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Harvey Chochinov, Steven Kroft recognized with Distinguished Alumni Awards at University of Manitoba Homecoming 2024 celebrations
By MYRON LOVE Every year, as part of Homecoming Week celebrations, the University of Manitoba recognizes a group of alumni who have distinguished themselves in their life’s work. Among the honorees this year were two members of our Jewish community. In a presentation on Thursday, September 19, Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov was recognized with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award for Academic Innovation while Steve Kroft was honoured for Lifetime Achievement.
“This is a tremendous honour,” said Kroft, the president of Conviron, a Winnipeg-based company founded by his father that makes controlled environments, providing researchers and entrepreneurs the ability to grow plants indoors. “I feel humbled.
“At the same time, I am somewhat uncomfortable. For everything that I have accomplished, I have had the help of so many other, good people.
“I am grateful, though, for this honour.”
Dr. Chochinov reiterated those same feelings. “I am humbled,” he said. “It is gratifying to be recognized by one’s peers.”
For the long-time psychiatrist, September also brought him a second highlight. A week after receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award, he was in Maastricht in the Netherlands to accept the Arthur M. Sutherland Award bestowed annually by the International Psycho-Oncology Society for lifetime achievement in the field of psycho-oncology. He is the only psychiatrist in Canadian ever to have received the Sutherland award.
The son of Dave and the late Shirley Chochinov, Harvey is a 1983 graduate of the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine. After finishing psychiatry residency, he went on to complete his doctoral studies in the Faculty of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.
It was during his training in psychiatry, he recalled, that he was drawn to the role of psychiatry in palliative care. In furthering his training in that field, he became the first Canadian to complete a Fellowship in Psychiatric Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York.
Chochinov is now a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the Max Rady School of Medicine, where he has been on faculty for more than 30 years. In addition to his local teaching and research, he has given over 500 invited lectures during the course of his career, in most major academic institutions worldwide.
The first psychiatrist to be awarded a Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care, Chochinov’s focus throughout most of his career has been finding ways to help healthcare professionals preserve patients’ dignity and to acknowledge their personhood. As an example, he cited a situation with his late sister, Ellen. Ellen, he pointed out, was born with cerebral palsy. Five years before she died, he recalled, she was admitted to ICU facing acute respiratory collapse and intubation was being considered.
“The internist came up to me and asked me one question – the only question related to her personhood,” he recounted. “He asked if she read magazines. I understood that question to mean if it was worth inserting a breathing tube. Her internist could see her bent spine, her spastic limbs, her dropping blood gases; but what he couldn’t see was Ellen and the rich, full, complex life she lived. I took a deep breath and replied, ‘Yes, she can read magazines – but only when only when she is between novels.”
The danger for health care professionals is losing sight of the person, he observes. He cited a conversation with a nephrology nurse, who conceded that, after a while, she looked at patients as “kidneys on legs, not as whole persons.” Chochinov said that kind of attitude interferes with being able to empathize with patients or to feel compassion.
“Patients won’t care what you know, until they know that you care,” he continued. “Patient care must be based on whatever ailment they have, along with who they are as whole persons. Healthcare providers who can’t do that become more mechanical or robotic in their approach, and often less satisfied with their job over time, placing them at higher risk for burnout.”
He added that patients look towards healthcare providers for affirmation of themselves. “If they sense a healthcare provider can only see their illness, then patienthood will have eclipsed personhood; and that the essence of who they are as a person has fallen off the clinician’s radar.”
“We must ask patients what they want known about themselves as persons in order to provide the best care possible,” he said. “Without knowing who people are and the nature of their suffering, a commitment to person-centred care is only lip service.”
“In times of sickness and vulnerability, will all want and deserve not only health care, but health caring.”
In the speech when he accepted his Lifetime Achievement Award, 57-year-old Steve Kroft observed that he has always associated “lifetime achievement awards” with the Oscars, “when they wheel out a 96 year-old director, who is well past his prime, to recognize his work, decades after his last movie and just before he appears in the In Memoriam video segment. So, while it is incredibly humbling to be recognized in this way, and so meaningful that it is by my alma mater, I prefer to think of this as a “lifetime so far” achievement award, because I still have lots in the tank, and have lots more to do.”
A lawyer by training, the son of Senator Richard and Hillaine Kroft – following the example of his parents, has written a notable resumé for community service. Among the many organizations that he has been involved with are: the Assiniboine Park Conservancy, the United Way of Winnipeg, the Business Council of Manitoba. CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, the University of Manitoba’s Advisory Council, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, the Asper Community Campus board, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg and the Prairie Theatre Exchange. He is currently National Vice Chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and a member of the Board of Directors of the True North Youth Foundation, where he also serves as Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee.
Two years ago, he was awarded the Sol Kanee Distinguished Community Service Medal, the highest honour bestowed on a member of Manitoba’s Jewish Community.
In his speech to students, alumni, professors and community leaders on September 19, Kroft courageously tackled the curse of cancel culture at many universities over the past few years.
“One of the things on my list of possibilities since we sold our business two years ago,” he noted, “was to enrol in a university class or two. But I have wondered whether today’s university campus is one on which I could flourish, or even feel completely comfortable. And it’s this issue that I’d like to spend my last few minutes at the podium speaking about this evening.”
He reminisced about his university days when students and faculty would debate all kinds of issues. “Our classes were as diverse then as they are now,” he remembered. “We would take our best crack at making our case, and then listen to others make their arguments, and try to convince them why they were wrong. Quite often we would each move a little in our thinking, but when we didn’t, we would agree to disagree and then we’d go – often together – for a beer. Discourse was civil and respectful. And perhaps most importantly, we felt free to say what we wanted to say without fear of being ostracized – or as one would say today – of being cancelled.
“Somewhere along the way,” he pointed out. “Campuses across North America have come to be made up of not a collection of independent thinking individuals, but rather a collection of groups by which individuals identify themselves and by which they identify others. These groups are often based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, but also on things like the perceived haves and have nots. Too often today, positions are presented, or worse yet, assumed, as group positions, and there is little or no interest in discussion or debate. If one is not part of the group, their views are just deemed to be wrong, or out of touch, with little or no exchange of dialogue or ideas. And worse yet, in too many cases, the declaration is not merely that one position is without merit, but that those who hold that different viewpoint are being hurtful or offensive.”
He noted that he has spent a significant part of his life working with others to help people from diverse backgrounds in their quests to make their lives a little better. “I have the utmost respect for those whose instincts are to protect individuals who have traditionally been misrepresented, under-represented or mistreated,” he said.
“But, at the same time, we have to recognize that this “groupification,” and the over-implementation of policies to guard against potential discomfort caused to any group can and is having unintended consequences, and this is especially the case on university campuses. Well-meaning people have become reluctant or outright scared to ask questions, challenge opinions or even use the wrong word, for fear of being cancelled or worse. Being criticized by one individual is one thing, but to be under intense fire from an entire group is quite another.
“We need to restore an environment in which competing ideas can be debated openly and respectfully but, at the same time, I want to be clear that under no circumstances is there a place for hate or intimidation on campus.”
We need to restore an environment in which competing ideas can be debated openly and respectfully, but at the same time I want to be clear that under no circumstances is there a place for hate or intimidation on campus. I am a strong believer in freedom of speech and academic freedom. And it is on university campuses where such speech rightly belongs. However, when people occupy a space without permission or hijack an event to denigrate, threaten or denounce a group because of their race, religion or sexual orientation – whether that be at a university quad or during a valedictory address, university administrators must act and perpetrators must be held to account. The distinction between free speech based on facts, and hateful and intimidating speech based on lies, is not as blurry as some make it out to be. It is incumbent on our administrators and our security services to make those distinctions quickly and decisively. A university campus should be a place where we can challenge ideas and policies without attacking people for who they are.”
