Dear Faculty Members,
It is time that the University of Toronto required an educational session for all faculty on the meaning and dangers of antisemitism, but most emphatically, it is time for the Board of UTFA to take a hard look at itself, identify the outliers who are antisemitic, replace them and require all future leaders of the association to be cognizant of the harm caused by Jew hatred.
In 2022, it is unconscionable for any academics to be so ignorant and biased as to deny all 4000 years of Jewish history in the land of Israel, to deny the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people every time that lies are spread engendering hate, and to be so arrogant as to lie about the need for identifying antisemitism using the international standard, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition. Until such time as UTFA adopts and implements IHRA, we assume that we will continue to see the outlandish bigotry on display by Jeff Bale and Terezia Zoric, who most certainly do not represent the best of the Canadian value of inclusion.
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation calls on UTFA to discipline those who display antisemitism in any way or express lies and disinformation about Israel and Zionism, which are disguises for antisemitism. The Jewish people have legal and historical rights in Israel and the expression of Zionism is exactly that--the belief in Jewish rights to our ancient homeland. Only in Israel, among all Middle East countries are the rights of all citizens equal under the law!
Education is said to be a first step to understanding hate and eliminating or preventing it, and clearly UTFA needs to introduce education to stop antisemitism.
Sincerely,
Andria Spindel
Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation