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.

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.

By Penny Parnes

On 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.

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.