By Marney Blom and Daina Doucet
They came by the thousands – young and old. From secular to very religious, Jewish Canadians flooded the nation’s capital en mass, on April 21, 2002, exceeding 20,000 in number. The event etched a milestone in the life of the Jewish community in Canada.
“The echoes are reaching Jerusalem,” said Rabbi Michael Melchior, Israel Deputy Foreign Minister, as the exuberant crowd cheered on the steps of Parliament.
Jerusalem, a city “under siege,” said Barry Denison, the national director of Bridges for Peace, Israel, “has become a ghost-town. The number of attacks is overwhelming. In the last 550 days there have been more than 12,000 terrorist attacks on Israelis in Israel. For the first time Israelis are beginning to feel fearful and feel like they are alone.”
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, the founder and spiritual leader of Chabad at the Flamingo Synagogue in Thornhill, believes the world is seeing history repeat itself. He believes the anti-Semitism that consumed nearly six million Jews only six decades ago is manifesting again. “We are afraid in Canada,” he said. “France is not that far away from Canada. Quebec is influenced by the French people and the downright anti-Semitism that is being displayed across the country of France and throughout Europe today is very infectious.”
Rabbi Melchior agrees. The attacks throughout Europe, he told the rally attendees, have raised “painful specters of the past century” in Antwerp, Paris, Lyons, Strasburg, Kiev, Los Angeles and Toronto. “And in Ottawa,” added a woman’s voice from the crowd.
Among the speakers, Keith Landy, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress told the gathering, “This is what we tell the Belgians, the French and all the others: we will never forget that once again you are standing by and doing nothing while synagogues burn in your cities and Jews are attacked in your streets.
“Friends,” he continued, addressing the crowd, “after the fall of France, Winston Churchill, knowing that in the not too distant future the isolated country would soon bear the full brunt of Nazi Germany’s military machine, rallied his people, saying, ‘Very well then, alone.’”
To a cheering crowd, with raised banners, including one which read, “In Israel 9/11 is 24/7”, Landy turned to Rabbi Melchior and concluded, “I have no doubt that if necessary, Israel could do very well alone.”
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