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Winnipeg Conservative/Reform congregations’ virtual Yom Tov services very well received

zoom logo1 edited 1By MYRON LOVE
Due to a combination of government-imposed limitations on numbers and many people’s reticence in attending religious services because of Covid, our community’s congregations were forced to rethink their usual High Holiday services.

For both Congregation Etz Chayim and the Shaarey Zedek, our community’s largest congregations, as well as Reform congregation Temple Shalom, the solution was to live stream services – a continuation and expansion of what they had been doing since the province went into lockdown in late March and, for the Shaarey Zedek, a service that the synagogue has been offering for several years now.
And the response, according to both Etz Chayim’s Executive Director Jonathan Buchwald and Ian Staniloff, Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s executive director, exceeded expectations. “Everything went incredibly well,” Staniloff says, “except for one hiccup when the shul cloud for all of North America went down for a short time.”
Staniloff reports that well over 600 “unique users” tuned in as well as over 400 people listening on audio only. “We assume that there were on average at least 1.5 viewers per household,” he notes. “In many households, people got together as a family to take part. Overall, we estimate that we had as many, if not more people, participating in our services.”
(Last year, the Shaarey Zedek reported an attendance of more than 1,700 for the High Holidays.)
Staniloff further reports that, while the numbers dropped somewhat for the second day of Rosh Hashonah, participation for Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur day were very strong.
Congregation Etz Chayim (where High Holiday attendance last year was about 850) offered a virtual service this year – with the exception of ten people to form an in-person minyan.
“We organized a task force, incorporating members with health and safety, technical and communications expertise, to put our High Holiday program together, ” Buchwald notes.
“While services are going to look, sound and feel very different than what we are used to, Rabbi Kliel, Cantor Tracy and our entire Ritual team will offer a most meaningful and memorable ‘Virtual Sanctuary’ for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur”, Buchwald reassured synagogue members in an email sent out to congregation members in the summer. “Our own Virtual Voices choral ensemble under the direction of Sarah Sommer will bring a special depth and beauty to our services. ”
Etz Chayim asked members to buy virtual seats beforehand. People were really supportive, ” Buchwald says.
He reports that 370 households signed on to participate in the services. “That would be the equivalent of about 700 people. We also had people tuning in from other parts of Canada, Mexico City and Australia.”
The virtual service, he adds, also incorporated Etz Chayim’s long-standing “Family of Roses” alternative service, led by Rabbi Neal and Carol Ros,e as well as separate pages for childrens stories and crafts. ”

Temple Shalom’s virtual High Holidays programming also attracted former members from across Canada as well as viewers from New Mexico, France and Romania.
”We had a fabulous response, ” says Judith Huebner, the congregation’s co-president. “For Kol Nidre, we had 100 people on Zoom and 500 more viewed the service on Facebook later.”
Certain parts of the High Holiday service were available online only for Temple Shalom members.

Rounding out our community’s Conservative congregations is the Chevra Mishanyes congregation in Garden City. For Rosh Hashonah, reports the congregation’s long-time president, Marshall Kneller, the plan was to have two services each day with about 50 in attendance for each service. As it turned out, only one service was held each day.
“We had a little under 50 for Rosh Hashonah,” Kneller notes. “As for Yom Kippur, we were going to offer two services but, after Winnipeg was raised to Code Orange, a lot of people were concerned and reluctant to come for services. It was a tough choice but, in the end, we decided to cancel services for Yom Kippur. With all things considered, we wanted everyone to feel safe.
“We did have a service for Sukkot though.”

Our community’s Orthodox synagogues, precluded by halakhah from attempting virtual Yom Tov services, did the best they could under the circumstances. The Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation, the largest of the Orthodox synagogues, held three separate services each day of Rosh Roshanah, with the third service combining mincha (the afternoon service) and maariv (the evening service).
“A lot of our people who had registered to attend chose not to attend our services,” says Jack Craven, the congregation’s president. “We had 40 to 50 people attending each of the two morning services and 25 to 30 in the evenings. For Kol Nidre, our numbers were down considerably. For Yom Kippur day, we davened outside.”
Craven adds that the congregation did have Sukkot services inside which were reasonably well attended and followed the mandated protocols.

For the Lubavitch Centre, it was business almost as usual for the High Holidays. “There were some logistics we had to arrange – and we did ask for reservations,” Notes Rabbi Boruch Heidingsfeld. “Our numbers were down because of social distancing requirements and some people were uncomfortable with coming.
“Our services were much the same as any other year, but we did a lot less singing. It’s harder to do through a mask.”
The two North End Orthodox shuls that had minyans for the High Holiday services – the Ashkenazi and Chavurat Tefila – were able to hold services – with reduced numbers – for Rosh Hashonah but, as with the Chevra Mishnayes, were not able to offer Yom Kippur services.

