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Quebec’s premier wants to ban public prayer after protests block traffic and challenge secularism
The sight of Muslim men kneeling on the ground in prayer on city streets, often during pro-Palestinian demonstrations and sometimes blocking traffic, all while being shielded by Montreal police (SPVM) officers, has reached its limit, according to Quebec Premier François Legault.
“I see people on their knees in the street praying,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something we want to have here.”
Asked if he would legislate against it, he replied, “It’s what we’re looking at,” and has mused about using section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms—the notwithstanding clause—to do so.
At a Dec. 6 scrum capping a parliamentary session rife with debates, scandals and revelations about religious school funding, intrusion of religion in Quebec public schools, the launch of 17 school investigations and students praying in Laval high school classrooms, Legault told reporters that he and his government intend to “send a very clear message to the Islamists… We’re going to fight, and we’re never going to accept that people try not to respect Quebec’s fundamental values” of secularism and gender equality.
The topic is an especially sensitive one in Montreal. The administration of Mayor Valérie Plante has included Islamophobia in condemnations of antisemitism, regardless of context; Plante has also referred to a firebombed synagogue as a mosque, and elected officials have repeated Plante’s familiar refrain that Montreal is “a city of peace.” Her point person for public security, Alain Vaillancourt, did not respond to queries from The CJN.
The CJN asked Montreal police how many infractions, if any, have been issued to individuals or groups obstructing traffic to engage in street prayer during the nearly 400 demonstrations over the last 14 months. There has been no official or public confirmation of how many traffic-blocking prayer incidents have occurred. (The CJN has tallied seven.)
The SPVM is facing mounting criticism over a conspicuously lax approach to raucous protests, including permitting demonstrators to violate a Quebec court injunction outside a synagogue on Nov. 5 and asking Jews and other citizens to vacate the public domain to avoid incitement of protesters. “There is no law or bylaw prohibiting public prayer on the island of Montreal,” they said, adding that police “adapt operations according to the context of each situation, taking into consideration the safety of all.”
Rabbi Reuben Poupko of Montreal’s Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation told The CJN, “When it comes to conflict in Montreal between law and order and peace, police often choose peace, and that leaves our community feeling exposed.”
Montreal Police Brotherhood president Yves Francoeur could not say how many incidents have occurred, confirming to French-language radio that activities blocking traffic are subject to the Highway Safety Code. “We have the power to ask them to stop, to move, to free up the road. If they persist, we have the right to arrest them,” he said. He reiterated that the union was among the first organizations to support Bill 21, Quebec’s secularism law, noting street prayer “doesn’t have its place in Montreal; it doesn’t have its place in Quebec.”
Liberal MNA André Morin is the Official Opposition’s critic for immigration, integration, secularism and justice, and suggested Legault is trying to deflect and distract Quebecers from a “difficult session” and the CAQ government’s record $11-billion deficit.
“He hasn’t yet adequately explained exactly what the problem is that he’s trying to fix,” he told The CJN. “Religion is not illegal in Quebec and is protected by the Canadian and Quebec Charters. For a premier to say we need to forbid prayer in public spaces is a big statement and a big step.”
Morin says there’s already a wide range of legislation applying to street prayer, including the Quebec Highway Code and municipal bylaws. “But we have to be careful. Yes, there is an Islamist movement in Quebec, a political ideology, but not all Muslims are part of that.”
The Jewish Community Council of Montreal did not respond to The CJN’s request for comment, but the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) posted on social media, “It is not acceptable to see our public spaces privatized by groups of radical militants praying for the martyrs of Islamic terrorist groups and the death of Zionists. We salute Premier François Legault for his leadership.” CIJA said it will work with partners and the government “to arrive at legislation that will put an end to this assault on our common Quebec values.”
