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By: Ariella Haviv
Toronto’s Jewish community is grappling with fear, anger, and deepening anxiety after three synagogues were struck by gunfire in less than a week—an alarming sequence of incidents that has prompted widespread condemnation from political leaders, religious organizations, and law enforcement officials across Canada. The attacks, which targeted places of worship in the Greater Toronto Area, have intensified concerns that antisemitic intimidation is escalating into increasingly dangerous acts of violence.
According to report on Saturday by Halifax CityNews, police are now investigating two additional shootings that occurred early Saturday morning after a synagogue in Toronto’s north end was similarly targeted earlier in the week. The incidents have left Jewish residents shaken and have triggered calls for urgent action to protect religious institutions and confront rising antisemitism across the country.
The most recent shooting occurred shortly after midnight Saturday when Toronto police responded to reports of gunfire near the intersection of Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue, a neighborhood known for its vibrant Jewish community. Officers arriving at the scene discovered bullet holes in the doors of the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue, one of the city’s most prominent congregations. Despite the frightening circumstances, no injuries were reported.
Authorities said the attack appeared to have been deliberate. As Halifax CityNews reported, investigators recovered evidence of gunfire directed at the synagogue’s entrance, raising concerns that the building itself was the intended target rather than a random location struck by stray bullets.
Just hours earlier, a second synagogue in the nearby municipality of Thornhill had also been targeted in a similar incident. York Region Police were called to the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue after reports that gunshots had been fired at the building.
Deputy Chief Kevin McCloskey of the York Region Police told reporters that an unknown number of suspects arrived at the synagogue in a dark-colored sedan before opening fire on the structure. At the time of the shooting, people were inside the building attending activities at the place of worship.
“It’s extremely fortunate that no one was struck,” McCloskey said in comments cited by Halifax CityNews, noting that the presence of congregants inside the synagogue at the time made the attack especially alarming.
These two incidents followed another shooting earlier in the week that targeted Temple Emanu-El in Toronto’s northern district. Police responding to that Monday night attack discovered bullet casings and damage to the synagogue’s exterior. The three incidents occurring within a matter of days have created a climate of fear among Jewish residents across the metropolitan region.
Sara Lefton, a representative of the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto, described the emotional toll the attacks have taken on the community. In remarks reported by Halifax CityNews, she said the shootings have left many people deeply shaken.
“We are shaken to our core,” Lefton said during an interview. “And I think we’re incredibly angry and frustrated, because we’ve seen the progression of this kind of intimidation and hatred over the last few years.”
Lefton warned that escalating rhetoric and hostility toward Jews can easily evolve into physical violence if left unchecked. She noted that similar patterns have emerged in other parts of the world, where antisemitic rhetoric has preceded deadly attacks.
“Hateful words turn into hateful actions,” she said, referencing a recent tragedy in Bondi Beach, Australia, where a Hanukkah celebration was targeted in a shooting that left 15 people dead. As Halifax CityNews reported, Lefton cautioned that ignoring warning signs could allow such violence to spread further.
“We’ve seen it elsewhere,” she added. “And we should not be surprised when it happens here.”
The series of shootings has drawn sharp condemnation from Canada’s political leadership at both the federal and provincial levels. Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed that the government would deploy every available resource to help identify those responsible and bring them to justice.
“These criminal antisemitic attacks are an assault on the rights of Jewish Canadians to live and pray in safety,” Carney wrote in a statement shared on social media. “They are also fundamental violations of the Canadian way of life.”
Carney said federal agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, would assist local authorities in investigating the incidents.
Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, also expressed deep concern about the attacks, describing them as cowardly assaults on religious freedom and human dignity.
“These cowardly assaults on houses of worship are abhorrent acts of violence that strike at the heart of our shared values—safety, dignity, and freedom of religion,” Moed said in remarks cited by Halifax CityNews.
The shootings have also sparked political debate about how Canada should respond to rising antisemitism. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre issued a strongly worded statement urging the government to take decisive action to protect Jewish citizens.
“The Jewish community is under attack in Canada,” Poilievre wrote in a message highlighted by Halifax CityNews. “Government’s core responsibility is the safety of its people. It is time to end this violence once and for all.”
Local leaders echoed those sentiments. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow condemned the attacks in forceful terms, calling them “disgusting acts of antisemitism, hate and intimidation.”
Similarly, Ontario Premier Doug Ford pledged that provincial authorities would continue working closely with police agencies to ensure the protection of religious institutions.
“Our government will continue working closely with police to ensure that places of worship are protected and those responsible are held accountable,” Ford said. “Antisemitism has no place in Ontario.”
Law enforcement agencies are now working in coordination to determine whether the three shootings are connected. Investigators from the Toronto Police Service and York Region Police are sharing information as they attempt to identify potential suspects.
Deputy Chief McCloskey emphasized that while investigators are exploring possible links between the incidents, it remains too early to conclude that the same perpetrators were responsible.
