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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.
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New young (and not so young) talent added to list of Jewish high achievers at most recent Winnipeg Music Festival
By MYRON LOVE The most recent (107th annual) Winnipeg Music Festival – which takes place annually in March – produced another group of Jewish musical stars – including several who were new to the competition. Joining repeat high achievers – such as Yale Rayburn-Vander Hout, Gregory Hyman, Alex Schaeffer, Juliet Eskin and Noah Kravetsky – this year the winner’s circle also included: Lyla Chisick, Lotan Berenstein, Benji Greenberg and Shani Groisman..
While the overwhelming majority of the music festival entrants are pre-teens and teenagers, Greenberg, who is 38, and Groisman – who recently celebrated her 20th birthday – are exceptions to that pattern.
Shani, who finished first in the PIANO SOLO, LATE ROMANTIC COMPOSERS, GRADE/LEVEL 10 category – is an accomplished pianist, singer, and music teacher, who has participated in numerous international and local festivals and piano competitions. As a teacher, she teaches students ranging from beginners to Level 5.
The daughter of Marina and Boris Groisman arrived in Winnipeg from Israel 10 years ago. Shani says that she began taking piano lessons when she was 5.
“This competition was something new for me,” observes the Grant Park High School graduate. . “I entered for the challenge. David Moroz, my teacher at the (University of Manitoba’s) Desautels School of Music was very supportive. I am looking forward to next year’s festival.”
Benji Greenberg reports that it was her singing teacher, Geneva Halverson, who encouraged her to enter the competition, A lawyer by training, who currently works as a children’s advocate for Manitoba Advocate for children and youth, Benji notes that while she has always enjoyed singing and has appeared over the years in musical productions in high school and shows staged by the Manitoba Bar Association, it was only about a year ago that she decided to take singing lessons “to learn to sing properly”.
The daughter of Debbie and Harley Greenberg, Benji competed in two categories – Musical Theatre 1965 to 2000, and Musical Theatre pre-1965 – for singers 16 and over. In both categories, she was runner-up to Yale Rayburn Vander Hout, a veteran of four years now in the competition.
“I loved being on stage,” Benji says. “I am looking forward to the next year’s competition.”
Yale Rayburn-Vander Hout continues to build on his accomplishments at the yearly festival. Last year, his third year in the competition, the 18-year-old son of Samantha and Peter was awarded the prestigious Gilbert and Sullivan Society Trophy – awarded for the most outstanding performance in a competition of winners of Gilbert & Sullivan classes.
A former Gray Academy student, he graduated from the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, and is currently in his first year at the Desautels Faculty of Music, where he is studying under the guidance df Donna Fletcher, the co-founder of Dry Cold Productions.
Yale – who has already graced our local stages, notes that he is hoping to pursue a career in musical theatre.
Gregory Hyman is a multi-faceted artist who can do it all. The 17-year-old son of Hartley and Rishona Hyman is a singer/songwriter/musician (guitar) who records and performs under the stage name, GMH. His versatility shone through once again in his seventh Music Festival, in which he registered three first-place finishes – once for guitar (20th and 21st century composers), and twice for vocals (popular and contemporary music and TV and movie music).
The St. John’s-Ravenscourt student has been busy on stage the past couple of months – headlining his own show at Sidestage on Osborne on March 2 and opening for musician/singer/’songwriter Goody Grace at the Park Theatre on March 16. His next solo performance was scheduled for the Rec Room on Friday, May 9.
Gregory has put out three albums – which readers can check out on any of the music streaming platforms as well as his own Instagram page (thegmh). He also continues to host his own podcast – “Talk and Rock with GMH”- now in its fifth season – in which he interviews various people in the music business across Canada.
Fifteen-year-old Alex Schaeffer registered one first place finish this year in the Canadian musicals 16 and under category. For the son of Marc Schaeffer and Kae Sasake, this was his fourth year competing in the festival
Both Alex and his older sister, Hannah (both Grant Park students), continue their nascent careers on stage. Alex made his big stage debut last year as one of the Von Trapp children in MTC’s production of “The Sound of Music” – followed by an appearance in the Manitoba Opera production of Carmen as a member of the children’s chorus.
