Local News
Tarbut to present film about what it means to be Jewish in Winnipeg
By BERNIE BELLAN In the October 27 issue of the JP&N, within our preview of Tarbut, we had a blurb about a film that will be shown Sunday evening, November 14, at 7:30 pm in the Berney Theatre.
Here is what the blurb said:
“Ma Nishma Manitoba”
Hot off a highly successful premiere at Gimli Film Festival 2021 – this, playful, funny, and evocative documentary by two local Jewish filmmakers explores the history of Jews in Winnipeg –
the complex, diverse, and dynamic experience of the current Jewish community and what exactly it means to be ‘Jewish enough’.
Through interviews with a Rabbi, a politician, a musician, a student, and others; combined with joyful graphics, archival footage, and animation; the film explores questions of identity, spirituality, family, inclusivity, creativity, and a range of perspectives on Israel.
Q & A following the film with the filmmakers Sara Bulloch and Johanna Reimer – Henteleff
We had the opportunity to view the film prior to Tarbut. It was interesting seeing a film about what it means to be Jewish in Winnipeg in 2021 presented from the perspectives of various individuals, each of whom had quite a different contribution to make.
I asked the two women filmmakers to give me some information about their backgrounds. Here is what they wrote me:
From Johanna Reimer-Henteleff: “I started making films with my friends in late high school, which ended up being really fun and I wanted to pursue it further! So, I attended OCADU in Toronto and during my time there I mainly focused on video art, installations, and documentary filmmaking. Since I’ve been back in Winnipeg my main focus has been freelance videography and production assistance. I’ve also gotten more into animation and illustration work since working on Ma Nishma, which has been super cool to experiment with, and I’m hoping to work on more independent film projects in the future! “
From Sara Bulloch: “I have a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Manitoba, and a Creative Communications diploma majoring in media production with Red River College. Have also taken several workshops related to film production here and there. Lot of my filmmaking skills are self taught though. I currently work as an editor with Farpoint Films, while also working on independent film projects.”
Using some fast paced editing techniques that kept the film from turning into a series of long excerpts from different interviews – which would have bogged the film down (as so many documentaries used to do until such well known filmmakers as Ken Burns and Michael Moore radically changed documentary filmmaking), Ma Nishma Manitoba is quite delightful – but not without its share of controversy.
One of the subjects in the film, Lasha Mowchun, is someone about whom I wrote back in 2016 when I encountered her outside the Negev Gala that year when she part of a group protesting the Jewish National Fund. Having Lasha offer her rather critical views on Israel during this film is something that may offend some members of our community, but I applaud Sara and Joahnna for wanting to show viewers of the film different facets of the community.
What the film also does quite nicely is explore the family histories of the film’s subjects, using old photographs and some excellent archival footage. Historian Dan Stone gives a good overview of how Eastern European Jews ended up coming to Winnipeg in droves, while Rabbi Allan Finkel delves into his own family’s history, including his mother’s experience during the Holocaust. As well, Allan explains how his own departure from Judaism, followed by a more recent reawakening, is something that resonates with many Winnipeg Jews.
Also interviewed in the film is Yude Hentelef. Having representatives of different generations talk about their respective understandings of what it means to be Jewish in Winnipeg certainly lends a proper balance to the film.
I have to admit though that I was rather surprised to see how much time is devoted to interviewing Leah Gazan, who is the NDP Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre. I’ve written about Leah several times myself, but each time I was careful to point out that, although Leah had a Jewish father, her mother was Lacotah-Chinese, and Leah identifies as an Indigenous woman.
In fact, this film would fit in well with the ongoing discussion we’ve had within the pages of this newspaper about how difficult it is to establish a clear Jewish identity for so many individuals nowadays. A good portion of the film deals with questions about what are the essential characteristics of Jewish identity – especially for young people.
And, of course, what would a film about Jewish identity be without a healthy portion devoted to a discussion of the pivotal role that food plays in so much of Jewish life? Ma Nishma Manitoba certainly does that, yet it’s hard to accept that Jewish identity can be preserved if its principal characteristics are certain foods, having a sense of humor, and believing in “tikkun olam”.
