Seeking R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Editorial

We are in the midst of election fever. Voters around British Columbia vote tomorrow, Nov. 19, for mayors, city councillors, school trustees and, in Vancouver, park commissioners. This year has also seen a provincial election and now it appears that we are weeks away from a federal election. For a Jewish newspaper – and for the Jewish community more broadly – these elections have presented interesting opportunities and particular challenges. Two questions come to mind each time we face another election: What is a Jewish issue? And what do Jewish voters want?

A Jewish issue, we surmise, is any issue in which a Jewish British Columbian takes an interest. Recently, community leaders gathered to discuss poverty, which is widely accepted within the Jewish communal structure to be a "Jewish issue" because poverty affects Jews. Likewise, housing is a Jewish issue because the price and availability of residential accommodation in the Lower Mainland has dramatic impacts on the Jewish community, which has been forced into a diffused demographic, as younger generations, seeking (often barely) affordable homes, have moved further and further from what was once the locus of Jewish Vancouver.

Some more obvious, traditional "Jewish issues" are certain to come up during a federal election. The federal government, which determines immigration levels, foreign policy and sanctions against hate-motivated crime, is a natural nexus of Jewish and general concerns. But, even at the federal level, though there are a number of hot potato issues important to Jewish Canadians, the majority of Jews will probably make their choice based on the same variety of issues other Canadians use to measure candidates: perceived honesty and fitness to govern, taxes, the economy, social policies and so forth.

Institutionalized anti-Semitism in Canadian government policy is a thing of the past. Anti-Jewish sentiment and incidents occur in Canada, but they do so in spite of, not because of, government initiatives. The main "Jewish issue," it could be said, is preventing any backsliding from this assurance of acceptance – and such backsliding into institutional anti-Semitism, while possible, does not appear likely in Canada's near-term.

So what, then, can a politician do to gain the support of the Jewish community? In a word: nothing. There is no single policy or panacea that will ensure strong support from Canadian Jews for a particular candidate or party. There is, however, a way to lose the Jewish community's support.

Because constitutional and other bulwarks are in place to protect Jews and other minorities from the basest prejudice and bigotry, there remain few community-specific "demands" we might ask of political candidates. What is left to guide us tends to be a more ethereal measure. It is, as Aretha Franklin, the Gaon of Motown, described it: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Respect cannot be measured. Nor can it be tangibly identified. A candidate may say the right things to appeal to minority voters, but harbor various forms of prejudice or lack of respect under their veneer of egalitarianism. Jewish and other minority voters are sometimes capable of sensing sincerity. Other times, it is not so easy. But there are measures that some Jewish voters will use tomorrow and when the federal vote comes.

Immigration policy has always been a central concern for Jewish voters. Those who have memories of Jewish refugees being turned away from these shores understand the sometimes life-and-death implications of immigration policy. We also know that openness to immigration is often accompanied by an openness to differentness, to multiculturalism, and an opposition to immigration can – though does not necessarily – accompany or presage intolerance to minorities.

In recent years, foreign policy has become a central concern to Jewish voters, many of whom have felt isolated and vilified as Israel has been isolated and vilified, in Canada and worldwide. Part of the respect that Jewish voters can rightly demand is that candidates learn to appreciate the centrality of Israel to the Jewish psyche and body politic. Failure to understand this Israel-Diaspora relationship is arguably the most gaping hole into which a politician can stumble.

And respect means understanding why Jewish Vancouverites might be concerned about the planned World Peace Forum, scheduled to coincide with next year's Habitat conference here. Using the word "peace" as an inoculation, some proponents contend there is no reason for fear, despite that the event is likely to attract many of the activists who have been foremost in the anti-Israel dogpile of recent years.

Respect is not an easy thing to measure. But we know it when we see it.

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