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Ron Prehogan honoured for exceptional commitment to Jewish community

By Cynthia Nyman Engel The first time he was invited to sit on the Jewish Community Council of Ottawa/Vaad Ha’Ir’s executive committee, Ron Prehogan’s answer was definite.

“No,” he said. “My kids are still living at home. Call me after they’re out of the house.”

The balebatim were patient.

They knew Prehogan had been very effective as president of the Jewish Community Centre (JCC); they wanted their man and were prepared to wait for him. When the time was right, the phone rang again.

“OK,” the caller said, “your kids are out of the house. Now will you join us?”

He did.

Remembering the conversation, Prehogan smiles.

“I had lived up to that commitment to my family,” he chuckles.

“The Vaad was respectful of that and they gave me no choice.”

As he had done with the JCC, Prehogan gave 110 per cent to the task at hand. He quickly moved up through the ranks of the executive and, in June 2005, took the reins as the first chair of the board of the newly minted Jewish Federation of Ottawa, which replaced the Vaad.

In recognition of his steadfast commitment to Ottawa’s Jewish community, Ron Prehogan will (Continued on page 2)

Blanche Osterer: a woman of valour, a community treasure

By Cynthia Nyman Engel Call Blanche Osterer a true Eshet Chayil, a Woman of Valour, and she’ll shoo you away. But an Eshet Chayil she is; and a community treasure.

For three decades – quietly, reliably, with dignity and respect – Osterer has played a seminal role in providing an essential service to the community. For 30 years, she has

volume 74, no. 15

may 24, 2010

been a member of the Ottawa Chevra Kadisha, the last 20 as head of its volunteer group of women.

Blanche Osterer has been named recipient of the Shem Tov Community Volunteer Award (presented by the Ottawa Citizen) for 2010. Created in 2003, the award recognizes an outstanding volunteer within the Jewish community who, through (Continued on page 2)

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Publisher: Mitchell Bellman

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sivan 11, 5770

Editor: Michael Regenstreif $2.00

2010 Community Award recipients

Ron Prehogan Gilbert Greenberg Distinguished Service Award

Sarah Silverstein Freiman Family Young Leadership Award

Blanche Osterer Shem Tov Community Volunteer Award

For Sarah Silverstein, being involved means doing many rewarding things

By Cynthia Nyman Engel It was Mitchell Bellman on the phone. The president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa was asking Sarah Silverstein if she’d consider chaperoning the April 2010 March of the Living mission to Poland and Israel.

Would she?

You bet she would!

But first there was the little matter of sons David, seven, and Lev, two, to be arranged. In no time flat, it was decided: David would stay home with Dad, young Lev would be shipped off to Bubbie in Toronto.

And Silverstein was on her way.

“Eight girls had signed up for the trip and they needed a female chaperone, so I was it,” she says

happily. “The trip was wonderful.

We travelled with [Holocaust survivor] David Shentow. It was an absolutely fantastic experience.”

Silverstein has been named recipient of the Freiman Family Young Leadership Award for 2010.

Established in 1988, the award recognizes a member of the Ottawa Jewish community under the age of 40 who has rendered exceptional service to the community.

Silverstein’s infinite curiosity and boundless energy leads her to find opportunities all around. Born and raised in Toronto, she attended Hebrew day school and, after graduating, entered Forest Hill High School where she discovered, to her delight, a whole new world.

“There were so many clubs to join, so many opportunities to learn new things,” she says.

Silverstein was active in USY, led youth services at Beth Tzedek Synagogue and worked as a counsellor at Camp Kadima in Nova Scotia.

She earned a bachelor of arts honours degree in political studies from Queen’s University, where she was active in Hillel and involved in Kaleidoscope, a program that partners university students with underprivileged children. She also holds a bachelor of social work degree from McMaster University and a master’s degree in social work from Carleton University.

(Continued on page 4)

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Page 2 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Prehogan to receive Gilbert Greenberg Award (Continued from page 1)

receive the 2010 Gilbert Greenberg Distinguished Service Award. The award is the highest tribute the Ottawa Jewish community bestows on an individual for exceptional service over the course of many years. Initiated in 1980, it bears the name of the late Gilbert Greenberg, a Vaad past-president who exemplified the qualities of leadership the award seeks to

recognize each year.

Prehogan was born and raised in Montreal. After earning law degrees from McGill University in 1976 and 1977, he and his wife, Avalee, moved to Ottawa where he started practising law and she started teaching at Hillel Academy. Save for a two-year sojourn in Toronto from 1982 to1984, the Prehogans have proudly called Ottawa home ever since.

Prehogan credits his longtime mentor, Sol Shinder, with fostering his interest in Jewish communal affairs.

“Sol was a senior partner of the law firm that I started with and I looked up to him so much,” he says. “He was the one who taught me the importance of giving back to the community. I soon joined the board of the JCC on Chapel Street and worked my way up to president.”

During his term as JCC president, the Broadview Campus was taking shape.

“There were many major decisions to be made concerning the final drawings of the Broadview facility, and therefore my board and I had significant input to make,” he says. “Specifically, we proposed the new JCC program lineup include a pre-kindergarten program. It was a very controversial proposal at the

Osterer to receive Shem Tov Community Volunteer Award (Continued from page 1)

many years of service, has contributed to the enrichment of Jewish life in Ottawa.

The following excerpt from a nomination letter to the Shem Tov Selection Committee best tells her story: “The nature of the Chevra Kadisha and the principle of chessed shel emet (unconditional kindness) preclude the Ottawa Jewish community from being aware of the extent of Blanche’s dedication and the scope of her volunteer work. By tradition, members of the Chevra Kadisha do not identify themselves or speak about what they do. The men and women of the Chevra Kadisha work separately in parallel.

“As leader of the women and a member of the Board of the Chevra Kadisha, Blanche is in charge of burial preparations for women who have died in the Ottawa Jewish community. She is available 24/7 (except Shabbat and Yom Tov) to make arrangements and call other volunteers.

“A Saturday evening phone call from Blanche is not unusual. Blizzards, freezing rain and even illness do not deter Blanche from assembling a team within the time strictures dictated by Jewish law and tradition. Her hours of work expand to meet the needs of our community.

“Blanche Osterer’s continuous and efficient service is documented in the countless funeral guest books in our community over the decades, but formal

recognition of her contribution has never extended beyond the Chevra Kadisha.”

The writer concludes: “Though Blanche does her volunteer work in the spirit of chessed shel emet, expecting no reward or recognition, I believe that, as a community which is fortunate to have a traditional volunteer burial society, we should honour the dedication which makes this possible.”

The Shem Tov Selection Committee was in full agreement.

Thirty years ago, under the watchful eye of Bertha Pleet, Osterer put the first stitch into the first burial shroud of hundreds she would sew.

“That was a long time and a lot of tachrichim ago,” says Osterer. “Mrs. Pleet was our leader then. We sewed in Clara Brumberg’s apartment in Sandy Hill. We sewed by hand, of course, and still do. Volunteers were required to sew for a year before performing a taharah (ritual preparation of the body for burial in accordance with Jewish law).”

Osterer never planned to become mistress of the Sacred Sewing Circle, but, when illness forced Bertha Pleet’s successor, Mariette Woolfson, to step down, she was accorded the honour.

Currently, some 25 women convene one evening a month to sew shrouds.

“They are all devoted,” says Blanche, “every one of them.”

Some also perform taharah.

“When I get the call that a woman in the community has died, I drop every-

thing and call members of the group,” explains Blanche. “I call and say, ‘I need you,’ and each one says, ‘When?’ and they are there. A taharah requires five people. I’ve never had a problem getting a taharah together.”

Sometimes, Blanche is called in the middle of a simcha.

“I just get up and go,” she says.

“Joey and my family are used to it. I’m always on call.”

For 31 years, Blanche also has kept Congregation Machzikei Hadas running smoothly as its office administrator.

“Blanche rewrote the meaning of dedication,” says an admiring Rabbi Reuven Bulka.

“She’s concerned about everyone, she agonizes over everything. Blanche is tremendously dedicated day or night.

If she’s at home when a situation comes up, she immediately packs up and runs over to the shul. She is totally immersed in the welfare of others.”

In addition to holding down her fulltime job (albeit at 76, she is now working part time), Blanche also ran the synagogue gift shop with Rose Taylor; kept the Sisterhood alive with Reba Diener; oversaw the Annual Strawberry Tea; and, with Ruth Arron, supervised the annual visits of disabled Israeli soldiers through Beit Cholim.

Blanche and her husband, Joe Osterer, have three children – Irving, married to Sheila Stanislawsky, Howard, and Murray, married to Karen – 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

time, but we were very committed to establishing an early childhood education (ECE) wing in the JCC. “I had visited and researched other JCCs in North America and was determined that the new building would have a significant Judaic component to it. If all we were building was a fitness facility, we were wasting our time. Our expression at the time was that we needed to ‘put the J back in the JCC.’ Our intelligence had also shown us that the three pillars of a financially successful JCC were fitness, summer camp and early childhood education.”

Although the proposed ECE program was contentious, Prehogan and his board had done their homework thoroughly and were adamant that the proposal be accepted. Today, in addition to its popular summer camp and excellent fitness facility, the Soloway JCC boasts the well-run and well-attended Ganon Pre-School program.

As chair of the Federation, one of Prehogan’s early priorities was to enhance relations with community agencies.

“I had attended a session in Israel on federation/agency relations and was struck with the speaker’s suggestion that, in discussions with agencies, we needed to focus less on our separate turf issues and more on what we had in common, which was the significant continuation of the Jewish people,” he explains.

His other goal was to elevate the level of conversation in the community through a community symposium, which was held in 2007.

“It worked,” he says proudly. “As a result of the symposium, we now have a

Hillel House in Sandy Hill and enhanced funding of the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program at the University of Ottawa. The symposium also laid the groundwork for important initiatives which are being undertaken on Jewish education in the community.”

Prehogan’s passion for Jewish life was sparked on a trip to Israel when he was 17.

“The feeling of Jewish pride got into my blood on that trip, and never got out,” he says.

During his period of community involvement, Prehogan, 56, somehow found the time to start a family business consulting firm that he is now fully occupied with called Equitas Consultants Inc., an affiliate of his law firm, BrazeauSeller.LLP. As well as chairing the Federation and JCC boards, Prehogan sat on the board of the Jewish Community Centers of North America (JCCA), chaired its JCCA Israel Task Force and the Canadian Council of Jewish Community Centres, and chaired the Jewish Federation of Ottawa Leadership Symposium and the Federation’s Strategic Planning Task Force. Currently, he is vice-chair of the board of the Queensway-Carleton Hospital Foundation and also sits on the board of Canadian Jewish Congress.

Ron and Avalee Prehogan are the proud parents of dentist Harris, daughter-in-law Ilana, who is doing a pediatric residency at CHEO, and Dara, who this spring is graduating from veterinary school and starting an internship in Manhattan.

“As my Dad has always said, the kids are the greatest assets on our balance sheet,” Prehogan smiles.

Letters welcome Letters to the Editor are welcome if they are brief, signed, timely and of interest to our readership.

The Bulletin reserves the right to refuse, edit or condense letters. The Mailbag column will be published as space permits.

Send your letters to the editor to Michael Regenstreif, Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, 21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Ottawa, Ontario K2A 1R9; or by e-mail to bulletin@ottawajewishbulletin.com.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 3

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* In order to receive the matching contribution, allocations must be made to local Jewish agencies. One may choose to open a B’nai Mitzvah fund without the matching contribution, in which case, allocations can be made to any registered charity in Canada.

Page 4 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Walkathon brings Jewish community together, fundraising efforts benefit many programs

By Pamela Rosenberg Soloway JCC Aside from being a beautiful day of fresh air and family fun, Walkathon, Sunday, June 6, is an important part of our community’s past and a key piece of our future.

This joint effort of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC) raises funds to support Ottawa’s Jewish community and helps Federation continue to provide funding to local beneficiary agencies and organizations, and the Soloway JCC to provide a wide range of programs and services for all types of people.

Thanks, in part, to money raised by Walkathon, the Soloway JCC has been able to host such amazing events as the recent Yom Ha’Atzmaut community-wide celebration at Lansdowne Park, when more than 1,100 people celebrated Israel’s independence together and free of charge.

Walkathon pledges help give children unforgettable summers as some of the money goes toward the Annual Send-aKid to Camp Campaign providing scholarships to children whose families cannot afford the cost of summer camp. And some of the money goes to the Special Needs Aquatics Program, where hearing impaired and autistic children have the opportunity to take swimming lessons.

“Events like Walkathon help to provide sources of income

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that allow us to continue offering great programs that benefit everyone,” says Soloway JCC Revenue Development Manager Sharon Diamond. “Walkathon, in addition to being a fundraiser, is just a great chance to come together as a community and take part in something fun.”

This year, event co-chairs Jackie Luffman-Lyman and David Lyman are focusing their effort on outreach and trying to encourage all the local Jewish schools, synagogues and agencies to get involved.

Hillel Academy did its part in getting the students excited about the Walkathon by holding a pep rally. They have formed walking and running club programs with students walking or running the majority of the nine km route during the month preceding Walkathon, then completing the entire distance on Walkathon day.

Walkathon kicks off at 9:30 am at the Soloway JCC. For a minimum pledge of $36 for an individual walker, or $60 for a

family of up to five people, participants will receive a lanyard, Walkathon T-shirt and a delicious lunch.

As always, the day includes family friendly activities following the walk, plus some exciting new features such as a shorter two km family route, and an official timed run of the nine km route. This year, we will crown the first male and female winner of the 2010 Walkathon.

