By MYRON LOVE JFest Winnipeg is back with a good variety of musical performances, a book launch, popular Jewish-themed films, children’s activities, and a family-oriented Shabbat dinner.
“JFest,” observes Laura Marjovsky, the Rady JCC Director of Programming, “is an opportunity for our community to experience Jewish art and culture. With our range of JFest events, we are trying to reach out beyond what has been our base audience and appeal to all ages.   We have a commitment to bring top notch Israeli performers to share the highest caliber of Israeli entertainment with our audiences.”
The week-long festival (November 14-21) kicks off with a performance by top-ranked Israeli singer-songwriter Harel Skaat.  The popular Israeli star began singing as a child.  He shot to fame when he finished second in the second season of “Kochav  Nolad” – Israel’s version of “American Idol.” His first album was released in 2006 and achieved Platinum status – with one of the songs being ranked as “song of the year.” He followed that up in 2009 with a second album that reached Gold status.  In 2010, he represented Israel at the Eurovision competition.
Skaat’s performance is scheduled for the Seven Oaks Performing Arts Centre (which is attached to Garden City Collegiate) beginning at 8:00 P.M. on Saturday, November 14. Patrons will have the opportunity to purchase an enhanced ticket to attend a meet and greet with Harel.
All other JFest programs and activities will be at the Rady JCC.
Music Producer Karla Berbrayer says Ben Caplan’s performance on Saturday, November 21 will also be another highlight. “Ben Caplan redefines what it means to be a modern folk artist,” Berbrayer says. “His music and stories are matched by his larger-than-life stage presence. This concert focuses on how his Jewish upbringing has influenced his entire performance career.”  
“Flatland Famous” is returning by popular demand.  This quintet, known for its performances at Winnipeg Jets games, will be presenting its concert, “Jewish Soul of Rock and Roll,” on Wednesday, November 18, at 7:30 pm.  This year’s show will feature songs by Amy Winehouse, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Simon and Garfinkel, and other famous Jewish icons.
 
On Tuesday, November 17, local author Deborah Schnitzer will be taking centre stage with the launch of her new book, “The Woman Who Swallowed West Hawk Lake.” The University of Winnipeg English Professor Emeritus’s new novel explores intergenerational trauma related to Nazi breeding programs.  Joining Schnitzer on stage will be a panel of professionals who have experience working with children who have experienced trauma.
And of course, “Best of the Fest” is back. Films to be presented will include“The Floaters” and “We Met at Grossingers,” two wildly popular movies at last spring’s Winnipeg International Jewish Film Festival. 
“The Floaters,” to be screened on Monday , November 16 at 7:00 pm is a funny and bang-on depiction of Jewish summer camp culture.  
“We Met at Grossingers” is a loving look back at the Borscht Belt in New York’s Catskills, where generations of young Jewish performers earned their dues and developed their acts. The film will be screened on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00 P.M.
On Friday November 20,  JFest will host a Family Shabbat dinner featuring Anat Kriger, an Israeli-born, Toronto-based musician, actor, and children’s performer, who has made several appearances in Winnipeg at major communal events.
Kidfest on Sunday, November 15, will be a day-long potpourri of programming that will include live performances, workshops, bouncy castles, games and crafts, and much more.  
Readers seeking more information about JFest can contact Laura Marjovsky at 204 477-7539 or lmarjovsky@radyjcc/com 

By MYRON LOVE On Tuesday, October 6, a large number of members of our community packed the chapel at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, eager to welcome Hen Mazzig in his first appearance in our community. 
Over the past few years, the Israeli-born Mazzig – who was appearing at the invitation of our Jewish Federation and Combined Jewish Appeal team – has become one of Israel’s and the Jewish people’s leading advocates on the international stage. His online platforms reach as many 100 million viewers a month with a regular following of almost 1 million. He has been interviewed by numerous leading media outlets and has given addresses at close to 500 universities in recent years.
Mazzig’s presentation in Winnipeg (which was funded by the Asper Family and the Asper Foundation) took the form of a question and answer format with Sarah Mali, the Director General of JFC-UIA (Jewish Federations-United Jewish Appeal) Canada in Israel, asking the questions.
Mali , who was visiting Winnipeg for the third time in the past three years, began by expressing how honoured she felt about having the opportunity to converse with Mazzig – referring to Jewish Federation of Winnipeg President Carrie Shenkarow’s  comments regarding Mazzig’s “devotion to Israel and the Jewish people”, his “deep sense of purpose, moral clarity” and “willingness to enter some of the most difficult spaces and conversations.”
 
The first question that Mali posed to Mazzig was related to his visit to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights and its controversial and one-sided take on the longstanding and ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  She referred to a comment that Mazzig had made on X the day after visiting the museum, in which he wrote  that while he “has no problem with people learning about Palestinian history,” he wished that “Palestine Uprooted” didn’t “distort the regional  events, including the displacement of 800,000 people just like my grandmother, Hela, who became a refugee when Iraq turned on its Jewish community” post-1948.
“History can only lead to reconciliation when it is told honestly,” he observed.  “Otherwise, it is just fuelilng an agenda.”
What most disturbed him about the exhibit, Mazzig told his audience, is that it erased his own family’s history. Expanding upon his family’s roots, he noted that his father’s family came to Israel from Tunisia and his mother’s side from Iraq.  He spoke in particular about his maternal grandmother, Hela, who left behind “a beautiful civilization” – Jews had been living and thriving in Iraq since before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem 2000 years ago – to a new land (Israel), where she had to learn a new language (Hebrew) and rebuild her life.
Mazzig added that his grandmother is his anchor in life and the inspiration for all that he has accomplished.
Mali asked Mazzig about his ability to empathize with Palestinians.  It was difficult to do, he answered. He got to know Palestinians, he recalled, during the Covid epidemic when he was serving as a medic with the Israel Defense Force and found himself responsible for helping Palestinians through that difficult time and transporting sick Palestinians to Israeli hospitals.
 
“Even though I fight so hard for Israel,” he observed, it doesn’t mean that I can’t feel empathy for anyone else.”
Mali asked Mazzig how October 7, 2023, changed him.
“I chose not to become a victim,” he said, “but rather to engage more with the world, bear witness, share our stories and talk about genocide.  While I was actively advocating for Israel before October 7, I have been much more in demand since. I have become a lot more visible.
”I have found that a lot of people support us,” he continued. “They see what is happening and are on our side.”
On the other hand, he added,  a lot of people don’t know anything about Israel. “It is a matter of education,” he said. “I encourage people to go to Israel and talk to Israelis.”    

Mali’s last question was what Mazzig means when he writes that “I promise to love being Jewish ten times more than anyone hates me for it.” What does it mean to him to love and find joy and happiness in being Jewish”, she added?
It means cherishing our rich history, Mazzig responded, enjoying Shabbat dinners with family and friends, celebrating all of our holidays and traditions.
 
“The Jewish People have been through so much over the past 2000 years,” he said.  “Many people have tried to destroy us, but we have survived. We are arisen from the ashes numerous time and continued to move forward.  Not only are we still here but we have returned as an independent people living again in our ancestral homeland.”
Also addressing the audience at the Shaarey Zedek was Steven Shulman, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of Canada.  Shulman heaped much praise on our Jewish community in Winnipeg.
“Winnipeg is special,” he noted, “not just in Canada but worldwide.  Your CJA campaign continues to be the most successful in North America. You have an outstanding CEO (of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg) in Jeff Lieberman, who is universally respected.”
He further praised Gray Academy and our community’s highly successful GrowWinnipeg campaign – which has attracted thousands of new families to our community over the past 25 years.
He noted that he was particularly impressed with how our community has come together to protest the biased Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
He also spoke of the many supporters that we have among non-Jewish Canadians – singling out, as an example, the police officer in Belleville  who put his own life on the line protecting the city’s only Jewish congregation from a  terrorist attack during  yom tov services.
The last word went to Jeff Lieberman, who thanked all the members of our community who have contributed to the CJA campaign this year, as well as our many non-Jewish friends who continue to stand with Israel and the Jewish community.

