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Japanese author Akira Kitade recounts for Winnipeg audience role of foreign diplomats in saving Jewish lives in WWII
By MYRON LOVE One of the lesser known histories of the Holocaust was the role of various diplomats who saved thousands of Jewish lives through issuing visas to endangered Jews desperate to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. The best known of those diplomats was Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish special envoy in Budapest in 1944 who issued Swedish passports to thousands of Hungarian Jews and – with the financial support of American Jewish organizations – hid them in numerous safe houses throughout Budapest.
Sadly, he himself met a tragic fate. When the Soviets liberated Budapest in late 1944, the courageous Swede was arrested, shipped back to Russia – and never seen again.
Lesser known diplomats also pitched in to save Jewish lives. One of these Holocaust heroes was Chiune Sempo Sugihara. Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania, who provided thousands of Japanese transit visas to Jewish refugees who had fled from Poland and elsewhere in Europe to the Baltic capital city in a desperate effort to escape the clutches of the Nazis.
On Sunday, March 23, about 100 individuals, largely from the Jewish and Japanese communities, were in attendance at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights for a special presentation by Japanese author Akira Kitade describing Sugihara’s exploits.
The story is a central element in Kitade’s most recent book, “Emerging Heroes: World War II Era Diplomats, Jewish Refugees and escape to Japan”, which was a sequel to his previous book, “Visas of Life and the Epic Journey:How the Sugihara Survivors Reached Japan.”
The program, a joint venture between the CHHR and the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, began with remarks by Takehiko Wajima, the Japanese Consul General in Calgary. (Local immigration lawyer Ken Zaifman, Japan’s honorary consul in Winnipeg, was also in attendance.)
Belle Jarniewski, the Jewish Heritage Centre’s executive director, then set the table, so to speak, for the guest speaker. She pointed out that “the medal awarded to those recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority features the inscription – from the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5), “Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe.” Yad Vashem explains further that the quote is particularly appropriate when we think of the survivors and their many descendants and their many contributions to society. Chiune Sugihara did not save a single life – he saved thousands”.
She recounted that when the Nazis attacked Poland, some 15,000 Jews fled eastward, including to the then still independent Lithuania, which had been a centre for Jewish life since the 14th century. Caught between the Nazis and the Soviets, the Jews desperately sought ways to emigrate. After the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviets in the summer of 1940, all foreign diplomats were ordered to leave by August 9.
By then, the Jews were in very dire straits and could find no safe haven. Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch consul in Kaunas at the time, agreed to stamp thousands of Jewish passports to visa-free Dutch Curacao, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean. The visas were, of course, bogus. With Europe engulfed in war, the only plausible means of escape was across the Soviet Union. For this, the refugees required transit visas showing Japan as their final destination.
As Sugihara and his family were packing their belongings, a delegation of Jews came to him with a desperate request for transit visas. They were led by Zerach Warhaftig – a Jewish refugee who, years later, was to become a minister in the government of the State of Israel. Seeing the desperation of the refugees, Sugihara began issuing the transit visas despite objections from Tokyo. Overall, he issued approximately 2140 transit visas—some of them for entire families.
The refugees rode the TransSiberian railroad across Russia to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. From there, they were transferred by boat, the Hikawa Maru, to Kobe in Japan. Many of the refugees were able to move on from Kobe to the United States and other places. The remainder – about 1,000 – were eventually relocated to the foreign quarter in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, where there was an existing community of German-Jewish refugees and a small number of prosperous Jewish merchant families from India.
Akira Kitade’s interest in Sugihara and the Jewish refugees, he noted, was sparked almost 30 years ago when he heard the firsthand account from Tatsuo Osaka, his boss at the Japanese Tourist Bureau, – who captained the Hikawa Maru carrying Jewish refugees from Vladivostok to Kobe. The retired diplomat recalled that, during a visit in the late 1990s, Osaka showed him an album with photos of eight of the refugees – one man and seven women – along with words of gratitude in various languages representing the many different European countries from which they were fleeing. After Osaka’s passing on 1993, his daughter gave Kitade the album.
