Meet Len and Hannah.
A father and daughter duo from Toronto, Canada. Len is the son of a Holocaust survivor mother. Hannah carries her grandmother’s legacy with her daily as she fights for Jewish inclusion in today’s upside-down world.
Len is a filmmaker. A historian, a documentarian, a storyteller, an artist. He brings history to life through his craft and was working on telling the story of the Jewish community of Canada. Called ‘Search Out the Land’ it chronicled Canada’s Jewish roots dating back to 1738 and like all Jewish stories, was filled with points of pride and scarred with periods of antisemitism.
While working on the film, Len lost both of his parents to cancer within three months of each other. His father, Marvin, was a basketball legend, and a builder of Basketball Canada. His mother, Mary, was a Holocaust survivor. The emotional toll of the immense loss took a toll on Len, and he stopped working on his projects to cope with his grief. Despite having a strong support system at home, his wife and children, relatives and friends, Len describes himself during this time as “an empty shell.” “It took me a while, I didn’t really too do much, I put everything aside to try to build myself up again. Just as he was feeling ready to reemerge into the world, he turned on the TV on October 7th.
“I saw what was unfolding on the news in front of my eyes. And I knew that the world we live in would be forever changed. I wish I was wrong. For a few months I lay on the couch, I just kind of sat there because I knew what was coming. I pulled myself together after seeing the courage of other people out there; the courage of my daughter to stand up and speak up for herself.”
Len is the son of a Holocaust survivor.
“I was always taught as a child not to speak up. To be quiet. Don’t ruffle feathers. Keep a low profile. Don’t say anything. So when I saw the courage of others, and especially of my daughter, and decided that I had to do something. I restarted some film projects – including one about the rise of antisemitism in North America, specifically in Canada.”
And so ‘In The Name of My Mother, Mary” was born. “My mother always warned us that it’s coming.” Antisemitism didn’t end after the holocaust. It has shifted and migrated and has taken root in North America now. It follows the Jewish communities wherever they settle, and it shape-shifts into the zeitgeist of the times. “My mother always had a ready-to-run bag packed underneath her bed. I can still see that bag.”
Holocaust survivors knew better than most how to identify the warning signs. “She always warned us that the warning signs are when the world started to turn upside down.” Which is happening now. Every day, and in every way, the world seems increasingly off its axis.
“It’s not something that started on October 7th. It’s been building for decades. What scares me the most is that it’s in the primary schools, it’s in the high schools. The municipalities and the individuals who control the school systems are helping directly or indirectly by being bystanders by allowing this hate against Jews to survive. These are the kids that are going to be in charge of our country in 20 years. The universities are even worse. The presidents, teachers, administrators are all complicit in helping to create a potential future holocaust of the Jewish communities of North America, along with the failure of governments at all levels.”
Everything that has been facing the Jewish community around the world is enough to make anyone depressed, but it took Len seeing the strength in his daughter fighting back against the systemic antisemitism in higher education to mobilize him to pick up his camera, assemble a crew, and begin filming to make a difference for future generations.
Meet Hannah, another lioness of our community, who is standing proud in her Judaism and Zionism. At only 21, she is the lone Jewish voice (and Jewish student) in the Social Justice program at Kings College (at Western University). Her grandmother’s legacy has shaped who she is and why she fights. “I’ve been an advocate for social justice ever since I’ve learned to speak. I’ve always been very aware that democracy is fragile because of what my Bubbie had taught me. I understood that I lived in a legacy of Holocaust survivor, and carrying that burden as a Jewish person is pretty profound.”
Being Jewish has been an inextricable part of Hannah’s life. She has often been one of the, if not the only, Jewish people in the room. She has had pennies thrown at her. She has had the word ‘Jew’ used as a slur against her. She is living through and fighting against antisemitism.
The concept of intergenerational trauma has been very real for Hannah; that while learning about the horrors of the Holocaust she felt something vastly different than her fellow students. “I felt such intense trauma, as if I was reliving it. No one else understood or was experiencing that. I wondered why I felt like I was learning about something that I was living in; I was having nightmares about it, and I realized that there’s a trauma that has been passed down.” The knowledge that the majority of her family tree was destroyed, and if not destroyed, then consistently targeted, discriminated against, forced to move from place to place.
“My dad was the first generation that had a safe roof over his head, and I was the second generation. I had to make something of that because I had every opportunity to do so, and so I went to university to get a degree in social justice and peace studies. I noticed quickly that I was the only Jewish person in all of my classes.”
Hannah is used to being the only Jew in the room, and people often perceive her as the same as them. What they fail to understand is that as a Jewish woman, her daily experience is vastly different. “I carry the understanding of my ancestors with me.”
Hannah was surprised to find that in a program that is founded on the basis of ‘liberation for all’ antisemitism was rarely mentioned or addressed in her classes. “All matters were discussed, even down to the rights of robots, but Jewish people were never discussed – not even about the Holocaust.” Hannah would assert her identity in class, which would make her the target of harmful rhetoric, which made her feel deeply uncomfortable, and rightfully so.
Whenever a conversation on the Israeli – Palestinian conflict happened, “I could suddenly feel all eyes on me as the only Jewish student in the classroom. My opinion needed to be inserted and it made me quite uncomfortable.” Hannah was made to speak on behalf of the entire Jewish nation as the sole Jew in the room, experiencing in real time exactly how antisemitism and antizionism are the identical.
“I was isolated and marginalized. When I voiced this to my teacher, he told me that if I was uncomfortable I shouldn’t be coming to class. I missed countless lectures during my second year of studies. I stayed silent because my dad wanted me to stay silent.”
This changed in the days following October 7th. Like most of us, Hannah expected the rhetoric of social justice to shift, to include Jewish people in advocacy, to condemn the atrocities committed on that horrible day. However, her professors didn’t talk about it. A classmate turned to her and said, “I know you’re Jewish, but…” which indicated to Hannah that a)Hannah would be incapable of having sympathy for what others were going through, and b)people could assume her position on Israel-Palestine.
“I was instantly conflated to Zionism, which is fair. I am a Zionist (by the true definition of the word), but to them it’s not a positive thing. Suddenly I felt that everyone was against me, even though I’m the one with family in Israel. I’m the one who woke up that morning and was re-traumatized. And I’m the one who knows and understands the importance of Israel because my grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.”
Hannah tried to explain the harmful rhetoric being used by the Social Justice movement when it comes to Israel. How calling Jews ‘colonizers’ is implying that Jewish history is not rooted in the land, and that’s history erasure. How these tactics are disavowed when it comes to other groups, but not to Jewish people.
Whenever these conversations would occur, it would be Hannah in the hot seat, having to defend her 16 million brothers and sisters alone, while being in immense pain and grief over what had happened in Israel and what was unfolding in Canada.
“One day I just cracked. I cried. And I cried in class. And I kept going to class after that. There were moments where I would walk out of class in tears because students were saying some pretty detrimental things, and vile things about Israel and Jews in general.”
One of her teachers referred to Jews as ‘Jewish Supremacists.’
Many drew equivalencies between the actions of the Nazis to what Israelis do.
Hannah went to the administration to tell them what she had been experiencing and was dismissed in the name of ‘academic freedom.’ Her professors are able to continue engaging in libelous rhetoric as is their ‘right and their freedom.’
So, Hannah took her pain and turned it into power. “I started feeling that my identity as a Jewish student was not accepted, not embraced, not seen, and not heard. I wanted to know if other Jewish students felt similarly.” For her research project, her mini thesis of sorts, Hannah set off to learn more about people’s attitudes towards Jewish people. “I wanted to see how non-Jewish students perceive Jews. I wanted to evaluate how Jewish students at Kings/Western were living, and if they were feeling safe and what their opinions were, if they felt similarly to me.”
She started asking questions like “true or false, Jews have too much power in the media. True or false, Jews control the world.” To her surprise there was a very strong positioning in the responses, especially among her social justice peers – that Jews do control the world, that common tropes of Jews were continuing and were fueling the idea that Jews are oppressors with massive amount of privilege.
“It came back to this whole thing of antisemitism being justified; that Jewish oppression doesn’t matter because we are so much more privileged, and we run the world.”
However, Jewish students on campus were struggling. Jewish students were feeling isolated and scared. They were taking off their identifying necklaces.
Hannah doubled down. She put on her jewelry. “After October 7th I’ve been on a mission. I’ve always known antisemitism is present. I’ve felt it, I’ve experienced it. And October 7th made me say ‘enough is enough.’ I’m going to say something because that’s what my Bubbie couldn’t do. I’m always going to say something and now I’m more proud than ever. I wear my Jewish stars around. I post on Instagram, I write tons of essays on all things Jewish. All I can do is be myself and be an advocate for the Jewish community.
Len told her not to. “I was so nervous with her, but she put on her jewelry and got more.”
Hannah responded, “I did get more. They want us to be scared. They want me to hide my identity. My grandmother had to hide her identity. I’m not going to hide my identity.”
“Often I do feel like I have to hide it. And that’s a problem. A lot of the students at Kings mentioned they were experiencing a lot of antisemitism. It’s a problem when there is a department for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Jewish students are not included.”
In the social justice movement, we are seeing a hierarchy of who matters more. And Jews are coming to find out that within the movement they don’t matter at all. Hannah is living the experience that we have all been seeing play out online. She has seen the lies spread, people vehemently hiding behind ‘anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism’. She is seeing the virus of antisemitism shape shift in front of her eyes; the use of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in an academic context.
“Classmates send me videos on why I need to change my opinion. They target the only Jewish student in the class. They keep trying to rework the definitions of antisemitism into the new social justice framework. It doesn’t fit because historically Jews have not had this immense privilege.”
On the contrary. Jews have been systemically oppressed throughout history – through laws, justice systems, tax systems etc. “These narratives that we are powerful and colonizers perpetuates an idea that is false and harms Jews.”
Hannah has not shied away from the ecosystem that she finds herself in. “I’ve been very outspoken. I’m adamant on supporting the Jewish students at Western. I’m on the committee of Inclusion, Diversity, and Partnerships at Hillel. I want to make sure that all Jewish students are being supported. My dad told me to hide, and I said, ‘screw this.’ I did my research.” Hannah made sure that Jews and Israelis were represented in the discourse in class. “If a Palestinian perspective was being presented, I advocated for a Jewish voice to present the opposing argument.” She would not sit idly by and allow speakers to compare Zionists and Nazis, and how the Holocaust perpetuates the idea of Israel’s necessity. “I thought it was really antisemitic. The Holocaust was a massive atrocity.” Her professor listened to her concerns and acted accordingly. Perhaps this one act of bravery can change the discourse moving forward.
Hannah has always been an advocate for social justice for others. Now she has become a social justice advocate for her own people. She knows the legacy of what Jewish advocates have done for other communities and was saddened to not see any of the allyship reciprocated in the Jews’ time of need. She is now working with Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith in their research departments. “If I don’t do it, I don’t know who else will.”
“I see the strength in her, and the lessons that my mom taught me. That’s one of the reasons that I am making my film. I want the non-Jewish community to understand what’s going on, what is taking place and being ignored by our politicians in universities, in high schools.”
Len recounted how the history of antisemitism, Jewish pride, and Jewish activism has deep roots in Canada, dating all the way back to 1738. It is documented in his film. In 1756 Jews, led by Aaron Hart, were petitioning for more rights from the King – not only for the Jews, but for Catholics as well. When they won increased rights, it benefitted everyone, but they were at the forefront of asking for the rights.
Hannah is continuing this legacy.
“I’m an historian,” said Len. “We are seeing some of the worst antisemitism that this country has ever seen. In the 1800s, a Jewish man named Ezekiel Hart was elected to Parliament, but was forbidden from taking a seat because he was Jewish. Now, seeing parliamentarians pass resolutions against Israel and turn their backs on the Jewish community – the antisemitic legacy continues. The legacy of this government will go down in history as the most antisemitic since Mackenzie-King . It’s shameful.”
“Aside from the strength of seeing my child getting out of the bubble, the other thing is that most Jews want peace. That’s what got me out of bed. I remember seeing that photo of the little boy raising his hands at the Warsaw ghetto. We are not that scared little boy surrendering to the Nazis anymore. We have an army of brave soldiers that can defend us and put an end to this hate. It’s different now. That’s what gets me through. I’ve learned that I’m not going to be silent. I learned that from Hannah, I’ve learned that from our community that has taken to the street with strength, to remind the world of what happened and that we are no longer powerless. I’m going to fight. I’m going to fight for the Jewish community of Canada.”
Hannah reflected on the future of the social justice movement. “There is no justice until there is justice for everyone. This core message is somehow not applying to the Jewish community which is pushing Jews further away from social justice – or at least from the movement (which has been hijacked), and that’s unfortunate. But I have seen Jews come together now more than ever before to fight against antisemitism. However, prominent social justice organizations have proved to be unsafe for Jewish people. I think that will shift one day – it has to. But at what cost? It might take something drastic – another holocaust - for everyone to wake up, because that’s what happened historically.”
Jewish pride is alive and well in Hannah and Len. “When I think of Jews, the word ‘weak’ never runs through my mind. I see the ghetto uprisings and all of the other instances where Jews fought back. The perception of the ‘weak’ Jew is told from the outer perspective.”
The Jewish community has been shaped by hardship, and that has made us stronger. Intergenerational trauma has forged us, each in our own way. We carry the lives and lessons of our ancestors with us as we continue their fight for future generations. In their names. In The Name of Len’s Mother, Mary.
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