Local News
Gwen Secter Centre plays host to Canadian/Israeli singer/songwriter of considerable renown who was stranded in Winnipeg for over a year and a half
By BERNIE BELLAN After going a year and a half in Winnipeg without any live entertainment to speak of – beyond the occasional street concerts that seemed to spring up impromptu from time to time, it was welcome news to read that the Gwen Secter Centre was going to be playing host to a series of weekly concerts every Wednesday through August 25th.
While there have been plenty of Zoom concerts that have attempted to fill the void, there’s nothing like having an audience on hand to watch and hear real live performers.
Thanks to the irrepressible Karla Berbrayer, our community’s incomparable impresario, along with Gwen Secter’s dynamic executive directory, Becky Chisick, a variety of performers – almost all of whom are Winnipeggers, were booked to perform two shows each Wednesday – at 11 and then again at 1.
When I scanned the names of the featured artists, however, one name caught my eye, as I had never heard of her: Orit Shimoni. In our July 21 issue she was described as an “Israeli Canadian” who was going to “accompany herself on guitar and accordion in a solo performance.”
Was she one of the many Israeli newcomers who have arrived in Winnipeg in recent years, I wondered?
The answer was quite different, I soon learned. Orit is a singer and songwriter of considerable renown who has actually recorded 11 different albums – some in English, some in Hebrew.
Here’s some information about Orit taken from her own website: “Raised in both Calgary and Jerusalem, the then Montrealer had released her debut album (Cinematic Way, 2006) with the help of local musicians and producer Mark Goodwin, and the response to it, including Mark Rheaume of CBC radio calling it one of the top 3 albums of its year, alongside Feist and Arcade Fire, led Shimoni to believe that her musical path was not just a pipedream.
“Knowing very little about the industry, she set off on an outside-of-the-box, self-managed DIY adventure that brought her to Berlin for a year, and after that, a decade of living out of a suitcase, performing across Canada and Europe entirely by public transit, in cafes, pubs, bars, reputable venues, house concerts, small festivals, and on Via Rail’s on-board entertainment program. As she traveled, she received numerous recording offers and has released eleven albums in total, with more on the way.”
So, how did Orit end up, not only coming to Winnipeg – which was in March, 2020, she told me, she ended up staying here for 16 months (and perhaps longer, depending on how quickly things open up in other provinces)?
It turns out she was on a Via Rail train (performing along the way, in a program that affords musical artists the chance to travel from one city to another while entertaining passengers along the way – sort of reminds me of Mexican buses where entertainers hop on and off, playing for tips from passengers). When the train, which had originated in Vancouver, and with a stop in Edmonton, hit Winnipeg that fateful day in March/20, it was Orit’s lousy luck to find herself stranded just as this province was entering into shutdown mode.
“When I arrived in Winnipeg I got a text message saying my next train out of town has been canceled,” Orit explained.
She was stuck here – and even though she managed to find accommodation with an acquaintance whom she had known previously, her live performing career came to a complete standstill – similar to every other live performer.
While she did manage to write and record new songs during her long hiatus from performing, Orit says she so dearly missed playing in front of live audiences.
Now, anyone who knows Karla Berbrayer would know that she’s constantly on the hunt for new talent, especially Jewish performers who can sing in Hebrew. When word reached Karla that a very talented Israeli Canadian was living in our midst, Karla didn’t hesitate to make contact with Orit. Thus – her July 21st appearance at Gwen Secter.
While the crowd that particular morning might have been small in size (even at its maximum, the nicely constructed canopy-covered Gwen Secter venue – on the centre’s parking lot, can only hold 25 people for a performance).
I arrived a few minutes before 11 that day – and there wasn’t anyone else in the audience at all – which afforded me the opportunity to go up to Orit and introduce myself.
Seeing Karla Berbrayer there as well, I asked Karla what would happen if no one showed up? “Don’t worry,” Karla assured me, “there are people who are arriving in special transport.”
Sure enough, attendees started to arrive. I’m not sure anyone reading this can remember, but July 21 was also the last day we had any significant rain in Winnipeg, and no doubt the possibility of getting soaked was a deterrent for some who might have considered attending Orit’s concert. (As it turned out, there was some rain prior to the concert, but the canopy was absolutely effective in keeping the seating area dry.)
Once Orit began to perform, I was astonished how beautiful her voice was. She opened her concert with a lovely rendition of “Hinei ma tov u ma na’im”, accompanying herself on the accordion. She followed that with a number of famous American folk songs, including “Blowing in the Wind”. Later in the concert she switched to playing guitar – and judging by the look of that particular guitar, with its noticeable chip in the wood, it has seen better days.
While I would have wished that Orit had told a little bit more about herself in between her songs, she preferred to talk only about how she ended up in Winnipeg. I had to learn, after reading biographical notes on her website, that Orit used to be a teacher and academic (with a master’s degree in theological studies).
What a shame that Orit wasn’t able to play in front of a much larger audience that July day. Perhaps we’ll get the chance to see her again – assuming that she’ll want to fulfill the original goal of playing at a number of venues when she arrived her that fateful day in March, 2020.
In the meantime if you want to hear samples of Orit’s singing, she has a number of songs from her latest album available to hear on her website: https://www.oritshimoni.com/
Local News
Application filed by two former members of Etz Chayim Congregation against the congregation to have their memberships restored dismissed by judge
The following is taken from the Canadian Jewish News website: “Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench has dismissed Hadass Eviatar and David Hoult’s application challenging the termination of their membership at Congregation Etz Chayim. In his decision, Justice Vic Toews noted that, although Hoult’s letter describing a hypothetical attack on the synagogue may have lacked sensitivity given the political climate, he did not intend to threaten violence against congregants. However, the judge ruled that the court did not have jurisdiction to intervene in the membership dispute under Manitoba’s Corporations Act, finding that the couple had no financial, proprietary or economic interest that would entitle them to the remedies they sought. The judge concluded that religious organizations are generally free to determine their own membership rules and ordered each side to bear its own legal costs.”
If you would like to read the original article that broke the story about the battle between Hadaass Eviatar and David Hoult with Etz Chayim Congregation you can go to Epic Court Battle.”
Local News
Jewish Federation now says Jewish population of Winnipeg in 2021 (according to the census) was 13,940 – not the 16,000 figure that the Federation had been touting for years
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted Oct. 27, 2026) Longtime readers of The Jewish Post & News (and this website) would probably know that I have long had a very strong interest in establishing as accurate figures as possible when it has come to reporting the size of Winnipeg’s Jewish community.
For years I argued that our Jewish Federation was exaggerating the size of our Jewish population. I heard the figure of 16,000 bandied about by leaders in our community quite often when it came to reporting the size of our Jewish population – without any empirical evidence to back that figure up.
I had long maintained that the only reasonably accurate figures when it came to reporting the size of Winnipeg’s Jewish population were those produced by the late Evelyn Katz, when she was the unofficial demographer for the Jewish Federation – over 30 years ago. What Evelyn would do is keep careful track of births, deaths, numbers of newcomers but, perhaps most important: the number of people who had left our community.
Thus, in August 2022 when I interviewed Faye Rosenberg Cohen who, at the time, was just about to retire as the Jewish Federation’s Chief Planning and Allocations Officer, I was somewhat astonished to hear Faye say, when I asked her what proportion of our Jewish community was made up of immigrants, she answered that “I can honestly say when I look at those numbers it’s somewhere around 1/3 of the community.”
In response, I asked: “So you’d say it’s somewhere between 4-5,000?”
Faye said: “I think it’s more than that.”
I wrote in that article, “I indicated my skepticism at that time, saying ‘You know that I’ve always been skeptical about the numbers that have been used by the Federation for the population of the Jewish community. I think though that it’s always been more of a case of identification – who identifies as Jewish.’ ”
Later, after the results of the 2021 census were released, I wrote that “if you take into account the results of the 2021 census, the Jewish community cannot be larger than 14,270 at a maximum. But that figure would also include anyone who had either said either their ethnic origin was Jewish or their religion was Jewish.”
Since many of the individuals who had said on the 2021 census that their ethnic origin was Jewish, but their religion was something else, I maintained that ascertaining the real size of our Jewish community was highly problematic.
Still, for the sake of argument I was willing to accept that, realistically, it was somewhere between 13,000-14,000 – but nowhere close to the figure of 16,000 that had come to be suggested by our then president of the Jewish Federation or by other leading figures in our community.
So, it was with a sense of satisfaction that I heard Sharon Graham, who is now the Jewish Federation’s Community Planning and Allocations Lead say to an audience of over 50 people who were at the Gwen Secter Centre on Thursday, October 22, that the Jewish community in 2021 was – at a maximum: 13,940.
Sharon was at the Gwen Secter Centre to speak to Remis Lecture attendees. Her presentation preceded a presentation by Jewish Federation CEO Jeff Lieberman. Sharon used a PowerPoint presentation to provide some very interesting insights into where our Jewish community was at in 2021- and I’m offering some parts of her presentation here for you to read because I thought they were so interesting.
I had actually made many of the same observations about the results of the 2021 census in my own reporting back in 2022, but seeing what I had written confirmed by the Jewish Federation’s point person on planning told me that Sharon has a much more realistic view of our community than did Faye Rosenberg Cohen.
Here, for instance, is a slide that shows the proportion of our Jewish community that is made up of immigrants. It’s slightly under one fifth, not the one third percentage that Faye had suggested.
But, what really set Sharon’s presentation apart from anything else I’ve ever seen presented by someone from the Jewish Federation – other than the aforementioned Evelyn Katz, was the slide she projected which showed that, while there had been a large influx of newcomers to Winnipeg’s Jewish community between 2016-2021 there had also been a significantly high number of people who had left our Jewish community in those same years, as you can see in the following slide:
That is something we just don’t hear discussed by leaders of our Jewish organizations, but let’s be realistic: For many newcomers who came to Winnipeg and were counted as new members of our Jewish community, Winnipeg – for a variety of reasons, was a stepping stone to other communities. It may have been for reasons of better job opportunities, moving closer to other family members, or – the reason that we hear so often when it comes to people saying they want to leave Winnipeg: the weather.
But, whatever the reason, Sharon’s figures show that, as much as GrowWinnipeg may have been an abiding success when it’s come to attracting newcomers to our Jewish community here, getting them to stay long term is a different story.
And, while there were other aspects of Sharon’s presentation that certainly merit discussion, especially the figures she produced about intermarriage, rather than delving into them here, I thought it useful simply to insert them for you, the reader, to see – and draw your own conclusions.
Local News
Marty Green expands his protest against extremist Jewish settlers to two more venues – and is arrested twice more
(Tuesday, October 27) We received the following press release about Marty Green being arrested again, both at the University of Manitoba and at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue:
Both sides came to blows on Saturday, October 24, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue as security personnel sought to prevent Marty Green from interfering with synagogue traffic as he protested just outside synagogue grounds against the actions of religious settlers in Israel’s occupied West Bank territory. Synagogue Executive Director Rena Secter Elbaze quickly intervened to prevent further escalation. Police arrived shorty thereafter and detained Green for 45 minutes before driving him home and releasing him. It is not clear whether their decision not to lay charges was the result of their own onsite investigation or whether it was at the request of the synagogue executive.
Green has now been arrested four times in the last month and faces multiple charges for disturbing the peace, including two episodes at the Asper Campus and one more this past Friday (Oct. 23) at the University of Manitoba. While Green says initially he was merely handing out leaflets (at the Asper Campus), since his first arrest on September 23, he has returned to the campus with a large placard and an acccordion, accompanying himself while singing songs with lyrics that include such phrases as “The Jews Are Bananas….B-A-N-A-N-A-S”. In addition to listing actions of the religious settlers as including arson, vandalism, and theft, he pointedly alleges that the IDF has been backing up the settlers in their actions.
Green had earlier notified the Shaarey Zedek that he was contemplating bringing his protest to the synagogue. He was told that if he attempted to enter the grounds he would be prevented from doing so. At that time, Secter Elbaze told Green that his intentions were inappropriate, declaring the synagogue to be “a house of worship dedicated to prayer, learning, community, and spiritual engagement.” Green responded that if the synagogue were willing to contact the Crown and inform them that “that there was never any legal basis for their claims that I was conducting myself inappropriately at the Asper Campus” (with regard to his earlier arrests) that he would “voluntarily refrain from carrying his informational campaign to the synagogue(s).”
Green further argues that the recent “psak” (religious ruling) by leading Israeli rabbi Rov Dov Lior, in which Lior declares that it is not merely permissible but praiseworthy for Jews to steal olives from Arab orchards….that this ruling brings his protest within the proper realm of religious discourse. He says further that if the local rabbis were willing to speak out to their congregations against the aforesaid psak, that he might have refrained from taking his campaign to their grounds.
Although Green was released on Saturday without charges, police confiscated his placard. They explained that it was being held as evidence pending an investigation by Major Crimes as to whether it constituted hate literature.
There was no further information given as to what happened at the University of Manitoba.
