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
Nakba exhbit at CMHR now open – here’s what it looks like
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26)The following press release was sent to me early Friday morning June 26 (Photos supplied by Annie Kierans, CMHR) Nothing that follows has been edited. I leave it to you to form your own opinion:
Winnipeg, MB — June 26, 2026 — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit tomorrow that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians.
Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will be on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028. Featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.
Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contribute to our visitors understanding of human rights and help the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.
Exhibition highlights
Personal stories and artifacts: Experience firsthand accounts from Palestinian Canadians sharing their journeys of displacement and memory through a series of five artifacts. Cases display artifacts like property deeds, house keys, and a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, accompanied by short videos that deepen understanding of the impacts of displacement.
Powerful artworks: In her painting Bound Together in Gaza, Malak Mattar, a Gazan artist, captures the struggles and resilience of her generation shaped by conflict. Her work pays homage to Guernica, Picasso’s powerful masterpiece depicting civilian suffering during war.
Curfews and Closures, by Rajie Cook, bears witness to life under military occupation during the 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising, when curfews and closures were expanded and further limited basic rights and freedoms.
Cultural heritage: Discover traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. Tatreez motifs and colours are tied to place, family history and regional identity. Patterns are associated with particular towns, villages or areas of Palestine. In this way, tatreez is a form of storytelling: a way of preserving memory, sustaining identity and expressing resilience across displacement and exile.
Poetry and reflection: Engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s evocative verses, inspiring personal reflection on exile, voice, and responsibility. Visitors can take a card containing Darwish’s poem and add a personal note, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the exhibit.
Contemporary context: Witness striking images of current events in Gaza and the West Bank, connecting past displacement to ongoing struggles.
Quotes:
“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories. And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.” -Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian featured in the exhibit
“We developed this exhibit with a clear awareness that Palestinian Canadian voices have too often been marginalized, silenced or spoken over — and that anti-Palestinian racism affects whose stories are heard and whose suffering is recognized. That is why we intentionally centred Palestinian Canadian voices throughout the exhibit.” -Isabelle Masson, Curator of Palestine Uprooted
“Human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient, when the question of who deserves the dignity of having their rights recognized is genuinely contested. These are the moments where having a national museum for human rights is most important.
There are people who believe this exhibit should not exist in its current form. There are people who believe it should have existed sooner. There are people who will visit this exhibit and feel that it does not say enough, and others who will feel it says too much.
We have listened to every one of these voices. We have reflected. And we have renewed our resolve to continue the difficult, sometimes contested, and often controversial work of building understanding about human rights. We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
- – Isha Khan, CEO
Local News
Nakba exhibit at human rights museum set to open despite mounting criticism
By NOAH STRAUSS (posted June 25) The Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit is scheduled to open this Saturday, June 27, despite growing criticism and calls for it to be delayed or revised. The exhibit has sparked public debate in Winnipeg and beyond regarding how it presents the history surrounding the creation of the State of Israel.
Earlier this week, Mark Berlin resigned from the museum’s board. In his resignation letter, he expressed concern that the exhibit presents a one-sided narrative and does not adequately address the experiences of Jewish communities affected by the events surrounding Israel’s independence.
The Nakba, an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1947–1949 conflict that followed the creation of the State of Israel. Critics of the exhibit argue that it focuses primarily on Palestinian displacement without sufficiently acknowledging the broader regional consequences of the period.
Some Jewish advocacy groups also point to the experiences of Jews who left or were expelled from several Arab and Muslim-majority countries in the decades surrounding Israel’s creation. Estimates suggest that between 850,000 and 950,000 Jews left or were displaced from countries including Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, under a range of circumstances including persecution, expulsion, and confiscation of property.
In his resignation letter, Berlin, a faculty member at McGill University specializing in human rights law, wrote, “Telling the story with a one-sided perspective chosen by the museum serves to deepen division and contributes to further hostility toward Jews in Canada.”
Following his resignation, CIJA President Noah Shack released a statement saying, “The resignation of the museum’s only Jewish board member is a clear indictment of the museum’s handling of the controversial ‘Nakba’ exhibit.”
The exhibit’s VIP opening is expected to include invitations to representatives from all three levels of government. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham had initially been invited but later declined following discussions with representatives from the Jewish community, including CIJA Manitoba Vice President Gustavo Zentner and Jeff Lieberman, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.
Members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community are also planning a peaceful rally outside the museum on Friday at 5 p.m., according to organizers.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is expected to release a formal statement ahead of the exhibit’s opening.
(added June 26) To see interviews that Bernie Bellan conducted with Isabelle Masson, curator of the “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg and Isha Khan, CEO, CMHR about the exhibit go to curator of exhibit and CEO interviewed
Local News
Jewish Child and Family Service helped over 1800 families in 2025
By BERNIE BELLAN Jewish Child and Family Service will be entering the 75th year of its existence in 2027.
With a budget over $4,300,000, JCFS is also the largest beneficiary of funding from the Jewish Federation of the 12 Winnipeg Jewish community agencies that are beneficiaries of the Federation. (To see a list of the 12 agencies go to Funding for Beneficiary Agencies.)
Its impact has grown over the years as JCFS has expanded its horizon, continually adding to the many services it provides. During the JCFS’s Annual General Meeting, held in the Seniors’ Lounge of the Asper Campus on Tuesday evening, June 23, the important role that JCFS plays in the lives of so many members of the Jewish community – also a significant number of non-Jews as well, various speakers cited the many ways in which JCFS has continued to have such a huge impact.
