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Deadline: Monday, September 15, 2025 The Peretz Centre is calling for nominations for appointed members of our Anti-Racism Community Task Force, a key part of the Discovering Doikayt initiative. Edited illustration from election poster of the General Jewish Labour Bund (artist unknown) , Kyiv, ca. 1917 (via Wikimedia Commons) This Community Task Force will engage in meaningful, hands-on work to create concrete policy recommendations that 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. We will be using an anti-oppressive framework to address systemic power imbalances that lead to inequality in our cultural spaces. We will work to create a richer, more vibrant, and equitable community at Peretz by supporting solidarity with oppressed groups in our society. We will face our community’s implication in larger social harms, including colonialism, racism, and classism, and consider how to seek repair and redress. We will find ways to advance equity within our volunteer-run institution. We hope that our work can be used to advance anti-racism and equality within Jewish cultural and educational spaces across Canada and that this ongoing work will be done in the spirit of reciprocity and menshlekhkayt (kindness, decency, humaneness). We must work to fight antisemitism and racism by learning from and sharing in the struggle for social justice. What the Task Force Will Do Over five meetings (October 2025 – March 2026), members will: Examine how the Peretz Centre and, by extension, other Jewish institutions can become more inclusive and equitable by studying comparable policies that address white supremacy in Canada and the structural inequalities faced by Indigenous peoples, racialized Canadians, migrants, and refugees. Develop recommendations to Actively work against the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous people from their land as well as recognize the responsibilities that non-Indigenous Jewish Canadians hold towards reconciling our own involvement in colonization. Address the root causes of antisemitism and find links with the broader anti-racism movement to strengthen our shared objectives. Address racism within the Peretz community related to the historical links between whiteness and Jewish settlement here. Make community programs more inclusive to a broader swath of the population in Vancouver and the surrounding area, regardless of ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds. Collaborate closely with peers to prepare a final report for publication in March 2026. Ensure that the work we undertake is impactful, empathetic, and designed to be approachable for all members of the Peretz community. Examples of Tasks we will undertake: Meeting with community partners to form collaborations and/or joint programming Research and discussion on anti-oppression best practices within similar community organizations Learning from trainers, organizers, and teachers from other backgrounds about their experience in this work Engaging with anti-oppression training and intercultural and intergenerational exchanges Mobilizing knowledge about anti-racism and structural barriers to inclusivity within our community Drafting proposals for recommendations on methods of promoting cultural safety, social justice, and intersectionality Drafting evidence-based anti-racist policies, potentially including safety and security policies, community agreements, equitable employment practices, honoraria, decision-making trees, policy review guidelines, conflict resolution processes, cultural programming, etc. Who We’re Looking For The Peretz Centre will make the best effort to meet the needs of a diverse group of Task Force members, including accommodations related to accessibility, childcare, transportation, and translation. We’re seeking Peretz members who: Work well in a collaborative, team-based setting. Bring unique perspectives and diverse skills that enrich the discussion. Have lived experience that informs anti-racism and equity work. Have intellectual curiosity and a willingness to learn. Are willing to actively contribute time, energy, and thoughtful engagement throughout the process. Are comfortable reading and potentially writing about policy with the help of our team. Have a good sense of humour and perspective. Are Peretz members in good standing. Nominate Peretz Members (Including Yourself!) To complement recruitment to the Anti-Racism Community Task Force, we invite members of the Peretz community to recommend people for this important work. Nominations will be reviewed by Peretz staff and volunteers, who will appoint five core members. Each member will receive $500 stipends for their work. The five core members are expected to contribute: 2 hours per month for meetings and learning (workshops, etc.) 2 hours per month of research/policy work per month We welcome and encourage self-nominations for members who are interested in participating in this project. Nominations may also be submitted for advisory members who may wish to contribute voluntarily and who directly expand the reach/scope/representation of the Task Force’s work. This is work with real impact—a chance to help shape the future of our community in a more just and inclusive direction. Please join us! The deadline for nominations is Monday, September 