Jewish community remembers those lost in Holocaust to never forget – Winnipeg Free Press

Saying he values ​​Jewish remembrance, Rob Berkowitz invited members of the Winnipeg Jewish community and others to the annual reading of the names of Holocaust victims Monday at Congregation Etz Chayim.

“By saying their names, we remember each individual,” said Berkowitz, president of Everyone Has a Name.

The names read at the Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Day event were among more than 3,000 names inscribed on a Holocaust memorial on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature. They belong to victims who had or had family members in Winnipeg, or whose family members survived the Holocaust and moved here after World War II.

Readers include representatives of the Jewish community and others.

Canadian B'nai Brith director Ruth Ashrafi spoke about the rise of anti-Semitism in the country.

A recent report by B'nai Brith found a 109 percent increase in anti-Semitism in Canada in 2023, much of it related to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

According to Ashrafi, there were 5,791 incidents last year, an alarming increase from 2,769 incidents in 2022.

Ashrafi said Manitoba and Saskatchewan had the “dubious honor” of leading the country with a 400 percent increase in incidents.

“It's becoming more and more dangerous to be openly Jewish in Canada today,” he said.

Another troubling trend is the number of anti-Semitic incidents on Canadian university campuses, he said, adding that Jews are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to hate.

“What begins with the Jews does not end with the Jews,” he said.

Ashrafi praised the province's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism, detailing the consequences of anti-Semitism, and said he looked forward to the next steps in its implementation and enforcement.

The Manitoba government announced Monday that Holocaust education will be part of the curriculum for all students starting this fall.

“All students should learn about the Holocaust because we are one Manitoba and it cannot be divided by hate,” said Premier Wab Kinew.

The province follows a curriculum that teaches history and human rights and respects diversity, said Education and Early Learning Minister Nello Altomare.

“Anti-Semitism and divisiveness have no place in our classrooms,” Altomare said.

Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Toronto brought Journey for Humanity to Winnipeg this week.

A 30-seat mobile education center is visiting schools.

“The goal is to bring the stories of human rights to the students,” said Elena Kingsbury, an educator who took the field trip to Vancouver.

“It's an interesting time to be talking about this topic,” Kingsbury said, referring to the Israel-Hamas war. According to him, students bring up this topic “with respect”.

Talking to young people about the Holocaust is especially important because the number of survivors is dwindling, he said.

“We have a duty to preserve and protect their history,” he said.

Tour for Humanity has visited more than 1,200 Canadian schools since 2013. This is his second visit to Western Canada.

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John Longhurst
Faith correspondent

John Longhurst has been writing for the Winnipeg Faith Pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the US and blogs about media, marketing and communications at Making the News.

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