His initial goal, the author recalled, was to find out what became of the individuals in the album. Over the next 10 years or so, he accomplished this mission. He shared with his audience at the CMHR what he learned about each of the survivors. All of them eventually reached America ,where they enjoyed successful careers and lives. Most married and had children.
Kitade’s research into the lives of the eight survivors in the album brought into contact with many more Sugihara transit visa holders and their descendants. He noted that while there are estimates that as many as 6,000 refugees – individual and family members, were saved by the Japanese consul’s actions, his view is that the real number is about 3,000. Their descendants, he suggested, are around 50,000.
The author also spoke about three European diplomats who aided Sugihara in facilitating the further movement of the transit visa holders. The problem for the refugees once they landed in Kobe was that the visas were only good for 14 days. Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch businessman and diplomat, who was director of the Phillips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch Government in exile, provided 2,345 visas for Jewish refugees for the Dutch colony of Curacao, an island in the Caribbean.
Nicolaas Arie Johannes (Niek) de Voogd was the Dutch consul in Kobe at that time, and he also provided visas for Jewish refugees for Curacao. De Voogd returned to Japan as the Dutch ambassador in the early 1960s.
Tadeusz Romer was the Polish ambassador in Japan until the Polish embassy in Japan closed in July 1941. From August 1940 to November 1941, he otained transit visas in Japan, arranged asylum visas to Canada and other countries, immigration certificates to Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries for 2,000 Polish-Lithuanian Jewish refugees who had arrived in Kobe. He created a ‘Polish Committee to Aid the Victims of War’ and appointed his wife, Zofia, to be president of the committee. They worked to financially support Jewish communities in Yokohama and Kobe by campaigning in Far Eastern countries for funding.
Belle Jarniewski completed the Sugihara narrative. The diplomat himself was posted to a number of different places, but in 1944 he was arrested by the Soviets along with a number of other diplomats. He was ultimately released, went to work for the Japanese Foreign Service in 1947, and held a variety of other jobs after that. Shortly before his death, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel, declared Sugihara “Righteous Among the Nations” for his aid to the refugees in Lithuania during World War II. Yad Vashem conferred the title in 1984, honoring the former Japanese consul with a ceremony in Jerusalem in January 1985.
“The number of people recognized as Righteous Among the Nations – is staggeringly small when you consider the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were murdered,” Jarniewski pointed out.. “However, the impact of the Righteous – those who mustered extraordinary courage and who acted with conscience and caring is immeasurable. Today, the global Jewish community finds itself facing a sustained resurgence of antisemitism unprecedented since the end of the Holocaust. The silence of far too many we had considered as friends and allies has been shocking. We need to see the kind of courage of conscience that Chiune Sugihara so inspiringly displayed.”
One final note. Towards the end of the program, it was noted that in the audience was Winnipegger Rochelle Zucker, whose father, Meyer, was one of the Sugihara survivors. In answer to a question as to how the Jewish refugees in Shanghai survived, she spoke of her own father’s story. As with most of the refugees, they found work. Meyer Zucker was a printer by trade and was hired by a British-owned printing company. After the war, he, like most of the others, applied to go wherever he could. He had a cousin in Calgary who was able to bring him to Calgary to work in the printing industry. In Calgary, he met his wife, Miriam Pearlman, and, in 1948, they moved to Winnipeg where Meyer and Miriam both had family. In Winnipeg, Zucker worked as a printer for the Israelite Press/Yiddishe Vort until just a couple of years before his passing n 1977.
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Newly announced Vivian Silver Centre for Shared Society to further former Winnipegger’s lifelong efforts to foster Jewish-Arab co-operation in Israel
By MYRON LOVE Vivian Silver (oleh Hashalom) devoted her life to working toward dialogue and collaboration between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The culmination of her efforts was the Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation – Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development (AJEEC-NISPED), which she co-founded 25 year ago with her sister peace activist, Dr. Amal Elsana Ahl’jooj.
Tragically, Vivian was of the 1,200 Israeli Jews, Bedouin and foreign farm workers who were slaughtered during the Hamas-led pogrom of October 7, 2023.
Last month, AJEEC-NISPED announced plans to create the Vivian Silver Center for Shared Society in her memory – a new national hub for Jewish-Israeli Arab collaboration and social innovation in Be’er Sheva – backed by an initial $1 million donation from UJA-Federation of New York, along with support from the Meyerhoff Foundation, the Gilbert Foundation, and other philanthropic partners committed to strengthening shared society in Israel.
“It’s a great honor and a beautiful gesture,” comments Vivian’s son, Yonatan Zeigen, “and I hope it will be a central building for civil society, both in the physical sense, that it will become a substantial home for the organization and for other initiatives that will use the spaced and also symbolically, as a beacon for this kind of work in the specific location in the Negev.”
As this writer noted n an article earlier this year in relation to the announcement of the launch of the Vivian Silver Impact Award by the New Israel Fund (NIF) – of which she was a long time board member, and which was developed in conjunction with her sons, Yonatan and Chen), Vivian made aliyah in 1974. She first went to Israel in 1968 – to spend her second year at university abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying psychology and English literature.
In an article she wrote in 2018 in a publication called ”Women Wage Peace,” she related that during her final year at the University of Manitoba, she was among the founders of the Student Zionist Alliance on campus and was invited to its national conference in Montreal. There she met activists in the Habonim youth movement who planned on making aliyah and re-establishing Kibbutz Gezer. The day she wrote her last university exam, she boarded a flight to New York to join the group.
She spent three years in New York, where she became involved in Jewish and Zionist causes, including the launch of the Jewish feminist movement in America.
“It was a life-changing period,” she recalled. “I came to understood that in addition to being a kibbutz member, I was destined to be a social change and peace activist.”
Vivian and her group made aliyah in 1974 and settled on Kibbutz Gezer. In 1981, she established the Department Promoting Gender Equality in the Kibbutz Movement. She moved to Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border in 1990, along with her late husband, Lewis, and their two sons
In 1998, Vivian became the executive director of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development in Beer Sheva, an NGO promoting human sustainable development, shared society between Jews and Arabs, and peace in the Middle East. Soon after, she was joined by Amal Elsana Alh’jooj as co-directors of AJEEC-NISPED, winning the 2011 Victor J. Goldberg Peace Prize of the Institute for International Education.
In the article she wrote for “Women Waging Peace,” she noted that “while we later focused on empowerment projects in the Bedouin community in the Negev, initially we worked with Palestinian organizations on joint people-to-people projects. I spent much time in Gaza until the outbreak of the second intifada. We continued working with organizations in the West Bank. I personally know so many Palestinians who yearn for peace no less than we do.”
According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva, in the November 24th edition, the Vivian Silver Centre – which is expected to open in the spring – will be located within AJEEC-NISPED’s soon-to-open AJEEC House, and will provide a permanent home for programs that promote equality, leadership, and cooperation among Israel’s diverse communities.
“The Vivian Silver Center for Shared Society, within AJEEC’s headquarters, “the Arutz Sheva report noted, “will serve as a regional platform for dozens of Israeli Arab and Jewish social organizations. Through AJEEC’s educational, vocational, and leadership programs, the center will support thousands of young adults each year – offering mentorship, professional training, and opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration.
“These programs,” the report continued, “already reach more than 15,000 participants nationwide, helping young people integrate into higher education and meaningful employment while narrowing social and economic gaps.”
AJEEC House is located in Be’er Sheva’s Science Park, near Ben-Gurion University. The three-storey AJEEC House has been designed to foster cooperation and dialogue. It will host community partnerships, provide shared workspaces for social entrepreneurs, and serve as a hub for initiatives addressing social and economic development across the Negev and beyond.
Readers who may be interested considering a donation can dial into NISPED’s website – – for further information.
