Being Jewish with Jonah Platt

Blame Canada! Trudeau’s Ouster, Zionism, and fighting anti-Jew hate with MP Anthony Housefather
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Jonah: [00:00:00] You've been quite critical of your own party, even contemplating a move to being an independent.

Anthony: I smelled the acrid smoke of what was left a month and a half later. Some say you haven't done enough. The last thing that Jews in either Canada or the United States want is to have only one party as an option.

And at that point, I was really upset.

Jonah: Though the explosion of anti Jew bigotry since October 7th can be observed all over the world, perhaps no country's descent into hate has been more stark or startling. And that of our once benign neighbor to the North, Canada. Over the past year and change, Canada has seen a whopping 670 percent increase in anti Jew hate crimes, accounting for 70 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes, despite Jews comprising just 1.

4 percent of the country's population. It is against this backdrop of synagogue firebombings, day school shootings, and [00:01:00] mass anti Israel demonstrations That my guest today has served as a loud and proud Jewish member of Canada's ruling Liberal Party in Parliament, chaired the Canada Israel Inter Parliamentary Group, and was appointed Special Advisor on Jewish Community Relations and Antisemitism by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Soon to be former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. More on that to come. My guest is also a Jewish day school grad, a Maccabiah Games medalist, and is mostly fluent in Hebrew, English, and French. So, please. Welcome to the Friendliest Politician I Know, Anthony Housefather. Thanks so much for having me, Jonah.

It's great to be here. I want to mention how we first got connected, which is pretty funny, which is you reached out to me over the internet after seeing me on an episode of Jeopardy. Exactly.

Anthony: I thought you did so well on that show and, uh, yeah, you just got screwed by a Daily Double.

Jonah: I know. It's like one of the most painful memories of my life is losing that tag.

I was like right there. I was leading after first [00:02:00] round. It's got weird categories. I got the final Jeopardy. Just didn't have enough left in the bank.

Anthony: Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the things, right? Where you're multi talented, you've got the acting, you got the singing, and now the activism, and you had the Jeopardy.

What more could you want? Thank

Jonah: you. Let's keep talking. Uh, no, it's my turn to ask you, because I want to hear all about what you're up to. So, uh, as I mentioned, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just announced his intention to resign something you were publicly advocating for. What's the temperature like right now in Canada?

I mean, what's the mood? What's going on? What are the discussions?

Anthony: Well, I think that Justin Trudeau, how do you state his prime minister would have been the ballot issue. And he would have had, as you and the Americans would have say a lot of effect on down ballot races because people just would have said, I want to change and I don't want him as prime minister anymore.

His negatives. We're in the minus 40 to the minus 50 range. Yikes. Yeah. I mean, it's something like Biden, right? When Biden's decided to step down and allow Harris to run, his favorability was still in the low forties, right? So this, this is [00:03:00] a sea change. It gives a lot of motivation to liberals. That gives a lot of encouragement to liberals that we now have a chance to have a new voice.

Um, leading the party into the next election and from a Jewish perspective, I think all of the leading candidates would be a really positive change.

Jonah: It's interesting that what you guys are experiencing and, and more things we're going to talk about are so parallel to what the U. S. has been experiencing.

Anthony: We are incredibly close to the United States and our politics reflect one another. And I think on the Jewish issue, right, the Jewish communities, I think that have been the most disappointed in the last 15 months have been those of Canada, the United States and Australia. Because in our countries, we never expected anti semitism to rise to these levels.

Jews in the rest of the world, they've experienced anti semitism at a much higher level than we ever have in South America and Europe. And so they're less confused, less angry than in our countries where, you know, I went most of my life without seeing anti Semitism until I, you know, I was an elected official in the last few years.

And I think all of us have been shocked.

Jonah: Totally. [00:04:00] To what do you attribute Trudeau's deep unpopularity, where everybody is sort of on the same page about he's gotta go?

Anthony: I think there's multiple things. I mean, I think number one, People have turned against government since COVID, right? So all incumbent governments are in trouble.

Our leaders are in trouble in all countries, Western countries. I think the second thing is that social media has also given leaders a shorter shelf life. If you're the top person and you're in the news every day, constantly bombarded. Into people's faces. People get tired of you. Also in the last couple of years, not in the first number of years of his mandate, where I think he did a very good job.

