Monday, March 25th, 2024

Today is Shushan Purim when Purim is celebrated in walled cities like Jerusalem.  For the rest of us, yesterday was Purim Day. In my quiet, residential, rather Jewish neighbourhood, that meant an afternoon of revelers on the street, little Yeshiva boys knocking on my door collecting “matanot la’evyonim” (charity for the poor – one of the mitzvahs of Purim), people in costume delivering mishloach manot (food package gifts – another mitzvah of Purim), and a fair share of singing that emanated from the porches of my neighbours. It was the kind of day that made me wish my dad and Cantor Simon’s parents were alive as they would have loved every minute of it. The thought of the hostages is never far, but at least we were able to feel a spirit of Purim, with our history reminding us that we will prevail.

In other parts of Toronto, there were two rallies. One for pro-Palestinians (which I truly believe is actually a euphemism for “pro-Hamas”) and one for Canadian Women Against Anti-Semitism. From what I could see in the videos, the former was angry, aggressive, and frightening. Streets were shut down in the Yonge/St. Clair area as the demonstrators marched and screamed to “Free Palestine”.  The latter, held at Queens Park, was uplifting, hopeful, positive, with 3,000 people of every background coming together peacefully, uniting against hatred (kudos to the organizers). Police were at both rallies, but many more at the Palestinian rally. They come to our rallies to protect us from the anti-Semites who might make trouble for us. They go to the Pali rallies to try to keep some type of order and protect the passersby because, geez, those guys get really out of control. 

Also on Purim, Prime Minister Trudeau posted a Purim message to the Jewish people. I won’t even waste space here to print it, as it was essentially meaningless, given his actions of late. But maybe it helps him sleep at night, thinking that by acknowledging Purim, he is supporting the Jewish people. Maybe.

Back to the topic of the police, and this one is hard for me to process.  On Saturday, Toronto Police posted this on X (formerly Twitter): “Yesterday we hosted Iftar at the Toronto Police College to welcome and break the fast with the newly arrived refugees and newcomers from Gaza to Canada. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this Ramadan gathering.” 

First of all, I didn’t realize that we already have Gazan refugees here. That sure was a discreet and subtle entry.  Are my tax dollars paying for them while local homeless people live in tents throughout Toronto?  How do Egypt and Jordan absorb the Gazan refugees who arrive in their countries? Oh, wait. Egypt and Jordan won’t take a single refugee.  Neither will any of the other 22 Arab countries in the region. The wall between Gaza and Egypt is the strongest partition wall on earth. What does the Arab world know that our Canadian government doesn’t?   

Secondly, since when do our policemen do things like this?!  Was there a welcome ceremony for any of the traumatized and displaced Israelis who came to Toronto after October 7th?  I understand that one of the Jewish day schools alone absorbed almost 100 Israeli kids this year. The Toronto Jewish community has sprung into action to arrange for apartments, furniture, housewares, linens, jobs, clothing, babysitters, food, English lessons, everything for the Israeli refugees to be settled. I don’t recall any official acknowledgement, any welcome ceremony, any breaking-of-bread from any governmental organization.

Lastly, this is what really, really bothers me. Maybe I’m wrong but I’m willing to bet that these Gazans – the same refugees hosted by our local TPS –  will soon be joining the local pro-Palis in their rallies. I have no doubt that they will be on streets and stages, paraded around Toronto to talk about their suffering at the hands of the Israelis. If so, I anticipate that our politicians, local news stations, and the uninformed masses of followers will eat it up. Never mind that they all continue to ignore the plight of the hostages, never mind that no one mentions the rockets that have been shot daily, almost hourly, into residential Israeli neighbourhoods for the past almost 20 years, not in war, but to kill and maim, or merely to cause terror and trauma to Israelis who do all they can just to carry on.

Purim is supposed to be a crazy day.  But not like this. 

Am Yisrael Chai!

Something nuts to think about:
A few weeks ago I attended a superb event featuring Douglas Murray. As attendees, we were not told the venue location until the night before the event, and we were then required to keep it a secret, to not share it with a soul. Obviously, this was for security reasons. No one wanted crazy pro-Hamasniks disrupting this important evening. The location for yesterday’s Canadian Women Against Anti-Semitism rally was kept a secret in the same manner and for the same reason. In fact, most Jewish events in Toronto are following that format. I mentioned this to a friend in the USA. He said, “Are you kidding me? Secret location?! That’s nuts!” And you know what? He’s right. That’s nuts. We understand entirely why it needs to be secret, but think about it for a moment. We are living in a free country, and we have to be frightened when we gather. As we pray for the release of the hostages, and for the safety of our soldiers, let’s all add a prayer for our city to be simply “less nuts.”