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Professor who fought back against rampant antisemitism at Columbia University speaks to large audience at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue
By BERNIE BELLAN Shai Davidai has established a reputation as a university professor who isn’t afraid to challenge what he perceives as unmitigated antisemitism – whether it’s coming from students, fellow professors or university administrators. A Management professor at Columbia University in New York City, Davidai, now 41, was in Winnipeg recently to speak to a crowd of around 300 at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue on October 22.
Last year, Davidai gained renown for a video that was posted to Youtube on October 19 in which he railed against the administrators of major US universities, including Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford, for allowing anti-Israel protests to be held unchecked.
It was still in the early stages of what would eventually become a trend sweeping campuses across both the US and Canada, during which students (often joined by non-students) held rallies denouncing Israeli “genocide” in Gaza, almost always employing the usual epithets in describing Israel as “settler-colonialist,” guilty of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.” Those rallies would soon transform into encampments, striking fear into the hearts of many Jewish students.
During his speech to Jewish students gathered in the Columbia University courtyard on October 19, 2023, Davidai denounced the hypocrisy of university administrators, saying: “they won’t allow a pro-ISIS rally or a pro-KKK rally, yet, when it comes to Israeli and Jewish lives, they allow a pro-terrorist Hamas=ISIS rally… US prestige universities allow pro-terror rallies on their campuses; will not call Hamas a terror organization…American parents, your kids are no longer safe on ANY university campus. Jewish students on any US campus are not safe because the undercurrent on US campus is anti-Semitic and the presidents of US campuses give a hand to bigotry-Antisemitism and allow terrorist Hamas supporters to rally for violence and terror.”
From that point on, Davidai became a symbol of hope for Jews as a professor who refused to remain silent in the face of university administrators who remained passive while antisemitism was being allowed to run rampant on university campuses – or who even abetted antisemitic behaviour in some cases.
Most recently, although he has not been fired (and Davdai noted that he does not have tenure), Columbia University is refusing to allow him to appear on campus in person.
Davidai’s talk in Winnipeg was facilitated by several organizations, most prominently one called “Tafsik,” about which you can read here: Tafsik
The evening got off to a rocky start, however, when the person who served as moderator – but who never introduced herself to the crowd, asked her son to come up to the podium and recite the standard acknowledgment that the Shaarey Zedek is situated on the “ancestral lands of” various indigenous groups. Unfortunately, her son said, he didn’t know the words – and neither did his mother. Fortunately, Shaarey Zedek Executive Director Rena Secter-Elbaze stepped up to the podium and read the acknowledgment herself.
After Amir Epstein, the founder of Tafsik, gave some remarks in which he explained how he came to start that organization, he introduced Shai Davidai. Epstein said he had no problem if anyone wanted to record Davidai’s remarks, but the person who was apparently the moderator immediately contradicted Epstein, insisting that no recordings would be allowed.
(In fact, aware of the prohibition on recording the event that had been included in emails sent out to attendees beforehand, I had contacted Epstein in advance, asking him whether I could be granted an exception to the rule. He responded that he had no problem with me recording Davidai’s remarks and, based on that, I did record Davidai’s entire speech. What you are about to read is taken verbatim from a transcript of Davidai’s remarks.)
Early on in his remarks Davidai explained that, until recently, he had never heard of Winnipeg but, when his son was born, he and his wife became involved in a “mom and daddy group,” among whose members was a former Winnipegger by the name of Marley Book.
Davidai said he asked Marley where she was from, and she answered “Canada.”
“I said, oh, are you from Toronto? No? Are you from Montreal? She said ‘no.’ I said, oh, are you from Vancouver? So now I’m like, running out of cities. And then she said, I’m from Winnie Peg.
“And I’ve never heard of Winnie Peg. And I said, ‘I’ve never heard of Winnie Peg.’ And – she said, ‘I’m Jewish.’ And I was like, we are literally everywhere…and throughout the years, she’s described to me what it’s like being Jewish in Winnie Peg and, and in a small community. But I never really got it until I showed up here.There’s something unique about a community where it feels like everybody knows everybody.”
Davidai went on to describe the exact moment when he and his wife were first informed about what was happening in Israel on October 7. He said that the last video he had on his phone before his wife received a WhatsApp message from her sister in Israel shortly after the attack began was a video in which he was saying to his wife that “our lives are boring.”
