On the afternoon of Nov. 24, NCJW Vancouver celebrates its 100th anniversary at Aberthau Mansion, which is evocative of the era in which the organization planted its roots in Vancouver. (photo by Chris10Chan / wikipedia)
A century is a long time for any organization. For a Jewish women’s organization on the West Coast of North America, that is an especially major milestone. National Council of Jewish Women Canada, Vancouver section, is marking 100 years since its founding with a Roaring ’20s party this month.
Jordana Corenblum, president of the chapter, said the celebration location – Aberthau Mansion in West Point Grey – is evocative of the era the organization planted its roots in Vancouver. Era-appropriate dress is encouraged at the afternoon event, but not mandatory. The fact that Corenblum has a collection of flapper-era dresses is coincidental to the party’s theme, she said.
The organization itself was founded in Chicago in 1893 to engage Jewish women in social justice work, especially around issues of poverty affecting women and children. The first Canadian chapter started in Toronto in 1897 and the Vancouver branch began 27 years later.
Jordana Corenblum, president of National Council of Jewish Women Canada, Vancouver section. (photo from Jordana Corenblum)
Corenblum emphasized that she is a relative latecomer to the group. Her ascendancy to the presidency represents a generational shift, she said, but she sees herself and others of her age as carrying on the traditions of their mothers and grandmothers while adapting NCJW’s work to women who are deeply involved in careers.
For earlier generations of women who may not have worked outside the home, Corenblum said, groups like National Council, Hadassah and others allowed women – even in the era when they could not vote – to contribute to the larger society.
Corenblum’s profession is youth work and so she is bridging generations.
“I have a lot of exposure to what young people are doing,” she said, “so I am in the space of honouring all of the beautiful feminist work that has been done, all of the things that I’ve seen that the generations ahead of me have done. I’m really trying to bridge what the younger generations are coming up with. They are very socially justice-minded. They have all different ideas of gender and religion and culture and what all of that looks like, so I’m trying very hard to be this person that can bridge both and honour both, honour the past and move forward into the future.”
The 100th birthday party is a welcoming way to bring light into the figurative and literal darkness, she said. It takes place on a Sunday afternoon – Nov. 24, from 2:30 to 5 p.m. – so people who don’t want to drive in the dark can comfortably attend.
“Especially after the year that we’ve had, we need a feel-good event,” she said. “There is no agenda to this other than ‘Come celebrate.’”
There will be mocktails and a grazing table, as well as professional childminding, live music and swing dance lessons.
Los Angeles-based comedian and podcaster Antonia Lassar brings The Best Jew to Vancouver Performing Stars’ theatre on Nov. 30. (photo by Xander DePascale)
Ever wonder how Sarah might have welcomed back Abraham and Isaac from their “camping trip”? Who’s the biggest diva in the Hebrew Bible? What elements an interior designer for synagogues considers? These are just a few of the questions comedian Antonia Lassar answers in recent social media posts.
On Nov. 30, Vancouverites can see the Canadian debut of Lassar’s The Best Jew, in which she shares anecdotes about her Reform Judaism upbringing, contemplates questions like whether the late Debbie Friedman is the Messiah, and much more. Music and singing play a big part in the show, which will be opened by the Klezbians, a band from Victoria.
Lassar draws her inspiration from the Jewish communities she’s lived in, in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. “It’s sometimes brutal to be sitting in shul and not be able to pull out my phone to take notes, because I just noticed something hilarious that I need to write about,” she said. “I’m constantly having great ideas in places where I’m not allowed to write anything down!”
Lassar grew up in Newton, Mass., and attended theatre school before moving to New York City. Two years ago, she relocated to Los Angeles to focus on film and television. “I’ve known since I was a kid that I wanted to perform, but I didn’t pinpoint comedy as my strong suit until I got out of college,” she said.
Today, she describes herself as being deeply immersed in the Jewish community, but, for many years, Lassar found her Jewish life uninspiring. “I didn’t like Judaism growing up,” she admitted. “It felt like an afterschool activity I was forced to do, in the same way I was forced to take piano lessons. I thought both were useless and probably just child abuse.”
It took a foray into other religions before Lassar returned to Judaism with genuine interest and curiosity. For that, she thanks Chabad in Brooklyn. “They sucked me in and gave me a great love for Judaism,” she said. “But I wouldn’t call myself Reform or Chabad. Like many Jews of my generation, I feel like I’m between denominations.”
When it came to writing comedy, Lassar turned to what she knew best, and that was Judaism. “Most Jewish comedy stays at the level of cultural Ashkenazi stereotypes of bagels and overbearing mothers,” she said. “This never felt representative of my experience. I wanted to write comedy for Jews that went beyond stereotypes and that shows a different side to Judaism, one that’s not commonly portrayed in comedy.”
She wrote The Best Jew for a pluralistic Jewish audience and has performed it for a wide range of Jews, from Reform to Hassidic. “My material is very clean, and any passing reference to controversial subjects like the Holocaust is extremely respectful,” she said. “This is an 18+ show, but it won’t offend anyone.”
In the show, Lassar jokes about the Reform movement’s obsession with the word “meaningful,” and Chabad’s distribution of menorahs, among many other subjects. “It’s so much more fun performing for Jewish communities than at comedy clubs, where you’re just another comedian,” she reflected. “When I perform at a synagogue, they treat you like you’re Moshiach! It’s a dream job to travel around the country and meet amazing Jewish communities who are so diverse and so welcoming.”
Lassar comes to Vancouver as a guest of JQT Vancouver, a volunteer-run Jewish, queer and trans nonprofit, and Jewish Family Services Vancouver, as part of the organizations’ Mental Health Support Series. While Lassar’s queer identity does come up, “it’s not a huge part of the show,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in very Orthodox spaces, where the question of queerness is unavoidable. And I’m proud to be a queer Jew who is deeply engaged in Judaism.”
To get an idea of Lassar’s comedy, check out her sketches on Instagram and TikTok. She also co-hosts, with comedian Raye Schiller, Yenta Pod, a weekly podcast with the tagline “Sometimes funny, sometimes Jewish, always gossip.”
It turns out that a war and a worldwide increase in antisemitism may cause more Jewish people to return to Jewish spaces. Some Jewish atheists try out fasting for Yom Kippur. New faces appear at synagogue. Lectures and events that were sparsely attended in the past seem to have more takers. If you’re a regular in a Jewish community, you may have seen this already. There are many reasons, including a need to find community and avoid antisemitism, or to return to religious practice after dealing with so much death. For those who were already attending or even occasionally attending Jewish services or events, things have also changed.
My twins had their b’nai mitzvah in June. I’d long thought of how cool it would be if they could help fill out a minyan more often (a group of 10 needed for communal prayer). However, there have been obstacles. Our congregation’s building was under renovation. The temporary spot, while lovely and hospitable, required a car ride.
