Local News
JNF Canada loses appeal to retain charitable status—days before a deadline to disburse remaining assets
By ELLEN BESSNER (Canadian Jewish News) November 10, 2024 Jewish National Fund of Canada has lost its first major legal battle to stop the tax department’s revocation of its charitable status, which came into effect three months ago.
Late in the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 8, a Federal Court judge dismissed JNF Canada’s application for a judicial review—and the judge also dismissed a request for an injunction to force the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to remove the official revocation notice that was printed in the Canada Gazette on Aug. 10.
Printing that notice triggered a series of steps JNF Canada was ordered to take under the Income Tax Act rules regarding revoked charities.
Firstly, it could no longer issue tax receipts for charitable donations made by Canadian supporters to fund a portfolio of social service projects in Israel.
Secondly, it was also required to wind down operations that date back to 1967—during which time the charity fundraised in Canada to support tree planting and other work in Israel. The CRA gives revoked charities the option of trying to disperse its remaining assets (JNF Canada’s asserts were stated as about $31 million in 2023) by giving them to another approved charity.
JNF Canada was also instructed to file a special form and remit a cheque to the tax department to pay what is known as a revocation tax. This amount is 100 percent of its remaining holdings after calculating the fair market value of the assets and money the charity had left, once all debts are paid. (The amount could be further reduced should the assets be legally given to a qualified donee.)
The deadline for that tax payment is Nov. 13, according to a letter the CRA sent to the now-former charity in mid-August.
The judge’s ruling came 24 hours after JNF Canada lawyers argued their case via video conference on Nov. 7, alongside lawyers for the Department of Justice, representing the Minister of National Revenue.
JNF Canada asked for a motion to reverse the publication of the Aug. 10 notice, which would save the organization from forced closure.
In her 17-page written decision, Justice Allyson Whyte Nowak explained why she dismissed the appeal. She ruled that her court was the wrong place for the charity to try to seek relief, because the Income Tax Act specifically designated the Federal Court of Appeal as the correct venue for such cases. Earlier court cases have established this fact, she wrote.
Justice Whyte Nowak did acknowledge that JNF Canada’s lawyers are raising a “novel issue,” but said it must be left up to the Federal Court of Appeal—or even Parliament—to correct any gaps in the inner workings of the CRA’s revocation process.
The day before the judge’s decision was released, JNF Canada issued a statement about how it will “never stop fighting for our community and our mission.”
“We stood our ground, and our lawyer made a compelling case in our defense [sic], arguing for procedural fairness, legitimate expectations, and the rule of law,” JNF Canada CEO Lance Davis and the revoked charity’s president Nathan Disenhouse announced together on Nov. 7.
JNF Canada has not commented publicly since learning it had lost this legal appeal. A video conference briefing for supporters has been scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight (Nov. 10), in the evening when JNF Canada’s annual Negev Dinner gala for supporters had been scheduled in Toronto, before its cancellation.
Rally for Humanity, a Sunday afternoon event at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto—which will feature speakers from Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Catholic organizations in alliance with 13 different Jewish community groups—also lists JNF Canada as a sponsor.
‘Nearly impossible to resurrect the charity’: CFO
JNF Canada’s chief financial officer Edit Rosenstein, in an affidavit submitted to the court on Oct. 30, outlined the impact of the Aug. 10 revocation.
“As we will not have the necessary funds, a total of 31 charitable projects will need to be stopped, which will have a huge impact on the vulnerable populations we serve.”
The affidavit claimed 48 employees would be terminated, with JNF Canada obliged to make severance payments. Four contractors will have their contracts terminated, with JNF Canada liable for the breaches. And other vendor contracts will also be terminated “resulting in penalties to JNF and exposure to further claims for breach of contract,” explained Rosenstein.
“If JNF is forced to shut down, I believe it will be nearly impossible to resurrect the organization, even if it is successful in its appeal before the Federal Court of Appeal,” Rosenstein’s affidavit said.
A separate court document from JNF Canada’s legal team added another consequence should the Federal Court not reverse the CRA’s revocation. The court was told it will result in further irreparable harm such as “the Applicant losing its chance to salvage its reputation.”
CRA explains the revocation and next steps
The CRA told The CJN on Friday it does not normally comment on specific court cases involving taxpayers, due to confidentiality clauses in the Income Tax Act. However, an email from spokesperson Nina Ioussoupova clarified why revoked charities must pay a revocation tax.
“The purpose of this tax is to ensure that charitable property is applied to charitable use,” she said, adding that the remaining assets include all income and gifts made to a revoked charity during its wind-down period.
In the JNF Canada case, the CEO Lance Davis told The CJN in an earlier interview in August that the charity continued to receive donations from supporters after the revocation, even though tax receipts could not be issued.
Two months ago, JNF Canada launched a public relations effort to lobby Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and national revenue minister Marie Claude-Bibeau to intervene on the file and reverse the revocation. Supporters were asked to donate money that would go to plant trees in areas of northern Israel where Hezbollah rocket attacks have burned forests.
The revoked charity vowed to send thank-you cards to the two federal politicians, which would advise them of trees being planted in their names—and also urging them to support JNF Canada’s cause.
How did JNF Canada end up here?
July 2024 brought the first public word from JNF Canada of its decade-long dispute with the tax agency. JNF Canada announced that it had been “blindsided” by the CRA decision it would be moving to shut the charity down, after a confidential 2014 CRA audit painted a harsh picture of its non-compliance with tax rules. JNF Canada vowed to fight any revocation through the courts, and immediately filed an appeal July 24, to the Federal Court of Appeal. A parallel appeal was filed to the Federal Court soon after.
The agency’s findings in the audit ranged from where the charity’s books and records had been kept in 2011 and 2012 (mostly in Israel, which was a no-no), to what language the paperwork and receipts were kept in (mostly in Hebrew, which is not illegal but makes work difficult for auditors), to the conclusion that JNF Canada’s founding charitable purposes of relieving poverty in Israel by paying the salaries of indigent labourers, were not being met.
Another major issue was that because of missing paperwork and superficial oversight on the ground in Israel, it was felt the Montreal-based JNF Canada hadn’t been in control of or directing its own operations overseas. CRA believed the charity was acting merely as a funnel of money to the Jerusalem-based agency, the Jewish National Fund/Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, which ran the projects.
A further red flag for auditors were several projects in 2011 and 2012 that benefited the Israel Defence Forces, such as construction of buildings and green areas on IDF military bases. Registered charities are not permitted to support a foreign military financially, under Canadian laws. Some other projects were located in the West Bank and on other disputed land, the CRA found, something which Canada’s foreign policy frowns on.
JNF Canada disagreed with the CRA’s view of that last category—and still does. But in 2019, the charity assured the public that it had stopped funding both kinds of projects after 2016, in order to comply with CRA requirements in good faith.
The CRA officially informed the charity in August 2019 that it still wasn’t satisfied with JNF Canada’s efforts to come into compliance, and intended to revoke its charitable status.
Three months later, in November 2019, JNF Canada filed an objection with the CRA’s in-house appeals branch. That move put the revocation process on hold until the objection was reviewed.
The review by the agency’s appeal team took about four years.
In documents submitted to the Federal Court as part of the latest hearing, the CRA acknowledged the lengthy time it took. However, it blames the delay partly on “disruptions” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, when in person meetings were cancelled, and when many federal workers switched to remote offices and worked from home. But the CRA also contends it was JNF Canada’s fault the review was held up when the charity filed an Access to Information request seeking confidential CRA documents about this dispute, which caused more delays.
The CRA finished its review of JNF Canada’s objection in 2023, and told the charity it still was planning to proceed with revocation of its charitable status due to the “repeated and serious non-compliance” with the Income Tax Act.
The now-revoked charity has publicly slammed the tax agency for repeatedly refusing to meet with them during the process to discuss concrete suggestions for improving things, such as adopting a new, acceptable charitable purpose. JNF’s Canada’s CEO Lance Davis told The CJN Daily this August that his team has made many internal changes in recent years to come into compliance, and as a result were now “running a tight ship.”
On June 26, 2024, the charity received a further confirmation letter of the CRA’s 2019 Notice of Intent to Revoke.
