My comments were misrepresented in the article “Ukrainian groups oppose museum’s Holocaust exhibit” (Jan. 20). I did not say that Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber described me as a “one-man wrecking crew” of Jewish and Ukrainian relations in Canada – that ad hominem insult was penned by Eric Vernon, a CJC employee, who included it in his Dec. 22 response to my article on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, both published in another newspaper. Needless to say, I found Vernon’s remark offensive, even as I lament the lack of civility in what is a legitimate public debate over the proposed contents of this taxpayer-funded national museum.
And for the record, let’s be clear: there are 12 galleries (called zones) in the museum. One “Mass Atrocities” gallery will include an exhibit on the Holodomor (the famine brought about by Stalinist policies in the early 1930s that has been blamed for the deaths of millions of Ukrainians), along with – depending on whom you believe – between 49 and 99 other displays lumping together, for example, the “killing fields” of Cambodia with the Armenian genocide and Maoist crimes against humanity.
Only two communities get entire galleries to themselves –  one depicting injustices experienced by aboriginal Canadians and the other the horrors of the Shoah. Assigning them permanent, prominent and privileged space elevates their suffering above all others. That is something the Ukrainian Canadian community, and others, are protesting. Our proposed remedy is to make all 12 galleries thematic, comparative and inclusive, which would have true pedagogical value and obviously would include the Holocaust.
Lubomyr Luciuk
Director of Research
Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Toronto

 
Though I am not particularly observant, I take offence to the promotion of Epic Meal Time in your newspaper (“YouTube videos let viewers enjoy junk food vicariously,” Heebonics, Jan. 20). It is hardly in keeping with The CJN’s longstanding journalistic standards. It’s not that Harley Morenstein and his gang showcase the most hideous food combinations – all of which fly in the face of Jewish dietary laws. It’s that while serving a whole stuffed pig, laden with butter and bacon, someone watching wears a prayer shawl and kippah. I am well aware that many Jewish comedians exploit and degrade their heritage for easy laughs. However, I do not expect your newspaper to congratulate them for it.
Stephanie Ein
Montreal

In “Poet writes loving paeans to Bathurst Manor” (Jan. 6), it is stated that Arthur Parker was the city’s first Jewish doctor. We have researched our great-uncle, Sam Lavine, and indeed he was likely the first Jew trained in medicine in Toronto. He graduated from Trinity College in 1899, and shortly thereafter, Trinity amalgamated with several other colleges to form the University of Toronto. Our great-uncle was registered for practice in 1900 in Ontario. His first practice address was registered as 100 John St.
Elana Lavine
Ivan Lavine
Toronto

When e-mails condemning the rumoured boycott of Ahava products began circulating recently within the Jewish community, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) advised our membership that we were conducting an investigation into the matter and would report as soon as we uncovered the truth (“HBC stands firm against Israeli boycott calls,” Jan. 20). FSWC ultimately determined there was no boycott by the Bay. This was confirmed by Ahava in Israel and New York, and by the company’s president and CEO, Bonnie Brooks.
FSWC was the first organization to issue a community advisory stating there was no boycott. Other organizations’ advisories quickly followed. It is therefore surprising that the CJN article unfairly implied that FSWC was in part responsible for the unwarranted rage against the Bay, particularly as we follow a strict set of fact-checking protocols before issuing action alerts to our members.
Avi Benlolo
President and CEO
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies

I disagree with the views expressed in the Perspectives piece “It’s no longer just about the master’s thesis” (Jan. 13), about Jennifer Peto’s thesis, The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education.
First and foremost, “free expression of opinions” is not a principle that can override scholarly values. I have repeatedly asked University of Toronto officials, who invoke this principle, whether they would defend a thesis that maintains that the moon is made of mouldy green cheese. In other words, does freedom of speech, in a university, justify anything at all, no matter how absurd? The officials have never answered this question.
Second, the Perspectives article brings up the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, suggesting that it was the Jews and their supporters who, by raising loud objections, guaranteed the success of this book. I agree that “a history lesson is in order.” This history has been told many times, most recently by Prof. Robert Wistrich in A Lethal Obsession. It turns out that the success of the Protocols did not in any way depend on the objections raised to the book, but rather on the enthusiastic promotion by antisemites, Adolf Hitler, of course, but also Henry Ford and others. None of these had to rely on Jewish complaints to fuel their antisemitic programs.
Finally, while it’s true that there probably are many other bad MA theses in the world that get no media attention, it is not true that the Peto work was singled out simply for its point of view.  I would say that the attention it has received is due to a toxic mix of a) its complete lack of scholarship in the usual sense of that word, and b) its message of hate. Absent one of these but present the other, it probably would  not have inspired the very healthy reaction of abhorrence that in fact it has received. This reaction has largely come from academics in the first place and was only then picked up by the press and Jewish community leaders.
Werner Cohn
Vancouver

The hateful rhetoric spewed by Jennifer Peto in her master’s thesis goes beyond the issue of mere academics (“It’s no longer just about the master’s thesis,” Jan. 13). Whether antisemitic comments are posted on the Internet, printed on flyers, published in newspapers or composed in the guise of a master’s thesis, they should not be tolerated. Showing outrage over the thesis in question does not validate or dignify it. It sends a clear message,  yet again, that the line between freedom of expression and racist commentary has been crossed. I, for one, am glad that our community organizations chooses not to lie down and play dead in the face of such insult. The article misses the point in suggesting that the current public concern is limited to the “sloppy” work of a random graduate student, rather than the disgraceful employment of yet another platform from which to spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories. We have every right to expect that our institutions of higher learning will not tacitly enable this process.
Peggy Ross Bybelezer
Town of Mount Royal, Que.

 
Though I am not particularly observant, I take offence to the promotion of Epic Meal Time in your newspaper (“YouTube videos let viewers enjoy junk food vicariously,” Heebonics, Jan. 20). It is hardly in keeping with The CJN’s longstanding journalistic standards. It’s not that Harley Morenstein and his gang showcase the most hideous food combinations – all of which fly in the face of Jewish dietary laws. It’s that while serving a whole stuffed pig, laden with butter and bacon, someone watching wears a prayer shawl and kippah. I am well aware that many Jewish comedians exploit and degrade their heritage for easy laughs. However, I do not expect your newspaper to congratulate them for it.
Stephanie Ein
Montreal

As a Reform Baptist who believes in the separation of church and state, I do not see how the various Jewish organizations can stop the Quebec government from outlawing religious instruction in its daycare centres when they are publicly funded (“Religious instruction at daycares,” letters, Jan. 20).
John Clubine
Toronto