Local News
How did an English performance poet develop such a keen interest in Jewish nuclear physicists?
By BERNIE BELLAN Readers of this website may have read an earlier story I posted about a Fringe play titled “THE KID WAS A SPY,” by well-known Fringe writer and performer Jem Rolls. (You can read that story at https://jewishpostandnews.ca/faqs/rokmicronews-fp-1/fringe-show-asks-was-giving-the-secret-to-the-atomic-bomb-to-the-russians-morally-justifiable/)
I was so intrigued by the notion that Rolls had written, not one, but three entire Fringe plays centering around the lives of individuals he described as “Jewish nuclear physicists no one has ever heard of” that I wanted to find out from Rolls what led to his interest in the subject.
We were supposed to have met for an interview while the Winnipeg Fringe Festival was still occurring but, as events transpired, Rolls got caught up with other things that required his attention, and wasn’t able to meet with me.
Still, he contacted me to apologize for not having been able to sit down for a conversation and said he would still very much like to engage with me about his interest in “little-known Jewish nuclear physicists.”
As it was, Rolls recently found himself with more time on his hands when he was in Saskatoon, getting ready for that city’s fringe festival which, he described in an email to me as “the quiet bit after and before the madhouses,” i.e., the Winnipeg and Edmonton fringe festivals.
A little information about Jem Rolls: He’s one of the veteran of the fringe festival circuit. His performing at the Saskatoon Fringe Festival was to be his 150th different fringe festival appearance.
Born in Surrey, England, “from 1996 Jem ran the only successful poetry cabaret in Edinburgh in decades and in 2001 he moved there and set up a very successful fortnightly cabaret, while running Scotland’s first Poetry Slams.
“In 2001 he did the Toronto fringe and nothing was ever the same again. Confronted by the possibilities and demands of the hour show, Jem gleefully exploded into the freedom of it. The Fringe circuit has very few rules and can provide the artists a complete liberation. Jem has been making a living creating a new hour show every year since 2003.”
I also found out from Rolls that in recent years he has been spending his winters in India. Quite the vagabond, he suggested that “all I need is a passport, a laptop, and a bank card.”
We did end up talking over Messenger on Thursday, July 31. I began our conversation by asking Rolls what led him to develop his particular interest in “little-known Jewish nuclear physicists?”
He explained that several years ago he “was stuck in Dauphin with not very much to read.
“I discovered a book about Nazi scientists,” he said.
That book happened to mention a Jewish physicist by the name of Lise Meitner. Rolls was sufficiently intrigued by Meitner’s story that he determined to find out more about her.
Later that year he found himself spending the winter in Edmonton. Rolls said he went to the University of Alberta to do some research on Meitner and came across another book that proved to be instrumental to his developing what would subsequently turn into three separate fringe shows. The book was titled “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” by Richard Rhodes.
That book, which was first published in 1987, went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It is described as the “definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb.”
Rolls’ initial interest in Meitner subsequently led to an interest in the life of Leo Szilard, who became one of five Hungarian-born Jewish physicists – nicknamed “the Martians,” who were all eventually to play key roles in the Manhattan Project and, ultimately, the development of the atomic bomb. The others were: Theodore von Kármán, John von Neumann, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner. Apparently a running joke among their Western colleagues in scientific circles at the time was that “Martians had landed in Hungary sometime around 1900 but soon departed after finding the planet unsuitable. However, these higher beings stayed just long enough to leave behind offspring, which turned into exceptionally brainy scientists, later nicknamed ‘The Martians.’ “
Without going into detail about the scientific work undertaken both by Meitner and Szilard in this story, suffice to say that Rolls was able to mine their stories sufficiently to create two separate shows about them: The first was “THE INVENTOR OF ALL THINGS, “about Leo Szilard, which Rolls first performed in 2015 (and then again in 2017).
In 2019 Rolls created a show about Meitner titled “THE WALK IN THE SNOW,” which he also performed in 2022.
(I should note that Rolls, who has now appeared at 150 different fringe festivals, performs a particular show repeatedly on the fringe festival circuit in any given year. As he explained, “the hard work is done three months before” a show is premiered, as he writes the material and rehearses it on his own prior to taking it before a live audience.)
Both those previous shows proved enormously successful for Rolls, garnering “multiple sellouts and five star reviews.”
Winnipeg audiences, however, have mostly come to know Rolls as a “performance poet,” something, as noted previously, he first brought to Canada at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2001.
Putting on a show in Winnipeg, however, has always been an especially pleasurable experience for Rolls because, as he put it, “Winnipeg is an excellent place where to find out how good a show is.”
Still, ever curious to try to develop new material, Rolls said that he doesn’t like to bring back shows from the past once he says to himself that he is done with them.
Thus, as he has now been performing his latest show, the aforementioned “THE KID WAS A SPY,” in front of audiences across North America this year, Rolls observed that he “may do this show again in another two years,” but then he’ll be done with it.
In my story about “THE KID WAS A SPY,” I noted how controversial much of the show was, having to do as it was with the fact that the protagonist of the show, Ted Hall, turned out to be a spy for the Russians. Hall did end up giving the Russians vital information about the development of the atomic bomb – and was never arrested even though both the FBI and MI6 in Britain had their suspicions about him.
During the course of the show, Rolls attempts to create a balance in the minds of audience members between the conflicting moral decisions that led to Hall’s actions. He was determined to help the effort to create the atomic bomb before Nazi German scientists would succeed in doing so, but he also wanted to keep America from having a monopoly on owning the secret to the atomic bomb – which led to his approaching the KGB and offering to hand over to them the keys to the bomb.
I asked Rolls whether he honestly thought that the Americans and the Russians could be put on the same moral plane – which is something he posited during his play? I also wondered about the very sympathetic treatment he gives to Ted Hall.
Rolls suggested that for him, “Ted Hall was a very likeable and sympathetic guy.”
But, I argued, when he asked audience members to vote on whether Hall was justified in doing what he did, the results were bound to be skewed heavily in favour of voting in Hall’s favour by the mere fact that fringe festival audiences are probably so much more left-wing than the general population.
Rolls noted, however, that the audience make-up for this particular show has leaned heavily older, and that a good portion of audiences would certainly have enough knowledge of history to be able to come to reasoned determinations about the relative moral culpability of America and the Soviet Union over the years. He also observed that Hall was not atypical among young American Jews in the 1930s. “There were an awful lot of radical left-wing Jews” around that time, he suggested.
“I spend 57 minutes trying to give an accounting that weighs the zeitgeist of the time,” he said, against our current thinking about the historical record of America and the Soviet Union.
“This show was quite a bit more difficult to do than his other shows,” Rolls said – especially his performance poetry shows which, he noted, “were funny.”
Even his earlier show about Leo Szilard, Rolls observed, had quite a bit of humour in it.
Given the heavily Jewish theme of each of Rolls’ shows about Jewish nuclear physicists, I asked Rolls whether he’s ever been approached to put on any of the shows by a Jewish theatre company. So far, he hasn’t, he answered, but he’s certainly open to the idea.
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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