Both Hannah and Alex recently performed in Grant Park High School’s production of A Chorus Line (Hannah played Cassie, and Alex played Paul), and Meraki Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night (Hannah played Malvolio, Alex played Antonio).
This summer Hannah and Alex will be performing in three different shows with Meraki Theatre and Rem Lezar Theatre at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.
In the fall. Hannah will be off to to Oakville. Ontario to attend Sheridan College where she will be studying Musical Theatre Performance.
Juliet Eskin, 15, also stood out. In this her fourth go-round at the festival, the daughter of the musically talented Kelly Robinon and Josh Eskin took home three golds in: the viola solo, level 7 categories; Romantic composer, Baroque and Concerto; and was recommended by the adjudicator to compete for the Swedish Musical Club Trophy.
Juliet originally took up violin – adding the viola a couple of years ago. Outside of the music festival, she is the violist in the Assiniboine String Quartet and just finished performing in Evil Dead the Musical at MTYP, as well as singing the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line.
Rounding out this year’s returning Jewish WMF star was pianist Nate Kravetsky. playing piano.
Twelve-year-old Nate and older brother Noah, 15, the sons of Dr. Azriel Kravetsky and Dr. Carrie Palatnick, both attend Gray Academy – and have been taking piano lessons from Erica Schultz since they were five years old. Last year, Nate won gold in three classes: Baroque, Sonatina and Canadian Composer. In this year’s music festival, he completed in two classes: sonatina and own choice. He won gold in both classes.
His favourite thing about learning piano, Nate says, is getting to express himself and play a contemporary piece from a movie or video game when the festival is over.
This year’s music festival was the first for 11-year-old songstress Lyla Chisick – and the daughter of Daniel and Baillee Chisick acquitted herself quite well. She competed in five categories and achieved gold in three: solo performances in Own Choice; Musicals, 2965 to 1999; and 20th and 21st century English Art Song.
Lyla reports that she began taking voice lessons from Jessica Kos-Whicher abougt 18 months ago. “I really love singing,” she says. “It is a great activity.
“I am looking forward to next year’s festival.”
Lyla, Gregory and Yale were also recommend for the Provincials which will be held the weekend of May 24-26. Yale was recommended in the musical theatre category, while Gregory and Lyla were recommended in the TV and Movie category. Gregory was also recommended in the Popular Contemporary category, while Lyla was further recommended in the Vocal Primary category.
We look forward to the continued musical success off Yale, Gregory, Shani, Benji, Alex, Nate, Juliet and Lyla and what new talent may be unveiled at next year’s Winnipeg Music festival.
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Belle Jarniewski recognized by Manitoba Legislature for leadership in combatting antisemitism and raising awareness of the Holocaust
By MYRON LOVE This year’s community commemoration of Yom Hashoah began on Erev Yom Hashoah – April 23 – with with the Megillat Hashoah interfaith reading of the Holocaust Scroll at Congregation Shaarey Zedek the night before.
Yom Hashoah, Thursday, April 24, began, as usual, in the morning with B’nai Brith’s “Unto Everyone There is a Name” – at the Legislature – during which members of our community – including a group of Grade 11 students from Gray Academy – and leaders of the greater community took turns reading out the names of relatives of local Holocaust survivors.
Gray Academy Grade 11 and 12 students also participated in the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s annual public commemorative service over the noon hour – also inside the Legislative Building – with students Alex Stoller and Aaron Greaves leading the 200 or so attendees in singing our national anthem and Hatikvah. Later in the program, they also performed “April Wind.”
Political leaders representing the three levels of Government and Jewish Federation leaders paid their respects leading to the service’s climax – the candle lighting. The ceremony was introduced by Belle Jarniewski, the executive director of the Jewish Heritage Society of Western Canada– with local survivors Saul and Rachel Fink, Susan Garfield, Faye Hoch, Edith Kimelman and Nehama Reuter participating.
The service ended with the traditional El Malei Rachamim prayer (recited by Congegaton Etz Chayim Chazan Tracy Kasner) and Kaddish, led by Rabbi Yossi Benarroch of Adas Yeshurun Herzlia.
