Poland Denies Being Complicit in the Holocaust

I can agree with the Polish idea of renaming Auschwitz and other death camps in Poland as Nazi Death Camps located in Poland rather than Polish Death Camps. Nazi death and work camps existed in many countries besides Germany and Poland. But I sense a guilty conscience here that refuses to come clean. Why make a law prohibiting people from calling them that? This smells of Soviet era paranoia.

Much more problematic is Poland's proposed law to prohibit people from saying that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.

Poland was absolutely complicit in the Holocaust. Aside from the terrible stories my own parents told me as survivors, there exists one glaring fact: Before the war Poland had 3.5 million Jews or more. After the war they had none. The elimination of that many people couldn't have happened without the help of many Poles. One can easily find videos depicting hundreds of thousands of Poles cheering on Hitler when he paraded through Poland. There is tons of proof of the vile behaviour of many Poles towards Jews before, during and most disgustingly after the war. Besides my own family who owned property in Poland prior to the war, there are tens of thousands of Jews who also lost real property like houses, hotels, businesses and factories. Their Jewish bodies weren’t even cold (from the ovens) before many Poles (often their own neighbours, business associates or employees) had repossessed them. Unlike Germany who has formally apologized numerous times for the Holocaust and continues to pay millions in reparations, Poland has done little. In Germany it is illegal to deny the Holocaust but now in Poland it may become illegal to acknowledge it. Poles have profited immensely both from the property they stole and from the tourist business that continues to pour in to places like Auschwitz (pictured above). There were a couple of countries who protect their Jews, like Denmark and Bulgaria. Poland was not one of them.

I often hear the defence that many Poles suffered at the hands of the Nazis and died in Nazi death camps. True. But what had that got to do with the Poles treatment of their Jews?

Some have told me to be quiet about this. No sense in opening old wounds and I'm not going to change the age old antisemitism in Poland. Wrong. I speak out about injustice. That's what I do. Maybe I'll plant a seed of doubt into one Polish citizen who was brainwashed to think otherwise. Most people in the world sadly know nothing or little about this. Probably my own children. I write this for them and for the memory of my parents and six million more who lost their lives in the most brutal fashion. Who does know about the horrors of the Poles? Those survivors who are still with us, their children and many older Poles are also still with us. And most disturbingly, the Polish government.

Since we have relations with her (Canada and Israel) I urge us all to write letters to the Polish government to overturn their proposal. If we can't get them to admit the historical truth on this, perhaps we can at least embarrass them to change their minds. The Polish treatment of Jews circa WWII is not prevalent in textbooks. It needs to be. Have you seen the Polish documentary (by 2 righteous Poles) called the 'Two Barns'? It happened in a small rural town in Poland at the beginning of the war. The nazis had not yet even entered their town. Jews had lived peacefully, side by side with their Polish neighbours for over 800 years. The Poles had a meeting to decide what to do with 'their' Jews. They rounded them up, put them in a barn at gun point and burnt them alive. But not before they grabbed one of the good looking young Jewish women. They raped her, chopped off her head and played soccer with it. The Nazis had nothing to do with this. And there were other similar horrific incidents in Poland.

If I was Poland I would be very quiet on any Holocaust denial. I would certainly not open up this can of worms. It's obvious that they urgently require Holocaust education and a Polish history lesson. Any Jewish survivor from Poland will always remember the fear of being pointed to by a Pole to a Gestapo agent shouting the words: Here is a Jew!

If Poland can’t see the wrong in their proposal, they are erasing any good that righteous Poles did by risking their lives and in some cases giving their lives, to save Jews during the Holocaust.

I’m not saying all Poles were Nazis but many were. Until Poland stops sweeping their guilt under the carpet, they will never heal nor can they be trusted.

So you like free speech?

So you like free speech, eh? I thought I did too but apparently my definition is different than many institution's that I have been corresponding with. For those who know me, you'd know me perhaps more from the letters I write rather than my blogs like this one. I write numerous emails per week to those who've done wrong and maybe a few who've done right. 

Sometimes I write my letters about a third party to a media outlet (ie. newspaper, etc.) in order to publicize the issue. Other times I write directly to the person or organization. Of course I don't expect to receive a reply. If I do, it's a bonus. Likewise if my letters aren't published, it's still all good. Hopefully they've read it. I usually send copies to my contacts so in any case I do get my messages out. 

