Features
Laya Crust: the Jewish art of a former Winnipegger
By GERRY POSNER What is the connection between a Jewish girl originally from Fort Garry and an internationally recognized artist and soferet, who has made a career in creating different forms of media? The answer lies in one Laya Crust. This woman, raised in an area of Winnipeg where searching for a minyan would have required months of work, has in her lifetime so far made Ketubahs, artist books, ceremonial objects, and produced works for large corporations, British royalty, government officials and major philanthropists. Her output is both voluminous and valuable.
Some readers might recall a couple named Dr. Joseph and Dorothy Crust, (formerly Greenstone), who lived in Fort Garry – not exactly a Jewish area at the time. It was Laya’s mother who created Laya’s deep relationship with her Judaism. That connection has only grown over the years and is present in her art to this day. The intriguing aspect of the Laya Crust story is the merger of her love of art with her passion for Judaism.
It started innocently enough. Laya always loved synagogue, even as a child (one of five Crust children), and she says that she experienced music in the shul as colour. She talks about stained glass music as a way she experienced Hallel. That connection between synagogue musical liturgy and art was the force that took Laya into the world of creating Jewish art.
Laya started at the University of Manitoba in general arts, but later drifted to Red River College to take drafting. She returned to the U of M for interior design, following in the footsteps of her sister, Gail. When that did not pan out, Laya changed course and cities – moving to Toronto. In pursuit of her passion, Laya avoided traditional art school classes. She enrolled in a programme that would allow her to follow her instincts, interests and talent. She studied drawing, etching and lithography at The Three Schools of Art, a tiny informal art school. She also took up Hebrew calligraphy. As if by chance (if you believe everything is by chance) she was asked to do a Ketubah (the Jewish marriage document). One Ketubah led to another and another. Laya seized the opportunity to delve into Jewish history and reflect it in her art.
As Laya says, “I realized that the Ketubah took all the things I had learned and loved and even the things I didn’t love and put them into the most perfect package.” What this union of her two loves revealed was the mix of art, design, drafting, history and Jewish learning all together. Her first 17 Ketubot were what might be called, in sport terms, her minor league experience, although they were very well done. It was number 18 that really shot Laya into another stratosphere in her work. She titled her 18th Ketubah her “Medieval Arch Ketubah”. Designing that particular Ketubah is what led Laya to a much deeper dive into Jewish art and history.
It is not surprising to learn that Crust has done many, many Ketubot. In fact, she has created over 600 of them. She describes her work this way, “The eclectic mix of art, design, drafting, history and Jewish learning that I had pursued on my own is the perfect preparation for Ketubah design. Because of my background, I view themes, text, technique and images as separate elements to be integrated into a unique composition. I deepen the meaning of the piece by weaving in elements of design, art and history from different parts of the world and even different parts of Jewish history.”
She has developed and expanded her range well beyond Ketubot. Her work has been delivered, presented and hung in places ranging from the Herzliya Adas Yeshurun Synagogue in Winnipeg to several synagogues in Toronto, also the Toronto General & Western Hospital, as well as locations in Jerusalem and New York. In addition, Laya has produced over 500 documents for organizations and private clients. Suffice to say, she is a very well known and recognized artist.
Not that long ago, Laya was commissioned by a family in Toronto to scribe and illustrate a kosher Megillat Esther on animal parchment. You can go on Youtube to see the story of that creation and her explanation of the 32 panels that accompany the printed words. It is truly remarkable to see the Purim story unravel in front of your eyes both in script and art.
Laya has recently published an exquisite art book titled “ILLUMINATIONS, An Exploration of Haftarah through Art and History.” Just released in October 2022, this book is the result of a request by the Beth David Synagogue in Toronto. Laya created an original miniature for each of the 82 Haftarot and printed them into the synagogue’s formal Haftarah scroll. It is likely the first time this kind of undertaking has ever occurred. In her introduction to the book, Laya writes, “ I studied each Haftarah reading about political intrigue, illness, family dynamics. exile and longing. As the project grew, so did my aspirations. I wanted to link the ancient text with Jewish cultural history and today’s world. I wanted to convey the universal truths that span time and are recorded in the Bible.”
The book “IllUMINATIONS” includes reproductions of each of the paintings. A commentary accompanies the painting, outlining its connection to the Torah portion and the historical inspiration of the art. After studying her book, I can state, without hesitation, that Laya Crust has succeeded splendidly in her quest to link the words with the art. This book is indeed a treasure for anyone interested in Jewish history, art and the study of Haftarot. Images from the book can be seen at haftarah-illuminations.ca
Laya and her husband, Les Lightstone, are the parents of six children (some of whom reside now in Israel) and many grandchildren. That all of the work Laya Crust has produced over a lifetime (and she’s still going strong), representing the efforts of a woman whose origins were in a very non -Jewish area of Winnipeg, proves that you just never know what is possible anywhere.
Features
The Gaza Peace Plan is not a Done Deal, but an Opening
By HENRY SREBRNIK (Oct. 23, 2025) The idea that Hamas will voluntarily disarm, that international forces will deploy in the Gaza Strip, and that the process of building a Palestinian government by people like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which a disarmed Hamas does not participate, are false hopes, if not fantasies. But does this mean U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan was useless? Of course not.
