Ottawa jewish bulletin 2011 10 31(inaccessible)

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bulletin volume 76, no. 2

october 31, 2011

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Ottawa’s Jewish community celebrates Gilad Shalit’s freedom

By Michael Regenstreif Hundreds gathered, October 18, at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre to celebrate the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from more than five years of captivity in Gaza.

Shalit was released that morning, the sixth day of Sukkot, in an exchange that will ultimately see 1,027 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons.

“Tonight we celebrate Gilad Shalit’s release! There are moments in time I am particularly proud to be a Jew. Tonight is one of them,” declared Jewish Federation of Ottawa Chair Debbie Halton-Weiss.

Halton-Weiss and each of the other speakers called attention to the anguish felt by many, particularly the families of victims of terrorism, in seeing terrorists with much blood on their hands among

those released in the exchange.

“But, today, it is about the importance, the sanctity of life, of one human being. Tonight is a celebration of Gilad Shalit’s life, his freedom, and the first time in over 26 years that a captured Israeli returns home alive,” Halton-Weiss said.

Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv thanked the community for its support of Israel and for being part of the international campaign calling for Shalit’s freedom over the long years he was a prisoner of Hamas.

“The plight of the Shalits has touched every family in Israel and the entirety of Am Yisrael has embraced Gilad as if he were a child of their own. And this solidarity has given his family and every Israeli so much strength to persevere through this difficult time,” said Ziv. (Continued on page 2 )

Kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, free following more than five years of captivity in Gaza, at Tel Nof IAF Base, October 18, with (from left) Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: GPO) and father Noam Shalit.

Much cause for optimism in Jewish community says author Sue Fishkoff

By Diane Koven North America’s Jewish community has never been in better shape and there is much cause for optimism, according to journalist and author Sue Fishkoff who has been reporting on the Jewish experience for two decades.

“I can say we have never been stronger, more creative or more appealing to the outside world than we are today,” she said.

Fishkoff, editor of J., the Jewish newspaper of Northern California, is a former feature writer for the JTA news service, a former New York bureau chief for the Jerusalem Post, and author of The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch and Kosher Nation:

Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority. She was speaking, September 25, at Ottawa’s annual Lion of Judah brunch.

Fishkoff shared her findings in a number of areas affecting North American Jewish communities including Jewish education, synagogue affiliation and attendance, Jewish culture and what attracts and interests Jewish youth. Although she did not offer statistics, her anecdotal observations indicated certain general trends.

There has been movement in all branches of Judaism toward more traditional observance, said Fishkoff.

Last year, she noted, the Reform movement published a new prayer book in Hebrew, as well as a book about kashrut.

“In the last 20 years, the tendency has reversed from doing less to learning more,” she said.

Other trends Fishkoff noted include more young Jews giving ritual expression to their lives and more Orthodox women studying Talmud in women-only study groups.

“When you give people knowledge, they want to put that knowledge to work,” she said.

“We have young Orthodox women who are trying to push the halachic envelope as much

Author and journalist Sue Fishkoff at Ottawa’s annual Lion of Judah brunch.

(Continued on page 2)

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Fishkoff: Engage young adults (Continued from page 1)

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as they can.”

Although our local experience indicates falling enrolment in Jewish schools, Fishkoff said Jewish education is booming.

“More Jews are studying than at any time in history,” she said. “Over the last 25 years, there has been a tremendous increase in adult learning.”

Fishkoff also spoke about engaging young adults in the Jewish community, a current priority for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.

“Young people feel a part of a global and virtual Jewish community,” she said. “We need to recognize what that is going to mean for our communal institutions for the future.”

According to Fishkoff, younger Jews do not feel a financial responsibility to keep institutions going in their communities.

“This is where you all come in. You have to talk to your children about what you give to, why you are here today, why you are a Lion.

Your adult children might be astonished to know the level of financial commitment you have to your community. Talk to the children about what they can contribute to. No lesson has the power of one that comes from a loved one’s heart,” she said.

The Lion of Judah brunch, held at the home of Myrna Barwin, was co-chaired by Sunny Tavel and Elissa Iny. Susan Viner-Vered, chair of the Women’s Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, said the Lions have raised more than $700,000 in 2011, “a significant contribution to help support the urgent needs of our 20 local agencies.”

Jewish Federation of Ot-

(From left) Federation Chair Debbie Halton-Weiss, event Co-chair Elissa Iny, speaker Sue Fishkoff, Women’s Campaign Chair Susan Viner-Vered and event Co-chair Sunny Tavel at Ottawa’s annual Lion of Judah brunch, September 25. (Photo: Jared Isaacson)

tawa Chair Debbie HaltonWeiss spoke about several Lion of Judah accomplishments.

“As Lions, not only have we spearheaded initiatives like Dragon Boat Israel and the PJ Library, but we also hold leadership positions on pretty well every board, organization, agency, synagogue, committee in the Ottawa Jewish community,” she said.

“We do it because we love our community. We do it because we need to ensure our children and our grandchildren are being nurtured by a welcoming, stimulating and vibrant Jewish community.”

Halton-Weiss described the work being done with the emerging generation of young adults. There are many plans in the works, she said, to engage young people in the Jewish community and to

nurture the next generation of leaders. She also introduced Samantha Banks, the Federation’s new director of Initiatives for the Emerging Generation, who had arrived in Ottawa that week.

For information about the Lion of Judah program and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa Women’s Campaign, contact Erin Bolling at ebolling@jewishottawa.com or 613-798-4696, ext. 232.

Gilad Shalit returns home (Continued from page 1)

Rabbi Reuven Bulka pointed out the significance of Shalit’s release coming during Sukkot and that the celebration was taking place on Erev Hoshana Rabbah, the seventh day of Sukkot.

Steven Farber, a senior policy adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, read a message from the minister celebrating Shalit’s freedom.

“May it be the first of many acts of goodwill to lead

to lasting peace,” wrote Baird.

A video showing news footage of Shalit’s return to Israel that morning was shown and Cantor Shneur Bielak led the singing of several celebratory songs.

Ottawa’s Jewish community celebrates the freedom of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after more than five years of captivity.

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Page 4 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Theatre professor who survived the Holocaust as a child participates in Holocaust education workshop for teachers

By Cynthia Nyman Engel Six decades after the Second World War, Tibor Egervati still remembers the taste of the potato sugar he had to eat to keep him going.

“It was a block of candy-like sugar made from potatoes,” he explained. “We ate a lot of it to keep us alive. I couldn’t touch it again until 10 years ago.”

Egervati was a six-year-old living in Budapest with his mother, father and 16-yearold brother when the Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. After the nightmare ended, only Tibor and his mother were survived.

“My father and brother were taken away in October 1944,” he told the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. “We never saw them again.

Egervati was scheduled to participate in the Holocaust Education Month teacher’s workshop, October 24, at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (after this issue of the Bulletin went to press). Diane Koven will report on the workshop, whose theme was Righteous Among the Nations, in the November 14 issue of the Bulletin.

Egervati spent several months in a children’s safe house and credits his survival to his mother’s ingenuity in acquiring false papers for him, and to Gabor Sztehlo, a Hungarian Lutheran minister who devoted his life to saving children, the majority of whom were Jewish, by establishing a network of 32

Theatre professor Tibor Egervati survived the Holocaust in a Budapest safe house maintained by a Lutheran minister who saved 1,540 children.

safe houses in the homes of relatives and friends in and around Budapest. At war’s end, the good pastor had saved 1,540 children.

In 1972, he was honoured by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.

The children who lived in Sztehlo’s safe houses were supposedly orphans, and some actually were. That they were Jewish was

never mentioned. The youngsters were instructed not to discuss their lives with each other.

“I lived in a house with two of my cousins and many other children,” said Egervati. “I was about six, so my memory is scattered, but I do remember there wasn’t a lot to eat. Feeding all these people during wartime was a Herculean task. It was a very cold winter. At one point my feet were frozen.”

He remembers the children were not always kind to each other.

“It is always a struggle with children,” he said. “There was bullying. I was younger, so it wasn’t always easy. I remember being hungry and cold, but we understood there was a war and the people who took care of us were very kind.”

After the Russians took Budapest, Egervati’s mother came for him and his cousins.

Egervati was sent to Arad in western Romania for a couple of months to build up his strength.

“The Romanian Jews had been luckier than the Hungarians and some of the Jewish communities took in kids for a few months to feed them,” he said. “I was sent to a Jewish family to have some food and get back on track.”

Hungary was now under Communist rule.

In 1956, the revolution broke out and

Egervati, 18, left for France where he studied theatre in Strasbourg.

“My mother had remarried and she remained in Hungary,” he said. “Even in the Communist regime she had a small shop and was able to survive. I think she made the best decision because many Hungarian Jews who came over never integrated, whereas, in her familiar milieu, she remained somebody.”

In 1965, Egervati accepted a contract position with the National Theatre School in Montreal. Six years later, he came to the University of Ottawa where he headed its Department of Theatre and, for one year, served as acting dean of the Faculty of Arts. He is now a professor emeritus at uOttawa.

“Even when it was all over, we didn’t talk about what happened, not at home nor anywhere,” said Egervati about his Holocaust experiences. “Hardly anyone did. Right after the war, my cousin dated a man who had been in the camps and he never mentioned it.

“But, when I realized I was the last of the generation who had lived that experience, who witnessed it as a child, the need to talk came to me.”

Egervati has done much of his talking through theatre, directing productions of his play, The Merchant of Venice in Auschwitz, in 1977 and 1993, and, recently, by presenting his adaptation of The Jew of Malta at uOttawa.

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October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 5

Agudath Israel working toward being fully welcoming and inclusive

By Nicola Hamer for Agudath Israel Congregation Agudath Israel Congregation welcomed visiting scholar, Rabbi Steven Greenberg, September 9 to 11.

Following a sold-out Friday evening dinner, Rabbi Greenberg spoke about growing up Orthodox and gay. A speech that was surprisingly humorous turned solemn as Rabbi Greenberg talked of Yom Kippur, and described hiding under his tallit, weeping, as the congregation read Leviticus 18 and 20, passages traditionally interpreted as prohibiting homosexuality.

In response to the events of the weekend, Agudath Israel is taking concrete steps towards becoming a more welcoming shul, including a new reading on Yom Kippur dealing with the troubling sections of Leviticus.

Agudath Israel President Jack Klein said the weekend was an unexpectedly big success, and the synagogue would like to build on that momentum.

“We knew that to be a synagogue relevant in the 21st century we had to discuss issues involving the LGBT community. But we were surprised at just how huge, and how positive, the response to Rabbi Greenberg’s visit was.”

Members of the Agudath board weren’t the only ones surprised by the weekend.

Members of the LGBT community were shocked too. When David Glickman moved to Ottawa from California with his partner Dario Diaz five years ago, he had been warned by acquaintances not to expect the Conservative synagogue to be particularly welcoming.

“We went to services there a couple of times,” said Glickman. “And everyone we met was incredibly nice, but we kept hearing from other members of the gay community about how unwelcoming it was. So we never seriously considered joining, even though we both consider ourselves Conservative.”

The weekend went a long way in changing how members of the LGBT community view Agudath, said Diaz and Glickman.

Rabbi Greenberg agrees. He spent several days in Ottawa meeting with members of Agudath, LGBT Jews and the wider community.

“Many gay and lesbian people came this weekend and were moved by a synagogue they didn’t think existed. And in a way it didn’t, until now,” said Rabbi Greenberg.

Rabbi Charles Popky, spiritual leader of Agudath Israel Congregation, said the weekend with Rabbi

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Rabbi Steven Greenberg during a September weekend in Ottawa as visiting scholar at Agudath Israel Congregation.

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Greenberg was part of a larger process of the synagogue working toward being fully welcoming and inclusive.

That Rabbi Greenberg visited right before the High Holidays was timely, given the readings from Leviticus on Yom Kippur.

While some congregations choose to skip them, “You can’t just erase the words in the Torah you don’t like. You need to embrace them and talk about the issues they raise,” he said.

Glickman and Diaz agreed it is hard to hear Leviticus 18 and 20 being read in shul.

However, Glickman said, “We would rather face it head on than not hear it at all.”

Glickman said including a reading acknowledging the pain Leviticus 18 and 20 can cause sends an important message.

That is the point, said Klein.

“Rabbi Greenberg helped us realize that it doesn’t take enormous changes to become a more welcoming synagogue. Small changes, like this reading on Yom Kippur, can have a huge impact for some people. It is a matter of being more aware,” added the synagogue president.

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Page 6 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Holocaust Education Month: Join us with a family member and a friend The Shoah (Holocaust) Committee of Ottawa is a group of dedicated volunteers committed to educating current and future generations about the lessons of the Holocaust through programs and special initiatives and to preserving the memories and legacies of the past.

This year, our traditional week of Holocaust Education programs has been expanded to a month from October 24 to November 20. Our goal during Holocaust Education Month is to reach as many Jewish and non-Jewish people in the Ottawa area as possible through stimulating and educational programs. A teacher’s workshop, lectures, panel discussions, films and activities for Jewish schools and university students, are scheduled.

For years, the Shoah Committee has endeavoured to reach out to teachers to provide valuable educational material about the Holocaust to share with their students. Education is the committee’s mandate and, fortunately, we are making great strides in Ottawa. Holocaust Education Month began October 24 with a teacher’s workshop, our third and largest workshop to date, with more than 40 participants representing more than 21 schools from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the Ottawa Catholic School Board, from Quebec, and from a variety of

Federation Report Mina Cohn Chair, Shoah Committee Ottawa private schools. This means that many more students will have an opportunity to learn about the Holocaust as a result of their teachers’ participation in our workshop.

The Righteous Among the Nations was the workshop’s theme. Guest speaker Ada Wynston shared her personal experience of surviving the Holocaust by being rescued

by Christian families. Teachers learned who the righteous are and how one becomes recognized as Righteous Among Nations. Natalie Sirois, director of education for the Canadian Institute for Genocide Education, provided additional guidance on how to teach about the Holocaust using innovative ideas.

Over the years, we have developed successful relationships with embassies in Ottawa. This year, we are working in collaboration with the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Embassy of Germany.

The Netherlands Embassy is organizing

the International Task Force (ITF) Conference on Holocaust Education and Remembrance to be held at the Canadian War Museum on October 30. A panel discussion will include former Netherlands ambassador and ITF Chair Karel De Beer, MP and former minister of justice Irwin Cotler, and Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Adolph Eichmann’s trial – a trial that changed Israel and the way we look at the Holocaust. On Tuesday, November 15 at 6:30 and 8:45 pm at the Mayfair Theatre, we are presenting screenings of the film Eichmann’s End – Love Treachery, Death, in collaboration with the German Embassy and the Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies at Carleton University.

