Bema Productions’ The Last Yiddish Speaker cast, director and crew: standing, left to right, Tess Nolan, Kevin McKendrick, Andrea Eggenberger, Nolan McConnell-Fidyk and Ian Case; seated, Siobhan Davies, left, and Zelda Dean. The play imagines a world in which the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC, was successful and Christian nationalists have taken over the United States. (photo by Peter Nadler)
Victoria’s Bema Productions is staging the international premiere of Deborah Laufer’s The Last Yiddish Speaker at Congregation Emanu-El’s Black Box Theatre June 18-29.
The drama imagines a dystopian world in which the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC, was successful and Christian nationalists have taken over the United States. In the play, a Jewish father and daughter must be careful and cunning, as any deviation from the norm could be deadly. When an aged Yiddish-speaking woman lands on their doorstep, they must decide whether to take the risk of helping the woman or focus on saving themselves.
Laufer has numerous full-length plays to her credit, as well as dozens of short plays and even musicals (written with composer Daniel Green). Her plays have been produced around the world and she has been recognized with numerous awards.
While The Last Yiddish Speaker focuses on Judaism and the right for Jews to exist, the play could be about any marginalized group, in any country.
“Although the play is set in the USA, the theme is universal: the struggle of good over evil,” Zelda Dean, founder and managing artistic director of Bema, told the Independent. “In this play, Canada is still a safe place for Jews.”
That said, it has a message for Canadian audiences, as well, Dean said. “It is very important that we address social and political issues, particularly with the huge increase in antisemitism in Canada. The play is entertaining, engaging and enlightening. It takes place in 2029, when the fascists have taken over the USA. It is timely and powerful.”
Directed by Kevin McKendrick, The Last Yiddish Speaker features Ian Case, Siobhan Davies, Nolan McConnell-Fidyk and Dean.
McKendrick is an award-winning director, notably being recognized by the Alberta Theatre Projects for significant contributions to theatre in Calgary. Case, a veteran stage actor on Vancouver Island, is also a director and arts advocate. Davies, meanwhile, is a stage and cinematic performer – she will be appearing in the upcoming film Allure, shot in Victoria. McConnell-Fidyk is a local actor who appeared in Survivors, a play aimed at spreading information about the Holocaust to audiences from Grade 6 and up. (See jewishindependent.ca/theatre-that-educates and jewishindependent.ca/survivors-play-brings-tears.)
Before the November 2024 presidential elections, Laufer told Philadelphia public radio station WHYY about her reasons for writing the play, including that she was deeply disturbed by the events of Jan. 6. “I thought, ‘Is this the end? Is our democracy completely ended?’” she said.
“The play reminds us there are times in history when we have the choice to speak out against oppression or choose to remain silent. You get the government you deserve,” McKendrick told the Independent. “How will you respond when faced with outright injustice?”
Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt speaks with Einat Wilf, Israeli author and thinker, who shared her views on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (photo by AdeleLewin)
Israel and its region are in a moment of danger and opportunity, according to Einat Wilf, who spoke in Vancouver April 25.
The Israeli author, commentator and former Labour Party member of the Knesset, said Israel and those who wish to destroy it have been locked in a repetitive series of disasters for almost 80 years. The current moment could alter – or enforce – that dynamic.
“This is a moment when, if we do not do the right things, we will remain stuck in a loop,” she said at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue.
The cycle of conflict has dragged on because of a scenario in which, she said, “the Jews are never allowed to win, the Arabs are never allowed to lose – or at least are never allowed to acknowledge defeat.”
Wilf calls this the “tragedy of ceasefires.”
The Arab world tried to prevent the creation of a Jewish state and then, since 1948, has attempted to undo the existence of that state. This is the core of the conflict, she argued.
“When it becomes clear that they are about to fail, what people call for is a ceasefire,” she said. “But what would actually help us is not a ceasefire. What would help us is to bring back the great ideas of victory and defeat, because those are actually necessary for us to get to peace.”
Instead, the world demands that the parties go back to the negotiating table, as if nothing had happened, she said.
“People talk about the conflict constantly going on, as if it’s by some bizarre coincidence,” she said. “It’s not. It’s because the Arab side for decades has been constantly told, try again, try again. If you haven’t succeeded this time, try again.”
One of the ruptures in the dialogue, Wilf said, is the idea that the only thing standing between
Israelis and peace is the establishment of a Palestinian state. This has been the driving force in decades of peace efforts, “only to realize that this is not what the Palestinians had ever wanted.”
The problem, she said, is that many Jews and others refuse to take the plainly stated Palestinian and Arab message at face value. Many Jews on her social media feed disagree with her, she said. Many Arabs, by contrast, are up-front.
“The Arabs on my feed would write this: ‘You are settler-colonialist, white Europeans. Get out.’ I love that,” she said. “They’re saying there shouldn’t be a Jewish state.” And yet, the Jews who comment, she said, keep coming back to settlements, the occupation and other issues that ignore that the root of the problem is a Palestinian and larger Arab refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state in any part of the region, said Wilf.
Two Israeli prime ministers, Ehud Barack in 2000 and Ehud Olmert in 2008, tried to negotiate a resolution, only to find that two different Palestinian leaders, Yasser Arafat in 2000 and Mahmoud Abbas in 2008, walked away and reverted to violence, she said. Between those two administrations, a different prime minister, Ariel Sharon, decided that, if the Palestinians would not sign an agreement, he would just give them land.
“He gets out of the Gaza Strip to the last square inch, and we know what they did with that control of the territory,” said Wilf.
The devastation experienced by Gaza and its people in the current war is a tragic moment, but also a possible turning point.
“Moments of ruin and destruction, both in personal as in collective lives, can be moments of growth and transformation,” she said. “But only if you acknowledge the possibility.”
Wilf admits that people say she speaks harshly.
“I do,” she agreed. “Because we have not benefited from people who soften the message. We try to cut corners, we don’t go to touch the molten lava that is at the core of our conflict.”
For years, long before Oct. 7, European capitals have been sending money to Palestinian regimes to feel good about themselves, she said. “But it does no good. It just extends the conflict.”
She tells European audiences to change their approach. “You want to do good?” she asks. “You need to tell the Palestinians, given that your goal in the last century was to prevent and then to undo the existence of a Jewish state: you lost, and it’s over. You can find a dignified life next to a Jewish state but not instead of it.”
Hard truths are difficult to dislodge, said Wilf, and they can be perpetuated at the highest levels. When Joe Biden, then the US president, visited Israel after Oct. 7, Wilf said, he went out of his way to argue that Hamas does not represent ordinary Palestinians.
“It’s a lie that we often tell to comfort ourselves,” argued Wilf. “Hamas is merely the most brutal and successful executor of the ideology that we’ve come to call Palestinianism.”
The ideology, she said, does not hide its goal of eradicating the existence of Israel “from the river to the sea.”
Terms like “right of return” hold equally brutal meanings.
“You look at Palestinian Arab texts from the ’50s, the ’60s, they are very clear about the term,” she said. “They talk about ‘We will tear their hearts out of their bodies, their fingernails from their limbs.’ That’s why you have euphoria on Oct. 7 – euphoria across the people of Gaza, euphoria across the people of the West Bank, Palestinians and their collaborators around the world. The euphoria was not [because Palestinians were] breaking out of some open-air prison…. The euphoria was that they finally saw the moment that they had been groomed for, for decades.… Hamas executed Oct. 7 on behalf of Palestinianism, on behalf of the Palestinian people – for them and of them.”
That is the only way to understand what happened, she argued, or to understand how billions of dollars in international aid have resulted not in social progress but in a militarized terror regime with hundreds of kilometres of tunnels under schools, mosques, homes and kindergartens.
“You can only do something like that among a supportive population, when you are intent on carrying out the vision of that population,” she said. “So, the enemy is not just Hamas. That’s too easy. The enemy is Palestinianism. And that ideology has to die so that Jews and Arabs can finally live.”
An ideology can indeed be killed, she argued. “In fact, it happens all the time. We all live in a world where ideologies are constantly killed and dying and replaced by others.”
A first step, Wilf contended, is rejecting what she calls “trauma determinism” – the idea that people who are collectively traumatized can only respond with violence and stubborn resistance. This manifests in the idea that Israel’s actions will only further radicalize Palestinians. “I don’t know that there is much further to radicalize,” she noted.
Trauma determinism is not real, she said – or, at least, it need not be. “Exhibit A: the Jewish people,” she said. But she also raised the examples of Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. “They suffered violence. The issue is not the violence,” she said. “The issue is what is the story that gets told. That’s why this moment is so important. Because, just like nothing succeeds like success, nothing fails like failure. People begin to run away from failure.”
To move on and embrace peace, she said, Palestinians, like Germans and Japanese before them, have to acknowledge defeat.
“Embracing defeat is not necessarily a bad thing,” she said. “And that process needs to happen. I’m not denying that there is ruin and devastation in Gaza. The question is, how is that ruin and devastation understood? Because, if the story is big, bad evil Israel did that to you and you are just innocent Gazan victims of Israel’s evil nature, then nothing will change. What needs to happen is something that has never happened in the last century of the conflict, which is a connection between cause and effect, action and consequences.”
Palestinians, the broader Arab polity and the world need to understand that the ruin and devastation inflicted upon Gaza is the outcome of their ideology. Some other peoples in the region have awakened to this idea and begun to give up their fruitless hostility to Israel, Wilf said.
“It is always the mark of failed societies in crisis, looking to scapegoat, looking to find someone to blame, looking to divert attention from their failures,” she said. “It’s not a coincidence, therefore, that those countries in the Arab world who are trying to forge a modern vision, a forward-looking vision of what it means to be an Arab and Muslim, are the ones that are letting go of anti-Zionism and normalizing relations with Israel. This is the only vision forward. And I’m under no illusions. It remains a minority view in the Arab and Islamic world. But, for the first time ever, it exists, vocally.”
Israeli commentator and former member of the Knesset Einat Wilf, right, was thanked after her presentation by Tracy Ames. (photo by Adele Lewin)
While they might not embrace the term themselves, Wilf suggests these parties are exhibiting what she calls “Arab Zionism” – the simple acknowledgement that Israel exists and has a right to do so.
It is voices in the West who are most resistant to change, she said.
“The tragedy of this moment is that some in the Arab world are waking up from decades of anti-Zionism as a waste and a ruin, and seeking to have a different vision,” said Wilf. “You have so many here in the West rushing to fill the void and to essentially keep fueling the conflict so that the erasure of Israel can finally be achieved. That is the tragedy. It is also, of course, remarkably dangerous. Because what’s happening now in the West, as much as it pretends to be about the conflict, it’s not.”
It’s about something more insidious, she contended. What is portrayed as anti-Zionism has historically shown itself to be something baser.
“What happens to Jews when societies allow anti-Zionism to become institutionalized?” she asked. Everywhere that anti-Zionism rises to the level of being institutionalized or legislated, the environment turns hostile to Jewish life, she said.
“In the Arab world, how did they get rid of their Jews in the two decades when anti-Zionism was at its height? They never legislated against the Jews. They legislated against Zionists. Iraq, Egypt – the legislation was against Zionists,” she said. “But the way it works is that the Jews are charged with Zionism and no Jew – I know some really try hard but no Jew – will ever be able to disavow Zionism because, heaven forbid, they just celebrated Passover and said, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ And that’s how it works.” If such actions are not stopped, she said, “ultimately, no Jews are left.”
