Local News
“The Soundtrack of our Lives”: JHCWC program leaves audience enthralled
Posted July 5 By BERNIE BELLAN (Note: This article first appeared in our June 7 issue but there’s nothing in it that doesn’t bear repeating now.)
Put an audience of aging baby boomers together with three also aging musicians who are experts on Winnipeg’s music scene – and all three great raconteurs besides, along with an MC who is also himself an aging musical aficionado – and what do you get? An afternoon of nostalgia mixed with great humour and the occasional anecdote that defied belief.
Such was the case on a glorious Sunday afternoon, May 28, when, despite the gorgeous weather outside, Temple Shalom was packed with many formerly hirsute men along with an assortment of graying (and a few nicely hair-dyed) women. They were there to attend what was billed as “The Soundtrack of our Lives: Jews in Winnipeg’s Music Industry.”
Although there had been a fair bit of advance billing for the program, including an excellent preview article in the Winnipeg Free Press, even the three experts who had been assembled on stage really had no idea what was going to ensue.
The event was sponsored by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, which continues to come up with imaginative programming year after year (even if they haven’t yet agreed to follow up on my proposal to do a program on famous Jewish criminals in Manitoba’s history.)
The three expert panelists included, in order: Owen Clark, a musician of great repute (voted “Winnipeg jazz musician of the year” in 2009), also a historian of Winnipeg’s music scene going back to the 1920s; Len Udow, folk singer, cantor, seven-time performer at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and recording artist – with three solo albums of his own; and John Einarson, former musician with a number of different bands and the writer of over 20 books telling the stories of a host of different Winnipeg musicians, including his opus, “Heart of Gold,” which is a comprehensive history of Manitoba musicians, and which is now in its fourth printing.
Keeping the entire affair coherent was MC Kinzey Posen, who was able to inject his own experiences as a band member into the proceedings – going back to a time when as, Jewish Heritage Centre former president Dan Stone noted, Kinzey not only had hair, he had lots of it.
Stone told this story about Kinzey (and, like a lot of the stories told that afternoon, it might have been greatly embellished): It seems that Kinzey (a.k.a. Martin) was kicked out of school for two weeks for having too long hair. His parents, Stone claimed, offered Kinzey a deal: “If you cut your hair, we’ll buy you a bass and amplifier.”
Owen Clark was the first of the panelists to talk about Jewish musicians of the past. He began by showing a 1920s era photo on the screen (next to the stage) of the “Minnedosa Little Symphony Orchestra,” led by Leon Asper and his wife, Cecilia.
Thus began a chronology of Jewish musicians and others associated with the music industry, including Harry Smith, owner of Club Morocco, whose real name, Clark revealed, was Herschel Shmudkin.
Among the musicians mentioned by Clark was Al Sprintz who, as Clark noted, “went to Club Morocco for two weeks and stayed for 22 years.”
Clark also discussed the integration of black musicians into bands that had Jewish musicians over the years, noting that, as members of two groups that suffered from discrimination, there was a kinship that led to the breaking down of barriers for both blacks and Jews.
Len Udow took a somewhat different tack than Clark – also later Einarson, as he focused primarily on his own history of growing up in a supremely musically talented family, including his mother Sarah, his aunt Belva, and uncle David, all of whom were talented opera singers.
Udow recounted his early childhood experiences of being in the Rosh Pina children’s choir and performing at the old YMHA on Hargrave as having been significant in his own development as a performer.
He told one story of having been a member of a group as a teenager known as the “Wayward Four Plus One.” According to Udow, the group was invited to appear on the CKY Amateur Hour one time, where they won the competition by beating out someone by the name of Burton Cummings (who played trumpet that day).
Later, Udow told of his many experiences on the stage of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, paying tribute to two pioneers of that festival, Mitch Podolak and Marvin Terhoch.
Speaking of Mitch Podolak (about whom Kinzey Posen wrote a moving tribute in our October 11, 2017 issue, which you can find on our website), John Einarson began his own remarks about Jews in Winnipeg’s music scene through the years by telling this story: It seems that Einarson and Podolak had never met until one day their paths happened to cross and Podolak told Einarson that he was thinking of starting a music festival for Winnipeg. He asked Einarson what he thought of the idea?
Einarson’s answer, he recounted was: “It’ll never work.”
Growing up in the 1950s, Einarson recalled, opened up a whole new world for him – and countless other youngsters, with the invention of the transistor radio.
“It made a great difference in listening to music,” he explained.
“It broke down barriers…Rock ‘n roll was a great equalizer” among kids in those days.
