Jewish Learning Centre

"Judenrein"/author "Harold Benjamin"

“Judenrein”
By “Harold Benjamin”
Self-published in 2020, but available on Amazon in either e-book or hard copy format.
Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN
A while back I received an email from someone named “Harold Benjamin” (which, it turned out, was a pseudonym).
In that email Mr. Benjamin told me that he had written a book titled “Judenrein”.

100-year-old  Rita Chabelski

By MYRON LOVE
On June 20, Rita Chabelski celebrated her 100th birthday. To commemorate the momentous occasion, the members of Faith Temple, a Christian Zionist congregation in Winnipeg led by Pastor Rudy Fidel, raised more than $1,000 from church members to help support Emunah Women Israel’s Maayan Rivka Goldene Age Restaurant in Petach Tikva.

David Shore-OurCrowd/Tomer Nitzan-BDO

By BERNIE BELLAN
With everything that’s been happening in the world this year, one would think that this might not be the best of times to think about investment opportunities in Israel.

As if, “What will they think of next”, the Zomet Institute for Halacha and Technology located in Alon Shvut outside of Jerusalem, has come up with its contribution to keeping our communities safe during the Covid Pandemic: A Shabbat thermometer that can be used to monitor congregants in synagogues.

Amid PandemicSponsored Content

By RENEE GHERT-ZAND  When the COVID-19 pandemic began, 15-year-old Samantha Renzulli immediately thought about how it would affect her elderly friends at Jewish Senior Services, a long-term care facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

2 Torah Study classmates reunite

Sponsored Content

By ERIC BERGER  (JTA) When Sheri Heller’s husband nearly died in 2014 after doctors found that a quarter he had swallowed decades earlier had perforated his small bowel, Heller decided that the episode was a case of God “banging on our door.”

By BERNIE BELLAN
Beginning two months ago, I’ve been reporting on the incredible job that the Gwen Secter Centre has been doing in providing meals for seniors in our Jewish community since the Province imposed a lockdown on March 13.

Myron edited 1By MYRON LOVE

It’s a strange phenomenon: While certain Western media and academics, European leaders and leftist politicians continue to demonize Israel over largely fictional mistreatment of Palestinians, those supposedly oppressed Palestinians and Arab countries as a whole continue to draw ever closer to the Jewish State and its citizens.

Posner art 
Donner family circa 1094

By GERRY POSNER

Many of us who have roots in Canada can trace our origins to Eastern Europe. It does not matter which country our ancestors started from in Europe - the story is the same in one way or another. One venturous soul makes his or her way and gradually, the rest follow, sometimes over a period of years.

Lauren Cogan 
Lauren Cogan

By MYRON LOVE
Like other students who expected to graduate high school anywhere in the world, 2020 Oak Park High School graduate Lauren Cogan was disappointed that there will be no formal graduation ceremonies this year to mark this momentous occasion in one’s life.

/ Shauna Labman (second from right) & family

By MYRON LOVE
In launching her first book, “Crossing Law’s Border: Canada’s Refugee Resettlement Program”, at McNally Robinson earlier this year, Shauna Labman took a somewhat different approach to this particular book launch. Rather than just reading an excerpt from the book, she invited one of her former students and one current student as well as the executive director of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba Inc. (IRCOM) – all of whom came to Canada as refugees - to share their stories.

Laurence Wall

CBC Radio newscaster Laurence Wall is the honoree of the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW) 2020 Spring Tea in Ottawa. The tea, which was originally scheduled for Sunday, June 7, became a “phantom tea” because the COVID-19 pandemic prevents individuals from gathering together in lage groups.

SZ cemeteryAs a result of much higher costs than normal due to new regulations imposed upon cemeteries by provincial regulations, the Shaarey Zedek board has informed members and others who had Perpetual Care agreements with the synagogue that flowers will not be planted by the synagogue this year at the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery.

Cilkas Journey
cover of "Cilka's Journey/Cilka (1957 photo)

Cilka’s Journey”
by Heather Morris
(St. Martin’s Press 343 pg.)
Reviewed by MARTIN ZEILIG
Right at the beginning of “Cilka’s Journey”, author Heather Morris states that the novel “weaves together facts and reportage with the experiences of women survivors” of the Holocaust and the experiences of women sent to the Soviet Gulag system at the end of the Second World War.

seniors coronavirusBy HARRIS GULKO
The coronavirus causing COVID-19 was confirmed to have reached Canada on January 27, 2020, after an individual who had returned to Toronto from Wuhan, Hubei, China, tested positive. Because seniors are so vulnerable to COVID-19, health officials have asked people 70 years of age and over to self-isolate at home. But, after three months at home, most want to go out into the world again. It is discouraging for seniors to see people of other ages resume activities. They feel excluded. Still, they want to be safe.

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