In the wake of the recent Hamas assaults in Israel, Shira Waldman, a member of the Jewish populace, has been on tenterhooks. Boasting deep-rooted ties to Israel through residency and close family connections, her apprehension reverberates palpably.
“Walking around with an internal burden heavily weighing down, our attention is unrelentingly tethered to the latest updates from Israel,” Waldman confides. For her, the issue hits close to home, cutting across friends, relatives, and her own personal experiences in the embattled land.
In light of the harrowing events, Ottawa law enforcement agencies have escalated security measures at synagogues, select schools, and other religious facilities. “The incidents in Israel have heightened potential threats to the local Jewish community,” Police Chief Eric Stubbs avows, while emphasizing the commitment to maintain the safety of all Ottawa inhabitants. The length of this heightened vigilance, however, remains undetermined.
Regardless of these efforts, Waldman reports pockets of rising unease amongst her kin. “We reached a decision to retain my twelfth-grade son at home following several threatening anti-Semitic messages that filled him with fear,” she sadly admits. Reflecting a deep-seated anxiousness, Waldman’s concerns turn towards their sanctuary—home. A supposed safe haven that suddenly feels anything but.
Undeterred by these unfortunate circumstances, Jewish leaders in the locality are urging unity. Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton, the Or Haneshamah synagogue leader, stands in the unenviable position of providing comfort amid the shared collective shock. “The dreadful realities we’re grappling with necessitates a different kind of leadership,” Bolton confesses, emphasizing the importance of cohesiveness and mutual consolation.
The overarching sentiment straddles between intense grief and fortitude, with leaders encouraging the wider community to stand firm in solidarity regardless of faith. It seems that in times of crisis, unity becomes the anchoring sentiment, the silent prayer for the bereaved, and the quiet mourning for the missing and injured.
Speaking on the situation, Andrea Freedman, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, articulates the terror that has reverberated across continents and into Ottawa’s populace. “Saturday’s Hamas orchestrated siege on the Jewish folk surpasses any form of verbal articulation,” Freedman recounts, mourning the loss of life, those missing, and the injured.
During a solidarity event on Monday hosted by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, leaders such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe stood alongside their community members. Over 1,400 attendees, brimming with shock and horror, congregated to process the atrocities witnessed, to grieve collectively, and to mourn the inhumanity experienced halfway across the globe.