“I grew up with Jewish musicians,” Einarson continued. “They went on to become doctors and lawyers…The place to go for music was community clubs.”
Einarson took the audience through a Powerpoint presentation that showed pictures of bands from the 1950s, 60s and 70s that were either entirely Jewish or else had a majority of Jewish members.
He also paid tribute to others who played instrumental roles in promoting local talent, such as DJs Doc Steen and Howard Mandshein.
There were other notable figures who were important promoters, Einarson noted, including such individuals as Ivan Berkowits (who hit upon the idea of promoting his Monarch Wear brand of jeans known as TJs through music, with girls wearing TJs appearing at community clubs); Fred Glazerman; Frank Wiener (just recently passed), who opened the Hungry I booking agency; Terry Morris; Jerry Shore (who ran Celebrity Box Office); Roy Levin (of Transcontinental Productions, and who was the first to book the Guess Who here): Sam Katz (of Nite Out Entertainment); and Lorne Saifer (the longtime manager of the Guess Who).
Then, there were the club owners, Einarson told about: Jerry Huck (Jay’s Discotheque); Dick Golfman (The Twilight Zone); Bruce Druxerman (The Fireplace); Phil and Ray Kives (The Zoo, on Osborne); and the Gindin family (St. Vital Hotel).
There were also the record store owners: Murray Posner (Mother’s Records); Norman Stein (Opus 69); and Lilian Lewis (Lilian Lewis Records).
One more name Einarson mentioned was Harry Kreindler, of Banquex Amplifiers.
He told the story how former Manitoba Cabinet Minister Maitland Steinkopf had arranged to bring what was then one of the biggest bands in the world, Led Zeppelin, to play at the old Winnipeg Stadium in 1970 in celebration of Manitoba’s Centennial.
It started to rain, Einarson explained, and the band left the stage. “They had a clause saying they didn’t have to play if it started to rain,” Einarson continued.
But Steinkopf went to the hotel where the band was staying, accompanied by a well-known singer at the time, Diane Hetherington, in an attempt to persuade the band to come back and play inside the Winnipeg Arena.
Steinkopf was told the band wouldn’t do that unless he came up with $25,000US in cash. Somehow, he came back with a suitcase loaded with cash –and the concert did carry on – in the Arena.
Einarson also said that there was a story he had heard – which had never been corroborated, and he asked whether anyone had ever heard the same story: It revolved around well-known restaurateur Oscar Grubert and the Rolling Stones.
Apparently Grubert was the promoter who brought the Rolling Stones to Winnipeg. (Einarson said that Grubert had also tried to bring the Beatles to Winnipeg.) The story he had heard, Einarson said, was that the Rolling Stones stayed at Grubert’s Garden City home. (In later correspondence that I had with Einarson, Kinzey Posen, and Stan Carbone, curator of the Jewish Heritage Centre, when I asked all three of them whether they had heard anything more about that story, Stan Carbone suggested that the Stones had stayed at a hotel owned by Grubert and somehow it got misinterpreted that they had stayed at his home. John Einarson later emailed me to confirm that the Stones had stayed at the Champs Motor Inn on Osborne (which was later bought by the Kives brothers and became the Osborne Motor Inn.)
Too bad, it would have been more fun to think that one of the most famous rock ‘n roll bands in the world actually stayed on Forest Park Drive, no doubt eating only kosher food. (Oscar Grubert was at one time head of the Va’ad Ha’ir in this city.)
Speaking of wild misinterpretations, I interrupted Einarson with my own story, which was about Barbra Streisand. I said that, years ago, I was working for another well-known restaurateur (also nightclub owner), Auby Galpern.
By now, the story of Streisand either being fired by Galpern – or leaving Winnipeg of her own accord, is legendary. (She appeared at the Towers Nightclub in July 1961, when she was only 19, and just starting out in her career).
I said that Auby had told me that he fired Streisand because she was “a dirty hippie” and “sang too loud.” (Later Kinzey Posen told me that she couldn’t have been a “dirty hippie” in 1961; a “dirty beatnik” maybe. Why am I always being corrected?)
A very good website about the history of Winnipeg, known as “Local Dumplings” takes issue with that account of what happened: “Local lore says that Streisand was ‘fired’ by T & C co-owner Auby Galpern and told that she would never make it as a cabaret singer. That has recently been disputed by a couple of former senior T & C staffers who say that she was released early at the request of her agent to return to the U.S. for work.
“In an April 23, 1964 Gene Telpner column, Galpern said of Streisand’”I liked her but I thought she dressed very strangely (she bought her wardrobe at rummage sales to give her an eclectic look).”
