Community Rallied To Help Deli Owners
CALGARY — More than 20 volunteers from Calgary’s Jewish community helped keep the city’s only kosher deli alive when it’s co-owners took ill at the same time late last year.
Denise Kavin, 58, ran the Haifa Deli alone for 14 days in late December when her husband, Ivan, 60, had open-heart surgery. Denise then ended up in hospital after she came down with bronchial asthma and infected lungs. Ivan came out of hospital and tried to run the deli alone, but the couple ended up in hospital once again.
At that point, members of Congregation House of Jacob-Mikveh Israel volunteered to help the Kavins, who have been running the deli since 2005.
The couple were both back at work in early February.
“[The volunteers] are a group of angels,” Denise told the Calgary Herald. “How do you thank them all?”
Mayor To Run Again
EDMONTON — Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel said last week that he’s running for a third three-year term as mayor. Mandel, a former city councillor, has been mayor 2004, when he beat an incumbent looking for a fourth term, and is the first Jew to hold the post in Edmonton. Mandel, 64, won re-election in 2007 with 66 per cent of the vote. The election will be held Oct. 18.
Team Forfeits Game
MONTREAL — A midget league hockey team in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux had to forfeit a key game because it conflicted with the first night of Passover. At least 10 of the 15 players on the Dollard-des-Ormeaux Midget B Civics are Jewish and were unwilling to miss the first seder, the Montreal Gazette reported. Team manager Eva-Lynn Gross appealed to the municipality and the Lac St. Louis hockey league. “They should work around stuff like this,” she told the Gazette. But league executive director Sylvain McSween said that there “are 700 hockey matches in less than three weeks, and we can’t have any changes… One special case leads to another and another. There’s nothing we can do.” The league wouldn’t let the team switch places with another squad that offered its spot so the Civics’ game wouldn’t conflict with the first seder.
Ex-Ring Champ Dies
MONTREAL — Jerry Shears, a Jewish former Canadian lightweight boxing champion who spent years crusading for protective headgear in the amateur ring, died March 21 at Montreal’s St. Anne’s Veterans Hospital at age 84 . The son of pro boxer Joe Schulman, Shears also became a well-known insurance broker. He never fought professionally, but was founder and for years served as president of the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association.
