Reaching out to other communities

Written to The Canadian Jewish News in response to the article
“Jews, Somalis launch mentoring program,”
CJN, Nov. 6

I was pleasantly surprised and elated that the Jewish community in Toronto has reached out, in a tangible way, to a new and different community (“Jews, Somalis launch mentoring program,” CJN, Nov. 6).

For the past 12 years, Jewish Family Services (JFS) of Ottawa and the Somali Centre for Family Services have been working together. JFS and the Somali Centre built a relationship with the Carleton School of Social Work to identify and train nearly a dozen candidates from within the Somali community as social workers. They have since graduated and work within the Ottawa social service network.

We have also begun to work with other Ottawa ethnic communities to broaden diverse services in order to meet the needs of the Arabic-speaking, Chinese and Haitian communities, to name but a few. Currently, our JFS staff includes Arabs and Muslims who reach out to their communities and, at the same time, break down the animosity between Jews and Arabs.

Building relationships with all communities is of the utmost importance. The only way for the barriers built by prejudices and hatred to crumble away is by offering our assistance, expertise, experience and friendship as Jews.

Mark Zarecki
Executive Director
Jewish Family Services of Ottawa

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