Rabbi Howard Morrison

The following is a letter I have sent to leadership of the Toronto District School Board before their meeting this coming Wednesday night (during Shavuot):

To the Toronto District School Board,

My name is Rabbi Howard Morrison. I am a certified Conservative Rabbi serving Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue in Toronto. I am a member of the Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Rabbinical Assembly of Ontario. It has come to my attention that the school board is proposing to adopt as a standard an anti-Palestinian racism statement which would actually jeopardize free speech and prevent members of the Jewish and Israeli communities from expressing profound truths. The proposed statement as I understand it would prohibit Jews, Israelis, and others from honestly criticizing anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and anti-Zionist content. For example, anyone I talk to understands the statement , "from the river to the sea" as meaning from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which means the entirety of the State of Israel. Any student of history knows that the history of Israel as the Jewish homeland dates back  four thousand years, and that Jerusalem as the capital city of the Jewish people in Israel dates back  three thousand years.

I am concerned that the proposed policy would be based on false information and would unfairly be prejudicial to historical truths and the continued wave of Jew-hatred, as evidenced in Canada and throughout the world.

My brief statement would be supported by the vast majority of properly certified rabbis throughout Ontario and Canada.

I thank you.

Rabbi Howard Morrison