Features
Pastor Rudy Fidel has had an unabiding love for Jews and Israel for over 40 years
By BERNIE BELLAN In formulating ideas for writing this particular article I spent a considerable amount of time reading materials pertaining to Christian Zionism. I admit that I am still more than a little confused when I hear devout Christians refer to their belief in “Hashem,” using the same term as one would expect to hear from someone who is Jewish.
Yet, as I read more about the long history of Christian Zionism and its various permutations I can more easily understand how someone can claim to be both a devout Christian and an ardent Zionist.
But, when you hear someone like Pastor Rudy Fidel expound upon his love for Israel, as he did to at a recent meeting of the Remis Lecture Group at the Gwen Secter Centre on October 20th, well – trying to understand Fidel’s religious orientation is no easy task.
Fidel’s love for Israel is obvious; as of the time of writing he has been to Israel 23 times, beginning in 1986. As pastor of Faith Temple for the past 40 years he has been consistent and steadfast not only in promoting support for Israel, his devotion has led to others in his church contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Israel.
During his talk at the Gwen Secter Centre Fidel referred to one particular couple that belongs to Faith Temple (although without divulging their names) who have purchased an astounding five ambulances for Magen David Adom, on top of which they have contributed $100,000 for Holocaust survivors.
But, when it comes to explaining what has led Fidel to harbour such a deep love for Israel and a general affinity for Jews, well, it’s not easy obtaining an answer from him for that.
In material found on the Christian Friends of Israel website, it’s noted that Fidel was mentored by Dr. Ingrid Bergner when she was Fidel’s predecessor as pastor of Faith Temple. According to the website, “Dr. Bergner visited Israel in 1967, just two weeks before the Six Day War and returned seared with a passion for this holy land…It was Bergner who mentored Rudy through his long years at Faith Temple…But he not only undertook the leadership of the church – he undertook the mantle of leading groups to Israel.”
The Six Day War, it has been observed, was not only pivotal in awakening a much closer interest and affection for Israel among many Jews, it also led to much stronger support among many branches of Protestant Christianity. For many Evangelical Christians, Israel’s lighting victory in that war was a sign that the fulfillment of the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah was at hand.
Rudy Fidel, however, simply dispenses with any talk of the return of the Messiah. Something he said to his audience at Gwen Secter when he spoke – and which I’m sure came as quite the surprise to almost everyone who was there, is that there is not a single cross on display at Faith Temple.
For that matter, if you had walked into the room not knowing that Fidel is a Christian pastor, there is almost nothing in what he said that would have made you think he is anything but Jewish.
“The only agenda I have is to love Israel,” he said. “I love Judaism.”
In 1983, Fidel said, “when I made a personal commitment to God, I went to a travel agent and got a bunch of brochures about Israel.” As was noted, that was the start not only of Fidel going to Israel as the leader of many different tour groups, it also led to him bringing other Christian pastors to Israel so that they, too, would be encouraged to bring their parishioners to Israel.
Fidel referred in particular to the example of Reverend Raymond Maclean, a Native pastor who has been to Israel an incredible 32 times.
Continuing in the vein of his admiration of the Jewish people, Fidel went on to say that his “favourite character in the Bible is Jacob. I see him in Larry Vickar, in Earl Barish, and in Alan Yusim (who was a former director of B’nai Brith Midwest Region in Winnipeg).”
It was Alan Yusim who asked Fidel to participate in B’nai Brith’s annual Holocaust week event, “Unto Every Person There is a Name,” when various individuals are invited to read out loud the names of individuals who perished in the Holocaust at a ceremony held at the Manitoba Legislature.
Fidel said he was deeply touched by that invitation, which came in 2003. He observed that the night before the ceremony, when he was practicing reading the names of those Holocaust victims so that he would not stumble over their pronunciation, he had what he described as an “epiphany.”
