Latest news with #BnaiBrith
National Post
02-06-2025
- General
- National Post
Canadian Jewish organizations condemn Colorado attack, call for action against antisemitism 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 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. Article content Meanwhile, in Vancouver, police data from December 2022 to December 2023 showed a 62 per cent increase in antisemitism, while officials in Montreal accounted for 212 in the calendar year following Oct. 7, 131 of which were reported before January 2024, per The Canadian Jewish News. In March, the city's Congregation Beth Tikvah was hit with a firebomb just over a year after being damaged in a similar attack that included a fire at a nearby Federation CJA building.
CBC
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Jewish advocacy group denounces 'antisemitic' video of person doing Nazi salute outside Ontario restaurant
Social Sharing A Jewish advocacy group has strongly condemned a "vile" video of an unknown person performing what appears to be fascist salute in the parking lot of the U.S.-owned Chick-fil-A restaurant in Burlington, Ont. The video, shared on X by controversial rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, features someone riding a motorized scooter with flashing lights and a video monitor. The person comes to a stop before twice doing what appears to be a Nazi salute while Ye's new song Heil Hitler plays on the monitor. The video, which was posted just after 6 a.m. ET on May 14, had garnered more than two million views before it was deleted on Wednesday. CBC News has viewed the video and was able to match it with the Burlington location through Google Maps. Richard Robertson, B'nai Brith Canada's director of research and advocacy, said it's alarming for somebody in Canada to be creating content like this, which is "clearly antisemitic." "It raises a tremendous amount of red flags at a time when antisemitism is on the rise in this country and we are grappling with a crisis of antisemitism," Robertson told CBC Hamilton. The song's chorus says it all and the video showing the strident double Nazi salute leaves no doubt. - Lyndon George, HARRC executive director "For Mr. West to then lend credence to this content by sharing it on his X account is simply deplorable. Mr. West has demonstrated through his recent actions that he cares not for the well-being of others, the well-being of the Jewish community, and that he only cares to incite against the Jewish community, and that's exactly what he's done here." Video 'perpetuates fascist behaviour': HARRC Ye's song, Heil Hitler, was released just over a week ago. The song, praising Adolf Hitler, was posted on social media platforms and music streaming services. Most services removed the antisemitic track within days, but it had already been viewed and listened to by millions. The song and video for Heil Hitler, which glorifies the Nazi leader and includes a sample from a Hitler speech, remains on Elon Musk's social media platform X. Lyndon George, executive director of the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre, says social media platforms like X have a responsibility to take down and stop the spread of hateful content, exemplified by Ye's song and exhibited in "the racist video" that was filmed in Burlington, Ont. "The song's chorus says it all and the video showing the strident double Nazi salute leaves no doubt," George wrote in an email to CBC News. "Kanye West's most recent social media post on X glorifying Nazism and praising Hitler, normalizes hate, racism and antisemitism and perpetuates fascist behaviour." CBC News attempted to contact X Corp., the social media platform's parent company, for comment, but did not get a response. Song is 'vile' and should be condemned: Robertson Meanwhile, Robertson said Ye's Heil Hitler song "is vile," adding that the video shot in Ontario is also something that should be condemned. "This is not representative of Canadian values. This is conduct that should be denounced in the strongest possible form and that should not be tolerated in our society," Robertson added. The song and video come as antisemitism appears to be on the rise in Canada, with Statistics Canada reporting a 71 per cent increase in hate crimes targeting the Jewish population between 2022 and 2023. It also comes a few months after the RCMP and other law enforcement agencies put out a report warning of the rising prominence of young people who are attracted to violent ideologies, with recruiters using innocuous social media and gaming platforms like Discord, Instagram, Roblox and TikTok as breeding grounds for hate.
