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‘STAND-UP NATION” – New book highlights Israel’s many contributions to world through international development
Review by BERNIE BELLAN Elsewhere on this website we have a story about an event that was sponsored by JNF Canada at Camp Massad on Sunday, September 1, during which the guest speaker was someone by the name of Aviva Klompas.
As we noted in that story, Klompas is the author of a recently published book whose title, “STAND-UP NATION” is an unabashed emulation of the wildly successful ‘”START-UP NATION,” which was published in 2009.
As I noted in my review of ‘START-UP NATION” in the December 16, 2009 issue of The Jewish Post & News, “This book, simply put, is one of the most uplifting pieces of writing about Israel that has come out in a very long time. For anyone who is a strong supporter of Israel, the stories that (Dan) Senor and (Saul) Singer relate about Israel’s emergence as a high-tech superpower will be reminiscent of past stories about Israel’s military brilliance.”
Fifteen years later, Klompas adopts a very similar style that Senor and Singer employed in their book, which was to provide a series of case studies that illustrated how Israeli creativity and entrepreneurship combined to turn Israel into an economic success story.
While “START-UP NATION” suggested that Israel’s brilliance in the economic sphere was something that had only been a relatively recent development – beginning in the 1990s and fuelled largely by the influx of massive numbers of Russian immigrants, Aviva Klompas’s thesis is that Israel has had a tradition of international development and aid from the very beginning of the foundation of the state.
Her book was 10 years in the making, she explained in an interviews she gave at a recently held event near Boston. It first took root when she was Israel’s sole speech writer at the United Nations (from 2013-15), she said. In that capacity, Klompas noted, she had to immerse herself in a whole range of subjects – including international aid and development – about which, she admitted, she knew very little prior to her period of service at the UN.
But, as she learned more about how much international aid development had been a part of the very fabric of Israel’s founding ethos – especially as it was promoted by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, Klompas began to develop an especially keen interest in finding out as much as she could about how Israel came to be one of the very first nations that advanced the notion of international development in third world countries.
As Klompas explains in the book, the tremendous challenges that the newborn State of Israel faced in the first two years of its existence – when it absorbed over 800,000 new immigrants comprised of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Arab countries – leading to a doubling of Israel’s population almost overnight, “Despite the small population and lack of natural resources, the country’s leaders had big ambitions. Ingenuity and entrepreneurship were celebrated. Chutzpah took root as a national ethos. As time passed, the country’s confidence grew, and its citizens turned outward. They shared their success with other countries confronting similar challenges. With each passing decade, as Israel grew more secure and prosperous, it became a model and inspiration to developing countries that sought to achieve the same transformation.”
How Klompas came to write this particular book is an interesting story in itself. She said, during the interview that, after she left the UN, she began something called “Project Inspire,” in which she took young people on study tours to third world countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, Guatemala, and India.”
During those tours she encountered project after project that had been started by Israelis who had been inspired by a combination of idealism and experience. Of course, she uses the phrase “tikkun olam” quite often in her book, but that particular phrase is trotted out so often by Jewish organizations and is so general in its meaning that it loses its impact.
Instead, what Klompas does is tell a series of 20 different stories in which Israelis – often Americans who emigrated to Israel by the way, turn to using education and skills that they acquired in Israel into very imaginative projects in countries all around the world.
It was during the Covid epidemic that Klompas first thought of writing a book filled with stories of Israelis who had travelled to distant lands to initiate a variety of aid projects – often without any assistance at first, but then through a combination of fund raising and appealing to the governments of countries to which they had travelled, had achieved remarkable success almost always through their own ingenuity and resourcefulness,
What is so remarkable about many of these individuals is that their stories begin with travelling to a particular country, often backpacking – usually seeking adventure, and during the course of their experiences in those countries, they come to realize that they are well suited to providing exactly the sort of expertise that is so sorely needed in those countries.
