Local News
Rady JCC reports deficit of $377,994 for 2022 fiscal year
By BERNIE BELLAN As someone who has attended my fair share of Annual General Meetings over the years, my impression is that an AGM is not meant to serve as a forum where management is subjected to scrutiny over its performance.
I especially recall attending AGMs of the Crocus Fund, during which management did its level best to conceal the true performance of the fund. It was at the 2002 AGM of the Crocus Fund, however, that I stood up and, undoubtedly much to the chagrin of the members of the management team who were there, I said that I thought the Crocus Fund was in deep trouble and that unitholders were being kept in the dark about the true picture of the Crocus Fund.
Even though it took another year and a half for my assessment to be proven true, eventually the Crocus Fund was forced to halt sales of its shares, and was subsequently placed into receivership.
So, when I attended the most recent AGM of the Rady JCC on November 28 I went in determined to ask some pointed questions, regardless what other individuals who were there thought of the temerity of someone disrupting what had been, to that point, an evening of self-congratulation.
Now, as anyone who has attended any Jewish organization’s AGM would well understand, the main part of the proceedings is to get through the very boring financial report as quickly as possible and move on to a celebration of volunteers and employees who are to be recognized for their contributions to those organizations. And, until Covid entered the picture, the highlight of every AGM was the pastry table where attendees could feast following the AGM.
Serious affairs – those AGMS.
Well, for anyone who’s been paying attention the past two and a half years though, the Rady JCC has undergone what is undoubtedly the most harrowing period since it first opened its doors in 1997. Covid dealt a terrible blow to the Rady JCC, with a huge drop in memberships and a severe reduction in programming that began in March 2020 and which has continued through to the present day, although the situation has improved considerably in the past year.
That’s why, as I entered the multipurpose room of the Asper Campus on Monday evening, November 28, I was anxious to see whether anyone else was interested in asking any questions about the true state of the Rady JCC. Without going into every little detail of that report, here’s the nutshell: The Rady JCC showed a loss of $377,994 in 2022 (year end August 31, by the way).
That compares with a profit of $1,124,950 for the 2021 fiscal year. How is that possible, you might ask, when 2021 saw the Rady JCC absolutely shellacked as a result of Covid? Consider this: Membership revenue in 2021 dropped to $706,823. In 2019, which was the last year before Covid, membership revenue was $2,090,933. That’s a 66% drop in membership revenue! The explanation, if you read on, is quite simple: Government assistance is what kept the Rady JCC alive in 2021.
So, when the 2022 financial report showed that membership revenue had climbed somewhat over the 2021 figure – to $1,152,489, but was still a long way off from the pre-Covid figure, I was anxious to ask this question of the person who was delivering the financial report, whose name was Kyle Ibbetson:
“Just how many members does the Rady JCC actually have?” I asked.
As an aside, I was the only one to ask any questions at the AGM. I was told afterwards that if I had any questions I would have been better off to send them to Barry Miller, who is the Rady JCC’s Director of Finance and Administration. Right – as I noted previously, an AGM is no place to ask serious questions. It destroys the levity of the moment during which everyone is looking forward to a celebration, not a serious probing of what’s really going on.
In any event, I was somewhat surprised that Ibbetson actually had some figures to report in response to my question: The Rady JCC has 1700 members, he said, down from 2500 pre-Covid. (In a subsequent email Rady JCC Executive Director Rob Berkowits clarified that the correct figure is “1750” units. By the way, a unit can refer to anything from an individual to a family. If you read on you’ll see that I’ve always had difficulty with that term.)
Be that as it may, however, as I pored over the financial report while everyone else was watching a series of awards being handed out, a major discrepancy occurred to me as I did some quick calculations: If the membership had dropped from 2500 to 1700, that represented a 32% drop in membership, but what was the actual membership revenue prior to Covid – not the number of member units?
For that I had to wait until I was able to get home and Google previous financial reports of the Rady JCC. That was when I found the figure for membership revenue for 2019, as noted earlier, was $2,090,933. Membership revenue for 2022, according to this year’s financial report, was $1,152,489. That represents a 45% drop in membership revenue from 2019. So, if member units were down 32% but membership revenue was down 45%, what could explain that fairly large discrepancy, I wondered?
That same evening I penned a fairly long email to Barry Miller, which was also addressed to Rob Berkowits, in which I asked that question, along with several others.
