December 7, 2009: Gabriel controversy overshadows the tremendous success of Choices

By Michael Regenstreif

One of the stories on the front page of this issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin is Cynthia Nyman Engel’s report on the keynote speech Brigitte Gabriel delivered, November 5, at the third annual Choices event presented by the Women’s Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.

Drawing on her personal story, as well as contemporary events, particularly 9/11, Gabriel forcefully attacked the radical Islamist movement. The problem, though, was that she couched her attacks in ways that led some in the audience to conclude that she was attacking all Muslims and Arabs. Others didn’t think so. Two different women in attendance have told me that, when Gabriel attacked Muslims and Arabs, “everyone knew she didn’t mean all Muslims and Arabs, she meant radical Muslims and Arabs.”

Bulletin columnist Mira Sucharov was one of the women in attendance who took exception to the way Gabriel depicted Muslims and Arabs and Mira devotes her Values, Ethics, Community column to a discussion of Gabriel and to her suggestions about criteria that should be used in selecting speakers.

There was also a group of women at the Choices event who were inspired by Gabriel. In a letter to the Bulletin, Susan Weisman points to an online petition that was launched in support of Gabriel.

What’s being overshadowed in the controversy that erupted over Gabriel is the Choices event itself. In the three years since it was conceived by committee chair Jennifer Kardash, Choices has quickly become the Federation Annual Campaign’s most successful program for recruiting new, previously unaffiliated donors to the Jewish community of Ottawa. This year alone, 106 new donors became involved in the community via Choices.

The success of Choices as an event, and particularly as an event that involves so many people previously unaffiliated with the community, needs to be celebrated. Jennifer, the committee members, and the table captains who do so much to recruit women to the event – and, thus, to the community – are to be congratulated for the excellent work that they do.

In a column earlier this year, I pointed out that the new chair and vice-chair of the Federation were both women, that all three of the community’s major award recipients were women, and even that a significant majority of the volunteers honoured on the occasion of the Federation’s 75th anniversary were women. Women have become a driving force in the Jewish community of Ottawa. The success of the annual Choices event is another indication of that.

As illustrated by the Gabriel controversy – there is a wide diversity of opinion in the community on any number of issues. If you feel strongly about an issue of concern, if you disagree with an opinion expressed by one of our columnists or with a featured speaker at an event we cover, we welcome your letters to the editor. Your opinions are important and we want to hear from you.

Gil Levine

Gilbert Levine, a legendary figure in the Canadian labour movement, passed away, November 16, at age 85, just days after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

In 2007, when I moved to Ottawa to work at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, Gil was the first Bulletin reader to call and welcome me to the city. Not long after, he came and met me for lunch at the Soloway JCC and I enjoyed the first of several fascinating, stimulating discussions I would have with him about the labour movement, Canadian, Israeli and Jewish community politics, and our shared passion for folk music. Gil added me to his personal email list and I got a steady stream of articles from various publications that he wanted to share with his friends, and an equally steady stream of Jewish jokes.

As I came to find out over the past couple of years, Gil was a mensch of the highest degree and a leading voice of conscience in the Canadian, Ottawa and Jewish communities. I’d like to express my sincere condolences to Gil’s wife, Helen, and their family.

June 15, 2009: Women are increasingly assuming top communal leadership roles

By Michael Regenstreif

The position of chair of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa – or president of the Vaad Ha’Ir as it was known from 1934 until 2005 – is the pinnacle of lay leadership in the Jewish community of Ottawa. This month, Donna Dolansky became the 34th person in the Federation’s 75-year history to rise to that esteemed position.

A long record of accomplishment as a seemingly tireless volunteer and community leader is something that Donna has in common with her 33 consummate predecessors. Same gender, though, is something she shares with only two: Maureen Molot, who was Vaad president from 1991 to 1993; and Barbara Farber, who served from 1997 to 1999. The position has been a male bastion for 71 of the past 75 years.

The fact that almost all past presidents and chairs have been men is not unusual. Look at most Jewish communities and you’ll see that almost all, if not all, of their leadership positions have been male bastions for most of their histories too. With the exception of organizations that are specifically for women, it is only in recent decades that we’ve seen women realizing the top leadership roles in Federations and major organizations.

It’s also worth noting that, for the first time in this Federation’s history, both the chair, Donna Dolansky, and the vice-chair, Debbie Halton-Weiss, are women.

Like many other Jewish communities, ours has been evolving. Where it was once unheard of for women to attain such top leadership positions, they now do. And, while it is still a rare enough occurrence that we take note when a woman attains a position like Federation chair, it is becoming more commonplace. In another generation or so, we won’t.

Something else worth noting is that, this year, again for the first time, all three recipients of the community’s annual awards are women. At the Federation’s annual general meeting this month, Ingrid Levitz received the Gilbert Greenberg Distinguished Service Award, Estelle Gunner received the Shem Tov Community Volunteer Award, and Jennifer Kardash received the Freiman Family Young Leadership Award.

Although women in the top leadership positions may still be somewhat novel, women – as exemplified by Ingrid, Estelle and Jennifer – have long been at the forefront of community volunteerism. When the Federation celebrated its 75th anniversary last month by honouring 75 of our most accomplished volunteers, 45 of them – a significant majority of 60 per cent – were women.

* * * * * * * * * *

The non-Orthodox rabbinate is another area that has been opening up to women in the almost-four decades since the Reform movement ordained its first female rabbi in 1972. Women rabbis are now well accepted in the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements.

There was an interesting item on the JTA wire recently about Sara Hurwitz, an Orthodox woman who had completed the studies needed to become an Orthodox rabbi. She studied under the guidance of Rabbi Avi Weiss, the director of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York, an Orthodox yeshiva for men.

Instead of ‘rabbi,’ though, she was given a new title, maharat – an acronym for Manhigah Hilkhatit Ruhanit Toranit (spiritual, halachic and Torah leader). In other words, she is a rabbi in everything but name.

The JTA article went on to say that Rabbi Weiss and Maharat Hurwitz were founding a new school, Yeshivat Maharat, to train Orthodox women as maharats.

Will the very concept of women as clergy, even if they’re not called ‘rabbis,’ be accepted in Orthodox circles?

* * * * * * * * * *

In the April 27 Bulletin, we reported on the 2008 audit of antisemitic incidents in Canada from B’nai Brith Canada (BBC). There were, BBC reported, 1,135 reported incidents of antisemitism in Canada last year, a rise of 8.9 per cent from 2007. The number of antisemitic incidents in Canada, according to BBC, has risen every year but one over the past decade.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States has just released its own audit of antisemitic incidents in the U.S., a country whose population is about 10 times that of ours. The ADL reports there were 1,352 antisemitic incidents in the entire United States in 2008, a decline of seven per cent from 2007. It was the fourth consecutive year in which the ADL has reported a decline in antisemitic incidents in the United States.

Can it really be possible that, proportionately, Canadians are about 10 times more likely to commit antisemitic incidents than Americans?

Or, is it possible that B’nai Brith Canada and the Anti-Defamation League have very different approaches about how or when to define an incident as antisemitic?