The Winnipeg Free Press recently published an Op-Ed by an academic, Dennis Heibert, with the shocking, disturbing and immoral claim that the rise of Zionism in the late 19th century was the cause for antisemitism in Europe, which lead to Nazi Germany. In essence the WFP has published an Op-Ed stating that the Jews were responsible and are to blame for the Holocaust. It is an opinion I have never before seen published in any paper that considers itself to be “the paper of record” or any beacon of “responsible journalism.”
Heibert, who teaches in the department of sociology and criminology, wrote in the WFP on Aug 27, 2025:
“Antisemitism, in contrast, is more generally understood as hate rather than fear. Vented for millennia, antisemitism surged in response to the ethnocultural nationalist movement of Zionism that emerged in late 19th-century Europe supporting re-establishment of a Jewish homeland via the colonization of Palestine, which was realized in 1948.”
Heibert, who is NOT a historian, has engaged in what appears to be a new and poisonous form of Holocaust revisionism. The rise of the desire of Jews to exit Europe and return to their ancestral homeland was a response to the violent antisemitism, including pogroms, of the 19th century; It was root cause of it. Nazism took that Jew hatred to an even more murderous level. Nazism was not fuelled by the necessity of many Jews to escape from Europe.
Theodore Herzl an assimilated Jewish journalist from Austria-Hungary, was the founder of modern political Zionism. His experience with antisemitism, especially the Dreyfus Affair, convinced him that assimilation would not protect Jews and that only a Jewish state could provide security, leading him to organize the Zionist movement and convene the first Zionist Congress in 1897.
We do all value the principle of academic freedom but one has to ask whether the WFP would ever even consider publishing an opinion about any other group which in essence blames them for the genocide that was perpetrated against them? By way of comparison, would the WFP ever consider publishing an opinion by any sociologist or criminologist that First Nations are to blame for the residential school system? I think NOT. Would it publish an op-Ed that the victims of rape are responsible for their being raped? I think NOT. And there would be an uproar if they did.
Should the WFP be called out for this flat out distortion of history wrapped up in sanctimony and academic titles. Yes, I think so. Would it be possible to read this base level of disinformation and historical revisionism on social media? Probably, but newspapers are supposed to be different than social media. They are supposed to be responsible in which Op-Eds they choose to publish and are supposed to have professionally competent editors who fact check and scrutinize what is published. The WFP prides itself as being “the paper of record” for an educated population, yet we all take it for granted that WFP would not publish an op-Ed by a Keegstra or a Zundel. Newspapers are supposed to be accountable for what they publish. Does publishing this opinion fuel antisemitism in Manitoba and elsewhere? I think it arguably does. Should we be silent in the face of this development? I graduated with a Gold Medal from Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate in 1982 and based on what I was taught the answer would be an unequivocal no.
Editors received many Op-Eds and many letters to the Editor and decide what to publish and what not to publish. That is the essence of their job. Who in the WFP scrutinized this piece? Did they think that this claim had a legitimate basis? Note that this piece was not even published with a counter-opinion rebutting it.
Lest anyone think that Heibert, who is a past President of the Christian Sociological Association has engaged in a slip of the pen, he has suggested this causal link between the rise of Zionism and the rise of antisemitism elsewhere in a paper entitled When Inter Group Conflict Becomes War.
Hiebert writes:
"One of the first questions in every inter-group conflict is which side and what factors initiated it. In the case of Hamas versus Israel, was it the horrific violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis on October 7? Or was it the preceding gradual confinement by Israel of Palestinians to by now 13% of their original land, and cutting off their supply of water and electricity? Was it the multiple Arab-Israeli wars of the past 75 years? Was it the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, or the lead-up 1947 UN Partition Plan which prompted the expulsion of most of Palestine’s predominantly Arab population? Going even further back in history, was it the nineteenth century rise of Zionism in Europe, or even the centuries of antisemitism that eventually peaked in the Nazi Holocaust? (emphasis added)."
This is the first time I have encountered Heibert’s claim and the dark irony is that it was published in a newspaper owned by Jews. A publisher is ultimately responsible, whatever discretion is afforded to its editors, for the content released under its name. By publishing this piece, the WFP has used its platform to mainstream this viewpoint. Whatever you want to say about Jews or about Israel or about the war in Gaza, Jews were not responsible for the Holocaust. Rosh Hashana is a time to take stock and it’s time for the WFP to do exactly that.
I do not have people from my immediate family who perished in the Holocaust. I cannot begin to imagine how painful it would be to read Heibert’s piece if I did. Jeff Lieberman, the CEO and President of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg is the son of a Holocaust survivor. I know deep down he will agree with me that it is shocking that Heibert’s claim would appear in the WFP. Which is why he must raise our collective voice in this matter.?
