Local News
“Anti-Zionist” Jews Disgrace Themselves
By HENRY SREBRNIK Is so-called “anti-Zionism” antisemitic? It was not always so. Prior to the Holocaust and the creation of a Jewish state, many Jews did consider Zionism – a return to the Land of Israel — unworkable, unnecessary, even wrong-headed. In the United States, prior to the Holocaust, Reform Jews in the American Council for Judaism were committed to the proposition that Jews are not a national but a religious group. Jewish socialists and others on the political left, including the influential Jewish Labour Bund, were opposed to what they thought was an ideological “bourgeois” error.
But these were internal debates in the Diaspora, and in any case most non-Jewish people had little say about them — if they even bothered to pay any attention to these internal arguments within Jewish circles. Nor, obviously, did those politically against the Zionist movement ally with pogromists who slaughtered Jews.
All of that is history, really part of a vanished Jewish world. Yes, there are remnants of that past, in sectors of the haredi world. The Satmar Hasidim are the most visible. They are theologically committed to a reading of Jewish history that considers that the recreation of a Jewish nation must await the Messiah. They are “anti-Zionists” in the legitimate sense of the word, but no one thinks they want to kill the Jews in Israel or elsewhere.
That’s a different matter than today’s Jewish anti-Zionists, who are largely uninformed about Judaism, Jewish history and culture. They are a fringe group, allied with states and ideologies that want to eliminate the existing Jewish state of Israel and perhaps even murder most of its Jewish population and expel the remainder. Today’s version has more to do with pre-war German Nazi eliminationism than with long-forgotten intra-Jewish disputes.
Assimilated into left-wing movements and doctrines, these Jews are in most cases little more than Jews through genealogy, “Jews in name only,” making political use of that on behalf of those wishing to destroy Israel. Their “anti-Zionism” is part of the larger antisemitic movements arrayed against us, and they serve, to use a well-known term, “useful idiots.” They make use of general slogans, identity politics and symbolic statements like wearing a keffiyeh, with minimal complexity and knowledge.
They are producing vast amounts of simplistic one-sided literature and media. One example is the film “Israelism,” the story of two young American Jews “raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs” who “join the movement battling the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people.” Call them “Jewish shields” for the pro-Palestinian left that is glorifying the post-October 7 pogrom by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“Antisemitism in Canada and abroad is primarily presenting itself through the prism of anti-Zionism, which, in my opinion, is the most pervasive form of antisemitism, and the most perverse in a number of ways,” remarked Casey Babb, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Institute for National Security Studies. I guess our Jewish “anti-Zionists,” wilfully blinded by the company they keep, refuse to see what’s in front of our eyes.
Fortunately, here in Canada, despite the noise they make, such anti-Zionist Jews are a tiny and marginalized group. Professor Robert Brym of the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto and probably Canada’s most eminent Jewish academic, on May 30 released an addition to his lengthy “Jews and Israel Survey 2024” published in the spring 2024 issue of the journal Canadian Jewish Studies.
To his question “Do you believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state?” 91 per cent of his Canadian Jewish respondents answered in the affirmative, six per cent said they don’t know, and only three percent said no.
We know the difference between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. The belief that the Jews, alone among the people of the world, do not have a right to self-determination, or that the Jewish people’s religious and historical connection to Israel is invalid, is inherently bigoted. When Jews are verbally or physically harassed or Jewish institutions and houses of worship are vandalized in response to actions of the State of Israel, it is antisemitism.
Expressions of anti-Zionism include downplaying or negating the historic and spiritual Jewish connection to the land of Israel, and the insistence on holding Israel to unreasonable standards when viewing its response to threats in comparison to the actions of other members of the international community.
Now many of these Jewish anti-Zionists don’t necessarily agree with everything listed above. But by associating and collaborating with those who do, they are at the very least, to use an old-fashioned phrase, “fellow travellers” allied to these antisemitic movements. And they can be paraded before the media as Jews who have seen the evil that Israel causes. What better evidence?
