For one Jewish family, the rise in antisemitism in Canada has motivated them to move to Israel where they say they will feel safer.
Moshe Appel said he grew up in Canada and lived in various places, including Montreal, British Columbia, and Atlantic Canada, but he’s watched as antisemitism in the country has grown.
“It occurs to me and to my family that it’s no longer a safe place to raise our family,” he said, adding the family has plans to move in a few weeks.
“Being a Jew in Canada over the course of my entire life, I’ve watched the city [Montreal] that I was born in and had a thriving Jewish community essentially either go to Israel or leave for some other part of the country, or leave to the States, because Canada is not a safe place for Jews.”
He said he’s always thought of moving, but since Hamas’s surprise attack in Israel on Oct. 7 and the anti-Israel marches in Canada and around the world, the decision has been easier to make.
Just shortly after the attack, rallies were held in some cities in Canada celebrating the killings. Since then, after Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza, many large scale anti-Israel rallies have been held.
“In the wake of 9/11, the major cities in the world—New York, London, Paris, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto—didn’t have these massive rallies celebrating al-Qaeda and the Taliban,“ Mr. Appel said. ”But in the wake of Oct. 7, the streets of London and New York and Toronto and Montreal were flooded with people celebrating what Hamas did to over [1,200] Israelis, children, women, disabled people.”
During a pro-Palestine rally in Toronto on Oct. 21, a crowd of protesters gathered outside a Jewish-owned restaurant at University Avenue and Adelaide Street, waving flags and chanting “boycott.”
Mr. Appel’s wife, Leah, said Israel is more prepared to protect its people.
“In Canada, we have no idea how to respond to this type of thing. So what happens if there is an attack here? What happens when pro-Palestinian protesters go to a Jewish school and try to round up all the kids?” she asked. “The police here, the government here, the people here have no idea how to deal with something like that.”
Richard Robertson, research manager at B’nai Brith, a Jewish human rights organization, said there has been a “dramatic rise” in antisemitic activity in Canada.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen things progress in terms of the caustic nature of the ... rallies to online incitement to more pronounced forms of incitement,” he told The Epoch Times. “Now we’re seeing, unfortunately, like with the shootings, the physical consequences of this. The community’s on edge.”
Mr. Robertson said he does not directly know of any other families leaving Canada for Israel, but said it was sad to hear.
‘That’s Exactly How It Starts’
Mr. Appel said he has lost faith in politicians who, he said, have been largely silent on this issue.“One of the largest Jewish schools in Montreal was shot at twice in one week and the prime minister of Canada said, ‘We have to stand against Islamophobia,’” he paraphrased the prime minister as saying.
After the first school shooting on Nov. 9, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the incident, and said, “violence, hate, antisemitism, Islamophobia and scenes such as the ones we saw in Concordia University or shots fired at Jewish schools overnight—all of that is unacceptable.”
Mr. Appel said he believes if the government developed a policy that restricted Jews from living in certain communities, there would be support from some people in Canada.
“It would not be acceptable in our community, but if it was painted in the right picture, most of Montreal and a lot of Canada would be acceptable to it because it would [framed to] be for our safety,” Mr. Appel said.
“That’s exactly how it starts.”