I think in the last couple of years, the government has drifted too far to the left, and I'm very much a centrist. And I think even most liberals. Recognize that and want the party to your map back to the center. And that includes on, on issues of Israel and the Jewish community, right? We were the government that voted along with the United States, the most in favor of Israel at the UN between our election, 2015 and October, 2023, our votes were 90 [00:05:00] percent against the anti Israel resolutions, whereas.

Other than Canada and the U S almost every other country was like less than 10%. And on Jewish issues, he had a really good record. We appointed our first special envoy and antisemitism. We adopted the IRA definition of antisemitism. Antisemitism was one of the four pillars of our anti racism strategy.

And I can go on and on. But then in the last year, both the turn against Israel, which I've spoken out against many times and voted against my party on, and the lack of. National clear messaging response to anti semitism, I think has led the Jewish community to really want a change and as opposed to saying that the change should be go to the other party, I would like to change to say, stay with this party, but we're offering a new vision and a new leader.

Jonah: Speaking of the other party, conservatives are polling quite high nationally. It's again, very similar to the American experience where you have people who have been long traditional liberals, Jews, who are afraid of what they're seeing on the far left of their party and are starting to drift rightward.[00:06:00]

Anthony: I try to remind people that while there is this group of people who are anti israel, you know, on the left of the party, they do not make up the moderate mainstream of the party. And the last thing that Jews in either Canada or the United States want is to have only one party as an option. If our values are more toward the democratic or liberal side, we should have that option of the party in the same way that if you're more to the right, you want the republican or conservative option.

You don't want to say, well, this party is just going to be anti Israel. And if you remove the moderate voices in that party, you're going to end up with a party that does. Reflecting anti Israel tendency. So you need to reelect your house members from the Democrats and from the liberals who are positively supportive of Israel and reflect the moderate mainstream of the Jewish community.

And and that's what I tell everybody. You don't want to say all Jews should vote for this party or that party because then. You'll never have a choice again.

Jonah: A few weeks ago had a U. S. Congressman Richie Torres on the show. And he [00:07:00] said almost the exact same thing about not abandoning ship to the enemy.

Don't concede your own party, change the party to be what you want it to be.

Anthony: Exactly. And I think Richie has been a fantastic example of a non Jewish ally. I'm like, I have a guy in Canada named Marco Mendicino, who has been like Richie Torres, who voted with you. Yeah. And he's not Jewish and he's been a beacon of light for the community.

I think that now that Trudeau stepped down, you're going to see many more liberals be much more clearly supportive of Israel and much more clearly recognizing that the government is not going to do a job on anti Semitism and has somewhat failed Canadian Jews. Christa Freeland, who used to be our Secretary of State, our Foreign Affairs Minister.

Was an incredibly pro Israel foreign affairs minister. I know she's disappointed with the way we've handled anti Semitism and as a cabinet minister, she didn't have the freedom to speak out against it. Now that she's resigned from cabinet is running for the leadership. I think you're going to hear that clearly from her.

Karina Gould, [00:08:00] who is Jewish. Is running. Nice. She is 37 years old. Oh, wow. She would be our first Jewish prime minister, our youngest prime minister, um, again, another friend of mine. I know very well that she believes that we need to do better on this issue. Um, and then the third is Mark Carney, who I've been really impressed with.

He is also very much more pro Israel and pro pro getting rid of the anti Semitism that has tainted us. So I'm optimistic that in these three leading candidates, at least, we've got a real change coming.

Jonah: That's fantastic to hear, and thank you on behalf of my listeners for that awesome breakdown of the candidates.

Anthony: What I always say, Jonah, is it's like you have a next door neighbor. And your next door neighbor knows your wife's middle name, knows what your kids want for Christmas or Hanukkah. Um, and you are looking over and you're trying to remember what their name is, right? Like we know everything about America as much as we knew about our own country.

But most Americans, unless you live in a border state like Vermont or Washington state. No, [00:09:00] not very much about Canada. Totally. And so I encourage everyone to come visit.

Jonah: There you go. I want to talk about Pierre Poitrievre, who's the leader of the Conservative Party, has been very, you know, clearly, strongly supportive of Israel.

Anthony: I agree that he's been very pro Israel, and I appreciate that. Um, I don't agree with him on many other issues. And I also don't agree with the tone that he uses, which is dismissive and insulting of anybody who's not a conservative, right? Like he is sort of. Our Donald Trump and the way he uses nasty nicknames, uh, for his political opponents.

