StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano and lawyer Anita Bromberg, director of the organization\u2019s new legal department. <\/i>(photos from SWU)<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>StandWithUs Canada has just launched a new legal department to help students navigate the climate on Canadian campuses.<\/p>\n
StandWithUs Canada is an educational organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, challenge misinformation and fight antisemitism within schools and communities. While the organization has always helped students navigate legal challenges, up to now, according to executive director Jesse Primerano, the organization has had to outsource cases to volunteer lawyers on a case-by-case basis. Cases have included incidents of human rights complaint violations by, for example, a university or a student union. With a staff lawyer leading a new department, StandWithUs aims to have greater reach in the legal realm.<\/p>\n
Anita Bromberg is a lawyer with extensive practice experience in human rights and constitutional law, including religious freedom, censorship and freedom of speech cases. She has done research and teaching, worked with B\u2019nai Brith Canada as a human rights officer and legal counsel, and served as executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. She has argued before the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n
After Oct. 7, 2023, Bromberg rededicated herself to the Jewish community and fighting antisemitism, heading the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that, in my position, I will bring that expertise and connections and networking to StandWithUs,\u201d Bromberg told the Independent<\/i>. \u201cAnd, most importantly, to me, is to find a way to bring our community together so that we are a lean, mean fighting machine that parallels the type of support that we\u2019re seeing the anti-Israel crowd getting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anti-Israel organizations have lawyers on call, according to Bromberg and Primerano, and Jewish students and their allies need parallel defences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Students are being confronted on campus, including in classrooms, with aggressive harassment not only from student activists but from professors and faculty advisors, said Bromberg.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to being harassed, students are being doxxed \u2013 having their personal information, like home addresses, made public \u2013 and access to public spaces like tables and room rentals on campus is being denied to Jewish students based on their political views, said Primerano. Jewish students are being silenced, he said, based on justifications that events, for example, cannot go forward for their own protection, based on security concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cThey need legal support to understand what they can do to defend themselves against a machine that\u2019s trying to take them down,\u201d said Primerano.<\/p>\n Launching the legal department has been a longtime goal of StandWithUs Canada, said Primerano.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt required not only funding, but it required us to make sure the rest of our infrastructure was immaculate,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Legal avenues are often the only option for students who feel harmed by the actions of an institution or its representatives, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, very little holds universities to account outside of the law itself,\u201d Primerano said. \u201cThat is the one thing that they say that they respect.\u201d<\/p>\n The new legal department, with a single employee, is just the beginning, he maintained. The organization envisions a future with multiple lawyers and several staff members, collaborating with lawyers across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not planning to solve this problem on our own,\u201d said Primerano. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to build a network of pro bono lawyers across Canada who are willing to support us here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n The goal, ultimately, is to make sure that students have somebody they can call that is specifically focused on their issues. From there, StandWithUs might engage with community partners as appropriate, such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and others.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to build a real network,\u201d he said. \u201cOur fundamental belief is that the community is stronger when we work together, but we also know that the university students need a point of contact, and all we\u2019re trying to establish here for them is a point of contact with expertise and reliability that can then utilize the rest of the infrastructure that exists, especially with Anita being based in Toronto, to speak to lawyers in Vancouver and say, \u2018You\u2019ve already been having these conversations. Let\u2019s work together to make sure that we can effect a change.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bromberg\u2019s deep roots in the Jewish community and legal experience mean she can hit the ground running on complex issues.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that was one reason why I got the nod for this position,\u201d said Bromberg, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve been in the community, I\u2019ve networked with pretty much every organization and I\u2019ve always adopted a cooperative measure. I think that the unity in the community is probably the most important thing that we have to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n