Local News
Gray Academy sets the pace for all other schools in Manitoba by instituting vaccine requirement for all students 12 and up

By BERNIE BELLAN I had intended to speak with Lori Binder, Head of School at Gray Academy at a pre-arranged time on Wednesday, August 25 when, on Tuesday afternoon I received an email from Lori informing me that she wanted to share with me a communication that had just gone out to all parents.
Following are excerpts from that communication:
n keeping with Gray Academy’s mission, vision and values as a Jewish day school and with the health and safety of the entire school community as our top priority, the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education (WBJE) has implemented a mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine Policy for Students. This new policy for students is consistent with and complementary to the WBJE Vaccine Policy for Employees, Third-party Providers, Volunteers and Visitors.”
”COVID-19 Vaccine Policy for Students
”This policy requires that all students turning 12 by December 31, 2021, must be fully vaccinated to attend Gray Academy for the 2021-2022 school year.
This policy is not applicable to students aged 11 and younger, as a vaccine has not yet been approved in Canada for this age group. Once vaccine eligibility for this age group is approved, the WBJE will re-evaluate the specific requirements of its COVID-19 Vaccine Policy for Students.
“Students turning 12 within the 2021-2022 school year will be required to be vaccinated once they become eligible.
Submitting proof of vaccination
Families will be required to submit proof of vaccination by 5 p.m. September 2 to for all eligible children attending Gray Academy this year to health@grayacademy.ca. This is a secure address that will be monitored on a strictly private and confidential basis. Once proof of vaccination has been confirmed, this information will not be retained by Gray Academy, and proof of vaccination will not be kept on file.
”
Good for Gray Academy, I thought – taking the lead on an issue that absolutely needs to be addressed, and not in the hesitant way that our provincial government has shirked its responsibility to impose vaccination requirements much more widely than it has.
Of course, with a directive such as the one just issued by Gray Academy on August 24, it was bound to dominate what I had thought would be a much wider discussion about how the coming school year was shaping up at Gray Academy.
Given the somewhat controversial stance that Gray Academy was taking however, I began our conversation by asking Lori whether she had heard about a letter that had just been issued by Winnipeg’s Council of Rabbis that also dealt head on with the issue of vaccination. (You can read the full text of that letter on page 6.)
Lori said she had not heard of that letter, so I told her that the letter gave a reasoned explanation why, in keeping with Jewish law, it is fundamentally important for individuals to be vaccinated.
I told her that I had asked Rabbi Yosef Benarroch, of Adas Yeshurun-Herzlia Congregation, who forwarded me the letter, what prompted the issuing of such a letter?
Without naming names, Rabbi Benarroch told me there are certain elements within the Jewish community who are decidedly opposed to vaccinations against Covid. As Rabbi Benarroch put it: “We were approached by members of the community telling us that there is a segment of the Jewish community that is anti vax.”
Further, Rabbi Benarroch wrote, “Apparently lots of friction at the school as a result.” He also wanted to make clear, however, that the letter issued by the Council of Rabbis was in no way related to anything happening at Gray Academy. (It turns out that it was entirely coincidental that Rabbi Benarroch emailed me the letter from the Council of Rabbis shortly after Lori Binder had emailed me Gray Academy’s new directives to parents re vaccinations. As it happened, I was the conduit for both Rabbi Benarroch and Lori Binder finding out about the communications that had been issued by the respective parties.)
But, when I asked Lori whether there was anything to the suggestion that there was “friction” at Gray Academy over the issue of vaccination, she dismissed that notion, saying “we have had a handful of queries coming my way since the communication went out. We have had a lot of notes of gratitude,” she continued.
Yet, Lori added that “We are certainly aware there might be a demographic out there that may have hesitation for vaccines…We will continue to have conversations. These are unprecedented times. We are only looking to protect the children in our care in what will potentially be a fourth wave.”
“But you must have had an inkling there was going to be some push back on this policy, didn’t you?” I asked.
“The board made this decision with great care,” Lori responded. “There comes the notion that there may be challenges. What we learned all through the summer about the Delta variant was not known to us in June. It is a courageous decision by the board.”
