Local News
Israeli hockey player Guy Rozin continues to improve his game playing in Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN
Elsewhere on this website you can read where I reported on the success that 17-year-old Michael Akbashev has had in the world of competitive judo (https://jewishpostandnews.ca/features/3111-two-years-ago-he-was-youth-ambassador-for-shalom-square-now-he-s-one-of-the-top-judokas-in-his-age-category-in-all-of-canada.)
Since I had written about Michael last year, it wasn’t all that difficult for me to remember what I had written.
But, when I decided to take a look at another young Israeli-born athlete whose story had been told in our paper, I was surprised to see that I, myself, had written the first story about Guy Rozin – three years ago to be exact, when Guy was 13 and when Guy and his family had just moved to Winnipeg from Israel – all so that Guy could further his hockey playing career.
You see, when I thought of writing about Guy again my first thought was that it was Scott Taylor who had written about Guy for our paper – last year. Then, when I reread Scott’s article, I was surprised to read that Scott was actually following up an article I had written.
In any event, when I contacted Guy on February 11, it was actually the first time I had spoken with him. Previously my contact was through Guy’s parents, Roie and Pnina. Back in 2017 Guy’s English would not have been good enough for me to interview him, and although he’s a typical teenager in that his answers were short – not the sort of long winded answers I’m more used to when interviewing older subjects, he still showed the same self-confidence that both Scott Taylor and I had noted when writing about him previously.
Just to recap – here’s a brief summary how Guy came to be playing hockey in Winnipeg: It was Abe Anhang who played a crucial role in bringing the Rozin family to Winnipeg.
In my 2017 article Abe explained his connection to the Rozin family: “My oldest friend from Winnipeg, Dr. Donald Silverberg (son of the late Jack Silverberg, who was a math teacher at St. Johns and ultimately the principal of JWC) lives in Netanyah. Dr. Donald Silverberg has a son, Monte, who is a lawyer in Israel and Monte Silverberg had a friend (and client) by the name of Roie Rozin. “Pnina (Roie’s wife) and Roie have always been sports people (Roie used to play professional soccer) and their kids are good at various sports – his daughter at gymnastics, their other son at tennis and their son Guy turned out to be an exceptional hockey player
“When I found out that Guy (at age 12) had been the European MVP (most valuable player) for two years in a row (in an in-line hockey tournament), it sort of got my attention. Then, wanting to see whether he could make it in Canada competitively, I suggested that Roie and Guy come to a hockey school, so they came for the summer of 2014. He did well there, so I introduced them and they met with the people at Federation who were extremely helpful! As a result, the Rozins applied for Permanent Residence under the Nominee Program (Pnina is a registered nurse, which was in demand then). They moved here in July of 2016 and got their landing card in January 2017. “Barbara (Anhang) and I sort of adopted them. Their 3 children are at the Gray Academy and have settled very well.”
Guy’s father, Roie, filled in some more of the details about the family’s decision to move to Winnipeg so that then 13-year-old Guy could play hockey here.
I asked Roie what exactly led to the family’s making such a momentous decision – to pack up and leave behind a good life in Israel and make the move to Winnipeg. He explained that it started three years ago, when Guy was participating in an in-line hockey tournament in Europe (one of several European tournaments in which the then 11-year-old Guy had already participated). A coach from another team remarked to Roie that Guy showed exceptional promise as a hockey player. That coach said Guy “has something in his head – he’s very smart, and very fast, and I need to do something with him,” that coach suggested. “Two years ago he started to play ice hockey in Israel. We have only two rinks in Israel,” Roie noted. Roie said, “Everybody who saw him (Guy) said ‘he’s a great player, you must do something’, so we decided to move to Canada – that’s the big reason – to play hockey.” One more note about that story – when Guy arrived here with his family in 2017 he was only 5’ tall, but – he was very fast, something his then-coach, Jeff Sveinson, noted when he remarked: “He’s very small, but he’s very skilled.”
