Local News
Two Jewish athletes receive prominent recognition in the Winnipeg Free Press – on the same day!
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.
Local News
Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder contribute $1 million to ongoing Shaarey Zedek Synagogue Capital Campaign
By MYRON LOVE “We really welcome the decision of Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder to donate $1-million to our ongoing capital campaign,” said Rena Secter Elbaze, the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue’s executive director, on October 9. “They and their families have a long history of supporting our community organizations and the State of Israel. Their contribution to the Shaarey Zedek is inspirational.”
The husband and wife team officially presented the cheque to Elbaze at a brief ceremony at the synagogue the morning of October 9, in the newly renamed Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder Auditorium.
In their remarks, both Morantz, the president and CEO of Globe Property Management, and Walder, a lawyer who is a former partner in the law firm Myers LLP, spoke of their long family connection to the Shaarey Zedek. “My mother’s family were Jewish pioneers in Winnipeg,” Walder noted. “My great-grandfather, Samuel Cohen, for whom I am named, was an original member of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue. I started coming here with my own grandfather, Sidney Cohen, when I was about two years old. I remember exactly which pew we sat in and how my grandfather helped me to follow along in the siddur during services. Shaarey Zedek has always been a place of great comfort for me.”
Morantz added that his own bar mitzvah took place at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue on April 29, 1972. “I learned my maftir from the legendary Rabbi Berkal,” he recalled. “We continued to celebrate here with our own children’s bar and bat mitzvahs. I am very grateful that we got to watch our own children shine on the bimah.”
It was the Hamas-led assault on Israel and subsequent tsunami of antisemitism worldwide that prompted the couple to consider stepping up and contributing to the Shaaray Zedek campaign in such a magnanimous way.
“I have never been a religious person,” Morantz remarked. “While I may be more secular, I strongly believe in the traditions of Judaism. I had a charmed upbringing in the 60s and 70s in River Heights. It is not the case that I experienced no antisemitism, but those experiences were very minimal. Post-October 7th, I found myself, for the first time in my life, having to judge every situation and every person I came across before divulging the fact that I am Jewish or discussing Israel. I came to the realization, during the process of considering this donation, that a primary driver for us is that this synagogue is a safe place for Jews, where we can comfortably be ourselves.”
Walder pointed out that while her mother’s large family were Jewish pioneers, her father was a Romanian Holocaust survivor, with almost no family after the war. “Family matters a great deal to us,” she said. “In addition to strongly agreeing with Richard that the tragedy of October 7th and continuing and growing anti Semitism are big drivers for us in making this donation, we also want to see Shaarey Zedek be a safe and special part of the lives of our now adult children and the generations that will follow them. It is very fulfilling to us that we are contributing to making that happen.”
Walder further credits the encouragement of her old friend and law school classmate, Neil Duboff, for helping to clinch the decision for her and her husband to make the donation. “Neil has worked so hard for the synagogue and our community for so many years and we applaud his efforts and commitment,” she noted.
(Duboff is a past president of the Shaarey Zedek and chaired the capital campaign.)
Walder also mentioned the support of Gail Asper in making the decision. “I met Gail on our first day of law school in 1981,” she recalled, “and we have been very close ever since. While we can all agree that Gail certainly knows how to talk, she also really knows how to listen. Through all of our discussions with her about making this donation, she listened hard, she came up with solid answers, and she was instrumental in leading us to the decision to donate. Shaarey Zedek is extremely lucky to have such a talented fundraiser.”
“We have to make special mention of Rena Secter Elbaze,” Morantz noted. “Rena literally blew me away when I met her for a tour of the synagogue. Her passion and knowledge are remarkable. We believe that our synagogue is in great hands and we feel much comfort and confidence making this donation.
“We are very proud of the recent renovations and upgrades to the synagogue,” he added. “This place is absolutely beautiful. We also feel privileged to have met with Rabbi Carnie Rose. We know he will be a great asset to the synagogue and all of its members for a long time to come.
“We are so honoured to be here with you today and to feel that we are making a difference to this special place”.
He concluded his remarks with an observation by Elie Wiesel that “a synagogue is a house of memory as well as a house of prayer. It reminds us of who we are and where we come from.”
Local News
Winnipegger Charlotte Kittner traces ancestry back to the Jewish expulsion from Spain
By MYRON LOVE Ladino was long the spoken language of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula and North Africa just as Yiddish was the day to day language of the Jews of Eastern Europe. Charlotte Kittner is most likely the only Winnipegger – and one of the few left in the world – who still speaks Ladino.
But Ladino is just one of eight languages that Kittner, who turned 100 in August, can speak – the others being Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Turkish and English.
Charlette (Sarlota) Kittner was born in Bulgaria – in a Jewish community whose members were largely descended from the Jews who were forced out of Spain in 1492 (and Portugal a few years later) by the Spanish expulsion.
A few days after her birth, that part of Bulgaria became part of Romania. She was so small at birth, she recounts, that the doctor had little hope she would survive more than a few years. She slept in a drawer of a chiffonier lined with many layers of cotton for the first year.
The youngest of three sisters, she recalls growing up comfortably in a warm and observant community. Her father, Avram, who operated a textile factor, attended synagogue on Shabbat and all the Yom Tovim.
The family – along with all the other Jewish families in Romania, fell on hard times with the advent of World War II. Although Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany and was never occupied, members of the Romanian Iron Guard – the local equivalent of the Nazis – could be just as sadistic and murderous as their German counterparts. Although most Romanian Jews outside of Bucharest were murdered, those living in the capital city, while facing much discrimination and many restrictions – were spared internment and deportation.
Kittner notes that mother, Minduch, died in 1945 and she lost her father in 1946.
During the war Charlotte and her sister, Lisa, were assigned to a factory making linens and garments for the Nazis.
She recalls that life was tough after liberation and continued to be difficult after the coming of Communism in immediate post-war Romania.
After the war, Kittner trained as an accountant and found work with a large manufacturer. That is where she met her husband, Mike (Misu) Kittner. They were married in Bucharest in November,1952.
Kittner’s sisters, Suzanna and Lisa, both made aliyah after the war. Charlotte and Mike followed in 1964. They lived in Israel for three years. Charlotte quickly learned Hebrew and found work as an accountant.
But life in Israel was difficult economically in those days. Mike’s brothers, Fred and Serge, had previously settled in Winnipeg and encouraged Mike and Charlotte to join them. They did – in May 1967.
The next year, Chralotte’s sister Lisa and husband, Nick, also moved to Winnipeg.
Their other sister, Suzanna, and her husband, Selu, a well known painter, remained in Israel.
Over the years, Kittner has visited Israel – where she has numerous nephews, nieces and cousins – as well as having taken trips back to Romania and to other European countries.
Once in Winnipeg, she and Mike quickly found work in the garment industry. She was first hired as a bookkeeper by Stall and Son. After a short time she moved over to Silpit Industries, where she served as chief accountant for many years. Kittner has favourable memories of her boss, the late community leader Harry Silverberg. She later worked for another Silverberg firm, Brown and Rutherford, a lumber processing operation.
Mike only worked in the garment industry for a short time. He found his niche in insurance sales – where he excelled. He also founded Broadway Agencies and became a booking agent for budding new performing artists in Europe whom he brought to Winnipeg to appear in popular local night clubs.
Mike and Charlotte’s nephew, Brad Kittner, recalls as a youngster going with his
parents, aunts and uncles to those clubs and watching what he describes as “these fabulous singers.” He says that they inspired him to pursue his own successful career as a karaoke singer and performer for hire.
Charlotte and Mike first lived in East Kildonan for a year, then moved to Partridge Avenue in West Kildonan. A few years later, they bought a new house on Drimes Place, north of Templeton, in northwest Winnipeg.
While Mike Kittner passed away in 1991, Charlotte continued to work into her 70s.
Through the years, she has led a busy social life with family and friends. As Brad Kittner notes, even at 100, “Aunt Charlotte continues hosting friends and family for full course meals and gatherings at her place.”
Charlotte celebrated her hundredth birthday with more than 20 relatives and friends at the Ichiban Restaurant.
Although hard of hearing and somewhat frail of body, her mind remains relatively clear. She still enjoys reading fiction, doing crosswords and looking forward to her weekly card games with her sister-in-law, Sylvia, who also lives at Chateau West on Jefferson, and other friends.
May she live to 120!
Local News
Over 2000 supporters turned out for walk for Israel despite overcast skies, rain
By MYRON LOVE October 5 started out overcast and rainy. The rain – which fortunately stopped just before the Walk for Israel began – didn’t prevent over 2,000 supporters of Israel – both members of our Jewish community and those from outside of our community from turning out for the second annual Walk for Israel commemorating the horrific events of October 7 – two years ago – the darkest day in post-Holocaust Jewish history
As with last year, the 45-minute walk began and ended at the Asper Campus. While last year the walk was followed by speeches from community leaders and various politicians, this year the only speaker was Paula Parks, President of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, who pointed out that the ongoing anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations- post October 7- have strengthened the bonds within our community and spurred more people to affiliate with our communal organizations. She further noted that more of us are speaking out and we need to continue to do that.
“The number of people who participated was inspirational,” says Gustavo Zentner, the representative for Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “We had numerous allies as well as members of our Jewish community. We had people from all walks of life.”
“We had a fantastic turnout,” added Jeff Lieberman, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s CEO. “Paula spoke very well. Her comments were meaningful.”
He expressed his hope that the hostages would be released very soon, the war would be ended, and Israelis can finally live in peace.
The commemoration’s focus this year was primarily on visual images rather than words. The walk featured a number of photos taken by local members of the Winnipeg Jewish community who visited the Nova site in person or attended the Nova exhibit that travelled to various parts of Canada and the United States. The photos were displayed for the day along the fence on Doncaster Avenue – the first stage of the walk. Participants were handed Israeli flags and kalaniot (red anemones) flowers, the official flower of Israel, and were encouraged to place them around the photos on the fence.
As well, as part of the October 7 commemoration, 33 paintings depicting some of those taken hostage on October 7 were put on display along Main Street of the Campus from the week of October 3-October 10. The paintings were the work of well-known Israeli illustrator, cartoonist, humourist, performance artist and political activist, Zeev Engelmayer.
The walk on October 5 concluded with Israeli shimshinim – Israeli youth representatives here in Winnipeg from Israel – and other young people from our community reciting a prayer for the hostages (who were finally freed last week), and members of the IDF, followed by the singing of “O Canada” and “Hatikvah.”