I am alarmed by Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman’s call to stop Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour from speaking in his community. I am a rabbi. I have been involved with Jewish communal life and with Israel for fifty years. At this moment I am writing from Israel, where I lived for four years. I arrived here this morning to participate in a Jewish project of solidarity next week with Palestinians in the West Bank who struggle daily for their very existence.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin/the book which will serve as the basis of his talk at the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Synagogue May 9
By BERNIE BELLAN One of the most important lessons I gleaned from reading Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s book, “Words That Hurt, Words That Heal – How the Words You Choose Shape Your Destiny”, is the long-lasting impact that a thoughtless remark can have on someone – even years after it was delivered. In his book, which was first published in 1996, then republished just this year, Rabbi Telushkin offers a remarkable series of anecdotes to illustrate that point. If I had to single one particular story out for how much it resonated, it is a story he tells of the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.
Rabbi Steven Wernick (left), Rabbi Shalom Schachter
By GERRY POSNER
On February 8, 2019, a piece of history appeared before my eyes, although this little moment might never have been noticed by most people in the synagogue service at Beth Tzedec Synagogue that Shabbat morning. As I sat in the chapel looking at the bimah, in front of me were two rabbis - the newest member of the Beth Tzedec clergy: Rabbi Steven Wernick and another rabbi who has been with Beth Tzedec as an interim rabbi for several years now, Rabbi Shalom Schachter. On the face of it, that there are two rabbis in the same space for a service on a given Shabbat might not be that surprising.
Guy Rozin heading to the net for Israel at the recent Under-18 Division III Championship, held in Bulgaria
By SCOTT TAYLOR
It would not be a stretch to say that the Rozin family is Canadian now. Readers of The Jewish Post & News might recall that three years ago, Bernie Bellan introduced you to Roie Rozin, his wife Pnina and their three kids, who had decided to move to Canada because middle child Guy had a special skill.
Wayne Hoffman's great-grandparents, David & Sarah Feinstein/Wayne Hoffman
By WAYNE HOFFMAN (Executive Edior, Tablet Magazine) While I was doing research for a book about my great-grandmother’s murder, I discovered stories I’d never heard about my great-grandfather–stories of gambling, wild horses, organized crime, and a forgotten slice of Jewish life on the Canadian prairies. My great-grandmother Sarah Feinstein was murdered on Aug. 1, 1913, in Winnipeg’s “Hebrew Colony.” The city’s only unsolved homicide that year, it made the Canadian newspapers from Toronto to Vancouver, in English and Yiddish. The Winnipeg Tribune called it “without doubt one of the most mysterious occurrences ever recorded in the annals of this city.”
Jolene Norton Neufeld with daughter, Heidi and husband, Dustin
By MYRON LOVE Jolene Norton Neufeldt needs your help! The eldest granddaughter of Evelyn and the late Dr. David Pearlman – who many readers of certain age will undoubtedly remember – is in need of a liver and double lung transplant which requires her and her family to move to Toronto for at least a year or more. As we all know, Toronto, even under the best of circumstances is an expensive place to live. To help pay the bills while Jolene and her family are waiting in Toronto for the transplant, she has created a GoFundMe page( http://gf.me/u/rxua63).
By Rabbi DAVID MIVASAIR
