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Peretz School graduating class of ’63 subject of Atlantic Magazine profile
By MYRON LOVE Class reunions are most often a once (or twice)in a life time event. I myself have attended two smallish reunions of my Peretz School cohort as well as Aberdeen School’s 100th anniversary and St. Johns High School’s 75th and 100th anniversaries. While many welcome the opportunity to reconnect with former classmates – and others not so much – several members of the I.L. Peretz Folk School class of ’63 have in recent years made class reunions a regular happening.
Back row, standing, left to right: Bailey Rayter, Eric Posen, Lanny Silver, Harold Silverman, Mark Waintman, Ron Charach, Leslie Hatklin.
Middle row, left to right: Ethel (Levine) Kofsky, Bella (Sapoznik) Ben-Ari, Sharon Winokur, Ester (Schwartz) Kagan, Clara (Ross) Smukler, Barbara (Shoib) Murray z”l, Phyllis (Chrzan) Wollach.
Front row, seated, left to right: Annette (Feldman) Nagler z”l, Sharon Love, Sharen (Martin) Hogarth, Betty Eisenstadt, Janis (Swick) Wisher, Hilda (Szternfeld) Smith, Anita (Ladner) Bakal, Nettie Schwetz.
Our teacher Mrs. Brooks is on the left and Mr. P. Herstein, the principal, is standing on the right.
Top photo taken in Vancouver at the home of Bob and Reesa (Margolis) Devlin, August 2015, during our 65th birthday reuni
Seated, left to right: Leslie Hatklin, Brenda (Grushko) Casey, Arthur Itzkow, Ethel (Levine) Kofsky, Carol Pollock, Janis (Swick) Wisher, Gity (Shklarsky) Morris-Finkel, Candy Zell.
Standing, left to right: Ron Charach, Harold Abosh, Faigie (Raber) Samson, Earl Zimmer, Sharon Love, Lanny Silver, Myrna Shefrin, Bailey Rayter, Bella (Sapoznik) Ben-Ari, Reesa (Margolis) Devlin.
Now that bond that these former classmates have formed has been given international recognition in the pages of the prestigious Atlantic Monthly magazine. In the April 2 edition of the magazine, writer Julie Beck, under the aegis of her “Friendship Files” column, interviewed five of the classmates about their enduring friendship through the years. The five – Ron Charach, Reesa (Margolis) Devlin, Ethel (Levine) Kofsky, Sharon Love (my sister) and Bailey Rayter – reminisced about their elementary school days, growing up in Winnipeg’s Jewish community, the nature of their bonds over the years and how the reunions began.
As noted in the article, the first reunion was held 20 years ago to commemorate the 50th birthdays of the graduating class of ’63. Reesa Devlin, a former business owner and food writer, recalled that after she moved to Vancouver from Winnipeg – 25 years ago – she reconnected with some of her Peretz School classmates living there and they began to see each regularly. There were 14 of them living in Vancouver. It was the Vancouver group that organized the first reunion, which was held on the May long weekend in 2000. Since then, there have been three more reunions – alternating between Winnipeg (where the other large segment of the former classmates, including Love and Rayter, still live) and Vancouver – each commemorating milestones – either birthdays or other significant moments.
The second reunion, Sharon Love notes, took place in Vancouver over the November 11th, 2010 weekend, in celebration of the cohort’s 60th birthday. The third reunion was in Winnipeg in June 2013 – the 50th anniversary of their graduation from Peretz School. The fourth was back in Vancouver in August 2015, celebrating 65th birthdays. The last reunion was supposed to be last June in celebrating the 70th birthdays of the former classmates. That, however, was changed to a Zoom get together due to Covid restrictions.
Devlin noted in the article that the weekend reunions are replete with structured activities, including home dinners, some touring and a farewell brunch.
It was Ron Charach who got the ball rolling in regard to the Atlantic article. The Toronto-based psychiatrist and author (who was profiled in a recent Jewish Post & News column coinciding with the launch of his new children’ book) had written a lengthy non-fiction piece about the reunions, called “Elementary Reunion”.
“I got a reply from the editor of the Atlantic’s Family section saying she liked the idea but wanted one of her own writers (Julie Beck) to interview some of us,” Charach says. “I was asked to recommend four of my fellow students to join us in a joint interview.”
He chose Sharon Love because, he says, she has become the group’s unofficial historian (having written about the reunions in this newspaper). Bailey Rayter and Charach were best friends growing up. Reesa Devlin was one of the organizers from the Vancouver contingent. And Ethel Kofsky, Charach notes, added the perspective of being a child of Holocaust survivors.
Love reports that “the interview of us five talking lasted about an hour and a half. We did a lot of talking and, as a writer, she had to put together something that I am sure a lot of people can relate to”.
“Julie crafted a fine article,” Charach observes. “We were very happy about how it turned out.”
He adds that he is surprised at how many people have read the story. “This story has legs (in news media parlance),” he observes. “My daughter, for example, found out about it from a colleague at work.”
