As a Jewish Canadian, I want my community to speak out about the horrors in Gaza

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David Paperny is a Vancouver-based film and television producer and director.

In the winter of 1975, I went to work on a kibbutz.

I was 17 years old. The work in the fish ponds was not glamorous: I stood for hours in a large, stinky pool of muddy water hauling spiny St. Peter’s fish out into a tank for export. But the trip was an ideological inspiration. Here was Jewish community. Here were whole neighbourhoods celebrating my holidays. The communal kibbutz lifestyle united in the building of something new, something hopeful.

That kibbutz experience, combined with values I learned at home watching my parents’ community work, drove home a strong sense of social justice.

I returned from Israel and entered the larger world imbued with a positive Jewish identity. Back then I didn’t label it, but I now see it more clearly as carrying forward the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam – healing the world.

For years I dedicated myself to that value, which included throwing myself into my Jewish community in Vancouver. We sent our kids to Jewish elementary school.

Fast forward to Oct. 9, 2023, when Israel’s defence minister vowed a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip in the wake of a devastating Hamas attack.

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And fast forward again to last month, when I scrolled past photo after photo of mothers holding children whose vertebrae I could count, as truckloads of food awaited metres or kilometres away. What kind of country does this? Who foments manmade famine after bombarding such a densely populated area? Basic things that defined my identity have been shattered.

What inspires me about the concept of Tikkun Olam is that it exhorts us to act in the greater good, thinking beyond our own self-interests. To see others as ourselves.

What we are seeing in Gaza is not Tikkun Olam. It is a Chillul Hashem – a desecration of God’s name. (Do I even believe in God? Most days I’m not sure. But I believe in humanity, and this is as profound a desecration as I have witnessed.)

The past 22 months have been an agony and a mind warp. I watch as women, men and children are killed by bombs, buried in rubble, shot dead awaiting aid or killed fetching water. I turn to the leaders of my community for guidance for leadership.

And what do I get? Condemnation of Oct. 7, 2023. Concern for the hostages. And, for the most part, utter silence on the suffering of Gaza.

Let me be clear: Oct. 7 was an atrocity. I still recall the horror of that day, when roughly 1,200 people were murdered and some 250 were taken hostage, the majority of them civilians. The fate of the remaining hostages should concern us all. (Including the Israeli government.)

But we are long past the time when silence was acceptable.

I hear silence and I hear fear. Fear of appearing anti-Israel – as though it were impossible to both love a country and condemn its actions. As though our community cannot withstand a conversation around how and whether a state can be dedicated to both Jewry and equality. Fear of antisemitism – as though one of the most significant endangerments to Jews around the world were not the actions of the state of Israel itself.

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The more we conflate the Israeli government with Israel, the more we conflate Israel with Jewry, the more those who abhor the actions of the Israeli government will blame Jews.

What would address this? Action on the part of Canadian and American Jewish leaders. In fairness, there are Jewish organizations speaking out. I salute them. I wish they were louder and we gave them the respect they deserve.

Major Jewish organizations won’t say this, so I will: Mark Carney, please demand action from Israel. The joint statement urging the end of the war and more aid was a good first step. Keep demanding an end to this murderous aid blockade – and back that demand up with the threat of economic sanctions.

I speak for myself, but I know I am not alone in feeling this way. There are other Canadian Jews – Zionists, even – who are aghast at what is unfolding and long for a community conversation. Many are rendered silent for fear of being labelled self-hating Jews or worse. There’s fear of fomenting antisemitism, that ever-present spectre.

I understand this silence. But I can no longer abide it. We are witnessing horrors, and have no choice but to speak out.

I still cling to the Jewish values I espoused as a youth. It is the state of Israel that has abandoned them.