Features
Jewish Athlete of the Year Yohnatan Elizarov continues to excel as a figure skater
By BERNIE BELLAN (with past columns from Scott Taylor and Myron Love) Four years ago we introduced readers to a budding new figure skater by the name of Yohnatan Elizarov. In a column written by Scott Taylor in January 2019, about Yohnatan, who was 14 at the time, Scott explained that Yohnatan had just recently risen to local prominence in the world of figure skating.
Since then Yohnatan has continued to make his mark in what is a very competitive sport, although in 2021 he added pairs skating to his repertoire when he joined up with a partner by the name of Ava Kemp in various competitions. Since pairing with Ava, the duo has skated in a number of different competitions with consistent success.
Last September, Yohnatan and Ava made their debut on the world scene in an International Skating Union competition held in Riga, Latvia, where they finished second. That competition is one of seven events held throughout the year.
Then, in late September the duo competed in another competition – this time in Gdansk, Poland. After taking some time off in November, Yohnatan and Ava resumed practicing in preparation for the World Junior Figure Skating Championships, which were held in Calgary from February 27-March 5, Yohnatan and Ava finished sixth in the world in the pairs competition.
Considering that Elizarov is also the reigning Jewish Athlete of the Year and, with his continuing success, we thought it worthwhile to look back on his rise up the ladder of an extremely competitive sport. Not only did Scott Taylor first introduce us to Yohnatan Elizarov in 2019, Myron Love also profiled him in a column that appeared in this paper last April.
What follows is taken from both those columns:
Yohnatan Elizarov’s parents, German and Elena, were both born in what was the former Soviet Union – German in Azerbijan, and Elena in Russia.
German emigrated to Israel in 1991, while Elena moved there in 1996. As Scott Taylor wrote in his 2019 column, ‘ “I met my husband in 2000 and we got married in 2002,’ Elena explained.
“ ‘We met in a restaurant where I worked as a waitress. A short time after we met, I started studying at Haifa University and graduated three years later with a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration. I worked in various companies, but my last job in Israel was an office manager in a web design company. My husband worked as a plumbing contractor.
“ ‘We lived in Haifa from the day we both moved to Israel and until we moved to Canada. We enjoyed the people, the weather, the sea and our travels abroad while living in Israel.’
“But then came the summer of 2006 and the Second Lebanon War. One of the rockets fired on northern Israel hit very close to the Elizarovs’ apartment building and it resulted in a profound change for the Elizarovs and many other Israelis.”
The Elizarovs decided to try to move to Canada. As Elena noted at the time, “ ‘After the war ended, we decided it was time to move to another country and after some research, we decided to move to Canada. We chose Winnipeg because we had friends who had recently moved to Winnipeg and were very happy about it. So, three years later we landed in Winnipeg.’ “
The Elizarovs arrived in Winnipeg in 2009. Since then, Yohnatan, who was five at the time of the move, has been joined by younger brothers Sean and Jamie, who were both born here.
Elena explained how Yohnatan came to be involved in figure skating: “ ‘I had been a figure skater in Russia,’ Elena explained. ‘There were no rinks in Israel, but when we came to Canada, we were able to get Yoni into the CanSkate program when he was about six years old. After a year, he was asked if he was going to play hockey or go into figure skating and I said right away, “ ‘He is going be a figure skater.’
“ ‘Since then, he’s been the only boy for quite a few years, but still, he has really improved his skating. Most people don’t know this, but Yoni developed asthma just a year before our move to Canada. However all of his symptoms disappeared after we moved here. What a perfect climate it is here in Winnipeg.’ “
“To their credit, the Elizarovs’ decision to enroll Yoni in all sorts of Canadian activities helped him become the skater he is today. In fact, getting him involved in dance classes certainly didn’t hurt.
“ ‘Yoni started playing tennis when he was only 3 1/2 years old,’ Elena explained. “ ‘Again, it was because of me, as I also played tennis for many years. However, when we moved to Winnipeg, we felt it to be a little bit too expensive for new immigrants, so we registered him in swimming lessons, soccer, skating at CanSkate and dance with the RWB, instead.’ “
As already noted, Myron Love did a follow-up story about Yohnatan last year. In it Myron noted that, in 2018, Yohnatan entered a national skating competition for the first time – and qualified to enter into Nationals competitions – “the first Manitoban to have done so in quite some time.
“To qualify for the Nationals skaters have to first excel at provincial sectional competition and then at a Skate Canada Challenge where they need to place in the top 18 in Novice/Junior/Senior level to qualify for the Nationals. Skate Canada Challenge locations usually change every year (although the competition hasn’t been held in Manitoba in recent years). Yohnatan competed in Skate Canada Challenge competitions in Montreal, Edmonton and, most recently, in Regina. In the most recent national competition, held earlier this year in Ottawa, Elizarov finished ninth out of a field of 18 in the Junior Men discipline.”
It was when Yohnatan decided to try pairs figure skating, however, that his career really began to take off.
As Myron wrote, “He says that he had been considering the idea for a while. Before connecting with Ava Kemp, Elizarov had tried partnering with another girl, but she had a different coach and trained in Virden, which made practices together rather difficult. In Ava Kemp, Elizarov has a partner who lives in the same part of the city and now shares the same coach.
“The challenge, Elena Elizarov adds, is to find the right partner in terms of relative size, location and skills level.
“ I was at first hesitant about working with another person in my space,” Yohnatan admits. “ I am more comfortable with that now.’ ”
“He notes that he and his partner balance each other emotionally as well. “ I alleviate the stress of competing by calming myself whereas Ava gets more excited,’ ” he explains. “ ‘We communicate very well.’ ”
“Yohnatan reports that he puts in about 20 hours a week in training – which includes about 15 hours of on-ice practice.
“ Upper body strength is very important in pairs for the male skater,” he says. ‘My upper body strength is now three to four times stronger than when I was skating solo.’ ”
Yohnatan graduated from Vincent Massey Collegiate in the spring of 2021 and has been taking university classes as time permits, he told me. “I’m just trying to fit classes in with my figure skating practices,” he said. He’s actually completed eight full classes so far toward what he hopes will eventually result in his getting a Bachelors degree in Computer Science at the University of Manitoba.
Right now Yohnatan is taking one class at the university, but in another few weeks he’ll be back on the ice with Ava as they resume practicing for the next season of competitions.
As for what his future in ice skating holds, Myron’s article noted that Yohnatan “would love to have the opportunity to skate with the Ice Capades or Disney On Ice – or emulate Garrett Gosselin, one of the choreographers he has worked with, and appear in a skating show on cruise ships.”
Given his success in pairs skating though, Yohnatan told Myron last year that he was “considering cutting back on his singles efforts and focusing more on pairs “ which is exactly what he has done.
At that time, he also noted that he wanted “to see where it (pairs skating) goes.” Yohnata
n added that ‘I am thinking maybe I will skate for a few more years, then transition into coaching.’ ”
As Myron also observed: “Or maybe he will get that call from Stars On Ice.”
But, as the current Jewish Athlete of the Year – and with his ongoing success in figure skating, it’s hard to count Yohnatan Elizarov out as a repeat Athlete of the Year – although no doubt there will be some formidable competition from other athletes. This year’s winner will be announced at the Ken Kronson Sports Dinner, to be held June 19.
Features
So, what’s the deal with the honey scene in ‘Marty Supreme?’
By Olivia Haynie December 29, 2025 This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.
There are a lot of jarring scenes in Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie’s movie about a young Jew in the 1950s willing to do anything to secure his spot in table tennis history. There’s the one where Marty (Timothée Chalamet) gets spanked with a ping-pong paddle; there’s the one where a gas station explodes. And the one where Marty, naked in a bathtub, falls through the floor of a cheap motel. But the one that everybody online seems to be talking about is a flashback of an Auschwitz story told by Marty’s friend and fellow ping-ponger Béla Kletzki (Géza Röhrig, best known for his role as a Sonderkommando in Son of Saul).
Kletzki tells the unsympathetic ink tycoon Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) about how the Nazis, impressed by his table tennis skills, spared his life and recruited him to disarm bombs. One day, while grappling with a bomb in the woods, Kletzki stumbled across a honeycomb. He smeared the honey across his body and returned to the camp, where he let his fellow prisoners lick it off his body. The scene is a sensory nightmare, primarily shot in close-ups of wet tongues licking sticky honey off Kletzki’s hairy body. For some, it was also … funny?
Many have reported that the scene has been triggering a lot of laughter in their theaters. My audience in Wilmington, North Carolina, certainly had a good chuckle — with the exception of my mother, who instantly started sobbing. I sat in stunned silence, unsure at first what to make of the sharp turn the film had suddenly taken. One post on X that got nearly 6,000 likes admonished Safdie for his “insane Holocaust joke.” Many users replied that the scene was in no way meant to be funny, with one even calling it “the most sincere scene in the whole movie.”
For me, the scene shows the sheer desperation of those in the concentration camps, as well as the self-sacrifice that was essential to survival. And yet many have interpreted it as merely shock humor.
Laughter could be understood as an inevitable reaction to discomfort and shock at a scene that feels so out of place in what has, up to that point, been a pretty comedic film. The story is sandwiched between Marty’s humorous attempts to embarrass Rockwell and seduce his wife. Viewers may have mistaken the scene as a joke since the film’s opening credits sequence of sperm swimming through fallopian tubes gives the impression you will be watching a comedy interspersed with some tense ping-pong playing.
The reaction could also be part of what some in the movie theater industry are calling the “laugh epidemic.” In The New York Times, Marie Solis explored the inappropriate laughter in movie theaters that seems to be increasingly common. The rise of meme culture and the dissolution of clear genres (Marty Supreme could be categorized as somewhere between drama and comedy), she writes, have primed audiences to laugh at moments that may not have been meant to be funny.
The audience’s inability to process the honey scene as sincere may also be a sign of a society that has become more disconnected from the traumas of the past. It would not be the first time that people, unable to comprehend the horrors of the Holocaust, have instead derided the tales of abuse as pure fiction. But Kletzki’s story is based on the real experiences of Alojzy Ehrlich, a ping-pong player imprisoned at Auschwitz. The scene is not supposed to be humorous trauma porn — Safdie has called it a “beautiful story” about the “camaraderie” found within the camps. It also serves as an important reminder of all that Marty is fighting for.
The events of the film take place only seven years after the Holocaust, and the macabre honey imagery encapsulates the dehumanization the Jews experienced. Marty is motivated not just by a desire to prove himself as an athlete and rise above what his uncle and mother expect of him, but above what the world expects of him as a Jew. His drive to reclaim Jewish pride is further underscored when he brings back a piece of an Egyptian pyramid to his mother, telling her, “We built this.”
Without understanding this background, the honey scene will come off as out of place and ridiculous. And the lengths Marty is willing to go to to make something of himself cannot be fully appreciated. The film’s description on the review-app Letterboxd says Marty Supreme is about one man who “goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.” But behind Marty is the story of a whole people who have gone through hell; they too are trying to find their way back.
Olivia Haynie is an editorial fellow at the Forward.
This story was originally published on the Forward.
Features
Paghahambing ng One-on-One Matches at Multiplayer Challenges sa Pusoy in English
Ang Pusoy, na kilala din bilang Chinese Poker, ay patuloy na sumisikat sa buong mundo, kumukuha ng interes ng mga manlalaro mula sa iba’t ibang bansa. Ang mga online platforms ay nagpapadali sa pag-access nito. Ang online version nito ay lubos na nagpasigla ng interes sa mga baguhan at casual players, na nagdulot ng diskusyon kung alin ang mas madali: ang paglalaro ng Pusoy one-on-one o sa multiplayer settings.
Habang nailipat sa digital platforms ang Pusoy, napakahalaga na maunawaan ang mga format nito upang mapahusay ang karanasan sa laro. Malaking epekto ang bilang ng mga kalaban pagdating sa istilo ng laro, antas ng kahirapan, at ang ganap na gameplay dynamics. Ang mga platforms tulad ng GameZone ay nagbibigay ng angkop na espasyo para sa mga manlalaro na masubukan ang parehong one-on-one at multiplayer Pusoy, na akma para sa iba’t ibang klase ng players depende sa kanilang kasanayan at kagustuhan.
Mga Bentahe ng One-on-One Pusoy
Simpleng Gameplay
Sa one-on-one Pusoy in English, dalawa lang ang naglalaban—isang manlalaro at isang kalaban. Dahil dito, mas madali ang bawat laban. Ang pokus ng mga manlalaro ay nakatuon lamang sa kanilang sariling 13 cards at sa mga galaw ng kalaban, kaya’t nababawasan ang pagiging komplikado.
Para sa mga baguhan, ideal ang one-on-one matches upang:
- Sanayin ang tamang pagsasaayos ng cards.
- Matutunan ang tamang ranggo ng bawat kamay.
- Magsanay na maiwasan ang mag-foul sa laro.
Ang simpleng gameplay ay nagbibigay ng matibay na pundasyon para sa mas kumplikadong karanasan sa multiplayer matches.
Mga Estratehiya mula sa Pagmamasid
Sa one-on-one matches, mas madaling maunawaan ang istilo ng kalaban dahil limitado lamang ang galaw na kailangan sundan. Maaari mong obserbahan ang mga sumusunod na patterns:
- Konserbatibong pagkakaayos o agresibong strategy.
- Madalas na pagkakamali o overconfidence.
- Labis na pagtuon sa isang grupo ng cards.
Dahil dito, nagkakaroon ng pagkakataon ang mga manlalaro na isaayos ang kanilang estratehiya upang mas epektibong maka-responde sa galaw ng kalaban, partikular kung maglalaro sa competitive platforms tulad ng GameZone.
Mas Mababang Pressure
Dahil one-on-one lamang ang laban, mababawasan ang mental at emotional stress. Walang ibang kalaban na makaka-distract, na nagbibigay ng pagkakataon para sa mga baguhan na matuto nang walang matinding parusa sa kanilang mga pagkakamali. Nagiging stepping stone ito patungo sa mas dynamic na multiplayer matches.
Ang Hamon ng Multiplayer Pusoy
Mas Komplikado at Mas Malalim na Gameplay
Sa Multiplayer Pusoy, madaragdagan ang bilang ng kalaban, kaya mas nagiging komplikado ang laro. Kailangan kalkulahin ng bawat manlalaro ang galaw ng maraming tao at ang pagkakaayos nila ng cards.
Ang ilang hamon ng multiplayer ay:
- Pagbabalanse ng lakas ng cards sa tatlong grupo.
- Pag-iwas sa labis na peligro habang nagiging kompetitibo.
- Pagtatagumpayan ang lahat ng kalaban nang sabay-sabay.
Ang ganitong klase ng gameplay ay nangangailangan ng maingat na pagpaplano, prediksyon, at strategic na pasensiya.
Mas Malakas na Mental Pressure
Mas mataas ang psychological demand sa multiplayer, dahil mabilis ang galawan at mas mahirap manatiling kalmado sa gitna ng mas maraming kalaban. Kabilang dito ang:
- Bilisan ang pagdedesisyon kahit under pressure.
- Paano mananatiling focused sa gitna ng mga distractions.
- Pagkakaroon ng emosyonal na kontrol matapos ang sunod-sunod na talo.
Mas exciting ito para sa mga manlalarong gusto ng matinding hamon at pagmamalasakit sa estratehiya.
GameZone: Ang Bagong Tahanan ng Modern Pusoy
Ang GameZone online ay isang kahanga-hangang platform para sa mga naglalaro ng Pusoy in English. Nagbibigay ito ng opsyon para sa parehong one-on-one at multiplayer matches, akma para sa kahit anong antas ng kasanayan.
Mga feature ng GameZone:
- Madaling English interface para sa user-friendly na gameplay.
- Real-player matches imbes na kalaban ay bots.
- Mga tool para sa responsible play, tulad ng time reminder at spending limits.
Pagtatagal ng Pamanang Pusoy
Ang Pusoy card game in English ay nagpalawak ng abot nito sa mas maraming players mula sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng mundo habang pinapanatili ang tradisyunal nitong charm. Sa pamamagitan ng mga modernong platform tulad ng GameZone, mananatiling buhay at progresibo ang Pusoy, nakakabighani pa rin sa lahat ng antas ng manlalaro—mula sa casual enjoyment hanggang sa competitive challenges.
