אכן יש אנטישמיות בקנדה כמו במרבית המדינות בעולם לאור מה שישראל עשתה בעזה. לפני כניסת צה”ל לעזה (לאחר השבעה באוקטובר) טענתי שהפעולה הצבאית שם תגרום נזק אדיר לישראל. זה כולל גם את הישראלים והיהודים בעולם. לישראלים בארץ לא היה אכפת כלל ממה שצה”ל עשה בעזה ונעשו דברים חמורים ביותר וחפים מפשע נהרגו. למרות השבעה באוקטובר זה לא היה צריך לקרות. עכשיו כאמור רואים את המחיר
מי שמתלונן שקר קנדה הוא טיפש מטופש. הרי ידוע שקנדה היא מדינה קרה והרבה יותר קרה מישראל. הישראלים ברובם לא יכולים לסבול קור ואין להם אפוא מה לחפש בקנדה
“ישראלים רבים שהיגרו חשבו שמחכים להם פה עם שטיח אדום”. באמת? למה? זו מחשבה אווילית המתאימה לישראלי הצפוי שחושב שכל העולם מתנהל סביבו, שכולם צריכים לקבלו בחום ואהבה? האם מישהו המתין לי בנחיתתי בוונקובר עם שטיח אדום והתחיל להחמיא ולדאוג לי? כל מה שעשיתי היה בזכותי בלבד, ללא עזרה של חבר או בן משפחה. אם הייתי ממתין לשטיחים אדומים בוודאי שהייתי נכשל כאן. האם לבנו של אחי ואשתו המתין מישהו בנחיתתם בארה”ב? הם עשו שיעורי בית כנדרש, לפחות לאישה הייתה עבודה מראש, הם ידעו מה צריך ללמוד וכיצד להתקדם מקצועית, ללא שום “ישראליות” שיכולה רק להזיק
“ישראלים רבים לא מבינים שהם מהגרים” – נכון מאוד. הם לא מבינים שבקנדה כמו כל מדינה מערבית, אין מפעילים קשרים אישיים, לא מפתיעים בביקורים לא מתוכננים, לא “קופצים” לפגישה עם מנהל סניף הבנק ללא תיאום מראש, ולא נתונים לך שום חשיבות כיוון שהגעת בישראל – על מה ולמה
כל מי שהיגר לקנדה (ובכלל לכל מדינה אחרת) עליו לדעת מראש מה כולל תהליך ההגירה, הדרישות המדויקות, הניירת הנכונה, ומה צריך להציג בפני השלטונות. כמובן צריך לדעת פחות או יותר כמה זמן זה יקח. אני למשל ידעתי שכדי לקבל את האזרחות הקנדית עלי לשהות בקנדה במשך שלוש שנים. ולכן לא עזבתי את המדינה באותה עת למעט פעם אחת לעשרה ימים, ולכן נאלצתי להמתין לאזרחות שלוש שנים+עשרה ימים. אם זה לא היה מתאים לי הייתי עוזב. מה שמתלונן שלא יהגר
אכן צריך “ניסיון קנדי” בכל עבודה רצינית. זה ידוע מראש ומי שאינו יודע זאת הוא פשוט לא רציני. ומה עושים: אפשר להיות עצמאי, להתחיל לעבוד כשכיר בעבודה פשוטה ולהתקדם, להשלים לימודים בקנדה ועוד
אכן קנדה יקרה מאוד אך לא יותר מישראל. הכל מתייקר בכל מקום בעולם ומי שיש לו בעייה אם זה שלא יהגר למדינה מערבית
נכון בתקופת הרפר היה טוב יותר לישראלים לעומת כיום. המלחמה של ישראל בעזה כאמור גרמה נזק איום לישראל שהיא כיום אחת המדינות השנואות בעולם. ולכן גם ישראלים ויהודים בעולם משלמים מחיר כבד. זה נורא ואיום אך בישראל לא מבינים זאת. כמובן שמי שמדבר עברית ברחוב ומסתובב עם סמלים יהודים וישראלים נמצא בסכנה גדולה יותר
לישראלים קשה לפצח את התרבות הקנדית או בעצם כל תרבות שהיא לא ישראלית. הישראלים לא מבינים שבמערב לא אוהבים את ההתנהגות הישראלית, השחצנות, הוולגריות, הבלתי אמצעיות, הספונטניות ללא גבול, להתקשר בטלפון לאחרים בכל שעה, וכאמור לפגוש אחרים כולל חברים ללא תכנון מראש
בסיכומו של דבר: מי שרוצה להגר לקנדה או לכל מדינה אחרת במערב מוטל עליו לעשות שיעורי בית רציניים ביותר. מי שרוצה להתנהג כישראלי מצוי במערב עדיף שלא יהגר
Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, was a controversial candidate who won, in part, because of a campaign focused on local concerns, and not global politics. (photo by Kara McCurdy / commons.wikimedia.org)
New York City just elected as mayor Zohran Mamadani, an anti-Zionist who has been dogged by accusations of antisemitism. Recent civic elections in Canada, on the other hand, had brighter news for Jewish and pro-Israel observers, according to Emile Scheffel, managing director of CJPAC, the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee.
Scheffel presented an online briefing Nov. 14 on how Mamdani won, what it means and how Canadian voters in several cities sent somewhat different messages.
During his campaign, Mamdani responded emotionally to accusations that he is antisemitic. In the end, according to exit polls, he received votes from about one in three Jewish New Yorkers and was endorsed by numerous prominent Jewish individuals, as well as organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the political arm of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace.
“When you have this kind of a movement running cover for Mr. Mamdani, it became relatively easy for him to skate past those or to push through those allegations of antisemitism,” Scheffel said. “I don’t know what’s in Mr. Mamdani’s heart. I don’t genuinely know exactly what he believes. But I’m a firm believer that you can tell a lot about a person’s character from the people with whom they choose to associate.”
Scheffel noted a controversy in which Mamdani was photographed with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who the US justice system calls an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 Al-Qaeda bombing attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City. Mamdani later chose not to distance himself from the imam.
Another controversy that dogged Mamdani was his hesitation to condemn the slogan “Globalize the intifada.”
“He repeatedly refused to condemn that language,” said Scheffel. “I want to again be fair by acknowledging that there are different interpretations of what ‘Globalize the intifada’ means, depending on the context. But I am a believer … that there is a great deal of evidence that ‘Globalize the intifada’ is first and foremost a call for violence against Jews and against Jewish institutions and individuals.
“But here’s the catch,” said Scheffel.
