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Lessons in Fusion” speaks to the fluidity of Jewish identity in the contemporary world
Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN In preparing to write this review I searched our archives to see whether we had ever published anything previously about Primrose Mayadag Knazan; sad to say, we hadn’t.
It’s about time we made up for that oversight, as Primrose had already established herself as a playwright of considerable talent, having had her three plays been awarded “Best of Fest” at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival on each occasion she premiered a new play at the Fringe.
Her plays have also been produced by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and Sarsavati Productions.
With “Lessons in Fusion”, Primrose enters into the world of fiction writing and, while the book is described as a “Young Adult” novel – not being a young adult myself, I wondered whether I would be as interested in this particular book as much as someone who was in their teens.
It turns out that “Lessons in Fusion” would hardly be limited in its appeal to young readers. As someone who has blended two different cultures in her own life: Filipino and Jewish, Primrose Mayadag Knazan offers readers who might come from a more traditional background tremendous insight into identity, how it is forged over time, and the challenges faced by individuals who, because of the way they look, are stereotyped by others.
The storyline of “Lessons in Fusion” takes place in the pandemic world in which we all now find ourselves, although the action moves back and forth in time as we begin to develop a better understanding of the novel’s protagonist, 16-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad.
Sarah is a precocious young woman who has developed a keen fascination for “fusion” cooking – blending ingredients from different cultures to create dishes that are an amalgam so totally original they lead to her developing quite a following on a blog she had started when she was 14 years old, titled “fusiononaplate”.
Here is how she describes her blog, when asked to give some information about it by the creators of a new online cooking show in which Sarah would like to participate: “Fusion comfort food, a mash-up of East and West and everything in between. Easy recipes of our classic cravings with a twist.”
Now, given Sarah’s interest in food, one would ordinarily expect that is something she might have inherited from her mother, Grace, who is “Filipinx” (the proper term for someone of Filipino descent, we are told, rather than “Filipino”). Grace, however, has almost no interest at all in cooking, especially Filipino food. The reasons for that become clearer as the story develops.
The reviews that I’ve read of “Lessons in Fusion” to date all make a big fuss over how the author introduces each chapter in the book with a recipe. Apparently Primose Mayadag Knazan is quite the food connoisseur, writing a regular column for the Filipino Journal about food in Winnipeg, as well as maintaining an Instagram account devoted to food,@pegonaplate.
As the story unfolds, Sarah is accepted into a competition known as “Cyber Chef”, in which five young people – all under 20, will compete on a weekly basis until only one is left. By the way, the chapter in which the competition is explained in some detail starts with a recipe for Chanukah latkes, so if this review is just a tad too late to influence your latke recipe, you might want to consider buying the book for next year. Just consider some of the ingredients in Sarah’s latke recipe: “sweet potatoes instead of russets. Instead of traditional sour cream or applesauce…raita made with yogurt, green apple, and mint” – I think you get the idea why the book is titled “Lessons in Fusion”.
Now, I’ll be honest: I barely looked at the recipes in this book, although they seemed tantalizing enough. Yet, for anyone who’s really into cooking, I’m sure the recipes in the book would be reason enough to buy it, as many of them are traditional Jewish recipes turned into something so imaginatively different from what I think most of us have come to accept that we would have a hard time recognizing them.
But, more than the recipes and the fastidious attention to food details that the book incorporates, “Lessons in Fusion” is a coming of age story that is so contemporary in its being set during the pandemic that it offers many real life lessons which can be useful for all of us.
Sarah, for instance, is a good student, yet she’s been forced into online learning as a result of the pandemic. Cooking is a diversion for her – as it had become for so many others once we found ourselves being confined to our homes during the many lockdowns that characterized the first year of the pandemic. While she has two good friends, with whom she communicates online (and you have to appreciate how thoroughly the author is familiar with what is known as “textspeak”), we can still appreciate the extent to which the pandemic has truncated what should have been some of the best parts of young people’s lives.
I don’t want to go into any further detail about the cooking show in which Sarah participates, lest I spoil any surprises for readers.
What I was most interested in reading is how Sarah develops her identity as a Jewish Filipinx. She and her siblings all attend what is described as a “Hebrew Immersion program” in a “private school”, where the students wear uniforms, so I’m assuming it’s based on Gray Academy. Sarah has had a bat mitzvah and is quite proud of her being Jewish.
