World

Working with “the enemy”

In the Gaza Youth Committee campaign We Live Together, We Die Together, young Gazans hold, in a show of solidarity with Israelis, photographs of Israeli children who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023. (photo from Rami Aman)

“People must understand that the people of Gaza are not victims and they are not superheroes. We are human beings, a group of people like any other society. We love life and hate death, we love singing and we hate violence. We are not terrorists. Parents pay to educate their sons and daughters in medicine, engineering, pharmacy, art, business, English and other languages. Gaza is not Hamas, and Hamas is not Gaza – Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Palestinian journalist Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee, told the Independent in a recent interview.

JI readers may have seen on social media one of the latest Gaza Youth Committee (GYC) campaigns, called We Live Together, We Die Together. Its images feature young Gazans holding, in a show of solidarity with Israelis, photographs of Israeli children who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023. The Gazans stand amid buildings and neighbourhoods destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war. The Independent was connected with Aman by Vancouver Friends of Standing Together.

“As the months of war passed, many voices increased within Israeli society opposing the killing of Gaza’s children, expressing solidarity with their families, and calling for an end to the war,” he explained about the social media campaign. “In Gaza, we saw tens of thousands of Israeli demonstrators carrying pictures of child victims in the Gaza war. Therefore, despite the killing, hunger, siege and shortages in Gaza, it was important for us to prove that, in Gaza, there are Palestinians who object to the killing of any child, and to show their solidarity with all the child victims who have fallen in the war, Israeli or Palestinian.

“We have lost a large number of Muslim, Christian and Jewish children because of this war between Hamas and the Israeli army,” he said. “This campaign emerged from Gaza to emphasize the people’s rejection of the war and the killing of children, and the need to release the Israeli hostages, end the war and provide medical treatment for the children of Gaza.”

photo - Palestinian journalist Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee — Palestinian journalist Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee, speaking at an event. One of his goals is to hold meetings between Palestinians and Israelis to help them respect one another and determine their own fate. *(photo from Rami Aman)*

Aman started the GYC after the first Israel-Hamas war, which he described as “a turning point” in his life.

“I began thinking about trying to do something two months after the end of the war in 2009. I decided to look for a place to establish an FM radio station in Gaza that would emphasize the voice of the peaceful people of Gaza,” said Aman, who has a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering. “At the beginning of August 2009, I received my first request from Hamas security. They interrogated me for long hours, and I was subjected to repeated assaults by Hamas members in the following days. They warned me against broadcasting any radio station or publishing any media content about Gaza without their permission.”

Realizing that Hamas wanted no other voice from Gaza than their own, Aman said, “At the beginning of 2010, I decided to form an independent youth group whose goal was to spread awareness internally and to strengthen our relations externally. Our first meeting included 30 young men and women from Gaza, and we agreed on the need to form an independent youth body that would advocate for Palestinian reconciliation and spread the voice of peace from Gaza to the entire world.”

The Gaza Youth Committee currently has more than 300 members inside and outside Gaza, said Aman, “and we are still trying to reach our goals.”

“We are all working to convey the true image of the people of Gaza and to build genuine partnerships with Israelis to help Palestinians and Israelis understand and respect each other,” he said.

Over the past 15 years of activities and meetings, Aman said he has learned a lot, “including how to influence public opinion within Gaza and how to build pressure and advocacy campaigns.

“Over these years,” he said, “I’ve realized the importance of inviting enemies to dialogue, instead of fighting, and trying to shape a different image of the other. These years have helped me differentiate between the Palestinian who wants to build their society for the better and the Palestinian who seeks to achieve their own interests from the Israelis or Palestinians at the expense of others.

“After many different activities between the Gaza Youth Committee and several Israeli movements and organizations, we have built many bridges and created a lot of connections and relations.”

GYC initiatives have included the release of 200 doves from Gaza with messages of peace, Skype calls between Gazans and Americans, and Gazans and Israelis, and a cycling marathon along the border in which both Israelis and Gazans participated.

This work has not been without risk. Aman has been arrested and tortured by Hamas more than once for his peace initiatives with Israelis, as have people with whom he has worked. After a GYC Zoom call in April 2020, he was arrested, Hamas apparently being alerted by the social media post of journalist Hind Khoudary, who was consulting for Amnesty International at the time.

According to a 2020 Jerusalem Post article, “she did not tag Hamas officials in her Facebook posts against Rami Aman to get him arrested but as a protest against normalization activities.

“‘I want all the normalization activities he is doing with Israel from Gaza to stop immediately because any joint activities, cooperation or dialogue with Israelis is unacceptable, even engaging with Israeli ‘peace activists,’” she said in an interview with the Post.

To secure his release, Aman was told he’d have to divorce his then-wife, the daughter of a Hamas official, who was also among those arrested. He eventually signed the papers in August of that year. His wife had already been released at that point, but Aman remained in prison, despite what he’d been told. He was prosecuted in September 2020 for “weakening revolutionary spirit,” and ultimately convicted. After international pressure, he was released in late October, with a suspended sentence, according to a 2021 article in the Times of Israel.

His former wife traveled with a Hamas escort to Cairo while Hamas released Aman from prison one day later. The couple kept in touch after Aman’s release from prison and subsequent move to Cairo in 2021, but have drifted apart for various reasons. Intending to return to Gaza in late 2023, the war caused Aman to change his plans.

“When I first started working for Gaza from abroad, I felt strong and free, and I regained my energy,” he said. “With the outbreak of the war, I began to feel stuck. I couldn’t call on people to demonstrate to end the war while I was on Facebook. People in Gaza trusted me because I was always the first to demonstrate against Hamas, from 2011 until before I left Gaza. If I were in Gaza, I would certainly demonstrate, even for an hour every day, to end the war. Then I would call on people to demonstrate while I was on the street.”