And one of the things that is the most important to me in politics is disagreeing without being disagreeable working across the aisle, um, because you get the best solutions when they're framed by both parties coming together.

Jonah: I love that. That's, that's what we're all about here on being Jewish. After October 7th, you've been quite critical of your own party, as we've discussed, even contemplating a move to being an independent.

Obviously, you've not done that, and you, as you've shared with us, feel [00:10:00] optimistic and hopeful about where the party is going. What was that, you know, moment like, though, where you were at that crossroads, and what kept you from crossing it?

Anthony: What happened was, in March of this year, there was a vote brought by our left wing party, the NDP.

And so, for Americans, it would be like the squad. Wasn't in the democratic party. They had their own party. So in the Canadian parliament, you actually have five parties represented the NDP on the left, the black cubic wall, which is a Quebec separatist party. And the greens have two seats also, as well as the liberals and conservatives that you could sort of think of as the Democrats and Republicans.

Right? So the NDP Had brought a vote to the floor of the house. There were many things such as, um, stopping arms sales to Israel, recognizing Palestine as an, as a state

Jonah: unilaterally unilaterally

Anthony: right away. It was unacceptable. And I took very clearly the position I was voting against it. I spoke against it.

It's a

Jonah: fantastic speech, by the way. Unbelievable. We're going to put it in the show notes. You should all watch this speech in its entirety. If you haven't [00:11:00] seen it already. Courtney, weekly shout out to Courtney. I was like, you've got to watch his speech. And she was like, oh, I've seen this. By

Anthony: the way, your wife is gorgeous.

Oh, thank you. I so sweet. Like, so lovely. Like, I don't want to put her down. It's just, look, she's amazing. Thank you. Um, I really appreciated the chance to meet her. Um, so I was really expecting that my colleagues would just vote against this resolution. And then what happened at the very last minute was our secretary of state negotiated an amendment with the NDP, which made the resolution much more palatable, but still disturbing in a few ways.

And then most of my colleagues voted for it with me and Marco Mendicino and Ben Carr being the only liberals that voted against it. And at that point I was really upset. Then there was a standing ovation given to the NDP sponsor of the motion who had been virulently anti Israel. Um, and I was even more upset.

Um, so I really thought about it for two weeks. I thought [00:12:00] about do my values continue to align with the Liberal Party, especially on this issue where I was very off what they did.

Jonah: Yeah.

Anthony: Or should I think about other options like sitting as independent, going to the conservatives, doing something different?

And I thought about it and I realized that on 80%, 85 percent of issues, I align with the liberal party. Yeah. So, I wouldn't fit in another party. And independents don't have real roles. You don't get committee assignments. Like, we're not like the U. S. Senate, right? Where independents can caucus with a party.

As an independent, you really don't have the ability to influence legislation, to influence government policy in the same way. So, wouldn't Have made sense when the real answer to me was going back and fighting within my party to make things better

Jonah: and the way it was brought in, it felt so, you know, performative that was even there, like what was, what's the goal even with that?

Anthony: We need to have a shift in our, in, in, in how our party looks at things and how others, you know, it's not only just our party that's been trapped in this. It's [00:13:00] this constant effort to balance everything and to say, you know, if you mention Israel, you have to mention Palestine. If you mention anti Semitism, you have to mention Islamophobia and, and I, I don't think that's right.

If you have any, any, some issue where a school, a Jewish school is firebombed or a Jewish school has shots fired at it, you can talk and denounce anti Jewish hatred without mentioning Muslims. And the same is true as you, if you have an attack at a mosque. And, or, or, or, or something that is anti Muslim.

You can talk about anti Muslim and Islamophobia without mentioning Jews. And for too long, I think we've been lumping the two together. It would be the same as if we lumped anti black racism and anti gay racism. Right? Like it makes no

Jonah: sense. In the monologue that I do before every episode, actually for this one, I talk a lot about the word Zionist and how I actually think we should retire it.

But in that speech you gave, you use the word Zionist so forcefully and [00:14:00] proudly in a really inspiring way Why do you think that's so hard for people to do? I mean, I don't know that I've seen a politician in your country or mine say it so firmly.

