Holocaust memorials
It is incorrect to say that the Wheel of Conscience originally located at the Canadian Museum of Immigration is “the only public symbol of Holocaust remembrance in the country” (“Shoah memorial likely returning to Halifax’s Pier 21,” Feb. 5).
The Manitoba legislature provided a designated space on its grounds for a Holocaust memorial, which was dedicated on Sept. 6, 1990. Philip Weiss, a well-known Holocaust survivor and educator and former chair of the Winnipeg Jewish community’s Holocaust remembrance and memorial committee, spearheaded the campaign to have the monument built.
The monument is in the shape of a broken Magen David and bears the names of over 3,700 victims of the Holocaust whose memory was honoured by surviving family members who resided in Manitoba.
Evelyn Schaefer
Toronto
Red Tories
My thanks to Michael Taube (“Why Jews were Red Tories,” March 5) for reminding me why I am not a supporter of the current Conservative party, in spite of its welcome support of Israel.
He gloats over the disappearance of Red Tories, declaring that “statist programs dealing with collectivism, social justice and progressive taxation are, I’m pleased to say, no longer part of the Tory diet.” A Conservative party that no longer includes social justice among its tenets? Taube quotes former senator Hugh Segal (a Red Tory) as saying that progressive conservatism helped the Tories (then Progressive Conservatives) become “the instrument of freedom and justice.”
Is Taube suggesting that today’s Conservatives are no longer interested in promoting freedom and justice? Perhaps the picture of Bugs Bunny (a Red Tory?) instead of Taube’s name suggests that he is really not serious and that his column is simply a Purim shpiel!
Michael S. Cole
Toronto
Teacher’s lessons linger
Yasher koach to Eli Pfefferkorn for his commentary (“New methods needed to keep memory of Shoah alive,” Feb. 26), in which he rightly advises that we need to think differently about we ask questions, find out information and create an oral and written history regarding the Shoah.
Pfefferkorn, a teacher of mine, taught me long ago that we need to look at things with a long-term perspective and that looking at history strictly from a convenient perspective is dangerous in the long term. It is a lesson that I carry with me throughout my life and use on a regular basis.
We should not only thank Pfefferkorn and take his advice to heart, but also implement the changes based on his perspective as a survivor, a fighter for the State of Israel and a teacher to hundreds of Jewish students.
Jessica Pelt Kronemer
Silver Spring, Md.
Dissent is not anti-Semitism
Jewish people can do better than this. Repeatedly using the ad hominem fallacy to argue against critics of Israel is unintelligent, unethical and ultimately counter-productive to Jewish interests.
When Palestinians speak up against Israeli injustices, it cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered the irrational hatred that is anti-Semitism. Saying it is so is tantamount to legitimizing anti-Semitism as a respectable human rights value.
Intelligent debate does not call something a “lie” without offering any evidence. It does not denounce opinions that are not welcome as “hatred” without evidence of racist intent.
Gil Troy’s article (“Apartheid slur driven by hatred and lies,” March 5) is a shameful continuation of this very un-Jewish practice of arguing with fallacies instead of reality and logic. It shames Jewish people and is more likely to generate anti-Semitism in people who are tired of having their intelligence insulted by this unethical argumentation.
Terry Greenberg
North Vancouver, B.C.