Local News
Stanley Schwartz- it’s a long way from Waterloo
By GERRY POSNER For Stanley Schwartz, it all began on Waterloo Street. For those who remember the 1950s and 60s – take yourself back to the south end of Winnipeg. Waterloo between Corydon and Fleet had enough Jewish families to form its own High Holiday congregation. That is to say, there were a whole bunch of Jewish families there. Not quite McAdam Avenue in the north end – but close enough. One such family was that of Harold and Faye Schwartz, along with their children: Anita, Ruth, and Stanley.
Stanley graduated from Kelvin High School. In fact, he played football for the Kelvin Clipper. In addition, he was a participant in typical Jewish teen activities at the time, particularly AZA. He had a wide network of friends, some of whom remain vital connections to this day. Remember, in those days, there were no cell phones, no internet, and barely the beginnings of TV. So, as a teenage boy, Stanley spent a lot of time with his buddies.
Stanley went on to the University of Manitoba from where he graduated law in 1967. That was Stanley’s first step into a career that lasted close to 50 years. His second big step was his decision to forgo an offer to become a partner in a well known and established law firm in Winnipeg, and instead, go out on his own in a shared space arrangement. The shared space arrangement lasted several years and, during that time, he also opened up an office in Morris, Manitoba. Morris was once home to several Jewish families, but not when Stanley moved there to live.
Along his way to practicing law, Stanley got married – to the former Shirley Hooper, a woman originally from England who had moved to Vancouver and whom Stanley met by chance in Hawaii. They were blessed with two children and now have five grandkids. But the family did not end up in Winnipeg. In what was a huge life changing decision at that time, Stanley and Shirley boldly packed up their belongings and moved to Vancouver. Now, some of the thinking that entered into this move might well have been Shirley’s lack of fondness for the Manitoba winters (even though she had formed close relationships with many people in Winnipeg at that time – relationships she still maintainsto this day). But Stanley was also open to a fresh start in a new place. That decision, looking back on it now in 2025, was a wise one for both Stanley and Shirley Schwartz. For starters, who knew that Vancouver would explode with an immigrant population and with it, a dramatic increase in the value of property, caused in part by non-residents buying up land and buildings in Vancouver? Aside from that, Stanley had a specialty in his practice of law that was a perfect fit for Vancouver’s growing population- family law.
For the entirety of his legal career, Stanley focused on matrimonial law in every aspect, not the least of which was litigation. As a former lawyer myself, let me say that if there is an area of law filled with tension, aggravation, and sadness, it surely must be the field of marriage, children and custody battles, access, division of assets and all that goes with those issues. You often are not just a lawyer, but also a psychologist, father confessor and a lot more. You really have to be able to be able to watch some of the worst in humanity. And you have to be ready to, as they say, “ go for the jugular.”
You may never have to do it, but you have to be ready. Stanley Schwartz was ( nd remains so this day, in my view) on the face of it, not a likely candidate to be thought of as aggressive.That is because he was then and still is now, a friendly guy who does not seem to be one cut out for courtroom battles. But clearly, he was able to be “ rough and tough” when he had to be. When I asked Stanley what advice he would give to somebody wanting to employ him in a family law situation, he was quite frank. His immediate response to these kinds of clients was: “If you want a war, the winners will be two people -the two lawyers. The losers will be your children ( f there are kids in the picture.”)
Stanley might still have been at it, but he had medical issues relating to his back over a period of many years. He has had three spinal surgeries, and none of them has really worked satisfactorily. Standing for periods of time was hard for Stanley. He says he knew it was time to give up his practice of law when one day in court six or seven years ago, while he was in argument, he leaned against the dais and the judge told him that it was ok for him to sit down and argue. That episode confirmed what he had thought for a while: time to call it a day and a career. So with two metal rods in his back and pain in his legs, Stanley retired.
Though no longer involved in the legal world, Stanley has managed, very easily he would add, to settle into his non working life with as much travel as he and Shirley are able to do. That travel includes trips back to Winnipeg, also Winnipeg Beach – where he spent much of his youth. His visits also include time with his sister, Anita Ruth Neville, a name not exactly unknown to Manitobans given her role as the 26th Lieutenant Governor for the Province of Manitoba. And, with one daughter in Toronto, Shirley and Stanley also make regular stops in that city to see his family there.