In any event, my recalling the famous Barbra Streisand story set off a chain of comments – both from panelists and from audience members, but the wildest stories revolved around Barbra Streisand supposedly being set up on a blind date while she was in Winnipeg. (Later, John Einarson wrote me that would have been impossible because she was only here three nights and would have been performing each evening, so when would she have had time for a date?)
Regardless, the craziest story came from one audience member who said he had heard that Barbra was set up with Ron Braunstein who, at the time, was a very successful curler on his brother Terry’s team. According to what the audience member said, Ron Braunstein told Barbra that, unless she wanted to come to a curling match that night, he couldn’t make it. But this was July! See how tell tales get started! (In subsequent email correspondence with Einarson, Posen, and Carbone, I suggested that I wouldn’t be surprised if the two wild stories – about the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand, got so intertwined some day that someone would say they had heard that Barbra Streisand was set up on a blind date with Mick Jagger at Oscar Grubert’s house.)
Speaking of clubs, John Einarson recalled that Winnipeg musicians, after they had finished their gigs in various clubs, used to head over to the Club Morocco after 1 am because it was the only club still serving food.
Someone in the audience brought up the name of another club, The Fourth Dimension (later bought by Mickey Cooperband). Einarson said that many famous musicians had played there, including Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell, Don McLean, and Neil Young. (Later, after the program was over, someone told me that a musician by the name of Bob Zimmerman (a.k.a. Bob Dylan) used to come to Winnipeg to visit relatives here and stay at Neil Young’s house.)
Len Udow told an amusing story about musician Bernie Senensky. Apparently Udow and Senensky were in a Grade 10 British History class together in high school.
“We were not great students,” Udow remarked. “We didn’t share our intellect with anyone.”
Still, Udow recalled, when he would look over at Senensky, he was busy arranging music rather than paying attention to what was going on in class. “He was so obsessed with music,” Udow said. You could see what lay ahead for Senensky, who went on to a great career as a jazz pianist and composer.
One final – and very astute observation was brought up by someone else in the audience who observed that, while community clubs might have been the venues of choice for rock ‘n roll, church halls were where folk music could be heard. Then, one election year in Manitoba, Gary Doer hit upon the idea of going after the youth vote by promising to lower the drinking age to 18 from 21 – and all of a sudden all those kids congregating in church halls listening to folk music were now able to hit the bars – “and that killed the folk music scene.”
It was truly a great afternoon of memories and anecdotes. I had noticed someone was videoing the program when I walked in, so I emailed Stan Carbone to ask whether a video of the program might be available for people to see. He said he’ll get back to me with further information.
By MYRON LOVE Gray Academy, our community’s only junior kindergarten–12 Jewish day school, holds a unique place among Jewish schools in Western Canada.
The school has a higher per capita enrollment than any other Jewish day school in Western Canada related to the number of potential Jewish students in the community. As well, it is the only Jewish high school in North America – other than yeshivot – that offers an international student experience.
“We generally enrol one or two students a year from international communities,” says Gray Academy Head of School and CEO Lori Binder. “Our International Student program has always been a niche program,” “We want to be able to make sure that the international students are well integrated into our student body.”
For the most part, she reports, the visiting students have come from Brazil and Mexico. “We have agents in Brazil and Mexico,” she notes. “In the past, we have participated in recruitment trips – and we might again one day – depending on available resources. Most of our international students hear about our program through word of mouth.”
This school year, Gray Academy has two international students enrolled. Natalie Rozenberg is from Rio de Janiero This is the Grade 12 student’s second year at the school. She is following in the footsteps of her older sister, Dafne, who graduated from Gray Academy in 2020 and is currently enrolled in third year Data Science at the University of Manitoba.
The newest international student at Gray Academy is Tara Foster, who has come all the way from Australia to sample a different kind of educational experience. “Tara is the first Australian student to participate in our program,” Binder says. “In fact, she reached out to us after finding information about our program online.”
The Grade 10 student was born and raised in Sydney. Her father, she notes, was also originally from Sydney, but her parents met and married in London. They moved to Sydney 18 year ago. Up to now, Tara has been a student at Masada College, a K-12 Jewish school in Sydney, where she will be returning next fall.
I wanted to experience a school somewhere else – preferably in an English-speaking country,” she says. “I searched online and Gray Academy was the only school offering this program.”
While her mother, she notes, had some concerns about her 15-year-old daughter traveling so far from home for school, her father was fine with the idea. He is involved in an accounting software business which brings him frequently to Toronto. Her mother, Tara says, is planning to come to visit in January.
