A New Year’s Message: Fighting Antisemitism Collaboratively

As Canadian Jews celebrate the New Year with mixed emotions, it is a time to reflect not only upon how we can be better persons, but on how we can better address, collectively, the antisemitism we face in Canada.

ALCCA was formed to reduce silos between community organizations combatting antisemitism and to facilitate collaboration on initiatives that are not merely performative, but effect change. (See our operating principles) We also welcomed the participation of non-Jewish allies – indeed, we continue to regard their voices as important as our own in alerting Canadians to antisemitism and all forms of hate.

ALCCA is proud of the collaborative work it has done in many areas. We have also seen meaningful steps toward stronger partnerships, showing what can be achieved when we align our efforts. Our community’s numbers are small, and our resources are limited, so collaboration is not a preference, it is a necessity.

When our calls for action are consistent, governments are far more likely to respond. When we stand united, we deny antisemites the ability to exploit divisions. And when we deliver joint messages that are accurate, and strategic, we are more likely to expand our alliances with others.

What does true collaboration mean?

1. Collaboration means that we recognize and acknowledge the contributions of other organizations to positive outcomes. We have had some significant successes (though it may not feel that way to a community constantly under attack.) Those successes almost invariably have taken place due to the efforts of multiple organizations – and we should always say so.

There is, undeniably, a need for organizations to raise money. And raising money means – quite understandably – selling donors on what an organization has done. But what our organizations have done should be based on what we have done collaboratively. Donors are entitled to expect no less.

In the first year of ALCCA’s operations, we had no donate button to click on our website. It wasn’t that we didn’t need financial help. Instead, it was more important to us that, in our early stages, our messaging – often involving expert, detailed analysis – remained credible and unconnected to raising money.

Effective advocacy sometimes also requires working quietly behind the scenes rather than publicizing every success. We must restrain ourselves when publicity can undermine quiet but effective advocacy, contemplated or existing litigation, especially in criminal cases, or national security. At ALCCA, much of our work is done quietly. We do not seek public credit, although it is undoubtedly rewarding. We seek success.

2. Collaboration means that no organization should disparage the work of others. Such an approach doesn’t further our goals. Organizations may differ on their strategic approach to issues. Some may be more effective than others. Collaboration is designed to reduce those differences. But even when they remain, we can express our views without attacking our peers or describing ourselves as the only true advocates for the Jewish community.

This approach enables us to work effectively with so many legacy and grassroots organizations. For example, our Canadian Criminal Law Working Group works in partnership with CIJA and the Canadian Jewish Law Association (CJLA) and others. We have worked with Friends of Simon Wiesenthal on several projects. We are working with UJA, CIJA, CJLA on a new initiative for funding public interest litigation on behalf of the Jewish community. We worked with B’nai Brith on bubble legislation and amplified its campaign on the display of the Nazi Hakenkreuz.

We also work closely with many of our member organizations and other partners on issues relating to education, BDS, anti-Palestinian racism, extremism, national security and immigration, respectful dialogue, and criminal law reform. The list is endless.

3. Collaboration means recognizing an organization’s strengths and acknowledging when other organizations are better situated to take a lead role. For example, our community has experts in securing our vulnerable institutions, such as the Jewish Security Network (JSN), and in liaising with governments on security issues. As a result, ALCCA does not occupy this space, except if security risks come to our attention that must be elevated to JSN and law enforcement.

On the other hand, our expertise in criminal law enables us to be involved in training police and prosecutors across the country, triaging criminal complaints from the community, assisting victims of hate crimes and interacting with police and prosecutors on investigations and prosecutions. Other organizations are now referring criminal matters to us in recognition of that expertise.

We also recognize that it is sometimes most effective to amplify the messages of others, including many of our member organizations, instead of re-inventing the wheel. As a community, we must adopt this approach more often. We conserve resources and increase impact when we amplify strong, existing calls to action instead of reinventing them.

4. Collaboration means working with organizations despite divergent views within the Zionist/mainstream Jewish community on the solutions to the Middle East conflict. Zionists share a core belief in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish democratic state in our ancestral lands. For many Zionists, that belief is not incompatible with Palestinian self-determination or with support for a two-state solution – although, most who hold that belief do not accept that the conditions exist for a unilaterally-declared State of Palestine, particularly given Hamas’s continuing role, and the detention of the hostages.

Whatever our differing views about the resolution of the conflict or the current Israeli government, we share a commitment to combatting antisemitism in Canada, and we must challenge efforts to hold Canadian Jews collectively responsible for the actions, however described, of the Israeli government. As reflected in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, the attribution of such collective responsibility is a central feature of antisemitism.

Some of our community organizations are heavily involved in partisan politics, based on the Israel-related policies of parties or governments; other organizations are not. ALCCA has remained politically non-partisan at the “corporate” level, regardless of personally held or expressed beliefs, because it is of strategic importance that we speak to everyone on the political spectrum (other than those who deny Israel’s right to exist) and because involvement in partisan politics as an organization is incompatible with the training and education we do.

Effective strategies to combat antisemitism require that we distinguish between antisemites and those who support Israel’s right to exist but differ (often vigorously) on politics. This also means that we must differentiate between those who protest against Israel’s conduct, and those who glorify Hamas, urging the destruction of Israel “by any means necessary.” Extremists should be arrested and prosecuted when promoting or inciting hatred or counselling terrorism, and we should dialogue with, listen to and educate others.

Preaching to the Converted

In addition to the collaboration described above, community organizations have to critically evaluate what initiatives will truly change minds or produce positive outcomes. We can sometimes spend too much time merely mutually reinforcing what we already believe.

That being said, it is important to educate our own community about what is happening and how it is antithetical to what we believe. But our goal should always be action-oriented. What are we proposing that community members do to make a difference? We should always have a call to action in mind, and, whenever possible, that call to action should be the product of a collaborative strategic plan that evaluates likely impact.

Conclusion

These are challenging times to be a Jew. And yet, we have allies, important allies. We have shown resilience and strength in the face of adversity. And we have participated in many initiatives together with a wide range of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. We have the capacity to be even more effective through collaboration in the ways I have described. A lot rides on getting this right. So let us all dedicate ourselves to doing so in the New Year.

In the New Year, may we see peace, the return of the hostages, and a renewed effort to work collaboratively and strategically to confront and address antisemitism and other forms of bias, prejudice and hate here in Canada.

Shana Tovah U’Metukah and Happy Navratri!

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About The Author

Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.

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