CSL to honour activists who fought for oppressed Jews

By Joel Goldenberg

Côte St. Luc’s July 1 tradition, besides its longtime Canada Day celebrations, is the revealing of a new honouree on its Human Rights Walkway in Trudeau Park.

This year will be different as the city will be honouring and adding a plaque, not for an individual but for a group of human rights activists — those who fought and spoke out for the freedoms of Jews being oppressed in the former Soviet Union, Syria and Ethiopia.

“Many of the people involved in these movements were from Côte St. Luc or the Montreal area,” said Mayor Anthony Housefather.

The ceremony will take place 5:30 p.m. July 1 at Trudeau Park during Côte St. Luc’s Canada Day event.

Côte St. Luc has also produced a 20-minute documentary called Human Rights Activists for Oppressed Jews in Foreign Lands, which spotlights activists like Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler, who was a prominent activist for Soviet Jews and also legal counsel for political prisoners in the Soviet Union. Also interviewed is Montreal lawyer Stan Cytrynbaum, who, according to the city, “provides a personal account of how the first learned about Ethiopian Jews and later helped create a movement in Canada to draw attention to their plight and advocate for their rescue.”

“Our mini-documentary is meant to educate young people about these events and to inspire them to join or create human rights movements of their own,” said Councillor Mike Cohen, co-chairperson of the event with Councillor Glenn Nashen.

“Many of the past honourees have been people who put their lives on the line in many parts of the world,” Nashen said. “By selecting a movement of people — many of them local — we wanted to highlight the fact anyone, anywhere can help those in need, even from the safety and comfort of our suburban homes in Canada. Professor Cotler, Stan Cytrynbaum, and Judy Feld Carr-an unassuming former music teacher and grandmother of 10 who was responsible for the rescue of 3,228 Jews from Syria over 28 years — are three examples of a movement that helped rescue hundreds of thousands of people.”

The video is available for view at the city’s website, www.cotesaintluc.org.