Local News
Gray Academy welcomes back students…and gets immediately busy with a whole host of activities
By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been a while since I’ve been able to report on Gray Academy without having to focus on how Covid had so drastically affected the lives of both students and teachers there. While every other school in the province was similarly affected, Gray Academy offers so many unique programs – almost all of which had to be put on hold for the past two and a half years, that when I spoke with Head of School Lori Binder on Tuesday, September 20, hearing of everything that had been going on there in just the short 11 days that the school had been open when we talked was somewhat overwhelming.
I began by asking Lori how it felt to be back – now that all restrictions that had previously been imposed by the province had been lifted?
“It’s a wonderful start to a new school year,” Lori said. “It’s quite positive all around.”
While Gray Academy had complied with all requirements having to do with Covid that had been imposed by the province, Lori noted that “in each of the past two and a half years we did our own due diligence in addition to requirements from the province.”
For instance, Lori referred to the “dashboard” that Gray Academy maintains on its website which gives information about any cases of Covid that may be reported among both students and families of students. (The website is password protected and is accessible only to families of students as well as staff.)
“No other school is keeping a dashboard that I’m aware of,” Lori observed.
With reference to programs and activities that are now back in place after a long hiatus, Lori said: “Almost all of the things that we weren’t able to do are back.”
For instance, she mentioned that a trip that students were originally supposed to have taken in the spring of 2019 to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. – when those students were in Grade 9, was now happening – as we spoke, although the students were now in Grade 12. (Students had left for Washington on Sunday, September 18 and were scheduled to return on September 21. That trip had been an annual event sponsored by the Asper Foundation for years.)
As to whether students who are now in Grades 10 and 11, as well as the current Grade 9 class, will also be able to participate in similar trips to Washington, Lori said that they will, but the timetable for doing that has not been set as yet. She added that the school is working with the Asper Foundation on planning future trips.
Turning to other activities that are back in full swing, Lori noted that “athletics are back,” the musical “Mama Mia” will be put on in February, “band is fully back – with wind instruments” (as well as instruments that don’t require special breathing techniques; there were band sessions during Covid but when you have to wear a mask the amount of music a band can perform is somewhat limited). “And now our kids can sing freely,” Lori added.
Something else that has resumed is the debating program – with members of the debating team scheduled to head to Boston in October 2023.
And – here’s something that I noticed when I attended the G.R.O.W. in Gimli 20th anniversary celebration on September 14 at a house just across from the campus parking lot – and wondered why the parking lot was so full that evening: Gray Academy families were experiencing a “fun fair” (on September 14) for the first time since 2019 – on the grounds of the Asper Campus.
“We had a gathering of all our high school students in the Berney Theatre the first day of school,” Lori observed – but there wasn’t room for all 221 of them – which is an indication of how robust enrollment in the high school is once again. (The Grade 12 class alone has 45 students, which is close to the highest number it’s ever had. Lori said that she’ll have full enrollment figures available to give me by the end of September, noting that a couple of families in the JK-6 years are still in the process of enrolling their kids. She said though that she expects enrollment from JK-12 to be somewhere in the area of 468 students.)
And, while this year’s Grade 12 graduating class currently has 45 students, the 2024 and 2025 graduating classes will also have over 40 students each, if enrollments remain as they currently are.
In some respects, while Covid restrictions may have been lifted, changes that were instituted in the past couple of years, including staggered drop-off and pick-up times, and separate entrances for different age groups, have remained in place.
However, as Lori noted, the physical markings on floors that demarcated different areas for different groups of students have all been removed. “Our kids can all walk freely now,” she said.
I wondered though whether any students are still wearing masks?
“Some are choosing to wear masks,” Lori answered. “As we communicated with families prior to the start of school year, that would be no problem. Our school is a mask-friendly environment.”
I asked also about the HVAC system in the school: How good is the ventilation?
“We still have good respiratory and sanitization etiquette” systems in place, Lori explained. “Our HVAC system is a MERV filter-13 system – one of the best filtration systems available, with the cycle of fresh air intake increased” substantially over what used to be in place.
