Don’t deny the scourge of Jew-hatred threatening our beloved country

OTTAWA—From the gallery of Parliament in 2018, I was touched as I watched Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologize for the Canadian government’s devastating decision, in 1939, to deny entry to the MS St. Louis, condemning hundreds of European Jews to their deaths. That followed prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Stephen Harper, and Trudeau’s visits to Auschwitz, and commitments to Holocaust remembrance from all Canada’s political parties. Our country’s leadership seemed committed to learning the lessons of the Holocaust, and ensuring that “Never Again” meant that never again would Canada abandon the Jewish community in a time of need. Then Oct. 7, 2023, struck. That day, it was easy to support Canada’s Jews and the State of Israel. Jews had just been massacred: civilians murdered, burned alive, tortured, and raped. All decent people stood then with Israel and Canada’s Jewish community. After, Israel began its defence against Hamas’ terror, taking Hamas at its word, as codified in its charter: “Israel, Judaism, and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them.” When Hamas’ Ghazi Hamad warned on Oct. 24 that “We must teach Israel a lesson; the Al-Aqsa Deluge is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth," Israelis and Jews heard him: a renewed Holocaust. But, as the days passed, so too did support for the Jewish people, leaving me to wonder if those who claimed to be committed to the lessons of the Holocaust and who faithfully attend Holocaust remembrance events had lost sight of the significance of Oct. 7. I watched as our Canadian government voted for a UN resolution demanding Israel implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, while, in parallel expressing doubt about the resolution’s wording. To be clear, a Hamas surrender is the only way to ensure an end to the bloodshed on both sides. Supporting this resolution, despite apparently disagreeing with its wording, jeopardizes the security of Jewish communities everywhere, and places Canada among those pressuring Israel to end its defensive war in Gaza unilaterally. I see who is condemning antisemitism unequivocally, and who is lumping antisemitism together with other forms of hate. To be clear: all acts of hate must be condemned. But to fail to condemn antisemitism alone and by name at this moment in Canadian history—as Jews are targeted by more hate crimes than any other religious minority—is to deny the scourge of Jew-hatred threatening our beloved country. Although it took time for Canada to understand the repercussions of its “none is too many” policy that denied 937 European Jews refuge in 1939, our leaders have since committed to learning the lessons of the Holocaust. Today, they must redouble these efforts. If you think the atrocities of Oct. 7 are not derived from the same principles of dehumanization and extermination as the Holocaust, you have the chance none had 80 years ago: to bear witness. Just as you may have been to Auschwitz or the Warsaw Ghetto, travel to Israel, and see first-hand the depravity and destruction of Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Be’eri. The ravaged communities are preserved. The only difference is that bodies are buried and the stench of death has eased. There, you can speak to the families of hostages and victims, to survivors, to first responders. You can hear testimony of families bound and burned together; of babies’ cribs and children’s beds soaked with blood; of bound women and men, riddled with bullets; of men and women subject to vicious sexual violence. I have visited the death camps, and now I’ve been to Kfar Aza, too—an experience that proved far harder because I had thought that “Never Again” meant “Never Again.” That it has not is the failure of every decent person everywhere. This is Canada's moment to demonstrate that we have learned from our collective mistakes, that everything we have done since the Holocaust was not posturing, but meaningful steps toward “Never Again.” Now is the time to bear witness and to stand with Israel and the Jewish people in ensuring that this time Never Again means exactly that. Rabbi Idan Scher is the rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa. The Hill Times