This year’s Yom Hashoah commemoration concluded with a special honour for Belle Jarniewski who, later in the afternoon, was publicly recognized in the Legislature for her leadership in Holocaust awareness and the ongoing fight against antisemitism.
In recommending her for special recognition in the Legislature, Tuxedo MLA Carla Compton noted how Jarniewski’s upbringing as the daughter of Holocaust survivors instilled in her a passion for tikkun olam and spurred her to dedicate her life to teach people of all ages about the Holocaust and other genocides.
“Through her work as executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada,” Compton noted, “Belle brings education about the Holocaust to thousands of students, teachers, administrators and professional groups each year. She has partnered with Manitoba Education and Training numerous times. She is also a writer who has been published in numerous Canadian, Israeli and European newspapers.”
Compton cited, in particular, Jarniewski’s 2010 book, “Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors,” which documents the histories of 73 local survivors before, during and after the Shoah and can be found in the libraries of every secondary school in Manitoba and in university and national libraries in several countries.
“At a time when antisemitism is on the rise, we must do whatever we can to combat it,” Compton stated. “Belle is doing this great work every day. Today, on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I cannot think of a better person to celebrate and honour.”
In response to this most recent honour, Jarniewski stated that she “feels tremendously humbled and honoured by Tuxedo MLA Carla Compton’s Member Statement in the Legislature about me. Carla has been a true friend, supporter, and ally to our community.”
She added that she met Compton when the latter was running for office about a year ago in the byelection to replace the former MLA from Tuxedo and former premier, Heather Stefanson.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to honour the memory of my parents and that of the many members of my family who were murdered in the Shoah – through my work. I’m sure my mom (Sylvia) and dad (Samuel) would never have imagined that our provincial government would one day rise to honour their daughter for working to combat antisemitism and remembering the Holocaust.”
As mentioned earlier, this was the most recent of several awards that Jarniewski has received over the past few months. Last month, she was one of several Jewish Winnipeggers who received a King Charles III Coronation medal. Hers was presented by the Manitoba Government.
Last September, our Jewish Federation – at the annual Shem Tov Awards evening – bestowed on her the Larry Hurtig Communal Professional Award in recognition of her outsized leadership role in Winnipeg, nationally and internationally, in preserving the memory of the Holocaust and fighting antisemitism.
“About 15 years ago,” she recalled at that time, “Joe Riesenbach, a survivor, reached out to me to help move a project forward that had literally been collecting dust. Before I knew it, I was a member of the Holocaust Education committee and was then named to the federally appointed delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), as a member of the Academic Working Group, the Education Working Group and the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial. The committee elaborated the first intergovernmental definition of anti-Semitism, adopted by consensus at the 2016 IHRA plenary. “
Through her work on Holocaust preservation and education, she was introduced to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. She was appointed the JHCWC’s executive director in 2018.
“The Jewish Heritage Centre is the key to our past and our future,” she noted. Exploring our archive is like walking back in time. It’s a treasure trove reflecting the incredible history and diversity of our wonderful Jewish community stretching back 125 years- the challenges and the many triumphs that have shaped who we are today. As the saying goes, you need to know the past to understand the present.
“The Winnipeg I grew up in was a golden age for Jews-a tapestry of multiculturalism with shared values,” she continued. “We thought that the kind of antisemitism earlier generations had faced was gone forever. While we may not be able to bring back the wonder years, we must stand united as a community and be strong in our convictions.”
Jarniewski is particularly pleased with the recent announcement, made by our provincial government on Yom Hashoah, reiterating its new partnership with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada to put into place Premier Wab Kinew’s earlier promise to create and roll out a Holocaust education curriculum in Manitoba schools.
In an April 24 press release, Kinew said that “we are one Manitoba that cannot be divided by hatred. Now, more than ever, we must honour the diversity and inclusivity in our province and commit to learning the lessons of history so that they cannot be repeated. Learning lessons from the past protects some of the intrinsic values of our province – diversity, inclusion and human rights. The best way to uphold that basic understanding is to help foster these values in our young people.”
Beginning in the fall, the grades 6, 9 and 11, social studies curriculum will be updated to include mandatory Holocaust education in all schools across the province.
