More out of sorrow than anger, we must respond to Laura Rosen Cohen's diatribe against Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) ("The problem at the Canadian Jewish Congress," February 6). Ms. Cohen assumes the mantle of arbiter of Jewish priorities but, sadly, she does so with no sense of the community's real needs or the longstanding values that underpin our advocacy.
Ms. Cohen argues that Canadian Jewish Congress is out of touch with the interests of Canada's Jewish community, but her comments betray her own, profound disconnection from that same community. Her vision of community-based representation is anachronistic; at a time when CJC is on the cutting edge of 21st-century advocacy, she would have us circle the wagons.
CJC is spearheading the Jewish community's contribution to building a strong and vibrant Canada. Our organization's name has two adjectives; our actions are motivated by both the values that define us as a people and by the millennia-old ethical and moral underpinning of our spiritual tradition. The perspectives CJC brings to the table are solidly grounded in Jewish values of social justice and tikkun olam "repair of the world."
Ms. Cohen's listing of tuition, camp and synagogue fees among the community's top priorities is as outrageous as it is false and plays into the hands of those who would stereotype our community. There is a resolute communal expectation that CJC advocate for human rights, equality and fairness for all, to make Canada and the world a better place. And so we do.
On the advocacy front, Ms. Cohen's accusations and insinuations are simply wrong. CJC has played a lead role in seeking funding for Jewish day schools in partnership with other faith-based groups. CJC has loudly sounded the alarm about the threat posed by Iran. Even with her "cursory glance" at our website, Ms. Cohen should have seen our op-ed defending Ezra Levant. That same op-ed took human rights commissions to task for such frivolous exercises as the investigation into Mr. Levant's magazine's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
She may imagine that anti-Semitism is not a pressing problem. But if she thinks CJC needs a reality check, we would urge her to look around a little more carefully and reassess this situation in today's world. Issues such as securing the release of Israel's kidnapped soldiers are beyond the mandate of CJC, but our community is blessed with other organizations that have worked assiduously on such matters.
And what to make of Cohen's egregious criticism of CJC's advocacy on Darfur, on the basis that the territory is bereft of Jews? Perhaps she should cast her mind back 65 years when another genocide was underway to truly make the world judenrein, and she will understand why Canada's Holocaust survivors themselves have insisted that the Jewish community speak out through the voice of CJC on the horrors unfolding in Sudan.
On other fronts, CJC is carrying out some exciting, progressive and innovative programming. We are working to develop dialogue with Muslim leadership in Canada in hopes of building bridges and focusing on what unites us rather than what divides us. Canada will be the benefactor of such outreach. Similarly, we have recently made great strides toward enhancing our relations with Canada's First Nations, highlighted by last month's mission to Israel of 17 aboriginal women in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations.
Clearly, CJC cannot be everything to everybody, every time. But the priorities that we establish on behalf of the community will never revert back to the parochial, self-interested agenda that Ms. Cohen misguidedly thinks our community wants. She pines for a Canadian Jewish Congress that, "actually dealt with issues that currently affect us." More's the pity she doesn't understand that is precisely what we do.
-Sylvain Abitbol and Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka are co-presidents of Canadian Jewish Congress.
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