Every Small Action Makes a Difference
Special Congratulations and Thanks to Randy Guzar, for having successfully won a 15 year battle to have his street renamed from Swastika Trail to Holly Trail.
On September 30th, 2022, the Council of the Township of Puslinch finally passed a motion, long called for by Randy and Audrey Guzar, as well as other residents, a few councillors and a host of Jewish organizations, including CAEF — to change the disliked, Nazi-associated name of their street. Mazel tov Randy and friends!
Every one CAN Make a Difference—Take Action
The European Lawyers for Israel (ELFI) organization has drafted a full report on the antisemitism problem on Twitter and is asking for everyone to sign their letter asking Twitter to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. Their request was forwarded to CAEF which immediately signed and shared this with other Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. Now, CAEF is inviting all to support this call to action.
Read this report, and the many examples of antisemitism found on Twitter, you’re your voice to demand Twitter update its anti-hate policies and adopt IHRA.
Global antisemitism is at an all-time high since WWII and Twitter is a host, as are other social media platforms, to a great deal of Jew hatred. If you are a member of an organization that is willing to sign, send your organization’s name and logo plus contact name and email, to Diana Krief, dianakrief@gmail.com.
Take a Look at this Jewish Hero
A reader came across an interesting, informative comic book, titled, Heroes Against Anti-Semitism, created right here in Toronto. It appears to be a product that may already be in the public school system but most certainly should be in the hands of young Jewish children.
A.Weiss Comics has made an open access comic book for Jewish kids to learn how to cope with anti-Semitism. Children can learn about their history and ways to deal with people who demonstrate anti-Semitic attitudes and behaviour towards them. Parents can use the comic to speak about the issue. Download the comic book Heroes Against Antisemitism for free.
To quote the company, “the goal is to give voice to real life stories through characters that represent the diversity of the peoples of the world. In the AWC universe, superheroes from all backgrounds work together to address issues facing us in schools, workplaces, and society, in general.
To read more and view the comic book, click here
An Open Letter to the Editor of the University of Vermont’s student paper, The Vermont Cynic, from Richard Sherman
This letter was written in response to an article published on September 26, 2022, written by reporter Andrew Gould, titled, “Local Advocacy Group Hosts Rally in Support of Palestine.” Noting Gould’s lack of knowledge of Middle East history, Richard Sherman, a regular contributor to CAEF Bulletin, and one who comments regularly on antisemitic diatribes and illiberal journalism declares it “mind-boggling”. Sherman’s letter presents strong facts generic to almost any argument against the lies about Israel so it is presented here in full. USE IT.
If, like many people we hear from, you want to defend Israel and fight antisemitism, but feel you don’t have facts and you aren’t sure of Israel’s history, and you don’t want to argue from a position of ignorance, and you are asking: where do I get started? Then start here. Read these few facts and commit them to memory.
1. In recorded history there has never been a country called Palestine.
It was a Roman designation of an area, not a country, a designation designed to obliterate 2000 years of indigenous Jewish culture. For nearly one thousand years up until World War I the name "Palestine" did not appear on any map. There was the British Mandate for Palestine (1920-1948) -- a trust, not a country.
On November 30, 1947 the Arabs of Mandatory Palestine rejected an independent state of when it was offered on that proverbial silver platter by the United Nations General Assembly. Their leader, Nazi war criminal the Grand Mufti Amin al- Husseini, when he rejected “Palestine” simultaneously commanded the Arabs to "Murder the Jews. Murder all of them". Since then the Arabs have -- to use the Grand Mufti's terminology -- murdered over 27,000 Jews.
The Arabs have also proceeded to expressly reject an independent state, under any name, in 1948, 1967, 1994, 2000, 2008, 2019 and 2020. The Palestinian Authority does not rule a country and is not a country.
2. There is no occupied Palestinian territory
Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, an international treaty that all 193 members are required to obey, declares all of what is Israel including the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and all of Jerusalem is to be the reconstituted homeland of the Jewish people recognizing the Jewish people's 4000 year indigenous presence on the land and thereby declaring the land sovereign Jewish territory. Article 80 recognizes the provisions of the British Mandate, the San Remo Agreement of 1920 and the League of Nations Resolution of 1922, as establishing a Jewish homeland on the land in question. As an international treaty Article 80 supersedes any resolution of the General Assembly or Security Council that may conflict with it. To put it simply one cannot "occupy" one's own sovereign territory.
3. To call Israel an "apartheid state" is to wallow in antisemitic myopia
South African Klaas Mokomole, head coordinator of Africans for Peace and a former BDS activist says: "Israel is not a settler state. The Jewish population is indigenous to Israel and are the descendants of refugees who were cast out centuries ago. It is irreconcilable how one considers the original inhabitants returning to their ancestral homelands participating in a settler colonial project,” and he stated, “I'm South African. Calling Israel 'Apartheid' puts the BS in BDS", (Jewish News of Northern California, 4/22/22).
The reality of South African apartheid is well known, notwithstanding the obfuscation of documented antisemitic "human rights groups" such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Israel’s ethnic democracy bears no resemblance to South African apartheid. South African Rev. Kenneth Meshoe, president of the African Christian Democratic Party, recently said: “Those who know what real apartheid is, as I, know that there is nothing in Israel that looks like apartheid.” He added that calling Israel an apartheid state is an “empty political statement that does not hold (any) truth.” Further, anyone who is not antisemitic understands that a foundational linchpin of South African apartheid was zero upward mobility for Blacks.
