Shulamit Krakauer, 54 Slocan, B.C., since 2022
S usan is the name on my birth certifi- cate, but I never really liked it. I was on a Buddhist retreat in my late 30s when a teacher said, “You don’t look like a Su- san. It’s not the right name for you. Do you have another name?” I told him that I had this Hebrew name that I had never gone by, even when I lived in Israel. He thought I should try it. Weeks later, at a yoga retreat, I realized there were four other Susans; it seemed like a good time to try something different. Shu- lamit felt like a bit of an outdated name, but
The first full-time job I got offered as a vet was in 1997 at the most Jewish intersection of Toronto, Ont.: Bathurst Street and Law- rence Avenue. I was all set to move back when the job fell through and I ended up go- ing out to Grand Forks, B.C., to fill a mater-
forest and mountains and lake. We’re slowly finding that there are Jews out here and a lovely, albeit small, Jewish com- munity in Nelson, B.C., which we joined for a Yom Kippur service on the beach of Koo- tenay Lake.
nity leave. After a sum- mer being the sole vet in a small town, I decided to move to Vancouver, B.C., to work in a busy emergency clinic. Al- though I hadn’t planned
my Israeli cousin suggested that I go by Shuli. For the last 17 years, that’s the name that everyone has known me by—I don’t even respond when I hear someone call out my previous name. I spent my childhood in Etobicoke, Ont.; we were one of two Jewish families in the neighbourhood. I remember leaving class to sit in the li- brary, along with my siblings and the kids from that other family, when the class recit- ed the Lord’s Prayer, talked about the Bible, and drew pictures of Jesus. My mother
It’s been a theme of my life to want to fit in and at the same time to be a bit different.
made sure we had a strong sense of Jew- ish identity, keeping us involved in the local Reform synagogue and sending us to Zionist summer camps. We’d often spend Jewish holidays with my grandparents in Hamilton, Ont., and we all had our bar and bat mitz- vahs at the Solel Congregation in Missis- sauga, Ont. It’s been a theme of my life to want to fit in and at the same time to be a bit different. When I had friends going to the Hebrew Uni- versity of Jerusalem for a year, I decided to go to Tel Aviv University instead. I ended up living on a kibbutz for the next few years, making aliyah, and doing my army service. Eventual- ly, I came back to study and enter veterinary school at the University of Guelph.
to make a move to the West Coast, I ended up loving the lifestyle and stayed out west, pursu- ing my interest in holistic modalities to treat ani- mals. Still, for years, I toyed
with the idea of moving outside of the city to be closer to nature, and to have more space to do things like garden and have more ani- mals. In 2022, my daughter and I found a home in Slocan, B.C.—I was attracted to the beauty of the valley. After we arrived, I real- ized that, when my daughter said she want- ed a horse, we could actually have a horse! Life is a bit different here, surrounded by
Now my big goal is to arrange a bat mitz- vah for Esther. We’ll do it when she’s 13, so we have a few years to figure out what to prepare and how we’re going to hold a ceremony. I feel like the coming-of-age piece is really important, as well as her ongoing connection to the community. Maybe we can plan another trip to visit our family in Israel. n
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