Features
JNF Manitoba/Saskatchewan president Nola Lazar slated to be next president of Mercaz Canada

By MYRON LOVE
These are challenging times that we live in – but Nola Lazar, the current president of JNF Manitoba/Saskatchewan has proven over the years that she is up to the challenge. If the presidency of the local Jewish National Fund operation is not enough heavy lifting, she is also slated to be stepping into the same position on a national level with Mercaz Canada – the Zionist voice of Conservative Judaism in Canada – as soon as her term as JNF president here comes to a close.
Masorti Judaism – the Conservative Movement in Israel – is Israel’s fastest growing religious movement. Mercaz Canada is affiliated with Masorti/Conservative Judaism which, in Israel, offers a third choice between ultraOrthodoxy and a secular life. MERCAZ-Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism work in cooperation to foster and strengthen Masorti/Conservative Judaism in Israel, based on the ideals of tradition and tolerance, study and spirituality, and social action and love of Israel. They promote and support Israel education and programs, and represent the interests of Masorti/Conservative Judaism in the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency for Israel.
Lazar has taken inspiration for her leadership roles in the community from her mother Rae. “My mother always seemed to be having meetings at our house,” recalls Lazar, who was the second youngest of eight children born to Rae and the late Cecil Shnier. “Because there were so many of us children, it seemed to be easier to hold meetings at our place”.
Her mother, Lazar recalls, served as president of Hadassah WIZO in Winnipeg as well as being involved in organizing the annual Angel’s Ball and volunteering at Hadassah’s Opportunity store and the Golden Age Club and many other organizations.
“Wherever she’d go as a volunteer, she would take some of us kids with her,” Lazar says. “She was always involved.”
While Nola is trained as an interior designer, she married at a relatively young age – to Matthew – and raised her own family of four (two of whom have made aliyah). Her own service to the community over these past 25 years has largely been through her synagogue involvement.
In the 1990s she was invited to become a board member of the Beth Israel Congregation, where she served two terms. In that role, she was involved in the merger of the Beth Israel with the Rosh Pina and Bnay Abraham Synagogues to form Congregation Etz Chayim. She subsequently served an additional two terms on the board of the new congregation and was involved with youth programming at the shul. In addition, she volunteered at the Gray Academy while her children were attending the school. “All of our children are graduates of Gray Academy,” she says with pride.
Lazar was invited to join the JNF Manitoba/Saskatchewan board five years ago. “Karla Berbrayer was president of the board at the time and was looking to expand the board membership with people who had connections with Israel,” Lazar says. “We had children living in Israel and had visited several times.”
As the current president, she was inaugurated at the Negev Gala in 2019, succeeding Jessica Cogan.
The local JNF received quite a surprise last fall when longtime executive director Ariel Karabelnicoff announced that he was leaving to take up a position in Toronto with the Israel Bonds organization. “It was a real shock,” says Lazar of Karabelincoff’s departure. “We miss him and wish him well.
“It has been a smooth transition though. David Greaves, our new executive director, knows the community well and has a lot of connections.”
She reports that, despite the limitations on fundraising imposed by the Covid situation, the JNF is doing well under Greaves’ leadership. “JNF has been keeping busy. While we weren’t able to conduct our annual High Holiday campaign in person this year,” she notes, “we are thankful to both the Shaarey Zedek and Etz Chayim for their help this year. They included our link on their webpages and the rabbis directed people to our link during their sermons. The community support for Israel has been amazing.
“Even with Covid, David and his staff have managed to maintain our fundraising numbers close to what we have done in the past. On November 15 we are holding a ‘Night of 100 Dinners’ with video entertainment by Yidlife Crisis. Our Negev Gala honouring Ted Lyons has been rescheduled to May 19 2020.”
Lazar’s introduction to Mercaz Canada also came about through her synagogue involvement. She points out that all Conservative synagogue members are also eligible to join Mercaz. The organization has long been centered in Toronto, she notes because, in Toronto, several Conservative synagogues make membership in Mercaz Canada an automatic part of membership, whereas in Winnipeg, membership is optional. Thus, there were fewer members in our community.
“Marion Mayman, the president at that time, felt that Mercaz Canada was too Torontocentric,” Lazar recalls. “She wanted a board that reflected more of our country, and was looking to recruit Western Canadians. Matthew and I had already joined Mercaz when Marion phoned me to ask me to join the board. However, I am not the kind of person who joins a board without participating, and because I got involved, I became vocal, and before long, I was moving up the ranks.”
Most of the meetings that she has been involved in have been over the phone. “I still haven’t met all of the board members in person,” Lazar says. “The nice thing about Zoom is I am getting to see board members from across the country.”
The organization’s vice-president since July of last year, she reports that the current president of Mercaz, Stan Greenspan, will stay in his position until her term with the JNF in Winnipeg is over.
She concedes that there will be some challenges leading the organization from Winnipeg, but, she says, “we will make it work.”
She adds that she has already learned a lot from Mercaz executive director Rabbi Jennifer Gorman and current president Stan Greenspan. “They are both very knowledgeable,” Lazar says. “I love learning from them.”
Coming up for Nola Lazar on the Mercaz menu are preparations for the World Zionist Congress scheduled for October 20-22 via Zoom from Israel. She is a voting delegate.
“At the Congress, we debate various topics of relevance to the Jewish world,” she notes. “I will be spending a lot of time over the next few days on the phone and on Zoom meeting with Mercaz Canada and Canadian Zionist Federation representatives. We will be having orientation meetings and strategy meetings. I find it all very fascinating”
Features
Card Game Traditions: Complete Review from Casino Online Lolajack Experts
Card games have been around for centuries. They are constantly evolving and improving. For example, there are now many different formats of online games available. On sites like casino online Lolajack https://Lolajack.com/ca/, you can choose a title according to your preferences and skills. The traditions of card games date back to ancient times. To better show yourself, it is worth familiarizing yourself with these features. This way, you will gain experience, have a good time, and get acquainted with something completely new.
Roots of Card Games
Card games directly reflect cultural identity. They have a unique mathematical structure and thoughtful moves that make even professionals think. Depending on the tradition, the rules differ, but the basic principles always remain similar. Each game has a unique origin:
- Poker. It originated in the USA back in the 19th century. During its existence, many variations of gameplay have appeared. It combines risk, strategy, and psychology; therefore, it requires high skill from each player.
- Baccarat. This game has ancient origins. It appeared in the 15th century in Italy, after which it spread throughout Europe. Now it is the basis of any operator like casino online Lolajack.
- Rimmy and bridge. Card games require the cooperation of participants, so coordinated communication is important here.
- Blackjack. This is the perfect combination of skill and chance. The player needs to learn to make decisions quickly and monitor the circumstances.
Card games have their own origins and characteristics. Currently, they are an integral part of any online casino, offering a wide range of opportunities for participants.
Why Card Games Are So Popular
Experts from casino online Lolajack emphasize the importance of card games in many cultures. For example, poker remains the leader for a reason. There are more than 100 million active players worldwide who compete and work on their skills. Blackjack also does not lag behind the trends. The level of participation exceeds 40% of regular online casino users.
Every year, the level of online card games grows by 10%. This is possible due to digitalization and increased player awareness. In addition, seasonal events also increase the involvement of participants during peak periods.
Traditions of Card Games
Unique events attract the attention of fans. For example, the World Series of Poker attracts not only participants but also millions of viewers around the world. Sites such as casino online Lolajack also give participants the opportunity to try their hand and compete with professionals.
Baccarat is associated with high stakes. This is especially noticeable among the Asian audience, who like to put probability theory into practice. Blackjack also has an appeal among math lovers. The probabilities of the model and observations directly affect the decisions of players. Online casinos strive to ensure that participants have the opportunity to communicate and find an activity option according to their own preferences.
As a result, card games remain the true leaders of the gambling market. They not only entertain, but also develop attention, perseverance, and social skills. A large selection of various variations of classic games allows you to choose the version that suits your preferences. Developers do not lag behind trends and do everything possible to surprise fans.
Features
“Lessons from the Holocaust for Today”
By HENRY SREBRNIK On April 12, I spoke at our annual Yom Hashoah memorial ceremony in Charlottetown. The last time I did so was in April 1976, in Montreal. It was, for Canadian Jews, a completely different time. Montreal was still the first city of Canadian Jewry, with Toronto a distant second. Israel seemed a secure country, having won a hard-fought victory three years earlier in the Yom Kippur War.
There were clouds gathering, true – after all the UN General Assembly had passed the “Zionism is a form of racism” the previous December, and a powerful Communist bloc led by the Soviet Union was still a formidable enemy.
Today, Jewish life has become far more precarious. Two things are essential for an anti-democratic political movement to succeed: ideological justification by academics and intellectuals, and control of the streets by violent mobs. Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel, we have seen both.
At McGill University in Montreal, a March 21 referendum by the Law Students’ Association (LSA) supported amending the group’s constitution to boycott Israeli academic bodies, though it was deemed illegitimate by the university’s president. Similar actions are taking place across Canada. Indeed, at Vanier College, a Montreal CEGEP, it abruptly cancelled its Holocaust commemoration on March 25 because it didn’t think it could keep guests and the college community safe.
Unfortunately, we know a terrible precedent for this union of the intellectuals and the mob. Nazi ideology, too, was not formulated by street thugs. Historian Max Weinreich published his book Hitler’s Professors in 1946, noting that German scholarship provided the ideas and techniques that led to and justified unparalleled slaughter. All too many Nazi war criminals were holders of PhDs.
As historian Niall Ferguson reminds us, in an article published in the New York Free Press of Dec. 11, 2023, “Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.” The “final solution of the Jewish question” began, he has written, with words — “to be precise, it began as lectures and monographs and scholarly articles.”
The American writer Vivian Gornick, reviewing a book, “Turning a Blind Eye, A memoir of daily accommodation to fascism,” by the German historian Joachim Fest, about Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s (before the Holocaust), quotes this passage:
“Everyone sees that life for the Jews is gradually shutting down. Take their neighbor and good friend, Dr. Meyer: one day he can no longer subscribe to newspapers and magazines; another, he has to hand in his bicycle and typewriter; another, he can no longer keep a pet or buy flowers. Then all the Jews simply start disappearing from the neighborhood.” The Nazi march to power literally begins with shutting Jews out of public life while using academia as the heavy hand of indoctrination.
Is this slowly happening to Jews in Canada today, as they are pushed out of or refused admittance to cultural events, colleges, universities, and graduate schools, academic university positions, publishing, music, theatre, and so on? In “Canada’s Polite Pogrom,” By Jesse Brown, Atlantic, March 24, 2026, he writes: “Is a national tolerance for zealotry purging Jews from public life?” Jewish life in Canada may have “forever changed,” he argues. “I can no longer take for granted that people like me are represented in Canada’s hospitals, schools, newsrooms, and legislatures.”
We may see the quiet withdrawal of Jews from Canadian society “without any glass or bones being broken,” simply because the evidence that they are no longer welcome has become overwhelming. Another writer calls it the social and academic “shtetelization” of Western Jewry.
We even face obstruction from the Canadian government. In just the last two years, eight explicitly Jewish non-profit charities, including the Jewish National Fund, have been stripped of their ability to collect tax-deductible donations by the Canada Revenue Agency — often amid pressure campaigns from anti-Israel activists. The delisting was also celebrated by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the union representing CRA workers.
We now witness continuous large “pro-Palestinian” rallies through our cities, invasions of shopping malls and thoroughfares, including intimidating behaviour against Jewish passersby. Today, police stand and watch mobs chant for Israel’s destruction, call for the genocide of its people, harass visibly Jewish citizens, and drive antisemitic intimidation deep into urban life. They now believe their job is to enforce the law only if it does not risk upsetting violent constituencies. This makes Jews expendable, because defending them risks confrontation.
And these events are not just “political protests.” At an al-Quds rally in Toronto March 14, protesters held signs that showed rats crawling out of a Star of David, depicting a Jewish man as a goblin-like creature emerging from a cave, and showing a Jewish man as a hook-nosed caricature.
Three Jewish synagogues in Toronto were hit with gunfire in one week in March. After every such incident, we hear that “antisemitism has no place in Canada.” But if that were true, synagogues would not require concrete barriers. Jewish schools would not need armed security. Community institutions would not conduct threat assessments before hosting events. Yet big city mayors like Toronto’s Olivia Chow don’t seem, to put it diplomatically, be losing much sleep over what’s going on in their cities.
The attacks on Jews, including physical assaults and social media campaigns, are part of a purposive campaign designed to make Jews think twice about gathering with other Jews, entering a synagogue, going to kosher restaurants, putting a mezuzah on the doorpost of their apartments or dorm rooms, or wearing a Jewish star around their necks. In fact people have been attacked on the street for speaking Hebrew.
If each Jewish holiday will now be seen by antisemites as an opportunity for terror, then the prognosis for diaspora Jewry is bleak. Unless things change, Jewish life in the diaspora will become more sealed off from the larger society.
We may be returning to a time that we thought was long behind us. And we are less prepared for it than our forebearers were, because they were used to living in a semi-segregated world, and expected less from the larger society. As large swaths of the Jewish community are beginning to retreat inward, the greater long-term fear is the collapse of Jewish life here altogether.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
Streaming the Diaspora: Jewish Stories in the Digital Age
The digital era has transformed how cultural narratives are created, shared, and preserved. For Jewish communities around the world, streaming platforms have become powerful tools for storytelling — enabling voices from different countries, traditions, and generations to connect in ways that were once impossible. What used to rely on local gatherings, printed texts, or regional broadcasts is now accessible globally, instantly, and interactively.