I found out years ago after getting a reply from one of  my first emails that free speech can and is often abused. After chastising a university for employing a professor who was blatantly antisemitic right here in my country, Canada, I received a standard reply that went something like this: 'The administration at this university champions free speech and as such we don't necessarily agree with professor X but we stand behind his right to speak freely and allow freedom of expression. 

In that case the professor was teaching history while denying the Holocaust. I tried to tell them that I too champion free speech but what does that have to do with hiring professors who are teaching revisionist history and proudly lying about six million Jews who were brutally murdered by the nazis? That is not education. That is misinformation. Again I received the same pat reply. It was probably semi-automatically generated when they received a negative comment from me. 

Since that day I have received pretty much the same pat reply from most universities and other organizations both private and public. I can see that in some cases perhaps the situation isn't black and white. For instance there have been many cases of employees who are vocal racists or worse (they have committed race inspired crimes). 

My intention in writing to their employers, be they schools, government or private businesses is first to inform them. They might not know anything about the person. Hopefully if this is the case they will take appropriate action (ie. fire them). But instead I often receive a reply that goes something like this: 'Thanks for reaching out to us. What our employees do in their private lives is their own business. Have a nice day!' 

So if company X hires John Doe as VP of sales and John Doe posts 'I hate Jews!' on his Facebook page, that's ok. Except it's really not. There should be consequences for being a racist. One of them should be that you either keep your racism to yourself or else you might not be employed. I've certainly noticed (and I'm sure that anyone who is looking for a job lately would notice this too) is that how you behave on social media is usually scrutinized by prospective employers. If you are applying for a corporate job (ie. bank teller, IT, etc.) and their HR department finds you hanging a moon (baring your bum) on FB or calling blacks lazy in a rant on Twitter, chances are they won't be calling you back for a second interview. 

Here's a current example of my dialogue with the Provost of USC after I discovered that one of their professors taught his students that Israeli zionists were terrorists:

It has come to my attention that your professor Kang is teaching at the very least a biased, revisionist version of events and at worst a bigoted,antisemitic and anti-American ‘teaching’ class. I urge you to distance yourself from him immediately by dismissing him from USC.

Their reply to me:

Thank you for sharing your concerns with us.

Professor Kang has chosen to issue his own statement on this matter in which he said he was intending to foster a discussion about how and why groups and individuals are labeled terrorists. He said that the slide in question was written to “point out that national heroes of all types are called terrorists by their opponents.” 

As you may know, one of the core principles of any university is that of academic freedom. The views of our faculty members are not endorsed by the university; indeed, we sometimes profoundly disagree with them. Nevertheless, we protect and support their right to express those views.

So what can one determine from all of this? Far too often being a vocal antisemite or Israel hater (they are one and the same thing) is acceptable. It's a minor, overlooked blemish or perhaps its employers are even sympathetic. Jews are partly to blame for this cultural norm. Because we ignored it for far too long. Which means we accepted it. We gave the world a pass to condemn us. I can certainly understand it. We are so often physically attacked (recall the Holocaust) that mere words are much easier to swallow. There is also the 'let's not rock the boat' syndrome. And many more complex reasons. 

That's exactly why I do speak out and I'm speaking out here. I want this stopped. There are two standards. One applied to us and another applied to everyone else. I'm sick of getting the standard 'free speech' excuse when I point out what honest people would admit is plain out wrong. Yes I believe in free speech as much as anyone and I'll defend it until I die. If you want to accuse Israel of being an apartheid state and shout it out on the street, you are free to do so. As long as you don't obstruct traffic, are not violent and do it legally. But this scenario is far different from a racist teacher or boss who teaches his students or employees to hate. Those students who wish to pass the course and those employees who wish to retain their jobs are forced to listen to their BS. This is a clear form of abuse. 

I would love to see how a university president would reply if a professor at the school  would post 'Kill all university presidents' on FB. Would the professor get a free speech pass? I doubt it.

Is Trump Really Crazy?

If you arrived in the US today from some isolated place in the world like the jungles of Borneo you would probably think that the president of the most powerful country on earth is CRAZY.

After all, there are solemn parades like the one in New York, books written and commentaries by over 100 psychiatrists or pseudo-psychiatrists who all claim that he is crazy and therefore is unfit to be president. Most of those who opposed Trump during the election didn’t oppose him because they disagreed with his policies, they opposed him because…. wait for it… they thought he was NUTS.

