Local News
Former Jewish Child and Family Service client is new JCFS president
By MYRON LOVE When Elena and Konstantin Grinshteyn arrived in Winnipeg in 2006 with their one-year-old daughter, they were warmly welcomed at the airport by a settlement worker from Jewish Child and Family Service, who assisted them in settling in. This past June, at the JCFS’s Annual General Meeting, Elena was appointed the new president of the JCFS board.
“I have experienced first-hand the good work that the JCFS does in our community,” says the Red River College Polytech Senior Development Officer (responsible for student awards, and special initiatives), who joined the JCFS board in 2017.
Since Elena and her family settled in Winnipeg as a young couple with their one-year-old daughter, they have maintained a strong connection to the community by actively volunteering for the Grow Winnipeg program with the Jewish Federation, and later with JCFS. In their new country, Elena pursued a career in fundraising, working for the United Way of Winnipeg and Friends of Ralph Connor House before joining Red River College Polytechnic.
“The opportunity to work with visionary people who are shaping the community and creating a brighter future for the city is what makes being a Winnipegger special,” she says. Elena also sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP).
Elena’s vision for the next two years at JCFS is to help move JCFS forward, ensuring the organization reaches as many clients as possible and continues to grow. As an immigrant to Canada, she feels a profound commitment to maintaining a strong connection with new immigrant families and raising awareness about all the services JCFS offers.
On Thursday, July 11, independently of her new role as JCFS Board President, Elena spoke to a small gathering of Christian friends of Israel – which was organized by Pastor Rudy Fidel of Faith Temple and his wife and partner, Gina. The reason for Elena’s presentation was twofold – to speak of her experiences being in Israel on October 7 – when she was not far from the epicentre of the Hamas attacks. As well, Al Benarroch, JCFS Executive Director, was invited to raise awareness with the group about JCFS’s support services for Holocaust survivors. During his presentation Benarroch noted that there was an unexpected shortfall in year’s funding for the program this year.
Grinshteyn began her talk with some biographical information. The daughter of a Ukrainian father and Jewish mother living in the now embattled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the family decided to make aliyah in 1991, when Grinshteyn was 13. The family settled in Ashkelon in southern Israel.
Grinshteyn did her two years of service in the IDF, after which she earned a degree in Economics and Computer Science from Bar Ilan University.
“Israel is a multifaceted country – you hear many different languages on the street – and where people are generally happy despite the constant threat of terrorism and war,” she observed.
It was acts of terrorism – in particular, the bombing of the Dolphinarium Discotheque in Tel Aviv on June 1, 2001, that persuaded Elena and Konstantin to leave Israel. “It was a hard decision,” Elena recalls, “but we wanted to offer our kids a home where they would be safe.” The couple has two daughters – 19 and 13 years old.”
At the beginning of October, the Grinshteyn family returned to Israel to spend Sukkot with their extended family. “We enjoyed an amazing six days,” she told her audience. “We were surrounded by our loving family in Ashdod and Ashkelon.”
“Then, in the early hours of October 7, we heard rockets and the sirens going off ,“ she recounts. “Fortunately, my mother-in-law had a bomb shelter in her apartment building. Although everyone said we would be okay, the sounds of the rockets were terrifying.”
“By 9:00 A.M., we realized that a full-scale invasion was taking place.”
“By 10:30 am, over 2,000 missiles had already been fired into southern Israel.”
She proceeded to show slides of some of the destruction in Ashdod.
Elena and Konstantin immediately began trying to make plans to return home to Canada, but most flights were cancelled. They were able to get a flight to Greece on October 11 and were able to finally return to Canada five days later.
As was noted, the second part of the evening’s presentation for Christian friends of Israe saw Al Benarroch, JCFS’s Executive Director, speaking about the needs of local Holocaust survivors and the reductions in funding for the program at JCFS that supports them.
“This year, we are facing a $40,000 deficit,” he reported. Pastor Rudy Fidel and his congregants have pledged their own efforts to help raise money toward making up that deficit.
