Now that the general election and the High Holidays are over, I’d like to voice my disappointment with Stephen Harper and his staff.

Though I’m an involved member of the Jewish community, I didn’t receive a Rosh Hashanah card from the prime minister. If my surname isn’t Jewish enough, my first name is, despite its idiosyncratic spelling. I even subscribe to Jewish publications, including this one.

Unlike some unaffiliated Jews who got a card, I wouldn’t have been upset about alleged ethnic profiling. Instead, I would have displayed the card on my mantel as a trophy to impress visitors and imply that the sender and I are close friends. But it was not to be.

My disappointment confuses me. Do I still live in the ghetto and, therefore, need those in power to patronize me? Or am I so integrated that I’ve no qualms about being singled out as a Jew for attention in high places?

I suspect the former, but I hope for the latter. I’d like to see myself as being as Canadian as possible under the circumstances, convinced that my Jewishness has no negative connotations whatsoever.

Perhaps I’m not the only one to be so confused. When Harper called leaders of Canadian Jewry to tell them that the election would be held on the first day of Sukkot, they seemed to have accepted his explanation without demur. Are they also in the ghetto and thus intimidated by power? Or are they so acculturated that they believe civic duty to come before Jewish observance?

They accepted the compromise of early voting. I, too, voted without violating my religious practices and cast my ballot in favour of a good friend who ran in my riding. He doesn’t send me Rosh Hashanah cards, either, by the way. Although my vote was in no way decisive, he was re-elected, and I’m pleased.

I’m probably being deprived of attention in high places because I’m not part of the circle that insiders describe as FRANs (friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbours). Unlike me, FRANtics did make it onto Harper’s Jewish list. This upsets me even more, for I thought that I was part of a recognized Jewish network and that people who matter would know about me.

I might have remained blissfully ignorant of all of this if reporter if not for a Globe and Mail article that cited indignant, marginal Jewish card recipients who apparently weren’t as anonymous as they had hoped.

I can’t judge the effect of the article on the Conservative party’s mailing list, but it has made me feel very unsettled, for it has challenged both my sense of Jewish identity and my ambition regarding my place in Canadian society.