May 27,

To the Editor,

Hi, I am a young Jewish Winnipeger entrepreneur, now living in Vancouver, but continue to follow your articles through your website.

We offer a very unique service that no one in canada is offering to help doctors help their patients. It is extremely innovative and worthy of an article. How would we go about doing this with you?

Jordan Rosenblatt, Vancouver

May 26

To the Editor,

I read your review.

Professor Haim/Hayyim Beinart, z"l, (1917-2010) published over 300 books and articles on the Jews of Spain.

During the Mandate, he was an Irgun combatant, head of the Jerusalem counter-intelligence unit (nom de guerra: Uriyah)

Do any of your readers know if Professor Beinart related to the American writer, Peter Beinart -- "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment" in last week's New York Review of Books?

Thank you.

Charles Hart Enzer, M.D. --

Associate Clinical Professor

University of Cincinnati
Website: TinyURL.com/EnzerMD

Welcome Addition

To the Editor:

I've been very glad to see the WJR; it's a welcome addition for Jewish Winnipeggers.  I'm happy to read the WJR and look forward to its continuing success.

Best,
Rebecca Walberg

May 23, 2010

To the Editor,

I note Engler’s comment that Netanyahu and the Montreal police cancelled the speech! Was he not challenged ? For the record, I had dinner with Netanyahu that night and cannot forget how incredulous and disgusted he was that he was prevented from speaking on a Canadian campus. He would have spoken no matter the risk or lack of security.

Joe Wilder, Winnipeg

May 23, 2010

Dear Ms. Prepes,

As David was reading read your excellent report in the Winnipeg Jewish Review about his presentation to University of Manitoba students, I observed that he was deeply moved.

The details of David's experiences in captivity, included in your report, were accurate; your choice of vocabulary and your phrasing were extremely effective. Because your descriptions were so clear and so well organized, your readers won't have any difficulty understanding the dangers posed by individuals who preach hate, by groups determined to destroy civilized, democratic states, and by egomaniacal, ambitious leaders of certain nations anxious to engage in wars of genocide.

As I read and reread your report, I was recalling the partially muffled reactions of many students in the audience, and I was remembering the expressions of shock and horror on the faces of a number of students seated near the stage. The questions posed by the students and their words of consolation were very much appreciated.

David and I hope that those who have heard him speak will recall his message whenever they encounter individuals or articles advocating the destruction of people and their private property solely on the basis of one's colour, religious affiliation, nationality, or sexual orientation.  He prays that those who have heard and understood his message will be prepared to defend and protect vigorously the principles of freedom and democracy on which this country is founded.

David and I thank you again  for your exceptionally well-written report.  As soon as I sign off, I will forward it to family and friends!

Most cordially yours,
Rose Shentow on behalf of Rose and David Shentow.

P.S.  If you plan to be in Ottawa, we hope you will contact us!

May 21, 2010

To Rhonda Prepes and the Editor,

Yashir Koach - Rhonda Prepes; Thank you so much for the great coverage and story about our survivor David Shentow. He is among our most courageous and most revered persons - our survivors.

Thank you for bringing this program to everyone's attention. this program fortunately continues to grow and becomes ever so much more important as our survivors are dwindling. Their stories must continue to be told.

Regards,
MORRIS HENOCH, Winnipeg
Co-Chair of the Coast to Coast March of the Living Contingent

May 21, 2010

To the Editor,

Have this dynamic duo, of Fink and Maslowsky, produced a CD? and if so, where could it be ordered from??

As a recent ex-Winnipegger, I have heard both women sing, but not together. I would have attended the concert had I still lived there. But, I am now in the U.S.

Also many thanks for the Winnipeg Review. It keeps those ex patriots in touch with the Peg.

Thank you,
Avrom Kushne

May 21, 2010

To the Editor,

I enjoy reading your articles which are very interesting.

Regine Frankel, Winnipeg

May 20, 2010

To the Editor,

Hi Rhonda- we are enjoying your paper- good luck and yasher koach. 

Rabbi Charles and Lori  Grysman, Toronto

May 20, 2010

To the Editor and Readers of the Winnipeg Jewish Review,

I read  your story about the swastikas. The vandals who did this are trying to frighten Jews and in not taking credit for their actions they’re also cowards.

Where I live, I've had tires cut, and slashed

I wish you all well,
Joseph Cleary, Oklahoma, USA 

May 20, 2010

To the Editor,

Please advise your readers that they may sign a petition against the construction of a 13 story Mosque and Islamic center 600 feet from Ground Zero.

Here's the link to the website with the petition.

By 9:00 May 20, nearly 10,000 people had signed this petition in the twenty hours since it was launched. The email I received says, “Imagine the American response in 1950 if the Japanese government sought to erect a shrine to its World War II Emperor in Pearl Harbor, right next to the sunken wreckage of the USS Arizona.

