Features
Yvonne Singer, a Toronto artist who was saved by Wallenberg as an infant, is still on a voyage of self-discovery
By RON CSILLAG
As an artist herself, Yvonne Singer can well appreciate the esthetic merits of the open-air monument to Swedish Second World War hero Raoul Wallenberg that was unveiled over the summer at Churchill Park in Hamilton, Ont.
Though she had not, as of this writing, personally viewed the installation, dubbed “Be:longings,” Singer spoke admiringly of the 10 bronze-cast suitcases dispersed along a gravel path adjacent to the Hamilton aviary. She knows Simon Frank, one of the project’s three creators, and is aware that suitcases have been a potent symbol of the Holocaust.
“I like the fact that the suitcases are scattered,” Singer, a well-established visual artist and teacher in Toronto, said in an interview over lemon tea in her sun-drenched kitchen. “I think the imagery and symbolism are very effective in conveying the idea of displacement and emigration.” The old-timey valises evoke not just Wallenberg, Singer noted, but all victims and survivors of that terror-stricken era.
The outdoor project is also “minimal, which I like. I don’t like public sculptures that scream at you or are clichéd.”
Singer connects to the installation on a whole other level. The 78-year-old resident of Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood is Wallenberg’s goddaughter. She was born on his bed.
It’s a Hollywood-worthy tale that evolved over time, in a series of eye-popping twists, turns and coincidences—all amid Singer’s own personal voyage of self-discovery.
The backstory is its own blockbuster: The non-Jewish scion of a wealthy Swedish industrial and banking family, Wallenberg, then just 32, was recruited by the U.S. War Refugee Board and dispatched to Budapest to assist and rescue as many Jews in the Nazi-occupied Hungarian capital as possible. He arrived in July 1944, just as the Nazis had shipped some 440,000 Jews from the countryside to Auschwitz. They now set their sights on the Jews of Budapest.
Accorded diplomatic status, Wallenberg famously set off on a frenetic pace. He designed, printed and distributed thousands of the famous “Schutzpass”—an official-looking document that placed the holder under the protection of the neutral Swedish Crown. He also scoured the city for buildings to rent, finding 32, and crammed in as many souls as possible. The “safe houses” flew the yellow-and-blue Swedish flag and were declared protected by diplomatic immunity.
Known for his bluster and bravado, his greatest coup came when he persuaded Nazi commanders to call off the liquidation of Budapest’s Jewish ghetto, with its 70,000 inhabitants. The number of Jews Wallenberg is said to have rescued peaks at 100,000. In any event, he is credited with saving more Jewish lives during the war than any single government.
By January 1945, the Red Army was laying siege to Budapest, and Wallenberg was taken into custody, supposedly on suspicion of being a U.S. spy. He promptly vanished into the gulag. A Soviet report in 1956 stated he had died in July 1947 of a heart attack in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison, but supposed eyewitness sightings and stories of contact with him from former inmates continued well into the 1970s.
In 2012, the diaries of a former head of the KGB, discovered in the walls of his Moscow home, stated there was “no doubt” that Wallenberg was “liquidated” in 1947.
But back to Singer.
On the night of Nov. 3, 1944, a desperate Tibor Vandor, who worked for Wallenberg as a courier and liaison to the underground, needed help for his wife, Agnes. She was in labour and had been turned away from Budapest’s hospitals, which barred Jews. Wallenberg allowed the couple to use his own room, while he slept in the corridor.
The next morning, he was called in to see a newborn girl. Asked by the grateful parents to name her, Wallenberg chose Nina Maria Ava (Nina was his half-sister’s name, Maria his mother’s). The couple changed the first name to Yvonne, and Wallenberg agreed to be the child’s godfather.
Singer knew nothing of this until she was 34 years old.
It was October 1979 when she read an article, reprinted from a U.S. newspaper, in the Toronto Star about Wallenberg’s plight. The story included a reference to Singer’s unusual birth taken from a Hungarian book on the Swedish hero written after the war. The baby with the Toronto connection, the parents, the godfather—were all there, mentioned by name.
When she read the piece, “I burst out crying,” she told the Star after contacting the paper. Her story spilled forth a week later in a large Saturday Star article headlined “Swedish hero saved my life: Metro woman.”
Singer is still struck by “the incredible coincidence of it all. Here I am in Toronto in 1979, reading the paper… it boggles the mind. I could have easily gone through life not knowing the story. Suddenly, I had a connection to this man, who sounds like he was fascinating.”