This fall, the congregation moved back to its building and we live in easy walking distance. My kids attend public school and didn’t have Sukkot off. Yet, when one kid asked to attend minyan on Hoshanah Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot, I immediately said yes. He would have “an appointment” that morning, according to the attendance sheet, and arrive a little late. We figured, no need to claim a religious holiday (antisemitism concerns, again), but that’s what it was, of course.
Hoshanah Rabbah was a new experience for us, though it’s an ancient ritual. It involves circling the pulpit (a stand-in for the Temple altar) seven times, with lulav and etrog in hand. Marking the end of the fall holidays, it’s a last chance to ask for forgiveness and a better year.
Traditions differ about what is said during this ritual, but our congregation read piyyut, which are traditional poems, a part of Jewish liturgy that often includes acrostics (poems that use the alphabet). Some of the piyyut are very old. I found myself praying that my fruit trees don’t get fungus or that my fields wouldn’t be cursed. It might seem funny to ask for some of these things, but my city backyard has young apple, apricot, plum and cherry trees. I don’t want fungus!
It was especially poignant to pray – in the “Foundation Stone (“Even Shetiyah”) poem – about “the goodness of Lebanon, beautiful place, joy of the world.” This came straight out of the Siddur Ashkenaz (the Ashkenazi prayerbook), with specific quotes from Isaiah, Psalms and Lamentations. Our historic relationship with Lebanon is a rich one. Many of us, Israelis and diaspora Jews, would love to visit Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East.” Some of us have ancestors who lived there, and we would like to see where they grew up or spent time. This urge isn’t new; our desire to have a good connection to Lebanon as a neighbour is ancient.
Then, we all were handed bundles of willows. We beat these on the lectern with force while saying, “Save your people and bless your heritage, care for them and carry them forever.” It was primal, cathartic, and very messy. There were willow leaves everywhere.
My kid was only a little late to first period art class. I went home in wonder. Later, I joked with one of my professors from graduate school, Jack Sasson, who I respect deeply, about how, for me, this previously unknown Jewish ritual felt stirring and exotic. He suggested that paganism still has something to teach us. The beating of the willows is ancient indeed. It’s a namburbi ritual from Mesopotamia, he said. When I remarked that I could get into this paganism thing, his reply left me laughing. “Ishtar will welcome you.”
I was still reflecting on all this when watching some new friends with young kids dancing on the evening of Simchat Torah. To help everyone through the first yahrzeit of Oct. 7/Simchat Torah, our rabbi dedicated each hakkafah (circuit around the room with the Torahs) to a different group: first responders, those who had died in the past year, the unity of the People of Israel, etc. The next afternoon, the kids came over for snacks and to play. One of the parents asked me why there was so much reference to Israel stuff. I realized that here, too, was a confluence of old customs and new experience.
I explained that some of these prayers, for instance, the prayer for the hostages, weren’t new. The Talmud, codified in 500 CE, discusses the topic of hostages at length. The first instance of the prayer for the redemption of hostages that we use today was documented in the Mahzor Vitry, named for Simhah b. Samuel of Vitry, a French talmudist who died in 1105 CE.
I reminded them that many present at the synagogue were in mourning for people who had died. While celebrating old holidays, we need to acknowledge the current situation. These days, services usually include prayers for the state of Israel and the Israeli army, too. None of these are newly written prayers.
Of course, Sukkot itself, a harvest festival that required Israelites to go to the Temple in Jerusalem – last destroyed in 70 CE – is also all about Israel.
I drew a few conclusions from these social encounters. First, for those who may feel jaded and aware of Jewish yearly events, there’s always something new to learn. For me, it was the primal connection to Mesopotamia, namburbi ritual and, yes, Ishtar, the goddess herself. For those who hadn’t been at synagogue for some time, there were many questions, new encounters and experiences, too. What unites it all is a realization that, while our individual learning curve might be new to us, the rituals, the prayers, and the historic connections to Israel are ancient.
For all of us, in a time when political rhetoric seeks to disconnect diaspora Jews from the land of Israel, Sukkot and Simchat Torah were a powerful – and timely – reminder of our past and our future, together.
Joanne Seiffhas written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.
I am still running in this race. For those of us who are older, it seems to take much of our strength to show up every morning and run the course. It seemed easier when we were younger, full of the energy of youth. We have forgotten what it was like when we were discovering who we were, who we were going to be. Surely, that was a struggle, even if it was a different one than we face today as older people.
There are mysterious things about this race. Who are the winners? What does winning mean? The rewards don’t necessarily go to those who arrive soonest at the finish line. Maybe it is more like a relay race, in a family sense. Lots to think about.
I have a grandson, more than one, in fact. All of them are fully engaged in finding their way in the foot race in which all of us living on this planet are engaged. As are my granddaughters. Seeing the challenges they face, the stories they tell me about what they are doing and what they are planning, bring memories of my own beginnings. I see how competitive the world they are inhabiting is. I see how some of them are so conscious that their every move, every decision they make, everything they do, right or wrong, is recorded, and will affect their future possibilities. These children, in their mid-teens and early 20s, are struggling with perspectives we did not awake to until we were 10 or 15 years older. How about that kind of pressure!
I think of the path I have followed, growing up in Winnipeg, moving away to make my fortune, seeking to put my own personal mark on the journey I was taking. I was so determined that I had to be the only architect of the life I was building. Was I foolish not to be a seeker of advice? I threw myself recklessly into that life, confident that, come what may, I could overcome any obstacle to my desires that might appear in my path.
I never worried about missteps. I never worried about making wrong decisions. My life was a tabula rasa, a blank slate to be shaped as I wished. Of course, my grandchildren probably think that whatever they are doing is right, too. Many of the decisions we make in the days of our beginnings have a dramatic impact on our future.
I am not complaining. I have had a glorious life. I may not have realized all the potentialities – I have not conquered like an Alexander, created language like a Shakespeare, envisaged shapes like a Moore, painted visions like a Picasso. But, like most of us, I have delivered some blessings for my fellow human beings, and I am content.
I have seen the mountains of America, Europe and Africa, and their valleys. The waters of Canada and Brazil have roared before my eyes, and in my ears. I have had a good share of the delightful places and times the world has to offer. And I had the chance to spend some of my life with the woman of my dreams.
On my travels, during the race I have run, I have learned how fortunate we are, and what real misery is. I know what the view from Dublin is like, and have witnessed the views from New York, Washington, London, Paris, Rome, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Khartoum, Cairo, Vientiane, Bangkok, Dakar, Ougadougou, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. These were some of the places I lived in and visited.
Like many of us, I did not make the most of my potentialities as a consequence of my decisions. One day, I heard Neil Young say, in a television interview with Charlie Rose, that our pasts are like an overcoat. When we put the coat on, it tells the world who we are. Or the world chooses to see us as we appear wearing the overcoat of our past.
