FAST Initiatives - Related Reading

April 5, 2007 (Canadian Jewish News)

Hebrew U honours Elizabeth, Tony Comper
By Janice Arnold

MONTREAL - Elizabeth and Tony Comper, the founders of FAST, a coalition of non-Jewish Canadian business and community leaders who have vowed to speak out against anti-Semitism, will receive the Scopus Award, the highest recognition bestowed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Montreal on April 29.

Tony Comper retires next month as president and chief executive officer of BMO Financial Group (the Bank of Montreal).

The $300-a-plate dinner, sponsored by the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, will be held at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel and is expected to draw about 800 people, many of them from the corporate world.

Guy Savard, chair of Merrill Lynch Canada’s Quebec operations, will be master of ceremonies. The co-chairs of the campaign committee are Morton Brownstein, CEO of Brown’s Shoes; Francois Hudon, BMO senior vice-president for Quebec and Atlantic Canada; Monette Malewski, president of M. Bacal Insurance Agencies Inc., and John Rae, an executive vice-president of Power Corporation of Canada.

The tribute committee includes many well-known Montrealers, among them former prime minister Brian Mulroney, Université de Montréal rector Luc Vinet, McGill University principal Heather Munroe-Blum and Stephen Bronfman.

Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, the opposition human rights critic, is guest speaker.

Proceeds will establish the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Research Endowment Fund on Anti-Semitism at Hebrew U’s Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism.

The Comper fund will support the dissemination of the centre’s scholarly work into a format suitable for journalists, policymakers and educators. This includes the creation of modules for elementary and high school students, which is expected to help FAST’s educational activities.

The couple launched FAST (Fighting Anti-Semitism Together) in Toronto in June 2005 after anti-Semitic incidents had reached an all-time recorded high in Canada and the year before. The incidents were also becoming more alarming, including the firebombing of the United Talmud Torahs in St. Laurent.

The pair have remained the driving force behind it. He launched the project in Quebec last September with an address to the Canadian Club, appealing to influential people to join the coalition.

On that occasion, Comper warned that singling out Israel for blame in the Middle East conflict, even when it comes from people of good faith, is encouraging anti-Semitism.

“What I worry about is not the intent but the effect of criticizing Israel so vehemently and disproportionately… I worry that those with darker motives will treat these honestly held views as justification for hating Jews and wishing them scourged from the earth,” he told 400 businesspeople.

Canadian Friends’ national board member Stephen Lipper said the dinner is an opportunity to both spread FAST’s message among prominent non-Jewish Montrealers, both anglophone and francophone, and to thank the Compers, who are perhaps not as well-known in Montreal as Toronto.

Lipper believes the Jewish community owes a debt of gratitude to the couple.

“When I head Tony speak at the Canadian Club, I couldn’t believe it. Here was a couple, non-Jews, with no ulterior motive or pressure from the outside, speaking out against anti-Semitism and excessive criticism of Israel. This is what we need. We can shout all we want about the dangers of anti-Semitsm as Jews, but it will never have the same impact,” Lipper said.

“Without any insult to past honorees, it is my passionate conviction that this is the most important dinner Hebrew University has ever had in Montreal.”

Canadian Friends’ Montreal president Lewis Dobrin added that the event will provide a unique opportunity to make the “elite” of Quebec’s business class aware of the need to take action against anti-Semitism.

FAST has two main objectives: to encourage prominent non-Jews to publicly denounce anti-Semitism – both headline-making incidents and remarks that may come up in everyday conversation – and to encourage schools to use its educational package, called “Choosing Your Voice,” intended for grades 6 to 9.

FAST was borne out of the Compers’ dismay over a spate of anti-Semitic graffiti and cemetery desecrations in the Toronto area in 2004. They were especially concerned that Jewish children were fearful and felt that no one cares.

During the few years Comper worked for the bank in Montreal, Elizabeth was a librarian at Beth Rivkah Academy, a girls’ school under Lubavitch auspices.

The Compers are leaders of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews – Elizabeth is a director and Tony is a governor. Hebrew U is the second Israeli university to recognize them. They received an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa last year.

McGill history professor and writer Gil Troy describes the Compers as “a beacon in the battle against the new anti-Semitism… a power couple who should be hailed throughout the civilized world for their boldness and creativity.

“The Compers understand that anti-Semitism is not the Jews’ problem. They fight specifically as non-Jews because they believe that, ‘in the end, this is a crisis that must be resolved by non-Jews.’”

Reproduced with permission from the Canadian Jewish News

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