Local News
New JCFS office manager Mara Pellettieri has strong ties to our Jewish community
By MYRON LOVE For Mara Pellettieri, the Jewish Child and Family Service’s new office manager, community has always been of prime importance. One of eight children of Leslie and the late Les Nepon, she has truly been immersed in our Jewish community from birth.
Pellettieri – who was most recently the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s Engagement Coordinator – assumed her new position four months ago. “The posting was brought to my attention,” she says. “It sounded like a good opportunity to expand my horizons and further apply my breadth of experience.”
In introducing their new office manager, the JCFS management noted on its most recent Sherut newsletter that Pellettieri has worked in retail as well as public administration, and has managed a number of large engagement and administrative portfolios. She has “excellent creative and organizational skills”, is “community-oriented” and “committed to helping to make our Jewish community a better place”, according to the newsletter.
Pellettieri, along with all of her siblings, is a graduates of our Jewish school system (the former Talmud Torah School and Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate). While in high school, she recalls, she went on one of the annual March of the Living missions.
“The March of the Living had a really strong effect on me,” she says. “It reinforced in me the importance of community.”
Pellettieri graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a B.A. in Psychology. Following university, she volunteered for a few months at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, helping to facilitate tours and acting as a guide for museum visitors.
Prior to joining the Federation staff, Pellettieri worked in retail at the management level. She first was manager at Stella’s Bridal and Evening Collection, followed by a stint as assistant manager for Sephora’s three Winnipeg outlets.
With three growing children however, (including 11-year-old Meir and eight-year-old twins Yael and Simi, Pellettieri felt that it was time to look for work with more regular hours (as compared to shift work and evening work hours).
She notes that she began working with the Federation as a receptionist. “Within a year, I was promoted to Engagement Coordinator,” she says.
In that capacity, her portfolio encompassed – pre-Covid – organizing the P2G programs (student and teacher exchanges between Gray Academy and Brock Corydon Hebrew Bilingual program and partner schools in northern Israel) as well as March of the Living missions, along with the PJ Library program.
She views her new role with the JCFS as ensuring that the office functions smoothly and providing assistance and support to other staff members wherever it is needed. “I am really enjoying working for JCFS,” she notes. “Although there are still things I have to learn here, I am working with great people in a fast-paced environment. It is always busy here.”
Outside of work, Pellettieri continues to contribute to the community on a volunteer basis. She is currently on the March of the Living committee. As well, she has begun sewing garments for the Chesed Shel Emes – our community’s non-profit mortuary service – and will hopefully soon be training in taharrah (the ritual preparation of the deceased for burial).
And of course, she is a busy mom. “I spend a lot of my after work hours chauffeuring my kids around the city to their various activities such as swimming and karate lessons and hockey and soccer practices,” she says.
Local News
Join the Sewing Circle at Chesed Shel Emes
Local News
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.