Local News
Ben Carr answers questions at Gwen Secter Centre about his candidacy for the Liberals in Winnipeg South Centre
By BERNIE BELLAN It might have seemed an odd venue for a candidate in a federal byelection in to be grilled about his candidacy, but on Thursday, May 18, Liberal candidate for Winnipeg South Centre Ben Carr (in a byelection that will take place on June 19) faced a series of tough questions from audience members at the Gwen Secter Centre (which is in the north end) who were there for the second session of the Remis luncheon series.
As a preamble, I should note that Ben Carr was invited to speak to the Remis luncheon group well before the byelection was called in Winnipeg South Centre. Just as I have written about other speakers who have appeared at a Remis luncheon (and elsewhere in this paper you can read my account of the first of this years’ speakers, Joan Druxman, who spoke on May 11), I decided to write about Ben Carr’s appearanc at a Remis forum.
Ben Carr is the 37-year-old son of the late Jim Carr and Dr. Ruth Simkin. I have to make an admission at this point: I’ve known Carr ever since he was a classmate of my daughter Shira, beginning in Grade 7. That didn’t stop me, however, from throwing some pointed questions at him.
When he got up to speak Carr joked that he had been out campaigning recently in Tuxedo and when he knocked on people’s doors at least four individuals told him that they were related to him (which came as no surprise to him, he said, since he’s found through the years that both the Carr and Simkin families have many relatives in Winnipeg – and elsewhere).
Still, being the son of a famous politician, whose mantle he is now trying to adopt, has its pros and cons. I asked him, for instance, whether he’s encountered people who have accused him of capitalizing on his father’s name in running for the Liberals in the same riding that Jim Carr held for seven years until his untimely death last December?
Carr said “no,” that hasn’t been brought up to him personally.
“I recognize that I was gifted a set of principles by my parents,” he said. “You don’t choose where you come from, but you choose what you do with that.”
Someone else asked Carr whether he had ever been to Israel? He said that he had, when he was 24, when he was on a Birthright trip there – and had his bar mitzvah at the Kotel (Western Wall).
How that came about was an amusing story. Carr said that there were two rules all members of Birthright were supposed to follow: Stick with the group always and no drinking.
But, one time when the group was in Jerusalem, he and his cousin Joel decided to venture away from the group at one point, he explained. They came across someone who “looked like a rabbi,” Carr recalled. (To be honest, how hard is it to find someone who looks like a rabbi in Jerusalem?) They asked the individual whether he was a rabbi and when the man said he was, Carr said that he would like to be bar mitzvah’d.
The rabbi said to Carr and his cousin, “Okay, if you’re going to be bar mitzvah’d we’re going to the Kotel” and that’s where Carr was bar mitzvah’d.
As well, the rabbi happened to have a bottle of vodka, Carr added, which led to him and his cousin breaking the second Birthright rule.
And, although he’s relatively young, Carr has already had a varied career. After graduating from the French Immersion program at Kelvin, Carr became a teacher, he said, later a principal at Maples Met High School which, he explained, has an innovative program whereby some students attend school three days a week, and apprentice in a workplace the other two days.
Most recently Carr has been Vice President of something called the Indigenous Strategy Alliance, working in tandem with an Indigenous woman by the name of Rebecca Chartrand. He described their relationship as “what reconciliation should look like.”
Of course, growing up in a household immersed in politics (Jim Carr was first elected as an MLA in 1988, Carr pointed out, as part of the resurgent provincial Liberal showing led by then-leader Sharon Carstairs), he has had more than his share of exposure, both to campaigning and the day to day workings of government.
In 2015, when Jim Carr was elected to the House of Commons for the first time, Ben went along with his father to live with him in Ottawa for four months. Later, Ben held various positions in the federal government, including serving as Director of Parliamentary Affairs to the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
Still, while Winnipeg South Centre has been a Liberal-held seat for the past eight years, it has also been won by Conservatives in the past, most recently by Joyce Bateman (in 2011).
Carr said that “there are three issues I’m most proud of”: The national child care program, “which has lifted 450,000 kids out of poverty;” the government’s position on climate change where, he said, the government has found “a good balance;” and the national day care plan, “which is going to help women get back in the work force.”
He added that the government has introduced “changes in support for seniors,” including “dropping the age of eligibility to receive the Old Age Pension from 67 to 65 and increasing the Old Age Supplement.”
