Ottawa jewish bulletin 2011 11 28(inaccessible)

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bulletin volume 76, no. 4

november 28, 2011

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Walters recalls celebrity interviews at Negev Dinner

By Michael Regenstreif Legendary television personality Barbara Walters was the keynote speaker, November 8, at a somewhat different kind of Jewish National Fund of Ottawa (JNF) Negev Dinner. Different in that it was a Negev Dinner held without a primary honouree.

Former Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien was to have been honoured but withdrew. In his place, the collective honourees were the “Friends of Israel in Ottawa,” in other words, all local supporters of Israel and the JNF. Funds raised by the 2011 Negev Dinner – attended by about

400 people at the Fairmont Château Laurier – were in support of the Sderot Recycled Water Reservoir. Sderot is the Negev community that has been besieged by rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza in recent years.

In her remarks, Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv noted how pleased she was that JNF Ottawa was supporting the reservoir in Sderot.

“The solidarity shown by the JNF with the city of Sderot in establishing this project means not

only more water, but it also shows the people of Sderot that they are not alone in facing the threat of terrorism,” said Ziv. The ambassador also made note of JNF’s successes at forestation in Israel. “We are the only nation in the world with more trees than 100 years ago,” she said.

A video was shown, noting many JNF projects funded by previous Negev Dinners in Ottawa. In her opening remarks, Walters said the scope of JNF work was “inspiring.”

Walters devoted most of her address to brief reminiscences of some of the most notable political leaders and celebrities she has interviewed over her long career.

It is a career that remains busy at age 82. Walters is currently cohost and co-executive producer of The View, a daily morning TV talk show, and she continues to put together several prime time celebrity interview specials each year.

Among the figures mentioned

by Walters there were several, (Continued on page 2 )

Mayor kicks off Bullying Awareness Week at OJCS Mayor Jim Watson proclaimed Bullying Awareness Week in Ottawa at an assembly, November 15, at the Ottawa Jewish Community School. In addition to the mayor’s anti-bullying speech, the assembly included an anti-bullying video prepared by Grade 6 students and the presentation of Certificates of Recognition to a student from each grade that has shown exemplary behaviour.

(From left) Watson presents the framed proclamation to students Cammi Seller and Rachel Kardish, who hosted the assembly, and Principal Sheldon Friedman.

(Photo: Michael Regenstreif)

Barbara Walters regales Negev Dinner attendees with anecdotes from her long career in television.

(Photo: Howard Kay)

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Page 2 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Beth Shalom to sell Chapel Street building

By Michael Regenstreif In the end, it wasn’t even close as members of Congregation Beth Shalom concluded a special meeting, following the synagogue’s annual general meeting, November 6, by voting to ratify the Board of Governors’ decision to sell the synagogue building, and the former Jewish Community Centre, at 151-153 Chapel Street, and build a new synagogue building, possibly on the Jewish Community Campus.

Following often contentious debate, the vote was 142 in favour of the sale and 24 against with five abstentions. Only Beth Shalom members present at the meeting were allowed to vote as the rules did not allow for proxies.

Beth Shalom has been in a precarious situation for a number of years. While the downtown Sandy Hill location was once the hub of Ottawa’s Jewish community, most of the city’s Jewish population moved from the area decades ago.

As noted at the AGM, the congregation is currently running annual deficits in the range of $200,000.

“The current financial model is no longer viable,” said Brent Taylor, a member

Congregation Beth Shalom voted to sell its Chapel Street building and build a new synagogue building, possibly on the Jewish Community Campus.

(Photo: Michael Regenstreif)

of the Beth Shalom Board and chair of the task force charged with finding a purchaser for the building and arranging the potential sale.

Task force member Jason Shinder explained the process through which the synagogue solicited offers from potential buyers and finally settled on the best

offer, $15,350,000, from Claridge Homes, which plans to build a residential tower with a big box retail store at ground level.

Claridge Homes will be seeking zoning changes to the property from the city.

Depending on zoning changes, the purchase price could rise, said Shinder, by

as much as an additional $9 million.

The synagogue will be able to stay in its current building for up to four years, three of them rentfree, until a new building is constructed, while also reaping financial benefits of the sale.

Shinder noted this was

the best offer for downtown Ottawa real estate in the past five to 10 years.

The task force report estimates the cost of building a new synagogue will be between $8 million and $12 million and plans to discuss the possibility of constructing a shared building with other congregations that

may be interested in moving to the Jewish Community Campus.

Earlier this year, Temple Israel, which has outgrown its Prince of Wales Drive building, presented a proposal to build a new building on the Jewish Community Campus.

Beth Shalom President Ian Sherman, noting his life-long membership in the congregation, said the offer was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” that would provide Beth Shalom with “a minimum $5 million endowment fund.”

Sherman, who began his third two-year term as Beth Shalom president that evening at the annual general meeting, also said the sale and relocation was “an opportunity to reposition Beth Shalom as the dominant synagogue in the Ottawa Jewish community.”

Beth Shalom was created in 1956 with the amalgamation of Ottawa’s first two congregations, Adath Jeshurun, founded in 1892, and Agudath Achim, founded in 1902.

An Orthodox congregation for most of its history, Beth Shalom is now affiliated with the Canadian Council of Conservative Synagogues.

Jewish background has no impact on Walter’s journalism (Continued from page 1)

including assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, she described as particularly inspiring.

Sadat, she said, “changed history” by making peace with Israel and was probably aware that he would pay for it with his life.

“Take care of your mother,” Walters said Sadat told his son just days before he was murdered.

“Unfortunately, there are no great leaders, no Anwar Sadats, in the world today,” Walters lamented.

Other figures she mentioned included the Dalai Lama, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, actors Katherine Hepburn, Christopher Reeve and Patrick Swayze, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Talking about what’s important in life, Walters said not all women, or men, “should have a career,” that it was much more important

to have “someone to love and someone who loves you.”

She added that good friendships are also essential.

Walters also lamented not having had a religious education. Although she was born to a Jewish family, she said her parents were atheists who did not believe in religion.

Despite that, Walters said she is a “spiritual person” inspired by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, who teaches “the purpose of life is to be happy,” and that “the way to happiness is warm heartedness.”

Following her address, Globe and Mail journalist Jane Taber did an on-stage interview with the celebrity interviewer that touched on several topics.

Asked about the Arab Spring, Walters said she was unsure what would unfold in the quickly

Barbara Walters (left) is thanked by Barbara Crook for her keynote address at the 2011 Negev Dinner. JNF Ottawa planted trees in Israel in Walters’ honour.

(Photo: Howard Kay)

changing Middle East.

“We may come to yearn for the days of the dictator,” Walters said.

Walters also told Taber that her Jewish background has never impacted on her career in journalism.

Other speakers during the Negev Dinner included JNF Ottawa President Oliver Javanpour; Edward Rudick, representing JNF National; and past Negev Dinner honourees Vera Klein and Barbara Crook, who respectively introduced and thanked Walters. The master of ceremonies was Rabbi Reuven Bulka.

JNF also presented the Esther and Eric Exton Educational Award to teacher Ruth Lebovich of the Ottawa Jewish Community School. The award is presented annually to the teacher “who has most advanced the cause of JNF and Zionist education in Canada.”

Lebovich is the third Ottawa teacher to receive the award in its 30-year history.

The program concluded with a brief classical music performance by members of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 3

Page 4 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Women’s philanthropy program holds powerful panel discussion on mental health

By Cynthia Nyman Engel In keeping with its mandate to engage, educate and empower women to become catalysts for change, the Women’s Collective Philanthropy Program (WCPP) presented Women and Mental Health, a panel discussion so powerful you could have heard a pin drop.

The discussion took place November 2 at the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building and was the first event of the WCPP’s Pearls of Wisdom series.

Each of the three panelists brought her personal experience with mental illness out of the closet and placed it squarely in front of a rapt audience of more than 60 women. The honesty and courage of the panelists was rewarded with a prolonged and sincere ovation. A stimulating question-and-answer period followed the presentations.

In her professional life, panelist Shereen Benzvy Miller is director general of the federal government’s Office of Small and Medium Enterprises. In her personal life, she is the mother of a child with chronic mental illness. A

Members of the Women’s Collective Philanthropy Committee and panellists following the Women and Mental Health panel discussion, November 2: (back row, left to right) Committee member Janet Dollin; panellists Irit Sterner and Erica Sher; committee members Lynne Oreck-Wener and Faye Goldman; panellist Shereen Benzvy Miller; committee member Yaffa Greenbaum. (Front row) Panel moderator Jacquie Levy; committee member Betina Kuzmarov. Missing from photo: Committee member Diane Koven.

(Photo: Francine Paulin)

longtime advocate for children’s mental health, Miller spoke freely of the journey a family takes when a child is struck by mental illness, and shared lessons she learned from navigating a health, school and social system that is not set up

to deal with really sick children.

In her professional life, panelist Erica Sher is a coach and mediator working in conflict management for the federal government. Explaining this was the first time she was speaking publicly about her

condition, Sher gave listeners an indepth account of her personal journey through years of battling severe, debilitating anxiety.

Irit Sterner, the third panelist, is a clinical professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa and a

staff psychologist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. Sterner specializes in individual and group treatments for depression and bipolar disorder and spoke about the signs and symptoms associated with mental illness.

The moderator was Jacquie Levy, chair of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s Outreach, Identity and Education Committee.

The evening included a show and sale of exquisite handcrafted jewelry by Marvalee Designs which donated 20 per cent of the evening’s sales to the Women’s Collective Philanthropy Endowment Fund.

Marvalee Designs also donated the door prize of a beautiful necklace won by Miriam Salamon.

The Women’s Collective Philanthropy Committee was formed in 2010 and the fund was established within the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation in January 2011.

Contact Jared Isaacson at 613-798-4696, ext. 248, or jisaacson@ojcf.ca or visit ojcf.ca for further information about the WCPP.

Timing is Everything

Time-of-Use Electricity Rates Changed November 1, 2011 Off-Peak 6.2¢/kWh | Mid-Peak 9.2¢/kWh | On-Peak 10.8¢/kWh Time-of-Use rates are designed to encourage you to shift your electricity use to Off-Peak periods. Something as simple as running your dishwasher after 7 p.m. can have a positive impact on your bill and the environment. You save. We all save.

Visit hydroottawa.com/tou to learn more.

Register for your MyHydroLink account to manage your usage.

Time-of-Use rates are set by the Ontario Energy Board.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 5

Opening the Bad Arolsen archives a personal mission for Paul Shapiro

By Diane Koven It has long been known that the Nazis were meticulous record keepers, documenting and cataloguing the evidence of their “work.” It took well over half a century for the world to witness the enormity of this archival undertaking.

The Bad Arolsen archives, contained in six huge warehouses in central Germany, hold the stories of 17.5 million people who were victims of the Nazis. As well as Jews, there were slave labourers, political prisoners, homosexuals and Roma. At the end of the Second World War, finding these warehouses sitting empty, the International Tracing Services (ITS) decided to house the documents there, all 30 million of them. Unfortunately, until very recently, these records were kept locked up and unavailable for public viewing.

Paul Shapiro, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, made it his personal mission to unlock the Bad Arolsen archives and enable the last of the living Holocaust survivors to search for information about their families, their friends and even themselves. The task was monumental and consumed Shapiro for six years, during which time he lobbied hard and ultimately successfully to have the records opened.

Shapiro was keynote speaker, November 3, at a special Holocaust Education Month event at Agudath Israel Congregation.

Beginning by showing an excerpt from the 60 Minutes report about his saga, Shapiro shared the details of his long and arduous campaign, listing the organizations and governments he lobbied, the tactics he employed, the media attention he sought and made use of, and his ultimate satisfaction in being able to help people find some of the missing pieces in their personal stories.

In addition to the personal stories, there are larger messages contained in the archival discovery of Bad Arolsen, said Shapiro.

Camp Gesher Habonim Dror Building and dreaming since 1963

CAMP GESHER INFORMATION SESSION Are you wondering if overnight camp is right for your child?

Paul Shapiro speaks at the special Holocaust Education Month event, November 3.

“There is a strong warning about antiSemitism. The ITS archives send a powerful message about the danger of anti-Semitism.

Over half of the records deal with the stories of non-Jews [so] anti-Semitism is bad for the Jews, but also for everyone else. It begins with the Jews, but spreads to other groups,” said Shapiro.

The Arie Van Mansum Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education was presented to two area teachers in recognition of their dedication to teaching the Holocaust. Named in honour of the late Arie Van Mansum, a Righteous Among the Nations, his daughters, Marg Harris and Ria Euverman, presented the award to Carambeck Public School teacher Shelley Lynch and to former Ashbury College dramatic arts teacher Gregory Simpson.

Among the more than 300 people in attendance were representatives of the Embassy of Israel, community rabbis, Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi, and representatives of the embassies of Albania, Germany and Poland.

The moderator was CBC Radio news anchor Laurence Wall.

Are you looking for a warm and inclusive Jewish environment?

Each year, on beautiful Pringle Lake, Camp Gesher takes Jewish children on an unforgettable journey that celebrates working and playing together, develops strong leaders and creates life-long friendships.

Please join Dr. Shaul Zobary, Executive Director of Camp Gesher for the past 13 years, for an informal presentation about Camp Gesher.

