*This article first appeared in the Jerusalem Post and Yisrael Hayom   The American presidential elections have created an unprecedented climate of political chaos. Both candidates are reviled...

Are you tired of the Cold Weather...  Are you feeling that Cabin Fever...  Do you need a Break...    CURE:    Come to the Grant and Wilton Coffee House 2014 Season...

Following the death of my father in 1976, my mother spent her winters in Los Angeles at which time she volunteered at the Skirball Jewish Museum.   Having an Orthodox background, fluency in...

The Jewish National Fund is known for planting trees. Even though the scope of the environmental work the organization does is so broad, Tu Bi'Shevat is a time where the JNF returns to its roots...

The Rady Jewish Community Centre honoured its annual Ken H. Kronson Kehilla Award winners at its Annual General Meeting on December 16, 2013.   Rady JCC’s Ken H. Kronson Kehilla Awards...

I am reporting on the results to date of the 2013 Combined Jewish Appeal campaign and steps still to be taken in order to reach our goal. The relative success of the campaign should be of interest...

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-comedienne-faces-grandpas-nazi-past/

Six days after its membership voted to implement an academic boycott against Israeli universities, the American Studies Association’s Caucus on Academic and Community...

The Simkin Centre, under the leadership of the current chair Dr. Ted Lyons,  is now a beneficiary of the Jewish Federation, David Gisser, Chair of the Federation’s Planning...

[Editor's note:  On April 15  2009  this  piece I wrote on Honourable Justice Rosalie Abella was first  published as a feature story in the Jerusalem...

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief this week when I read an article prominently featured on Haaretz website entitled “The Warsaw Ghetto Myth”. The story asserts that the Warsaw Ghetto...

Alan Dershowitz  has said  that Israel should ignore international law when deciding how to deal with Iran. (Readers can see him say this in the video below). International law is “a...

The Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem completed in 1904  is 420 meters away from the David Citadel hotel , where Prime Minister Harper's delegation stayed during his hitoric...

I am going to set forth a proposal for a comprehensive study to be done by the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg with the financial support of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba for a strategic plan for...

The Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (CISA) has just completed its first community course entitled The History of Antisemitism. Thirty-two students participated over nine classes and...

Mohammad Reza Pourshajari (53) also known as Siamak Mehr is an Iranian blogger and political prisoner who is currently serving a 4 year prison sentence for “political crimes” including...

Former ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has asked the US Congress to consider withholding government funding for academic institutions that participate in the Boycott, Divestment...

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/A-Fresh-Perspective-Harper-and-Israel-335538  

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Canada-calls-for-dismissal-of-Richard-Falk-for-accusing-Israel-of-genocidal-intentions-335446  

  [Editor's note: Thank you to Rosalie Lazar for her information about my great grandfather David Spivak. I had never known he had immigrated to Johannesburg, and neither did my father...

        [Originally published in Ha'aretz Dec 17, 2013] The American Studies Association has just issued its first ever call for an academic boycott. No, it wasn’t...

[Editor's note: This was just recently published on the Ynet website] I often hear my grandfather, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, say that we are currently living in the greatest time...

    "Islam is everything or it is nothing" Ayatollah Khomeini, 1943   2015 Israel election: united Arab parties third largest in Knesset. Note the contrast. Israel is...

Editor's note: The video is very informative for those interested in thiis subject. Recommended  

Through donations from family, friends, and colleagues, an endowment fund has been established at the University of Manitoba in memory of Rabbi Dr. Moshe Stern. The Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary...

I came to the Saturday night Tarbut concert not as a Barbra Streisand fan, but a Heitha Forsyth fan. All my expectations were met – Forsyth put on a beautiful show. The concert featured a...

Ottawa– In response to the United Church of Canada’s boycott of Israeli companies, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has launched a campaign as part of its ongoing...

We are getting a little long in the tooth, and I am not talking about receding gums embellishing my brilliant smile. I am writing about the rushing winds of time about my ears, the unravelling...

Rabbi Michael Goldstein’s  Assimilation: Fight it? Accept it?  rebutting  Gabriel Roth’s piece, American Jews Are Secular, Intermarried, and Assimilated is found on the...

Vintage cars and a Jewish community that figured out a way to preserve its synagogues   I have been looking back at photos I took while in Cuba in 2009, when I would get up early at...

Ron Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), called upon Hillary Clinton to present the organization’s second annual Theodor Herzl Award to Marion and Elie Wiesel last month at...

Perhaps this question is better put by asking is Conservative Judaism that our parents and grandparents knew vanishing,  is that to be celebrated or mourned and if the latter,  can and...

Corne Jews were made to become grain speculators in Germany and blamed for rising food prices. The Antisemitic Corne Jew medal was first issued in Germany in 1694 and issued the last time in 1923...

This November, southern Israel marks one year since the IDF’s Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. It has been the quietest year in quite awhile, with “only” 79 rockets...

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Israel will always be able to count on Canada  for support, announcing plans to visit the Jewish state at the beginning of next year....

A new student group at Gray Academy has won a major human rights award. The Academy’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) will be presented with the Sybil Shack Human Rights Youth Award on December...

Most of the years I’ve known Patti Cohen (we’re not related), she has been traveling back and forth to the Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago, racking up...

I started my photography career in the photojournalism industry working my way up from the University of Manitoba’s student newspaper, The Manitoban, to being published in numerous...

http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-best-way-to-hook-a-jewish-family-is-through-its-tots/                     <div class="pG"...

[from http://www.imra.org.il] It is not clear to me why the White House and State Department websites have yet to post the actual 1,498 word English language text of the "Joint Action...

On Monday, November 18th, I attended the Rady JCC's Tarbut Festival to see the showing of the Israeli film "Matchmaker," which I found to be interesting, thoughtful and enjoyable....

The PEW report has commentators around the world sounding alarm bells. Some of the most learned and prestigious leaders and thinkers in the Jewish world are foretelling the waning of non-Orthodox...

This past, June I attended Shimon Peres's President's Conference in Jerusalem, which took place at Binyanei Hauma--the international conference centre in Jerusalem, located near the entrance...

David Hirsch knows how to begin a speech. He quoted a great statesman who once said, “I was asked to speak, and you are stuck in the audience. Hopefully we will finish at the same...

  (Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of 16 books about Jewish history.)         Melania Trump, the...

After 13 years of exemplary service as the Director of Spiritual Care at The Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre, Rabbi Dr. Neal Rose has announced his retirement. His last official day at the Centre...

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6712/palestinians-islamic-state

http://www.jpost.com/International/iNew-York-Timesi-apologizes-for-poor-choice-on-Atias-photo-332495

As they wrap up the final pieces of the High Holiday Campaign and work on various arrangements for next year's Negev Gala honouring Joseph Wilder, Q.C., the JNF Manitoba/Saskatchewan staff is...

Hirsch By Alon Nashman and Paul Thompson November 28 - December 14 2013 Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre “Gut-wrenching and emotionally charged… a tour-de-force” – Beat...

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/WillYourGrandchildrenBeJews/   ".. while 28% of children of intermarriage are being raised as Jews, only between 10% to 15% of this entire group...

With an unwavering belief in the power of endowment funds, and a deep commitment to the Jewish community of Winnipeg, Gail Asper and Michael Paterson have announced their pledge to endow their...

When you undergo a traumatic experience, especially at a young age, you remember details of that experience for the rest of your life. And so it was for so many on the day of the assassination of...

http://www.winnipegjewishreview.com/admin/article_edit.cfm?sec=2

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/06/crisis-lines-part-2-inside-leonard-aspers-fight-to-win-back-his-familys-tv-empire/

          As in everything in the Middle East, what you see is not always, what you get, and what you expect to happen will almost never be the way things turn out.By...

Ottawa, ON – Last Friday, a report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on the subject of Jewish refugees from Arab countries was tabled...

A Surprising Haven for Jews.   Editor's note: The story of how the Huguenots saved the Jews during Nazi times is one not that well known and worth retelling. Thank you to Noel Hershfield,...

[Alex Dashevsky, a student at the University of Manitoba who was studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem last summer has written about his experience coming from Israel to the...

Global anti-Semitism is a new phenomenon. It is the third major era of anti-Semitism, after the long religious one grounded in Christianity and Islam, and the modern, racist one that took full shape...

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/11/12/to-fight-assimilation-stop-dumbing-down-judaism/

Last winter in Jerusalem I wrote a series of articles covering the Women in Green Conference,  Mostly it was about the viability of annexing Judea and Samaria, that  portion of Israel...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4452788,00.html

In response to one of the strongest storms on record, that slammed into the central Philippines on Friday, November 8th, killing what authorities believe to be 10,000 people, while forcing an...

A tale of two student groups

The Winnipeg Jewish Review has recently interviewed former Winnipegger Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose, the son of Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose  on the subject of  Jewish engagment,creating a...

The Hon. James Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, The State Department, Washington D.C. Dear Secretary Kerry,   After listening to you declare repeatedly over the past weeks that...

Israel is heading for what could be its most severe confrontation with the United States, despite reassuring words from the Obama administration to the contrary. President Obama’s policies...

There is a recent article on Jews and affiliation: Where do we go from here?  by David Baugher published in  the Jewish Light that deals with how to increase synagogue affiliation...

