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bulletin november 29, 2010

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Stunning concert launches Holocaust Education Week

By Michael Regenstreif Holocaust Education Week in Ottawa was launched, November 9, with a stunning and poignant concert at the Shenkman Centre by the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra of Israel.

The bulk of the orchestra’s program was a tribute to Alma Rosé. A violinist born in Vienna in 1906, Alma was the daughter of prominent violinist Arnold Rosé, and the niece of composer Gustav Mahler.

In the 1930s, Alma founded Die Wiener Walzermädeln, a women’s orchestra, which performed to great acclaim throughout Europe.

Captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz in 1943, Alma’s life was spared when the Nazi guards heard her playing the violin. The SS officers put Alma in charge of a women’s orchestra, Mädchenorchester von Auschwitz. She died there on April 4, 1944.

The pieces performed by the Raanana Symphonette during their tribute to Alma Rosé were all compositions performed by Alma and her orchestras and included both symphonic pieces like Bach’s “Double Concerto” and operatic selections including Lehár’s “Vilja Lied” from The Merry Widow. The vocal soloist for the operatic repertoire was mezzo-soprano Karin Shifrin.

The principal instrumental soloist was Nitai Zori, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra’s concert-

master, who frequently dazzled the audience with his virtuosity on the violin.

An audio-visual biographical documentary about Alma Rosé was interspersed with the musical selections during the tribute. As the tribute ended, Zori held up the violin he had been playing throughout the evening as the recorded narration announced that the instrument had been rescued from Auschwitz. A series of Stars of David within each other was carved into the back of the violin.

There was no conductor on the podium during the tribute to Alma Rosé. In keeping with the fact that (Continued on page 2)

The Raanana Symphonette Orchestra stands following the finale of the Alma Rosé tribute as Nitai Zori shows his violin, with Stars of David carved on to the back, to the audience. The violin had been rescued from Auschwitz following the Holocaust.

(Photo: Peter Waiser)

Roger Greenberg honoured as ‘Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser’

By Benita Baker Philanthropist Roger Greenberg was named 2010 Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser by the Ottawa Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) at its 16th annual Philanthropy Awards, held November 15 at the Fairmont Château Laurier.

“Recognition is not something I look for in my volunteer work,” said Greenberg modestly. “This award means that I must be doing a good job, that the organizations I

work for appreciate my work.”

Greenberg was nominated for the award by Susan Doyle, president and CEO of the Ottawa Hospital Foundation.

“Roger Greenberg is the most committed, determined, conscientious and effective volunteer I have worked with in more than 20 years of fundraising,” wrote Doyle in her letter to the awards committee.

Accompanying the nomination were letters of support from Jack Silverstein, executive director of

the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation; Steven Victor, Ottawa lawyer and fellow philanthropist; Brenda Rothwell, executive director, Algonquin College Foundation; and Patricia Shapiro, director of the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre.

The AFP award is presented to an individual who has “demonstrated through their volunteerism exceptional skills in co-ordination and motivation of others for (Continued on page 2)

Roger Greenberg was named Ottawa’s 2010 Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

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Page 2 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

‘Music expresses that which cannot be said’ (Continued from page 1)

Alma directed her orchestras while playing the violin, Zori directed the Raanana Symphonette from the first violinist’s chair.

The final part of the concert featured the world premiere of “The Last Waltz” by Israeli composer Ori Vidislavski. For this piece, the Raanana Symphonette was conducted by David Sebba.

According to Vidislavski’s notes, “The work uses the waltz form as a method to cope with the Holocaust … The composition is based on horror alongside happiness, loneliness alongside togetherness, the depths of human despair alongside hope, but also based on life as we live it today, as if nothing has happened.”

Before the concert – which was co-presented by the Embassy of Israel in Canada and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and ably hosted by CBC Radio News anchor Laurence Wall – there were brief remarks from Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Miriam Ziv, Israel’s Minister of Information and Diaspora YuliYoel Edelstein and Shoah Committee Chair Mina Cohn.

Ziv said the concert was a fitting way to begin Holocaust Education Week and quoted Victor Hugo, the 19th century author and human rights activist, who said, “Music ex-

Ria Euverman (left) presents the Arie Van Mansum Memorial Award for Education to teachers Wendy Alexis and Ryan McKenna.

(Photo: Peter Waiser)

Israel’s Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli-Yoel Edelstein speaks at the Shenkman Centre prior to the performance of the Raanana Symphonette Or(Photo: Peter Waiser) chestra of Israel.

presses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

Edelstein, who was in Ottawa for the justcompleted conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, drew attention to similar expressions of hatred in today’s world to those that preceded

Wendy Alexis of St. Luke Catholic Elementary School and Ryan McKenna of Arnprior District High School. The award was presented by Ria Euverman, the daughter of Arie Van Mansum, a Dutch man recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, who later lived in Ottawa.

the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

“Israel was needed 70 years ago, and is needed now,” said the minister.

The Arie Van Mansum Memorial Award for Education, which honours educators for exceptional teaching about the Holocaust at public and Catholic schools, was presented to

Connection and commitment to goals are important (Continued from page 1)

fundraising projects and who is committed to the advancement of philanthropy.”

Greenberg has raised tens of millions of dollars for several local causes, but has never calculated the actual amount of money he has raised or the number of initiatives he has worked for over the past 15 years because it doesn’t matter to

him. What is important is his personal connection and commitment to the goals of each fundraising campaign.

“I have to be committed to what the campaign is trying to achieve,” said Greenberg. “I never ask for more money than I have already given myself.”

His fundraising efforts have primarily concentrated on the health and education

sectors for one simple reason: “A healthy, successful and growing community provides the ability to put more money back into the community.”

In addition to raising funds for the Jewish community, the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre, the Community Foundation of Ottawa, and Algonquin College, Greenberg played a

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vital role in the Ottawa Hospital Foundation’s 20-20 Campaign. The goal was to raise $20 million in 20 months. With Greenberg at the helm, the campaign raised $24 million.

“We never would have come close without him,” said Doyle. “He was inspirational.”

Greenberg’s first and most memorable volunteer experience was chairing the Jewish Community Campus Capital Campaign beginning in 1995. It was his first experience asking for charitable dollars. The first person he met with was Joe Ages and Greenberg was nervous.

“It’s tough asking for money,” said Greenberg. “It takes nerve and self-confidence. I understand why peo-

ple don’t want to do it.”

Obviously, nerves are no longer a problem. But, what about when people say no, does he take it personally?

At first he did, but Greenberg took to heart the advice given him by his early mentor, the late Herb Nadolny.

“You can either measure yourself against your mother and father, or against others who don’t have the same priorities as you,” Nadolny told him.

“I lead by example,” said Greenberg, who also counts Stephen Victor, Stephen Greenberg, Avraham Iny and Hy Soloway as mentors.

“Some people don’t have the same priority as me in giving back to the community. I put forth my best effort.

That’s the best I can do.”

The Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award is not the first to honour Greenberg’s community leadership.

In 2007, he was presented with the Gilbert Greenberg Distinguished Service Award.

Named in memory of Greenberg’s late father, the award is the highest tribute the Ottawa Jewish community bestows on an individual for exceptional service over the course

of many years.

He was also named 2004 CEO of the Year by the Ottawa Business Journal and was recognized as a United Way Community Builder in 2001.

Greenberg joins an impressive list of Jewish community leaders who have been honoured by the AFP in previous years. Dave Smith, Norman Lesh, Ellyn Holzman, Barbara Farber, Rabbi Reuven Bulka and Stephen Greenberg have received the Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award while Zeev and Sara Vered, Harold Shenkman and Dan Greenberg have each been named Outstanding Individual Philanthropist.

In 2000, the AFP selected Minto, the family real estate business that Greenberg heads, as Outstanding Small Business Philanthropist.

“That award acknowledged that Minto had the money to give away,” said Greenberg. “The Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award looks to me personally and what I did. I gave of my time to generate funds.

That’s why this award is important to me.”

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 3

Page 4 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Talking about Munich Olympics has been a transforming experience for Karen James

By Cynthia Nyman Engel Munich, September 5, 1972. It’s 3:00 am and a small group of Canadian athletes exits the press building where they’ve been watching the Canada-Russia hockey series. They’re on their way back to the Athletes’ Village right next door.

The main entrance to the Village is a fair walk, so they decide to climb the chain link fence and drop to the ground on the other side. Four men, one wearing a woolen toque and a heavy woolen sweater, are lingering near the fence.

They don’t look like athletes, but they don’t look threatening either and, as the athletes scale the fence, the strangers scale it with them.

Within hours of that climb, two Israeli athletes are dead, nine Israeli hostages will be murdered, and the world has turned upside down. The athletes suspect, but don’t express, even to each other, that the

strange climbers were part of the larger group of Palestinian terrorists who had infiltrated the athletes’ village and entered the building where the Israeli athletes were staying.

Canadian Olympic swimmer Karen James was 19 years old the night she climbed that fence in Munich. She shared her story, October 28, at the fourth annual Choices event presented by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa Women’s Campaign, held at Agudath Israel Synagogue.

James saw it all: the terrorists in the window, the negotiators, the police, the camera crews, the Palestinian leader sporting a white Panama hat walking back and forth across the bridge, the blindfolded hostages led out to the waiting bus. All of it followed by the dreadful news that all 13 Israeli athletes were dead; murdered by their terrorist captors.

She stayed in Munich to attend the memorial service for the slain Israeli athletes, then left the games immediately and returned to Vancouver. And for 24 years, she did not speak about what had happened in Munich.

Not to her fellow athletes.

Not to her family. Not to her friends. “I put that whole experience aside. I did not allow myself to think about the men who had climbed that fence with us – I literally pushed it deep into my subconscious,� the Vancouver native said. “At those Olympic Games, I became not only acutely aware of my Jewishness, but also of the threat and danger that seemed to go along with it.�

The daughter of a Jewish father and a Gentile mother, James was raised as a Jew. She attended Hebrew classes, discovered competitive swimming at a young age and es-

Guest speaker Karen James (centre) with Women’s Campaign Chair Linda Kerzner (left) and event Chair Sandra Zagon at the fourth annual Choices event, October 28, at Agudath Israel Synagogue.

(Photo: Peter Waiser)

chewed having a Bat Mitzvah because it would interfere with her swimming practices.

At 12, she competed in the Maccabiah Games in Israel.

At 19, she was a member of Canada’s Swim Team at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Munich had a profound effect on her Jewish affiliation. Se married a non-Jew, bore three children, raised them without religion and had little connection to her Jewish roots.

And then, two decades after Munich, she was having a drink with a teammate who had climbed the fence with her that night when, out of

the blue, he said, “I don’t think they were athletes.�

And her silence was over.

The floodgates opened and the need to talk about that night in Munich spilled out and never stopped.

She has since told her story to Israeli President Shimon Peres in a private audience in Israel. She told it to an audience of 10,000 at the opening of the Maccabiah Games, to Talmud Torah classes in Vancouver, to the media and to countless Jewish organizations.

Telling her story has been a transforming experience in James’ life that brought her back to Judaism with a

vengeance. She insisted on undergoing conversion and, today, is an active member of her synagogue and the Jewish community. In fact, she is the Women’s Philanthropy chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. “I chose to come to speak to Ottawa in the middle of our campaign because I felt it was right and important,� said James.

Three hundred women rose to their feet in a standing ovation.

Sandra Zagon chaired the 2010 Choices Evening.

Women’s Campaign Chair Linda Kerzner also addressed the gathering.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 5

Bonnie Merovitz receives deserving award

By Francie Greenspoon Bonnie Merovitz was just 12 years old when she had her first taste of fundraising, going door-to-door with her mother on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal in Montreal. Little did she know, the experience was the beginning of a life steeped in volunteerism and philanthropy.

Bonnie’s efforts were recognized, November 10, when she was presented with the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award at the International Lion of Judah Conference in New Orleans.

Established in 2004, the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award recognizes extraordinary women who set a high standard for philanthropy and volunteerism in their communities. The award was created in recognition of Norma Kipnis-Wilson and Toby Friedland, founders of the Lion of Judah pin in 1972, which has become a symbol of a woman’s commitment to the worldwide Jewish community.

“It was truly amazing being in the company of so many powerful and accomplished women,” says Bonnie. “I still wonder how I got to be in their company.”

It isn’t really difficult to understand how Bonnie came to receive the prestigious award when you consider all that she has done as a volunteer on behalf of the Ottawa community since arriving here in 1974 with husband Charles (Chuck).

They didn’t miss a beat. Bonnie and Chuck immediately became involved in the Hy Hochberg Young Adults Leadership Program. As part of the program, Bonnie sat as an observer on the Women’s Division UJA, which was led by the late Ethel Taylor.

“Ethel was my mentor,” says Bonnie. “I was so inspired, saw the need, and became more and more involved with UJA, taking on cabinet positions and eventually cochairing Women’s Division UJA.” Bonnie soon became a mentor herself, as part of the newly created Young Women’s Leadership Council, as well as fundraising chair for her ORT Chapter and chair of the Shalom Welcome Committee.

In 2001, Bonnie decided to take her philanthropy to the next level and became a Lion of Judah. She eventually endowed her

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commitment to ensure that her gift remains in perpetuity to the community.

In 2004, Bonnie headed up the Jewish Federation of Ottawa Women’s Campaign.

Over the years, she has served on the boards of many organizations including the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation, the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge, State of Israel Bonds, which she eventually co-chaired, and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa. She is currently serving her third year as the chair of the Allocations Committee of the Federation.

Despite all of her volunteer endeavours, Bonnie has never given up her day job. She has spent the past 40 years working as a physiotherapist and is currently at the Queensway Carleton Geriatric Day Hospital working with the elderly living in the community. She feels her volunteer experience has enabled her to appropriately direct many clients to programs and services provided by the Jewish community such as Creative Connections, Let’s do Lunch and Maximizing Memory, which, by all reports, have enhanced her client’s lives.

When asked what was most meaningful about receiving the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award, Bonnie explains, “It was especially meaningful to me that two of Ottawa’s previous award recipients are women I greatly admire: Donna Dolansky, chair of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, and my beloved mentor and inspiration for my involvement in the community, Ethel Taylor.

“Fundraising and community work is in my blood and part of who I am. It’s more than giving back to the community. It’s giving to the community. If we have the time, energy and passion, it is incumbent upon all of us to do something and not sit idly on the sidelines.”

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Page 6 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

‘We can be very proud of our Israeli investments’ Israel inspires me. I have made many visits there, having spent five years deeply involved in Partnership 2000, three as UIAFC national coast-to-coast chair. However, it had been five years since my last visit when Bernie and I travelled there in October.

We had a fantastic time. We went on our own and caught up on all the fabulous new sights, museums, restaurants, etc. We also spent some time on Federation business, and that is what I am writing about here.

We met with Yossi Tanuri, who is director-general of the Israeli office of UIAFC (United Israel Appeal Federations Canada, our national organization), and he gave us an insider’s view of the impact we are having in Israel. We also spent a full day up North, in Etzbah HaGalil, our partner region, with Eran David, who is the UIAFC Israel office’s representative in the North.

Eran started by giving us an overview of the Canadian investment in the region, the strategy being employed, and how it is being implemented. It has changed drastically from ‘my day,’ when the main program was Gesher Hai, the face-to-face encounters between children at Hillel Academy, Yitzhak Rabin High School (YRHS)

Federation Report Donna Dolansky Chair and two schools in the North, Bet Sefer HaNadiv and, at that time, Danziger High School in Kiryat Shmona.

Hillel Academy has maintained the relationship with Bet Sefer HaNadiv, but YRHS has a new school in Israel, Einot Yarden. In the years since I was chair, the focus expanded to include leveraging our Canadian dollars with Israeli venture capital, and investing in broad education initiatives in places where it was the most necessary. Now, we have a grand plan to leverage funds with the Israeli government and some funders, such as the Rashi Foundation, to develop a regional medical school just outside Safed.

To that end, we met with Uri MarChaim from the Migal Science Institute.

We viewed the plans for the medical school, which hopes to have 70 students per year, and expects to receive the first students next October. It was very impres-

sive, and the Northern Galilee communities have signed on, since Safed is 17 minutes away from Kiryat Shmona, and the other closest hospital is in Haifa.

One of the biggest changes I noted from my earlier involvement in the region was how the local mayors and leaders have evolved to thinking regionally rather than just locally, and Canada helped bring about that change in mindset.

We visited a brand-new early childhood centre in Kiryat Shmona, which consists of two parts: a centre for school enrichment, which receives students from regular schools on a rotating basis, and a therapy centre. We also visited the reconstructed Renanim School in Kiryat Shmona for children with special needs. This school – which was damaged in the second Lebanon War – has students aged from 6 to 21 years old. Its primary purpose is to prepare the students for independence.

We were treated to a concert at Renanim School where the music teachers have a system to teach students to sing and play instruments without learning to read music. It was excellent.

Then we went to HaNadiv School in Metulla where we had a terrific time meeting with about 20 students from Grades 5 and 6. Their English was excellent. They

sang “O Canada” and “Hatikvah,” they told us about themselves and asked about us. They performed Beatles songs, complete with guitar, and gave us a tour of their classrooms and school. They were so warm and engaging! They also gave us a package to bring back for the Hillel Academy students.

Next, we headed off to lunch with two Kav Hazinuk participants, May Barzilay and Ram Zeevi. Kav Hazinuk is a leadership program with a twist. It takes 16year-olds, who make a five-year commitment, and teaches them leadership skills, how to work in volunteer organizations and how to improve their communities, in the hope that they will become future leaders of the country.

We completed our visit at Tel Hai College where we went to the learning disabilities centre and to a science facility that regularly brings high school students to the college lab for enrichment. Both areas were very impressive. We could learn a lot from their techniques!

We have a strong Partnership 2000 Committee, chaired by Lisa Rosenkrantz.

If you would like to get involved, please let us know. All in all, we can be very proud of our Israeli investments. May we (and they) go from strength to strength!

Is it really about doughnuts or latkes?

Around Chanukah time, visitors to Israel might be led to believe that the country is an oil rich nation. However, the oil they’ll find there is not crude oil, it’s cooking oil used to prepare sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and levivot (latkes, potato pancakes) for the holiday.

Ever since the rabbis of the Talmud published the story of the miracle of the oil, wherein one day’s supply of oil miraculously lasted for eight days, oil has become a symbol of Chanukah.

In addition to delighting our taste buds, fried foods are supposed to help connect us to the ancient miracle. Worldwide, Jews celebrate Chanukah with fried delicacies.

Here in Ottawa, we gladly conform to this practice.

As you are enjoying your latkes and/or doughnuts, and taking in the beauty of the Chanukah lights, I would like to attempt to reframe the miracle of the oil and suggest that we consider it in light of the discussion in the From the Pulpit column between Rabbis Steven Garten (September 6) and Charles Popky (October 25).

When the rabbis of the Talmud introduced the miracle of the oil to the Chanukah narrative, they were looking to include God in what was otherwise a secular military event. The Hasmonean victory, as recorded in the Books of Maccabees, lacked any sense of the spiritual. The rabbis understood that military victories alone are quickly forgotten. In 2967 how will people remember the Six Day War? Spiri-

From the pulpit Rabbi Scott Rosenberg Beth Shalom tual victories, however, have the power to endure.

The rabbinic miracle of Chanukah is about keeping the light burning. One day’s supply of oil burned for eight days and allowed the supply chain to be restored. This oil symbolizes the fuel that kindles our Jewish souls. As long as we are sustaining Jewish light in our lives, then the miracle of Chanukah continues.

As we all know, our world is filled with many fire extinguishers that have the power to snuff out this Jewish light. Some of these forces are similar to the Hellenizing influences that threatened our people in the past. Intermarriage and assimilation are not new topics for Jews or for Judaism.

Over time, our responses to these threats have varied. This fall, Rabbis Garten and Popky have each suggested paths of response. I would like to add my voice to this discussion.

Chanukah teaches us that rather than lament over what isn’t, we need to maintain hope for what is. As a community, we need to feel comfortable cradling, nurturing and empowering the Jewish flame that

exists in every Jewish soul, no matter their personal or familial life choices. On the topic of intermarriage, I know many strongly-committed Jews whose spouses are not Jewish and who live a committed Jewish lifestyle and celebrate their children’s and grandchildren’s Jewish identities. What can we learn from this?

I also know Jews who share their lives with non-Jewish partners and are comfortable raising their children as Christians.

The Jewish partner feels a strong sense of commitment to the Jewish world and in-

volves themselves in ways that are spiritually meaningful to them. Their children, though not Jewish, even according to the most liberal of definitions, are philo-Semitic and have a reverence for, and understanding of, Judaism. There are lessons to be learned here as well.

The grandest lesson, though, is to be learned from the many endogamous Jews whose flame of Jewish connection and identity are almost extinguished. Both they and their children have little connection (Continued on page 7)

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 7

Adbusters crossed the line – and it was hardly the first time A dbusters, a Vancouver-based anti-globalization, anti-capitalist and anti-consumerism bimonthly magazine caused somewhat of a media storm when a photo essay in the November-December 2010 issue – published just as Holocaust Education Week was about to be marked in many communities, including ours – directly compared contemporary Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto of the early-1940s and the Gaza Palestinians with the Warsaw Ghetto Jews, and, by overt implication, Israel with Nazi Germany.

The comparison, to be sure, is not only wholly inaccurate, there is little doubt that it crosses way over the line, dividing legitimate criticism of Israel from blatant antiSemitism.

The Warsaw Ghetto images that A dbusters used came from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Apparently, the magazine received permission from the museum to use the images on the pretence that they were being used for a 2009 article about war crimes in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Editor Michael Regenstreif When the museum was advised on how the images were actually being used they took legal action, forcing A dbusters to remove the images from its website, and issued a statement that emphatically said, “Any comparison between the Warsaw Ghetto (or the Holocaust as a whole) and the situation in Gaza is wildly inaccurate, a gross misrepresentation of the facts and offensive to victims of the Holocaust.”

This recent photo essay was not the first time A dbusters had compared Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. That supposed article about war crimes in the Warsaw Ghetto for which the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum granted permission to use its images was

actually an article in the May-June 2009 issue directly comparing Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto.

And that 2009 issue was not the only other A dbusters article that has crossed the line vis-à-vis Israel and or Jews. A perusal of its online archive reveals a pattern of typical fringe-left anti-Zionism, including the all-too-predictable references to “Israeli apartheid” and a fawning tribute to Hamas as a revolutionary movement.

Perhaps the most infamous example of anti-Semitism in A dbusters is “Why won’t anyone say they are Jewish?”, a MarchApril 2004 exposé by publisher Kalle Lasn about how Jewish neo-conservatives controlled the Middle East policies of the administration of then-U.S. President George W. Bush, manipulating Bush on everything from Israel to Iraq. A dbusters published what it called “a carefully researched list of who appear to be the 50 most influential neocons in the U.S.,” pointing out, with a black dot next to their names, that more than half on the list were Jews.

These examples from A dbusters are consistent with what has been termed the “new anti-Semitism,” which was addressed this month in Ottawa at the conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating anti-Semitism.

The unequivocal conference speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper left absolutely no doubt as to the position of the Canadian government on this type of antiSemitism.

The speech by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, while not as strong a statement as Harper’s, indicated that there is little tolerance within mainstream Canadian politics for any variety of anti-Semitism.

Happy Chanukah If you’re looking for a great Chanukah gift idea, may I suggest a subscription to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin? Please see page 55 for a special rate on gift subscriptions in effect until January 14, 2011.

Happy Chanukah from all of us at the Bulletin.

Chanukah is partly about an unresolved tension in the Jewish world You didn’t mess with the Maccabees.

And the Maccabees didn’t mess around.

Yehuda the Hammer and his bros – Yonatan, Shimon, et al. – were fierce, brave, zealous and uncompromising.

You had to be, to accomplish what they did leading a rag-tag band of rebels, living in the wilderness, sustaining a guerilla war for three years, and prevailing against a much larger army, backed by an empire.

They were the Jedi Knights of their day.

But where did that fierce single-mindedness come from?

Well, look no further than their dad.

Matityahu was one hardnosed Hasmonean.

An old country priest – of the ancient Hebrew kind – from Modi’in, Matityahu didn’t like what he saw when he visited the big city Temple of Jerusalem.

The Syrian-Greek Seleucid Empire, under its ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes (known better to generations of future Jewish schoolchildren as “Antiochus, nothing but a tuchus”), was cracking down on some of the Jewish population of Judea, a distant corner of a kingdom that stretched from modern-day Turkey to Persia.

