April 3, 2017: ‘We are connected in ways both painful and powerful’

By Michael Regenstreif

Last issue (March 20), I wrote about the waves of bomb threats that have plagued Jewish institutions – mostly Jewish community centres, but also Jewish schools and offices of Jewish organizations – over the past three months. I wrote that the bomb threats, all of which turned out to be hoaxes, were “antisemitic in their intent.”

Then, on March 23 – the day before this issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin went to press – there was a shocking development in the case. Police in Israel – working in cooperation with law enforcement officials in several countries, including the United States and Canada – arrested a suspect they had determined was responsible for the threats: a Jewish, 19-year-old dual Israeli-U.S. citizen who lives in Ashkelon in southern Israel.

We have not yet heard from the suspect about his motives. Early reports in the Israeli media said he was not answering questions or cooperating in any way with police investigators. At his first court hearing, his lawyer said that he has a non-malignant brain tumour that leads to behavioural issues. The Israel Defense Forces, apparently, had previously found him to be unfit for military service.

The suspect, evidently, was highly sophisticated in his use of computer equipment and software with which he perpetrated the bomb threat hoaxes while disguising his identity and whereabouts. But he did make a mistake while making one of the bomb threats and did not hide his IP (internet protocol) address, which enabled authorities to trace the threat to him. This triggered a lengthy investigation, ultimately leading to his arrest.

The entire Jewish world, to be sure, was relieved that a suspect was caught. Hopefully, these waves of bomb threat hoaxes – there have been nearly 150 since January – will now stop. But the fact that the suspect in this case is Jewish does not change the antisemitic intent behind the crimes.

As Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League – an organization in the United States that combats antisemitism – said in a statement after the suspect’s arrest, “While the details of this crime remain unclear, the impact of this individual’s actions is crystal clear: These were acts of antisemitism. These threats targeting Jewish institutions were calculated to sow fear and anxiety, and put the entire Jewish community on high alert.”

It is a sad fact of recent history – here, in the U.S., Europe and so many other places – that we have been witnessing increased incidents of antisemitism. From Jewish reporters receiving thousands of antisemitic tweets after writing critically about the president of the United States, to graffiti incidents last November in Ottawa, to recent Jewish cemetery desecrations in the U.S., to an imam at a mosque in Montreal referring to Jews as “human demons” and “the most evil of mankind,” the stories come in almost daily.

So, when someone seeks to instil fear in specifically Jewish communities, large and small, by making bomb threats, the acts are most certainly acts of antisemitism – even if the person making the threats is Jewish.

The revelation that the suspect in so many bomb threat hoaxes against Jewish institutions – against Jewish communities – is himself Jewish is very sad and very troubling. After the arrest, the Forward posted an article by Hinda Mandell, a professor in Rochester, New York, whose daughter attends a pre-school in the Rochester JCC that received two bomb threats (the Jewish cemetery in Rochester was also recently desecrated). 

Mandell wrote that she was heartbroken that the suspect was Jewish. “From an emotional perspective, I feel like I’ve just been sucker punched … My gut reaction upon reading the news alert about today’s arrest was straight out of Jewish central casting, a version of ‘What will the goyim think of us now?’”

Last issue, I said that an unintended consequence of the bomb threats and other antisemitic acts was that communities were coming together in solidarity. By the end of her article, Mandell reached the same conclusion.

“So what will the goyim think? They’ll think we’re all in this together. We are connected in unexpected ways that are both painful and powerful.”

March 20, 2017: Threats and attacks can also bring us together in solidarity

By Michael Regenstreif

I’m writing this column in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin office, which is located within the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (SJCC). I also attend programs at the SJCC and swim in the pool. In other words, I spend a lot of time in the building.

The SJCC is a welcoming place. It really is my second home, and I enjoy coming here almost every day – despite levels of security that are much tighter than when I started here almost a decade ago. The front doors are locked now, and SJCC members and staff swipe their membership cards in barcode readers to enter the building. Non-members are buzzed in after showing photo ID and telling the front desk staff the reason for their visit. Uniformed security guards are always on duty, and there are cameras in strategic locations throughout the Jewish Community Campus.

Even though the security is tighter than it used to be, the security measures are handled in a welcoming and friendly manner, so the experience of coming to the building is not really very different than it was 10 years ago.

The need for these security measures has been painfully obvious in recent months.

In November, there was a rash of antisemitic, racist and Islamophobic graffiti attacks in Ottawa that targeted four Jewish locations – including a building here on the Jewish Community Campus, two synagogues, and a private home used as a prayer and study centre – as well as a church, where the minister and many of the parishioners are African Canadian, and a mosque.

(One person was responsible for all of those graffiti attacks and he was apprehended in large part thanks to security measures in place here on the Jewish Community Campus.)

