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Pierre Poilievre’s plan to speak at a Reform synagogue in Vancouver rouses backlash among liberal members
Members of Vancouver’s LGBTQ community are objecting to a scheduled Feb. 2 appearance by Pierre Poilievre at Temple Sholom, a socially and religiously liberal congregation affiliated with the Union for Reform Journalism.
The federal Conservative leader’s responses to questions about transgender rights, and the fact that audience questions will not be accommodated at the Vancouver event, have been cited as their primary concerns.
During an interview with Toronto news channel CP24, for example, Poilievre stated, “I am not aware of any other genders than men and women.”
Aviva Rathbone, the board chair of JQT, a Vancouver queer and trans non-profit, told The CJN, “Our trans community members are among the most vulnerable, with markedly higher rates of suicide and suicidal thoughts. Mr. Poilievre supports policies that would undoubtedly add to this harm and would see lives impacted in devastating and irreparable ways.
“We’re disappointed that Temple Sholom has chosen to prioritize forming a relationship with Mr. Poilievre over the safety and wellbeing of our community.”
Rathbone said that JQT (pronounced J-Cutie) is hopeful that Temple Sholom will view this as an opportunity to move beyond what she described as “performative allyship” and to learn to listen to the needs of all community members “not just when it’s easy and reflects well on the organization but also when it requires tough decisions.
“Our mandate is to have those difficult discussions and we will continue to hold organizations accountable for listening to the voices of the J-cuties who make up an integral and beautiful part of Vancouver’s Jewish community,” she said.
JQT said in a social media statement released on Thursday that many of its members had contacted them, distressed by Temple Sholom’s choice to host the event and the potential harm it could cause to people in the Jewish LGBTQ community in Vancouver.
The organization reached out to Temple Sholom to express its displeasure and try to persuade the synagogue not to provide “a voice, who clearly stands in opposition to trans rights, and the safety and well-being of our community.“
JQT said it had invited members of Temple’s Sholom’s leadership to address a call to action referred to within its community needs assessment that urges Jewish organizations to adopt a zero-tolerance position on homophobic, transphobic and antisemitic language, practices and policies.
In its social media post, JQT cited a letter written last February by the Reform Jewish Community of Canada (RJCC), to which Temple Sholom belongs, that called on governments at all levels to affirm and preserve transgender rights.
At the time, the RJCC criticized Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for “proposed policies to deny access to healthcare and athletics and placing barriers in educational settings for transgender youth.”
The letter, signed by Len Bates, president of RJCC, and Rabbi Daniel Mikelberg, chair of the Reform Rabbis of Canada, read, “We reaffirm our support for all those who seek to live without fear of harassment, violence, or discrimination, and that our clergy and institutions are committed to caring for and supporting everyone who is affected by this dangerous and widespread assault on trans and queer people.”
Like JQT, the RJCC also pointed out that LGBTQ youth are far more likely than their heterosexual peers to experience suicidal thoughts and thereby any denial of support puts their lives at greater risk.
Similar statements have been made by the U.S.-based Union for Reform Judaism, which is identified as a partner organization at the synagogue where Polievere is scheduled to appear.
“Guided by our Jewish values and the Reform Movement’s long history of supporting LGBTQ+ equality, we remain committed to protecting the civil rights of all people.” Read the Reform Movement’s full response to the slew of state attacks on LGBTQ+ youth: https://t.co/qDCJkBtawl
— The URJ (@URJorg) May 18, 2023
While it is being held at Temple Sholom, the appearance is being organized together with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and billed as a community-wide event for the Conservative leader to address the Jewish community of Vancouver. The event is fully booked—and the promotion notes the event will not be livestreamed or recorded.
It is not unusual for Temple Sholom to be a part of events involving the broader Jewish community in Vancouver. In March 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with local rabbis at the synagogue’s boardroom. Events and rallies for the city’s Jewish community following Oct. 7 have been highlighted on the Temple Sholom website.
Dan Moskovitz, the senior rabbi at Temple Sholom, and Nico Slobinsky, vice president of CIJA, sent a joint statement to The CJN when asked about Poilievre’s appearance on Sunday.
“Temple Sholom, in partnership with CIJA, are hosting an event on Feb. 2 with Mr. Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Official Opposition. At the event Mr. Poilievre will share perspectives on antisemitism and other issues related to the Jewish community,” they said. “Our organizations have proudly hosted similar events over the years for elected representatives and political leaders from all levels of government and parties. We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to the event from members of our community, the event sold out in less than two days.”