Judea was a recent acquisition of the Seleucids, conquered only a few decades before the rise of the Maccabees. But, for several centuries, the previous rulers of Judea, first Alexander the Great, then the Egyptian Ptolemaics, had tried, with some degree of

Pulpit: ‘We need to think about every Jewish soul’

Alan Echenberg success, to “Hellenize” the Jewish population of the region – to assimilate them into Greek culture.

Under Antiochus Nothingbutatuchus, the process went into overdrive. Jewish religious practices were banned, religious Jews were persecuted and, of course, the Temple in Jerusalem was pillaged and filled with altars to Greek gods.

But, some modern historians paint a shade of grey into the story of Antiochus. They say he made a common mistake, repeated over and over again by hubris-filled rulers through to modern times: he inserted his military forces into a localized civil war, creating a larger battle that he could not control.

There was no precedent in the far-ranging Seleucid Empire for treating minorities as poorly as Antiochus treated religious Jews. But the Jews of Judea were a divided population at the time. Wealthier big city Jerusalemites embraced assimilation and accepted Hellenization to an extent that would have outraged their poorer, more traditional(Continued from page 6)

with their Jewish souls yet, technically, they are Jewish.

As a community, we need to think about all of these subsets and the many more that I do not have space to mention

ist country cousins. Like Matityahu of Modi’in.

Hellenized Jews built Greek-style gymnasiums, participated in Greek cultural events, and some men even tried to get their circumcisions surgically reversed.

The Maccabee revolt began not with an attack on the forces of Antiochus, but with Matityahu’s slaying of a fellow Jew for participating in a Greek sacrificial ritual. And Matityahu at first, then Yehuda, led a guerilla war against not only Seleucid authorities, but also against the assimilated urban Jewish population.

The revolt succeeded, of course. The Seleucids were driven out of Jerusalem, Jewish religious practices were restored, and Yehuda’s brothers ultimately founded the Hasmonean Kingdom, the first sovereign Jewish country in the region in more than four centuries.

More than 2,000 years later, the miraculous victory is still commemorated to this day every year at Chanukah.

So what, exactly, does Chanukah commemorate?

The struggle for religious freedom? Sure.

The survival of the Jewish people in the face of persecution and adversity? Of course, that’s the theme of almost every Jewish holiday: they tried to destroy us; they failed; let’s eat.

But, the story of Chanukah also seems to in this column. We need to think about every Jewish soul, every Jewish cruise of oil, and ask how can we nurture the spark or the flame that exists within them so that the beauty of their Jewish soul, however manifest, shines on with a positive spirit

be about an unresolved – and maybe irresolvable – tension in the Jewish world: the tension between living and assimilating as modern people in the wider community, and maintaining the traditions and practices that some feel are central to Jewish continuity.

It’s a tension that still plays out in issues ranging from the anxiety in North America over intermarriage to the battles in Israel between Orthodox and more liberal Jews over women’s rights and access to holy sites.

If the Maccabees hadn’t rebelled, and the Hellenization of the Jews had continued, would that have been the end of Jewish life in Judea? It’s hard to know. History, of course, marches on.

Within a century of the Maccabees’ victory, both the Seleucid Empire and the Hasmonean Kingdom were history themselves, both of them conquered by the Romans.

Maybe because of this, it took many years for Chanukah to become as prominent and popular as it is nowadays. With no restrictions on work or diet, it is not considered a major religious holiday.

Ironically, for a festival that commemorates the triumph of religious commitment over assimilation, Chanukah probably became especially popular in recent decades among North American Jews due to a calendar-related coincidence. It’s an antidote to Christmas envy. that can be seen as a source of pride to our people. We need to do this without prejudice and with a fullness of understanding that there is no one correct way to be Jewish.

Happy Chanukah!

Page 8 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Hillel Lodge at the starting gate for expansion project

By Steve Schneiderman and Jeffrey Miller Hillel Lodge While government approval for 21 new long-term care beds at Hillel Lodge was cause to celebrate, the October 5 announcement served to signal only the beginning of the process to complete the project, have the beds fully operational and reduce the waiting list.

Over the next few months, the Lodge will be heavily involved in every aspect of making the unfinished area, located on the west side of the main level, a home for 21 new residents.

The Lodge has been preparing for this day for 10 years, ever since the shelled-in space was included in the original construction of the building. As no new beds were forthcoming from the Ministry of Health and LongTerm Care (MOHLTC) and the

space lay dormant, community leaders questioned what would be the best use for the space. In 2004, a committee was established, a feasibility assessment was made, and it was concluded that, indeed, the best use for this space would be for an expansion of the Lodge.

Four years ago, the MOHLTC put out an RFP (Request for Proposals) for an additional 96 licences in the Ottawa region. The Lodge applied and we had every expectation that we would be allocated 21 of those licences. Though disappointed when all of the beds were awarded to another institution, we continued to actively lobby for them as the waiting list at the Lodge continued to grow. Ultimately, we succeeded and were awarded the beds.

With the announcement, many have been clamouring for more

information on how quickly the area can be built and when the beds will be ready. Concerned with meeting the needs of the community, and focused in our efforts, the Lodge is ready to spring into action.

To do this effectively and efficiently means the pursuit of concurrent objectives. These objectives centre on construction, fundraising and financing. Thus far, working drawings have been prepared and, with the requisite documents, have been submitted to the MOHLTC for review and approval.

At the same time, efforts are underway to determine the precise costs related to renovate and equip the space. This information will provide the necessary blueprint for the project’s financing requirements and help determine the framework for the fundraising campaign to come.

Eileen Goldberg, 96, a Hillel Lodge resident for two-and-a-half years, with son Stan Goldberg during their daily visit at the Lodge.

(Photo: Michael Regenstreif)

In the same room with greatness

By Bernie M. Farber Canadian Jewish Congress In 1969, my Tibetan friend Shamar told me about the mystique that is Tenzin Gyato, Tibet’s 14th Dalai Lama.

I was a young university student: impressionable, fearless and open-minded, probably to a fault. The world, at the time, was a happening place. Jewish students were at the centre of both Jewish and world politics, marching in the streets. Opposing the war in Vietnam or fighting for the right of Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel made us feel empowered.

Given the world today, it’s fair to say that both of those struggles were examples of youth taking conflict by the scruff of the neck and winning.

Into all this stepped Shamar. He was quiet and dignified; he brought an interesting calm into my life at a time when the world seemed to be raging.

In university, I majored in world religions, so, understandably, I found interesting commonalities in Judaism and Buddhism. More importantly, I came to see that the clear and humbling messages of the Dalai Lama mirrored many of Judaism’s messages. In Judaism, we are told that one of the greatest of mitzvot, or good deeds, is to perform acts of loving kindness. One of the Dali Lama’s main faith themes states: “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

Over the years, I gained a new understanding of patience from the manner in which the Dalai Lama has dealt with his forced exile from Tibet. The Chinese have occupied Tibet since 1950, arguably the longest

occupation in modern history. While the Israeli/Palestinian issue preoccupies many, the Dalai Lama has been unwavering in his consistent attempts at finding a peaceful resolution with China. He has never given up hope that a resolution will come.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a call from Tenzin Khanzar, formerly chief of staff for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenny. But on this call, he was acting as an emissary for the Dalai Lama’s upcoming trip to Canada.

“We would like a delegation of Jewish leadership to attend a small luncheon in honour of the Dalai Lama,” he told me. “Interested?” he rhetorically asked.

As a representative of Canadian Jewish Congress for more than 25 years, I’ve had the honour of meeting prime ministers and presidents, actors and philosophers. But the opportunity of being with the Dalai Lama would be a singular honour.

So, on October 24, I joined Elizabeth Wolfe, incoming chair of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, and Canadian Jewish Congress National President Mark Freiman at a luncheon hosted by the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto.

As I approached the building, I noted the tight security; roads cordoned off and parking limited to only those invited to the luncheon.

There were, however, thousands of people on the grounds hoping only for a glimpse of the man they hold in such reverence – a true testament to the man’s popularity.

The small luncheon included business people and politicians. At our table sat Cindy

The Dalai Lama with (from left) Elizabeth Wolfe of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Bernie M. Farber and Mark J. Freiman of Canadian Jewish Congress.

(Photo: Adrienne Leong)

Chung and Tenzin Jigme, both representatives of the Tibetan/Chinese Youth Dialogue.

We chatted about how Tibetan and Chinese students in Toronto have found a bridge of reconciliation. It gave me great hope for the future on many fronts.

As we were chatting, I noticed an excited gathering of the crowd by the door. As would be his wont, the Dalai Lama entered the room unannounced. He needed no introduction. His charisma and sheer presence were introduction enough. Dressed in his customary red and gold robes, he looked the same as the first picture I saw of him in 1969. He spoke briefly, his message almost secondary to his presence. I was struck by the joy and hearti-

ness of his laugh. It was absolutely infectious – the kind of laugh we could all recognize as coming from a trusted friend, a beloved uncle. We met him briefly, got a photo (that one goes on my wall), and it was over all too soon.

I left the centre knowing that I had been in the same room with a great man. I learned in the end that words are one thing, but the sense of calm and tolerance that can come from a person of greatness is so much more. I thought of Shamar and how incredibly excited he would have been had he known I met the Dalai Lama.

Bernie M. Farber is the chief executive officer of Canadian Jewish Congress.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 9

Mailbag

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Gil Hoffman of Jerusalem Post speaks to JNF audience about Iran, peace process After raising money for a variety of life changing projects in Israel, the most important activity of JNF Ottawa is to hold programs about current events and concerns in Israel. On November 8, we were very pleased to co-host with Congregation Machzikei Hadas, a well-attended, very interesting and timely evening with Gil Hoffman, the chief political correspondent and analyst of the Jerusalem Post.

Hoffman, who has written extensively about Israeli politics and international events, and who has been interviewed on such news networks as CNN, CBC and Al-Jazeera, delivered a very clear and frank assessment of the most pressing issues facing Israelis, in particular the nuclearization of Iran and the prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

With regard to Iran, he said Israel is hoping that the U.S. and international efforts to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon will succeed and acknowledged that Israel is also preparing to face the alternative. The main issue is whether Israel will have to face this significant threat alone or with international support. Hoffman feels that U.S. President Barack Obama is beginning to firm up his position, along with support from several key European allies. But, the most recent Israeli recommendation to the negotiators is that the world needs a credible military option to succeed in pressuring Iran.

Hoffman contends that the prospects for peace are very mixed. Israelis are very willing to engage in peace talks. According to recent polls, 78 per cent of Israelis support negotiations. But, they are also extremely pessimistic about the outcome – less than five per cent expect a successful result.

For their part, the Palestinians are less interested in negotiations and equally pessimistic about the results, also according to recent polls.

Israelis are surprised and concerned that the Americans are pressing them on a settlement freeze, including in East Jerusalem and the settlement blocks, even more than the negotiators on the Palestinian side are, and they only feel they must insist on it as long as the U.S. is.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel be recognized as the Jewish state is the key to the success of the current negotiations, since without it, the Arab nations, including the Palestinians, will never really give up their claims to all the land and truly make peace.

In closing his remarks, Hoffman reminded those present that, despite all of its pressing concerns, we should not forget that Israel is thriving, with real economic growth and a continually improving standard of living for its inhabitants. He singled out JNF-KKL as a key to this success because it provides many essential resources and recreational facilities that all Israelis depend on in their daily lives, and he saluted JNF for its many contributions to improving the quality of life in Israel.

Sefer Bar/Bat Mitzvah Inscriptions Kaitlyn Jenna Morrill, by her proud parents, Marian and Steve Morrill; Rachel Valentine Kardish, by her proud parents, Muriel and Louis Kardish; Yona Samuel Steinman, by his proud parents, Golda and Ned Steinman.

Golden Book Inscriptions Yona Samuel Steinman, on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah, by his proud Bubby Lily Feig; and by his proud Grandma Carolyn and Poppa Arnold Steinman.

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).

No organized Jewish presence at pride parade Bravo to Mira Sucharov for her insightful column of support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) Jews (Values, Ethics, Community, November 8, 2010). Sucharov discusses the complex issues of visibility and calls for greater responsiveness from the community to those of its members who do not fit the heterosexual norm. She ends with the question: “Is there a Jewish community float for me [the gay person] to join in the annual pride parade?”

My answer: there is not.

There is no organized Jewish presence in Pride Ottawa whatsoever, although Jews do march in the parade, and other religious groups do appear under their various banners. During last August’s Pride, I wandered lonely through the crowd of marchers, wishing I could make both my Jewish and lesbian selves visible at this grand celebration of multiple identities. There is a Jewish GLBT group in town – Keshet – but it is small, and was unable to pull together a contingent in time. Not everyone feels comfortable parading.

One Jew who did appear was Rabbi Arie Chark, an unconventional (though straight) Orthodox spiritual

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leader. Despite the August heat, he wore full Chassidic regalia – frock coat and shtreimel – to make a point: here is a frum Jew who says it’s OK to be gay.

We walked together awhile, until he was enveloped by his friends in one of the church groups. Anglicans, Unitarians, Uniteds and other denominations come out in force for Pride, with identifying banners and friendly placards.

Their contingents include GLBT congregants, but also straight supporters and, in some cases, the congregation’s minister. This past summer, there was even a small, brave band of Muslim marchers.

How wonderful if a synagogue or Jewish community organization would follow suit. How dearly I would love to stop being Jewishly invisible at Pride.

Gabriella Goliger In the spirit of Jewish unity As we are approach Chanukah, permit me to relate a story that is out of season but certainly uplifting.

Our family is Chabad and the Galandauer family decidedly is not.

However, we have been friends for years. As a matter of fact, his parents told me they knew my parents very well from the Yiddish

bulletin@ottawajewishbulletin.com Theatre in Montreal.

Chabad has a custom that we eat in the sukkah during Sukkot – rain or shine. It is too painful to leave for a few drops of rain, or even a deluge. The Litivishe custom, as I understand it, is to leave the sukkah if it rains.

On Shemini Atzeret, Chabad eats in the sukkah and the Litivishe don’t. Difference is what makes the world goes round.

This past Sukkot, my wife Devora invited the Galandauer family to join us for Shemini Atzeret and they graciously accepted. As mazal would have it, it started pouring rain as we were about to enter the sukkah.

This plunged Rabbi Galandauer into a dilem-

ma. Should he eat in the sukkah, which was decidedly not his custom, or should he excuse himself?

To his eternal credit, he immediately eased the tension by donning a huge yellow rain parka and both families had a wonderful time.

It was raining so hard that buckets of water were being poured on our heads. For my part, I made sure to have him say a D’var Torah figuring God would always be happy with words of Torah, rain or shine.

Rabbi Galandauer turned that Shemini Atzeret from a down pour into, figuratively speaking, bright sunshine.

Wishing everyone a Happy Chanukah.

Yosef Caytak

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

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

MARK S. BORTS Insurance & Financial Services Mark S. Borts, B. Comm., CFP, CLU, CH.F.C, RHU Telephone: 613 565 6275 Facsimile: 1 866 267 5635 Cell: 613 851 1198 mark@bortsfinancial.com Suite 950-130 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6E2

Page 10 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Jewish Memorial Gardens: an update to the community

By John Diener Jewish Memorial Gardens There have been several changes to the operations of Ottawa’s Jewish cemeteries since the reorganization of Jewish Memorial Gardens (JMG) in 2008 and the appointment of Shelley Fiennes as executive director.

The new cemetery board approached local funeral directors for quotations of costs for a funeral. Each of the funeral homes submitted their standard price listings which are now available from Shelley.

When someone passes away, Shelley meets with the family and can help them make informed choices about which company to use.

Previously, a family had to deal with the competing directors on their own, with no idea of what costs to expect, and what options were available; a process that often proved difficult for families at a time when they had just suffered a major loss.

With the implementation of this system, the average cost of a funeral has been reduced by approximately $1,700.

The board is also addressing

the ongoing issue of groundskeeping and maintenance. As noted in a previous article (Improvements announced for Bank Street Cemetery, September 27, 2010), a number of improvements have already been made at the Bank Street Cemetery with more to come.

The board has recently reviewed a report prepared by the executive director to improve the maintenance program. New ideas on watering, weeding, flowers, grass cutting, trimming around monuments, fertilizing and general maintenance have been proposed.

The board will now allocate additional funds to implement improvements suggested in the plan.

The board has also introduced improved procedures pertaining to different aspects of cemetery management. For example, graves are now being dug to a standardized depth to comply with provincial legislation. Recently, a government health inspector toured the grounds, and reported back to the board that the cemetery exceeds the standards as set out in the Ontario Cemeteries Act. At the Osgoode Cemetery, the board has been dealing with the

high water table. Over the past two years, many foundations for monuments in the Agudath Israel section have had to be replaced.

This will be an ongoing project.

Flowers There has been some confusion and controversy about the role of flowers in relation to Jewish death and burial traditions. Flowers are not present at funerals, but do appear on cemetery graves.

Asked for an opinion, Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Congregation Machzikei Hadas, stated: “It is generally assumed that the planting of flowers is not appropriate for the Jewish cemetery. This is based on a number of concerns, including that the expense for beautification is better spent on the living.

“Another issue is that one may not gain material benefit from whatever grows on the grave.

The flowers may not be plucked for home use or any other benefit, so it is better not to plant them.

That explains why flowers were not an accepted norm for the cemetery.

“However, this is not necessarily applicable to our cemetery.

First, the flowers being contemplated are not lavish; they are basic. Second, no one actually plucks the flowers; they are not planted for growing into plants for the table at home. Third, we do have an obligation to make sure the cemetery looks respectful.

“Finally, and this is critical, one of the main shows of disrespect at the cemetery is people stepping on graves. Much as they are asked not to, it still happens, and too often. Having a grass cover achieves little. People walk on the grass. Flowers, especially if they cover the grave area, are an effective deterrent to this happening.

“It is therefore entirely acceptable, even desirable, that such flowers cover the graves in our cemetery.”

What next?

Effective January 1, 2011, the price of interment rights will increase to $3,750 from $3,250 at Bank Street, and to $2,400 from $2,200 at Osgoode. Under the Cemeteries Act, 40 per cent of these proceeds must be invested in a care and maintenance fund managed by a trust company.

The board is now working on

implementing a phone system with a single number that that will allow callers to contact Jewish Memorial Gardens quickly and easily for all matters – from dealing with a death that has just occurred to grave maintenance and more. The number (613-6883530) will be widely publicized so that it can be found easily when the need arises.

Also, a document is being prepared for distribution to community members detailing what happens from the time of death through to the unveiling. This will be readily available, and will be given to families when needed, so that they will know what to expect at every stage of the process. Information on costs associated with the plot will be included.

The Jewish Memorial Gardens Board of Directors is dedicated to the ongoing improvement of everything pertaining to Ottawa’s Jewish cemeteries – from making it easier for families at the time of a death, to matters regarding the appearance and conditions at the cemeteries. The board is also committed to acting in a financially responsible manner in order to protect the assets of JMG.

M Members of the Onta o Ontario ario Liberal Liberal a Caucus wish you you a

Happy Hap py Ha Hanukkah! anukk kah!

Hon. H on. D Dalton alton M McGuinty cGuin Premier of of Ontario Ontario Premier Ottawa South South Ottawa 613 -736 - 9573 613-736-9573

Yasir Naqvi Ottawa Centre 613 -722- 6414 613-722-6414

Phil McNeely Ottawa - Orléans Orléans Ottawa 613 - 834 - 8679 613-834-8679

Hon. Madeleine Meilleur Ottawa - Vanier Vanier Ottawa 613 -744 - 4484 613-744-4484

Hon. Bob Chiarelli Ottawa West - Nepean 613-721-8075

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 11

Chanukah Feature

Schmaltzy history: A nostalgic look at fats for frying latkes

By Linda Morel (JTA) – Fat may be a dirty word now, but we can chart the history of North American Jews through the fats they’ve used to fry their Chanukah latkes. Early immigrants relied on goose fat, which was replaced by chicken fat, which was eclipsed by Crisco, which was replaced by olive and canola oils.

Latkes over time have been fried in all of these, says Jane Ziegelman, author of 97 Orchard: A n Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement. 97 Orchard Street, a five-storey brick structure, is the home of the New York Tenement Museum.

The book is a pushcart of information about what immigrants ate during the 19th and early-20th centuries.

Two of the families Ziegelman profiled were Jewish.

From 1900 to 1910, more than one million Jews immigrated to the United States, mostly from modern-day Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Belarus. Many of them settled in the tenements on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, crowding into unventilated apartments that lacked adequate kitchens and running water.

Ashkenazi homemakers there often obtained cooking oil by rendering or frying goose skin, which liquefied globules, large and small.

This created a yellow oil called schmaltz, a succulent delicacy that was strained to separate the crispy and delicious skin from the fragrant fat.

“In the Lower East Side tenement kitchen, the luxuriousness of goose fat elevated the most prosaic ingredients,” Ziegelman says in the book. “Potatoes, onions and fat – the Jewish cook explored every conceivable permutation of these three ingredients. The more fat, the fancier the dish. The most extravagant of all was

latkes, potato pancakes, fried in sizzling pools of goose fat.”

The Jewish cook also used goose fat for braising, enriching, moistening, seasoning and baking. She sometimes mixed it into pie crust and rugelach dough, making it possible to serve the pastries with meat meals.

She fried onions in this fat and spread the dripping slices on rye bread.

Warming, satiny and with a faintly nutty aftertaste, goose fat imbued foods with a pleasing heaviness that’s now considered a liability to dieters and the cholesterol conscious. But, for our poor and calorie-deprived ancestors, goose fat was a virtue, enhancing kugels, cholent and tzimmes.

“Fat was considered a luxury to be cherished,” Ziegelman said. “It was believed to be nutritious. Frying was a demonstration of wealth and bounty.”

The height of decadence was frying latkes in goose fat, a cooking method that travelled here with Ashkenazim from the Old Country.

The 19th century Jewish homemaker brought her reliance on geese and its byproducts to the Lower East Side, where she contin-

ued her traditional role as a poultry farmer. She raised geese in tenement yards, basements, hallways and apartments, transplanting a rural industry to the heart of urban America – much to the chagrin of sanitary inspectors.

“At Chanukah, goose was the centrepiece,” Ziegelman said, explaining that goose farms were at their busiest at that time of the year.

Restaurants put up signs: Goose liver is here. This was a once-a-year gourmet treat on menus, something cherished by Ashkenazim.

But in the 20th century, as modern methods of chicken breeding improved, goose fat lost its place of prominence on the Jewish table.

The smaller, more economical chicken, and its rendered fat, took the place of goose fat as the fat of choice among Jews.

Rendered chicken fat has the most incredibly delicious smell, unlike any other cooking aroma, Ziegelman said.

Speaking with those over 60, she adds, they rave about the memory of the sizzling fat filling their childhood kitchens.

Latkes fried in rendered chicken fat made the Jews swoon, too. But poultry fat

was diminished by the invention of scientifically engineered cooking fats derived from vegetables. The new hydrogenated fats had many brand names, such as Spry or Flake White.

But the most famous one was Crisco, a product introduced by Procter and Gamble in 1911. This non-Jewish company soon recognized the value of Crisco to kosher cooks. A pareve product, Crisco could be incorporated into both dairy and meat recipes.

Many Jewish women began frying latkes in Crisco.

In 1933, Procter and Gamble published Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife, a promotional cookbook available in English and Yiddish.

“It represented the demise of poultry fat as a Jewish staple, bringing to a close a millennium of culinary tradition,” Ziegelman said.

Today’s makers of latkes often rely on olive oil, canola oil, corn oil, peanut oil or other healthier fats. The thought of rendering poultry fat is not appealing to many home cooks.

Ziegelman, however, raves about the flavour of (Continued on page 17)

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Page 12 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

In the Lions’ den

Conference focuses on women’s philanthropy

By Jacob Berkman New Orleans (JTA) – Just down the road from where the General Assembly (GA) of the Jewish Federations of North America had concluded a day earlier, more than a thousand of the federation system’s most generous women found a philanthropic sanctuary of their own.

At the Hilton Hotel here, the International Lion of Judah Conference drew about 1,100 of the women that the federation system refers to as Lions – those who give at least $5,000 each year to the system – for a number of sessions dedicated to showcasing the best of what that system supports and highlighting some of the interesting projects women are running in the broader Jewish non-profit world.

