Local News
Revocation of the JNF’s charitable status; appointment of Charles Adler to the Senate…Can we expect those decisions to be reversed?
By BERNIE BELLAN (Aug. 21, 2024) Two stories circulating in the news these days reflect the often obscure manner in which decisions are taken by governments or agencies ostensibly acting upon direction from governments.
In the one case – like a bolt out of the blue, the CRA revoked JNF-Canada’s charitable status.
In the second case, well-known former broadcaster and current Free Press columnist Charles Adler was appointed to the Senate of Canada, but whether that appointment will be rescinded remains a matter of great curiosity as of the time of writing.
The earth-shaking decision by the CRA to revoke JNF-Canada’s charitable status cannot be overestimated in its ramifications.
As noted in a story elsewhere in this issue the decision taken by the CRA and which was announced in the Canada Gazette on August 10 seems to have taken the JNF totally by surprise. While the CRA had been investigating JNF-Canada for many years and had been threatening to revoke its charitable status for some time, the actual announcement came as a total shock to both JNF-Canada and its many supporters.
But, as so many of use have experienced in our own dealings with the CRA, that organization is totally autonomous and not subject to government interference – or so we’re led to believe.
If you’re wondering how far-reaching the decision by the CRA to cancel JNF-Canada’s charitable status extends, just consider this observation taken from the Canadian Jewish News: “Experts say losing the charitable status means JNF Canada can no longer issue tax receipts for donations; it has one year to wind down business, and dispose of all its financial assets or pay 100 percent tax on the millions in its accounts.” (emphasis mine)
This is simply not for believing. Has there ever been a more powerful Jewish charitable organization in Canada than the JNF? Each year the galas it holds in major cities across Canada raise tens of millions of dollars and it’s hard to conceive of any other Jewish charitable organization that holds as high a profile within this country.
Well-known writer Ellin Bessner, who does a regular podcast for the CJN, dove deep into the background of the CRA decision during her August 14 podcast, which you can listen to at https://thecjn.ca/podcasts/jnf-blindsided-after-ottawa-fully-revokes-charity-status-whats-next/.
Joining Ellen was lawyer Mark Blumberg, who specializes in charity law and keeps track of some 86,000 different Canadian charities on a website known as canadiancharitylaw.ca. . During the podcast Blumberg made the astonishing observation that there are “some 1,000 Jewish charities registered in Canada that hold $12 billion in assets.” I’ve reached out both to Mark Blumberg and Ellin Bessner to ask them about that statement. In the one case I asked Blumberg how he arrived at the $12 billion in assets figure and in the other case I asked Bessner whether she would want to investigate that further?
Blumberg offered many other illuminating observations during that interview, among which was that JNF-Canada has “about $30 million in cash, so it’s not like they need the money or they’re going to go under tomorrow. They’ve got enough for about a year to a year and a half of operation even if they didn’t take in any money…”
Yet, how does that jive with the previously noted warning that JNF-Canada “has one year to wind down business, and dispose of all its financial assets or pay 100 percent tax on the millions in its accounts?” Both those statements can’t be correct. Whatever the case, however, what’s happening right now with JNF-Canada is of monumental significance.
And sure, we’re getting the expected expressions of support for JNF-Canada from MPs like Ben Carr and Anthony Housefather, but the problem, as Mark Blumberg well explains, is that if the CRA were to prove susceptible to political pressure it would lose all credibility.
As for the claim made by JNF-Canada that the CRA’s decision is shrouded in “antisemitism,” according to Blumberg, the CRA provided hundreds of pages of documentation explaining its decision – and although that documentation is not publicly available, he said it was disclosed to JNF-Canada.
And, while it’s true that one group, Independent Jewish Voices, has been lobbying the CRA for years to revoke JNF-Canada’s charitable status, Blumberg says that doesn’t necessarily mean that IJV’s lobbying had anything to do with the CRA’s decision. He notes that of the five charities to have their charitable status revoked over the years, four have been Jewish. But, when you consider there are over 1,000 Jewish charities operating in Canada, four out of 1,000 is relatively insignificant. It’s just that when it’s as powerful a charity as JNF-Canada that we take note.