In concluding, he asked his audience to take his message as a positive one, “I truly believe,” he stated, “that we are uniquely positioned at the University of Manitoba – because of the diversity within our province -to lead other universities in finding the right balance between open dialogue and respect. We are Winnipeggers and Manitobans after all. Every successful project we have taken on in this city and province, has succeeded because we have tackled it together. Whether it’s a museum, a university capital campaign, a new concert hall on campus; or a new cancer research institute, an addictions centre or a camp for underserved youth, we are always determined to do it better than anyone else has done it, anywhere. Our greatest achievements have come by bringing people of different backgrounds and circumstances together toward a common goal.”
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Limmud speaker Dan Ronis to introduce alternative way of learning about Jewish history
By MYRON LOVE The study of Jewish history – actually history in general – can be approached in any number of ways. There is the traditional yeshiva way of study, for example. Or, there is the conventional, modern, secular approach – as exemplified by Daniel Kroft (who was profiled in the last edition of the Jewish Post) – who accessed online lectures and university courses as well as readings to prepare himself for the launch of his relatively new Jewish history podcast.
Dan Ronis, who, like Kroft, will be presenting at Lummud Winnipeg on Sunday, March 23, is taking a decidedly different tack in learning about and teaching aspects of Jewish history.
A plant breeder and plant geneticist by training, Ronis, who currently lives in Saskatoon, will be giving two presentations at Limmud. His afternoon seminar will be about presenting Jewish history through the lens of a board game – specifically a visual recreation of the 70 CE Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Now board games recreating historical battles have been around for decades. (I remember as a teenager recreating the Allies’ D Day invasion of Normandy in June, 1944.)
“I have always loved chess and other board games involving strategy,” Ronis says. “With board games that recreate significant historic battles, you can actually see the disposition of the different armies in relation to each other. You can visualize the Roman siege towers, for example, the battering rams. You can visualize Judean forces sneaking out of the besieged city from time to time to launch surprise attacks on the enemy. It helps the players to understand how hard it was for both sides.“
(Ronis notes that there are other board games emulating each of the wars of modern Israel.)
Ronis’s morning presentation will be more esoteric” “No Forbidden Fruit – No Angry God” – which is also the title of one of two books he has written – the other being “Women of the Hebrew Bible: Their Stories”, (both of which are available on Amazon).
“No Forbidden Fruit – No Angry God” tells the stories of the Torah, from information he has gleaned through the practice of “channeling” through a professional medium.
“The women and men who led the way of faith, are more magnificent than is told in our writings,” Ronis claims. “That is what I believe after composing two channelled books which present those people and the events in a different light. I am pleased to be able to share some of these stories at Limmud.”
For readers who may be unsure of who or what a medium is, think of Theresa Caputo of television fame. Mediums claim to be able to converse with those who have passed on through a spirit guide. While many may be skeptical, there are also many believers.
Be that as it may, what Ronis has learned through his medium about the personalities in the Torah is certainly food for thought.
The medium through whom he gained his information is Donna Somerville, with whom he first came into contact while working for McCain Foods in New Brunswick as a potato breeder.
“I got to know some people who had consulted Donna and found what she had to say interesting,” he recalls. “Three or four years ago, I went to see her about some relationship issues and family matters. We became good friends.”
So, a few short years ago, Ronis – who grew up in Washington, D.C. within a Reform family, decided to see if Somerville, who now lives in Halifax, could also channel biblical figures. “We had nine or ten sessions and the results were fascinating,” he recalls. “She described real people.”
The sessions, he notes, focused largely on the five books of Moses. He reports, for example, that she vouched for the reality of Adam and Eve – but suggested that Noah was an amalgam of three God-fearing men who each built arks. One of the three was the story-teller.
He adds that the flood was largely restricted to the northern hemisphere.
“My questions were open-ended,” he says. “Donna, for example, provided intriguing new information about the story of Esther.”
Ronis notes that he was particular interested in stories of women in that long ago era because they have been largely overlooked in Jewish writing.
For the first book he recounts, he recorded the sessions on audio and video before transcribing the information. For the second book, he had free software which allowed him to change the text on the fly.
Readers who may be interested in attending Limmud this year can call 204 557-6260 or email coordinator@limmudwinnipeg.org. Ticket prices are $55 for the full day (which includes lunch and snacks) or $30 for a half day.
