Most pro-Israel and pro-Palestine rallies can be easily identified by which flags are being waved, but at one recent Toronto event attendees were asked to leave flags at home.

This gathering was different in tenor and scale from many of the louder, bigger rallies of late. Signs in purple and white promoted unity in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Jewish and Muslim community leaders, imams, rabbis, academics, and advocates spoke briefly, followed by poetry. In tribute to Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist who was killed in the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, a friend of Silver’s read Marge Piercy’s “Kaddish.”

The peace vigil, deliberately more compassionate and intimate, was organized by Standing Together Toronto, or Omdot Beyachad. The women-led group takes its name from the Israeli shared-society organization known as Standing Together, with inspiration from Women Wage Peace, which Silver co-founded.

The Canadian Jewish political left of centre is a broad tent, including progressives, liberals and social-justice groups. Since Oct. 7, many find themselves shaken by the lack of support from the broader left following Israel’s strikes against Hamas in Gaza, and struggling to hold a nuanced position.

Several Jewish community leaders, organizers, and professionals who spoke with The CJN say it should not be taboo to express sympathy, much less solidarity, with Palestinian suffering. But it goes both ways, many say. It’s disappointing to feel hesitant expressing support for the hostages in non-Jewish leftist spaces, especially those focused on supporting Palestinians and Gaza.

Yet that nuanced position—advocating for the hostages and protecting Israel from Hamas while recognizing the devastation in Gaza and the functional inequalities between Israeli Jews and Palestinians—seems to be the unifying factor, if there is one, across the Jewish Canadian left.

Meirav Jones, one of the Standing Together Toronto organizers, teaches religious studies at McMaster University and is a board member of the progressive Jewish organization JSpace Canada. She maintains it’s possible to support Israel and still take positions against the Israeli government.

“Standing with Israel has usually meant standing with the government whatever it’s doing, but I think there is more nuance in the conversation now in Canada, definitely,” she told The CJN in an interview.

“The Jews are on both sides of this,” says Jones, mentioning examples of Israelis who volunteer with organizations that advocate for Palestinians targeted by settler violence in the West Bank, or whose full access to their land is impeded by Israeli separation walls or land divisions.

Jones says while it took time for the Toronto group to organize events after the brutality of Oct. 7, she found strength in a story of Israeli resilience from Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities attacked by Hamas.

“I was inspired by a young woman from Be’eri who spoke [out] on social media and said ‘my nightmare is over and I just can’t fathom that this is just starting for other people in Gaza.’”

“This is a survivor from Be’eri… that was her sentiment,” says Jones.

“When we think about the peace activists that we lost, Vivian Silver [and others], what does it mean to continue their way, to walk in their path?

“Part of the problem also is that some of the discourse that was emerging from Israel, from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and from other partners in his government, was a discourse of revenge… that’s very troubling.

“We thought it was possible to both not be pro-war and to care about the hostages, to care about the people on both sides, to care about… Palestinians, innocent people, children… to care about women, to care about everybody who’s not directly a militant who is trying to kill us.”

Jones adds that many progressive Jews she knows have faced difficulties in their working lives since Oct.  7, as their colleagues fail to acknowledge their pain over Israel.

“Particularly in the universities and in other spaces, human rights lawyers, people who have worked in those spaces are having a really hard time in terms of reconciling… people that they used to work with, people that they’ve worked with for years, who are now not able to speak to them. They’ve lost people, they’ve lost connections on the ground, because they’re Jewish or because they are pro-Israel.”

Miriam Zucker, who teaches law at York University’s Osgoode Hall and at the University of Toronto, co-organized the peace vigil. She says Oct. 7 didn’t change her left-leaning positions on peace and coexistence, but that she wanted to put her energy into women-led initiatives and dialogues.  

“It’s starting to be tribal,” she says. “It feels very lonely. I spoke with friends about the loneliness of the Israeli left… but it’s also people here, I know others [who feel] betrayed from both sides [and that the] progressive left [has been] disappointing.

“Saying ‘genocide’ without circumstances, a lot of them don’t know the history. We are saying ‘let’s open a dialogue.’ Listen, learn before making a statement.”

Learning is something everyone can do, from Jews who can try to learn Palestinian history that is “not even in textbooks in Israel,” to Canadians, who she says should not conflate the “colonialism perspective” of an Indigenous Canadian history lens with Israel/Palestine.

Holding those two truths simultaneously — advocating for the hostages and protecting Israel from Hamas while recognizing the devastation in Gaza — is a common feeling among the Jewish left, according to Ben Murane, executive director of the New Israel Fund of Canada.

Meanwhile, in a seemingly rare point of unity on Israel across Canadian Jewish communities, the safe return of the hostages has uniquely transcended political divides within the larger Jewish community.   

And while the rolling hostage releases since Nov. 24 provided a breath of much-needed hope, that’s the approximate end of the political agreement in the Jewish community.

That’s OK, Murane says.

“It is no surprise that where there are loud extremes in Canada, there will be loud extremes within the Canadian Jewish community as well. The mistake is believing that all Canadian Jews believe the same thing all the time.

 “One of the most important things the humane left can do, and is doing, is creating that space where it is legitimate to care for both people. That is not a small thing in an extremely polarizing landscape,” Murane says.

