When it comes to generating global headlines, Canada and Israel are typically about as far apart as two countries can get. And yet since Oct. 7, the two have begun to converge, as antisemitism in Canada has spiked to such levels that it now regularly garners international attention.

The growing crisis finally prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to address it directly, as he did in a speech at Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto’s oldest Reform congregation, earlier this month. Yet as if in response to his address, not only did attacks on synagogues continue, but the news broke that as many as 25 prior attacks, as well as the shooting at the American Consulate in Toronto, had been committed by a loose network of local actors hired via messaging apps by an undisclosed foreign entity. Worse still, this news was conveyed in the aftermath of an arrest that resulted in the death of a Toronto police officer.

Several elements of this story were shocking enough on their own—the youth of the perpetrators, the role of foreign and terroristic influence, the killing of an officer of the law—but taken together it reads more like a fever-dream than an actual incident that occurred in the city of Toronto.

What is interesting about this new development is how it both supports and complicates the claims of rising antisemitism in Canada. On the one hand, these were obviously attacks on Jewish houses of worship. On the other, the immediate motive for the attacks appears to be pecuniary, and at least thus far we are unaware of the attackers having held any strong ideological beliefs. And Jews have not been the only........

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