Los Angeles based actor and artist Benson Simmonds has been acting, singing, teaching, directing, writing and painting

When I was 20 I drove with my friend Trish from Calgary to Toronto where we were both attending university.  We crammed all our belongings into my little second hand blue Mazda GLC and set out for a four- day road trip adventure that included a stop in Moose Jaw to have dinner with my Grandma Bea. 

One of the under-reported aspects of the  recent  Limmud Conference in Winnipeg

As a writer, I sometimes feel that I am like a photographer, taking a picture of a person’s soul.

I have come to the Hobbesian notion that as human beings we are the worst of the lot on the planet. In Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya we hear of people struggling

Joel Chasnoff, the comedian and author who appeared at the Rady JCC’s Tarbut Festival of Jewish Culture on Sunday November 14, is a skinny guy with cropped grey hair and thick black glasses.

I received an E mail from my eldest daughter Erin around 12:25 pm last Friday asking if I wanted to come for dinner that night.Well I saw the E mail around 3 pm and informed her I had been invited to attend Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun scholar in residence weekend by Rabbi Ari Ellis and I accepted. Rabbi Yosef Benarroch from Israel was the visiting scholar. He has family in Winnipeg.

A letter to my fellow progressives, whoever you are, and however defined. Do you feel there is a place for you in your local Jewish community? How do you try to effect change? We hear a lot about tensions between different ethnic, religious, or political communities.

A small girl with a big voice, Lara Secord-Haid blew the large crowd away at her first solo concert this past Sunday. Secord-Haid, a Gray Academy graduate, is currently in her third year at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studies opera as a lyric coloratura soprano.

“It’s the first time I’m playing the Shaarey Zedek. I’ve played the Sharon Home but never the Shaarey Zedek,” says well-known entertainer David Gale who will be performing with Randy Vancourt at the Jewish Foundation’s upcoming 2010 Endowment Book of Life Donor Recognition Event on October 14 at 7:00.

Last year the Winnipeg Jewish Review published an article about a B’nai Brith Manitoba sponsored event honouring Anje Van Tongeren, an elderly Dutch woman living in Winnipeg. Van Tongeren and her mother had been members of the Dutch Underground during World War II

I recently finished reading two very good novels, both of them about Jewish men and their relationships with their distant fathers, emotional mothers, angry wives, and selfish siblings; both of them about identity crisis and the search for love, peace, contentment and a place to call home.

I was raised in a semi observant Jewish home by a Mom, Dad and Grandma along with a large extended family. Well the effect was strong enough that the mere thought of a salami sandwich with a glass of milk even today makes me want to vomit.

[Editor's note: The following poem has previously appeared in the literary  journal Diviners and in the exhibit "Visual Poetry II" at the Piano Nobile Gallery in the Centennial Concert Hall].

Israeli soldier  Gilad  Shalit  was captured in 2006 by Hamas, and this past  week turned 24 while still being held in captivity.

During Camp Massad's Maccabiah program, a song for  Gilad Shalit was written in Hebrew and is performed in the video above. The Administration, staff and campers of Camp Massad, the only Hebrew speaking Camp in western Canada, join the Shalit family,  Am Israel, and people throughout the free world in hoping and praying for the speedy and safe release of Gilad Shalit. 

Dahn Hiuni was a fifteen-year-old sophomore studying theatre and art at Talma Yalin, Tel Aviv’s then-only High School for the Arts, when his parents sat him down one afternoon for a family talk. “How would you like to move to Canada?” they asked earnestly.

ISRAEL PAVILION IN SHANGHAI RANKED AS MOST ATTRACTIVE OF ALL PAVILIONS

Jewish student Maxim Berent, who is the chairperson of the Cultural Committee for the Israel Pavilion at Folklorama, will be incorporating 

Among the many stories I have heard about my family ancestry, one in particular that has intrigued me is the story about my paternal great grandfather’s brother and sister who left Canada to return to Russia after the revolution. The truth is that it is not much of a story, because once they went back, they were never heard from again.

A crowd of about 200 was privileged to be at the most hysterical event in Winnipeg in a long time. This hilarious comedy hypnosis event was held at the Park Theatre on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.

David Gale dishes out plenty of comical and raunchy Spoonfuls at CJA’s “Fress with the Best”

“Why is your Italian parsley limp?,” comedian David Gale, emcee of  “Fress with the Best”  asked Chef  Tony DeLuca  with a straight face on the stage of the Berney Theatre on  April 7, 2010 as the audience of 200 women burst out laughing.

Playwrights throw their hands up in the air in frustration. “What do they want from us?” they wonder about artistic directors who won’t program their new plays. Artistic directors shake their head slowly at the exasperation shown by playwrights. “Why won’t they write something great?” That is not to say that the relationship between playwrights and artistic directors is destined to be like oil and water.

'Thompson to Represent Canada in Dance Championships in Poland'

Fourteen year old Gray Academy of Jewish education student Sara Thompson has won first place overall in the junior soloist category of the Canadian National Dance Competition for her lyrical piece entitled "Dear Dairy" which is about the damaging effect of teenage bullying.

For those of us that went to Hebrew school in my generation, there was generally not much emphasis given to speaking Yiddish. Growing up around my house, Yiddish primarily consisted of four basic words - mensch , chutzpah, meshugaas and potz –you hoped to fall in the first category but often got caught in one of the latter three.

The historic heart of Old Havana, Cuba, (Habana Vieja) which was declared part of the cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 1982, is a must see destination for travelers with an interest in modern Jewish history. (Pictured: Former Jewish area of old Havana, Cuba)

Having read numerous Holocaust survivor testimonies over the last few weeks, I’ve been reminded about the tremendous hardships that so many survivors faced as they tried to make their way to Israel in the waning days of the British Mandate. This illegal immigration is the subject of Day After Night, the newest novel from Anita Dimant. American author Dimant is best known for her blockbuster novel The Red Tent.

As a Jewish Winnipeger and book reviewer I am always excited to read novels that are set in Winnipeg's Jewish community. There have been a few of these in recent years,

Yelapa, an island  in Mexico straight out of a tropical fantasy is a no more than an hour’s ride by an inexpensive “water taxi” from  the popular  destination of Puerto Vallarta. (On my water taxi I even overheard someone from Manitoba talking about Lake Winnipeg !!)