On the day that marks 75 years since “Kristallnacht”: At a time when the US government courts Machmud Abbas, the time has come for the US government to demand that Abbas remove his...

The Beth Sha’ul Synagogue was founded in 1912 on Lorne Hill Road (next to the Maslovsky Farm) in the RM of Springfield in what was referred to as “Jew Town”. It was in the heart of...

“I am a proud supporter of Israel. It’s an honour and a responsibility and very exciting to me to be the new president of the Manitoba Region of the Canadian Associates of the Ben-Gurion...

Eytan played on the Israeli junior golf team while I played on the Israeli masters team. Eytan played exceptionally well earning the individual silver medal and team gold medal. After three rounds...

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is familiar to almost everyone; some would say much too familiar, as it seems incessant and intractable.  For many who have an opinion on the matter, a...

Brigitte Berman sought to soothe her pain by hiding in a closet. She wrapped her arms around her 13-year-old body as if to contain millions of fractured pieces. After enduring months of bullying at...

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/05/a-ceos-crisis-lines-inside-leonard-aspers-private-struggle-to-save-one-of-canadas-most-influential-companies/

Over 450 people attended the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba's Endowment Book of Life sold-out event on September 17, 2013. The event honoured 23 new signers of the Endowment Book...

The Combined Jewish Appeal and the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba are pleased to announce that long-time community leaders and philanthropists, Larry and Tova Vickar, have reached a milestone in...

I am not a Canadian soldier on patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan, or a US Special Forces commando on a special assignment in Pakistan, or an Israeli soldier on post near the border of Gaza. These...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/01/02/five-ways-the-trump-administration-can-negate-the-anti-israel-u-n-security-council-resolution/?utm_term=.1ee80778dd9d  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2479003/Jewish-delivery-man-awarded-900k-damages-Nazi-gas-chamber-jokes.html

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. It has been rumbling under surface, flashing in and out of my mind. I’ve needed time to digest the complexities, dealing with the past and...

The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba  recently authorized a grant to the Jewish Federation  of  $27,000 to conduct a comprehensive study to see if the Judaics program at ...

Why am I writing about this, sometimes obsessed with our weight and shape, aren’t we? I like to eat. That is a serious understatement of the facts. I LOVE to eat. I come by it rightly. My...

 “Will you still love me,” I begged, “when I have no more storage space to offer” Refugees from Winnipeg, Canada, the Great White North, we have been living in Ireland,...

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Report-German-authorities-find-haul-of-masterworks-seized-by-Nazis-valued-at-1-billion-euros-330529

Yesterday, Israel’s outgoing National Security Advisor, Yaakov Amidror, said that if peace talks with the Palestinians fail, Israel’s international standing will worsen. Though he...

The recent Pew Research Center survey of American Jews has ignited discussions extending from gloomy predictions of the inevitable demise of Diaspora Jewry by assimilation to optimism over the...

WINNIPEG - November 4, 2013 - The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open its doors to the world on September 20, 2014, its President and CEO announced today at a briefing with industry...

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Outrage+erupts+over+Holocaust+memorabilia+posted+eBay/9118765/story.html

The 25-member Winnipeg Federation Mission arrived in Israel on October 21st under leadership of Joel and Faye Lazer.  The group visited The Interdisciplinary Centre (IDC) in Herzliya, where...

Dr. E. A. Lyons, OC, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre (operated by the Sharon Home Inc.), is pleased to announce that Irwin Corobow has been selected as the...

http://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/israel-middle-east/adl-lists-top-ten-anti-israel-groups-in-america.html New York, NY, October 21, 2013 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today...

“Gisha” - the Hebew word for “access”-, an organization financed in part by the New Israel Fund, conducts campaigns to demand that Israel provide unrestricted supply of...

    This week Israel marked the 17th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At various events, there were speakers who recalled their personal relationship with...

http://mobile.wnd.com/2013/10/jews-fight-u-s-iraq-obama-over-stolen-torahs/#pKRvCKt2vOWlttZ5.99

http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg-teen-who-burned-jewish-girl-s-hair-will-be-sentenced-in-january-1.1511822

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s recent U.N. visit was not the first time a top Iranian official succeeded in hoodwinking the West and especially its leading newspapers and media outlets....

Oman has been named as Iran's representative in Canada which means they will look after Iran's affairs and interests including consulate affairs. Last June Canada cut all diplomatic ties...

Twenty-six year old Ayah Norris, who was born in Winnipeg, is a vivacious and passionate young woman with two fascinating careers. Norris is a fourth generation Winnipegger. Her grandparents are...