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Doctors Manitoba recognizes humanitarian pediatrician
By MYRON LOVE Dr. Murray Kesselman pronounces himself “honoured” to have been recognized by Doctors Manitoba (formerly known as the Manitoba Medical Association) as this year’s recipient of the organization’s Distinguished Service Award.
“It is always gratifying to be recognized by your peers,” remarks the long time pediatric intensivist who specializes in pediatric emergency medicine and pediatric intensive care patients. “It is also quite humbling.”
The Doctors Manitoba Distinguished Service award recognizes a long career of services to patients and the community that embodies the highest standards and ideals of the medical profession, and in the promotion of the art and science of medicine through teaching, writing and administration.
The presentation, he says, was made virtually May 6th at Doctors Manitoba’s annual general meeting. An in-person presentation is tentatively scheduled for November when it is hoped that Covid restrictions will be lifted.
A south-ender who attended Ramah evening school and graduated from Grant Park High School, Kesselman earned his MD designation from the University of Manitoba in 1974. After some years doing general practice, then a Pediatric Residency, he completed a Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“At that period, you could take your time figuring out what kind of medicine you would like to focus on,” he recalls. “I worked in ER at the Grace Hospital for a while and spent a couple of years at the Mount Carmel Clinic. I found that I was particularly drawn to pediatrics.”
Dr. Kesselman focuses on the care of critically ill children in the Oeguatric Intensive Care Unit and technology-dependent children living for extended periods in the Pediatric Special Care Unit. For many years, Dr. Kesselman has been involved in developing and furthering the use of procedural sedation for children needing painful procedures or prolonged radiologic studies and the safe and effective transport of children.
Although semi-retired now, Kesselman was, for many years, a staff Pediatric Intensivist and Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at The Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg, Section Head of the PSCU (Pediatric Special Care Unit) and Section Head of PICU (Pediatric Special Care Unit) as well as Associate Professor in the Max Rady College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and Child Health. He has played a significant role in shaping and developing the PICU into its current state. Providing in person pediatric care to the children of Sanikiluaq in Nunavut was also a special privilege that lasted 35 years, he says.
About 15 years ago or so, the Winnipeg pediatrician connected with an organization called “Operation Smile”.
“I felt the need to do something more in helping kids,” he recalls.
Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by Dr. William P. Magee Jr., a plastic and craniofacial surgeon, and his wife, who is the organization’s Chief Executive Officer. According to its mission statement, there are millions of children around the world who are born with cleft lips or cleft palates. The majority of these children are unable to receive the medical care they need because it is too costly, far away, or specialized. Because of this, being born with a cleft condition can be fatal. If a child survives, they may face bullying and social isolation.
Operation Smile currently is active in 34 countries, surgically repairing the condition and providing after-surgery comprehensive care.
Once or twice a year, pre-Covid, Kesselman travelled to different countries in Central American, Africa and Asia as part of Operation Smile initiatives.
“I was even in Russia once,” he says.
The Operation Smile surgeries, he notes, are arranged months in advance so that, when he has been called upon to go, he has had time to reschedule his duties here as necessary.
“I have a lot of memories from my work with Operation Smile,” he says. “I have met a lot of people, forged enduring friendships and learned to appreciate a little bit of what patients and families face in other parts of the world.”
The last mission – pre-Covid – to Malawi in southern Africa was particularly gratifying for Kesselman in that his wife, Jane (an Intensive Care and Emergency Nurse)and oldest daughter Sarah (a Pediatric ICU nurse) were also part of the medical team.
His other children include Rachel, a Fellow in Pediatric Emergency Medicine; Steve, a Resident in Adult Emergency Medicine; and Dan, a Masters student in School Psychology .
“I was supposed to be going to Cambodia last year to teach in their pediatric hospital,” he notes. He has had to settle for weekly Zoom teaching sessions with their residents and staff for now.
These days, he says, he is still doing some work in the PSCU with kids who are on long term ventilation and with the Sedation service. Otherwise, he is riding out this time of lockdown trying to spend some time at the lake working on a construction project at the cottage and preparing to become a Zaida.
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Join the Sewing Circle at Chesed Shel Emes
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Talented Winnipeg composer Sara Kreindler teams up with her mother Reena Kreindler to create new satirical show to premiere here in May
By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been many years since I’ve heard from Sara Kreindler. Sara’s name first appeared in The Jewish Post & News in 2002 when a satirical musical titled “A Touch of Class” was reviewed by the late Arnold Ross. That particular production featured songs from popular Broadway shows that touched upon themes such as “greed, poverty, oppression, and social unrest.”
When she appeared in that show, Ross noted, Kreindler had just recently returned to Winnipeg from England, where she had obtained a doctorate in Social Psychology from Oxford University.
While at Oxford, Kreindler found time to compose a satirical musical titled “Charity,” which played to rave reviews there, and was performed five times.
