Local News
Congregation Shir Tikvah officially dissolves
By BERNIE BELLAN In our July 24, 2019 issue we broke the news that Congregation Shir Tikvah was ceasing operations. In that issue we reported that “A Winnipeg congregation that had been holding High Holy Day services for the past 16 years is ceasing operations. In that article we wrote that, in a letter sent to congregation members dated July 12, Congregation Shir Tikvah President Sharon Bronstone stated:
Dear Members of Congregation Shir Tikvah,
On behalf of the Board of Directors and myself, it is with great sadness that we inform you of our decision not to hold High Holy Days Services this coming year.
After sixteen years in operation we can only see the writing on the wall that our numbers have been declining and at this time we don’t see a viable option to move forward.
When we started out no one thought our “little congregation” would ever amount to anything nor did anyone think Shir Tikvah would become a household name to hold Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services for sixteen years.
While closing our doors is not what we had in mind, we do want you to know how important your presence, contributions and commitment has been to all of us. To be a part of an amazing group of people devoted to helping us thrive over the years has been incredibly heartwarming to everyone who has served on the Congregation Shir Tikvah Board as well as those behind the scenes. We applaud you for sticking by us!
As a follow-up to that story we were recently contacted by Sharon Bronstone to inform us that Congregation Shir Tikvah is now officially dissolved.
Among the several artifacts that the congregation had accumulated over the years were two Torah scrolls which had been donated to the congregation by Leonard Kahane in 2015. In a story I wrote that year I gave the explanation as to how those two Torah scrolls had ended up with Shir Tikvah. That story also told how the congregation had first come about:
It’s not often that a Jewish congregation in Winnipeg is able to commemorate something as momentous as the acquisition of a new Torah scroll. If memory serves correct, the last time any congregation here was able to mark such an occasion was in May 2012, when Temple Shalom celebrated the completion of the “Penn Torah scroll”, which was the crowning achievement of scribe Irma Penn shortly before her passing that same year.
Now, a congregation about whom we don’t hear very much is also about to unveil two new recently-acquired Torah scrolls. Congregation Shir Tikvah, which is in its 13th year, will be unveiling the two Torahs at its Rosh Hashanah service on Monday, September 15.
The Torah scrolls are the gifts of Dr. Leonard Kahane, in memory of his late wife, Hope Renee, who passed away in 2006.
Recently I sat down with three individuals who were instrumental in creating Shir Tikvah congregation and who have played vital roles in keeping that congregation alive every high holiday since 2003: Sid Ritter (the former executive director of Bnay Abraham Synagogue prior to the merger of that synagogue with the Beth Israel and Rosh Pina synagogues in 2002), his wife Hinda , and Sharon Bronstone (a past president of the Beth Israel congregation).
As much as I was interested in hearing the story of the Torah scrolls, I was even more interested in knowing what has led the various individuals who have gathered together each year at the Viscount Gort Hotel (save for two years at the old Blue and Gold room in the former Winnipeg Stadium) for high holiday services to stay together.
The story, for those not familiar with it, is that at the time that three north-end Winnipeg congregations – the Beth Israel, Bnay Abraham, and Rosh Pina, decided to merge into one in 2002, not all members of those congregations were enthused with the idea of the merger. According to Bronstone, “Some of us were not happy the way it (the merger) turned out…and Sid, David (Bloomfield, also one of the original movers behind the creation of Shir Tikvah and a past president of the Beth Israel), and I started getting phone calls from others, asking ‘What are you going to do?’ “
“Nobody really wanted to start anything,” says Bronstone, “but the phone calls kept coming in and we did start something – it was a one-shot deal, in 2003” (high holidays services in the basement of the Viscount Gort Hotel on Portage Avenue).
“The first year we had 83 people – which surprised us,” she notes. “It came around that we met a second year, also at the Viscount Gort.” Since then the number of people attending Shir Tikvah’s services has continued to grow, to the point where there are anywhere from 150-180 individuals now attending annually (although one year there were over 200 people in attendance, Bronstone notes.)
(Ed. note: In my conversation with Sharon Bronstone on March 10, 2021 Sharon offered the following observations about the original formation of Congregation Shir Tikvah:
“Some of us were younger people who weren’t comfortable going to a larger synagogue.
