Ottawa jewish bulletin 2010 10 11(ojrevised2)

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bulletin volume 75, no. 2

october 11, 2010

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Terrorist attack at 1972 Olympics drove athlete from Judaism and brought her back

By Benita Baker Karen James, a 19-year-old swimmer, was jubilant, energized and ready to savour every moment of her Olympic experience when she marched into the stadium with her Canadian teammates at the

opening ceremony of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.

Sadly, her memory of Olympics is not the positive and exhilarating one that it should have been. Instead, she is left with the memory of

attending the memorial service for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were murdered by Black September, the Palestinian terrorist group.

James, who was raised as a Jew, had swum competitively at several

Play hockey in Israel Ottawa won the championship last winter at the First Annual Roger Neilson Hockey Tournament organized by the Israeli Recreational Hockey Association at the Canada Centre in Metulla, Israel.

We’re now organizing a team to defend our title at the 2011 tournament, February 21 to 25.

If you love hockey and Israel, this is the trip for you. It will be another incredible and memorable week of hockey and touring. Last year, our team was made up of Ottawans, Jewish and nonJewish, and friends and family from Toronto, Calgary, New York and Israel – so all are welcome.

Although the non-contact tournament is geared for 35+ men and women, each team is allowed a few under-agers. Encourage your significant other to join you on the ice or to come and cheer us on. Contact me at mitch.miller@rogers.com for more information. − Mitch Miller

international events, including the Maccabiah Games in Israel, witnessed the unfolding hostage crisis.

She saw the terrorists in the window, the negotiators, the police, camera crews and the blindfolded hostages being led out to the waiting bus.

“I can still see it in my mind,” she said in an interview with the Bulletin.

James’ memory of the games is further overshadowed by another deeply disturbing incident just prior to the hostage crisis. Her swimming heat was over early in the Olympic schedule, so she went out one night with three teammates to have some fun. Returning late to the athletes’ village, the group decided to climb over the chain link fence rather than go all the way around to the main gate.

Four men emerged from the darkness and climbed the fence alongside them. The athletes were not suspicious. They had no reason to be; at least until the next day, when the horrifying events began to play out.

“At the time, I didn’t make the connection,” said James. “I think I blocked it out.”

She didn’t talk about it – even to family. For 22 years, the shocking events of the Munich Olympics stayed buried until she reconnected with one of three Olympic teammates who climbed the fence with her that fateful night.

“We just looked at each other

Karen James will be the keynote speaker, October 28, at the Women’s Campaign Choices event.

and said, ‘We knew they weren’t athletes,’” she remembers. “I think at some point I made the connection, but it was the first time I said it out loud.”

The floodgates opened. She began to talk about her Munich experience and also began to think about the Jewish identity she had abandoned. Although raised Jewish, James strayed from Judaism as an adult. She married a non-Jew and raised her children, now 29, 27 and 25, without religion.

“The Olympic experience made me afraid to be Jewish,” she said.

Not anymore.

James is now the Women’s Phil(Continued on page 2)

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Page 2 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith at odds over cartoon (JTA) – The Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith Canada have clashed over a cartoon.

Just as B’nai Brith Canada condemned an editorial cartoon in Le Droit, Ottawa’s French-language daily, as anti-Semitic, and demanded an apology, the Canadian Jewish Congress came to the cartoonist’s defence.

Published in the September 20 issue of Le Droit, the cartoon depicts the Peace Tower – an iconic part of Canada’s Parliament buildings – with what resembles a Star of David in the face of the tower’s clock.

The French caption on the cartoon read, “Parliament returns,” while a traffic sign in the foreground signifies a slippery road ahead.

In a statement issued the same day as the cartoon, B’nai Brith called the drawing “outrageous” because the Star of David “insinuates the false and offensive allegation that Jews control the government of Canada.”

“There is a Star of David on the face of the Peace Tower clock,” says CJC CEO Bernie Farber.

B’nai Brith called for the cartoon’s removal from the paper’s website and an apology “for publishing such blatantly anti-Semitic propaganda” and to “re-examine editorial policies that have allowed dissemination of such vile material.”

Cartoonist Guy Badeaux, known as Bado, countered that his illustration was misinterpreted. He said he was only trying to depict the geometric design on the clock face, which resembles a star.

Bernie Farber, an Ottawa native who is the Canadian Jewish Congress’ chief executive officer, said he believes that explanation.

“There is a Star of David on the face of the Peace Tower clock,” Farber told CBC News.

“This has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and everything do with a cartoonist who was trying to depict the Peace Tower. It was very legitimate.”

Farber added that

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Badeaux is a friend of the Jewish community and has addressed synagogues and

anti-racism initiatives.

Despite that, B’nai Brith issued another statement two

days later saying that Badeaux’s explanation was not acceptable.

James: ‘I knew in my heart that I was Jewish’ (Continued from page 1)

“Where there is help there is hope”

The Le Droit cartoon condemned by B’nai Brith Canada as anti-Semitic.

anthropy chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and is a proud and sincere woman who has reclaimed her Jewish identity, and is thriving as a result.

James will be in Ottawa, Thursday, October 28, as the featured speaker at this year’s Jewish Federation of Ottawa Women’s Campaign Choices event. She will tell her Olympic story, but her talk will primarily focus on Jewish identity and her personal journey back to Judaism. A journey which she said was not easy.

When James decided to reclaim her religion, she was turned away from several synagogues.

It turned out that her mother, who was not born Jewish, had never converted; something James did not know. Although she was raised Jewishly, had a Jewish father, and had at-

tended Jewish schools, she was not considered Jewish.

“I knew in my heart that I was Jewish,” she said. “But, I knew that I was different, too.”

James ultimately enrolled in conversion classes.

“I wanted to be official,” she said.

“I wanted to belong and I didn’t want anyone to doubt it.”

The road back took seven years.

Her only disappointment was that, by the time she completed the process, her children were too old to experience it with her.

“If the rabbis had accepted me right away, then my kids would have been more involved Jewishly,” she said.

James was asked to be a torch bearer for the Olympic torch relay for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. At first, she hesitated, but then relented. Shortly afterwards, she

went to a special exhibit about the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. She discovered that the Olympic torch relay did not originate in Greece, but was initiated by the Nazis as a propaganda tool.

“It was an awful feeling and I struggled with the decision,” she said.

To make matters worse, she read in a newspaper story that footage from Olympia, the documentary about the 1936 Berlin Games by Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl, albeit with the Nazi symbols blocked out, was being shown on the bus shuttling torchbearers to their routes. James was so disturbed by this that she called the torch relay organizers and asked that the footage be removed.

They complied.

In the end, carrying the torch was an enjoyable and positive experience for James, perhaps making up for

what eluded her at the Munich Games.

“It was an incredible experience,” she said. “It is a unifying symbol that reminded me of the ideals of the Olympics and what the Games represent.”

As for her message about Jewish continuity and her fight to regain her Jewish identity, James is pragmatic.

“The Munich experience drove me away from Judaism, but it also brought me back,” she said. “It is important to be inclusive and welcoming to everyone who wants to be Jewish. Don’t shut the doors. Open them.”

The Choices event featuring Karen James takes place Thursday, October 28, 6:00 pm, at Agudath Israel Congregation. For information, contact Lindsay Rothenberg at 613-798-4696, ext. 270, or lrothenberg@jewishottawa.com.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 3

Page 4 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

Hillel Ottawa starts year with successful retreat

By Chelsea Sauvé City-wide President Hillel Ottawa I felt an incredible sense of fulfilment as we drove home from the first annual Hillel Ottawa retreat, held Sunday to Tuesday, September 5 to 7, at the Kollel cottage.

The goal of the retreat was to facilitate a sense of community among new and veteran students, while equipping us with the tools we need to be student activists on campus.

The retreat began with fervour as students from various political and cultural backgrounds joined together at the serene Kollel cottage.

The theme of the retreat was Connections and we began

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with a session about the concept of connections and the importance they hold in our everyday lives. Surrounded by the bold beauty of the cottage and its surroundings, we explored the meaning of the connections we each hold in our relationships and in the networks in which we find ourselves.

Because the retreat took place just before Rosh Hashanah, we were privileged to have a discussion about the meaning of the High Holy Days, the significance they hold in the lives of individuals, and the varied experiences they bring.

Those programs were followed by two jam-packed days with focuses on both Jewish-based programming and Israel advocacy.

We had a discussion via Skype with two students in Israel and the U.K. about the role of Hezbollah within Lebanon and regarding Israel. We simulated anti-Israel situations that students may encounter on campus, and learned strategies to deal

Students participate in a discussion during the first annual Hillel Ottawa retreat.

with such occurrences.

We also held various discussions on Jewish life, including the meaning of tzedakah and volunteer work in the Jewish community.

This balance between advocacy and Jewish life proved to be an effective combination. Students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds – from undergraduate arts, science and engineering students, to law and graduate students – attended the retreat and engaged in fruitful discussions with one another.

Of course, we could not be in such a setting for three days without having a bonfire. So, naturally, we had a big one with plenty of rikud (Israeli dancing) to

accompany it!

The true beauty of this retreat was the manner in which these programs were facilitated. As a communitysupported, grassroots organization, Hillel Ottawa is proud of being a student-led body that initiates student programming for students. As such, with guidance from the staff when required, all of the retreat programming was student-led and organized.

As a true believer in peerto-peer mentorship and learning, I cannot stress enough the importance of

this element of the retreat.

The effort of the executives of Hillel Ottawa and the Israel Awareness Committee, and of the Hillel Ottawa staff, was evident. And the success of the retreat was apparent from the appreciation and gratitude expressed by the participants.

Many students who attended the retreat were new to Ottawa. Their participation helped open their social networks to the Ottawa Jewish student community: a community that is growing in size, strength and ruach.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 5

Page 6 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

Hillel Ottawa: ‘Connecting our community through action’ Rabbi Hillel said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?”

As the new Hillel Ottawa executive director for the past two months, I have additional appreciation for this quote. Our university student leadership is working for themselves on the behalf of others, now. My responsibility is facilitating their success in creating a stronger, more vibrant Jewish community for Carleton University, the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College students.

I worked for the past four years as a consultant for KPMG in New York and Ottawa.

The time I spent in the business world taught me about project, time and people management. These skills help me be effective. By teaching these skills to students, prior to their entering the workforce, I help them be the best Jewish leaders they can be.

When asked about career change, I think of the Hillel quote. I made the decision that my efforts working for the Jewish community would make me happier and help others. The opportunity presented itself and I had to seize it.

Connecting our community through ac-

Federation Report Ross Diamond Hillel Ottawa tion is the secret to Hillel Ottawa’s success.

“Responsibility is taking an idea and following it through to fruition,” said Joel Diener, Hillel’s Advisory Board co-chair.

Building community through student-initiated events is a responsibility I have already seen both the Hillel student board and the Israel Awareness Committee board accomplish. The opening Hillel barbecue and the Israeli wine and Canadian cheese event were impressive examples of students taking their ideas and following them through to fruition. The Hillel House, at 284 Laurier Avenue East, provides a space for ideas like those to develop. Our students volunteer countless hours to make these events a success. They do it to be the change they want to see and build the community they want.

Hillel Ottawa would not exist without their

We encourage students to make Hillel a place to build their own community. vision and dedication.