Some of Canada’s most disruptive actions and blockades have been coordinated by groups with U.S. funding and organizational links. For example, the Tides Foundation, a San Francisco-based “social justice” non-profit has supported Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow, among others, in the United States. Both have been perennial organizers of anti-Israel rallies and blockades.
The Canadian affiliate of JVP, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, calls itself a “grassroots organization in Canada grounded in Jewish tradition that opposes all forms of racism & advocates for justice and peace for all in Palestine-Israel.” It calls Zionism “the political ideology that has provided the basis for Israel’s settler-colonial project and unfolding genocide in Palestine.”
They are indeed “useful,” and antisemites know it. On May 27, for instance, a representative was on Parliament Hill holding a press conference insisting that the country’s network of pro-intifada campus encampments was not antisemitic.
On June 10 the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), one of Canada’s largest public sector unions, which is actively engaged in Pro-Palestinian activities, held a discussion “Addressing Islamophobia and antisemitism in the Workplace.” Of course no Jew supporting Israel was invited, not even Deborah Lyons, Canada’s Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, and a former ambassador to Israel.
The panelists were Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, and, on the Jewish side, Avi Lewis, a former Al Jazeera correspondent and now an associate professor of “social and political change” at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
However, Lewis, scion of a prominent family that has been for decades active in the New Democratic Party – grandfather David led the federal NDP and father Stephen was head of the Ontario party — is an active “anti-Zionist,” a member of the anti-Zionist Independent Jewish Voices Canada, and a co-founder of the UBC chapter of the Jewish Faculty Network.
Richard Marceau, vice president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said the union’s efforts at doing something about antisemitism were disappointing.
“Inviting someone like Avi Lewis — who is not an expert on antisemitism, who is a marginal figure in the Jewish community and who is viciously opposed to Israel — to train union members on antisemitism shows how unserious PSAC is about combatting Jew-hatred,” he stated.
Yes, Jews can be Jew-haters too. (The term “self-hating Jew” is silly; they hate other Jews, not themselves.) Such Jews now face anti-Israel sentiment of unprecedented ferocity, often couched in the language of social justice, critical race theory, and so-called intersectionality. It is sustained by the hegemonic hold of a theory of “settler colonialism,” now ubiquitous in Canada’s universities, and one which deems Israel an illegitimate colonial settler state.
And Palestinian academics known how to use this terminology to make their case. Typical is an article by Joseph Massad, a professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University, New York. In a May 30 oped, “Instead of Recognizing ‘Palestine,’ Countries Should Withdraw Recognition of Israel,” published on the website Middle East Eye, he uses all the correct buzzwords, referring to “Israel’s illegality as an institutionally Jewish supremacist racist state.” He considers the very establishment of this “settler-colonialist” state “an illegal act and in violation of the very UN resolutions that proposed its establishment.”
Massad therefore advocates the “dismantlement of Israel’s racist structures and laws” in favour of “one decolonised state, from the river to the sea, in which everyone living within it is equal before the law and does not benefit from any racial, ethnic, or religious privileges.” Only the end of the Israeli “settler-colonial state” will lead to a “decolonised anti-racist and democratic outcome.”
Massad’s analysis and prescription is the true bedrock Palestinian position, as presented for western ears. (Hamas’ creed is a different matter.) The theoretical construct behind it is one that fits completely within today’s liberal-progressive ideology espoused by the intellectual elites in western countries now. The “anti-Zionist” Jews reading them usually know far less about what the Jewish people have gone through historically. This makes them easy prey for our enemies.
Natan Sharansky, currently Chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), and McGill University history professor Gil Troy, in a June 16, 2021 Tablet article entitled “The Un-Jews,” asserted that these people “are trying to disentangle Judaism from Jewish nationalism, the sense of Jewish peoplehood.” And the voices of these “inflamed Jewish opponents of Israel and Zionism are in turn amplified by a militant progressive superstructure that now has an ideological lock on the discourse in American academia, publishing, media, and the professions.”
We hear it from progressives like the author Naomi Klein, who is professor of Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia (and married to Avi Lewis). Klein’s Passover message in the April 24 British Guardian newspaper was headlined “We Need an Exodus from Zionism.” She told readers that “we don’t need or want the false idol of Zionism. We want freedom from the project that commits genocide in our name.”
For Klein, Zionism “takes our most profound biblical stories of justice and emancipation from slavery– the story of Passover itself — and turns them into brutalist weapons of colonial land theft, roadmaps for ethnic cleansing and genocide.” The creation of the State of Israel, and the entire Zionist movement, was a ghastly mistake and Jewish life is best led in exile.
“Arguing for the purity of exile and powerlessness, and demanding abandonment of the now-impure Jewish State,” Elliott Abrams, currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, observes sadly that “we have indeed been watching the young American Jews who helped build those campus tent cities and joined the denunciations of the Jewish State.”
In “American Jewish Anti-Zionist Diasporism: A Critique,” in the May 2024 issue of the British periodical Fathom, he sees them following the lead of “the hundreds of Jewish professors who wish to proclaim their virtue by lining up against the Jewish State.”
Finally, there are the many Jews like Rabbi Elchanan Poupko, the president of EITAN–the American Israeli Jewish Network, whose anger at anti-Zionists is palpable. In “Anti-Zionist Jews, Have You Seen the Mirror?” a blog published on the Times of Israel website, May 28, 2024, he points out their hypocrisy.
“The people who were angry at Birthright for taking them on a free, all-expenses paid trip to Israel without taking them to Gaza, Ramallah, and Sheikh Jarrah were somehow unable to utter the words Kibbutz Be’eri, Sderot, Metula, Kiryat Shmona, or the massacre at Nova music festival. Those who were angry at their teachers for celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut with no mention of the Nakba were suddenly unable to speak about the Hamas charter calling for the killing of Jews worldwide.
“Yet perhaps worst of all, was not what anti-Zionist Jews said — or did not say — but rather the company anti-Zionist Jews have chosen to keep. Over the past few months, anti-Zionist Jews have stood shoulder to shoulder with masked and uniformed individuals in public places, physically blocking off ‘Zionists.’”
They exclude their fellow Jews from public spaces in universities, side with terrorist organizations that call for the annihilation of all Jews in the world and make partnerships “with what is objectively the most antisemitic movement since the Holocaust,” he writes.
Rabbi Poupko lives in New Haven, Connecticut. The region is home to Yale University, Quinnipiac University, Albertus Magnus College, the University of New Haven, and Southern Connecticut State University, making it a hub of higher education – and, of course, pro-Palestinian protests. “I got to see firsthand what anti-Zionism in Jewish spaces meant. A group of anti-Zionist Jews shared to their social media videos with cheers like ‘there is only one solution – intifada revolution,’ which is a call for deadly violence.”
As Iran began shooting ballistic missiles and drones carrying hundreds of tons of explosives at Israel’s civilian population, “many anti-Zionist Jews were there to explain why Iran was justified in its attacks on Israel. Jewish Voices for Peace posted a photo of Houthis in Yemen praising the pro-terror mobs on campus.”
He concludes by noting the irony of anti-Zionist Jews siding with the mobs behind the greatest push for Diasporic Jews to move to Israel. “Those who want you to believe Jewish safety should not depend on the State of Israel have helped make much of the diaspora unsafe for Jews and Jewish life.” When the people you march with “are the reason countless synagogues, JCCs, and day schools are hiring more security, you probably don’t get credit for making Jewish life in the Diaspora more appealing.”