Fast forward to 2019 when I asked Scott Taylor to do a follow-up story about Guy’s progress.
Scott wrote: “I thought it might be hard finding a team and having a place to play, but it wasn’t,” said Guy. “I felt I was good enough.” Guy arrived in Winnipeg and hit the ice flying. He was first taken under the wing of Monarchs’ City Minor Bantam AAA coach Jeff Sveinson and then City Bantams AAA head coach John Fehr. He has now won three straight AAA championships with the Monarchs – Minor Bantam, Bantam and Midget. Last month, he helped the AAA Midget Monarchs beat the Sharks to win the 2019 title. Despite breaking his wrist early in the season, he was a force down the stretch and in the playoffs. He finished the regular season with six goals and 15 points in 16 games. To top off his season, Rozin flew to Bulgaria to help Israel finish 3-1-1 and in second place at the IIHF U-18 Division III World Championship. He scored the winning goal 40 seconds into overtime in a 4-3 win over New Zealand and also scored the eventual winning goal in a big 5-2 win over Mexico. He finished the tournament with three goals and an assist in five games.
Scott also noted that “Guy’s immediate goal is to make the Provincial Midget AAA Wild next season. If not, he’d be fine playing another season with the Monarchs.”
Oh – and one more point: By last year Guy had grown to 5’ 4” – and was still growing.
So, when I caught up with Guy recently, my first question to him was: “How tall are you now?”
“Five six” was the answer. That’s two inches in one year – still not enough to be able to make it a cinch for Guy to move up the ladder of competitive hockey, but at least he’s trending in the right direction.
And – following up on Scott’s observation that Guy was hoping to make the AAA under 17 Wild – he did.
Here’s something else that we had written about in a past issue of the JP&N and which I wanted to ask Guy: “There were three other Israeli boys who had come here to play hockey last summer. Are they all still here?”
“No,” was Guy’s answer. “Only one of them is” – a kid by the name of Ido Shteinberg, who is also 17. Ido is also playing with the Wild, Guy says, and while he’s here he’s living with the Rozin family.
Like last year though – when Guy broke his pinky, had surgery, and missed a good part of the season, this year also saw Guy miss quite a few games due to a broken thumb injury.
“I’ve played only 25 games,” he says, yet he has still scored 11 goals and has had six assists, “and we have four more games in the regular season.”
A Grade 11 student at Gray Academy, Guy is now hoping to make the jump to Junior Hockey. He’ll be attending tryout camps with a number of different teams, he says.
Guy’s greatest asset – as it has been since he first took up roller hockey at a young age in Israel, has always been his speed.
“Are you the fastest player on your team?” I asked him.
“Yup,” was the answer.
So, it came as no surprise that his favourite NHL player is Connor McDavid, who has incredible speed.
“Are you as fast as him?” I asked facetiously.
“No – not even close,” came Guy’s reply.
“You must be faster than at least some of the Jets,” I observed – at least some of those pylons they call defensemen.
“If you don’t make it in Junior, are you still going to be staying in Canada?” I asked him.
“Maybe,” came the answer. “I have no idea. I don’t have any other plans.”
“How are you doing in school?” I asked.
“I’m doing pretty well,” Guy responded.
I told Guy that I recently nominated him for Jewish Athlete of the Year. (I also nominated Michael Akbashev, by the way, since there’s no limit as to how many individuals one person can nominate. It used to be easier to think of names to nominate when Harvey Rosen was writing for us, then Scott Taylor picked up the slack for a while – and will be back with a new column quite soon. However, I sure miss Harvey’s style of writing – especially his use of the phrase “athletes of the Jewish persuasion”.)
At that point in the interview Guy offered something interesting, that came in response to a question I asked whether he had any recent pictures or videos that he might be able to share.
“I have some pictures and videos from Korea,” came Guy’s answer.