15th, 2025. Can’t Commit to the Task Force? Join the Discussion Circles We know not everyone has the time to commit to regular Task Force meetings. If you’d still like to contribute your ideas and lived experience, you can participate in a series of Discussion Circles over the coming months. These circles will give community members the opportunity to share perspectives, provide input, and help shape the recommendations — ensuring that more voices are heard in this process. About the Peretz Centre The Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture was founded in 1945 to establish and conduct a school that provides students of all ages with a progressive and modern Jewish cultural education. Located in Vancouver, BC on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, we hold classes, lectures, exhibitions, concerts, holiday celebrations and similar gatherings in order to teach and advance the cause of progressive and modern Jewish learning, culture, and education and the Yiddish language. Our doors are open to people of diverse cultures, beliefs, genders, and sexual orientation. The Anti-Racism Community Task Force is a part of the Peretz Centre's Discovering Doikayt initiative. We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

The Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture is proud to present Discovering Doikayt, a new initiative launched with support from a $70,000 grant from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation’s National Anti-Racism Fund. The initiative will support 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. The concept of Doikayt (“here-ness”) stems from progressive, Yiddish-speaking movements of the 20th century and emphasizes that struggles for justice, equity, and mutual liberation begin here in the place where we live. Through educational programs, partnerships, and a community-led projects, Discovering Doikayt will offer opportunities to combine deep and meaningful learning about Jewish history in and outside Canada with engagement in real, tangible anti-racism work for social change in the Jewish community. Progressive, Intersectional Jewish History Education א פאָלקס-זכרון איז די היסטאָריע! אָן היסטאָריע — וי א מענטש אָן א זכרון — קען קיין פאָלק נישט קליגער, נישט בעסער ווערן. — I. L. Peretz, “Vegn Geshichte" [“On History”] in Di ṿerḳ fun Yitsḥaḳ Leybush Perets vol. 12, p. 35 Icchok Lejb Perec by Władysław Wajntraub (Wikimedia) As I. L. Peretz wrote in 1890, "A people's memory is history! Without history -- like a person without a memory – a people can become neither wiser nor better.” Jewish history is complex and multifaceted, including great cultural and historical achievements, along with traumatic memory of persecution, discrimination, and violence. Jews share a common history of experiencing these oppressions alongside other migrant groups and Indigenous peoples; our collective liberation lies in the shared recognition of struggle and fight to free ourselves from these systems of oppression. One of the goals of the initiative is to approach cultural and historical education within the Jewish community through a progressive, intersectional, and trauma-informed lens. In order to do so, Discovering Doikayt aims to facilitate learning in a way that allows members of the community to approach historical memory in a safer and more supportive way, and explore sensitive and even painful issues without further generating suspicion and distrust of others, instead fostering inclusion, solidarity and mutual recognition, and commitment to justice and equity. Discovering Doikayt will invite participants to elaborate on the ways in which Jewish historical and cultural experience can serve as a bridge for solidarity and justice, and allow for fuller participation of members in the Jewish community in initiatives to combat racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and discrimination, drawing from Jewish values of social justice, openness to the other, mutual liberation, and critical dialogue. By combining critical and reflective historical research and learning with a commitment to combating racism and hate in current Canadian society, we believe Discovering Doikayt can serve as a model for other communities, Jewish and non-Jewish, to draw on their unique cultural and historical knowledge and experience for the sake of a better, more just, and equitable society. Introducing the Peretz Centre's Anti-Racism Community Taskforce Discovering Doikayt will include the creation of a new Anti-Racism Community Taskforce, which will be assembled in August/September 2025 with five appointed Peretz members. The Taskforce will run in parallel with community educational activities and events and devise recommendations for social justice-oriented policy changes at the Peretz Centre and Jewish cultural and educational institutions. These policy recommendations will be targeted towards enhancing Jewish organizations’ capacity to engage in inclusive and anti-racist dialogue using intersectional and grounded approaches towards anti-racism, justice, and equity. Omri Haiven, Anti-Racism Community Task Force Project Manager We are pleased to announce Omri Haiven as the project manager who will facilitate and support the Task Force’s activities. Omri is an active member of the Peretz Centre who shares his expertise in