I was recently asked to participate in an audio documentary about antisemitism. The invitation came from Jesse Brown, a well-known media commentator and publisher of the Canadaland podcast. He explained that the interview would be about “the rise of antisemitism in Canada since October 7th” and would explore a “historic surge in bigotry.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. It’s an understatement to say that my views are in sharp contrast to the mainstream Jewish community. Simply put, I believe the current level of panic about antisemitism is a trauma-induced hysteria, not supported by facts. Further, I think there are harmful consequences of this hysteria, for Jews and non-Jews alike.
If you asked me to list my top 100 fears, antisemitism is simply not on the list.
So it was with trepidation that I sat down with Jesse a few weeks ago, in a small recording studio in downtown Toronto. I accepted the invitation for a few reasons. First, I like Jesse and I think he’s made some really important contributions to our country’s media landscape. Second, back in 2017 when I was conducting research for a book about democratic reform, I asked Jesse if I could interview him and he generously shared his time. Third, I think it’s important right now for the Jewish community to embrace dialogue and debate. In his invitation, Jesse wrote that “there needs to be a lot more civil conversation …between Jews specifically” and “I feel like people have been talking past each other.” I wholeheartedly agree.
I’m sure Jesse will do his best to respect my voice and to represent my views fairly. But I will still likely end up sounding like a heartless schmuck. After all, when Jesse told me during the interview that he’s worried about his child’s physical safety due to antisemitism, I said something along the lines of “Jesse, your kid is more likely to choke to death on a marshmallow”.
Jesse originally invited me to be interviewed for “up to an hour”. We spoke for three and a half hours, and easily could have conversed for many more. It was an interesting and friendly chat and I’m glad we did it – despite the avalanche of hate mail that awaits me.
There were many things Jesse and I agreed on:
• Antisemitism, like all forms of hatred, is very real.
• Antisemitism, like all forms of hatred, is dangerous and can lead to physical harm.
• We must all work together and fight against all forms of hatred, including antisemitism.
• We should call out hatred when we see, report it and strive to ensure that hatred is not normalised.
• We all need to watch our words carefully and avoid language that could unintentionally contribute to stereotypes or generalisations.
That was our common ground. But any discussion beyond these straightforward ideas quickly exposed our divergent views about the cause, quantity, growth and risk of antisemitism in North America.
Allow me to break this down into four categories:
1) Verbal and written hate crimes
2) Acts of intimidation
3) Destruction of property
4) Intent to cause physical harm
Verbal and written hate crimes
For this category, I simply call bullshit. I firmly believe that 99 per cent of “reported antisemitic hate crimes” are not antisemitic, nor hate crimes. They are simply instances where a Jewish person experienced something that made them feel uncomfortable. It might be that they heard a word they didn’t like (“Occupation”, “Colonial”, “Genocide”, “Apartheid”, “Right of Return”, “Free Palestine”…). Or maybe they felt threatened by something they saw, like a Palestinian flag, a protestor dressed up as Spiderman, or something that looked kinda Muslim. I call this category ISAK (pronounced “Isaac”), which stands for “I saw a keffiyeh”. I dedicate this acronym to Ottawa School Board Trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth, who referred to the sight of a keffiyeh worn by a presenter at an April 2025 meeting as an “act of aggression”. These three simple words – act of aggression – reveal her profound ignorance and/or racism. So when I hear about astronomic levels of “reported hate crimes”, I roll my eyes. ISAK.
To be clear, there is a distinction between “reported crimes” and “police-reported crimes”, with the second category being more legitimate. But it’s still an arbitrary statistic as the “hate” part remains wildly subjective. More importantly, a sudden rise in “reported” crimes could simply mean that people are reporting “crimes” in higher numbers than they used to. This is particularly true of the mainstream legacy Jewish organisations (B’nai Brith, CIJA, etc.) which have prioritized hate-crime reporting as their primary organising tool over the past few years. For example, guess which community in Toronto has their very own “Anti-Hate app” for reporting alleged crimes? You combine ISAK with a smartphone app… and yeah, you’re probably going to see a lot of “reported hate crimes.”
One year ago, I attended a large peaceful pro-ceasefire rally in Toronto. I was surrounded by tens of thousands of people, including hundreds of supportive Jews. The chants and placards were about saving innocent lives, ending the carpet-bombing of Gaza and ending Israel’s illegal occupation and siege of Palestine. It was a friendly multicultural vibe and there were families, seniors and children.