“Korea?” I asked.
“Yes, I was there for the world under-20 championships,” he explained. Then I remembered something Scott Taylor had noted in his article last year, when he wrote about Guy’s playing for the Israeli under-20 team in Sophia, Bulgaria last year. Scott mentioned that Israel was being promoted to Division IIB from Division III as a result of its finishing first in Division III in last year’s tournament.
I asked Guy which other teams were in Israel’s division?
He answered: “South Korea, China, Netherlands, and Croatia.” (He forgot about Belgium, which was also in Israel’s division, I found out later.)
“How did you do?” I asked.
“We lost every game,” Guy answered – without hesitation. (Hey, get this kid a tutor in how to answer a reporter’s questions. He should have said: “We gave 100% effort but were just not able to find the net the way we should have.”)
“How did you do personally?” I then asked. “Did you score any goals?”
“Yah, I scored two goals,” came Guy’s reply. “We scored only three goals in total.” (And poor Israel had 50 goals scored against.)
“Oh,” I said (trying to hide the disappointment in my voice). “How many games did you play?”
“Five games”, Guy answered.
“Well, at least it was a learning experience,” I suggested.
I wondered whether the Israel team had any non-Israeli players. I noted that in the World Baseball Championship Israel is allowed to use players from anywhere in the world so long as they’re Jewish.
But, Guy explained, in the world Under-20 hockey tournamenth, also in the regular adult tournament, a player must have lived in the country for which he’s playing for at least two years.
While Guy’s hope is to make it to Junior A hockey next year, if not, he’s content to keep playing under-18 AAA for the Wild – if he can make the team. But, as Scott Taylor noted last year, Guy’s hope was to move up from the Bantam level to the Midget level this past year – which he did, so it would come as no surprise if he took the next step in his progression to Junior – which would be a world away from playing roller hockey in Israel only four short years ago.
Local News
Jewish Child and Family Service helped over 1800 families in 2025
By BERNIE BELLAN Jewish Child and Family Service will be entering the 75th year of its existence in 2027.
With a budget over $4,300,000, JCFS is also the largest beneficiary of funding from the Jewish Federation of the 12 Winnipeg Jewish community agencies that are beneficiaries of the Federation. (To see a list of the 12 agencies go to Funding for Beneficiary Agencies.)
Its impact has grown over the years as JCFS has expanded its horizon, continually adding to the many services it provides. During the JCFS’s Annual General Meeting, held in the Seniors’ Lounge of the Asper Campus on Tuesday evening, June 23, the important role that JCFS plays in the lives of so many members of the Jewish community – also a significant number of non-Jews as well, various speakers cited the many ways in which JCFS has continued to have such a huge impact.
With total revenues of $4,325,160 in fiscal year 2025 (which ended March 31, 2026), but slightly fewer expenses, JCFS not only delivered a wide gamut of services, it managed to deliver those services without incurring a deficit in 2025, despite some significant financial challenges.
As outgoing Board Chair Elana Grinshteyn observed, JCFS had to navigate some major reductions in funding, including a cut in funding from the federal government to the tune of $100,000, plus the loss of funding from the Claims Conference, which had provided support for Holocaust survivors.
Yet, despite those setbacks in funding, Grinshtein reported, “Together, we insured that services remained intact.
“We increased access to interest free loans,” she noted, “doubling” the amount that had been allocated in 2024.
And, amidst the ever-increasing demand for services, “JCFS has continued to navigate space limitations,” Grinshteyn noted. (I should note that as far back as 2019 I reported in an interview I had conducted with JCFS CEO Al Benarroch about the JCFS’s dire need for more space. Here is an excerpt from what Benarroch had to say about the JCFS’s need for more room back in 2019: “…we’ve been looking for roughly 3,000 more square feet of space. We have a footprint right now of roughly 5,000 square feet for over 40 staff. We’ve given up a board room here. It’s been taken over by older adult service staff. We have a conference room which is adjacent to the board room; we’ve moved two staff in there.