“At this point, there’s no evidence to suggest the two events are related,” McCloskey said, though he acknowledged that authorities are considering the possibility that the shootings may have been carried out by the same individual or group.
The attacks come amid a broader rise in antisemitic incidents across Canada, a trend that has been documented by community organizations and law enforcement agencies alike. Jewish leaders say that while antisemitic vandalism and harassment have become increasingly common, the use of firearms against places of worship represents a particularly dangerous escalation.
For many members of Toronto’s Jewish community, the shootings have transformed what were once considered safe and familiar spaces into potential targets. Synagogues, schools, and community centers have long served as focal points of Jewish life in the city, making the recent attacks deeply unsettling.
Community organizations are now urging authorities to increase security around Jewish institutions, including enhanced police patrols and expanded surveillance measures.
As the investigations continue, Jewish leaders say the broader challenge will be confronting the climate of hostility that has allowed such incidents to occur. While the perpetrators of the synagogue shootings have not yet been identified, the impact of their actions has already reverberated across the country.
For Toronto’s Jewish residents, the attacks represent more than isolated acts of vandalism—they are stark reminders of the vulnerabilities faced by minority communities even in societies that pride themselves on tolerance and diversity.
As Halifax CityNews has reported, authorities remain determined to find those responsible and ensure that the violence does not go unanswered. Yet for many in the community, the deeper question remains how to prevent such hatred from taking root in the first place.
Canada Needs a New Maple Leaf by Ginette Weiner
JAN 17, 2025, 1:01 AM
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/canada-needs-a-new-maple-leaf/
Trudeau wants to feel good about himself. He attempts self-righteous posturing to assume the high moral ground by stating he will abide by the International Criminal Courts (ICC) warrant of arrest for Netanyahu for genocide, “because Canada abides by the law…THAT IS WHO WE ARE.” Human history is filled with corrupt kangaroo courts who falsely accuse and execute those whose politics they dislike and those they simply hate. Many countries chose not to comply with the ICC’s mockery of justice. But not Trudeau.
Melanie Phillips, “The claim of genocide is of course as ludicrous as it is grotesque. Genocide is the intentional annihilation of a people. That’s precisely what Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah openly and repeatedly declare is their aim in the planned eradication of Israel and the killing of every Jew. In defending itself against this mass slaughter, Israel has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect Gazan civilians by repeatedly moving them en masse out of harm’s way, allowing in thousands of tons of humanitarian aid and enabling the Gazan population actually to increase over the course of the war by more than 2%. Despite these demonstrable facts, the United Nations has made feverish attempts to accuse Israel of the crimes being committed against the Jewish state.” https://www.jns.org/dismantle-the-united-nations/
If this was Trudeau’s only sin, we might be more forgiving. But it is not. When you are on the receiving end of praise from Hamas, you are in genocidal, morally depraved company: Dave Gordon, JNS, “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received the equivalent of a long-distance high-five from Hamas after Canada’s affirmative UN vote on Dec. 12 supporting an “immediate sustainable ceasefire” in Israel’s war against the Hamas terror organization.” Why didn’t Trudeau instead, loudly demand Hamas lay down their arms? Or demand Hamas renounce their openly stated Jihad goal to repeat Oct. 7th’s massacre again and again, until there are no Jews left in the Middle East, before they come after Jews worldwide?
Gaza could have been a mecca by the sea, with hotels, tourism, peace and prosperity. Instead, Hamas used the millions given to them by the Islamic Republic of Iran, to build tunnels of terror, using child labor, a particularly disgusting form of child abuse, eclipsed only by the “Palestinian” Arabs sending their children to summer camps to learn how to use guns to “kill the evil Jews” as an act of holy martyrdom, while the West remains silent.
Most civilized people wept when they learned of Hamas’ barbarism. “They took every child on a motorbike, put their legs on the exhaust of that motorbike, so they have a burn and will be marked if they run, if they escape, so they can find them”, Most civilized people wept when they learned of Hamas’ barbarism. “They took every child on a motorbike, put their legs on the exhaust of that motorbike, so they have a burn and will be marked if they run, if they escape, so they can find them”, Times of Israel, Dec. 1, 2023.
Is there any moral difference between Hamas burning children’s legs in order to mark them, and the Nazis tattooing numbers on Jewish children’s arms? By repeating Hamas Central’s Big Lies, Trudeau “marks” Canadians and fuels those who tell the world that these atrocities are not equally morally equivalent. Trudeau simply couldn’t stop himself from repeatedly implicating Israel, long after definitive reports proved that it was in fact, Hamas and/or the Islamic Jihad terror group who were actually behind the failed rocket launch which struck the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. The dis-information came from the notorious “Health Ministry in Gaza” who delights in reporting the Big Lies they know will be echoed by the media and repeated by today’s knee-jerk, lazy, sloppy leaders.