Sometimes, we wish we could shed our past and take a new direction. I’ll tell you a secret. We don’t need to do that. We can be new people any day we choose. The past we wear like an overcoat, that we have the choice of shedding, can inform the choices we want to make, but it doesn’t have to limit who we are today, and will be tomorrow.
I am not the economist that I was, the manager of people that I was, the public relations speaker and writer that I was, the researcher and marketing consultant that I was, the real estate broker, the financial advisor, the whatever I had to be. Now, in beautiful Vancouver, I write stories and poetry. I have played with clay until the faces jumped out at me. I meddle in the stock market. I try to talk to my kids often. I try to be present for my Bride. We try to make our home a friendly place.
Today, I try to be a better husband, a better friend, a better parent; some things, perhaps, that were lacking quality in my past. I am still running the race. It is sometimes a little tiring, and I have to exercise to build my stamina – but I hope to run it well, right to the end.
Max Roytenbergis a Vancouver-based poet, writer and blogger. His book Hero in My Own Eyes: Tripping a Life Fantastic is available from Amazon and other online booksellers.
A crane lifts a tunnel boring machine part out of the excavated Arbutus Station. With all the changes the Broadway Subway Project is bringing, the Accidental Balabusta and her husband are looking for a new condo – going from renters to owners. (photo from broadwaysubway.ca)
Growing up in the 1960s and ’70s in the then-Jewish neighbourhood of Oakridge, I was certain my future would include a beautiful house and a large yard. And, of course, a husband. Only part of that dream came to fruition, in 2009, when I got married at age 53. Before Harvey came along, I was a single woman making a decent but not extravagant living, and a house was way out of reach for me. So, I rented apartments. For decades. Welcome to my bad-news, good-news story.
As I got older, the importance of attaching myself to the Jewish community became stronger and, as luck would have it, I ended up renting a place a mere seven-minute walk from a shul. And I stayed put for 37 years. Now, faced with expulsion from our apartment because of the Broadway Subway Project, I am struck not by anger or nostalgia, but by gratitude. And maybe a touch of anxiety about having to move at this stage of my life. At 68 years old, I have never owned anything in my life, except a car.
Having a deep-seated faith, I try, I really try to remember that everything that comes from G-d is good. I try, also, to take the mindset of “I don’t understand why this is happening to me, but I know in my bones that it’s good for me in some way.” This imposes a much-needed positive outlook. One that will propel me forward, rather than keep me stuck in a negative “Why me?” loop.
As renters in this situation, we are entitled to compensation by law. However, it’s cold comfort when confronted with the stark reality of having to find a new home. Politicians talk blithely about “affordable, below-market rental housing,” but, in reality, no such thing exists for those who are retired and on a fixed income. In short, living in Vancouver has become an absurd luxury.
As luck would have it, I am a thrifty kind of gal and, over the decades, I have saved a respectable amount of money. So, along with my husband, we have finally decided to buy a condo – in Vancouver. One of the most expensive cities to live in.
Having spent the past while looking for a condo to purchase, I am bombarded by conflicting emotions:
excitement, fear and trepidation. But mostly gratitude. Waking up at 3 a.m. for a full week while battling insomnia, I got to the point where, instead of trying to think of five foods starting with each letter of the alphabet (a trick to induce boredom and sleep), I started to think of everything I am thankful for. I’m happy to report that the list is very long. This is just a sampling.
I am grateful that I can choose between carpeting and hardwood.
I am grateful that I will finally have in-suite laundry.
I am grateful that I will have a bigger kitchen, where I can bake challah regularly and cook luscious Shabbat meals in a space that is larger than a Smart Car.
I am grateful that I can, within reason, afford a condo in Vancouver.
I am grateful that I have friends who are guiding me through this process.
I am grateful that I have the energy to run around looking at prospective homes.
In short, I am grateful that I have choices. Plenty of choices.
It’s common knowledge that Jewish family values begin at home, and that’s what I’d like to continue nourishing and cultivating. From a real home. My home. For now, I am focusing on having faith and trust that Harvey and I will find a comfortable forever home. I have accepted that we may or may not still be a seven-minute walk from a shul. Thankfully, faith isn’t tied to geography. We can practise our Judaism anywhere.
As for the nuts and bolts, the experience of condo-hunting is an eye-opener for me. Little by little, condo by condo, I’m readjusting my priorities, figuring out what I can and can’t live without. Our realtor, thank goodness, has the patience of a saint and the temperament of a golden retriever.
Pragmatists that we are, we’ve started the search for a new home early, long before we are forced to move out of our rental apartment. But, as I’m learning, our property owner seems loathe to put money into a building that will be torn down within two years. So, we are living with stained hallway carpets, communal washers and dryers that rarely work, and balconies that haven’t been power-washed since before COVID. Am I enjoying this? Not even a scintilla. But still, I practise gratitude.
My constant refrain these days is: “It’s not the Vancouver I grew up in!” There are cranes everywhere on the horizon and there’s no telling what will be torn down next. It’s very unsettling. But at least we are fortunate enough to have options.
My periodic anger (which I am trying valiantly to contain) stems from the fact that I’ve lived and worked in Vancouver nearly my entire life and, while I was single until 15 years ago, I could never afford to buy a home. Thank G-d, my situation has changed, circumstances have opened up choices that never existed before, and the planets have aligned, allowing us to finally buy a home.
Now, we just have to find one that meets my simple needs: in-suite laundry, hardwood floors, a good-sized kitchen and not south-facing. I say “my needs” because we can all agree on the universal truth: “happy wife, happy life.” It’s a buyer’s market at the moment, so yippee for us. This whole roller-coaster journey offers a new chapter in our lives; one filled with hopefulness, possibilities and joy. I look forward with gratitude to a beautiful mezuzah on a new door to bless our new home. All I can say is l’chaim!
Shelley Civkin, aka the Accidental Balabusta, is a happily retired librarian and communications officer. For 17 years, she wrote a weekly book review column for the Richmond Review. She’s currently a freelance writer and volunteer.
