Local News
Rady JCC Executive Director Rob Berkowits on what the future holds for the Rady JCC
By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been 17 months since most Rady JCC members have actually set foot in what had become the centre of Jewish life in Winnipeg. From time to time we’ve written about how Rady JCC Executive Director Rob Berkowits has been forced to pivot, then pivot again and again, as first, stringent lockdown measures were imposed in March 2020, then eased in June 2020, then reimposed again in the fall, and only recently eased again in July.
We noted in January this year that all Rady JCC employees had been laid off in the fall, save Rob himself, Zac Minuk, Director of Development, Partnerships & Communications, and two members of the finance department, Barry Miller and Victoria Morton. As well, no one in the Early Learning Centres has been laid off.
And, while expenses were drastically reduced as a result, the fact that memberships were frozen took a very heavy toll on the Rady JCC’s revenues: By the end of September 2020 it had $700,000 less in revenues than it had anticipated.
While a $700,000 grant from the federal government filled that particular hole, the Rady JCC was still faced with having to pay the Asper Campus monthly fees. On top of that the cancellation of the annual sports dinner for what has now been two consecutive years has only added to the pain of losing membership revenue.
Still, despite the challenges facing the Rady JCC, it did begin to offer programming online, starting with the ever popular Music ‘n Mavens series in January, as well as a Jewish Film Festival, and a program produced jointly with the Gwen Secter Centre titled “Familiar Faces”.
The summer period is generally a quiet one for the Rady JCC – except for the sounds of hundreds of kids enjoying day camp at the Asper Campus. When we read the farewell message announcing Assistant Executive Tamar Barr’s departure, however, we wondered whether the Rady JCC could ever return to being the beehive of activity it had been since the doors to the Asper Campus first opened in 1997. So, we contacted Rob Berkowits to ask him for an update as to what the future holds in store for the Rady JCC. We also wanted to know who, if anyone, could fill the very large shoes that Tamar Barr had filled for so many years.
We began by asking Rob: “When was it Tamar was let go? Was it in October?”
Rob: “She was placed on lay off. She was never ‘let go’. All our staff were also laid off.”
JP&N: “I asked you this before, but since Tamar was so heavily involved with the cultural component of the Rady JCC, why didn’t you try to emulate what other JCCs had done – for instance the Vancouver JCC?”
Rob: “Remind me again what they did in Vancouver.”
JP&N: “It was all online. They had a lot of game playing– Bridge, Mah Jong, exercise classes. They also had something called “Dinner and a Movie”. They had a monthly concert series, a musical trivia program, yoga, morning stretch. I remember talking to you about that back in January, but you pointed out that the Vancouver JCC was still charging members for memberships without having frozen any.”
Rob: “We didn’t have a platform to offer that kind of programming in the fall, but in December we brokered a partnership with the Asper Foundation and began offering programs like Music ‘n Mavens, the Jewish Film Festival, the Asper Jazz Performance series – and the program you participated in (‘Familiar Faces’), which we did together with the Gwen Secter Centre. We also began delivering at that time some online workouts, like yoga.
“All tallied, our virtual programming reached over 10,000 community members. Many people told us that it was our programming that allowed them to continue to feel connected to the Jewish community when so many of us were isolated at home. We offered all of our programming free of charge so no one felt left out.”
JP&N: “Gwen Secter has begun filling the void that I would have thought you might have wanted to fill – with their summer concert series. But they’re doing that in their parking lot – it’s a pretty small venue – can only hold 25 max. Did you ever consider doing something like that – say, a concert series outdoors at the Campus?”
Rob: “Not in the summertime. Traditionally the Rady respects the fact that Winnipeggers go to their cottages in the summer and the reason we offer members the opportunity to freeze their memberships in the summer is there are very few who wish to participate in summer programming.
“We are about to launch a drive-in event which will take place in August. Most of our programming in the summer time is directly related to the day camp program.
“We’re going to announce a roll out program for the fall, which will include Tarbut, the Jewish Business Network, weekly programming that will include parent and baby, fun zone, birthday parties. Of course, this will all be based on the guidelines about what we’re allowed to have.
“We do believe there will be a virtual element in what we have planned because there are seniors who will not be comfortable in coming in person to the centre. We also want to be respectful of the fact that this virtual age is here to stay and as borders reopen, many snowbirds will head south and the virtual content that we’ll be able to produce and deliver will be relevant to them.”
JP&N: “Talking about Tarbut – that would involve people sitting in close proximity in the Berney Theatre. I wonder how comfortable people are going to be doing that, especially when we’re being told to expect a fourth wave (of Covid) in the fall.