Still, with its clever use of graphics and lighthearted approach to much of its subject matter, Ma Nishma Manitoba is thoroughly enjoyable – and enlightening.
Local News
Application filed by two former members of Etz Chayim Congregation against the congregation to have their memberships restored dismissed by judge
The following is taken from the Canadian Jewish News website: “Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench has dismissed Hadass Eviatar and David Hoult’s application challenging the termination of their membership at Congregation Etz Chayim. In his decision, Justice Vic Toews noted that, although Hoult’s letter describing a hypothetical attack on the synagogue may have lacked sensitivity given the political climate, he did not intend to threaten violence against congregants. However, the judge ruled that the court did not have jurisdiction to intervene in the membership dispute under Manitoba’s Corporations Act, finding that the couple had no financial, proprietary or economic interest that would entitle them to the remedies they sought. The judge concluded that religious organizations are generally free to determine their own membership rules and ordered each side to bear its own legal costs.”
If you would like to read the original article that broke the story about the battle between Hadaass Eviatar and David Hoult with Etz Chayim Congregation you can go to Epic Court Battle.”
Local News
Jewish Federation now says Jewish population of Winnipeg in 2021 (according to the census) was 13,940 – not the 16,000 figure that the Federation had been touting for years
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted Oct. 27, 2026) Longtime readers of The Jewish Post & News (and this website) would probably know that I have long had a very strong interest in establishing as accurate figures as possible when it has come to reporting the size of Winnipeg’s Jewish community.
For years I argued that our Jewish Federation was exaggerating the size of our Jewish population. I heard the figure of 16,000 bandied about by leaders in our community quite often when it came to reporting the size of our Jewish population – without any empirical evidence to back that figure up.
I had long maintained that the only reasonably accurate figures when it came to reporting the size of Winnipeg’s Jewish population were those produced by the late Evelyn Katz, when she was the unofficial demographer for the Jewish Federation – over 30 years ago. What Evelyn would do is keep careful track of births, deaths, numbers of newcomers but, perhaps most important: the number of people who had left our community.
Thus, in August 2022 when I interviewed Faye Rosenberg Cohen who, at the time, was just about to retire as the Jewish Federation’s Chief Planning and Allocations Officer, I was somewhat astonished to hear Faye say, when I asked her what proportion of our Jewish community was made up of immigrants, she answered that “I can honestly say when I look at those numbers it’s somewhere around 1/3 of the community.”
In response, I asked: “So you’d say it’s somewhere between 4-5,000?”
Faye said: “I think it’s more than that.”
I wrote in that article, “I indicated my skepticism at that time, saying ‘You know that I’ve always been skeptical about the numbers that have been used by the Federation for the population of the Jewish community. I think though that it’s always been more of a case of identification – who identifies as Jewish.’ ”
Later, after the results of the 2021 census were released, I wrote that “if you take into account the results of the 2021 census, the Jewish community cannot be larger than 14,270 at a maximum. But that figure would also include anyone who had either said either their ethnic origin was Jewish or their religion was Jewish.”
Since many of the individuals who had said on the 2021 census that their ethnic origin was Jewish, but their religion was something else, I maintained that ascertaining the real size of our Jewish community was highly problematic.
Still, for the sake of argument I was willing to accept that, realistically, it was somewhere between 13,000-14,000 – but nowhere close to the figure of 16,000 that had come to be suggested by our then president of the Jewish Federation or by other leading figures in our community.
So, it was with a sense of satisfaction that I heard Sharon Graham, who is now the Jewish Federation’s Community Planning and Allocations Lead say to an audience of over 50 people who were at the Gwen Secter Centre on Thursday, October 22, that the Jewish community in 2021 was – at a maximum: 13,940.
Sharon was at the Gwen Secter Centre to speak to Remis Lecture attendees. Her presentation preceded a presentation by Jewish Federation CEO Jeff Lieberman. Sharon used a PowerPoint presentation to provide some very interesting insights into where our Jewish community was at in 2021- and I’m offering some parts of her presentation here for you to read because I thought they were so interesting.
