About Town: March 25

Thursday, March 25

PARKINSON’S DISEASE

Nurse Lucie Lachance of the Montreal General Hospital movement disorder program lectures on “Parkinson’s Disease: Strategies to Manage Your Condition,” 10 a.m., the Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors. Registration, 342-1234, ext. 7201.

MUSICAL P.M.
Singer-guitarist Peggy Pardo entertains at the Chomedey Seniors Club, Young Israel Synagogue, 1:30 p.m. Toby Banks, 450-688-7020.

Friday, March 26


WOMEN’S HISTORY

The work of nurses is celebrated at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom’s annual Jewish Women’s History Week Shabbaton, starting tonight at 8:15 and continuing tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Luncheon follows. Honorees are nurses Ellen Tissenbaum, Marlene Levine and Beatrice Victor. Reservations, [email protected].

Saturday, March 27


JEWISH FEMINISM

At the Reconstructionist Synagogue, a mini-series on “Jewish Feminism” continues with Sonia Sarah Lipsyc, director of the Aleph Centre d’Etudes Juives Contemporaines, speaking at 10 a.m. on the current generation of feminists. 486-9400.

Sunday, March 28


ALL THAT JAZZ

The James Gelfand Trio presents an evening of jazz standards, at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, 8 p.m. Gelfand is a Juno award-winning pianist, arranger and composer. Tickets, 739-7944.

PARENTS’ NIGHT OFF
Parents are invited to leave their children, aged two to 10 at the West Island YM-YWHA from 3-8 p.m. Games, sports, crafts and science, plus dinner, are offered. Viki Zerdok, 624-6750, ext. 24.
The Ben Weider Y is offering to keep kids busy during Passover, March 29, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and April 1 and 2, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Bryna Solloway, 737-6551, ext. 237.

Monday, March 29


COMMUNITY SEDERS

Free community seders are being held at seven locations around Montreal on both nights of Passover at 7:30 p.m. The organizer, the Mada Community Centre, is preparing to serve 3,000 meals, with the help of a large team of volunteers, almost double the number as last year, said assistant director Yosef Drihem. The worst of the recession may be over, but demand continues to climb for Mada’s kosher food bank, daily cafeteria and clothing depot, he said. The seders include a full-course meal and will be conducted by a rabbi and chazzan. For reservations or to volunteer, call 342-4969.

Tuesday, March 30


SHERBROOKE SEDER

The new Jewish Community Centre of the Eastern Townships holds its first “Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth,” with catered meal, at its hall, 380 Dufferin St., Sherbrooke, 6:30 p.m. Reserve at 819-812-3118.

…Et Cetera…

A Human Rights Seder will be held April 1 by the Canadian Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights and the Montreal Dialogue Group, at the Côte des Neiges Community Centre, 6:30 p.m. Interpretive Haggadah reading by Liliana Trodler, light meal and music by Fran Avni are on the program. Reservations, [email protected]… Man Booker Prize-winning and bestselling Canadian novelist Yann Martel will be in Montreal April 8-9 to promote his  latest book, Beatrice and Virgil (Knopf Canada). This long-anticipated successor to 2002’s The Life of Pi is described as an allegorical story about the Holocaust and, like Pi, also has animals as central characters. The title names are drawn from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Martel, who lives in Saskatoon, has said: “I think writers have been fearful of letting the imagination loose on the Holocaust. My novel is an attempt to see if there is a way of talking about the Holocaust without talking about it literally.”

The new French movie Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque) opens in Quebec April 2. The biopic, directed by Joann Sfar, follows the life of the French Jewish singer Serge Gainsbourg from growing up in the 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful songwriting years and famous  love affairs in the ’60s to his death in 1991 at age 62. The title role is played by Eric Elmosnino…

Students in grades 3-8 from Bialik, Miss Edgars and Miss Cramps, Hebrew Academy, Royal Vale, Selwyn House, Solomon Schechter Academy, St. George’s, The Study and Akiva schools recently took part in a “Mathematical Adventure,” led by Yossi Elran of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, held at Akiva and organized by Weizmann Canada. With the intention of making math fun, Elran had the kids solving riddles whose solutions “lead” them to “treasure.” Some of the topics were infinite numbers, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and bar codes, which they learned about this past year through Math by Mail, of which Elran is co-author. This extracurricular enrichment activity is geared to students talented in math and its possibilities…

Greg Kramer won best director for the Segal Centre’s production last season of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from the Montreal English Critics Circle (MECCA). The play’s star, Barry Flatman, was also nominated for best actor… The Segal Centre has received a $50,000 grant from the City of Montreal to support its programs. The Segal has agreed to let the borough of Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce hold cultural events at its facilities. Executive member Helen Fotopulos who is responsible for culture and borough mayor Michael Applebaum, presented the cheque during the opening night of the theatre’s Old Wicked Songs… Federation CJA is seeking the input of members of the gay Jewish community to its Imagine 2020 long-term planning project. It has invited them to a focus group April 7. RSVP at [email protected]

Le Café, launched one year ago by Federation CJA when the economic downturn was at its worst as a one-year pilot project, will continue to provide free meals to the needy. Suppers are served twice a week to people of all ages at the Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors. Over the past year, Le Café has dished up more than 23,000 meals in a dignified atmosphere. The program  relies heavily on volunteers, and more than 2,700 people have helped with food preparation, waiting tables and cleaning up.

Montreal Hillel president Zach Newburgh was elected president of the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU), after defeating Sarah Woolf. Newburgh has been co-speaker of the council of the SSMU, which represents undergraduates… Westmount Mayor Peter Trent dropped by Chabad of Westmount to congratulate the member of jTeens, the centre’s youth group. The group was the honoree of this year’s annual cocktail fundraiser. The kids meet weekly to engage in mitzvot, which have included toy drives for hospitalized children, making and delivering sandwiches to the homeless, collecting non-perishable food donations, and visiting seniors homes. Currently, they’re holding a clothing drive for victims of Haiti’s earthquake…

Montrealer Kitra Cahana, 22, is spending the year in Kishinev, Moldova and Minsk, Belarus, with the Joint Distribution Committee’s Jewish Service Corps. She was one of 10 recent college graduates selected to serve in Jewish communities around the world. She had completed a BA in philosophy and anthropology at McGill University and is already an award-winning photojournalist who has interned at the New York Times and National Geographic. In Moldova and Belarus, she’s using her creative skills to document histories of Jewish community members, develop online outreach tools, and help with programming and volunteerism. Her parents are Karen and Rabbi Ronnie Cahana of Congregation Beth-El. Her grandfather was supported by the JDC as a refugee in Antwerp, after Kristallnacht.