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Antisemites At U of Toronto Med School and The Danger Of The New Ideology

“Does antisemitism count?” Clearly, not at the CBC.

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The brutalist architecture of the Medical Sciences Building, University of Toronto, houses an even more brutal antisemitic dogma again Jews under the guise of “anti-Zionism”. (Photo: Wikipedia)

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A new report has revealed stunning antisemitism at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine (TFOM). Following years of complaints from faculty, staff and students, the medical school took the unprecedented step of appointing a Senior Advisor on Antisemitism. The appointee, Dr. Ayelet Kuper, recently published her report as a peer-reviewed article in the Canadian Medical Education Journal (here).  

Among numerous instances of antisemitism, Dr. Kuper reports being told: “All Jews are liars; that Jews lie to control the university or the faculty or the world, to oppress or hurt others, and/or for other forms of gain; and that antisemitism can’t exist because everything Jews say are lies, including any claims to have experienced discrimination.”

The mainstream media noticed the report, but barely. 

The CBC, which covers equity and diversity, race and racism 24/7 — published one opinion piece on its website. Nothing on the news. Nothing on As It Happens, Metro Morning, or the Current.

Ironically the one CBC piece is titled: “Does antisemitism count?” Clearly, not at the CBC. 

The CBC and other pieces in the mainstream media picked up on the lack of support Jews receive from the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) crowd, but what Dr. Kuper reports is not mere lack of support, but Jew-hatred coming most especially from “EDI-related spaces.”

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Dr. Kuper relates that a faculty member told her “Jews mustn’t be allowed to speak on their own behalf about antisemitism and shouldn’t even be subject to the protection from discrimination as outlined in the Ontario Human Rights Code on the grounds that what Jews call antisemitism isn’t real.”

“More specifically,” Dr. Kuper says, “I experienced the now-common strategy among those at TFOM who have made what I believe to be antisemitic statements to say that any Jew who calls them out is just racist and is lying in order to oppress Palestinians; this strategy was reportedly also explicitly taught to TFOM learners by faculty members during an off-campus event.” 

Another faculty member told Dr. Kuper antisemitism could not be addressed in a teaching session about Equity Diversity and Inclusion “because such teaching might normalize the existence of a Jewish state in Israel, which would be beyond the bounds of acceptable speech.”

While “Zionism” simply means support for Israel’s existence, Dr. Kuper notes that “there are those at TFOM who have insisted (to me and to others) that this term means various racist and hateful things, ranging from ‘hating all Muslims’ to ‘wanting to murder all Palestinians.’ Such false definitions are then used to justify hatred of any Jews who ‘admit’ to being Zionists” – which means just about all Jews.

Dr. Kuper writes that, in her experience, “the longstanding myth of ‘Jewish power’” is “the traditional antisemitic trope that is … invoked at TFOM more often than any other.”

By way of specific example, she writes: “When a lecture on religious discrimination was instituted within the medical school in the spring of 2021, I was asked by non-Jewish learners why content about Jews was ‘being forced on the students by the Jew who bought the Faculty.’ Those learners explained that they meant James Temerty, who with his wife had made a sizeable donation to the Faculty (which was subsequently renamed in their honour), and who is not Jewish” – but was assumed to be Jewish because of his wealth.

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Within the medical school, Dr. Kuper also heard that Jews “control CaRMS (the Canadian Residency Matching Service, which manages the residency selection process), Jews control faculty hiring, and Jews control TFOM’s promotion decisions.”

And she notes: “a pervasive belief in certain circles of faculty members and learners that anyone at TFOM who angers ‘the Jews’ will have their career destroyed by ‘the Jews’ – and I have had it explained to me on multiple occasions that this fear of Jews, instead of being a bias to be combatted, is actually the reverse: that those who fear Jews based on this egregious stereotype are actually the ones being discriminated against, since they have to cope with their fear of ‘the powerful Jews.’”

Most people, normal people, have a hard time wrapping their heads around antisemitism. We find it especially hard to comprehend well-educated people as antisemites – doctors for God’s sake! 

For example, in her otherwise excellent opinion piece (the single piece about this outrageous racism published by the Globe and Mail), Marsha Lederman remarks: “If the current and future doctors of Canada think this way, what do less educated members of our society think of ‘the Jews’?”

This is precisely backwards. In Canada, the less educated generally have no problem with Jews. To learn antisemitism, Canadian kids go to university. 

Dr. Ayelet Kuper’s article reflects on the pervasive antisemitism at the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine (Image: FSWC)

The dominant ideology of Critical Theory – which Dr. Kuper subscribes to, as does just about everyone at universities – is a post-modern conspiracy theory. 

Dr. Kuper explains: “At TFOM we teach our medical students in their first-year lectures about race as a social (not biological) construct that has been set up as an act of power, to locate and maintain power within certain groups of people while oppressing or dehumanizing other groups of people. Like many medical educators, we specifically talk about whiteness as being about power.”

That is, white people oppress and dehumanize everyone else (though perhaps not on purpose). Dr. Kuper protests that Jews aren’t white. This is true: Jews do come in all colours, and certainly we do not define ourselves as a race – white or otherwise.  

But whether Jews are white or not depends on where a racist stands on the political spectrum. On the racist far right, white is good, and Jews aren’t. On the left, within the ideology of Critical Theory, white is bad, and so what are Jews…? 

(Coming up In Part 2:  The new CRT ideology adds the twist that as “whites” Jews are oppressing the “brown” Palestinians.) 

Brian Henry is a writer, editor, creative writing instructor, and publisher of the Quick Brown Fox blog. He’s written opinion pieces for the National Post and the Toronto Star. He was also a regular contributor to the (now defunct) Jewish Tribune and the Engage and Harry’s Place websites in the UK.

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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.

We do news differently!

Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.

We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!

Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.

Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

Happy reading!

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