Local News
Prolific author Bryan Schwartz has put out five new works within past year
By MYRON LOVE Professor Bryan Schwartz is the very model of a modern-day Jewish Renaissance scholar. The popular legal educator, passionate Zionist, and student of the Holocaust as an in-demand commentator on modern legal and constitutional issues has written or contributed to 34 books and over 300 publications in all – in a legal and teaching career that stretches back more than 40 years. His works encompass legal and governmental issues as well as commentary on the entire gamut of Jewish life – from ancient times to the Holocaust to the current Jewish situation.
In addition to his work as an author, lawyer and academic (as a professor in the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law), Schwartz is also a poet, playwright, and songwriter. And his literary output over just the past year reflects the full gamut of his interests and talents.
Since January 2023, Schwartz has produced five quite different works. His most recent work is “It’s About Time:104 Dimensions of Time During Passover” – which readers can download for free on his website –sacredgoof.ca – is a comprehensive overview of the Pesach holiday from a novel perspective.
In a series of what used to be called “quick snappers”, Schwartz points out, for example, that Pesach actually combines two ancient Jewish spring festivals – the sacrifice of the first-born lamb and the first fruits of the harvest of the grain that was planted in the late fall or winter.
He groups his explanations and commentaries into 21 categories related to time. The first group – Cyclical Time – discusses Pesach’s connection to Purim preceding it and Shavuot seven weeks later. He further explains Pesach in Israel and why, in Israel, only one seder is designated as compared to two in the diaspora, how the date for the first seder is officially determined, and what the rules are when the seders overlap with Shabbat.
Other groups include an overview of Pesach’s place in different histories, Pesach within the family context, ritual, the Exodus in world history, Pesach and historical memory, the history of the Haggadah, the bringing together of past, present and future – and many more interesting explanations and fact.
The inspiration for “About Time: 104 Dimensions of Time During Passover”, Schwartz explains in his introduction on his website, came last year at Passover. “I noticed that the text of the Haggadah contains some explicit references to time,” he noted on his website.
“We begin by thanking the Creator for separating the ordinary days from holy days,” he pointed out. “We are enjoined to tell the Passover story “as if” we were personally redeemed from that captivity. We experience, in the now, the coming together of families and communities…as the Israelites did on the night of Passover. We are invited at the end to proclaim, “next year in Jerusalem” – and with the cup of Elijah, think of a Messianic age beyond the present.”
At first, he wrote, he was aiming to write a single blog piece for The Times of Israel, an Israeli-based online newspaper to which Schwartz has become a regular contributor. “Yet the more I looked, the more I found,” he noted.
‘The Jewish tradition is largely about taking a concrete starting point – like an episode related in the Haggadah or the egg on the Seder plate – and finding more and more ways to think about it. The saying is that the Torah has seventy faces. I did not expect to ever get to seventy dimensions of time in Passover, but here I am so far, with one hundred and four…so far.”
While this year, Pesach has now passed. I would encourage interested readers to peruse “About Time: 104 Dimensions of Time During Passover” and print out sections that you might consider introducing into your seders next year.
“My aspiration,” Schwartz writes on his webpage, “would be for the book, in some form or other, to become a familiar companion to the Haggadah as we re-experience Passover every year, For some readers, it might help to make everything old seem new again.”
Schwartz published two other books of note last year. In January, he spoke about the themes in “Re-Enlightening Canada: A Legislative Program for promoting Open, Democratic and Rational policymaking” (available on Amazon) in a question and answer session at the Berney Theatre, with Ruth Ashrafi, Bnai Brith Canada Regional Director for Manitoba, in which he discussed the ills plaguing today’s universities and recommended some solutions.
“When I began my teaching career (at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law) over 40 years ago,” universities were places which encouraged freedom of expression, open dialogue and diversity of opinion,” he recalls. “That is no longer the case. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusiveness) as it has been developed over the past few years is antithetical to traditional liberal values and is, in particular, hostile to Jews because Jews, within the DEI context, are considered White and White people are considered bad.
“For Jewish students and faculty members, the University of Manitoba has become a hostile environment.”
Schwartz’s grim conclusion is that “Woke” ideology has entirely conquered most universities and that universities are not capable of reforming themselves. The only way they will be restored to a public space where diverse opinions are welcome and freedom of expression again flourishes, he says, is through strong government actions – a recipe for which he outlines in “Re-enlightening Canada”.
’The program,” he explains, “is intended to appeal to reasonable people across the political spectrum. It is a proposal for how people of good faith in democracies can “reason together.” “It is intended to be a moderate and practical response to the ideological excesses of our time.”
