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NOVEMBER 23, 2015 | 11 KISLEV 5776 ESTABLISHED 1937 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM | $2 breaks new ground as clergywoman commited to Orthodox A graduate of Hillel Academy and Yitzhak Rabin High School in Ottawa, Rabbi Lila Kagedan, is the fi rst Orthodox woman in North America to claim the title of “Rabbi.” Rabbi Kagedan met with Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Editor Michael Regenstreif on November 1, while she was in town

ROBIN CHERNICCK to participate in Rabbi Lila Kagedan leads a session entitled, “Orthodox Jewish Women Breaking New Ground in Jewish Religious Leadership,” Limmud Ottawa. at Limmud Ottawa, November 1, at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre.

abbi Lila Kagedan has chosen fi rst female rabbi in 1972. The Recon- become common in liberal Jewish 1999. a diffi cult path for herself as a structionist movement followed in 1974, denominations, the very idea of female Prior to founding Yeshivat , rabbi in a denomination which in 1981, and the is taboo or – at the very least – Rabbi Weiss controversially ordained a R(mostly) rejects the concept Conservative movement in 1985. controversial in . woman, , who had studied of women serving as at any (The fi rst woman to ever be ordained Rabbi Kagedan was ordained in June with him for fi ve years. She took the title level. as a rabbi – as Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton after graduating from Yeshivat Maharat “Rabba,” a feminized version of the word That women can serve as rabbis is noted in her “From the Pulpit” column in in , the fi rst in North rabbi. Rabba Hurwitz is now dean of now taken for granted in the Reform, the Bulletin (November 9) – was Rabbi America founded to train women for the Yeshivat Maharat. Reconstructionist, Conservative and who was ordained in Orthodox rabbinate. Rabbi Kagedan was one of six women Jewish Renewal movements. But having Germany in 1935. She was murdered by Yeshivat Maharat was founded in in Yeshivat Maharat’s third graduating women serve as rabbis is a relatively the Nazis at Auschwitz during the 2009 by Rabbi , who had also class. Other members of the class have recent phenomenon. The Reform Holocaust.) founded Yeshivat Chovevei , an taken the title “Maharat” or “Rabba.” movement in North America ordained its While women in the rabbinate has Orthodox rabbinical school for men in See Rabbi Kagedan on page 2

Rhoda Levitan on Limmud Ottawa hosts full day Barbara Crook on 20th anniversary inside: PJ Library program > p. 10 of Jewish learning > p. 12 of Rabin’s assassination > p. 21

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Continued from page 1 in Montreal, is not affi liated All of the members of the fi rst two with the RCA or Agudath Israel of graduating classes took “Maharat” as America. their title. The word maharat is an Rabbi Kagedan’s family moved to acronym for the Hebrew words manhiga Ottawa in time for her to enter Grade 4 at hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit indicating a Hillel Academy (now the Ottawa Jewish female leader trained in Halacha (Jewish Community School). She began her high law), spirituality and Torah. school studies at Machon Sarah High But, no matter which title each has School for Girls while her parents, Ian chosen, all graduates of Yeshivat Maharat and Shoshana Kagedan, worked to have completed studies taught at the establish Yitzhak Rabin High School. She same level as at modern Orthodox was a member of the fi rst graduating rabbinic schools for men. To date, there class at the Jewish community high have been 11 graduates of the program, school. and another 22 women are currently She explained that her path to the enrolled and scheduled to graduate rabbinate was rooted in the Jewish between 2016 and 2020. textual studies she pursued every day Rabbi Kagedan explained that each with her father, a senior public servant graduate of Yeshivat Maharat decides for who served as president of Congregation herself which title to assume. While she Beth Shalom West (now Congregation respects the choices other graduates have Beit Tikvah). Their daily text studies, she made to be called “Maharat” or “Rabba,” said, continued via telephone after she she said she chose to be called “Rabbi” to left Ottawa to pursue her studies. dispel any confusion about her training Ian Kagedan, she explained, was and qualifi cations. She pointed out there always supportive of her interest in is no distinction in the title given to ROBIN CHERNICK advanced Judaic studies and encouraged women and men who have graduated Rabbi Lila Kagedan, who grew up in Ottawa and graduated from Hillel Academy and her to pursue the opportunity to study at Yitzhak Rabin High School, returned to her home town to speak about Orthodox women from medical school – all are called Yeshivat Maharat. Sadly, he passed away in the rabbinate at Limmud Ottawa, November 1. “Doctor.” in 2014 following a battle with ALS Her rabbinic qualifi cations are in (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), about 16 addition to a variety of degrees and regardless of the title used; or hire or Orthodoxy, and the Moetzes Gedolei months before her ordination. certifi cates she earned previously at ratify the hiring of a woman into a HaTorah statement on Open Orthodoxy Rabbi Kagedan maintains an , the Hebrew rabbinic position at an Orthodox institu- emphatically stated, “any smicha extremely busy professional life. Now University of , the University of tion; or allow a title implying rabbinic [rabbinic ordination] granted by any of its based in the area, she teaches Toronto, Harvard University, the Medstar ordination to be used by a teacher of affi liated entities to their graduates does bioethics and works in hospitals as a Washington Hospital Center, and Limudei Kodesh (religious studies) in an not confer upon them any rabbinic clinical ethicist and chaplain. As well, she Massachusetts General Hospital. Orthodox institution,” the resolution authority.” is the founder and director of the Sulam While Rabbi Kagedan said there are states. Pointing out that many of the rabbis School, an intensive Jewish supplement- many people in the Orthodox world who The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah she has learned from over the years are ary school for elementary school stu- are willing to accept women in the (Council of Torah Sages) of America, the members of the RCA, Rabbi Kagedan said dents in Brookline, Massachusetts, and is rabbinate, and who are allies and sup- highest rabbinic authority of Agudath she has nothing but respect for the rabbis also a consultant, lecturer and educator porters of the women who have gradu- Israel of America, an umbrella group and understands the reluctance of specializing in global health, ethics, ated from Yeshivat Maharat, Orthodox representing haredi Orthodoxy in North Orthodox institutions to accept women religion and education. She frequently Judaism, at the institutional level, is still America, followed with a blanket con- as members of the rabbinate. serves as a scholar-in-residence. unwilling to accept female clergy. demnation of Open Orthodoxy, a new While acknowledging that many in the While Rabbi Kagedan hopes eventually On October 30, just two days before movement promoting a progressive form Orthodox world will never accept women to serve a congregation as well, she Rabbi Kagedan’s appearances at Limmud of Orthodox Judaism, including the in the rabbinate, Rabbi Kagedan said acknowledged that it would probably Ottawa, the Rabbinical Council of . (Agudath Israel progress is being made and pointed out have to be on a part-time basis given her America (RCA), the umbrella organiza- Congregation in Ottawa, a Conservative that graduates of Yeshivat Maharat have schedule. tion for modern Orthodox rabbis in , is not associated with been hired at a number of Orthodox Asked at a Limmud session why she North America, issued a resolution Agudath Israel of America.) congregations and institutions, including did not become a rabbi in one of the prohibiting the ordination or hiring of The two seminaries founded by at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in denominations that encourages women women rabbis. Rabbi Weiss, as well as the International Montreal where Maharat Rachel Kohl to become rabbis, Rabbi Kagedan said “RCA members with positions in Rabbinic Fellowship, a group he Finegold serves as director of education she was raised in an Orthodox family Orthodox institutions may not ordain co-founded as an alternative to the and spiritual enrichment. Shaar and she remains committed to women into the Orthodox rabbinate, RCA, are at the centre of Open Hashomayim, one of the most prominent Orthodoxy.

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BY PAULINE COLWIN y forehead is pressed against the Kotel, my fi ngers spread across the warm, ancient Mbrick. All my anxiety, my prayers prepared with such purpose and held tight, all the desire to do it properly, respectfully, are released and now all I feel is love and calm and togetherness. I’m in Israel. I’m touching the Kotel and I feel an overwhelming connection to everything around me; all that came before me and all that will come after me. How can I put this in words? The sun is on my back. There are birds nesting above me. The land is pulsing. Israel is alive, and I feel like I’m on speed dial to God. This is the overarching feeling I still carry from my recent, fi rst-time, trip to Israel. I was extremely lucky to be part of Momentum, an eight-day trip organized by the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project in partnership with JET Ottawa, lovingly led by Lauren Shaps, our city leader. The trip was a gift where partici- pants paid just their air fare. We visited the holy city of Tsfat, toured ancient synagogues, strolled through charming The 12 Ottawa women taking part in the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project trip to Israel, October 18-27, enjoyed a bird’s eye view of the Kotel artists’ shops, gazed at the blue of the from atop of the Aish HaTorah building in Jerusalem. (Seated, from left) Lisa Bogdonov, Jennifer Solomon, Lauren Shaps, Fior Rodrigues, Carolyn Dead Sea from atop Masada, then soaked Bickerton, (standing) Roberta Belfer, Jennifer Glassman, Norma Hochberg, Shauna Solomon, Pauline Colwin, Marie Levine and Elana Cherry. in its healing minerals, rode camels, danced, sang and ate meals dripping with date honey and the freshest produce. because of the increased security we Unity. Can I bring home anything The old joke is that if you have two But we were treated to more than tours faced, or the amended itinerary changed better than this? We are so much stronger in a room, then you have three of beautiful sites and landmarks. We were to keep us safe, but because of the together. We know this and yet I would opinions. Well, that might be true. But given the gift of connecting to our tremendous gratitude shown by every hazard a guess that every Jewish com- what we must remember is that we have homeland and to hundreds of other Israeli we encountered. munity around the world, suffers from one heart. In Israel, that heart beats very Jewish mothers. That’s the premise of the Again and again, I spoke with Israelis, in-fi ghting. loudly. You can feel it in the streets, at the trip – how can you inspire the most tears in their eyes, who thanked us for My trip coincided with the Kotel and in the eyes of all the Israelis people? First you reach the mothers! coming, for being there for them, for Project and, while it was chaotic, one of who welcomed us “home.” They will bring home this inspiration to standing with Israel. I learned a new the highlights was joining more than I’m still processing everything I their families and their communities. phrase: Achdut Yisrael, the unity of Israel. 3,000 other women in Tel Aviv to make experienced on this trip of a lifetime, but And inspiration is truly what we have This sense of solidarity, of shared pur- challah. Can you imagine this experi- my fi rst take-home lesson is: Achdut brought home. I have spoken to other pose, of caring for each other, of being ence? We were side-by-side, all of us in a Yisrael. I hope you will join me in keeping women who went on this trip in previous part of the entire Jewish family was shared purpose, making challah and that spirit of unity going. years, and everyone describes it in incredibly meaningful. It didn’t matter helping each other to help others. It was Visit www.jwrp.org for more informa- powerful terms. But, for those of us who what our religious practice was or where powerful and an honour to be part of this. tion about the JWRP. just returned, I think our experience was we were from. We were all Jews, standing If we could keep the unity we experience Pauline Colwin is communications perhaps intensifi ed by the ongoing terror strong together in full support of each during the Shabbat Project alive all year, manager for the Jewish Federation of attacks taking place in Israel. This is not other. wouldn’t that be an awesome gift? Ottawa.

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BY ANDREA FREEDMAN particular, I want to share two lessons they do this by learning to focus more on magine being at a conference with and experiences. the actual experience and less on how to 3,000 other passionately committed The fi rst was from a session called accomplish a task or achieve goals and Jews from across North America and “ and Its Secrets to Success: How objectives. Expert beginners often fi nd IIsrael. Now, imagine the diversity of to Build a Movement.” With multiple creative solutions leading to better political opinions from left to right; all concurrent sessions, the GA can feel like outcomes. Experience brings many manner of religious observance, practice speed dating as you quickly move advantages, but can also lead to linear and non-practice; all backgrounds and between sessions trying to fi nd a connec- solutions and a more mechanical way of varying community size. And, yet, at the tion. The GA is an endless sea of people, doing business – very effi cient and same time, I cannot imagine a more always on the move, always searching for effective, but perhaps not optimizing united and connected group of people. either a person or a session. results. After attending the Jewish Federations of As I approached the Chabad session, One of my all-time favourite movies is North America’s General Assembly something unexpected happened. The Dead Poets Society. English teacher John (GA), November 8 to 10 in Washington, speakers and organizers stood outside Keating, portrayed by Robin Williams, D.C., it is clear that far more unites us as the room personally welcoming every- stands on his desk and explains to his a people, than divides us. one, introducing themselves and students that he was doing so because It is uplifting to be in a room with encouraging everyone to come into the we should constantly look at things in a 3,000 others who share a similar com- room. different way.

mitment to making a bright future for This was out of the ordinary and did HOWARD SANDLER Expert beginners look at things in a the Jewish people, and a secure, peaceful not happen at any other session. What a Andrea Freedman is president and different way each and every day. CEO of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa. and prosperous Jewish State of Israel, simple and yet profoundly powerful At the GA, I increased my knowledge even as we differ and debate how best to experience. In the midst of conference about fundraising, leadership and best accomplish this. anomie, Chabad was offering a personal- participants to learn how to become an practices in the fi eld, all of which are The GA is about learning best practi- ized and caring experience. With this expert beginner. There is much joy and useful skills and which should help me ces that are having a positive impact in enticingly warm welcome, I entered the wonder in a fi rst-time experience. as I continuously strive to be a better other communities, networking with room. But I had already begun to learn Remember when you fi rst became a leader, professional and person. colleagues, engaging in Jewish learning, the secret of Chabad: it is all about the parent or grandparent, dove into a lake But, at the end of the day, the greatest and revelling in the passion of others, person and not a program or institution. in summer, or put on skates for the fi rst take away was the juxtaposition of what particularly the hundreds of college The second lesson was from Rabbi time and glided around the ice? I learned from Chabad and Rabbi students and young leaders who infused Adina Lewittes on leadership (full Remember the unbridled enthusiasm Lewittes. Always look for new ways to the conference with spirit and optimism. disclosure, she is a friend). and the grin from ear to ear as you make individuals feel connected and It has been several years since I last Rabbi Lewittes’ central thesis is that savoured the experience? welcomed. Become an expert beginner attended the GA, so perhaps I cherished we often place too high a premium on That infectious passion and joy is how in creating authentic, Jewish, personal the learning even more this time. In experience. Rather, she encouraged an expert beginner feels every day. And experiences – and the rest will follow.

