Local News
Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada panel highlights contributions of Jewish women in building our community
By MYRON LOVE For much of the Jewish community’s early history in Winnipeg, it was men who were acknowledged as our community leaders – as was common in society in general – while the work of scores of women working diligently behind the scenes was largely overlooked. While women’s organizations such as ORT, Hadassah, National Council of Jewish Women and many others raised money to help the needy in our community and Israel, noted Marsha Cowan, it was usually men who made the decisions.
On Tuesday, March 17, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada hosted a panel discussion: “Let Her Works Praise: Panel on the role of Women in Jewish Communal Life” (which was pretty well attended considering the wintry conditions) – seeking to show our community’s appreciation for the work of countless women over the years behind the scenes, as well as the growing number of women now working side by side with men in leadership roles.
Marsha Cowan – one of the three panelists, has straddled both worlds – as a leader in National Council of Jewish Women, and later as the first woman to serve as CEO of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.
Cowan began her presentation by reminiscing about her time at Peretz School and the old YMHA. Her first vehicle of choice as a volunteer was with the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW). The latter’s major project was the Golden Age Club – Canada’s original drop-in centre for (largely) Jewish seniors. For years, the club operated out of a building near Salter and Selkirk in what used to be the heavily Jewish North End.
“After 40 years,” she recalled, “we realized that we needed a new building.”
The site for the newly renamed Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre was a former tire store at Smithfield and Main. Cowan chaired the successful campaign to raise the funds for the transformation of the building into the Gwen Secter Centre.
Cowan subsequently served as Vice-President of the National Council of Jewish Women. She also served as President of Jewish Child and Family Service;, Vice-President of the Women’s Division, Combined Jewish Appeal; and, most recently, as the first woman to be President and CEO of The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.
““I remember walking into my first board meeting at the Foundation and finding myself one of only two women among 18 men,” she recalled. “But it was never a problem for me working in male-oriented organizations and institutions.”
One of the first things that she did as a board member though, was to push to establish the Foundation’s Women’s Endowment Fund in order to give women an opportunity to make philanthropic decisions involving the distribution of funding.
The fund, she noted, started with $20,000 contributed by about 150 women. Today, 32 years later, the Women’s Endowment Fund has a capital base of $2.4 million and distributes more than $100,000 a year to women’s charities.
In her presentation, Susan Turner began by recalling growing up in a traditional home in the North End, her early schooling, Shabbats spent with her father, Leible Hershfield, at the Rosh Pina Synagogue, and going to the YMHA, where Leible was the Athletic Director. The family moved south in 1958 so that her maternal grandfather, Lazar Tuberman, who lived with them, could be closer to the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, where he was the shames. In her teen years and then at university, Turner sang in the synagogue choir.
A lifelong professional visual artist in printmaking and in video, Turner has worked in a number of positions – by turn as a school librarian, an editor, a graphic designer, an art instructor, a lecturer at the School of Art, a researcher and curator in the area of multiculturalism, an exhibits curator and designer, a gourmet pastry chef for restaurants, and as a volunteer in the arts community.
She noted that it was her mother, Babe, who got her involved working on projects in the Jewish community. “For many years Babe was Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society. In the late 1970s, she recruited my husband Myron and me to be on the Programming and the Archives committees, and we remained active in one form or another for close to 40 years.”
“From 1999 to 2004,” Turner said, “I was the Coordinator of Volunteers at the Sharon Home, where I learned so much about ageing, dementia, and respectful elder-care.”
In 2005, at the behest of Stan Carbone, JHC Programs and Exhibitions Director, she began working as curator and exhibitions designer at the Jewish Heritage Centre. Some of the major exhibits she worked on were “The Jewish Wedding”, “Manitoba Synagogues”, “Jews in Manitoba’s Garment Industry”, and “Chief Justice Samuel Freedman.”
In addition to her work with the JHC, Turner noted that she and Myron volunteered through Jewish Child and Family Service with newcomers from Argentina and with Yazidi refugees. “However much Myron and I were able to assist them, our own lives were enriched by the experience,” she added.
Turner also showed images of her current art as well as a poetic video she produced using voice, music, image, and Yiddish about the final days of her mother Babe’s life.
Leah Craven, the third member of the panel, is representative of a younger generation of women who have assumed leadership roles in our community. A lawyer by training, she currently serves as President of the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada, Winnipeg Section. She is also a Board member of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba – serving on their Governance and Grants Committees. She has previously been actively involved with Shalom Square, Gray Academy of Jewish Education, Congregation Etz Chayim, and Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.
