By BEN CARR, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre Winnipeg South Centre is a diverse community. It is blessed to be the home of people from all different faiths, ethnicity, culture, and identity. I try to honour and celebrate that diversity as often as I can. For example, I published a message on my social media account this week wishing Jewish Canadians a peaceful Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Sitting in the public responses to that post was the following, written by a constituent of mine: “there is certainly a lot that Zionist Jews have to atone for” it reads. “I doubt any god or future humanity will absolve you…of your crimes.”

This was not written by an A.I. bot or someone far away, it came from a person who lives in my neighbourhood. I added it to the list of antisemitic messages I have received since being elected, which include the likes of “you dirty Jew,” “Hitler should have finished his job,” and “you will get yours, Jew.”

Instances of antisemitism have been on the rise for years, but recently they have worsened at an increasingly alarming rate. In the past few weeks alone, we have seen Canadian streets littered with swastikas and graffiti that say “fu*k Jews”, a woman in Ottawa wearing a Star of David necklace stabbed at a grocery store in the Kosher aisle, patrons entering events at the Jewish Community Centre in Winnipeg told that “Hamas is coming for you”, and social media platforms rampant with Jew hating rhetoric and threats of violence, just to name a few.

On Wednesday, several Jews in Manchester, U.K. were murdered at their Synagogue on Yom Kippur. What happened there is no longer unimaginable in Canada.

What is the result of all this hate? Out of fear for their safety, Jews in Canadian cities are taking down their mezuzahs (a religious symbol that sits atop the doorway entrance of a home). Young Jewish students are hiding their Star of David necklaces on university campuses due to harassment. Parents are living with anxiety when they drop their kids off at a Jewish daycare, school, or religious event. Synagogues are hiring police officers to protect congregants.

A significant reason for the rise in antisemitism stems from people’s views on the conflict in the Middle East. Most disturbing is that many are unable to reject antisemitism in its most basic forms, and instead, create a false association between those acts of hate and the conflict itself.

It was extremely wrong and racist to hold Muslims accountable for the actions of a select few terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks or the Oct 7th attacks. It is equally wrong to hold Jews accountable for the violent actions of a settler in the West Bank or hateful speech uttered by government officials in Israel.

We do not target or blame Chinese, Syrian, Iranian, Sudanese or Congolese Canadians for human rights violations, unjust laws, or controversial actions advanced by the leaders of those countries. Why do we continually see, and accept, that Jews are being held accountable for the decisions of the Israeli government? The inability to disassociate the Jewish people from a foreign government is breeding antisemitism at historic rates.

We have reached a point in society where a standalone comment on social media condemning a terrorist attack on Jews, or even the mere acknowledgement of a Jewish holiday, cannot exist without some response that draws a connection to the Middle East, and by implication, suggests Jews everywhere are at fault. For example, I commonly see replies to a post referencing an antisemitic incident met with something along the lines of “Israel is committing war crimes.”

It perplexes me as to how people do not see prejudice in this. What does the death of a Jewish person in the U.K or the stabbing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, simply because of her Judaism, have to do with what Benjamin Netanyahu or Hamas militants decide thousands of miles away?

During the Second World War, our country held Japanese and Italian Canadians responsible for events in their country of origin and declared them guilty by association by virtue of their heritage. That was wrong. Too many Canadians are repeating that mistake with how they view the Jewish community today.

If we want to talk about the Middle East, as we should, and must, let us do so, but without holding our views in relation to it up as some type of justification or distraction from the very real and growing threat Jews in Canada are facing.

As the 2nd anniversary of the Oct 7th attacks approach, regardless of your views on the conflict, let Jewish Canadians express their grief without having to bear the burden of things outside of their control. Empathize with them, just as we do with those who grieve the loss of innocent Palestinian lives, without conflating it with support for Hamas.

Let us all stand up against antisemitism. It is dangerous and it needs to stop.

By BERNIE BELLAN It was billed as “Java with Jeff” – a chance for anyone to talk to Jewish Federation CEO Jeff Lieberman in an open setting at Schmoozer’s Café. There were to be two sessions: an early morning session Monday morning, September 8, and an evening session Tuesday, September 23, at 7:30 pm.
While I didn’t attend the morning session held on September 8, anecdotally I heard that there was a good crowd and so, I expected much the same for the Tuesday, September 23 session – which I did attend.
As a result, I was somewhat shocked when I entered the Asper Campus that Tuesday evening and saw absolutely no one waiting in Schmoozer’s Café. I checked my phone again to make sure that I had the right date and time and, sure enough, I did.

Eventually, an old acquaintance by the name of Uriel Jelin – whom I hadn’t seen in quite a long time, walked up to where I was sitting at a table in Schmoozer’s and asked me whether I was also there to see Jeff Lieberman. I said I was, but Uriel was equally stupefied that no one else was there. (By the way, Uriel Jelin immigrated to Winnipeg from Argentina in 2015, along with his wife, Cynthia Fidel, and their two children, Anna Sofia and Eliel. They were profiled in an April 2016 issue of The Jewish Post & News by Rebeca Kuropatwa.)
While Uriel and I chatted, catching up on where he and Cynthia are at now, we noticed that, gathered in the courtyard adjoining Schmoozer’s, was a group, including Jeff Lieberman. (It turns out it was some sort of meeting for Gray Academy.) Within a few minutes, Jeff entered through the door leading into the campus. I approached him and asked him whether he was still planning on going ahead with “Java with Jeff,” despite the scarcity of attendees.
Jeff said he was going to proceed as planned but, instead of holding an open forum – which was the initial plan, he said, it would make more sense to hold a series of one-on-ones with whoever showed up. As it was, a very aggressive woman (who showed up after Uriel and I had been sitting waiting for Jeff to show up), approached Jeff and said to him that she had something to attend, so she asked whether she could sit down with him first. (I wasn’t surprised that someone had the effrontery to push herself to the head of the line.)
While that rude woman was sitting talking to Jeff, two more individuals showed up and said that they, too, would like to talk to Jeff.
While the rude woman spent over 20 minutes talking to Jeff, I engaged the two new individuals in conversation. They introduced themselves as Shota and Lia Megrelishvili – recent arrivals to our city from Georgia (not the Georgia in the USA). Georgia, which seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991, had been following a pro-Western stance, Shota explained, but its most recent prime minister has been attempting to shift the country back into a more pro-Russian stance, he noted.
Eventually, Jeff invited the four of us: Uriel, Shota, Lia, and me, to join him and Carrie Shenkarow (who said she was the incoming President of the Jewish Federation, about to take over from current President Paula Parks in November), at one table. (I should note that Paula Parks did show up as well, but she ended up sitting with someone else who had apparently come to participate in whatever it was that was supposed to take place. Paula and that person ended up having their own private conversation at a different Schmoozer’s table.)
Given the quite small number of individuals who had come out, Jeff suggested that we all just introduce ourselves and ask any questions anyone might have of him.
Shota took the opportunity to say how grateful he and Lia were to the Federation for the help they had been given in moving to Winnipeg. He added that he and Lia were there because they wanted to offer their services to the Federation to volunteer in any capacity the Federation might think useful.
At that point both Shota and Lia told the story how they had ended up in Winnipeg. While Shota said he had found work immediately in his field (IT), Lia was sadly underemployed (working in a food store), even though she was also qualified to work in IT.
