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Jacqueline Jacob's avatar

Toronto in the 1980's and 1990's was very good, especially in North York with mayor Mel Lastman. There was freedom and a rich Jewish cultural life. But it seems that we were just tolerated and not accepted by the other minorities living in greater Toronto. I feel very sad about the moral decline in Toronto's society. Thank you for your well written article (I left in the 1990's for Europe, but now perhaps have to leave to Israel.)

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Daniel Rosenblatt's avatar

I always knew I was an outsider. I was never comfortable with my non Jewish friends. I may have lived in a cooler environment but I knew my place and it was not with my non Jewish friends as that friendship was conditional. I am sorry you were sold a bill of goods but I have always known that I did not belong that I was one of those people but that is OK. When they come to stab you in the back friend or not I am not surprised and I am prepared.

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Barry Lederman, “normie”'s avatar

The Diaspora has been always a guest, sometimes more tolerated than other times. The Jew hatred rears its ugly head when the host is experiencing an upheaval. Sometimes it is financial, cultural or political. We are still the canary in the coal mine.

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Linda Vinecour's avatar

Excellent article and I completely relate to it. Never in 1 million years did I imagine that my place in the US was conditional or at risk, I was an American Jew. But I’ve become acutely aware in the past few years that our place in the US as Jews is absolutely precarious. It’s a tough awakening.

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The Holy Land's avatar

Israel is the historical indigenous homeland of the Jewish people.

You are welcome to make Aliyah and stand with us ✨️ against our detractors and hate mongers.

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Good Humor by CK Steefel's avatar

Wonderful post. I used to love visiting Can. No more.

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edward green's avatar

President Clinton said multiculturalism is our great strength. In reality it is our great weakness and danger. U.S.A. is headed toward becoming a 3RD world population and country based on the low birth rate of whites. Imagine what America will be like for Jews and non Jews when European white people are a minority.

P.S. How could Trudeau believe that having no national identity was a virtue and progress Where is his brain?

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Suzanna Eibuszyc's avatar

The French Philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of ethics and relations as determined by the encounter with the others comes to mind. His model of how others see us serves to understand the Jewish system of belonging and assimilation. It was and is how others see us, how we are seen in their eyes and not how we see ourselves that matters.

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