Local News
At Limmud: New University of Manitoba president Michael Benarroch speaks of the challenges presented by stepping into his role in midst of a pandemic
By BERNIE BELLAN While there were a great many interesting speakers at this year’s Limmud, the one speaker to whom I was looking most forward to hearing was Michael Benarroch, the new president of the University of Manitoba.
Since returning to Winnipeg last summer after having served as the provost and vice-president of Ryerson University in Toronto since the fall of 2017, Benarroch was thrust headlong into having to take over his position in the midst of a pandemic.
Naturally, there haven’t been many opportunities to see and hear Benarroch, nor to interview him since he returned to Winnipeg, so his appearing at Limmud allowed Limmud participants the chance to hear directly from a man whose career has seen him move steadily up the academic administration ladder in the past 30 years.
At times wistful – in speaking of his family’s having come here from Morocco, at other times contemplative, in discussing how important it is to include Indigenous students and faculty in reshaping the U of M, Benarroch told a story – of how he’s arrived at his present situation in life and what his goals are looking forward.
“My parents never had the opportunity to go to university,” Benarroch explained at the outset of his presentation.
“My family came to Winnipeg (from Morocco) because my mother’s brother was in Winnipeg. My father was a teacher, but when he came to Winnipeg he found a job as a shochet,” Benarroch said.
It was while he was an undergrad at the University of Winnipeg that Benarroch said he developed a “passion for economics”. He later went on to acquire a PhD in Economics from Carleton University – in 1992.
Upon completing his PhD Benarroch returned to the University of Winnipeg. At the time, he explained during his presentation, Lloyd Axworthy was President of the University of Winnipeg and Axworthy asked Benarroch whether the university should have a business school?
“I designed a vision,” Benarroch said, and eventually he became dean of the new Faculty of Business and Economics.
After 19 years at the U of W, Benarroch said he “interviewed for Dean at the Asper School of Business” at the University of Manitoba, which he became in 2011.
“The University of Manitoba is one of 50 research intensive universities in Canada,” Benarroch noted – something that was to prove a factor in his wanting to return here this past year.
In 2017, Benarroch became Provost and Vice-President Academic at Ryerson University.
For Benarroch, Ryerson was a good fit, he explained, because “it had a real focus on community engagement and entrepreneurship.”
As for moving to Toronto, Benarroch admitted that he and his wife, Kim (Bailey), “missed Winnipeg a lot – especially Kim.” Still, by the time they left Toronto this past summer, both their sons (Keenan and Aden) had also moved to Toronto, so returning to Winnipeg was a bit of a mixed blessing for Michael and Kim.
The story how Benarroch came to be president of the University of Manitoba is an interesting one.
When he applied for the position – in 2019, “I didn’t even tell my family I was applying,” he said. And, when he came to Winnipeg to interview for the position, he didn’t even tell his brothers he was here. (Al Benarroch is Executive Director of Jewish Child and Family Service, while Yosef Benarroch is Rabbi of the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation, although he also lives part of the year in Israel – during normal times. A fourth brother, Yamin, who is also a rabbi, lives in Vancouver).
Ultimately, Benarroch “was offered the position of president (of the U of M) in 2019,” he said, “then Covid hit and turned everything topsy turvy.”
At that point, the host of this particular Limmud session, Faye Rosenberg Cohen, asked Benarroch: “Did you plan out the career part?”
Benarroch responded: “I knew the presidency at the University of Manitoba was coming up. I kept my eye on it, but I thought that (moving to Toronto) was going to be my last move.
“There had to be a good reason for me to move from one institution to another.
“During my time at the Asper School I thought though that I really meshed well with the atmosphere at the University of Manitoba.”
As for Ryerson, Benarroch noted that the school began as a polytechnic institute and it still carries a very large imprint as a technical training school even though it is now a university.
“Ninety-five percent of the students have an experiential background – serving in apprenticeships” and work programs, while attending classes, Benarroch explained.
Part of Benarroch’s mandate while he was at Ryerson, he noted, was to “rebuild the faculty.”
“We went from 700 to over 900 in the three years I was there,” Benarroch stated.
“We hired quite a few younger academics who brought a lot of energy with them,” he added.
Another major change that Benarroch said he helped to foster was a concerted effort to hire more Indigenous instructors.
“When I arrived there were only six Indigenous professors at Ryerson,” he observed.
“Working with students and elders we launched a reconciliation process. We made Ryerson a place where Indigenous people would feel welcome,” including by “hiring 20 new Indigenous staff,” Benarroch said.
“We also brought in a fair bit of scholarship money for Indigenous students,” he added.
