A Time to Speak Out - ACJC

Shofar, 2014

Examiner, 2013

For three years, I wrote for Examiner.com from June 2013 until the publication closed in July 2016. I wrote over 1,100 articles reporting American, Canadian, and Israeli politics, general breaking news, universities, education, and Judaism. I started with two beats, serving as a Politics and Judaism Examiner. Over that period, I wrote 42 articles on Judaism, repeatedly writing about specific topics. They included Israel's issues over egalitarian prayer at the Kotel, Women of the Wall-Nashot HaKotel, Pope Francis and Catholic-Jewish relations, Hebrew manuscripts collections, United States Jewish demography, the Canadian Jewish Federation System, and anti-Zionism on university campuses. The following is the collection of articles I wrote for Examiner.

Canadian Jewish Studies, 2024

This article explores the lead up to, formation, and immediate aftermath of the first Canadian Jewish Congress (1919). Meeting minutes, letters, and newspaper articles related to the early CJC suggest that it was an institution built in response to nationwide excitement and agreement concerning the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The CJC was driven by an agenda to invigorate and expand Jewish life in Canada without practical commitments to similar efforts in Palestine. This logic was dissimilar from other contemporary conceptions of Zionism and reflects the reality that Zionist ideas and institutions have been consequential to the endurance of the Jewish diaspora throughout the twentieth century. In the Canadian case, the central factors shedding light on this counterintuitive logic are the influence of the Socialist Zionist Poale Zion upon the CJC’s mandate, coordination between CJC leadership factions to ensure the longevity of Canadian Jewry, and the CJC’s resolution to create the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, which represents the practical thrust of the CJC and its broadest-reaching and longest-standing policy outcome.

2022

Welcome to the CSJS conference! There is no charge to attend, but all are invited to consider becoming members of CSJS: http://www.csjs.ca/membership. Bienvenue à la conférence de la SCÉJ. La participation est gratuite mais on vous invite à devenir membres de la société, http://www.csjs.ca/membership. La conférence se déroulera surtout en anglais, mais il y aura un panel francophone le premier jour, soit lundi après-midi. Nous espérons augmenter la présence francophone à nos conférences dans les années à venir.

2022

(Co-edited book). Why is it so difficult to advocate for Palestine in Canada and what can we learn from the movement’s successes? This account of Palestine solidarity activism in Canada grapples with these questions through a wide-ranging exploration of the movement’s different actors, approaches and fields of engagement, along with its connections to different national and transnational struggles against racism, imperialism and colonialism. Led by a coalition of students, labour unions, church groups, left wing activists, progressive presses, human rights organizations, academic associations and Palestinian and Jewish community groups, Palestine solidarity activism is on the rise in Canada and Canadians are more aware of the issues than ever before. Palestine solidarity activists are also under siege as never before. The movement advocating for Palestinian rights is forced to contend with relentless political condemnation, media blackouts, administrative roadblocks, coordinated smear campaigns, individual threats, legal intimidation and institutional silencing. Through this book and the experiences of the contributing authors in it, many seasoned veterans of the movement, Advocating for Palestine in Canada offers an indispensable and often first-hand view into the complex social and historical forces at work in one of our era’s most urgent debates.

Canadian Jewish Studies/Études juives canadiennes, 2024

This two-part essay deals with subjects of great interest to Canadian Jews: the pro-Palestinian encampments established at more than two dozen of the country’s public universities in spring 2024, and Canadian attitudes toward Jews and Israel in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 2023. It is based mainly on the results of two surveys conducted in February and May 2024. Initial results of the February poll were published in April. Part 2 of this essay provides ten new insights derived from analysis of the data from that survey. Part 1, based on the May survey, provides a brief overview of the encampment movement and analyzes the characteristics of its Canadian supporters and opponents.

Journal of Peace Education, 2011

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Declaration 2019 JPLO Jewish People’s Liberation Organization We, the Jewish People, are a People-Nation without a State. The discrimination by the Western Christian Nation-States has limited our freedoms by expulsions, ghettoïsation, quotas, boycotts, assimilation and annihilation. The current condition from post-Holocaust Europe was and is the transfer of the remnants of the Ashkenazim in the Spartan ghetto tied to the opportune world capitalist power base. The actual sponsor of the Zionist State of Israel is the USA and its Military-Industrial Complex. While a minority of the Jewish people are not actually citizens of the State, the Zionist leadership declares itself to be speaking in the name of all the Jewish people on behalf of the Jewish People as a whole.

2003

Open Letter of International Jewish Opposition Committees and Individuals in Solidarity with the Palestinian People September 2003 On this occasion of the third year of the current Intifada we wish to address ourselves to the Palestinian People as members of the Jewish communities and as individuals from around the world. We declare that Jewish people are not represented by the State of Israel.