093009 Wingate Branch

My dear friends – It is with a sense of honour and humility that I stand before you to share a few brief words at this annual service of Remembrance. Seventy years ago the world was plunged into a global war against the ultimate evil of Nazism. Canadians answered the challenge in 1939 as they did in 1914 and as they would do again in Korea, and as they do today in Afghanistan. The scourge of Nazism was ultimately defeated but at a tremendous cost. More than 50 million men, women and children died in the space of six short years. Among these were our own brothers and sisters – six million Jewish souls who were slaughtered for no other reason than the fact that they were Jews. I cannot even imagine what it must have been like to be a young man or a young woman who, confronted with the necessity of service, answered the call of their soul or their nation. How much harder it must have been for Jews to respond with such selfless honour at a time when Canada itself was freighted with its own prejudices. The Nazis were not without their sympathizers in this country. Perhaps they were not murderous in their bigotry but they no doubt endorsed the statement of Frederic Blair who famously uttered that, as far as Jewish immigration to this country was concerned, “none is too many.” And yet, Jews served. Jews served in greater numbers than any other comparable ethnic or religious group. Of the 16,880 who served, which constituted more than one-fifth of the entire Jewish male population in the country, 10,440 served in the army, 5,870 in the air force, and 570 in the navy. 1,971 Jewish soldiers received military awards. Over 420 were buried with the Star of David carved on graves scattered in 125 cemeteries. Thousands returned home with serious physical and mental wounds. Indeed in our own family my late Uncle Saul Coopersmith served his country as the dark clouds of Nazism hovered over Europe. As did my wife’s Uncle Phillip Bosloy who as a young navigator with the RCAF sadly is one of those who paid the ultimate price as his Lancaster was lost over the North Atlantic. The values you fought for are secure today because of your courage, and because of the sacrifice of your brothers and sisters. Jews have achieved success in every walk of life in this country – a fact that could only have been a dream when you shouldered your burdens and went to war. Canadian Jewish Congress thanks you – I thank you – for your courage and for your sacrifice. Because of you, my late father, Max was able to come to this country and build a new life for himself after Treblinka took all that he had.

Because of you, my children will have the chance to advance to the very limits of their ability, with their faith being of no consequence in their success or failure. Because of you, I have been inspired to commit my life to a battle of different dimensions to ensure to the best of my ability that the freedoms that you fought for are not diminished or tarnished. Had I a glass in my hand I would raise it to you and to those who now rest in foreign soil, and those who returned home at the end of the conflict, lived their lives, gave birth to new life and peacefully laid down their burden when their Creator summoned them. We are now separated from those dark days by many decades and yet we stand here, together, to show that we have not forgotten. We will not forget. But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; Thank you, my brothers and my sisters.