terrorism – Page 2

The Oct. 7 attack on Holit

Adam Korbin, regional president, Metro Vancouver, for BGU Canada, left, with Jacqui and Yaron Vital, who visited Vancouver last month. On July 21, they shared the story of the murder of their daughter, Adi Vital-Kaploun, by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. (photo from BGU BC & Alberta)

One family’s tragic experiences during the Oct. 7 terror attacks were shared in an intimate, emotional gathering in a private Vancouver home recently.

Yaron and Jacqui Vital shared the story of the murder of their daughter Adi Vital-Kaploun. Jacqui, an Ottawa native who has lived in Israel for 50 years, and her husband, Yaron, who survived the invasion of Kibbutz Holit, told their stories July 21.

The evening was convened by Ben-Gurion University Canada. Adi studied at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at BGU’s Sde Boker campus and the university has set up a special scholarship fund in her memory.

For the Simchat Torah holiday in 2023, Yaron Vital joined daughter Adi and her partner, Adani, and their two kids, 4-year-old Negev and 4-month-old Eshel, at their home on Kibbutz Holit. They were joined by another daughter, Ayala, and her family, who live in another kibbutz in the Gaza Envelope area. For the first time since the COVID pandemic, Jacqui was visiting family in Ottawa and watched the confusing news from afar, with mounting alarm.

“We had a nice day on Friday,” Yaron recalled. “Adani and Adi made a nice supper, we played with the kids a little bit and then Ayala left and went back to the kibbutz.”

Because Adi was nursing the baby and would be up in the night, she suggested her father sleep in the nearby guest house.

“It’s an apartment that nobody uses most of the year and it doesn’t seem in such good shape, but it’s a place to sleep,” he said. “In the end, this apartment saved my life.”

At 6:29 a.m., he woke up to “a noise like thunder” and a changed world.

The sky was so bright from rockets that his eyes were seared and he could see the lights for days when he shut his eyes.

Yaron returned to the safe room in the guest house and called Adi, who told him to stay where he was. Adani had left the kibbutz earlier and, when the attacks began, Adi texted him not to return.

Yaron was in the army for 24 years, and served in a special unit in charge of the security along that very border. While the density of rockets overhead was unprecedented, he soon realized how different the scenario was from anything he, or the country, had seen before. Looking out a window, he saw terrorists running throughout the kibbutz. He heard screaming and shooting. From experience, he expected the military to respond almost instantaneously. He had no idea that there were more than 3,000 terrorists already in the country and that Holit was far from the only kibbutz under attack.

The safe room door in the guest house did not have a lock – they are created to protect from rockets and missiles, not from on-the-ground terrorist invasions – and so Yaron rigged up a rope to create a makeshift lock.

The rampaging terrorists skipped the guest house and Yaron had no idea why. Later, in piecing together some of the disparate threads from the day, it emerged that the invaders had detailed maps of the various kibbutzim, clearly based on intelligence from Gazans who had worked at or visited the border-adjacent communities – the maps indicated who lived where, which homes had dogs, where jewelry was kept. Presumably, the terrorists knew the guest house was usually vacant and so didn’t waste their time kicking in the door.

At 12:30 p.m. – six hours after the horrors began – Yaron received a text message from Adi.

“They’re breaking into my house,” she wrote.

“That was the last time she sent me a message,” Yaron said. “I tried to call her back after 10 minutes. She didn’t answer. I heard some shooting from her direction.”

He waited in silence all afternoon. After 11 hours, Yaron heard people in the house. He wouldn’t open the door, knowing it could be a trap. They hollered to see if anyone was in the building.

“I didn’t answer until they came close to the door of the safe room,” he recalled. “They said, ‘Is somebody inside? Is somebody here?’ It seemed like a Hebrew accent. I decided I couldn’t take it anymore, to tell you the truth, so I decided I’m going to answer them.”

Once he was freed, he went with the soldiers to Adi’s house across the street.

“They tried to open the door and it was locked, so I had a feeling maybe there was a chance,” he said. “The commander kicked the door, they jumped inside, disappeared for a few seconds and then they came to me and said, ‘Listen, we saw a dead body in the kitchen.’ When they said that, I lost my … I almost fell down. But, they said right away, ‘Don’t worry, it’s a man.’”

It was evident almost immediately that the body was that of a terrorist. There was no sign of the kids and, while the safe room was a shamble, there was no sign of Adi either. There were hundreds of bullet casings on the floor of the living room.

“I called Adani and I told him that there is nobody in the house. Don’t worry, she’s hiding someplace,” he recalled Adani telling him.

Dead dogs were scattered throughout the kibbutz. Doors to most of the houses were open and Yaron could see bodies inside. Late in the day, he got in his severely damaged car and began to drive home to Jerusalem. On the way, he received news that his grandchildren were safe and comparatively healthy.

Al Jazeera was on site with the terrorists and had footage of the two boys being abducted. Negev had been shot in the foot and a terrorist was bandaging his wound while another terrorist had Eshel on his shoulders and rocked him in a carriage.

In a scene broadcast on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program on Monday, Oct. 9, the terrorists set the boys free right around the Gaza border. The footage showed Negev and Eshel returning with a woman toward the kibbutz. The Vitals believe this was a propaganda move to show the humanity of the terrorists, who were depicted as kindly releasing a mother and her (presumed) children. Around midnight, Adani was reunited with his sons.

After four days battling the terrorists, Holit was finally secured and a special unit came to the kibbutz and started to clear the bodies.