JNF Canada decried the decision, blamed the department for being procedurally unfair, even biased, and accused tax officials of caving in to anti-Israel activist groups—such as Independent Jewish Voices—which have long been pressuring the government to shut pro-Israel charities such as JNF Canada down. JNF Canada officials have since pointed to internal CRA documents it obtained showing a 2017 meeting between anti-Israel activists and a senior director with the revenue agency.
Procedural fairness disputed by JNF Canada lawyers
JNF Canada lawyers Adam Aptowitzer and Elizbeth Egberts of KPMG told the court this past Thursday that the CRA had given JNF Canada written assurances—dating back as far back as 2019—it would not pull the trigger by having the revocation notice published yet in the Canada Gazette.
Aptowitzer argued this assurance included a promise the CRA would wait until any objections or court appeals were dealt with. He told the court there was a long-standing internal CRA policy that gave audited charities as long as 90 days after the revocation notice was sent out to file an appeal in the Federal Court of Appeal before publication of the revocation.
Aptowitzer told the court that JNF Canada felt the 90-day policy used in 2019 was actually a “commitment” that “had created a legitimate expectation” of how things were going to be handled in 2024.
The lawyers submitted copies of an internal CRA briefing note from May 2024 stating no publication of the revocation notice would happen if JNF managed to submit its appeal in time to the Federal Court of Appeal, which it did on July 24, 2024.
Nevertheless, the CRA went ahead and had the revocation notice published on Aug. 10, which was 30 days after that final confirmation letter was sent out.
JNF Canada also felt it should have been clearly informed that CRA 2019 policy had been changed, since had it been informed about the shorter deadline, the charity would likely have gone much earlier to the Federal Court of Appeal to try to block the publication, before it was too late.
For its part, CRA lawyer Linsey Rains told the court JNF Canada should have been smart enough to figure out the previous, 90-day timeline process wasn’t guaranteed any longer.
“[JNF Canada] is a sophisticated organization and there is sophisticated counsel as well,” Rains said Thursday.
She reminded the judge that under the tax code, the CRA doesn’t have to wait for the final outcome of legal appeals to be exhausted through the courts, and the CRA can publish a revocation in the Canada Gazette after 30 days, as was the case here.
Lawyers for the government argued the tax department was acting to protect the tax base, and wasn’t required to give JNF Canada its own personal treatment and notice.
“Counsel… was told that [the 90-day waiting period in place back in 2019] assurance wasn’t necessarily guaranteed this time around,” said Rains. “The policy changed and it can change and the reason it changed is… the Minister’s statutory duty to publish the revocation.”
While the 90-day policy was followed for many revocation cases before and since 2019-2020, the court heard that, in the last few years, the agency has moved to the much speedier revocation: 30 days.
Moves made to protect taxpayers: CRA
“The CRA now has a risk-based approach towards compliance in the charitable sector,” according to senior CRA official Melissa Shaughnessy in a written affidavit submitted to the court in advance of the hearing.
She said it will cost the Canadian government $4.6 billion in 2024 to give tax deductions to people and corporations who donate money to charities. So, the CRA wants to make sure the charitable sector operates according to the law. That is why it moved more quickly on the JNF Canada case.
“The decision to proceed with revocation now, despite the Organization’s appeal with the Federal Court of Appeal, is to stop the continued flow of tax-receipted donations going overseas to fund the non-charitable activities of a non-charitable third party,” Shaughnessy wrote, referring to the JNF’s partner in Israel.
“The Organization has publicly stated that it will continue receipting donations and distributing funds. Awaiting the conclusion of the legal appeal process could take over a year which would enable the Organization to continue to send millions of dollars in tax-receipted donations to fund foreign non-charitable programs were it not revoked.”
While the CRA acknowledged it had received assurances from JNF Canada that funds were not being used in IDF projects or the West Bank since 2016, the tax agency pointed out the charity didn’t furnish proof to back up this promise.
‘Irreparable harm’ due to revocation
As part of its case claiming irreparable harm from revocation, JNF Canada argued in court that Israeli children with cancer are being jeopardized by the CRA’s revocation. Aptowitzer, one of the JNF Canada lawyers, said the organization promised to help fund the renovation of a building on the grounds of Sheba Medical Centre’s Tel ha-Shomer site near Tel Aviv, where families of young cancer patients are housed while their kids are undergoing lengthy oncology treatments.
