Canadian Jews Stand Beleaguered and Alone

"My grandparents saw the warning signs in Europe in 1933. They saw what happens when hatred is allowed to grow, when institutions fail to act, and when ordinary people look away."

They saw, then they were murdered."

"Today, when my community needs the federal government to stand firmly beside us, I do not feel it has met the moment."

"[Jewish Canadians] should not have to keep asking for protection or reassurance that we still belong here."

"What frightens me is both the hatred itself and the willingness of some leaders and institutions to accommodate it."

Rick Ekstein, Canadian businessman, son of Holocaust survivors 

Rick Ekstein at the European Coalition for Israel on Nov. 5, 2026, where he introduced the Brussels Declaration. Handout/Courtesy of Rick Ekstein

 

While Jews in Canada, who have lived in the country for generations upon generations and cleave to it as their home, they have now found themselves in a precarious position of feeling that this may not be their home for much longer. Born in Canada, imbued with a love for the country, they suddenly realize that there are forces beyond their control working tirelessly to make life so miserable and tenuous for them in the only homeland they have ever known and which they love, that they must consider moving elsewhere for relief from the tension and threats that assail them daily.

 

That their government at the federal level, descending to the provincial and the municipal levels of political authority have chosen to look on without reacting other than to deplore these constant iterations of Jew-hate emanating from a coalition of ultra-left Marxist groups finding common cause with Muslim jihadi fundamentalists who have brought their brand of Jew-hate as baggage with them when they migrated to Canada, to fester and grow in the green pastures of permissive democracy, has brought them to the realization that they are on their own.  

 

While recoiling from expressions of rabid antisemitism, Canada's political leaders express their support of their Jewish constituents in words but never to the extent of committing to any real action to demonstrate to the protest leaders and their allied supporters that the spread of racial detestation leading to violence cannot be permitted in Canada. In failing to take any remedial action, those same government figures are in reality giving assurance to the malefactors that their crimes against the social contract are of no moment. An attitude that leads to the sense of entitlement to continue and go beyond harassment to threats.

Speaking at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, PM Carney's promises evaporated into thin air.  Chris Young/The Canadian Press / AP

 

Invariably violence follows, as it has in the firebombing and vandalizing of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, the shooting at Jewish day schools, the boycotting of Jewish restaurants, the protests carried out in front of Jewish hospitals, and old-age homes, slinging the assault of insults at those whom the anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, anti-Jew crowd feel are disentitled to live their normal lives, contributing to the society they are part of, and finding comfort in being part of that society.

 

Italian Canadians a week ago pledged to support their Jewish counterparts in combating the hate they're targeted by. Business owners and community leaders took out full-page newspaper advertisements to notify the public of their support for Canadian Jews. There are non-Jewish Canadians who aver their support for the Jews they live among as neghbours and friends, but their voices are soft and barely to be heard. Jews in Canada have abandoned all expectations that their federal government will act to put a stop to the verbal and physical violence the Jewish community is experiencing.

 

Businessman Rick Ekstein travelled to Brussels to attend the European Coalition for Israel, to sign the Brussels Declaration, a pact between Jews and Christians; his family history experiencing the Holocaust first-hand inspired him. This is a man committed to make every effort he possibly can to root out antisemitism in Canada. There are many just like him, who every day, do what they can to educate their non-Jewish neighbours and the wider community that it is not only Jews who will suffer if this campaign to delegitimize Israel and the place of Jews within Canada persists and succeeds, but they too.

 

For the malevolent forces of Islamofascism will not stop with its campaign against Jewish life. Their goal is far greater than that; it targets Western democracy altogether and until Sharia law becomes the law of the land and Islam's conquest is complete, there is no stopping this global threat to human life absent the moral powers of the enlightenment when a malign ideology will not rest until it has totally unravelled the institutions that support human rights. 

"When people use our streets to threaten others, intimidate shoppers or target communities because of their faith, they undermine the freedoms and sense of security we all depend on."

"It's harder to accept hateful caricatures when the people being targeted are your friends, neighbours or colleagues."

"But a community as small as ours cannot reach everyone alone."

Rick Ekstein  

The Brussels Declaration