This year the Vanier College Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide, held in early April, explored connections across time, peoples, and places. Montreal and Canada are home to many groups of genocide survivors including Jewish, Armenian and Ukrainian communities and the Symposium considered their stories while focusing particular attention on the Holocaust and its reverberations over time and across continents. In light of exponentially rising antisemitism across the world, education about the Holocaust and the various forms of Jew hatred is more critical than ever.
The Symposium was rich with history. Speaker David Bensoussan laid out the conditions Jews faced in Morocco during WWII, while Rabbi Adam Rubin, who holds a doctorate in modern Jewish history from UCLA and is the current rabbi of Shaare Zion Beth-El Congregation in Montreal, described the Shoah in Algeria, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern places. Gladys Daoud, whose family was exiled from Babylonia in the 1950s, presented the little-known history of the Jewish community of modern-day Iraq, while Sami Sourani also originally from Iraq, presented the history and origins of the Jewish Community in Bagdad and described the Farhud of 1941 - the pogrom related to the Holocaust.
Two talks on the Armenian Genocide were particularly well attended. Tanya Karibian wove the stories of the Armenian genocide into the resilience and fabric of the Armenian community in Montreal, and Shant Karabajak, activist, author and educator, explored the lasting impact of the Armenian Genocide on the Armenian community and diaspora, focusing on survival, integration, generational trauma, and geopolitics. Mark Groysberg, who immigrated to Canada in 1990 from the Ukraine and published the first Russian-language newspaper in Montreal in 1994, focused on the fate of Jewish people when the Nazis invaded Soviet lands. Another speaker, Roman Serbyn, took audiences back further in time when he compared Stalin and Putin's treatments of Ukraine.
The Canadian experience of antisemitism was explored by Zach Sadowski, the Director of Antisemitism Programming and Outreach, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Deena Dlusy-Apel and Max Beer presented their film "Will the Second Generation Please Rise: A documentary about inter-generational responsibility". As well, a Holocaust Commemoration Service included testimonies from Holocaust survivor, Esther Topaz and October 7 survivor, Yaara Mano.
"The Symposium was incredibly meaningful and impactful. The talks offered deep insight into the many ways the Holocaust devastated Jews all across Europe. In light of everything happening in Israel and around the world, the message feels especially urgent and relevant today. All those involved in organizing it, including the speakers, deserve heartfelt congratulations and special thanks to Toby Moneit for helping make it all happen," said Vanier student David Abitbol.
Toby Moneit, Symposium organizer and Vanier teacher, stated, "Like people, ideas also spread. It is thus curious why we do not regularly and consistently make the link between Nazi and other antisemitic ideologies and the modern history of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa ... and the connections between the Holocaust and October 7, 2023."
A Holocaust Commemoration Service was attended by Vana Nazarian from Ville St Laurent and Martin Fecteau representative for André Morin MNA for Acadie, as well as Susanne Aschi, Consul General of Germany, Enrico Pavone, Consul General of Italy, Monica Schirdewahn, Consul General of Austria, Tímea Kovács-Szabó, Deputy Consul General of Hungary in Montreal and Adam Luxenberg, Public Diplomacy, Israeli Consulate.
Partners for the Symposium included the Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Foundation, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre. As well, Vanier Hillel and the Vanier College Student Association both supported the Symposium.
