By Jesse Ferreras for Pique News Magazine

WHISTLER, BC, Canada — Anonymous flyers left in both Pique and Whistler Question newsstands Dec. 31 are demanding that a “hate group” be forced out of Whistler.

The flyers are adorned with the headline “HATE GROUP OUT OF WHISTLER NOW” and carry a quote from Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the deceased leader of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish organization that began in the 18th century. Schneerson died in 1994.

Flyers Accuses Chabad of Hate, Want Kick ’em Out of City

By Jesse Ferreras for Pique News Magazine

WHISTLER, BC, Canada — Anonymous flyers left in both Pique and Whistler Question newsstands Dec. 31 are demanding that a “hate group” be forced out of Whistler.

The flyers are adorned with the headline “HATE GROUP OUT OF WHISTLER NOW” and carry a quote from Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the deceased leader of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish organization that began in the 18th century. Schneerson died in 1994.

Schneerson’s quote is from an article in the March 2000 issue of the Washington Report of Middle East Affairs. The quote, from a book review by Lincoln Review editor Allan Brownfeld, reads as follows:

“The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression: ‘Let us differentiate.’ Thus, we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather, we have case of ‘let us differentiate’ between totally different species. This is what needs to be said about the body: the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of (members) of all nations of the world… A non-Jew’s entire reality is only vanity. The entire creation (of a non-Jew) exists only for the sake of the Jews.”

The flyers give no indication of who printed them or who to contact about them. The flyers also don’t specify which organizations they’re accusing of being a “hate group.”

For Rabbi Chaim Shapiro of Whistler’s Sinai Centre, an organization that promotes Jewish culture in Whistler, it was a disturbing statement.

“My reaction to this is one of sadness and disappointment that even Whistler is a target for this sort of thinly-veiled hate campaign,” he said in a statement over e-mail.

“While I’m hesitant to dignify this attack with a response, I will say that the views attributed to the Jewish community in this flyer are inconsistent with what I learned in the Jewish seminary and in no way reflect the views I’ve heard from the Jewish people I’ve met in Whistler or anywhere else for that matter.”

Lubavitch B.C. is a branch of the Chabad Lubavitch organization. Overseen by six rabbis and working out of an office in Vancouver, it has a synagogue, Shabbat services and opportunities for Jewish education. Based in New York, Chabad Lubavitch has branches in every continent throughout the world.

Shapiro stressed that the Sinai Centre is not part of the Lubavitch organization, but he was nevertheless distressed by the flyers.

“I have no hesitation in condemning the contents of this flyer and the transparently divisive motivations of those who are distributing it,” he said in his statement.

Patrick Harroch, president of Whistler’s Sh’ar Harim congregation, called the flyer an “ugly and cowardly” display of anti-Semitism.

“The fact that the producer of this flyer has chosen to remain anonymous, and that it relies entirely on a quote from a wholly discredited source, speaks volumes about the motivations of its author,” he said in a statement. “The divisive ideas attributed to the Jewish faith in the flyers circulating around Whistler run entirely contrary to mainstream Jewish thinking.””

Staff Sergeant Steve LeClair with the Whistler RCMP said police hadn’t heard about the flyers until Pique called them. Pique sent him the flyer’s text over e-mail and he responded that it had been forwarded to the appropriate investigating authority.

19 Comments

  • Look on the bright side

    Cool, non-jews are learning the Rebbe’s sichos.

    Yipee

    That’s a real sign of MOshiach

  • Being on Top = Attacks

    Chabad is the Biggest Jewish Group in the world. Chabad proudly stands with Israel. Our enemies must attack the head. Our job is stay on message of the Rebbe’s Mivtoyim, spreading Chassidus everywhere, and prepare the world for Moshiach!
    Every soldier is needed. Let’s support the Shluchim doing our work!

  • To Being on Top = Attacks

    “Chabad proudly stands with Israel…Every soldier is needed. Let’s support the Shluchim doing our work!”

    HELLO! Shluchim ARE NOT SOLDIERS!

    Stop draging innocent Shluchim onto the battle field. If militant “I am a proud and loud” Jew like you feels the need to show the world with pictures on the internet that you support the army fine include YOUR name and address don’t tell the muslem crazies that all Chabads support the army that is now investigating how a gaza scholl was blown up.

    Now every crazy muslim is out to get revenge on the nearest Chabad they can find thanks to mistaken Jews that are taking their pictures showing their support for the army. DUMB DUMB DUMB

  • someone

    i cant understand wht tou guys write the deceased leader of lubavitch, how anti did ch.info become

  • nerd bocher

    wow rabbi shapiro is a real mencth to be open that he is not part of the lubavitch movement. it would be nice to see an end to all the fighting going on amongst shluchim. if we were together, how much more could be accomplished to actually bring moshiach

  • bucher-shliach in vancouver

    We were in Whistler for Chanukah and gave many “Menorahs” and made a big “Kidush Hashem”, i cant believe someone would say auch things.

