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U.S. military expert John Spencer to speak in Winnipeg Sept. 11… argues Israel isn’t committing genocide in Gaza
(CJN Sept. 10, 2024) Maj. (Ret.) John Spencer is an American army veteran who heads the Modern War Institute at the U.S. military’s prestigious West Point Academy in New York State. His books and courses about fighting historic urban and tunnel wars have been widely quoted—he’s even interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who name-dropped the former combat officer’s research during his speech to Congress in July. The Israel Defence Forces like Spencer’s work so much that they’ve brought the Iraq veteran with them three times inside some of the captured Hamas tunnels under Gaza.
Ahead of two speaking engagements in Canada this week—in Winnipeg on Sept. 11 and Toronto on Sept. 12 —Spencer joined The CJN Daily podcast to share his eyewitness accounts of three research tours with the IDF inside the terrorists’ tunnels. Spencer explains why the Philadelphi corridor and 100 tunnels between Egypt and Gaza are what’s holding up a ceasefire deal that some believe could free the hostages.
Although Spencer wasn’t present 10 days ago when the IDF discovered the bodies of six executed hostages under Rafah, he understands why the entrance to that tunnel was actually hidden in the bedroom of a Palestinian child’s room in Gaza. Despite the latest heinous war crime that has rocked Israel and people around the world, Spencer feels Israel is still winning the war against Hamas.
The CJN: Readers may not have been following your prolific writings about what’s been happening in Israel since Oct. 7, but they may have seen when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu name-dropped you in his speech to Congress. Can you just give our listeners a bit of background on what role, if any, you are playing officially or unofficially advising the Israeli government in this war?
Spencer: Sure. So I’m playing absolutely no official or unofficial role, but my research and my writings have been used significantly to fight the disinformation. I have done multiple visits to Israel and three visits into Gaza with the IDF since Oct. 7, which has informed my writing and research, but no official or unofficial role.
My research has been, including by the prime minister, many, many times, used to fight the disinformation about what the IDF are actually doing in Gaza to pursue the political objectives provided by the government for the war against Hamas.
The CJN: We’re interviewing you just a few days after the bodies of the six Israeli executed hostages were discovered in a 20-metre deep tunnel under Rafah. What can you tell us about this particular tunnel, and what is significant about it?
Spencer: There’s a lot of unknowns about it, but we know that it was in conjunction to the IDF recent discovery of a living hostage. Nobody knew that in those targeted operations, because intelligence drives operations. Israel was conducting this operation in the Rafah area, successfully retrieving the live hostage in a tunnel, but without knowing nearby Hamas saw and heard the IDF and then entered another tunnel without the IDF’s knowledge, basically in very close proximity. And because of that IDF operation, I believe that Hamas entered their deep tunnel that they were holding the hostages for all their reasons that are illegal and not in accordance with the law of war, and brutally murdered each one of those six hostages. Then we saw the release of the videos that were very recently filmed.
We don’t know if that was filmed in the tunnel, but we do know where the bodies were found was in this 20-metre deep tunnel in Rafah, which does pain a lot of people because of the different delays in the Rafah operation to basically search and clear the areas in which now where this all occurred, where they were later discovered through the IDF operation and brought home, finally to their families.
The CJN: You’ve been in the tunnels. Tell us what you saw. Where did you go?
Spencer: My first visit (was) in December. I actually was taken to the massive tunnel that was discovered outside of the Erez humanitarian zone. So this is a two-and-a-half mile tunnel that went a hundred feet underground. It was a massive invasion tunnel that you could drive trucks through, that had advanced wiring, ventilation, power, telecommunications. It was a multimillion-dollar tunnel that went right up to the Israeli-Gaza wall. It wasn’t used on Oct. 7, but the discovery is just massive. And then it went all the way back into the Gaza urban areas and had many branches. For me as somebody who studies underground warfare, just the sophistication of this and the realization that this is just one of hundreds of massive tunnels that they have found. And the realization of this underground world that Hamas built.
I got to tour this one, but it was also a realization of the 400-plus miles of tunnels in Gaza, costing billions of dollars, unmeasurable amounts of concrete and steel to build this infrastructure underground for the sole purpose of terror. No civilians are allowed in this.
When I went back in February, I went with the IDF, the 98th division, into Khan Younis.
It was really going through all they’re doing to protect civilians, which I’m sure we’ll talk about, but also just how hard it is to find the tunnels. One of the places I went with the division commander was where they had had intelligence that there was a tunnel, but you just couldn’t see it while standing on the surface. And actually they were doing their procedures to drill and look for the tunnel that was really connecting to a mosque and was coming out of a mosque.
And they found that tunnel. I was basically standing on top of an enemy tunnel that was deep underground. When I went back in July 2024, I went into the Netzarim corridor with the IDF. This area where they’re creating a corridor, not just a road, from Israel all the way to the Mediterranean through Gaza, to create this security zone.
I had this realization and saw on the maps how many tunnels were just in the corridor. You can’t take a step in Gaza without actually feeling and having some belief that there’s a tunnel underneath you.
Now, I also learned through these different visits from December, February, and July that there are different types of tunnels in Gaza. As you were wrestling with, well, how many tunnels, how many tunnels has the IDF destroyed, is that there are levels of tunnels: from strategic ones, like that one I was in December that is for large movements or there are ones that actually connect northern Gaza to southern Gaza, which most people didn’t know. They’re in the Netzarim corridor. This is in the area of the Wadi Gaza, which is this river basin that splits northern Gaza and southern Gaza. It used to be a river, but it isn’t anymore. They’ve discovered over a mile-long, two-mile-long tunnels that go underneath that river basin. So something they just didn’t think was possible. So you can basically enter northern Gaza, the very tip of Gaza and come out in Rafah basically in a tunnel.
And those are strategic tunnels. But there are also little tactical tunnels that go from one building to another.
