The Wondering Jew: Musings and Tales from Red River

Almost as early as Jews made the prairies and Western Canada their home, they began to build community institutions. Winnipeg was for decades the hub of Western Canadian Jewish life, and was home to the Canadian West's only Jewish orphanage. As part of her PhD dissertation in history, Sharon Graham has delved into the archives to discover some of the stories and situations that made the orphanage both a necessary and vital part of Jewish life. I spoke with Sharon in her kitchen, and Ronnie dog was there too.

Hear pieces of the first interviews conducted with a wide range of unique Manitobans. Featuring Melba Sanoffsky, Sharon Graham, Justin Jaron Lewis, Ben Baader, Eytan Lerner and Harold Shuster.

I interview Professor and Rabbi Justin Jaron Lewis, professor of Jewish Religion in the Department of Religion and the Judaic Studies Program at the University of Manitoba. We discuss his decade plus in Winnipeg, what it means for Jewish people to commit to Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and his teaching Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, among other topics, in a university setting. Enjoy the interview!

Today's show is a feature interview with honoured newcomer, Israeli-Manitoban Eytan Lerner. Eytan is senior ABM Neuro Movement practitioner and a Feldenkrais practitioner specializing in working with kids with special needs along with adults with injuries and neurological conditions.

He has 25 years of experience in helping many children and adults around the world to move and thrive beyond their previous limits.

He has studied with Anat Baniel in both 1990 and 1994 in Jerusalem and in her centre in California. I am fortunate to have met Eytan spontaneously in the Town of the Vikings on Lake Winnipeg, just as we are fortunate to have Eytan in Winnipeg and, today, here on the Wondering Jew podcast.