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Martin Silvert is a Barbra Streisand superfan
By MYRON LOVE When Martin Silvert says that he “should have been a show business journalist”, the lifelong Winnipegger isn’t kidding. He reports that he has 1100 movies on his shelves.
“Oscar night is sacred to me,” he says. I have so far watched every single show since 1962 without missing one.”
He further notes that he has seen over 100 plays on Broadway – musicals are his favourites – and more on the London stage.
And the celebrities he has met! The list includes Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft (“lovely people”, he says), Jack Lemmon, “Sweeney Todd” stars Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou, Ann Miller, Glenda Jackson, Peter O’Toole, Maggie Smith Bill Macy (of “Maude” fame), Florence Henderson, Christopher Reeve, Jack Gilbert, and Kaye Ballard to name a few.
“I once ran into Ray Bolger (the scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz”) walking down the street in New York,” he recalls.
“And Molly Picon (who was also a star of the Yiddish theatre) was one of my favourites.”
However, the brightest star in the entertainment firmament for Silvert is – and always has been Barbra Streisand. His home is a shrine to the star. He has all of Streisand’s movies, all her records and CDs, framed photos, posters, news clippings and much more.
Silvert has also been fortunate in that he has been able to see his transcendent star live in concert six times – twice each in Las Vegas, Florida and Washington, DC. (Bonus points – at one of the Washington concerts, he was sitting just seven rows behind Bill and Hillary Clinton. He was there with a friend who was originally from Little Rock and who used to baby sit Chelsea Clinton.)
He also sends Streisand birthday cards every year. Although he has never received a reply nor has he ever met her in person, he is not deterred in his admiration for her.
“She has a team that screens everything and everyone,” he offers.
So where did this fascination with Streisand begin for Silvert? Martin recalls the first time that he heard Streisand singing. It was 1964, and the young son of the late Edward and Dorothy Silvert was home for lunch when the then-elementary school student first heard Streisand singing “People” on the radio.
He was hooked.
“As soon as I heard that voice, “he recalls, “I dropped my grilled cheese sandwich and ran to the radio. I have been a fan ever since.”
His expertise and renown as the go-to guy for everything Streisand is such that when Columbia Pictures and Sony Music still had Canadian offices in Toronto, they would send him promotions on everything. “I had my own early advance screening of ‘The Prince of Tides,’ and when ‘The Mirror has Two Faces’ opened,” he recounts, “they wanted me to invite friends to the first screening here, which really was a lot of fun. They called me up to the front of the then Garrick theatre and they had a contest to stump me on what I knew. Needless to say, I can’t be stumped. There is nothing virtually I don’t know about Barbra. When you’re a fan for that long, you know everything.”
Now, I wouldn’t want readers to get the impression that Martin Silvert’s life has only been about Streisand. He did work for 30 years for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool as a grain trader – followed by seven more years for Anheuser Busch. He retired to look after his aged and ailing parents.
Over ten years – prior to the onset of Covid, he volunteered at the Simkin Centre, where his mother was a resident for a couple of years before her passing.
“I really enjoyed volunteering at the Simkin Centre, helping residents with lunch, manicures and on outings to the park,” he says.
In fact, the Simkin Centre’s last program, pre-Covid, featured Silvert sharing his knowledge and passion concerning Streisand with appreciative residents.
“I have missed my volunteering at the Simkin Centre and am hoping to return when conditions permit,” he says.
He is also eager to get back to New York City – “my home away from home,” he says – and to Los Angeles, so that he can use his Academy Award Museum membership and walk on the Barbra Streisand Bridge at the museum.
And Streisand fans, Silvert notes, are eagerly anticipating the release of a rumoured new CD from the soon-to-be 80-year-old diva. (Her birthday is April 24, Silvert reveals.)
One final anecdote from Silvert has to do with Streisand’s performance in Winnipeg very early in her career. According to a Winnipeg Free Press story from 2006, she was booked to play the Town ‘n Country, a famous local establishment, in 1961. While the then 19-year-old received a positive review from then-leading Winnipeg entertainment writer Gene Telpner, Silvert noted in the Free Press story that Town ‘n Country owner Auby Galpern didn’t like her manner or her clothes and fired her before her booking was over, saying that “she would never make it in the business”.
“A year later, she was debuting on Broadway,” Silvert notes.
