Readers may recall that some time ago I wrote about my project to read our shelves, looking at every book we own to refresh memories and try to get rid of a few that no longer speak to me. Thus I came to Prof. Morton Weinfeld’s Like Everybody Else But Different: the Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews.

His study looked at the situation of Canada’s Jewish population as it was around 2000, to see how we are like – and unlike – the larger society. To bring the story up to date, I did a telephone interview with Prof. Weinfeld. Here are excerpts.

Weinfeld argued in his book that the Canadian Jewish world would come to resemble the American model. Is that still true, I asked? Yes, he agrees. As the United States moves to the right, so will we, and the number of mixed marriages will also climb, as will the haredi community in both countries.

Is anti-Semitism on the rise? On campus, he notes, the movement to boycott and divest Israeli products is very visible, which was not the case in 2000. More troubling is what he calls the “distancing debate,” where younger Jews may be distancing themselves from Israel. Why? It could be assimilation pure and simple, or because some do not like Israeli policies.

Weinfeld wrote that Jews are noted for their social justice agenda. What, I asked, about current trends? It’s a balancing act, he thinks. While big-D Democrats in the United States may be decreasing (now about 70 per cent), many among the non-Orthodox community Jews are still liberal, pro-choice, and advocating for gay rights and things like decriminalization of pot.

So while liberal may still define us (small l), I asked him, how about the organized Jewish community? The bottom line, he responded is Israel. “We are spooked by Iran.” There is definitely a shift to the right and to embrace Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Canadian Jews do not want to be like the Jews of Europe, he said, where they live in large part among a hostile Muslim population with guards at every institution. According to Weinfeld, we should look for nuance, should work with our Muslim communities. As well as a stick, there must be a carrot when dealing with this issue.

Jews, he posits, are still sui generis, i.e. there is not another group quite like us, yet, we can be a model for a group that is integrated into Canadian society and, at the same time, maintains a separate, distinct identity. After all, he says, we’ve had good practice. We were “into multiculturalism hundreds of years before now.” The only group that can, perhaps, be compared is made up of Muslims of the second and third generations in Canada.

(Indeed, I would argue that for the past 3,000 years, we have engaged with, fought with, accommodated, loved, joined and rejected, envied and disdained a whole host of nations: Canaanite, Hellenistic (a very rich intercultural exchange period), Arab (especially close at one time in the Muslim world), European, and now North American.)

In general in North America, Weinfeld believes, the trajectory for minorities is toward inclusion, even for First Nations. Across the Atlantic, however, the “discourse in Europe toward the other is more extreme than you find in North America.”

Historian Salo Baron wrote: “Much gratuitous advice has been proffered to [the Jews] throughout the ages, bidding them give up their stubborn resistance to the ‘normal’ ways of life, mingle with the nations and thus simplify a perplexing situation. In almost every generation, indeed, Jewish individuals and minor groups tread this road to easygoing regularity.”

I love that phrase, “easygoing regularity.” As Jews we may strive to be like everyone else – something like easygoing regularity? – but in the end, we just are not. We borrow, adapt, love and hate and always stand a bit outside.

We are, well, just like ourselves. The same as everyone. And different.