“I was raised in a traditional Jewish home where volunteering was simply part of life,” she recalled. “My (late) father, Mel Craven, was deeply involved in community work, and my mother, Reva, continues to volunteer actively. In our home, contributing wasn’t an ‘extra.’ It was just… part of being Jewish.
“As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, I grew up with a strong awareness of how vital community support systems are,” she continued. “I understood early that people struggle — and that communal care matters. I also understood I was fortunate, and that being able to give comes with responsibility.”
Craven recounted her first independent volunteer experience. While still in elementary school (Ramah), her father asked if she would teach basic Hebrew to a colleague’s church youth group.
“I took it very seriously,” she said. I made a Hebrew alphabet chart with transliterations and created name cards in Hebrew letters for each participant. It was my first time in a church and it was a welcoming experience, genuinely enjoyable. Looking back, I learned an early lesson. I stepped forward because someone asked me. Someone opened a door and trusted me.”
That pattern, Craven noted, has occurred repeatedly throughout her life.
In her university years, she was active in Jewish student organizations, Craven said. She was involved in advocacy for Soviet Jewry and spoke out against antisemitism.
“At university, I learned that community life isn’t only programming and events,” she observed. “It’s visibility, engagement, and standing up when it matters.”
As a working mother, she has continued to show up for our community – volunteering over the years at Folklorama (Shalom Square) and synagogue. “Helping to set up, clean up and greeting people (at shul) may not be glamorous, but it is foundational,” she noted. “Community is sustained by everyday acts of showing up.”
Craveb pointed out that formal barriers for women have changed over generations. “Many women are now invited to leadership tables,” she noted. “We are asked to chair, lead, speak and make decisions. That progress is real and important.
“At the same time, many women still carry the day‑to‑day responsibility for home and family,” Craven added. “As well, single mothers and women without job flexibility often face additional challenges in participating in volunteer roles.”
Craven said the biggest challenge for women volunteering in community is “capacity”. “In my experience that looks different at each stage of life”, she observed. “As a student, I had to balance community involvement with academics. As a young professional, there weere early career demands. As a parent, I sought involvement that fits naturally into family life – such as children’s programming at synagogue or volunteering at school.”
It was during that time – when her kids were babies – that Craven joined National Council. “I welcomed the opportunity to be part of a Jewish women’s organization dedicated to service, education,and social action,” she said.
Crave also noted the help her own children have given her. She would bring them to meetings and on deliveries. When they were a little older, they helped sorting ribbons and wrapping paper, stuffing envelopes and assembling mishloach manot.
“These small tasks mattered,” Craven said. “It allowed me to stay engaged and my children learned that community involvement isn’t separate from daily life,” she added. “It’s part of how we live — for me, it’s part of being Jewish.”
The balance between work, family and community is never fully resolved, Craven observed. “Involvement looks different at different times,” she noted. “Sometimes it’s leading. It can be making a phone call, delivering a meal, sitting beside somebody and saying – there is a place for you here – or just showing up.
“It often just begins because someone asks, invites or makes room.”
In conclusion, Craven expressed gratitude to ” the women who paved the way” and to “a community that values women’s leadership”.
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR to open June 27 – Here’s a preview:
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26)The following press release was sent to me early Friday morning June 26 (Photos supplied by Annie Kierans, CMHR) Nothing that follows has been edited. I leave it to you to form your own opinion:
Winnipeg, MB — June 26, 2026 — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit tomorrow that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians.
Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will be on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028. Featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.
Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contribute to our visitors understanding of human rights and help the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.
Exhibition highlights
Personal stories and artifacts: Experience firsthand accounts from Palestinian Canadians sharing their journeys of displacement and memory through a series of five artifacts. Cases display artifacts like property deeds, house keys, and a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, accompanied by short videos that deepen understanding of the impacts of displacement.
Powerful artworks: In her painting Bound Together in Gaza, Malak Mattar, a Gazan artist, captures the struggles and resilience of her generation shaped by conflict. Her work pays homage to Guernica, Picasso’s powerful masterpiece depicting civilian suffering during war.
Curfews and Closures, by Rajie Cook, bears witness to life under military occupation during the 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising, when curfews and closures were expanded and further limited basic rights and freedoms.
Cultural heritage: Discover traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. Tatreez motifs and colours are tied to place, family history and regional identity. Patterns are associated with particular towns, villages or areas of Palestine. In this way, tatreez is a form of storytelling: a way of preserving memory, sustaining identity and expressing resilience across displacement and exile.
Poetry and reflection: Engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s evocative verses, inspiring personal reflection on exile, voice, and responsibility. Visitors can take a card containing Darwish’s poem and add a personal note, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the exhibit.
Contemporary context: Witness striking images of current events in Gaza and the West Bank, connecting past displacement to ongoing struggles.
Quotes:
“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories. And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.” -Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian featured in the exhibit
“We developed this exhibit with a clear awareness that Palestinian Canadian voices have too often been marginalized, silenced or spoken over — and that anti-Palestinian racism affects whose stories are heard and whose suffering is recognized. That is why we intentionally centred Palestinian Canadian voices throughout the exhibit.” -Isabelle Masson, Curator of Palestine Uprooted
“Human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient, when the question of who deserves the dignity of having their rights recognized is genuinely contested. These are the moments where having a national museum for human rights is most important.
There are people who believe this exhibit should not exist in its current form. There are people who believe it should have existed sooner. There are people who will visit this exhibit and feel that it does not say enough, and others who will feel it says too much.
We have listened to every one of these voices. We have reflected. And we have renewed our resolve to continue the difficult, sometimes contested, and often controversial work of building understanding about human rights. We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
- – Isha Khan, CEO
Local News
Nakba exhibit at human rights museum set to open despite mounting criticism
By NOAH STRAUSS (posted June 25) The Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit is scheduled to open this Saturday, June 27, despite growing criticism and calls for it to be delayed or revised. The exhibit has sparked public debate in Winnipeg and beyond regarding how it presents the history surrounding the creation of the State of Israel.
Earlier this week, Mark Berlin resigned from the museum’s board. In his resignation letter, he expressed concern that the exhibit presents a one-sided narrative and does not adequately address the experiences of Jewish communities affected by the events surrounding Israel’s independence.
The Nakba, an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1947–1949 conflict that followed the creation of the State of Israel. Critics of the exhibit argue that it focuses primarily on Palestinian displacement without sufficiently acknowledging the broader regional consequences of the period.
Some Jewish advocacy groups also point to the experiences of Jews who left or were expelled from several Arab and Muslim-majority countries in the decades surrounding Israel’s creation. Estimates suggest that between 850,000 and 950,000 Jews left or were displaced from countries including Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, under a range of circumstances including persecution, expulsion, and confiscation of property.
In his resignation letter, Berlin, a faculty member at McGill University specializing in human rights law, wrote, “Telling the story with a one-sided perspective chosen by the museum serves to deepen division and contributes to further hostility toward Jews in Canada.”
Following his resignation, CIJA President Noah Shack released a statement saying, “The resignation of the museum’s only Jewish board member is a clear indictment of the museum’s handling of the controversial ‘Nakba’ exhibit.”
The exhibit’s VIP opening is expected to include invitations to representatives from all three levels of government. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham had initially been invited but later declined following discussions with representatives from the Jewish community, including CIJA Manitoba Vice President Gustavo Zentner and Jeff Lieberman, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.
Members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community are also planning a peaceful rally outside the museum on Friday at 5 p.m., according to organizers.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is expected to release a formal statement ahead of the exhibit’s opening.
Local News
Jewish Child and Family Service helped over 1800 families in 2025
By BERNIE BELLAN Jewish Child and Family Service will be entering the 75th year of its existence in 2027.
With a budget over $4,300,000, JCFS is also the largest beneficiary of funding from the Jewish Federation of the 12 Winnipeg Jewish community agencies that are beneficiaries of the Federation. (To see a list of the 12 agencies go to Funding for Beneficiary Agencies.)
Its impact has grown over the years as JCFS has expanded its horizon, continually adding to the many services it provides. During the JCFS’s Annual General Meeting, held in the Seniors’ Lounge of the Asper Campus on Tuesday evening, June 23, the important role that JCFS plays in the lives of so many members of the Jewish community – also a significant number of non-Jews as well, various speakers cited the many ways in which JCFS has continued to have such a huge impact.
With total revenues of $4,325,160 in fiscal year 2025 (which ended March 31, 2026), but slightly fewer expenses, JCFS not only delivered a wide gamut of services, it managed to deliver those services without incurring a deficit in 2025, despite some significant financial challenges.
As outgoing Board Chair Elana Grinshteyn observed, JCFS had to navigate some major reductions in funding, including a cut in funding from the federal government to the tune of $100,000, plus the loss of funding from the Claims Conference, which had provided support for Holocaust survivors.
Yet, despite those setbacks in funding, Grinshtein reported, “Together, we insured that services remained intact.
“We increased access to interest free loans,” she noted, “doubling” the amount that had been allocated in 2024.