Insofar as curriculum is concerned, Lori said that the school is about to embark on a two-year project to “reimagine its Hebrew curriculum,” thanks in large part to a grant that it has received from the Jewish Foundation.
As well, a new strategic plan for all of Gray Academy will be launched in January 2023, Lori added.
Speaking of Hebrew, I asked whether the exchange program with Danziger High School in Kiryat Shemona, during which students in Grades 10 and 11 go to Israel, while students from Danziger come here in turn, is back on?
“Yes, it is,” Lori answered, with students from Gray Academy scheduled to travel to Israel this coming Purim. However, rather than students from Danziger coming to Winnipeg this current school year, the plan is for them to come next Sukkot, which begins late September next year.
As far as the graduating class’s usual trip to Israel goes, Lori said “we have enough data to support Grade 12 going,” but with the planned resumption of March of the Living (which has also been on hold for three years) – also around the same time, it is not yet clear how many students might want to go on a graduating class trip to Israel in 2023.
As if reading about all these activities weren’t enough to want to make you pause and take a breath, Lori continued: “Our student council just went on a leadership retreat to Camp Massad” (which was the very first time that’s happened, she noted).
Grades 8 and 9 will also have their own spirit weeks, which often take place in Gimli or Hecla, over the next few months, she added.
I asked about plans for a Shabbaton – which would often take place in Gimli or Hecla in the past?
“This year the Shabbaton will be at the Clarion Hotel,” Lori said.
Some other interesting facts that Lori mentioned during our conversation include:
• This fall year marked marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of Gray Academy.
• The school has more than 65 new students. (Interestingly, some of the students new to the school this year are from Ukraine.)
• 17 students left the school when their parents moved to different cities.
• Once again the school has an international student – from Brazil, the sibling of a previous international student.
• The Kaufman Silverberg Library is once again open to students – something that hadn’t been the case since March 2019. And – for the first time, students can now access digitized books there.
One final note though – and this is more a sign of the times when it comes to restaurants of all types: Schmoozer’s is not accessible to in-person visits by students during school hours – because Schmoozer’s doesn’t have enough staff on hand to accommodate all those students who would typically want to come there for lunch. Instead, arrangements have been made to have lunches delivered to designated drop-off points within the school itself if parents phone Schmoozer’s prior to 9:30 am on a given day and place their orders.
Local News
Scenes from Shalom Square 2026
Shalom Square – the Israel pavilion, is on until Saturday night, August 8. As usual, audiences have been packing the Rady JCC gym to watch entertainment provided by the Chai Folk Ensemble and Kadima Dance Troupe.
(All photos courtesy of Keith Levit)
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR – you can see it right here and make your own assessment
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26, updated July 19) The Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Exhibit for Human Rights opened to the public June 27. The morning before the exhibit was set to open to the public, (it had a private opening for invited guests the evening of June 26) we received a press release from the CMHR. That press release gave a very detailed description of what was in the exhibit, along with photos (supplied by Annie Kierans of the CMHR).
There is also a link right at the beginning of the press release that will allow you to watch the same videos that anyone attending the exhibit can watch. We reprinted what was sent to us without making one edit. We leave it to you to form your own opinion as to whether the exhibit is fair in its presentation, and whether it is lacking “context” – which is an accusation that has been levelled at the exhibit’s organizers by some representatives of Jewish organizations.
We have received many emails in reaction to the exhibit. If you have an opinion and would like to see it published on this website, you can send it to jewishp@mymts.net, but please indicate whether you would be willing to have it published on this website.
Here is what we received the morning of June 26:
Winnipeg, MB — June 26, 2026 — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit tomorrow that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians.
Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will be on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028. Featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.
Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contribute to our visitors understanding of human rights and help the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.
Exhibition highlights
Personal stories and artifacts: Experience firsthand accounts from Palestinian Canadians sharing their journeys of displacement and memory through a series of five artifacts. Cases display artifacts like property deeds, house keys, and a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, accompanied by short videos that deepen understanding of the impacts of displacement.
