Local News
Nathaniel Lisak is the complete package: brawn and brain
By BERNIE BELLAN Recently we published a story about nominees for Jewish Athlete of the Year. One of those nominees is Nathaniel Lisak, an outstanding football player from Grant Park High School. The picture we ran of Nathaniel, however, was not Nathaniel. We apologize for that error. A correct picture of Nathaniel appears with this story.
We admit though, that impressive a background as Nathaniel has as an athlete, of all the six nominees for Jewish Athlete of the Year, Nathaniel is the only one about whom we hadn’t published a story in this paper – until now.
We were contacted by Nathaniel’s father, Roman, after that issue came out. Roman informed us that the picture we had of Nathaniel was not Nathaniel. I responded contritely, apologizing as best I could, and asked Roman whether Nathaniel might be amenable to being interviewed so that we could do a fuller account of his accomplishments. In short order Nathaniel texted me, saying that he’d be glad to talk about his football career.
When we connected later that day I asked Nathaniel about his family’s background. Nathaniel explained that his parents, Roman and Maria, came to Manitoba from Israel in 2004. They both had originally come from Ukraine, he noted. Nathaniel also has a sister, Priel, who is six years older than him and who was born in Israel.
Upon arriving here Roman began working for Manitoba Hydro in Gillam as a Certified Engineering Technologist, Nathaniel said – and that was where he was born and lived until he was nine. In 2014 the family moved to Winnipeg when his father was offered a job in Winnipeg. (His mother Marina, by the way, works in the Rady JCC day care.)
Nathaniel began attending Brock Corydon School when the family moved to Winnipeg – in the English program. I asked him whether he was “a big kid” back then, given how big he is now.
“No,” he answered, “I was average as a kid.”
But somewhere between Grade Six and Grade Nine, Nathaniel said, he began to grow…and grow. In those three short years, he told me, he grew an astounding 11 inches – going from 5’ 3” to 6’ 2”, and gained an impressive 100 pounds. (If you look at his picture you’ll see that those 100 pounds turned mostly into muscle.)
It wasn’t until he was in Grade 8 that Nathaniel even strapped on pads and began playing tackle football, he noted. Prior to that the sport he played the most was basketball. He had also become a shot putter as he started to grow.
Now, if you consider how quickly Nathaniel grew, you might wonder how he adjusted to that sudden growth spurt. He said that it wasn’t easy and that at times it was quite uncomfortable given how rapidly he grew in height and added weight but, given his success on the football field, it’s clear that he’s adapted himself to his increased size with flying colours.
As the blurb that was sent to us by the Rady JCC in describing the nominees for Jewish Athlete of the Year noted, “Lisak excelled at the defensive tackle position for the Grant Park Pirates Football team this past season. After helping his team compile a 5-1 regular season record and a spot in the championship final, Lisak was honoured with numerous personal accolades. He was named to the CFC (Canada Football Chat) All-Canadian First Team and was the recipient of the Winnipeg High School Football League (WHSFL) Kas Vidruk Lineman of the Year. At the school level he was named the Grant Park Football Most Valuable Player and was awarded the school’s Football Captain Award. He was runner up for the 2021 WHSFL Defensive MVP & 2021 Harry Hood Citizenship Award. In grade 10 he became a known player in Manitoba and was named a Nationally ranked top 100 player in Canada, being a top 5 Manitoban and top three defensive tackle in the 2022 graduating class.”
I wondered whether there are any particular professional football players that Nathaniel has tried to emulate since he started playing football?
“I remember watching J.J. Watt (an extremely mobile, although quite large defensive end) play,” Nathaniel observed. “I was amazed how someone that big could move that fast.”
Yet Nathaniel now says that his role model is Aaron Donald, the huge defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, who is legendary for his quickness despite weighing 280 pounds. (Donald, by the way, stands 6’1”, so in terms of comparison, he and Nathaniel are roughly the same height and weight.)
As the blurb about Nathaniel in our last edition also noted, he received numerous scholarship offers from universities across Canada. He said though that he’s chosen to go to McMaster University in Hamilton. Not only does McMaster have a great football program, it also has an excellent business school. Nathaniel told me that his plan is to enter that school. Given that he’s also been an honour roll student at Grant Park and that his favourite subject is math, he told me, it should be a good fit.
In addition to his studies and his athletic pursuits, for the past year Nathaniel has been serving as the Regional B’nai Brith Youth Organization president. (He’s a member of “Alaphim,” he noted.) His term will end this June.
Quite the package: An outstanding athlete, a terrific student, and an active member of BBYO. He was also quite forgiving of my running the wrong picture of him. On the other hand I interviewed Nathaniel over the phone. I’m not sure I would have been prepared if it turned out that he wanted to practice a bull rush on me to retaliate for my faux pas.
As Manitobans have gone to the polls and with a new legislative assembly about to begin a new four-year term, the challenges of long-term and continuing care homes need to be communicated.
MARCHE, the Manitoba Association of Residential and Community Care Homes for the Elderly will be holding a focus group on Wednesday, October 11 that is intended to provide the community at large a forum to express thoughts and provide ideas and recommendations for the future.
Please join us on Wednesday, October 11th at the Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre. We look forward to hearing from you.
See poster below for more information and how to register to attend.
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.