New for this year, all participants can set up a link and collect donations online.

Become a Gold, Silver or Bronze Chai Walker and commit to raising a minimum of $540, $1080, or $1800 for our community. Chai Walkers can create their own online registration page they can share with family and friends with the ability to upload personal messages and photos.

For more information about Walkathon or to set up your online donation, contact Sharon Diamond at 613-798-9818 ext. 225 or sdiamond@jccottawa.com or visit jccottawa.com.

Sarah Silverstein to receive Freiman Family Young Leadership Award (Continued from page 1)

Silverstein met her husband, Jack, in his hometown of London, Ontario, where he was youth director of USY. The couple moved to Ottawa in 2001, where he is now executive director of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa Annual Campaign and president of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation.

Silverstein waxes eloquent about the benefits of participating in the Young

Congregation Beth Shalom is aware of the financial challenge of having young children and being a member of a Synagogue.

We want to help!

New families, with young children, are welcome to join our Synagogue family for $66 / month or $800 / year.

We have hired two Youth Directors for programming during the year.

For more information, please contact our Synagogue at info@bethshalom.ca or 613-789-3501.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU!

Women’s Leadership Council program and her enthusiasm is contagious.

“There was a whole series of different women welcoming and encouraging me,” the 35- year-old marvels. “And it opened up so many opportunities. Different things led to different things … it just sort of happens and,” she laughs, “all of a sudden, we were having a whole lot of babysitters.”

The young wife and mother has managed to pack a lot of volunteering into a very short span of time.

Silverstein chaired the Ottawa Newcomers Tea and sat

on the Mitzvah Day, Choices, P2K, Yad and Shalom Baby committees. She attended the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in 2005 and participated in community missions to Israel in 2005 and 2007. She is a Chai Walker in the annual Walkathon and volunteers for the Federation’s Annual Campaign Telethon.

It doesn’t stop there. Silverstein has worked on women’s programming at the Ottawa Torah Centre, is a member of Na’amat and sits on the board of State of Israel Bonds. Not surprisingly, she was singled out for recogni-

tion as one of Federation’s 75th Anniversary award recipients.

Silverstein also created Magic Wanda, a program that collects unwanted furniture and household items and arranges for them to go directly to families in need.

All this and she runs a busy household, too.

“I’m proud to be part of the Ottawa Jewish community,” says Silverstein. “It’s dynamic and welcoming, and getting involved helped me meet so many people and do so many rewarding things.

There’s a lot out there for a small community.”

OTTAWA HEBREW FREE LOAN ASSOCIATION For over 75 years the Ottawa Hebrew Free Loan Association has made interest free loans to members of the Ottawa Jewish community.

We have made loans for any worthwhile purpose, including: • Medical and dental expenses • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Weddings • Tools of the trade • Home repairs • Purchase of furniture and appliances • Automobile repairs • Purchase of an automobile • Debt consolidation • Travel to visit a sick relative If you need a loan please attend at our office at Suite 301, 2255 Carling Avenue any Wednesday evening between 6:30 and 8:00 or call us at 613 722-2225, extension 319

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 5

Hannah Mayne to receive George Joseph Cooper Scholarship, June 9

By Benita Baker Hannah Mayne will be the 2010 recipient of the George Joseph Cooper Scholarship from the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation.

This scholarship, valued this year at $12,457, recognizes a member of the Ottawa Jewish community between the ages of 18 and 30, “who has displayed leadership qualities, academic excellence and an interest in the Jewish community. The scholarship award is to be used for formal education or apprenticeship in the artistic, literary or social sciences.”

Mayne more than satisfies the scholarship requirements. Only 24 years old, her résumé is already filled with a long list of awards, education and leadership experiences. She graduated summa cum laude from York University and was the first Canadian student to be conferred with York’s new international bachelor of arts (honours) degree in anthropology.

Mayne attended Monash University in Australia as an exchange student, studied Yiddish language and culture at Vilnius University in Lithuania and New York University, and spent a year at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel learning about traditional Jewish text and philosophy. As an undergraduate, she twice presented research papers at academic conferences.

A self-described “aspiring anthropologist and research scholar,” Mayne will begin an MA/PhD program in anthropology at the University of Florida in the fall. Her specialty is Jewish Studies, with a particular emphasis on multiculturalism and cultural identity in Israel.

An extensive traveller, Mayne has spent time in 13 countries, including Argentina, Denmark, France, Nepal, Philippines and Singapore, and speaks French, Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish and Indonesian.

Mayne’s travel experiences are not those of a typical tourist. She is currently in Chania, on the Greek island of Crete, volunteering at a restored 17th Century synagogue, teaching in Chania’s tiny Jewish community, and learning about Greece and Greek Jewry. (Editor’s note: See Mayne’s report from Chania in the May 10 issue of the Bulletin.)

She participated on an Aboriginal women’s health project in rural northern Australia, taught English in a Muslim public school in northern Malaysia, studied dance at the royal palace in Indonesia and worked with an Israeli NGO in Nepal.

“I am honoured and so grateful,” said Mayne, via email from Greece, when asked about winning the George Joseph Cooper Scholarship.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Mayne’s involvement in the Jewish community began in high school. She founded and led the Lisgar Collegiate Institute Jewish Students Club, at-

Mark Your Calendar!

Purchase your copy of the

2010 Ottawa Jewish Telephone Directory (THE 60TH EDITION)

at the Soloway JCC for $22.00 during the following sale dates: Monday, June 7: Tuesday, June 8: Wednesday, June 9: Sunday, June 13:

9:00 am - 11:30 am 8:30 am - 11:00 am & 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm 8:30 am - 11:00 am & 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm 10:00 am - noon 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Home copies distributed after the above dates will be $25.00 each (includes a $3.00 handling fee).

Hannah Mayne will receive the G.S. Cooper Scholarship, June 9, at the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation annual general meeting.

tended Akiva Evening School and was a member of USY and NCSY. While still in high school, she worked as a mashgiach for the Ottawa Vaad Hakashrut.

At York University, Mayne was actively involved with Hillel of Greater Toronto and was a liaison for Jewish students living on the York campus. She also sat on a number of the schools’ associations and academic committees, including stints as the student representative on the fine arts curriculum and faculty promotion/tenure committees.

“Both my parents have had a strong influence on my values and world views,” said Mayne about her father, University of Ottawa professor Seymour Mayne, and her mother, film maker and artist Sharon Katz.

“I credit their open, liberal attitudes, creativity, and intellectual-engagement for shaping the ways I think and experience the world around me. They encourage the curiosity and independence which are necessary ingredients in my studies and adventures.”

The George Joseph Cooper Scholarship joins a long list of awards and accolades that Mayne has earned, which include 10 academic bursaries or scholarships, a Bronfman Youth Fellowship, which she received as a teenager, and five times on the dean’s honour roll.

George Joseph Cooper was an Ottawa native and a long-standing member of Congregation Beth Shalom. Upon his death in 2004, the career public servant left a bequest to the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation to establish the scholarship fund in his name.

Mayne will be back from Greece to accept the scholarship at the annual general meeting of the Foundation, Wednesday, June 9, 7:30 pm in the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building. For information about the meeting, contact Francine Paulin at fpaulin@ojcf.ca or 613-798-4696, ext. 252.

Keep your address up-to-date by advising us of any changes you may have during the year. Are you new to Ottawa? Call our office at 613.722.2932 to include your listing in the 2011 Directory.

The Ottawa Jewish Telephone Directory is published annually by

Page 6 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Partnership 2000 (P2K): What the heck is that?

Since taking over as chair of the Partnership 2000 (P2K) committee, I’ve noticed that many people in our community have no idea what I am talking about. What is P2K? P2K is that connection to Israel for which our community should be proud.

The purpose of this column is to give you the historical perspective and goals of P2K and then to tell you what our community is involved with now.

The Canada-Galilee Panhandle Partnership was established in 1997. The partnership twins seven coast-to-coast Canadian communities (CTC) – Atlantic Canada, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Hamilton – with five Galilee Panhandle development towns and councils.

Our partnership is one of 43 different partnerships across Israel, and one of three Canadian partnerships, all aimed at making a national impact in Israel and Canada as well as strengthening the Jewish people as a whole.

The paradigm shift is from the traditional philanthropic exchange, the diaspora community bringing resources to Israel, to one that brings reciprocal benefit. The partnership is based on a shared belief in Am Echad (One People) and works hard

Federation Report Lisa Rosenkrantz P2K to provide deep and meaningful ‘people to people’ connections between Canadians and Galilee Panhandle residents, and to enhance the quality of life in the Panhandle in the areas of youth and education, and capacity building.

So, what have we been up to since November?

There are four big things we have been focused on: a P2K educators’ conference, a community schools mission, a medical students’ mission, and a social action mission for young adults.

Four teachers from the Ottawa Jewish Community School (Hillel Academy and Yitzhak Rabin High School) and one teacher from Temple Israel Religious School participated in an eight-day conference in December 2009. The conference brought together the Ottawa participants with educators from their Israeli partner schools, as well as other Canadian

colleagues with their partner schools.

They all worked to develop ideas and strategies on how to bring the partnership to life in their communities.

The Ottawa Jewish Community School held a mission in Israel, from April 12 to 21, for a number of Grade 8 and Grade 10 students under the guidance of Head of Schools Donna Palmer-Dodds and several teachers. The Jewish Federation of Ottawa, through the P2K committee, assisted the school in planning the trip.

First and second year medical students at the University of Ottawa can get a credit for volunteering in a hospital medical centre. The Jewish Medical Students Association approached the Federation and asked if we could arrange a volunteer mission in our partnership region. There will be 10 uOttawa medical students travelling to Israel for their volunteer mission at the beginning of June.

The medical students’ mission is a very exciting partnership as there will be a new medical school opening soon in Northern Israel. The first classes take place in October.

Our hope for this mission is twofold: an exciting learning opportunity for these young medical students, and ongoing relationship with our Jewish Community here

at home, as they will also be doing volunteer work here in the community on their return.

Also in early-June, we are sending 20 young adults between 22 and 35 on a 10day social action mission to Northern Israel. This is an exciting initiative and one we hope will strengthen our connection to the North as well as strengthen the connection of 20 young leaders in our Ottawa community.

Our next projects promise to be just as interesting. In June, we will be meeting with our Israeli P2K volunteers in Halifax. Part of the excitement has been the transfer of the P2K leadership from Israeli mayors to lay volunteers like us. Working with the Israeli P2K volunteers is a great learning experience that affords all of us an appreciation of our cultural differences.

We are also investigating the possibility of a Dragon Boat Festival in Israel. A new idea that is going from dream to reality is in the works, spearheaded by a team from Ottawa led by Debbie Weiss. Get ready!

And, how about a hockey tournament with Canadian coast-to-coast P2K partners and Israelis?

These are just the first of new ideas for great partnerships to come.

A reminder of just how precious and important time is During biblical times, a highlight of Shavuot was the special offering known as the Shtei Halechem: two special loaves of bread that were offered on the Temple altar.

What made this offering unique was that it was one of the rare times that chametz was brought to the altar. The general rule for most offerings was that they were accompanied by matzo, not chametz. Yet, seven weeks after Pesach, a holiday that strictly forbids eating, owning and even seeing chametz, we were specifically instructed to bring chametz!

What changed? If chametz is so bad on Pesach, how come it’s fine during the rest of the year and so prominent on Shavuot? If chametz is really OK, then why is it that for eight days per year during Pesach, we are fanatically allergic to it?

The answer, of course, is that it really all depends.

Our tradition teaches that the main difference between chametz and matzo is time.

Matzo symbolizes the haste with which the Jewish people left Egypt, permanently engraving the value of time in our hearts and minds. As our sages tell us, “When a mitzvah comes in your direction, don’t delay it!”

On the other hand, to make chametz, you need time: time for the dough to rise, time to mould it, and even more time to bake it. Chametz symbolizes procrastination. Why do today what you can push off until tomorrow?

From the pulpit Rabbi Ari Galandauer Young Israel What’s the number one response given by husbands when our wives ask us to do anything?

“I’ll get to it soon, dear,” or, “Later!”

I recently read a story about a wife who baked her husband a special cake.

“Happy anniversary,” she said.

Suppressing his panic at the thought that he had forgotten their anniversary, he looked up in confusion.

“It’s not our anniversary. Our anniversary was just three and a half months ago.”

“You’re right,” his wife smiled, “but it’s the one-year anniversary of the day that I first asked you to fix the kitchen cabinets.”

It’s part of our nature to think we have all the time in the world. So, we are reminded, through the mitzvah of eating matzo and not eating chametz for the eight days of Pesach each year, just how precious and important time really is.

The amazing thing, however, is that while we often procrastinate, as soon as we are involved in a mitzvah, our mindset changes.

We wonder how much longer will the rabbi’s sermon will go on, or, express our disbelief that the cantor is still chanting the

same word!

“Is it normal for services to really take this long?”

Suddenly, our attitude has changed.

While involved in mitzvot, we become like matzo!

“There’s no time for this, we must get going already!”

And when does this change in attitude surface? Unfortunately, it surfaces when we are involved in something that is having a positive impact on our souls – something like Torah, the symbol of Shavuot.

On Shavuot, we celebrate our receiving of the Torah, our studying of Torah, and, ultimately, applying Torah values in our daily lives.

Therefore, for Shavuot, we are instructed to become like chametz. When studying Torah or doing mitzvot, when spending time with family and friends, or doing anything positive and meaningful, we are to become like chametz and take all the time in the world.

So is chametz good or bad?

It’s all a question of timing.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 7

Tamir celebrates 25 years with an unforgettable night of theatre Wow! What an amazing night it was sitting in the packed-to-capacity Centrepointe Theatre, May 13, watching Tamir’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I lost track of how many times I wiped tears from my eyes from being profoundly moved, how much I laughed, how much I clapped, and for how long I was on my feet for the extended – and so well-deserved – standing ovation and curtain calls.

Before I get back to raving about the show, let me wish a hearty Mazal Tov to Tamir on its 25th anniversary as a social service agency fulfilling the needs of Jewish adults with developmental disabilities (and their families). Tamir does a remarkable job with its group and independent living programs, its day programs, its Judaic outreach programs, its family respite programs, and so much more.

What started as a dream of a few families a quarter-century ago has grown into a remarkable organization of participants and families and a highly dedicated corps of volunteers and staff.

Back to the show!

Another Mazal Tov, and endless bravos, to every single person in any way connected to Tamir’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. From the

Editor Michael Regenstreif Tamir board and staff who first discussed how to celebrate Tamir’s 25th anniversary, to the visionaries who conceived of this very special production, to the producers, directors, singers, actors, musicians, technicians, designers, costumers, stage managers, stage hands, gofers, and everyone else, all of you did a truly extraordinary and awesome job.

I’ve seen a lot of plays and musicals in my time – from school productions to community theatre, from regional theatre to Broadway. For seven years in the 1980s, I ran an annual theatre festival in Montreal – I know something about what it takes to put on a show.

So, I must admit that I was more-than-alittle skeptical when I first heard, a year or so ago, that Tamir was planning a largescale production of Joseph featuring a fully integrated cast of Tamir participants – most of whom had never been on stage before – along with community theatre veterans and

several young professionals. Putting together a big, Broadway-style show is not an easy task – even when you’re fully funded and working with trained professionals – so it was hard to imagine doing it with a cast centred around actors and singers with developmental disabilities and no experience.

I was not alone in my initial skepticism.

Dick Zuker, a past-president of Tamir’s board and chair of the 25th Anniversary Committee, notes that the Tamir board’s approval of the Joseph project “was met with a moment of disbelief at the thought of what we had taken on.”

But Tamir did it. With hard work and dedication, they pulled off something that had never been done before, not here, not anywhere: a fully integrated production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Early on in the six-month rehearsal period, I began to hear rumblings that Joseph was going to be something special. I’d run into Cantor Daniel Benlolo, who initially proposed putting on the production, and who was intimately involved as one of the production’s musical directors and was performing in the show as the Pharaoh, and he’d be so enthusiastic about how it was going. Or I’d walk through the hallway near my office in the Soloway Jewish Community Centre and I’d see and hear Tamir parti-

cipant Debby Applebaum practising her songs from the show.

That initial skepticism was gone months ago. It became obvious to me that Tamir’s Joseph was turning into something special.

And special it was. All of the actors, singers, dancers, narrators were great. The orchestra in the pit was spectacular.

But it was something else, something very intangible, but so patently obvious, that made Joseph so special. Everyone involved in this production loved being involved.

That love could be felt listening to speeches by Tamir President Howard Yegendorf and Executive Director Mark Palmer at a reception before the show. I felt it chatting with director Barry Karp and backstage volunteer Anna Bilsky in the lobby.

I saw that love on the joyous faces of every Tamir participant in the show. I heard it in the voices of the children’s choir. And in the fine performances of the experienced theatre people in the cast and, especially, in the gentle way they helped guide their Tamir colleagues on stage.

And that love was surely there in the sustained applause and cheers from those of us who were honoured to be in the audience.

Wow!

Silly parties, sensible parties and hung parliaments I have no particular expertise when it comes to British elections, and whatever I do know about the subject is forever coloured by a 40-year-old episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Python’s election night special sketch parodied a frantic BBC broadcast, cutting between anchors as they spouted nonsense about voting results. The broadcast would sporadically jump to live news reports from individual constituencies, where Silly Party candidates seemed to be scoring upset victories over their Sensible Party counterparts. In the sketch, competing local candidates stood together on stage, wearing large round multicoloured ribbons on their lapels, as someone announced the voting results.

I used to think the ribbon-wearing and the standing-together-as-results-are-announced were Monty Python visual jokes, but when I watched my first actual live U.K. election night special on BBC Canada, May 6, I realized they really do it that way. For instance, when incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke on election night from his Scottish constituency, all the other local candidates he had just defeated stood behind him. They included one guy with shades and a moustache holding his fist in the air the entire time Brown was speaking. Maybe he was from the Silly Party.

And yes, all of the candidates – Brown

Alan Echenberg included – wore large multicoloured election-night ribbons on their lapels.

I’m not sure why we don’t do that in Canada, given we inherited most of our democratic traditions from the U.K.’s “mother of all Parliaments.” Instead, Canadian candidates hide out in their own headquarters on election night, voting results get announced centrally via Elections Canada, and politicians’ lapels remain giant-ribbon-corsage-free.

Of course, in this month’s vote, the Brits may have inherited a more recent political tradition from our side of the Atlantic: the hung Parliament, as they refer to it, in which no party wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons.

We’ve had three straight federal elections with that result. In the U.K., though, the recent national vote was their first one since 1974 in which no clear majority winner emerged.

As I write (but maybe not as you read), several days after that vote, it’s still not clear who will be the U.K.’s next prime

minister – although it won’t be Brown, who announced he would be stepping down as Labour Party leader. His party, which finished in second place to the Conservatives, could still maintain power by cobbling together an Israeli-like coalition of smaller parties.

The most likely scenario is a government led by Conservative leader David Cameron, supported by the third-place Liberal Democrats either in a formal coalition, or in some sort of a parliamentary arrangement in which the Lib-Dems agree not to defeat the government for a certain period of time in exchange for some policy concessions.

Of course, we’ve had almost six straight years of minority parliaments in Canada without either of these types of arrangements. First Paul Martin, then Stephen Harper, maintained office by hook or by crook, surviving confidence votes through temporary ad hoc alliances with one party or another, through hardball political moves such as wooing over floor-crossing MPs and threatening or calling unwanted snap elections; and, when all else failed, by using the extraordinary tactic of proroguing Parliament itself. Although these tactics have prolonged the lifetime of governments, they have been arguably unhealthy for our parliamentary democracy.

In fact, the ongoing Canadian experi-

ence with minority politics prompted some British experts to describe Canada as a good example of what not to do when your country is faced with a hung parliament. A British academic report called “Making Minority Government Work,” released last year by the School of Public Policy at University College London, devoted an entire chapter to what it called “Canada’s Dysfunctional Minority Parliament,” and concluded that “for minority government to work in Canada there needs to be a dramatic shift in political culture which emphasizes co-operation and accommodation rather than conflict and partisanship.”

Because minority parliaments in Canada, as in Britain, have been few and far between, political leaders have tended to see them as temporary aberrations. Maybe that’s why co-operation is so fleeting between parties. But the current minority era in this country has had staying power.

Polls suggest it may continue indefinitely.

For the sake of our political culture, it may be high time for the silly and sensible parties in this country to take a lesson from the Brits and try harder to foster more accommodation and less cutthroat partisanship.

Also, I’m definitely in favour of giant round lapel ribbons.

Alan Echenberg is TVOntario’s Parliamentary bureau chief.

Page 8 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Jewish education discussed at Federation members meeting

By Michael Regenstreif Challenges to Jewish education in Ottawa, with a focus on the Ottawa Jewish Community School created by the merger of Hillel Academy and Yitzhak Rabin High

School, was the main focus of the semi-annual members meeting of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, May 12, at the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building.

The Ottawa Jewish Com-

munity School “is having a great year,” said Mitchell Bellman, Federation president and CEO. Bellman pointed out that Ottawa’s Jewish education system is a top priority for the

Canada-Israel partnership on prostate cancer research

Federation and said the school was something the community “has to invest in.”

When questioned about whether the Federation’s $2 million investment in the school, and in the school building’s renovations, impacted the Federation’s other funding envelopes, Bellman said the Federation was committed to a supplementary fundraising effort in addition to the Annual Campaign. To date, $700,000 has been raised.

Since the renovations to the school building on the Jewish Community Campus, Yitzhak Rabin High School and Chabad-affiliated Rambam Day School have joined Hillel Academy in the building. Two supplementary schools, Ottawa Modern Jewish School and Ottawa

Talmud Torah Afternoon School, also hold their classes in the building.

The merger of Hillel Academy and Yitzhak Rabin High School to form the Ottawa Jewish Community School as a kindergarten-toGrade 12 institution was completed after the high school moved into the campus building.

Concerns were expressed by several people that enrolment continued to drop, despite the continuing effort to establish and maintain the school as a centre of excellence.

Lisa Miller, co-president of the school’s board, said exit interviews with parents have shown that moving away from Ottawa and financial concerns over high tuition have been the principal

reasons for children leaving the school. No parents have cited quality of education as a reason for leaving.

Arnie Vered, chair of the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, pointed out that there are other schools providing Jewish education in Ottawa.

“Each school has to be sustainable,” he said.

The meeting also included a moving presentation by the eight Ottawa high school students who participated in last month’s March of the Living trip to Poland and Israel.

Harry Prizant, one of the trip’s chaperones, appealed to parents and community leaders to ensure the March becomes a priority for students.

“March of the Living is the most important trip they can make,” he said.

Netanyahu to visit Ottawa, May 31 Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (CFHU) and the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group held a reception, May 5, on Parliament Hill celebrating Canadian-Israeli partnerships.

At a ceremony held during the reception, Hebrew University’s Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada and Prostate Cancer Canada announced plans to partner in areas of fundraising, education and research aimed at defeating prostate cancer, the most common cancer to afflict Canadian men.

Pictured: Dr. Howard Cedar, Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (left), Nathan Lindenberg, national president, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University (standing), and Robert Shiell, vice(Photo: Peter Waiser) president, Prostate Cancer Canada.

(JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Ottawa, May 31. He will be the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Canada since Yitzhak Rabin in 1994.

Netanyahu is visiting at the invitation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has taken staunchly pro-Israel positions since taking office in 2006.

Since Harper’s election, Israel and Canada have strengthened their political, military and economic ties, and Harper has a record of strong pro-Israel statements.

The trip is seen as a sign of appreciation of Harper’s stand.

David Weinberg, director of the CanadaIsrael Committee’s Israel office, told the Jerusalem Post that the trip “is a reflection of the extraordinarily strong ties between Cana-

da and Israel on a range of political issues and bilateral matters. It is also an acknowledgment of Prime Minister Harper’s principled leadership and friendship for Israel.”

Netanyahu will be accompanied by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, and is also expected to visit Toronto. The Israelis will fly to Canada from a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, where Israel will officially be accepted as a member.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu to Canada,” Harper said in a statement announcing the visit.

“Our countries have a close and enduring friendship, which we are working to further strengthen.”

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 9

Controversial author Bat Ye’or to speak in Ottawa, June 7

Advertorial

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The Alexander River Project: A symbol of environmental co-operation receiving significant support from JNF Canada This month, JNF Canada is making a significant contribution to a unique restoration project in Israel. The Alexander River Project has been selected as the special project for two separate Negev Dinner events, one in Winnipeg honouring Tova and Larry Vickar, and the other in Calgary honouring Sidney and Bronia Cyngiser. I wish we had the space to tell you more about these worthy honourees, but I’ll just wish them Mazal Tov because I want to tell you about the project they have selected.

The Alexander River is a polluted cross-border river that flows down from the Samarian Hills on the Palestinian side to its estuary at the Mediterranean Sea in Emek Hefer on the Israeli side. The Alexander River Restoration Administration, in which the JNF plays a leading role, is the only current example of its kind involving co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians on environmental issues, with results that are visible on the ground.

This co-operation has been ongoing since 1995, even during the most difficult and tense times in the Middle East.

Ecology, which knows no political borders, has become a unique bridge between people. The creation of a constructed wetland along the banks of the stream is the next stage in this distinct co-operation between neighbours from Tul Karem and Emek Hefer. More than $13 million USD has already been invested in the Alexander River Restoration Project, managed by the Administration, to rehabilitate the river for future generations.

The rehabilitation of the river and its banks – 565,000 dunam along 32 kilometres – included the creation of a park and the planting of 10,000 trees: pomegranates, figs, strawberry bushes, poplars and varieties of eucalyptus trees. Along the newly developed route are many attractions such as shaded groves for family fun-time, an organized swimming point at the mouth of the river, and the bridge from where one can see soft-backed turtles.

There is a broad consensus that the Alexander River Restoration Administration, with its unique characteristics, was successful in changing the attitude towards river restoration and river management in Israel. The project is considered to be the leading river restoration project in Israel and has received five important awards, including the 2003 Australian International River Festival prize.

Sefer Bat Mitzvah Inscriptions Callie Carmen Giaccone, by her proud parents, Penny Gershon-Giaccone and Roberto Giaccone; Allison Grodinsky, by her proud parents, Colette and Stephen Grodinsky; and Robyn Hana Loves, by her proud parents, Cathy and Ron Loves

By Fred Litwin Free Thinking Film Society “Western Civilization, Israel and the Coming Caliphate” will be the topic when author Bat Ye’or, one of the world’s foremost experts on the relationship of Islam with Jews and Christians, speaks in Ottawa, Monday, June 7, 7 pm, at Library and Archives Canada.

David G. Littman and Sam Solomon will also speak.