According to an email obtained by The Tyee, a news organization based in British Columbia, Moskovitz had asked for a question-and-answer format during Poilievre’s visit—similar to a 2015 event with Trudeau, when the then-leader of the Liberal Party visited the synagogue. Poilievre’s team refused that request and also denied a request to livestream the visit, the publication reported.
Poilievre’s Vancouver Synagogue Visit Is Raising Concerns. The planned speech and photo op leaves some members troubled by the leader’s refusal to take questions, @JenStDen reports. https://t.co/gsWMQtVAwY
Find out more at https://t.co/1zbPY5GAhV pic.twitter.com/0rGY5JPhhg
— National Newswatch (@natnewswatch) January 30, 2025
Members of Vancouver’s Jewish LGBTQ community, some of whom are congregants at Temple Sholom, told The Tyee they are dismayed that Poilievre would refrain from answering questions, including ones on transgender rights. They also wanted to ask him about his praise of Elon Musk, particularly after the Tesla CEO performed what some have interpreted as a Nazi salute at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Poilievre has been a staunch defender of Israel and has repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.
On Jan. 27, to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Poilievre said that his party stands “in solidarity with Canada’s Jewish community to honour the memory of the 6 million innocent live murdered in the Holocaust. In a dark time of rampant antisemitism in Canada, Conservatives unequivocally condemn the world’s most enduring form of hatred.”
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Argentine President Javier Milei to Visit Israel With Aim of Strengthening Bilateral Ties
Argentine President Javier Milei visiting the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Queens, New York. Photo: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
Argentine President Javier Milei will visit Israel on March 23 for his second trip to the Jewish state, aiming to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation.
The planned trip comes after Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana invited Milei last month to deliver a landmark address to Israel’s parliament. The Argentine president is also expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israeli officials.
Since taking office over a year ago, Milei has been one of Israel’s most vocal supporters, strengthening bilateral relations to unprecedented levels and in the process breaking with decades of Argentine foreign policy tradition to firmly align with Jerusalem and Washington.
Milei, who won Argentina’s November 2023 presidential election, has been outspoken in his support for Israel and Judaism, both central to his campaign. His presidency has come amid an economic crisis, soaring inflation, and longstanding corruption scandals that have burdened the country.
In February 2024, on his first international trip as president, Milei visited Israel in a show of wartime solidarity and reiterated his pledge to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem. During his visit, he also traveled to Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Negev, where Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped several Israelis from their home including the Bibas family on Oct. 7, 2023.
Nearly 25 percent of Nir Oz’s residents were murdered or kidnapped during Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
At the time of his visit, Milei said that he was traveling to Israel to express his “support against the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas.”
Since taking office, Milei has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization and condemned Iran’s terrorism more broadly, vowing to prosecute in absentia Iranian suspects linked to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
Earlier this year, Argentina’s Public Prosecutor’s Office concluded that Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in the country’s capital, was murdered in 2015. Marking the 10th anniversary of his death, prosecutors released the report as part of the ongoing and still unresolved trial, reaffirming that Nisman was killed.
“The federal prosecutor Natalio Alberto Nisman was the victim of a homicide,” and “his death was motivated by his work in the AMIA Special Investigation Unit and, specifically, by his actions related to the Memorandum of Understanding with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the 56-page report said.
Last month, Milei declared two days of national mourning for the Bibas children, Ariel, 4, and nine-month-old Kfir, who were murdered in captivity in Gaza along with their mother, Shiri. Their bodies were returned to Israel by Hamas a year and a half after they were kidnapped by the Palestinian terrorists.
The Bibas are Argentinian through their father, Yarden Bibas, who was also abducted during Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7 and was freed last month as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The Israeli-Argentine family became a symbol of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas during the terrorist group’s massacre, with Kfir being the youngest hostage taken from Israel on Oct. 7 and the youngest to be killed.
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Controversial Israeli-Palestinian Film ‘No Other Land’ Wins Best Documentary at Oscars
Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film for “No Other Land” during the Oscars show at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
An Israeli-Palestinian film that focuses on the demolition of a small community in the West Bank and is critical of Israel’s military actions won best documentary feature film at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday.
