Characterco
Fair Service

Improvements to Camp Massad
made over the past 2 summers
include: new siding on all cabins
and a new basketball court

By BERNIE BELLAN Just as BB Camp had a plan in the works that allowed families to make use of the camp, Massad also had something similar in the works – with families being able to rent cabins.
While Camp Massad had to cancel all its June bookings, it was still able to take bookings in July for rentals.
Nevertheless, the families that were able to come out to Massad had a fantastic experience, Massad Executive Director Danial Sprintz noted. “We even encouraged families to bring their dogs with them,” he said.

 

Kayla Gordon

By MYRON LOVE Kayla Gordon may have taken her last curtain call as the artistic director of Winnipeg Studio Theatre – which she founded 15 years ago – but that doesn’t mean that she is leaving the Winnipeg theatrical scene any time soon.

Becky Chisick
Gwen Secter Executive Director

By BERNIE BELLAN Ever since the Covid pandemic took hold in Manitoba I’ve been chronicling the amazing efforts emanating from the Gwen Secter Centre to provide services not only to seniors but to many other individuals in need.

Jewish Foundation logo2By BERNIE BELLAN Elsewhere on this website (http://www.jewishpostandnews.ca/local/855-jewish-foundation-distributed-over-5-000-000-in-2020) we reported on the very successful year that the Jewish Foundation had in its 2020 fiscal year, both in terms of new contributions ($3,384,493) and in the growth of the total assets of the Foundation (to $148,075,775, compared with $137,039,046 in 2019).

Rochelle Kives

By MYRON LOVE After ten years – literally – at sea, it should come as no surprise that Winnipeg-based cruise ship entertainer Rochelle Kives is missing the life aquatic.
“I love to travel and working on cruise ships has been part of my life for so many years,” she notes.

Cover of "The Codebreaker"
with Dr. Jennifer Doudna
right: author Walter Isaacson

By MARTIN ZEILIG During the recent rebroadcast of an interview on CBC Radio’s science show, Quirks & Quarks, Dr. Jennifer Doudna told how it “was a real shock” when she received an early morning telephone call notifying her of having been co-awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
She’s a humble person. But, she shouldn’t have been so surprised.

left: author Herschy Katz
cover of "The Ninth Terrorist"

By BERNIE BELLAN In 2019 I wrote a review of a book titled “The Clarinetist”. It had been sent to me by an expatriate Canadian who had moved to Israel in 1984 by the name of Herschel Katz.
As I noted in that review, the book was quite good for a first-time author. In it we were introduced to a young Montreal high school student by the name of Danny Kahn who ends up enmeshed in an intriguing situation having to do with the Montreal father of his girlfriend.

the co-owners of
CHARACTER CO. in Tuxedo

By BERNIE BELLAN In the 1920s some rich supporters of the Republican Party in the U.S. gained notoriety by running an ad claiming that under the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover there was “a chicken in every pot”. Now that there’s an election on in Canada – I wonder if there's any politician around who would have the courage to promise “a little pot in every chicken” - which was an expression once ascribed to Pierre Trudeau.

Twitter photoBy MARTIN ZEILIG When asked why he decided to write this entertaining and insightful book comedian/director/writer/producer/actor David Steinberg provides a concise and reasonable response.
“Money,” Steinberg said in an email response to a series of questions sent to him by this reporter.

He seems to be following, at least in part, the wise words of Samuel Johnson (Dr. Johnson) the 18th century English writer, moralist, critic, editor and lexicographer who famously said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”

Candice Tennebein with
husband Marshall and sons
Jacob (left) and Ethan

By MYRON LOVE With incidents of Anti-Semitism growing worldwide, Candice Tenenbein is exhorting fellow Jewish Winnipeggers – and non-Jewish supporters – to step up their efforts to combat this unhinged scourge of Jew and Israel hatred.
“Antisemitism is the most virulent and oldest form of hate, and today often appears as anti-Zionism,” she says.