community-building, knowledge mobilization, political advocacy, and research. He has worked and volunteered in a range of initiatives connected to systemic social change, including climate justice, economic justice, racial justice, Indigenous solidarity, food and energy sovereignty, and anti-oppression education. With an extensive background in both grassroots community organizing and academic/institutional work, Omri is well positioned to aid the taskforce in learning from the Peretz community and identifying opportunities for culture and policy change that will further align Peretz with its founding values, and support the goals of the Discovering Doikayt initiative. Omri is originally from Nova Scotia but has lived in Vancouver for over 6 years. His other work involves green energy policy, farming, and photovoltaics. Please reach out to him to say hello: ohaiven@peretz-centre.org The Taskforce’s recommendations will be implemented in inclusive, intercultural Jewish education programs for children, young adults, and seniors, as well as community events and celebrations. They will also be shared with the Peretz community and other communities in a final report. Crucially, the Peretz Centre is one of the only institutional spaces within the Jewish community in Vancouver where constructive, compassionate, and open dialogue around Israel and Palestine, Zionism, and Palestinian Solidarity is not silenced or censored. With our long history of peace activism and respect for the humanity of all peoples, we believe that the Peretz Centre is uniquely situated to undertake and share this work with other Jewish community organizations. Educational Programs Exploring Landscapes of Jewish Histories The other major part of this initiative involves two educational seminars, which are each accompanied by a public lecture series as well as open-source digital learning tools, recorded lectures, accessible scholarly texts, oral histories, and more. Zhargon poster art by Jess Goldman Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt (starting October 21st, 2025) will explore the histories, languages, and cultures of Jewish communities in Eastern and Central Europe and the deep, long-lasting connections between Jewish and non-Jewish communities across a vast geography and cultural landscape. Doikayt: Histories of Jews Going West is a new seminar (starting January 20th, 2026) that will delve into the intersection of Canadian and Jewish history through thoughtful, critical engagement with the history of colonization in Canada and a focus on how immigrants (Jews and non-Jews) interacted with and were implicated in colonization. This seminar will engage with scholars and researchers dedicated to reconciliation through an intercultural lens, with each session confronting this difficult history and our connections to it. These educational programs will culminate in a workshop collaboration with the University of British Columbia’s Centre for European Studies (spring 2026). Meaningful Learning & Change Starts Here with Discovering Doikayt 80th anniversary stamp by Jess Goldman (2025) This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Peretz Centre. Since 1945, Peretz has been a safe haven for a wide range of progressive Jewish people, organizations, and cultural and social allies who struggle to find a home within the confines of mainstream Jewish institutions. Today, we find ourselves in the midst of an exciting period of growth and renewal from the blossoming Yiddish cultural revival movement to the resurgence of progressive politics in the face of fascist violence, crises of loneliness and alienation, and planetary catastrophe. Discovering Doikayt is the first step in a larger, community-led process, in which community members are involved in the various stages of learning and leadership and invited to actively explore areas of interest and shape their learning experience, alongside developing collaborative, intersectional approaches for working towards peace and justice together. Through this new initiative, we aim to produce a growing body of historical and cultural knowledge based in community learning, as well as strategies, policies and actions to tackle racism within Jewish educational and cultural institutions in BC and across Canada. About the Peretz Centre The Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture was founded in 1945 to establish and conduct a school that provides students of all ages with a progressive and modern Jewish cultural education. Located in Vancouver, BC on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, we hold classes, lectures, exhibitions, concerts, holiday celebrations and similar gatherings in order to teach and advance the cause of progressive and modern Jewish learning, culture, and education and the Yiddish language. Our doors are open to people of diverse cultures, beliefs, genders, and sexual orientation. We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

The Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture welcomes back Matthew Gindin as Pnei Mitzvah teacher for the 2024-2026 cohort. Renewing Ways to Face our Past, Present, and Future Did you know that the first Peretznik to have a secular bar mitzvah was in 1965? Avrom Osipov told the story of his groundbreaking ceremony at a Peretz alumni event in 2018, explaining that the concept was newsworthy enough to be reported on in the local media. Indeed, the event, which took place on August 21, 1965, was reported in the Jewish Western Bulletin as follows: "History was made and a precedent set on Saturday morning, Aug. 21 at Vancouver Peretz school when Allan Frank Osipov became Bar-Mitzvah according to the beliefs and practices of modern secular Jewish life. Eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Osipov, Allan Osipov addressed a large gathering of relatives and friends on the significance of this stage in his life. He spoke in both Yiddish and English, paying tribute to his grandparents, parents and teachers." ("Allan Frank Osipov marks Bar-Mitzvah", September 10, 1965, p. 8. The article also notes that the pianist who accompanied the students who sang Yiddish songs for the occasion was Gyda Chud.) Nearly 60 years later, the secular, pluralistic tradition has included well over a hundred children who have found new meanings in reinterpreting the bar mitzvah rite of passage. Since 2019, we call it the Pnei Mitzvah program, inspired by the renaming of Reb Zalman's organization from "Bnei Or" (sons of light) to "P'nei Or" (faces of light) in the 1970s. The gender-neutral name not only represents the plurality of faces in our Pnei Mitzvah cohorts, but also the task of facing our histories and traditions, as well as our present and collective future. Welcoming Back Pnei Mitzvah Teacher Matthew Gindin for the 2024-2025 Cohort Matthew Gindin We're excited to begin the new Pnei Mitzvah cohort with Matthew Gindin as teacher. Formerly Education Director at the Peretz Centre (and most recently Master Teacher at Or Shalom), Matthew is an exceptional educator who focuses on the unique needs and experiences of each student and their learning journey. Part of the reason that we're particularly enthusiastic about Matthew's return is his in-depth approach to history and culture, which aligns with the Peretz Centre's mission of progressive and modern Jewish education. As an teacher, Matthew stands out for his respect for children as learners and people. His teaching style encourages engagement with traditional texts as literature, with the freedom to reinterpret and make connections to their own experience of the world. Over the two year program, students will go through millennia of Jewish history from a pluralistic, non-dogmatic standpoint, from beginnings as a nomadic people into the temple period and through to the present day. They will be exposed to a breadth of Jewish thought, arts, and culture and learn major concepts and themes that have shaped our understandings of Judaism and Jewish life. In addition to redesigning the Peretz Bnei Mitzvah curriculum in the 2010s and coining the term "Pnei Mitzvah," Matthew has been teaching Jewish history, philosophy, and contemplative traditions in a wide variety of settings since 2004. He also works as an acupuncturist, freelance writer and editor, professional lecturer, and independent journalist. Forging Meaningful Connections: Pnei Mitzvah Projects & Collective Ceremony As an educational and cultural institution, we aim to help students renew their relationship with the Jewish culture that they inherited and live in by providing informed, ethically-grounded avenues to deeper study and broader interests. Children will enjoy spirited debates while studying Talmud, as well as learn to trace ethical issues from Halacha (rabbinic law) through different texts to see the way they develop. Alongside textual study that lies at the core of Jewish learning, the Pnei Mitzvah curriculum maintains a focus on the cultural and historical impacts of Jewish concepts, beliefs, and practices. Students will discuss different denominations of Judaism and learn about how they emerged and changed over time. They will gain an understanding of major Jewish philosophical and political movements, from the birth of secular Judaism in Europe (Heine, Spinoza, etc.) to Jewish political radicalism (Jewish Feminism, Jewish unionism and the Bund, Emma Goldman, Marx, etc.). In the first year, students work on their own interpretation of a text that they have studied. Matthew has seen many creative "midrashim" produced over the years, like one student who retold the story of Adam and Eve from the point of view of a worm in the apple. Another student wrote and recorded a song telling the story of King David using the Minecraft soundtrack. The second year encourages students to go deeper with an individual Pnei Mitzvah project that they present at the Pnei Mitzvah ceremony to close the program. Whether they pursue a topic related to the course materials or to their own interests, or even learn their traditional Torah portion, the emphasis is always on their intellectual curiosity, and learning the art and practice of learning itself. While these projects are unique to each student, the final ceremony is focused on community. Each cohort plans their own version of the ceremony to showcase the students and celebrate their learning, which has become a highlight of the Peretz Centre's events calendar as we welcome new generations of Peretzniks. The 2024-2026 cohort starts on Sunday, October 20th, 2024. Save your spot and register now to join the next group of Peretz families. Don't miss the Pnei Mitzvah ceremony for the 2023-2025 cohort in June 2025!