Streaming has allowed Jewish stories to transcend geography. Whether it’s historical documentaries, modern dramas, or personal testimonies, audiences can now explore a wide spectrum of perspectives — from Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions to contemporary Israeli culture and diaspora experiences in North America, Europe, and beyond. This shift reflects not only technological progress but also a deeper need for identity, continuity, and shared memory.
A New Era of Cultural Storytelling
Streaming platforms have opened doors for creators who might previously have struggled to find mainstream distribution. Independent filmmakers, historians, and content creators now have the ability to reach global audiences without relying on traditional gatekeepers.
This has led to:
- more diverse representation of Jewish identities
- storytelling that blends history with modern perspectives
- greater visibility for lesser-known traditions and communities
As media scholar Henry Jenkins noted,
“Digital culture allows stories to travel, evolve, and find new audiences beyond their original context.”
Jewish storytelling, rooted in centuries of oral and written tradition, naturally adapts to this model — evolving while maintaining its core themes of resilience, identity, and community.
The Role of Streaming in Preserving Memory
One of the most significant contributions of streaming platforms is the preservation of historical memory. Documentaries about the Holocaust, migration stories, and cultural archives are now widely accessible, allowing younger generations to engage with history in a more immediate and emotional way.
Streaming enables:
- access to survivor testimonies and historical footage
- educational content for global audiences
- preservation of languages like Yiddish and Ladino
This accessibility helps ensure that stories are not lost, but instead reinterpreted and shared across generations.
Bridging Generations Through Digital Media
Another important aspect of streaming is its ability to connect different age groups. Older generations may bring lived experiences, while younger viewers engage through modern formats such as series, podcasts, and short-form video content.
This creates a dynamic exchange:
- elders share traditions and personal histories
- creators reinterpret these stories for modern audiences
- viewers engage, discuss, and reshape narratives in digital spaces
The result is a living, evolving cultural dialogue rather than a static archive.
Entertainment, Identity, and Digital Habits
In today’s digital ecosystem, cultural content exists alongside many forms of online entertainment. Users often move fluidly between watching series, engaging with interactive platforms, and exploring different types of digital experiences.
For instance, while streaming culturally rich content, users may also explore entertainment platforms featuring zoome slots, where interactivity, design, and engagement play a central role. Although the purposes differ, both environments reflect how digital platforms are designed to capture attention, create immersion, and keep users engaged through evolving content.
This coexistence highlights a broader reality: modern digital life blends education, culture, and entertainment into a single, continuous experience.
Challenges of Representation in the Digital Space
While streaming has expanded opportunities, it also raises important questions about representation and authenticity. Not all stories are told equally, and some narratives may be simplified or commercialized for broader appeal.
Key challenges include:
- balancing authenticity with accessibility
- avoiding stereotypes or oversimplification
- ensuring diverse voices are included
Creators and platforms must navigate these issues carefully to maintain cultural integrity while reaching wider audiences.
The Globalization of Jewish Narratives
Streaming platforms have also contributed to the globalization of Jewish stories. A viewer in Canada can watch an Israeli drama, a French documentary, or an American series — all within the same platform. This interconnectedness allows for a richer understanding of how Jewish identity varies across regions while still sharing common roots.
This global reach encourages:
- cross-cultural dialogue
- broader empathy and understanding
- new interpretations of identity in a modern context
Streaming vs Traditional Media
| Aspect | Streaming Platforms | Traditional Media |
| Accessibility | Global, on-demand | Limited by region and schedule |
| Diversity of content | High | Often restricted |
| Viewer interaction | Possible (comments, sharing) | Minimal |
| Content longevity | Long-term availability | Time-limited broadcasts |
| Entry for creators | Lower barrier | High barrier |
This comparison shows why streaming has become such a powerful medium for cultural storytelling.
Final Thoughts
The digital age has reshaped how Jewish stories are told, preserved, and experienced. Streaming platforms have turned local narratives into global conversations, allowing voices from across the diaspora to connect in meaningful ways.
By combining accessibility, diversity, and interactivity, streaming has created a new space where tradition meets innovation. As audiences continue to explore these stories alongside other forms of digital engagement, the importance of thoughtful, authentic storytelling becomes even more significant.
In this evolving landscape, Jewish narratives are not just being preserved — they are being reimagined, shared, and lived in real time across the digital world.