“This is what happened in the Arab world, in Iran, in the history of Europe, in the Soviet Union, in Venezuela and it’s happening on American campuses as we speak,” she contended.
Now, efforts are underway in Canada and elsewhere to codify “anti-Palestinian racism,” which Wilf dismisses as a prohibition against Zionism.
On the other hand, there is, she clarified, genuine anti-Palestinian racism. “It is the racism of refusing to listen to Palestinians and take them at their word,” she said. “There is a refusal to really acknowledge them as agents in history who know what they are doing and who actually have their own rational vision of no Jewish state.”
The future depends on how Palestinians and the world interpret the destruction that has taken place in Gaza.
“We are facing a moment that has at once great peril but also great hope,” said Wilf. “Amazingly, so much rides on whether we will ensure that the ruin and destruction in Gaza will finally be associated as the consequence, the outcome, the effect of the Palestinian choice to pursue the always-destructive vision of no Jewish state, because, if they can finally be made to embrace defeat, and to begin the slow process [toward peace] then, at the end of the day, I can assure you that, if they become Arab Zionists, it would be better for everyone.”
Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt welcomed the audience and thanked the Hayes Family Israel Initiative for funding Wilf’s visit, in memory of Dr. Arthur and Arlene Hayes z”l.
In times of rising antisemitism and violence, fear is valid. When the world feels like it’s unraveling, anchoring yourself in a deeper sense of purpose can be healing. (screenshot)
Fear is not a weakness. It’s a deeply human response to a real or perceived threat. In times of rising antisemitism and violence, fear is valid. But we must not let it be the only voice in the room.
By acknowledging the fear – whether of violence, isolation or helplessness – we reduce its power. At the same time, we also make space for other emotions, such as courage, care and resilience, to emerge.
There are many things we can do to help us overcome the foreboding atmosphere of negativity and fear that is knocking at our door. Focusing on what we can do, gives us a sense of agency when we might otherwise feel helpless and alone.
There is the physical aspect of fear. It is important to be aware of what is happening as you notice you are feeling anxious, by staying present and being grounded. The brain often races into the future during fear: What if this happens to my community? My family? Me? This kind of “catastrophic thinking” pulls us out of the moment and floods our bodies with stress hormones.
It is important to know how to manage physical symptoms as they come up. Have you ever practised mindful breathing or meditation? Going to the beach and being aware of the beauty of our surroundings is a way to relax the constant noise that comes with stressful thinking. It is important to stay informed, but we often tend to keep scrolling for more information when there might not be anything else available. Learn how to say “dayeinu,” it is enough for today.
Build connection, not isolation
Fear thrives in silence. One of the most powerful antidotes to fear is community; connecting with people who understand your pain and can help hold it with you. It is important to build community to fight isolation. Ask yourself:
• Who in my life can I be vulnerable with?
• Is there a synagogue, support group or mental health resource I can lean on?
• Can I be that presence for someone else?
There is strength in the simple act of saying, “You’re not alone.” It may be that your reaching out to ask for help will in fact help someone else.
Not everyone will be on the front lines of activism – and that’s OK. But each of us has a role to play in healing the world, even in small ways:
• Check in on someone who may be afraid or isolated.
• Wear your Jewish identity with pride – a Magen David, a kippah – if it feels right to you.
• Educate others, kindly and clearly, when misinformation spreads.
• Support Jewish organizations and security efforts.
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it whispers, “I will keep showing up.”
When the world feels like it’s unraveling, anchoring yourself in a deeper sense of purpose can be healing. Ask yourself where you can make an impact. Do you have a particular skill that may make a difference to individuals or an organization? Judaism has a rich tradition of resilience, moral clarity and hope. Pirkei Avot 2:5 reminds us that, “In a place where there are no leaders, strive to be that leader.” In other words, act with integrity, even when others do not. This is real courage and takes strength and commitment.
Judaism teaches us to choose hope
Our tradition teaches us to choose hope, again and again. Hope isn’t naïve. It’s an act of spiritual resistance. It’s choosing to believe, even with trembling hands, that goodness still exists and that we are its agents. When you are with friends and family, celebrate moments of kindness. Remind one another of stories, not only of loss, but of survival and joy.
Living Jewishly, publicly and proudly, in today’s world takes immense strength. You are not alone in your fear – nor in your resolve. Fear may visit, but it doesn’t get to move in and take over. Our world needs as many of us to be positive ambassadors as we need those fighting antisemitism on the front lines. As Mahatma Gandhi once expressed it, “be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Shelley Karrel is a registered clinical counsellor in Vancouver; you can reach her at karrelcounselling.com.
A Night of Resilience, held at UBC Hillel House March 27, was emceed by students Samantha Schwenger and Izaiah Isaac. (photo from Hillel BC)
Jewish students, allies and community members packed the second-floor social hall at the University of British Columbia’s Hillel House March 27 for A Night of Resilience. It was a celebration of the determination and tenacity of students since the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the spike in antisemitism on campuses.
The evening was emceed by Izaiah Isaac, a third-year student studying forest biology, and Samantha Schwenger, a third-year cellular and molecular neuroscience student. They expressed solidarity with the hostages and the broader Israeli population.
“Tonight, we gather here at Hillel to honour more than just achievements,” said Isaac. “We are here to pay tribute to something far deeper – to the resilience of Jewish students, their unwavering courage and their relentless pursuit of justice in a world that has felt, at times, unbearably heavy.”
“In the past year-and-a-half, Jewish students across British Columbia have been faced with an unimaginable reality,” Schwenger said. “The war in Israel, beginning on Oct. 7, brought with it a wave of violence and sorrow that impacted not only our families, but our very sense of security. And, in its wake, antisemitism surged, leaving Jewish students on campuses everywhere to bear the brunt of hatred, fear and division.”
