Vernon's Leah Goldstein is questioning the motive behind a list of 85 Jewish Canadians who have served in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), recently published by a left-wing activist media publication.
Goldstein, 56, is a Canadian-Israeli dual citizen who was born in Vancouver but lived in Israel for about 14 years, and hasn't lived in Israel for almost 30 years. She served in the Israeli military from age 18 to 30 and at that time she was the only woman serving as an elite commando instructor in the IDF.
Now she is a renowned ultra-endurance cyclist who has also launched a public speaking career, in 1989 Goldstein became the women's world kickboxing champion.
Speaking to The Morning Star, Goldstein said she joined the IDF because she wanted to work in a branch of undercover investigation in Israel and needed the skillset the military could provide. She ended up working as a Krav Maga instructor for the Israeli military at a time when she was at the height of her kickboxing powers. She worked in the Belush, an Israeli secret police agency, for about 10 years.
Goldstein is proud of her military service and makes no effort to hide it.
However, a recent publication of her name and details of her life has her feeling targeted. On Feb. 24 The Maple B次元官网网址� a digital news publication that has been highly critical of Israel since the country's war with Hamas broke out following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack B次元官网网址� posted a website that lists 85 Jewish Canadians who had previously served in the IDF. Goldstein is number 30 on the list.
The website is called Find IDF Soldiers and, according to an accompanying article in The Maple by its creator, it is a database of mini-profiles "for as many Canadians that have fought in the Israeli military at any point" as could be found through online sources such as news articles and social media.
Goldstein said she found out she was on the list when she was contacted by a news reporter. She said while she doesn't feel threatened or intimidated by being put on the list, it's caused fear for her parents.
Goldstein said the list is putting a target on the back of Jewish Canadians by linking them to the current Israeli government and its bitter conflict with Hamas, which has led to severe and lengthy bombing campaigns that have killed thousands of Palestinians. She points to The Maple's framing of the article, which starts off by accusing the Israeli military of "ethnic cleansing, war crimes, apartheid and now genocide" before presenting its list of former IDF members.
"It just feels obviously targeted," Goldstein said.
The creator of the Find IDF Soldiers website is Davide Mastracci, the opinion editor at The Maple. Mastracci told The Morning Star in an email he created the database "to provide readers with a better understanding of Canadians who joined the Israeli military, including why they decide to do so."
Asked about the potential that the website will stoke antisemitism, Mastracci said the database "will not cause hatred of anyone."
Kevin Vuong, MP for SpadinaB次元官网网址揊ort York, Ont., took to X (formerly Twitter) on Feb. 24 to condemn the website as an "antisemitic witch hunt" and an effort to dox the Canadians on the list. Doxxing is defined by the University of Northern British Columbia as the act of broadcasting private or identifying information about a person for the purpose of harassment, particularly along racial or gender-based lines.
Mastracci said it's not a doxxing website, because "all of the information on the website was already in the public domain, primarily in articles published in other news outlets, including The National Post, The CBC and The Canadian Jewish B次元官网网址."
The Maple article states that all 85 former IDF members on the list are "at least partially Jewish," but says it is not accusing any of the former IDF members of having "violated any Canadian law or participated in Israeli military crimes."
Goldstein questions why only 85 Canadians ended up on the list, when surely many more than that have served with the Israeli military at some point.
Noah Shack, interim president with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in an email that there is a long history of Canadians, particularly those with dual citizenship like Goldstein, who have served in various militaries around the world, whether in Israel or countries like the U.S. or the U.K.
Shack called the list a "shameful attempt at intimidation," and pointed out the list includes Ben Mizrahi, who was murdered by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7 attack at the Nova Music Festival, "while using his army medic training to try and save the lives of others."
For Goldstein, finding out her name was on the list was a moment of deja vu. Her past IDF experience was also the reason she was for the 2024 International Women's Day festival in Ontario. Goldstein said at the time the event organizers had capitulated to a small number of activists who effectively got her cancelled from the event. It ended up sparking widespread outrage and Goldstein fielded numerous calls from media, while the entire Inspire Women's Day event wound up getting cancelled.
Goldstein said she hasn't experienced much blowback from being put on the list yet. When her keynote speaker spot was cancelled last year in a move that widely publicized her former IDF service, she received death threats (one person threatened to run her over with their car), and her public speaking requests went from 15 to 20 "down to a handful."
She said the threats are in the back of her mind, "but I'm not going to let it ruin my life. I'm not going to hide under a rock."
