Local News
Jake Tapper reflects on his role as a CNN anchor and his search in vain for a connection to any Winnipeg Tappers
By BERNIE BELLAN Jake Tapper is a very well-known CNN anchor (and chief Washington correspondent) whose manner is totally opposite from the firebrands who populate Fox News.
Whereas individuals such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson thrive on inflaming their audiences, Tapper’s soothing tone and low-key style serves to calm his audience. However, while Tapper may appeal to the type of liberal audience that attended the most recent Kanee lecture on June 2nd, according to a recent report in Forbes magazine, Fox is trouncing CNN in the ratings. After listening to Tapper deliver what was, in essence, a review of the way in which Donald Trump was responsible for the assault on the US Capitol for on January 6, 2021, which was undoubtedly totally familiar to members of the audience who might have expected him to offer a more illuminating or stimulating talk than he did – it’s not hard to understand why viewers have been tuning CNN out.
To be fair though, when it comes to delivering a lecture, an individual like Tapper, who no doubt is quite mindful of not straying too far afield from a moderate position, is not the kind of person who is likely going to offer great insight into the issues of the day.
Such was the case on Wednesday evening, June 2nd, when approximately 350 individuals attended this year’s Sol & Florence Kanee lecture at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue. (It was the first live in-person Kanee lecture in three years, with everyone in attendance required to produce proof of vaccination and remain fully masked for the entire evening.)
Prior to Tapper’s talk, Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada President Mark Kantor gave a brief rundown of the current state of the JHCWC. Kantor noted that the JHCWC has now achieved its goal of having raised $1 million for what is known as the Norman and Florence Vickar Archival Fund at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.
Jake Tapper is first and foremost a reporter, and what he proceeded to do during his 45-minute talk was give a summary of the events that had led up to the current situation the very moment he was speaking – when, he said, the fact that the Congressional hearings into the January 6 insurrection were going to be televised live the next night meant that he was unable to be in Winnipeg in person.
Before moving on to a discussion of the events of January 6 and the fallout thereafter, Tapper amused the audience with stories of his ancestry, including having had a great-grandfather who, for a very short time (four days) served as mayor of Winnipeg. It was in his quest to find out more about his roots that, Tapper explained, he actually got in touch with the Jewish Heritage Centre. One thing led to another and JHCWC Executive Director Belle Jarniewski ended up inviting Tapper to deliver this year’s Kanee lecture.
Tapper noted that he became interested in exploring his ancestry during the first year of the Covid pandemic, when he had more time on his hands than usual, and he became involved in doing a story about ancestry.com. He went on to explain that he had been told that he might be related to some Tappers in Winnipeg, but after researching the subject – partly with the assistance of the JHCWC, he realized that what he had been told was wrong.
Thus, he declared to the audience: “I’m talking to you tonight entirely because of a mistake.”
Further, Tapper explained that while his father is Jewish, his mother had converted to Judaism. It turns out that members of his mother’s family had actually fought in the American Revolution, Tapper discovered in doing research on his ancestry.
“They did fight in the Revolutionary War – but on the ‘wrong’ side,” he disclosed. As a result, “they fled to Canada,” hence his Winnipeg connection through his mother’s grandfather (whose name, by the way, was David Dyson).
An anchor with CNN since 2013, Tapper also serves as CNN’s Chief Washington Correspondent. In that capacity he’s been deeply involved in reporting on the incredible story of an incumbent president trying to overturn the results of a democratic election – which we’re now witnessing unraveling in prime time.
Yet, unlike a historian such as Margaret MacMillan, who offered profound insights into the chaos ensuing in the aftermath of World War I four years ago during her own Kanee lecture, someone like Tapper is perhaps too closely enmeshed in the day to day events as they unfurl to offer the kind of perspective on events that perhaps a historian might have been able to deliver.
What he gave to the audience on June 2nd instead was a fairly long overview of how we got to where we are, but without offering any analysis of what the longterm consequences will be of having had a scoundrel of such epic proportions as Donald J. Trump in the White House for four years.
Tapper noted that early on in his presidency Trump declared that “journalists are the enemy of the people,” but in saying that, Tapper suggested, Trump “put people’s lives at risk.”
