Local News
Jewish performers at the Fringe Festival

Introduction: As has been our custom over the years, we present previews of various Fringe shows that feature Jewish performers (or writers) – some from Winnipeg, some from other cities. This year’s Fringe Festival begins July 19 and runs through July 30. (We apologize if we may have missed someone – but if we have, it’s not too late to contact us and we’ll get a blurb up for you on our website.)

A One Human Being, Potentially Comedic Performance of….
LES MIS
A parody musical written & performed by Alli Perlov
Alli Perlov has been a theatre kid her entire life. Her experiences include training at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Winnipeg, and a brief career in film and television in her teens.
For the past 12 years, Perlov has been a performing arts teacher in Winnipeg, teaching courses in musical theatre, improv and drama to students from Grades 6 to 12. In an effort to continue practicing what she teaches, Alli Perlov has mounted two one-person Fringe plays starting in 2017 and brings her third to this year’s festival with her show
Venue # 8: The Rachel Browne Theatre
“Perlov’s tongue-in-cheek parody is also steeped in a palpable sweetness that would melt even the most hardened revolutionary’s heart – 4 ½ Stars” Winnipeg Free Press, 2018
Some teachers take the summer off to recharge, while others mount a one-person Fringe festival show. In a revamped version of her successful 2018 sell out production “A One Human Being Potentially Comedic Performance of Les Miserables”, local performing arts teacher Alli Perlov aims to leave the audience in stitches as she performs 30 characters from the iconic musical based off the Victor Hugo novel.
In a musical parody full of charm and can-do spirit, Perlov tackles the task of making “try-hard” a compliment. Condensing the score to 52 minutes, and weaved with narrative, critiques and silly puns, everyone in the theatre is guaranteed a good time and a load of laughs.

Everything is Super Wow: Lots of Jewish
content!! created by Ira Cooper,
son of Winnipeger Gayle Myers
Come see a foot-fuelled, slapstick tragedy about bikepacking, dreaming big and giving up in your 30s. Follow Super Wow along a kinetic journey filled with new music, peppy puppets and awkwardly captivating dance breaks. Nominated for Outstanding Clown Show (Montreal) “I was entranced by Ira’s performance” – Sarah Deshaies, CKUT Radio “A great clown should be funny, courageous, vulnerable, and have a voice that needs to be heard. Super Wow formerly Mr. Coffeehead is all of that and more.“ – Bob Frazer
Spec Theatre
Venue #20 – The Studio at Théâtre Cercle Molière St Boniface

Teaching Shakespeare
Since debuting at the 1999 Montreal Fringe Festival, Teaching Shakespeare has had over 150 performances across Canada, and two theatrical runs in New York City.
This “formidably delightful” (Off-Off Broadway Review) parody of a college Shakespeare class and portrait of a frustrated actor turned frustrated professor last seen in Winnipeg in 2014, is returning to the 2023 Winnipeg Fringe Festival. However, the multiple award-winning monologue now has new material as the inept teacher has aged and is a senior citizen. Dr. Keir is still desperate to achieve his professional goals but now time is definitely running out!
Teaching Shakespeare received the “Overall Excellence Award – Solo” at the New York Fringe Festival in 2000, heldover at the Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton fringe festivals, selected for Centaur Theatre’s Wildside Festival, Victoria’s Uno Festival, London, Ontario’s Oh Solo Mio Festival, selected “Best in Fest” at the Orlando Fringe Festival, and televised nationally in Canada on BRAVO!
“I remember Teaching Shakespeare as one of the most enjoyable Fringe productions of the last decade. Actor/academic Keir Cutler gave us Dr. Keir, a self-styled Shakespeare expert giving a university class. It was the class from hell. Keir pulled off the amazing feat of feeding you some fascinating minutiae about Shakespeare while leaving you laughing at the awesome ineptitude of the teacher.” – Colin MacLean, Edmonton Sun.
Montrealer Keir Cutler has been called “a masterful entertainer,” (Winnipeg Free Press) “a marvel to watch,” (Toronto Sun) and “a phenomenal performer!” (winnipegonstage.com). Venue #10 -Planetarium Auditorium 190 Rupert Ave. – (theatre on lower level).

