I World Lighting The Olympic Torch Vancouver Jews gearing up for the Games. Ben Harris Jewish Telegraphic Agency Vancouver S hmuel Birnham's road from Vancouver rabbi to official Jewish clergyman of the 2010 Winter Olympics began, in all places, at an inter- faith service with the Dalai Lama. During the Tibetan leader's 2004 visit to Vancouver, Hong Chian, a local Buddhist doctor, invited Birnham to be one of the Jewish repre- sentatives at the service. When the Olympics Rabbi Birnham rolled around, Chian, who serves on the mul- tifaith committee for the Olympics, called on Birnham again — this time to head up the team of Jewish clergy providing spiri- tual support services to visiting athletes. As head of a team of rabbis serving the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Birnham is helping to arrange services at both Olympic Villages — the Whistler moun- tain resort and in Vancouver itself — and provide counseling to athletes who, having trained for much of their lives for a brief shot at Olympic glory, may find them- Detroit Ties U.S. ice dancers have strong local connections. Alan Hitsky Associate Editor D etroit will be well represented by the old and the new at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. U.S. ice dancing pairs Charlie White and Meryl Davis are Detriot area natives, and Ben Agosto and partner Tanith Belbin trained here for years. 20 February 1i • 2010 selves facing crises for which spiritual guidance would be helpful. "I ran track at Dickinson College said Birnham, who heads the Conservative Congregation Har El in West Vancouver. "Even at that measly low level, I have a sense of what goes on. I cannot imag- ine the pressure of a once-in-a-lifetime chance Birnham is among a number of mem- bers of the city's 30,000-strong Jewish community gearing up to support the thousands of athletes and Jewish tour- ists expected to descend on Vancouver, the most Jewishly active city ever to host the Winter Olympics. The Olympics start Friday, Feb. 12. Synagogues are organizing Shabbat dinners for visitors. Several events will introduce the community to the three par- ticipating Israeli athletes. A local Jewish woman who competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics will be among the last torch bearers carrying the Olympic flame on its way to B.C. Stadium for the opening ceremonies. Karen James, who chairs women's phi- lanthropy for the local Jewish federation, will carry the flame about 1,000 feet on the afternoon of Feb. 12, beginning near Rodney's Oyster House on Hamilton Street in downtown Vancouver. "It's very thrilling:' said James, who swam the 200 individual medley in Munich and placed "17th or 18th." At the 1972 Games, James was returning to the Olympic Village after hours when, rather than walk around to the main gate, she and her friends took a shortcut over a fence. Some dark figures nearby decided to climb with them. The next morning, James awoke to the sound of helicopters and remembers watching Israeli athletes and coaches taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists being led out to a bus. Eleven Israelis died later in a failed rescue attempt at a nearby airport. On Feb. 14, James will light a candle in their memory at a ceremony in Vancouver. To keep the Vancouver Games secure, officials plan to deploy a force of about 15,000 at a cost of nearly $1 billion. As part of the Jewish community's observance of the Olympics, the Vancouver Holocaust Centre will run an exhibit for the duration of the Winter Games high- lighting Canada's dilemma over whether to participate in the so-called Nazi Olympics — the 1936 Games in Berlin. It was in Berlin that many features of the modern Both White and Agosto are Jewish. White, 22, and Davis grew up not far from the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills. White is the son of Jacqueline and Charles White of Bloomfield Hills and grandson of Miriam and Dr. H.J. Kreiman of West Bloomfield. Davis is from West Bloomfield. The two athletes were paired at the age of 8 and 9 by DSC coach Seth Chafetz, according to Ben Agosto White's mother. "We've never had to move or go elsewhere [for training]," Mrs. White said last week."We've been lucky, and they've had a lot of success." White and Davis, who both attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, trained at the DSC with Chafetz until they both graduated high school in 2005. White attended Roeper School in Birmingham and played violin in a school string quartet. After graduation, White and Davis began training with coach Igor Shpilband in Canton Township. The two won the U.S. Nationals in 2009 and 2010. The White family, including Charlie's half brother and three half sisters, will attend the games in Vancouver. Agosto, 28, is a Chicago native who moved here in 1998 to train with Belbin. He completed his last two years of high school at Birmingham Groves and gradu- Vancouver's 30,000-strong Jewish community will help host the Winter Olynpics. Olympics were introduced, including the idea of a torch relay, according to the cen- ter's executive director, Frieda Miller. "We were very careful not to make a direct link between those Games and the contemporary Games',' Miller said. "It's not a polemic. We do not pass judgment. We present the dilemmas and the situation as is and let people make their own analogies:' The history of Jewish Vancouver dates to 1872, with the arrival of the city's first Jewish settler, Louis Gold. Vancouver's second mayor, David Oppenheimer, was a German-born Jew who generally is con- sidered the city's founding father. The first synagogue was built in 1916. Today there are 12, in addition to six day schools, three Chabad centers and a com- munity kollel, or subsidized religious study program for adults. The local federation has prepared a dos- sier with details of the city's Jewish history to help guide visitors to the Jewish oppor- tunities available in Vancouver. Like the athletes themselves, Vancouver's Jews are experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show- case their city and community to the world. White and Davis hope to wrap up a gold medal. ated in 2000. He played in a school jazz band. Agosto and Belbin trained in Canton until 2008. Agosto works as a skating coach but also dabbles as a voice actor.