Such Jews are betting their present and future will be outside the confines of the Jewish people, and they will do anything to gain the acceptance of the antisemitic circles in which they traffic. “When anti-Zionist Jews hold signs that say: ‘this Jew is against genocide,’ besides for defaming other Jews as being for genocide, they also often forget the truly genocidal company they keep, company that would like to eradicate the State of Israel. It is time for anti-Zionist Jews to take a look in the mirror.”
Bottom line: Whatever we call it, and however they can be distinguished, both terms, antisemitism and anti-Zionism, are in today’s context simply manifestations of Jew- hatred.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.
Local News
Gavin Katz: “The next great Jewish football player”
By BERNIE BELLAN Back about 15 years ago I had the idea to hire renowned sports writer Scott Taylor to write occasional columns for The Jewish Post & News. Although the great Harvey Rosen – who passed away in 2022, was still our regular sports columnist, I thought that having Scott contribute his own takes on sports might add some additional flavour to the paper.
And it did – for several years – until Covid hit and I had to pare back expenses, including for freelance writers.
Scott has kept in touch from time to time since he last wrote for us though, so it was with great delight that I received an email from him the second week in June that had in the subject line: “Next Great Jewish Athlete.”
Here’s what Scott wrote in that email: “I was talking with Fort Garry Lions head coach John Makie last night.
“Thought you might like to know about the next great Jewish football player … if you don’t know already.”
Attached to the email was a poster that was a montage of different images – all highlighting someone by the name of Gavin Katz. Part of the poster is attached here – and in it you can see all sorts of accolades for young Gavin, including his having been designated “lineman of the year” by Coach Makie last year, as well as his having captained his Pee Wee team (which is limited to players under 14 years of age).
I followed up Scott’s suggestion and contacted John Makie to try and get some comments from him about Gavin Katz, as well as contact information for Gavin’s parents.
Here’s what Coach Makie wrote to me about Gavin who, last year, was in his second (and final) year playing for the pee-wee level Fort Garry Lions:
“I’ve known Gavin Katz for a season of football. In this season, I’ve come to learn his grit, toughness and his sheer willingness to get to the ball. A lot of our players on the team would run to the ball, but Gavin sprinted. If he was challenged, he rose to the occasion. We made him our Most Outstanding Lineman not only because of his talents on the field but his leadership. He was committed to the process, he began to lead others to this through guidance and exemplary attendance.
“I am quite proud of Gavin and what he did for us this year.”
“Unfortunately, we came up just short last season, but Gavin taught us how to become a champion and the Lions will be hungry for success next season.”
“I really hope he continues to play football!”
That was high praise for Gavin Katz, indeed. During my conversation with Makie he told me that Gavin’s father was Regan Katz and that Regan was the vice-president and Chief Operating Officer of the Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball team.
I contacted Regan and asked him whether I could get in touch with Gavin. Regan gave me Gavin’s phone number, but when I tried calling him all that I got was his voice messaging. I did leave a voice message, but didn’t hear back from Gavin right away – which should come as no surprise for anyone who’s tried contacting a teenager by phone: They simply don’t use their phones for phone calling – only for texting.
So, on a Saturday morning – when I figured Gavin would probably be at home, I emailed Regan again, asking him whether he could have Gavin call me. It was 10:40 in the morning. Regan responded that Gavin was still asleep.
I wrote back: “What? I thought he’d be up jogging or doing some heavy exercise at 7 AM. What kind of pro football player is he anyway?” (Um, if you’re reading this and not familiar with my writing style, I do veer into sarcasm quite readily.)
In any event, around 11 am Gavin did call me back and we had a most pleasant conversation. After talking to him I could well understand why Coach Makie was so effusive in his praise for him.
I began by asking Gavin where he goes to school?
He said he’s currently in the French immersion program at Ecole River Heights and before that he was also in the French immersion program at Sir William Osler School. Next September Gavin will be going to Kelvin, he said.
We then began to discuss his football career. I asked Gavin when he first started to play organized football?
He said that he started playing flag football five years ago – and that he still plays flag football (which has only five players on a side, as opposed to the 12 players on a side in tackle football). Gavin added that, in addition to playing flag football – which he really loves, he noted, he also coaches and referees flag football.
