Photo credit: Facebook
Some Canadian Jews refuse to refer to them elves as Zionists, not because they don’t support the right of self-determination for Jews and the existence of a Jewish state, according to a newly published study.
The National Post reports that it’s largely due to a perceived negative connotation associated with the term, notably since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas.
“It’s become a pejorative word in the mass media and on the street and in places of work, in the university system, in public schools and so on,” the study’s author, Robert Brym, said. He is a professor of sociology and S.D. Clark Chair in Sociology at the University of Toronto.
“This does not mean that Canadian Jews who refuse to say they are Zionists are unconditionally opposed to Zionism as English language dictionaries and general encyclopedias define the term (support for Jews having self-determination in a country of their own),” Bryn writes in the study’s conclusion.
“Even among Canadian Jews who refuse to say they are Zionists, 88 per cent agree that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.”
The study is published in last month’s issue of the academic journal Canadian Jewish Studies. It is a follow-up on a previous study commissioned by three Jewish groups in 2024 with Brym as a consultant.