ישראלים רבים לאור אירועי השבעה באוקטובר הפכו להיות פסימים ובצדק. הם לא רואים שום תמונה אופטימית באופק ופתרונות לסיום המשבר הבלתי נגמר
האחראי הישיר למשבר בישראל הוא ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו, שעושה הכל כדי להמשיך בתפקידו ולא מעניין אותו המחיר הכבד לכך. נתניהו כיום הוא אחד המנהיגים השנואים בעולם, כולל במרבית מדינות המערב וכן בישראל. היום רבים מבינים מיהו האיש, כיצד הוא פועל ומה האינטרסים שלו. מצער שהשבעה באוקטובר האירו בצורה רבה עד כמה ישראל לא היתה מוכנה, ועד כמה נתניהו מסוכן ולא יקח אחריות על מעשיו ומחדליו הרבים
בישראל העדיפו להגן על ההתנחלויות בשטחים הכבושים ואף לעבות אותן במקום להגן על גבולות המדינה. העדיפות ניתנה למתנחלים על חשבון תושבי ישראל. זו הקונספציה שנתניהו הוביל וזה מחדל אדיר שהוא לא יוכל להימלט ממנו
יש לא מעט שנוטים להעריץ מנהיגים שזה מנהג לא בריא שיכול להפוך למסוכן, כאשר מדובר באישים כמו נתניהו ודונלד טראמפ. הערצה לנתניהו לאורך השנים הרבות שבה הוא מעורב בפוליטיקה הישראלית, הפכה את תומכיו לעיוורים ואת נתניהו לנוכל. אהוד אולמרט נכנס לכלא על עבירות פחותות בהרבה מאלה של נתניהו, שמתכחש להן כמובן. נתניהו המכהן בתפקידוכשבעה עשרה שנים צבר עבירות רבות בתחומים שונים. הוא הפך לאיש עשיר, הוא מחזיק במספר נכסים וחשבונות בנק מנופחים. נתניהו ומשפחתו חיים ברמת חיים גבוהה והחשבונות מוטלים על משלם המיסים הישראלי
לאור שנותיו בפוליטיקה הבויל נתניהו מהלכים מסוכנים ביותר. הוא הוביל את ההסתה הרבתי שהביאה לרצח של יצחק רבין, הוא הוביל תוכניות רבות להרחבת והוספת ההתנחלויות בשטחים שפוגעות קשות בעתיד של ישראל והפלסטינים. הוא לחץ על טראמפ לבטל את הסכם הגרעין עם איראן – כאשר המומחים לנושאי ביטחון בישראל טוענים שמדובר במהלך שגוי ומסוכן לישראל. נתניהו גם איפשר העברת כסף רב מקטאר לחמאס, ששימש לחימושו בממדים אדירים. עדיין לא ברור האם לנתניהו היה גם רווח אישי מהעברות כספים אלה
נתניהו בימי שלטונו – דאג במדיניות ההפרד ומשול שלו כמו דיקטטורים – ליצור וללבות שנאת אחים בתוך ישראל. המצב היום בחברה הישראלית הוא כה חמור שכבר אי אפשר לגשר על הפערים בין תומכי נתניהו למתנגדיו. התעמולה השיקרית המופצת על ידיי נתניהו, בנו יאיר ומקורבים אחרים ומכונה “מכונת הרעל” רק מוסיפה שמן רותח לסכסוך הפנימי בישראל. הגיעו הדברים לידי אבסורד כאשר תומכי נתניהו מאשימים את משפחות החטופים כאילו הן שייכים לשמאל. לא מעט משפחות החטופים הוכו ואויימו על ידי תומכי נתניהו. ומה תומכיו אומרים לישראלים יוצאי אירופה: תחזרו לאירופה כדי שהיטלר יחסל אתכם. דוגמאות אלה מוכיחות שמאז שנתניהו השתלט על ישראל, המדינה החלה להתפרק והתהליך המדאיג הזה רק מתעצם
תומכי נתניהו מעריצים דמות בעייתית לא פחות והיא טראמפ. הם מאמינים כי רק טראמפ ידאג לישראל. לעומתו המועמדת השנייה לנשיאות בארה”ב, קמלה האריס, לא תדאג לישראל. הישראלים התומכים בטראמפ עיוורים למעשיו המסוכנים ורצונו להפוך לדיקטטור. כידוע הישראלים ונתניהו בראשם לא מסתכלים על התמונה הכוללת, אלה רק על היום ומחר. מבחינתם טראמפ יפתור את הבעיות של ישראל היום ומחר. הם לא קולטים עד כמה טראמפ מסוכן לארה”ב ולמערב, ולכן גם לישראל. אם טראמפ יחזור לשלטון יחליש הדבר את ארה”ב וזה בדיוק מה שרוצים ברוסיה ובסין. בישראל כיוון שלא חושבים על העתיד לא מבינים עד כמה ארה”ב חלשה תחליש גם את ישראל
Samidoun was an organizer of an Oct. 7 rally celebrating Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel ayear earlier. Protesters tried to burn the Canadian flag while shouting that Israel should burn. They also chanted “death to” Canada, the United States and Israel. (screenshot Global News)
Last week, the Government of Canada designated Samidoun, a not-for-profit corporation based in Canada, as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. At the same time, the United States Department of the Treasury announced Samidoun is now a “specially designated global terrorist group.”
Also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Samidoun has close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has been designated by Canada and other countries as a terrorist group for many years.
At rallies in Vancouver and throughout Canada, Samidoun’s international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, has expressed open support for the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. On the one-year anniversary of the attacks, she led a rally where chants of “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel” were heard. Videos show rally participants setting fire to the Canadian flag, while shouting “Israel, burn, burn,” among other things.
“We’re very thankful for today’s decision by the Government of Canada to designate Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code,” said Nico Slobinsky, vice-president, Pacific Region, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). “For the past year, they’ve organized some of the most vicious protests in Canada, openly and explicitly celebrating the Oct. 7 attacks and, just last week, they were chanting ‘we are Hamas, we are Hezbollah’ at their rally.”
Kates was arrested after an April 26 rally, at which she called the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks “heroic and brave” and led chants of “Long live Oct. 7.” The conditions of her release order – which prohibited her participation or attendance at any protests, rallies or assemblies for a period of six months – expired Oct. 8 because the Crown had yet to file charges against her.
Slobinsky said CIJA called for the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) to charge Kates under hate speech laws four months ago, so that she face the full consequences of her actions for glorifying terrorism. But just how long it will take for the BCPS to make a decision is unknown.
Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the BCPS, confirmed that the BCPS had received a Report to Crown Counsel in relation to Kates. “We are reviewing it for charge assessment, and I am unable to provide a timeline for completion,” she wrote in an email, declining to provide further comment.
In a statement, Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and chief executive officer of CIJA, said, “Listing the group as a terrorist entity means they will no longer be able to use our streets as a platform to incite hate and division against the Jewish community; this is a significant step toward ensuring the safety and security of Canada’s Jews.”
But, while the designation as a terrorist group will affect Samidoun’s ability to fundraise, recruit and travel, it is unclear whether it will affect their ability to hold rallies and further promulgate hatred.
CIJA has asked the federal government to re-examine whether Kates and her husband, Khaled Barakat, obtained Canadian citizenship fraudulently by failing to fully disclose their affiliation with the PFLP. The United States has put Barakat on a terrorism watch list for his connections with the PFLP.