Jackie Simkin

By GERRY POSNER Many readers will recognize the name Simkin - well known in Winnipeg and beyond. It was not always thus, but from a small beginning, both the family and the business grew and grew. The Simkin story - and the original family business, BACM, reflect four brothers sharing the load initially, then ultimately selling the business. Much of that story has been written about in previous publications. But the generation that followed the four Simkin brothers continued the Simkin legacy in many ways.

Rob Berkowits

By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been 17 months since most Rady JCC members have actually set foot in what had become the centre of Jewish life in Winnipeg. From time to time we’ve written about how Rady JCC Executive Director Rob Berkowits has been forced to pivot, then pivot again and again, as first, stringent lockdown measures were imposed in March 2020, then eased in June 2020, then reimposed again in the fall, and only recently eased again in July.

Tamar Barr

By BERNIE BELLAN In a message emailed to Rady JCC members on July 16, recipients of the email were informed that long time Rady JCC Program Director and, more recently, Assistant Executive Director Tamar Barr had left the Rady JCC.
Tamar’s departure actually occurred in October 2020 when she was laid off from her position as a result of financial pressures imposed upon the centre by Covid and the drastic scaling back of programs.

Bernie 2021By BERNIE BELLAN Every few years within the past few years it seems, a Jewish organization in Winnipeg terminates the employment of some senior executive within that organization – always without explanation.
In 2015, it was the dismissal of the CEO of the Jewish Federation after less than a year on the job that caused a bit of a stir within our community – although to be honest, not much of one. Then, in 2018 it was the dismissal of the newly hired CEO of the Jewish Foundation that occurred - again, without any explanation.

Jim Carr

By BERNIE BELLAN On July 23 I spoke with Jim Carr, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre and Minister without Portfolio in the Federal Cabinet (also special representative to the prairies). I began our conversation with an explanation why I was asking to speak with Minister Carr at this particular moment:
“There are two different angles to me wanting to interview you, Jim. One is Canada’s position re Israel and the Palestinians. The other is the summit on anti-Semitism.

A small bell-shaped bomb shelter
costs approximately $18,000 USD,
while steel shelters start
around $27,000 per shelter

Taylor Polstra is a young woman who spent a couple of years in Israel working for an organization known as International Christiam Embassy Jerusalem. While there, Taylor witnessed firsthand the duress under which Israelis live, never knowing when they might be under siege from rockets fired from Gaza – or, as has been the case in recent days, Lebanon.

Orit Shimoni (left)
"Live from the Lot"
concert organizer Karla Berbrayer

By BERNIE BELLAN After going a year and a half in Winnipeg without any live entertainment to speak of - beyond the occasional street concerts that seemed to spring up impromptu from time to time, it was welcome news to read that the Gwen Secter Centre was going to be playing host to a series of weekly concerts every Wednesday through August 25th.

CounselorBy SIMONE COHEN SCOTT Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba August 2nd, 2021 Winnipeg Beach Day Camp has come a long way. Around 1953 I was a counselor there, and if memory serves me, it had been founded only a year or two earlier.

l-r: Jack, Luke, Quinn Hughes

By EVELYN FRICK July 26, 2021 (JTA) — Talk about goals: Luke Hughes has become the third brother in his hockey-playing Jewish family to be drafted in the first round of the NHL Draft. The New Jersey Devils picked the 17-year-old defenseman fourth overall in Friday’s selections, making the Hughes brothers of Orlando, Florida, the first American family to have three siblings drafted in the National Hockey League’s first round.

jewishmedalists 1536x853Among the Jewish athletes to win medals in Tokyo are, left to right, Avishag Semberg (Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty), Jessica Fox and Lilia Akhaimova. (Semberg photo: Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty; Fox photo: Patrick Smith/Getty; Akhaimova photo: Jamie Squire/Getty)

By EMILY BURACK July 29, 2021 (JTA) — The Jewish highlights of the Tokyo Olympics kicked off with Jewish basketball superstar Sue Bird serving as one of Team USA’s two flag bearers at the opening ceremony, a huge honor.

Nancys Nightingales edited 1By MYRON LOVE The 14th annual Cancercare Manitoba Foundation Challenge for Life 20KM walk (or 200-minute workout) is back again at its new time – as a result of Covid 19 – with several members of our Jewish community once more playing an active role.
As with last year, participants this year are walking in small groups covering the same distance over two weeks from August 5-17.