Tara has been here for just over a month. She reports that Winnipeg so far is sort of what she expected. “It is very flat,” she muses. “It is easier to get around here than in Sydney.”
She says that she has already made some friends in her new school and is starting to get involved in extracurricular activites
Natalie began the school year by joining her Grade 12 classmates on their Human Rights and Holocaust Education trip to Washington, DC. She is looking forward to continuing to work out regularly at the Rady JCC.
”I am still working on improving my English,” she says.
She notes that her parents are happy that their two daughters are living in a safe community such as Winnipeg.
As is the standard practice with Gray Academy’s International Student program, both girls are living with host families. “Over the past 15 years or so, our visiting International Student Program has hosted more than 30 students,” Lori Binder reports. “Not only do the visiting students benefit from the experience of going to school here, but our own students get the opportunity to welcome fellow students from different places and learn more about the larger world.”
She adds that the visiting students form long-lasting bonds with their host families, with the guests often becoming part of the host family’s extended family.
Local News
Rabbi Michael Skobac, international leader in Jewish outreach, to speak at Adas Yeshurun Herzlia on October 20
By MYRON LOVE It has been many years since I have had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi Michael Skobac. I am happy to report that the long time Education Director of Jews for Judaism has been invited back to Winnipeg by the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation to do a presentation – on Friday, October 20, after Kabbalat Shabbat services – on the subject of the ongoing missionary threat to the Jews.
The subtext for “The Battle for the Jewish Soul,” the title of his lecture, he points out, is an exploration of why so many Jews are susceptible to the siren song of missionaries – not just Christian missionaries, but also Asian religious movements – an issue that also falls under the aegis of Jews for Judaism.
“It is not just a matter of a lack of education or knowledge,” he explained in a wide ranging interview with the JP&N last Friday morning. “Many of those who have left Judaism grew up in Jewish homes, had their bar/bat mitzvahs, went to Hebrew school and visited Israel. What they are missing is a sense of spirituality.
“Too many Jews have grown up in a spiritual vacuum,” he continued. “They have holes in their soul that cry out to be filled and they are not finding it in Judaism. Therefore, they are turning to Bhuddism, Hinduism and the Church.”
To further illustrate his point, he cited a story about a conference on Jewish meditation a year ago in New York City. “There were about 1,000 people registered,” he recounted. “They were asked to raise their hands if they had participated in Eastern mediation practices. Everyone raised their hands. When subsequently asked how many of them had had any experience with Jewish meditation, no hands went up.”
That anecdote speaks to one of the several ways that Jews for Judaism’s mission has evolved and expanded. The organization was founded in 1989 in Toronto by Julius Ciss, himself a former “Jew for Jesus” who had returned to Judaism some years before and had begun doing counter missionary work.
Rabbi Skobac joined Jews for Judaism full time in 1992. A graduate of Yeshiva University, the former New Yorker received his smicha in 1980. After teaching for a short time, he was drawn into outreach work within the Jewish community prior to joining the staff of Jews for Judaism.
Initially, Jews for Judaism’s primary mission was working to bring back to Judaism susceptible Jews who were enticed into joining messianic congregations operating under the guise of following Jewish ritual practices within a context of worshipping Yesha (Jesus).
Skobac notes that Jews for Judaism’s focus has never been criticizing Christian beliefs, but rather on educating lost Jews as to the joys of Judaism. “We operate under the idea that the missionary activity of Jews for Jesus is not the problem,” he explains. “It is a symptom. The problem is that a growing number of Jews are disconnected from Judaism. Our communities are dealing with a lot of assimilation and apathy. The other thing we realized is that it is not just Christ who is calling to Jews. Twenty five percent of North American Bhuddists are Jewish and Jews are similarly overrepresented in other Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Bahai.”
Skobac noted that Jews for Judaism has become a 911 service forJewish communities – responding to many family members concerned about siblings or children who have strayed into other religious faiths.
There have been some interesting phenomena developing in more recent years that Skobac commented on. One is related to the growth of the messianic movements themselves.
“We are not dealing with just one or two messianic congregations in North America now,” he observed. “There are currently more than 500 – and they have become organized. They have camps and day schools and “rabbinical schools” to fill the growing demand for “rabbis”. The result is more of the messianic Jews are actually studying Judaism and some are – as a result- coming back to the Jewish community.”
Another difference that Skobac points out is that you no longer see these missionaries preaching on street corners. As with everything else in our modern world, virtually all the missionary work today is happening online. And the outreach efforts of Jews for Judaism has also moved to some degree online.