And, amidst the ever-increasing demand for services, “JCFS has continued to navigate space limitations,” Grinshteyn noted. (I should note that as far back as 2019 I reported in an interview I had conducted with JCFS CEO Al Benarroch about the JCFS’s dire need for more space. Here is an excerpt from what Benarroch had to say about the JCFS’s need for more room back in 2019: “…we’ve been looking for roughly 3,000 more square feet of space. We have a footprint right now of roughly 5,000 square feet for over 40 staff. We’ve given up a board room here. It’s been taken over by older adult service staff. We have a conference room which is adjacent to the board room; we’ve moved two staff in there.
“Yesterday I gave up my office for the entire morning so that staff could interview clients.
“We need to relieve the pressure we’re facing right now – yet alone plan for expanding and growing.
“Whatever space we’d be looking at would be temporary. It’s now 22 years that we’ve been in this facility. The campus has taken over squash courts, it’s taken over a museum – internally, to accommodate the growth in services. Maybe it’s time now to look at growing outside this building…”
As the saying goes: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (That’s me, trying to impress.)
While I tried to take notes during Al Benarroch’s CEO report, I realized following his remarks that there was so much important information conveyed, also a slew of statistics, that it might be more helpful to reprint a good portion of what he said verbatim, so I asked Al to send me a copy of his remarks. (That’s one of the nice things about writing on a website. There’s an infinite amount of room to print the kind of stuff that nerds like me pretend to read.)
During his CEO’s report, Benarroch enumerated the many challenges JCFS encountered in 2025.
Among those challenges, Benarroch noted, were:
• The rising and high cost of living
• Food insecurity
• Housing issues
• Our aging population demographics
• The complex needs of our newcomer families
• The increasingly complex needs in mental health & youth mental health
Yet, despite all those challenges, Benarroch said, “As always… we rose to meet those head on, and with the support of our community.”
In particular, Benarroch cited the support of the Jewish Federation, which contributed $948,800 to JCFS in 2025. (The largest portion of JCFS funding, by the way came from the Province: over $1,100,000.)
Fundraising also played a significant role in contributing to JCFS revenues, with almost $700,000 raised through that route, including direct donations of over $320,000 and bequests over $40,000.
As Benarroch noted, “Every year, we look forward with hope that it will be a quiet year.
“Well, if that’s the case, we are in the wrong business.
“We happen to be in the reflect, respond and pivot business.
“This is the nature of the human existence.”
Benarroch went on to add some more statistics about how JCFS played such a pivotal role in the lives of so many people. In 2025 JCFS:
• Served 1,800 client households – impacting almost 5,000 people.
• Assisted 15 foster children.
• Served 70 families in Child Welfare….
“But what is even more important is that we assisted 90 children that remained at home with their families,” Benarroch said.
The year 2025 also saw the inauguration of what is known as the “Asper Empowerment Program”, through which:
• 311 clients were assisted (including Passover Assistance)
• $80,000 was disbursed in financial assistance
• Over $20,000 was given out in interest-free loans.
• 6,500 kg of food were disbursed
In the area of mental health and counselling services, Benarroch noted that JCFS:
• Supported over 50 adults with mental health challenges
• Our Friday Mental Health Wellness Group participants took part in 22 group activities or outings
• We support some 20 individuals and families impacted by addictions through individual and group services.
• We delivered almost 1,100 counselling sessions, over half of which were subsidized on our sliding scale.
• We continued to support individuals, families, and partner Jewish organizations with the ongoing emotional impacts of the war in Israel and high levels of global antisemitism.
In the area of support for older adults, JCFS served over 250 seniors including:
• 70 newcomer seniors
• 50 seniors living with mental health differences
• 65 Holocaust Survivors (including celebrating “25 years of our Holocaust Survivor Drop-in Group, a partnership with the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.”)
In the area of settlement services, JCFS:
• Welcomed almost 80 new families
• Almost 50 families from Israel, seeking reprieve from the ongoing stresses and pressures of the war.
Benarroch noted that “These families are dealing with the deep trauma of displacement, having lived under constant stress, fear and the ensuing post-traumatic impact, family and parenting challenges as a result, emotional exhaustion, financial strain, and more.
“Thanks to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, we hired a trained specialized support worker, with a background in therapy, to help these families cope, adjust, and receive much needed emotional supports.”
Benarroch went on to describe many more initiatives in which JCFS was engaged in 2025, but I want to return to the retirement of Elena Grinshteyn from the Board of JCFS after nine years serving on the Board, including the last two as Chair. Grinshteyn will be succeed by Bradley Abells, who has been on the Board since 2021. In his remarks, Abells noted that he is an actuary at Canada Life and that he first joined the Board when his particular expertise as an actuary proved extremely helpful in helping to solve a problem that had arisen, and he found the experience so rewarding he decided to remain on the Board ever since .
Also on the Board is Michael Schacter, who is returning as Treasurer and who looks the way you’d expect a finance guy to look.