Her parents had not told her the story. And there was another missing piece of the puzzle: their Jewishness.
At war’s end, the Vandors went to Switzerland and Holland before settling in Montreal in 1949, where the parents shed their Jewish identities, doubtless seeking to forget. Tibor Vandor even became an elder in the United Church.
“I always pressed them for more information, and they always refused,” even following the revelations in the Toronto Star, Singer recalled. “They told me very, very little.” Her parents never revealed being Jews. Their silence encompassed “anything to do with the war. They were just not forthcoming.”
Singer graduated from McGill University and went on to teach English and French at local high schools. She converted to Judaism to marry her husband, Ron Singer, a theatre director and educator, in 1966. A few years later, a cousin in England recalled being a flower-girl at Yvonne’s parents’ wedding, which she said took place in a synagogue. The parents denied it but their daughter believed it.
Singer’s feelings of alienation as an immigrant child would evaporate on discovering that she had been born Jewish, whether the knowledge came from a cousin or the Toronto Star. “I felt like I’d come home, part of a history that goes back thousands of years. I no longer felt rootless.”
The Singers moved to Toronto in 1971, where Yvonne later began a prolific art career in various media and teaching visual arts at York University. Raising three daughters and a busy life meant there was little time to get involved in the Wallenberg file (though she was pleased when he became Canada’s first Honorary Citizen in 1985 and when Canada Post issued a stamp commemorating Wallenberg a decade ago).
It’s little surprise that Singer’s art has explored themes of identity, history and memory. The outsider status she felt in her early life “is what made me think about ways of expressing that, either through language or visual imagery. So you go to what you know when you’re an artist.”
In 2016, the Swedish government declared Wallenberg officially dead, but to Singer, that offered no finality. “From what I learned, the Swedish government is not exempt from blame for trying to get Wallenberg out. I cannot reconcile the fact that [Wallenberg’s family] could not exert any kind of leverage over the Russians to find out what happened to him.”
In Judaism, being a godparent carries little or no religious obligation. Singer considers the godfather connection to Wallenberg an honour, “but I’m also very sad that I never met him. I think he would have been a fascinating person to talk to. The story is just very, very tragic.”
The grandmother of nine sighed. Over the decades, the story for her was obviously very personal, “and I was still processing it. Maybe I’m still processing it, for a long, long time.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the Hamilton Jewish News. It is reprinted with the author’s permission.
Features
The Types Of Gaming That Are Popular Across North America
Gaming in North America covers almost every style imaginable. Consoles remain a huge part of the culture that changes all the time. Older gaming hobbies like board games still fill living rooms and hobby stores.
People can always find a way to play that suits their interests and preferences. That could be online or offline.
That variety is part of what makes the region so interesting from a gaming point of view. There is no single dominant style. A lot of people prefer quick mobile games that they can play on the go. There are also superfans that sink hundreds of hours into console adventures. It isn’t all about high tech; plenty still enjoy games that have been around for generations.
The common theme is choice. North American players now have more ways to play than ever before.
Classic Casino Games Have Found New Life Online
Casino games have been popular across North America for a long time. The way they are played has changed dramatically in recent decades and brought them to new audiences.
Traditional games such as blackjack and roulette are still easy to recognize. The rules remain familiar to a lot of the population. The technology surrounding them has moved forward at a breakneck speed.
Roulette shows this change. The experience once meant gathering around a physical wheel and watching the ball bounce between the numbered pockets. That same basic format now works online in several different ways.
Digital roulette recreates the wheel through software. Live dealer versions stream a real wheel from a studio using high-definition cameras. Players can follow the action on a laptop or smartphone without losing the simple appeal that made roulette popular in the first place. People who want to play roulette varieties online even have a lot of choice for how they do so.
Slot games have changed even more.
Modern online versions can include detailed animations and new mechanics that would be difficult to reproduce on an old mechanical machine. Newer styles such as crash games have also grown alongside more traditional casino titles.
Casino gaming has essentially become another branch of digital entertainment. People have so much choice that they may turn to ‘games of the week’ as recommendations for a new game to try out.
Please embed the link:
Board Games Are Still Going Strong
Board games remain extremely popular across North America. There are even festivals in the area celebrating the choice in board games.
Part of their appeal is social.