And they haven’t let up on that. If one wanted to sincerely find out why they thought so, it was painfully difficult and uncomfortable to say the least. Why? Because those that hated him couldn’t clearly and objectively state their case. Reasons varied from: look at his crazy hair to just parroting the main stream media’s constant array of lies, attacks, exaggerations and especially taking his talking or tweeting points out of context. I’ve noticed that amongst my own (I’m a secular Jew in uber left wing Toronto) that many who opposed him projected their own insanity on him. The 24-7 attacks on Trump by the MSM are not helping. If he invented a cure for cancer, they would still find fault. The press would go something like this: 'Today president Trump invented a cure for prostate cancer. But what about cancers that affect women? Being a narcissist, misogynist and sexist He only cares about himself. '

Many who oppose him including some Republicans and never Trumpers are themselves irrational. From serious intellectuals like Daniel Pipes who at one time preferred not to vote at all rather than vote for him to some of my apolitical friends. Daniel Pipes walked it back a bit later after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Let me relate a personal story which typifies exactly who we are dealing with:

I reconnected to an old friend from high school on FB. We both had parents who were Holocaust survivors which allowed us a unique shared history and permitted us to lovingly make jokes about our 'greener' parents. Soon after our reconnection Trump got elected. We never talked about politics but I mentioned that in my retirement I became an activist for Jewish causes and Israel. One day she sent me a pic of the Trump family with all of the women with their hands near their genitalia with the headline 'No wonder they are covering their vaginas' or something like that.  It was meant to be a 'funny' jab at Trump for apparently being at the very least a misogynist, racist, sexist and at most, far worse. I replied with a similar jab at Obama who I viewed as the worst president in American history. She went nuts! How dare I. If she wanted to read trash there were many options on the internet to do so, she didn't need me to send it to her. When I mentioned politely that she didn't see a problem sending me trash about my favorite president in history and that since she opened the door on US politics why was it wrong for me to reciprocate? She then went into a messy diatribe about how when she was young she was attacked sexually by a family member and that’s why she hates Trump and so should the world.

When I wrote a piece about antisemitism being alive and well in 2017 one of my former work colleagues said she was surprised that I wrote such an article since I like Trump and he's behind the antisemitism. In that article I gave some recent examples including the demeaning case of the international judo tournament that took place in the UAE. Israeli participants who won were not allowed to have their national anthem played (like everyone else). I defended Trump as not an antisemite since among other things Muslim antisemitism existed long before Trump. Her response: I'm an angry white man! And no doubt crazy as well.

For a crazy guy he’s certainly accomplished a ton in such a short time despite the swamp's opposition to him. The US economy has and continues to benefit its people and the world is safer thanks to Trump yet many people hate him. I ask you: Who is crazy? To put a point on it, for the most part, Trump supporters seem to have their heads screwed on right whereas the left amongst having other issues are, hang on I’m trying to think of the correct medical term…. oh yea… I got it…they are batshit CRAZY!

Europe Has It's Nerve!

Imagine a people who barely survived the worst genocide in modern history. The genocide took place in Europe. This group of people were small to begin with. But after the Holocaust their numbers were cut in half. This group had their own country for thousands of years which included wonderful leaders, judges, civilized people and government and founded the concept of true and real civility which along with other concepts such as time, monotheism, our basis of modern law and democracy. This light of civilization spread across the world to the rest of the people. Over time these people were conquered time and again by ruthless dictatorships who took over their land, tried to deter them from practising their faith, made slaves of them and killed them. But this small group of hard working, peaceful and determined people returned to their native land after every foreign invador. Some never left. 

If you haven’t figured this out yet, I’m talking about the Jews and the land of Israel. Jerusalem was established as the holy capital of Israel thousands of years ago by the Jewish King David. The holiest Jewish site in the world, our Temple was located there on what’s known as the Temple Mount.  Today what’s left of the temple which was destroyed twice and still waiting to be rebuilt, is a piece of the outlying wall which we call the Western Wall or the Kotel. This entire ancient, holy Jewish land is located in the eastern part of the city. 

Finally the president of the United States confirmed with reality, that the US recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It was a brilliant show of integrity and leadership and common sense. Bravo President Trump!

EU Headquarters in Brussels

Enter the Europeans. At the UN and at other venues, their leaders are quick to condemn president Trump’s decision. They also admonish the Israeli PM for going along with Trump’s acknowledgement. 