Mula sa maingat na pag-aayos ng mga cards hanggang sa pag-master ng estratehiya, ang Pusoy ay isang laro na nananatiling relevant habang ipinapakita ang masalimuot nitong gameplay dynamics na puno ng kultura at inobasyon.
Features
Rob Reiner asked the big questions. His death leaves us searching for answers.
Can men and women just be friends? Can you be in the revenge business too long? Why don’t you just make 10 louder and have that be the top number on your amp?
All are questions Rob Reiner sought to answer. In the wake of his and his wife’s unexpected deaths, which are being investigated as homicides, it’s hard not to reel with questions of our own: How could someone so beloved come to such a senseless end? How can we account for such a staggering loss to the culture when it came so prematurely? How can we juggle that grief and our horror over the violent murder of Jews at an Australian beach, gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, and still light candles of our own?
The act of asking may be a way forward, just as Rob Reiner first emerged from sitcom stardom by making inquiries.
In This is Spinal Tap, his first feature, he played the role of Marty DiBergi, the in-universe director of the documentary about the misbegotten 1982 U.S. concert tour of the eponymous metal band. He was, in a sense, culminating the work of his father, Carl Reiner, who launched a classic comedy record as the interviewer of Mel Brooks’ 2,000 Year Old Man. DiBergi as played by Reiner was a reverential interlocutor — one might say a fanboy — but he did take time to query Nigel Tufnell as to why his amp went to 11. And, quoting a bad review, he asked “What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?”
But Reiner had larger questions to mull over. And in this capacity — not just his iconic scene at Katz’s Deli in When Harry Met Sally or the goblin Yiddishkeit of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride — he was a fundamentally Jewish director.
Stand By Me is a poignant meditation on death through the eyes of childhood — it asks what we remember and how those early experiences shape us. The Princess Bride is a storybook consideration of love — it wonders at the price of seeking or avenging it at all costs. A Few Good Men is a trenchant, cynical-for-Aaron Sorkin, inquest of abuse in the military — how can it happen in an atmosphere of discipline.
In his public life, Reiner was an activist. He asked how he could end cigarette smoking. He asked why gay couples couldn’t marry like straight ones. He asked what Russia may have had on President Trump. This fall, with the FCC’s crackdown on Jimmy Kimmel, he asked if he would soon be censored. He led with the Jewish question of how the world might be repaired.
Guttingly, in perhaps his most personal project, 2015’s Being Charlie, co-written by his son Nick he wondered how a parent can help a child struggling with addiction. (Nick was questioned by the LAPD concerning his parents’ deaths and was placed under arrest.)
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None of the questions had pat answers. Taken together, there’s scarcely a part of life that Reiner’s filmography overlooked, including the best way to end it, in 2007’s The Bucket List.
Judging by the longevity of his parents, both of whom lived into their 90s, it’s entirely possible Reiner had much more to ask of the world. That we won’t get to see another film by him, or spot him on the news weighing in on the latest democratic aberration, is hard to swallow.
Yet there is some small comfort in the note Reiner went out on. In October, he unveiled Spinal Tap II: The Beginning of the End, a valedictory moment in a long and celebrated career.
Reiner once again returned to the role of DiBergi. I saw a special prescreening with a live Q&A after the film. It was the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated. I half-expected Reiner to break character and address political violence — his previous film, God & Country, was a documentary on Christian Nationalism.
But Reiner never showed up — only Marty DiBergi, sitting with Nigel Tuffnell (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. The interview was broadcast to theaters across the country, with viewer-submitted questions like “What, in fact, did the glove from Smell the Glove smell like?” (Minty.) And “Who was the inspiration for ‘Big Bottom?’” (Della Reese.)
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DiBergi had one question for the audience: “How did you feel about the film?”
The applause was rapturous, but DiBergi still couldn’t get over Nigel Tuffnell’s Marshall amp, which now stretched beyond 11 and into infinity.
“How can that be?” he asked. “How can you go to infinity? How loud is that?”
There’s no limit, Tuffnell assured him. “Why should there be a limit?”
Reiner, an artist of boundless curiosity and humanity, was limitless. His remit was to reason why. He’ll be impossible to replace, but in asking difficult questions, we can honor him.
The post Rob Reiner asked the big questions. His death leaves us searching for answers. appeared first on The Forward.