Developing close relationships with Jewish organizations and leaders of those organizations, such as Alan Yuism, has been key to what Rudy Fidel has strived to accomplish, he explained. He spoke particularly fondly of the friendship he and his wife, Gina, have maintained over the years with Larry and Tove Vickar, noting that friendship originated way back when a young Tove Vickar, recently arrived here from Israel, was studying English for the first time and Gina was her teacher.
Fidel observed that Larry Vickar has been generous in his support for a multitude of causes, going so far as helping “to build homes in the Philippines. He puts his heart into everything he does,” Fidel said.
So, if the Six Day War was a pivotal event for Dr. Ingrid Bergner who, in turn, imbued Rudy Fidel with an ongoing devotion to Israel, it was his later encounters with Holocaust survivors that led to another facet of his love for Jews.
In 2005, Fidel said, he was part of a March of the Living tour to Poland and Israel. When he was at Auschwitz he met a survivor by the name of Felix Opatowski, who had been an inmate in Auschwitz. Opatowski was actually a part of the group that planned on blowing up one of the crematoria at Auschwitz (until the SS learned of the plot) and, even though he was severely tortured (with all his fingernails pulled out, along with the loss of an eye and hearing in one ear), he managed to survive.
According to Fidel, Opatowski said that the “ground at Auschwitz is as holy as Eretz Yisrael ,” which didn’t go over well with Israeli authorities. But meeting Opatowski was another life-changing moment for Fidel, he explained, and one that led him on a path devoted to helping Holocaust survivors. He noted that there are still 150,000 Holocaust survivors alive in the world today and, working with an organization known as “Emunah,” which is devoted to helping survivors, Fidel has raised over $20,000 for the cause.
Not only has Fidel played a significant role in helping Holocaust survivors, he’s also long been active in helping Jews in Ukraine and in Cuba. (He noted that he’s been to Cuba eight different times, where he’s helped to forge ties with the Cuban Jewish community.)
But, after he concluded his talk, Fidel was challenged by audience members with some questions that elicited some evasive answers which might lead one to wonder just what motivates Rudy Fidel’s deep love for Jews.
One question that seemed to catch him off guard was: “Where does Jesus Christ come in?”
Fidel begged off answering, saying, “I’d rather not talk about that. Maybe it was my passion 40 years ago, but it isn’t any more.”
Another audience member, alluding to an observation Fidel had made earlier that over 150 different individuals whose last name was Fidel are recorded at Yad Vashem as having died in the Holocaust, asked whether Fidel had ever taken “a DNA test” to try and determine whether he actually had Jewish ancestry himself.
Fidel answered that he hadn’t, but it was certainly an interesting idea.
Finally, someone else asked him “Are all your congregants pro Israel?”
Fidel answered, “Most of them.”
Quite the interesting fellow – that Rudy Fidel. It’s not the first time we’ve written about him in an article for this paper, but like many other Christians who harbour a deep love for Israel and Jews in general, we certainly appreciate all that he’s done over the years to strengthen ties between Christians and Jews.
Features
What Is Next for Israel and Hezbollah?
By HENRY SREBRNIK During Operation Rising Lion in 2025, the Iranians discovered that the proxies they had built up for years failed to provide the assistance expected of them. Hezbollah, their most important ally, refrained from opening a front against Israel.
But in the current war, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem responded to pressure from Tehran and carried out his threat to open fire on Israel. It sent tens of thousands of Israelis in the Galilee into shelters several times a day. This time Hezbollah proved effective. What now?
On June 26, after a series of five bilateral meetings hosted by the United States, representatives of the Israeli, Lebanese, and U.S. governments signed the Trilateral Framework Agreement, declaring their shared “ambition to end conflict between them, ensure the sovereignty and security of both countries, and establish peaceful neighborly relations between the two countries.”
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework which would include the disarming of Hezbollah, the phased withdrawal of Israel from areas conquered over the last three years of war, and the deployment of the Western supported Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to the areas evacuated by Israel. So far, three “pilot zones” have been established, in the areas of Faroun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya. “It’s the beginning of the beginning. There’s a lot of work ahead,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the signing ceremony. That’s an understatement!
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, a Maronite Christian, made his first ever White House visit on July 21. The Washington meeting with President Donald Trump, the first for a Lebanese president since 2009, was meant to move forward on the project to sever Lebanon from Iran’s orbit, disarm Tehran’s proxy Hezbollah, and pave a way toward Lebanon-Israel peace.
Aoun recalled that the army’s collapse in 1975 led to the emergence of militia groups, a civil war and the Palestinian takeover of the country’s south, which was used to launch attacks on Israel.
But there remain legitimate doubts about Beirut’s willingness to follow through on promises to disarm and dismantle Hezbollah. The last round of such efforts in late 2025 failed. Lebanese leaders have promised to disarm Hezbollah multiple times over the past thirty-five years, without success. The United States has sent the LAF more than $3 billion in aid since 2006. And yet two decades later, Hezbollah is still armed and still on Israel’s northern border.
“America needs to support the LAF,” Aoun told Trump. “Without the LAF,” he continued, “everything will collapse.” And as he told a group after his meeting with Trump, the aid must be “immediate and unconditional.” Could the army plausibly disarm Hezbollah? Since 2022 Washington has been paying LAF salaries directly, yet there has been no change.
The LAF is generally thought to consist of about 50 per cent Shia Lebanese among its rank and file, and around 30 per cent in its officer corps. Such a force would split along sectarian lines were it to be deployed against Hezbollah. Until Hezbollah’s control over the Shiite community weakens, it remains unclear whether the army can perform the task.
Anyhow, eliminating Hezbollah is virtually impossible, because its very existence is just part of what makes Lebanon an ongoing failed state. Hezbollah is not merely a military organization. It is the product of a particular geopolitical environment, a particular historical experience, and a particular understanding of survival.
Over the past four decades, it has evolved into a political party, social welfare provider, military force and ideological movement deeply rooted in Lebanon’s Shia communities. While military action can weaken it, the social and political foundations that sustain Hezbollah are much harder to remove.
The people who demand Hezbollah’s disarmament often begin with an idealized image of Lebanon rather than the Lebanon that exists. They imagine a state capable of protecting all its citizens equally and defending its borders independently. That is very far from reality.
Modern Lebanon was constructed around a delicate sectarian formula that sought to balance competing communities rather than forge a single national project. Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing arrangement was formed under the National Pact of 1943 and the Taif Agreement of 1989. Different factions cultivated different external patrons, be they France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Syria. Political identity often became intertwined with foreign sponsorship and external alliances. The result was a state that never succeeded in creating a unified national consciousness.
For much of the country’s history, the Shia Muslims were widely regarded as the country’s most politically and economically marginalized community. They were often viewed with suspicion by the authorities and lacked the institutional recognition enjoyed by other religious communities.
So, for the Shia population, Hezbollah is not merely a political party or an armed movement. It is an insurance policy against annihilation. The Shia community in Lebanon looks around the region today and sees opponents everywhere — not just Israel, but Sunni Muslim militants ruling Syria, Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia as well – states that consider Shia Islam a heresy to be extinguished. (Lebanon’s own Sunnis also fit that description.) Under such conditions, disarmament begins to look like suicide.
President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Syria might get involved in Lebanon again is ridiculous. Any Syrian intervention under its new Sunni rulers would allow Hezbollah to claim credibly that Lebanon faces a new external threat. Whereas many Lebanese question Hezbollah’s claims that it is protecting Lebanon from Israel, there would likely be greater agreement that a Syrian incursion merits resistance. Many Lebanese would view it through the lens of Syria’s 29-year occupation of Lebanon, fuelling concerns about a return of Syrian influence over the country.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Hezbollah has portrayed the new government in Damascus as a jihadi organization that seeks to carry out sectarian massacres against the Shias. This has actually increased Hezbollah’s legitimacy within its own support base – those who already view Hezbollah as a resistance movement that seeks to fight against any external actor.
Nonetheless, in the recent conflict Israel has significantly weakened Hezbollah. The organization since the Gaza war began has lost most of its long-range and heavy missiles, and about 8,000 of its fighters and commanders have been killed, out of roughly 30,000.