“One of the soldiers bent down and suddenly saw a hand sticking out from under the sofa,” Yaron said. They took a picture of the hand with a wedding ring and that is how the family learned that Adi had not been kidnapped but killed.

It would turn out that she had courageously fended off the terrorists for some time with the gun Adani had in the house – killing one of the terrorists, the body the soldiers discovered in the home. Eventually, though, she was murdered in front of her children. The kids were taken by the terrorists and handed over to a neighbour, who was the woman pictured on CNN.

Jacqui spoke of the unbearable anxiety of not knowing the fate of her daughter.

“I only had three days of not knowing where she was and I couldn’t touch my neck because I was so tense just thinking about what they might be doing to her,” she said. “And there are still 50 families that can’t touch their neck.”

Of their late daughter, Jacqui said: “We know where she is, she’s in a safe place.”

This sentiment has caused some controversy in Israel. On the 10th day after Oct. 7, Adani was on TV saying he was relieved that Adi had been murdered and not kidnapped because, he assumed, death was the preferable alternative. At the time, probably no one imagined that dozens of hostages would still be in captivity in Gaza almost 700 days later.

According to David Berson, executive director of Ben-Gurion University Canada, British Columbia and Alberta, 118 people from the Ben-Gurion University community have been killed on or since Oct. 7, most of them during the 10/7 terror attacks and others in the ensuing war. These include faculty, students and staff.

Webinar on Syria and Iran

On Aug. 5, B’nai Brith Canada hosted an online discussion on the crises affecting Druze communities in Syria and the Iranian people, with a focus on the impact on these diasporas in Canada and potential actions by the Canadian government.

The speakers were Kiumars Rezvanifar, president of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association and founder of the Iranian Canadian Cultural Fellowship, and Jamal Sehnawi, an advisor to the Supreme Druze Council and a member of the Canadian Druze Society.

Rezvanifar said the recent violence in Syria’s Suwayda (Sweida) governorate could have resulted in “hundreds of thousands” of Druze deaths if the Israel Defence Forces had not intervened. He said the attacks included the killing of civilians and kidnappings, highlighting the case of a 5-year-old girl who was kidnapped, assaulted, and her family killed, allegedly by members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He lamented that major Arab media outlets like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have downplayed the crisis, a silence he called “a moral issue.”

Independent casualty figures vary. The Washington Institute reported more than 800 dead and 900 injured. Reuters-verified footage and the Syrian Network for Human Rights cited more than 1,000 deaths, mostly Druze, including women and children. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 182 executions by government-affiliated forces as of July 19. Le Monde reported 1,311 deaths, while Anadolu Agency cited at least 321 killed, including six children and nine women.

These attacks have deeply shaken Canada’s Druze community, said Rezvanifar, who estimated the Druze population in Canada at about 50,000, mainly in Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton.

Sehnawi described the violence in Suwayda as “ethnic cleansing,” attributing it to the Syrian Ministry of Defence and Interior and to foreign fighters. He said the Druze community’s requests were for peace and recognition similar to that afforded to other communities worldwide.

Throughout the discussion, Sehnawi spoke about historical and cultural ties between Jewish and Druze communities, referring to Druze as “direct descendants to the sons of Jacob (Israel)” and noting traditions of service and community support.

The online conversation also addressed the situation in Iran. Rezvanifar spoke about decades of repression by the Iranian government, citing executions, censorship and the suppression of protests. He criticized European countries for “prioritizing economic interests over human rights,” noting that international attention often came “too late to effectively help the Iranian people facing brutal repression.”

In the face of internet blackouts and censorship, Rezvanifar praised citizen journalists, saying, “The Iranian population is tech-savvy and educated, constantly finding ways to circumvent restrictions.”

Rezvanifar alleged that Iranian regime operatives live openly in Canadian cities such as Vancouver and Richmond Hill (part of the Greater Toronto Area), claiming “thousands of visas may have been issued to regime members” and “fewer than 10 deportations have occurred in the past five to eight years.” These figures have not been independently confirmed.

He commented on the fact that it took repeated calls before Canada designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization in 2024. The measure had been sought by various groups since the January 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, which killed 176 people, most of them Canadian citizens or residents. Both speakers called for Canada and the international community to take action in support of affected communities.

“In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location,” Sehnawi concluded. “In this situation, it’s all about information, information, information.”

Uriel Presman Chikiar is a student at Queen’s University and serves as executive vice-president of external relations at Hillel Queen’s.

Will you help or hide?

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?”

Tickets for The Last Yiddish Speaker can be purchased at ticketowl.io/lastyiddishspeaker.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Visiting the Nova Exhibition

The Nova Exhibition commemorates the massacre at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. The exhibit is in Toronto until June 8. (photo by Lorraine Katzin)

My friend Karen Shalansky and I, from Congregation Har El, went on a Jewish National Fund tour to Israel in April 2024, traveling with some congregants from Congregation Beth Israel. We were based in Tel Aviv but drove to the south to see the Nova Festival Memorial and the car cemetery. (See jewishindependent.ca/reflections-on-april-mission.)

When I heard of the Nova Exhibition, which had been traveling to New York, Los Angeles and then Miami, I Googled to see if it was going to be in Toronto. While we live in Vancouver, my husband and I were going to be heading to Toronto for our granddaughter’s Grade 1 siddur celebration. I was able to purchase tickets to the exhibition for May 6, during the time we (and our daughter) were going to be in the city.

Normally, when we go to Toronto, we attend Saturday morning services at our son’s synagogue, the Village Shul. It just so happened that, on the Shabbat of our visit, the guest speaker was Ophir Amir, one of the founders of the Nova music festival and one of the producers of the Nova Exhibition. Amir was shot in both legs by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. He survived, but so many of his friends did not. He shared: “While I was hiding from the terrorists, I thought about my wife, who was pregnant, and that’s what saved me.”

photo - bulldozer footage from Nova Exhibition — *(photo by Lorraine Katzin)*

The Nova Exhibition tells the stories of the victims and helps this community begin to heal – we will dance again.

The first part of the exhibit is a movie. It shows people having fun, enjoying life, singing and dancing, until 6:29 a.m. on Oct. 7, when the music stops and security starts shouting “Red alert! Tzeva adom!” as they could see the rockets flying over Israel. They tell everyone to go home. The movie ends.

We were then led to another room for a reenactment of what came next. There were different TV screens showing how the Hamas terrorists came through the fence, the continuous firing of their weapons, the continuous shouting of “Allah Akbar!”

The next area is filled with belongings from the festival, which include tents, sleeping bags, chairs, clothes, snacks, trees, the market, featuring various items, portable toilets, the bar, freezer chests, burnt-out cars, shelters, and more. By each display there is a TV screen with a survivor telling their story. One young girl lost 15 friends, another young man lost more than 40 friends, a mother lost two of her daughters. Many different stories of loss, as well as stories of heroism.

On one wall of the exhibit are photos of the Nova hostages still held in captivity by Hamas. On another wall are photos of all the people at the Nova festival who were murdered on Oct. 7 – as well as their hats, shoes, other clothing and knickknacks.

photo - knocked over Coca-Cola machines from Nova music festival — *(photo by Lorraine Katzin)*

As you walk through the exhibit, it shows how the larger community is helping with the psychological trauma, the grieving process, the bereavement, the difficulties of survivors to function day-to-day. All the proceeds from the exhibition are dedicated to helping heal and rehabilitate survivors, commemorate those who were lost, and support the bereaved families.

We spent two-and-a-half hours walking around and reading testimonies. We came out emotionally drained. Our Israeli brethren are resilient, they have ruach, spirit, and they are dancing again.

The Nova Exhibition runs until June 8 at 1381 Castlefield Ave., in Toronto. For more information, visit novaexhibition.com.

Images from the exhibition:

photo - knocked over and shot up portable toilets from Nova music festival — *(photo by Lorraine Katzin)*

photo - memorial wall at Nova Exhibition — *(photo by Lorraine Katzin)*

photo - shot and burnt cars from Nova musica festival — *(photo by Lorraine Katzin)*

photo - wall of those murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 — (photo by Lorraine Katzin)

Honouring Israel’s fallen

Geoffrey Druker leads the Vancouver Yom Hazikaron ceremony at Temple Sholom on April 29. (photo by Pat Johnson)

On the morning of Oct. 7, Sgt. Tomer Nagar started his guard duty at 6 a.m. on the Israel Defence Forces base at Kibbutz Kissufim, near the Gaza border.

He was alone with his weapon and the standard 675 rounds of ammunition. Half an hour into his shift, the base was hit by massive mortar fire, then swarmed by Hamas terrorists. The surveillance soldier who was monitoring the border told Nagar to retreat because he was massively outnumbered.

Nagar chose to ignore the instructions and remain at his post, intending to prevent or delay the terrorists’ entry into the base, to give his colleagues time to prepare and to fight for their lives. The battle went on for hours.

“The Kissufim base did not fall into the hands of Hamas,” said Geoffrey Druker, as he began the annual Vancouver ceremony marking Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembrance for the fallen of Israel’s wars and all victims of terror, April 29, at Temple Sholom. “But 13 Golani solders and three from the Egoz unit were killed. When they finally reached Tomer Nagar, they found his body. Around him lay 675 empty bullet casings. He fought ’til his last bullet. He was 21 years old.”

Members of the British Columbia Jewish community lit candles in memory of loved ones, family and friends who have died during the 77 years of Israel’s existence as a state. The day of remembrance closed the following night at Congregation Beth Israel, prior to Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, celebrations.

Druker, who for many years has led the local commemoration, highlighted instances in which fighters risked and often lost their own lives to prevent the advance of terrorists, thereby saving countless lives.

There were 31 police officers securing the 3,500 or so attendees at the Nova music festival. Equipped mostly with handguns, the officers held off as many infiltrators as possible. In the process, 16 of the 31 were killed, as were another five officers from teams that arrived as reinforcements.

“Their battle helped prevent the terrorists from penetrating deeper into Israel and attacking other communities,” said Druker.

Nearby, in the city of Sderot, the police station was attacked by Hamas terrorists in white pickup trucks, armed with anti-tank rockets. Seven police officers raced to the roof of the station to fight off dozens of attackers. With limited ammunition, they held out for nine hours. A special rescue unit managed to reach the scene and save most of the officers, but Mor Shakuri, one of two police on site that day, was killed. She was 28.

Inbar Heyman was a world-renowned graffiti artist, whose works can be seen throughout Tel Aviv under the name Pink. She attended the Nova festival to provide emotional support to the attendees.

“When the attack started, she hid, and then tried to flee,” Druker said. “Around 1 p.m., she was caught and could be seen taken on a motorcycle into Gaza. Her family waited in fear to hear her fate – 71 days they waited until they were told she was murdered in captivity. She was 27 years old.”

Inbal Binder and Raz Shifer, friends of Heyman who were with her at the festival, were in Vancouver. They lit a candle in her memory and read Yizkor.

At the IDF base at Nahal Oz, 54 soldiers were killed after the kibbutz was overtaken by Hamas on Oct. 7. These included 15 tatzpitaniyot, female surveillance soldiers. Another seven tatzpitaniyot were taken hostage in Gaza.

“One was later rescued by the IDF,” said Druker, “and one, Noa Matziano, was murdered at the Shifa hospital in Gaza. It took 482 days until the final tatzpitaniyot returned home in January this year.”

Among those killed at Nahal Oz on Oct. 7 was Roni Eshel, the eldest daughter of Eyal and Sharon Eshel’s three children.

“She would typically end her text messages to her family, signing off with five emoji hearts, one for each family member,” Druker said. “On the morning of Oct. 7, when attacked, she was texting her parents. It was the last morning of her life. She ended her message with four hearts. Later, her father Eyal said, ‘I should have realized then what she was telling us.’”

Ruthie Mizrahi, a Vancouverite who is a childhood friend of Eyal Eshel, lit three candles at the ceremony – one for Roni Eshel, one for Rotem Dushi, whose father Yaron was an army friend of Mizrahi, and one for her uncle, Oded Lifshitz, a founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz, whose family had to wait 503 days to hear that his body had been identified.

Kfar Aza was the first kibbutz Hamas conquered on Oct 7. An estimated 250 terrorists entered the kibbutz, murdering 64 residents and taking 19 hostage.

Vancouverite Micha’el Richenshtein’s father, Eliyahu (Aliko) Reichenstein, was among those murdered. Richenshtein lit a candle in memory of her father and all who were murdered on Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

More than 300 terrorists invaded Kibbutz Be’eri, where they murdered 102 people and took 32 civilians hostage. Among the hostages was Carmel Gat, who was later found executed with five others, murdered as the IDF advanced on their location in Gaza. Lynn Adam Saffery, a British Columbian who is a member of Gat’s extended family, lit a candle of remembrance.

Mushon Mizrachi recited kaddish for his nephew, Ben Mizrachi, the Vancouver-raised IDF medic who died a hero saving others at the Nova festival.

Other fallen were also commemorated.

Dany Guincher made aliyah with his family from Chile and, in 1967, joined the IDF, became a tank crew member, a commander and then an officer.

“On the sixth of October 1973 – Yom Kippur – Egypt and Syria tacked Israel,” said Druker. Guincher was then studying at university in Pennsylvania, but he managed to find a flight back to Israel.

“He was greeted at the Ben Gurion Airport by his brother, Lito,” Druker said. “Dany joined the forces in the Sinai and led his tanks into battle in the city of Ismailia. On the 23rd of October 1973, his tank was hit and Dany Guincher was killed.”

Lito, who was a member of the Vancouver community, has since passed away, but his son-in-law, Jack Micner, who is married to Dany’s niece Karen, lit a candle in Guincher’s memory and read Yizkor.

Also present was Zev Tanne who, with his 17- and 18-year-old classmates of Mikveh Israel agricultural school, fought in the 1948 War of Independence as part of the elite Palmach unit of the Haganah. He survived a battle in which 11 of his classmates were killed.

Lihi Shushan and Or Shukrun, shinshiniyot (teen emissaries), honoured fallen soldiers and civilian casualties from Vancouver’s partnership region in the Upper Galil.

Ruchot Hatzafon, headliners of the following evening’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration, performed.

Druker thanked the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver for supporting and Temple Sholom for hosting the event, as well as the musicians who performed.

Israel’s deputy consul general for Toronto and Western Canada, Shani Azulai, addressed the event in a recorded video message.

Rabbi Eliahu Barzilai of Congregation Beth Hamidrash recited El Moleh Rachmim.

Emergency medicine at work

Dr. Oren Wacht of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will be in Vancouver this month, giving a public lecture May 25 and promoting Heartbeat of Education, a project geared to helping more Israeli paramedics further their education in emergency medical services. (photo from BGU Canada BC & Alberta Region)

Dr. Oren Wacht, who heads the department of emergency medicine and is the academic director of the Field Family Medical Simulation Centre at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, will be in Vancouver May 23 to 25. As part of his visit, he will speak to the community on May 25, 7 p.m., at an event titled Emergency Medicine in Action: Healing the Negev Post-Oct. 7.

An experienced emergency medical technician and the first paramedic in Israel to receive his PhD, Wacht serves, too, as a volunteer paramedic for Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service. Since Oct. 7, 2023, he has seen months of active service between his teaching and training responsibilities. Thousands of BGU faculty, staff and students were called to serve after the Hamas attacks.

Wacht said his May 25 talk will be about his department, which trains paramedics, and will briefly touch upon his own experiences as a paramedic.

“Since the war, I have spent most of the time in the military, in the infantry, as a paramedic,” he told the Independent. “I am trying to combine this with my work at BGU as a head of department and researcher, and, of course, my personal life and family. It is very challenging, but there is no other choice.”

Wacht’s visit to Vancouver will promote Heartbeat of Education, a project geared to helping more Israeli paramedics from all walks of life access and earn a bachelor’s degree in emergency medical services (EMS).