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Musings from Dizengoff Street – by Bruce Brown
(August 8, 2026)
Outside Basimta Café in Central Jerusalem. Love the red shirt against a tiny sea of black. Not sure I am shrugging because of the ultra-orthodox uproar over a Jerusalem café operating on Shabbat or the lack of an ultra-orthodox uproar over a Jerusalem café operating on Shabbat. For the last six weeks Israeli headlines shouted about the cafe chaos. With the ultra-religious blocking entrances and storming the café. While shouting ‘Shabbos! Shabbos!’ Upsetting the secular amongst us just wanting to enjoy our Saturday iced matchas. So the wife and I thought we would check it out. And. Yes. Buy something to support the business. Uproar. Not. Blocked entrances. Not. Storming the café. Not. Albeit there were police barriers separating the devout protesters from the coffee drinkers. The protesters being just a few dozen black clad, pious Jews. Mostly teenagers. And yes. Shouting ‘Shabbos! Shabbos!’ Certainly underwhelming in its reported mayhem. Reminds me of the famous saying misattributed to Mark Twain – “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do, you’re misinformed.” But I did enjoy my iced matcha.
(August 6, 2026)
Here we go again. Another round of forever negotiations. As someone who negotiates for a living. The way things are going in the straits. If I had to recommend a book on the subject to a new hire. Between The Art of the Deal, A Presidential Edition by Donald J. Trump or The Real Art of the Deal by the Mullahs of Iran with a special forward by the IRGC. Well. I would choose the latter.
(August 3)
Bravo Yoav Segalovitz, Liberal Yesh Atid MK and Monsour Abbas, United Arab Ra’am MK and party head. For breaking a glass ceiling where a Jewish lawmaker joins an Arab political party. No less a political earthquake in my little shtetl. Which can significantly impact coalition block arithmetic and posturing and strategy in the upcoming elections. Now Ra’am can be considered a legitimate ‘Zionist’ partner when forming coalition blocks and potentially pushing the ‘center left/right’ party over the 60 seat majority threshold. In our crazy parliamentary democracy defined by a multi-party (about fourteen!!), proportional representation system. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Israel’s proportional representation model of governance is the best parliamentary democracy system except for all other forms of working democracies. Stay tuned for more amateurish political musings as we move towards Israel’s 26th national election – five of them held since 2019.
(August 1)
Although both sides say they are open to diplomacy. Neither really trusts the other. And American military action, or its threat, continues. I read headlines in the middle of the night -it’s a nervous habit lately– that the Dynamic Duo of Trump and Netanyahu may again strike in unison. Possibly this weekend. Yikes! Prompting me, at 2:30 AM, to dash around the house stocking my safe room. Bottled water. Canned food. Medicines. Documents. The beat goes on….
If it’s crazy here. It’s insane in Italy. With a recent online ‘Jew Hunt’ in the Milan area. Before being removed, the digital forms urged reportings of Israelis and Italian Jews staying in local hotels. The infamous Global Sumud Movement -yes, the one coordinating ‘peace and humanitarian’ flotillas to Gaza- was somehow connected. Although they deny involvement?! This deranged decree was looking to identify Zionist tourism and Zionist neo-colonization in Italy. I’ll stick with stocking the saferoom.
Then there’s New York Mayor Mamdani, a Global Sumud Movement supporter, threatening to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu if he comes to New York. But since discovered he has no legal right for such a grandstanding, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-democratic antic. Maybe Mandami should be arrested! Or at least impeached. For being a grandstanding, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-democratic mayor.
Here’s a post Bruce sent us Friday, July 31:
WARTIME MUSINGS
Should credible threats against FLOTUS and ‘FSOTUS’ (first son..) not be justification to attack first.
As for yesterday’s summit. Netanyahu really can’t win. Explainer. If Trump now attacks without victory its ’cause of Netanyahu. If Trump now attacks with victory its ’cause of Trump. And, in Israel, if Trump doesn’t attack -victory or not- Netanyahu failed in his eighth meeting with Trump. And if Trump does attack -victory or not- half the country will vilify Bibi anyway. Missing a permutation?
Ya. I know. Kinda’ need a definition of victory for that musing to work.
And here in my little shtetle. We go to sleep unsure if there will be a code red in the middle of the night. And if not. We wake up thinking it will be tonight. How do you define stress?
Seemed like an appropriate way to end this musing.
Bruce Brown is a former Winnipegger who made aliyah to Israel over 35 years ago. Bruce first began writing for us – in his own inimitable style, in 2012, during what was known as “Operation Pillar of Defense.” His occasional musings on aspects of life in Israel that were far from what you’d typically read in other reports from Israel were hugely popular – both in the print Jewish Post & News and on this website.
We’re now glad to report that Bruce is back writing for us – this time on a regular basis. We will post Bruce’s reports as they arrive – with the date of each post at the beginning of that post.
Here’s some information about Bruce – and awards he’s received for his writing:
Bruce Brown. Canadian born. Now living in Israel (for a long time). Bruce works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. He received the American Jewish Press Association’s award for writing excellence in 2019 and 2025. And wrote the 1998 satire, “An Israeli is….” Bruce’s musings are political, social, economic and personal. With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight.
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