When:

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Where:

Board Room Soloway Jewish Community Centre 21 Nadolny Sachs Private

Time:

12:30 p.m.

Discover how Camp Gesher’s unique and intimate setting, just a short two-hour drive from Ottawa, may be just what you and your child are looking for!

Kosher lunch will be served.

“Gesher is my home.

I just take a ten-month vacation away from it during the year” – Avital, camper & counsellor at Camp Gesher for 13 years

(From left) Ria Euverman and Marg Harris present the Arie Van Mansum Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education to teachers Shelley Lynch and Gregory Simpson.

(Photos: Peter Waiser)

www.campgesher.ca

Page 6 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Facing challenges in unique ways There are many pressing issues facing Jewish communities in North America: lower rates of organizational and synagogue participation, large numbers of young Jews who feel disaffected from the organized Jewish community, declining enrolment in day and supplemental schools, the list continues.

In Ottawa, we face these same challenges. While the fact that these issues are not unique to Ottawa provides little comfort, the ways in which we, as a community, are working toward addressing them, are.

I believe the biggest driving force behind our community’s ability to address, and ultimately overcome, these challenges will be how well we listen. How well we invite diverse groups of people, with their opinions informed by their experiences, to work collectively to address our communal challenges. The Jewish Outreach, Identity and Education committee has spent the past two years trying to listen, whether through openOttawa, part of our process for addressing the concerns of the emerging generation, or our supplemental schools task force, or the newly created Outreach Committee. We have been

Federation Report Jacquie Levy JOIE putting Ottawa Jews together around the same table to address communal problems.

The openOttawa final report – available at jewishottawa.com – has been tabled and reflects the tremendous amount of thought and effort invested in this process. The report reflects the insights of more than 200 community members, various community organizations and the input from some key thought leaders from North America. It calls for new ways for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa to support the emerging generation of Ottawa Jews. There are eight key recommendations, including providing small grants to groups of individuals to support grassroots programming, enhancing our web-based communications, and creating a community-

wide Shabbat dinner program for young people.

Federation is fortunate to be able to work closely with jnet, a grass roots social networking group for young Jewish adults, to begin implementing some of these recommendations, for example the creation of jnet connect, a welcoming program for those who are new or are returning to Ottawa – find more information at jnetconnect.com.

These are only a few of the examples of the changes underway. Earlier this month, Federation President and CEO Mitchell Bellman gave a presentation about our initiatives at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America in Denver, Colorado. We were one of three communities, along with Portland and San Diego, singled out as outstanding examples of new and innovative ways of building community.

In 2008, the Supplemental Schools Task Force was created in order to support the vibrancy of the supplemental educational system in Ottawa. The Task Force has been working on improving the visibility and quality of supplementary education in Ottawa, through increased market-

ing, enhanced professional development, best practice sharing, and collaboration amongst the schools. We aim to make tangible improvements to supplementary Jewish education for our children and families and help the system go from good to great.

The new Outreach Committee has been created to bring together representatives of Jewish organizations and individuals with a passion for outreach. This week, we are bringing in Rabbi Kerry Olitzky of the Jewish Outreach Institute (JOI) to meet with Federation members and agencies. In 2006, JOI did an analysis of the openness of the Ottawa Jewish community and the responsiveness of Jewish organizations. He will be coming in to do a five-year review and help us move this important agenda forward.

As a community, we have much to be proud of. But our work is not finished. We need to carry forward this positive momentum to ensure our community not only survives but thrives on the value of Kehilat Yisroel, a truly open and inclusive community, deriving strength from our diversity, working through our challenges and celebrating our successes.

Individual responsibility for our Jewish collective There is something interesting about the 10 Commandments – known in Hebrew as the Aseret ha-Dibbrot, the “10 Utterances.”

Actually, there are a lot of interesting things about the Aseret ha-Dibbrot, and centuries of commentary in both the Jewish and Christian traditions testify to this.

Did you know, for example, that there are different ways of dividing the text and identifying the Commandments? And these differences are not just between the Jewish and Christian readings, but even within the Jewish tradition!

Take a look at the Hebrew text and you will see that there are two sets of accents for chanting. My comments here, however, will concentrate on one particular grammatical element highlighted by our tradition, and how it serves as an important guide for our Jewish lives.

The particular element is the fact that the Aseret ha-Dibbrot are written in the singular.

Even though the Torah describes God as speaking to the entire nation of Israel, the Commandments are presented as if they are directed to each individual Jew. Itturei Torah, a collection of rich teach-

From the pulpit Rabbi Charles Popky Agudath Israel ings on our cycle of Torah readings brings the insightful words of Rabbi David Deutsch: “A person may not say, ‘If I, a single individual, do not perform the mitzvot, the world will not be destroyed. Look, we are not lacking pious individuals that can sustain the world without me!’ Thus, the Torah – in presenting the Aseret ha-Dibbrot in the singular – said: The Blessed Holy One has no one in the world other than you alone.”

In other words, the mitzvot are addressed to each individual Jew, because each individual Jew bears the responsibility of fulfilling them.

One failing in contemporary Jewish life is the frequently encountered attitude, “Someone else will do it,” or “Someone else

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

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

will pay for it”; the attitude that it is always someone else’s responsibility. (This is a failing not just in Jewish life.) Too often, we encounter people who demand the Jewish community meet their specific needs, but, at the same time, refuse to contribute to the community (in time, money, effort) so that it will be able to supply the proper facilities, qualified professionals, administrative support, and maintenance to meet those needs. This attitude weakens our synagogues, schools, JCCs and other institutions and organizations, and exhausts those professionals and lay volunteers who are working hard to pro-

vide the needs of the Jewish community.

The reality is that we cannot participate in Jewish life by proxy. We cannot take the attitude that “it is someone else’s responsibility” and expect our community to thrive.

The Aseret ha-Dibbrot stand at the foundation of our religious tradition presenting basic religious commands and values. But it is not just their content that is important; it is also their form. They are addressed to us directly as individuals, because it is only through the acceptance of individual responsibility that our Jewish collective will go from strength to strength.

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November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 7

Two compelling documentaries you should see Although Ottawa’s Free Thinking Film Society – spearheaded by Fred Litwin – is best known for showing films from conservative perspectives, there were a number of films at the second annual Free Thinking Film Festival, held earlier this month at Library and Archives Canada and the Bronson Centre, which were equally from centrist or liberal viewpoints.

Two of those films were particularly impressive and I highly recommend them.

The Making of a Martyr, released in 2005, is a powerful examination of how vulnerable children are recruited and brainwashed by terrorist organizations to martyr themselves as suicide bombers.

In particular, the film focuses on the story of Hussam Abdu, a 14-year-old would-be Palestinian suicide bomber who ended up with a long sentence in an Israeli prison rather than enjoying the 72 virgins his Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade handlers had promised him when Israeli soldiers intercepted him at a West Bank checkpoint with 18 pounds of explosives strapped to his small body.

The film opens with news footage from the incident. Brooke Goldstein, the documentary’s director – then a Toronto law student on track to a career in entertainment law – interviewed the boy twice in prison for the film. She and her small crew also travelled far into Palestinian territory

Editor Michael Regenstreif and interviewed, among others, members of his family and leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. There is a deep examination of the conditions that give rise to such forms of terrorism.

Goldstein – now a New York-based human rights lawyer particularly concerned with the exploitation of children for terrorism – spoke after the screening. She made a compelling case that such children are themselves among the victims of the terrorist masters who recruit them.

Goldstein was one of the most powerful speakers I’ve heard recently. I hope she returns to Ottawa and is heard by a wider audience. In the meantime, The Making of a Martyr can be seen for free online at tinyurl.com/making-of-a-martyr.

The other film I want to draw to your attention is Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization, a new documentary by director Gloria Greenfield. It examines anti-Semitism in both historical and contemporary contexts via talking-heads

commentaries by a most impressive collection of activists, academics and political leaders.

The doc was shot at various locations around the world, including Ottawa during the 2010 Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism conference, and demonstrates how legitimate criticism of specific Israeli government policies is differentiated from thinly disguised antiSemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.

This is a film that should be seen by wider audiences.

After the screening, Greenfield spoke briefly about why she made Unmasked and introduced one of the experts featured in the film, MP Irwin Cotler – a former justice minister, McGill University law professor and one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers – who delivered a brief talk about the consequences of contemporary anti-Semitism.

Cotler’s speech is now online at youtube.com/FreeThinkingFilms.

Addendum: Israeli scientists Last issue I wrote about a reception I attended that Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv hosted in honour of two scientists, Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who were in Canada to receive the Canada Gairdner International Award, this country’s most

important award for medical research.

I neglected to mention that another of Israel’s most distinguished medical researchers, Michael Sela, of the Weizmann Institute’s department of immunology, was also honoured at the reception. Sela, still vitally active at Weizmann at the age of 87, received the Canada Gairdner International Award in 1980. He also has a long list of other international awards received over a 50-year period, further testament to Israel’s remarkable record of achievement in areas that benefit all of humankind.

Welcome Jason Moscovitz I’m very pleased to welcome Jason Moscovitz to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin as our new page 7 columnist. His first column for us is in the space below.

Although he’s been out of the media spotlight for the past decade, Jason is well remembered as one of Canada’s best broadcast journalists, particularly for his years on Parliament Hill as the CBC’s always insightful chief political correspondent.

People have been asking me over the past couple of weeks who our new page 7 columnist will be and have reacted with enthusiasm and excitement when I’ve told them who it is. I know I’m not alone in looking forward to reading Jason’s reflections on whatever topics strike his fancy.

Preventing medicare from going (baby) boom!

I woke up, April 24, expecting the worst. I anticipated transformative changes. Would my back give out all of a sudden? Would I forget the names of friends and family?

I rolled out of bed and stretched my arms – no sign of breakdown. I looked at my watch and read the time – no neurological weakening. I looked in the mirror – no sudden deterioration in appearance.

Expecting to be depressed, I came away feeling great. I felt like I was the only person to turn 60 without as much as a scratch.

As time passed and my birthday became just another speck in the rear-view mirror, I realized that turning 60 had, in fact, affected me. Although I don’t feel or look old, I have begun to think seriously about life from the perspective of an older man.

Thoughts about my future have become much more practical and account for a reality I so long ignored. At some point, I will become less active, less healthy, and I’ll require medical care.

Aging is a fact of life that we all experience (if we’re lucky). Three of my grandparents died in their 60s. My parents, though, are still alive. My father is almost 90 and my mother almost 87.

Jason Moscovitz The trend is obvious. In only a generation, life expectancy has drastically increased. While 60 may still not be the new 20, I take comfort in the fact that it really is the new 50.

When I attended Grade 2, it was only for half-days because there simply wasn’t enough room for all the students until a new school wing was built. In high school, I remember cramped classrooms with desks lined up all the way to the blackboard.

The school system paid attention to the needs of us baby boomers and made sure they were met. I’m afraid I don’t see the same attention now from our health care system.

Just as we baby boomers were all educated together, and entered the workforce together, we will all require medical care at roughly the same time.

Rather than take pre-emptive action to lay the groundwork for this eventuality,

our leaders have taken the path of least resistance.

In every election campaign since the late-1970s, we have heard politicians from all parties claim, without qualification, that we enjoy the best medicare system in the world.

For almost 40 years, public officeseekers have been too afraid to tell the truth. They’ve assumed telling the truth would mean almost-sure defeat.

It is true that many in this country enjoy world class medical care. At our own Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge, I see fantastic work being done in a first rate long-term care home and I welcome the expansion of 21 new beds. However, while the 21 additional beds will provide much-needed relief, the reality is that so many more are needed.

I’ve had the misfortune of spending time in Montreal emergency rooms with my aging parents. Gurneys crowded into corridors with loved ones and visitors all seeking the same basic medical attention from harried professionals who are all doing their best – some with smiles, some without. I cringe at the thought of baby boomers getting old and sick and looking for a piece of those corridors, let alone medical attention with or without a smile.

I am fortunate to have a fantastic family doctor who has been there for me and my family for decades. But he’s also a baby boomer, about five years older than me. I recently asked him what I should do when he retires and I’m left without a family doctor. His accountant, he responded, will never allow him to retire.

But, in all seriousness, this is a question many Canadians are asking themselves. Many boomers have family doctors of the same vintage and will soon find themselves pounding on doors looking for doctors.

With 60 years of experience, I am able to live my life with a degree of caution and responsibility. I have learned from my mistakes – there have been many – and I plan to avoid repeating them.

But it seems our governments have not learned quite so much during this time. When I was crammed into my classroom, splitting time and space with as many as 48 classmates, it was clear the medicare model of the 1960s would be overwhelmed one day by the number of baby boomers who wouldn’t stay young forever.

Yes, turning 60 was fine. But I’m really worried about turning 80.

Page 8 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Contracts of Agudath Israel clergy will not be renewed

By Michael Regenstreif In a letter sent November 2, and reiterated in a second letter November 8, Agudath Israel Congregation President Jack Klein advised congregants that the synagogue’s Board of Directors has decided the current contracts of Rabbi Charles Popky and Cantor Shneur Bielak “will not be renewed when they expire in June 2012,” that searches have commenced for new clergy.

The decision was made by the Board at its November 1 meeting.

Rabbi Popky has served as Agudath Israel’s spiritual leader since 2004. A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, he previously served at several American congregations.

