TORONTO — UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) have replied to a request for a meeting by the Winchevsky Centre, following a decision by Congress and the federation to disassociate themselves from the secular Zionist organization. However, it’s still not clear whether a meeting will take place.
David Spiro
The organizations’ decision resulted from a Feb. 1 event at the centre that featured an anti-Zionist speaker.
In a Feb. 3 e-mail, Sheldon Goodman and David Spiro, co-chairs of the federation’s committee on public affairs, and Frank Bialystok, chair of CJC, Ontario region, informed Maxine Hermolin, the centre’s executive director, that they were severing ties.
They concluded, “If you would like to discuss this, please contact Howard English [of UJA Federation] or Len Rudner [of CJC].”
Hermolin and board members of Toronto United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO) – which is housed in the centre and co-sponsored the event – interpreted the e-mail as an invitation, David Abramowitz, president of UJPO Canada, told The CJN.
Thus, three days later, on Feb. 6, Hermolin e-mailed back to request a meeting. “Please contact us at your earliest convenience to arrange this,” she wrote.
However, it wasn’t until Feb. 28 that she received a reply. English told The CJN at the time that the delay was due to “a lot of discussion” about the issue.
The brief e-mail acknowledged receipt of Hermolin’s letter, concluding in its second and final paragraph, “The positions of the Winchevsky Centre, UJA Federation and Canadian Jewish Congress regarding the event Never Again for Anyone have already been well articulated in correspondence between our organizations and the event has already taken place. Therefore, could you please indicate the proposed subject matter for this meeting beyond a review of those positions?”
Abramowitz said the board of Toronto UJPO is contemplating an appropriate response. Because they thought that Hermolin was responding to an invitation to discuss the issue, and because there hasn’t been any negative fallout, the response was still under discussion at press time.