Prior to the mayoral election, Scheffel “did a pretty deep dive” on Mamdani’s website, looking for keywords like “Israel,” “Palestine” and “Gaza.”
He found nothing, because the Mamdani website and the campaign’s broader messaging was laser-focused on the core theme of affordability and lowering the cost of living for working-class New Yorkers.
Scheffel shared statistics about housing costs and other expenses in New York City.
“You can start,” he said, “to understand how he built a coalition of people who are primarily motivated not by Mamdani’s views on the Middle East, not by his relationship or lack thereof with members of the Jewish community, but by what he promised to do for the future of New York City and the people living there.”
In contrast, Scheffel, who has extensive background in political communications and issues management, skewered the website and messaging of Mamdani’s prime opponent, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He said Cuomo’s campaign website was filled with mixed messages and meaningless jargon.
“If I can’t figure out what the candidate is trying to tell me, how would I trust them to have a clear vision or a reasonable plan to tackle the issues that are facing me and that are facing the city?” he asked. “Mamdani, whatever you think about him, ran an extremely effective campaign that’s in line with all the best practices we would recommend to a candidate running for any office anywhere.”
While many Jews have been tuned in to politics in the largest American city, they may have overlooked other elections closer to home.
Municipalities in Quebec voted on Nov. 2. In Montreal, which Scheffel noted has been home to some of this country’s most worrying incidents of antisemitism, and in some other communities, activists tried to make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict an election issue by asking candidates to sign a so-called “anti-apartheid pledge” and commit to cutting ties with the state of Israel.
The eventual winner of the election, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Montreal’s new mayor, refused to sign the pledge and was accused by opponents of complicity in genocide. In addition to her victory, her party won a majority of seats on city council, after a campaign in which they pledged to take seriously law enforcement and public safety, including a crackdown on protesters that Scheffel said include extremist elements that make Montrealers unsafe.
“That was a vision that ultimately proved to be compelling and appealing to the largest number of Montrealers,” he said.
A few days earlier, on Oct. 20, Calgary also elected a new civic government.
The incumbent had declined to attend the annual menorah lighting ceremony at Calgary City Hall, claiming it was too pro-Israel and too political, said Scheffel, who lives in the city.
“She was rejected by 80% of voters,” he said. “She became the first mayor in 45 years in Calgary not to win a second term. That happened not because she didn’t show up to a menorah lighting or because she made every effort, frankly, to isolate the Jewish community at a time when the Jewish community needed support from elected leaders. She lost – and she lost in such a crushing fashion – because voters believed that she had failed to tackle the everyday quality-of-life, cost-of-living issues that are facing people here in Calgary.”
Jeromy Farkas, the new mayor, won narrowly, with the incumbent mayor placing third.
Scheffel made the case that none of these campaigns pivoted on issues of foreign affairs but were determined mostly by voters who wanted potholes filled and cities to run efficiently. He then made a case for engagement in the political process, noting that many of the elections turned on very small vote counts. Farkas, for example, won the Calgary mayor’s race by fewer than 400 votes after a recount.
CJPAC engages Jewish Canadians in the political process and encourages them to build strong relationships between the Jewish community and elected officials across parties, said Scheffel. Close races like some recent municipal elections, he said, underscore the impact an individual can have in the process by volunteering as little as two hours of their time to a campaign.
Avi Benlolo of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative was in Vancouver Nov. 5 to screen the AGPI’s new film, Heart of Courage, about Jewish resilience in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Against a “tsunami” of anti-Israel and antisemitic content online and in the broader society, Jews and pro-Israel voices need to do a better job getting their message out, according to Avi Benlolo.
Benlolo is founding chair and chief executive officer of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI), whose mandate is to study and research international human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy, global peace and civil society in Canada, Israel and around the world. He was previously founding president and CEO of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre and writes weekly in the
National Post. He was in Vancouver screening AGPI’s new 40-minute film, Heart of Courage and spoke with Rabbi Jonathan Infeld at Congregation Beth Israel Nov. 5. He was introduced by Diane Friedman, the congregation’s adult program director.
The film features a soldier playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” on a piano in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.
“His music becomes his voice, a testament to the resilience of his spirit and the strength of his people,” the narrator intones. “His teary eyes remain wide open, reflecting the weight of his generation’s struggle. He plays for a world he longs to see, a world of peace. In that moment, his dreams reach beyond the darkness, yet his resolve remains unshaken. This soldier is part of a chain, a line of defenders stretching back through history, each bound by an unyielding commitment to Israel’s survival.”
Produced prior to the ceasefire, the film includes Benlolo interviewing people at the weekly rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of people in Tel Aviv, many of them family members of hostages. Some have risen to prominence as voices for those held in Gaza and their relatives.
Benlolo visits an art installation that serves as a memorial monument adjacent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ building in Jerusalem. The work, titled “Memory Pomegranate 7.10.2023,” is a sculpture of a pomegranate with multi-coloured glass and ceramics, visual shards and fragments that metaphorically reference broken lives, trauma and loss, but together form a hopeful whole, emphasizing life, resilience and collective memory. The artwork integrates electronic tags that allow a smartphone or other device to access digital content to learn more about the events of 10/7 and the people and communities affected.
Sharing stories of non-Jews who saved lives on 10/7, the film declares, “In Israel, heroism knows no bounds of religion, ethnicity or background. On Oct. 7, amid the chaos, countless stories emerged of Muslims, Druze, Christians and Bedouins risking everything to protect their fellow citizens.”
After the screening, Benlolo and Infeld spoke of the hurdles to getting the message out.
Benlolo, who has worked extensively in multicultural and interfaith sectors, plans to screen Heart of Courage for diverse audiences, as his organization has done with previous films.
The biggest challenge, Benlolo said, may be reaching younger audiences, for whom anti-Israel activism has become “cool.”
“We have to go to them and get to them through the technology that exists today,” he said. “Social media in particular.”
This presents its own challenges, he noted, as there is a “tsunami” of anti-Israel and antisemitic content.
The silver lining of this era, according to Benlolo, is a new generation of engaged Jewish young people.
“What we all saw as a result of Oct. 7 was Jewish youth for the first time ever walking proudly with Magen Davids around their necks, fighting back, distancing themselves from people who have rejected them and reject the state of Israel,” he said.
While the film paints a picture of a unified Israeli society, Benlolo acknowledged divisions, rifts that will likely be exacerbated in next year’s national elections.
