Local News
BB Camp reverses decision to retain Jacob Brodovsky as co-director
BB Camp parts ways with co-director, who had held a variety of positions at BB Camp for the past 15 years
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted April 17) In an email just issued by BB Camp, the camp’s Board of Directors has announced that “the Board of Directors and co-Executive Director Jacob Brodovsky have amicably agreed to part ways, having regard to the best interests of the Camp and the community at large.”
There is no mention in the announcement as to the status of Brodovsky’s co-director (also his wife), Lexi Yurman.
The decision announced today constitutes a complete reversal of the Board’s earlier decision to retain Brodovsky as co-director. The Board had issued a statement on April 9 in which it said that “After conducting painstaking due diligence, the BB Camp Board of Directors unanimously voted to retain Co-Executive Director, Jacob Brodovsky, following his full apology for his serious error in judgement on social media.”
The statement by the board issued today (April 17) goes on to say that “the Camp Board expressly and unequivocally rejects and denounces the nature and content of the social media posts that were ‘liked’ (by Brodovsky) and in no way does that personal activity reflect the views of BB Camp or its Board.”
That statement refers to several social media posts which were posted by someone (or perhaps a group) that goes by the name “Rusty Robot,” which were posted in the spring of 2024, and to which Jacob Brodovsky attached his name as “liking” them.
There had been a myriad of accusations levelled against Brodovsky on social media, and one website in particular had been leading the charge to have him dismissed. That website not only ran several articles demanding that Brodovsky be fired, it allowed a slew of comments to be posted – many of which contained highly incendiary accusations against Brodovsky. (There were also a great many comments coming to his defence.)
In its announcement of Brodovsky and the camp parting ways, the Board goes into great detail about where certain areas of the camp’s operation need to be strengthened. The announcement says “Through this period, we have undertaken a careful and thoughtful review of our Camp’s policies and have taken guidance from experts in the community. While we believe strongly that the Camp has been, and will continue to be, a safe Jewish place for children, we have nonetheless identified areas where improvement is warranted, and the Board has agreed to pursue these steps to benefit the Camp.”
The announcement outlines the areas in which it is seeking to improve certain aspects of the camp experience:
- The Board has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and will incorporate it into our Code of Conduct. We believe taking this step gives formality to the Camp’s existing and unbending commitment to Jewish safety and outright rejection of any form of antisemitism or anti-Zionism. Our adoption of the IHRA definition will be posted to our website.
- We will review and update the Camp’s mission statement and core values statement to better reflect the Camp’s fundamental support of Israel.
- Employees and Board members will be required to sign the Code of Conduct, which will outline support of the IHRA definition and include confirmation that they will not publicly promote ideas that are contrary to the mission of the Camp or which are contrary to the IHRA definition.
- We will take steps to hire a Jewish Education Coordinator to develop and implement enhanced Jewish and Israeli programming at Camp.
- We will strike a community outreach sub-committee of the Board to formally engage with Israeli and other community organizations in order to repair relationships and enhance opportunities for collaboration.
- We will take steps to ensure that all Camp staff have a formal ability to communicate directly with the Board.
Yet, nowhere does the Board describe in any way how Brodovsky failed to meet any of the areas which the Board says it will seek to strengthen. It does say though that “Our campers will continue to do what they have been doing for decades: proudly sing Hatikvah daily while the Israeli flag is lowered, participate in meaningful and inclusive daily prayer services, enjoy the “Shabbat Procession” and Friday challah, and feel a connection to Israel and Judaism through our programming.”
Further, the announcement issued by the Board also says that the Board “would like to highlight we were particularly proud of what our Executive Directors initiated last year to support Israelis in need. They engaged with the community to raise funds which were used to bring young Israeli campers from destroyed communities in the Gaza envelope, along with a chaperone, to Camp for a session. This provided an incredible relief to those kids and gave our community’s kids a chance to connect with Israelis who have suffered so greatly.”
It should also be noted that the Board of the Jewish Federation issued a statement on April 14 that gave a forewarning that the BB Camp Board was coming under great pressure to part ways with Brodovsky.