Can you imagine the chutzpa (nerve) of Europeans for voicing their opposition to the same Jews who they persecuted or helped persecute and/or turned their backs on as the Jews were marched to the showers to be gassed alive or to the ovens to be turned to smoke and ash not that long ago?

I can’t. It’s beyond insulting for any one, especially the Europeans, to tell Israelis and Jew’s at large where they can put their capital. Of all people, the Europeans should shut up. Their holier than though attitude is sickening. Their love affair with Muslims is quite apparent. While many of their countries are suffering at the hands of millions of muslim migrants that they have invited in without any screening whatsoever, you’d think they’d have their hands full. Surely they’d be too busy to mind the affairs of anyone else when their own countries are on the brink of bankruptcy and their daughters are getting raped by muslim migrants in record numbers. Surprisingly, they are not too concerned with their own problems to blast President Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish State or to blast the only democracy in the middle east for having the audacity of choosing their own capital. They have already decreed that all the Jewish holy sites have nothing to do with Judaism. They have even forgotten about their own religion, Christianity. In one fell swoop, they and most world states have agreed with the lying Islamic narrative that all of those holy sites are Islamic! 

Myself and others are waiting for a serious Islamic inspired terrorist event to occur in Europe. Germany would be an ideal place. We haven’t forgotten the Holocaust. Maybe then they will realize what they are doing and who their real friends are and turn things around. But I’m not holding my breath. Europe has lost any credibility it ever had. With all due respect: Europe please go to hell!

Next Year in Jerusalem - in the US Embassy!

The US and the rest of the world have been living in a fantasy world- until now. Jews, historians and realists have known that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish State since the time of King David. The fact that ancient Jewish coins depicting Jerusalem have been found -means nothing. The fact that Jerusalem has been mentioned over 700 times in the Old Testament means nothing. The fact that it is never mentioned in the Koran means nothing. The fact that the oldest, modern day capital city in the world is somehow not recognized by other states is truly incredible.

Passed presidential candidates have promised to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but once elected declined to come through. Obama campaigned for an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but in no time back pedalled. He later opined that using the term 'undivided' was perhaps not the best word he could have used. 

Israel's parliament (Knesset), established in 1949, is located in Jerusalem. Israel's Supreme Court resides there. The office of the Prime Minister resides there. The holiest site for the Jews is the Temple Mount which includes a vestige of our Holy Temple -The Western Wall, is located there. 

In 1948 soon after Israel once again regained its status as the Jewish Nation, it was attacked on all borders by its Arab neighbours. They tried their best to wipe it off the map. It could easily be stated that this was the Jew's defining moment in modern times. The Israelis had no regular army or military weapons. The rag tag group of Jewish defenders were dispersed throughout the country as they had to defend their borders in every direction. At one crucial point they were faced with either defending Jerusalem or defending the rest of the country. Jerusalem, being high up in the Judean hills and kind of isolated from the rest of the country would be hard to defend. But the Israelis knew that without Jerusalem, Israel is nothing. So they managed to defend the western portion of the city. 

While the Jordanians held onto the eastern portion which contained the Jewish holy sites for 19 years they cleaned the area of Jews and made the Western Wall a toilet. Once Israel took back the Western Wall in 1967, Jews were once again allowed to pray at this holy site. Muslims continued to pray at their mosques and the Christians at their churches. Today with some of the best security in the world, people of all faiths pour in by the millions to enjoy the various religious sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel.

It's hard to take a government seriously when their policy is based on fiction. The antisemitic US State Department has from day one attempted to force the White House and other nations to not only ignore Jerusalem, but rewrite history and smother reality. Even though some US leaders disagreed with the State Department on this issue, they always caved in. Their staunchest ally just wasn't that important or maybe Arab oil was more so. 

Finally Mr. Unpredictable killed 3 birds with one stone: 

1. He stood up to the State Department and gave them the finger thus giving the US its credibility back. 

2. He gave notice to the Arabs that if they want peace, they have to acknowledge reality. Hopefully the local arabs will use this opportunity to throw out their corrupt dictator. 

3. He finally recognized the elephant in the room and kept his promise. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and recognized that it is the right thing to do. 

