The Social Costs of Anti-Semitism and Hate Crimes
Without meaning to belabor the point, hate crimes and anti-Israel and anti-semitic sentiment have been increasing in Canada for decades, our government leaders and community institutions have been ineffective, and we are less safe than ever before. It’s a little known fact but tax paying citizens have the right to be free from harassment and hate crimes or any crimes, particularly in their tax funded institutions and when these are aided and abetted by their tax funded leaders. They used to call this the ‘rule of law’. Let’s bring that back, shall we?
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs ministry which monitors anti-semitism and hate crimes internationally has recently issued a warning to Jews around the world about rising attacks on Jewish institutions and synagogues and particularly against visible Jews en route to synagogue services and those wearing identifiable Jewish symbols such as kippahs. We in Canada are not alone in feeling unsafe and underprotected.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-warns-of-growing-threat-of-deadly-attacks-on-synagogues-worldwide/
In the recent Israeli election campaign, there were discussions about increasing funding to Israel’s foreign affairs ministry and consular professionals abroad to improve ‘Hasbarah’ or PR efforts to explain Israel’s right to exist and defend itself lawfully and why Zionism is NOT racism and Israel is not an apartheid state or guilty of genocide in defending itself against hostile and lawless terrorist enemy combatants who use their own people and benign civic infrastructure such as hospitals and schools as human shields and rocket launch sites and hijack international humanitarian aid shipments to support terrorism.
Say it again. Israel did not ratify the Rome Statute governing the International Criminal Court, and is not under its jurisdiction, so all claims of violations of international law or threats to arrest Israeli politicians or IDF veterans visiting Canada on suspicion of war crimes are invalid and moot. The UN and its disproportionate targeting of Israel in hostile resolutions is a similar laughingstock. Tell all your third-rate third world tyrannies I said so. Let’s boycott them for a change. I am so done with fulminating bearded religious fundamentalist patriarchs of all religions, aren’t you? They are no friends of mine and shouldn’t be friends of yours if you like freedom of thought, democracy and human rights. Bye now!
Canada and its mealy mouthed middle powers can clutch their pearls and posture ‘unacceptable’ about Israeli actions all they like, but territories claimed in a defensive war in 1967 against hostile enemy combatants who continue to pose existential threats of terrorism and who have rejected all potential peace agreements remain disputed territories under international law, especially when said combatants have acted anti-democratically and failed to recognize Israel or renounce terrorism and have pledged to eradicate Jews ‘from the river to the sea’. Let’s face it.
These Anglo Canadian and British and Australian folks never liked Israel or Jews much anyhow. And neither did their colonies. I think they invented racism and colonialism. And don’t get me started about the EU. Their ignorant virtue signaling, antisemitism and overt bribery of the Muslim voter community is abhorrent and obvious. I was born and raised in Canada, and I know my rights. Don’t tell me to ‘go home’. I am already here. And I am very effective.
Jewish parents hope their kids will grow up to be or marry scholars and doctors and lawyers and business professionals, not become jihadists and their misguided leftist terrorist apologists and mob radical rioters and kultur kampfers. And not drunks and druggies either. Pass it on. Free speech does not include the license to break the law and commit crimes. Your lowest common denominator Canadians and university students are appalling. Our elites are not much better. We are now culturally and historically illiterate and unlawful in more ways than ever before. Oh. Canaduh. I despair of you.
While our Canadian Liberal government and some leftist media such as the CBC have now acknowledged that anti-zionism is a form of anti-semitism (at long last), and that proxies of Iran and other terrorist groups are present in Canada and are utilizing gunmen for hire to shoot up synagogues in Toronto and the US Embassy there, and even threatening our beloved former Justice Minister and human rights advocate Irwin Cotler, our law enforcement personnel and courts and jails have yet to get the memo.
Police continue to use a ‘catch and release’ arrest policy to address criminals of all kinds, because our jails are overcrowded, and Crown Attorneys and Courts remain underfunded and overburdened and underprepared. We get occasional piecemeal announcements about the hiring of more police officers and enhanced law enforcement training and committees, but our communities are increasingly unsafe, and not only for Jews.
