Social Justice & Hereness: How Can Doikayt Guide Policy at Peretz? A Taskforce Presentation, Community Dialogue, & Lunch

Peretz members and friends are invited for lunch and a presentation from the community members who have participated in the Jewish Anti-Racism taskforce (J-ART)’s volunteer-led efforts! Together we will review the J-ART’s recommended policies to promote social justice within our shared community and to help repair our world. The afternoon will be filled with workshops, good dialogue, food, and schmoozing.

J-ART was established in September 2025 to create concrete policy recommendations that strengthen our capacity for action against racism both within our community and in the interest of our community. Over the past months, the taskforce has drafted recommendations for social justice-oriented policy changes at the Peretz Centre to create a richer, more vibrant, and equitable community. These policy recommendations are designed to enhance our organization’s capacity to engage in inclusive and anti-racist dialogue using intersectional and grounded approaches towards anti-racism, justice, and equity.

In this participatory, community-centred event, the taskforce will briefly present their policy recommendations before we gather for three group discussions to guide the next stages of this important work:

1. External outreach and solidarity (Reaching out to organizations with overlapping goals, supporting refugees/asylum-seekers, and committing to active efforts to aid decolonization)

2. Internal culture and community engagement (Retaining Peretz's unique cultural significance while expanding our scope and fostering justice-driven orientation)

3. Developing our library of interventions (developing collectively-held libraries that can be shared with the broader community)

Advance registration is required. Please RSVP by Thursday, April 30th. This event is open to members of the Peretz Centre and active partners in our community. To request an invitation to participate as an external partner or general community member, please contact taskforce@peretz-centre.org.

➤   How to Get Here / Building & Accessibility Information

Free parking is available on the street or in the underground parkade.

Optional: Review the final report in advance below (PDF).

Peretz at 80: Reflecting on the Past, Present, & Future

For 80 years, the Peretz Centre has sustained a unique space in Vancouver's Jewish community for progressive and modern Jewish learning, culture, and education and the Yiddish language. We are proud of this tradition and take responsibility for continuing the never-ending pursuit of justice. In the year of our 80th anniversary, we ask:

• What can we do to strengthen our commitment to and capacity for action against racism, both within our community and in the interest of our community as we combat white supremacy and antisemitism?

• How do we work to address systemic power imbalances that lead to inequality in our cultural spaces?

• How do we create a richer, more vibrant, and equitable community at Peretz by supporting solidarity with oppressed groups in our society?

• How do we face our community's implication in larger social harms, including colonialism, racism, and classism, and seek repair and redress?

• How do we defend and uphold the legacy of progressive Jewish politics in Canada?

Discovering Doikayt at the Peretz Centre

The J-ART project is a core part of our Discovering Doikayt initiative. The concept of Doikayt (“here-ness”) stems from progressive, Yiddish-speaking movements of the 19th and 20th century and emphasizes that struggles for justice, equity, and mutual liberation begin here in the place where we live. The Discovering Doikayt initiative supports members of the Peretz community to connect to ancestral roots and identities, critically face the histories of antisemitism, racism, migration, and colonization in Canada, and enhance our collective capacity to engage in inclusive, anti-racist dialogue and meaningful change on the community and policy levels.

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada.