Sherman campus woes
I would like to express my disappointment in the latest UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s announcement of the new and smaller Sherman Campus (The CJN, June 18). What began eight years ago as a $200-million project saw our beloved “Y” torn down, in spite of our pleas to withhold demolition. This caused us to seek other venues throughout the city. In addition, the Koffler Centre is now on Shaw Street.
Federation stated that the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre was tired, unsafe and no longer able to accommodate today’s interests. At no time in the 30 years that I belonged did I feel unsafe. Today’s interests still include tennis, squash and racquetball.
As for “tired,” I know that the building was still solid, and some renovations were needed. Instead, the building is gone.
It is unfortunate that the decision-makers didn’t do their homework. Any former members will not rush back after a 10-year wait.
Murray Rich
Toronto
Hate in houses of worship
America and the world are rightly shocked by the ideology of hate that led a young man in Charleston, S.C., to murder nine black Christian worshippers during a prayer meeting.
On the morning of Nov. 18, 2014, two Palestinian men entered a synagogue in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem and attacked the praying congregants with axes, knives and a gun. They killed four worshippers, a responding police officer, and injured seven others.
Houses of worship used to be considered a safe haven – not any more.
Ezra Franken
Montreal
When Jews lived in Baghdad
Edwin Black’s historical account, “ When Baghdad burned,” (The CJN, June 11) detailed the violent atrocities committed against the Iraqi Jewish communities on June 1-2, 1941 as Nazism and the Holocaust influenced the outbreak of that pogrom, known as the “Farhud.”
However, we must also acknowledge that the majority of Iraqis were Righteous Gentiles and many contributed to saving Jewish lives. My father’s family in Baghdad, a family of nine children, was spared as they sought shelter while a Muslim neighbour threatened to kill the assailants. And in the small town of Hila, where my mother was raised, the clergy head gathered the leadership in the town square and threatened that he would remove his religious turban headdress should any Jew be touched.
It is important to highlight the fact that prior to World War II, Jews lived under Muslim rule – in some cases for more than 2,500 years – and anti-Semitism was not as prevalent as it was in European and North American societies.
Smadar Meiri
Toronto
The JNF and Huckabee
It’s disappointing to read that the Jewish National Fund rescinded an invitation to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be the guest speaker at the Ottawa Negev Dinner (The CJN, June 18).
As a former president of the Montreal JNF (2004-2006), I am miffed by this action, so reminiscent of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali affair. Ali, a valiant and courageous individual, was disinvited to address the graduates at Brandeis University because of her views on radical Islam. Her views did not fit the progressive agenda. The Jewish community was, in the main, appalled by this action.
Huckabee was invited to speak because he is a celebrity, is competing for the Republican presidential nomination and, above all, is a friend to Israel. While most Canadian Jews were cancelling their visits to Israel amid personal safety concerns during the last Gaza war, Huckabee proved his friendship. He walked the streets of Jerusalem, greeting and saluting the people. Similar to the Ali affair, he was disinvited because of his flip remarks with respect to transgender people. While I do not share his views, I also do not believe that every friend has to toe the line the progressive group sets in order to be a friend. In fact, the progressive line is antithetical to the existence of Israel.
I firmly believe that friends can air their differences without showing each other the back of their hand. After all, it’s not as though Israel has so many friends that JNF can just toss a bunch to the garbage bin.
Joe Kislowicz
Toronto
Changing names
It’s wonderful that Gatineau, Que. has renamed two streets formerly dedicated to pro-Nazis (The CJN, June 18) and let’s hope that other Quebec municipalities will also change their Alexis Carrel streets and park.
It’s high time that Montreal’s Isabella Avenue, named after Queen Isabella of Spain, be renamed and that the two city park monuments in Montreal celebrating the queen be replaced by art expressing higher moral values.
Why do we have these monuments and Isabella Avenue when in 1492, the queen and her husband, Ferdinand, issued the Edict of Expulsion, which stated that any Jews remaining in Spain after July 31, 1492 would be executed? This more than meets the definition of genocide in Canada’s Criminal Code, as well as the international Convention against Genocide.
It would only be just to rename Isabella Avenue as Yehuda Halevy Avenue for the great Jewish Spanish poet.
Shloime Perel
Montreal