Yet, beyond her interest in Jewish food, what seems to drive Sarah’s Jewish identity more than anything is her closeness to her baba. At the same time though, the book does describe Sarah’s more tenuous relationship with her Filipinx grandmother, her “lola”, and how cooking also brings the two of them together eventually.
One aspect of the book that might serve as a wake-up call for some readers is how Sarah is stereotyped because of her appearance and, although she can understand how she is regarded by almost anyone she meets (including online) as Filipinx, she herself regards her identity as first and foremost Jewish.
At one point Sarah is asked whether she considers herself “White or Filipino”?
She answers: “Jewish” – to which the questioner responds: “That wasn’t my question.”
So Sarah launches into a more detailed explanation: “But that’s what I am. My parents are Jewish. (Grace had converted when she married Sarah’s father.) I was raised Jewish. It’s not just my religion. It’s my culture. I get all the jokes. I celebrate the holidays. I eat and cook all the food. I even speak some Yiddish. I had family that died in the Holocaust. Go back far enough, I had family that were chased out of Russia. It’s in my blood. I carry it on my shoulders. I. Am . Jewish.”
That exchange goes on, with the questioner insisting on finding out whether Sarah identifies as “White” or not, and with Sarah not sure how to answer the question.
As someone who has been writing extensively about identity in this newspaper, and how much Jewish identity is evolving so rapidly as more and more individuals who have either converted to Judaism or live with someone who is Jewish bring with them backgrounds that are not Jewish, I find it quite fascinating to read a quite authentic description of how confusing it must be for a young person who comes from a blend of ethnic identities when asked to explain their own identity.
For that reason alone I would recommend “Lessons in Fusion” as a real eye opener to so many in our community – and well beyond the Jewish community, in helping to understand how someone might identify strongly as Jewish even when that person’s identity is rooted in a background that is quite different than something with which many of us are familiar.
As for how well written “Lessons in Fusion” is, as a first-time novelist, Primrose Mayadag Knazan shows remarkable talent, although given her success as a playwright to date, it should come as no surprise that she has made the transition to fiction writing so successfully.
“Lessons in Fusion”
By Primrose Mayadag Knazan
Published by Great Plains Publishing , 2021
288 pages
More about Primrose Mayadag Knazan
Primrose Madayag Knazan brings an interesting perspective to what it means to become Jewish
By BERNIE BELLAN
As someone who had already established a solid reputation as a successful playwright, Primrose Madayag Knazan knew that she was taking on a challenge of quite a different sort when a publisher proposed that she consider writing a book of fiction aimed at the Young Adult market.
“Writing plays was easier than writing a novel,” Primrose told me during the course of a lengthy phone interview.
“But Great Plains (her publisher) approached me with the idea of writing a book. They said I’ve always been so successful with plays, why don’t I write something – either non fiction or Young Adult?”
The timing was right for her to begin thinking about writing a book, she says. It was the fall of 2020, the Covid pandemic had set in, and she actually had more time to write since she was working from home. Her two young boys were both in school and, while she was certainly busy enough – she had begun writing a food blog as well as writing a regular column for the Filipino Journal about food, Primrose says that she didn’t have any plays in the works, so the idea of writing a book at that time appealed to her.
Around the same time, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis happened, Primrose notes. “It opened people’s eyes about diversity and representation.”
So, the idea of tackling those themes, along with her passion for writing about food, jelled into the basis of “Lessons in Fusion”.
As I explain in my review of the book, the story centres around 16-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad. The fact that Sarah’s name is a blend of Jewish and Filipino names is no coincidence. And yet, while there are distinct parallels in Sarah’s life to Primrose’s, Primrose wanted to make clear that Sarah is largely an imagined character.
Having grown up in Winnipeg herself, Primrose says that, while she was raised Catholic, she didn’t find the Catholic church appealing.
“I grew up at a time when I didn’t fit in with other Filipino kids,” she says.
For instance, she notes that she “always wanted to be a blonde. I knew a part of me always wanted to be White.”
At the same time, she says that “ever since I was a kid, I wanted to write plays, books, poetry.
It was while she was in university here – where she was taking a double major in psychology and sociology, that she also had her first immersion in theatre. Primrose says she fell in love with the theatre and, years after she graduated, she became involved in it again, as an actor, as a producer, and as a playwright.