“I’m amazed that no journalists were killed during Trump’s presidency,” he admitted, with the exception of Ahmad Khashoggi, who was likely killed by the Saudis because Mohammed Bin Salman knew that Trump could care less about the murder of a Saudi journalist.
“Something else was lost” during the Trump presidency, Tapper observed: “facts and the truth.”
Tapper noted that Trump had a specific purpose in attacking journalists, which Trump revealed when he said to a group of journalists, “I do it to discredit you all, so that when you write critically about me, you’ll be discredited.”
During an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” correspondent Leslie Stahl, Trump delved deeper into his methods (but after the cameras were turned off), Tapper said. Trump told Stahl that he was going to treat “any negative polls as ‘fake news’,” adding that “if it’s bad I say it’s fake, but if it’s good I say that it’s the most accurate poll ever.”
For Tapper, the ongoing war between Democrats and Republicans in the United States is “not about Republicans versus Democrats, it’s about truth versus lies.”
Yet, Trump did accomplish some good things during his presidency, Tapper acknowledged, including helping to bring about the “Abraham Accords” and pushing for the rapid development of vaccines to combat Covid-19 with a plan that was labeled “Operation Warp Speed.”
“It’s ironic that Operation Warp Speed saved millions of lives,” Tapper noted, so “Why didn’t he (Trump) fully embrace the vaccination program then?”
“He was vaccinated in secret before he left office,” Tapper added. “It was his handling of Covid that cost him the election.”
At that point in his talk Tapper delved into a very detailed review of events immediately preceding the January 6 insurrection. I continued to take copious notes but, in reviewing them I’ve said to myself: “Who doesn’t know the details of what happened immediately following the US election on November 3, 2020?” I suppose someone totally indifferent to world events might not know that Trump tried to claim that the election was “stolen”, but, in any event, there’s no need to regurgitate Tapper’s detailed chronology of those events here. (I do have them in my notes, though. If you want to hear what Tapper had to say give me a call and I’ll read you my notes about that part of his talk.)
Tapper did offer some suggestions as to why it’s important to continue to examine those fateful days between November 2, 2020 and January 6, 2021, saying: “It’s important to have clarity, it’s important to say lying is not good.”
Tapper quoted the very brave Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who said that the lie Trump told – and has continued to tell “is a lie that’s going to be deployed in the future.”
“We must stand up for the facts,” Tapper declared. “Facts are messy and inconvenient…but in order to push a narrative you have to have facts….News media should be committed to facts and ignore the narratives.”
As an illustration of how people commit to a certain narrative – such as that Joe Biden has to be supported no matter what, Tapper said that he’s been told that “if you ask tough questions about Biden’s handling of the economy, you must be for Trump.”
There was one point in Tapper’s lecture when he actually mentioned a term which I, along with most others in the audience, had probably never heard before, when he referred to something known as the “Overton Window.”
That term, he explained, refers to “the range of policies that are acceptable to discuss” at a certain point in time. It was inconceivable to discuss the emancipation of the slaves until a certain period in American history, Tapper noted.
Now, it is possible to discuss “reparations for slaves”, “defunding the police” and, perhaps most alarmingly, “disenfranchising the voters of Pennsalvania and Wisconsin” by disallowing huge numbers of perfectly legal ballots, which is something “two-thirds of House Republicans voted to do,” Tapper observed.
“Trump’s plan is to overturn the results of the 2024 election if he or his chosen successor fails,” Tapper predicted. Consequently, “democracy in the US is at risk when so many voters have proven to be susceptible to lies.”
Tapper ended his lecture by quoting Thomas Jefferson, who had this to say about the importance of newspapers to democracy: “If I had to choose between government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I would choose the latter.”
Following Tapper’s remarks, he fielded questions from audience members. (I took notes until both the pens I had brought with me ran out of ink. At that point I left. I apologize if I’m omitting some good questions which I may have missed as a result. Honestly, the question and answer session was more illuminating than hearing Tapper’s remarks to that point, especially when he found himself squirming talking about his disgraced colleague, Chris Cuomo.)