Yet, when the opportunity to take over as president of the University of Manitoba presented itself, Benarroch noted, that despite his having fit in well at Ryerson, he said that “you never want to leave a job, but if I hadn’t taken that opportunity I don’t think it would have come up again.”
Rosenberg Cohen asked Benarroch “How has being a religious Jew worked for you, first as a professor, then as an administrator?”
Benarroch replied: “As a prof, it was great. As an observant Jew I was always able to schedule my time so as to be able to observe Shabbat.”
Benarroch mentioned that one of the two sabbatical years he took as a professor was at the University of Haifa, which was of particular significance for him – being able to spend the year in Israel.
However, upon becoming an administrator, Benarroch suggested, “my schedule was not mine as much as it was in the past…At Ryerson, the president was an observant Muslim, so I always I had to make sure I was on campus on Fridays while he was attending prayers.”
Further, Benarroch noted, while the advent of Zoom during the pandemic has certainly enabled teaching and meetings to carry on, Zoom has, in fact, “made it harder to remain Shabbat observant.”
Prior to the pandemic, he explained, if he had a meeting or conference to attend – even on a Shabbat, “I would be staying in a hotel and I could attend a meeting – without taking any notes.”
Now, it’s impossible to participate in a Zoom session during Shabbat, he said – and since the workday seems to have expanded to include almost any hour of the day, Benarroch admitted that, as much as technology has allowed meetings to be held relatively easily, it has presented problems for him having to decide between his obligations as a university president and his religious observance.
As for some of the other more noticeable effects that the pandemic has had on his role as president at the U of M, Benarroch said: “I have four staff members in my office; I’ve seen one of them in person.”
Benarroch told the Limmud audience that, prior to assuming his new role, he read a book offering advice on “how to be a university president”.
(Rosenberg Cohen asked the question that was probably on everyone else’s minds at that point: Are there enough people in the world who would be in the position that they were interested in becoming a university president that it would be worth it to write a book about that subject?)
In any event, Benarroch said that this particular book did offer two really good pieces of advice:
1. Don’t make a major decision during your first six months in the new position;
and 2. Go out and meet as many people as you can off the bat.
(Obviously, the second piece of advice was thrown out the window when Benarroch returned to Winnipeg during the pandemic.)
In terms of how the pandemic will change the way university courses are taught even following the pandemic, Benarroch suggested that what is likely to occur is that professors will teach classes where some students attend in person while other students will take those same classes online.
“We’re also looking to have classes for Indigenous students up north” offered online, following on the success of Zoom teaching during the pandemic, he suggested.
While “there has been a lot of resistance to teaching online among academics,” Benarroch admitted, “students have been adapting.”
With reference to how many students are actually enrolled at the university this academic year, Benarroch observed that, while there are “fewer first year students at the University of Manitoba, there have been more students return for second, third, and fourth year” than in previous years.
“Enrolment is definitely up,” Benarroch said, “and we expect to see the majority of students return again in the fall.”
Rosenberg Cohen asked: “If I were a parent, thinking of spending money to send my child to a university somewhere, why would I spend all that money when they can take their classes online?”
Benarroch’s response was that, while virtual classes will certainly be a major part of whatever format universities eventually evolve into becoming, there is going to be a greater emphasis on “more participation, more research, more experiential. There are going to be more opportunities outside the classroom”, but they are going to be in person, not online.
As an example, Benarroch said he’s planning on creating a “student start-up zone”, in which students will start their own businesses.”
“It’s better to fail at a business when you’re 23 than when you’re 55,” Benarroch observed.
Rosenberg Cohen asked: “What are your hopes and dreams?”
Benarroch said, “Here at the University of Manitoba we have a tremendous testing capacity. Winnipeg could become a testing centre for vaccines,” for instance he suggested.
Continuing on the thread of what his hopes and dreams are, Benarroch said: “I’d like to see the University of Manitoba become a global leader in certain areas.
“I’d like to see the university become a racist-free zone.” (He noted that the previous president of the U of M, David Barnard, “had launched a task force on Equality, Diversity, and Integration.)
“We know we can’t stamp out racism, on campus,” Benarroch observed. “The question is how to deal with it.”
Someone in the Zoom audience wondered how one can maintain a balance between stamping out racism while still allowing free speech?
“We’re still a university. We are going to have debate and disagreement,” Benarroch said in response.
Someone else wondered “How does the university compensate for lab work that can’t get done?
Benarroch answered that “We allow 20 percent capacity in some spaces…We’ve also developed a way to hold some of the labs virtually.”
