Ken Levitt, President of JSA, greeted those gathered and asked how many were members of the JSA. Then he inquired how many more will be members after the presentation. Levitt also took the opportunity of introducing our new motto – SENIORS, STRONGER TOGETHER, emphasizing the comma as it had been the topic of much discussion. Levitt also gave credit for the motto’s origin to Binny Goldman.

Gyda Chud, Convener of this third Food Empowerment Series, said she was happy to see so many women in the audience as today was International Women’s Day. Chud was wearing a scarf commemorating the event of the Women’s March in Montreal in 2000.

Michael Schwartz, Coordinator of Programs and Development of the Jewish Museum of BC and partner with JSA in all of the Empowerment sessions on food also credited women for having been responsible for many of the organizations in BC. Schwartz stressed the importance of families contributing their own bits of history to the museum to preserve the Jewish origins in BC. Schwartz asked the audience to sign up as members ensuring that they will receive the Chronicle which will keep them updated on the museum’s future events. One event is the Supper Club Cafe which will be housed on the Peretz premises. Continuing, he said: “Without further a dough we hope you enjoy the movie ‘Dough’.

‘Dough’ is a film which depicts the desperation that sometimes drives people together. Widowed and finding it hard to manage, Nat Dayan is desperate to save his London bake shop from closing.  His grandfather had opened ‘Dayan and Son’ 60 years ago. Customers are getting scarce, moving away or dying and his son, a lawyer, is not interested in continuing the family business or helping it survive.