The film is based on the true story of German journalist Willem Sassen who tracked Eichmann down in Argentina and interviewed him about his role during the war.

The first screening will be followed by a question period moderated by Andrew Cohen, professor of journalism and international affairs at Carleton University. The second screening will include an introduction by Andrew Cohen.

On November 3, we will officially launch Holocaust Education Month at Agudath Israel Synagogue with the

esteemed Paul Shapiro, director of the Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Shapiro was instrumental in opening the Holocaust archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany, which had remained closed to the public for six decades after the end of the Second World War. With the opening of the archives, more than 50 million pieces of documentation relating to the fate of 17.5 million people victimized by the Nazis were finally made available to the public. CBC Radio’s Laurence Wall will be MC for the evening that will also include presentation of the Ari van Mansum Award honouring an exceptional Ottawa teacher.

The film The Heart of Auschwitz will be screened November 9, 6:30 pm, at the Mayfair Theatre with filmmaker Carl LeBlanc conducting a question period following the screening.

Two other films will be screened free of charge at the Soloway JCC: The Final Victory, November 6, 7:00 pm; and David Shentow: Prisoner of the Nazi Holocaust, Number 27575, November 20, 3:00 pm.

Tickets to Holocaust Education Month events are available at the Soloway JCC front desk. Visit jewishottawa.com for more information about Holocaust Education Month programs.

Enjoying and celebrating Jewish life This issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin went to print after a month full of holy days that began with the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

One of the primary reasons we blow the shofar, the ram’s horn, is to commemorate the unforgettable episode in which God instructs Abraham to offer his son to God. Abraham obeys. He ascends Mount Mariah, builds an altar and binds Isaac to it. At the last moment, when Abraham takes the knife in his hand and is about to slaughter his beloved child, God sends an angel to stop him.

“Don’t lay your hand on the lad; don’t do anything to him.”

Abraham then offers a ram, “caught in the thicket by its horns,” in lieu of his son. God promises Abraham an eternal nation, which will be a blessing to all other nations.

The ram’s horn, then, represents Abraham and Isaac’s limitless loyalty and commitment to God – to the point of utter self-sacrifice.

This merit, we hope, evoked infinite Divine

From the pulpit Rabbi Menachem Blum OTC Chabad blessing and mercy on the Day of Judgment.

Yet, here is the question: If so, why is the mitzvah not to lift a knife on Rosh Hashanah, instead of the shofar? The ram was the substitute for Isaac. Yet the knife represented Abraham’s actual readiness to offer his son Isaac. Why, then, do we not display the far more potent and direct symbol of a knife to portray Isaac’s willingness to be an offering to God and Abraham’s willingness to offer him?

The Chassidic master Rabbi Simcha Bunam of Peshischa presented a beautiful answer: With the knife, Abraham would have

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ended Isaac’s life. The ram, on the other hand, represents the fact that Isaac’s life was spared, for the ram replaced him.

The sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is teaching us that our focus must be to live as Jews rather than die as Jews. Too often in our history, we were sadly forced to embrace the knife and sacrifice ourselves for our Jewishness. We are here today because of the sacrifices of our ancestors. Yet, these are the tragic periods of our history, and never

our desired ideal. As an ideal, Judaism demands of us to seize every opportunity to live and to love life. Jewish life should be celebrated and enjoyed.

As we embark on the New Year, we rededicate ourselves to this task of ‘living as a Jew’ and enjoying every minute of it. This joy we show as we celebrate Jewish life will, undoubtedly, have a tremendous impact on our children and will foster the proud and happy Jewish leaders of tomorrow.

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October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 7

Sukkot this year was a time to be happy and rejoice One of the obligations of the festival of Sukkot is to be happy and rejoice.

And Ottawa’s Jewish community – along with Israelis and Jewish communities around the world – did rejoice when Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit finally came home, October 18, the sixth day of Sukkot.

Gilad’s return came 1,941 days – almost five years and four months – after he was kidnapped from southern Israel by a squad of Palestinian terrorists on June 25, 2006 and taken to captivity in Gaza, a captivity that was more than cruel in its isolation.

Gilad was allowed no contact with the outside world. Hamas would not even allow the International Red Cross to see him. The most recent evidence that he was still alive – in fact, the only evidence in the long years of his captivity – came in a brief video shot more than two years ago.

Gilad became a national symbol in Israel. One of Noam and Aviva Shalit’s three children, almost every Israeli parent knew it could just as easily have been their son or daughter in his place. Israelis – joined

by Jewish communities around the world – prayed and campaigned relentlessly for his freedom.

Israel paid a high price for Shalit’s freedom, releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, among them the perpetrators of some of the most heinous acts of terrorism,

Editor Michael Regenstreif which was particularly difficult for the families of some of the victims of terrorism to accept. Some of them launched an unsuccessful bid to have Israel’s Supreme Court stop the prisoner exchange.

But the exchange had the overwhelming support of Israeli society – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Agreeing to the prisoner exchange with Hamas must have been a difficult decision for Netanyahu. In his 1995 book, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists, Netanyahu wrote, “Prisoner releases only embolden terrorists by giving them the feeling that even if they are caught, their punishment will be brief. Worse, by leading terrorists to think such demands are likely to be met, they encourage precisely the terrorist blackmail they are supposed to defuse.”

But prisoner exchanges with such a high price are not new to Israel. Since

Prisoner exchanges with such a high price are not new to Israel.

Since 1957, Israel has released 13,509 prisoners in exchange for just 16 Israeli soldiers.

1957, Israel has released 13,509 prisoners in exchange for just 16 Israeli soldiers. It is a demonstration of the importance that Israel – and successive Israeli governments of both the left and right – places on the lives of its soldiers.

And so, on Sukkot, we rejoiced and were happy in celebration of the freedom and homecoming of Gilad Shalit.

Remembering Deanna Silverman It was with great sadness that we learned that Deanna Silverman, Kid Lit columnist in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin for more than 21 years, passed away on September 29, Rosh Hashanah, following

several years of ill health. She died less than two months after her husband of 52 years, Saul Silverman, also a longtime Bulletin columnist, passed away.

Deanna was a passionate advocate for children’s literature – particularly Jewish children’s literature – and traced her passion to her early involvement in a Zionist drama group for children in her home city of Winnipeg. Her Kid Lit column first appeared in the October 6, 1989 edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and she rarely missed an issue. Generations of Jewish kids in Ottawa had their childhood enriched thanks to the hundreds of books Deanna reviewed and recommended over more than two decades.

In 2008, Deanna told me her health was problematic, that she was unsure how long she’d be able to keep Kid Lit going. But the column was important to her and she did keep it going for more than another two years. What turned out to be her final Kid Lit was published in our March 21 edition.

Deanna missed our April issues, but told me she hoped to return soon. In May, though, she regretfully told me she was too ill to continue writing the column.

On behalf of everyone at the Bulletin, I send our sincere condolences to Deanna’s children and grandchildren.

Ontario voters deny Harper his conservative hat trick Back in the middle of the summer, when politics and elections were the furthest things from most people’s minds, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford hosted a barbecue for 800 of his closest friends.

The gathering honoured Finance Minister Jim Flaherty for helping Toronto-area Conservative candidates make historic breakthroughs in the May 2 federal election.

Those federal breakthroughs came about six months after Ford’s own breakthrough victory in Toronto: a steak-andpotatoes conservative mayor winning power in what some perceive as a brieand-white-wine liberal city.

The barbecue came to the attention of the media because of a surprise guest who showed up to address the gathering: Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In a video of the event shot by one of the barbecue guests and later posted online, Harper made partisan comments about Ontario politics: “We started cleaning up the left wing mess federally in this area,” Harper said.

“Rob’s doing it municipally. And now we’ve got to complete the hat trick and do it provincially as well.”

When Harper made those remarks in early August, it seemed likely that Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Leader Tim Hudak had a good chance of completing

Alan Echenberg that conservative hat trick. Only two months before the scheduled provincial election, his party sat comfortably atop public opinion polls, and the trend over many months had shown PC support growing as support for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals steadily fell.

In retrospect, Hudak was trying to swim against a couple of long-standing currents in Ontario politics. The first was the tendency of Ontarians to give party leaders some extended time on the opposition benches before they are willing to vote them into government. Hudak’s two immediate predecessors as PC leader – John Tory and Ernie Eves – learned that lesson the hard way, as did McGuinty himself when he was trounced by Mike Harris in his first election campaign as Liberal leader in 1999.

The second – even more unfailing – current was the tendency of Ontario voters to vote in different parties provincially than they do federally. In the 1970s, when

Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals held power in Ottawa, so did Bill Davis’ Tories at Queen’s Park. In the ‘80s, Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative governments negotiated with Liberal and NDP governments in Ontario. In the ‘90s, Liberals under Jean Chrétien owed successive majority victories to Ontario voters, who handed them near-sweeps of this province.

At the same time, they were giving Mike Harris similar victories in provincial elections. Finally, the current Harper era in federal politics has coincided with the McGuinty era in Ontario.

When the video of Harper’s barbecue speech showed up online, his aides seemed to realize that it probably wasn’t helpful to the Hudak campaign, or to the conservative cause, for the prime minister to be seen making such a blatant partisan intervention in a provincial election campaign. A bit of an Internet cat-and-mouse game ensued, with Conservatives trying to remove every online appearance of the video as quickly as McGuinty supporters could get it reposted.

As I’ve written before in this space, it helps to imagine this province as an Ontario-shaped target, with a lop-sided blue bull’s-eye in the middle, stretching across the rural southwestern, central and eastern parts of the province. That’s the conservative heartland – a couple of

dozen ridings that right-leaning parties usually win easily in both provincial and federal elections.

Splotches of NDP orange dot the outer edge of the province-shaped target, where the most urban neighbourhoods of our cities and the least-populated stretches of our northern regions lie. When New Democrats do well in Ontario – as they did in both elections this year – the perimeter of the province grows a deeper shade of orange.

Between the orange edge and the blue bull’s-eye is the red Liberal doughnut that expands or shrinks at the expense of the other colours, depending on the Grits’ success from election to election.

In May’s federal election, the Tories and the NDP both took big bites out of different sides of that doughnut – most notably in Toronto-area ridings. The result was the worst showing ever for the federal Liberal party.

In Ontario earlier this month, it was Toronto voters – and to a lesser extent those in Ottawa and a few other urban areas – who preserved the red doughnut enough to give the McGuinty Liberals a narrow minority victory.

It’s hard to know if Harper’s comments helped McGuinty win. But they certainly underlined the fact that, in this province, political hat tricks are hard to come by.

Page 8 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Guest Column

Standing for a just civil discourse

By Ilan Liebner Israel Advocacy Co-ordinator Hillel Ottawa The subject of Israel seems to evoke more passion and hostility than perhaps any other in society. This is being compounded, and has been over the past 15 years, as proPalestinian and anti-Israel groups pursue a strategy to delegitimize the Jewish state.

We all know about this campaign and its reach. We are cognizant of the presence of agents of hate in society and on our campuses. We’ve seen the claims that Israel is a congenital genocidal entity, that Zionism is racism, that the State of Israel must be destroyed. We’ve heard the shouts of “Down, Down, Israel,� “Zionism must be destroyed,� and, most pernicious of all, “Israel is a Nazi state.� I would hope that we’ve also questioned the implications of these absurd cacophonies on our civil discourse.

We must be aware of this growing movement to delegitimize Israel, not only as Jews, but as Canadians who care about justice and human rights. The foundation of rights discourse is respect for the identity of individuals and groups, or, to put it bluntly, not deliberately and ostentatiously shaming another’s identity as undeserving of equality.

Publicly shaming another’s identity, not only as undeserving of equality, but as utterly illegitimate, and then, as a logical implication of the former and, in action, calling for the removal of the personal beholder of that identity from the peoples of the world, constitutes reversing our most basic teachings on justice.

We care deeply about these lessons, and have embedded them in our national identi-

ty. What this ensures is that we will protect the just cause of our civil discourse and together stand up to attempts to undermine it.

This public concern relates to a just society. Society should always be a place for open conversation and rigorous debate.

However, as a contemporary implication, it demands respecting beholders of identities at the conversation.

This concern imbues us with a responsibility to listen to the claims of Palestinian families, something I feel Israeli leaders have pursued in their desire for peace negotiations.

But it is a more elemental tenet of civil discourse that concerns me now. It feels naive to write that standing for justice entails not excluding another group as congenitally illegitimate. Yet, contemptuous shouts of such illegitimacy are increasing in frequency in our society and on our campuses. It is this that has everything to do with the delegitimization of the Jewish state and the Israeli people, who are being charged day after day with congenital illegitimacy in a mass distributed campaign by hateful instigators in the Middle East, Europe and North America.

This delegitimization undermines our most basic tenet of justice and human rights. It excludes another from the peoples of the world and, hence, from our civil conversation while implying even worse action. Whether such discourse is aimed at Israelis, Iranians, Aboriginals in Canada or others, we must stand up against it, and for justice. Today, it is being aimed at Israelis, and we must stand against it. This we must do for the sake of the Israeli people, for the future of our civil discourse in Canada, and for political stability.

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October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 9

Accredited law conference to compare Talmudic and modern legal systems

More than trees 613.798.2411

Oliver Javanpour president

Proceeds from Negev Dinner will help alleviate Israel’s water shortage

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).

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Talmudic expert Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe will participate in professional development conference for lawyers comparing Talmudic and modern legal systems.

from a dream to reality,” explained Rabbi Menachem M. Blum, director of OTC. “The story began in the office of a senior lawyer complaining about the new CPD hours Ontario lawyers must complete,” said Rabbi Sender Gordon, the new OTC program director.

As of January 2011, Ontario lawyers and paralegals must complete at least 12 hours of CPD in each calendar year. A minimum of three hours must be accredited by the Law Society and has to deal with topics related to professional responsibility, ethics and/or practice

management (professionalism hours).

A law conference comparing the modern and Talmudic legal systems will take place on Tuesday, November 29.

“This conference is the result of a synergy of multiple people and talents,” said Rabbi Gordon. “I couldn’t have done it without the many prestigious Jewish members of Ottawa’s legal community, people who took time from their busy day to help me put it all together.

The input of all these special people is what will make this conference a real stimulating and learning experience.”

The conference has been approved by the Law Society of Upper Canada and accredited for the complete three hours of required continuing professional development. The conference will present a Talmudic and

secular law comparison on topics such as reporting misconduct and fair pricing.

The program will feature a variety of presentation formats ranging from speakers to stimulating debates.

Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, an expert in Talmudic law and a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University, will present the Talmudic aspect of the evening. Other presenters will include Ken Radnoff, Percy Ostroff and David W. Scott.