Whether it’s in the areas of agriculture – which is a very common theme in the book, or often health care, Israelis time and time again have gone into some of the poorest parts of the world to offer assistance. And, in contrast to many other individuals from other countries that have also become involved in development projects, many of the Israelis profiled in “STAND-UP NATION” have stayed for years, rather than mere months. Often they’ve learned native languages – and customs, and rather than attempting to inject foreign concepts into the lives of the people with which they’re living, they adapt those concepts to native traditions.
Even after they’ve returned to Israel a great many of the individuals Klompas describes in the book have kept going back to the countries where they helped to initiate projects – often to check up on those projects or to begin new ones.
At the beginning of the book, Klompas describes Israel’s very first international development agency, known as MASHAV, and how it actually preceded international development agencies from countries such as the US, Canada, and Britain, as well as the UN’s own international aid agencies.
While Klompas does concede that, to a certain extent, MASHAV was intended to improve Israel’s image within third world countries, she notes that even to this day, MASHAV has training programs for thousands of individuals coming from countries that have been highly critical of Israeli policies – especially since Israel’s incursion into Gaza.
Given that the book was released only recently, Klompas often refers to how much Israel’s image in the world has changed for the worse since October 7. Yet, in a series of often poignant post scripts that she includes at the end of many of her chapters, Klompas quotes from many individuals who have either been working closely with Israelis in their respective countries or who have benefited from receiving training and education in Israel itself. In many of those excerpts from emails sent by various individuals, they remark upon how much anguish they feel for Israelis – also for Palestinians.
One question that did occur to me as I read this very well written book (and Klompas’s years of experience as a speechwriter shine through as she manages to imbue each story she tells with a freshness that keeps the book from bogging down into repetitiousness) is: How many of the many aid projects that had been undertaken by Israeli-based organizations have been severely affected by how badly Israel’s image has suffered in the past year? In many of the cases Klompas cites – and these were situations in which Israelis had gone to countries that either had no relations with Israel at all or had very poor relations with Israel, the Israelis going into those countries hid their identities as much as they possibly could.
Klompas also describes how Israeli disaster relief teams have gone into countries – such as Turkey and even Syria, to provide relief, often at great danger to the members of those teams.
One final note: Considering that Aviva Klompas was the special guest speaker at an event sponsored by JNF Canada Manitoba-Saskatchewan Region, and JNF Canada is now in the midst of a terrible situation in which its charitable license has been revoked by the CRA, I thought it appropriate to refer to a section of “STAND-UP NATION” in which Klompas writes about the many projects in which the JNF has been involved that have directly led to enormous benefits, not only for people in many third-world countries but, at least prior to October 7 – Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza as well. (Again, I would have liked to know to what extent projects involving students from the West Bank and Gaza have now had to cut ties with students from those areas since October 7. What a tragedy.)
Klompas writes about the Central Arava Research and Development Centre, “which is developing new crops and improving existing techniques so farmers in the Arava Valley can compete in the global produce market;” about the Kasser Joint Institute for Food, Water, and Energy Security, “which develops techniques and technologies to aid communities in arid and hyper-arid low income countries in addressing their food, water, and energy insecurities cost effectively and sustainably;” about the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, which brings together “students from Israel and Jordan, along with Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip…who train together in the fields of sustainability and the environment;” and the Arava Institute for International Training, which is “attracting young men and women from developing countries all over the world.”
While Klompas doesn’t specify exactly how much the JNF has been involved in each of those projects, the point is that the JNF’s contributions to research in the areas of crop development in even the harshest, most arid conditions, have been of benefit not only to Israel, but to countries all over the world – also to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. And to think: the CRA has questioned JNF Canada’s “charitable object.”
Just as Israeli international aid organizations have been motivated by a combination of a desire to do good – as in the concept of “tikkun olam,” also to a certain extent, Israel’s desire to improve Israel’s image in the third world, what difference does it make so long as all those individuals working in third world countries are contributing so mightily to the well being of the people with whom they are working?
