questions and a discussion of how this relates to us as a community rooted in Secular Jewish Humanism, and the intertwined struggles towards food justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and a more sustainable future.

Our Speaker: Peretznik David Catzel has worked as a first generation farmer for over 25 years, and currently works as the BC Seed Security Program Manager for FarmFolk CityFolk, a charitable organization that brings eaters and food producers together in order to strengthen local food systems. David is a member of the Jewish Farmers Network, and has been part of a Jewish Seed Project for the last few years. He has taught and presented on topics such as seed saving, ecological gardening, permaculture design, and has been humbly learning from Indigenous farmers and food system advocates throughout his journey of reconnecting with the land through food production.

Image credit: Ukraine Jewish farm settlement Grafskoy, 1912 (via Helen Webberley)