President Rhonda Lenton
York University
1050 Kaneff Tower 4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON Canada M3J 1P3

January 29, 2020

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Dear President Lenton,

We have been absolutely horrified to learn that the student who performed the opening ceremony of the multicultural parade on your campus on Monday wore a shirt bearing a blatantly antisemitic slogan. Her shirt said “anti-Zionist vibes only.” I expect you are aware that the overwhelming majority of Jews consider themselves Zionists and that “Zionist” serves as a thinly veiled euphemism for “Jew.” I expect you are also aware that the day the student presenter wore this shirt in front of a large audience at your campus was also International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the occasion that commemorates the 6 million Jews who were murdered because of an ideology of antisemitic hatred.

For the leading speaker of an event celebrating multiculturalism to promote hate and discrimination against the Jewish community is absolutely beyond the pale. If this person had worn a shirt promoting hatred towards any other minority group, we are certain that the University would have taken swift action. We expect no double standards from your administration. Hatred against Jews can not be tolerated at York or any other university.

I know we all share the common goal of making York a tolerant and hate-free institution and I hope you will take the opportunity presented by this incident to draw a clear line about what behaviours cannot be tolerated on campus.

We look forward to hearing from you about the concrete actions your administration will take to address this unacceptable incident.

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Sincerely,

Avi Benlolo
President and CEO
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies