Opinion
Some questions about how the Jewish Foundation decided who should get assistance during the pandemic
By BERNIE BELLAN
There was an interesting message sent out recently from Joel Lazer, President of the Jewish Federation, in which he offered special praise for Becky Chisick, Executive Director of the Gwen Secter Centre, for the incredibly important effort Becky and her tiny staff have been making in getting meals out to Jewish seniors during this entire period of isolation.
I’ve been writing repeatedly about how fantastic a job Becky and her two kitchen staff workers, Galina Melenevska and Cathy Koltowski, have been doing turning out those meals. Just to give you an idea how much Galina and Cathy have stepped up to fill a vital need in our community, here’s what I wrote in our May 13 issue: “In our April 15 issue we had reported that the kitchen staff at Gwen Secter had produced 60 meals for Jewish seniors from March 30-April 3, all delivered free of charge. Since then, the staff has increased production of meals to the point where they sent out 194 meals the week of May 4-8.”
Now, here’s the most recent update we have on how much more Gwen Secter has been doing – in the form of a series of emails I received from Becky Chisick on May 21, in response to questions about how the meal program has been going:
First, here’s what I asked Becky: “Have you received any extra funding from either the Foundation or the Federation beyond whatever the Foundation gave you in that initial cheque the Foundation sent you – along with all the other organizations?”
Becky responded: “Both JFM and JFW recently opened their emergency application grants so it will be a little while until we hear back.”
I then asked her how the meal program has been going of late?
Becky answered: “The meal program is going very well. I have hired a part- time volunteer meal program coordinator, Laurel Cogan, to help with the organization of routes, volunteers and clients. She also calls all of the clients twice a week to help continue more personal connections. A HUGE help! We are now delivering over 270 meals weekly. I thought we’d be eventually up to (around) 120 meals!!”
I then sent Becky the following email: “Of the 270 meals you’re delivering, how many times a week would someone get a meal? For instance, is it 270 seniors getting one meal a week or 135 seniors getting 2 meals a week?
“Also, is it still volunteers from the GROW program who are delivering the meals?
“What you’re doing is absolutely fantastic Becky. I hope you’re getting extra funding from the Jewish Foundation for what you’re doing. Frankly, a lot of the organizations they’re helping do not need help and some do not deserve any help at all.
Becky answered: “On the ‘full’ program 2 meals are delivered twice per week. Some opt to only receive meals once per week. As of today, we have 73 people on our list with 3 taking meals once per week. So in fact we will be sending 286 meals out this week. GROW Participants are delivering on 3 of the routes. We now have 7 routes. I have student volunteers and a couple board members delivering. Some volunteer both days and some one day/week.
“I’m very excited that we are confirmed to receive $25,000 of government funding allotted to seniors via the United Way. These funds have been specifically earmarked for the meal program.”
While the Gwen Secter Centre certainly stands out as having risen to the occasion and filled a desperately needed role in our community, one might well wonder just why it was that the Jewish Foundation necessary to rush out cheques to 28 differerent “Jewish” organizations (and I put quotation marks around the name Jewish because one would think that the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism would be considered an “academic” organization, not a Jewish organization, per se).
There are other organizations that have found themselves under incredible pressure – and we have written about those organizations, but you have to wonder about the approach the Foundation has taken in providing financial assistance to so many different organizations.
It took a while to receive a list of all the organizations that received emergency funding from the Foundation, but when I asked how much was given to each organization, I was told “due to a variety of unique circumstances currently faced by individual organizations, at this point, we will leave the disclosure of the amount they received to their discretion. Soon we will be positioned to paint a clear picture of the impact these distributions are making in the community with the imminent onset of Phase 2.”
Notwithstanding the Foundation’s reluctance to make public how much it has given to each organization, that information should be disclosed. The Foundation has been supported by thousands of different individuals and organizations over the years and the Foundation owes it to the public to be more transparent with what it is doing during this emergency situation – and will be continuing to do as it hands out more money to organizations.
There are 11 different synagogues listed among the recipients of emergency funding from the Foundation. Are they all in emergency situations?
As well, two organizations – The Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and the National Council of Jewish Women would hardly seem to be needing emergency assistance – for what? To pay salaries? That should hardly qualify as an emergency. The Gwen Secter Centre, the Rady JCC, Camp Massad, and BB Camp are all in dire straits. Was it really necessary to send cheques out to every conceivable Jewish organization? Of course, since we don’t know how much any one organization has received (other than what I’ve been told anecdotally by directors of certain organizations), it’s really difficult to know what criteria the Foundation used in providing the initial stage of financial assistance.
At the same time, if something like the The Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism is worthy of financial assistance, then why not an organization like the Group for Yiddish Heritage? (I was told that in order to qualify for financial assistance an organization would need to be a registered charity, but The Group for Yiddish Heritage is a registered charity – and they have received funding from the Foundation in the past, so if the criteria that are necessary to receive emergency funding from the Foundation are that you need to have received funding from the Foundation in the past and that you are a registered charity, then why not the Group for Yiddish Heritage – whether they need “emergency funding”or not? I’m sure that other readers can think of other organizations that would also be equally deserving.)
By the way, I had approached the Foundation with a proposal that would have satisfied their criteria and would have enabled it to provide our paper with some assistance – not through direct funding, but in a different way. I was told that unless our newspaper were a “not for profit business”, then we couldn’t receive any help from the Foundation. I’ve always been prepared to transform this newspaper into a not for profit corporation, but I’m not going to spend a lot of time pursuing that avenue. If someone wants to take the initiative to turn the JP&N into a not for profit corporation without share capital, and appoint a board of directors to run the corporation, then you would receive my full cooperation.
I might note, however, that the Canadian Jewish News was a not for profit corporation – twice, and that didn’t turn out too well for them. I actually had a conversation with the former president of the CJN – Elizabeth Wolfe, during which I asked her whether she’d ever consider getting back into helping to revive a Jewish newspaper in Toronto and she quite quickly demurred, saying she’ll leave that to others now.
It still puzzles me that a city with the size of Toronto’s Jewish community can’t sustain a Jewish newspaper, but I’ll leave that to Torontonians to figure out.
I see too that the Jewish Federation is still working out the details of how it will provide emergency assistance to Jewish organizations.
On May 19 I asked Adam Levy, Public Relations & Communication Manger of the Federation, “Are you able to provide any new information re the emergency campaign, such as how much you’ve raised so far and where the money is going?
“Has any of what you’ve raised thus far been distributed to anyone?”
Adam responded: “As of now, we’ve raised about $50,000 and we have some donors who are still figuring out how much they’d like to give to this campaign.
“So far we’ve received 5 applications with a total of over $200,000 requested. With allocations happening next week many of our beneficiaries are focused on that, and we are expecting more applications to come in following that.”
I asked Adam a follow-up question: “Are these requests coming from beneficiaries who have also received grants from the Jewish Foundation?
“If so, do you know whether the Foundation be taking that into account in its next round of grants?”
Adam responded: “As part of the application process, we have asked for information on all of the other grants that organizations have applied for.
“We are working closely with the Foundation to ensure that we are responding to the needs of Winnipeg’s Jewish organizations together.”
Given that there’s going to be a fair bit of money continuing to flow to Jewish organizations (some of which probably didn’t need money as a result of the pandemic, but hey, let’s be honest: Who’s going to turn down mannah from heaven?) one might well ask: How rigorous are the Jewish Foundation and the Jewish Federation going to be going forward when it comes to scrutinizing requests from organizations for financial assistance? Let’s hope that it’s not a case of which organizations have the most powerful supporters lobbying on their behalves – which is often the way things work in our community.
Features
Did the Jewish Federation’s stepping in to force the firing of BB Camp co-executive director Jacob Brodovsky lead to the further alienating of many young Jews from the community?