“I wish I can go back to having a boring life,” Davidai told the audience. “I wish we could all go back to having a boring life. But one thing I don’t wish for is going back to the way things were for many, many, many months…And now I say, never, we’re never going back to the way things were, because the way things were were not good.”
“The only difference between what’s happening now in universities and city streets and in Parliament and in the media and everywhere, is that the hatred (that) was underground, is now above the surface.”
Davidai explained to the audience how he went from being a passive observer of events to an activist who has now become a lighting rod, both for critics and defenders of Israel. It was while watching an angry group of kaffiayh-wearing students at Columbia University on October 12, 2023 who were gathered opposite a group of 50 Jewish students who were holding a silent vigil for the hostages who had been taken to Gaza, he said, that a fellow Israeli academic, “leaned over and whispers in my ear and says, this is the anti semitism that our parents and grandparents warned us about, the moment he said that something changed inside my mind. And once it changed, I can never go back to seeing things the way they were.”
“Now, I had an explanation of what I was seeing. This was Jew hatred.”
Soon after, Davidai said, he posted what he was feeling to Instagram – where, until that point, he had only 900 followers. That soon changed, however, as he explained: “The next day, I wake up and I notice that all of a sudden I have more than 900 followers, and none of them are academics. And people are sharing what I wrote, and people are texting me, thank you for writing. And people are saying, if you want to know what it feels like to be a Jew in North America right now, read this.”
As the days passed, and as Davidai became increasingly prominent on social media – for his Instagram posts and Youtube video of October 19 (to which he later added more videos), as much as Davidai was being lauded for how brave he was to confront the kind of antisemitism that was becoming thoroughly pervasive on so many university campuses, he admits now that he was “afraid” then and he’s still afraid, saying: “You may not see it. It may not seem like I’m afraid. I am very afraid. When I confront protesters – waving Hamas flags…I saw today in the Canadian news, with a Taliban flag being waved…My knees tremble, but I’m not a Jew who will let his trembling knees control him. And I think that that is where we all need to be. We are refusing to simply hide and let them slaughter us.”
So, how do we fight back, Davidai asked? He gave three suggestions:
“We all have to understand, including myself, none of us are doing enough.”
Secondly – “no one is coming to save us.”
As for his third suggestion, Davidai said it was more complicated because we have “outsourced our ability to protect ourselves” to Jewish “organizations.”
And, while he had nothing bad to say about Jewish organizations, especially their ability to raise massive amounts of money at a time of immediate peril to Israel, he noted that “Jewish organizations are built to fundraise They are built to lobby. They are built to teach and educate, and are built to deal with the media. And they have been doing that work amazing in the past year, in a few weeks,” yet what they are not built to do, Davidai suggested, is to “mobilize people.”
It’s up to us, Davidai insisted, “to get out in the streets. It’s our job to save ourselves.”
If you are “waiting for someone else,” he said, “do you really believe that someone else exists?”
“It’s not enough to write a letter or an email. It’s not enough to cite a petition. Those are good things, but they are not moving the needle. What we need to do is show up. Show up publicly….You need to be focusing on one thing today. Did I throw a pebble into the water or not? And that’s it.”
There was much more to Davidai’s talk, including not being afraid to be “publicly Jewish” by wearing, for instance, a Star of David, a kippah, or a dog tag since, as he insisted, “because when they come for us and tell us to hide, the best response is never hiding, because hiding has never worked for us in our history.”
“But the other thing we want to do is being there,” he added. “And it’s scary. Protesting. Protesting does not come natural to most people.”
Davidai suggested though, something he called the “rule of minyan” (ten). As he explained, “When there’s one person shouting, that person gets targeted. When there are ten people shouting, those people get heard.”
At the end of his remarks Davidai posed a series of questions to the audience: “We have people that are walking around and openly supporting terrorist organizations. And the decision that’s facing each and every one of us is a simple decision: Do you stand with the people that believe in democracy, or do you stand with the people that believe in terrorism?
“Do you stand with the victim, or do you stand with the rapist?
“Do you stand with Western values, or do you stand with those that want to burn it all down?
“That’s not a complicated decision. How we solve this problem is complex.
“There is no one silver bullet. But where you stand on this issue is very, very simple.
“That is the message that I want to send, not to all of you here because you get it.
“But that’s the message that I want to send to every non Jewish comedian, every non Jewish American and every non Jewish person around the world, show up one time to our rallies, show up one time to their protests.
“And you tell me, where, which world do you want your kids to grow up in?”