By the way, that was the first question asked of Tapper: “What have you learned about integrity and honesty with what’s gone on at CNN?”
Tapper: “You have to learn to recuse yourself or be fully transparent. Nobody in journalism wants to be the story. You don’t want to have to answer questions like that” (the one just posed to him).
Question: “As bad as Trump is are we going to see worse?”
Tapper: “I am more afraid that there are Republicans who have been going on with the ‘big lie’.”
Question: “How can you remain objective?”
Tapper: “The question is: ‘Are you aware of your biases?’ Do you try to understand points of view other than your own?”
Question: “How does a reporter handle what you’ve seen in Ukraine?” (Tapper spent two weeks in May reporting from Ukraine.)
Answer: “A lot of news organizations remind us that if we need to talk to people (about what we’ve seen), we have people there for you – but let’s remember first responders face the same problem.”
Tapper was then asked a question about a possible connection to some Jewish Tappers from Winnipeg.
He responded that “I looked for months to try to find a connection with the Jewish Tappers of Winnipeg. We even went so far as to try to get someone (from Winnipeg) to take a DNA test.” (Apparently that endeavour was aborted when it became clear that it was fruitless.)
Question: “What do you think is going to happen in the mid-term elections?” (Afterwards, someone suggested to me that it would likely be impossible to find an American audience anywhere that would want to hear from a Canadian journalist about Canadian politics.)
Tapper: “We haven’t lost our democracy yet. The guardrails buckled, but they’ve held. We have to remain vigilant…but I’m not applying for Canadian citizenship. I don’t know that things are going to get worse.”
Question: “Have you felt any anti-Semitism at CNN?”
Tapper answered that he’s experienced anti-Semitism most pronouncedly on social media – from “both the right and the left.” He noted, however, that his colleague Ben Shapiro, who presents quite clearly as a conservative on most issues, has also been subjected to anti-Semitic attacks from both the right and the left.
Tapper added thought that the roughest period for him as a Jewish reporter was when he was covering the Israel-Gaza war (I’m not sure to which one he was referring. It was probably the war in 2014, which lasted almost seven weeks – one which I also personally experienced.) when he came under attack for both being too critical of Israel and too supportive.
Yet he added, with reference to any anti-Semitism he may have experienced, “compared to what my female colleagues who are Latino or Asian go through, it’s nothing.”
In retrospect, thinking about how I began this report of Jake Tapper’s lecture, perhaps I was a shad too dismissive of what he had to say. It would have been unfair to expect him to offer the kind of learned wisdom that a Margaret MacMillan was able to impart – 100 years after the end of World War I, about the long term effects of that war.
Still, there are commentators out there, including on CNN – such as Fareed Zakaria, who specialize in offering deep insight into the issues of the day. And maybe next year whoever is invited won’t have to use the excuse that he was called upon to anchor his network’s coverage of congressional hearings as a reason not to appear in person. Say Jake, when did you actually decide you weren’t going to be coming to Winnipeg? I dare say it was long before you knew you were going to be anchoring CNN’s coverage of the congressional hearings, wasn’t it?
Local News
Long-time Winnipeg doctor and Israeli colleague make medical app available to general public
By MYRON LOVE Seven years ago, Dr. Gerald Minuk, Canada’s first hepatologist (liver specialist), partnered with Israeli computer science student Daniel Iluz-Freundlich in founding Refuah Solutions Ltd (RSL). Their goal was to create an app – which they called PI-enroll (“PI” stands for “Principal Investigator”), which was designed to be used by clinical trial investigators that would save them time and effort so they could be more personally involved in seeing their trial patients.
Last month, they released their second app, this time for patients. The app, called Patient-empower, informs patients about clinical trials underway for their condition and helps them make an informed decision as to which trial best meets their specific needs and preferences.
“I was approaching retirement,” recalls Minuk, now Rady School of Medicine Professor Emeritus, who has been in practice in Winnipeg since 1987, and “I couldn’t see myself filling my days doing crossword puzzles or Sudoku. I wanted to be able to continue contributing to medical research and patient care.”
