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blue - 300 c gree n - 362 c brown - 1535 c JNF YOUNG PROFESSIONAL Don’t forget to renew MISSION TO ISRAEL your subscription to the MAY 19-27, 2019 Ottawa Jewish Bulletin! ISRAEL AT THE RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PRICE JNFOTTAWA.CA 613.798.2411 Call 613-798-4696, ext. 256 Ottawa Jewish Bulletin APRIL 1, 2019 | ADAR II 25, 5779 ESTABLISHED 1937 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM | $2 Understanding the upcoming Israeli election With Israelis about to go to the polls to elect a new Knesset, Paul Michaels, director of research and senior media relations at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), explains how governments are formed in the Jewish state. he Israeli election for the 21st Lapid of Yesh Atid and political neo- Knesset (or Parliament), will be phyte Benny Gantz. It hopes to under- held April 9 and much can mine Netanyahu’s previous monopoly change between now and then. on security issues because three of its TNonetheless, a few trends have top five leaders are former IDF chiefs of emerged. staff, including Gantz himself. Despite its COURTESY OF BLUE AND WHITE PARTY All eight major Israeli opinion polls well-publicized security bent, Blue and The leadership of the Blue and White Party in the April 9 Israeli election are: have consistently shown that the cen- White hopes to garner the support of the (from left) Moshe Ya’alon, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Gabi Ashkenazi. tre-centre right and the centre-centre left traditional left-wing parties and the tacit are running nearly neck-and-neck. support of some of the Arab parties. Following a law passed in 2014, parties Unlike Canada, where there are 338 The “centre-centre right” is led by the Israeli voters cast ballots for parties need to pass a 3.25 per cent vote thresh- constituencies (represented by that Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin not (directly) for individuals, though the old, which translates into a minimum of number of seats in the House of Com- Netanyahu. Together with other right- leader of the party, together with the par- four seats. mons), Israel treats the country as a sin- wing and religious parties, it has held a ty’s platform, often determines the vote. About six million Israelis – two-thirds gle constituency where Knesset seats are bare majority of 61 seats in the 120-mem- Astonishingly, 47 parties are regis- of nine million Israeli citizens over the apportioned according to the proportion ber Knesset. tered to participate in the election – a legal age of 18 – are eligible to vote. Of of the vote each party receives. The “centre-centre left” is led this reflection of Israel’s vibrant democracy. these, about 70 per cent will likely cast The votes cast for parties that do not time by the newly formed Blue and However, only 10 to 12 parties will actu- ballots. In the 2015 election, 72 per cent make it past the 3.25 percent threshold White Party, an alliance between Yair ally contend for seats in the Knesset. of eligible voters participated. See Election on page 2 New survey looks at Jewish life in Canada BY MICHAEL REGENSTREIF EDITOR graphics and religious observance and Toronto and York University, has released communities and are home to about 82 attitudes, to levels of Jewish education, its “2018 Survey of Jews in Canada,” a per cent of Canada’s estimated Jewish n 2013, the Pew Research Center levels of intermarriage, attitudes toward similar study of Jews in this country. population of 392,000 (about one per released “A Portrait of Jewish the State of Israel, domestic politics and The survey sampled 2,335 Jews living cent of the entire Canadian population). Americans,” the results of a compre- much more. Now, Toronto-based in four cities – Montreal, Toronto, Win- While Ottawa Jews were not sam- hensive survey of Jews in the United Environics Institute for Survey Research, nipeg and Vancouver. Those four cities pled, we can reasonably assume that IStates covering everything from demo- in partnership with the University of currently boast Canada’s largest Jewish See Editor on page 7 JET delivers hundreds of Mishloach Manot Murray Citron translates the Lenora Zelikovitz and Jenny Shinder on inside: gift bags on Purim > p. 2 untranslatable > p. 3 new women’s event > p. 6 April 1, 2019 2 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM Election: Formation of government may not be immediately clear Continued from page 1 then-president Shimon Peres decided are divided, according to a complex that the bloc backing Netanyahu was formula, among those parties that were larger than the one supporting Livni. more successful. Netanyahu was, therefore, given the first What’s crucial is that the party that chance to try to form a government, gets the most votes does not necessarily which he did. lead the next government. Every Israeli With that historical precedent in government is, essentially, a federation mind, Blue and White is putting its entire of minority parties. Unlike in Canada, no electoral effort into winning at least three Israeli party has ever acquired a majority seats more than Likud. Yet even that in the Knesset. Following the past elec- might not guarantee Gantz the opportu- tion, Likud held only a quarter of the nity to form a governing coalition. Knesset seats. As a result, Israelis may A poll conducted in early March pro- switch their party vote but keep it within vided the following tantalizing data: the bloc that will propose to President 1. Who is more suited for the position Reuven Rivlin who should be allowed to of Prime Minister? try to form the next government. 42% Netanyahu, 38% Gantz, Blue and White is an exception to 20% Don’t Know what has been this hard-and-fast rule. 2. Did the Attorney General’s decision Its list of candidates includes both a for- (his intention to lay corruption mer left-wing Meretz politician and two charges against Netanyahu) cause strong right-wing nationalists formerly you to change your vote? from Likud. That is because, according to 75% No, 12% Yes, 13% Don’t Know most pundits, this election will be deter- One thing is certain: Many Jewish mined not by economic, social, or secu- TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90 Canadians will be closely following Israe- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leader of the Likud Party in the April 9 election. rity proposals, but by whether people li news on April 9, proud of the Jewish are for or against extending Netanyahu’s state’s dynamic democracy and keenly term in office. it is not at all certain that a victor will one more Knesset seat than Netanyahu interested in the democratic decision of Even after all the ballots recounted, be declared. In 2009, Tzipi Livni got but, after consulting with all the parties, the people of Israel. JET delivers hundreds of Mishloach Manot gift bags on Purim BY MATTHEW HORWOOD by volunteers who gath- early 1,200 Mishloach Manot gift baskets were ered at Torah Day School delivered by JET (Jewish Education through of Ottawa on March 17, Torah) volunteers to members of Ottawa’s the Sunday before Purim. Jewish community on Purim. Each bag also contains a NPurim, which fell on March 21 this year, celebrates scroll listing all the people the saving of the Jews of ancient Persia from Haman’s who contributed to the plot to exterminate them as told in the Book of Esther. gift. Sending gifts of food and drink – Mishloach Manot – is On Purim, volunteers a Purim tradition. crisscrossed Ottawa deliv- Lauren Shaps, JET’s director of women’s program- ering Mishloach Manot to ming, explained that while giving charity to the poor recipients’ homes. Green- is an important Purim mitzvah, Mishloach Manot is berg said this is “one of the about “creating and building relationships in order to largest – if not the largest build unity,” within the Jewish community. – such program in Ottawa’s Shaps said that when JET’s Mishloach Manot initiative Jewish community.” first began 20 years ago, there were 60 gift baskets deliv- According to Green- ered “mostly to little kids” across Ottawa. This year, 1,188 berg, in the weeks before gift bags were delivered to “young and old, connected Purim, Shaps spends and unaffiliated, rich and poor,” according to Shaps. “countless hours” plan- ISSIE SCAROWSKY JET Chair Ellie Greenberg said that in the months ning the delivery routes JET volunteers help prepare Mishloach Manot gift bags, March 17 at Torah Day School of before Purim, people registered over the phone, volunteers will take. Ottawa, for distribution on Purim. through email or online to have Mishloach Manot gift “The volunteers are bags delivered to their friends and relatives. people who attend JET The gift bags – which contain foods such as hamen- classes and programs, as well as friends of JET,” Green- “All these people – many of whom would not have taschen, juice, fruit snacks and wafers – were packaged berg said. “They’re all feeling good the morning of done anything for Purim – are now celebrating it, and Purim, and the people who open the packages feel good many look forward to it,” he said. as well.” Rabbi Shaps said a tremendous amount of work Ira Abrams Shaps said she also sees Mishloach Manot as a “feel- goes into the Mishloach Manot program. CPA, CA good way” to connect people to the Jewish community. “Unless you witness firsthand all the work done for Licensed Public “You have seniors, new immigrants and people who the process, you cannot understand how much work Ett Accountant are disconnected from Judaism, and all of a sudden actually goes into it.

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