While he would prefer to be in Gaza, Aman said technology has helped GYC’s activism greatly, even before he had to leave his homeland.

“From 2007 until now, Israel has consistently imposed blockades on the residents of the Gaza Strip,” he explained, “while Hamas remained unaffected by any crises and received hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of the Qataris and [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu, in addition to Hamas’s control over travel through the Rafah crossing.

“The real blockade was imposed on us in the Gaza Youth Committee and the majority of Palestinians, so we used Skype and Zoom to communicate with our friends and partners outside Gaza, the most famous of which was the Skype with Your Enemy initiative in 2014.

“We also organized hundreds of meetings that helped introduce me to the world and led several organizations to extend invitations to visit them abroad. I traveled to India because of these meetings, which led to me meeting with the Dalai Lama. A few months ago, I was in Europe to speak about Gaza in several European cities.

“Most of the news coming from media outlets and news agencies will not present the truth to anyone, and it is better to communicate directly with the people in Gaza,” said Aman. “Israel has not provided us with permits to enter the West Bank and Jerusalem. Since 2010, the Israeli authorities have only granted me a 12-hour permit to attend a workshop in 2014 and permits to transit to Jordan when traveling from Gaza. For me and others, these applications have resulted in the building of a large number of personal friendships that continue to this day because they have been created between people, both Palestinians and Israelis.”

Aman has strong criticisms of the media in general, and Al Jazeera in particular, as well as UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

“No Palestinian in Gaza watches Al Jazeera. No Palestinian in Gaza trusts in UNRWA. No Palestinian in Gaza trusts in all of these media,” Aman told UN Watch in an interview earlier this month.

In this atmosphere, the GYC continues its efforts.

“We at the Gaza Youth Committee work to strengthen the capacities of Palestinian youth, develop their skills and create a Palestinian movement from Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora that expresses the aspirations of the independent Palestinian people,” said Aman. “At the Gaza Youth Committee, we always strive to hold meetings between Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis, helping them respect each other and determine their own fate by implementing joint initiatives and conveying their voices to the Americans and Europeans.

“Before the war,” he said, “we always tried to organize demonstrations to demand that Hamas hold elections, resolve the unemployment and electricity crises, and step back from governing Gaza. Even now, during the war, we are working to direct the people of Gaza to demand an end to the war.”

Aman contends that most Gazans want peace, despite polls that indicate the opposite.

“I don’t believe that much in polls,” he said, “but I understand Palestinian and Israeli public opinion. The two societies have been at war for years and have seen nothing but bloodshed and destruction, and wars only create enemies. Trust was lost before Oct. 7 and the distrust increased after the war.

“I have always believed in the importance of talking to enemies and engaging in dialogue instead of fighting. This is what I do through Zoom and Skype meetings. If there is one Palestinian and one Israeli who believe in a peaceful solution, then there is hope. We need courageous decision-makers who can lead their societies toward peace, not lead them toward fighting, hostage-taking and spreading hatred.”

Given his years of organizing video conferences, Aman said, “I have considerable experience, gained from speaking with thousands of Palestinians and thousands of Israelis. Their beliefs and opinions differ, but the common humanity that unites them always remains. They don’t know each other because of the media, and I believe in what I do and in every person’s right to life and safety, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.”

Working with “the enemy” has become Aman’s life mission. This, despite having been imprisoned and tortured by Hamas, having had loved ones killed or taken away from him by both Israeli forces and Hamas, and his neighbourhood in Gaza being destroyed by Israeli bombs.

“It’s true that, as a person, I suffer every day from this news and all the memories,” he admitted. “In addition to what Hamas did to me, it was horrific and psychologically and physically painful. However, there are people around me from whom I get this energy, and I always feel that I must be their partner in promoting dialogue and respect between Palestinians and Israelis.

“With every loss of a person, I always feel that they are advising me to continue my path and take care of their children,” he said. “Therefore, in my activities, I always aim to help families and individuals I know well, and I don’t want them to feel that I am far away from them. That is why I do my best to make their voices heard and that is from where my sense of responsibility for this matter comes.”

Aman is certain there are partners for peace on both sides.

“I consider myself a partner to any Israeli who seeks peace and an end to the war,” he said. “I know that there are Israelis who consider themselves peace partners with the Palestinians. I know Palestinians and Israelis who have lost their children and parents and still believe in peace, so that no more victims fall.”

He stressed the need to stand together.

“Our voices must unite to stop the war, free the Israeli hostages, protect the Palestinians in Gaza and help them rebuild their society,” he said. “We must find 50 Palestinian and Israeli leaders who will work to bring Palestinians and Israelis together.”

As Aman responded to the Independent’s questions, he said Israel Defence Forces tanks were “stationed hundreds of metres away from where my family and friends are. But I always know,” he said, “that life exists and so does death. Anyone can be the next hope and anyone can be the next victim.”

Genocide claims examined

The authors of Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025 sought to do two things in their research: assess the factual basis of war crime and genocide allegations, and examine how information is gathered and transmitted in conflict zones. Among the claims examined is whether enough aid was getting into Gaza from Israel. (IDF Spokesperson via besacenter.org)

A new study conducted by a team of researchers critically examines accusations that Israel committed crimes against humanity, such as planned starvation, deliberate massacres and even “genocide,” during the Israel-Gaza War, between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 1, 2025. Using a blend of quantitative-statistical analysis, forensic documentation, primary sources and comparative military history, the study aims to distinguish propaganda from fact and highlight systemic failures in major international information bodies. Its authors emphasize that their objective is not legal or moral exoneration, but a factual analysis of the methodologies and evidence behind genocide claims.