“Twelve years ago, we started our own YouTube channel,” he reported. “We have had between 8 and 9 million views. Obviously not all of our viewers re Jewish.”
He pointed out that over the past 40 years, a growing number of non-Jews have become interested in learning about Judaism and begun practising the “Noahide” laws as ordained in the Torah. These laws were required by God of Noah’s descendants and include prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, adultery, theft, murder and cruelty to animals.
And some of these Noahides convert to Judaism. Skobac reported, for example, that he was recently in Alberta to help a family living outside of Edmonton that was converting to Judaism.
The bottom line, Skobac noted, is that a growing number of Jews are not finding meaning in Judaism. “People need a sense of the spiritual in their lives to give their lives meaning,” he observed. “If they can’t find it in Judaism, they will look somewhere else. What we try to do is bring out the beauty and spirituality in Judaism.”
Readers who may be interested in attending rabbi Skobac’s presentation (which includes supper) can contact the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia office at 204 489-6262.
By MYRON LOVE For those of us who still remember the 1969 provincial election that vaulted Ed Schreyer and the NDP into office for the first time, one of the aspects of that turning point in our province’s political history that stood out was the large number of Jewish MLAs who were elected to office that year.
That number included four for the NDP (Sid Green, Saul Miller, Saul Cherniack, and Cy Gonick) as well as two for the Progressive Conservatives (Maitland Steinkopf and Sidney Spivak). Spivak later went on to become leader of the recently defeated Progressive Conservatives and Leader of the Opposition.
It has now been more than 30 years since a Jewish MLA has sat in the Legislature. That would be the late Jim Carr, who was first elected as part of the Liberal resurgence in 1988, was returned to the Legislature in 1990 as part of a much reduced Liberal caucus, and resigned in 1992.
While there are three Jewish candidates in the running in the election next week, it is very unlikely that the dearth of Jewish MLAs will be coming to an end any time soon.
For Nathan Zahn, representing the Green Party in River Heights, this will be his third try and second in River Heights. As the Green Party has never won a seat n the province and he is running against the long-serving and popular former Liberal party leader Dr. Jon Gerrard, to describe Zahn’s campaign as an uphill battle is an understatement.
The annual Electronic Music Exhibtion organizer (which is held in June in the Exchange district) and founder and executive director of the non-profit Science First (that promotes science literacy and ecological conservation policies) is a long time Green Party member.
“My goal in running,” Zahn says, “is to raise awareness of several issues.”
Some of those issues, according to the Green Party platform, are fighting climate change, electoral reform, instituting a guaranteed basic income and improving access to healthcare.
In Wolseley, Phil Spevack is the Liberal standard-bearer. The candidate is best –known in our Jewish community as the long time organizer of the Saturday evening Grant and Wilton Coffee House concert which are held in the basement of Temple Shalom (where Spevack also serves as the
shamas. He has also volunteered over the years for Habitat for Humanity and has a program wherein he speaks to church groups, using a combination of music and humour to educate his audiences about Judaism.
The Liberal caucus in the Legislature currently consists of only three MLAs and Spevack is fully aware of the long odds he is facing. “The Liberals needed a candidate to stand for the party in Wolseley,” Spevack says/ “Jon Gerrard asked me to run and I thinki very highly of Jon.”
While the candidate did have a couple of campaign events planned, he points out that working around all the yom tovim has limited the amount of time he actually has to go knocking on doors in the riding.
Running for the Progressive Conservative Party in the north Winnipeg riding of St. John’s is first time candidate Teddy Rubinstein. Although new to politics, the University of Winnipeg student in the Faculty of Education does have a role model in his baba, Sheila Billinghurst, who served two terms as a school trustee in Pembina Trails school Division.
(Teddy’s parents are Steven Rubinstein and Marla Billinghurst. Bernie and Sheila Rubenstein are also his grandparents.)
While Rubenstein had not responded to efforts to contact him by press time, his blurb on the PC election website notes that “he is running because he wants to make a difference in the St. John’s community, be a positive voice for youth, and give back to Manitoba, where Teddy has lived his whole life.
Teddy believes that it’s important that the younger generation, the future of Manitoba, gets involved in decision-making in order to make a difference in, and be a representative of, their communities. He wants to work to help fight for Manitobans, including addressing the issues of crime that we are seeing in Winnipeg, and to make life more affordable for all Manitobans.”
The St. John’s riding has to be considered a lock for Nahanni Fontaine, the current sitting MLA and Deputy Leader of the Party.
Election day is next Tuesday. Please go out and cast your vote.