Trudeau wanted to “make up for the funds now being withheld from UNRWA” in yet another attempt at self-righteousness, as a reaction to other countries withholding funds. Why didn’t he, instead, denounce UNRWA’s textbooks which demonize Jews, incite children to kill Zionists for jihadi martyrdom and show maps with all of Israel gone, replaced by “Palestine.”
There’s more: “The Trudeau Government endorsed a condemnation of Israel for failing to establish a Palestinian Arab state, a regime that pays Arabs to murder Jews, a resolution Canada had consistently opposed since 2006.” Either Trudeau has no knowledge of history or historical context, or he has selective amnesia ensuring Israel is always the bad guy. “For the first time, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that he rejected “out of hand” an Israeli offer for a Palestinian state on nearly 95% of Judea and Samaria. In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offered to agree to the creation of an independent PA state including all of Gaza, nearly all of Judea/Samaria, and parts of Israel.” https://zoa.org/2015/11/10304270-abbas-admits-rejecting-olmert-generous-offer-of-palestinian-state/
I am sensing world wide collective fatigue with the decades of fighting in the Middle East. If Trudeau, or his successor, or anyone out there is still having trouble distinguishing a victim from an oppressor, I suggest you take some advice from an unlikely source, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given…It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-crown-prince-told-palestinians-to-shut-up-and-stop-complaining-2018-4
BBC: “Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau has apologised for his country’s role in turning away a ship carrying over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing persecution…During the Nazi regime in Germany, Canada accepted fewer Jewish refugees than any other Western nation.” Trudeau’s cheap, easy, without consequence attempt at moralizing succeeds only in making me wonder if Trudeau is fond of only dead or weak Jews, Jews scattered to the ends of the earth.
When you endorse a kangaroo court’s jurisdiction, you begin to resemble a kangaroo. Let’s hope his successor’s moral compass is more intact.
Ginette Weiner
Who Needs to Atone?
09/22/2025
OP-ED
By Ginette Weiner
https://tjvnews.com/opinion/oped/who-needs-to-atone/
The second Israel became a legal nation, five Arab armies attacked Israel to destroy it. Despite their calls to rid the Middle East of Jews, Israel extended its hand for generous and more than fair peace offers, rejected each time. “Palestinian” Abbas says, “We will never accept the evil Zionist presence with any boundaries.”
If prominent Western Nations had put pressure on these “Palestinian” Arabs to sit down, negotiate fairly, and accept even one of the many peace offers, they would have had their own state for decades. But they did not. Instead, they looked the other way while putting false blame and pressure only on the Jewish State.
And now, after the worst bloody barbaric genocide against Jews since The Holocaust, what are prominent Western Nations doing? “The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia announced the recognition of the Palestinian state, in the hope that a two-state solution will bring peace. British Prime Minister Starmer said the move is intended “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis.”
Israel has only ever and still wants peace with their neighbors. But a declaration of a vague peace without specific guarantees of Israel’s security is meaningless. They condemn Hamas with no guarantees it will not re-arm and carry out its own stated threats for Oct. 7th genocide to be repeated again and again. These self righteous Western Nations who are demanding peace were quiet when Gaza spent millions building tunnels of terror, often with child labor, instead of building a community of peace, a mecca by the sea with hotels and tourists. And are quiet when the Palestinian Authority still portrays Jews as Satan with tails on its official media website (Palwatch).
Are these Western Nation’s elites who are demanding peace taking any risks to themselves? Are they offering to put soldiers from their own countries on the ground for the next hundred years to ensure Israel’s safety? No. But they want Israel to risk another genocide and possible annihilation, for “the sake of peace.” If Israel’s borders are overrun by these Arabs, and its citizens butchered, what will these Western nations do? They will do what they usually do. Cry crocodile tears, condemn Holocaust Number Two, but quietly feel relieved to be rid of those troublesome Jews and troublesome Israel. And then conduct business as usual after a short period of fake mourning.
Unless and until these “Palestinian” Arabs themselves come forth, offer to sit down and negotiate borders fairly and with a goal to live in peace, accept foreign soldiers in their new “state” to ensure radical Jihadists are not taking over, announce the full acceptance of Israel as a Jewish State, renounce their “right of return” which would flood Israel with millions of Arabs, effectively making Israel an Islamic State, the West should do what it should have been doing all along. Put sanctions on these “Palestinian” Arabs to force them to recognize and accept Israel and negotiate peace.
I can’t think of a better time to revisit the words of wisdom attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” And I will ask again, how many dead Jews are enough for these out-of-touch, naive Western Nations? History shows us there are never enough dead Jews for the world. And now they want to risk more.
Ginette Weiner is a published commentator in Jewish and mainstream newspapers, has an MSW and certification in Understanding Media Bias & Israel Advocacy, HonestReporting’s 23rd Mission to Israel.