The following morning, the front cover of the Toronto Sun cried “STREETS OF HATE”. The subheadline described the event as a “despicable anti-Semitic rally”. This is ISAK, on steroids.
A few months later, in the spring, I read a National Post article titled “You can’t be openly Jewish at TMU”, which told the story of three students who felt that, as Jews, “everyone is against us” and they “no longer feel physically safe on campus”. But if you read the whole article you get a completely different story. It turns out that these three Jewish students just happen to be public leaders of a group called Students Supporting Israel (SSI) whose mandate is to be “a clear and confident pro-Israel voice on college campuses.” So while the Israeli government was murdering tens of thousands of men, women, children and babies, and while Israel had already been accused of genocide by every major international aid group in the world, these three students made a political choice to publicly support Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
In the article, these three zionist students describe “hate crimes” such as seeing the words “Free Palestine” written on whiteboards and being “expelled from group chats.” One student felt ostracized by former friends. “They all dropped me. They were very anti-Israel. It was awful. I just started anew. I had no friends. I still don’t have any friends in my program.” Another said “I feel othered and isolated on almost a daily basis. I would say TMU is one of the worst antisemitic campuses in Canada.” But their experiences clearly had absolutely nothing to do with Judaism. These students may have perceived religious hatred, but that doesn’t make it real. Everything they described was explicitly about Israel’s war crimes. Hating Jews is terrible.
Hating war crimes is legit.
So while the article was titled “You can’t be openly Jewish at TMU”, it really should have been “If you openly support brutal war crimes and mass murder, you might lose some friends.”
Acts of intimidation
I’ve heard Jewish friends and colleagues express fear for their children’s safety because of bomb threats at Jewish schools. I point out to them that a “bomb threat,” by definition, does not put anyone’s physical safety at risk. That’s the whole point. Literally, there is no bomb. The goal is to create fear, without causing physical harm. In my opinion, these actions suck, especially when they target children. Not cool and not kosher. No student or teacher deserves to be tormented like this. But no one is physically injured by a bomb threat. And just because the target happens to be a Jewish institution, doesn’t mean the act is antisemitic. Schools and synagogues that choose to post large outdoor signage declaring “We Stand with Israel” during a well-documented genocide, are taking a political stance – and a political risk.
Imagine an institution in Toronto having the chutzpah to put up large signs declaring their unwavering support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Or imagine a building surrounded by bold signage supporting Trump. Or flying confederate flags. In each case, a bomb threat would not be shocking. Nor would it be an act of racism or hate. When you take a controversial stance in support of an entity that is accused of war crimes… someone might get really upset. Political intimidation sucks – and it’s illegal – but it’s not inherently racist.
Destruction of property
In my opinion this is the most important category and deserves the most attention. In the last few years we’ve seen examples of vandalism including smashed windows at a Toronto synagogue, arson at a Montreal synagogue, and gunshots at a Toronto Jewish school. I oppose these illegal and violent acts with all my might.
But I’m separating vandalism from category 4 (physical harm), because the target is property – not people. This is a crucial distinction for me. If someone wanted to cause physical harm to Jews, they would attack a synagogue or school during daytime hours when people are actually in the building. Yet all of the examples I’ve mentioned occurred in the middle of the night, making it an intentional act of intimidation rather than intent to harm or kill. And again, I see these acts as being politically motivated rather than racially motivated. Toronto synagogue Kehillat Shaarei Torah, for example, has had their windows broken multiple times. These attacks have been held up as examples of antisemitism, but just in front of the synagogue are four large signs declaring support for Israel. Once again: Publicly expressing strong support for a country that has been accused of genocide, is a political decision – and a risky one.
We’re fortunate that political acts of vandalism are rare and they appear to be lone-wolf acts rather than organised violence. But we should remain vigilant. As I said earlier, I think this is the most important category and the most deserving of attention. Acts of property destruction and intimidation should be reported, condemned and prosecuted.
Physical harm and murder
This will be a very unpopular opinion for some people, but I believe this category is a statistical zero for the Jewish community. That doesn’t mean it never happens, it just means that a Jew in Canada is more likely to drown to death in their own bathtub than to be harmed by an antisemite. There are many things that put people at risk of harm in Canada, every day. You can make a list of the top thousand things that could statistically kill you tomorrow. Being attacked or murdered in a hate crime is simply not one of them. A Jewish Canadian is much more likely to die falling out of their bed. A Jewish woman in Canada is 40 times more likely to be killed by her husband than to be harmed by an antisemite.