  • Shmuli

    I’d just like to remind everyone that this site is read by many in the media, and we should be careful what we write.

  • Chabad is their biggest threat!!

    it is to be expected!
    since chabad is the single most outspoken pro isreal’s national security movement on the face of the plannet, with a rapid exponential growth rate that is amazing an frankly threatening to those who loath “goodness and kindnes” and the message of tolerance CHABAD is celebrated for!

    go shlichim go!!!

    we appreciate you on the frontlines of harbotzas hatora/yahadus!!

  • BCskier

    Rabbi Chaim Shapiro and his family are the best thing that ever happened to Whistler!

  • Milhouse

    Yes, shluchim are soldiers in Hashem’s army, chayolei beis dovid. Didn’t the Rebbe tell us that often enough? And the soldiers in Eretz Yisroel are literally in Hashem’s army – כי ה׳ אלקכם ההולך עמכם להלחם לכם עם אויבכם להושיע אתכם. One who tries to separate himself from this war is separating himself from Am Yisroel and from Elokei Yisroel, chas vesholom, and all his learning and mitzvos are of NO USE WHATSOEVER. A yid owes his primary loyalty, above all others, to Am Yisroel, which is the SAME THING as Hashem and the Torah; one who puts any other loyalty higher than this is a traitor.

  • YM

    We must continue strongly and if we see these unfortionate things it is only a nisayun and yes we have to stand up straight and do what the Rebbe wants and the Rebbe will guide us through this and yes the Rebbe will take us out of galus bimhara mamosh.
    SO WAKE UP YIDDEN AND WE WILL SEE HOW THE GEULAH ALREADY HERE AND LET US ALL STAND AND IN ONE VOICE ASK HASHEM AD MOSAI WHY ARE WE STILL DREAMING

  • Milhouse

    Obviously Hebrew doesn’t come through. That said “Ki Hashem Elokeichem haholech imochem, lehilocheim lochem im oyveichem, lehoshia eschem”.

  • Are you blind

    Milhouse wrote:
    “Yes, shluchim are soldiers in Hashem’s army.”
    The last time I looked most shluchim were not wearing bulletproof vests, helmets and do not carry AK47’s.
    Their wives and children do not either.

    There is a BIG difference between being a quiet soldier supporting the army and visually flaunting your help in the face of every crazy fanatic that is looking to kill every Jew they can that find.

    Showing and broadcasting that CHABAD families in 3,000 easy to attack locations through out the world are supporting the army is moronic like you!

    Take YOUR family go to Israel in front of the cameras and show all the crazy Arabs how brave YOU are instead of shoving innocent vulnerable shluchim families into the front lines.

  • Anti-Semitism????

    How is this anti-Semitism? It sounds like some loopy liberals right to freedom of the press/speech.

    Seriously, what is the big deal? I think we have seen enough REAL acts of anti-Semitism lately in the news. We need to not exhaust the use of the term or it will lose all meaning.

  • just wondering

    “The entire creation (of a non-Jew) exists only for the sake of the Jews.”

    In this quote, does anyone know who added in the parentheses ”of a non Jew”? Is this a quote from the Rebbe or is this someone else’s interpretation? Is the sentence, according the Rebbe’s intention, supposed to read that the creation of a NON-JEW exists only for the sake of the Jews, or simply that the ENTIRE CREATION–meaning,of the world– exists only for the sake of the Jews?

  • Yosef

    To Anti-Semitism????,
    Actually, the flyer’s distributors were probably far-right white supremacists. (Liberals have a completely different modus operandi for imparting their propaganda, and Jewish organizations aren’t on their target list.)

    To just wondering,
    the intention was probably “of the world”. This idea isn’t exclusive to the Rebbe. The idea applies to all who perform Mitzvos–Jews and non-Jews alike.
    Lastly, this forum is a horrible source to obtain complex knowledge such as this.

  • M1chael

    Is your point to say that Chabad is against the attack on the Terrorists, because we’re scared they might not like us?
    Whom are you fooling?
    The Rebbe’s view is, same as the view of the Shulchan Aruch, not to accept idle rockets being launched into jewish settelments.
    We say our oppinions. And loud.

  • Sephardic Jew

    I come from Whistler, and the word on the street is that the flyer was written, published and distributed not by “far-right white supremacists” but by a Jew who fears the ultimate effect that far-right Jewish supremacism will have on Jewish people as a whole.