Platforming Anti-Zionists at Synagogues

It is with a heavy heart that  we write this letter to advise you of our resignation from our  congregation. This is especially painful because the congregation, with its then big tent,  warmly welcomed us when we moved here in 1997 and is the synagogue where our children had their bnei mitzvot.

It became clear on Oct 8^th , the day after the Hamas massacre,  that there was little empathy for Israeli victims and their Diaspora supporters (90% of Canadian Jews). Predictably, this quickly descended into victim blaming and in short order the classical playbook of Jew Hatred was opened,  complete with Scapegoating (the Middle East would live in peace, if not for Israel), Othering (Zionists are not welcome), De-legitimization (River to the Sea), Demonization (White European Settler Colonial Apartheid State that intentionally  starves populations, commits war crimes and  Genocide) and the innumerable Double Standards. The latter includes denying Israel the right to defend itself and calling any actions to protect its borders and rescue its hostages, by  fighting an avowedly genocidal enemy,  revenge. If people want to see blood lust and true cries for revenge, watch Hamas’ gleeful Go Pro Footage,  Al Jazeera, or listen to the blood curdling chants  from  Anti-Zionist, pro-Hamas protestors in the West, including the marches in Victoria and illegal encampments at University of Toronto, UVIC and UBC.

The normalization of these libels as part of the  “Global Intifada” is deliberately tearing us from the Canadian Tapestry and has put the whole Jewish community at risk.  University students are being harassed,  applicants to medical schools are hiding their heritage,  and   Jewish children in grade school are taught to hate themselves and their families for supporting “Zionist Settler Colonialism”. Jewish students have been classified by antagonistic political leaders as Pro or Anti – Genocide.

We need to protect our children, and each other from these daily gut punches, restore our communal confidence, and fight this ongoing defamation.

Therefore, we were  shocked to learn that the Congregation  honored The Mayor who needed proof for the rapes of Israeli women, and a Member of Parliament who slanders  Israel with blood libels of deliberate starvation of Gazans, baby killing  and Genocide. Now, you are  inviting Peter Beinart, a self described “Former Zionist” to speak to the Congregation.

Beinart  routinely libels Israel as an Apartheid Genocidal State, attacking supporters, giving succor to groups determined to destroy the Jewish State and harm its defenders.  Daniel Gordis clearly outlines Beinart’s manipulative disingenuous sophistry and the harm he has caused. Conspicuously absent from Beinart’s revealed truth of a  One-State-Solution is any acknowledgement of the wishes of Palestinians (or Israelis) who consistently reject this option to end this tragic conflict.  The aspirations of  people with skin in the game, never seem to matter to the Vanguard.

Beinart’s utopian views ignore the sad reality of violence and wars, occurring in multi-ethnic states around the world, including Myanmar, India, China,  Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, as well as  violence and discord in Catalonia and Basque Country, and our own  challenges keeping Quebec in a united Canada.  But somehow Jews and Arabs, who have been at war for a century, will assuredly live in peace in Democratic Palestine,  if only the Zionist State is eliminated.

To be clear,  like  thousands of Israelis,  we have no problem with criticism of Israeli government policies.  We are not a perfect people,  and Israel, like other countries has many flaws. We deplore settler violence and pray for an end to the war with return of the hostages and displaced civilians.  However, we are opposed to what Yossi Klein Halevi calls the War Against the Jewish Story, promoted by Beinart and his ilk, including Jewish Voices for Peace, If Not Now,  and Independent Jewish Voices.   Let them speak at the university, but welcoming them into our synagogue is a betrayal of Canadian Jews during our most vulnerable time in history.

Theirs is not an argument for the sake of heaven. Platforming them is analogous to welcoming  Jews like Jacob Frank, or members of the Marxist Bund and Soviet Jewish commissars , who were determined to save us from our small-minded particularity and enlighten us about universal moral truths, like  Christianity, Marxism and now Human Rights.

Unfortunately, we no longer feel comfortable in a congregation that has prioritized  a superficial intersectional identity ideology, that divides the world into irredeemable villains and righteous victims, and that casts Israel and its Jewish supporters as the apex oppressors.

Jewish identity is a complex mix of religion,  ethnicity and national history. For most diaspora Jews the concept of people-hood and attachment to our ancestral  homeland, where half of World Jewry currently lives is a fundamental part of our identity. We can no longer reside  inside a tent, that is increasingly removing “Israel” from the Shema prayer, in the Mezuzah affixed  to its doorpost.

With hope for restoration of Truth, Justice, Loving Kindness and Peace in the New Year.

Soon we will be blowing the shofar and saying L’ Shana Haba’ah B’ Yerushalayim- Next Year in Jerusalem.