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Bulletin
Seniiig British Columbia since 1930
$1.00 includes GST NOVEMBER 9,2001/23 CHESHVAN 5762
Not too bizarre
50th annual Hadassah eventa huge success/15
Credit is due
Jewish schools pass B.C.'s accreditation process with flying colors/4
From the lieart
student issues plea to not forsake Israel/14
Followers of Rabbi Eliezer Schach surround the ambulance bearing his body during the funeral procession through Bna! Brak Nov. 2. Schach, who was head of the Ponevezh Yeshivah in Bnal Brak and the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, died at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer at the reputed age of 106. He was was one of the most
colorful and controversial religious leaders in Israel. An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral.
How 1967 changed everything
Six Day War and Holocaust memory had huge impact on Canada's Jews.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
The psychological effects of the Holocaust played a pivotal role in Canadian Jews' reaction to the Six Day War in 1967 and fundamentally changed the Jewish community in this countiy, according to a respected academic who delivered the lecture at the annual I&istallnacht memorial service Sunday night.
Prof. Harold Troper said a confluence of events led to a galvanizing reaction among Canadian Jews when they saw the Jewish state under siege by its Arab neighbors. Only six years earlier, in 1961, the Adolf Eichmann trial had brought the Holocaust into the collective consciousness of the world. Until then, according to Troper, many survivors had repressed their memories of the Nazi atrocities. Moreover, it was only at the time of the trial that a definitive historical documentary of the Final Solution was compiled. Before that event, the Holocaust did not stand out in the stark way it docs now in tlie lai^g-er scheme of liistoiy.
Because of that new-found understanding of genocide, the reaction of world Jewry to the impending war with the Arabs was dramatically different than it might have been a few years earlier.
"What if Israel did not win?" asked Troper, Tlie idea of the Jewish state being overrun by Arab enemies brought images of a second holocaust in a generation.
World events at the time gave Jews reason for further desperation. While the Soviet Union was generously supplying arms to the Egyptians, the Americans were bogged down in Vietnam and did not want to get involved in the Middle East crisis.
"Jewish survival hung by a thin thread and nobody seemed to care, nobody seemed to understand," said Troper.
The acts of individual Canadian Jews at the time were remarkable. At the beginning of the war, Troper was a young volunteer at the Zionist Centre in Toronto. An elderly woman
walked in and dropped her Shab-bat candlesticks, jewelry and some cash on the table, saying Israel needed them more than she did. A family remortgaged their home to send funds to Israel. Young Canadian Jews volunteered to travel to Israel, both to fight and to fill the vacuum in the civilian commimity created by the soldiers going off to war. Jewish industrial leaders and people of modest means opened their wallets for the cause.
The weeks leading up to the war were excruciating. Each day brought further sabre-rattling by Egypt, which was blocking critical access to Israel's south-em port of Eilat and demanding the United Nations withdraw from the Sinai peninsula, a precursor to a full-fledged attack on Israel proper.
Instead of a concerted Arab attack on Israel however, Israel on June 5 launched a pre-emptive atr tack, destroying the Egyptian air
Please see 1967 on page 2
NOP critic soothes Jews
Svend Robinson clarifies position on Israel to CJC.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Svend Robinson has mended, some fences with the Jewish community. The outspoken New Democratic Party member of Parliament met with ofiicials fiom Canadian Jewish Congress recently in what is reported as a frank discussion of his views on Israel.
Robinson has been harshly critical of Israel for its actions in the occupied territories, but in his meeting with CJC officials, he made clear his support for the state of Israel within secure boundaries and his staunch opposition to the use of violence to meet political ends.
Robinson, who represents the constituency of Bumaby-Douglas, is his party's critic for foreign affairs. He told the Bulletin after the meeting that he was glad to be able to discuss these issues with Jewish officials and said he regrets the perception that he is in any way anti-Israel. He insisted that support for Israel is not compromised by his continuing defence of Palestinians.
"Can you be a strong advocate for Palestinian rights and at the same time clearly and imequivo-cally and imreservedly assert the importance of respecting and celebrating Israel's right to exist?' he asked. "And the answer to that is certainly a resounding yes.
"Pve travelled to Israel and the occupied territories on a number of occasions over the years and would defend to the very end Israel's right to, not just to exist -I think that's kind of a lowest common denominator - but to flourish."
Robinson said he has little optimism for peace in the region and he views an international force - a sort of peacekeeping body - as the most likely source for a solution. He criticized Arab countries for repression and brutality, applauding Israel's dedication to democratic principles. But he said Israel under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cannot be trusted to negotiate a final set-
tlement \vith the Palestinians.
"The question was put, T)on't you agree that this should be resolved by a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians?' And the answer is no," said Robinson. "Sharon is, I believe, at the very least, complicit in war crimes in Sabra and Shatilla in 1982 and, as you know, there was an inquiry that foimd him at least indirectly responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent civilians. His record %vith respect to the Palestinians and the rights of Palestinians is well known."
But while Robinson defended the interests of Palestinians, he deplored the use of violence to meet their ends.
"Any attack on innocent civilians is murder and is to be condemned in the strongest possible terms, period," he said. "All human lives are precious, whether it's the life of a janitor or a stockbroker in the World Trade Centre or a teenager who's eating pizza in downtown Tel-Aviv. To attack them is utterly inexcusable and indefensible."
The meeting, which took place Oct. 19 and was also attended by Vancouver East MP Libby Davies, the only other NDP MP from Uiis province, pleased members of CJC. Mark Weintraub, a national vice-president of Congress, said meeting \vith Robinson was important for a number of reasons.
While the NDP is a relatively small party in Parliament, it has historically been an incubator for political innovation. Moreover, despite belonging to a small party, Robinson is one of Parliament's most familiar and media-wise members.
But tlie most pressing reason, Weintraub suggested, was that CJC is a human rights organization and the anti-Israel bias among some Canadian human rights activists has damaged the working relationship between groups.
Please see NOP on page 2
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