But Hezbollah has not been decisively defeated, nor will it be. The problem is that when a state is faced with an armed force on its soil that doesn’t want to disarm, the usual recourse available to the state is coercion. The Lebanese state has neither the will nor capacity to do so and is no longer sovereign, in any meaningful sense.
As long as the conditions that created Hezbollah remain intact, the expectation that it will voluntarily surrender its weapons will remain a fantasy. It is up to Israel alone to keep Hezbollah north of the Litani River, where the group’s short-distance missiles and drones cannot reach Israel’s population centres.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
WINNIPEG EMPLOYERS SHOULD USE AI TO TRAIN, NOT JUST TRIM
By Dr. GLEB TSIPURSKY Generative AI has already entered everyday Canadian work. Statistics Canada reported that 35.9% of workers used generative AI in the previous 12 months. For Winnipeg employers, the important question is no longer whether staff will use these tools. The more consequential question is what kind of workforce employers will build while they use them.
An updated Stanford University analysis found employment among workers ages 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations 19% below where it would be had it kept pace with less-exposed peers, with the gap widening over time. That trend should concern Winnipeg employers because the work most exposed to automation often overlaps with the work through which beginners develop professional judgment.
Entry-level employees do more than produce first drafts, conduct basic research, summarize information, prepare routine analyses, or handle standard customer questions. Those tasks are also training. Repetition teaches people what good work looks like, where common mistakes appear, when a situation is routine, and when something unusual requires escalation.
If employers simply remove that work, they may save time today while weakening the pipeline of people capable of handling harder work tomorrow. A firm can automate a junior task quickly. Rebuilding several years of missing experience later is much harder.
The better approach is to redesign entry-level work around AI-assisted apprenticeship. New employees can use AI to produce a first draft, but they should also verify the output against reliable sources. They can use AI to summarize a customer issue, but they should explain which facts matter and what remains uncertain. They can use AI to analyze routine information, but they should flag exceptions and bring consequential decisions to experienced colleagues.
That changes the role of junior employees without eliminating the learning built into the role. Instead of rewarding people for producing routine work manually, employers can reward them for checking AI output, spotting edge cases, asking better questions, and knowing when human judgment is required.
Managers also need to change how they supervise. If a junior employee submits an AI-assisted answer, the manager should ask how the employee verified it, what assumptions the system made, what could go wrong, and what would cause the employee to escalate the issue. Those questions turn AI use into a training process rather than a shortcut around learning.
Winnipeg’s small and mid-sized employers may be especially well positioned to take this approach. They often cannot afford to separate technology adoption, training, and talent development into different departments. The same manager who wants more productivity today also needs capable employees next year. That makes it practical to connect AI use directly to coaching and skill development.
Employers should also resist measuring AI adoption only by time saved or tasks completed. Those metrics matter, but they can hide whether the organization is developing stronger judgment. A more useful set of questions is whether employees are catching more errors, escalating the right exceptions, becoming more independent over time, and learning which decisions should remain human-led.
None of this requires employers to preserve every old task exactly as it was. Some routine work should disappear. The goal should be to preserve the learning function, not the old workflow. If AI removes one form of repetition, employers should deliberately replace it with another way for junior staff to practice, receive feedback, and encounter progressively harder decisions.
Winnipeg businesses can gain real productivity from AI without turning entry-level work into a dead end. The strongest employers will use AI to accelerate the development of beginners rather than treating beginners as the easiest cost to remove. That approach can improve productivity now while still producing the experienced professionals Winnipeg will need in the years ahead.
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Adapted from: The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results (Georgetown University Press, 2026). https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/aibook
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a behavioral scientist called the “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times, helps tech-forward leaders stop overpaying for AI while boosting engagement and innovation. He serves as the CEO of the AI consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts, and wrote eight books, including The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results (Georgetown University Press, 2026).
