By MYRON LOVE
Since the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2005 designated January 27 – the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – as the date for the annual commemoration of the Holocaust, communities around the world have been planning events on or around that date to continue to raise awareness of the greatest evil of the 20th century and remember the victims.
The centerpiece of this year’s commemoration - in Winnipeg – of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - was the story of Holocaust survivor Leo Lowy. Roughly 500 people gathered at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on the afternoon of Sunday, January 26, to hear his story.

By MYRON LOVE
The fifth annual Shabbat Unplugged Leadership Retreat – which took place on the weekend of January 10-12 – was the most successful to date. Asper School of Business student Einat Livni, who assisted Hillel Winnipeg director Hartley Mendelsohn, reports that this year’s retreat at Hecla attracted 130 university students and young adults, including eight from UBC in Vancouver and seven from the University of Calgary.

In a press release issued Thursday, January 30, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba announced the appointment of John Diamond as its new CEO. Diamond is scheduled to begin his new role on Monday, February 10, 2020.
A lifelong resident of Winnipeg, Diamond’s appointment follows a period of more than a year in which the Foundation had no CEO.
Despite not having a CEO, the Foundation managed to continue operating successfully - having received $7.5 million in new contributions in the 2018 fiscal year, and having allocated a record $4,558,794 in grants during that period - up $13,055 from the previous year.

By MYRON LOVE

Once upon a time, Elisa Hategan was a protégé of noted Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel and White Supremacist leader and Canadian Heritage Front founder Wolfgang Droege.
Today, she is a member in good standing of Canada’s Jewish community and a frequent voice against the very concepts with which she was formerly identified.
On the weekend of February 29-March 1, Hategan will be in Winnipeg – for the first time – at Limmud (at the Asper Jewish Community Centre) speaking about her journey from the dark to the light and her path to Judaism.

By BERNIE BELLAN
Originally published in the Feb. 5 issue of the JP&N

The one story that has preoccupied me most in recent weeks has been the impending sale of the portion of Town Island that is not owned by BB Camp, but which is owned by the City of Kenora. I am now glad to report that, at least for the time being, the sale of Town Island has been averted – not because the City of Kenora dropped the idea of selling it; rather, it was because Kenora did not receive one single “expression of interest” in buying the island, according to an email I received from Kenora’s Manager of Development Service, Adam Smith.

By MYRON LOVE
According to Rabbi Allan Finkel, there has been a long-standing pattern of denying the existence of addiction within the established Jewish community.
As recently as 1995, Temple Shalom’s new spiritual leader reported, a study of addiction in England’s Jewish community concluded that the problem didn’t exist in the community. It has only been within the past 25 years that Jewish communities in North America have taken the problem seriously and been making efforts to help community members struggling with addiction.
Finkel addressed the issue at a presentation on Tuesday, January 14, at the Asper Campus Adult Lounge as part of a series of Rady JCC-initiated monthly talks featuring local rabbis speaking about contemporary issues.