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Canadian survivor of Supernova Music Festival massacre Shye Klein recounts his story to Winnipeg audience

By MYRON LOVE Growing up in democratic countries in Western society, we are fortunate to be able to go about our lives oblivious to potential danger. We go to sporting events, concerts, folk festivals confident that there is nothing to worry about and we can have a good time.
Such was the thinking for about 3,500 young Israelis who converged on Kibbutz Re’im, near the border with Gaza, on Saturday, October 7, for the Supernova Music Festival. In the early morning hours, their idyll was shattered by an onslaught of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists that resulted in the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history.
The number of victims who were murdered was more than 350. Among those who survived was young Canadian photographer Shye Klein – who was in Winnipeg on Monday, March 11as part of a speaking tour of Canada and the United States – to give eye-witness testimony of what he experienced and share his photos and videos of hat horrific day.
Klein’s presentation – in the Rady JCC gym – in front of about 300 people – was sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg,  Hillel, and the Asper Foundation. 
Prior to Klein’s testimony, those in attendance heard introductory remarks by Federation CEO Jeff Lieberman and Federation President Paula Parks, as well as StandWithUs Canada University of Manitoba representative Benjamin Margulets.   The speaker was introduced by University of Manitoba student Matthew Morry.
Originally from Toronto, the 26-year-old Klein made aliyah last April.  He noted that, initially, when his cousin Mordechai told him about the upcoming festival a few week s in advance, the idea of going didn’t appeal to him.
“Just thinking of the people crowding around the stage, the garbage, I wasn’t interested,” he recalled.
Mordechai asked hm again the day before though, and he changed his mind.  “I didn’t know many people in Israel, yet,” he said. “I thought this might be a good way to meet people.”
Klein’s small party of eight arrived at the location around 1:00 A.M. on the morning of the festival, and set up their tent.  “I had no idea how close we were to the Gaza border,” he noted.
 
So, while his cousin and friends were chilling and enjoying the scene, Klein grabbed his camera and began to mingle.   At this point in the presentation, he showed on screen all of the concert-goers whose photos he took throughout the night and early morning – talking a little bit about each one.
He also described the layout, small stages and main stage and the “marketplace”.
He added that, typical of such raves, the smell of drugs was omnipresent.
It was about daybreak – about 7:30 in the morning – when, he noted, people began getting messages on their cell phones about incoming missiles aimed at Tel Aviv, Petah Tikvah and elsewhere.

“The music was so loud that it muffled the sounds of explosions,” he recounted.  “While some people began packing up, the consensus still seemed to be that we were safe. There were no strategic targets anywhere around us.
“Then we start hearing gunfire. It didn’t sound like it was coming from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). Then explosions.  There was a lot of commotion.”
Klein’s party quickly got to their car. “Of the eight of us, only three were in shape to drive,” he recalled.  “Mordechai drove while I started videotaping what was happening.”
He recalled that there was pandemonium – with people fleeing – in their cars or on foot – in every direction.  Standing in front of a screen showing his video of his group’s frantic efforts to escape,  he described  bypassing a long line of cars and trucks by driving around through a farm field, when they approached an IDF checkpoint where they were advised to go no further in the direction they were driving and to stay in their car no matter what.
His videos showed cars along the side of the road to Tel Aviv pocked with bullet holes. Klein added that there were bodies in some of the cars and along the road.
“We were freaking out,” he said.  “At one point, we were approaching three guys dressed in black and wearing masks. We drove right by them. Thank goodness,. they didn’t shoot.
“As we were driving, we could see smoke from burning houses.”
The group made it safely to Tel Aviv by about 9:45.
“While we were safe, I didn’t know what happened to all the people I had met and taken pictures of at the music festival,” he noted.  “I had exchanged contact information with them so, over the next few weeks, I went about contacting them.”
Happily, he was able to report that almost all of them were safe.  As he had done earlier – showing the photos of his new friends and acquaintances from the festival, he again posted their pictures on the screen and briefly told their stories.  One young woman, for example, had found herself on one of the kibbutzim under attack and hid in a fridge for several hours until she was rescued. Others found safety in the nearby JNF forest until rescued by the IDF.
Five and a half months after that horrendous day, Klein observed, “many people in Israel aren’t doing so well, but we are doing the best we can. No one is alone.  There is also a greater sense of togetherness than there was before the war.”
He also reported that his friends in Israel encouraged him to share his photos and video with the world. As a result, he is currently on a speaking tour of North American Jewish communities.
He said that he is scheduled to return to Tel Aviv on May1.

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Congregants give new Etz Chayim building two thumbs up

By MYRON LOVE To borrow from the late movie reviewers Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, long time members are giving the new Etz Chayim building the two-thumbs up seal of approval.
“It’s beautiful,” says Brenda Keller who has been an Etz Chayim member – and the Rosh Pina before it – since 1990. “I love it,” the Garden City resident continues. I especially like what we did with the stained glass windows. The building has a nice, haimishe feel.”