Legault sounded adamant. “When we want to pray, we go to a church, to a mosque, but not to public places,” he said, his salvo coming three days after a pro-Palestine group called for a rally in support of “One Solution, Intifada Revolution” at Montreal’s famed Notre Dame Basilica on the day marking Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

That Dec. 8 rally, attended by several dozen demonstrators, saw a few dozen men kneeling and praying in unison without incident, while others walked around with flags, some masked. A few people stood across from them in front of the church in opposition to the protest. At least one was reportedly asked to move by Montreal police, but The CJN could not confirm that.
On the federal side, the reaction was swift, with Immigration Minister Marc Miller suggesting Legault is picking on Muslims, and Justice Minister Arif Virani cautioning Legault about using the notwithstanding clause to override Canadians’ rights.
There are also questions if such a move can potentially prevent Jews from holding outdoor Shabbat celebrations, block men from gathering to put on tefillin, and ban menorah lightings, already facing restrictions in some Canadian municipalities.
“Most people agree that if the Quebec government comes out with any legislation, it will be targeted towards the context that is most problematic,” for example, street demonstrations and traffic blocking incidents, said Rabbi Poupko, adding Jews faced a similar quandary when the government started talking about Bill 21, which banned the wearing of religious symbols by many public employees. “We all know where this is coming from and the context,” he said. “The target of this legislation is not the Jewish community. We know that we are collateral damage in this.”
Rabbi Poupko says when streets are blocked by protesters praying, it is being used as a political tool. “Everyone understands these impromptu prayer services are not done as pious acts of devotion. It’s an attempt to intimidate, to express a form of Islamist supremacism, and when you weaponize prayer, this is the consequence. The radicals have weaponized prayer to disrupt, to demonstrate power.
“I can’t have a picnic in the street, but that doesn’t mean that the government is trying to starve me. I can go eat at home. And it’s not an infringement on someone’s freedom of expression or freedom of religion not to be allowed to pray in the street.” Banning this activity from public streets is not an act of discrimination or anti–freedom of expression, he says. “It’s pro-traffic.”
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has expressed alarm about the increased use of the notwithstanding clause by all governments, including Legault’s intentions, and has launched a campaign to alert Canadians to the dangers posed to the Charter by its repeated use and suggested more robust and stringent guardrails for its use.
Quebec’s bishops are concerned about the erasure of people and communities of faith from Quebec’s public spaces. Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops president Mgr Martin Laliberté said such a prohibition would be unenforceable and “off the mark in promoting peaceful co-existence in a secular state.”
If a religious group gathers for purposes other than prayer, “Will we then try to ensure that no prayers are recited during a food drive or before a friendly meal? How can we identify a prayer, and above all, why would we try to do so? Praying is not dangerous.”
Indeed, says Liberal critic Morin, “If you’re just praying in the park, is that something the Premier of Quebec will forbid? What François Legault is trying to do is very difficult, but it’s on him to explain.”
Laliberté noted that practices targeted by such a prohibition are not all public actions of religious people, but those of minority religious groups “perceived as different, and, for this reason, threatening to Quebec identity.” He said the rights involved are recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18: “Freedom to manifest his religion or belief, alone or in community with others, in public or in private, in teaching, practice, worship and observance… it is essential to act with great caution, in order to respect the rights and dignity of all people.”
During the Bill 21 debates, Poupko says many people were willing to “’take the hit’, while others were standing on principle and said we can’t tolerate anyone taking away any rights.” Even if damage wasn’t so grave from Bill 21, he says, “it’s cold comfort for those who want to stand on principle. I really get that.”
But he’s confident any legislation will address behaviour to focus on “prayer that obstructs,” and was quick to add that “Jews don’t obstruct traffic to pray—at most we’ll go to the park for tashlikh for a few minutes, and we’re not talking here about a guy standing in the corner of an airport. Jews praying never obstruct traffic, unless you count the aisle on an El Al flight.”