They told stories about strong women and mothers. And, at a conference without men, the humour was decidedly female-centric: Comic Judy Gold, performing at its closing gala, got her biggest laugh in response to a joke involving a yeast infection and Passover.

The absence of men was vitally important to making the five-day event a success, said guests at the November 10 closing gala at the Hilton.

“You can let your hair down more,” Shanny Morgenstern, the president of women’s philanthropy at the Kansas City federation, told JTA. While annual campaigns have fallen with the recession, women’s giving to federations has held steady over the past two years, said Kim Fish, the senior director of national women’s philanthropy for the Jewish Federations of North America.

The Lions made $19.1 million in pledges over the course of their conference – a 12 per cent increase compared to their last get-together in late 2008, just before the recession took hold. In the Big Easy, their average gift was more than $17,000.

The Lion of Judah has become something of a cultural phenomenon within the federation world since Norma Wilson came up with the concept in Miami in 1972.

Her idea was to spur giving by rewarding women who gave $5,000 or more with a gold brooch featuring a roaring lion and a diamond eye. As the idea spread from federation to federation, the lion evolved, with the diamond eye turning into a ruby for a gift of $10,000, a sapphire for $18,000 and an emer-

ald for $25,000. The lion turns platinum if a woman has given a gift of more than $100,000 – and if a woman endows her gift, the philanthropic feline gets a little gold torch to hold in its outstretched paw.

And while the GA, the annual conference for the federation system’s lay and professional leaders, is more about the system’s functionality, best practices and policy, the biannual Lion of Judah conference is strictly about fund raising – and instilling a sense of feminine camaraderie in some of the most generous benefactors of the multibillion-dollar per year charitable system.

“It’s about sisterhood,” Bari Freiden, a Lion from Kansas City, told JTA between sessions. “You are all the same because you are at a certain giving level or above no matter where you are from. You recognize a Lion and all of a sudden you have a connection.”

The idea has worked – big time.

The federations may do a better job of raising money from women than any other philanthropy, Jewish or not. About 17,000 women have become Lions, and they provide the core of the $180 million raised by the federations through their women’s philanthropy campaign.

All told, giving by women accounts for about 23 per cent of the annual $900 million general campaign, according to Fish.

At federations like the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, the women’s campaign brings in about 40 per cent of the organization’s overall annual campaign, according to Steve Rakitt, the federation’s president.

While some insiders openly wondered whether federations should have spent more time at the GA working on how to articulate their story more clearly, the system clearly knew how to pitch its Lions.

Their conference this year was orchestrated to put the federations front and centre, and to pull at the heartstrings of its participants.

Sessions ranging from “Slim Peace: Diet for a Peaceful Planet” to “Strong Women and ‘Lipstick’ Leadership” to “Business Women and Politics” generally avoided becoming bogged down in philanthropic theory, instead focusing on making the attendees aware of the more interesting programs being funded by the federations. The sessions told the stories of the programs through women’s voices.

For example, during one session,

Members of Ottawa’s delegation to the International Lion of Judah Conference in New Orleans: (Standing, from left) Marcia Cantor, Elissa Iny, Bonnie Merovitz, Rosalyn Fremeth, Sunny Tavel; (kneeling) Debbie Weiss, Linda Kerzner.

the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) – one of the federation system’s two main overseas partners – focused on a woman it rescued from Georgia and another it saved from Bosnia. The session also highlighted the generosity of Anne Heyman, a major funder who worked with the JDC to establish the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda for orphans of the country’s genocide.

Each presentation drew more on the emotional than on nuts and bolts – and each included a pitch for the federation system.

Plenary sessions were more about positioning the federation and the Lion of Judah as not just organizations offering opportunities to donate to good works, but also venues for making friends and empowering women through philanthropy.

Having no men around was key, participants said.

“You can say things you wouldn’t necessarily say with men there,” said Morgenstern of the Kansas City federation. “If there would be men, the women would be less open to share.”

“It is an exclusive network both because it is women and the giving dollar amount,” said Freiden, a fellow Kansas City Lion.

After spending five days hearing about the power of the federations and of being women associated with the federations, the Lions broke into groups. The women sat

in a circle and, one by one, told stories about how their local federation had personally touched them.

The caucus became a tear-filled affair as the women related their intensely personal stories – and made financial pledges to their local federations, often disclosing the dollar amount or at least the percentage of increase over their last pledge, according to several participants.

Despite the success, some federation insiders say the model would need to be tweaked to attract a younger generation. This year, the conference included a service project in which Lions, in partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s PJ Library, handed out back-

packs of books to underprivileged New Orleans children as the federations become convinced that service is the gateway to a younger generation.

But, for now, the federations are banking on inspiring more giving through sisterhood.

“If you put women in a situation where there is abundance and where they can all succeed, they are incredibly co-operative and helpful to each other,” Freiden said.

“Whereas if you are in a situation where you are taking from my cubs, they come out with their claws.

Here it doesn’t hurt us to share good things. It helps us and we help each other.”

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s opposition leader, speaking at the International Lion of Judah Conference in New Orleans.

(Photo: Bernie Saul, Jewish Federations of North America)

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 13

PJ Library is coming soon to Ottawa

By Benita Siemiatycki Bedtime: a nightly ritual in homes with young children that often includes a bath, a story, some quiet snuggling, and expressions of “I love you.”

Now, what if the story time could be a platform for introducing the values, traditions and beauty of Judaism?

In a unique partnership between the Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation and local Jewish communities, young children across North America are being introduced to wonderful stories that do just that.

And, thanks to the generosity of the women in Ottawa’s Lion of Judah organization, the program will take root here in the coming months.

PJ Library was started by philanthropist Harold Grinspoon four years ago because he was concerned that Jewish continuity was threatened. He saw that intermarriage was rising and that participation in Jewish institutions was declining.

Grinspoon was inspired by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program started by the country singer, which sends books, on a monthly basis, to kids in the U.S. to encourage reading. Grinspoon was a donor and realized he could launch a similar program for Jewish children to bring Judaism into their homes.

Thus, PJ Library was born.

In just four years, it has spread to more than 130 communities, including Toronto, Montreal, Calgary,

Vancouver and Winnipeg.

Paul Lewis, director of community development for PJ Library, visited Ottawa in October to meet with Jewish Federation of Ottawa management to explain the program. He oozed with enthusiasm explaining the impact the program has had on communities.

“PJ Library is an engagement program. It is a tool for communities to use to reach out and engage the unaffiliated and the uninvolved,” he explained.

But, it is really for anyone raising their children Jewish.

Parents in participating communities can register their children aged between six months and five years. Once a month, a book arrives in the mail addressed to the child.

The books are age appropriate, beautifully illustrated and built around a Jewish theme such as Shabbat, holidays, values, traditions and concepts. For the youngest age, the books are very simple board books. As the child gets older, the books become more sophisticated and mature.

A book selection committee, composed of early childhood educators and literary experts, meets regularly to update the collection. Examples of books that are part of the program include Bagels from Benny, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, Tikvah Means Hope and the Only One Club, which tells the story of a child who is the only Jew in her class. In December, a music CD is sent instead of a book.

Children enjoy a book sent by the PJ Library.

Lewis emphasized that there is no barrier to entry for this program.

It is free of charge and no membership at an institution or Jewish school is required. Families keep the books to build their own Jewish library. Through shared reading of these books, it is hoped that a strong sense of Jewish identity will be nurtured within the family. Some cities hold PJ book readings in public

Some of the books that are part of the PJ Library program.

places, where parents and children from different families can meet one another.

Lewis said the PJ office regularly receives letters of thanks from parents who explain how the books have affected their families – from starting traditions such as reading the Shabbat book every Shabbat, or lighting candles, to a woman who explained that as a non-Jew married

to a Jew, she learned about Judaism herself from reading to her child. As her knowledge of Judaism increased, she made the decision to formally convert.

“Know this,” she wrote. “I am a Jew by choice because of the PJ Library.”

As for the children, the older ones excitedly look forward to receiving their own mail and to ripping open the envelope to discover that month’s gift.

The popularity of the program has grown to such an extent that 65,000 books are currently being sent out to children each month across North America. According to Lewis, this has led to a resurgence of the Jewish children’s publishing industry, with authors and publishers knocking on PJ’s door for entry.

While the Harold Grinspoon Foundation funds 60 per cent of the program’s costs, the remaining 40 per cent, to be committed for the first three years, must come from local donors in order for a community to be accepted. The Lion of Judah donation has opened the door for Ottawa to join the PJ Library.

Discussions are now underway between the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation to work out how the program will roll out. Stay tuned for further details in the coming months.

Page 14 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Ganon kids and Rob “the Shoeman” team up for mitzvah project

By Pamela Rosenberg Soloway JCC The Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC) Ganon Preschool Mitzvah Makers and Rob “the Shoeman” Krantzberg from Kiddie Kobbler St. Laurent, have teamed up to tackle the Toasty Toes Campaign and outfit children in need with winter boots.

The project was kick-started when Ganon Preschool Director Jenny Shinder approached a colleague, André Betim, team leader at Annavale Headstart Nursery School, and asked if the preschool could donate some books or toys to his kids as part of the children’s mitzvah mission.

There are 10 Headstart programs in the city that provide two-and-ahalf- to five-year-olds from economically and socially disadvantaged environments with an enriched preschool learning experience. The children in this program come from families – many new to Canada – who are living below the poverty line.

“André let me know just how great the needs of the children in his program were. He mentioned that often the children come to school in the winter with the shells of a boot with no liner and no socks,” says Jenny. “He said their toes are frozen, and playing outside is often not an option. So there it was: our mitzvah mission.”

With the seed planted, Jenny contacted Rob at Kiddie Kobbler St. Laurent. Before she could finish explaining her plan, the Shoeman was on board.

A mitzvah maker himself, Rob took the plan one step further. In addition to supplying the boots, he and his nephew/assistant, Josh Silverman, went to the school on November 9 and measured each child’s foot, recorded names and sizes so that he can be sure everyone gets the right pair, and gave the children the true Kiddie Kobbler experience by inviting them to pick a small toy out of a box after they were measured.

“Before Jenny could finish, I said, ‘I’m in,’” says Rob who donated 36 pairs of brand new boots.

“I left Annavale feeling wonderful about the response from the kids. I always have time for kids.”

For most of these kids, the boots will be their first new anything. But, according to André, it was the personal one-on-one attention they each received while they were being measured, and the kind smile from the Shoeman, that they will remember as many don’t get that kind of attention at home.

While Rob has been generous enough to donate all the boots, the children of Ganon will be doing their part to offset the cost by bringing in loonies, toonies, or whatever they can, and dropping them in the

Rob “the Shoeman” Krantzberg measures a child’s feet for new boots.

big boot in the preschool as part of their school-wide mitzvah mission.

The impetus behind the Toasty Toes Campaign is the new Mishna that the Ganon Preschoolers are working on as part of their An Ethical Start curriculum. Ben Azzai said, “Run to do a minor mitzvah, for one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah (Pirkei Avot 4:2).” They are learning that every time they do something good, kind, helpful or meaningful for someone else, they are, essential-

André Betim (left), Rob “the Shoeman” Krantzberg (right) and the staff and children at the Annavale Headstart Nursery School are excited about the kids’ brand new winter boots.

ly, performing a mitzvah.

“For children, this concept can be quite simple. Helping out around the house? Wow, you’ve done a mitzvah! Been extra nice to your baby brother? There you go again, another mitzvah,” says Alison Popky, Ganon teacher/An Ethical Start co-ordinator.

“Before you know it, your children will become regular mitzvah doers and will love the attention they get just from simply being good, kind, loving children. Let’s face it, it’s a win-win!”

In an effort to encourage the children to do mitzvot, they are putting their good deeds down on gold, silver and bronze paper coins that are being stuck on the Mitzvah

Bank on the wall in the preschool.

When the bank is full, all of the ideas will be compiled into a mitzvah booklet for families to keep and use as a guide so that the mitzvah making will continue once the Mishna is over.

According to Alison, this Mishna seemed perfect for this time of year when so many of the children have the “gimme, gimme, gimmies.” It would be a good opportunity, she thought, to change the focus to what we can do for someone else.

To contribute to the Toasty Toes Campaign, just come by the Soloway JCC Ganon Preschool and drop your cash or cheque into the boot.

Ganon Preschooler Isaac contributes to the Toasty Toes Campaign.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 15

(formerly Central Park Lodge)

Ottawa Jewish Community School students rehearse The Sounds of Hanukkah.

(Photo: Nicola Hamer)

By Nicola Hamer for Ottawa Jewish Community School For a second year in a row, the Ottawa Jewish Community School (OJCS) is presenting a Chanukah celebration for parents, bubbies and zaidies. All of the students in the elementary school, Hillel Academy, are taking part. Some students from the high school, Yitzhak Rabin, are also involved in creating this grand production.

While last year’s play focused on how Chanukah is celebrated in various parts of the world, this year’s presentation, The Sounds of Hanukkah, uses music from the Broadway and movie musical, The Sound of Music, to present the Chanukah story.

Arts teacher Ruth Lebovich spent the summer writing the lyrics and, with music teacher Shannon Eddy Smith, has been working with

the students since September.

Lebovich, who is known to her students as “Morah Ruthie,” says that what is important to the students is not just that the play is about Chanukah, but that it allows the students to explore various artistic modes of expression. They sing and act, as well as create the stage backdrops, the invitations and auditorium decorations. And, after months of hard work, they will see their efforts come together in a celebration of the arts in front of their families.

While all would agree that academics are of primary importance in a school, it is still crucial to find a place for the arts. The OJCS recognizes that arts education allows a school to produce more wellrounded graduates, who can express themselves in a multitude of different ways. It also encourages students who might otherwise remain

in the background to discover and develop new talents.

Eddy Smith has been teaching music at the school for several years, although this is the first year that all students have a class dedicated to music. She says she loves to see her students bond as they learn their songs. She also gets a thrill from seeing students with strong musical talent develop over the years.

“I also love it when I encounter a new talent,” she says. “This year, there was one little boy who is new to the school and very quiet.

But, when I heard his voice, I had chills. It is very exciting to take a child like that, who is quietly hanging in the background, put him up with the soloists and see him blossom. We have remarkably talented students in this school.”

The Sounds of Hanukkah will be performed Wednesday, December 8 at 7:00 pm.

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Chanukah production involves all students at Hillel Academy

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Page 16 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Federal and provincial ministers announce funding for seniors at JFS

By Geremy Miller Jewish Family Services Government House Leader John Baird, MP for Ottawa WestNepean, and Ontario Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli, MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, held a joint press conference, October 29, at Jewish Family Services (JFS) to announce funding to assist seniors living in Ottawa.

Announcing support from the New Horizon for Seniors Program, Baird said, “The Government of Canada is committed to improving the lives of seniors, and is proud to support local organizations with the same goal. This project brings new opportunities for seniors to contribute their skills, knowledge and experience for the benefit of the entire community.”

New Horizons for Seniors is a federal program that helps ensure seniors benefit from and contribute to the quality of life in their communities through social participation and active living.

Chiarelli announced funding from the Healthy Communities Fund for Health Matters for Multicultural Seniors, a JFS initiative under the Engaging Immigrant Seniors Project (EISP), which takes

a holistic approach to health and wellness by offering both mental health support and physical and recreational activities to ethnocultural seniors in Ottawa, many of whom are low-income and/or isolated.

Through EISP, whose participating agencies include Sikh Community Services of Ottawa, Hunt Club/Riverside Community Services Centre, Conseil Économique et Social d’OttawaCarleton, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre, Somali Centre for Family Services, Ottawa Community Immigrant Service Organization, and Homewatch Caregivers, communities have established programs for their senior populations that meet their linguistic and cultural requirements, an approach championed by JFS. The new funding will allow JFS and its partners to maintain and expand seniors’ services in Ottawa, and will allow JFS to hire a Russian-speaking case manager for its Thelma Steinman Senior Services Unit, a much-needed position for JFS to continue serving Ottawa’s Russian Jewish seniors.

“Programs such as the Engag-

(From left) Karen Anne Blakely, director of Seniors Services, Engaging Immigrant Seniors Project; Leah Krikun, Russian-Canadian senior; Bo Ming Gou, Chinese-Canadian senior, Ottawa Chinese Community Services Centre; MP John Baird; Tian Wei Qian, Chinese-Canadian senior, Ottawa Chinese Community Services Centre; Mark Zarecki, executive director, Jewish Family Services; MPP Bob Chiarelli; Jessica Ping Lin, seniors project co-ordinator, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre.

(Photo: Colleen Gray, JFS)

ing Immigrant Seniors Project are an important part of the Ontario Government’s long-term health care portfolio,” said Chiarelli.

“Through programs that are able to assist seniors in aging at home, create social support net-

works for both seniors and their care providers, we are able to reduce burdens on the hospital systems by stemming unnecessary hospital visits and stays.”

JFS Executive Director Mark Zarecki thanked both ministers for

their kind words and support.

“The new funds are an acknowledgement of an ever-growing multicultural senior population in Ottawa, and in Canada,” said Zarecki. “This is the new reality of our Canadian mosaic.”

Temple Israel hosts concert by Russian artists

By Annette Paquin For Temple Israel Temple Israel and Friendship Force Ottawa hosted a concert, October 31, by a group of Russian artists visiting Ottawa on a cultural exchange.

Friendship Force is an international non-aligned organization that fosters friendship and understanding through home stays and home-hosting.

People from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, share lives and are enriched through the sharing of cultures. The group from Moscow was visiting Ottawa for a week and included opera singers, a pianist and a folk music and dance trio.

As well as the musicians, two cosmonauts were in attendance.

The concert at Temple Israel was their only performance in Ottawa.

A crowd of well over 225 people enjoyed outstanding performances by pianist Irina Nikonova, who played solo pieces and accompanied opera singers Galina Ostalskaya and her daughter,

Anna Ostalskaya, who performed arias and classical duets. Their voices seemed to transport the audience from Temple Israel in Ottawa to the great concert halls of Europe.

The Zabava Folk Trio consists of members of the same family from two generations: Yuri, Igor and Tania Savchenkovi. Although they have spent 10 years performing around the world, this was their first concert in Canada.

Their performance involved the audience and those who volunteered to play a traditional, handmade instrument were surprised to find out they were also to be performing Russian folkdances.

The trio quickly endeared themselves to the crowd with their wonderful costumes, upbeat music, enthusiasm and interaction with the audience.

The concert, almost two-anda-half hours long, left the audience wanting more. A dessert reception was held afterward giving the members of Friendship Force,

Linda Steingarten (far left) and Shayla Mindell (second from right) of Temple Israel and John Taylor of Friendship Force Ottawa (second from left) with the Zabava Folk Trio: Yuri, Tania and Igor Savchenkovi.

the Jewish community and the Russian delegation an opportuni-

ty to meet and get to know one another. Although many of the

Russians did not speak English, translators were on hand to assist.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 17

Hands-on learning at OTC Chabad Hebrew School

By Diane Koven for OTC Chabad In five short years, the Ottawa Torah Centre (OTC) Chabad Hebrew School has grown from six students to 60. Yes, that’s a tenfold increase in enrolment. The OTC’s innovative approach to learning is obviously working. Starting with Grade 1, classes have been added each year and there are now students from preschool to Grade 6.

Dina Blum, director of the school, said the children look forward to their weekly Sunday morning classes because of the creative programming.

“Our goal is to create a Sunday school that children will love to come to, a program that the kids will be excited about,” she said.

Rabbi Menachem Blum concurs.

“The idea of the program is to give the kids an enjoyable taste of Yiddishkeit.

Everything is done through hands-on learning and fun activities, not typical classroom activities,” he said.

For example, the younger grades are creating a scrapbook of the Book of Genesis.

The older grades are working on a Jewish Hall of Fame, which will include Jewish athletes, politicians and heroes from history.

Lisa and David Leith’s nine-year-old son Sydney has been attending the Sunday school for four years.

“It had been highly recommended by my friends and I liked the convenience of it being only on Sundays,” said Lisa. “It is hands-on

learning. The children are not just sitting at a desk. They do cooking, acting, singing; the children are really engaged in Jewish traditions and they really get the feeling of living a Jewish lifestyle. I like their philosophy, the emphasis on Jewish culture and traditions.”

Dina Blum’s philosophy is to be open and welcoming, to encourage all students to learn in whatever way suits them. It’s fine with her if that means the OTC Sunday school sometimes loses students who want to learn on more than one morning per week.

Ilana and Mitchell Novick’s three children are all at the Ottawa Jewish Community School this year, in Grades 2, 4 and 6. After having been at the Sunday-only Chabad Hebrew School, the transition to day school might have been daunting. But, the boys are adjusting well.

“My older son, in Grade 6, is able to read Hebrew pretty well considering how little time he’s had to practise. The OTC Hebrew School taught him the basics, but, with the resources at Hillel Academy and a bit of extra catch-up help, he and the other two boys are working hard and doing well. Also OTC’s Chabad Hebrew School gave them all a background and familiarity with the Jewish prayers, holidays and traditions,” said Ilana.

For more information about the OTC Chabad Hebrew School, call Dina Blum at 613-823-0866 or visit ottawatorahcentre.com.

Bring back the schmaltz (Continued from page 11)

chicken fat, claiming everyone should try it at least once before passing judgment.

She is planning to start baking with this lush golden fat.

“Chicken fat isn’t one of the evil fats – not like beef fat or butter,” she said, explaining that it has about half the saturated fat as butter.

Registered dietitian Lisa Ellis agrees that chicken fat contains nearly half the amount of saturated fat when compared to butter. Surprisingly, chicken fat is also

higher in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats – the healthier fats.

“While chicken fat is a better choice than butter, it still is an artery-clogging fat,” said Ellis, who, in her kosher home, cooks primarily with olive and canola oils.

Ziegelman would agree that chicken fat is not in the same class as olive oil.

“But on a sliding scale, it’s on the good side,” she said. “This is the moment to bring back schmaltz.”

Morah Dina Blum leads a weekly synagogue-style prayer service at OTC Chabad Hebrew School.

Judaic Outreach Programs November - December 2010 Alison Caplan, Judaic Administrative Assistant • 613-725-3519 Adele Horwitz, Judaic Program Leader • 613-592-8365 Date

Program

Place

Time

Friday November 17

Community Shabbat RSVP To Alison Caplan

Day Program 11 Nadolny Sachs

5:30 – 7:30

Tuesdays Nov. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

Music on Wheels Adele Horwitz

Grammercy Residence

3:15 – 4:15

Tuesdays Nov. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

Music on Wheels Adele Horwitz

Killeen Residence

4:30 – 5:30

Wednesdays Nov. 3, 10, 17, 27

Joys of Judaism Adele Horwitz

Day Program 11 Nadolny Sachs

6:45 – 7:45

Thursdays Nov. 4, 11, 18, 25

Tamir Choir Cantor Benlolo

Day Program 11 Nadolny Sachs

6:00 – 7:00

Thursdays Nov. 4, 11, 18, 25

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Class Cantor Benlolo

Day Program 11 Nadolny Sachs

7:00 – 8:00

Thursdays Nov. 4, 11, 18, 25

Music on Wheels Adele Horwitz

842 Broadview

4:00 – 5:30

Monday December 6

Tamir Chanukah Party RSVP To Alison Caplan

Agudath Israel 1400 Coldrey

6:30 – 8:30

Tuesdays Dec. 7, 14, 21

Music on Wheels Adele Horwitz

Grammercy Residence

3:15 – 4:15

Tuesdays Dec. 7, 14, 21

Music on Wheels Adele Horwitz

Killeen Residence

4:30 – 5:30

Wednesdays Dec. 1, 8, 15, 22

Joys of Judaism Adele Horwitz

Day Program 11 Nadolny Sachs

6:45 – 7:45

Thursdays Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23

Tamir Choir Cantor Benlolo

Day Program 11 Nadolny Sachs

6:00 – 7:00

Thursdays Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Class Cantor Benlolo

Day Program

7:00 – 8:00

Thursdays Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23

Music on Wheels Adele Horwitz

842 Broadview

4:00 – 5:30

Page 18 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Chanukah Feature

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At the Knesset, a candle for the Russian Jews

By Sue Fishkoff (JTA) – It was December 1982, and my kibbutz Ulpan had just been invited to light the Chanukah menorah for the Israeli Knesset.

The Israeli army was deep in the heart of Lebanon, the Cold War was raging, talks with the PLO were years away, and Israel was feeling both isolated and feisty. Freedom from oppression was the theme for that year’s holiday, and my six-month workstudy Ulpan program had been chosen for this annual honour because we had so many students from countries where Jews were being oppressed.

There was 18-year-old Ahuva, from Aleppo, whose jaw had been broken by Syrian border guards when she was caught during her first escape attempt. She made it out the second time – on foot.

There was 19-year-old Daoud, now David, and his twin brother, Ofer, who grew up Muslim in Beirut and only learned they were Jewish that summer, when their Israeli-born mother revealed her heritage, divorced her Lebanese husband and dragged the twins to Israel as its army poured across their border.

We had the three French boys in the class: Charlie from Morocco, Michel representing Tunisia, and Didier, whose parents were Algerian.

There was a student from Iran who fled after the fall of the shah three years earlier.

Another student claimed Egyptian ancestry – good enough for the Knesset – and one young man from Glasgow also would light a candle, presumably in the name of Scottish independence.

I might argue that the student from Paris who refused in class to use the Hebrew word olah (ascend) to describe her move to Israel, on the grounds that any departure from Paris could only be a descent, also was living under oppression. She just didn’t know it.

The only thing we were missing was a student from the Soviet Union. The Iron Curtain had shut tight in 1980, few new immigrants were arriving and we were some years away from the great exodus of the early 1990s. Not a single Boris or Natasha to add to the mix.

Then I let slip that I spoke Russian. And my grandparents were from Ukraine – sure, they arrived in America in 1906 and 1912, but our Ulpan teacher was eager to seize upon any connection, however tangential, to clinch that Knesset deal.

She renamed me Sonia Pitchkopf and instructed me to prepare a short speech to deliver, in Russian-accented Hebrew, as I lit

my candle.

After the laughter died down in class, I realized the enormity of what I had signed on for. This was no Purim Shpiel. This was the parliament of the Jewish state, and here I was, tasked with pulling a fast one over on men and women, some of whom certainly spoke Russian, or at least were capable of sniffing out a ruse of this magnitude.

As I began writing my speech, I thought back to my first trip to the U.S.S.R. My Russian class from Cornell landed in Leningrad on Dec. 31, 1975, and as so often happened with Jewish visitors from the West in those years, I found myself in a Jewish apartment within hours of my arrival, plucked out of the crowd by a young Jewish member of the Komsomol group sent to greet us.

The table was spread with a lavish repast – mushrooms in cream sauce, pickled vegetables, carrot salad, all kinds of smoked fish. I learned later how long the family had scrimped to put together that holiday meal.

People crowded around me, eager to ask questions about America. Was there really so much street crime? What did people think of the pullout from Vietnam? Had I ever been to Israel? I had stars in my eyes, so excited was I to be in the forbidden land of Cossacks and Bolsheviks, the centre of such rapt attention.

Then two young men dragged out a book and thrust it into my lap. It was an Englishlanguage edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica they had opened to the page on Chanukah. One of them pointed to a drawing of the nine-branched Chanukiyah and asked me to explain its use.

Thinking he was joking, I smiled. These were university educated people. This was the 20th century. He had to be pulling my leg.

He wasn’t. And I’ll always remember my shock and sadness as I realized it.

So, here I was, on my Israeli kibbutz, purporting to masquerade as people whose pain and isolation were so very real? I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t.

My Ulpan lit the Chanukah candles that year on the floor of the Knesset building in Jerusalem. And when my turn came, I was Sue Fishkoff, not Sonia Pitchkopf. And I lit in the name of my own grandparents, free in America, and in the name of the five young men I had met that night in Leningrad.

Two of them already were living in New Jersey. The others were still in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, as late as 1996, the last time I visited them.

And my Ulpan friends called me Pitchkopf for the rest of the year.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 19

Ontario Brain Institute created after McGuinty and Peres talk

By Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf Canadian Jewish News Israel and Ontario are teaming up to combat neurological disorders. The province announced, November 15, that it will provide $15 million over three years in startup funding to establish the Ontario Brain Institute at Sunnybrook Hospital’s Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said the new institute is a direct outgrowth of talks he had with Israeli President Shimon Peres while on an economic mission to Israel last May. At that time, Peres proposed the creation of a joint Israeli-Ontario “virtual institute” on brain research.

According to the province, this new institute will help its life-sciences companies “win a bigger share of the global market for products that support patients

with brain diseases and disorders” such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, autism and schizophrenia.

Israeli medical sector organizations will be among the first to sign partnership agreements with the Ontario Brain Institute.

A spokesperson for the premier said that, although there were “no official” Israeli partners signed to collaborate with the institute yet, the province and institute are currently in preliminary discussions with potential Israeli partners who will be “determined in the months to come.”

The initiative aims to pair the top brain researchers with “people who know how to commercialize good ideas. Together, they will turn health-care discoveries made in the lab into products and services to help people who are affected by brain

A glow-in-the-dark Chanukah celebration

By Pherris Hamilton for OTC Chabad Ottawa Torah Centre (OTC) Chabad is planning a family event to welcome Chanukah at Ottawa’s only 3-D glow-in-the-dark entertainment facility.

“The message of the Chanukah lights is that we need to illuminate our surroundings that are often dark and challenging,” explains Rabbi Menachem M. Blum, director of OTC, who is planning the event. “We light the Chanukah candles in the evening so that we can witness, with our own eyes, how the little lights glow in the darkness.”

Participants will enjoy 3D glowing excitement for young and old alike as they play 18-hole black light mini-golf and blast air canons at the Balladium.

The Balladium is a highenergy, adrenaline-fuelled game in which opposing teams fire sponge balls at targets on the wall. This ballblaster system is the only one

in the nation’s capital.

“Our philosophy is to create innovative holiday programs that are fun and exciting, but, most importantly, to make celebrations that will leave an impact on the participants,” says Rabbi Blum.

“Celebrating in a glow-in-thedark environment this year will, hopefully, allow us to really internalize the message of Chanukah, that a little light dispels lots of darkness.”

The lighting of the first Chanukah candle will kick off the event with the participation and greetings from local dignitaries and community leaders. Chanukah crafts and traditional Chanukah refreshments will be on hand as well for all to enjoy.

The event takes place Wednesday, December 1, 6:00 pm, at A Putt Above, 3825 Richmond Road in Bells Corners. Admission is free and the entire community is invited.

For more information, call 613-843-7770 or visit ottawatorahcentre.com.

diseases and disorders,” the province said in a statement.

More than one million Ontarians currently suffer from neurological disorders, and according to the province, some 2.6 million will be affected by a neurological condition in their lifetime.

“We’re turning our best research and ideas into new products and services that will create good jobs and improve the quality of life for Ontario families. We’re supporting this work to help export our discoveries to the world,” McGuinty said.

The institute is part of Ontario’s Open Ontario Plan, which seeks to export local expertise worldwide for economic gain.

According to the province, two-way trade between Ontario and Israel is worth about $1.1 billion annually.

The Jewish population of Ontario is estimated at around 200,000 people.

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Page 20 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 21

Chanukah Feature

Chanukah for families: Eight days of fun

By Sarah Gershman My Jewish Learning Chanukah’s proximity to Christmas can complicate the holiday. For those who try to make Chanukah more like Christmas, it inevitably seems to fall short.

Yet, while Chanukah was traditionally not one of the most central holidays of the Jewish calendar, it still can offer many opportunities for fun and joyous celebration.

There are many ways to make this year’s Chanukah a real Festival of Lights. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow writes in his book Seasons of Joy, “Chanukah is the moment when light is born from darkness, hope from despair.” Historically, this was reflected in the unlikely victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks, in the oil that brought light for eight days instead of one, and in the very act of lighting candles during the darkest time of the year.

Chanukah activities for families Here are some suggestions to make this Chanukah memorable while staying true to the essential meaning of the holiday.

Before lighting candles, try taking your family on a night walk. Go outside together and feel how dark it is. Even in the city, the month of December has a special darkness to it. After the walk, come in from the cold and light the Chanukiah. Feel the contrast between the darkness outside and the light inside.

The oil in the Temple menorah, which was only enough for one day but miraculously lasted for eight days, can be understood as an early example of energy conservation. This year, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life is sponsoring a special program called “How Many Jews Does It Take to Change a Bulb?” The organization is suggesting that Jewish institutions, families and individuals purchase and install energy efficient, cost-effective compact fluorescent light bulbs during the week of Chanukah.

Chanukah also is a wonderful time to bring light into the lives of those around us.

The winter months can be especially difficult for those who need help. Why not take time this holiday to volunteer as a family at a local soup kitchen, shelter or any place that is meaningful to you?

Jewish homes for the aged often have Chanukah parties or communal Chanukiah lightings. These are opportunities to connect your children with the older generation and help make the celebration more festive for the residents.

Get creative Chanukah can be a great time for simple and fun family art projects. There is a custom for each member of the family to have his/her own Chanukiah. This year, why not

make your own? You can buy lots of small votive candles and decorate the glass with a collage of colourful pieces of tissue paper.

When the votives are lit, light shines through the tissue paper like stained glass.

This is a great Chanukiah for the Friday night of the holiday, when the candles are supposed to burn for at least two hours – as long as Shabbat candles burn.

No matter what kind of Chanukiah you use, try to place it in as visible a spot as possible to fulfil the mitzvah of pirsumei nisa (publicizing the miracle).

Make each night special One of the wonderful things about Chanukah is that it lasts eight days. Giving each night a special theme can increase the excitement and take some of the attention away from presents. Themes might include ‘Tzedakah night,’ ‘Sing-Off Night,’ ‘Party Night’ and, of course, ‘Presents Night.’

I know a family that eats a different kind of potato latke for dinner each night. Apples, cauliflower or even meat can be delicious additions to the traditional potato latke.

Chanukah also is an ideal time to do fun activities like playing music, taking pictures or making home movies documenting the year’s celebration. One family I know drips Chanukah candle wax each night on their family album. Then, the following year, they take out the album, look at the wax, and try to remember where they were and what they did on each night.

Celebrate our uniqueness One of the miracles of Chanukah is that the Jewish people were able to re-consecrate the Temple – our spiritual centre and a powerful symbol of our uniqueness.

Chanukah today presents us with the opportunity to re-consecrate our own uniqueness as a religion, a people and a culture.

Chanukah is a time to discuss, as a family, some of the blessings and challenges of being Jewish in a predominantly Christian country. One way to spark discussion on this subject is to watch a movie that in some way tackles the subject of assimilation.

Some suggestions include My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Avalon, Keeping the Faith, The Jazz Singer, Monsoon Wedding and A merican Desi.

Snowflakes could be a wonderful seasonal Chanukah symbol, as no two are alike. You can even make Chanukah snowflakes out of colourful paper and use them to decorate the house. And if Chanukah happens to fall on a snowy day, take a walk outside and really look at the snowflakes that fall on your hand and try to see the differences between them.

Have a joyous and meaningful Chanukah.

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Page 22 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Temple Israel concert to feature cello and piano duo

By Mort Bercovitch for Temple Israel Cellist Paul Marleyn and pianist Dina Namer will perform the music of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Bloch and Chopin when Temple Israel presents our next recital by invited artists on December 9.

Marleyn received his musical education at conservatories in his native England, and in the United States, where he studied under some of the most eminent cellists of our time.

He has been the principal cellist for several orchestras, most notably the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. As a chamber player, he has been a member of groups in the U.K. and North America and, since 2006, of the Montreal-based Trio Hochelaga.

Marleyn is currently professor of cello at the University of Ottawa’s Department of Music and regularly conducts master classes in Canada, the U.S.A., Europe and the Far East. In addition to his teaching activities, he maintains an international performance career as soloist, ensemble musician and recording artist.

One of his CDs is of particular interest to lovers of Jewish music. From Jewish Life (Signum), performed with pianist John Lene-

han, includes arrangements of Jewish folk melodies alongside compositions by Bloch, Bernstein, Bruch and other Jewish composers.

Namer, an Ottawa-based pianist, is well known as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Her repertoire covers a wide range from baroque harpsichord works to contemporary Canadian compositions, which she often performs in collaboration with members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

She has performed regularly in both the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and the Alexandria Festival of the Lakes in Minnesota. Namer has been a member of the Aulos Trio, the Ottawa Baroque Ensemble and the Sh’ma Ensemble, a group dedicated to the resurrection of forgotten works of Holocaust composers. She teaches piano at Queen’s University in addition to running a busy private studio.

The concert by Paul Marleyn and Dina Namer takes place Thursday, December 9, 8:00 pm, at Temple Israel. Tickets are $20 (adults) and $15 (students).

For tickets, call Nancy Bercovitch at 613-731-9278 or Temple Israel at 613-2241802.

Pianist Dina Namer

Cellist Paul Marleyn

Two pieces by Ottawa composer to be performed at Jewish music festival in New York

By Minda Wershof Musica Ebraica Two compositions by amateur Ottawa composer Leo Lightstone will be performed in New York City at the Shalshelet International Festival of Sacred Jewish Music taking place December 4 and 5 at the Ansche Chesed Synagogue.

The festival will present new Jewish music by 40 composers from the U.S., Israel, U.K., Australia and Canada. The music represents a spectrum of approaches to Jewish music in styles ranging from jazz, pop and klezmer to classical and more.

Lightstone has been writing music since he was a high school student at Glebe Collegiate Institute. His compositions are typically in a classical style infusing elements of polytonality, counterpoint and layering.

In 2008, Lightstone approached Ottawa choir Musica Ebraica about performing his “Song from Shir haShirim.” This started a wonderful collaboration between Lightstone, our choir and our then-conductor, David Malecki.

“Song from Shir haShirim” was Lightstone’s first choral composition. The feedback provided

by Malecki and the Musica Ebraica choristers was critical to improving the music and text setting, and the choir was honoured to debut Lightstone’s beautiful music.

This piece was performed several times by the choir including our 2009 winter concert in Ottawa and at a guest appearance at Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto.

The second piece selected for performance in New York is “Tfilat haDerech (The Prayer for a

Safe Journey).” This music for baritone and piano was commissioned by Musica Ebraica in 2010 to honour David Malecki on the occasion of his decision to pursue cantorial studies at Hebrew Union College’s School of Sacred Music.

“Tfilat HaDerech” premiered at the choir’s farewell concert under the baton of Malecki and is featured on our new CD. Lightstone is working on several new compositions and is looking forward to continuing his collaboration with Ottawa musicians. Last year at Temple Israel, Barbara Okun and Aviva Lightstone performed his setting of a poem by Lea Goldberg.

The mission of the Shalshelet Festival is to enhance spirituality and build community through the creation and dissemination of new Jewish sacred music. In addition

Two of Leo Lightstone’s compositions will be performed at the Shalshelet International Festival of Sacred Jewish Music.

(Photo: Howard Sandler)

to the performances, workshops and discussions that take place at the festival, a book will be published containing the score for every piece presented, and a CD will be produced to showcase some of the performances.

This will be the fourth edition of the Shalshelet Festival, which is held every second year. Lightstone hopes the next festival will

see greater participation from Ottawa composers.

“There is a lot of talent in the Ottawa Jewish community. Participation in these festivals is a wonderful way for the composers to share ideas, but also an important opportunity for Ottawa’s musical voice to be heard,” he said.

Visit shalshelet.org for more information about the festival.

Are you a non-subscriber? CHANGE THAT TODAY! See page 28 for details on how to subscribe and receive 19 issues a year.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 23

Visit our new web site: www.hillellodge.ca

LL

ife at the odge

Auxiliary Tea 2010 The Auxiliary of Hillel Lodge held its annual tea on Sunday, October 24, 2010 in honour Debi Shore. Tributes to Debi were many. Among them:

A hug for Helen Trachtenberg.

Rabbi Scott Rosenberg and Cantor Daniel Benelol serve tea to Sheila Beck.

Naomi Cracower, Debi Shore and Elissa Iny.

“At the Lodge, when it comes to looking for the positive, look no further than Debi Shore. You will find Debi, with her energy and enthusiasm, talking, laughing, dancing and interacting with the residents and the other volunteers. Her exuberance for living life to the fullest is both infectious and eye-catching and really serves to enhance many of the programs. She is a real people-person in every sense of the word,” Stephen Schneiderman, executive director.

“Debi Shore is a volunteer extraordinaire. It was an easy choice to select her as our honouree for this year’s tea.

We are delighted to recognize her numerous contributions to our organization and, for that matter, Jewish life in Ottawa,” Roslyn Fremeth, president of the Auxiliary.

“I can personally attest to Debi’s compassion and the joy she brings to residents. She gives new and renewed meaning to the expression that volunteers don’t necessarily have the time, but they have the heart. In Debi’s case we are fortunate that she makes the time and, rest assured, there is no bigger heart to be had,” Seymour Mender, president Hillel Lodge.

This year’s tea raised just over $50,000. Thank you to the efforts of so many who made this possible.

Debi Shore doing what she does best, bringing joy to Hillel Lodge.

Debi Shore with husband David and granddaughter Chelsea.

Rabbi Arnold and Chevy Fine and Debi Shore.

REMINDER As the calendar year comes to an end, if you have not yet renewed your 2010 Hillel Lodge Membership, please contact Bev Glube at the Foundation office at 613-728-3900, ext. 111.

If you want to make a difference in people’s lives (including your own), give volunteering at Hillel Lodge a try. The time commitment can range from a few hours per month to regular weekly or bi-weekly visits. To become a volunteer, please contact Marilyn Adler, our Manager of Recreation and Volunteer Programs.

Hillel Lodge is proud of the quality care we provide to our residents. To make a donation, please contact the Long-Term Care Foundation at (613) 728-3900 extension 111 or e-mail us at donations@hillel-ltc.com.

Page 24 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 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 well-being.

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 October 20 and November 10, 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: Archie Kassirer by Ruth and Irving Aaron Leon Krym by Ruth and Irving Aaron Martin Tatz by Ruth and Irving Aaron Barney Bloom by Ruth and Irving Aaron Bill and Leona Adler Memorial Fund In Honour of: Debi Shore Congratulations on being honoured by the Auxiliary by Marilyn Adler, Neil and Daniel Blacher In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Marilyn Adler and Neil Blacher Auxiliary of Hillel Lodge Fund In Honour of: Debi Shore Mazal tov on your well-deserved honour by Helen Hochberg Fred and Esther Ballon Family Fund In Honour of: Norm Lesh Best wishes on your special birthday by Fred and Esther Ballon Abe and Bea Dubinsky Endowment Fund R’fuah Shlema: Gordie Shore by Aunt Bea Dubinsky

Jenny and Murray Citron Endowment Fund In Memory of: Martin Tatz by Murray Citron Joel and Sharon Edelson Family Fund In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Ingrid Levitz; Jill and Allan Bellack; by Sol and Estelle Gunner; by Zelaine and Sol Shinder; by Your friends at Royal Lepage Team Realty; by Ginsberg Gluzman Fage and Levitz; and

by Dorothy and Hy Hymes

Boris Cogut; by Barbara and Sid Cohen; by Shirley and Shier Berman and family; by Brian Webb; by Nadya Gillani; by Irwin and Fenja Brodo; by Lance and Michele Pozarny; by Beth Kassirer; by Sheila and Morton Baslaw; by Marvin Miller; by Fern Sherkin Langer and Nina Castle; by Bea Dubinsky; Edward K. Sorbara; by Joe and Faigie Weinstock and family; by Brian Clark; by Bill and Marian Maitland; Faye Jaffe-Thorek and Michael Thorek; Mary and Burt Manion; Nicholas Dietrich; by David Patterson; and by Marla Berger, Brian Greenspan, Jared and Jenna Morris and Lillian Kimmel Family Fund R’fuah Shlema: Larry Huniu by Janet, Steve, Tobin and Aaron Kaiman Roz Raskin by the Kimmel, Kaiman and Levine families In Honour of: Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Mazal tov on Stacey’s engagement by the Kimmel, Kaiman and Levine families

Tania Firestone Family Fund In Honour of: Dr. and Mrs. Phil Firestone Mazal tov and best wishes on your 40th wedding anniversary by Claire and Irving Bercovitch

Max Lieff Endowment Fund In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Dorothy Lieff Archie Kassirer by Dorothy Lieff

Malcolm and Vera Glube Endowment Fund In Honour of: Jacie Levinson Congratulations on your special birthday by Malcolm and Vera Glube Arlene Isenberg Best wishes on your special birthday by Malcolm and Vera Glube

Levenson-Polowin Feeding Fund In Memory of: Mavis Dover by Pat Guthrie R’fuah Shlema: Bev Cantor by Heidi Levenson and Stephen Polowin

Nell Gluck Memorial Fund In Honour of: Rabbi Arnie and Chevie Fine Mazal tov on the engagement of your granddaughter by Henry and Maureen Molot In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Manny Gluck and Cheryle Roz Barrett by Henry and Maureen Molot; by Shauna Dorskind

Sam and Dora Litwack Family Fund In Observance of the Yahrzeit: Jack Litwack dear father, father-in-law and grandfather, 6 Kislev by Sam and Dora Litwack and family

Gunner Family Fund In Honour of: Ozzie and Sheela Silverman Mazal tov on the birth of your grandson by Sol and Estelle Gunner David, Harvey, Victor Kardish Family Fund In Memory of: Irving Adessky by Sheryl and Harvey Kardish and family Dorothy and Maurie Karp Endowment Fund In Honour of: Norman Lesh Mazal tov on your 80th birthday with love by Dorothy Karp Joyce and Milton Kimmel Mazal tov on the Bar Mitzvah of your grandson Jarod Tyler with love

by Dorothy Karp Kassirer Fund In Memory of: Archie Kassirer by Claire and Irving Bercovitch; by Myrna, Jim and Rob Hardy; by

Irma and Harold Sachs Family Fund In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Irma Sachs In Honour of: Debi Shore Mazal tov on this well earned honour by Irma Sachs Evelyn Greenberg Mazal tov on Lesley’s engagement by Irma Sachs Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Family Fund In Memory of; Dina Edelson by Stephen and Debra Schneiderman In Honour of: Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Mazal tov on Stacey’s engagement with love by Janet, Steve, Tobin and Aaron Kaiman Harold and Lillian Shoihet Memorial Fund In Honour of: Cantor and Mrs. Pinchus Levinson Mazal tov on Ellie’s Bar Mitzvah by Dovid Shoihet and Miriam Sabo Dr. and Mrs. Andre Engel Mazal tov on the birth of your grandson Yitzchak Lieb by Dovid and Jessica Shoihet

Dr. Murray Kaiserman In appreciation by Dovid Shoihet Skulsky Family Memorial Fund In Honour of: Allan Baker Love and best wishes on your 65th birthday by Ray and Ernie Goldstein Ralph and Anne Sternberg Memorial Fund In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Laya and Ted Jacobsen In Honour of: Brian Pascal Happy birthday by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Thomas and Natalie Gussman Mazal tov on your 39th wedding anniversary by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Judith and Harvey Slipacoff Mazal tov on your 4th wedding anniversary by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Judith Slipacoff Mazal tov on your birthday by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Frannie Shier Mazal tov on your move to your new home by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Our family, friends and our Ottawa Jewish Community L;shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Ted and Laya Jacobsen with great appreciation

by Gary and Heather Cohen Harvey Slipacoff Mazal tov on his birthday with warm affection by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Heather Parker Cohen In appreciation for her 21 years of dedicated and devoted service as Executive Director, Temple Israel; furthermore, her engendering $7,500 in donations to the Ottawa Humane Society in her honour with warm wishes

by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Paula Speevak-Sladowski In appreciation as President, Temple Israel for her compassionate mandate as the inspiring leader with warm affection

by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Hannah Halpern Mazal tov on her milestone birthday with warm wishes by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Julie and Hillel Taub Mazal tov on the birth of your grandchild, Mira Chaya Mair Taub with warm wishes by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Sarah and Arnie Swedler Family Fund In Memory of: Evelyn Soloway by Arnie Swedler Roslyn and Myles Taller Family Endowment Fund In Honour of: Debi Shore Mazal tov on your wonderful achievements and being honoured at this years tea

by Roz and Myles Taller Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Mazal ton on Stacey’s engagement by Roz and Myles Taller Jim Watson Congratulations on your position as Mayor by Roz and Myles Taller Peter Hume Congratulations on being elected Councillor by Roz and Myles Taller, Julia, Pablo and Erica Rabbi and Mrs. A. Fine Wishing you all the (Continued on page 25)

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 – November 29, 2010 – Page 25

Canadian Muslim author fights anti-Semitism

By Sheldon Kirshner Canadian Jewish News TORONTO – In an era when anti-Semitic notions and reactionary beliefs are prevalent in the Islamic world, Tarek Fatah, a Canadian of Pakistani Muslim ancestry, stands out boldly and courageously as a refreshing exception.