Rabbi Green (who was the rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel at one time) had suggested, when Shir Tikvah was first formed that (to paraphrase) “You’re doing something for people who do not want to belong to a synagogue, but wanted somewhere to go for High Holiday services.”)
Arky Berkal has served as cantor from day one, while Sharon’s son Adam has served as “lay rabbi”, also from the very beginning. (Every year Adam Bronstone has come back to Winnipeg for two weeks during the high holidays, no matter where he may have been living anywhere in the world.) In recent years, Jared Trotman has also been contributing as “Ba’al Shacharit”, this year to be joined on the bimah by Avrom Charach.
As far as Torah scrolls have gone though, the congregation had been in the practice of borrowing two scrolls belonging to the Gray Academy each year. Later, when those Torahs were sent for refurbishing, Shir Tikvah was able to borrow two more Torah scrolls from the Talmud Torah-Beth Jacob congregation on Main Street. Most recently it had been borrowing two Torahs from the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue.
Bronstone notes that, even though there “were 48 Torahs” in the Etz Chayim as a result of the merger of the three congregations and that the Simkin Centre also had a surplus of Torahs, “no one wanted to give any to us.”
But, last year, explains Bronstone, while they “were breaking fast, Dr. (Leonard) Kahane said to me ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’ I didn’t understand what he meant, so I said ‘I don’t think so.’”
“No, no, what I meant is ‘What are you short?’ “, Dr. Kahane continued, according to Bronstone. “Well, after Yom Tov, I called him,” she continues, and mentioned that they were short Torahs of their own, so “he made us a fantastic offer of two Torahs”.
At that point Hinda Ritter explains how Sid and Leonard Kahane went down to Florida to visit a store known as “Tradition”, whose owner specialized in the sale of Torahs “that have been reclaimed from the Holocaust”.
“The Torahs go to Israel,” Hinda adds, “where they’re vetted and fixed, and he (the owner of Tradition) gets them.” (The Torahs are kept near the Kotel, where authorized scribes are allowed to work on them, Sid Ritter explains later in the conversation.)
Sid Ritter adds: “There are two locations in the world where Holocaust Torahs are kept. One is in Jerusalem and the other location is London, England. My opinion is we ought to be getting Torahs from Jerusalem. Those Torahs are checked by an authorized scribe to make sure they are all kosher.”
(At this point I interjected, asking whether it was permissible to repair a Torah that had been severely damaged. According to Sid Ritter, it depends on the degree of damage.)
“I asked our contact in Florida whether it would be possible to obtain one Torah that came from Poland and one from Romania,” Sid continues, “because our donor’s family came from Romania.”
“After some back and forth, eventually two Torahs were found – one from Poland, and one from Romania – and that’s what we ended up with,” he says.
There was an added element to the purchase of the Torahs that entered into the equation, Sid adds: The weight of the Torahs. Theirs is an “egalitarian congregation”, he explains, and they didn’t want to acquire Torahs that would be too heavy for women to carry.
So, what are the components that go into adding to the weight of a particular Torah? Sid wondered. One obvious factor would be the weight of the scroller, or the “Etz Chayim,” as it is referred to. “It depends on whether it’s made of hardwood or softwood,” Sid explains. But, another added element is the type of ink used in creating a particular Torah. “The heavier the ink, the more massive the Torah – not so much the parchments – they’re largely the same,” he adds.
But, how do you know a Torah comes from Poland, for instance, while another comes from Romania? “It turns out that there are actually distinct styles,” Sid says, that can indicate where a Torah comes from.
I ask: “How much does a Torah go for anyway?”
Both Sharon and Sid chime in: “Lots!”
In addition to the actual scrolls, Dr. Kahane also paid for the Torah covers, which were made in Israel.
Since Congregation Shir Tikvah meets only for high holiday services, I ask where the Torahs will be kept during the rest of the year. It turns out that Sid Ritter will keep them in his own home – under conditions “that are reasonably temperature controlled”, he notes.
The ark and the podium used by Shir Tikvah were designed and built by Zvi Gitter, Sharon Bronstone says, and they’re meant to be easily disassembled. As a matter of fact, she notes, “ we have given them out when people have bar or bat mitzvahs in hotels.”
“We are, in my estimation, a real synagogue,” she adds, “because the only things we were lacking were our own Torahs”.