I said to Carr that there are two other issues that clearly distinguish the Liberals from the Conservatives: gun control and abortion. Since gun control was not likely to be an issue in Winnipeg South Centre though, I wondered whether abortion has been brought up to him since he’s been out knocking on doors?
He answered: “For us, this (abortion) was settled a long time ago. You cannot be a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada unless you stand for a woman’s right to choose. I don’t know where my opponents stand on abortion, but I’d like to hear from them.”
Someone else asked him who else is running in the byelection? Carr said that the Conservative candidate is Damir Stipanovic, the NDP candidate is Julia Riddell, and the Green Party candidate is Doug Hemmerling. (Given how important the Jewish vote is in Winnipeg South Centre and how many of our readers live in the riding, we will try to profile each of the three other candidates in the June 7 issue.)
Someone wondered whether Carr had encountered any anti-Semitism while on the campaign trail? He said that he hadn’t, but he did offer an anecdote that illustrated how prejudice can work both ways.
One time when Ben was out campaigning for his father in River Heights, he said, he was confronted by a woman when he knocked on her door, he said, who told him that Justin Trudeau was an “antisemite.”
The reason she felt that way, Carr explained, was that Trudeau “had let so many Muslims into the country.”
That led me to ask Carr whether he has had anyone tell him that they’re not happy with the Liberal position on Israel, (e.g., either voting for or abstaining during votes on resolutions at the UN which are critical of Israel)?
Carr was adamant that the “Liberal government has been equal to or better than the Harper government was.” (It’s somewhat fitting that in this same issue we devote a fair bit of space to what Stephen Harper had to say about Israel at the Negev Gala.)
He went on to say that there is “an attempt within the Conservative movement in Canada to position itself as the only defender of Israel within the House of Commons.
“There is a little bit of a misconception when it comes to the Liberal Party’s position on Israel,” Carr continued.
“The fundamental principle is that Israel has a right to exist and is the homeland of the Jewish people,” he said.
Turning once again to the Conservative Party, Carr said the Conservative Party today is not the Progressive Conservative Party of “Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney.
“What Pierre Poilievre is trying to leverage,” Carr maintained, “ is the worst in us – and combining it with a kind of populism to turn us against one another.
“The vast majority of Conservatives that I talk to in Winnipeg South Centre identify with the PC Party.”
Carr brought up something that had been posted to the Damir Stipanovic website, (votedamir.ca) but has apparently been expunged, but not before someone had captured a screenshot of what was written:
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the Trudeau Liberals benefitted from corruption and interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. Leaks from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) indicate that the Trudeau Liberals were aware of alarming reports and did not respond to the threats.
“An open and transparent public inquiry is now needed. With Winnipeg South Centre heading into a by-election, how do we know that the Chinese Communist Party is not funding Ben Carr and the Liberal party in this very riding?”
As noted, we will attempt to contact each of the three other candidates in Winnipeg South Centre in time for our June 7 issue, including Damir Stipanovic, whom we will also ask about the question posed on his website.
Local News
Eyal Kraut: continuing the family medical tradition
By GERRY POSNER When you talk medicine and family connections to medicine, one of the families you have to think of almost immediately is the Berbrayer- Kraut family. There are three generations of doctors now in this family, starting with Dr. Peter Berbrayer, of blessed memory, an orthopaedic surgeon (and father of Karla); Dr. Allan Kraut (husband of Karla Berbrayer, an internal medicine and occupational health physician; and Allan and Karla’s son, Dr. Eyal Kraut, an endocrinologist, who now lives in Toronto. Not to be overlooked as part of the Berbrayer-Kraut family medical team is Dr. David Berbrayer, son of Peter, and a medical director in rehabilitation redicine in Toronto. Each of these men has made contributions in his respective field and I expect many readers are well aware of that. Perhaps, because he is still young, Eyal, one of four children of Allan and Karla, is less known – although, because of his participation in the community, I am betting younger readers will know him.
Eyal Kraut was born and raised in Winnipeg. He is a product of the then Ramah Hebrew School and later the Gray Academy. It is fair to say that Eyal was exposed to the Jewish world right from the start in many aspects, not the least of which was by way of his mother Karla’s having run the Music and Mavens Programme at the Campus for many years, as well as being a musical impresario of great renown. In his high school years, Kraut was active in multiple leadership positions, including student council and the Jewish Federation’s P2K committee ( now P2G).