Rabbi Kylynn Cohen, Hillel’s senior Jewish educator, spoke of the strength she has seen among students.
“We are always living Torah and our students have truly exemplified that in the past 17 months,” she said. “I have watched you grieve, pray, teach, love, protest, rally and get up every day … to fight the violence, gaslighting and antisemitism which has been coming at you from all sides. It is truly an honour to celebrate you tonight.”
Ohad Gavrieli, executive director of Hillel BC, spoke of the changed climate on campuses after Oct. 7, 2023.
“One by one, students started showing up at Hillel, some in tears, some shaken, all looking for support,” he said. “They came not only because of the violence and devastation inIsrael, but because the atmosphere on campus was already starting to change. Their [teaching assistants] were praising the massacre, their classmates were posting support for Hamas. The shift was fast and it wasn’t subtle. Now, it’s almost 18 months later and we’re still in it. It’s not over.”
Ohad Gavrieli, executive director of Hillel BC, was one of the speakers during the March 27 event. (photo from Hillel BC)
He noted that the UBC student union had endorsed a student strike for Palestine, part of a larger trend that, he said, has “left Jewish and Zionist students feeling unsafe and unwelcome.”
“Despite all of it, our students didn’t back down,” said Gavrieli. “They continue to speak up. The strength and resilience of our students should make everyone in this room proud. We have leaders here, we have a future in students who are brave, grounded and unwilling to be pushed aside. At Hillel, we do everything we can to stand with them, to be their Jewish home away from home, a place of strength, a place of safety and a place they are never alone. Tonight is about them. It’s about all of you who made this evening possible, as well, and those who stood with Hillel and our students through it all.”
Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, lauded students, as well as the staff and lay leadership of Hillel.
“This is such an incredible evening that I wish we didn’t have to do,” he said. “I wish that you, as students, were not going through what you’re going through. The hostile environment that’s being created for you here on this campus and on campuses across BC is unacceptable and your courage is incredibly, incredibly inspiring.”
The event featured the presentation of Maccabee Awards to students from campuses throughout the province.
Shanken presented a Maccabee to Simon Fraser University student Yael Toyber, who Shanken noted is also the recipient of Federation’s 2024 Young Leadership Award.
“This student fights for justice not through confrontation, but through education – using their creativity and insight to create educational materials that are accessible and compelling,” he said.
Toyber’s work with StandWithUs and their leadership of the Jewish Students’ Association, Shanken said, has made her instrumental in strengthening the Jewish community at SFU.
Gavrieli presented the award to UBC student Rachel Seguin, who he credited for her contributions to the Israel on Campus group, and as “a bold voice for Jewish students, ensuring that our community stands proud.”
“This student has bravely stepped into conversations with UBC administration to address antisemitism, ensuring that Jewish students feel heard and valued,” said Gavrieli.
Gordon Brandt, president of the board of Hillel BC, recognized University of Victoria student Audrey Gaulin, who he called “a force to be reckoned with.”
“Beyond Hillel,” Brandt said, Gaulin has “stepped into leadership roles as a Common Ground Ambassador with Allied Voices for Israel and as a director-at-large with the University of Victoria Student Society.”
Ellie Sherman, Hillel BC’s director of student life, presented an award to Langara College student Ethan Doctor.
Doctor is a Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) Fellow, an active member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, and “a champion for the Jewish community,” said Sherman. In his role as the Western Canada representative for the J7 Working Group on Campus Antisemitism, he has “amplified student voices, pushing for meaningful change at both local and national levels.”
Ishmaeli Goldstein, Hillel’s campus advocacy specialist, recognized Roman Chelyuk with an award for allyship. Chelyuk is a senior fellow with CJPAC and an Emerson Fellow with StandWithUs, treasurer of Israel on Campus (IOC) and a past executive of the Ukrainian Club, who has “shown a deep commitment to standing with the Jewish community.”
Andy Gitelson, campus support director from Hillel International, attended the event from Portland, Ore., and presented the second Allyship Award to UBC student Zara Nybo.
“As the president of IOC, a StandWithUs Emerson Fellow, a CJPAC Fellow and a Campus Media Fellow with Allied Voices for Israel and Honest Reporting Canada, this person has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to using their voice to advocate for the Jewish community,” said Gitelson, who credited Nybo with being a powerful voice on social media, raising awareness, sparking important conversations, “and defend[ing] the Jewish community time and time again.”
Jewish students, allies and community members packed the second-floor social hall at the University of British Columbia’s Hillel House March 27 for A Night of Resilience. (photo from Hillel BC)
Yael Segal, a UBC alumna and co-founder of the Justin and Yael Segal Family Fund, presented the Kehilah Award to Jacoba Moscovitz. The award celebrates students who demonstrate leadership and dedication to the Jewish community by going above and beyond to support their fellow students, foster a sense of belonging and contribute to building a home for Jewish students on campus.
Segal credited Moscovitz as “a familiar and welcoming presence at UBC – somebody who helps others feel at ease and contributes to an inclusive atmosphere.… In many ways, this student has acted as the glue, bringing people together. As a member of the Jewish Students’ Association executive team and [as] a StandWithUs Emerson Fellow, they’ve also taken on leadership roles that strengthen Jewish life on campus. This student also bravely stepped up to be in ongoing conversations about antisemitism with UBC administration, and continues to work hard to ensure Jewish students are welcome and safe at UBC.”
Talia Chivo, Hillel’s lead campus professional at the University of Victoria, presented a second Kehilah Award to Bea Banack Tapia.
“This individual has a gentle way of listening to those around them,” said Chivo. “They take the time to connect one-on-one with so many members of our community and offer support and genuine friendship. Behind the scenes, they’ve put countless hours into making sure things run smoothly. Their dedication isn’t always loud, but it’s felt by everyone around them.”
Tina Malka, director of antisemitism research and education at Hillel International, traveled to the event from San Diego.
A Night of Resilience took place as the academic term concluded, marking the second year of unparalleled anti-Israel activism and antisemitic agitation on campuses. Speakers repeatedly credited students with the courage to confront the challenges facing them.
A small cluster of anti-Israel activists protested outside the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver last week, apparently assuming incorrectly that an Israeli diplomat was in the building. Regardless of the motivations, the protest was against the law. And police did not enforce the law.
In May of last year, the provincial government passed Bill 22, the Safe Access to Schools Act, which includes provisions known as “bubble zone” legislation. The law prohibits protests that could interfere with or threaten students in schools or engaged in formal school activities off school premises. In other words, if there is a class field trip, say, to the Vancouver Aquarium, it would be illegal for protesters against cetacean captivity to protest there.
Students from King David High School routinely use the gymnasium and other facilities at the JCC. They were there when the protesters were outside. And there was another formal program taking place in the building involving elementary school students. In other words, the law set out under Bill 22 was undeniably broken. (The existing legislation affects only public and private elementary and secondary schools, so the fact that there is a permanent childcare facility in the JCC does not mean protests of the premises are universally prohibited.)
This is a relatively new law, less than a year old, but, of course, police are required to be aware of legislation as it emerges or is amended. It was not, for example, the responsibility of the JCC or others in the building to notify the police that the law was being broken.
At a minimum, police should have ascertained whether there were school programs happening at the JCC and, discovering that there were, informed the protesters that they were in contravention of Bill 22 and ordered them to disperse.
One can agree or disagree with the law, based on free expression. But the law exists and the protesters were breaking it.
This incident speaks to a larger problem.
In recent years, there has been discussion about the need to address online hatred and harassment. Last year, a federal online harms proposal, known as Bill C-63, met with concerns on civil liberties grounds and underwent significant amendments, including being broken into two separate bills. Both bills died on the order paper when the federal election was called last month.
As commentators pointed out during that debate, Canada already has laws prohibiting expressions of hatred and harassment. Should it matter whether those expressions happen online or in person? And, while elected officials are busy passing new laws, existing laws that might remedy the problems they are trying to address are going unenforced.
There are problems in our legal system. Occasionally, police will defend their actions (or inaction, as the current case may be), complaining that when they recommend charges to the prosecution service, the prosecution service does not pursue them.
In turn, prosecutors sometimes contend that courts, too often, do not convict. In each case, it is an example of one level of the system blaming the one above for inaction.
While governments need to step gently and seriously around the danger of political interference in policing, prosecution and the judiciary, it is unequivocally governments – primarily provincial and federal – who have the responsibility for setting guidelines around things like hate speech and harassment. Governments need to send a message to police, prosecutors and courts that we, as a society, take these issues seriously. We do not send that message when a clear breach of the law results in no consequences whatsoever.
From the perspective of the Jewish community, what happened at the JCC last week may have been the first test of Bill 22’s efficacy. It was a failure.
Considering that clear violation of provincial law, British Columbia’s Attorney General Niki Sharma has an obligation to explain what went wrong. She would also do well to reiterate (or iterate) that the government takes seriously harassment of Jewish students. (Harassment of the broader Jewish community is also a serious concern, but there seems to be a societal consensus that young people deserve greater protections from this sort of behaviour.)
If police will not enforce the law because they do not believe prosecutors will press charges, we need to address, as a society, this problem in the system. If prosecutors will not act because they have been dissuaded by courts that won’t convict, then we need to educate the judiciary or amend the laws.
Last week, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, in conjunction with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, released the results of a community survey on antisemitism. There were, perhaps, few surprises.
Of those surveyed, 85% said that antisemitism has “increased a lot” since Oct. 7, 2023. More than 60% of respondents said they avoid displaying items that would identify them publicly as Jewish and almost two in three said they avoid particular places and events out of concern for their safety.
A public opinion poll released around the same time indicated that the often-discussed “silent majority” is on our side – most British Columbians are concerned about antisemitism. More than three-quarters of respondents to a Research Co. poll said they are concerned about “aggressive behaviour by pro-Palestinian protesters,” “protesters targeting Jewish neighbourhoods and Jewish-owned businesses” and “rising prejudice against Jewish Canadians.”
While we would appreciate if the solidarity expressed in this survey were articulated more vocally and visually, it is reassuring to know that the targeting of our community is not unnoticed or uncontested. The survey is, in any event, a rare encouraging sign.
It may seem delusional to seek rays of light amid reports of unabating antisemitism. But is one narrative of Passover not precisely to remind us that we have met and overcome suffering and subjugation in the past? When we celebrate the holiday, we are reanimating our collective experience of resistance to tyranny and oppression, the birth pangs of our peoplehood, and the victory over apathy and forgetting. An unequivocal through-line across Jewish history is resilience.
We retell the story of Exodus every year during the seder not as history but as a living, spiritual framework for Jewish identity and values.
While this is a very difficult time, it also has the capacity to bring out tenacity, determination and unity among the Jewish people.
Difficulty can also create cracks in unity. This is the night when, more than other nights, we reflect on liberation from literal or figurative slavery – in today’s situation, perhaps, freedom from violence and discrimination – and the imperative of Jews to protect and advocate for liberation. So, as we witness growing fissures in the Jewish world, let us rededicate ourselves to the project of liberation and peoplehood based on fundamental values of freedom, love, unity and community.
On Passover, we are reminded that there are pharaohs in every generation who seek to destroy and oppress. We utter the words “You shall tell your children,” because a vivid memory of the past is central to facing our present and creating our future. Every generation faces its own “Egypt.” The work of liberation is not yet finished.
May those who are held captive in Gaza, those who are fighting to defend Israel, those experiencing violence and discrimination, or seeking freedom in any form, be redeemed.