The same can be said of JNF Canada. While the CRA may be nit picking individual projects in which JNF Canada has been involved, saying the paperwork trail is deficient, how can one question the incredible humanitarian contribution that the JNF has been making for years – in ways Klompas cites?
Perhaps at some point we’ll be able to find out from Klompas how each of the 20 projects she profiles in this very important book have been affected by what’s been going on in Gaza the past 11 months. But, if anyone needs to get a better idea how enormous an impact Israel has had in the area of international development – on a scale the country has had in the area of entrepreneurship – as described in ‘START-UP NATION,” read “STAND-UP NATION.”
“STAND-UP NATION…Israeli Resilience in the Wake of Disaster”
By Aviva Klompas
213 pages
Published by Wicked Son, 2024
Available at the JNF office in Winnipeg (phone 204-947-0207) or an Amazon.ca
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Former Winnipegger Adam Druxman living the Hollywood dream
By MYRON LOVE A dwindling number of Post readers may still remember the song “You Ought to be in Pictures.” Adam Druxman may not be in “pictures,” but his life’ s work is the next best thing. For almost 40 years, the former Winnipegger has had the privilege of being behind the camera helping to make magic happen.
“I always loved the movies,” says the son of the late George Druxman and the recently deceased Joan Druxman. But, growing up in Winnipeg (Old Tuxedo largely),” he recalls, “the prospect of actually having a career in movies in the ‘80s was quite a reach.”
As a young adult, the closest Druxman came to the movie business was working for Adi’s Video Shoppe (which most of us of an older generation will no doubt remember). Ultimately, it was a chance exposure to the Winnipeg Film Group that turned out to be his entry into film production.
The young, aspiring filmmaker signed up in 1988 to take a course in filmmaking – through the WFG – with acclaimed Winnpeg-based filmmaker John Paisz.
“From John, I learned to write, shoot and edit a film,” Druxman recalls. “At that moment, I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
With a grant from the National Film Board of Canada and the WFG, the young filmmaker created a five-minute film called “The Guinea Pig Age,” a satirical look at how humans have become test subjects for products and the environment.
The next evolution in Druxman’s pursuit came in 1989 with a move to Toronto where he hoped to enrol in Ryerson’s film program. “I decided in August that I wanted to go to film school, but it was way too late for enrolment,” he recounts. “I wasn’t able to get into the program until the following year, but I decided to move to Toronto anyway. That was my first time living away from home. I enrolled in some night courses and and also began looking for a job.”
He was, he says, encouraged to seek work in the industry as a production assistant – essentially a “gofer”, he points out. “I didn’t know that was a thing I could do. So I send out 1,000 resumés –with nothing on them because I didn’t have any experience.”
His break came when he got a call at 2:00 A.M. from a production company looking for a production assistant. “My roommate, Shanno Zaslov, answered the phone,” he recounts. “She was so excited that I had received a call that she told them not to contact anyone else while she tried to find me at a surprise birthday party. After that first job, I never looked back.”
Over the past nearly 40 years, Druxman has never been out of work for long.
His first credited role – as third assistant director – was in a 1992 production called “Stay Tuned, shot” in Vancouver. It starred Pam Dawber (of “Mork and Mindy” fame) and the late John Ritter. Druxman’s responsibilities included organizing the extras, maintaining quiet on the set, blocking out pedestrians and outside traffic during a take, helping to ferry actors between their trailers and the set, and alerting the performers.
After that movie, Druxman moved to Los Angeles. He was soon promoted to second assistant director and – four years later – was promoted to first assistant director – a role he has performed with distinction ever since.
“ As first assistant director,” he continues, “in prep, you manage scheduling, logistics, day-to-day operations and locations. During the shoot, you run the set, give cast and crew their call times, deal with issues such as weather delays, safety on the set, and manage the time of the shooting day.”