And, he was not just limited to school activities as he was what might be called a “player” at the Herzlia Synagogue, where he often led services, not to mention his talent as a shofar blower ( no small skill; I know that from trying for a week without making a sound). Moreover, Kraut taught Bar/ Bat Mitzvah lessons, was on staff at the Rady JCC during his school days, also staff at Camp Massad. In short, Kraut was the full package coming out of high school. He attended the University of Manitoba and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. While at the university, he served as president of Hillel. Subsequently, he entered the University of Manitoba Medical School.
In 2014, Eyal Kraut graduated with his MD degree. During his time as a medical student he participated in the Manitoba Medical Students Association and also sat on numerous committees. Upon graduation, Kraut was off to Queen’s University for his residency in internal medicine. It was in Kingston that he met his future wife, Zoey Katz, who was from Toronto. The couple returned to Winnipeg for Eyal’s clinical fellowship in endocrinology, which is the specialty focussing on diabetes and hormones. While he was busy with becoming a doctor, his wife Zoey was a nurse at Children’s Hospital. Now that is taking togetherness to a new level. Even then, Eyal and Zoey helped to lead services at the Simkin Centre.
In 2019, the couple made the decision to move to Toronto. Currently, Eyal works at a clinic in downtown Toronto, while at the same time he also has a weekly clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital. Yet, even with the move to Toronto, Eyal retained his medical license in Manitoba and for several years, he returned to Winnipeg for several days every two months to run a small endocrinology clinic in Winnipeg, located at Confusion Corner, called Cardio 1 Lifesmart. That is what I call staying connected to your roots. Even then, Eyal used his spare time to head to the Rady JCC, as JCC memberships are honoured everywhere there is a JCC. The routine of trips to Winnipeg ultimately concluded just recently – at the end of October. Eyal and Zoey now have a two-year-old son, Asher, with another baby on the way, so the trips to Winnipeg are no longer as feasible as they were. Still, Eyal is clear that he intends to make regular visits (to see family of course,) also to show his kids what life is like in Winnipeg. This is one guy who appreciates from whence he came.
Even with his impressive background, what really makes Eyal stand out is a talent that no one likely knows about and that is Eyal’s ability to recognize people. It was at Beth Tzedec Synagogue in Toronto not long ago – at Yom Kippur services, and with a full sanctuary, when out of the blue, a guy whom I did not know tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was Gerry Posner. He just picked me out from my photo in the Jewish Post. That photo has me with a baseball cap on my head, but at synagogue I had a kippah on. Now, that is a rare talent. (Ed. note: Oh come on Gerry – you’ve written before how Winnipeggers, including the equally famous Rabbi Matthew Leibl – before he became a rabbi, have spotted you in baseball stadiums across North America and come up to you . You’re world famous for sure!)
Local News
Latest Jewish Foundation Endowment Book of Life signings took place November 3rd
By MYRON LOVE Almost everyone has a story to tell. And, for the past 25-plus years, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba – through its ongoing Endowment Book of Life program – has been assembling stories of current and former members of our Jewish community.
As explained on the Foundation website, “the Endowment Book of Life program is a planned program that offers participants an opportunity to leave both a financial and historical legacy to the community.”
Donors promise to leave a bequest to the Foundation, in return for which their family stories are inscribed in the Book of Life.
The annual official unveiling of new stories this year was held on Sunday, November 3, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue and included brunch, some musical entertainment featuring a talented quartet of singers – including Josh Bellan, Alyssa Crockett, Julia Kroft and Hailey Witt (who have seemingly been the young go-to performers at Jewish community functions over the past year or two) – as well as a poetry reading by members of the StudioWorks Players – and comments by Rabbi Alan Finkel as to why he chose to add his and his family’s stories to the Endowment Book of Life.
In his remarks, Finkel, the recently retired rabbi of Temple Shalom, spoke of his family’s stories – in this case, his family’s stories of the Holocaust. “My family has always shared their stories,” he noted. ”Their stories are part of the Shoah Foundation’s collection of stories. And both my mother (Carmela Finkel – who passed away three years ago) and my Aunt Betty (Kirshner) have shared their stories with hundreds of students at the Holocaust Education Centre. Later, my mother was honoured to have her story included as part of the video displays at the Canadian museum of human Rights.
“But, even as I embraced the power of those survivors’ stories,” he continued, “I could see that the list of story tellers was getting ever shorter. I wondered how those stories would continue to be told once there was no one left to tell them.”
Shortly after his mother’s passing, he said, the family came together to discuss how to continue their mother’s legacy. Their response was to create the Carmela Shragge Finkel Holocaust Education Endowment Fund at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba – with proceeds directed toward the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada.
“My page in the Endowment Book of Life is more about my personal life journey that led me to become a rabbi at 65,” he said, “but really, behind it all there are a lot of different threads and stories of Jewish community that intertwine and bind us to each other and to our Jewish community. This, to me, is the real gift of the Endowment Book of Life project – allowing each of us to here to tell our own stories in our own ways, to find our own unique paths of building our Jewish community here in Manitoba – and to celebrate how we are all part of klal Yisrael.”
Signatories to the Book of Life this year included: Dr. Sharon Goszer Tritt and Dr. Stephen Tritt; Brenda Honigman – in memory of her late father Sam, and late brother Archie; Ellie Kives – in memory of her husband Philip; David Wilder; Alisa Abrams; Marlene Reiss and Perry Rose; and Moshe Selchen, in memory
of the late Saul Feldman, a friend of the Selchen family. Feldman was a little-known member of our Jewish community who passed away a couple of years ago and left $2.6 million in his will to the Jewish Foundation.
In his introductory remarks, John Diamond, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s CEO, described the Endowment Book of Life program, as “one of our most successful. We last hosted this event in 2022,” he noted, “and, I’m proud to say, I was a signer that year.”
Diamond explained why he and his wife, Heather, chose to commit to our community’s future. “In 2022,” he recalled, “we were beginning to glimpse what the world would look like post-pandemic. That prolonged period of uncertainty gave us the opportunity to think about our community’s future. If the generations before us had not been forward-thinking, prioritizing the next wave of Jewish Winnipeggers, where would we have been during the pandemic? How would our community have looked?
“Simply put, we were and are very fortunate. Thanks to that forethought, we were able to navigate that uncertainty. We need to continue putting future generations in a similar position to what we find ourselves in now.”
In her closing remarks, Dafna Shore, the JFM’s vice chair (who was filling in for chair Dan Blankstein, who was unable to attend), reported that the Endowment Book of Life currently contains over 800 stories.
“Each story is deeply personal and uniquely individual,” she pointed out. “What makes this program so special – and why it resonates with so many people – is the change to immortalize stories that otherwise might go untold.
“Every family has stories, some hidden away about what makes them exceptional. Very few are known beyond those who lived them. Sharing these stories in the Endowment Book of Life celebrates the lives lived in our community. They are an encyclopedia of what makes our community so rich in history, compassion and generosity.”
Shore thanked this most recent group of story tellers for sharing their stories and for committing to making a legacy gift. “Your gesture,” she said, “will serve to inspire the next generation to do the same. As long as our community has individuals who choose to put their community’s longevity at the top of their priorities, our community will continue to thrive.”
Local News
2024 Yom Tov attendance meets expectations
By MYRON LOVE Congregational leaders in our community are, for the most part, quite pleased with Tom Tov attendance this past Yom Tov.
“We sold out our seats,” reports Dr. Rena Secter Elbaze , the Shaarey Zedek’s executive director.
The remodeled and expanded Shaarey Zedek, our community’s oldest and largest congregation, has a capacity of about 900 in the main sanctuary – with an additional 250 for the separate Family Service downstairs.
Once again, this year, the popular Rabbi Emeritus Alan Green – who was the Shaarey Zedek’s senior rabbi for 18 years – returned to lead Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in the main sanctuary with Cantor Leslie Emery, the Quartet, and the Ruach Volunteer Choir. Rabbi Anibal Mass led the popular family service with Noah Trachtenberg, a Youth Band and the Dor Chadash Youth Choir.
Shaarey Zedek has, over the past few years, built a substantial following for its Shabbat and Yom Tov services online. Elbaze notes though that the number of people participating in Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur servicers online this year was considerably lower. That was because, she says, many of those congregants were eager to come back to the shul – which just re-opened a couple of months ago after being closed for three years due to construction – and daven in person.
“We were essentially sold out for Yom Tov by early September,” reports Jonathan Buchwald, Congregation. Etz Chayim’s executive director. “Our members were really excited about our first Yom Tov in our new building.”
By necessity – in reflecting the congregation’s slowly declining membership numbers – the new Etz Chayim – at 1155 Wilkes Avenue – is considerably smaller than its predecessor. To accommodate the demand for Yom Kippur seating in particular, Buchwald had earlier reported, the Kol Nidre service was to be held at the Holiday Inn Express at the airport – and there were two services for Yom Kippur day.