A board game creates a reason for people to gather around the same table for competition. They usually debate at least one rule before the night is over!
Classic games still have huge audiences. Chess and Monopoly are instantly familiar. The modern board game scene has become much broader.
Games such as Ticket to Ride and Wingspan helped introduce more people to strategy-heavy tabletop games without making them feel impossible to learn.
Hobby gaming has also become a culture of its own.
Dedicated stores host game nights and board game cafes have turned tabletop gaming into an evening out rather than something that only happens at home.
In an age of screens, cardboard is doing surprisingly well.
Console Gaming Remains A Giant
Console gaming is still one of the biggest parts of North American entertainment.
Living-room consoles have become far more than machines for playing one game at a time. They now act as entertainment hubs for multiplayer gaming and detailed worlds.
Sports games remain popular. Action games and open-world adventure games also draw huge numbers of players.
The appeal is easy to understand.
Console gaming offers impressive graphics and deep experiences without requiring the same level of setup that can come with a gaming PC.
Controllers have evolved too. They have added better feedback and more precise inputs. Online multiplayer has become standard and easier for most players.
PC Gaming Has Its Own Massive Audience
PC gaming occupies a slightly different space. It tends to attract players who like flexibility.
Hardware can be upgraded over time. Digital stores offer enormous libraries ranging from blockbuster releases to tiny experimental projects made by one person.
Strategy games and simulation titles have especially strong roots on PC.
MMORPGs also remain closely linked to the platform. Large communities spend years inside these imagined online worlds.
Competitive gaming has helped keep PC gaming at the center of esports too.
Genres such as tactical shooters and real-time strategy games continue to attract players who enjoy fast competition and highly skill-based play.
Social And Multiplayer Games Keep Growing
You might assume that the online world is isolating gamers. But it is actually fair to say that gaming has become much more social over the last decade in many ways.
People increasingly play with friends who may live hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Cross-platform technology has helped with being able to connect players reliably.
A group no longer always needs identical hardware to play the same title together. Console and PC communities can sometimes mix. Voice chat keeps everyone connected during a session.
The conversation happening during the game becomes just as important as the game itself.
There is no single type of gaming that defines North America. A serious mix is probably the clearest trend of all.
Gaming has stopped being tied to one device or even one kind of player. It now covers everything from a quick game on a smartphone to an all-night board game session or a huge online adventure with friends.
Features
New Opportunities for XRP in the Trump Era: How XRP Holders Can Earn $7,899 Daily in Passive Income Through FTMINING Cloud Mining in 2026
If you’ve always believed that XRP can only be held long-term and wait for its value to appreciate, then FTMINING cloud mining might bring a completely new way to utilize this asset. Today, there is no need to purchase expensive mining machines or master complex mining techniques. You can quickly participate in digital asset mining through cloud computing platforms, giving idle XRP more application value. FTMINING’s cloud mining service, with its convenient operation process, 24/7 computing power service and flexible product solutions, has attracted the attention of many digital asset users, providing a new option for XRP holders who want to obtain continuous mining rewards. The launched cloud computing service supports the participation of various mainstream digital assets such as XRP, helping users to access the digital asset ecosystem in a more convenient way. Users can generate a passive income of up to $7,899 per day.
From holding assets to participating in cloud mining
Traditional mining often requires a significant investment in specialized mining equipment, along with costs for electricity, site access, and maintenance. For ordinary investors, this model presents a high technical and financial barrier to entry. FTMINING adopts a cloud computing power model, which centralizes the operation of mining farms, equipment management, computing power allocation and maintenance, etc., and allows users to choose different cloud computing power products according to their own needs and complete the participation process online, reducing the complexity of operation while still being able to participate.
Features of FTMINING:
● Zero-barrier entry: No need to purchase mining rigs or build a mining farm; even beginners can easily get started.
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● Flexible asset management: Profits can be withdrawn or reinvested at any time, supporting multiple mainstream cryptocurrencies.
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FTMINING: Safe, Transparent, and Trustworthy Investment
FTMINING was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in the UK. It is an innovative platform focusing on digital asset management and cloud computing services. Its operations comply with the regulatory frameworks of the UK and EU. The platform follows the principles of compliance, security and transparency, and is regularly subject to financial and security audits by third-party agencies.
At the technical level, the platform adopts multiple security mechanisms, including bank-level firewalls, cloud security certification, multi-signature cold wallets and asset isolation systems, to provide multi-layer protection for user funds.
