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Four members of Jewish community appointed as Queens’s Counsel by Manitoba Government

4 new Queen’s Counsel appointees
clockwise from top left:
Brenlee Carrington Trepel,
Jonathan Kroft, Leilani Kagan,
Richard Buchwald

Honorary Title Recognizes Exceptional Merit in Law Profession: Goertzen (January 25, 2022)  The Manitoba government has appointed 11 Manitoba lawyers as Queen’s counsel to recognize their extraordinary contributions to the practise of law, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced today. Among the 11 appointees are four members of the Jewish community:

Jonathan Kroft – Kroft is counsel to MLT Aikins LLP and was called to the Manitoba bar in 1984. He has practises in the areas of commercial litigation, administrative and public law, arbitration, alternative dispute resolution and securities litigation. Prior legal positions include executive vice-president, risk management and chief legal officer at Wellington West Holdings Inc. where he dealt with commercial matters, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, employment issues and dispute, and risk management. Kroft has been involved with a number of community organizations including Simkin Centre personal care home, Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.

Richard D. Buchwald – Buchwald is a partner with Pitblado Law and was called to the Manitoba bar in 1994. He practises in the areas of civil and commercial litigation including estates professional regulation, debtor and creditor relations, agri-business, employment and commercial leasing. He is a trusted advisor to many clients in a wide variety of sectors. His professional activities include being a life bencher of the Law Society of Manitoba, a past member of the board of directors of the Canadian Bar Association and past-president of the Manitoba Bar Association. Buchwald currently serves on the board of directors of the Health Sciences Centre Foundation.

Leilani Kagan – Kagan is a partner at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP and was called to the Manitoba bar in 1999. Her practice focuses on tax, corporate reorganizations, trusts and estate planning, and business law. Her community involvement includes her activities as a director and past-president of the Dream Factory and director of Toba Centre for Children & Youth. She is also a member of the engagement committee of the Associates of the I.H. Asper School of Business and co-chair of the United Way’s major donor cabinet.

Brenlee Carrington Trepel – Carrington Trepel is a recently retired self-employed lawyer and sole practitioner who was called to the Manitoba bar in 1999. She was recently the chairperson for the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and was the first equity ombudsperson for the Law Society of Manitoba. Carrington Trepel has journalism experience and is currently a freelance book reviewer with the Winnipeg Free Press. She has published more than 70 articles on human rights, discrimination, harassment and respectful workplace issues for the Law Society and the Manitoba Bar Association’s newsletter. Her community involvement includes being a member of the Black and White Ball committee of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, a member of the president’s advisory council of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and a volunteer with the University of Manitoba Biomedical Research Ethics Board.

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Winnipeg Jewish Theatre to open season with world premiere of “Pals”

Richard Greenblatt and Diane Flacks in rehearsal for "Pals"

By BERNIE BELLAN The opening show of Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s 2023-24 season promises to be a clever and poignant take on relationships between men and women, when “Pals” makes its world premiere on November 9 in the Berney Theatre, running until November 19.
“Pals” is the third two-person show created by the team of Diane Flacks and Richard Greenblatt. Interestingly, when I spoke with Flacks and Greenblatt while they took a break from rehearsing the play in Toronto, they told me that their previous two two-person plays also had one word titles – with four letters in both: “Sibs” and “Care.”
“Pals” is the story of two friends, told over a 25-year time period. Their friendship survives many tribulations, including both characters entering and exiting many other relationships. The play uncovers the underlying tensions that permeate all friendships.
“Pals” opens with the two characters meeting for the first time. I asked Diane and Richard whether the notion of their having sex ever enters into the plot, but Richard was quick to exclaim, “We don’t have sex.”
Diane also noted that, in the case of her character, she is married to another woman. (Diane is a lesbian in real life.)
The fact that the characters maintain a friendship though becomes a source of friction within their respective relationships. It raises the question: Can you have an intimate, albeit platonic, relationship, with a member of the opposite sex all the while you’re in a physical relationship with someone else?
I asked whether the characters in “Pals” are Jewish (which both Diane and Richard are), and the answer was “yes.”
Both Diane and Richard have had past associations with the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre. Richard’s goes back a very long time – when he directed the critically acclaimed “League of Nathans” in 1995.
Diane Flacks appeared in a one-night performance of a show in 2021 called “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother,” which was a part of that year’s Tarbut festival. There were no in-person events that year, due to Covid, but “Jewish Mother” was available on Zoom and had a huge audience.
In addition to writing for the stage, Diane Flacks has written for TV, including Working the Engels, Baroness Von Sketch Show, Young Drunk Punk, PR, and The Broad Side.
Richard Greenblatt has performed in theatres across Canada and abroad, as well as in feature films, television and radio. He co-wrote 2 Pianos 4 Hands, which played on five continents and in over 150 cities since it opened in 1996.
Pals is directed by the internationally acclaimed director Jillian Keiley. More information, tickets and 5-show subscriptions can be found at: www.wjt.ca. You can also reach WJT by phone at (204) 477-7478.