According to Sharon Bronstone, now that Shir Tikvah Congregation is officially dissolved, the two Torah scrolls that the congregation acquired in 2015 are to be given to the Chevra Mishnayes Congregation (about which we have a story on page 34.)
As well, Sharon adds, the ark and the podium mentioned in that 2015 story will be donated to Congregation Temple Shalom, along with the white gowns worked by the lay rabbi and cantor.
As far as the High Holiday books that had been accumulated by Shir Tikvah over the years, Sharon says, of the 160 books in the congregation’s possession, 60 have been able to find new homes in other congregations, but there are still 100 remaining to be donated. If anyone is interested in acquiring these books they are asked to contact Sharon at 204-338-5064.
Local News
Former Winnipegger Libby Goszer in need of a kidney donor
By MYRON LOVE It is written in the Mishnah that whoever saves a life is considered to have saved an entire world.
About 18 months ago, Libby Goszer’s kidneys failed and she went into renal failure. She undergoes dialysis – at home – on a daily basis. Her life hangs in the balance and she is reaching out – with the help of first cousins Marnie Ross and Sharon Goszer Tritt – to the community in hopes of finding a kidney donor.
The only child of the late Boris and Eve Goszer grew up in West Kildonan. After graduating with a degree in Psychology from the University of Winnipeg in 1982, she relocated to Vancouver for post-graduate studies and built a life there. She married Doug, had one son, Micah, and practiced clinical psychology for about 35 years.
Her health problems began in 2007 when she was diagnosed with Acute MyeLoid Leukemia. “I underwent a stem cell transplant,” she reports. “As it happens, my donor was Israeli. The operation was successful. I did very well for a number of years.”
(Ed. note: In the June 12, 2019 issue of The Jewish Post & News I wrote about Libby’s having received a stem cell transplant from an Israeli donor. Libby was a featured speaker at a dinner sponsored by an organization know as Ezer Mizion. Former Winnipegger Solly Dreman was instrumental in fundraising for that organization and had played a pivotal role in holding a fundraising dinner in Winnipeg that June to raise awareness of Ezer Mizion.
Here’s what I wrote back then about Libby’s story:
“Libby Goszer told her own heart-rending story of how close shecame to dying when she herself developed acute leukemia in 2006.
“ ‘One moment I was a confident professional, wife and mother; the next moment I was in an isolation room…After treatment, I was given a 60 percent chance my leukemia would return – and it did. I needed a perfect stem cell donor match.”
“In November 2008, fortunately, that perfect match was found in Ezer Mizion’s registry. Transplant recipients aren’t able to find out the names of their donors until a year after having received their transplant but, waiting on the surgical bed that day in November, Goszer said she was overjoyed when she ‘saw a woman come in carrying a bag of stem cells. It never occurred to me though that bag had been transferred all the way from
Israel.’
“In 2012 Libby ‘learned about the donor’s identity’ and in 2013 she and her family flew to Israel to meet her donor, whose name was Moshe, along with his immediate family.
“ ‘They (Moshe and his family) were as excited to meet me as I was to meet him,’ Goszer said. ‘From the darkness of a life-threatening illness has emerged a set of relationships between Moshe, his family, and my family.’
“In closing, Goszer urged members of the audience to think of this ‘night as a night of solidarity where we as Jews will be reminded that we will do what we can to take care of one another.’ “)
Fast forward seven years and Myron continues his story…
“The drawback, however, Libby now notes, is that the immunosuppressive drugs that she had to be on to prevent the rejection of her earlier transplant caused irreparable damage to her kidneys over several years.
I first became aware of Libby Goszer’s plight when – a few weeks ago – I came across an information sheet – prepared by Marnie Ross – while at a community program at the Shaarey Zedek.
“Sharon (Goszer Tritt) helped get the information sheets into the Shaarey Zedek,” Ross says. “I also left copies at the Rady Centre.”
The sheet describes how kidney disease has impacted Goszer’s life – in particular the loss of energy and extreme physical and mental fatigue. Ross has also created a Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bj35eg5nz/ which, so far, has generated 76 shares. “We hope that the people who have responded will share the information with their online contacts,” she says. “We want to get the word out.”
Goszer adds that the members of Temple Sholom, the congregation which she has belonged to since 1992, have also been supportive.
She reports that three friends have come forth to test to see if they are a match. One of the three may be and is undergoing more tests to make sure.