Its security infrastructure includes:
●Platform operations comply with the European MiCA and MiFID II regulatory frameworks
● Annual financial and security audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
● Digital asset custody insurance provided by Lloyd’s of London
How to participate in FTMINING
Step 1: Register an Account
Visit the official FT MINING website: https://ftmining.com
Create an account by entering your email address and password. Receive a $15 sign-up bonus and a $0.75 daily login bonus.
Step 2: Deposit Cryptocurrency Assets
The platform supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies—including BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT, USDC, XRP, SOL, DOGE, and BCH—eliminating the need for cumbersome currency conversions and making deposits and withdrawals convenient.
Step 3: Select and Purchase a Mining Contract
FT MINING offers various contracts to suit different budgets and goals. Whether you are seeking short-term gains or long-term returns, FT MINING has the right option for you:
Examples of popular contracts:
Starter Contract: $100 — 2-day term — Total profit approx. $108
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Premium Contract: $25,000 — 30-day term — Total profit approx. $39,250
(Please visit the official website for more contract details.)
Contracts take effect immediately upon purchase, with earnings settled daily.
Real User Feedback
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Thomas, an XRP investor from New York:
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Industry Perspectives
Industry observers point out that the attention FTMINING cloud mining model has garnered reflects investors’ growing demand for “stable returns” and “automated asset management.” With the continuous improvement of compliance, security and automation technologies, the FTMINING cloud mining model provides cryptocurrency holders with a new asset management approach and makes “passive income” a realistic and feasible goal.
Conclusion
XRP holders are entering a new phase of digital asset application, moving from simply holding assets to participating in the blockchain ecosystem. FTMINING cloud mining provides users with a more convenient path to explore value. With the help of cloud computing power, users can participate in mining services without purchasing professional mining machines or undertaking complex operation and maintenance processes, allowing idle XRP to play a greater role. With the continuous development of blockchain technology, cloud mining is becoming an increasingly important focus for digital asset users, enabling XRP holders to manage their assets more flexibly and efficiently, and helping them explore new opportunities in the digital economy era.
If you wish to explore more revenue opportunities while holding XRP, the FTMINING cloud mining model is worth further understanding and attention.
Official Website: https://ftmining.com
app: https://ftmining.com
Customer Support Email: info@ftmining.com
Features
Musings from Dizengoff Street – by Bruce Brown (updated on a regular basis)
(August 11, 2026) Bravo Boy George. We certainly will dance again! And what better way than with his new reggae tune. Now Boy George is dealing with a hostile backlash against his just stand for Israel. Having to withdraw from London’s East End production of Jesus Christ Superstar where he was going to play – guess it. King Herod. Never a big Culture Club fan, but I am anyway -as a sign of support- going to download his greatest hits to my Spotify library. And hoping to have a chance to buy a concert ticket should Boy George perform in Israel. Kind of reminds me of Bob Dylan’s 1983 song Neighborhood Bully. Also in defense of Israel. I’m going to download that song as well. Although don’t think he was hounded the way Boy George is now. Sign of the times I guess.
+++++
Coming clean. I sometimes find myself chanting, to no one in particular, that snappy little ditty ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ Now why can’t we come up with something as catchy. With such an impressive gene pool of great Jewish songwriters. George Gershwin. Irving Berlin. Burt Bacharach. Carole King. Neil Diamond. Leanard Choen. Paul Simon. Gene Simmons, Amy Winehouse. Bob Dylan. And yes, even the Buddhist Boy George. And still… gurnish! No wonder we’re losing the global PR battle
(August 8, 2026) Outside Basimta Café in Central Jerusalem. Love the red shirt against a tiny sea of black. Not sure I am shrugging because of the ultra-orthodox uproar over a Jerusalem café operating on Shabbat or the lack of an ultra-orthodox uproar over a Jerusalem café operating on Shabbat. For the last six weeks Israeli headlines shouted about the cafe chaos. With the ultra-religious blocking entrances and storming the café. While shouting ‘Shabbos! Shabbos!’ Upsetting the secular amongst us just wanting to enjoy our Saturday iced matchas. So the wife and I thought we would check it out. And. Yes. Buy something to support the business. Uproar. Not. Blocked entrances. Not. Storming the café. Not. Albeit there were police barriers separating the devout protesters from the coffee drinkers. The protesters being just a few dozen black clad, pious Jews. Mostly teenagers. And yes. Shouting ‘Shabbos! Shabbos!’ Certainly underwhelming in its reported mayhem. Reminds me of the famous saying misattributed to Mark Twain – “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do, you’re misinformed.” But I did enjoy my iced matcha.
