Shushan, China, Somaliland, and more | CAEF Bulletin, Feb 27, 2026
- CAEF
- Feb 27
- 11 min read
Chag Purim Sameach
Earthquake Strikes Ancient Shushan, Persia
See article in Recommended Reading Section.
The Esther Trap
by Sam Goldstein, CAEF Board member
As Jews around the world mark Purim this March, roughly 2,800 years after the events it commemorates, it is worth asking whether the political lesson many Jews draw from the story still holds. The uncomfortable answer is that it does not.
Purim tells the story of salvation through proximity to power. In the 5th century BCE, in what is now Iran, the Persian King Achashverosh took a Jewish woman, Esther, as his bride. Her uncle Mordecai encouraged the marriage after recognizing what it represented: access.
Esther’s presence in the palace proved decisive. When Haman, the King’s prime minister, issued a decree to exterminate the Jews, Esther used her influence to expose and reverse the genocidal policy. The Jewish people were saved because one of their own stood next to the throne.
The moral seems straightforward: if the Jewish community has one of its own positioned near the centre of power, that person will protect the community. Keep our heads down. Stay close to the ruler. Let the insider do the work.
For centuries, that lesson made sense. Jews were a vulnerable minority living at the pleasure of monarchs, emperors, and autocrats. Access and personal influence mattered enormously. Survival often depended on a single adviser or intermediary who could whisper into the ruler’s ear at the right moment.
But Canada in 2026 is not the Persian Empire. It is not the medieval court of Louis X of France, the Republic of Venice, or the palace of Tsar Alexander III. Parliamentary democracy does not operate the way the Book of Esther assumes.
Legal Update
On February 18, 2026, the BC Human Rights Tribunal issued its decision in Chiliwack Teachers' Association v. Neufeld 2026 BCHRT 49. In this ruling, the Tribunal awarded $750,000 in class damages against a former school trustee in British Columbia who published statements the Tribunal determined to be hateful of LGBTQ people. CAEF is studying the Tribunal's reasoning for this decision in detail, and notes that it provides ample grounds for similar legal processes against residents of British Columbia who have published statements hateful of Jews and/or Israeli Canadians. CAEF is calling for Canadians who have received such messages to come forward. Confidentiality is assured.
CAEF Announces New Initiative—Fighting Back
To Jewish and Israeli Canadian Residents in BC:
Do you feel victimized by hateful publications?
It’s Time to Fight Back: You Have a Remedy!
Section 7(1)(b) of the British Columbia Human Rights Code states:
7 (1) A person must not publish, issue or display, or cause to be published, issued or displayed, any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that
(a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a group or class of persons, or
(b) is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred or contempt
because of the… race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion … of that person or that group or class of persons.
Class Actions and Monetary Damages are Available.
Recent Class Action Award: $750,000
Contact: Andria Spindel, Executive Director andria@caef.ca
R. v. Leslie Bory -- Ontario Hate Speech Case Appeal to Court of Appeal for Ontario
In March 2025, Leslie Bory was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment upon conviction of advocating genocide, willful of hatred and uttering threats against the Jewish community. He served 23 months in pre-trial custody for which he received 34 months credit, and which Superior Court Justice James Ramsay deemed to be three years.
The Crown is appealing the sentence to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, with Bory cross-appealing. At the sentencing hearing, the Crown sought an overall 7 year sentence for the offences.
Watch for further updates.
Antisemitism in China and Yiddish in China
Members of CAEF had the pleasure of spending time with Dr. Meng Yang, Assistant Professor at Peking University, Beijing, China, who spoke about her teaching of Jewish Civilization and Yiddish language in China, as well as her research on antisemitism in China and in the global Chinese diaspora.
Dr. Yang is the founder of China’s most influential course on Jewish civilization, which attracts over 800 students per semester, and the creator of the country’s first university-level Yiddish course. In her presentations, she argues that the Chinese case provides a distinctive lens for rethinking global antisemitism and examining how antisemitic narratives circulate beyond their traditional historical contexts.