Powerful artworks: In her painting Bound Together in Gaza, Malak Mattar, a Gazan artist, captures the struggles and resilience of her generation shaped by conflict. Her work pays homage to Guernica, Picasso’s powerful masterpiece depicting civilian suffering during war.
Curfews and Closures, by Rajie Cook, bears witness to life under military occupation during the 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising, when curfews and closures were expanded and further limited basic rights and freedoms.
Cultural heritage: Discover traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. Tatreez motifs and colours are tied to place, family history and regional identity. Patterns are associated with particular towns, villages or areas of Palestine. In this way, tatreez is a form of storytelling: a way of preserving memory, sustaining identity and expressing resilience across displacement and exile.
Poetry and reflection: Engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s evocative verses, inspiring personal reflection on exile, voice, and responsibility. Visitors can take a card containing Darwish’s poem and add a personal note, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the exhibit.
Contemporary context: Witness striking images of current events in Gaza and the West Bank, connecting past displacement to ongoing struggles.
Quotes:
“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories. And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.” -Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian featured in the exhibit
“We developed this exhibit with a clear awareness that Palestinian Canadian voices have too often been marginalized, silenced or spoken over — and that anti-Palestinian racism affects whose stories are heard and whose suffering is recognized. That is why we intentionally centred Palestinian Canadian voices throughout the exhibit.” -Isabelle Masson, Curator of Palestine Uprooted
“Human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient, when the question of who deserves the dignity of having their rights recognized is genuinely contested. These are the moments where having a national museum for human rights is most important.
There are people who believe this exhibit should not exist in its current form. There are people who believe it should have existed sooner. There are people who will visit this exhibit and feel that it does not say enough, and others who will feel it says too much.
We have listened to every one of these voices. We have reflected. And we have renewed our resolve to continue the difficult, sometimes contested, and often controversial work of building understanding about human rights. We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
- – Isha Khan, CEO
Local News
Jewish Federation releases amounts to be allocated to each of its 12 beneficiary agencies
By BERNIE BELLAN I had been reporting on allocations given to the 12 beneficiary agencies of the Jewish Federation for over 11 years – until last year, when I took a break from covering our major Jewish organizations.
These past couple of months, however, I’ve gone back to looking at financial information for some of our major Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba and Jewish Child and Family Services. (If you want to read my reports on the two Annual General Meetings held by those organizations you can find them elsewhere on this website.)
Over the years as well, I had also been adding to a table that I began to compile 12 years ago that showed comparison figures year over year for how much had been allocated by the Jewish Federation to each of its 12 beneficiary agencies. Even though I didn’t do any reporting on allocations by the Jewish Federation last year, I was able to obtain information about the 2025 allocations that I’ve reproduced in the table that you can see here. (That table only shows information for the past five years, although I do have tables showing information about allocations going back as far as 2014 that can be found on my website if anyone is interested.)
Looking at the figures for this coming year though, a couple of things stand out: For one, there will be no allocation for Aleph Bet Child Life Enrichment, just as there wasn’t one last year either. This comes after having received allocations for as long as I’ve been covering the allocations committee, so that might require some further investigation to find out why Aleph Bet Enrichment is no longer receiving an allocation. Secondly, there will be a small allocation for the Irma Penn School of Jewish Learning – as there was last year also, after a multi-year absence of the school applying for allocations. The Irma Penn School used to advertise in The Jewish Post & News when it was active, but I don’t recall seeing anything about it the past two years. At one time it was very popular among adults. It would be worth looking into how it functions these days. (Over to you, Myron. You used to write about the Irma Penn School.)
Also, the report of the Allocation Committee says: “The Jewish Learning Institute resumed their participation in the Allocations process after a hiatus of a few years to enhance their revitalized programming.” But the Jewish Learning Institute did receive funding in 2025 and 2024, so it’s not clear why the report says there was a “hiatus of a few years.” No big deal, really.