The facility is operated by the Israel-based Rachashei Lev charity. Since 2007, the building has offered 20 apartments to temporarily house the families. Aptowizer told the court JNF Canada made an obligation to fund this renovation project.
“The facility is currently turning away sick children,” he said, and the court was told an estimated ten patients have had to be turned away to date, due to the renovations underway. “There is harm to unknown people yet to be diagnosed.”JNF Canada committed $292,500 to fund the renovations, according to the affidavit submitted by CFO Edit Rosenstein.
According to the JNF Canada’s website, the reason the children’s house is being renovated is because since Oct. 7, 2023, the hospital has now commandeered the 20 apartments also to accommodate an influx of Israeli survivors’ families, including next of kin of severely wounded Israeli soldiers who were injured in battle.
“With the increased demand from families of wounded soldiers, they need to quickly renovate and split the current apartments into two thereby doubling the number of families served for a total of 40 apartments,” explains JNF Canada on its website. “Each suite will consist of a bedroom, a kitchenette, private bathroom and a balcony. Renovations include new flooring, electrical, paint, plumbing, replacement of doors and installation of more countertops and sinks.”
JNF Canada’s website adds that donations are required before the Canadian project can send money.
Donations almost completely stopped: CFO
In her affidavit, Rosenstein revealed that after her charity’s status was revoked in August this year, JNF hasn’t been receiving the expected flow of donations.
“As a result, donations to JNF [Canada] have almost completely stopped,” Rosenstein said. “Without the ability to raise funds, or draw on assets, JNF will have no choice but to cease its charitable operations and terminate the employment of its employees.”
CRA lawyer Linsey Rains told the court she wondered about JNF Canada’s claim of irreparable harm and argued it should not factor into the judge’s decision.
Firstly, Rains asked the court why payments couldn’t be sent to the hospital project, regardless of the revocation. She also suspected JNF Canada wasn’t the only organization donating to this Israel-based children’s house project. Rachashei Lev has several fundraising chapters outside of Israel—including in Teaneck, New Jersey, and London, England.
JNF Canada annulment request explained
Even after JNF Canada received the recent June 26 confirmation that its charitable status was going to be revoked, the charity proposed what CEO Lance Davis has previously called an “off-ramp.”
Lawyers asked the CRA on July 12 to pause the revocation, and instead act to annul JNF Canada’s 57-year status as a registered charity.
An annulment would help avoid paying the revocation tax, and would also allow JNF Canada donors to keep the tax receipts they’d been issued prior to the granting of the annulment.
In court, CRA lawyer Linsey Rains told the judge the federal revenue minister didn’t reject the idea, but rather put a pin on the suggestion while the current dispute over revocation plays out in the courts.
The head of the CRA’s charity directorate, Sharmila Khare, wrote on July 24 to David Stephens—another lawyer representing JNF Canada—confirming that the annulment request would be “held in abeyance.”
Rains suggested JNF Canada tried to keep its non-compliance problems out of the public eye. She told the court JNF Canada wanted to “keep it quiet” and “close to their chest” hoping instead, they could get an annulment, and avoid paying the revocation tax in the process.
Briefing notes prepared by CRA staff in April and May 2024 which were submitted to the Federal Court ahead of the hearing show JNF Canada being very concerned about the dispute being made public. The CRA notes also show the agency itself expected to receive additional attention because of its timing.
“Consideration should be given to raising the risk level on this to high, when and if an appeal is filed at the FCA,” the CRA briefing document said. “The Organization is a prominent charity with overseas operations in Israel and given the current Israel/Palestine conflict, this revocation could be contentious for the CRA. There has been recent media attention on charities potentially funding activities related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The authors of the briefing note cited nine published articles, including one published by The Canadian Jewish News last October. However, five of the pieces were negative coverage citing anti-Israel sources— including one penned by Yves Engler, a prominent anti-Zionist from Montreal. A cited story from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs begins by saying the U.S. branch of Jewish National Fund supported “Israel’s occupation by financing illegal settlement building on Palestinian land.”
What’s next for JNF Canada?
Right now, at least two significant questions remain unanswered.
Have any JNF Canada funds been disbursed to new charities, who could then legally send the money to JNF’s partners in Israel?
And, can the Nov. 13 filing deadline for the revocation tax be met?
JNF Canada’s communications have emphasized it will be left with no funds to pay for court challenges to fight what it feels has been unfair treatment by the CRA.
Despite losing the first court case on Nov. 8, there is still a second appeal in the pipeline—this one was filed with the Federal Court of Appeal on July 24. However, court documents show that any Federal Court of Appeal hearing won’t likely be scheduled any earlier than May 20, 2025.
There could also be other legal avenues, such as an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada—and also to the federal Tax Court.
JNF Canada has two major events scheduled in the coming week, before the Nov. 13 payment deadline. It’s not known if they will be impacted by the appeal being dismissed.
The annual Negev Dinner in Toronto, honouring philanthropist Jeff Rubenstein, was originally scheduled for tonight (Sunday, Nov. 10) before JNF Canada decided to cancel it in September—former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett had been booked as keynote speaker.
But an event was subsequently scheduled for Nov. 11 featuring a panel discussion on the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election as it relates to Israel, featuring former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, with journalist Jonathan Kay serving as moderator.
Two additional JNF Canada supporter events in Toronto remain scheduled for Nov. 21 and Dec. 2.
JNF Canada did not cancel its Negev Gala event in Ottawa, scheduled for Nov. 13, honouring Lisa MacLeod, the outgoing Ontario PC MPP for Nepean. Political consultant Warren Kinsella was later added as keynote speaker.
Proceeds from the Ottawa dinner are going to build a resilience centre for people living with PTSD in Sderot, with charitable donations administered by the Israel Magen Fund of Canada, rather than JNF Canada.
Local News
Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder contribute $1 million to ongoing Shaarey Zedek Synagogue Capital Campaign
By MYRON LOVE “We really welcome the decision of Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder to donate $1-million to our ongoing capital campaign,” said Rena Secter Elbaze, the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue’s executive director, on October 9. “They and their families have a long history of supporting our community organizations and the State of Israel. Their contribution to the Shaarey Zedek is inspirational.”
The husband and wife team officially presented the cheque to Elbaze at a brief ceremony at the synagogue the morning of October 9, in the newly renamed Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder Auditorium.
In their remarks, both Morantz, the president and CEO of Globe Property Management, and Walder, a lawyer who is a former partner in the law firm Myers LLP, spoke of their long family connection to the Shaarey Zedek. “My mother’s family were Jewish pioneers in Winnipeg,” Walder noted. “My great-grandfather, Samuel Cohen, for whom I am named, was an original member of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue. I started coming here with my own grandfather, Sidney Cohen, when I was about two years old. I remember exactly which pew we sat in and how my grandfather helped me to follow along in the siddur during services. Shaarey Zedek has always been a place of great comfort for me.”
Morantz added that his own bar mitzvah took place at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue on April 29, 1972. “I learned my maftir from the legendary Rabbi Berkal,” he recalled. “We continued to celebrate here with our own children’s bar and bat mitzvahs. I am very grateful that we got to watch our own children shine on the bimah.”
It was the Hamas-led assault on Israel and subsequent tsunami of antisemitism worldwide that prompted the couple to consider stepping up and contributing to the Shaaray Zedek campaign in such a magnanimous way.
“I have never been a religious person,” Morantz remarked. “While I may be more secular, I strongly believe in the traditions of Judaism. I had a charmed upbringing in the 60s and 70s in River Heights. It is not the case that I experienced no antisemitism, but those experiences were very minimal. Post-October 7th, I found myself, for the first time in my life, having to judge every situation and every person I came across before divulging the fact that I am Jewish or discussing Israel. I came to the realization, during the process of considering this donation, that a primary driver for us is that this synagogue is a safe place for Jews, where we can comfortably be ourselves.”
