In the face of yet another act of violent anti-Jewish hate in Canada, this time an attempted terrorist attack at the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, taking place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, The Globe and Mail produced an important editorial calling on Canadians to muster the courage to stand up against the pernicious hostility towards their Jewish neighbours.
Protecting Jewish Life Requires Confronting an Escalating Campaign of Hate
The September 23 editorial, “The courage needed to face down hatred,” began by noting that the shooting attack – which took place as congregants inside were about to begin their prayers – marked a “dangerous escalation in a cycle of antisemitic violence in this country.”
Indeed, from attacks against synagogues and Jewish businesses in the middle of the night, to a brazen assault against worshippers, with the ostensible aim at killing as many as possible, is a striking escalation that, the newspaper notes, could easily have been the scene of dozens dead, if not for the heroic actions of Constable Jeff Smith.
But, as the newspaper reminded readers, the attempted terrorist attack is not simply a standalone incident, but just the latest installment of attacks and shootings. But not all assaults are physical; some seek to effectively render Jewish life impossible, and the editorial noted that “extreme adherents of anti-Zionism have gone so far as to harass residents of some Jewish neighbourhoods.
Some have organized to decertify Jewish summer camps, an example we have used before because it plainly shows the attempt to make Canada unliveable for Jews, including Jewish children.”
One prominent group that has sought to decertify Jewish summer camps is Just Peace Advocates, an organization that has called on Canada to remove Hezbollah from its banned terrorist watchlist, and is even currently engaged in a project with another banned terrorist entity, Samidoun.
Jewish Self-Determination in Israel Deserves Recognition and Respect
But what makes The Globe and Mail’s editorial important is not simply for pointing out the scourge of antisemitism, but calling on Canadians to admit that “anti-Zionism has been the core of the antisemitism problem in Canada and elsewhere since Oct. 7.”
Zionism is not, as its detractors claim, anything nefarious, but the simple worldview that the Jewish People have a right to self-determination in their historic and ancestral homeland, Israel.
Just days later, The Globe and Mail’s Staff Columnist Marcus Gee echoed that very point in his own column, “Say its name,” calling on readers to admit that antizionism is “the ideology that is feeding the wave of hate sweeping this country.”
Canada’s Leaders Must Defend Jewish Safety and Israel’s Right to Exist
These are important acknowledgements and mark an important step towards beseeching Canadians to recognize the obvious reality: that denial of Israel’s very right to exist is an act of anti-Jewish bigotry, and when tolerated or even embraced, creates an atmosphere where hostility towards Jews becomes, if not inevitable, then certainly far more likely.
That moral clarity in the pages of The Globe and Mail, both in its editorial and in Gee’s column, are important, and must now be matched by elected officials on all three levels of government.