“But, you’re talking about programming. Who is designing the programs? This would have been something that would have fallen under Tamar’s rubric.”
Rob: “Laura Marjovsky’s a longtime program manager. We recalled Laura and she agreed to come back. Now she’s in the process of recalling other staff that would take on a variety of roles. The department will not be as large and as robust as it was previously, but it will still provide us with our ability to provide arts and cultural programming, as well as programming for seniors, for teens, tweens, families, newcomers, and individuals with various levels of physical and cognitive disabilities.”
JP&N: “Speaking bluntly, if Tamar were to say that she was willing to work – even on a limited basis, is that something you would consider?”
Rob: “I think that’s something more for Tamar to decide. Tamar made the decision that she wanted to pursue other things.”
JP&N: “I did have a conversation with her. I got the impression that Tamar, under the right circumstances, would be interested in coming back in some capacity. But the message you sent to members seemed to be pretty much a final good bye – effectively closing the door to her returning. Are you saying now that it (Tamar Barr returning to the Rady JCC) is something that you would not rule out?”
Rob: “Nothing is out of the question, I guess, but it’s not a focal point moving forward. Tamar has moved on permanently from the Rady. We are moving forward into this next era of a sustainable hybrid of virtual and in-person arts and cultural programming without her. We have no plans or intentions to work with her on any of this going forward and thank her for everything she did while she was here.”
JP&N: “I don’t want to make this the focal point of what I’m going to be writing, but I just got the impression from reading that farewell message to Tamar that it was “good bye Tamar”, but Tamar is still relatively young – and, quite frankly, there aren’t a lot of jobs out there for cultural programmers. I think that, if Tamar had her ‘druthers’, she’d rather be back at the Rady JCC.”
Rob: “I talked to Tamar about doing something to honour her years of service, and she seemed amicable to do that. But when do you do it so that you can do it justice?”
JP&N: “Switching gears – let’s talk about the exercise facility. You’re up to 50% capacity now – right? So what’s the response been?”
Rob: “The traffic is still slow upstairs, but to be honest I attribute that to it being summertime. Normally we see a significant number of people freeze their memberships for July and August, and we see increased traffic in the facility after the Labour Day long weekend – and we anticipate that’ll be the same.
“The traffic hasn’t been bad; I don’t want to give you that impression. It’s just not at a very high level right now.”
JP&N: “We were in a similar situation last summer, when attendance was way down – and you were expecting a healthy return of members in the fall – and then we got hit with a second wave in the fall – and that kiboshed everything again. I don’t want to be a purveyor of doom and gloom but you must be in such a terrible predicament. How do you plan when you don’t know what’s around the bend? Also, have you done any polling of members to ask how many are actually planning on coming back?”
Rob: “We’re in the process of doing that right now. There are many members whose memberships have lapsed, but we don’t think it’s an issue of their having left the Rady and they’re going somewhere else. Remember, we closed three different times – and reopened three different times. I think we’ll get a real sense of where we’re at (in terms of membership) after the Labour Day long weekend, but keep in mind the Jewish holidays are early this year.”
JP&N: “What about outreach to the community – with the newcomers to the community? Is that just too difficult to plan under these conditions?”
Rob: “We’re looking at various partnerships with Jewish Child and Family Service. I’ve already set up several meetings with Al (Benarroch, Executive Director of JCFS).
For youth, we’re going to bring back ‘Strictly Tweens’, ‘Kids at the J’, we’re going to do BBYO chapter programming again – which has continued on in a virtual manner. We’re going to bring back seniors’ programming – like Bridge and Mah Jong, the Stay Young Club, Active Living classes. We’re going to bring back the lecture lunch series – which is very popular with seniors.
“We’ll obviously offer a hybrid combination of in-person and virtual options for all these things. For inclusion, we’re going to offer ‘Fun and Fitness with Friends’. We’ll do another version of the Israel Asper Jazz series, the Israel International Film Festival.”
At the end of our conversation Rob told me that he would send me a more complete list of programs that the Rady JCC is planning to roll out for the fall. It turns out that he covered them all during our conversation at one point or another – except for birthday parties and Rosh Hashanah Outdoor Challah Bake (Sept. 2).
Local News
Rachel Fish, leader in combating antisemitism in academia, this year’s Kanee Distinguished Lecture series speaker
By MYRON LOVE The Jewish Heritage Center of Western Canada would seem to have hit another home run with the announcement that Dr. Rachel Fish, a leading voice in tackling anti-Zionism and Jew hatred in North American academia, is this year’s guest speaker at the JHCWC’s upcoming annual Sol and Florence Kanee Distinguished Lecture – which is scheduled for Thursday, April 30, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue.
