Federation Report: Let’s unite virtually and build a stronger community

By Lyon and Cybele Hamburg – Co-Chairs – Annual Campaign event

Without question, it is fair to say that the Jewish Federation of Ottawa Annual Campaign event this year being restructured into a virtual mid-Campaign format brings to mind a plethora of feelings and thoughts that have li…

Ideas and Impressions: The October Crisis – 50 years later

By Jason Moscovitz

It was 50 years ago this month that Canada was reeling from the October Crisis. By any historic measure, the use of the word “crisis” was not a stretch. When the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British diplomat James Cross, and then kidnapped and murde…

Focus on Fitness: Your outdoor mini-workout with a tree

By Gloria Schwartz

If you’re going stir-crazy from all the time you’re spending at home, I’ve put together a series of exercises that you can do outdoors. Find a tree and you’re good to go. You can do these in your backyard, a park or in the woods. Enjoy the autumn leaves before the…

From the Pulpit: ‘He will take care of us’

By Rabbi Gavriel Rudin, Young Israel of Ottawa

As I sit, right after Yom Kippur, with a full stomach and a full mind, I look back at everything it took to get here. It has been an exhausting month of preparation, planning and constantly adjusting to ensure that the High Holiday needs of all…

Guest Column: What Yom Kippur and the Book of Jonah means to me this year

By Mayim Bialik

(JTA) – Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. After a year unlike any we could have anticipated, I have been waiting for this day, not for atonement so much as a reset.

Jewish tradition teaches us that our fate for the year ahead is sealed on Yom Kippur – and our Book of Li…