Dear Peretz Community,
Just four weeks ago, we stepped into the shared role of co-executive directors with a growing excitement and gratitude for the chance to serve the Peretz community. In sharing this responsibility as co-directors, we aim to develop a leadership model based on collaboration and friendship, with the understanding that positive change and growth can only happen in and through community.
At every step, we’ve been impressed by the enthusiasm, curiosity, and care that has held the space together for very close to eighty years. Donna Becker continues to help us learn the ins and outs of Peretz operations, inspiring us with her deep commitment for both tradition and creativity as she continues to support events like Fraytik tsu nakht and programs like the Yiddish Folk Choir (both of which start again in September!). Iosif Gershtein has, probably quite literally, kept our building running with his passion for Jewish culture and hope for the future. Similarly, we are appreciative of Al Stein and Carl Rosenberg, who have carefully maintained and grown the Kirman Library (with all its exciting treasures), as well as program leaders like David Millard. We are keenly aware that without their enduring sense of responsibility, and that of previous staff, our job would be impossible.
Though the last few years have been difficult, volunteers on the Board of Directors (past and present), along with others, have pushed hard to make new beginnings possible. We acknowledge that we are entering the directorship at Peretz at a time of big transitions and heightened sensitivity and tension. In this respect, we wish to draw on the Peretz Centre’s unique tradition as a place for open dialogue and conversation, learning and community. Peretz’s heritage as a space for fostering Yiddish and Yiddishkayt, Secular Jewish Culture, Pluralistic and humanistic values, and an ongoing commitment to social justice – is a cultural communal treasure that is currently in dire need, and we are grateful and honoured to be able to participate in the reclamation of this rich tradition.
Next year is the 80th anniversary of the Peretz Centre. Our goal is to make 2025 a year of renewed commitment to cultural and artistic programming, educational and language courses, music and dance, and community gathering and celebration. We are looking forward to doing this work in collaboration with you. As with all new beginnings, we expect this will take time, and we will surely make some mistakes along the way, and we ask for your patience as we learn together with you and work to make our Centre flourish.
In the meantime, we’ve been working on:
➜ Restarting our core programs in September, stronger than ever
➜ Developing a working budget and membership plan for the upcoming fiscal year
➜ Re-establishing relationships with community partners and renters, including the VPL
➜ Addressing immediate building maintenance tasks
➜ Updating our website to showcase our community and create a membership forum
➜ Supporting community initiatives in all their forms
Over the next few weeks, we would love to connect with all of you and hear about your experiences, hopes, dreams, and questions about the Peretz Centre! Please feel free to drop us a line at imanoff@peretz-centre.org and aburton@peretz-centre.org or come by the Centre for some tea and a schmooze.
Looking forward to seeing you at the board meeting on Tuesday and/or at “Finding Comrades Among our Ancestors” on Friday this week!
A little bit about us:
Itamar Manoff (he/him): I have worked in the field of community-based adult education for over 15 years, leading and developing educational programming that focuses on social justice, cultural renewal, and language education. Since 2021, I have been working at the Peretz Centre as a co-facilitator of Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt, and as a teacher of Yiddish language. Outside of Peretz, I have been involved in professional educational work in the university setting, focusing on creating critical pedagogies that foster social and political change, awareness around issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as a commitment to developing anti-fascist pedagogies and practices, at the Department of Educational Studies and the Centre of Teaching, Learning and Technology at UBC. In addition, I have been involved in grassroots community in Israel Palestine through several solidarity and educational organizations.
Adi Burton (she/her): I grew up in Jewish schools and shuls in Vancouver, where I learned to ask questions and seek the kinds of answers that never quite settle into explanations. As an anti-genocide activist for more than a decade, Jewish values have always inspired a sense of responsibility to act, and also to listen and learn. The deep questions at the heart of genocide studies, and embedded in the notion of responsibility itself, led me to complete my Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC in 2022, where I explored complex ethical, political, and educational questions around anti-genocide activism through the lenses of Jewish philosophy and Phenomenology. As a teacher, I love the in-between places of learning where the unexpected and complex is given space to unfold. The Peretz Centre is, to me, one of those treasured places. I hope to bring my years of activist, organizing, scholarly, educational, and (surprise!) marketing/business development skills as co-executive director. Coming from a mixed family background, I’m fascinated by the plurality of Jewish ways of life and the communal tasks of translation as we try to understand our place in, and responsibility for, our shared world.
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