Ontario Women’s Event That Canceled Jewish Speaker Over IDF Service Is Itself Canceled
25th February 2024
A Canadian International Women’s Day event that drew attention for canceling its keynote speaker over her past Israeli military service has itself now been canceled.
“Circumstances beyond our control” led to the cancelation of the event in Peterborough, Ontario, that had been planned by INSPIRE, a women’s empowerment organization, the group told kawarthaNOW, a local online publication, this week.
The cancelation came just days after a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report that INSPIRE had rescinded its speaking invitation to Leah Goldstein, a Jewish motivational speaker and the first woman to win a grueling 3,000- mile bicycle race across the United States. It cited as the reason “a small but growing and extremely vocal group” that took issue with Goldstein’s IDF service more than 30 years ago.