Category Archives: Events

Film Night Celebrates Jewish Diversity: Doing Jewish, A Story from Ghana

On November 12, 2017, Kulanu Canada presented the film Doing Jewish: A Story from Ghana. The movie is the creation of filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha, who was in attendance and captivated the nearly 100 people in the audience with both her informational film and her warm and animated personality. The event was co-sponsored with Na’amat Canada and we are appreciative of their partnership.

We learned that the Sefwi Wiawso is a small (and at the same time large) group of committed people that has long identified as Jewish. Gabrielle interviewed everyone from the tribe, from the children to the elders. It was fascinating to hear them pray and sing in Hebrew, and learn how they followed many Jewish traditions before knowing the label “Jewish”. The person about whom the film focused was their community leader, Alex Armah, a dedicated young man whohas very passionately worked to educate his community about Judaism and though this to hold his community together as Jews.

Gabrielle Zilkah

A special feature of the film was Gabrielle’s focus on trying to answer many questions about the Sefwis, about their history, about the possibility of their being one of the lost tribes of Israel, about their potential future and about their inclusion (or exclusion) in the wider Jewish global community.

The search for these answers was poignant and thought-provoking for all who claim to be Jewish.

As Gabrielle so introspectively points out, it is not enough to “be” Jewish, as so many of us in North America claim; it is important to “do” Jewish and carry out, as well as carry forward, the traditions which have existed for thousands of years. Upon whose shoulders will this responsibility lie?

Challah covers from Ghana

Kulanu Canada is determined to help the Sefwi Wiawso to continue to exist on their Jewish terms. To that end, we have been selling their beautiful, colourful, hand made challah covers with funds going back to the community for their guest house.

Thank you to all who attended the evening and have helped us to continue to support this amazing community.

We look forward to seeing you at our next events. Please sign up for ongoing information about future programs and information about the communities we support.

Join us on Nov. 12 for our event “Doing Jewish: A Story From Ghana”

Kulanu Canada & Na’amat Canada Toronto present a film and speaker special for a documentary called Doing Jewish: A Story From Ghana.

Who would expect to find Jews in Ghana? Certainly not filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha. But when she volunteered to work in Africa, and found herself alone as the Jewish New Year approached, she made a surprising connection with the Jewish Africans she met there. In remote Sefwi Wiawso, Zilkha encounters a group of practising, dedicated and devout Jews.

Gabrielle Zilkha
Filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha.

Meet Toronto filmmaker Gabrielle Zilka, purchase beautiful Ghanian challah covers, and support an isolated Jewish community by viewing this amazing, award-winning documentary.

Date: Sunday, November 12, 2017
Location: Borochov Cultural Centre, 272 Codsell Ave., Toronto
Time: doors open at 7:15 p.m., film starts at 7:30 p.m., Q&A with filmmaker to follow
Admission: $12.00 (at the door)


For more information, contact Marilyn Herbert at merbert@rogers.com.

If you have used or unused tallitot to donate to the Jews of Ghana, please bring to the event; donations are not tax receiptable but will be very welcome. Kulanu Canada will send them to Ghana.

If you would like to support the community and purchase a handmade, unique challah cover, see the selection. Prices are $36 per cover or two for $60 CDN. Kulanu Canada is a registered Canadian charity and donations are tax receiptable.

Kulanu and Na'amat logos

Looking back on our film screening of The Mystery of San Nicandro

By Penny Parnes

The Mystery of San Nicandro film posterOn April 2, Kulanu Canada, in partnership with the Lodzer Centre and Darchei Noam’s Jewish Diversity Committee, presented the film The Mystery of San Nicandro. More than 100 people attended the event, and besides the screening, there was lively discussion about Kulanu Canada’s projects and about the content of the film.

The film, by producer/director Vanessa Dylyn, is based on a book by Professor John Davis, about a group of Italian Roman Catholics in a small village who underwent a mass conversion to Judaism in Fascist Italy. Over a period of 20 years of observing Jewish practices, they left Italy and emigrated to the new state of Israel in 1949.

Rabbi Barbara Aiello
Rabbi Barbara Aiello

In the making of the film, the producer discovered a bigger story: that of the powerful revival of Judaism in Southern Italy.  About 10 years ago, Rabbi Barbara Aiello, Italy’s first female rabbi, opened the first synagogue in Serrastreta, Italy, in 500 years.  She serves the new communities of Jewish presence in Calabria and Sicily, and more recently Pugalia and Sardinia, all areas with an ancient Jewish population before The Spanish Inquisition forced Jews to flee.
The spirit that called the converts of San Nicandro back to Judaism has also been stirring in North America, where many people of Italian origin are discovering links to a Jewish past.