This Week in Canadian Jewish Advocacy, June 3, 2022

As we begin National Indigenous History Month. we celebrate Chief Doctor Robert Joseph, the 2022 recipient of the Victor Goldbloom Award for Outstanding Interfaith Leadership, in recognition of his lifelong dedication to interfaith relations and building community bridges.

Chief Joseph is a hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation, founder and current Ambassador for Reconciliation Canada – an Indigenous organization dedicated to dialogue with multi-faith and multicultural communities, former Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, and a member of the National Assembly of First Nation Elders Council.

A dear friend to the Jewish community, Chief Joseph has worked with Robbie Waisman, a Holocaust Survivor, to make connections between Survivors of the Holocaust and the residential schools.

On May 25, Indigenous leaders and representatives from the Sikh, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Ismaili, Muslim, Ahmadiyya, Ukrainian Catholic, Anglican, Black Canadians, and Baha’i, joined to celebrate Chief Joseph's lifetime service to BC, urging people of all faiths toward truth and reconciliation and renewing relationships between Indigenous people and all Canadians.

"While what happened in Buffalo was, clearly, a racist crime targeting African Americans, the actions of the murderer were connected to a conspiracy theory that is antisemitic to its core. The horror in Buffalo serves as devastating proof that hatred of Jews has consequences well beyond the Jewish community."

Rabbi Reuben Poupko, Past Co-Chair and current member of CIJA's Local Partner Council (Quebec) and rabbi of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Montreal, explores the dangers of Replacement Theory, the motive behind last month’s heinous shooting in Buffalo that took ten lives, and the dangers it poses to all citizens, especially members of the Jewish community.

Sephardi Voices announced the donation of The Sephardi Voices Victor and Edna Mashaal Canadian Collection to Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

The Victor and Edna Mashaal Canadian Collection is a series of nearly 100 interviews in English and French, portraits, documents, and photographs chronicling the life stories of the Canadian Sephardi-Mizrahi community. It will soon be available to researchers, policymakers, educators, genealogists, and the Canadian public.

Accompanying the donation is the debut of The Forgotten Exodus – A Canadian Refuge, a portrait exhibition of the last generation of Sephardi-Mizrahi Jews born in North Africa, the Middle East, and Iran who immigrated to Canada. Photographed by Liam Sharp in a stark, black-and-white, untouched style, the exhibition tells “the story of refugees, who carry in them nostalgia and sometimes painful memories, and all of that beauty is etched in their faces.

The Forgotten Exodus – A Canadian Refuge is curated by Dr. Henry Green, University of Miami Professor of Religious Studies, and by David Langer, Media Director for Sephardi Voices. The exhibition will be on display from June 3 to June 30, 2022, at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

Anti-Black Racism and the Great Replacement (The Suburban)

Ontario Government Relations Professional

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