Building upon the success of Alana Kayfetz, my predecessor and friend, we have an opportunity to grow our organization to new heights. Our dedicated staff is always building new and meaningful relationships with both the student community and the greater Ottawa Jewish community.

Rabbi David Rotenberg, a.k.a. Rabbi Dave, our veteran on-campus rabbi, meets with many students to discuss a large array of Jewish topics. He helps enhance students’ Jewish identities by being both full of knowledge and a listening ear.

Ben Singer, our Israel advocacy co-ordinator, has already partnered with national

organizations like CJPAC (Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee) and Canadian Jewish Congress to give our students the tools they need to advocate on Israel’s behalf on campus.

Continuing with successes like our Shabbat dinners, and organizing new initiatives like a mentor initiative, will add value to the Jewish experiences here in Ottawa. Our goal is to provide every Jewish student in Ottawa an opportunity to have a meaningful, positive Jewish experience, whatever that may mean for them. Whether it is Birthright, Shabbat dinners or football on Sundays with Kosher hot wings, we encourage students to make Hillel a place to build their own community.

The Ottawa Jewish community has made it possible to have accessible, meaningful Jewish experiences for students. Their university years are a formative time in their lives shaping many of their lifelong beliefs and attitudes.

Thank you for helping make those years exciting and fun while keeping to our Jewish roots. By continuing to enrich the lives of Jewish students here in Ottawa, we will enrich the Jewish people and the world

Giving thanks to God, the Jewish way After performing the mitzvah of brit milah, Avraham was, to say the least, under the weather. God made it unbearably hot on purpose so that no one in their right mind would be travelling that day, in order not to burden Avraham.

Avraham, however, was not content to rest. On the contrary, he was in more pain over the fact that he wasn’t able to bring in guests. So God sent three angels disguised as wayfarers. Avraham sees them, and ignoring his intense pain, he runs, pleads and begs them not to pass by without first stopping to rest.

The Torah then informs us that “he sat them under a tree.” The Midrash explains that, as a reward for sitting his guests under a tree, Avraham’s descendants would merit the mitzvah of sitting in a sukkah.

I’ve often wondered why Avraham settled them under a tree. Why didn’t he bring them into his home? And what connection is there between placing his guest under a tree, and Sukkot?

The Talmud explains Avraham’s method for teaching monotheism. He would invite people in, and prepare an elaborate feast for them. When they would thank Avraham for his hospitality, he would respond by asking “Why are you thanking me?”

Their reaction would be, “Well, who should we thank?”

Avraham would then respond, “Well, where did all this food come from?”

“The store,” they retorted.

“Well, where did the store obtain the food?”

“From a Wal-Mart!”

From the pulpit Rabbi Ari Galandauer Young Israel “And Wal-Mart …?”

This would continue back and forth until they realized that everything in the world comes from a higher source, the Almighty!

And, one by one, Avraham would answer their questions, doubts and concerns until they were fully convinced that there is a God who is in charge, who is constantly running the show, and it is Him we ought to truly thank for everything.

As we face the challenges of life, it is with an awareness and appreciation that, even though we are the ones doing and accomplishing, God is the one who grants us success or failure. To impress this idea on his guests, Avraham would sit them outside in the open air, under the sky, moon and stars, to focus on the beauty around them and to contemplate how everything in this world is from God. It was for this reason that he would specifically sit them under a tree. Because a tree is something that man has to first labour in. He first has to plough and plant and weed. But, after all of man’s efforts, it’s still not enough. We need God to bring down the rain, for without it, nothing will grow.

Well, the same rules apply to us. We work, we play and we have business deal-

ings. We do our best. But, we should never fool ourselves into thinking we control the outcome. Only God decides whether our actions will bear fruit.

This is the idea behind the mitzvah of the sukkah. We leave our homes, our comfort zone, and move outside exposed to all the elements, demonstrating our belief and trust in the Almighty that He’s the one who truly provides protection, not our man-made sukkah walls.

Sukkot represents divine providence, because Avraham brought this concept to the world, his descendants merited to have this mitzvah which represents and teaches us,

that were all in Gods hands.

It is interesting that we, Avraham’s descendants, are most popularly referred to as ‘Jews.’ Not ‘Israelites’ or ‘Hebrews.’ Jews!

The name comes from the tribe of Yehuda, the tribe that established the Jewish monarchy and the tribe that produces the Moshiach. Yaakov’s wife, Leah, gave birth to a fourth son and named him Yehuda with the explanation, “This time I will thank God.” The root of Yehuda’s name means “to thank, or acknowledge.” We, as a people, carry this title with pride as we acknowledge God as our creator, and are thankful for the opportunity and responsibility God gives us.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 7

Controversy over cartoon is a tempest in a teapot I’ve always found Parliament Hill and its buildings to be an inspiring place. Not because of the politics that play out there, but because of the democratic ideals Parliament represents.

One of the most inspiring sights on Parliament Hill is the Peace Tower. Built in the 1920s as a memorial to Canada’s fallen soldiers in the First World War, the Peace Tower looms high over Parliament Hill and, until the 1970s, was the tallest structure in Ottawa.

When I see the Peace Tower, whether up close on a visit to Parliament Hill or just catching a fleeting, distant glimpse from the 417, I am reminded of how privileged we are, as Canadians, to be living in a free and democratic country. Canada – however flawed our democracy may be – is one of the world’s most democratic countries.

Aside from its great height, one of the most instantly recognizable features of the Peace Tower is the clock with its four faces looking to the north, south, east and west.

The clock was a gift from the government of the United Kingdom in honour of the 60th anniversary of Confederation in 1927.

In the centre of the Peace Tower

Editor Michael Regenstreif clock’s face is a geometric figure consisting of a series of triangles made of molded glass that make up a 12-pointed starlike design. And within that 12-pointed star-like figure, the dominant six points look like the six-pointed Star of David, a symbol of the Jewish people for the past 2,000 years.

Although the Star of David does appear to be within the clock face design, I doubt the designer had any kind of a Jewish message in mind more than 80 years ago.

I also don’t think Le Droit editorial cartoonist Guy Badeaux – who draws under the name ‘Bado’ – had any kind of a Jewish message in mind when he drew his September 20 cartoon marking the opening of the fall Parliamentary session.

The cartoon is dominated by a traffic sign in front of Parliament Hill indicating a slippery road ahead.

Although the Star of David does appear to be within the clock face design, I doubt the designer had any kind of a Jewish message in mind.

As you can read in a news report on page 2, a controversy has erupted over whether the cartoon, which we show in the report, is anti-Semitic.

Officials of B’nai Brith Canada say that it is, that it represents the idea that Jews control the Canadian government, and that the cartoon will be used by antiJewish and Islamist websites to spread anti-Semitism.

According to Badeaux, the cartoon had nothing to do with Jews; that’s just how he draws a simplified version of the clock face design.

The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Quebec Jewish Congress are standing be-

hind Badeaux, who, they say, has been a good friend to the Jewish community over the years. Badeaux recently participated in a panel discussion of cartoonists organized by the Quebec Jewish Congress in Montreal.

It’s all quite the tempest in a teapot.

There are battles to be fought against antiSemitism, but the Le Droit cartoon does not seem to be one of them. Without any evidence to suggest any anti-Semitic intent on Badeaux’s part, I would agree with the Canadian Jewish Congress position that we should accept his explanation and put this issue in the forget-about-it file.

B’nai Brith Canada, though, wouldn’t let go of the issue.

“The cartoon’s message is clear to those who understand the history of antiSemitic imagery,” said B’nai Brith Canada CEO Frank Dimant in the September 30 issue of B’nai Brith’s Jewish Tribune newspaper.

Ironically, the page in the Tribune with Dimant’s comments was dominated by a large advertisement for a film called Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story.

The graphic in the ad is a baseball whose seam stitching pattern is of Stars of David.

Every stitch is another Star of David.

So, just who is it that controls baseball?

Question Period: ‘red-faced, finger-pointing, name-calling theatrics’ Shortly before members of Parliament gathered up their briefcases and returned to work late last month after an extended summer vacation, they were greeted with a sobering performance review from their employers.

That’s us, of course: The Canadian people.

Five days before Parliament opened, a non-partisan think-tank called the Public Policy Forum released poll findings showing that Canadians think their MPs stink.

I’m paraphrasing a bit here. Poll respondents didn’t quite say that MPs stink.

But a majority of them felt federal politicians are falling far short in the performance of one of the most prominent part of their jobs: Question Period.

Question Period, of course, is only a very small part of what MPs do. It’s a 45minute exercise that takes place on days the House of Commons is sitting. The rest of those days are devoted to less publicized, more sober and often productive activities, such as legislative debates and committee meetings.

But Question Period is what many Canadians think about when they think about what MPs do on Parliament Hill. It’s the House of Commons activity that gets shown most frequently on the nightly news because it’s the time when the political story of the day plays out most dramatically and most publicly.

Alan Echenberg And the more they think about Question Period, the more Canadians think that it stinks.

Two-thirds of the respondents to the Public Policy Forum’s poll agreed that “Question Period is just a forum for politicians to grandstand for the media and try to score cheap, short-term political points.”

The poll also found a majority (56 per cent) of Canadians “think less of our system of government when (they) see scenes from Question Period,” and that two-thirds believe “Question Period needs to be reformed and improved.”

Ironically enough, Question Period itself was introduced many decades ago as a reform and improvement of Parliament, said Public Policy Forum President David Mitchell. It was created to give the opportunity for regular backbench members of Parliament to ask pertinent questions of cabinet ministers.

According to Mitchell, the decline of Question Period began when cameras were

introduced in the House of Commons in the late 1970s and MPs started to use a time intended for serious questions to instead, well, “grandstand for the media and try to score cheap, short-term political points.”

Nowadays, it has become more of a forum for red-faced, finger-pointing, name-calling theatrics than a chance for elected representatives to get civilized answers from the government about the pressing issues of the day.

Teachers are embarrassed to bring their students on field trips to Parliament to witness behaviour that would net their students detentions or suspensions if emulated back in class.

It’s important to note that some observers say the source of the problem is not cameras in the House, but rather too few cameras there, and that a lot of the heckling and bad behaviour that turns off Canadians might be reduced if its perpetrators could be better identified and publicly shamed.

Clearly, the problem is compounded by the fact that we have had minority Parliaments in Canada for more than six years and counting. To some extent, the growing nastiness of Question Period reflects the general nastiness of federal politics in an extended period of uncertainty and heightened partisanship.

In concert with its poll release, the Pub-

lic Policy Forum held a one-day conference to discuss ideas for reforming Question Period. Conference participants included MPs from different parties, perhaps recognizing that the status quo is becoming increasingly unpalatable to Canadians, and is hurting all of their reputations.

They came up with a list of 10 very practical recommendations, including giving the Speaker of the House more authority, and allocating more time for MPs to ask more substantive questions and receive more substantive answers.

The recommendations agreed with those of Conservative MP Michael Chong, whose private member’s motion to reform Question Period may soon come to a vote.

But hopes for an immediate change in the tone of federal politics and an increase in goodwill and civility in Parliament were quickly dashed when MPs finally did come back to work.

The finger-pointing and name-calling began again right where they left off last spring, and spilled out beyond the confines of the House of Commons into a heavily partisan speech by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to an audience expecting sober economic analysis.

If politicians do not find the will to change that tone, they’ll continue to debase their profession and alienate their employers.

That’s us.