Gary Jacobson concurs.   He also really likes how the stained glass windows from the old building have been incorporated into the new.  “The sanctuary is very nice,” observes the St. Vital resident, who has been a member  of the congregation since 2002 when the former Rosh Pina merged with the North End Beth Israel and Bnay Abraham congregation to form Etz Chayim.  “The acoustics and the lighting are both very good.”


The new Congregation Etz Chayim shul – at 1155 Wilkes in the south end – opened its doors at the beginning of March, culminating years of discussions about following our Jewish community’s demographic trends and moving south. Discussions even predating the 2002 merger of the three North end synagogues have been ongoing for several years about a move south.  The issue came to a head about 18 months ago.  Faced with a declining membership, a 70-plus year old (former Rosh Pina) building that needed a lot of work and had become too large for the existing membership combined with the fact that 70% of the members and 80% of the younger members lived south – the decision was finally made to take action.
“We just felt that it made more sense to put our money into buying a smaller, pre-existing building south and renovating it,” said Etz Chayim’s president, Avrom Charach, in an earlier interview.  “We were looking for a location within a ten minute drive from most of our members,” Charach reported.
The congregation was able to purchase just a building – a facility that had been the Khartum Shriners’ headquarters.   Etz Chayim sold their former building to an Eritrean Christian congregation.
The reconfigured new location – designed by leading architect and congregation member Ed Calnitsky – was originally supposed to have been re-opened in early December.  But, as often happens with construction projects and renovations, the best-laid plans rarely go off without some hiccups.
“Our new building feels very comfortable,” Charach says today. “And our acoustics are much better.”


The sanctuary can accommodate up to 350 people – about the same number as could be seated comfortable in the old building.  In the former building the sanctuary though could be doubled in size by removing the barrier that separated it from the auditorium. The 1155 Wilkes location doesn’t have an auditorium – but it does have a kiddush room large enough for 100 people. After Shabbat services, if necessary, the sanctuary can be rearranged for  additional  tables and food stations for Kiddush.
The kitchen, Charach points out, is smaller than the kitchen at 123 Matheson.  “We can still prepare kiddushes and provide for smaller functions with our caterer,” Charach notes.  “For larger simchas and programs,  we have an arrangement with our caterer, Lisa Odwak, who can prepare in a kosher kitchen and bring the food to the shul.”
Overall, Charach observes, the smaller facility is less expensive and easier to operate.
Outside, there is parking for up to 170 vehicles.
The synagogue membership stands at around 400 families, Charach reports.  “We have had a few more join over the past three months,” he says.    
He is happy to report that, for the first Shabbat, more than 200 were in attendance and, while the number was down considerably for the second Shabbat, it was still substantial.
“I think that we can look forward to about 100 daveners on Shabbat going forward,” Charach says.
He reports that two grand openings are in the plans – the first a Chanukat Habayit in early April where the new building will be officially dedicated – and a public opening later with government representatives and other dignitaries in attendance.  

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2024 Sol and Florence Kanee Lecture with Mike Fegelman of Honest Reporting

The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada is pleased to announce that our 2024 Sol and Florence Kanee Lecturer will be Mike Fegelman, Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Honest Reporting Canada. The lecture will be held at 7 pm on Sunday, April 7, 2024 at Adas-Yeshurun Herzlia Synagogue.

Our speaker, Mike Fegelman, is a seventeen-year veteran of the Canadian journalism industry, Mike is the Editor-in-Chief of HRC and is responsible for the day to day running of the organization, its financial management and project development. Mike’s focus is on delivering efficiency and professionalism as HRC moves into new technological and geographical spheres that include the expansion of Honest Reporting’s  media monitoring services to French Canada with the launch of a Montreal office.

Mike was a former editor-in-chief, reporter, and anchor of various news programs and publications. A graduate of Carleton University’s renowned journalism program, Mike specialized in broadcasting and international reporting. Mike brings a marketing savvy to HRC having been a project manager for the market research firm Canmark Technologies for over six years.

Mike has testified before parliamentary committees and has given testimony to the Standing Senate Committee for Transport and Communications to express HRC’s concerns about the CBC’s reporting of Israel and the Middle East. Mike’s opinions and views are widely sought out for by Canada’s media and political elite. Mike’s work has been published in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, La Presse, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and many more. Mike is a columnist for Huffington Post Canada and the Times of Israel.

In 2013, Shalom Life listed Mike as one of their Top 20 Under 40 due to his dedication and significant contributions to Israel advocacy. Mike is also the immediate past President of the Village Shul and Aish Hatorah Learning Centre.

The annual Sol and Florence Kanee Distinguished Lecture is the Jewish Heritage Centre’s only fundraising event. Tickets are $50 and are available at Eventbrite.ca

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