We stand in solidarity with Avi Lewis

The United Jewish People’s Order stands in solidarity with Avi Lewis, who in recent days has been the target of ill-informed and malicious attacks by Canadian politicians and members of the media.

In advance of Yom Kippur, Avi released a statement that many of us felt was entirely appropriate, one grounded in Jewish ethics, centred on the profound themes of reflection, repentance and a call to action at the heart of this most sacred day.

As Jews, Yom Kippur calls on us to look honestly at the year that has passed: to consider where we have fallen short, individually and collectively, and to ask how we can do better in the year ahead. For more than 100 years, UJPO has emphasized our communal obligation of tikkun olam—the mitzvah of repairing the world—through political engagement, protest and action.

For the past three years, an important part of that work has been speaking out about the genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza, a horrific war crime that has received diplomatic, economic and military support from much of the West, including our own government.

We are proudly Jewish, and we reject wholeheartedly the spurious notion that the killing and maiming of more than 20,000 children has been carried out to protect, support or provide comfort to Jewish people. This has not been the message conveyed by many mainstream Canadian Jewish organizations, which have expressed unwavering support for Israel and the IDF, and to suggest it has not ignores these organizations’ own public statements.

Recent statements in major Canadian newspapers condemning Avi, and, preposterously, holding him responsible for a range of terrible events, including the violent incident outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, are not only unarguably false, but deeply hypocritical. Supporters of Israel are maintaining contradictory ideas about Jewish identity and culpability. If, as we are told, the state of Israel is foundational to Jews around the world, and criticism of that state can therefore be characterized as antisemitic (we fundamentally believe that it is not) then how can Jews in Canada simultaneously be told that we bear no responsibility for Israel’s actions?

We believe Avi’s statement reflected a deep commitment to tikkun olam, to the Jewish tradition of teshuvah (repentance), and to the recognition that we have failed to prevent a genocide being perpetrated under the cynical claim that it benefits Jews around the world.