Further to the name change of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region, to Congrès juif québécois, we should commend the CJC for exposing a wound within the Jewish community (“CJC Quebec Region changes its name,” CJN Montreal; “CJC changes its name in Quebec,” CJN Toronto, April 8). From the comments following the announcement of the new name, we see the divisions between the Sephardi (French-speaking, for) and Ashkenazi (English-speaking, against) groups. Thanks for bringing out this itch for us to scratch. Just what we needed in these very difficult times: internal conflict.
Sheila Mediena
Montreal
CJC Quebec name change (2)
As the daughter of Joseph Parnass, one of the founding members of the Canadian Jewish Congress (1909), I feel a duty to honour the memory of my father, whose belief it always was that CJC was representative of the strong and proud voice of all Canadian Jews, wherever they might live.
Times may change, but values should not. I was appalled to learn of the name change of Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region, to Congrès juif québécois, which I see as patronizing.
Helen Parnass Constantine
Montreal
Judge Seven Jewish Children for yourself
Within the Jewish community, public expressions of disagreement with the actions of the Israeli government strike a sensitive nerve, and indeed the play Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill offers just such a criticism (“Rex Murphy lays bare play’s moral inversion,” CJN, May 28).
The play is a visceral criticism of the actions of the Israeli government in undertaking an asymmetrical siege of Gaza that resulted in considerable “collateral damage.” Those of us who live in the Diaspora and who watched the extent of the devastation on television at very least must have questioned whether the Israeli strategy was worth the loss of life that occurred.
Beyond this legitimate question, the play compels the audience to weigh familial need, the need of Jewish parents to protect the interests of their children against the needs of another family, a Palestinian family. Psychologically, for the audience this “need to weigh” moves the play away from the political into the domain of the personal, and in so doing becomes an expression of the human tragedy, rather than an anti-Semitic polemic.
How often do we as parents use the familiar words “don’t tell” and “tell” when we try to deal with our own children? It is the repeated use of these words that establishes the emotional tension as the play moves inexorably towards its unhappy conclusion.
I would encourage people to watch the play or read the text on the Internet and to consider how the kind of thinking it presents regrettably is not far off how any parent might respond to both her child’s needs and her own. Use your own best judgment rather than trusting to ill-considered condemnations from community officials.
Gilbert Plaw
Westmount, Que.
People search (1)
I used to know one Ezra Moses, who immigrated to Canada from India some 30 years ago.The last I heard of him and his family, they were in Ontario, after moving from Montreal. They visited India in 2000, and before that in 1997. Moses worked at Warner Hindustan, a pharmaceutical company in Hyderabad. His wife’s name is Betty, and they have two daughters, Roneet and Karen. If you have any information about the family, please contact me.
Bobjee Kurien
3-5-807 Hyderguda
Hyderabad, India 500029
Telephone 040-2323-2170
[email protected]
People search (2)
I am researching my family history and am looking for people who have knowledge of my grandmother’s family. My grandmother, Sylvia Mendelson, was born in Toronto in 1911 to Mr. and Mrs. Max Mendelson. She married my grandfather, Saul Gelman, in 1934 in Chicago and lived in the United States until her death. If you have knowledge of my grandmother or her parents, please contact me at [email protected] or 647-344-0353.
Peter Burman
Toronto
