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Chutzpah! Festival Opening
Chutzpah!, the Jewish festival of the arts, opens this Saturday night with a wonderful and eclectic range of theatre, dance and art. The breadth and quality of the festival is remarkable for a community our size, and is a reflection of our Jewish Community Centre’s extraordinary commitment to Jewish culture. Check out the Chutzpah! website to see the list of shows and buy your tickets.

Birthright Registration Opening for Spring and Summer Trips
The annual mad dash to register for Taglit-Birthright Israel trips opens this Wednesday, February 15th at 7:00 a.m. PST. However, those who have applied in the past, but have not yet traveled on a trip, have access to early registration beginning Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. Over the past two years, our Jewish Federation has added funding to reduce the waiting list for BC residents. As a result, we were able to double our regional participation last year compared against two years ago. That funding is in place again for this year.

To maximize your chances of being accepted this spring/summer, apply for these specific trips: May 2012 if you are 18-22 years old, or June 2012 if you are 23-26 years old. If we generate enough concentrated demand we can enable a Lower Mainland/BC bus. For more information click here, or call the Jewish Federation office at 604.257.5100.

JCCGV Men’s Hockey Players Compete in Israel
Three members of the JCCGV’s men’s hockey league joined together with players from Winnipeg and other Canadian communities to compete in a hockey tournament in Israel this week. Along with a spirited competition at the Canada Centre in Metulla, the players had a great day yesterday visiting our partnership region and seeing some of the projects our community is engaged in there.

Rabbi Gunther Plaut, z”l
Rabbi Gunther Plaut, one of the great leaders of Canadian Jewry, passed away yesterday in Toronto. Rabbi Plaut fled Nazi Germany in 1935, ending up at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College, where he was later ordained as a rabbi. A chaplain during World War II, he was present at the liberation of the first concentration camp in Germany. After serving in several pulpits in the US, he moved to Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto in 1961. Retiring as senior rabbi in 1978, he has since been Holy Blossom’s senior scholar. Rabbi Plaut published over two dozen books, including The Torah – A Modern Commentary, of which he was editor and chief author.

Rabbi Plaut was an extraordinary leader, not only within the Reform Jewish movement, but in the broader Jewish community and general community as well. He founded Toronto’s Urban Alliance on Race Relations and served as vice-chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress and led UJA Federation Toronto’s annual campaign.

In recognition of his contributions to Canadian life, he received the Order of Canada, our country’s highest honour. Rabbi Plaut was a towering presence in contemporary Jewish life, contributing across the breadth of religious, philanthropic and social facets of communal life. May his memory be for a blessing.

Parashat Yitro
In this week's parasha, after receiving advice from his father-in-law on the system for administering justice among the Israelites, Moses ascends the mountain to receive the ten commandments. The people are gathered at the foot of the mountain. The mountaintop is shrouded in cloud. Only Moses has the direct interaction with God in which he receives the commandments, but the people are witness to a spectacle of thunder and lightning signifying the moment.

Within our tradition we understand ourselves to be a covenanted people, joined together in the experience of receiving the Torah. The moment of revelation isn't regarded as Moses's experience alone, but as one of collective experience. We commemorate the giving of the Torah because we collectively received it as we stood at Sinai, just as we celebrate Passover together because it is as if we each were redeemed from slavery in Egypt.

This collectivity is at the core of what it means to be a unified community. Our unity doesn't mean we all agree - God knows that isn't us. Our unity means we are bound together in common experience and fate, and it is from this that our responsibility toward one another flows.

Shabbat Shalom!