I had actually made many of the same observations about the results of the 2021 census in my own reporting back in 2022, but seeing what I had written confirmed by the Jewish Federation’s point person on planning told me that Sharon has a much more realistic view of our community than did Faye Rosenberg Cohen.
Here, for instance, is a slide that shows the proportion of our Jewish community that is made up of immigrants. It’s slightly under one fifth, not the one third percentage that Faye had suggested.
But, what really set Sharon’s presentation apart from anything else I’ve ever seen presented by someone from the Jewish Federation – other than the aforementioned Evelyn Katz, was the slide she projected which showed that, while there had been a large influx of newcomers to Winnipeg’s Jewish community between 2016-2021 there had also been a significantly high number of people who had left our Jewish community in those same years, as you can see in the following slide:
That is something we just don’t hear discussed by leaders of our Jewish organizations, but let’s be realistic: For many newcomers who came to Winnipeg and were counted as new members of our Jewish community, Winnipeg – for a variety of reasons, was a stepping stone to other communities. It may have been for reasons of better job opportunities, moving closer to other family members, or – the reason that we hear so often when it comes to people saying they want to leave Winnipeg: the weather.
But, whatever the reason, Sharon’s figures show that, as much as GrowWinnipeg may have been an abiding success when it’s come to attracting newcomers to our Jewish community here, getting them to stay long term is a different story.
And, while there were other aspects of Sharon’s presentation that certainly merit discussion, especially the figures she produced about intermarriage, rather than delving into them here, I thought it useful simply to insert them for you, the reader, to see – and draw your own conclusions.
Local News
Marty Green expands his protest against extremist Jewish settlers to two more venues – and is arrested twice more
(Tuesday, October 27) We received the following press release about Marty Green being arrested again, both at the University of Manitoba and at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue:
Both sides came to blows on Saturday, October 24, at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue as security personnel sought to prevent Marty Green from interfering with synagogue traffic as he protested just outside synagogue grounds against the actions of religious settlers in Israel’s occupied West Bank territory. Synagogue Executive Director Rena Secter Elbaze quickly intervened to prevent further escalation. Police arrived shorty thereafter and detained Green for 45 minutes before driving him home and releasing him. It is not clear whether their decision not to lay charges was the result of their own onsite investigation or whether it was at the request of the synagogue executive.
Green has now been arrested four times in the last month and faces multiple charges for disturbing the peace, including two episodes at the Asper Campus and one more this past Friday (Oct. 23) at the University of Manitoba. While Green says initially he was merely handing out leaflets (at the Asper Campus), since his first arrest on September 23, he has returned to the campus with a large placard and an acccordion, accompanying himself while singing songs with lyrics that include such phrases as “The Jews Are Bananas….B-A-N-A-N-A-S”. In addition to listing actions of the religious settlers as including arson, vandalism, and theft, he pointedly alleges that the IDF has been backing up the settlers in their actions.
Green had earlier notified the Shaarey Zedek that he was contemplating bringing his protest to the synagogue. He was told that if he attempted to enter the grounds he would be prevented from doing so. At that time, Secter Elbaze told Green that his intentions were inappropriate, declaring the synagogue to be “a house of worship dedicated to prayer, learning, community, and spiritual engagement.” Green responded that if the synagogue were willing to contact the Crown and inform them that “that there was never any legal basis for their claims that I was conducting myself inappropriately at the Asper Campus” (with regard to his earlier arrests) that he would “voluntarily refrain from carrying his informational campaign to the synagogue(s).”
Green further argues that the recent “psak” (religious ruling) by leading Israeli rabbi Rov Dov Lior, in which Lior declares that it is not merely permissible but praiseworthy for Jews to steal olives from Arab orchards….that this ruling brings his protest within the proper realm of religious discourse. He says further that if the local rabbis were willing to speak out to their congregations against the aforesaid psak, that he might have refrained from taking his campaign to their grounds.
Although Green was released on Saturday without charges, police confiscated his placard. They explained that it was being held as evidence pending an investigation by Major Crimes as to whether it constituted hate literature.
There was no further information given as to what happened at the University of Manitoba.
