B'nai Brith Canada has received a stinging rebuke from Canadian Holocaust survivors for its recent advertisement comparing radical Islam and Nazism.
"We survivors have fought everybody that tries to trivialize the Shoah. We get very, very angry when it is done by Jewish leaders. I think that they should know better," said the co-president of Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Sidney Zoltak.
Barbara Landau, co-chair of the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims, wasn't too happy either, wondering about the timing of the ad--two days before Remembrance Day and just before the second annual Weekend of Twinning of Synagogues and Mosques. "My first thought was 'why?'" Landau said. "It was so distressing."
Trivializing the Holocaust is nothing new, of course, for the far Right. Republicans do it. "Right to lifers" do it. But this may be the first time that an organization purporting to speak for Jews has done it.
Defending the ad, B'nai Brith Vice President Frank Dimant said it had been well received.
"It seems there are a lot of people out there who are waiting for this kind of strong messaging," he said. He added that the intent of the ad was to "wake people up."
Epic fail, Frank. Please go back to sleep.