Continuing in the theme of writing satirical musicals, Sara has now teamed up with her mother, Reena, to write a new musical titled “A Perfect Man,” which is set to run at the Gargoyle Theatre from May 6-17.
According to a press release we received, “A Perfect Man” is “a satirical musical, set on a fictional analogue of ‘The Bachelor’.
“The story follows an anthropologist who arrives to research TV’s hottest reality-dating show — only to discover she’s been made a contestant, and the bachelor is her high school crush. Past and present collide against an exuberant pastiche score that uses vintage musical styles to highlight modern absurdities.”
“Praised as ‘a musician [who] can make biofuels funny’ (CBC), Sara is known for whip-smart satire on a panoply of topics. Her digital musical, ‘Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System, created during her former life as an academic, has garnered over 84,000 YouTube views. Naturally, she had a field day with the subject of reality dating.
“The topic just begs for campy zaniness, which I think we all need in these times — but also for a more cerebral critique of what these shows say about the culture that spawned them,” says Kreindler. And thanks to the romance context, the satire is woven into a deeper, more personal story. “It’s satire with a heart.”
Here is some more information about Sara Kreindler, taken from a 2009 article I wrote about her:
“Born in Israel, Sara’s precocious talent was nurtured by her mother, Reena, whose own particular talent is literary, not musical. According to Reena, however, Sara was singing from the time she was a baby, and she began to study piano at the age of four.
“As a young girl, Sara began writing her own songs and poems, along with the “occasional musical”, notes Reena. Yet, Sara’s rare talent put her at odds with the typical interests of other children her own age, on top of which she attended a school to which she was exposed to a fair degree of antisemtism.
“As a result, Sara says, being bullied was a common aspect of her childhood. On one occasion, when she was nine, she notes, Sara fought back against one particular bully by reciting the following little ditty:
“I write so many epigrams to you that all the people laugh.
I’m tired of writing epigrams.
I want to write your epitaph!”
“Sara went on to compose a musical titled ‘Flutesong’ while she was a student at Vincent Massey Collegiate, she says. After doing her undergraduate work at the University of Manitoba, majoring in Psychology, Sara won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University.
“Sara eventually earned a doctorate in Social Psychology and returned to Winnipeg, where she began teaching at the University of Manitoba, but she said she didn’t enjoy the “mass production” style of teaching upwards of 300 students at a time, so she switched careers and began doing health research for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.”
All the while Sara has been continuing to compose and perform her own songs, often teaming up with her mother, as she has for “A Perfect Man.”
Showtimes and ticket information for The Perfect Man are available at:
http://www.thegargoyletheatre.com/upcoming-events/the-perfect-man
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Rabbi Kliel Rose to leave Congregation Etz Chayim for new post in Ottawa
The following email from Congregation Etz Chayim Executive Director Morissa Granove was sent to members of the congregation on Friday, April 10:
“Dear Members and Friends,
“As we know, Rabbi Kliel recently spent a weekend with Kehilllat Beth Israel where he has since been offered a position. After much thought and consideration, he has made the decision to sign a contract in Ottawa. He will continue to lead our congregation through Yom Kippur.
“This news marks a significant ending for our Etz Chayim community, and at the same time with change comes opportunity. Congregation Etz Chayim will soon embark on our own Rabbinical search with excitement as we look for our perfect candidates and explore the new possibilities that will help us to continue to shape a strong future for our synagogue and members.”
Kliel Rose took up the position of rabbi at Etz Chayim in August, 2018.
In an article announcing his appointment to the position in the June 6, 2018 issue of The Jewish Post & News, Myron Love wrote:
The congregation has been without a permanent rabbi since last summer when Rabbi Larry Lander chose to retire – after ten years here – and relocate to Toronto.
Kliel Rose is already a well-seasoned rabbi. He was ordained in 2004 by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
He previously served as spiritual leader at the West End Synagogue in Nashville and Temple Enamu-El in Miami Beach. His current posting is Beth Shalom Synagogue in Edmonton.
Following the example of his parents, Kliel Rose has been active in interfaith dialogue and human rights work for which he was honoured in 2014 with the Human Rights Hero Award by Truah: The Rabbibic Call for Human Rights.
He has also participated in the Kellogg Management Education for Jewish Leaders program at Northwestern University and was most recently chosen to be among 20 rabbis from different denominations chosen to train in the Clergy leadership Incubator – a two-year program, under the leadership of Ranni Sidney Schwarz, intended to educate younger rabbis in innovative thinking, change management and institutional transformation.
In Edmonton, Rose also served as Jewish chaplain at the University of Alberta and took the lead on a program called “Faith and Inclusion”, whose mandate was to support individuals with cognitive and physical learning challenges to feel more welcome within various faith communities.