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Four Winnipeggers attending this summer’s Maccabiah Games in coaching/managing roles
By MYRON LOVE Four Winnipeggers will be attending this summer’s upcoming Maccabiah Games as either coaches or managers: Naomi Kirshenblatt – swimming team manager; David Nepon – coach, under 16 basketball team; Alan Greenberg – manager, men’s open hockey team; and Zachary Baron – tennis team coach.
Naomi Kirshenblatt has twice been a participant in the Maccabiah Games as an athlete in Maccabiah Games – in 2009 and 2013. This summer, the retired competitive swimmer who has made her home in Winnipeg for the past eight years is returning to the international competition that is held every four years in Israel as manager of the Canadian Junior Swimming team.
“I am really looking forward to going back again,” she says. “I have a lot of family in Israel and hope to be able to squeeze a visit in with some of them.”
Originally from Ottawa, Kirshenblatt began swimming at an early age. She was just 13 when she competed in what has become known as “The Jewish Olympics”.
She relocated to Winnipeg for university. While attending the University of Manitoba, she was a member of the university’s Bisons women’s swimming team.
She is currently working for a tech company. A further incentive for her to stay in Winnipeg, she notes, is her fiancé, Noah Kravetsky.
She observes that her charges are young swimmers mainly from Toronto and Vancouver. “They are a good group,” she comments. “I am confident that the team will fnish in the top eight and one of the girls may possibly be a medal contender.”
Kirshenblatt is one of four coaches/managers from Winnipeg who will be going to the games this year – the other three being Alan Greenberg (hockey), Zachary Baron (tennis) and David Nepon (basketball).
As with Naomi Kirshenblatt, David Nepon has previously competed as an athlete at the Maccabiah Games. He was a member of the Maccabi Canada under 16 basketball team in 2005. In 2017, he returned to the games in 2017 as assistant coach for the Canadian under 18 team.
“We won bronze in 2017,” he notes.
This summer, the son of Dr. Jack and Carla Nepon will be head coach of the under 16 team.
Nepon recalls that his father first put a basketball in David’s hand when he was four. “I started playing organized basketball when I was six and have been playing ever since,” he says.
A phys-ed teacher by profession, the former Gray Academy and University of Winnipeg collegiate student moved to Toronto last fall (he is currently teaching phys-ed at the Bialik School) in order to pursue further opportunities as a basketball coach. He previously coached basketball at several local Winnipeg high schools as well as at the University of Winnipeg collegiate team.
Nepon is quite optimistic about his charges’ Maccabiah prospects. “We could win gold, “ he enthuses.
He is particularly excited about young Winnipegger Ariel Tsaiger (see last edition of The Jewish Post & News), the only Winnipeg player on the Canadian basketball teams at the games.
“Ariel is a special player,” the coach says. “While just 14, he is already competing with 18 and 19-year-olds. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him turn pro.”
Unlike Nepon and Kirshenblatt, Alan Greenberg, the manager of the Maccabi Canada open men’s hockey team going to the Games this summer, has never been a hockey player – at least not in any formal team.
“I was a football player,” says the son of Lawrence and Lois Greenberg. “I was an offensive lineman at university (the U of M) and also played for the Winnipeg Hawkeyes.”
The Garden City Collegiate grad has also been the football coach at Grant Park High School for the past few years. “We had a very successful year last season,” he reports. “We made it to the finals although we didn’t win.”
The property manager by profession says that he was recruited to be a member of the board of the Maccabi Canada hockey program by friends Earl Barish and Gerald Olin.
He reports that he was at the 2013 Maccabiah Games with the junior hockey team – his first time in Israel – but he was unable to go back in 2017 due to other commitments.
He says that he is looking forward to the Games this summer and is optimistic that the Canadian hockey team will do well.
At the last Maccabiah Games – pre-covid – in 2017, Maccabi Canada sent a delegation of 600, one of the largest delegations from any Diaspora country. That competition featured 10,000 athletes representing 80 countries, making it the third largest event in the world, behind only the Summer Olympics and the World University Games. Canadian athletes won 72 medals at the Games, including 15 Golds.
After a year’s delay due to the ongoing Covid situation, the 21st “Jewish Olympics” is back on track. The (usually) quarterly event, which was first held in 1932 and 1935 in what was then Palestine – and then resumed in 1950 after Israeli independence – is organized by Maccabi World Union – and highlights the centrality of the State of Israel in the life of the Jewish people.