The Federation statement said: “We are aware of the concerning situation regarding BB Camp.
“While BB Camp is governed by its own board of directors and operates independently — as do all of the Federation’s beneficiary agencies — we have listened closely to the concerns of community members, whose trust in the camp has been shaken. The Federation takes these concerns with the utmost seriousness. “Our Executive has already held a number of emergency meetings, and our Board will be meeting on Tuesday night to further discuss the matter. A formal statement will be shared with the community this week.” If there is a statement issued by the Federation we will provide an update to what is clearly an ongoing story. How the camp will reorganize itself this close to the opening of camp season is not explained in the announcement issued by the BB Camp Board. What it does say is that “The Board is actively working on a transition plan that ensures that Camp operates as it always has – as a safe Jewish place for campers to spend their summers, build leadership skills and create memories in an incredible wilderness environment. The Board has great confidence in our returning staff team, including our exceptionally talented Operations, Program and Wilderness Directors, each of whom held the same position last year. Camp has a culture guided by the dozens of amazing staff who commit their time and energy for the benefit of our community’s children. We are blessed to have a strong and capable staff team ready to welcome our campers this summer, and the Board will work hand in hand with them to ensure the Camp’s continued success.” |
Hats off to that hateful website which played such an instrumental role in seeing the departure of someone whom the Camp Board thanks for his “tireless efforts for the Camp over the last four years as Co-Executive Director and his dedicated service in a variety of Camp positions over the last 15 years.” If there is anything more to report on this story, we will do our best to do that here, but in past instances of administrators of Jewish organizations in Winnipeg leaving suddenly, it has consistently been the practice of neither the board involved in that person’s departure nor the person – him or herself, to say anything for public consumption that might explain their sudden departure.
Local News
Jewish Federation now says Jewish population of Winnipeg in 2021 (according to the census) was 13,940 – not the 16,000 figure that the Federation had been touting for years
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted Oct. 27, 2026) Longtime readers of The Jewish Post & News (and this website) would probably know that I have long had a very strong interest in establishing as accurate figures as possible when it has come to reporting the size of Winnipeg’s Jewish community.
For years I argued that our Jewish Federation was exaggerating the size of our Jewish population. I heard the figure of 16,000 bandied about by leaders in our community quite often when it came to reporting the size of our Jewish population – without any empirical evidence to back that figure up.
I had long maintained that the only reasonably accurate figures when it came to reporting the size of Winnipeg’s Jewish population were those produced by the late Evelyn Katz, when she was the unofficial demographer for the Jewish Federation – over 30 years ago. What Evelyn would do is keep careful track of births, deaths, numbers of newcomers but, perhaps most important: the number of people who had left our community.
Thus, in August 2022 when I interviewed Faye Rosenberg Cohen who, at the time, was just about to retire as the Jewish Federation’s Chief Planning and Allocations Officer, I was somewhat astonished to hear Faye say, when I asked her what proportion of our Jewish community was made up of immigrants, she answered that “I can honestly say when I look at those numbers it’s somewhere around 1/3 of the community.”
In response, I asked: “So you’d say it’s somewhere between 4-5,000?”
Faye said: “I think it’s more than that.”
I wrote in that article, “I indicated my skepticism at that time, saying ‘You know that I’ve always been skeptical about the numbers that have been used by the Federation for the population of the Jewish community. I think though that it’s always been more of a case of identification – who identifies as Jewish.’ ”
Later, after the results of the 2021 census were released, I wrote that “if you take into account the results of the 2021 census, the Jewish community cannot be larger than 14,270 at a maximum. But that figure would also include anyone who had either said either their ethnic origin was Jewish or their religion was Jewish.”
Since many of the individuals who had said on the 2021 census that their ethnic origin was Jewish, but their religion was something else, I maintained that ascertaining the real size of our Jewish community was highly problematic.
Still, for the sake of argument I was willing to accept that, realistically, it was somewhere between 13,000-14,000 – but nowhere close to the figure of 16,000 that had come to be suggested by our then president of the Jewish Federation or by other leading figures in our community.