Fatah, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, is a secular liberal democrat who upholds social and political pluralism, promotes progressive ideas such as gender equality, despises Islamic radicalism, opposes Sharia law and supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Now, in a move bound to rally his friends and upset his enemies, Fatah has written a hard-hitting book, The Jew Is Not My Enemy (McClelland & Stewart), in which he roundly denounces and condemns antiSemitism and hatred of Israel.

Fatah claims anti-Semitism is “endemic” in Islamic societies and quite common in Canada among Muslims.

“So much so, I had to write a book about it,” he said in an interview. “I wanted to put this information out into the open.”

According to Fatah, Muslim anti-Semitism is largely rooted in the Hadith, a collection of the Prophet Muhammad’s oral proclamations written centuries after his death. Israel and its policies have contributed to anti-Semitic feelings, he noted.

Although he admits the Qur’an contains

“some pretty harsh language about Jews,” he maintains it essentially preaches respect for Judaism.

Far from considering himself a lonely voice in the wilderness, Fatah, a journalist and broadcaster who worked in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before settling in Canada, says his unorthodox views are not really that uncommon among his fellow Muslims. ”In my fight against Muslim anti-Semitism, I am not alone,” he writes in his book.

“Muslim voices around the world are making brave attempts in the face of intimidation and slander to fight the rise of jihadi Islamism.”

Although he has never personally met an anti-Semitic Iranian, Indonesian, Turk or Bosnian, Fatah believes anti-Semitism enjoys a disturbing degree of acceptance in Canada’s Muslim community.

The virus has particularly affected young, Canadian-born Pakistanis, who cloak their animus in leftist rhetoric. He branded them “the foot soldiers” of Islamic radicalism.

Fatah denounced Omar Khadr – the Pakistani-Canadian Al Qaeda recruit who gained notoriety and a long prison sentence after killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan – as “a very dangerous man” and “self-confessed killer” who has never renounced the doctrine of armed jihadism or Sharia law.

Describing himself as “a thorn in the side” of Islamists, Fatah said he has a “moral and ethical duty” to combat Islamic radicals. ***********

IN HONOUR OF:

(Continued from page 24)

best of joy, nachas and happiness from your entire family by Roz, Myles Taller and family R’fuah Shlema: Roslyn Raskin by Roz and Myles Taller Milton and Mary (Terry) Viner Family Fund In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: Freda Pearl Viner by Millie Schanefield David Viner by Millie Schanefield Eric Weiner and Arlene Godfrey Family Fund In Memory of: Dina Edelson by Miriam and Louis Weiner Recreation/Music Fund In Honour of: Arlene Isenberg Happy birthday by Molly Hirsch and Eric Elkin

NOTICE

Lisa Gorra Best wishes on your engagement by Michael and Sylvia Caplan Lou and Evelyn Eisenberg Happy anniversary by Kevin and Rose Kardash Evelyn Greenberg Congratulations on your daughter’s engagement by Bill and Jane James Mr. and Mrs. Akiva Kriger Mazal tov on the B’nai Mitzvot of your grandchildren by Claire and Irving Bercovitch Barbara and Sy Gutmajer Mazal tov on the birth of a great grandson with love by Anita and Mike Roodman Larry Hershorn Best wishes on your special birthday by Claire and Irving Bercovitch

“They’re not just anti-Jewish, but anti-Canadian. I want to drag them out of the ninth century.”

Fatah says the doctrine of armed jihadism informs the mindset of the leadership of mosques – imams and boards of directors – across the country.

In his book, he writes “The contemporary narrative of jihad” in mosques around the world has become “a breeding ground for anti-Semitism.”

He added, “I don’t know of any Canadian politicians, left or right, who have uttered a word against armed jihadism.”

Fatah, who has visited Israel, believes Muslims should reconcile themselves to Israel’s moral and legal right to exist as a state within secure and internationally recognized borders.

At least two verses in the Qur’an, 5:20 and 5:21, he holds, authenticate Jewish claims to Palestine and Jerusalem. Fatah does not believe Israel is an apartheid state.

“If you want to see an apartheid state, go to Saudi Arabia, which is an oppressive society ruled by the religious police, or Iran.”

He calls on Israel to end its “illegal and immoral” occupation of the West Bank, saying a “just peace” and the creation of a Palestinian state is not “a favour” to the Palestinians, but “an absolute necessity for the survival of the Jewish state.”

Once this happens, he thinks, Muslim anti-Semites will lose “the most powerful

excuse to whip up” anti-Semitism. “Not that Islamist Judeophobia will disappear, but the oxygen that nourishes it will be cut off.”

In his view, Islam can be reconciled with modernism and universal human rights through democracy, which, he acknowledged, is sorely absent in the Middle East.

Fatah was born in Karachi in 1949. His ancestors in the Punjab were Hindus who converted to Islam in the 19th century. Although his parents were Orthodox Muslims, they sent him to a Catholic school. His father has an adopted Jewish sister.

At the end of 2001, following 9/11, he and like-minded Muslims established the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC). Its advocacy of “progressive” forms of Islam, gay rights, separation of religion and state and opposition to Sharia law aroused criticism and indignation in some Muslim circles.

Fatah was the MCC’s communications director and spokesperson until the summer of 2006, when he resigned over concerns for his safety.

He stepped down from his position after he and other members objected to the MCC’s participation in anti-Israel demonstrations during which banners of Hezbollah and Hamas and posters of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were raised.

Last year, in an article in the National Post, Fatah accused the Canadian Arab Federation of having turned itself into “a mouthpiece for Hamas and Hezbollah in Canada.”

friends at Royal Lepage Team Realty; and by Barbara and Sid Cohen Lily Tonchin by Eva Esrock Roz Barrett by Ingrid Levitz; and by Clair Krantzberg Leon Krym and Ruth Goldberg by Zahava and Barry Farber and family

R’FUAH SHLEMA: Ethel Aronovitch by Anne Koffman Alan Schwartz by Zelda and Leon Zelikovitz Ruth Soloway by Frayda and Charles Wiseman Noreen Bosloy by Bev, Mark, Lindsay and Jordan Steinberg Elena Keen by Cary and Ed Lander Roslyn Barrett by Claire and Irving Bercovitch

TREE OF LIFE A leaf has been added to the Tree of Life in loving memory of Fradel and Simon Sternic by Lazaro Sternic.

IN MEMORY OF: Helen Rosenthal by Your Friends at Glushkin Sheff + Associates Inc. Edith Sporn by Stephen and Arleen Isaacs Dina Edelson by Ethel and David Malek,

by Beatrice and Murray Garceau; Your

REMINDER As the calendar year comes to an end, if you have not yet renewed your 2010 Hillel Lodge Membership, please contact Bev Glube at the Foundation office at 613728-3900, ext. 111.

To ensure that we continue to cover our increasing costs, effective January 1, 2011, the minimum donation to the Hillel Lodge Long-Term Care Foundation will be $18.00.

We truly appreciate your ongoing support.

Call 613-730-0881 david.pattee@cstresp.com

Page 26 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Torah High enrolment exceeds 100 students

By Gavriel Scarowsky NCSY Ottawa Torah High has reached a new high with 101 local Jewish teenagers enrolled in the Jewish studies program offering credits to public high school students. A project of NCSY Ottawa, Torah High started in September 2006 and its enrolment has grown every year.

“Torah High has been such a wonderful experience that it kept me coming back for four years,” says Debbie Shapiro, who graduated high school this past June.

“The rabbis and teachers I had were amazing and inspired me to continue on in my Jewish education. I do not come from a very religious background and Torah High allowed me to find my Jewish identity. I am eternally grateful for that.”

The Torah High classroom is unlike any other. Students sit on comfy couches and class material is presented through activities, games, discussions, debates and other interactive techniques to make it engaging for students.

“We have to make Judaism relevant and cool for today’s teenagers,” says Bram Bregman, executive director of NCSY Ot-

Students at Torah High’s opening barbecue (from left to right): Sammy Miller, GG Farber, Jack Miller, Isaac Moore, Daniel Blacher, Ariel Buchler.

tawa. “The next generation will not be Jewish because of obligation, but because they intellectually and emotionally connect with Jewish values and a Jewish lifestyle.”

Each Torah High student attends a weekly class and must also acquire 30 hours of additional programming outside class, by participating in such activities as Shabbat dinners, weekend conventions

or large community events. This provides both an academic and experiental learning experience for the students.

“The attraction of teenagers to learn Torah-based subjects in a

non-traditional setting demonstrates the enthusiasm they have to learn,” says Kathi Kovacs, chair of NCSY Ottawa. “Judaism remains constant, but the teaching milieu must be responsive to contemporay teens. Our teachers have the creativity and knowledge that inspires Jewish students, and our numbers reflect that.”

The result of this teaching model has been a welcoming learning environment that has enriched the Jewish lives of hundreds of local Jewish teenagers.

Parents are among Torah High’s biggest boosters.

“My children, Avital and Aaron, attending for four and two years, feel comfortable in Torah High’s welcoming environment and appreciate ongoing connectivity with other Jewish students. As they grow into young adults, they increasingly appreciate learning about world issues from a Jewish perspective,” says Steve Naor.

Torah High Ottawa is funded through private donations and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.

For more information or to donate, contact Bram Bregman at 613-262-6279 or bram@ncsy.ca or visit ottawa.torahhigh.ca.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 27

The next generations of Holocaust Education

Yad Vashem educators program Ephraim Kaye, director of the International Seminars for Educators program at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies, was in Ottawa, November 4, to explain Yad Vashem’s efforts to continue teaching the Holocaust to schoolchildren when actual witnesses, the survivors, are no longer able to. In the background is Mina Cohn, chair of the Shoah Committee of Ottawa.

(Photo: Benita Siemiatycki)

Holocaust Education Week workshop Holocaust survivors David Shentow (left) and Vera Gara (second from right), Shoah Committee Chair Mina Cohn (second from left) and guest speaker Sara Greenberg participated in a special Holocaust Education Week workshop, November 14. Twenty-three people attended the workshop on how the second and third generation can continue educating the community about the Holocaust when sur(Photo: Francie Greenspoon) vivors are no longer able to bear witness.

Page 28 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

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November 29, 2010 – Page 29

Section Two

New Jewish community section 2 page 29 november 29, 2010 Honour Roll Honouring the Jewish men unveiled, Nov. 7

and women who served

By Victor Rabinovitch Editor’s note: This text was adapted by Victor Rabinovitch from his keynote address, November 7, at the ceremony unveiling the Honour Roll listing the members of Ottawa’s Jewish community who served in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. When we unveil a new Honour Roll setting out the names of more than 700 Ottawa Jewish war veterans, we really perform three separate acts: we remember, we honour, and we tell. Each of these actions has a particular meaning and significance, which I would like to explore.

We remember Our community has chosen to remember the Jewish men and women who served in three major wars of the 20th century. These wars commanded the efforts of an entire country – and they helped shape Canada’s identity, values and

international relations. Jewish participation in Canada’s military also helped build a proud place for our communities within the mainstream of national life.

The commitment to remember demands an active choice. It requires a conscious effort to share thoughts about people, what they did, and how they and we were affected.

Remembering is not just reminiscing, enjoying a pleasant chat.

In the Jewish tradition, the word zachor is linked to an instruction and an action. For example, when we say “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” that action is for the purpose of increasing sanctity and good behaviour in our lives.

In our tradition, we also remember Amalek and how the army of that nation in Biblical times tried to destroy the Israelites in the desert.

What is the purpose of this memory? It reminds us that we must be aware of ruthless enemies and to be prepared to protect ourselves from

evil. Memory, once again, is related to activity in both our personal and community lives.

For many decades, it was our community’s veterans and their families who could lead us in remembrance. The Jewish War Veterans and other veterans’ organizations in Ottawa and across the country kept alive the memory of the Second World War and other wars. They organized ceremonies, scholarships and social events. But time passes, veterans pass, and the Torch of Memory is handed on to others.

The activity of remembrance is now our responsibility. We should not expect this to be handled by school children. Sensitive memory of war and survival requires deeper experience and maturity. It is the business of adult generations – people who understand human fragility and loss – to accept the obligation of remembering our veterans.

(Continued on page 30)

By Michael Regenstreif “We are standing in the shadows of heroes,” said Jonathan Freedman, past chair of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, as the Jewish War Veterans of Canada, Ottawa Post, unveiled a new Honour Roll listing the 719 Jewish men and women from Ottawa who served in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. The new Honour Roll was unveiled at a ceremony, November 7, at the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building, to honour all of the Jewish Ottawans who served in those conflicts, including the 24 who lost their lives in action. The names of the fallen were read by Samuel Ages of the Ottawa Post. A wreath in their memory was laid by Ages and Bluma Dieks Goldenberg.

It was a moving ceremony that began with the March on the Colours by members of the Ottawa Post and the singing of “O Canada” and “Hatikvah” led by Cantor David Aptowitzer. Cantor Aptowitzer also sang “Lel Maleh Rachamim” during the program.

Rabbi Reuven Bulka, chaplain of the Ottawa Post, said that community members who served in the three wars did so “in the best of Abrahamic tradition.”

Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, Rabbi Bulka explained, was a kind and nice man who recognized when he had to take sides in a conflict.

Sometimes precious ideals “need to be fought for because you are nice.”

The young men and women from the community who served did so, the rabbi said, because they were nice and because, like Abraham, they recognized their service was needed at a time when sides had to be taken.

The MC for the dignified event was CBC Radio news anchor Laurence Wall, and the ceremony ended with Corporal Jamie Leblanc, in dress uniform, playing the “Last Post” on the bugle.

The keynote speaker was Victor Rabinovitch, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum. His remarks appear on this page.

Members of the Jewish War Veterans of Canada, Ottawa Post, at the ceremony to unveil the new Honour Roll, November 7.

(Photo: Peter Waiser)

Page 30 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

‘Ordinary people who did extraordinary things’ (Continued from page 29)

Of course, we have a responsibility to educate our children about this past, to sow within them the seeds of memory. Their knowledge should be enriched so that their future understanding will grow with maturity.

We honour This leads us to the second conscious action – that of honouring veterans. The word honour does not mean something trivial, such as cheering a pop star or some transient celebrity. The names on this Honour Roll identify individuals who lived, laughed, fought and cried. They call out to us: “Show us the honour of knowing why we fought. Honour those who died; and those who returned.”

A large majority of veterans did return to Canada and Ottawa. They came home to work, to care for families and friends, and many became the core supporters of our institutions. Today, we honour a remarkable generation of veterans who shaped so many facets of our modern Jewish community and the entire city.

We tell Our third action is to participate in the act of telling, as we commit ourselves to repeating and narrating the stories of Jewish veterans within the larger story of this country. I will focus my comments here on some facts from the Second World War. It was a global war in every aspect: a massive confrontation of ideologies and human visions. It was a military confrontation that finally stopped the annihilation of

Keynote speaker Victor Rabinovitch looks at the new Honour Roll of Jewish Ottawans who served in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War, November 7.

(Photo: Peter Waiser)

the Jewish people.

At the start of the Second World War, in 1939, Canada was so unready. Let’s remember the situation.

The First World War had ended barely 21 years previously, and people were still shocked by its bloody destruction. The economic Depression of the 1930s had deeply reduced production activity. Domestic hatreds were being fanned by the shrill voices of small groups of fascists, people like Adrien Arcand who attacked Jews and non-

British immigrants. Our national government, led by then-Prime Minister Mackenzie King, did not respond decisively to the gathering storm, and repeatedly refused to open Canada’s doors to European refugees.

But Canada and the other democracies could not hide. The explosive effects of Hitler’s aggression, and that of Italy and Japan, meant that war was upon us. This reality, and the galvanizing leadership of Britain’s Winston Churchill,

Members of the community view the new Honour Roll following the ceremony at which it was un(Photo: Peter Waiser) veiled.

changed our government’s position. Canadians stepped forward and would soon contribute to the Allied response in ways and magnitude that still defy imagination.

Let’s look at some numbers.

In the course of six years, from 1939 to 1945: Canada’s Navy grew to 365 vessels from 10 – becoming the third largest fleet for the Allies; Canada’s Air Force grew from a handful of aircraft and only 4,000 staff to over 267,000 men and woman by 1945 – the third largest air force in the world; Canada’s Army grew to 730,000 men and women, from under 9,000 in 1939.

Canadian forces fought in the hardest battles of the European war, and were also part of the Allied effort in Asia. The cost was great: 42,000 dead; 54,000 wounded. But, it was well understood that the cost of defeat would have been enormous – not only for Jews, but for all civilization.

Canada also made immense contributions in the wartime production of food, minerals, war equipment, air crew training – the impact of all of this remains astounding.

And, here in Ottawa, in our Jewish community? The scale of commitment by individuals and Jewish organizations was superlative.

We can try to describe this con-

tribution with numbers. For example, we can identify over 700 individuals who served in the different branches of the Canadian Forces.

This total was far above 15 per cent of Ottawa’s Jewish population. It is also far above the 10 per cent portion of the general Canadian population who served in the war (in itself, a very respectable participation rate).

We can tell remarkable stories about group commitment. For example, when 35 members of the B’nai Brith organization volunteered right away, or when 18 of 25 members of the Maccabean Athletic Association volunteered after they graduated from high school.

We can remember the people who remained in Ottawa and who raised money, bought food, sent parcels, opened their doors to visiting servicemen – helping the war effort in practical ways: Haddassah, B’nai Brith, the Vaad Ha’Ir, the Hebrew Benefit Society, the War Work Committee, and so many individuals pulling together.

The Second War ended victorious, and veterans returned home.

They were rapidly demobilized, for Canada is not a country that maintains large standing military forces.

In Ottawa, local Jewish leaders encouraged the community to welcome returning veterans, help them find jobs, and bring them back into normal life.

It is to the great credit of the Ottawa Post of the Jewish War Veterans, and the Jewish Historical Society, that, today, we are still able to identify and remember so many individual veterans. The community’s written records and archives have endured, and continue to be a basis for our education.

As I read those old files, I see nothing boastful, militarist or bombastic. The veterans’ memories describe ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

There is one particular message that appears, year after year, in so many reports published in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. It is how Jewish veteran leaders would so often end their speeches by quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah: “They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks ... They will train for war no more.”

Those words from Isaiah express the hopes of our veterans.

This is what they wanted for their time and for the future. By remembering and honouring them, and by telling their histories, we do our part to keep their hopes alive.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 31

Page 32 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Volunteer spotlight

A sister’s love proves to be bonus for Tamir

By Benita Siemiatycki In 2006, when the Rideau Regional Centre in Smiths Falls closed its doors, the residents with developmental disabilities were dispersed to other institutions. In the months leading up to the closure, Susan Tessier researched and visited several homes in the Ottawa region to find the right fit for her sister, Jane, who had lived at Rideau for 45 years.

After meeting the staff and discussing the philosophies at various centres, Susan settled on Tamir’s Killeen Avenue home. It has, says Susan, turned out to be a wonderful place for Jane.

The decision to place Jane with Tamir opened the door for Susan to become a valuable volunteer for the organization. Her involvement has evolved and grown.

Since Jane participated in the choir at Rideau Regional, Susan was thrilled to learn Tamir offered a choir, which rehearsed at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (SJCC).

To ensure her sister could participate in the choir, Susan offered to pick Jane up and drive her to and from the rehearsals each week, and to stay to assist. Once she was taking Jane, she also offered transportation to other Killeen residents.

Susan has since accompanied the choir to Montreal where they visited the Montre-

Susan Tessier (left) with her sister Jane at Tamir’s 2010 AGM. (Photo: Robin Chernick)

al Holocaust Centre and performed at Jewish seniors’ homes.

When the Tamir Choir participated in the

huge and very successful production of Joseph and the A mazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last May, Susan was an integral part of the team of volunteers who helped out, from driving Tamir clients to rehearsals to assisting participants on stage during the actual performance. It completely took over her life for a few months, she says, but gave both Jane and her a great sense of pleasure.

The performing experience has inspired an interest in drama and musical activities among the participants. So much so, that Susan organized and accompanied a group of 16 from Tamir to see the recent performance of A nnie, produced by Orpheus at Centrepointe Theatre.

Now that Jane is accustomed to attending choir practices, a staff member from the home drives her and another Tamir client to the SJCC. Susan has been able to back off, but sees herself as the bridge that facilitated exposing the Tamir clients to the choir.

Susan was a driving force behind the formation of a Family Advisory Committee (FAC) at Tamir. She hopes that, with the parents of many Tamir clients becoming elderly, siblings will step up and assist the staff, which is kept busy with the day-today tasks of looking after the residents.

“The staff just don’t have the time to say, ‘Gee, I wonder what show we should go to see’,” says Susan, adding that it’s very enabling for the family members to help create activities that might otherwise not take place for their loved ones.

One activity FAC has assisted with is vacation planning. For the past three years, Susan has been instrumental in making memorable vacations a reality. Not only does she help with the planning, but she

goes along with the staff to be an extra set of hands to assist with whatever is needed.

The vacations are brief – three days and two nights – and close to home, but the residents and staff truly appreciate a getaway from their routines and the chance to see and try new things. So far, they’ve visited Calabogie and Prince Edward County, where they’ve gone boating, attended theatre and stayed in country homes.

Because of Shabbat, Saturdays are quiet at the Tamir homes. Susan has undertaken to provide entertainment for Jane and other residents. She walks with them to the Ottawa Family Cinema on Broadview Avenue where they watch a movie. To ensure the rules of Shabbat are respected, Susan pays for all the admissions.

Susan will be retiring next summer from her job at the Health Canada Research Ethics Board and is planning a move to Prince Edward County.

While her involvement may diminish, she is adamant that Tamir will always have a pull on her and that she will respond. She started volunteering at the age of 15 at the Rideau Regional facility and now her two teenage sons spend time helping out at the Killeen residence.

“I like volunteering because it’s instant gratification,” explains Susan. “When you go to the movies or hang out with this gang, you get instant hugs and kisses. You know something has improved for them that day.”

Susan’s involvement with Tamir has also led to a greater knowledge of Judaism and the local Jewish community. Her mission has been simple: to make Jane happy, and to help out by inserting herself in the Tamir community wherever she spots a need.

As for how Jane feels about Susan’s involvement?

“I think it makes her feel really good.

She recognizes that her buddies enjoy my company. It has its advantages. You get a ride, you get a movie – it’s all pretty positive. She sees them hug me. I’ve entered her family.”

Susan also believes Jane appreciates the advocacy she does on her behalf when something is not working out.

Mandy Weedon, acting supervisor of Tamir’s Killen residence, has high praise for Susan.

“She is a dedicated and caring person who is committed to enhancing the lives of our participants in their home and the community. She is a strong advocate for her sister and is always willing to stand up and share her ideas and experiences.”

Benita Siemiatycki of the Jewish Ottawa InfoCentre profiles community volunteers in the Bulletin.

Some organizations are in desperate need of volunteers. Call Benita at the InfoCentre at 613-798-4644 for information.

Organizations and agencies are invited to contact Benita with suggestions of volunteers to be spotlighted in the Bulletin.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 33

Chanukah Feature

Alternative approaches to Chanukah giving

By Dasee Berkowitz (JTA) – When I walked into a local department store the night after Labour Day, Christmas music already beckoned shoppers to do what they do best during the great white winter holiday: consume.

Traditional Christians probably decry the way in which the focus of their ‘High Holiday’ has shifted away from their Messiah toward consumerism. Jewish folks decry this as well (and certainly this Jewish folk does), because it pressures us to celebrate our less significant winter holiday, Chanukah, in a similar way.

The irony couldn’t be more striking. Chanukah is the holiday that celebrates Jewish distinctiveness over assimilation. The Maccabees – zealots to some, freedom fighters to others – fought to preserve a sense of Jewish distinctiveness in the face of the Assyrian Greeks and

other Jews who were attracted to their ways.

So, in order to really celebrate Chanukah this year, let’s ask ourselves what makes us Jews distinct? How can we celebrate our distinctiveness in ways that strengthen our own identities and the Jewish identity of our families? How can we bring the best of what Judaism has to offer to our communities and to the larger society?

The concept of tzedakah is one of Judaism’s great contributions to the world – ethical monotheism, the Ten Commandments and the concept of Shabbat rank way up there, too.