Cantor Bielak, a native of Toronto, and a graduate of York University who also studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music, has been with the congregation since 2003.

“Of all the decisions and responsibilities the Board faces, this is without a doubt, one of, if not the most difficult of all to undertake,” wrote Klein in the second letter.

According to Klein, the decisions about the rabbi’s and cantor’s contracts were made independently of each other.

Klein also said the decisions not to renew the contracts were not motivated by a possi-

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ble merger with Congregation Beth Shalom.

“The rumour of a planned amalgamation with Beth Shalom is not true,” wrote Klein referring to speculation begun when Beth Shalom advised the Jewish Federation of Ottawa that it would seek to build a new building on the Jewish Community Campus and possibly share the building with other congregations. (See story on page 2.)

Klein explained that Agudath Israel has formed a clergy search committee that “will work with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), the Rabbinical Assembly and the Cantors Assembly among key organizations to identify strong candidates for available positions,” and develop a “process for congregational consultations, interviews, auditions, selection, contract terms and hiring. The process will be overseen and the final selection made by the full Board.”

The Board’s decision not to renew the clergy members’ contacts has not been without controversy, with some congregants disagreeing strongly. In a November 4 letter to the Board, congregants Jerry and Josée Posen said the decision has shattered “our shul’s reputation for dignity, compassion and common sense” and demanded that it be revisited.

Affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Agudath Israel is Ottawa’s largest Conservative congregation.

bulletin@ottawajewishbulletin.com

What is community?

Being part of a community includes a sense of belonging, feeling welcome and safe. It involves a sense that you can rely on your neighbours and fellow community members.

In the research literature, these essential aspects of communities are referred to as “social cohesion.” It is what distinguishes communities and, regardless of the wealth of the community, it is related to both physical and mental health, children’s school readiness and school performance, graduation rates, substance use, and delinquency.

This means that, just because your neighbour has a Lexus in the driveway, it doesn’t necessarily mean you live in the neighbourhood that is best for you or your children.

Whatever term you like, there is something important about good, old-fashioned community.

We, and many like us, have made a choice, choosing Ottawa as a place to live and raise our family. While there are many reasons, one of the most important for us has been the sense of community. Your child’s teacher is your rabbi’s wife; your children have play-dates with the children of your colleagues. We expect others to alert us of community issues of interest, look out for each other’s children, celebrate each other’s successes, and commiserate in each other’s pain. We know each other and can turn to

each other in times of need.

So, when decisions about community leadership are made, they must be made with particular care and sensitivity because they affect us all, and have the potential to greatly affect the nature of the community. Such decisions are not merely about performance or economics, although obviously those factors enter into the decisions. Community is about stability, and long-term relationships.

In the past few months, there have been several examples of decisions being made involving leaders in the community. While each situation is unique, and we are not privy to all the facts, we feel that the community has suffered from these decisions. It is not simply a fact of treating respected members of the community poorly, although that has certainly occurred.

Active, highly visible community leaders, who have built lives in Ottawa, raised their children, made friends and, in large part, have defined the community in which we live, are being turned away. These decisions are being made and delivered in a way that is disrespectful to the leaders in question. But, more importantly, they do a great disservice to the broader community. The fabric of the Ottawa Jewish community is less cohesive than it was a year ago. If this is the direction the community is going, we think it is a great pity.

Dafna Kohen and Jamie Brehaut

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 9

Guest Column

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are craving and how to satisfy those cravings and expand their personal horizons.

There is no better time to be young and Jewish in Ottawa. Spread the word! Tell your friends, colleagues and family members there is a new gal in town who wants to make the young Jewish community of Ottawa thrive.

Professional networking is my forte. So, when you see me at events or walking down the street, please introduce yourself. This is an incredible time, exciting things are happening and it is your moment to tap into it!

Here’s a sampling of what’s coming up in the near future!

Experimental Environmentalism Judaism: Tuesday, December 13, time TBA, Glebe Shul (302 Fifth Avenue).

Local environmentalist Alexandra Kuperman will discuss the role of environmentalism and sustainability in Judaism.

Career Mentorship Program: We will connect you with an established mentor in your field of interest to help you network, build your CV and provide insight into your career.

Tribefest 2012: March 25-27, Las Vegas. Info and registration at tribefest.org.

Social Action Mission in Northern Israel and Dragon Boat Festival: May 9-20, Northern Israel.

E-mail me at sbanks@jewishottawa.com for more information on any of the above programs and events – or about anything else happening for Jewish young adults.

Or e-mail me just to introduce yourself. Let’s grab a coffee or a drink. I want to hear your story and I want to connect you to the endless opportunities that exist and to help make your ideas a reality.

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Negev Dinner was a wonderful event Thank you again to all who made our Negev Dinner a wonderful event. So many people from Ottawa helped in so many ways, but I would also like to thank our volunteers from Montreal who helped set up tables and run the registration. Thanks also to our keynote speaker, Barbara Walters, for her thoughtful talk on leadership. She gave us insights into the qualities that leaders have as people going about their daily lives and the qualities that make them leaders. I came away with new insights into leadership and felt the talk fit our Friends of Israel theme well.

Many of our own Ottawa community leaders were in the audience or on the stage. Rabbi Reuven Bulka always makes the MC’s work look effortless and fun. Vera Klein gave a wonderful introduction to Barbara Walters and Barbara Crook provided a warm thank you. Miriam Ziv was at her ambassadorial best. We also had leaders from outside our community. We hope you had a chance to meet our energetic and effervescent new Executive Director, Gail Grief. Edward Rudick came from Montreal to represent JNF National. Dave MacKinnon and Janet Miller from Lindsay, both Correctional Services officers, joined us for the evening. They have raised funds in honour of the Israeli prison wardens killed in the evacuation of prisoners during the Carmel fire. Our Honorary Co-Chairs, Senators Linda Frum and Judith Seidman, and Carleton University President Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte may not be “from” Ottawa, but they are certainly part of our community now and we thank them for their support.

I was proud to see Sara Vered conversing with Barbara Walters at the head table, knowing that both women are leaders who live life to the fullest and have lived through times that demanded much of them. I was also proud watching the video that talked about the Sderot Reservoir, which our dinner is funding, but which also showed past projects and the leaders who sponsored them. We are fortunate to have a strong Jewish community in Ottawa and to have so many strong leaders in the community. I look forward to honouring more of our current leaders and the leaders emerging from our younger generations.

Stay tuned for our Tu B’Shevat Tree-A-Thon taking place on February 5, 2012. Co-Chairs Jane and Martin Gordon and their team of volunteers are working to raise awareness about our support for forestry in Israel. To make donating easier, donors will now be able to make donations via JNF’s website. We urge you to open a Tree Bank Account, which will allow you to withdraw trees during the year whenever you need them to mark special occasions that may arise. One quick e-mail or phone call to the JNF office, and we will send beautiful tree cards on your behalf.

By Samantha Banks Jewish Federation of Ottawa Ottawa’s thriving young Jewish scene may be one of the city’s best kept secrets.

I moved here in September to become the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s director of Initiatives for the Emerging Generation. In my short time here, I’ve come to realize that, while the city might be small in numbers, the opportunities and services for young adults are endless.

There is a niche to suit almost everyone’s needs. The clusters and grassroots groups that currently exist are fruitful because they serve a purpose, whether it’s a party for the social networker, a cooking class for the up-and-coming kosher chef, or a hike in the Gatineau Hills for the adventurer.

Truth is, many young adults, whether in grad school, working on Parliament Hill or newly employed, don’t know what’s available and what Ottawa’s young Jewish adult scene has to offer.

There are more than 25 groups that currently benefit young Jewish adults in Ottawa. Individuals have taken it upon themselves to fill a void. In some cases, that may be a Shabbat dinner, a pub night or a yoga class. The point is, there are leaders in our community fostering new leaders and relationships by creating small and large opportunities for Jews to experience. However, until now, there’s been no link to help connect these fabulous people and ideas to one another. So, yours truly is here to help.

Young adults are really not that complicated. At this stage in our lives and careers, we want to be exposed to like-minded individuals and activities that also happen to have a Jewish connection.

Some of us want more opportunities to network and further our careers. Others want more time to spend with each other and meet , / new people. Still others

want to give back through volunteerism. My job is to make all of that happen by

° matching the right people -/° £ {È with the right organiza/, tions. I am here to help identify what young adults

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Page 10 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Eva Amzallag leads revived Sephardi Association of Ottawa

Temple Israel: Did you know ... ?

Shabbat Services Fridays 6:15 pm Once a month following Services on Friday there is a “Bring your own dinner�. Next dinners Dec. 9, Jan. 13 Shabbat Services Saturdays 10:15 am Books and Bagels: December 4, 9:30 am. Rabbi Garten will review Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka

by Roger Kamenetz.

All are welcome.

1301 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N2 www.templeisraelottawa.ca 613-224-1802

By Clemy Srour Sephardi Association of Ottawa After a long period of inactivity, the Sephardi Association of Ottawa (SAO) is back in business.

A year ago, Eva Amzallag gathered a group of individuals dedicated to reviving the SAO. All had been longing for organized Sephardi cultural activities in Ottawa. Within weeks of the first meeting, the group organized a Sephardi-style Chanukah party. This first activity was the catalyst to a host of other social activities for the Sephardi community.

Over the past year, with minimal resources but a lot of passion, the SAO successfully held a Sephardic Day, a summer barbecue, as well as Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

The SAO played an active role in the Ottawa Jewish community throughout the 1990s and early-2000s, organizing regular synagogue services and a wide range of social activities.

While the organization had since been inactive on the social side, members continued to hold synagogue services for the High Holidays.

In May, Amzallag was inaugurated officially as presi-

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Fun and games at the Sephardi Association of Ottawa summer barbecue.

dent of the SAO, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

Amzallag has a long history of community involvement going back to her student years as a board member of Centre Hillel in Montreal. Shortly after moving to Ottawa, she was involved with the Young Women’s Leadership Council, which she chaired in 2002-2003. “We are pleased to once again be making an important contribution to Ottawa Jewish life,� said Amzallag. “Over the past year, we have held activities that brought together Sephardi Jews from Iran to Morocco. We are planning more exciting activities over the coming year.

We hope the whole Jewish community will join us.�

The Sephardi Association of Ottawa brings together Jews of Sephardi origin to celebrate their rich heritage and traditions. However, this is not the only goal.

“The Association will certainly enrich Ottawa Jewish life by offering programs of interest to the entire Ottawa Jewish community and, indeed, the Ottawa community at large,� said Amzallag. “I am very pleased that we have brought together a dynamic board representing the diversity of Sephardi Jewry. We are all committed to developing the Sephardi presence in Ottawa and building this community for years to come.�

Other board members include Clemy Srour, vicepresident; Joelle Assaraf, treasurer; Yossi Amor, synagogue parnas; Michel Tapiero, past-president; and members-at-large Moise Illouz, Isaac Nahon, Viviane Ohana-Sandler, Lillian Serrouya, Nadine Serrouya, Marc Serrouya and Solange Smith.

The SAO kicked off the current year with High Holi-

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day services. Monthly services, starting in January, will take place at Shikun Oz Senior Citizen Residence, 57 Bateman Drive, Nepean.

An active social calendar has been developed. The next SAO event is a Chanukah party on Tuesday, December 20. Find the “Ottawa Sephardic� Facebook page to follow our programming. “I encourage all Jews of Sephardi background, and indeed all of the Ottawa Jewish community, to keep an eye out for the exciting activities we are planning,� said Amzallag. “These will be an opportunity for everybody to celebrate the unique traditions of Sephardic Jews that are a key part of the cultural tapestry of the Ottawa Jewish community. “We would like to see all Ottawa Jews of Sephardi heritage and those interested in our heritage added to our mailing list. We want the SAO to grow. We want to share our beautiful traditions with as many people as possible. “I invite the Jewish community to participate in our activities and get to know us better.�

Contact the Sephardic Association of Ottawa at sephardicassociationottawa@ yahoo.ca to be added to the e-mail list or to become a member.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 11

Task Force holds panel discussion on Holocaust education at War Museum

By Diane Koven As time goes on and memories fade, it is imperative that new ways be found to ensure the stories of the Holocaust are transmitted to future generations.

This challenge was the focus of a panel discussion at the Canadian War Museum, October 30, organized by the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Task Force is an intergovernmental body whose purpose is to place political and social leaders’ support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance and research – both nationally and internationally.

Initiated by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson in 1998, there are currently 28 member states that agree on the importance of encouraging all archives, both public and private, to make their holdings on the Holocaust more widely accessible. The Task Force also encourages appropriate

Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research panellists: (From left) MP Irwin Cotler, Carleton University Professor Deidre Butler, Task Force Chair Karel de Beer and Holocaust survivor Ada Wynston.

(Photo: S.R. Gour)

forms of Holocaust remembrance.

The panel’s keynote speaker was Task Force Chair Karel de Beer, the former Netherlands ambassador to Canada.

“The big challenge for me is how to keep the issue relevant for young people,” said de Beer in his address. “For many people, six million Jews perishing is much too big to visualize and so we must hear individual stories,” he said.

However, added de Beer, there are fewer and fewer survivors to tell their own stories.

Holocaust survivor Ada Wynston told her story of survival as a hidden child in the Netherlands.

