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More than blintzes
Sluivuol. Just say the word around a typical gathering of (Uinadian Jews and watdi the blank sUmis and (|uizzic-al ('xjirc'ssions. "Isn't tliat one of till' really minor holidays?" is a common i-csponsc!. A more inlbrmod I'ojily niij^dit oflbr, "Isn't that when \vi; oat choose blintzos lor some unknown reason?"
4
S/iauuol is no minor hohday or gastrointestinal binge (although dairy is traditionally eaten during the two-day festival). Shavuot is a really important holiday in dire need of a really good public relations agent. After all, how can a holiday upon which an entire faith — and thus, the genesis of all monotheistic religions — is based and observed for at least four millennia be virtually unknown and ignored by the over-whelming majority of its disciples and followers?
Isaac Bashevis Singer once said that we have to believe in free will because we have no choice. While many of us claim to be practising Jews by making sure to purchase High Holiday tickets for shul. every year, getting a jump on buying our Chanukali gifts, or noshing on matzah during Pe.sac/t, we inexplicably tend to forget the Jewish festival that perhaps offers more meaning and insight thmi any other into why we are Jews.
Throughout our history, Jews liave sought connections with each other through the boundaries of ethnicity, languages, cusloms, political affiliations, humanistic values, etc. But wliat else save Cod's giving of tlic 'i'orah to the childi'on of Israel at Sinai — ai-guably the single most mo-
mentous occasion in the history of the world's religions — better defines and evokes an interconnectedness and sense of divine [iurpose for the Jewish peoijle, regardless of individual religious affiliations or apjH-oaches to spirituality?
I^'i-om both an intellectual and emotional viewpoint, the Torah stands as the central force of Judaism. Generations of Jews have revered and been wedded to this immeasurable source of stories and wisdom.
Before us now is a generation of Jews that largely renders obsolete the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah. The last thingS/)ayao^ needs is the trappings of a marketing campaign, replete with advance materials, a trailer for the airwaves, and widespread distribution in theatres around the country. (Although it may be argued that Cecil B. De-Mille's 1956 classic, The Ten Commandments, already took care of that.)
Instead, what we must do is recommit ourselves to kiruv (outreach), to bringing more Jews to learn from the hallowed pages of the Torah. Why not take in an all-night Torah study session on Shavuot at your local s3magogue or temple? Despite the lack of slumber, you're guaranteed to feel energized by the Torah's endless erudition and insight into the riddles that have plagued Jews for generations.
And more than anything, you'll feel Jewish like never before. 11
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Free speech has its limits
Absolute freedoms simply cannot exist in tiie real world.
ARNOLD AGES SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada reaffirming the conviction registered against Alberta's James Keegstra and the removal of New Brunswick's Malcolm Ross from his mathematics classroom are watershed events in the criminal justice system of tliis country. The decisions mark a return to sanity in the realm of public discourse.
The fact that Mr. Ross has been allowed to retain his office job at the Magnetic Hill High School is unfortimate, but at least he is not able to directly infect students in the classroom with his presence. The court correctly noted that whether or not he promoted anti-Semitism in the classroom was irrelevant. His very presence in the classroom as a teacher and role model conferred a kind of imprimatur on him and contributed to a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students in the school.
It has always been one of the great ironies in the debate over free speech in Canada that those who advocate it absolutely, place that principle over and beyond any of the evil consequences that might flow from it. In this way free speech is elevated to a form of idolatry and worshipped as a sacred icon. The foolishness of that position is that it grants legitimacy to those who would destroy the democratic process and replace it with a cruel totalitarianism.
Well-meaning free speech advocates often argue passionately that the best way to oppose hate is to expose it to the full glare of sunlight. This misguided approach fails to take into account the fact that exposure to sunlight offers new vistas for the hate mongers and sometimes pro-
Arnold Ages is a professor of French al the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
motes the uncontrolled growth of malignant cells.
In defending hate mongers like Keegstra, Ross and their ideological triplet. Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel of Toronto, supporters of absolute free speech ig-
The defence of absolute free speech in this country always seem to come primdrjiyatthe expense of the Jewish community
nore Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes' sage dictum that "free speech does not extend to crying 'fire' in a crowded room."
This country has a body of laws which regulates our freedoms on a daily basis. In the House of Commons itself there are restrictions as to the kind of language MPs may use in debate. Newspapers may not contravene the laws of libel. Builders of houses and commercial buildings must observe strict building codes. Motorcyclists must wear proper headgear. A perusal of the Canadian Criminal Code will show that absolute freedoms do not exist in any sphere because individual freedoms are valid only insofar as they do not infringe upon the freedoms of others.
Tliere is, of course, another dimension to this question. The de-. fence of absoltite free speech in this country always seems to come primarily at the expense of the Jewish connnunity. The issue, thei'ef()re, is not some mere
abstraction or debate over a legal principle detached from history and reality. Jews have seen from the experience of Nazi Germany that the dissemination of hatred directed towards a specific group can lead to catastrophic results for the target community. It is, therefore, in the interest of the Canadian Jewish community to fight with all legal means those who seek in word and deed to harm us.
It would do us well to remember that from 1923 on, and especially during the 12 years they were in power, the Nazis bombarded Germany and the countries they occupied with an unrelenting flood of the most primitive anti-Semitic propaganda. Their newspapers, books, magazines, films, radio programs, exhibitions and public speakers dehumanized Jews to the extent that when the Nazis began their murder machine they found willing accomplices to their program of genocide. The seed beds of hatred they had cultivated produced flowers of evil. Voltaire was right: "People who believe in absurdities will eventually commit atrocities."
Canada's three main purveyors of anti-Semitism are engaged in the same dehumanization of Jews and Judaism. The arguments they retail against Jews come from the same Nazi ideological cesspool. In some cases, of course, the libretto has changed - but the music remains exactly the same. To repeat or even analyze their attacks against Jews would be to participate in the obscenities to which they lend their names.
In handing down its recent decisions, the Supreme Court of Canada has underlined an important |)i-inciple - that free speech, like all the other rights and privileges enjoyed by Canadians, can he regulated and that there ai-e limits Ix'voncI which the reasonabk' citizen may not go.! ;