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Jewish This is just one way that Westboro Flooring & Decor is Memorial protecting our world for the future. Gardens A major renovation and revitalization project for the Bank Street Cemetery which includes: 195 Colonnade Rd. S. _ A NEW ROAD 613-226-3830 _ PARKING LOT www.westborofl ooring.com _ REFLECTIVE GARDEN and RECEPTION AREA _ ENHANCED MAINTENANCE The next issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin will be published December 7, 2015. TO DONATE ONLINE The following issue will be published January 25, 2016, www.jewishmemorialgardens.org with deadline date of January 6, 2016. or call: 613-688-3530 ext.1 Breaking news updated daily at JMG is a Registered Charitable Organization www.ottawajewishbulletin.com November 23, 2015 5 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM Adath Jeshurun building is last historic synagogue left in Ottawa

BY LYNNE COHEN “The four walls had to be stabilized and restored at a FOR OTTAWA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY cost that the report was unable to estimate,” said Henry ttawa’s fi rst Jewish congregation, Adath Molot of the Chevra Kadisha. Jeshurun, was begun by “Ottawa’s fi rst small “The older members of the community were certainly handful of Jewish settlers who came together in unhappy and disappointed to see the chapel sold in 1997. O1892,” according to an Ottawa Jewish Archives We offered the building to the Vaad for one dollar, but they Facebook post from July 18, 2013. were unwilling to accept responsibility for the facility.” The congregation’s fi rst synagogue was a small wooden Both the Chevra Kadisha and the Jewish Community building acquired in 1895 at 264 Murray Street in the Council of Ottawa/Vaad Ha’Ir (now the Jewish Federation ByWard Market. Unfortunately, the building was next to a of Ottawa) saw tremendous value in keeping the building. food processing plant whose main product was pork and But both also had good fi nancial reasons for not wanting beans, so the synagogue was permeated with the smell of to own it. cooking pork, much to everyone’s discomfort. “We believed the city rules for temporarily shuttering With a growing membership, Adath Jeshurun, pur- King Edward were probably extensive and costly, very chased property at 375 King Street (now King Edward likely too much to foist on the community,” said Molot. Avenue) for $2,200 and built a in 1904. The building is now a francophone Seventh Day Designed by Ottawa architect John W. H. Watts, it featured Adventist church. two large onion domes in the style of Moorish Revival Despite the building’s historical signifi cance, it has not architecture. yet been designated as a heritage site by the city of Ottawa. The building is the only remaining historic synagogue “A Lower Town community group made an applica- building in Ottawa. Unfortunately, though, it no longer tion,” said archivist Saara Mortensen of the Ottawa Jewish belongs to the local Jewish community. Archives. “The process can take a long time.” In 1956, Adath Jeshurun was amalgamated with Mortenson said she would be surprised if the building Agudath Achim to form Congregation Beth Shalom on was not ultimately designated as a heritage site. Chapel Street, and the building was sold to the Ottawa Today Molot envisions potential uses for the building if Chevra Kadisha for $60,000. the Jewish community was able to buy it back. The building then served as Ottawa’s Jewish funeral “Now there is talk of needing a minyan in that part of chapel for four decades. But, by the early-1990s, an downtown,” he said. “It could become a beautiful, quaint engineers’ report showed that extensive repairs and meeting place.” COURTESY OF OTTAWA JEWISH ARCHIVES The Ottawa Chevra Kadisha Chapel, formerly Adath Jeshurun reconstruction were required to bring the old structure up A large Star of David window still remains on the synagogue, 375 King Edward Avenue, circa 1970. to code. decorative parapet. 6 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

we will be hosting several parlour Collective philanthropy meetings with the goal of reaching out to women across the community to become members, as well as returning to empowers the lives our founders and supporters to consider a follow-up gift. These meetings will also be an of women and children opportunity to acquaint WCPP mem- bers, and original funders/founders, community and extended an invitation support an initiative to improve the with the new more targeted fundraising to join in the journey. One of the WCPP’s safety of women on Ottawa’s university approach we believe will best serve our fi rst projects, the annual Pearls of campuses. mission. Wisdom event, is still fi rst and foremost We have also organized several How can you involved? Simple! an outreach and public service initiative meaningful Pearls of Wisdom events, A minimum $100 contribution to the

FEDERATION REPORT reaching out to all women, regardless of which took on issues like women’s Women’s Collective Endowment Fund EILEEN MELNICK MCCARTHY their philanthropic participation. Pearls fi nance, women in the Holocaust and, at makes you a member of the Women’s AND YAFFA GREENBAUM of Wisdom is meant to promote the work our most recent event, women’s health. Collective Philanthropy Program. WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE of the WCPP and highlight fundraising As you can see, we are striving to engage All women who support this program PHILANTHROPY PROGRAM as the means through which we address women and families and to educate as members have an equal voice and are our goals. more deeply on issues vital to us so we encouraged to participate fully in our n 2009, an original and audacious The Women’s Collective Endowment may empower a generation of women in programs and the overall development initiative was created in conjunction Fund, the fund through which the WCPP the Jewish community and beyond. of the program. with the Ottawa Jewish Community distributes grants, now stands at more Still, we want to do more. We are always open to hearing ideas IFoundation: the Women’s Collective than $60,000, allowing for larger grants While we take satisfaction in the for programs or ways we can support Philanthropy Program (WCPP). Our goal each year. Members of the WCPP success of these events and in how the women and children in the community. was to empower women to make collectively direct where these funds go. Women’s Collective Endowment Fund Mostly, we want to encourage the meaningful philanthropic choices, and In the past three years, we have helped has grown, our aim is to fund even more continued growth of the WCCP. Won’t by doing so, make a difference in the women with special needs by funding a signifi cant projects to make a more you join us? lives of women and families in our city. program run by Tamir; we funded a concrete difference to recipient organiza- Eileen Melnick McCarthy and Yaffa Founded by Lynne Oreck-Wener, along Na’amat program that provides school tions and their constituents. Greenbaum are co-chairs of the WCPP. with a group of Jewish women, the supplies for children living in shelters; To accomplish this, we are boosting For more information about the WCPP reached out to women in the and we gave a grant to Hillel Ottawa to our fundraising efforts. Early next year, program, contact Eileen at ejmelnick@ gmail.com, visit www.ojcf.ca, or call the Foundation offi ce at 613-798-4696, Hatikvah, hope, means ext. 252. Ottawa Jewish Bulletin to never give up VOLUME 80 | ISSUE 5 Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Publishing Co. Ltd. father was misleading him regarding may lose a battle, but the war goes on. 21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Ottawa, K2A 1R9 Tel: 613 798-4696 | Fax: 613 798-4730 their journey; that he was actually So, while he couldn’t stop Avraham Email: [email protected] planning to sacrifi ce him. and Yitzchak from going through with Published 19 times per year. © Copyright 2015 Satan did not succeed. Avraham and the Akeida, he hoped that Avraham and PUBLISHER Yitzchak withstood his challenges and Yitzchak would fi nd out that Sarah had Andrea Freedman went through with the Akeida. passed away and that their trip, their EDITOR The then informs us that very test, their very actions, might have Michael Regenstreif Satan went to tell Sarah that her hus- been the catalyst that resulted in her PRODUCTION MANAGER FROM THE PULPIT band and son did not simply go on a death. Brenda Van Vliet RABBI ARI GALANDAUER father/son camping trip, but that How horrible, how guilty, they would BUSINESS MANAGER YOUNG ISRAEL Avraham had brought her son as an feel. Perhaps they’d even regret having Barry Silverman offering, which leads to her passing gone through with the . Thus The Bulletin, established in 1937 as “a force here is a famous Midrash that away. Satan would actually snatch victory from for constructive communal consciousness,” communicates the messages of the Jewish connects the death of our I always wondered, since Satan’s goal the clutches of defeat! This was his great Federation of Ottawa and its agencies and, as matriarch Sarah with the story was to stop Avraham and Yitzchak from hope. Why? Because Satan never gives the city’s only Jewish newspaper, welcomes a diversity of opinion as it strives to inform and Tof Akeidat Yitzchak, the binding going through with the Akeida, which he up! Satan understands all too well that enrich the community. Viewpoints expressed of Isaac. failed to do, why did he then bother to anything, especially failure, can be in these pages do not necessarily represent The Midrash says that Satan, the angel inform Sarah about what had transpired? temporary, but only if one is willing to the policies and values of the Federation. responsible for challenging us and It was too late to stop them, Avraham pick himself up, dust himself off, and get The Bulletin cannot vouch for the of advertised products or establishments placing obstacles in front of us, tried and Yitzchak had already passed the back in the game. unless they are certified by Ottawa Vaad mightily to prevent Avraham and test! What then is the purpose of going It is this attitude, this boldness, this HaKashrut or a rabbinic authority recognized by OVH. Yitzchak from following the word of God to Sarah? assertiveness, that we are to learn from, $36 Local Subscription | $40 Canada by binding Yitzchak on an alter and It’s hard to believe that I’m writing be inspired by, and ultimately emulate. $60 USA | $179 Overseas | $2 per issue offering him up to God. this, but it seems we can actually learn We live in trying times. More than We acknowledge the financial support of the He tried to dissuade Avraham by from, and be inspired by, Satan! Yes, ever, we must fi nd the courage to keep Government of Canada through the telling him, “God would not condone you’re hearing it from an Orthodox rabbi going. I’m reminded of that courage Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. child sacrifi ce! Not to mention that God that, sometimes, we should follow in the every time I hear “Hatikvah,” Israel’s himself assured you that through ways of Satan. national anthem. For me, the most ISSN: 1196-1929 Yitzchak, the Jewish national future Let me explain. meaningful part is the title, “Hatikvah,” Publication Mail Agreement No. 40018822 would be realized. You Avraham must After trying and failing numerous which means “hope,” a word that is Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Ottawa Jewish Bulletin have misunderstood!” times, Satan could have done what we meant to defi ne the Jewish people, a 21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Then Satan went to Yitzchak and would do: give up. Except that is not how word that, at its essential core, means to Ottawa ON K2A 1R9 attempted to scare him by saying that his Satan operates. He never gives up. He never give up! November 23, 2015 7 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

WE WELCOME YOUR OPINIONS Israel takes small steps toward At the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, we take our unique and important role in the com- munity seriously. The Bulletin is a venue Jewish religious pluralism for our community organizations to tell their stories and it is a place for reasoned I wrote that column in reaction to a roundtable, though fi rst announced and civil discussion and debate on issues shocking statement, “a Reform , from months ago, has yet to meet formally.) of concern to the Jewish community. the moment he stops following Jewish law, A couple of days after Netanyahu’s We are a diverse community – both I cannot allow myself to say that he is a speech at the General Assembly, it was religiously and politically – and we respect Jew,” that Religious Services Minister announced that the Jewish Agency for diverse opinions in our pages or online at David Azoulay said in an interview on Israel’s annual funding to the Reform and www.ottawajewishbulletin.com. The Israeli Army Radio. Conservative movements in Israel – $1.09 columnists who contribute to the Bulletin

FROM THE THE FROM EDITOR The next day, Azoulay rose in the Knes- million each – would be matched by funds represent some of that diversity, and we MICHAEL REGENSTREIF set to clarify his opinion. Reform Jews, he from the Prime Minister’s Offi ce. welcome your participation in the admitted, while sinners, are still Jewish. It’s a beginning, but there is still a long community conversation. n my column in our July 27 issue, I There have since been some steps – way to go before the non-Orthodox move- We encourage your constructive argued against the hegemony of the albeit very small steps – to begin the ments attain equal legitimacy in Israel’s engagement via letters, guest columns and haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate in process of addressing Jewish religious religious affairs. Despite being doubled, comments on our website (although we IJewish religious affairs – including pluralism in Israel. In a speech to the the funding for the non-Orthodox move- do not approve anonymous comments) or such matters as marriage, divorce and Jewish Federations of North America ments is still very modest and it is coming Facebook page. Please participate. conversion – and the control of Israel’s annual General Assembly, November 10, from the Jewish Agency and the Prime Just a word on our policy in regard to religious services ministry by the haredi in Washington, D.C., Netanyahu said he Minister’s Offi ce, not from the religious the State of Israel. As a mainstream Jewish Orthodox parties in Prime Minister would strengthen the rights of non- affairs ministry. But at least Netanyahu community newspaper, the Bulletin is Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Orthodox Jews in Israel. recognizes there is a problem that must be unquestionably pro-Israel. There is much I pointed out that we live in a religiously “As prime minister of Israel, I will always addressed. to celebrate about Israel – and that we do. pluralistic Jewish world, that some of us ensure that all Jews can feel at home in However, Netanyahu heads Israel’s But that does not imply Israel or its are very religious, while others are not at Israel – Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, government by virtue of a numerically government are beyond criticism. There is all. I said we must respect all Jewish de- Orthodox Jews – all Jews,” he said. weak coalition and, as long as the Knesset a wide variety of valid and reasonable nominations – haredi Orthodox, modern Netanyahu said the government had seats (currently 13 of 120) controlled by views that can and should be expressed. Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist formed a roundtable group of representa- the religious parties – Shas and United We welcome that spectrum of opinion. and Reform – as equally legitimate and tives of the different religious movements Torah Judaism – are enough to put a What the Bulletin defi nitely is not is a that Israel, as the homeland of all Jewish and government ministries in order to coalition into power, the government will venue for organizations or individuals people, needs to respect the legitimacy of address the movements’ concerns. (JTA, not take the big steps necessary to effect who seek to delegitimize the State of each of our denominations. the Bulletin’s wire service, reports the real change. Israel. That’s our line in the sand.

in 2000. France is ground zero for In 2014, there were 851 attacks on Jews, synagogues and Jewish businesses in France. Ghozlan was the police offi cial anti-Semitism, anti- who established a special bureau to report attacks on Jews and Jewish property. for the record, were European French, not French news showed were heavily armed, While the attackers are often French Muslim émigrés. helmeted and masked Israeli soldiers. Muslims of North African origin, Ghozlan There was nothing unique about this In France, the media coverage is says left wing and communist politicians, demonstration. There were, maybe, 100 unequivocal. Israelis bad, Palestinians and small town mayors, are also overtly people. But seeing it in real time in France good, period! There is no nuance. There is anti-Israel. He says they name streets after made me think of what’s happening in no attempt to say Jews can be victims too. terrorists and adds they and the media other European countries, and in so much Watching the coverage was isolating, create an atmosphere where Jews and

IDEAS AND IDEAS IMPRESSIONS of the world. and there was a certain psychological Israel become “detestable” to the general JASON MOSCOVITZ Demonization of Israel is not new, but it powerlessness about it. As much as I public. is more globally pronounced; and France wanted those images and depictions to be Ghozlan explains how the French army is considered to be ground zero for different, I knew they wouldn’t be. It was protects synagogues, Jewish schools and isiting southern France last untempered and unfi ltered animosity like a headache or a toothache that won’t community centres, and how children are month, I walked into a boycott towards Jews and Israel. There is no go away. It was a bad dream, except it taunted on their way to and from school. Israel demonstration in pretence in France that this is just about wasn’t. How cars owned by Jews are frequently VPerpignan. There were chants the politics of Israel and not about Jews in It is the daily reality for French Jews, a torched, and how stores and businesses and placards and people handing out general. reality that was well documented in the are defaced with hateful graffi ti. information sheets. There was nothing The boycott Israel rally I inadvertently August edition of Vanity Fair. “Paris is It is reminiscent of 1930s Germany, shocking about it, but there was some- encountered was held during one of those Burning” is the story of Sammy Ghozlan, except the French government is actually thing that alarmed me. recent ugly and frightening weeks in a former Paris area police commissioner protecting Jews. However, the need for When I politely declined any informa- Israel, and you would have to think the affectionately known as the “Sephardic armed protection demonstrates how tion and kept walking, I was followed by a timing was no accident. We live at a time Columbo.” Ghozlan, 72, was one of the threatened French Jews are. And let’s not demonstrator who repeatedly asked why I when Israeli stabbing deaths are cheered 7,000 French Jews who made aliyah in forget France is just one of many countries wasn’t interested enough to get informed. on social media, while Palestinian deaths 2014. More than 10,000 more will have where wearing a kippah in public invites I felt like saying I am a Jewish guy on are mourned and martyred. moved to Israel by the end of 2015. open harassment. holiday in France, with two daughters Watching the news in France that week France still has the third largest Jewish Israel, either its politics or its existence, living in Israel, so please just let me be. was disheartening. Reporters were population in the world, and Ghozlan has become the lightning rod for this But where would that have led? I just kept showing the violence through the minds laments there is not a bar mitzvah boy in contemporary wave of anti-Semitism. walking and my persistent pursuer and hearts of Palestinians as a one-way France who has not lived through How and when will it stop spreading is the eventually gave up as I crossed the street street of loss and fear. There was no anti-Semitism from birth. He traces the question. to get away from him and the others who, attempt to show everyday Israelis. What upsurge in France to the second intifada No time soon is the sad answer. 8 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

ROOM FOR RENT mailbag | [email protected] Large bright furnished bedroom, upstairs of private home, separate bathroom, available for mature, responsible student/working professional/intern. Nonsmoker only. Share kitchen and living area VETERANS’ SHABBAT AT AGUDATH ISRAEL who served are remembered at the Beechwood with professional woman and one outdoor cat. Agudath Israel Congregation marked Remembrance Cemetery in Ottawa. His description of the stained glass Close to rapid transit and OTrain. Day 2015 in its annual Veterans’ Shabbat service on window in the Hall of Colours, donated by the Canadian Please contact Fern 613-897-3574, November 7. In attendance were Jewish veterans of the Military Chaplain’s Association, was particularly [email protected] Second World War who were called to the bimah in evocative. It depicts a tree illuminated by the sun, not honour of their service and sacrifi ce. Colonel Sylvain unlike the Tree of Life so often referred to in Judaism. Maurais, director of the Royal Canadian Chaplain Maurais also spoke movingly about his experiences Service, was invited to bring special greetings on behalf as a chaplain while serving in Afghanistan, noting that of the Canadian Armed Forces. imminent battle brings one’s faith into sharp focus. He opened with a reading of John McCrae’s “In Those who minister to soldiers before and after battle Flanders Fields,” and mentioned how special the understand these challenges in a unique way that a occasion was for him. Although he has been engaged in civilian cannot. Rabbi Barry Schlesinger, who served in interfaith dialogue since 2006, it was the fi rst time he the Israel Defense Forces and remains a reservist, shared had been invited to a synagogue and he spoke of how in this observation. touched he was by hearing and sharing in . He went on to describe how regiments and chaplains Barbara Okun

E-mail: [email protected] Elaine & Frank Goldstein www.cactustzimmer.com I was in Jerusalem to support Israel

hy on earth would you come to Israel at this time? Aren’t you afraid?’ YONATAN CURRY These were the fi rst questions asked ‘Wof me recently when I told people I was GUEST COLUMN Proudly Serving Barrhaven in Jerusalem for a short visit. for over 17 years! I would explain that no, I was not afraid, and that this visit, my third in nine months, was to show 613-580-2473 support for Israel. other people. @BarrhavenJan “Mr. Harper was such a friend of Israel. How do you The English and Hebrew free Shabbat walking tours facebook.com/BarrhavenJanHarder feel about your new prime minister, Justin Trudeau?” had fewer participants each week I attended and the was, invariably, the next question. route of the fi rst English tour had to be diverted from www.JanHarder.com In response, I would try to show how Canada’s the Kidron Valley; though, by the second week, the support of Israel went back many decades. numbers on the Hebrew tour had increased somewhat. A dramatic difference I saw on this visit was the There were, however, large numbers of tour groups presence of heavily armed soldiers and/or border everywhere. These groups, primarily foreign and ShowShow IsraelIsrael YouYou CareCare!! police on virtually every street corner and public Christian, moved en masse through the streets and transportation vehicle. And I am not talking about some were chaperoned by armed guards. Volunteer as a Civilian worker one or two soldiers or police offi cers; it was usually I also noticed about the same number of people at for 2 or 3 weeks four to six personnel. each of the services I attended at Jerusalem’s Great The other major difference I sensed was Synagogue as I’ve seen on previous visits. And, almost Jerusalemites’ understanding that, in this current more comforting, was seeing about the same number round of violence, the confl ict – often referred to as of browsers as I’ve seen in the past at each of the used “the current situation” – was not taking place some- bookshops I visited. Although Jerusalem’s citizens where else. Rather, it was here, in their midst. Evidence were not venturing out in the evenings, perhaps they of this was in the advice to always be aware of who was still felt compelled to participate in prayer services and around you when you walked down the street and in then spend their evenings at home with a book! the noticeable absence of ordinary citizens on the At just 13 days, this was my shortest trip to Israel streets after 5:30 or 6 pm. ever. But it was surely the most important one. That Venues such as the Machane Yehuda Market or the Canadians care is important to Israelis. This was clearly Geula food shops appeared to have 50 per cent fewer evident in the broad smiles and frequent hugs I customers than usual – even on Friday when so many received when I held up a sheet on which my friend normally shop for Shabbat. So much so that one was Ella had written in Hebrew, “I’m here to support on an Israeli army supply base able to walk past the shops without bumping into Israel!”

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Free: accommodations, kosher meals, trips, events. Letters to the Editor are welcome if they are brief, signed, timely, and of interest to our Cost: air fare, $100 registration, weekend expenses. readership. The Bulletin reserves the right to refuse, edit or condense letters. The 416-781-6089 or [email protected] 514-735-0272 or [email protected] Mailbag column will be published as space permits. www.sarelcanada.orgwww.sarelcanada.org Send your letters to Michael Regenstreif, Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Programs start approximatelyapproximately every every 3 3 weeksweeks.. 21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Ottawa, ON K2A 1R9. Or by email to [email protected]

November 23, 2015 9 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM Advertorial Israeli company creates opportunities to invest in high-tech start-ups

BY LOUISE RACHLIS or fi nancial investors outside Israel, iAngels Alan More than trees Lynda screens for the best Israeli start-up opportunities Blostein Taller-Wakter so they don’t have to. President 613.798.2411 Executive “Today we see 85 deals a month and, of these [email protected] Director F deals, we usually invest in only one,” said Shelly Hod JEWISH NATIONAL FUND Moyal, one of the founders of the Israeli investment company. “We’re very selective.” Thinking of making a donation before December 31? The Tel Aviv-based Hod Moyal visited Toronto, November is JNF Blue Box Month Ottawa and Montreal in late-October for meetings with Recycle your JNF Blue Box by the end of the calendar year for a members of the investment community to raise aware- 2015 donation receipt and a new JNF Blue Box. You can bring your ness of Israel’s high-tech start-ups. full boxes to most shuls, the SJCC or directly to JNF Ottawa. Or visit According to “Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s our booth at the Chanukah Fair on Sunday, November 29 at the Economic Miracle,” by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, Israel SJCC. has more high-tech start-ups and a larger venture Going away this winter? capital industry per capita than any other country in the Why not make your Tu Bishevat donation before you go in order world. to obtain a 2015 donation receipt? “iAngels allows for private investors all over the world to invest in Israeli high tech start-ups,” said Hod Moyal Think of a legacy in Israel through JNF – in an interview with the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. “All our JNF is 100% Israel opportunities are led by the top tier investors in Israel There’s no better way to show your solidarity with Israel than to establish a legacy in Israel. Why not consider JNF or one of JNF’s who have already made money on their investments. many partners in Israel, including LEKET, Israel’s National Food You get to join with local investors, and we bring you in Shelly Hod Moyal is the founder of iAngels Bank and ALUT, the Israeli Society for Autistic Children? JNF also under the same terms. has many available projects throughout Israel, from parks and play- “According to our company research, 80 per cent of grounds to hospitals. the successful companies are attributed to these top ing technology, mobile technology and the Internet. Consider planned giving, donation of a stock, through your foun- investors. Therefore, we made a decision that to increase “Israel has been a source for the leading technologies dation or direct donation. the probability of good return; we invest only with these in the world, and has the highest exit ratio,” she said. These are suggestions only. Talk to your tax adviser about the suit- ability of legacy planning for your personal situation. prominent investors. We have our own researchers on “There is more liquidity, and a lot of start-ups are the ground that do due diligence on all these successfully exiting.” International acclaim for combatting desertification opportunities.” The exit strategy is a way of cashing out an KKL-JNF talks water in Turkey The response in Canada has been “amazing,” she said. investment. This year, for the first time, KKL-JNF was recognized as an NGO, “The investment community has been very receptive While investing with iAngels mitigates the risk with which entitles us to membership in the United Nations Convention to investing in technology and innovation, and is rigorous analytics, it’s important to diversify, she said. to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). KKL-JNF participated in the October COP12 conference in Ankara, Turkey, focusing on combat- interested in what we’re doing. What was also nice is “All the start-ups have been screened carefully. You ting desertification, at which KKL-JNF presented our achievements in that successful businesses are eager to get involved. can invest $5,000 US in one opportunity, and you can the field and established international contacts. They see the value of opening the doors of investment. create a portfolio of 20 opportunities. You can invest in In conjunction with the government of Israel, KKL-JNF hosted an From their perspective, Israel is known for creating the best deals.” event featuring our achievements in the preservation of food produc- wealth and returns for investors. It’s a great place to Potential investors are invited to join iAngels via the tion levels and the rehabilitation of desertified regions given a decline start. We look forward to long-term relationships with company website at www.iangels.co. Once iAngels in the quantity of rainfall due to climate change. It was attended by verifi es that an investor meets the criteria, they will about 25 representatives of Turkey, India, Brazil, Uganda, Cuba, the community here,” she said. China, Mozambique, Eritrea, Sudan, Fiji and other countries. Hod Moyal has evaluated investment opportunities receive full access to the investing platform including a Dr. Yossi Tannay of the ARO Volcani Centre presented his for investment fi rms, private individuals and corpora- complete investment deck, portfolio dashboard, research, which indicates that covering crops with netting saves tions around the world. iAngels specializes in enterprise webinars, lead investors’ testimonials and the iAngels’ water. Dr. Naftali Lazarovitch of Ben Gurion University presented a software, cyber security, fi nancial technology, advertis- investment thesis. method for saving irrigation water for crops in arid regions by means of a method that effects a reduction in water loss by the root system of the crop. Itzhak Moshe, KKL-JNF deputy director for the Southern Region, presented the use of runoff in order to rehabilitate desertified regions. Send a card that is as personalized as the message it carries He explained KKL-JNF’s methods of land preservation and tree planting in the northern Negev, which are based on the use of runoff. These methods originate in the ancient agricultural methods imple- mented in the Negev. He also presented the important ecological ser- vices provided for people by the forests of KKL-JNF such as pasture, honey production, recreation, land preservation and tourism. A UNCCD representative from China said, “Israel is always the leading country in this type of research.”