Research for the 311-page study – Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025 – was led by Prof. Danny Orbach, a military historian from the department of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Boxman, an expert in quantitative research; Dr. Yagil Henkin, a military historian at the Shalem Centre and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security; and attorney Jonathan Braverman, a member of the Israeli bar and a lawyer for International Humanitarian Law. It is published by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in collaboration with the aforementioned institutions.

The researchers sought to do two things: assess the factual basis of war crime and genocide allegations, and examine how information is gathered and transmitted in conflict zones, particularly in regions ruled by oppressive regimes and/or populated by closed societies with a strong “resistance” ethos. Special emphasis was placed on cross-referencing Israeli, Palestinian and international sources, while actively avoiding ideological bias and preconceived assumptions. The authors highlight that subordinating factual analysis to advocacy narratives can undermine public policy and distort ethical and legal discourse.

The study’s key findings are:

No basis for starvation claims prior to March 2025

• More food entered Gaza during the war than before Oct. 7, 2023. The claim that 500 aid trucks are required daily stems from a misrepresentation by United Nations bodies, one that was left unchallenged and unchecked. Prewar UN records cite an average of 73 food trucks per day in 2022. During the fighting (until Jan. 17, 2025), the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) recorded an average of 101 food trucks daily whereas retroactively corrected but still incomplete UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) data indicated 83 food trucks per day. Food that entered the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire should have sufficed until late July 2025, according to World Food Programme projections, even absent any aid following the resumption in the fighting. It is hard to explain this gap without considering extensive looting by Hamas, for which the study’s authors provide ample evidence.

• Although UNRWA initially reported a 70% drop in aid after May 2024 and the Rafah operation, it later retroactively corrected these reports. This correction was effectively unannounced and hence the supposed aid drop continues to be cited broadly.

• Contrary to the claim that 44% of Gaza’s food comes from local agriculture, the study finds this number was baseless even before the Hamas takeover. It is likely that, even in 2005, Gazan agriculture accounted for no more than 12% of Gazan caloric consumption and the number is almost certainly much lower today. The study further finds that even if every ton of crops produced in Gaza in 2011 (the last year in which an analysis was published) was substituted, the number of trucks entering Gaza per capita throughout the war would still be 58% higher per capita than it was in 2011.

• Notwithstanding the above, the authors strongly criticize the decision to stop aid to Gaza between March and May 2025.

No evidence of a systematic civilian targeting policy

While isolated incidents may point to negligence or localized misconduct and suspicion of individual war crimes, no evidence was found of overarching directives aimed at harming civilians. The authors did, however, try to map the patterns of Israel Defence Forces misconduct and possible crimes, and examine which crimes were probably more prevalent and which ones were relatively absent from this conflict.

Data manipulation by Hamas

The Gaza Health Ministry, per Hamas directives, categorizes all deaths as civilian. This manipulation has significantly skewed international reporting. Indications have been found for the inclusion of age-related natural deaths, particularly of women, in the ministry of health’s lists and exclusion of combat-aged men.

IDF’s exceptional precautionary measures

The IDF has implemented unprecedented steps, such as early warnings, precision targeting and mission aborts to avoid civilian harm. These actions, while costly to the IDF, have reduced non-combatant casualties.

Evacuation zones were significantly safer

According to partial data, less than 4% of deaths occurred in Mawasi and the central camps – areas marked as evacuation zones by the IDF – undermining claims of deliberate attacks on safe areas. The failure of the UN to cooperate with the establishment of such zones resulted in considerable loss of civilian life.

Systematic failures in UN and NGO reporting

Numerous claims were based on circular citation, opaque assessments and unannounced retroactive corrections. For instance, UNRWA’s truck count discrepancies were corrected without sufficient publicity. Updated UN data confirms Israel’s consistent assertion of increased aid after May 2024.

A precedent for this kind of flawed reporting can be found in the aftermath of the 2009 Gaza War. Former UN jurist Richard Goldstone, who led the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, later expressed regret over some of the report’s conclusions. In a 2011 Washington Post op-ed, he wrote: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”

The suffering of civilians in Gaza is both tragic and undeniable. However, this research calls on the international community to ensure that humanitarian discourse remains anchored in verifiable facts. Without accurate data, advocacy loses credibility – and future atrocities may be overlooked due to inflated or politicized claims.

While the suffering of civilians in Gaza is indisputable, the authors caution against humanitarian advocacy narratives built on unverified or manipulated data. Their study does not aim to exonerate or diminish the suffering experienced, but rather to protect the integrity of academic discourse and, by implication, humanitarian and public discourse. When advocacy eclipses accuracy, policy decisions become distorted and genuine accountability is compromised, the authors warn. They urge the international community to uphold higher evidentiary standards in conflict reporting – regardless of the actors involved.

Broader methodological analysis

This study is not unique to the Israel-Gaza conflict. Similar patterns of humanitarian data distortion were identified in Iraq under sanctions, raising broader questions about the methodologies employed in closed or authoritarian environments.

The study also examined other conflict zones, such as Iraq in the 1990s. During that period, it was widely claimed – based on Iraqi government data and a UN Food and Agriculture Organization survey – that hundreds of thousands of children died due to sanctions. The survey reported a rise in infant mortality from 40.7 to 198.2 per 1,000 children. These findings were later revealed to be fabricated by Iraqi authorities. Even when the researcher who conducted the survey acknowledged being misled, the correction failed to impact the wider humanitarian discourse.

Likewise, inflated assessments of violent and nonviolent Iraqi deaths during the Iraq War were widely disseminated and accepted during the conflict – only being laid to rest definitively in 2023.

“Humanitarian bias”

The authors introduce the term “humanitarian bias” to describe a tendency among aid organizations to accept alarming claims from stakeholders in order to mobilize urgent action. In this context, factual corrections are often met with hostility or ignored altogether – undermining accuracy in humanitarian reporting. Even when myths are disproven, corrections are rarely incorporated into public or academic understanding.