Bat Ye’or – a Hebrew pseudonym meaning “daughter of the Nile” – is a Jewish scholar who has written extensively about the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East. Her most recent book is Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, about the transformation of Europe into a cultural and political appendage of the Arab/Muslim world. A highly sought after speaker, Bat Ye’or has spoken at international conferences and given briefings to the U.S. Congress and to the United Nations.

Bat Ye’or was born and grew up in Egypt. In 1956, in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, the Egyptian government issued a proclamation that “all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state” and forced the expulsion of thousands of Jews, including Bat Ye’or and her parents who left the country in 1957.

Bat Ye’or has explained that her family’s expulsion from Egypt led to her research.

“I had witnessed the destruction, in a few short years, of a vibrant Jewish community living in Egypt for over 2,600 years and which had existed from the time of Jeremiah the Prophet.

Bat Ye’or has written extensively on relations between Muslims, Jews and Christians.

I saw the disintegration and flight of families, dispossessed and humiliated; the destruction of their synagogues; the bombing of the Jewish quarters and the terrorizing of a peaceful population. I have personally experienced the hardships of exile, the misery of statelessness – and I wanted to get to the root cause of all this. I wanted to understand why the Jews from Arab countries, nearly a million, had shared my experience.”

According to historian Niall Ferguson, “No writer has done more than Bat Ye’or to draw attention to the menacing character of Islamic extremism. Future historians will one day regard her coinage of the term Eurabia as prophetic. Those who wish to live in a free society must be eternally vigilant. Bat Ye’or’s vigilance is unrivalled.”

Golden Book Inscription Callie Carmen Giaccone, on the occasion of her Bat Mitzvah, by her proud grandmother, Roslyn Gershon Sefer Hayeled Inscription Carleigh June Marian Cates, granddaughter of Jane and Martin Gordon, by Myrna and Norman Barwin

On a daily basis you can plant trees for all occasions. An attractive card is sent to the recipient.

To order, call the JNF office (613.798.2411).

Littman, Bat Ye’or’s husband, was honoured in 1986

by Israeli President Chaim Herzog for his work in evacuating more than 500 Jewish

children from Morocco in the early-1960s. He regularly testifies before the UN Human Rights Council and will speak on “Stealth Jihad at the UN Human Rights Council.”

Solomon, a convert from Islam to Christianity, is an author, human rights activist and adviser to British and European parliamentarians. He will be speaking on the topic of his new book, AlYahud: Eternal Islamic Enmity & the Jews, co-authored

by Elias Al-Maqdisi.

The evening with Bat Ye’or, Littman and Solomon is sponsored by the Free Thinking Film Society of Ottawa and the International Free Press SocietyCanada.

Tickets, $20, will be available at the door. A reception for all attendees will follow the program. Visit freethinkingfilms.com or ifpscanadaevents.com for more information.

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Page 10 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Davis’ A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage celebrates 10th anniversary

By Benita Baker In 2000, when Deborah Davis had the idea to teach children about the history of Canada through music, they said it couldn’t be done. But the tenacious founder of the popular children’s musical group Choonga Changa is not one to readily concede to skeptics. And now, A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage, Davis’s critically acclaimed musical production, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

“It is mind boggling,” said Davis about reaching this milestone. “So many times along the way I said ‘I can’t do this.’ But I did it. I am shocked.”

Much has changed since Davis defied the doubters and mounted the inaugural production, armed with a $9,900 Millennium grant from the federal government.

To develop her unique idea of linking music and history, she undertook extensive research and consulted with music historians and disc jockeys.

The final script covered more than 400 years of history and included 40 pieces of music from several genres, including First Nations’ drum beats, Québécois, Métis, Celtic and Acadian songs and dances, RCMP marches, jazz, country, folk, pop and rock.

“My aim was to show the history of music in Canada, and the history of Canada through music, in an entertaining way that students would find not only educational, but also appealing, moving, memorable and inspirational,” Davis wrote in the recently released teachers’ manual that accompanies the show.

The original production was performed in a high school auditorium with a total cast and crew of 15 – mostly volunteers. Davis and her neighbour sat in her living room calling Ottawa schools to drum up audiences. In the end, all five performances were sold out.

“I was elated,” said Davis.

“I couldn’t believe that we pulled it off and, of course, I

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Deborah Davis and Peter Beaudoin in the finale of the 2009 edition of A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage.

(Photo: Alan Dean)

wanted to do it again.”

Today, the show features 100 pieces of music, 50 performers (including Davis), a 15-member crew, a permanent home at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and a budget capable of paying everyone involved. But the road to reach that point was not always a smooth one.

Even though the show sold out every year, funding was always an issue. But, Davis refused to let that stop

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her. Though she doggedly approached governments, organizations and businesses, she was unable to secure the kind of stable funding that ensures longevity.

“The lack of funding was daunting,” she said. “It was scary, but Louis (her husband and executive producer) kept loaning me the money to continue.”

Then, TD Canada Trust came to her rescue. Since the beginning, when Davis approached her local branch manager for sponsorship, the bank has supported the production with small donations, which Davis used to buy critical items like fabric for costumes. Last year, TD Canada Trust, which is committed to advancing the education of students on the history of music in Canada, donated $100,000. The funds will pay

for thousands of students to see A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage.

The production has also benefited from other donations of money or expertise.

As part of their class project, students from the Richard Robinson Fashion Design Academy created 40 costumes for the show, while local fashion designer James Jefferson volunteered to act as wardrobe master. Collective Cookie, a recently launched Ottawa-based social responsibility initiative, donated $2500.

The Ottawa Jewish Historical Society is also a supporting organization and is a sponsor of a VIP reception celebrating the production’s 10th anniversary that will be hosted by Max Keeping following the final performance on June 3.

Although originally targeted to children in Grades 46, the 150,000-plus people who have seen the show range from Grade 1 to university students to seniors.

One very satisfied customer is veteran broadcaster Saul Jacobson.

“I have seen A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage on several occasions and can tell you it is one of the most professional, exciting and profound musical performances I have ever seen,” he said. “Deborah Davis is herself a magnificent performer. However, the program she has championed is truly a must-see for every Canadian. Sold-out audiences leave the auditorium with a fresh look, a new understanding and a deep appreciation for the music that makes us Canadian.”

After 10 years, A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage has proven it has staying power. More artists want to be involved, more people are involved in the production and more students are attending.

A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage runs from May 31 to June 3 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Visit odysseyshowcase.org for more information or call 613-321-2066 for tickets. While most performances are sold-out, some tickets are still available for June 3.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 11

Hillel and Hulse Grade 6 classes build cultural bridges

By Nicola Hamer Communications Director Hillel Academy and Yitzhak Rabin HS For six years now, Grade 6 students from Hillel Academy and Charles H. Hulse Public School have been participating in a unique program to promote cultural understanding. Hillel, of course, is a Jewish school, while the majority of the students at Hulse are Muslims.

Patrick Mascoe, the Grade 6 teacher at Hulse, reached out to Hillel Academy six years ago. He was disturbed by the casual antiSemitism his students displayed and hoped that connecting to Jewish kids their age would help to combat those negative stereotypes.

The program has been so successful that it has been repeated annually.

The students first got together in December to partic-

Pen pals, Leila Anvari (left) of Charles H. Hulse Public School and Jordan Geist of Hillel Academy, participate in the Day of Cultural Understanding that brought the Grade 6 classes of both schools together, May 4.

(Photo: Eliana Mandel-Carsen)

ipate in a Mitzvah Day event at Hillel. While they were shy and unsure of each other at first, they were assigned pen pals and instructed to write letters to each other in English class. That is when the

Mailbag Lawfare Judy Zelikovitz, representing the Canada-Israel Committee, writes in the May 10 Federation Report that anti-Israel extremists opposed to Israel “have hijacked western democratic values and institutions” and that their tactic of “lawfare, using the law as a weapon of war, poses an existential threat to the State of Israel” by launching court cases against Israel in such countries as Canada, the United States and Britain.

What Zelikovitz does not say is that every attempt at using lawfare against Israel has been dismissed by the courts in

walls began to come down.

By the time the students from Hillel travelled to spend the day at Hulse, May 4, the kids were no longer strangers and were looking forward to their next meeting.

bulletin@ottawajewishbulletin.com every western democracy in which it has been attempted. Lawfare has proven to be a totally ineffective strategy and poses no threat to the existence of Israel.

Dani Schwartz

Letters welcome Letters to the Editor are welcome if they are brief, signed, timely and of interest to our readership. The Bulletin reserves the right to refuse, edit or condense letters. The Mailbag column will be published as space permits.

Send your letters to Michael Regenstreif, Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, 21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Ottawa, Ontario K2A 1R9; or by e-mail to bulletin@ottawajewishbulletin.com.

Community-wide events @

Congregation Beth Shalom Tuesday, May 11

Six-week Spring Speaker Series: Stephen Bindman, Dr. Hillel Finestone, Richard Marceau to name a few

Friday, May 14 Shabbat Dinner Series Saturday, May 15 Youth Shabbat Monday, May 17 Israel Advocacy Training - Campus Ahead Open to Grade 11 and 12 students

Friday, May 28

Friday Night Live Live band (before Shabbat) Kabbalat Shabbat, light dinner

Sunday, June 13 Women’s Rosh Chodesh Service Watch for more upcoming events Everyone is Welcome!

For more information, please contact the synagogue at 613-789-3501 or info@bethshalom.ca www.bethshalom.ca

The students participated in a Day of Cultural Understanding. But that profound name meant little to the Hillel students. To them, it was just the fun and excitement of meeting new kids.

When asked what she expected from her pen pal, Hannah Luden enthused that she really looked forward to getting to see her pen pal in person, and had been delighted to discover that her best friend, Noyah Bayaz, had been assigned to a good friend of her pen pal. For her, it was a great break from the school’s regular routine.

Other students admitted to some initial shyness, but that evaporated as the two groups teamed up for a giant scavenger hunt around the school and a chance to hang out in the playground.

The students spent the morning involved in various team-building games. In the afternoon, they attended a presentation by David Shentow, a Holocaust survivor who frequently gives talks on his experiences in Auschwitz

and Dachau. He emphasized to the students the worst consequences of intolerance.

While the students from Hillel were familiar with the Holocaust, having spent several weeks studying it, they were amazed and impressed to see how distressed some of the students from Hulse were as they listened to Shentow.

“I think the point was to show us kids how bad it is to discriminate against other people who seem different,” said Hillel student Josh Kofsky. “And I think Mr. Shen-

tow was really important to tell everyone that.”

“And we aren’t really different,” added his friend Samara Sternthal. “It was really easy to make friends with them.”

When asked if she thought the friendships could be kept up, Samara provided an enthusiastic “yes,” thanks to the Internet.

Many of the kids, including Josh and Samara, have Facebook accounts and have friended their pen pals. The connections continue.

When Yiddish and politics collide

By Shirley R. Steinberg and David Michaelson Die Folkshpieler What will happen when Yiddish and Canadian politics collide in the year 2050?

You will find out Sunday, June 13, 2:00 pm at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC) when Die Folkshpieler presents our eighth production, Altz iz Meglach (Everything is Possible).

Past performances of our

Yiddish theatre group have earned a reputation for entertaining comedy, drama and song, and our latest offering promises to be just as entertaining. Come and see for yourself.

Remember that title, Altz iz Meglach. Yes, everything is possible.

For information, contact Roslyn Wollock, Soloway JCC adult program manager, at 613-798-9818, ext. 254, or rwollock@jccottawa.com.

Page 12 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

In support of the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge In the Joseph and Inez Zelikovitz Long Term Care Centre Card Donations Card donations go a long way to improving the quality of life for our residents. Thank you for considering their needs and contributing to their wellbeing.

On behalf of the residents and their families, we extend sincere appreciation to the following individuals and families who made card donations to the Hillel Lodge Long-Term Care Foundation between April 21 and May 5, 2010 inclusive.

HONOUR FUNDS Unlike a bequest or gift of life insurance, which are realized some time in the future, a named Honour Fund (i.e., endowment fund) is established during your lifetime.

By making a contribution of $1,000 or more, you can create a permanent remembrance for a loved one, honour a family member, declare what the Lodge has meant to you and/or support a cause that you believe in.

A Hillel Lodge Honour Fund is a permanent pool of capital that earns interest or income each year. This income then supports the priorities designated by you, the donor.