The theme of her timely lecture will be“How the Academy Has Created a Fertile Ground for Antisemitism,” a topic in which she is well versed. Fish has an impressive resumé. She is the co-founder of the nonprofit “Boundless,” a think tank partnering with community leaders across North America to revitalize Israel education and take bold collective action to combat antisemitism. She also serves as Director for The Brandeis University President’s Initiative on Antisemitism; is an associate research professor at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies; and teaches Israeli history and society at The George Washington University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
In the past, she has served as Senior Advisor and Resident Scholar at the Paul E. Singer Foundation in New York City and Executive Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, where she trained the next generation of academics in the field of Israel Studies. She has also served on the faculty at Brandeis University, George Washington University, and Harvard University. She has has written articles for several publications in the mainstream press and academic journals, and co-edited the book “Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century.”
I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Fish a couple of weeks ago. My first question to her was how she finds the time to do all that she does. Her response is that there are not enough hours in the day. Her multiple activities remind me of an expression I heard once years ago while I was a member of a short-lived Jewish international development group – “if you want to make sure something gets done, you give it to the busiest person you know.”
Fish observes that she has been explaining Judaism to non-Jews all of her life. “I was raised in Tennessee in a place called Johnson City in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains,” she recounts. “My parents were originally from Ohio. There were very few Jews where we lived. My family spent a lot of time teaching our neighbours, teachers in my school and others we associated with about Jews, our practices and the State of Israel.”
She recalls – as early as 2001 when she was studying at Harvard’s Divinity School, that she was noticing what she describes as a “strong undercurrent of anti-Israel feeling and Jew-hatred”.
“I was determined to pursue a career in higher education,” she notes, “in part because I believe that education matters, because I derive oxygen from teaching, and I particularly enjoy dealing with complex issues. As well, I appreciate the opportunities that teaching at the university level gives me to share what I have learned in public forums such as the Kanee Lecture.”
Ideally, she observes, a professor should not – as much as humanly possible – be sharing her political or personal opinions in class. Higher education should be about creating a space where students can debate freely and challenge each other’s ideas. Instead (as I am sure many readers are aware), too many educators are focused on indoctrinating their students in the teacher’s beliefs – with students with dissident opinion facing hostility and risking ostracism.
Too many universities have become ideological monocultures where critical thinking is discouraged and there is a litmus test for new hires. She cites a FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) report in which an overwhelming majority of the faculty at many leading universities share a leftist – anti-Israel, anti-Christian and anti-Conservative worldview.
That is particularly true with Ivy league and other elite universities in both the United States and Canada – and especially in their liberal Arts and Humanities programs. Much of the anti-Zionist and antisemitic atmosphere – such as the takeover of university quadrants in the wake of October 7 – has been created by outside agitators and foreign funders – notably the oil rich Islamic sheikhdom of Qatar.
“Where you have universities with strong administrative leadership,” she points out, “the level of hostility to Jewish students and threats of violence have not been allowed to take root. It has only been the case where the administration and the board are weak.”
So why, I asked her, do so many Jewish students not seek out alternatives to these compromised campuses?. She responded that some Jewish students have chosen to enrol in universities in the southern United States where there is a more welcoming environment.
But many Jewish students, she observes, continue to enrol in leading universities such as Harvard and Yale, Cornell and UCLA (or York or the University of Toronto in Canada). Many Jewish students still share the belief that being identified with being affiliated with a top flight university will benefit their future careers.
Sadly, she further points out, this poison has filtered down to the K-12 level. Many university education departments have graduated numerous indoctrinated teachers who have taken control of school boards and administrations and seek to impose their vile doctrines on susceptible young minds.
Nevertheless, there are a great many state and lesser known universities that provide a more welcoming attitude to Jewish students.
Rachel Fish suggest that, for too long, North American Jewish communities have been complacent and not recognized the danger in our midst. She does see some hopeful signs though. She has observed that more and more communities, parents and student s have woken to the danger and begun to fight back.
“It’s difficult,” she acknowledges. “It can feel overwhelming. But we have to keep chipping away and not just let the other side win.”
The Sol and Florence Kanee Distinguished Lecture series was inaugurated by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada in 2006 to celebrate Sol Kanee’s 95th birthday. In welcoming the audience to that first lecture, lecture series co-chair Harold Buchwald paid tribute to Kanee, who died on April 23 at 97, as a man who “cast a giant shadow” on world Jewish history in the second half of the 20th century. The former resident of Melville, Saskatchewan, who spent almost all of his adult life in Winnipeg, Kanee was a leader in the development of Israel and the Free Soviet Jewry movement as well as a macher in our Jewish community and across Canada.
