June 13, 2011: CJC leader runs for the Liberals in the Ontario election

By Michael Regenstreif

I saw Shimon Fogel recently and he told me the details of the long-anticipated merger of Canada’s major Jewish advocacy organizations – including the Canada-Israel Committee, of which he’s been the long-time CEO, and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) – would be announced sometime this month. (It’s even possible the announcement was made sometime in between my writing this column and your reading it.)

Fogel is to be CEO of the new organization – temporarily being called Newco – created by the merger.

One person who won’t be on Fogel’s senior staff, at least for the first four or five months, is Ottawa native Bernie Farber, who has worked at the CJC for 27 years and has been the CEO since 2005.

Late in May, Farber announced he’s taking a leave-of-absence to run on Premier Dalton McGuinty’s team as the Liberal candidate in the suburban Toronto riding of Thornhill, the Ontario riding with the highest proportion of Jewish residents. He’ll be looking to unseat Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman – who is also Jewish – in the October 6 provincial election.

Shurman was elected to the Ontario Legislature in the 2007 election, when a cornerstone of the Progressive Conservative platform was extending public funding to faith-based day schools. Until then, and now, the only faith-based schools that receive public funding in Ontario are Roman Catholic. Most other provinces, including Quebec, have long had formulas for funding all faith-based day schools that meet provincial curriculum standards. The funding proposal was not popular with voters in 2007, and John Tory’s Tories were soundly defeated by McGuinty’s Liberals. Thornhill was probably one of the few Ontario ridings in which the issue actually helped elect a Tory.

Funding for day schools has been a major concern of the Jewish community in Ontario for decades.

At the Federation AGM, in her final address as Jewish Federation of Ottawa chair, Donna Dolansky noted that one of the major challenges for the Federation is establishing a firm financial footing for the Ottawa Jewish Community School. That the school – and virtually all Jewish day schools in Ontario – faces financial difficulties is largely attributable to the lack of public funding provided in most other provinces.

The Canadian Jewish Congress has always been a leader in the struggle for Jewish day school funding. In fact, Farber’s first CJC job in 1984 was lobbying the Ontario government on the school funding issue – and it’s been an issue of concern to him ever since.

And, Farber says, it’s not an issue he’ll give up on should he win the Thornhill seat. Whether as a government or opposition MPP, he plans to continue working on the issue, despite McGuinty’s unequivocal stance against non-Catholic faith-based day school funding.

“While the premier and I may disagree on this subject, I’ll have the opportunity to speak inside the tent and try to effect change,” he told the Canadian Jewish News.

Farber – who says he’ll return to a senior position in the reorganized Jewish advocacy organization, should he not win in Thornhill – might also have his work cut out for him on the school funding issue even if the Tories win the election.

Although funding for faith-based day schools was a major plank in the Progressive Conservative platform in 2007, there’s not a word about it in the 2011 election platform recently released by party leader Tim Hudak.

May 30, 2011: Mayor did the right thing by withdrawing Whitton proposal

By Michael Regenstreif

Mayor Jim Watson did the right thing on May 8 when he withdrew his proposal that Ottawa’s new archives and library building be named in honour of Charlotte Whitton.

The proposal had been approved by the city’s Finance and Economic Development Committee on May 3 following six presentations by individuals and organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Friends of the City of Ottawa Archives, who were opposed to Whitton being honoured with the naming of the building. There were no presentations from citizens or organizations in support of the Whitton proposal.

While Watson wanted to honour Whitton’s place in history as Ottawa’s first female mayor – in fact, the first female mayor of a major Canadian city – the Jewish community was opposed to honouring her because of the major role she played, years earlier, in ensuring that Jewish orphans not find refuge in Canada during the Holocaust, thus sealing the fate of hundreds of Jewish children at the hands of the Nazis.

Despite the objections, the committee voted 8-1 to approve the proposal. Only Councillor Keith Egli stood against it.

“Our job is to listen to our constituents,” said Egli. “With the Jewish, French Canadian and historical communities all opposed [to naming the building for Whitton], I must vote against.”

The measure was to go to the full city council for ratification, but didn’t when the mayor withdrew his proposal following the online and media brouhaha that erupted as a result of news coverage of the committee vote. Emails from many in the Jewish community and beyond to the mayor and city councillors, an online petition, op-ed pieces and letters-to-the-editor in the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun, all helped convince the mayor that withdrawing the proposal would be the best course of action.

“These kinds of commemorative namings should be positive occasions that bring the community together. Instead, this suggestion, which was mine, and mine alone, was creating disunity in parts of the city, and as mayor, I felt it my obligation not to allow the matter to continue to divide,” wrote Watson in his memo to city councillors advising them he was withdrawing the proposal.