The study proposes a new methodological framework for analyzing violent conflicts – one that prioritizes cross-referencing multiple sources, systematic scrutiny and transparency, and resistance to political and media-driven narratives.

The authors emphasize that credible allegations of war crimes demand serious legal and ethical investigation – not only due to their consequences but also in adherence to international law, Israeli law and moral standards.

Orbach warns: “If every severe urban war were defined as genocide, it would ultimately dilute the legal and moral power of the term. ‘Genocide’ would become an empty political slogan, rather than a tool to prevent atrocities.”

This study builds on that call for greater evidentiary caution, particularly in war zones governed by authoritarian regimes.

Debunking the Genocide Allegations can be downloaded at besacenter.org. Following the publication of the Hebrew edition on July 4, 2025, there was extensive feedback from readers, critics, experts and commentators. In some cases, there was valid criticism that warranted corrections and revisions. Consequently, the English edition is not a mere translation of the Hebrew version but a thoroughly revised, corrected and updated work.

– Courtesy Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Battling disinformation

Why do international media outlets seem intent on repeating the Hamas narrative? According to British military expert Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox, there are a few key factors – including antisemitism.

“The first [factor] is a human desire not to admit when they are wrong and we don’t understand how powerful this is because it means that they have to admit that they have been wrong for the last 18 months,” he told JNS during a visit to Israel earlier this year.

Fox continued: “The second reason is the power of the narrative. Once you have achieved the dominance of your narrative, it is very, very difficult to present another narrative. The third one is antisemitism. While everything is not antisemitism – and I am really wary of saying that it is – certainly there are biases.”

Fox was a panelist at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism hosted by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs in Jerusalem on March 27. As a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society who served as a top officer in the British army from 2005 to 2021, he is an authoritative voice supporting Israel, explaining how the Israel Defence Forces operates, and fighting disinformation about the Israeli military and its terrorist enemies.

In December 2024, Fox released a report under the auspices of the Henry Jackson Society titled “Questionable Counting: Analyzing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza.” The report presented clear indications that Hamas was padding casualty numbers. Despite this, he said, many in the media repeated, without question, whatever Hamas put out.

Fox is not the only publisher of a report that backs Israeli data with empirical evidence. On March 18, he pointed out, British historian Lord Andrew Roberts presented the All-Party Parliamentary Group report on the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023. The 318-page report lays bare the depravity of the Hamas attack in detail.

“The immediate reaction online is that it’s biased,” Fox said. “Lord Roberts is not Israeli, Israel is not his area of focus and everything is meticulously referenced. Yet, it has been utterly dismissed out of hand, and that is absolutely astonishing.”

He added: “Of course, there will be a strong counter campaign with Qatari money. I had the same thing with my report. The final aspect is that the Palestinian campaign has 10 times the supporters that Israel does. It’s a numbers game, ultimately.”

Is antisemitism in the form of anti-Zionism, or what some call “Israelophobia,” ingrained in some media institutions?

According to Fox, the answer is yes. “It is institutional with the BBC. Twice this year [as of March] they have had to put out major apologies breaching their own impartiality guidelines – when they platform Hamas royalty in a documentary about kids in Gaza or when they email the Israeli embassy asking for a speaker who is specifically anti-Netanyahu,” he said.

“There are three parts to an apology: ‘I am sorry, it’s my fault and I will do better.’ They haven’t really done that third part at all. It is endemic and institutionalized.”

While the IDF has faced criticism from journalists who are not being allowed into Gaza, with some saying this strategy has impaired Israel’s ability to present the facts on the ground, Fox backed the Israeli military’s position.

“If you give a journalist free rein in Gaza, they will either do what Hamas tells them or they will be killed – and that will be blamed on the IDF anyway. From a military perspective, you don’t want anyone filming an airstrike because they don’t have all the supporting data to report fairly without knowing what went into the targeting process.”

To illustrate his point, Fox said he had flown to Israel with Sir John McColl, a former British army four-star general who had been “very anti-IDF.”

“All week he was pushing the IDF like a hawk – and then came home and wrote an op-ed saying he was convinced Israel is doing everything it can to protect civilians, and that’s what the IDF should be showing journalists,” Fox said.

He added: “You can’t send journalists in with fighting troops; that is too dangerous. Fighting in Gaza is a 360-degree war. You have high-rise buildings, ground level, underground. As a soldier, I would probably refuse to take a journalist into that battle.”

Fox expressed concern that we are in a very dangerous information environment when many people turn to social media for information because of the 24-hour news cycle, and very often what is posted is not factual and has not been verified. In the rush to make the news cycle, journalists are also not fact-checking properly, he said.

“The fight against antisemitism is the most important thing to me,” he said. “The stories I hear from my friends are just shocking.”

When asked what communities around the world could be doing better, he said: “We are not going to stop 2,000 years of antisemitism; it is not something we can defeat. It is not easy, but I would work to bring the silent majority on to our side.”

He added: “From a British perspective, we need to make it about a community that is part of the country. The ‘Palestine’ marches are horrendous and very un-British. It’s about how we frame it.”

Rolene Marks is a journalist and commentator specializing in Israeli advocacy, global Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics for JNS.org. She is a member of Media Team Israel and Truth be Told, both dedicated to promoting accurate reporting on Israel. Additionally, she serves as the chair of WIZO’s hasbara division, where she leads efforts in public diplomacy and advocacy. This article was originally published on jns.org.