Her first plays were written for Winnipeg’s Fringe Festival (the first one was written in 2000) and each time she entered a new play there (three times altogether), her plays went on to win “Best of Fest”.
It was also while she was in university that she met the man who would eventually become her husband, Josh Knazan.
Yet, while Josh came from a firm Ashkenazie Jewish background, he didn’t insist that Primrose convert to Judaism before they married.
“It was after he proposed to me that I told him I wanted to convert to Judaism – not before,” Primrose explains.
Ever since converting – in 2002, under Rabbi Alan Green’s tutelage, Primrose says that she has become “very comfortable in being a part of the Jewish community.”
“Judaism is such a beautiful religion that I fell in love with it. With Catholicism there are no shades of gray. Everything is black and white. Judaism is so much more nuanced.”
“I’m an outgoing person,” she says. “I’ve been able to be involved in the synagogue (Shaarey Zedek). I have a lot of new friends.”
And, while Primrose says that she has made sure that her two kids will grow up in a Jewish milieu – her older son was just recently Bar Mitzvahed, she says, the notion of “fusing” Filipino and Jewish culture is something that she is keenly interested in doing.
The story in “Lessons in Fusion” centres around food – and not just Filipino or Jewish food.
Raising two boys, especially one who was now a teenager, did give Primrose a certain insight into how young people think – and how they communicate, especially through texting.
Portions of “Lessons in Fusion” have some of the young characters texting with each other. “When I showed it to my son, he told me that I had it all wrong. No one texts in full words,” he said. “I had to learn textspeak from him.”
Something that Primrose wanted to avoid though, in writing a Young Adult novel, was “writing anything dystopian”. She says that she didn’t want to write yet one more book about “the end of the world”.
At the same time that she wanted to tackle issues of “diversity and representation” in her book, Primrose says that her older son was an “inspiration” for her when he told her he “didn’t want to read ‘issue books’ or books about ‘racism’.”
And, while Primrose and Josh are determined to give their two boys a solid Jewish upbringing, they both want them to be exposed to Filipino culture as well, Primrose says.
“They were both in the Hebrew Bilingual program at Brock Corydon” – the older boy has now graduated and is at Grant Park, but they’re both also involved in “Filipino dance”.
Unlike the character Sarah in “Lessons in Fusion”, moreover, who does not have a close relationship with her Filipino relatives – save one aunt, Primrose and Josh’s boys have close relationships with both their Jewish and Filipino relatives.
Sarah, however, identifies entirely as Jewish. The idea of creating a character who, even though she looks Filipino, doesn’t think of herself as Filipino at all, came to Primrose when she herself wondered what she would have been like had she been “raised exclusively Jewish”?
As noted, Primrose has a real passion for food – experimenting with it, writing about it and, as she explained to me, helping to promote local Filipino restaurants and stores.
“My head is focused on food blogging and promoting Filipino food,” she says.
“But when the pandemic happened,” so many restaurants had to close down, including many Filipino ones, she observes. So, her blog and column in the Filipino Journal became even more important to Primrose. She says that “in the past two years I’ve taken the food blogging seriously. I’ve always wanted to feature Manitoba products” as a way of helping local producers.
And, while “Lessons in Fusion” is largely a coming of age novel, as Sarah participates in an extremely demanding competition where she is required to come up with entirely original recipes for a TV show on a weekly basis, Primrose observes that “the growth in Sarah’s recipes parallels the growth in Sarah as a person to the point where she blends her two cultures” – and feels wholly comfortable in both.
That’s also the story of Primrose Madayag Knazan’s life: Someone who feels totally comfortable in her own skin as she blends Filipino and Jewish cultures into a unique amalgam. And, for someone who is as interested in identity as I am – and how fluid it is, having Primrose as part of the Jewish community offers one more reason why other members of our community should feel warm in the knowledge that the Jewish community is a blend of cultures and one in which people of quite different backgrounds can feel totally accepted.
Local News
Sold-out audience in attendance at Canadian Museum for Human Rights for event organized by Women Wage Peace
By BERNIE BELLAN On Sunday, April 26, a sold-out audience of over 150 people, consisting primarily of women, was in attendance at the Canadian Museum for Human Right for a program titled “Women for a Just Peace – in Palestine/Israel and at Home.” The program was organized by a group known as Women Wage Peace.
