By BERNIE BELLAN When’s the last time two Jewish athletes received widespread recognition on the sports pages of the Winnipeg Free Press on the same day?
In today’s (March 26) issue, there are stories about Edmonton Oilers hockey player Zack Hyman and Winnipeg curler Kyle Doering.
Hyman, who’s in town today as his team plays the Winnipeg Jets, has achieved a special renown for having scored 50 goals this year. As the Free Press story about him notes, he’s the third oldest player ever to achieve that milestone for the first time.
As for Doering, his recognition today comes from his having been selected by Canadian Men’s Curling Champion Brad Gushue to serve as the fifth man on Gushue’s team in the upcoming Mens’ World Championship in Switzerland.
But, rather than focus on their most recent accomplishments, we thought we’d look back at some past stories that had run about both Hyman and Doering, both of which tell us something about their connections to the Jewish community.

As a personal aside, I had met Kyle many years ago when he was nominated for the Rady JCC Jewish Athlete of the Year. Then, in 2017, I happened to meet up with him again when he was practicing curling at the Granite Curling Club in preparation for the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. As I chatted with Kyle – and his curling partner, Ashley Groff, Kyle asked me whether The Jewish Post & News would consider being a sponsor for their team. I agreed – and for two years running, we did sponsor Kyle and Ashley. I never realized though that, as a result, Kyle and Ashley would put the name “The Jewish Post & News” on their jackets! I was impressed that they were willing to go as far as doing that.

Here then are excerpts from stories about both Kyle Doering and Zach Hyman, which give some information about their backgrounds:
From Harvey Rosen’s April 6, 2011 “Sporting Touch” column:
“Was in touch recently with former Winnipegger Billy Lifchus who has been living in Toronto for over 20 years. He tells me that his grandson Kyle Doering, 15, who is his daughter Bonnie’s son, recently skipped his team to a bronze medal over New Brunswick at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax.
Billy’s mom is the late Bella Lifchus, who came over from Europe together with my late mother Sarah Rosen.
Kyle, an East St. Paul resident, made a triple-raise takeout to score a six-ender against Ontario in the round-robin part of the tournament, and his shot was featured across Canada on TSN.
Billy, as any proud grandfather might offer, noted: “Probably the best Jewish curler in these parts since Terry Braunstein and Allan Shinfield.”

From Harvey’s March 1, 2017 column:
Now let’s rock with Jewish curler Kyle Doering (whose grandfather, Bill Lifchus, once wrote a financial column for this paper). When I last spoke with the personable young Doering, who is now 21, it was in 2012 when he was in high school in West Kildonan. The then-skip had just led his team to a Canadian Junior title.
Last year his junior curling team won the Canadian championship and earned a bronze medal in Copenhagen, Denmark at the World Junior Curling Championship.
He was in conversation recently at the Granite Curling Club with our Bernie Bellan and inquired if the Jewish Post & News would be interested in sponsoring his “Mixed Doubles” curling team. The latter game is a new and exciting variation of the sport and will be featured in the next Olympic games.
Needless to say, as many other Jewish kids (athletes) have learned over the years, financial support is a must if they hope to compete, say, in the Maccabiah or Maccabi games, they require support.
In any event, Bellan was prepared to sponsor the team with a gold member contribution of $200. Doering was extremely gratified for Bellan’s generosity and asked me to thank him again.

As for Zach Hyman, there was a terrific story in the Alberta Jewish News’ August 9, 2021 issue, which was written just after Hyman had been acquired by the Edmonton Oilers from the Toronto Maple Leafs. The story was written by Jeremy Appel.

Recent Edmonton Oilers acquisition Zach Hyman says the supportive Jewish environment he was raised in gave him a strong foundation of support for launching and sustaining his professional hockey career. 
“It was very familial,” Hyman, who has four brothers, says of his Jewish upbringing in Toronto. “I had great, supporting parents, who really believed in me and tried to encourage me to follow my dreams and my passions. And I had a great support system of extended family, and of course a very strong community behind me.” 
Hyman, 29, signed a seven-year $38.5-million contract with the Oilers in late-July after playing six seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he scored 185 regular season points — 86 goals and 99 assists — as well as 13 playoff points. 
“That was a special time to be able to play for my home team to start my career out, but I’m really excited about this new chapter in my life and this new opportunity,” Hyman said.
He says he’ll be moving to Edmonton in early September in time for Oilers training camp. He plans to grow his family and provide his kids with a strong Jewish communal upbringing, just like the one he had.  
Hyman, who says he knew he wanted to play in the NHL from a young age, describes his Jewish upbringing as secular — he grew up attending shul on the High Holidays and doesn’t consume pork. “For me, being Jewish is more than just a religion. Obviously, there’s a really big communal aspect to it,” he said, describing the distinction between various religious denominations as “blurred”.
He received a full Jewish day school education growing up in Toronto — first at the United Synagogue Day School, and then at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto Tanenbaum Campus for high school, where he met his future wife, with whom he has an eight-month-old son named Theo and a Siberian Husky dog named Whitey.
After taking a year off to focus on hockey, Hyman spent four years playing hockey on a scholarship at the University of Michigan starting in 2011, where he majored in history. 
While his Jewish education provided him with a strong communal foundation, playing hockey allowed Hyman to expand his social sphere outside the Jewish bubble, interacting with people of various backgrounds, he says. 
“For me, leaving home and going to university outside of Toronto obviously was a change, but I think hockey prepared me for that,” said Hyman. “It was an incredible experience. I learned a ton there, and it really helped propel my hockey career and shape my career too.” 
Growing up, he played for various teams in the Greater Toronto Hockey League — the Toronto Red Wings, the Jr. Canadiens and Mississauga Reps — before moving on to the Ontario Junior A Hockey League, where he played for the Hamilton Red Wings. 

In 2013, he represented Canada at Israel’s Maccabi Games, where he won a gold medal. 
Hyman was number 11 on the Leafs, but he can’t use that number on the Oilers, since it’s retired as Mark Messier’s, so Hyman will be playing as number 18, which is the day in December Theo was born on, in addition to its Jewish significance of chai, the hebrew word for life.
Hyman has published three children’s books with Penguin Random Rouse since 2014 — The Bambino and Me, Hockey Hero and The Magician’s Secret. 
Ultimately, Hyman says the Toronto Jewish community’s support for his ambitions, from his teachers who allowed him to do work outside the classroom to accommodate his hockey commitments to his family’s large network of friends who all wanted to see him succeed, was instrumental in his success. “Everybody was cheering for me and supporting me, and rooting me on,” he said.