Since 2019 the CEO of Bank Leumi the largest bank in Israel, has been an Arab, Samer Haj- Yehia. Under South African apartheid, if a black stepped into a "white" bank for any reason, he or she was immediately arrested and imprisoned. An Arab, Khaled Kabub, is a justice on Israel’s Supreme Court. He replaced another Arab, George Karra. The medical professions in Israel are overrepresented by Arabs in terms of their percentage of the population. Academia in Israel includes many Arab professors and administrators.
Finally, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela in 1997 accepted an honorary doctorate fromIsrael’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev. No rational person would believe that Mandela would have accepted such recognition from an apartheid state. Further in 1993 Nelson Mandela said: "We recognize the legitimacy of Zionism as Jewish nationalism".
Virtue signaling about "Israeli apartheid" may make progressive anti-semites ( antisemitic progressives?) feel good, but it is ahistorical balderdash -- as Nelson Mandela understood -- in the perverse tradition of The Nuremberg Laws.
4. Zionism is 4000 years old and represents the Jewish people's aspiration for self -determination
Zionism as expressed in the Jewish Bible aka the Old Testament, has ONE foundational narrative: the Jewish people's Return to Zion -- which today is Israel. At every Passover Seder for thousands of years Jews have stood up and prayed "Next Year in Jerusalem!" Jerusalem is mentioned 659 times in the Jewish Bible. The bottom line is that to be anti Zionist is to oppose every word of the Jewish Bible, the only foundational source of Judaism that the Jewish people have.
5. Students for Justice in Palestine(SJP) are the amoral equivalent of Joseph Goebbels and his Brown Shirts
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)is not another campus affinity group like the UVM garden club. There is only one group that SJP has an affinity with: Joseph Goebbels and his Brown Shirts. Students for Justice in Palestine(SJP) is a documented front group for Hamas and nothing more. SJP was created in 2000 by Hamas supporter Hatem Bazian and pro Hamas activist Swehai Shingavi to wage a campus war against Israel on behalf of Hamas. Also, Hamas is the most significant financial supporter of SJP through American Muslims for Palestine(AMP) -- also established by Hatem Bazian in 2005. What is most important for all Jewish students, faculty and administrators at UVM to remember is that Hamas is an antisemitic genocidal organization. Article 7 of the Hamas charter which has never been revoked requires every member and supporter of Hamas -- which includes every member of UVM SJP -- to murder every Jew on earth. Neither Israel nor Zionists are mentioned in Article 7.
SJP is not some benign student affinity group notwithstanding any public relations "social justice" or "human rights" pablum it may issue to obfuscate its purpose. As a documented front group for Hamas, it exists solely to promote Hamas' antisemitic genocidal agenda in university communities such as in Burlington.. As such it presents a clear and present danger to all Jewish students, faculty and administrators at UVM.
Now you have the truth. You can report it when appropriate or you can continue to wallow in antisemitic ahistorical balderdash. It is your choice.
Richard Sherman is a lawyer and English major who can’t abide the misleading, biased, antisemitic writings and campaigns that play out every day on campuses across the US, in student newspapers, clubs, classes, and texts.
UC Berkeley Student Groups Go Woke, Vote to Cancel Jews
WHY RISE UP OTTAWA?
Over the past year, Jewish students, teachers, and families in the Ottawa-Carlton District School Board have experienced an unprecedented increase of hate. The fact that antisemitism is happening in our schools CANNOT BE IGNORED. Jewish children as young as 4 years old are being harassed, threatened, and attacked simply for being Jewish. Children and teachers are hiding their Jewish identity - while being told we are entitled and lucky.
The Jewish people, representing less than than 2% of Canada’s population.
The lucky ones who lost 6,000,000 in the Holocaust while survivors were relentlessly tortured like animals
The ones who are consistently breaking records for experiencing the most hate crimes
We are the problem? HATE has no place in education...how has antisemitism become so normalized in schools?
Over the past year, hundreds of brave Jewish community members have spoken up. Children are making themselves even bigger targets when begging for help against the hate they’re experiencing, and yet nothing is changing. This is NOT OKAY. For a traumatized Jewish child to be told by professional leaders in the field of education whose primary responsibility is to keep students safe, “please be patient, I’m on a learning journey” is shameful.
This has now become a choice. A choice to allow this hateful, inaccurate, segregated bullying to continue or to challenge the false narratives being indoctrinated into children and educators about Jews and Israel which are appalling!
RISE UP OTTAWA will address this dire need for education within our Jewish community. You’ll be shocked by the stories, but this is precisely why YOU MUST attend. With fewer Holocaust Survivors than ever before, WE are the next generation. We have a responsibility to uphold…and we are failing. It is your right and your responsibility to be informed.
At RISE UP OTTAWA, we will learn how to combat antisemitism and rejoice together to celebrate our Jewish identity because we belong. EVERYWHERE.
JOIN US IN OTTAWA, NOVEMBER 6TH, INFINITY CENTRE,
1:00PM - 6:00PM
Rise Up Ottawa is a collaborative venture presented by Ottawa Against Antisemitism, End Jew Hatred, The Lawfare Project and Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, with support from many organizations, donors, and volunteers.