It is surely a sign of the times.

A police cruiser has been parked in front of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in midtown Toronto for the past few months. I pass it whenever I cycle southward on my almost daily bike ride during the relatively short cycling season.

The vehicle is there to ward off antisemitic attacks. To the best of my knowledge, the tactic has worked. Jews in the city may no longer have to worry whether an anti-Jewish maniac will vent his spleen on the JCC. But the necessity of this security measure is indicative of a sea change in Toronto and Canada. The Jewish community in this country, one of the world’s largest, cannot take its safety for granted.

Years ago, when I regularly travelled to Germany on assignments as a reporter, I noticed that Jewish institutions and synagogues were guarded by armed police officers. This could only happen in Germany, I thought. Little did I know that the contagion of violent antisemitism would eventually reach Canada, a peaceful and stable nation of immigrants.

For the past three years, a torrent of antisemitic agitation, intimidation and violence has convulsed Canada, breaking all previous records.

On  October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 Israelis and foreign nationals. These atrocities led to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, which was ruled by Hamas.

Israel’s fierce retaliatory military campaign lasted for two years, causing the deaths of 73,000 Palestinian civilians and fighters, leading to accusations of genocide against Israel, and triggering a wave of antisemitic agitation, intimidation and violence around the globe.

Across Canada, especially in Toronto and Montreal, Jewish schools have been struck by gunfire outside operating hours. Synagogues have been fired upon and vandalized with graffiti. Mezuzahs have been torn from the doorways of a Jewish seniors home.

Jewish-owned businesses have been damaged and picketed by  pro-Palestinian protesters. Visibly Jewish-looking Orthodox Jews have been assaulted.

Earlier this summer, a gunman fired at the windows of Kiva’s Bagel Bar, a Jewish-owned bakery chain in Toronto, and a man smashed a window and tried to start a fire at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, a Reform congregation in Montreal.

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