It just so happened that, at the time, Minuk was introduced to an Israeli student, Daniel Iluz-Freundlich, who had just finished studying Computer Sciences at the University of Winnipeg. (Minuk notes that Iluz-Freundlich – on graduating – received the Gold Medal in Computer Science.)
“Daniel is an exceptionally talented young man,” Minuk says. “So I tapped his computer programming skills to create our PI-enroll and subsequently, our Patient-empower apps.”
The friendship continued after Iluz-Freundlich returned to Israel in 2020 to begin medical school on a Phil and Elle Kives Scholarship, where he earned numerous honors. Iluz-Freundlich is currently an intensivist anesthesiologist at the Beilinson Hospital in Israel. Despite his new professional responsibilities, including caring for IDF forces wounded in Gaza– he has remained active with Refuah – as vice-president of the company.
Minuk adds that a dozen other senior professors of medicine also contributed to Refuah’s software design. “Together,” he reports, “the company represents 400+ years of clinical trial experience. That experience is being applied to identifying and addressing the major challenges investigators and patients face when conducting or participating in clinical trials.”`
He adds that Refuah Solutions has established a truly global network with company personnel in San Diego, São Paulo, Mexico City, London, Barcelona, Nairobi and Delhi thus far.
According to Minuk, the company has enjoyed worldwide success – with over 2,000 doctors in 40 countries and 50 drug companies signed on for the PI-enroll app. He attributes this success to the app’s impressive results. In a recent global clinical trial, Minuk reports, within 3-6 months of implementing PI-enroll, investigator personal involvement increased by 60% and with that, patient enrolment increased by 80%, patient drop-outs decreased by 50% and there were 20% fewer protocol deviations (mistakes made). In addition, 90% of PIs rated the App 8 out of 10 in terms of usefulness.
He adds that one site that had not enrolled any patients for 12 months, subsequently became the trial’s leading enrolment site.
Regarding the newly released Patient-empower app, Minuk notes that despite the many benefits patients derive from clinical trials including free and early access to new and often safer and more effective treatments, fewer than 10% of patients who would qualify for a clinical trial are ever invited to consider that option. “The problem,” he explains, “is that most Health Care Providers are either unaware of what clinical trials are underway in their area or if they are aware, don’t have the time to discuss the trials with their patients.”
Therefore, Minuk, Iluz-Freundlich and their team designed and recently released their second app – Patient-empower – which informs patients of what clinical trials are underway for their condition and empowers them to select the trial that prioritizes their needs over those of industry.
The platform, he explains, uses AI to generate concise, easy-to-understand summaries of clinical trials tailored to the patient’s location—city, state, country, or globally, depending on their preference. Each summary includes clear explanations of the patient eligibility criteria and key practical details, such as the likelihood of patients receiving a placebo, the number of required site visits, and other important practical considerations. It also suggests questions that patients should consider asking the investigator before they consent to enrolling. The trial information is presented in a shareable format to facilitate discussions with family, friends, and local healthcare providers—supporting both patient confidence and continuity of care.
Once a trial is selected, Minuk continues, Patient-empower provides the contact information for the trial investigator closest to the patient’s location, the trial’s sponsor and, where available, the world’s experts in the field.
The feature Minuk is most enthusiastic about is the “Recent Findings” page which keeps patients up to date on newly published clinical trial results and discoveries relevant to their condition.
“Patient-empower is available to patients from internet venues (App Store or Google Play) or through NFP organizations, associations, societies and patient support group web-sites,” he adds. “Although only recently released, we have already attracted interest from the American Diabetes Association, the Alzheimer’s Society of America, the Canadian Liver Foundation, Colorectal Cancer Canada, the American Myasthenia Gravis Society and many others.”
“Overall, Patient-empower informs patients, and more informed patients benefit everyone involved. After all, it’s the patient’s health; their voice should be heard,” Minuk concludes.
Local News
The South Seas come to the Asper Campus
By MYRON LOVE On Thursday, July 24, about 150 members of our Jewish community got a chance to sample the dance and music of the South Pacific. The event was billed as “Beyachad Together – Celebrating Indigeneity, land, culture and identity.”