“Less than nine years after the worst terrorist attack on American soil in our history, an imam who blames America for the 9/11 attack wants to construct a 13 story mosque and Islamic center 600 feet from “Ground Zero.”

“What’s more, he wants to unveil it to the world on September 11, 2011—the ten year anniversary of that horrific jihadist attack.

We need a tidal wave of public opinion to flood New York officials telling them that allowing a mosque to be built at ground zero is a slap in the face of the thousands of families who lost loved ones in that jihadist attack.

“This is why ACT! for America launched a nationwide petition yesterday that we will deliver to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, urging him and other New York officials to oppose the building of this mosque in this location.

“There are many other places such a mosque could be located.”

Sincerely Phil Spevack, Winnipeg

To the Editor,

Please advise your readership of  THINK-ISRAEL website which  features essays, analyses and commentaries that provide context for current events in Israel.

Bernice Lipkin
Editor, Think-Israel.org

May 19, 2010

Dear Mr. President,

Earlier this year, your Secretary of State told a forum of Jewish leaders that ‘sometimes friends need to tell each other the hard truth’.  Well Mr. President, allow me, on behalf of my people, to return the courtesy.  You have always been rhetorically supportive of Israel, but the incongruence of your actions in the first year of your presidency have left us Israelis, and Jews worldwide, scratching their heads in bewilderment.  Mr. President, here’s the hard truth from an Israeli father of 3 daughters, under the age of 6.

No we can’t take any chances when it comes to the physical security of our land, our people or my girls.  There exists no room for error.  Security is the primary priority.  You see, we learn from our history, and it teaches us a simple truth:

No we can’t count on the promises or protection of other nations when our people face an existential threat.  The world watched, immovable, as we were slaughtered by the Nazis.  In every decade of Israel’s existence, its neighbors, or the Palestinians waged war on us, and the world watched in relative silence.  In the years after the so-called Oslo Peace Treaty, the world remained silent as Israelis faced hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings, stabbings, drive-by shootings, and kidnappings.  The world did however feel free to openly criticize us when we set up check posts and built a security fence to protect ourselves.

No we can’t understand how, in 2006, when over 4,000 Hezbollah missiles rained down on a third of the Israeli population, the leaders of the world found it important to criticize Israel’s military reaction.  Similarly we read their criticisms that were splashed across the headlines of the global media during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008.  They remained silent during the preceding 6 years that the Kassam rockets from Gaza forced Israel’s Southern population to sleep in bomb shelters, and did not commend Israel’s military restraint.  Of course, that changed as the Israeli military went into Gaza to locate and destroy the Hamas rocket launchers.

No we can’t believe that you would expect your governments to react any differently, if you and your children were faced with the similar threats.

No we can’t stomach the thought of a holocaust-denying, Hezbollah - and Hamas - funded by Iranian President, who in the same breath openly states that his intentions are for Iran to achieve nuclear capabilities, and for the destruction of the ‘Zionist entity’.

No we can’t imagine you doing anything more than proposing more painful sanctions on Iran – and what do you call it – ‘containment’?  This is where he ends up getting the nuclear weapons he seeks, right?

No we can’t accept a divided Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, and of the Jewish people.  It is not ‘the third holiest city’, as it is for the Moslems . It is the only holy city of the Jewish people.  It has been so for over 2,000 years.  Since coming under Israeli sovereignty all religions have been able to visit and practice openly and freely.  Oh – and you should know that the ‘Waqf’, those Palestinians who control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, do not allow any other religions, Jew or Christian, to pray there.  I even hear that swaying or the silent moving of the lips is forbidden.

So, No we can’t have friends dictating to us where in Jerusalem we can or cannot build – or feeling insulted when we do as we please in our own land.

No we can’t believe that giving the Palestinian people a land of their own is such a high priority on your foreign policy agenda.  Considering their civil rights and terrorist track-record, and the growing influence of Hamas as the likely ruling party.  Mr. President, did you know that when the Palestinian Authority came to power in 1994, the first piece of legislation that it passed was the death penalty for any Palestinian who sells land to Jews.  Over 100 Palestinians have died, under sentence or extra-judicially, for such sales in the last 15 years.  Is this the ‘two-state solution’ that you imagine?

No we can’t comprehend why you would spend the first year of your presidency hugging, bowing and warming to those 'shining leaders of freedom and democracy' Venezuela’s Chavez, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, or Mubarak of Egypt.  I know you’re aware of the brutality and lack of freedoms in such non-democracies – the beheadings, the inability of a woman to bear witness in court, or to simply drive, the lack of tolerance when it comes to people who are different – be it culture, religion, or sexual orientation.