(August 6, 2026) Here we go again. Another round of forever negotiations. As someone who negotiates for a living. The way things are going in the straits. If I had to recommend a book on the subject to a new hire. Between The Art of the Deal, A Presidential Edition by Donald J. Trump or The Real Art of the Deal by the Mullahs of Iran with a special forward by the IRGC. Well. I would choose the latter.
(August 3) Bravo Yoav Segalovitz, Liberal Yesh Atid MK and Monsour Abbas, United Arab Ra’am MK and party head. For breaking a glass ceiling where a Jewish lawmaker joins an Arab political party. No less a political earthquake in my little shtetl. Which can significantly impact coalition block arithmetic and posturing and strategy in the upcoming elections. Now Ra’am can be considered a legitimate ‘Zionist’ partner when forming coalition blocks and potentially pushing the ‘center left/right’ party over the 60 seat majority threshold. In our crazy parliamentary democracy defined by a multi-party (about fourteen!!), proportional representation system. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Israel’s proportional representation model of governance is the best parliamentary democracy system except for all other forms of working democracies. Stay tuned for more amateurish political musings as we move towards Israel’s 26th national election – five of them held since 2019.
(August 1) Although both sides say they are open to diplomacy. Neither really trusts the other. And American military action, or its threat, continues. I read headlines in the middle of the night -it’s a nervous habit lately– that the Dynamic Duo of Trump and Netanyahu may again strike in unison. Possibly this weekend. Yikes! Prompting me, at 2:30 AM, to dash around the house stocking my safe room. Bottled water. Canned food. Medicines. Documents. The beat goes on….
If it’s crazy here. It’s insane in Italy. With a recent online ‘Jew Hunt’ in the Milan area. Before being removed, the digital forms urged reportings of Israelis and Italian Jews staying in local hotels. The infamous Global Sumud Movement -yes, the one coordinating ‘peace and humanitarian’ flotillas to Gaza- was somehow connected. Although they deny involvement?! This deranged decree was looking to identify Zionist tourism and Zionist neo-colonization in Italy. I’ll stick with stocking the saferoom.
Then there’s New York Mayor Mamdani, a Global Sumud Movement supporter, threatening to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu if he comes to New York. But since discovered he has no legal right for such a grandstanding, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-democratic antic. Maybe Mandami should be arrested! Or at least impeached. For being a grandstanding, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-democratic mayor.
Here’s a post Bruce sent us Friday, July 31:
WARTIME MUSINGS
Should credible threats against FLOTUS and ‘FSOTUS’ (first son..) not be justification to attack first.
As for yesterday’s summit. Netanyahu really can’t win. Explainer. If Trump now attacks without victory its ’cause of Netanyahu. If Trump now attacks with victory its ’cause of Trump. And, in Israel, if Trump doesn’t attack -victory or not- Netanyahu failed in his eighth meeting with Trump. And if Trump does attack -victory or not- half the country will vilify Bibi anyway. Missing a permutation?
Ya. I know. Kinda’ need a definition of victory for that musing to work.
And here in my little shtetle. We go to sleep unsure if there will be a code red in the middle of the night. And if not. We wake up thinking it will be tonight. How do you define stress?
Seemed like an appropriate way to end this musing.
Bruce Brown is a former Winnipegger who made aliyah to Israel over 35 years ago. Bruce first began writing for us – in his own inimitable style, in 2012, during what was known as “Operation Pillar of Defense.” His occasional musings on aspects of life in Israel that were far from what you’d typically read in other reports from Israel were hugely popular – both in the print Jewish Post & News and on this website.
We’re now glad to report that Bruce is back writing for us – this time on a regular basis. We will post Bruce’s reports as they arrive – with the date of each post at the beginning of that post.
Here’s some information about Bruce – and awards he’s received for his writing:
Bruce Brown. Canadian born. Now living in Israel (for a long time). Bruce works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. He received the American Jewish Press Association’s award for writing excellence in 2019 and 2025. And wrote the 1998 satire, “An Israeli is….” Bruce’s musings are political, social, economic and personal. With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight.
