Our Mission Statement
The Jewish Youth Library of Ottawa strives to enhance the quality of life amongst all segments of the community and to eliminate exclusion by promoting inclusion and understanding.
The Jewish Youth Library (JYL), an incorporated, non-profit, registered charitable organization, was established in 1983 in order to promote excellence in education, literacy, heritage, culture and inclusion. The JYL offers a wide variety of non-sectarian programs, including educational courses, workshops and recreational programming for all segments of the community and not for profit sector.
The Jewish Youth Library understands that an appreciation for diversity is gained through an understanding and practice of different cultures, customs, rituals, history and teachings. Its raison d'etre is to foster that understanding to ensure a community of inclusion in Ottawa for years to come.
The Jewish Youth Library maintains a library according to the needs of the Jewish and general communities, serving all segments of the Ottawa community.
The library's large selection of over ten thousand books range in topics and consists of children's books, Jewish novels, cookbooks, and books on Torah learning, to name a few. The library's glass door bookcase, dedicated in honour of Ottawa's Cantor Kraus, is lined with a large selection of biographies, history books and historical novels on the Holocaust. We continue to expand our repertoire of books and encourage new book suggestions in our library's book suggestion box.