Local News
Lifesaving Israeli training coming to Winnipeg
By REBECA KUROPATWA
In 2016, when Magen David Adom (MDA) introduced the Life Guardian Program, thousands of Israelis with no medical training jumped at the opportunity to participate.
The Life Guardian Program added another layer of responders to emergencies to potentially save more lives with faster response time, by certifying or recertifying everyday Israeli citizens. Many participants had learned CPR as part of their army service or teacher certification, and others took first-aid basics for the first time.
When an emergency call is taken at the MDA dispatch centre, the computer system locates and contacts the closest Life Guardians and asks them to help save the life of a person in their close proximity, while also dispatching the closest medic or paramedic.
With an eye on the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in North America, Canadian Magen David Adom (CMDA) has come out with a training program that aims to give everyday people the know-how to help if they are in proximity to the site of a mass casualty incident.
The training is designed for anyone, no matter how much or how little medical training they possess, to give people the most basic tools to help save lives. It is called “The First 7 Minutes” and will soon be making its debut in Winnipeg.
The first training session is scheduled to take place on Feb 5th at 7 pm in the Rady JCC’s MPR (multipurpose room) and is being presented by CMDA and the Rady JCC. The special guest speaker will be MDA paramedic Don Sharpe, from Calgary who will train attendees and award certificates of training completion.
Sharpe has been a paramedic in Calgary for nearly 40 years. Four years ago, he had the fortune of training with MDA in Israel along with a group of other Canadian doctors.
“I’ve seen first-hand how an ambulance service should be run, and I think there are a lot of lessons there for us here in Canada – not just the actual frontline ambulance portion, but also for integration with hospital service, air service, and the Life Guardian Program,” said Sharpe.
“I tried several times to get that off the ground here, unsuccessfully, because, I think the community and cultural cohesion that seems to exist in Israel – we don’t have here.”
Sharpe grew up in the Jewish community of south west Calgary, though he is a Mormon by faith.
“As I grew older and started to watch what was happening with the rise of anti-Semitism and the violence against Jewish people and the State of Israel, I came to believe that Jews were precious,” said Sharpe.
“I wanted to work with a group that supported, not just the Jewish people, but also the State of Israel. So, when the opportunity came up…when I saw a presentation of a couple of doctors who had gone to Israel and worked with MDA, and they said they’d learned how to treat people on a moving ambulance…I was like, ‘Well, I can do that!’ They learned how to help people out in the field…and, I said, ‘I can do that!’”
Sharpe was especially impressed with MDA’s dispatch centre, which not only takes calls, but also provides lifesaving guidance over the phone until help arrives.
“We have so many people here now that, when an emergency occurs, they don’t know what to do,” said Sharpe. “The time I spent in MDA’s dispatch was really eye opening.
“When I first started in Canada, people would call 911 and we’d basically just take the call, start the ambulance, and hang up the phone.
“But, MDA’s idea that we can help people before the ambulance arrives is just brilliant. It makes such a huge difference.
“And now, to be able to teach groups of people, through “the First 7 Minutes” training, is perfect…groups of lay people on how to help a large number of people, casualties…in situations where everyone’s panicking. With just a little bit of training and some right thinking…there is now the idea that you aren’t powerless, that you can do something, you can cope. That little bit of training makes so much difference.”
Through “the First 7 Minutes” training, the first thing you will learn about is how to wrap your head around the possibility that you might be in a situation where 10 or 15 people are suddenly hurt and in need of help. The training will begin with a brief talk in order to best focus as much time as possible on practicing simulated mass casualty events.
“We start with something like a wall collapse, something without a bad guy, something that’s an accident rather than patients or blood,” said Sharpe. “This patient has a broken arm, this person’s unconscious, this person is bleeding from an abdominal wound…we go through determining who is in charge, how we know that person is in charge, where that person should stand and what s/he should do…what everyone else should do…and we also want to be alert for those people who are so freaked out by this that they don’t want to help at all.
“For those people, who might say they don’t like blood, I say, ‘Listen, there’s an important job for you. We need you to keep the people who aren’t hurt calm and look after them.’ I go, ‘Can you do that?’ And they say, ‘Oh yeah, I can do that.’”
The second simulated scenario might include an assailant. The third simulation will depend on the attendees and Sharpe’s observations on what should be further practiced.
“By the end of the training, you will walk away with some very basic understanding of how to work together as a team,” said Sharpe. “No matter who’s there, everybody can help a little bit. And, you know, if a situation ever truly arises where we have a large number of people hurt, you will remember the basics.
“You may not be good at it. Nobody ever gets good at it unless you spend the time I do treating patients, but you’ll be comfortable enough to say, ‘We can handle this and help people. We can take care of ourselves.’”
At the end, participants will receive a certificate. “I love the idea that people have to pay $10 for the training, because sometimes, when people just wander in and out and it’s free, they aren’t really paying attention,” said Sharpe. “Now that they paid, they’ll want to get their money’s worth, so they’ll have a real commitment to being there and learning this.
“I think communities need to learn to work together and to depend on themselves. And, it’s not only a good way to save lives in an emergency. It’s also a way to simply teach people to work together, so that, when they look at each other, they know they can depend on each other in an emergency. They’re well trained.”
CMDA and Sharpe are bringing the training to schools, synagogues, churches, and more.
While the topic is serious, you can expect Sharpe to include some humour along the way. “It can be a good time,” he said. “We have fun. People will walk away thinking, ‘I thought this was going to be pretty hard, but it was kind of fun.’”
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.
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