Local News
Camp Massad and BB Camp adjust – again – to Covid restrictions
By BERNIE BELLAN After a summer in 2020 that saw our two Jewish sleepover camps have to cancel all overnight stays for campers, this summer, our community’s camps are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
While some children may be unable to attend camp with their friends – which undoubtedly comes as a huge disappointment once again, this year both camps had prepared contingency plans quite some ago in anticipation of the possibility of not being allowed to have regular overnight camps.
In some instances, instead of children attending camp on their own, this summer families are being invited to come out to both camps and spend a few days together either on Town Island (BB Camp) or Sandy Hook (Massad).
Recently I spoke with the directors of both camps to find out what they have planned for the summer and whether there is any possibility that there may be a normal sleepover camp at all this coming summer.
Jacob Brodovsky and Lexie Yurman are Co-Executive Directors of BB Camp, having assumed their official duties on January 1 this year (and, as we noted in an article in our Feb. 3 issue – are the first married couple to be in charge either of BB Camp or Massad).
Jacob and Lexie said that, while they aren’t optimistic that the Ontario government will lift all restrictions that have been imposed as a result of Covid, there are still reasons to be hopeful that they will be able to run some form of Second Session, AC and LTP programs at the camp this summer. When I asked them whether there is any chance the popular day camp program – which sees children brought out to camp each day by boat from Kenora, could be offered, the answer was, “We’re still waiting to see how things will look in June and July.”
As well, I asked what would happen if the Ontario government keeps the border closed to visitors from other provinces – as is currently the case, and while Jacob and Lexie indicated that is a huge concern, the planning process began long ago, long before the border was closed – so naturally the hope is that by July the border will be reopened.
In the meantime though, Jacob and Lexie have developed a program known as “BB Bed & Breakfast”, which has already garnered a terrific response, they said. As of May 5, 140 individuals were on the waitlist for 3-night stays at BB Camp with registration slated to launch at the end of May, hopefully once there is some clarity re the border. On hand to work with families will be almost a full complement of BB Camp staff, Jacob said, which will be from 60-70 in number. “The idea is to get our staff trained, and our island open so if and when the time comes that we can pivot back to our conventional overnight camp programming, we’ll be ready to do so at a moment’s notice”.
Here is material taken from the BB Camp website that describes what BB Bed & Breakfast will offer:
Treat your family to an all inclusive getaway where you will learn new skills, immerse yourself in the outdoors, and grow closer as a family. We’ve taken the best parts of a traditional sleep-away summer camp program to offer a unique and unforgettable family cabin rental experience.
Parents are welcome to join their kids in camp activities, or catch up on remote work while our camp staff buddy up with their children for the day. There will also be adult-only programming offered throughout your stay.
Enhance your stay at camp with a family canoe trip following your family camp session! Choose from a 2 or 4-night canoe trip. Our staff will lead you through the whole process from packing out your own food and equipment, to navigating, cooking, and properly setting up a camp site.
Conquer the climbing tower, learn to stern a canoe, or play on our giant water inflatables, the choice is yours! Families will sign up for activities and be able to customize their stay to their liking. Our friendly staff will be there every step of the way to ensure you leave camp rejuvenated and reconnected to the wilderness!
Take advantage of our beautiful island location by adding a fishing excursion, or enrol your children in Swimming Lessons taught through our partnership with Aqua Essence. Again, the choice is yours to make BB Camp everything your family is looking for in a summer escape!