She agreed that personal testimony is the most effective way of passing on the history of the Holocaust, as evidenced by her many years of doing so in the schools of Toronto where she lives. She urged

the “second generation,” the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, to carry on for their parents when they are no longer here to do so.

Moderated by Rabbi Reuven Bulka, the panel also included Professor Deidre Butler of Carleton University and MP Irwin Cotler, a renowned human rights expert and former justice minister of Canada.

“On the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, and the immediate aftermath of the 70th anniversary of Babi Yar, a horrific atrocity of the Second World War,” Cotler said the world has the duty of remembrance, “of remembering things that are too terrible to be believed, but not too terrible to have happened.”

As of last year, according to Butler, there were only 66 “selfidentified survivors” in Ottawa, and only five of them continue to speak publicly about their experiences. “This is the last generation that will be able to hear first-hand testimonies,” she said.

Although the panel members agreed there are signs of optimism in the willingness of many individuals, and countries, to continue teaching about the Holocaust and its lessons, they also agreed there are reasons for worry or even fear.

Once there are no longer personal testimonies of survivors or even their families, the stories may well be forgotten. This generation’s challenge is to ensure that does not happen.

Page 12 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Guest Column

What I might say if nominated to the Supreme Court

By Louis Davis On October 19, Ontario Court of Appeal Judges Andromache Karakatsanis and Michael Moldaver, nominees to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), were interviewed by a televised parliamentary committee. This process is to familiarize the public with the judges. Their subsequent appointment was a foregone conclusion, and they joined the SCC on November 14.

The process allowed the judges to speak about themselves. They also spoke about their ancestors. Karakatsanis referred to the particular difficulties her parents overcame as immigrants.

Moldaver’s appointment brings to four the number of Jewish justices on the SCC. This makes my own nomination most unlikely. Not only am I Jewish, but I even observe some of the less widely observed holy days. I missed the evening part of the committee hearing due to Shemini Atzeret.

We elevate the souls of our departed ancestors when we say Yizkor on Shemini Atzeret, in a sense nominating them for higher positions in a system where their elevation is also a foregone conclusion.

I articled at the SCC in 1976 and have been a constitutional adviser to the federal government ever since. I was involved in appointments to the SCC for many years and my career experiences date back to a

time when the unwritten policy would not allow for more than one Jewish justice on the Supreme Court of Canada or on any court of appeal.

While watching the hearing, I imagined what I might say if speaking of my ancestors.

“While I speak of their experiences in particular, I am also mindful of challenges that faced all our ancestors.

“My Hebrew name is Ariyeh Leib, after my mother’s father. In Canada, he was Louis.

He was born in Russia in 1903. When he was seven years old, his parents were killed in a pogrom.

“There was a couple who survived, but their son, the same age as my grandfather, was killed. They took my grandfather with them and made their way to Montreal in 1910.

“My mother left school at 13 to work as a waitress to help support her family. She later worked as a drug store cashier and did volunteer work, mostly for the schools her three children attended, and for elderly persons. When we were children, she made sure we did not know we were poor.

“When I was seven, a man at our door asked for money for food. My mother made a tuna sandwich and gave it to me in a plastic wrapping to give it to him with an apple,

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The appointment of Justice Michael J. Moldaver brings to four the number of Jewish justices on the Supreme Court of Canada.

and to explain it is all we are able to offer.

That was the example she set.

“My dad’s family came from Burdejeni, a village in Romania. Pogroms were common there too. Peasants who knew the Jews gave them advance notice. They travelled across the near-by Austria-Hungary border, taking refuge for a few days in a synagogue, and then returned.

“My grandfather came to Montreal in 1910. He worked in a butcher shop, lived frugally and sent money home. His letters and money were stolen by postal workers in Romania. The family, not hearing from him, thought he had died.

“Eventually, the crooks were caught and my grandmother came by train to Antwerp, then to Canada with four of their six children. One had died as an infant. The fifth, eight years old, had to be sent back from Antwerp because he had pink eye and was not allowed on the ship.

“My dad served overseas. On his return, he needed a job. An insurance company interviewer, a former military person himself, offered him a clerical job. The next day, the interviewer apologized sincerely but explained company rules did not allow hiring Jews. My dad, who became a bookkeeper, told me this story one day when we were walking by the majestic Sun Life building in Montreal.

“I will end with the origin of my last name. In 19th century Romania, the constitution provided that Jews could not be citizens. This was supplemented by restrictive laws and acts of terror toward Jews. Most of these non-citizens did not have last names.

“My grandfather did not speak English when he left for Canada. Asked his name, he replied ‘Shia.’ Asked his father’s name, he replied ‘Yanku.’ Asked his last name, he did not understand the question. He thought, perhaps, they were asking his father’s father’s name and so he replied, ‘David.’ This was written down in a handwriting that included a squiggle on the last ‘d.’ When typed, it became an ‘s’ and once something was typed, it was set in stone, so Shia ben Yanku became Shia Davis.

“My ancestors came from places and times when no Jew could be a citizen, never mind a judge. Canada has evolved into a country expressly ‘founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.’”

Some scholars say our shared ancestry is the most important concept in the Torah.

However, if I were nominated to the SCC, I would probably be too politically correct to submit the Torah as fundamental to a true understanding of the Charter values that new SCC judges publicly undertake to uphold.

But, I can do that here, and I like to believe at least four judges would understand and agree.

Orthodox Rabbi Steven Greenberg officiates at same sex-wedding (JTA) – An Orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg, officiated at a same-sex wedding, November 10.

Rabbi Greenberg, who is openly gay and was recently scholar-in-residence at Agudath Israel Congregation in Ottawa, married Yoni Bock and Ron Kaplan at the 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, D.C., Roee Ruttenberg reported in +972 Magazine.

The ceremony was held under a chuppah and included the breaking of a glass and the exchanging of rings. The ketubah, or marriage contract, was replaced with a Shtar

Shetufim, or partnership contract.

“We were encouraged by the legislation of same-sex marriage in our home ‘state’ of Washington, D.C.,” Bock and Kaplan wrote in a guide to the ceremony.

“At the same time, both of us wanted a ceremony that would be meaningful halachically (in terms of religious Jewish law) and create a set of Jewish legal obligations between us.”

It is believed to be the first time that an ordained Orthodox rabbi has officiated at a same-sex marriage in North America. .

Date of marriage* Email * Must have been married within the previous six months

Photo: Peter Waiser

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November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 13

Lawrence Greenspon to deliver Temple Israel’s Chanukah Freedom lecture

By Louise Rachlis for Temple Israel When Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon was a child, his stepfather, who had been liberated from Auschwitz, would discuss with him the rights of individuals versus the power of the state.

Young Lawrence would go on marches in Montreal with the Survivors of Nazi Oppression.

When Temple Israel asked him to deliver the Chanukah Freedom Lecture on the subject of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, he agreed.

“It seemed timely to reflect on the changes to individual liberties,” he said.

Greenspon decided to call his lecture, to be given December 18, Trading rights for

the promise of security.

“Historically, Canada has had an undeserved reputation as a bastion of freedom,” said Greenspon, a member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association while in law school. “A lot of that reputation is from the positive role Canada has played around the world as peacekeepers since Lester Pearson.

“But the history of Canada has also been marked by the internment of Japanese Canadians, of Italian Canadians, by the FLQ crisis, and the example of the Komagata Maru.”

The Japanese steam liner was chartered by Gurdit Singh in 1914 to challenge Canada’s exclusionist laws and bring Indian immigrants to Canada. The ship departed from Hong Kong,

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stopped in Japan and then headed to Canada. Its passengers included 376 Indians, all Punjabis, among whom 340 were Sikhs, 12 Hindus and 24 Muslims.

The ship was eventually turned back at Vancouver where landing was refused.

“We have many examples in Canada of rights of individuals suspended, and then later on to apologize for that,” he said. “When it happens, it is generally supported by the majority of Canadians. After 9/11, antiterrorism legislation passed in Canada really quickly.

It’s typically Canadian to do that. However, 9/11 was a failure of intelligence, and not a failure of law.”

In the case of convicted terrorist Momin Khawaja, who spent almost five years in jail while his trial and sentencing played out, Greenspon cited Canada’s history of suspension of rights, and successfully argued, “Don’t do it again.”

He calls the back and forth of suspension of rights and apology a repeating theme in Canada.

“And, once again, the Harper government is bringing in legislation under the name of fighting terrorism. We’re trading rights for the promise of security once again,” he said.

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For Greenspon, 57, the rights of the individual were a reason the firm of Greenspon, Brown and Associates was formed in 2004.

“We decided that we wanted to build on our reputation as lawyers who have always fought for the little guy, by putting together a team of people that we like, respect, and who share our commitment to the pursuit of justice,” he said.

Greenspon has practised criminal and personal injury law in Ottawa for more than 30 years and finds time to mentor younger lawyers and work tirelessly in the community for a huge range of charitable causes, including United Way/Centraide, Reach, Snowsuit Fund, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, and dozens more. He has won the Advocates Society Award of Justice, the St. Joe’s Quality of Life Award and the Community Builder of the Year.

“Trading rights for the promise of security” will be the topic when lawyer Lawrence Greenspon speaks, December 18, at Temple Israel.

(Photo: Michelle Valberg)

The Chanukah lecture will be held Sunday, December 18, 7:00 pm. All are welcome. Temple Israel is

at 1301 Prince of Wales Drive. Visit templeisraelottawa.ca for more information.

Page 14 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Vera Gara publishes personal memoir of the Holocaust

By Benita Baker In 1944, when 11-year-old Vera Gara and her family were living in a barn, forced into slave labour by the Nazis, it was another 11-year-old girl, a farmer’s daughter, who helped them stay alive.

Gara’s mother ventured into the village, randomly knocked on a farmer’s door and asked to buy butter, eggs and milk to feed her family. While the farmer’s wife would not take any money for the butter and eggs she readily offered, she explained that no milk was available because it all had to go to the army.

“I have a goat,” the farmer’s young daughter piped in. “I will bring you goat’s milk every night.”

And so it was for three months.

Little Mitzl Lagler and her family risked their lives daily to provide food to these Jewish strangers.

Even when the authorities accused Herr Lagler of aiding Jews, he

Vera Gara tells stories of unsung heroes in Least Expected Heroes of the Holocaust – A Personal Memoir.

again courted punishment by claiming to know nothing.

“Imagine, even the little girl knew how dangerous it was to feed

us; yet they did it anyway,” said Gara.

Eight years later, Gara accompanied her mother back to Austria to again knock on the Lagler family door – this time to bring presents and say “thank you.”

“I can remember the look of happiness on Frau Lagler’s face when she realized who she was talking to,” recalled Gara.

The two women maintained their friendship until Gara’s mother died in 1978.

Many years passed and Gara, now a grandmother living in Ottawa, was contacted by an author researching a book about Hungarian Jewry in Austrian work camps. It got her to thinking about the Laglers. She enlisted the author’s help in locating Mitzl.

“We cried for three hours on the phone,” Gara said about the telephone call that reconnected the

two women.

Soon after, Gara, and her husband George, travelled to Austria to visit Mitzl and her family.

“Since then, we are inseparable,” said Gara. “We speak weekly.

We travel to see each other as often as we can. We are closer than brothers and sisters could be. I cannot emphasize it enough.”

Gara, who is responsible for creating the Raoul Wallenberg Park in Ottawa, was encouraged by cousins to put this uplifting story of courage and selflessness in writing. The result is Least Expected Heroes of the Holocaust – A Personal Memoir, which pays tribute to the Laglers as well as other “ordinary people” who were unsung heroes of the Holocaust era.

“Just because they are not as well known as Wallenberg or other righteous gentiles, these people deserve to be honoured,” said Gara.

Chanukah Gift Fair to include PJ Library party for families with young children

By Benita Siemiatycki Families with young children are invited to the PJ Library Chanukah Party, Sunday, December 11, 10:00 to 11:30 am, at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (JCC).

The event is jointly sponsored by the Soloway JCC’s Family Life Centre and PJ Library and is one of many activities during the Chanukah Gift Fair taking place from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The party will feature fun game stations and, of course, readings of Chanukah books. Families do not have to be members of the PJ Li-

brary program to attend. The event is best suited for children under the age of six.

PJ Library is a partnership between local donors, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa. Local children who are registered receive a free Jewish-themed book monthly in the mail. To be eligible, children must be aged six months to fiveand-a-half years at time of registration and live in the Ottawa region.

To register your child for PJ Library, visit pjlibrary.com or call 613-798-4644.

PJ has existed in communities

Montreal author Joel Yanofsky discusses A Frank Memoir about Raising an Autistic Son, one of many events during the Chanukah Gift Fair, Sunday, December 11, at the Soloway JCC.

throughout North America for six years. It is highly successful at sparking Jewish conversations between parent and child as they read together, exposing young children to Jewish values, traditions, and holidays. In December, children receive a music CD instead of a book.

After attending the PJ celebration, visit the Chanukah Gift Fair vendors selling all sorts of items for Chanukah: decorations, candles, dreidels, toys, gifts, books, jewelry and more. Test your skills at the giant Snakes and Ladders or Connect 4 games. In the afternoon, the entire family can have fun trying out a Zumba class together. See

how many in your family can keep up with the steps!