By BERNIE BELLAN It began with an emailed message sent out by Jewish Federation CEO Elaine Goldstine to members of the community on July 13.
In her message, Goldstine informed recipients that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba had issued a draft proposal that, if accepted, would prevent any circumcisions from being performed anywhere other than in a “medical clinic”.

At the groundbreaking for the Taylor Lee,
July 8, l-r: Eric, Robin and Jonathan Lee,
sons of the late Rob Lee, founder of PreCon
Builders; Leslie Lee (Rob Lee's wife);
Sandy, Robert & Diane Shindleman

By BERNIE BELLAN In 2020 Shindico broke ground on the first major apartment complex that company has undertaken in Winnipeg: Taylor Claire (named for Sandy and Robert Shindleman’s late mother), at 1120 Taylor Avenue.
With construction slated to be complete by the summer of 2022, leasing has been moving ahead at a steady pace with over 50 units already reserved.

clockwise from top left:
Interviewer Senator Linda Frum;
Shira Haas; Aaron Migie,
co-Chair, Manitoba CABGU;
Daniel Chamovitz, President, BGU

By BERNIE BELLAN Shira Haas may be only 26 years old, but she has already become one of Israel’s best known actors, having starred as an Orthodox Jew in both “Shtisel” and “Unorthodox”. (In real life Shira is not Orthodox, by the way.)
On Wednesday, July 7th, Canadian Associates of Ben Gurion University presented a cross-Canada online event promoting brain research at Ben Gurion University, during which Senator Linda Frum, who was in Toronto, took a leaf from her late mother, Barbara Frum’s playbook, and interviewed Shira Haas, who was in Tel Aviv, in what turned out to be an enjoyable and quite interesting 40 minutes back and forth.

left: Haskel & Tina Greenfield at a dig
in Israel a few years back
right: skeleton of a donkey
uncovered during the dig

By MYRON LOVE There is a Biblical story doubtless known to regular shul goers in which an ass talks. For those readers who are not familiar with it, the story can be found in Numbers 23-35 in the Torah.

Anita Jacobson

By GERRY POSNER Flexibility is an important quality as chiropractor Martin Gurvey (about whom you can read at http://www.jewishpostandnews.ca/8-features/836-martin-gurvey-a-very-flexible-guy) has demonstrated, but then in another related way, so has Anita Jacobson. You might say that Anita is to Occupational Therapy as Martin is to Chiropractry.

left: Rheesa Schachter (centre) with
daughters Taylor (left) & Jessica
right: dancers from Kids Etc.

By MYRON LOVE In more ways than one, for Rheesa Schachter, Kids Etc. Youth Movement Company is a family affair. Her daughters, Taylor and Jessica Smith, whom she describes as her two best friends, have been an integral part of Kids Etc. since they were teenagers - both as students and, later, as teachers – and, since 2017, have been her partners in the business.

Long time hockey guru Sherry Bassin
who was involved with his
own escapade in the Soviet Union

By BERNIE BELLAN A while back I was sent a link by reader Morley Bernstein to a very interesting story that happened to be on the CBC website. The story was about longtime hockey guru Sherry Bassin, who has spent a good part of his life managing hockey teams at various levels.
This particular story had to do with an episode in Bassin’s life that happened in 1983, when he was the assistant coach and general manager of Canada’s national junior team.

Board edited 1By BERNIE BELLAN Jewish Child & Family Service took on 66 new older adult cases during its 2020 fiscal year (which ended March 31, 2021). That compares with a usual average of 15 new cases a year.
The increase in caseload was a direct result of Covid, reported Al Benarroch, Executive Director of JCFS, during the Annual General Meeting of JCFS on June 24.

Rabbi Matthew Leibl

By BERNIE BELLAN Two ongoing stories have certainly led to a fair bit of conjecture within Winnipeg’s Jewish community as to whether there’s more to both stories than we’ve been told. The first has to do with Rabbi Matthew Leibl’s leaving his position as one of the two rabbis at the Shaarey Zedek.

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