Assembly panel dissects anti-Semetism in Canada By CAROLYN BLACKMAN

The Canadian Jewish News, December 5, 2002- 30 Kislev, 5763

PHILADELPHIA - McGill University historian Gil Troy said he resented having to talk about anti-Semitism in Canada at last week's United Jewish Communities General Assembly.

"I hate the topic. I resent that 50 years after the Holocaust, that topic is back on the table."

Troy was part of a panel discussion at the three-day conference that also included Canadian Jewish Congress President Keith Landy and National Post columnist Robert Fulford.

Troy called himself a "Daniel Pearl Jew," referring to the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered earlier this year in Pakistan shortly after being forced to admit to his Jewish identity on videotape.

"I can understand that he wandered down that alley because he was told he could be what he wanted to be. He was supposed to be quadruply protected. He was an American, he was a graduate of Stanford University, he was a journalist and he worked for the Wall Street Journal. Those things were supposed to be his shield," said Troy.

Talking about the recent violent protest at Concordia University that forced the cancellation of a speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, now Israel's foreign minister, Troy said that he was disturbed by his colleagues' silence.

"I expected my non-Jewish colleagues to say that the riot was unacceptable. I expected some kind of statement that [did not originate] with the Jewish community."

He said Concordia's campus moratorium against Mideast related events and advocacy, which was lifted last week by Concordia's board of governors, was a "colossal error that offended free speech. Sometimes you buy peace at the cost of your soul.

"It is a stunning educational failure to have a campus in which students are afraid to express their ethnic backgrounds.

It is unacceptable to be afraid to talk about an issue, Troy said. "We must mobilize students who are not involved. We must take back the campus."

A Concordia student who was involved in planning Netanyahu's speech at the university told the panel that Concordia students clearly do not face terrorism as Israelis do, but they do face it in a different way.

"Our detractors and detractors of Israel seek to terrorize Jewish students. They do not blow us up or physically harm us, but they do try to instill terror in our hearts and minds," he said.

"We planned the event because we refused to succumb to this terrorism. Jewish students do have rights," he added.

Troy said anti-Semitism is a broad and blunt instrument. "There is violent anti-Semitism, there is vulgar anti-Semitism, and there is genteel and elegant anti-Semitism."

It is the latter type of anti-Semitism that we need to focus on, he said. "It usually starts with discomfort, and then it builds quickly."

He said Jews must ask why people hate Israel instead of just disagreeing with its policies. "Why, of all nationalisms, is Zionism singled out?

"Underlying Zionaphobia is Œthis thing about Jews.' It comes back again and again to haunt us.We see no other country battered like that."

He is disappointed in Canadian leaders, he said. "I did not hear any support after the Concordia riot.

"Instead of telling our leaders that they must do more, we just increase our security budget and go quietly away."

Fulford said that Israel was supposed to be a safeguard for the Jews, but it has turned into a new way to attack Jews.

"Anti-Semitism changes its shape and context, and it moves, in our case from right to left. The left has taken over the pro-Palestinian cause. It has developed a tremendous affection for victims, and it has decided that the Palestinians are the victims.

"If they look seriously at all their reasons for being pro-Palestinian, they would realize they could transfer those reasons to about 30 or 40 nations around the world," said Fulford.

The key to fighting anti-Semitism, Landy said, is education. "We have to talk to non-Jews and we have to get involved on campus.

"There are others out there, such as the Hindu and Sikh communities, that we need to engage, and we need to engage our leaders."

Jews must also learn the lesson, he said, that evil words lead to evil deeds. "We must always take anti-Semitism seriously. To prevent it from threatening Canada, we have to keep it out of the mainstream, or push it back to the margins."