InnisfilToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article about the topic of Israel and Palestine at Innisfil Central Public School, published Nov. 30.
In his Nov. 30 article, Chris Simon tells readers that Atiya Noor, the mother of a local elementary school student, “took issue with the board’s teaching of subjects like the Holocaust and issues around antisemitism, which she views as biased toward the Israeli state,” adding that Noor said, “Why (is) my son’s teacher teaching (the) class about antisemitism?”
I almost had to do a double take to ensure I read that correctly.
Ignorant phrases like this are exactly why it is absolutely critical to teach about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
Teaching about antisemitism, hatred towards Jews, is as relevant now as it ever was. Despite making up one per cent of Canada’s population, Jews represent over 60 per cent of religiously motivated hate crimes, according to Statistics Canada.
Nearly 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, when six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis, along with many other ‘undesirables’ such as homosexuals, the need to teach youth about what happens when hate goes unchallenged cannot be overstated.
If Noor opposes education about the Holocaust and antisemitism on the basis that it is somehow “biased” towards Israel, then she should be first in line to educate herself so she can become part of the solution, and not the problem.
Robert Walker
Assistant director, HonestReporting Canada