{"id":49221,"date":"2026-06-26T01:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=49221"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:40:05","slug":"patriotic-belonging-diminishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/patriotic-belonging-diminishes\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriotic belonging diminishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

(photo by Cynthia Ramsay)<\/em><\/p>\n

When I was a kid, living near Washington, DC, my dad would hang an American flag up out in front of our house on US holidays. We\u2019d all go outside for Memorial Day or 4th of July and raise the flag together. It was a solemn ritual. It was uncomplicated and patriotic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As my understanding of US history and geopolitical actions changed, I still remember feeling a sense of awe as we sat on a blanket under the night sky, celebrating Independence Day with fireworks and Sousa marches. I carried that mostly uncomplicated feeling with me when we moved to Canada in 2009, the feeling of pride in where I lived. I became a dual citizen, believing I could hold that feeling for two nations at once.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Winnipeg changed its celebrations around Canada Day. Some of the huge gatherings resulted in spikes in crime. Many events also didn\u2019t properly acknowledge Indigenous peoples\u2019 roles in this country. We found, with younger kids, that the crowds, loud noises and late nights required to celebrate with others became too hard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The choice to downplay some aspects of Canada Day reflected a new understanding. Manitoba\u2019s Indigenous population is 18.1%, larger than any other province. Winnipeg is home to the largest urban Canadian Indigenous population. Our kids attend public school in a division where the student population is approximately 30% Indigenous. Indigenous peoples have complex relationship with patriotism for many valid reasons.<\/p>\n

I felt this nuanced understanding of patriotism and how it related to my country was only fair as a critical thinker who reads the news. Little of it had to do with my Jewish identity, I thought. Since Oct. 7, I realized that was incorrect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that \u201cCanada\u2019s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.\u201d This speech was, unfortunately, too little, and too late. While he did this, there were more incidents of hate, and little done to enforce the laws to stop it. Carney has created a new advisory council to combat hate, which has only one Jewish person on it. While one of their tasks is to tackle antisemitism, the council has a participant who supports Palestinian resistance via Iranian proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. Another member is a lawyer who represented Palestinian protesters in a university encampment. This doesn\u2019t strike anyone in the Jewish community as an unbiased or safe environment to combat Canadian antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Sorting through my feelings, I found a strange parallel in the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Chullin, which I am studying as part of Daf Yomi<\/i> (a page of Talmud a day). This tractate, about kosher slaughter, is technical but contains insights that have broader implications. On page 44, there\u2019s a discussion of treifa<\/i> and how to detect it. In this situation, treifa refers to an animal that has a physical defect and will likely die soon. This type of animal isn\u2019t kosher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, this is discovered only after slaughter. For the animal\u2019s owner, this is a financial loss, too. In Dr. Sara Ronis\u2019 essay on My Jewish Learning on Chullin 44, she highlights Rav Hisda, \u201cwho says: Who is a Torah scholar? This is one who sees his own treifa.\u201d This is someone who sees his animal\u2019s status, takes the financial loss and keeps potentially non-kosher meat out of the food supply. This person thinks critically enough to recognize when something might be harmful even when it\u2019s difficult and the outcome doesn\u2019t benefit them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All my thoughts about patriotism felt emotional but abstract until October 2023. Then it became personal. The following situation is one I had but illustrates multiple Jewish Canadian experiences.<\/p>\n

Someone I knew posted on social media. I\u2019d sat on a committee with her. I visited her farm. I supported her business. Right after Oct. 7, this person cheered \u201cresistance.\u201d She promoted a \u201cwalkout for Palestine\u201d at an urban high school near me. This person lived out in the country, not in the city. Still, she had lots of followers and this reaction to the Oct. 7 attack contributed to the antisemitism in Winnipeg.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I asked her why she did this, I heard that this non-Jewish, leftwing Canadian once dated a leftwing Israeli. She believed in \u201cone state\u201d for Israelis and Palestinians. She\u2019d once raised money to visit the West Bank but hadn\u2019t managed the trip. She then defined antisemitism for me. After this online confrontation continued, I broke off contact, but this person still follows me on Instagram. It feels like I\u2019m being stalked by someone who wants to monitor my minority identity.<\/p>\n

My kids now attend that public high school, and I imagine how dangerous it could be if they were there during a \u201cwalkout for Palestine.\u201d There\u2019s a straight line from having a leftwing non-Jew feel confident enough to define Jew-hate to me, a Jewish person, and the hate we\u2019re dealing with now. If a walkout happens at school, do my Jewish kids stay in the building, thus getting singled out as targets? My kids\u2019 choice to side with Israeli friends and family and the Jewish state means they could be endangered at school by such \u201cresistance\u201d activism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I moved to Canada, I reveled in how safe and public Jews felt in Winnipeg. It was a novelty after moving from Kentucky, where I\u2019d often felt worried about my safety. When someone recognized me on a Winnipeg street and called out to me from her bicycle, yelling that she knew me from synagogue, I felt unsettled. Six months later, I too felt safe enough to put my menorah in the dining room window during Hanukkah.<\/p>\n

Sadly, that first Hanukkah in Canada, in 2009, is when my house got egged. It felt safe to be Jewish here, but we still couldn\u2019t be that public about who we were.<\/p>\n

When my twins were preschoolers, they walked to synagogue with us, wearing kippahs, because they felt proud of their identity. It was also easier than getting the kippahs on just outside the shul. We\u2019re now in a situation where everyone\u2019s toque, sun hat or ball cap comes off and the kippah comes on \u2013 sometimes even inside the building. We\u2019ve had to change. It wasn\u2019t safe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many in Canada and the United States, I am now significantly less trusting of government and our country\u2019s actions. I wonder if I will know when it\u2019s time to move, when things are too unsafe. The older me sees value in the ways of Rav Hisda. It\u2019s a sign of wisdom and maturity when we can identify and predict a loss or risk before it happens, and even cut our losses.<\/p>\n

Part of me wishes for that uncomplicated time when I could lay back on my blanket, watch the fireworks and feel soaring pride. I\u2019m sad to have lost that pride and the easy feeling of belonging I had in the past. Now, I wonder if I ever really belonged then, either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joanne Seiff <\/b>has written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/i>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(photo by Cynthia Ramsay) When I was a kid, living near Washington, DC, my dad would hang an American flag up out in front of our house on US holidays. We\u2019d all go outside for Memorial Day or 4th of July and raise the flag together. It was a solemn ritual. It was uncomplicated and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[801,3157,22462,6312,5914,218,24928,3597,2427,2231],"class_list":["post-49221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-antisemitism","tag-canada","tag-canada-day","tag-governance","tag-identity","tag-judaism","tag-patriotism","tag-politics","tag-racism","tag-talmud"],"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\/49221","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=49221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}