This commentary appeared on July 27, 2024 in The Hub. It is reprinted with permission of the Managing Editor and my co-author, Gili Zemer. And it is Tackle's inaugural post.
Unfortunately, times have changed for the worse. Actions have consequences, and that goes for inactions too. I grew up in Chomedey, Laval, and spent my early years (until grade 6) on the east side where we were the only Jewish family, so my experience in Canada was never quite pristine as perhaps what Toronto once was like. As I mentioned in my more recent post on APR, I was singled out for special treatment by one of my French teachers who refused to call me by my first name. I saw no shortage of swastikas spray painted around town and no one rushing to remove them, and by 7 years of age I knew what they meant because I knew the Nazis murdered my aunts, grandparents, and about 6 million other Jews. And it might not have been a coincidence when our kitchen windows were shot through while my mother was in there cooking. The point is that in any place or time, if Jews are isolated, they are vulnerable. We were able to push back at our school because we organized in advance of 10/7, and that I will have to expand on in a separate post.
As for the FSWC workshops, having seen both it is hard to believe how worked up some parents were and how they misrepresented the events afterwards, including in delegation to the TDSB trustees. The second workshop was suppose to be an in person event but due to the acrimony and constant badgering from the opposing parents, it was presented online and further it focused on antisemitism in online gaming and kept mainly to a focus on extreme right antisemitism. So, although technically we won that battle, it wasn't a perfect win. FSWC was still bullied into presenting online and staying away from left-wing antisemitism. These battles surely will continue in the coming year, so each school's Jewish community should organize themselves ASAP.
David this is a great article. I’m sorry you had to deal with such a difficult and hostile response when you tried to educate the people at your school about antisemitism. It’s encouraging to hear that you won the battle in the end.
Thanks, David. Unfortunately, this is just one battle. Sources indicate that the opposing families have been organizing over the summer. One is an ACLA member, no less. Technically, I am no longer in that specific fight as my daughter changed schools this year, but I suspect these fights will play out across different schools. All you need to do in order to see if there's a problem, is try to organize an antisemitism workshop. If you attract opposition, you'll soon learn who you're dealing with.
David, I don’t know you but THANK you for this article. I have a lot of friends whom I (as far as I know) don’t use Substack and Noachs “reserve” Bubbe from Schul definitely doesn’t, she uses internet and email on library but chose to not even own a phone ;0)
So I was wondering if you have any possibility to somehow make this article and the other about TDSB ones into some pdfs or something so I can send it?
I am not sure about how to exactly that even though I see myself at least average in the general use of Office functions.
I know it would take some time but it would be amazing to be able to share this with people independently of whether or not they access Substack.
Also I was wondering if I could by any chance get your permission to try to formulate a Danish article on this based on this? Unless you or anybody else knows Danish, it’s just that things like these haven’t been (no surprise!) covered in the Danish media and we really need to yell them out for it. In Denmark we actually do have a newspaper which cover more often overlooked and slightly unpopular and unpolished news than most, it is called what I suppose would be “Christian Newspaper Daily” (“Kristeligt Dagblad”) and was established 1896. Today it does not only cover this but their niche is in definitely in the metaphysical realm too, and while I’m usually more disagreeing with them than not, both their US correspondent and their ME correspondent actually do have more courage in what most newspapers journalists write.
The reason why I thought about trying to translate your articles before sending it to them, is because I think (without having any knowledge of the editorial processes) it might take less to make someone “go” with cover of this if they start by getting a comprised article to peruse and with the articles as documentation. I will of course do no such thing without your written permission but it just came to me that it might be a way for me to go with getting some of the important stuff to the Danish papers.
Thanks for what you are doing and May Hashem keep you safe. Monica Lea from Denmark
Hi Monica, thanks for your kind words! I think you should be able to print any post to a PDF and then you could send them as attachments. Alternatively, if you know emailers who might not be inclined to use the Substack app, by signing up for free to Tackle (or any other Substack they like) they will get every post delivered to their email.
As for translating any of these posts into Danish and using them to plant a seed in Danish media, you have my permission. I only ask that you provide the link to the original posts. Please let me know how it goes!
This same rot is present in all of the major school boards in Ontario. The cowardice of school administrators opens the door to the demands of the increasingly aggressive Muslim Student Associations that are now springing up everywhere.
I’m a parent at Rawlinson (non-Jewish) and sorry to hear about all of this. However, it’s unsettling to only be made aware of all of this almost a year later and into our updated 2024/2025 SAC nominations. I understand groups organizing, but to really be inclusive to all groups in the public system, these things need to be communicated more widely within the school community. This just furthers group silos and distrust between admin, parents and ultimately, students, if there is so much ‘behind the scenes’. I don’t have the answer on how to do it. Unfortunately at this point, it’s become a game of
broken telephone in piecing together SAC from last year, hence how I even discovered your article through a Google search tonight. It makes the school community feel more divided, which is the opposite of what was intended.
