By MYRON LOVE On Tuesday, June 16, Shalom Residences  Foundation Inc (SRFI) will be hosting its third annual Donor Appreciation evening.  Donors and other Shalom Residences  supporters can look forward to chilling to the music of local singer/songwriter David Grenon (aka Soul Bear), who will be performing songs by Billy Joel, Elton John and other well-known artists.
For readers who are not yet familiar with Shalom Residences, the organization was originally created to care for intellectually challenged Jewish young adults.  The vision was to provide them with a Jewish environment – strictly kosher group homes where all the Jewish holidays are observed and celebrated.
One of Shalom Residences’ objectives has always been to develop a community in which individuals with intellectual disabilities are fully included, self-actualized, and valued in all aspects of life.
The concept has been a remarkable success.
Shalom Residences was founded in 1980 by six far-sighted couples, including Thelma and Ernie Bronstein, Dolly and Zivey Chudnow, Min and Joe Fromkin, Roberta and Larry Hurtig, Elaine and Bobby Paul,
and Sybil and Frank Steele. The original Shalom Home was a converted house on Cathedral Avenue.

“Thelma Bronstein’s determination and dynamism contributed to making it happen,” says Elaine Paul, currently Shalom Residences’ treasurer (and for the past 20 years, the organization’s leading fundraiser).
I remember the home’s official opening.  This was shortly after I started writing for the Jewish Post.  Rabbi Charles Grysman affixed the mezzuzah  to the door frame.
Today, the organization operates six group homes housing 19 residents as well as 12 residents in supported independent living arrangements.
While the operations today are largely funded by the provincial government – which means that the residences have to be open to accepting non-Jewish clients as well (just over half of the residents are Jewish) – the Shalom Residences Foundation funding supplements the  government contribution – providing financial support for increasing staffing levels when needed, as well as extraordinary expenditures and contingencies. The Foundation has also provided the down payment for the purchase  of new housing when necessary. .
The necessity of fundraising was evident right from the beginning.   Elaine Paul recalls that the first Manitoba Marathon –  in which all the founding parents were involved –  provided the funding for the mortgage at 175 Cathedral Ave.
“We worked with Helen Steinkopf and John Robertson to develop the marathon,” Paul remembers. ”For several years,  Hy Kravetsky and I worked handing out water to the runners.”
Paul relates that it was Zivey Chudnow who was instrumental in starting up Shalom Residences’ annual fundraising. “Three of Zivey’s friends,:Norman Tatleman, Sam Ostrove, and Gary Levinson, asked how they could help,” she recalls.  “Their idea was to have a fundraising dinner.  We combined the dinner with a lottery. We sold 60 tickets at $1,000 a piece and paid out $15,000 to the winning ticket and lesser amounts to other lucky winners.”
The organization also held annual well attended fundraising teas.   
 
Paul reports that, for years, Chudnow was Shalom Residences’ best fundraiser – with honourable mention to Avrum Katz, Frank Steele, and the late Joe Elfenbaum.  Paul took over the role 10 years ago – again with honourable mention to SRFI board members, Dr. Allen Kraut, Peter Leipsic, Donna Chudnow, Jon Feldman, and Mickey Rosenberg. 
  
In addition, the goal was, and remains empowering adults with intellectual disabilities to live meaningful, dignified lives in community-based homes in Winnipeg, enriched by Jewish values.
Charles Tax, the SRFI’s long time president, notes that in 2017, the organization created an endowment fund with the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba. “At the time, we transferred more than half of our assets to the JFM,” he says.  “We continue to make contributions to our fund.”
 
He notes that the annual dinners came to an end with the 20230 Covid lockdowns.  The donor appreciation evenings were started in 2023. 
“One of our goals is to acquire one or two more houses in the south end,” Tax adds.
 
Readers who may be interested in attending the donor appreciation evening or otherwise supporting SRFI can contact the office at 204 582-7064 or via email (admin@shalomresidences.com).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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By GERRY POSNER As we pass down the corridor of life, there are certainly times we can identify as moments we will never forget. I had such a moment on April 11 at my second Bar Mitzvah, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, shared with Dr. Ted Lyons, or E. A. as I called him over the years. We were celebrating this life cycle event at the very same synagogue as the first one, that is – the Shaarey Zede. For me, it was some 70 years ago or 25,557 days – from April 21, 1956 to April 11, 2026. The notion of returning to the original place of Bar Mitzvah 1.0 was too powerful a force, causing me to abandon my plan to do this in Toronto where my wife, Sherna and I have lived for the last 13 plus years.

