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Gray Academy grad Dylan Kagan first ever Gray Academy student to be given “McDonald’s Leadership Award”

Dylan Kagan

By BERNIE BELLAN
The McDonald’s Leadership Award is awarded to 16 students (eight boys and eight girls) annually who “demonstrate exceptional leadership in high school sport, school, and community involvement while also maintaining a minimum of 75% average.”
McDonald’s awards each recipient a $1,000 scholarship.

 

 

 

 

 

The Kagan family (l-r): JAMIE, TALIA, KORI, DYLAN

Not only did Dylan maintain a 93% grade point average in Grade 12, he excelled in two different sports throughout his high school years: basketball and Ultimate (a sport that has become especially popular among under-30s and which involves throwing and catching a frisbee on a team). As well, Dylan found time to create a program called Project 2020 when he was Bar Mitzvah’d whereby basketballs were donated to inner city youth. He has continued to preside over that program and, to date, over 600 basketballs have been donated.

The son of Kori (Brown) and Jamie Kagan, one might say that Dylan comes by his athletic prowess honestly, as his father Jamie has been the athletic director at Gray Academy for years.

But, in speaking first with Kori, then Jamie, and finally Dylan himself, I was surprised to learn that up until Grade 5 Dylan didn’t have much interest in sports at all. According to his father Jamie, Dylan was primarily interested in video games – until Jamie decided he was going to get Dylan involved in sports – whether he wanted to or not.
“I was playing video games all the time,” Dylan agrees.

It was in Grade 5 that Jamie put Dylan into a basketball program. At that point, Dylan says, “I found a passion for sports.”
“I basically forced him,” Jamie says. “Then,” he continues, “in Grade 6 Dylan made the Junior Bisons.” (The Junior Bisons are a club team that plays other clubs. Players are grouped according to age and play teams with players of the same age. Jamie explains that the Junior Bisons have traditionally had the strongest teams at any age level.)
“That (making the Junior Bisons) was kind of a turning point for me,” Dylan explains. “It’s when I began to take sports seriously.”

Because the Junior Bisons have traditionally had such strong teams at every age level, starting from a young age Dylan was fortunate to be able to travel in both Canada and the U.S. to participate in tournaments. He says he’s been “to Nebraska, Ohio, Minneapolis” and elsewhere in Canada as well over the years, playing basketball.

Dylan with his zaide, Larry Brown

Beginning in Grade 11 though, Dylan concentrated on playing basketball for Gray Academy alone.
According to Jamie, Gray Academy has long had a tradition of strong basketball teams. “Dylan was part of our three-time AAA champion provincial basketball team – which, without COVID, would have been four-time this year.”
As well, Dylan was a second-team high school all-star basketball player in the entire province in Grade 11 last year. “Not a lot of Grade 11’s get that honour,” Jamie points out.

“He’s a very smart player,” Jamie notes. At 6’ 2” Dylan might be considered tall, but among elite basketball players of his age, he would be considered average height. His position, Jamie said, was as a “small forward”.

While he still continued to play basketball – for both the Junior Bisons and Gray Academy, when he was in Grade 11 Dylan decided to concentrate more on Ultimate.

Dylan (in black) reaching for the frisbee in Ultimate

“Our Gray Academy Ultimate team is an extremely strong group,” Jamie observes. “They’ve always been in the top two or three in the province every year. They finished third in the Canadian high school national championship last year – second in the province. Dylan was a huge part of that.”

Starting in Grade 8, Dylan was playing on the provincial Ultimate team. “He was playing with kids in Grades 11 and 12,” Jamie observes.

“This year he made the under-20 national team” that would have gone on to represent Canada in Sweden in the world championship – which, “unfortunately was canceled,” Jamie adds.

I asked Dylan when he started to play Ultimate?
“It was in Grade 5,” he answers – “the same year I started to play basketball.”

I wondered whether he was tall as a kid – and whether maybe that gave him an edge that allowed him to excel at sports.
“I’ve always been decently average,” he suggests, “up until about Grade 9 or 10, when I had a real growth spurt.”

