CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH L’I NSTITUT CANADIEN DE RECHERCHES SUR LE JUDAÏSME .. IDecembeSRAFAXr 3, 2018 25 Kislev 5779 Volume XXVII, Number 297 e t t e z a G t s o P / y e l m i W a r d n a x e l A : o t o h P P.O. Box 175, Station H, Montreal, Quebec H3G 2K7 Tel: (514) 486-5544 Fax: (514) 486-8284 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.isranet.org Editorial Jerusalem: City of Peace Fiddling on the Roof: Coping With Baruch Cohen the Old, and the New, Anti-Semitism O Jerusalem, shining and bright Frederick Krantz Embraced forever with your people’s love On Wednesday, 14 November, the New York Times recounts, at the end of the O my people, I would sing my heart first act of Fiddler on the Roof at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore, Md., On this night of glory after Russian antisemites stage a pogrom against residents of a Jewish shtetl cel - My city of love on whose ebrating a wedding , a man jumped up in the balcony, repeatedly yelling “Heil Hills my father Abraham’s Hitler! Heil Trump!”. Painful trial Several theater-goers feared a mass shooting—the Pittsburgh synagogue mur - The tears of generations of my people ders, after all, occurred only a short time before. One man, “frightened and dis - Have not dared extinguish turbed”, shrank in his seat, fearing that “this guy [may have] a gun”. Another, The flames of eternal sacrifice noting that several audience members ran for the exits, said “I was waiting to The flames of infinite love. hear a gunshot, frankly”. Clouds of unbearable thunder, Baltimore police arrested the alleged screamer, one Anthony M. Derlunis II, Lightning and endless tears 58, whom they said had been drinking heavily, and who told them that he had Carry me on this ever-lasting night yelled out because the scene in the play reminded him of his hatred of President With endless generations’ might Trump, a reaction borne out, he claimed, by the evidently high number of “Trump To you, beloved Jerusalem supporters” ( i.e., Jews) reacting negatively to his outburst. Ir Shalom The frightening scene lasted about five minutes, and Mr. Derlunis was not City of Peace charged by the Baltimore authorities—because, as they rather disingenuously put Embraced forever with my it, “As reprehensible as the man’s words were, they are considered protected free People’s love! speech because nobody was directly threatened”. Yet the NYT ’s account does note that he has now been banned from entering the theater. Of course, in the current antisemitic climate (the rate of incidents in both the Baruch Cohen z”l, CIJR’s Research Chairman U.S. and Canada, like the rate of gun possession, has been steadily increasing in for thirty years, passed away this past September. recent years), the Baltimore shouter, like the Pittsburgh shooter, might well have His moving memoir, No One Bears Witness had a gun, and used it. These incidents involve both the extreme right and ex - for the Witness , published in 2018, treme left, and while traditional antisemitic motifs are present—religious bigotry is available from CIJR. against Jews as such, resentment of “Jewish money” and political “influence”, etc.—themes clearly associated with what is termed “the new antisemitism” are ISRAFAX EDITORIAL BOARD also at work. Editor . .Frederick Krantz Publications Chairman . Rob Coles Here, not so much “the Jew” as political hatred of the Jewish State , Israel, is Associate Editors . .Julien Bauer Assistant Editor .Machla Abramovitz the focus of vitriol and resentment. Arguing that Israel is a kind of Nazi oppressor . .Ira Robinson Archivist : . Bradley Martin of innocent Palestinians, this “new” antisemitism can—as in “anti-Zionist” . .Harold M. Waller Executive Assistant . Yunna Shapira “BDS” campaigns on campuses, where Islamist and leftist elements combine— ISRAFAX is the research publication of the Canadian Insti - masquerade as highly “moral” and “even-handed”. tute for Jewish Research , an independent and non-partisan non-profit educational foundation devoted to the study of Indeed, the “new” antisemites can even claim to be highly offended when ac - Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. It provides cused of being antisemites—we are “human rights activists”, they [including, CIJR members with key data and a digest of international sadly, some “progressive” Jewish allies] say, cleverly claiming to be not anti- analysis and opinion on relevant issues. Jewish but “only” anti-Israel. As if their drive to delegitimate and, hence, to finish We welcome your letters, comments and materials, Hitler’s work by destroying the world’s only Jewish democratic state, is not the which can be faxed or e-mailed (see cover.) very essence of modern genocidal antisemitism! That Fiddler on the Roof (an oddly American phenomenon, a