June is Pride Month, Every Month is Jewish Pride Month
Lately, many Jews are feeling we stand alone, and often that is the case. End Jew Hatred Canada is reaching out to Jews and non-Jews to stand together. Jews have supported every progressive movement and now we want the same—unity! We must stand with our allies against hatred, but we won’t subjugate Jewish pride, Jewish rights or Jewish liberty to any cause. The image below (an updated version of the original lines from Pastor Neimoller, post WWII, was sent to CAEF in black and white and we show it knowing and being able to acknowledge the source, which we thank. We have added the colours to celebrate Pride Month.
Discrimination against LGBTQ Jews has been evident in progressive movements for a long time. It happened in Toronto for several years at the Pride Parade, where lies about Israel and Nazi symbols were present in the parade. This year an ad posted by the Chicago Dyke March for Pride depicted two burning flags, one American and one Israeli with a woman holding both atop messages of defund police and anti-Black racism—totally despicable. A Wider Bridge, the largest national Jewish LGBTQ organization produced a new version of their flag and posted it with this message #refusetochoose. One can celebrate being gay and being Jewish, no one need deny a part of his or her identity. Read below.
“During Pride rallies and marches, we at A Wider Bridge have proudly used a rainbow pride flag with a white Star of David. The pride flag has evolved to include inclusive colors. We didn’t want just to add on those missing colors and the star in a way that they could be removed, either practically and symbolically. So, we came up with our new inclusive Jewish pride flag. The original pride flag, the inclusive colors, and the star each stand for inseparable parts of our identities.
We cannot allow one to be removed just as we won’t be excluded from either the LGBTQ community or the Jewish community. For A Wider Bridge, our support for Israel is central to our Jewish identity and our LGBTQ identity.
We believe that when one part of the community is excluded, we are all left weaker and less vibrant. Doing so contradicts the very idea of inclusivity. We refuse to choose.
We refuse to prioritize and rank the multifaceted components of our identities. Here is our new flag, and we invite you to wave it proudly with us.” #WeRefuseToChoose
Irwin Cotler addressed Canadians and Americans
CAEF was the event sponsor for the Open University Israel’s webinar on June 17th featuring a dialogue with Canada’s Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, In Pursuit of Global Justice.
We are pleased to share the recording with you and encourage you to share it.
Be Safe, Take Security Measures with Tips from the Experts
CAEF presented up to date information in a virtual program on Security Challenges for Jews Today with 3 leading experts. Watch the video and share with family and friends.
Take Action
On June 3rd CAEF hosted Dr. Charles Jacobs in a webinar entitled, The Failure of Jewish Leadership: What is to be done about it. He invited people to join his roundtable to learn what can be done and to become engaged. CAEF has studied his 10 point plan and offers a review of points we are already addressing, and we offer the full plan of Americans for Peace and Tolerance below, and an invitation to take action to address the issues, strengthen Jewish leadership, combat Jew-hatred.
Entitled, New Strategies for Jewish Leaders in a Time of Surging Jew-Hatred, this 10 point program invites discussion and you can participate. Read the full document here.
Here are some of the points that CAEF is already addressing;
Declare a state of urgency - the Jewish community of Canada has declared the emergency and we await word on the Emergency Summit on Antisemitism that the Federal Government has promised. CAEF is seeking a seat at the table.
Increase physical securityto protect the community - CAEF presented a webinar on Security Challenges for the Jews, this week and next week, we feature Rabbi Cary Kozberg on Jewish Ethics on Self-Defense.
Educate the community and the public about the nature and sources of Jew-hatred – CAEF has initiated End Jew Hatred and along with our ongoing programs and advocacy, we are educating Jews and non-Jews about right wing, leftist and Islamist Jew-hatred.
Expose and counter the threat of importing genocidal Jew-hatred from certain cultures. The major source of anti-Jewish hatred which is in the form of demonizing Israel, denying her right to exist, blaming Jews for every evil and campaigning to destroy Israel comes from Muslim countries. It is NOT anti-Muslim bigotry to know this fact.
PLEASE NOTE, in the last issue of the CAEF Bulletin, we offered a list of organizations addressing antisemitism, providing important resource information in defending and supporting Israel and combating lies. It was meant as a short list only and will be added to our website for reference. We erred in not including Americans for Peace and Tolerance and Americans for a Safe Israel. We will continue to add organizations, and you are welcome to send suggestions.
Mainstreaming Antisemitism and How We Respond
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) representative Avi Mayer, Communications Manager spoke June 8, 2021 at the Virtual Global Forum 2021 and moderated a panel with Bret Stephens, Op Ed Columnist, The New York Times, Bari Weiss, Journalist and Author of How to Fight Antisemitism and Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, Director of AJC Europe. There views on rising Jew hatred and what to do about it are instructive.
