Toronto Jewry bowls for Peace of Mind

Bowl-with-a-Soldier, held last night at Playtime Bowl near the Yorkdale shopping centre in Toronto, raised the bar on what a party atmosphere within a bowlerama should look like. The premiere event for Peace of Mind (POM), a program of The Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma (ICPT) in Jerusalem, amassed nearly $13,000. POM’s co-ordinating director in Toronto, Linoy Hazan, brought together a cross section of supporters of all ages.

There were prize giveaways for top scorers, a 50/50 raffle, music, soldiers singing, lots of laughs – and who could forget the food! The strength and unity shown by leading members of Toronto’s Jewish community in attendance, was greatly felt and much appreciated by the young men and women from the Israel Defence Forces who participated in the POM program.










When Bowl-with-a-Soldier is announced again, be sure to mark your calendar. It’s an event you won’t want to miss.

For more information about Peace of Mind, jump to the feature piece on cjnews.com or the post on Heebonics, visit  http://www.traumaweb.org/, or e-mail Hazan at peaceofmindcanada@gmail.com .

Combating a new form of delegitimizing Israel

The following is inspired by a news brief found on JPOST.com. Recently re-elected Canadian member of parliament Professor Irwin Cotler, warned attendees at the Begin-Sadat Center conference on Bar Ilan University's campus, of a new approach at de-legitimizing Israel. The conference focused on democracies and the right to self defense. Cotler calls it "lawfare", laundering the de-legitimization under the cover of the law, by way of decisions made in accordance with the United Nations, international law, humanitarian law, the struggle against racism and the struggle against genocide. For more on the story click here.

One Survivors Story

With Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) now having just passed, a very touching story was told by one of the shoah's remaining survivors: Paul Henri Rips. Rips shared his story at JUMP (Jewish Urban Meeting Place) from his memoir Fate Undecided recently published by the Azrieli Foundation. Here is a clip of Rips describing what the conditions were like to obtain food in Belgium during the time of the war.