The Choices That Are Made and the Epidemic of Antisemitism
“The Holocaust happened because of millions of individual choices.”
This statement is from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and it resonated strongly with me.
Antisemitism in Toronto, Canada and throughout the rest of the world has reached epidemic proportions because of individual choices.
In Toronto in 2025, 82% of religion-motivated hate crimes targeted Jews according to the annual hate crime statistics from the Toronto Police Service.
In response, the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) noted that, “A Jewish Torontonian is now 14 times more likely to experience a hate incident than any other resident of Toronto.”
According to B’nai Brith Canada, there were 6,800 documented incidents of antisemitism in Canada in 2025. This is a 145.6% increase since 2022 and by far the highest volume noted since recordings began in 1982. There are now on average 18.6 antisemitic incidents that are documented each day in Canada. The real number is likely much higher.
Since October 7, 2023, there has been a concerted effort to intimidate, scare and erase Jewish life in Western society. This didn’t happen by accident and is the result of the individual choices by members of our society, unions, universities and government officials.
It was the choice of the Dean of Dentistry at the University of Toronto to use antisemitic images during his lecture.
It was the choice of an individual(s) to shoot up three synagogues in the Greater Toronto Area.
It was the choice of an individual(s) to vandalize a Jewish Centre’s menorah in the Yorkville area of Toronto.
It was the choice of an individual(s) to throw a rock through Aleph Bet Judaica on Bathurst St. in Toronto.
It was the choice of an individual to try and force his way into the Sephardic Kehilah Center in Vaughan and when he was turned away to punch a Jewish father in the face.
It was the choice of an individual(s) to shoot at visibly Jewish individuals in Toronto (one incident outside a synagogue and the other in a Jewish neighbourhood).
It has been the choice of police to allow weekend protests at Bathurst and Sheppard in the heart of the Jewish community in Toronto.
It was the choice of an individual(s) to tear down posters of a missing 14-year-old Jewish girl in Toronto. Can you imagine the hatred that one must have to hate an innocent child. It is disgusting beyond belief. Fortunately, she has since been found.
And what I’ve listed so far is just a short list of what has happened in the Greater Toronto Area in the first few months of this year.
It has been the choice of protesters in Canada to carry with little or no consequences, posters with swastikas, Hamas flags, Hezbollah flags and chanting slogans that call for the death/murder of Jews such as “Globalize the Intifada” and “From the River to the Sea.”
It has been the choice of Canada’s leaders to be grossly inadequate in addressing the antisemitism that has been plaguing the Jewish community in the last few years. Tweets on X and ‘thoughts and prayers’ is not the leadership that is expected. Last week, the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, quoted Nobel peace laureate and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel: “The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.” Indifference would describe Mark Carney’s action plan to address the epidemic of antisemitism in Canada.
Sadly, it has been the choice of many non-Jewish Canadians to turn a blind eye to the rampant antisemitism that has infected every aspect of our society.
Jewish Canadians represent approximately 1% of the population of Canada. Ask yourself this – would this level of abuse be tolerated against any other minority in this country?
As a third generation Holocaust survivor, I know there will never be another Holocaust against the Jewish people anywhere close to the scale and cruelty that occurred in Europe in the 1930-40s. However, the choices that are being made today by many individuals paint a scary picture for what is to come for Jewish Canadians.
