FlickrCC / David Paul Ohmer

A couple of months back a Canadian rabbi wrote to me objecting, in friendly but strong language, that Tikkun magazine was ignoring Canada. I had no doubt he was right. The U.S. is nothing if not U.S.-centric, and that infects even those of us who are campaigning for a Global Marshall Plan and a U.S. foreign policy based on generosity not domination. We can all use our friends to point out our shortcomings.

So I invited the rabbi to provide a Canadian perspective on our upcoming blog.

Reb Arie has posted frequently and told us surprising things: that “The plot of WALL*E seems to come from Breshit – Genesis 6, the chapter in which Noah is introduced,” or that “Social justice by Jews in Canada is not a well-established activity.” Reb Arie’s voice is passionate and hard to classify: he appears to be truly an independent.

The Canadian perspective shines in some of Reb Arie’s comments on other posts. Of the struggle to get universal health care he writes, “It absolutely astounds me that Americans have been willing to put up with this — this conversation has not changed in all my adult years. I’ll never forget the first time I paid for a physician in my entire life — and also the last (other than for certain incidentals): I was living in Brooklyn…” He finishes, “America, it seems to me, is the land of the free only if you can afford it.”

As he wrote when introducing himself in his first post: “Can one be modern, liberal, and deeply traditional? Stay tuned to my posts at Tikkun Daily and find out. I’ll discuss that, and also other issues as they arise, in particular issues about Canada and Canadian Jews.”

What I would like to know is how a prophetic challenge to recreate the world as a place where people truly care for each other and for all living beings translates in the Canadian context: is all that too utopian for the folks in the True North Strong & Free, or do Canadians not pride themselves on caring more for each other and the poor of the world than their louder neighbors do?

LATER: Had to run home and make the dinner, and didn’t manage to add an important Canadian link for all supporters of Tikkun. This is the Tikkun Toronto site. They include a fascinating sections of their members’ stories about Israel here. They gave us transcripts which we had on our web site as part of our “Israel at 60” issue a year ago, but which were lost in our website meltdown earlier this year. I will try to rescue them but am a little taken up with this blog at the moment.