After WWII, Benarroch explained, the German government slowly accepted responsibility for what the Nazi Regime unleashed on the Jewish people and entered into negotiations to pay financial compensation to survivors. The negotiations (which continue to this day) and funding channels through the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (also known as the “Claims Conference”), a nonprofit organization with offices in New York, Israel, and Germany. Over the decades, Germany has paid out many billions of dollars to help Holocaust survivors all over the world.
“The problem here,” Benarroch pointed out, “ is that the number of Holocaust survivors in Winnipeg served by JCFS now stands at 91 (an estimated 20-25 additional survivors have not sought services from JCFS). We have assisted as many as 160 over the years. (Some 1,050 or so survivors originally settled in Winnipeg after the war). JCFS assists them with filling out the various forms for reparations, which can be an emotionally daunting task for survivors. We also assist with emergency financial assistance for those most in need, and private homecare services to top up the few hours that the public healthcare system may provide. Funding from the Claims Conference covers all of this, including funds to employ two social workers to work with the survivors. Until recently, negotiations with the German government allowed for funding in a ratio of one social worker for every 50 Holocaust survivor clients. As a result of negotiations, and to establish more consistency worldwide, this ratio has now been changed to one worker for every 70 clients.
“JCFS currently receives and spends almost $900,000 a year total for the services to Holocaust survivors in our community”, Benarroch reported. “The funds allocated to financial assistance and homecare remain the same. However, the funds to cover the salaries of those 2 social workers at the new ratio of 1:70 cases is resulting in a deficit of $40,000.
“On principle, JCFS will not reduce the amount of social work time devoted to Holocaust survivors,” said Benarroch. “They deserve so much more than we already give them, and we will find a way to keep funding those positions.”
He singled out special praise for JCFS social worker, Adeena Lungen, herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors, who has been working with the survivor community for the past 20 years.
“Adeena’s dedication is remarkable. She is so committed and, as an example, she makes every effort to attend the funeral of any local Holocaust survivor who passes away,” Benarroch added. “It is estimated that in another 10-12 years, the last remaining Holocaust survivor in the world will pass away. What then will be their legacy?”
Referring to Elena Grinshteyn’s account of terrorism in Israel, Benarroch recounted his own parents’ narrow escape once – in Jerusalem. In the 1990s, Shlomo and Mary Benarroch were visiting in Jerusalem. They were shopping for a tallis – the kind with the rainbow stripes, for a younger Al Benarroch – before doing their Friday afternoon pre-Shabbat shopping at the nearby Machane Yehuda Market. They were delayed in that particular Judaica store and ,while waiting, a double suicide bombing occurred in the market.
“It was a miracle,” Benarroch said to the church group. “There is no other way to explain it. Israel is a special place. It is a land where miracles happen every day, and our very survival itself is a miracle. It is through the grace of God that Israel will continue to overcome hardships and survive.”
Local News
Who is Rabbi Ephraim Bryks and how did his time in Winnipeg prove so convulsive?
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted December 30) Thirty-five years after Rabbi Ephraim Bryks left this city his name is now back in the news as the result of a new lawsuit that names Rabbi Bryks, the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation – for which Bryks served as rabbi for 12 years, and two rabbinical organizations as defendants. You can read more about that lawsuit and what it alleges elsewhere on this website at “lawsuit filed.“
But, aside from questions about why this lawsuit was filed now – some 38 years after the acts for which Bryks is accused of having committed against the plaintiff, there are still so many unanswered questions about Rabbi Bryks’ time in Winnipeg.
In his seminal history of the Jewish people of Manitoba, Allan Levine wrote: “The biggest controversy in the Herzlia’s history – in fact, arguably the most controversial matter in the annals of the Winnipeg Jewish community – involved Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, the synagogue’s rabbi from 1978 to 1990. Bryks arrived in Winnipeg in 1978 at the age of twenty-four, with his wife Yochevaed…”
Levine noted that “Under Bryks’ leadership, the synagogue’s membership increased. He established new programs for youth and immersed himself in the Jewish community. He also initiated Torah Academy, an Orthodox elementary school that operated out of Herzlia and soon had a sizable (sic.) enrollment (sic.).” (Gee Allan, didn’t anyone check your book for spelling mistakes?)
