Anti Semitism – Suzanne Berliner Weiss

Rabbi Rosen of Tzedek Chicago hosts Suzanne Weiss, author of ‘Holocaust to Resistance’

Here’s the video record of a talk I gave September 2 hosted by the Tzedek congregation in Chicago. Thank you to Tzedek congregation Rabbi Brant Rosen, my friends Linda Loew, Guy Miller, and my life partner, John Riddell for organizing this event.

Rabbi Rosen says: “I urge friends to watch and listen to the special program, attended by participants from across the country, Canada, and beyond…. It’s a powerful conversation with Holocaust survivor/activist Suzanne Weiss, who shared her story of wartime survival and discussed how she applies it to the solidarity struggles of today.”

As reviewer, Naomi Allen says of Suzanne Weiss’s memoir: It is a “Thrilling and sometimes harrowing account of her life, from war orphan to immigrant to socialist activist, can be read almost as a catalog of liberation struggles from the post-World War II era through the first decades of the 21st century…. Reaching deeply into her Jewish heritage, she pulled out the traditional solidarity of Jews with oppressed people everywhere, paying tribute to her parents’ sacrifice as part of their struggle for human values. Thus, she understood that her support of Palestinian human rights flows directly from the best values of her Jewishness…”

Here’s the video:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=738959426952382&extid=SR4rLxpcRXwKZ9kc

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Holocaust to Resistance w/Suzanne Weiss. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

Watch the video on my presentation featuring my book: Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey – (you can purchase it from Fernwood Publishers).

Palestinian Demands are Simple and Just’

‘For Freedom to Think and Freedom to Live’

by Rana Abdulla

Rana Abdulla’s introduction to my presentation in Winnipeg March 2 includes a powerful statement of the rights of Palestinian people. Her statement is reproduced here with Rana’s permission.

When I landed in Winnipeg with my partner John Riddell the previous day, we were met by Harold Shuster, a friend from Independent Jewish Voices. He took us for lunch at wonderful Palestinian restaurant, the Yafa Café. There, we met its dynamic driving spirit, Rana Abdulla, well known in Winnipeg as a strong voice for Palestinian rights.

Interview in: Sada Almashrek

by Hussein Hoballah

Suzanne Weiss, Jewish advocate for Palestinian human rights and author of “Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey” (Fernwood, 2019), contributed the following response to our questions in Sada Almashrek, an Arabic-English publication in Montreal.

Though the “anti-Semitism” narrative is today being made bait at large to hit back hard on any criticisers of Israel, outspoken Weiss says she, like many other Jews, refuses the Israeli authorities’ unjust treatment and supports, instead, al-Quds Day, as well as collaboration with Muslims to fight real anti-Semitism and any other form of racism.

Mrs Weiss says that her activism on behalf of Palestine is based on the principle of “universalism” found in both Jewish and Islamic faiths.

Now nearing eighty, Suzanne Weiss still enjoys a strong memory of major global incidents that have shaped today’s injustices and is therefore determined to make a difference.

1) Mrs Weiss, it is amazing to read your book Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey, and learn about your personal journey, so would you please briefly share some background info on it?

When I was an infant child, a Jew in France under Fascist occupation, the Nazis targeted me to be killed. After the Nazi defeat, I wondered how I had survived. Over the decades, I pieced the story together: my survival was the work of a broad movement of solidarity that saved many thousands of other Jewish children.

‘Holocaust survivor condemns McGill’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations’

By Kevin Vogel, published in the McGill Tribune, February 25, 2020

Photo by Kevin Vogel, The McGill Tribune – Suzanne (in the middle) is being given a kefiyyah.

During her visit to promote her memoir, Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey, Suzanne Berliner Weiss led a rally on Feb. 17 condemning Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning Fabrice Labeau’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations regarding last semester’s controversial Face to Face trip. Weiss, a lifelong activist and Holocaust survivor, heard about these allegations from media coverage last December. Co-organized by Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, the rally outside of the James Administration Building featured Weiss delivering a letter to Deputy Provost Labeau detailing her perspective on the issue. Weiss read the letter aloud before delivering it to Labeau’s office.

The Power of Solidarity

#4: A brief excerpt from ‘Holocaust to Resistance’

It was June 1960, the day after my arrival (in New York City. While I was on 42nd Street in Manhattan, I heard a loud commotion and walked over to investigate. A thick circle of men was gathered around a speaker, who was holding a Bible while pointing to a man in their midst. “You and your people, the Jews, crucified Christ,” the speaker yelled.

I flared up in righteous anger. “Love thy neighbour! That’s what Jesus said,” I responded in a truly thunderous voice. The speaker tried to continue but I kept shouting, “Love thy neighbour!”

I pushed my way through the crowd to the Jewish man. He looked quite shaken. I took him firmly by the arm and walked with him toward the subway. That did it. The speaker tried to push on but the crowd dispersed.

In the years to follow I often reflected on that incident. Yes, it showed the power of love. More precisely, it showed the power of love expressed through determined action — the power of solidarity.