As well, Benarroch said that, for ten days in January, students in the Faculties of Nursing, Science, Architecture, Engineering, and Agriculture, were allowed back on to campus” to conduct lab work – under strict Covid protocols.
I asked a question along these lines (although the names of questioners were not given): Professors are having to spend more time than ever before finding funding for their programs. With the emphasis on practical, results-oriented programs, where will that leave programs that don’t necessarily have practical applications? (My question was not worded precisely that way, but it was along those general lines.)
Benarroch’s response was that “the university brings in just under $200 million a year in research money – the vast majority of which comes from the federal government.”
He added that he has two goals as far as where the money for research goes: to allow students who were doing research prior to Covid to continue doing that work; and to obtain additional money to keep university labs running.
Benarroch also noted that there is now a “massive reinvestment in science in the US. We have to remain competitive in how we pay faculty and how we keep up our labs.”
It seems quite evident, therefore, that Michael Benarroch is going to be preoccupied with finding ever new sources of funding for the university, while trying to retain whatever sources have been in place until now.
It seemed fitting, therefore, that one of his final observations was that “one of my mandates as president is to speak to government”.
Still, lost in all the discussion about funding and research was any reference to the less practical aspects of a university education. Of course, that’s a subject that’s been debated for a very long time. I just wonder where faculties such as Arts are going to end up with the even greater emphasis on “research” oriented programs.
Local News
2026 Winnipeg Limmud to offer a smorgasbord of diverse speakers
By MYRON LOVE There are many facets to the study of Judaism and the Jewish people. The focus may be religious or cultural, historical or Israel-oriented – and Winnipeg’s annual Limmud Festival for Jewish Learning has always striven to cover as many angles as possible.
This year’s Limmud program (now in its 16th year) – scheduled for Sunday, March 15 – is following in that path with a diverse group of presenters.
Limmud’s current co-ordinator, Raya Margulets, reports that all of our community’s rabbis – including Rabbi Yossi Benarroch (who lives most of the year in Israel) – will be among the presenters. Topics to be covered by local experts encompass midrash, Jewish identity, antisemitism, conversion, biblical archaeology, textiles, parenting, art, and more.
But it wouldn’t be Limmud without interesting input from out of town personalities.
Perhaps the most prominent of the guest speakers who are confirmed is Yaron Deckel, an Israeli journalist and broadcaster who is currently the Jewish Agency’s Regional Director for Canada. According to a biography provided by Margulets, Deckel is a highly respected Israeli journalist widely known for his insight into Israeli politics, media, and society. Between 2002 and 2007, Yaron served as Washington Bureau Chief for Israeli Public Television. In that role, he covered U.S.–Israel relations and American politics, also interviewed three U.S. presidents: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. As well, Deckel produced two acclaimed documentaries: “The Israelis” (about the lives of Israelis in North America), and “Jewish Identity in North America.”
From 2012 to 2017, he served as Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio), Israel’s leading national public radio station. He also hosted a prime-time weekly political show.
As a senior political correspondent and commentator for Israeli TV and radio, Yaron has covered the past 14 Israeli election campaigns and maintained close relationships with top political and military leaders in Israel. He conducted the last interview with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin—just 10 minutes before his assassination.
Decker is slated to do two presentations. In the morning, he will be speaking about the crossroads that Israel finds in the Middle East currently and what the challenges and possibilities may be.
In the afternoon, his subject will be “Israel after October 7 and the Iran War “ and what may lie ahead.
Also coming in from Toronto are Atarah Derrick, Achiya Klein, and Yahav Barnea.
Barnea is an Israeli-Canadian educator and community builder based in Toronto, with over a decade of experience working in Jewish and Israeli education, engagement, and community development.
Originally from Kibbutz Shomrat in Israel’s Western Galilee, Barnea’s outlook on life has been shaped by kibbutz values and her involvement in the Hashomer Hatza’ir youth movement.
She currently serves as the North America Regional Program Manager for the World Zionist Organization’s Department of Irgoon and Israelis Abroad, where she leads initiatives that strengthen connection, leadership, and communal life among Israelis living outside of Israel..
Barnea holds a Master of Education in Adult Education and Community Development, with a focus on intentional communities, as well as a Bachelor of Education specializing in Democratic Education, meaningful, values-based communities.
Her presentation will be titeld “A Kibbutz in the City – Intentional Communities and Immigration.”
Atarah Derrick is the executive director of the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind, an organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life of visually impaired Israelis. The charity, the only internationally accredited guide dog program in Israel, was founded in 1991, and today serves Israel’s 24,000 blind and visually impaired citizens.