Trump understood the necessity of bringing the war to an end. But he also believed that endless debate among experts or, worse, historian and lawyers, would never produce an agreement. He presented an offer – actually, an ultimatum – to Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas that neither could refuse: immediate, unconditional and complete release of all hostages and missing persons, something the Israeli public longed for, in exchange for a final end to the war, which a humbled Hamas needed.
Two years of war has left Hamas weaker than it had been in decades. Israeli bombardments had shattered the group’s military capabilities and depleted its arsenals. In many neighborhoods, control had drifted to local clan networks and tribal councils. This hinted at something that could one day replace Hamas’s iron grip. To prevent this, Hamas has been ruthlessly murdering all potential rivals in the areas of Gaza it controls since the ceasefire went into effect.
Despite the severe degradation of its military capabilities during the war, Hamas still has more soldiers and weapons than all its rival factions in Gaza combined. Hamas has managed to redeploy approximately 7,000 militants to reassert control over the territory. They have publicized photographs and videos of their forces murdering and torturing; the victims include women and children.
The ceasefire is a temporary reprieve for Hamas: a chance to regroup, rearm, and prepare for the next round of fighting. In Islamist political thought there’s a word for it, hudna — a temporary truce with non-Muslim adversaries that can be discarded as soon as the balance of power shifts. Then the time for jihad will arrive again. Hamas was established in 1987 and isn’t going to disappear.
In fact Hamas also says it expects an interim International Transitional Authority to hire 40,000 Hamas employees, and Hamas spokesman Basem Naim says he expects its fighters to be integrated into a post-transition Palestinian state.
Still, Trump has succeeded in ending the current war in Gaza, where Joe Biden failed. Biden’s national security team, drawn almost entirely from his supposed expert class, didn’t even see the crisis coming. Just five days before the attack, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had published an article in Foreign Affairs in which he wrote that “the region is quieter than it has been for decades.”
Biden also had insulted the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, by publicly condemning the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And, of course, there was Biden’s poor relationship with Netanyahu, and his chronic inability to get the Israeli prime minister to do what he wanted.
By contrast, Trump returned to office with substantially more influence in both the Gulf and Israel, based on his first-term successes in the Middle East, especially the Abraham Accords (for which he’s never been praised by his political enemies).
Four Arab countries formally recognized Israel, beginning with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, followed by Sudan and Morocco. The next stage was intended to include Saudi Arabia. One motive put forward by some analysts for the October 7 attacks was that they were intended to provoke Israel into a response that would derail Saudi Arabia’s admission.
Instead of sitting Israelis and Arabs in a room and expecting them to negotiate an outcome, Trump’s approach has been to exert leverage through other players in the region, especially, Egypt, Turkey, and – most importantly – Qatar.
In Jerusalem, they call Qatar “the spoiler state.” Israelis describe the emirate as two trains running behind the same engine. One, led by the Qatari ruler’s mother and brother, supports the Muslim Brotherhood and is an unmistakable hater of Israel. The other, led by the prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and several other senior figures, seeks rapprochement with the West.
The Qataris were shocked when Israeli jets on Sept. 9 conducted an airstrike in Doha targeting the leadership of Hamas. They then signed onto Trump’s peace plan at a meeting in New York Sept. 23, hosted by Trump and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Ibn Hamad Al Thani, and attended by the leaders of eight Arab states, along with members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Netanyahu was then browbeaten into accepting the plan (and also forced to apologize to the Emir for the airstrike). It was somewhat ironic that the airstrike made the peace plan possible. As well, Trump’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June gave this negotiation some very sharp teeth.
“If you would rather leave peacemaking to the historians and diplomats, then you may wait a long time for wars to end,” suggested Niall Ferguson of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, in an Oct. 15 Free Press article. His advice? Go to the “deal guys: They get the job done.”
In a sense, both Israel and Hamas had accomplished their goals. Israel had broken the Iranian axis of terror by eliminating Hezbollah and Hamas as a fighting force, along with the Iranian nuclear threat. Hamas had succeeded in luring Israel into a trap that led it to become hated and isolated around the world. This included the labelling of Israel as genocidal and the global call for a Palestinian state.
The rest of the 20-point peace plan will be addressed in a step-by-step fashion. Meanwhile, Israel must ensure that it retains freedom of action in Gaza, by decisive action against any attempt by Hamas to rebuild its army, its rockets, its battalions and its divisions.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
Why Fitness Routines Fall Apart — and How to Rebuild Yours
Every spring, gyms see a flood of hopeful faces. New shoes, fresh playlists, unwavering intentions, by mid-summer? Half of them vanish into the fog of abandoned routines. The story repeats year after year until it starts to feel almost scripted. Why does enthusiasm evaporate? The easy answer involves willpower but that explanation misses the point. Habits don’t fail because people are weak. Life stress, boredom, and monotony ruin routines. Timely lever pulls can change narratives. The hardest part is persevering when motivation wanes.