Anthony: I think that there is A really bad association that many people have with the word that should be positive.

And that's why I wanted so badly to make it clear to everyone that it was completely reconcilable and actually completely symmetrical to be Canadian Jewish and Zionist and

Jonah: spelled it out so clear.

Anthony: You can be a proud Canadian and American, right? We are Jews, but we are Canadians and Americans. We're not Israelis.

We're, we're, we're not Israeli citizens. You know, many of us that have been in this country for many, many, many generations, like going back at least to the 19th century and some back to the 17th century, right? There were Jews in New Amsterdam in 1654. Um, there were Jews in Canada in 1760 when we were long before we became a country.

It doesn't mean we [00:15:00] can't believe that Israel has a right to be a proud Jewish state. And that, that is the word Zionism. And, and I'm, I don't want it to have a bad connotation. I don't disagree with you. That Israel exists, this word isn't necessarily necessary, but because of the place that it now occupies, I think we have to fight to reclaim it.

And we have to let all of the people know what it actually means. It doesn't mean we agree with everything the Israeli government does. It doesn't mean we agree with Netanyahu or would have voted for him if we were Israelis. But this is about the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

And that's what I wanted to convey.

Jonah: What was the response to that speech from the Jewish community, both nationally and within your own writing?

Anthony: Oh, it was incredibly positive. The Jewish community really responded, uh, to that speech by saying, you really spoke for me. And I got wonderful comments, not only from Canadians, but from Americans, uh, from British people, from Australians, like the whole English speaking world.

Seem to have really, you know, sort of saw, uh, the Jewish world saw, saw [00:16:00] that speech. My colleagues from around the world, like had, you know, got to see that and reach out and say, wow, you know, now I'm going to be more inspired to say something like that in our house. I hope so.

Jonah: That would be a gift. So, I'm glad to hear you got so much positive feedback.

You do have some detractors in the Jewish community. I definitely do. As we all do. You know, haters gonna hate, no matter what you do. Um, some say, you haven't done enough. Your words have been louder than your actions. First of all, like, how does that feel to hear, knowing all that you have been doing, and how do you respond to those detractors?

Anthony: My house district? Um, in American words or my writing in Canadian words is about 25 percent Jewish. But I have spent the bulk of my time, right, you know, since October the 7th, trying to help the Jewish community and deal with Jewish community issues because everybody is so raw and so hurt. And so a lot of the things that Canadian government gets blamed for and that I've been trying to work on is local [00:17:00] policing, which is municipal, where the demonstrations are happening and local police are not controlling the demonstrations, not applying the law.

Um, and I've been pushing mayors. I've been pushing local elected officials, local police to actually make sure that the criminal law is properly applied, that the police know that the politicians will back them when they apply the law. And it's not about just keeping the peace. It's about actually applying the law and disincentivizing people.

Um, demonstrating outside of Jewish schools and Jewish synagogues. And it's completely inappropriate.

Jonah: Yeah.

Anthony: The other place that has been horrible is universities and colleges.

Jonah: Yeah.

Anthony: And that in Canada is entirely provincial jurisdiction. It is not federal. But what I did is I was able to, as a member of the justice committee, which is sort of like the judiciary committee in the U.

S. To hold hearings at the committee like they did at the U. S. House. And I brought Jewish students to Parliament Hill. We held press conferences. We got national attention to it. And then the committee report that we've delivered with all of our recommendations for the federal government, the provincial governments, the municipal [00:18:00] governments, the universities.

Is out now, it's a bipartisan report. Um, and all of these are now to be acted on. Um, so I feel that like over the last year and a half, I got the, the universities working with Deborah Lyons, who's our Deborah Lipstadt to agree on a safe return to campus through universities, Canada. I was able to help get San Madun and the IRGC designated as terrorist organizations, which has been a big call for the Canadian Jewish community.

We have a forum on anti Semitism that we're holding in Ottawa next month to bring provinces, municipalities, and the federal government together to talk about policing at the local level and how we can work together to make the police actually enforce the law. Not only did we adopt IRA, we became the first country to put out an IRA handbook explaining to provincial municipal governments, law enforcement, universities.

Um, schools, uh, elementary high schools, how to use IRA, uh, which we put out a couple of months ago and we got a security infrastructure program announced where [00:19:00] we're spending 65 million. To protect, um, synagogues, schools, uh, community buildings. Like, all of these things have been announced over the last few months.