Achiya Klein is one of the guide dog centre’s beneficiaries. The Israeli veteran was an officer in the IDF combat engineering corps’ elite ‘Yahalom’ unit. In 2013, while on a sensitive mission to disable a tunnel in Gaza, an improvised explosive device was detonated, severely injuring Achiya and robbing him of his vision.
He has been a guide dog client since 2015.
Klein has not allowed his disability to limit his abilities. He competed for the Israeli national team at the Paralympic rowing championship in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
He also earned a Masters Degree in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy in Counter Terrorism and Homeland Security,at IDC Herzliya.
Klein is married and a father to two boys.
Coming back for a second successive year is Dan Ronis from Saskatoon. A plant breeder and geneticist, Ronis has taken a quite different approach to studying Torah. He has sought out the help of a medium to discern the back stories of Biblical figures.
For readers who may be unsure of who or what a medium is, think Theresa Caputo of television fame. Mediums claim to be able to converse with those who have passed on through a spirit guide. While many may be skeptical, there are also many believers.
Last year Ronis focused on women who played a prominent role in the Torah. This year, he will be discussing the “untold story” of Adam and Eve.
Readers who may be interested in attending Limmud 2026 can go online at limmudwinnipeg.org to register.
Local News
Second annual “Taste of Limmud” a rousing success
By MYRON LOVE “A Taste of Limmud” returned for a second go-round on Thursday, February 19, and I have to commend both Raya Margulets, Winnipeg Limmud’s co-ordinator, as well as the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue’s catering department, for an outstanding culinary experience delivered with flawless efficiency.
“Tonight’s Taste of Limmud showcases our diversity as a community and our unity as we come together to break bread,” observed Rena Secter Elbaze, Shaarey Zedek’s executive director, just prior to leading the guests in hamotzi.
The evening featured a sampling of Jewish staple dishes representing Jewish life in six different regions where Jews had settled over the centuries. The choice of dishes also reflected how diversified our Jewish community has become over the past 25 years.
In her opening remarks, Margulets welcomed her 130 guests. “After last year’s success,” she said many of you asked us to bring it back, and we’re delighted to do so, so welcome again. Today’s celebration is all about sharing stories, connections, and flavours, and it is brought to you in partnership with Congregation Shaarey Zedek and with the support of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.
“We would like to take a moment and express our heartfelt gratitude to Congregation Shaarey Zedek for their amazing partnership, to Joel, the Head Chef at Shaarey Zedek, and his fantastic staff for their contributions, and to all the volunteers who made tonight possible,” Margulets said.
“Thank you all for joining us tonight. Savour the flavours, the stories, and the connections as we celebrate the richness of Jewish cuisine and community together.
“Whether you’re returning or attending for the first time,” she continued, “we’re excited to stir up a wonderful evening with old and new friends. Some of you may have realized it already, but the name Taste of Limmud has a double meaning. While, yes, this event is all about taste and sampling Jewish flavours from around the world, it is also a tiny glimpse, in other words, a taste, into our established annual Limmud Festival.”
Limmud, she explained – the Hebrew word for “learning”, is a volunteer-run organization that celebrates Jewish learning, thought, and culture. It’s a conference where participants have a choice of dozens of sessions led by rabbis, scholars, artists, authors, and community members. At Limmud, everyone can be a teacher and a student, in other words, more fitting with tonight’s theme, everyone has something to add to the recipe.
Margulets then introduced the “talented cooks from our very own community who prepared the dishes”: Mazi Frank, who presented a “delicious” Mussakah, a Turkish classic; Adriana Vegh-Levy and Karina Izbizky who brought a “tasty” Pletzalej, a type of bread that the forebears of today’s Argenitnian Jewish community brought with them from Poland; Karen Ackerman, with a special Hard Honey Cake; Naama Samphir, who presented a tasty Yemenite Hawaij soup (and that’s right – Hawaij – not Hawaii; Hawaij is Iraqi); Kseniya Revzin ,sharing a rich Kubbete, a savory pie from the Crimean Karaites; and Ruth Harari, (who wasn’t able to join her sister cooks) who had prepared Mujadara, a flavourful lentil-and-rice dish from Aleppo, Syria.
“We would like to take a moment and express our heartfelt gratitude to Congregation Shaarey Zedek for their amazing partnership, to Joel, the Head Chef at Shaarey Zedek, and his fantastic staff for their contributions, and to all the volunteers who made tonight possible,” Raya Margulets concluded.