The program featured both the Sarah Sommer Chai Folk Ensemble dancers and Steinbach-based Island Breeze Manitoba – which describes itself as “a high energy live band & Pacific Island dance team featuring authentic outfits and dances from the islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand.”
According to Dr. Ruth Ashrafi, Regional Director of B’nai Brith Canada in Manitoba, the evening’s performance was connected to an Indigenous Peoples Conference that was held in Steinbach under the auspices of Island Breeze with participants from Canada, the United States (specifically Hawaii), Antigua and Bermuda in the Caribbean, South Africa, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific island countries of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Tonga.
“The conference organizers contacted B’nai Brith Canada,” Ashrafi reported. “They wanted to bring greetings to the Jewish community, as the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, and celebrate indigeneity together through dance and music.
“Their support in these difficult times is heartwarming.”
In her opening remarks as emcee for the evening, Ashrafi noted that “it is a great honour for the Jewish community to welcome so many indigenous guests from all over the world.”
She then related the story and miracle of Chanukah and connected it to the experience shared by many indigenous nations around the world.
“They have been told that their religion is wrong, their traditions are not sophisticated,” she pointed out, “just as the Jews of that time were told by the Greek rulers that our religion was wrong and our traditions were outdated.
“Here in Canada, the First Nations were forced into Residential Schools to learn Canadian ways. The manner in which they were taught in these schools was abusive and horrific. Many children died, and many more were scarred for life.
“As with the Maccabbees,” she continued, “courageous individuals have stood up and fought for rights of their indigenous brothers and sisters. They had to overcome a lot of resistance and other obstacles. Indigenous peoples are still over-represented in the Canadian prison system and social services.
“The story of Chanukah tells us that it is okay to be different from the majority culture,” she said, and “that special and unique traditions are important and worth preserving.
“The story of Chanukah also teaches us that fighting for our rights is not easy,” Ashrafi added. “We may be a tiny minority and the other side may be much more numerous, better organized and equipped. But if we take the first step, like deciding to use that little jar of oil (that burned in the Temple for weight days even though there was only a day’s supply), we will be helped along the way.”
“We put the Menorah in our front window,” she noted, “so that the light is shining into the dark winter nights. We want to share the story of the Chanukah miracle and we want to bring light into a world that has still so much darkness in it.”
Ashrafi’s words were followed by greetings from David Harper, a former Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief who spoke glowingly of his visit to Israel in 2014.
“Our faith teaches us that the People of Israel are the people of the Bible and we must bless them and pray for them,” he said. “My people have a lot to learn from the people of Israel about healing the land.”
Next, Ashrafi introduced Pastor Roger Armbruster whom, she described, as the man behind the vision for the evening. Armbruster, a strong Christian Zionist supporter of Israel, is the founder of Canada Awakening Ministries.
She said of Armbruster that “it is a privilege to be his friend. I have learned so much from you.”
According to Armbruster’s bio on the Canada Awakening Ministries website, “his life has been dedicated to a ministry of reconciliation, and of building bridges between cultures, nations, denominations and generations. He sees cross-cultural reconciliation as a key to making disciples of all nations, and in seeing God’s House become a House of Prayer for all nations.
“As director of Canada Awakening Ministries, he is a leader in facilitating Native-Non-native reconciliation, and in restoring the indigenous peoples of the land to reflect that part of God’s image that He has deposited in them in their sounds, songs, praise and dances.”
Armbruster attended the Inaugural World Christian Gathering of Indigenous People in New Zealand in November 1996 as well as gatherings in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1998, northern Sweden in 2005, and Israel in 2008. In his remarks, he noted that he has visited Israel numerous times over the years – often leading tour groups representing Canadian Inuit, Greenlandic Inuit and Manitoba First Nations at the northern ends of the earth, along with Maori, Fijians and Samoans from the southern ends of the earth – back to the City of Jerusalem from where the original gospel message first came.
“In Israel,” Armbruster said, “these Indigenous People have shared their language, their culture and their faith with both Jewish and Palestinian audiences alike. In one Israeli community, they even shared a message that brought hope to a joint audience of some 500 people that included both Jews and Arabs coming together.”
