Focus on Fitness: My first foray to the gym since the pandemic shutdown

By Gloria Schwartz

I did it! I returned to the gym for the first time in four-and-a-half months, and I felt so happy I almost cried. The sense of normalcy was overwhelming. Many Ottawa gyms reopened in mid-July. The big box gym (Movati) where I work out only reopened at the end of July. Hav…

Modern Mishpocha: On teaching our children

By Rabbi Dara Lithwick

We have just passed a turning point in the Jewish calendar. Last week, July 29/30, marked Tisha B’Av, the sombre holiday that mourns the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. Last year in a piece that I…

From the Pulpit: Experiencing the emotions of Tisha B’Av in pandemic times

By Rabbi Daniel Mikelberg, Temple Israel of Ottawa

“O how has the city that was once so populous remained lonely! She has become like a widow! She that was great among the nations, a princess among the provinces, has become tributary. She weeps, yea, she weeps in the night, and her tears …

Guest Column: ‘I hope to keep making you proud’

When the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation held its annual general meeting online on June 4, it was announced that Carleton University journalism student Shaked Karabelnicoff is this year’s recipient of the George Joseph Cooper Scholarship.

By Shaked Karabelnicoff

It is with sincere gra…

From the Editor: From Charlotte Whitton and Lionel Groulx to Oscar Peterson

By Michael Regenstreif, Editor

In the spring of 2011, the City of Ottawa cancelled plans to honour Charlotte Whitton by naming the city’s new archives facility for the first woman in Canada to serve as the mayor of a major city. Whitton was Ottawa’s mayor from 1951 until 1956 and again …