Diana Ralph grew up in a progressive Jewish family in postwar America. Her father’s work as a lawyer at the Nuremberg war crime trials, when she was still an infant, cemented his support for the state of Israel.

But when his daughter, as a young woman, questioned Israeli policies after the Six Day War in 1967, she saw a side of her father she hadn’t witnessed before.

“My dad, who was always very kind, very understanding, said, `If you ever say anything against the state of Israel again, I will disown you,'” Ralph remembers. “Whoa.”

After 40 years, her misgivings about Israel have not subsided.

Two weeks ago, Ralph helped set up the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians, to counter mainstream groups, such as the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canada-Israel Committee, that offer unconditional support for Israeli policies, particularly toward Palestinians.

“Because Israel is doing things in the name of all Jews, we all have a right to criticize the policies of the state of Israel,” she says.

Bernie Farber, chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, says “no one ever says Israel is perfect” and predicts the fledgling group will have trouble finding support.

“It will remain a rump on the edge of Jewish society,” he says.

The alliance is an umbrella organization for 23 local groups across Canada, with more start-ups in the works.

“The floodgates have opened,” Ralph says in a telephone interview from her Ottawa home. “Montreal is meeting, Vancouver is meeting, Winnipeg is meeting.”

The alliance has the support of noted Canadian author Naomi Klein, who spoke at its founding conference last month about Israel’s military strength.

Ralph considers Israel to be a major military power surrounded by impoverished countries that pose no real threat to its existence. Her organization wants Israel to withdraw from disputed territories and allow any Palestinians who have lost homes in the past 60 years to reclaim them.

“We should be standing up for everyone’s human rights,” Ralph says.

She charges that Israel has ignored Palestinians’ rights in Gaza and the West Bank, where shortages of food, water and medicine have made life difficult.

“All these despicable acts become fodder for a rising tide of anti-Semitism worldwide,” she says.

The Canadian alliance is one of many such groups to spring up in places like the U.S., Britain, France, Italy and South Africa. A few sent members to its founding session at a Toronto union hall last month.

Also on hand were delegates for CUPE, mail workers and other non-Jewish groups critical of Israel.

Farber says support for Israel is a fundamental part of being Jewish, pointing out that the Seder for Passover, which begins next weekend to mark Moses leading the Jews from Egypt, ends with “L’shanah haba’ah b’Yerushalayim,” or, “Next year in Jerusalem.”

“We’ve been saying that for 5,000 years,” he says. “It’s not like this idea of Israel popped up in 1948.”

Farber, who supports a separate Palestinian state, says Israel needs a strong army as “a small sliver of a country, surrounded by people who don’t want it to exist.”

Ralph says the alliance is needed to open up debate in her community. “When you try to ask about two subjects, there’s no room for discussion. One is circumcision and the other is support for Israel.”