Features
IPL 2026/27 Preview: Beer Sheva Defends Its Crown
Israeli football enters the 2026/27 season with a genuinely open title race for the first time in years. Hapoel Beer Sheva claimed a dramatic sixth championship last May, edging Beitar Jerusalem by just three points after a campaign interrupted by regional conflict and settled almost entirely on head-to-head form. That kind of finish leaves scores unsettled, and every major club has spent the summer either reinforcing a title push or plotting revenge. With four Israeli sides now competing in European qualifiers simultaneously, the new Ligat ha’Al campaign carries more weight than it has in years.
How Beer Sheva Won It
Ran Kozuk’s side did not simply outscore the league last season; they won the moments that mattered against the team chasing them hardest. Beitar Jerusalem lost twice to Beersheba across the regular campaign and could only draw both playoff meetings, a pattern one report summed up bluntly: if you want to be champions, you have to beat the champions, and Beitar never managed it. Kings Kangwa was named the league’s most valuable player, while captain Miguel Vitor and goalkeeper Ofir Marciano anchored a squad that closed out the title with a 4-2 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv. Owner Alona Barkat has kept that core together, giving Beersheba a real shot at back-to-back titles, assuming Champions League fixtures don’t wear the squad down.
Beitar’s Response and the Chase Pack
Losing a title race by three points after leading for large stretches tends to force change, and Beitar Jerusalem has responded accordingly. Almog Cohen, previously the club’s sporting director, has stepped into the head coach role, replacing Barak Itzhaki after the campaign ended in disappointment. Captain Yarden Shua, veteran forward Omer Atzili and Dor Hugi remain the attacking core, though the club opens the season without injured midfielder Adi Yona, a blow given how much Beitar leaned on midfield control last year. Maccabi Tel Aviv arrives with a different kind of statement: despite finishing outside the top two domestically, they won the Israel State Cup in a chaotic 2-1 final against Beersheba that produced six red cards, suggesting the squad has quality to challenge again even if consistency remains the question mark.
The Return of European Football on a Bigger Scale
What separates this season from recent ones is the sheer number of Israeli clubs competing for continental places at once. Beersheba enters Champions League qualifying as domestic champions, though for security reasons their ties have been relocated to Szombathely, Hungary rather than played at home. Maccabi Tel Aviv, seeded thanks to a healthy UEFA coefficient, goes into Europa League qualifying against the winner of Sheriff Tiraspol and Aluminij. Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv both enter Conference League qualifying, the latter having secured their spot via a fourth-place playoff finish. Playing qualifiers on neutral ground has become routine for Israeli clubs, and it hasn’t stopped them from competing credibly.
Mid-Table Ambition and the Promotion Effect
Beyond the four clubs chasing European nights, the middle of the table looks unusually competitive heading into August. Hapoel Petah Tikva and Hapoel Tel Aviv both returned to the top flight after a season away, and Hapoel Tel Aviv’s playoff run last term shows promoted clubs can climb quickly rather than simply survive. Maccabi Haifa and Ironi Kiryat Shmona, both capable of springing results against the traditional big three, will look to use a full pre-season to close the gap. That added depth tends to produce the unpredictable midweek results that make a 14-team division worth following from the opening whistle.
What to Watch as the Season Kicks Off
Beersheba’s fixture list is the one to track first, since balancing Champions League qualifying with league form in August and September will say a great deal about whether this squad has the depth to go back-to-back. Beitar’s response under a rookie head coach is the second storyline, particularly whether Cohen can get more out of a group that dominated possession last season but couldn’t finish off the champions when it counted. For fans following these storylines match by match, tracking how the market prices each side into the opening rounds is a useful gauge of who bookmakers actually rate, and anyone comparing options for the season ahead can check out the best betting sites in Canada for a sense of how odds and coverage are shaping up before a ball is kicked.
Between a defending champion carrying continental fixture congestion, a rival reshaping its coaching staff, and a deepening mid-table, Ligat ha’Al enters the new season with more storylines running in parallel than it has had in years. Whether Beer Sheva backs up their sixth title or Beitar finally converts near misses into silverware, the opening weeks should offer the first real clues.
