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FSWC Welcomes Canadian Federal Budget's Proposed $10 Million to Support Collaboration Between Canadian and Israeli Companies

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) welcomes the Canadian government's decision to propose an additional $10 million in its 2021 federal budget to support collaboration between Canadian and Israeli companies. The additional funding, to be provided over five years, would help "expand opportunities for Canadian SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] to engage in research and development partnerships with Israeli SMEs as part of the Canadian International Innovation Program."

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Concordia Student Union Reverses Course on Boycott of Israel

FSWC welcomes news from Concordia University that its student union has dramatically reversed course on its boycott of Israel. The Concordia Student Union (CSU), which has long been an active and outspoken promoter of the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, confirmed to FSWC last night that it no longer supports BDS.  

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Global Population of Jews Still Not Recovered from the Holocaust, Demographic Study Finds

A demographic study by Hebrew University of Jerusalem has shed further light on the human toll of the Holocaust, revealing the population of Jews in the world has yet to recover the size it had on the eve of the Second World War. Canada is one of the few countries where the Jewish population has been slowly increasing, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area, including newcomers from “Russia, Israel and Iran.”

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French President Seeks Change to Law After Jewish Woman’s Killer Spared Trial

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed support on Sunday for the country’s Jewish community and its efforts to bring the killer of Sarah Halimi to trial, following a ruling by France’s highest court that Kobili Traore was not criminally responsible due to having smoked marijuana. Macron said he would seek a change to laws to prevent such a case from happening again.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, called the court's decision a “devastating blow,” which, he said, “potentially creates a precedent for all hate criminals to simply claim insanity or decide to smoke, snort or inject drugs or even get drunk before committing their crimes.”

"Thank you to French President Emmanuel Macron for standing up for the Jewish community following such a disturbing case of injustice. The court's decision to grant the murderer of a Jewish woman a get-out-of-jail-free card is appalling and puts Jewish lives at risk," FSWC stated in an online post.

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Sudan Repeals Israel Boycott Law Amid Normalization Efforts

On Monday, Sudan abolished a decades-old law that had forbidden diplomatic and economic ties with Israel. The move was part of Sudan's efforts to establish normal ties with the Jewish state and will allow Sudanese to do business with Israelis and visit relatives living in Israel.

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Report Antisemitism and News of Concern to FSWC

If you would like to report antisemitism or news of concern to Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, please email jaime@fswc.ca.

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