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First year medical student Tim Rozovsky founds new association for local Jewish medical students
By MYRON LOVE In the face of a concerning surge in antisemitism over the past nearly three years, I am happy to report a good news story in that regard. Tim Rozovsky, the founder of the new Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba, reports that he and his fellow Jewish students enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine are not experiencing any significant issues involving antisemitism.
Hopefully, the matter of the notorious Med school Valedictorian who used his podium to attack Israel was a one-off.
“My goal in forming the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba,” says the first year medical student, “was to create a safe, supportive environment for my fellow Jewish medical students.”
He reports that the current first year class at the school has eight Jewish students – an increase over more recent years – with maybe a dozen more in the other years.
For a new medical student, Rozovsky already has an impressive resume. He was born in Russia and grew up in Israel. After the completion of his army service in 2018, the then-22-year-old rejoined his parents, Dr. Katya and Alexander, who had moved to Winnipeg a few years before.
Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Rozovsky had completed a personal trainer program out of The Academic College at Wingate in Jerusalem. Some readers may know the young man from his work as a Master Personal Trainer at the Rady JCC.
Shortly after arriving here, he enrolled in a kinesiology program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated with a BKin Honours in 2023 and did post graduate work at the University of Manitoba. Last fall, he received his MSc in Physiology and Pathophysiology – earning two gold medals, along with 32 awards and scholarships in the process.
Rozovsky says that it was his mother who inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. Dr. Katya Rozovsky is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and an attending radiologist, specializing in pediatric diagnostic imaging.
(Tim also adds that his wife, Irina Gelzin, whom he married about a year ago, is training to be a nurse.)
Insofar as the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba is concerned, Rozovky reports that the group gets together multiple times a year. One of its programs was a joint Chanukah celebration with the Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba.
There was also a joint program with the Christian Medical and Dental Students’ Association of Manitoba.
“More recently, we have been helping prospective Jewish medical students with their applications,” he says. “Hopefully we will be able to get together over the summer with the incoming Jewish students.”
As to his own future plans, Rozovsky notes that it is too early for him to be deciding on a specialty. “My goal,” he says, “is to work hard and get good grades and become the best doctor that I can be.”
Local News
Gray Academy to Represent Manitoba at National Reach for the Top Competition
By NOAH STRAUSS Posted June 6) Gray Academy’s Reach for the Top team is headed to Moncton, New Brunswick, to represent Manitoba at the National Reach for the Top tournament.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian school league that quizzes teenagers on a variety of different topics, from science and history to pop culture. Reach started out in 1961 in Vancouver, where a local CBC station broadcasted the new show; it eventually became a national broadcast starting in 1966. Alex Trebek, who famously hosted Jeopardy!, started out by hosting Reach for the Top.
Gray Academy’s very own team, made up of Grade 7 and 8 students, will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, to compete as Team Manitoba. By winning the provincial Reach tournament, they secured their spot in the national competition.
Faculty members at Gray Academy are very supportive of the program. The Jewish Post spoke with three different staff members at the school. Coach and high school teacher Danielle Miller says she is excited for the trip; although she will not be accompanying the team herself, shehas coached them all year.
“This year we had over 20 students come to the club to join us, they practice twice a cycle at lunch,” Miller said. Due to the large turnout this year, two teams had to be formed. At lunch practices, students split into two teams of four where each player has a buzzer. The two teams compete to see who can answer the most questions correctly.
One of the two teams did exceptionally well at various tournaments throughout the year and will be traveling to nationals as the sole team representing Manitoba.
Co-coach Micah Doerksen described Reach as a great academic competition where young minds are tested on various topics through quick,fast-paced questions.
High school guidance counselor Lindsey Leipsic said, “We have athletes, non-athletes, we have students who are really involved and students who are not as involved at school, and we have quiet leaders, and we’ve seen friendships be built in Reach.” Some of her favorite memories of Reach involve seeing students from across Winnipeg come to Gray Academy and bond with one another. Lev Chisick, who is competing at nationals, agreed, saying, “Moncton is going to strengthen our school spirit and make us a better team.”
As the junior team makes their way to Moncton, the senior team will head to provincials. Later this week, students from the senior team will travel to Virden, Manitoba, to compete at the provincial level. The team qualified after placing high enough at their most recent tournament, which took place at St. Paul’s.
Confidence is high as the school heads into these final tournaments. When Nath Goldenberg, who is also competing at nationals, was asked what he is most looking forward to, his answer was short and sweet:“Winning.”