For the adults, two interesting discussions will take place. At 10:30 am, Professor Shawna Dolansky will present the history of the Chanukah story, and how traditions like dreidels, latkes and candle-lighting originated. At 1:00 pm, Montreal author and journalist Joel Yanofsky will discuss his book, A Frank Memoir about Raising an Autistic Son. Admission to both of these events is $5 each.

For more information about the Chanukah Gift Fair, contact Penni Namer at 613-798-9818, ext. 243, or pnamer@jccottawa.com.

“They were just farmers. They knew the dangers and risked their lives to help Jews.”

Gara asked author Ruth Latta, a friend, for assistance in writing the book. For two-and-a-half years, the pair met weekly as Gara recounted her story to Latta.

“It was emotionally draining,” said Gara. “You never forget the Holocaust, but it is not with you constantly. Going over it again and again while writing this book, it was always with me.”

Gara’s husband, George, and his family, were also helped by righteous gentiles. His story is included in the book. So, too, is an account written by Father Godofred, a Benedict priest, whose mother was a close friend of Gara’s mother in pre-war Hungary. Godofred’s story focuses on how the abbey in Hungary where he lives sheltered Jews from the Nazis.

In addition to Latta, Gara had other assistance in bringing the selfpublished book to fruition. Rabbi Reuven Bulka provided encouragement, insight and perspective. Sherrill Crowe edited and designed it.

Human rights activist David Kilgour, a former MP, wrote the introduction and Jonathan Stokes assisted with the first print run of 500 copies.

The memoir, dedicated to Gara’s grandchildren, Daniel, Mara and Rebecca, will be sold through community organizations such as Na’amat and Agudath Israel, as well as at the Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital, where Gara has volunteered for many years.

The invitation-only launch of Least Expected Heroes of the Holocaust – A Personal Memoir, will be hosted in early-December by Austrian Ambassador Werner Brandstetter.

Ganon Preschool Director Jenny Shinder leads a music session at the PJ Library launch party, September 11.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 15

Adventure Israel promises adventure of a lifetime

By Francie Greenspoon Jewish Federation of Ottawa Sharon and Paul Finn always intended to go back to Israel; they just didn’t know when or what they wanted to experience. So, when word of the Dragon Boat Israel Festival began to emerge, their interest was immediately piqued and they started to consider how they could build a trip to Israel around the festival.

“We liked the concept,” said Sharon. “The idea of organizing a unique trip to Israel that was different from a standard mission and ended with us participating in the Dragon Boat Israel Festival really appealed to us. So, without hesitation, we signed on to lead Adventure Israel and we are thrilled about it!”

The trip is organized through the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and promises to be an active, informative, adventurous, outdoor experience unlike anything ever experienced before.

Rony Podolsky, interim

Paul and Sharon Finn will lead the Adventure Israel tour in May which includes the inaugural Dragon Boat Israel Festival.

(Photo: Francie Greenspoon)

director of the Federation’s Annual Campaign, a native Israeli, developed the itinerary based on some of his most memorable outdoor experiences.

“I am confident it will provide travellers with an equally memorable experience,” he said.

Adventure Israel leaves Ottawa on May 6 and will

sweep through Israel from its southernmost tip in Eilat, all the way north to Kibbutz Misgav-Am, overlooking the Lebanese border, and will culminate at the Dragon Boat Israel Festival on the Sea of Galilee, May 17 and 18.

“There is something for everyone, and you can choose to do as much or as little as you want, without

any pressure,” said Sharon.

The trip begins in Eilat on the Red Sea, renowned for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs and then heads to the Jordanian border to Petra – one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

From Petra, the trip moves to Jerusalem where participants will visit both ancient and modern sites and

explore the first neighbourhoods built by Jews outside the Old City, including the landmark Montefiore Windmill, built by philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore in 1857.

Participants will see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum, visit Yad Vashem, tour the historic Burma Road, hike the Ein Gedi nature reserve, enjoy an authentic lunch in a Bedouin tent, ride a camel, float in the Dead Sea and climb Masada at daybreak.

When the trip heads north, the adventure will take a different turn and participants will enjoy jeep rides, cliff rappelling, kayaking, hiking and more while soaking up the culture, history and breathtaking scenic vistas that are synonymous with Israel.

The culmination of Adventure Israel is the two-day Dragon Boat Israel Festival.

Participants are welcome to board a dragon boat and “paddle into history” at Israel’s first-ever dragon boat

race, or choose to cheer on the dragon boaters and enjoy the music, food and festivities. The final two days of Adventure Israel trip will be spent in Tel Aviv, “the city that never stops.”

“We want people to fall in love with the country and feel connected to both Israel and the Ottawa Jewish community,” said Paul. “Travelling to Israel in this non-traditional way, and being part of a unique experience every day can bring people together in a very meaningful way.

This is ultimately what we hope to accomplish with Adventure Israel.”

Adventure Israel has been organized as either a 10- or 13-day first class excursion.

The cost is $2,400 per person for the 10-day excursion, and an additional $900 for the 3day Petra/Eilat portion.

Flights to Israel are not included.

To find out more about Adventure Israel, contact Rony Podolsky at 613798-4696, ext. 246, or rpodolsky@jewishottawa.com.

Page 16 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Math program at OJCS focuses on problem-solving

By Sara-Lynne Levine Ottawa Jewish Community School Math is important. With changing technology and new careers being created, a fundamental understanding of math and how to solve mathematical problems is a key to success. It is no longer acceptable to limit the future choice of careers by classifying some students as ones who “just don’t get math.”

The Ottawa Jewish Community School (OJCS) understands this and is dedicated to ensuring each student has a solid academic foundation in mathematics to take with them for future learning.

Luckily, the school also has incredible math teachers, led by Beata Myhill.

Myhill describes herself as the school’s “math coach.” Now in her fourth year at OJCS, this 30year teaching veteran has worked with the Ontario Ministry of Education and with math publishers in developing curriculum resources based on the North American standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Myhill sees herself as a math enthusiast whose job is to encourage both teachers and students.

“I think we have a very strong math program at OJCS,” she said.

“Because we have small classes, we’re able to nurture the individual child.”

The study of math has evolved over the years based on research examining teaching methods in countries that have the highest rates of success. The focus is now on problem-based learning and differentiated instruction. This means teachers are setting challenging math problems for students to solve in a variety of ways to provide access points at different levels of understanding.

“When we learned math, we learned the rules first,” Myhill explained. “We never learned why they work. Now we learn why first and then we get good at it. We understand the concept, and then we can understand the efficient procedures.”

A rich math program does not only focus only on repetition and simple memory work. Problemsolving stretches the imagination

OJCS “math coach” Beata Myhill and Grade 3 students working during the Canadian Maple Leaf Math Challenge. Students from Grade 3-8 took part in this national math competition, November 9 and 10.

and is important because the study of math is changing.

“More math has been discovered in the past 35 years than in the previous 3,000. We need to give our students the tools to be life-long learners. They need to

build confidence and build the ability to work with others to solve problems,” she said. “Math is no longer something you do in isolation; it’s collaborative. Problem-solving is what you do when you don’t know what to do.”

Our teachers are a big part of OJCS’s successful math program.

We have teachers who have degrees in mathematics and who have taught math through the International Baccalaureate program. We also have a critical mass of enthusiastic teachers, with Myhill acting as coach and cheering section.

“A great math community is happening at OJCS,” said Myhill.

To ensure students can reach their potential, Myhill also works with students to see where their conceptual understanding is and where there are gaps. She uses a

series of diagnostic tests to assess students to determine their particular math levels. She then works with teachers to determine how to simplify a problem and make accommodations so students can understand, and also to make it more challenging for students who are ready to tackle something harder.

This collaborative in-class approach benefits students who may work with Myhill one day, their math teacher another day, and in small groups the next day.

“Students see me as someone who can support and help them,” said Myhill. “This makes a really rich math program. At OJCS we reach for excellence.”

To learn more about our math program or other programs at OJCS, visit us at theottawajewish communityschool.ca or call 613 722-0020.

Lisgar Collegiate Jewish Culture Club The Jewish Culture Club at Lisgar Collegiate kicked off the year, October 4, with a workshop at which they learned about Shabbat and how to braid challah.

Acacia Frojmovic (left) and Fiona Ruane show their ready-to-bake challahs.

Grade 2 students at the Ottawa Jewish Community School work together on a math problem.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 17

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Page 18 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Israeli band goes viral with video about virals

By Uri Fintzy (JTA) – Making it in the music business used to follow a pretty simple formula: Make a record, sell albums, play concerts, make money.

It used to.

The formula changed after the Internet entered our lives. With reams of music freely available online, it takes more than just good music to make money. After all, we live in the Bieber era, where every YouTube view counts. If you can grab people’s attention, even a horrible music video can be a moneymaker if it goes viral.

But how to create a viral hit – or meme, an idea spread by the Internet? How about create a video that has pretty much every meme out there?

The band that seems to have figured this out is The GAG Quartet, an Israeli trio composed of Gilad Chehover, Guy Bernfeld and Or Paz. Its new video, “Le Internet Medley,” is basically a tribute to every silly video your friends ever sent or posted on your Facebook wall.

Within days, the video has garnered more than five million hits and has been featured on such websites such as the Huffington Post,

Mashable and Know Your Meme.

“To be honest, we didn’t really think the video would be this successful,” Paz, the band’s guitar player, told JTA. “We assumed people all over the web would enjoy it, but we didn’t think it would evolve to these proportions. It makes us really happy and well worth the time.”

GAG’s YouTube page features more than 40 meme references, from the cat playing keyboard to the Numa Numa kid and even Rick Astley.

Don’t know what or who these things are? You’re probably not distracted enough at work.

Bibi Netanyahu and his famous Gilad Shalit photo-bombing meme make a guest appearance, which is the only Israeli reference in the clip other than a Hebrew sticker on the drums. Three of my friends posted the video on my wall, aware of my personal fascination for memes. I was disappointed that I could find only 20, but I loved it nonetheless.

And obviously I’m not the only one.

According to Paz, it took the band about a month to do the filming, recording and post production, with help from music and animation professionals. The idea behind

The GAG Quartet’s video about viral videos has millions of views on YouTube.

(Photo courtesy of The GAG Quartet)

the project came from the video’s animator, Tom Trager, who had worked on online videos with Paz. Their collaboration included the YouTube-turned-television series Ahmed and Salim, a comedy about two nerdy Palestinian terrorists who would rather play Guitar Hero than practice their jihad ways.

“We all love memes and are pretty much Internet geeks, except our drummer, Gilad, who actually leaves his house and sometimes even enjoys himself,” Paz said.

“He’s a weird guy.”

According to Paz, The GAG Quartet is named for the cat of one of the band members. The cat’s

name: “The.” GAG has been around for about a year and this was their first actual project.

“We are all from Herzliya and we have been playing all different kinds of music, from salsa to heavy metal,” Paz said. “But, since we are pretty broke, it took us some time to make this debut video happen.”

After finding out about the band’s poor financial situation, I couldn’t help but ask Paz if there is an ulterior motive behind the creation of the mother-of-all-memes.

“Of course,” Paz admitted. “The idea behind making the video was, in fact, to get as many hits as possible, so we could buy a yacht with

all the money we make, since we all know that YouTube pays you a million dollars for every million hits.”

Busted.

But to Paz, a yacht is not enough.

“We are planning on getting rid of the yacht the moment we get it, and then get another yacht,” he said.

And, while in his dreams, Paz is already on his way to viral glory, maybe his fantasy is not so farfetched. After watching “Le Internet Medley,” people may owe him something almost priceless – all the time they are saving by only watching a four-minute video instead of more than 40 different ones..

Baird and Barak meet in Ottawa

Remembrance Day Post Commander Phil Pinkus and Leon Katz of the Ottawa Post, Jewish War Veterans of Canada, at a gathering for veterans following the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the National War Memori(Photo: Elly Bollegraaf) al, November 11.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak discuss the regional security situation in the Middle East as well as recent developments in the Middle East peace process at a meeting in Ottawa, November 16.

According to a statement released by Baird’s office, Canada’s long-standing position has been that lasting peace can only be achieved through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“Canada urges them to resume direct peace talks without delay or preconditions on the basis of the September 23, 2011, Middle East Quartet Statement. Canada is committed to helping to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting solution in the Middle East, whereby two states live side by side in peace and security.”

The two ministers also discussed possible next steps following the International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear program. According to a recent statement to the press by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “The regime in Tehran represents probably the most significant threat in the world to global peace and security.”

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 19

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November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 21

55 Jewish partisans honoured for ‘extraordinary measures’ in their resisting the Nazis

By Hillel Kuttler (JTA) – Allen Small, 83, and Leon Bakst, 86, hugged each other so tight, Small said, “I couldn’t let go.”

Their embrace at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue was 65 years in the making.

Small and Bakst grew up a few houses apart in Ivye, Belarus, attending the same school and synagogue before reality turned black, when their names were Avraham Schmulewitz and Leibel Bakst, and Ivye belonged to Poland and the Nazis had not yet invaded. They last saw each another in 1946 at a displaced persons camp in Munich.

During the two years preceding their liberation by the Red Army in 1944, the thenteenagers fought the Nazis in separate brigades in the vast Nalibotskaya Pushcha forest.

