In The Ottawa Community
* = New item this week
Community Events and Announcements
* On March 3rd at 4 pm, the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation is hosting Naomi Azrieli who will be sharing thoughts on family, resiliency, and philanthropy. The Azrieli Foundation is one of the preeminent foundations in Canada, whose broad range of influence and work includes supporting Holocaust education and Holocaust survivors in Ottawa. Naomi is brilliant, articulate, passionate and engaging and I hope you can join us for this inspiring program. Register here.
* Virtual opening of the Canadian War Museum exhibition, Anne Frank – A History for Today, on March 3, 2021 at 7pm at https://www.warmuseum.ca/annefrank/. Guests include, Floralove Katz and the Ottawa Klezmer Band, Her Excellency Ines Coppoolse, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Canada, Holocaust survivor Elly Bollegraaf, students from St. Mary’s High School in Calgary, and Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
* In advance of International Women’s Day, Federation is hosting the second session in the J-Fellows speakers series, with a focus on "Jewish Women Leaders and the Power of Resilience," on Thursday, March 4th. This is an opportunity to network and connect with local women leaders as they discuss the resiliency skills that have helped them navigate the highs and lows of this past year. Registration is free and limited so that the group can connect. Register here.
A conversation with Art Spiegleman, March 7, 2021. You are invited to the Arnold and Esther Tuzman Memorial Holocaust Teach-In featuring Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist, illustrator, and author of Maus. Mr. Spiegelman will discuss his art, comics as a medium, and Maus, the masterful Holocaust narrative that tells the story of his parents' survival and his experience as the child of survivors. The conversation will be facilitated by Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D., Gratz College Board of Governors. The Teach-In also offers a workshop led by Gratz faculty on teaching Maus. Register Today at www.gratz.edu/teach-in: General admission is $18.00. Fee waivers for financial hardship are available by request to mcohen@gratz.edu.
* The Jewish Studies program and the Center for Israel Studies at American University presents, “The Ravine: A Family, A Photograph, A Holocaust Massacre,” with author Wendy Lower. March 11, 11:20 am EST. Wendy Lower's extraordinary detective work identifies a Jewish family, their Nazi murderer and the photographer who caught the image. RSVP here.
Invitation from KBI to demonstrate on behalf of the Uyghurs. This year, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, members of Kehillat Beth Israel (KBI) demonstrated every weekday afternoon opposite the Chinese embassy on St. Patrick Street on behalf of the oppressed and
persecuted Uyghur population of China. At the conclusion of the week they decided to continue the demonstrations and protests on a weekly basis – they continue to meet and demonstrate one day a week, on Thursday afternoon. They have also reached out to other faith communities to join them in this stand and their numbers have grown over time.
The mistreatment of the Uyghurs, including forced labor and “re-education” camps, is reminiscent of the Jewish experience with concentration camps of the Second World War, in the opinion of campaign organizer Andre Brantz, which inspired him to start the protests in September. Since then, a committee of the Parliament of Canada has described the Uyghur persecution as a form of genocide.
This week, the Guardian newspaper published an article by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis: "As chief rabbi, I can no longer remain silent about the plight of the Uyhgurs." The subtitle is: "An unfathomable mass atrocity is being perpetrated in China. The responsibility for doing something lies with all of us."
(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/15/chief-rabbi-silent-plight-uighurs-atrocity-china)
We invite all members of the Ottawa Jewish community to join us on Thursday afternoons at 3 PM opposite the Chinese Embassy on St. Patrick Street. It is our hope and our prayer that this action, taken in conjunction with other political and economic actions, will raise awareness and will lead to the end of these atrocities.