“Thank you all for joining us tonight. Savour the flavours, the stories, and the connections as we celebrate the richness of Jewish cuisine and community together.”
The six samplings were dished out – one at a time – in either small paper plates or cups with the paper removed after each tasting.
The first recipe to be presented was pletzalej onion bread. As was the pattern for each tasting, the first food presented was preceded by a brief overview of the history of Argentina’s Jewish community and its connection with its local contributor, followed by a plezelaj bun with a piece of meat inside .
Next up was a taste of Hawaij soup, a Shabbat and Yom Tov staple of Yemen’s former centuries-old Jewish community, most of whom are now in Israel. The soup included piecesof chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots, tomato and several spices. Hawaij is a spice mixture consisting of cumin, black pepper, turmeric and cardamom.
Mussakah comes from Turkey – also a homeland for Jews for hundreds of years. It is a mixture of layered eggplant, beef, savoury tomato sauce and spices and is typically served with rice or a piece of bread.
Mujadara is a product of the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo, one of the world’s oldest cities and formerly home for thousands of years to a once thriving Jewish community. The recipe calls for lentils, basmati rice, onions and spices.
Kubbete is a puff pastry originally from Crimea, where the local Jewish community picked it up from the surrounding Tatar population. The pastry is filled with beef (as was the case that evening) or lamb, onions, potatoes and peppercorn, with paprika added for taste.
The last item on the menu was hard honey cake. “This was my baba’s recipem which she brought with her from Ukraine in the 1920s,” noted Karen Ackerman. “Jews like my baba (Chava Portnoy) have lived in Ukraine for over 1,000 years and they used the local buckwheat honey in their honey cake.
“I am honoured to be able to share this recipe with you,” she said.
All the presenters spoke of how the recipes that had been passed down through the generations connected them with home and family and memories of their babas.
I once had a cousin who, after enjoying a hearty meal, would say: “Good Sample. When do we eat? Well, after the sampling, it really was time for a late supper – the main course – and it was a perfect way to end the evening feasting on pita filled with veggies, falafel balls and humus and French fries with a choice of coffee cake or chocolate cake for dessert.
I ‘m really looking forward to next year’s “Taste of Limmud”.
Local News
New kosher caterer providing traditional Israeli foods for Winnipeg palates
By MYRON LOVE The Israeli community in Winnipeg continues to grow and enrich our community. Among the most recent arrivals are Maxim and Olga Markov – along with their children, who settled here less than two years ago. What the Markovs are contributing to our community is a new kosher catering operation – Bravo Good Food – that specializes in traditional Israeli fare.
The senior Markovs are both originally from Ukraine. They came with their families in the early 1990s when they were young teenagers. For the last several years before moving to Winnipeg, they lived in Afula in north central Israel.
After their arrival in Winnipeg, Olga worked for a time in the Chabad kitchen; Yural still works in the Chabad daycare – while Maxim took a job with an HVAC company.
Maxim’s passion however, and his life’s work has been in food preparation. He points out that he worked in the business for 17 years in Israel. In the early part of his career, he was head chef in a dairy restaurant. He was also a cook in wedding halls preparing food for as many as 1,000 guests.
In more recent years, he worked in a private hospital kitchen where, he notes, he gained experience with dietary menus and healthy food options.
“What we do at Bravo,” he says, “is provide our clientele with the authentic taste of the Middle East. We cook traditional dishes, using only fresh ingredients, with our own original recipes.”
Operating out of the Adas Yeshurun-Herzlia kitchen, Bravo’s menu (which readers can view on its website – bravogoodfood.com) features such well known Israeli items as falafel balls and humus, mini shislek (with chicken) on skewers, beef kebabs on cinnamon sticks, and friend eggplant with tahini.
But there is much more to choose from.
Start with salads.
You can choose from coleslaw, purple cabbage salad, beet salad with pears, celery and parsley, mushroom salad, and green herb salad.
Main course options include beef meatballs and tomato sauce with a trio of fish dishes – salmon, Moroccan fish, and custom fried fish. Also available are a broccoli casserole, pasta, and spaghetti.
Bravo also offers a corporate menu featuring a choice of continental or executive breakfast, full breakfast buffet or a buffet of mini sandwiches – and an events menu.
Maxim adds that Bravo offers vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options.
Olga notes that individual dishes or baking can be ready for the next day. “If it’s a small event like a family dinner, we need at least three days in advance, provided the date is available,” she says. “If it’s a large event – then we need at least a week in advance notice.”
“We are not just providing food,” Maxim says. “We are creating an atmosphere. Our catering makes your event unforgettable through taste, freshness and hospitality.”