JNF IS 100% ISRAEL Sar-El program SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY. PLANT A TREE. GO ON A JNF MISSION. Angus Smith INVEST IN YOUR OWN LEGACY PROJECT. on volunteer stint JNFOTTAWA.CA FOR DETAILS [email protected] 613.798.2411 at IDF base > page 2 Ottawa Jewish Bulletin MARCH 7, 2016 | 27 ADAR 1 5776 ESTABLISHED 1937 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM | $2 Ottawa to have one Orthodox elementary school BY MICHAEL REGENSTREIF, EDITOR building at 1119 Lazard Street for the next community building. school will allow us to achieve greater goals he families of Ottawa’s two school year. However, a task force of The memorandum of understanding than what would ever be possible alone,” Orthodox elementary day parents will be struck to investigate op- was ratifi ed overwhelmingly on February said Ilan Metz, the Torah Academy Board schools – Torah Academy of tions for future years – including the possi- 18 by the parent bodies of both schools. chair, and Debbie Scharf, chair of the Transi- TOttawa and the Chabad-affi liated bility of moving to the Jewish Community Representatives of both schools told the tion Committee. “A larger base of children Rambam Day School – have reached an Campus school building, where Rambam Ottawa Jewish Bulletin that combining means a wider social circle, and less agreement to unify in time for the has been located since 2008. resources and student bodies will mean combined grades. More fi nancial resources 2016-2017 school year. The Torah Academy Board and the greater effi ciencies and opportunities for will enable the school to offer more The school – which will be renamed after Rambam parents’ group agreed last June to Orthodox students in Ottawa. educational options, resource teachers and consultations with parents – will retain the pursue negotiations aimed at unifying “We want excellence in education for expand extra-curricular offerings. The Torah Academy structure. The agreement their student bodies and the details were our children and we recognize that one school will ... attract a broader base of will see Rambam’s approximately 45 arrived at following nine months of school gives us the best opportunity for Jewish families in Ottawa who care deeply students integrated with the Torah meetings. The school communities were this excellence. We want the best possible about the Torah and Judaism.” Academy student body, which currently represented by committees headed by school that brings together a solid Judaic “The parents voted to unify the student numbers about 80 students. Debbie Scharf, a Torah Academy parent, education but does not compromise on bodies, which will only strengthen Jewish The school will also retain the Torah and Evan Green, a Rambam parent. The secular [education],” said Evan Green, who education in Ottawa in the long-term, and Academy faculty for both Judaic and meetings were facilitated by Steven chaired the Rambam parents’ group and is we look forward to continuing to work with general studies, which will be augmented Kimmel, immediate past-chair of the now vice-chair of the Transition the unifi ed school’s capable leadership to by most of the Rambam faculty. The school Jewish Federation of Ottawa, and Bram Committee. advance and promote day school educa- will remain in the current Torah Academy Bregman, Federation vice-president of “Having a strong Orthodox, Torah-based tion,” said Bregman. Mystery afoot as local author tells a tale of missing laundry Howard Miller works at GGFL Chartered Professional Accountants as their communications specialist. He is also a writer whose fi rst children’s book is about to be published. Louise Rachlis reports. oward Miller and his wife Mountain, a children’s book he wrote Sarah are newlyweds living in after being inspired by a writing exercise Stittsville who “still can’t agree in which he had to construct a paragraph Hon how to fold socks.” from the perspective of an inanimate But the couple, who got married in object. August, will have a storybook about socks The book answers the dilemma of to read to their future children. where socks go when they’re lost in the Howard Miller, author of Escape to Sock Mountain, and his dog, Barney. Miller is the author of Escape to Sock See Sock Mountain on page 2 Rabbi Rob Morais Michael Regenstreif Jason Moscovitz and Barbara inside: on changes at the Kotel > p. 6 on BDS vote in Parliament > p. 7 Crook on U.S. politics > p. 7, 13 With over 100,000 square feet, we are Canada’s largest indoor vehicle storage facility. Storage for cars, boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles and other recreational vehicles. Publication Mail Agreement No. 40018822 613.244.4444 • www.boydmoving.com 2 March 7, 2016 OTTAWAJEWISHBULLETIN.COM The kids are all right: Refl ections on the Sar-El program BY ANGUS SMITH their iPhones, lost to Snapchat and hey are all so young. Instagram. They chatter constantly and That’s the inevitable reaction fl irt with each other like crazy. They of any Diaspora Jew confronted collapse into giggling heaps. The boys Tby a group of Israel Defense wrestle and chase each other around the Forces (IDF) soldiers. electronics lab. The girls apply and For Rabbi Steven Garten and me, our reapply their makeup throughout the recent hitch with the Sar-El program day, currently favouring a look some- – which sends volunteers to serve on IDF where between Amy Winehouse and supply and logistics bases – was a little bit Nefertiti. like spending a couple of weeks with our Yet, somehow, it all seems to work. own kids. Whatever we hear about the divisions in Along with a few other Americans and Israeli society, all of these young people Canadians, Rabbi Garten and I were get along with each other. assigned to a communications and Rabbi Garten and I end up in a work- electronics base in the Lower Galilee. We shop with Chasidic kids doing their IDF slept in barracks, wore IDF uniforms and service. They are welcoming and genu- ate army food. And, while we may not inely curious about who we are, where we have cut a particularly soldierly appear- come from and what we do in Canada. ance, the work we did – reconditioning One of them teases Rabbi Garten about tank helmets and communications his prophetic turn of phrase and renames headsets; cleaning and repairing antenna him “Moshe.” The rabbi responds in kind mounts for tanks and fi ghting vehicles and, for the rest of the week, we have to – directly supported troops in the fi eld. put up with the comedy duo of Moshe If anybody can actually look good in and Yehoshua, and their inexhaustible olive drab, it’s a kid in the IDF. And the supply of lame jokes. Sar-El volunteers Angus Smith (left) and Rabbi Steven Garten of Ottawa check communications IDF is truly an army of kids. Kids who, in Meanwhile, Chaim, the guy I share a gear at an IDF base in the Lower Galilee. their sheer variety, represent the tremen- workbench with, chats happily with me dous diversity of contemporary Israel: an about his family, about his rabbi, and to see the absolutely critical role the IDF nation of warriors, but a nation of impossibly tall Ethiopian exchanges about how much he would like to have a plays in building Israeli society. By citizens – Israeli citizens. good-natured insults with a couple of dog. One afternoon, he puts his arms putting young people together and But, with all the high spirits and blonde, blue-eyed Russians; an olah from around me and asks someone to take a ensuring they bond through shared horseplay, it’s easy to forget that every Winnipeg works beside a Yemenite boy; a picture of the two of us – just a couple of experiences and shared challenges the one of these young Israelis is, in fact, a bunch of Orthodox guys with payot head Jews, hanging out. IDF reinforces a uniquely Israeli identity. warrior – and that all of them live in a over to the base shul for Mincha. Watching these young people and the Counter to what much of the world very bad neighbourhood. At any At every break, the soldiers lean into way they take care of each other, it is easy seems to believe, IDF service creates not a See Sar-El on page 4 Sock Mountain: ‘I wanted to have something for my sister’s kids and my future kids’ Continued from page 1 Ottawa Senators fan.” Miller’s fi rst book, he has other ideas laundry. The book is illustrated by Lidia E. “percolating” in his mind for the future. “When young Carter hears strange Lewczuk. Miller’s sister Sara is expecting her fi rst sounds coming from the hamper one “I went on a freelancing website to bid child, and he is looking forward to night, he discovers the answer. Four on some writing jobs, and I found I could reading the book to the baby. unhappy socks are tired of getting mixed post my story and look for an illustrator,” “For me, I wanted to have something in with all those dirty clothes, and they’re said Miller. “Although Lidia is in the for my sister’s kids and my future kids.” not going to take it anymore!” Netherlands, we hit it off, and her Escape to Sock Mountain will be Escape to Sock Mountain is described illustrations were just as I envisaged available by the end of the month on the publisher’s website as “a story them.” through online retailers including about friendship and big dreams.” And Promoting his own book is a “weird” www.FriesenPress.com, www.Amazon.ca, Miller describes himself as “a 10-year-old new experience, he said.