As the national EMS system, Magen David Adom (MDA) has very close ties with the program. In February 2022, MDA and BGU signed an affiliation agreement as part of an academic initiative designed to improve training for paramedics and EMTs. The affiliation, believed to be the first between a national EMS service and a university, strives to bolster the quality of pre-hospital emergency care in Israel and elsewhere.

“We want Israel to have the best paramedics and, with the program’s support, we can help our students go through our very intense program with less financial stress,” Wacht said.

“Our program is unique,” he added, “because students do EMS shifts at MDA from the first year of studies. We are incredibly excited about this opportunity – and being able to support our students, especially since the war, is one of the most important things we need to do.”

In Israel, MDA paramedics are among the first on the scene in emergencies to provide critical care. However, many paramedics lack the financial means to pursue higher education. The purpose of the Heartbeat of Education program is to enable paramedics to take on more specialized roles within the health-care system, bring enhanced expertise to emergencies and thereby save more lives and improve outcomes, drive innovation and support a diverse, inclusive environment that can provide life-saving services to everyone who lives in Israel.

Wacht also has created a summer program, in English, in emergency medicine at BGU. It will open this year, from July 20 to 30, and is geared towards laypeople and professionals alike. The program uses the extensive experience of tactical medicine – the delivery of care in hostile or high-risk situations that integrates medical and tactical operations to preserve life – at BGU and brings it to people in the course in a realistic environment at the school’s medical simulation centre. In addition to offering graduates a certificate from BGU, the program hopes to provide participants with the confidence to handle demanding medical challenges.

The Field Family Medical Simulation Centre occupies four floors of the Rachel and Max Javit Medical Simulation and Classroom Building at BGU. It includes classrooms equipped with medical devices, advanced simulators and research laboratories, and features state-of-the-art medical simulation rooms to train doctors, nurses and paramedics. The rooms are designed to reflect real-life medical situations, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, procedures for trauma victims and emergency surgeries.

Since Oct. 7, many medical teams, from army and civilian organizations, have asked for guidance at the centre, and the centre has helped prepare many Israel Defence Forces teams.

“Despite the challenges we face, and despite the fact that a significant part of the team has been called up for reserve duty, hospitals and MDA, this is our small contribution, and we stand united with the medical community in these difficult times,” Wacht said in October 2023.

“The support of Jewish people from around the world gives all of us, and me personally, a lot of strength in these challenging times,” Wacht told the Independent. “We invite readers to visit BGU and see the fantastic work in many fields of research.”

To register for the Metro Vancouver event, visit bengurion.ca/events/vancouver-events.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Candidates share views

Parm Bains, incumbent MP and Liberal candidate in Richmond East-Steveston, and his Conservative opponent, Zach Segal, spoke at Beth Tikvah April 15. (photo by Alan Marchant)

Liberal and Conservative candidates made their pitches to the Jewish community in a candidates’ forum at Beth Tikvah Congregation April 15.

Parm Bains, incumbent member of Parliament and Liberal candidate in the riding of Richmond East-Steveston, and his Conservative opponent, Zach Segal, who hopes to unseat Bains as MP on April 28, shared their visions, and those of their parties, to a crowded sanctuary at the Richmond synagogue.

Both candidates spoke of their lifelong roots in Richmond.

Bains explained that his engagement with at-risk youth and combating gang violence first emerged through coaching sports. He became a community liaison for the provincial government under premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark.

Segal worked in Ottawa during the Stephen Harper administration for the ministers of defence and transportation. He credited the former Conservative government for making Canada a “moral compass in the world.” However, he suggested that Jewish Canadians are wondering if there is a better tomorrow in Canada, not just because of rising antisemitism, but because of challenges around housing, affordability and community safety.

On the issue of antisemitism, Bains pointed to his Liberal colleague Anthony Housefather, who is the government’s special advisor on Jewish community relations and antisemitism, and urged members of the community to ensure authorities are made aware of every incident of antisemitic bias and hate.

“You have to report it,” Bains said. “If it’s reported, it’s a data point that we can take action on.”

Both candidates spoke of the challenges in enforcing existing anti-hate laws.

Bains said it is crucial that police understand the definition of hate crimes and that they are educated to enforce the laws as they stand.

Segal condemned an “explosive rise in antisemitism” and credited it in part to “a horrible lack of moral leadership.” The intimidation of Jewish people and the employment of incendiary language has been tolerated by federal leaders and others on the basis of free expression, he argued.

“This is hate speech,” Segal said. “This is inciting hate and it is illegal.”

Police have said they don’t have the support to go after perpetrators, said Segal, adding that funding to increase security at Jewish institutions, for example, is a Band-Aid solution that deals with the symptoms and not the causes. He said that his party’s leader, Pierre Poilievre, has been “rock solid” in condemning hate rallies and marches. He said that a Conservative government would “close loopholes” that allow hateful events like the annual Al-Quds Day rally in Toronto to continue unchecked.

Existing laws need to be enforced, said Bains, and he suggested there is a need to understand why police are not calling for charges and Crown prosecutors are not pursuing them.

“Why is there a reluctance?” Bains asked. “Where does that leadership need to come from?”

Canada has seen some of the “most obscene” anti-Israel activism of any Western democracy, Segal asserted, citing Charlotte Kates, who was arrested in November, and her Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which had been declared a terrorist entity shortly before her arrest, “years after Jewish and other community leaders sounded the alarm on them,” Segal said.

Segal also took exception to the fact that Canada instituted a military embargo on Israel before it recognized the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

“We were literally being tougher on Israel than Iran,” he said.