And No we can’t understand why, in Israel, where the opposite is true, where Arabs enjoy more freedoms than in any Arab country in the world – freedoms of speech and expression, the press, religion, tolerance to the gay and lesbian community, gender equality, you choose to make a big deal about Jews building in their holiest city - Jerusalem?  We’re an easy target,we know, but please, how about finding something more substantial to make an issue of – and about a non-democracy.

No we can’t fathom why on earth you don’t get us Israelis yet.  We Israelis and our governments have repeatedly demonstrated an unwavering commitment to peace, and a willingness to pay a high price for it.  In 1947, we accepted the UN’s ‘two-state’ resolution on the partition of Palestine, despite the fact that we would not have had any control of Jerusalem or the surrounding neighborhoods; the Arabs rejected it, and instead 6 Arab nations declared war on our fledgling state.  In 1979 we gave up a piece of land greater than the size of the state of Israel, the Sinai, for peace with Egyptians.  In 1999, we unilaterally withdrew from South Lebanon, allowing Hezbollah to set up its bases in our stead.  A year later, Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians ‘the deal of the century’ – 97% of the West Bank, 100% of the Gaza strip, the dismantling of 63 settlements and agreeing that the East Jerusalem neighborhoods would become the capital of their new state.  This too, was rejected by the Palestinians.  In 2005, Israeli PM Sharon, without negotiations or demanding of concessions, unilaterally pushed through his disengagement plan that led to the dismantling of 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and 4 in the West Bank.

No we can’t trust you...yet.  Trust is earned.  You see, Mr. President, I teach my girls to pay little attention to words and close attention to deeds.  My people have demonstrated by deed that we are willing to pay a high price for peace and security. On more than one occasion you have said that you are committed to the Israel’s security and will not tolerate a nuclear-capable Iran.  Now it’s your turn to match your words with deeds.  A two-state solution with the Palestinian people is of little relevance if Iran achieves its nuclear goals.

Avi Ifergan,  father of Alma (5), Shira, (3), Netta (1).
Rehovot, Israel

May 19, 2010

To Rhonda Prepes and the Editor,

The article on the Holocaust Symposium held at the University of Winnipeg was wonderful.

Arthur Blankstein, Winnipeg

May 17, 2010

To the Editor,

Please notify your readershipthat Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee [CJPAC] is charting a course to grow as a national organization, including expanded membership, offices, and activity across the country.

CJPAC  has expanded its Advisory Board to bring in more strong and experienced voices from all corners of Canada and to ensure greater regional balance. It has also increased its fundraising goal so that it can open an office in Western Canada in addition to its existing offices in Toronto and Montreal.

CJPAC is a unique national, grassroots, independent organization whose mandate is to build relationships between the Jewish & pro-Israel communities and elected officials of all political parties –and works for Jewish community interests, on a multi-partisan basis, during and between elections.

To support CJPAC’s efforts sign up at www.CJPAC.ca or call 1-866-929-9552.

For a list of Advisory Board members please visit: www.cjpac.ca/page/board

Tomer Chervinsky
Marketing Communications Coordinator

May 12, 2010

To the Editor,

I want to applaud the WJR  for it’s bold and incisive reporting on issues of hatred and bigotry on our society. It is not “ok”, for a homeowner to leave a swastika painted on the side of their house with the word “MOVE” painted under it, just as it is not ok for us to stand idly by while  those who  openly promote their  hate, under the guise of “Israel Apartheid Week” at the University of Manitoba, organize without opposition.  We must be ever vigilant in pointing the spotlight on these events.

Doing nothing is  not an option.

My hope is that local politicians in River Heights will take these issues seriously and be pro-active in denouncing the acts of those whose intolerance of others knows no boundaries.

Marty Morantz

May 14, 2010

Hi Rhonda,

I just read your article and wonder how Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center can assist. It’s an unusual story- most people are eager to get rid of Nazi graffiti.

Please contact me to let me know how we can help. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Stacey Starkman
Communications Coordinator
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Toronto

Dear Rhonda,

I want to send my congratulations  on the Winnipeg Jewish Review.

I hope the Winnipeg community gives all the support that you deserve .

Good Job. Keep it up !

Shosh, Argentina

To the Editor,

Please notify your readers that The Grant & Wilton Coffee House is  presenting a  Del Barber Concert Saturday 7:30pm May 29. Doors open at 7:00pm, Tickets $10, Tel: 488-0207

Grant & Wilton Coffee House is 1077 Grant and Wilton, across from Grant Park Shopping Centre.

Bring friends & family for a coffee/tea, a munchie (included) and come for an casual evening of excellent music.  For later, bring an instrument, a song, a voice, an ear, a smile, a joke for interactive jam session.

Sincerely Phil Spevack

To the Editor,

Took me while to find you at www.winnipegjewishreview.com. Nice look.

John Farber, Winnipeg