I would encourage readers who may be interested in learning more about the current state of antisemitism in academia – and want to support the JHCWC to go online at jhcwc.org for further information or to order tickets. The price of admission is $50.
Local News
Young tech entrepreneur Adam Fainman gathering accolades locally and internationally
By MYRON LOVE Winnipegger Adam Fainman is taking the world by storm. In fewer than three years his new AI start-up – Moonlite Labs – has attracted thousands of users in 550 cities in 95 countries world wide.
As he explained in an interview in the Winnipeg Sun last June, Moonlite Labs is “a creative content platform designed to make multimedia storytelling radically more accessible. With a few prompts,” he noted, “users can generate professional grade videos, animations, voiceovers, talking avatars, music-reactive visuals, and more.”
On Tuesday, February 24, the young entrepreneur garnered his newest accolade when Winnipeg-based North Forge, Canada’s only start-up incubator, accelerator and fabrication lab, gave Fainman its DARE Emerging Innovator Award at a reception at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
“I dedicated the award to my zaida, Jacob T. Schwartz,” Fainman says, noting that his zaida was a prominent computer scientist and professor of Computer Science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Science, and founder, in 1964, of New York University’s Department of Computer Science – which he chaired for 16 years.
At the awards evening, Fainman adds, he had the opportunity to meet many of the movers and shakers in the industry here.
The son of Shane and Rachel Fainman began his life in Toronto. “My father is from Winnipeg, my mother from New York. They met in the Sinai Desert at a music festival.”
The family moved to Winnipeg in 2006 when Adam was in high school. After graduating from the University of Winnipeg Collegiate he went on to earn a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Winnipeg.
“Performing was always my first love” he says.
Post university, he began a career as a rapper, beatboxer, and producer under the stage name Beatox, touring across Canada and central Europe with his rare ability to combine story-telling and singing.
In 2015, he enrolled in a two-year digital media and design program at Red River Community College. After graduation, on the encouragement of a University of Toronto professor, he continued his studies in Toronto earning a Masters Degree in Music Technology and Digital Marketing.
“During the Covid shutdown,” he recounts, “I began experimenting with AI and producing music videos combining music, story-telling and animation. I posted them on social media sites such as YouTube and TikTok. They went viral, garnering millions of views. People were asking me if I could help them with creating similar videos. I saw there was a gap in accessibility to this technology, so I decided I should create a platform as a solution”
“A friend of mine, Brayden Bernstein was involved in the tech scene in Winnipeg, saw the success I was having on TikTok and gave me some advice on how to go about this” Fainman continues. “As well, a few colleagues from the University of Winnipeg expressed interest in building a solution together.”
Wanting to create a platform that would make it easy for others to replicate what he was doing, Fainman sought out resources in Winnipeg that might be able to help him.
He pitched his idea first to NRC-IRAP (National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program), Canada’s leading innovation assistance program for small and medium-sized businesses,
“They loved the concept and traction I was getting, and agreed to help fund us,” Fainman says.
His next stop was North Forge – in 2024 – where Moonlite joined their Ascent Program and was matched with mentors.
In early 2025, Moonlite Labs made its official debut at the Manitoba AI Innovation Showcase where the new company was greeted with an award. “It was a massive confidence boost,” Fainman told the Sun in that earlier interview. “It was our first time sharing with the public what we’ve been up to for the last year. To win the award… that was very, very rewarding.”
Last June, the company made its presence known on the international stage at VivaTech 2025 in Paris — Europe’s largest startup and tech conference, with over 180,000 visitors.
Moonlite was selected as one of TechCrunch’s Top 30 Startups of the Year, a shortlist that included only two Canadian companies.
“Getting the AI Showcase award, getting into VivaTech, being selected as one of the top 30 startups of the Year by TechCrunch, that was pretty crazy,” Fainman told the Sun.“Backed by ScaleAI, Moonlite joined Canada’s official delegation at VivaTech, which had special visibility this year with Canada named Country of the Year at the conference.
“We had a massive space. The French president came through our whole area. It was the craziest thing,” Fainman recalled. “Everyone had their phones. It was like a mob… then we’re like, oh my God, it’s the French president. People were freaking out.”
As per the Sun story, Fainman was given two days to showcase Moonlite, with a booth for both the platform’s business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) offerings. But the most personal moment came on stage, where he delivered a presentation showcasing his journey from beatboxing artist to tech founder.
With Moonlite Labs growing exponentially, Faiman and his team of eight are hoping to become as ubiquitous as Adobe and Canva. “My ultimate goal is to help as many people as possible to create professional-grade videos and ultimately share their stories,” he comments.
He himself, he adds, is hoping to get back to live performances as well. “I recently appeared at Festival du Voyageur and I have just completed my 4th studio album. I can’t wait to use Moonlite for all my videos and world building” he reports.
Readers who might want to try Moonlite for themselves can go to https://moonlitelabs.com
You can get in touch with Adam Fainman at adam@moonlitelabs.com
Local News
Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder fund new MBA degree, annual real estate symposium, at Hebrew University
By MYRON LOVE Last October, the husband and wife team of Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder donated $1 million towards the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue’s ongoing capital campaign. Last month, the couple followed up with an equally generous donation – this time to the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, to establish a new degree program in real estate through the Hebrew University’s business school.
“We are long time supporters of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University,” notes Walder, who is a lawyer and former partner in the firm Myers LLP.
“We had funded some smaller projects at the Hebrew University, adds Morantz, the president and CEO of Globe Property Management, one of Canada’s leading privately-held residential real estate firms.
(Globe was founded in the 1920s by Richard’s grandfather, Morris. Richard became the company’s sole shareholder in the mid-1990s after buying out his father Saul, and his siblings. Under Richard’s leadership, the company has expanded steadily and strategically, acquiring and developing real estate almost every year for the past three decades. Over the last 30 years, he has built an impressive and diverse portfolio, which includes over 8000 residential and commercial properties, particularly notable given that Globe remains privately owned and independently operated.
“Two years ago, we approached the (Hebrew) University about doing something more impactful. Since I am a businessman in real estate, we wanted to work on a project with the business school.”
The first fruits of the relationship between Richard and Sheree and the university was the establishment the annual Richard Morantz Real Estate Symposium in the Hebrew University Business School (HUBS) MBA Program.
“I was able to attend the most recent symposium in November,” Morantz reports. “I wanted to see for myself how this was working.”
Morantz also used the occasion to arrange – with the help of CFHU executive director (and former executive director of the JNF office here) Rami Kleinmann – a meeting with HUBS officials about building on the symposium and creating a new MBA program at the university.
The Richard Morantz Major in Real Estate and Finance, in the words of Business School President Dr. Orly Sade, “will, together with traditional academics, feature non-academic practitioners and leaders in all aspects of the real estate industry, providing students an opportunity to expand their professional networks, while gaining real-world industry insights and bridging the gap between theory and practice.
In a press release issued on February 24, Seade added that “this investment is a defining moment in the evolution of the school. The importance of an academic discipline focused solely on the real estate sector has significantly increased, owing to an understanding of the sector’s unique position in the global economy and international finance. HUBS consistently ranks within the top five business schools in Eurasia & the Middle East. The addition of this major will further elevate HUBS academic offerings, and the annual symposium will help expand the Hebrew University and Israel’s footprint as a global hub for intellectual exchange in the sector, drawing diverse professionals from around the world, fostering cross-border collaboration, increasing visibility, and contributing to the potential to attract top-level investors.”
Kleinmann further pointed out that “Richard’s comprehensive industry knowledge, combined with his dedication to Israel and the University, has resulted in an innovative academic program that, combined with the Symposium, is setting a new benchmark for industry education. We are all extremely grateful and look forward to the outcomes.”
As reported in the Jewish Post in relation to the couple’s donation to the Shaarey Zedek, Morantz noted that it was the Hamas-led assault on Israel and subsequent tsunami of antisemitism worldwide that prompted Richard and Sheree to consider stepping up and contributing to the Shaaray Zedek campaign in such a magnanimous way.
“I have never been a religious person,” Morantz remarked. “While I may be more secular, I strongly believe in the traditions of Judaism. I had a charmed upbringing in the 60s and 70s in River Heights. It is not the case that I experienced no antisemitism, but those experiences were very minimal. Post-October 7th, I found myself, for the first time in my life, having to judge every situation and every person I came across before divulging the fact that I am Jewish or discussing Israel. I came to the realization, during the process of considering this donation, that a primary driver for us is that this synagogue is a safe place for Jews, where we can comfortably be ourselves.”
Walder pointed out that, while her mother’s large family were Jewish pioneers, her father was a Romanian Holocaust survivor, with almost no family after the war. “Family matters a great deal to us,” she said, “in addition to strongly agreeing with Richard that the tragedy of October 7th and continuing and growing antisemitism are big drivers for us in making these donations.”
“There will be an event celebrating the new MBA program at the Hebrew University’s Board of Governors meeting in June,” Morantz says. “We are looking forward to attending.”