“More than 50 percent of the kids in our school are under the age of 12,” she pointed out. “They’re the most vulnerable.”
I asked though whether “anyone had specifically said they would not send their kids to the school as a result of this directive?”
“Not yet,” was Lori’s answer, “but that could still happen.”
I suggested that the opposite of parents refusing to send their kids to Gray Academy because of the vaccine requirement would be that some parents who were leaning toward sending their kids there would now be motivated to do so specifically because of Gray Academy’s very pro-active approach toward vaccinations.
“I could can say we have had that,” Lori responded. “We came in this morning and we have had at least a few inquiries so far.”
What also might ease any pressure that Gray Academy will be facing as a result of the very forceful approach that the school has taken with regard to requiring all students 12 and up to be vaccinated would be for the province to follow suit in ordering all schools to adopt the same policy, I suggested.
“It would make life easier,” Lori agreed, with Gray Academy not having to serve as the pacesetter in requiring vaccinations in all senior high students.
In the last school year, there was only one case of Covid reported at Gray Academy, which is rather remarkable given the track record of almost every other school in the city, where some schools had to shut down entirely while others had to have entire classes put into quarantine.
“And that one case was a very minor case,” Lori noted. No classes were required to quarantine.
“There were just a handful of close contacts who had to isolate,” she added. “They were all healthy.”
Turning to other aspects of how Gray Academy will be dealing with Covid this coming school year, Lori explained that “We’ll be masked from kindergarten on up. That’s a bit of a change” from what the province required last year, which was that all students in Grades 4 and up be masked. “We still have the two-meter physical distance in elementary. In high school we have a two-meter distance available at all times, but we are now able to bring our students into a classroom where we have one and a half meters to the greatest extent possible,” Lori said.
“What about the cohorts? Are you still maintaining them?” I asked.
“We’re maintaining cohorts for elementary and for high school. Our digital health screening will also continue. That was very effective last year for staff and students. Recess will have students in masks and cohorted,” Lori said.
“It’s easier to get those routines set and maybe if things ease up (on the Covid front), then maybe we can ease up” on all the quite stringent rules that will be in place regarding mask wearing and social distancing, Lori explained.
I wondered whether there was going to be any further continuation of the online education program which, you may recall, Gray Academy first entered into in the spring of 2020 with its very successful “Gray Away” program, when all high school students were forced to take classes online.
“We will have that if a child is forced to quarantine or isolate,” was Lori’s response, “if they’re a close contact or if someone in their home has Covid.”
I wanted to pivot to something more positive to report, so I asked: “Are there any new teachers in the school this year?”
“We’ll have a number of new staff members – in elementary and high school, in both general studies and Judaic studies,” Lori answered. “We’ll be sharing that with our school community on Monday (August 30).”
“Have you had any staff either retire or switch careers because they just can’t deal with all the pressure that comes with all the restrictions as a result of Covid?” I asked.
“No,” was the short answer.
On another positive note, moreover, Lori noted the fact that students in the high school will now all be vaccinated may allow more flexibility in terms of allowing those students to leave campus during lunch hour – get some fresh air, go for a walk to the store – of course all while still wearing masks, but that would have been something that would not have been allowed last school year.
I suggested it’s a good thing Gray Academy is located in Winnipeg, not in Winkler. “You might have a tougher time with parents there,” I remarked. Lori did not comment.
I asked whether there was anything else Lori wanted to add.
“I’m glad some of our kids had a chance to be at summer camp this year,” Lori said.
Between the kids who were able to go to day camp, BB Camp as campers or to Massad for its leadership training program, a good number of high school students were able to experience camp this past summer, Lori pointed out.
“It makes a huge difference being able to come back to school after a summer where there was some purpose,” she said in conclusion.
Local News
New young (and not so young) talent added to list of Jewish high achievers at most recent Winnipeg Music Festival

By MYRON LOVE The most recent (107th annual) Winnipeg Music Festival – which takes place annually in March – produced another group of Jewish musical stars – including several who were new to the competition. Joining repeat high achievers – such as Yale Rayburn-Vander Hout, Gregory Hyman, Alex Schaeffer, Juliet Eskin and Noah Kravetsky – this year the winner’s circle also included: Lyla Chisick, Lotan Berenstein, Benji Greenberg and Shani Groisman..