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Congregation Etz Chayim’s new Chief Operating Officer is embracing the meaning of Jewish life
By MYRON LOVE In her new role as the Chief Operating Officer of Congregation Etz Chayim, Morissa Granove is focused on the future of synagogue life. She is also committed to creating meaningful Jewish experiences for herself, the synagogue’s members, and Winnipeg’s Jewish community. “We will be working to create something special for everyone at every age with a special focus on engaging the younger members of our community,” she says.
Granove, who was appointed to the position just six weeks ago, is herself an example of a younger person who has rediscovered meaning in community and has taken on a leadership role. It is heartening to see a growing number of younger community members assuming leadership roles in our communal institutions and bodes well for the future of our Jewish community.
The daughter of Bruce and Dina z”l Granove, Morissa grew up in Garden City. She attended Peretz School, Talmud Torah, and Joseph Wolinsky until the end of Grade 9, before attending high school at Garden City Collegiate. After finishing school, she joined her father in business at the Work Boot Factory Outlet Store Ltd. on Regent Avenue, which first opened in 1989. Over the years, Morissa came to assume the management responsibilities.
In 2015, she reports, she stepped back from day-to-day management of the business. Her father Bruce was retired, and her wife, Laurie McCreery, took charge of the daily operations, while Morissa continued to have input and oversee things from afar.
Morissa Granove has been on a spiritual quest since 2003. She notes that she has studied various Eastern philosophies and healing practices over the past 20 plus years. In 2015, she began a private practice that she still maintains in which she helps others overcome being overwhelmed emotionally, using easy-to-learn skills and simple steps that continue to support Morissa herself daily. “I was learning what it means to live a truly good life, and as a deeply sensitive person, I was seeking out how to better control my emotions so they would no longer control me,” she says. Many of the same skills that have supported her personally were also key to her success in business, she adds.
While Granove grew up attending the Beth Israel Synagogue, which later merged with Congregation Etz Chayim (and the Bnay Abraham Synagogue) 25 years ago. She, as with many of her contemporaries, had drawn away from Jewish life as it relates to synagogue attendance. It was the sudden passing of her mother, Dina z”l, that brought her back to shul, she explains.
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“I found coming back here after mom died gave me a great sense of comfort and a strong feeling of belonging,” she recalls. “I didn’t expect that.”
Initially, she took on the role as the Etz Chayim’s “Spiritual Concierge & Director of Lifecycle Events.” “I am looking forward to building on our traditions and history,” she says.
It is just over a year since Congregation Etz Chayim moved into its new home at 1155 Wilkes Avenue in south Winnipeg, after 70 years on Matheson Avenue in north Winnipeg. The move was a long time coming. The building needed a lot of upgrading and, with 70% of the membership and 80% of the younger families living south, it made sense to relocate to where the membership is.
“By being closer to our membership, it has made it easier for more people to be involved.” the new Chief Operating Officer notes, “We are getting good numbers coming for Shabbat services. We are seeing more people coming by the office. We are getting a steady stream of new people coming in for exploratory visits, and we are having more young families getting involved in our incredible programs.”
Granove has observed that moving Etz Chayim south has turned out to be so much more than simply moving from point A to point B. Rather, she notes, “the move gave us the opportunity to look at how we can operate more efficiently and effectively. This is so much more than a new location. It is a new opportunity.” At the new Etz Chayim, she continues, “we are able to offer meaningful Jewish events and programming for all age groups in a convenient location.”
She cites, for example, the synagogue’s new USY (United Synagogue Youth) program – in conjunction with the USCJ (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism) – of which Etz Chayim is a member – for teens which, she reports, has drawn a good number of participants, and is growing. She has also had requests for more seniors’ programming and is excited to be working on some new initiatives for the coming months. As she often says, “Stay tuned.”
“I have been wondering for some time if the synagogue (in the generic sense) could go back to the days when it was a centre of community life,” she muses. “I think we can!”
“I hope that our members come to view Etz Chayim as a home away from home for themselves and their family, just as I have,” Granove says. “I am committed to working for our community and we will continue to create more and more reasons for others to choose Congregation Etz Chayim as a home for their religious needs and community connection.”
