Stop anti-Semitism FAST

Mixed emotions are natural at the news of a new organization created to fight anti-Semitism in Canada. Fighting Anti-Semitism Together (FAST) was formed by Bank of Montreal CEO Tony Comper, his wife, Elizabeth, and a cadre of mostly Toronto-based business leaders.

This is not a Jewish organization. FAST was created because a group of aware non-Jews realized that something had to be done about the state of prejudice in Canada aimed at members of the Jewish community. In itself, this is laudable and encouraging. The fact that FAST's genesis was precipitated by an increase in reported anti-Semitic incidents is the bitter part of this encouraging story.

It is past time that non-Jews took up the cause of fighting anti-Semitism. It has been a sad truth of the long history of this persistent hatred that opposing it falls inordinately on members of the victimized group themselves. It is natural that Jews should lead the battle against anti-Semitism. Those who are most immediately affected by a negative social phenomenon are logically the first and most vocal in opposing it. But it is neither fair nor effective that Jews have been required to carry the burden of struggling against anti-Semitism. Jews cannot end anti-Semitism any more than any minority group can alter the discrimination they suffer. Ending discrimination requires action by members of those groups who perpetrate it, just as stopping rape is a job for men, though women as often as not are the backbone of that movement.

Though Jews may benefit from an increased degree of tolerance thanks to the work of FAST, it is not Jews alone who will benefit. Just as discrimination hurts the whole of society along with its intended victims, an improvement in the status of one ethnocultural group will improve the status of multicultural Canada as a whole. Welcome, FAST. We've been waiting for you.