The multifaceted Schwartz’s third project – completed last year, was his contribution to the second edition of “Humanity in Doubt”, the reflections of his late father-in—law Philip Weiss, a Holocaust survivor who built a successful furniture manufacturing business here and became a leader in Holocaust education in the schools.
Weiss died in 2008 at the age of 85.
This new, updated edition includes a eulogy by Schwartz and an afterword written by Frances Winograd, one of Weiss’s daughters: “Furnishing an Identity” – based on her Master’s thesis in Interior Design, which places Weiss’s career in design in the context of the Jewish contribution to modernism.
Schwartz co-edited this second edition with his daughter, Lainie (who work at Yad Vashem), and John Richthammer.
Both “Humanity in Doubt” and “ReEnlightening Canada” are available from Amazon or Schwartz’ website – bryanpschwartz@gmail.com
Readers may also be interested in checking out Schwartz’s latest compilation of 24 songs – entitled “The Sacred Goof”- which you can listen to for free online. Schwartz points out that “The Sacred Goof” is a follow up to “Consoulation: A Musical Meditation,” a Jewish-themed musical that successfully premiered at the Gas Station Theatre several years ago. The author/composer hopes to both bring back Consoulation as well as see a production of “The Sacred Goof” in the next year.
An illustrated booklet (with illustrations by Maren Amini) with all the lyrics – can be purchased online by typing in the album name.
Then there is Schwartz’s “Online Dispute Resolution in the Time of Covid”, which is part of a trilogy that he is overseeing, as Co-Editor in Chief of The Manitoba Law Journal, on how the Canadian legal system adapted during the COVID period, and how many of those innovations will bel enduring
Schwartz is available for group presentations.
Local News
GrowWinnipeg celebrates 25th anniversary
By MYRON LOVE On Wednesday, June 25, about 250 Jewish Winnipeggers – comprising lifelong residents as well as newer arrivals, came together at the Asper campus to celebrate the 25th anniversary of GrowWinnipeg, an initiative that has revitalized our Jewish community – in our camps, school, synagogues and other institutions and given our community a much more international flavour.
Our community’s population peaked in terms of population in 1961 when Winnipeg Jewry numbered around 20,000. The years after had been a period of steady decline. By 1961, most of the Jews living in smaller communities in the Prairie provinces – the source of much of our ongoing population replenishment up to that point – had largely disappeared.
A s Bob Freedman, the former CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg (and its predecessor, the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council), noted in his remarks at the 25th anniversary party, by 1986, community leaders recognized that ours was an aging and shrinking community with aging infrastructure.
“We recognized that something had to be done,” he recalled.
The first stage, he pointed out, was the planning and construction of the Asper Campus, which brought our major institutions and organizations under one roof in an attractive new building.
The next challenge was to attract more people to our community. GrowWinnipeg was created to take on the challenge. GrowWinnipeg is unique in its efforts to reach out to young Jewish families throughout the Western world .
The genesis was a chance meeting on an airplane almost 30 years ago between former Manitoba Lieutenant-Governor Janice Filmon – at that time the wife of then-Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, and a Jewish businessman from Argentina who was contemplating moving to Toronto. Filmon persuaded him to consider Winnipeg instead. He was impressed by what he saw and suggested that the community send representatives to Buenos Aires to meet with other Argentinian Jewish families who were considering leaving.
That planted the seed.
Shortly thereafter – in 1998 – Larry Hurtig – then the president of the Federation, his son, Jack, and a representative of the provincial government, made an exploratory visit to Buenos Aires to gauge what interest there might be among young Jewish families to consider moving to Winnipeg.
GrowWinnipeg was officially launched in 2000. Our community opened its arms in welcome to the new arrivals who began to arrive, hosting them in our homes and helping them become acclimatized to their new surroundings.
Evelyn Hecht became the principal contact for the newcomers. “I was lucky that I happened to be working for the Federation when we opened the campus and turned our energies to repopulating our community,” Hecht noted in her remarks at the recent celebration. “Fortunately, the pieces fell into place at just the right time.”
Those pieces, Hecht related, included: the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program – which allowed community support groups to recruit specific immigrants; the arrival of a small number of Jewish families from Buenos Aires who encouraged community leaders to look to their former home as a potential source of Jewish immigrants; and the availability of email and the internet.
The initiative – led by Hecht – recruited a group of local Jewish families who were prepared to host potential immigrants who had begun to come for exploratory visits. The connections made by the new arrivals and their local hosts resulted in many long–lasting friendships, Hccht noted.
She praised Jewish Child and Family Service for helping the new arrivals to become established here and integrate into the community.
Efforts were also made to build a data basis of potential employers for the newcomers.