Levine’s story about Bryks goes on to note that controversy first began to circulate openly around Bryks in 1985 in the pages of what our paper was then called, which was the Jewish Post. (We didn’t become The Jewish Post & News until 1987, which was when we took over what had been The Western Jewish News.)
Bryks had been writing a weekly Torah commentary in our paper until three rabbis – Rabbis Rappaport, Weizman, and Neil Rose, sent a letter to the editor (who was my late brother, Matt, at the time) accusing Bryks of having plagiarized several of his columns from a book by Rabbi Reuven Bulka. Matt investigated and discovered that Bryks had indeed plagiarized at least two columns from Bulka’s book. When Matt reported what he had found, Bryks stopped writing his column for us.
“Far worse was yet to come,” Levine’s section about Bryks continues. “In 1987, several parents of young (male and female) children attending Torah Academy alleged that Bryks had sexually abused their children. The Herzlia board properly investigated the matter and heard evidence. According to a CBC-TV documentary on the case, the parents and their children were accused of being liars.”
Levine goes on to note that Winnipeg South Child and Family Services were asked to investigate the matter by the synagogue board, but the agency concluded that “Bryks’ behaviour of having children sit on his lap while he tickled them was ‘neither appropriate nor professional’, but not illegal. That might have been the end of it, but another allegation was made, this time to the Winnipeg Police by parents of an eight-year-old boy who claimed Bryks had fondled him. The police consulted a Crown lawyer, who decided not to pursue it since it came down to the child’s word against that of a rabbi.
“The case tore the Herzlia congregation apart, and some members left the synagogue,” Levine writes.
In 1990, Bryks left Winnipeg for Montreal, where he had been hired to head a Jewish school until parents there learned of the allegations against him in Winnipeg and the offer of employment was rescinded.
Subsequently, Bryks moved to New York, where he founded another private religious school in Queens – this time for children of Russian immigrants.
In 2003, however, Bryks resigned his membership in the Rabbinical Council of America. According to a report on “Newsday,” Bryks had “been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse against at least one Winnipeg child for more than 15 years.” He had headed two different yeshivas in New York, but no longer did so.
That Winnipeg child’s name was Daniel Levin. He was the son of Martin and Sarah Levin. (Martin Levin had been editor of the Jewish Post until 1983. He later became the books editor of the Toronto Globe & Mail.)
In Allan Levine’s account of what happened, “Daniel Levin had attended Torah Academy from kindergarten to Grade 2. …A troubled teenager, Daniel alleged that Bryks had molested him. According to Sarah Levin, Bryks had given Daniel candy to keep him quiet and told him that God would punish him if he ever told anyone what had transpired. The threat of retribution was echoed by other children who came forward. Daniel (who, by 1993, was living in Toronto) gave a taped statement to the Toronto Police, who inexplicably botched the taping and requested he repeat his statement. He never did. On Yom Kippur, 1993, Daniel, seventeen years old, committed suicide.”
In 1994, the CBC aired a documentary about the Bryks controversy titled “Unorthodox Conduct.” Myron Love wrote a detailed report about the airing of that documentary and the subsequent reaction to it from members of the Herzlia. You can read Myron’s full article on our website simply by entering the name “Rabbi Bryks” in our Search Archive portal. The first two articles to appear will be the first and second pages of Myron’s comprehensive report.
According to information online Rabbi Bryks now works as a mortgage broker in New York. For a time, he was also a self-styled marriage counsellor, providing services to women seeking religious divorces.
In 2018, we spoke with a woman in New York who told us that, 18 or 19 years prior, she had contacted Rabbi Bryks to try to help her get a “get” (religious divorce) from an uncooperative husband. That woman claimed that Rabbi Bryks showed up at her apartment and tried to take advantage of her under the guise of offering to help her obtain a “get” from her husband. As the woman continued her story, she said Rabbi Bryks had forced himself upon her to the point where he pushed her on to her bed and lay on top of her. She was eventually able to break free and demanded he leave her apartment.
There are many other references to Bryks on the internet. The recently filed lawsuit only adds to what is already one of the most controversial stories about a rabbi you’re ever likely to read.
Local News
Former Winnipegger files lawsuit against Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation, former Herzlia Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, and two other defendants over allegations of sexual abuse and assault by Rabbi Bryks in 1987
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted December 29, 2025) A former Winnipegger by the name of Ruth Krevsky (née Pinsky) has filed a lawsuit in Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg on December 9, 2025 naming “Ephraim Boruk Bryks, Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregtion Inc., Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and Rabbinical Council of America” as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks damages in the total amount of $4,200,000.
In the 30-page statement of claim Krevsky alleges that “In or around 1984, when the Plaintiff was approximately 19 years of age, Bryks sexually abused and assaulted the Plaintiff. The particulars of same include, but not (sic.) are not limited to the following:
” (a) initiated and engaged in physical contact of a sexual nature with the Plaintiff in his bedroom;
” (b) strapped the buttocks of the Plaintiff;
” (c) engaged in other sexual activities with the Plaintiff; and
” (d) in order to facilitate the abuse Bryks engaged in a pattern of behaviour which was intended to make the Plaintiff feel that she was special in the eyes of Bryks and Judaism.
“The abuse occurred in Bryks’ house located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.”
The lawsuit goes on to allege that “After the aforementioned abuse occurred, Bryks exploited his position of seniority and the trust he had cultivated with the Plaintiff to manipulate and control He used this dependency to discourage the Plaintiff from disclosing his actions, including by threatening her and by withholding reference letters essential for her academic and professional advancement.”
The lawsuit further alleges that “In or around 1987, while employed by the Congregation, Bryks was accused by (sic.) of several sexual offences involving young girls and women, including students at the School. (Ed. note, the reference is to Torah Academy, which Bryks started.) Although no criminal charges were filed at the time, the allegations were brought to the attention of the Congregation, the Union (of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America) and/or the Council (Rabbinical Council of America). Since then. additional individuals have come forward with similar allegations of sexual abuse by Bryks.”
The lawsuit also names the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregtion Inc., as defendant, citing ten different rules that “the Congregation taught the Plaintiff as well as other members of the Synagogue, including
“that it was forbidden to report a Jewish religious figure such as a rabbi to secular authorities and that any such reporting would constitute a serious violation of religious duty and loyalty to Judaism.”
Further, “The Plaintiff pleads that the aforementioned rules, principles and ideologies of the Congregation created an opportunity for Bryks to exert power and authority over the Plaintiff. The power and authority allowed Bryks to engage in the aforementioned behaviour and to continue to engage in same without resistance or question of the Plaintiff, without risk of getting caught, and thereby put the Plaintiff at risk of being abused by Bryks…
“As a result, the Congregation is vicariously responsible and liable for the actions of Bryks.”
The lawsuit goes on to list a series of behaviours in which it alleges Bryks was engaging and alleges the Congregation ignored many aspects of Bryks’ behaviour, including, among others: “Bryks’ difficulties with alcohol” and “Bryks’ difficulties with his sexuality.”
The lawsuit lists a long series of damages the Plaintiff alleges she has suffered as a result of Bryks’ behaviour and the refusal of the other defendants, including the Herzlia Congregation, to take any action against Bryks.
It should be made clear that, at this point, the allegations are unproven and are yet to be defended against and yet to be tested in the courts of Manitoba.
We have reached out to Ruth Krevsky, her counsel, counsel for the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation, and the president of the congregation for comment. To date, we have not heard from either Ms. Krevsky or her counsel. We did hear from the president of the congregation, who asked us to refer any questions to counsel for the congregation. We did speak with counsel for the congregation, but at this point he indicated that he had just been recently hired to represent the congregation and was just beginning to acquaint himself with the file.
The Rabbi Bryks story was one that tore the Winnipeg Jewish community asunder. The Jewish Post had a number of stories about the allegations that were levelled against Rabbi Bryks. (You can find those stories by going to our “Search Archive” link and entering the name “Rabbi Bryks.”)
We will have much more about Rabbi Bryks in the days to come. Keep referring to this website as we add to the story.
