Community
Green's Jewish roots
From the Lower Eastside to mayor of Vancouver?
PAT JOHNSON
Amid the bric-a-brac and local art in Jim Green's cramped City Hall ofFice is a Jewish National Fund certificate declaring that a tree has been planted in Israel in honor of tlie feisty Vancouver city councillor and longtime Downtown Eastside aaivist.
Tile certificate - and the tree it represents -holds special meaning for Green. It is a rare connection between Green and his father, who shared a deeply strained relationship.
"I found one day these documents where he was planting trees in Israel," Green said of his father. Tlie Jim Green
discovery sparked his curiosity and a little research by Green's sister-in-law has led the family to conclude tliat Green's fattier was Jewish.
It wasn't sometliing tlie pair werc likely to discuss when Green's father w:is alive.
"He was a very difficult man, very ill-educated man," Green said. "He was a severe, severe alcoholic and a very vicious man."
Yet tlie JNF tree reprcsents a rare coming togetlier.
"My dad and I, who never got along, have done something togetlier now," Green said.
Tlie genealogical discovery in-uigues Green, who considers himself a Jew using the Lenny Bruce definition, if not tlie halachic one: He lived in tlie Lower East Side of Manhattan for a time. He is also a gasironornicjew, whose first friends in Vancouver filled liim up witli familiar Jewish foods.
"The first person, when I got to Vancouver and I didn't know a soul in this city, the first person who took me in was a woman named Catliy Bcrson," &iid Green. Beison, whose son Josh is now the photographer for Green's political grouping, fed Green the bialys he had developed a Uiste for in New York.
"Tliey were like my family for, say, tlie first ye:ir I vv-as here," Gix^ said of tlie Bersons.
Green was hesitant to share tlie story of his Jewish connection for fear it would seem like an election-yeiir attempt at persona] gain. Politicians including Hillary Rodham Clinton have been accused of currying favor by unveiling retnote Jewish family connections. Tlie timing Could seem suspect.
When Larry Campbell announced eariier tliis montli tliat he would not run for re-election as Vancouver's mayor, he publicly
urged Green to succeed him. Tlie wildly popular CamplxMl's departure leaves a vacuum and Green, Campbell's closest council ally, hopes to fill it.
But he will have a fight on his hands from his traditional allies, as well as from the Non-Partisan Association, the centre-right  coalition that COPE  trounced in 2002. Wlien the Coalition of Progressive Electors swept tlie civic election three years ago, it marked tlie firet time since its inception in the 1960s that the left-wing COPE had held pojver in tlie city. Soon  enough, the council caucus split into what are dubbed COPE Ckissics - tlie leftists who carry tlie torch refleaing COPE's roots - and the COPE Lites - the more moderate. New Democrat-leaning crowd led by Campbell.
Green's group, known as Friends of Larry Campbell until Campbell announced his departure, is now called Vision Vancouver. Tlie group is in tlie midst of acrimonious negotiations with COPE to come to some agreement tJiat will prevent competition between left-of-centre candidates.
Emerging as Green's opponent on the left appears to be Councillor David Cadman. On tlie riglit are tlie two NPA councillors, Sam Sullivan and Peter Ladner. How the field shakes down will not be dear probably until September.
In tlie meantime, botli Cadman, who is co<liair of the city's Peace and Justice Committee, and Green are declaring themselves sensitive to an issue that has some Jewish Vancouverites on edge. Next June, tlie Peace and Justice Committee is co-hosting a World Peace Forum, which will bring togetlier a panorama of peace and anti-war activists. Some oteervere fear that tlie event holds the potential for vilifying Israel, as some similar events in recent years have done.
"I'm very aware of it and I'm very, very concerned about it," said Green. "It troubles me and it troubles tlie mayor. It could be a real, real problem. I hope tliere's a resolution in place."
Cadman defends tlie forum, saying organizers are putting in place a code of conduct and otlier measures to' reduce the chances that condemnatory resolutions or rhetoric will trump tlie good work of tlie event. Tlie forum will draw about 1,000 Mayors for Peace, tep-
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