With total revenues of $4,325,160 in fiscal year 2025 (which ended March 31, 2026), but slightly fewer expenses, JCFS not only delivered a wide gamut of services, it managed to deliver those services without incurring a deficit in 2025, despite some significant financial challenges.
As outgoing Board Chair Elana Grinshteyn observed, JCFS had to navigate some major reductions in funding, including a cut in funding from the federal government to the tune of $100,000, plus the loss of funding from the Claims Conference, which had provided support for Holocaust survivors.
Yet, despite those setbacks in funding, Grinshtein reported, “Together, we insured that services remained intact.
“We increased access to interest free loans,” she noted, “doubling” the amount that had been allocated in 2024.
And, amidst the ever-increasing demand for services, “JCFS has continued to navigate space limitations,” Grinshteyn noted. (I should note that as far back as 2019 I reported in an interview I had conducted with JCFS CEO Al Benarroch about the JCFS’s dire need for more space. Here is an excerpt from what Benarroch had to say about the JCFS’s need for more room back in 2019: “…we’ve been looking for roughly 3,000 more square feet of space. We have a footprint right now of roughly 5,000 square feet for over 40 staff. We’ve given up a board room here. It’s been taken over by older adult service staff. We have a conference room which is adjacent to the board room; we’ve moved two staff in there.
“Yesterday I gave up my office for the entire morning so that staff could interview clients.
“We need to relieve the pressure we’re facing right now – yet alone plan for expanding and growing.
“Whatever space we’d be looking at would be temporary. It’s now 22 years that we’ve been in this facility. The campus has taken over squash courts, it’s taken over a museum – internally, to accommodate the growth in services. Maybe it’s time now to look at growing outside this building…”
As the saying goes: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (That’s me, trying to impress.)
While I tried to take notes during Al Benarroch’s CEO report, I realized following his remarks that there was so much important information conveyed, also a slew of statistics, that it might be more helpful to reprint a good portion of what he said verbatim, so I asked Al to send me a copy of his remarks. (That’s one of the nice things about writing on a website. There’s an infinite amount of room to print the kind of stuff that nerds like me pretend to read.)
During his CEO’s report, Benarroch enumerated the many challenges JCFS encountered in 2025.
Among those challenges, Benarroch noted, were:
• The rising and high cost of living
• Food insecurity
• Housing issues
• Our aging population demographics
• The complex needs of our newcomer families
• The increasingly complex needs in mental health & youth mental health
Yet, despite all those challenges, Benarroch said, “As always… we rose to meet those head on, and with the support of our community.”
In particular, Benarroch cited the support of the Jewish Federation, which contributed $948,800 to JCFS in 2025. (The largest portion of JCFS funding, by the way came from the Province: over $1,100,000.)
Fundraising also played a significant role in contributing to JCFS revenues, with almost $700,000 raised through that route, including direct donations of over $320,000 and bequests over $40,000.
As Benarroch noted, “Every year, we look forward with hope that it will be a quiet year.
“Well, if that’s the case, we are in the wrong business.
“We happen to be in the reflect, respond and pivot business.
“This is the nature of the human existence.”
Benarroch went on to add some more statistics about how JCFS played such a pivotal role in the lives of so many people. In 2025 JCFS:
• Served 1,800 client households – impacting almost 5,000 people.
• Assisted 15 foster children.
• Served 70 families in Child Welfare….
“But what is even more important is that we assisted 90 children that remained at home with their families,” Benarroch said.
The year 2025 also saw the inauguration of what is known as the “Asper Empowerment Program”, through which:
• 311 clients were assisted (including Passover Assistance)
• $80,000 was disbursed in financial assistance
• Over $20,000 was given out in interest-free loans.
• 6,500 kg of food were disbursed
In the area of mental health and counselling services, Benarroch noted that JCFS:
• Supported over 50 adults with mental health challenges
• Our Friday Mental Health Wellness Group participants took part in 22 group activities or outings
• We support some 20 individuals and families impacted by addictions through individual and group services.
• We delivered almost 1,100 counselling sessions, over half of which were subsidized on our sliding scale.
• We continued to support individuals, families, and partner Jewish organizations with the ongoing emotional impacts of the war in Israel and high levels of global antisemitism.
In the area of support for older adults, JCFS served over 250 seniors including:
• 70 newcomer seniors
• 50 seniors living with mental health differences
• 65 Holocaust Survivors (including celebrating “25 years of our Holocaust Survivor Drop-in Group, a partnership with the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.”)
In the area of settlement services, JCFS:
• Welcomed almost 80 new families
• Almost 50 families from Israel, seeking reprieve from the ongoing stresses and pressures of the war.
Benarroch noted that “These families are dealing with the deep trauma of displacement, having lived under constant stress, fear and the ensuing post-traumatic impact, family and parenting challenges as a result, emotional exhaustion, financial strain, and more.
“Thanks to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, we hired a trained specialized support worker, with a background in therapy, to help these families cope, adjust, and receive much needed emotional supports.”
Benarroch went on to describe many more initiatives in which JCFS was engaged in 2025, but I want to return to the retirement of Elena Grinshteyn from the Board of JCFS after nine years serving on the Board, including the last two as Chair. Grinshteyn will be succeed by Bradley Abells, who has been on the Board since 2021. In his remarks, Abells noted that he is an actuary at Canada Life and that he first joined the Board when his particular expertise as an actuary proved extremely helpful in helping to solve a problem that had arisen, and he found the experience so rewarding he decided to remain on the Board ever since .
Also on the Board is Michael Schacter, who is returning as Treasurer and who looks the way you’d expect a finance guy to look.
