Local News
Camp Massad expecting to host more than 150 former Massadniks for 70th reunion
By MYRON LOVE After two years of enforced closure due to provincial government Covid lockdowns, Camp Massad is back this summer and looking forward to a real blast this year to end the season. On the weekend of August 26-28, the only Hebrew-immersion summer camp in North America, will be celebrating its 70th anniversary with a reunion of former campers, counsellors and board members.
“We are expecting over 150 Massadniks from across Canada and around the world – representing several generations – to join us for this exciting occasion,” says Josh Winestock, the newly installed president of Camp Massad. “We will be showcasing all the magical moments that make Massad so special – the singalongs, the shtick, the Shabbat dinners and havdalah services – that will bring back happy memories of our camping days.”
From its very beginnings in 1953, Massad has offered a camping experience unlike any other Jewish camp in Western Canada. In addition to being a Hebrew-immersion camp, the camping experience has included singalongs and Israeli dance and skits and songs in the evenings, complementing such traditional camping activities as swimming, hiking and a variety of sports.
Massad grew out of the Talmud Torah Hebrew School and Zionist youth groups. The campsite at Winnipeg Beach was originally a Habonim camp. With the founding of the State of Israel, most of the Habonim leadership was anticipating making aliyah.
One of the Habonim youths, Soody Kleiman, had spent nine months in Israel where he had learned about two Hebrew-speaking camps that were both Camp Massads – in Pennsylvania – and he felt that one could work for Winnipeg as well.
On his return to Winnipeg in 1952, before making aliyah, Kleiman and some friends were able to get support from the leadership of the Keren Hatarbut organization (Labour Zionists) in Winnipeg for a Hebrew-immersion camp.
Among Kleiman’s most important supporters was Rabbi Abraham Kravetz, the principal of Talmud Torah, who promoted the new camp among his students. “Our Habonim camp had always kept kosher,” Kleiman said. “And we had a Shabbat service.”
Kleiman became the new camp’s first senior counsellor and program director. Ed Yuditsky, the principal of the Talmud Torah in Regina, became the camp’s first director.
Leona Billinkoff was recruited to be the first administrator. Billinkoff had been a volunteer at Talmud Torah and had impressed Rabbi Kravetz with her abilities. She turned out to be an inspired choice to lead Massad. She served in that role for 25 years and left her stamp on Massad.
It was also helpful that Billinkoff’s late husband, Alex, was a builder by profession. He helped build up the camp’s physical infrastructure.
“The programs we set up are little changed to this day,” said Kleiman on the celebration of the camp’s 60th anniversary in 2012. “I am delighted that the camp has succeeded so well.”
Much has changed about the campsite since that last reunion, Winestock notes. Coinciding with that reunion, the Massad board of directors launched a successful $1,000,000 fundraising campaign – the largest such campaign in the camp’s history – which has transformed the appearance of the camp. Among the new features are a swimming pool, an infirmary, a new soccer field, expanded dining hall and overall enhanced accessibility across the camp site. As well, all the cabins are now insulated and have dropped ceilings, there have been major improvements to the landscaping and the ongoing problems with drainage are a thing of the past.
Winestock reports that board members and staff began talking about the reunion a couple of years ago and started serious planning last year.
“Last year was certainly challenging and our numbers this summer weren’t back to what they were pre-pandemic,” notes long time camp Executive Director Daniel Sprintz, “but we were really excited to have campers back on site and we are looking forward to our 70 reunion weekend.
“We are optimistic that next year, we will be closer to our full enrollment.”
Local News
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.”
Local News
Team Schvesters teammates Benji Harvey, Kim Gray once again among top ten fundraisers in this year’s CancerCare Manitoba Foundation Challenge for Life event
By MYRON LOVE This year’s annual CancerCare Manitoba Foundation’s Challenge for Life walk at Assiniboine Park is scheduled for Sunday, June 13 – and, once again, in terms of fundraising, Team Schvesters is sitting in second place overall – having raised just over $30,500 as of May 26 – which is $5,000 more than the team members had raised by the same time last year.
As well, team members Benji Harvey and Kim Gray are once again in the top ten among individual fundraisers. Harvey this year sits in fifth place, having raised a little over $16,000 as of May 17 – while Gray has raised just above $8,000 – putting her in seventh place.
Harvey reports that, -over the past 18, years participating in CancerCare Manitoba Foundation’s Challenge for Life, she has personally raised $180,000 for cancer research, while her team as a whole has brought in $367,000. In discussing her success as a fundraiser, Harvey says that she has made a lot of friends over the years and believes in giving back to the community.
The “Schvesters” are the Greenfeld sisters: Harvey and sisters Lesly Katz and Debra Lewis – the daughters of Lil and the late Ike Greenfeld. Two of the sisters are cancer survivors.
There is one other team member – in addition to Kim Gray. Judge Rocky Pollack first joined Team Schvesters in 2023. After a year away in 2024, he returned last year. Pollack lost his wife, Sharon, to cancer in 2014 after a multi-year struggle.
Nancy’s Nightingales has been a top 10 community fundraising team for Cancercare Manitoba and the Challenge for Life since its inception in 2008. As a team, they have walked together since 2006 when they walked 60 km in two days in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer.
Last year, the team – including Louise Raber, Joanne Katz, Rhonda Youell, Connie Botelho and Harriet Lyons – finished fifth in fundraising. So far this year, the team is again sitting in fifth place –having raised just under $12,500 (as of May 26) – a couple of thousand dollars more than last year, and just about $300 behind the fourth place team.
The Nightingales are named after a nurse who is a cancer survivor- and a friend of Louise Raber, Nancy’s Nightingales team leader.
“Our goal, as always, is to raise at least one dollar more than last year,” says Raber.
Team Jason’s Journey team leader Jason Gisser has experienced a more intimate and longer-lasting relationship with cancer than many of the other Challenge for Life participants. He was first diagnosed with cancer when he was 18. “I am a proud cancer fighter, having lived and battled a chronic cancer diagnosis for the last 23 years,” he said in an earlier interview. “I participate in the Challenge for Life not only to give back for the care and treatment which I have and continue to receive through CancerCare Manitoba, but to ensure that others do not have to endure the journey which I have endured.”
This is the ninth year that Gisser has taken up the Challenge for Life. His teammates are returnee Nora Fien, as well as friends Danial Sprintz, Wendy Martin White and Jason Roberts, also his mother, Judge Freda Steele. He has personally raised about $5,500 this year, while the team as a whole has raised just over $7,000.
“The Challenge for Life is great opportunity to raise valuable dollars for cancer research and treatment,” Gisser notes.
Readers can make donations to their preferred team by going online to CancerCarefdn.mb.ca and click on Challengeforlife.ca.