Jewish tradition posits giving tzedakah as an obligation (according to Maimonides, 20 per cent of your income is average, with 10 per cent as the minimum) and holds that this obligation rests on everybody, not just the well-off (the Shulchan

Aruch states that “even one who is supported by tzedakah is required to give from what he has been given”). This offers a paradigm for a just and supportive society that holds rampant consumerism in check.

So, I propose that this Chanukah, instead of pouring our creative energies into giving material gifts, we use that creativity to dedicate each night and each candle to a different aspect of giving.

Candle 1: Have an intimate dinner with family and friends. Learn about the issues of most concern to them; then set aside the money you would spend on a material gift to make a contribution to that organization or cause in their honour.

Candle 2: Make a site

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visit. Follow up on the first night’s activity and, if the cause is a local one, arrange to go on a site visit together to learn more about the organization’s work and how you can get involved. This activity is especially good for parents with young children.

Candle 3: Be on the lookout for charity events in your area. Plan ahead and bring a buddy to attend the event, and dedicate yourself to expanding your horizons on issues in the world in need of addressing.

Candle 4: Think about someone in your life in immediate need. It might be someone who just had a baby and could use a homecooked meal. It might be someone in the hospital who could use a visit. Bring them Chanukah-themed treats

such as cookies in the shape of dreidls or homemade Chanukah cards.

Candle 5: Get your charitable giving in order. If eight nights of eating latkes and jelly doughnuts becomes too much for you, take the night off and plan ahead for the coming fiscal year. What are the issue areas that you want to commit yourself to this year? How much time or money do you want to give?

Make a plan.

Candle 6: Give more than your money and time – give of your values. Think about a value that is important to you that you haven’t had time to develop (does the refrain “too busy” ring a bell?) and do an activity that reflects that value with a spouse, child or friend. If it is caring

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If the value is eating nutritious food, take a trip to your local grocer to buy nutritious food and cook it together with a friend.

Candle 7: Think about someone else in your life who is too busy to think about holiday presents. Give them a break. For a busy parent, this could mean providing child care; for a busy professional, it could be giving your time as a coach.

Candle 8: Have a Chanukah party and ask each of your guests to bring a gift that you can pass onto a local charity – a nonperishable food, a children’s toy, books or clothing.

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Page 34 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Israel OKs another 8,000 Ethiopian immigrants – but these may be the last to be approved

By Ur iel Heilman (JTA) – The November 14 decision by Israel’s Cabinet to bring as many as 8,000 additional Ethiopians to Israel over the next four years and then close the door on mass Ethiopian aliyah has a familiar ring to it.

That’s because it has happened several times before.

In 1991, 1998 and 2008, Israel declared an end to mass Ethiopian immigration, only to reopen the gates after intense lobbying and pressure by advocates for Ethiopian aliyah.

This month, again after dogged lobbying by advocates – including a former president of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ); a former Israeli Supreme Court justice; Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi; a former Canadian justice minister; and myriad other figures inside and outside the Israeli government – the Israeli Cabinet again voted to expand Ethiopian aliyah.

This time, however, it’ll be different, promised one of the main advocates for the aliyah, Joseph Feit, the former president of NACOEJ. His New York-based organization advocates for Ethiopian aliyah and runs aid compounds in the Ethiopian city of Gondar that provide some food, schooling and jobs to the would-be immigrants to Israel.

“Everybody’s working in co-operative mode,” Feit said in an interview from Israel a day after the Israeli Cabinet voted to expand by as many as 7,846 the number of additional Ethiopians who will be allowed to immigrate to Israel under special criteria established for the so-called Falash Mura – Ethiopians who claim links to descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity generations ago, but who now are returning to Jewish practice.

What’s different this time, Feit said, is that NACOEJ has agreed to withdraw from Ethiopia and cease all aliyah advocacy if the additional Ethiopians are brought to Israel in accordance with the government decision at the rate of 200 per month.

Under the agreement, NACOEJ will turn over operation of its aid compounds in Ethiopia to the Jewish Agency for Israel three months after the aliyah begins, and NACOEJ will end all its activity in

This family in the Gojam region of Ethiopia, pictured in 2005, comes from an area where there may be additional Falash Mura who were excluded from the Nov. 14, 2010 Israeli government decision to bring up to another 8,000 Ethiopians to Israel.

(Photo: Uriel Heilman)

Ethiopia and aliyah advocacy once those among the 8,000 who meet Israel’s criteria for aliyah are brought to the Jewish state.

It’s not the first time such an agreement has been reached. An identical deal was proposed in 2003 and signed in 2005, and, since then, thousands of Ethiopians have been brought to Israel and been made citizens.

NACOEJ did not cease its aliyah advocacy, however; Feit said it was because the 2005 agreement was never implemented. He said the Jewish Agency never took over the aid compounds, and the Israeli government dragged its feet on bringing the Ethiopians, stretching out the aliyah for years in fits and starts.

In addition, Feit said, several thousand Ethiopians who were supposed to be considered for aliyah were never included in the immigration. Adjusting for natural growth, those are the 8,000 or so Ethiopians currently in Gondar seeking to make aliyah, he said.

“The numbers have not changed,” Feit said. “These are the people left over after artificial caps.”

But a former Jewish Agency official who headed aliyah operations in Ethiopia for four years disputes

that notion. Ori Konforti said the numbers are constantly changing in a ruse to keep Ethiopian aliyah going as long as possible.

Rather than capping Ethiopian aliyah, the government’s decision this month actually sets a dangerous precedent by potentially opening the doors to even more Ethiopian immigration because it dramatically eases the criteria Ethiopian petitioners must meet to qualify for Israeli citizenship, Konforti said.

For the first time, an Israeli government will be allowing Ethiopians to apply for aliyah who were not counted in the Efrati Census of 1999 – a tally of would-be Ethiopian immigrants carried out by a former director of Israel’s Population Registry, David Efrati.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” Konforti said. “Half of Ethiopia has relatives in Israel.”

Until now, any Ethiopian seeking to immigrate under the special criteria for Falash Mura had to be on the Efrati list. Now, however, Ethiopian petitioners who were not on the list but have Jewish lineage on their mother’s side will qualify for aliyah.

Rabbi Menachem Waldman, director of the Shvut Am Institute, which is involved with Ethiopian

aliyah and preparing the immigrants for conversion to Judaism, said that, in all likelihood, no more than 6,500 additional Ethiopians will come to Israel as a result of this month’s decision. That number represents those who qualify for aliyah but were not counted on the Efrati Census because they were in rural villages where the census tally was imprecise.

“We said all these years that there were a certain number that were not in the census,” Waldman told JTA. He estimated the number of Falash Mura villagers who were not counted by the Efrati Census at about 5,000. The figure of 8,000, he said, includes those villagers who migrated to Gondar between 2003 and 2007 and people from the Efrati Census whom the Israeli government mistakenly failed to verify for aliyah eligibility, plus natural growth due to births and marriages.

“With this decision, I think the government went to the maximum,” Efrati, who conducted the original census, told JTA. The 8,000 figure, he said, was the maximum number agreed upon by Ethiopian families in Israel, public figures, advocacy groups, their North American Jewish sponsors, the Israeli government

and the Ethiopian government.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t others in Ethiopia – a country of 88 million whose population believes it is the product of the offspring of an illicit union 3,000 years ago between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba – who may be eligible to make aliyah, Waldman acknowledged.

“In the villages, not all the censuses were precise,” Waldman said.

“I think there are more in Gojam,” a rural Ethiopian province. “But we took a decision in 2007 that we were closing the list at 8,700 to send a message to the Israeli government that we are advocating to bring only those who abandoned their homes, came to Gondar and are living as Jews. Someone who lives in his village and goes to church on Sunday morning and merely has Jewish lineage – I never advocated for him.”

Any Ethiopian who can prove eligibility for aliyah under the standards of the Law of Return – practically impossible for the Falash Mura – may immigrate to Israel regardless of this decision.

The question at the heart of the dispute over the aliyah of the Falash Mura is how many remain in Ethiopia, and therefore whether the aliyah will ever end.

Opponents claim the number changes constantly because Ethiopians desperate to escape Africa’s poverty for Israel’s comforts are manipulating the immigration system. Advocates claim the numbers have changed only due to natural growth and to earlier Israeli government mistakes in counting the Ethiopians.

They say a combination of factors will help make sure that, this time, the Ethiopian aliyah ends for real: the Israeli government and the advocates agreed on a cap; to be eligible, would-petitioners had to have moved to Gondar by 2007, so newcomers cannot be added; the advocates have agreed to cede operations in Ethiopia to the Jewish Agency, which will shut down the aid facilities and school once the eligible petitioners are brought to Israel; and the Ethiopian government does not want mass emigration to continue beyond these agreed-upon 8,000.

“All the parties dealing with this subject for 20 years were active in reaching this consensus,” Waldman said. “The list is closed.”

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 35

Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism EDITOR’S NOTE: The Inter-par liamentar y Coalition for Combating AntiSemitism held its second conference in Ottawa, November 7-9 (the fir st confer ence was held in London in 2009).

Among those addressing the conference, November 8, were Pr ime Minister Stephen Har per and Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff. The Ottawa J ewish Bulletin is publishing slightly abr idged ver sions of their speeches.

We are also publishing the text of the Ottawa Protocol on Combating AntiSemitism, which was released at the conclusion of the conference. See page 36.

‘Canada cannot be neutral as between a democratic state and terrorist organizations’

By Michael Ignatieff Leader of the Official Opposition As the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, I’m here to say that the cause that you are united around today does not know partisan division.

Our party is proud to endorse the London Declaration. In fact, as I read the London Declaration, I thought to myself, had there been a London Declaration in 1936, the history of our world would be different.

And, so, we are united today in the fervent hope, and the determined belief, that we want to make anti-Semitism nothing other than a terrible memory, rather than a part of our lived present.

We’re here in Ottawa to identify a new phenomenon: the new anti-Semitism. One of the things that I never thought I would live to see, as a person of proud Russian heritage, is … the disgraced and vile Tsarist forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, circulating in the 21st century, on the Internet.

That’s one way to describe this new and hateful phenomenon.

I never thought that I would live to see a world in which you could go into a UPS depot or a FedEx depot in Yemen and send a package loaded with explosives to blow up a synagogue in Chicago.

This is the reality that we have to stand together against. This is what we have to fight. And, we have to say, whatever our origin, whatever our politics, whatever our past, whatever our religions, whatever our faith, anti-Semitism is not just a threat to the Jews; it’s a threat to every single one of us, and to all humanity …

We have innocence in Canada that we need very urgently to shed.

Some of my innocence on the issue of anti-Semitism was shed in September of 2006 when I went to a religious school in Montreal and with my own eyes … saw the sight of what a firebomb does to a religious

Leader of the Official Opposition Michael Ignatieff

school. You see the stain of black smoke on the walls. You realize how close this came to horror and disaster. It was stopped, in fact, because compassionate neighbours phoned the police and fire department to make it stop, but we came very close to something terrible.

And then, a year later, again in Canada, this time in Mississauga, I had the unfortunate experience of visiting a mosque whose windows had just been broken. Canada cannot be innocent. Canada cannot be naive.

Canada cannot take its tolerance in multiculturalism, its respect for others, for granted.

This is a fight that we have to win every day against the forces of intolerance and injustice.

We also have another obligation, as citizens of a democracy, and in this Parliament of Canada, which we are proud to serve; we have an obligation as democratic citizens to defend democracy.

When we look at the Middle East, we see a democracy under siege as Israel defends itself against terrorism, and the Palestinian people suffer under the shadow of extremism.

The Middle East conflict both fuels, and (Continued on page 39)

‘We declare our faith in humanity’s future, in the power of good over evil’

By Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada History teaches us that anti-Semitism is a tenacious and particularly dangerous form of hatred. And recent events are demonstrating that this hatred is now in resurgence throughout the world. That is why the work of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism has never been so important or timely as it is now …

Two weeks ago, I visited Ukraine for the first time.

In Kiev, I laid a wreath at Babi Yar, the site of one of the numerous atrocities of the Holocaust. I was left there with much the same impression as I had in Auschwitz in 2008 – that such horrors defy all comprehension.

At the killing grounds of Babi Yar, I knew I was standing in a place where evil – evil at its most cruel, obscene, and grotesque – had been unleashed. But, while evil of this magnitude may be unfathomable, it is, nonetheless, a fact.

It is a fact of history. And, it is a fact of our nature that humans can choose to be inhuman. This is the paradox of freedom. That awesome power, that grave responsibility, to choose between good and evil.

Let us not forget that even in the darkest hours of the Holocaust, men were free to choose good. And some did. That is the eternal witness of the Righteous Among the Nations. And let us not forget, that even now, there are those who would choose evil and would launch another Holocaust, if left unchecked. That is the challenge before us today.

The horror of the Holocaust is unique, but it is just one chapter in the long and unbroken history of anti-Semitism. Yet, in contemporary debates that influence the fate of the Jewish homeland, unfortunately, there are those who reject the language of good and evil. They say that the situation is not black and white, that we mustn’t choose sides.

In response to this resurgence of moral ambivalence on these issues, we must speak clearly. Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition.

It must also be an understanding and an undertaking. An understanding that the same threats exist today. And an undertaking of a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.

Jews today, in many parts of the world, and many different settings, are increasingly subjected to vandalism, threats, slurs, and just plain, old-fashioned lies.

Let me draw your attention to some particularly disturbing trends. Anti-Semitism has gained a place at our universities, where, at times, it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack. And, under the shadow of a hateful ideology with global ambitions, one which targets the Jewish

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

homeland as a scapegoat, Jews are savagely attacked around the world, such as, most appallingly, in Mumbai in 2008.

One ruthless champion of that ideology brazenly threatens to ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ and time and again flouts the obligations that his country has taken under international treaties. I could go on, but I know that you will agree on one point: that this is all too familiar.

We have seen all this before. And we have no excuse to be complacent. In fact, we have a duty to take action. And, for all of us, that starts at home.

In Canada, we have taken a number of steps to assess and combat anti-Semitism in our own country. You will, no doubt, hear from my Canadian colleagues about the measures we have taken to date.

I will mention for the time being, that, for the first time, we are dealing with Canada’s own record of officially sanctioned antiSemitism. We have created a fund for education about our country’s deliberate rejection of Jewish refugees before and during the Second World War. But, of course, we must also combat antiSemitism beyond our borders, an evolving, global phenomenon. And we must recognize, that while its substance is as crude as ever, its method is now more sophisticated.

Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, antiAmerican and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.

We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is. Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism. And, like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism – healthy, necessary, democratic debate. But, when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the three Ds, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them.

(Continued on page 36)

Page 36 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

The Ottawa Protocol on Combating Anti-Semitism Preamble We, Representatives of our respective Parliaments from across the world, convening in Ottawa for the second Conference and Summit of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, note and reaffirm the London Declaration on Combating AntiSemitism as a template document for the fight against anti-Semitism.

We are concerned that, since the London Conference in February 2009, there continues to be a dramatic increase in recorded anti-Semitic hate crimes and attacks targeting Jewish persons and property, and Jewish religious, educational and communal institutions.

We remain alarmed by ongoing state-sanctioned genocidal anti-Semitism and related extremist ideologies. If anti-Semitism is the most enduring of hatreds, and genocide is the most horrific of crimes, then the convergence of the genocidal intent embodied in anti-Semitic ideology is the most toxic of combinations.

We are appalled by the resurgence of the classic anti-Jewish libels, including: – The Blood Libel (that Jews use the blood of children for ritual sacrifice); – The Jews as “Poisoners of the Wells” – responsible for all evils in the world; – The myth of the “new Protocols of the Elders of Zion” – the tsarist forgery that proclaimed an international Jewish conspiracy bent on world domination – and accuses the Jews of controlling government, the economy, media and public institutions.

– The double entendre of denying the Holocaust – accusing the Jews of fabricating the Holocaust as a hoax – and the nazification of the Jew and the Jewish people.

We are alarmed by the explosion of antiSemitism and hate on the Internet, a medium crucial for the promotion and protection of freedom of expression, freedom of information, and the participation of civil society.

We are concerned over the failure of most OSCE participating states to fully implement provisions of the 2004 Berlin Declaration, including the commitment to: “Collect and maintain reliable information and statistics about anti-Semitic crimes, and other hate crimes, committed within their territory, report such information periodically to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and make this information available to the public.”

We are concerned by the reported incidents of anti-Semitism on campuses, such as acts of violence, verbal abuse, rank intolerance, and assaults on those committed to free inquiry, while undermining fundamental academic values.

We renew our call for national Governments, Parliaments, international institutions, political and civic leaders, NGOs, and civil society to affirm democratic and human values, build societies based on respect and citizenship and combat any manifestations of anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.

We reaffirm the EUMC – now Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) – working defini-

tion of anti-Semitism, which sets forth that: “Contemporary examples of anti-Semitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to: • Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively – the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy, or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by nonJews.

• Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).

• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

Examples of the ways in which anti-Semitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include: • Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour; • Applying double standards by requiring of it behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; • Using the symbols and images associ-

ated with classic anti-Semitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis; • Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis • Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.

However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.

Let it be clear: Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is wrong. But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium – let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction – is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest.

Members of Parliament meeting in Ottawa commit to: 1. Calling on our Governments to uphold international commitments on combating anti-Semitism – such as the OSCE Berlin Principles – and to engage with the United Nations for that purpose. In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “It is […] rightly said that the United Nations emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust.

And a Human Rights agenda that fails to address anti-Semitism denies its own history”; 2. Calling on Parliaments and Governments to adopt the EUMC Working Definition of Anti-Semitism and anchor its enforcement in existing law; 3. Encouraging countries throughout the world to establish mechanisms for reporting and monitoring on domestic and international anti-Semitism, along the lines of the “Combating Anti-Semitism Act of 2010” recently introduced in the United States Congress; 4. Encouraging the leaders of all religious faiths – represented also at this Conference – to use all means possible to combat anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination; 5. Calling on the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies to make the

combating of hatred and anti-Semitism a priority in their work; 6. Calling on Governments and Parliamentarians to reaffirm and implement the Genocide Convention, recognizing that where there is incitement to genocide, State parties have an obligation to act; 7. Working with universities to encourage them to combat anti-Semitism with the same seriousness with which they confront other forms of hate. Specifically, universities should be invited to define anti-Semitism clearly, provide specific examples, and enforce conduct codes firmly, while ensuring compliance with freedom of speech and the principle of academic freedom. Universities should use the EUMC Working Definition of Anti-Semitism as a basis for education, training and orientation. Indeed, there should be zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind against anyone in the university community on the basis of race, gender, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or political position; 8. We encourage the European Union to promote civic education and open society in its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and to link funding to democratic development and respect for Human Rights in ENP partner countries; 9. Establishing an International Task Force of Internet specialists comprised of parliamentarians and experts to create common indicators to identify and monitor antiSemitism and other manifestations of hate online and to develop policy recommendations for Governments and international frameworks to address these problems; 10. Building on the African representation at this Conference, to develop increased working relationships with parliamentarians in Africa for the combating of racism and anti-Semitism; 11. We urge the incoming OSCE Chair, Lithuania, to make implementation of these commitments a priority during 2011 and call for the reappointment of the Special Representatives to assist in this work.

Harper: Israel a light in the world (Continued from page 35)

And, I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of ‘honest broker.’ There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand.

But, as long as I am prime minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost. And friends, I say this not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well if we listen to it, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are a threat to all of us.

Earlier, I noted the paradox of freedom. It is freedom that makes us human. Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.

As the spectre of anti-Semitism spreads, our responsibility becomes increasingly clear. We are citizens of free countries. We have the right, and therefore, the obligation, to speak out and to act. We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples. We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human rights, human dignity, at home and abroad. None of us really knows whether we would choose to do good, in the extreme circumstances of the Righteous. But, we do know there are those today who would choose to do evil, if they are so permitted. Thus, we must use our freedom now, and confront them and their anti-Semitism at every turn.

That … is the purpose of our intervention today: our shared determination to confront this terrible hatred. The work we have undertaken, in our own countries and in co-operation with one another, is a sign of hope.

Our work together is a sign of hope, just as the existence and persistence of the Jewish homeland is a sign of hope. And, it is here that history serves not to warn, but to inspire.

As I said on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, Israel appeared as a light, in a world emerging from deep darkness. Against all odds, that light has not been extinguished. It burns bright, upheld by the universal principles of all civilized nations – freedom, democracy and justice.

By working together more closely in the family of civilized nations, we affirm and strengthen those principles. And, we declare our faith in humanity’s future, in the power of good over evil.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 37

Page 38 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 39

A community needs forward-looking vision and memory-infused practice It’s Chanukah and Jews worldwide are paying tribute to the Maccabees. As the story goes, when Antiochus proceeded to outlaw Jewish practice, Matityahu and his son, Judah the Maccabee, revolted, thereby preserving Jewish life.

But, if we are going to learn any lasting lesson from the Chanukah story, I think it’s that we need a bit of Jason alongside Judah.

Jason was the Jewish High Priest who assumed power under Antiochus’s rule. But, Jason is not discussed much.

That’s because he was a Hellenizing Jew. Attracted by the values of ancient Greece, Jason – who may have changed his name from Joshua – did things like build a gymnasium.

As the Second Book of Maccabees states, “Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, [the high priests]

hastened to take part in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling arena after the call to the discus.” Seems that athletic prowess was a bigger pull, for some, than prayer.

It is ironic that the contemporary annual Jewish worldwide athletic games are called the Maccabi Games, since it was Jason, not Judah, who promoted a love of sports. Indeed, some Orthodox Jews oppose the infusion of an Olympic-styled athletic event with ancient Jewish symbolism. But, for most, the Maccabi Games – and the Maccabiah events at many Jewish summer camps – represent a perfect blend of competition and physical valour under a Jewish mantle.

Similarly, with declining Jewish school enrolments, some community leaders are decrying parents’ choosing hockey over cheder. True, the time crunch is one of the big

Ignatieff: ‘Democratic states have a right to be recognized, to live in peace’ (Continued from page 35)

is fuelled, by this vicious, modern anti-Semitism. Too many people use the conflict in the Middle East as an excuse to fuel their hatreds. There is no justification. There is no excuse for this hatred. But, it seems to me, mere prudence to say that eliminating antiSemitism does require a commitment to peace.

Two states for two peoples: justice and security for the people of Israel; justice and security for the people of Palestine.

But, let us also be very clear, a democratic state like Canada cannot be neutral as between a democratic state and terrorist organizations. There is no honest broker between those two.

Our position must be clear: democratic states have a right to be recognized, to live in peace. They have a right to defend themselves. They have a right to the recognition of their neighbours. They have a right to live in peace and security. Canada must never equivocate on that question.

There is another issue about which we need to be very clear: that is to understand the distinctions between legitimate criticisms of the policies of the government of Israel, and those criticisms which delegitimize the state itself. Not every criticism of the government of Israel is anti-Semitic.

But, there is a form of criticism of the State of Israel which passes into active delegitimization of a recognized democratic state. I refer, of course, in my own country, to Israel Apartheid Week. Israel is Israel.

Apartheid South Africa was a crime against humanity. To conflate the two

is to delegitimize a democratic state and Canadians must stand against it.

A democratic society like Canada must always create a space where it is possible to criticize any government – including our own – including the State of Israel, but not to delegitimize those governments.

But that is what has happened on Canadian campuses. When a protest against Israeli government policies becomes a protest against Israel’s right to exist, it crosses the line.

When Israel Apartheid Week makes it impossible for Jewish students to stand up and affirm their point of view and identity, it also crosses the line …

Let us also be clear what our obligations entail on the international stage.

We should seek to end the parade of one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations.

We should use whatever influence we have to restore balance to the work of the United Nations’ human rights bodies. We don’t claim that Israel is perfect, but singling out one country for repeated denunciation while ignoring the human right abuses of others is a flagrant misuse of the United Nations and its principles.

Nor is it acceptable for Canada to take any part in what Irwin Cotler so famously called the “festival of hate” at Durban.

We cannot be part of international organizations and international groups which single out one state, to the exclusion of all others, for unique and single condemnation. It’s unacceptable. This poisons the wells of democratic debate on the international stage.

We must also be very clear about

Iran. We must be very clear that the anti-Israel, Holocaust-denying rhetoric of the president of Iran, and the government of Iran, is utterly unacceptable on the international stage.

Canada cannot be in the room when this occurs.

If you will allow me to say one slightly less-than-partisan note: To claim a defeat as a moral victory seems to me to be a mistake.

To have lost the seat on the Security Council of the United Nations is a defeat, especially if you think and realize that it is at the Security Council of the United Nations that sanctions against Iran are going to be deployed.