Page 8 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

Temple Israel to celebrate Heather Cohen’s 21 years as executive director

By Annette Paquin for Temple Israel This year marks Heather Cohen’s 21st year as executive director of Temple Israel. She is well known at Temple Israel, and within Ottawa’s Jewish community, for her unfailingly positive attitude, care and concern, endless patience and professionalism.

Heather’s greatest loves are her family and her dogs and, although she is somewhat shy about celebrations or recognitions in her honour, Temple Israel is planning a special celebration that will reflect Heather’s personal style and passions: a garden party for people and dogs.

The Ottawa Humane Society will be part of the celebration and, in recognition of Heather’s service milestone, will be raising funds to have her name appear on the donor wall in the lobby of the new Humane Society building.

The garden party honouring Heather Cohen will be held Sunday, October 17, 1:30-3:00 pm at Temple Israel. People and dogs are welcome.

RSVP to sandybennett@sympatico.ca.

An RSVP is necessary to ensure there are enough dog cookies and people cookies too!

A garden party for people and dogs, October 17, will celebrate Heather Cohen’s 21 years as executive director of Temple Israel.

From the Archives

Jewish-owned family businesses Elaine Schwartz of Ottawa Leather Goods – which will celebrate 90 years of business in November – responded to the Ottawa Jewish Archives appeal for information and records about Jewish-owned family businesses and arrived at the Archives recently with a briefcase full of advertisements and articles about the store, including this one from 1939.

Elaine’s grandfather, George M. Wolf, began operations at 92 Bank Street in the Keith Theatre building in 1921. Ten years later, business was so successful they had to move to larger quarters at 126 Sparks Street. An invitation to the store’s opening event mentioned “Trunks, Novelties and Ladies’ Handbags, representing the best domestic and foreign makers.”

In September 1966, Ottawa Leather Goods moved to its current location at 179 Sparks Street, on the mall. By that time, George Wolf, Jr. had joined the business, which continued to supply high quality leather goods to travellers from Ottawa, including the diplomatic community, and tourists visiting the nation’s capital. Elaine and her husband, Eric Schwartz, are looking forward to celebrating the success of Ottawa Leather Goods, which they have been a part of for more than 30 years.

If you have a story to tell about your family business, contact Laurie Dougherty at the Ottawa Jewish Archives at 613-798-4696, ext. 260.

(Photo courtesy Ottawa Jewish Archives)

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 9 Advertorial

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Chag Sameach: KKL-JNF’s forest rangers set up sukkahs in seven different popular sites “You will dwell in booths seven days.”

(Leviticus 23:42) As I write, Sukkot will be starting in a few days. Israelis appreciate this holiday enormously, and it is also a wonderful time to visit there. As a service to the public enjoying the Sukkot festival, KKL-JNF set up sukkahs in its forests all around the country. This enabled those wishing to observe the commandment of sitting in a sukkah to do so, adding immeasurably to the pleasure of their vacation time. The sukkahs were built in sites that attract the greatest number of visitors throughout the year.

In the North, kosher sukkahs were built at the Biryah Fortress and the Hula Lake Park where thousands of people thronged to take part in the varied activities offered during the festival. At the Lavi Forest, the sukkah was set up September 26 in special honour of the olive harvest event that KKL-JNF held on that day. In the centre of the country, KKL-JNF’s forest rangers set up sukkahs in seven different popular sites, including in the Jerusalem Metropolitan Park – in which KKL-JNF is a partner with the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Nature and National Parks Authority. In the South, vacationers were able to enjoy the mitzvah of the sukkahs at the Angels Forest, Yeruham Park and also in the Golda Park. All the sukkahs (apart from the special olive harvest ones) were open to the general public throughout all the days of the festival.

Gil Hoffman of the Jerusalem Post to speak in Ottawa on November 8 Ottawa JNF is pleased to announce that Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post, will be speaking in Ottawa on November 8. Hoffman is closely connected with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, has interviewed every major figure across the Israeli political spectrum, and is a regular analyst on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and other news outlets.

The program, which is open to all members of the Ottawa Jewish community, is being sponsored jointly by JNF Ottawa and Congregation Machzikei Hadas and will take place at the Synagogue at 7:30 pm. Pease see our ad in this Bulletin for details.

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).

Busy children at Terry Schwarzfeld Ottawa Daycare Centre in Akko, Israel.

Exciting opening meeting planned for CHW Ottawa Centre, Oct. 26

By Anna Bilsky CHW Ottawa Centre The Ottawa Centre of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW) will hold its opening meeting, Tuesday, October 26, at Temple Israel. Our special guests will be Marla Dan, national president, and Alina Ianson, national executive director, of CHW. It promises to be a busy and exciting evening with the installation of the new executive for 2010-2012 and the awarding of all our major trophies.

The Lillian Freiman Trophy will be presented to the Amit Chapter. The trophy, established in 1956 by Lawrence Freiman on behalf of the Freiman family, is awarded to the chapter demonstrating the greatest progress and initiative over the course of two years.

Patsy Royer will receive the Sadie Shapero Memorial Trophy, established in 1991 to honour a new member, for her outstanding contribution to CHW. Betty Altman will receive the Lena Coplan Cup. Established in 1967 by her daughter, Lillian Gertsman, it is awarded biannually to the woman who best exemplifies the ideals of CHW. Esther Awards will also be presented by each chapter to their deserving members.

The Ottawa Centre has a special responsibility for the day-care centre in Akko. The centre has been renamed the

Terry Schwarzfeld Ottawa Daycare Centre in memory of our beloved Terry.

Ruth Kahane Goldberg, president of Amit Chapter, visited “our” day-care centre in April and we are delighted that she has agreed to tell us about her visit and show her slides. Ruth calls her talk, Home Away From Home: The Terry Schwarzfeld Ottawa Daycare Centre. Thanks to the support of CHW Ottawa, the centre provides a warm and stimulating environment for 60 preschoolers from the Russian, Ethiopian and Israeli Arab communities in northern Akko.

And there’s more!

Six wonderful women, the

Friends of the Forest, have produced a remarkable cookbook as a tribute to Terry’s memory. This book contains Terry’s recipes, along with stories from her friends, and many wonderful pictures.

Bobbi Soderstrom will have copies of the book for anyone

wishing to buy one.

This will be an outstanding meeting and both CHW members and non-members are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served.

The couvert is $10. For more information, call Toby Yan at 613-224-4560.

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Page 10 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

Temple Israel announces Books and Bagels series

By Anne Alper for Temple Israel Temple Israel invites the community to attend our 2010-11 Books and Bagels discussion series. This year, three novels and two nonfiction books of interest to the Ottawa Jewish community will be featured.

All the sessions will be held on Sunday mornings at Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive, and will begin with a complimentary bagel breakfast at 9:30 am, followed by the presentation and discussion at 10:00. Pre-registration is not required and there is no charge for the program.

October 17 Ottawa author Gabriella Goliger will read from her new novel Girl Unwrapped, an achingly honest novel about forbidden love, isolation, and the search for personal truth despite the stranglehold of family history. Gabriella will take questions from the audience following the reading. (Note:

See the review of Girl Unwrapped on page 20.)

November 28 FortunÊe Shugar, an Ottawa artist born in Egypt, will review The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado (2007).

The book tells the story of the life of the author’s father, a successful businessman and notorious boulevardier in Cairo during and after the Second World War, and the impact of the family’s painful exodus to Paris, and eventually the United States, to escape growing anti-Semitism in Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

December 12 Rabbi Steven Garten of Temple Israel, who teaches widely in the community and is active in Ottawa’s interfaith dialogues, will review The Shiksa Syndrome by Laurie Graff (2008). This novel is a

funny and entertaining story of Jewish publicist Aimee Albert who finds herself falling for Josh Hirsch who

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mistakes her for a shiksa and who has a different attitude toward Judaism than she does.

points of view as well as the Christian Arab and Muslim perspectives. (Note: Exact date to be announced.)

March 2011 Hal Burnham will review City of Oranges: Arabs and Jews in Jaffa by Adam Lebor (2006).

Through the stories of six families, this book illuminates the underlying complexity of modern Israel telling the story from the Ashkenazi and Sephardic

April 2011 Day After Night by Anita Diamant (2009) will be reviewed. This novel is set in an immigrant holding camp in 1945 Palestine where four women, refugees from Nazi Europe, find healing in the bonds of friendship that are forged while recounting their loses. (Note: Exact

date and reviewer to be announced.)

These books are all available through the Ottawa Public Library and the Temple Israel Library. The Malca Pass Library at Agudath Israel Congregation and the Greenberg Families Library at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre carry some of these titles as well.

For more information, contact Shayla Mindell at shaylamindell@rogers.com or at 613-594-4556.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 11

Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program at uOttawa offers new course

By Randal F. Schnoor Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program University of Ottawa What is Jewish identity in Canada today? Can it be measured? Are there some standard Jewish beliefs or behaviours that must form a part of an individual’s Jewish identity, or is each Jewish person free to express his or her Jewish identity in any way that he or she pleases?

These and other important contemporary Jewish questions are being ex-

plored in Sociology of Contemporary Canadian Jewish Life, a new course I am offering at the University of Ottawa this semester.

As a sociologist who has taught a similar course at York University, I was delighted to be invited by the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program to teach at the University of Ottawa, to work with Professors Seymour Mayne and Rebecca Margolis, and to contribute to the growing Vered Program at uOttawa.

A broad range of social,

cultural, political and religious issues of concern to Canadian Jewry are analyzed in the course. These include assimilation, intermarriage, ethnic integration and economic mobility.

The course begins with an historical overview of the major immigration patterns of Jews to North America. Canadian Census data is used to develop a demographic profile of contemporary Canadian Jewry.

The course emphasizes the pluralistic nature and diversity of Canadian Jewish

Best of Hebrew University program to take place Oct. 21 Dr. Abraham Fainsod, deputy chair of the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC) in the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will deliver the keynote address at the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University’s annual

Best of Hebrew U program taking place Thursday, October 21, 5:30 to 9:30 pm at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre.

Fainsod’s keynote address, which follows a light dinner, will discuss current research at IMRIC and its implications for medical ad-

vance and cures.

Following the keynote address, there will be two lecture sessions. The first, at 7:10 pm, offers two options: Judaism as a (nation) State with Professor Dan Avnon and The Story of the Text of the Bible with Dr. Michael Segal.

The second session, at 8:30 pm, offers three options. Avnon will discuss Civic Dilemmas in Israel, Segal’s topic will be The Writing is on the Wall: Dream Interpretation in the Book of Daniel, and Fainsod will look at Stem Cells: From Embryos to Cancers.

Visit cfhu.org for further information.

What’s happening at

Congregation Beth Shalom Wednesday, October 13 Annual General Meeting 6:00 pm

Friday, October 15

Kabbalat Shabbat

6:00 pm • followed by Shabbat dinner

Wednesday, October 20 Eat • Learn • Kibbitz 12:00 pm Rabbi Scott Rosenberg

Watch for more upcoming events Watch for more upcoming events

Everyone Everyoneis is Welcome!

Welcome!

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

communities and particular attention is paid to less studied Jewish groups, such as ultra-Orthodox/Chasidic Jews, Jewish women and gay and lesbian Jews.

It also offers comparisons between Canadian Jews and other Canadian ethnic groups. There is space for more students in the course and those who wish to audit the class are also welcome.