Walder pointed out that while her mother’s large family were Jewish pioneers, her father was a Romanian Holocaust survivor, with almost no family after the war. “Family matters a great deal to us,” she said. “In addition to strongly agreeing with Richard that the tragedy of October 7th and continuing and growing anti Semitism are big drivers for us in making this donation, we also want to see Shaarey Zedek be a safe and special part of the lives of our now adult children and the generations that will follow them. It is very fulfilling to us that we are contributing to making that happen.”
Walder further credits the encouragement of her old friend and law school classmate, Neil Duboff, for helping to clinch the decision for her and her husband to make the donation. “Neil has worked so hard for the synagogue and our community for so many years and we applaud his efforts and commitment,” she noted.
(Duboff is a past president of the Shaarey Zedek and chaired the capital campaign.)
Walder also mentioned the support of Gail Asper in making the decision. “I met Gail on our first day of law school in 1981,” she recalled, “and we have been very close ever since. While we can all agree that Gail certainly knows how to talk, she also really knows how to listen. Through all of our discussions with her about making this donation, she listened hard, she came up with solid answers, and she was instrumental in leading us to the decision to donate. Shaarey Zedek is extremely lucky to have such a talented fundraiser.”
“We have to make special mention of Rena Secter Elbaze,” Morantz noted. “Rena literally blew me away when I met her for a tour of the synagogue. Her passion and knowledge are remarkable. We believe that our synagogue is in great hands and we feel much comfort and confidence making this donation.
“We are very proud of the recent renovations and upgrades to the synagogue,” he added. “This place is absolutely beautiful. We also feel privileged to have met with Rabbi Carnie Rose. We know he will be a great asset to the synagogue and all of its members for a long time to come.
“We are so honoured to be here with you today and to feel that we are making a difference to this special place”.
He concluded his remarks with an observation by Elie Wiesel that “a synagogue is a house of memory as well as a house of prayer. It reminds us of who we are and where we come from.”
Local News
Winnipegger Charlotte Kittner traces ancestry back to the Jewish expulsion from Spain
By MYRON LOVE Ladino was long the spoken language of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula and North Africa just as Yiddish was the day to day language of the Jews of Eastern Europe. Charlotte Kittner is most likely the only Winnipegger – and one of the few left in the world – who still speaks Ladino.
But Ladino is just one of eight languages that Kittner, who turned 100 in August, can speak – the others being Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Turkish and English.
Charlette (Sarlota) Kittner was born in Bulgaria – in a Jewish community whose members were largely descended from the Jews who were forced out of Spain in 1492 (and Portugal a few years later) by the Spanish expulsion.
A few days after her birth, that part of Bulgaria became part of Romania. She was so small at birth, she recounts, that the doctor had little hope she would survive more than a few years. She slept in a drawer of a chiffonier lined with many layers of cotton for the first year.
The youngest of three sisters, she recalls growing up comfortably in a warm and observant community. Her father, Avram, who operated a textile factor, attended synagogue on Shabbat and all the Yom Tovim.
The family – along with all the other Jewish families in Romania, fell on hard times with the advent of World War II. Although Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany and was never occupied, members of the Romanian Iron Guard – the local equivalent of the Nazis – could be just as sadistic and murderous as their German counterparts. Although most Romanian Jews outside of Bucharest were murdered, those living in the capital city, while facing much discrimination and many restrictions – were spared internment and deportation.
Kittner notes that mother, Minduch, died in 1945 and she lost her father in 1946.
During the war Charlotte and her sister, Lisa, were assigned to a factory making linens and garments for the Nazis.
She recalls that life was tough after liberation and continued to be difficult after the coming of Communism in immediate post-war Romania.
After the war, Kittner trained as an accountant and found work with a large manufacturer. That is where she met her husband, Mike (Misu) Kittner. They were married in Bucharest in November,1952.
Kittner’s sisters, Suzanna and Lisa, both made aliyah after the war. Charlotte and Mike followed in 1964. They lived in Israel for three years. Charlotte quickly learned Hebrew and found work as an accountant.
But life in Israel was difficult economically in those days. Mike’s brothers, Fred and Serge, had previously settled in Winnipeg and encouraged Mike and Charlotte to join them. They did – in May 1967.