For their daring, Small, now of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and Bakst, of Dallas, Texas, and 53 other Jewish partisans, were honoured at a synagogue reception, November 6, and a gala dinner the next evening.

Like many partisans interviewed, Bakst downplayed his role, saying that sheer survival was the great motivator.

Some had carried rifles, sabotaged German supply trains and attacked the enemy. Others served as scouts, guides and cooks. Bakst and his older brother, Yehoshua, were deployed to secure bread, butter, cheese, potatoes and meat from neighbouring farmers; anything not given was taken.

“Even if we saved a few lives and shortened the war, we made a contribution,” he said.

The nearly 350 relatives, friends and admirers who gathered in a converted

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Partisans posing at a reception at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue launching a 24hour celebration of their Second World War heroism, November 6.

(Photo: Courtesy of Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation)

theatre for the dinner were lauding the 55 partisans and their absent or deceased comrades for being “ordinary men and women taking extraordinary measures to protect Jewish lives,” said newscaster Dana Tyler, the dinner’s MC. The event marked a high point for the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF).

The dinner combined strong elements of reunion, tribute, historical preservation and education. Both the partisans and JPEF officials emphasized the importance of adjusting the Second World War’s record to account for Jewish heroism amid the Shoah’s slaughter.

“Tonight we honour your bravery and your courage,” said television actor Edward Asner, representing his cousin Abe, a 95-year-old partisan from Eishyshok, Belarus, who now lives in Windsor, Ontario. “Thank you for putting the lie to the claim that Jews didn’t fight back.

For inspiring all of us to stand up against tyranny, I salute you and I applaud you. We all applaud you.”

Attendees ignored Asner’s

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request to stifle clapping while portraits of each partisan appeared on-screen.

When the lights returned, Asner uttered somberly, “The list is too short. I’m sorry that there aren’t more with us.”

With central roles assigned to partisans’ descendants – Matthew Bielski, grandson of the late Zus Bielski, leader of the eponymous brigade featured in the 2008 film Defiance, recited the HaMotzi prayer, and Shira Ginsburg, a Manhattan cantor whose paternal grandparents were partisans, sang “Hymn of the Partisans” in the original Yiddish – the dinner underscored a central theme of transmitting the resistance’s history to subsequent generations.

Family members of honourees concurred in being thrilled to witness the evening’s tribute to their loved ones.

Helene Gradow Kingston, who accompanied her 86year-old father, Jeff Gradow,

a Los Angeles resident, said the event “makes me very proud.” Gazing at her son Elliott, 17, she added of her father, “He was a partisan at my son’s age. These were amazing feats of courage.”

Paula Berger, 77, of Denver, as a young girl from Novogrudek, Belarus, was sheltered in the Bielski brigade.

“If there’s anything any of us ever wanted, it’s that someone would tell our story because we didn’t think we’d survive. It was such a horrific time,” said Berger, whose two daughters, son and granddaughter accompanied her to the dinner.

“The people who are putting in the time and money to keep the story alive and retold – I think it’s wonderful. It’s another Chanukah nes (miracle) or Purim nes because Purim was about saving Jews’ lives and Chanukah was about saving our spirit,” she said. “This was both.”

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Page 22 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

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

On behalf of the residents and their families, we extend sincere appreciation to the following individuals and families who made card donations to the Hillel Lodge Long-Term Care Foundation between October 26 and November 9, 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: Betty Ballon by Ruth and Irving Aaron Harvey Joseph by Ruth and Irving Aaron R’fuah Shlema: Eddie Saslove by Ruth and Irving Aaron Debi Shore by Ruth and Irving Aaron Bill and Leona Adler Memorial Fund In Memory of: Betty Ballon by Marilyn, Neil and Daniel Blacher Elsie Baker Endowment Fund R’fuah Shlema: Betty Kotzer Wishing you a speedy recovery by Polly, Jake and Sammy Moran Fred and Esther Ballon Family Fund In Memory of: Betty Ballon Dr. Douglas and Eileen Frayn; Claire and Irving Bercovitch; Norma and Phil Lazear; Moti and Eva Friedman;

Cally and Sid Kardash; Annette and Jack Edelson and family; by Sybil and Sol Goldmaker; and by Joel and Sylvia Cohen Jack and Betty Ballon Family Fund In Memory of: Betty Ballon by Gordon and Bertha Murray; by Milton and Joyce Kimmel; by June and Jerry Kurland; by Nili and Barry Saslove and family; by Carol and Harvey Goodman and family; and by Dorothy and Maurie Karp (z”l), & their children Jeff and Janet, Darrell, Deb and Debbie, and Joanna Nell Gluck Memorial Fund In Memory of: Betty Ballon by Henry and Maureen Molot Dorothy and Maurie Karp Endowment Fund In Memory of: Cecelia Levitan by Etta Karp Morris and Lillian Kimmel Family Fund In Memory of: Cecelia Levitan by Janet, Steve, Tobin and Aaron Kaiman R’fuah Shlema: Lily Feig by Morris Kimmel and Families Sarah Kerzner by Janet, Steve, Tobin and Aaron Kaiman Daniel Levine by Auntie Janet, Uncle Steve, Tobin and Aaron Kaiman Bess Silverman by Janet, Steve, Tobin and Aaron Kaiman Bill and Phyllis Leith Familiy Endowment Fund In Memory of: Alvin Mallay by Lisa, David, Sydney and Zachary Leith; by Marcia and Charles Rak Warren Mason by Lisa and David Leith Allan Rosenberg by Lisa, David, Sydney and Zachary Leith In Honour of: Mr. & Mrs. Arnold Weiner Mazal tov on your grandson Josh’s Bar Mitzvah by Arlene and Seymour Isenberg

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.

Elissa and Avraham Iny Mazal tov on the birth of your granddaughter by Arlene and Seymour Isenberg Sam and Ruth Rothman Memorial Fund In Memory of: Warren Mason by Frances Rothman Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Family Fund In Memory of: Marilyn Spoon by Debra and Stephen and family Harold and Lillian Shoihet Memorial Fund In Honour of the Yahrzeit of: Lillian Shoihet by David Shoihet Ralph and Anne Sternberg Memorial Fund In Memory of: Mother of Michael Miloff by Laya and Ted Jacobsen Betty Ballon by Laya and Ted Jacobsen R’fuah Shlema: Bill Saunders Warmest wishes for a fast recovery by Laya and Ted Jacobsen ************** Recreation/Music Fund In Honour of: Mark Goldstein by Elaine Slone ************** IN HONOUR OF: Estelle and Sol Gunner Congratulations on your new home by Irwin and Fenja Brodo Milton Kimmel Mazal tov on the occasion of your grandson Jarod’s Bar Mitzvah by Claire and Irving Bercovitch.

Leon Kozierok In honour of your special birthday by Shirley and Norman Levitt Shirley and Hymie Schildkraut In honour of the birth of your grandson, Yona Schaumer by Ruth and Dale Fyman.

Muriel and Michael Wexler Happy 40th wedding anniversary by Monica and Alvin Stein.

Blema Woolf Mazel tov on your special birthday by Arlene and Norm Glube; and by Antoinette Capelle Dale and Ruth Fyman Mazal tov on the

birth of your grandson Noah Dov by Allen and Fran Schwartzberg IN MEMORY OF: Edythe Abron by Irwin and Fenja Brodo Mother of Barbara Roston by Francoise and Ron Vexler Betty Ballon by Joyce and Farrand Miller; Barbara Hymes Fine; by Jackie and Ted Greenhalgh; by Irving and Ann Atkins; and by the Sunday Morning Men’s Breakfast Club Richard Bergman by Monica and Alvin Stein Lou Eisenberg by Irwin and Fenja Brodo;

by Cindy Kardash-Lalonde and David Lalonde; and by the Sunday Morning Men’s Breakfast Club Myra Fisher by Shirley and Norman Levitt Harvey Joseph by Anne Koffman and family; and by Barry, Barb and Babba Bokhaut Cecelia Levitan by Annette and Jack Edelson and family; and by Barbara Hymes Fine Alvin Mallay by Enid and Jeff Gould; by Bev and Bryan Glube; and by the Sunday Morning Men’s Breakfast Club Harry Slutsken by Sheela and Ozzie Silverman Father of Gerry Kates by Arlene and Norman Glube Mother of Barbara Roston by Antoinette Capelle Adele Shlien by the Residents, Board and Staff of Hillel Lodge Joe Freed by Monica Rosenthal, Stewart McCormack, Perry and Devon Dr. Donal Faller-Conway By Monica Rosenthal, Perry and Devon R’FUAH SHLEMA: Bryan Glube by Barbara and Joel Diener;

by Eric and Joy Weisbloom; and by the Ottawa B’nai Brith Bowling League Libby Katz by Arlene and Norm Glube Debi Shore by Alvin and Monica Stein; by Rickie and Marty Saslove Joyce Melamed by the Ottawa B’nai Brith Bowling League

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.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 23

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November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 25

We need a new paradigm for Jewish education Chatting with colleagues the other day, the topic of extracurricular activities came up. One colleague recounted many drives to rural Quebec where his son plays competitive water polo. Another mentioned early-morning trips to the hockey rink.

They turned to me, “And your kids?”

Thinking through my three-times-a-week commuting schedule to Hebrew school and many weekends busy with synagogue activities, I retorted: “My kids? They are competitive Jews.”

At least that’s how I feel these days.

With less time for spontaneous exercise than we had in my day (I recall hours of carefree cycling as an eight-year-old), coupled with fewer families opting for both Jewish day school and synagogue Judaism, we need a new paradigm.

One paradigm I know won’t work is the endless preaching I hear about soccer being the enemy of Jewish continuity.

Somehow, the poor sport of soccer has become the vessel for carrying the frustrations of contemporary leaders surrounding the lack of Jewish engagement in their communities. These leaders might be gently chiding parents for choosing “soccer over shul,” but I hear them hissing “Soccer! Soccer! Soccer!” in a Victorian-era-laced religious rant.

This year, my seven-year-old daughter attends her supplementary Hebrew school three days per week for a total of six classroom hours. Compared to the 10 weekly hours of Judaic studies taught at the Ottawa Jewish Community School at the elementary level, I consider my daughter’s hours of instruction at a fraction of the price – along with the benefit of public school French immersion, neighbourhood friends and the gift of being part of a multicultural school experience – to be a bargain.

But I am also committed to taking my kids to shul one or

Values, Ethics, Community Mira Sucharov two Shabbat mornings per month, which means that weekend mornings are out for scheduled activities. So, for now, say goodbye to skiing (where you need a weekend block that would cut into either shul or Hebrew school).

But, this year, I also want my daughter to learn piano and tennis, and she wants to add musical theatre, dance and hockey (finishing on Friday afternoon just in time for her to be home for Shabbat dinner). Add two parents with full-time jobs, one who has trouble saying no to committee work and who spends months learning High Holiday davening and Torah chanting at her shul, and the other who has 94 Shakespeare speeches to learn for his part in a community theatre production of King Lear, and you have one busy family. And just wait for her younger brother’s activities to join the roster.

It’s no wonder more than two-thirds of Jewish children in Ottawa aren’t receiving any form of Jewish day or supplementary school education.

There’s got to be a better way.

One American Jewish educator has proposed what she calls “badges.” Rabbi Joy Levitt, executive director of the Manhattan JCC, writes, “We are faced with an unacceptable gap between the Jewish lives we want for ourselves and for our families, and the Jewish lives we actually experience.” (“The New

Is Israeli apartheid activism creating the next generation of anti-Semites?

Most of our public and private schools teach tolerance and equality and there are genuine friendships forged across divergent cultures. All of this changes, though, when kids enter university. There are many pressures for students to take sides, but little information to influence decisions.

Professors and older students have a great deal of influence. Kids arriving from high school, where they trusted their educators to be fair and balanced, encounter opinionated, well-entrenched professors and graduate students who ought to be similarly fair and balanced, but aren’t necessarily. It looks like old-fashioned anti-Semitism is back on many campuses across the world.

A soup of Jew-hating organizations has sprung up. Here are some of these organizations (I must warn you, it is really depressing to read their material): Students Against Israeli Apartheid; Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel; Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid; Independent Jewish Voices; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights; Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions; International Campaign Against the Jewish National Fund; and, Stop the JNF. Many of these organizations have manifestos calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

One truly sad moment for me was during a recent protest at a Canadian university by Students Against the Jewish National Fund, in which students and their leadership chose to give interviews and make statements to an Iranian-run media organization called Press TV. A flyer was circulated that called JNF an “openly racist organization … complicit in ethnic cleansing, colonization

and dispossession in Palestine since 1901.”

Occupied land is a term that you hear and read constantly and have your own understanding of. What some of these groups mean by “occupied land” often refers to the entire land of Israel. Every now and then, they restrict themselves to the 1948 or 1967 borders.

The other key elements you will hear are the return of refugees in broad terms, treatment of Israeli Arab citizens, and the need for an open door for Gaza, effectively orchestrating the end of the Jewish state as we know it.

Now, if this isn’t anti-Semitism, what is? In the meantime, Jewish students in universities are under pressure and some are threatened for their pro-Israel or pro-Jewish activism.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, organized by a small group of Jews, demands similar actions to the other groups, and also campaigns against JNF globally.

This has also been picked up by all sorts of student bodies and provides more fodder for the anti-Israel crowd.