The special guest speaker launching the conference will be Supreme Court of Canada Justice Marshall Rothstein.

The conference, which includes dinner, takes place Tuesday, November 29, 5:45 pm, at Events In Style, 107 Murray Street. For more information, or to register, visit talmudiclaw.com or call 613-843-7770.

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As its supply continues to dwindle, where will the extra water Israel needs come from? $96 = water for one person for one year $384 = water for a family of four for one year $1,140 = water for a classroom of 30 children for one year $4,800 = water for an army base of 50 soldiers $7,200 = water for a neighborhood of 75 people $9,400 = water for a new neighbourhood of 100 people in the Negev Israel is facing its most severe water shortage in nearly a century. Seven consecutive years of drought have deprived its natural water sources of sufficient replenishment, while a growing population and rising standard of living have led to a sharp increase in consumption. There is 75 per cent less water available today than just 20 years ago, but an additional two million people to share that diminishing supply.

The facts: • Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel’s largest fresh water reserve, is almost at its black line, the level at which continued pumping would cause irreversible salinity and the Kinneret would cease to be a viable source of drinking water.

• Israel’s underground water reserves are also threatened.

In the past seven years, about half of the wells that supply water to Tel Aviv have been shut down because of contamination caused by over-pumping.

• To curb consumption, the Israeli government has dramatically cut the fresh water allocation for agriculture and begun taxing households for excess water usage. Conserving water is a huge challenge, especially when you realize that Israeli households only use 135 litres per day, a contrast with our own 326 litres.

Utilizing the most up-to-date water conservation and harvesting techniques, the Sderot Reservoir will provide farmers in the northwest Negev with more than 660 million gallons of inexpensive recycled water to irrigate thousands of acres of crops. This is the reservoir our Negev Dinner will support.

This is the way we in Ottawa can help Israel feed itself.

Benny Shmulevich, 56, manager of the Oren 2005 Farmers Association in the Sderot region, has been farming since the age of 19, specializing in growing potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn, wheat and various organic crops. But things have changed recently making it harder to eke out a living and produce a great crop. “Over the last five years, we’ve had to deal with massive cuts in our water quota, which forced us to reduce our crops from 500 acres to less than 250,” he said.

Benny’s lifeline will be a new JNF recycled water reservoir for the Sderot region that is nearing completion. With a capacity of one million cubic metres, it will triple the amount of treated wastewater available to the region for agriculture, allowing for the irrigation of 1,250 acres of fields and orchards.

The Sderot Reservoir will help put Benny Shmulevich back into the business of feeding Israel and we in Ottawa will be proud that our Negev Dinner is a part of this tremendous and valuable effort.

By Sarah Gordon for Ottawa Torah Centre With the large number of Jewish lawyers, could there be a correlation between being Jewish and being a lawyer?

Along with our long and rich history of being “people of the book,” a definite piece of the puzzle linking Jews and law is the Talmud.

Long before the Canadian legal system was created, Jews sat pouring over the thick volumes of the Talmud.

The Canadian Institute of Talmudic Law and Ethics (CITLE) is a new initiative of the Ottawa Torah Centre (OTC).

The CITLE will be offering accredited law seminars allowing Ottawa’s Jewish lawyers to delve into the wisdom of Talmudic law while completing their required Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours for 2011.

“This brain child has taken much time, energy and hard work by our new Rabbi Gordon to bring it

Congregation Beth Shalom

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Film and Discussion

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Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6

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Page 10 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Cassandra Starosta and Jonathan Roytenberg in a scene from the 2011 production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo.

(Photo: Howard Sandler)

OJCS high school students to showcase drama, comedy and music at fundraising event

By C. Lee Bates for Ottawa Jewish Community School As autumn’s beauty dissipates and the chill of November arrives, what better way to warm up than to get into the spirit of giving and receiving? The high school Drama Production class at the Ottawa Jewish Community School (OJCS) offers just such an opportunity, Thursday, November 10, as they host An Evening of Jewish Scenes, Songs, Soliloquies, Stand-up and a Special Guest Appearance.

The event is a fundraiser for the school’s upcoming production of Death of a Salesman.

The OJCS is participating in the Capital Cappies program for a fourth year. The Cappies (Critics and Awards Program) shines the spotlight on high school theatre in more than 30 schools in the National Capital Area. As well as producing a play or musical, each participating school forms a team of budding critics who attend productions at other schools, discuss them with peers and mentor teachers, and write reviews that may be selected for publication in the Ottawa Citizen. In the first three years of participation, the OJCS, Yitzhak Rabin division, produced The Dybbuk, Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Last

Night of Ballyhoo, all of which were received favourably.

This year, due to changing economic circumstances, the registration cost for the Cappies has increased to $1,400 from $200.

Non-affiliated schools, such as OJCS, need to come up with their own funding. The OJCS board generously provided funding so the registration deadline could be met, and the Drama Production class made a commitment to repay that money to the school through fundraising.

Good news then arrived in the form of an offer from the Cappies organizing committee to subsidize each non-affiliated school in the amount of $500, and the class decided to produce a fundraiser that would showcase the students’ talents.

The students will perform some poignant and some hilarious scenes from such shows as The Diary of Anne Frank, Today I Am a Fountain Pen, Fiddler on the Roof, among others; and special guest performer Thomas Brawn, a professional classical flautist, will play music with piano accompaniment from the film soundtrack to Schindler’s List.

Don’t miss the opportunity to warm up your November! You’ll be giving by purchasing tickets ($15, available through the school office at 613-7220020) and supporting an exciting arts program in which almost half the high school students participate. And you’ll receive by being thoroughly entertained by this talented and enthusiastic cast of performers.

The curtain rises Thursday, November 10, 7:30 pm, in the OJCS gymtorium, 31 Nadolny Sachs Private.

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 11

Film festival to include Canadian premiere of Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization

By Fred Litwin Free Thinking Film Society The 2nd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival, taking place November 11 to 13 in Ottawa will include several films of particular interest to the Jewish community. Among them is the festival’s closing film, the Canadian premiere of Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization, a new film produced by Doc Emet Productions – the same producers who made The Case for Israel.

The festival features films and speakers on freedom, liberty and democracy. This year’s event has 23 films, two panel discussions and one debate. The daytime events will take place at Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington Street), while the evening events will be at the Bronson Centre (211 Bronson Avenue).

Unmasked (November 13, 7:00 pm, Bronson Centre) examines the current political assault against the State of Israel. The film makes the case that the threat is much greater than either a military siege or a traditional terror attack – that we are “facing the possible uprooting of the very idea that there should be a nation state of the Jewish people.”

Among the many important commentators featured in Unmasked are Alan Dershowitz, Irwin Cotler, Barry Rubin, Gerald Steinberg, Hillel Neuer, Melanie Phillips, Catherine

Chatterley and Bret Stephens. Much of the film was shot in Ottawa during the 2010 Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism Conference.

Director Gloria Greenfield will attend the screening and answer questions. I met with her recently at her Boston office and asked why she made Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization.

“Totalitarianism and lethal Jew-hatred go hand-in-hand,” Greenfield said. “I believe that bringing voices of clarity and courage to the world stage can be an effective antidote to the darkness and confusion that has been enveloping the West. I choose to believe that we in the West can regain the strength and courage to fight for our values with the determination to win the battle against the forces of hate.”

Other films of interest to the Jewish community include: • Justice for Sergei (November 12, 12:15 pm, Library and Archives Canada), the shocking story of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in November 2009 at the age of 37 under excruciating circumstances in a Moscow detention centre while awaiting trial; • The Last Jews of Libya (November 13, 12:00 pm, Library and Archives Canada), which documents the final decades of a centuries-old Sephardic Jewish community

through the eyes of the remarkable Roumani family; • The Making of a Martyr (November 13, 12:30 pm, Library and Archives Canada), an examination of the ideology that would lead children to become suicide bombers. Producer Brooke Goldstein will be in attendance; • The Biases of the CBC (November 13, 2:00 pm, Library and Archives Canada), a film and panel discussion on CBC bias against Israel; • Ahead of Time: The Ruth Gruber Story (November 13, 2:15 pm, Library and Archives Canada), an inspirational story about a journalist who escorted Holocaust refugees to the U.S. in 1944, covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946 and documented the Haganah ship Exodus in 1947.

The Free Thinking Film Society was established in 2007 in Ottawa to celebrate the values of limited, democratic government, free market economies, equality of opportunity rather than equality of result, and the dignity of the individual, all underscored by a healthy and patriotic respect for Western culture and traditions.

Visit freethinkingfilmfest.ca for complete information on the festival. Tickets for individual films are $15 or $20. Day passes for November 12 or 13 are $30 ($15 students) and a full festival pass is $75 ($55 students).

Director Gloria Greenfield will answer audience questions following the Canadian premiere of Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization at the Free Thinking Film Festival.

Page 12 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Yoga session at Friendship Circle’s Mom’s Night Out

By Diane Koven for Friendship Circle When a family member has special needs, the whole family is involved. Depending on his or her needs, a child may experience a sense of isolation and of being different. The family members become caregivers; they provide support and are sometimes the child’s only friends.

That’s where the Friendship Circle comes in.

The Ottawa Friendship Circle was established six years ago. Director Devora Caytak explained that its mission is “to bring friends and smiles to children with

special needs and peace of mind to their parents; to foster the values of volunteerism and compassion among the youth and ultimately to realize the community’s responsibility for its members with special needs.”

By matching each special needs child with a volunteer buddy, usually a teenager, the Friendship Circle enables the child to form a unique bond and to enjoy a special time with a new friend.

“The Friendship Circle introduces volunteers to the children and, through shared experiences, both are en-

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riched,” said Caytak.

Esther Caytak and Yael Kolet are Friendship Circle outreach workers. They go to schools, to doctors’ offices and to a variety of other places where they spread the word about the work being done by Friendship Circle.

They want to let people know the service exists, whether one needs it as a participant or if one is willing to become a volunteer. The service is open to anyone in the Jewish or general community.

Recognizing that the parents of special needs children sometimes need a break, Friendship Circle has developed a program called “Mom’s Night Out,” which gives mothers, who are usually the primary caregivers, a special evening to relax and refresh themselves in the company of other mothers.

“We have created a program to give the moms a chance to unwind, relax and spoil themselves,” said Caytak. “The moms enjoy a great evening of camaraderie, cuisine and creative concepts, as

well as an opportunity to network with other moms and exchange ideas.”

The most recent Mom’s Night Out was a special yoga evening led by Rachel Segal, an experienced yoga instructor. Segal teaches in the Jewish Youth Library’s Montessori preschool, teaching yoga to children as young as three.

In the midst of the very hectic Jewish holiday season, when the moms were even more stressed with extra responsibilities, the yoga evening was just the break they needed.

“It was a nice, relaxing setting with candle light and yoga music,” said Segal. “It was a very gentle, Hatha yoga with guided meditation, focused on purification.”

Next month’s Mom’s Night Out will feature pottery-making, and there will be a very special program on December 21, the second night of Chanukah, featuring a Chanukah benefit concert for Friendship Circle at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. Friendship Circle

Friendship Circle Director Devora Caytak (left) with yoga instructor Rachel Segal at Mom’s Night Out.

members and volunteers will receive complimentary tickets to the event.

Contact Devora Caytak

at 613-729-7712 or visit jewishyouthlibrary.com for more information about the Friendship Circle.

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 13

JET partners with JWRP for women’s mission to Israel

By Lauren Shaps JET Bringing Jews back to their roots, back to Israel, has become increasingly popular in recent years. Birthright offers free trips to Israel for young people. Missions run by federations and other Jewish organizations bring community members on subsidized trips to show them the Israel their funds are helping to build and to foster stronger ties to their own Jewish community.

Visionary Lori Palatnik and her team at the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP) felt there was a gap in who was being reached out to in this way. They felt sending women already in their 30s and beyond – women already connected to families and Jewish communities – to Israel might give them the passion to return inspired and ready to share that inspiration with others, to take leadership roles in their homes and in Jewish communal life. It was a gamble that major philanthropists were prepared to underwrite and the JWRP Mission to Israel became a reality.

JWRP has partnered with outreach organizations in 40 cities – including JET (Jewish Education through Torah) Ottawa – to bring more than 1,000 women per year since 1989 to Israel. JET participated in the original pilot mission in June 2009 and has been on board ever since.

On November 6, twentysix women from Ottawa will join 150 women from the U.S. and Canada for this amazing experience. The lucky few, chosen from a much larger pool of applicants, form a group that includes young mothers, single mothers, career women, retirees, Jews-by-birth, Jewsby-choice, Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and completely unaffiliated Jewish women.

In the midst of enormously busy lives, Jewish women ask themselves such questions as, “How can I ensure the future of the Jewish people?” and “How can I ensure

Celebrations Adele and Stephen Horwitz announce the engagement of their daughter Amanda (Arielle) to David, son of Joanne and Martin Abeles of Toronto, Ontario.

A January wedding is planned.

Twenty-six Jewish mothers meet, September 19, at the home of Stan and Cathy Levine for an orientation session for the JWRP Mission to Israel.

my own children remain connected?” The answers, too often, get drowned out by ringing cell phones and continuously incoming e-mail.

When the JWRP Mission was announced, many women applied, arguing determinedly that they should be chosen, that this trip would give them the tools and passion to fulfil their roles as links in the sacred chain of transmission from generation to generation.

“I grew up in an unaffiliated home with very little Jewish education,” wrote National Research Council scientist Janice Singer in her application. “Since my children have been born, I have tried to make a Jewish home for them. For me, it’s been little by little, year by year, learning more and more. The

next step is a trip to Israel to bring that connection back to my children. I hope to gain a deeper understanding of my Jewish roots, the opportunity to make some good Jewish friends, and to connect more deeply with the wider Jewish community in Ottawa.”

The group will experience 10 days of travel, discussion and debate, from Yam Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to the Dead Sea. They will climb Masada, ride camels, braid challah and sing and dance at a pre-Shabbat concert with the ‘Surfer Rabbi’ in the Old City of Jerusalem, within sight of the Western Wall.

Throughout the trip, teacher and mentor Lori Palatnik will share her unique view of why Judaism speaks to the lives of highly intelligent, incredibly capable Jewish women in

the 21st century.

The 33 Ottawa women who participated in the 2009 and 2010 JWRP Missions are convinced the missions and ongoing follow-up classes and Jewish experiences have renewed their passion for Judaism and for Israel.

Their commitment and excitement rubs off on family and friends, on their children’s schools, their synagogues, the Soloway JCC and the Federation. After all, Jewish women work so hard and do so much. Investing in Jewish mothers is a great way to secure the Jewish future.

