It's time for the folks at B'nai Brith Canada to close up shop and go home: Their phobic mission to convince us that Canadian society is suffused with Nazi-like hatred has launched into the realm of outright farce.
Every year, B'nai Brith puts out an "audit" of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada. And every year, the document is reported on by the mass media, which uncritically parrots the group's absurd contention that anti-Semitism is a growing epidemic in this tolerant country. Reporters politely overlook the fact that B'nai Brith's definition of "incident" is dumbed down: Any web posting, stray comment, or scrap of graffitti fits the bill. This allows B'nai Brith to reel off thousands of examples.
Most readers don't stop to scrutinize how trivial these examples are: They just look at the impressive-seeming bar graphs, which purport to show a Jewish community in a constant state of terror. The result: Older Jews with dark historical memories become terrified, and the donations to B'nai Brith come rolling in.
But this week, B'nai Brith well and truly jumped the shark — ironically enough, on the issue of female ski jumping.
The underlying controversy is, by now, quite stale and well-known: The Winter Olympics, including the Vancouver 2010 installment, hold events for male ski jumpers, but not for female ski jumpers. It is an issue that has been litigated, and the Supreme Court of Canada recently settled the issue by declaring that it would not hear an appeal in regard to the 2010 Games.
Enter B'nai Brith, whose staff are apparently so bored that they feel the need to leap into the politics of an Aryan-dominated alpine sport that has about as much to do with Judaism as luge, ultimate fighting, glacier-climbing and pork salting.
According to a Monday press release from B'nai Brith (the full text of which appears below), "The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada, has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) to reconsider the continued exclusion of Women’s Ski Jumping from the upcoming Olympic Games … In a letter to John Furlong, CEO of VANOC, the League recalled the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the OIC turned a blind eye to Hitler’s fascist regime, which was even then implementing discriminatory policies against Jews that impacted Games that year. The League asks the OIC and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) to focus on its policies and practices relating to discrimination, 'and that includes eliminating discrimination against women now, just as it should have included resistance to discrimination against Jews then.' "
I actually had to call B'nai Brith to make sure this wasn't a hoax.
The 1936 Berlin Olympics persist in our history books as a landmark symbol of Nazi hatred. Following on Hitler's theories of racial supremacy, the German team permitted only members of the "Aryan race" to compete in all events. Gypsies (as they were then known) were rounded up and herded into camps. In his book Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer described how Hitler was "highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler [had] said."
Now compare all this to the current controversy over the issue of female ski jumping — in which the IOC voted to exclude the sport for the time being, not out of any animus toward women, but because the sport is, in its current state of competition, insufficiently developed. This may change in coming years, as the sport attracts more female participants. But for the moment, the policy is entirely in keeping with previously articulated IOC standards, and betrays no hint of sexism — let alone Nazi-like hatred.
B'nai Brith should be ashamed of itself. An organization that once seemed merely oversensitive to the very minor problem of anti-Semitism in Canada is now hurtling, Fonzie-like, down an Olympic ski jump overlooking a pool full of Swastika-emblazoned sharks.
jkay@nationalpost.com


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From: B'nai Brith Communications
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 10:10:47 -0500
Subject: Human rights group slams exclusion of women ski jumpers from Vancouver Olympics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Human rights group slams exclusion of women ski jumpers from Vancouver Olympics
TORONTO, January 4, 2010 – The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada, has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) to reconsider the continued exclusion of Women’s Ski Jumping from the upcoming Olympic Games. According to the League’s National Chair Allan Adel, and its National Director, Ruth Klein, although the recent Supreme Court decision technically places the IOC outside the ambit of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the position taken on women’s ski jumping violates the spirit of the Charter, which prohibits discrimination based on gender.
In a letter to John Furlong, CEO of VANOC, the League recalled the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the OIC turned a blind eye to Hitler’s fascist regime, which was even then implementing discriminatory policies against Jews that impacted Games that year. The League asks the OIC and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) to focus on its policies and practices relating to discrimination, “and that includes eliminating discrimination against women now, just as it should have included resistance to discrimination against Jews then”.
Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada, noted: “The Olympic Charter clearly states that ‘Every individual must have the
possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind…’ By the Olympic Charter’s own definition, this includes discrimination by ‘race, religion, politics [and] gender’. The OIC should make good on actualizing these principles instead of prevaricating by citing ‘technical’ barriers to including women ski jumpers.
“Surely, on the eve of 2010, gender discrimination has no place in the Olympics. It certainly has no place in Canada.”
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For more information, please contact, Dan Rabkin, Communications Officer:
416-633-6224 X 140 / cell: 416-312-9173
B’nai Brith Canada has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish
community’s foremost human rights agency