Last December, Australia’s Jewish community marked the first night of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach. That same evening, on a beach full of families celebrating, 15 people were gunned down by two armed men.
For Jewish Canadians, shock and anger turned to renewed fear. Many continue to think about and fear for their own safety. In the city of Toronto, of the 57 reported hate crimes targeting religious groups in 2025, the Jewish community was the victim of 43 of those crimes. In the wake of the Bondi Beach attack, Toronto police had to increase their presence at synagogues, adding an uneasy presence to the worshippers’ gatherings.
Antisemitic vandalism is common, with Jewish places of worship, schools, and businesses having been targeted in multiple attacks in the city. In 2024, a Jewish girls’ elementary school just a few minutes away from York University’s Keele campus was shot at multiple times. Three weeks ago, Toronto police announced the arrests of three individuals through Project Neopolitan, where they “laid 79 charges related to serious alleged criminal offences, motivated, in part, by hate-motivated extremism.” The intended targets were women and members of the GTA’s Jewish community.
Online, sites like X (formerly Twitter) are rife with antisemitic content, and global antisemitism remains at heightened levels. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Global 100: Index of Antisemitism, roughly 46 per cent of the world’s population is projected to hold antisemitic views. This figure has more than doubled since ADL conducted the same survey a decade prior. Founded in 1913, ADL’s mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact.”
Nationally, according to B’nai Brith Canada, eight per cent of Canadian respondents openly display antisemitism. B’nai Brith is a “principled grassroots voice dedicated to eradicating racism, antisemitism, and hatred in all its forms.” It was founded in 1875 as “Canadian Jewry’s most senior charitable service organization.”
As a result, many Jewish Canadians live on edge, and antisemitism has become a constant reality for some. For Leo Halpern, Holocaust Education Co-Chair, “Seeing a community that is so vibrant come together [to celebrate Chanukah] only to be attacked is very frightening; it’s not something you would ever want to see.” He adds that the story of Hanukkah is, at its core, a story of Jewish resilience. “We have a right to be Jewish, to be ourselves, to love others, and to have them love us too.” Just recently, his family’s synagogue in Winnipeg was vandalized with swastikas.
For Jewish students on campus, groups like Hillel International have acted to aid Jewish students. Hillel states that, “Tragically, it is not a given that Jewish students feel welcome on campus or safe in their classrooms. Amongst everything that Hillel does for their students, Hillel is also here to help mitigate that scary truth.”
Hillel has branches across Ontario campuses to “provide a warm and welcoming space for all Jewish students, their friends and allies.” Hillel supports Jewish students both in “times of joy” and when they face acts of antisemitism. Established in 1923, Hillel International is the world’s largest and most inclusive Jewish campus organization and serves nearly 200,000 college students each year.
As Jewish Canadians both on and off campus continue to feel the effects of antisemitism, many no longer feel safe. With hatred increasing and antisemitism all too common, protecting Jewish joy is more important now than ever.