It was quite the weekend. We started just before Erev Shabbat with photos of our two families on the bimah. Ted had his whole family there, including his daughter Mara, her husband Sheldon, and their two daughters, as well as his son Sami, his wife Rose, and their three kids, all of whom live In Calgary, not to forget his sister Ellen and her husband Howard Goldstein, from Toronto. Our three kids: Ari, Rami and Amira, all of whom live in Toronto, along with two of my grandchildren, as well as my brother Michael from Toronto were also present.

After the Shabbat service, we stayed on in the building for our Shabbat dinner. There were 23 of us, including Michael’s partner, Ruth Grubert, (formerly Mozersky), also a former Winnipegger, as well as Rabbi Mass,his son Ranan, Rabbi Carnie Rose and his wife Pauline. It was a warm group and the dinner was gobbled up and appreciated by all of us. We were all surprised when independently, the respective grandchildren of the Bar Mitzvah “bochers” presented both of us with a kind of tribute – funny and sincere in their affection for their Zaidas.

Then came the big day. It lived up to and even exceeded my expectations. It was a sell-out crowd. I was overwhelmed just at that fact. The only thing missing from the building was the electronic ark. The respective families all participated with aliyahs and indeed Torah readings by Sami Lyons and the 83-year-old Bar Mitzvah boy Ted Lyons. Now, “leyning” from the Torah was not something Ted had done at the first go-round 70 years ago. (In fact, almost all of us were deficient in that area).
One particular moment during the service was especially meaningful for Sherna and me. In the first part of the service, there is a prayer called “Mi Chamocha.” My son Ari had written music for that prayer several years ago and now he was at Shaarey Zedek, where he had his Bar Mitzvah long ago. This time though the clergy had arranged to use his music and to sing his melody. (It had been used many times previously, but without Ari. ) Not only that, he was invited to play his composition at the service as Cantor Leslie Emery sang it. Those few moments – as we watched and listened, at this – my second Bar Mitzvah, at a place where my parents had been members for years and whose names are on the memorial plaque in the chapel, well, that was powerful, to put it mildly.

Ted and his family had various honours as did my family. I was given the Haftorah to chant. Now, I have few talents, but I can chant a Haftroah (not the most marketable skill), so that was not that much of an obstacle for me. In fact, I rather enjoyed doing this part of the service. Rabbi Rose had also given me permission to deliver a D’var Torah on the portion of the week, “Shemini”, and to discuss the meaning of this, my second Bar Mitzvah. Once I had the mic and the stage, I was ready to go in spite of my wife’s protestations that it was too long. And, in fact, as I rolled along into my Haftorah, after about 10 minutes, my parter in the double Bar, Ted, came up from behind me where he was sitting, and nudged me gently, or to put it more accurately, gave me the hook, announcing that it was time to wrap up. It was kind of comical, in fact. I got a large charge from that sudden intervention. To top it off, as I had been speaking, I noticed a congregant on my left near the front who had apparently passed out. It was alarming to me at first, but the medics came and were able to revive this person. I was told later that other first words out of the mouth were “Has he finally finished?”

We concluded the day with a rather large kiddish luncheon highlighted at least for me by traditional party sandwiches, which were a staple of the kiddishes of my youth. I met with so many people of my past, which was a treat and a half for me. I was so into the moment that It was hard to get me out of the building.

As I reflect on the day and the service, I recognized that for all of us, we have times in our lives, whether it be an hour, a day or a week, that we will never forget. This day was for me one such moment. It is etched in my memory to be relived through the Youtube video now in my possession. The gift that keeps on giving, I say.
My first Bar Mitzvah was good, for sure. This one was far better. I knew what I was doing.

Post script (After Gerry had sent us his story, he sent us something else that he said should have been included in the story): True, Ted and I had the Bar Mitzvah no 2. But we only had it because there was one person who did the real work and yet received no credit. She made all the arrangements with the synagogue for both the Friday night Shabbat dinner and the kiddish lunch after the service. She dealt with various people in the synagogue and basically took charge of our simcha. I speak, of course, of Harriet Lyons. That I failed to mention her was due to my excess focus on the eating of the party sandwiches and not enough on the reason we had them in the first place. Harriet teaches the weaving of tallits, but she stands tall in the arranging of Bar Mitzvahs.

