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An interview with Sam McLean, new General Manager of Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, on the launch of the theatre’s 35th season
By ALON WEINBERG Sam McLean may be new to the position of general manager of the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, but he’s no stranger to the organization, which opened its 35th season with Hannah Moscovitch’s musical, “Old Stock,” on October 29th. Officially taking over as GM August 1st with the departure of previous theatre head Ari Weinberg, McLean enthusiastically welcomed patrons back indoors to the Berney Theatre for Old Stock’s preview show on Oct. 27th for the first time since “Two Birds One Stone” played in February 2020 on the eve of the global pandemic.
McLean began with the WJT as its box office administrator in 2018, moving on to assistant producer and then up to a full producer in November 2021, before taking over as general manager in time for the launch of the new season. I asked Sam about whether taking over as manager so close to the launch of the first post-pandemic season created a challenging transition for the theatre, to which he explained the transition has been a smooth one:
“The main thing is we’re interviewing for our next artistic director and hopefully we’ll have some info to share about that soon but right now it’s still in that interview process. As it is, we had the fortune that (former manager) Ari (Weinberg) has always had a lot of long-term season planning. So, we had this whole season all locked down before everything changed with him moving to the new position at Stratford Festival. So the nice thing is that this is his last programmed season, and as the next artistic director comes on, they’ll kind of inherit that and have their own season announcement coming up.”
This 35th season features “Old Stock,“ which ended its run Nov. 6; “Narrow Bridge” in March 2023 by local playwright Daniel Thau-Eleff (which had been scheduled for April 2020 and cancelled due to Covid-19); “Summer of Semitism” by Ori Black; and Deborah Yarchun’s “A Pickle,” which will be held in the theatre’s outdoor tent first assembled and used for shows in 2021.
I asked Sam about the sort of shows the theatre puts on, noting that “Old Stock” had a raunchy edge, with more gutter-talk than one might expect from a theatre with many older patrons.
“In the last 4 years that I’ve been at the theatre, we’ve always had a wide variety in the kind of shows that we put on, and that’s especially the case with this season. It’s this dark but also very light and silly musical to start things off, and then the different shows all bring something very different quality-wise. Our outdoor show A Pickle is really sweet and heartwarming. Narrow Bridge is really interesting because not only is the person discovering their identity through gender, but through their relationship to Orthodox Judaism. Summer of Semitism is a wonderful show for how it puts so much suspense into things that you have such grounded faith in with friendships being on the line based on how people want to highlight a crisis. Each one of them balances out a different flavour to the overall quality of the season.”
The last couple of years under pandemic-driven public health restrictions were not easy for any entertainment-based sectors of the economy, especially live theatre, but the WJT adapted like many others, producing both online and outdoor performances. Past popular show “Becoming Dr. Ruth” was screened digitally, as was “True Colors” during the 2020-2021 season, as much of the world moved online. “Dear Jack, Dear Louise” was the first outdoor live theatre show that WJT staged, in June 2021, followed by “The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk” and “Chutzpah and Salsa” returning to the tent in June of this year to conclude the 2021-2022 season, which also included “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother” online.
After witnessing Sam’s enthusiasm during his show introduction to Old Stock before the first indoor show in over two and a half years, I asked Sam to expound upon his feelings on being back inside:
“It’s just such a wonderful thing… it’s as if we’d never been gone. Coming back to the Berney Theatre, it is WJT’s home base. And being there with the crowd giving the pre-show speech, as I’ve done before, as Ari had done before, everything just clicks and goes along – and it’s not to say that our shows didn’t run well in our outdoor setup; we’ll be doing one again this summer – but it’s just nice that we’ve got that reliable setup that we know so well and we’ve been missing in this time that we’ve been away. Indoor live theatre is just what we know best. So, it was really nice to return to that.”
Judging from the opening crowd of Old Stock, patrons of The Winnipeg Jewish Theatre were just as eager to return to the Berney Theatre, with nearly all patrons still taking care to mask-up. If you haven’t been back, an excellent season of theatre is well under way. Sam McLean and a creative lineup of shows are waiting to welcome you back.
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Lindsey Graham urges Israel not to strike Iranian oil depots even as he says he helped make war happen
(JTA) — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has called on Israel to rein in its attacks on Iranian oil infrastructure, marking a rare note of caution from a Republican lawmaker who has said he helped push the United States to join Israel in waging war against Iran.