Ruth and Irving Aaron Family Fund In Memory of: Rita Cole by Ruth and Irving Aaron Selma Tarantour by Ruth and Irving Aaron R’fuah Shlema: Moe Segal Wishing you a speedy recovery and good health by Ruth and Irving Aaron Bill and Leona Adler Memorial Fund In Memory of: Rita Cole by Marilyn Adler Freda Meyer by Elayne Adler and Farley, Jordan and Benjamin Stenzler; and Marilyn Adler and Neil and Daniel Blacher Rita Ryant by Marilyn Adler Gordon Viner by Marilyn Adler Boris and Dolly Blacher Family Fund In Honour of: Liz and Skip Kronick Mazal tov and best wishes on the birth of your granddaughter by the Blacher family

and best wishes for many, many more with love by Maureen and Henry Molot, kids and grandkids Moe Greenberg and Elissa Greenberg Iny Family Fund In Memory of: Penny Bar-Noy Roodman by Elissa and Avraham Iny Gunner Family Fund In Honour of: Carol and Laurie Pascoe Mazal tov and best wishes on Byron’s engagement by Estelle and Sol Gunner Nordau and Roslyn Kanigsberg Family Fund In Memory of: Simon Penso by Roz and Nordau Kanigsberg In Honour of: Sarah Silverstein Mazal tov and best wishes on being named the 2010 recipient of the Freiman Family Young Leadership Award by Roz and Nordau Kanigsberg David, Harvey and Victor Kardish Family Fund In Memory of: Simon Penso by Sheryl and Harvey Kardish Kassirer Fund In Memory of: Al Hoffman by Archie Kassirer Morris and Lillian Kimmel Family Fund In Honour of: Lily Feig Wishing you mazal tov in your new home and all the best for a very happy birthday by the Kimmel, Kaiman and Levine families Ida and Sidney Lithwick Fund In Honour of: Carol and Howard Lithwick Mazal tov and best wishes on Jonathan’s engagement by Estelle and Sol Gunner Bill and Phyllis Leith Family Endowment Fund In Honour of: Lisa Leith Wishing you continued good health and happiness with your entire family by Helen and Mayer Alvo

Friedberg and Dale Families Fund In Honour of: Jonathan Dale Mazal tov and best wishes on making the team by the Avery family Elaine Friedberg Mazal tov and best wishes on receiving the 75th Anniversary Volunteer Award from the Jewish Federation of Ottawa by the Avery family

Max Lieff Endowment Fund In Memory of: Dr. I. Hoffman by Dorothy Lieff

Nell Gluck Memorial Fund In Honour of: Julia Gluck Mazal tov on your significant birthday

Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Family Fund R’fuah Shlema: Carolyn Katz by Debra and Stephen Schneiderman

Abe and Bertha Palmer Endowment Fund In Memory of: Penny Bar-Noy Roodman by Sunny and John Tavel

Harold and Lillian Shoihet Memorial Fund In Memory of: Sadie Craft by Dovid Shoihet and Miriam Sabo Selma Tarantour by David Shoihet and family In Honour of: Phil Lazear Wishing you a happy and healthy birthday. You’re on your way to 120 by David Shoihet and family Label and Leona Silver Family Fund In Memory of : Gordon Viner by Faith and Moshe Helman In Honour of: Reba Diener Mazal tov and all the best on your very special birthday from your friends Leona and Label Silver R’fuah Shlema: Akiva Kriger by Leona and Label Silver Morton Taller by Leona and Label Silver Ralph and Anne Sternberg Memorial Fund In Memory of: Sadie Craft by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Eileen Gardner by Lil and Norm Levitin In Honour of: All our family and friends in the Jewish community for your condolences and support after the death of our mother and mother-in-law, Eileen Hunt Gardner, in Winnipeg at the age of 91, a valiant warrior who battled Multiple Sclerosis for 60 years by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Anna-Lee Chiprout Mazal tov on being honoured by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa with warm wishes by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Rabbi Steven H. Garten In appreciation for leading shiva services after the death of my mother by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Wendy, Andy, Matthew, Evan and Hannah Koenig In appreciation and with love and heartfelt gratitude for their longstanding and loving familial support of my mother, and of Laya and me, especially during my mother’s recent illness and death by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Mary Ann Kostuck In appreciation and with heartfelt gratitude for years of ‘going above and beyond the call of duty’ in taking care of my mother’s financial affairs by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Heather and Rod Pidskalny In appreciation and with love and heartfelt gratitude for their loyal support during my mother’s funeral and burial by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Tanya and Scott Pidskalny In appreciation and with love and heartfelt gratitude for their loyal support during my mother’s funeral and burial by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Teresa Pidskalny In appreciation and with love and heartfelt gratitude for our wonderful cousin, who has been a loving and constant bastion of support for my mother for five decades by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Dulce Santos In appreciation and with heartfelt gratitude for years of devoted and dedicated care of our mother by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Dr. Hillel Taub In appreciation for leading shiva services after the death of my mother by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Staff of St. Francis Wing, Palliative Care Unit at Holy Family Home In appreciation and with heartfelt gratitude for their compassionate care of our mother by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Sarah and Arnie Swedler Family Fund In Memory of: Sadie Craft by Arnie Swedler Max Wagner by Arnie Swedler

Louis and Diane Tannenbaum Family Fund In Memory of: Sam Cohen by Diane and Louis Tannenbaum Milton and Mary (Terry) Viner Family Fund In Memory of: Gordon Viner by Millie Schaenfield and family In Honour of: Sam Ages In appreciation by Millie Schaenfield Anna and Samuel Wex Family Fund In Memory of: Simon Penso by Anna and Sam Wex In Honour of: Eileen and Len Shalit Congratulations and our very best wishes on the birth of your grandson, David by Anna and Sam Wex Carole and Norman Zagerman Family Fund In Memory of: Sadie Craft by Carole and Norman Zagerman In Honour of: Honey Baylin Mazal tov and best wishes on your special birthday by Carole and Norman Zagerman Sally and Elliott Levitan Mazal tov and best wishes on your daughter Shirley’s engagement by Carole and Norman Zagerman Feeding Program In Honour of: Marcia and Arie Lubienietzky Wishing you a hearty mazal tov on the birth of your first grandchild, Malka Miriam Serraf by Mara and Isaac Muzikansky *********** IN MEMORY OF: Penny Bar-Noy Roodman by Fran Kesler Al Cohen by Anna and Ronny Cantor and family; and Dundi and Lyon Sachs Rita Cole by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge; and Paloma Pridhan Sadie Craft by Rose and Kevin Kardash Sarah and Louis Satov by the Levitz family; and Harriette and Saul Brottman Gordon Viner by Anna and Ronny Cantor and family; Ingrid Shapiro; and Ruth and Joe Viner IN HONOUR OF: Betty Finkelman Best wishes on your special birthday by Shirley and Paul Seiler Emily and Yonatan Kirtz Mazal tov on the occasion of your wedding by Bela Gelbman Dr. and Mrs. Drew Levada Mazal tov on the occasion of your daughter Emily’s wedding by Bela Gelbman Carol and Laurie Pascoe Mazal tov on the engagement of your son Byron by the Levitz family Lewis Perelmutter Best wishes for a very happy birthday by Shirley Viner Anna and Irving Rosner Mazal tov on the occasion of your granddaughter’s wedding by Bela Gelbman Miriam and Ed Sussman Mazal tov and best wishes on the Bar Mitzvah of your grandson by Esty Bybelezer R’FUAH SHLEMA: Carolyn Katz by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge The Foundation would like to thank: Agneta Gibson for generously sponsoring a Kiddush at the Lodge

THE LODGE EXPRESSES ITS SINCERE APPRECIATION FOR YOUR KIND SUPPORT AND APOLOGIZES FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS. DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, THE WORDING APPEARING IN THE BULLETIN IS NOT NECESSARILY THE WORDING WHICH APPEARED ON THE CARD. GIVING IS RECEIVING – ATTRACTIVE CARDS AVAILABLE FOR ALL OCCASIONS Here’s a good opportunity to recognize an event or convey the appropriate sentiment to someone important to you and at the same time support the Lodge. Card orders may be given to Debra or Rhonda at 613-728-3900, extension 111, 9:30 am to 3:30 pm Monday to Thursday, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm Friday. You may also e-mail your orders to donations@hillel-ltc.com. E-mail orders must include name, address, postal code, and any message to person receiving the card; and, amount of donation, name, address and postal code of the person making the donation. Cards may be paid for by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Cheque or Cash. Contributions are tax deductible.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 13

Shiru Lach Choir prepares for closing concert, June 1

By Pamela Rosenberg Soloway JCC The sound of music can be heard throughout the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC) as Ottawa’s largest Jewish folk choir gets ready to perform its closing concert.

The Shiru Lach Choir’s A Musical Mosaic takes place at the Soloway JCC, Tuesday, June 1, 7:30 pm, and features an eclectic combination of French, Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino numbers, songs with no words and even a little Elvis Presley.

Also on the bill is Kat

Palmer accompanied by her aunt, Katherine Palmer, on piano. The 20-something soloist is fresh from her appearance in Tamir’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Centrepointe Theatre.

According to choir director Ellen Asherman, “Kat is extremely expressive and vivacious and she has a very sweet voice.”

Just completing its second season, the Shiru Lach Choir has retained the vast majority of its members from last year and added a few more, bringing them to

Shiru Lach Choir’s eclectic repertoire ranges from Hebrew songs to Elvis Presley.

almost 40 singers. They have been rehearsing Tuesday evenings since the fall

with accompanist Aviva Lightstone, and their goal is simply to have fun singing

the music they learn.

“There is joy in combining your voice with others in

song,” says Ellen.

Ellen directed the Temple Israel liturgical choir for more than 20 years and now sings as part of that choir.

She is also a long-time member of the Orpheus Choral Group and has performed in several Orpheus musicals.

Tickets are $10 and available at the Soloway JCC front desk. For more information on the Shiru Lach Choir’s A Musical Mosaic, contact Soloway JCC Adult Program Manager Roslyn Brozovsky Wollock at 613798-9818, ext. 254, or rwollock@jccottawa.com.

Ottawa Jewish Telephone Directory celebrates 60th anniversary

By Toby Herscovitch Na’amat Canada In this digital age, it’s fair to ask, “What’s so special about the 60th anniversary of a telephone directory?”

The Ottawa Jewish Telephone Directory, produced

by Na’amat Canada Ottawa, is exceptional in many ways, from the cause that inspires it, to the unity it inspires.

One of Ottawa’s bestselling annual publications, the Directory attracted more than 1,500 buyers and 150 advertisers in 2009, and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 60 years.

That money is used by Na’amat to improve the lives of disadvantaged women, children and families in Israel and Canada.

Through the years, the directory has also become an invaluable reference tool, connecting community members to each other, to useful businesses, and to the Jewish agencies and organizations that serve us.

The Directory dates back to 1950, when the Ottawa Jewish community was just a shtetl with little over 4,000 members. Launched by the Ottawa branch of the Labour Zionist Council (Histadrut), the publication soon became a joint project with Pioneer Women, now renamed Na’amat Canada.

The idea for the Directory was sparked by a Jewish phone book in New York City and the Ottawa publica-

tion became the first of its kind in Canada. By 1988, Na’amat Canada Ottawa took over the book’s production, turning the project into its main fundraiser. That same year, the Jewish community was reaching close to 10,000 people; naturally, the book and its users grew too.

Since 1998, long-time Na’amat member Judy Field has been co-ordinating the Directory.

She manages a team of about eight volunteers, supervising the listings, advertising, printing and distribution.

“From September to November 2009, our volunteers called nearly all of the peo-

ple in the 2009 Directory and succeeded in updating most of the listings. It was a big job and I appreciate all the effort that went into it,” says Judy.

Judy estimates the 2010 Directory coming out this month will have some 3,200 residential listings. Given that the average Canadian family has three members (according to the last census); the publication potentially covers up to 9,600 community members.

That represents more than two-thirds of Ottawa’s Jewish community, which is now approximately 14,000 strong! We’ve come a long way in 60 years.

The book has also given

Jewish War Veterans of Canada, Ottawa Post, is offering $1000.00 scholarships to two deserving Jewish students who are pursuing post-secondary education.

Applicants must be between the ages of 16 and 19 years on or before the 31st of May 2010 and a resident of the National Capital Region.

In the letter of application, candidates will provide evidence of superior qualities of leadership, good citizenship, scholarship and sportsmanship at school, within the Jewish Community and community-at-large.

expression to many of Ottawa’s talented Jewish artists and graphic designers. You may recall the vibrant colours of Jerusalem gracing last year’s cover by local stained-glass artists Oded and Pamela Ravek of OR DESIGN glassworks.

Every ad and directory purchase helps support so-

cial service facilities and projects including daycare centres, vocational high schools, domestic violence counselling facilities and shelters, school supplies for kids, and many other Na’amat Canada programs that enhance the lives of women and children in Israel and Canada.

Thanks for making the Ottawa Jewish Telephone Directory a unique symbol of caring in our community.

Na’amat Canada Ottawa continues to rely on you to advertise, to order the 2010 Directory, and to update listings by contacting 613-7222932 or sending an e-mail to ojteldirectory@yahoo.ca.

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Page 14 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

March of the Living was ‘beyond amazing’

By Stuart Woolley Editor’s note: Eve Woolley of Kingston was a member of the Ottawa delegation on the March of the Living last month. This article, written by her father, is from the perspective of a parent.

Jewish opportunity is knocking! Get up and open the door!

That’s how we felt when, to our surprise, our then-15year-old daughter, Eve, announced that she “really, really” wanted to go on the 2010 March of the Living trip to Poland and Israel. In retrospect, there was no cause for our astonishment.

Eve was raised in a small-but-mighty synagogue community in Kingston,

David Shentow is a Holocaust survivor who accompanied the Ottawa March of the Living contingent and shared his story with students from across Canada. He was joined by his wife, Rose.

Ontario. Being proactively Jewish in a small community takes deliberate commitment. Jewish kids don’t become culturally, ethnically ‘Jewish’ by osmosis. There’s no critical mass of metropolitan Jewish demography to serve as a ‘factory’ for Jewish identity.

Inculcating Jewish identity takes work – years of work. But there’s virtue in necessity, as anyone who’s lived in a small Jewish community will surely tell you.

You earn your Jewishness, moment by moment. The meter is always running – and rewarding.

This is how Eve was brought up. So why should we have been taken off guard when our Jewish daughter decided to take ownership of her ethnicity and seize the moment offered by the March? After Talmud Torah and a Bat Mitzvah, after years of Jewish summer camp in Quebec and in view of the centrality of Jewish life in our family’s consciousness, it was

Growing up Jewish Do you want your children to grow up with a strong and secure Jewish identity?

only natural that Eve would take the next step on her own volition. Eve also heard the knock at the door.

It was a door she ran to open herself.