More Resources for Black Jewish History Month
Following up on the CAEF Special Bulletin issued February (Jay insert date), CAEF offers more resources.
Tune in to Rivka Campbell to learn about Jews of Colour.
Rivka “Rivkush” Campbell, a Jew of Jamaican descent, is one of Canada’s most vocal Jews of colour. But something bothers her: too often, JOCs are pigeonholed into only speaking—or only being asked—about matters of race, racism and identity politics. In reality, JOCs have unique perspectives on issues that pertain to all of Jewry.
Watch interview on YouTube with Tali Aynalem, an Israeli of Ethiopian heritage, living in America, talking about her service in the IDF and the reality of life in Israel.
National Commitments to Combating Antisemitism
Read the Canadian Government’s Report on Combating Antisemitism and the critique by Mark Sandler, Chair of ALCCA, Alliance of Canadians Combating Antisemitism.
CIJA’s Submission to Parliamentary Study of Canada’s immigration system
There is much discussion in Canada today, at all levels of government about the policies and processes for accepting migrants into this country. There are implications for the Jewish community. Where are immigrants coming from? What are their attitudes, ideologies, experiences that potentially impact Jews in the diaspora? What has been the experience of recent waves of immigration? CAEF considers it an important conversation in the community.
We are sharing the submission to the federal government from CIJA, the Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs “on how to preserve Canada’s humanitarian tradition while addressing systemic issues in screening, enforcement, and removal. It also clearly summarizes our policy recommendations.”
Orlowsky Responds to ETFO Antisemitism Training
The recent decision of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario to contract Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) to deliver training on antisemitism to its membership, caused alarms to go off in the wider Jewish community. Since over 90% of Canadian Jews support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and over 80% identify as Zionist, the choice of an outlier, a radically antizionist organization seems a determined act to ignore antisemitism. Neil Orlowsky, Director of Education and Chair of Global Education with the Abraham Global Peace Initiative, posted this on Linkedin.
“When a union commissions hashtag#antisemitism training, the ethical obligation is simple: protect the people the training purports to serve. That obligation collapses the moment the hashtag#union decides, unilaterally, who counts as a “legitimate” Jew and which hashtag#Jewish voices may be safely ignored. By appointing the hashtag#Elementary hashtag#Teachers’ Federation of Ontario to partner with whom they did, hashtag#ETFO has turned safeguarding into adjudication, selecting a fringe, divisive political actor that openly rejects how the overwhelming majority of Jews understand their own identity, experience, and vulnerability. This is ideological shortening under the name "hashtag#education." Once teachers are taught a version of antisemitism that invalidates the beliefs and realities held by roughly 97% of the Jewish community, the downstream harm is predictable: hashtag#classrooms inherit distortion, families inherit confusion, and Jewish hashtag#students inherit isolation. Unsurprisingly, this decision has unified Jewish grassroots resistance around a single refusal: Not in our Name.
The pattern is not accidental. Under ETFO's recent leadership, the union has increasingly treated hashtag#Ontario hashtag#classrooms as platforms for foreign-policy signalling, pension divestment resolutions, and institutionalizing an “anti-hashtag#Palestinian racism” frameworks that collapse Jewish identity into suspicion, raising an unavoidable question: what does this have to do with Grade 3 math, literacy, or student safety? When mainstream Jewish organizations were proposed, ETFO declined.”
Attack on Jewish Students at Toronto Metropolitan University
See StandwithUs Canada post about the unprecedented attack on Jewish Students at TMU. CAEF asks: What are the consequences? Where was security? What did bystanders do?
Advocacy and Action
CAEF acknowledges the apology issued by Professor Anil Kishen, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto, a day after the antisemitic images he used in a class presentation were revealed and condemned by CAEF, CIJA, CWAA, B’nai Brith and other Jewish organizations. CAEF issued a press release the same day.