By MYRON LOVE Dr. Howard and Lottie Marcus were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who made their way in the 1930s to New York, met and married there, and lived a relatively quiet middle class life.  After their passing in 2014 and 2016 respectively, it was revealed that they gave the majority of their estate to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).  Their wealth, it turned out, came from having early investors in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fund in the early 1960s.
On Thursday, April 14, 85 supporters of the local chapter of Ben-Gurion Canada  (BGU Canada) gathered at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue for the Canadian premiere of “Who Are the Marcuses?”, a relatively new documentary by Israeli filmmaker Matthew Mishory. The film tells Howard and Lottie’s story and also provides an overview of the important research underway in numerous disciplines at BGU.

The evening began with greetings from Rabbi Carnie Rose,  Shaarey Zedek’s senior rabbi, who noted Winnipeg’s twin city agreement with Beersheva – which is home to BGU, and Elaine Goldstine, the new president of the Winnipeg chapter.
In introducing the documentary, Andrea Freedman, BGU Canada’s CEO, pointed out that the Marcus bequest  was the largest donation to an Israeli university or institution in the history of the Jewish state.
The first part of the 100-mimute film told Howard and Lottie Marcus’ story. Howard Marcus was practicing dentistry in Germany when the Nazis seized power.  He quickly understood what this meant for the Jews and relocated to Italy.  Later in the decade, an American consul who was one of his patients, helped him get to New York City.
Lottie also managed to leave Germany in the 1930s and make her home in New York.  She was working as a secretary when they met in the early 1940s.
Most of their extended family members were murdered in the Holocaust.
The Marcuses were married for 65 years prior to Howard’s passing in 2014 at the age of 104.

The Marcuses first became involved with BGU in the mid 2000s.  The university was a major component of the long-held vision of David Ben-Gurion that Israel’s long term future depended on developing the Negev – the then sparsely settled southern desert region comprising 60% of the country’s land mass. 
BGU is a world leader in research and the development of new technologies in fields such as cybersecurity, medicine, big data, water, space, and the public sector. With 20,000 students, BGU not only drives regional economic development, it is a model of coexistence with an 18% Bedouin/Arab student population.
 
Ellen Marcus, Lottie and Harold’s daughter was instrumental in encouraging her parents to donate their estate to BGU,  particularly because of its work in desalination and advanced irrigation systems in desert environments. They believed that solving the region’s problem of water scarcity would be an important step toward a lasting peace – and BGU is a global leader in desert agriculture and water security.
An example of BGU’s work in the area of water research is the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at the university, which studies sustainable water usage and desalination, among other important research areas.
Lottie and Howard made their only visit to Israel in 2005, when they spent some time at BGU seeing for themselves some of the work taking place there.

The bulk of the documentary offered overviews of BGU’s areas of expertise, along with comments from Warren Buffett, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, BGU President Daniel Chamovitz, a host of BGU professors and researchers and other relevant interviewees speaking about Howard and Lottie’s generous gift.
In a question and answer session with Andrea Freedman and Ellen Marcus, the latter recounted how she first learned about the extent of her parent’s wealth in the early 2000s when the family began planning the details about their estate. Her parents, she noted, originally were going to leave all of their wealth to Ellen.
“I asked my parents to leave me enough so that I and my daughter would never be hungry or homeless, and to give the rest to charities,” she noted. “We suggested to my parents that that they should leave the bulk of their estate to BGU,” she said, “and decided to accept my suggestion “
Howard and Lottie’s donation to BGU represented almost the entirety of their estate. Consistent with the manner in which they lived their lives, they viewed what they had earned as something modest to hold on to, until the time was right to give back to the Jewish homeland and its people.
In an interview with the Florida Jewish Journal a couple of years ago, Ellen Marcus reported that, in 2005, when the Marcuses first made the decision to gift their estate to the university, they made a down payment of $20 million leading to the renaming of the main campus in Be’er Sheva (there are satellite campuses in Eilat and Sde Boker – David Ben Gurion’s home kibbutz) as the Marcus Family Campus.
“My parents, my daughter and I went to BGU for the dedication of the campus name in March 2005.  The following year, I was asked to join the BGU Board of Governors and, in 2006, I was asked to join the Board of Trustees of the American Associates, BGU (renamed Americans for BGU a few years ago).”
Ellen Marcus has been involved with BGU ever since and is currently a vice-chair of the Board of Governors. She also chairs the Marcus Endowment Advisory Committee  – which she created in 2016 when the endowment distributions began, in order to do whatever she could to ensure that her parents’ gift is wisely used.
“I have gained so much from my own association with BGU,” Ellen concluded.  “As a child of Holocaust survivors, I carry on their trauma.  I firmly believe that, for the Jewish people, Israel is the safest place on Earth.  I believe that we should all support Israel and give what we can.”