Month: February 2012

‘Israeli apartheid’ is a slur that does no one any good

Campuses around the world are beginning to witness a series of annual events known as Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), and it’s a particularly depressing time of the year to be a progressive Jew. That’s because when you call Israel an apartheid regime, as many on the...

Linsanity and some personal soul-searching on race

The New York Knicks and Asian-American rookie phenom Jeremy Lin were in town last week to play the Toronto Raptors, and it led me to some personal soul-searching on race, particularly when it comes to Asians and Asian-Americans and Canadians. By now, many of you already know Lin’s...

Some interesting firsts in Canada’s Jewish community

A couple of noteworthy firsts passed with little fanfare this past December that are unusual in Canada’s religiously (and increasingly politically) conservative Jewish community. First, Temple Emanu-El Beth Sholom in Montreal named Rabbi Lisa Grushcow to succeed Rabbi Leigh Lerner, who will become rabbi emeritus of Canada’s...

A disingenuous piece of ‘news’

Over the weekend, I happened to visit the website of the Kashruth Council of Canada, the country’s largest kosher supervisory agency (yes, I lead a very exciting life), and I noticed that it contains the following helpful item in its news section — the place where...