Local News
Lifelong Yiddish advocate Oscar Antel celebrates 99th birthday
By MYRON LOVE Growing up in Winnipeg, Oscar Antel recalls, Yiddish was the every day language of our community. And, while there are few Yiddish speakers left here now, Antel, who recently celebrated his 99th birthday, has devoted much of his life to honouring the memory of his forebears in working to preserve our ancestral language (for those of us whose origins are in eastern Europe) as a living language.
However, although relatively still hale and hearty though he is – he concedes that he is looking into getting a hearing aid – he has in recent years turned over the reins of leadership in the work of promoting Yiddish to a younger generation including, among others, Lawrie Cherniack, Sharon Love and Rochelle Zucker.
Antel was born in the town of Dombrovitz in Poland in an area which is now part of Ukraine. His father Leible, came to Winnipeg in 1929 while the then six-year-old Oscar, his mother, Vittle, and sister, Shirley, followed the next year.
“I spent a year in Cheder in Poland before we came to Canada,” he recalls. “My father reasoned that once we came to Canada, I would never see the inside of a cheder.”
The family settled in the heavily Jewish old north end. Leible Antel first worked a s a pedlar, selling fruits and vegetables before going to work as a foreman at Raber Glove.
The Antels naturally enrolled their children in the Yiddish language I.L. Peretz Folk School – at the time the largest Jewish school in the community – where Oscar made lifelong friends. After finishing Peretz School, he continued his schooling at Aberdeen and Isaac Newton Schools.
In 1944, Antel enlisted in the Air Force and was shipped overseas. He was stationed in southern England, where he served as an aircraft mechanic with a mobile unit.
“We lived in tents and changed locations every evening,” he recalls. “By day, the German air force would take photos of our positions and the German bombers would come at night. “
He came home again in 1945 to his wife Bella, whom he had married just before going overseas.
Following the war, he pursued a career in accounting. “I wanted to be a chartered accountant,” he says, “but the army recommended that I take a bookkeeping course. (The Canadian military paid for veterans to enrol in post-graduate programs after the war.) I worked as a public accountant for ten years. In the mid-1950s, with Bella’s support, and having three children at home, I did go back to school and became a CA.”
His speciality, he notes, was analyzing financial statements and providing clients with financial advice.
It was in his early 30s that Oscar Antel began to assume his avocation supporting Yiddish language education and culture. He succeeded Alter Cherniack, one of the founders of the Peretz School, as chairman of the Board of Education and then president of the school.
“Over the years, I served in all of the school’s different committees at one time or another,” Antel says.
After the school was merged with the Talmud Torah under the aegis of the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education – the two school were later combined at the Talmud Torah location on Matheson, the still-active Peretz School board, which had retained ownership of its last school building, sold the facility (in 1994) and used the funds to create the I.L. Peretz Folk School Endowment Trust (which is administered by the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba). Antel remained an active trustee of the fund until about ten years ago.
“Over the years, we have used the interest generated by our fund to promote a range of Yiddish activities,” Antel reports. “In the early days, we helped support Noach Witman’s long-running Jewish Radio Hour (which-although Witman has long since left the scene – can still be heard weekly on Sundays from 1:30-2:30 on CKJF 92.7 FM) and still receives support from the fund.”
The fund has also funded the popular Mameloshen program (A Festival of Yiddish Entertainment and Culture) from its founding in 2008 up until 2018, along with a Yiddish Teaching Fellowship, which facilitates the teaching of Yiddish at the University of Manitoba.
In addition to his leadership in Yiddish circles, Antel has served our community in leadership roles as: a member of the largely Jewish General Monash branch (he was vice-president at one time) of the Royal Canadian Legion; Chairman of Community Relations and then as Chairman of the Western Division of Canadian Jewish Congress; and as a member of the National Executive of Congress. He was the last Chairman of the Western Division and subsequently one of the founders of the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council (the precursor to the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg) and served on the Board and committees of the Jewish Community Council for many years.
Antel and Bella Antel (who passed away eight years ago)were among the first residents of the Shaftesbury Park Retirement Residence when it first opened He continued his Yiddish cultural activities after moving into the Shaftesbury – reading Yiddish stories after Friday evening services led for the first few years by Rabbi Shmuley Altein.
Antel gave up driving just three years ago. He says he is in relatively good health.
“I find that I am dozing off more often,” he says.
“I still get around. I get together regularly with my family in Winnipeg.”
Antel is the father of sons, Joel (in Winnipeg) and Jack (in Montreal). His daughter, Shelley, in Vancouver, passed away a few years ago. He says proudly that he has eight grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
For his birthday (on March 1) , his family arranged a Skype session. He is hopeful that for his 100th birthday, God willing, most of the family will be able to celebrate with him in person.