Certificates A Garden of Trees has been planted in honour of Robert Shapiro, on the occasion of his 50th birthday , by Jack and Carol-Sue, Len, Michael, Nikki, Neilah and Benjamin, Tracy and Jo. These cards are a special production from participant artists in the Tamir Visual Arts program and are an On a daily basis you can plant excellent way to recognize a special occasion or as a thoughtful way to express sympathy or your thanks. trees for all occasions. An attrac- Not only will you stay connected with friends and loved ones but you will also be supporting important tive card is sent to the recipient. To order, call the JNF office programs at Tamir, whether you are sending one across town or across the country. (613.798.2411). Visit www.tamir.ca to place your order or call 613-725-3519 x 112. www.JNFOttawa.ca 10 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM Ottawa is lucky to have the PJ Library program

BY RHODA LEVITAN with singalong music. And it’s all ne of the best kept secrets in delivered by mail at no cost to the Ottawa is the PJ Library family. program. Part of Grinspoon’s brilliance is that O It really is quite amazing. the PJ Library program operates as a Most of us have special memories of partnership with each community where reading to our children, especially at the program is offered. And the Jewish bedtime when it’s time for snuggles and Federation of Ottawa is proud to be a hugs – and that is what PJ is about. partner and offer the program to the The program was created by a caring young families of our community. Jewish philanthropist. Harold While the Grinspoon Foundation Grinspoon, a Jewish grandfather who covers the bulk of the costs, we need to built signifi cant wealth through real raise $25,000 each year to make it estate, decided he wanted to make a happen. Right now in Ottawa, 390 kids Children and parents gather in Centrepointe Park, June 14, for a PJ Library celebration. difference. are getting these books and their “I love the Jewish People. I speak families are benefi tting from the experi- Jewish with my dollars,” he said. ence – which includes being invited to PJ We all know that learning to read opportunity. He established the Harold Grinspoon Library parties and programs where both opens up the world. We also know how So, if you have or know kids aged six Foundation and the PJ Library program. parents and kids meet and make new special it is to share a story with some- months to seven years, contact Ariel Through the program, Jewish children friends. And this is the big plus. Through one you love. Imagine getting such a gift Fainer at [email protected] or aged six months to seven years receive a PJ Library, young Jewish families are delivered to your home every month. 613-798-4696, ext. 240 to sign up for PJ book each month. The books are about connecting in an amazing way. The I’ve talked to parents with young Library. It’s a great way to get fantastic , Shabbat, going on families who get these books have children and they all think the books are books and to meet other families with family vacations, silly stories, life lessons developed a real social connection and fabulous and add a touch of being Jewish young children. and more. They are all fabulous, and look forward to getting together at these to their life. Without donor support, this great most have Jewish-related content. And, programs, many of which the parents So, back to the headline – we are lucky program wouldn’t continue. So, if you for Chanukah, each child receives a CD initiate. to have the PJ Library program in our would like to stand tall and be part of the community. But we only have it because great group of donors who make PJ of the generous support of a group of Library happen here in Ottawa, please Torah Academy of Ottawa Presents Ottawa women who saw the value of this reach out and call Ariel. CHOCOLATE Temple Israel CHANCES An egalitarian Reform congregation Jewish roots, contemporary values, egalitarian A Raffle and Silent Auction Event Friday Kabbalat Shabbat Services, 6:15 pm. Saturday Shabbat Services, 10:15 am. GOOD FRIENDS November 29, 2015 Thursday morning minyanim: GREAT FOOD 7:00pm second and fourth Thursdays, 7:30 am. ... Sunday, December 6: Shauna Dolansky will review FABULOUS PRIZES m ot

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Breaking news updated daily at www.ottawajewishbulletin.com November 23, 2015 11 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM How the world’s longest-running survives in Morocco

BY BEN SALES CASABLANCA, Morocco (JTA) – Raizel Raskin’s offi ce feels like a cluttered museum of Moroccan Jewish heritage. A photo from an old Jewish summer camp lies on the table. Another, of a rabbi meeting Moroccan dignitaries, hangs on the wall. Outside the door is a bookshelf fi lled with Chasidic tracts translated into Arabic. But the rest of Chabad’s multistory complex here looks almost abandoned. Once a school bustling with hundreds of Jewish children, the facility today is largely an empty shell, with dust collecting on unused sports equipment and desks sitting disorganized in unused classrooms. Even the portrait of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last Lubavitcher rebbe, whose bearded face typically occupies a place of honoured prominence in Chabad homes, is peeling off the wall of the foyer. Crossing the building’s courtyard, Raskin notices a BEN SALES BEN SALES dead bird. Rabbi Shalom Edelman has served as a Chabad Volumes of an Arabic translation of a Chasidic text “Every emissary has their own problems,” said emissary in Morocco since 1958. at the Chabad outpost in Casablanca. Raskin, who moved to Morocco from France with her late husband, Rabbi Yehuda Raskin, in 1960. Pointing at returned to run the operation in 2009, says Casa- Israel’s earlier wars, Moroccans would throw stones at the bird, she added, “This is also part of the Morocco blancans are mostly indifferent – or even friendly – Jews. experience.” toward Jews, though tension does fl are during Israel’s At 65 years old, the Chabad in Casablanca is the frequent military operations. Raskin said that during See Chabad on page 16 Chasidic movement’s oldest outpost in the world, and one of only two in the Arab world (the other is in Tunis). Chabad’s fi rst emissaries arrived there in 1950, the beta test for what would grow into a global move- ment of thousands of Chabad rabbis and their wives scattered across six continents. SEESE THTHE In its early years, Morocco’s Jewish population numbered 250,000, and Chabad served 5,000 students OPPORTUNITYPPPORTRT in schools across the country. But, following the establishment of Israel in 1948 and Morocco’s BEBEHINDND YOUR independence from France in 1956, the vast majority NNUMBERNUMBERSMMB RS emigrated. Today, Chabad runs classes, weekend programs and a summer camp for the 2,500 Jews who remain. The week before Rosh Hashanah, raw chickens sat on crates ready **)/LVWKHWD[SODQQLQJDQGDFFRXQWLQJ÷UP to be cooked. IRU2WWDZDÚVVXFFHVVIXOEXVLQHVVSHRSOH:RUN Chabad has survived here by keeping a low profi le ZLWKRXUWHDPIRUWKHSURDFWLYHVROXWLRQV and maintaining good relations with the government. Like other Jewish institutions in Morocco, Chabad’s VRXQGEXVLQHVVDGYLFHDQG÷QDQFLDOVWUDWHJLHV activities take place mostly behind closed doors. Its \RXQHHGQRZDQGLQWKH\HDUVWRFRPH main building in Casablanca is unmarked, and a second facility is accessible through a winding alley removed from the street, with little outward identifi cation. Local rabbis also avoid talking about the Jewish state. JJøFD |  Rabbi Levi Banon, who was born in Morocco and

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ROBIN CHERNICK REN MOFFATT Irwin Cotler discusses anti-Semitism at a Limmud Ottawa session, November 1, Harvey Goldberg blows the shofar signalling the time for one Limmud session to end at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre. and the next to begin. Wide variety of Jewish topics covered at Limmud Ottawa

BY MICHAEL REGENSTREIF time. Should I attend the panel discus- former justice minister of Canada, violence in Jewish families, social worker AND LOUISE RACHLIS sion on Jewish women in leadership professor emeritus of law at McGill Sarah Caspi said it is a myth to think that ore than 300 people spent roles or the session on Jewish values in University, and a renowned international domestic violence does not happen in Sunday, November 1, at the mentoring immigrant communities; the human rights lawyer – on the laundering the Jewish community. One in four Soloway Jewish Community session on Jewish funerals in the 21st of anti-Semitism under universal public women in Canadian society experiences MCentre for the 2015 edition century or the play about a Jewish yoga values. domestic violence, she said, “and Jewish of Limmud Ottawa, a day-long extrava- instructor questioning her values? The social hall was fi lled to capacity to women are sadly on par.” ganza of Jewish learning with sessions There was also a Young Limmud hear Cotler – a compelling speaker Rabbi Reuven Bulka pointed out that devoted to everything from program offering activities for kids, a – describe how classic anti-Semitism, the 95 per cent of people who are abused are study to kosher winemaking. human library where a variety of traditional hatred of Jews, has been abused by people they know and that it With 44 sessions on the Limmud interesting people were available for joined in recent decades by the “new is no longer acceptable to remain silent schedule, and with up to eight sessions small group discussions, and an exhibit anti-Semitism,” in which Israel is when we witness or are aware of such happening simultaneously, attendees featuring works by local Jewish artists. targeted as “the collective Jew” among abuse. had to make many hard choices about Certainly the best attended session the nations. “Rabbis have an obligation to tell which session to attend at any given was the lecture by Irwin Cotler – a In a panel discussion on domestic people they have a responsibility not to be silent. We are a party to it by being silent,” he said. In a session on Jewish DID YOU KNOW? humour as dogma, Rabbi Today, the 121 bed Bess and Moe Greenberg Steven Garten cited Family Hillel Lodge serves as an impressive passages from physical structure and is an important symbol Deuteronomy and the that caring for our elderly is a priority Babylonian Talmud to Diane Koven* BA (Hons), CFP®, CHS™ for the Ottawa Jewish Community. show the long tradition of 613-728-1223 ext 2235 Inside our Home, the Joseph and Inez Jewish humour and the [email protected] Zelikovitz Long Term Care Centre, best sermons have humour www.sunlife.ca/diane.koven a loving Jewish environment provides in them. 1525 Carling Avenue, Suite 600, all of the residents with cultural “Rabbis understand that Ottawa ON K1Z 8R9 comfort and quality of life. humour is part of the We have come a long way since human condition. It makes our initial days on Wurtemburg, you open to hear a truth *Mutual funds offered by Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc. where the fi rst 29-bed Lodge was built. Th e planning and involvement of the you might not have been Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada is a member of the open to hearing before,” he Sun Life Financial group of companies. community from its inception will never go unnoticed. © Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2015. said. November 23, 2015 13 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

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Tamir acknowledges with sincere thanks the following donations, which were received as of November 4, 2015.

Mazel tov to: In Memory of: Faye and Arnold Tennenhouse on Norman Lesh by Wendy and Mike both your birthdays by Selma, Les and Green; by Barbara and Allan Goldrosen; by Naomi; by Carol, Evan and Miriam; Diane Jani and Chummus Spunt; by Seymour and and Gary Arkin Aviva Diener; by Rena, Mitch, Tara, Kayla Avraham Iny on your birthday by Lori Sabloff; by Ethlyn and Barry Aguinik; by and Mendy Taller; by Malcolm and Vera Joel and Barb Diener Glube Father and Father in Law of Cheryl Roslyn and Lee Raskin on your anni- and Andre Igby by Wendy and Mark versary by Harriet and Saul Brottman; by Spatzner Jay and Betty Dover and family Millie Schaenfield by Marion Vexler Mr. and Mrs. Brian Pearl on the birth Shelby Lerner by Lily and Jerry Penso; Tamir Neshama Choir launches new CD: Cantor Daniel Benlolo conducts the Tamir Neshama of your twin grandchildren by Jerry and by Max and Ellie Greenberg Choir at a concert launching their new CD, “Sole to Soul,” October 27, at Centrepointe Studio Lily Penso Moses Cook by Howard Yegendorf and Theatre. Composer Michael George joined the choir to perform his emotional song, “I Can Fly,” Beverley Gershkovitch on your 75th Maria Tsibanoulis which he wrote based on experiences that Tamir Neshama Choir members had shared with birthday by Liane Freedman Bess Swedlove by Stephen and Linda him. Copies of the CD are available for $20 by calling Frances at Tamir at 613-725-3519, ext. 112. Alan Freed on the birth of your Weiner; by Isabel Lesh; by Malcolm and twin grandchildren by Malcom and Vera Vera Glube; by Jerry and Lily Penso