This is great news, no buts about it. Insanity means repeating the same actions but expecting different results. For over 20 years the White House has held back on moving its embassy to Jerusalem on the grounds that it might inflame the Arabs and ruin any chances of peace. Despite not doing this, we have had no peace and the PA and Hamas have been inflamed. Finally Trump has pushed through his inner circle who were determined to hold him back. Like him or not, you have to recognize that he did the right thing and it took courage and integrity to do it. G-d Bless Trump!

Do You Want To Change the World? Send an Email!

There are so many things that need changing. As a Jewish activist I read about all the injustices happening to us  right now on a daily basis. When I attend events concerning antisemitism or attacks on Israel, the most common question asked by the audience is 'What can we do about it?

There are many things that in fact we can do. Some are difficult, some are easy. From  enlisting in the IDF, attending rallies and events, making donations to like minded organizations, contacting our elected government officials, reading books and articles, learning about Judaism & Jewish history, studying Torah,  sending emails to those that need to receive them. And more...

I can tell you (you probably are already aware) that thanks to the internet, sending an email is by far the easiest thing to do. And if many of us send emails it can affect change. I've seen it work. It's usually a matter of volume. Depending on the issue, it may not take too many emails before a company or organization or person can change their actions. For some issues it may take less and for others it may take far more emails to even get a response. But it's relatively easy to do and more or less cost free (other than your time).I try to make it a point to send an email approximately 5 times a week. When possible I try to include my contacts in the BCC (blind carbon copy) address part of the email in order that they can read exactly what I had to say to our adversaries or friends. Often I will be nicely surprised by some of these contacts also writing an email to the same person I did about the same issue. We inadvertently compete with each other as to who wrote the better letter. It's inspirational.

All forms of social media are great for getting out your message. Short tweets or longer blogs like this can prove effective. I even learned how to make videos, hopefully effective ones. I made a satirical video years ago called 'Change the World' which contains subtle support for Israel. You can watch it on Youtube here.  Obviously videos take a lot more effort to make than to compose a short email. I often read about an issue that will push me to send an email (either positive or negative). The positive emails are just as important as they help to encourage good behaviour. Sadly I find myself writing mostly negative ones lately.

 For example, I recently read about Harvard University's intention to offer a course comparing the notorious 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' to the scholarly work Eurabia. You can read about it here.  So I sent the following email to the president of Harvard U:

Dear President Drew Gilpin Faust: 

I just learned that Harvard is now offering a course ‘When the Elders of Zion Relocated to Eurabia: Conspiratorial Racialisation in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, 11/30/17, the Common Room) that equates the immense scholarship of Bat Ye’or with the notorious Russian forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  Are you in any way, shape or form trying to compare the two? 

Bat Ye’or spent years writing several scholarly works that should certainly be studied at school in order to understand how Islam from its beginning was a treacherous, murderous, nonsensical but dangerous ideology and how it has so far successfully undermined democratic states. Look at Europe for one tiny example. Islamophobia is a made up word. There is nothing irrational about fearing Islam. With billions of Muslims in the world today the world has become a dangerous place.

Antisemitism on the other hand is real. I’m sure even you can recall the recent Holocaust where over six million Jews were murdered in history’s most terrible way. No one needs to worry about twelve or so million peaceful and hard working Jews. Between the far right neo-Nazis, the far left violent antifa movement and of course the many antisemitic Muslims taking over the world, it is us, Jews who need to watch our back. Both from people who want to harm us and from institutions like yours who want to whitewash the truth right down to offering courses like yours. 

Some sites that promote letter writing, often contain contact email addresses and even offer sample letters that are meant as a guide for you to put into your own words before sending. One can develop search skills to find the email of the person they wish to send an email to. It's often simple enough. If you want to send an email to the President of the United States, search 'contact president of the United States'. You might have to type your letter in a form presented by the organization's website rather than a free format email.

Some might say that they can't write for beans. Spell and grammar checkers have come a long way and are often automatically at play. Besides it's the content that is far more important than the grammar and spelling. I'd rather have 100 letters with poor spelling and grammar than 1 perfect letter. It's usually about volume. In any case, the more you write, the easier it becomes. I myself am no writer but I manage to crank some out here and there. Writing sharpens the mind and your writing skills will improve over time. It's never been easier to take up the cause.

If computers are not for you, pick up a phone. No phone? Write a letter and stick a stamp on it. In some cases letters in the mail are taken more seriously than emails.

Write from the heart and write often!