One of the most visible points of discord is the debate over Haredi conscription. Benlolo is unequivocal on this topic. Asked by Infeld what he would say to the Haredi community, Benlolo said, “What’s wrong with you? I mean, honestly.… To not participate in defending the country and to insist that others do it for you, I think, is wrong.”
Benlolo also pulled no punches on issues closer to home. He said Canada’s government is “pretty much siding with Hamas” and other leaders, such as Toronto’s mayor, are “emboldening the other side.” This inspires violent people to act out, he said, citing a vicious attack on Jewish students near Toronto Metropolitan University earlier that day.
“What gives them permission to do that?” Benlolo asked. “It’s the environment that feeds it. It’s the political leadership that allows it. That is the central problem.”
Responding to a question from Infeld on the future of Jewish life in Canada, Benlolo noted that Jewish schools and other institutions in parts of Europe are protected by armed guards and he warned that North American Jews may find themselves “in a much more defensive posture.”
“I can’t promise you that there’s going to be a good future here in Canada,” he said. “But, in Israel, at least, we have an ability to wear the uniform and protect ourselves, and that’s an important distinction. It doesn’t mean Israel is 100% safe, as we all know, it doesn’t mean that’s an easy life, but at least it’s a place where we can stand up for ourselves.”
He has plenty of hopefulness for Israel.
“I think that the next chapter for Israel is an optimistic one,” he said, suggesting that more countries will normalize relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords. He suggests also that Israel’s economy will skyrocket, in part because of all the technology developed as a result of the war. He also predicts continued increasing levels of aliyah.
At the Kristallnacht commemoration in Victoria on Nov. 6, Congregation Emanu-El’s Rabbi Elisha Herb led a community pledge of mutual respect and support, joined by local politicians, faith leaders and law enforcement. (photo by Penny Tennenhouse)
“Hate has no boundaries and needs to be resisted wherever and against whomever it is found. This is necessary to protect our whole society. The history of the Shoah teaches us the dangers of complacency,” said Micha Menczer in his opening remarks at the Nov. 6 commemoration in Victoria of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
Menczer is a founding member of the Victoria Shoah Project, which held the community’s commemoration at Congregation Emanu-El. The project is a group of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, as well as educators and other individuals, dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and education.
Micha Menczer, a founding member of the Victoria Shoah Project, gave the opening remarks at the Nov. 6 commemoration in Victoria of Kristallnacht. (photo by Penny Tennenhouse)
After Menczer spoke about the increase in hate crimes in Canada – of which Jews are often the target – Kristin Semmens, a history professor at the University of Victoria, spoke about Kristallnacht, the organized anti-Jewish riots in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9-10, 1938. The violence sent a clear message to Jews that they were not welcome in Germany, said Semmens, noting that, although Jews had already faced extreme persecution, no one foresaw what would come.
“Even after November 1938, even after the destruction and horror and humiliation and fear, even after the shattered storefronts, the burning synagogues, the mass arrests, the physical assaults and murders, few could have imagined how much worse things could get,” she said.
Semmens stressed that, while people came on Nov. 6 to commemorate what happened in the past, it is also fundamentally important to act in the present, to differentiate among people when it comes to basic human rights today.
“We cannot turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to defamation and demonization,” she said. “We must find the courage to challenge the wrongs we see in our society. And, as the events leading to Kristallnacht reveal, we must beware of the beginnings.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s solicitor general and minister for public safety, was the keynote speaker. Due to inclement weather that evening, she spoke from the Lower Mainland via Zoom.
“How can we, today, fathom six million lives cut short solely because they were Jewish?” asked Krieger, who, before entering politics, was the executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC).
“Sadly, as we gather to remember events of 87 years ago, our historical imagination, I think, is less challenged than we thought. With the recent Manchester synagogue attack and the graffiti scrawled on this congregation, the echoes of the past are particularly and painfully resonant.”
In August, antisemitic graffiti was painted at the entrance of Congregation Emanu-El. According to a September post by the synagogue, Victoria police have since found the suspected perpetrator, who “has been charged on two counts: mischief relating to religious property and wilful promotion of hatred.”
Krieger noted that, during the pandemic in Canada, contingents within the anti-vaccination movement borrowed symbols from the Holocaust, such as yellow stars and photos of Anne Frank, to portray their feelings of being marginalized and victimized for the requirement to carry proof of vaccination. She said a commitment to history and memory is the necessary antidote to such Holocaust distortion and trivialization, “which we are seeing with increasing frequency as the Holocaust transitions from lived to mediated memory.”
She pointed to the VHEC’s use of primary sources when engaging with the 25,000 young people the centre educates each year. “Fragments of the Shoah – artifacts, photographs, documents – provide tangible entry points into the past and to individual human experiences during an event that might otherwise be an abstraction of numbers,” said Krieger, who reminded the audience that, in a time of rising antisemitism, the Holocaust may not simply be a lesson but a warning, “an inescapable fact that speaks to what is possible.”
Remembrance of the Shoah, she said, “provides an opportunity to wrestle with fundamental questions about the fragility of democracy and our responsibility as citizens today.”
Music performed by Kvell’s Angels, a local klezmer group, and the Capriccio Vocal Ensemble of Victoria, conducted by Adam Jonathan Con, was interspersed between speakers at the commemoration.
Politicians, leaders from other faith groups and members of the Victoria Police Department rose at the end of the ceremony to recite a pledge of mutual respect and support.
In the program notes to the commemoration, the organizers drew attention to the events that transpired in Germany 87 years ago, when at least 91 Jews were killed and 30,000 Jewish men were forced into concentration camps, Jewish homes and institutions were ransacked, businesses destroyed and synagogues burned. It was, the notes read, “a reflection of the inability of ‘polite society’ – of Jews and non-Jews – to comprehend that the institutions at the very heart of civil society (the police, uniformed people, political representatives) would be at the very core of this violence inflicted on the Jews of Germany and Austria, or contribute … to its devastating effect.”
The commemoration was sponsored by Congregation Emanu-El and the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island.
Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Prof. Robin Judd, author of Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides After the Holocaust, speaks with community members at the Kristallnacht commemoration in Vancouver Nov. 9. (photo by Sova Photography)
The history of war brides – generally British or European women who married Allied military men – is widely known and has been explored by historians and social scientists. Between 1944 and 1948, about 65,000 dependents came to Canada as spouses or intended spouses of military personnel.
Speaking at Vancouver’s annual Kristallnacht commemorative event Nov. 9 at Congregation Beth Israel, Prof. Robin Judd discussed an almost unknown subset of this phenomenon: Holocaust survivors who met Allied soldiers in displaced persons’ camps after the war and went on to marry them.