Glube Lillian Cardash by Max and Ellie © Photo Credit: Canadian Jewish Archives (CJCCCNA) Dick Zuker and family on the arriv- Greenberg; by Lily and Jerry Penso al of Daniel Simon by Carol and Evan Blema Woolf by Malcolm and Vera Diamond; by Tamir Board, Participants Glube; by Francoise and Ron Vexler and Staff Mary Bouzanis by Sharon and Paul Norman Wolfish on your 80th birthday Finn and the honour of reading from the Torah Elaine Freger by Irene Waxman, by Malcolm and Vera Glube Sandy, Gerry, Rian, Holden Bayne Sol and Zelaine Shinder on your Milton Shaffer by Isabel Lesh 55th anniversary by Malcolm and Vera Shu MinT’O, z”l by Evan, Carol and Glube Miriam Diamond Fred Wenger on your 60th birthday by Shirley Kaputkin by Ellie and Joel Ron and Lupita Stein Kanigsberg and family Jonathan and Linda Fisher on your Father of Rhonda Gelgoot and family wedding by Malcom and Vera Glube; by by Malcolm and Vera Glube After the establishment of the State of Israel Flo and Joel Morgan Belle Taft by Malcolm and Vera Glube Cantor and Mrs. D. Benlolo on the Herbie Gosewich by Sharon and Paul 850,000 Jews were forced to flee their upcoming marriage of your son by Jerry Finn and family homes in the Middle East and North Africa and Lily Penso Marty Davis by Sharon and Paul Finn Karen Paull on your 75th birthday by Mother of Rhoda Levitan by Sharon Malcom and Vera Glube and Paul Finn Sol and Laya Shabinsky on your On November 29th and 30th 60th anniversary by Vera and Malcolm Refuah Shlemah: at events across Canada Glube Dr. Fred Silvers thinking of you and Charles and Susan Schwartzman on wishing you a speedy and complete recov- we will remember their plight the birth of your twin grandsons by Vera ery by Malcolm and Vera Glube and Malcolm Glube Andy and Joany Katz on the birth of General: your first grandchild Addison Sydney by Cantor Benlolo and Tamir Choir for OTTAWA Sharon and Paul Finn and family your hard work and outstanding perfor- Find out more at Sunday, November 29 6:30PM Linda and Stephen Weiner on the mance by Eva Esrock Soloway Jewish Community Centre occasion of the B’nai Mitzvah of your Dr. Ed Rose with many thanks and cija.ca/jewishrefugees grandchildren Jared and Joelle by Deb, appreciation for all your help and friend- Norm and Vicky Ferkin ship, wishing you well in your retirement Jody and Lawrence Weiner on the by Malcolm and Vera Glube occasion of the B’nai Mitzvah of your chil- Phyllis Mendell congratulations on this dren Jared and Joelle by Debbie and Norm milestone by Lois and Jerry Nudelman Lynnie and Philip Zunder on your Walter and Teena Hendelman thank 30th wedding anniversary by Sharon and you again for your generosity in letting Paul Finn me and the kidlings stay at the cottage last Debbie Szirtes on your birthday by Sha- month by Kinneret Globerman Would you like to advertise ron and Paul Finn Tamir Neshama Choir in honour of the Max Greenberg on your birthday by professional show, we were inspired, by Dr. in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin? Eileen and Allan Hartley Stern Donation cards can be purchased for a minimum donation of $18.00 by contacting Contact Barry Silverman 613 798-4696, ext. 256 the Tamir office at 613-725-3519, 11 Nadolny Sachs Private, Suite 218, Ottawa, Ontario, K2A 1R9, or by e-mail to [email protected] [email protected] November 23, 2015 15 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM ‘A Night to Remember’ launches Holocaust Education Month

HOWARD SANDLER Violinist Eugene Drucker and pianist Marija Stroke perform at “A Night to Remember,” a special concert launching Holocaust Education Month, November 1, at the National Gallery HOWARD SANDLER of Canada. The benefit concert, co-sponsored by Jewish Family Services and Jewish Federation (From left) Jewish Federation of Ottawa President and CEO Andrea Freedman, Shoah of Ottawa, raised funds to continue programs for Jewish Russian-speaking seniors and Committee Chair Debbie Halton-Weiss, violinist Eugene Drucker, pianist Marija Stroke, Holocaust survivors for two more years. Also on stage is Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton, who was the concert MC Laurence Wall, and Jewish Family Services Executive Director Mark Zarecki at the page-turner for Stroke. special benefit concert launching Holocaust Education Month.

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Breaking news updated daily at www.ottawajewishbulletin.com 16 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM Chabad: Caretakers for a once illustrious community

Continued from page 11 The fi rst Chabad rabbi in Morocco, wouldn’t be lost. from the government,” said Rabbi Shalom “Moroccan people are good people,” Michael Lipsker, was dispatched by Rabbi “The tradition is very strong here Edelman, who has served as a Chabad Rabbi Banon said. “To them, the most Schneerson at the behest of his predeces- – everyone has his own customs, his emissary in Morocco since 1958. “The important is the human touch and the sor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak , family’s customs,” said Raskin, whose government was always good to Jews.” human instinct. That’s more important who wanted Chabad to help ensure the husband served as the Morocco emissary In recent years, Morocco has experi- than politics.” country’s long rabbinic tradition for more than four decades until his death enced what the Chabad emissaries in 2004. “The previous rebbe said that the describe as a newfound openness to the Jews of Morocco have a lot to do.” world. The standard of living has risen Chabad has persisted through the and, though Morocco and Israel don’t years by staying in the good graces of have formal diplomatic relations, Chabad Morocco’s rulers. A photo of King rabbis can freely travel still between the Mohammed VI hangs next to Rabbi two countries – an impossibility in the Schneerson’s portrait near the building’s 1960s. entrance, and Rabbi Banon says Rabbi But none of that is likely to result in a Schneerson kept a correspondence with resurgence of Jewish life in the country. Mohammed’s father, Hassan II. While Raskin and Rabbi Edelman are Hassan’s United Nations ambassador happy so many émigrés have moved to even visited Rabbi Schneerson in Israel, they feel like caretakers for the Brooklyn in 1988. vestiges of what was once an illustrious “You have done much good for the community. Jews there,” Rabbi Schneerson told him, “I know they went to Israel, to a safe before giving him two dollar bills for place I can’t worry about, to a good place charity – one for himself, one for the king for fearing God,” Rabbi Edelman said. – a tradition Rabbi Schneerson main- “But for us, it’s harder. We need to fi ll a tained with many of his visitors for years. space. We educated them and they left, so “There were a few problems, but not what we accomplished left.”

Breaking news updated daily Remembrance Day at OJCS: Students read poems during the poignant Remembrance Day ceremony at the Ottawa Jewish Community School, November 11. at www.ottawajewishbulletin.com

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In support of the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge In the Joseph and Inez Zelikovitz Long Term Care Centre 613-728-3990 Card Donations Moe Greenberg and Max Lieff Endowment Fund * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Card donations go a long way to improving Elissa Greenberg Iny Fund In Memory of: the quality of life for our residents. Thank you for In Memory of: Moses Cook by Dorothy Lieff IN MEMORY OF: considering their needs and contributing to their Belle Taft by Elissa and Avi Iny Bess Swedlove by Dorothy Lieff Ed Cherry by Pat and Bob Olson well-being. Norm Lesh by Elissa and Avi Iny Shirley Dubinsky by the residents, staff and On behalf of the residents and their families, we Moses Cook by Elissa and Avi Iny Pencer Family Fund Boards of the Lodge and LTC Foundation extend sincere appreciation to the following individ- Bess Swedlove by Elissa and Avi Iny In Memory of: Dmitry Gamarnik by Brian and Jeannine uals and families who made card donations to the Herb Gosewich by Elissa and Avi Iny Katherine Fitch by Dr. Irwin and Marcia Callan Hillel Lodge Long-Term Care Foundation between Pencer October 21 and October 4, 2015 inclusive. Blema Woolf by Elissa and Avi Iny Herb Gosewich by the residents, staff and In Honour of: Boards of the Lodge and LTC Foundation, Cally Harold and Lillian Shoihet Memorial Fund Stephen and Debra Schneiderman Mazel and Sid Kardash, Muriel and Michael Wexler HONOUR FUNDS In Memory of: Tov on the birth of your granddaughter by Elissa and family, Sylvia and Evelyn Monson, Anna Unlike a bequest or gift of life insurance, which Herb Gosewich by David Shoihet, Jessica and Avi Iny and Louis Friendly, Agnes Sermann and Vera are realized some time in the future, a named and family Honour Fund (i.e., endowment fund) is established Jacie Levinson Best wishes on your special Benedek, Lily Feig, Sid and Barbara Cohen and during your lifetime. birthday by Elissa and Avi Iny Skulsky Family Memorial Fund Millie and Steve Mirsky By making a contribution of $1,000 or more, you R’fuah Shlema: In Honour of: Dalton Hallett by Cindy and Dave can create a permanent remembrance for a loved one, Raymond Stern Wishing you a complete Joyce Bellman Best wishes on your special Kardash honour a family member, declare what the Lodge recovery by Elissa and Avi Iny day by Ray and Ernie Goldstein Anne Mendelsohn by Annie Garmaise, Lisa has meant to you and/or support a cause that you Sandell and families believe in. Gunner Family Fund Monica and Alvin Stein Family Fund Belle Taft by Janet and Norman Ironstone A Hillel Lodge Honour Fund is a permanent In Memory of: pool of capital that earns interest or income each In Memory of: Albert Winer by Gary and Diane Arkin and Herb Gosewich by Sol and Estelle Gunner year. This income then supports the priorities desig- Herb Gosewich by Monica and Alvin Stein Helen and Arnie Winer nated by you, the donor. and family Blema Woolf by Janet and Norman Ironstone Nordau and Roslyn Kanigsberg and Carolyn Weiss Ruth and Irving Aaron Family Fund Family Fund Roslyn and Myles Taller Family Fund In Memory of: In Memory of: In Memory of: IN HONOUR OF: Rochel Vinitzky by Ruth and Herb Gosewich by Roz and Nordau Herb Gosewich by Roz Taller and Myles Irving Aaron Abie and Beatrice Cohen Mazel Tov on your Kanigsberg Taller 60th Wedding Anniversary by Eli and Sharon, Bill and Leona Adler Memorial Fund Melanie and Netanya Cohen David, Harvey, Victor Kardish * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In Memory of: Issie Scarowsky by Jack and Eva Minuk Family Fund Shirley Dubinsky by Marilyn Adler In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: Feeding Program Boris and Dolly Blacher Family Fund Israel Kardish A beloved father and grandfa- In Honour of: In Memory of: ther by Gale, Victor and Sydney Kardish Larry Hershorn We wish you many more Herb Gosewich by Neil Blacher and Marilyn In Memory of: happy and healthy years by Harriet and Irving Adler Herb Gosewich by Margo, David, Aaron and Slone Gail Kardish Susan and Charlie Schwartzman Mazel Nell Gluck Memorial Fund In Honour of: Tov on the births of Ethan and Jonah by Lysette In Honour of: Dr. Ed Rose Good Luck on your retirement and Louis Kohn Rabbi Ian Cohen Mazel Tov on your 70th by Margo, David, Aaron and Gail Kardish In Memory of: Birthday by Henry and Maureen Molot Blema Woolf by Steve and Barbara Levinson In Memory of: Joan and Russell Kronick Family Fund Herb Gosewich by Steve and Barbara Herb Gosewich by Maureen and Henry Molot In Memory of: Levinson Albert Winer by Manny and Cheryle Gluck Blema Woolf by Joan and Russell Kronick Shirley Dubinsky by Lily and Jerry Penso

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 great opportunity to recognize an event or convey the appropriate sentiment to someone important to you and at the same time support the Lodge. Call orders may be given to Cathie at 728-3900, Ext 111, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. You may also go to: www.hillel-ltc.com and click on the “Donate Now” button to make your donations. Cards may be paid for by Visa or Mastercard. Contributions are tax deductible. Make your membership count! Please help make the 60th Anniversary count. Hillel Lodge’s impressive history also represents a commitment between the Ottawa Jewish community and its elders that has continued for 60 years. Perhaps you, yourself, have contributed to that Hillel “heart beat” in the past. Maybe it was your Bubbe or Zayde who participated in those early years of Hillel Lodge, making up that grassroots beginning. Perhaps your own parents added their support. Join us this year in becoming a member and making this 60th year one to remember. Contact the LTC Foundation office for more information: 613.728.3990 or [email protected] November 23, 2015 19 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

Chocolate Chances returns HOME IMPROVEMENT to Torah Academy Inside & Out

BY RACHEL GRAY Academy of Ottawa. There is also a silent FOR TORAH ACADEMY OF OTTAWA auction featuring beautiful artwork, gifts Matthews Renos have a theory that people can be and services. categorized as either chocolate or Rabbi David Rotenberg, a.k.a. the Specializing in Painting lemon. If you’re a lemon person, funny rabbi, will MC the raffl e drawing. and Drywall Repair Ithen, unless you are interested in Hopefully, none of his jokes will turn out winning prizes like an iPad, a laptop to be lemons, because we’re chocolate From One Room to Entire House computer or a trip to Israel, this article is people, right? not for you. This is for the chocolate Personally, I’ve won some pretty good and much more people. You know who you are! prizes over the years. The super-fancy Yes, for my fellow chocolate lovers, tableware service for 12 still graces our • Deck and fence repairs Torah Academy of Ottawa’s Chocolate Shabbat table each week. We also won a Chances is the event of the year. couple of lovely date-nights at a down- • Furniture assembly Admission is free and there is a veritable town hotel with Starbucks coffee and • Any odd job smorgasbord of chocolatey treats avail- Godiva chocolates (for me, it’s all about able: hot chocolate, chocolate fountain, the chocolate). Fully insured chocolate tortes, cheesecakes and There are fi ve great reasons to come: a gateaux, chocolate truffl es, etc. great cause, great food, great company, I’ve made a career out of picking up This is not a night to count calories. great entertainment, and great prizes. the smaller jobs the big guys turn away This is the night to get your chocolate fi x. Chocolate Chances takes place Sunday, Of course, you might take a break from November 29, 7 pm, at Torah Academy of or overcharge for. eating to take part in the raffl e. The more Ottawa, at 1119 Lazard Avenue. tickets you buy, the higher the chances of For more information, contact Call Rob Matthews your winning a prize – and all proceeds [email protected] support at Torah or call 613-274-0110. 613-316-0590

