By MYRON LOVE The creative process when it comes to art can take a number of different forms.  For Aaron Rosenblatt, for example, his is the art of designing and building furniture.
Among the pieces that the son of Roberta and Fred Rosenblatt has produced are a framed mirror, a standing lamp with a geometric base,  wine containers, wall shelves, a hanging coat rack, a wall clock and board with hooks for keys.
“I enjoy experimenting with different patterns,” he says.  “I take pictures of building features and nature – anything that catches my eye.”
Rosenblatt’s fascination with designing and building furniture was piqued in an unusual way.  For many years, the graduate of the Brock Corydon Hebrew Bilingual program and Kelvin High School was a passionate skateboarder.  He was drawn to furniture design through the example of a couple of fellow skateboarders he much admired who themselves were building furniture.
“I decided that I wanted to try it,” he recalls.
That was 10 years ago.
Rosenblatt borrowed some money from his parents and bought himself a drill, mitre saw, router and table saw and was soon on his way.  “I began learning through trial and error,” he recounts. “Once I started, I found that the more involved I got, the more I wanted to learn.
”I find cutting wood and doing the sanding relaxing.”
For the first few years, Rosenblatt worked out of his parents’ River Heights garage.  Last year, he moved his woodworking equipment into his Uncle Hymie’s basement in north Winnipeg.
”I have a lot more space now and can help  my uncle out, driving him to appointments,” he says.
Rosenblatt’s day job is working for the City of Winnipeg Community Services at a leisure centre with a gym and library.  He works at his furniture building on his days off on Mondays and Tuesdays.
He reports that it takes him about a month to design and build a piece of furniture.  He sources his wood from lumber and hardware stores and occasionally lucks out and finds a block of wood on the boulevard  from a tree that was recently cut down.
He notes that he only began selling his finished products a couple of years ago.  Previously, he was giving them away to friends and co-workers as gifts.  That has led to some demand, he reports.
”I am marketing my pieces on social media – mainly  Instagram,” he notes.  ”I have sold a few pieces and demand is beginning to grow.
”While I enjoy my  work at the leisure centre, it would be nice if one day I could devote myself full time to designing and building furniture.”

If you’d like to see more samples of Aaron’s creations on Instagram, go to https://www.instagram.com/arwoodcrafts/
Readers who may want to contact Rosenblatt can send him  an email at aaronrose1983@gmail.com or phone 204 299-3903.

By MYRON LOVE “Winnipeg is a much better city now than when I first came here,” observes Howard Kideckel.  “In truth, it was rather depressing.  But now, there is a lot more going on and the community is much more diverse.”
The former Torontonian who moved here close to 40 years ago is one of those who has made our community better by his presence – and our community has been the richer for it.  On September 26, our community is expressing its gratitude to Kideckel – and not for the first time.   This year,  Kideckel is the Gwen Secter Creative Retirement Centre’s honoree for one of  our Jewish Federation’s annual Kavod Awards – to be presented at the newly-reopened and expanded Shaarey Zedek Synagogue.  This will be Kideckel’s scond Kavod Award. He was previously nominated by the Federation.
There are few Jewish community institutions which have not benefitted from this quintessential community volunteer’s involvement and leadership.   Take Etz Chayim for example. He has been an active member almost from the moment he came to Winnipeg – including serving a term as president.
At Gwen Secter, he is the treasurer.
He is on the Federation Planning Committee and canvasses for the CJA. 
He is treasurer of Limmud Winnipeg and played a key role in the organization receiving its charitable registration.
He is a regular attendee at the shul at the beach in the summer months. 
And he has served on the board of the Chesed Shel Emes.  In fact, almost anyone who has attended funerals at any of our community’s four main cemeteries will have come across Howard Kideckel.  He would have most likely been one of the volunteer  pallbearers.
As far back as he can remember, Kideckel has always been involved in the Jewish community.  As he wrote in his entry in the Jewish Foundation’s Endowment Book of Life, the grandson of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from what is now PoIand and Latvia grew up in downtown Toronto. The high school that he attended – although once 95% Jewish – was still about 30% Jewish when he was in Grade 10.  From the time he was six, he was a regular visitor to the neighbourhood YMHA .  He attended Jewish summer camps and, as a young adult, joined a B’nai Brith chapter.
At the University in Toronto, he was active in Hillel – which is how he met his wife-to-be, the former Hope Jeroff, who was originally from Winnipeg. (Howard and Hope remain on friendly terms althugh they have long since divorced.) 