Outside of school, Dylan has been Athletic Council Chair at Gray Academy for the past couple of years, which is something that involved him in planning athletic activities and fundraisers.

When he was in Grades 7 and 8, Basketball Manitoba featured Dylan on its posters when it was raising money for inner city basketball programs. When he was Bar Mitzvah’d, Dylan had the idea to donate money from his Bar Mitzvah to purchase basketballs for inner city youth – and he’s been raising money for that cause every year since.
“He’s helped to raise money to donate over 600 basketballs,” Jamie says.

As well, Dylan started a tournament hosted at Gray Academy for students in Grades 6, 7, and 8, called the “Raider Rumbles Tournament”.
The fee for the tournament is one basketball from each player who participates. That’s one of the ways he’s been able to donate 600 basketballs.

“We host SJR (St. John’s Ravenscourt) every year; we host a team from Kenora,” Dylan says.
On top of all that Dylan volunteers at the West Broadway Youth Centre in a program called “Boys World” – which is a drop-in program for inner city youth.

One other interesting aspect to Dylan’s years of volunteering is that last year he was co-winner of the Bert Knazan Award at the Rady JCC Sports Dinner. (His co-winner, by the way, was Lauren Cogan, whom we profiled in our June 10 issue.) The award is presented “to a male and female Jewish teen athlete who has demonstrated athletic excellence, good sportsmanship, fair play and displayed consideration for others.”

Something else about Jamie Kagan that might help to explain Dylan’s excellent scholastic achievement: As well as being athletic director at Gray Academy, Jamie Kagan teaches math and science at the school (something he’s been doing for 25 years, he tells me, going back to his days at Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate on Matheson Avenue).

Jamie adds that for the past two years, in a national math competition for students in Grades 7 and 8, students from Gray Academy have not only finished first in Manitoba, “our Grade 8’s, this year, placed first in all of Canada.”
“When Dylan was growing up, he was number one in Manitoba in Grades 6, 7, and 8,” Jamie notes – “and in the top 10 in Canada.”

Consistent with his acumen in math, Dylan tells me that once he enters the Asper School he eventually hopes to become an actuary. (I tell him that’s a very good choice, as the two careers that hold the highest guarantees of employment are actuary and mortician.)

As disappointing as it must have been for Dylan not to be able to go to Sweden this summer to play for Canada in the world under-20 Ultimate championship, he will still be playing Ultimate when he begins studies at the University of Manitoba Asper School of Business this coming fall (assuming there are classes) and will still be a part of the national under-20 team.

There’s always a next year and, as Gerry Posner might say, Dylan Kagan has achieved the “ultimate” recognition for his all-round ability as a student, athlete, and volunteer.

 

 

 

 

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Winnipeg Beach Synagogue about to celebrate 75th anniversary

By BERNIE BELLAN (July 13) In 1950 a group of cottage owners at Winnipeg Beach took it upon themselves to relocate a one-room schoolhouse that was in the Beausejour area to Winnipeg Beach where it became the beach synagogue at the corner of Hazel and Grove.
There it stayed until 1998 when it was moved to its current location at Camp Massad.
On August 2nd members of the synagogue will be holding a 75th anniversary celebration.


As part of the celebration anyone who is a descendant or relative of any of the original members of the first executive committee (as seen in the photo here) is invited to attend the synagogue that morning.
If you are a relative please contact Abe Borzykowski at wpgbeachshule@shaw.ca or aborzykowski@shaw.ca to let Abe know you might be attending or for more information about the 75th anniversary celebration.
We will soon be publishing a story about the history of the beach synagogue, which is something I’ve been writing about for over 25 years.