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shake with Rabin on the back lawn of the White House, Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat Twenty years after Rabin, we still wait was no peacenik. He was the ultimate political chameleon, who said all for commitment from Palestinian leaders the right things and preached peace in English when U.S. envoys and world media were around. he 20th anniversary of the assassination of But, as Palestinian Media Watch has documented, Yitzhak Rabin has come and gone. But the when Arafat spoke to his colleagues and followers in debate about his true legacy continues. Arabic, he never stopped inciting against Israel and BARBARA CROOK T Was the Israeli prime minister Israel’s last calling for terror as the most effective way to achieve chance for peace? Did subsequent leaders derail the MY ISRAEL Palestinian statehood. peace process? Could the Oslo Accords have been the We must also recall that the Oslo Accords did not beginning of real change, or were they always doomed address what are still the major obstacles to a peace to fail? agreement: borders, the status of Jerusalem and the The hagiographers eulogize Rabin as a war hero “right of return,” which would allow Arabs who fl ed turned man of peace. The demonizers attack his military Israel was fi nally strong enough to make peace with the Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, as well record as well as his actions as prime minister. Palestinians. as their descendants, to return to their original homes What fans and detractors of Rabin share is a His vision of peace was more pragmatic than roman- in Israel. tendency to pick and choose aspects of his life and tic. He believed Israel should resolve confl icts close to There is no indication Rabin could have surmounted legacy to fuel their own political arguments about the home in order to focus on greater threats to come from these obstacles any more effectively than his successors future of Israel and the current impasse in the peace such enemies as Iran. have. process. And those who use the memory of Rabin to argue Much of the romantic analysis of Rabin’s legacy seems Just as John F. Kennedy’s short term as U.S. presi- peace will magically arrive the moment Israel gives to be based on the premise that Rabin and his govern- dent has been romanticized since he was assassinated up its settlements conveniently ignore the fact that ment could somehow have brought about peace in a 52 years ago this week, those who see only the hopes Rabin’s vision of a peace deal was not that different vacuum – that just because Israel decided it was time to symbolized by a Rabin-led peace process, without from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current make some tough concessions, the Palestinian leader- acknowledging that he faced the same obstacles to stance. ship would go along. peace as today’s leaders, are guilty of magical Indeed, Rabin told the Knesset a month before he was But later prime ministers offered far more wide-ran- thinking. killed that he envisioned a Palestinian entity that would ging and drastic concessions to the Palestinians than We have to separate the tragedy of Rabin’s untimely be “less than a state.” He adamantly opposed a return to Rabin ever envisioned. death – gunned down by an extremist Israeli Jew at a 1967 borders, and insisted that any permanent solution Indeed, Ehud Olmert’s 2008 peace proposal would peace rally in Tel Aviv, only moments after joining the had to include a united Jerusalem under Israeli have given the Palestinian Authority 93 per cent of the crowd in singing the anti-war anthem, “Shir Lashalom” sovereignty. West Bank. A spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas dis- – from what he actually accomplished and whether his He said that established settlements, including Gush missed this offer as “a waste of time.” plans for peace were sustainable. Etzion and Ma’ale Adumim, would be part of any So let us honour Rabin and mourn his murder. But let The fact is that, after years of focusing on establishing permanent solution. us not forget that the best intentions of Israeli prime Israel as a formidable military presence and seeing the It may be comforting to look back and imagine that ministers mean nothing without an equal commitment Palestinians only as enemies – he is alleged to have Israel had a better partner for peace in 1995 than it does from their Palestinian counterparts. ordered soldiers to “break the bones” of Palestinian today – but it did not. Twenty years after Rabin, we are still waiting for that militants when he was defence minister – Rabin decided Despite his Nobel Peace Prize and the famous hand- kind of commitment.

Jews of colour, part 2: Jews in all hues heritage of North American Jewry needs to be nuanced. On one side of my family, there are four cousins: n October 18, Haftom Zarhum, an Eritrean Sarah, David, Samuel and Benjamin. While I look brown migrant in Israel, was shot and kicked by a SARAH WAISVISZ in the summer and tanned in the winter, one boy is mob in Beersheba because they thought he blond with blue eyes and white skin; one is described Olooked like a terrorist. On October 13 in Haifa, DISPATCHES regularly as looking like an East Indian prince; and one an Israeli Jewish man named Uri Rezken was stabbed by FROM THE has an Afro and blue eyes. Each of us, in France as well another Israeli Jew who thought he looked like an Arab. as in Canada, gets challenged with the same suspicious As he was being stabbed and called a “bastard Arab,” DIASPORA questions: “Why do you have such a ? Are Rezken screamed out, “I am a Jew! I am a Jew!” you a Jew?” This might surprise some of you. But in the These incidents reveal a society that is so tightly West, what we think of as the Jewish “look” has been wound that people who look dark or Arab might be accurate accounting of current Jewish demographics or codifi ed, thanks to Hollywood, into something between suspected of being terrorists. history. Jews come in all shades and stripes. A Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld. Am I speaking of Israeli society now or of North Philadelphia-based organization committed to diversity I am not interested in demeaning the cultural import- American society? If mainstream Jewish Israeli society integration is called “Jews in ALL Hues.” ance of Yiddishkeit or of Ashkenazic culture as a at this moment is afraid of people who look Arab, there The fi rst Jews to grace the shores of the New World touchstone for . Before the Second World is real trouble, since many Jews are also and have always were not Polish or Russian Jews fl eeing in War, there were three million Jews in Poland alone and been Arab. Eastern Europe. They were Sephardic Jews fl eeing cultural life there was luminescent. But let’s not for a So what does an Arab look like? What does a Jew look persecution during the Spanish and Portuguese minute think that North American Jewish life began at like? My friend with an Iranian-Jewish father calls Inquisition in the 1490s. Via England and the Ellis Island – and let’s not be equally lazy when we make herself Israeli because she doesn’t like being seen as an , they arrived in what is now Brazil, the assumptions about identity and Jewishness. Arab. The extra layer of complexity here is that Iranians Guyanas, Suriname and the Caribbean islands. So, what do we do about racism within our Jewish are not Arabs, but rather Persian. These Sephardic Jews were founders of the sugar world? It is not a new thing. Recent violence in Israel A Jew can also be an Arab. Jews have long and deeply industry, and they were developers, traders and mer- refl ects the diffi culty of integrating non-European rooted traditions throughout the Arab world. Many chants. And some were slave owners. They founded immigrants into a system largely founded and Arab Jews now live in Israel and North America. Persian Jewish communities you can still visit in Suriname, developed by people of European ancestry. This process Jews, Bhukaran Jews, Indian Jews, Afghan Jews, West Recife, Curaçao, Jamaica and Barbados. Eventually, they has been challenging in Canada as well. And the shared African Jews and Chinese Jews are similarly proud of made their way to fl edgling port cities of the New World, key paradox is that neither of these places was their ancient traditions and lineage. But, in Israel, as including New Amsterdam (New York), Providence, uninhabited before the settlers came in and declared it a well as here in North America, we have a tendency to Baltimore and Boston, where they were the only Jews new country! What did those original inhabitants look assume Ashkenazic heritage, and assume whiteness, around because Ashkenazim would not begin to arrive like? Not European, I can guarantee. when we consider Jewishness. But that is not in fact an for many years. So the assumed Eastern European All right? Beseder? Gut? 22 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

individually. A few weeks ago, for example, Rabbi Chaim Boyarsky of the Chabad Student Network led a short, yet Students doing our part to defend Israel meaningful service along with a very peaceful rally, on the steps of the University of Ottawa library. Many he past couple of months have been diffi cult in students came together, shared their thoughts, and Israel. With arbitrary attacks, and deaths of displayed Jewish unity and support for Israel. innocent people, it has been an unnerving and ARIELLE ELLIS As Jews, each of us is an ambassador of the Jewish Tunsettling time. Combine the horrible reality people. How we speak to others, what we say to others, with the disgraceful way that mainstream media frames CAMPUS LIFE what we teach others, refl ects on ourselves, and on the the narrative of the confl ict, and you get an absolutely Jewish people. enraging situation. As Jews who are supportive of Israel, our narrative Jewish people in the Diaspora have been sitting on of the situation there goes a very long way for some. I the edge of their seat throughout all this, anxious to feel as though I make the biggest difference and contri- check the news and learn about the latest attacks. We are all capable of making bution to Israel whenever I speak with a person who Paradoxically, international Jewish unity tends to be at a substantial difference. has little or no connection to the land or to Jewish its strongest during troubling times. It often takes the We all have a voice, and we all have people. worst to happen for Jewish people of all levels of I absolutely love talking with people who openly observance to put their differences aside and stand up access to various platforms admit they just blindly follow the media and have never for the common goal: to advocate for and to protect allowing our voices to be properly heard. actually looked into Israel or examined all sides of the Israel as best we can. It is up to us to use the tools confl ict with the Palestinians. I am most rewarded But that’s just it. What all of us – students in particu- when, at the end of the conversation, I am told by the lar – tend to struggle with is determining how we can we have in order to best help Israel other person that they would now be interested in best defend a land we all love and care for so much from the Diaspora. reading a book about the confl ict, in further educating without physically being there. We are fortunate to live themselves, or even in visiting Israel someday. It is privileged lives in Canada, focusing our efforts towards brother is serving as a Golani solder within the Israel amazing the power that conversation has, and how one our education, work and personal lives. All the while, Defense Forces. I am very much connected to the land, just conversation can begin to transform someone else’s our friends, our brothers, our peers are out there and I want to do my part in defending it. However, I am worldview and knowledge. sporting a beautiful shade of green, putting their lives also the fi rst to admit that the army is not for me. I don’t So, although we may not be members of the Israel on the line in order to protect Israel and (all of) its respond well to taking orders, and I feel as though my Defense Forces, or are not living in Israel, we can all inhabitants. advocacy efforts could be better served in working with contribute. We are all capable of making a substantial So how can we, as students, do our part in defending and educating those who are less familiar with the difference. We all have a voice, and we all have access to Israel? ongoing situation in Israel. various platforms allowing our voices to be properly I love Israel. I visit whenever I can. I studied at the There are so many ways that we can help Israel and do heard. It is up to us to use the tools we have in order to Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and my younger our part in making a difference, both collectively and best help Israel from the Diaspora. My triple-A strategy for self-improvement

re you a proactive or reactive grocery shop- tious from your cart. If you’ve planned well, you’ll have per? Do you make a shopping list and stick to brought a healthy snack and a water bottle with you it or do you impulsively put whatever appeals GLORIA SCHWARTZ from home. It’s common to misinterpret thirst as Ato you in your cart? Perhaps you’re some- FOCUS ON hunger. where in between. You go to the store with good The second step is to change your Attitude. You won’t intentions, but can’t resist the specials on potato chips FITNESS make any changes to your habits if you don’t care. Do and chocolate milk. If you’re like many consumers, you you suffer from Ostrich Syndrome? Do you just want to give in to temptation. enjoy everything in the moment and ignore the uncom- It’s mid-afternoon. You’ve been having a stressful day. fortable facts and potential consequences? Do you not Those emails never seem to stop and everyone wants an Carpe diem doesn’t simply mean care that some of your choices may be damaging your immediate response. You skipped breakfast as you health or your children’s health? If you already have hurried out the door, so you made a quick stop at the seize the day. It involves taking action health issues or risk factors, do you poke fun at yourself drive-thru to pick up coffee and a doughnut. By 11 am, today for your future. Educating yourself and rationalize that you might as well enjoy today you’re hungry again so you eat the sandwich you about some of the benefi ts of a healthier because there’s no guarantee of tomorrow? Is your brought from home. You know it’s smart to pack a lunch attitude your hurdle or your helper? because you can control the portion size and ingredi- lifestyle is a crucial step. Unfortunately, Carpe diem doesn’t simply mean seize the day. It ents, but, many days, you don’t bother. It’s 3 pm and knowledge isn’t always enough involves taking action today for your future. Educating you’re hungry again. You head to the vending machine yourself about some of the benefi ts of a healthier and get a soda and chips. By the time you get home, to motivate you. A support system lifestyle is a crucial step. Unfortunately, knowledge isn’t you’re exhausted and famished and can’t wait until comprising positive role models always enough to motivate you. A support system dinner’s ready. You fi ll yourself up with whatever you comprising positive role models can encourage you to can fi nd in the pantry. You’ve eaten the caloric equiva- can encourage you to shape your shape your behaviours and make better choices. lent of a full meal before dinner. behaviours and make better choices. This leads to the third step: Taking immediate Action. If you recognize yourself as having some of these bad You’re becoming increasingly aware of your habits. Your habits, it’s time to try my triple-A strategy for Make mindful choices. As you’re placing items in your attitude is evolving as your knowledge bank increases. self-improvement: Awareness, Attitude and Action. cart, ask yourself if the item is healthy or if you can do You see the success stories of your role models and you The fi rst step is to increase Awareness of your habits. without it. Don’t let your emotions rule your decisions. want to emulate them. If you’re oblivious to them, you can’t change them. The Before you proceed to the checkout, review the contents Now you’re in a better position to take the appropri- next time you need to go to the grocery store, make a list of your cart and make a fi nal decision about each item. ate actions. Instead of blindly giving into temptations, of what you need. It’s not necessary to stick to the list Remove the items you don’t really need and those that you’ll be more discerning when placing items in your 100 per cent, but it will set the tone for your excursion. will not serve you well. Will your choices help you lose cart. You’ll make deliberate choices throughout the day. However, a list is not enough. Eat something before you excess weight? Will they help you with any existing You begin to realize that when you replace some bad head out. Shopping on an empty stomach is a recipe for medical conditions or contribute in the long-term to habits with better ones, you feel better and the improve- disaster. When you get to the store, skip the junk food your health? ments will translate into a better appearance and better aisles. Scrutinize the ingredients and nutritional listings If you’re hungry, bored or stressed while waiting in health. on anything that comes in a box, can or bag. line, don’t grab a chocolate bar. Eat something nutri- You’re poised for success. Strike while the iron’s hot! November 23, 2015 23 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

