Rick Ekstein: Inside ARC, the global gathering asking whether the West can renew itself

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Another recurring theme was family. Speakers returned again and again to the idea that strong societies depend on strong families, and that no government program can fully replace the moral formation, stability and responsibility learned at home.

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Faith also occupied a central place. The tone was often Christian, though not exclusively so. Some speakers argued that the decline of religious observance has left western societies without a shared moral language. Others, including non-religious attendees, framed the issue less theologically: can a free society survive without some common understanding of right and wrong?

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Responsibility was the conference’s central word. ARC’s basic argument is that citizens cannot outsource every problem to government. People must raise children well, build businesses, defend institutions, vote, volunteer, speak up and accept obligations to their neighbours.

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That message helps explain ARC’s appeal. It is not merely a political conference, though many of its speakers are political. It is a gathering for people who believe the West is in trouble but not finished.

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The most personal part of the conference for me came when I spoke about antisemitism.

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I told the audience about the Polish Catholic man who smuggled my mother out of a ghetto in a potato sack, past Nazi guards, and hid her with a Catholic priest, saving her from almost certain death. I spoke about Oskar Schindler, who saved my Aunt Sally. After the war, my aunt found my mother. They came to Canada. Because of courageous Christians, I am alive.

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I also spoke about the resurgence of antisemitism, not only as a Jewish concern but as a warning to society as a whole. Hatred rarely stops with one target. It begins with slogans, intimidation and social permission, and too often ends in the violence seen at Bondi Beach.

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I spoke about churches burned or vandalized in Canada, Christians murdered in parts of Africa, and Jews facing open hostility in western streets, schools, campuses and institutions. People of faith, I argued, are increasingly under attack. Jews must stand with Christians when Christians are threatened. And when Jews are threatened, I asked whether Christians and others of conscience would stand with the Jewish people.

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Then the room stood.

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First one person, then another, then row after row, until thousands of delegates were on their feet applauding and showing their support for the Jewish people.

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For a Jew in a world of roughly 16 million Jews, it was a rare moment of feeling less alone.

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Afterward, other speakers returned to the issue of antisemitism. Several described it as one of the clearest indicators of democratic and moral decline in the West. Delegates stopped me in the hallways to tell stories about moments when they had spoken up, or wished they had, when Jews were being targeted.

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That was perhaps the most important thing I saw at ARC: people trying to move from complaint to action.

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The movement is not without controversy. Some critics see ARC as a vehicle for populist politics, religious conservatism or opposition to climate policy, and some of the language used by speakers deserves scrutiny. A serious news account should not pretend otherwise.

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But neither should it ignore what is drawing thousands of people from around the world to a conference built around responsibility, faith, family, freedom and western renewal.