By Minda Chaikin and Mina Cohn
Close to 1,000 members of Jewish communities from across Canada and friends joined the two- day CIJA Conference, Antisemitism: Face It, Fight It, in Ottawa on October 13th and 14th. On everyone’s mind was the horrific attack by Hamas terrorists on the people of Israel one week earlier. Shimon Fogel, CEO and President of CIJA, explained: “The first component of the conference is about learning: learning what hate is, how to recognize it, how to distinguish different forms of hate. One of the problems that we have is people’s lack of fluency in terms of even recognizing what forms hate takes in 2023. Education is key.” Fogel offered 10 concepts and responses to use when engaging in discussion about Israel and antisemitism.
The two days were bursting with information and integrated advocacy training, seminars featuring more than 30 Canadian and international experts, face-to-face meetings with decision makers, and a panel of international experts and multi-faith allies.
Participants came together to express unity and demonstrate solidarity to confront and repel the hate that is polarizing our society. “Social media with its misinformation and disinformation is Jew hatred on steroids,” said Arsen Ostrowsky, CEO of the Israeli-based International Legal Forum.
In a powerful presentation, Joel Finkelstein, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., said that hate on social media “is a predictor about real-world actions. What we see on social media turns up in real life.” An analysis by his Institute of more than 100 million social media posts showed a relationship between online antisemitic remarks on social media platforms and actions a week or two later against Jews, including those in Toronto and Montreal. “Social media is a signal of what’s to come,” he said.
Sgt. Ali Toghrol and Detective Akiva Geller of the Ottawa Police Service stressed the need to inform the service of any antisemitic incidents and said that anyone charged with a hate crime will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Other presentations were provided by Farah Pandith, a member of the Anti-Defamation League and a world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism; Katherina von Schnurbein, the European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life; and Emily Schrader, digital strategist, and content creator of Ynet who stressed that there is no logic to Jew hatred and never has been.
The event closed with the presentation to Professor Irwin Cotler of a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his enduring commitment to the pursuit of justice for all people and the advancement of human rights for the world’s most vulnerable and oppressed. Watch a tribute video and his acceptance speech here.