Local News
Newly announced Vivian Silver Centre for Shared Society to further former Winnipegger’s lifelong efforts to foster Jewish-Arab co-operation in Israel
By MYRON LOVE Vivian Silver (oleh Hashalom) devoted her life to working toward dialogue and collaboration between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The culmination of her efforts was the Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation – Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development (AJEEC-NISPED), which she co-founded 25 year ago with her sister peace activist, Dr. Amal Elsana Ahl’jooj.
Tragically, Vivian was of the 1,200 Israeli Jews, Bedouin and foreign farm workers who were slaughtered during the Hamas-led pogrom of October 7, 2023.
Last month, AJEEC-NISPED announced plans to create the Vivian Silver Center for Shared Society in her memory – a new national hub for Jewish-Israeli Arab collaboration and social innovation in Be’er Sheva – backed by an initial $1 million donation from UJA-Federation of New York, along with support from the Meyerhoff Foundation, the Gilbert Foundation, and other philanthropic partners committed to strengthening shared society in Israel.
“It’s a great honor and a beautiful gesture,” comments Vivian’s son, Yonatan Zeigen, “and I hope it will be a central building for civil society, both in the physical sense, that it will become a substantial home for the organization and for other initiatives that will use the spaced and also symbolically, as a beacon for this kind of work in the specific location in the Negev.”
As this writer noted n an article earlier this year in relation to the announcement of the launch of the Vivian Silver Impact Award by the New Israel Fund (NIF) – of which she was a long time board member, and which was developed in conjunction with her sons, Yonatan and Chen), Vivian made aliyah in 1974. She first went to Israel in 1968 – to spend her second year at university abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying psychology and English literature.
In an article she wrote in 2018 in a publication called ”Women Wage Peace,” she related that during her final year at the University of Manitoba, she was among the founders of the Student Zionist Alliance on campus and was invited to its national conference in Montreal. There she met activists in the Habonim youth movement who planned on making aliyah and re-establishing Kibbutz Gezer. The day she wrote her last university exam, she boarded a flight to New York to join the group.
She spent three years in New York, where she became involved in Jewish and Zionist causes, including the launch of the Jewish feminist movement in America.
“It was a life-changing period,” she recalled. “I came to understood that in addition to being a kibbutz member, I was destined to be a social change and peace activist.”
Vivian and her group made aliyah in 1974 and settled on Kibbutz Gezer. In 1981, she established the Department Promoting Gender Equality in the Kibbutz Movement. She moved to Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border in 1990, along with her late husband, Lewis, and their two sons
In 1998, Vivian became the executive director of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development in Beer Sheva, an NGO promoting human sustainable development, shared society between Jews and Arabs, and peace in the Middle East. Soon after, she was joined by Amal Elsana Alh’jooj as co-directors of AJEEC-NISPED, winning the 2011 Victor J. Goldberg Peace Prize of the Institute for International Education.
In the article she wrote for “Women Waging Peace,” she noted that “while we later focused on empowerment projects in the Bedouin community in the Negev, initially we worked with Palestinian organizations on joint people-to-people projects. I spent much time in Gaza until the outbreak of the second intifada. We continued working with organizations in the West Bank. I personally know so many Palestinians who yearn for peace no less than we do.”
According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva, in the November 24th edition, the Vivian Silver Centre – which is expected to open in the spring – will be located within AJEEC-NISPED’s soon-to-open AJEEC House, and will provide a permanent home for programs that promote equality, leadership, and cooperation among Israel’s diverse communities.
“The Vivian Silver Center for Shared Society, within AJEEC’s headquarters, “the Arutz Sheva report noted, “will serve as a regional platform for dozens of Israeli Arab and Jewish social organizations. Through AJEEC’s educational, vocational, and leadership programs, the center will support thousands of young adults each year – offering mentorship, professional training, and opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration.
“These programs,” the report continued, “already reach more than 15,000 participants nationwide, helping young people integrate into higher education and meaningful employment while narrowing social and economic gaps.”
AJEEC House is located in Be’er Sheva’s Science Park, near Ben-Gurion University. The three-storey AJEEC House has been designed to foster cooperation and dialogue. It will host community partnerships, provide shared workspaces for social entrepreneurs, and serve as a hub for initiatives addressing social and economic development across the Negev and beyond.
Readers who may be interested considering a donation can dial into NISPED’s website – – for further information.