Local News
Hershfield sisters star in annual 55+ Manitoba Seniors Games
By MYRON LOVE Mindy (Hershfield) Zabenskie has once again proven the old adage that it’s never too late to try something new.
Last August, the retired office worker, along with her younger sister, Esther Hershfield, entered the 55+ Manitoba Seniors Games, which were held in Steinbach. In a field of about 1,200 senior athletes, Zabenskie, competing in the 100m and 200m races, came away with one gold and two silver medals for her performances in the 65+ category. Hershfield did even better with gold medals in the 200m and 100m runs and silver in the 400m and 800m competitions.
In the swimming portion, Esther Hershfield came in first place in her age category in all her swimming events – including the 50m breaststroke, the 100m freestyle and the 100m breaststroke.
As far as the track races went, Hershfield conceded that she “did find the 800m run a little more challenging. I’m more used to the shorter distances, ” she noted. “I will have to do more training for the 800m run. I found that distance a little tiring.”
“It was a lot of fun,” Zabenskie said of this past summer’s competitions – the second go round for the two sisters. Up to that point, they had only run half marathons.
Hershfield noted that last year’s games were held in Brandon –where the sisters were joined by oldest sister Lois, who participated in the cribbage tournament – which is also part of the activities.
Hershfield pointed out that she has always been involved in athletics. She was a phys-ed teacher in Seven Oaks School Division prior to retirement in 2013. She reported that she swims twice a week and runs twice a week with a friend.
Zabenskie, by contrast, is a late bloomer. She only ran her first marathon in 2013 – in Ottawa, while visiting her daughter, Susan. That was three years before she retired.
Looking back, Zabenskie said, she can’t tell you what motivated her to take up running. “I was never athletic,” she noted. “I was never interested in exercise or physical activity. My daughters (Susan and Pamela – who lives in Winnipeg) have always been athletic. They probably encouraged me.”
It was a real challenge for me to start running,” she added. “I am shocked at how well I have done. I really am proud of myself and my accomplishments.”
While Zabenskie did participate in one marathon in Palm Springs several years ago, she generally restricts her running efforts to just two annual runs – the Winnipeg Police Service run in May, and the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service run in October. Those runs are both 5 kilometres.
The Fire and Paramedic Service run, she reported, started and finished at Canadian Mennonite College, while the police event began and ended at Assiniboine Park. Timers clocked in the runners.
“While everyone gets participation medals for doing the marathon,” Zabenskie pointed out, “I have finished in the top ten several times in my age category and have improved my time to less than 40 minutes. I am happy with my results.
Three years ago, to help motivate her and improve her performance, Zabenskie hired a personal trainer. “She has come to know my strengths and weaknesses,” she noted. “She runs with me and is able to point out where I can improve my technique.
“She also got me started on weight training.”
Zabenskie added that she tries to run three times a week in her neighbourhood – weather permitting. In the winter months, she works out on her treadmill. She does weight training twice a week.
She said that she is looking forward to entering the Police marathon again in the spring and both sisters are eager to take on the 55+ competitions, which will be held in Winkler-Morden next summer.
Local News
Kristallnacht Documentary focuses on courageous Hungarian Jew who saved the lives of the last group of twins in Auschwitz
By MYRON LOVE On November 9 and 10, our Jewish community commemorated the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass – the infamous series of pogroms against the Jewish communities of Germany and Austria – with the showing of a new documentary, titled “The Last Twins.” The documentary, written by Patrick McMahon and narrated by actor Liev Schreiber, tells the story of Erno (Tzi) Speigel, who risked his life to save the last surviving twins in Auschwitz.
In her opening remarks, Belle Jarniewski, the executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (which co-sponsored the evening, along with the Rady JCC and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg), reported that over a two-day period in 1938, the Nazi-inspired hordes burned more than 1,400 synagogues in the two countries, desecrated Jewish religious objects, vandalized and ransacked thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, homes and apartments, and stole valuable belongings. Nor were Jewish orphanages, seniors homes and hospitals spared the mayhem. Nearly 100 Jews were murdered and about 30,000 Jewish men were subsequently interned in concentration camps.
To add insult to injury, the Nazis then demanded 1-billion reichsmarks from German and Austrian Jewish communities – “atonement payment” – to clean up the mess.
“It was a turning point,” Jarniewski noted. “It was the moment when words of hatred turned into co-ordinated destruction and when indifference from the rest of the world gave way to the Shoah – the murder of over 6 million European Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their willing collaborators.
