February 22, 2016: Antisemitic conspiracy theories still thrive

By Michael Regenstreif

I get a lot of emails every day: press releases, editorial enquiries, submissions to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, news reports and feature stories from our wire service, news digests from Israeli and other Jewish publications, messages from readers and colleagues, and much more.

Once in a while, though, I’ll get something that is blatantly antisemitic. Such was the case, earlier this month, when I got an email from what purported to be a pro-democracy organization in Moscow (it was in English).

The email included a long list of what it claimed the Talmud teaches Jews, including such things as it’s not a sin for a Jew to kill a non-Jew and that only Jews are actual human beings.

It went on to say that communism was a Jewish plot under which all the banks, media, business and property in communist countries were controlled by the Jews. And the kicker was that, since the fall of the Soviet bloc, Jews have fanned out into the Western democracies and taken control. These were “the most successful countries in the world,” but are all now on the verge of economic collapse, thanks to the Jews.

This so-called pro-democracy organization has a website chockfull of strange conspiracy theories covering four focus topics: Jews; Israel; the war on terror (which, it seems, is an international scheme controlled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu); and, for some reason, Hillary Clinton.

More than a century after the creation of infamous forgery known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (which also originated in Russia), there are still hate-mongers sitting in little rooms dreaming this stuff up. Scratch the surface of social media and the Internet, and it’s all too easy to find.

One of the strangest such examples was earlier this month when rock star Ted Nugent – who was already well known for extreme positions on a number of issues – said on Facebook that efforts toward gun control in the United States was a Jewish conspiracy led by such figures as Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of “Jew York,” and 11 other Jewish American political figures identified by a photo with their name and an Israeli flag.

As editor of a Jewish community newspaper, I spend a great deal of time immersed in news from around the Jewish world. In addition to the articles and columns for our print edition, I edit hundreds of additional articles each month for the online Bulletin and there’s no shortage of articles dealing with resurging antisemitism around the world, both classic antisemitism expressed as hatred of Jews and of individuals because they are Jewish, and what eminent experts like former justice minister Irwin Cotler have described as the “new antisemitism,” in which Israel is targeted as “the collective Jew” among the nations.

So, while I’m only too well aware of antisemitism in today’s world, it is still disconcerting to see it flourishing in an era when so much real knowledge is so easily and so readily available.

Jewish religious pluralism in Israel

The lack of Jewish religious pluralism in Israel is an issue I have raised before in this column. Much of Israel’s Jewish religious life is regulated through the haredi Orthodox lens of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate – and with the support of the haredi Orthodox political parties in the Knesset (and currently part of Netanyahu’s governing coalition).

I have long advocated that Israel, as the homeland of all Jewish people, needs to embrace all of the Jewish denominations equally. But that wide Big Tent embrace has been slow in coming.

In recent days, though, there have been two big steps forward for Jewish religious pluralism in Israel.

The Western Wall – regarded as Judaism’s holiest site – will soon have a much expanded and accessible non-Orthodox section in which egalitarian Jewish observance will be practised. And the section will be administered by non-Orthodox authorities.

Then, just as we were going to press, we learned that Israel’s Supreme Court had ruled that mikvahs in the country must open up to Reform and Conservative converts for their ritual immersions. Until now, only Orthodox converts were allowed to use mikvahs in Israel.

These are most welcome developments.

February 8, 2016: Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion got the message right

By Michael Regenstreif

It was International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 – the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945 – and, throughout the day, and into the next, I posted various articles connected to the observance on the online Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.

And, as they arrived in my email inbox, I also posted the brief statements on International Holocaust Remembrance Day sent by Canada’s political leaders. The first to arrive was from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. I later received statements from Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion.

As much as I welcomed any and all statements from our political leaders marking such an important occasion, I found it somewhat curious that a statement came from Dion. After all, the prime minister had already released a statement on behalf of the government more than four hours earlier.

Maybe the Dion statement was planned all along to reiterate the importance the government places on Holocaust remembrance. But I can’t help but feel it may have been damage control to address something – something of primary importance – left out of Trudeau’s statement, which read:

“On this day, we pay tribute to the memory of the millions of victims murdered during the Holocaust. We honour those who survived atrocities at the hands of the Nazi regime, and welcome their courageous stories of hope and perseverance.

“The Holocaust is a stark reminder of the dangers and risks of allowing hate, prejudice, and discrimination to spread unchallenged. It also reminds us that silence must never be an option when humanity is threatened.

“As we pause to educate ourselves and our families on the bitter lessons of the Holocaust, we also strengthen our resolve to work with domestic and international partners to continue defending human rights and condemning intolerance.”

To be sure, there is absolutely nothing to disagree with in the prime minister’s statement. Everything he said about remembrance, honour and vigilance was completely correct in a universal sense. However, what was missing was any specific reference to the Holocaust as a genocide aimed specifically at Jews, or of the imperative to defend against the antisemitism raging so terribly today – particularly in Europe and in almost all of the Middle East.

The foreign affairs minister addressed the shortcomings of the prime minister’s statement specifically saying “we remember the six million Jews … brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust … the worst chapter in human history.”

In his statement, Dion used the word “Holocaust” to describe the genocide committed by the Nazi regime against the Jewish people – but he also, significantly, referred to it as the “Shoah,” using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. Dion also referred specifically to “the horror of antisemitism.”

Dion also called needed attention to the still woefully incomplete search for some measure of justice for Holocaust survivors.

“This day is a poignant reminder that we must never forget and that the Holocaust’s remaining survivors must see justice served,” Dion said. “It is deeply troubling that even after 71 years, victims and families still have not been compensated for assets confiscated by the Nazis. Canada reaffirms its commitment to the 2009 Terezín Declaration.”

I’ve no doubt that Trudeau was sincere in his message and I’m also sure that his slight was unintended. I fully expect the prime minister’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day message next year will reflect both the universal and the specific.