So to say that I've done nothing, I've only talked, it's not true, it's not fair. And I feel horrible when my own community is the one that doesn't believe that I'm doing stuff when I am. And, and, and they can just read my social media or newspaper reports and they'll see what I'm doing. But there's just a hatred because I'm not a conservative from some people, right?

Why would you turn against one of your own in another party? Who's doing their best? It's so polarized that Conservatives have stopped working with liberals on on Jewish issues and and I want that to come back because that was the way it was until pretty recently and And and it's become so partisan because of an approaching election That there's been that bipartisan gap, and I would like in both our countries to see that bipartisan support return and us understanding while we may disagree on other [00:20:00] issues, we all want the best for the Jewish community, and we have to work together

Jonah: so much of what you've just said is resonating with me.

First of all, you just touched on a topic of my, another monologue that I just did about how the, oh, during our election season, the Jewish community was going at each other when we needed to be coming together. And again, it sounds like you're describing just so much of we, of what we are experiencing here.

Anthony: But you have one thing here. That's something that we don't have in Canada, which I've encouraged for a long time for us to have in the United States. You have that APAC endorsement for candidates in Canada. We have no comparable Jewish organization that looks at house candidates on a bipartisan basis.

And it says, these people are really good in our issues. They're fighting for Israel. They're speaking for Israel. They're speaking for the Jewish community and anti Semitism. We should endorse them in their district. No matter what party you would be intending to support, this person is good. And we need that in Canada, too.

Jonah: Canadians, you're hearing it here. We need you guys. Canadian Jews, step up to the plate. Somebody make the Canadian AIPAC. Let's get this going. So tell me a little bit [00:21:00] about your role as chair of the Canada Israel Interparliamentary Group. What does that entail?

Anthony: We work together to try to bring Canada to Israel and Israel to Canada.

For example, in Israel, clean water and indigenous reserves, the desalination that Israel has done, Has been very helpful in terms of teaching a whole new group of people in Canada about what Israeli technology can do. And then what we also, of course, do on our side is try to work to make sure both in the house in terms of legislation and with the administration in terms of government, that our positions on Israel are as good as we can make them be right.

And the last thing that we, of course, do is when, when, for example, our secretary of state. Um, we'll go travel to Israel, um, and as possible, we'll go, we'll, we'll have a bipartisan group that will accompany them and meet with legislators to also have that tie in between the legislators, um, and the administration.

Jonah: When's the last time you were able to do that?

Anthony: We went after October the 7th to show our solidarity after that, and we had a bipartisan group of legislators that went. Um, and [00:22:00] we toured with the speaker of the Knesset, um, the kibbutz team, the horrors that, that happened on October the 7th, we saw the Canadians, right?

Because it's not just Israeli citizens that were killed. Canadians and Americans were killed. I think it's 33

Jonah: nationalities. Yeah.

Anthony: Yeah. And, and so we saw like Vivian silver, who was a Winnipeg peace activist, was burned to death in her safe room. I smelled the acrid smoke. Of what was left a month and a half later, um, we saw the ground where people's silhouettes where they had been murdered were chalked out on the ground.

There was a mayor of, uh, of one of the towns that we went to who was running for reelection and his posters were still up everywhere, but he had been killed on October the 7th. You know, defending, uh, his town and it was just so important for me and for the others, you know, to come back and be able to tell people in parliament what we saw.

And all of us did do that. And I think it was important. Amazing.

Jonah: You've got all these different [00:23:00] leadership roles on behalf of the Jews. How much are you, do you feel personally responsible for what does or doesn't

Anthony: happen? I try not to take things personally, and try not to, you know, either way, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, play too much about myself into it, but it's really painful when people blame you for things that you have no control over.

One of the things that Jewish politicians across North America have had to deal with, Over the last year is police protection, death threats that they've never had before, horrible threats to their staff, to their offices. My office was vandalized, right? Baby killer was written everywhere. It's like so painful.

I never thought as a politician I would ever have to deal with this because I never did as a counselor, as a mayor or as an elected MP for the first eight years I was an MP. It's all been in the last 12 months. And, and then like for people I thought were friends to feed hate. You know, from our own community, it makes it even worse.

Are you able to [00:24:00] approach

Jonah: them at all and be like, Hey, we're in the same crew here. What's going on?

