October 22, 2014: Shimon Peres still inspires as he looks for new job

By Michael Regenstreif

“So now what?” asks the caption at the beginning of a hilarious and inspiring five-minute video that follows 91-year-old Shimon Peres as he cleans out his former office and goes looking for a new job.

At the employment office, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former president and prime minister of Israel – who served in some sort of high-level position since the founding of the modern state – is told he has no practical experience before being sent off on a series of job try-outs as a gas station attendant, security guard, supermarket cashier, pizza deliveryman, stand-up comedian, and skydiving instructor.

Interacting with the people he encounters at these various jobs, Peres – with wit, humour and economy of words – offers brief words of wisdom that touch on such themes as peace, hope, remarkable accomplishments like the Entebbe rescue, and Israel’s emergence as a high-tech start-up nation.

Watching the video, I was reminded of the three days in May 2012 I followed Peres – then the world’s oldest head of state – on his visit to Ottawa. I particularly remember standing a few feet away at the National Gallery of Canada, at a reception hosted by the Embassy of Israel, as he gave a riveting speech, which hit on many of the same themes as the video.

Along with several other topics, such as the enduring Canada-Israel friendship, Peres spoke without notes about the State of Israel – its past, its present and its future – about the changes then sweeping across the Middle East, and about science and technology, making predictions about breakthroughs to come well into the future. He even cracked some jokes foreshadowing his bit as a comedian in the video.

Peres was inspirational on his visit to Ottawa, and he is again in the video.

The video ends with a quote from Peres, “You are as great as the cause that you serve, and as young as your dreams.” It is a reminder that Israel, our communities, whether there or here in the Diaspora, and all of us as individuals, have hopes and dreams that we must continue to strive toward.

Yidlife Crisis

Speaking of entertaining videos, YidLife Crisis, a new web series out of Montreal, has been sweeping the Jewish world over the past few weeks. Inspired by what creators Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion describe as the Yiddish rhythms and sensibilities inherent in such TV shows as Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Each five-minute episode – the first four are now online at www.yidlifecrisis.com – features Chaimie (Elman) and Leizer (Batalion), both in their 30s, engaged in often funny conversations and arguments in Yiddish (with English subtitles).

Echoing the discussions that used to take place between Jerry and George in the coffee shop on Seinfeld, Chaimie and Leizer’s encounters also take place over food in Mile End, Montreal’s old Jewish neighbourhood that is now a multicultural area equally famous for its Old World Chasids and New World hipsters.

In the first episode, Chaimie and Leizer break the Yom Kippur fast over poutine. In others, they meet for smoked meat and Greek food.

The best of the first four episodes has the pair walking from the iconic St. Viateur Street bagel bakery to the equally iconic bagel shop a few blocks away on Fairmount Avenue while engaged in Talmudic-like debate over which has the better bagel – an unresolvable argument familiar to almost anyone from Montreal. The pair of Chasidic men, about their same age, they encounter along the way appear to be engaged in actual Talmudic discussion.

Warning: Not everything Chaimie and Leizer eat is kosher and some of the dialogue is not for the easily offended. The series is rated “Chai+ (18 and over).”

October 6, 2014: Survey shows Ottawa’s Jewish community is aging

By Michael Regenstreif

Linda Kislowicz, CEO of Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA (JFC-UIA), was in Ottawa, September 17, to address a members meeting of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa at which she presented an initial demographic analysis of the 2011 National Household Survey as it pertains to Ottawa’s Jewish community.

The voluntary National Household Survey replaced the obligatory long-form Canadian Census that was conducted every 10 years, most recently in 2001. Because the 2011 survey used a different methodology – which many social scientists believe is less reliable – the data may not be as accurate as what we used to get from the long-form census.

Still, Kislowicz noted, the data from the survey is reliable enough that it can be interpreted with relative confidence and the results paint a fascinating picture that help us to understand some of the problems we face as a community and challenges we’ll have to meet in years to come.

Some results were surprising. After decades of double-digit percentage growth that far outstripped the overall growth of Canada’s national Jewish community, Ottawa’s Jewish community grew by just 2.8 per cent from 2001 to 2011 (compared to national growth of 4.7 per cent). As of 2011, the Jewish population of Ottawa was estimated to be 14,005 people, up from 13,630 in 2001.

And, while the size of the community grew, one of the most important demographic groups declined as the number of children aged 14 and younger fell to 2,255 in 2011 from 2,725 in 2001. There were almost 500 fewer children in the community in 2011 than a decade earlier.

In part, this helps to explain the trend of declining enrolment at Ottawa’s Jewish day and supplementary schools in recent years. While our schools and the community have already taken many innovative steps to ensure the long-term viability and educational enhancement of our Jewish schools, we will need to continue to be innovative and creative to bring ever greater proportions of our children to Jewish day and supplementary schools.

The real growth in Ottawa’s Jewish community – and it was as significant as the decline in the number of children – was among the middle-aged, those between 45 and 64, and among seniors, aged 65 and over.

The good news in those numbers is that middle-aged adults – the baby-boom generation – are at the peak of their earning years and, for many, their children are grown and independent. Therefore, many in this age group are well-positioned to help the community through increased charitable giving and by having more time to devote to volunteerism.

And that trend continues into the senior age group. With more and more of us remaining vigorous and healthy as we get older, the volunteer corps – upon which the community relies – becomes stronger and even more vital.

But, clearly, ours is an aging community and that trend is likely to continue. This indicates a need to focus greater attention in programming and services on older members of the community as we move forward.

One of the most interesting areas of the survey pertains to intermarriage. Ottawa’s intermarriage rate was at 39.9 per cent in 2011, up from 32 per cent in 2001. More strikingly, the intermarriage rate for couples under age 30 was 53.8 per cent. The survey also indicates that, while 28.6 per cent of young children in intermarried families are being raised Jewishly, 52.5 per cent are being raised with no religious affiliation.

This shows there is much potential for outreach to ensure the unaffiliated feel welcome in the Jewish community – and that there will be potential for enrolment growth in our Jewish schools as the unaffiliated begin to feel there is a place for them in the community.

It should also be noted that, as of 2011, Jews made up only 1.2 per cent of Ottawa’s overall population. Ethnically, this compares to the city’s growing Arab community, which comprised 4.4 per cent of the city’s population.

Finally, while any rate of poverty is unacceptable and needs to be addressed, there is a relatively low rate of poverty in Ottawa’s Jewish community at just 8.9 per cent. This is the lowest rate of poverty for all Canadian Jewish communities and compares favourably to the 13.5 per cent poverty rate overall in Ottawa.

Kislowicz’s presentation was based on the first findings of the 2011 National Household Survey. There will be more to come.