Bullying is rampant in our public schools and even a local non-Jewish volunteer Canadian Air Force cadet commander was recently viciously assaulted, resulting in serious life altering injuries, while attempting to promote the sale of Remembrance Day poppies at a shopping center in East Hamilton. He is now in hospital and unable to walk. A 48 year old woman assisting the young assailants has also been charged. Here is that report.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/local/hamilton/article/air-cadets-supervisor-assaulted-during-distribution-of-poppies-at-hamilton-mall-unable-to-walk-family/
Around the same time, there were many anti-semitic hate crimes and community intimidation attempts in Ontario. One of these was a serious vandalism attack on a car parked at a local mechanic in St. Catharines, not far from Hamilton, in Ontario’s Niagara Region famous for wineries, theatre, agriculture, and Niagara Falls. This report is chilling and raises uncomfortable questions. It demonstrates the degree of animosity toward Jews and Israel and its supporters in Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hate-motivated-swastika-vandalism-st-catharines-9.7406231
The car had been towed to the mechanics’ garage due to mechanical problems and left in the parking lot. It was spraypainted with a swastika and the windows were smashed. An Israeli flag displayed in the interior near the dashboard was also defaced and smashed through the windshield. The photos were provided in an earlier draft of the story above by the car’s owner, who relies on the car for his livelihood as a delivery driver, and who remains very fearful for his safety and that of his daughter. He appealed to Jewish and community services groups for assistance in relocating to a safe temporary shelter until the perpetrator is caught and brought to justice. The victim is afraid of reprisals at his home. He is a recent immigrant to Canada from Ukraine who had lived for some time in Israel.
That’s how bad things are here now. What keeps me up at night is that the earlier version of the CBC story claimed that a witness had seen the car being vandalized and viciously attacked and notified the car’s owner. The witness did not intervene or call the police. The victim arrived at the shop and witnessed and photographed the damage to his car and called police. There are Victim Services available for victims of crime, and Niagara Region police hate crimes units are investigating, but I wonder why the witness to this crime did not intervene or call police directly and who perpetrated this crime and why it is always ‘after the fact’ that communities become mobilized against hatred.
B’nai Brith Canada’s Richard Robertson opined to CBC in the original report that it was ‘disgusting’ to see a crime of this nature perpetrated merely because someone displayed an Israeli flag in their car and that this indicates the degree to which anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiment have been normalized in Canada along with escalating hate crimes.
Another recent report on CBC recounted the arson attack against 600 Israeli flags displayed by a Toronto church commemorating the anniversary of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. The church responded by replacing the flags with double the number on their grounds.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hate-motivated-offence-investigation-toronto-police-israeli-flags-oct-7-9.7372191
Israel’s own National Security Council released a report before the high holiday season warning Jews and Israeli citizens abroad to take special precautions for their safety, notably in the display of Israeli flags or Jewish insignia such as kippahs and tzitzit (ritual fringes), speaking Hebrew in public, and attending demonstrations or Chabad or synagogue services. What does this tell you?
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/tishrei2026
Please tell your underinformed pro-Israel boosters that their chest-thumping bravado is misplaced. They do not have the right to put themselves or others at risk and could face legal consequences for doing so.
As an LGBTQ person, I am tired of being exploited by Jewish leaders and institutions as a symbol of Israel’s human rights and democracy. If Jerusalem Pride needs the protection of thousands of police officers to prevent violent attacks on parade participants, Israel is not the haven for LGBTQ people it purports to be, however popular Tel Aviv Pride and related nightclubs are as tourism destinations. The smart LGBTQ folks don’t go to these festivals anymore. They are a form of commercial, sexual and political exploitation of the LGBTQ community and have been colonized by well meaning gay-curious straight folks seeking to signal their solidarity and politicians seeking photo ops and playing ‘gay for a day’ and getting in our way. We know their game. Make a note.
Pride Day is EVERY Day and we do not display LGBTQ symbols and rainbow flags, jewelry and stickers and drag costumes in our cars and homes and businesses. Our human rights remain protected in law. We are often victimized by hate crimes too, especially in small town Ontario, the Niagara Region, and in Hamilton. By the same types of thugs. And we are still recovering from millenia of institutionalized homophobia and harassment and marginalization in the mainstream Jewish community, including within our families and Hebrew schools and synagogues and home towns of origin, and among some self-professed ‘proud homophobe’ Israeli politicians. They are a discredit to our Jewish community and Israel and pose risks to our legitimate life interests and human rights. Don’t ask us to embrace them in the guise of ‘religious freedoms’ and ‘democratic diversity’ and free speech and debates of attrition. We need not explain or apologize to them or anyone for being ourselves any longer.
I am not convinced by the eager embrace of LGBTQ community and condescending religious missionizing ‘outreach’ as a new political football and fundraising demographic in many synagogues and uptown Jewish organizations who perceive the LGBTQ community as a desirable charitable donor demographic. Especially by straight folks. It’s creepy. In the extreme. I am pretty sure that God aka Hashem created me this way for good reasons and our relationship is just fine. I am not interested in being anyone’s handmaid or housewife but thanks for asking.
We know who our friends are and have been historically in the Jewish community, and we know those who never were and never will be. To put it plainly. And sometimes these include anti-Israel LGBTQ Jews and self-promoting mainstream histrionic and volatile LGBTQ Jews who have made little contribution to LGBTQ rights. I avoid both camps deliberately.
Someone should say that a correlative right of freedom of association in democracies is the right to dissociate from those seeking to exploit us or cause us harm. That includes ignorant and exploitive uptown Jewish organizations who demonstrate the self-perpetuating character of bureaucracies outlined by sociologist Max Weber in his Economy and Society. He also studied Ancient Israel and delineated the power relations and relative status of priests, prophets, and pariahs. See also Bernard Lazare on the conscious pariah and the work of Hannah Arendt on the Origins of Totalitarianism.
As an internationally recognized LGBTQ rights advocate and activist, I almost lost my hearing in 2013 while marching at Toronto Pride with Kulanu, our local LGBTQ Jewish organization. I was shot from a distance and behind by a parade spectator with a high pressure water gun. I had to leave the parade to seek immediate medical attention. We later learned that a group of Toronto terrorists arrested in the VIA Rail trial was targeting Zionists at Pride celebrations. So much for due diligence in the uptown Jewish community. They have done the same to Jewish feminist academics.
Toronto Pride 2013 was the same year as the Boston Marathon bombing, there were threats against former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, and security was tight but could not protect us, and still cannot. Jewish marchers at Montreal Fierte Pride Celebrations have also been victimized by spectators throwing water balloons filled with urine or irritating and strong smelling nettle juice to the disgust of attending police officers and members of CIJA and the uptown Jewish community who dismissed the threats and trauma posed to vulnerable LGBTQ people. I have distanced myself from them and the self-serving and underinformed and irresponsible LGBTQ Jewish community professionals they have co-opted.
I advised my colleagues in Israel not to attend World Pride 2014 in Toronto. It had already been taken over by anti-Israel activists and would merely be an Israel bashing festival. But our dogged and deluded exploitive uptown Jewish organizations continued to encourage vulnerable LGBTQ Jews to participate in Toronto Pride as a demonstration of ‘positive political and community engagement’ by providing Toronto Pride with financial incentives and fees for participation.
The smart LGBTQ Jews walked away. From Pride Toronto and from CIJA and from those partying on while our community members were at risk. Shame on them. No, we do not belong there and neither do you. Why march with drunken anti-semites? I donate to LGBTQ charities in Israel instead at every Pride Season. It’s a mechaye. (Life enhancing pleasure.) No heat stroke, no crowds, no porta-potties, no anti-semites, no exploitive straight folks and photo op politicians getting in the way. I support the Jerusalem Open House and the Aguda, Israel’s LGBTQ legal and human rights advocacy organization every year. Try it!
In this post-COVID era in which bricks and mortar institutions are in rapid decline, I wonder how long it will be before well meaning Jewish communities abandon synagogues and Hebrew schools and Jewish community centers as vulnerable targets for terrorism and hate crimes that they can no longer afford or sustain safely with due regard to liability issues and the safety of their members and congregants who remain at risk. We are already facing a crisis of Jewish institutional disaffiliation, particularly among the young, and seniors of modest incomes, many of whom cannot afford the high costs and risks of Jewish religious affiliation and are less inclined to support Israel. With an aging demographic of regular synagogue members in liberal denominations, and growing concerns about synagogue safety and viability, I predict that we will see increasing closures of small town synagogues and JCCs in years to come. Our Jewish Federations of North America already have protocols in place for this and for the maintenance of Jewish cemeteries and redistribution of Torah scrolls and the effects and possessions of defunct congregations. But there is still the prospect of self-directed and online Jewish education and charitable work and advocacy that is more affordable and better protected from security threats. I would direct concerned Jewish parents and community members to pursue these safely.
I have recently found and circulated a very insightful essay by a fellow Times of Israel Blogger Mitchell Hansen outlining the nature of contemporary antisemitism and anti-Israel and anti-zionist sentiments now normalized in Canada, on campuses, and in public funded leftist political parties, unions, feminist and LGBTQ communities, as it is now in similar communities in the US. Read it here. It offers a well researched survey and valuable counter arguments to anti-semites for those at risk.
