{"id":509241,"date":"2026-06-24T19:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509241\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:33:13","slug":"safer-in-florida-than-anywhere-in-canada-says-resigned-former-lone-jewish-trustee-of-canadian-human-rights-museum-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509241\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Safer in Florida than anywhere in Canada,\u2019 says resigned, former lone Jewish trustee of Canadian human rights museum – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(June 24, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

When Mark Berlin resigned from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Monday, the former lone Jewish trustee at the federal institution in Winnipeg saw it as the culmination of years of dwindling hope in both the museum and in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hope is gone, gone,\u201d Berlin, a legal scholar and human rights expert, told JNS. \u201cI\u2019m optimistic by nature. I will always fight, but I absolutely have lost hope and faith in certain institutions in this country, and the museum is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berlin left the museum in protest of a scheduled exhibit on the \u201cnakba,\u201d the term some use for the \u201ccatastrophe\u201d of the founding of the modern Israeli state.<\/p>\n

Berlin spoke to JNS from his second home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he said he and his husband feel safer than they do in Canada amid rising Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that my husband and I, along with my sister and her husband and numerous cousins, feel far more comfortable in Fort Lauderdale, in southern Florida, than we do anywhere in Canada right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s an unmitigated indictment of Canadian society right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark Berlin at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Credit: Courtesy.<\/p>\n

Berlin told JNS that he raised concerns about the exhibit more than two and a half years before it was slated to open on June 27, 2026. He brought it up in nearly every board meeting since, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018It\u2019s an important story. It has to be told,\u2019\u201d he said that he told the museum\u2019s then-vice president.<\/p>\n

He asked if he could, as the only Jew on the board, \u201chelp bridge divides\u201d and act as \u201can emissary from you to the Jewish community and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had that conversation,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cI was never, ever asked again to participate in any discussion on the exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit, which seems to be about the displacement that occurred at the time of Israel\u2019s 1948 War of Independence, actually spans a much longer period, according to Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exhibit is intentionally called \u2018The Nakba: Then and Now,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen it, but the one picture the museum posted on the website from 2025, from Gaza, lets me believe that they\u2019re talking about 1948 to 2025 or 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sort of framing is \u201ca blasphemy,\u201d he told JNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like saying \u2018the Holocaust: Then and Now.\u2019 I would not say what happened on Oct. 7 was a Holocaust. It was attempted genocide. It was a mass murder of Jews. But it wasn\u2019t a Holocaust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you therefore say, if nakba is about a point in time, 1948, that there is an ongoing nakba?\u201d he said. \u201cTo use that terminology, the intentional objective is to continue to demonize Jews and suggest that Israel is in a constant pattern of trying to displace Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the case,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cTwo million Arabs live in Israel. They\u2019re not being displaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not common for the museum\u2019s board to involve itself in exhibitions, according to Berlin. But given the sensitivity of the subject and rising Jew-hatred in Canada, he saw this as a necessary exception.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Canadian<\/p>\n

Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Credit: Tony Hisgett\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing the heightened levels of antisemitism in the world, especially in Canada, and knowing the potential harm that could be caused by a prejudicial, biased, one-sided view of an episode in the museum, why would they proceed to wade into such controversy?\u201d he told JNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to do this exhibit now, why do it in such a manner that could do nothing but cause harm to Jewish people?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Choosing to resign was not an easy decision for Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was with a heavy heart that I had to resign,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cI know that there would be a deficit of diverse opinions around the board table, which frankly will satisfy many of my board colleagues, who never wanted me to raise this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that his colleagues were frequently \u201cdisturbed\u201d when he would raise Jewish concerns at board meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome board colleagues would roll their eyes and say, \u2018Here we go again. Mark\u2019s raising this again,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think a board has to have a diversity of opinion. It seems to me that some boards simply want unanimity and want peace and harmony and want everybody singing from the same songbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not that guy,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cIf I see injustice, I have to confront it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation has led Berlin to harbor a genuine fear for the future of Canada\u2019s Jewish community. That failure to protect Jews stems from both the population and the government, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark Berlin. Credit: Courtesy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly do not believe that the government is antisemitic,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cBut I think the government has shown an increasing willingness to show an anti-Zionist bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that Canadian officials have publicly laid the blame on Israel for the recent conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister has never called Benjamin Netanyahu, but he regularly calls Arab leaders,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see bridges being built. I see divides being created.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Berlin is not a U.S. citizen, he is legally permitted to remain in Florida for only about six months annually. Each time he returns to Canada, he wishes he could remain in the United States a bit longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came back to Canada with trepidation, with fears that we\u2019d be confronted with antisemitic protests and demonstrations, which we have, and antisemitic acts, which we have seen,\u201d he told JNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying America\u2019s perfect, but I will tell you, in the five and a half or six months that we were there, we never witnessed one antisemitic attack,\u201d he said. \u201cWe witnessed Jews proudly wearing their Magen Davids outward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that near his Fort Lauderdale home, there was recently an art fair that displayed Jewish art and included Israeli artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you that those exhibitors could not be exhibiting their art anywhere in Canada today without great threats of harm to them,\u201d he said. \u201cYet they\u2019re able to do it without even a thought in Fort Lauderdale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite no longer being associated with the museum, Berlin said he will continue to speak out against Jew-hatred in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish community of Canada is under siege at every quarter,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cIn academia, in unions, in the arts and culture field, in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere is one more institution of government in Canada, one of our six national museums, again failing the Jewish community, leading to a rupture in the Jewish community, sidelining the Jewish community by only showing one side,\u201d he said. \u201cIt erases Jewish history. To me, that\u2019s not unintentional, and it\u2019s very worrying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(June 24, 2026 \/ JNS) When Mark Berlin resigned from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-509241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}