The great 16th century kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria, taught that when God created the world, he had to hide his overpowering light in a series of shells. At some point, the shells broke and the divine light fell into the darkest levels of hell. It is the responsibility of Jewish souls to descend into that world to redeem the divine sparks in order to repair the world – the original meaning of tikkun olam.
The Shoah certainly represents the lowest level of darkness. The catastrophe also produced many examples of individuals – both Jewish and non-Jewish – who were willing to risk their lives – in the midst of the darkness and danger around them – to save lives. The names of many of them have been enshrined over the years at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum. Erno Spiegel was one of them.
It was in May 1944, when Spiegel and his twin sister were deported to Auschwitz. They were among the thousands of Hungarian Jews who were shipped to the death camp, where the notorious Dr. Joseph Mengele greeted each trainload of Jews and determined which were to be sent immediately to the gas chambers and which were to be allowed to live on a little longer as slave labour in the death camp’s factories.
Spiegel and his sister were spared immediate death because the demonic doctor had a special interest in twins, on whom he did numerous gruesome experiments. Many – perhaps most – died.
When a new group of Jewish twins – all of whom were children – were separated from subsequent trainloads of Hungarian Jews they were housed in separate barracks for boys and girls. Mengele serendipitously put the 29-year-old Spiegel in charge of the boys’ care, and Spiegel determined to do his best to look after them.
According to the documentary, not all of the “twins” were really twins. Some were siblings who were born close together and bore a strong resemblance to each other. Spiegel made sure to enter in the forms the same birthday for both brothers in these cases.
He also quickly let them know what had happened to their families and, between experiments, tried to teach them some math and geography.
The documentary includes interviews with several of these twins – survivors – who had immigrated to Israel or North America (or, in one case, stayed in Hungary) who recalled their experiences in Auschwitz and beyond. They reported that, to them, Spiegel became a father figure who saved their lives.
The closest they came to death came in October,1944, when a junior officer discovered them in their barracks and ordered them immediately to the gas chambers. The survivors recalled how Spiegel saved their lives by risking his own to seek out Mengele. The doctor was outraged that a junior officer would try to countermand him and the boys were returned to the barracks.
Spiegel’s efforts to save as many twins as possible were put to the maximum test in January 1945 – when the Russians liberated Auschwitz and the German guards fled. Just prior to the Russians entering the camp, the Nazis had removed most of the prisoners from Auschwitz – including the older sets of twins – and force-marched them in the worst winter weather in years into Germany – leaving the younger twins to fare for themselves. Very few survived these death marches.
The Russians didn’t stay long. So, Spiegel took charge. He promised the kids that he would get them home again. They all set off on foot. They walked for two days – sleeping one night in an abandoned school and the second night in a farmer’s barn. He got them rides with Russian soldiers to Krakow in Poland, where they were housed in a building that had been German headquarters in Krakow. There he found them enough to eat and got identity papers for the kids. He also acquired a pass from the Russians that guaranteed Russian help along the way.
After dropping all the kids in their home communities, they all went their separate ways. Spiegel married and moved to Israel. He and his wife had two kids (who were also interviewed for the documentary). He became involved in theatre in Tel Aviv.
He never talked about Auschwitz.
The first his daughter, Judith Richter, and son, Israel, knew about his heroism, came in 1981 when Richter’s husband, Kobi, came across a story in Life Magazine at a store in Boston where the couple were living. Flipping through the pages, he stumbled on a story about Mengele. In the story was a picture of Spiegel next to a photo of two of the twins.
One of the twin survivors, also living in the States, also saw the story. He contacted Kobi and Judith (who co-hosted the documentary) which led to a dramatic reunion between Spiegel and the twin.
In 1985, Israel put Mengele on trial in absentia. Speigel was called to testify. To his surprise, all those in the courtroom whose lives he saved were asked to stand and about a dozen did.
Several reunions between Spiegel and one or more of the twins followed and the twins continued to reach out to each other after he died in 1993. Toward the end of the documentary, four of the twins are seen holding a reunion in Israel, reminiscing, and celebrating their bar mitzvahs at the Western Wall.
“The last Twins,” Belle Jarniewski observed, “is not only a Holocaust film, but also an urgent reminder of the human capacity to choose compassion over cruelty, to protect the vulnerable, and to recognize the power one person can have in the face of systemic evil.