In withdrawing the Whitton proposal, the mayor, like Egli, listened to his constituents.

The May 8 revocation of the proposal, and the new plan for a proper consultative process before a new name proposal for the building next comes before council, was the best possible outcome for the Whitton-naming controversy. But, it did mean that my editor’s column in the May 16 issue of the Bulletin – which called for the building not to be named for Whitton – was out-of-date three days before anyone read it. Such things occasionally happen with publications that have a lengthy lead time.

The column was written on May 5 and we went to press on May 6. Copies of the May 16 Bulletin were first available for sale on May 11 (and arrived in most mail subscribers’ homes on May 12 and 13).

My plan, of course, was for the mayor to read my column, agree with my logic, and then retract the proposal. That’s not the way it worked out. But, all’s well that ends well.

openOttawa

On May 18, I attended the first follow-up session to April’s openOttawa symposium, an ongoing initiative aimed at engaging Ottawa’s young Jewish adults with the community and providing assistance to 20- to 35-year-olds in their quest to express themselves Jewishly in ways that are relevant to them. We’ll have a full report on the session from reporter Jacqueline Shabsove in the June 13 issue of the Bulletin.

While the openOttawa discussion was fascinating, I couldn’t help but be reminded of how similar the discussion was – minus, perhaps, the Facebook, Twitter and website references – to discussions I was party to in Montreal during the 1970s and ‘80s when I was in that age group. And mine was hardly the first generation to have that discussion.

It is up to every generation to find ways of engagement that are relevant to them and it’s also up to the preceding generations to help them in their quest and to make room in the open tent for those new ways of engagement.

May 16, 2011: Charlotte Whitton’s name should not be on new archives and library building

 By Michael Regenstreif

Since moving to Ottawa in 2007 to work at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I’ve met Mayor Jim Watson on a number of occasions – first, in his earlier role as an Ontario cabinet minister and MPP and, more recently, as a candidate for the mayoralty and as mayor.

He has always struck me as a friendly and very astute politician. He has always been well-briefed and understanding of issues of concern when I’ve seen him talk to Jewish groups, and he has proven himself to be a friend of Ottawa’s Jewish community. He even says nice things about the Bulletin.

That’s why it’s hard to fathom why Watson is pushing so hard to have the City of Ottawa’s new archives and library building named in honour of Charlotte Whitton.

What is to be gained by honouring Whitton now – some 36 years after her death?

Yes, she made history by being the first woman to be mayor of Ottawa. But that notable achievement looks small in comparison to her ensuring that 500 Jewish refugee orphans ended up in Auschwitz instead of Canada during the Holocaust, to her efforts in helping to ensure that Canada not be a haven for Jews seeking to escape the Nazis.

Whitton’s role in that shameful of chapter of Canadian history is well documented in None Is Too Many by Irving Abella and Harold Troper, and in Open Your Hearts: The Story of the Jewish War Orphans in Canada by Fraidie Martz. (The Jewish war orphans that Martz wrote about were only allowed into Canada beginning in 1947.)

Whitton was deeply antisemitic. She also hated French Canadians, Armenians, Ukrainians … the list goes on.

I attended the committee meeting at City Hall on May 3 (see my news report on page 4) when the mayor’s recommendation to name the building for Whitton was given preliminary approval. There were six presentations – including representations from the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and Canadian Jewish Congress – that argued compellingly against honouring Whitton. Not one citizen or organization came forward in her favour.

And, yet, with the notable exception of Councillor Keith Egli, the mayor and the rest of the councillors on the committee voted in favour of naming the building for Whitton.

To be blunt, I was appalled at some of the things I heard the councillors say in their discussion. Councillor Marianne Wilkinson said she didn’t consider Whitton’s antisemitism or her actions to be a “civic issue.” Councillor Doug Thompson reduced Whitton’s actions during the Holocaust to the level of “comments.” Councillor Diane Deans suggested we had to recognize the time Whitton was living in.

The fact is Whitton was not just a product of her time – she was one of the leaders who shaped that time, who ensured that “none is too many.”

Surely, in today’s multicultural Ottawa, there are many better examples of persons deserving of honour than Charlotte Whitton.

Thanks Deanna

You may have noticed that Deanna Silverman’s Kid Lit column – a regular feature in almost every issue of the Bulletin over the past 20 years – has been missing from several issues of late. Unfortunately, Deanna has been having some health issues and has now decided to retire from writing the column.

I would like to thank Deanna for her contributions to the Bulletin over so many years. So many Jewish kids in Ottawa have had their childhoods enriched thanks to the hundreds of books she’s reviewed and recommended over the past two decades.

Our thoughts and best wishes are with her.

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.