The National Council of Canadian Muslims posted: “Imagine living in a country where the government can come after you for clasping your hands and praying for a loved one in a hospital waiting room. This is extremely concerning! The time is fast approaching when Canadians will be forced to grapple with the weakness of our charter rights and look for ways to protect ourselves from liberticidal government overreach. As we await the promised legislation, we will be consulting with communities across the country and preparing to stand up for the rights of all Canadians.”
Imam Adil Charkaoui of Montreal, who publicly called for the death of Zionists and enemies of Gaza a few weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel—but ultimately faced no charges owing to religious exceptions to hate speech in Canada’s Criminal Code—dismissed Legault’s comments. Muslims don’t need anybody’s permission to pray, he stated on social media. It is a right protected by Quebec and Canadian Charters and conferred by Islamic scripture: “The whole earth has been offered to me as a place of prayer and as a means of purification. So anyone in my community at the time of prayer can perform it wherever he is.”
The post Quebec’s premier wants to ban public prayer after protests block traffic and challenge secularism appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Brooklyn Woman Denied Bail, Claims She Didn’t Kill Anyone in Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters

An overturned auto in a car crash flipped on its roof landing on a mother and her three children, killing two children on March 29, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
A Brooklyn woman denied killing anyone when she appeared in court on Thursday, less than a week after a Jewish woman and her two daughters died when she crashed her car into them at a crosswalk.
Miriam Yarimi, 32, appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court via a video stream from her room in NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, according to the New York Daily News. She is undergoing a psychological evaluation at the hospital following Saturday’s deadly car crash.
After the crash, Yarimi told first responders she was “possessed” and believed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was following her. She has made similar claims about being pursued by the CIA on social media several times in the past, The Algemeiner previously reported.
Yamini, who is also Jewish, faces a slew of charges that include three counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of criminal negligent homicide, and four counts of second-degree assault.
“The devil is in my eyes. I am haunted inside. I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t hurt anyone. Prove it. Show me the proof. You have no proof,” Yarimi said in a statement after Saturday’s crash, according to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Nocella. “I need CT scans in my eyes. I need to get the scanning done now … Where’s my daughter? My daughter’s always in my heart.”
“People are out to get me,” added the single mother. “I need CT scans on my entire body. F— you. I need a whole work up to get whatever is in my body out of it. I did not hurt anyone. All the evidence is on my phone.”
Nocella called Yamini a flight risk and asked the judge that she be held without bail due to the “nature and severity” of the allegations, as reported by the Daily News. Judge Jevet Johnson agreed with Nocella and ordered Yamini to be held without bail. Nocella said prosecutors are prepared to present grand jury indictment on the manslaughter charges.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his administration is “committed” to taking more action to prevent traffic violence and deaths following the fatal car crash that killed Natasha Saada, 35, along with her daughters Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5. Saada’s 4-year-old son Philip was injured in the crash and is still being hospitalized in critical condition.
Adams’ office announced on Wednesday that there were 41 traffic deaths during the first three months of 2025 — 24 fewer than last year and the second fewest since they started being recorded by the city. Despite the decline in traffic deaths, Adams admitted that more work needs to be done to keep New Yorkers safe on the streets, as evident by Saturday’s deadly car crash.
“In order to make New York City the best place to raise a family, we need to be safer at every level — including on our streets,” he said in a released statement on Wednesday. “Our administration’s investments in intersection safety improvements, treating traffic violence as the serious crime that it is, and our expanding automated camera enforcement are all helping ensure we’re leading the way toward a safer future for all New Yorkers — whether they are pedestrians, cyclists, or motorists.”
“We understand there is more work to do, as evidenced this past weekend’s tragic crash in Brooklyn because one lift [sic] lost to traffic violence is one life too many, but our administration remains committed to reducing traffic violence as much as any other form of violence,” Adams added.
On Saturday afternoon, Yarimi crashed her car into an Uber and then slammed into four members of the Saada family as they were trying to walk across the street at an intersection on Ocean Parkway in Midwood.
Yarimi was speeding at the time of the incident, “probably doing close to twice the speed limit,” and “ran a red light” just before the crash, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez revealed on Wednesday while speaking to Eyewitness News. Yamini was also driving on a suspended license and has accumulated almost 100 parking and camera violations, including 21 speed camera tickets and five red light tickets.
“It actually exceeds just being reckless, it’s almost being wanton, we’re not going to tolerate that,” Gonzalez told Eyewitness News. “Her vehicle had been ticketed many times by red light cameras and speed cameras, that car was a frequent violator of both speed laws and red-light laws, and there is no excuse for running a red light.”
Saada and her daughters were buried in Israel this week. Four-year-old Philip remains at the hospital for his injuries and is facing “tough straights,” Gonzalez said. “We expect him to make some kind of recovery, but it’s going to be a long road for him.”
The boy lost one of his kidneys during treatment at Maimonides Medical Center, according to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “It’s heartbreaking,” Lander said after he visited the home of the Saada family, according to the New York Post. “He’s still in critical condition. He lost one kidney but they are hopeful about his prognosis.”
Five people in the Uber hit by Yarimi’s car suffered minor injuries.
Supporters of a proposed state law that would stop repeat super speeders in New York have rallied together since the car accident on Saturday, calling for the passage of the bill that they said could have prevented the crash. The legislation would require speed limiters to be installed on vehicles owned by repeat reckless drivers, like Yarimi. The device automatically limits the vehicles to within 5 mph of the legal speed of the road. The “Stop Super Speeders” bill was sponsored by New York State Assembly Member Emily Gallagher and Senator Andrew Gounardes.
The New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander, supports the bill and criticized Adams for not already implementing such measures.
The post Brooklyn Woman Denied Bail, Claims She Didn’t Kill Anyone in Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hungary Announces Withdrawal From ‘Political’ ICC as Netanyahu Visits Country, Defying Arrest Warrant

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks to the media next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Budapest, Hungary, April 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
Hungary on Thursday announced that it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the country welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the capital city of Budapest, defying an ICC arrest warrant against him over allegations of war crimes in Gaza.
Despite Hungary’s status as a signatory of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, Netanyahu was not taken into custody upon his arrival in Budapest. Instead, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban welcomed his Israeli counterpart with full military honors.
GREAT meeting with a GREAT friend, @PM_ViktorOrban. Together, we’re making the GREAT alliance between
and
even stronger! pic.twitter.com/Svphzb61Gn
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 3, 2025
Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary, which is scheduled to last until Sunday, is his first trip to Europe since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him last year. In February, he made his first foreign trip altogether since the ICC’s decision to the United States, where he met with US President Donald Trump.
As Orban and Netanyahu met to discuss regional developments and bilateral cooperation, Hungarian Minister Gergely Gulyas released a statement announcing that “the government will initiate the withdrawal procedure” from the ICC, which could take a year or more to complete.
After their meeting, Orban said he believes the ICC is “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”
“I am convinced that this otherwise important international judicial forum has been degraded into a political tool, with which we cannot and do not want to engage,” Orban said during a press conference.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar praised Budapest’s decision to withdraw from the international court, highlighting the country’s “strong moral stance alongside Israel and the principles of justice and sovereignty.”
“I commend Hungary’s important decision to withdraw from the ICC,” Saar wrote in a post on X. “The so-called ‘International Criminal Court’ lost its moral authority after trampling the fundamental principles of international law in its zest for harming Israel’s right to self-defense.”
I commend Hungary’s important decision to withdraw from the ICC. FM Péter Szijjártó and I dealt with this matter extensively. The so-called “International Criminal Court” lost its moral authority after trampling the fundamental principles of international law in its zest for…
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) April 3, 2025
In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and now-deceased Hamas terror leader Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which until a recently imposed blockade had provided significant humanitarian aid into the enclave throughout the war. Israel also says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
After the court issued the warrant against Netanyahu, Orban rejected the decision by inviting the Israeli leader to Budapest and accusing the court of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.”
During Thursday’s news conference, Netanyahu commended Hungary’s withdrawal from the ICC, calling it a “bold and principled action” as “the first state that walks out of this corruption and this rottenness.”
“The ICC directs its actions against us fighting a just war with just means,” Netanyahu said. “I think [this decision will] be deeply appreciated, not only in Israel but in many, many countries around the world.”
After the Israeli leader was welcomed in Budapest, Hamas issued a statement calling on the Hungarian government to reverse its decision and extradite Netanyahu to the ICC to stand trial, calling the decision an “immoral stance that shows collusion with a war criminal who is running away from justice.”
In a post on X, Israel’s top diplomat reiterated his support for Hungary’s decision, arguing that Hamas’s statement only proves the country is taking the correct stance in this matter.
“Whoever needed further proof as to how justified, moral and necessary Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the ICC is: Hamas just condemned it,” Saar wrote.
“Hamas is defending the politicized and twisted so-called ‘International Criminal Court.’ And that’s the whole story.”
Whoever needed further proof as to how justified, moral and necessary Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the ICC is: Hamas just condemned it.
Hamas is defending the politicized and twisted so-called “International Criminal Court”.
And that’s the whole story.— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) April 3, 2025
After the ICC’s decision to issue the warrants, several countries, including Hungary, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, France, and Italy, have said they would not arrest Netanyahu if he visited.
US and Israeli officials issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2o23.
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.
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Jewish Individualism Will Not Work, But Solidarity Must
During the events of Purim, Haman approached King Xerxes I and said, “There is a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So, it is not in the king’s interest to let them live.”
Queen Esther’s solidarity with her dispersed people in Persia, and her profound loyalty to her Jewish identity, saved them from Haman’s genocide and secured their self-defense when she courageously revealed her heritage to Xerxes I.
Today, Israeli Jews are once again fighting for their Jewish and Zionist survival. Since Oct. 7, 2023, this Jewish Armageddon has extended anew to Diaspora Jews, who have felt the past’s chilling draft. Antisemitism has reawakened, infecting non-Jews and Jews alike. Few people contribute to antisemitic attitudes more than “self-loathing” Jews. These “self-loathing” Jews, who cynically reveal only the negative aspects of their Jewishness, believe they can avoid antisemitic attacks if they condemn Israel. But they achieve only self-betrayal, gaining neither acceptance nor respect from those who hate all Jews. Jews are a nation of people who question, not people who answer.
Questions pervade the Jewish mind to such a degree that the adage, “two Jews, three opinions,” has become a common characteristic of Jewish identity. Moreover, the pursuit of an answer often serves as a springboard for further inquiry. For us, as Jews, the ultimate answer, akin to the messianic ideal, remains a distant, undefined future. This traditional perspective has granted Jews a sort of perpetual license to disagree. Jews enjoy engaging in debate with others, but they sometimes find particular delight in debating amongst themselves, which allows their intellects to roam and their sardonic wit to playfully engage with each other’s vulnerabilities, finding humor without causing offense.
This love for discourse, for questioning everything in sight, including Hashem himself, is by no means the only puzzle that makes up our Jewish identity. Another crucial element of our makeup is solidarity. In times of major upheavals, we have always stood together against the masses who rose against us. To our enemies, we Jews — atheists, nihilists, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Haredi, religious Zionists, non-religious Zionists, or undecided — look, taste, and feel the same. They care nothing for our ingrained liberalism. Our enemies seek cracks within our communities in order to break us apart and cause irreparable damage.
Years of relative peace and prosperity since the Holocaust have allowed us to gather again and engage in countless polemics over the fate of Israel, Jews, Judaism, and Zionism. However, we have failed to notice that we are at war again, and that our enemies eagerly exploit the divisions within a nation that comprises only 0.2% of the world’s population. These enemies — radical Islamists and progressive Western leftists who view Jews and Israel as white oppressors and colonizers — avidly listen to Jewish internal squabbles and criticisms of the Israeli government.
