Illegal on Paper, Ignored in Practice: Jews and the Enforcement Gap

As anti-Jewish violence continues to rise, Jews are increasingly forced to confront a troubling question: how effective are existing laws at protecting them when the community seeks protection and finds few willing to provide it? Against this backdrop, Dr. Naya Lekht is joined by Sarah Ettedgui, a senior corporate mergers and acquisitions lawyer based in Montréal, Québec. Their conversation took place just one day after the terrorist attack targeting Jews at a Chanukah celebration in Sydney, thus lending this episode unmistakable urgency. 

Drawing on her expertise at the intersection of law and hate speech, Sarah explains how Canada’s anti-hate speech laws are designed to function, and why they are increasingly failing to be enforced amid growing civil antizionist unrest. From there, Naya and Sarah turn to the United States, where the First Amendment sharply constrains the criminalization of hate speech, exposing a legal and moral fault line between the ideals of free expression and the real-world vulnerability of targeted communities.

Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom.