Diana Cohen Reiss to receive George Joseph Cooper Scholarship – May 19, 2008

Published in:  The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin
Written by:  Michael Regenstreif

Diana Cohen Reiss will receive the George Joseph Cooper Scholarship from the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation. The award, valued at $15,704, is given to a person between 18 and 30 “ who has displayed leadership qualities, academic excellence, and an interest in the Jewish community.”

Reiss, 24, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Ottawa working with both the Department of Sociology and the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program. Her dissertation will examine Jewish immigration in Ottawa. Reiss’s 2007 MA thesis at uOttawa examined immigration of Jews from France to Montreal.

Reiss, was born in France, the daughter of Portuguese Jews then living there, and spent parts of childhood in both France and Canada. She later returned to France for studies spending two years at Université Paris Sorbonne.

While studying in Paris, Reiss says she was exposed to the anti-Semitism that has driven many French Jews to leave the country in recent years. “The synagogue and Jewish day school I attended as a child were both burned to the ground by Molotov cocktails,” and “I was badly attacked in an attempted rape because I was wearing a Star of David,” she wrote in her application for the scholarship.

In an interview with the Bulletin, Reiss attributed that anti-Semitism in France to the disaffection of North African youths who have not integrated well into French society. “Jews who fled extremism in North African countries are now facing it again,” she said.

Reiss cited the case of Ilan Halimi, a young French Jewish man who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 2006, saying “families are scared for their children.” Compared to France, where “the rabbi told us not to dress Orthodox,” Reiss says that she “feels at home as a Jew living in Ottawa.”

In Ottawa Reiss is active in B’nai Brith Canada, the Young Adult Division of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Maimonides Leadership Program and JSA-Hillel.  Reiss will receive the scholarship at the annual general meeting of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation on Wednesday, June 4, 8:00 pm, at the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building at 21 Nadolny Sachs Private.