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104 The TheJewish JewishHome Home| APRIL | APRIL7,7,2022 2022
The Wandering
Jew
Pacific Northwest America Part II By Hershel Lieber
Near the summit of Mount Grouse
W
e picked up our luggage from the hotel storage room and drove to the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle. We arrived two hours before Shabbos, so we relaxed for a while in a local park before going to our hosts, Rabbi and Mrs. Yakov Oppen. Our room with a private bath was very comfortable, and our hosts were extremely hospitable. We did not know the Oppens before, and our Shabbos arrangements were made by Rabbi Avrohom David who is the rosh yeshiva of the Seattle Kollel since the early nineties. Rav Avrohom’s father is the famed posek HaRav Hillel David, shlita, with whom I had a continuous relationship and learned together since the mid-seventies. This connection made it possible for us to spend a delightful Shabbos in May 1997 in the Orthodox community of Seward Park. First, a little bit of history. Seattle has a 70,000-strong Jewish community of which a fair portion are Orthodox. There are shuls, schools, mikvahs, kosher
restaurants and food stores. The makeup of the society is very diverse, ranging from Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Chabad with a fair amount of baalei teshuva. There are Jews from the Isle of Rhodes in Greece who have their own nusach and a shul named Ezra Bessaroth. We were privy to experience a sliver of this variety of Jewish life in the short time that we spent there. On Friday night, we davened at the Ashkenazi Shul Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath. The congregation is well over one hundred years in existence, although this building was less than thirty years old. This was followed by a beautiful inspiring seudah by our hosts which included other guests. The next morning, we returned to the same shul but our hosts for the Shabbos day seudah were Rav Avrohom and his wife, Rooksie. We had a great time there since we knew each other for many years and were interested in hearing about the kiruv work that the Davids were constantly involved with. Their chil-
dren were outgoing, and we felt very comfortable. The meal went on until way past noon, so we only had a short nap before we returned for shalosh seudos. Then we went to the Sephardic Bikur Cholim Synagogue for a sermon about “Miracles” by Professor Nathan Lopez Cardozo. His lecture and delivery were spellbinding but over the years he became very controversial and lost many Orthodox followers. The Shul itself has a fascinating history as it was founded by Jews from Turkey and other areas of the Ottoman Empire. We davened Mincha and ate a second shalosh seudos at the Ashkenazi Shul. After Maariv, we returned to the Davids to say goodbye. We then went back to the Oppens and spent some time talking over coffee and cake. Sunday morning after Shacharis and a quick stop at the International Biscuit Café for breakfast, we crossed the border into British Columbia. The drive was less than three hours, and by noon we settled
into our Vancouver hotel. The city is impressive, and our lovely room at the Blue Horizon was in the center of town on Robson Street. We still had a few hours before sundown, so we took a gondola up to the summit of Mount Grouse which overlooked the entire city. Although the weather was warm at the base of the mountain, there was ample snow on the ground near the peak. We took a short hike and took photos of the wood-carved sculptures of local wildlife. For dinner, we went to the Sabra Restaurant for a salmon meal which is a very popular dish in this “fish-loving country.” On Monday, I went to daven at the Schara Tzedeck Shul. I did not realize when I arrived that it was Yom Haatzmaut. After Shemoneh Esrei, the Chazan stepped up to say Hallel. I was in a dilemma, since in our circles Hallel is not recited on this day. I had to make a quick decision on what to do. I weighed the issue and felt that by not participating I could cause a chillul Hashem, some-