I said to them that, years ago, I had been involved, along with former Rady JCC Programming Director Tamar Barr, in setting up what was called the Jewish Business Network. I said that I had retained every business card I had ever been given at any of the Jewish Business Network meetings and I knew that I had cards from at least a couple of individuals who were involved in IT. I said I would try to put Shota and Lia in touch with someone in IT – which I did the next day.
Eventually though, after everyone had had their chance to talk to Jeff, I said to him that I would like to take the opportunity to ask him some questions. I must add that I had tried to get a response from Jeff around the time the Federation had enmeshed itself in the affairs of BB Camp back in April, when then-Executive Director Jacob Brodovdsky had found himself caught up in a witch hunt engendered by the publisher of a website known as the J.ca, during which Brodovsky was accused of not showing enough support for the State of Israel.
Even though the board of BB Camp had given Brodovsky a full vote of confidence, the Jewish Federation had stepped in and, only three days after the BB Camp had issued that vote of confidence to Brodovsky, the Federation held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation and – the next day, Brodovsky was let go from his position. I never did get a response from Jeff as to why the Federation had interceded in the affairs of one of its beneficiary agencies (which, presumably, operate autonomously from the Federation.)
But, now that I had the opportunity to talk to Jeff one on one, I began by saying that I wasn’t going to revisit what happened to Jacob Brodovsky and that, no doubt, Jacob himself wanted to move on from what had happened.
Instead, I said, I wanted to ask how the Federation “can reach out to people who feel the Federation doesn’t represent them?”
Jeff answered that holding this kind of session was a way for people to “talk to the Federation, to talk to me. This may be the beginning, but maybe we can do something else – like a town hall – by Zoom or something, where people could ask questions, hold a conversation. I understand that there are people out there who don’t understand what Federation does, who don’t know the difference between Federation and (Jewish) Foundation…
“After I became CEO (in July 2023), I held a series of meetings, along with Dalia (Szpiro, Jewish Federation GrowWinnipeg Director) with Israelis. I was shocked to hear from some of them that they had never set foot in this building.”
I said that “they live far away in a lot of cases.” I noted that when Gayle Waxman was Rady JCC Executive Director, she started holding events in Transcona, for instance, to take programming closer to where many Israelis live.
Jeff added that, to make things even more difficult, some of the Israelis now live in Sage Creek which, I suggested, is “about as far away from the campus as you can get.”
“Here’s the other thing,” I said though: “Aside from involvement in the community,” there’s a situation where, especially among a lot of young people” – noting I had received a number of emails around the time of the Brodovsky controversy, “there’s a feeling that ‘if we don’t line themselves up in total support for Israel, we feel marginalized, we’re not accepted as part of the community.’ Is there room for people – like me,” I asked, “to have dissenting voices?”
Jeff agreed there are people who “feel we don’t represent them because of our support of Israel and we support Israel – the right of people there to feel secure, not to have to worry about their safety, but we don’t talk about support for the Israeli government, we talk about the Israeli people.”
“You talked about holding a ‘town hall,’ ” I said, “maybe through Zoom..and that would be kind of awkward,” , but “you agree about reaching out to people who feel excluded, who don’t feel part of the mainstream? It’s a tough one – because things have become so polarized.”
Jeff acknowledged “there’s a certain percentage of Jews who don’t agree with our position on the State of Israel.”
I said, “It’s probably a lot more than you think because I meet a lot of people who are ostensibly Jewish, who say we don’t want anything to do with the Jewish Federation… but – if you can put some flesh on the bone, and reach out by having some sort of town hall, that would be a way of perhaps doing something to make people who are currently disaffected feel that the Federation is at least listening to them.”

