Features
Anita Jacobson: The return of the native (sort of)
By GERRY POSNER Flexibility is an important quality as chiropractor Martin Gurvey (about whom you can read at http://www.jewishpostandnews.ca/8-features/836-martin-gurvey-a-very-flexible-guy) has demonstrated, but then in another related way, so has Anita Jacobson. You might say that Anita is to Occupational Therapy as Martin is to Chiropractry.
Anita has had, as has Martin, careers in both Manitoba and Ontario and, in both cases, has had considerable success in her chosen profession. As well, aside from her work, Anita Jacobson can make a claim that very few, if any, ex -Winnipeggers can make – more on that later.
Anita is the daughter of Bill Bulstein and Ida Cristall. Her origins are legitimately north end Winnipeg. They include going to Winnipeg Beach every summer, BB Camp and volunteer work at the Logan Neighbourhood House. It was there that she developed her social conscience and, as she says “the learning of the use of self as a therapeutic tool in treating people.”
Anita chose to enter the Faculty of Occupational Therapy in its second year of life at the University of Manitoba. Upon graduation, she entered the work force and her career, over a span of over 45 years, took off. Jacobson can rightfully say that she has risen to the top in her chosen field. And if she won’t say it, I will.
Following her obtaining a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy degree, then a Master’s Degree in Health Education from the University of Manitoba, Anita was invited to be a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Medical Rehabilitation at the University of Manitob,a which she did for eight years. Later, Anita was a lecturer in the Department of Rehabilitation at the University of Toronto. Along the way, she received awards from the Y.W.C.A. in 1983 and 1984 as Manitoba Woman of the Year.
In the management category, Anita earned her honours with a serious devotion to her work, starting with 23 years from 1964-1987 at the Health Sciences Centre as a clinician in Mental Health and ending as the Director in the Occupational Therapy Department – covering four separate hospitals. Giving all of that up and moving to Toronto in 1987 was a major decision for Anita, who took her three children, Perry, Darryl and Lori with her at a time when they were all quite happy in Winnipeg.
Anita came to Toronto cold, seeking more challenges, really knowing no one except a sister who lived there. No matter how you slice it, this was a bold move, yet Anita carved out a career and life for herself and kids that was both enriching and satisfying.
Anita’s professional work in Toronto has been extensive and varied. She has been a consultant on several occasions to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care at Toronto East General Hospital, St. John’s Rehab Hospital and St. Elizabeth Health Care. She was also involved with the Women’s College Hospital and at the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington.
Possibly her most important position was as the Practice Resource Liaison of the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario ( COTO), the regulatory body of the profession. Her positions as Director of Services in the areas of hospital, community and in-home services prepared her for this position. In that capacity she was responsible for writing and developing standards and regulatory policies for Ontario occupational therapists as well as providing advice to the public and OTS on regulatory practice issues.
On top of all of that, Anita has volunteered her time and energy right from her days in Winnipeg. Some readers might remember Anita as mayor of the Israel Pavilion at Folklorama in 1983 and 1984. Anita even had her daughter Lori selling bagels on a stick at the age of four at Folklorama. Anita also has had volunteer experience with the Canadian Mental Health Association, Skills Unlimited and the Mental Health Programme Services in Toronto. In each of those roles, she served on the Boards of Directors.
With all that Anita has achieved in her professional life, Anita is quite clear in her gratitude to the Health Sciences Centre, where she she found openness among various disciplines working together in innovative treatment models. She says, “As a teaching hospital, there were students from the diverse disciplines who worked with the range of staff and we learned from each other… We have to thank Drs. Harry Prosen, Bill Bebchuk, Chiefs of the Department of Psychiatry, and the psychiatrists who valued the skills and contribution of the multidisciplinary staff and who promoted teamwork.”
Now, I mentioned Anita has yet another claim to another unusual kind of fame. It’s true that she moved away with her children at a critical time in their lives. Both sons, Perry and Darryl, completed B.Sc. degrees at the University of Toronto, with Perry graduating in medicine and Darryl in law in Manitoba and both ending up earning M.B.A.’s from Western University in London, Ontario. How rare is that?
Even more unusual is that Anita’s daughter Lori made just as big a decision as her mother did in 1987 when Lori chose a few years ago, following her obtaining a B.A. at York University, to return to Winnipeg as a full time resident. It is in Winnipeg where Lori works as a manager in Human Resources. Do you suppose it was the selling of bagels at age four that drew her back? You could argue that Lori’s return to Winnipeg was a form of pay back from Anita to the city of her roots. Whatever the cause, Lori’s presence in Winnipeg is just another key reason for Anita to make trips (when it becomes feasible) to the city and to renew her many friendships there.
Features
Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw: Preserving Memory, Honoring History
Auschwitz is one of the most powerful symbols of the Holocaust and its lessons are as current as ever. As the world prepares for International Holocaust Day the need to remember and educate becomes even more urgent.
At Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw, our mission is to help you connect with this dark chapter in history. We offer guided tours to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Warsaw and Krakow so you can visit the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp where over a million innocent lives were taken.
Why Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw?
A visit to Auschwitz is an emotional experience and we want you to get the most out of it. Our guides will walk you through the historical context, tell you stories of those who suffered, resisted, and in some cases survived. With respect and sensitivity, we will share the history that can’t be forgotten.
We offer full day tours from both Warsaw and Krakow so you can visit Auschwitz whether you’re coming from Poland’s capital or its cultural hub. Our tours include comfortable round trip transportation so you can focus on the experience without worrying about the logistics.
Extra Educational Content
Apart from the day trips, Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw also provides a lot of educational content about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Our website is a resource for learning with articles and materials about Auschwitz’s history, World War II, and the long-term impact of the Holocaust.
For those who can’t visit in person, these materials are a window into this dark period of human history so the lessons of the Holocaust are available to everyone.
Honoring the Past on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th is a global moment of remembrance. It’s a day to remember the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
It’s not just about the victims of the Nazi regime but about learning from history so we never repeat the mistakes.
January 27th is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, a day of unimaginable suffering but also of survival. The site itself is closed on this day for commemoration, but it’s a place of great importance for those who want to reflect on what happened here.
Although the gates are closed to visitors on January 26 and 27, it’s a day of personal reflection and remembrance for those who have passed away.
But on January 27th, a special area will be open for those who want to mark this solemn day on the grounds of the Memorial. This is a unique opportunity to reflect and remember in silence, on the very ground where so many lives were lost.
If you can’t visit Auschwitz today, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is still a chance to connect with the stories of survivors and victims. It’s a day to educate ourselves and others, not just about the past but about the present need to face hatred, intolerance, and anti-Semitism in all its forms.
If you’d like to learn more about our tours or explore our educational content, visit us at auschwitztoursfromwarsaw.com. Join us in remembering the past and keeping the message of “Never Again” alive.
Features
The Hurdles Facing Egyptian Intellectuals
By HENRY SREBRNIK In the twentieth century, many middle-class Egyptians adopted a cosmopolitan cultural style. They wanted to move the country toward a more liberal and secular state.
But they always came up against, and were unable to surmount, the strength of a very strong Islamic religious culture. In despair, some, despite their own preferences, ended up preferring autocracy to what they considered a backward and dangerous ideology.
In 1952, a revolution brought the Free Officers movement, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, to power. It seemed to have brought a secular quasi-socialist regime to power.
But the undercurrents of politicized religion, though banned by Nasser, did not disappear. The Muslim Brotherhood, which had been founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna and preached a fundamentalist Islamism guarded exclusively by the sharia, was outlawed. Its most prominent theoretician, Sayyid Ibrahim Qutb, was executed in 1966.
But secular movements fell from favour following Egypt’s defeat by Israel in 1967, and the country was transformed into an autocracy following Nasser’s death three years later. From 1981 until 2011, Egypt was ruled with an iron hand by Hosni Mubarak, until popular unrest forced him to step down during the Arab Spring.
Would this herald a new, democratic chapter in Egypt? Would free elections bring about a rebirth of secular politics? The answer was no.
Mubarak’s ouster cleared the way for the Muslim Brotherhood to participate openly in Egyptian politics, and to that end the group formed the Freedom and Justice Party. In April 2012 the party selected Mohamed Morsi to be its candidate in Egypt’s presidential election. Morsi defeated Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister under Mubarak, that June.
Morsi soon issued an edict declaring that his authority as president would not be subject to judicial oversight until a permanent constitution came into effect. Although he defended the edict as a necessary measure to protect Egypt’s transition to democracy, mass demonstrations were held against what many saw as a seizure of dictatorial powers.
Worsening economic conditions, deteriorating public services, and a string of sectarian incidents, including attacks on the country’s Coptic Christian minority, strengthened opposition to Morsi’s rule. Clashes between Morsi’s supporters and critics in late June 2013 culminated in massive anti-Morsi protests around the country.
On July 3 the military under the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, removed Morsi from power. A figurehead president, Adly Mansour, was installed, but it was clear that Sisi, who retained the title of defence minister, wielded power.
Sisi claimed that the military had carried out the will of the Egyptian people, as expressed in the anti-Morsi protests, and that the Islamist-dominated administration led by Morsi had put the Muslim Brotherhood’s interests before those of the country.