Australian TV personality Erin Molan at Schara Tzedeck in Vancouver March 19. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Security was tighter than usual at Congregration Schara Tzedeck when Australian media personality Erin Molan spoke to Vancouver’s Jewish community March 19.
The non-Jewish commentator has become a lightning rod for anti-Israel activists since becoming a vocal voice in support of Zionism and Jews, particularly after Oct. 7, 2023. She is dumbfounded by the controversy.
“If you said to me two years ago, there’s going to be a terror attack, Hamas will slaughter 1,200 people, they will take hostages, they will burn children … you are going to come out very strongly and publicly and condemn those actions and you’re going to support the victims of those atrocities and that’s going to be controversial and you will be in the minority, I would have said you are dreaming, there is no chance in hell,” Molan told the audience. “But here we are.”
Since that October day, Molan has lost the four jobs she held in Australian journalism – her main gig as a commentator on Sky News Australia, a radio position, a column in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and a regular magazine spot. Molan has not explicitly said she was fired for her pro-Israel views.
“Pure coincidence, of course,” was her response to a direct question put to her by Amir Epstein, executive director of Tafsik, the organization that brought her on a cross-Canada tour.
In February, she became host of 69 X Minutes, a news program conceived and funded by Elon Musk, which airs on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Molan received a loud ovation for her comments on US President Donald Trump.
“You might love him, you might hate him,” she said. “Would I want him to marry my daughter? No. Do I think that in some ways he is the right person for this time given the alternative? Absolutely.”
She said Trump is shaking up a situation that demands new approaches.
“At least he’s throwing something different out there,” she said. “How many two-state solutions do you want to give the Palestinians? How many chances do you want to give? What are we up to, eight? Eight more chances for the same people that, at the last ceasefire, came on TV seconds after the ceasefire began and said, just FYI, we will do Oct. 7 again at the first available opportunity.
“You can’t keep doing the same thing,” she continued. “That’s insanity.”
Her assertion that Trump’s disruptive tactics are right for the time and place come in part from watching, she said, every second of available recorded footage from Oct. 7. Many of the perpetrators wore body cameras, in some cases livestreaming their attacks.
“I thought I understood how depraved they were, well prior,” she said. “I’d seen enough, I’d heard enough, I knew that they were probably as low as you could get. Watching the raw vision [recorded footage] gave me the next-level understanding of who you are dealing with and … I left there saying, there is no way you can coexist with those people.
“I watched a video of a dad jumping out of a window with a 4-year-old under his arm and then maybe a 6-year-old running beside him,” she recounted. “Just that fear on his face that … he knew that they were coming. He was not going to be able to do anything, but he was doing whatever he could. The terrorists killed him, then went to the fridge with two kids covered in blood, shaking, [having] just watched their dad killed and then pulling drinks out and they’re laughing. I watched their faces as they hacked the head off a young man. That, to me, is what I can’t ever forget, the joy that they derived in what they were doing. Two little girls and a little boy being burnt alive – they shot their parents and then they burnt them alive. I just don’t think you can keep pretending that this is just a dispute over land or this is just two countries that don’t really get along well. No, there are not two sides to this. They are evil, depraved, bloodthirsty murderers who will never, ever stop. So, whatever the solution is moving forward, it cannot have Hamas in existence at all and, from there, I don’t know, but I think you’ve got to try something different.”
Molan’s experiences with domestic partner violence have influenced her approach to the Oct. 7 attacks – and provided a contrast between the way she, as an Australian woman, is perceived differently from Israeli women.
“I was in a couple of very violent relationships that resulted in me being hospitalized a lot,” she said, noting that she shared the story for the first time publicly only a few months ago.
When Molan did so, she said, “all the feminists in Australia … were public and effusive in their sorrow and their praise for my bravery, for sharing.”
She said, “These were the same people who deny what happened to Israeli and Jewish women on Oct. 7, the same people who have not said a word about any of it. [They are] completely OK with Hamas raping, slaughtering, killing women.”
She experienced firsthand the very different reactions to her, “an Irish Catholic girl,” and to the rapes and murders of Israeli women, she said.
While she said everyone should be speaking up in support of Israel and against Hamas and global antisemitism, she had particularly harsh words for Islamic community members and leaders, not least because Islamic extremism hurts Muslims, she said.
“They should be at the forefront of this fight,” she said. “Where are they? That’s what’s really disappointed me in this space. There’s the odd one or two and they are incredible and they’re brave and they’re powerful, but … this was a perfect opportunity for [Muslim community organizations] to come out and say, ‘That’s not who we are, that doesn’t represent us or our religion.’ But, instead, they tried to downplay it, they tried to make it OK, they tried to normalize it.”
Molan has been critical of Canada’s now-former prime minister Justin Trudeau, as well as leaders in her own country and elsewhere, who she says have allowed the bar to be lowered on acceptable discourse.
She cited the example of a hate rally at the Sydney Opera House, hours after the atrocities in Israel, during which people expressed antisemitic chants and threats.
“If I were in power, if I were the leader of a nation and that had occurred on my watch, you could not have held me back in terms of what action I would have taken,” she said, adding that this was a moment when hateful and potentially violent people were gauging what would be accepted and what would not be accepted in society.
At that point, Molan said, leaders should have come down hard and police should have acknowledged that support for terrorism and incitement of violence against identifiable groups is illegal, freedom of speech notwithstanding. In Australia, Canada and elsewhere, she said, that did not happen.
She credited the Jewish community worldwide for their collective reactions to the challenges they face.
“You would be justified in being the most hateful people in history,” she said. “You would be justified in having hearts full of hate and no one could ever judge you for it. Every time you gather, all you say is, ‘Bring them home.’ That’s it. Every gathering I’ve seen of Jewish people since Oct. 7, the only focus there has been ‘Bring them home. Bring our people home.’ The other side, every gathering is ‘Intifada,’ ‘River to the sea,’ ‘Death to Jews.’ How can the world not see the stark difference between these two groups of people?”
Schara Tzedeck’s Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt opened the event with a prayer for the hostages.
Mijal BenDori, vice-president, community planning, partnerships and innovation, of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, thanked the Vancouver Police Department, hired security and the community volunteer group Bitachon for keeping British Columbia’s Jews safe.
The event was co-sponsored by Federation, Schara Tzedeck and Tafsik, a new national organization that Epstein said targets “the Islamists, the Marxists, the communists, the keffiyeh Karens, the Jew-haters.”
His group, he said, has a number of projects in development, including an app to identify and remove anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate graffiti; a group called LGBTJew, to provide a place for queer Zionists; and a support group for people who have been alienated by their Jewish families for their support of Israel.
This year, the Jewish community will greet Passover with mixed emotions. On a holiday where we celebrate the 3,500-year-old Exodus from Egyptian slavery to freedom, we also mourn the modern-day hostages held captive for so long and the loss of those who will never return to their loved ones.
Passover offers a unique opportunity for families and friends to gather around the seder table, retell the story of the Exodus, eat symbolic foods and, most challenging of all, attempt to keep the younger children engaged until the meal.
It can be difficult to explain to our children the enduring importance of Passover – a tale of survival, courage and resilience. The story of the Jewish people facing an impossible obstacle and conquering it, of our people standing up against oppression, proud of our Jewish identity, confronting and overcoming baseless hatred.
For more than a year, Jewish students have been made to feel othered, embarrassed, threatened and, sometimes, compelled to hide their Jewish identity. Since Oct. 7, 2023, online Jew-hatred and anti-Israel vitriol have become all too common. While cities, overrun by hate-filled protests, seem almost completely desensitized to the hate, we see our children suffering.
An excerpt from the Passover Haggadah reminds us that “in every generation, one must see oneself as having personally come forth from Egypt … and you will tell your child on that day.…” As we sit down at the seder table this year, we will, once again, tell the next generation the story of the Jewish people’s victory against oppression and that pride in our identity is the way to fight oppression.
The younger guests at our seder – our children, our grandchildren, our nieces and nephews – are the next generation of leaders. It will be their responsibility to challenge antisemitism head-on, and it’s our responsibility to educate them about how to do it.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs remains committed to protecting the quality of Jewish life in Canada. Our team is working with government officials to advocate for the introduction of safe access (bubble) legislation to protect schools and places of worship from the threat of violence or harassment. We are also advocating to enforce existing legislation that combats both online and real-world hate.
We continue to demand accountability from social media platforms, institutions and organizations. We urge the government to support the provinces’ education for judges, Crown attorneys and law enforcement regarding antisemitism and hate crimes. We continue to stand by our policy priorities that include advocating for community safety, for maintaining public order and for fighting antisemitism in schools and on campus.
The community, after a long year-and-a-half, is tired. Some of us are scared. And yet, we remain proud. We know more work must be done to protect ourselves, our children and our Jewish identity. So, this year, as we retell our ancestors’ story to our children, we are reminded that we remember the past to protect our present – and our children’s future. It starts at the seder table. But it doesn’t end there.
Judy Zelikovitz is vice-president, university and local partner services, at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
There has been a great deal of handwringing about antisemitism on campuses in North America in recent years. Since Oct. 7, 2023, with protests against Israel, some of which have turned violent and many of which have been condemned for making Jewish and Israeli students targets, the problem has intensified.
It is often said that politicians do not see the light until they feel the heat. University administrators are politicians in a broad sense, and the withdrawal of funds from donors may be among the reasons (ethics and decency being among other conceivable explanations) why some university administrators have tried to find a balance between the rights of free expression and the safety and security of Jews on campuses across North America. Criticism from government has also been a factor in pushing college leadership to address, to varying degrees, the problems faced by Jewish students, faculty and staff.
A notorious US government hearing – and the perceived weakness of college presidents to respond adequately to the problem – led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
Now, the US government, under the leadership of the reelected President Donald Trump, has summarily cut off a chunk of funding to Columbia University, with threats of more such punishments to come unless institutions of higher learning get their perceived issues with antisemitism under control.
“Since Oct. 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation and antisemitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in announcing the funding freeze. “Universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”
Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, called this a “time of great risk to our university” and said that the loss of funds would be felt in “nearly every corner” of the institution.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the university, impacting students, faculty, staff, research and patient care,” Armstrong wrote in a statement.
A sum of $400 million is an almost inconceivable number to most ordinary people, so to put it in some context, Columbia has an annual operating budget of $6.6 billion, of which more than one-quarter comes from federal sources. Unlike most Canadian universities and the American state college systems, Columbia is a private institution – and an elite, Ivy League one at that. In other words, that is a massive amount of public money flowing into a private institution, though that is a topic perhaps for another day.
Columbia was an epicentre of last year’s campus protests and the genesis of a network of encampments against Israel and its war against Hamas, encampments that spread to campuses here in British Columbia, to consternation from Jewish students, their parents and communal organizations.
With the withholding of $400 million from Columbia, which is promised as a first major salvo in what could become a larger battle between the US government and higher education, the preponderance of handwringing may have shifted from Jews and their allies to the figures responsible for higher education.
Among Jews – in the United States, Canada, Israel and elsewhere – there are massively polarized opinions about Trump. But, whatever your position, it is true that something needs to be done to force universities to address the undeniable crisis facing Jewish students and faculty.
That said, this recent move against higher education is part of a larger effort to discredit liberal institutions, attack expertise and dismantle government programs designed to buttress democracy, liberty and the global order. Legitimate criticism of campus antisemitism is being weaponized by an increasingly cynical US government to stifle and punish speech and threaten the academy and its sources of knowledge production, including scientific discovery and advancement. We should be wary of aligning with these forces and their attempts to cover up their real agenda.
