By day, Avrom Charach works for a property management company in Winnipeg. But since Oct. 7, the prominent Jewish community leader has been working even longer hours on a one-man clean-up crew, removing hate-fuelled graffiti from the streets of his home city. So far, Charach has wiped away more than 100 messages from a synagogue, community centre, sidewalks, public buildings and even street lamps.

Winnipeg's police department calls Charach a "community angel" for removing the tags, stickers, posters and slogans himself—for free—sometimes before the city's own clean-up crews can get to the scene. It's all happening since hate crimes have hit a historic high in the city after Oct. 7: in 2023, the last year with available figures, there were 46 cases of hate crimes, including 18 against Jews and five against Muslims.

On today's episode of The CJN Daily, Avrom Charach joins host Ellin Bessner to explain how this act of tikkun olam has made him an unpaid go-to graffiti buster.

What we talked about:

Watch the Winnipeg Police news conference announcing the arrest in connection with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 14, 2025.
Read why Avrom Charach helped his Etz Chayim synagogue move to a bigger building, in the south end of Winnipeg, in 2024, in The CJN.
More on the historic move from Winnipeg’s North End to the south side, where more Jews live, in The CJN.

Credits

Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
Music: Dov Beck-Levine

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