Dear Community Members, 

As we look forward to the season of growth and renewal, we celebrate the holiday of Tu B’Shevat (New Year for the Trees) in February. 

Dear Community Members,

It has been an exciting and successful year at Federation. There is a sense of renewal and growth, as we strive to continually meet the needs of our community.

"My life was like James Bond. I never knew what the day would bring." Moshe Dayan's ex-wife visits her old circle on its 90th anniversary.

Israel has deployed a powerful new strategy against the latest wouldbe Gaza flotilla activists: Bore them to death

When I was in Bethlehem in August 2009 during the Fatah-PLO convention, I noticed the front of the majestic looking five star Intercontinental Hotel where Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and company were staying at the time.

“I was 17 years old during the six day war and I remember the hareda ( fear) of an existential threat on Israel…

“In May 1967 [leading up to the six-day war]..there was a real fear in Germany that we would see another Holocaust …It was a subject that Germans couldn’t live with,” recalls  Dr. H.C. Asher Ben-Natan, who was Israel’s Ambassador to Germany during the six-day war.

Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral...

The history of the Holocaust is being undermined by Holocaust Obfuscation, a sophisticated new movement emanating from some East European countries and their spokespersons internationally.

The terrorists on the West Bank who murdered the Fogel family and the war criminals from Gaza who aimed sophisticated mortars at a school bus had the support of an American academic who is widely admired by Palestinians, Europeans and radical Americans. Norman Finkelstein didn't wield the knife that

Dear Mr. President, During your recent meeting with American Jewish communal leaders, you reassured them of “America’s unshakable support for Israel’s security, opposition to any effort to delegitimize it or single it out for criticisms, and commitment to achieve a peace that will secure the future for Arabs and Israelis alike.”

The lower Manhattan mosque has provoked many doubts and suspicions. Here’s mine: the whole thing is a phony-baloney publicity stunt by a developer in search of project financing.

Editor's note: The Winnipeg Jewish Review is reprinting four recent articles by David Frum, author, political commentator, and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, 2001-2002 who is this year’s Distinguished Sol and Florence Kanee Lecturer for the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. 

First published in Jerusalem Post, March 6, 2010.

The organizers of “Israel Apartheid Week” [claim that Israel is guilty of apartheid], yet the arguments against their charge are overwhelming. In fact, given the difficulty in applying the apartheid model to Israel, one wonders what the true hidden agenda is behind this campaign. 

It's too early to learn all the possible lessons -- and there will be many -- from the current turmoil throughout the Middle East, but one important lesson is that there is only one democracy that the United States can always count on to remain a strong ally. That democracy is Israel. No one knows whether any or all of the Arab states that are currently in flux will pull an "Iran" on us -- turning from friend to foe in the blink of an Ayatollah.

Iran has been seeking to establish that it is the hegemonial power in the Middle East. Its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave an interview to the Iranian daily Ressalat on July 7, 1991, and asked a rhetorical question: “Do we look to preserve the integrity of our land, or to we look to its expansion?”

Former Winnipeggers Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton University and Brent Sasley, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington, wrote an article in November 2010 published in the Huffington Post entitled “West Bank Settler’s buy in”

In response to an alarming rise in anti-Semitic statements, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has released its “Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2010.” 

Shortly after Sarah Palin provoked a barrage of criticism for her use of the term "blood libel," a Democratic Congressman named Steve Cohen compared Republican statements about the Obama health care reform to "the big lie" told by Joseph Goebbels, saying it's "like [a] blood libel. The same kind of thing."

Life can be utterly exhausting.  I’m not sure what it is, but I’m a pretty high energy individual and rarely feel the need for a nap or to put my feet up, but I must say

Israel is the focus of the cover story on this week’s The Economist, the prestigious British newsweekly, that is extremely influential in elite circles in the US as well. There is a picture of President Barak Obama leaning his head on his right hand, looking deep in thought, while in the background is a picture of a Merkava tank.

Since the end of the Gaza War in January 2009, Israel has stood accused of targeting civilians, rather than terrorist combatants.

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Last month I published the first part of my interview with Justin Trudeau, the son of  former Canadian Prime  Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. What follows is the second part of the interview.

Arguably the most fascinating aspect of the Rady JCC's recent Tribute to Mordechai Richer  involved a  reference made by  Mordechai's son, Noah Richler  to an angry, excoriating letter his father Mordecai  wrote when his father was age 45.

A playground for peace, facing the Mediterranean Sea in the poorer neighborhood of  Ajami in Jaffa, where both Jews and Arabs reside, has been built  as a 

The cultural attaché of the Islamic Regime in Iran, through charity foundations, Iranian-Islamic media friendly, and under pretext of “Iranian cinema”, has been lobbying for and promoting the Islamic regime agenda abroad, particularly in Canada.

In 2006 Dr. Charles Small created the Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA) and this year established a new professional association, the International Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (IASA), which held its first conference last week at Yale University.

What Should We Make of Shimon Peres's Recent Comments about The UK? 

There are approximately a quarter of a million Jews in the United Kingdom, and there are now approximately two and a half million Muslims.

The Jewish population of Britain has halved over the last fifty years. The Muslim community is projected to be approximately 15% of the UK population within 20 years.

I  never expected to  meet several of the Israeli  naval commandos who landed on the  Gaza flotilla, the “Mavi Marmara”, an event  that has consumed the world’s attention since the day it occurred on May 31, 2010

POLLSTER EXPLAINS WHY

SPECIAL REPORT AND COMMENT

*This article has been picked up by the following 10 websites

( links are provided at the end of the article): www.deskbar.google.com

It’s a long standing Winnipeg tradition to honour local sons and daughters who have made good and who reflect well on this community. After decades of honouring local heroes for their philanthropic and professional accomplishments, it’s becoming a challenge for local Jewish organizations to identify honourees who will agree to public acclaim and successfully anchor fundraising efforts.

 LESSONS IN IDENTITY AND MEMORY AT A WINNIPEG BAR MIZVAH

Sometimes, we happen upon a perfect moment of community and connection. One such moment for me involved my daughter, her doll and the memory of John Lennon during a Shabbat morning a few weeks ago.

Nostalgia for youthful summers spent at Victoria Beach has led local film maker Andrew Wall to make a fascinating documentary about an unpleasant and largely forgotten chapter in Winnipeg history. Wall’s film, The Paper Nazis, explores the rise and ultimate failure of two extremist groups in Winnipeg in the 1930s, the Nazi movement and the Canadian Nationalist Party.

CANADA AND UNWRA:   THE FALLOUT

On January 13, 2010, I wrote an article published in the Jerusalem Post in which Vic Toews, then president of Canada’s Treasury Board, (now Canada’s Minister of Public Security) announced that Canada was not going to give untagged core funding to the general operating account of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) in 2009 for such items as education, but was going to fund food aid only.

The Jewish National Fund’s Negev Gala on June 1, honouring Tova and Larry Vickar, attracted  a diverse crowd  of over 1500 people  from  a variety of ethnic backgrounds. It ended with a spirited performance by Israeli musical troupe Groovatron, and will likely be remembered for its finale which left members of the audience joining in and singing together “Give Peace A Chance.” 

P.M. “Bed” Manners on Flight to Canada come under Scrutiny