Anthony: I tried, I tried at the beginning and it was spectacularly unsuccessful and I've given up like there are people I thought I had a relationship with, even if we were in different parties. I, I clearly didn't.

I thought we were friends and I realized afterwards we're not friends.

Jonah: Alright, let's talk about something a little happier. Yes, happy is good. Tell me about the Jewish makeup of Mount Royal, which is your district or riding, uh, and, and Montreal at large. So I think it's actually

Anthony: like New York. Okay. Um, right, where you had the first Sphardic Jews that came in 1654, um, you know, and, and you had a Sphardic presence in New York.

You, so you had that in Canada, you had the first Jews that were allowed to live in Canada because when, when Canada was new France. The French didn't, when Jews came, they got sent back to France because they would have to be Catholic to settle there. But as soon as the British conquest happened in 1760, you ended up having Jews from the UK, Jews from the United [00:25:00] States, the United Emperor loyalists that moved there in 1776 when the U.

S. became independent. Um, and you've had a Jewish community 1760. Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in my writing was founded in 1768. Is it still functioning? It is. Wow. It's not in the same building, but it's still functioning. Same community. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so unbelievable. We started with Sparta Jews.

Then we had German, um, and Austrian Jews that came in the 1848 revolutions. And then you had the rest of us that came from the 1880s to the 1920s from Eastern Europe and, and joined the community. So by 1910, um, Yiddish was the third most popular language in Montreal, right? And the Jews were like a third solitude between the English and the French.

And then after the Holocaust, we had a huge wave of immigrants post Holocaust that settled in Montreal. Um, and then we had Sphardic Jews that came from Morocco, Algeria, and Iraq and, and other countries where they were driven out of their homes. In the late forties, fifties, [00:26:00] sixties, seventies. And then we had a Russian and Ukrainian Jewish immigration that has been more recent, um, like in the 1990s, 2000s.

And of course we had an Israeli immigration as well, where we have a number of probably 15, 000 people that have come from Israel.

Jonah: Are there any certain experiences or traditions or foods that are like uniquely Montreal Jewish? We would

Anthony: like to think so. Well, smoked meat. Smoked meat is something between pastrami and corned

Jonah: beef.

Anthony: Um, and in my understanding, it is pretty unique to Montreal, but it is obviously Jews who brought it. Um, you know, it's a unique way of, of preserving the meat. Um, and there is a deli called Schwartz's that is iconic that was founded in 1928. That I highly encourage everybody coming to Montreal to go to, but that doesn't mean that's known in Delhi in my writing or others are not excellent.

Um, but smoked meat would be very unique. The Montreal bagel, which is a denser version of the New York bagel. They've made their way

Jonah: [00:27:00] to LA a little bit. There's a

Anthony: couple of Montreal bagel places here. Nothing is quite as good as Montreal because bagels are because the water, right? Like, and so the local water is given the taste of this bagel.

But, but Montreal bagels, I would say are unique.

Jonah: Smoked meat, Montreal bagel. Exactly. Beautiful. Wow. You've said that the only thing distinguishing us from other cities is the municipal administration and the police handling these incidents poorly. Lack of law enforcement emboldens those who hate us and leaves us unsafe, but no, Jews don't need to change or leave.

What makes you confident in a secure Montreal future, specifically for the Jewish community?

Anthony: There was a ADL put out on tracking anti semitism by country. And Canada was the third least anti semitic country. Only 8 percent of Canadians harbor anti semitic sentiment. The U. S. was 9%, the U. K. was 9%. And, and there were only two countries below us of all the countries in the world.

The issue is you have a small, loud group of haters who have been allowed to take over our streets to demonstrate outside [00:28:00] Jewish community centers and Jewish buildings with the police standing by as bystanders instead of actually enforcing the law, which exists. The criminal law is written as a federal criminal code.

But it's up to local police and then the local police and the cities are the creatures of the provinces of the states that have to enforce it and they're not enforcing it. And I've met with the Montreal mayor and I feel that that administration has really failed Montreal Jews.

Jonah: Rampant anti Jew hate has historically signaled the downfall of a society as it means that there are things that are already broken that are getting blamed on Jews.

What do you feel like is broken in Canada and how do you get on the road to fixing it?

Anthony: I would never say a country is broken because saying a country is broken is, is, is giving up and exaggerating, right? Most, most politics is gray. And, and, and, and to say is broken is black or white. And it's, I didn't say

Jonah: Canada's bro.

I said, what in Canada? I

Anthony: wouldn't say anything is what I would say is we have a lot of problems, right? Right. We have [00:29:00] inflation is a major problem. Cost of living is, is an exceptionally bad problem around the Western world coming out of COVID. We ended up with rampant inflation

Jonah: and relate to

Anthony: that. Yeah.

And Canada's was actually less at a height than the United States. But, but that, that is a big problem. Stagnation of the economy and the lack of growth and productivity is a problem. Um, the, the, the, the anti Semitism that we are experiencing is a major problem. Housing is a significant problem because we have had too high a number of immigrants that, that we've allowed into the country.

Um, in the years since COVID now, the number was created because so many businesses were saying we lack the workforce that we need. But, but the number of people coming created pressure on the housing market that led to a lack of housing and that led to another problem, the increasing inflation.

Jonah: We're experiencing a lot of, you know, anti Western sentiment, you know, looped in and that Venn diagram of the anti Israel folks.

Are you guys feeling that in Canada as well?

Anthony: You look at our societies. They're very, very similar. And if we're having problems in [00:30:00] one country, you're having them in both. If Canada and the United States are, are not twins, we're like brother, brother, and brother, brother, sister, and sister. We're, we're, we're, we're, we're so alike.

Jonah: Maybe we're fraternal twins.

Anthony: Exactly. The issue of people screaming death to America, you know, in pro Iranian slogans. Um, is the same in Canada as in the United States. Do you get death to Canada or are they saying death to America? They say both. Okay. They say both in Canada. I, I, the US, I, I guess they're not saying death to Canada cause they don't consider us, but in Canada it would be, you know, death, death to Canada, death to America, death to Israel.

Um, like, like all of that is happening at the same levels in both countries.

Jonah: Yeah. What a shame.

Anthony: It's, it's, it's tragic, but I, but again, I'm confident now that people have woken up to it more.

Jonah: Good. Right? Like I really,

Anthony: I really believe that podcasts like yours, but, but I think the general population Is now much more sensitive to it than they were a year ago or six months ago.

I can see it with my caucus colleagues, my liberal caucus colleagues in the house, how [00:31:00] much more sensitive they are now to how bad it is. The anti Semitism and the anti Western sentiment. And they were six months ago. I really see a change and I see it amongst the population at large, right? Cause I do doors.

I knock on doors everywhere, you know, and Jewish doors. It's, it's been that way. Like non Jewish doors. I now see are much more sensitive and aware.

Jonah: That's fantastic. It again reminds me of something I spoke about with Congressman Richie Torres, which is that, you know, the big issue is not necessarily the extremes.

It's all the majority who are in the middle being too afraid of the extremes to assert our will. Exactly. And that's what's missing.

Anthony: Jews are 1. 4 percent of the Canadian population. We're maybe 3 percent of the American population. Right. We're not going to win this battle by ourselves. No way. We need non Jewish allies.

Yeah. And these non Jewish allies I think are much more ready now to come forward because they're seeing how bad it actually is. I

Jonah: hope that's

Anthony: true. We always look at things with the half glass half full and not half empty.

Jonah: I love that. I'm, [00:32:00] I'm the same way. Um, okay. So I want to just get a little personal to your family story in Canada.

Anthony: My family, like everyone else has had so many opportunities. I can't even imagine what, like I, I once did, uh, I do, I cohost Hanukkah on the hill, which is, um, was an initiative that Michael Levitt and I started in 2016, which had the prime minister, the leader of the opposite of all parties that came and spoke at it.

It was a bipartisan event. It was a COVID the first year of COVID. We did it virtually. Um, and we call it the national festival lights. And I was able to talk about, it was actually 120 years ago. So from 1900, Was living probably in a tenement, a cold water flat. Like you would have had in the Upper East Side in the, or, well, it wouldn't be Upper East Side, Lower East Side in New York.

What would they have thought that 120 years later, their great great grandson was standing there with the prime minister and was a member of parliament. They would never have believed it in a million years, but we've had the greatest opportunities in Canada and the United States than [00:33:00] our people have had anywhere else ever.

And, and we just need to make sure that continues.