There are tunnels that are used for command and control, like in Khan Younis they found luxury tunnels for the leadership of Hamas, with air conditioners and ceilings and, you know, kitchens and barracks. The IDF is then making a decision on which ones are critical to military capabilities that have to be destroyed. Can you ever really destroy all these? That’s some of what I’ve learned.
The CJN: What are the challenges for the IDF in this kind of warfare that we wouldn’t know about from, let’s say,the equipment that doesn’t work, that would work above ground?
Spencer: So this is getting into the classes I teach in our urban warfare operations course. Underground, people think it’s just the extension of the surface. You have something like a building or something, you have an underground.
The CJN: Yeah, well we’re used to subway tunnels where the Wi-Fi works, right?
Spencer: Yes. When you enter the underground, it’s more like going underwater. You can’t breathe without assistance underground and all the contaminants that are underground. It’s very dangerous to just breathe. You can’t see. For military personnel, none of your night vision goggles work, because usually night vision relies on ambient light. And this is a “no light” area.
You can’t communicate because most communication equipment relies on line-of-sight or satellites. So you can’t communicate underground. You can’t navigate. GPS, all of that doesn’t work. You can’t even shoot your weapons because of the concussion of your weapon. So you have to have all specialized equipment designed only for the underground.
Now, unique to Israel, and this is why I’ve been studying Israel for years, is they developed a special unit, the Yahalom, it’s their basic version of a tunnel rats, an entire brigade of special forces engineers who try to develop the equipment, all the drones and robots and dogs and everything that can operate underground, but also the equipment for the soldiers, the tactics. They have the biggest world force that has been dedicated to being able to operate underground and they have been used heavily in Gaza. I also came to the quick realization that yes, you have this specialized unit, soldiers, equipment, everything, but it’s nowhere near the amount that you will need for the size of the tunnels in Gaza.
The CJN: Okay. And you were mentioning the fact that the IDF is being pilloried for not being humanitarian enough in its military operations and you’ve studied war in tunnels as well in other countries and you’ve been deployed yourself. Why do you feel that the world is not giving Israel a fair shake in terms of how it’s doing this war against civilians?
Spencer: Well, at the macro level, it seems for Israel, Gaza is where the truth dies. The accusation that Israel has been disproportionate, indiscriminate, excessive, or starving the population. While none of those are true, there’s actually a counterfactual huge body of evidence, actually real and physical. Like the “starvation”. I went to the Netzarim corridor, saw where the (U.S. humanitarian) pier used to be, and there were just mountains, a whole field of humanitarian aid that just hadn’t been picked up. But from the actual execution of war, like you said, for the IDF, there’s no comparison. So the IDF was being compared to other operations where just this tunnel challenge of being able to find and operate with an entire world underneath the urban areas.
Hamas built this world underneath their civilians for the sole purpose of using everything on the surface to cause [criticism from] the international community. the destruction, the civilian casualties, everything, but all these lies about being disproportionate, proportionality–nobody’s faced this challenge in modern history. No military has.
And then the other thing, which is what the prime minister and other Israeli officials or government use, which is backed up by data, is that in this execution of this war against Hamas, a defender who’s had 15 years to prepare for the attack of the IDF, Israel has done more and has implemented more civilian harm-mitigation measures than any military in the history of war, to include the U. S., Canada, the coalitions, to prevent civilian casualties and destruction. Like evacuating cities, like dropping [leaflets], the use of daily pauses, the use of certain munitions. There’s a long list that I go through. There’s actually over 10 civilian harm-mitigation measures that Israel has implemented, some that have never been created before in the history of war, like tracking civilian populations with their cell phones on or off and then restricting them. This is what I saw in Khan Younis, restricting the IDF operations because of that overriding aspect of preventing civilian harm, trying to get the civilians out of harm’s way, even though Egypt, which owns a lot of the destruction, the civilian casualties, and [took in] not a single refugee. So even that aspect of fighting a war against a military who’s trying to get their civilians killed without a complete area to move civilians to, into the Sinai, which would be really realistic. So the idea of how to find a way to create a safer zone within Gaza while still moving against Hamas.
The CJN: I know that a lot of people have criticized your view saying, ‘Well, it’s hard for them to be humanitarian when they’re trapped, or their cell phones aren’t working’. But we don’t have to talk about that now, I just wanted to raise the point that some people wouldn’t agree.
I want to talk about what the challenges are for Hamas in these tunnels. You said Israel can’t see, some of their stuff doesn’t work. But in terms of Hamas and the soldiers that are living down there, I read somewhere recently that there’s sort of an operations manual that was recently discovered that they have to switch them out, because they can’t be in the dark. It’s bad for their mental health. What do you know about the psychological and physical challenges for Hamas [and the hostages and the IDF] to stay down there?
Spencer: Well, so it’s being sensory deprived basically. So when you enter a tunnel, you’re being sensory deprived. And matter of fact, not all soldiers can operate underground. You get things like vertigo, you get claustrophobia. Just for the breathing, you start to get breathing problems, right? Because even if you have ventilation, which many of these [tunnels] do, there’s still immense amounts of contaminants, from going to the bathroom down there. It’s foreign to the human body. So all of those start to come into place. You can’t spend your life underground without ever coming to the surface. They rotate them because of that psychological impact of being sensory deprived, the contaminants in the air, all really human functions that you’re dealing with down there. You can lose a sense of time.
We kind of know that you kind of need vitamin D every once in a while, so you need the sunlight. So there’s a whole bunch of reasons why it’s really bad. For me, it reckons the understanding that the hostages have been held, many of them—although some of them have been held in civilian apartments and doctors’ apartments and things like that—are being held in this place that’s really unhealthy, inhumane, and unsanitary for humans to live in.
For Hamas, which I don’t really care about, yeah, it’s bad for them to stay underground for a long time. And if they’re rotated, it may help with that.
The CJN: In terms of where (Hamas leader) Yahya Sinwar is, does anyone know if there is any evidence that he’s still in a tunnel somewhere?
