ROBROCOP2

The criticism of @AviLewis is entirely deserved. His Yom Kippur message is a near-perfect example of the hypocrisy at the heart of the anti-Zionist movement. For years, anti-Zionist activists have insisted that Judaism and Zionism must be kept completely separate. They tell us that holding Jews responsible for Israel is antisemitic. They accuse Jewish organizations of endangering Jews whenever they connect Jewish identity to Israel. And yet on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, the leader of the NDP writes: “We failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name.” Who exactly is “we”? Lewis is not merely criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu. He is not criticizing a specific Israeli policy. He is invoking Jews collectively, on Yom Kippur, and assigning them a responsibility to atone for the conduct of a foreign government. That is precisely the kind of collective attribution that Canada’s own definition of antisemitism warns against. And this is not coming from someone unfamiliar with the argument. Lewis has publicly described himself as an “anti-Zionist Jewish person” trying to “unlearn and unpack” what he calls the Zionist myths with which Canadian Jews were raised. He belongs to Independent Jewish Voices, an organization that explicitly declares itself anti-Zionist and routinely argues that conflating Jews with Israel places Jews in danger. So which is it? Are Jews separate from Israel and therefore not collectively responsible for its actions? Or are Jews collectively obliged to atone for what Lewis says Israel has done “in our name”? You cannot credibly argue both. Liberal MP @BenCarrwpg called Lewis’s framing “dangerous,” saying it contributes to the narratives behind threats against Jewish Canadians. That criticism deserves to be taken seriously. Especially because Lewis chose to make this argument on the same evening that Jewish Canadians in Belleville were hiding from gunfire outside a synagogue while trying to observe Yom Kippur. At a moment when Jews are already being treated as proxies for a conflict thousands of kilometres away, political leaders should be dismantling collective guilt, not reinforcing it. shorturl.at/cSgOY

A coordinated campaign is now targeting Jewish schools in Toronto and Montreal by pressuring the Canada Revenue Agency to strip them of their charitable status. The target may be schools, but the objective is much broader, to intimidate Jewish families and erode Jewish life in Canada. Thousands of Canadian students attend these schools to receive an education rooted in Jewish identity, faith and community. They should not become political targets because activists oppose the existence of a Jewish homeland. This is part of a growing pattern of double-standards in which Jewish institutions are singled out, pressured and forced to defend their right to exist. We call on @FP_Champagne and the federal government to publicly reject this meritless complaint and make clear that Canada’s tax system cannot be weaponized against Jewish communities. B’nai Brith Canada will stand with every institution facing this harassment and will fight every effort to disrupt Jewish life in this country.

"it's not a performative political event" says candidate who MAKES A CAMPAIGN VIDEO ABOUT THE SEDER Give me a break nitter.cf/grahamformaine/status/…

Grateful for @ewarren's support. Let's get to work.

The synagogue car-rammer was aiming to create a mass-casualty event, which would have killed mostly children in nursery school and day care. There were bombs in his car, and all kinds of other destructive stuff. So says one of the shul's rabbis.