About 200 people gathered at the Jewish Cemetery off Cedar Hill Road on Sunday to commemorate Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Rabbi Harry Brechner of Congregation Emanu-El led a prayer in memory of those who died in the Holocaust.
In the event’s opening remarks, Peter Nadler, a member of the Victoria Shoah Project, which is dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and education, said there has been a sharp increase in antisemitism in B.C. and worldwide since Oct. 7.
That’s when a Hamas cross-border attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 others hostage, prompting Israel to launch a campaign in Gaza that has so far killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, according to health officials there.
“Instead of sympathy and outrage … the aftermath has been a drastic increase of hate,” he said. “Jews across the world are being blamed and targeted for the death and horrible misery caused by this terrible war.”
Nadler, who called pro-Palestinian protesters well meaning but ill-informed, said Israel has been unfairly presented as oppressors in what he called a “brutal war.”
“Imagine how the Jewish community feels — victims of the greatest genocide, and [now] accused of perpetuating one,” he said. “The atrocities of October 7 are a stark reminder that it is more important than ever that we remember the Holocaust.”
In the event’s closing remarks, however, Richard Kool, a founding member of the Victoria Shoah Project and past Jewish Cemetery director, had a different take on lessons from the Holocaust.
“We seemed to have learned not to be victims again,” Kool said. “But have we learned not to victimize others?
“We have rightly learned to vocally condemn the rise of antisemitism in the world. But have we looked into our own hearts and confronted our own intolerances, both individually and collectively?
“Can we stand with those who we are oppressing today?” said Kool, who ended his speech with an appeal for peace.
Emily Gunn, a recent University of Victoria graduate who also spoke at the event, said there are stark political differences in Victoria’s Jewish community.
“I don’t think those two men fully see eye-to-eye,” she said in reference to Nadler and Kool. But Gunn noted that both men work together on the Victoria Shoah Project, a group that aims to honour and educate about the Holocaust.
Gunn, who wears an Israeli flag patch on her backpack, said views are even more polarized at UVic, where she finds it difficult to talk to Jewish people who hold views different from her own.
Campus has become uncomfortable of late, she said, adding she’s been verbally harassed multiple times over her flag patch.
Hillel UVic, a Jewish student organization, hired security for its Passover event after receiving threatening messages and Palestinian flag emojis in response to its social media posts about the event, she said.
In February, UVic’s director of campus security and Saanich police representatives held a security info session at the off-campus Hillel House.
Nadler told the Times Colonist said while opinions “tend to be very polarized these days,” it is more important than ever to communicate and to listen to each other.
The rally was well-attended by federal, provincial and local elected officials, including federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May, B.C. cabinet ministers Rob Fleming, Murray Rankin, Lana Popham, and Grace Lore, Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock and Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch. Victoria police chief Del Manak was also present in uniform.
Yom HaShoah ceremonies have been held at the Victoria Jewish Cemetery since the 1990s. In recent years, events have been organized by the Victoria Shoah Project.
