A unique program to help Jews from other countries immigrate to Winnipeg has helped stabilize and invigorate the city’s Jewish population.
Called GrowWinnipeg, the program—a unique partnership between the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg and the government of Manitoba—has brought over 6,800 Jews to Winnipeg over the past 25 years.
Since starting in 2000, it has welcomed Jews from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Uruguay, Bolivia, Greece, South Africa, Hungary, Israel, Ukraine and Russia to the province.
Two of those immigrants are Daniel and Lora Kazado, who came to Winnipeg from Turkey in 2017. “We just wanted to find a secure place where we could find work and raise our family,” said Daniel.
While living in Turkey, the Kazados and their two children never experienced antisemitism directly. But being Jewish in that country meant being wary of the situation around them.
“It was like living in a glass bowl, feeling exposed,” he said. “You were always cautious.”
Wanting to find somewhere more secure to live, the couple decided to move to Canada. At first, they thought about going to Toronto or Vancouver; both seemed good locations for the family.
Then they heard about GrowWinnipeg, which invited them to come to Winnipeg for a week to learn about and experience the city and the local Jewish community.
“The people here were very welcoming,” said Kazado of how they felt embraced by the local Jewish community during their visit. “It was clear this would be a great place to live and raise our children.”
Today Kazado is a mechanical engineer who owns his own business in the city and teaches at Red River Polytechnic and at the University of Manitoba. “We feel at home here,” he said.
Comments like that bring a feeling of satisfaction for Evelyn Hecht, the first director of GrowWinnipeg.
“They bring excitement, energy and a love of things Jewish,” she said of people like the Kazados who have made Winnipeg their home. “They have rejuvenated the local Jewish community.”
GrowWinnipeg actually got an unofficial start in 1997. That’s when representatives from the Federation and the provincial government made an exploratory mission to Argentina in the wake of the 1994 terrorist attack on the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured over 300.
“Many Jews in Argentina didn’t feel safe,” recalled Hecht, who went on that first mission. Finding a strong demand in that country among Jews who wanted to come to Winnipeg, the Federation created GrowWinnipeg three years later.
Through the program, potential immigrants are invited to visit Winnipeg at their own expense. During that visit, local volunteers help them learn about the Jewish community and city while also providing networking and job advice.
Those visits are key to the success of the program, said Hecht, who retired in 2006. “We want them to come and see the city with their own eyes,” she explained.
After the visit, people who would like to make Winnipeg home can apply to the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP), which nominates individuals who meet the requirements to immigrate to Canada and demonstrate potential to contribute to Manitoba’s economy. Their application is accompanied by a letter of recommendation from GrowWinnipeg.
Dalia Szpiro is one of those newcomers, arriving from Uruguay in 2002 with her husband and two small children. Today she is the director of GrowWinnipeg.
“As young professionals, we didn’t see much of a future in Uruguay,” she said of their decision to immigrate to Canada. “The Jewish community here was very welcoming.”
Now Szpiro is passing that sense of welcome on to others, working with about 250 volunteers who assist the potential immigrants during their week-long visits.
“It’s a community effort,” she said. “They provide emotional, spiritual and other supports, job connections, guide the newcomers through everything, providing them with whatever tools they need to be successful.”
One thing GrowWinnipeg doesn’t do is try to hide Winnipeg’s winter weather from potential newcomers. “It’s impossible for people not to know what things are like here,” Szpiro said of the weather. “There’s so much information available online.”
The cold weather isn’t a deterrent. “Winter isn’t a turnoff. They discover the openness of the Jewish community and want to come,” she said.
Jeff Lieberman is CEO of the Federation. He said the influx of newcomers has helped stabilize the Jewish population in the city, which fell from about 16,000 in 2000 to 13,690 in 2011. It is now about 14,000, according to the 2021 census.
The Federation doesn’t keep track of how many of the immigrants stay, but Lieberman said it is keeping the Jewish population in Winnipeg stable. It is also benefitting Gray Academy, the kindergarten to Grade 12 Jewish day school, since many newcomer families have younger children who they send there.
“It’s amazing what we have accomplished as a community,” Lieberman said of GrowWinnipeg. “The newcomers are great people, educated, able to get jobs, and starting a new life in Winnipeg.”