(June 8, 2024) Introduction: We received the following email from a young Jewish Winnipegger re the BB Camp controversy, which we’ve reported on extensively on this website. We thought it important to post the email as a separate piece rather than as an add-on to an article in which we printed other emails from readers expressing their disappointment at what happened to Jacob Brodovsky, the former co-executive director of BB Camp:
Dear Mr. Bellan,
Thank you for once again cutting through the noise with your April 23rd column, “What the sordid BB Camp affair says about our community.” Your clarity and courage in calling out our rush to judgment and our narrowing definition of “Jewish identity” are deeply appreciated, especially by those of us who feel increasingly alienated in Winnipeg.
I also want to share a troubling observation about one of the loudest voices attacking Jacob Brodovsky: theJ.ca. Their articles—bylines like “Ron East” or “TheJ.ca Staff”—are, in fact, almost entirely generated by artificial intelligence. They contain no verifiable sourcing, frequently hallucinate details, and appear to be little more than a far-right newsletter running smear campaigns under the guise of “journalism.” The entire BB Camp series reads like an AI trained on extremist talking points, regurgitated daily to bully our community into silence.
As a young Jew in Winnipeg, I—and many of my peers—are horrified by the transformation we’re witnessing. What was once a warm, progressive community is now dominated by:
Bigots and Bullies: Parents threatening to pull their kids unless the camp bows to extremist demands.
Florida-style Republican Judaism: A narrow, intolerant ideology portrayed as the only “true” Jewishness.
Collapsing Leadership: Our Jewish Federation leaders, including Jeff Lieberman, have shown they lack the vision or backbone to navigate this crisis.
We stand at a dangerous inflection point. Our community is on the verge of a total and irreversible fascist takeover—an outcome no amount of regret or retrospective apologies can undo.
Please consider reading firsthand accounts from community members who have bravely spoken out:
I know this letter is anonymous and won’t be published, but I hope you see it as proof that many of us are desperate for ethical, forward-looking leadership. Thank you again for using your platform to remind us what Jewish community should mean: diversity of thought, compassion for all people, and the moral courage to call out extremism—no matter where it comes from.
This was NEVER a community of far-right Israelis. This is a shame beyond words.
With gratitude and urgency,
A Concerned Young Jew in Winnipeg
Post script: We had heard from many different sources (who all asked to remain anonymous) that the Jewish Federation’s decision to force the BB Camp board to fire Jacob Brodovsky came as a result of pressure from one or more big donors to the Combined Jewish Appeal. We sent an email to Jeff Lieberman, asking Jeff whether the Jewish Federation’s decision to force the resignation of Jacob Brodovsky as co-executive director of BB Camp came as a result of a donor (or donors) to the Combined Jewish Appeal threatening to withdraw their donation(s) this year unless Jacob were fired. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to learn that Jeff did not bother responding to my request for information.
The Jewish Federation used to advertise elections to its board in The Jewish Post & News for many years, but no longer does so (in the Jewish Post). Instead, it submits a slate of new appointees to its board to members of the current board to be rubber stamped. Is it any surprise that the donors who contribute the most money call the shots for the Federation (which is as its always been. The only difference is the Jewish Federation and the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council before it used to operate with a patina of democracy. Sadly, that is no longer the case.)
We would urge anyone on the Federation board who could give information about what led the board to force the resignation of Jacob Brodovsky to contact us. We would give full anonymity, as we have to the writer of the above letter.
-Bernie Bellan
Local News
Is It Alberta’s Turn to Regulate Online Gambling? Looking at the Possibilities
Online gambling and betting in Canada is booming, with each province allowed to regulate its own space. Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, turned two this year after leading the way in April 2022. In what should motivate Alberta and other provinces, Ontario is already reaping the rewards, generating $100 million annually in gambling revenue. Will the local administration in Alberta do what is needed?
Talks have been rife that Alberta is considering going the Ontario way by having an open-licensing system. In July 2023, the minister for Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, Dale Nally, issued a mandate to make this province a hub of online sports betting and gambling.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently asked Nally to cooperate with indigenous partners and other stakeholders to develop an online gaming strategy. The main focus will be on revenue generation and responsible gambling. In light of this, Nally said Alberta’s primary focus is becoming a “leading hub for iGaming” with streamlined regulations and low corporate taxes. Such conditions should position Alberta to become a leading iGaming destination.