StoptheJNF.org has many endorsements from university groups, citizen groups, associations and unions, some of whom may know something about Israel or JNF, but probably not. It breaks your heart to see a Jewish environmental NGO – which has greened a desert, created sophisticated science to support agriculture in the most inhospitable environments, taught various African nations skills to support their agriculture, and done more for the planet and the region than many other NGOs – falling victim to the kind of uncritical and uninformed anti-Semitism that is taking root in many institutions of higher learning.

The lies used today are not different from those used

Hebrew School,” The Jewish Week, January 11, 2011) Rabbi Levitt’s vision entails Jewish students across the city working toward a badge system whereby they would commit to mastering several themes, partly of their choosing: Hebrew language, community service, Jewish arts, prayer, tikkun olam, and even attending camp. Once a week, they would gather after school with their Jewish peers in a clubhouse atmosphere to socialize. Rabbi Levitt envisions that the program could be run through a JCC or through synagogues.

Her mention of synagogues and summer camp brings me to my last point. Many families I know are so tapped out by formal Jewish education they have little appetite to include shul or Jewish residential summer camp as a regular part of their family’s experience. I could devote a column to the historical and contemporary experiential importance of synagogues in anchoring Diaspora Jewish life, but, for now, I will say a brief note about camp: it is well known that Jewish camp is the single most important predictor of future Jewish identity.

To Rabbi Levitt’s ideas I would add that community institutions might think about ways to better catch the family market, especially after the very well-serviced baby and preschool years: whether it’s the monthly Havdallah & singing & pizza sessions that Agudath Israel is now running (and where I moonlight on Hebrew-rock guitar), or the Friday night family services and potluck dinners at Temple Israel. Jewish supplementary schools might also consider moving to a Shabbat model, providing for more experiential learning.

It’s hard to have one’s cake and eat it too, but, with some creative thought, we may be able to enlarge the pie and create more meaningful and satisfying solutions.

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

World Affairs Oliver Javanpour some 70 years ago, or a century ago, or 3,000 years ago. If there are Jews involved, then it must be stopped. This has given a new opportunity to anti-Semites, notably in our universities, to hide under the cloak of being anti-Israel while actually being anti-Semitic.

There are many things that ail our planet today. By exaggerating, at best, or perpetuating out-and-out lies about the Palestinian suffering and injustice, academia has entirely washed their hands of all other worthy and urgent causes. For example, several thousand British girls undergo the horror of genital mutilation every year despite tough laws.

Where are the academic feminists defending their rights?

In South Sudan, more than four million innocent men, women and children were slaughtered between 1955 and 2005. Seven million were ethnically cleansed, with survivors becoming the largest refugee group since the Second World War. Yet the UN, preoccupied with Israel, decided to dedicate a separate agency to the Palestinian refugees with special privileges. Where were the academics protesting the plight of the Sudanese?

At the end of the day, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, you can rest assured that it is a duck. I have no solutions to offer, I’m writing this simply to share my fears and deep disappointments.

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

Page 26 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Holocaust scholar re-examines the trial of Eichmann The Eichmann Trial

By Deborah E. Lipstadt Schocken/Nextbook 237 pages The widely covered trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 brought details of the Holocaust to light to an international community still struggling to comprehend the magnitude of the Final Solution. With Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, having dominated the discourse of the trial for decades, the landscape of Holocaust history is arguably ready for a new treatment. Part of the consistently excellent and entertaining Jewish Encounters series published

by Schocken and Nextbook, Deborah Lipstadt’s The Eichmann Trial is concise, well paced and richly layered.

The Jewish Encounters series tends to thoughtfully match authors with their subjects, guaranteeing an intriguing and sometimes explosive treatment. Lipstadt is a natural and fascinating choice of author for a book on Eichmann and specifically on his trial. Not only is she a senior scholar of Holocaust studies at Emory University, she faced her own Holocaust-related trial in 2000 when British Holocaust denier David Irving took Lipstadt to trial for libel. He lost, but not before giving her plenty of material to write the National Jewish Book Award winner, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving.

The Eichmann Trial takes the reader through the details of Eichmann’s capture in Argentina by Israeli special agents, the setup of the trial, including the Israeli government’s aims and the difficult selection of counsel, and the details of the trial – told in a readable plot-centred narrative,

as well as testimonies, including those of survivors, and Eichmann’s own words.

Rounding out the descriptive narrative is an important chapter critiquing and analyzing the impact of Arendt’s book on the subject.

But equally fascinating is Lipstadt’s lengthy introduction in which she recounts her run-in with Irving, while also powerfully framing the historical tensions she will play with at length in the book.

She recounts a conversation at one of the planning sessions for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in which she tells of a debate about whether to include a mound of women’s hair that the Nazis had cut off and sold to be manufactured into military blankets and socks. Would it be considered essential as a symbol of the economic rationality of the Final Solution in the eyes of the Nazis, as historian Raul Hilberg argued? Or would it be too shocking or degrading to the victims, as some others claimed? Finally, two survivors spoke up.

“One argued that this would be a ‘violation of feminine identity.’ A second spoke more personally. ‘That could have been my mother’s hair. She never gave you permission to display it.’ When she sat down she said, in an aside, ‘It could have been my hair.’”

Lipstadt concludes, “Survivors, speaking in the first person singular, had a semantic, historical, and moral authority that trumped the psychologists, designers, historians, and other experts. But for the Eichmann trial, this might never have happened.”

The book makes good – though briefly – on this intellectually tantalizing promise. An entire other book would

SAIA campaign against Carleton’s involvement in Negev Dinner The latest in Ottawa Jewish student news has to do with none other than my favourite campus group to discuss: Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA).

I know. You’re probably sick of hearing about them. So am I. But, time and again, they keep popping up on campus – and loudly, at that – in ways that are clearly relevant to Jewish students.

Their most recent fuss was about the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Negev Dinner on November 8.

This year, for the first time, I was fortunate to attend the dinner as a gift from my mother – a budding journalist can’t miss an opportunity to meet Barbara Walters.

This was also the year SAIA launched a campaign, and held a rally, opposing Carleton University’s involvement in the Negev Dinner as a “proud sponsor.” The university purchased a table and Carleton President Roseann O’Reilly Runte was one of the dinner’s honorary co-chairs.

I’m not on board with most of SAIA’s basic values and principles. Nor do I support their extreme tactics and radicalism. But, when I first heard about their “Don’t Dine with Apartheid” campaign, I must admit that I agreed with it.

I thought back to February and March of 2011.

SAIA submitted a motion to the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) requesting they essentially endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) move-

ment against Israel and that Carleton divest its pension plan from companies that SAIA accused of enabling Israeli occupation.

When a watered down version of the motion – which pushed for socially responsible investment in general – was passed, they brought the original motion to Carleton’s Board of Governors – and by “brought,” I mean they yelled, screamed and blocked board members from entering the meeting.

I remembered thinking – my anti-SAIA bias aside – that student and university organizations, such as CUSA and the Board of Governors, which represent large and diverse groups of people, shouldn’t be taking sides on contentious issues that aren’t directly related to the university itself.

By sponsoring the JNF – an organization that calls itself “100 per cent Israel” – Negev Dinner, it did seem like Carleton was taking sides.

I didn’t want to be hypocritical.

But then I realized it was SAIA that was being hypocritical.

It had wanted Carleton organizations to choose its side.

But, now that Runte was choosing Israel, SAIA deemed it unfair.

I’d almost been sucked into SAIA’s campaign, which had some fair elements, but was based in irrationality.

Book Review Mira Sucharov be needed to really examine these specific psychological and sociological implications.

Lipstadt succeeds in positioning the Eichmann trial at the crossroads of many historical themes. She nicely traces the various tensions inherent in the trial, including what the role of survivor testimony should be in establishing Eichmann’s guilt, whether the proceedings were meant to expose “crimes against humanity” or specifically the centuries of anti-Semitism that reached its apex in the Holocaust, how Israelis perceived the willingness of Jewish victims to resist (including Zionism’s redefinition of the passive Jew into the muscular sabra), how to ensure a scrupulously judicial process rather than a show trial, and whether, as Arendt viewed it, this was more about the nature of “totalitarian societies” or about Eichmann himself.

Foregrounding all of this, of course, was Eichmann’s infamous “I was just following orders” defence.

Lipstadt’s concluding section about Arendt is cutting. It is a mostly unsympathetic portrait of Arendt down to Arendt’s racist observations, in her letters from the trial, of Israeli police guards who she found “creepy” and “looked Arabic.” Lipstadt does, however, provide some defence of Arendt that her critics have overlooked.

Lipstadt also manages to undermine, though briefly, the often-heard claim about a culture of silence surrounding the Holocaust in both Israel and America in the decade-and-ahalf following the war. Lipstadt falls somewhere in the middle, concluding that, because of the Eichmann trial, “the telling may not have been entirely new, but the hearing was.” Lipstadt’s book serves as another useful link in that telling-and-hearing chain that constitutes the transmission of collective memory.

Campus Life Ilana Belfer On the day of the Negev Dinner, I showed up at my office in Carleton’s Unicentre dressed for the black tie affair.

When friends and colleagues asked where I was going, I said, “Well, you know how SAIA was in the Atrium yesterday …”

I was slightly embarrassed.

The next day, when they asked if SAIA had protested outside the Fairmont Château Laurier, or if anyone at the dinner brought up the issue, I responded with what I had come to understand: not many people in the broader Ottawa community even knew what had been going on with SAIA. SAIA seems so loud and active on our secluded campus that we’re almost forced to pay attention. But, in the grand scheme of things, they’re a very marginal group.

I don’t really have a bottom line. The series of events just inspired me to remind students that there’s a bigger world off campus. Don’t get caught up when something minute gets blown up. There was no need for me to feel embarrassed when my counterparts asked about the event.

I left the Negev Dinner with a new tzedakah box. With pride, I might just put it on my office desk.

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 27

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Chocolate Covered Pretzel Toffee

Salt makes sweet so much better Made with Love

You will need a candy thermometer and a 10 x 15 inch baking sheet with sides to prepare this recipe.

Don’t be scared! It’s foolproof if you follow the directions. You can double the recipe and use a larger (18 x 13 inch) baking sheet.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups crushed thin pretzel twists 1 cup good quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 1 teaspoon fleur de sel or other flaky sea salt Line a baking sheet (10 x 15 inches) with parchment paper and set aside. Make sure you have all your ingredients measured and ready to go before you start.

Combine butter, sugar, corn syrup, salt and 2 tablespoons of water in a medium-sized heavy saucepan.

Clip candy thermometer to the side of the saucepan, making sure the bottom of the bulb does not touch the bottom of the pan, or you will get false readings. At this point, the thermometer will probably not be in contact with the butter-sugar mixture but do not worry. Once it starts cooking, it will melt and bubble up and the thermometer bulb will be submerged in the mixture.

Cook over medium heat, stirring as little as possible, until thermometer reaches 300 F (hard crack stage in sugar-making language), about 10 minutes. Do not wander away while mixture is cooking. It will seem to take forever to get to about 240 F, but from there to 300 F, it goes very quickly.

Remove saucepan from heat and immediately stir in baking soda and vanilla extract. Stir in crushed pretzels. Quickly pour toffee onto prepared baking sheet, spreading it as thinly and evenly as possible. Be careful, as this toffee is hot and can cause some serious burns.

Let toffee cool slightly until it just begins to harden, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle finely chopped chocolate evenly over the surface of the toffee. Let stand until chocolate begins melting, about 2 minutes. Using a spatula, spread chocolate evenly over toffee. Sprinkle chocolate with fleur de sel.

Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened, at least 1 hour. Remove slab from baking sheet and set on a cutting board. Using a large knife, cut into squares, or just break it into large shards.

Rumour has it that it will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, but I challenge you to keep it around for that long without devouring it!

Cindy Feingold

and send a signal to the brain, which then registers the flavour as sweet. This is a process that scientists have known for a long time. But recently the process has been further complicated by what researchers have found out about certain sweetness receptors. A study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that certain sugar receptors, thought only to exist in the stomach, were spotted on sweet taste cells on the tongue. Researchers, led by Dr. Robert Margolskee, of the Monell Chemical Sense Center, found the SGLT1 receptor – which transports sugars into cells only when sodium is present – on sweet taste cells on the tongues of mice. This could explain why sweetness is accentuated by salt – the receptors are activated when salt accompanies sugar.”

OK, science lesson is over. Here is a yummy salty and sweet treat guaranteed to convert those from the no-sweettooth tribe over to the dark – oops, I mean – sweet side!

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Toffee comes from Lucy Baker, a contributor to seriouseats.com. Essentially you make a sort of peanut brittle, but with crushed pretzels instead of peanuts.

Then the whole slab is covered in dark chocolate and finished off with a sprinkling of coarse sea salt.

I have altered her recipe slightly. She originally called for topping the hot toffee base with chocolate chips, letting them melt and then spreading them out. I find that chocolate chips don’t melt quite as nicely as bar chocolate. Chocolate chips are actually formulated to hold their shape and are a bit too sweet for this, so I recommend buying bittersweet chocolate (at least 64 per cent) and chopping it quite finely.

They do exist. Those people who claim, “I’m not really a dessert eater. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.” I just don’t happen to be a member of their tribe. I do have a sweet tooth!

