Jul 14, 2026
Speaking at the Centre culturel et communautaire Françoise-Dunn in Sherbrooke, Canada, on July 5, 2026, Rabbi Dovid Feldman explained in depth the Jewish opposition to Zionism, especially why anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.
Transcript
Chapter 1: Taking a stand
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Thank you very much again. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate and it’s an honor for me, a privilege to be with you all.
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cheering
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And again, I apologize for not speaking in French. I hope you all forgive me
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when we are standing here in the west and we are witnessing what is happening in the other side of the world. When we
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are gathered here today when we are condemning the 1,000 days plus of this genocide in Gaza.
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Basically the question is what can we do?
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And I always think that at least the least that we can do here is at least education
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awareness we can help people overcome the propaganda. We can help people
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wake up and realize that something is wrong. Something needs to be done.
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Then there are so many people who do understand that something is wrong but for so many reasons they choose to
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remain silent. I always say we should never judge the individual. We we can imagine how much intimidation there is
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around. Never ask a question why people don’t come out. I always ask a question how come that people have the courage to
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come out in public be photographed and we all know what intimidation is. I’m sure that each and everyone here in this hall already faced something and I can I
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can testify I do face so many challenges but listen we need to do something because if we remain silent if we don’t
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do anything then nothing is going to stop on the other side of the world and guess what guess what we all can be in
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danger we have to stand up and we have to speak up let me try to share my personal experience my knowledge that
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can definitely be helpful to so many people. I spoke before the rally quite briefly. I would try to elaborate. What
Chapter 2: The crisis in Palestine
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is happening is disastrous. But we have to understand it’s not only 1,000 days
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in Gaza. It’s not only Gaza, it’s the West Bank. So much injustice is being committed in in the West Bank and in
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other parts of the world. We all witness what just happened in in Lebanon, in Iran, and sadly in in in other in other
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places as well. It’s not only 1,000 days. It’s 78 years of brutal,
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unjust, and anti-Jewish occupation of Palestine. This should never be tolerated. This should never be
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accepted. We should at least know what is going on. realize and admit that what is happening is wrong.
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We as Jewish people find ourselves even more obligated than anybody else to speak up because sadly embarrassingly
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all of this all of these crimes are being committed supposedly in our name and our religion the Jewish religion is
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being misused to justify all these crimes. Now let me try to clarify and this is very important information that
Chapter 3: Judaism vs. Zionism
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might help people overcome propaganda.
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This occupation of Palestine, this movement of Zionism, the state of Israel in no way is condoned in the holy Torah
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and the Jewish religion. What is so simple to understand that killing, stealing, oppressing an entire people,
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all these crimes is no way that this can be tolerated in religion. This happens to be blatant violations of Judaism. The
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ten commandments says, “Thou should not kill. Thou should not steal.” This is very very simple basics. Little children will know this. In addition to this, it
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happens to be that this movement of Zionism, this philosophy of Zionism, this philosophy behind the state of
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Israel, this idea of building a sovereign homeland for Jews happens to be that this idea is in total contrast
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the very very basics of Judaism. There’s a concept in Jewish belief of Jewish
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exile being a divine decree. Jew Jewish people are in exile for the past 2,000 years according to our religion. This is
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a divine decree. This is God’s will. And Jewish people are required by their religion to accept the will of God whether it is comfortable or it isn’t.
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We are forbidden to end our exile by any physical means. We are forbidden to rebel against any nation certainly not
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that nation that hosted us for a long time. We are forbidden to wage wars against any people. We are required by
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our religion to be loyal citizens and peaceful neighbors in whichever country or city we live. This is simple basic
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Judaism. This would be a total contrast of Judaism even without any crimes committed to any human being or animal.
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This will be forbidden. But it happens to be after all these crimes. This is only a a just adding on on these
Chapter 4: Challenging the propaganda
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violations of Judaism because this is so contrary to Judaism. Therefore, the vast majority of Jewish people the world over
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from Jerusalem to Eastern Europe which was the main concentration of Jewish people at the time opposed this movement
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of Zionism. after all these decades with so many massive propaganda
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misinformation misinforming non-Jews and Jews eradicating simple basics of
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Judaism and of basic history so many people are misled not only the non-Jewish community the Jewish
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communities are also badly misled but we need to know that this is not Judaism and Judaism should never be used as a
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covert to cover up all these crimes And then you know people come and say listen it’s the Jewish religion Amal which is
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you know they use some concepts that you have no idea don’t you dare to debate because don’t you dare to fight almighty
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God but all of this is totally wrong this is not the Jewish people masses of Jewish
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people worldwide from Quebec to Jerusalem oppose all that Israel stands for. So you cannot call this
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anti-semitic when you stand up and you condemn these crimes and you condemn a wicked movement. You cannot call it
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anti-semitism if this is not Judaism. If this is forbidden according to Judaism and if masses of Jewish people condemn
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it yes there are some people from Jewish descent who support these crimes but this doesn’t make the crimes religious.
