Latest news with #MontrealHolocaustMuseum
Montreal Gazette
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Montreal Holocaust Museum joins North American institutions in condemning fatal D.C. shootings
The Montreal Holocaust Museum has joined eight institutions across North America in issuing a joint statement condemning the attack that killed two Israeli Embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The fatal shootings, which occurred earlier this week, claimed the lives of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Both were affiliated with the Israeli diplomatic mission in the U.S. capital. In a joint statement, the museums said they were 'devastated and heartbroken' by what they called a 'brutal, senseless act,' describing the shooting as a targeted act of antisemitic violence in a public space dedicated to celebrating Jewish history and life. 'This is a moment to stand together and say: Enough,' the statement said. 'It is a time to remind the world of some of the most important lessons of the Holocaust … that unchecked hate and antisemitic rhetoric lead to violence.' It comes amid rising concern over antisemitism in Canada. According to the latest audit by B'nai Brith Canada, 6,219 incidents targeting Jews were reported in 2024, the highest figure since the organization began tracking such data more than 40 years ago. It represents a 124.7-per-cent increase over 2022, and a 7.4-per-cent rise from 2023, which had previously set the record. The joint statement was signed by Holocaust museums in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Skokie, Farmington Hills and St. Petersburg, Fla. It concluded with a call to action: 'Antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem. When Jews are targeted, it harms all of society.'
Telegraph
27-04-2025
- General
- Telegraph
A memoir through kitchen utensils? It's extraordinary
Before I sat down to write this review, I took the dog for a walk and bumped into my neighbour; she had been ill last week, and I had taken round a plate of our roast dinner. Just as I was about to ask after her health, she grabbed me to ask the secret of my roast potatoes. Was it the parboiling? I ventured. (No, she always parboiled.) Was it the inch of fat? (No, she never stinted on dripping.) At last I hit on the only possible explanation: it must be my husband's roasting tin, inherited from his late mother. Battered and tarnished from years of roast dinners, bent so out of shape that I almost always spill hot fat when taking it out of the oven, and imbued with the memory of a thousand Sunday lunches, it's always the default for our roast potatoes. My neighbour nodded, perfectly happy with this explanation. In her latest book, The Heart-Shaped Tin, Bee Wilson argues that this understanding is a form of sympathetic magic universal to humans: inanimate objects take on meaning, and maybe even power, simply because of the place they hold in our homes and our hearts. This power is not always welcome – the heart-shaped tin of the title was that in which she baked her wedding cake, and which fell out of a cupboard shortly after her husband left her – but it holds sway even over the most rational of people. And it stands that if we impart something of ourselves into our kitchenware, our kitchenware can tell us about ourselves. Bee Wilson tells human stories in this book, of herself and others, through a close reading of their kitchen utensils: the refugee experience through a pair of vegetable corers, the cruel diagnosis of dementia through a silver toast-rack. The most moving object (and story) in the book is a spoon – now in the Montreal Holocaust Museum – made by a Jewish tailor forced to work in the Dora-Mittelbau labour camp. The Nazi guards deliberately never provided inmates with cutlery: this spoon, made from a scrap of tin stolen from the production lines, was the tailor's way of showing and preserving his humanity. But mostly, Bee Wilson tells the story of her own life – her relationship with her parents and her children, her marriage and her divorce. Telling it through kitchen objects feels even more intimate than a tell-all memoir, because, as we appreciate by the end, these objects are a part of us, and sometimes the only part that is left. She doesn't even mention her new partner's name, but I feel I know more about their relationship from a glazed pottery oil dispenser than I would from a more conventional love story. This is a wonderful and original book, which has made me look at 'stuff' in a different way. I didn't think I would love it as much as I did: I don't spend much time in the kitchen, not any more than my mother did or does – when asked what she can make, she will always say 'reservations' – and the idea of having such a close connection to kitchen utensils used to baffle me. My husband is different: I once took him to Dabbous, where he spent the starter wondering how the top of the egg was cut so neatly, and the next three courses – after an understanding waiter had brought the device (a German invention resembling an instrument of torture called an Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, or eggshell breaking-point creator) – happily playing with it at the table. When we got married, he came with a collection of sacred objects to the marriage – the roasting tin, the dinner service for best, the little glass boat that is only ever used for mint sauce – and I brought a salad-spinner. But though I never had a Sunday lunch with his parents – they died before we were married – using their items every week makes me feel a part of his family that I never had time to be. Our son has a connection to the grandparents that he never met. And the roasting tin does make the best roast potatoes.