Public Safety Canada notes that one of the consequences of being listed as a terrorist organization is that the entity’s property can be seized or forfeited. Banks and brokerages are required to report that entity’s property and cannot allow the entity to access their property. It’s an offence for people to knowingly participate in or contribute to the activity of a terrorist group. Including Samidoun, there are now 78 terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code, according to Public Safety Canada.
This terrorist designation is long overdue, said Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, chair of the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver. “To have an organization that creates chaos, hatred and threatens the Jewish community operating freely in Vancouver and Canada was terrible,” he said. “When Samidoun burned the Canadian flag and called for the destruction of the US and Canada on Oct. 7, they demonstrated who they truly are. I hope this decision will give the Canadian government and the police the ability to prevent Samidoun from operating in the manner they have and to prosecute.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.
(Editor’s Note: For the CJN Daily podcast host Ellin Bessner’s conversation with NGO Monitor’s Gerald Steinberg about Samidoun’s terror links and more, click here.)
Left to right: Shane Baker, Sasha Lurje and Michael Wex in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which closes this year’s Chutzpah! Festival Nov. 9-10. (photo by Shendl Copitman)
“The final sketch in the show, ‘The Last Jew in Poland,’ is based on a real 1930s cabaret sketch of the same name that got Ararat, the famous Yiddish cabaret, closed down,” said creator Michael Wex of The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which plays at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 9-10 as part of the Chutzpah! Festival.
“The sketch, however, hasn’t survived,” he continued. “Shimon Dzigan (of Dzigan and Shumacher), who was a member of the troupe, describes the general set-up of the piece in his autobiography, but doesn’t give many details, except to say that everybody involved expected to be arrested the next day (and was surprised not to be). I’ve tried to reconstruct something that would have bothered the censors of the 1930s as much as the original.
“‘Di Endekuvne,’ one of the genuine old songs in the show, was actually banned following its first performance,” he said.
The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh is set in Poland in the spring of 1938. With only one performance left before the censor’s office closes the cabaret, and with their visas secured to leave the country, the performers decide to put on a show of forbidden material and greatest hits.
The idea for The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh came from Andreas Schmitges of Germany’s Yiddish Summer Weimar, who called Wex with a request.
“Since 2019 was the 100th anniversary of the Weimar Republic, Yiddish Summer was planning a commemorative program and Andreas wanted to know if I could put together a Yiddish-language cabaret revue that would reflect the way Yiddish culture absorbed and was influenced by the zeitgeist of the Weimar era,” said Wex.
Michael Wex (photo by Zoe Gemelli)
Wex, who is Canadian, is an internationally recognized expert on Yiddish. He has many nonfiction books to his name, including Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods, on the history of Yiddish, and Rhapsody in Schmaltz: Yiddish Food and Why We Can’t Stop Eating It. He’s also a translator, novelist, playwright, columnist, public speaker and performer. His creative process involves much research. For Schmitges’ proposed project, Wex first sought out surviving Yiddish cabaret material.
“I dove into scores of books, listened to even more recordings, in search of authentic material that would still resonate with a 21st-century audience,” he said. “Much of the older material just didn’t ‘read’ anymore: there were a lot of jokes about local politics and references to long-forgotten celebrities. There was fairly strong political censorship in interwar Poland, especially in the years following the Nazi takeover of Germany, which means that much of the surviving satirical material is pretty bland. I deliberately sought out lesser-known Yiddish cabaret songs, including at least one that was never recorded.
“My next resort was to see what was going on in non-Yiddish Polish culture at the time. I went through newspapers from the period to try to figure out how much international pop culture was available in 1920s and ’30s Poland and was delighted to find that Hollywood movies that would have played in Vancouver in, say, 1934, were playing in Warsaw at pretty much the same time, and that Louis Armstrong records were on sale in Warsaw record stores. I looked at the pop music charts: the most popular song in Poland in 1928 was ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ translated into Polish. This information widened the range of material that could plausibly be presented as being performed at the time and gave me the licence I needed to adapt and translate some well-known pop songs of the era into Yiddish.”
Patrick Farrell in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which is at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 9-10. (photo by Shendl Copitman)
Wex wrote some songs and sketches to round out the show, then came up with the storyline that adds context: the performers whose cabaret is about to be closed, but who have ship tickets and visas to leave the country.
“Suddenly, they’re free to perform what they want to, not only what they’re allowed to,” said Wex, who also directs and acts in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh.
The other people involved – Shane Baker (United States; co-director, performer), Patrick Farrell (US/Germany; original music, arrangements, piano, accordion, percussion), Regina Hopfgartner (Austria; vocals), Daniel Kahn (US/Germany; vocals) and Sasha Lurje (Latvia/Germany; vocals) – “are the people for whom the show was written,” Wex said. “It’s like an A-list of contemporary Yiddish performers and I recall telling Andreas that I wouldn’t do the show without them. It was my one diva moment – but I think it worked.”
The current incarnation of the show premièred at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto in 2022. It had changed so much from the 2019 Yiddish Summer Weimar production that, Wex said, “Weimar could almost be seen as a workshop.”
For Wex, giving audiences an idea of what 1938 Poland was like is important “because the whole world is looking more like 1938 Poland with every passing day.”
“Arts and culture,” he said, “including but not limited to comedy and music, is really the best way we have of trying to find a common ground from which to understand conflict, stand up to tragedy and, ultimately, seek out ways to mitigate or ameliorate the feelings and attitudes from which such conflicts and their accompanying tragedies have grown. As we see every day, shouting slogans might make us feel good and brave and involved but it does nothing to establish the common ground necessary to arrive at any kind of understanding with our opponents. Arts and culture, comedy and music – they’re all bulwarks against dehumanization.”
The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh is in Yiddish with English supertitles. For tickets, go to chutzpahfestival.com – where you’ll find the whole Chutzpah! lineup – or call 604-257-5145. The festival runs Nov. 1-10.
The recent British Columbia provincial election was one of the closest in history – so close that the result is not yet certain. By press time, the incumbent New Democratic party was leading or elected in 46 seats, the Conservative party in 45 seats and the Green party held two. While 47 seats are needed for a majority government, that number would represent a very precarious situation from which to govern.
Recounts are taking place, as is the counting of 49,000 absentee ballots that have not yet been tabulated. With several ridings featuring races divided by just dozens of votes, it remains possible that either the NDP or the Conservatives could form government when the dust settles.
The likeliest scenario echoes the tight 2017 election, which resulted in a minority government. A supply and confidence agreement between the Green party and John Horgan’s New Democrats made Horgan premier and allowed him to govern for more than three years as if he had a majority.
Many Jewish voters took special interest in this election. Provincial and municipal elections have not generally carried the same level of interest around specifically “Jewish issues” as a federal election, but that is less true now. While Jews obviously share the same policy interests as other British Columbians, and have the full diversity of opinions as other voters, current events added gravity to this campaign.
