Rubenstein: Let us applaud our country for acknowledging errors

Members of the extended Heilbrun family on board the MS St. Louis. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Courtesy of Ruth Heilbrun Windmuller/Wikimedia Commons)

“As a country, we learn from our successes in tandem with our failures. [In 1939], the Canadian government infamously turned its back on 907 German Jews who were fleeing persecution. Forced to return to Europe, 254 were eventually killed in the Holocaust. We cannot turn away from this uncomfortable truth, and Canada’s part in it. We must learn from this story, and let its lessons guide our actions going forward. That is why I am proud to announce that the Government of Canada will issue a formal apology over the fate of the MS St. Louis and its passengers.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
May 8, 2018.

In our world today, there is a commonly held view about the hopelessness of the human condition. The line of thinking goes something like this: “After the Holocaust, the world said ‘Never Again.’ Yet, look at the rising tide of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Look at Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur, and Syria. What’s the point? No matter what, the world will always hate Jews, the world will always commit genocide.”

Such a view, while in some ways understandable, is not justifiable, on historical, theological or practical grounds. In fact, the view itself has the danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. For if you believe in the innate, unchangeable – and negative – nature of the world, then what’s the point in trying to change it?

I want to suggest to you that this viewpoint is fundamentally opposed to Judaism. To be Jewish means to never give up hope in ourselves, in the Jewish people or in humanity. The Talmud teaches that even when the blade of the knife is pressed against our throats we may not give up hope. Simply put: we are forbidden from becoming cynical about the nature or fate of humanity.

At Yad Vashem, I once heard a Holocaust survivor describing how his parents pushed him through a small hole they had smashed in the cattle car that was taking them to a Nazi death camp. His mother’s last words to him were, “Be a mensch” – be a good person. She was, in essence, saying to her son, “I don’t care how evil the world is. I don’t care that the world has lost its reason and gone insane. You must do the right thing.”

Why does Judaism entreat us to not give up hope in humanity, despite the repeated errors of its ways? It is precisely because Judaism teaches that we can learn from our mistakes, that humanity can, eventually, get it right. I once heard a young woman say, “I never agree when someone says ‘history repeats itself’  – as if it’s an automatic, mechanical, scientific reality about the world. The truth is, history doesn’t repeat itself, people repeat history – and they don’t have to, if they only realize it!”

Judaism agrees with that sentiment, and the most dramatic example is right here in Canada. Between 1933 and 1948, this land had arguably the worst record of any Western country when it came to letting in Jewish refugees from Europe. F.C. Blair, in charge of Canada’s immigration policy during the Second World War, once said that Jews trying to enter Canada reminded him of his father’s farm during feeding time, with all the hogs trying to get into the trough at the same time.

READ: RUBENSTEIN: WHY DON’T JEWS PROSELYTIZE?

After the war was over, when the full extent of the tragedy visited upon European Jewry was known to all, a senior immigration official was asked about how many Jews would be considered for entry into Canada. His infamous response: “None is too many.”

And, yet, there is a remarkably hopeful aspect to the story. In the mid-to-late-1970s, the world was beset by the “Boat People” crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Asian refugees had fled their war-torn countries, many by boat. In the unprotected waters of the vast Pacific, they were often beset upon by pirates – murder, rape and robbery were all too commonplace.

Among the countries that responded, two of them were especially noteworthy: Israel and Canada.

Why Israel? Because Menachem Begin, himself a refugee from Holocaust Europe, had just assumed power, and despite his country’s tiny population his first act as prime minister was to accept a large number of the “boat people.” Begin remembered all too well how the world turned its back on the Jewish passengers of the St. Louis, and how, after the ship was sent back to Europe, many of its passengers ended up perishing in the Shoah. Israel, he felt, could not ignore those whose plight was so similar.

And why Canada? In 1979, Ron Atkey, Canada’s minister of immigration under the then Conservative government, was given an advance copy of None is Too Many, Irving Abella and Harold Troper’s enduring study of Canada’s immigration policy toward Jews during the Holocaust. Aghast at Canada’s record toward Jewish refugees – which he was learning about for the first time – Atkey turned his attention to the “boat people.” Determined not be known as the F.C. Blair of the ‘80s, he successfully directed Canada to provide a safe haven to an exceptionally high number of those struggling refugees.

Capt. Gustav Schroeder negotiates landing permits for his passengers with Belgian officials in Antwerp. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Courtesy of Betty Troper Yaeger)

Our tradition teaches that teshuvah – true repentance – requires acknowledging the trespass or mistake, promising not to repeat the transgression and making amends (if possible). Canada took the first step toward rectifying the horror of None is Too Many policy in 1979. The last step is being taken this week, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises in the House of Commons – with the full support of all parties across the political spectrum – to issue an apology for the St. Louis and the Canadian government’s abysmal policies towards Jews during the None is Too Many era.

Let us applaud our country and our elected officials for their ability to acknowledge Canada’s errors and forge a new path forward. Countries, just like people, can perform the mitzvah of teshuvah.

 

For more in our St. Louis apology series, please click here.