A Reader Writes to Demand Canada Ban Hate Symbols
(Letter sent to Prime Minister Trudeau)
Germany - a country that very well knows the consequences of hate incitement has banned both of HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH’s flags.
“Too long have they been featured on Canadian soil. Following the many attacks against Jews and Jewish infrastructure in the past six weeks - accompanied by racist, Jew-hate-filled diatribes, tropes, hurtful, abusive language levelled against Jews - adults and children - banning flags of terror organizations should be one immediate remedy. We have been asking for this for close to a decade.
Add to that ban any other that contravene the IHRA protocols. This includes all signage comparing Israel to Nazis and Apartheid regimes / calling for BDS; signs and calls that “Hitler didn’t finish the job but we will”; "Jews to the gas"; "Jews to the ovens”.
THIS IS SO HURTFUL, and terrifying!!!! Many Jews - across the country - are now living in constant fear and dread.
Stop it now. It has all now gone much, much too far.
PLEASE BAN the TERROR GROUPS’ HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH’s (swastikas, Nazi logos, ISIS, Taliban and any other such) FLAGS and symbols IN CANADA.”
Is there No End to Crazy Accusations Against the Jews?
Image from Investigative Project on Terrorism, depicts what is happening globally.
This image is from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, featuring an article by internationally renowned feminist, psychologist, professor, Jewish advocate, spokeperson and author Phyllis Chesler, entitled: Baseless Israel Bashing Permeates Science, Medicine, and Education Unions. The article was first published in The Algemeiner, June 16th, 2021 and has since appeared in a number of publications.
It would be factually incorrect to state that it is hard to imagine that science and engineering faculties might put a stake in the ground as antisemites, while we are used to these views from social sciences, humanities, courses with “Studies” as named disciplines especially Middle East, Islamic, Gender and Feminist Studies in recent years. But we are no longer incredulous. Just as the earth circles the sun, so it was to be expected that some scientists would vacate science, join the ranks of academic heretics and spread vile lies about Israel. The antisemitism industry knows no bounds and invents new tropes daily, recycles old ones and spreads bigotry and lies with abandon. Would that these serious academics would now loudly proclaim, the Earth does not circulate the Sun!!
Note: Recently the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, another “science-oriented,” “evidence-based” program is host to radical elements condemning Israel. CAEF is concerned about recent reports from Jewish students about rabid anti-Israel/hateful antisemitic messages on social media from Muslim medical students during and since the Hamas-Israel war. The university has since appointed Dr. Ayelet Kuper as Senior Advisor on Antisemitism, while she is also a member of the university’s Working Group on Antisemitism. The university has yet to provide a progress report, a date for the working group to report or expectations about its role in making recommendations.
The story of antisemitism at the Faculty of Medicine includes a 1000 person petition defending Dr. Ritika Goel whose recent appointment was objected to by Jewish faculty and students who found her barrage of antisemitic social media postings to be reason enough to have her removed as Social Justice, Anti-Oppression and Advocacy Theme Lead for the doctor of medicine and postgraduate medical education programs at U of T. The petition argues that criticism of Israel, (read defaming and demonizing) is not antisemitic. This story, along with other reports of antisemitic acts, rhetoric, and discrimination at U of T, require action a lot faster that we are seeing from the Working Group on Antisemitism or the administration.
Read CJN report of June 2, 2021 by Ron Csillag
The New Refuseniks, the Club Z Youth Leaders
In an article by Izabella Tabarovsky, fit for Jewish Pride, published in Tablet Magazine June 20th, 2021, 17 year old Jennifer Karlan, who has been featured before in the CAEF Bulletin, is quoted as saying: “Today, they no longer say they hate the Jew; today they say they hate Zionists. Today they no longer say they hate the Jewish people; they say they hate the Zionist entity. But the hate is the same.” Some 2000 people attended the United Against Terrorism rally in Beverly Hills and heard from this young woman that Zionism and Judaism are part of her identity, “Israel is not just the name of the land; it is the name of our people. We are the people of Israel, each and every one of us: Am Yisrael Chai.”
Be inspired by Jennifer, read the story here
As a Jew…..Can One be Antisemitic?
By Dr. Steven Stein, Toronto Psychologist
Are the Jews who are Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionist, or Support Hamas Antisemitic?
Jews who speak against Israel’s right to exist, not just certain policies or behaviors – or against Zionism in general, have often been referred to as “self-hating Jews.” We prefer the term “un-Jews,” as proposed by Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy^. While these Jews often do hate other Jews, they seldom hate themselves. Also, they dissociate themselves from some of the basic tenets of Judaism.
Sharansky and Troy coined “un-Jews” to describe the anti-Zionists who believe the only way to fulfill the Jewish mission of saving the world with Jewish values is to undo the ways most actual Jews do Jewishness. They are not ex-Jews or non-Jews, because many of them are and remain deeply involved Jewishly, despite their harsh dissent.