I don’t imagine there are too many parents reading this article thinking, “If my teenager asked to be allowed to go on the March, I’d say ‘No way, never!’”

But there may be more than a few Jewish moms and dads who’d experience some reluctance in promoting the March experience to their son or daughter as a good and timely thing to do.

March advocacy can be complicated. There are real concerns: cost; time away from school; being a long way from home; and, ubiquitous risk in a dangerous world. It goes without saying that every responsible parent has to face the negatives and work them through. Lesly and I were no different. But, like any good walk in the country, there are going to be outcroppings to skirt and stone fences to climb. It can be done if you keep your eyes on the prize. And what a prize!

First and foremost, Eve structured her Grade 11 and

Grade 12 course plans so that she’d have a low-demand term. That lessened our schooling concerns. Her teachers were uniformly supportive about travel, enthused about the trip’s pedagogical potential and flexible regarding coursework.

And does anyone seriously doubt that highlighting March participation in a university application letter reflects positively on the applicant’s candidacy?

Cost was a big workaround for our family, but we managed it. (Don’t ask!)

A trans-Atlantic trip away from home and the parental units?

That’s a blessing for most kids, not a curse. Travel, soul-growth, social expansion, real-world education – we should always want our kids to sign up for these!

And, finally, the big, bad bogeyman of all parenting: risk?

Risk may be imagined or real, but it shrinks in light of long years of March experience and organization. The organizers have ‘seen the movie’ again and again.

They know what cooks.

They’re risk-busters. At the end of the day, Lesly and I

realized that the benefits – Judaic, educational, social and experiential – far outweighed a little bit of parental anxiety. We coped, and our daughter was the beneficiary of that coping.

How did it all turn out?

I drove to Pearson Airport on April 21 to bring Eve home from what was very clearly a life-changing two weeks. On the drive back to the Limestone City, she talked breathlessly and nonstop for two hours, as if trying to capture a neverfading, always-fresh memory of a trip that had been “beyond amazing!”

Did I need more proof that Lesly and I had done the right thing as Jewish parents?

We’d answered opportunity’s knock and won a lottery of life-experience that our only child will never forget.

Though not a religious person by inclination, as I listened to Eve race through her “beyond amazing” narrative, I smiled and said a silent, if amended, Shehecheyanu.

“Thank you for allowing me to reach this season of opportunity and amazement.”

Do you want them to acquire a high degree of Jewish literacy, in matters of ritual, history, ethics and culture?

If so, you are invited to attend the 2010 open house at Temple Israel Religious School.

Temple Israel Religious School is Ottawa’s largest supplementary school for Jewish children, offering programming from junior kindergarten to Grade 10. The school is affiliated with Temple Israel, Ottawa’s Reform congregation founded in 1967.

Staffed by dedicated professional educators and Hebrew specialists, the school is recognized for its contribution to Jewish learning and Jewish continuity in the capital region for over 40 years. In 2009/2010, more than 100 children enrolled in the school – and we are growing!

Both Temple Israel synagogue and Temple Israel Religious School recognize that modern families come in a variety of constellations. The school welcomes children of interfaith families who want to make a commitment to Judaism. From JK to Grade 1, the program is three hours on Sunday morning. Beginning in Grade 2, children attend twice a week, on Sunday morning and Wednesday afternoon (4:30-6:00 pm).

Please visit our open house to learn how you can enrol your children in this dynamic school.

Now is the time to begin thinking about reserving a place for 2010/2011.

You can also visit us at www.templeisraelottawa.ca/Youth/school.html or call the school office at 613-224-1802.

What: Where: When:

Open House at Temple Israel Religious School 1301 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa May 30, 2010, 9:30 am

Ottawa’s March of the Living participants in Tsfat, Israel (front row, left to right): Idit Prizant, Lauren Weiss; (second row) Elishua Ben-Choreen, Corinne Baray, Eve Woolley, Abigail Freeman; (third row) Natasha Beitman Brener, Eve Benlolo, Laya Polowin, Rebecca Silver; (back row) Chaperones Sarah Silverstein, Harry Prizant, Evan Mendel.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 15

Tamir’s Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat

See editor’s column, page 7.

Photos: Robin Chernick

Page 16 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Adath Shalom Congregation Shabbaton to focus on Jewish ethics, science, and the environment

By Joel Yan for Adath Shalom Congregation Annually, since 1995, Adath Shalom Congregation has organized a Leah Schnitzer Shabbaton and learning weekend. Leah was a founder and very active member of Adath Shalom who exemplified the role of leadership for women in the synagogue.

This year’s theme focuses on science, Jewish ethics and what the Lo Tashchit (not to destroy) mitzvah teaches us about advancing a Jewish sustainability ethic for today’s world.

Two events are planned, beginning with Shabbat morning services, June 5, 9:45 am, at Adath Shalom Congregation in the chapel of the Hillel Academy building. During services, Morris Schnitzer will give the d’var on the relationship between religion, science and art.

Morris is a soil chemist who has published more than 400 scientific papers during his long and eminent career. In his mid-80s, Morris continues to do research in his lab at Agriculture Canada and publish.

Morris is a survivor who escaped the Holocaust by assuming three different identities while he fled back and forth across Eu-

rope. With the help of his late wife Leah, Morris published a book, My Three Selves, describing his experiences during the Second World War. The second event takes place Sunday June 6, 7:00 pm, at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC), when Noam Dolgin will lead an adult program titled Beyond Caring for Creation: Advancing a Jewish Sustainability Ethic for the 21st Century.

Noam will discuss how religious values have long guided the interaction of people with their land and how Jewish practice is no exception.

Holidays, prayers and environmental laws have reminded Jews for centuries about their connection to God, the other creatures of Earth, and the land of Israel in particular. But, how do these ancient laws and values help us address the environmental and social crises of today? How can we combine ancient inspiration and wisdom with modern science and technology to find our path forward?

In this interactive workshop, we will explore ancient texts, discuss issues of modern sustainable living, and explore how Jewish tradition can be used to help guide our per-

Noam Dolgin will speak about Jewishly focused environmentalism, June 6.

sonal practice and society’s growth. This program is co-sponsored by Adath Shalom and the Soloway JCC. A Vancouverite, Noam is a Jewish environmental educator and advocate, crisscross-

ing North America teaching children, youth and adults.

In addition to his educational work, Noam is executive director of the Green Zionist Alliance, working from North America to promote environmental sustainability in Israel.

He was also co-founder of Adam Va-Adamah, Canada’s first Jewish environmental organization and served seven years as associate director of the Teva Learning Center, a North American Jewish environmental education organization. Noam has also published a number of Jewish environmental curricula.

More information on Noam’s work is available at noamdolgin.com.

Adath Shalom is an egalitarian, lay-led Conservative congregation founded in 1979.

Women are counted in the minyan and participate fully in our services.

Services are held at 9:45 every Shabbat morning in the chapel at Hillel Academy. For High Holidays and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, the congregation holds services in the social hall at the Soloway JCC. Visit www.adath-shalom.ca or call 613240-4564 for more information about this Shabbaton or any Adath Shalom program.

Beit Tikvah Congregation celebrates 30th anniversary

By Lynne Cohen for Beit Tikvah When a congregation turns 30 years old, it is time to celebrate. And celebrate we did at Beit Tikvah on Shabbat, May 1, with a Kiddush luncheon and speeches to beat the band.

Rabbi Howard Finkelstein, in his 19th year as the Craig Henry community shul’s spiritual leader, sermonized about the anniversary during morning services. He referred to the weekly Parsha, Omer, in which the Torah lists the annual festivals of the Jewish calendar. He then quoted Rambam (Moses Maimonides), who described the necessity of people to celebrate a Yom Tov, even a personal or communal one not outlined in the Torah.

Ottawa Modern Jewish School is seeking a creative principal with knowledge of Hebrew and/or Yiddish language and Jewish customs.

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“Rambam talked about people gathering together in the House of God to give praise to Him for the opportunity to celebrate,” said Rabbi Finkelstein, reiterating his sermon in an interview a few days later.

“Particularly, I said this Beit Tikvah celebration is our personal Yom Tov. This is a Yom Tov fulfilling the mitzvah to celebrate together the 30th anniversary of a wonderful congregation.”

“I love this congregation,” Rabbi Finkelstein, not usually one for emotionalizing during his speeches, told the full synagogue of some 320 Sabbath worshipers.

After the Shabbat luncheon, about 10 speakers waxed eloquently and humorously about the shul’s history.

“If I recall, we went ahead and built this synagogue before we knew where all the money would come from,” said one old timer. “But we were young, ambitious and optimistic.”

Called Beth Shalom West until June 3, 2008, the congregation was formed in the spring of 1980 and was initially led

by Rabbi Basel Herring. He led a small but dedicated group that has been growing constantly ever since.

“Ours is the only Orthodox synagogue in Ottawa that is currently growing,” noted Rabbi Finkelstein in his sermon.

“We are 200 families today, including associate members,”

he added during the interview.

In the beginning, for a couple of years, the congregation “travelled from party room to roller disco cafeteria to daycare centre,” recalled one of the original members in an after lunch speech. “It was so difficult moving around for services that we decided, in June 1982, to start plans for a permanent home on Chartwell Avenue.”

Today, the synagogue sits on an acre of land, generously donated almost 30 years ago.

Also in his sermon, Rabbi Finkelstein noted that Beit Tikvah is special because it warmly welcomes a wide variety of Jewish observers, from the least religious to Chasidic.

“We are an eclectic group,” he said. “All Jews, right across the spectrum, feel very comfortable davening at our shul.”

Rabbi Finkelstein added that Beit Tikvah is one of only two Orthodox synagogues in Ottawa that holds morning and evening services every day of the year.

“I am not surprised to see where we are after 30 years, and I am very happy to see where we are after 30 years,” concluded Rabbi Finkelstein. “It is something I always dreamed about as a young rabbi, to have a congregation such as what I have right now. I am very gratified and very proud of my congregation.”

Readers and advertisers are advised the next edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin will be published on Monday, June 14, 2010.

The deadline is Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 17

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 19

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 21

Preoccupation with hypocrisy obscures reasoned debate I dislike hypocrisy as much as the next person. But, I think society is developing an unhealthy preoccupation with it, such that it is beginning to obscure reasoned debate.

This hypocrisy obsession creeps up in discussion of topics across the spectrum. Here’s David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, writing in the Huffington Post on February 6: “When Israel takes action to defend itself, pro-Palestinian forces around the world are ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice with emergency sessions, self-righteous indignation, heated resolutions, angry protests, boycotts, letter-writing campaigns, and over-the-top ads. Yet, these very same forces are AWOL if Israel is not involved … If this isn’t a case of rank hypocrisy and transparent double standards, then what is?”

Or, William Saletan, writing in Slate (May 25, 2005), during the second term of then-U.S. president George W. Bush, about stem-cell research: “Before Bush vetoes the stem-cell bill, maybe he should explain how his comments about stem cells ... square with his comments about capital punishment.”

Or, John R. Lott, Jr., critiquing U.S. President Barack Obama’s health care bill on FoxNews.com on March 24: “Obviously, the Democratic leadership knew full well that the bill they passed on Sunday with such fanfare is going to make things worse for the vast majority of those who are already insured. There is no other reason why the staff that wrote this bill would exempt themselves. The anger over the Democrats’ hypocrisy should be deafening.”

These examples tell us a little about Harris, Saletan and Lott. They also may tell us something about the record of human rights NGOs, the moral psychology of George W. Bush, and the operations of the Democratic Party. But these cries of j’accuse tell us nothing about the justness and morality of Israeli human rights policy, stem cell research or health care reform.

If we put a hypocrisy-detector moratorium on such conversations, where would such conversations lead?

For one thing, writers and commentators would be forced to deal with issues on their merits.

Stem cell research: right or wrong, and why? What is at stake for whom?

Health care reform: whether, when and how? Who ben-

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efits and who loses? What obligation do governments have to protect the most vulnerable?

Human rights practices: appropriate or abysmal? What are the broad standards to which countries should be held?

Is there any room for deviation from these standards based on security considerations? If so, can most observers agree on these, or is security an altogether contested notion?

Writers and speakers would also be encouraged to be explicit about their philosophical assumptions.

Moral absolutism or consequentialism? Kant or Mill?

Going back to moral foundations can help us logically trace an argument to the everyday realm of practice. Do you believe something is intrinsically wrong, no matter its application? Or does the combined impact of an action, on us and others, determine its ethical status?

The marketplace of ideas would be immensely enriched if we spent more time talking about principles than about personalities. Trying to discredit your political opponents by pointing out ethical inconsistencies in their array of policy positions is simply a form of rhetorical distraction. That kind of reasoning leaves me, for one, philosophically and intellectually cold.

The charge of hypocrisy is not always motivated by polemical point scoring. Sometimes, it’s a legitimate emotional reaction to being let down by our elected leaders. I’m thinking of Americans’ experience of the fall from grace of John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer, for instance. When those in whom we place our trust act ignobly, we are understandably disappointed. But whatever policies these leaders are in the business of promoting or opposing still have a moral logic of their own, whether or not their proponents or detractors are themselves morally upright when they leave the office for the day.

Ditto our religious leaders. Surely we must have some independent opinion about the merits or shortcomings of romantic fidelity, for instance, regardless of where the person preaching it spent the night. Yes, hypocrisy is maddening. But isn’t the integrity of the principles underlying the messages much more important than our opinion of the messenger?