The next year, Chralotte’s sister Lisa and husband, Nick, also moved to Winnipeg.
Their other sister, Suzanna, and her husband, Selu, a well known painter, remained in Israel.
Over the years, Kittner has visited Israel – where she has numerous nephews, nieces and cousins – as well as having taken trips back to Romania and to other European countries.
Once in Winnipeg, she and Mike quickly found work in the garment industry. She was first hired as a bookkeeper by Stall and Son. After a short time she moved over to Silpit Industries, where she served as chief accountant for many years. Kittner has favourable memories of her boss, the late community leader Harry Silverberg. She later worked for another Silverberg firm, Brown and Rutherford, a lumber processing operation.
Mike only worked in the garment industry for a short time. He found his niche in insurance sales – where he excelled. He also founded Broadway Agencies and became a booking agent for budding new performing artists in Europe whom he brought to Winnipeg to appear in popular local night clubs.
Mike and Charlotte’s nephew, Brad Kittner, recalls as a youngster going with his
parents, aunts and uncles to those clubs and watching what he describes as “these fabulous singers.” He says that they inspired him to pursue his own successful career as a karaoke singer and performer for hire.
Charlotte and Mike first lived in East Kildonan for a year, then moved to Partridge Avenue in West Kildonan. A few years later, they bought a new house on Drimes Place, north of Templeton, in northwest Winnipeg.
While Mike Kittner passed away in 1991, Charlotte continued to work into her 70s.
Through the years, she has led a busy social life with family and friends. As Brad Kittner notes, even at 100, “Aunt Charlotte continues hosting friends and family for full course meals and gatherings at her place.”
Charlotte celebrated her hundredth birthday with more than 20 relatives and friends at the Ichiban Restaurant.
Although hard of hearing and somewhat frail of body, her mind remains relatively clear. She still enjoys reading fiction, doing crosswords and looking forward to her weekly card games with her sister-in-law, Sylvia, who also lives at Chateau West on Jefferson, and other friends.
May she live to 120!
Local News
Over 2000 supporters turned out for walk for Israel despite overcast skies, rain
By MYRON LOVE October 5 started out overcast and rainy. The rain – which fortunately stopped just before the Walk for Israel began – didn’t prevent over 2,000 supporters of Israel – both members of our Jewish community and those from outside of our community from turning out for the second annual Walk for Israel commemorating the horrific events of October 7 – two years ago – the darkest day in post-Holocaust Jewish history
As with last year, the 45-minute walk began and ended at the Asper Campus. While last year the walk was followed by speeches from community leaders and various politicians, this year the only speaker was Paula Parks, President of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, who pointed out that the ongoing anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations- post October 7- have strengthened the bonds within our community and spurred more people to affiliate with our communal organizations. She further noted that more of us are speaking out and we need to continue to do that.
“The number of people who participated was inspirational,” says Gustavo Zentner, the representative for Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “We had numerous allies as well as members of our Jewish community. We had people from all walks of life.”
“We had a fantastic turnout,” added Jeff Lieberman, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s CEO. “Paula spoke very well. Her comments were meaningful.”
He expressed his hope that the hostages would be released very soon, the war would be ended, and Israelis can finally live in peace.
The commemoration’s focus this year was primarily on visual images rather than words. The walk featured a number of photos taken by local members of the Winnipeg Jewish community who visited the Nova site in person or attended the Nova exhibit that travelled to various parts of Canada and the United States. The photos were displayed for the day along the fence on Doncaster Avenue – the first stage of the walk. Participants were handed Israeli flags and kalaniot (red anemones) flowers, the official flower of Israel, and were encouraged to place them around the photos on the fence.
As well, as part of the October 7 commemoration, 33 paintings depicting some of those taken hostage on October 7 were put on display along Main Street of the Campus from the week of October 3-October 10. The paintings were the work of well-known Israeli illustrator, cartoonist, humourist, performance artist and political activist, Zeev Engelmayer.
The walk on October 5 concluded with Israeli shimshinim – Israeli youth representatives here in Winnipeg from Israel – and other young people from our community reciting a prayer for the hostages (who were finally freed last week), and members of the IDF, followed by the singing of “O Canada” and “Hatikvah.”