Jonah: What role did being Jewish play in your home growing up?

Anthony: What really got me involved in the Jewish community was actually Maccabiah. It was actually sports. It wasn't religion, but Jewish sports. Um, like participating in Jewish athletic events starting when I was 12.

Um, with Jews from around the world. My first, my first one was in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a North American Maccabiah games, but they had people that came from Australia and from Israel. And, and, and I got to meet Jews from like every city in the United States. Like, Being in Israel and experiencing the Maccabi games and marching into Teddy Stadium with Jews from around the world.

And, and, and all of us in different sports and all of us from different countries. And, and we're all different because we're all like our countries and like everybody else in our countries, but we're also have that bond and, and, and it was just the most special experience I've ever had. And, and then being there again, I was the last time I was, there was in 2017, I [00:34:00] was swimming and it was the first time I went as a member of parliament.

And on the screen in Teddy stadium, they had the message from Justin Trudeau, like, cause what they do is they had Biden, they had, they had Trudeau, they had leaders from around the world that wish, you know, their country as well in the games. And the prime minister was on the screen saying, and my friend, Anthony is there to swim.

And if he doesn't win any medals, he can't show back up in the house. But like, and it was like, Wow. And then, and then all the Israeli media wanted to talk to me because it was so weird for them that a member of parliament was competing in the games. But what I've learned, I've developed relationships with Jewish people from around the world from those games.

Like if I go to almost any country, like the English speaking country anyways, uh, or, or Argentina, even like I had people that I could stay with. I have people that I can train with because of that bond. And that was what drew me to that feeling of the special link of the Jewish people everywhere in the world.

And why I wanted to make sure to fight for my community, not only in Canada and [00:35:00] Montreal, but around the world.

Jonah: All right, we're going to finish off things here with a little lightning round. Poutine, yay or nay? Nay. Me too. I don't get it. Best spot for a Montreal bagel.

Anthony: I have to say Kutz and Luke bagel in my, in my writing and Kutz and Luke, although Fairmont and St.

Vito are both good. Kutz and Luke bagel is what it's called. Kutz and Luke bagel. There's also ditzes, which was also very good in my writing. All right.

Jonah: Take notes. Favorite

Anthony: Jewish

Jonah: holiday.

Anthony: My favorite Jewish holiday is Passover because of like everybody coming together for the seders.

Jonah: So that's what it's all about for you.

Just to bring the people together. That's the best part.

Anthony: A hundred percent. And, and I, I just love like sitting with family and friends, like, you know, at a big Seder and, and, and, and not like, you know, just. It's the socialization is amazing

Jonah: favorite Mount Royal Jewish tradition if there is one in the community other than yelling at your MP

Anthony: Uh, I think the main thing about Mount Royal Jewish traditions is that Jewish culture and and habits are shared by everyone Not just Jews And we live in a place where, [00:36:00] you know, people from all communities enjoy going to their Jewish neighbors for Jewish holidays.

Jonah: That's fantastic. Yeah. I mean, I wish there was more of that going on everywhere. Yeah,

Anthony: I love Mount Royal for that.

Jonah: I love that. Do you have a funny Jewish day school story from your time there?

Anthony: The worst Jewish day school story was, uh, one time when, uh, the toilets overflowed. Um, in my elementary school and flooded our classrooms.

Oh God. That was, that was probably the worst story. Were you guys

Jonah: studying Noah and the Flood at that time? Well, we

Anthony: certainly went into it afterward.

Jonah: Um. Immersive learning.

Anthony: I think that the best part of the Jewish Day School again was the experience of meeting so many friends that are still my friends today.

Oh, that's amazing. My friend Barbie Solomon. I met her in second grade and she's still one of my best friends.

Jonah: Love that. I have a similar crew. Anthony, thank you so much for being here. This was so awesome. I learned so much. I know our listeners did for sure. And we can't appreciate you taking the time to be with here with us enough.

I was amazing, Jonah. Thank you for having me.[00:37:00]

Thank you again to Anthony for flying all the way from Canada to be with us today and for being an amazing voice for Jewish Canadians and diaspora Jews everywhere. Thank you all for tuning in and as always, please spread the show any way you can. We truly rely on your voice to help our audience grow.

I'll see y'all back here next time. Eh, for another awesome episode of being Jewish with me, Joan of class.