With all the shock talk and partisan pandering dominating the airwaves, perhaps we’re doing too much tuning in, circa 2010, and not enough turning on, tuning in and drop-

The Ottawa Jewish Historical Society takes pleasure in presenting the

Ben Karp Memorial Lecture when

Mira Sucharov ping out, circa Timothy Leary’s 1960s (minus the hallucinogens, maybe).

My prescription?

Grab a hit of the philosophical classics paired with the latest sermon around town and get in touch with your inner Solomon. Let’s debate, sure. But let’s try to convince each other of the rightness of our cause based on sound logical and ethical reasoning. And, hard as it may be, let’s try leaving the subject of hypocrisy for a separate conversation.

Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University and the author of The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for IsraeliPalestinian Peace.

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Values, Ethics, Community

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Page 22 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

The intersection of religion, politics and family dynamics The Believers ZoÍ Heller HarperCollins 335 pages Our general societal squeamishness about mixing religion and politics into our social lives is deliciously explored in ZoÍ Heller’s The Believers. In this hilarious and touching novel, Heller, author of What was She Thinking?

Notes on a Scandal, turns her lens to socialism, Judaism and family secrets. This very satisfying book reveals Heller to be a master of emotional detail and edgy wit.

At the helm of the story, set in 2002, is Joel Litvinoff, a social justice-minded Jewish lawyer with a secret past. Joel spends most of the novel in a coma, so we are left to observe him through the angst and foibles of his wife, Audrey, a foul-mouthed Englishwoman, 13 years his junior, whom we first meet 40 years earlier (the 1962 sequence, set in London, provides the characters an authenticity that is harder to achieve through more typical flashback conventions) and his three grown children.

Daughter Karla is an overweight hospital administrator trapped in a stagnating marriage and entertaining an unlikely love interest. Son Lenny is a wandering drug addict

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who was adopted as a child, after his birth mother was jailed for a guerilla-motivated bank robbery. And daughter Rosa is a frustrated youth worker who has recently discovered Orthodox Judaism, much to her militantly secular mother’s chagrin.

The book weaves among the inner lives of each of the characters, balancing between whimsy and intimacy, with a healthy dose of various subplots – some more exciting than others – driving the narrative.

Minor characters are described in loving detail. About Rosa’s roommate, Jean: “Rosa, she had decided, was a shy girl, who needed bringing out of herself. To this end, she was always appearing at Rosa’s bedroom door – gooseflesh hips spilling over the top of her low-rise jeans, a mug of Celestial Seasonings in her cupped hands.�

And about Karla’s needy neighbour, Mrs. Mee: “It was as if suffering had become so integral to her identity that the prospect of any real, material improvement in her life would pose a threat to her deepest sense of self: she had invested her entire personhood on a horse called ‘Put-Upon.’�

Heller’s eye for visual detail is similarly engaging.

Here, Joel is observing his son Lenny: “He was a tall man with a boyish, delicate face. Were it not for the gap between his two front teeth and the slight droop in his left eye, he would have been pretty. As it was, his raffish imperfections tipped the scale and made him beautiful.�

Heller examines Judaism through the familiar lens of secular modernity versus Orthodox traditionalism. Readers may find that there is not much that is new in these welltrodden tensions. Rosa’s tour of a Crown Heights mikvah causes her to recoil with disdain: “A group of women sitting in a bathhouse parsing Iron Age blood taboos and fretting over stains in their panties? This was not about God at all: it was the expression of some schoolgirlish masochism.�

At the same time, Rosa attempts to convince her mother that her turn to Judaism is legitimate. “I hate to break it to you, but we are Jewish.�

To which Audrey replies, “And Mike [Rosa’s brother-inlaw] is a gentile. Should he be thinking about joining the Aryan Nation?�

To Audrey, Rosa’s faith is absurd. To Rosa, it appears as a gradually self-revealing truth. The two positions are never

Book Review Mira Sucharov fully reconciled for the reader, which is probably just as well.

Rosa’s rabbi’s discussion of the difficulty of maintaining faith amidst the human tendency to doubt is also familiar, if slightly more nuanced. Speaking of the Israelites’ declaration at Sinai, “We shall do and we shall hear,� the rabbi explains, “They were expressing their willingness to do God’s will before they really understood it.�

Faith is thus relegated to action, an easier position in which to position literary characters whose actions are easier to chronicle than their beliefs.

Like religion, politics is presented as faith. Through the voice of Audrey’s much less politically savvy friend Jean, finding herself tongue-tied in a debate with an impassioned Audrey on the subject of al-Qaeda, Jean thinks, “There were some people with a gift for conviction – a talent for cutting a line through the jumbled phenomena of world affairs and saying, ‘I’m in: this is my position.’�

Heller suggests that little is absolute. While Audrey’s politics smack of the same certainty as that held by many believers, she vigorously rejects religion in favour of the church of Greenwich Village socialism. We’re left to reconsider our own certainty while accompanying Joel’s family on hospital visits. These, in turn, serve to remind us of the fleetingness of life, invoking a sense of fragility that helps shape the practice of much politics and religion as we know it.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 23

FOUNDATION DONATIONS Our future is in your hands

Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation To make a donation and/or send a tribute card, call Carolene Preap (613-798-4696 ext. 232) e-mail: cpreap@jewishottawa.com • website: www.OJCF.ca

Join us in building our community by supporting these local agencies AJA 50+ ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday wishes to: Lewis Perelmutter by Grace and Jim Hillel.

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The Board of Directors of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation acknowledges with thanks contributions to the following funds as of May 5, 2010.

NATHAN AND REBA DIENER ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday wishes to: Reba Diener by Roz Taller; and by Enoch and Maxine Padolsky

ABELSON FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND Mazal Tov to: Lois and Robert Abelson on their grandson Jesse’s Bar Mitzvah by Marilyn and William Newman.

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IBOLYA AND HOWARD GOLDBERG FAMILY FUND Birthday wishes to: Eileen Goldberg by Ibolya and Joel Wiesel.

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EVA, DIANE AND JACK GOLDFIELD MEMORIAL FUND Birthday wishes to: Doreen Kaminker by Anita and Ed Landis and family.

In observance of the Yahrzeit of: Diane Goldfield, a dear sister-in-law by Anita and Ed Landis and family.

HERB AND DENA GOSEWICH ENDOWMENT FUND Congratulations to: Debi Shore and Suzi Sauve on being recognized by the Federation for their contributions in the community by Herb and Dena Gosewich.

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MICHAEL GREENBERG MEMORIAL FUND Congratulations to: Ron Prehogan on being the recipient of the Gilbert Greenberg Distinguished Service Award

by Steve and Joss Greenberg.

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GROSSMAN KLEIN FAMILIES FUND In memory of: Pearl Moskovic by Vera and Leslie Klein.

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Birthday wishes to: Elizabeth Szirtes by Vera and Leslie Klein.

Continued on page 24

Page 24 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

FOUNDATION DONATIONS HANSER FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND In observance of the Yahrzeit of: Daniel Hanser, a dear Zaida by Norman and Isabel Lesh.

LARRY AND SHEILA HARTMAN ENDOWMENT FUND Congratulations to: Carolyn Katz on being honoured at the Jewish Federation Spring Luncheon by Larry and Sheila Hartman.

HY AND PAULINE HOCHBERG ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Selma Tarantour by Pauline Hochberg.

Al Hoffman by Pauline Hochberg.

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MAX AND DORA KARP KAPINSKY MEMORIAL FUND Birthday wishes to: Marty Fortus by Ruth, Deanna, Arthur Karp and Arthur Max. HIRAM AND LILLIAN KATHNELSON FAMILY FUND In memory of: Beloved mother of Lois and Stephen Kathnelson by Lyon Gilbert and Marsha Kathnelson; and by Jamie Solman.

ARTHUR AND SARAH KIMMEL MEMORIAL FUND R’fuah Sh’lemah to: Nikki Shapiro by Norman and Isabel Lesh.

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KOVOD ENDOWMENT FUND Mazal Tov to: Bonnie and Chuck Merovitz on the birth of their grandson by Sarah Beutel and Steven Morgan.

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KRANTZBERG KRANE FAMILY FUND Happy Mother’s Day to: Evelyn Krane by Myra and Sam Krane, Joshua and Jaclyn, and Justin.

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JOAN AND RUSSELL KRONICK FAMILY FUND Mazal Tov to: Joan and Russell Kronick on the marriage of Jordan and Nicole by Sol and Zelaine Shinder.

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The Chair, Officers and Board of Directors of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation cordially invites all fund holders and members of the Community to attend the

OJCF Annual General Meeting held on

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Dessert Reception to follow proceedings

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JACK AND SARAH SILVERSTEIN FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND Mazal Tov to: Ron Prehogan on being the recipient of the Gilbert Greenberg Distinguished Service Award by the Silverstein family.

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Birthday wishes to: David Shentow by the Silverstein family.

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LAURA AND GORDON SPERGEL ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday wishes to: Laura Spergel by Libby and Stan Katz; and by Continued on page 25

G.J. Cooper Scholarship Award presentation to Hannah Mayne

NOTICE TO OJCF MEMBERS

Zelikovitz Family Social Hall of The Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building 21 Nadolny Sachs Private

The OJCF will accept nominations in writing up to seven days (i.e. no later than June 2nd, 2010) prior to the election of the Directors at the OJCF Annual General Meeting on June 9th, 2010.

Please RSVP as soon as possible to Francine Paulin at 613-798-4696 ext 252 or at fpaulin@ojcf.ca A copy of the meeting materials and By-law amendment will be available on our website. www.OJCF.ca

“Our Future is in Your Hands”

To submit a nomination, please forward written correspondence to: Attn: Secretary of the OJCF c/o Francine Paulin 21 Nadolny Sachs Private Ottawa, ON K2A 1R9

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 25

FOUNDATION DONATIONS Morrie and Rose Konick.

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by Debbie and Ron Weiss.

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In Appreciation I wish to express my warmest appreciation to all my friends and family for their cards and donations in memory of my beloved husband Gordon Viner. Your thoughtfulness and generosity are very much appreciated. Please accept this as my personal thank you.

Shirley Viner

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Page 26 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

Traumatized by white asparagus This column was inspired by a long ago and almost forgotten memory. My daughter is spending the year travelling the globe. She usually texts me from the different countries she is visiting with some culinary tidbit. Last week, she texted from Berlin: “Apparently, it’s white asparagus season here. It lasts for three weeks then goes away. It’s a big deal. Thought you’d like to know.”

Believe me, I know what a big deal white asparagus is!

I was so traumatized by white asparagus that I am unable to eat or prepare it ever again.

Between my first and second years of culinary school, I was the garde manger chef at Orso, a restaurant in Toronto. Garde manger means “keeper of the food.” In short, I was the salad and cold appetizer chef.

It was an entry level position. The executive chef was Helmut, an old school, stern German chef, and a kind of scary character.

One of my jobs was to peel the white asparagus stalks. I

was given an odd looking vegetable peeler and set to work. Every time I tried to peel them, the stalks would snap in half. The chef kept yelling that these were very rare and expensive asparagus and they were only available for a few weeks a year. I brought in my “housewife peeler” from home, which was way easier to use. But the chef yelled at me for using the wrong peeler. I was never so happy to see white asparagus season come and go!

In case you were wondering how white asparagus differs from the more common green variety, white asparagus comes from the process of etiolation, the deprivation of light. While the asparagus grows, farmers mound earth up around the beds to keep the vegetable completely covered. This prevents any contact with sunlight, which would trigger the process of photosynthesis, and thus stimulate the production of chlorophyll, the pigment that lends plant matter its characteristic green colour.

Needless to say, I do not eat white asparagus. But I love green asparagus (aside from the effect it has on the aroma of

Asparagus Milanese on French Toast Adapted from Chef Massimo Capra Stale challah, thickly sliced, works well with this recipe.

You could also use country sourdough bread or hearty multigrain bread, thickly sliced. Just do not use packaged white sandwich bread!

1 bunch green asparagus 3 tablespoons butter 5 eggs 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated 4 slices bread 1/2 cup milk salt & pepper Preheat oven to 350 F. Break the ends off the asparagus and peel the stocks if desired (I never do if they are fresh and young). Bring a large

pot of water to boil and add asparagus. Boil uncovered for 23 minutes. Drain and immediately rinse under very cold water. Set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in large frying pan. Prepare the French toast: Mix 1 egg with the milk and season to taste.

Dredge each slice of bread into the mixture and sauté in a frying pan with until golden. Set French toast aside in a large Pyrex baking dish.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in large frying pan. Fry 4 eggs, sunny side up. Turn off heat and set aside.

Top each slice of French toast with several spears of asparagus. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese over asparagus. Top asparagus spears with fried eggs and sprinkle more parmesan cheese over the eggs.

Place in preheated oven for 3-4 minutes, just until cheese melts. Serve immediately.

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Made with Love Cindy Feingold

pee!). I had bought a beautiful big bunch of it last week and was planning to have it for dinner. I was inspired by watching Toronto chef Massimo Capra on Cityline TV. He prepared savoury French toast and topped it with white and green asparagus, parmesan cheese and a fried egg. I love breakfast for dinner, but feel free to serve this for lunch or brunch. I prepared it for a girl’s weekend lunch and it was met with rave reviews.

The second recipe is a twist on roasted asparagus. Thick spears of asparagus are coated in Asian flavourings and then rolled in Panko bread crumbs and sesame seeds. They get roasted in the oven for a crispy treat.

Roasted Sesame and Panko Coated Asparagus with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce This recipe comes from the April 2008 issue of Bon Appétit. I love to serve this as an appetizer with drinks. It would also be a great side dish to serve with grilled salmon.