We are pleased to note that Professor Kishen admitted to a gross mistake, to harm caused his Jewish students, and immediately took leave and agreed to participate in an investigation into this incident. CAEF expects the university to investigate quickly, share its findings and take disciplinary action, holding all involved to account.
Antisemitism at UofT can’t be ignored, brushed aside or treated lightly.
Petition to Government of Canada re: Recognition and Education about Jewish Refugees Interned in Canada during WWII.
The deadline for signing petition e-7123 is February 28. Sign now.
International Law on Jewish Land Rights
Read excerpt in letter from Richard Sherman, Florida, who shares this frequently with editors and journalists, broadcasters and academics who promote lies and attempt to negate historical facts. Keep it, use it in your own advocacy communication.
“Eugene Rostow, Dean of Yale Law School(1955-1965) and Under Secretary of State in a Democratic administration ( 1965-1969) has written:
‘Legally, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are unallocated parts of the Palestine Mandate...so far as the claim of the Arabs who live there goes, it must be remembered that, in contrast to other League of Nations Mandates, the Palestine Mandate was not established as a trust for the indigenous population of the area, to be terminated when that population was ready for self-government. It was set up under a different article of the League Covenant as a trust for the Jewish people, in recognition of their historic connection with the land, on condition that the civic and religious rights of the Muslims and Christians living in the territory be respected.
‘Moreover, the right of the Jewish people to settle in the West Bank under the Mandate has never been terminated. The Jewish right of settlement was suspended by the British in 1921 only for the East Bank—that is, for what was then the Transjordanian province of the Palestine Mandate, and is now Jordan. Jewish settlement in the West Bank is therefore not an intrusion into alien territory held as a result of war, nor (as the State Department used to contend) a violation of the Geneva Convention. It is, rather, the exercise of a right protected by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter and hence necessarily part of the domestic law applicable in the West Bank. ‘” (A False Start in the Middle East, Eugene Rostow, Commentary Magazine, October 1989).
Read Letter to The Jerusalem Post from Richard Sherman, Florida, February 19, 2026 on the U.N. Charter guaranteeing Jewish rights to the Land of Israel.
Letter from an ex-Muslim to Bell Lightbox
The letter was shared with CAEF and will remain anonymous.
The TIFF Bell Lightbox is now airing the “Palestinian” film, “All that’s left of you, “ during the Holy Month of Ramadan. “Palestinian” cinema is a propaganda tool for Arab terrorists and Muslim anarchists ; it’s dark, self loathing, melancholic narratives lament the decades of failed Islamic Intifadas and the thousands of Muslim children killed in service of the PLO and Hamas.
The Nakba is an urban legend, a fable of lost honour for a cursed “Palestinian” people who are not mentioned in the Holy Quran , not even once does Allah waste a syllable or a sentence in the Quran for a rogue Arab nation which fights the “children of Israel.”
The Nakba spun into social media gold and box office ticket sales is fools fodder for the woke leftist masses, an alternate tale of history believed only by antisemites sustained on a diet of social media and soy and those who seek to appease Islam, the Nakba lie is fuelling burning antisemitism in our democracy and at the Bell box office.
During the Holy month of Ramadan we pray that the Bell Lightbox finds the light of Truth and dispel the darkness that is the “Palestinian” identity.
A Guide to Understanding Antisemitism from Scripture
The Coalition for Jewish Values released its report, The Jew-Hatred Mindset. The CJV, representing over 2,500 Orthodox rabbis in American public policy announced publication of a groundbreaking new paper, The Jew-Hatred Mindset: A Scriptural Guide. “This document offers a comprehensive framework for identifying antisemitism and understanding the corrupted thinking of those afflicted with hatred for Jews. The guide draws on Biblical sources and more than thirty-three hundred years of Jewish lived experience to explain and expose how antisemitism repackages itself in each generation. It describes current attacks on Israel and Zionism as a case study of this phenomenon.”
Release of the publication coincided with the first Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress, held recently.
Recommended Viewing
Watch Loay Al shareef, on Youtube for StandTallIsrael exposing the true purpose of Hamas-not a belief in Palestinian independence, not two states, not in peace.