Bains said Israel has a right to defend itself and the hostages need to be freed. Canadians, however, want to play a role as “honest broker” and in peacekeeping. “Right now, Canadians want to see the violence stop, the bloodshed stop,” he said.

Segal condemned the Liberal government for resuming funding for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that functions as a quasi-governmental body in the Palestinian territories, some employees of which participated in the Oct. 7 pogroms.

“That is out of step with our allies in the Western world,” Segal said. Where the Harper Conservative government voted against one-sided resolutions of the United Nations, under the Liberals, said Segal, Canada has again begun supporting demonizing resolutions against Israel.

Both candidates called for more affordable housing, supports for seniors and economic opportunities for young people.

The candidates asked to speak were selected based on independent polling information which showed the Liberals and Conservatives to be the two parties leading or competing in both Richmond ridings. The Beth Tikvah Community Awareness Committee, which sponsored the event with support from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, chose to give those candidates likely to form government or be in the official opposition the opportunity to address the issues.

Rabbi Susan Tendler opened the event with reflections on reconciliation and noted the significance of the event taking place during Passover, the celebration of freedom, while Jews remain captive in Gaza.

Pondering peace post-Oct. 7

Commemorations of individuals murdered at the Nova festival. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Since I returned home to Vancouver from Israel a few weeks ago, it has taken me time to write about my reflections. There’s the usual getting over jetlag, catching up with work, dealing with the odds and ends that pile up after a five-week absence. I have also experienced a degree of avoidance. In some ways, there is so much to say I don’t know where to begin. In other ways, what can I possibly say that hasn’t been said before?

Unlike Israelis, I have had the luxury of putting my head in the sand, to some extent, in the days since I returned to my ridiculously quiet suburban home. My experiences – including a visit to the Gaza Envelope, Kibbutz Re’im and the Nova festival site, and conversations with scores of Israelis – have been percolating. In recent days, I have been immersed in video testimonies and other reports from survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks.

One of the reasons I have avoided writing so far, I think, is that the parallel I feel compelled to make is one that I hate to invoke. I intentionally avoid making comparisons with the Holocaust, as almost any contrast cheapens the sanctity of that event’s memory. It also is unavoidably an exaggeration – nothing can compare to the Holocaust. And so, we should not be in the business of raising false equivalencies.

But not everyone subscribes to my hesitancy. More than one Israeli I spoke to referred to Kibbutz Be’eri as “Auschwitz.”

Although I was guided around the sites of the Oct. 7 atrocities by a senior Israeli military official, we were denied entry to Be’eri, which came as a relief. I didn’t want to make the choice not to go in, but I was glad that decision was made for me.

I had to ask myself – as other people asked me – why I was compelled to visit these places in the first place? I had not, for example, taken the opportunity to watch the footage that screened in Vancouver last year of the most terrible carnage from Oct. 7. I believed that I knew enough of what happened that I did not need to be exposed to the images so graphically. (There are people, on the other hand, who I think should be forced to watch such footage.)

I could say no to the video but, in Israel, I felt an obligation to bear witness in what small way I could by visiting the Nova festival site and other locations, including Highway 232. My guide, who was among the first on the scene during the morning of Oct. 7, provided (as you can imagine) a jarring play-by-play of what he witnessed, saw, heard and smelled that day.

As I watch documentaries and continue to read about the events, and hear from eyewitnesses, including those who defended their kibbutzim, and military personnel who were among the first on the scene, it is almost impossible for the mind not to go to historical parallels.

I hear stories of people pretending to be dead for hours while murderous attackers surrounded them. Testimony recounts the nonchalant murder of the elderly, babies, anyone and everyone the terrorists could kill – as well as the collaboration of “ordinary” civilians.

The ripping apart of families. Parents shielding their children from gunshots. Families huddling as they are engulfed in flames. Survivors’ stories of screams still ringing in their ears. Jews recalling what they were sure were the last moments of their life. Acts of brutality that defy human imagination. Sadistic jubilation while perpetrating acts that make most people recoil. Residents of a village reconnoitring after the catastrophe to determine who remains alive.

The parallels are, to me at least, unavoidable.

There is, of course, a quantitative chasm between this modern horror and that of the Shoah. It is this difference that also makes comparisons so incredibly problematic. But it is the qualitative experiences, the grotesque similarities between Nazi atrocities and those of Hamas, that force the mind to go in that direction.

While visiting Jerusalem, I stumbled upon a pathway that begins at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum and research centre, and winds through the military cemeteries in which the casualties of Israel’s successive defensive wars and endless terror attacks are buried, as are most of the country’s prime ministers, presidents and other leading figures. The pathway ends at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, the man most credited with making real the dream of a Jewish state, and adjacent to the museum that tells his life story.

The message here is that, from the moral abyss of the Holocaust to the sustaining of national self-determination as envisioned by Herzl, the path has had an unimaginable human cost.

The promise of the state of Israel, in Herzl’s mind, was that a people who were no longer stateless would not be subject to the predations of their brutalizing neighbours. Like so much else Herzl envisioned – he imagined that Jews would be welcomed for the positive contributions they bring to the region – a state has not ushered in the lasting peace for which he had hoped.

photo - An empty Shabbat table set for missing loved ones at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv — An empty Shabbat table set for missing loved ones at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. *(photo by Pat Johnson)*

We have known this since the moment Israel’s independence was declared and the new country was immediately invaded by the massed armies of its neighbouring countries. The Arab states unanimously rejected coexistence and soon Jews from across the Middle East and North Africa were expelled or otherwise forced to flee, most finding a home in the new Jewish state. The Arabs who were not within Israel’s border at the time of the 1949 ceasefire – and their generations of descendants – have been held as stateless people ever since in one of history’s most cynical acts.

