March of the Living 🎗️ @MOTLorg · 52m "I don't feel safe in Canada; I am afraid to go out."- Holocaust Survivor Esther Fairbloom The International March of the Living strongly condemns the disgraceful act of antisemitism at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. This was a vile attempt to defile a sacred space dedicated to the memory of six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. It reflects a dangerous surge in antisemitic hatred and historical distortion that must be confronted without hesitation. Canada is facing an unprecedented surge in antisemitism. In 2024, reports documented a 670% increase in antisemitic incidents compared to previous years. Despite making up only 1.4% of the population, Jewish Canadians were the target of 70% of all religious hate crimes. Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centers have endured repeated attacks, including firebombing, shootings, and vandalism. In the past three decades, thousands of Canadian teens, accompanied by Holocaust survivors–educators, participated in the International March of the Living program in Poland and Israel, learning on site about the horrors and the lessons of the Holocaust. Two of the survivors, who accompanied the teens for many years, commented on the antisemitic attack: Holocaust survivor Esther Fairbloom, 84, born in 1941, survived the war years in Poland as a hidden child. She has accompanied students to Poland and Israel on the March of the Living 12 times. Esther said that the attack made her sick and that she doesn’t feel safe anymore: "I am sick. I could never believe that such an incident would happen on Canadian soil. I always felt the people living here were more compassionate and had more heart. But unfortunately, I was wrong. It’s extremely sad. I don't have the same faith as I used to. I don't feel as strong. I don't feel as secure. I feel safer in Israel. I'm scared to go out. It's everywhere. It's anywhere. And I live in a Jewish area. The only way… is to stand together and fight together. I never thought I would say the word fight. But we do, whether it's by words or whether it's by action. We have to." Holocaust survivor, Nate Leipciger, 97, survived Auschwitz and a number of other Nazi camps. He has accompanied students to Poland and Israel on the March of the Living 21 times. Nate said: “I feel terrible. I'm upset, I'm disgusted. It is a sad comment on our society, when a group takes out its hatred on the monument that represent the greatest crime in humanity by defacing it. It just shows how depraved they are in their logic and how they're completely unrealistic in thinking that putting graffiti “feed them” onto the building would somehow help the people in Gaza. Who is the message to? It's Hamas that is stopping the Palestinian from being fed. I think it has to be made clear that the sign is misrepresenting in its terrible depravity. The people who are preventing the people from being fed is not Israel, but Hamas." Scott Saunders MBE, CEO of the International March of the Living: “This abhorrent act is an assault on memory, truth, and dignity. Holocaust memorials stand as solemn reminders of humanity’s darkest chapter and as warnings of what can happen when hatred is left unchecked. Defacing this monument is a cowardly attempt to erase history and spread division. We stand in full solidarity with survivors and with the Canadian Jewish community. We must never stay silent in the face of hate.” International March of the Living calls on Canadian authorities to treat this incident as a hate crime and ensure the protection of Jewish institutions and Holocaust memorials. The memory of the Holocaust must never be defiled, and the voices of survivors must never be drowned out. (Photo credit, left: Theodora Draper. Right: Ziv Koren)
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In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
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You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
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