“If you want a really thorough medical check-up, “she observes, “I would recommend that you volunteer to become a kidney donor. They test everything to make sure that the donor is in good health and won’t suffer any damage to their health by donating a kidney.”
She further points out that you can live a long and healthy life with one kidney.
Goszer is also listed with Renewal Canada, a Jewish organization that “helps patients and their families navigate the complex process of kidney transplant, from finding a donor to arranging the transplant and beyond”. The organization also provides financial support for donors “to make sure their incredible self-sacrifice is as easy as can be and comes at no financial cost to them”.
Interested readers can contact renewalcanada.org/libbygoszer – or contact the Living Donor Kidney Program at Vancouver Coastal Health at kidneydonornurse@vch.ca (or phone 1-604 875-4111) and include Libby’s name and birthday (July 31,1958).
While Libby Goszer’s friend is a strong possibility, she notes that you can’t be sure until final approval is received.
“I generally am a positive and optimistic individual,” she says. “There are times when I feel down but, overall, I continue to have faith and hope that things will turn out well.”
“I have so much living left to do and I ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to consider kidney donation. I long to return to a fuller clinical practice, resume volunteering and, of course, watch my son wed and raise his children in our Jewish way of life.”
Local News
Hundreds rally against opening of Nakba exhibit at Human Rights Museum
By NOAH STRAUSS Around 300 people gathered outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Friday during the grand opening of the museum’s newest exhibit, “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present.” (Ed. note: The CBC report on the protest said there were “100” people at the rally. I know there were more than 100, but I’m not sure there were 300 either.) The exhibit, which had a limited number of tickets available for opening night, sold out. The Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba had originally planned a rally in support of the exhibit’s opening, but it was cancelled just days before the event.
The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947–1949 war surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. The exhibit has drawn criticism from members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community and others who argue that it does not acknowledge the displacement and persecution of Jewish communities in many Arab and Muslim-majority countries following Israel’s independence and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Historians estimate that between 850,000 and 950,000 Jews left or were expelled from Arab and Muslim-majority countries during the decades surrounding Israel’s establishment. In countries including Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, many had their property confiscated, while others left because of persecution or increasing hostility.
Supporters of the Jewish community came from all faiths and backgrounds. The Jewish Post spoke with Lisa Lewis, a longtime supporter of the Jewish community.
“I think there is a crisis of antisemitism happening right now,” Lewis said.
She was one of many non-Jewish community members who attended the rally. Lewis said she has been an active ally since the 2000s, helping Argentine immigrants come to Canada. Following the October 7 attacks on Israel, she said she has become a more vocal supporter of the Jewish community. During the rally, she wore a Magen David necklace.
Lewis also criticized the museum’s approach to the exhibit.
“The Jewish community organizations that represent the majority of the Jewish community weren’t consulted on something like this,” she said.
Cindy Clubb, another ally of the Jewish community who attended the rally, also voiced her concerns.
“I grew up with prominent businesspeople and members of the academic and medical communities. I don’t know what we would do without our Jewish cooperation. So I’m up here to support them, and I think all of Winnipeg should be out here,” Clubb said.
One protester, who identified herself as Michelle, said, “We are against the Nakba exhibit. It’s all lies.”
Gustavo Zentner, Vice President of CIJA Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said, “We are calling on Minister Miller to hold the museum leadership accountable. The Minister of Canadian Heritage needs to ensure that national institutions are not weaponized against Canadians to serve a one-sided political agenda. These concerns were expressed not only by the Jewish community, but by many concerned Canadians. At its core, this is a Canadian issue.”
Zentner did not participate in the community rally. He went on to say, “We are proud of the many community members, allies, and organizers who gathered at the museum before Shabbat began to demonstrate their concerns.”
The museum defended its decision to present the exhibit. CEO Isha Khan said that “human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient.” She added that the museum “belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
The exhibit is scheduled to remain on display until November 2028.
Local News
Interviews with the curator of the Nakba exhibit and the CEO of the Human Rights Museum
By BERNIE BELLAN On June 26, I was invited to attend the Canadian Museum for Human Right to see the Nakba exhibit prior to its being opened to the public. While I was there I was given the opportunity to interview the curator for the exhibit, Isabelle Masson, along with CMHR CEO Isha Khan. What follows are the transcripts of those interviews (edited only to remove pause words like “uh” and phrases that were repeated). The first interview was with Isabelle Masson:
Jewish Post: Several representatives of Winnipeg Jewish community organization say that they weren’t fairly consulted on this exhibit. How do you respond to that?