While the overwhelming majority of the music festival entrants are pre-teens and teenagers, Greenberg, who is 38, and Groisman – who recently celebrated her 20th birthday – are exceptions to that pattern.
Shani, who finished first in the PIANO SOLO, LATE ROMANTIC COMPOSERS, GRADE/LEVEL 10 category – is an accomplished pianist, singer, and music teacher, who has participated in numerous international and local festivals and piano competitions. As a teacher, she teaches students ranging from beginners to Level 5.
The daughter of Marina and Boris Groisman arrived in Winnipeg from Israel 10 years ago. Shani says that she began taking piano lessons when she was 5.
“This competition was something new for me,” observes the Grant Park High School graduate. . “I entered for the challenge. David Moroz, my teacher at the (University of Manitoba’s) Desautels School of Music was very supportive. I am looking forward to next year’s festival.”

Benji Greenberg reports that it was her singing teacher, Geneva Halverson, who encouraged her to enter the competition, A lawyer by training, who currently works as a children’s advocate for Manitoba Advocate for children and youth, Benji notes that while she has always enjoyed singing and has appeared over the years in musical productions in high school and shows staged by the Manitoba Bar Association, it was only about a year ago that she decided to take singing lessons “to learn to sing properly”.
The daughter of Debbie and Harley Greenberg, Benji competed in two categories – Musical Theatre 1965 to 2000, and Musical Theatre pre-1965 – for singers 16 and over. In both categories, she was runner-up to Yale Rayburn Vander Hout, a veteran of four years now in the competition.
“I loved being on stage,” Benji says. “I am looking forward to the next year’s competition.”

Yale Rayburn-Vander Hout continues to build on his accomplishments at the yearly festival. Last year, his third year in the competition, the 18-year-old son of Samantha and Peter was awarded the prestigious Gilbert and Sullivan Society Trophy – awarded for the most outstanding performance in a competition of winners of Gilbert & Sullivan classes.
A former Gray Academy student, he graduated from the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, and is currently in his first year at the Desautels Faculty of Music, where he is studying under the guidance df Donna Fletcher, the co-founder of Dry Cold Productions.
Yale – who has already graced our local stages, notes that he is hoping to pursue a career in musical theatre.
Gregory Hyman is a multi-faceted artist who can do it all. The 17-year-old son of Hartley and Rishona Hyman is a singer/songwriter/musician (guitar) who records and performs under the stage name, GMH. His versatility shone through once again in his seventh Music Festival, in which he registered three first-place finishes – once for guitar (20th and 21st century composers), and twice for vocals (popular and contemporary music and TV and movie music).
The St. John’s-Ravenscourt student has been busy on stage the past couple of months – headlining his own show at Sidestage on Osborne on March 2 and opening for musician/singer/’songwriter Goody Grace at the Park Theatre on March 16. His next solo performance was scheduled for the Rec Room on Friday, May 9.
Gregory has put out three albums – which readers can check out on any of the music streaming platforms as well as his own Instagram page (thegmh). He also continues to host his own podcast – “Talk and Rock with GMH”- now in its fifth season – in which he interviews various people in the music business across Canada.

Fifteen-year-old Alex Schaeffer registered one first place finish this year in the Canadian musicals 16 and under category. For the son of Marc Schaeffer and Kae Sasake, this was his fourth year competing in the festival
Both Alex and his older sister, Hannah (both Grant Park students), continue their nascent careers on stage. Alex made his big stage debut last year as one of the Von Trapp children in MTC’s production of “The Sound of Music” – followed by an appearance in the Manitoba Opera production of Carmen as a member of the children’s chorus.
Both Hannah and Alex recently performed in Grant Park High School’s production of A Chorus Line (Hannah played Cassie, and Alex played Paul), and Meraki Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night (Hannah played Malvolio, Alex played Antonio).
