Ottawan shares fears for family in Ukraine

Worrying about her family in Ukraine, Ottawan Olga Streltchenko starts each day calling family members to make sure they are all accounted for. Among them are her cousin in Kyiv whose family sleeps in their basement, and her elderly uncle who is too frail to get to the bomb shelter. None of …

CHES: Committing to assist a family trapped in Afghanistan

By Sheila Hurtig Robertson

Photo: Sophia Mirzayee

Most Canadians do not know any Afghanis. We are, however, all too familiar with their country’s ongoing tragedies, including the current humanitarian catastrophe, which is well catalogued by the world’s media and social agencies. As the…

Jewish Olympian goes from Ottawa hockey to playing for China

Community member and hockey aficionado Irv Osterer shares the unusual tale of how a Jewish Olympian, who’s first international hockey experience was in Ottawa, ended up playing for China in the recent Beijing Games.

When the National Hockey League decided to withdraw from the Beijing Olym…

Painful symbols on our city streets; Learn how Federation responded

By David Sachs

These are difficult times for the Jewish community.

Just three weeks ago, we were traumatized by the synagogue hostage-taking in Texas. Two weeks ago, no sooner did we finish the mourner's kaddish at Ottawa's International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony than we watched o…

A bright future for Jewish life in the UAE

By Tamara Fathi and Amichai Wise

In mid-November, we had the immense privilege to travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a cultural bridge-building delegation of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) Jewish Diplomatic Corps. The WJC Jewish Diplomatic Corps is the flagship program of…