Information provided on the WWP website explained how the program came about and what the purpose of WWP is: “Women Wage Peace (WWP), the largest peace movement in Israel, was co-founded by former Winnipegger Vivian Silver, who was murdered on October 7, 2023. The local group, one of several international affiliates, was established to remember Vivian and carry on her legacy while also promoting respectful dialogue between Jews and Palestinians in Winnipeg. Members of WWP in Israel, as well as here in Winnipeg, are Jewish, Christian and Muslim women who, in spite of different faiths and political leanings, work together in the pursuit of a non‐violent, respectful and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict so that all children in the region can live in peace and security.”
” ‘Women for a Just Peace – in Palestine/Israel and at Home,’ brought together Winnipeggers from diverse backgrounds and all genders to dialogue and engage with one another as they learned about and are inspired by peace initiatives taking place in Israel/Palestine and in Winnipeg. The afternoon component of the event featured workshops devoted to storytelling and compassionate listening, while the evening program featured a conversation with WWP original member Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, and a keynote address by the Bedouin Palestinian human rights activist, Dr. Amal Elsana Alhjooj. Both women were friends of Vivian.”
In addition to Women Wage Peace, the program was also sponsored by: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Women of the Sun, New Israel Fund, and Westworth United Church.
(Women of the Sun is a Palestinian women’s organization founded in 2021, while the New Israel Fund is an organization dedicated to promoting “democracy and equality” within Israel.)
Following welcoming remarks from Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Anita Neville, the audience heard from CMHR CEO Isha Khan.
Ms. Khan said that “we like the museum to be a safe place where you can have a conversation.” She acknowledged, however, the tension surrounding holding an event that brought attention to tensions between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, noting that “talking about these things is hard…At a moment like this it is almost impossible to imagine what peace would look like.”
Ms. Khan observed though that “women have consistently shaped discussion, always insisting that a different future is possible.” We need “to try to understand that complexity exists,” she added, at the same tine admitting that “continuing to speak about peace without recognizing the incredible difficulty of what is going on in the world at this time” avoids dealing with the reality of the challenges faced by those advocating for peace.
“Spaces like this” (the CMHR) “are what help keep peace alive,” Ms. Khan said.
As noted, Women Wage Peace was co-founded by former Winnipegger Vivian Silver in 2014. Ms. Silver’s good friend, Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, was also one of the founding members of WWP.
In addressing the audience, Rabbi Kirshbaum suggested that “the idea that there was a single founder of Women Wage Peace is a patriarchal idea.”
She explained that WWP “came out of a conference held in Sderot following the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in the summer of 2014.
The principles of WWP, Rabbi Kirshbaum said, are “no shaming, no blaming…A just peace is still possible when women unite and organize.”
Rabbi Kirshbaum noted that a Palestinian counterpart known as “Women of the Sun” was founded in 2021.
She told an interesting parable to explain how Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun view the challenge of trying to find a reason for optimism despite everything that is going on in the Middle East today:
The story is of a king who had three children: Two sons and a daughter. The king told the three of them that there was a hut nearby the palace that sat empty.
Whoever could fill that hut to the brim would inherit his kingdom, he said.
The first son filled the hut with rocks, but there was a sliver of empty space at the very top.
The second son filled the hut with feathers, but as the feathers settled, there was also a large space.
The daughter, however, brought only a plate and a candle into the hut. She invited her father to enter the hut with her and, as she lit the candle on the plate, the hut filled with light in every space.
Rabbi Kirshbaum went on to explain that Women Wage Peace was inspired greatly by a documentary film about the removal of a vicious warlord in Liberia by the name of Charles Taylor. That film was titled “Pray the Devil to Hell,” and it told how Liberian women working together led to Taylor’s peaceful removal from power and the restoration of democracy to Liberia.
Rabbi Kirshbaum also alluded to the example of Irish women, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who joined forces to help end the years of violence that had long beset Northern Ireland.
The pivotal moment for Women Wage Peace came in 2016, Rabbi Kirshbaum explained, when 80,000 Jewish Israeli women and 3,000 Palestinian women walked together for two weeks in a “March for Peace” that culminated in a massive rally in Jerusalem.
The challenge for WWP, however, Rabbi Kirshbaum admitted, is: “How do we turn volunteerism and community service into political power?”
