Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture

06/17/2026

Coming up on June 25th!

***New date!*** Concluding the 2025-26 Zhargon Speaker Series, Dr. Gabriella Safran asks how Jewish migrants around the turn of the 20th century used literature, plays, and songs to work through questions about caring for elderly family members they left behind.

💌 Give Alms to the Jewish King Lear: Eldercare in Yiddish Literature with Dr. Gabriella Safran
🚢 Thursday, June 25th, 2026 (New Date!)
🌎 5:30pm PDT / 8:30pm EDT (online)
🔗 Registration is required (by donation, no minimum): https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/eldercare-in-yiddish-literature-gabriella-safran

The Jews who migrated to the United States from 1875 to 1924 were often supporting the family members they left in the Old Country — and they eagerly listened to songs and went to plays about how adult children care (or do not care) for their aging parents.

Among the plays they watched were two hits based (loosely) on Shakespeare, The Jewish King Lear and Mirele Efros: The Jewish Queen Lear. What can we learn from this literature about the ways that these migrants worked through the questions about care that they faced in their lives?

Dr. Gabriella Safran is a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Eva Chernov Lokey Professor of Jewish Studies at Stanford University. She has published articles and books about Russian and Yiddish literature and intellectual history, mostly before the 1917 revolutions. She is now beginning a new project involving migration and the literature of eldercare.

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This event is the fourth part of the 2025-26 Zhargon Speaker Series: four public, online talks that bring leading figures in Yiddish Studies and contemporary Yiddish arts and culture to share their work. The series extends classroom learning for students in the Peretz Centre’s program, Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt, and opens discussion with the broader community. Learn more at https://www.peretz-centre.org/

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Fdn / Fondation canadienne des relations raciales with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

04/14/2026

Focusing on local Jewish history and experience, our Doikayt Speaker Series is online and open to the public!

Our 2nd guest for the 2026 Doikayt Speaker Series, Cynthia Ramsay, tells the history of the 96-year-old Jewish Independent, British Columbia’s Jewish community newspaper and the most continuous record of local Jewish communal life.

🗞️ A LABOUR OF LOVE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JEWISH INDEPENDENT
🔹Monday, April 29th, 2026
🔹5:30pm PDT / 8:30pm EDT
🌐 Online (Zoom), open to all!
🔗 Registration is required (by donation, no minimum): https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/a-brief-history-of-the-jewish-independent-newspaper-cynthia-ramsay

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Local community newspapers play many important roles in animating and reflecting communal life. From the most personal announcements to institutional news to local insights on major global events, they connect and inform community members about what is happening around them.

Stories can bring attention to diverse and marginalized perspectives, editorials and letters provide a forum for discussion and debate, and social pages help families mark milestones from birth to death. As a historical record, within their pages we find the hopes and fears of people across time.

The Jewish Independent actually had its beginnings in 1925, with a short-lived mimeo, which went through a series of names and publishers before becoming the Jewish Western Bulletin, a tabloid that has been published since 1930, its name changing to the Jewish Independent in 2005.

In this talk, editor of the Jewish Independent Cynthia Ramsay will offer a broad overview of the paper’s history, from its pre-origins to today.

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This event is the second in the Peretz Centre’s new Doikayt Speaker Series: four public, online talks with with local scholars and organizers to help us think about what it means to be here, right now — and how we can take part in the work to sustain and initiate change for the sake of a better, more beautiful world for all.

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Fdn / Fondation canadienne des relations raciales with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

Poster credit: Adi Burton, with archival materials from the Jewish Western Bulletin and the Jewish Independent. Check out the public archives of the Jewish Western Bulletin at the SFU library newspaper collection: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/newspapers/jewish-western-bulletin)

03/26/2026

Registration is open for our first Kindervelt Jewish Storytime (Sunday, April 12th) with Aurel Matte!

02/05/2026

This Sunday, join Brazilian singer Tânia Grinberg and musician Mauro Perelmann, and special guests Elliot Polsky (percussion), Laurence Mollerup (bass) for a magical evening celebrating Ladino song and the rich cultural heritage of Sephardic Jews!

Tickets at https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/el-tesoro-de-sefarad-treasury-of-sepharad-with-the-mauro-perelmann-tania-grinberg-duo

The Peretz Centre is proud to present an evening of Ladino songs, stories, and rhythms with the Mauro Perelmann & Tânia Grinberg Duo!

🌙 EL TESORO DE SEFARAD (TREASURY OF SEPHARAD) 🌙
⭐ Sunday, February 8th, 2026
🕕 Doors at 6pm (performance at 6:30pm)
📍 Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture (6184 Ash Street, Vancouver)

🎟️ Tickets at https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/el-tesoro-de-sefarad-treasury-of-sepharad-with-the-mauro-perelmann-tania-grinberg-duo
$25/person ($15 for youth & seniors)
👯 TZUSAMMEN: Get 2 tickets for $45 (until Wed., Jan. 28 at 11:59pm)

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Join Brazilian singer Tânia Grinberg and musician Mauro Perelmann, and special guests Elliot Polsky (percussion), Laurence Mollerup (bass) for a magical evening celebrating Ladino song and the rich cultural heritage of Sephardic Jews. Expelled from Iberia/Andalusia (Sefarad) in the late 15th century or forced to convert to Christianity, the Sephardic diaspora spread to the Americas, northwestern Europe, and throughout the Ottoman Empire, under varying conditions of secrecy, persecution, privilege, and freedom. They carried with them their customs, music, and language, Ladino (also called Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo), which grew richer through contact with many neighbours.

Through Ladino songs, traditional storytelling, and evocative melodies, Grinberg and Perelmann will take you on a journey through history, memory, and the living treasures of Sefarad. This intimate performance invites you to experience the beauty of an ancient and vital tradition that has traveled across centuries and continents, keeping alive the voices and stories of Sepharad.

12/28/2025

Don't miss the finale of this winter's online Zhargon Speaker Series!

We wrap up this winter’s Zhargon Speaker Series with an online, public talk from Dr. Gabriella Safran (Stanford University), who will share from her current research on how Jewish migrants around the turn of the 20th century used literature, plays, and songs to work through questions about caring for elderly family members they left behind.

💌 Give Alms to the Jewish King Lear: Eldercare in Yiddish Literature with Dr. Gabriella Safran
🚢 Sunday, January 25th, 2026
🌎 11am PST / 2pm EST (online)
🔗 Registration is required (by donation, no minimum): https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/eldercare-in-yiddish-literature-gabriella-safran

The Jews who migrated to the United States from 1875 to 1924 were often supporting the family members they left in the Old Country — and they eagerly listened to songs and went to plays about how adult children care (or do not care) for their aging parents. Among the plays they watched were two hits based (loosely) on Shakespeare, The Jewish King Lear and Mirele Efros: The Jewish Queen Lear.

In this talk, Dr. Gabriella Safran asks how these migrants used literature to work through the questions about care that they faced in their lives.

*****

This event is the fourth part of the 2025 Zhargon Speaker Series: four public, online talks that bring leading figures in Yiddish Studies and contemporary Yiddish arts and culture to share their work. The series extends classroom learning for students in the Peretz Centre’s program, Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt, and opens discussion with the broader community. Learn more at https://www.peretz-centre.org/the-peretz-school/zhargon-yiddish-history-courses

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Fdn / Fondation canadienne des relations raciales with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

11/08/2025

We can't wait!!

10/19/2025

Dr. Alan Bern traces the centuries-old, rich cultural connections between Yiddish and Ottoman cultures through music in the first talk of the 2025 Zhargon Speaker Series!

https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/ottoman-musical-routes-roots-moldavian-yiddish-connections-alan-bern

Announcing the first of this year’s Zhargon Speaker Series!

Dr. Alan Bern (founder and artistic director of Yiddish Summer Weimar) will trace the centuries-old, rich cultural connections between Yiddish and Ottoman cultures through music.

⭐️ Sunday, November 2, 2025
⭐️ 10am-12pm PST (on Zoom)
⭐️ Registration is required (by donation, no minimum):
https://www.peretz-centre.org/event-details-registration/ottoman-musical-routes-roots-moldavian-yiddish-connections-alan-bern

For those of us who picture the Eastern European homeland of Yiddish in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, the juxtaposition of “Yiddish” with “Ottoman” can feel startling and exotic. However, in the 1990s, scholars such as Martin Schwartz, Walter Zev Feldman and Joel Rubin were already following the trail of well-known Yiddish melodies that had strikingly similar Greek and Turkish variants. What did these parallel versions represent? In the decades since, at Yiddish Summer Weimar and elsewhere, artists and scholars have been working together to explore the rich matrix that connects Yiddish and Ottoman cultures, in the process revitalizing a centuries-old transcultural exchange.

Dr. Alan Bern will share some of the highlights of this intellectual and artistic adventure, with ample use of historical and contemporary audio and video recordings. An open Q&A session will conclude the talk.

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The Zhargon Speaker Series brings leading figures in Yiddish Studies and contemporary Yiddish arts and culture to share their work in public, online lectures. The series extends classroom learning for students in the Peretz Centre’s program, Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt, and opens discussion with the broader community. Learn more at peretz-centre.org

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada. Canadian Race Relations Fdn / Fondation canadienne des relations raciales

10/11/2025

Coming up at our next Fraytik tsu Nakht cultural shabbes dinner & potluck! Antonia Lassar will be leading a nigunim workshop for us after dinner.

Come lift your voice in community at a special evening of group singing led by songleader Antonia Lassar. We'll explore old Jewish melodies, new niggunim, and improvised harmonies, weaving our voices together in joy and connection. No experience necessary—just bring your voice and your curiosity!

Date: Friday, Oct 24, 2025
Time: 6pm - 9pm
Location: Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, 6184 Ash St, Vancouver
Cost: a contribution to the pot luck OR pay $18.00 per person (children are free).
Please register early.

Learn more or register today: https://loom.ly/WM4mTKk

JQT Vancouver Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture

09/05/2025

Our annual High Holidays gathering is happening on Sunday, September 28th from 1-4pm!

Sylvia Arce-Gonzalez will be running an amazing quilling station to make Rosh Hashana cards with kids and adults🍯

Join us for the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture's High Holidays Observance as we mark the new Jewish year of 5786!

08/01/2025

This Sunday at the Peretz Centre!