hite is NOT an Ethnicity—Answer a Random Questionnaire
I have noticed, with increasing frequency, that questionnaires regarding one’s preference for consumer products, to medical studies, and everything in between, now ask about ethnicity along with age, income, and gender. The latter characteristic on a questionnaire often comes with an increasing number of categories for gender which I won’t question here, but I will question why the following is what I received from a major consumer retail company regarding ‘cultural background”.
Here is the question:
How would you describe yourself? This can include cultural background, your parent’s backgrounds or however else you identify. (Clearly this suggests ethno-racial and or national background, but what culture is White??)
Feel free to check all that apply.
Aboriginal/Indigenous Canadian (First Nations, Metis, Innuit..) Asian (Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese..) Black/African/Caribbean Canadian (African Canadian, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian…) Hispanic/Spanish/Latinx (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadorian…) Middle Eastern or North African (Lebanese, Iranian, Syrian, Moroccan…) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Samoan, Chamorro, Tongan, Fijan..) South Asian (Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Sri Lankan) White (German, Irish, English, Italian, Polish…) Other Prefer not to say
Since one can check more than one box, Jewish can be applied to absolutely every box but it would not describe “culture’ for most Jews. I don’t believe there is a Black culture per se either, but perhaps there is an Afro-American or Afro-Canadian culture, and of course there are cultures in every country, all unique to the geography and history of the region. Would it have made more sense to have offered “European” since other geographic areas are listed ie Asian, African, Middle Eastern, South Asian? Do Jews just click on “other” after all we are a small minority?
How Many Ways do Jews Bash Jews?
British journalist/commentator Melanie Phillips presents the view that Biden is feeding anti-Israel sentiment, while seeming to be Jew-supporting, in appointing anti-Zionists to key positions. This is a good leftist strategy. His most recent appointment is that of progressive rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, to the U.S. commission on International Religious Freedom. Kleinbaum is spiritual head of New York’s Beit Simchat Torah—the world’s largest LGBTQ congregation.
Phillips points out that “During Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ in Gaza in 2014, Kleinbaum read a list of Palestinian and Israeli casualties, including the names of Hamas terrorists, in special prayers during her synagogue’s services.”
Many Israel loving Jews are questioning their synagogue affiliations, seeking supportive communities for their Zionism, and for expressing support for Israel, especially now in the worst antisemitic environment since WWII. Passivity and silence is not an option. Speaking up is not a popular option, leaving the synagogue speaks volumes. Demonstrating support for Israel is an important strategy, being Zionist and proud, is a first step in combating Jew hatred.
An Approach to Applying Critical Race Theory to Jewish Situations
CRT, critical race theory, is unfounded bias against people whose skin hues don’t fall into specific colour categories, notwithstanding their personal or familial history and circumstance.
It is divisive, racist, denigrating, unscientific opinion bias. Many university profs are pushing this nonsense and even some government institutions and public schools. In the US, some states have banned the teaching of a false revisionist history that explains all the problems of inequity in society on race.
Barry Shaw, an Israeli blogger offers the following application of CRT:
As a Jew, I have decided to apply BLM critical race theory.
Anyone who is not Jewish is an anti-Semite and must pay me repararation for your guilt.
You must grovel to me for 3,000 years of anti-Jewish guilt.
Preference for jobs must always be given to Jews first to compensate for your historic racism.
This subject must be taught on every campus, in every boardroom, to the military, and in every church and mosque.
This must be taught in every school where children must be shamed for not being a Jew and must go home and blame their parents for being anti-Semites.
I demand a personal apology from every non-Jew on the planet and reparation payment for the damage caused to me and my people.
Unlike BLM, I have historical evidence that the anti-Jewish racism is not confined to white folk.
It also includes black, brown, Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Communists, Marxists, Nazis, Arabs, Romans, Greek, Egyptians, Syrians, Iraqis, Jordanian, Lebanese. Babylonians, Philistines, Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, Germans, Poles, Italians, Brits, French,
In short, the only ones not guilty of anti-Semitism seems to be Japanese, but I am still checking them out...
Barry Shaw, The View from Israel.
A Reader Confronts leading Canadian BDS Organization
Michael Teper who initiated a complaint with the Ontario College of Teachers against Javier Davila for distributing and teaching antisemitic lies to teachers within the TDSB, under the guise of equity and inclusion, shared his well thought-out letter to a major purveyor of Jew hatred. Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, has never been about justice or peace, but about Israel bashing and demanding companies and government boycott the Jewish state. Their campaigns are all demonizing of Israel and fit the criterion of antisemitism as defined by the IHRA. In his letter to the President of CJPME, Teper points out the positions taken by that entity further indicate their Jew hatred, supporting both Davila and Desmond Cole, an anti-racist activist and writer/commentator who also expressed disgusting anti-Israel lies at a recent educators conference. Clearly the Toronto District School Board has an antisemitism problem.
