Local News
Chai Folk Ensemble to honour Charachs at multicultural concert
By LESLIE MALKIN A passion for multiculturalism is something father and son, Barney and Avrom Charach, share. “My mother said, ‘we should send our kids to Hebrew school,’ and my father said, ‘they should be exposed to everything, not just the Jewish community.’ He always had this idea that we should be part of the bigger community,” says Avrom.
As a young man, volunteering with both Folklorama and the Manitoba Ethnocultural Youth Committee Avrom learned that “by learning about other cultures, we learn to understand them, celebrate them together. Education and prejudice are diametrically opposed,” he says.
So, a multicultural theme is fitting for the Sarah Sommer Chai Folk Ensemble annual spring concert, at which Barney and Avrom Charach will be honoured for their lifetime commitment to the folk ensemble. Chai has invited four other cultural groups to share the stage for the June concert: Hungarian Kapisztran Folk Ensemble; the Tamil Pavilion Performers; Hinode Taiko – Rising Sun Drums; and the Asham Stompers.
“Chai is still the feature, but we’re showcasing the multiculturalism in Winnipeg and Manitoba and tying that to our honourees, the Charachs, and their key roles within Folklorama,” says Sarah Sommer, co-artistic director for Chai along with Jesse Popeski. (Both Barney and Avrom have also volunteered with Folklorama, for decades). “These groups are representative of their experiences in Folklorama, and we honour them in that,” continues Sommer, whose past roles with Chai include performing as a singer and vocal director.
Barney Charach began volunteering for Chai with his wife, Ruth, z”l, in the late 1960s. Together they worked behind the scenes well into the ’70s, Ruth helping with costumes, Barney as assistant stage manager until taking on the role of treasurer. Together with Hartley Gale, z”l, Barney overhauled the ensemble’s financial books.
As a boy, Avrom often accompanied his parents to their Chai commitments and soon began helping with small tasks. Eventually, he became a vital member of Chai’s production crew as lighting designer/stage manager, a volunteer position he held for two decades.
“My parents taught me how to give back, that it’s important to share, and invite others, and become friends with others. It’s their example that I follow to this day,” Avrom says, adding he has been volunteering with Chai for six decades.
“In the ’70s, I was eight or nine, helping, floor tape and whatever. In the ’80s, ’90s, and early ’00s, throughout my teens, twenties, and early thirties, was my 20-year stint (as lighting designer/stage manager). And then every decade (since then), at least once, I’ve helped with something. I’m not 60 yet. I hope I can do it for a seventh decade.”
With Chai a flagship of Shalom Square, Folklorama’s Israel pavilion, Avrom’s work with the ensemble led to his involvement with Shalom Square, too. He sat on the pavilion steering committee from 1982 through 2014 and has worn the hats of pavilion coordinator (and assistant-coordinator), ambassador, and chair of various sub-committees. And through his work with the Israel pavilion, he became engaged with Folklorama too, assuming various roles over several decades, including president, board member (with various portfolios), and bus tour guide/trainer.
While Avrom’s parents introduced their son to Chai through volunteering, it was Avrom who brought Barney to the Israel Pavilion steering committee as co-chair of finance, then later to the board of the Folk Arts Council (Folklorama) as treasurer, vice president, and president. Barney continued to volunteer for Folklorama until he no longer could.
Avrom couldn’t be prouder sharing the spotlight with his father. But he wishes his late mother were alive to partake in the glory. “They should have honoured all of us,” he says, sadly.
“The tradition of sharing, of giving, of caring, that all came from my parents,” Avrom continues. “Sharing the stage with my father, it’s hard to put into words how wonderful it’ll be to be honoured together.”
The June 22nd concert, the first full-fledged production to be co-directed by Sommer and Popeski, is billed “The Mountains Will Dance.”
“We took it from the title of a new piece we are working on and having choreographed,” explains Jesse Popeski, who was musical director prior to being co-artistic director and still plays guitar with the Chai band. “It was through our relationship with Avrom and Folklorama, and the idea of having it include these other cultural groups that led to the title as kind of a fun, creative theme.”
