Local News
New Jewish Federation staff members mix of native-born Winnipeggers, new immigrants
By MYRON LOVE It is a healthy sign when an organization – such as the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg – can continue to attract new and enthusiastic staff members. Such is the case with the Federation’s three latest hires – and a diverse trio they are: Abby Flackman, Ian Baruch, and Evelyn Orlovitz.
Evelyn Orlovitz – who signed on as the Federation’s new Donor Relations and Program Manager in May – brings with her a wealth of experience working for the Jewish community in her native Uruguay. Orlovitz has been involved with community for almost 20 years. Her resumé includes leadership in Uruguay in the Betar Movement, Hillel, Genesis YWG (programming for younger Jewish adults) and Keren Hayesod Uruguay (equivalent to our community’s United Israel Appeal).
She and her husband, Andres Hirsch, landed here two years ago. “We were looking to further our careers,” she says. “We learned about Winnipeg through the Federation’s Grow Winnipeg campaign.
She notes that Montevideo’s Jewish community is about the same size as the community here, with many of the same institutions. (Montevideo is Uruguay’s capital city and home to almost all of Uruguay’s Jewish population.)
Orlovitz holds a Master’s degree in Communication Management from the University of Montevideo. After arriving in Winnipeg, she also took a course in Communication at Red River College.
“I welcomed the chance to work for the Jewish community in Winnipeg and pay this community back for the warm welcome my husband and I have received here,” she says.
According to the statement from the Federation announcing her hire as the new Donor Relations and Programs Manager at JFW, “Evelyn has the opportunity to transfer what she learned working for the community in Uruguay. At the JFW, Evelyn will also be working with the Combined Jewish Appeal’s Ben Gurion Society, leadership programming, donor relations and CJA marketing and events.“This is a perfect fit for me,” she says.
Like Orlovitz, Ian Baruch’s family (parents Nissim Baruch and Fabiana Pachter) are also originally from South America (Argentina), having arrived in Winnipeg by way of Israel in 2002 with then eight-year-old Ian. For the new Hillel post-secondary engagement co-ordinator – as of August 1 – his new role is a natural evolution in a career of leadership in Jewish youth leadership.
Baruch was educated at Gray Academy and is also a Camp Massad alumnus. It was at Massad where Baruch acquired his original experience in leadership. He notes that he worked at Massad as a staff member in the summers for nine years.
“I gained a lot from my years at Camp Massad,” he says. “I was a shy kid when I started. I came out with new confidence and an appreciation for the importance of community.”
Following university – where he regularly attended Hillel programs – and a short time in other pursuits – he became the Red River Regional Director for BBYO in Manitoba through the Rady JCC – his previous position before becoming the Hillel Post-Secondary Engagement Coordinator at the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.
While in-person activities have been limited by Covid restrictions, Baruch reports that the one in-person event that he was able to organize – a program with a Holocaust survivor speaking online from Montreal – attracted 30 students.
Another program he organized linked local university students with contemporaries from Israel and Brooklyn. Over six weeks of weekly conversations, the students were able to compare and contrast their different experiences.
Coming up in March, he reports, will be a weekly online connection with ANU Museum – the new Museum of the Jewish People, located in Tel Aviv, which bills itself as what will be the “largest and most comprehensive Jewish Museum in the world”. The program will consist of a professional photographer connected to the museum teaching participating students how to document their lives through photography with their photos being included in a photo exhibit at the museum.
Abby Flackman, the newest member of the Federation’s engagement team, finds community work for her also a “perfect fit”. Flackman – who joined the Federation staff in October – was born and raised in a modern Orthodox household in the north end of Winnipeg. She spent a number of years at Talmud Torah and Joseph Wolinsky, attended BB camp in the summer, and graduated from the University of Winnipeg Collegiate. Abby traveled to Israel after high school to work in Jerusalem and live on a kibbutz for a year. Her passion for child-led education led her to study the Montessori Method and work as a substitute teacher at Children’s House in Winnipeg. After homeschooling her children for years, and administrating her spouse’s Osteopathy clinic, she felt that it was time to shift to a career out of the home.
Flackman had trained as a 911 operator but, while waiting for a job opening, she heard of the opportunity at the Federation. “I love the idea of being involved in the Jewish community,” she says.
Flackman – who is a member of the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation along with her family – adds that she appreciates having a job where she can observe all the Jewish holidays.
Her new role includes responsibility for the PJ Our Way program – a followup program for 9-12 year olds – to the popular PJ Library program – as well as the Federation’s Israel and Overseas portfolio. Under the latter umbrella are P2G (Partnership Together – a teacher and student exchange program between Gray Academy and the Brock Corydon Hebrew Bilingual program here and Kiryat Shemona’s Danciger High School and elementary schools in northern Israel), the March of the Living, Birthright (to some degree) and other missions to Israel.
“We are planning ahead and fundraising for these travel programs and hoping for the best,” she says. “These have been challenging times, but the lack of activity has given me more time to better learn what my position involves. We hope come May to be able to hit the ground running.”