Montreal Gazette
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Montreal marks Holocaust Remembrance Day amid antisemitism surge over past year
By Montreal's Jewish community gathered Wednesday evening to mark Yom HaShoah, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, with renewed urgency amid a resurgence of antisemitism across Montreal and Canada. The solemn event, hosted by the Montreal Holocaust Museum at the Gelber Conference Centre, brought together survivors, descendants, political leaders and community members to honour the six million Jews slaughtered during the Holocaust and to reflect on disturbing parallels in the present. Veronika Zwiebel Honigwachs, a Holocaust survivor who arrived in Montreal at the age of 14 after the war, delivered a stark warning about the current climate. 'It's very frightening,' she told The Gazette of rising antisemitism in the city. But she stressed the importance of remembrance gatherings like Wednesday's. 'We shouldn't forget what happened. And whatever happens to us happens to other people, too.' Her remarks come as antisemitism has surged in Montreal and around the world following Hamas's attack on Israel — the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust — and the ongoing war that followed. B'nai Brith Canada reports that 2024 saw the highest number of reported antisemitic incidents in Canada since the organization began tracking them. Quebec recorded the sharpest rise, with bullets fired at Jewish schools and Molotov cocktails hurled at synagogues among the most violent incidents. The commemoration was the first in a series of events under Federation CJA's 'Remembrance to Celebration' campaign, which will also mark Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut, which are Israel's Memorial and Independence Days, respectively. Jacques Saada, co-president of the Montreal Holocaust Museum's board of directors, drew a direct line between the atrocities of the past and recent acts of violence. 'One of the phrases we use is 'never again,'' he said. 'Unfortunately, on Oct. 7, 2023, it was the Holocaust all over again.' Co-president Rachel Gropper underscored the weight of the ceremony. 'It is the commemorative day where we remember, respect, and reflect on the loss of our six million brethren,' she said. 'In my case, it's extended family that I never knew.' Despite the sombre tone, both Gropper and Saada expressed hope for the future as they looked ahead to the museum's coming relocation and expansion to Saint-Laurent St, with construction expected to be completed in 2026. 'I want to be there with Jacques to cut the ribbon,' Gropper said. Saada added: 'It's going to be a landmark for Montreal — not just for Jews or the Holocaust, but a historical landmark for the entire country.' Wednesday's event featured candle-lighting by survivors, musical performances, and a keynote address by former minister of justice and attorney general, Irwin Cotler. 'We meet on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most brutal extermination camp of the 20th century,' Cotler said. 'Montreal, I regret to say, it has emerged, along with Toronto, as the North American capitals of antisemitism — where synagogues and schools are firebombed and shot at, where Jewish institutions and storefronts are vandalized and assaulted, where Jewish students are shunned and stigmatized, where Jews, in a word, feel unsafe and insecure.' He urged those in attendance to mark the day not only in remembrance, but in action. He said: 'Make it a 'Remembrance to act.'' Among those present was Anthony Housefather, the Liberal candidate for Mount Royal, who said the commemoration plays a critical role in educating future generations. 'Tonight, we honour the survivors who helped build the Montreal community,' he told The Gazette. 'But we also teach people what true evil is and how hatred against Jews spreads to other groups as well.' He added: 'Having people gather to remember an event that happened — I mean, it ended 80 years ago — is very meaningful in the sense that the vast majority of people here weren't alive when the Holocaust happened, and yet they still took the time to come and honour the few survivors who are still with us. You've got some people who are over 100 years old here tonight. I think again, imparting history to the next generation is so important.' Neil Oberman, the Conservative candidate for the same riding, echoed that concern, calling antisemitism 'a sickness of the mind and of the soul.' 'It's hate — hate for minorities, hate for people who are different,' he said. 'It's very easy to put everyone in one box, to say it's about the Jews or the Hindus or the Muslims. But it's really just hate, and hate has no limitations. So what have we learned? We've learned that hate is there. It needs to be controlled. It needs to be eradicated, but it also means that people in positions of power have to stand up and be heard.' Côte-St-Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein spoke about the need to reinforce historical lessons. 'People have to learn the lessons in schools,' he told The Gazette. 'At all levels of government, education has to be paramount to teaching people that we have to not hate — we have to not hate based on race, religion or ethnic background. And the Jews, for some reason, have suffered this for so long, and there's not any real explanation.' He added: 'We're all human beings, and we have to show empathy and love. ... Be kind, be good to others. We're not getting anywhere by having hate. We'll only get somewhere by having love.'