By BERNIE BELLAN If you had been following the coverage that the Winnipeg Free Press has given to several major American-originated film and TV productions that have been shot in and around Winnipeg in recent years, you would know by now that Winnipeg has become a popular destination for production companies looking for a particular vibe – especially the kind of look the Exchange District can impart for period pieces.
And, while stars such as Bob Odenkirk (perhaps best known for his star role in “Better Call Saul”) sang the praises of Winnipeg to such a degree that he decided to shoot not just one, but three feature films here, Odenkirk’s praise for Winnipeg certainly reverberated among other Hollywood A-listers. Odenkirk’s first film shot here, called “Nobody,” was followed by a sequel, “Nobody 2”, a good part of which was filmed in Winnipeg Beach – which would have made many of the locations of the film’s scenes very familiar to members of our Jewish community. (Odenkirk also made a third movie in Winnipeg, called “Normal,” which co-starred Henry Winkler.)

But perhaps no production in recent times has received more attention than the eight-part TV series, “American Hostage,” starring Jon Hamm – who vaulted to fame in the TV series “Mad Men” and has gone on to achieve major stardom on both TV and in the movies.
Here’s a brief synopsis of what “American Hostage” is all about:
“Based on the acclaimed first season of the scripted podcast of the same name, American Hostage is a psychological thriller set in the 1970s inspired by the harrowing true story of Fred Heckman, a beloved Indianapolis radio reporter who is thrust into the middle of a life-or-death crisis when hostage-taker Tony Kiritsis demands to be interviewed on his popular radio news program.”

While Hamm was in Winnipeg between last November and February of this year, he made quite a name for himself as someone who was quite eager to explore our city, despite the cold weather he and the rest of the crew encountered. (One time he and two other actors in the series actually drove to Stonewall to take in that town’s recently reopened movie theatre.)
In addition to Hamm, “American Hostage” features many other well-known actors, although I have to admit that, since I don’t watch a lot of television, I have to take the word of other writers, especially writers for the Free Press, whose stories about “American Hostage” I read prior to writing this article, in order to give myself a better understanding of how this particular series came about and just who in it is considered well-known in the film and TV business.
Since what really made “American Hostage” so popular within our own actors’ community was its use of so many Winnipeggers as extras during its filming, I though I’d focus on several members of the Jewish community who have roles in the series.

Chief among them is Harry Nelken, who has had a prolific career in Winnipeg’s theatre scene, especially as a star in many Winnipeg Jewish Theatre productions. In “American Hostage,” Nelken provides some comic relief to the often heavy tone imbued by the hostage crisis. Nelken plays an over-the-hill sports reporter by the name of Franco (although I don’t recall hearing his name actually called out in the first three episodes I’ve been able to watch as of the time of writing.)

Another local performer, Susanna Portnoy, also has a comic turn as a nosy neighbour named Pearl in Episode 2 of the series.
In addition, in Episode 6 we can expect to see Kevin McIntryre (Cantor at Congregation Etz Chayim) play a role, also his wife Henriette Ivanans.

While there are a number of other individuals listed in the credits who are Jewish, the most prominent among them is Adam Arkin, who not only directed the first four episodes of the series, he plays the role of a lawyer by the name of Ruckelshaus, who serves as the lawyer for the hostage taker, Tony Kiritsis.
The show is being rolled out on a weekly basis on Crave TV. If you have Fibe TV and a Crave TV account you can login on your computer to see all episodes of the show that have been aired to date (six as of this writing). Or, you can go to Crave On Demand and look for past episodes of American Hostage.
If you don’t have a Crave TV account, but have USA TV (Channels 104 or 1104 on Bell MTS TV or Channel 425 on Shaw T) as one of the channels in your TV package, you can watch episodes every Friday evening at 10:00 pm – and set your TV box to record all other episodes of the series.