At university, he earned a BA Honours degree in history and political science and first thought that he would try teaching.  “I quickly learned that there was little demand for history teachers, so I switched to accounting,” he recalls.
After completing his honours degree in history and political science, Kideckel entered the Faculty of Education and received a teaching degree in business education. He taught accounting and law at university for a couple of years before he and Hope decided to move back (for Hope) to Winnipeg.
“We felt that Winnipeg would be more conducive to raising children and slowing down our hectic pace,” he says.  “While I didn’t know that much about Winnipeg,” he continues, “I did know the reputation of Winnipeg’s north end as it was very reminiscent of the Toronto area that I grew up in. One of my terms for moving to Winnipeg was to live in the ‘north end,’ so we moved to the extended north end, and I have never regretted it. The feelings of a warm Jewish community emanated from this end of town. I could never get enough of Selkirk Avenue and all the other streets that serve as a shrine to immigrant Jewish culture. I found Winnipeg to be a very cosmopolitan and compassionate community. The friendliness of the population, as well as their desire to have quality in their education and cultural facilities was, and still is, very uplifting.”

In Winnipeg, Kideckel went to work as an internal auditor for the Province of Manitoba.  He worked for the province for 32 years before  retiring 14 years ago.
“It was a great job,” he recalls.  “I got to travel all over Manitoba.”
Once in Winnipeg, Kideckel quickly picked up where he left off in  Toronto when it came to Jewish community involvement.  He joined B’nai Brith and the former Rosh Pina Synagogue (which became Etz Chayim after the merger of the three largest north end congregations in 2001.)
He quickly became an integral part of his new community.
 
“I have always had a strong commitment to Judaism and I devote virtually all my volunteer time to Jewish organizations,” he wrote in his Endowment Book of Life entry.  “I understand how important it is that our community has sufficient resources to enable it to meet its obligations in the future. These resources are not only financial but also human in the form of volunteering. Winnipeg is probably the best city in Canada when it comes to people volunteering their time so that those not as fortunate can be serviced.”
Adds the father of two (David and Brent) and zaida of three, “We have good people here, but we are always in need of more volunteers.”

(CJN, August 22) More than 100 synagogues, Jewish institutions and some hospitals across Canada were the targets of an emailed bomb threat early on the morning of Aug. 21.
The Federal Policing National Security Program is investigating the source of the threats, the RCMP stated.
In Toronto, police said they attended buildings in the Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue area. The buildings were evacuated as a precaution and cleared, police said.
In Montreal, at least a dozen Jewish houses of worship were targeted, reported The Canadian Press. The city’s Adath Israel Synagogue was among the institutions that received the email. It was was evacuated and inspected by police.
Several hospitals in Ottawa also received the bomb threat but were cleared by police.
An organization named “COURT” said it was behind the mass emailed threats
The emails stated “We placed many explosives inside your building…. The bombs are set to go off in a few hours. You will all end up in a pool of blood, none of you deserve to keep living.”

A similar email signed by “COURT” was sent to a group of malls and hospitals in New Delhi, India yesterday, without any reference to anything Jewish, according to The Times of India. No explosives were found in those instances.  
B’nai Brith Canada’s Toronto office received the threat in a general email inbox and on the advice of police, evacuated the building, while waiting for police to sweep it for bombs, said Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy. B’nai Brith has also been in contact with police in Montreal and York Region, he said.
The threat was the first one the organization has received since Oct. 7, but Robertson said he wasn’t surprised that it happened.
“This underscores the need for greater change with our leadership across the country and the handling of antisemitism. Things like this don’t occur in a vacuum. This is the result of a devolving situation that we’ve been witnessing for months. It was only a matter of time before the incidents we’ve been seeing playing out on streets across the country morphed into a threat like this,” he told The CJN.
B’nai Brith is still reaching out to community partners, but Richardson said the people he’s spoken with are “shocked.”
“Nobody wants to wake up to a bomb threat against their institution. People are shocked but nobody is surprised. We’ve been a community that’s been under siege, facing a wave of unsustainable hate for months now.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said in a statement that it had been in contact with law enforcement and the emails posed “no imminent threat.”
“All indications point to these threats being nuisance emails designed to disrupt lives,” the advocacy group said. “Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated—we will continue to take part in Jewish life. We will stay vigilant but we will never be intimidated.”

In Winnipeg, both the Shaarey Zedek and Temple Shalom indicated that they had received the threats.
An email sent out by Temple Shalom contained the following:
Many of you may already be aware that there was a serious threat to over 100 Jewish organizations across Canada today, August 21, 2024. Temple Shalom was one of the organizations specifically targeted. Staff from Shaarey Zedek immediately notified the Police. Steve contacted me to let me know this and to let me know that Shaarey Zedek staff had gone home. We cancelled Temple meetings and activities scheduled for today and Steve went home. This afternoon, the police came to the Temple and ensured us that it was safe for people to return to the building. We are grateful that we have developed robust safety protocols and installed numerous security devices over the past few years for unfortunate incidents like this.

The Jewish Federation and the community including institutional leaders and rabbis are working together and working with law enforcement to ensure the safety and security of us all.

This was an act of cowardice that was done to create chaos and fear. We will continue to provide services and programming — this will not disrupt our community. Please know that the safety of our congregation and staff is our top priority. But we will not live in fear; we will continue to stand strong and maintain a vibrant Jewish presence in Winnipeg.