April 25, 2011: Commemorations and celebrations – A busy time of the Jewish year

By Michael Regenstreif

This is one of those particularly busy times of the Jewish year.

I’m writing this column just before we celebrate Passover. By the time you read it, the seder nights will have passed. Although the issue is dated April 25 in keeping with our official Monday publication dates, we have timed the production of this issue so that we go to press before Passover and so that the newspaper will arrive – if Canada Post cooperates – in Ottawa subscribers’ homes on April 21, the first of the intermediate days.

Less than a week after the end of Passover, we’ll gather, Sunday, May 1, 7:00 pm, at the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building, for Ottawa’s Yom HaShoah Commemoration featuring keynote speaker Ada Wynston, a child survivor of the Holocaust whose many years of dedication to Christian-Jewish dialogue, and for recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations, led Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to honour her with knighthood.

On Sunday, May 8, 7:30 pm, Yom Hazikaron, the memorial day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, will be marked at the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building.

The solemnity of Yom HaShoah and Yom Hazikaron give way to the celebrations of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.

Although Yom Ha’Atzmaut actually falls on May 9 this year, Ottawa’s major Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration will be at Lansdowne Park’s Aberdeen Pavilion on Tuesday, May 10, beginning at 5:00 pm and continuing through the evening with activities for all ages.

Goldstone and Dylan

Speaking of Israel, a major conclusion of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, known as the Goldstone Report, that Israel committed war crimes by targeting civilians during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, has now been disavowed by none other than Richard Goldstone, the retired South African judge who chaired the UN fact-finding mission.

“If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document,” Goldstone wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on April 1.

Goldstone now says the evidence shows that Israel did not target civilians during the conflict.

The Goldstone Report has been a major factor in the delegitimization campaign against Israel since its release in September 2009. Goldstone, who is Jewish, became a hero to the anti-Zionist hard left. No more. Anti-Zionist activists have turned on Goldstone as quickly as they embraced him.

Another current target of anti-Zionists is legendary folk-rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Dylan has announced that he’ll return to Israel on June 20 to perform a concert at Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv. This despite the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign applying heavy pressure on artists not to appear in Israel.

Actually, Dylan has been a target of anti-Zionists at least since releasing “Neighborhood Bully,” his 1983 allegorical song about Israel and the Jewish people that left no doubt as to where he stood.

April 11, 2011: The Passover legend continues to inspire movements for freedom

By Michael Regenstreif

Welcome to “the Passover edition” of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – the issue that precedes the first seder which falls, this year, on April 18. We’ve included several Passover features and a couple of our columnists focus on Passover themes.

One of the Passover features is a very interesting piece on page 17 by Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis Berman, both of whom are well-known leaders of the Jewish Renewal movement. One thing they point out is that the universal lesson of the Passover legend, of rising up and overcoming slavery, has not only resonated with Jews these past 3,000 years, it has also inspired other religions and secular liberation movements.

When I was a 10-year-old in 1964 watching the modern American Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Summer unfold every night on the news, I quickly understood what it was all about because I heard leaders like Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. speak about, and take inspiration from, the same lessons I had learned in Torah study at my Jewish day school, and around the seder table every Passover.

It’s not at all surprising to me that the Passover legend is now providing inspiration to people who have been rising up this year against some of the brutal Arab dictators, who are being referred to as modern-day pharaohs.

And, perhaps, it should come as no surprise that some of those dictators, like Syria’s Bashar Assad, are saying that the protesters are being duped by Israel.

Three thousand years after the Exodus in the Passover legend, we still live in a world where modern-day pharaohs dominate many countries, where true freedom remains a dream for billions of people, and where millions still live in actual slavery. The journey begun by Moses continues.

Federal election

I’m writing this column during the first week of the official campaign leading to the federal election on Monday, May 2. (The unofficial campaign, of course, has been on for months.)

During the week of April 11, the Communications and Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa will hold roundtable discussions with Ottawa-area candidates from the Conservative, Liberal and New Democratic Parties on issues of concern to the Jewish community. I will be reporting on those meetings in our April 25 issue.

Bulletin columnist Alan Echenberg notes below that the Montreal riding of Mount Royal is one of 10 “very ethnic” ridings across Canada that the Conservatives are looking to capture in this election. While Asian and South Asian communities dominate most of the other “very ethnic” ridings, it is the Jewish community that makes up more than a third of the population in Mount Royal.

The Harper Tories are banking on their solid support for the State of Israel and against antisemitism over the past five years to deliver the Jewish vote in Mount Royal – and in other ridings with identifiable Jewish populations.

I live in Ottawa West-Nepean and recently received a targeted mailing from John Baird drawing my attention to the Conservative record on Israel and antisemitism.

Alan raises the question of whether the Conservatives will win enough Jewish votes to take Mount Royal on May 2. Frankly, I’ll be shocked if they do, despite their having recruited former Montreal city councillor Saulie Zajdel, a well-known member of the Chabad Lubavitch community, as the Tory candidate.

The Liberal incumbent in Mount Royal is Irwin Cotler, a legendary law professor and international human rights lawyer, a former president of Canadian Jewish Congress and a former justice minister of Canada. There is probably no parliamentarian in the entire Diaspora with a stronger record on Israel and antisemitism than Cotler.

Happy Passover

On behalf of everyone at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I extend our best wishes to all for a joyous and happy Passover. Chag Sameach.