Wallenberg Day program focuses on Iranian threat

WINNIPEG — The CEO of the Canada-Israel Committee says that if we have learned anything from history, it is that in the absence of taking positive and meaningful action to confront and defeat evil, we become enablers.

Shimon Fogel

“We don’t have the luxury of saying that it doesn’t matter to us,” Shimon Fogel told students at the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s fourth annual Raoul Wallenberg Day Student Conference, which is held in conjunction with the Gray Academy of Jewish Education.

“Everything in the world today matters. Whatever happens in the world, it is just a matter of time before it reaches Winnipeg, Halifax and London, England,” Fogel said.

Each year, the conference focuses on a different issue. “Previously, we have learned about world hot spots Darfur and Afghanistan. This year, our focus was on Iran and the threat that Iran poses to Israel and the world,” said Shelley Faintuch, the federation’s community relations director, who was one of the conference organizers.

The conference speakers included the Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, who spoke about Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust; Sayeh Hassan, an Iranian-born pro-democracy activist who practises law in Toronto, and Daniel Ashrafi, an Iranian-born Jew living in Winnipeg who was an eyewitness to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Manitoba Conservative MP James Bezan briefed the students on the federal government’s position on Iran, and Manitoba Liberal MP Anita Neville introduced Cotler.

Fogel outlined the Iranian regime’s many sins, including its suppression of political opponents; the fostering and funding of Islamic terror throughout the Middle East, and the leadership’s reported efforts to develop nuclear weapons – with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stated goal of “wiping Israel off the map.”

Iran has put the lie to the accepted wisdom over the past few decades that showing tolerance and encouraging mutual respect get results, Fogel said. “It has become a matter of win or lose,”

However, he added, the Iranian regime is shaky and showing signs of desperation.

One of the fruits of this year’s Wallenberg conference is a petition signed by Gray Academy and other students (from St. John’s-Ravenscourt School and Grant Park High School, who accepted Gray Academy students’ invitation to participate) asking that the Canadian government hold Iran’s leadership accountable for its oppressive actions in Iran and its actions abroad.

The students were encouraged to send letters to MPs demanding that Canada put Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on the government’s list of terrorist organizations.

Fogel also encouraged the students to use social networking contacts to get the word out about Iran. “You have an edge on older people,” he said, “because you understand the power of the new media [such as Facebook and Twitter].

“You can each make a huge difference,” he added.

Fogel spoke about Wallenberg’s courage. “Wallenberg kept fighting to save Hungarian Jews right up until his own last day of freedom,” he said. (Wallenberg disappeared in January 1945 and is presumed to have died in a Soviet prison.) “His example inspired other diplomats in wartime Hungary to issue visas to Jews and save their lives.”

On a personal note, Fogel recalled that his Hungarian-born parents – who are Holocaust survivors – went back to Hungary several years ago.

“They came back quite depressed,” Fogel said. “They had gone back to my mother’s home village and attempted to visit her old house. The resident thought she wanted to reclaim the house, and everyone in the village shunned my parents.

“What brightened their mood was Canada’s decision at that time to make Wallenberg an honorary citizen of Canada,” he said. “Although my parents hadn’t known Wallenberg, the fact that someone was prepared to stand up against oppression and take risks restored their faith in humanity.”

One student asked Fogel why Saudi Arabia is given a free pass as a human rights violator. Fogel replied that the difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia is that the latter is engaged with other countries, while Iran flagrantly thumbs its nose at the world.

Fogel said he’s perplexed that “women’s groups throughout North America aren’t up in arms about the lack of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.”