It’s a difficult challenge, she said, but there have been some successes working with some members of the Knesset in an effort to “put the brakes on a locally militarized conflict” and transform it “into a diplomatic effort.”
“A vibrant peace camp still exists in Israel,” Rabbi Kirshbaum insisted. “When women of conscience unite and organize, peace is possible.”
She alluded to the growth of Women Wage Peace around the world, saying we “are building a global network of women that is growing quickly and creatively.”
“Look at all of you here,” Rabbi Kirshbaum said to the audience, alluding to the sold-out crowd.
She referred to a petition that is being circulated online (and on paper at that evening’s event) called “Mother’s Call.” The petition lists points of commonality between Israeli Jewish women and Palestinian women. To sign the petition click here: Mother’s call.
In addition to what WWP has been doing in Israel, another 79 or so organizations there are united in the effort to bring about peace between Israel and Palestine in what is known as the “It’s Time Coalition.”
The motto of the coalition, Rabbi Kirshbaum said, is “Peace: It can be, it will be, it must be!”
Another observation that Rabbi Kirshbaum made is that it is not only women who have not exerted “moral authority,” the same can be said of clergy.
Yet, “peace is still possible when women unite and organize,” she argued. “We are not naive. We are claiming our moral authority.”
Rabbi Kirshbaum was followed by Winnipegger Chana Thau, who noted that the first chapter of Women Wage Peace in Canada was started by former Winnipegger Nomi Fenson in Vancouver, in 2024.
The Winnipeg chapter of WWP was the result of Chana Thau working with Esther Blum to organize here in 2025. Later, three more women helped to organize the Winnipeg chapter: Sharon Chisvin, Loraine Mackenzie Shepherd, a retired United Church minister, and Zhila Naghibzadeh, a Persian Muslim.
Esther Blum referenced a quote from one of the organizers of WWP in Israel, Regula Alon: “While we are each one drop of water, together those drops of water can form a sea.”
The final speaker of the evening was Dr. Amal Elsana Alhjooj, who explained that the name “Amal” means “hope” in Arabic. She noted that she comes from a Bedouin village in Israel’s Negev Desert. Her speech was very personal, as she told of growing up in a household where she was the fifth girl born in her family. She said she was given the name “Amal” because her father was hoping that he and his wife could finally have a boy. Amal’s birth was followed by the births of five boys, she said. (There were later five more girls added to the family, according to Wikipedia.)
Even though she was older than her brothers, “when my mother would serve chicken on Friday night,” she noted, “the boys would get the good pieces while I only got the wing.”
Dr. Alhjooj also noted that when she was younger her grandfather sent her out to look after the family’s flock of sheep. She observed that “working with sheep and working with people is very similar because you have to organize them both,” which led to her having a career as a community organizer.
She noted that she grew up discriminated against on two counts: both as a girl and as a Palestinian living within Israel. “Our village had no electricity, no water, no roads,” Dr. Aihooj commented.
She said that even though all Bedouin residents of Israel are citizens of Israel, “the gaps between us and the Jewish majority are huge.”
Her talk focused on her experience advocating for Bedouin women. Dr. Alhjooj said that she founded the first organization for Bedouin women, called “Desert Embroidery.”
She went on to acquire a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Ben Gurion University. She then enrolled in a master’s program at McGill University.
The following information about Dr. Alhjooj is taken from Wikipedia:
“While at McGill University in Canada, Elsana Alhooj became more familiar with Jews and Judaism. After finishing her master’s degree in 1999, she returned to Israel, where she resolved to begin building bridges between Israeli and Palestinian communities, particularly through women. She worked at a community advocacy center in an underserved Jewish neighbourhood in Beersheba, where she continued to build connections and learn.”
In 2000, Dr. Alhjooj founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation (AJEEC), which later, she was to run in conjunction with the late Vivian Silver.
In 2012 Dr. Alhjooj moved to Montreal. She is currently an Associate Professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work. She is also a feminist activist specializing in minority rights, gender equality, and community organizing.
Following Rabbi Kirshbaum and Dr. Alhjooj ’s presentations, there was an all too brief period allowed for questions.
Here are the three questions that were posed to the two women, along with summaries of their answers:
1. How do you keep fighting your fight for peace and not fall into despair?
Dr. Alhjooj answered that “I never had that privilege. Peace is the language of the oppressor. Liberty and justice are the languages of the oppressed.”