The community is invited to hear Leo Davids, a professor emeritus and senior scholar at York University, give a guest lecture in the course. Davids’ lecture, Yiddish and Hebrew in Canada Today, will examine patterns of Yiddish and Hebrew usage in Canada over the past few decades.

The lecture, free of charge, will take place Monday, November 1, 5:456:45 pm, in room 8161 of the Desmarais Building at 55 Laurier Avenue East.

Sociologist Randal F. Schnoor is a visiting professor in the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program at uOttawa.

Page 12 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 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 September 1 and 21, 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: Edith Sporn by Ruth and Irving Aaron Lou Pearl by Ruth and Irving Aaron Bill and Leona Adler Memorial Fund In Honour of: Blanche and Joey Osterer Shana Tova by Elayne Adler, Farley, Jordan and Benjamin Stenzler Jack and Eva Minuk Shana Tova by Elayne Adler, Farley, Jordan and Benjamin Stenzler In Memory of: Edith Sporn by Marilyn Adler Samuel and Jean Akerman Memorial Fund In Honour of: Sheila and Larry Hartman Mazal tov on the birth of your grandson by Sandy and Michael Shaver Auxiliary of Hillel Lodge Fund In Honour of: Lillian and Mark Zunder Shana Tova by Liz and Jeff Kofsky and family Fred and Esther Ballon Family Fund In Honour of: Betty Ballon love and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year by Freddie, Esther and family Norma and Phil Lazear and family With our love and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year by Esther and Freddie Ballon Dorothy Karp With our love and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year by Esther and Freddie Ballon

Friedberg and Dale Families Fund In Honour of: Marvin Avery Happy 60th Birthday by Elaine Friedberg and Bob Dale.

Rabbi and Mrs. Yehuda Simes Mazel Tov on the birth of your son by Elaine Friedberg and Bob Dale.

Gladys and Mark Zarecki Mazel Tov on the engagement of Elisha to Chani Gross by Elaine Friedberg and Bob Dale.

Malcolm and Vera Glube Endowment Fund In Honour of: George and Elaine Citrome Congratulations on your new granddaughter Macy by Vera and Malcolm Glube R’fuah Shlema: Norman Slover by Vera and Malcolm Glube Nell Gluck Memorial Fund In Memory of: Helen Rosenthal by Henry and Maureen Molot Gunner Family Fund In Memory of: Edith Sporn by Sol and Estelle Gunner In Honour of: Phyllis Sadowski Mazal tov on your 85th birthday by Sol and Estelle Gunner Nordau and Roslyn Kanigsberg Family Fund In Honour of: Libby and Stan Katz Happy 60th anniversary with love by Roz and Nordau Kanigsberg Naomi and Allan Cracower Happy 40th anniversary with love by Roz and Nordau Kanigserg In Memory of: Abraham Davis by Susan and Jonathan Fisher Dorothy and Maurie Karp Endowment Fund In Memory of: Carol Spiro by Etta Karp Morris and Lillian Kimmel Family Fund In Memory of: Marvin Teitlebaum by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Edith Sporn by Morris Kimmel and family Donald E. Greene by Zaidy, Auntie Janice and family and Auntie Brenda and family In Honour of: Janet Kaiman Mazal tov on becoming the best principal with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Morris Kimmel Shana Tova Metuka by Anna Heilman Janet Kaiman and family Shana Tova Metuka by Anna Heilman Brenda Levine and family Shana Tova Metuka by Anna Heilman Morris Kimmel Best wishes on your special birthday

by Karyn and Bernie Farber R’fuah Shlema: Noreen Bosloy by the Kimmel, Kaiman and Levine families

Bill and Phyllis Leith Family Endowment Fund In Memory of: Miriam Algom’s mother by Arlene and Seymour Isenberg Levenson-Polowin Feeding Fund In Memory of: Shirley Levenson by Marcia and Barry Cantor In Honour of: Jozef Straus Mazal tov on receiving an Honourary Doctorate Degree from Carleton University by Inez Zelikovitz Mark Max Mazal tov on your special birthday by Heidi Levenson Polowin and Stephen Polowin Shelley and Sidney Rothman Family Fund In Memory of: Edith Sporn by Shelley, Stuart, Nina, PJ and Marshall Rothman Irma and Harold Sachs Family Fund In Honour of: Sheila and Larry Hartman Mazal tov on the birth of your grandson by Irma Sachs R’fuah Shlema: Noreen Bosloy by Irma Sachs Schachter-Ingber Family Fund In Memory of: Edith Sporn by Rachel, Howard, Davida and Josh Schachter Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Family Fund In Memory of: Mary Brewer by Debra and Stephen Schneiderman Edith Sporn by Debra and Stephen Schneiderman.

Irving Adessky by Debra and Stephen Schneiderman Harold and Lillian Shoihet Memorial fund In Memory of: Rose Wald by David Shoihet and family In Honour of: Taylor Siegel Shana Tova and Mazal tov on your sister Ashley’s wedding by Dovid Shoihet Milton and Mary (Terry) Viner Family Fund In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: Ida Schleider by Millie Schaenfield R’fuah Shlema: John Greenberg by Millie Schaenfield Anna and Samuel Wex Family Fund In Memory of: Irving Bloomberg by Anna and Sam Wex Carole and Norman Zagerman Family Fund In Memory of: Carol Spiro by Carole and Norman Zagerman In Honour of: Helen Saipe Wishing you a very happy birthday by Carole and Norman Zagerman and Andrea Arron Therapeutics Fund In Memory of: Mary Brewer by Sonja and Ron Kesten Edith Sporn by The Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge; by Corinne and Sheldon Taylor and family;

by Sheela and Ozzie Silverman; by Norman and Elaine Wolfish; by Carolyn and Sid Katz; by Carol and Lawrence Gradus; Pinchas and Barbara Pleet; by Kurt and Ron Brewer; by Beth Roodman; by Jerry and Lily Penso; by Sam and Dora Litwack; by Anna and Ron Cantor; by Ken

Kavanat; by Marsha and Art Saper; by Dee and Yale Gaffen; by Beverley and Abe Feinstein; by Cathy and Dan Sigler; by Brenda, Jerry and Eytan Rip; by Barb Fine; by Bonnie and Sherwin Lyman; by Helen Trachtenberg; and

by Joe and Sheila Nadrich R’fuah Shlema: Sam Litwack and a happy and healthy New Year to Dora and Sam by Sonja and Ron Kesten

************** IN HONOUR OF: Claire Bercovitch Wishing you a Happy New Year and continued good health by Anna and Ronny Cantor.

Libby and Stan Katz Shana Tova by Cila Farber Mrs. Malca Feig by Cila Farber Izzy and Mary Farber and family by Cila Farber Barry and Zahava Farber and family by Cila Farber Len and Barb Farber and family by Cila Farber Elaine Friedberg, Jonathan and Bob Dale Wishing you a sweet and Happy New Year by Kathi Kovacs and Irwin Schweitzer Lynn and Brian Keller Congratulations on the birth of your grandson Sawyer by Roz and Steve Fremeth Marcy and Tony Manne Congratulations on the birth of your granddaughter by Roz and Steve Fremeth Faigy and Zack Muroff Mazel Tov on the birth of your grandchild by Kathi Kovacs and Irwin Schweitzer Gladys and Mark Zarecki Mazel Tov on Elisha’s wedding by Kathi Kovacs and Irwin Schweitzer.

Mr. and Mrs. Burt Gorenstein Happy New Year and Mazal tov on your 50th wedding anniversary by Ingrid Levitz Margo Kardish Happy birthday by Marsha and Art Saper Harry Kamen Congratulations on receiving your Master’s Degree by Yvonne and Yehuda Azuelos Debi Shore Mazal tov on being honoured by the Hillel Lodge Auxiliary by Ruth and Arthur Kizell Semyon Ioffe Happy 65th birthday by Arnie and Chevy Fine Arthur Kizell Congratulations on your 85th birthday with love by Sara and Josh Epstein Barbara and David Slipacoff Mazal tov on the birth of your granddaughter Lyla Faith by Dee and Yale Gaffen Maureen and Mark Farovitch Mazal tov on the birth of your grandson Luca Charlie by Dee and Yale Gaffen

IN MEMORY OF: Mary Brewer by Cathy and Bruce Loucks; by Horace and Muriel Beilin; by Anita Rosenfeld; Barbara and Sy Gutmajer; Carol Pascoe; Anna and Ronny Cantor; by Harriette and Saul Brottman; and by Dr. Simi Silver Lil Rosenhek by Arlene and Norman Glube Helen Rosenthal by Debi and David Shore; by Maureen Kirvan; by Anna Bergant; by Lisa Gorra; by the lawyers and staff of Stikeman Elliott Ottawa; Anna and Ronny Cantor; Shelley Kamin; by Zachary and Faigy Muroff and family; and by Jackie, Gary and family Rebie Schwartz by Roz and Steve Fremeth Lily Tonchin by Ingrid Preuss; by Sari Adler Rose Wald by Anna and Ronny Cantor Rita Wanless by Ingrid Levitz Morton Meyer Roodman by Brenda, Jerry and Eytan Rip Irving Adessky by Rhonda, Danny, Sam, Zachary and Shelby Levine

R’FUAH SHLEMA: Ed Cohen by Estelle Backman Norman Slover by Anna and Ron Cantor

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 Bev at 613-728-3900, extension 111, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Thursday, 8:30 am to 3:30 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 – October 11, 2010 – Page 13

Patinkin tackles an Anne Frank obsession in new play

By Sue Fishkoff Berkeley, Calif. (JTA) – Mandy Patinkin says he only plays Jewish characters.

Che Guevara, his Tony Award-winning role in the 1980 Broadway play, Evita, Jewish? Inigo “prepare to die” Montoya in The Princess Bride, also Jewish?

“Everything I do is Jewish. It’s who I am. It’s my soul,” said Patinkin, 57, whose 30-year career on stage and screen ranges from Barbra Streisand’s love interest in Yentl to Mamaloshen, his traveling celebration of Yiddish music.

Patinkin is currently appearing in Compulsion, a new play about the world’s enduring fascination with Anne Frank, at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. The production will open at the Public Theater in New York February 1.

Compulsion is playwright Rinne Groff’s fictionalized tale of the true story of Meyer Levin, an ambitious writer obsessed for 30 years with producing his own theatrical version of Anne’s diary, a right he claims was stolen from him by the people behind the 1955 Broadway play, The Diary of Anne Frank.

The intensity Patinkin brings to his work stands him in good stead to play Sid Silver, the Levin character in Compulsion. Silver, like Levin, is seared by images from the concentration camps and absorbed with bringing what he believed was Anne’s true message to the world versus what he called the “deJudaized” version of the Broadway play and later Hollywood film.

“Anne was not a univer-

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salist, she was a Jewish idealist,” Patinkin said. “That was the core of [Levin’s] argument.”

It was playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and producer Kermit Bloomgarden who universalized Anne’s story for American audiences in the 1950s.

That was their goal, Groff says, perhaps understandably.

Anne’s diary was, after all, the first widely published account of the horrors of the Holocaust, before the searing works by Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi.

Groff’s play “didn’t just speak to me, it shouted at me,” said Patinkin, who read the script last year and immediately told director Oskar Eustis it would be “illegal” for the play to be put on without him. “I was stunned at how it hit a nerve in my soul, on so many levels.”

Patinkin says his Jewish identity was “shaken to the core” by a recent trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt.

