Local News
Young Israeli-born artist Mishelle Aminov Kosonovsky thriving in new community
By MYRON LOVE Although she has only been in Winnipeg for five years, young Israeli-born artist Mishelle Aminov Kosonovsky has already drawn much positive attention in local art circles.
Both in 2022 and 2023, she was awarded the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s Mona Gray Creative Arts Scholarship toward her studies at the University of Manitoba in the Fine Arts program.
This past spring, her work was shown alongside her fellow Fine Arts grads in an exhibit sponsored by the Winnipeg Arts Council.
Last month, she began a year-long mentorship program – under the aegis of the Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA) collective – for budding female artists.
And, later this month, Aminov Kosonovsky will be one of seven local Jewish artists – including Yael Freifeld, Etel Shevelev, Halley Ritter and Shan Pullan (all of whom, along with Aminov Kosonovsky, work together under a collective called Rimon) along with longer established artist Elena El and newly emerging artist Joel Novek – featured as part of the Rady Centre’s first annual JFest celebration of Jewish culture and the arts.
“This is the second year that we are hosting an art exhibit,” notes Shira Newman, the Rady Centre’s co-ordinator of Arts and Older Adult programming. “We did this on a smaller scale last year. This year, we are featuring more artists who have come to Winnipeg from all over the world. We have some really gifted artists in our community.”
The art exhibit – “Glowing Embers: New Works by Manitoba Jewish Artists” – will kick off with an opening reception – on Saturday, October 26, from 7:00-8:00 – in the Adult Lounge – which will be transformed into an art gallery for the duration of the exhibit. The exhibit will be open at different times during the next few days – so check the schedule before you come.
(JFest, which runs from October 27 to November 7, will also have a musical component and a children’s program.)
Mishelle Aminov Kosonovsky was born in Israel and grew up in Petah Tikvah. She notes that he parents were originally from Uzbekistan in central Asia.
“I speak Russian, Hebrew and English,” she says.
Aminov Kosonovsky credits her interest in art to her zaida’s encouragement when she was quite young. “He was a picture framer,” she recalls. “He brought me art supplies and let me work with him on some of his projects. He actually gathered materials for me from scraps which we repurposed to create doll houses, miniature furniture, puppets. clocks and more.”
While still in Israel, the young artist was included in a couple of group exhibits and was featured in one solo show.
Aminov Kosonovsky notes that her parents came to Winnipeg first. She followed after completing her national service, which she did by doing art therapy – as an educational assistant – at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel in Petah Tikvah.
On arriving in Winnipeg, she enrolled at the University of Manitoba in the Fine Arts program. Her acceptance into the MAWA mentorship program was the next step in her evolution as an artist.
The artist-run centre was founded in 1984 to “encourage and support the intellectual and creative development of women in the visual arts by providing an ongoing forum for education and critical dialogue.” Its Foundation Mentorship Program (FMP) is a professional training program designed to help women and gender diverse people in the visual arts develop skills and define their decision-making philosophies by providing information, resources and support. In this year-long professional training program, established artists (mentors) meet individually with their mentees for 4 hours per month to share their experience, expertise and advice. The entire FMP group meets for 3 hours each month for critiques, discussion, gallery visits and other activities.
“I am excited to have Bonnie Marin, my first professor at university here, as my mentor,” Aminov Kosonofsky notes. “Under her guidance, I am experimenting more with collages and print making.”
As part of the upcoming JFest activities, Aminov Kosonofsky and her sister artists who comprise the Rimon Art Collective will be leading a print-making workshop – with the theme of “home” on Monday, October 28, at 7:00 P.M.
Rimon means “pomegranate” in Hebrew. The Rimon Art Collective artists are a diverse group of young Jewish artists who “have come together for both creativity and comfort as a supportive family seeking refuge in the transformative powers of art and community”.