“Yesterday I gave up my office for the entire morning so that staff could interview clients.
“We need to relieve the pressure we’re facing right now – yet alone plan for expanding and growing.
“Whatever space we’d be looking at would be temporary. It’s now 22 years that we’ve been in this facility. The campus has taken over squash courts, it’s taken over a museum – internally, to accommodate the growth in services. Maybe it’s time now to look at growing outside this building…”
As the saying goes: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (That’s me, trying to impress.)
While I tried to take notes during Al Benarroch’s CEO report, I realized following his remarks that there was so much important information conveyed, also a slew of statistics, that it might be more helpful to reprint a good portion of what he said verbatim, so I asked Al to send me a copy of his remarks. (That’s one of the nice things about writing on a website. There’s an infinite amount of room to print the kind of stuff that nerds like me pretend to read.)
During his CEO’s report, Benarroch enumerated the many challenges JCFS encountered in 2025.
Among those challenges, Benarroch noted, were:
• The rising and high cost of living
• Food insecurity
• Housing issues
• Our aging population demographics
• The complex needs of our newcomer families
• The increasingly complex needs in mental health & youth mental health
Yet, despite all those challenges, Benarroch said, “As always… we rose to meet those head on, and with the support of our community.”
In particular, Benarroch cited the support of the Jewish Federation, which contributed $948,800 to JCFS in 2025. (The largest portion of JCFS funding, by the way came from the Province: over $1,100,000.)
Fundraising also played a significant role in contributing to JCFS revenues, with almost $700,000 raised through that route, including direct donations of over $320,000 and bequests over $40,000.
As Benarroch noted, “Every year, we look forward with hope that it will be a quiet year.
“Well, if that’s the case, we are in the wrong business.
“We happen to be in the reflect, respond and pivot business.
“This is the nature of the human existence.”
Benarroch went on to add some more statistics about how JCFS played such a pivotal role in the lives of so many people. In 2025 JCFS:
• Served 1,800 client households – impacting almost 5,000 people.
• Assisted 15 foster children.
• Served 70 families in Child Welfare….
“But what is even more important is that we assisted 90 children that remained at home with their families,” Benarroch said.
The year 2025 also saw the inauguration of what is known as the “Asper Empowerment Program”, through which:
• 311 clients were assisted (including Passover Assistance)
• $80,000 was disbursed in financial assistance
• Over $20,000 was given out in interest-free loans.
• 6,500 kg of food were disbursed
In the area of mental health and counselling services, Benarroch noted that JCFS:
• Supported over 50 adults with mental health challenges
• Our Friday Mental Health Wellness Group participants took part in 22 group activities or outings
• We support some 20 individuals and families impacted by addictions through individual and group services.
• We delivered almost 1,100 counselling sessions, over half of which were subsidized on our sliding scale.
• We continued to support individuals, families, and partner Jewish organizations with the ongoing emotional impacts of the war in Israel and high levels of global antisemitism.
In the area of support for older adults, JCFS served over 250 seniors including:
• 70 newcomer seniors
• 50 seniors living with mental health differences
• 65 Holocaust Survivors (including celebrating “25 years of our Holocaust Survivor Drop-in Group, a partnership with the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.”)
In the area of settlement services, JCFS:
• Welcomed almost 80 new families
• Almost 50 families from Israel, seeking reprieve from the ongoing stresses and pressures of the war.
Benarroch noted that “These families are dealing with the deep trauma of displacement, having lived under constant stress, fear and the ensuing post-traumatic impact, family and parenting challenges as a result, emotional exhaustion, financial strain, and more.
“Thanks to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, we hired a trained specialized support worker, with a background in therapy, to help these families cope, adjust, and receive much needed emotional supports.”