“It was the sound of the train tracks that finally undid me,” he said. “I was headed back to Warsaw to continue to other places, and I had to stop; I couldn’t go any further. I couldn’t separate out how I was going to get off, go to a pretty hotel and have a nice meal, but if I closed my eyes, those sounds would have been taking me to a gas chamber.”

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Saying he “can’t understand” how people can sit by and let something like the Holocaust happen, Patinkin added, “You can say I’m naive, that I don’t get it, but neither did Anne. She believed, as she says repeatedly and as we repeat in this play, that people are really good at heart.”

But, Compulsion isn’t about Anne. It’s about one man’s obsession with Anne and, by extension, Groff says, the notion of many that only they truly understand the young diarist.

That was Levin’s mishegas, too. He read Anne’s diary in the late 1940s and extracted a verbal agreement from her father, Otto, to the stage rights. But Levin’s version was deemed unsuitable, other writers were brought in and Levin sued the bunch of them, including Otto Frank.

He won, they appealed and the case was settled by a panel of “Jewish experts” who awarded Levin $15,000 in damages while ordering him to give up his quest.

Levin never did, and that’s the heart of Compulsion.

“It’s about his obsession with an idealistic vision of humanity that this child represented, and his core belief that it must be respected, protected and guarded in perpetuity, and rekindled every day,” Patinkin said. “This play asks us to what degree are we willing to go for what we believe in? Is the cost worth it? Are we living in a world of endless compromise?”

Patinkin has a long involvement with Jewish and Israeli causes. He received the 2000 Peace Award from Americans for Peace Now, is

a board member of the Jewish sustainability non-profit Hazon, and supports the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

He said his activism stems from the lessons he learned growing up at Rodfei Zedek on Chicago’s South Side, as well as at the family dinner table.

“Forgiveness, compassion and Tikkun Olam,” Patinkin said. “It’s pretty simple. Repair the world. My world, your world, our children’s world, the Middle East world, the world of the environment, health care, ethics, all those worlds.”

See photo on page 15.

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Page 14 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 15

Cyclists gather at Hillel Lodge just before their 54-km ride in the annual Biking for Bubbies Bike-a-thon, September 19.

Second annual Biking for Bubbies Bike-a-thon a success

By Estelle Gunner for Hillel Lodge Perfect weather, 40 fit cyclists, 17 resident-bikers, dedicated volunteers and many generous sponsors and donors conspired to ensure the phenomenal success of the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge’s second annual Biking for Bubbies Bike-athon on Sunday, September 19. By press time,

more than $50,000 had been raised for the Lodge’s operations.

This year’s participants were instantly recognizable in their sky blue T-shirts with the Biking for Bubbies logo designed by Irv Osterer. Each bike was adorned with a card with the names of three Lodge residents and cyclists followed a 54-km route that began and ended at the Lodge.

Residents contributed to the effort by totalling up their distances on the exercise bike at the Lodge over several weeks. The residents combined to add 224 kilometres to the bike-a-thon total.

On their return to the Lodge, the cyclists, and the residents, were treated to lunch and a concert from A Touch of Klez.

The next Biking for Bubbies Bike-a-thon

is scheduled for September 2011.

You can volunteer to participate by contacting Seymour Mender at seymour.mender@barnessammon.ca.

Donations are still being accepted for this year’s bike-a-thon. Call the Hillel Lodge Foundation at 613-728-3900, ext. 111. Your donation would be most appreciated by our bubbies and zadies!

Lunchtime in the sukkah Mandy Patinkin plays a man obsessed with the story of Anne Frank in the play Compulsion, now in Berkeley, California and opening February 1 in New York. See story on page 13. (Photo: Joan Marcus)

(From left) Justin Azerrad, Max Sandler and Jake Nemiroff, Grade 7 students at the Ottawa Jewish Community School, in the sukkah outside the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building at lunchtime on Hoshana Rabbah, the seventh day of Sukkot.

(Photo: Michael Regenstreif)

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The Embassy of Israel in Canada and The Jewish Federation of Ottawa present

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Launch Event

Tuesday, November 9 7:30 pm â&#x20AC;¢ Tickets $18

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 17

Israel’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs to speak October 13 at the Solowway JCC

Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, Israel’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, will be in Ottawa to discuss the Contemporary Strategic Challenges of Israel and the Western World.

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 e-mail him at mregenstreif@ottawajewishbulletin.com.

Wednesday, October 13 7:00 pm Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon Social Hall Soloway JCC 21 Nadolny Sachs Private Ya’alon’s illustrious military career began in 1968, when he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and culminated with his appointment as the IDF’s Chief of Staff in 2002 where he served in this capacity until 2005.

He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center and serves as the chairman of the Center for Jewish Identity and Culture at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem.

This program is presented by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and the Vered Israel Cultural and Educational Program. Admission is free.

For further information contact Francie Greenspoon at (613) 798-4696, ext. 255 or fgreenspoon@jewishottawa.com

Page 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ottawa Jewish Bulletin â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 11, 2010

Analysis: Why Israel allowed the settlement freeze to expire

By Uriel Heilman JERUSALEM (JTA) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; In the four weeks after direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed, settlement construction was widely identified as the most immediate obstacle to the survival of negotiations.

In media accounts about the diplomatic standoff over the issue, Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision not to extend its self-imposed 10-month freeze on settlement building has been portrayed as a slap in the face to the Obama administration, deepening Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s occupation of the West Bank and creating more stumbling blocks to a final peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians.

In the week leading to the freezeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s September 26 expiry date, world leaders reportedly telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him to extend it.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to settlement building following a meeting in Paris with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Quartet peacemaking envoy Tony Blair met with Netanyahu twice over four days. All to no avail. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Of course we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to end negotiations; we want to continue,â&#x20AC;? Abbas told Europe 1 radio, after the freeze ended. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But if colonization continues, we will be forced to end them.â&#x20AC;?

In Israel, the response was the rumbling of earth-moving equipment headed for construction sites in the West Bank.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because what is perceived around

the world as Israeli stubbornness is seen much differently in Israel. The differences in outlook cut to the heart not only of how Israelis view these negotiations, but how they view the future border between Israel and a Palestinian state.

In Jerusalem, it is the Palestinians who are seen as stubborn for sticking to their insistence that settlement building be halted before coming to the negotiating table.

Never before had such a precondition been imposed on negotiations; in the past, Israelis and Palestinians talked while both continued to build in their respective West Bank communities.

Having offered the freeze unilaterally 10 months ago to coax the Palestinians back to the negotiating table and to satisfy U.S. demands for an Israeli good-will gesture, the Israeli government sees itself as the accommodating party whose gesture was never reciprocated. Rather, it took the Palestinian Authority nine months to agree to resume negotiations, leaving virtually no time for substantive progress before the freeze expired.

Then there are the political considerations: Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right-leaning coalition partners made clear that extending the freeze was a nonstarter. Perhaps most important, however, the freeze was seen by many Israelis as unfair.

The vast majority of the 300,000 or so Jews who live in the West Bank are families

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living in bedroom communities within easy commuting distance of Jerusalem or metropolitan Tel Aviv. While some Israelis moved to the settlements for ideological reasons, for many the motivating factor was economic: Housing was much cheaper in the West Bank than in Israel proper.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, for decades the government offered Israelis economic incentives to settle across the Green Line â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the 1949 armistice line that marked the Jordan-Israel border until the 1967 Six Day War. During the freeze, these Israelis saw themselves as unfairly penalized: Why were they barred from expanding their homes when their Palestinians neighbours were not? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Stop making us look like monsters,â&#x20AC;?

Yigal Dilmoni, director of the information office for the Yesha Council, the settlersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; umbrella organization, told JTA in a recent interview.

The problem, of course, stems from the ambiguous nature of Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence in the West Bank.

Most nations view the area as illegally occupied by Israel. The Israeli government views it as disputed territory captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. While Israel annexed some territories captured in that war (Eastern Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria) and withdrew from others either unilaterally or within a peace deal (the Sinai Peninsula in a deal with Egypt, the Gaza Strip unilaterally), Israel left the West Bank in legal limbo.

The Palestinians claim the land as the site of their future state.

In Israel, many on the right believe that Israel should not cede an inch, and many on the left say settlements are a crime and the West Bank should be entirely Palestinian. But the ma-

jority Israeli view is that most of the West Bank will end up as Palestine while parts of it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; large Jewish settlement blocs adjacent to the Green Line â&#x20AC;&#x201C; will be annexed to Israel.

In almost all the scenarios, Israel plans to keep the major settlement blocs. Among them are Gush Etzion, a largely religious cluster of towns with some 55,000 people less than 10 miles from Jerusalem; Maale Adumim, a mixed religious-secular city of some 35,000 about five miles east of Jerusalem; and Modiin Illit, a Haredi Orthodox city of some 45,000 located less than two miles inside the West Bank, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

More difficult is Ariel, a city of 18,000 located approximately 13 miles inside the West Bank. Israel also aims to keep the smaller settlements near the West Bank-Israel boundary. This plan encompasses the vast majority of the settler population.

Israeli officials say they have received assurances from U.S. officials that this would be the case â&#x20AC;&#x201C; most notably in the April 2004 letter by then-president George W. Bush to then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Operating under this assumption, the Israeli government viewed a complete, openended settlement freeze as unreasonable: If the major settlement blocs will be Israeli, why stop building within them?

After 10 months of an experimental freeze to see what it would elicit from the Palestinians, their return to the negotiating table was not enough. It was time for the experiment to end.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 19

We can all learn from the conversion process Most of the recent talk about Jewish conversion has focused on the controversial conversion bill in Israel. But less discussed is what Jews everywhere might learn from the conversion process for our own Jewish identity and practice.

For most non-Orthodox Jews, the biggest amount of Jewish learning takes place in the formative years. Let’s say the typical cycle for an engaged Jewish kid is some form of elementary Jewish education, some Shabbat and holiday celebrations in the home, a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, maybe a high school youth group, summer camp or an Israel trip and, possibly, a Jewish studies course in university. But, by the time marriage and parenthood roll around, the typical Jewish adult will have had a decade or more of very thin Jewish intellectual and spiritual life.

Contrast that with adult converts to Judaism. As Jews by choice, these individuals have spent considerable time learning about Jewish life through a mature lens. They have had the opportunity to bring an analytical eye to the study of Jewish history, culture, texts and liturgy. Since they come from other faith backgrounds, they can view Jewish ritual and symbols in broad, societal context. At a personal level, they are forced to think about how Judaism will fit into their own adult lives. And, to boot, they have had the opportunity to develop an adult relationship with a rabbi.

If my kids are anything like me and most of my friends, by the time they are ready to get married, they will have left home for university, travelled overseas and met a life partner somewhere along the way. Come their nuptials, they may or may not pop into their home town – where they may or may not choose to settle – for their wedding celebrations. And they probably won’t have given a lot of thought to the precise kind of Jewish life they plan to embark on as spouses and as parents.

In the days following the birth of my first child, I recall devouring a book given to me as a baby gift: Becoming a Jewish Parent, by Rabbi Daniel Gordis. (The best nugget I recall is that Jewish holidays are not Christian-holiday equivalents. Purim is Purim, not a Jewish Halloween. Chanukah is Chanukah, not a Jewish Christmas.) It was in those pages, mostly bed-bound while nursing my baby daughter, that I first seriously envisioned the kind of Jewish home I wished to help run.