Watch Daniel Seaman on JNS Tv explain that Gaza is rearming not rebuilding.
Watch Ambassador Mike Huckabee counter lies of Tucker Carlson, US antisemite.
Watch MK Sharren Haskel on World Israel News present her DNA report to Ambassador Huckabee in response to Carlson’s stupid suggestion that all Israelis get tested to prove they are indigenous to Israel, February 25, 2026.
Watch Japanese tourists arriving in Israel posted by Hananya Naftali on Facebook.
Watch Yishai Fleisher in a new neighbourhood in Judea and Samaria, as Arabs are selling their property.
Watch Israeli addressing the absurdity of Tucker Carlson’s criticism of Israel.
Watch Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s Foreign Minister at the UN Security Council on J-TV, on Israel’s history and the real map of Israel, February 18, 2026.
Watch Italian Government Tackles Failure of Multiculturalism; legislates against separate societies, confronts Islamism.
Watch key highlights of Tafsik meeting with Government of Canada MPs and civil servants on Banning Muslim Brotherhood and affiliates, February 11, 2026 in Ottawa.
Recommended Reading
Read Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz in Israel365News, February 19, 2026 on the earthquake that struck in Iran, 10 days before Purim, in the ancient city of Shushan, the place where Purim’s story took place.
Read article by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz in Israel365News about the El-Al flight delays due to anti-Israel stickers found on luggage, February 20, 2026.
Read article by Adam Eliyhau Berkowtiz in Israel365News about Hamas’a rebuilding its rule in Gaza, February 20, 2026.
Read Nachum Kaplan in his Substack, Moral Clarity, on the fact that Jewish welfare has never animated the so-called international community, February 20, 2026.
Read article by Alex Winston, in the Jerusalem Post on the Global Day of Action, called by Reza Phalavi to awaken the world to Iranian peoples’ cry for freedom, February 20, 2026.
Read Guilio Meotti in Arutz Sheva, February 22, 2026 on Europe’s fall to Islam.
Read in Why Evolution is True, about another cultural institution “captured” by the Jew hating mob. PEN, has now rejected Israel and accepted “Palestine” as a member, February 19, 2026.
Read Jonathan Tobin in JNS News, February 16, 2025 on the threat to the West, not from Moscow, but from immigration.
Read Paul Schnee in Geller Report on Central Florida’s Muslim Brotherhood expansion, February 15, 2026.
Read Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz in Israel365News, February 19, 2026 on the arrest in Belgium of three mohels (Jewish circumcisers) and confiscation of their knives and the battle with the America.
Read Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz in Israel365News, February 19, 2026 on Oxfam CEO’s admission to calling Israel’s campaign a genocide due to pressure.
Read Zev Staub the Times of Israel, February 24, 2026 on the Chinese pivot to antisemitism.
Read Winfield Meyers in Middle East Forum about the Nexus Project which launders the antisemitism in antiZionism, February 18, 2026.
Read article in Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) February 25, 2026, about the PA official’s statement that Hamas will not disarm, that Hamas will join the PLO which is largest member of the PA that governs areas in Judea and Samaria, and that the PA will not reform. The idea of Palestinian national identity if of course rooted in the mythology of a non-existent history.
Ramadan in Somaliland, Still Thanking Israel
Read excerpt from Times of Israel, February 20, 2026. As Ramadan started this week in the deeply Muslim territory, almost all its citizens — young and old, men and women — were happy to sing Israel’s praises, even as most of the Muslim world focuses on allegations, angrily rejected by Israel, of genocide and war crimes against Palestinian following the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.
Community Events
Join CAEF community; Enjoy DocuNation film, Cafe Nagler
Register now, watch the film and return for the conversation.
SCHOLARS CIRCLE PRESENTS ANTIZIONISM: The History of an Ideology A Special Six-Part Series
The Radicalization of Antizionism
Why Soviet Antizionism Did Not Kill and Western Antizionism Does
Lunch and Learn: The Shalom Project
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