'You Cannot be a Christian and be an antisemite"

"[We condemn] those who foment antisemitism in Canada."

"We will stand against all those in this country, regardless of motivation or ideology, who seek to demonize and dehumanize our Jewish fellow citizens."

"As Christians, we will not simply speak but act in support of you, our Jewish friends, in the interest of all that is just and good."

"We will not abandon you."

The Canadian Christian Declaration on Antisemitism

"If we look back ... we see a steady increase in antisemitic hate crimes really since 2020. This is not simply about October7 and the aftermath of that."

"[Jewish communities have historically functioned as] the canary in the coal mine for growing intolerance and hatred within society. We've seen this throughout history. When Jews come to be targeted, it's usually a symptom of something ... rotten within the society at large."

"On the one hand we see the very overt antisemitism on our streets, this very awkward alliance between Islamists and woke progressives who have radicalized around this particular issue. But also I'm concerned about the silence and the inability amongst people who should be speaking out to realize that there's an issue, and to speak out without equivocation."

"My hope is that once we have these signatories to this declaration that we will have a summit, most likely in Toronto, later this year, where we'll bring together 50 of the leading Christian leaders who have been engaged with this declaration, together with 50 Jewish leaders ... to reaffirm this declaration publicly."

"Ant then the third stage is then to have those Christian leaders form a partnership with a local Jewish congregation."

Reverend Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of faith communities, Cardus

The Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett drafted the Canadian Christian Declaration on Antisemitism. Photo by Cardus

It has been a year since the horrendous atrocities of October 7 took place, an infamous day when thousands of Palestinian terrorists led by the governing Gaza Hamas group whose covenant with fate is to please Islam to enable them to rise to Paradise on the glowing record of having raped, tortured and murdered Israeli girls and women, shot to death infants and schoolchildren, burned entire families alive in their homes, as they marauded through southern Israel farming villages pillaging, destroying, slaughtering. An entire year when the Canadian public across the country has been treated to constant displays of rabid antisemitism posing as anti-Israel marches while threatening Jewish Canadians.

 

Governments at any level have done little to express their disgust at these betrayals of the Jewish Canadians at the terror-supporting, Hamas followers that have infiltrated Canada as immigrants, refugees and migrants, amassing a presence of formidable hate-dominating Islamist conquest against human decency and civilizational norms in favour of instilling their medieval-era exclusion/isolation/threatening agenda of Jew-expulsion by any means possible.

 

True, there have been courageous individuals whose moral compass has been outraged at these spectacles of hateful demonization of Jews and Israel, and they have taken to speaking up publicly in defense of human rights, equality, justice and the right of any country to defend itself and its population against the forces of evil exemplified by armed death squads whose function is to destroy and to kill for the rewards of justifying the most basic of Islamist dictums to jihad for the recognition they derive from their lethal actions that place them among the warriors of the Islamist death cult that aims for Jewish lives.

 

Canadians in the aggregate, who like to think of themselves as kind and considerate, courteous and welcoming toward others, believing in equality and neighbourliness, have been strangely silent. There have been no collective challenges to the hate-filled rallies that target their Jewish neighbours. Absent completely demands from civil society to their government to uphold the laws against injustice and hate-mongering. Silence from faith leaders. There has been no groundswell of support from non-Jewish Canadians for their Jewish neighbours.

 

Jews in Canada have been threatened and attacked in every conceivable way. They have been left in a state of disbelief and fear, and wondering whether their generations of life in Canada have been a dream overtaken by a nightmare. Finding empathy with their plight only amongst themselves. Placed in a ghetto of psychological bleakness, fearing for the present and for the future of their children. Simple acts of reassurance conveyed by non-Jewish neighbours to their long-familar Jewish neighbours have been absent.

 

The messages of unconcern for the well-being of Jews in Canada under the weight of an imported loathing of an ancient people viewed by Muslims as challengers to the favouritism of their heavenly spirit of choice bespeaks a total abandonment of civil, social, lawful and just alienation; it is their battle, they can fight it for themselves. The tiny demographic of Jews who have always considered their diaspora home in Canada to be inviolate, now know otherwise.

But here we have a sole individual who has dedicated himself within the country's faith communities to spur them to react to the spirit of carnage brought against the Jewish presence in Canada and the legitimacy of the tiny Jewish state dedicated to the preservation of Jewish life on this globe. Who has invested himself with the obligation to act as a Christian, to urge other Christians to acknowledge their duty to their religion and their fellow man. Hoping to arrive at a strong, inclusive coalition that will help to drive divisiveness, threats and hatred back to where it belongs; in the deepest, darkest corners of the human psyche.

Appealing through the humanitarian argument of a document of 450 words to convince fellow Christians to agree that: "In that light and in support of this declaration we affirm that the Jewish people remain God's chosen people. The law and the covenants that God gave to the Jewish people, which we see as fulfilled in Christ, remain intact." Posted on September 23, forwarded to 675 Christian leaders across Canada, the Reverend Bennett exults that over 200 signatures have been achieved in the first four days. 500 by the end of October, he hopes. "I'd love to see a thousand, I'd love to see 1,500", he enthuses. Good luck.

 

People take part in a pro-Palestine demonstration in Ottawa, Canada, on October 15, 2023. (Kadri Mohamed via Getty Images)

"The people in their respective congregations come to know one another, they come to have conversations about the relationships between Christians and Jews, presently, historically, the good and the bad ... and in that way to build a solidarity between Christians and Jews in this country."

"I think that can have the longest and most lasting impact."

"You cannot be a Christian and be an antisemite. It doesn't work. It's completely incongruent with our Christian faith."

Reverend Dr. Andrew Bennett, deacon, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Canada