Thank you to my friends who shared their city with me! I loved my first trip to Calgary.
Nicole and I worked on cruise ships together decades ago and we had a reunion in Banff in 2018. She took me strolling to see her favorite spots in the Mission and Inglewood. The trails and parks in Calgary are stunning! I also loved swimming at MNP Community & Sport Centre. What an incredible complex. I could swim there every day!
I loved wandering through living history at over 180 attractions and exhibits from the 1860s to the 1950s at Heritage Park.
My favorite place in the park was the Little Yellow Prairie Synagogue, which served a Jewish community in eastern Alberta from 1916. In 1910, Romanian Jewish farmers left Europe as under the Tzar, Jews could not own land. Canada offered ownership of a quarter section of farm land for $10.
I learned so much from my guide, Eli Kogut! The Ark and lions were donated from Winnipeg and the Torah is from Prague, it is 250 years old and the oldest artifact at Heritage Park Calgary. The Torah was stolen during the Holocaust and rescued from Hitler’s Museum of Extinction where it now can be used for Bat Mitzvahs! I love how this building was rescued and brought here to share the resilience of our people!
Do you love cars? You need to see Gasoline Alley! With cars from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s including a Shell station.
Do you like heights? Join me at the top of the Calgary Tower with views of the Rocky Mountains, foothills, and prairies! It is 626 ft tall and was built to celebrate Canada’s centennial of 1967. When it opened it was the tallest structure in Calgary and the tallest in Canada outside Toronto. I also loved climbing outside of the CNTower on Edgewalk in Toronto! https://www.calgarytower.com/
I walked all around downtown Calgary and photographed The Famous Five Statue– Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Nellie McClung– about their extensive legal battle in the 1929 ‘Women are Persons’ Case.’ Walking in Olympic Plaza which held the medal ceremonies at the 1988 Winter Olympics as well as City hall and the stunning Central Library. Thank you to Tourism Calgary, Travel Alberta and especially Noelle Aune for helping me discover your vibrant city.
Thank you to Calgary’s top travel writer, Petrena, for spending the day with me at Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary. We learned about wolf conservation and the problems of backyard breeding of wolfdogs as exotic pets. 40 wolfdogs live on property in 16 different packs. Take a tour, volunteer, donate at the ONLY wolfdog sanctuary in Canada.
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said Wednesday night that after undergoing lifesaving procedures in its trauma unit, Leiter underwent complex brain surgery lasting several hours along with additional treatments.
While so much of the world seems obsessed with and consumed by its hatred of Israel and Jews, Israelis continue to build, create, work, celebrate, argue, raise families, and plan for the future.
“The biggest concern is that people now have a pathway to shut down Jewish voices through complete falsities that people will believe. … For the future of Jewish entertainment, it’s very scary.”
Mark Smith has compiled an important anthology of Jewish history using 49 works by Yiddish historians to recreate or at least open the door to a world of Jewish thought that was once almost mainstream, but which no longer exists, except in the minds of too few specialists.
Most Jews who have sung “Eitz Chaim” over the past half-century probably never knew Portnoy. They did not know when he wrote the melody or how young he was when he composed it. They simply knew the song.
The failure of the social media era was not simply that we failed to predict what would happen. It was that we continued giving technology companies the benefit of the doubt long after there were compelling reasons not to.
This year, I bless us that we open our eyes to truly see the beauty and the holiness of the world, and of the person before us at each and every moment, and to see the godliness of their aspirations and their fears.
Ushpizin invite us to “welcome in our ancestral constellation and dwell amongst them.” This year, it’s Ushpizot, for the women. It’s the year of the Feminist Visitation.
In between his songs, he proclaimed, “Free Palestine,” which is fine, asserted that opposing Israeli military actions is not antisemitic, which is accurate, and accused Israel of apartheid and genocide, which is offensive, untrue and hateful.
They can destroy our Temples, demonize us in social media, shower us with hate, but they can’t destroy a spirit that never stops building. That enduring spirit is the power of the sukkah.
In many of the nations that believe Israel has no right to exist and routinely root for terrorists to slaughter Jews, a TV show that depicts Israeli covert operatives outsmarting and dispatching Arabs has an inexplicably loyal global audience.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.
What to DO in CALGARY, Canada?
Lisa Ellen Niver
Thank you to my friends who shared their city with me! I loved my first trip to Calgary.
See PART TWO of my Calgary adventures for where to stay and eat!
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