The Stratford Festival recently convened a panel of distinguished legal luminaries to hear an appeal from Shakespeare’s famous Jewish character, Shylock. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin led the panel, which included retired Supreme Court judge Ian Binnie and University of Toronto law dean Mayo Moran, as well as lawyers Earl Cherniak, Patricia Jackson, Sheila Block and Alan Lenczner. The Oct. 5 proceeding was recorded and posted on YouTube under the title Shylock Appeals, Stratford Festival.
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Literary Events
• Toronto-born Marianne Langner Zeitlin reads from her new novel Motherless Child, which is set partly in Toronto, at Indigo Books, Bay and Bloor, Wednesday Oct. 16, 7 p.m.
• Gerald Tulchinsky, history professor at Queen’s University and author of the recent J.B. Salsberg: A Life of Commitment, will be on hand at the launch. Art-Square Gallery, 334 Dundas St. W., Thursday Oct. 17, 7 p.m.
• The Koffler Centre is hosting a visit to Toronto by first-time Israeli novelist Shani Boianjiu, whose book, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, follows a group of young women coming of age in the Israeli military. Boianjiu is being interviewed by award-winning writer David Bezmozgis at the International Festival of Authors, Lakeside Terrace, Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queen’s Quay W. $18, $15. Sunday Oct. 27, 1 p.m.
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Arts in Brief
• Watch for the premiere screening of GrandParenting, a documentary by filmmaker Karen Shopsowitz on TVO, Wednesday Oct. 16, 9 p.m.
• Chilliwack performs a concert to raise funds for Mazon Canada. Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, 10268 Yonge St. Tuesday Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m. Floor tickets $90 includes $30 tax receipt. Rabbi Gary Zweig, 647-294-6305, gszweig@gmailcom. Richmond Hill box office, 905-787-8811.
• Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center presents a premiere screening of The Prime Ministers, a film starring the voices of Sandra Bullock, Michael Douglas and Leonard Nimoy, based on the book by Yehuda Avner. Eglinton Grand Theatre, Oct. 30, 7 p.m. For sponsorship and ticket information contact [email protected] or 416-864-9735, ext. 40.
• Israeli-born cellist Matt Maimovitz joins the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra and maestro Marco Parisotto to perform masterworks by Jewish composers, Schelomo (Hebraic Rhapsody) by Ernest Bloch, and Gustav Mahler’s Titan Symphony (No. 1 in D). Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. Tuesday Nov. 5, 8 p.m. $40. 416-922-3714, ext. 103.
• Music on Canvas – French Music for an Autumn Afternoon is a concert featuring pianist Maria Dolnycky and violinist Zachary Ebin playing works by Marias, Mozart, Chaminade, Faure and Franck. KUMF Art Gallery, 2118-A Bloor St. W., Suite 204 (east of Runnymede). Sunday Nov. 10, 3 p.m. Tickets $20, $15, available in advance or at the door. 416-621-9287
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Passages: Hy (Chaim) Burstein, who died in Toronto on Oct. 1 at the age of 85, discovered a passion for riding horses as a teenager and continued riding until he was in his late 70s. The retired plastics-industry executive was also the published author of Ride ’em Jewish Cowboy, a lively memoir about his equestrian experiences around the world, as well as several self-published titles.
Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Toronto in 1928, Burstein started his career as a truck driver in his father’s burlap bag company on Simcoe Street. During a visit to Israel in 1959, he met his wife, Zuzek, a former Miss Israel, and proposed to her after five days. They were married three weeks later. She then gave birth to six children – five boys and a girl, including a set of twins – in less than six years.
As he chronicled in his memoir, Burstein travelled the world seeking exotic trails and equestrian adventures. He was a regular herder at a large ranch near the Montana-Wyoming border, where he would help push thousands of cattle up the mountains to pasture in spring, then back down to market in the fall.
Once, on an African trail with a party of riders, the horses suddenly bolted as a lioness darted between the trees toward her cubs. On a riding excursion in Israel’s Galilee region, he rode for several hours from the Vered HaGalil ranch down to Lake Kinnere. His guide kept a loaded pistol at his side at all times for security.
After the proprietor of the Montana ranch professed a dislike of Jews, Hy let the remark go but later asked him what he had against Jews. “They talk too loud and can be very noisy,” came the reply. Hy responded that ranch guests on drinking binges had often kept him up all night with their loud voices “and believe me, they weren’t Jewish. Besides, I’m Jewish.” The proprietor offered a red-faced apology and added, “Those Israelis sure know how to fight a war.”
Ride ’em Jewish Cowboy was published by Jerusalem-based Devora Publishing in 2004. Hy also wrote and self-published a novel, a screed on comparative religion, and a book about an anti-Semitic murder in Paris.
Appalled at the kidnap, torture and murder of teenager Ilan Halimi by a French-Muslim gang in 2006, Burstein visited the Paris suburbs where the crime occurred and hired the detectives who had worked on it to guide him through every aspect of the case. “By the time they dropped me at the airport for my flight back home, I possessed an insider’s view of the case, complete with privileged details known only to the police,” he later wrote.
Burstein kept horses on his family’s 100-acre ranch in Caledon. He leaves his wife, Zuzek, his six children and their spouses, and 14 grandchildren.