Spencer: I consult open source intelligence, I do only unclassified. There is, I guess, direct evidence. I think from all rational, reasonable analysis that is the belief that he’s there and what he would lose if he left just from a war objective stance. Just for the fact that Israel was able to take out Mohammed Deif, who is considered like the ghost of Hamas, the original founder of Hamas’s military. I think it’s highly likely that Israel, to include all of the intelligence organizations, have a really good idea of where he’s at in Gaza, but that he has surrounded himself with hostages and that he’s likely surrounded himself with tens of thousands of Palestinians in the areas in which Israel has had to create the safer zones that Hamas has since day one used for their advantages to include firing rockets from within. Mohammed Deif was within a stone’s throw of the humanitarian zone.
So yes, I believe that Israel has a really good idea of the general area. Although it’s a small area, right? Gaza, the Gaza Strip, is 25 miles long, seven to five miles wide in its longest area. It’s still two million people for one person to hide. There’s rumours of him dressing up like a woman, things like that, to hide and move within the tunnels.
There’s one video of him and his family, which is interesting because it’s the only civilians ever allowed in the tunnels, moving through the tunnels of Khan Younis back in the beginning of the war. I think he’s there. I think he is mostly underground for most of the time, like a rat, but that he’s also within this area of hundreds of thousands of civilians. It would be really hard to know exactly where he’s at.
The CJN: Your position is Israel actually winning this war? Because you’ve said yes and, and I’d like to explore that a bit.
Spencer: I wrote a Foreign Affairs article countering actually four major articles that have been published on ‘Israel isn’t winning. Israel is actually creating more terrorists than it’s killing’. All of these wrong frameworks.
Israel absolutely is winning its war against Hamas in Gaza, because I taught strategy at West Point. Wars have a start, they have an end. They have political goals, which can change, although Israel hasn’t changed its three primary goals for the war against Hamas. Those are: number one, return the hostages. Number two, destroy Hamas, its political and military power in the Gaza Strip. And number three, secure the borders.
There’s different wording for them, but those are the three goals. And Israel is absolutely [winning] all three of those. Especially with the hostages. They brought home over half the hostages to include over a hundred living hostages. But there is the myth that Israel could have brought them home a different way. It could have been negotiated in the beginning.
It could have done it without military force. It’s just not reality.
And I go through that in this Foreign Affairs article, that it’s been a combination of diplomatic, military, and other forms of national power that have brought over half the hostages home.
The CJN: So is Israel’s border with Gaza safer now? We’re not even talking about Hezbollah because that’s a whole other thing, and same with the West Bank, we don’t have time. How is Israel’s border safer today than on Oct. 7?
Spencer: Yeah, absolutely. The whole security framework that was before Oct. 7th will not ever happen again. The reliance on only technologies, minimal forces, the wall, everything. So Israel is building a buffer zone of up to a kilometer from where the wall was. It’s created more corridors through Gaza, which will allow it to project power. It’s secured, which is vital, the southern border between Gaza and Egypt and eliminated the super highway that we now know was there for underground smuggling of weapons, men, weapons, equipment, financing, everything. It sealed that. So just from an overall sense of securing southern Israel from Gaza and the threats of Gaza, it’s massive engineering projects, both creating the buffer zone all the way around, eliminating all the tunnels that were there, creating the Netzarim corridor. There’s new entry points into Gaza that will allow for this new security framework to be in place.
The CJN: You mentioned the Netzarim corridor, so let’s talk about it before we end. Our listeners may have started to hear the words Philadelphi corridor as part of the reason for the holdup [in any ceasefire deal] and the latest huge controversy out of Israel this past week between the government. You mentioned where it is. It’s the border between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel withdrew from in its agreement to disengage from Gaza years ago. And then they’ve reoccupied it because Egypt was allowing, as you said, all this smuggling to go through. And that’s been a big flashpoint.
Why is that so important now in what happens next?
Spencer: In order to destroy Hamas, which is not the idea of Hamas, but the military power and the political power of Hamas, what Israel has done along this border between Gaza and Egypt, which is only like an eight-to-10-mile stretch of land, but they have moved in, secured it and cut off the bloodline to Hamas, which is in wars actually unique because even in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, that ability for the enemy to be resupplied, to have sanctuary, to get new stuff in, the U.S. military really struggled with it. But Israel has been able to actually cut off Hamas now because of the Philadelphi corridor, from all of that resupply of rockets, everything, even financing. Now the contention is how long does Israel need to hold that piece of ground? Does it always need to have forces there, physically there, securing it? I personally believe not so.
The Israel-Gaza wall, the border wall between Israel and Gaza actually worked. It has a very deep subterranean aspect to it with a bunch of advanced sensors. Egypt was talking about that before it was actually discovered that there’s over a hundred massive tunnels going between Egypt and Gaza to include ones you can drive giant trucks through. Egypt was talking about putting up that wall. Eventually, I think there will be a new, basically an Israeli-style wall there that will prevent that subterranean traffic because on the surface, you can use advanced technologies, although you don’t rely only on that. Egypt did send a division of armour, basically an armoured brigade to the border, early in the war, and put up a new wall because they also didn’t want anybody coming across their border.
Why is this such a big issue for Hamas? Why is Hamas saying ‘You will not get any hostages back unless you leave the Philadelphi corridor’? Because it’s their vital aspect of surviving. All they have to do to win this war is survive.
They have ideas on how to do that. They’re grasping for this corridor. This highway for them is very vital to their survival and to be able to bring more weapons in, to be able to get out, all these things. But they also have ideas to give up political power. I call this the Hezbollah model. Hamas has put forward a plan to bring in some technocrats to govern Gaza, but they maintain military power. Sounds a lot like Hezbollah in Lebanon, although Hezbollah is also part of the government. So they’re grasping at trying to survive the war and basically win. And Israel has said that’s not going to happen. We’re going to demilitarize the strip. We’re going to actually start de-radicalization programs. We’re going to secure the entire border around so that Hamas can’t survive.