But, why wait until a few years into marriage to think about Jewish life as adults? What would our Jewish lives, as newly minted spouses and parents, look like if we were required – by custom or convention – to undergo a process of engaging with Judaism with a rabbi, say for a year prior to the wedding?

Chances are we would be able to share our communal and religious vision with our partner and help iron out differences early on. (Whether in an intermarried or in-married scenario, there is often some degree of religious tension.)

We would be able to foresee a Jewish life that properly connects with who we are as adults – not necessarily with whom we thought we were at age 12 or 13. This would give us a chance to examine Judaism with the nuance it deserves. Jewish complexity is all too often lost in the types of formative education more concerned with inculcating the basics and forging simplified identities than with challenging the learner to think critically. And we would have the support of a rabbi who has helped guide and challenge us through our journey of self-discovery as Jewish grownups.

When my husband and I became engaged, living in Washington, D.C. as graduate students, we eagerly shopped for rings, flowers and musicians. On Sunday nights, we headed downtown to the DCJCC – we hardly even noticed that it was a Jewish community centre – to get tutored in big band swing moves for our first dance.

It never occurred to us that a dose of adult Jewish ed-

Values, Ethics, Community Mira Sucharov ucation might enrich our next phase together. We even lived across the street from a synagogue whose doorway we never thought to darken being the young, independently minded, urban hipsters we fancied ourselves. We could

have discussed the range of theological perspectives open to scientifically minded skeptics. We could have deepened our knowledge of Judaic texts and ideas. (That shul, Temple Micah, is now the professional home of Ottawa native Rabbi Esther Lederman and was named by Newsweek as one of “America’s most vibrant congregations.”)

The challenge for converts – underscored by Israel’s increasingly hostile attitudes to North American conversions – may be to feel at home in a community they were not born into. But there’s a lot everyone can learn from the adult conversion process for defining Jewish journeys.

Mira Sucharov, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University, is writing a book on nostalgia and political change.

Is Turkey’s bid to join the EU a Trojan Horse?

In the business world, in order to avoid the lengthy and complex process of an initial public offering (IPO) and all the associated dog and pony shows, people sometimes buy a shell company that has very little value, products, services or employees, at a fraction of what it would have cost to conduct an IPO. The only value the shell company brings is its listing with the Security and Exchange Commission. Once the acquisition is complete, the shell company takes over the original company that wanted to be listed and, voilà, you have yourself a listed and publicly traded company.

In Turkey’s September 12 constitutional referendum, a slim majority of Turks preferred constitutional amendments that, on the surface, enable Turkey to align itself with European legal and legislative standards and demands.

The changes, on the surface, allow Turkey to present its institutions as those of an open and democratic nation.

But, looking under the hood, openness is receding and the questionable intentions of the ruling party, its questionable monetary sources and practices, and the strengthening Islamist ideology of the ruling party, have been slowly eroding the secular culture and undermining the power nationalists and the judiciary once had.

While countries such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia have been funding the AKP (Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Reconciliation Party) since the early 2000s as part of their foreign policy to influence increased Islamist governance in Turkey (and globally), the AKP seems to have expanded its circle of donors, which now also includes neighbouring Iran. It is said that AKP is to receive as much as $12 million from Iran immediately with an additional $25 million coming later this year. This is to ensure Erdogan’s hold on power. While Europeans and Americans see the referendum and legislative changes as positive steps towards eventual integration with Europe, Turkey sees itself building the shell for a reverse takeover.

This is what Iran, the Saudis and the Malaysians are betting on.

Turkey has become an influential conduit for trade and espionage for Iran since the sanctions were put in place.

Turkey is quickly assuming the role that Dubai and the United Arab Emirates played before the sanctions. We may see trade up to $30 billion within the next few years due to this shift. Iran has further announced that it would now openly fund IHH, the Turkish Islamic charity that supported last May’s flotilla to Gaza.

Germany and France are rather cool toward the idea of Turkey’s union with Europe and are concerned that bringing in the largest Muslim nation in Europe, with the second largest military force in NATO, and an Islamist government to boot, will change the balance of power in

World Affairs the European Union (EU).

As Erdogan is seeking to marginalize, and even eliminate, all secularists from the circles of power in Turkey, Europe will acquire a shell that would present some significant challenges.

Could this be a reverse takeover of the EU, not only by Turkey, but by Islamists? Is this Turkey’s Trojan Horse?

And will the EU be in need of a poison pill to divest itself of such a reverse takeover?

These are legitimate questions.

While the nation is ideologically polarized, the Turkish economy is enjoying exponential growth due to the influx of green money from Islamist states, groups and individuals. There is suspicion that some of Hamas and Hezbollah’s drug money from South and Central America may have found its way to be laundered and recycled in the country as well. There is a lack of any credible statistics on the sources of the green money as Iranian banks in Turkey operate with complete autonomy, even those thought to be associated with the Islamic Republic Guard Corp.

As the relationship between Iran and Turkey blossoms further in the face of sanctions, we seem to be contributing to the creation of a larger problem that our children will end up trying to resolve. We need to remember that not all democracies lead to the peaceful exercise of human rights, respect, protection of minorities and equality. We have to remember that Hamas was democratically elected.

Democracy is a funny business. When mixed with religious fundamentalism, it can yield unexpected dividends.

Turkey, with its Islamist president and prime minister, will be restructuring its constitutional court, reforming the judiciary, and the unions – all in the name of democratization and realignment with European expectations. So, while on the surface, Turkey seems to be making significant advances in democracy and is realigning itself to enter Europe, we need to explore potential threats and ask whether Europe is ready for Turkey’s interpretation of democracy and its expectations of the EU.

Page 20 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

A girl’s multilayered identity is unwrapped in Goliger’s first novel Girl Unwrapped

By Gabriella Goliger Arsenal Pulp Press 336 pages Ottawa writer Gabriella Goliger’s first book, Song of Ascent, published a decade ago, was an acclaimed collection of short stories. Girl Unwrapped, her first full-length novel, tells

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the story of Toni Goldblatt and her multifaceted identity.

We first meet Toni as an eight-year-old girl in Montreal, sitting down to Friday night Shabbat dinner with her Holocaust-survivor parents. At these Friday night dinners, Toni hears more earfuls of her parents’ arguments about various relatives than she’d ever care to. The conflicts that play out at these Shabbat dinners set the scene for the conflicts, particularly with herself, that Toni will deal with as she passes through adolescence and early adulthood.

As the story progresses, we follow Toni from her tomboy adolescence in Montreal, and at summer camp in the Laurentians, to an extended stay in Israel not long after the Six Day War, to her return to Montreal as a McGill student. Along the way, she deals with the passing of her father and conflicts with her mother, and with her own sexual awakening and first loves.

Although the book is a work of fiction, Goliger explained to Bulletin reporter Jacqueline Shabsove (Goliger examines issues of identity in new novel, September 6, 2010) that it explores two defining aspects of her identity: her Jewishness and her lesbianism.

“I drew on my own life and experiences, but emphatically, this is not my story,” she said. “I very deliberately made it fictional, someone else’s story. The main character is not me.”

Indeed, Goliger writes from a third-person perspective. This allows readers to see the story seemingly unfold through their own eyes, rather than through those of a particular character.

The lesbianism that will become central to the story as Toni matures is hinted at in the early pages by Toni’s total disinterest in the dolls most girls her age play with and by her hostility to the very feminine clothing her mother sews for her.

A dirndl dress is described as “despicable” and a confrontation over her mother’s insistence that she dress appropriately for Shabbat dinner escalates into a tantrum that drives her father behind closed doors with a migraine.

It’s at Camp Tikvah, at age 15, when Toni’s confusion over her sexual identity reaches a crisis point. A crush on her counsellor leads to a breakdown that necessitates her leaving camp.

As Toni’s story continues to unfold in Montreal, the Jewish community, including her and her parents, is transfixed by the events in the Middle East leading to the Six Day War in 1967.

After the war, Toni graduates from high school and earns a scholarship to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It is in Israel where, away from her parents, Toni begins to resolve the questions of identity that lie at the heart of Girl Unwrapped, particularly after an encounter with Janet, the Camp Tikvah counsellor who had moved to Israel to become a folksinger.

The sudden death of her father brings Toni back to Montreal where she continues her academic studies at McGill and her ongoing self-discovery – and the conflict it brings with her mother – in the then-underground lesbian bar scene.

As the book ends, Toni’s widowed mother has come to an understanding and acceptance of the sexual identity her daughter, at first, had tried to hide from her, and Toni, now liv-

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ing on her own in a small apartment in the McGill Ghetto, is celebrating the openness and freedom that characterized Montreal in the summer of 1970 (just a couple of months before the city would be transformed by the October Crisis).

Goliger’s writing shows a deft touch throughout the book.

The story and her characters, particularly Toni, are well served by the observational style of the prose. And, although I have much less in common with Toni than does Goliger, I did come of age in Montreal at about the same time, and her settings of times and places ring with authenticity.

Gabriella Goliger will read from Girl Unwrapped on Sunday, October 17, 9:30 am, at Temple Israel as part of the Books ‘n Bagels series; and on Tuesday, October 26, 7:00 pm, at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, as part of the Greenberg Families Library authors’ series.

For more information on the library event, call 613-7989818, ext. 245, or e-mail library@jccottawa.com.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 21

Did you know about Dr. Dan Lewinshtein’s awards?

• Dr. Dan Lewinshtein was presented with two Merit Awards by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The awards, given by the society for “exceptional contribution to the research of genitourinary tract cancer,” were based on his research into prostate cancer and testicular cancer. A graduate of Hillel Academy, Dan attended McGill University Medical School and completed a residency in urology at the University of Montreal. He is currently enrolled in a two-year fellowship in oncology at the Virginia Mason Medical Center and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.

His parents, Sam and Rhona, are understandably proud.

• Michael Polowin has been listed in the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada, in the practice areas of municipal law and real estate law. Described by The American lawyer magazine as “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice,” inclusion in this prestigious annual publication is based on an exhaustive, rigorous and confidential peer review survey by over 320,000 Canadian lawyers.

• Mazal Tov to Michael Abbey, who has become a secondtime grandfather. Avery Abbey, born in Calgary to Jordan and Lindsay Abbey, weighed more than nine pounds. Ouch! Michael continues to travel the world, fixing the databases of governments and multinational corporations. His latest assignments have taken him to Vietnam, Nigeria, Portugal and Uganda.

• Speaking of globetrotting, Michael’s wife, Sandy

Kronick-Abbey, has also been doing a bit of international work-related travel. On sabbatical from her position as an instructor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Algonquin College, Sandy is currently teaching hotel management in Montenegro. Algonquin’s International Education Centre has a satellite campus in the small southeastern European country bordered by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. A reciprocal arrangement with Algonquin allows students to transfer credits and complete their studies in Canada. Earlier this summer, Sandy was instrumental in facilitating the on-time and efficient opening of the new Holiday Inn Express hotel in Bells Corners.

• Just because she retired doesn’t mean Janet Yale is going to slow down. The former executive vice-president of corporate affairs for TELUS Corporation is now chief executive officer of Scouts Canada. It’s no surprise that the new CEO has ambitious plans for the ailing organization, beginning with increasing both membership and volunteer support.

• For 15 years, Solly Patrontasch has participated in the Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research, and, for the past four years, he has been the Ottawa run’s top fundraiser. This year, he raised $11,591, far surpassing last year’s record $8,268.