In a post on X on Sunday, Graham praised Israel for its role in the war before adding that “there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous ayatollah’s regime.”
“In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select,” continued Graham. “Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Graham’s post linked to an Axios article that reported that the United States was alarmed by Israeli strikes over the weekend that targeted 30 Iranian fuel depots. On Monday, U.S. gas prices rose to their highest levels since 2024.
The warning from Graham, an ally of President Donald Trump and staunch supporter of Israel, comes days after the Republican hawk told the Wall Street Journal that he had played a key role in urging Trump to strike Iran.
Prior to the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, Graham made several trips to Israel where he met with members of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom he said he coached on how to lobby Trump to strike Iran.
“They’ll tell me things our own government won’t tell me,” Graham told the newspaper.
On Monday, Graham also directed his criticism at Saudi Arabia’s decision to stay on the sidelines of the campaign against Iran.
“It is my understanding the Kingdom refuses to use their capable military as a part of an effort to end the barbaric and terrorist Iranian regime who has terrorized the region and killed 7 Americans,” wrote Graham in a post on X Monday. “Question – why should America do a defense agreement with a country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is unwilling to join a fight of mutual interest?”
The post Lindsey Graham urges Israel not to strike Iranian oil depots even as he says he helped make war happen appeared first on The Forward.
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Belgian officials investigating synagogue explosion as possible act of terrorism
(JTA) — Belgian officials are investigating an explosion in front of a synagogue in Liège early Monday as a possible act of terrorism.
The explosion, which took place at 4 a.m., damaged the door of the historic neo-Romanesque synagogue and blew out the windows of multiple buildings across the street. No injuries were reported.
A range of Belgian politicians, including the prime minister and the mayor of Liège, characterized the explosion as act of antisemitism.
“Antisemitism is an attack on our values and our society, and we must fight it unequivocally,” Prime Minister Bart de Wever said in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community in Liege and across the country.”
The explosion comes amid a surge of concern about possible attacks by agents associated with the Iranian regime, against which the United States and Israel launched a war last week. Iran has a long record of supporting attacks on Jewish targets abroad, including two bombings in the 1990s in Argentina that killed more than 100 people at the Israeli embassy and a Jewish community center. Now, with Iran being pummeled at home, watchdogs are warning that it might lash out through its Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, responsible for attacks abroad.
Azerbaijan said Friday that it had foiled multiple terror attacks planned by Iranian agents on Jewish sites. In London, four men were arrested last week for allegedly spying on the Jewish community for Iran, with the intent of planning attacks against the community. And a string of shootings at synagogues in Toronto has ignited concern in Canada, too.
Iranian agents have taken aim at non-Jewish targets, too. On Friday, a Pakistani man who prosecutors said had been directed by Iran’s IRGC was convicted of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump.
The attack in Liège, in the primarily French-speaking Wallonia province, comes amid a range of recent developments that have unsettled Belgian Jews, who number approximately 30,000. They include antisemitic carnival caricatures in the city of Aalst; a ban on ritual slaughter preventing the local production of kosher meat; and an ongoing row between U.S. and Belgian officials over Jewish circumcision practices. The attack also follows a 2014 shooting in which a gunman associated with the Islamic State, a rival to Iran’s Islamic Republic, shot four people to death at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
A spokesperson for the Liège police described the effects to the area as “only material damage” to the 1899 building. Rabbi Joshua Nejman told local media that he was hoping that security footage would reveal the perpetrator.
“I’m going to try to calm my heart, because it is beating faster and faster this morning,” said Nejman, who said he had been at the synagogue for 25 years.
“Liege is home to a very small but vibrant Jewish community where I personally grew up,” Eitan Bergman, vice president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations in Belgium, told Reuters. “Today, the feelings among our community members are a mixture of sadness, worry and profound shock.”
Liege’s mayor, Willy Demeyer, praised the synagogue community to RBTF, Belgium’s French-language national broadcaster. He added, “We cannot allow foreign conflicts to be imported into our city.”
The post Belgian officials investigating synagogue explosion as possible act of terrorism appeared first on The Forward.
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The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2025
In honor of The Algemeiner‘s 12th annual gala, we are proud to present our “J100” list — 100 individuals who have positively influenced Jewish life over the past year.