Submitted by SPME Member Ed Morgan, University of Toronto Law School who is also President of the Canadian Jewish Congress

JERUSALEM — Seven months after a Canadian aboriginal chief was stripped of his Order of Canada for promoting hatred against Jews, a group of 18 native leaders are visiting Israel as part of a cultural-awareness exchange.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine and 17 others will be in Israel until tomorrow night, hosted by the Canadian Jewish Congress, for an exploration of Jewish history and culture and the resurrection of Hebrew as a modern language.

In July, David Ahenakew, a former chief of the Assembly of First Nations, was convicted of willfully promoting hatred against Jews after he told a journalist that Jews are a “disease” and tried to justify the Holocaust. He was fined $1,000.

“If that [David Ahenakew’s sentence] was a catalyst for our communities getting to know each other, then there’s a silver lining,” said Canadian Jewish Congress president Ed Morgan, who is accompanying the leaders on their five-day trip.

Mr. Morgan and Mr. Fontaine said their relationship predates Mr. Ahenakew’s conviction, but plans for a series of cultural exchanges were stepped up after the incident.

The leaders — drawn from across the country and including a university professor, businessmen and the president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, as well as several chiefs — have taken in the Wailing Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and Christian sites in Galilee. They also plan to visit a kibbutz and a water-reclamation plant before meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsav tomorrow.

“We’re fascinated by the history here, the richness of it, and the incredible resilience of the people,” Mr. Fontaine said in an interview yesterday, citing the devastating impacts of the residential-school system, historical prejudices and the struggle to maintain aboriginal languages as parallels.

The group has steered largely clear of discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though they said they had discussed the plight of the Bedouin, a traditionally nomadic people who have struggled to maintain their way of life in the face of development of the Negev Desert and restrictions on where Bedouin are permitted to live. Many live in abject poverty, in encampments without electricity or running water, with high rates of disease and infant mortality.

The Assembly of First Nations will take its turn at hosting this summer with a trip for members of the Canadian Jewish Congress to Yukon and a tour of some of Canada’s reserves, to increase awareness of the needs of Canada’s native community.