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Marks’s two stops here

photo - Rolene Marks — Rolene Marks (photo from CHW)

Israeli journalist, advocate, and chair of WIZO’s hasbara (communications) division Rolene Marks is touring Canada this September with Just the Facts, about the current situation in Israel, the realities of the war between Israel and Hamas (and other hostile groups), and the resilience of the Israeli people. Marks stops in Vancouver on Sept. 12 for an event hosted by CHW and the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel, and also helps open CHW Vancouver Centre’s new year, on Sept. 14.

At the Kollel young professionals event, Marks will talk about the United Nations, Gaza and Israel-related topics, and the Canadian government’s agenda, as it affects Israel and the Jewish diaspora. She will dispel lies, misinformation and blood libels, sharing links for where people can find accurate information and sources, stressing the need for Jews in Canada to share accurate information on social media. As well, she will discuss WIZO’s work in Israel and the importance of belonging to CHW (Canadian Hadassah-WIZO).

To join the CHW-Kollel Young Adults Shabbat experience on Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m., go to chw.ca/just-the-facts. Registration is by donation.

The CHW Vancouver Centre’s opening luncheon and fashion show on Sept. 14, 10:30 a.m., will feature fashions from After Five and Maison Labelle, lunch and door prizes, as well as an exclusive pre-event meet-and-greet for sponsors with Marks, CHW national president Tova Train and CHW chief executive officer Lisa Colt-Kotler. Tickets ($96) are available at chw.ca/region/western-region.

– Courtesy CHW

Forgotten music performed

Through a chance conversation with a curator at the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum, conductor and composer Leo Geyer came across musical scores composed by concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust. June 3 to 7, at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, the music Geyer documented was played for the first time in 80 years. (photo from Sky Arts)

In 2015, London-based musician and composer Leo Geyer was commissioned to write a tribute honouring British historian Sir Martin Gilbert, who had recently died. Visiting Oświęcim, Poland, to better understand the Holocaust historian’s research, a chance conversation with a curator at the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum led Geyer to a trove of forgotten musical scores composed by prisoners who had been forced to perform in the SS-run orchestras in the Nazi concentration camp, where more than 1.1 million died in gas chambers, mass executions, torture, medical experiments, exhaustion and from starvation, disease and random acts of violence.

The deteriorating and fragile sheets of music, written in pencil, were faded and ripped. Many had burn damage. Intrigued, Geyer devoted nearly a decade of detective work to studying the documents and filling in missing gaps, and the music formed the basis for his doctorate at Oxford University. From June 3 to 7, at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, the music Geyer documented was played for the first time in 80 years, to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz in January 1945. The opera ballet included the unfinished scores that Geyer completed and choreography by New York-born choreographer Claudia Schreier.

“The musicians took incredible risks to make brazen acts of rebellion. When good news of the war [of the Allies’ June 6, 1944, D-Day landings] reached the men’s orchestra in Auschwitz I, they performed marches not by German composers but by American composers,” Geyer said in an interview with France 24’s daily broadcast Perspective.

The guards couldn’t distinguish between a Strauss waltz and a John Philip Sousa march.

The musicians “would also weave in melodies from Polish national identity such as St. Mary’s Trumpet Call (a five-note Polish bugle call closely bound to the history of Kraków). We also know of secret performances [that] would take place, which would principally encompass Polish music, but we also know Jewish music was performed as well,” said Geyer.

The story of the orchestras at Auschwitz was popularized by Fania Fénelon, née Fanja Goldstein (1908-1983), a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer whose 1976 memoir Sursis pour l’orchestre, about survival in the women’s orchestra at the Nazi concentration camp, was adapted as the 1980 television film Playing for Time. The orchestra, active from April 1943 to October 1944, consisted of mostly young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners of varying nationalities. The Germans regarded their performances as helpful in the daily running of the camp in so far as they brought solace to those trapped in unimaginable horror. As well, the musicians held a concert every Sunday for the amusement of the SS.

Geyer explained that the SS organized at least six men’s and women’s orchestras at Auschwitz, and perhaps as many as 12. The groups principally played marching music as prisoners trudged to the munitions factories and other industrial sites, where they worked as slave labourers, he explained.

“Musicians had marginally better conditions than other prisoners,” he noted. Nonetheless, he said, “The vast majority of the musicians and composers did not survive the war.” Most of their names are lost. Geyer was able to track down the composer of one unsigned composition by comparing the handwriting to a document found at a conservatory in Warsaw.

Adding poignancy to the performances in London, the musicians played from copies of the original scores.

“We poured our heart and soul into these performances,” said Geyer. “I am neither Jewish nor Romani. But I am human.”

Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.

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A replica of Auschwitz

Due to conservation issues, the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum no longer permits the filming of movies at the historic site. Using advanced spatial scanning technology, the museum employed a team of specialists, led by Maciej Żemojcin, to create a digital replica of the Auschwitz I camp. The project was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival.

Museum spokesperson Bartosz Bartyzel told Euronews Culture that the replica was created “out of the growing interest of directors in the history of the German camp.”

“The Auschwitz Museum has been working with filmmakers for many years – both documentary filmmakers and feature film directors,” he said. “However, due to the conservation protection of the authentic memorial site, it is not possible to shoot feature films [there]. The idea to create a digital replica was born out of the need to respond to the growing interest in the history of the Auschwitz German camp in cinema and the daily experience of dealing with the film industry. This tool offers an opportunity to develop this cooperation in a new, responsible and ethical formula.”

– GZ

JI editorials win twice!

The winners of the 44th Annual Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism were announced June 23 at the American Jewish Press Association’s annual conference, which took place in Pittsburgh. Among the winners was the Jewish Independent.

The awards honour achievements in Jewish media published in 2024 and, according to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, the AJPA received 1,160 entries this year. There were 40 different categories, from excellence in commentary, news coverage and feature writing, to podcasting, graphic art, and more.