Among the better known movies that Druxman has been involved with have been: Adam Sandler’s “The Waterboy,” “50 First Dates,” “Boogie Nights,” “Transformers,” “Magnolia,” and two of the “Super Trooper” films.
Some of the TV series that he has worked on have included: “Weeds,” “Prison Break,” “Fargo,, Dark Matters,” “Las Vegas,” and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” – a remake of the popular series first created by Carl Sagan 45 years ago.
“The crazy thing about living in LA,” Druxman observes, “is that I could drop in at any random Starbucks for a cup of coffee and run into a writer or director who might ask if I am available for a movie or TV show.”
It was a tough decision for Druxman to leave LA behind and move his family to Seattle about 14 years ago. “”We moved to Seattle to be closer to my wife’s family while our son was in his formative years,” he says.
Druxman admits that it was scary leaving LA. “At first, I was didn’t tell anyone I had left LA,” he recalls. “I was afraid that some producers wouldn’t consider using me because I wasn’t in LA anymore.”
Nonetheless, he felt confident that he was well-established in the industry and that – with movie and TV production largely moving out of what used to be described as “the movie capital,” -he would still be in demand. His assumption turned out to be correct.
Seven years ago he and his family moved again – this time to Chicago – after working on the movie “Candyman.”
“Housing was far more affordable in Chicago as compared to Seattle,” he says. “I had shot in Chicago four times before. I love Chicago. It’s a beautiful city. And I love the people here. It’s like a giant Winnipeg.”
“I’ve been lucky to have had a good career and met a lot of great people over the years,” Druxman says.
Currently, Druxman notes, he is in between projects. It is always a concern, he concedes – either feast or famine – especially since the industry is going through a lot of changes between the Covid lockdowns, multiple union strikes, the streaming services reducing their content, and more production going overseas. But, he remains confident that something will turn up sooner or later.
“This business is cyclical,” he observes. “There is always a ying to the yang.”
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Young entrepreneur Jonah Shapiro balances business pursuits with university studies
By MYRON LOVE While most of us may not know what we wanted to do for a living when we “grew up,” Jonah Shapiro is an exception. The son of Sean and Kera Shapiro has been in business for himself since he was 14. Currently, he is balancing the responsibilities of running two businesses while taking commerce courses at Huron University in London, Ontario.
The entrepreneur’s business career began six years ago while in Grade 9 at St. John’s-Ravenscourt – evolving out of a business class he was taking at the school. “My project,” he recounts, “was marketing a golf shirt brand. After six months, the business was so successful that I expanded my product line to include team and club apparel.”
His first customers, Shapiro recalls, were students in his class. He then took over providing BBYO apparel. (He served as BBYO treasurer for two years.) He was soon providing apparel for local high school teams, businesses and specific events.
“It was rather challenging at first getting my foot in the door, he concedes. “Here I was, 14 years old, showing up and having had to have my father drive me to the appointments.”
Nonetheless, he made enough of an impression that he was soon receiving a lot of referrals.
Last September (in 2025), Shapiro began classes at Huron University with Advanced Entry to the Ivey School of Business at Western University in London, Ontario.
At the same time, he officially incorporated “Student Merch”- and expanded his reach nationally. The online Student Merch provides custom apparel and other merchandise for Canadian university groups.
Shapiro reports that he currently has contracts with student groups at Western, Queens, UBC, McMaster, McGill and York. “There are more than 300 universities across Canada,” he says. “We will soon have ambassadors at all of them.”
This past summer, the enterprising young man started a second business venture in his home town. “Benny’s Home Services” cleans windows. Shapiro reports that Benny’s provided its services over the summer to 325 customers in and around Winnipeg. This past summer, he says, the Benny’s team also provided its service to BB Camp – where Shapiro was a camper for many years as well as a counselor – free of charge.
He notes that the Winnipeg company has a crew of 14. With Student Merch, Shapiro handles all the managerial work by himself.
