Canadian Institute for Jewish Research

Creation and early years

Concerned by the sudden anti-Israel media of the first Palestinian Arab intifada, a small group of Montrealers began meeting at the home of Professors Frederick (intellectual history) and Lenore (art history) Krantz. The media's perspective of the conflict began reflecting a Palestinian inversion – Israel as Goliath, the Palestinians as David – paralyzing the organized Jewish community. The group began responding to the newspapers, radio, and TV stations, and eventually, received invitations to speak at community events to counter the anti-Israel wave.

Following the proposed, secret Arab-Jewish "dialogue" conference in Montebello, Quebec, the Canadian Jewish News published a letter by Baruch Cohen, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, on August 4, 1988 in support of Prof. Krantz's position against appeasement. Krantz, noticing the letter, contacted Cohen to join his group. Today, Baruch Cohen is CIJR's Research Chair.

Without endowments from Montreal's or Canada's organized Jewish communities and functioning year-to-year on fundraisers, CIJR operates a small office that produces online and print publications, manages a database, offers academic programming for college students, and sustains annual speakers' programs.

Mission

"The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research’s purpose is to strengthen public and student understanding of Jewish Israel as a unique democratic society in its difficult Middle Eastern context, and of key Jewish-world issues in general. The Institute is staffed by respected, academic Fellows, and aims to bring objective data and analysis of Israel, Middle East and Jewish-related issues to students and university campuses, Jewish and non-Jewish, and to the media and government."

The Institute's seminars, colloquia, and activities

The Institute’s Insider Briefing seminars and Community Colloquia feature its own and other experts on Israel, the Middle East, Jews, and Jewish world issues. Speakers have included journalist and political analyst Yossi Klein Halevi; Palestinian Media Watch Director, former Canadian MP Stockwell Day, Itamar Marcus; Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman; Commentary magazine founder and editor-at-large, Norman Podhoretz, former Canadian Minister of Justice and human-rights leader the Hon. Irwin Cotler, terrorism expert Steven Emerson, former Israeli IDF Chief of Staff, General Moshe Ya’alon; former CIA Director James Woolsey, Israel’s former Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker; and Jewish Diaspora leader and Jerusalem Post columnist Isi Leiber.

Student programs

In 2007, CIJR launched the Student Israel-Advocacy Seminars Program, a year-long training initiative to counter worsening on-campus anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism. CIJR is active in engaging with students and supports student-written/edited Dateline: Middle East. The Institute's Israel Learning Seminar (ILS) is a year-long training initiative focused on students but also open to the public. Given by CIJR Academic Fellows, it is designed to counter anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on campus and in the media. CIJR also offered the Baruch Cohen Student Research Internships during the summer and academic year.

Notable mentions

“Since 1988, the CIJR has supported an independent analysis of Israeli and Middle East regional issues. Its publications and activities continue to be trusted source of news and perspective on the State of Israel, its achievements and the challenges it faces in an unstable part of the world”. -Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, Liberal Party of Canada.

“CIJR combats anti-Israel bias and presents a clearer picture of the challenges Israel faces in this all too troubled region. I thank you for your important efforts over the years to strengthen understanding for Israel and Canada.” -Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister, Likud Party, State of Israel.

“The vital work being done by CIJR … is in fact, far more effective than most of the efforts carried out by other organizations within the Jewish community.” -Alan Baker, Former Ambassador of Israel to Canada.

Education

Professor Frederick Krantz is a history professor at Concordia University's Liberal Arts College. Achieving his B.A. History from Columbia College in 1961, Professor Krantz then received a Ph.D. in Early Modern European Intellectual History from Cornell University in 1971. His post-doctoral study in Jewish history and the history of anti-Semitism was completed at Yeshiva University in 1987.

Teaching

Professor Krantz was an instructor at Duke University's Department of History from 1965-69, teaching late medieval and early modern European history. From 1969-71 he worked as an assistant professor at Sir George Williams University, before moving to SGWU (Concordia University) in 1972, where he was an associate professor from 1972-77 and the first principal of the Liberal Arts college from 1978-85. Since 2010, he has been a professor at the Liberal Arts College. In his time teaching, Krantz developed new courses such as the "History of Antisemitism", "Worlds of Machiavelli", and "Self and Society: Antiquity and Nineteenth Century".

Baruch Cohen

Baruch Cohen was born in Bucharest. During World War Two, Baruch survived pogroms, anti-semitism, and forced labour camps in Romania. Many of his family and friends were killed in the Holocaust. After the war, with the arrival of Communist government, Baruch and his family fled to Israel. They subsequently moved to Montreal, Canada with his wife, Sonia. In Montreal, Baruch worked as a financial officer. When he retired, he enrolled in graduate school to pursue a Master's degree in Jewish Studies at Concordia University. He now serves as a full-time volunteer Research Chair at CIJR, which he helped to create. He has conducted research, written, and mentored student interns. Baruch is also an active volunteer with the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, where he has served as a docent and speaker. Twenty years ago, he spearheaded and launched the first Montreal Holocaust Commemoration in memory of Jews murdered in Romania and Transnistria, which has since become an annual event.

ISRAFAX

ISRAFAX is the institute's quarterly research print publication. It provides CIJR members with data and a digest of international analysis and opinion on issues, mixing original content with articles from newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, official documents, and websites from around the world. The Israeli and Arab media are also scanned for reports, opinions, and other documents. The magazine is distributed internationally.

Middle East and Jewish world databank

The DataBank, an archive of Israel, Middle East, and other materials related to the Jewish world, is accessible on CIJR’s website, with entries on issues ranging from Israeli society and regional politics to international Jewish communities, human rights, and the Holocaust.

Dateline: Middle East

Published by the Student Coalition for a Just Peace in the Middle East, Dateline: Middle East, a journal on Israel, the Middle East and Jewish-world, is made possible by the support of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research. Appearing several times per year on university and college campuses, it is distributed across Canada, Israel and the United States. From an academic perspective, Dateline examines the Middle East and covers issues related to the politics, economics, and cultures of the region.

Daily Isranet Briefing

As of autumn 2000, CIJR began sending Daily Isranet Briefings via email and fax to counter anti-Israel propaganda, and to keep readers informed of daily issues affecting the Jewish people. Each daily Briefing consists of opinion pieces, articles, or other documents, on changing issues, except for Wednesdays, which feature a "News In Review" issue composed by the staff of CIJR and featuring news briefs and quotations that made headlines throughout the week.
There is also a weekly French-language Communiqué Isranet bulletin published on Fridays.

Israzine

CIJR’s newest publication, Israzine, is a bi-weekly webzine devoted to Israel- and Jewish-world-related political and cultural issues, designed to supplement the Briefings, which group a few pieces around issues of moment, and ISRAFAX, the quarterly print journal.