{"id":49205,"date":"2026-06-26T01:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=49205"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:24:02","slug":"responding-to-carney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/responding-to-carney\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to Carney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panelists at the event Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, left to right: Ben Mulroney (broadcaster), Natasha Pein (researcher), Simon Wolle (B\u2019nai Brith Canada), Matthew Taub (Unapologetically Jewish) and Amir Epstein (Tafsik). <\/i>(photo by Dave Gordon)<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>Two weeks after Mark Carney\u2019s address on antisemitism at Toronto\u2019s Holy Blossom Temple, Jewish community members offered a counterweight \u2013 a gathering led by grassroots activists, journalists and elected officials, both Jewish and non-Jewish.<\/p>\n

Called Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, the nearly four-hour meeting drew roughly 600 people to the city\u2019s Chabad Flamingo synagogue on June 14. Organizers described it as an unprecedented gathering of local pro-Israel groups \u2013 many sharing a stage for the first time \u2013 aimed at confronting the question of what kind of leadership this moment demands, and what concrete steps the community must take.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Organized by Yalla, partner groups included Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, B\u2019nai Brith Canada, Chai Tech and Tafsik. Jewish panelists included Matthew Taub of Unapologetically Jewish, Amir Epstein of Tafsik, Jesse Brown of Canadaland and Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman. Non-Jewish allies who spoke included broadcaster Ben Mulroney, educator Ali Siadatan, Juno News reporter Melanie Bennet, former MP Kevin Vuong and Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The central message was that the community can no longer rely on vague reassurances, symbolic gestures or reactive fundraising alone. Speakers argued that the real work now must be proactive: building stronger Jewish identity, demanding governmental accountability, creating civic pressure and abandoning what several described as a culture of managed decline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
MP Melissa Lantsman (Conservative, Thornhill) addresses a June 14 gathering in Toronto that was held in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s June 1 speech on antisemitism. (photo by Dave Gordon)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Lantsman, the answer begins outside politics. She argued that what this moment demands is \u201ca renewed Jewish identity,\u201d adding that \u201cbefore lobbying, before the press releases, before the next emergency appeal or the fundraising, more Jewish life is actually what\u2019s necessary.\u201d In her telling, public advocacy will only be durable if it is rooted in private conviction, education and continuity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She also urged the audience to move outward, into politics and public life, \u201cnot as a supplicant\u201d but as citizens who vote, donate, organize and remember. Politicians who abandon the Jewish community, she said, should feel it \u201cat the ballot box,\u201d because \u201cthis isn\u2019t a Jewish problem, it\u2019s a Canada problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The insistence on moving from rhetoric to measurable action was sharpened by strategy consultant Maureen Leshem in her remarks. Drawing on conversations with intelligence officials, police, community leaders and counterterrorism experts, she said she had concluded that the community is \u201cdangerously unprepared for what\u2019s currently happening, and even less prepared for what lies ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leshem argued that the community must rethink \u201ceverything, from our leadership choices, to how we spend our money, to how we work together.\u201d Too often, she said, Jewish institutions and donors are stuck in \u201creaction mode,\u201d raising funds to mitigate threats rather than forcing governments and public agencies to do the jobs they are already obligated to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A shooting at a Jewish institution, she said, is not mere vandalism or mischief but \u201ctargeted, potentially lethal violence against the Jewish community that demands the full weight of a national security response.\u201d When Jewish families and institutions are expected to fund their own protection, she warned, the result is \u201ca private tax on Jewish existence,\u201d which risks normalizing public failure.<\/p>\n