Here is what I asked about membership revenue:
“In the area of membership, according to what Kyle Ibbetson said, you’re down from 2500 to 1700 pre-Covid – a 32% drop. But when I look at revenues from membership in 2019 they were $2,090.933, while in 2022 they were only $1,152,489. That represents a 45% drop in membership revenue from 2019. Can you explain the discrepancy between a 32% drop in member units and a 45% drop in membership revenue?”
Here is the response I received:
“The impact that the pandemic had on our membership and corresponding membership revenues has been drastic.
“When we were required to close the first time in March 2020, our membership units were at 2,628. We hit a low of 1,232 in October 2021. This represents a decline of 53%. The climb back up was very slow at the beginning as people were not comfortable coming to a gym or congregating and there were still many restrictions on gathering sizes, gym capacity, etc put on by the provincial government.
“We have slowly climbed since that date and we are now aggressively marketing new memberships and win backs. As of today, we are at 1,750 membership units, which is still down 33%.
“The revenue stream does not coincide with the drop in membership numbers. As you stated, membership revenue for 2022 is down 45% from 2019. As you are aware, we have memberships that range from $250 to $1,367 per year. The pandemic more greatly affected our higher membership fee categories (families, adult and senior couples, one parent family etc). If you lose a family membership as opposed to a child membership, yes, you are down one membership. But you are down 5.5 times the revenue. That is why it is very difficult to use the two statistics comparatively.”
I asked about the actual number of members, writing that “referring to membership units is rather vague. I know that’s the term that has always been applied when I’ve had discussions both with Gayle and with you, Rob, about memberships, but can you put it in actual terms of members, i.e., how many members were there in 2022 in comparison to 2019?”
The answer (and it is clear this was from Rob) was: “We have always referred to membership as a unit. That is the manner that we budget and report. The variables make it easier that way as each family unit or one parent family unit can have multiple individuals on it, non of which affect revenue.
“Just as information, the 1,750 membership units that we have today represents 3,076 individuals. I am not able to obtain that statistic historically, it is a live data file.”
Another area of the financial report that stood out for me had to do with fundraising. Elsewhere in the Rady JCC annual report, Rob Berkowits wrote that the 2022 sports dinner was “the most financially successful event in its history, raising $400,000 after all bills were paid.”
Yet, while the financial report did say that total fundraising for the Rady JCC raised $976,763, as compared with $401,214 in 2021 (when there was no sports dinner), fundraising expenses in 2022 were $563,856, while they were only $77,7987 in 2021. As a result I asked this question in my email to Barry and Rob: “The total profit from fundraising was only $79,480 more in 2022 than in 2021. If the sports dinner raised $400,000 after all bills were paid,’ according to Rob’s report, why was there only $77,787 more raised in fundraising in 2022 than in 2021?”
The answer I received was fairly detailed – and quite complex, but here is the most salient point, written, I assume by Barry Miller: “In the areas of other fundraising, our costs associated with the donations were considerably higher this year than in 2021 ($156,000 in 2022 as opposed to $36,000 in 2021).”
I suppose I might like to explore why that was at another point in the future – and by now, anyone reading my ongoing reports about the 2021 census would know that I like to crunch number, but for the moment, we’ll leave that aside.
Finally though, one figure in the 2022 financial report just jumped off the page, and that was the amount of government assistance the Rady JCC received in 2021: $1,690,109. (It dropped to $434,898 in 2022.)
I took a look at the 2020 financial report and saw that the Rady JCC also received a huge amount of government funding in 2020: $750,605. As a result the total amount of government funding the Rady JCC has received the past three years is $2,885, 612.
I think it’s fair to say that, without that government funding, the Rady JCC would have had to close its doors permanently – and I suggested that in my email to Barry and Rob.
Here is the response I received and again, I assume it was written by Rob: “If it wasn’t for government assistance, there are many many many businesses and organizations, both for profit and not-for-profit that may not be around today. Whether Rady would be one of them is very open to conjecture and opinion. We went into the pandemic in a strong financial position and we have many very loyal members, donors and third party funders to support us.”
That may indeed be true, but looming over this entire discussion of Rady JCC finances is this question: How many of the Rady JCC’s members who have not renewed their memberships (which, I submit, is evidenced by the 45% drop in membership revenue much more clearly than the 32% drop in “membership units”) may return to the Rady JCC at some point? Further, despite the notion that Covid is behind us, if at least one-third of Rady JCC members have not returned to the Rady JCC since Covid (and, as I would argue, the figure is likely much more than one-third based on the total drop in membership revenue), are former members staying away because they don’t feel sufficiently safe at the campus or are there other reasons? Perhaps some members have joined other facilities, while others installed home gym equipment. Regardless the reasons, there is no doubt that the drop in membership revenue is having a huge impact on the Rady JCC’s bottom line.