By MYRON LOVE As B’nai Brith Winnipeg reminds us every year during Holocaust Remembrance Week,”to every person there is a name.”
When we hear or read numbers – 500,000 people murdered in Syria’s decade long civil war – or an estimated 300,000 dead in Yemen’s civil war – or 25 million Sudanese at risk of starvation, they are just numbers without meaning for most of us.
The same could be said for the 1,200 Israelis massacred by Hamas and their minions on October 7, 2023.  For me, personally, the face and name that I put to that horrendous mini-Holocaust was -from the very first news reports, our community’s Vivian Silver.  We had known each other since we were seven. We went to school together. In later years, I had grown close to her parents, Meyer and Ros, through our common shul membership, and I would see Vivian at shul when she came to visit. I admired her efforts to foster harmonious relations between Jewish and Arab Israelis and Israelis and Palestinians.
I now have another name and face to picture when I think of the October 7 massacre.
On Tuesday, August 26, I was among 200 fellow Winnipeggers in attendance at the Shaarey Zedek to hear Jacqui Vital tell us about her daughter, Adi.  Adi, we were told, had fought valiantly against the terrorists despite impossible odds and died heroically.
“I want people to know that my daughter is not just a number,” Vital said.  “She was a wife,  a protective and strong mother, a sister, a daughter, a friend.  She was a born leader imbued with the spirit of volunteering.  She was always true to herself.  And she loved the land and people of Israel.”
Jacqui Vital has dedicated the last two years to keeping alive Adi’s memory by speaking about her wherever she can.     
Vital’s appearance in Winnipeg – part of a cross-Canada tour – was co-sponsored by the Shaarey Zedek, the Asper Foundation, Bridges for Peace Canada, and the Rady JCC.
Vital was introduced by Kelly Hiebert, a Westwood Collegiate teacher who is dedicated to educating his students about the Holocaust. The speaker began her presentation by reviewing her road to aliyah. 
Born and raised in  Ottawa, Vital attended the University of Toronto. Fifty years ago she immigrated to Israel.  In Israel, she met and married Yaron. The couple had three daughters – with Adi being the youngest – and one son.
Adi and her husband, Anani, had two children: sons Negev – who was three-and –a-half  at the time – and Eshel, who was just six months old.  Adi was an engineer and cyber-security expert.
As part of her presentation, Jacqui Vital played a video of Adi and another member of the kibbutz speaking about why they decided to move to Holit, a small kibbutz near the Gaza border, and became kibbutzniks.  There were also videos of the extended family in happier times –with the last photo from a family gathering on Rosh Hashanah, three weeks before her murder.
In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, 2023, Jacqui Vital said , when Adi heard the first signs of the invasion and recognized that this wasn’t the norm – and with her husband, Anani, somewhere else – she took her sons into the home’s safe room and contacted Anani.  There was a rifle in the safe room because Anani was the deputy head of security for the kibbutz.  Adi phoned Anani and asked how to load it.  When the terrorists began to shoot through the door to the safe room, Adi fired the rifle, killing one of the attackers before the other terrorists killed her.
I have long believed that everyone who survived the Holocaust was saved by a miracle – if not several miracles.  In the case of Adi and her family, several miracles followed her killing.
First, among this group of terrorists, there were at least some who retained vestiges of humanity.  Instead of murdering the children – as happened in many other cases on that infamous day – the killers spared the children. Not only that, they gave them to the care of a neighbour – Avital Alajem. 
Then – a second miracle. This is a story I remember from that time.  After taking Avital Alajem and the two boys into Gaza, they stopped before entering the tunnel they had used to enter into Israel, and one of the terrorists inexplicably indicated to Avital that she should turn back with the boys and return to Israel. She was able to return the boys to their father.
Now, Jacqui recounted, she was visiting family in Ottawa around this time. She was scheduled to return to Israel on October 8.  Adi’s father, Yaron, had gone to stay with Adi and the boys over Sukkot, while Anani was away.
More miracles:  Adi had suggested to her father that he should stay in the kibbutz guest house lest the baby’s cries wake him up at night.  At the sound of the commotion outside, he went into the guest house’s safe room and waited… The terrorists never came.
As Jacqui reported, the attackers had a detailed map of the kibbutz and who lived where.  The guest house was listed as uninhabited, so they didn’t enter that house.  Yaron waited until late in the afternoon when IDF soldiers broke in and he was able to leave. 
He went with IDF soldiers to his daughter’s house, Jacqui continued.  Inside, they found the body of the terrorist that Adi killed lying on the floor – but no signs of Adi and the kids. They weren’t able to open the door to the safe room wide enough to get in.  On the following Tuesday, a different group of IDF soldiers found a back way in and saw Adi’s body – rigged with explosives. If the soldiers had entered through the safe room door, there would have been a massive explosion.
The final miracle, as told by Jacqui:  Although Yaron’s car was riddled with bullet holes, it was drivable.  The soldiers recommended that he take Road 232 back to Jerusalem.  On a hunch, he chose a different route.  It turned out that terrorists were firing at cars traveling on 232.
Jacqui reported that there have been several acts of kindness helping to keep the memory of Adi alive.  About 1,500 people attended her funeral. Some of Yaron’s students planted a tree in her memory in the yard of the school where Yaron teaches. A couple in Ottawa, who didn’t know Adi,- designed a logo as a tribute to her featuring the head of a lioness – for the boys’ trust fund – the Adi Kaploun-Vital Memorial Fund – which is intended to help support Eshel and Negev.
Any readers who might be interested in donating can go online to the Adi Kaploun-Vital  Memorial Fund on Jgive.