This summer Hannah and Alex will be performing in three different shows with Meraki Theatre and Rem Lezar Theatre at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.
In the fall. Hannah will be off to to Oakville. Ontario to attend Sheridan College where she will be studying Musical Theatre Performance.

Juliet Eskin, 15, also stood out. In this her fourth go-round at the festival, the daughter of the musically talented Kelly Robinon and Josh Eskin took home three golds in: the viola solo, level 7 categories; Romantic composer, Baroque and Concerto; and was recommended by the adjudicator to compete for the Swedish Musical Club Trophy.
Juliet originally took up violin – adding the viola a couple of years ago. Outside of the music festival, she is the violist in the Assiniboine String Quartet and just finished performing in Evil Dead the Musical at MTYP, as well as singing the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line.

Rounding out this year’s returning Jewish WMF star was pianist Nate Kravetsky. playing piano.
Twelve-year-old Nate and older brother Noah, 15, the sons of Dr. Azriel Kravetsky and Dr. Carrie Palatnick, both attend Gray Academy – and have been taking piano lessons from Erica Schultz since they were five years old. Last year, Nate won gold in three classes: Baroque, Sonatina and Canadian Composer. In this year’s music festival, he completed in two classes: sonatina and own choice. He won gold in both classes.
His favourite thing about learning piano, Nate says, is getting to express himself and play a contemporary piece from a movie or video game when the festival is over.
This year’s music festival was the first for 11-year-old songstress Lyla Chisick – and the daughter of Daniel and Baillee Chisick acquitted herself quite well. She competed in five categories and achieved gold in three: solo performances in Own Choice; Musicals, 2965 to 1999; and 20th and 21st century English Art Song.
Lyla reports that she began taking voice lessons from Jessica Kos-Whicher abougt 18 months ago. “I really love singing,” she says. “It is a great activity.
“I am looking forward to next year’s festival.”
Lyla, Gregory and Yale were also recommend for the Provincials which will be held the weekend of May 24-26. Yale was recommended in the musical theatre category, while Gregory and Lyla were recommended in the TV and Movie category. Gregory was also recommended in the Popular Contemporary category, while Lyla was further recommended in the Vocal Primary category.
We look forward to the continued musical success off Yale, Gregory, Shani, Benji, Alex, Nate, Juliet and Lyla and what new talent may be unveiled at next year’s Winnipeg Music festival.
Local News
Belle Jarniewski recognized by Manitoba Legislature for leadership in combatting antisemitism and raising awareness of the Holocaust

By MYRON LOVE This year’s community commemoration of Yom Hashoah began on Erev Yom Hashoah – April 23 – with with the Megillat Hashoah interfaith reading of the Holocaust Scroll at Congregation Shaarey Zedek the night before.
Yom Hashoah, Thursday, April 24, began, as usual, in the morning with B’nai Brith’s “Unto Everyone There is a Name” – at the Legislature – during which members of our community – including a group of Grade 11 students from Gray Academy – and leaders of the greater community took turns reading out the names of relatives of local Holocaust survivors.
Gray Academy Grade 11 and 12 students also participated in the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s annual public commemorative service over the noon hour – also inside the Legislative Building – with students Alex Stoller and Aaron Greaves leading the 200 or so attendees in singing our national anthem and Hatikvah. Later in the program, they also performed “April Wind.”
Political leaders representing the three levels of Government and Jewish Federation leaders paid their respects leading to the service’s climax – the candle lighting. The ceremony was introduced by Belle Jarniewski, the executive director of the Jewish Heritage Society of Western Canada– with local survivors Saul and Rachel Fink, Susan Garfield, Faye Hoch, Edith Kimelman and Nehama Reuter participating.
The service ended with the traditional El Malei Rachamim prayer (recited by Congegaton Etz Chayim Chazan Tracy Kasner) and Kaddish, led by Rabbi Yossi Benarroch of Adas Yeshurun Herzlia.
This year’s Yom Hashoah commemoration concluded with a special honour for Belle Jarniewski who, later in the afternoon, was publicly recognized in the Legislature for her leadership in Holocaust awareness and the ongoing fight against antisemitism.