Hate-motivated violence is vile. But it’s incredibly rare, it’s committed by lone-wolf perpetrators, and it happens to many communities, every week, every day. Statistically, hate-motivated violence mostly targets the Black community, followed by 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, Asian, Arab and Muslim (and most recently, Mormons).
Yet if you listen to the mainstream legacy Jewish organisations, you’d think that Jews in Canada are at an imminent risk of physical harm or murder. Just last week, there was an incident at an event organised by Students Supporting Israel (yes, the same campus group I mentioned earlier) featuring an Israeli soldier who was invited to Canada to share stories about his “experience” in Gaza – a place where 60K-150K were recently murdered. A group of protesters arrived (not surprisingly) and things got heated.
One video shows a skirmish at the entrance to the building, between the police and the protesters. There is another video showing protesters banging on a window. Another video shows a group of protesters inside the building, standing still with their arms at their sides, chanting about Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Their posture is a clear indication of non-violence training. As things escalate, there is yelling back and forth. The protesters chant about genocide, while the soldier shouts about the IDF being a moral army that protects civilians.
At one point an interior glass door is shattered, but it’s unclear who was responsible. It’s also unclear if the broken glass was intentional or the result of someone being pushed. I’ve seen – and participated in – many acts of civil disobedience. The goal is to show up, peacefully disrupt, and then leave. When things escalate, it’s often because of unnecessary physical force used against the protesters.
I have no doubt it was scary for the organisers, but they were not at risk of harm. In fact, the only explicit physical violence towards a person in any of the videos is the Israeli soldier assaulting five young female protesters who were standing peacefully: grabbing them, dragging them and forcefully throwing them one by one through a doorway. The protesters’ commitment to non-violence is illustrated by their response to being thrown to the ground. They don’t fight back.They don’t resist in any way. Again, that is the result of non-violence training.
Most importantly, the protest had nothing to do with Jews or Judaism. It was a political protest against the Israeli army. If you publicly invite a soldier from a foreign country to speak, from an army that has committed one of the most brutal massacres in recent history, you’re gonna get some angry people at the door. Sorry, but that has nothing to do with your religion.
Yet, according to international news stories the following day, the soldier and the organisers were “violently attacked” by “pro-Hamas” “extremists” and “terrorists” who tried to “lynch” Jews.
The Toronto Sun described the event as a modern-day “Kristallnacht”, referring to the Nazi-fueled ‘Night of Broken Glass’ in 1938 that saw the destruction of thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses, and the murder of more than 100 Jews.
This is insanity. The exaggeration, the distortion, the deflection, the fiction.
I honestly believe that the heightened sense of imminent physical violence in the Jewish community is creating an actual crisis: the mental health of those living in constant fear. I know Jewish people who are terrified each day that they or their child might be murdered. Some have even asked non-Jewish friends if they would offer a hiding spot in their homes… in the case of an imminent Jewish genocide here in Canada. That level of fear and stress poses a far greater health risk than the perceived risk of antisemitism. In other words, if we do at some point see a pandemic of preventable death in the Jewish community, it will be caused by heart attacks – not by Muslims.
I’m reminded of the “Stranger Danger” and “White Van” hysteria of the 1980s. While mothers were obsessed with the fear that their kids might be abducted and killed by a random stranger, the truth was that their children were 30 times more likely to be killed by their dad.
So how do we assess actual risk and trends for hate-motivated violence?
I believe the most reliable information is a dataset called “hate-motivated assault occurrences” which is tracked and published annually by the Toronto Police Service. According to their latest report, there were a total of 115 occurrences in 2024. The two largest target groups, by far, were the 2SLGBTQIA+ and Black communities, followed by South Asian and Muslims. The antisemitic occurrences of assault were so negligible, that it was not mentioned in the report at all.
So is shitty stuff happening? Yes. Are Jews in Canada at risk of physical harm? The data clearly says no.
To wrap up this essay, I’ll touch on the Holocaust. After all, this is the origin of traumatic fear in the Jewish community: A deep awareness that many of our great great uncles and aunts were brutally murdered – and the accompanying fear that it could happen again – anywhere.