There has been an alarming increase in antisemitic rhetoric and incidents. This has magnified attention on issues that fall at least partially under provincial jurisdiction, like public security, police enforcement and prosecution of hate laws, education and public sensitization around multiculturalism and intercultural harmony, and a host of other topics.
Regardless of who forms government, both parties have expressed commitment to the implementation of mandatory Holocaust education, something that was announced by the last NDP government.
Some Jewish British Columbians felt a sense of betrayal by the treatment of former NDP cabinet minister Selina Robinson, who was fired from cabinet after referring to pre-state Israel as a “crappy piece of land.”
The election of Nina Krieger, the NDP candidate in the riding of Victoria-Swan Lake, will certainly reassure Jewish voters that they have a voice if the New Democrats form government. Krieger is a member of the community and was a longtime executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. Her expertise will be invaluable as the province operationalizes the Holocaust education curriculum and as a liaison with the Jewish community.
The new Conservative caucus also has many vocal allies, including Claire Rattée, in the far northwestern BC riding of Skeena, who is Jewish, and many others who have made efforts to connect with the Jewish community over the past year especially.
Both Krieger and Rattée were profiled in the last issue of the Independent.
All parties made the right noises toward the Jewish community during the election campaign. Politicians, of course, are generally good at making the right noises. Follow-through is what matters.
We are encouraged that, during the campaign, the Jewish community and the Middle East conflict were not exploited as wedge issues by any party, a tendency we have occasionally seen at the federal level.
The apparent lack of polarization around issues important to Jewish people is a bright light in a deeply polarized province. With the collapse of BC United, the erstwhile BC Liberal party, the centre of the political spectrum became something of a vacuum. Not only did the Oct. 19 election indicate a stark binary between left and right in the province – not a particularly new phenomenon here – but urban/rural divisions have rarely been more pronounced. To look at a map of the province after the election is to see an ocean of blue, with the Conservatives having won almost every rural seat. New Democrats won all but a single seat in the city of Vancouver and the rest of their caucus is almost entirely from urban centres and the close-in suburbs.
There is an adage that has rarely been more apt: “In the Maritimes, politics is a pastime, in Quebec a religion, in Ontario a business, on the Prairies a cause and, in British Columbia, entertainment.”
By the time you read this, perhaps we will know who the premier will be. Perhaps not. In times of uncertainty, we can guarantee this: expect no dull moments.
Gerald Steinberg, founder of the pro-Israel research institute NGO Monitor, recently spoke with Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN Daily podcast, about Samidoun being listed as a terrorist organization. (screenshot thecjn.ca)
Canada’s federal government has now formally listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity, effective Oct. 11.
“Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing have no place in Canadian society or abroad. The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people inCanada,” read the Oct. 15 statement from Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister of public safety, democratic institutions and intergovernmental affairs. (photo from pm.gc.ca)
The decision was formally announced as a joint action with the US Department of the Treasury, which called Samidoun “a sham charity” in a statement from its Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Jewish leaders had long been arguing that the Vancouver-based nonprofit organization has direct ties to known militant terrorist entities, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which pioneered airplane hijackings, suicide bombings and assassinations of Israelis, and were directly involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
The week prior to the government’s announcement, Pierre Poilievre, leader of the federal Conservatives, demanded Ottawa declare Samidoun a terrorist organization – as several other countries have already done. Doing so would block Samidoun’s ability to fundraise and would make it a crime for anyone to help it.
The PFLP is outlawed in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel and many other countries, and some countries, including Germany and Israel, have banned Samidoun, too. The Netherlands has voted to consider doing the same.
Samidoun’s status in Canada fell under scrutiny after the group organized protests to coincide with the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel. Some supporters in Vancouver tried to set fire to a Canadian flag, calling, “Death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel.”
Meanwhile, authorities in British Columbia were forced to lift bail conditions that had preventedSamidoun’s Vancouver-based international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, from participating in any protests for a period of six months. Vancouver police arrested Kates after she gave an antisemitic speech in April that praised the Oct. 7 massacre, but charges had not yet been laid before the bail deadline expired on Oct. 8. Kates is married to Khaled Barakat, suspected of being a high-ranking member of the PFLP, who also was granted Canadian citizenship.
Gerald Steinberg founded the pro-Israel research institute NGO Monitor, and is a professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University. A former columnist for the Canadian Jewish News, he spoke to me earlier this month to explain more about Samidoun’s terrorist ties, including how they operate on Canadian campuses.
Gerald Steinberg: I stumbled into the world of NGOs, nongovernmental organizations, about 20 years ago, when Canada was one of the main funders of something called the UN Conference on the Elimination of Racism around the world – that’s the infamous Durban Conference. A lot of antisemitism there. They didn’t care about racism. It was about labeling Israel as an apartheid, genocide state.
That was in September 2001, 23 years ago. I began to see nongovernmental organizations as important players and nobody was looking at that. Why are they allowed to be? What is the reason that they have gained so much political influence? And I began to do research. We look at the impact, the capabilities, the funding … [of NGOs that advocate against Israel]. We do look at some other cases, for comparative purposes.
Samidoun was not high up on our radar. Samidoun was something that gradually we began to understand the importance of. It’s officially called the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. They’re a branch, as they make quite clear, and unusually clear, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is a banned terror organization in the United States, in a number of European countries, in the UK and elsewhere.
So, what is this organization doing? Organizing these kinds of rallies and mob actions that label Israel as a genocidal state and call for the destruction of Israel, as we’ve seen around the world. And, as I began to look further and further into them, the Canadian connection became more dominant.
It wasn’t always like that. Samiduon operated out of Germany for a number of years. Khaled Barakat, who was the head of Samidoun, lived in Germany. Partly or significantly because of the work that NGO Monitor did vis-a-vis the German government – we said, “Look, they’re a terrorist front. Israel has officially labeled them a terrorist front and the evidence is clear, they’re connected to the PFLP” – the Germans then expelled Khaled Barakat and made Samidoun unable to function in Germany. They are banned. They can’t raise money. They can’t hold rallies. They can’t do anything in Germany.
There are other countries in Europe that are, at some level, looking at this, and have restricted their capabilities. Belgium is one of them. In Canada, they’re operated out of Vancouver, where Charlotte Kates lives. Basically, they went from Germany to Vancouver. Both Kates and Khaled Barakat, the two people who run Samidoun, are Canadian citizens. We don’t know anything really about how they became citizens or what they said in their application. Did they claim refugee status? At least, did he claim refugee status as a Palestinian who left Israel and is labeled as a terrorist agent by Israel?
Canada’s become the base of operations. And the question is, how did that happen? And what are Canadians doing about that? And then we began to look more and more at this network.