Gavin’s interest in playing tackle football though, was piqued by his attending a Winnipeg Blue Bombers camp for putative young players four years ago.
“That’s when I first put on pads,” he explains.
Gavin added that he’s been going to Blue Bomber games ever since he was quite young and that, at various times he’s had the privilege of meeting such Blue Bomber greats as Adam Bighill, Nick Demski, Brady Oliveira, and Zach Collaros.
Two years ago Gavin joined the Fort Garry Lions Pee Wee level team (when he was 12).
“My first year I was on the offensive line,” he notes. “My second year (last year) I started as a linebacker, but then I was moved to the defensive line.”
Here’s a link to a clip of Gavin showing his prowess as a defensive lineman in a game last fall: Gavin in action (He’s number 50 in the video.)
Now, while Gavin was not overly tall for his age last year… he was 5’4″ and weighed 135 pounds, he was certainly big enough to play on the defensive line at the Pee Wee level.
But – talk about a growth spurt! Gavin says he grew four inches since the Lions season ended in October; he’s now 5’8″, but even more impressive – he says he’s put on another 35 pounds – and in Gavin’s case, it’s all muscle.
I asked him where he works out and he answered that the family has a home gym, which he uses assiduously, in the evenings.
Gavin says he’s ready to move up to the next level of football, which would be at the Bantam level or Junior Varsity, and that he will try out for the Kelvin Clippers when he enters Kelvin this fall. He says though that he would probably “end up on the practice roster” for the Clippers varsity team where he will be fighting for a playing role, because if he does make the team he’d be among the youngest players on the team (usually Grades 11 & 12 only).
Our conversation then turned to my asking Gavin about his family. I already knew his father’s name, I told him (and that his father was former mayor Sam Katz’s nephew), so I asked him what his mother’s name was? He said it was Mandy or Amanda and that her maiden name was Falk. Gavin also has a younger sister, Brynlee, who is eight, he said.
Gavin notes that he was bar mitzvahed last year. He’s also maintained very high marks in school, he says, getting a 91 in math and an 87 in science.
So, since Scott Taylor had billed Gavin as the “next great Jewish athlete” in his email to me about Gavin, I asked Gavin how far he wants to pursue football?
His answer was that “I’ll go as far as I can.”
Considering that he grew four inches and gained 35 pounds in less than a year, Gavin could very well be big enough soon to play on the defensive line for a team of under 16 year olds but, he says, “I like playing linebacker,” which requires a great deal more mobility than playing on the defensive line.
Still, linebackers have to combine a great many skills, including mobility, strength – and most of all, toughness, as they not only have to stop running backs, they often have to take on offensive linemen as well.
I asked Gavin what he likes most about playing linebacker? His answer: “I like hitting.” (Now, don’t take that the wrong way. It’s simply the enjoyment that many football players derive from the contact that comes with playing tackle football. And these days many young women have begun taking up tackle football for the same reason.)
But, what about injuries? I wondered. Has Gavin suffered any? I asked him.
“I’ve had a few injuries,” he answered. “I dislocated the growth plate in my elbow,” he noted and, “when I was ten I injured my achilles tendon,” he added. However, in neither case did Gavin require surgery – lucky for him.
How far into the future did Gavin see his football career headed? I asked him. He was ready with the answer: “I’d like to play for the Arizona Sun Devils” (the name of the Arizona State football team).
I told Gavin that, in past years (when I was more active as a writer) I’d profiled many young Jewish athletes for The Jewish Post & News. One of the athletes with the most potential was a young hockey player who could skate like the wind, I told Gavin, but unfortunately, he stopped growing and, as his coach at the time told me, he could teach skills, but he couldn’t teach “height.”
In Gavin Katz’s case though, since he’s only 14 and is already growing rapidly, it seem certain that his height and weight are not going to hold him back from continuing to excel at football when he moves up the ladder of stiffening competition as he grows older.
