November 28, 2011: Two compelling documentaries you should see

By Michael Regenstreif

Although Ottawa’s Free Thinking Film Society – spearheaded by Fred Litwin – is best known for showing films from conservative perspectives, there were a number of films at the second annual Free Thinking Film Festival, held earlier this month at Library and Archives Canada and the Bronson Centre, which were equally from centrist or liberal viewpoints.

Two of those films were particularly impressive and I highly recommend them.

The Making of a Martyr, released in 2005, is a powerful examination of how vulnerable children are recruited and brainwashed by terrorist organizations to martyr themselves as suicide bombers.

In particular, the film focuses on the story of Hussam Abdu, a 14-year-old would-be Palestinian suicide bomber who ended up with a long sentence in an Israeli prison rather than enjoying the 72 virgins his Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade handlers had promised him when Israeli soldiers intercepted him at a West Bank checkpoint with 18 pounds of explosives strapped to his small body.

The film opens with news footage from the incident. Brooke Goldstein, the documentary’s director – then a Toronto law student on track to a career in entertainment law – interviewed the boy twice in prison for the film. She and her small crew also travelled far into Palestinian territory and interviewed, among others, members of his family and leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. There is a deep examination of the conditions that give rise to such forms of terrorism.

Goldstein – now a New York-based human rights lawyer particularly concerned with the exploitation of children for terrorism – spoke after the screening. She made a compelling case that such children are themselves among the victims of the terrorist masters who recruit them.

Goldstein was one of the most powerful speakers I’ve heard recently. I hope she returns to Ottawa and is heard by a wider audience.

The other film I want to draw to your attention is Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization, a new documentary by director Gloria Greenfield. It examines antisemitism in both historical and contemporary contexts via talking-heads commentaries by a most impressive collection of activists, academics and political leaders.

The doc was shot at various locations around the world, including Ottawa during the 2010 Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism conference, and demonstrates how legitimate criticism of specific Israeli government policies is differentiated from thinly disguised antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.

This is a film that should be seen by wider audiences.

After the screening, Greenfield spoke briefly about why she made Unmasked and introduced one of the experts featured in the film, MP Irwin Cotler – a former justice minister, McGill University law professor and one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers – who delivered a brief talk about the consequences of contemporary antisemitism.

Addendum: Israeli scientists

Last issue I wrote about a reception I attended that Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv hosted in honour of two scientists, Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who were in Canada to receive the Canada Gairdner International Award, this country’s most important award for medical research.

I neglected to mention that another of Israel’s most distinguished medical researchers, Michael Sela, of the Weizmann Institute’s department of immunology, was also honoured at the reception. Sela, still vitally active at Weizmann at the age of 87, received the Canada Gairdner International Award in 1980. He also has a long list of other international awards received over a 50-year period, further testament to Israel’s remarkable record of achievement in areas that benefit all of humankind.

Welcome Jason Moscovitz

I’m very pleased to welcome Jason Moscovitz to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin as our new page 7 columnist. His first column for us is in the space below. Although he’s been out of the media spotlight for the past decade, Jason is well remembered as one of Canada’s best broadcast journalists, particularly for his years on Parliament Hill as the CBC’s always insightful chief political correspondent.

People have been asking me over the past couple of weeks who our new page 7 columnist will be and have reacted with enthusiasm and excitement when I’ve told them who it is. I know I’m not alone in looking forward to reading Jason’s reflections on whatever topics strike his fancy.

November 14, 2011: Remarkable Israeli scientists receive the Canada Gairdner International Award

By Michael Regenstreif

On the last Sunday evening in October, I joined about 50 people, mostly drawn from the scientific and academic communities – including the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Canadian Friends organizations of some of Israel’s top academic centres – in attending a reception at Kinneret, the official residence in Ottawa of Israel’s ambassador to Canada.

Ambassador Miriam Ziv hosted the reception in honour of two renowned scientists – Howard Cedar, MD, PhD, and Aharon Razin, PhD, of the Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – who were visiting Canada as recipients of the 2011 Canada Gairdner International Award. They received the award at a gala dinner, October 27, hosted by the Gairdner Foundation at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

The Gairdner International Award recognizes and rewards “the achievements of medical researchers whose work contributes significantly to improving the quality of human life.” The Gairdner is Canada’s foremost award for medical research and is often a precursor to the Nobel Prize. Since 1959, 298 scientists from 13 countries have received the Gairdner and 76 of them have later added the Nobel to their distinguished resumés.

Collaborators Cedar and Razin received the Gairdner for their “pioneering discoveries on DNA methylation and its role in gene expression.”

For more than three decades, Cedar and Razin have worked together on DNA methylation at Hebrew University. Their discoveries have had important implications in explaining “how genes are regulated and have led to better understanding of human development and the molecular basis of many diseases,” particularly various forms of cancer.

Their work will almost surely advance the treatment possibilities for cancer and other diseases in the years to come.

Israel is probably in the news more than any other country, relative to its size, in the world; mostly because of the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. What too often gets overlooked is that Israel, also relative to its size, may well be one of the world’s most accomplished countries in such areas as arts and culture, and is most certainly one of the world’s most accomplished countries in scientific, medical and technological research and development.

Israel has a remarkable record of such achievement that affects all of us, from day-to-day ways, like how we use our computers and cell phones, to more profound life-saving and life-altering ways made possible by the work of such scientists as Cedar and Razin.

Library and Archives Canada

I’ve attended many events in the lovely auditorium at Library and Archives Canada, including some excellent concerts, film screenings, lectures and panel discussions.

It’s a great space, and a popular one, booked solidly about 350 days per year, mostly for events sponsored by a wide variety of non-profit community groups and organizations.

The news broke this month that it would soon become much harder for such groups to use the auditorium. Each event would have to receive ministerial approval from Public Works and Government Services Minister Rona Ambrose and, even if ministerial approval was forthcoming, groups would have to pay much higher fees to use the space.

At first, the new policy was to take effect at the beginning of 2012. That has now been put off for a year to 2013.

The government should reverse this action. The space should remain accessible – it is an important facility – and its day-to-day use should not be subject to the complicated process of ministerial approval or even the possibility of political whims.

Farewell to Alan Echenberg

As our long-time page 7 columnist Alan Echenberg notes in his swan song below, he is making a career change, which will preclude him from writing for newspapers.

Speaking as a fellow “Canadian politics geek” (I primarily focused on Canadian politics while doing my MA in public policy), I have always enjoyed reading Alan’s takes on some of the issues that have dominated our political scene in recent years – as well as on the other topics he’s written about over the years – and am sorry to see him leave us.

On behalf of all of us at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I wish Alan well in his new job.