We are living in interesting times. Times which, for Holocaust survivors like me, are too reminiscent of former “interesting times” – the 1930’s and 1940’s. Times when the world was totally disrupted totally up-side-down, when Europe was controlled by madness and hatred. Now is not 1933 and Hitler is not rattling “his sword” and expanding his country’s power by violence, but we are in grave danger. We have lost our bearings …. words and actions which were considered reprehensible have become increasingly acceptable. I never imagined that I would live to see the scourge of antisemitism rise as it has in recent years. The Holocaust did not happen overnight…it began as deliberate, planned restrictions of the rights of citizenship for the Jews, ending in a total dehumanization and murder of the Jewish population.
Ever since I remember, the vow of “never again” has been a promise that the world has made to itself…never again would a people, any people suffer what we suffered at the hands of the Nazis. But astonishingly, since October 7, 2023 we have seen antisemitism escalate world wide to previously unseen levels. For example, and I’ll use the statistics of my own country to illustrate my point. Canada has a total population of about 41.6 million people (2024-25). Out of this population there are approximately 400,000 Jews, constituting 1 -1.2% of the population. In fact, out of a total world population of 8 billion, there are 15.8 million Jews world wide or 0.2% of the total population and the smallest number of any of the major religions. Is it not astounding that so much hatred is directed at so small a number? In 2021 there were 2799 reported antisemitic incidents in Canada…. a number far too large. In 2024, since no figures are available yet for 2025, there were 6219 – an enormous rise, and this is only in Canada. Anti-Jewish crimes comprised nearly 70% of all religion-based hate crimes in 2024.
Antisemitism has existed for millennia with roots in ancient Greece and Rome evolving through religious persecution in the Christian Middle Ages and leading to modern racial antisemitism in the 19th century, culminating in the Holocaust and continuing in various forms today as we see. Antisemitism is a shape-shifting virus. It refuses to be eradicated and there are no vaccines or antibiotics we can take to counter it. Jews are a small fraction of world population as I cited, but what a contribution this tiny population has made to almost every aspect of human endeavour: in medicine, in science, literature, art and technology. We have to try harder, always harder and yet …. We are not making headway.
It is a privilege to be here with you today, with the leadership of the high-tech industry from both Israel and New York. The fact that we are here today, at the New York Stock Exchange is meaningful and historical. But what can we do in partnership with one another? We must do something differently because what we have done so far is not working. My fallback position is to rely on education because I firmly believe that education is the best tool we have in our toolbox. It is a slow process, to change minds, to expose, to show by example, to teach by storytelling, to bear testimony for as long as I can. Since my partial retirement after a very rewarding career in the field of education and educational administration, and now that I am fully retired, I have been very involved with the Montreal Holocaust Museum, sitting on the BOD and actively speaking to thousands of groups of young people and adults each year as well as travelling 10 times to Poland on successive trips with family, students and adults.
The importance of education cannot be over estimated and direct contact with a person who has had first hand experience, whose life was forever changed by that experience; to listen, to share, to have eye-contact, to question and discuss with that person, is, as Elie Wiesel has said, to become a witness in effect. We must get creative in our approach to Holocaust education… we must create opportunities to meet people who hold different views than our own, we must learn to know one another, to hear each other’s stories and to understand each other’s reality. To know one another is to abandon the labels. No matter where we live in the world, who we are, no matter what god we pray to, no matter our skin colour, we are all human and want the same things for our lives… We want food, shelter, family, education, meaningful work, success in whatever that represents to us, love friendship and PEACE. Yet, all that we share in common becomes irrelevant when we strive for power, and influence through oppression, violence and hatred. The human species is capable of unspeakable evil AND, of incredible good. We must learn from the “Righteous Among the Nations” and aspire to the best that is in us.
Educational opportunities such as the MOL are a wonderful experiential tool in our education box. When students and adults come on the MOL, when they walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, when they witness the remnants of our tragic history in those terrible places, they will be able to understand the resilience, the strength, the determination, the courage, the risks it took to live another day, another week, to survive, and the tragedy of the huge numbers who did not, who could not. It is not only their loss that we mourn, but also the loss of what they and their progeny might have accomplished and contributed to society …. potential scientists, musicians, artists, doctors, philosophers, teachers, learners …. To do all this accompanied by Holocaust survivors is an experience that will change their lives and yours. Learning and experiencing this history first hand you will be changed. You will understand in your gut, the cost of what being Jewish was then, and will understand the cost it is today.
There is also the undeniable fact that we are in the last moments of having first hand testimony…Holocaust survivors are “an endangered species”. We have only a brief time to bear personal witness and as Elie Wiesel often said that once a person has heard a direct testimony from a survivor, they become witnesses themselves, taking on the obligation, the duty and responsibility of passing on the memory and the lessons. Technological advances will continue to educate, but technology cannot replace the direct contact with a survivor who tells her story well.
So, I always like to end my remarks with a message of hope, which, in today’s world is not easy to find. I turn once again to Eli Wiesel who was adamant that man cannot live without hope, but HOPE is not a passive word as Michal Cotler has said…. We must ACT on that hope. We must actively work for hope. What gives me hope today? Our young people give me hope. The reaction and the spark of understanding I feel when I teach, gives me hope. Ahmed ah Ahmed, the Muslim man who wrestles the gun off one of the attackers at the recent massacre in Australia gives me hope; Sister Klara Jaroszynska who saved my life during WWII while risking her own, gives me hope. Human rights activists and protectors like my classmate Irwin Cotler give me hope. A belief in the basic goodness of human beings gives me hope.
We must strive to teach our young people well, to love, to understand, to show compassion, understanding and acceptance. Tolerance is not enough – to fully accept the other as a fellow human being with the same needs, the same rights and the same responsibilities. Programs like the MOL are critical in this educational process always, but especially while we still have a few Holocaust survivors who can accompany us on this life journey. It is a cause well worthy of support.
Thank you to you, our hosts for providing this opportunity…for convening this event. It is only in partnership, only with leaders like you that we can assume the responsibility of carrying the torch of the survivors, those like us who are with you today, and the thousands who are sadly with us no longer, forward to the future. I anticipate, with hope seeing many of you, marching alongside the survivors at the March of the Living 2026.
Thank you.
Eva Kuper
Holocaust Survivor
January 27, 2026
