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September 26, 2003
Speaker rallies the YLD
Ellen Cannon asks audience to increase CJA pledges.
BAILA LAZARUS EDITOR
With deliberate emphasis, Dr. Ellen Cannon opened an address to
the young adults of Vancouver's Jewish community with the words,
"I am here tonight as a wake-up call."
That call, she said, is to get people to realize there's a shift
in world politics that profoundly affects everyone in the room and
Jews around the world.
"Nine-eleven brought home to North America that the issue of
terrorism is a local issue," she said. "That our world
and all major cities in North Amercia will never be safe again.
It's not an issue of whether terrorists will come; it's only a matter
of when."
Cannon, who is vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, Midwest
Region, was addressing the Young Leadership Division of the Jewish
Federation of Greater Vancouver Sept. 16. She was speaking on the
topic Finding the Light – Challenges of Being Jewish: An Informed
Political Perspective. She told the group that they have a formidable
obligation to learn how they can best support Israel – both
financially and ideologically.
"What we are fighting for is the Jewish future," she told
the crowd of about 75 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater
Vancouver, saying it was up to the audience's generation to pick
up the gauntlet to save that future.
Cannon structured her talk around three questions to be asked to
ascertain the state of Jewish needs in the world: Is there growing
anti-Semitism? Are members of the Jewish community in the Diaspora
ambivalent? Is the concept of a Jewish nation is at risk?
With clearly chosen words and a dynamic style, she then put forward
arguments to show that the answer to each of these is "yes."
"Your generation is watching the confluence of these three
elements in the forming of the most important pivotal moment in
our history," she said.
The old forms of structural and economic overt anti-Semitism were
minimal, compared to what's going on today, said Cannon. In the
United States, people are beginning to complain that Jews have too
much power for their numbers, she said, as an example of how some
less-blatant forms of anti-Semitism are making their way into the
daily lives of Jews.
She pointed to the "greying" of the Jewish community as
a problem and how important it was to reverse trends such as intermarriage
and not having children. The torch of responsibility has to be passed
on from one generation to the next, she said.
"We'll ask your generation to join us and you're going to blow
the roof off," said Cannon. "Your generation is going
to get it."
Earlier generations, those in their 40s and 50s, were brought up
on Jewish education that focussed on "the Holocaust and the
Bible," said Cannon, adding that today's learning has to be
about contemporary issues.
One of the best tools for that, and a tool she cited repeatedly,
is Alan Dershowitz's recently released The Case for Israel.
In it, she told the audience, was information about how to respond
to people in order counter anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist remarks.
Those wanting to know how to support Israel will get an understanding
of how much Israel had done for the world as a democracy and that
Israel, and not the Palestinians, is the underdog in the Middle
East conflict, she said.
Summing up her talk, Cannon served four challenges to the audience:
to increase their Combined Jewish Appeal contributions by at least
18 per cent; to work closely with Christian Zionists in their support
of Israel; to participate in missions to Israel; and to develop
"new cores of ambassadorship" for Israel and get the word
out through the media.
"What will you say when asked by your children, 'Where were
you in 2003?'?" she asked the crowd.
Though Cannon had many disheartening statistics about violence in
Israel and anti-Semitism, overall her message to the crowd was a
positive one.
"In a world that is betting that we lose, when I come here
and see not one empty seat, you've given me the [hope]. We've just
begun to fight."
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