This fall, the young entrepreneur received some prestigious recognition. He was one of 12 students to participate in the Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship’ s Founders Program, which recognizes Western’s top student entrepreneurs and community builders and pairs them with alumni mentors, along with an opportunity for leadership roles within the Morrissette Institute. The inclusion in the program comes with a $20,000 scholarship.
The newest feather in Shapiro’s cap is his being invited to be a part of Tangerine Bank’s brand new Tangerine Business – a mobile-first digital banking platform for Canadian entrepreneurs and small businesses. Tangerine is Canada’s original digital bank.
“Tangerine asked entrepreneurs across Canada to help develop its new banking program,” he says. “I was invited to provide a young entrepreneur’s perspective.”
No doubt about it, to use an old phrase: “The world is currently Jonah Shapiro’s oyster,” and his potential would seem to be unlimited. I am sure readers will be interested to follow his career achievements over the coming years.
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A local vocal extravaganza
By Dr. RAY SINGER I just experienced a revelatory weekend of superb vocal music, about which I wanted to share.
First, on attending Shaarey Zedek for Shabbat morning services I was pleasantly amazed at what was transpiring: Marlaina Sommer was beautifully singing her way through her own Bat Mitzvah service. Having married into a famous local musical family, I was not surprised also to hear her daughter and son-in-law, Sarah Sommer and Justin Odwak, sing – with their ethereal voices flowing over the congregants. Spouse and father Hillel provided percussion.
That was just for starters. My wife and I then attended the first concert in the Asper Jazz Series to hear the New York Voices in their Grand Finale concert tour, Winnipeg being the only Canadian stop on their tour.
Singing as a quartet for 38 years, their jazz singing was superb – with intricate harmonies, scat solos and amazing jazz vocals in the style of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. They displayed exquisite control, and also interacted well with the audience.
Our final vocal musical experience was most revelatory and meaningful. This event was held on Sunday in the Laudamus theatre on the C.M. U. campus
It was organized by the Women’s Music Club of Winnipeg. Little did I know that club has been bringing in musicians of world stature for 130 years. If not for the kindness of our neighbours, Professors Harry and Mary Lynn Duckworth, we would not have known of this concert, entitled: “In a Dark Blue Night.” The title was written in both English and Yiddish in the program notes.
The music was performed by two wondrous musicians: Isabelle David, pianist and Sara Schabas, solo soprano. They performed a song cycle by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated, N.Y.C.-based Jewish composer Alex Weiser.
The first half of the concert consisted of Leiders by Viennese composers of the early to mid-20th century, all of whom were Jewish or in relationships with other Jewish composers. The composers included: Arnold Schoenberg, Alma Mahler, Erich Korngold, and others. Sara’s rendering of their songs and poems set to music was transcendent and emotive.
The narrator of theevent, Nolan Kehler, himself a musician and music radio host, was excellent in detailing the Zeitgeist around those Viennese composers and how they had to flee Vienna in the late ’30s. At least two were murdered in the Holocaust.
The second half of the concert was even more amazing. Alex Weiser composed music to accompany selected poems written by Jewish immigrants to New York early in the 20th century. Sara, having sung most of the songs in the first half in German, and one in English, then sang those poems beautifully – this time in Yiddish. Then, as a finale she sang a Gershwin medley. To add icing to this note-worthy cake, the pianist played the most challenging dramatic part of “Rhapsody in Blue,” knocking it out of the park
Thus, in one weekend I heard a Sarah and a Sara, and am grateful for our musical riches, especially brought to Winnipeg by both the Mennonite and Jewish communities. I am no music reviewer, but can appreciate the talent and artistry displayed by both Isabelle’s David and by Sara Schabas And, great news: Sara, who is from Montreal has landed a job teaching in the Desautels Faculty of Music. Hopefully many more of us will get a chance to hear her.
