The following letter was sent to the Board of Directors of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada on Friday, March 1, 2024

To the Members of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada: 

The United Jewish People’s Order (Winnipeg Chapter) expresses its concern that The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada is co-sponsoring an invitation to Mike Fegelman from Honest Reporting Canada as the guest speaker at the Sol and Florence Kanee Distinguished Lecture Series on April 7. 

Mr. Fegelman’s and Honest Reporting’s work, which is to “to act as Israel’s sword and shield,” is antithetical to the mission and history of The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, which is to “advocate for anti-racism and education on the Holocaust and antisemitism” and “to develop awareness of the history, moral and ethical implications of the Holocaust and other human rights violations.” 

Members of our diverse Jewish community and others who are advocating for universal human rights are being slandered as anti-semitic and pilloried in various publications by Mr. Fegelman and Honest Reporting, with the purpose of suppressing any viewpoints critical of the State of Israel.

Throughout history, Jews honoured the suffering of their forebears by participating in movements for civil rights all over the world, often at great sacrifice, to create a society in which the rights of people are respected despite their ethnicity, religion or race. As a group that has been the brunt of misinformation, disinformation, restriction, violence and genocide, Jews must also stand up now for the rights of any people who are being discriminated against, controlled, imprisoned and murdered —no matter the location, no matter the ethnic group.

We believe the Jewish Heritage Centre needs to adhere to its mission to advocate for truthful education, not obfuscation and rationalization and denial of violations of human rights and international law.

Longtime members of the UJPO, Roz Usiskin and Abe Arnold, were two of the founders of The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada and were known for their stalwart defence of human rights. Their work to build the Heritage Centre as an organization to preserve history was predicated on honesty and the intention to learn from history and build a better world — tikkun olam. The accomplishments of the Heritage Centre are a testament to their decades of attention and objective curatorial work. Over the years there have been many meaningful collaborations between UJPO and the Jewish Heritage Centre. 

We urge you to give our concerns your consideration and reexamine your sponsorship of Mr. Fegelman’s speaking engagement. Sanitizing history and contemporary events to satisfy a narrative make them no less egregious, no less shocking, no less immoral, no less antithetical to the history and legacy of the Jewish people. 

We urge you to continue the principled mission, the respected work and legacy of the Jewish Heritage Centre. We would welcome a dialogue with you on this important matter.

On behalf of the Executive Board of UJPO Winnipeg, I remain yours respectfully,

Rubin Kantorovich, UJPO Winnipeg