The CJN: How long is this going to take and can Israel actually win or this is going to happen again?
Spencer: So I got this [question] actually in October. How long will this take? How long will it take to clear the urban areas of Hamas’s military capabilities, tunnels, infrastructure? I mean, they found deep buried weapons manufacturing plants and just nobody knew that they were there, that it was possible to do that.
I always say, it isn’t how much time it will take, but how much time do they have?
Even General Dwight Eisenhower, after World War II said it would take 50 years to re-educate the Nazis. And if you ever thought we were going to give them the ability to wage war again, you were crazy. How long will it take to demilitarize the Gaza Strip? A very long time.
How long will it take to de-radicalize Hamas? But there is a path, right? It is up to Israel.
Israel is winning, but it’s up to Israel as a democratic country. It’s up to Israel if it ultimately wins, because what is very common in war, is you have to bring in another power. You can demilitarize and you can degrade Hamas to where it’s this guerrilla force, which Israel is very close to doing. Hamas doesn’t have military capability. It’s a guerrilla force hiding in the shadows, governing from the shadows, using humanitarian aid as coercive power over the people. But Israel has to basically help put in a new power. That will be the ultimate win, is that Hamas never rules again.
You have to put in another power. There are many ways to do that. You have to start post-conflict operations like de-radicalization programs, reconstruction, and new governance, institutions, all this stuff, which is very common in war, but it will take a very, very long time. And Israel has to, for their survival, the Israeli people especially have to understand that basically.
The CJN: Canada stopped arms permits to Israel back in January. Does that even make a difference to Israel? Are they being hurt by this?
Spencer: I’m sure it absolutely is a problem. It might not be what Canada is providing, it’s the international context that sends a signal to other allies. Israel’s strength is its allies in all wars. So when one ally of Israel says, ‘Because of this, because of these lies, this misinformation, we’re not going to support you with this small item’, which might not have an immediate impact, but globally, you know, in the international context, in the multi-international allies that is Israel’s strength, including in the region Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, it matters. So it’s a horrible signal to send to the world and to send to Israel.
The CJN: And then Britain just did it too.
Spencer: Yeah, Britain did it too. It’s very bad because it’s baseless. It’s based on disinformation. It’s based on things like 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, which is not true. It’s a lie. Where does the number come from? What does it mean? Because now there’s this effect-based ideology, kind of like we see with Canada, Britain, and others, they’re using the data on how many people have died. Look how much destruction. There was another way.
The huge myth of this war is that there was another way to bring the hostages home, remove Hamas from power so it can’t do another Oct. 7. Because since Oct. 7, Hamas has publicly said that’s their goal. They will do this as many times as it takes to achieve our goal. The idea that there was another way. And it’s actually a fallacy.
Local News
Etz Chayim, Shaarey Zedek members looking forward to experiencing High Holiday services in new surroundings
By MYRON LOVE High Holiday seats are selling out quickly at our community’s largest congregations as Etz Chayim and Shaarey Zedek members are eager to experience Yom Tov services in their new surrounding
With almost a month still to go until Yom Tov – Erev Rosh Hashanah is Wednesday, October 2 – Dr Rena Secter Elbaze, Shaarey Zedek’s executive director, reports that as of Friday, August 30, seats for the main sanctuary service are 74% sold out and that the family service already has a wait list.
For the past two years, the synagogue has been closed while the now-72-year-old building has been undergoing the first major thoroughgoing upgrade since the early 1970s. Over that time period, regular weekly minyan services have being held at Temple Shalom and Shabbat and High Holiday services at the Asper Campus. The congregation is scheduled to resume regular Shabbat and weekday services in its own building again after Rosh Hashanah.
Elbaze does note that, due to current fire code conditions and the need to make the sanctuary better able to accommodate wheelchairs, there are somewhat fewer seats in the sanctuary than there were before. On the other hand, services have been live-streamed now for several years.
“We have quite a few people from out of town who regularly follow our services online,” Elbaze points out.
Once again, this year, the popular Rabbi Emeritus Alan Green – who was the Shaarey Zedek’s senior rabbi for 18 years – is returning to lead Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in the main sanctuary with Cantor Leslie Emery, the Quartet, and the Ruach Volunteer Choir. Rabbi Anibal Mass will be leading the popular family service with Noah Trachtenberg, a Youth Band and the Dor Chadash Youth Choir.
For the members of Congregation Etz Chayim, these will be the first High Holiday services in the synagogue’s new south end location at 1155 Wilkes.
“We are essentially sold out for Yom Tov,” reports Jonathan Buchwald, Etz Chayim’s executive director. “Our members are really excited about our first Yom Tov in our new building.”
Congregation Etz Chayim came into being on July 1, 2002, as a result of the merger of the Rosh Pina, Bnay Abraham and Beth Israel Congregations – the three largest synagogues in north Winnipeg. While the resulting new congregation had been davening at the former Rosh Pina’s building – which dated back to 1952, the broad and members had been – for several years – talking about relocating to south Winnipeg, where the majority of its members live. The discussions finally became reality within the past year. Last year, the congregation acquired the former Shriners headquarters while at the same time selling their north Winnipeg building to a church group. Following a complete renovation of the new building, the membership was able to begin services in March.
By necessity – in reflecting the congregation’s slowly declining membership numbers – the new Etz Chayim is considerably smaller than its predecessor. To accommodate the demand for Yom Kippur seating in particular, Buchwald reports, the Kol Nidre service will be held at the Holiday Inn Express at the airport – and there with two services for Yom Kippur day.
The services can also be followed online.
Rabbi Kliel Rose and Cantor Tracy Kasner will, as usual, be leading Etz Chayim’s High Holiday services.
“We will be holding our special family service again this year geared towards families with young children,” Buchwald notes. This will be a unique service involving songs, activities and storytelling. It will take place in the mornings of the second day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur day.