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The Board of Directors of the Greenberg; by Jessica and Marc Borenstein and Our future is in your hands Ottawa Jewish Community Founda- family; by Ian and Melissa Shabinsky; by Ron tion acknowledges with thanks con- and Ruth Levitan; by Randi, Ian, Jonathan, Inna, To make a donation tributions to the following funds as Matthew and Adam Sherman; by Ricki and Barry Baker; and by Sandy Marchello. and/or send a tribute card, of November 2, 2015. TINA AND KEN AGES call the Foundation office FRANCEEN AND STANLEY AGES ENDOWMENT FUND (613-798-4696 ext. 274) ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: In Memory of: Bill Sarkas by Ingrid Levitz and family; by e-mail: [email protected] Blema Woolf by Sandra and Norman Slover; Jessica and Marc Borenstein and family; by by Zelaine and Sol Shinder; by Sheldon and Ian and Melissa Shabinsky; by Barry and Ricki website: www.OJCF.ca Corinne Taylor; by Ingrid Levitz and family; Baker; and by Sandy Marchello. by Bernie and Donna Dolansky; by Evelyn MARY AND ISRAEL (AL) ALLICE MEMORIAL FUND In Memory of: Join us in building our community Bill Sarkas by Beverly and Irving Swedko. by supporting these local agencies ANNE AND LOUIS ARRON MEMORIAL FUND AJA 50+ ENDOWMENT FUND FUND FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OTTAWA LODGE B’NAI BRITH #885 In Memory of: Birthday Wishes to: JEWISH COMMUNITY CEMETERY PAST PRESIDENTS FUND Herb Gosewich by Daphne and Stanley Joyce Bellman by Sheela and Ozzie HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL FUND OTTAWA LODGE B’NAI BRITH #885 Arron. Silverman; and by Harriet Podolak. JEWISH MEN’S PRESIDENTS SCHOLARSHIP FUND Rosalyn Wosnick by Sheela and Ozzie ALYCE AND ALLAN BAKER SOFTBALL LEAGUE FUND OTTAWA MODERN Silverman. FAMILY FUND JEWISH STUDENTS ASSOCIATION - JEWISH SCHOOL FUND Birthday Wishes to: GREENBERG FAMILIES HILLEL FUND OTTAWA POST Ernie Goldstein by Alyce and Allan Baker. LIBRARY FUND JEWISH YOUTH LIBRARY JEWISH WAR VETERANS FUND In Memory of: In Memory of: OF OTTAWA OTTAWA TORAH INSTITUTE Blema Woolf by Alyce and Allan Baker. Belle Taft by Roger Greenberg and Cindy ENDOWMENT FUND TORAH EDUCATION FUND Feingold. RICKI AND BARRY BAKER PINCHAS ZUKERMAN Mazel Tov to: DAVID “THE BEAR” KARDASH ENDOWMENT FUND MUSIC EDUCATION FUND Lynne Oreck-Wener and Bob Wener on the CAMP B’NAI BRITH MEMORIAL FUND Anniversary Wishes to: birth of their first grandson, Lucas Noah Richards OTTAWA JEWISH CEMETERIES RAMBAM MAIMONIDES Alfred and Kaysa Friedman by Ricki and by Roger Greenberg and Cindy Feingold. ZICHARON FUND JEWISH CONTINUITY FUND Barry Baker. OTTAWA JEWISH SOLOWAY JEWISH Laya and Sol Shabinsky by Ricki and Barry HILLEL LODGE LEGACY FUND COMMUNITY SCHOOL COMMUNITY CENTRE Baker. In Memory of: PARENT FUND EARLY CHILDHOOD Belle Taft by Judi, Jason and Daniel EDUCATION FUND CAYLA AND LITTMAN CARDASH Rubenstein; and by Eric and Ethel Naor. OTTAWA JEWISH SOLOWAY JEWISH COMMUNITY MEMORIAL FUND COMMUNITY SCHOOL In Memory of: JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES AGENCY FUND SUMMER CAMP S CHOLARSHIP FUND Lillian Cardash by Debbie Baylin. AGENCY FUND OTTAWA JEWISH In Memory of: COMMUNITY SCHOOL SOLOWAY JEWISH SANDI AND EDDY COOK Fela Leader by Sandra and Norman Slover. CHILDREN OF THE BOOK COMMUNITY CENTRE ENDOWMENT FUND AWARD FUND ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday Wishes to: OTTAWA JEWISH COMMUNITY SOLOWAY JEWISH Estelle Liberman by Sandi and Eddy Cook ENDOWMENT FUND OTTAWA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTRE and family. In Memory of: COMMUNITY SCHOOL YOUTH SERVICES FUND In Memory of: Bill Sarkas by Michelle and Richard Sachs. ENDOWMENT FUND Herb Gosewich by Sandi and Eddy Cook Blema Woolf by Michelle and Richard OTTAWA JEWISH COMMUNITY TAMIR ENDOWMENT FUND and family. Sachs and family. SCHOOL FUND TORAH ACADEMY OF OTTAWA Bill Sarkas by Sandi and Eddy Cook and IN MEMORY OF EVA WINTROB TORAH EDUCATION FUND AJA 50+ DAVID SMITH family. OTTAWA JEWISH SARA AND ZEEV VERED OTTAWA JEWISH Belle Taft by Sandi and Eddy Cook and HISTORICAL SOCIETY FUND ISRAEL CULTURAL PROGRAM FUND COMMUNITY SCHOOL family. SCHOLARSHIP FUND Blema Woolf by Sandi and Eddy Cook and family. AKIVA EVENING HIGH SCHOOL ENDOWMENT FUND MARTY AND TERRI DAVIS ADINA BEN PORAT MACHON SARAH ISRAEL CHESED FUND TORAH EDUCATION FUND In Memory of: SHIRLEY AND SHIER BERMAN FUND Marty Davis by Zelaine and Sol Shinder; and FOR OTTAWA JEWISH ARCHIVES by Ron and Ruth Levitan and family. DORIS BRONSTEIN TALMUD TORAH JOSEPH AND JEAN DOVER AFTERNOON SCHOOL FUND www.OJCF.ca ENDOWMENT FUND BARRY FISHMAN In Memory of: OTTAWA JEWISH BULLETIN Herb Gosewich by Madeleine and Gerry SCHOLARSHIP FUND Dover. MARTIN GLATT PARLIAMENT LODGE B’NAI BRITH MORRIE AND HELEN EISEN PAST PRESIDENTS’ FUND ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: MENDEL AND VALERIE GOOD Blema Woolf by Helen Eisen. HOLOCAUST CONTINUING EDUCATION FUND Continued on page 24 24 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

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LOU EISENBERG HERB AND DENA GOSEWICH MORRIS AND LILLIAN KIMMEL EVELYN AND NORMAN POTECHIN CAMP B’NAI BRITH ENDOWMENT FUND MEMORIAL FUND ENDOWMENT FUND SCHOLARSHIP FUND In Memory of: R’fuah Sh’leimah to: Condolences to: In Memory of: Herb Gosewich by Millie Weinstein; by Issie Hoffman by the Kimmel, Kaiman and Bram and Dodie Potechin by Donna and Bill Sarkas by Randi, Ian, Jonathan, Inna, Erin Zipes and Michael Baker and family; by Levine families. Eric Levin. Matthew and Adam Sherman. Norman and Myrna Barwin; by George and Elaine Citrome; by Edie Landau and family; KRANTZBERG KRANE FAMILY FUND GERALD AND CYNTHIA AND ABE ENGEL by Ingrid Levitz and family; by Simon and Joy Mazel Tov to: MARY-BELLE PULVERMACHER ENDOWMENT FUND Fisher; by Ricki and Barry Baker; by Bill and Jaclyn and Joshua Krane on the birth of their FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday Wishes to: Jane James; by Laura Greenberg; by Ian and twin sons, Ethan Joel and Jonah Lee by Clair In Memory of: Joyce Bellman by Cynthia Engel and family. Melissa Shabinsky; by Jo Ann Williamson and Krantzberg. Herb Gosewich by Gerry and Mary-Belle In Memory of: family; and by Robert and Eeva Rose. Myra and Sam Krane on the birth of their Pulvermacher. Moses Cook by Cynthia Engel and family. twin grandsons, Ethan Joel and Jonah Lee by JEFFREY AND ENID GOULD Clair Krantzberg; by Marilyn and Dan Kimmel; FLORENCE AND SAM AND SUSAN FIRESTONE FAMILY FUND and by Rhea Wohl and Dorothy Shaffer. GDALYAH ROSENFELD ENDOWMENT FUND Birthday Wishes to: Sonia and Sheldon Shaffer on the birth of ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: Ernie Goldstein by Jeff and Enid Gould. their twin great-grandsons, Ethan Joel and Jonah In Memory of: Blema Woolf by Sam and Susan Firestone. Lee by Clair Krantzberg. Fela Leader by Anita Rosenfeld. HY AND PAULINE HOCHBERG ALFRED AND KAYSA FRIEDMAN ENDOWMENT FUND NORMAN AND ISABEL LESH FRANCES AND MORTON ROSS ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: ENDOWMENT FUND FAMLY FUND In Memory of: Herb Gosewich by Pauline Hochberg and In Memory of: Birthday Wishes to: Herb Gosewich by Alfred and Kaysa family. Marty Davis by Isabel Lesh and family. Jacie Levinson by Fran and Mort Ross. Friedman. Norman Wolfish by Fran and Mort Ross. Blema Woolf by Alfred and Kaysa JEREMY KANTER RHODA AND JOE LEVITAN In Memory of: Friedman. MEMORIAL FUND AND FAMILY Blema Woolf by Fran and Mort Ross. R’fuah Sh’leimah to: In Memory of: COMMUNITY ENDOWMENT FUND R’fuah Sh’leimah to: Diane Ambar by Alfred and Kaysa Alvin Dickstein by Evelyn Eisenberg. In Memory of: George Caplan by Fran and Mort Ross. Friedman. Belle Taft by Dorothy Nadolny; by Ingrid Yale Gaffen by Fran and Mort Ross. ARTHUR AND SARAH KIMMEL Levitz; by Helen and Rick Zipes; by Carol and Lawrence Mendell by Fran and Mort Ross. EVA, DIANE AND JACK GOLDFIELD MEMORIAL FUND Laurie Pascoe; by Bernie and Donna Dolansky JUDITH LILLIAN ROSS - MEMORIAL FUND In Memory of: and family; and by Ron and Ruth Levitan. HYMIE WHITZMAN MEMORIAL FUND In Memory of: Sarah Kimmel, a dear mother and grand- In Memory of: Herb Gosewich by Morley and Gary mother by Isabel Lesh and family. JOSEPH AND EVELYN LIEFF Bill Sarkas by Dean and Dave Ross and Goldfield and family. ENDOWMENT FUND families. Anniversary Wishes to: Blema Woolf by Dean and Dave Ross and Laya and Sol Shabinsky by Evelyn Lieff. families. Birthday Wishes to: Jeff Gould by Evelyn Lieff. RICHARD ROTH AND RIVA LEVITAN In Memory of: FAMILY FUND Belle Taft by Evelyn Lieff. In Memory of: Blema Woolf by Evelyn Lieff. Fela Leader by Richard Roth and Riva Levitan. ARNOLD AND ROSE LITHWICK Belle Taft by Richard Roth and Riva MEMORIAL FUND Levitan. Good Wishes to: Grace and James Hillel on their new home GABY SASSOON FUND by Harvey and Yvonne Lithwick and family. FOR VICTIMS OF TERROR IN ISRAEL Anniversary Wishes to: SAMUEL AND LEEMA MAGIDSON Jodie Katz and Jeff Srour by Maureen Katz ENDOWMENT FUND and Sidney Featherman. Birthday Wishes to: In Memory of: Roslyn Kimmel by Larry Weisz. Katherine Fitch by Maureen Katz and Sidney Featherman. ANNE (BLAIR) AND HYMAN MAYBERGER LAYA AND SOL SHABINSKY ENDOWMENT FUND ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: Anniversary Wishes to: Bill Sarkas by Charles Schachnow. Laya and Sol Shabinsky by Zelaine and Sol Blema Woolf by Charles Schachnow. Shinder; by Simmy, Andrea, Allison and Paul Gardner; by Ian and Melissa Shabinsky and RHODA AND JEFFREY MILLER family; by Marilyn and Will Newman; and by FAMILY FUND Frances and Julie Cogan. In Memory of: Belle Taft by Rhoda and Jeff Miller and FAY AND JOSEPH SHULMAN family. ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: PINKAS AND YEHUDIT NEWMAN Aaron Mintz by Marcia Mordfield. MEMORIAL FUND Mazel Tov to: MARGO AND JUDAH SILVERMAN Carole and Norman Zagerman on Andrea’s FAMILY COMMUNITY marriage by Marilyn and Will Newman. ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: JACK AND MIRIAM PLEET Belle Taft by Margo and Judah Silverman ENDOWMENT FUND and family. In Memory of: Continued on page 25 Blema Woolf by Miriam Pleet. November 23, 2015 25 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