A month later the Egyptian police and armed forces committed what Human Rights Watch deemed “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”
Eleven years on, the murder of over 1,000 supporters of the deposed president, known as the Rabaa Massacre, has gone largely unpunished. The Muslim Brotherhood was formally outlawed that September and Morsi was jailed. Prison conditions were harsh, and he was denied adequate medical attention. He died in 2019.
Sisi officially left the military to run for president and was elected in a clearly fraudulent manner in May 2014. He has been re-elected twice since, in March 2018 and again in December 2023, when he was reported to have won with 89.6 per cent of the vote after several opposition figures were prevented from participating. Under his reign, Egypt has degenerated into a police state even more repressive than the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.
Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, Egypt’s pro-democracy and civil society movements jettisoned their long-standing commitments to human rights and the rule of law and enthusiastically supported the return of military rule.
One of those civil society leaders, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, was among Egypt’s most influential intellectual figures. He had spent his career insisting that democracy is the solution both to political authoritarianism and to the allures of religious fundamentalism in the Arab world.
Pushing back against the prevailing view that Islamist groups must be marginalized, he argued that they should be included in the democratic process. He even went so far as to advocate, in an article titled “Toward Muslim Democracies,” that “it will be better for us as democrats, for the Islamists, and for Egypt to enlist Islamists under the flag of democracy.”
He encouraged Egyptians to support this vision and put aside common fears about Islamist movements and had been arrested for his views under Mubarak. Yet even he abruptly became an apologist for authoritarian rule.
The “problem” was that the bulk of the Egyptian masses were unwilling to part with their religious traditions or wholly consign them to the realm of the private. Put another way, if most Egyptians were given the choice between being liberal or being Muslim, they would overwhelmingly select the latter.
Faced with that reality, these intellectuals forged authoritarian alliances to forcibly impose their worldview on an otherwise unwilling populace. When Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were in actual control of the state rather than at its fringes, the liberal secularists chose authoritarian rule. This is the same tragedy found in most of the Arab world.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
Tafsik: Canadian organization created in wake of October 7 has played leading role in combating anti-Israel hatred
By BERNIE BELLAN It was prior to an event featuring Col. John Spencer speaking here on September 11 that we first became of something called “Tafsik.” We had received an email from whatever Tafsik was, inviting us to attend the Spencer event, but there was absolutely no information contained within that email explaining what Tafsik was.
Then, at the actual event, there was the logo for Tafsik emblazoned on a screen overlooking the stage at the Berney Theatre where Spencer spoke. Granted, there were logos for other organizations as well, but the Tafsik logo was larger than any of the others.
We were intrigued by the notion that an organization about which we knew nothing had been involved in bringing a notable expert on urban warfare to our city – and who has established a fierce reputation as a defender of the Israel Defence Forces, so we contacted Adam Levy, Publlc Relations and Communications Director for the Jewish Federation, to ask him whether he knew anything about Tafsik?
Adam said he didn’t and referred us to the organization’s website.
When we sent an email to Tafsik directly, asking who was behind them and what they were all about, we received a rather generic reply containing information that was already available on its website, but which left us even more intrigued as to who was behind it:
“Tafsik organization emerged resolutely from the tragedy of October 7th, dedicated to combating Jew Hatred in Canada and beyond. By forging alliances with diverse communities—including Iranian, Indian, Christian, Yazidi, Venezuelan, and many other groups—Tafsik is uniting voices against Jew hatred on a global scale. The organization hosts significant events featuring prominent figures such as Douglas Murray, Gad Saad, Hillel Fuld, and Colonel John Spencer, to illuminate the challenges faced by Israel and the Jewish community worldwide. Additionally, Tafsik is leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to combat Jew Hate more effectively. As one of the fastest-growing grassroots organizations in Canada, Tafsik is committed to fostering understanding and solidarity in the fight against hatred.”
Then, on September 30, we received yet another email from Tafsik, this time advertising the upcoming appearance in Winnipeg (on October 22) of well-known Columbia professor Shai Davidai.
If you don’t know who Shai Davidai is, he came to prominence soon after October 7 last year when Columbia University in New York City became a hotbed of antisemitism, where Jewish students and professors alike were being intimidated into silence – and fear for their physical safety, by fiercely antisemitic mobs that were being allowed to run rampant on that university’s campus.
A Youtube video appeared of Davidai speaking to Jewish students at Columbia, in which he spoke quite emotionally about how “unsafe” he felt at Columbia – and it quickly went viral. (You can watch that video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPVe2CsBqmM or simply by entering “Shai Davidai” in the Youtube search bar.)