In recommending her for special recognition in the Legislature, Tuxedo MLA Carla Compton noted how Jarniewski’s upbringing as the daughter of Holocaust survivors instilled in her a passion for tikkun olam and spurred her to dedicate her life to teach people of all ages about the Holocaust and other genocides.
“Through her work as executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada,” Compton noted, “Belle brings education about the Holocaust to thousands of students, teachers, administrators and professional groups each year. She has partnered with Manitoba Education and Training numerous times. She is also a writer who has been published in numerous Canadian, Israeli and European newspapers.”
Compton cited, in particular, Jarniewski’s 2010 book, “Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors,” which documents the histories of 73 local survivors before, during and after the Shoah and can be found in the libraries of every secondary school in Manitoba and in university and national libraries in several countries.
“At a time when antisemitism is on the rise, we must do whatever we can to combat it,” Compton stated. “Belle is doing this great work every day. Today, on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I cannot think of a better person to celebrate and honour.”
In response to this most recent honour, Jarniewski stated that she “feels tremendously humbled and honoured by Tuxedo MLA Carla Compton’s Member Statement in the Legislature about me. Carla has been a true friend, supporter, and ally to our community.”
She added that she met Compton when the latter was running for office about a year ago in the byelection to replace the former MLA from Tuxedo and former premier, Heather Stefanson.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to honour the memory of my parents and that of the many members of my family who were murdered in the Shoah – through my work. I’m sure my mom (Sylvia) and dad (Samuel) would never have imagined that our provincial government would one day rise to honour their daughter for working to combat antisemitism and remembering the Holocaust.”
As mentioned earlier, this was the most recent of several awards that Jarniewski has received over the past few months. Last month, she was one of several Jewish Winnipeggers who received a King Charles III Coronation medal. Hers was presented by the Manitoba Government.
Last September, our Jewish Federation – at the annual Shem Tov Awards evening – bestowed on her the Larry Hurtig Communal Professional Award in recognition of her outsized leadership role in Winnipeg, nationally and internationally, in preserving the memory of the Holocaust and fighting antisemitism.
“About 15 years ago,” she recalled at that time, “Joe Riesenbach, a survivor, reached out to me to help move a project forward that had literally been collecting dust. Before I knew it, I was a member of the Holocaust Education committee and was then named to the federally appointed delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), as a member of the Academic Working Group, the Education Working Group and the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial. The committee elaborated the first intergovernmental definition of anti-Semitism, adopted by consensus at the 2016 IHRA plenary. “
Through her work on Holocaust preservation and education, she was introduced to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. She was appointed the JHCWC’s executive director in 2018.
“The Jewish Heritage Centre is the key to our past and our future,” she noted. Exploring our archive is like walking back in time. It’s a treasure trove reflecting the incredible history and diversity of our wonderful Jewish community stretching back 125 years- the challenges and the many triumphs that have shaped who we are today. As the saying goes, you need to know the past to understand the present.
“The Winnipeg I grew up in was a golden age for Jews-a tapestry of multiculturalism with shared values,” she continued. “We thought that the kind of antisemitism earlier generations had faced was gone forever. While we may not be able to bring back the wonder years, we must stand united as a community and be strong in our convictions.”
Jarniewski is particularly pleased with the recent announcement, made by our provincial government on Yom Hashoah, reiterating its new partnership with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada to put into place Premier Wab Kinew’s earlier promise to create and roll out a Holocaust education curriculum in Manitoba schools.
In an April 24 press release, Kinew said that “we are one Manitoba that cannot be divided by hatred. Now, more than ever, we must honour the diversity and inclusivity in our province and commit to learning the lessons of history so that they cannot be repeated. Learning lessons from the past protects some of the intrinsic values of our province – diversity, inclusion and human rights. The best way to uphold that basic understanding is to help foster these values in our young people.”
Beginning in the fall, the grades 6, 9 and 11, social studies curriculum will be updated to include mandatory Holocaust education in all schools across the province.
The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada has been tasked to develop new curriculum guidance on Holocaust education, including implementation tools, supports and resources.