GrowWinnpeg was kicked off by two visits to Buenos Aires – visits Hecht describes as “exciting and exhausting” – in the early 2000s, when Hecht and other Winnipeg representatives met with potential immigrants and heard their concerns about life and personal safety in Argentina and hopes for the future that Winnipeg might be able to give them.
“I remember,” she said, “the numerous meeting I held in my office on the third floor here listening to people’s excitement and concerns and answering questions about life in Winnipeg, our Jewish identity, schools, synagogues, employment, housing and especially, safety. I always emphasized that they would encounter struggles, disappointment and possibly, crises – but I assured them that we would be here to help.
“And I remember feeling so much happiness when people would show up at my door to share good news about babies born, bar and bat mitzvahs, graduations and new jobs – and the numerous times I was in Citizen Court where so many were so proud to receive their citizenship certificates. “
And they are still coming. Dalia Szpiro, Hecht’s successor, reports that, over the past 25 years just under 7,000 people have come here under the aegis of GrowWinnipeg – and not just from Argentina. We have had families from Brazil, Uruguay and other South American countries, Mexico, Europe, and, in more recent years, especially from Israel.
For former Israelis I spoke with on the 25th, such as Slava and Karina Pustilnikov, Irena Oz and Marina Shapiro and her 19-year-old son, Adam, all of whom have been here for 10 to 15 years, the primary motivation was being in a safer environment.
For Ori Rahima and his wife, Anna Shapiro, who have been here for seven years and have three children under six, the pull was greater opportunity and a better standard of living.
Then there is Esther Barna, a teacher by training, newly arrived from Budapest. “Hungary is not a good place to be a Jew,” she says. “There is a lot of antisemitism. I was looking online for a better place to go and came across the GrowWinnipeg website. I love it here.”
In her concluding remarks, Dalia Szpiro, herself an immigrant from Uruguay about 20 years ago, thanked the many Jewish organizations and individuals in the community who have helped to make GrowWinnipeg the success that it is.
“Over 250 volunteers each year meet with our exploratory visitors – opening their homes, their hearts, their time, their insights and their networks,” she noted. “There is something very special about our community and our province. Every exploratory visitor who comes here as part of their immigration journey discovers it.
“This 25-year milestone is a reason for pride and celebration – and a renewed commitment to the future. We are already working on new strategies – to strengthen what we have built, support immigration, foster inclusion and create more opportunities for newcomers to grow and prosper.”
Local News
Long time community members Bryan Schwartz, Myriam Saitman receive rabbinic ordination
By MYRON LOVE On June 21, Bryan Schwartz and Myriam Saitman received their rabbinical ordination through the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute (JSLI) Rabbinical School – bringing the number of JSLI rabbinic graduates in our community to seven.
“I felt a calling,” says Saitman, who is the new spiritual leader of Temple Shalom, our community’s roughly 60-year-old Reform Congregation. Saitman notes that she is Temple Shalom’s fourth female rabbi.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Saitman and her family answered our community’s call for new young Jewish families that began with the Federation’s GrowWinnipeg campaign. They arrived here in 2003.
“We were attracted by a community that offered a safer environment for raising a family and better economic opportunities,” she recalls.
Although raised in a secular family, she notes that, as a young adult she was drawn to learning more about Judaism. “I took Hebrew classes in Argentina and started on a spiritual path,” she recalls.
Soon after coming to Winnipeg, she found her spiritual home at Temple Shalom. Over the last many years, she has served as a volunteer in several capacities at the synagogue – both at the school and as a long time member of the board. Since 2016, she was also one of the lay service leaders, often leading Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday evenings.
When her predecessor, Allan Finkel – also a JSLI grad – let it be known that he was planning to retire after six years as the congregation’s spiritual leader, Saitman put her name forward as a potential successor.
“Judith (Huebner) and Ruth (Livingston) (Temple Shalom’s president and past president respectively) were really supportive as were the board and the congregation,” Saitman says. “I began leading services.”
As for the JSLI program, Saitman notes that it is intensive. “It meets a need,” she observes. “It prepares us well for all the requirements of being a congregational rabbi.
“We at Temple Shalom want people to know that we are here and we welcome interfaith families,” she adds. “Our motto is that we follow tradition and embrace modernity. Our services (on Friday evenings) reflect the essence of Reform Judaism where we allow for individual choices. I’d like to stress that individual choices are informed by an educated interpretation based on knowledge of the laws and customs.”