Judd is associate professor of history at Ohio State University and immediate past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, the largest international society for scholars of Jewish studies. Her award-winning book Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides After the Holocaust explores the harrowing task of rebuilding a life in the wake of the Holocaust.
Many Jewish survivors, as well as community and religious leaders, viewed marriage between Jewish women and military personnel as a way for the survivors to move forward after extraordinary trauma, said Judd, whose academic interest in the subject stems from family history.
“My grandmother was a war bride,” Judd said. “She was a survivor. She and my father survived the war in hiding. My biological grandfather died at liberation, and my grandmother married an American soldier after the war, who then adopted my father.”
Her grandmother spoke little about her experiences during or immediately after the war, though Judd knew the rough outline of her past. Only when Judd began research into the subject did she learn that her grandmother’s experience was not as unique as Judd had assumed.
The individual stories of these war brides, and their efforts to integrate, offer lessons around survival in the aftermath of trauma, as well as larger issues concerning marriage, immigration and citizenship, she said.
Judd focused on a few couples, including Isaac and Leesha (neé Leisje Bornstijn) Rose, and Sala (neé Solarcz) and Abe Bonder.
Sala survived in the Warsaw Ghetto for more than a year, before deportation to a ghetto outside Lublin, then to Majdanek and a series of other camps. She was liberated during a death march in April 1945.
At Rosh Hashanah services at a DP camp in Hanover, she met Abe, a mechanic in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Until then, Judd said, Sala had avoided the Canadian and British soldiers overseeing the DP camp because she said they made her feel like a monkey in the zoo.
“But Abe came to her and started to speak to her in a very quiet Yiddish,” Judd recounted. “It was his questioning, his real interest in understanding who she was and what she had experienced that made her want to seek a second encounter with him.”
Many of the war brides found themselves at the whims of their new extended families, subsumed into existing structures that were foreign and unfamiliar. Often, they arrived in the new country and did not have homes of their own but lived with their husbands’ families, sometimes with multiple generations in the same home.
Leesha arrived in Ottawa and moved in with fiancé Isaac and her soon-to-be mother-in-law, with whom she had limited language skills to communicate. The groom’s mother took it upon herself to plan the wedding.
“Leesha and other war brides are often talking about how, in these moments, whether it was the marriage or it was having their first child, or it was their first child’s bar or bat mitzvah, or their first child’s wedding, how they so desperately missed those murdered family members at that time,” Judd said.
Newcomers were sometimes judged unfairly, as if their healthy appearance diminished the perception of their suffering. A newspaper article described Leesha as “a good-natured chubby little girl.”
“There was this notion that these women looked almost too healthy,” said Judd, “That the trauma was almost not written sufficiently enough on her body.”
Associations and networks existed for the newcomers to connect with others from similar backgrounds, including Jewish war bride clubs and synagogue-affiliated groups.
The war bride experiences Judd studies are diverse and include sad but also happy memories, she said, from the difficulties of reconstruction and recovery to stories of resilience and rebuilding.
Prof. Chris Friedrichs, a scholar of German history who taught at the University of British Columbia from 1973 until his retirement in 2018, contextualized Judd’s presentation, as well as Kristallnacht and the larger history of the Holocaust.
Kristallnacht sent a message to the world, he said. But the world did not listen.
“This horrific Night of Broken Glass was front page news all over the world, but not for long,” he recounted. “Much else was going on in the world at that time and, within a few days, Kristallnacht was forgotten. In fact, the world learned nothing from Kristallnacht. But the Nazis learned a lot. They realized that whatever they might do to the Jews, there would be no consequences. And thus, once Hitler’s war started in 1939, within Germany itself and in every country the Germans conquered under cover of war, a relentless program to exterminate the Jews began to be carried out by beatings, by shootings, by starvation and by gas.”
Hannah Marazzi, executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC), which presented the event in partnership with Beth Israel and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, called Kristallnacht “a defining moment in which the shadow of hatred quite literally burst into flame.”
Dr. Abby Wener Herlin, associate director of programs and community relations for the VHEC, introduced Holocaust survivors, who lit candles of remembrance.
“Tonight, as we are about to light candles … we vow never to forget the lives of the women, men and children who are symbolized by these flames,” she said. “May the memory of their lives inspire us to live so that we may help to ensure that their memories live on.”
Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld thanked the speaker and reflected on his family’s experience.
“My father left the DP camp and moved to Pittsburgh,” Infeld said. At a party at the Jewish community centre specifically to make shidduchim, marriage matches, for Holocaust survivors, he met the woman who would become his wife and the rabbi’s mother.
Vancouver Deputy Mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung, centre, and councilors Lenny Zhou and Lucy Maloney at the Nov. 9 Kristallnacht commemoration. (photo by Sova Photography)
Cantor Yaakov Orzech chanted El Moleh Rachamim, the memorial prayer.
Taleeb Noormohamed, member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, warned of the dangers of ignoring the lessons of history.
“If we don’t take the lesson that remembrance requires us to take, we end up with a quiet normalization of what that night represented,” he said. “This is a fight that we all take on. We take on with responsibility, we take on with conviction, and we take it on to honour all of you who survived and all of you that have relatives and friends and loved ones that didn’t. So, we say, may their memory be a blessing and, indeed, may it be, but may it also be a reminder to all of us that the work that is to be done is for all of us.”
Terry Yung, member of the BC Legislature for Vancouver-Yaletown and a retired senior officer with the Vancouver Police Department, told the audience the future depends on education.
“We cannot arrest ourselves out of hate, we cannot,” he said. “We have to educate people in this world of darkness.”
Sarah Kirby-Yung, deputy mayor of Vancouver, and fellow city councilors Lenny Zhou and Lucy Maloney read a proclamation from the city.
On Dec. 3, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz will speak on Harnessing the Potential of Our Comfort Songs, as part of Kolot Mayim Reform Temple’s Building Bridges Speakers Series. (photo from Hadar Institute)
Kolot Mayim Reform Temple’s annual six-part series of free lectures – the Building Bridges Speaker Series – returned earlier this month with the Nov. 2 talk by Dr. Lori Şen of Shenandoah University on Classical Echoes in Ladino: Sephardic Songs Reimagined. It continues Dec. 3, with Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz of the Hadar Institute speaking on the topic Harnessing the Potential of Our Comfort Songs.
