Understanding the silence of Canada’s Jewish establishment

Recently, Ottawa Citizen columnist Andrew Cohen instigated an important discussion with his article, “American Jews are loudly protesting Israel’s anti-judiciary law. In Canada — not so much.” In it, Cohen points out that prominent U.S.-based groups such as the Anti–Defamation League, Jewish Federations of North America, and Democratic Majority for Israel have criticized Israel’s recent judicial reform. Conversely, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center have stayed mum.

In what was probably meant as a rejoinder to Cohen, B’nai Brith senior counsel David Matas and University of Toronto professor Aurel Braun published “Israelis can sort out their legal reform issues on their own.” The Globe and Mail commentary argued that “outsiders should be concerned about the inner workings of tyrannies,” but foreigners should stay mum on judicial reforms because Israel is a “democracy.” Matas and Braun make this argument without mentioning they assist groups that raise massive funds for projects in Israel, which have greatly strengthened the hand of its most supremacist, colonialist forces.

Cohen highlights an institutional explanation for the U.S./Canada divide in his article and points to the leadership of the Jewish communal organizations in Canada. As he notes, the director of CIJA’s office in Jerusalem, David Weinberg, supports the judicial reforms and recently published an Op-Ed defending it where he claimed it is actually Israel’s “overpowerful justice system [that] threatens democracy.” More broadly, as Cohen previously detailed, CIJA was set up a decade ago by half a dozen wealthy individuals to replace the nominally democratic Canadian Jewish Congress. In addition, I would add that CIJA’s main patron, United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto, is chaired by hard-line former Conservative senator Linda Frum, and another CIJA patron, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, recently fired staff member Maytal Kowalski the day after she called on its CEO to take a stronger stand against the Netanyahu government.

Beyond leadership questions, several political, sociological, and historical factors help explain the divergence between the Canadian and U.S. Jewish communities. Canada’s Jewish community is considerably more Zionist than the Jewish community in the United States. Eighty percent of adult Canadian Jews have visited Israel, which is twice the U.S. rate. On average, they’ve visited five times, and one in six have lived there for six months. According to a figure circulated by some in Canadian government circles, 5,000 to 6,000 Canadians currently live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Jewish community in Canada is also less assimilated than the community in the United States, which could lead to greater Zionist attitudes. For example, while 50% of U.S. Jews live in intermarried (or common-law) households, that number is 23% in Canada, and intermarriage has been shown to be inversely associated with an individual feeling a bond with Israel. In addition, there’s double the enrollment rate in private Jewish schools in Canada than in the U.S. As recently as 2014, over half of Jewish children in Montréal attended Jewish schools, and the largest private school in the country is Toronto’s TanenbaumCHAT. These schools generally feature heavily Zionist curricula and programming.

Canadian Jews are more right-wing in their voting patterns. Seventy-five percent of U.S. Jews vote Democrat, while Canadian Jews increasingly vote Conservative. Home to nearly two-thirds of Canadian Jews, the Ontario Conservatives won the provincial ridings with the highest Jewish concentration. Federally, Canadian Jews have supported the Conservatives despite living largely in cities (Toronto and Montréal) that elect few from that party. In the 2011 federal election, an Ipsos exit poll found that 52 percent of Canadian Jews voted Conservative versus 39 percent of the overall population. (The only riding in greater Montréal that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives even bothered seriously contesting in 2015 was Mount Royal, which has a Jewish plurality.) More recent polling suggests about equal support for the Liberals and Conservatives federally. 

Finally, there are historical parallels. Canadian Jewish elite were more active Zionists than their U.S. counterparts, especially following the British Empire’s 1917 Balfour declaration. In Canada’s Jews: A People’s Journey, Gerald Tulchinsky notes, “The First World War accentuated differences between Canadian and American Jewry. For example, loyalty to Britain’s cause provided Zionists with opportunities to identify their purposes with Britain’s imperial mission.” In Canada, much more than in the U.S., it was beneficial to one’s standing among the elite to support Zionism. There was no hint of dual loyalty for Canadians who worked to create a Jewish state as it could be part of “British Canadian nationalism.”

Whatever combination of these reasons, Canada’s dominant Jewish organizations have long taken an ‘Israel no matter what’ position, as I noted back in 2014 during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza when the resurgent Jewish Defense League was growing in popularity. The trends I identified then have only deepened in the intervening years.

Even as the colonialist state is increasingly criticized by Zionist groups internationally, ‘Israel no matter what’ Canadian organizations refuse to challenge the extremists running the Israeli government. Rather, they appear pleased or at least satisfied.

One can only hope that left-wing and moderate Jewish Canadians recognize this and respond appropriately. Actions and lack thereof should have consequences.