Local News
The Jewish Post Ltd.’s brand new website
Click here to be taken to our new website featuring foods you can find on Facebook Marketplace
Local News
First year medical student Tim Rozovsky founds new association for local Jewish medical students
By MYRON LOVE In the face of a concerning surge in antisemitism over the past nearly three years, I am happy to report a good news story in that regard. Tim Rozovsky, the founder of the new Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba, reports that he and his fellow Jewish students enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine are not experiencing any significant issues involving antisemitism.
Hopefully, the matter of the notorious Med school Valedictorian who used his podium to attack Israel was a one-off.
“My goal in forming the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba,” says the first year medical student, “was to create a safe, supportive environment for my fellow Jewish medical students.”
He reports that the current first year class at the school has eight Jewish students – an increase over more recent years – with maybe a dozen more in the other years.
For a new medical student, Rozovsky already has an impressive resume. He was born in Russia and grew up in Israel. After the completion of his army service in 2018, the then-22-year-old rejoined his parents, Dr. Katya and Alexander, who had moved to Winnipeg a few years before.
Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Rozovsky had completed a personal trainer program out of The Academic College at Wingate in Jerusalem. Some readers may know the young man from his work as a Master Personal Trainer at the Rady JCC.
Shortly after arriving here, he enrolled in a kinesiology program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated with a BKin Honours in 2023 and did post graduate work at the University of Manitoba. Last fall, he received his MSc in Physiology and Pathophysiology – earning two gold medals, along with 32 awards and scholarships in the process.
Rozovsky says that it was his mother who inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. Dr. Katya Rozovsky is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and an attending radiologist, specializing in pediatric diagnostic imaging.
(Tim also adds that his wife, Irina Gelzin, whom he married about a year ago, is training to be a nurse.)
Insofar as the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba is concerned, Rozovky reports that the group gets together multiple times a year. One of its programs was a joint Chanukah celebration with the Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba.
There was also a joint program with the Christian Medical and Dental Students’ Association of Manitoba.
“More recently, we have been helping prospective Jewish medical students with their applications,” he says. “Hopefully we will be able to get together over the summer with the incoming Jewish students.”
As to his own future plans, Rozovsky notes that it is too early for him to be deciding on a specialty. “My goal,” he says, “is to work hard and get good grades and become the best doctor that I can be.”
Local News
Gray Academy to Represent Manitoba at National Reach for the Top Competition
By NOAH STRAUSS Posted June 6) Gray Academy’s Reach for the Top team is headed to Moncton, New Brunswick, to represent Manitoba at the National Reach for the Top tournament.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian school league that quizzes teenagers on a variety of different topics, from science and history to pop culture. Reach started out in 1961 in Vancouver, where a local CBC station broadcasted the new show; it eventually became a national broadcast starting in 1966. Alex Trebek, who famously hosted Jeopardy!, started out by hosting Reach for the Top.
Gray Academy’s very own team, made up of Grade 7 and 8 students, will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, to compete as Team Manitoba. By winning the provincial Reach tournament, they secured their spot in the national competition.
Faculty members at Gray Academy are very supportive of the program. The Jewish Post spoke with three different staff members at the school. Coach and high school teacher Danielle Miller says she is excited for the trip; although she will not be accompanying the team herself, shehas coached them all year.
“This year we had over 20 students come to the club to join us, they practice twice a cycle at lunch,” Miller said. Due to the large turnout this year, two teams had to be formed. At lunch practices, students split into two teams of four where each player has a buzzer. The two teams compete to see who can answer the most questions correctly.
One of the two teams did exceptionally well at various tournaments throughout the year and will be traveling to nationals as the sole team representing Manitoba.
Co-coach Micah Doerksen described Reach as a great academic competition where young minds are tested on various topics through quick,fast-paced questions.
High school guidance counselor Lindsey Leipsic said, “We have athletes, non-athletes, we have students who are really involved and students who are not as involved at school, and we have quiet leaders, and we’ve seen friendships be built in Reach.” Some of her favorite memories of Reach involve seeing students from across Winnipeg come to Gray Academy and bond with one another. Lev Chisick, who is competing at nationals, agreed, saying, “Moncton is going to strengthen our school spirit and make us a better team.”
As the junior team makes their way to Moncton, the senior team will head to provincials. Later this week, students from the senior team will travel to Virden, Manitoba, to compete at the provincial level. The team qualified after placing high enough at their most recent tournament, which took place at St. Paul’s.
Confidence is high as the school heads into these final tournaments. When Nath Goldenberg, who is also competing at nationals, was asked what he is most looking forward to, his answer was short and sweet:“Winning.”