“Recent surveys have demonstrated that most Canadian students know very little about the Holocaust,” said Jarniewski. “With increased hate-fueled violence and incidents of antisemitism, Holocaust education is a key tool for countering prejudice and cultivating inclusion. We at the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Manitoba government in strengthening Holocaust education in Manitoba through the creation of a mandated curriculum. We know that Holocaust education encourages critical thinking and reflection on how individuals could or should act in society and provides important lessons from the past to learn for the present and the future.”
Local News
This man – Michael Kalo – has been defaming prominent Winnipeggers online for years, but now he’s getting a taste of his own medicine

By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted May 3, updated May 8, updated May 11) There’s a particularly ugly side that often comes with being in the public eye – and that’s being on the receiving end of some of the most vile and awful comments, often threats – sometimes on social media, sometimes in emails, and sometimes on websites.
For years now many prominent Winnipeggers (almost all of them Jewish) have had to endure just that kind of vicious attack from someone by the name of Michael Kalo. But how do you fight back against someone who writes some of the most awful things – and then sends them out to various members of the media (including me), all the while hiding behind a series of aliases? There’s no point in suing him for defamation; he’s penniless. (The police have seized his computer in the past and are well aware of him, but the individuals whom he has defamed have always been reluctant to have the Crown press charges, thinking that it will only draw more attention to him – which is what he seems to want.)
But I’m different – and I’ve finally had enough of his crap.
In my original column I had posted the email Kalo had sent out to a great many individuals in which he defamed Jacob Brodovsky, who was forced to resign as co-executive director of BB Camp after a website called the j.ca launched a series of attacks on Jacob over his perceived “anti-Zionist” attitudes. I suppose these days who defines “Zionist” is a decision made by certain individuals who reserve for themselves the right to define what support for Israel means. I guess all those hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have been marching on the streets protesting Netanyahu’s deliberate strategy of letting the remaining hostages linger in tunnels in Gaza – however many may still be alive) are also “anti-Zionist.”
Anyway, I’ve now removed that vile email. If anyone still wants to see it, email me at jewishp@mymts.net and I’ll send it to you.
Something else I’ve now removed from this article is my referring to Michael Kalo’s very accomplished daughters. My intention was to attempt to induce them to use their influence to sway their father to stay off the internet and stop defaming members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community. But then I received an email from a prominent member of our community who asked me to remove my references to Michael Kalo’s daughters. That person wrote, in part: ‘His daughters don’t have anything to do with him. They don’t talk to him.”
Well, if his daughters don’t want anything to do with him, then I suppose there’s no point in retaining what I had written about them – so that’s gone too.
What’s left now though is a video of Michael Kalo that gives anyone who has never heard of him – or seen him in pubic, a clear idea of what type of person he is.
The video that was sent to me shows Kalo engaging in an argument with someone (and the identity of that person was not revealed to me by the person who sent me the video.) In it you can hear Michael explain why he’s consistently called Ben Carr a “kike”, “a spoiled Jew boy,” along with some other choice epithets. (Kalo has sent out numerous emails defaming Ben Carr using the name “Mohammed Greenberg” as the sender.)
But, I did respond to Kalo, whom I’ve know for many years, starting with when he achieved notoriety by being banned from entering the Asper Campus over 30 years ago. Here’ what I wrote to him:
“You know what I’m going to do Michael. I’m going to print your letter on my website – but I’m going to say that it was sent by someone named Michael Kalo, who has been defaming various Winnipeg Jews for years. That way it will have the opposite effect of what you’re intending. I’m also going to post the video in which you call Ben Carr (and the person filming the video) a kike. And if you want to come after me the way you’ve been going after anyone and everyone who provokes your ire, go right ahead. (You seem to have a real hate on for successful Winnipeg Jews. Is it because you’re such a failure in life yourself?) And I’m going to bcc this email to some of the people you’ve been defaming so that they can see how much of a fool you”ve been making of yourself for years.
-“Bernie”
Here’s the video of Michael (who is apparently walking away with a Ben Carr sign tucked under his arm):
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