The phenomenon of anti-Semitism in various parts of the world was the focus of concern at the 29th biennial convention of the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO. The four-day gathering ended in Ottawa Monday.
The keynote speaker at the opening session, Rabbi Michael Williams of the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris, assessed evidence of widening and deepening anti-Semitism in Western Europe. The Rue Copernic synagogue was the target of a bomb attack in October, 1980 which killed four people and injured a score of others. Williams also observed that there is a greater awareness of Jewish identity in Western Europe and greater participation in Jewish communal life.
Brenda Katten, chairperson of the British WIZO, spoke of an upsurge of overt anti-Semitism in Britain and elsewhere. She stressed the need to secure the future of Israel’s children which, she said, would in turn help secure the future of the Jewish people.
Prof. Irwin Cotler, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, accused the West of assuming a culture of appeasement which demands an exacting standard of morality from Israel but from no other nation. He said anti-Semitism is aimed at Jews collectively, at Israel, and at Zionists.
The Hadassah-WIZO Canadian Award was presented to Flora Mac Donald, a member of Parliament and former Secretary of State for External Affairs in the Progressive Conservative Party government of 1979-80. Simcha Horesch of Israel was the recipient of the Rebecca Sieff Award as the representative of Jewish martyrdom in Arab lands. Mariel Small of Toronto was re-elected national president of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO by the 800 delegates attending the convention.
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