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BigCityLib Strikes Back: Bernie Farber On The Canadian Museum for Human Rights
A useful corrective, if only because we usually hear about the museum’s various downsides.
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Bernie Farber At The Kickoff To Ontario Jewish Heritage Month
I was lucky enough to attend the kickoff to Ontario’s first Jewish Heritage Month at Beth Torah Synagogue on Monday evening. Highlights included a choir, the name of which I forget now but they were terrific, Susan Jackman’s spirited and funny account of Jewish immigration into T.O., and of course Bernie’s
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: On Prosecuting Elderly War Criminals
Bernie Farber has a new piece on Huffpo. He says it better than I could: The hunting down of war criminals sends a universal message that such unspeakable crimes will not be tolerated by a civil society. It tells potential perpetrators that there is no place to hide; that they
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Farber On The Gatineau Mosque And Other Recent Hate Crimes
Bernie has a nice piece in the Citizen: Recently there has been a debate raging here in Canada regarding the necessity of antihate laws. There are those who believe that any restriction on speech whatsoever is an infringement on our valued right to free-speech. In 1990 the Supreme Court of
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Farber And Kurz On Section 13
Opponents of Section 13 argue that it is an assault on free speech. They claim that it targets speech that may merely offend those with thin skins. If the target of the law were merely “offensive” statements, we would wholeheartedly agree. But this is not the case. The law aims
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The Slightly Shorter Farber
…on Hudak’s promise to put crooks in your parks:Ontario has long been a province of tough, practical people. The Ontario way is to ask: “what works?” and make decisions based on reality, not ideology. But ideology, rather than reality, is behind Pete…
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Farber On Healthcare, Redux
Back a week or so, CJC head and provincial Liberal Party candidate for Thornhill Bernie Farber penned a column for Shalom Life in which he was critical of Ontario’s health-care system circa the Mike Harris Gov. He used as an example the…
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Whither Mark Steyn?
It was pointed out to me yesterday that Mark Steyn hasn’t produced content for Macleans in quite awhile. So I fired off an email to Senior Columnist Paul Wells. He responded:Feel free to quote me but I won’t be very helpful. Mark hasn’t wri…
Continue readingAndy Lehrer's Firebrand blog: At long last, Farber forced to denounce JDL
After years of treating the Jewish Defence League as if they were a rogueish but loveable younger brother, Canadian Jewish Congress supremo Bernie Farber has finally said something about the JDL that’s stronger than “they’re not my cup of tea” or that he’s “disappointed” by them. A shame he and
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: At long last, Farber forced to denounce JDL
After years of treating the Jewish Defence League as if they were a rogueish but loveable younger brother, Canadian Jewish Congress supremo Bernie Farber has finally said something about the JDL that’s stronger than “they’re not my cup of tea” or that he’s “disappointed” by them. A shame he and
Continue readingCanadian Firebrand: At long last, Farber forced to denounce JDL
After years of treating the Jewish Defence League as if they were a rogueish but loveable younger brother, Canadian Jewish Congress supremo Bernie Farber has finally said something about the JDL that’s stronger than “they’re not my cup of tea” or that he’s “disappointed” by them. A shame he and
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: At long last, Farber forced to denounce JDL
After years of treating the Jewish Defence League as if they were a rogueish but loveable younger brother, Canadian Jewish Congress supremo Bernie Farber has finally said something about the JDL that’s stronger than “they’re not my cup of tea” or that he’s “disappointed” by them.
A shame he and other self-appointed leaders of the Canadian Jewish community have looked the other way or been quietly encouraging of them over the past few years as the JDL has organized and grown and been busy on campuses and even high schools recruiting youth.
The JDL is and always has been a hate group and a violent one at that and Farber et al’s insistence that the Canadian JDL is somehow different than its US counterpart has only given them cover and allowed them to work unopposed within the Jewish community. Had any other group said about Jews what the JDL has long said about Muslims the CJC would have been rightly outraged and insisted that the group in question be ostracised.
Instead, Farber has always quietly defended the JDL or, at worst, issued the mildest of rebuke. This is perhaps his greatest failure as a “liberal” who has been too opportunistic and too wary of being outflanked on the right to say anything. Indeed, he has been so reticent to be critical that JDL head Meir Weinstein actually thinks of Farber as a friend and speaks glowingly of him to others.
Now that the JDL’s extremism is undeniable will Farber finally do what he should have done years ago and work to ostracise the JDL within the Jewish community and try to deny them the space to organize? Somehow, I doubt it. There would be a political price to pay and Farber lacks the integrity needed to expend the political capital needed to root out the JDL. He’d much rather ostracise and marginalize Independent Jewish Voices for the crime of criticising Israel than to consistently oppose the JDL, an organization rooted in a variety of ultra-nationalism that can only be called fascism.
Still, good that he had this printed in the Toronto Sun, it’s a modest step. Let’s see if he issues a similar, or hopefully stronger, missive in the Canadian Jewish News. Will he actually meet with the principals of Jewish Day Schools and urge them to ban the JDL from their schools? Will he ask Jewish campus groups to refuse to work with the JDL? Will he ask the UJA to freeze them out? Or can we expect this summer, yet again, the sight of Meir Weinstein walking down the route of the annual Walk With Israel like a conquring hero or some fascist version of the King of Kensington kibbitzing and patting the back of every “community leader” he encounters, including Farber, as if Weinstein is a somebody, a Big Man on the Jewish Campus? Independent Jewish Voices and its predecessor, the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians, have warned about the JDL and urged Farber and others to denounce them. While I’m sure we’re gratified that, however late in the day, Farber has finally seen the light let’s see if this epiphany will last. Farber’s started talking the talk. Will he and the “leadership” of the Jewish community now walk the walk?
Troubling marriage for T.O.’s Jews
The EDL is well-known throughout Europe for its anti-Muslim street protests
By Bernie Farber and Benjamin Shinewald, Guest Columnists
Continue readingfirebrand: IJV’s response to the National Post article
Re: Church Helped Fund ‘Anti-jewish’ Group, Sept. 17.
Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber characterizes it as “shocking, outrageous, shameful and scandalous” that a Christian church contributed money to the founding event of Independent Jewish …
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: Galloway sues Farber, CTV, Kenney, Velshi
On Wednesday, I was the first to report that British MP George Galloway was suing Bernie Farber and CTV for libel. Today, Canadian Press reports on this and adds that he will also be suing Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Alykhan Velshi for remarks they made about him. This should
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: George Galloway suing Bernie Farber and CTV
Word out of Montreal tonight that George Galloway made public during his webcast to Concordia tonight that he has launched a devamation lawsuit against Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber and CTV for defamation uttered in an interview. UPDATE: Galloway repeated the news in his webcast to Ottawa and the
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