So – two well-known speakers – John Spencer and Shai Davidai, both sponsored by an organization called Tafsik – about which we still knew very little. We were determined to find out who was behind Tafsik. We sent yet another email to the organization, but this time we were rewarded with a very expansive reply – this time from the organization’s founder directly, someone by the name of Amir Epstein.
Here is what Epstein wrote to us, in response to our suggestion that the original email we had received from Tafsik explaining what the organization wall all about was rather generic in its content:
“I apologize for the ‘generic’ explanation as to what Tafsik Organization is all about and our accomplishments. I hope my overview below satisfies any curiosity and questions you may have. I’m always happy to answer any specific questions I didn’t touch on.
“I cofounded Tafsik Organization after October 7th in response to the complicity I witnessed in the communities I have dedicated my life to defending. Suddenly, our community found itself isolated. I recognized that the rise of antisemitism in Canada had eroded our institutions, such as our universities, school boards, unions, media, and politics, all leading to a troubling apathy toward the horrific attacks on our people in Israel.
“As a law graduate who briefly worked in criminal law and previously owned a successful tech company in the food and beverage industry, I felt compelled to take action. I realized our community faced a serious existential threat. I approached my tech colleague, Bryan Lipovetsky, who had built my companies framework and website, and together we launched Tafsik Organization. Initially, we acted quickly, driven by a desperate need to help, although we were still defining our purpose and how best to combat the overwhelming hate directed at Canadian Jews.
“Our focus became twofold: building alliances and leveraging technology to combat antisemitism. In February, we launched TECAH (The Emergency Coalition Against Hate) alongside the remarkable Douglas Murray in Toronto, quickly becoming Canada’s fastest-growing grassroots ally-building organization. We have formed strong connections with the Indian and Iranian communities, commemorating significant events such as the anniversary of the Air India bombing, the murder of Mahsa Amini, and the genocide in Bangladesh. We have also engaged with various communities, including Venezuelan, Afghan, Arab, Chinese, and Black communities, and are working closely with Sheikh Mirza Ismail on reunifying Yazidi families still in refugee camps in northern Iraq with their relatives in Canada.
“Additionally, we have built meaningful relationships with leaders in politics, including some of the top politicians in our country. We understand the critical role their government positions play in protecting our community.
“We have hosted numerous sold-out events featuring prominent speakers like Douglas Murray, Gad Saad, Hillel Fuld, and Colonel John Spencer, with an upcoming event featuring Shai Davidai. These events aim to present the truth to diverse communities within our city.
“On the technology front, we are actively seeking funding to develop AI software capable of identifying individuals and accounts online that glorify terrorism. This technology will assess account histories, such as comments, likes, and posts, to evaluate potential radicalization and threats. Our goal is not commercialization but to provide law enforcement with tools to prevent real danger and violence against our community and others.
“In response to the overwhelming amount of antisemitic graffiti in Toronto, we are developing a new app called ‘Graffiti Watch’ that will map instances of hate speech in public spaces, empowering our community to take action against it. Graffiti Watch will be free to download.
“While our primary focus is on ally building and technology initiatives, we occasionally respond to urgent needs outside these pillars. For instance, this past June, we received a request via WhatsApp to help children from Kibbutz Kfar Szold, who were under missile attack from Hezbollah. When a major organization in Toronto declined to support this initiative, we launched a GoFundMe campaign and successfully raised more than we needed. As a result, we flew 15 children to Canada, where they attended Camp Northland and enjoyed a week of fun activities, including visits to Canada’s Wonderland, Niagara Falls, Ripley’s Aquarium, and a shopping spree. We also organizers a big dance party for the children, fostering new friendships with children from our community. Again, all free of charge. We are not a business. We are a non profit, and soon to be charity. Everything we have done has been self funded by me and a little money from donations, with exception to the Israeli kids who we brought with donations.
“This past year has been incredibly successful, exceeding our expectations. We now have just under 10,000 subscribers on our mailing list and a growing social media presence, including followers like Douglas Murray, Aviva Klompas, The Imam of Peace, Eylon Levy, and Colonel John Spencer to name just a few. These leaders recognize us as a driving force in Canada, dedicated to protecting our community and helping those in need.
“I hope this clarifies who we are as an organization and what we aspire to do.”
We thanked Amir Epstein for his quite expansive explanation, not only about how Tafsik came about, but who he is. We asked whether he’d be willing to send us a photo of himself and he readily agreed.
By the way, we’re not sure if there are still tickets available for Shai Davidai’s appearance here on October 22, but if you’re interested in attending you could try this link: www.tafsik.com/shai-winnipeg
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