Canadian Jewish organizations condemn Colorado attack, call for more action at home
In the wake of another antisemitic attack in the U.S., organizations representing the Canadian Jewish community condemned the incident and renewed their call for governments to take concrete steps to prevent more like it.
Article content
Article content
On Sunday in Boulder, Col., eight people were injured, some with serious burns, when 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly used Molotov cocktails and an improvised flamethrower on a small group of people assembled to raise attention for the remaining 58 Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Article content
Article content
Abraham Global Peace Initiative CEO and founder Avi Benlolo said he was saddened by the incident, but 'not surprised.'
Article content
It's the byproduct, he said, of demonstrators becoming 'much more hostile, much more desperate' in an effort to seek attention. And he thinks it's only going to escalate.
Article content
'I think we're going to see more Colorados,' he told National Post Monday.
Article content
In a post to X, B'nai Brith Canada called it 'a cowardly act of hate filled violence' and suggested this and other recent antisemitic attacks 'are emblematic of what happens when radical extremism is allowed to flourish and when hatred is incited without consequence.'
Article content
B'nai Brith Canada stands in solidarity with the Jewish community in Boulder, Colorado. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack.
Targeting a group that was peacefully gathered to call for the release of the hostages is a cowardly act of hate filled…
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) June 1, 2025
Article content
Less than two weeks ago in Washington, D.C., two Israeli Embassy staff members — Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26 — were shot and killed by a gunman who later yelled 'Free Palestine' while being arrested.
Article content
Article content
Hamas's infiltration of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — during which 1,195 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage — and the Israeli military's response have led to a wave of antisemitic attacks in Western countries, including Canada.
Article content
And while there haven't been any hate crimes resulting in the deaths of Jewish people in Canada, there has been a marked increase in other offences in the 19 months since hostilities began with the terrorist group in Gaza.
In 2023, of the 1,284 hate crimes targeting a religion — a jump of 67 per cent from 2022 — 900 were against Jewish people, that's over 70 per cent of all hate crimes and a 71 per cent increase over the previous year, according to Statistics Canada police-reported hate crime data.
Article content
Article content
There were more than four times as many antisemitic hate crimes as the second-most targeted religious minority, Muslims.
Article content
In Toronto, antisemitic hate crime spiked 76 per cent in 2023 over the year prior, with almost 68 of the 146 occurring after October, per the Toronto Police public safety data portal.
Article content
That figure climbed 20.5 per cent in 2024 with 176 reported hate crimes targeting Jewish people, which represented 81 per cent of all religion bias hate offences.
Article content
That includes three shootings at Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School in North York — which was unoccupied at the time — and vandalism at the Kehillat Shaarei Torah synagogue, among other unpublicized incidents.
Article content
Article content
In response to Sunday's events, Toronto police said Monday officers would continue to maintain a heightened presence around places of worship, community centres, schools and other faith-based locations as they have since the Washington attack.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
2 hours ago
Canada, allies sanctioning 2 Israeli ministers over Gaza comments
Britain and other allies imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, on Tuesday over their repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities, the U.K.'s foreign ministry said. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined Britain in freezing the assets and imposing travel bans on Israel's National Security Minister Ben-Gvir — a West Bank settler — and Finance Minister Smotrich. Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. These actions are not acceptable, British Foreign Minister David Lammy, along with the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, said in a joint statement. This is why we have taken action now to hold those responsible to account. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the move was outrageous and that his government would hold a special meeting early next week to decide how to respond to the unacceptable decision. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks to visit the Damascus Gate to Jerusalem's Old City on May 26, 2025. (Ammar Awad/Reuters) Photo: (Ammar Awad/Reuters) Smotrich, speaking at the inauguration of a new settlement in the Hebron Hills, spoke of contempt for Britain's move. Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland, and we cannot do it again. We are determined, God willing, to continue building, he said. Britain, like other European countries, has been increasing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to end the blockade on aid into Gaza, where international experts have said famine is imminent. In Tuesday's joint statement, allies tried to soften the blow by saying Britain reiterated its commitment to continuing a strong friendship with the people of Israel based on shared ties, values and commitment to security and future. We will strive to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of the remaining hostages by Hamas which can have no future role in the governance of Gaza, a surge in aid and a path to a two-state solution, the statement said. Thomson Reuters
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Canada, U.K. and Australia sanction 2 far-right Israeli Cabinet ministers over violence in the occupied West Bank
JERUSALEM (AP) — Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said Tuesday they have imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers for allegedly 'inciting extremist violence' against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler violence, which has spiked since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
LA protests far different from '92 Rodney King riots
The images of cars set ablaze, protesters tossing rocks at police and officers firing nonlethal rounds and tear gas at protesters hearkens back to the last time a president sent the National Guard to respond to violence on Los Angeles streets. But the unrest during several days of protests over immigration enforcement is far different in scale from the 1992 riots that followed the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King. President George H.W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to call in the National Guard after requests from Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson. After the current protests began Friday over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 4,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines despite strident opposition from Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump cited a legal provision to mobilize federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday saying Trump had overstepped his authority. Outrage over the verdicts on April 29, 1992 led to nearly a week of widespread violence that was one of the deadliest riots in American history. Hundreds of businesses were looted. Entire blocks of homes and stores were torched. More than 60 people died in shootings and other violence, mostly in South Los Angeles, an area with a heavily Black population at the time. Unlike the 1992 riots, protests have mainly been peaceful and been confined to a roughly five-block stretch of downtown LA, a tiny patch in the sprawling city of nearly 4 million people. No one has died. There's been vandalism and some cars set on fire but no homes or buildings have burned. At least 50 people have been arrested for everything from failing to follow orders to leave to looting, assault on a police officer and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail. Several officers have had minor injuries and protesters and some journalists have been struck by some of the more than 600 rubber bullets and other 'less-lethal' munitions fired by police. The 1992 uprising took many by surprise, including the Los Angeles Police Department, but the King verdict was a catalyst for racial tensions that had been building in the city for years. In addition to frustration with their treatment by police, some directed their anger at Korean merchants who owned many of the local stores. Black residents felt the owners treated them more like shoplifters than shoppers. As looting and fires spread toward Koreatown, some merchants protected their stores with shotguns and rifles.
