Special Meeting of the Steering Committee about Antisemitism

by Jay Moore

In early July, the Steering Committee held a special meeting and I thought it important that members of IGR know what we did and why.

A few weeks earlier, John McLaughlin and Judith Oudejans, both members of the Baha’i faith, sent a letter to the Steering Committee asking us to address a concern that they decided to raise with us. There has been more reporting in recent times about the rise of antisemitism in Canada, particularly since the war in Gaza has proceeded following the attacks of October 7th, 2023. Statistics published by reputable sources demonstrate that the increase in hate motivated crimes and actions against Jews in Canada is remarkable. John and Judith called us to recognize this fact and to formulate a response to the situation since this is one of the main purposes of Interfaith Grand River.

We discussed this issue in the Steering Committee meeting that followed and we were most interested in the thoughts and feelings of our Jewish members on the Steering Committee, Norm Finkelberg and August Adelman. We discussed how complicated the issue is for reasons like the long and complex his-tory, the biased reporting in the media and some of the hidden prejudices that have permeated main-stream European-based society for centuries. Norm suggested that there is more to the issue than what meets the eye and some education about the topic would be helpful. He then said that, perhaps, it would be wise to start with ourselves, that is, the Steering Committee. We agreed that this approach would be wise and we planned a special meeting in which Norm and August would share some of their experience with us to help us understand and provide a time for each of us to express our own feelings and ask some difficult questions if we wanted to.

Michael Clifton graciously provided his home as a location for our meeting and we added Brice Balmer to the group since Brice is the Chair of the Social Justice Sub-committee and he has more experience than many of us over his career with groups experiencing difficult cultural conflicts.

The most important task we had in that meeting was to listen. Listening was the most effective way to express our acceptance and to offer our support. Although we all understood that there are other groups experiencing devastating conflicts around the world and harmful hate crimes here at home, we committed ourselves to offer our compassion and understanding to specifically our Jewish members that day. It was painful and difficult sometimes but we opened our hearts and went through it together. It was a meaningful experience.

We did not take any time to discuss what actions we might take as an interfaith organization to contribute to helping improve the situation in Waterloo Region yet. The agenda of our next Steering Committee meeting at the end of July will contain that task and we will report to the members what we are planning to do.

It is times like this that remind me of what we’re all about and I am glad I was part of a deeper, meaningful experience with my colleagues and friends as we help ourselves develop stronger, honest relationships within IGR.

Jay Moore

President, Interfaith Grand River