A few weeks ago, the minister attended the ICE international gaming conference held in London. Together with Ontario’s Attorney General, Doug Downey, and other stakeholders, Nally participated in a roundtable discussion regarding the status of iGaming in Canada. CDC Gaming Reports also revealed that the discussion highlighted the success of iGaming in Ontario and how Alberta can emulate this success story.
Looking into the Alberta Budget 2024, it’s evident that state monopoly could soon give way to Canadian casinos to thrive in the province. Alberta took the first baby steps towards a more liberal gambling sector after setting aside $1 million for gambling. This budget will support the looming review of the Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Act and supporting Regulation. The idea is to review the entire regulatory framework to find more funding ways for Alberta charities and community projects.
Major operators like BetMGM, PointsBet, and PokerStars have since hired lobbyists to ensure commercial operators become a reality in Alberta. Speaking to investors and industry analysts in March this year, PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell tipped Alberta and British Columbia to legalize online betting soon. He noted that this could provide the much-needed expansion of that TAM.
Alberta is yet to take full advantage of online gambling despite being the country’s fourth-largest province, with around 4.3 million people. Smaller markets in North America, such as West Virginia and Connecticut, are already benefiting from commercialized online gambling. The good news is that noises about legal online gambling are getting louder in Alberta. It’s just a matter of when the government will make the announcement.
What Next for Online Gambling and Betting in Alberta?
Including a $1 million gambling review budget is definitely a step in the right direction. However, there’s still much to do to end Alberta’s long-standing gambling status quo. But at least the budget opens the door for further discussions and reforms regarding iGaming in Alberta. That discussion has been underway, although the momentum has increased in the last year or so.
As it stands, PlayAlberta.ca is the only regulated online gaming platform in Alberta. It’s a government-run website operated by the AGLC (Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis). Besides casino games, this website provides sports betting and lottery-style gaming experiences. The legal sign-up age on PlayAlberta.ca is 18 years.
For Albertans who prefer more gambling freedom, the government doesn’t restrict anyone from joining offshore operators. Most gaming sites operating in Alberta are licensed in Curacao, the UK, and Malta. Compared to PlayAlberta.ca, these websites provide a more extensive variety of games, rewards, and general experience.
In conclusion, it’s just a matter of when Alberta will introduce an open-licensing market. This approach has proved to be a success elsewhere, especially in Ontario. A recent Ipsos report in Ontario revealed that only 13.6% of the residents prefer to gamble on offshore websites. Alberta could soon follow this path, although there’s much work to do to realize this dream.
Opinion
Hamas savages make no distinction between Israeli Jews, Arabs
By MYRON LOVE I remember many years ago attending a presentation by Simon Wiesenthal, the world’s leading Nazi hunter, during which he made the point that the focus of Holocaust education should not be on the number six million – the number of estimated Jews who were murdered – but rather on the 12 million martyrs – including other targeted groups such as the Roma, people who were gay, the mentally and physically handicapped and the many great many Slavic people who were also murdered. After the Jews, the Slavs were next on the list.
By focusing strictly on Germans killing Jews, he observed, it became too easy to make it out to be only Germans versus Jews – thereby making it easier for Holocaust deniers and absolving the other European peoples who were complicit in the killings.
Similarly, while we naturally mourn our Jewish brethren who were so horribly slaughtered on October 7, we need to also bear in mind that Hamas made no distinction in its murderous rampage between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs or between Israelis and foreign workers.
In a posting for The Gatestone Institute on November 30, Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh noted that he Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7 did not slaughter Jews alone. The terrorists also murdered and kidnapped scores of Muslim citizens of Israel, including members of the Bedouin community. The terrorists’ murder spree made zero distinction between young and old, Muslim and Jew.
“Scores of Arab Israelis were wounded, murdered or taken prisoner,” he reported.
