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
Shalom Residences Foundation to host third annual donor appreciation evening
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.
Dr. Allen Kraut has organized the donor appreciation night while the entertainment for the evening will be organized by Karla Berbrayer.
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. Jim Gauthier was also among the original group of Zivey Chudnow’s friends who organized the first lottery dinner in 1982 to raise funds for the Shalom Residences with the view of establishing a foundation to sustain the homes long term.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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Local News
Debbie Maslowsky playing lead role in upcoming Dry Cold Productions musical
By MYRON LOVE For the past 40 years Debbie Maslowsky has been entertaining Winnipeg audiences – both Jewish and non-Jewish, with her acting and singing. Arguably Winnipeg’s queen of musical theatre is returning to the stage on May 13 in a lead role in Dry Cold Productions’ upcoming “Kimberly Akimbo”.
Maslowsky is enthusiastic about the Tony-winning production, which debuted on Broadway in November 2022. “It’s a gem of a musical,” she says of the production crafted by the musical team of composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire.
The subject itself is not – on the surface – uplifting. As Maslowsky describes it, “Kimberly Akimbo” is the story of a teenager suffering from a very rare condition – progeria – also known as the aging disease. The genetic condition causes children to age at an accelerated rate causing them to die of old age while still in their teens. For those readers who may recall Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book, “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People” – written years ago, Kushner was responding to the death of his own son from progeria.
In the hands of Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire though, Maslowsky notes, the show is about mindfulness and living day by day. In the production, Maslowsky explains, “Kimberly is trying to live as normal a life as she can despite her illness. Her life is further complicated by a dysfunctional family. Her parents are dealing with their own issues. Then there is the madcap aunt who develops a complicated and hilarious plan to make money for a family road trip, raise funds for choir costumes – with some left over for herself.
“The play is very funny,” Maslowsky comments, “but also poignant. Kimberly knows that she most likely won’t live much beyond 16. Therefore, she wants to live every day to the fullest. She wants to live every day in the now. At the same time, she doesn’t want to hide from reality. She doesn’t want special treatment. She also doesn’t want people – such as her parents – trying to pretend that everything will be okay.”
Maslowsky last appeared on stage in Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s one-woman production of “A Pickle” in the spring of 2023. That was the true story of a Jewish pickle maker living in Minnesota who had to fight to get her pickles included in the state fair pickle competition, which tried to disqualify her because her pickles were made the Jewish way through a brining process that the non-Jewish judges refused to accept.
In the interim, Maslowsky has been focusing on her longstanding business as a trade show, conference and event manage,r as well as picking up some singing gigs. She reports that she began winding down her business last fall.
She speaks highly of her younger cast mates. “They are an amazing group of young people,” she says. “For some of them, this is their first show. I myself am still learning new things after all these years.”
Maslowsky will next be appearing in the joint Winnipeg Jewish Theatre-Rainbow Stage production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in September. “I played one of the daughters years ago in an earlier Fiddler production,” she recalls. “I feel like I am coming full circle.”
Dry Cold Productions was founded by Donna Fletcher and Reid Harrison (now retired) more than 25 years ago. The company stages a yearly musical theatre production – sometimes edgy – which has played on Broadway and is new to Winnipeg audiences.
The Dry Cold website cautions that “Kimberly Akimbo” contains “strong language (with frequent profanity), mature humour, and references to sexual activity”.
“Kimberly Akimbo” is scheduled to run May 13–17, 2026 at the Prairie Theatre Exchange. Tickets can be purchased by contacting Dry Cold productions online.
Local News
The second Bar Mitzvah: Better than the first
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.