Finally, if there should have been special awards handed out at this year’s AGM for service above and beyond, it should have gone to representatives from the provincial and federal governments for the assistance both levels of government delivered to the Rady JCC over the past three years.
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR to open June 27 – Here’s a preview:
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26)The following press release was sent to me early Friday morning June 26 (Photos supplied by Annie Kierans, CMHR) Nothing that follows has been edited. I leave it to you to form your own opinion:
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
Nakba exhibit at human rights museum set to open despite mounting criticism
By NOAH STRAUSS (posted June 25) The Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit is scheduled to open this Saturday, June 27, despite growing criticism and calls for it to be delayed or revised. The exhibit has sparked public debate in Winnipeg and beyond regarding how it presents the history surrounding the creation of the State of Israel.
Earlier this week, Mark Berlin resigned from the museum’s board. In his resignation letter, he expressed concern that the exhibit presents a one-sided narrative and does not adequately address the experiences of Jewish communities affected by the events surrounding Israel’s independence.
The Nakba, an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1947–1949 conflict that followed the creation of the State of Israel. Critics of the exhibit argue that it focuses primarily on Palestinian displacement without sufficiently acknowledging the broader regional consequences of the period.
Some Jewish advocacy groups also point to the experiences of Jews who left or were expelled from several Arab and Muslim-majority countries in the decades surrounding Israel’s creation. Estimates suggest that between 850,000 and 950,000 Jews left or were displaced from countries including Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, under a range of circumstances including persecution, expulsion, and confiscation of property.
In his resignation letter, Berlin, a faculty member at McGill University specializing in human rights law, wrote, “Telling the story with a one-sided perspective chosen by the museum serves to deepen division and contributes to further hostility toward Jews in Canada.”
Following his resignation, CIJA President Noah Shack released a statement saying, “The resignation of the museum’s only Jewish board member is a clear indictment of the museum’s handling of the controversial ‘Nakba’ exhibit.”
The exhibit’s VIP opening is expected to include invitations to representatives from all three levels of government. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham had initially been invited but later declined following discussions with representatives from the Jewish community, including CIJA Manitoba Vice President Gustavo Zentner and Jeff Lieberman, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.
Members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community are also planning a peaceful rally outside the museum on Friday at 5 p.m., according to organizers.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is expected to release a formal statement ahead of the exhibit’s opening.
(added June 26) To see interviews that Bernie Bellan conducted with Isabelle Masson, curator of the “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg and Isha Khan, CEO, CMHR about the exhibit go to curator of exhibit and CEO interviewed
Local News
Jewish Child and Family Service helped over 1800 families in 2025
By BERNIE BELLAN Jewish Child and Family Service will be entering the 75th year of its existence in 2027.
With a budget over $4,300,000, JCFS is also the largest beneficiary of funding from the Jewish Federation of the 12 Winnipeg Jewish community agencies that are beneficiaries of the Federation. (To see a list of the 12 agencies go to Funding for Beneficiary Agencies.)
Its impact has grown over the years as JCFS has expanded its horizon, continually adding to the many services it provides. During the JCFS’s Annual General Meeting, held in the Seniors’ Lounge of the Asper Campus on Tuesday evening, June 23, the important role that JCFS plays in the lives of so many members of the Jewish community – also a significant number of non-Jews as well, various speakers cited the many ways in which JCFS has continued to have such a huge impact.
With total revenues of $4,325,160 in fiscal year 2025 (which ended March 31, 2026), but slightly fewer expenses, JCFS not only delivered a wide gamut of services, it managed to deliver those services without incurring a deficit in 2025, despite some significant financial challenges.
As outgoing Board Chair Elana Grinshteyn observed, JCFS had to navigate some major reductions in funding, including a cut in funding from the federal government to the tune of $100,000, plus the loss of funding from the Claims Conference, which had provided support for Holocaust survivors.
Yet, despite those setbacks in funding, Grinshtein reported, “Together, we insured that services remained intact.
“We increased access to interest free loans,” she noted, “doubling” the amount that had been allocated in 2024.
And, amidst the ever-increasing demand for services, “JCFS has continued to navigate space limitations,” Grinshteyn noted. (I should note that as far back as 2019 I reported in an interview I had conducted with JCFS CEO Al Benarroch about the JCFS’s dire need for more space. Here is an excerpt from what Benarroch had to say about the JCFS’s need for more room back in 2019: “…we’ve been looking for roughly 3,000 more square feet of space. We have a footprint right now of roughly 5,000 square feet for over 40 staff. We’ve given up a board room here. It’s been taken over by older adult service staff. We have a conference room which is adjacent to the board room; we’ve moved two staff in there.