Tickets for The Mountains Will Dance go on sale online at February 1st! Celebrate this extraordinary family team NOW by calling (204) 955-0069 to secure your seats immediately.
As Manitobans have gone to the polls and with a new legislative assembly about to begin a new four-year term, the challenges of long-term and continuing care homes need to be communicated.
MARCHE, the Manitoba Association of Residential and Community Care Homes for the Elderly will be holding a focus group on Wednesday, October 11 that is intended to provide the community at large a forum to express thoughts and provide ideas and recommendations for the future.
Please join us on Wednesday, October 11th at the Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre. We look forward to hearing from you.
See poster below for more information and how to register to attend.
By MYRON LOVE Gray Academy, our community’s only junior kindergarten–12 Jewish day school, holds a unique place among Jewish schools in Western Canada.
The school has a higher per capita enrollment than any other Jewish day school in Western Canada related to the number of potential Jewish students in the community. As well, it is the only Jewish high school in North America – other than yeshivot – that offers an international student experience.
“We generally enrol one or two students a year from international communities,” says Gray Academy Head of School and CEO Lori Binder. “Our International Student program has always been a niche program,” “We want to be able to make sure that the international students are well integrated into our student body.”
For the most part, she reports, the visiting students have come from Brazil and Mexico. “We have agents in Brazil and Mexico,” she notes. “In the past, we have participated in recruitment trips – and we might again one day – depending on available resources. Most of our international students hear about our program through word of mouth.”
This school year, Gray Academy has two international students enrolled. Natalie Rozenberg is from Rio de Janiero This is the Grade 12 student’s second year at the school. She is following in the footsteps of her older sister, Dafne, who graduated from Gray Academy in 2020 and is currently enrolled in third year Data Science at the University of Manitoba.
The newest international student at Gray Academy is Tara Foster, who has come all the way from Australia to sample a different kind of educational experience. “Tara is the first Australian student to participate in our program,” Binder says. “In fact, she reached out to us after finding information about our program online.”
The Grade 10 student was born and raised in Sydney. Her father, she notes, was also originally from Sydney, but her parents met and married in London. They moved to Sydney 18 year ago. Up to now, Tara has been a student at Masada College, a K-12 Jewish school in Sydney, where she will be returning next fall.
I wanted to experience a school somewhere else – preferably in an English-speaking country,” she says. “I searched online and Gray Academy was the only school offering this program.”
While her mother, she notes, had some concerns about her 15-year-old daughter traveling so far from home for school, her father was fine with the idea. He is involved in an accounting software business which brings him frequently to Toronto. Her mother, Tara says, is planning to come to visit in January.
Tara has been here for just over a month. She reports that Winnipeg so far is sort of what she expected. “It is very flat,” she muses. “It is easier to get around here than in Sydney.”
She says that she has already made some friends in her new school and is starting to get involved in extracurricular activites
Natalie began the school year by joining her Grade 12 classmates on their Human Rights and Holocaust Education trip to Washington, DC. She is looking forward to continuing to work out regularly at the Rady JCC.
”I am still working on improving my English,” she says.
She notes that her parents are happy that their two daughters are living in a safe community such as Winnipeg.
As is the standard practice with Gray Academy’s International Student program, both girls are living with host families. “Over the past 15 years or so, our visiting International Student Program has hosted more than 30 students,” Lori Binder reports. “Not only do the visiting students benefit from the experience of going to school here, but our own students get the opportunity to welcome fellow students from different places and learn more about the larger world.”
She adds that the visiting students form long-lasting bonds with their host families, with the guests often becoming part of the host family’s extended family.
Local News
Rabbi Michael Skobac, international leader in Jewish outreach, to speak at Adas Yeshurun Herzlia on October 20
By MYRON LOVE It has been many years since I have had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi Michael Skobac. I am happy to report that the long time Education Director of Jews for Judaism has been invited back to Winnipeg by the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation to do a presentation – on Friday, October 20, after Kabbalat Shabbat services – on the subject of the ongoing missionary threat to the Jews.