Unlike Saitman, Rabbi Bryan Schwartz was not considering a career as a congregational rabbi when embarking on the JSLI program. For Schwartz, “rabbi” is the latest title in a lifetime of achievement. As this writer noted in a story in the Post about Schwartz last year, he “is the very model of a modern-day, Jewish, Renaissance scholar.”.A long-time professor at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law, he is also a passionate Zionist, student of the Holocaust and an in demand commentator on modern legal and constitutional issues. He has written or contributed to 34 books and over 300 publications in all – in a legal and teaching career that stretches back more than 40 years. His works within a Jewish context encompass the gamut of Jewish life from ancient times to the Holocaust to the current Jewish situation. In addition, he is a poet, playwright and songwriter.
“My main purpose in taking the JSLI course,” he observes, “is to be better positioned to help deal with the challenge of Jewish survival. I want to be able to pass on Jewish tradition to the younger generation and impress upon younger Jews – who have grown up in largely secular homes – the value of our 2,500-year-old literature, culture and religious traditions.”
He observes that there is something for everyone in Jewish tradition. “There are many people who are looking for a spiritual community. I believe that Judaism provides us with a sense of our place in the universe.”
Schwartz – a lifelong student himself – notes that he has been building to this moment for a long time. In his early 20s, he notes, he audited a few courses at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In his 50s and 60s, he learned Hebrew at different ulpans.
“I had been looking around for a while for a rabbinic program,” he says. “JSLI seemed to be the best one. It was hard work – but well worth it. I learned a tremendous amount.”
So what is Schwartz – who is a member of the Shaarey Zedek – planning on doing as a rabbi?
“I would like to be able to offer weekly dvar Torahs,” he says.
He would like , among other things, to do creative and educational projects for the community, like his weekly dvar torah in the Times of Israel. The commentary that he gave on the weekend of his Smicha ceremony is called “From Burning Synagogue to Rising Lyon,” and can be found at https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/from-burning-synagogue-to-rising-lion/
“I have also been writing books and musicals inspired by the Tradition, and hope to find forums to share them in the years ahead,” he adds. “My mission is to share in the radiance of our Tradition and help inspire the next generations to see its warmth and illumination”
Local News
Winnipeg Fringe performer Melanie Gall subjected to antisemitic attack – for second year in a row
By BERNIE BELLAN (July 20, 2025)
Melanie Gall is a talented performer who is a veteran of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival – having appeared here many times.
Last year Melanie found herself being subjected to antisemitic attacks that were initiated by a site supervisor for the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, someone by the name of Eric Rae.
As I wrote on my story about Melanie’s experience, “…on the third day (of the Fringe Festival), she said, ‘the site supervisor (Rae) came and was wearing a pro-Palestinian symbol’ and told Melanie that he was wearing that deliberately because he was coming to Melanie’s venue.
“He told her, ‘that stance you’re taking (on social media) is a political symbol.
Rae also posted on social media: “We have a Zionist in our midst harassing pro-Palestinians.”
There was a concerted effort on social media last summer to boycott Melanie’s shows (She had three different shows altogether.)
As Melanie said during a phone conversation we had last summer about what happened to her, “This is so ridiculous. I’m being harassed and bullied because I’m Jewish…it’s not about Israel.”
Eric Rae was relieved from his duties after Melanie complained to the Fringe office staff, Melanie noted during our conversation.
She adds that other Fringe employees also complained about Eric Rae’s behaviour: “I wasn’t the only one who complained last year,” she wrote in an email sent today. “Several staff members complained, as Eric was not adhering to the Fringe policy that did not allow political symbols to be worn by staff. From what I heard, he refused to stop wearing it, and he did publicly target me. The Winnipeg Fringe upheld their safe spaces policy, and they were wonderful in the way they handled it.”
Further, Melanie was the target of an organized campaign on pro-Palestine social media calling for her shows to be boycotted.
(You can read the full story about what happened to Melanie, also to her mother during last year’s Edmonton Fringe Festival, at Melanie Gall.)
Just today we received another email from Melanie informing us that the same individual who targeted her last summer is targeting her again during this year’s Fringe Festival.
Melanie wrote: “Hi! Thanks so much for the mention in the preview article! I just wanted to let you know that Eric Rae is at it again.”
Attached to that email was a picture taken from Rae’s Instagram account.
As of the writing of this post, Melanie said that she is out of town for three days and is not aware whether any of her posters have been defaced – the way they were last summer.
She did add, however, that “I assume by ‘make her feel unwelcome’ (which is what is written on one of the pictures on Rae’s Instagram account) he is planning something. Ugh.”
Melanie also said that “The one post is too close to a threat to ignore.”
In a subsequent email Melanie also sent a screenshot of an exchange that took place on Rae’s Instagram account between him and someone who goes by the handle “Kat Cat.”
If we hear more about what’s been happening to Melanie we’ll update this article.
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