What's New in Jewish Victoria?
Last week we opened the new shul (synagogue). It's housed in a building that Chabad of Vancouver Island is leasing from the local school district. Not only do we have a lovely, tall-ceilinged place to daven, the room next door will be the full-time preschool five days a week this school year. We had close to 100 people at the opening, including the mayor of Victoria, regular shul attendees, and preschool parents. This past Shabbos, we had a record breaking crowd of approximately 40 people. We first ran out of siddurim (prayerbooks), then chairs, then chumashim (printed copies of the Torah). It's a wonderful problem to have.
We also have started importing our meat from Seattle. The Canadian government lets you bring in a certain amount of meat (44 lbs/person) for your own consumption. Albertson's of Mercer Island (THE place to shop for kosher groceries in Seattle) packs it for us, freezes it to ensure freshness, and delivers it to the Victoria Clipper dock. The meat then enjoys a pleasant ferry ride through Puget Sound, skirting the San Juan Islands before arriving a few hours later at the Inner Harbour in Victoria - a five minute drive from our house. We retrieve our still-frozen meat, clear it through customs, and we're on our way. After living off the $12.00/lb frozen kosher chicken that's available here on the island, it's a big treat to dine on $1.52/lb chicken thighs from Seattle. We also got steak. Lots of steak. Yum.
So, now we've worked out most of the problems of Orthodox life on the island. We have meat. We're well on our way to having a school. We have a minyan twice a month which shows every sign of growing. The rabbi and Soulmate are working on creating an eruv (symbolic enclosure that enables Orthodox Jews to carry items outside the home on Shabbos) now that the shul is no longer in the rabbi's home. There's money set aside for a mikveh (ritual bath) once we get a permanent location and, in the mean time, there are various fresh water lakes for toiveling (taking a ritual bath) if one doesn't wish to brave the ocean. On top of all that, we've had a beautiful summer full of oceanside picnics, reading and camping in the back yard, and summer evening drives through the country to buy fresh sweet corn.
Does life get any better than this?
We also have started importing our meat from Seattle. The Canadian government lets you bring in a certain amount of meat (44 lbs/person) for your own consumption. Albertson's of Mercer Island (THE place to shop for kosher groceries in Seattle) packs it for us, freezes it to ensure freshness, and delivers it to the Victoria Clipper dock. The meat then enjoys a pleasant ferry ride through Puget Sound, skirting the San Juan Islands before arriving a few hours later at the Inner Harbour in Victoria - a five minute drive from our house. We retrieve our still-frozen meat, clear it through customs, and we're on our way. After living off the $12.00/lb frozen kosher chicken that's available here on the island, it's a big treat to dine on $1.52/lb chicken thighs from Seattle. We also got steak. Lots of steak. Yum.
So, now we've worked out most of the problems of Orthodox life on the island. We have meat. We're well on our way to having a school. We have a minyan twice a month which shows every sign of growing. The rabbi and Soulmate are working on creating an eruv (symbolic enclosure that enables Orthodox Jews to carry items outside the home on Shabbos) now that the shul is no longer in the rabbi's home. There's money set aside for a mikveh (ritual bath) once we get a permanent location and, in the mean time, there are various fresh water lakes for toiveling (taking a ritual bath) if one doesn't wish to brave the ocean. On top of all that, we've had a beautiful summer full of oceanside picnics, reading and camping in the back yard, and summer evening drives through the country to buy fresh sweet corn.
Does life get any better than this?
posted by Sarah at 09:51
5 Comments:
That is some well-traveled meat! Wow. Victoria sounds even more beautiful than Maine...is it? Do you take visitors from NY?
MC - Victoria is geographically very similar to Maine without the harsh winters (it rarely snows here). We welcome any and all visitors from NY!!
E - Glad to know it gets even better!
AS
Does life get any better than this?
Probably not, but a good beer always kicks it up a notch.
A suggestion for making your blog a bit more gentile-friendly -- could you provide a few more translations of terms that your non-hebrew-speaking amigos wouldn't know?
But keep giving us the details. I think it's wonderful to watch things unfold.
Excellent suggestion, Woody. I've provided translations in parentheses after the terms in question. I'll try to remember to do so in the future.
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