The Building Bridges Speaker Series’ theme for 2025/26 is Kolot Zemirot: The Many Voices of Jewish Music. In the wake of the dramatic rise in antisemitism following the events of Oct. 7, 2023, it is more important than ever to celebrate and amplify the rich tapestry of Jewish culture, history and heritage. This series of lectures will explore the role of music in shaping and sustaining Jewish identity across generations and around the world, delving into the diverse expressions of Jewish music – its history, traditions, and its cultural, religious and secular aspects. Music has always been a source of strength, resilience and hope for the Jewish people, and this series will highlight its power to unite communities and inspire pride in our shared heritage.
An educator, practitioner, composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and facilitator of Jewish communal music, Sacks Mintz will explore, on Dec. 3, how Jews use the internal strength we source from singing our own anchor songs to serve our communities in times of disruption. For Sacks Mintz, the power of communal music ignites spiritual creativity, fosters participation and deepens connections within Jewish life.
Historian and lecturer David Benkof, “the Broadway Maven,” will speak in person in Victoria on Jan. 11, with hybrid access for a wider audience. His presentation will dig into Jewish creators, characters and themes that have shaped – and continue to shape – the world of Broadway, revealing how musical theatre reflects and influences Jewish identity.
A leading voice in the study of contemporary Israeli music, ethnomusicologist, Dr. Naomi Cohn-Zentner of Bar-Ilan University observes that Israeli songs about the war and the army have always been about a hope for peace, and this was even more the case after Oct. 7. Her Feb. 8 talk – called Music and War: An Optimistic View – will examine how Israeli musicians have responded to the tragedy, offering an exploration of music’s role in processing grief, inspiring resilience and connecting community in times of crisis.
On March 8, Dr. Joshua Jacobson, author, composer, scholar and founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, will speak on Jewish Music: What’s That? One of the world’s leading authorities on Jewish music, Jacobson will share his expertise in the history and ongoing evolution of Jewish music. His presentation will invite listeners to consider what we mean by Jewish music and how musical expression is a rich part of our identity.
Toronto author and biographer Michael Posner wraps up the 2025/26 series on April 12 with the lecture Hallelujah and Beyond: Leonard Cohen’s Torah of Song. Posner will explore Cohen’s Jewish heritage, philosophy and musical legacy and how Judaism influenced the singer-songwriter’s lyrics, philosophy and life.
The Jewish Independent will feature coverage of the lectures in future issues, including Şen’s Nov. 2 lecture, which can be viewed on Kolot Mayim’s website.
Kolot Mayim, from the Hebrew “Voices of the Water,” is Victoria’s Reform Jewish Congregation. The Building Bridges lecture series is partially supported by the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island and donations are gratefully accepted, with tax receipts available for contributions over $25.
The webinars are free and mostly occur monthly mostly on select Sundays (with the exception of Sacks Mintz’s), at 11 a.m., on Zoom. Pre-registration is required via kolotmayimreformtemple.com.
הישראלים יודעים הכל, מבינים בכל והם הכי טובים בכל דבר ועניין. ולמרות זאת שורת המחדלים הקשים של השבעה באוקטובר הוכיחה שבמציאות זה רחוק מהאמת
המודיעין לא תיפקד, השב”כ לא תיפקד, לקח לצה”ל 6-8 שעות להגיב על קריאת האזרחים (“הורגים אותנו”), החומה הטובה והטכנולוגית ביותר בעולם נפלה בתוך פחות מחמש דקות. צה”ל אישר לערוך מסיבת טבע ליד הגבול – שזה טמטום משווע. משאירים בסיסי צה”ל ריקים כי מדובר בחגים – וזה טמטום משווע נוסף. ממשלת המחדלים והשחיתות העבירה גדודים של חיילים לשמור על המתנחלים במקום על אזרחי העוטף. והיכן התצפיתניות שצפצפו על המידע שלהן כי הן “רק” חיילות
ומעל הכל התפיסה של ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו ורבים אחרים שעדיף “לשמן” את החמאס שישתוק במקום לקדם את הרשות הפלסטינית
ישראל של היום היא מדינה ימנית מתחרדת ומשיחית. ולאור האמור לעיל אינני חושב שהיא יודעת כיצד באמת להתמודד עם השכנים ולדאוג לאזרחים
בישראל שכחו כי מחר צריך לחיות עם השכנים האלה אחרי שהפציצו אותם יומם ולילה. ארה”ב עשתה זאת באפגניסטן, עיראק ווייטנאם – והיא מזמן לא נמצאת במקומות האלה שהם רחוקים מאוד מארה”ב. לעומת זאת, ישראל תאלץ להתמודד עם השכנים שלה כל העת. אני לא חושב שנתניהו שעומד בראש ממשלה כושלת, הוא זה שאפשר לסמוך עליו. הוא ובעיקר תומכיו הרבים לא הולכים לשום מקום. הם רק הורסים את דמוקרטיה יום יום (ממש כמו בארה”ב של הדיקטטור דונלד טראמפ)
הסכם הפסקת האש הנוכחי נכפה על ישראל על ידי המושחת השני טראמפ שרוצה פרס נובל (כי אובמה קיבל אותו) ובעיקר כי יש לו, למשפחתו ולחבריו עסקים ענפים בקטאר ובאזור כולו. את המלחמה המיותרת בעזה אפשר היה לעצור לפי חודשים ארוכים. את אותו הסכם הפסקת האש אפשר היה להשיג אז, להציל יותר חטופים, והרבה פחות חיילים היו נהרגים. אז גם השנאה לישראל בכל העולם הייתה פחותה
טראמפ ונתניהו קוראים להסדר – הסכם שלום. באמת? האם ישראל והפלסטינים יחליפו שגרירים? עתה יותר מתמיד העולם הערבי לא יקבל את העבודה שישראל מסרבת לתת לפלסטינים מדינה והיא ממשיכה לעבות את ההתנחלויות
ולסיום עוד נקודה: מדינה שיודעת מול מי היא מתמודדת לא היתה מאפשרת לרבים רבים (החרדים) להשתמט מהצבא. ולא הייתה נותנת למחנה המשיחי לשלוט בסדר היום הציבורי
ובנימה האישית: הפעם היחידה שפחדתי ב-20 השנים האחרונות (בהן אני גר בקנדה) הייתה דווקא בביקור בישראל ליומיים אשתקד. אירעה הפסקת חשמל ארוכה וחששתי שהאיראנים מתקיפים. חבר שלי עובר מרמת השרון לתל אביב כי נמאס לו לגור ליד הצבא ולהוות מטרה להתקפות בעתיד. הוא גם ציין בפניי שבישראל הסתירו את ממדי הנזק העצום של הטילים האיראנים
הפעם הקודמת שפחדתי בחיי הייתה בעת מלחמת המפרץ בעיראק הראשונה (1991) עת 40 טילים נפלו על אזור תל אביב שאז גרתי בה. לי זה הספיק לכל החיים
אינני יודע מה יהיה בעתיד ואני מודע לסכנה של האיסלאם הקיצוני. אני באופן אישי אתאיסט ומתנגד באופן עקרוני לדתות שמביאות רק נזק ושנאה. האם הותקף כאן ע”י מוסלמים? אולי? בשלב זה מרבית המוסלמים הגרים במחוז שלי (בריטיש קולומביה שמכילה כ-4.5 מיליון תושבים) ומספרם מגיע לפחות מ-200 אלף – הם איראנים – ואין בהם שום סכנה לנו
אני לא צופה עתיד טוב לעולם אשר נהיה קיצוני דתי, ימני וכוחני והדיקטטורים הולכים ומשתלטים על כל הדמוקרטיות שנשארו
Robert Krell, left, founding president of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and Al Szajman, the current president, unveil the monument to Rudolf Vrba at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Rudolf Vrba, a scientist who had a significant but comparatively quiet career in the laboratories and lecture halls of the University of British Columbia, enjoyed a comfortable life with his wife Robin in Vancouver before his death in 2006. Unbeknownst to thousands of his students over the years, Vrba may have saved more Jews during the Holocaust than any other individual. Despite this astonishing fact, his name has remained almost unknown not only among scholars of that history but even in his own adopted community of Vancouver.
At Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster on Oct. 26, a monument was unveiled that seeks to remedy Vrba’s relative anonymity.
“Why do so few know his name?” asked Dr. Robert Krell, founding president of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and a member of an ad hoc group that came together to recognize Vrba’s life and bravery. “Sir Martin Gilbert, the British historian, wrote that Vrba was directly responsible for saving at least 100,000 Jewish lives. Others now credit him with the preservation of as many as 200,000 Hungarian Jews.”
Before about 200 people gathered in the cemetery’s chapel prior to the monument’s unveiling, Krell recounted the exploits of Vrba and his co-conspirator, fellow Slovakian Jew Alfréd Wetzler, who were incarcerated in Auschwitz.
In April 1944, Vrba, just 19 at the time, and Wetzler, 25, contrived to conceal themselves within the Auschwitz compound, while, outside the camp, a massive search was undertaken by dogs and armed guards. After hiding silently in a woodpile for three days, the two men escaped and traveled for days by foot to Slovakia, where they shared all the information they had amassed about operations at the death camp. Vrba has been credited with having had an almost photographic memory and, over 22 months in Auschwitz, with Wetzler and he both having risen to positions of comparative privilege and trust in the camp, they were uniquely equipped to tell the world what was happening.
Vrba had worked on the arrival platforms at the camp, observing the incoming Jews and, later, in the “Kanada” compound, where the stolen valuables of arriving prisoners were stored. Wetzler was a registrar and clerk in the camp. The pair chose their moment to act because their vantage points alerted them to the imminent deportation of the last remaining large group of surviving Jews in Europe, those of Budapest.
Their account, which became known as the Auschwitz Protocols, or sometimes the Vrba-Wetzler Report, was the most credible and detailed information received to that moment about the extent of mass murder taking place in Auschwitz. More than 400,000 Hungarian Jews had already been murdered.
“The Jews of Budapest were next,” said Krell.
After dictating the report, Vrba joined the Slovakian army as a machine gunner and, later, joined the Slovak partisans, participating in 10 major battles and being awarded multiple medals for bravery.
After the war, Vrba completed a PhD in biochemistry at Charles University in Prague, then lived in Israel and England before serving as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He married Robin, an American, in 1975 and they made a home in Vancouver. Vrba was an associate professor in the department of pharmaceutical sciences at UBC for 30 years and Robin was a realtor.
The unfamiliarity with Vrba’s story in Israel, in particular, has been explored by Ruth Linn, a University of Haifa academic who first heard of Vrba when she was on sabbatical in Vancouver in the late 1990s. She returned to Israel and began asking if others with expertise in the field knew of Vrba, Wetzler and their escape. Her explorations led to her 2004 book Escaping Auschwitz: A Culture of Forgetting, which made the case that there was a deliberate effort in Israel to silence Vrba’s voice and obscure his history.
Vrba bore particular animus toward Rezső Kasztner, a leader of the Budapest Jewish community who went on to become a mid-level bureaucrat affiliated with the Israeli establishment and the Mapai party that led the country. Vrba – and others – viewed Kasztner’s actions as having saved the lives of Kasztner, his family and several hundred of his friends and associates at the possible expense of thousands of other Hungarian Jews. Vrba believed that, had ordinary Hungarian Jews been privy to the Auschwitz Protocols, as Kasztner was, they could have made their own decisions about whether to board the deportation trains.
The new monument and the unveiling ceremony were the culmination of several years of work by a group including Krell, Yosef Wosk, Geoffrey Druker, Joseph Ragaz, Arthur Dodek and Bernie Simpson, who formed a core committee advancing the project. Dodek, who emceed the Oct. 26 event, acknowledged additional contributions from the Kahn family, Ryan Davis, Marie Doduck and Jack Micner. Mayor Patrick Johnstone of New Westminster attended.
Organizers thanked the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board, including chairs Arnold Silber and Jack Kowarsky, and executive director Howard Jampolsky, as well as Schara Tzedeck’s Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt.
Rosenblatt spoke of biblical and modern concepts of righteousness, citing Vrba as the definition of a hero.
“He did not escape from Auschwitz simply to save his own skin,” said the rabbi. “He escaped from Auschwitz to save Hungarian Jewry. He escaped from Auschwitz to warn the world.”
The monument, located adjacent to an area of the cemetery not yet open to burials, means that future generations who pass through mourning loved ones will have an opportunity to reflect on true heroism.
“I am struck anew by how singular his legacy was, how young he was, how hard he fought to bring the truth to the world,” said Hannah Marazzi, executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, which sponsored the ceremony. “It is a legacy of courage, brilliance, sorrow, resilience and endurance. But perhaps what I have treasured most is learning about his life and legacy from those here who have had the privilege of knowing him.”
Druker noted that the monument reflects an increased awareness of Vrba locally and hoped that the knowledge would expand beyond his hometown.
Druker read aloud the inscription, which recounts the details of Vrba’s life: his origins, his deportation to Majdanek and Auschwitz, his escape, his war heroism and his life as an academic.