“Yael (Freifeld), Shan (Pullan) and I formed Rimon about 10 months ago,” Aminov Kosonovsky reports. “We met at university. We had come to realize that the art world is not accepting of Jewish artists and that there was a need to create an environment where we could comfortably talk about our artistic vision with others who understand our perspective.”
Last spring, the Collective was featured in a group exhibition – under the theme of Kabbalat Shalom – at the Pembina Hills Arts Council building in Morden.
“We hope to have more shows in the future,” Aminov Kosonovsky notes.
She has also developed an interest in fibre art. “Fibre art, with its emphasis on sensory motion activities, is particularly helpful in working with people dealing with trauma,” she notes.
In addition to her work as an artist, Aminov Kosonovsky is also working toward a degree in Art Therapy – building on her experiences in Israel. She is currently enrolled in a two-year online program at Kutenai College in Nelson, B.C.
A few months ago, Aminov Kosonofsky and her Israeli-born fiancé Vladimir –whom she met at university – moved to a rural property in the community of Lorette, outside of Winnipeg.
“I have always loved the outdoors,” she says. “I enjoy taking long walks in the field. “I also like horses. In Israel, I was involved in show jumping competitions. I hope to one day have a horse here as well.”
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR – you can see it right here and make your own assessment
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26, updated July 19) The Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Exhibit for Human Rights opened to the public June 27. The morning before the exhibit was set to open to the public, (it had a private opening for invited guests the evening of June 26) we received a press release from the CMHR. That press release gave a very detailed description of what was in the exhibit, along with photos (supplied by Annie Kierans of the CMHR).
There is also a link right at the beginning of the press release that will allow you to watch the same videos that anyone attending the exhibit can watch. We reprinted what was sent to us without making one edit. We leave it to you to form your own opinion as to whether the exhibit is fair in its presentation, and whether it is lacking “context” – which is an accusation that has been levelled at the exhibit’s organizers by some representatives of Jewish organizations.
We have received many emails in reaction to the exhibit. If you have an opinion and would like to see it published on this website, you can send it to jewishp@mymts.net, but please indicate whether you would be willing to have it published on this website.
Here is what we received the morning of June 26:
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
A photo that’s being circulated on the internet about me
For those of you not familiar with nutjob Michael Kalo – the psycho who created the notorious “$hitler’s List” years ago and the same psycho who went after Ben Carr, well – now he’s obviously taken a strong disliking to the stance I’ve taken on the Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. (You can read elsewhere on this website how I simply posted the entire exhibit as it is – and asked readers to form their own opinions.)
Kalo likes to send out emails to various individual using phony names – such as Frank Ostrowski. When people ask me (or asked Ben Carr) why we don’t take action against him, my answer is: What’s the use? He only basks in the attention.
So Michael – enjoy the attention you’re receiving. I know how much of an embarrassment you are to your wonderfully talented daughters.
Local News
Ami Hassan returning as owner of Falafel Place
By BERNIE BELLAN In a surprise move – and after more than a six-year absence as owner of Falafel Place (Corydon at Wilton) the legendary Ami Hassan has decided to return as owner of one of Winnipeg’s most famous eateries.
Long known for his sometimes irreverent attitude to his customers, e.g., “If you’re finished, get out!”, Ami decided to return to running Falafel Place after having retired years ago (or so he thought) from running the Corydon Avenue restaurant.
We asked Ami whether he’ll be sending a special invitation to Julia Roberts to come visit him at Falafel Place. He asked again: “Who’s Julia Roberts?” (Just kidding – he really does know how Julia Roberts is.) Read the story how Ami told her to leave the restaurant and come back later at Julia Roberts turned away from Falafel Place
Ami did note that when customers saw him inside the restaurant one recent day as he was getting it ready for the reopening Monday, August 10, over 20 of them came in asking him if he was open already.
We asked Ami whether the menu will be the same as it was when he last ran the place and he said everything will be the same.
Falafel Place will be open 7 days a week from 7 am – 2 pm. Remember, if you’re finished – get out!