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR – you can see it right here and make your own assessment
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26, updated July 19) The Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Exhibit for Human Rights opened to the public June 27. The morning before the exhibit was set to open to the public, (it had a private opening for invited guests the evening of June 26) we received a press release from the CMHR. That press release gave a very detailed description of what was in the exhibit, along with photos (supplied by Annie Kierans of the CMHR).
There is also a link right at the beginning of the press release that will allow you to watch the same videos that anyone attending the exhibit can watch. We reprinted what was sent to us without making one edit. We leave it to you to form your own opinion as to whether the exhibit is fair in its presentation, and whether it is lacking “context” – which is an accusation that has been levelled at the exhibit’s organizers by some representatives of Jewish organizations.
We have received many emails in reaction to the exhibit. If you have an opinion and would like to see it published on this website, you can send it to jewishp@mymts.net, but please indicate whether you would be willing to have it published on this website.
Here is what we received the morning of June 26:
Winnipeg, MB — June 26, 2026 — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit tomorrow that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians.
Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will be on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028. Featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.
Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contribute to our visitors understanding of human rights and help the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.
Exhibition highlights
Personal stories and artifacts: Experience firsthand accounts from Palestinian Canadians sharing their journeys of displacement and memory through a series of five artifacts. Cases display artifacts like property deeds, house keys, and a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, accompanied by short videos that deepen understanding of the impacts of displacement.
Powerful artworks: In her painting Bound Together in Gaza, Malak Mattar, a Gazan artist, captures the struggles and resilience of her generation shaped by conflict. Her work pays homage to Guernica, Picasso’s powerful masterpiece depicting civilian suffering during war.
Curfews and Closures, by Rajie Cook, bears witness to life under military occupation during the 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising, when curfews and closures were expanded and further limited basic rights and freedoms.
Cultural heritage: Discover traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. Tatreez motifs and colours are tied to place, family history and regional identity. Patterns are associated with particular towns, villages or areas of Palestine. In this way, tatreez is a form of storytelling: a way of preserving memory, sustaining identity and expressing resilience across displacement and exile.
Poetry and reflection: Engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s evocative verses, inspiring personal reflection on exile, voice, and responsibility. Visitors can take a card containing Darwish’s poem and add a personal note, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the exhibit.
Contemporary context: Witness striking images of current events in Gaza and the West Bank, connecting past displacement to ongoing struggles.
Quotes:
“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories. And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.” -Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian featured in the exhibit
“We developed this exhibit with a clear awareness that Palestinian Canadian voices have too often been marginalized, silenced or spoken over — and that anti-Palestinian racism affects whose stories are heard and whose suffering is recognized. That is why we intentionally centred Palestinian Canadian voices throughout the exhibit.” -Isabelle Masson, Curator of Palestine Uprooted
“Human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient, when the question of who deserves the dignity of having their rights recognized is genuinely contested. These are the moments where having a national museum for human rights is most important.
There are people who believe this exhibit should not exist in its current form. There are people who believe it should have existed sooner. There are people who will visit this exhibit and feel that it does not say enough, and others who will feel it says too much.
We have listened to every one of these voices. We have reflected. And we have renewed our resolve to continue the difficult, sometimes contested, and often controversial work of building understanding about human rights. We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
- – Isha Khan, CEO
Local News
A photo that’s being circulated on the internet about me
For those of you not familiar with nutjob Michael Kalo – the psycho who created the notorious “$hitler’s List” years ago and the same psycho who went after Ben Carr, well – now he’s obviously taken a strong disliking to the stance I’ve taken on the Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. (You can read elsewhere on this website how I simply posted the entire exhibit as it is – and asked readers to form their own opinions.)
Kalo likes to send out emails to various individual using phony names – such as Frank Ostrowski. When people ask me (or asked Ben Carr) why we don’t take action against him, my answer is: What’s the use? He only basks in the attention.
So Michael – enjoy the attention you’re receiving. I know how much of an embarrassment you are to your wonderfully talented daughters.
Local News
Ami Hassan returning as owner of Falafel Place
By BERNIE BELLAN In a surprise move – and after more than a six-year absence as owner of Falafel Place (Corydon at Wilton) the legendary Ami Hassan has decided to return as owner of one of Winnipeg’s most famous eateries.
Long known for his sometimes irreverent attitude to his customers, e.g., “If you’re finished, get out!”, Ami decided to return to running Falafel Place after having retired years ago (or so he thought) from running the Corydon Avenue restaurant.
We asked Ami whether he’ll be sending a special invitation to Julia Roberts to come visit him at Falafel Place. He asked again: “Who’s Julia Roberts?” (Just kidding – he really does know how Julia Roberts is.) Read the story how Ami told her to leave the restaurant and come back later at Julia Roberts turned away from Falafel Place
Ami did note that when customers saw him inside the restaurant one recent day as he was getting it ready for the reopening Monday, August 10, over 20 of them came in asking him if he was open already.
We asked Ami whether the menu will be the same as it was when he last ran the place and he said everything will be the same.
Falafel Place will be open 7 days a week from 7 am – 2 pm. Remember, if you’re finished – get out!
