❓WHAT HAPPENED: Jews are fleeing Canada for the United States and Israel after a surge in anti-Semitic incidents.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Jews in Canada, pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas agitators.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Canada, over recent months.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Toronto and Montreal seem to have become the standouts in the Western world. The velocity, ferociousness, intensity of the way in which anti-Semitism has sparked and spread in Toronto and Montreal, to this day, it shocks me.” – former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici.
🎯IMPACT: Growing danger for Jews could lead more to flee Canada as pro-Palestinian agitators continue to march and target Jewish businesses and religious sites.
After a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada, some Jews claim they are relocating to the United States, while others are looking to move to Israel. From 2022 to 2024, Canada saw a 124.6 percent increase in hate incidents directed at Jews, who account for around 70 percent of the victims of religiously motivated hate crimes despite being just 0.9 percent of the Canadian population.
Political strategist Georganne Burke, a resident of Canada’s capital, Ottawa, said she is planning on moving to Florida due to the rise in anti-Semitism after living in Canada for 40 years. “People know who I am, I’m on television, I’m on radio, I’m on social media, I don’t hide. But if that’s going to mean that people are gonna feel free to threaten my life. I don’t have to live here,” she explained, also noting the rise of anti-American attitudes following President Donald J. Trump‘s reelection.
Alongside a rise in anti-Semitic incidents, Canada has seen anti-Israel, and often pro-Hamas, demonstrations take place regularly in major cities like Toronto and Montreal since the October 7 massacres of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. Protestors have sometimes targeted Jewish neighbourhoods, community centers, and synagogues.
“Toronto and Montreal seem to have become the standouts in the Western world. The velocity, ferociousness, intensity of the way in which anti-Semitism has sparked and spread in Toronto and Montreal, to this day, it shocks me,” former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici said.
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