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Page 14 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Temple Israel’s next two Books and Bagels mornings

Promoting quality of life for persons with developmental disabilities in a Jewish environmnent Tamir acknowledges with sincere thanks the following donations, which were received as of October 3, 2011.

Refuah Shlemah to: Mr. Joe Osterer by Evelyn and Norman Potechin Mr. and Mrs. Harry Weltman by Stella and Norman Beck Mr. George Gara by Lily and Jerry Penso Mr. Ed Kerzner by Mark Borts; by the Nudelmans; by Debbie and Norm Ferkin and by Nina, Jeremy and Shira Rudin In Memory of: Mother of Marjorie Feldman by Estelle and Sol Gunner Rita Singer by Bert Palmer Beatrice Kreisman by Participants, Staff and Board of Directors of Tamir; by Mark Borts; by Sharon and Paul Finn and family; and by Debbie and Norm Ferkin Mother of Mr. Jack Silverstein by Nina and Jeremy Rudin; and by Sharon and Paul Finn and family Tili Wilner-Atlas by Evelyn and Norman Potechin; and by Rebecca and Joseph Liff Brother of Mrs. Elaine Hauptman by Michael and Sylvia Caplan Condolences to Elias family by Maggie and Bob Lederman Philip Teitelbaum by Dodie and Bram Potechin; and by the Finn family

Anita Leighton by Jerry and Lily Penso General: In appreciation to Tamir for the service provided to the Late Wayne Bellman by Cathie and Steve Jeffery In appreciation to Mr. Bram Potechin

by Lynn and Brian Keller New Year greetings to Natalie and Raymond Stern by Donna Karlin and Ray Skrebutenas New Year greetings and special celebrations to Laurier LaPierre and Harvey Slack

by Donna Karlin and Ray Skrebutenas In observance of the Yahrzeit of a beloved mother Anna Lazear Saslove by Sonia and Sheldon Shaffer In appreciation to Jon and Gail Horwitz and Murielle and Yosi Behar by Nina and Elliott Arron Wishing Natalie and Raymond Stern good health and happiness in the coming year by Francoise and Ron Vexler In appreciation to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Penso by Nomi Colton-Max In appreciation to Danielle Dugas and Ira Greenblatt by Leslie Ram In appreciation and with New Year greetings to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Kardish and Rachel by Jerry and Lily Penso

Donation cards can be purchased for a minimum charge of $18.00 by contacting the Tamir office at 613-725-3519, 11 Nadolny Sachs Private, Suite 218, Ottawa, Ontario, K2A 1R9, or by e-mail to aalmstedt@tamir.ca.

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Contact Cindy Manor-Kennedy (613) 798-4696, ext. 256

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Share your good news (photo too)!

To advertise call Cindy Manor-Kennedy 613-798-4696, ext. 256 Email: cmanor@ottawajewishbulletin.com

Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov

Mazeltov to: Mrs. Rhoda Aronson on her birthday

by Barbara Schulman Sara Melamed on her birthday by Barbara Schulman Mira Royz and Brad Gold on their upcoming wedding by Tamara and Mikhail Royz Mr. and Mrs. Stan Katz on their 61st wedding anniversary by Evelyn and Norman Potechin and by Bert Palmer Ted and Susan Lindsay on their 30th wedding anniversary by David and Barb Kates Jamie and Natalie Knorr on their marriage by Debbie and Norm Ferkin Linda and Jack Kivenko on their milestone by Lois and Jerry Nudelman Natalie and Raymond Stern on both anniversaries by Roz and Stan Labow Mr. Steve Baker on his special birthday by Sharon and Paul Finn and family Mr. Arnie Kimmel on his special birthday by Sharon and Paul Finn and family Mr. Daniel Grinfeld on his Bar Mitzvah by Susana and Bernard Bleuer Mr. Colin Dow on his Bar Mitzvah by Dodi and Larry Newman Mr. Matthew Garber on his Bar Mitzvah by Mr. and Mrs. James Holloway and by Angus Smith and family

Sunday, November 13: Mira Sucharov, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University, will review To the End of the Land by David Grossman.

In this novel, which Sucharov reviewed in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin (February 21, 2011), the eminent Israeli author tells the story of Ora. Her son has recently reenlisted in the Israeli army and been sent back to the front. She walks across Israel to the Galilee in order to avoid any possibility of notification of her son’s death.

The book loops back in time telling the story of every war fought in Israel and the toll they take on the people.

Sunday, December 4: Rabbi Steven Garten of Temple Israel will review Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka

by Rodger Kamenetz.

This work of non-fiction is a dual biography of the venerated Chasidic storyteller Rabbi Nachman and the iconic modern master Franz Kafka that describes surprising parallels between the tragically abbreviated lives both spent in search for spiritual meaning.

Kamenetz is an awardwinning poet, author and teacher. Among his other books is The Jew in the Lotus, the story of rabbis making pilgrimages through India to meet with the Dalai Lama.

Three additional Books and Bagels sessions are being planned for the winter months. Details will be announced at a later date.

All books being reviewed in the series are available at the Ottawa Public Library and the Greenberg Families Library at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre. Some may also be available at the Malca Pass Library and the Temple Israel Library.

For more information Books and Bagels at Temple Israel, contact Shayla Mindell at shaylamindell@rogers.com or 613594-4556.

Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov

By Anne Alper for Temple Israel Temple Israel invites everyone to attend the next two events in our Books and Bagels discussion series.

The program begins with a bagel breakfast at 9:30 am followed by a presentation and discussion on a work of fiction or non-fiction at 10. Both sessions will be held on Sunday mornings at Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive.

Pre-registration is not required. Nor is it necessary to have read the book to enjoy the session. There is no charge, but a voluntary donation to cover the cost of breakfast is appreciated.

This year’s series began in September with a very interesting and insightful review by Marc Dolgin of The Ministry of Special Cases, a novel by Nathan Englander set in Argentina in the 1970s describing the search by parents for their son who disappeared during what became known as “The Dirty War.” The series continues with two more events this fall.

• Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov • Mazal Tov •

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 15

Congregation

Beth Shalom

Page 16 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

RCN veteran only Jewish Canadian to receive Legion of Honour

By Ilana Belfer “My poor mother. I can still see the expression on her face,” said Alex Polowin, recalling the day he joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942 at age 17.

But the much-decorated Second World War veteran says he’s not sorry.

Born in Lithuania, Polowin arrived in Ottawa as a three-year-old in 1928 with his parents and four siblings (later seven).

While he was in high school, Polowin’s mother began receiving news that relatives were being murdered in Europe. Watching her cry and thinking about the Nazis’ wrongdoings, he said, distracted him from his studies. “[It] got me thinking about what I could do to sort of make a contribution. As a Jew, I felt we had a bigger commitment to make than the average Canadian,” he said.

After visiting the navy recruiting office on the corner of Rideau and Chapel Streets, Polowin was on his way to becoming a sailor who would serve on three ships during the war.

After training in Ottawa, Toronto and Halifax, Polowin was stationed in Newfoundland serving aboard HMCS Pictou, which travelled from St. John’s to Londonderry, Ireland, escorting merchant ships.

He was soon transferred from the Pictou to HMCS Huron, an Iroquois-class destroyer, which, he said, eventually became one of the

Alex Polowin (centre) receives France’s Legion of Honour in 2005.

two most prominent ships in the Royal Canadian Navy.

“They sent us on convoys to Murmansk, Russia, which was the most dangerous run during the whole wartime,” Polowin said, noting that the area was dark 21 hours a day and the water was so cold one would die within five minutes of falling in.

Nazi dive bombers were also a threat.

Polowin said the crazy, screaming noise they made reminded him of a sound effect from an Alfred Hitchcock film.

On December 26, 1943, HMCS Huron was part of a group that sank the Scharnhorst, a Nazi battleship. It was a frightening experience, Polowin said, because the Scharnhorst weighed about 27,000 tons while the Huron weighed only about 2,700.

Between that victory and gains made at the Battle of Stalingrad, Polowin said, “I got the feeling it was the beginning of the end.” And it was.

Sent to Plymouth, England, the ship’s next mission was to intercept Nazi shipping as part of a 10-destroyer flotilla – four British, four Canadian and two Polish ships – responsible for clearing out the English Channel before D-Day. “Every time we’d go out, there was combat,” Polowin said.

The flotilla sank 56 Nazi boats. The Canadian contingent alone sank 25, losing one ship, HMCS Athabasca.

On D-Day – June 6, 1944 – Polowin said it was the powerful, dramatic voice of then British prime minister Winston Churchill that gave everyone strength.

Along with other Allied ships, HMCS Huron’s duty was to protect troops landing in Normandy from Nazi destroyers. In a day-long battle, the Allied flotilla sank all the Nazi ships.

Polowin was 19 and serving on his third

ship, HMCS Poundmaker, when he next heard Churchill’s encouraging voice on the radio, this time declaring peace.

“What a feeling it was,” he said. “The Wrens [Women’s Royal Naval Service] were crying and throwing kisses. The life they’d got used to had come to an end.”

After the war, Polowin took a business course, eventually completed his secondary school requirements, and had a career as an insurance broker.

“People always ask if there was any antiSemitism, and I feel they should know the answer: Where are you going to escape anti-Semitism?” he said.

Although Polowin had to consider what would happen if captured by the Nazis, he said most anti-Semitism came from comments by his shipmates, particularly if they stored up their rum rations.

Along the way, Polowin said he gained comfort from his Jewish identity, engaging in Jewish surroundings whenever he could.

In St. John’s, Newfoundland, he found refuge at a local shul. While staying in barracks near Glasgow, Scotland, he spent time at the shul and Jewish Community Centre there.

“I really enjoyed being in a Jewish environment,” said Polowin.

He called Glasgow an area of warmth, but was astonished to hear Scottish accents coming from Jewish mouths instead of the Eastern European accents he grew up with in Ottawa.

He also met fellow Jews in Mermansk and spoke to them in Yiddish.

“They told me they were very happy to meet me, but that there were secret police listening and they couldn’t speak to me too much longer,” he said.

His shipmates, he said, assumed he was speaking Russian and were impressed by his ability to bridge the communication gap.

In 2005, Polowin became the first, and only, Jewish Canadian to receive France’s Legion of Honour, a high civilian and military honour. He was part of the first group of foreigners to receive the award.

The award holds special meaning, he said, because he has two Sephardic grandchildren whose mother is from France.

Polowin has spoken at more than 100 schools for the Dominion Institute’s Memory Project. He’ll be leaving all of his medals, he said, to his grandson, Aaron, so he can show family pride.

“That’s yerusha [legacy/heritage].”

• 2.5% ANNUAL TAX CAP • REDUCED ANNUAL INCREASE IN TRANSIT FARES FROM 7.5% TO 2.5% • RECREATION FEES FROZEN • MAJOR REVITALIZATION OF ARTS COURT AND OTTAWA ART GALLERY • NEW LRT ALIGNMENT TO KEEP DOWNTOWN TUNNEL ON BUDGET • CREATED NEW PUBLIC HEALTH BOARD • ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE LAND FUND CREATED • SALARY FREEZE FOR MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS • RESTRUCTURING OF OC TRANSPO FOR LONG TERM SUSTAINABILITY

THANK YOU

OTTAWA Jim Watson, Mayor ottawa.ca/mayor 613-580-2496

TOGETHER, YOU AND OUR CITY COUNCIL HAVE ACHIEVED MUCH IN YEAR ONE. AND WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN.

• A NEW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR OTTAWA • $14 MILLION HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS PLAN • REPAIRED WOODROFFE WATER MAIN AHEAD OF TIME AND ON BUDGET • POSTING OF MAYOR AND COUNCILLOR EXPENSES ONLINE • IMPROVED THE TONE, TENOR AND EFFECTIVENESS OF COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS • CREATED A NEW TRANSIT COMMISSION • MAYOR’S OFFICE BUDGET CUT 10% • ONTARIO’S FIRST DOWNTOWN SEGREGATED BIKE LANE

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 17

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Page 18 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Nava Waxman exhibition

Mapping a World Beyond Reason, the first solo exhibition in Ottawa by Israeli-Canadian artist Nava Waxman, continues until November 13 at Wall Space Gallery, 358 Richmond Road.

“The written word, inscribed into the surfaces of Nava Waxman’s recent paintings, addresses issues of etymology and the way the living Jewish language, and its written forms, have changed over time,” notes author and art critic John K. Grande.

For information, call 613-729-0003 or visit the gallery’s web site at wallspacegallery.ca.

Dr. Doreen visits Westboro Jewish Montessori Preschool Students at the Westboro Jewish Montessori Preschool learned about honey bees from Dr. Doreen as they prepared for Rosh Hashanah. The students also baked honey cake, learned new songs, decoupaged a honey jar and filled it with honey, and tasted different types of apples.

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 19

Jewish Teen Zone to be launched in Ottawa

By Gani Domber for Jewish Teen Zone If a fire is consuming my neighbour’s house, do I need to help him?

This and other provocative subjects will be broached at the JLI Teens course beginning November 9 at Jewish Teen Zone Ottawa.

Throughout the 12-week course, a hand-picked group of high school students will sharpen their perspectives by examining relevant news stories, conducting mock debates and making tough, critical decisions about their own lives.

The goal of the course is to challenge high school students to become more involved in their community and to hone their leadership skills.

“It is an investment in your children’s future, guiding them to become responsible, capable and moral people,” said Rabbi Schneur Hayes, director of Jewish Teen Zone Ottawa.

Rabbi Hayes’ JLI courses will provide teenagers with a safe space to grapple with life’s true challenges.

“Teens live in a world where they face critical choices on a daily basis,” he explained.

“At JLI, teens explore how Jewish wisdom can be a guiding force

in their lives in the 21st century.

They learn not just what it means to be a Jew, but what it means to be a good human being,” he said.

“The hour-and-a-half I spend at JLI Teens is the most meaningful part of my week,” said Isaac Miller, a JLI Teens student from Toronto.

“Not only do I make tons of new friends, but the challenging exercises give me the momentum to do the millions of other things I’m busy with.”

“Teenagers have tons of energy and power,” said Rabbi Hayes. “As responsible parents, we must do our

best to provide some direction and arm them with the skills and values needed to succeed and make good decisions in life.”

The lives of thousands of high schools students in 70 cities worldwide have been enriched by JLI courses, developed by the Rohr

Jewish Learning Institute, an educational branch of the Chabad Lubavitch Movement.

Visit jtz.ca for more information about the Jewish Teen Zone or contact Rabbi Hayes at 613-9834770 or teenzone613@gmail.com.

Torah Academy’s Chocolate Chances

By Zev Singer for Torah Academy Oy, look at you, you’re so skinny!

Come, you should eat something. Have I got an event for you!

