Canada’s Crippling Antisemitism Problem
Antisemitism is running rampant in Canada. Of the nation’s 40 million inhabitants, only 398,000 (roughly 1%) are Jewish. Yet, that tiny Jewish community suffers 70% of the country’s religiously motivated hate crimes. In fact, the New York Post called Montreal the “antisemistism capital of North America.”
Belz Yeshiva Ketana, an Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal, was hit by gunfire in May 2024. This attack came just days after a similar shooting at Toronto’s Bais Chaya Mushka, a Jewish school for girls, which was fired on twice more by year’s end.
Another Orthodox school in Montreal, the Yeshiva Gedola, was targeted by 20-year-old Abdirazak Mahdi Ahmed, who shot at the building in November 2023, just four days after a similar attack on the yeshiva and a nearby Jewish elementary school.
“Schools are a place where we send our most treasured possessions—our children,” said Eta Yudin, Quebec vice president at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, following the attack. “No child in Montreal should see their place of learning targeted by a weapon created to kill.”
Congregation Beth Tikvah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Montreal, was firebombed twice in the span of 13 months. The first attack took place in November 2023, when a would-be arsonist threw what police called an “incendiary device” through the front door. The following December, a similar device was thrown into the synagogue, breaking windows and igniting a fire in the vestibule.
“Montreal is increasingly unsafe for Jewish people,” said Henry Topas, the congregation’s cantor. “This is the result of the failure of leaders at all levels to hold accountable those responsible for the hate and violence that is infesting Canadian society.”
Two signs in front of Kehillat Shaarei Torah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in North York, outside Toronto, were defaced in December. A sign that read “Bring them home now” was defaced with graffiti to say “Take thier [sic] homes now.” The other sign, which stated, “Standing with Israelis, it’s what we do,” was covered with a decal to appear to say “Genocide with Israelis, it’s what we do.” This incident marked the eighth time the synagogue had been vandalized since October 7, 2023.
Rabbi Adam Scheier of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Westmount, Quebec, has criticized Canada’s toleration of antisemitism. He and his family were inside a Montreal coffee shop—a Jewish-owned business that had recently fired a franchisee for making pro-Nazi remarks and giving a Nazi salute at an anti-Israel protest—when another band of anti-Israel protesters began marching past on the street.
“I stood silently and filmed the messages of hate that have become so commonplace in our once-tranquil city,” Scheier posted on Facebook. “The police approached me and asked me and my family to leave the area. I asked why we were given this directive, as we had not exchanged even one word with a protester.”
The officer responded that it was “because we can’t have a fire starting from both sides,” according to Scheier. “Apparently, my presence is deemed a sufficient provocation for removal, while their hateful chants are allowed to continue,” Scheier wrote.
These events have contributed to the unimaginable 670% increase in antisemitic incidents since October 7, 2023. In response, the Canadian government pledged to start a National Forum on Combatting Antisemitism. But many Canadians blame former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for the rise in Jew-hatred.
According to journalist Terry Glavin, these attacks are “carried out by self-described progressives, Arabs, and, often, recent immigrants who are operating inside an ideological framework of ‘settler colonialism,’ which casts Canada, the United States, Australia, and, most of all, Israel, as irredeemably illegitimate constructs of imperialism, capitalism, genocide, and racism. It’s an ideology that has found a comfortable home in Trudeau’s Canada.”
Hopefully, Canada will recognize that the antisemitism playing out in its streets is directly tied to its promotion of the oppressor/oppressed paradigm and then rise to do something about it—before it’s too late.