Leshem\u2019s call to action was blunt: enough slogans. \u201cDo not get up here and tell us that antisemitism is unacceptable. We know,\u201d she said. Instead, leaders should explain what they are going to do, what laws they are demanding, what institutions they are pressuring and what risks they are willing to take.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Warner, co-founder of Yalla, said that, after Carney\u2019s speech and subsequent committee appointments, it \u201cbecame pretty clear that we\u2019re going to have to take this into our own hands,\u201d both as individuals and as organizations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Warner said too many people he knows have already left Canada, but he rejected emigration as an answer. \u201cPlan B is not leaving. Plan B is fighting back,\u201d he said, urging attendees to stand up for themselves in new ways and to use their voices \u201cas if their future here depended on it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The point, he said, is not simply to denounce antisemitism but to demonstrate Jewish life confidently and publicly in places where falsehoods about Jews are spreading most effectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unapologetically Jewish\u2019s Taub observed that, since Oct. 7, dozens of Jewish organizations have sprung up, but real coordination remains uneven. \u201cSuppressing what others have to say is not unity, that is division,\u201d he said, arguing that calling out institutional mistakes should be understood as honesty rather than disloyalty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Taub accused parts of the organized community of applying temporary remedies to a crisis. \u201cThey are throwing Tylenol at cancer, and it\u2019s not working,\u201d he said, after arguing that some Jewish organizations have spent more energy lobbying internal critics than lobbying governments on behalf of the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bennet addressed what she sees as the nature of the threat itself. Discussing themes she observed at a Muslim Association of Canada convention, she warned of a \u201cdestructive anti-Western ideology\u201d in which Jews are often the first target but not the only one. \u201cYou guys feel it the strongest,\u201d she said, but the larger struggle, in her view, is the attempt to reshape institutions and public life more broadly. Beware, she said, of \u201cjihadis in Armani suits,\u201d referring to the public propaganda face of Islamist terrorists.<\/p>\n

Vuong, another ally, framed the issue in similarly expansive terms. He said his support was motivated not only by solidarity but by \u201cself-preservation,\u201d because \u201cthe people who hate you hate me as well,\u201d adding that the old warning holds: what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.<\/p>\n

Independent of the conference, several of Canada\u2019s national Jewish organizations also have responded to Carney\u2019s remarks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Jewish federations across Canada, for example, issued an open letter reading, in part: \u201cInstead of urgent, concrete measures, the government announced an advisory council, tasked first with further evaluating a crisis that has already been studied extensively, and which includes individuals who are not suited to lead government action on antisemitism. For many Jewish Canadians, this felt like the rug being pulled out from under us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an opportunity for the prime minister to meet the moment,\u201d said Simon Wolle, B\u2019nai Brith Canada\u2019s chief executive officer, in a release. (Wolle also spoke at the Toronto gathering.) \u201cInstead, Canadians heard a speech that described the problem more than it confronted it. The Jewish community did not require another acknowledgment that antisemitism is raging across the country, we needed a plan proportional to the scale of the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada is not facing an antisemitism awareness problem. Canada has an antisemitism problem,\u201d he said. \u201cThe country has been poisoned with Jew-hatred and we need a remedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish Independent<\/i> reached out to other national Jewish organizations, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarney is correct to note the rise of antisemitism is tied to larger trends of conspiracism, polarization and hate worldwide,\u201d said Vancouver-based Maytal Kowalski, JSpace Canada\u2019s executive director. \u201cIt is important to recognize this, not to universalize or trivialize antisemitism, but, in fact, the opposite \u2013 to fight it at its root and along with allies.\u201d She said including \u201callies and leaders from different minority communities\u201d is important if the work is to happen \u201cholistically.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gabriella Goliger, national chair of Canadian Friends of Peace Now, said \u201cIsrael\u201d was missing from the prime minister\u2019s remarks. \u201cHe could have emphasized that he recognizes diaspora Jews\u2019 emotional ties to Israel, that Canada is a friend to Israel,\u201d she said, while also stressing that Canadian Jews \u201cmust not be held accountable for Israeli policy\u201d and that there is \u201ca huge difference between legitimate peaceful protest against Israeli actions, and using protest as a smokescreen for antisemitism.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the full reactions and recommendations of CIJA, B\u2019nai Brith and JSpace, visit their respective websites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dave Gordon<\/b> is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panelists at the event Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, left to right: Ben Mulroney (broadcaster), Natasha Pein (researcher), Simon Wolle (B\u2019nai Brith Canada), Matthew Taub (Unapologetically Jewish) and Amir Epstein (Tafsik). (photo by Dave Gordon) Two weeks after Mark Carney\u2019s address on antisemitism at Toronto\u2019s Holy Blossom Temple, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[801,3157,23840,3597],"class_list":["post-49205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-antisemitism","tag-canada","tag-mark-carney","tag-politics"],"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\/49205","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=49205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}