The Chabad Chaya Mushka Seminary Ben Weider Educational Centre will hold its annual Feast of the Nations Gala on Thurs. Nov. 21 at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Westmount honoring super couple Jon and Joanne Gurman. Renowned Israeli singer Gad Elbaz will perform. Cocktails are at 5 pm, with dinner and the concert to follow. Established in 1988, the Ben Weider Educational Centre, under the auspices of the worldwide Chabad movement and the Quebec CEGEP system, has been dedicated to the highest calibre of post-secondary education for young Jewish women from the province of Quebec and beyond. In 2022, as its outreach continued to expand, they organized a special project named Operation Miriam. This project is the Centre’s five-year mission to welcome 25 young women, aged 17 to 20, from war-torn Ukraine and Israel, to study at their educational facility and to reside at the Frieda Dym Residence Hall. The Seminary provides these vulnerable young women the opportunity to live and learn. The goal for the gala is to raise the funds to fulfill this mission and to support underprivileged students. “The Jewish community of Montreal is engrained in both our hearts,” said Gurman, a successful Montreal businessman in the clothing industry. Added Rabbi Abraham Cohen: “More than one year since the terrorist attack of October 7, our gala will celebrate our unbreakable spirit. The mission of our Seminary has not changed; with the war ongoing, young women need our help more than ever and we will continue to be there for them.” Honourary Co-Chairs for the Gala are Darlene Ambar, Alicia and Brian Bailey, Karen and Dr. Albert Cohen, Ariella and Dr. Walter Gotlieb, Demi and Senator Leo Housakos, Mandy and Mayor Jeremy Levi, Stephanie and Neil Oberman and Sandra and Allan Rubin. For more information log on to www.seminarygala.com, e-mail [email protected] or call 514-543-5446.

SOUNDS THAT STARTLE: For the past 16 years psychologist Rachel Goodman Aspler has celebrated her birthday at the Mada Centre, a leading Kosher food bank offering essential food, clothing, and furniture in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Most recently she was involved with the translation of a book by a woman who was killed during the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Her name was Leila Kipnis and she was an art therapist who worked at the Hosen Resilience Centre on the border of Gaza where she treated children with trauma, and wrote a children’s book in 2021 aimed at helping them deal with the pain and fears of constant rocket fire, based on her years of treatment in the field. Her book, written in Hebrew, is called Sounds That Startle. Rachel spent the past year with the family to have the work translated into English and she chose to combine the launch with her Mada party. “I felt an innate need to have Lilach’s book translated into English to bring her message to the world and to honour her memory and those of her family who perished alongside her,” Rachel says. “As a trauma focused psychologist, I am baffled by the numbers of Israelis, young and old, who will be affected for years to come by the trauma of October 7 and its aftermath. The book would not have come to fruition without the support of Ben Gurion Canada who have printed it.”

THE GREEN PRINCE: Mosab Hassan Yousef, the disowned son of a Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, will be coming to speak in Montreal on Tues. Nov. 26 (7:30 pm) at a location to be announced. Tickets can be purchased now online  at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/chevrakadisha or by calling 514-482-3336. Yousef is known as the “Green Prince” for his efforts to help Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, in thwarting terror attacks during the second intifada in the early 2000s. He disappeared from the public eye for many years, but returned after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack. “When October 7 happened it was like an earthquake for me,” Yousef told The Times of Israel. “I wanted to go into silence. I was leading a very simple life. But that morning, the lion within me awakened, a volcano was about to erupt. I made a decision to burn this evil down to ashes.” Proceeds of this event will be donated to the victims of Oct. 7.