It will be interesting to check in with Gavin on a regular basis in the coming years to see how he’s progressing. Winnipeg’s Jewish community hasn’t produced too many star football players over the years, although I did mention to Gavin that I had done a story about a young man who had played for the Grant Park Pirates several years ago – and that my writing now about Gavin was going to lead me to try to look in our archives for that story to remind me who it was that I had written about – and perhaps whether I could find out anything about where he had gone with his football career.
It turned out that the young man’s name was Nahaniel Lisak and that he had been nominated for the Jewish Athlete of the Year award back in 2022 when he was 17 years old, but was already 6’2″ and weighed an impressive 295 pounds. Here’s what the Rady JCC had written about Lisak prior to that year’s sports dinner: “He was named to the CFC (Canada Football Chat) All-Canadian First Team and was the recipient of the Winnipeg High School Football League (WHSFL) Kas Vidruk Lineman of the Year. At the school level he was named the Grant Park Football Most Valuable Player and was awarded the school’s Football Captain Award. He was runner up for the 2021 WHSFL Defensive MVP & 2021 Harry Hood Citizenship Award. In grade 10 he became a known player in Manitoba and was named a Nationally ranked top 100 player in Canada, being a top 5 Manitoban and top three defensive tackle in the 2022 graduating class.”
I Googled Nathaniel Lisak to see if I could find out anything about him now and saw that he’s realized his dream of attending McMaster University (where he’s in his fourth year of Commerce) and is also a star player for the McMaster Marauders.
So Gavin, if you’re reading this – there’s a stellar example of someone whose career you could emulate. But the Arizona Sun Devils? Couldn’t you settle for the University of Manitoba Bisons? Why do our best and brightest almost always want to leave Winnipeg?
Local News
Chesed Shel Emes project to improve safety, accessibility and parking after acquiring fire-damaged property
By MYRON LOVE The Chesed Shel Emes, Winnipeg’s non-profit funeral chapel and ritual tahara house, has embarked on a new project that will enhance safety, accessibility and provide more parking opportunities.
The new project stems from the Chesed’s acquisition of the property immediately north of the chapel on Main Street at Magnus Avenue. The plan will involve the demolition of the existing house and paving of the lot. This will allow the use of a pre-existing side door in the chapel to be used to transfer coffins directly to the hearse — thus freeing some additional parking in front of the building.
Rena Boroditsky, the Chesed’s long-time executive director, points out that pallbearers will no longer have to carry coffins down the front steps but, instead, walk along a level surface and place the caskets directly into the back of the hearse. As well, the new parking lot will have room for accessible parking.
“We weren’t looking for a new project,” Boroditsky reports. “About a year ago, we learned that the family who owned the home — and had been renting it out for a number of years — was looking to sell after the property suffered a devastating fire. We seized on the opportunity rather than have a retail business open or an apartment block be built that would further complicate the parking in front of our building.”
Boroditsky notes that the finished product will take a couple of years to complete. “Permits take time,” she says. “I expect that we will be able to demolish the house in the fall and have the paving done next year.”
She estimates that the budget for the work will come to about $190,000. “We have applied to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba and the Asper Foundation for grants,” Boroditsky reports. “We are also appealing to our many generous supporters in the community.”
She proudly points out that Chesed succeeded in raising $4-million for its most recent redevelopment program, in which the 100 year old office and tahara building was replaced with a new structure designed specifically to meet the needs of the Chevra Kadisha.
The new building includes state-of-the-art equipment for the care of the deceased — a larger tahara room with stainless steel counters, new up-to-date refrigeration, mechanical lifts for transferring bodies more safely, and enhanced safety features to improve the experience of volunteers and ensure the dignity of the deceased. The accessible facility also includes expanded storage space for caskets, shrouds, and supplies, a lending library, and private meeting spaces for mourners to gather. That project was completed five years ago.
“We are happy to report that we don’t have a mortgage,” Boroditsky says. “We have always exercised good fiscal management, and have been blessed with community support”.
Chesed Shel Emes began operations in 1930, serving all members of the community regardless of denomination, affiliation, or level of observance. No one is denied service due to financial constraints. Everyone is guaranteed a dignified funeral and burial care. The chapel was opened in 1947 as an active synagogue and community center.
“Over the past few years, we have been hosting more funerals,” Boroditsky notes, “in part because the Shaarey Zedek was closed for renovations for almost two years, and the Etz Chayim relocated to Wilkes Ave. As a result, more people were able to see that we offer a clean, warm and welcoming space.
Readers who wish to make a gift to support the “Opening New Doors” campaign can phone Rena at 204-582-5088, or visit the website at www.chesedshelemes.org New Chesed Shel Emes project will improve accessibility, allow for more parking in front
Local News
Dina Raihman’s lifelong journey in education
Foreword by BERNIE BELLAN Seven years ago, The Jewish Post & News published a story by Rebeca Kuropatwa about a woman who had arrived in Winnipeg from Israel in 2008. That woman was Dina Raihman.
Before moving to Canada, Dina had spent 25 years working as an educator in Israel. As Rebeca wrote at the time, Dina brought her passion for teaching with her and eventually opened her own private after-school program specializing in mathematics and science.
Over the years, Dina has kept in touch with us as her educational programs have continued to grow. What began as evening classes held in rented classrooms throughout Winnipeg gradually evolved into permanent school locations.
In 2022, she opened Integral School at 1080 Waverley Street in Linden Woods. Since then, a second location has opened in Transcona, and Dina says plans are already underway to open a third location in Sage Creek. All three locations offer after-school educational programs for students of different ages and abilities.
As we noted in a 2022 follow-up article to Rebeca Kuropatwa’s original story, Dina quickly identified a problem after beginning work as a substitute teacher in Manitoba’s public and private schools. She noticed that many mathematically gifted students were not being sufficiently challenged and, as a result, were failing to reach their full potential.
In 2014, she decided to do something about it.
Starting with only 17 students, her evening school steadily expanded. Today, approximately 270 students are enrolled in her programs.
When Dina recently contacted me to tell me about the opening of her second location in Transcona, I told her that rather than simply writing another update about the school, I wanted to know the story behind the educator herself.
Both Rebeca and I had previously written about Dina’s success working with children from many immigrant families, including those from countries where mathematics and science education has traditionally been emphasized, such as Israel and Ukraine. But neither of us had ever explored the experiences that shaped Dina’s own lifelong commitment to education.
So I asked Dina to tell her story in her own words.
Here it is:
My Story
By DINA RAIHMAN My story began long before I was born.
During World War II, my parents, along with my grandparents, were forced to leave Ukraine to escape the war. Fate brought them to Georgia, where our family eventually settled. It was there, after the war, that I was born.
My childhood, school years, and youth were spent in Georgia. It was there that I first discovered my love for mathematics and realized I wanted to become a teacher. I have always believed that a great teacher changes a child’s life not only by teaching a subject, but by teaching a child how to think.
I later attended the Voroshilovgrad Pedagogical Institute (now located in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine), where I earned a Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Physics. Even then, I knew teaching would become my life’s work.
In 1990, my husband and I made an important decision to begin a new chapter of our lives in Israel.
We lived there for seventeen years, raised our two children, and continued building both our family and our careers.
Then, in 2006, we made another life-changing decision.
We immigrated to Canada after my older sister had moved here. Like many newcomers, we knew we were starting almost from scratch, but we believed the opportunities available for our children made every sacrifice worthwhile.
As with many internationally trained professionals, I needed to have my education recognized in Canada. Although I already held a master’s degree and many years of teaching experience, I was required to earn Canadian teaching qualifications.
For a period of time, I worked at the University of Winnipeg. I was even offered the opportunity to pursue a PhD and continue an academic career.
