Statements

CAUT opposes the adoption of or reliance on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a basis for defining what constitutes antisemitism or for otherwise suppressing speech deemed as controversial, troubling, or offensive in Canadian universities.

Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO), and the Jewish Faculty Network (JFN) steering committee, object to the publication today of a handbook offering guidelines for the application of the widely-discredited International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) redefinition of antisemitism. The handbook was mandated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2021 and issued today by Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons.

The national Steering Committee of the Jewish Faculty Network (JFN SC) commends both the University of Windsor and the student encampment participants for engaging in good-faith negotiations leading to a meaningful agreement. The agreement represents the highest ideals of the core mission of Universities and is emblematic of a commitment to democratic principles, human rights, international law, and rigorous academic exchange.

We write as Jewish faculty and librarians at the University of Toronto, and members of the Jewish Faculty Network (JFN), to indicate our firm support for the demands of the People’s Circle for Palestine – the student encampment established since May 2, 2024 on the St. George campus of the University of Toronto – for disclosure, divestment, and ending partnerships complicit with Israel’s occupation and ongoing, brutal violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Gaza.

As the Steering Committee of the Jewish Faculty Network (JFN), a national network of Jewish scholars, we write to you at a time of both profound anguish and inspired hope. Scholars affiliated with the JFN share a strong commitment to social justice, anti-racism and the energetic defence of academic freedom. Our network emerged in 2021 to oppose the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in institutions of higher learning. The IHRA definition of antisemitism has been used to suppress legitimate free speech, criticism of actions of the State of Israel, and advocacy for Palestinian rights. By inaccurately and dangerously conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the definition perpetuates Anti-Palestinian racism.