Masson: We came to this project with an awareness that Palestinian voices are often marginalized, even silenced, and an awareness that Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism have an impact on whose voice is heard and whose suffering is recognized. And so we intentionally chose to centre Palestinian voices with this exhibition.
JP: But to the point that many Jewish representatives of organizations and people within the community at large feel that the Jewish community should have been consulted on an issue that had such a direct impact on the Jewish community – did you not feel an obligation to consult with the Jewish community?
Masson: I think the best person to talk further about this issue is our CEO, Isha.
JP: In terms of the exhibit itself, I must say it really stresses the suffering that Palestinians have endured. But, in looking at other refugee situations around the world, the Palestinian situation seems to me to be unique in that there has never been an effort to resettle Palestinians within the countries to which they were forced to flee.
Do you not think that separates their situation (from other refugee situations) and, in some ways, it has made their situation worse than it could have been?
Masson: Well, the exhibit not only centres that experience of forced displacement and disposition as a longstanding experience across five generation that you know is tied to human rights violations that are ongoing today, but it also I want to point out, you know, foregrounds beauty, foregrounds resilience, foregrounds the maintenance of identity and belonging across time and across that experience. So there’s also these elements about this exhibition because it was also about humanizing Palestinians – about people with families with stories, with creativity – and coming back to some of the videos what interviewees say, right, we hope that Palestinians can be seen as fully human and hope that they can see Palestinians as having human rights and this this story today in this gallery is is a story about human rights.
JP: If I can focus on one particular aspect of the exhibit that I read this morning when I was sent the preview, it referred to what happened between the years 2000 and 2005 as a Palestinian uprising. But the Israeli term would be the Intifada which for them meant large-scale attacks – terrorist bombings by some Palestinians. Did you not think it necessary to include that in a larger context?
Masson: Well, we use uprising because it’s the most more accessible term in the exhibition and we, you know, we’re focusing really here on an artwork by artists – Palestinian American artist Reggie Cook and with an artwork that was trying to translate the experience of of occupation into what is created. So that’s the context in which we talk about that.
JP: But to ignore what happened during the uprising seems to me to leave out a major part of the context.
Masson: I don’t think that we are ignoring that. This exhibit is not about the full story of what has happened in Palestine, in Israel. It’s not, you know, the scope of this small exhibition. This small exhibition has a scope and the scope was really to create an opportunity and a place for Canadians to be able to encounter Palestinian Canadians and hear their voices.
JP: Given the current mood in the Middle East and the ongoing tensions between Israel and various other actors, the concern among many in the Jewish community that this is going to lead to a heightening of antisemitism and an exhibit like this seems that it’s not going to do much to improve relations between Jews and Palestinians when it focuses on only one side of the story. How do you respond to that?
Masson: Well, this is only one exhibit of of many, of many stories that we have.
Following is my interview with Isha Khan. Khan began by explaining that she is “the CEO at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and I’ve been here as CEO of the museum since August of 2020. So almost six years.”
JP: So let’s get right down to discussing (the exhibit). I spoke to the curator. I asked a lot of questions about the exhibit itself. I’m more interested in asking (you) about the general context and the atmosphere in the community. The accusation has been made repeatedly by various leaders of Jewish organizations that you have not been willing to consult on this exhibit. How do you respond to that?
Khan: I think the word consult can mean many things. We have a community engagement practice. So for us that means that depending on the scope of the exhibit and this exhibit is about Palestinian Canadians and their experiences, the impacts of the human rights impacts, of forced displacement, which means we engage with that community as we share their stories. Many folks in the Jewish community will say we haven’t consulted with them and yet we have met with leaders of Jewish organizations from across Canada, main uh, major federations, foundations, local Jewish organization representatives many times to talk about this exhibit, to explain what its scope is, what it’s about, what it’s intended to do, and most importantly, what it isn’t. And unfortunately there continues to be misconceptions about what it is. So we hope people will come and see it.
JP: I think the fear in the community – and I think it’s well founded is that this will foment an increase in antisemitism. Can you understand that concern?
