What Your Jewish Friends Wish You Knew

Upstanders Canada is developing a powerful, interactive project that will challenge antisemitism in Canada by bridging the divide between Jewish and non-Jewish Canadians.

This innovative undertaking will begin with outreach to Jewish Canadians, inviting them to consider a series of prompts and encouraging them to express themselves via whatever media and methods are comfortable for them.

What Your Jewish Friends Wish You Knew is an attempt to bridge the divide without contributing to the emotional labour of Jewish Canadians, while allowing non-Jews an accessible entry point to understanding and empathy. This project will allow Jewish individuals to vulnerably express intimate perspectives about their complex, multifaceted identities; their connections to Israel and Jewish peoplehood; their families’ experiences with the Holocaust, the longer history of antisemitism and intergenerational trauma; about the richness of Jewish tradition; about the contributions Jewish people have made to Canada and the world; and about a range of subjects that they wish non-Jewish friends and others understood.

What Your Jewish Friends Wish You Knew will allow empathetic non-Jewish Canadians an unprecedented window into the diversity and complexity of the contemporary Jewish experience.

Form will follow function. The platform may include written testimony, audio testimony, video recordings, recorded performances, photography, artwork and any medium or format participants find valuable.

Here is how you can participate in Phase 1 of this exciting project:

It is a safe platform for both sides to engage while removing potential emotional and interpersonal challenges and barriers.

Here is how you can participate in Phase 1 of this exciting project

If you identify as Jewish:

Here is how you can participate in Phase 1 of this exciting project

If you do not identify as Jewish:

Let us know some of the questions that you would like to ask a Jewish friend.

While we ask that all participants engage respectfully, we also recognize that, for example, when confronting stereotypes, bias, tropes and racism, forthrightness can be valuable. Part of the purpose of this project is to confront conscious and unconscious biases. We believe that it is better to acknowledge these biases, have them in the open and address them, than to ignore them.

Feel free to be frank. Our team is strong. Ask away.

We are developing a parallel project, a “human library” called Ask A Jew.

Learn more here

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UPSTANDERS CANADA

UPSTANDERS CANADA