September 19, 2011: We are a community of great diversity

 By Michael Regenstreif

Ottawa’s Jewish community, like most Jewish communities of significant size in North America, is highly diverse.

We’re religiously diverse. Individuals and families in the community range from the fervently observant to the completely secular, and our congregations are part of each of the major movements of contemporary Judaism.

We’re politically diverse. Each of Canada’s, and Ontario’s, major political parties has supporters and activists from among our community.

And while Israel enjoys overwhelming support from the community, our opinions reflect the diversity of Israel’s democratic politics and its multi-party system. And, as in Israel, there is a great diversity of opinion in our community vis-à-vis particular policy issues.

All this is to say the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin strives to reflect the diversity of our community. The Bulletin is open to all segments of our community in our news reporting, in the submissions we receive and publish, and in our opinion columns.

None of our opinion columnists – from the congregational rabbis who share From the Pulpit, to Alan Echenberg, Mira Sucharov, Oliver Javanpour, our many guest columnists, to me – has a monopoly on the truth. You might agree with some things our columnists write and disagree with others. I’m the editor and I don’t agree with everything.

If you want to dispute or applaud something you read in the Bulletin, please do so. If what you have to say is relatively short, write a letter-to-the-editor. If you need more than brief, letter-length space, a guest column is possible. A case in point is Bob Dale’s guest column on page 10, a response to Mira Sucharov’s Values, Ethics, Community in our September 5 issue.