Many un-Jews are active in forms of Jewish leadership, running Jewish studies departments, speaking from rabbinic pulpits, hosting Shabbat dinners. For many of these un-Jews, the public and communal staging of their anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist beliefs appears to be the badge of a superior form of Judaism, stripped of its unsavory and unethical “ethnocentric” and “colonialist” baggage.
They see themselves as the saviors of the downtrodden. Not just any downtrodden – not the Syrians, Chechnyans, Uyghurs, Yemeni, Iraqi, Iranians, and millions of others being slaughtered in today’s world. Just the “Palestinians” and only against Israel and the “other,” “mainstream,” or “establishment” Jews.
These un-Jews do not respond to logic or emotion. They steadfastly identify with the enemies or want-to-be-oppressors of the Jews. These same Jews existed during the emergence of Nazi Germany in the mid-1930’s and the Russian communist revolution. They did not care about, and even turned against, other innocent Jews.
In pre-World War II Germany, some of these Jews agreed with much of the nationalistic platform of the Nazi party, choosing to ignore the antisemitism, or not take it seriously. Others just wanted to go along to get along. And still others identified with some of the criticisms of their fellow Jews. In some perverse way, they felt that this would absolve themselves of the guilt they carried as having been born into the “out” group.
By identifying with the (want to be) oppressor or hater, and rejecting some of the basic tenets of Judaism, today’s un-Jews believe they are on the side of social justice, or moral superiority. They support the oppressors of average Palestinian Arabs, as they support genocidal Islamist terrorists, such as Hamas whose charter calls for destroying Israel and killing Jews globally.
In their mind morality is a one-way street. The powerful, white, privileged Jews are, in their minds, clearly on the wrong side. For them, being a “freedom fighting” terrorist, killing innocent civilians, can be justified. It would seem that they have never actually read the Hamas charter nor the founding documents of the BDS movement. It is possible to be pro the Palestinian people without being anti-Israel. A survey of Arab Israelis found that 86% of them would rather live in Israel than in any Islamic state (e.g., Hamas run Gaza)*.
The irony, of course, is that these passionate haters of Israel, claiming it is a “colonial project” seem to have no problem living in Canada whose history of real colonialism is much more tragic. The history of the indigenous people in Canada could present them with a more righteous cause to champion, but they remain obsessed with hating Israel, and thus hating Jews, remaining ignorant of Jewish indigenity, and history.
*Shaalan, H. (2015, 02 22). 86% of Israeli Arabs oppose Islamic State. Retrieved from Ynetnews.com.
^Sharansky, Natan & Troy, Gil (June 16, 2021) The Un-Jews: The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood
Time to expose Muslim anti-Semitism—the primary cause of rising Jew-hatred
FLAME (Facts and Logic About the Middle East) has for over 25 years brought the truth about Israel and the Middle East conflict to the attention of an American public that is mostly uninformed and misinformed about these matters. The media — both print and broadcast — are with few exceptions biased against Israel.
FLAME‘s purpose is:
“. . . the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world.”
We value Muslim allies in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry but CAEF does not shy away from sharing the truth. The article below by Jim Sinkinson, President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME), published on line, June 22, 2021 provides data and analysis that cannot be dismissed.
“With anti-Semitism at record highs in the U.S. and around the world, many prefer to focus purely on right-wing and neo-Nazi hatred against Jews, rather than on the larger problem: Hatred of Jews and the Jewish state in the Arab and Muslim world, home to a population of hundreds of millions.
Unfortunately for the truth, the intersectionalist left is quick to oppose factual evidence of widespread Muslim anti-Semitism, using accusations of Islamophobia. Indeed, many on the left dismiss racism on the part of “oppressed people of color” as an impossibility—a philosophical contradiction.
Yet the increase in anti-Semitic attacks against Jews worldwide—especially those associated with attacks against Israel and its supporters—is disproportionately driven by Muslims.
Hate crimes against Jews in the U.S. spiked to 222 during the two-weeks of fighting in May between Hamas and Israel (compared with 127 in the previous two weeks). This increase has been uniformly attributed to pro-Palestinian supporters: As Anti-Defamation League (ADL) president Jonathan Greenblatt noted, “no one was wearing MAGA hats,” referring to the pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Hate crimes against Jews in the U.S. had already increased by 14% in 2019. The incidence of anti-Semitism is by far the greatest of all U.S. religion-based hate crimes, though Jews make up only 2.4% of the population.”
Expressing Jewish Uniqueness and Jewish Pride
Whether one is religious or secular, left or right politically, young or old, “as a Jew” this presentation posted on AISH, quoting extensively from the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, will we hope help you feel Jewish pride