Gaza war creates divisions in local Jewish community 

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

For members of Quebec City’s small Jewish community, services at the city’s only synagogue have long provided a “safe space” transcending the barriers of language, politics and ideology. Then came the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 in Israel, where over 1,100 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage, and the subsequent war in Gaza, where an estimated 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands injured or displaced.

Now, a Quebec City father says his family has been excluded from two recent events at Congrégation Beth Israel Ohev Sholem (CBIOS) because of his and his partner’s outspoken advocacy in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Université Laval chemistry professor Jesse Greener told the QCT he and his family were told they were not welcome at a children’s event earlier this spring and a Passover celebration this past week. He and his partner, left-wing journalist and author Nora Loreto, have sent a mise en demeure through their lawyer, well- known Montreal-based human rights attorney Julius Grey, asking for a formal apology and a written promise to “cease all forms of discrimination based on political convictions.”

“On April 5, we were told that because of the protest [calling for a ceasefire in Gaza], certain members wouldn’t want to [attend an event] with us. The synagogue has never been a place to discuss politics … even after Oct. 7, we thought there would be people there who would not agree with us, but we weren’t planning to talk about it,” he said. “I guess things have changed, because we’re getting a message that people don’t want to be around us.”

CBIOS vice president Debbie Rootman disputes Greener’s account, saying the family was only asked not to attend one event, a Passover celebration on April 23, and they turned down an invitation to a separate celebration at her home. However, she acknowledged that the Gaza war has created divisions within the synagogue and the wider Jewish community. “This political issue of the Israel and Hamas conflict divided many families and friends,” she said in a brief email exchange with the QCT. “It is very emotional and [there’s] a lot of ignorance and propaganda.” No one from CBIOS was available to com- ment further at press time.

A lost opportunity

Greener said he was disappointed that his two elementary-school-aged children seemed to have lost a chance to connect with their culture. “My family was affected by the Second World War; they were refugees who were resettled in Canada after losing most of their family in the Holocaust. It’s part of my children’s heritage.

“Passover talks about social justice, and we want that for the kids – we want to explain Jewish faith and culture, and talk about slavery, dispossession and war, and break that down with the kids,” he added.

Greener said he believed the ongoing war “was not about Jews vs. Arabs or Jews vs. Palestinians, but about the colonial state of Israel doing colonial things.” He said people within his own family don’t all have the same stance on the war, but are still on speaking terms. “It’s hard, because it is such a tripwire … but it doesn’t have to be a red line. Just because we’re not partisan Israel supporters doesn’t mean we should be divided as a community.”