|
|
April 12, 2002
March won’t go to Israel
Zoe Klein offended by tour that avoids Middle East.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
Zoe Klein should have been beginning a journey to Poland April
5. She was supposed to be leading a bus full of Jewish youths, aged
15 to 18, on a tour of the Nazi-built concentration camps in the
European country as part of the March of the Living program.
Most importantly, Klein said from her office in the Jewish Community
Centre of Greater Vancouver, she was supposed to be leading those
youths from their past in Poland to their future in the land of
Israel.
However, after weeks of conference calls and debates involving communities
across Canada and the rest of the world, the Israel portion of the
March of the Living trip from Canada has been postponed indefinitely.
The cancellation is a direct result of increased tensions and violence
in the Middle East.
The communities of Edmonton and Winnipeg chose to proceed with a
trip to Poland only. However, Klein, Canada’s coast-to-coast
director of the March of the Living, along with the United Israel
Appeal Federations Canada, the organization that subsidizes March
of the Living in Canada, have rejected involvement in the trip.
The March of the Living tour is an educational trip involving approximately
1,500 high school students worldwide who visit the concentration
camps in Poland and retrace the infamous death march from Auschwitz
to Berkenau. The trip then usually proceeds to Israel, where participants
join in Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.
While Klein said she can understand the idea of postponing the trip
until safety concerns in Israel are eased, she said she can not
stomach the idea of going ahead with the Poland portion and ignoring
Israel.
“How do we take our kids to Auschwitz and say this is an important
moment and then not take them to Jerusalem?” Klein said.
“In this particular time and in this particular situation we’re
basically turning and spitting in the face of Israel by saying,
‘We’ll go to [Poland] but it’s too dangerous to go
to your country.’ I just don’t think you can continue
to use the name March of the Living because it’s not the full
experience.”
Originally the community of Montreal had committed to visiting Poland
and Israel while Toronto immediately chose to postpone their trip,
hoping to go ahead with a date in December.
The remainder of Canada’s Jewish communities, who usually travel
together, were then told to make decisions for their own participants.
Edmonton and Winnipeg felt it was necessary to go ahead with a Poland-only
experience. The remaining communities chose to postpone.
Following Yom Ha’atzmaut, Klein is planning her own trip to
Israel because she feels it is important to show solidarity with
the people there.
“It’s important to me just to walk through customs,”
she said. “It’s important for me to go to Budget [car
rentals] and tell them I need a car so they can hear my accent and
be happy that I’m there.”
^TOP
|
|