If Canada wishes to defend Israel against Iran, as it should, it would have been nice to be on the Security Council of the United Nations and I don’t see how we, as Canadians, can avoid acknowledging that fact.

But what is done is done. Now Canada must stand somewhat more on the sidelines to speak out against the strategic threat that Iran presents, not just to Israel, but to all the states in the region. And, we must add our voice to those who think that the Republican Guard should be added to the list of terrorist organizations.

Ultimately, we must defend Canada as a proud defender of the tolerance, a proud defender of the fairness, a proud defender of the justice that we have always stood for on the international stage …

We must stand against this form of hatred which destroys everything that we love and fight for in our home and native land.

Values, Ethics, Community Mira Sucharov challenges of the modern era. But, I think we’re setting up a false dichotomy between Jewish life and leisure life when we present it this way. The good citizen is the healthy and happy citizen. The good Jew is the rounded Jew. How can one become a cantor without a deep grounding in music?

How can one become a Jewish summer camp director without a feel for athletics?

But, it’s not only secular activities like sporting games that owe something to Jason and his fellow priests. Even more formal Judaic practice, I would argue, benefits from openness to the modern world.

But, here, Jason can’t go it alone; he needs Judah to get it right.

By attempting to Hellenize, Jason was casting his lot with the contemporary values of the time, including ancient Greek notions of rationality, science and aesthetics. For their part, the Maccabees were attempting to preserve tradition in the face of cultural dilution.

Both of these perspectives, I would argue, are important for the practice of contemporary Judaism.

I value social inclusion and progressive attitudes. I consider women to be adult persons with the intelligence, integrity and judgment of men. Hence, it is no surprise – as I have written here before – that I think it urgent that women be counted in a minyan, that ever-important symbol of communal gathering.

Similarly, I think that gay adult love is just as legitimate and community-affirming as straight adult love; hence my passionate support of same-sex marriage in our shuls. The centuries-old symbol of the wedding chuppah should have as many couples as wish to intertwine their lives be able to stand beneath it.

But, at the same time, there is great value in the deep, inyour-DNA cultural grammar of tradition, including the preservation of art, music, literature and language. Traditional tunes, liturgical practices and ornamental objects are crucial vehicles for transmitting historical memory. And historical memory, in turn, serves to bind communities into units that won’t get lost in the whole.

I love that “Adon Olam” can be sung to virtually any tune, but it’s Russian Cantor Eliezer Gerowitsch’s 19th century version that makes my mouth water for the Winnipeg pickerel cheeks and lokshen kugel that followed the Shabbat services of my youth.

Cultural memory sometimes resides in the smallest of details. On Rosh Hashanah, I was convinced by my cantor to abandon my modern pronunciations in favour of pronouncing the “eh” vowel as “ay” when I chanted Torah for the first time. While modern Hebrew has all but done away with those Ashkenazi-isms (to wit: I call my son Lev not Layv), in the synagogue, the traditional aesthetics carry almost cosmic force in transmitting and preserving identity.

Traditional culture mixed with progressive values was something that neither Jason nor Judah could handle on his own. In our telling of the Chanukah story, we have understood Hellenization as an abandonment of Judaism. But, that is too simple a reading. A community needs both forward-looking vision and memory-infused practice to retain its vitality.

That is the kind of Jewish continuity I will be thinking about this year as I light candles, eat latkes and try to outwit my kids in the dreidl game.

Mira Sucharov, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University, blogs at the Huffington Post.

Page 40 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Did you know Dave Smith sits on the boards of 55 charities?

• Dave Smith, who sits on the boards of 55 charities, was honoured, September 30, by the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre for his “tireless, two-decade long work in the community to bring the dream of residential substance abuse treatment to the youth and families in our community.” The fundraising event, Salute to a Dreamer, was held at the Westin Hotel.

• As if they weren’t busy enough, Avalee Prehogan and Marcia Cantor have joined together to design and create oneof-a-kind jewelry. Their new enterprise, Marvalee Designs, makes necklaces, bracelets and earrings from freshwater pearls of all shapes, sizes and colours as well as from silver, Swarovski crystals and other semi-precious stones. The artistic duo mainly sells the jewelry through direct sales and was recently at Arts Alive. They will donate 10 per cent of proceeds to charitable organizations that host a showing, or give a home party host(ess) 10 per cent of an evening’s total sales.

A website is in the works. For further information, e-mail them at marvaleedesigns@gmail.com.

• Cocktails with Claire, a fundraising reception hosted by Claire Greenberg in her home, raised $6,000 for Candlelighters, a local non-profit organization that provides support to children with cancer and their families.

• Accomplished musician and recording artist Matt Wexler divides his time between his home in Ottawa and Potsdam, New York, where he is a professor of cello chamber music at the State University of New York-Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. In addition to performances in New York, Boston and San Francisco, Wexler was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1995.

• In honour of his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, Yona Steinman, along with parents Golda and Ned, siblings Adina and Noam, and grandparents Lily Feig and Carolyn and Arnold Steinman, participated in Standing Together, a unique experience that focuses on Israeli soldiers. The organization brings pizza, popcorn, hot coffee, cold drinks and other treats to sol-

Did you know?

Benita Baker

Tola and Ben Granek celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this month.

diers on duty. The family gave out special CDs with a new rendition of the priestly blessing as well as water carrier bags to make the long hours on patrol much easier.

“It was moving, emotional and fun all at the same time,” said Golda. “We went in thinking we were doing for others, but, in reality, we got so much more. I was moved by the fact that something that seemed so small had such a tremendous effect and elicited such a huge positive response.”

• Janet Yale and Dan Logue hosted a Celebrity Chef’s Club dinner party and raised $14,000 for the Wellspring Cancer Survivor’s Centre, a project of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

• Steve Baker has signed on as co-chair of the Wellspring Task Force, which is committed to raising $2 million for the Maplesoft Wellspring Cancer Survivor’s Centre (he thanks Janet and Dan for their contribution). The centre will be a 10,000 square-foot home-like non-residential facility that will provide support services free of charge to patients, survivors

Music to fight cancer, recall a lost time and celebrate Chanukah Various Artists Pioneers for a Cure – Songs to Fight Cancer: The Israel Sessions Volume 1 Joodayoh pioneersforacure.org Pioneers for a Cure – Songs to Fight Cancer is a project in which contemporary musicians re-imagine and re-record folksongs that are then posted for individual download at pioneersforacure.org with all proceeds donated to the cancer charities chosen by the musicians who have recorded each particular track. The website includes information about the project, about each of the songs and artists and about the various cancer charities benefitting from the money raised from each track. Although labelled Volume 1, this is actually the second set of Israeli folksongs recorded in the Pioneers series; the first, released in 2009 and reviewed in this space a year ago, was the The Am Yisrael Chai Collection.

There is music to suit many tastes among the 15 tracks I’ve listened to from The Israel Sessions. My favourite track is Tsahi Halevi’s beautiful version of “Al Neharot Bavel,” a musical setting of “Psalm 137,” an exile’s longing lament for Zion.

Other favourites include Michal Cohen’s haunting, folktronica approach to “Sachkey”; Greg Wall’s Later Prophets’ hipster jazz setting of “Sobu Tzion,” a poem written in 1902 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook; and Inbal’s version of “Hachnisini Tachat Knafech,” one of several poems by Chaim Nachman Bialik in the collection, which starts out as a delicate folk ballad before shifting, mid-song, into rock ‘n’ roll gear.

Explore the website and find the songs you particularly like.

Each of the cancer charities that will benefit from your download is a very worthy cause.

Clare Burson Silver and Ash Rounder Records clareburson.wordpress.com Clare Burson addresses her grandmother in “The Only Way,” the first of 10 original songs on Silver and Ash. “Someone said you left there just in time,” she sings. It was, quite literally, just in time when Burson’s grandmother escaped Nazi Germany for the United States on the morning of Kristallnacht in 1938.

With a grant from Six Points Fellowship, an organization that supports artists exploring Jewish themes in their work, the New York-based singer-songwriter wrote these folk-like songs by imagining her grandmother’s life in Germany during the trying years preceding the Holocaust.

Most of the songs are impressionistic with few explicit references. It’s almost like each song offers an interpretation of a faded photograph (in fact, there are several faded photos included in the CD booklet). Images of a small baby pervade one song while another offers sketches of people in – seemingly sudden – transit. In “Everything’s Gone,” Burson remembers her great-grandparents – soon to be lost in the Holocaust – through the eyes of her grandmother about to “take the last train from the last train station.”

Burson spent time in Europe researching these songs and addresses her grandmother again in “Magpies,” the album’s

and family members. There are similar facilities in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Oakville, Stratford and Niagara, but this will be the first of its kind in Ottawa. It is scheduled to open March 31, 2011. Volunteers are still needed for the task force.

Contact John Ouellette at 613-247-3527, ext. 227, or johno@ottawacancer.ca.

• Mazal Tov to Ben and Tola Granek who celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on November 6. The Graneks were married after rediscovering each other in Europe following the Holocaust. They’ve been proud Jewish Canadians for more than 60 years.

• Rabbi Reuven Bulka was honoured by the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s Eastern Ontario Chapter at its inaugural event, Inspirations: People Making a Difference. The event, which honoured Ottawans who have made a difference in the field of organ and tissue donation, was held November 24 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

• The docweissband is at it again! If you haven’t already checked out this folky and funky hometown band led by Ron Weiss, here’s your chance. They will be performing Thursday, December 2, 8:00 pm at the Elmdale House Tavern, 1084 Wellington Street West. Tickets are $7 at the door.

If you know something that we all should know, tell me, so I can tell the community. Send e-mail to me at didyouknowottawa@gmail.com.

Music Michael Regenstreif poignant finale, as if it’s a letter from Germany. “Sometimes I think of how life must have been for you here, what life could have been for you here.”

Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble Celebrations MEII Enterprises meiienterprises.com Pianist Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble is an inventive quintet dedicated to interpreting Hebrew melodies in various jazz styles – particularly Afro-Cuban and Brazilian. They’re in a festive mood on this collection, which includes four Chanukah songs and two from Purim.

Although the basic melodies to “Chanukah, O Chanukah,” “Moaz Tsur,” “Dreidl, Dreidl, Dreidl” and “Sevivon” are a familiar sound at this time of year, the uniquely inventive arrangements and improvisational flights of the Heritage Ensemble make them seem fresh and new. The two Purim melodies – while, perhaps, not as familiar as the Chanukah songs – also sound fresh and new in the Heritage Ensemble’s interpretations.

In addition to the Chanukah and Purim songs, the album includes a lovely piano interpretation of the liturgical “Halleluyah,” and “Yotvata,” a Marlow original written in tribute to Kibbutz Yotvata.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 41

Eighteen things you may not know about Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum is head of the Ottawa Vaad HaKashrut, the supervising body for all things and places that are kosher in our city.

You may have caught glimpses of Rabbi Teitlebaum behind the scenes at simchas around the city, running between Hillel Lodge and the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, or dropping his children off at school. Here are 18 things you may not know about Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum …

1. My full name is Yisroel Levy and I’m a Kohen.

2. I was born and raised in Montreal, the youngest of six children.

3. I have only been to Israel once. It was with my wife and eldest child. I would definitely like to go back.

4. I have travelled around the world extensively and one of my favourite places is Calcutta, India because of the incredible people who live there.

5. I own a beautiful Megillah that is very special to me because my brother, a sofer (scribe), wrote it.

6. My favourite holiday is Chanukah, partly because my birthday falls on the fourth night, the 28th of Kislev!

7. When I am out of town for work, I always speak to my children by phone and we do homework together.

8. My favourite comfort food made by my wife is roasted chicken with farfel.

9. I enjoy party planning and have a flare for decorating.

10. My first job after I got married was as a kashrut

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11. I am six foot one, but, when I first met my wife and she asked how tall I was, I told her six foot four because I didn’t know!

12. I am known for having a good sense of humour and enjoy making people laugh.

13. My first car was a K-car with room for five people. I now drive a 12-passenger van.

14. I was once asked to certify tofu ‘chicken wings’ as dairy.

15. Every day, I ask each of my children two questions: What was the best part of their day? And, what was the worst part of their day? I feel they are equally important questions.

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Vicious guard dogs patrolled the area and had to be distracted in order for me to safely run between the buildings without being attacked. It was terrifying!

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Planning a wedding? Check out our special section on pages 42 to 46.

Page 42 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Wedding Planning Advertising Feature

The 411 on how to plan a wedding

By Jacqueline Shabsove

Are you newly engaged and trying to wade through the plethora of options involved in wedding planning?

First, Mazal Tov! Second, while it can be a lot to think about, there are certain things to know that can make your life a lot easier!

I spoke with three lovely young ladies in our community who were married in 2010 and asked for feedback on planning a wedding.

Here are some of their pointers that you might want to keep in mind.

How long do you need to plan a wedding?

This depends on what kind of location you’re looking at.

If you want to have your wedding at a coveted location, obviously you will need to plan further in advance.

Rena Garshowitz, who

married David Granovsky last month, planned her wedding 10 months in advance.

“This was the right amount of time to get who we actually wanted,” Garshowitz said.

“We set all of our big vendors fairly early and the last minute smaller stuff, we did closer to the actual date.”

On the other hand, bride Sari Amaring Zelenietz, who married Alec Mills in January, and Yael Pfeiffer, who married Daniel Black in August, both spent five months planning their respective weddings.

“Five months was a little too early,” said Pfeiffer. “The real wedding planning would actually take three months. I had basically everything done in the first week.

“You had to be decisive and you couldn’t go to five different bakers to choose out a cake – I made decisions quickly.”

Likewise, Amaring Zelenietz emphasized the pros associated with a shorter engagement.

“We didn’t care about the small details because there wasn’t enough time,” Amaring Zelenietz said.

“The longer you let it go, the more you focus on details and the less you focus on the big picture, which is actually getting married.”

Location, location, location One of the most important decisions to make for your wedding is selecting a location.

A location that can accommodate the ceremony and the reception alleviates stress, according to Pfeiffer.

“We booked a hall where we were able to have the ceremony, dinner and reception at the same place,” Pfeiffer said.

“We didn’t need a limo, we were also able to sleep there.

It saves on travel time during the wedding, it saves on flowers, as you can move them from the ceremony to the room where the dinner will be taking place.

“If you have everything at the same location, it really minimizes stress.”

David Smith of Creative

Bride Reesa Shinder and groom Richard Cousineau

Kosher Catering mentioned in an interview with the Bulletin that, after many years of selecting other locations, more Jewish couples are now look-

Photos by Peter Waiser

ing to have weddings in synagogues.

“Jewish weddings are big,” Smith said. “Couples are look(Continued on page 44)

Wedding Planning Advertising Feature

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 43

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Page 44 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Wedding Planning Advertising Feature

Sticking to a budget key to minimize wedding stress (Continued from page 42)

ing for the spiritual part of their wedding. They really want to get married in synagogues with a rabbi.”

All three brides cited the selection of a rabbi to officiate as one of the main decisions involved in wedding planning.

“The most important thing to us was the rabbi. We picked the date around his availability,” Amaring Zelenietz said.

“It was important to have someone marrying us who would support us before and after, and someone who really cared about us.

“For us, it was the number one thing we needed over and above everything else.”

Budget Sticking to a budget is definitely a key to minimizing wedding stress.

“Plan your budget first and work backwards,” said Garshowitz.

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Also, hosts are aware of food allergies and are serving a variety of options to accommodate, said Smith.

And for decor, white is out and colour is in.

“It’s important to have a wedding that is different,” Smith said. “People love a lot of shine, like coloured fabrics with sheer, organza and texture.”

All in all, he advises that people have fun planning their wedding.

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Page 46 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Wedding Planning Advertising Feature

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 47

Roth examines masculinity and concepts of God in new novel Nemesis

By Philip Roth Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 280 pages Strength of character and singularity of purpose isn’t always enough to keep the best laid plans from being hijacked by the cruelty of fate. Philip Roth’s exquisite Nemesis examines this age-old theme with fearless pacing and a mastery of suspense.

In the foreground of the story is the polio epidemic of the northeastern United States in the sweltering summer of 1944, a decade before the polio vaccine was developed. In the background is the two-theatre American war effort overseas.

Chaster than many of Roth’s other novels, Nemesis revisits the theme of male athletic prowess. Roth fans will recall Swede Levov, the object of interest in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 novel American Pastoral. In Nemesis, the object of muscular bravery is Bucky Cantor, a 23-year-old phys-ed teacher and playground director during a terror-filled summer of polio in Newark.

Bucky, who was given his nickname as a 10-year-old by his grandfather to reward an impressive feat involving a rat and a coal shovel, is the epitome of kindness, maturity and professionalism. Kept out of the army because of poor vision, Bucky is plagued with a sense of failed patriotic mission.

He channels that sense of moral obligation into a summer job caring for scores of young boys on a sundrenched baseball diamond. Keeping the children calm while their friends are plagued by the mysterious disease, trying desperately to

Book Review Mira Sucharov shield the rest from the scourge while paying condolence calls to the victims’ families, keeping the surroundings hygienic while helping to care for his aging grandmother, Bucky has his work cut out for him. He is revered by the boys for his athletic acumen – he is an expert diver and javelin thrower – and for bravely facing down a group of menacing Italian youth coming to the playground threatening to “spread polio to the Jewish kids.”

All of this, with thoughts of Marcia, his flawless fiancée away at a summer camp in the Poconos, for whom he “forces himself not to pine.” Bucky’s relationship with Marcia’s father helps to anchor the narrative through an amazingly executed scene, in Marcia’s parents’ well-to-do house, involving a wicker chair, a well-loved pipe and a perfect peach.

Gender is a major theme of the book. Held against the light, one might venture to say that this is a deeply feminist novel. A seemingly unproblematic portrayal of masculinity early in the book immediately betrays a troubling foreboding. As the novel nears conclusion, one realizes that it is the social constraints of masculinity that initially prove so enabling, but, ultimately so destructive, to both Bucky and Marcia.

The book also neatly intertwines Judaic conceptions of God, and doubts about his existence, against Western mytho-

logical images of deities. The sun is a constant presence, both as a reminder of the life force that sustains the earth while being a possible lethal incubator – along with the melting asphalt and close city air – for the deadly polio virus. In the face of tragic loss, Bucky Cantor rails against God (a cantor’s lament?) just as he wonders whether he should be worshiping the terrifying power of the sun instead.

Unlike American Pastoral, in which Swede Levov was a character whose life story the narrator attempts to reconstruct, in Nemesis we are intimately connected to the symbol of male fortitude. That is, until a jarring plot twist in which the narrator’s perspective changes (the sentence includes two words containing five letters I kept turning back to, to make sure my eyes had not failed me).

Why the sudden shift in the narrative? Perhaps, to serve as a symbol that the nature of Jewish power – the “Jewry of Muscle” that early Zionist philosopher Max Nordau wrote about so eloquently in convincing European Jews to shed their yeshiva identities for physical pioneering ones – is still being negotiated.

“Nemesis” was the mythological Greek spirit believed to inflict punishment for hubris. Unlike so many of Roth’s flawed male characters, Bucky appears to be pure and unsullied. Indeed, Bucky Cantor’s punishment comes after a lifetime of duty-infused humility. Yet, his subsequent tragic choices result from a misplaced sense of duty: the ultimate hubris.

All this, meanwhile, is occurring as Bucky’s Jewish kith and kin are being murdered in Europe. The senselessness of brutality and loss – and the idea of suffering for a cause and possibly being the unwitting cause of others’ suffering – proves too much for one good man to bear.

No seat on Security Council when friends with Israel Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated, on November 8 during the conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, that he has “the bruises to show” for not supporting the popular anti-Israel rhetoric that consistently singles out Israel for condemnation, and which conveniently avoids discussion of other perspectives on Middle Eastern politics. The bruises come from more than just the United Nations Security Council voting. Issues like landing rights, which seem innocuous enough, are also linked to Canada’s position on Israel.

When Canada refused to increase landing rights for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the UAE quickly assumed the bully role and directed Canada to close Camp Mirage.

Even Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s plane was refused permission to land there for refuelling.

Closing Camp Mirage will cost Canadian taxpayers $300 million. We are also on the hook for the unknown millions needed to shift Canada’s Afghan logistical and operational base to Cyprus and Germany. There is also the impact on Afghans who have come to depend on Canada’s support.

Critics say that an additional few landing rights here and there weren’t important – we should have given up principles to remain on the UAE’s good side, especially now as we wind down in Afghanistan.

As Canadians, we should be outraged. Defending Canadian sovereignty, protecting Canadian businesses and granting landing rights are part and parcel of governing Canada.

The experts say this is not about carrying Canadians to and from Dubai. It is about who is friends with whom and how some relationships are expendable, if necessary, to promote the over-subsidized Emirates airline.

It is a sad commentary on the plight of humanity when a Canadian prime minster verbalizes what we know anecdotally to be true: that “There are, after all, a lot more votes, a

lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand.”

The prime minister clearly identified the association between anti-Semitism and singling out Israel every time: “Harnessing disparate anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.”

A lot of NGOs advocate for human rights. We did not see them defending the Christian Iraqi women and children massacred by Muslim jihadists during a church service a few weeks ago. No Muslim clerics issued fatwas to capture and bring the murderous thugs who committed the crime to justice. Outrage over human rights is selective. As the prime minister said, “The easiest thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just about being even-handed and to excuse oneself with the label of honest broker.”

Similarly, the recent parcel bombs from Yemen, targeting Chicago-area synagogues, remind us that it is not just Israel, but also Jews around the world, that are being targeted.

Increasing anti-Semitism has a directly proportional relationship to the increasing influence of Middle Eastern bully states; to our own Western self-censorship on human rights violations by Muslim countries; or, to the collective punishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement, Jews, friends of Israel, and advocates of human rights in bully states.

Some say that our record in Africa is partly to blame for losing the Security Council seat. I agree that we need an African strategy that is uniquely Canadian and which supports human rights and economic health. But, then, the Arab vote at the UN was not really interested in Canada’s record in Africa. If anything, they are happy to see us leav-

World Affairs Oliver Javanpour ing it to China and to the dictatorships to exploit the vast natural resources of the continent.

The Muslim vote, which included some non-Arab nations, harnessed an ancient collective hatred, extending it to Canada as a friend of the Jewish state. The vote was perhaps less for how we support many countries and more for our support of one country.

Canada needs to be strategic in its approach to being a friend of the Jewish State. We must also remember what happened to two other close allies of Israel in the Middle East. Over 30 years ago, Iran, a staunch ally and a strategic, as well as economic, friend of Israel became an Islamist nation thanks to the policies of then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Now Turkey, a former friend and strategic ally, is quickly moving to distance itself from Israel as it follows the Iranian blueprint to become an Islamist nation with ambitions to join the European Union under the watchful eye of the Obama administration.

While Canada stands firmly committed to its principles, other nations that are getting along and going along must remember they are compromising the principles their forefathers established and died for.

Oliver Javanpour is a senior partner at Cyrus Echo, a public policy and international relations consulting firm in Ottawa.

Page 48 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

‘Let us take a lesson from the Maccabees’ Children playing dreidl, the smell of latkes wafting through the air, flames from the menorah glistening in the background – in the words of Adam Sandler, “Put on your yarmulke, it’s time for Chanukah.”

Most of us know the basic story.

Circa 165 BCE, the Jews were living under Greek-Syrian oppression until a small Jewish army known as the Maccabees defeated them. Upon discovering the temple in a destructed state, the Maccabees decided to restore light to the holy menorah, but found only enough oil to last for one day. Miraculously, it lasted for eight.

My history lesson may be substandard, but somewhere between biblical significance, and commoditization via the gift exchange industry, Chanukah has managed to gain extreme notoriety as a symbol of Judaism in all realms of public life, including on campus.

Although I’ve encountered classmates who tell me, “I’ve never met a real Jew before,” sure enough, they’ve heard of Chanukah.

My point, without trying to demote a wonderful holiday, is that Chanukah’s participation rates outdo its level of holiness, if such a thing could be measured on a hypothetical holiness scale.

Nevertheless, if people took Chanukah beyond face value, as more than “the Jewish equivalent to Christmas,” one might realize that it has earned its popularity on the merit of valuable modern-day application.

Earlier this month, I attended Shabbat Dinner with Survivors, one of several events – including speakers and an exhibit – organized by the Holocaust Education Week Committee on campus.