So, it was with a sense of satisfaction that I heard Sharon Graham, who is now the Jewish Federation’s Community Planning and Allocations Lead say to an audience of over 50 people who were at the Gwen Secter Centre on Thursday, October 22, that the Jewish community in 2021 was – at a maximum: 13,940.
Sharon was at the Gwen Secter Centre to speak to Remis Lecture attendees. Her presentation preceded a presentation by Jewish Federation CEO Jeff Lieberman. Sharon used a PowerPoint presentation to provide some very interesting insights into where our Jewish community was at in 2021- and I’m offering some parts of her presentation here for you to read because I thought they were so interesting.
I had actually made many of the same observations about the results of the 2021 census in my own reporting back in 2022, but seeing what I had written confirmed by the Jewish Federation’s point person on planning told me that Sharon has a much more realistic view of our community than did Faye Rosenberg Cohen.
Here, for instance, is a slide that shows the proportion of our Jewish community that is made up of immigrants. It’s slightly under one fifth, not the one third percentage that Faye had suggested.
But, what really set Sharon’s presentation apart from anything else I’ve ever seen presented by someone from the Jewish Federation – other than the aforementioned Evelyn Katz, was the slide she projected which showed that, while there had been a large influx of newcomers to Winnipeg’s Jewish community between 2016-2021 there had also been a significantly high number of people who had left our Jewish community in those same years, as you can see in the following slide:
That is something we just don’t hear discussed by leaders of our Jewish organizations, but let’s be realistic: For many newcomers who came to Winnipeg and were counted as new members of our Jewish community, Winnipeg – for a variety of reasons, was a stepping stone to other communities. It may have been for reasons of better job opportunities, moving closer to other family members, or – the reason that we hear so often when it comes to people saying they want to leave Winnipeg: the weather.
But, whatever the reason, Sharon’s figures show that, as much as GrowWinnipeg may have been an abiding success when it’s come to attracting newcomers to our Jewish community here, getting them to stay long term is a different story.
And, while there were other aspects of Sharon’s presentation that certainly merit discussion, especially the figures she produced about intermarriage, rather than delving into them here, I thought it useful simply to insert them for you, the reader, to see – and draw your own conclusions.
Local News
Marty Green expands his protest against extremist Jewish settlers to two more venues – and is arrested twice more
(Tuesday, October 27) We received the following press release about Marty Green being arrested again, both at the University of Manitoba and at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue:
Both sides came to blows on Saturday, October 24, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue as security personnel sought to prevent Marty Green from interfering with synagogue traffic as he protested just outside synagogue grounds against the actions of religious settlers in Israel’s occupied West Bank territory. Synagogue Executive Director Rena Secter Elbaze quickly intervened to prevent further escalation. Police arrived shorty thereafter and detained Green for 45 minutes before driving him home and releasing him. It is not clear whether their decision not to lay charges was the result of their own onsite investigation or whether it was at the request of the synagogue executive.
Green has now been arrested four times in the last month and faces multiple charges for disturbing the peace, including two episodes at the Asper Campus and one more this past Friday (Oct. 23) at the University of Manitoba. While Green says initially he was merely handing out leaflets (at the Asper Campus), since his first arrest on September 23, he has returned to the campus with a large placard and an acccordion, accompanying himself while singing songs with lyrics that include such phrases as “The Jews Are Bananas….B-A-N-A-N-A-S”. In addition to listing actions of the religious settlers as including arson, vandalism, and theft, he pointedly alleges that the IDF has been backing up the settlers in their actions.
Green had earlier notified the Shaarey Zedek that he was contemplating bringing his protest to the synagogue. He was told that if he attempted to enter the grounds he would be prevented from doing so. At that time, Secter Elbaze told Green that his intentions were inappropriate, declaring the synagogue to be “a house of worship dedicated to prayer, learning, community, and spiritual engagement.” Green responded that if the synagogue were willing to contact the Crown and inform them that “that there was never any legal basis for their claims that I was conducting myself inappropriately at the Asper Campus” (with regard to his earlier arrests) that he would “voluntarily refrain from carrying his informational campaign to the synagogue(s).”
