If you don’t believe B’nai Brith you are antisemitic. So declared a liberal Globe and Mail columnist.
In Saturday’s Globe Marsha Lederman stated explicitly that if you question B’nai Brith’s annual audit of antisemitism you are anti-Jewish. The advocate of a genocidal Jewish supremacist state wrote, “lest one is inclined to deny the severity of the problem outlined by a Jewish organization’s report (which would be in and of itself antisemitic), the Senate committee’s findings are also alarming.”
But B’nai Brith’s annual audit of “antisemitic incidents in Canada” is a farce. Ninety-two percent of this year’s incidents are “online” comments and two years ago The Maple editor Davide Mastricci demonstrated its highly suspect nature in “I Sent Fake Antisemitism Claims To B’nai Brith. Here’s What Happened.” In making a mockery of the group’s self-submission process, Mastricci wrote, “From May 7 to May 9, I personally committed up to seven acts of antisemitism, at least according to B’nai Brith Canada.”
In 2024 University of Toronto sociology professor Robert Brym told the Canadian Jewish News that B’nai Brith’s studies are “methodologically very flawed” while Independent Jewish Voices’ Sheryl Nestel pointed out, “B’nai Brith Canada cannot be understood as a neutral source for reporting on the nature and scope of antisemitism in Canada. It has both a political and a financial interest (its fundraising relies largely on its positioning as the premier opponent of antisemitism in Canada) in touting increases in antisemitism. Of course, that alone does not make its Audit suspect. But there are serious criticisms that can be leveled against the Audit itself and against B’nai Brith’s specific claims about antisemitism in Canada. Chief among these are: inclusion of expressions of criticism of Israel as incidents of antisemitism, complete lack of methodological transparency, obfuscation of evidence of low levels of antisemitic sentiment among the Canadian public, and disregard of evidence of the attitudes about antisemitism of Canadian Jews themselves.”
B’nai Brith’s audit is designed to enable Israeli crimes. The press release announcing the audit bemoaned “anti-Zionists”and those who “demonize Zionists” while at the press conference launching the report they repeatedly referenced Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Beyond enabling Israel’s genocide and apartheid, the audit is racist in another way. By centering a broadly well-off white community B’nai Brith is obscuring the substantive structural racism faced by Indigenous, Black and other groups in Canada.
Indigenous people are ten times more likely to be killed by a cop while Black people are six times more likely to lose their life at the hands of a representative of the state. Both groups are also significantly more likely to be murdered. Indigenous people are also incarcerated at five to eight times more than the general population while Black individuals are two to three times more likely to be jailed. Whatever other major socioeconomic indicator one chooses — hate crimes, income levels, educational attainment, life expectancy, home ownership, positions on corporate boards, etc., Indigenous and Black Canadians fare poorly. Alongside several other racialized groups, these communities are significantly under-represented in positions of wealth and influence, which isn’t the case for Jewish Canadians. In fact, they are significantly overrepresented in positions of wealth and influence and Jews fare better than average on all but one of the dozen most employed categories in discussions of racism.
To take an extreme example, Forbes Israel’s list of The World’s Jewish Billionaires 2025, named nine Canadian Jewish billionaires. The broader Forbes billionaire list says there are 77 Canadian billionaires. As such, Jews would be overrepresented by 13 times among the billionaire class.
Jews’ privileged socio-economic position affects a socioeconomic indicator particularly pertinent in the context of B’nai Brith’s audit. Jews are less, not more, likely to be victims of crimes than the average Canadian. In Montreal, home to Canada’s second largest Jewish community, the geographic data is stark. Without any commercial or industrial zoning in the municipality, the well-to-do inner suburb of Hampstead, which is three quarters Jewish, has among the lowest crime rates in the country. The multiple times larger adjacent Côte-Saint-Luc, which is two thirds Jewish, is ranked among the safest municipalities in Greater Montreal. Both Hamstead and Côte-Saint-Luc have their own special security force on top of the Montreal police.
It may be harder to get a snapshot of the impact of crime on the Jewish community in Toronto, but the pattern is likely similar. With the highest Jewish concentration in the GTA, Thornhill has a significantly lower crime rate than the national average.
Yes, Canadian Jews are overrepresented as victims of hate crimes. One can reject B’nai Brith’s highly politicized exaggerations and still accept that fact. Despite the Globe columnist’s assertion, fair minded people can indeed “deny the severity of the problem” because Jewish Canadians almost certainly fare better than average when it comes to being victims of crime. B’nai Brith’s political agenda is also abundantly clear. It is anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian as well as repressively authoritarian towards critics of Israel. In fact, those promoting B’nai Brith’s annual audit are stimulating racism, not working to end it.
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