To watch a preview video from Pals, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W0VmHHFbA

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Simkin Centre introduces Friday afternoon Shabbat services – open to all

By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted Oct. 31) The Simkin Centre held its first ever Friday afternoon Erev Shabbat service this past Friday (Oct. 27), led by Rabbi Matthew Leibl.

There were more than 30 residents in attendance, along with various other outside guests. The service was approximately 45 minutes long and was filled with stories and songs associated with Friday evening Shabbats – some from Rabbi Leibl’s own childhood and some from more recent years.

The Friday afternoon Erev Shabbat services are now to become a regular features at the Simkin Centre and are open to anyone to attend.

To watch a short clip of Rabbi Leibl introducing his first Friday afternoon service click https://youtu.be/hLSrV18K58o

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The complete text of MP Marty Morantz’s speech at the community vigil for Israel on October 10

Marty Morantz at the community vigil for Israel October 10

Tonight we are all Israelis!
Conservatives stand with Israel.
Pierre Poilievre stands with Israel.
On Saturday we woke up to unspeakable images.
We must stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel as it defends itself from these criminal and barbarous acts.
On Shabbat, Hamas brutally invaded Israel, invaded homes, killing hundreds, taking hostage hundreds.
More Jews were killed in Saturday’s attack than in any single day since the Holocaust.
Some 1500 human beings killed in a single day would be like 6000 Canadians being murdered in a single attack.
They were children, babies, men, women.
They were young people just out listening to music at a dance party.
This was an unprecedented brutal attack.
As we speak Hamas is threatening to execute innocent hostages.
This outrage cannot, must not stand.
Don’t let anyone tell you Hamas is the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people. It is not a government.
They are a genocidal murderous and evil death cult and they must be defeated.
But friends, we have seen evil before.
Jews have been persecuted for millennia, but we have survived.
Conservatives unequivocally condemn the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists and the sadistic violence that Hamas has carried out against innocent civilians.
Now is the time for moral clarity. There is no moral equivalency between democratic Israel and the butchers of Hamas.
There is no response, no matter how strong, that would be disproportionate to the crimes Hamas has committed.
Israel has the right to defend itself against these attacks and respond against the attackers – as any other country would.
Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, said, “If you will it, it is no dream.”
In 1948 that dream became a reality – a homeland in Israel, the promised land.
Working together Israelis turned a desert into an oasis.
An island of democracy surrounded by a sea of autocracy.
A Jewish state where Jews could live in peace free from fear and persecution.
Let there be no doubt. Israel is the ancient and indigenous homeland of the Jewish people.
We will not let the butchers of Hamas take that dream, long realized, away from us.
Many politicians will stand with Israel when it is easy.
But listen to what they say when it is hard.
They will talk about “both sides.”
I’m here to tell you that there is only one side.
The side of morality.
The side of democracy.
The side of Israel.
We see too often politicians at the United Nations unfairly singling out Israel for criticism.
I will always stand against the unfair singling out of the Middle East’s only democracy.
Already there are calls for Israel to deescalate.
I ask you.
Would any country deescalate after having its people slaughtered in cold blood?
I wish the people of Israel and its brave soldiers Godspeed on their mission to defend the promised land from pure evil.
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper said:
Through fire and water Canada will stand with you.
Am Yisrael Chai!

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