Despite the significant progress the Shin Bet and IDF have made in dismantling much of Hamas’s leadership and terrorist infrastructure, destroying its complex network of tunnels and command centers, and weakening Hezbollah, in addition to eliminating tens of thousands of Hamas terrorists, many Jews remain critical of, and disagree with, what Israel represents today. Aware of government problems, Israelis desire improvement. However, their rage and almost addictive pattern of anti-government protests have provided their adversaries with more opportunities to exploit perceived weaknesses.
This has resonated with some Jews worldwide. In New York, some Jewish intellectuals have defended “free-Palestine” and pro-Hamas protesters harassing Jewish students, invoking freedom of speech. They appear to have fallen prey to what they perceive as the lies of progressive anti-Zionist media, which systemically omits crucial facts about Israel. This includes the IDF’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties, and its role in eliminating thousands of Hamas terrorists and dismantling their terror network, which posed a significant threat to Israel (and innocent Palestinians themselves).
These “romantic” progressive Jews also forget that no matter how critical they are of that “brutal” IDF, it is still fighting on their behalf, because it is fighting on behalf of every Jew. Civilian deaths do occur, but they are either unfortunate incidents of war or, more often, a direct result of Hamas’s cruelty, as Hamas terrorists purposefully embed themselves within the civilian population. I once sat at dinner in Israel with a wealthy American Jewish couple who came on a sympathy tour a few months after Oct. 7. Nevertheless, the husband was convinced that the IDF was deliberately killing Palestinian children.
Those were wealthy, educated American Jews who thought they were charitable because they donated to Jewish causes, and therefore, believed they had the right to express their views on everything. This is where I, a Soviet Jew who grew up deprived of Judaism yet targeted by antisemitism, felt differently. To begin with, the husband was completely wrong. Second, in times of existential crisis, we, as Jewish people, must set aside our irresistible urge to disagree and criticize Israel on basic premises such as Israel’s fight to ensure Jews don’t live through a second genocide. The freedom to speak our minds has been ours for thousands of years. We conversed with Hashem, we obeyed Him, we sacrificed for Him, and then we quickly learned to disobey and question Him, even before we began arguing amongst ourselves.
Still, throughout our dotted and punctured history, it wasn’t our tongues or our disagreeable minds that kept our small nation together; it was our solidarity. In solidarity, we walked out of Egypt. In solidarity, tens of thousands of Eastern European Jews came to their promised land as early as the 1920s and began to build from nothing. In solidarity with his orphans, Dr. Janusz Korczak, despite being given the chance to save himself, chose to march with them, hand in hand, through the ghetto to the deportation point, on their way to Treblinka, where they met their final hour. In solidarity with other Jews across the Soviet Empire, Soviet Jews secretly tried to remember who they were, despite years of persecutions and purges.
In solidarity with their Soviet brethren, powerful American Jewry fought for Russian Jews to be able to emigrate to Israel and the United States. One of the main reasons our small nation has not disappeared into the abyss is because, in Diaspora, across oceans, and through impenetrable iron curtains, we never ceased to support one another. We knew we could not afford the luxury of neglecting our faith, traditions, and, most importantly, we could never abandon defending ourselves against our enemies.
Caesar’s “Divide et impera” (“Divide and Conquer”), though a cliché, is particularly relevant here. Seeing fractures within our communities, our enemies have intensified these divisions through incessant anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda and violence. Therefore, only as an undivided people, united by a single purpose — eradicating our enemies and protecting our promised land — do we stand a chance of survival. Perhaps only then will the day come when Jewish people gather on virtual street corners to argue and ask questions to which they seek no answers.
Anya Gillinson is an immigration lawyer and author of the new memoir Dreaming in Russian. She lives in New York City. More at www.anyagillinson.com.
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