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The dinner gave participants an amazing opportunity to be seated at tables with several Holocaust survivors and talk personally with them. Among the guests of honour were Barry Davis, Vera Gara, David Shentow and Erwin Koranyi. Their stories moved all to tears.

Except, there were not enough Holocaust survivors present that there could be one at every table. Tables had to be joined so that everyone could partake in the discussion.

It is a sad fact that the number of Holocaust survivors is diminishing every year as they pass on. Even the youngest survivors are now senior citizens.

We can all see it coming. Sooner, rather than later, it will be completely up to us, the second and third generations, to spread the messages of Holocaust awareness – a daunting task.

We may feel weak and meager in this duty – incapable of speaking about atrocities for which we not only weren’t present, but also are hardly capable of fathoming. Yet, without fail, it will become our responsibility.

So, with Holocaust Education Week earlier this month, and the commencement of Chanukah, let us take a lesson from the Maccabees, the minuscule, yet tireless army that didn’t back down until becoming victorious.

The Maccabees were fighting for our right to Jewish practice, our freedom to study Torah, to observe holidays and keep traditions alive. We utilized that right in holding the Shabbat Dinner with Survivors a few weeks ago.

Campus Life Ilana Belfer It’s our turn to continue fighting and resisting in order that we ensure the Holocaust is never forgotten and, therefore, never repeated.

STAND Carleton, a student movement that seeks to make genocide prevention a matter of Canadian foreign policy via action and advocacy, participated in Holocaust Education Week during the exhibit with its own table display.

The passion for human rights aid, which Chanukah at its core supports, can be applied not only to the Holocaust, but to all genocides, some of them current, such as in Darfur.

Chanukah on campus will be filled with gift fairs, food, formals, celebration and decoration. But, as much as I indulge in a chocolate coin – or 20 – and sing “Chanukah, Oh Chanukah” to my heart’s content, so too will I be reflecting on the brave acts of the Maccabees and how they can best be emulated.

The price was a resort vacation, but it was worth it Hi, I’m Rubin’s friend Jack. You might remember me from the conversation I had with Rubin in the last Bulletin (Humour me, Please, November 8) when I was in Collingwood.

Rubin asked me to write the column, this time, because he is too busy resting. Strange guy.

So, I thought I would explain why I was in Collingwood to make up with my wife.

Here is what our argument was all about.

My sister and her husband invited us over to their house, along with another couple, for a delicious home-cooked meal. And can my sister cook! It’s the way I remember my mother cooked – especially the fabulous desserts. Only my sister has the secret to how my mother made pineapple cake and apple strudel.

My wife could never get a straight answer from my mother, who always left out an important ingredient. Once, she said she used two cups of flour in a cake. I was suspicious, so I went to the cupboard and took out a measuring cup and asked if this was the measuring cup she meant. “Oh no,” she said, and went to the cupboard and took out some random tea cup.

I felt really lucky to be able to eat at my sister’s.

Throughout the evening, the woman of the other couple was drinking like a fish. I was sitting there just waiting for dessert. By the end of the main course, she was half passed out. When no one was looking, her husband took her out of the kitchen and came back without her.

My sister asked where his wife was and the husband said she was sleeping it off on the bed upstairs – but that shouldn’t interfere with the rest of a fun evening.

My sister gave her husband a kick under the table. He said nothing. No one said anything, and, to my great relief, we moved on to dessert. My sister put it all out on the table and started the coffee brewing. Then, she turned to the other husband and told him she found it uncomfortable that he was still here while his wife slept upstairs. How long was she going to be there? Why did he not just take her

Humour me, please Rubin Friedman home? My sister’s husband turned pale and gave her a look.

The other husband turned red and said that if that was how she felt, he would get his wife and take her home. Everyone got up. He went upstairs, came down carrying his sleeping wife like a bundle, got their coats, and stormed out in silence.

I was staring at the delicious desserts. My mouth was watering. Just then, my sister and her husband started a row.

He should have asked them to leave.

No, they should have waited; they were all good friends, etc.

Soon they were yelling at each other about whose job it was to handle the situation and then they both stormed out to separate rooms in the house and slammed doors.

My wife and I were sitting there with delicious desserts and freshly brewed coffee. My wife wanted to leave. I wanted to stay and finish dessert. It would be such a waste to leave it.

My wife started to get angry. So, I said, OK, we would leave. While my wife went to get her coat, I got some snack bags and piled in some slices of strudel and cake. No way was I going to miss out after sitting through such agony, waiting for the payoff.

When we got home, my wife discovered what I had done and that led directly to my having to get two reservations at a golf resort.

But, after I ate the dessert, it was worth it!

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 49

Truth and whimsy portrayed in picture books In the more than 20 years that I’ve been writing this column, the variety of subjects dealt with in picture books has increased dramatically. For example, the two books reviewed here illustrate the widest range of subject matter: everything from true stories to whimsy.

The age range for which picture books are intended has also expanded. At one time, picture books were intended almost solely for kids I like to call the “lap top gang,” toddlers to about age seven. Now, depending on the specific book, the age range may extend into the pre-teens or even the early teens.

Whether both these phenomena can be attributed to the combined influence of TV programming and computer games is an open question.

What I am sure of is that, in this increasingly visual world, their potential to benefit readers of all ages is definitely worthwhile.

A Chanukah Noel: A True Story

By Sharon Jennings Illustrated by Gillian Newland Second Story Press 24 pages. Ages 5-9.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m always more than a little leery about books that, in any way, relate Chanukah with Christmas. And yet, here I am reviewing a picture book that does just that. So, I will start with a warning for my Orthodox and, possibly, Conservative, readers. This book is probably not for your family.

In that case, who is it for?

It’s for readers who believe that all people, no matter their religious or ethnic differences, should help one another in a way that preserves the dignity of both parties.

Among our readers, it will be of interest to the numerous Jews who volunteer at church soup kitchens or Christmas dinners for the homeless.

A Chanukah Noel is a well-written, touching story about Charlotte, a young Jewish school girl who feels dif-

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Why? Because Charlotte and her parents have moved across the ocean to live in a small French town.

Charlotte has to adjust to everything: the language, the food, the new school, the new kids and the fact that, when the winter holiday season comes along, everyone else celebrates Christmas. Celebrating Chanukah quietly at home doesn’t quell Charlotte’s envy at the lavishness of the town’s Christmas preparations.

What Charlotte doesn’t know, until it’s time for her class to exchange Christmas presents, is that Colette – the girl who has been meanest to her – and Colette’s family are so poor that Colette “forgets” to bring a gift for the class exchange. Charlotte wonders what kind of Christmas they can possibly have. Ultimately, Charlotte comes up with a plan to help Colette’s family while satisfying her own desire to somehow participate in Christmas festivities.

As readers can tell from the illustrations, the true story told in A Chanukah Noel occurred many years ago. However, its message of children feeling different and helping others is universal, timeless and, in its own way, courageous.

By the way, coincidences do occur in kid lit. While looking on-line for Chanukah books, I encountered a reference to a picture book written by the granddaughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. Also a true story, the book tells about the time Jackie bought a Christmas tree for his neighbours under the impression they couldn’t afford to buy one themselves. It turned out the neighbours were Jewish! But, they accepted the gift in the spirit in which it was given.

Noah’s Bark

By Stephen Krensky Illustrated by Roge Carolrhoda Books 32 pages. Ages 3-7.

For Chanukah fun, read Noah’s Bark! It is by far the most fanciful retelling of the Biblical story I’ve encountered. The sounds, the pictures, the choice of words will bring howls of laughter from the lap top gang along with endless demands for more, please.

Along the way, you and your children will discover what sounds the animals originally made, and how, thanks

By Sharon Jennings Illustrated by Gillian Newland to picking slips from a kangaroo’s pouch, they came to make the ones we hear today. You’ll also discover how helpful the animals were on the Ark. And why Noah never had to bark at them again.

Truly a delightful read. But, be prepared for noise galore as you and your children enjoy every howling, roaring, chirping, hissing, barking, meowing, oinking detail of Noah’s Bark.

From my family to yours, we wish you a wondrous Chanukah!

Page 50 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

An Israeli Chanukah treat If I were to play word association with you, and tossed out the word ‘Chanukah,’ chances are you’d respond with ‘latkes.’ However, if you are an Israeli, you’d answer ‘sufganiyot.’ Sufganiyot, for the uninitiated, are jelly doughnuts.

The word, sufganiyot, comes from the Greek word sufgan, meaning “puffed and fried.” In Israel, doughnuts, fried in oil, commemorate the miracle of the oil that burned in the Temple in Jerusalem for eight days, although the supply appeared to be enough only for a single day.

Most people shy away from making their own doughnuts. It is usually a fear of frying (too dangerous or too fattening) or a fear of working with yeast, as most traditional doughnut recipes call for yeast.

I have never made doughnuts, but, not because I fear frying or yeast. I own a deep fryer, which gets used once or twice a year for french fries. And I am not afraid of yeast, especially after having baked my way through 43 bread recipes in the book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. No, I shy away from doughnuts because, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I ate too many of them. I would go for my doctor’s appointment, and then, only after I was weighed, would stop at Lady Jane Doughnuts for a chocolate doughnut topped with coconut. Sadly, Lady Jane, at the corner of Carling and Broadview is gone now.

A lot of years have passed since I overindulged on doughnuts. With Chanukah coming up, I decided it was the

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perfect time to enjoy them again. As doughnuts are best served fresh from the fryer, I wanted an easy recipe for entertaining that did not require too much fussing or time.

While doughnuts are traditionally made with yeast, I have uncovered a wonderful recipe that relies solely on baking powder and baking soda for leavening. No rising necessary.

The dough mixes up quickly and the doughnuts can be formed and set aside for frying up to two hours in advance.

Then all you have to do when guests arrive is fry the doughnuts and serve them fresh and hot!

These are old-fashioned doughnuts, crunchy on the outside and tender yet sturdy on the inside. The addition of buttermilk to the batter helps to create this wonderful texture.

When I started researching doughnut-making, every

Made with Love Cindy Feingold recipe I read used oil for frying. However, Cook’s Illustrated did a head-to-head taste-off between Crisco and peanut oil and found that the doughnuts fried in Crisco absorbed much less fat than the ones cooked in oil. The Crisco-fried doughnuts also held up better and stayed fresh longer than the ones fried in oil. So, although Crisco was not used at the time of the rededication of the second temple, I am recommending it anyway, for superior doughnuts.

Cinnamon-Sugared Buttermilk Doughnuts This recipe comes from Baking Illustrated (the editors of Cook’s Illustrated). This book is a comprehensive baking bible. Every recipe has been tested numerous times and the steps are easy to follow. In short, it’s a baking book that really works.

For frying the doughnuts, you will need a candy thermometer that can be clipped onto the side of the pot. The pot should be either cast iron or enamelled cast iron as they retain the heat extremely well.

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out dough 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon table salt 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh grated nutmeg 3/4 cup buttermilk 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 2 large eggs 1 egg yolk 6 cups vegetable shortening for frying 1 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon Mix 1 cup flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment.

Mix buttermilk, butter, and eggs in 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Add wet ingredients to the dry. Beat on medium speed (number 4 setting on a Kitchen Aid) until smooth, about 30 seconds. Decrease speed to low (number 2 setting on a Kitchen Aid). Add remaining flour and mix until just combined, about 30 seconds. Stir batter once or twice with wooden spoon or rubber spatula to ensure that all liquid is incorporated. (The dough will be moist and tacky, a cross between cake batter and cookie dough.)

Fit candy thermometer to side of cast-iron kettle or large, heavy-bottomed soup kettle. Gradually heat shortening over medium-high heat to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, turn dough onto floured work surface. Roll with heavily floured rolling pin to 1/2-inch thickness. Using a

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heavily floured 3-inch diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds, re-flouring between cuts. Using a heavily floured 1-inch diameter round cutter, cut out doughnut centres. Transfer doughnuts to jelly roll pan or large wire rack. Gather scraps and gently press into disk. Repeat rolling and stamping process until all dough is used. (Cut doughnuts can be covered with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature up to 2 hours.)

Carefully drop doughnuts into the hot fat, 4 or 5 at a time, depending on the size of your deep fryer. As they rise to the surface, turn them with tongs, a Chinese skimmer or a slotted spoon. Fry doughnuts until golden brown, about 50 seconds per side. Drain on paper-towellined baking sheet or wire rack. Repeat frying, returning the fat to the proper temperature between batches.

Mix sugar with cinnamon in small bowl. Cool doughnuts about 1 minute and toss with cinnamon sugar to coat.

Note: While traditional sufganiyot are jelly filled, I prefer plain doughnuts, coated in cinnamon sugar. However, if you just have to have a jelly-filled doughnut, do not cut the centre of the doughnut out. Fry as directed and, when doughnuts have cooled slightly, fill a pastry bag, fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip with the jelly of your choice. Using a wooden spoon, poke a hole in the side of the doughnut. Remove spoon and insert tip of pastry bag.

Squeeze pastry bag and fill doughnut just until it begins to bulge slightly.

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Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 51

FOUNDATION DONATIONS Our future is in your hands

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MARJORIE AND MICHAEL FELDMAN FAMILY FUND Mazal Tov to: Ray and Ernie Goldstein on the engagement Continued on page 52

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May the warmth and glow of each candle you light make your heart and home happy, your Chanukah bright.

Happy Chanukah

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Page 52 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

FOUNDATION DONATIONS of their daughter Lauren to Jonathan by Marjorie and Michael Feldman.

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sister Judith by David and Susan Kriger.

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ARTHUR AND SARAH KIMMEL MEMORIAL FUND In observance of the Yarhzeit of: Sarah Kimmel a beloved mother and grandmother by Isabel and Norman Lesh.

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by Ida Lesh; and by Sandy and Allen Quallenberg.

NORMAN AND ISABEL LESH ENDOWMENT FUND Special birthday wishes to: Norman Lesh by George Lesh; by Leah and Ken Miller; by Noreen and Sydney Bosloy; by Anita and Mike Roodman; by Leah and Morris Melamed; by Arlene and Mel Schwey; by Shirley and Akiva Kriger; and by Warren, Linda, Jacob and Michael Melamed.

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SEYMOUR AND JOY MENDER FAMILY FUND Mazal Tov to: Stephen and Debra Schneiderman on the engagement of their daughter Stacey by Joy, Seymour, Jess, David and Jared Mender.

Continued on page 53

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 53

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In Appreciation Thank you to my family and all my friends who expressed their good wishes and congratulations on my receiving the Distinguished Microbiologist Award 2010. Your kind words, cards and donations are very much appreciated.

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Page 54 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

Marcus/Marcovitch family reunion celebrates its Canadian centennial Chaim Leib (Leon) Marcus, 46, arrived in Canada on December 27, 1910 with his 42-year-old wife Fayge and their 10 children to start a new life. Their port of entry was Saint John, New Brunswick, and they were bound for Montreal where a family member, Moshe Marcus, had already settled. Eventually, Chaim Leib and his family would end up in Ottawa, where his brother, Abraham Marcovitch, lived. The families lived on farmland at Bowesville, on the site of today’s Ottawa International Airport.

The family emigrated from Romania. They had originally lived in an area called Vatra Dornei, but, at the time of their emigration, were living in the eastern Romanian city of Piatra Neamt. This area, part of the historical region of Moldavia, is located in the Eastern Carpathian mountain region, and is considered one of the most picturesque in Romania. A sizeable Jewish community, probably numbering about 10,000 at the time the family left, lived in Piatra Neamt. There is still a centuries-old wooden synagogue building there and the former shul is now a tourist attraction.

About two years ago, one of Chaim Leib’s great-grandsons, Ari Marom, who is the family genealogist, decided the family should commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chaim Leib’s immigration to Canada by holding a reunion in Ottawa, the city where the family flourished for so many decades. Ari was born here and changed his surname from Marcus to the more Hebrew-sounding Marom when he made aliyah more than 20 years ago. He enlisted his cousin, Susan Marcus, to help arrange the reunion.

Living here in Ottawa, Susan was able to obtain Chaim Leib’s naturalization papers and with information from the ship’s manifest, they were able to establish exactly when the family arrived. Ari promoted the idea of the reunion to every family member he had contact with, thus planting the seed.

The two cousins began compiling lists of family members to invite. Many of the Marcus descendants had stayed in touch with each other, even though they were now living in many different areas of Canada and the U.S. But, as with every family, the passing decades meant that contact had been lost with some branches. The two planners worked to find as many of Chaim Leib’s and Abraham’s descendants as they could.

They eventually decided to hold the reunion on Thanksgiving weekend in Ottawa. While the reunion’s events were still yet to be finalized, ‘save the date’ notices went out about a year in advance.

Excitement began to build and a block of rooms was booked at the Albert and Bay Hotel which was to be the venue for the reunion.

Almost 150 family members were invited and about 70 attended. The Marcus clan descended on our city from Toronto, Montreal, Kingston, New York and Colorado, and joined Susan and the other Ottawa-based cousins. Of course, Ari and his wife arrived from Israel. They all gathered at the hotel for what promised to be an exciting weekend full of good food, great stories, and, of course, wonderfully emotional moments. Family members in attendance ranged in age from 85 to a fifth generation one-yearold descendant of Chaim Leib.

The weekend began with a Saturday evening dinner, followed by a session of family stories. The older members spoke first but, eventually, almost everyone joined in. There was lots of laughter as they reminisced about events of the past, and some sadness, remembering those family members who were no longer living. Fortunately, all of the speeches were video-recorded, so that they can be viewed again and again by those who attended and to give those who couldn’t be there the opportunity to hear what their relatives had to say.

Attendees of the Marcus and Marcovitch family tour Ottawa on a chartered OC Transpo bus driven by a family member.

Connecting the branches John Diener Sunday began with a talk by Ottawa Jewish historian Sylvia Kershman who spoke about our Jewish community in the early 1900s. The gang then departed on a chartered OC Transpo bus, actually driven by a Marcus family member who just happens to work for the bus company. They were given a tour of the downtown Jewish historical areas and eventually made their way to the Bank Street Cemetery to visit the Marcus and Marcovitch gravesites.

Searching for the plots was made easier as Ari had contacted me in advance, as a representative of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Ottawa (JGSO), and I was able to provide him with all of the family grave locations. I actually discovered that my family has a connection to the Marcus family. We have run a business for almost six decades that was started by Sam Saslove, who was married to Lillian Marcovitch.

When Ari initially contacted me back in June, he asked if JGSO could provide a speaker to address the family on the Bukovina and Romania region that the family came from. I was happy to arrange for an expert on that region, Merle Kastner of the Montreal Jewish Genealogical Society, to come to Ottawa. After the family returned from their Ottawa tour and cemetery visit, Merle presented a wonderful talk, complete with PowerPoint and handouts. The family members learned about Jewish life in the early-1900s in the towns where the Marcuses had lived and saw maps and pictures of the regions. Merle also offered information on the historical and economic conditions in the region that probably influenced Chaim Leib and Abraham’s decision to leave the Old World behind for an uncertain life in Canada.

Merle’s lecture was followed by dinner at the hotel and I was honoured to have been invited by Ari and Susan to join the family. At first, I felt a little uneasy being the only non-Marcus in attendance, but this amazingly friendly and gracious group made me feel right at home.

Dinner was followed by another session introduced by Ari in which he invited each person to stand up and introduce themselves. Everyone told the others who they were, where they lived, and what they did for a living. They also mentioned other immediate family members who couldn’t attend, and where their specific branch fit into the family.

While each cousin took his or her turn at the microphone, Ari showed the family tree on to the screen showing everyone how they were related to that cousin.

It was apparent that most family members at the reunion had probably never met about 80 per cent of the others who were there. But, by the end of the fabulous weekend, they were one strong friendly group with new found relationships. One young cousin from Toronto, who was there with her fiancé, jokingly pointed out that after meeting so many cousins, she would have to redo her wedding invitation list.

Ari then ended the session by offering me the last word.

I told everyone that while I was not related to them, the afternoon and evening’s events had been fun and that I was going home feeling like a Marcus. I left the hotel inspired by what I had seen and heard and resolved to organize a similar event for my family. As I stood outside waiting for my wife to pick me up, one of the Montreal Marcus members came outside, and told me that everyone would be going home feeling absolutely fantastic. They all had a tremendous experience and the memories of Thanksgiving Weekend 2010 would live on for a long time.

Chaim Leib and Fayge Marcus, and Abraham and Freida Marcovitch would be proud.

Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010 – Page 55

This Chanukah, give a gift that illuminates someone’s life.

Send a loved one or a friend a reduced-rate one-year gift subscription* to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Local: $25 (reg. $30) Out-of-town: $31 (reg. $36)

A letter will be sent to the recipient to announce your gift.

Call Rhoda Saslove-Miller 613-798-4696, ext. 256 or Jean Myers, ext. 242 We take VISA or MasterCard * Special gift rates valid until January 14, 2011

Page 56 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010

WHAT’S GOING ON

November 29 to December 12, 2010 WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS Motorin’ Munchkins DropIn, sponsored by the SJCC Family Life Centre, for ages 5 and under. All children must be

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

TUESDAYS Israeli Folkdancing, learn dances, have fun, no experience or partner necessary, Hillel Academy, 31 Nadolny Sachs Private, 7:00 pm. Info: 613-7229323.

WEDNESDAYS Baby and Toddler Play Group, sponsored by JCC Family Life Centre, 9:00 am to 11 am.

Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 294.

CANDLELIGHTING BEFORE Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec

3 10 17 24 31

✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡

4:03 4:02 4:03 4:06 4:11

pm pm pm pm pm

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 am to 11:00 am.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 29 JNF Ottawa Annual General Meeting and Board Meeting, 27 Stapledon Crescent, 6:00 pm. Info: 613-798-2411.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 30 Malca Pass Library Book Discussion Group, sponsored

by Congregation Agudath Israel, Jack Schecter will review Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson, 1400 Coldrey Avenue, 7:30 pm. Info: 613-8292455.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 2 TO THURSDAY DECEMBER 9 Chanukah (first candle lit on Wednesday, December 1) THURSDAY DECEMBER 2 Shalom Ottawa, our com-

Happy Chanukah to the Ottawa Jewish Communnity

munity television program, Rogers 22 at 6:00 pm. (repeats Dec. 4 at noon) SATURDAY DECEMBER 4 Light One Up: A Chanukah Celebration, for young adults, sponsored by Jewish Education through Torah, Old Town Hall, 61 Main Street. Info: michaelgoldstein@hotmail.com.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 5 Chanukah Fun Fest, sponsored by Jewish Education through Torah and the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, games, crafts, and delicious goodies for the whole family, 1:00-3:00 pm. Info: 613-7989818, ext. 303 or 247.

Mom and Baby on the Ball, offered by Shalom Baby, Starr Gymnastics, 1140 Morrison Drive, 2:30 pm. Info: 613-7989818, ext. 243.

MONDAY DECEMBER 6 Jewish Unity Live Kickoff, sponsored by Jewish Education through Torah and featuring Rav Gabriel Friedman, Gladstone Theatre, 910 Gladstone Avenue, 7:15 pm. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 247.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 8 Arthur Szyk – Polish Jewish Artist, Discussion of his life

and contributions to Polish and Jewish culture, 7:30 pm. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 263.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 12 Books and Bagels, sponsored by Temple Israel, Rabbi Steven Garten will review The Shiksa Syndrome by Laurie Graff, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive, breakfast at 9:30 am, review begins at 10:00 am. Info: shaylamindell@rogers.com.

COMING SOON FRIDAY, JANUARY 21 TO SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 2011 Annual Winter Shabbaton, sponsored by Jewish Education through Torah, Albert at Bay Hotel, 435 Albert Street.

Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 247.

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: Roy Abrahamson (Toronto) uncle of Ann Dover and Adele Shinder Jane Sally Azmier (Cincinnati) daughter of the late Israel and Annie Azmier Roslyn Gluck Barrett Leon Blacher (California) brother of Boris Blacher Sonya Bodnoff

Ruth Greenberg Judith Irene (Joey) Greenspoon (Calgary) sister of Sylvia Greenspoon Archie Kassirer Irwin Rose (Toronto) brother of Edward Rose Martin Tatz Ruth Tolson Freda Weiner (Toronto) mother of Lorne Weiner 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 JANUARY 5 FOR JANUARY 24 JANUARY 19 FOR FEBRUARY 7 FEBRUARY 2 FOR FEBRUARY 21 FEBRUARY 16 FOR MARCH 7 MARCH 2 FOR MARCH 21 MARCH 23 FOR APRIL 11

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