Rabbi Kirshbaum said that she “came from the opposite place. All I can say is that I agree with Amal,” adding that “there is a thirst among our members for a kind of tranquility that we used to know.”
2. How can we, as mothers, teach our children to be proud Jews and yet, at the same time, realize we are oppressors?
Rabbi Kirshbaum observed that “in Israel there’s just conflict. We’re in a period driven by passions. Here (in Canada) there’s a conflict about the conflict.”
3. Have you received backlash from your own communities?
Dr. Alhjooj responded that she “never presented my work as coexistence; I presented it as a partnership.” She went on to say that there was “real pushback” from within her own (Bedouin) community, not only about her role in trying to further dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, but also for her role in advancing women’s rights.
“The head of my tribe didn’t like my encouraging women to go to university,” she observed.
Rabbi Kirshbaum noted that backlash in Israel had “cost me a job and made me more aware of the danger of saying what I really think.”
The evening concluded with entertainment by Israeli-Canadian singer Orit Shimoni, followed by a reception in the foyer of the CMHR.
Here is some information about an upcoming event meant to galvanize support for peace:
Dear friends,
Thank you for signing up to join the People’s Peace Summit.
In just a short while, people across the world will be tuning in, amplifying the urgent voices of those working on the ground for a just peace across homes, communities, and public spaces around the globe.
April 30 at 19:00 Tel Aviv | 17:00 London | 12:00 New York | 09:00 Los Angeles
🎥 Watch the livestream here:
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/Z6nOTkXzQHI?feature=share
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1299320968820425/
Whether you’re joining on your own or hosting a watch party, your presence helps extend the reach of this work – ensuring that the voices, ideas, and partnerships emerging from this Summit are seen, heard, and carried forward.
A special thank you to those hosting watch parties – your leadership is helping create space for conversation, connection, and collective action in communities around the world.
This event is organized by It’s Time – an unprecedented coalition of over 80 peace and shared society organizations that work tirelessly to advance a just and peaceful future for everyone in this land and have come together to build the collective power needed to turn this momentum into real change.
If you’d like to support the work moving forward – strengthening this growing movement, expanding international engagement, and helping translate this momentum into sustained action – you can donate here. Anything helps!
And if you haven’t yet, you can follow us on our English updates whatsapp group , facebook and instagram.
Thank you so much for being with us!
Warmly,
Timna Medovoy
The It’s Time Coalition
P.S. To those of you who indicated you’d like to organize a post-summit zoom with It’s Time leaders, we will be following up with you after the summit!
Local News
Rady JCC Ken Kronson Sports Dinner to feature two heroes from Toronto Blue Jays World Series Championship teams of 1992 and 1993
By MYRON LOVE This year’s 52ND annual Rady JCC Ken Kronson Sports Dinner – scheduled for Thursday, June 4, at the Convention Centre – will feature as special guest speakers two heroes from the Toronto Blue Jays World Series champion teams of 1992 and 1993: former player Joe Carter and former manager Cito Gaston.
The dinner will also mark the launch of a new athletic scholarship in memory of the late Evelyn Golden – a truly remarkable role model for living a healthy life.
Born to Russian immigrants who had the courage and foresight to immigrate to Canada, Evelyn married Dr. Norman Moss and moved to Calgary, where her husband established a dental practice. In Calgary, she raised her three sons, Les, Mortie and Richard (who passed away at a young age) and was an active member of the local Jewish community. After her husband passed away in1970, she moved back to Winnipeg, where she met and married Don Golden.
Evelyn was an active recreational athlete all her life. Remarkably, her last golf outing was at age 100 with her second son. She walked the Glendale Golf Course three times a week until age 88 and had a hole-in-one at age 75. Growing up, she enjoyed tennis, and played well into her 70s. Evelyn was a wonderful homemaker and a dedicated community volunteer. She lived well, with an attitude of leaving disappointments behind, while living for today and planning for tomorrow.
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Throughout her long life, Evelyn never experienced a serious health crisis, nor had any surgeries.
Incredibly, Evelyn lived until the age of 103, passing away in 2019.
Her children feel that the Evelyn Golden Memorial Fund Scholarship is a fitting tribute to their mother. The scholarship will be awarded each year to one Jewish female between the ages of 11 and 17 who has shown a passion for athletics in general and golf in particular, and who also has some financial need.