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Young pediatrician Daniel Kroft and his Jewish history podcast
By MYRON L0VE It has been said that if you want to make sure to get something done, give the task to the busiest person in the room. That adage would certainly apply to Daniel Kroft.
Although only 30 years old, Daniel, the son of community leaders Jonathan and Dr. Cara Kroft, has emulated both of his parents by being a community leader as well as a pediatrician. In the former category, Daniel is a member of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s Community Planning Committee (His father, Jonathan, is a Past President of the Federation).
The younger Kroft is also a co-founder of the Manitoba Maccabim – a young Jewish advocacy group. He recently joined Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Manitoba, in a presentation to the Internal Medicine Department of Health Sciences Center on the subject of antisemitism.
Professionally, the Gray Academy graduate (class of 2012) is a member of a clinic run out of St. Boniface Hospital, is on staff at the Children’s Hospital, puts in time at the Health Sciences Centre, and serves as a consultant pediatrician at Brandon’s regional hospital. He also takes trips to northern Manitoba to offer his services.
In addition, he is a member of the Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba.
With all that on his plate, you wouldn’t think that Kroft would have time for much else. If so, you would be wrong. Four years ago, he launched a new initiative, a podcast – “The Jewish Story” – intended to teach interested listeners about Jewish history.
The idea came to him, he says, back in 2021, when he was still a medical student. “It was the time when Black Lives Matter was in the news,” he recalls. “At med school, we were learning all about Black history and Indigenous history. I realized that I actually didn’t know much about my own Jewish history.”
The first source he turned to was the Anglo-Jewish historian Simon Schama and his book, “The Story of the Jews”. He followed up with online courses from Oxford and Harvard as well as a lecture series led by prominent historian Henry Abramson.
Setting up a podcast, he notes, required another learning curve. “It takes me about a year to do the research and organize my podcasts,” he reports. “I had to learn how to do a podcast and about which equipment to buy. I set up a recording studio in a room in my house.”
On his website (rss.com/podcasts/thejewishstory/), Kroft describes “The Jewish Story” as “a Jewish history podcast for the 21st century”. “We use the latest in archaeology, linguistics and historical methods to sculpt the history of the Jewish People from the exodus from Egypt until the present,” he notes.
He started his series of podcasts going back to the beginning – from the earliest evidence of Jewish existence through the establishment of the Jewish kingdom, its conflicts with neighbouring empires, to its destruction by the Babylonians.
And that is just the first episode.
The first season – seven episodes – encompassed Jewish history up to and including the Roman invasion of Jerusalem and destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE. Kroft points out that some of his podcasts feature guest commentators. In his first season, for example, in the third episode, he interviews Rabbi Matthew Leibl about the relevance to modern Jewish life of the first eight centuries of Jewish history.
In the seventh episode, he discusses with his former elementary school teacher, Sherry Wolfe Elazar ,what lessons modern Jews can learn from the Greco-Roman period for Jewish history.
The second series of podcasts focuses on the development of Jewish life in the first centuries after the Diaspora and the effects of the new Christian and Muslim religions on the Jewish people. The seventh and last episode of season two features Rabbi Anibal Mass, the spiritual leader of the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, talking about a wide range of subjects ,including the breakaway Karaites, he definition of Jewish music, and how technology has shaped modern Jewish practice.
The third season covers the 11th-15th centuries while the most recent series of episodes spans the period from 1500 to 1650. Kroft reports that the next group of podcasts will provide an overview of Jewish life in the 17th and early 18th centuries, including the beginnings of Jewish life in North America.
I asked Kroft when he finds the time to work on his podcasts. His response: in his spare time – weekends and holidays.
The podcaster reports that when he started, he was getting 30-40 listeners per episode. Now his numbers are up to 200-300 from all over the world.
For readers who may want to hear Daniel Kroft’s story in person, he will be one of the presenters at the upcoming Limmud Winnipeg. Kroft will be presenting on Sunday, March 23, at 1:30 at the Campus.
For more information aboutLimmud, contact coordinator@limmudwinnipeg.org or 204-557-6260