“We hope that, in Israel, he will finally be recognized for what he is: a central hero that changed the course of the Holocaust for Hungarian Jews,” Druker said. “We want the world to recognize that too.”
The new monument to Rudolf Vrba at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Chris Friedrichs, professor emeritus of history at UBC, put Vrba in the context of his times.
“The existence of Auschwitz was no secret to those leaders,” he said. “They knew that Auschwitz was the site of a vast industrial complex where German war production was being performed by forced labour. But, as we know, this report for the first time described the actual operations of the camp in terrifying detail, making clear that Auschwitz was not only a location of industrial activity, but also the site of mass extermination of human lives on a scale that nobody had previously fully grasped.
“A huge number of Hungarian Jews had already been sent to Auschwitz, but the approximately 200,000 Jews of Budapest had not yet been deported, and it was largely thanks to this warning that the deportations were halted and the lives of most of those 200,000 Jews were saved.”
The experiences Vbra underwent at a young age, as well as his anger that his escape and the report he helped draft did not save even more lives, affected him through his life. Friedrichs, who knew Rudi and Robin Vrba, said they enjoyed a happy life in Vancouver, but the past haunted Vrba.
“For, although he could escape from Auschwitz, Rudolf Vrba could never really escape from the Shoah,” said Friedrichs. “He knew too much and he cared too much to put what he had seen behind him.… Rudolf Vrba was dedicated to relating the facts, but there was also anger, and that anger was directed not just against the Nazis, but also against Jewish leaders during the war who could not bring themselves to inform their fellow Jews about what was happening in Auschwitz. He was like a biblical prophet who had inveigled against the wilful ignorance or stubborn disbelief of those who should have known better.”
Friedrichs credits Robin, who now lives in the United States and was not able to attend the unveiling, as “not only his cherished companion for over three decades,” but with ensuring that his legacy not be forgotten.
“In fact,” said Friedrichs, “that task is a challenge for all of us. Even the Jewish community of Vancouver never fully recognized the greatness of this man and the role he had played both in saving Jewish lives and in contributing to knowledge of the Shoah.”
The monument is a belated recognition, said Friedrichs.
“What we do today is overdue, but it is not too late,” he said. “Future generations will pass by this monument and realize how proud our community should have been that this man lived and worked for 30 years in our midst. As we watch the monument being unveiled, and if we gently lay some stones upon it, we will be paying a debt of gratitude to someone who is not only a hero of the 20th century, but should continue to be an inspiration for the 21st.”
Created in 1995, the traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today is on display roughly 300 times a year. Mainly for school groups, people can visit the exhibit at Seaforth Armoury Nov. 11. (photo from Anne Frank House)
The traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today, hosted by the Consulate General of the Netherlands, is at Seaforth Armoury until Nov. 21. An opportunity for school groups to learn about Anne’s story and the legacy of her diary, the exhibit tours have already sold out, but the public is welcome to visit on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11.
While this is not the first time the exhibit has been in Vancouver, its presence at the armoury and museum is poignant. Started in 1920 by Scottish Canadians, infantry from the Seaforth Highlanders were on the ground in Amsterdam on May 8, 1945. They entered the city as part of the Allies’ liberating force.
Following months of battles and Germany’s surrender, the Seaforth Highlanders offered humanitarian aid to the city’s population. The close ties between the regiment and the people of the Netherlands are commemorated every year.
The school tours at Seaforth Armoury are led by volunteers trained by Phyllis Lewis, a staff member of Anne Frank House, said the house’s director of Canadian activities, John Kastner.
Arriving on Nov. 5, the exhibit required about six people half a day to set up, then there was peer training. The response to the call for volunteers was excellent, said Kastner, as has been the level of interest from local schools.
“I think the premise is from Anne Frank House in Amsterdam – there’s real value for people to become ambassadors of the message. People that are close to the same age as Anne are particularly effective when it comes to relaying the message of the diary,” he said.
Not all the exhibit’s stops are in metropolitan areas. Kastner described its journey to Anne Frank Public School in Vaughan, part of the Greater Toronto Area, then it went to Marathon, a mining community on the shore of Lake Superior, then to All Saints High School in Toronto, before being displayed at Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery (Canada’s national military cemetery) and the Dutch consulate in Vancouver, which sponsored it.
And the exhibition will keep moving, said Kastner. “It’s been very busy in 2025 – demand has been very steady and it has hardly been in storage at all.”
Created in 1995, the Canadian exhibitions are just some of the many around the world, in languages including Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Korean, Macedonian and two forms of Portuguese. In total, the exhibit is on display roughly 300 times a year.
Paired with a 30-minute film, Who was Anne Frank?, the tour takes about 90 minutes. It comprises 11 panels of information that are the same worldwide and the 12th panel is curated specifically for the region. The version that arrived in Vancouver this week references the liberation of Amsterdam and all the panels are in both English and French, which is the case for all the Canadian showings, though the exhibit for northern Ontario is also in Inuktitut.
The docents bear a responsibility as ambassadors for Anne’s legacy and message, said Kastner. “You want people who are in classrooms, at dinner tables, in peer groups at schools, who are aware of the story, that become advocates of fairness, opponents of racism, opponents of prejudice, and we really see it in real life – that those docents become docents of the message of Anne Frank House.
“Every generation that comes through, you create a new generation that becomes familiar with the story and the messaging of Anne Frank – not only what she went through, but her optimism in a world surrounded by hate, prejudice and violence…. As people go through the exhibit, they become aware of what an important story it is,” said Kastner. “They come to realize that it is, by definition, a history for today – that it has relevance in today’s society.”
Anne Frank, in 1941. The traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today is at Seaforth Armoury until Nov. 21. (photo from Anne Frank House)
Kastner spoke about his personal connection to Anne’s remarkable outlook and values, referencing her often-quoted diary entry of July 15, 1944: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
“I wish we could all be as optimistic as Anne was,” he said. “It was remarkable.
“There have been many periods since the Second World War when we’ve had many reasons to be pessimistic, and that’s why it’s a history for today. It’s a recurring message that continues. After 75 years, it still has relevance.”
Kastner praised the design of the exhibit, calling it “fantastic.”
“There’s a timeline ribbon that goes down the centre … the date and the year. Above the ribbon is what is happening in the world politically at the time. Below the ribbon is how it’s impacting people – Anne, her family and everybody else,” he explained. “The idea is that [some people think] what you see on the news doesn’t really matter…. This says, it should matter, it does make a difference. And that creates an awareness of current events, of being involved … of speaking out. Even in minor cases of prejudice, it’s problematic and [can lead] to a greater problem.”
