Where Zionism leads becomes clear at Jewish community centre

A Montreal Jewish community centre is promoting an upcoming speaking series with an open racist.

The Sylvan Adams YM-YWHA (Young Men’s-Young Women’s Hebrew Association) Inaugural Lecture Series is with Gad Saad. A big fan of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson, Saad doesn’t hide his bigotry. He promotes the notion that the “West” is being destroyed by “suicidal empathy”, which is largely an attack on racially and sexually marginalized minorities.

The Concordia university business professor has repeatedly derided Montreal Arabs and Muslims. In March Saad posted, “almost never go around the Concordia downtown campus these days. But earlier today, I went to pick up my mail. It is unrecognizable. Where are the French-Canadians? Where are the Italians? The Jamaicans? The Anglo-Quebeckers? The Vietnamese? The Greeks? It was wall-to-wall Middle East (and mainly young men). Montreal is no longer a French-Canadian city. It is an Islamic city. Perhaps this is a great thing. If so, Francois Legault and his government have much to be proud of, as does Justin Trudeau. Perhaps it is true that ‘Diversity is Our Strength’ albeit I did not see much diversity downtown unless you include the multiple spellings of Mohammed, Mohamed, and Muhammad as instantiations of diversity. Seeing the endless Keffiyehs everywhere brought wonderful memories of our near-executions in Lebanon.”

(I responded, “At 4:30 today the international women’s day march of over 1000 rallied in front of Concordia. It was largely white women though many Filipinos, Haitians and Latin Americans. There were lots of Keffiyehs though because most oppose the genocidal Jewish supremacist state you love.”)

Saad has repeatedly interviewed Tommy Robinson and appeared on the well-known UK racist activist’s show. Saad also openly admits to having worked for Mossad in Montreal as a young man.

While it promotes an openly racist speaker, the Sylvan Adams Y describes itself as “a warm, welcoming and inclusive environment rooted in Jewish values where the community can gather to participate in a wide range of social, physical and experiential learning activities that enhance their health and well-being, deepen their Jewish identity, and foster a connection to one another.” But this “inclusive” institution that promotes “Jewish values” is actively genocidal.

A month ago, the Y Instagram account celebrated Israeli Independence Day. At the same time, they cosponsored the ZIKKA RUN “a global event in memory of Israeli fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism”. During the McGill student encampment against the university’s complicity in genocide, the Y cosponsored a rally at city hall last June “to call on Mayor Valerie Plante and all elected officials to bring order back to our streets and enforce the law to protect the Montreal Jewish community.” The Y has partnered with the racist Jewish National Fund and hosted talks on “Montreal Meets Israel” with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

It’s outrageous that a community centre would be a hub of racist, genocide promotion. And that it benefits from large sums of public resources to advance its exclusivist outlook and policies. A La Presse investigation cited the Y’s Early Childhood Centre (CPE in French) as the largest of 36 publicly subsidized Montreal daycares employing backdoor, possibly illegal, ethnic/religious criteria for coveted spots. (21 of the 36 daycares cited in the November investigation were Jewish, which is a particularly damning comment on a community that’s been in Montreal for a long time, is better off than most and generally doesn’t speak a non-official language. A Haitian community daycare, for instance, that prioritizes Kreyol speakers may violate the spirit of universal accessibility but considering that community’s current and historical marginalization it’s far more justifiable). In the JCC’s case they are (effectively) prioritizing Jews for their publicly subsidized daycare spots despite being located in a neighbourhood with many Filipino and other racialized low-income, working-class families.

The Sylvan Adams Y is a registered charity receiving significant sums in donations underwritten by all through tax credits. It also receives substantial sums in direct government grants. In 2022 the federal government put up $7.9 million to upgrade its facilities and last year it benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in special new security allocations.

To any objective person the fact that a publicly subsidized institution is launching its inaugural speakers series with Gad Saad is just plain wrong. Unfortunately, it also highlights the extremist, racist slide of many self-proclaimed Jewish organizations.

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