And, since January, there have been more than 120 bomb threats called and emailed to Jewish institutions in North America – mostly to JCCs, but also to Jewish day schools and offices of Jewish organizations. While the vast majority of the bomb threats have been at JCCs in the U.S., there have been several here in Canada. One that hit particularly close to home for me was the bomb threat at the JCC of Greater Vancouver, a JCC where I spent much time during the four years I lived in Vancouver as a kid, and have visited on numerous occasions since.

All of the bomb threats to date – this column is being written on March 10 – have been hoaxes. Although there have been no real bombs, and no one has been physically harmed and no property has been damaged, we can’t become complacent and treat a bomb threat as routine. Each must be taken seriously in co-operation with law enforcement officials. These bomb threat hoaxes are affecting the Jewish community. A JTA article on pages 1 and 2 of this issue discusses – among other things – the effect of bomb scare evacuations on very young children. Jewish institutions are reviewing security procedures, and the effects of publicly manifested antisemitism are many. And, to be sure, these bomb threat hoaxes are antisemitic in their intent.

Recent manifestations of antismitism have not been limited to bomb threat hoaxes. I’ve mentioned the graffiti attacks we experienced here in Ottawa, and there have been other communities where similar attacks have taken place. Great numbers of tombstones have been overturned at several Jewish cemeteries in the U.S. A bullet was fi red into a (thankfully unoccupied) Hebrew school classroom in a synagogue in Indiana, and many Jewish journalists have been subjected to vicious antisemitic social media campaigns after writing critically about the new president of the United States.

The intent of all of these antisemitic incidents – and you can say the say the same for other forms of racism and bigotry – is to instil fear and insecurity. Sadly, and understandably, many people do become fearful in response.

One of the consequences of these incidents is that they can embolden bigots to act on their prejudices. At this point, we don’t know who is responsible for the vast majority of the recent bomb threats. Is it one person? Is it a small group acting in concert? Or is it a bunch of copycats taking inspiration from previous threats? So far, only one man, linked to eight bomb threats in the U.S., has been arrested – and law enforcement has determined that he was a copycat who had nothing to do with the vast majority of the incidents.

But these antisemitic incidents can also have unintended consequences. One consequence that perpetrators don’t intend is that they bring people and communities together. Those graffiti attacks here in Ottawa resulted in people from different faith and cultural communities gathering together in solidarity.

Political leaders at all levels of government and from across the ideological spectrum have expressed their support for communities under attack and, as Barbara Crook notes in her My Israel column, desecrations at Jewish cemeteries in the U.S. spurred a successful fundraising campaign in the Muslim community to help repair the damages.

To be sure, attacks or threats aimed at intimidating or preventing the full participation in society of any religious, racial or cultural community, is an attack or threat aimed at all of us. But to see individuals and communities responding in solidarity is inspiring.

March 6, 2017: Spinning the results of a misleading poll

By Michael Regenstreif

A headline, February 22, on the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) website – and presumably in the new print edition of the paper – jumped out at me. “46 per cent of Canadians negative toward Israeli gov’t: poll,” it read.

The poll in question was a survey conducted by EKOS Research on behalf of two organizations and two individuals well known for their opposition to the State of Israel and for their support of the goals of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel; organizations and individuals whose actions have sought to delegitimize the very existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.

Like many polls, the questions in this one were designed specifically to elicit the kind of responses the sponsoring organizations and individuals were looking for and could interpret – or misinterpret – for their own purpose.

For example, the lead question in the poll was, “Generally speaking, do you have a positive or negative opinion of the Government of Israel?”

A plurality of 46 per cent said they had a negative view of the Israeli government, while 28 per cent said they had a positive view and 26 per cent said their view was neither positive nor negative.

The CJN quoted a spokesperson for one of the anti-Israel organizations, who said, “The poll shows that 46 per cent of people polled, who had an opinion, had a negative view of Israel.”

Actually, the poll showed nothing of the sort. The poll did not ask about views of Israel – only of the government. The spinmeister knew this, but was purposefully misinterpreting the results.

To be sure, a recent poll I saw showed that 48 per cent of Israelis had a negative view of the Israeli government, while 43 per cent had a positive view. So the negative view of the Israeli government is even higher in Israel than it is in Canada.

And a poll in the United States released on February 23 showed that the current U.S. president had an approval rating of just 38 per cent (and a disapproval rating of 55 per cent), while here in Canada, a January poll showed an approval rating for the current prime minister at 48 per cent (and a disapproval of 42 per cent).

The CJN also quoted Martin Sampson, director of communications and marketing at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who correctly asserted, “The questions appear to be designed to elicit answers that support the perspectives of the anti-Israel activists who funded the research.”

How someone views a country – one’s own country or another country – is not the same as how one views that country’s government.

Opposition to specific government policies or to a particular government, or its leaders, is basic to democracy. And that distinguishes Israel from virtually every other country in the Middle East.