The JI editorial board – Pat Johnson, Basya Laye and Cynthia Ramsay – was recognized for excellence in editorial writing, taking both first and second place in the category, submissions for which comprise three editorials. The category was open to all types of media: newspapers, magazines and web-based.

Winning first prize were the editorials “Anti-racism work at risk,” “Legislating a fine line” and “Upheaval, good and bad.” Judges commented: “Three thoughtful, thorough, balanced and persuasive editorials that examine current-day antisemitism and offer sage insights and wise calls to action.”

Winning second prize were “Don’t give up on the UN,” “End the war: surrender” and “False binaries harmful.”

The honourable mention for excellence in editorial writing went to the Washington Jewish Week, out of Columbia, Md.

The Canadian Jewish News took home three honourable mentions: for excellence in commentary, personal essay, and writing about the war in Israel: schools and universities.

Watch for the full list of Rockower winners and links to all the winning articles at ajpa.org. Of course, you can re-read all the JI wins at jewishindependent.ca.

Israel and international law

British barrister Natasha Hausdorff speaks with StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano in Toronto on June 11, as part of a four-city Canadian tour. (photo by Dave Gordon)

British barrister Natasha Hausdorff is challenging prevailing narratives about Israel’s legal rights, arguing that the uti possidetis juris principle of international law – which mandates that newly independent states inherit their predecessor’s borders – undermines claims of “illegal occupation” and “settlements” in the West Bank and Gaza, and exposes what she calls a double standard in global responses to territorial disputes.

Hosted by StandWithUs Canada, Hausdorff spoke June 9 in Vancouver, at King David High School. On June 10, she was in Calgary and, on June 12, Montreal. On June 11, she spoke in Toronto at the Nova Exhibition, which features videos, presentations and artifacts from the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival in Israel. (See jewishindependent.ca/ visiting-the-nova-exhibition.)

Uti possidetis juris “is a universal rule that applies as a default wherever there is no agreement to the contrary,” Hausdorff explained at the Toronto talk. Mandatory Palestine – which included today’s Israel, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza – would, by law, become Israel’s territory, at the time of independence.

In 1967, Israel recovered Judea and Samaria, the eastern part of Jerusalem and Gaza, and expected a forthcoming “land for peace” formula with Jordan, she said. But, in the 1994 peace agreement between the two countries, Jordan stepped back from any demands for territory.

Hausdorff said there are modern parallels, giving as an example the “consensus that Russia has occupied Crimea from Ukraine.” According to international law, once the Soviet Union collapsed and its former states declared independence, the states inherited the previous borders, which means Crimea is Ukrainian territory.

If Ukraine were to recover Crimea from Russia in the same way that Israel recovered East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria from Jordan in 1967, she said, most likely no one except for Russia would complain Ukraine had taken what didn’t belong to them.

She sees world bodies guilty of a double standard, “a total inversion of international law.”

“You cannot have a general rule and an exception for a country you don’t like very much, that you have some political or ideological opposition to,” she said. “You cannot occupy what is your own sovereign territory – it puts the lie to illegal settlements, which is predicated on calling this land occupied.”

Hausdorff, an expert in international law, regularly briefs politicians and organizations worldwide on legal matters, and has spoken at parliaments across Europe.

On the charge of genocide against Israel, she said Amnesty International’s report with the allegation had faulty methodology – including using “local authorities in Gaza,” a codeword for Hamas, as a source. The report cycled through several parts of the United Nations and, in turn, made its way to the International Court of Justice, she said.

The “disinformation cycle” continues to spin its way through the media, who “are complicit in parroting this Hamas propaganda and in snuffing out the realities of the situation,” she added.

Several issues cast a pall over the international court, including that it has no jurisdiction over Israel, which isn’t a signatory – and neither is the Palestinian Authority, for lack of a state, said Hausdorff.

The International Court of Justice lost more credibility when, last year, it called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, she said. “That is unacceptable on every basic moral level. The position that Jews should not live in certain areas simply because they are Jews is what is being advocated by the international community?” she questioned.

The court’s former president, Nawaf Salam, who left his post earlier this year to become Lebanon’s prime minister, had called Israel a terror state while he was an ambassador to the UN. “A judge like that would need to recuse himself,” she said, owing to a clear conflict of interest.

“If we are going to be honest about the drivers of this conflict,” she said, it would be “indoctrination to terror, incentivization to terror – that is what the international community needs to commit itself to counter.”

StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano told the Jewish Independent that the speaking tour’s goal was for attendees “to hear the legal truths buried beneath the headlines.”

“With Israel’s legitimacy and actions constantly under scrutiny, it’s more important than ever to turn to experts who can clarify the facts,” said Primerano.

“What became most clear over the week,” he said, “was this: in a world where truth is often distorted, Canadians are eager for clear, fact-based insight to push back against the rising tide of misleading narratives.”

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

New tractor celebrated

On May 28, near Mbale, Uganda, the Abayudaya Jewish community celebrated the arrival of a tractor, gifted to them by Harmony Foundation of Canada. (photo from Elisha Higenyi & Tarphon Kamya / JRU)

On May 28, near Mbale, Uganda, the Abayudaya Jewish community celebrated a unique occasion – the arrival of a long-dreamt-of tractor.

For decades, the Abayudaya have lived as small and vibrant Jewish communities in a predominantly Christian and Muslim region; their faith rooted in a century-old embrace of Judaism. Life in this rural area is beautiful but challenging. Clean water is hard to find, health care is distant and most families, living on $2 a day, can’t afford to provide their children basic education. A tractor may seem unremarkable to many of us, but, for the Abayudaya and their neighbours, it is life-changing. With it, they can cultivate more land, increase yields, feed more families and send more children to school.

