Recently, two Ottawa mothers sat their young children down for a difficult conversation about anti-Semitism, much earlier than they had planned.
Mothers say they now fear for their Jewish children who were recently the target of hateful comments, as reports of anti-Semitism continue to prevail across Canada.
Anna, who grew up Jewish in the Soviet Union, says she advised her 11-year-old daughter to no longer leave the house with her Star of David visible after a schoolmate told her a few months ago that she had to break up with his life because of his heritage.
“She said… ‘a boy told me that a lot of Jews have to die and I have to kill myself because I’m Jewish,’” Anna said in the Roy Green Show Saturday.
“I can’t even describe how I felt at that moment. She says, ‘Mom, I’m so confused.’ I’m Canadian… how come I have to hide my identity?’”
Global News agreed not to use Anna’s last name because she fears for her family’s safety. After moving to Canada and starting a family, she says she never imagined her children would experience the adversity she experienced in Russia for being Jewish.
“We came to Canada because we believed it is a beautiful, safe country that embraces diversity and inclusion, and that we can raise our children here. And here I am again. “I’m scared, I’m scared,” Anna said. “I am very concerned for his safety.”
Tejaswinhi Srinivas is an Indian-American married to a Jewish Canadian. She says she was “not prepared” for her son to be singled out for her identity at the young age of five.
Srinivas told Roy Green on Saturday that her son recently confided in her husband that an older boy on his school bus had “asked all the Jews to raise their hands.”
“And my son told his father that he knew he shouldn’t raise his hand because the boy seemed bad,” Srinivas said.
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She says hearing about the incident was “completely shocking.” Her son’s understanding of being Jewish had always been tied to positive memories like lighting candles for Hanukkah, she said, but now that has been tarnished.
“Over the last few months, your attention has shifted from the pure joy of those traditions to the awareness that there are people right now who don’t like Jews, who wouldn’t like you if they knew who you were,” he said. saying. “And when you’re just a kid trying to make sense of the world, that can be devastating.”
Srinivas says he knew he would have a conversation with his son about his inheritance one day, but not so soon.
“At some point we know we will have to have the conversation that many Jewish families have with their children. How is it possible that an entire part of Dad’s family died in the Holocaust? But we are not ready to go that far yet.”
Anti-Semitism on the rise across Canada: investigation
The response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 has led to a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism across Canada, according to a Global News investigation conducted in February based on documents, interviews and figures collected from police forces.
Homes, businesses, schools, places of worship, neighborhoods and institutions have been targeted by what community leaders call an unprecedented rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes.
“We are living in unprecedented times,” said Nico Slobinsky, vice president of the Pacific region of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “We have seen the spread of anti-Semitism.”
A 15-year-old boy was arrested on terrorism charges in December 2023 for what the RCMP said was a plot against the Jewish community in Ottawa.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after the arrest that the rise of anti-Semitism in Canada is “scary.”
“What we are seeing, particularly now with the rise of anti-Semitism linked to what is happening abroad right now, is terrifying and is something we absolutely have to act on and are acting on,” Trudeau said in a closing statement. of year. interview with Mercedes Stephenson, Global News Ottawa bureau chief.
Last week saw three high-profile shootings at a Jewish school in Toronto on Saturday, a Jewish school in Montreal on Wednesday and a synagogue in Vancouver on Friday saw an “incendiary device” thrown at its front doors.
Trudeau said Thursday after the Montreal shooting that he is “disgusted by these vile and despicable acts of anti-Semitism.”
“Silence is not an option,” says a mother
Srinivas, who is also a clinical psychologist, says she has delicately broached the topic of anti-Semitism with her son since his experience on the bus.
“It is very important for children that age to know that they can go to their parents and that they can be communicative. So just creating that space for him to share that it’s okay, that we will support him in any way he needs, is very important,” he said.
Srinivas also published an op-ed last week in the Ottawa Citizen about the normalization of anti-Semitism in Canada. He told Roy Green that the incident with his son made him realize that “silence is not an option.”
“We need social support, we need to unite against anti-Semitism because it is normalization that has probably allowed incidents like this (to happen).”
— with files from Roy Green, David Baxter, Mercedes Stephenson, Stewart Bell and Jeff Semple of Global News
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