Growing up Jewish in North America is traumatic. By the age of 10, you’ve already learned about the Holocaust, and the number “six million” has been burnt into your consciousness. By 15 you’ve learned about extermination camps and you’ve seen countless black and white photos that you can never unsee: emaciated faces of children looking through barbed wire, lifeless bodies stacked in piles, a man sitting on the edge of a mass grave with a gun pointed at the back of his head. By the age of 20, it’s likely that you’ve traveled to Israel and stood inside the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem. And for many teenagers, their Holocaust education culminates in a tour to an actual extermination camp in Poland. Each year, thousands of North American kids participate in the “March of Living”, walking silently for three kilometres from the prisons and torture chambers of Auschwitz to the gas chambers and ovens at Birkenau.
The message we’re taught, over and over, is that it could happen to us again. Today. Here. Anywhere. This is why the Jewish community gets so worked up about small instances of perceived hatred: because it’s seen as a warning sign, a “canary in a coal mine.’ There is a sense of urgency to shut down hatred before it spreads and spirals into mass murder.
I understand this. For the Jewish community, the recent memory of the Holocaust is very real and close to home. I know the names and faces of my own family members who were murdered by the Nazis: Franzisca, Anne, Emmy, Hedwig. Their photos still hang on my parents’ walls.
I believe we all have a deep moral responsibility to ensure that a holocaust never happens again – to anyone. In order to do so, it’s crucial for us to look at the early warning signs that preceded the Nazi extermination camps.
Long before Hitler came to power, Jews faced societal exclusion and violence. There was a “glass ceiling” that prevented Jews being appointed to the highest state-controlled positions: Civil service, tenured professorships, judiciary, etc. These weren’t legislative barriers – they were cultural and systemic. There was also racist violence against Jews, much of which was carried out by organised – and uniformed – paramilitary groups.
When Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, things changed quickly. The systemic glass ceiling was turned into a legislated concrete barrier. Jews were officially expelled from many professions. And rather than community-based paramilitary groups, it was now the state carrying out the majority of anti-Jewish violence.
From this scenario, arose the Holocaust.
So if we want to apply the lessons of 1920s Germany to North America one hundred years later, and attune ourselves to the early warning signs of genocide, we should be watching closely for demographics who experience systemic exclusion from senior positions in society and/or groups who are suffering from organised or state violence. And then we need to act, with courage and firmness.
I’ve always believed that it was not the Nazi’s who killed my relatives. It was our neighbours, who remained silent. They allowed hatred to take root and slowly grow into a machine of mass murder.
This is the lesson of the Holocaust: That when we see these early warning signs, we need to push back – hard. We need to be the neighbours who don’t look away. This means that our fight against hatred must be seen through a lens of triage, focusing our attention where it’s most needed.
If we apply those early warning signs of pre-war Germany to Canada today, we see a clear pattern of groups that need our solidarity and support:
• Systemic exclusion from positions of power and influence: Primarily women of colour, Indigenous, Black, those with disabilities, and women in general.
• Assault Hate Crimes: Primarily LGBT, Black and South Asian.
• Victims of police violence: Primarily Black and Indigenous.
• Disproportionate imprisonment: Primarily Black, Indigenous, Latino & Muslim.
In contrast to 1920s Germany, Canada’s Jewish community is well-represented in all positions of influence and our likelihood of experiencing state violence is…. Zero. We’re gonna be ok.
I’m not saying that there won’t be examples of antisemitic violence. Of course there will be. Even something that has a one in a billion chance of happening, will eventually happen. But when we look at relevant data, look at trends, and look at history, it all points to one simple fact: The Jewish community, my community, in 2025, is doing fine.
That was my message to Jesse Brown, in the studio a few weeks ago. I’m not sure how it will translate after editing, but I tried my best to present my argument with clarity and evidence. I encourage you to check out the piece once it’s released, later this year. I know Jesse interviewed a wide spectrum of voices, so it should be interesting. (The series launches next Monday, November 17. My episode will be posted one week later – November 24).
As for me, I’ll continue to use a triage lens – based on data. I’ll prioritize my support to those who are at the most risk of physical harm and are the most marginalized. And I’ll continue to fight antisemitism in the same way I’ve been doing for the past two years: By showing up and standing shoulder to shoulder with my cousins in the Palestinians community, as they cry out for an end to the mass murder of their families. I cry with them, sowing seeds of interfaith trust.
I will call out ISAK when I see it, and I will not let false claims of antisemitism deflect from Israel’s actual war crimes in Palestine.
As a Jew in 2025, I am no longer the victim. I am the neighbour.
In summary: Racism sucks. Keep your eyes open, support each other and report real hate crimes. Most importantly, be an ally to the communities that are experiencing the highest levels of hatred, exclusion and discrimination.
That’s the most important history lesson I learned in Hebrew school.
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