It’s always been interesting for me – and I’m sure for you, too, to look at trends: Which beneficiary agencies have been receiving the largest increases in allocations year over year or, as the case may be, the smallest increases in funding – relative to what other agencies received?
According to the report of the allocations committee, “The 2025-26 Combined Jewish Appeal Campaign raised $7,224,856 this year.”
That amount is $660,577 more than what was raised in the 2024-25 campaign, which was $6,864,279. While a portion of what was raised goes toward beneficiary agencies, another portion goes to Israel, another portion is to cover operating expenses of the Federation, and another portion goes to replenishing the Federation’s emergency fund, which was badly depleted during Covid.
Insofar as how much each of the beneficiary agencies receives,, each year the allocations committee of the Jewish Federation meets during the course of the year to decide how to allocates funds to the 12 beneficiary agencies of the Federation.
The allocations are to be given to the respective agencies on September 1.
The total amount allocated to the Federation’s beneficiary agencies is $95,700 more than what was allocated last year, and $193,600 more than what was allocated in 2024. There will be a total of $3,050,000 allocated in 2026, compared to $2,954,300 in 2025, and $2,856,400 in 2024. Interestingly, the total amounts allocated in 2023 and 2022 were higher than what were allocated in 2024 and 2025, but the allocation to Gray Academy in 2022 was exceptionally high – $974,000, compared with $900,000 this year. In 2022 Gray Academy was still dealing with the fallout from Covid and the huge increases in costs that arose from having to resort to online teaching.
As well, until this year, the most ever allocated by the Jewish Federation to its beneficiary agencies was also in 2022 – when the community was still in the grip of the Covid crisis and total allocations were $3,003,000. At that time the Federation tapped into an emergency fund that it had on hand – and totally depleted that fund.
In its report the allocations committee went into some detail explaining its methodology and how certain criteria were given special attention when it came to determining allocations.
Each of the agencies had representatives appear before the committee. Those representatives were given 15-20 minutes to make presentations to the members of the committee and answer a series of questions pertaining to eight different criteria.
Here, in summary, are the main criteria the report cites as “priorities” when it came to deciding how much to allocate to agencies:
- Social isolation and lack of belonging: “Longing for belonging,” a desire for a
stronger sense of connection to the Jewish community and Jewish identification. - Seniors Isolation: Does this program address the problem of seniors’ isolation?
- Teen Program Continuity Gaps: Gaps in programming continuity limit teen
leadership opportunities. Peer connection programs across this demographic
must be prioritized. - Building Jewish Identity and Connection: Strengthening Jewish identification
ensures every program builds Jewish community through authentic Jewish content
and context. - Poverty and Financial Barriers to Participation: Financial challenges can prevent
community members’ full participation in Jewish life. - Accessibility and Inclusion for People with Disabilities: People with cognitive or
physical challenges face barriers to full participation in Jewish life. - Exclusionary or Unwelcoming Environments: Language and practices may
unintentionally exclude interfaith families, LGBTQ+ individuals, Jews of color, and
others. - Data on Participation and Community Needs: Do you have data available on who
participates in programs, who is underserved, and what impact programs have?
Even after having subjected each of the agencies to that sort of rigorous scrutiny, however, the fact remains that the sizes of the increases given to each agency were quite consistent with what had been given in previous years.
Here, for instance, are the increases that have been given to some of the agencies for the past three years:
Gray Academy – 2026 increase over 2025: $30,000; 2025 increase over 2024: $30,000
Gwen Secter – 2026 increase over 2025: $19,000; 2025 increase over 2024: $11,500
JCFS – 2026 increase over 2025: $30,000; 2025 increase over 2024: $25,000
Rady JCC – 2026 increase over 2025: $18,000; 2025 increase over 2024: $10,000
What it all boils down to, I would suggest, is that the allocations each of those agencies received are consistent with what they had received in previous years, notwithstanding the supposedly rigorous criteria that the allocations committee says it adopted in reviewing the presentations given by each agency.