When talking about this idea in Marathon, Kastner gave the example of name-calling. “Calling someone a name, a slur, we can see it as problematic but not the end of the world,” he said. Or, “graffiti on a kid’s locker, that’s not very nice, but it’s not the end of the world – but it leads to a huge problem when [such actions] become the norm.”
Kastner spoke highly of the 3D model of the house, which is “one of the great learning tools that goes with the exhibit.” There is power in asking teenagers, “Who can tell us where Anne slept?”
“When I went to Anne Frank House to work there, where my workspace was, I’d be looking at the courtyard and at the Annex, looking at the tree, and it’s absolutely surreal,” he said. “Being in the presence of that kind of history. There’s no replacement for that.”
It’s the same tree Anne would have seen.
“I’d be in her father’s office at the warehouse and there are all sorts of people traipsing through the house,” he said, and he’d think about “how you [would have] had to be deathly quiet, completely stationary, because people were using that office.”
Certain questions come up time and again. Students want to know how the Holocaust started, for example.
“The Holocaust didn’t start with people getting loaded on trains,” Kastner explains to the kids. “The Holocaust started with all sorts of things that Anne talks about – her bike being taken away, not being allowed to swim in the public pool, not being allowed to take public transit, then extended to larger things. Her dad not being allowed to have a job or own property.… It starts by slow increments.”
At Anne Frank Public School in Vaughan, the kids asked Kastner how Anne’s diary got published. He described the return of Anne’s father, Otto Frank, to the Annex, which had not changed since the day their hiding place was discovered. He told the students that Miep Gies, who had helped hide Anne and her family, “had taken the diary after the Nazis had left and kept it, gave it to Otto and he read through it and then said, I should publish this.”
Kastner said the kids marvel at the serendipity, the turn of events that led to “one of the most important books written by somebody under the age of 16.” He added, “The kids say that it’s amazing that [Otto] survived, that he got the book, that somebody wanted to publish it and then the idea that it’s become standard reading for millions of kids 70 years later.”
During the exhibition’s stop at Beechwood Cemetery, Kastner recalled two students asking him, “What is it about Jewish people? Why do they pick on Jewish people?” And, “Why didn’t somebody do something?
Kastner explained the scapegoat theory to these students. “It’s in Shakespearian plays, it’s throughout history: the idea of a common enemy often solidifies a group,” he said.
Each exhibition site brings different opportunities for learning, said Kastner. Getting it to remote locations can be tough but it’s worthwhile. Shipping the panels to Marathon, for example, was challenging, but Kastner applauded the motivation of the school there as “very noble and progressive.”
“Every place it goes, it has a different impact and it’s going there for a different reason,” said Kastner of the exhibition.
“The message,” he said, “is in Anne’s experience, Anne’s death – that has relevance in today’s society.”
Shula Klinger is an author and journalist living in North Vancouver.
Before the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, organizers installed an elevator in the Acropolis. (photo from greecehighdefinition.com)
What does sports have to do with human rights? This was the question posed by Vancouver Jewish community leader Zena Simces as she and her spouse Simon Rabkin launched the seventh annual Simces and Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights Oct. 23 in a national online event.
There is evidence of discrimination and exclusion, racism, sexism, ableism, athlete exploitation and maltreatment, labour rights violations, sex eligibility and gender identity issues and safety concerns in sport, Simces said. There are also funding issues, such as the high cost of participation in sport, including at the community level.
Sport is about more than just an active and healthy lifestyle, Simces noted, though it is about that, too.
“It can help to address social isolation and loneliness, which have been identified as major health concerns, not only for older adults, but also for children and youth,” she said. “Sports can be democratic, as it invites everyone to belong and contribute to strengthening and building community, but there is a dark side.”
The dialogue was moderated by Wendy MacGregor, a consultant, educator and lawyer who is the founder and executive director of Athlete Zone, a nonprofit that provides Canadians with support, guidance and education in the pursuit of healthy sports environments.
“Unfortunately, with all those wonderful attributes that sports brings, it is not accessible to everyone worldwide and not even to all Canadians,” said MacGregor. She cited statistics indicating that youth participation numbers “are dropping off a cliff and especially girls are dropping out of sport.”
Some of the reasons for this include increased costs, travel time, difficulty of access to facilities, discrimination, maltreatment or abuse in sport and the increased commercialization of sport.
Panelist Bryan Heal, the social impact research lead at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, spoke about a program his organization is involved with, called Change the Game, which advances youth access, equity and outcomes through sport.
Change the Game has engaged more than 25,000 young people around Ontario, he said, addressing factors of race, gender, ability, household income, geography and other factors around access and barriers.
More than 80% of young people who have participated in the program, he said, have experienced themselves or are aware of a problem in these areas but do not feel like they have anyone that they can talk to about it.
“There’s a culture and strategy of silence that is employed by default,” said Heal. “In a team environment, it can be incredibly isolating and deflating when you’re harbouring something like that. It draws people away to other sports, sometimes to leaving sports entirely.”
Jeff Adams, a lawyer specializing in labour, employment and human rights issues, is a decorated Paralympian, having won three gold medals in wheelchair races.
Accommodating different needs is fundamental and, too often, he said, excuses are made, such as the argument that sports facilities are often in buildings that are too old to be made fully accessible.
Before the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, organizers installed an elevator in the Acropolis. “You want to talk about the most historically relevant building in the world,” he said. “It’s the cradle of civilization, and they put an elevator in it.”
An attitude exists that basic Canadian laws, embodied in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, do not apply to the playing field, he argued.
“We are not applying the fundamental supreme law of Canada to athletes who are bleeding for their country in competition,” Adams said. “We have laws that work. We have anti-violence and harassment legislation baked into labour and employment laws.”
Amreen Kadwa, founder and executive director of Hijabi Ballers, a Toronto nonprofit creating positive experiences in sport for Muslim girls and women, said her group’s programs provide more than just access to sport.
“They create safe, culturally affirming spaces where women can play without judgment,” she said. “They can learn new skills, they can grow in their confidence and, beyond sport, we nurture leadership. It really is human rights in action.”
Female athletes face far more violence and discrimination in sport than their male counterparts, Kadwa said.
“But this number is even higher for racialized women,” she said. “Muslim women, a lot of them who are hijab-wearing Muslim women, are often seen as outsiders, whether through their outfits, their clothing, the stereotype, a lack of cultural understanding.”
The annual dialogue event is a partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Equitas, an international centre for human rights education.