Not that long ago, Stanley stepped into the world of octogenarians. He is quick to say that getting old is not for sissies, but at the same time, he is one to embrace what each phase of his life has brought.
Local News
Farah Perelmuter – a former Winnipegger in the spotlight
By GERRY POSNER From the north end of Winnipeg, Garden City to be exact, comes yet another Winnipeg woman who has almost singlehandedly built a prosperous business in Toronto – almost out of the blue. And who is this Winnipeg woman? None other than Farah Perelmuter, bornFarah Vinsky, the oldest of Toby and Irv Vinsky’s three daughters.
Farah attended Talmud Torah and Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, also spent a year at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate. Upon graduation from high school, Farah took a gap year in Toronto working in the modelling industry. During that year, she had a chance to visit Western University in London, Ontario. That visit inspired her to apply there and, after one year at the University of Winnipeg, she was off to Western. Interestingly, not that long ago, Farah served on the Western Alumni Board – a role she filled for six years.
As a teenager in Winnipeg, Farah indicated that she had an entrepreneurial gene, as evidenced by her creating what was a “ self development “ program for teenage girls. When she started that program, Farah was all of 16 and was already working in her spare time in a modelling agency. When she came to Toronto after her graduation from university, she began working at a marketing agency, but the desire to be her own boss was so strong that, in 1995, Farah, along with her husband, Martin Perelmuter, started a business known as “ Speakers Spotlight.”
The business’s purpose was to bring prominent speakers to address audiences at locations all over the world. The couple initiated the business right from the spare bedroom in their apartment – with only one phone and one computer. Worse than that, Farah and her husband had no clients, no experience, no staff and, of course – no money. What they had was a clear vision. That vision was to put the right speaker in front of the right audience and, if they could do that, the impact would be significant and lasting. They also had so little business experience that they tried out different ways of doing things in their business and were not afraid to be innovative. That willingness to create and change likely propelled them speedily into the forefront in their field. As proof of their standing in the industry, Farah and Martin were selected twice as Entrepreneurs of the Year by Ernst and Young.
From that modest beginning emerged what is today called “ Speakers Spotlight,” a business that has grown into one of the world’s largest and indeed most respected speakers’ agencies. Farah and Martin have developed a team of people working for and with them (now up to 35 people, who work both in and out of the office) and, as well, they have created an incredible roster of extraordinary speakers. Their list of speakers includes people with deep experience in their respective fields. That combination of prominent speakers and a loyal, dedicated group of people putting the speakers on to platforms has allowed “Speakers Spotlight” to raise the bar of professional service and integrity within the industry. Would you believe 40,000 speaking engagements over 50 countries are now part of the history of a business that started in Farah’s spare bedroom? Just the list of names who have participated with Speakers Spotlight is staggering. Google Speakers Spotlight and I promise you will be overwhelmed, both by the quantity and quality.
Along the way, the company has received numerous awards and accolades. Most importantly, they have, through the various people that have been involved as speakers, helped to plant the seeds for people in the audience to make changes, alter plans and to inspire them to go forward. Sometimes, it’s as little as hearing the right person tell a story that can affect one person and from there, big things often develop. For Farah, that is what keeps her excited about her business.
In 2017, the couple started another business related to the first one, called “ The Spotlight Agency.” This company connects celebrity talent with opportunities all over the world. The talent comes from every area of life including the fields of entertainment, sports, food, decor and more. What the Spotlight Agency does is to unite these personalities to a brand of partnerships, with digital and creator content,TV, streaming, podcasts and publishing.
Even with the real success of Farah’s business ventures, what pushes her are her two children, Jade and Cole, both now in their 20s, and forging their own trails. As well, Farah appreciates from whence she came and she looks forward to what lies ahead. She treasures her return trips to Winnipeg to see her parents, relatives and indeed, old friends. So much is Farah Perelmuter a true Winnipgger that she still roots for the Winnipeg Jets, especially when they play the Toronto Maple Leafs. So, let the spotlight shine on Farah Vinsky Perelmuter.