“We were fortunate that a special camaraderie developed within our group,” Bailey Rayter adds. “And it wasn’t just through our school ties. We saw each other a lot outside of school as well. Our lives were intertwined. We lived in the same neighbourhoods. We knew each other’s siblings. There were some family connections. We all went to the Y and many of us joined BBYO.”
As a psychologist, he points out that studies show that, particularly for boys, friendships we form can last a lifetime.
It is not so much a case of these former classmates having been lifelong best friends though, Charach points out. “After graduation, many of us went our separate ways. It is just that when you reconnect with former classmates there is a comfortable familiarity (similar to family) that you don’t share with friends who don’t go back that far.”
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First year medical student Tim Rozovsky founds new association for local Jewish medical students
By MYRON LOVE In the face of a concerning surge in antisemitism over the past nearly three years, I am happy to report a good news story in that regard. Tim Rozovsky, the founder of the new Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba, reports that he and his fellow Jewish students enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine are not experiencing any significant issues involving antisemitism.
Hopefully, the matter of the notorious Med school Valedictorian who used his podium to attack Israel was a one-off.
“My goal in forming the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba,” says the first year medical student, “was to create a safe, supportive environment for my fellow Jewish medical students.”
He reports that the current first year class at the school has eight Jewish students – an increase over more recent years – with maybe a dozen more in the other years.
For a new medical student, Rozovsky already has an impressive resume. He was born in Russia and grew up in Israel. After the completion of his army service in 2018, the then-22-year-old rejoined his parents, Dr. Katya and Alexander, who had moved to Winnipeg a few years before.
Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Rozovsky had completed a personal trainer program out of The Academic College at Wingate in Jerusalem. Some readers may know the young man from his work as a Master Personal Trainer at the Rady JCC.
Shortly after arriving here, he enrolled in a kinesiology program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated with a BKin Honours in 2023 and did post graduate work at the University of Manitoba. Last fall, he received his MSc in Physiology and Pathophysiology – earning two gold medals, along with 32 awards and scholarships in the process.
Rozovsky says that it was his mother who inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. Dr. Katya Rozovsky is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and an attending radiologist, specializing in pediatric diagnostic imaging.
(Tim also adds that his wife, Irina Gelzin, whom he married about a year ago, is training to be a nurse.)
Insofar as the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba is concerned, Rozovky reports that the group gets together multiple times a year. One of its programs was a joint Chanukah celebration with the Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba.
There was also a joint program with the Christian Medical and Dental Students’ Association of Manitoba.
“More recently, we have been helping prospective Jewish medical students with their applications,” he says. “Hopefully we will be able to get together over the summer with the incoming Jewish students.”
As to his own future plans, Rozovsky notes that it is too early for him to be deciding on a specialty. “My goal,” he says, “is to work hard and get good grades and become the best doctor that I can be.”
Local News
Gray Academy to Represent Manitoba at National Reach for the Top Competition
By NOAH STRAUSS Posted June 6) Gray Academy’s Reach for the Top team is headed to Moncton, New Brunswick, to represent Manitoba at the National Reach for the Top tournament.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian school league that quizzes teenagers on a variety of different topics, from science and history to pop culture. Reach started out in 1961 in Vancouver, where a local CBC station broadcasted the new show; it eventually became a national broadcast starting in 1966. Alex Trebek, who famously hosted Jeopardy!, started out by hosting Reach for the Top.
Gray Academy’s very own team, made up of Grade 7 and 8 students, will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, to compete as Team Manitoba. By winning the provincial Reach tournament, they secured their spot in the national competition.
Faculty members at Gray Academy are very supportive of the program. The Jewish Post spoke with three different staff members at the school. Coach and high school teacher Danielle Miller says she is excited for the trip; although she will not be accompanying the team herself, shehas coached them all year.
“This year we had over 20 students come to the club to join us, they practice twice a cycle at lunch,” Miller said. Due to the large turnout this year, two teams had to be formed. At lunch practices, students split into two teams of four where each player has a buzzer. The two teams compete to see who can answer the most questions correctly.
One of the two teams did exceptionally well at various tournaments throughout the year and will be traveling to nationals as the sole team representing Manitoba.
Co-coach Micah Doerksen described Reach as a great academic competition where young minds are tested on various topics through quick,fast-paced questions.
High school guidance counselor Lindsey Leipsic said, “We have athletes, non-athletes, we have students who are really involved and students who are not as involved at school, and we have quiet leaders, and we’ve seen friendships be built in Reach.” Some of her favorite memories of Reach involve seeing students from across Winnipeg come to Gray Academy and bond with one another. Lev Chisick, who is competing at nationals, agreed, saying, “Moncton is going to strengthen our school spirit and make us a better team.”
As the junior team makes their way to Moncton, the senior team will head to provincials. Later this week, students from the senior team will travel to Virden, Manitoba, to compete at the provincial level. The team qualified after placing high enough at their most recent tournament, which took place at St. Paul’s.
Confidence is high as the school heads into these final tournaments. When Nath Goldenberg, who is also competing at nationals, was asked what he is most looking forward to, his answer was short and sweet:“Winning.”