The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada has been tasked to develop new curriculum guidance on Holocaust education, including implementation tools, supports and resources.
“Recent surveys have demonstrated that most Canadian students know very little about the Holocaust,” said Jarniewski. “With increased hate-fueled violence and incidents of antisemitism, Holocaust education is a key tool for countering prejudice and cultivating inclusion. We at the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Manitoba government in strengthening Holocaust education in Manitoba through the creation of a mandated curriculum. We know that Holocaust education encourages critical thinking and reflection on how individuals could or should act in society and provides important lessons from the past to learn for the present and the future.”
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This man – Michael Kalo – has been defaming prominent Winnipeggers online for years, but now he’s getting a taste of his own medicine
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted May 3, updated May 8, updated May 11) There’s a particularly ugly side that often comes with being in the public eye – and that’s being on the receiving end of some of the most vile and awful comments, often threats – sometimes on social media, sometimes in emails, and sometimes on websites.
For years now many prominent Winnipeggers (almost all of them Jewish) have had to endure just that kind of vicious attack from someone by the name of Michael Kalo. But how do you fight back against someone who writes some of the most awful things – and then sends them out to various members of the media (including me), all the while hiding behind a series of aliases? There’s no point in suing him for defamation; he’s penniless. (The police have seized his computer in the past and are well aware of him, but the individuals whom he has defamed have always been reluctant to have the Crown press charges, thinking that it will only draw more attention to him – which is what he seems to want.)
But I’m different – and I’ve finally had enough of his crap.
In my original column I had posted the email Kalo had sent out to a great many individuals in which he defamed Jacob Brodovsky, who was forced to resign as co-executive director of BB Camp after a website called the j.ca launched a series of attacks on Jacob over his perceived “anti-Zionist” attitudes. I suppose these days who defines “Zionist” is a decision made by certain individuals who reserve for themselves the right to define what support for Israel means. I guess all those hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have been marching on the streets protesting Netanyahu’s deliberate strategy of letting the remaining hostages linger in tunnels in Gaza – however many may still be alive) are also “anti-Zionist.”
Anyway, I’ve now removed that vile email. If anyone still wants to see it, email me at jewishp@mymts.net and I’ll send it to you.
Something else I’ve now removed from this article is my referring to Michael Kalo’s very accomplished daughters. My intention was to attempt to induce them to use their influence to sway their father to stay off the internet and stop defaming members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community. But then I received an email from a prominent member of our community who asked me to remove my references to Michael Kalo’s daughters. That person wrote, in part: ‘His daughters don’t have anything to do with him. They don’t talk to him.”
Well, if his daughters don’t want anything to do with him, then I suppose there’s no point in retaining what I had written about them – so that’s gone too.
What’s left now though is a video of Michael Kalo that gives anyone who has never heard of him – or seen him in pubic, a clear idea of what type of person he is.
The video that was sent to me shows Kalo engaging in an argument with someone (and the identity of that person was not revealed to me by the person who sent me the video.) In it you can hear Michael explain why he’s consistently called Ben Carr a “kike”, “a spoiled Jew boy,” along with some other choice epithets. (Kalo has sent out numerous emails defaming Ben Carr using the name “Mohammed Greenberg” as the sender.)
But, I did respond to Kalo, whom I’ve know for many years, starting with when he achieved notoriety by being banned from entering the Asper Campus over 30 years ago. Here’ what I wrote to him:
“You know what I’m going to do Michael. I’m going to print your letter on my website – but I’m going to say that it was sent by someone named Michael Kalo, who has been defaming various Winnipeg Jews for years. That way it will have the opposite effect of what you’re intending. I’m also going to post the video in which you call Ben Carr (and the person filming the video) a kike. And if you want to come after me the way you’ve been going after anyone and everyone who provokes your ire, go right ahead. (You seem to have a real hate on for successful Winnipeg Jews. Is it because you’re such a failure in life yourself?) And I’m going to bcc this email to some of the people you’ve been defaming so that they can see how much of a fool you”ve been making of yourself for years.
-“Bernie”
Here’s the video of Michael (who is apparently walking away with a Ben Carr sign tucked under his arm):
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