“Yesterday I gave up my office for the entire morning so that staff could interview clients.
“We need to relieve the pressure we’re facing right now – yet alone plan for expanding and growing.
“Whatever space we’d be looking at would be temporary. It’s now 22 years that we’ve been in this facility. The campus has taken over squash courts, it’s taken over a museum – internally, to accommodate the growth in services. Maybe it’s time now to look at growing outside this building…”
As the saying goes: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (That’s me, trying to impress.)
While I tried to take notes during Al Benarroch’s CEO report, I realized following his remarks that there was so much important information conveyed, also a slew of statistics, that it might be more helpful to reprint a good portion of what he said verbatim, so I asked Al to send me a copy of his remarks. (That’s one of the nice things about writing on a website. There’s an infinite amount of room to print the kind of stuff that nerds like me pretend to read.)
During his CEO’s report, Benarroch enumerated the many challenges JCFS encountered in 2025.
Among those challenges, Benarroch noted, were:
• The rising and high cost of living
• Food insecurity
• Housing issues
• Our aging population demographics
• The complex needs of our newcomer families
• The increasingly complex needs in mental health & youth mental health
Yet, despite all those challenges, Benarroch said, “As always… we rose to meet those head on, and with the support of our community.”
In particular, Benarroch cited the support of the Jewish Federation, which contributed $948,800 to JCFS in 2025. (The largest portion of JCFS funding, by the way came from the Province: over $1,100,000.)
Fundraising also played a significant role in contributing to JCFS revenues, with almost $700,000 raised through that route, including direct donations of over $320,000 and bequests over $40,000.
As Benarroch noted, “Every year, we look forward with hope that it will be a quiet year.
“Well, if that’s the case, we are in the wrong business.
“We happen to be in the reflect, respond and pivot business.
“This is the nature of the human existence.”
Benarroch went on to add some more statistics about how JCFS played such a pivotal role in the lives of so many people. In 2025 JCFS:
• Served 1,800 client households – impacting almost 5,000 people.
• Assisted 15 foster children.
• Served 70 families in Child Welfare….
“But what is even more important is that we assisted 90 children that remained at home with their families,” Benarroch said.
The year 2025 also saw the inauguration of what is known as the “Asper Empowerment Program”, through which:
• 311 clients were assisted (including Passover Assistance)
• $80,000 was disbursed in financial assistance
• Over $20,000 was given out in interest-free loans.
• 6,500 kg of food were disbursed
In the area of mental health and counselling services, Benarroch noted that JCFS:
• Supported over 50 adults with mental health challenges
• Our Friday Mental Health Wellness Group participants took part in 22 group activities or outings
• We support some 20 individuals and families impacted by addictions through individual and group services.
• We delivered almost 1,100 counselling sessions, over half of which were subsidized on our sliding scale.
• We continued to support individuals, families, and partner Jewish organizations with the ongoing emotional impacts of the war in Israel and high levels of global antisemitism.
In the area of support for older adults, JCFS served over 250 seniors including:
• 70 newcomer seniors
• 50 seniors living with mental health differences
• 65 Holocaust Survivors (including celebrating “25 years of our Holocaust Survivor Drop-in Group, a partnership with the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.”)
In the area of settlement services, JCFS:
• Welcomed almost 80 new families
• Almost 50 families from Israel, seeking reprieve from the ongoing stresses and pressures of the war.
Benarroch noted that “These families are dealing with the deep trauma of displacement, having lived under constant stress, fear and the ensuing post-traumatic impact, family and parenting challenges as a result, emotional exhaustion, financial strain, and more.
“Thanks to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, we hired a trained specialized support worker, with a background in therapy, to help these families cope, adjust, and receive much needed emotional supports.”
Benarroch went on to describe many more initiatives in which JCFS was engaged in 2025, but I want to return to the retirement of Elena Grinshteyn from the Board of JCFS after nine years serving on the Board, including the last two as Chair. Grinshteyn will be succeed by Bradley Abells, who has been on the Board since 2021. In his remarks, Abells noted that he is an actuary at Canada Life and that he first joined the Board when his particular expertise as an actuary proved extremely helpful in helping to solve a problem that had arisen, and he found the experience so rewarding he decided to remain on the Board ever since .
Also on the Board is Michael Schacter, who is returning as Treasurer and who looks the way you’d expect a finance guy to look.
