MONTREAL — Three synagogues in the Toronto area and several Jewish-owned businesses in Montreal have been attacked by Jew-haters since the beginning of Washington’s military assault on Iran. Multiple rounds of gunfire in the middle of the night were fired at synagogues Emanu-El, Beth Avraham Yoseph and Shaarei Shomayim during the first week of March. In the case of Emanu-El, the rabbi and others were still in the synagogue at the time of the attack.
The same week Nazi swastikas were spray-painted on three neighboring businesses in Montreal. Synagogues have also been targeted in the U.S., Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Many middle-class left forces laud the reactionary Iranian regime as “revolutionary” and blame Israel and “the Zionists” for Israel’s defensive war against Iran. Laith Marouf, the Syrian Canadian who runs pro-Hamas Free Palestine TV, predicted that “Jewish Temples, leaders and community spaces” will “come under attack around the world in the next few days.” He also says, “There is no group more hateful, vengeful and abhorrent on the face of this planet than the Jewish Supremacists Colonists in Palestine.”
Over 4,000 people rallied against Israel and the Jews outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on Al-Quds Day March 14. This annual event began under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as part of his counterrevolutionary moves after the 1979 revolution in Iran. They are organized in Canada and internationally by a bloc of Islamist fundamentalists and pro-Tehran leftists. They marched behind Iranian and Palestinian flags and banners such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — free of Jews.
The goal of Al-Quds Day is to promote the destruction of Israel, which former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called a “cancerous tumor” that “must be eliminated” as part of the “final solution,” echoing Hitler and the Nazis.
Attacks on Jews have spread since Hamas’ murderous pogrom in Israel Oct. 7, 2023, and provocative Jew-hating mobilizations worldwide organized under the pretext of protesting Israel’s supposed “genocide” in Gaza.
“Every day, Canadians are waking up to news of another shooting attack,” Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said. “Multiple shootings at Toronto-area synagogues were not isolated incidents, but the latest in an escalating surge of hate, harassment and violence targeting Jewish Canadians.
“The level of security now required to protect Jewish Canadians,” he said, “is shocking.”
“These measures are necessary to ensure the safety of children going to school, families going to community centers, and people visiting their elderly parents.”
Violent attacks on Jews by Hamas supporters have become common on college campuses around the world. A Nov. 5 meeting organized by Students Supporting Israel at Toronto Metropolitan University was violently attacked by masked supporters of the pro-Hamas outfit Students for Justice in Palestine. The meeting was called to hear two Israeli soldiers speak about defending Israel against Hamas.
Some 40 or 50 thugs forced their way into the building, smashed through a glass door screaming “Free Palestine,” and attacked Jonathan Karten, one of the Israeli soldiers, who had stepped up to try to defend meeting participants.
Attacks on Jews in Canada have more than doubled since Hamas’ Oct. 7 pogrom, where 1,200 Jews and others were killed and 250 hostages seized and hauled off to Gaza. Jewish schools have been shot at, physical attacks and vandalism has hit synagogues and Jewish businesses, and events featuring speakers from Israel have been attacked and shut down.
A survey of Jewish students in Canada found 84% said they had been the target of antisemitism in the past year, and 15% reported virtually daily abuse on campus just for being Jewish.
In Victoria, British Columbia, death threats against Jews were scrawled on the front door of Emanu-El synagogue in August, saying, “Palestinians will get their revenge against you child-killing Jew-monsters.”
Threats like this are being acted on. The most notorious example is the cold-blooded attack last December on a Jewish Hanukkah festival celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia by two radical Islamists, killing 15 people and wounding 40.
The Jew-hating attacks in Canada are fueled by the campaign by Washington, Ottawa and other imperialist powers to impose an end to Israel’s unfinished battle to destroy Hamas. Carrying out this battle to the end is the only way to lift the threat of new, more deadly pogroms.
“These new attacks on synagogues and businesses, and hundreds like them around the world, pose a deadly threat not only to Jews, but to the entire working class,” Joe Young, the Communist League candidate in next October’s Quebec elections, tells workers he meets as he campaigns. “It’s essential that working people and our unions fight against all acts of Jew-hatred.”