The dance part of the program was emceed by Isi Masi of Island Breezes. The musical program included several Hawaiian dances, including a rousing foot-stomping number,followed by performances featuring Hawaiian song and gentle movement. The final part of the island dances concluded with a brief Maori war chant.
(The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.)
The final part of the program included several high octave dances by our own – always outstanding – Sarah Sommer Chai Folk Ensemble, with all the performers singing “We Shall Overcome” and the audience invited to join in a round of Israel dancing.
Local News
Israeli-born realtor believes in paying it forward
By MYRON LOVE When Hofit Yanev and her husband, Stefan, first arrived in Winnipeg in May 2013, they knew no one here.
“We were looking for a safer environment in which to raise our children,” she recalls. “We thought that would be Canada, and Winnipeg seemed to be the most welcoming Jewish community.”
Despite not knowing anybody, on their first morning in our community they found that someone had left a challah on their doorstep. That was a small kindness that she has never forgotten. She is a strong believer in paying it forward. Ever since then, she notes, she has made sure to greet newcomers in our community with a challah.
Helping others – whether to buy and sell their homes or manage their money – is a principal focus of the thriving career she has built up here as a real estate agent and insurance adviser.
Sales has always been Hofit Yanev’s strong suit. Originally from Holon (near Tel Aviv), she began her sales career right after her army duty. Her first venture was selling Dead Sea and hair care products. (Some readers may remember the kiosks that used to be set up at some Winnipeg shopping centres some years back.) She worked a year in Chicago and four years in Miami before returning to Israel, where she met and married Stefan.
Soon after settling in Winnipeg, Hofit found work in sales, initially for an HVAC company (while Stefan became a long-distance truck driver and now operates Excellence Fences and Decks). “As I was doing very well in sales for this company,” she recounts, “after taking time following the birth of our third child, I decided to try selling houses.”
She secured her real estate license and went to work. After 18 months of trying, she was still struggling to make a go of it.
“I lacked experience,” she recalls. “I reached a point where I was ready to give up and go back to selling HVAC products.”
However, on what she thought would be her last day, she received two calls that revitalized her hopes. In quick succession, she recounts, she got a call from a former customer who wanted her to sell his house and a new customer who wanted her help in selling his house and buying another.
“I took it as a sign from God,” she says.
Today, eight years later, Yanev, working under the eXp Realty banner, oversees an operation with over 20 agents—nine of whom are on her team and the others working under her in the eXp umbrella.
“I achieved my dream,” she notes, “and I want to help others – either those looking to buy a home or fellow realtors starting out – to realize their dreams as well.”
She notes that she strives to understand what her clients’ needs are and provide the right homes for them. She reports that 70% of her real estate clients are members of our Jewish community. She deals with commercial as well as residential properties and adds that she also helps clients with long- and short-term rentals as well as car rentals.
About a year ago, she notes, she added another entry to her resumé – that of insurance adviser. “As a realtor, I could see how some people are struggling financially,” she says. “I wanted to help.”
As an insurance adviser, she works with single mothers, seniors, and others plagued by financial difficulty. “I advise clients on how to get out of financial trouble, how to save 10% of their net income, and build their savings.”
She makes it clear that she keeps a distinct separation between her real estate clients and her insurance clients.
Now, you would think that an individual working two careers – with five kids to raise (all of whom are enrolled in Jewish educational programs) – would have her hands full. Nonetheless, Yanev has a third avocation – that of a social events planner for fellow Israelis in Winnipeg and other Hebrew speakers.
“For the past six years,” she reports, “I have been producing five programs a year in our community for Hebrew speakers. No one else was doing it, and I felt that it was important for Israelis here to be able to connect with each other.”
She adds that the family-oriented programs have been “super successful.” “We have had as many as 300 people at some of our programs.”
Yanev believes that her success story can inspire other newcomers to Winnipeg. “If you are prepared to work hard, you can achieve your dream,” she says.
She also expresses gratitude to our Jewish community. “We have found the community here to be welcoming and supportive,” she says. “It is thanks to you that we have been successful. This really is friendly Manitoba.”