Khan: Absolutely. I personally and any member of our team who’s talked to folks about this has said that we unequivocally share the concern about antisemitism in Canada today. That is part of our mandate. And we will continue to do that work and we can also share these stories of Palestinian Canadians – you know, telling the story of one community’s human rights violation in no way should negate or minimize the experience of another community. That’s what this museum was designed to do….designed to build understanding of shared humanity and that’s what we believe we’re doing responsibly.
JP: Just before I began this interview, I was taken (down to the fourth floor; the Nakba exhibit is on the fifth floor) to see the gallery of other human rights violations. I’m not sure what it’s called. (It’s where there is a ) recitation of various human rights violations, including what happened in 1947 and 1948 (in Palestine). They offer passing reference to the displacement of both Jewish and Palestinian refugees. Would you consider ever having an exhibit about the displacement of Jewish refugees from Arab lands in 1948 and subsequent years?
Khan: We would absolutely consider it and in fact have shared with leaders of the Jewish organizations months ago that yes, these are important stories that need to be told (and) invited them to work constructively with us on developing that content. Unfortunately we didn’t really receive much response.
JP: How long is this exhibit supposed to be on for?
Khan: So this exhibit right now we’re saying is a minimum of two years. That’s because it is an exhibit in a standing gallery and so it also depends on our updating of our other galleries and, you know, exhibits take a bit of time. This one is four years in the making and so we’ve just committed that it’ll be a minimum of two years and we’ll see where things go.
JP: There are a lot of other refugee situations in the world – (for instance) South Sudan, and just this morning I was saying to Isabelle that I received an email about the situation for people from Burundi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I didn’t realize that was a problem. I know that the Congo has had ongoing problems with displacement of populations. It it seems to me it’s not an unlimited number of stories like this you could tell, but there are a lot of others. How do you decide which ones take priority?
Khan: We’re often asked the question of how we decide, and it comes back to how this museum is designed. Each gallery is intended to tell a different story. It has an objective. So this exhibit, Palestine Uprooted, is in our Rights Today gallery. It’s to talk about global human rights issues. And we know that people want to better understand human rights of Palestinians. There’s no question. It’s being talked about, debated, discussed all over the world. And so we’re being responsive there to that need. And we know that Palestinian experiences were under represented in our galleries and have heard that for years. To your point though that there are other stories – the design of this museum is that you ought to be able to feel something, understand something about the forced displacement of one community and apply it to another. So now this story stands along the forced displacement of the Rwanda people, indigenous peoples, Ukrainian people, the Igbo people. You’ve named a number of others that we do need to develop content on over time, but it’s done depending on what gallery it is, what we are trying to invoke…because we’ll never be the encyclopedia of all human rights atrocities in the world. That’s actually why we’re called the Canadian Museum for Human Rights rather than the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.
We’re here to to develop an understanding through the stories that will impact people.
JP: Okay. I want to ask a politically loaded question.
Khan: Okay.
JP: The Jewish population of Canada is at best 450,000. In that range, Jews don’t have the political impact that they used to. At most, there are 12 to 16 ridings where the Jewish vote can make a difference. The Muslim population has grown substantially. It has a much larger political impact. Did that factor in to this exhibit being mounted in any way?
Khan: Absolutely not.
JP: So, I’ll ask the question that I asked the curator of the exhibit. Where did the impetus for this come from? Did it come from Palestinian Canadians?
Khan: This exhibit came from a recognition, our decision. I hold responsibility ultimately for the decisions made by my team. It was made based on the recognition that Palestinian experiences were under represented in this museum. We absolutely heard from the Palestinian community organizations in Canada and had heard for many years that their stories were underrepresented. Ultimately, the decision was ours. And as we look at this gallery and updating our content, this is ‘rights today’ – global human rights. We know that the world is talking about Palestinian human rights and the stories of Palestinian Canadians naturally belong in our collective memory alongside many other stories that are told here.
JP: There was one particular aspect on one of the panels when I was sent a preview this morning and it referred to the Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 which led to a lot of Israeli deaths that we generally refer to as the Intifada. There’s no mention of Israeli deaths on that panel. Would you agree that might have been an oversight?
Khan: I mean I know that there the factual point is absolutely accurate. The decisions on the curation of the exhibit are not ones that I make, but certainly if that is a concern that we will look at.
