The National Antisemitism Forum: Why Failing to Act Now Must Not Be An Option

Months of relentless antisemitism seems to have finally sparked a response in a growing number of countries with political initiatives in the United States, Australia, France and Germany aimed at countering Jew hatred not seen in generations. While Canadian leaders have too often mistaken tweets for action, that could change this week as politicians, law enforcement, and community leaders gather in Ottawa for a government initiated National Forum on Combatting Antisemitism.

Given the security risks, organizers have kept many of the details under wraps. Indeed, the fact that an event on combatting antisemitism could draw protesters and raise fears of disruption or physical violence demonstrates why it is so essential. Since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, Jewish events, synagogues, and community centres in Canada have required heightened security as frequent targets of shootings, vandalism, and antisemitic protests.

The scourge of antisemitism has left few areas of society untouched but has been particularly notable within Canadian universities. I recently undertook a review of publicly-reported events over the past 18 months on Canadian campuses and was left genuinely shaken. While a court ordered injunction ultimately brought most of last spring’s university encampments to an end, far less attention was paid to reports of death threats to Jewish students, students barricaded inside libraries or classrooms by throngs of masked protesters, vandalism of mezzuzahs in student dorms, buildings with Jewish names targeted for protest, holocaust denial, hate speech, and frequent calls for the removal of Zionists from campus.

And this is just the open antisemitism. Less visible is the need to keep club meetings or guest speakers secret for fear of disruption, the heightened security for in-person events, and the many who feel the need to hide their Jewish identity while on campus. Yet faculty who unfailingly respond to discrimination involving gender, the indigenous community, and BIPOC students, suddenly now fall silent at best or actively encourage discrimination against Jewish and Zionist students at worst.

This is not exclusively a Canadian problem, but Canada’s weak response is particularly disturbing when viewed from a global perspective. Facing a similar situation in Australia, its Senate pressed Australia’s universities to take action. Last week, 39 universities endorsed a new definition of antisemitism that will be enforced on campuses throughout the country. The definition states that “substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ does not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic.”

In the United States, the Department of Justice has launched an antisemitism task force and just announced plans to investigate ten universities including Columbia, Harvard, and NYU given allegations the schools may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination.

European countries have also responded to the rise of antisemitism in universities: Germany’s Bundestag passed a resolution last month that provides for sanctions against antisemitic behaviour in educational institutions, while a bill to “strengthen the legal and regulatory framework for combating antisemitism in higher education” is currently making its way through the French Senate.

What should Canada be doing?

The starting point must surely be university wide adoption of a uniform definition for antisemitism to ensure the effective application of campus codes to antisemitism. The guide developed last year by Canada’s special envoy on antisemitism on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) antisemitism definition, which was published by Canadian Heritage, provides a useful starting point. Some still oppose the guide, but according to documents I obtained under provincial access to information laws, universities such as the University of Windsor considered making such a commitment last summer in response to anger over its encampment agreements.

Implementing the antisemitism definition is critical to ensure effective enforcement of campus codes and guidelines. For too long, universities have failed to enforce their own codes that require all students be treated with respect and dignity and without harassment and discrimination on this singular issue. We would never accept violations in the context of any other group and the Jewish community is entitled to equal protection.

Even as university leaders admit that antisemitism is a significant problem on campus, few have responded with real action to repeated violations. This week’s summit can change that dynamic as governments at all levels must use the power of public funding and oversight to remove any doubt: failing to act against antisemitism is not an option.

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