Read the letter to Thomas Woodley in full.
Dear Mr. Woodley:
First of all, I would like to thank you for your honesty in acknowledging that you had not viewed the whole video of Desmond Cole’s presentation to Toronto District School Board (“TDSB”) staff, prior to sending out your letter of October 8, 2021. That said, it takes a special kind of chutzpah to write an indignant letter to the TDSB to protest the reaction to Mr. Cole’s presentation, when you in fact had not viewed the presentation. Inquiring minds want to know which parts you saw and which parts you didn’t, so they can draw their own conclusions about the rational basis for your opinion. Incidentally, I checked out the website for your organization, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (“CJPME”) and there is this list of the CJMPE’s values, one of which is “Informed. Don’t speak to an issue if we can’t to it intelligently.” I wonder how sounding off on a video which you have only seen partially squares off with that “value”, but hey, it’s not for me to judge.
Books to Read
CAEF posts book reviews on books curated for our subscribers. Today, we have a review by Dr. Steven Stein, a psychologist and member of the End Jew Hatred Canada Steering Committee. He recently read and recommends the new book by Professor Gad Saad, “a Lebanese-Canadian evolutionary psychologist and professor in the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University who is known for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour. He also writes a blog for Psychology Today, and hosts a YouTube channel titled ‘The Saad Truth’.”
Can a Boycott of the Boycotters be Successful?
No Ice Cream from Ben & Jerry’s
Several months after the Unilever owned ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s announced its antisemitic boycott of parts of Israel, thus both removing its product from Jewish and Arab homes and jobs from both Jews and Arabs, the very esteemed Abraham Cooper of “The Simon Wiesenthal Center launched an ad campaign in Jewish newspapers urging stores to stop selling Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream as a means to pressure its parent company. “ (JNS October 13,2021)
People are saying, what is the point of attempting a boycott? Are we in favour of boycotts, a favourite tool of the Jew hating BDS local and global coalition? CAEF letters to the national heads of all Canadian supermarkets met with zero response. Ought we not try anything more? Knowing the facts is critical, silence is never acceptable, so consider what YOU can do.
Watching the interview with the founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield is very revealing. Watch for yourself and determine if they know anything of which they speak.
Their level of ignorance about Israel, lack of serious action against real despots and murderous regimes shows the total hypocrisy and bias against the Jewish state and their pretense at social justice. If social justice sold ice cream why are they holding back from any criticism of China, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Libya, Syria, etc etc. These are not Jews we need be proud of because they and the board of their former company are too lazy to do their homework, to woke to consider the truth, or too antisemitic to be welcome in a Jewish home.
Most important info highlighted in the JNS article that is pertinent includes this: the “current board chair, Anuradha Mittal, has expressed support for BDS, criticized AIPAC and in her previous job at a think tank posted positive articles about the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups.”
The Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan had this to say about the B & J boycott: “part of the definition of anti-Semitism is exactly that—demanding from Israel what is not demanded from any other entity in the world.”
No Books from Sally Rooney
If you haven’t heard about a language boycott, you missed this one. An excellent letter from an investigative reporter, David Collier, on the antisemitic stance of Irish writer, Sally Rooney, who has instituted a personal boycott against all Hebrew language publishers in Israel, has been blocked from his twitter feed Rooney’s action is nothing more selfish, ludicrous, and unabashedly anti-Jewish-- a campaign against a people, denying them access to a novel. Really!!
Sally Rooney comes from a country with an abysmal record of Jew hatred, despite their history during WWII being much more admirable. Collier also published a report with evidence that Ireland is more antisemitic than most other European countries. A recent as 2018-19, the government was passing antisemitic BDS resolutions and lying about Israel. CAEF initiated correspondence in 2019 with the former Prime Minister, and with Mr. Simon Coveney T.D., former Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, but obviously the message brought no change to the otherwise “social justice” oriented government then, and penetrated not at all the minds of some intellectuals.
Sign the petition to Rooney condemning her behaviour
“We, the undersigned, condemn author Sally Rooney’s decision to not to sell the Hebrew language translation rights for her novel “Beautiful World, Where Are You” to an Israeli-based publishing house, and her statement that this is because of her support for the anti-Israel boycott movement.”
Boycott the Negev—Imaginative Stupidity
Moshe Philips describes one of the latest anti-Israel academic baseless lies and campaigns. This nonsense is for your weekend reading. That educated people refuse to consider facts, law, history, logic or anything rational so they can justify their hatred of Israel, should be incredulous but it is fact. Here is how the upcoming lies are explained in JNS October 8th, 2021:
“Critics of Israel on America’s campuses have a new battle cry: Israeli development of the Negev Desert is a war crime!” “On Oct. 27, two prestigious institutions—the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies—will host a Zoom program called ‘The Negev Bedouin: Emptied Lands and Displaced People.’”
Here is How it Could End—Peacefully
