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Long time friends Ben Carr & Kevin Freedman cheering each other on in school trustee by-election campaigns
By MYRON LOVE
Long time friends Ben Carr and Kevin Freedman are hoping to be working together come March 21 as fellow members of Winnipeg School Division No. 1’s Board of Trustees.
The pair are running in two separate byelections – in Wards 3 and 4, where the previously elected school trustees, Mark Wasyliw and Lisa Naylor, quit their positions after winning seats in the Manitoba legislature in last fall’s provincial election.
This will actually be Freedman’s third campaign for a school board seat. He was successful in 2014 in Ward 5 – but lost his bid for re-election in 2018. While his loss certainly came as a surprise…school board elections are a bit of a crap shoot as turnout is usually very low, name recognition is limited and all candidates are independents.
As reported in The Jewish Post and News coverage of the 2014 municipal election campaigns, Kevin Freedman’s background has been in non-profit sport and social service organizations, in which he has served in various leadership roles. He currently teaches in the Department of Business and Administration at the University of Winnipeg.
Freedman has expertise in governance – an expertise that he brought to his role as a school trustee in his first term on the Winnipeg 1 school board. He notes that he pushed to create a new Governance Committee, the first new committee that the school board had approved in a generation.
He also initiated a long-term planning process and overall audit of the division’s infrastructure.
Freedman is particularly proud of his role in pushing for Winnipeg’s first Indigenous bilingual program at Brock Corydon Elementary School (which is also home to the division’s long-running Hebrew Bilingual program). Both Cree and Ojibway are being taught at Brock Corydon now.
Freedman is a recipient of the YMCA Peace Medal and the Governor General’s Caring Canadian award, among others, and has started various environmental and aid projects which have helped and educated tens of thousands around Manitoba and in Indonesia. Ward 4 covers the Wolseley area and the downtown. Freedman, should he be re-elected to the board, is looking forward to where he left off.
“There is still much work to be done,” he says. “I have some ideas for new sustainable initiatives within the division.”
“I am really rooting for Kevin,” says Ben Carr – who notes that the two have known each other for going on ten years. “He is very intelligent and well-placed to provide leadership in areas of governance.”
While this is Carr’s first run for office, the son of Liberal Member of Parliament and high profile Cabinet Minister Jim Carr has had an extensive career behind the scenes in politics as well as in education. “I couldn’t have had a better mentor politically or in life,” he says of his illustrious father.
While currently the principal of the Maples Met School in Seven Oaks Division, his teaching career also includes stints at Kelvin High School – where he was also the head coach of the Kelvin Clippers JV football team – and Robert H. Smith Elementary School French immersion program.
Politically, Carr’s Liberal Party resumé stretches back 15 years. He has served as Manitoba campaign manager for former Federal party leadership aspirants Scott Brison and Bob Rae, parliamentary assistant to Reg Alcock and Director of Parliamentary Affairs in Ottawa under former Minister of Cultural Heritage Melanie Joly. Naturally, he has also been part of his father’s campaign team.
Ward 3 – where Carr is running – covers River Heights and Crescentwood.
“There is a tremendous amount of talent and expertise in Winnipeg 1 School division,” Carr says. “But there is always room for improvement. One of my priorities will be looking for ways to reduce class size. It is more difficult for teachers to develop close relationships with students and act as mentors with an excess number of students in their classes.”
He adds that he is also concerned about being fiscally responsible.
So mark the date March 21 in your calendars – if you live in Wards 3 and 4 – and help elect these two talented members of our community to the Winnipeg 1 school board. (Ed. note: This paper does not endorse anyone for political office. That last comment was Myron’s alone.)
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Join the Sewing Circle at Chesed Shel Emes
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Talented Winnipeg composer Sara Kreindler teams up with her mother Reena Kreindler to create new satirical show to premiere here in May
By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been many years since I’ve heard from Sara Kreindler. Sara’s name first appeared in The Jewish Post & News in 2002 when a satirical musical titled “A Touch of Class” was reviewed by the late Arnold Ross. That particular production featured songs from popular Broadway shows that touched upon themes such as “greed, poverty, oppression, and social unrest.”
When she appeared in that show, Ross noted, Kreindler had just recently returned to Winnipeg from England, where she had obtained a doctorate in Social Psychology from Oxford University.
While at Oxford, Kreindler found time to compose a satirical musical titled “Charity,” which played to rave reviews there, and was performed five times.
Continuing in the theme of writing satirical musicals, Sara has now teamed up with her mother, Reena, to write a new musical titled “A Perfect Man,” which is set to run at the Gargoyle Theatre from May 6-17.