Melanie Gall – in 3 separate shows!
1- The American Songbook Experience
Move over, Frank Sinatra! Melanie Gall presents the story of the American Songbook – from the songwriters of Tin Pan Alley to the stages of Broadway and the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s and 1940s – with hits by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and other superstars of popular song. Featuring a dozen hits, including On the Sunny Side of the Street, I’m in the Mood for Love, Moon River and Stardust.Melanie Gall is the award-winning performer of Fringe sellout hits Ingenue, Piaf and Brel (5 STARS – Winnipeg Free Press) and Toast to Prohibition (5 STARS – Edmonton Journal). Her historic music shows have been performed in over 30 countries, as well as off-Broadway in New York and at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
2- Ingenue
Melanie Gall’s award-winning musical is back! Chosen as one of the top Fringe shows worldwide and mounted off-Broadway at SoHo Playhouse in 2019. Judy is an icon, loved as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. But in the 1930s, Deanna, “Winnipeg’s Sweetheart”, was the bigger star. While Judy struggled for success, Deanna became the idol of millions. Ingénue tells the true tale of the lifelong friendship – and rivalry – of these teen idols of Old Hollywood. “Gall is astonishing” – Metro Arts, 5 STARS Adelaide Advertiser, 4.5 STARS Winnipeg Free Press
3- Opera Mouse
Tilly Mouse lives under an opera house and she just loves to sing! But whenever anybody sees her, they scream and run away. With determination, imagination and help from her friends, Tilly proves that even a mouse can be a star! Featuring songs and arias from several operas, including Gianni Schicchi, Carmen and The Magic Flute. Opera Mouse has been performed in venues all around the world, ranging from a theatre in Canada and an orphanage in Morocco to a school in Sudan and a shopping mall in Algeria. “Best kids show” – CBC Manitoba

Adam Schwartz
Adam writes: “I have 2 shows this year. Neurohilarity which features the 5 funniest neurodivergent comedians in Winnipeg. Carole Cunningham, (The Debaters) Scott Koropas,(Yuk Yuks) Danielle Kayhara, (Winnipeg Comedy Fest) Quinn and Kane Greene (Winnipeg comedy fest) and Adam Schwartz with guest appearances by Jewish comedians Dan Goldberg and Willlw Rosenberg.
“I also have my solo show How I Met My First Neurodivergent Friend. A storytelling show about how growing up Adam kept his distance from people who were different because he thought it would make it harder to fit in. One day Adam woke up 36-years-old alone and lonely so he created his own community (Neurohilarity). “

OBSESSION: The Elizabeth Smart Musical
Robbi Goltsman-Ferris is the writer/producer of a show premiering at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival this year. Called “OBSESSION: The Elizabeth Smart Musical,” this moving production reveals the tragedies and triumphs of a female writer ahead of her time. It features Phil Corrin as the musical director, and Kelly Robinson and Kyra Krassnigg as two members of a remarkably talented and seasoned cast of six, including professional performers Brittany Hunter and Reid McTavish and director/choreographer Laura Kolisnyk.
The show features eight performances at Venue 4, the Center Culturel Franco-Manitobain (CCFM) on 340 Provencher Blvd, which offers FREE PARKING!!
Local News
Gray Academy Visiting International School program attracts first student from Australia

By MYRON LOVE Gray Academy, our community’s only junior kindergarten–12 Jewish day school, holds a unique place among Jewish schools in Western Canada.
The school has a higher per capita enrollment than any other Jewish day school in Western Canada related to the number of potential Jewish students in the community. As well, it is the only Jewish high school in North America – other than yeshivot – that offers an international student experience.
“We generally enrol one or two students a year from international communities,” says Gray Academy Head of School and CEO Lori Binder. “Our International Student program has always been a niche program,” “We want to be able to make sure that the international students are well integrated into our student body.”
For the most part, she reports, the visiting students have come from Brazil and Mexico. “We have agents in Brazil and Mexico,” she notes. “In the past, we have participated in recruitment trips – and we might again one day – depending on available resources. Most of our international students hear about our program through word of mouth.”
This school year, Gray Academy has two international students enrolled. Natalie Rozenberg is from Rio de Janiero This is the Grade 12 student’s second year at the school. She is following in the footsteps of her older sister, Dafne, who graduated from Gray Academy in 2020 and is currently enrolled in third year Data Science at the University of Manitoba.
The newest international student at Gray Academy is Tara Foster, who has come all the way from Australia to sample a different kind of educational experience. “Tara is the first Australian student to participate in our program,” Binder says. “In fact, she reached out to us after finding information about our program online.”
The Grade 10 student was born and raised in Sydney. Her father, she notes, was also originally from Sydney, but her parents met and married in London. They moved to Sydney 18 year ago. Up to now, Tara has been a student at Masada College, a K-12 Jewish school in Sydney, where she will be returning next fall.
I wanted to experience a school somewhere else – preferably in an English-speaking country,” she says. “I searched online and Gray Academy was the only school offering this program.”
While her mother, she notes, had some concerns about her 15-year-old daughter traveling so far from home for school, her father was fine with the idea. He is involved in an accounting software business which brings him frequently to Toronto. Her mother, Tara says, is planning to come to visit in January.
Tara has been here for just over a month. She reports that Winnipeg so far is sort of what she expected. “It is very flat,” she muses. “It is easier to get around here than in Sydney.”
She says that she has already made some friends in her new school and is starting to get involved in extracurricular activites
Natalie began the school year by joining her Grade 12 classmates on their Human Rights and Holocaust Education trip to Washington, DC. She is looking forward to continuing to work out regularly at the Rady JCC.
”I am still working on improving my English,” she says.
She notes that her parents are happy that their two daughters are living in a safe community such as Winnipeg.
As is the standard practice with Gray Academy’s International Student program, both girls are living with host families. “Over the past 15 years or so, our visiting International Student Program has hosted more than 30 students,” Lori Binder reports. “Not only do the visiting students benefit from the experience of going to school here, but our own students get the opportunity to welcome fellow students from different places and learn more about the larger world.”
She adds that the visiting students form long-lasting bonds with their host families, with the guests often becoming part of the host family’s extended family.
Local News
Rabbi Michael Skobac, international leader in Jewish outreach, to speak at Adas Yeshurun Herzlia on October 20

By MYRON LOVE It has been many years since I have had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi Michael Skobac. I am happy to report that the long time Education Director of Jews for Judaism has been invited back to Winnipeg by the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation to do a presentation – on Friday, October 20, after Kabbalat Shabbat services – on the subject of the ongoing missionary threat to the Jews.
The subtext for “The Battle for the Jewish Soul,” the title of his lecture, he points out, is an exploration of why so many Jews are susceptible to the siren song of missionaries – not just Christian missionaries, but also Asian religious movements – an issue that also falls under the aegis of Jews for Judaism.
“It is not just a matter of a lack of education or knowledge,” he explained in a wide ranging interview with the JP&N last Friday morning. “Many of those who have left Judaism grew up in Jewish homes, had their bar/bat mitzvahs, went to Hebrew school and visited Israel. What they are missing is a sense of spirituality.
“Too many Jews have grown up in a spiritual vacuum,” he continued. “They have holes in their soul that cry out to be filled and they are not finding it in Judaism. Therefore, they are turning to Bhuddism, Hinduism and the Church.”
To further illustrate his point, he cited a story about a conference on Jewish meditation a year ago in New York City. “There were about 1,000 people registered,” he recounted. “They were asked to raise their hands if they had participated in Eastern mediation practices. Everyone raised their hands. When subsequently asked how many of them had had any experience with Jewish meditation, no hands went up.”
That anecdote speaks to one of the several ways that Jews for Judaism’s mission has evolved and expanded. The organization was founded in 1989 in Toronto by Julius Ciss, himself a former “Jew for Jesus” who had returned to Judaism some years before and had begun doing counter missionary work.
Rabbi Skobac joined Jews for Judaism full time in 1992. A graduate of Yeshiva University, the former New Yorker received his smicha in 1980. After teaching for a short time, he was drawn into outreach work within the Jewish community prior to joining the staff of Jews for Judaism.
Initially, Jews for Judaism’s primary mission was working to bring back to Judaism susceptible Jews who were enticed into joining messianic congregations operating under the guise of following Jewish ritual practices within a context of worshipping Yesha (Jesus).
Skobac notes that Jews for Judaism’s focus has never been criticizing Christian beliefs, but rather on educating lost Jews as to the joys of Judaism. “We operate under the idea that the missionary activity of Jews for Jesus is not the problem,” he explains. “It is a symptom. The problem is that a growing number of Jews are disconnected from Judaism. Our communities are dealing with a lot of assimilation and apathy. The other thing we realized is that it is not just Christ who is calling to Jews. Twenty five percent of North American Bhuddists are Jewish and Jews are similarly overrepresented in other Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Bahai.”
Skobac noted that Jews for Judaism has become a 911 service forJewish communities – responding to many family members concerned about siblings or children who have strayed into other religious faiths.
There have been some interesting phenomena developing in more recent years that Skobac commented on. One is related to the growth of the messianic movements themselves.
“We are not dealing with just one or two messianic congregations in North America now,” he observed. “There are currently more than 500 – and they have become organized. They have camps and day schools and “rabbinical schools” to fill the growing demand for “rabbis”. The result is more of the messianic Jews are actually studying Judaism and some are – as a result- coming back to the Jewish community.”
Another difference that Skobac points out is that you no longer see these missionaries preaching on street corners. As with everything else in our modern world, virtually all the missionary work today is happening online. And the outreach efforts of Jews for Judaism has also moved to some degree online.
“Twelve years ago, we started our own YouTube channel,” he reported. “We have had between 8 and 9 million views. Obviously not all of our viewers re Jewish.”
He pointed out that over the past 40 years, a growing number of non-Jews have become interested in learning about Judaism and begun practising the “Noahide” laws as ordained in the Torah. These laws were required by God of Noah’s descendants and include prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, adultery, theft, murder and cruelty to animals.
And some of these Noahides convert to Judaism. Skobac reported, for example, that he was recently in Alberta to help a family living outside of Edmonton that was converting to Judaism.
The bottom line, Skobac noted, is that a growing number of Jews are not finding meaning in Judaism. “People need a sense of the spiritual in their lives to give their lives meaning,” he observed. “If they can’t find it in Judaism, they will look somewhere else. What we try to do is bring out the beauty and spirituality in Judaism.”
Readers who may be interested in attending rabbi Skobac’s presentation (which includes supper) can contact the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia office at 204 489-6262.
Local News
Three Jewish candidates in running for upcoming provincial election

