Canada – The Conservative Party is facing questions about religious profiling after Jewish Canadians received cards from Stephen Harper wishing them a happy New Year.
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This is the second year in a row the cards have been sent out, and critics also say the cards raise serious concerns over voter privacy.
While the Conservatives have said most Jews don’t mind getting the cards, Montreal native Sonia Zylberberg said she was “stunned” when she received one in the mail.
“I looked at it, and then I was offended and I sort of wanted to throw it out,” she said, adding she isn’t sure how Harper knows she’s Jewish. Zylberberg said she doesn’t vote Conservative and isn’t a member of any Jewish organizations.
“I thought, ‘This is so awful.’ I felt like this was a real invasion,” any list based on ethnicity or religion is “a scary thought,” Zylberberg said.
Conservative spokesman Ryan Sparrow said the party doesn’t use any prepared lists and hasn’t purchased any from the Internet.
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has investigated the lists and found that they don’t break any privacy rules.
However, since political parties are exempt from many of the rules, Stoddart has completed a larger investigation of political parties and federal privacy rules.
Along with cards for Rosh Hashanah, which is three weeks away, the Conservative party also sends out cards for Christmas and Chinese New Year.
While Karla Kaminsky, who lives in Montreal, wasn’t offended by the Rosh Hashanah card she recently got in the mail, she was a little surprised — after all, she’s not even Jewish.
“My reaction when I first got this was, ‘He’s a little late for New Years,’ and then when I realized he meant Jewish New Year, I though ‘Oh, he thinks I’m Jewish.”
Only those who are embarrassed about their Jewishness would be offended for receiving a New Year card from the government in honor of the Jewish New Year. What will Mrs. Zylberberg’s neighbors say if they find out that they got a Jew in their midst? This is devastating for Mrs. Zylberberg. How about, Mrs. Zylberberg, you move to a more Jewish neighborhood.
The card to a Jewish name like Kaminsky who claims she’s not Jewish, is probably an awakening call for her Jewish husband.
if u hate your self for what you are you are nobody
Kaminsky’s husband may not be Jewish either. Most Jewish-sounding names are just German, Polish, Hungarian, etc. Still, I don’t understand why anyone would be offended. I suspect that the people complaining are only upset because it’s an opportunity to bash the Tories before an election; if the cards came from the Libs instead they’d have been happy.
(A friend of mine knows a couple called Elliot and Judith Spitzer — no, not the former governor! — who are German Catholics, not a drop of Jewish blood in them, but are on every Jewish mailing list in the country. They take it in good humor.)
So someone goes through all family names in Canada and if it sounds Jewish they will mail it to them?
Milhouse-You don’t see a sinister side to this?
A government has made a “SELEKTION”, and has thus singled out a select group of citizens based on their (or perceived) religion. This time for a benign reason, but ….. Also, if world events took a bad turn and for some reason the govrnment there “needed” to round up all the Chinese and put them in internment camps-they would use the New Years (Chinese) card addresses. (the year of the monkey?)
Kaminsky, is this your reaction when someone whishes you a good year?
Still I dont think we can judge the Holocaust and post-holocaust generation for thinking “THE POLICE KNOW THAT I’M JEWISH – OY VAY”. Its quite possible that she is a good, loyal and proud Jew.
Its probably a simple matter of looking for all the Jewsih sounding names in the phonebook, just as Im sure they do with the Chinese new year.
Great joke I just heard. At the army base, the squadron leader assembles his crew and asks loudly, “Who is Jewish?” For a moment there is silence before 3 young men reluctantly raise their hand. “You”, he yells to them, “will have 2 days off next week for Rosh Hashana”. The following week again the squadron leader assembles his crew for an unscheduled mission. Once again he yells out, “Who is Jewish?”. This time many hands went up, but the squadron leader yells, “Only those that were jewish last week can have the day off for Yom Kippur this week”.
K’siva v’Chasima Tova to all.
I received one of these cards this week. I am not “offended” however I do feel that the Conservatives are profiling based on last names. If you think about it it is kind of ridiculous, it belittles the greeting card as it isn’t really about wishing me a “Shana Tova” (because they can’t be sure I’m Jewish) but rather it is taking a shot in the dark. So the Conservatives don’t really want to take the time to find out if I’m Jewish and if I am then find out what is important to me, but just in case I am Jewish …….here’s a card.
To those that have posted that people that are offended by this card must be embarrassed about their Jewishness….
One has nothing to do with the other. They are offended that they are being racially profiled and that someone is assuming that they are Jewish.
As an example (forgive me as I am tired and can’t think of anything better) if a black man is pulled over by the Police because he is black, and this offends him, then is he too embarrassed of being black? No he isn’t, rather he is offended that he is being targeted because of his colour nothing else.