The scholarship is the second new award to be established in the past two years. Last year saw the introduction of the Meyer Rypp Memorial Basketball Scholarship – reflecting the lifelong passion that the late Winnipeg businessman had for basketball. The scholarship is open to Jewish athletes – male or female – who have excelled in basketball at the school level.
The Max Labovitch Ice Hockey Scholarship is named for quite likely the only member of our Jewish community who made it to the NHL. The right winger played professional hockey for ten years – throughout the 1940s – including a stint with the New York Rangers – and is a member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.
The scholarship is intended to provide some financial support to a young Jewish male hockey player (aged 12-16) “who demonstrates dedication, perseverance and growth in the sport of hockey.”
A second Labovitch scholarship – named for Max Labovitch’s wife, Loretta – is awarded annually to one Jewish female athlete – aged 12-16 – “who has dedicated a strong commitment to sport and personal growth.”
The Brent Knazan Award recognizes two Jewish young athletes – ages 13-16 – who model “fair play, respect and consideration for others and who positively influence teammates and peers both on and off the field of play.”
Then there is the granddaddy of them all – the Idy and Max Nusgart Jewish Athlete of the Year Award – the Rady JCC’s highest athletic honour. Each year, a winner is chosen from five nominees by an independent committee of sports journalists. The award celebrates athletes whose commitment, discipline and performance distinguish them from among their peers while representing the values of sport and community at the highest levels of competition.”
The winner of the Nusgart award – which has been given out since 1986, also receives a bursary from the Fred Glazerman Memorial Fund.
With the exception of the Nusgart and Rypp awards, athletes cannot nominate themselves.
Rob Berkowits, the Rady JCC’s CEO, notes that all of the funds listed above are administered by the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba. “We work cooperatively with the donors and the Foundation in regard to the criteria and framework of the awards and scholarships,” he says.
Berkowits points out that the Rady JCC Ken Kronson Sports Dinner – which was founded by the late Ken Kronson – a long-time member of the Rady JCC and its predecessor the YMHA – is our community’s largest single fundraising event.
“We normally draw about 1,300,” he reports, “and we are expecting another sellout this year.”
Another regular feature of the event will include honouring someone special – this year’s honourees being long time Rady JCC members and supporters Sally and Jeff Peel.
Berkowits reports that the Rady JCC – which opened in 1997 – currently has more than 5,000 members – two thirds of whom are not Jewish – from all ages and backgrounds. In addition to its physical fitness activities, the Rady JCC also supports an array of cultural programs, including Shalom Square (our community’s Folklorama pavilion), the annual upcoming Jewish Film Festival, the Music and Mavens programs, and the annual Yiddish Festival.
Readers who are interested in attending the dinner, being a sponsor or supporting the Rady JCC with a donation can contact Zac Minuk at 204 4806562 or online at zminuk@radyjcc.com.
Local News
Beloved former Gray Academy teacher Sharon Freed honoured by appreciative former students
By MYRON LOVE Nicole Freed was inspired to become a teacher by her mother’s example. “I remember the moment I decided to become a teacher,” the daughter of the late Sharon Freed, who passed away suddenly in December 2019, told a gathering of some of her mother’s former colleagues and students. The event, which was held to share memories of Sharon Freed took place in the Kaufman-Silverberg Library at the Asper Campus on Thursday, March 26.
As Nicole Freed recounted, “I was sitting at the kitchen table. Mom was helping me with my homework when she suddenly got up to call a parent. I remember my mom asking if a particular student was okay because she had missed two days of school. After she hung up, I asked her while she called. I suggested that the student was probably just sick. My mother’s response was that she cared about all of her students and wanted to make sure the girl was alright. That moment stayed with me. I wanted to be a teacher – like my mom – who cared about all of her students.”
Sharon Freed hold the record for the longest serving teacher in our Jewish school system. When she retired in 2015, she had taught continuously for 47 years, starting at the former I.L. Peretz School, then moving on to Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, and finishing her career at Gray Academy. Over that time, she inspired two generations of students. Among them were former students Josh and Samantha Morry and their father, Howard. (Their mother, Hope, grew up in the south end.) In appreciation, the Morry Family has established the Sharon Freed Collection at the Kaufman-Silverberg Library in their former teacher’s memory.
