In the past three months we have seen a torrent of antisemitic protests, hateful comments, boycotts of Israeli goods, shameless media bias and other vulgarities relayed non-stop on social media and on our TV screens.
It is unspeakable Jew hatred.
University and college administrators have sat on their hands while pro-Palestinian protesters have hijacked their campuses and tried to intimidate Jewish students.
Police everywhere – in London, NYC and Toronto – have for the most part stood idly by while protesters with their faces masked and keffiyehs covering their heads have uttered death threats, invaded private spaces, violated public ones like highway overpasses and vandalized Jewish-run businesses such as Indigo and Zara.
For someone who has watched antisemitic hate escalate over the past 10 years, I am not surprised that so many Jew haters have reared their ugly heads.
They were, shall we say, lying in wait.
I’m not naive enough to think these hateful characters would be silenced by the atrocities of Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, burned to death and desecrated the bodies of 1,200 Israelis.
Some 130 hostages are still being held somewhere in Gaza.
But I am certainly appalled with the level of visceral hatred, violence and the unabashed targeting of Jews – based largely on ignorance and distortion of the facts and social media manipulation.
It is heartbreaking.
Several in my Jewish sphere were lulled into thinking Nazi Germany would “never again” happen and perhaps were in denial about the signs I’ve seen for years.
Some Jewish advocacy groups were equally out of touch with reality, choosing not to call out many of the toxic protests and antisemitic bullying by radical union activists.
But this time I see a huge difference.
We never thought the hashtag #NeverAgain would need to be used – again.
There are social media platforms and X (formerly Twitter) pages dedicated solely to exposing antisemites, from the hateful people who ripped down posters of the Israelis being held hostage in Gaza to a variety of mostly indoctrinated college students and their professors who declare the usual tropes about Israel being a “genocidal” and “apartheid” state or even worse, that Jews don’t deserve to live.
These platforms have thoroughly documented the obscene violation of public spaces – most particularly shopping malls in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver – where a motley collection of verbally violent and aggressive pro-Palestinian supporters harassed shoppers before Christmas.
We have watched the police stand by and do nothing, until recent days when a few of the more aggressive protesters were arrested for disturbing the peace.
Both Canary Mission and @StopAntisemities have done a wonderful job exposing this kind of Jew hatred.
The latter site recently posted its picks for antisemites of the year, asking us to select one.
Social media has made it easy not just for them to expose the hateful words and actions of antisemites but to identify them.
For example, a young woman who worked for the New York Botanical Gardens recently lost her job after being featured by this platform for her Jew hatred.
Many others have been exposed and deplatformed, including those in the medical field (doctors especially) who should know better.
There is a group of lawyers in Toronto who repeatedly post and repost anti-Israel vitriol under the guise of protecting Palestinians.
Free speech and university tenure has given cover to haters like Osgoode Hall law professor Heidi Matthews. She has even gone so far as to repost the anti-Zionist diatribe of former NDP member of Ontario’s legislature Sarah Jama.
Hate speech is finally being exposed, as is the media bias.
Honest Reporting Canada has done a yeoman’s job highlighting the inaccuracies – and the pure bias – of various news outlets.
Most have been forced to retract or correct their inaccuracies.
Virtually daily I receive an email from Honest Reporting Canada exposing biased reporting from CBC and CTV, which have been at the top of the list with their dishonest and less than objective reporting of the conflict.
There are private Jewish-only Facebook groups who issue watches and alerts to others about acts of antisemitism in Canada.
Even the Jewish advocacy organizations like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which sat on its hands for umpteen years cozying up to the Liberals, have been forced to concede that Justin Trudeau and the largely foolish ministers who surround him do not care one bit about Jews in Canada.
Why should they when we represent a minority compared to those who’ve been allowed to come into Canada, bringing their hateful ways with them.
Still it is like a game of whack-a-mole. One antisemite is uncovered and silenced; another one crops up.
We wish that our politicians would act rather than issue phony statements about how antisemitism is not tolerated in Canada.
There’s no doubt by their inaction and empty words that they tolerate it.
Ditto for the police who enable the violence and intimidation by refusing to arrest and charge some of the more aggressive haters.
Even if the court is lenient with these people – and I believe they would be – at least it would send a strong signal to others that this kind of behavior should not be tolerated.
What we’ve learned as a Jewish community is that there is indeed a shameless double standard as to how anti-Jewish hate is treated compared to the very limited acts of aggression comparatively against Muslims, other visible minorities or the LGBT communities.
We as Jews have concluded that we need to stand up for ourselves – and the haters have been aghast that we are finally standing up for ourselves.
If there’s one positive result of Oct. 7 and the antisemitic acts that have followed, we are bonded and more determined than ever as a community to fight back with a vengeance.
