# @ryanlpainter on Twitter

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://twitter.com/ryanlpainter/status/1787170044751085942
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/27474994-ryanlpainter-twitter
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e1ece5b7d5.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-05-05T17:18:37.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Ryan Painter (@ryanlpainter) — https://gondola.cc/ryanlpainter

## Caption

In 2003 when I joined the NDP, I never knew I would be indoctrinated into Jew-hate.

The virulent stream of antisemitism that is on full display today is a feature, not of bug, of the left and the NDP..

I was antisemitic.

I hated Israel.

I wondered how Jews in Canada could condone what the Israeli government did.

This was all bred in me and became a prominent feature of my identity as a leftist and New Democrat.

I was saved from this swirling vortex of hate by Jewish friends and colleagues who saw something in me worth saving.

When you look at the intellectually bereft protests on university and college campuses across North America, the same kind of callus, degenerate hate that infected me is on full display, and from the same sources.

The indoctrination is subtle, but the effect is the same.

Today is #YomHaShoah.

#HolocaustMemorialDay.

6 million died because of hate, intellectual poison, and indifference. 

The same hate that took 1200 people in Israel and 250 hostages.

I will fight for the rest of my life to make up for the hatred I allowed to spawn in my heart.

I will never abandon Israel or the Jewish people.

Several weeks ago I was in line at a Picnic Too in Victoria and I overheard a man and a woman talking about the war in Gaza and Hamas.

The man asked, "Have you ever met a Zionist?"

The woman responded, "No, have you?"

The man sounded back "No, I don't think there are very many."

I pipped up "I'm a Zionist. Now you've met one."

The man responded "Oh, are you Jewish", as if it's a requirement that you be Jewish to believe the Jewish people. deserve to live in their Indigenous homeland.

I said, "No, but I believe in Israel and Jewish safety and freedom from death and destruction."

They both went silent and took their coffees to go and left.

This is why it's so important for non-Jewish people to speak out.

We must take up space and help people, especially our Jewish friends and allies know, that Israel and Jews are not alone.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Shalom Aleichem!

## Stats

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- **Comments:** 206

## Tags

yomhashoah, holocaustmemorialday

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