In advance of Yom Kippur, NDP leader Avi Lewis tweeted a brief reflection, naming that on a day when Jews are called to account for the year that has passed, “we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name.”
Thousands of Jews around the world marked the holy day with the same solemn reflection, grappling with the same grief, from mass public yizkor demonstrations to private contemplation at communal gatherings. Lewis is far from alone in the frustration that our collective efforts have fallen short in the face of the unrelenting devastation being inflicted upon Palestinians by Israel.
Yet rather than grapple with the reality of Israel’s ongoing genocide, several politicians, commentators, and pro-Israel lobby groups have fixated on Lewis’ statement, mischaracterizing this heartfelt expression of grief as antisemitic. They even went so far as to blame Lewis for the frightening shooting outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, at the outset of Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur evening services.
As we have since learned, the shooter, a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, is purported to have subscribed to antisemitic conspiracy theories, including that Jews were responsible for COVID-19. He has since died of injuries sustained in a shootout with a police officer, who is now in critical condition. While fortunately none of the congregants were injured, the instance is a grim reminder of ongoing threats posed to Jews by far-right antisemitic conspiracy theorists, a phenomenon that goes all too often ignored as Zionist lobby groups and pundits find it more politically advantageous to focus their ire on supporters of Palestinian liberation.
Not even Jews like Avi Lewis are spared in their haste to jump to conclusions and score points for Israel and its defenders when we speak simple truths: that a genocide is being committed, that it is being done in our name, and that we must do everything in our ability to bring about justice in the face of such atrocities. We do not hold all Jews accountable for the actions of Israel, as bad-faith critics often claim when we speak as a collective. Rather, we follow Jewish intellectual traditions of collectivity.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously wrote, “In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” The ashamnu prayer that we say at Yom Kippur reflects a sense of collective responsibility, saying “we are guilty” or “we have trespassed.” Our traditions teach us to understand ourselves as morally intertwined with one another, each individual acting not only on behalf of themself alone, but as part of a larger whole. This tradition is a fundamental principle for progressive Jews who fight for collective liberation.
As Jews, we feel particularly called upon to respond to the atrocities being committed in our name. But every day we see Canadians of many backgrounds and faiths feel similarly called to respond to those same war crimes being committed with their own government’s tacit endorsement or subsidized with their tax dollars. In this regard, it is not Canadian Jews that are uniquely responsible, who have failed to stop a genocide. It is everyone, together. It is notably the Canadian government and other signatories of the Genocide Convention, for whom it is not only required to punish acts of genocide but also to prevent them.
Zionist politicians, lobbyists and pundits are evidently more interested in smearing a progressive Jewish politician than helping Canada fulfill its international obligations. And in their eagerness to misattribute blame for antisemitism to Palestine solidarity, they fail to address the very real threat of white supremacy and far-right extremism to Jewish life. Most egregiously, they dismiss and distract from Israel’s ongoing attempted annihilation of the Palestinian people in full view of the world, every day.