I am writing in the wake of three recent attacks on Toronto synagogues in which bullets were fired at Temple Emanu-El, Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, and Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT).  I provided relevant information to police and community leaders and encourage others to do so.

Not to claim credit, but my recall of the story in The Maple tracking Toronto area congregations, Hebrew schools and summer camps celebrating members who had served in the IDF, and mentioning two of the synagogues recently attacked led me to share the link with relevant information while police were still claiming publicly that they were trying to ascertain a connection between the attacks.  Here is that link again:  https://gtatoidf.com/

As a result of making this connection and networking with local and national media and Jewish and secular community leaders, there was extensive coverage in the National Post (widely read by Canada’s Jewish community) as well as a very effective recent report in the Jerusalem Post, which I shared with community members and police in the hope of helping them to connect the dots in this investigation.  Here are those links:

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-889275

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jonathan-milevsky-my-synagogue-was-hit-with-a-spray-of-bullets

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/matthew-taub-three-synagogues-hit-by-bullets-so-much-for-antisemitism-has-no-place-here

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto-synagogue-gunfire-targeted-incident

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/jewish-leaders-united-action-toronto-synagogue-shootingsw

Toronto and area police are urging members of the public and members of these synagogues to share any relevant information or video footage that could help identify the perpetrators.  See this recent report from the Toronto Sun:

https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/officials-vow-united-response-synagogue-attacks

As a measure of the difference in perspectives offered by various media outlets, see also these reports from Cable Pulse 24 (CP24) news, confirming that at this late stage Toronto Police were still unable to grasp the factors linking these attacks:

https://www.cp24.com/video/2026/03/07/no-evidence-both-synagogue-shootings-are-related-police/

https://www.cp24.com/video/2026/03/08/growing-concerns-after-3-synagogue-shootings-in-gta/

https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2026/03/08/we-will-not-tolerate-it-police-promise-relentless-probe-into-gta-synagogue-shootings/

As any news agency knows, ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ and like Jewish pro-Israel author Dara Korn has suggested, “People Love Dead Jews”.  I am not sure how much they like live ones, and given the long history of these escalating and often unsolved hate crimes against Jewish sites and individuals, excused by debates of attrition on the mideast conflict, I will believe the promises of the many political speechmakers at Sunday’s news conference at Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue of their ‘relentless’ pursuit of the perpetrators when I see the evidence of the perpetrators being brought to justice and sentenced accordingly.

In a strange related development, I was contacted by an unknown Times of Israel reader when I commented on Matthew Taub’s article on the National Post website as a private citizen using my real name.  They had looked up my Times of Israel articles and picture (giving me some security concerns) and asked if this was ‘the real me’.  I replied politely thanking them for their comment and advised them that I had already provided relevant information to police and community leaders and hoped the perpetrators would be caught soon.

In my comments to Taub, I suggested as a criminology researcher that I agreed with Taub and urged our Canadian political leaders and police to grasp the reality that our congregations, schools, and businesses are under overt attack and living with security guards while those of non-Jews are not.  I am not suggesting they should be, but the reality we are facing must be admitted.

I suggested they ‘get real’ and confront these realities and those responsible and stop these attacks which they have largely tacitly permitted through excuses such as ‘free speech and right to protest’ and under-enforcement of existing criminal laws that could have protected our Jewish community long before now.  This is not the first time that synagogues and Hebrew schools have been attacked in Canada, and the trajectory of harassment and hate crimes is deeply worrying.

I did receive a heartening thanks from a Jewish Toronto city councillor whom I know has advocated for our community safety, including in the National Post, but this is the sort of thing all of us should be doing.  If you see something, or know something, say something.  The information you have might help solve and prevent hate crimes against our Jewish community. I am getting very tired of uptown Jewish organizations speechifying while hate crimes against us continue to increase.

The latest security updates are urging Jews and Israelis internationally to be extremely vigilant of their security and aware of their surroundings and careful of admitting strangers to their institutions and to be careful in displaying Jewish symbols publicly or attending mass Jewish events.  Jewish women are at especially high risk following the recent arrests in Toronto of terrorist suspects linked to ISIS seeking to abduct and sexually assault Jewish women.

These press conference promises may all be true, but I am wearing a new mezuzah necklace under my shirt to commemorate the recent attacks in Toronto on Jewish seniors’ apartments tearing down their mezuzahs, and I just ordered a new watch with an IDF seal.  I may not be able to wear them in public, but they help me to remember who I am and what I stand for.

I cannot shoot a gun or fly a plane, but my pen is mightier than any sword, and so is my mind.  So are yours.  Remember this.  We are all in this together.  Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh.  All of Israel is connected.

Am Yisrael Chai.  Stay well and strong, Israel.  We send our love and support from Canada.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)