“We were granted the right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization nearly 4,000 years ago. For that right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of the nations.” ~ Menachem Begin

I was Chairman of Camp Moshava in Ennismore, Ontario in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The camp in Ontario was the only Bnei Akiva camp in Canada. The other two camps under the official Bnei Akiva banner were in Indian Orchard, Pennsylvania and Wild Rose, Wisconsin.

One day, I was sitting in my office at my day job when two visitors showed up, unannounced, claiming to work for the Canada Revenue Agency, Canada’s equivalent of the IRS, and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Canada’s equivalent to the State Department. When one receives a visit from the CRA, or the IRS, the hairs on one’s neck tend to spike. Especially when they show up at your place of work, without an appointment.

They explained that they had not come to see me about my business but about my role as chairman of Camp Moshava. They said that they would like to inspect the camp on the following day. I agreed to meet them at the camp. Before they left, they asked a few questions about the camp, its philosophy, its funding, mostly general questions.

The next day, the two men arrived with additional men who did not look like civil servants but wore windbreakers in 30-degree weather. As soon as they walked through the gates of the camp, they asked to see our archery range and our shooting range. They also specifically asked to see where we store our guns.

I took them on a tour of the camp, showing them the bunks, dining room, Beit Knesset, doctor’s office, sports field and waterfront. They carefully inspected most buildings looking for our cache of weapons, but to no avail.

I invited them to have lunch with the rest of the rowdy campers and staff. While they ate, they asked me about the camp’s religious and Zionist teachings. They peppered their questions with references to the West Bank and settlements, and every so often came back to questions about guns, firearms and martial arts training. 

They were disappointed that they could not find a secret Haganah training camp.

Fortunately, that summer we could not find a counselor who could teach rocket building.

They finally left after five hours. A few days later, we received an official letter from CRA that our charitable status as a religious entity was being placed under review.

Camp Moshava is a Bnei Akiva camp and our method of camping was informal education, so we managed to turn this visit into an excellent learning moment. We learned that the only place where we can live without feeling a boot on our throats is in our own homeland.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)