The subtext for “The Battle for the Jewish Soul,” the title of his lecture, he points out, is an exploration of why so many Jews are susceptible to the siren song of missionaries – not just Christian missionaries, but also Asian religious movements – an issue that also falls under the aegis of Jews for Judaism.
“It is not just a matter of a lack of education or knowledge,” he explained in a wide ranging interview with the JP&N last Friday morning. “Many of those who have left Judaism grew up in Jewish homes, had their bar/bat mitzvahs, went to Hebrew school and visited Israel. What they are missing is a sense of spirituality.
“Too many Jews have grown up in a spiritual vacuum,” he continued. “They have holes in their soul that cry out to be filled and they are not finding it in Judaism. Therefore, they are turning to Bhuddism, Hinduism and the Church.”
To further illustrate his point, he cited a story about a conference on Jewish meditation a year ago in New York City. “There were about 1,000 people registered,” he recounted. “They were asked to raise their hands if they had participated in Eastern mediation practices. Everyone raised their hands. When subsequently asked how many of them had had any experience with Jewish meditation, no hands went up.”
That anecdote speaks to one of the several ways that Jews for Judaism’s mission has evolved and expanded. The organization was founded in 1989 in Toronto by Julius Ciss, himself a former “Jew for Jesus” who had returned to Judaism some years before and had begun doing counter missionary work.
Rabbi Skobac joined Jews for Judaism full time in 1992. A graduate of Yeshiva University, the former New Yorker received his smicha in 1980. After teaching for a short time, he was drawn into outreach work within the Jewish community prior to joining the staff of Jews for Judaism.
Initially, Jews for Judaism’s primary mission was working to bring back to Judaism susceptible Jews who were enticed into joining messianic congregations operating under the guise of following Jewish ritual practices within a context of worshipping Yesha (Jesus).
Skobac notes that Jews for Judaism’s focus has never been criticizing Christian beliefs, but rather on educating lost Jews as to the joys of Judaism. “We operate under the idea that the missionary activity of Jews for Jesus is not the problem,” he explains. “It is a symptom. The problem is that a growing number of Jews are disconnected from Judaism. Our communities are dealing with a lot of assimilation and apathy. The other thing we realized is that it is not just Christ who is calling to Jews. Twenty five percent of North American Bhuddists are Jewish and Jews are similarly overrepresented in other Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Bahai.”
Skobac noted that Jews for Judaism has become a 911 service forJewish communities – responding to many family members concerned about siblings or children who have strayed into other religious faiths.
There have been some interesting phenomena developing in more recent years that Skobac commented on. One is related to the growth of the messianic movements themselves.
“We are not dealing with just one or two messianic congregations in North America now,” he observed. “There are currently more than 500 – and they have become organized. They have camps and day schools and “rabbinical schools” to fill the growing demand for “rabbis”. The result is more of the messianic Jews are actually studying Judaism and some are – as a result- coming back to the Jewish community.”
Another difference that Skobac points out is that you no longer see these missionaries preaching on street corners. As with everything else in our modern world, virtually all the missionary work today is happening online. And the outreach efforts of Jews for Judaism has also moved to some degree online.
“Twelve years ago, we started our own YouTube channel,” he reported. “We have had between 8 and 9 million views. Obviously not all of our viewers re Jewish.”
He pointed out that over the past 40 years, a growing number of non-Jews have become interested in learning about Judaism and begun practising the “Noahide” laws as ordained in the Torah. These laws were required by God of Noah’s descendants and include prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, adultery, theft, murder and cruelty to animals.
And some of these Noahides convert to Judaism. Skobac reported, for example, that he was recently in Alberta to help a family living outside of Edmonton that was converting to Judaism.
The bottom line, Skobac noted, is that a growing number of Jews are not finding meaning in Judaism. “People need a sense of the spiritual in their lives to give their lives meaning,” he observed. “If they can’t find it in Judaism, they will look somewhere else. What we try to do is bring out the beauty and spirituality in Judaism.”
Readers who may be interested in attending rabbi Skobac’s presentation (which includes supper) can contact the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia office at 204 489-6262.