musical about a pogrom) could provoke a Trump-hating and potentially dangerous meshugah to shout “Heil Hitler!” in a crowded theater, is a not-so-paradoxical commentary THIS ISSUE on our current, conflicted political moment. While we are far from facing an imminent, State-supported Kristallnacht , it is deeply concerning that, in a U.S. only two years away from the next Presiden - tial election, the left-“progressive” and Marxisand wing of the Democratic Party cultivates some members’ no-so-genteel anti-Israelism, while in Britain an out - right antisemite, Jeremy Corbyn, heads a British Labour Party which might, on the heels of a Brexit-induced election, actually come to power. We must be alert to an increasing degree of turmoil and uncertainty: the “longest hatred”, antisemitism, ever-protean in its ability to change forms, is alive and well. The price of Jewish freedom is eternal vigilance, the ensuring of Jewish continuity, defense of basic democratic rights and traditions, and unified support for the well-being of the state of Israel, vital center of the Jewish people. (Prof. Frederick Krantz is Director of the Canadian Institute ISSN # 1193-7246 for Jewish Research, and editor of its ISRAFAX ‘journal’) 2 – December 3, 2018 – ISRAFAX WEEKLY QUOTES SHORT TAKES “We are in the midst of a military campaign, and you don’t RECENT ANTISEMITISM IN U.S. (Washington) — In Miami, abandon during a campaign, you don’t play politics…The se - the Haim and Gila Wiener Florida Lubavitch Headquarters was curity of the state is above all else.” — Prime Minister Ne - vandalized with a swastika and an upside-down cross. In Wood - tanyahu. The prime minister will take on the post of defense bridge, CT, the Board of Education has been forced to confront minister following Avigdor Liberman’s resignation and rejected antisemitism at its Amity High School, where Jewish students said calls for new elections. Netanyahu said it would be wrong and “ir - they have found swastikas in the bathroom and on desks. In Wash - responsible” to bring down the government and force new elec - ington, DC, a white supremacist has been arrested on charges of tions during “one of our most difficult security periods…There illegal gun possession after his family members called police over is no place for politics or personal considerations,” when it remarks that the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was “a dry run.” comes to Israel’s security, he said. ( Times of Israel , Nov. 18, 2018) (Jewish Press , Nov. 15, 2018) “I advise Israel not to try and test us again…This time you UN COMMITTEE PASSES NINE RESOLUTIONS SLAM - did not have a lot of casualties and you managed to rescue your MING ISRAEL IN SINGLE DAY (New York) — A special special forces. You should not try again, because next time you committee of the UN General Assembly voted in favor of nine res - will have to release thousands of prisoners.” — Hamas’s leader olutions attacking Israel — with the rest of the world left unmen - Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar warned that an - tioned. The resolutions were passed by the General Assembly’s other Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip “Fourth Committee,” which is would lead to rocket attacks against Tel also known as the “Special Po - Aviv. Waving a handgun that Sinwar litical and Decolonization Com - claimed to belong to Israeli special mittee.” Israel was condemned forces, he warned that Hamas’s hands for alleged human rights abuses, were “on the trigger…whoever tests its “occupation” of eastern Gaza will find only death and poison. Jerusalem, and its “occupation” (Jerusalem Online , Nov. 18, 2018) of the Golan Heights. ( Alge - ) meiner , Nov. 16, 2018) “Let me say it to be clear: [Hamas P F A / CFS ADOPTS BDS MOTION leader in Gaza] Yihya Sinwar’s time B I is limited. He won’t finish his life in T (Toronto) — The Canadian Fed - A H K eration of Students (CFS) ap - an old-age home…Look at what Is - d i a proved a resolution supporting rael did in the past 10 years: We S ( closed off the sea, we closed maneu - the boycott, divestment and vering on the ground from Gaza and sanctions movement and en - Hamas missiles launched toward Israel from Gaza dorsed a statement that “the on - Sinai…I think the Iron Dome is on November 12, 2018 doing a pretty good job against mis - going occupation of Palestine be siles; we are in a phase of eliminating all the tunnels [from condemned,” at its annual general meeting. The CFS, which rep - Gaza into Israel]. If they want a fight, we will defeat them. If resents 500,000 students, also approved supporting “different they want to behave and talk through a third party, we will Palestine-solidarity organizations,” with in-kind support and fi - hear them.” — Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant.