B’nai Brith Jewish Community Camp is an inclusive, non-denominational Jewish summer camp that serves a wide community. Fundamentally, we provide a safe Jewish place for our campers and staff to express their Jewish identity. BB Camp, through its Board of Directors, has adopted and fully endorses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, including the illustrative examples below which inform the definition and its application. We acknowledge with gratitude that the federal Canadian government, as well as the governments of Manitoba and Ontario, have adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism as an important measure to help the Jewish community in its efforts to defend against rising antisemitism.
The IHRA working definition adopted by BB Camp is as follows:
The IHRA Definition
Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
Manifestations of antisemitism might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.
Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:
• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
• Applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
• Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
• Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
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The IHRA working definition, together with the above contextual examples, guides BB Camp's understanding of antisemitism and informs its policies and response to conduct that may be discriminatory, harassing, or harmful.