Mistaking Motivation for Momentum
Most chase that opening surge, the lightning strike of motivation, but then stop searching once enthusiasm fizzles. A scroll through sites like PUR Pharma (pur-pharma.is/) or a glimpse of an influencer’s progress triggers a burst of action: new workout gear ordered, plans scribbled in planners destined for dusty drawers. Yet momentum fades when small setbacks pop up (a late meeting here, rainy weather there). Real progress comes from building systems stronger than any fleeting pep talk. Those who frame fitness as something owed to motivation end up back at square one every time life interrupts, which it always does.
Overcomplicating Everything
It’s tempting to turn wellness into a science fair project with spreadsheets and specialized equipment lined up on day one. This is the allure of complexity disguised as seriousness, a new diet paired with seven types of supplements and four color-coded bottles. Simplicity gets lost in the noise almost instantly. Most successful routines rely on two principles: keep it simple and keep showing up even when everything else is chaos outside those gym walls. Anyone insisting that perfection is required before taking step one has already constructed an excuse not to begin at all.
Forgetting Fun Completely
Who decided exercise must hurt or look like punishment? Somewhere along the line, fun got swapped out for grind culture and “no pain, no gain.” That isn’t just unappealing, it’s unsustainable over months or years. If sessions feel like torture devices borrowed from medieval times, nobody should be surprised when commitment falters fast. Seek activities that actually spark some joy or curiosity, a dance class instead of yet another treadmill session, maybe, or play a pickup game rather than slogging through solo circuits again and again.
Ignoring Recovery (and Reality)
Sleep deprivation, disguised as discipline, fools anyone, except perhaps uncritical Instagram followers. Ignoring recovery turns ambition into tiredness faster than any missed session. Because bodies break without rest, routines must breathe with owners. Cycling, real leisure, and honest self-checks regarding weekly goals build endurance, not continual pushing.
Conclusion
Change rarely arrives by force alone but usually grows quietly from patterns repeated imperfectly over time, even if last month looked nothing like this week so far. Drop the hunt for nonstop inspiration. Instead of breaking behaviors at the first hint of stress or boredom, build habits that last. People who rebuild methodically after every stumble or detour make progress, not those who peak and then fall.
Features
How DIY Auto Repairs Can Help You Cut Costs—Safely
Regular maintenance and minor repairs are the greatest approach for many car drivers to save money without sacrificing dependability. DIY repairs can save you a lot of money over the life of your car since most of the expense is in the labour. DIY helps you learn how things work and notice tiny issues before they become costly ones. Every work requires planning, patience, and safety.
Test Your Talents with Safe Limits
DIY solutions succeed when one is honest about their talents. Wiper blades, air filters, and occupant filters are beginner-friendly. With the correct equipment, intermediate owners can replace brake pads, spark plugs, coolant, and brake fluid. Pressurized fuel, high-voltage hybrids, airbags, and timing components are risky. Only professionals should manage them. Limitations protect you and your car. Drivers trust sources like Parts Avenue to find, install, and schedule manufacturer-approved work.
Set Up a Reliable Workspace and Tools
Good tools pay for themselves quickly. Ratchets, torque wrenches, combination wrenches, heavy jack stands, and wheel chocks are essential. It is advisable to engage specialists for specific tasks. A clean, flat, well-lit, and open space is essential. Please take your time. While working, keep a charged phone nearby to read repair instructions or write torque patterns.
Find the Problem before Replacing the Parts
It may cost more to replace something without diagnosing it. Instead of ideas, start with symptoms. OBD-II readers detect leaks, sounds, and DTCs. Simple tests like voltage, smoke indicating vacuum leaks, pad thickness, and rotor runout might reveal failure. A good analysis saves components, protects surrounding parts, and fosters future trust.
Maintenance That Pays off is Most Crucial
Jobs compensate for time and tools differently. Prioritize returns and maintenance. Change the oil and filter, rotate the tires, evaluate the air pressure, replace low brake fluid, clean the coolant with the right chemicals, and replace belts and filters before they fail. These items extend automotive life, stabilize fuel efficiency, and reduce roadside towing issues that can take months to resolve.
Do as Instructed, Utilize Quality Parts, and Follow Torque Requirements
Understand the service. Set the jacking points, tighten the screws in the appropriate order, and use threadlocker or anti-seize as suggested by the maker. Rotor wear can cause leaks, distortions, or broken threads. Choose components that meet or exceed OEM requirements and fit your car’s VIN, engine code, and manufacturing date. Cheap parts that break easily cost extra.
Test, Record, and Discard Carefully
Safely test the system before patching. Check under the car for drops, bleed the brakes again, and check fluid levels after a short drive. Note torques, parts, miles, and repair date. Photo and document storage for car sales. Properly dispose of oil, filters, coolant, and brake fluid. Controlling hazards protects your community and workplace.
Know When to Seek Professional Help
Self-employed individuals recognize their constraints. If a task is challenging, requires special instruments, or involves safety, consult an expert. Collaboration makes cars safer, cheaper, and more efficient. Selecting, planning, and implementing processes properly improves performance, lowers costs, and ensures safety.