Books and words were very important to Freed, recalled Kaufman-Silverberg head librarian Ana Esterin. “Sharon liked multigenerational novels, historical fiction, romance, and Russian novels, Esterin noted.. “She would frequently come in and ask what well-written new novels were in.”
Freed’s choice of literature is reflected in the new Sharon Freed Collection at the library The collection – behind glass doors in a bookshelf in the library’s foyer sits across from a giant mural with Freed’s visage in the centre of it and a table with a scrabble board with the former teacher’s name spelled out. (Scrabble was another of her passions.)
In formally introducing the Sharon Freed Collection, Lori Binder, Gray Academy’s Head of School and CEO of the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education, welcomed Freed’s family members, friends and former colleagues and students in attendance either in person or via Zoom. Binder (who is also a former student of the beloved teacher) said the tribute to Freed was “a deeply moving afternoon filled with laughter, tears, and the tradition of storytelling that Mrs. Freed cherished so dearly.
“As we continue to reflect on Sharon’s impact, we are reminded of the words of Rabbi Sacks (z”l), who said that to be a Jew is to know that those who came before us live on in us. Yesterday was a testament to the truth of those words. Sharon lives on in the books we have curated in her honour, the students she mentored, the friends and family she loved, the colleagues she confided in, and the community she helped build.
Thank you for helping us ensure that Sharon’s story continues to be told. That is the thing we can all hope for, that when someone passes, they are remembered through stories.”
Speaking from Israel via Zoom, Freed’s older daughter, Andrea, remembered her mother as “a very special person. It seems that everywhere I go, I run into former students of my mother who want to share with me fond memories of her.”
Nicole added that “it is evident from today’s wonderful event that my mom truly did care about all her students and had special relationships with them. I realize now more than ever what a lasting impact a teacher can make.”
She also thanked Binder and Skye Kneller (Gray Academy’s Director of Advancement and Alumni Relations) for including Freed’s two daughters in the planning of the event. “It meant a lot that you both wanted to make sure that our opinions and thoughts were heard,” she noted.
Marilyn Beloff, Freed’s younger sister, flew in from Vancouver for the inauguration. “It’s clear to me why I’m here,” she said. “I’m here because of this deep love and respect for my sister and how much she’s taught me and lives within me each day.”
“The best way to honour her is to speak about her and keep her in your mind’s eye whenever you can…this wonderful collection will live on.”
Former colleague Lawrence Goldstine spoke about his service with Freed on the Jewish school teacher’s union leadership team. “Sharon was dedicated to fighting for the benefit of Gray Academy’s teachers,” he noted. “I considered her a mentor to me in that regard.”
Former student Ben Waldman credited Freed with how she inspired him to pursue a career in journalism. “Within this school, there’s a tradition of storytelling that begins the moment we enter,” noted the Winnipeg Free Press reporter. We become a part of the Winnipeg Jewish community in such a meaningful way, and I don’t think I fully understood how much Mrs. Freed had to do with that until after I graduated.
“As a teenager, I, like many other young people, was still trying to figure myself out,” he continued. “We were malleable and Mrs. Freed was very much a fixed entity. She knew who she was. And when you came into her room, she knew that she could help shape you, even if you weren’t ready to be shaped.
“I couldn’t think of a better way to remember her than with this gift of a collection in her memory… A celebration for Mrs. Freed is a celebration for this institution that we really do care about and love. I’m happy that a new generation of kids who may not have had the chance to be in her class will now at least know her name.”
Speaking on Zoom on behalf of the Morry family, Josh Morry said that “we had been talking for a long time about doing something to honour her memory. I’m so happy. This collection is so perfectly themed for what she loved, which is books and imparting that to other people. I do hope that her memory will live on. I am sure it does through all of us.”
Morry also spoke of wanting to create a “Mrs. Freed commemorative Scrabble tournament.” “I remember we used to come to her classroom and we would play Scrabble at lunch,” he recalled. “We would talk about the Queen, and we would try to impress her with the way in which we read when she called on us.
“I think as a lawyer, I use a lot of the writing skills that she taught us.”
Lori Binder concluded the presentation with a “very special thank you” to the Morry family, who joined the launch virtually. “Their generous gift made this collection and this launch possible,” she said.
She also thanked the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba for their ongoing and vital support of the library.
Librarian Ana Esterin reports that the initial Sharon Freed Collection includes 13 books. The library is encouraging individuals to consider a donation to the library to add to the collection.