What is still able to shock, even in a world where we have become inured to inhumanity, is that there are people who experience joy at Jewish death and thrill at the opportunity to torture, terrorize and kill Jews. A state has not removed that possibility from the world.

If there was one single objective for the existence of a Jewish state, this was it: the basic security of the Jewish person. On Oct. 7, that promise was broken.

While many Israelis told me that Oct. 7 demonstrated that coexistence with Palestinians is impossible, other people told me that it merely made them redouble their commitment to building a future of peace and coexistence. If I went back to those who said Oct. 7 taught us to work harder for peace with Palestinians, would they see a cognitive dissonance in my position as I do with theirs?

If the existence of a Jewish state cannot prevent the most basic thing it was created to realize, is the entire enterprise a failure?

A Jewish state does not guarantee, obviously, that Jews will not still and again experience the atrocities that have befallen them historically. It is, nevertheless, the best defence, however imperfect.

The Israelis who told me they must work harder for peace believe that, when our ideal falls short, rather than give up, we have to do more to attain it. For them, that means doubling down on peace activism. I admire their idealism.

For me, any realistic plan for peace is worthy of consideration. But I will also double down and say that the answer to a Jewish state that fails to live up to its core mission of keeping Jewish people from reliving the horrors of the past is also not to give up – but to continue building a Jewish state that is impermeable, unparalleled in strength and impervious to the genocidal assaults of its neighbours.

Reflecting on the thousands I saw buried along the pathway between Yad Vashem and Herzl’s tomb, I believe that, until Israel’s neighbours are incapable of the sorts of atrocities we have seen, Israelis must work for peace, on the one hand, while assuming their neighbours won’t change, on the other.

Definition of genocide

Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, coined the term “genocide” in 1944. (photo from Arthur Leipzig Estate, courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, via ushmm.org)

Anna-Mae Wiesenthal was in the United Kingdom recently and passed a table in Dublin that was accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. She engaged the people at the table in conversation.

It was a small act of dialogue between a few individuals, but it reflects what Wiesenthal views as a vital act in mutual understanding.

Encouraging conversations like these is one of the reasons the Vancouver educator recently led a course at Temple Sholom on the definition of genocide.

Wiesenthal holds a master’s degree in Holocaust and genocide studies and is about to defend her PhD dissertation in the same discipline. Both degrees are from Gratz College, in Pennsylvania. She retired last year as a teacher at Vancouver’s King David High School.

The three-class course at Temple Sholom addressing the emotionally and academically challenging topic of genocide comes at a time when

Israel is being accused of perpetrating crimes against humanity in Gaza. The topic has immediate resonance. Wiesenthal’s intention, however, was to take a more nuanced approach to the subject.

“My goal when I retired is to continue to be an educator in different capacities,” she said. After discussions with Temple Sholom’s Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, she put together the course, which ran on three consecutive Wednesdays, ending March 19.

The focus, she said, was an examination of the concept, introducing students to when and why the term “genocide” was coined, in 1944, by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, and looking at its definition, examining the wording and identifying problematic components.

In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined “genocide” as: “Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting conditions intended to destroy the group in whole or in part; imposing measures to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

“The word ‘intent’ in the definition is problematic,” Wiesenthal said, as an example of the exploration the class undertook. “How do you prove intent?”

The goal of the course, she said, was “to come out possibly with more questions or appreciation for the complexity of the definition.”

The small group of students analyzed the 10 Stages of Genocide, a framework developed and introduced in 1996 by Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, to help identify the warning signs of genocide and prevent it before it escalates.

These steps include classification (dividing people into “us” versus “them” based on ethnicity, race, religion or nationality); symbolization (assigning symbols or names to distinguish groups, such as the yellow Star of David for Jews in Nazi Germany); discrimination (dominant groups deny rights to a specific group, often through laws or policies); dehumanization (the targeted group is compared to animals, vermin, insects or diseases to strip them of their humanity); organization (genocidal acts are planned and coordinated, often by governments, militias or extremist groups); polarization (propaganda and hate speech are used to drive society further apart, making violence seem justified); preparation (authorities or groups begin making lists, planning logistics and even building camps or weapons for mass killing); persecution (victims are identified, isolated and deprived of rights, for example, forced deportation, concentration camps, starvation); extermination (the mass killing of the targeted group begins, often justified as “cleansing” or necessary for national security); and denial (perpetrators cover up evidence, deny crimes, blame victims or rewrite history to avoid accountability).

“It’s not always linear,” Wiesenthal said of the 10 stages. “Some of the stages can overlap, some of the stages may not necessarily be present, but it’s a way to identify and help you predict. If we see conditions of the stages unfolding then perhaps we can predict more accurately that there is groundwork being laid for genocidal actions.”

While Wiesenthal wanted to encourage depth of understanding on the topic, its immediacy – with Israel being accused of genocide by groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – led some students, and the Independent, to pressure her to comment on current events.

“What do we say when somebody says Israel is committing genocide?” Wiesenthal asked. “I could ask a question like: What is your understanding of genocide? What does that mean to you?”