Anti-Semitism is Alive and Well in 2017

I'm boiling over with disgust. Here we are in 2017. One would think that in our modern world, society has advanced so far that maybe racism is mostly a thing of the past. In some cases it is. But when it comes to hating Jews, it absolutely is not.

Let's take a few recent cases: Has anyone heard of the country IJF? That's because it doesn't exist. It stands for the International Judo Federation. If you haven't heard, Israel came in 6th place overall with Tal Flicker winning a gold medal. Aside from Israel having to beg various countries to permit their team to fly into Abu Dhabi, where the competition was held, Israel was not allowed to show their banner flag like every other team did. Nor was the Israeli national anthem played when Israelis won medals. Look at their website: IJF
Scroll down a bit and you will see a list of winners by country. However instead of Israel they display IJF. Even the televised play by play announcers never mention the country Israel. Instead, they gab about all that money that Tal won. No mention of where he got his training in Israel. You know, the stuff that most sportscasters talk about. It really is hard to believe. Most of the Muslim competitors in the past have refused to shake hands with their Israeli counterparts. It's a shameful display of blatant antisemitism and so demeaning to the Jewish people.  The IJF should be held to account for allowing countries like the UAE to host such events and the world's mainstream media should be reprimanded for giving such behaviour a pass. Instead of the big cheeses at the IJF getting nice presents to look the other way, they need to be kicked out on to the street.

A photo of Tal singing Hatikva while they were playing the IJF song.

Moving to Canada, a student union at a prominent university in Montreal (McGill), was so upset that their anti-Israel, BDS motion was not passed, that they voted to throw out 3 directors of the board because they were Jewish and threatened them to boot. This action is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 30's. Many of us have contacted the university and it finally hit a little bit of the mainstream media. I await the appropriate action of charging those guilty students of hate crimes and expelling them from the school. Something tells me that I might be waiting for a very long time.

A common trick by many Islamic nations is to sponsor students to attend universities in the West to attack Jews under the guise of anti-Zionism. These fake students register for 1 or 2 courses and as a result have plenty of time to attack Jews on campus and sponsor anti-Israel events like the annual hatefest called Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) which has spread from the University of Toronto to most universities throughout the western world. Whereas most students, Jewish ones included, are busy focussing on their studies, these antisemitic political activists have all the time and money in the world to publish sophisticated promotional media and bring in some of the vilest speakers on the planet. For the most part, the university administrations let them. Their defence usually falls under 'free speech'. Sure they alway add 'The university does not necessarily agree with the messages of the speaker'. Sadly, as a result many once neutral students who are often ignorant about the real situation in the Middle East, fall for the slanderous BS that they are forced to face on campus on a daily basis. This is the real tragedy.

I recently attended a wonderful speaker, Dr. Lawrence Hart, who teaches medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He might be the only professor who started a Jewish organization for the faculty at a university. There are often Jewish organizations for students such as Hillel but rarely if ever did one exist for the professors. He made an excellent point. Although we should never ignore our Jewish students, they do come and go but the professor are usually stuck on campus for years. He showed us slides of at least dozens of some of the worst antisemites who spoke at the school over a 15 year period including people like Norman Finkelstein who claims that the Jews made money on the Holocaust, to Hamas supporter George Galloway. His honest admission was that after 15 years his organization did little to fight antisemitism on campus. With no support from the administration (actually quite the opposite) it proved futile and nerve wracking to fight antisemitism when in fact he had to fight his administration instead. The event was sponsored by a fantastic organization called the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR).

Lastly there is the case of an imam in Toronto (Elkasrawy) who preached at a downtown mosque that Jews are filthy pigs who need to die. The Toronto Star (our largest print paper) promptly tried to whitewash his words and in his defence said that when arabs say Jews they really mean Zionists. Well in that case, that's not really hate speech, is it?

Israelis outside of Israel are often faced with blatant antisemitism, as tourists, students, employees and in business. Jews like myself living in the diaspora have faced it as well. Ever go for a job interview and not get the job and wonder if your religion had anything to do with it?

We need to motivate Jews and pro-Israel people of all religions to stand up to antisemitism. Think of it like crime on the streets. It will never go away and it's never easy to combat, but we don't give up. We have laws against it, and police to protect us. Sometimes a simple email (if enough are sent) can do the trick. In other cases a lot more effort is required. It would be helpful if parents and Jewish organizations educated our youth about this issue and identified specific problems and efforts to combat them rather than hide them under the table and pretend they don't exist.