Although it was an exciting opportunity, our family had only recently arrived in Canada. Financially, it was impossible for me to devote several years to graduate research while supporting my family. Instead, I chose another path—one that allowed me to continue studying while working.
I became a substitute teacher in Winnipeg.
Looking back, those years were among the most valuable of my professional life.
Over several years, I taught in approximately 80 percent of Winnipeg’s schools. Every school, every classroom, and every group of students gave me new experiences and broadened my understanding of Canadian education.
While teaching, I also continued studying at the University of Winnipeg to earn my Permanent Professional Teaching Certificate.
In 2010, I successfully received my Permanent Professional Teaching Certificate, allowing me to teach permanently in Manitoba schools.
My first full-time teaching position took me far north to the community of Pukatawagan, where I taught Biology to students in Grades 9 through 11.
The experience taught me resilience, adaptability, and the importance of understanding every student’s individual background.
After one year, I returned to Winnipeg and continued substitute teaching.
During the 2012–2013 school year, I accepted a one-year teaching replacement position in Saskatchewan, where I taught Mathematics to students in Grades 9 through 12.
By then, an idea that had been growing inside me for years had become impossible to ignore.
I wanted to create my own educational program—one that would help students truly understand mathematics, develop logical thinking, build confidence, and prepare for future academic success.
That dream became reality in 2014 when I founded the Physics and Mathematics Integral School.
The school first opened on Corydon Avenue before later moving to St. Vital.
Today, we operate permanent locations on Waverley Street and in Transcona, and we are preparing to open our third Winnipeg location in Sage Creek.
Since opening our doors, our mission has never been simply to teach mathematics.
We have always wanted to create an environment where children learn to think independently, analyze problems, embrace mistakes as part of learning, and believe in themselves.
Over the years, more than 1,000 students have studied with us.
One of our greatest sources of pride is seeing our graduates continue their education at Canadian universities in fields such as engineering, computer science, medicine, economics, and the natural sciences.
Since opening in 2014, we have helped more than 430 students successfully graduate from high school, many of whom have continued into university programs requiring strong mathematical foundations.
For us, however, success means much more than university admission.
We strive to develop logical thinking, independent problem-solving, confidence, perseverance, concentration, and the ability to learn from mistakes.
I often tell my students:
“Mistakes are not failures. They simply show us what we still have to learn.”
Today, approximately 270 students attend our programs.
We offer both in-person and online classes, making our programs accessible to students throughout Winnipeg and beyond.
Our youngest learners begin at 3 to 5 years of age, where they develop early mathematical thinking, logic, concentration, and problem-solving skills through engaging activities designed specifically for preschool children.
For school-age students, we offer both Beginner and Advanced groups, ensuring that every child learns at the level best suited to their abilities.
Our programs include:
Mathematics
Logic
Geometry
Mental Math using the Japanese Abacus program
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
In addition to our regular classes, we prepare students for mathematics competitions. Each year, many of our students participate in contests organized through their schools, where they apply not only mathematical knowledge but also logical reasoning, analytical thinking, and effective time management.
One of our proudest achievements is that 15 of our students have earned certificates recognizing them among the top 25 percent of young mathematics students in Canada through these prestigious competitions.
For me, these accomplishments represent much more than awards.
They demonstrate that every child has the potential to succeed when they are given encouragement, effective instruction, and the opportunity to believe in themselves.
Throughout my career, I have come to believe one simple truth:
Children are not born “good” or “bad” at mathematics.
They become successful when they have a teacher who can explain difficult ideas in simple ways, encourage them during challenging moments, and inspire them never to give up.
That is why every student who walks through our doors becomes part of one large family.
Looking back today, I realize that the journey that began many years ago in Georgia has become far more than a teaching career.
It has become a lifelong mission to help children discover confidence, develop their abilities, and understand that with the right guidance, they are capable of achieving far more than they ever imagined.
