Opinion: A clarion call for Canadians to stand against Jew hatred - National Post

A rabbi blows a shofar in Montreal in 2021. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf/MONTREAL GAZETTEArticle contentIn the Jewish tradition, the 10 days between the celebration of Rosh Hashanah and the observance of Yom Kippur are known as the “Ten Days of Repentance” or the “Days of Awe.” Jewish tradition teaches that the Book of Life is written on Rosh Hashanah, but it is only on Yom Kippur that it is sealed. We are taught that our actions matter and can ultimately alter the decree.

This is indeed a sacred time of judgment. The question is who is being judged?

Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.

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These are difficult, uncertain and painful times. Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl taught us that, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”

For three years, this country’s Jewish community has been hoping that Canadians will stand up and refuse to accept the continued, virulent and persistent vilification of Jews, thinly disguised as anger at the current Israeli government or anti-Zionism. Canadians have a choice to make.

Too often, it is only when Jews are targeted that people have the audacity to explain away hatred. Why is it that anti-Zionism is tolerated when Zionism — the Jewish right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland — forms the core identity of the vast majority of Jews?

Would any other religion, race or ethnic group be subject to questions about their lived experiences and what hate feels like to them? A foundational principal in anti-racism work is: nothing about us without us. Except when it comes to the Jews, apparently.

When political rhetoric becomes a vehicle for denying Jews the right to national self-determination, when Jewish students are targeted because of their connection to Israel or when tropes about Jewish power, conspiracy and collective guilt are repackaged as political activism, Canadians should have the courage to call it what it is: Jew hatred.