October 31, 2011: Sukkot this year was a time to be happy and rejoice

 By Michael Regenstreif

One of the obligations of the festival of Sukkot is to be happy and rejoice.

And Ottawa’s Jewish community – along with Israelis and Jewish communities around the world – did rejoice when Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit finally came home, October 18, the sixth day of Sukkot.

Gilad’s return came 1,941 days – almost five years and four months – after he was kidnapped from southern Israel by a squad of Palestinian terrorists on June 25, 2006 and taken to captivity in Gaza, a captivity that was more than cruel in its isolation.

Gilad was allowed no contact with the outside world. Hamas would not even allow the International Red Cross to see him. The most recent evidence that he was still alive – in fact, the only evidence in the long years of his captivity – came in a brief video shot more than two years ago.

Gilad became a national symbol in Israel. One of Noam and Aviva Schalit’s three children, almost every Israeli parent knew it could just as easily have been their son or daughter in his place. Israelis – joined by Jewish communities around the world – prayed and campaigned relentlessly for his freedom.

Israel paid a high price for Schalit’s freedom, releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, among them the perpetrators of some of the most heinous acts of terrorism, which was particularly difficult for the families of some of the victims of terrorism to accept. Some of them launched an unsuccessful bid to have Israel’s Supreme Court stop the prisoner exchange.

But the exchange had the overwhelming support of Israeli society – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Agreeing to the prisoner exchange with Hamas must have been a difficult decision for Netanyahu. In his 1995 book, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists, Netanyahu wrote, “Prisoner releases only embolden terrorists by giving them the feeling that even if they are caught, their punishment will be brief. Worse, by leading terrorists to think such demands are likely to be met, they encourage precisely the terrorist blackmail they are supposed to defuse.”

But prisoner exchanges with such a high price are not new to Israel. Since 1957, Israel has released 13,509 prisoners in exchange for just 16 Israeli soldiers. It is a demonstration of the importance that Israel – and successive Israeli governments of both the left and right – places on the lives of its soldiers.

And so, on Sukkot, we rejoiced and were happy in celebration of the freedom and homecoming of Gilad Schalit.

Remembering Deanna Silverman

It was with great sadness that we learned that Deanna Silverman, Kid Lit columnist in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin for more than 21 years, passed away on September 29, Rosh Hashanah, following several years of ill health. She died less than two months after her husband of 52 years, Saul Silverman, also a long-time Bulletin columnist, passed away.

Deanna was a passionate advocate for children’s literature – particularly Jewish children’s literature – and traced her passion to her early involvement in a Zionist drama group for children in her home city of Winnipeg. Her Kid Lit column first appeared in the October 6, 1989 edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and she rarely missed an issue. Generations of Jewish kids in Ottawa had their childhood enriched thanks to the hundreds of books Deanna reviewed and recommended over more than two decades.

In 2008, Deanna told me her health was problematic, that she was unsure how long she’d be able to keep Kid Lit going. But the column was important to her and she did keep it going for more than another two years. What turned out to be her final Kid Lit was published in our March 21 edition. Deanna missed our April issues, but told me she hoped to return soon. In May, though, she regretfully told me she was too ill to continue writing the column.

On behalf of everyone at the Bulletin, I send our sincere condolences to Deanna’s children and grandchildren.

October 3, 2011: York University incident demonstrates need to understand context

By Michael Regenstreif

York University in Toronto, like Carleton University here in Ottawa, and any number of other universities in Canada and around the world, has been at the centre of anti-Israel activism in recent years. Too often, such activism has been seen to degenerate into antisemitism. Jewish students rightly have become sensitive to issues of antisemitism and have learned how to respond when its ugly head is reared on their campuses.

It’s important, though, when responding to an incident that it’s not a matter of jumping too quickly to conclusions – particularly a wrong conclusion. That’s what happened at York last month when a veteran social sciences professor was delivering his introductory lecture to a course called Self, Culture and Society and was misunderstood by one of the nearly 500 students in the class.

While this cautionary tale happened at York, it could just as easily have been at Carleton, the University of Ottawa, or almost any other university campus.

The professor was telling the students that personal opinions were not relevant in this course and went on to challenge the very idea that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

And he offered an example of what he deemed an unacceptable opinion.

“All Jews should be sterilized,” he said, is just such an unacceptable opinion.

A fourth-year student attending the first-year class apparently missed or misunderstood the context of the professor’s statement and concluded he was an antisemite saying all Jews should be sterilized.

Rather than challenge the statement, or ask for clarification on the professor’s intent in making it, the student immediately left the class and enlisted Hasbara at York – a Zionist organization on campus – in contacting the media, the blogosphere and Jewish community groups to attack what she perceived to be an antisemitic opinion expressed by an antisemitic professor.

The class in question took place on the afternoon of Monday, September 12. The student’s report of the ‘antisemitic incident’ quickly went viral on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and B’nai Brith Canada took up her case.

However, by the time the story made the Wednesday edition of the Toronto Star and two columns in Thursday’s National Post, the context of the professor’s remark was clear.

In a statement circulated by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), he said it was an example “of the fact that opinions can be dangerous and that none of us really do believe that all opinions are acceptable.

“For the record, I am also Jewish, which undoubtedly influenced my choice of this example of a reprehensible opinion.”

CIJA released a statement describing the incident as “a very unfortunate misunderstanding.” The professor’s “use of an abhorrent statement was intended to demonstrate that some opinions are simply not legitimate. This point was, without ill intentions, taken out of context and circulated in the Jewish community. … This event is an appropriate reminder that great caution must be exercised before concluding a statement or action is antisemitic.”

Indeed, context is important. Too often, we see words taken out of context, misinterpreted and twisted from their intent. This, of course, does not mean we should stop being vigilant or stop standing up when antisemitism and other expressions of prejudice or hatred do rear their ugly heads.