As a Jew I can tell you that it is weird to see a Rosh Hashanah card being sent to you from someone that you have no affiliation with, you’ve never voted for them, never met any of them, never went to their rallies ETC. yet they are pretending to somehow know you.
By the way…the card happens to be very nice.
10:18 Are the Chinese and Xtians also offended when they get this card?
I don’t think people are ashamed to be Jewish — they are weirded out that the government is apparently keeping a list of all the Jews.
Of course, Harper scheduled the election for the first day of Succos, so unless the holiday card is also a proxy card, I’m not sure how much all of this will help.
Anyone can purchase a mailing list – that is what the Prime Minister’s office has done. On any list there will be a few errors. In general the Jewish community is very gratified by the sympathy that Mr. Harper has expressed. The Liberal party has always taken us for granted even through the war when their stated policy to Jewish refugees was: “none is too many”. Bravo to this gesture. (Mr. Harper has also send out Chinese new year cards and no such uproar has erupted – there are many latent jew haters out there)
I’m Canadian, I’m Jewish, and I’d be delighted to receive such a card. Why do Jews have a problem with their government showing such courtesy? I find that mean-spirited, paranoid, ungrateful, even offensive and reprehensible. This is a government that has gone out of its way for Jewish community, both directly and indirectly — supporting Israel, challenging Islamofascism and anti-Israel bias in international fora, and significantly ramping-up trade and other cooperation. In their vivid imaginations, secular liberal Jews see Nazis everywhere, so deluded that they see not those who reach out in friendship. Moreover, such moral confusion makes them unable to see those who in fact seek to do us harm.
This is not the first time –
American Express has a new feature in which they recommend restaurants that “customers such as you have enjoyed”.
Now, I never use my American Express to dine at kosher (or other restaurants), nor at Jewish Stores, or other particularly Jewish establishments.
However, each time American Express recommends me restaurants – they are GLATT KOSHER places. What are the odds? The only thing that would prompt anyone to recommend me specifically Kosher restaurants is my Jewish last name.
So I have called (many times) American Express and asked them “what is ‘customers like you’ and why am I oddly being suggested to dine Glatt Kosher, apart from my last name?”. Their response is “we don’t know how the suggestions are selected but we can assure you that we do not maintain a racially-profiled list of cardholders”. I kept asking them whether they would use my name to suggest that I am Jewish and they couldn’t respond.
I asked whether someone with a name like “Lee” (which could or could not be Asian) is recommended Asian restaurants, and they could not tell me…
Very disturbing.
Anonymous 1:02
Do you use your Amex to buy at Eichlers Judaica or Yankels Kosher Meat or pay tuiotion to Yeshiva Beis Torah or give a donation to Bonei Olam??
Here you go.
No, I already explained that I do not use my card to purchase anything defined as “Jewish”.
Amex confirmed this to me and explained “we see no history of transactions that would identify any type of religious or ethnic preference for shopping, eating, or otherwise”, yet they would not tell me why it is that they would continue to recommend Kosher establishments other than “it is a marketing issue and we cannot be more specific – other than to reiterate that it is not corporate policy to profile customers based on race, ethnicity or national background”
Having asked whether if I would change my name, would I then be taken off their mysterious “list” – they had no official comment…
It’s not just at election time this was done. He did it last year as well.
Harper is known to be sympathetic to Jews and to Israel. and one of the few politicians and governments that came out in favour of Israel during the Hizbolla mess in Lebanon.
We should be grateful when someone takes the time and effort to recognize that there are Jews in the electorate and to afford the courtesy to wish then a “shana tova”.
E. Glick- lets see just how “delighted” you will be when your government sends you a shiney new yellow star to adorn your wardrobe.
If the Torys were so concerned about their Jewish voters they wouldn’t of scheduled the election for the 1st day of Succos!
To 11:15 am
Why don’t you ask the “xitans and chinese”? Why are you asking me.
Montreal Jew in Outremont;
Are we to expect a prerecorded phone call telling us that “all the Rabbonim” agree that we should vote Conservative?
Is Michael no longer pro Liberal?
Or is it going to be a message from COHO?
Murray, this government is certainly not going to do that. And any future government that wants to won’t just use the same inaccurate methods, they’ll also seize membership records from shuls and Jewish organisations, and open census records that are supposed to be sealed.
“proud canadian”, he didn’t have much choice about the date, did he? When should they have made it? Once the 31st of August had passed it was too late to call it for the 6th of October. The next dates available were the 14th which is yomtov, or the 20th which is erev yomtov; to avoid yomtov altogether he’d have had to wait until the 27th, which means if he didn’t want a long campaign he’d have to hold off on the announcement for another two weeks, in which time the government would just get more unstable.