Israel
Visiting Israeli students reflect Israel’s diversity in cross-Canada tour
By MYRON LOVE
There are undoubtedly many people who ascribe to the stereotype that all Israeli Jews are Caucasian and of European background. One of the purposes of StandWithUs Canada’s recent campus WordSwap tour is to show the real, varied face of Israel. To that end, three Israeli students from the Interdisciplinary Centre at Herzlia – Rawan Agbaria, Yonatan Eyov, and Omri Zada – put in appearances in Winnipeg at both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg on Monday, November 25, seeking to engage local students in informal conversation about Israel and clear up some of the stereotypes and misrepresentations.
(Students Supporting Israel and Hillel Winnipeg participated with StandWithUs Canada for the program on Winnipeg campuses.)
The trio are among the hundreds of Israeli university students – representing different ethnic, religious and racial communities –who have been recruited and trained – under the auspices of StandWithUs’s Emerson Fellowship program – to travel to campuses in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to educate students about Israel. This is the fourth WordSwap tour in Canada in five years.
“I am a Muslim,” Agbaria says. “People don’t realize that 20% of the population of Israel are Arabs. And we enjoy the same rights of citizenship of Jewish Israelis. There are Arab Members of the Knesset and there is an Arab Christian among Israel’s Supreme Court justices.”
Eyov, for his part, is originally from Ethiopia and came to Israel as part of Israel’s repatriation of Ethiopia’s 2,000-year-old Jewish community. He is also gay and actively involved in Israel’s LGBTQ community.
Meryle Kates, the executive director of StandWithUs Canada, was quoted as saying in a recent article in the Canadian Jewish News that “WordSwap (which was started in 2013) was created to engage students in dialogue about the real Israel and has been an excellent Israel education and advocacy project.”
The delegates, according to the CJN report, are StandWithUs campus fellows in Israel who have served in the IDF. Zada, Eyov and Agbaria were among nine Israeli Emerson Fellows who arrived in Toronto on November 8. Over a period of two weeks, the Israelis – in small groups, visited a total of 15 campuses in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. They also spoke in high schools and synagogues, and to community gatherings.
Over a period of two weeks, the Israelis visited McGill, Concordia, the University of Toronto, Ryerson, York, Seneca College, Queen’s, Western, Carleton, the University of Ottawa, the University of Guelph, and the University of Waterloo. Winnipeg was the last stop.
“Although we have spoken to Jewish community groups in synagogues, high schools (such as Gray Academy) and through Hillel, our primary focus has been to inaugurate informal conversations with students at the universities over coffee,” Zada explains.
Agbaria adds that in the smaller communities the Israelis have visited, many of the students have little awareness about the ongoing conflict and don’t know a lot about Israel.
“The reception that we have received has been generally positive,” she says.
Eyov pipes up that “the beauty of WordSwap is that we get to talk about the Israel we know and generate questions about our country in an informal setting.”
Eyov adds that the Israeli visitors don’t expect to be able to change minds when dealing with hardcore opponents of Israel. “At York University a week earlier, I got into a two-hour discussion with a Palestinian student,” he recounts. “In the end, we both agreed to disagree. The point though, is that we were able to carry on the conversation in a respectful manner.”
He adds that while some students who he has encountered are concerned about attending York University due to reports about recent anti-Semitic incidents, the visiting Israelis didn’t encounter any negative behavior during their visit to York.
Israel
Join the Masa Canadian Professionals Volunteers Program!
You are invited on a 4-week volunteer program in Israel from October 14th to November 10th. Help rebuild Israeli society post-October 7th over Canadian Thanksgiving, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah. Spend three weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
Features
New website for Israelis interested in moving to Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN (May 21, 2024) A new website, titled “Orvrim to Canada” (https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/ovrim-en) has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visits, according to Michal Harel, operator of the website.
In an email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca Michal explained the reasons for her having started the website:
“In response to the October 7th events, a group of friends and I, all Israeli-Canadian immigrants, came together to launch a new website supporting Israelis relocating to Canada. “Our website, https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/, offers a comprehensive platform featuring:
- Step-by-step guides for starting the immigration process
- Settlement support and guidance
- Community connections and networking opportunities
- Business relocation assistance and expert advice
- Personal blog sharing immigrants’ experiences and insights
“With over 200,000 visitors and media coverage from prominent Israeli TV channels and newspapers, our website has already made a significant impact in many lives.”
A quick look at the website shows that it contains a wealth of information, almost all in Hebrew, but with an English version that gives an overview of what the website is all about.
The English version also contains a link to a Jerusalem Post story, published this past February, titled “Tired of war? Canada grants multi-year visas to Israelis” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-787914#google_vignette) That story not only explains the requirements involved for anyone interested in moving to Canada from Israel, it gives a detailed breakdown of the costs one should expect to encounter.
(Updated May 28)
We contacted Ms. Harel to ask whether she’s aware whether there has been an increase in the number of Israelis deciding to emigrate from Israel since October 7. (We want to make clear that we’re not advocating for Israelis to emigrate; we’re simply wanting to learn more about emigration figures – and whether there has been a change in the number of Israelis wanting to leave the country.)
Ms. Harel referred us to a website titled “Globes”: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001471862
The website is in Hebrew, but we were able to translate it into English. There is a graph on the website showing both numbers of immigrants to Israel and emigrants.
The graph shows a fairly steady rate of emigration from 2015-2022, hovering in the 40,000 range, then in 2023 there’s a sudden increase in the number of emigrants to 60,000.
According to the website, the increase in emigrants is due more to a change in the methodology that Israel has been using to count immigrants and emigrants than it is to any sudden upsurge in emigration. (Apparently individuals who had formerly been living in Israel but who may have returned to Israel just once a year were being counted as having immigrated back to Israel. Now that they are no longer being counted as immigrants and instead are being treated as emigrants, the numbers have shifted radically.)
Yet, the website adds this warning: “The figures do not take into account the effects of the war, since it is still not possible to identify those who chose to emigrate following it. It is also difficult to estimate what Yalad Yom will produce – on the one hand, anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and Israelis around the world reminds everyone where the Jewish home is. On the other hand, the bitter truth we discovered in October is that it was precisely in Israel, the safe fortress of the Jewish people, that a massacre took place reminding us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And if that’s not enough, the explosive social atmosphere and the difference in the state budget deficit, which will inevitably lead to a heavy burden of taxes and a reduction in public services, may convince Zionist Israelis that they don’t belong here.”
Thus, as much as many of us would be disappointed to learn that there is now an upsurge in Israelis wanting to move out of the country, once reliable figures begin to be produced for 2024, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that is the case – which helps to explain the tremendous popularity of Ms. Harel’s website.
Features
Message from a Palestinian in Gaza to protesters: “You’re hurting the Palestinian cause”
A very brave Palestinian who was willing to put his name to paper and write an article for Newsweek Magazine has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all those students – and others, who have been setting up encampments across the U.S. – and now Canada, too.
You can read the article at https://www.newsweek.com/message-gazan-campus-protesters-youre-hurting-palestinian-cause-opinion-1894313
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