This move – and possible additional ones that seemed implied threats in McMahon’s announcement – will force a showdown. Jews likely will become a bargaining chip in this coming confrontation and that is deeply concerning for Jews of all political and ideological persuasions.
Elected officials and university administrators in Canada – where the vast majority of students attend public institutions – will no doubt be watching very closely to see what changes the financial penalty has on American institutions’ approaches to the problem. So will Jewish students and faculty, their families and others who care about them.
The White Rock/South Surrey Jewish Community Centre hosted Yardena Schwartz, author of Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict, on Feb. 23.
Left to right: Gay Cohen, organizer of the White Rock/South Surrey Jewish Community Centre Book Club; Helen Mann of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver; author and journalist Yardena Schwartz; and WRSS JCC president Adele Ritch. (photo by Chloe Heuchert)
At the event, held in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, Schwartz – an award-winning producer and journalist – spoke about her book and then answered some questions from the audience.
Schwartz has worked for NBC, among other organizations, and reported for many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Foreign Policy. She lived in Israel from 2013 to 2023.
While working as a freelance journalist in Tel Aviv, Schwartz was introduced to a family from Memphis, Tenn., who had a box of letters written by their late uncle, David Shainberg, who was one of the 70 Jews killed by some of the Arab residents of Hebron during the massacre in 1929. He had sailed to Palestine in 1928, and studied at Hebron Yeshivah; he wrote hundreds of letters to his family about how Jews and Arabs were living together, coexisting, peacefully. Schwartz spoke about those letters, and the massacre and how it relates to Oct. 7.
Helen Mann, who works with the Jewish Federation and is also a part of the White Rock/South Surrey Jewish community, told the Independent that reading Schwartz’s book amid growing antisemitism was empowering, that “it felt more important than ever to spread the historical truth of our people and this contentious and tiny piece of land, especially in such a tiny Jewish community we are in, of White Rock/South Surrey.”
Mann said there is so much misinformation being disseminated, on social media in particular.
“Yardena has meticulously delved through and cited sources to do the work for us, and weave that history into a page-turner,” she said. “While I hope this book gets into the hands of anyone who wishes to speak on the current conflict and politics, it’s of high priority that we as a Jewish community are educated on our own history; to know who we are in order to know where we are going.”
The Jewish Independent spoke with Schwartz after the event.
JI: What types of research did you do for the book?
YS: My research started with interviews in Hebron with Palestinians and Israelis living there. And then, from there, I focused on the period of history that preceded the massacre, so 1928 and 1929. That involved looking at archival newspaper articles in places like the Palestine Post and the New York Times, and Arabic press… There’s an archive in Hebron that I spent a lot of time in, archives in Jerusalem, and Hagana Archives in Tel Aviv. This was during COVID, so I couldn’t go to the London archives, but some other authors who had been there and got materials were kind enough to share them with me.
It was a lot of archival research, a lot of interviews: hundreds of hours of interviews with Israelis and Palestinians in Hebron between 2019 and 2023.
I also read as many books as I could that were focused on that period. There were two books that were really helpful in my research. One was Hillel Cohen’s Year Zero of the Arab Israeli Conflict, which tells the story not just of the Hebron massacre, but of the riots of 1929. And it’s very succinct, it just focuses on the riots, like none of the history before or after. Then, a book by Orin Kessler, Palestine 1936, which focused on the Great Arab Revolt from 1936 to 1939.
JI:During your research, did you find any information that surprised you in a way?
YS: Well, the letters that David Shainberg wrote to his family were really eye-opening for me in painting a picture of what Hebron was like before the massacre and what Hebron was like during the British Mandate before the massacre…. I had never known that Jews and Muslims had lived side by side in peace in Hebron and owned businesses and drank coffee together. That was really surprising to me, given what Hebron is today.
But I think what shocked me most during my research was what I discovered about the mufti, the grand mufti, Amin al-Husseini, who was the first leader of the Palestinian people, and, specifically, his role during the Holocaust, his affiliation with the Nazis, his role as a Nazi, and his role in recruiting tens of thousands of Muslims to fight for the Nazis – and the fact that he lived the rest of his life out in the open. I mean, he was wanted for Nazi war crimes and yet he didn’t have to live out the rest of his life in hiding, like so many Nazis did…. He was never arrested, never was prosecuted or put on trial for his crimes.
JI: Since this is your first book, how was the overall experience, and what challenged you the most?
YS: I think what challenged me the most was giving birth to two children during the course of writing this book. I honestly still have no idea how I wrote a book while raising two kids – my kids are now 2 and 4-and-a-half. I was pregnant with my first child when I started this research … and it was really difficult to write about such a depressing, heavy subject while bringing new life into this world. It was really difficult.
It had always been a dream of mine to write a book. I’d been a journalist for years, but I don’t think I could grasp, until writing this book, just how difficult writing a book is, especially something that covers 100 years of history. So, it was … a tremendous undertaking. Sometimes, it was torturous, but other times it was really fulfilling and especially now that it’s out there in the world, and hearing from readers is just like an incomparable experience…. I feel really blessed that I was entrusted with these lettersby these families. Without them, this book wouldn’t have come to fruition, basically.
JI: What key message do you want readers to take from the book?
YS: I think my key message is that we will never be able to resolve this conflict if we can’t agree on the facts that drive it and the history that precedes this tragic moment we’re in. And, I think, to anyone who wants to see peace in Israel, peace between Israel and Palestinians, I hope they’ll read this book. I hope they’ll learn the lessons of history, so that we can stop repeating the mistakes of the past.
Chloe Heuchertis an historian specializing in Canadian Jewish history. During her master’s program at Trinity Western University, she focused on Jewish internment in Quebec during the Second World War.