What happened to the Toronto I left 50 years ago when antisemitism was under the radar and antisemites felt shame when exposed?
I am so glad you stood up to the haters and their facilitators. Now I would like to know how your session/s went.
Unfortunately, times have changed for the worse. Actions have consequences, and that goes for inactions too. I grew up in Chomedey, Laval, and spent my early years (until grade 6) on the east side where we were the only Jewish family, so my experience in Canada was never quite pristine as perhaps what Toronto once was like. As I mentioned in my more recent post on APR, I was singled out for special treatment by one of my French teachers who refused to call me by my first name. I saw no shortage of swastikas spray painted around town and no one rushing to remove them, and by 7 years of age I knew what they meant because I knew the Nazis murdered my aunts, grandparents, and about 6 million other Jews. And it might not have been a coincidence when our kitchen windows were shot through while my mother was in there cooking. The point is that in any place or time, if Jews are isolated, they are vulnerable. We were able to push back at our school because we organized in advance of 10/7, and that I will have to expand on in a separate post.
As for the FSWC workshops, having seen both it is hard to believe how worked up some parents were and how they misrepresented the events afterwards, including in delegation to the TDSB trustees. The second workshop was suppose to be an in person event but due to the acrimony and constant badgering from the opposing parents, it was presented online and further it focused on antisemitism in online gaming and kept mainly to a focus on extreme right antisemitism. So, although technically we won that battle, it wasn't a perfect win. FSWC was still bullied into presenting online and staying away from left-wing antisemitism. These battles surely will continue in the coming year, so each school's Jewish community should organize themselves ASAP.
OMG. Horrible
David this is a great article. I’m sorry you had to deal with such a difficult and hostile response when you tried to educate the people at your school about antisemitism. It’s encouraging to hear that you won the battle in the end.
Thanks, David. Unfortunately, this is just one battle. Sources indicate that the opposing families have been organizing over the summer. One is an ACLA member, no less. Technically, I am no longer in that specific fight as my daughter changed schools this year, but I suspect these fights will play out across different schools. All you need to do in order to see if there's a problem, is try to organize an antisemitism workshop. If you attract opposition, you'll soon learn who you're dealing with.
David, I don’t know you but THANK you for this article. I have a lot of friends whom I (as far as I know) don’t use Substack and Noachs “reserve” Bubbe from Schul definitely doesn’t, she uses internet and email on library but chose to not even own a phone ;0)
So I was wondering if you have any possibility to somehow make this article and the other about TDSB ones into some pdfs or something so I can send it?
I am not sure about how to exactly that even though I see myself at least average in the general use of Office functions.
I know it would take some time but it would be amazing to be able to share this with people independently of whether or not they access Substack.
Also I was wondering if I could by any chance get your permission to try to formulate a Danish article on this based on this? Unless you or anybody else knows Danish, it’s just that things like these haven’t been (no surprise!) covered in the Danish media and we really need to yell them out for it. In Denmark we actually do have a newspaper which cover more often overlooked and slightly unpopular and unpolished news than most, it is called what I suppose would be “Christian Newspaper Daily” (“Kristeligt Dagblad”) and was established 1896. Today it does not only cover this but their niche is in definitely in the metaphysical realm too, and while I’m usually more disagreeing with them than not, both their US correspondent and their ME correspondent actually do have more courage in what most newspapers journalists write.
The reason why I thought about trying to translate your articles before sending it to them, is because I think (without having any knowledge of the editorial processes) it might take less to make someone “go” with cover of this if they start by getting a comprised article to peruse and with the articles as documentation. I will of course do no such thing without your written permission but it just came to me that it might be a way for me to go with getting some of the important stuff to the Danish papers.
Thanks for what you are doing and May Hashem keep you safe. Monica Lea from Denmark
Hi Monica, thanks for your kind words! I think you should be able to print any post to a PDF and then you could send them as attachments. Alternatively, if you know emailers who might not be inclined to use the Substack app, by signing up for free to Tackle (or any other Substack they like) they will get every post delivered to their email.
As for translating any of these posts into Danish and using them to plant a seed in Danish media, you have my permission. I only ask that you provide the link to the original posts. Please let me know how it goes!
This same rot is present in all of the major school boards in Ontario. The cowardice of school administrators opens the door to the demands of the increasingly aggressive Muslim Student Associations that are now springing up everywhere.
I’m a parent at Rawlinson (non-Jewish) and sorry to hear about all of this. However, it’s unsettling to only be made aware of all of this almost a year later and into our updated 2024/2025 SAC nominations. I understand groups organizing, but to really be inclusive to all groups in the public system, these things need to be communicated more widely within the school community. This just furthers group silos and distrust between admin, parents and ultimately, students, if there is so much ‘behind the scenes’. I don’t have the answer on how to do it. Unfortunately at this point, it’s become a game of
broken telephone in piecing together SAC from last year, hence how I even discovered your article through a Google search tonight. It makes the school community feel more divided, which is the opposite of what was intended.