LATEST
President’s Report
June 1, 2026
As I reflect on the past year, I am struck by two things: how much we have accomplished, and how much more remains to be done.
Upstanders Canada was created around a simple but powerful idea: that ordinary Canadians can play an extraordinary role in standing up to antisemitism and standing with Jewish people. Over the past year, we have continued to transform that idea into practical programs, many meaningful partnerships, and growing communities of allies across the country.
Our network of supporters continues to expand and deepen. Through online engagement, public education initiatives, and our first live events in Vancouver and Ottawa, we welcomed hundreds of new participants into our work. More importantly, we are seeing growing numbers of Canadians who are prepared not only to learn about antisemitism, but to take action when they encounter it.
This year saw the official launch of Ask a Jew: A Dialogue Inspired by the Honourable Selina Robinson. Modeled on the Human Library program, the initiative creates opportunities for respectful one-on-one conversations that build understanding and human connection. At a time when polarization too often replaces dialogue, we believe these conversations are among the most powerful tools available to combat prejudice. Upstanders expects this initiative to be up and running before the end of the calendar year.
We are extremely proud to work alongside the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada on The Power of Small Conversations. Upstanders Canada is based on the idea that real, sustainable social change happens best through one-on-one and small group conversations. This initiative facilitates thoughtful discussions among friends, colleagues, neighbours, and community members. Together, we are helping create spaces where difficult conversations can take place safely, respectfully, and productively.
Another highlight of the year was the delivery of the inaugural Upstanders Idea Lounge, a six-part monthly series that brought participants together to explore antisemitism, Jewish identity, history, literature, and current events through thoughtful conversation. The positive response has encouraged us to explore new formats and approaches, including potential podcast and multimedia offerings that can reach even broader audiences.
Our “Be An Upstander” Toolkit continues to be widely used and shared. What began as a practical resource for allies is evolving into a larger educational initiative, with opportunities to adapt the material into formats that are more accessible, interactive, and scalable.
Behind the scenes, significant progress has been made on Ally Action Hub, a one-stop destination where Canadians can find educational resources, discover opportunities for engagement, and take meaningful action against antisemitism. The platform has now been built, and we are in the process of populating it with content, resources, events, and tools. We look forward to launching this important initiative in the coming months.
We are also beginning development of What Your Jewish Friends Wish You Knew, a storytelling project designed to share authentic Jewish experiences with wider audiences in a way that is accessible, relatable, and deeply human.
Throughout the year, we have continued to prioritize collaboration over duplication. The challenges we face are too significant, and the resources available too limited, for organizations to work in isolation. We have therefore focused on building partnerships that amplify impact, leverage expertise, and strengthen the broader ecosystem of organizations working to combat antisemitism and build understanding.
If there is one challenge that remains constant, it is resources. We do not lack ideas. We do not lack opportunities. We certainly do not lack important work that needs to be done. What we need are the financial resources required to bring these initiatives fully to life and to expand them across the country.
We also view everything we do in the context of current events. Canada has been called the “champion of antisemitism.” This is a disgrace. But it also a challenge and an opportunity. If our country is one of the worst environments in the world for antisemitism, it is also the ideal place for innovating entrepreneurial, imaginative and effective strategies to confront antisemitism. That is what we are committed to.
Everything we have accomplished so far has been achieved with remarkably modest resources. Imagine what we can accomplish together with the support needed to scale these programs, reach more communities, and build a stronger network of allies from coast to coast.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank our supporters, partners, volunteers, and participants for their commitment, encouragement, and belief in this mission. The progress we have made belongs to all of us.
Together, we are proving that ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference.
President and Executive Director
Upstanders Canada
Three important days
A succession of commemorations explain much about Jews and Israel.
The week just passed and the one beginning are packed with deeply resonant days in the Jewish calendar.
Three days of historical commemoration nearly collide in a way that is jarring and profoundly intentional.
Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) took place last Tuesday. Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism) begins at sundown tonight. And Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) starts at sundown tomorrow.
These three memorial days meld into a single moral narrative about Jewish vulnerability, sacrifice, and sovereignty.
They tell a story not just of a state, but of why that state must exist.
If we do not understand the historical significance of Jewish statelessness, we cannot appreciate the centrality of Israel for almost every Jewish person alive today.
The existence of a single country that embodies the Jewish capacity to defend themselves from genocidal threats – threats that are every bit as present in the world today as they have been throughout history – is not something that can be separated from Jewish identity.
Jewish people would have a right to national self-determination even if genocidal anti-Jewish prejudice did not exist.
But it does exist – and that makes Israel’s existence, and its security and survival, an existential need.
Some people believe they can advocate “antizionism” – the elimination of Jewish self-determination – and separate that from antisemitism. They cannot.
We are not talking about “criticism of Israel.”
Criticism of Israel is not antizionism and it is not antisemitism.
Calling for the destruction of the Jewish homeland, which implies ethnic cleansing of Jews at best and genocide of Jews at worst, is antisemitic.
That fundamental truth is evidenced in these three adjacent commemorations.
Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is not only a day of mourning for six million murdered Jews. It is a testament to the unbearable reality of Jewish powerlessness. It forces us to remember what it meant for Jews to live at the mercy of others—stateless, unprotected, dependent on the goodwill of societies that ultimately turned on them.
It commemorates the price of not having a state. It recalls a catastrophic time when Jews had nowhere to go, no army to defend them, no sovereignty to defend their right to live.
A week later comes Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. If Yom Hashoah asks what happens in the absence of Jewish power, Yom Hazikaron asks what it costs to have it.
It is a day of piercing, intimate grief for soldiers and civilians who have died defending the state of Israel. Sirens sound, the country stands still, and the loss is felt not as abstraction but as personal rupture.
This is the price of sovereignty.
It commemorates the price of having a state, and defending it from those who seek to eradicate Jews – from the river to the sea.
And then, almost jarringly, comes Yom Ha’atzmaut—Israel’s Independence Day—beginning the moment on Monday night when Yom Hazikaron ends.
The shift is abrupt by design. Grief gives way to celebration, mourning to music, remembrance to fireworks.
Yom Ha’atzmaut is not a celebration despite the losses commemorated the day before. It is a celebration because of them. It is a recognition that independence has been possible only because of the unbearable sacrifices of so many families. It is the affirmation that those sacrifices were not in vain—that the Jewish people are no longer defenseless, no longer dependent on the fragile tolerance of others.
The sequence of these three days of commemoration should help all of us understand the centrality of Israel in the hearts of every Jewish person and why, if we claim to be allies to Jewish people and to oppose antisemitism, we must also be allies to Israel, and oppose antizionism.
This is the heart of the Upstanders mission.
Jewish people and Israel are indivisible. So are antisemitism and antizionism.
This is why, as Upstanders, we proudly and defiantly declare:
We believe that Jewish people have the right to live in peace and free from fear, everywhere in the world, including in Canada and in Israel.
