Hillel must draw the line on BDS
It is extremely disappointing to read that chapters of Hillel have been hijacked into “hearing Palestinian voices” and that other so-called “Jewish” organizations have the gall to expect that Hillel should discuss anti-Israel narratives (“Where’s the line in campus debates about Israel?”The CJN, Feb. 6). If anyone wants to hear Palestinian voices, they are welcome to listen to any one of thousands of NGOs and media that blindly support Palestinians and quickly shut down all pro-Israel discourse.
At least boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is a red line for Hillel, as it should be for many reasons, but the real answer to BDS and the European Union law boycotting businesses beyond the Green Line is they are racist. If any pro-BDS organization will boycott all of the numerous occupiers, such as Turkey for the occupation of Cyprus, China for Tibet, Iran for Baluchestan, then there is something to discuss. Until then, boycotting the Jewish state while ignoring the others is simply anti-Semitic.
Mike Freedland
Thornhill
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The answer is simple: the line is drawn when “discussion and dialogue” are really code for activism aimed at first infiltrating and then undermining Hillel as a staunch supporter of Israel, part of a course of action that would ultimately destroy them both.
It doesn’t require Tyler Levitan’s master’s degree in political economy to understand that the aim of boycotting Israel, divesting from it and sanctioning it, is to destroy its economy as well as break its spirit, bringing an end to the country.
Why should Hillel permit such traitorous people to penetrate and destroy it? Levitan already has two organizations – Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and now his Young Jews for Social Justice. If he doesn’t like Hillel, he doesn’t have to join, but he won’t be content unless he destroys it. Should Levitan feel the need for the acceptance he’s not getting from Hillel, the United Church will likely welcome him with open arms.
It is odd that people such as Irshad Manjii, Hirsi Ali and Nonie Darwish support Israel’s existence alongside Arabs and Palestinians, while people of Levitan’s ilk and his organizations aid and abet those seeking its destruction.
Advice to Hillel – Levitan’s spurious argument for an “open Hillel” is a Trojan horse. Shut your gates to Levitan and IJV and feel no need for apology.
Anthony Dayton
Thornhill
SodaStream flows in Israel
Bernie Farber’s article (“Let a thousand SodaStreams flow,” The CJN, Feb. 13) provides an example of why Jewish people are in such a difficult situation. How is it that so many Jews, including the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, have bought into anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda? The Jewish people have rights, and we have the land deed to prove it. The rights given to the Jewish people, in recognition of our history in the Land of Israel, have not expired (see article 80 of the UN charter).
It is time that we broadcast, loud and clear, that according to international law, Jews are allowed to settle anywhere west of the Jordan River. Jews lived continuously in Judea and Samaria for more than 3,000 years. Renaming this land “the West Bank” in order to disguise this history, and making it Judenfrei for 19 years (1948-1967) as a result of Arab slaughter and ethnic cleansing, did not turn this land into Arab land. Ma’aleh Adumim and the other Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are not on “occupied land.”
Yehudit Shier Weisberg
The Legal Forum for Israel
Toronto
Lev Tahor faith misplaced
In the article “Jewish agencies ready to foster Lev Tahor kids” (The CJN, Feb. 13), there was a quotation that never fails to raise my hackles.
Nachman Helbrans, son of the sect’s founder, said, Lev Tahor leaders are trying to reassure children that “Hakodesh Baruch Hu [God] saves Jewish kinder every time.
Except for the time the Nazis murdered one million innocent Jewish kinder – and all those other occasions in the long history of the Jews where our innocent children suffered the slings and arrows of vicious anti-Semitism.
Morley S. Wolfe
Brampton, Ont.
Gas stoves weather the storm
Richard Rabkin (“Halachic challenges of the ice storm,” The CJN, Jan. 30) is obviously unfamiliar with gas stoves. There is no need for the mashgiach to relight the pilot light in the gas stove oven. It is a gas stove and the gas supply was not affected by power outage. Gas heat did not work because there was no electricity for the fans or water pumps. Gas stoves rely on neither!
Jack Miller
Special Advisor on Buildings & Space
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry
Brock University