If Israel wanted to commit genocide, Wiesenthal noted, they have the military capacity to have done so on the first day of the war. This is perhaps the most immediate, if not entirely nuanced, response.

“You can make all kinds of arguments about how there was or wasn’t enough humanitarian aid and food trucks entering Gaza,” she said. “The fact is there were food trucks entering.”

There could be legitimate discussions about what Hamas did with that aid once it entered Gaza. But, she said, the larger issue is that governments that plan on committing genocide do not provide victims with humanitarian aid, nor do they provide vaccines for children, as Israel has done.

Military experts, such as John Spencer, who specializes in urban warfare, has said that the civilian casualty ratio in Gaza is “historically low for modern warfare” and cites Israeli Defence Forces estimates that 50-60% of Gazans killed have been civilians, well below the 80-90% of civilian casualties typical in modern conflicts.

Spencer has praised the Israeli military’s efforts to minimize non-combatant harm, citing mass warnings to Gazan civilians, providing evacuation and relocation directives to reduce casualties, and the use of “roof knocking” techniques before airstrikes.

While Israel has been condemned for using 2,000-pound bombs in urban areas, Spencer has claimed that these are standard for penetrating fortified underground structures, like Hamas’s extensive tunnel networks, and contends that their use is not intended to cause unnecessary destruction but to legitimately and effectively serve military objectives.

Wiesenthal turns the genocide narrative around, noting that Hamas has explicitly dedicated itself to committing genocide against Israelis and Jews, both in writing and in its repeated expressed statements.

“It is part of Hamas’s charter and something they verbally repeated, that their goal is to get rid of Jews, and their readiness to commit Oct. 7 over and over again,” she said.

This goes to the challenging issue of intent on the part of both Israelis and Hamas, she added.

“If given the opportunity, Hamas [has said it] would kill every Jew in Israel and destroy Israel,” said Wiesenthal. “Israel is not targeting the Palestinian people or the Palestinian population in Gaza. Their campaign is solely directed at the terrorist organization Hamas, which is existentially threatening Israel. Israel is responding to a genocidal attack.”

Ellis gives needed context

Author Israel Ellis with his new book, The Wake Up Call, after a Feb. 10 talk at Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto, where he joined journalist Dave Gordon in conversation. (photo by Dave Gordon)

In his new book, The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism in a World Gone MAD, author Israel Ellis brings the events of Oct. 7, 2023, into a compelling, fact-based and easy-to-read focus.

Backed up by scores of footnotes and references, the book is a no-nonsense look at the Hamas terror attack of Oct. 7 and, poignantly, the attack on democracy Ellis believes happened in the months prior to them. The addition of personal stories from Oct. 7 survivors and family members adds another level of documentation to an already all-encompassing book.

Ellis weaves in his own lived experience and perspective as a Jewish Canadian in the diaspora with firsthand accounts of contemporary antisemitism and his reflections on being the father of an Israel Defence Forces lone soldier fighting in Gaza. His personal observations allow the reader to connect with him, as well as better understand the interconnectedness of Jews, no matter where they live, and Israel.

For non-Jews, it can be daunting to begin learning about what happened on Oct. 7, and the global repercussions. Many non-Jews do not know the history of the Middle East, how the state of Israel fits into this history, or what the definition of “antisemitism” is. Ellis helps fill in these blanks, and this is why I am so excited to introduce this book to my friends.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Canadians (and people from other countries) have seen large pro-Palestine protests in the streets of all the major cities and in academic spaces, with large university encampments set up across the country. Most people in the Jewish community see these protests for what they are: pro-terror and anti-democratic. But, for a Canadian with little knowledge of what the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is, these protests and encampments can look like a fight for human rights. No doubt, some individuals believe they are marching for human rights while chanting “intifada revolution,” but many are there to show support for Hamas, to some degree or another. This is why the knowledge, geopolitical insight and historical context Ellis brings with his writing is so vitally important.

I read a lot of books on Israel, as a non-Jewish Canadian interested in educating myself, and Ellis’s new book has become a favourite. One of the reasons is that Ellis writes about many protests and political events that are still fresh in our minds. He discusses protests that took place in Toronto and the encampments at McGill University (and others). He shows the utter incompetence of Canadian politicians, such as Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, in handling the rise of radical Islam. He strongly condemns Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Mélanie Joly, who shook the hand of Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, in what is a now-famous Ramallah photo-op. These events, along with many others, are documented in Ellis’s book, illustrating a pattern of political complicity and complacency that he says has contributed to the eroding of Canada’s moral backbone.

As a Canadian university student, I have experienced firsthand my peers sympathizing with and rallying for terrorist organizations. The university institutions have been complacent in protecting neutral academic spaces, allowing terrorist propaganda to infiltrate our lectures and giving some professors the ability to promote hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.

A quote from The Wake Up Call that gave me chills reads: “There is no coming invasion. It is already here. Jihad has already been invited into our universities, professions, communities and public institutions. October 7 was a wake-up call. It is an example of the hunger for Global Jihad, and what can happen if it is allowed to be satiated. To think that these events are restricted to a narrow strip on the Mediterranean is a complete miscalculation of reality.”

The Wake Up Call should be read by anyone – uninformed or well-informed, Jew or non-Jew – who wants to better understand the political, social and historical context behind the current rise in anti-democratic, pro-terror narratives that have taken over many Western spaces.

Zara Nybo, a fourth-year student at the University of British Columbia, is a StandWithUs Canada Emerson Fellow. Connect with her via Instagram: @zaranybo.