‘Stoking the fires of antisemitism and hate!’

Today, Canadian Jews have lost the art of verbally communicating aggressively, shoulder-to-shoulder, against its adversaries.

A Canadian perspective.

Recently, I received a compassionate email from a Canadian reader. He said:

I’m tired of reading about how Hamas has won the media war against us, even if it lost the strategic war, for now.

I don’t want to hear any more repetition of their lies, without a well-mounted campaign of our own to counter their lies and regain our integrity as part of our holy mission to make the world a better place, a world of compassion and true justice. And we need compelling voices to get our message across.

Not a day should go by without the media praying for us, not against us. Slogan for slogan, song for song, rallying cry for rallying cry, vignette for vignette.

We have to begin to fight back and reclaim our rightful place in the world. Not arguments. Arguments do not arouse emotions. And we are in a war for the emotions of the world that Hamas has carefully and effectively waged.

We need compelling voices to speak for us, voices that know how to move people. Heaven knows we are masters of that art. But we want to arouse positive emotions, not the negative emotions that have turned the world against us. Who has the slogans? Who has the master plan? Our whole future depends on moving forward in the media war against our enemies. Let’s hear your voices on this front for a change.

The clock is ticking

Let’s stop pussyfooting with terminology and call it as it is. It is time for ordinary Canadian Jews everywhere to raise their voices and cease being on the sidelines, expecting others to do the work for them. An estimated 400,000 Jews living in Canada can and must make a difference. The clock is ticking.

Nelson Mandela, in his book Long Walk to Freedom, said: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Unfortunately, over the past years, I have seen a diminishing amount of love and in its place more diatribe than I ever imagined possible. Today, we no longer live in Nelson Mandela’s world, a world where hate and love can be used with such simplicity in the same sentence. And sadly, I’ve started to question the validity of what our mission statement is.

Over the years, I have seen groups of fractious, small-minded Canadian antisemite bigots of this world, now accompanied by sick, demented pro-Hamas supporters, become more adventurous in their misguided fantasy that we Canadian Jews are weak, pathetic individuals, without any backbone and that we have lost the art of communicating aggressively, shoulder-to-shoulder, against them.

My reader has expressed it more aptly than I.

Over the years, I have seen once respected media outlets, such as Canada’s CBC, turn their back on striving to present a balanced view of Middle East issues. Now they are in the forefront of stoking the fires of antisemitism and hate.

And it is of no surprise that over the years I have seen NGOs and international rights groups fervently compete for funding by branding themselves as leading authorities on Middle East issues – translate this as Israel apartheid- yet refuse to focus their resources on victims of democide in the region.

Which brings me to today. I accept that in Canada, matters are complicated by traditional territoriality among Jewish community groups and occasional splits between the local Jewish community and Israel.

Educating the already converted

However, this past week, Canada’s UJA Federation of Greater Toronto (UJA) sent out to its mailing list a special edition of UJA Snapshot. “How UJA is fighting antisemitism.”

UJA stated, “This week, we are taking a deep dive into UJA’s work in countering antisemitism and hate.” As the content declares: “Our community cannot achieve its full potential unless Jews can be openly and proudly Jewish. This means taking action to secure our physical safety and secure our place of belonging in Canadian society.”

I commend UJA for its report. Its detailed message has infinite communication value, but it educates the already converted.

Today, we have lost the ability to speak the language of our enemies; sadly, we no longer have the verbal communication skills to aggressively counter the lies and disinformation we hear daily directed to the non-Jewish masses.

Perhaps we should turn to Frank Luntz. For years, this US-based political and business pollster has been telling us that “the Jewish community is often torn between those urging private pressure and those preferring to express public outrage.”

He adds, “It does not matter what you say. What matters is what people hear.”

“We need to urgently find and invest in leaders who speak in the same language as the pro-Hamas insurgents and the antisemites.”

Today, in Canada, our leaders are those of yesteryear. We must find young articulate leaders to lead us into the next battleground.

Yet for the vast majority of Jews, we must understand that right now, we are fighting for our survival. We need to urgently find and invest in leaders who speak in the same language as the pro-Hamas insurgents and the antisemites. Young and articulate leaders, who speak, not the language of Mandela, not my language, and not, with no disrespect intended, the language of our Holocaust survivors, but the language of today. And in this regard, there are far too few Canadian Jewish individuals able or willing to rise up to the challenge.

As Frank Luntz has said, “Greenpeace does not wait for the next oil spill or seal hunt. Our Jewish community should not and cannot wait for the next bombing or boycott.” The time to organise is now! The clock is ticking.

Never again for many seems to be just a dream fading into obscurity. ●