There will be acres and acres of chocolate (actually, hectares of it, for you metric system sticklers) at the Chocolate Chances Chinese and Silent Auction.

It’s happening Sunday, November 27, 7:009:00 pm, at Torah Academy of Ottawa. Just like last year, the elegant evening will be hosted by the hilarious David Rotenberg, a unique Ottawa treasure who is both an ordained rabbi and an experienced comedy-club-performing stand-up comedian.

The event is a crucial fundraiser for Torah Academy, a Jewish day school that works hard to provide both an excellent general studies education and a high calibre Judaic studies program.

There will be an amazing table of chocolate truffles and other chocolate desserts, including

a chocolate fountain. There will also be a salad bar if you feel guilty about eating so much chocolate – but you shouldn’t, at least not this time.

“The bottom line,” says Rabbi Zischa Shaps, the school’s executive director, “is that people always have a good time. And they also have a great chance of winning some pretty amazing prizes.”

The prizes up for auction include airfare for two to Israel; airfare for two to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada; a $500 VISA gift card; one or two night getaways; a laptop computer; an iPad 2 with Wi-Fi; a GPS; an iPod; gift cards to Loblaws, Costco, Bayshore Mall, Toys “R” Us, and Westboro Flooring and Decor.

Other prizes include an array of housewares; small kitchen appliances; furniture, including a leather sofa; a mountain bike; toys; museum passes; and Judaica. There is something for everyone! Pre-orders are accepted.

Call the school at 613-274-0110 and they’ll send a complete list.

Tax receipts are issued to those who give a donation of more than $100 toward entries.

Chocolate Chances is an event many look forward to and it is always exciting to see who walks out with the big prizes.

Of course, everyone who participates by showing support for Torah Academy of Ottawa is a real winner. They are helping to ensure the continuity of Jewish education in Ottawa.

Is there a wedding in your future?

In honour of your marriage, the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin is pleased to present you with a six-month subscription.* For details on how to apply, call Cindy Manor-Kennedy 613-798-4696, ext. 256 * Must have been married within the previous six months

Page 20 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Butch Zinman picks the winning stocks in Machzikei Hadas contest

MOVING? DON’T MISS ONE ISSUE! Call 613-798-4696, ext. 256 or 242 to provide your new address.

By Roger Keen for Congregation Machzikei Hadas What a month that was!

Congregation Machzikei Hadas started our Stock Hullabaloo contest at the close of business on Friday, July 29. The following week, world stock markets went mashuggah.

On August 1, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) suffered a 1.5 per cent drop. Bad as it was, it was just a foretaste of what was to come.

How could we know that Standard and Poor would downgrade the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from AAA? On August 8, the Dow went down 5.6 per cent and the TSE slid 4.0 per cent in sympathy.

Seventy contestants in the Machzikei Hadas contest each paid an entry fee of $100 and received a hypothetical $10,000 to pick four stocks from a list of 36 TSE stocks. The person whose stock portfolio appreciated the most during the month of August would win $1,000.

As of August 5, there was only one positive and 69 negative stock portfolios in our contest. Things were not looking good.

However, by the end of the month

Lawrence (Butch) Zinman (left) receives a $1,000 cheque from Hymie Reichstein as winner of the Machzikei Hadas Stock Hullabaloo.

and the contest, 34 portfolios made money while 36 were money losers.

The big winner was Lawrence (Butch) Zinman whose portfolio appreciated 18.3 per cent. Ronnie Diamond of Toronto came second with a gain of 13.7 per cent and Charlie Wiseman was third with a gain of 12 per cent.

So, even with all the doom and gloom, debt crises in Greece and other European countries, and the TSE seesawing up and down, it was possible to have a stock portfolio that appreciated (at least in August).

We hope the markets will be more stable the next time Machzikei Hadas has a stock-picking contest.

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 21

Page 22 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Visit our web site: www.hillellodge.ca

LL

ife at the odge

Hillel Lodge Achieves Canadian and International Recognition To paraphrase an old commercial, “quality of care for our residents has always been Job 1 at Hillel Lodge,” and we are proud to say those are not just words. The outstanding job done by our dedicated employees has recently been recognized, in Canada as well as internationally.

Canadian Recognition Residents First, a partnership driven and supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and LongTerm Care, is aimed at enhancing the quality of life for long-term care residents. One of the most comprehensive and innovative quality improvement initiatives in the country, Residents First recently honoured Hillel Lodge as the first recipient of its Residents First Improvement Award. The award was for our Waste Busters program, directed at ensuring that the items required for resident care are efficiently available whenever and wherever they are needed. The problem was summarized as follows: “We have ample supplies; however, care items are not always available where and when we need them. There is significant variation in how, how much and which care items are in resident rooms. When workflow is interrupted to retrieve items, this impacts resident safety, quality of care and efficiency. This causes stress, frustration and wasted time and energy for staff.”

The most striking indicator of the seriousness of the problem was the Lodge’s estimate that 1,964 hours of staff time were spent each year locating resident care items, time that would have been better

Resident’s room before

Resident’s room after

spent looking after the residents.

Based on a comprehensive review, the Lodge implemented a new system that freed up 1,704 staff hours. In practical terms, our employees can now spend at least 70 additional days a year on direct patient care! Some of the improvements include new bins with daily stock amounts; new caddies for personal care; saved counter space in residents’ rooms; reorganized utility room cupboards; and reorganized tub rooms.

remarkable advancements in the quality of care offered to residents since it first started to use this mechanism in 2007. This has occurred in respect of all of the indi-

International Recognition The Resident Assessment Instrument - Minimum Data Set Instrument (RAI-MDS) refers to a set of computerized care management tools used in over 30 countries to help assess and monitor the care needs of residents in long-term care homes. Based on what is uncovered, problems can be investigated and needed changes can be made.

Hillel Lodge, one of the earliest adopters of RAI-MDS, has made

cators that we measure, including behaviour; bladder continence; cognition, depression, pain, and urinary tract symptoms.

In fact, Nancy White, a manager with the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), an independent corporation that provides critical information on Canada’s healthcare system, was so astounded at how successful we have been in improving our quality of care that she used Hillel Lodge as her success story in a paper presented at a prestigious international conference in New Zealand.

As Executive Director Steven Schneiderman simply puts it, “she went across the country looking for a success story and we were it.”

Thanks to the entire Hillel Lodge team for helping us improve the quality of patient care we offer.

Members of the Waste Busters team, including Morag Burch, Director of Nursing; Ashley McGee, Therapeutics; Marcia August, Personal Support Worker (PSW); Gloria Duran, PSW; Penny Hotte, PSW; Jim Peacock, Environmental Services; Kathy Steeves, RPN; Ioana Turcu, RPN; Elizabeth Richard, Coordinator of Environmental Services and Quality Management; and Cindy Barnaby, who also serves as our RAI-MDS Coordinator.

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. Donations to the Lodge can be made in several ways: by going to our web site at www.hillellodge.ca; contacting the Long-Term Care Foundation at (613) 728-3900 extension 111; or e-mailing us at donations@hillel-ltc.ca

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 23

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 September 14 and October 5, 2011 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: Gdalyah Rosenfeld by Ruth and Irving Aaron Tillie Silver by Ruth and Irving Aaron Bill and Leona Adler Memorial Fund In Memory of: Annetta Leighton by Marilyn Adler In Honour of: Flo Morgan Mazal tov on your special birthday

by Marilyn Adler, Neil and Daniel Blacher Samuel and Jean Akerman Memorial Fund In Honour of: Mr. and Mrs. Kalman Bielak Mazal tov on the birth of your new grandson and a happy and healthy New Year with love by Sheila and Larry Hartman Mr. and Mrs. Richard Stern Thank you for an amazing trip and all the best in the New Year with love by Sheila and Larry Hartman Bert and Rhoda Blevis Happy New Year by Sheila and Larry Hartman Bella Altman Leikin Memorial Fund R’fuah Shlema to: Debi Shore by Helen and Joe Hochberg

Jenny and Murray Citron Endowment Fund In Honour of: Murray Citron Mazal tov on the publication of your book by Mara and Isaac Muzikansky Tania Firestone Family Fund In Memory of: Ida Kufsky by Bob and Lindsay Firestone Friedberg and Dale Families Fund In Honour of: Skip Kronick on the completion of a tractate of Talmud by Elaine Friedberg and Bob Dale In Memory of: Annetta Leighton by Elaine Friedberg and Bob Dale Malcolm and Vera Glube Endowment Fund In Memory of: Lorne Usher by Malcolm and Vera Glube In Honour of: Allan and Liz Schwartz Mazal tov on the birth of your twin granddaughters by Malcolm and Vera Glube Nell Gluck Memorial Fund In Honour of: Rabbi Alan and Linda Cohen Mazal tov on the birth of your grandson, Tal Jonah with love by Henry and Maureen Molot and family in Philly and Hemed.

Rabbi Rafi and Michele Cohen Mazal tov on the birth of Tal Yonah with love by Uncle Henry, Auntie Mo Molot and family in Philly and Hemed.

Mr. and Mrs. Jon Miller Mazal tov on Samara’s engagement to Ben Goldenberg by Henry and Maureen Molot and family Gunner Family Fund In Honour of: Sol and Estelle Gunner Best wishes in your new home by the Pascoe family In Memory of: Annetta Leighton by Sol and Estelle Gunner R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Sol and Estelle Gunner Nordau and Roslyn Kanigsberg Family Fund In Memory of: Risë Silverstein by Nordau and Roz Kanigsberg In Honour of: Lester Aronson Mazal tov on your 70th birthday with love by Nordau and Roz Kanigsberg Judge Morris and Judy Fish Shana Tova by Roz and Nordau Kanigsberg David, Harvey, Victor Kardish Family Fund In Honour of: Rachel and Ady Stetter Happy and healthy New Year by Aaron, Margo, David and Gail Kardish

Dorothy and Maurie Karp Endowment Fund In Honour of: Dr. Jeffrey Karp, Janet, Olivia and Sam Mazal tov on your new home and Shana Tova with love by Aunt Carol, Harvey, Ari and Shari Lynne Goodman R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Dorothy Karp Morris and Lillian Kimmel Family Fund In Honour of: Morris Kimmel Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Steven and Shelli Kimmel and family Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Janet and Steve Kaiman and family Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Lily Feig and family Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Sally and Norman Raicek Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Louis and Evelyn Eisenberg Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Sylvia and Charlie Levine Happy and healthy New Year with love by Brenda, Nathan, Jesse and Daniel Levine Ariella Heilman Happy birthday by Brenda Levine and Janet Kaiman R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Janet Kaiman and Brenda Levine In Memory of: Harry Fleisher by Brenda Levine and family and Janet Kaiman and family Joan and Russell Kronick Family Fund In Memory of: Harry Fleisher by Joan and Russell Kronick In Honour of: Len Shore and Jane Ehrenworth Thanks for the tickets by Joan and Russell Kronick Yanda and Mark Max In honour of your anniversary by Joan and Russell Kronick Alyce Baker In honour of your special birthday

by Joan and Russell Kronick Shelley and Sidney Rothman Family Fund In Honour of: Roz and Steve Fremeth Mazal tov on Howard’s marriage to Melanie by Shelley Rothman and family Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Family Fund In Memory of: Harry Fleisher by Stephen and Debra Schneiderman R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Ralph and Anne Sternberg Memorial Fund In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: William (Bill) Sternberg by Laya and Ted Jacobsen and family Honour of: Judith and Harvey Slipacoff Happy 5th wedding anniversary by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Natalie and Thomas Gussman Happy 40th wedding anniversary by Laya and Ted Jacobsen

In Memory of: Claire (Clara) Kevanstein by Laya and Ted Jacobsen R’fuah Shlema: Eddie Saslove by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Sarah and Arnie Swedler Family Fund R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Arnie Swedler and Rhoda Zaitlin Roslyn and Myles Taller Family Endowment Fund In Honour of: Morris Kimmel Healthy, happy, sweet New Year

by Myles, Roz Taller and family Eric Weiner and Arlene Godfrey Family Fund R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Miriam Weiner, by Arlene Godfrey, Eric, Melissa and Laura Weiner Milton and Mary (Terry) Viner Family Fund In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: Ida Schleider by Millie Schaenfield Carole and Norman Zagerman Family Fund In Honour of: Helen Saipe Happy very special birthday by Carole and Norman Zagerman and Andrea Arron Beverly Friedman Mazal tov on your special birthday by Carole and Norman Zagerman and Andrea Arron Sally and Elliott Levitan Mazal tov on the marriage of your granddaughter Shana and the birth of your great-granddaughter Gillian by Carole and Norman Zagerman R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Carole and Norman Zagerman Ethel Kerzner by Carole and Norman Zagerman ************* Feeding Fund In Memory of: Mother of Rabbi Ben-Porat by Harold and Lisa Sandell and family Annetta Leighton by Harold and Lisa Sandell;

by Mara and Isaac Muzikansky; by Rhoda and Mike Aronson; and by Liz Petigorsky and Semyon Ioffe Therapeutics Fund R’fuah Shlema: Debi Shore by Morris and Shelley Schachnow In Memory of: Annetta Leighton by Ira and Joanna Abrams ************* IN HONOUR OF: Henry and Maureen Molot Mazal tov on the birth of your twin granddaughters by Esther and Alan Williams Stan and Roz Labow Mazal tov on Hannah’s Bat Mitzvah by Janet and Norm Ironstone Roz and Steve Fremeth Mazal Tov on the marriage of your son Howard by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge; and by Golda and Ned Steinman and family Howard Fremeth and Rachel Mazal Tov on your marriage by the Residents and Staff of Hillel Lodge (Continued on page 24)

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.

Page 24 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Rabbi Bulka to speak on logotherapy at Emunah membership drive, Nov. 13

By Leah Cohen Emunah Women Canada Emunah Women are honoured to announce that Rabbi Reuven Bulka will speak on “Logotherapy: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning” at our annual membership drive on Sunday, November 13.

Rabbi Bulka, spiritual leader of Congregation Machzikei Hadas, and a commentator in various media, has long studied the logotherapy work of psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl (1905-1997).

Denominational Implications of the Religious Nature of Logotherapy, Rabbi Bulka’s 1971 University of Ottawa PhD thesis, was just the first of many scholarly works he has published on the subject.

The term ‘logotherapy’ is derived from the Greek word logos (meaning). Rabbi Bulka explains that, according to Frankl, “This quest for meaning is the primary motivation of man.”

Logotherapy is consistent with the approach of Emunah’s work in Israel. Emunah, a religious Zionist organization, offers educational, psychological and practical services to Israelis in need, regardless of age or way of life. Most of those receiving Emunah services succeed in fashioning their futures in a purposeful and meaningful way.

Contact us with any questions you have

(Continued from page 23)

Shneur Zalman Teitlebaum Mazal tov on your recent upsherin by Jonathan and Rachel Gray Isadore Kalin Happy birthday by Anne Koffman Judith and Edward Borts Mazal tov on the birth of your granddaughter by Golda and Ned Steinman and family Les Kom Mazal tov on your marriage by Barry and Zahava Farber and family Lily Feig Happy and healthy New Year by Barry and Zahava Farber and family Margo and Judah Silverman and family Happy and healthy New Year by Barry and Zahava Farber and family Steven and Shelli Kimmel and family Happy and healthy New Year by Barry and Zahava Farber and family Steven and Linda Kerzner and family Happy and healthy New Year by Barry and Zahava Farber and family Evelyn Greenberg Mazal tov on your daughter’s wedding by Carol and Laurie Pascoe Milton Shaffer Love and best wishes on your special birthday by Sheldon and Sonia Shaffer Roz and Steve Fremeth and family Shana

Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka

about Emunah’s work in Israel or our activities in Ottawa.

The Emunah Annual Membership Drive will take place Sunday, November 13, at the home of Barbara Crook. A parve buffet will be served at 6:30 pm and Rabbi Bulka will speak at 7:30 pm. Both men and women are welcome to attend.

Cost is $36 (Emunah members) or $30 (Emunah life members). RSVP: Leah Cohen at leahle1@yahoo.ca or Rivka Kraus at 613-241-5613.

Tova by Valerie and Gaby Terkel and family Libby and Stan Katz Shana Tova by Cila Farber Malca Feig Shana Tova by Cila Farber Phil and Susan Firestone Thank you for the lovely dinner by Annette and Jack Edelson Allan and Liz Schwartz Mazal tov on the birth of your twin granddaughters by Marion Vexler Sheldon Reich In honour of your special birthday by Alvin and Monica Stein The Fremeth family Mazal tov on Howard’s marriage by the Pascoe Family IN MEMORY OF: Annetta Leighton by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge; by Carol and Laurie Pascoe;

by Jack and Sarah Silverstein and family; by Golda and Ned Steinman; by Bonnie and Sherwin Lyman;

by Danny and Rhonda Levine; Morris and Shelley Schachnow; by Ingrid Levitz; and by Michael and Judy Aranoff Regina Diamanstein by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge Steve Sherman by Golda, Ned, Noam, Adina and Yona Steinman Harry Fleisher by Beverly Friedman; and by Carol Gradus Dorothy Katz by Carol and Larry Gradus Ida Kufsky by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge R’FUAH SHLEMA: Barbara Herland by Valerie and Gaby Terkel Debi Shore by Charles Schachnow; and by Claire and Irving Bercovitch

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 25

Picking the right Hebrew names for our kids With my youngest child having just turned five, I find myself reflecting on my time of early parenthood, and specifically on the challenge of choosing baby names. Most parents-to-be enjoy the naming process, but what I think is especially fun for Jewish parents is getting to pick the right Hebrew name.

My son is named Lev (Hebrew for ‘heart’) in both Hebrew and English. It is a name my husband and I both loved and we used to honour his paternal great-grandfather and maternal great-great-grandfather. Both were named Joseph, so, by naming him Lev Joseph, we felt we were evoking the warm spirit of both ancestors. Our Lev seems to enjoy the fact that his name refers to that most loving of symbols and body parts.

But our daughter is not so sure about her Hebrew name.

When we were expecting our daughter, we knew we wanted to name her after my paternal grandmother, my Babba Rosie. Her husband, my Zaida Moe, died three weeks before I was born. I was hurriedly given the name Mira Michelle (Meira Masha) after his Hebrew names Meir Moshe. It seemed fitting that my daughter Rory would be named for my Babba Rosie, who had died six months before my husband and I got engaged, and who I miss dearly.

When it came to choosing a Hebrew name, we knew we wanted something more contemporary than what would have been the more natural Rachel (my grandmother’s Hebrew name).

Our daughter’s Hebrew name became etched into our minds five months into my pregnancy. That winter, we attended our friends Nadine and Mike’s wedding in London, England. There, the rabbi spoke movingly about the wedding liturgy. Drawing on the word re’ut from the sheva brachot, she explained that what can help people get through

Values, Ethics, Community Mira Sucharov the bad (rah) elements of life is the intimate connection (re’ut) between betrothed companions. Already fragile with pregnancy hormones, I felt my cheeks sting with tears. We both agreed that Re’ut, a contemporary Hebrew name with exactly the punch of meaning we valued, and with the requisite R to honour Rory (and Rosie), would be it.

Once Rory started Hebrew school, though, some challenges appeared.

“Do you write her name with or without an apostrophe when transliterating it?” one parent-volunteer e-mailed me one night. (Sometimes yes, sometimes no.)

Is it pronounced ray-oot as the Ashkenazi tendency would favour (and as my daughter comes home pronouncing it) or reh-’ut as the more contemporary Israeli version (and which we prefer) would suggest?

But, most strikingly, in the tradition-soaked atmosphere of Hebrew school, Rory soon realized that her name stood apart. As my daughter turned to her classmates – Sarah, Avigail, Daniel, Michael, Chana, Shimona – she realized she was one of the only students without a Biblical name.

Somehow this bit of naming difference suddenly seemed to matter to her.

Last spring, we took a family trip to Israel. Visiting the

Campaign against al-Qaeda leaders The elimination of Anwar al-Awlaki and a number of his associates by American drones in Yemen on September 30 was the latest in a consistent campaign to kill al-Qaeda leaders in the hope of decapitating its command and control and funding channels. The killing of al-Awlaki, an American citizen, provoked a great deal of discussion.

“In the extra-judicial killing of a U.S. citizen accused of inspiring terror attacks, America has abandoned its own values,” said the sub-headline to an October 1 column by Maajid Nawaz in the Guardian, a British newspaper.

So, what does a democratic sovereign state with strong laws to protect human rights do to protect its citizens? When terrorists say there are no holds barred, no taboos, that they can fly jetliners full of passengers into civilian buildings killing innocent civilians, how do we weigh protection of their human rights, provided by the Constitution of the United States of America, against the protection of citizens?

Let’s be clear. Islamic terrorists have killed more Muslims in the past 10 years than anyone else by bombing mosques, markets and bazaars. Bombing schools for girls is a particular specialty of these freedom fighters and Anwar alAwlaki was as evil as they come. He was ambitious enough and adroit enough to have executed the sophisticated political manoeuvrings needed to rise to the top echelons of alQaeda. He gained the trust of his constituency and sideswiped other potential leaders, none of whom had an issue with the extra-judicial killing of large numbers of Americans, or anyone else for that matter.

During the past year, key al-Qaeda leaders have been eliminated, mainly in Pakistan and Yemen, but humanity’s struggle against jihadism is not over. Purely and simply, in the eyes of the jihadists, if you don’t practise Sharia law and don’t believe in Allah, then you are a kafir (infidel) and must die.

There are those who believe they could co-exist with jihadists and their Sharia. There are those who believe in rehabilitation of the terrorists and jihadists. There are those who believe it is worth losing good people trying to apprehend and bring to justice monsters like al-Awlaki, providing them with additional opportunities to spew their poison.

Perhaps lost in the background to the killing of al-Awlaki was the message al-Qaeda delivered to the Iranian government – more specifically to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — via Inspire, its English-language Internet magazine.

In a special issue of Inspire, published to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Abu Suhail’s article, “Iran and the Conspiracy Theories,” clearly critiqued Ahmadinejad’s 9/11 conspiracy theories as being baseless and Iran as merely being jealous of al-Qaeda’s success.

“For Iran, anti-Americanism is merely a game of politics … Therefore with 9/11, the Iranians saw a great operation that had brought damage to the U.S. like nothing they had ever dreamed of causing during their two decades in power.

For them, al-Qaeda was a competitor for the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised Muslims around the world. Al-Qaeda, an organization under fire, with no state, succeeded in what Iran couldn’t. Therefore it was necessary for the Iranians to discredit 9/11 and what better way to do so? Conspiracy theories.”

Reading the magazine – intended for young Englishspeaking Muslim men everywhere, including North America and Europe – one is struck by the slick graphics and fiery words designed to turn young men, with testosterone coursing in their veins, anti-establishment.

We are losing more and more of our young minds to groups like al-Shabab, the militant Islamist group controlling much of southern Somalia. Young minds who want to change the world are choosing jihad as their vehicle. Young minds

Old City, we happened upon a Judaica shop. We stopped in to order a Hebrew name necklace for Rory. We mentioned to the shopkeeper that Rory was frustrated that her name wasn’t Biblical.

“Ah,” he countered, “it certainly is.”

He explained that, while there is not an actual person named Re’ut in the Bible, a variant on the word is used to describe Abraham’s relationship with God. Of course, the word in an altered form also appears as “love thy neighbour.”

Rory cherishes her Hebrew name necklace. When her non-Jewish friends come over to play, they sometimes, with my help, think up Hebrew names together. Wilhelmina (meaning protector) becomes Magen (shield). And Rory is very patient with the fact that I speak only Hebrew to her.

Hebrew names, like the language itself, help link us in a chain of belonging. Being called to the Torah for an aliyah, we offer our Hebrew name and those of our parents. And with Hebrew names often having more obvious linguistic meaning than many English names, we get to think of ourselves through lenses of character aspirations. My Hebrew name, Me’irah, means ‘she illuminates.’ It is a good reminder of the burden we all shoulder to help make the world a place of clarity rather than confusion.

Though my kids do not have common names (in the Diaspora at least), my husband and I are secure in the knowledge that our son and daughter, who are such loving companions to one another, who have travelled the world this year bonding with aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends in far-flung places, and who gather friends around them like daisies in a field, have the right Hebrew names.

Mira Sucharov, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University, blogs at Haaretz.com.

World Affairs Oliver Javanpour are falling under the spell of jihadism and al-Qaeda. Perhaps we should concentrate our efforts on stopping the recruiting process and the dissimilation of these young men from our communities. The al-Awlakis of the world should not be free to turn young minds to terror.

Oliver Javanpour is a senior partner at Cyrus Echo, a public policy and international relations consulting firm in Ottawa.

In Memoriam Ashley Leah Grant, born September 14, 2011, passed away peacefully October 8, 2011, much-loved daughter of Amanda and Oliver and sister of Ben and Charlie.

Cherished granddaughter of Howard & Gina Grant and Karen Paul, greatgrandaughter of Seymour & Edna Eisenberg and Alec & June Garfield, niece of Leo Grant and Shane Paul (Jenny). The family would like to thank their family and friends for all their support during this difficult time.

Page 26 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

The 1960s was a period of rapid, defining change in Canada’s Jewish community Book Review The Defining Decade: Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish Community in the 1960s

By Harold Troper University of Toronto Press 356 pages

I attended an event last month at the Rideau Club organized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman to address an audience of Jewish community leaders.

I mention that because, prior to 1964, it would have been inconceivable that such an event could take place at the Rideau Club, which, like many of the elite private clubs of the era, had an unwritten No-Jews policy enforced by blackballing.

As University of Toronto professor Harold Troper writes in The Defining Decade: Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish Community in the 1960s, “While then still a male-only bastion, the club’s rules did allow members to entertain women in the dining room after seven in the evening. Women after seven. Jews never.”

The 1960s was a period of tremendous political and cultural change in contemporary society – and in Canada’s Jewish community, as Troper (co-author with Irving Abella of None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe19331948) demonstrates in a series of seven well-documented chapters that zero in on various issues and incidents that marked and changed Canadian Jewry in the ‘60s.

It was a period in which all kinds of barriers to Jewish participation in all aspects of society – beyond membership in elite private clubs – fell away. As Troper notes, “The 1960s opened doors to Jewish engagement in the larger society … [and] many Jews walked through those doors. But unlike an earlier generation, they no longer had to park their Jewishness at the door.”

Among the discussions in the book are overviews of the Canadian Jewish community at the beginning of the 1960s in the introductory chapter and at the end of the decade in the conclusion; an examination of the rapidly changing dynamic

for the Jewish community in Montreal during the Quiet Revolution; the development of Toronto’s Jewish community, which was then smaller than Montreal’s; Canadian Jewry’s strong support for Israel during and after the Six Day War; the strong relationship the Jewish community had with Pierre Elliot Trudeau (he was MP for Mount Royal, then Canada’s most predominately Jewish riding, and was the first Canadian prime minister to appoint Jews to cabinet); and the emergence of the plight of Soviet Jewry as a major issue for Canadian Jews.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book is Troper’s demonstration that there’s nothing new about so many of the current concerns of Canada’s Jewish community. The proportion of Jews in the Canadian population was seen to be shrinking due to a lower Jewish birth rate in the 1960s. The proportion of Jewish seniors was higher than in the population-atlarge. Intermarriage was already a concern in smaller Jewish communities. After the Six Day War of 1967, forces within the United Church were speaking out against Israel and Jew-

Michael Regenstreif ish students were embattled on university campuses facing off against the emerging anti-Zionism of the New Left.

As well, there was already a perception that power in Canada’s organized Jewish community was dominated by a “small group of generally moneyed … insiders,” which echoes much of the criticism of the process that led to the recent creation of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

Although Troper is an academic and the book is extensively footnoted, he is also a very skilled storyteller with an easily readable writing style, which makes The Defining Decade: Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish Community in the 1960s a book that will have wide appeal for general readers interested in an important period of Canadian Jewish history.

Jewish identity and journalistic integrity Growing up, I attended Hillel Academy, Camp B’nai Brith of Ottawa and, with many other Jewish students, Sir Robert Borden High School. The question of how to present my Jewish identity wasn’t something I struggled with.

Yes, being Jewish played a major role in shaping my morals, values and heritage. But, in carving out my public identity, Judaism took a back seat.

This changed when I entered university.

For instance, people looked at me with a bewildered expression earlier this month when they described the feast that awaited them Thanksgiving weekend and I described myself sitting at an empty table repenting my sins for 24 hours.

Another friend, who had never before met another Jew, told me he had tried matzo balls once, out of a can, and they tasted like sausages. I cringed and felt compelled to bring chicken soup with matzo balls to school the following week so he could try the real deal.

In the past, with so many other Jews around, there was never a need to explain our traditions or customs and to prevent misconceptions. Now, though, I feel like an ambassador.

Although we can hope other students are open minded enough not to play on stereotypes, we must recognize that, on campus, we are all representatives of our ethnicities, and we must use this power responsibly.

That’s not to say it’s easy.

When I agreed to take on the position of opinions and editorials (Op/Ed) editor of the Charlatan, Carleton’s independent student weekly, I knew I might run into some challenges.

