Local News
Yom Tov options still somewhat limited for those seeking in-person services despite government easing of Covid restrictions
By MYRON LOVE Last year, around this time, I began my annual report on upcoming High Holiday services with the observation that, while “our Provincial Government may have substantially eased restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 – Winnipeg synagogues are still taking a cautious approach to in-person Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur services.
The concensus appears to be limited numbers with requirements that all in attendance must be synagogue members, have had two vaccines and wear masks throughout.”
While the situation is somewhat improved this year, a variety of restrictions are still in place – athough differing from synagogue to synagogue.
That leaves few, if any options – other than following a service online – for the majority of members of our community. Congregation Etz Chayim, for example, is planning for between 350 and 375 in-person worshippers – about one-third of capacity – as compared to 50 people in attendance for each of the two days of Rosh Hashanah last year and 100 for Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur.
This year, too, junior congregation and family services are back, reports Jonathan Buchwald, Etz Chayim’s executive director, as well as the in-person choir.
Of course, for the third year in a row, worshippers can follow the service online – an option that is appealing to a growing number of people. Last year, Buchwald estimates that close to 200 screens were watching the service, including many from out of town. “This would translate into about 500-600 people watching our services at any given time,” he noted. “Congregants were also able to offer special readings live via Zoom.”
He adds that while the popular Rose Family Service – a staple of High Holiday services which had been led by Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose for many years in the synagogue’s lower level – was available online last year, the service will not be taking place this year. Buchwald says that he is hopeful that the Roses might resume offering the alternative service next year.
As for Covid restrictions, it will be the same as last year – masks and proof of vaccination required.
Etz Chayim is our community’s second largest congregation and the largest by far in the North End.
The Chevra Mishnayes Synagogue, North Winnipeg’s only other Conservative congregation, will again be limiting numbers for the High Holidays – although, as with last year – family members will be able to sit together… and masks will be compulsory.
“We did reasonably well last year, all things considered,” says Chevra Mishnayes President Rob Waldman. “We understand that people are still cautious.”
Once again, Chevra Mishnayes High holiday services will be led by Al Benarroch.
Last year, The shul’s president, Gary Minuk,, reported that about 30 men and a few women were in attendance for Yom Tov services. He estimates that the number will be much the same this year.
(Incidentally, the Ashkenazie still has morning services Mondays and Thursdays year round.)
In contrast to the Ashkenazie’s Covid precautions, south Winnipeg’s Orthodox congregation, Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Congregation will require High Holiday worshippers to be up-to-date with their vaccinations, but the wearing of a mask will be a matter of personal choice. Unlike last year, though, there will be no limit on the number of people who can attend for the High Holidays.
“Our capacity is about 300,” reports congregation president Jack Craven. “We are expecting to have normal services.”
Speaking for the Lubavitch Centre, south Winnipeg’s other Orthodox shul, Rabbi Boruch Heidingsfeld reports that the synagogue will not be requiring masks or vaccines for those wanting to attend. “We are following provincial health guidelines,” he says.
The Lubavitch Centre also doesn’t charge to attend services.
Heidingsfeld reports that capacity is between 200 and 300.
Temple Shalom, our community’s only Reform Congregation, is also requiring worshippers in attendance at the High Holidays to be vaccinated and masked.
“Some of our members are still hesitant,” Congregation president Ruth Livingston reports.
“We have already had a number of people who have called the office about purchasing seats for Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur,” she adds.
She notes that members are not required to pay extra for High Holiday seating.
Seating capacity is about 200.
Livingston points out that while there will be no choir this year, there will be three chazans involved in leading services. Readers can also choose to follow the services online. Rabbi Allan Finkel, the congregation’s spiritual leader (who is soon to be retiring) reported in an interview last year that up to 600 people followed the Temple’s online 2021 High holiday services.
As for Shaarey Zedek Congregation – our community’s largest congregation – most readers will be aware that the congregation has embarked on a major expansion project and that regular services have been moved to Temple Shalom while Yom Tov services are scheduled to be held at the Campus. Just recently Shaarey Zedek members were informed that high holiday services will be held in the Berney Theatre, which holds 200 people. There will be two sessions each day of the holidays, as was the custom years ago when there were too many people to be accomodated in one session alone. As with last year though, all members of the community are welcome to participate online. There will be no charge and no tickets or passwords will be needed. The machzorim will be digital, the aliyot virtual and viewers will be able to chat online with other viewers.
There remains one more option for those seeking to attend a High Holiday service. After a two year absence, Camp Massad is resuming its innovative Rosh Hashonah service. Daniel Sprintz, the camp’s executive director, is pleased to announce that Massad will be hosting its usual Rosh Hashonah program on the second day.
“We offer a creative and interactive service that combines some traditional prayers with contemporary readings, folk music and our usual Camp Massad ‘shtick’,” Sprintz says. “Our services will be followed by a kosher lunch and Tashlich at the Lake.”
Sprintz notes that past Rosh Hashonahs at Massad have attracted as many as 150 participants, “We are hoping to have 100 or more for this year,” he says. “It depends on people’s comfort levels.”
Registration deadline (massad.ca) is September 19.
Yom Tov this year begins on Monday, September 28, in the evening.
Wishing all readers a sweet new year.
The only other North End synagogue offering High Holiday services this year will be the Orthodox House of Ashkenazie – which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2022. Whereas last year, the synagogue board required that all who were thinking of attending must be vaccinated, while masks were optional – although highly recommended, this year, masks are required but not vaccinations.
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.