As the daughter of a Shoah survivor writing on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, I beg to differ with Mitchell Hansen's thesis that our interlocutors are apathetic or ignorant about the contemporary nature of antisemitism. I think they are deliberately hostile. Jews (most of whom support Israel and identify as Zionists) are Canada's most highly educated, law abiding, literate and liberated and economically productive demographic, or we would be if we were not constantly being intimidated from our lawful purposes by harassment and hate crimes and pro-terrorist ideologies, in our schools, universities, workplaces, and neighbourhoods.
This is also likely to be true in the US and many other western democracies. The intel experts call this Permanent Postmodern Global Islamist Terrorism, which has exploited public funded spaces and human rights controversies to our detriment and engaged the sympathies of leftists who fear being called racist or Islamophobic. Our adversaries have sought since 9/11 or before to cripple our democratic economies and societies and have capitalized on latent anti-semitism and amplified it. Israel and its existence and politics and military actions are merely a pretext. Don't expect us to be sportsmanlike in defending this obviously warped free speech paradigm.
I do subscribe to the theses of many Holocaust historians and particularly Daniel Goldhagen, who wrote Hitler's Willing Executioners. The average non-Jew is undereducated and facing extraordinary contemporary economic challenges. Their instincts are to seek easy explanations and scapegoats. I think they like it when Jews are afraid and increasingly isolated. Debates of attrition, empty and ineffective cross cultural committees, political jihad or kulturkampf and genocides have long been their strong point, on the far left and the extreme right. The history of antisemitism in Canada is not pretty and conditions are even worse today than they were in the time of my grandparents in the 1930s just before Canada's "None Is Too Many" immigration policy banned Jewish refugees from Nazism from coming to Canada.
Sharlene Weitzman, one of the victims of the recent attack on the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, has written an evocative essay in the National Post outlining the symptoms of post-traumatic stress after this life threatening event. Canada has violated its social contract with its mainly law abiding and taxpaying Jewish community. Our Prime Minister recently admitted this in a ceremonious appearance at a Toronto synagogue this past spring. But he and his government ministers have done little about it. Hold them to account.
It is time for our forelock tugging Jewish leaders and institutions to stop being unduly deferential to government and legal authorities and to demand our lawful rights to safety and security as Canadian citizens.
How about building more jails as an economic development strategy in Canada? How about enhancing mandatory sentences for hate crimes and our counter-terrorism and intelligence expertise and cooperating with experts in Israel as per our Free Trade and Security Agreement? How about legislating against the Gladue Sentencing Principles? Most Canadians (especially women) could not care less about the racial or ethnic background of the criminals who victimize them. How about keeping Canadians safe? That's why we pay taxes. We hope for Peace, Order and Good Government. So far, our Liberal government has engaged in lip service and pretty international posturing and anti-Israel condemnations and selling Jews and Israel out to political expediency, while clearly favoring and pandering to its larger and more volatile and histrionic Muslim Canadian electoral base and recognizing an anti-democratic illusionary state of Palestine.
They used to call that collaboration and capitulation to anti-semitism. The 'Palestine' they celebrate aligned itself with the Nazis in WWII and is still committed to eliminating Jews and Israel 'from the river to the sea'. Face facts. These dialogues are going nowhere. Most Canadians don't really want to learn. They think their undereducated and increasingly illiterate and ill behaved children will get ahead by bullying Jews and Israel. Tell it like it is. I just bought another Israel Bond, Canaduh. Why do we lionize hockey players with sticks? It is a caveman ice age mentality here. Some people need sports teams to feel strong and important and Canadian. I don't.
How much is anti-semitism costing all Canadians? I don't know but I started learning torts and human rights law and ethical philosophy in Hebrew school. Our Canadian human rights law protects the equality of Canadians under the law and prohibits discrimination and harassment on grounds of ethnicity, race, religion, creed, color and national origin. That includes Jewish Canadians, Israeli Canadians, and Zionists. Send them the memo. I do know that the future reparations to Jewish Canadians based on class action lawsuits will be considerable and all Canadians will be paying for it, whether they like it or not. Think Nuremberg.
Oh Canaduh. Who stands on guard for thee? Your beleaguered and over-educated Jewish community that has served you lawfully and with distinction for more than 250 years, despite every impediment you have put in our way. We will prevail. We always do. And that's why they call us the People Of The Book.
Am Yisrael Chai. Stay well and strong. We send our love from Canada.
