The memory of the Holocaust is frequently misused and abused. Enemies of Israel exploit the memory and imagery of the Shoah, using it against Zionists to deliberately cause pain. Many people unintentionally diminish this history by nonchalantly throwing around terms associated with the Nazi era.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Project Democracy, a group that aims to convince Canadians to vote for the candidate in their riding most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate, produced a meme with a picture of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the words: \u201cCanadians fought fascism from 1939 to 1945. Why vote for it now?\u201d This from an organization that has as the first line on its Facebook page: \u201cOur objective \u2026 is to *raise* the bar of Canadian political discourse, not *lower* it.\u201d Fail.<\/p>\n
It may be especially bewildering to see those who, of all people, should know better, exploit tragic history. Recently, there was a tempest involving Ontario Conservative MP Mark Adler (again).<\/p>\n
Adler was the MP who embarrassed himself, his party and the prime minister while on a trip to Israel last year. Harper was praying at the Western Wall when Adler, in perfect proximity to a media microphone, urged one of the PM\u2019s handlers to let Adler get in the picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis, it\u2019s the reelection,\u201d said Adler, whose riding has a significant concentration of Jewish voters. \u201cThis is the million-dollar shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident undermined the Conservative party\u2019s insistence that its support for Israel is principled, not political.<\/p>\n
Last week, Adler was criticized for appearing to exploit his family\u2019s own history when he advertised himself as a son of a Holocaust survivor.<\/p>\n
This is not irrelevant information. Being Jewish and being a son of a Holocaust survivor almost certainly has an impact on the manner in which Adler\u2019s worldview has been shaped. It was pointed out, in his defence, that other people have proudly declared their own unique heritage such as, in one instance, being the first Canadian of Asian heritage appointed to the Senate. Fair enough.<\/p>\n
But Adler\u2019s fault here is twofold. First, he proclaimed himself the first child of a Holocaust survivor elected to Parliament, which was quickly corrected by former Liberal MP Raymonde Folco. Folco, who represented a Montreal-area riding from 1997 to 2011, is not only a child of Holocaust survivors but a child survivor herself. She told Canadian Jewish News<\/em> (see story on page 4) that it was \u201cdisgusting\u201d for Adler \u201cto use the Holocaust in this way, for personal ends.\u201d She did not publicize her family\u2019s experience before, she said, accusing Adler of \u201cprofiting\u201d from his.<\/p>\n Ouch. But being incorrect on whether he was the first or second child of survivors pales when compared with the form of his use of this family history. On a large banner printed for the window of his campaign office \u2013 which has since been changed \u2013 there were four points he wanted voters to take away: \u201cSon of a Holocaust survivor\u201d topped the list. This was followed by \u201cRaising my family in Bathurst Manor\u201d (a heavily Jewish neighborhood), \u201cStrong supporter of Israel\u201d and \u201cKeeping our community and the economy strong.\u201d On another banner, the wording and order varied, but the messages were the same.<\/p>\n We get it. You like us. You\u2019re one of us. But this is just unseemly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The memory of the Holocaust is frequently misused and abused. Enemies of Israel exploit the memory and imagery of the Shoah, using it against Zionists to deliberately cause pain. Many people unintentionally diminish this history by nonchalantly throwing around terms associated with the Nazi era. Earlier this year, Project Democracy, a group that aims to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4146,53,988,4443,4429],"class_list":["post-14293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-ji","tag-federal-election","tag-holocaust","tag-mark-adler","tag-project-democracy","tag-raymonde-folco"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}