Etz Chayim will also be holding Junior Congregation for the two days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur day for both the morning and afternoon services.
Services are available either in-person or online.
Temple Shalom, our community’s 60-year-old Reform Congregation, will be introducing their new clergy this year at Yom Tov. The 2024 High Holiday services will be led by cantorial soloist Janet Pelletier Goetz as well long time Temple Shalom member Myriam Saitman – who is set to begin training in September toward her rabbinical ordination – and, for the first time, choir leader Erica Tallis –a 2020 graduate of the Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba.
South end Winnipeg further offers a fourth liberal Jewish option in the form of Rabbi Matthew Leibl’s “Services on the River: A Modern High Holidays”. This is the second year that the former Shaarey Zedek – and now independent – rabbi is leading his own service at the Gates on Roblin.
He reported last year that he had a lot of people asking him to lead Yom Tov services. ”Last year, I had about 250 people attending my service,” he says. “I am hoping to have a similar number this year.”
The venue has room for up to 300 people.
“Services on the River: A modern High Holidays” are once again scheduled for the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Erev Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur in the morning.
The three services, Leibl noted last year, “are designed to offer moments of reflection and introspection, beautiful live music, and a celebration of the Jewish New Year, all against the pastoral backdrop of the Assiniboine River, which will also be our site for Tashlich on Rosh Hashanah.”
He explained that he will be blending his trademark Torah commentary, relevant explanations, and some humour with a mix of traditional and contemporary liturgy, to deliver a High Holy Day experience that will feel both familiar and modern. He adds that he will again be working with the husband and wife cantorial team of Justin Odwak and Sarah Sommer.
All services will run 90 minutes. While families are encouraged to attend, there are no programs designed specifically for children.
South Winnipeg’s orthodox options include the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia and the Chabad Lubavitch centre. The former – led by Rabbi Yossi Benarroch – has a membership of about 100 and can accommodate up to 250. The latter has a capacity of between 200 and 300.
The Simkin Centre is holding Yom Tov services that are open to the general public. The services, which will begin at 10:00 A.M. on all three days of Yom Tov, are being led by Steven Hyman with the Simkin Centre Choir, led by Bonnie Antel.
Caitlin Liewicki, the Manager of Resident Experience, is asking that anyone who may be planning on attending the service from the public RSVP either by email (caitlin.liewicki@simkincentre.ca)or telephone (204 589-9008) , so that she knows how many to plan for.
While it is too early to report as to High Holiday attendance at the Chevra Mishnayes Rob Waldman, the president of the egalitarian congregation in Garden City, says that the board is hopeful that there may be a few former Etz Chayim people in the North End who may choose the Chevra Mihsnayes this year.
A few former Etz Chayim members have been attending Shabbat services at the north Winnipeg congregation for the past several months.
Last year’s attendance was 100.
Once again, Al Benarroch will be leading the services.
Still with the North End, the venerable House of Ashkenazie, the last of our community’s older-style Orthodox congregations, also, according to president Gary Minuk, is hoping that there will be 30 to 40 daveners for the High Holidays this year.
One other Orthodox north Winnipeg alternative is the former Chavurat Tefila – on the corner of Hartford and McGregor – which merged last year with the Talmud Torah and is now operating under the Chavurat Tefila Talmud Torah name.
Last year, attendance at the CT-TT was around 40. The leadership is hoping to match, if not exceed, that number this year. Services this year will be led by Rabbi Menachem Frenkel from Baltimore.
Finally, for those who enjoy an alternative – yet traditional service in its own way – after a two-year absence, Camp Massad is resuming its innovative Rosh Hashanah service. Daniel Sprintz, the camp’s executive director, is pleased to announce that Massad will again be hosting its usual Rosh Hashanah program on the second day.
“We offer a creative and interactive service that combines some traditional prayers with contemporary readings, folk music and our usual Camp Massad shtick,” Sprintz says. “Our services will be followed by a kosher lunch and Tashlich at the Lake.”
Last year, just over 100 attended. He is hoping to have a somewhat larger number this year.
Yom Tov this year begins on Wednesday, October 2, in the evening.
Wishing all readers a sweet new year.
Local News
Jewish Federation celebrates GrowWinnipeg volunteers
By MYRON LOVE A chance meeting on an airplane almost 30 years ago between former Lieutenannt-Governor Janice Filmon – at that time the wife of then-Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, and a Jewish businessman from Argentina, planted a seed that has grown into a magnificent tree that has revitalized our Jewish community.
As a result of that meeting, our once declining community has been enriched by an estimated 6,500 newcomers (most of whom have stayed) from many different countries.
To recap, the businessman was looking to immigrate 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 Argentine Jewish families who were considering leaving.
Thus was born GrowWinnipeg, an initiative led in its early years by Larry Hurtig – then the president of the Federation, and Evelyn Hecht, who became the principal contact for the newcomers. Our community opened our arms in welcome to the new arrivals, hosting them in our homes, and helping them become acclimatized to their new society.
After Evelyn Hecht retired in 2006, she was succeeded as director of GrowWinnipeg by her assistant, Dalia Szpiro, who was herself a relatively new immigrant to Winnipeg. Szpiro, her husband, Eduardo Borovich and young daughter, Yael, came here in 2002 from Uruguay,
“Evelyn was a joy to work with,” Szpiro says. “I learned through her the generosity, openness and welcoming spirit that our Jewish Community has. Her door was always open. I have tried to follow her example.”
Szpiro is being assisted in her work by Irina Gelzin and recently hired volunteer coordinator Belin Seloni.
“What we offer as a community to newcomers is unique,” Szpiro pointed out in an earlier interview. “One of the requirements to apply for permanent residency is an exploratory visit to Manitoba. We have a great number of volunteers who connect with the exploratory visitors and their families. We work to build contacts between prospective newcomers and members of the community. We try to match new families with people with similar backgrounds. They start to build their network before moving here, so when they move here they feel at home. Candidates are connected to all our organizations and services including JCFS, Rady JCC, Gray Academy, synagogues, professional regulatory bodies, and other relevant contacts.”