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Even if you find a religious person supporting this doesn’t make the crimes religious. I always say theft is
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forbidden. Theft is forbidden in every religion. If you find a religious person stealing doesn’t make theft religious.
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It’s just embarrassing because the religious person was supposed to be way more careful.
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cheering
Chapter 5: Israel and Jewish safety
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And here’s another very important piece of information people need to know.
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The state of Israel is not the defense of the Jewish people. It’s not a self-defense. Even if it would have been
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in favor of the Jewish people, how in the world can it justify to oppress other people because of it? I would
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never choose to gain any gains on the account of anyone.
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This is unjust. This is unfair. But it happens to be that the state of Israel is not the defense of the Jewish people.
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We don’t need a state of Israel. We lived in Palestine in a perfect beautiful peace. Yes, there were
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problems before 1948, [applause] but before the 1920s, before the movement of Zionism came, whoever is
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familiar with simple basic history, I’m sure many people here in this room know stories from their own family, from
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their from their grandparents that will relate to them. Simple stories. And we have this in our communities. People who remembered the beautiful peace that
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existed and people who were so upset and they mourned the the disaster that was inflicted on all inhabitants of
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Palestine, non-Jews and Jews, because of this uh criminal movement of Zionism
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that came in. So the state of Israel is not the defense of the Jewish people. It happens to be the other way around. It’s
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the danger for the Jewish people because all after all what which is being done in the name of Jews so much hatred so
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much danger in addition to all Nakba all catastrophe inflicted on the Palestinian people so much danger inflicted to the
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Jewish people now we don’t need this Jewish people simply don’t need this Jewish people don’t want to have a state
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of Israel to inflict catastrophe on others and danger to the Jewish people now the state of Israel in no way represents the Jewish people.
Chapter 6: Defining antisemitism
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applause
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It might represent a wicked movement. It might represent some people from Jewish descent, but in no way can this be
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considered the Jewish people. And we should be very careful when we are using language because if we do conflate
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Judaism with Zionism, if we do conflate the Jewish pe the Zionist with the Jewish people and we generalize everyone together, first of all, this is unjust
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to do which everybody understands. By the end of the day, what happens is they want you to conflate the two. They want
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you to condemn Jews. They want you to look anti-immunity because they want to silence you. And we should never allow
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this to happen. We should know what our case is. We should know what is going on. We must stand up. We must say something.
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Anti-ionism is in no way anti-semitism.
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As I said, Judaism and Zionism is not the same. So you it’s a simple simple
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it’s wrong just to conflate the two. It happens to be wrong. But in addition, as I said before, when we are witnessing
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crimes being committed, the righteous person must stand up and say something about it regardless who the perpetrators
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are. In this case, this is embarrassing to me. This is embarrassing to so many Jewish people, but these crimes are being committed by some people from
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Jewish descent. But it doesn’t make this criticism anti-Semitic in any way. But let me tell you this, when people
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blame, accuse whoever stands up against Israel or against any crimes of Israel an anti-semitic.
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This is not only unjust. This is not only doing an injustice to people here in Quebec who deserve the freedom of
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speech to speak up to what they believe is right and to condemn whatever they believe is wrong.
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applause
Chapter 7: Conclusion and call to action
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This is not only doing an injustice for the people, for the little babies in Palestine who are being starved to
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death, who deserve our voice here in Canada, in the United States, and the world to speak up for them. This is an
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injustice. But this is not only doing injustice to others. This is doing an injustice to the Jewish people. Because when you conflate anti-ionism with
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anti-semitism, when you conflate Judaism with Zionism as said as said, you are making a statement. You are saying that
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all Jews support these crimes which ends up making a statement that all Jews are accountable to what is happening. This
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is true anti-semitism. By conflating anti-ionism with anti-semitism, one is committing is actually making a
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statement of anti-semitism, exacerbating anti-semitism. And as right-minded people, whether we are Jewish or not, we
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should not allow this because we should never allow any racism against any people. I happen to be Jewish. I appreciate when people are concerned
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about anti-semitism, but at the same time, we should be concerned about any racism against any people. But what I say is if people are are right-minded
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and they are concerned about anti-semitism, beautiful. I appreciate that. I welcome that. But therefore, you
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should differentiate between anti-ionism and anti-semitism, between Judaism and Zionism, between Jews and Zionist. We
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should never conflate the two. We should always have our language clear. Know exactly what our case is. Know exactly
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what our point is. We are condemning crimes.
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and criminals and we are not condemning Jewish people
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as a race or the Jewish religion as a religion. Thank you very much. Keep it up. We should never be silent. We should
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keep it up until we have a totally free Palestine.
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Thank you very much, Maxim Shuk.
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Thank you. Thank you so much.