Solly is a cancer survivor and one of the men who account for one per cent of those have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

• They have all graduated from Dalhousie University and

Did you know?

Benita Baker moved away from Nova Scotia, but Zac Resnick, Michael Schacter, Ben Sherman and Joey Hoffman happily returned to Halifax in August to attend their friend’s wedding. While there, they couldn’t resist checking out some of their old haunts, like Sunday night at the famous Lower Deck Pub down on the waterfront.

Shana Tova. My thanks to the many readers who tell me how much they enjoy this column and to those who have kept me informed. Please keep it coming. I firmly believe we should announce and celebrate the milestones, the accomplishments and the events of our community. But – as I constantly stress – I cannot do it alone. Without your input, the page is blank. If you know something we all should know, tell me, so I can tell the community. Send e-mail to me at didyouknowottawa@gmail.com.

IAC begins the year with Israeli wine and Canadian cheese Elegantly dressed students, community members and politicians rubbed shoulders in the lobby of Congregation Beth Shalom on September 16, as Ottawa’s citywide Israel Awareness Committee (IAC) kicked off another year of activism on campus.

Israeli wine and Canadian cheese were served; a conspicuously symbolic pairing and an appropriate backdrop to the evening’s political climate with Liberal MP Marlene Jennings and Conservative MP Jeff Watson mingling among the crowd.

Watson, who travelled to Israel for the first time in July, said the relationship between Canada and Israel has “never been stronger,” and referenced the condemnation Prime Minister Stephen Harper received for his support of Israel during its war with Hamas in response to years of rocket attacks.

“We share the same fundamental values,” he said, mentioning freedom of speech, press, religion and democracy. “Why should Canadians care about Israel? Because Israel matters?” he exclaimed.

Events like these promote partnerships between Canada and Israel and support the IAC mandate as enunciated on its Facebook page: “Israel Awareness Committee is a non-denominational group dedicated to engaging in debate, discussion, and dialogue on Israeli society … [and to] showcasing the political and cultural life of Israel through innovative and engaging programming ... [IAC] endorses international recognition of Israel’s … right to exist within secure and internationally recognized borders.”

One can expect to see big changes from the IAC for this academic year, said IAC Carleton President Alina Sherman.

“We are going to be heavily involved in campus politics,” she said. “Israel shouldn’t always have to defend itself.”

Ilan Orzy, chair of marketing and communications for the IAC, said they are working to get more people out to events in support of IAC causes, “not just the Jewish community … We’re not as big as we’d like to be … Any support is good support.”

Jennings spoke to this notion in her speech, saying she is commonly asked why she, as a black, Canadian woman, is an advocate for Israel.

“I was taught that you stand by your friends and, to me, the Jewish community has always been a friend to people of African ancestry and continues to be a friend.”

Jennings recalled her father bringing her to the Negro Community Centre in Montreal for music lessons, dance classes and tutoring.

Campus Life Ilana Belfer “That centre,” she said, “existed with the help of the Jewish community.”

Jennings said a strain of anti-Semitism still exists within her community. “When I tell them our history, many are flabbergasted,” she said. “It’s only the older generation that remembers … We have to get it to the younger generation.”

Israeli Apartheid Week, an annual campaign by Students Against Israeli Apartheid Carleton (SAIA) and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights uOttawa (SPHR), presents a foreseeable challenge for the IAC. “As always, the goal is to demonize Israel as a bully,” said Sherman. She stressed the importance of showing facts that look beyond the information being spewed out by SAIA and SPHR. Orzy called Israeli Apartheid Week “one of the most detrimental things on campus.”

He said, “We’d very much like to remove it.”

Both members of Parliament also spoke out against the Israeli apartheid campaigns on campus.

“The opposition uses the mantra of free speech to deliver a

message filled with hate,” said Jennings. “When they pull out the bit about Desmond Tutu, as much as I admire and love the man … he has made a big mistake.”

“It’s no different than the link, made in the 1970s when I was a student, that Zionism equals racism. Every decade there has been a new attempt to demonize Jews and the State of Israel. We cannot allow that to happen,” she said.

Watson said the movement to demonize Israel as an apartheid state was a new form of anti-Semitism.

“It needs to be openly resisted,” he said, encouraging other public figures and students on campus to be active in publicizing the truth.

The Israel Awareness Committee provides those opportunities and is planning future events, including talks with Neil Lazarus, an internationally acclaimed expert on Israel advocacy, on November 4, and Gil Hoffman, the chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post, on November 8.

Locations for both events are to be announced.

Page 22 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 23

FOUNDATION DONATIONS Our future is in your hands

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Continued on page 24

Page 24 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

FOUNDATION DONATIONS In memory of: Rose Wald by Yoni Freedhoff and Stacey Segal.

FRAN AND SID GERSHBERG FAMILY FUND Birthday wishes to: Fran Gershberg by Sid Gershberg.

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Important Notice to all Fund Advisors of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation If you would like to make changes in the allocations from your endowment fund for the 2010 disbursements, the request needs to be received in writing

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Please send your allocation instructions by one of the following methods: Online request form: www.OJCF.ca Fax: 613-798-4695, Attn: Francine Paulin Email: fpaulin@ojcf.ca Mail or in person: 21 Nadolny Sachs Private Ottawa, ON K2A 1R9 Your cooperation is appreciated.

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Continued on page 25

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 11, 2010 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Page 25

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Page 26 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

I’m not always such a great cook People always assume that, just because I went to cooking school and worked in a professional kitchen, everything I cook is delicious.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I screw up plenty. I just don’t write about it. But, in the spirit of starting the new year with a clean slate, I thought I’d be honest and share a few of my disasters with you.

My earliest cooking disaster was back in the 70s when Jell-O molds were all the rage. My mom used to make whipped Jell-O desserts. My favourite was a red Jell-O and frozen raspberry concoction that had sour cream or whipped cream folded into it. It had a mousse-like consistency. Sometimes, when she was feeling a little exotic she would make a green Jell-O and crushed pineapple variation. When that happened, I had to call my friend Corrie immediately. It was her favourite.

I begged my mom to let me help her make the Jell-O dessert. She had everything laid out on the counter and gave me my instructions.

“When the water boils, add two packages of lime Jell-O.” She went upstairs to get the fish shaped Jell-O mold and left me alone. In a few minutes, clouds of steam billowed out of that kettle, so I added the Jell-O powder – right into the kettle! Suffice it to say, it was a while before she let me help her again.

Many years ago, when my children were still small, I accidentally put salt in the apple crisp instead of sugar. A totally forgivable mistake, if you ask me. After all, I had three kids under the age of four, so my brain was mush.

The very first time I made real macaroni and cheese – not Kraft Dinner – I was so busy talking to my girlfriend that I wasn’t paying attention to my béchamel sauce.

When I finally got around to stirring it, little black flecks floated to the surface. Roger was sweet and told me it was just black pepper. We were still dating then! I had totally burned the sauce.

The first time I made quinoa, it was so disgustingly

Pistachio-Crusted Halibut with Spicy Yogurt Adapted from the original recipe in the February 2007 issue of Gourmet Magazine.

4 (1 1/4-inch-thick) pieces skinless halibut fillet (about 6 ounces each) 1 cup milk (any kind is fine) 1/3 cup shelled (salted or unsalted) pistachios (preferably Turkish), finely chopped 3 tablespoons cornmeal 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt (fat-free is fine) 1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely diced (3/4 cup) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon Maras or cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste Line a sieve or colander with either a coffee filter or double thickness of paper towel. Add yogurt to the lined sieve

and place over a bowl to catch the water that drains off. Refrigerate for about an hour. Discard the drained liquid.

Put fish in a shallow baking dish and pour milk over it and chill, covered, turning over once, for 30 minutes.

Stir together pistachios and cornmeal in a wide shallow bowl or glass pie plate.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush parchment with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Place pan in oven to heat up just before you coat the fish.

Remove fish from milk, letting excess drip off. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper, then dredge lightly in cornmeal-pistachio mixture. Transfer to a clean plate as coated.

Transfer coated fish to hot baking sheet in oven. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until crispy and cooked through. Turn the fillets over halfway through cooking time.

While fish cooks, stir together all ingredients for spicy yogurt.

Serve fish with spicy yogurt on the side.

I’m Jerry of Jerry’s Hobby Reg’d and I can take “Memories out of a box” Think of all your old photos, slides, 8mm & 16mm home movies in boxes in your basement.

“Memories in a box”.

I can convert those “memories” with an easy-to-use format onto a DVD. Just sit back and enjoy “your memories” on TV. For more information, I can be reached at

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Made with Love Cindy Feingold bitter I had to throw the entire thing out. I later found out you must rinse this grain before cooking it as it has an intensely bitter coating on it.

Last week, serendipity shone upon me. The fish delivery man and I arrived at Merivale Fish Market at exactly the same time. When that happens, you must buy whatever kind of fish he is delivering. Luckily for me, it was halibut.

Some people dismiss halibut as a boring, bland fish. I like to think of halibut as the chicken of the ocean. It is so versatile and takes on the flavour of whatever you prepare it with. This is a fish that can take a lot of spice, so I decided to try Lucy Waverman’s recipe for Halibut with Mushroom Tomato Jam. I can usually tell from reading a recipe whether I will like it or not. This recipe had all the flavours I love: garlic, fresh ginger, ground cumin and coriander, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and garam masala. Garam masala is a spice blend typically used in Indian cooking – garam means hot and masala means spice blend. It typically contains coriander, cumin, cardamom, mustard seeds, fenugreek, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon. I buy the mix at the Allspice Superstore in Bell’s Corners.

In Lucy’s recipe, the sauce is prepared and served on the side. I made up a batch and it smelled heavenly. I tasted it and quickly realized something had gone horribly wrong. It tasted gritty and very sour. I added some honey and whisked the heck out of that sauce to see if I could smooth it out. I tasted it again and it was still disgusting. I am not sure what went wrong. I think perhaps I did not cook the powdered/dried spices long enough in the oil before I added the liquid ingredients. All I knew for sure was that this sauce was going in the garbage.

Luckily, the halibut was not cooked in this sauce, so all was not lost. I decided to go in a totally different direction after my Indian disaster. I made Boston chef Chris Schlesinger’s Pistachio-Crusted Halibut with Spicy Yogurt. It turned out crispy and a little bit salty on the outside with the meltingly tender flesh of the halibut inside. Perfection!

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010 – Page 27

Survival against all odds Eva’s Story: A Survivor’s Tale by the Stepsister of Anne Frank

By Eva Schloss with Evelyn Julia Kent William B. Eerdmans Publishing 256 pages. Ages 12 to adults.

Eva’s Story: A Survivor’s Tale by the Stepsister of Anne Frank was first published in Great Britain in 1988. This new American publication includes a 2009 interview with Eva, who is now more than 80 years old. An epilogue and postscript satisfy readers’ curiosity about the lives of all the key people after the Second World War. Written in 26 short chapters, Eva’s Story unfolds chronologically in a soft-spoken, understated, yet graphically dramatic, detailed fashion. No aspect of her experiences and feelings are omitted. None are irrelevant. That Eva and her mother triumphed is indeed a source of pride, but it is always balanced by the weight of loss.

A simple, stylistic technique adds immeasurably to the poignancy of Eva’s Story. Throughout the book, the narrative is periodically interrupted by a date and the reason for its significance. In that way Eva juxtaposes a kind of reality check about what is happening to her and her family relative to what Nazi Germany is doing in Europe and Russia.

What a difference a year makes!

That’s what struck me when I finished reading this extraordinary book. Although Eva’s Story takes place over several years, what stuck in my mind was all that happened to her, her mother (referred to as Mutti and Fritzi), her father (referred to as Pappy and Erich) and her older brother, Heinz, between May 1944, when she turned 15, and May 1945.

Eva’s family had already fled Vienna, Austria, and started a new life in Amsterdam, Holland, before May 1944. Eva and Heinz knew Anne and Margot Frank because they lived in the same apartment complex in Amsterdam. When the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940, all their lifestyles began to change.

But it wasn’t until May 1942 that Eva’s family went into hiding. For two years, Mutti and Eva lived in a variety of urban hiding places while Pappy and Heinz hid mainly in the countryside. On Eva’s birthday, May 11, 1944, they were all captured by the Gestapo, having liter-

Kid Lit Deanna Silverman

By Eva Schloss with Evelyn Julia Kent

ally been “sold out” by an informer.

Eva’s account, and occasionally Mutti’s account, of their time in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the huge, infamous death camp, is a mind-numbing story of horror after horror. But, it’s also a breath-taking story of courage, determination, chutzpah, stubbornness, friendship, hope and tremendous amounts of luck.

Mutti and Eva’s willingness to help others helped them on numerous occasions, but especially during the three months in Birkenau when they were separated. Was Mutti dead? Eva thought so. How could she go on? How would

she break the news to Pappy when he next arranged to see her in the section of Birkenau known as “Canada”?

Cousin Minni from Prague just happened to be a nurse in the Birkenau hospital run by Dr. Josef Mengele. On several occasions, Minni risked her own life to save Mutti and Eva. In the end, it was Minni who was forced to go on a death march – which she survived – while Eva and Mutti, both deathly ill, remained in Birkenau.

Liberation was a two-fold event for Eva and Mutti. In January 1945, the Germans magically disappeared. For a couple of weeks Eva, Mutti and others fended for themselves. Then their liberators, the Soviet Army, arrived.

Eva’s portrayal of the Russians’ concern and caring is affectionate, enthusiastic and occasionally humorous.

Eva’s description of their travel into Russia and their time in Czernowitz and Odessa during the closing months of the Second World War is of special interest because it’s seldom mentioned in other survivors’ stories.

Everyone was shocked by the stories of the Jewish survivors. Their episodic meeting with Russian Jews was especially heart-warming, as was the bittersweet story of Eva and Mutti’s repatriation to a war-ravaged Amsterdam, Holland.

As to Eva’s being the stepsister of Anne Frank, that occurred after the war. Anne’s father, Otto Frank, was also liberated by the Russians and repatriated to Amsterdam.

Over time, he and Mutti became good friends and eventually married. Linking Eva with Anne Frank in the subtitle suggests that, had Anne Frank lived, her story of survival would have been similar to Eva’s.

Why read this Holocaust autobiography?

Because Eva’s Story is an inspiring tale about both the dangers of virulent zealotry and the power of love to keep hope and the will to live alive. That 15-year-old Eva came of age in a death camp is a powerful reminder that people of all ages can triumph over the cruelest adversity.

Stopping the linguistic exploitation of animals I have been hearing and reading for a long time that the slaughter and exploitation of animals was a bad thing. So, last year, I considered becoming more vegetarian. I decided against becoming vegan because it sounded too much like I was an alien from a faraway star system.

It occurred to me that I should stop exploiting animals linguistically as well as nutritionally. If I wasn’t going to eat them, maybe I should stop using metaphors that involved them. This has proven, by far, to be the more difficult task.

I kid you not.

I couldn’t tell anyone to stop eating like a pig or say, with pride, about my son with the healthy appetite that he eats like a horse. Although, given his own vegan diet, that is probably an accurate description. I also couldn’t tell my grandchildren to stop wolfing down their food.

Isn’t it strange that, in these expressions, it is the animal that is eating rather than being eaten?

It is also not that easy to find quick ways to say the same thing. I found I was sounding odd when I told my grandson to stop taking such big bites and swallowing them so quickly.

Doesn’t that sound fishy?

The whole enterprise started to smell fishy, but I was having a whale of a time trying to find alternate turns of

Humour me, please Rubin Friedman phrase. When I went out with my friends, I couldn’t pony up the money for my share of the bill. And, if I tried to explain it, I couldn’t because the cat had my tongue. Although what the cat was doing with my tongue is, to me, still a mystery.

The good side of this was no that one could call me an old goat either, or, for that matter, an old coot, which, I learned, is a kind of bird. And even if it were true, they couldn’t say that I ate like a bird, which is a weird expression in itself because a small bird typically eats several times its own weight in a day. Try to imagine what we would look like if we really ate like birds.

People would say, “Yep, here comes Rubin, pushing a thousand pounds. It’s because he eats like a bird.”

I am also sure that, if I ate like a bird, others might treat me like a dog.

But, this is also a strange expression. If I went by how my brother treats his dog, I would be well fed, taken care of and pampered – although I would also be neutered. Hmmm, maybe a dog’s life is not for me.

I think it would make me very crabby, although crabbiness might improve my physical ability to walk backward and sideways. I could go into the circus where I could perform like a trained seal using my eagle eye in amazing feats of walking strangely and juggling at the same time.

I have to admit, though, that, while I am generally stubborn as a mule, I might have to give up on my quest to write vegetarian prose and chicken out. I have been beavering away now for almost an hour and you can see the fruits (not animal!) of my labour. My progress is slower than a turtle’s.

I’m not giving you a load of bull.

Overall, my experiment has been a failure and, if I have not made an ass of myself, I will learn and remember.

Given my large ears and bulk, I could say about myself that “an elephant never forgets.”

Page 28 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 11, 2010

WHAT’S GOING ON October 11 to 24, 2010 WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS Motorin’ Munchkins Drop-In for ages 5 and under, sponsored by the SJCC Family Life Centre.

All children must be accompanied and supervised by an adult, 9 am to 12 pm. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 294.

FRIDAYS Shabbat Shalom Drop-In for ages 5 and under, sponsored by the JCC Family Life Centre, welcomes Shabbat through crafts, songs, stories and games.

Bracha Bear will be there! All children must be accompanied by an adult, 9:30 to 11 am.

TUESDAYS Israeli Folkdancing, learn dances, have fun, no experience or partner necessary, Hillel Academy, 31 Nadolny Sachs Private, 7:00 pm. Info: 613-722-9323.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 Lomir Reydn Yiddish conversation group, sponsored by Jewish Family Services, 10 am, 2255 Carling Avenue, suite 301.

Info: 613-722-2225.

2010 Bridge and Mah-Jongg Fundraiser, sponsored by AJA 50+, includes other games, lunch, door prizes. Everyone welcome, 1400 Coldrey Avenue, 11:15 am.

Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 309.

The Art of Giving,“an evening with Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon,” persented by the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation, Hellenic Meeting and Reception Centre, 1315 Prince of

WEDNESDAYS Baby Play Group, sponsored

by JCC Family Life Centre, 9:00 am. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 294.

CANDLELIGHTING BEFORE Oct 15 Oct 22

✡ ✡

6:01 pm 5:49 pm

Wales Drive, 7:00 pm. Info: 613798-4696, ext 232.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 Books and Bagels, sponsored

by Temple Israel, featuring Gabriella Goliger reading from her novel, Girl Unwrapped, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive. Breakfast at 9:30 am, program starts at 10:00 am. Info: shaylamindell@rogers.com.

JCC Family Life Centre Open House. See what this exciting new program is all about, 10:00 am-12:00 pm. Info: 613798-9818, ext. 294.

Jewish Information Course, designed for individuals interested in acquiring an in-depth understanding of Judaism, or who are contemplating conversion in the liberal tradition, taught by Rabbi Steven Garten of Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive, 12:45-3:00 pm. Course recurs weekly until April 30, 2011. Info: outreach@templeisraelottawa.ca.

A Celebration of Yiddish in

For more community listings, visit ottawa.jewishottawa.com Select Calendar/Upcoming Events and Click to See More

Ottawa, presented by uOttawa’s Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program, features the music of Musaica Ebraica and Shiru Lach and the presentation of the inaugural Ethel Cooper Yiddish Studies Award of Excellence to uOttawa student Danielle Lynch, 2:00 pm. Info: 613-562-5800.

United Together in Prayer, an interfaith prayer service by the Capital Region Interfaith Council and Machzikei Hadas Congregation, 2310 Virginia Drive, 3:00 pm.

Info: 613-769-7448.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20 Let’s Do Lunch, sponsored

by Congregation Agudath Israel and Jewish Family Services.

Guest speaker: Dr. Isra Levy, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, 1400 Coldrey Avenue, 12:00 pm.

Info: 613-728-3501.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 Shalom Baby’s Parent and Baby Swim Class, 10:30 am.

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

Best of Hebrew U light dinner and keynote addresses by visiting professors from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 6:00 pm. Info: 613-829-3150.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24 Shalom Ottawa, the com-

munity TV show on Rogers 22, 12:00 pm. Repeats October 28 at 6:00 pm and October 30 at noon.

Bess and Moe Greenberg Hillel Lodge Auxiliary Tea, in honour of Debi Shore, 10 Nadolny Sachs Private, 2:00 pm. Info: 613820-4004.

COMING SOON MONDAY, OCTOBER 25 Personalized Medicine: Doctor in a Cell, a talk given

by Dr. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute of Science, who will describe his ground-breaking research looking for changes in molecules, which can indicate the presence of certain cancers and other diseases, Canadian Blood Services, 1800 Alta Vista Road, 7:30 pm. Reservations required.

Info: 613-236-3391.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28 CHOICES, sponsored by the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, dinner featuring guest speaker Karen James, a Jewish Olympian at the 1972 Munich Olympics, 1400 Coldrey Avenue, 6:00 pm.

Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 270.

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.

Condolences Condolences are extended to the families of: Irving Adessky Esther Goldstein, Montreal (mother of Dr. William Goldstein) Leonard Karp, Almonte (son of Etta Karp) Sheldon Kert, Toronto (father of Felicia Saslove) Andre Robert, Montreal (father of Andy Robert) Jacob Siskind

May their memory be a blessing always.

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

There is no charge.

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

Voice mail is available.

BULLETIN DEADLINES OCTOBER 20 FOR NOVEMBER 8 NOVEMBER 10 FOR NOVEMBER 29* NOVEMBER 24 FOR DECEMBER 13 JANUARY 5 FOR JANUARY 24 JANUARY 19 FOR FEBRUARY 7 FEBRUARY 2 FOR FEBRUARY 21 FEBRUARY 16 FOR MARCH 7 * Community-wide Issue (all dates subject to change)

Meet The Romspen Fund’s Second Largest Investor As one of the founders of the Romspen Mortgage Investment Fund, Arthur Resnick knows many, many investors. Arthur doesn’t just sell units in the Fund, he helps manage it. But perhaps most important to Arthur’s success and future is the large number of Fund units that he has personally purchased.

Arthur Resnick knows full well how important the monthly income distributed by the Fund is to its 2000 investors, including himself, his family and friends.

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

You’ve heard of the Romspen Mortgage Investment Fund. Isn’t it time you found

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out more? Call us to receive an information package or visit www.romspen.com.

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