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STELLA AND LOUIS SLACK CASEY AND BESS SWEDLOVE ZIPES KARANOFSKY FAMILY JORDAN MORGAN MEMORIAL FUND ENDOWMENT FUND ENDOWMENT FUND B’NAI MITZVAH FUND In Memory of: In Memory of: Condolences to: In Memory of: Moses Cook by Myra and Lester Aronson. Herb Gosewich by Carol-Sue and Jack Bram and Dodie Potechin on the loss of their Edgar Scully by Sarah Beutel and Steven Mazel Tov to: Shapiro. granddaughter by Helen and Rick Zipes. Morgan. Bryna and Murray Cohen on the birth of Bess Swedlove by Marilyn and Will Mazel Tov to: their granddaughter, Sasha by Myra and Lester Newman. Andy and Sandy Siggner on the birth of their KAYLA REICHSTEIN Aronson. first grandchild, Josie Ruth by Helen and Rick B’NAI MITZVAH FUND BRENT AND RISA TAYLOR Zipes. In Memory of: LINDA SLOTIN AND JONATHAN FISHER ENDOWMENT FUND Jerome Tabet and Daniel Tammet on their Bill Sarkas by Sharon, Sol, Noah and Kayla ENDOWMENT FUND Anniversary Wishes to: marriage by Helen and Rick Zipes. Reichstein. In Memory of: Laya and Sol Shabinsky by Risa, Brent and Bram and Dodie Potechin on the birth of their Herb Gosewich by Linda Slotin and Jonathan Shira Taylor. grandson by Helen and Rick Zipes. NOAH REICHSTEIN Fisher. R’fuah Sh’leimah to: B’NAI MITZVAH FUND Mazel Tov to: SUSAN WEISMAN AND JEFF TAYLOR Raymond Stern by Helen and Rick Zipes. In Memory of: Sabina and Yehuda Rotenberg on Sivan’s ENDOWMENT FUND Blema Woolf by Sharon, Sol, Noah and engagement by Linda Slotin and Jonathan In Memory of: THE SAUL AND EDNA GOLDFARB Kayla Reichstein. Fisher. Fela Leader by the Taylor family. B’NAI MITZVAH PROGRAM Belle Taft by the Taylor family. THE DAVID SMITH FUND STEFANIE AND TAYLOR AGES Contributions may be made FOR JEWISH LIFE STEPHEN AND GAIL VICTOR B’NAI MITZVAH FUND online at www.OJCF.ca or by con- In Memory of: ENDOWMENT FUND In Memory of: tacting the office at 613-798-4696 Bill Sarkas by David Smith. In Memory of: Blema Woolf by Randi, Ian, Jonathan, Inna, extension 274, Monday to Friday or Bill Sarkas by Stephen and Gail Victor. Matthew and Adam Sherman. MAX AND PEARL SMOLKIN Blema Woolf by Stephen and Gail Victor. by email at [email protected]. FAMILY FUND Mazel Tov to: YITZHAK KAMIL Attractive cards are sent to con- In Observance of the Yahrzeit of: Rabbi and Shifra Scher by Stephen and Gail MITZVAH FUND vey the appropriate sentiments. Pearl Smolkin by Sheila Smolkin and family. Victor. In Appreciation to: Arie Kamil by Carole and Bernie All donations are acknowledged DORIS AND RICHARD STERN IRVING AND DIANE WEXLER Starkman. with a charitable receipt. FAMILY FUND FAMILY FUND Birthday Wishes to: In Memory of: Doris Evin by Doris and Richard Stern. Blema Woolf by Diane Wexler; by Carol In Memory of: Segal; by Michael and Muriel Wexler; and by Herb Gosewich by Doris and Richard Stern. Anita Rochman. Donating made easy at www.OJCF.ca Donations can be made for all occasions and life-cycle events. Use our online donation form to send one or multiple tribute cards to your friends and loved ones 613.730.2188 in one secure transaction. homewatchcaregivers.ca/ottawa Let our family care for yours Charitable receipts When you need assistance Affordable Care Solutions with a senior family are issued and sent directly x Nurses, Personal Care Professionals and member, adult or child, we Companions are committed to providing to your email account. x Post Surgical Assistance (Hospital/Home) compassionate care through x Specialized Dementia Care experienced, caring staff. x Back Up Child Care Caring for Ottawa’s Jewish Try it TODAY! Community since 2004 x Hourly to 24 Hour Care BRIAN LEVITAN CERTIFIED SENIOR ADVISOR 26 November 23, 2015 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

her own account, directly related to her childhood Genius and history experience. “I needed the deprivation of war to let my ANGUS SMITH mind be idle enough to discover the world of math- ematics,” she says, “to make me appreciate every little The Mathematician’s Shiva BOOK REVIEW gift, every tiny increment – like a crumb of food – of By Stuart Rojstaczer understanding while solving a problem … this is what Penguin Books war gave me, a life of the mind that would sustain me 384 pages almost always.” A charming and highly readable novel of Russian- As Jews, we know suffering is real. As Jews, we should he Mathematician’s Shiva is a novel that tells Jewish life in America, The Mathematician’s Shiva also avoid the temptation to transform it into an intellectual the story of the life and death of Rachela explores a number of themes that are conceit. That said, Rachela’s insistence Karnokovitch – Jew, refugee from Nazi-occupied critically important to an understanding that the wartime Gulag made her a T Poland, Gulag survivor, Soviet defector, of 20th century Russian history and of mathematician is a very Russian concept, American, genius. Her New York Times obituary how Russians and others – especially so much so that it has become almost a describes her as “the greatest female mathematician of Jews – have experienced that history. cliché. “Suffering” said Dostoevsky in her generation.” “In Russia,” says Sasha at the begin- Notes From Underground, “is the sole Narrated by her son, Sasha, the story unfolds over ning of the novel, “math is not just a origin of consciousness.” While suffering seven days in Madison, Wisconsin, where the means to an end. It’s a glorious art.” With is not necessarily the crucible of genius, it Karnokovitch family found refuge and where Rachela its foundation in fact undistorted by may impart a clarity of perception that taught at the university. It includes lengthy excursions – ideology, mathematics is the antithesis nurtures truly extraordinary, even via Rachela’s memoirs – back to wartime Poland and to a of the moral and spiritual emptiness that visionary people – think Elie Wiesel, penal colony on the shores of the Barents Sea, where characterized so much of Soviet Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Primo Levi. little Rachela and her parents end up after fl eeing the discourse. Sharp-tongued, impatient, frighten- Nazis into Soviet territory. This has particular resonance for Jews. ingly intelligent and well read, Rachela In life, Rachela was a force of nature, who spoke with For millennia, our survival has been nevertheless draws a whole lifetime’s the “cadence of an oracle” and was “banned from connected to our “portable culture” – worth of lost souls – fellow mathem- teaching calculus … because she scared the hell out of our ability, wherever we fi nd ourselves, aticians, animals, defecting Soviet artists freshmen.” No less formidable in death, there is a to use our unbroken connection to Torah and to each – into her orbit. Summing up his mother’s life, Sasha rumour that she has solved a problem – the Navier- other, and our tradition of scholarship, to recreate life, concludes that Rachela’s distinguishing characteristic Stokes equation – that has vexed generations of wholesale, as Jews. Mathematics is no less a form of was her dveykus, the Hasidic term for those who possess mathematicians. portable culture. Rooted as it is in raw intellect, math- the spirit of God inside them. Like the old time tzad- News of Rachela’s passing goes viral and soon an army ematics can, quite literally, be carried around entirely dikim, Rachela’s dveykus is manifested in her genius, of “Slavic-accented mathematicians” descends on the inside of our heads. When Ella Einstein was told that the attracting those “who feel blessed just to be around Karnokovitch home. This coterie of acolytes, rivals and Mount Wilson observatory telescope was being deployed someone whose goodness and spirituality are always sycophants eats everything in sight, goes cross-country in attempt to determine the shape of space-time, she present.” skiing in their underwear, assaults park rangers, and supposedly sniffed, “My husband does that on the back An affecting portrait of a truly remarkable person, The attempts to pry up the fl oorboards in search of Rachela’s of an old envelope.” Mathematician’s Shiva is, in the end, a fascinating elusive solution. The full fl owering of Rachela’s particular genius is, by meditation on the nature, and the challenge, of genius. November 23, 2015 27 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM

what’s going on | November 23 to December 6, 2015 FOR MORE CALENDAR LISTINGS, VISIT WWW.OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM/EVENTS AND WWW.JEWISHOTTAWA.COM/COMMUNITY-CALENDAR

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23 Info/tickets: David Aaron, [email protected] MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30 Holocaust Restitution: Where are we now? Richard THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26 TO SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Israeli Film Night –Mussa:Refugees from Darfur, Mussa Marceau, senior government adviser for Centre for Israel and his parents live in Tel Aviv’s worst neighbourhood. From Fear to Love: Mindful Meditation with Jewish and Jewish Affairs, presents a status report on European Mussa doesn’t speak. He is bused to an elite private school, and Buddhist Practice: A retreat. Segments will maintain countries’ actions with regard to restitution, 7 pm. silently navigating an upscale world. When a series of social silence. Led by Rabbi Miriam Margles and Shôken Info: Benita Siemiatycki, 613-798-4644, unexpected crises hit, Mussa’s precarious place between Michael Stone. Galilee Centre, 398 John St. N. , Arnprior, [email protected] two disparate worlds is revealed. 4:30 pm Thursday to 1:30 pm Sunday. River Theatre, Carleton Univ., 1125 Colonel By Dr., 7 pm. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24 Info: Joyce Schachter, 613-866-9205, Registration Required. http://goo.gl/N5Lkkl [email protected] Jewish Activism – Jews who have made a difference: Info: Atarah Derrick, 1-855-781-4322, [email protected] Lecture partnered by Agudath Israel and Machzikei Hadas. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Guest speaker Eve Harow. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6 Chanukah Gift Fair: Great gifts and everything you need Agudath Israel Congregation, 1400 Coldrey Ave., 7:30 pm. Books and Bagels Book Review and discussion: for Chanukah celebrations, plus fun for the family, 10 am. Info: Miriam Lerson, 613-728-3501, Breakfast followed by review and discussion. Shauna Info: Roslyn Brozovsky Wollock, 613-798-9818, ext 254, [email protected] Dolansky reviews The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. [email protected] Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Dr., 9:30 am. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 The Book of Faith - Author Talk with Elaine Kalman Info: Shayla Mindell, 613-594-4556, SJCC’s Greenberg Families Library Film Series: Naves: Long-time Montreal Gazette literary columnist, [email protected] 50 Children: The Rescue and Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, Elaine Kalman Naves, discusses and reads from her just Glebe Shul Chanukah Party: documentary about the rescue of Jewish Austrian children released fi rst novel The Book of Faith, 1:30 to 3 pm. by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus. With AJA 50+, 1 pm. Avalon Studios, 738a Bank St., 7 pm. Info: Roslyn Wollock, 613-798-9818 ext. 254, Info: Yoey Shaps, 613-413-4939, [email protected] Info: Jack Schecter or Michael Kent, 613-798-9818, ext. 245, [email protected] [email protected] Chocolate Chances Raffl e and Silent Auction: CANDLE LIGHTING BEFORE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26 Torah Academy of Ottawa’s annual raffl e and silent auction NOVEMBER 27 4:03 PM DECEMBER 11 3:59 PM An Evening with The Honourable Justice Moldaver: in support of Jewish education. Nosh, win prizes galore DECEMBER 4 4:00 PM DECEMBER 18 4:01 PM The Bora Laskin Law Society hosts an evening with the and laugh with the entertaining Rabbi David Rotenberg. BULLETIN DEADLINES Honourable Justice Michael J. Moldaver. Torah Academy of Ottawa, 1119 Lazard St., 7 pm. The Supreme Court of Canada, 301 Wellington St., 7 pm. Info: Nicole Colman, 613-274-0110, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6 FOR JANUARY 25 Tickets must be purchased in advance. [email protected] WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20 FOR FEBRUARY 8

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condolences

Condolences are extended to the families of: Shirley Dubinsky Bella Levitin (née Cohen) The Condolence Column Ethel Epstein, Toronto Shu Min T’O z”l is offered as a public service to the (sister of Dorothy Hymes) Shaya Sager community. There is no charge. Cecile Hattin, Toronto For listing in this column, please call 613-798-4696, ext. 274. (mother of Lisa Garman) May their memory Alex Lang be a blessing always. Voice mail is available.

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