On Monday, August 26, Szpiro and the Federation showed its appreciation to the many community volunteers who have helped make the GrowWinnipeg initiative a success with a social evening at the Asper Campus that attracted about 130 people – a mix of locally-born host families, long-established immigrants, and recently arrived newcomers.
The evening was light on speeches with more focus on socializing and enjoying the music from Muse On, a live band, at the outdoor venue. “The members of the band,” Szpiro notes, are also volunteers who meet exploratory visitors and volunteered that evening as well.
In her remarks, Federation President Paula Parks spoke of the dreams and aspirations which newcomers to our community have brought with them. “I want to thank all of you who have extended a welcoming hand over the years to our new arrivals,” she said.
“Winnipeg is not just a good place to raise a family. I is also a great place to call home.”
Among the most recent arrivals who were out for the event was Eyal Braunstein, formerly of Sderot, who landed with his wife and baby just five months ago. “We really appreciate the quiet,” says the mechanical engineer. “It is relaxing and people have been really welcoming.”
Itai and Elona David and their four children – the oldest of whom is in first year at the University of Manitoba – have been here for three years. Originally from Hadera in west central Israel, the software engineer says that he appreciates the support from our Jewish community.
He adds that a lot of Israelis may be interested in moving to Winnipeg.
Good friends Alex Hadish and Dima Vainer have been here for 12 and 14 years respectively. Vainer is originally from Sderot and Hadish from Ukraine by way of Israel. Both work for the same IT company.
Hadish says that he and his family came for reasons of security and opportunity, Vainer and his family for a sense of safety. “This is a better place to raise a family,” he says.
Like Hadish, Asia Shvarzman is also originally from the former Soviet Union by way of Israel. The project manager in charge of research and development with Gordon Construction came to Winnipeg 14 years ago after having lived in Haifa for 19 years. In addition to her work here, Shvartzman, who has a Ph.D., is an associate professor of Computer Science at the Jerusalem College of Technology.
“I teach carbon construction and technology,” she notes. “I return to Israel twice a year. One area I focus on is building a strong working relationship in my field between Canada and Israel.”
Of the newcomers that I had the pleasure of meeting at the social evening, David and Sandra Brunstein have been here the longest. The couple arrived here from Buenos Aires in 2005.
“With the birth of our daughter, our view of the world changed,” says David, a software developer. (Sandra works with refugees and new immigrants). “We wanted to go to a place that would offer a better environment in which to raise our daughter.”
They learned about the GrowWinnipeg initiative and liked what they heard. “We got a lot of support from the Jewish community – especially from Evelyn Hecht,” Sandra recalls.
Once they were established here, David and Sandra began to give back – hosting other prospective immigrants – who came on exploratory visits – and sharing their experiences.
I was surprised to run into David and Sherrill Levene at the event. I have known them for years – but I did not know that they have been among the members of our community who have been opening their home to newcomers – something , Sherrill reports, that they have been doing since the mid-1980s – well before the GrowWinnipeg initiative came into existence.
“I was a volunteer with the Jewish Child and Family Service when the first wave of immigrants from Russia arrived here,” Sherrill recounts. “That was how we began hosting newcomers.”
David adds that, over the years, they have hosted between 50 and 60 different exploratory visitors and newcomer families.
“We have been glad to be able to help,” Sherrill says She could be speaking for our community as a whole when she added that “our lives have been enriched by all those friends we have made through the GrowWinnipeg initiative.”
“While most of our new families are now coming from Israel,” Szpiro noted in that earlier interview, “we are also still getting a lot of inquiries from Mexico, Brazil Argentina, Turkey, Hungary, South Africa, Colombia, Ukraine and Russia.”
As for herself and her family, she and Eduardo are satisfied that they made the right move. “Winnipeg not only offers a lot for families but also for young adults,” she says. “There are so many opportunities for them.”
Local News
A detailed look at the awful predicament in which JNF Canada now finds itself since the CRA revoked its charitable status on August 10
By BERNIE BELLAN (September 6, 2024) For several weeks we’ve been writing on this website about the quandary in which JNF Canada now finds itself as a result of the CRA’s announcement on August 10 that it was revoking JNF Canada’s charitable status. What follows is a detailed review of what’s happened since the CRA made that announcement. As a result of that decision JNF Canada has not been able to issue tax receipts for donations – and, in the worst case scenario, could be hit with a penalty amounting to 100% of its assets (which are over $32 million).
Here’s what’s happened: On August 10, the Canada Revenue Agency dropped a bombshell with an announcement in the Canada Gazette that JNF Canada’s charitable status had been revoked.
Not only did the announcement catch JNF Canada by surprise, it came on a Saturday – which JNF Canada regarded as especially hurtful considering it was Shabbat.
What the CRA has done has enormous ramifications, not only for an organization that has had a storied history in the development of Israel, but for many Canadians – Jews and non-Jews alike, when it comes to charitable giving, no organization has had a higher priority than the Jewish National Fund Canada.
As such, prior to publication, we did contact the Canada Revenue Agency to try to get a better idea why it had revoked JNF Canada’s charitable status, asking in an email dated August 29: “What I’ve been trying to understand is whether there is any one key issue that has led to the CRA’s revoking JNF-Canada’s charitable status or is it as a result of many issues?”
Email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca by CRA
The CRA did respond, writing “We can confirm that the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund of Canada Inc. / Fonds National Juif du Canada Inc. (the Organization) is revoked effective August 10, 2024, in accordance with the Income Tax Act (the Act).
“As the charitable sector is supported by all Canadian taxpayers, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is committed to increasing the transparency and accountability of charitable organizations by providing relevant information about them to the public, in accordance with the disclosure provisions of the Income Tax Act (the Act).