This gift of a tractor was made possible by the Harmony Foundation of Canada, which is supporting sustainable agricultural initiatives with the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda through Jewish Response Uganda. JRU is a nonprofit founded by members of the Abayudaya in 2017. The organization has worked to improve lives by offering training in sustainable agriculture, helping farmers grow high-value crops, and supporting initiatives in education, health care and women’s empowerment.

photo - With a tractor, the community can cultivate more land, increase yields, feed more families and send more children to school — With a tractor, the community can cultivate more land, increase yields, feed more families and send more children to school. *(photo from Elisha Higenyi & Tarphon Kamya / JRU)*

In a region where religious divisions often deepen hardship, JRU has chosen a path of inclusion. Today, Christians, Muslims and Jews work side by side in JRU programs, united by shared needs and a common hope for a better future. This inclusive approach fosters interfaith cooperation, mutual respect and a stronger, more united region.

For more information, watch the Harmony Foundation’s video The Abayudaya; Jews of Uganda on YouTube. You can email JRU at [email protected], or be in touch with Tarphon Kamya, project manager of JRU ([email protected]), or Elisha Higenyi, spiritual leader at JRU ([email protected]).

– Courtesy Harmony Foundation of Canada

New archive launched

The Jewpanese Project Archives was launched online earlier this month.

I grew up in a mixed Jewish and Japanese Canadian family. My Jewish grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Poland and what is now Belarus, and my Japanese Canadian grandparents were survivors of the New Denver internment camp here in British Columbia.

Earlier this month – which is Asian Heritage Month and Jewish Heritage Month – I launched on my website the Jewpanese Project Archives, which highlights a selection of 35 US-based interviews, which were collected between May 2022 and April 2025. (See carmeltanaka.ca/jewpanese-project-archives.)

The collection phase of the interviews was funded by my year-long fellowship with the Anti-Defamation League – the Collaborative for Change Fellowship – and the aggregation of data from the US-based interviews was funded by a Jews of Colour Initiative research grant.

Each profile in the Jewpanese Project Archives contains the name of the interviewee and a photo of them; the place and date of their interview; their Jewpanese connection and birthplace; a link to a short video and a written paragraph on being Jewpanese; a link to the full audio and written interview; a link to the Instagram writeup with pictures; and archive notes.

The Jewpanese Project evolved organically. In my early 30s, I started to learn about what happened to my families (as I didn’t know much) and, then, the opportunity fell into my lap to find and interview fellow Jewpanese in Canada, the United States, Japan and Israel. Originally intended to be a 20-interview endeavour, it turned into an 85-plus interview community archive.

The project also has grown into a comic about a kimono heirloom in my Jewish family, an animated film about my journey to Białystok, and a play about being Jewpanese, for which I received an artist grant from the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society (JCLS). I also received an intergenerational wellness grant from JCLS to record the forgotten Japanese Canadian history of the Okanagan Landing Station House in Vernon, BC, which is also available on my website, carmeltanaka.ca.

Growing up, I thought it was just my sister and me who had Japanese and Jewish heritage. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be connected to 230-plus Jewpanese community members worldwide. And there must be more, which is an exciting thought. Many of us in North America hadn’t met another Jewpanese person – other than our siblings – until this project, which was birthed out of our monthly community Zoom calls during the pandemic.

While you peruse the archives, I welcome you to listen and read through the interviews and Instagram highlights to learn about the experiences of being mixed in Japanese and Jewish communities in the United States, which are comparable to those in Canada. Whether it’s language, culture, rituals, identity or traditions, Jewpanese people have a wide spectrum of lived experiences, but one thing is pretty constant – our love of food. We have a number of Jewpanese fusion recipes!

One of the questions I ask in the interviews is whether or not participants have done “roots trips,” going to their ancestral homelands. Many of us haven’t, and many of our parents (including mine) haven’t either, especially here in North America. My first trip to Japan was last year, at the age of 37, as part of this project, and it was life-changing. Even though the collection phase funding has ended, I have used my Avion points to go to Europe to retrace the steps of my Jewish family – and that’s where I am now. I experienced firsthand how healing my Japan trip was for me and for my dad, whom I dragged along virtually, as his health is declining, so I am doing the same for my mom, whose health is also deteriorating.

My journey to Japan inspired a number of Jewpanese and Nikkei people to seek out family members there through a process to obtain one’s koseki (family register document), and I hope that my journey to Poland also will motivate my Jewpanese and Jewish communities to do the same. It can be inspiring to know our history and where we come from.

Many Jewpanese families are asking when the rest of the interviews (all the non-US-based interviews) will be processed, and my answer is “when I get funding.” I never expected this project to blossom as it has. It’s been the project of a lifetime and deeply personal. If you are in a position to support it, please do reach out. It would be wonderful to have the Canadian, Israeli and Japanese interviews processed for the archives, as well.

If you are a Jewpanese person, couple or family and would like to participate in this project, I am still accepting written interviews. Please contact me for an interview package.

Todarigato! (Toda + arigato, “thank you” in Hebrew and Japanese!)

Carmel Tanaka is the founder and executive director of JQT Vancouver, and curator of the B.C. Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project (jqtvancouver.ca/jqt-oral-history-bc) and the Jewpanese Oral History Project (Instagram: @JewpaneseProject). A version of this article was published in the Victoria Nikkei Forum.

Welcoming by example

Shifra Sharfstein and her husband, Shlomo, run Georgia Tech Chabad House with the help of their children. (photo from Shifra Sharfstein)

My parents invited countless people into their home over the decades and fed them on Shabbat and Passover. Little did we know that their acts of kindness would inspire one of their grandchildren to bring Shabbat dinners to hundreds of Jewish students at Georgia Tech in Atlanta each year.

Shifra Sharfstein grew up in Vancouver until she was in Grade 7, going to school at the local Chabad House and also learning about Judaism with her parents, Tzvi and Nomi Freeman, and grandparents, Joyce and Bernie Freeman.

“We went every Wednesday night for a special dinner,” Shifra recalled. “Grandma would spoil us with our favourites each week. She would read us a book and chat with us. She would listen to us talk and let us help make desserts in the kitchen. It was a space that was just all love, pure unconditional love.”

Shifra also gives credit to her grandfather, who supported my mom’s efforts to bring what seemed like the entire Jewish community into our house to feed them.

My mother grew up in India and her parents were from Iraq. Shifra remembers the Sephardi tomato soup with potatoes and meatballs, which took Mom a whole day to make.

“My cousin Ariella and me would talk all night about how much we loved that soup!” she said.

When Mom passed away, Shifra compiled a recipe book for family and friends called With Love from Joyce.

She remembers Mom’s international food.

“Baked Alaska coming out of the oven with cold ice cream inside always seemed like magic,” she said. (And then there was the cherry pie, which I can still taste.)

She remembers gathering together with her cousins before every Jewish holiday, making hundreds of hamantashen.

“I do the same with our college students, today,” she said.

Shifra runs Georgia Tech Chabad House with her husband Shlomo, and with the help of their eight children.

“I could go on forever talking about how much my grandmother and grandfather inspire me,” she said. “Whenever I’m in the kitchen for awhile, especially the week before Pesach, which is grandma’s yahrzeit, I feel her there with me. Sometimes, the powerful work we do is overwhelming, especially when we’re helping students deal with tragedy, and I close my eyes and see Grandma’s smile and feel the beautiful love she had channeled through me, her granddaughter.”

Recently, the couple threw a dinner for 500 Jewish students and dedicated it to the memory of Shifra’s grandparents. It was the first time so many people had dined there.

“Thank G-d we have lots of help and an amazing community of beautiful Georgia Tech students!” she said. “But we keep it all homemade at Chabad and I always incorporate Grandma’s flavours in it.”

Shifra said she also was inspired by the way her grandparents had so many guests who were welcomed like family.

“Grandma always said that what mattered was that we all got along,” Shifra explained. “She told us stories of Jews from different backgrounds and how what was most important is that we all came together, no matter our differences, with love … she truly loved every Jew with zero judgment. I think I absorbed that from her. She looked past the outside and saw that each person has a beautiful soul. She taught me how to do the same and I truly try to make that my focus every time I meet someone new.”

Shifra considers herself a feminist, running the Chabad House they live in and taking care of her children side by side with her husband. She is an accomplished speaker, as well.

“Knowledge is power,” she said. “I grew up being taught to always ask questions. My father and mother spent time learning with me as a young girl in Vancouver and the more I learnt and [the more] I asked, the more I realized how much I could accomplish.”

She added that she is inspired by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings about women.

“As a Chabad leader, I know my Rebbe taught me that Jewish women in leadership have a unique power as nurturers who can change the world with love,” she said. “It’s the same message [now] and I intend to take it with me and change my part of the world with that feminine loving touch.”

Chabad Georgia Tech has seven Jewish classes each week, a weekly BBQ, social events, events where they counsel students and, of course, the highlight of their week is Shabbat, with anywhere between 80 and 130 students who come and then stay, chatting late into the night after dinner.

All this activity has had an impact. For example, there have been three weddings in the last 14 years and, right now, another couple is engaged to be married.

Shifra says their success is due, as well, to their dedicated team of students, who run many of the events. There are about 1,000 Jewish students on campus.

Cassandra Freeman is a freelance journalist and improv comedy performer living in Vancouver.

Women’s leadership summit

BC emissaries joined the Kinus Hashluchos in February. (photo from chabad.org)

Some 4,000 Chabad-Lubavitch women emissaries and lay leaders from around the globe gathered in February in New York for the 35th annual International Conference of Chabad Women Emissaries, the largest Jewish women’s leadership gathering in the world. BC shluchot (emissaries) who attended were Chanie Baitelman (Richmond), Malky Bitton (Downtown Vancouver), Matti Feigelstock (Richmond), Raizy Fischer (Vancouver), Chana Gordon (Richmond), Fraidy Hecht (Okanagan), Chani Kaplan (Vancouver Island), Riki Oirechman (Vancouver) and Blumie Shemtov (Nanaimo).

While the yearly conference has a celebratory atmosphere, uniting women leaders from Alaska to Zambia, this year’s gathering came during a particularly challenging time for Jewish communities worldwide. From local wildfires to ongoing war in Israel and rising antisemitism on college campuses, the women on the frontlines of Jewish communal service are confronting urgent realities.

photo - The Kinus Hashluchos in February included a visit to the Ohel in Queens, NY, the resting place of the Rebbe, as well as the nearby grave of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka — The Kinus Hashluchos in February included a visit to the Ohel in Queens, NY, the resting place of the Rebbe, as well as the nearby grave of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. *(photo from chabad.org)*

The conference, known as Kinus Hashluchos, ran from Feb. 19 to Feb. 23, uniting women leaders from all 50 US states and more than 100 countries for five days of workshops, networking and spiritual renewal. The conference is annually timed to coincide with the anniversary of the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, of righteous memory, the wife of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

The Thursday morning saw the emissaries visit the Ohel in Queens, NY, the resting place of the Rebbe, as well as the nearby grave of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. The women came to pray for their families, communities and humanity at large, carrying countless prayer requests from people around the world.

Friday morning featured the iconic “class picture,” with thousands of women gathered in front of 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn, NY.

The capstone of the conference was Sunday’s gala banquet, held at the New Jersey Convention and Expo Centre in Edison, NJ. This year’s theme, “connection,” highlighted the bonds that unite Jewish people worldwide with each other and with their Creator.

– Courtesy chabad.org