Still, having said all that, I can’t believe that an organization like JNF-Canada won’t be able to leverage the huge support it commands, not only within the Jewish community, but the general community as well, to at least get the CRA to say they’ll reconsider such a drastic decision.
Which leads me to make some observations about another decision taken in secret and then announced surprisingly – which was the appointment of Charles Adler to the Canadian Senate.
Readers may recall that the last member of the Jewish community in Manitoba appointed to the Senate was Dr. Harvey Chochinov – in October 2016, but in February 2017 Dr. Chochinov revealed that he was declining the appointment, citing “personal, family and professional reasons.”
Now, however, with the surprise announcement of Charles Adler’s appointment – but with the angry backlash from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs in response to that announcement, I predict that it is only a matter of time before the Liberal Government backs down and rescinds that appointment.
I found it quite interesting that another Free Press columnist, Dan Lett, dug even deeper into some of Adler’s past remarks when he was a radio host than the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs had dug to unearth a series of comments Adler had made over the years, which he wrote about in the Tuesday, August 20 edition of the paper. (You have to wonder whether Lett hadn’t been keeping a file on Adler which he was just waiting to use as ammunition against him. For that matter, I wonder how well it sat with other Free Press writers to see someone with as controversial a past as Charles Adler handed the prestigious position of a regular spot on the paper’s op-ed page?)
I have no brief to bear for Charles Adler. I met him long ago and wrote my own profile of him many years ago when he was CJOB’s morning talk show host. I note in looking at past mentions of him in the pages of The Jewish Post & News that he often volunteered to serve as a panelist at Jewish events during his first go-round in Winnipeg starting in the 1980s, and he even co-hosted a show known as “WJCC Presents,” along with Evelyn Hecht, for a time during the 1980s.
And, while I thought Adler was a master radio talk show host – who had also achieved considerable success on both television and radio in the U.S. prior to coming to Winnipeg, you just had to know that in an age when every public remark ever made by someone could later be dug up and used as ammunition against them, Adler’s appointment to the Senate was bound to be met with fierce criticism in many quarters.
That the most immediate criticism came from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs comes as no surprise. It’s hard to imagine any prestigious appointment to any position in Canada gaining acceptance if there is strong opposition to it within the Indigenous community.
Having said that, now the problem for the Liberal government is how to back down from what was, politically, not a very astute move. I rather expect that there will soon be an announcement made – either by the government or Adler himself that, after due consideration, he has decided not to accept the Senate appointment.
Local News
The shift in the New Democrats
By NOAH STRAUSS The New Democrats have just wrapped up their 2026 national convention here in Winnipeg. While I was at the convention, I noticed a critical change in the party. Under the current NDP leadership the party and partygoers ignored promoting Canadian merchandise, including flags. It’s interesting to compare the party now to what it was when Jack Layton was the leader (from 2003-2011).
Layton was quite proud to be a Canadian. If you attended or saw any of his rallies you would have seen many Canadian flags, both on stage and in the crowd. Comparing Layton’s era to the current moment, not one Canadian flag was on stage at the recent national convention – only a Palestinian flag.
This should be concerning: Only one flag was present – and it wasn’t ours.
The NDP’s views have shifted and so has the membership. Approximately one in twenty people I saw were wearing keffiyehs. I wonder what was their affiliation to Palestine?
Avi Lewis is not helping the situation; he’s just pouring more gas on the fire. In his acceptance speech at the convention he proclaimed once more that he will not remain silent when Israel commits a genocide in Gaza. He had campaign signs that said ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Libérer Palestine,’ both on stage and at his numerous campaign events.
In an email sent out to members of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), an anti-Zionist organization, Lewis noted that he had become a member of that organization, saying “I was also proud to sign IJV’s Together Against Apartheid pledge.”
What does this all mean, though? The NDP have shifted from focusing on Canada and being proud of Canada to supporting a foreign cause and ignoring the facts. Avi Lewis doesn’t care about being Jewish, he cares about getting votes, and if that is what it takes, he’ll tell lies about Israel.
The NDP needs to remember that Canada needs to come first. To the person with the Palestinian flag on the stage: You need to put your Canadian pride first.
If the NDP wants to be seen as a real party, it will put Canada first once again.
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