Rhonda Spivak: A Trip to the Other Side of Lake Winnipeg- Grand and Victoria Beach and Antisemitism
The last time I was in Grand Beach was just before the birth of my son some 26 years ago, but I recently went there. It is known for its powdery white sand that could be like that of Mexico. The 30 feet high sand dunes are still present. In the 1980s Playboy Magazine had ranked Grand Beach as one of the Top 10 Beachess in the World, although I am not entirely sure what’s the ranking was based on. I ’ve read that Playboy considered it a great place to party.
But things have changed since I was last there. The shells of the invasive zebra mussels, black pointy and broken, formed a barricade along many places in the shoreline. The shells are too sharp to walk on barefoot and because the wind goes eastward the zebra mussels are worse than they are on Winnipeg Beach, and maybe the towns of Winnipeg Beach and Gimli make more of an effort to comb the beach more regularly. The sheer number of zebra mussels shells is a reminder that the health of the lake is in decline. It was 10 a.m. when I arrived and the west gate of the beach was pretty much empty.
Several years ago the province invested in building a board walk along the beach, which makes it more appealing for people with mobility issues. There are also new washroom facilities, and a few shops that sell beach clothing and trinkets. The beach still goes on as long as the eye can see. The East gate of the Beach is less developed.
I have always wondered why the cottage lots in the town site of Grand Beach are so small, and have learned that this is the case as they were originally set up to hold tents. The lots in Winnipeg Beach are bigger. I stopped in at Spirit Rock Inn in Grand Marais, near Grand Beach which has a very nice café and gift shop.
I did not have time to stop at Victoria Beach, although I thought about its history of antisemitism, especially since antisemitism has exploded in Canada since the Hamas attacks.
In 1943, when a Jewish family tried to buy a cottage in Victoria Beach , the local newspaper the Victoria Beach Herald published an article titled: Unwanted people: A Reminder to Property Owners and Agents.
“You have an obligation to your neighbours at Victoria Beach… to see to it that those unwanted people who have overrun beaches on the other side of Lake Winnipeg are not permitted to buy or rent here,” the article stated.
For anyone who might have had some doubts about who the ‘unwanted might be, the article stated that “we have no means of supplying them with special foods and meat” in reference to Jewish laws of kashrut. It is the case that Jews were not welcome anywhere along the Eastern Beaches, not just Victoria Beach.
My father’s parents were some of those “unwanted people” who bought a cottage on the other side of Lake Winnipeg. They bought in Sandy Hook on a double lakefront lot along Highway 9, with a stone fence just before where the old Jane & Walter’s Restaurant used to be, not far from Camp Massad. But it was not kept in the family.
Although the Grand Beach side of the lake has better quality sand and a greater sense of the wilderness (with more black bears) I found myself appreciating the set up of Winnipeg Beach with its town-site (although its looking a little tired) and bandstand overlooking the water, or the town of Gimli, with its rows of shops, restaurants, coffee places and galleries, its movie theatre, all nearby one another, many of which surround Lakeview Hotel, with the nearby marina and Gimli Art Club.
I rather like Gimli more than the Grand Beach area. There is an old joke that Gimli is the town of the frozen (Icelanders) and the chosen (Jews).