“We are rooted in the Israelis that are able, impressively, to do that in this moment. If they can do it, we can do it too.”

Canadians looking for that nuance are starting to connect with him and others in Canadian coexistence circles, he says.

“Despite what it may feel like on social media, there is a great tradition of Canadian Jews and Canadian Muslim Arabs, [perhaps] disagreeing with each other on politics but living together, even warmly.”

Allowing space for people to change their minds or positions can help both parties hold two truths simultaneously, Murane says.

“In times of significant crisis like this, people change their underlying politics and they move right and they move left. And every day they feel two-minded. It’s also important to offer people the compassion that they’re really wrestling with stuff, and what they say in one moment may not be what they support in the next moment.

“And often how we treat them in that conversation will determine how they will treat somebody tomorrow.”

Jon Allen, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel who teaches at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Public Policy, says he doesn’t see major divisions among the progressive community.

“The progressive community, was, and remains, horrified about what happened on the seventh. They understand the issue fully of trying to rid Gaza of Hamas. I think where some of us question what is going on is the extent to which civilians are being killed in Gaza.

“This is not a question of measuring the numbers. It’s a question of, at a minimum, having sympathy for the families, the children and others who are dying and who are injured, and some legitimate criticism, in my view of Israel’s manner of carrying out this war.”

Allen says that in his conversations since Oct. 7, he doesn’t perceive those divisions among Canadian Jewish progressives, though he acknowledges many on the left may now question their positions.

“Frankly, after what just happened, I’m even more of an advocate [for a two-state solution]. I know some people who are now questioning, based on what happened, whether they can continue to be a two-stater or whether they were naive. I get it. And I’m sure there are lots of people in Israel who are of that view, and I’m hoping it will change over time.”

Social media and its entrenched polarization has amplified the rising online hate, Allen adds.

“A combination of Trumpism, which has allowed people to say anything they want at any time, and social media, which just maximizes it, has taken antisemitism and Islamophobia and extremism to levels that we haven’t seen in my generation.

“I think left, right, and centre are concerned about the antisemitism that has come out of this and the hate, which is just awful. And frankly it’s out there on the other side, talk to some Jews and they’ll tell you every Muslim is a threat, because they read something [out of context about the Koran] on social media.

“This kind of polarization is rampant and it’s scary, because it’s hard to put it back in the box.”

In Vancouver, Daphna Kedem organized the UnXeptable movement protests earlier in 2023, and has been serving as a Canadian liaison with Israeli authorities providing updates around the hostages.

“There is an isolation and a big gap has formed [since Oct. 7] between left Jews and left non-Jews,” says Kedem.

She feels disappointed by “very narrow” views on the non-Jewish left in Canada.

“The first week, everyone was on our side, in a way, if it’s a side. After the first week, the narrative changed to ‘Israelis are killing Palestinians,’” she says.

“I’m focusing on the freeing of the hostages. That’s what I do every Sunday. That’s why we rally, why we march. This is where my empowerment is. This is where my strength is.”

Kedem says the overwhelming nature of social media includes that “the non-Jewish left have lost shame” in sharing content she says is clearly antisemitic.

“I see illustrations of things that were just copied from the thirties or forties of how the Jews are, what they look like… really awful.”

There is no neat line that defines who is on the Canadian Jewish left. Daniel Roth is a Canadian organizer based in Jerusalem with the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, which brings Jewish activists to the West Bank to learn about issues facing Palestinians.

Roth argues that groups like Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJVC), United Jewish People’s Order and IfNotNow have been talking about the inequality between Israelis and Palestinians for years.

“If the mainstream [Jewish] community doesn’t agree with those groups, that’s one thing, but they are part of the Jewish left and that’s an important thing to bring into this conversation.”

While IfNotNow does not define its positions on Zionism or statehood, its principles include an anti-occupation stance. It joins IJVC and others who comprise the further left Jewish coalition in pro-Palestinian rallies.

Vlada Bilyak, an organizer with the Toronto chapter of IfNotNow, says the group has seen increasing interest from people “who are feeling incredibly isolated and abandoned by their Jewish communities.”

Bilyak says the group’s momentum shows that it’s addressing a need for a critical conversation, which is where she says mainstream Canadian Jewish institutions have not met the moment.

“What I see in the media and on the left, sometimes, is a denial that antisemitism exists on the left. There can be this kind of an inability to hold that complexity, and what we’re seeing in the leadership of Jewish institutions is the opposite failure to hold that complexity, which is that it is all antisemitic, and that our experiences of fear and pain and trauma are the only things that matter.

“What’s important… is really holding those two truths and that messy complexity and saying ‘yes, there is so much pain. Yes, there is trauma. Yes, there is very real antisemitism, there is fear, and our safety as Jews is very deeply intertwined with the safety of Palestinians, [and safety for Jews] cannot come at the expense of their safety.’”

According to Ben Murane, the key for progressive Jews engaging in conversations about Israel comes down to recognition and compassion.

“If you are, like I am, feeling squeezed and in the middle, it’s because it’s really hard to hold two people’s pain at the same time. But the only way out of this, for both of us, is recognizing the humanity of the other side.”

“In many cases, the best thing you can do is just to simply stand up and be counted.”