“For more information, please visit Canada Gazette, Part I, Volume 158, Number 32 and the CRA’s List of charities and certain other qualified donees. Furthermore, under the Act, the CRA can release a copy of the letter(s) it sent to the charity outlining the reasons for its revocation. Please find here a copy of the letters the CRA has sent to the Organization about the reasons for revocation. Any redactions found in the documents are intended to protect confidential taxpayer information as required by the Act.”
JNF CEO Lance Davis questions the CRA’s stance
Also, prior to publication, we invited JNF Canada to respond to the CRA’s decision. On September 5, we received a response from Lance Davis, CEO, JNF Canada (It should be explained that Davis refers extensively to the term “charitable object.” Later in this article there will be a detailed explanation of what that term means and why the CRA maintains JNF Canada deviated from its charitable object.) Here is what Lance Davis wrote:
“The CRA’s confirmation of revocation letter, focusing on JNF Canada’s work in 2011-12 is fundamentally about our founding charitable object, meaning the key purpose of the charity. If the charitable purpose is not charitable then all of our subsequent work would be problematic. We disagree and have argued to the CRA that our work for the past five decades is indeed charitable.
“Secondly, if after more than fifty years, CRA changes its opinion about an object that it accepted in 1967, then a simple solution would have been to work with JNF to identify a new charitable object and ensure its compliance. JNF Canada submitted ten potential charitable objects to the CRA and they ignored these suggestions. We called upon the CRA more than 10 times to help us resolve this dispute and these requests were not answered. Interestingly, representatives of the CRA did accept meetings with organizations calling for the revocation of our charitable status, but not JNF.
“The CRA did address two recent projects, meaning they were realized long after the time frame of the audit. They identified two rather small administrative issues. We do our work in Hebrew and submitted some documentation in Hebrew which is not illegal. However, we should have translated it before we shared it. We are involved with two psychiatric hospitals in Jerusalem and there was an error in the documentation provided, which we acknowledge. It was human error. It could have been solved with a simple phone call or email asking for clarification. If this is an issue worthy of inclusion in the letter of revocation, it certainly is a draconian response. The projects in question were built properly. The receipts for the work were submitted. We have professionals on the ground checking the work. One simply has to look at the photos of the before and after to see that that we realized important charitable social service projects assisting Israel’s most vulnerable populations: those suffering from the most severe mental illnesses and special needs children.”
In order to understand the significance of the CRA decision one need only consider some aspects of how much JNF Canada has contributed to Israel since its inception in 1968 (when it was created as a wholly separate entity from the Keren Kayemet Le’Yisrael (Jewish National Fund).
In the years since its creation JNF has funded over $200 million for more than 180 projects in Israel and has planted over 2 million trees. As of 2022 JNF Canada had almost $32 million in assets in Canada.
Now, with the decision to revoke its charitable status, while JNF has assured its supporters that it will carry on even if it is no longer able to issue charitable receipts, the danger is that it will be forced to pay a penalty amounting to 100% of all its assets in a year’s time from the date of revocation.
In the days that followed the decision to revoke JNF Canada’s charitable status – and ever since, for that matter, there has been much confusion as to what led the CRA to take such drastic action.
The CRA cited a number of reasons for the decision to revoke, including that JNF Canada failed “to be constituted for exclusively charitable purposes;” was engaged in activities that are not in furtherance of charitable purposes;” was not exercising “direction and control over the activities undertaken in Israel and thus not devoting its resources to its own charitable activities;” provided “funds to non-qualified donees;” and failed to have “insufficient documentation to substantiate the activities undertaken in Israel and its failure to keep information in such form that would enable the Minister to determine whether there are grounds for the revocation of its registration.”
On August 14, we reported on the JNF’s response to the CRA’s shocking announcement by running a story on jewishpostandnews.ca that was first published on a website known as Algemeiner. That story noted JNF Canada’s response to the CRA’s decision to revoke its charitable status: The “CRA usually takes certain measures, like negotiating compliance agreements or invoking sanctions, before drastically revoking an organization’s charitable status,’ JNF Canada said. ” But, in its dealing with JNF Canada, the CRA ‘not only skipped steps 1-3, it also refused to enter into a dialogue with us and to entertain our suggestions of new objects for our charity or to discuss a compliance agreement,’ the Jewish group said. ‘We maintain that the CRA erred both in fact and in law and that the process was flawed and unfair, which is why we have ended up in court.’
The story went on to say that “JNF Canada also maintains that it has addressed CRA’s concerns about its work with KKL by taking steps such as reducing the number of its projects with the group and engaging in a compliant agreement with the Israeli charity.
“ ‘KKL works for JNF Canada, just like any other agent that we utilize. JNF Canada selects the projects we wish to support and we always have direction and control over all of the funds as we reimburse expenses upon receipt of valid expense reports. In short, we have addressed the CRA’s concerns.’ ”
The CJN criticizes JNF Canada
Also on August 14 the Canadian Jewish News released a podcast with well-known journalist Ellin Bessner in which Bessner examined in great detail the charges laid by the CRA that had led to its revoking JNF Canada’s charitable status. For part of the podcast Bessner also interviewed lawyer Mark Blumberg, who specializes in charity law. (We have been in touch with Blumberg several times since, asking him about the CRA’s decision. At the end of this story you can read a very interesting comment by Blumberg about the suggestion that politicians should intervene in this situation to reverse CRA’s decision.)
During her podcast Bessner was critical of JNF Canada and, in an article subsequently published by the CJN many of those criticisms were repeated in print, including:
“Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) warned JNF Canada in 2019 it planned to take away its charitable status and then warned them again in 2023 and in 2024, due to ‘repeated and serious non-compliance’ with the Income tax Act rules governing charities, particularly covering JNF Canada’s work in Israel.
The article went on to say that “Documents recently released to The CJN by the CRA show the venerable Canadian Jewish charity–that has helped reforest and build infrastructure in Israel since the late 1960s—had been warned repeatedly to clean up its act between 2016 and 2023, and even earlier.
“ ‘The CRA letter dated Aug. 21, 1989, raised concerns about the [JNF Canada’s] direction and control, and maintenance of books and records,’ according to the CRA documents. ‘The major concerns about the Organization’s activities overseas have been present since the first audit.’
To clarify, the CRA began auditing JNF Canada in 2011 and sent letters to JNF Canada in 2016 and 2018. The CRA began issuing warnings to JNF Canada beginning in 2019 that JNF Canada’s charitable status could be revoked.
The CRA released 358 pages of documents to Bessner and we were able ourselves to see those documents. In fairness to JNF Canada, many of the documents are simply repetitions of other documents. The gist of the CRA’s complaint with JNF Canada is that it had not been in compliance with regulations in the Income Tax Act that govern the behaviour of charities, nor had it taken proper steps to correct its behaviour even though it has been given repeated warnings for many years.
JNF Canada’s “charitable object” comes in for close scrutiny
One particularly interesting aspect of the CRA’s criticisms of JNF Canada had to do with what is known as JNF Canada’s “charitable object.” Every charity, in order to be allowed to issue tax receipts, has to have a “charitable object” that would have to have some sort of humanitarian purpose.
Now, in order to understand something about the JNF’s charitable object you have to go back to the inception of JNF Canada in 1968. Until that point there was no such thing as JNF Canada. There was only what was known as “Keren Kayemeth Le’Yisrael,” which is how many of us knew of the organization. When JNF Canada was created in 1968, it declared that its “charitable object” – you may be surprised to learn, was “the relief of poverty” – by employing “indigent workers” to plant trees and prepare parks.
It may be a digression, but in looking at the 358 pages of documents that CRA had sent to JNF Canada, I was surprised to see the extent to which CRA examined in minute detail how much those “indigent workers” were paid. CRA concluded that, based on Israel’s minimum wage for the periods which were examined, workers were overpaid quite a bit for the work they did. (We cite that only to show how far CRA went in examining JNF Canada records.)
In other instances, CRA complained that there was an insufficient paper trail for projects undertaken by JNF Canada in Israel or, as was noted in one particular instance, receipts and invoices were submitted to CRA in Hebrew. As well, CRA noted JNF provided documentation for the wrong project when it was asked to provide documentation for a particular project.
JNF Canada responded strongly – both to the reasons CRA cited in revoking JNF Canada’s charitable status, and the manner in which Ellin Bessner reported on the CRA decision – claiming that Bessner had not gone to JNF Canada for a response to CRA’s criticisms before publishing a piece that cited CRA criticisms of JNF Canada.
JNF Canada responds to the CJN story
JNF Canada published a response to the CJN story on its website, saying in part:
“Although JNF was in regular contact with the CJN reporting team prior to the publication of the article on the history of our relationship with the CRA, we were never asked for our views on critical issues raised in the article. Furthermore, the behaviour of the CRA or their findings, are never questioned or criticized. Rather, it assumes that the CRA is righteous and just, and JNF is the guilty party.
“Not surprisingly, this leaves the readers with a one-sided and unbalanced impression.
“A few issues raised
“Due to human error, we provided the CRA with documentation on the wrong psychiatric hospital project. We annually oversee funding for multiple projects and at the time, we were supporting two psychiatric facilities in Jerusalem. A phone call would have quickly resolved the matter.
“Hebrew is the language of work in Israel, the language in which we receive 100s of documents, and a language our leadership can read and work in. While there is no law that requires documentation to be submitted to CRA in English or French, we should have translated certain documents to make it easier for the CRA to review. Again, a phone call would have resolved the matter quickly.
“And still, these are periphery issues in the matter of our revocation. The CRA revoked our charitable status without a fair process even though we have addressed their principal concerns. Fundamentally, CRA is questioning our charitable objects and therefore our charitable activities in support of the people of Israel.” (emphasis mine)
Added to the entire issue is the concern which many supporters of JNF have expressed that CRA has acted in response to demands from vehemently anti-Israel groups, such as Independent Jewish Voices, to cancel JNF Canada’s charitable status. Those anti-Israel groups had long voiced criticisms that JNF Canada was providing support for projects operating over the “green line,”i.e., in the “occupied territories,” and on Israel Defence Forces bases.
JNF Canada claims that it fully responded to those allegations but that it never heard back from CRA with regard to its responses.
Finally, in the same post on its website in which it provides a vigorous defence against the criticism levelled against it by CRA, JNF Canada now notes that it is appealing the CRA decision before the Federal Court of Canada (in two separate cases).
JNF Canada also says “that we are calling on our elected representatives to take responsibility. To date, Liberal MPs have situated the actions of CRA as a bureaucratic response to JNF ‘s charitable objects because of audits undertaken in 2014. If elected officials are arguing that unelected bureaucrats have been delegated the authority to make a decision of this magnitude, that was a mistake. The Government should take responsibility. The Minister of National Revenue and the Government of Canada should put the revocation of our charitable status on hold until the courts have ruled, as is customary in situations like ours (based on our lawyer’s review of over 200 cases).”
Can the government intervene?
We have been in touch with various elected representatives to gage their reaction to what has happened. As one might well understand, this is an extremely sensitive matter. The entire aspect of political involvement in as consequential a bureaucratic matter as the CRA’s decision to revoke the charitable status of as important a charity as JNF Canada has huge ramifications.
But, as lawyer Mark Blumberg advised us in an email, with reference to the Minister of Revenue’s intervening in a decision taken by CRA, “This is from the CRA’s website with my underlining:
“The Minister of National Revenue
“The Minister is responsible to Parliament for all CRA activities and exercises powers relating to regulation-making and providing reports to Parliament or the Governor in Council (Cabinet). It is a longstanding practice that the Minister does not direct officials how to interpret the law in individual cases. This practice preserves the Minister’s right to be informed while at the same time protecting the Minister from allegations of political interference in taxpayers’ affairs.”