Green further argues that the recent “psak” (religious ruling) by leading Israeli rabbi Rov Dov Lior, in which Lior declares that it is not merely permissible but praiseworthy for Jews to steal olives from Arab orchards….that this ruling brings his protest within the proper realm of religious discourse. He says further that if the local rabbis were willing to speak out to their congregations against the aforesaid psak, that he might have refrained from taking his campaign to their grounds.
Although Green was released on Saturday without charges, police confiscated his placard. They explained that it was being held as evidence pending an investigation by Major Crimes as to whether it constituted hate literature.
There was no further information given as to what happened at the University of Manitoba.
Local News
Third annual JFest Winnipeg will be offering programs for all ages
By MYRON LOVE JFest Winnipeg is back with a good variety of musical performances, a book launch, popular Jewish-themed films, children’s activities, and a family-oriented Shabbat dinner.
“JFest,” observes Laura Marjovsky, the Rady JCC Director of Programming, “is an opportunity for our community to experience Jewish art and culture. With our range of JFest events, we are trying to reach out beyond what has been our base audience and appeal to all ages. We have a commitment to bring top notch Israeli performers to share the highest caliber of Israeli entertainment with our audiences.”
The week-long festival (November 14-21) kicks off with a performance by top-ranked Israeli singer-songwriter Harel Skaat. The popular Israeli star began singing as a child. He shot to fame when he finished second in the second season of “Kochav Nolad” – Israel’s version of “American Idol.” His first album was released in 2006 and achieved Platinum status – with one of the songs being ranked as “song of the year.” He followed that up in 2009 with a second album that reached Gold status. In 2010, he represented Israel at the Eurovision competition.
Skaat’s performance is scheduled for the Seven Oaks Performing Arts Centre (which is attached to Garden City Collegiate) beginning at 8:00 P.M. on Saturday, November 14. Patrons will have the opportunity to purchase an enhanced ticket to attend a meet and greet with Harel.
All other JFest programs and activities will be at the Rady JCC.
Music Producer Karla Berbrayer says Ben Caplan’s performance on Saturday, November 21 will also be another highlight. “Ben Caplan redefines what it means to be a modern folk artist,” Berbrayer says. “His music and stories are matched by his larger-than-life stage presence. This concert focuses on how his Jewish upbringing has influenced his entire performance career.”
“Flatland Famous” is returning by popular demand. This quintet, known for its performances at Winnipeg Jets games, will be presenting its concert, “Jewish Soul of Rock and Roll,” on Wednesday, November 18, at 7:30 pm. This year’s show will feature songs by Amy Winehouse, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Simon and Garfinkel, and other famous Jewish icons.
On Tuesday, November 17, local author Deborah Schnitzer will be taking centre stage with the launch of her new book, “The Woman Who Swallowed West Hawk Lake.” The University of Winnipeg English Professor Emeritus’s new novel explores intergenerational trauma related to Nazi breeding programs. Joining Schnitzer on stage will be a panel of professionals who have experience working with children who have experienced trauma.
And of course, “Best of the Fest” is back. Films to be presented will include“The Floaters” and “We Met at Grossingers,” two wildly popular movies at last spring’s Winnipeg International Jewish Film Festival.
“The Floaters,” to be screened on Monday , November 16 at 7:00 pm is a funny and bang-on depiction of Jewish summer camp culture.
“We Met at Grossingers” is a loving look back at the Borscht Belt in New York’s Catskills, where generations of young Jewish performers earned their dues and developed their acts. The film will be screened on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00 P.M.
On Friday November 20, JFest will host a Family Shabbat dinner featuring Anat Kriger, an Israeli-born, Toronto-based musician, actor, and children’s performer, who has made several appearances in Winnipeg at major communal events.
Kidfest on Sunday, November 15, will be a day-long potpourri of programming that will include live performances, workshops, bouncy castles, games and crafts, and much more.
Readers seeking more information about JFest can contact Laura Marjovsky at 204 477-7539 or lmarjovsky@radyjcc/com