Benarroch went on to describe many more initiatives in which JCFS was engaged in 2025, but I want to return to the retirement of Elena Grinshteyn from the Board of JCFS after nine years serving on the Board, including the last two as Chair. Grinshteyn will be succeed by Bradley Abells, who has been on the Board since 2021. In his remarks, Abells noted that he is an actuary at Canada Life and that he first joined the Board when his particular expertise as an actuary proved extremely helpful in helping to solve a problem that had arisen, and he found the experience so rewarding he decided to remain on the Board ever since .
Also on the Board is Michael Schacter, who is returning as Treasurer and who looks the way you’d expect a finance guy to look.
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Local News
Jewish Foundation’s asset base surpasses $200 million for first time
By BERNIE BELLAN The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba continues to show stellar growth – having achieved total assets over $200 million in the 2025 fiscal year (a 7.4% increase from the 2024 fiscal year), also having distributed $8.2 million in grants during the year.
Those were among the highlights reported at the JFM’s Annual General Meeting, held Wednesday evening July 18, in the multipurpose room of the Asper Campus.
JFM CEO John Diamond noted that one of the most successful aspects of the year just past was the launch of what is known as “Fund Match II” which, he explained, is “building on the success of the original FundMatch project introduced in 2012.”
Under the terms of the new Fund Match program 18 initial organizations that created endowments with a combined value of $689,388 at the JFM benefitted from matching funds of $178,000 that were added to those endowments, with an additional four other organizations having joined in the program during the course of the year.
Other highlights (which can all be perused in the JFM’s annual report, available simply by going to the JFM website) include the JFM having “awarded 72 scholarships and academic awards totalling $230,759.”
JFM Board treasurer Bruce Caplan also spoke of some other notable achievements of the JFM in 2025, including a 12.64% return on investments and $4.27 million in new contributions.
The AGM also saw a number of changes to the composition of the board. Most notable among them is the retirement of Dan Blankstein as Board Chair – after having served two two-year terms, to be succeeded by Dafna Shore.
Also, the current longest-serving member of the board, Bonnie Cham, is retiring from the board after having served on it for 13 years, including three terms as Chair.
One other significant retirement announced at the AGM was that of Chief Financial Officer Ian Barnes – who will be retiring in December after 26 years as CFO During his remarks to the audience Barnes noted that “When I arrived at the Foundation, the assets were $29 million.” As noted, that figure has now grown to $200 million.
He also noted that “Since the Foundation was established in 1964, total grants and
distributions are $113.6 million.”
Barnes paid tribute to the three Chief Executive Officers with whom he worked: David Cohen, Marsha Cowan, and John Diamond. With regard to Marsha Cowan, Barnes said that “Marsha taught me about business – and how to dress!” (Barnes will be succeeded as CFO by Lynda Joyal.)
One of the annual customs of the JFM AGM is to thank the JFM staff – and to announce how many years each staff member has served at the JFM. While there are a number of individuals who have been with the JFM for a fairly long time, no one comes close to Patti Boorman, Director of Administration, who has been with the JFM for 37 years.
Among the largest new grants given by the JFM in 2025 were: a grant of $122,000 to the Asper Jewish Community Campus, Gray Academy of Jewish Education and Rady JCC to support the construction of a “new accessible outdoor play structure, ensuring safe, inclusive play for children and families; a grant of $150,000 to the Simkin Centre for the hiring a Volunteer Engagement Specialist – a three-year project to modernize volunteer programs and enhance resident, family, and intergenerational involvement.
Among the leading recipients of distributions from donor-recommend endowment funds – all of which had received grants in the past were:
The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada $149,618
Rady JCC 154,746
Gray Academy 168,535
Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University 163,488
Jewish Child & Family Service 447,471
Simkin Centre 858,654
Asper Campus 431,099
Combined Jewish Appeal 907,688
Jewish Federation of Winnipeg 531,076
Note: A number of the above organizations also received community impact grants – which are one-time grants given for special purposes.
