Honoring Irwin Cotler: Canada's special envoy against antisemitism

On an exquisite Jerusalem September evening, in a festive ceremony held in the magnificent garden of the President’s Residence, Prof. Irwin Cotler received Israel’s Presidential Medal of Honor, among a group of 12 other individuals and one organization that have made an extraordinary contribution “to the State of Israel, the Jewish people, and all humanity.”

President Isaac Herzog noted that “since the splitting of the Red Sea when each tribe took its own path, there has been an alliance of fate and destiny based on diversity and partnership that lie at the root of ‘Israeliness’ – and our ability as a nation and as an Israeli society to develop and grow.”

Sitting in the top row, Cotler was noticeably moved. Speaking with The Jerusalem Report, he reflected on the significance of this unique gathering: “To my right sat my colleague, VP of Hebrew University Prof. Mona Khoury, an Arab academician; to my left, Circassian footballer Bibras Natcho, who captained Israel’s national team; just in front of me was Rabbi Menachem Hacohen, accompanied by his son Aviad, whose college had bestowed upon me an honorary doctorate.

“However,” Cotler emotionally related, “the surprise of my evening was a hug shared with social entrepreneur Lena Stern, similar to an embrace I had shared with her late husband, former refusenik and eventual MK Yuri Stern, upon Yuri’s arrival in Israel.” Stern was one of the many former Soviet prisoners of conscious whom Cotler helped find freedom in Israel.

Combatting a metastasized antisemitism

The following week, Cotler delivered a typical tour de force at the Herzliya-based Institute for Countering Terrorism. As Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, he explained how antisemitism has a way of metastasizing into a wider and lethal form of hatred, what he once had termed “the canary in the coal mine.”

Cotler, the quintessential mensch, then sat with me again. Like many others, I am blessed to have shared with him a decades-long relationship. He makes everyone feel like a best-friend! We spoke of those who helped hone his analytical skills and instilled in him a passion for the Jewish people as part of a wider calling to stand up for humanity. He was quick to name famed Canadian poet Irving Layton, who taught him at Montreal’s Herzliah High School, as well as his mentor, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who exhorted all to “Take sides! Indifference is always on the side of the offender, not the victim”.

Prof. Irwin Cotler (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

But his greatest inspiration, as Cotler articulated in a recent film, “came from my parents. When I was too young to appreciate the profundity of his words, my father said to me, ‘Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof’ (Justice, justice shalt thou pursue) is equal to all the other commandments combined. My mother would add, ‘If you want to pursue justice, you have to feel the injustice around you and combat it!’

“In the 1970s,” Cotler continued, “I was a law professor at McGill and got involved with two people: Anatoly Sharansky and Nelson Mandela. They’re both fighting for freedom; they’re both fighting for democracy.” Indeed, as Cotler recalls, his long-time association with Sharansky from the outset was based not merely on protecting his rights as a Jew but as part of his wider struggle as a human rights activist. The list has grown through the years to prisoners of conscience, such as Andrei Sakharov (former Soviet Union), Jacobo Timmerman (Latin America), and Prof. Saad Eddin Ibrahim (Egypt), earning him a reputation as “Freedom’s Counsel” (according to the Oslo Freedom Forum).

Following his public career as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and long-time MP (where he was selected by his peers in 2014 as Parliamentarian of the Year), Cotler founded the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, which serves as a platform for advocacy on behalf of those forgotten by the world and who cannot defend themselves, such as heroic Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, who survived two assassination attempts, only to be sentenced by Vladimir Putin’s regime to 25 years in prison for treason.

Cotler’s boyish smile and zeal for justice belie his 83 years, inspiring all around him to stay off the sidelines. He helped pen (on behalf of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists) one of many Amicus briefs that were submitted prior to the Israeli Supreme Court hearing regarding reasonableness. Cotler eloquently explained how the content and rapid process of the original reform package could lead to undermining Israel’s High Court. As always, he exhibited great pride when discussing Canada’s landmark adoption of its Charter of Rights and Freedoms, while noting the years-long measured process that led to its adoption. He recalled how he had hosted a learning seminar in Ottawa, which I helped organize as Israel director of the American Jewish Congress over 15 years ago, for a delegation of the Knesset Constitution, Justice and Law Committee, led by chairman Michael Eitan, which had come to study the Canadian model. Among the memorable moments were seeing him address Parliament while seamlessly switching from French to English, as well as visiting with four justices of Canada’s High Court (in which Justice Minister Cotler had played a role in promoting gender equality).

Cotler also took pleasure when reminded of his impact on gender equality in Israel. A lecture he gave at the 1984 American Jewish Congress Dialogue led to an ad hoc march on the Knesset and helped inspire the formation of the Women’s Caucus in Israel. Interestingly, at the recent Presidential Medal address in Jerusalem, long-time Montreal friend Doris Weiser Small recalled how Cotler had once pinch-hit for a delegation of prominent women whose flight was diverted en route to a women’s empowerment conference, leaving him as the only keynote speaker. Cotler stepped up to the plate and hit a home run.

While speaking of baseball, I asked Cotler if watching Jackie Robinson play in Montreal may have made an impact on his thinking. “How did you know?” he responded, flashing his trademark smile. “I vividly remember my father taking me to the ballpark as a seven-year-old boy to watch Robinson in 1947, kindling a lifelong passion for baseball and for civil rights.”

Fast-forwarding to 1963, he recalled, “One of the greatest moments of my life was sitting in the front row at the Lincoln Memorial [at the climax of the March on Washington] listening to Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. I can still recall the words, even the cadence of his voice: ‘Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’”

While modest almost to a fault, Cotler rarely talks about his penchant for being in the right place at the right time. Driving with me to a Woodstock commemorative festival in Jerusalem one year, he revealed that he had in fact attended the original event. “That’s a place everyone claims to have been,” I asked, “like the Kotel in 1967, no?” To which he sheepishly revealed that as a Klausner Fellow at Hebrew U. in 1967, he had volunteered for HAGA (Israel Civil Defense) and found himself at the Western Wall (alongside Menachem Begin) just as Rabbi Goren blew the shofar.

Cotler didn’t get to meet Begin at the time. However, a decade later, while visiting Egypt under the tutelage of his friend Boutros Boutros Ghali, who had just been appointed foreign minister, Cotler was asked to meet Anwar Sadat. Egypt’s president had one question regarding newly elected prime minister, Menachem Begin: “Do you think he might be a potential peace partner?”

Following this and subsequent conversations, Cotler was asked to travel to Jerusalem to deliver a hand-written note from Sadat to Begin. The rest is history. Cotler, however, rarely discusses his influence on the past. He is always looking forward, seeing whose life he may save next. ■

Lt.-Col. (Res) Danny Grossman is a retired, decorated Israel Air Force fighter pilot who also served as Israel director of the American Jewish Congress.