I figured it would just be a matter of staying as balanced as possible with what I printed, despite my personal beliefs.

Participating in Jewish events would be OK, but not those with “political” purposes, such as the pro-Israel cause – simple enough.

But, then, less than two months into the school year, came the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations.

I received a poorly written, pro-Palestine submission. It wasn’t the content that bothered me, even if it did, in fact, bother me. I even offered to help the author strengthen his argument. The piece just didn’t meet the necessary criteria or calibre for my section of the newspaper.

The author refused to make any changes. Condescend-

Campus Life Ilana Belfer ingly, he told me “not to worry about it.” But, it’s my job to worry about it.

He threatened to “take action,” sent butchered e-mails to several members of the newspaper staff and accused me of marginalizing his opinion.

Unfortunately, this was all taking place at the last minute, as running a newspaper often does, and my backup opinion piece, which I had on-reserve for the following week, was a pro-Israel stance on the same issue.

The hardest part of this situation wasn’t the situation itself. The worst part was a fear of compromising my image.

Would people think I was biased if I pulled his piece and went with the pro-Israel one?

A Jewish friend told me not to compromise my journalistic integrity. He told me I didn’t deserve to be an editor if I published something without merit just because I’d been bullied to do so. I agreed.

But, then, he asked one more time if it was really the content or the quality that concerned me.

I remembered: on campus, I act as an ambassador. It wouldn’t be responsible to lose my dignity as a representative of our people.

It meant forging my own path. I scrapped the topic that week, found a new and well-written pro-Palestinian piece and published it alongside a pro-Israel piece the following week – a format that, to my knowledge, has never been used before in the Charlatan.

Maintaining dignity as a Jewish ambassador can mean different things to those in different positions on campus.

For a member of the Israel Awareness Committee, it can mean promoting Israel to the death.

For me, as a journalist, it means ensuring both sides are heard equally and fairly.

I’ve chosen to use my on-campus position to demonstrate willingness for discourse and peace.

How will you use yours?

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 27

FOUNDATION DONATIONS Our future is in your hands

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Continued on page 28

Page 28 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

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Speedy Recovery to: Eddy Saslove by Sally and Elliott Levitan.

New Year wishes to: Eddy Saslove by Sally and Elliott Levitan.

Ruth Freiman by Sally and Elliott Levitan.

R’Fuah Sh’lemah to: Ruth Freiman by Sally and Elliott Levitan.

ERNEST AND IDA LEVITZ MEMORIAL FUND New Year wishes to: Jamie and Doreen Levitz and family by the Levitz family.

JOHN AND ESTELLE LIBERMAN ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Susie Filion by John and Estelle Liberman.

Irving Finkelberg by John and Estelle Liberman.

ETHYL AND MANNY LIGHTSTONE MEMORIAL FUND In memory of: Risë Silverstein by Judah and Margo Silverman.

ARNOLD AND ROSE LITHWICK MEMORIAL FUND Birthday wishes to: Marieta Lithwick by Yvonne and Harvey Lithwick and family.

Mazal Tov to: Jim and Grace Hillel on the Bat Mitzvah of their granddaughter Eden by Yvonne and Harvey Lithwick and family.

Carol and Howard Lithwick on the marriage of their son Jonathan to Ilana by Yvonne and Harvey Lithwick and family.

SAMUEL AND LEEMA MAGIDSON ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Dolly Roth by Arnold and Roslyn Kimmel.

SEYMOUR AND JOY MENDER FAMILY FUND In memory of: Harry Fleisher by Seymour, Joy, Jess, David

and Jared Mender.

CHUCK AND BONNIE MEROVITZ FAMILY FUND In memory of: Helen Heller by Bonnie and Chuck Merovitz.

NORMAN AND ANNE MIRSKY MEMORIAL FUND Special birthday wishes to: Milton Shaffer on his 95th birthday by Millie and Steve Mirsky and Mary and Paul Mirsky.

JEAN AND MAX NAEMARK ENDOWMENT FUND In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: Chenya Torontow, a beloved mother by Jean Naemark.

Betty Naemark, a beloved mother-in-law by Jean Naemark.

Mazal Tov to: Valerie Torontow on her engagement to Jordan by Beatrice Torontow.

New Year wishes to: Eleanor and Tammy Torontow by Beatrice Torontow.

MOISHE AND MOLLY NARWA ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Molly Narwa by David and Judith Kalin.

JACK AND MIRIAM PLEET ENDOWMENT FUND Special birthday wishes to: Miriam Pleet on her 85th birthday by Blossom Read; and by Ben and Marjorie Achbar.

GERALD AND MARY-BELLE PULVERMACHER FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Harry Fleisher by Gerald and Mary-Belle Pulvermacher.

Birthday wishes to: Morty Fruchter by Gerald and Mary-Belle Pulvermacher.

FLORENCE AND GDALYAH ROSENFELD ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Gdalyah Rosendfeld by Nancy, Brahm, Corey and Kayla Rosen and by Barbara, Len, Steven and Michael Farber.

SAMUEL AND RUTH ROTHMAN MEMORIAL FUND Mazal Tov to: Isaac Muzinkansky on the release of his CD

by Sheldon and Corinne Taylor.

New Year wishes to: Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg by Sheldon and Corinne Taylor.

Chick and Rose Taylor by Sheldon and Corinne Taylor.

Charles and Malca Polowin by Sheldon and Corinne Taylor.

SHELLEY AND SID ROTHMAN FAMILY FUND Mazal Tov to: Jeffrey and Felice Pleet on their daughter, Erin, being called to the Bar of Ontario by Shelley Rothman and family.

HELEN AND ROY SAIPE ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday wishes to: Helen Saipe by Agnes Jeredi, Brenda Wolfe Continued on page 29

October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 29

FOUNDATION DONATIONS and Elaine Singer.

ELAYNE AND WESLEY SCHACTER ENDOWMENT FUND New Year wishes to: Bryan and Bev Glube by Elayne, Wesley, Adam, Josh and Michael Schacter.

HAROLD SHAFFER MEMORIAL FUND Special birthday wishes to: Milton Shaffer by Frances and Dorothy Shaffer and Rhea Wohl.

LORNE AND LAURIE SHUSTERMAN FAMILY FUND In memory of: Roy Partridge by Lorne and Laurie Shusterman.

JACK AND SARAH SILVERSTEIN FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Risë Silverstein by Jeff and Felice Pleet.

LINDA SILVERMAN MEMORIAL FUND Birthday wishes to: Miriam Pleet by Marvin and Phylis Silverman.

STELLA AND LOUIS SLACK MEMORIAL FUND Special birthday wishes to: Lester Aronson by Sandra and Norman Slover.

Lester Aronson by Millie Weinstein.

In memory of: Harry Fleisher by Myra and Lester Aronson and family.

MOE AND CHARLOTTE SLACK MEMORIAL FUND In memory of: Claire Kevanstein by Marlene Levine and Andrew Siman.

New Year wishes to: Natalie and Raymond Stern and family by Marlene Levine and Andrew Siman.

SAM AND SUE SLACK ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of: Annetta Leighton by Sue Slack, Sharon and David Appotive and Joy and Seymour Mender and families.

Mazal Tov to: Estelle and Sol Gunner on their new home by Sue Slack, Sharon and David Appotive and Joy and Seymour Mender and families.

IRVING AND HARRIET SLONE ENDOWMENT FUND New Year wishes to: Irving and Harriet Slone by Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg.

BEN AND SHIRLEY SMOLKIN MEMORIAL FUND New Year wishes to: Hy and Ruth Braiter by Howard Smolkin and Annice Kronick.

PATRICIA SMOLKIN MEMORIAL FUND New Year wishes to: Michael Shapiro and Nicole SmolkinShapiro by Howard Smolkin and Annice Kronick.

PHYLLIS AND MAX STERNTHAL FAMILY FUND Special birthday wishes to: Max Sternthal on his 85th birthday by Blossom Read.

CASEY AND BESS SWEDLOVE ENDOWMENT FUND New Year wishes to: Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg by Carol-Sue and Jack Shapiro.

In memory of: Annetta Leighton by Carol-Sue and Jack Shapiro.

CHARLES AND RAE TAVEL MEMORIAL FUND New Year wishes to: Ruth and AJ Freiman by John and Sunny Tavel.

Denise Gillman and Ed Sussman by John and Sunny Tavel.

Ceil and Ritchie Meltzer by John and Sunny Tavel.

Joanne and Ritchie Friedenthal by John and Sunny Tavel.

Kay and Jack Kringstein by John and Sunny Tavel.

Jeffrey and Felice Pleet by John and Sunny Tavel.

Morton and Sylvia Pleet by John and Sunny Tavel.

Mazal Tov to: Jeffrey and Felice Pleet on their daughter Erin’s Call to the Bar by John and Sunny Tavel.

Morton and Sylvia Pleet on their granddaughter Erin’s call to the Bar by John and Sunny Tavel.

In memory of: Harry Fleisher by John and Sunny Tavel.

Special birthday wishes to: Lester Aronson by John and Sunny Tavel.

CHARLES AND ROSE TAYLOR ENDOWMENT FUND New Year wishes to: Chick and Rose Taylor by Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg.

IRVING AND ETHEL TAYLOR ENDOWMENT FUND Mazal Tov to: Irving Taylor on the recent marriage of his granddaughter by Sheldon and Corinne Taylor.

New Year wishes to: Charles and Malca Polowin by Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg.

Harry and Esther Froman by Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg.

Brent, Risa and Shira Taylor by Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg.

Mark, Susan, Jennifer and Daniel Korn by Irving Taylor and Evelyn Greenberg.

BARBARA AND GERALD THAW ENDOWMENT FUND New Year wishes to: Elsa, Norman, Stacey and Marc Swedko by Barbara and Gerry Thaw.

Dorothy Nadolny by Barbara and Gerry Thaw.

Stan and Gail Hitzig by Barbara and Gerry Thaw.

Evelyn Rivers by Barbara and Gerry Thaw.

LISE AND MARK THAW FAMILY FUND New Year wishes to: Gerald and Barbara Thaw by Lise, Mark, Alayna and Bryan Thaw.

Andrew and Joany Katz and family by Lise, Mark, Alayna and Bryan Thaw.

Elsa and Norman Swedko by Lise, Mark, Alayna and Bryan Thaw.

Dorothy Nadolny by Lise, Mark, Alayna and Bryan Thaw.

Stan and Gail Hitzig by Lise, Mark, Alayna and Bryan Thaw.

MOSES, CHENYA AND HENRY TORONTOW MEMORIAL FUND Mazal Tov to: Alan and Elaine Torontow on the engagement of their daughter Valerie to Jordan by Jean Naemark and family.

Bea Torontow on the engagement of her granddaughter Valerie to Jordan by Jean Naemark and family.

ZEEV AND SARA VERED COMMUNITY ENDOWMENT FUND New Year wishes to: Elizabeth and Arnon Vered by David GlickStahl.

HAZE WAINBERG FAMILY FUND Speedy recovery to: Eddy Saslove by Mervin and Haze Wainberg.

MILDRED AND PERCY WEINSTEIN ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday wishes to: Alyce Baker by Mildred Weinstein.

Speedy recovery to: Debi Shore by Millie Weinstein.

SAM AND HELENE ZARET MEMORIAL FUND Speedy recovery to: Felice Pleet by Debi and Neil Zaret.

ZIPES KARANOFSKY FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND Mazal Tov to: Curry Wood on the birth of his first grandchild Harrison Andrew by Rick and Helen Zipes.

In memory of: Tom Van Dusen by Rick and Helen Zipes.

Annetta Leighton by Rick and Helen Zipes.

Harry Fleisher by Rick and Helen Zipes.

R’Fuah Sh’lemah to: Edgar Saslove by Rick and Helen Zipes.

THE WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE PHILANTHROPY PROGRAM Providing support for services and programs that directly benefit women and children.

WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE ENDOWMENT FUND Mazal Tov to: Dr. Zave Chat and Dr. Janet Dollin on the birth of their great-niece by Lynne Oreck-Wener and Bob Wener.

THE SAUL AND EDNA GOLDFARB B’NAI MITZVAH PROGRAM GABRIEL HAMBURG MITZVAH FUND Special birthday wishes to: Lyon Hamburg by Ellen and Art Leader.

RACHELI MANDELKER MITZVAH FUND Birthday wishes to: Rose Mandelker by Barry, Barbara, Racheli and Abby Mandelker.

New Year wishes to: Joe and Linda Frankfort and family by Barry, Barbara, Racheli and Abby Mandelker.

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Mandelker by Barry, Barbara, Racheli and Abby Mandelker.

Contributions may be made online at www.OJCF.ca or by contacting Sarah Brantz at 613-798-4696 extension 274, Monday to Friday or by email at donation@ojcf.ca. Attractive cards are sent to convey the appropriate sentiments. All donations are acknowledged with a charitable receipt. We accept Visa, MasterCard and Amex.

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Page 30 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

Mincha in Pitigliano, Italy I recently returned from a wonderful holiday in the Italian region of Umbria. Umbria borders on Tuscany, is quite similar in landscape and agriculture, but not quite as crowded or well known among tourists.

We went with 16 good friends, to celebrate my husband Roger’s birthday. There were 10 of us from Ottawa and eight from Toronto.

We rented a villa for nine days. Each day, we ventured out on foot or on bikes or in a minibus driven by Claudio, our charming Italian driver. He was fond of telling us, “Well, if we are not lost, then we must be here.”

For me, the most memorable day of the trip was when we visited Pitigliano. This little hillside town, south of Florence, on the Tuscan border, has a fascinating Jewish history.

Jews began settling in Pitigliano in the 15th century.

The Jewish population continued to grow as more Jews were forced out of Rome because of Pope Paul IV’s segregation policies requiring Jews to live in ghettos.

Pitigliano was an attractive place to settle for many Jews because it was not part of the papal state and was an independent province, ruled at the time by the Orsini family. The Orsinis’ social policy was quite laissez-faire and the Jews were permitted to live a freer lifestyle. A synagogue was built in 1598, followed by a school.

Jews were permitted to set up their own businesses as

The interior of the Pitigliano Synagogue, which was rebuilt in 1995 The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Publishing Co. Ltd. collects and uses your personal information primarily for the purpose of providing you with the products and services you have requested from us.

The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin may also contact you from time to time to ask about

Made with Love

This recipe comes from Liria Costantino, a wonderful chef I met while staying at her place, Casali di Monticchio, in the Italian region of Umbria.

You will need a food mill to prepare this soup. I found mine at Canadian Tire, but they can also be found at most kitchenware stores or online at Amazon.ca.

Cindy Feingold

Serves 4

carpenters, tailors, weavers, shoemakers and moneylenders. The city soon became known as La Piccola Gerusalemme (Little Jerusalem).