It’s important to understand that Samidoun is a worldwide network. They have branches that runanti-Israel public events, vicious anti-Israel public events, and recruit people and raise money in Brazil and other countries in South America, throughout Europe. They have operations in the United States – the United States has not banned them. Spain is a prominent place where they operate.
We mapped for the first time Samidoun’s international operations. And then the question comes up: who funds them? It has come up, particularly since Oct. 7, in the US Congress. And, just as there is a process in Canada, there is also a process in the United States, although less acute, because they are based out of Vancouver and not in the US.
Ellin Bessner: What evidence has your NGO monitor seen of what they’ve actually been doing here?
GS: The evidence is clear to everybody. You see the rallies that they are organizing. You see their posters. You see their events. I see a lot of them in Vancouver and I’ve talked to a number of people in Vancouver, and the Jewish community feels the threat there. They’ve had some very violent demonstrations in the last year…. I call them mob violence.
They’re quite visible and they’ve also had visibility in Toronto, I think in Montreal as well. They are on campuses where there are encampments, [and you see] Samidoun flags, Samidoun posters, and there is a Samidoun presence. That’s throughout North America, both in the United States and in Canada. They’re very visible.
EB: What are the benefits to them of operating in Canada?
GS: Well, they have citizenship. I’m not sure that Khaled Barakat would have gotten any kind of resident status in the United States. I think the rules for entry are tighter in the US if there is a possible terror connection. I think maybe that’s understated, but I’ll let you deal with that. Being in Canada as citizens gives them protection, gives them a place to operate from.
EB: Obviously that’s important for an organization like this. How much money do they get? And where does it come from?
GS: We have no idea. Either question. Because of the PFLP connection, because they run a lot of events, because this is what they live off of – there are other people as well, but Barakat and Charlotte Kates are the two most visible ones, this is their life – so, therefore, they must be drawing salaries. They must be able to get funding, and there’s probably more. Plus, they do a lot of traveling.
Maybe the Iranian government paid for Charlotte Kates to go to Tehran to do what she just did. [In August, she received an Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Award from the Islamic Republic of Iran.] It’s most likely. But they could be getting money from Qatar. There’s a lot of speculation.
The United States’s members of Congress have put Samidoun, as well as Students for Justice in Palestine and a few other groups, on a sort of watch list. And they’ve asked the Internal Revenue Service, which is the equivalent of the Canada Revenue Agency, to provide information that up until now Samidoun and other organizations have been allowed to hide – their anonymous donors. But it must be a significant amount of money to be able to pay for all these activities and their salaries and everything else.
Charlotte Kates, Samidoun’s Vancouver-based international coordinator, appeared on Iranian television in August. (screenshot MEMRI REPORTS)
EB: You mentioned the trip to Iran. We should remind our audience that the Iranian government issued an award on state television to Charlotte Kates, who had to wear a hijab over her hair to appear on television…. And so, she went and she was talking about how she was arrested in Canada, in Vancouver….And they were glorifying the words that she had said on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Do you want to remind us of some of the things they have been quoted as saying, that your NGO Monitor has kept track of?
GS: If we’re looking even in the last year, the very virulent attacks against Israel, against the right ofIsrael to exist, has been a repeated theme in all [their remarks], including what we heard from Kates in Tehran, what they call the right of resistance. Particularly, they make it very specific – they use the term that Hamas used, the Al-Aqsa Flood resistance operation.
And they condemned “The Zionist retaliatory strikes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” This is from Oct. 10, 2023. Just one example of many others. They talk repeatedly about the right of the Palestinians, the brave Palestinian people and their resistance movement, stop the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, support Palestinian resistance and revolution. There are many, many variations on that theme. That is very prominent in their, I was going to say propaganda, but it’s probably their hate campaigns.
One other aspect that I want to raise here is the connection to the PFLP that’s important. What is the PFLP? Some may remember that the PFLP was involved in airplane hijackings. They were the original airplane hijackers – the Entebbe hijacking of 1976.
And, even before that, the hijacking of planes in 1970, and blowing them up. There are a whole series of events, including just taking machine guns and going into synagogues in Jerusalem and killing people. There are a series of terrorist events. They are a terror organization. They are also members of the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization]. They were founded probably in the 1960s, maybe earlier, as a Marxist, revolutionary, Palestinian movement, which means they’re not Islamic, they’re not Muslims.
Most of the people who are involved in the positions of power of the PFLP are Christian, they come from Christian families. They call themselves Marxists, but they are not part of the Fatah movement, which is the main part of the PLO, they are the Marxist liberation element and they’ve developed very close relationships – personal and political and ideological – with radical Christian groups across Europe and also, after that, they went out to North America. I think one of the questions is, who are their supporters and do they have those kinds of connections? We actually have those documented in Europe, less well known in Canada.
But they’ve been able to build on this. We usually associate the Palestinian terror movements with Hamas and, before that, the Fatah movement with [Yasser] Arafat, with fanatic Muslims who want to wipe Israel off the map. But this is a different organization and they were supported by the East Germans when East Germany existed, until 1990, and the West German far-left radicals who were connected to them. That’s the type of people that get attracted to this framework.
They are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries in the sense of blowing everybody up, not distinguishing between anybody, civilians, women, children, they kill everybody. And that’s the PFLP. And this [Samidoun] is one of their front organizations, maybe the most important front organization – they do the political aspect, they may also be involved in recruiting, they may also be involved in planning. We don’t know that, but that’s one of the reasons Israel banned them.
EB: It’s anarchy? And, the other day in Vancouver, on Oct. 7, I’m sure you may have seen the video now – Vancouver police are investigating – they were desecrating and ripping up a Canadian flag. It wasn’t just Israel that they were going after, and Zionists and Jews. It was also Canada. And I think that has crossed the line for people for whom going after Jews in Israel wouldn’t have crossed the line.
GS: That’s part of being this radical, Marxist organization. The term sounds so 1950s and Stalinist, but a radical Marxist, Palestinian liberation organization, that’s their name – the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The 1950s and ’60s were filled with popular fronts for the liberation of X, Y and Z, all supported by the Communist Bloc, in this case going through East Germany. Of all the organizations that the East Germans supported, one to eliminate Israel in the post-Shoah, post-Holocaust period, tells you quite a bit about that whole history.
Charlotte Kates was arrested after a Vancouver protest during which she praised the Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel. Charges have not yet been laid. (screenshot facebook.com/FriendsofSimonWiesenthalCenter)
EB: Do you have any evidence that there is Russian money, Russian support going to Samidoun people anywhere else, but also in Canada?
GS: No.
EB: We’re having our own foreign influence problems right here in Canada.
GS: Yes. And it’s possible, but it’s much more likely to be the Muslim Brotherhood with Qatar and that part of the support group. Qatar supports Hamas. Qatar is, of course, Al Jazeera and all the other media platforms as well. But it’s the Muslim Brotherhood that’s so central here…. And then the PFLP is the other half of that formula. By the way, there are reports, and I’ve seen the reports, there are some connections to Iran. And then, the fact that Charlotte Kates got this award in Tehran makes one, I think, more than speculate that some of their funding may also come through, maybe a lot of it, comes through Iran.
EB: It walks like a duck, talks like a duck, must be a duck.
GS: So, here you have the strange situation, this very weird, absurd situation where you have what are essentially Christian, Marxist, radical Palestinians being allied with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Put those pieces together and explain to me how there’s any kind of logic except for the hate – hate of the West and hate of Israel. And the anarchy is very much part of that process.
EB: I want to bring it back to Canada because, earlier this month, the opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, had a press conference in Ottawa on Oct. 8 [before the government’s Oct. 15 announcement] and vowed to, if he is elected as prime minister, one of his priorities will be to ban Samidoun, [have it] designated as a terrorist organization. The Canadian government’s been asked to do that by B’nai Brith [Canada], by many organizations, [Member of Parliament] Anthony Housefather, that’s one of his big priorities as [the federal government’s special advisor] on antisemitism, Vancouver’s Jewish community, CIJA [Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs]. So many people have said it’s beyond time. What is the difficulty in your experience for a government to actually do something like that? Because, if it was easy, they would have done it a long time ago. And I’m just going to put in a caveat – it took the Liberals six years to ban the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Canada. They just did so, but it took six years.
GS: I’m going to give you a generic answer. Each country has some specific aspects which make the process appropriate for its own legal and political system. But, generally, you start by having a member, usually an appointed official – it could come from a government minister, it could also come from a member of Parliament or a group of members of Parliament, particularly if it’s both parties. So, you have Anthony Housefather, then you have members of the Tories, including the leader, raising this issue and then getting somebody in the RCMP, the appropriate investigatory framework, to put together the evidence and to present it and reach a conclusion or a recommendation: this organization violates Canadian law in this way. Incitement to terror, support for terror, links to terror organizations, those are the questions that have to come up.
EB: For promotion of antisemitism is another one, Section 319 of the federal Criminal Code, right?
GS: Which is different from the United States, where there is no specific ban on antisemitism in the legal process. But that gets to the other aspect.
EB: There’s also hate symbol legislation. There’s a whole flag thing. You can’t be displaying Nazi flags or Confederate flags. They didn’t talk about these kinds of flags, but I wonder if that’s not far off. Of Hamas, which is a designated terror organization, or Hezbollah.
GS: All those questions are open questions. But there is also the issue of free speech. And that is something that is very important in the Western ideological political framework. The United States, in many ways, is slower and more reluctant to put limitations on organizations than Canada has been. I think that it’s pretty close, but the issue of free speech is very holy in the United States and that keeps coming up. Where does the line stop between allowing them to speak, hold rallies, which is part of free speech, and crossing over into support for terrorism, incitement and, in the case of Canada, antisemitism and the other aspects of the legal process? There’s always this balance.
And then there’s the question of constituencies. I would be surprised, maybe I could be naive on this, I don’t know enough about Canadian politics, but the constituency of support for Samidoun is not the same as, in terms of Canadian political support for the Liberals, is not nearly as deep and as wide as the general support for the Palestinian cause. They are a niche terror-linked organization and, politically, it should not be that difficult for a Liberal government to be able to say, “This crosses our red lines.”
You have the investigatory aspect of it, which is always done in Israel, too. I think there are at least three different levels of prosecutors and officials responsible for the process in Israel to designate an organization like Samidoun as a terror-linked organization. They all have to sign off on it and there have to be evidentiary processes. They don’t have to be made public, but there have to be people that can say, “We looked at the evidence, our job is to do that, and we are convinced.” There must be something similar in Canada. It takes somebody to start that process, to say we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it seriously, and we’re not going to take six years to do it, because, then, it’s meaningless.
EB: Lastly, what role, if any, did the PFLP play on Oct. 7 or is it playing now? Are they mostly in the West Bank and not in Gaza, or are they also in Gaza?
GS: The PFLP is strong, not in numbers, but in adherence, which means the terror agenda, both in Gaza and the West Bank. There were PFLP participants on Oct. 7. We have the details. We have names. We have the aspects. Some of them were killed. There was at least one case of an Israeli hostage that was held by people in the PFLP.
EB: Do you know the name?
GS: There was at least one case [the Bibas family] where it was acknowledged. There was at least one case where Israeli forces went in and found evidence that it was a PFLP [person] that was holding [a hostage] … and there were probably more. So, they are very much part of that broader terrorist process. We usually attribute it to Hamas, but there were others that joined on Oct. 7.
EB: And, in the West Bank, is there a constituency?
GS: They’re not a dominant organization. Again, they are a far-left non-Muslim, Christian [organization]. They do not come from the Muslim wing of the Palestinian liberation movement, but they are part of the PLO, so the terror links are also very much cemented in that framework. And I’ll just add that, when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 and a lot of people celebrated the beginning of peace, they [PFLP] condemned [former PLO leader Yasser] Arafat for having any kind of recognition of the Zionist entity. They did it loudly and clearly, and they sought to gain, and they probably did gain, recruits and support among Palestinians for having that position. So, they’re more radical than the Fatah movement. They are the opposition in the PLO to any kind of agreement or rapprochement or recognition of Israel.
EB: Is there anything that NGO Monitor has been doing recently to send briefs or information or papers to the Canadian government to share your information and call for changes?
GS: We share our information. We update our file on Samidoun whenever there’s something new … usually every two weeks worldwide, but specifically in Canada, including Charlotte Kates’s trip to Tehran. We put it all together in one package and we send it to a very broad list – to journalists, including the Canadian Jewish News, and also to members of Parliament, both sides … [for] anybody in Canada that’s interested, we make that information available…. Usually, [people will] have bits and pieces of it on their own, but, to see the bigger picture, all the things we just talked about, that’s part of our role.
EB: We should do another interview on all the other groups that are operating on campus.
GS: And the Toronto [District] School Board. There’s a whole bunch of NGOs doing [things]. They’re there. They’re pushing from behind, or not so from behind.
I’m going to give you one more sentence. It goes back to the basic question that Samidoun was expelled from Germany, Khaled Barakat was expelled from Germany – his visa was not renewed. Why is it that, in Canada, this process seems to be, not just taking so long, but it seems like the Canadian officialdom didn’t say, “Well, wait a minute, if the Germans are banning them, then maybe there’s something that we need to look at in more detail. Not just Israel, but the Germans as well, and other countries in Europe are also putting limitations on and opening investigations.”
EB: It wouldn’t be the first time in recent weeks that the Canadian immigration department came under fire for allowing terrorists in who claim asylum…. It’s very disturbing and disconcerting.