Be sure to use thick spears of asparagus. Pencil thin asparagus will shrivel up and dry in the oven before the Panko coating gets a chance to crisp up. Panko bread crumbs are available in the supermarket. I find them near the sushimaking counter.

I like to keep my ginger in the freezer. I peel it when I bring it home from the grocery store and then put it in a freezer Ziploc bag for storage. Frozen ginger grates beautifully.

Rice wine vinegar comes seasoned and unseasoned. Buy the unseasoned. The seasoned has added sugar and salt.

Asparagus 1/4 cup mayonnaise (light is fine, just don’t use fat-free) 1 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger 1 cup Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) 1/4 cup sesame seeds 1 pound thick asparagus spears, trimmed, bottom 2/3 of each spear peeled 2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil Dipping Sauce 1 teaspoon water 1 teaspoon golden brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1/4 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil Preheat oven to 450 F. Oil large rimmed baking sheet.

Whisk mayonnaise, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and grated ginger in pie dish. Mix Panko and sesame seeds in another pie dish. Toss asparagus in mayonnaise mixture to coat, and then roll in Panko mixture. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons sesame oil. Roast until browned, turning once, about 16 minutes.

Meanwhile make dipping sauce. Whisk water, brown sugar, chili-garlic sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil in small bowl for sauce.

Transfer asparagus to platter; sprinkle with salt. Drizzle with sauce.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010 – Page 27

A fast and funny coming of age novel for girls The Importance of Wings

By Robin Friedman Charlesbridge 176 pages. Ages 10-14.

Coming of age stories are almost always popular with preteens and teens, especially girls. Usually, these stories, whether about girls or boys, are dramatic and emotional and reach highly theatrical climaxes. Humour, if used, is mostly for comic relief. So that is what I expected when I sat down to read The Importance of Wings.

Much to my surprise, my expectations were both right and wrong. Although the story does have a dramatic climax, simplicity, understatement and humour laced with exaggeration are the key characteristics of Robin Friedman’s storytelling.

For example, the “wings” in her title are not only the personal growth readers expect in a coming of age story, but also her protagonist’s intense desire to wear a particular feathered hair style popular with the cool girls in the 1980s. Above all, this protagonist yearns to be all-American cool and popular.

Indeed, being comfortable with yourself, versus being a TV-idealized version of all-American, lies at the heart of this often ludicrous, list-filled, lightly written, totally femaleoriented tale about Roxanne (actually Ravit, but that name is too un-American), an Israeli-American 13-year-old who lives next door to “the Cursed House” in Staten Island, New York.

From Roxanne’s point of view, everything is wrong with her and her family. Unlike the all-American heroes and situations portrayed in the TV shows Roxanne and her younger sister Gayle endlessly watch in reruns (Wonder Woman, The Brady Bunch, Little House on the Prairies, etc.), Roxanne is a scaredy-cat and a social misfit. She perspires at the very thought of gym. Her family never eats meals together. In fact, lately, she and Gayle don’t eat meals at all unless it’s at the food court in the mall. Aba’s (father’s) idea of going to the mall is looking at screws or kicking tires, and Ema (mother) isn’t around.

Although there are good and not-so-good reasons for all

Kid Lit Deanna Silverman

that, they are totally un-American as far as Roxanne is concerned, hence unacceptable. She can’t even get her hair to stay in wings! So Roxanne mopes, envies, feels sorry for herself, is intimidated by almost everyone, has a crush on an allAmerican looking jerk who is wild about her neighbour, and desperately longs for Ema’s return from Israel.

Why does Liat, who just moved into the Cursed House with her father, feel and act so differently? Also Israeli and Roxanne’s age, Liat doesn’t care that her artist/house painter father and his girlfriend dress and act weirdly. Liat doesn’t care that she’s a super athlete and Roxanne isn’t. Liat doesn’t even care about changing clothes in the locker room, being chosen last for the baseball team, or fighting Donna. How can Liat feel confident even though she’s moved so often since coming to the United States after her mother was killed in a terrorist attack in Israel?

As Roxanne grapples with these concerns, she discovers more similarities and differences between herself and Liat.

But she also discovers it is more fun being a doer than a watcher and perhaps her Israeli background and getting to know Aba better might be of value.

Hebrew words punctuate the story as does an explanation of writing and reading Hebrew with and without vowels, the meaning of the term “sabra,” and concerns for the safety of Israel and Israelis. Eventually that concern leads to the question of what should a person really care about and what worries are really not worth a second thought.

Within a few, fast moving months, Roxanne comes to un-

How I learned about girls By the time I was eight or nine, I had had a few girl friends with whom I played the way I played with the guys. I just got along with them better.

I would get invited over to the home of sisters Eva and Lily where I would be the only boy present.

Sometimes, the two sisters and I slid down the rough slopes of Rosedale Ravine just behind their backyard on Bloor Street. Sore from the ride down the hill, we followed the dirt road around to Riverdale Zoo. At the end of our hour-long hike, we got to spend time at the zoo, looking at decrepit lions, dirty mountain goats and chimpanzees that seemed to pass their days shrieking and playing chase, or sitting in the corner chewing their toes and rubbing themselves in ways I did not understand at the time.

One day, one of the chimps was playing up to the crowd and would swing and make faces for peanuts. She took a paper candy floss cone and stuck it on her head. Everyone laughed. She licked it and stuck it in her nose. More laughter. She stuck it in her ear amid even more hilarity. Then, she bent over as people were still laughing and stuck the cone where the sun don’t shine. Sudden shocked silence. Mothers hustled their children away and we were left with an abruptly silent chimp cage and a chimp sitting in a corner, a discarded cone still near the bars. I had turned red and averted my eyes.

When we got back to their house, Eva and Lily seemed to remember my discomfort and whispered together and giggled. I started to feel a sense of dread as we entered their room. Their younger girl cousin was also there. Like them,

she was lithe, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Something about their giggling together made me nervous. I could feel myself breaking into a cold and clammy sweat.

Lily, the younger sister, came up close and asked, “Don’t you know that boys and girls are different?”

“They’re the same,” I said, “that’s what my mom told me.”

This elicited gales of laughter all around.

“That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard, “Lily said. “Here, look.” She stood up and pulled down her pants and panties. “See, we’re different.”

I felt a dense fog fell over my eyes. I could not see clearly. I was gasping for breath as if in deep water and stumbled back against the wall. Lily pursued me relentlessly.

“Look,” she said, coming toward me with her pants and panties around her ankles.

I was seized with the great fear that I would be struck dead and turned to face the wall, covering my eyes. I would have done the same thing if I were a vampire turning from the cross, held in the outstretched hands of the priest.

Lily and her cousin were now on either side of me. Both of them had their pants and panties down around their ankles.

“Look at us, look at us, look at us.”

They danced around me in a frenzy while I buried my face

By Robin Friedman

derstand the importance of friendship as well as “the importance of wings.” Fantasy gives way to reality as loss, growth and knowing oneself come to the fore without a self-depreciating list in sight.

Winner of the 2010 Gold Medal in the Older Reader Category of the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Sydney Taylor Book Awards, The Importance of Wings is a fast, funny, easy read primarily for girls.

Humour me, please Rubin Friedman in my hands. My knees were buckling and my heart was racing.

“OK, OK, you’re different!” I blurted out. “Just leave me alone.”

Eva, the eldest, came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

“It’s all right,” she said, “it’s all right. You don’t have to look.”

The other two girls pulled up their pants, still giggling. Eva walked me to the door.

“Still friends?” she asked and put out her hand, a cool serene smile still playing on her lips. Her arm was sinuous as a snake, as solid as a lifeline to a drowning man.

My head still whirling I reached out and shook her hand in gratitude and uncertainty. From a distance I heard myself ask, “What do girls want?”

“The same as anybody,” she smiled, and closed the door.

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Page 28 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – May 24, 2010

WHAT’S GOING ON May 24 to June 13, 2010 WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS & THURSDAYS Motorin’ Munchkins gym drop-in for children aged 1-5 years with parent or caregiver accompaniment, sponsored by SJCC Ganon Pre-School, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Info: 613-7989818, ext. 280.

TUESDAYS Israeli Folkdancing, learn

CANDLELIGHTING BEFORE May 28 ✡ June 4 ✡ June 11 ✡

8:22 pm 8:28 pm 8:33 pm

dances, have fun, no experience or partner necessary, Hillel Academy, 31 Nadolny Sachs Private, 7:00 pm. Info: 613722-9323.

WEDNESDAYS Coffee Club for parents of children up to 3 years, sponsored by SJCC Ganon PreSchool. Children play, parents enjoy coffee and conversation, 9:00 to 11:30 am. Info: 613798-9818, ext. 280.

Chill and Grill BBQ for Jewish students and young adults, sponsored by Chabad Student Network, 29 Gilmour Street, 6:00 pm. Info: 613-6017701.

FRIDAYS Shabbat Shalom with SJCC Ganon Pre-School, for children up to 5 years with parent or caregiver accompaniment, 9:30 am. Info: 613-7989818, ext. 280.

TUESDAY, MAY 25 Malca Pass Book Discussion Group, sponsored by Agudath Israel Synagogue.

Deborah Saginur will review Friendly Fire, by A.B. Yehoshua, 1400 Coldrey Avenue, 7:30 pm. Info: 613-8292455.

THURSDAY, MAY 27 Yiddish-speaking group for Seniors, sponsored by Jewish Family Services, 2255 Carling Avenue, Suite 300, 10:00 am. Info: 613-722-2225, ext. 325.

Shalom Ottawa, our community television show, on Rogers 22, 4:30 pm. (repeats May 29 at noon).

TUESDAY, JUNE 1 Musical Mosaic, presented by the SJCC Shiru Lach Choir, 7:30 pm. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 254.

Soulquest, sponsored by

For more community listings, visit ottawa.planitjewish.com

Ottawa Torah Centre Chabad.

First of six-part series, 8:00 pm.

Info: 613-843-7770.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 Jewish Federation of Ottawa Annual General Meeting. All community members welcome to attend, 7:00 pm.

Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 236.

SUNDAY, JUNE 6 SJCC Annual Walkathon, in support of the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa. Run, walk, bike, roll over the 9 km route.

Lunch provided. 9:00 am. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 225.

Hadassah-WIZO Annual Tea, sponsored by the Amit, Mollie Betcherman and Ina McCarthy Chapters, this year in honour of Helen Saipe, 3 Southern Hills Court, 2:00 pm.

Info: 613-726-9119.

Israeli Film Festival pre-

sents: “A Matter of Size,” sponsored by the Vered Israel Cultural and Educational Program, Canadian Film Institute and the Israeli Cultural Forum, Library and Archives Canada, 396 Wellington Street, 7:00 pm.

Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 243.

MONDAY, JUNE 7 “Islam, the Jews, and the Coming Caliphate,” a talk sponsored by the Free Thinking Film Society and the International Free Press Society, with Egyptian-born Jewish scholar and author Bat Ye’or, who writes in particular about the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic

governments, Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, 7:00 pm. Info: www.freethinkingfilms.com.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9 Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation Annual General Meeting. Fund holders and community members are welcome to attend, 7:30 pm. Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 252.

THURSDAY, JUNE 10 Yiddish-speaking group for Seniors, sponsored by Jewish Family Services, 2255 Carling Avenue, Suite 300, 10:00 am. Info: 613-722-2225, ext. 325.

COMING SOON TUESDAY, JUNE 15 Ottawa Jewish Community School (formerly Hillel Academy and Yitzhak Rabin High School) Annual General Meeting, 31 Nadolny Sachs Private, 7:00 pm. Info: 613-722-0020.

Unless otherwise noted, activities take place at The Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building, 21 Nadolny Sachs Private.

This information is taken from the community calendar maintained by the Jewish Ottawa InfoCentre. Organizations which would like their events to be listed, no matter where they are to be held, should send the information to InfoCentre coordinator Benita Siemiatycki via e-mail at bsiemiatycki@jewishottawa.com or fax at 613-798-4695. She can also be reached by telephone at 613-798-4644. Accurate details must be provided and all events must be open to the Jewish public.

We never lose sleep over our Romspen investment.

For over 40 years we ran a successful commercial photography studio in Toronto.

We made a good living but we soon realized an adequate retirement income would be up to us. Our long association with Romspen began with syndicated real estate mortgages. When the company was converted to a Fund we were among its first supporters. Our experience with our Romspen investments has been exceptional, even during the recent financial downturn. The Fund is one investment we never lose any sleep over and it has provided us with an extremely comfortable retirement. Thank you, Romspen.

Patti & Pat Lacroix

1.800.494.0389

Learn more by visiting the Romspen website. Call for an information package.

Condolences Condolences are extended to the families of:

162 Cumberland Street, Suite 300 Toronto, Ontario M5R 3N5

The CONDOLENCE COLUMN is offered as a public service to the community.

Sadie Craft Jack Pleet Louis Satov, Toronto (formerly of Ottawa) Uri Schwarz Esther Miriam Sheffield, Toronto (mother of Arthur Sheffield) Murray Zloten

For a listing in this column, please call Carolene Preap, 613-798-4696, ext. 232.

May their memory be a blessing always.

Voice mail is available.

There is no charge.

www.romspen.com

BULLETIN DEADLINES MAY 26 FOR JUNE 14

JUNE 30 FOR JULY 19 JULY 28 FOR AUGUST 16 AUGUST 11 FOR SEPTEMBER 6* SEPTEMBER 1 FOR SEPTEMBER 27 SEPTEMBER 22 FOR OCTOBER 11 OCTOBER 6 FOR OCTOBER 25 * Community-wide Issue (all dates subject to change)