Over the next several hundred years, depending on who was in power, the fortunes of the Jews of Pitigliano either waxed or waned. However, despite restrictions during various periods, the Jewish community continued to grow and prosper. In the mid-1800s, the Jewish population of Pitigliano reached almost 400 people, more than 10 per cent of the total population.

After the unification of Italy in 1861, the Jewish population of Pitigliano began to decline. Many Jews moved to larger cities nearby for economic reasons. By 1931, there were only 70 Jews left there. Anti-Semitism was rampant by 1936 and racial laws were instituted in 1938. During the Holocaust, the brave Christian people of Pitigliano risked their lives to hide and save Jews escaping from the Nazi terror. They hid them on farms in the valleys and in caves in the hills.

After the war, only 30 Jews returned to Pitigliano. The synagogue had been damaged during the war. Today, despite there being only three Jews left in Pitigliano, the Jewish cultural heritage has been preserved. The synagogue was rebuilt in 1995. Elena Servi and her nephew have made it their life’s mission to tell the story of Pitigliano’s Jews so that future generations can learn from it.

It is a beautiful story of cultural and religious coexistence, compassion and respect. Elena, with local citizens and organizations, raised the funds to restore the synagogue, the Forno di Asimo (kosher oven) and the Jewish cemetery to look the same as they did 200 years ago.

We were privileged to meet Elena and she spoke to us about her experiences during the Holocaust. We were served an incredible lunch in the old wine cellar and our charming guide, Elisabetta, took us over to the synagogue after lunch.

Seeing this beautifully restored synagogue in a town where there are not even enough Jews to make a minyan filled me with an overwhelming sense of hope that perhaps religious peace and coexistence is possible.

Our friend Joel led us in Mincha, the afternoon prayer service. To hear Hebrew being sung in this place was truly life affirming. By the end of the service, there were very few dry eyes.

Of course, along with these wonderful memories, I brought home a few new recipes. One of my favourite new discoveries is actually a very old recipe called Pappa al Pomodoro. This is a Tuscan tomato and bread soup with very humble origins. It was created as a way to use up stale bread. I first had it at Cibreo, a wonderful restaurant in Florence.

We asked the chef and owner of our villa to give us a cooking lesson so we could learn how to make it.

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Pappa al Pomodoro Soup

with the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation and the Soloway Jewish Community Centre.

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2 pounds plum tomatoes (about 8-10 tomatoes), washed and cut into quarters or two 400-gram cans Italian plum tomatoes, drained and juices discarded 4 large green onions, washed and cut in half 10 fresh basil leaves 1 teaspoon kosher salt pinch red pepper flakes (optional) 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 3 whole cloves garlic, lightly smashed 4 whole cloves 10 fresh basil leaves 1/2 loaf stale Italian bread (at least 3 days old) Extra virgin olive oil (a drizzle for each bowl of soup to garnish) 10 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced, for garnish Place quartered fresh tomatoes (or whole canned tomatoes), green onions, basil, salt and red pepper flakes into a large saucepan. Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes.

Set up a food mill over a large stainless steel mixing bowl. Remove green onions from the pot and discard. Place half the cooked tomatoes into the food mill and turn the handle of the food mill. The pulp and juice of the tomatoes will fall into the bowl and the skins and seeds will stay up top in the food mill. Dump out the skins and seeds from the top part of the food mill. Repeat with the rest of the tomatoes. Set aside the juice and pulp.

In the same large saucepan, heat olive oil on a gentle heat for a minute or so. Add whole garlic cloves, whole cloves and basil leaves. Cook for a few minutes until it all smells incredibly fragrant. Do not brown garlic!

Add tomato pulp and simmer for about 10 minutes.

While tomatoes are simmering, cut up stale bread into 1-inch chunks. Place half of them into food processor and process until you have breadcrumbs.

Repeat with rest of bread cubes.

Remove garlic cloves and whole cloves from the pot. Add half the breadcrumbs and stir. Look at the consistency of the soup. It should be quite thick and porridge-like. (The first time I had this soup it was served with a fork!) Add the remaining bread crumbs, if desired. (I used the entire amount.) Let simmer for a few more minutes. Soup can be made several hours ahead and will keep at room temperature. Reheat before serving.

Ladle into bowls. Drizzle each bowl with some extra virgin olive oil and some thinly sliced basil.

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October 31, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 31

Eighteen things you may not know about Evan Zelikovitz The first thing you need to know about Evan Zelikovitz is that he is not shy. In fact, he is one of the friendliest people I know. His big smile is a wonderful greeting.

Along with being a husband and father of two, Evan is an avid volunteer in Ottawa’s Jewish community. He is a past chair of Ottawa’s community-wide Yom Ha’Atzmaut and Mitzvah Day programs, and spent eight years on the board of the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC). He was on the executive when the Soloway JCC opened on the Jewish Community Campus. He currently sits on the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s Resource Development Committee and serves on the board of Camp B’nai Brith of Ottawa.

In April 2012, Evan and Karen Palayew will chaperone Ottawa’s March of the Living contingent. Applications are now being accepted from students in Grades 10-12. For more information, students or parents can contact Benita Siemiatycki at the Jewish Ottawa InfoCentre at 613-7984644.

Here are 18 things you may not know about Evan Zelikovitz …

1. I was born and raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia. I moved to Halifax at the age of 15 and was one of only nine Jewish students in a high school of 1,300 students. I came to Ottawa in 1992 to article at a law firm. My grandfather was born in Ottawa and moved to Sydney when he was 20.

I am extremely proud of my Maritime roots.

2. I met my wife Lenora at a Jewish Men’s Softball League game. She was cheering for her cousin and I was on the other team. Lenora was sitting with Sandy Bregman, who happened to be my dental hygienist, and she introduced us. The rest is history!

3. I love to golf and my best score, so far, is an 80.

4. I am a huge Pink Floyd fan and have seen Roger Waters four times and David Gilmour twice. Despite being a huge fan, I will no longer go to see Roger Waters perform since he called for a full boycott of Israel. Shame on you Roger!

5. I love to barbecue. My specialty is a butterflied lamb marinated with hot mustard, Dijon and rosemary.

6. My favourite Jewish holiday is Passover – not for the food, but for the family. We always host the first seder and I enjoy having my children, Noah and Arielle, help lead the seder.

7. My family always watches Modern Family and Glee together.

8. I have been a Boston Red Sox fan since childhood.

I have gone to Fenway Park to see the Sox play many times and am quite disappointed that my son is a Blue Jays fan! The recent Red Sox collapse was very sad for me to watch.

9. After completing my first university degree, I lived in Israel for a year (1988-1989) and taught at the Walworth Barbour American International School in Kfar Shmaryahu. While there, I coached the boy’s varsity soccer team and we were selected to attend an international tournament in Amsterdam. Imagine me, 22 years old and chaperoning 15 high school students in Amsterdam. We had a lot of fun!

10. I love sports movies, especially Rocky and Field of Dreams.

11. My first real job, at the age of 18, was working in an open-pit gold mine in Matheson, Ontario, about four hours north of Sudbury. It was back-breaking work and I hated it, but I got to use a machete!

12. I once para-skied off a 10,000 foot high cliff in Les Trois Vallées in the French Alps.

13. I spent a total of 15 summers at Camp Kadimah, which is located in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Along with being a camper, I was general staff; head of water-ski; head of CITs; and program director. Those were some of the best years of my life!

14. In August 2010, our family went on an incredible two-week Mediterranean cruise and visited the main square in Tunis. Less than a year later, the Tunisian Arab Spring started in that exact spot.

15. My wife and I love eating at nice restaurants. Our current favourites are the Wellington Gastropub and the Black Cat Café.

16. When I was five years old, my parents went on a vacation and my mother left her wedding ring at home. I wore it to the park one day and promptly lost it. My mother was not impressed!

17. My Hebrew name is Chavov Dov. My nickname, especially at camp, was EZel because that’s how my mother labelled all my clothes.

18. In 1984, I was one of only five Canadians to participate in a trip to visit the concentration camps in Poland. It was not called March of the Living yet. There were only 85 participants from around the world. Twenty-seven years later, I am very proud to be going back as an Ottawa chaperone for the March of the Living.

18 things ...

Sarah Silverstein

Lenora and Evan Zelikovitz with son Noah and daughter Arielle.

Do we or don’t we have free will?

Is it possible to start typing without knowing how to finish the sentence that you started and to make up your mind that you have reached the end of the sentence only when you feel the desire to punctuate it with a period or a question mark?

In fact, I just did just that. It felt a little like starting to walk without being sure of the destination, only having in mind that, eventually, I would get somewhere other than where I was, a place marked by different foliage and perhaps a cooler breeze refreshing my sunburned cheeks.

This, of course, raises the question of whether or not we have free will.

For instance, could I just choose to randomly utter words without them giving? order any Writing that question like that seemed odd. The spelling and grammar checker on my word processor wants desperately to fix the punctuation. A reader probably wouldn’t be able to make out what I was saying. Neither, on rereading what I just wrote, would I. Here’s the conundrum. Without a word order and proper grammar, I wouldn’t know myself what I was saying. So, when I start writing, since I, myself, am not yet sure of exactly what I am going to say, who is it that is running the show? Who is organizing these muscle movements in my mouth and throat and co-ordinating them with my facial expressions without my conscious control?

I remember choosing to stay in bed a little longer this morning and I remember choosing to go along Carling rather than the Queensway when driving downtown, but I don’t remember making choices every time I had to utter or write words. All I can remember about conversations is my general intent to inform, to listen, to amuse, to learn, but nothing about the myriad little decisions I would have had to make about whether to use definite or indefinite articles!

These things are important because, if it isn’t me, then how can I be responsible for uttering falsehoods or lashan hara? And, if this is true about talking and writing, is it not

Humour me, please Rubin Friedman also true about everything I do? For that matter, doesn’t this apply to everybody? Once the rules have been set in place, don’t the arbiters of those rules take over and leave very little to each of us to add to the unfolding of the universe?

How can we atone for what we have done, if it wasn’t exactly us doing it?

We have become aware of how our manipulation of electrons on the Internet can become a permanent record. There are still references to me on the sites of extremists from when I was a representative of B’nai Brith Canada, as well as comments I made in discussion groups 15 years ago! I assume our creator has access to the latest technology, so he would, no doubt, have a permanent record of everything I have done or said since I was born. Imagine a divine presence on YouTube where videos of you doing anything and everything would be available 24/7.

Even Jon Stewart would have to start being concerned. Forget WikiLeaks! What about divinerecords.com?

There are times when I think the world would be better if everyone had as much access to the complete record as the Supreme Judge.

That way, whatever the reality of free will, we can ask for a fresh start without, like Bill Clinton, involving everybody else. It is better to let a higher power decide what the meaning of “is” is and what exactly I intended to say when I started writing.

Page 32 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – October 31, 2011

WHAT’S GOING ON October 31 to November 13, 2011 WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS Motorin Munchkins for children 5 and under, sponsored by the Family Life Centre. Children must be accompanied by an adult, 9:00 am to noon. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 294.

TUESDAYS Israeli Folk Dancing, no partner necessary, Ottawa Jewish Community School, 31 Nadolny Sachs Private, 7:00 pm. Info: judy@ottawaisraelidance.ca.

WEDNESDAYS Playgroup for babies and toddlers, sponsored by the Family Life Centre. Children must be accompanied by an adult, 9:00

CANDLELIGHTING BEFORE Nov 4

✡

5:28 pm

Nov 11

✡

4:19 pm

to 11:30 am. Info: 613-7989818, ext 294.

FRIDAYS Shabbat Shalom for children 5 and under, sponsored by the Family Life Centre. Children must be accompanied by an adult, 9:30 to 11:00 am. Info: 613-798-9818, ext. 294.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3 An Evening with Paul Shapiro, director of the Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a special event of Holocaust Education Month, Agudath Israel Congregation, 1400 Coldrey Avenue, 7:00 pm. Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 253.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6 Return to Standard Time: At 2:00 am, turn clocks back to 1:00 am.

“The Final Victory: The

Story of Felix Zandman,” this film depicts the story of Dr. Felix Zandman, a young Jewish boy who survives the Holocaust and goes on to become a world renowned scientist whose inventions have been adopted in science and technology around the world. Part of Holocaust Education Month, 7:00 pm. Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 253.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8 2011 Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner with keynote speaker Barbara Walters, Fairmont Château Laurier, 1 Rideau Street, 6:00 pm. Info: 613-7982411.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 “The Heart of Auschwitz” documentary is the story of a small handmade booklet in the shape of a heart, made by a group of female inmates on the occasion of the 20th birthday of their friend Fania Landau in

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

1944, and it is now on display at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. Filmmaker Carl LeBlanc will be available for a Q&A after the screening. Part of Holocaust Education Month.

Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street, 6:30 pm. Info: 613-7305442.

NOVEMBER 10-13 Discover Jewish New York with AJA 50+ and Rabbi Steven Garten. Customized tour includes bus transportation, Shabbat dinner, theatre and more. Info: 613-526-2968.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13 Books and Bagels, sponsored by Temple Israel: Mira Sucharov reviews “To the End of the Land,” by David Grossman.

Not necessary to have read the book. Breakfast served at 9:30 am, followed by review, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive. Info: 613594-4556.

COMING SOON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 “Eichman’s End – Love, Treachery, Death,” film set in Argentina in 1956, the story of the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who falls in love with the son of Adolph Eichmann. Andrew Cohen, professor of Journalism and International Affairs at Carleton University, will moderate.

Part of Holocaust Education Month by the Shoah Committee, German Embassy in Canada, and the Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Cenre for Jewish Studies, Carleton University. Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street, 6:30 pm and 8:45 pm.

Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 253.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20 “David Shentow: Prisoner of the Nazi Holocaust, Number 72585” film features interviews conducted over several weeks by David Hoffman; directed and music composed by Floralove Katz.

Q&A with David Shentow and the filmmakers follows. Part of Holocaust Education Month, 3:00 pm.

Info: 613-798-4696, ext. 253.

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: Lou Eisenberg Harry Fleisher, Montreal (father of Arlene Glube) Leon Goldsmith Ashley Leah Grant Laura Hoffman Robert Kaner, Minneapolis (brother of Elaine Hauptman)

Morris (Morrie) Krantzberg Ida Kufsky Bernard Miller Molly Narwa Deanna Silverman Gus Solman

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 NOVEMBER 9 FOR NOVEMBER 28 NOVEMBER 23 FOR DECEMBER 12* JANUARY 4 FOR JANUARY 23 * Community-wide Issue (all dates subject to change)

JEWISH MEMORIAL GARDENS Your one-stop resource centre for funeral planning 613-688-3530

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