Available activities will include:
Nature Hikes
Paddle Around the Island
Outdoor Cooking Lessons
Judaic Programming
+
Shabbat
Fishing Excursions*
Aqua Essence SwimmingLessons*
*Additional fees
The all-inclusive package that BB Camp is offering includes:
Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Plus 3 Daily Snacks
Daytime Childcare
Access to ‘Work from Camp’ Spaces + WIFI
Adult and Youth Programming
Staff-led Cookout & Bonfires
Traditional Burning of the Bs
Camp Activities:
Ropes Course – Climbing Wall -Water Toys – Canoeing -Kayaking – Swimming – Arts &Crafts – Sports – Tripping –Archery
For more information on BB Bed & Breakfast check out the BB Camp website – www.bbcamp.ca, call 204-477-7512 or email info@bbcamp.ca
Danial Sprintz is Executive Director of Camp Massad (now in his 11th year in that position), while Drew McGillawee is Director of Planning & Programming (in his third year in that position).
While the camp may not have held either of its normal two sessions last year, work at the campsite has continued apace nonetheless to improve facilities, in large part due to a grant from the Jewish Foundation earmarked for infrastructure improvements.
Of course, with the hope that vaccinations would allow some semblance of normal camp activity to resume, Danial Sprintz said that the camp board had been in constant consultation with Manitoba Health and various government officials to see whether there was any way sleepover camp could resume this summer.
The decision was made to cancel normal camp because there just wouldn’t be enough time to allow for proper planning even if Covid restrictions were to be lifted by the summer, Danial says.
I asked him though whether the cancellation of camp applied to Massad’s day camp as well (about which I had written last summer). And, although the day camp did prove successful – and complied with all provincial requirements for maintaining proper social distancing, Danial said it was very expensive to have to adhere to all the regulations that the province required – so the decision was taken not to go ahead with a day camp this summer.
However, just as BB Camp is offering an attractive alternative for families, Massad is also offering its cabins for families to rent – anywhere from a weekend (Friday – Sunday) to a weekday experience (which can vary in length).
According to the Massad website, “Family rentals will include all the activities that Camp Massad has to offer as well as food and a personal family cabin equipped with comfortable amenities.”
Those amenities include: Tennis Courts, Basketball Court, Soccer Field, Volleyball Court, Archery Range, Tetherball, Nature Trails, Canoe and Kayaking on Lake Winnipeg, Fire Pits and Art Studio, as well as swimming in the Heated Outdoor Pool, Daily Adult and Youth Programming, Optional Child Care, Judaic Programming, and Wifi. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and 3 snacks each day will be provided.
But, rather than attempt to offer a second session for regular campers in August – which is still BB Camp’s hope, Danial says that August will be devoted to providing training for camp staff. “We’ll have gone on for two years without staff getting the chance to get any training,” he says. “We want to make sure that they get that training for next year’s camp.”
Both camps have received a great deal of financial support, both from government and from non-governmental organizations.
Danial pointed to two specific programs from which Massad was able to receive funding: The “Green Team” program and the “Canada Summer Jobs” program. Both programs will enable Massad to pay their entire staff complement for at least part of the summer.
As well, both BB and Massad received funding from the Jewish Federation that will help to keep their camps operating this summer.
Danial also pointed out that both camps are able to offer financial help to families that might not be able to afford their family programs this summer. Some money, as it has in the past, is available through the “Sunshine Fund”, while other financial assistance has been made available from other sources as well. Interested parties should contact either camp about subsidies that might be available.
While July has already been heavily booked by families looking to spend some time together at Massad, the camp will actually be available to families beginning June 11.
When I asked whether it’s possible for a family to spend more than five days at Massad at one time, Drew McGillawee said that one family has actually booked two consecutive weeks at the camp.
And, despite all the hardship that Covid has caused both camps, Danial said that the difficult situation in which both Massad and BB Camp have been put has let to what he described as an “unprecedented level of cooperation and planning” between the directors of both camps (which helps to explain why both camps came up with almost identical family camp programs for the coming summer).
As Danial noted, it’s not only the camps that have been working together, “all Jewish community organizations” have been working together closely in ways that they had never done before.
For more information about Camp Massad’s summer rental program for families either call 204-477-7487 or email info@campmassad.ca .
Both camps have detailed information about their upcoming summer family programs on their websites.
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