One such brave individual was 23-year-old Awad Darawshe, an Arab-Israeli paramedic who was on duty at the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, which was among the first locations under attack. When the medical staff on site were ordered to flee, he insisted on remaining behind to treat the wounded.
Abu Toameh suggests that the paramedic thought that because he was Arab, he could reason with the killers. He was murdered nonetheless.
Another courageous Arab-Israeli that the writer noted, 50-year-old Abed al-Rahman Alnasasrah, was murdered by Hamas terrorists when he attempted to rescue people from the music festival. He was married and a father of six children.
Fatima Altallaqat, 35, from the Bedouin village near Ofakim, was murdered while working with her husband near the city of Ofakim in southern Israel. She was a mother of nine children, the eldest nine years old.
Abu Toameh quotes her husband as saying: “We’re a religious Muslim family and she wore the traditional headdress of a devout woman. It is inconceivable they [Hamas terrorists] could not see who was inside [the car]. They were five meters away from her as they passed.”
Forty bullets were fired into her.
Abu Toameh further cites the comments of Suleiman Zayadneh, brother and uncle, respectively, to four of the Arab-Israeli hostages, who describes himself “as proud to be a Palestinian and Muslim”.
‘The people who came to shoot and kill — they know nothing of religion,” the writer quoted Zayadneh as saying. “These [Hamas] people came and killed left and right.”
Abu Toameh went on to reference the words of Nuseir Yassin, a video blogger with 65 million followers. Two days after the massacre, he wrote: “I realized that… to a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets. More than 40 of them [the murdered] are Arabs. Killed by other Arabs. And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel…. So from today forward, I view myself as… Israeli first. Palestinian second. Sometimes it takes a shock like this to see so clearly.”
Abu Toameh reported that “there have been many storie about reciprocal inter-communal generosity and heroism in the aftermath of this national tragedy, and they create hope for the future”.
He quoted a statement by the Darwashe Family:
“We are very proud of Awad’s actions… This is what we would expect from him and what we expect from everyone in our family — to be human, to stay human and to die human.”
Abu Toameh also quoted Ali Alziadna, four of whose family members were kidnapped, as saying that he was “touched by the outpouring of support” by other Israelis.
“People from all over the country have come to hug and support our family,” Alziadna said. “The entire nation is one family now.”
Abu Toameh pointed out that many Arab citizens of Israel serve as IDF officers and policemen, risking their lives for their fellow Israelis. Many are serving at the front lines, saving lives.
Undoubtedly, Abu Toameh suggested, one of the objectives of the Hamas massacre, in addition to slaughtering as many Israelis as possible, was to thwart normalization between Israel and Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. Hamas may also have aimed to damage relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel.
”The terror group was, without doubt, hoping that we would witness another cycle of violence between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, similar to that which erupted in May 2021,’ Abu Toameh posited. “Then, Hamas succeeded in inciting a large number of Arab citizens of Israel to take to the streets and attack their Jewish neighbors and Israeli police officers.
“This time, however, the Arab-Israelis have not heeded the calls by Hamas. One reason is that Arab-Israelis saw, with their own eyes, how Hamas terrorists make no distinction between Jews and Muslims.
“Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated that it cares nothing for the well-being of Arabs and Muslims. From their luxury homes and hotel rooms in the safety of Qatar and Turkey, Hamas leaders give the orders to attack Israel and then sit back and let the world weep over the destruction they wrought upon their own people.
“On October 7,” Abu Toameh concluded, “Hamas metaphorically shot itself in the foot by showing the world, with unfathomably ghoulish pride, by way of Go-Pro cameras and other self-documentation, that it has neither a religious nor a secular-humanist set of values. Perhaps the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should look at the Arab citizens of Israel and note how they enjoy equal rights, democracy, freedom of speech and a free media. If Palestinians wish to live well, like the Arab-Israelis, this is the time for them to get rid of Hamas and all the terror leaders who, for seven decades, have brought them nothing but one disaster after another.”
It is too bad that so many gullible fools in our Western societies refuse to open their eyes to the truth.