Guest speakers during May 4-9 event
clockwise from top left:
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Deborah Lipstadt
Rosalie Abella, Elisha Wiesel

“How will we keep the Holocaust relevant when there are no survivors left to tell their stories?”

APRIL 27, 2021 (Toronto, Canada) – One week today, Liberation75 will host a free, virtual event from May 4-9 to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation from the Holocaust.

Rabbi Matthew Leibl

April 29, 2021 By BERNIE BELLAN In what must have come as a shock, not only for members of Shaarey Zedek Congregation, but for most of Winnipeg’s Jewish community as well, Gary Hyman, President of SZ Congregation, announced on April 27 that Rabbi Matthew Leibl will not be renewing his contract when it expires at the end of June this year.

Chris SkyA notorious anti-masker (also Holocaust denier and outright racist) by the name of Chris Sky (whose real name is Chris Saccoccia) is scheduled to speak at the CN Stage in The Forks on Sunday, April 25. Click on Read more to see samples of his racist Facebook posts.

Israeli underwater photographer
Amous Nachoum (right)
had a lifelong obsession
with photographing polar bears
in their natural environment - underwater!

By BERNIE BELLAN Two and a half years ago we published a story by Martin Zeilig about a new documentary produced by Nancy Spielberg about an incredibly brave Israeli deep sea photographer by the name of Amos Nachoum. From April 22-29 you can watch that amazing documentary at https://youtu.be/TCLUq_4BoFU. Click on Read more to find out about how this film was made and how you can interact with the film's director, Yonatan Nir on April 29.

By ADAM SCHWARTZ What do a burlesque dancer, a poet, and a comedian have in common? It turns out quite a lot in fact. For one thing they are all on the International Autism Variety show happening this Friday, April 23, at 7 pm.

teacher Karla Dueck Thiessen

We received the following press release from Karla Dueck Thiessen, who is a teacher at Brock Corydon School: Ms. Karla Dueck Thiessen and her students from Brock Corydon School are thrilled to announce that their book, It Starts With A Breath…a book about mindful breathing has been translated into Spanish! Students in the Grade 6 Hebrew Bilingual program are now working to translate the book into Hebrew.

Luba Yurchenko
owner - Fantasy Cakes
530 Waterloo (at Corydon)

By BERNIE BELLAN In our Dec. 9, 2020 issue Rebeca Kuropatwa reported on the success that a recent Israeli émigré to Winnipeg, Luba Yurchenko, had found selling her own baking in Winnipeg.

Peter Leipsic

Gordon Bell High School, located in Winnipeg’s inner-city, is a thriving Grade 7-12 school whose strength lies in the diversity and resiliency of the students it serves. “Our Stories of Hope” project honours the diversity of the Gordon Bell community, which includes representation from 57 cultural groups, and is dedicated to giving Gordon Bell students the opportunity to tell their personal stories.

Chesed edited 1By BERNIE BELLAN It was just over a little over two years ago that the Chesed Shel Emes (the Winnipeg Jewish community’s burial society) launched a capital campaign, with the intent to build “a new facility to meet the needs of the Jewish community for many years to come,” an announcement in the May 10, 2019 issue of this paper said.

posner gerryBy GERRY POSNER As I was reading through the book “Healing Lives” by Eva Wiseman, one section grabbed my attention and indeed one line in particular on page 424. It seems that as many as 20 percent of the Jewish medical graduates from the Faculty of Medicine in Manitoba went into psychiatry. That means one out of every five chose this area to pursue a career. How unusual is that? Or is it?

Gail Nep

By MYRON LOVE After more than 40 years immersed in the world of art, Gail Nep has cut back somewhat on her activities.
“I can’t do the schlepping I used to do when I was younger,” she says, recalling the days when she could be found crossing Portage and Main lugging paintings of different sizes to the offices of corporate clients downtown.

1966 Peretz School graduating class
To see full list of names
click on "Read more"

By MYRON LOVE Class reunions are most often a once (or twice)in a life time event. I myself have attended two smallish reunions of my Peretz School cohort as well as Aberdeen School’s 100th anniversary and St. Johns High School’s 75th and 100th anniversaries. While many welcome the opportunity to reconnect with former classmates – and others not so much – several members of the I.L. Peretz Folk School class of ’63 have in recent years made class reunions a regular happening.

Screenshot of First Shaarey Zedek
seder, held March 27
(l-r): Dr. Ashira Meyers Mass, Ronen Mass
Rabbi Anibal Mass, Tzivie Meyers

By MYRON LOVE The Shaarey Zedek congregation’s second annual Covid-necessitated virtual community Pesach seder on Sunday, March, 27th, has attracted nearly 1,000 viewers thus far – counting those who signed on in real time and those who watched later.
“Our numbers are well up from last year,” reports Rabbi Anibal Mass, who hosted the seder. “So far, we have had 631 views on Youtube and another 300 on Facebook.”

 

Ursula Muerton
a.k.a. "Agent Sonya"

Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN I happened to have the radio on one Saturday afternoon – more as background noise than anything, when Elanor Wachtel’s CBC program on books, “Writers & Company”, came on. Normally I don’t pay attention to Wachtel’s program because it requires paying complete attention to the radio – something which I rarely do unless I’m out for a walk. However, as soon as Wachtel began to introduce her guest, a writer by the name of Ben Macintyre, the subject matter immediately grabbed my interest. Here is how she introduced Macintyre:

By BERNIE BELLAN In what became a somewhat confusing sequence of events, after much consternation expressed by various parties representing different sections of the Jewish community, a motion that had been introduced by the University of Manitoba Faculty Association to “oppose the adoption or use of the IHRA definition at the University of Manitoba and elsewhere” has apparently been put on hold for the time being.

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