According to a press release we received, “A Perfect Man” is “a satirical musical, set on a fictional analogue of ‘The Bachelor’.
“The story follows an anthropologist who arrives to research TV’s hottest reality-dating show — only to discover she’s been made a contestant, and the bachelor is her high school crush. Past and present collide against an exuberant pastiche score that uses vintage musical styles to highlight modern absurdities.”
“Praised as ‘a musician [who] can make biofuels funny’ (CBC), Sara is known for whip-smart satire on a panoply of topics. Her digital musical, ‘Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System, created during her former life as an academic, has garnered over 84,000 YouTube views. Naturally, she had a field day with the subject of reality dating.
“The topic just begs for campy zaniness, which I think we all need in these times — but also for a more cerebral critique of what these shows say about the culture that spawned them,” says Kreindler. And thanks to the romance context, the satire is woven into a deeper, more personal story. “It’s satire with a heart.”
Here is some more information about Sara Kreindler, taken from a 2009 article I wrote about her:
“Born in Israel, Sara’s precocious talent was nurtured by her mother, Reena, whose own particular talent is literary, not musical. According to Reena, however, Sara was singing from the time she was a baby, and she began to study piano at the age of four.
“As a young girl, Sara began writing her own songs and poems, along with the “occasional musical”, notes Reena. Yet, Sara’s rare talent put her at odds with the typical interests of other children her own age, on top of which she attended a school to which she was exposed to a fair degree of antisemtism.
“As a result, Sara says, being bullied was a common aspect of her childhood. On one occasion, when she was nine, she notes, Sara fought back against one particular bully by reciting the following little ditty:
“I write so many epigrams to you that all the people laugh.
I’m tired of writing epigrams.
I want to write your epitaph!”
“Sara went on to compose a musical titled ‘Flutesong’ while she was a student at Vincent Massey Collegiate, she says. After doing her undergraduate work at the University of Manitoba, majoring in Psychology, Sara won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University.
“Sara eventually earned a doctorate in Social Psychology and returned to Winnipeg, where she began teaching at the University of Manitoba, but she said she didn’t enjoy the “mass production” style of teaching upwards of 300 students at a time, so she switched careers and began doing health research for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.”
All the while Sara has been continuing to compose and perform her own songs, often teaming up with her mother, as she has for “A Perfect Man.”
Showtimes and ticket information for The Perfect Man are available at:
http://www.thegargoyletheatre.com/upcoming-events/the-perfect-man
Local News
Rabbi Kliel Rose to leave Congregation Etz Chayim for new post in Ottawa
The following email from Congregation Etz Chayim Executive Director Morissa Granove was sent to members of the congregation on Friday, April 10:
“Dear Members and Friends,
“As we know, Rabbi Kliel recently spent a weekend with Kehilllat Beth Israel where he has since been offered a position. After much thought and consideration, he has made the decision to sign a contract in Ottawa. He will continue to lead our congregation through Yom Kippur.
“This news marks a significant ending for our Etz Chayim community, and at the same time with change comes opportunity. Congregation Etz Chayim will soon embark on our own Rabbinical search with excitement as we look for our perfect candidates and explore the new possibilities that will help us to continue to shape a strong future for our synagogue and members.”
Kliel Rose took up the position of rabbi at Etz Chayim in August, 2018.
In an article announcing his appointment to the position in the June 6, 2018 issue of The Jewish Post & News, Myron Love wrote:
The congregation has been without a permanent rabbi since last summer when Rabbi Larry Lander chose to retire – after ten years here – and relocate to Toronto.
Kliel Rose is already a well-seasoned rabbi. He was ordained in 2004 by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
He previously served as spiritual leader at the West End Synagogue in Nashville and Temple Enamu-El in Miami Beach. His current posting is Beth Shalom Synagogue in Edmonton.
Following the example of his parents, Kliel Rose has been active in interfaith dialogue and human rights work for which he was honoured in 2014 with the Human Rights Hero Award by Truah: The Rabbibic Call for Human Rights.
He has also participated in the Kellogg Management Education for Jewish Leaders program at Northwestern University and was most recently chosen to be among 20 rabbis from different denominations chosen to train in the Clergy leadership Incubator – a two-year program, under the leadership of Ranni Sidney Schwarz, intended to educate younger rabbis in innovative thinking, change management and institutional transformation.
In Edmonton, Rose also served as Jewish chaplain at the University of Alberta and took the lead on a program called “Faith and Inclusion”, whose mandate was to support individuals with cognitive and physical learning challenges to feel more welcome within various faith communities.