Antisemitism isn’t for Jews to stop alone, Trudeau says

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described on Wednesday the rise in antisemitic incidents in Canada as “unacceptable” and insisted that the problem was not one for the Jewish community alone, but rather is a challenge for the entire country.

Trudeau made his comments during the National Summit on Antisemitism organized by Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Bardish Chagger and Canada’s Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism Irwin Cotler, who had previously served as Canada’s Justice Minister.

At the same event, Trudeau said his government will be investing $6.4 million in 149 projects under the framework of the Security Infrastructure Program to strengthen security for at-risk communities around the country, including for the Canadian Jewish community and its institutions.

Trudeau said some of these funds would be used to ”enhance the security of synagogues, Jewish schools, and community institutions across the country,” adding that it constituted the largest investment in a given year in the history of the Security Infrastructure Program.

The new investment and the summit itself comes against a background of a severe rise in antisemitic incidents in Canada in recent months, both during and in the aftermath of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in May.

According to B’nai Brith Canada, in May alone there were more than 250 antisemitic incidents in the country, including 61 incidents of violent assault, the highest figure on record for such physical violence in a single month since reporting began back in 1982.

Just last week, a man with a swastika on his chest twice assaulted members of Toronto’s Jewish community. He was subsequently caught and charged with hate-motivated assault.

“The rise in hate-motivated crimes against the Jewish community in the past few months is not only alarming but completely unacceptable,” said Trudeau addressing the summit, held by video conference.

“As Jewish Canadians, too many of you have told me you are feeling isolated and vulnerable. You’ve shared that this spike in violence and this harassment has left people in fear to publicly and proudly live Jewish lives,” said the prime minister.

“Every Canadian deserves to be and feel safe, and I want to reassure you that our government will always stand with you against this hate… No Canadian should ever fear to practice their religion.”

Trudeau noted his government has adopted the working definition of antisemitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, appointed Cotler as special envoy to combat antisemitism; and earlier this year listed “additional far-right groups as terrorist entities”; to help police combat their activities.

“Antisemitism isn’t a problem for the Jewish community to solve alone, it’s up to everyone to take on this challenge,” he said.

Cotler said the increase in antisemitism globally was “underpinned by the mainstreaming, normalization, and legitimization of antisemitism in political culture.”

This phenomenon is buttressed by “the absence of outrage, and underscored by indifference and inaction” towards anti-Jewish hatred.

And, Cotler asserted, the struggle against antisemitism had been marginalized as part of the struggle against systemic racism, and even excluded from anti-racism training.

The envoy also pointed to what he described as a worrying trend contributing to antisemitism in which “Jews are increasingly characterized as part of the oppressor in the intersectionality discourse, and where the demonization of Israel has reverberated back to the demonization of Jews.”

Cotler said that part of efforts to combat the rise in antisemitism must include mandating Holocaust education and teaching on antisemitism in elementary schools, as well as high schools, and dealing with antisemitism and Holocaust distortion “as part of larger struggle for the promotion of the protection of democracy, equality, human rights and human dignity in our time.”