“But tonight’s commemoration is not only about the past. It is also about the present and the future. At a time when antisemitism has risen exponentially around the world, we are ever more aware of the danger of leaving hate unchallenged. As our youngest Holocaust survivors reach their tenth decade of life, we must continue to connect to education, remembrance and moral courage.”
Local News
Dave Hill’s participation shows that you don’t have to be Jewish to participate in the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s Endowment Book of Life
By MYRON LOVE Despite the impression given by certain biased media, Canadian Jewry has many friends from outside our community. On the one hand, there are the Christian Zionist friends of Israel and the Jewish people – groups such as Bridges for Peace and Christian Friends of Israel (see accompanying article), and individuals such as John and Irene Plantz and Rudy and Gina Fidel, who contribute their moral and financial support to Israel and our local Jewish community. There is also Kevin Klein, publisher and editor of the Winnipeg Sun, whose newspaper is a whole-hearted supporter of Israel and the Jewish People and strong fighter against antisemitism.
Then there is Dave Hill, a prominent local lawyer – a partner in the law firm Hill Sokalski – who has been in practice for more than 50 years. On Sunday, November 2, Hill was one of eight new signatories to enter their names and life stories into the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s Endowment Book of Life.
Hill reports that he has been making donations to the Foundation for the past ten years. “I believe in giving back to the community,” he says, noting that he is also a supporter of the Winnipeg Foundation and several medical institutions. “I have always had a great deal of compassion for the Jewish People who have suffered over 2000 years of persecution.”
The 2025 signers – in addition to Hill – were Jack and Belva London, Jeff and Sarah Morry, Moe Levy, Becky Kaufmann (a former JFM board member who flew in from Toronto), and Stewart Fay – in memory of his late wife, Patricia.
As explained on the Foundation website, the Endowment Book of Life program – which was started in 1998 – “is a planned program that offers participants an opportunity to leave both a financial and historical legacy to the community.”
Donors promise to leave a bequest to the Foundation, in return for which their family story is inscribed in the Book of Life.
The annual official unveiling of new stories this year was held on Sunday, November 2, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue and included brunch, some musical entertainment featuring a talented quartet of singers: Julia Kroft, Alyssa Crockett, Tyler Leighton and Nathanial Muir.
Speaking on behalf of his fellow signers, Jack London noted that, “In Jewish thought, giving tzedakah is not just charity – it’s a moral obligation. An endowment gift is a powerful expression of this duty. It reflects the Jewish principle of tikkun olam. It can be a spiritual act, fulfilling commandments, and enhancing the donor’s connections to their faith.”
The former dean of the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law had words of praise for “the wonderful purpose and mechanisms of the Jewish Foundation and its truly extraordinary staff.”
He noted that the Foundation was established in 1964 by “a group of visionary leaders and has been a beacon of hope and opportunity for decades.” He further pointed out that “its endowment funds have empowered countless initiatives, from supporting education and cultural programs to ensuring the wellbeing of our most vulnerable. Through the Foundation, we see the power of collective generosity, and we remember that when we come together, we can achieve extraordinary things.”
“Giving isn’t just about money,” London observed. It’s also about its impact. Every contribution, no matter how small, has the potential to change and better lives. Every gift by way of endowment results in an endless rate of return from investment which can be employed year after year to support our institutions and assist individuals in need to survive more comfortably and our community to flourish.
“Think of it like planting seeds. You may not see the tree grow overnight, but one day someone will sit in its shade benefitting from the kindness you showed today. In fact, l’dor v’dor, (from generation to generation) is another core Jewish concept. Endowments embody it by supporting those future generations. It is a way for donors to leave not only the currency, but the legacy of Tzedakah (charitable giving), a mitzvah deeply rooted in Jewish ethics.
“So, let’s put some leaves on the ‘tree” of giving’.
“Today’s signers,” London concluded,”have added our familial names, our memories and our promises in support of the Foundation’s good deeds. May good triumph and may peace prevail.”
In his own remarks, John Diamond, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s CEO, described the Endowment Book of Life program as one of the Foundation’s “most meaningful and most successful initiatives”.
“By entering their and their families’ life stories in our book,” he said, “our donors both honour those who came before and inspire those who will come after us.”
In his closing remarks, the JFM’s chair Dan Blankstein reported that the Endowment Book of Life book currently contains over 800 stories. Echoing John Diamond, Blankstein observed that “Our Endowment Book of Life is both a living history of Jewish life in Manitoba and a guide to the future”.