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Vickar Family cuts ribbon on new Tova Vickar and Family Childcare Centre

By MYRON LOVE In the words of Larry Vickar, the Shaarey Zedek’s successful Dor V’ Dor Campaign “is not only a renewal of the synagogue but truly a renewal movement of Jewish life in our community.”An integral part of that renewal movement was the creation of a daycare centre within the expanded synagogue.  On Monday, June 23, Larry and Tova Vickar cut the ribbon, thereby officially opening the Tova Vickar and Family Childcare Centre in the presence of 100 of their family members, friends and other supporters of the project.
The short program preceding the morning ribbon-cutting began with a continental breakfast followed by a welcome by both Fanny Levy, Shaarey Zedek’s Board President, and Executive Director Dr. Rena Secter Elbaze. In Elbaze’s remarks, she noted that Larry and Tova wanted their family (including son Stephen and family, who flew in from Florida) and friends at the event to celebrate the opening of the Tova Vickar and Family Childcare Centre, “not because of the accolades, but because, as Larry put it, he hopes that their investment in the congregation will inspire others to do the same.”
“When Larry and I spoke about what this gift meant to him and the message he wanted people to take away,”  she continued, “I couldn’t help but connect it to the teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi whose book – Age-ing to Sage-ing – changes the whole way we look at the concept of ageing and basing it on our ancestral teachings.”
She explained that his concept of “Sage-ing” is based on three key ideas – Discover your meaning and purpose; accept our mortality and think about the legacy you want to leave.
“Larry spoke about these exact concepts when we met,” she said.
Elbaze also noted the presence of Shaarey Zedek’s newly-arrived senior Rabbi Carnie Rose, former Rabbi Alan Green, and area MLAs Mike Moroz and Carla Compton.
Larry Vickar expressed his great appreciation for all those in attendance.  “Tova and I are deeply moved to stand here with you today for this important milestone in our community”, he said. “We are grateful to be surrounded by all of you, the people we care about, our family and friends… you who have touched our lives and played some part in our journey.”

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New Israeli restaurant opens in River Heights

By BERNIE BELLAN (July 6, 2025) It’s been a long time since our community has been able to welcome the opening of a restaurant that specializes in Israeli food.
That void is now filled with the opening of The Green Falafel, at 1833 Grant (corner of Centennial – next to the Subway), which opened its doors (to huge crowds) on Monday, July 7.

The staff at The Green Falafel
(owners Ariel & Elena Maudi second and third from left)

The restaurant is the fulfillment of a dream long held by the husband and wife team of Ariel and Eden Maudi, who have been living in Winnipeg the past 11 years.
Ariel, who was born in Israel and grew up in Beer Sheva, says that he worked in telecommunications in Ramat Gan for several years. He adds though that he had always dreamed of owning his own falafel stand in Israel, but life was difficult there and he decided to come to Canada as a tourist to see whether there were any opportunities here for him, Eden and their two young children.
Eden, who was born in Russia and moved to Israel with her family in 1996, stayed behind with the two kids, who were both pre-schoolers, while Ariel tested the waters in Canada first.
Ariel says he came to Canada as a tourist in 2013. His first stop was in Toronto, where he acquired his 1st class driver’s license. At the end of 2013 he moved to Winnipeg where he began working as a truck driver. Soon he found himself employed as a successful sales person at Vickar Nissan where, he says, he once achieved the status as the top car sales person in Canada. After working at Vickar Nissan for a number of years, Ariel began working as an installer for Bell MTS.
Meanwhile, Eden began working at a Walmart, later at the Costco on Regent.

But, when the opportunity to move into a space that had been previously occupied by another restaurant, but which had closed, became available, Ariel and Eden decided to open their own Israeli restaurant in an area that hadn’t seen Israeli food served since the controversial closure of Bermax Café in 2019.
The Maudis say that they will be serving a variety of Israeli dishes – all vegetarian, and that they will be fully kosher.
The “green” in Green Falafel, by the way, Ariel Maudi explains, comes from the cilantro and parsley that are added to the chickpeas. In addition, their pitas will be coming from Israel and will be baked fresh daily.
The Green Falafel is open from 10-8 Sunday – Thursday and 10-4 on Friday. (Closed Saturday).Delivery will be available through Uber Eats and DoorDash.
Call 204-557-7837 for information.

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