Buchwald notes that 335 were in attendance for the first services on Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur service and 120 for the second service on Rosh Hashanah – with 450 for Kol Nidre at the hotel. There were 250 for Neilah and 50 for the Young Family services. About 150 followed online.
As usual, Rabbi Kliel Rose and Cantor Tracy Kasner led Etz Chayim’s High Holiday services – with a separate family service geared toward families with young children as well as a Junior Congregation.
Over at Temple Shalom, our community’s 60-year Reform congregation,Past President Ruth Livingston says that there was “good enthusiasm” for Yom Tov and that the congregation members were very happy with the services led by cantorial soloist Janet Pelletier Goetz as well as long time Temple Shalom member Myriam Saitman – who is set to begin training in September toward her rabbinical ordination – and, for the first time, choir leader Erica Tallis –a 2020 graduate of the Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba.
For the second year in a row, South end Winnipeg further offered a fourth liberal Jewish option in the form of Rabbi Matthew Leibl’s “Services on the River: A Modern High Holidays.”
The former Shaarey Zedek – and now independent – rabbi’s services were held once again at The Gates on Roblin – which can accommodate up to 300. Last year, Leibl reported in an earlier interview, about 250 people attended his service. He was expecting to have similar number this year.”
“Services on the River: A modern High Holidays” services were scheduled for the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Erev Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur morning. The services also featured the husband and wife cantorial team of Justin Odwak and Sarah Sommer.
All services were 90 minutes.
Still with the South End, Jack Craven president of Orthodox congregation Adas Yeshurun Herzlia says that people are happy that things are back to normal. “We had a good crowd for Yom Tov,” he says.
The congregation – led by Rabbi Yossi Benarroch – has a membership of about 100 and can accommodate up to 250.
“We were filled up for Rosh Hashonah and Yom kippur,” notes Rabbi Avroham Altein, Winnipeg’s senior Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi of the south end Lubavitch Centre. “We also had a full house for Erev Simchas Torah.”
The Lubavitch Centre has a capacity of between 200 and 300.
The Simkin Centre also held Yom Tov services – on all three days – that were open to the general public. The services were led by Steven Hyman with the Simkin Centre Choir under the direction of Bonnie Antel.
In the North End, the Conservative egalitarian Chevra Mishnayes congregation – the largest congregation in that part of the city with the relocation of Etz Chayim south – saw a bit of a bump in attendance.
“We had 20 new people this year,” reports Chevta Mishnayes President Rob Waldman. “This is the first time that we have seen an uptake in attendance for Yom Tov since before the Covid lockdowns.”
Last year, just under100 came to the Garden city shul for Yom Tov.
This year’s service were once again led by Al Benarroch.
About 18 months ago, a new North End Orthodox congregation came into being as a result of the merger of the struggling Chavurat Tefila and Talmud Torah Beth Jacob members. The renamed Chavurat Tefila Talmud Torah Congregation – located at on the corner of Hartford and McGregor in West Kildonan – attracted between 40 and 50 daveners for its first Yom Tov services last year last year and about the same number this year.
Services at the shul this year were led by Cantor Menachem Frenkel from Silver Spring, MD.
“Cantor Frenkel was recommended by a friend and member of the shul,” says Cary Rubenfeld, the shul’s treasurer and spokesperson. “He was quite well received by the congregation. He is a multi-talented ba’al tefilah. He brought with him an extensive range of traditional and contemporary melodies which the congregants enjoyed.”
The venerable House of Ashkenazie, the last of our community’s old-style Orthodox congregations, was once again the only shul to report a bit of a decline in attendance from last year – with attendance for Yom Tov hovering around 30. Shul President Gary Minuk avers though that the Ashkenazie – which still holds services throughout the year on Thursday mornings – will continue to carry on “as long as we can still make minyans.”
Our community’s most northerly High Holiday services were held at Camp Massad. After a two year absence due to the Covid lockdowns, Camp Massad resumed its innovative Rosh Hashanah service last year. In pre-Covid times, Massad executive director Danial Sprintz noted last year, Rosh Hashanah at Massad had attracted as many as 150 participants. In 2023, 90 attended. This year’s attendance, he reports, was slightly higher.
“Our people were excited to come together,” he says. “We always offer a creative and interactive service that combines some traditional prayers with contemporary readings, folk music and our usual Camp Massad shtick.”
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