However, I also happen to have a salty tooth. Wait, is there such a thing? I do know that I love the combination of salt and sweet. I think I first discovered this as a young child, when my mom would put out snacks when we were having company.

There would be bowls of jujubes, chocolate-covered almonds, salted cashews and potato chips. I would eat a few jujubes and then follow them with a few salted cashews. Of course, that was the gateway to the huge glass cookie jar filled with red licorice and then some salty potato chips to chase the sugar with. When I got older, I discovered Milk Duds at the movie theatre. A few handfuls of popcorn followed by the sweet chocolate caramel flavour of Milk Duds are an incredible flavour combo. Then my daughter introduced me to french fries dipped in a chocolate milkshake. Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!

All this is to say that, when I serve one of my saltysweet treats to someone from the no-sweet-tooth tribe, I get My children and I would like to express our sincere thank you to our an entirely different reaction. many devoted friends for sharing our sadness on the loss of Lou, beloved There is something about the husband, special father and grandfather, big brother to Seymour, loving addition of salt that makes uncle and true friend. We greatly appreciate your kind words of sympathy, sweet taste so much better.

Suddenly, they’ve grown a your generous donations to many worthy charities, your abundance of food sweet tooth. and your many telephone calls to comfort us. Thank you.

But have you ever wonEvelyn Eisenberg and children dered why salt and sweet taste so good together? Justine Sterling explained it so eloquently at delish.com: “We all know that taste buds allow us to taste (it’s in the name, after all). But what you may not know is that each taste bud contains 50 to 100 taste cells, which are actually what do the tasting.

Each of these cells responds to a different flavour: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, or umami.

We perceive taste (let’s use sweet as an example) when sugar and a sweet receptor protein interact, causing the sweet cell to become excited

Readers are advised that In Appreciation notices may not always appear on Foundation pages, particularly when space is limited.

Lou Eisenberg

Celebrate Faith and Freedom by sending your friends and loved ones a Chanukah tribute card.

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Page 30 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

Eighteen things you may not know about Rena Cohen Rena Cohen is a busy and devoted volunteer in Ottawa’s Jewish community. She has served on the Ladies Reception Committee for Newcomers for 25 years, volunteers with the Kosher Food Bank, and is a member of the Hillel Lodge Auxiliary. I have always enjoyed hearing Rena read the Newcomer’s Committee meeting minutes in her distinctly Boston accent.

Rena met her husband, Max, at Carolyn and Sid Katz’s wedding and has been an Ottawan ever since. She is a warm and kind individual with a flare for baking who finds time to get on her treadmill every day.

Rena would like to remind everyone that the Kosher Food Bank is always in need of

donations. Please donate non-perishable food items to the blue bin at the College Square Loblaws or drop off items at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre or Agudath Israel Synagogue. Monetary donations are always welcome as approximately $6,000 worth of food is purchased every month to meet the needs of Kosher Food Bank clients. You can call Agudath Israel at 613-728-3501 to make a donation.

I was able to catch up with Rena in between one of her many treks to visit her family in Boston. Here are 18 things you may not know about Rena Cohen ...

1. I was born and raised in Boston and moved to Ottawa in early-1966 after marry-

Rena Cohen (left) with daughter, Sheila Strock, and husband, Max Cohen.

ing my husband, Max, in December 1965. The wedding took place in Boston on a snowy day so the Canadians felt right at home!

2. I worked in my husband’s law firm for 22 years, first as a bookkeeper and later as the office manager.

3. I have lived in the same home in Qualicum since we built it in 1967.

4. I love to bake cookies and cakes and always bring baked treats with me when we visit our three children, their spouses and our five grandchildren who all live in Boston. The most often requested are my chocolate chip cookies.

5. I still get teased about having a strong Boston accent.

6. I visited Italy about 10 years ago and would really like to go back. There is just so much to see!

7. I enjoy reading and have just finished To the End of the Land by David Grossman. It is a beautifully written book about the toll on the people of Israel from always being under attack by their neighbours.

8. My grandfather blew shofar in our synagogue in Boston. I am now the proud owner of his shofar.

9. I enjoy playing bridge and mah-jongg with my friends on a weekly basis.

10.My favourite Jewish holiday is Rosh Hashanah because it is enjoyed with family and friends and the cooking is less restrictive than for Passover!

11. I am a Boston Red Sox fan and I always cheer for the New England Patriots. I

Listening in: Rubin and Jack have a talk “Ya know,” said Jack to me the other day, “Oi’ve been t’inkin’.”

“So, that’s twice this week. And why speak to me as if you were from Newfoundland?”

“OK, laugh at my expense. The accent is just to get your attention for something important and profound.”

“And what is that, pray tell?”

“First, you sound too stuffy. Second, I’ve been thinking about how everything in our world is made up of relationships that are mutual and reciprocal.”

“Huh? I find you hard to follow when you use big words.”

“You know what I mean. Yin and yang, tit for tat – which are just short ways of saying ‘this for that.’ You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I meant metaphorically, so you can stop sticking your back into my chest.”

“I’m not that into back scratching anyway. Give me another example.”

“You’re always trying to one up me. I say, ‘Hi how are you?’ Then you say, ‘How’s it hangin’?’”

“But then, the next time, you say, ‘What’s shakin’?’ So I have to ask ‘What’s goin’ down?’”

“Exactly. That’s just us carrying on the reciprocity.”

“I totally get you.”

“Are you picking up what I’m laying down?”

“I’m completely smelling what you’re stepping in.”

“Oh now you’ve gone too far.”

“I’ve crossed the line?”

18 things ...

“You’ve left town and reached Tucson!”

“I’m feeling your pain.”

“You’re so far away. It must be tele-empathy.”

“OK, but this isn’t so deep.”

“I’m working my way in. What if we applied this way of thinking to everything? What if we looked at everything from the point of view of reciprocity? As if it was a fundamental aspect of the universe? You know they already have evidence that if you change the trait of one particle created in a collision, its counterpart travelling in the other direction and possibly light years away will instantaneously change in the same way.”

“So?” “So, I was watering the lawn the other day and I was thinking that the water and the lawn had a relationship. I could just as easily think of myself having water and deciding what to do with it, so I lawned the water.”

“You lawned the water? Did you also lawn the mower?”

“Actually, I did that first. After I lawned the water, I carred the water.”

“Does that mean you washed the car?”

“Exactly.”

“Brilliant. You’ve invented a way of talking without verbs.”

“Ingenious, eh? I laundried the water today and then I clothesed the drier.”

“Uh huh. And what are we doing right now?”

Sarah Silverstein have great admiration for Patriots’ owner Bob Kraft and his late wife, Myra, who have been incredibly philanthropic to Jewish causes.

12.When my youngest child, Sheila, was growing up, and the last one at home, we got her a Bichon Frise, which we named Lily Monet. Lily was a great dog and good company for Sheila!

13. I graduated from Simmons College with a Bachelor of Science in psychology and a minor in psychometrics.

14.My children threw a fantastic surprise party for me in Boston for my 60th birthday – and I was completely surprised!

15.I love the wit and fun in Cole Porter’s musical, Kiss Me Kate.

16.In the summer of 1965, I worked as a secretary for Dr. Joseph Murray while his permanent secretary was on holidays. He was doing ground-breaking work in the field of kidney transplantation. In 1990, he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine. While I was working there, it was not uncommon for Newsweek or Time to call weekly and ask “What’s new?”

17.I love bittersweet chocolate, especially the big bars that are for sale during Passover.

18.My favourite activity is visiting my grandchildren and going to places with them that I visited as a child with my parents, like the Franklin Park Zoo and the Swan Boats in Boston Garden.

Humour me, please Rubin Friedman “Oh, that’s a hard one. Wait! I have it! Talk is us-ing or maybe I have to say we-ing.”

“Confusion is me-ing, I think.”

“Oh come off it! This is revolutionary. Someone will write a book about the moment I was lawning my water in the same way we discuss how the apple fell from the tree onto Newton’s head.”

“Are you sure it fell on his head? Was his head appled or was it something else?”

“Besides Newton at the time, who cares what body part was involved? Really! It’s the principle that’s important!”

“Well, I hope you can work out all the kinks. For now, a walk and home is me-ing. I have to lawn my water to nematode it. I hope you travel in the opposite direction.”

“As we’re both leaving this little encounter at the same time, I’d ask you not to change too many of your traits on the way. I like the way I am now.”

“Don’t worry. We didn’t start out the same anyway. Happy nouning! See you soon.”

“Dig you later.”

November 28, 2011 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – Page 31

Tamir visits Camp B’nai Brith A group of Tamir participants spent a summer day visiting Camp B'nai Brith of Ottawa (CBB). The group from Tamir joined CBB campers for a great time playing ball hockey, singing and dancing, and sharing stories.

Together, they watched Dreamcoat: A Documentary, the film about Tamir’s hit production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. CBB of Ottawa put on an abridged version of Joseph for an Oneg Shabbat and the two groups sang a few numbers together.

It was a spectacular day for everyone involved. Planning is already underway to expand the program for the summer of 2012 so that many more can benefit from the interaction between the Tamir participants and CBB campers.

There were certainly lots of hugs and smiles for everyone on this magical day.

Canadian government helps fund kosher food safety (JTA) – Canada’s federal government will help fund the safety of kosher food products.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis, who also is responsible for agriculture and agrifood, announced a grant of up to $764,000 to enhance the safety of kosher food products produced in Canada.

The announcement was made earlier this

month at the offices of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, also known as the Vaad Ha’ir, which is co-ordinating the effort across the country.

The Canadian Kosher Food Safety Initiative is aimed at ensuring the highest level of food safety at all phases, from the raw materials to processing, distribution and retailing.

“Food safety is a priority for this government and for all Canadians,” Paradis said.

“This investment will further increase consumer confidence in the safety of kosher food and help build a more competitive sector.”

The initiative also seeks to create a Canadian council on kosher food safety in which the different kosher brands are invit-

ed to participate.

“This is in an effort to standardize food safety processes for the kosher industry,” Vaad Executive Director Rabbi Saul Emanuel said, adding that universities are being asked to assist in the development of standards.

Participation by industry and kashrut organizations is voluntary.

Visitors discuss Holocaust at Chabad Hebrew School Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research Chair Karel de Beer, Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre and Erik Boer, deputy head of mission the Embassy of the Netherlands are seen here with students and staff of the Ottawa Torah Centre’s Chabad Hebrew School. The three visited the school, October 30, and discussed the Holocaust with students.

Page 32 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 28, 2011

WHAT’S GOING ON November 28 to December 11, 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: 613798-9818, ext. 294.

TUESDAYS

CANDLELIGHTING BEFORE Dec 2

✡

4:01 pm

Dec 9

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4:00 pm

Dec 16

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4:00 pm

Dec 23

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4:03 pm

Dec 30

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4:08 pm

Jan 6

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4:14 pm

Jan 13

✡

4:22 pm

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

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

WEDNESDAYS Playgroup for babies and toddlers, sponsored by the Family Life Centre. Children must be accompanied by an adult, 9:00 to 11:30 am. Info: 613-798-9818, ext 294.

Education through Torah.

Rabbi Ken Spiro presents “A Nation that Dwells Alone: Why does the Whole World Pick on Tiny Israel?” Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, 7:30 pm. Info: 613-7989818, ext. 247.

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: 613798-9818, ext. 294.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3 Melave Malka, sponsored

by Kollel of Ottawa, with renowned educator, author, community leader and spiritual mentor, Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, who consults on issues related to the complexities and difficulties of modern times, Kollel of Ottawa, 1762 Carling Avenue, 8:00 pm. Info: 613-729-4368.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28 Shalom Ottawa, community television show, Rogers 22, 4:30 pm. (Repeats November 30 at 4:30 pm.)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30 Jewish Unity Live 2012 Kickoff, sponsored by Jewish

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4 Books and Bagels, sponsored by Temple Israel: Rabbi Steven Garten reviews “Burnt Books: Rabbi

Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka,” by Roger Kamenetz. Not necessary to have read the book. Breakfast served at 9:30 am, followed by review, Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive. Info: 613-594-4556.

Musica Ebraica Concert, “Miboker ad Erev – From Morning ‘til Evening,” salutes the 100th anniversary of the Kibbutz in Israel, Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive, 7:30 pm.

Info: proyer@rogers.com.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11 Chanukah Gift Fair, sponsored by the SJCC, is your opportunity to purchase everything you need for a festive holiday. Games and activities for all ages will take place during the day, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Info: 613798-9818, ext. 243.

PJ Library Chanukah Party, co-sponsored with the Family Life Centre. All families with young children enjoy a morning of holidaybased readings and activities. You do not need to be part of PJ Library to participate, 10:00 am. Info: 613798-4644.

The Truth about Chanukah, sponsored by the SJCC. Prof. Shawna Dolansky delves into the history and discovers where and when this festive holiday of latkes and dreidels originated, 10:30 am. Info: 613798-9818, ext. 254.

Book Review: Montreal author and literary journalist Joel Yanofsky discusses his memoir, “Bad Animals: a father’s accidental education in autism,” 1:00 pm.

Info: 613-798-9818, ext.

254.

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: Ralph Fonberg Beatrice Greenberg Arthur Kizell Ida Lesh Morris Mogelonsky Ervin Zilahi

May their memory be a blessing always.

BULLETIN

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. 274.

Voice mail is available.

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