“No Other Land” chronicles Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the West Bank, and the struggles of Palestinians who confront Israeli armed forces over being evicted from the land so it can turn into a military training facility. The one-sided film depicts Israel as a violent land stealer that oppresses, displaces, and brings suffering to Palestinian families in Masafer Yatta, without explaining that the Palestinians illegally built homes on land that Israel had claimed for a military training zone in the 1980s.
“No Other Land” was made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists including Basel Adra, a Palestinian who lives in Masafer Yatta with his family. He made “No Other Land” with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, Israeli cinematographer Rachel Szor, and Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian photographer and filmmaker. “‘No Other Land’ is an unflinching account of a community’s mass expulsion and acts as a creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice,” according to the film’s synopsis, which also accuses Israel of “occupation.”
Even though “No Other Land” ended filming in 2023, before the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the filmmakers criticized Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during their acceptance speeches at the Oscars.
Adra said the film “reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades.” He called on the international community “to take serious actions to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleaning of Palestinian people.”
“About two months ago I became a father and my hope to my daughter that she would not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settler violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements that my community Masafer Yatta is living and facing every day on the Israeli occupation,” he told the audience.
Abraham briefly mentioned the hostages abducted by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 — many of whom remain held captive in Gaza by the US-designated terrorist organization — before further criticizing Israel and accusing it of displaying “ethnic supremacy” in its treatment of Palestinians. He also attacked US foreign policy, claiming it hinders peace between Israel and Palestinians.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. We see each other. The atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end. The Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of Oct. 7 which must be freed,” he said. “When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life, and he cannot control [it]. There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy with national rights for both of our people. And the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living.”
“No Other Land” has won several awards, including the prestigious Berlinale Documentary Award and Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film.
Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar said in a post on X that the film’s Oscar win on Sunday was “a sad moment for the world of cinema.”
“Instead of presenting the complexity of Israeli reality, the filmmakers chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel’s image vis-à-vis international audiences,” Zohar wrote. “Freedom of expression is an important value, but turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art — it is sabotage against the State of Israel, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre and the ongoing war.”
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Adrien Brody Condemns Antisemitism After Winning Oscar for Playing Holocaust Survivor in ‘The Brutalist’
Adrien Brody poses with the Oscar for Best Actor for “The Brutalist” in the Oscars photo room at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Daniel Cole
Jewish actor Adrien Brody has now won two Oscars for best actor, after taking home the honor on Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards for his role as a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and architect in “The Brutalist.”
Brody, 51, won one of the night’s biggest awards for his portrayal of Lázló Tóth, a fictional character who escaped the Holocaust and then immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American Dream. The actor, whose parents are both Jewish, beat fellow nominees Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”), and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”).
Brody previously won an Academy Award for best actor in 2002 for his role in Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist,” in which he played a Polish-Jewish musician who struggles to survive World War II while hiding from the Nazis in Warsaw. His return to the Oscars on Sunday, 22 years later, is the second longest gap between wins for best actor, following a span of 29 years between wins for “Silence of the Lambs” and “The Father” for Anthony Hopkins, according to the Associated Press.
In his acceptance speech on Sunday at the Academy Awards, Brody discussed his return to the Oscars stage for again playing a Holocaust survivor. He also denounced antisemitism and racism.
“I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering,” he said in part. “I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world. And I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked. Let’s fight for what’s right. Keep smiling, keep loving one another. Let’s rebuild together.”
Brody also won best actor for his role in “The Brutalist” at the Golden Globes in January. He took home the same honor at the British Academy Film Awards in February, and in his acceptance speech he also spoke about antisemitism. “[‘The Brutalist’] speaks to the need for all of us to share in the responsibility of how we want others to be treated and how we want to be treated by others,” he said. “There’s no place any more for antisemitism. There’s no place for racism.”
“The Brutalist” was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture and best director. Brody starred in the film alongside Felicity Jones, who plays Tóth’s wife, and Guy Pearce, who plays a man who sexually assaults the Holocaust survivor. A best supporting actor nominee, Pearce attended the Oscars on Sunday wearing on his tuxedo a pin featuring a white dove that is holding an olive branch and emblazoned with the phrase “Free Palestine.” At last year’s Cannes Film Festival, he wore a Palestinian flag on the lapel of his tuxedo.
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