By MYRON LOVE For those of us who still remember the 1969 provincial election that vaulted Ed Schreyer and the NDP into office for the first time, one of the aspects of that turning point in our province’s political history that stood out was the large number of Jewish MLAs who were elected to office that year.
That number included four for the NDP (Sid Green, Saul Miller, Saul Cherniack, and Cy Gonick) as well as two for the Progressive Conservatives (Maitland Steinkopf and Sidney Spivak). Spivak later went on to become leader of the recently defeated Progressive Conservatives and Leader of the Opposition.
It has now been more than 30 years since a Jewish MLA has sat in the Legislature. That would be the late Jim Carr, who was first elected as part of the Liberal resurgence in 1988, was returned to the Legislature in 1990 as part of a much reduced Liberal caucus, and resigned in 1992.
While there are three Jewish candidates in the running in the election next week, it is very unlikely that the dearth of Jewish MLAs will be coming to an end any time soon.
For Nathan Zahn, representing the Green Party in River Heights, this will be his third try and second in River Heights. As the Green Party has never won a seat n the province and he is running against the long-serving and popular former Liberal party leader Dr. Jon Gerrard, to describe Zahn’s campaign as an uphill battle is an understatement.
The annual Electronic Music Exhibtion organizer (which is held in June in the Exchange district) and founder and executive director of the non-profit Science First (that promotes science literacy and ecological conservation policies) is a long time Green Party member.
“My goal in running,” Zahn says, “is to raise awareness of several issues.”
Some of those issues, according to the Green Party platform, are fighting climate change, electoral reform, instituting a guaranteed basic income and improving access to healthcare.
In Wolseley, Phil Spevack is the Liberal standard-bearer. The candidate is best –known in our Jewish community as the long time organizer of the Saturday evening Grant and Wilton Coffee House concert which are held in the basement of Temple Shalom (where Spevack also serves as the
shamas. He has also volunteered over the years for Habitat for Humanity and has a program wherein he speaks to church groups, using a combination of music and humour to educate his audiences about Judaism.
The Liberal caucus in the Legislature currently consists of only three MLAs and Spevack is fully aware of the long odds he is facing. “The Liberals needed a candidate to stand for the party in Wolseley,” Spevack says/ “Jon Gerrard asked me to run and I thinki very highly of Jon.”
While the candidate did have a couple of campaign events planned, he points out that working around all the yom tovim has limited the amount of time he actually has to go knocking on doors in the riding.
Running for the Progressive Conservative Party in the north Winnipeg riding of St. John’s is first time candidate Teddy Rubinstein. Although new to politics, the University of Winnipeg student in the Faculty of Education does have a role model in his baba, Sheila Billinghurst, who served two terms as a school trustee in Pembina Trails school Division.
(Teddy’s parents are Steven Rubinstein and Marla Billinghurst. Bernie and Sheila Rubenstein are also his grandparents.)
While Rubenstein had not responded to efforts to contact him by press time, his blurb on the PC election website notes that “he is running because he wants to make a difference in the St. John’s community, be a positive voice for youth, and give back to Manitoba, where Teddy has lived his whole life.
Teddy believes that it’s important that the younger generation, the future of Manitoba, gets involved in decision-making in order to make a difference in, and be a representative of, their communities. He wants to work to help fight for Manitobans, including addressing the issues of crime that we are seeing in Winnipeg, and to make life more affordable for all Manitobans.”
The St. John’s riding has to be considered a lock for Nahanni Fontaine, the current sitting MLA and Deputy Leader of the Party.
Election day is next Tuesday. Please go out and cast your vote.