Canada is ‘one of the centres of antisemitism, globally,’ says Israeli ambassador, on tour of targeted synagogue
The Israeli ambassador to Canada called the country “one of the centres of antisemitism globally” during a visit to a Thornhill, Ont., synagogue that was shot at last week.
While Ambassador Iddo Moed noticed “a rising trend in antisemitism” following his arrival in Canada in August 2023, it was after the October 7 terror attacks on Israel that a “dramatic spike” occurred, he said.
“It created a lot of concern in Israel. It drew the attention of the highest political levels in spite of the fact that we are, at the same time, busy with the war,” he told National Post on Thursday, in an exclusive interview. “We really came to realize that Canada has become one of the centres of antisemitism globally that we need to monitor much more closely,” Moed said.
The ambassador spoke with the Post during a tour of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT), a synagogue just north of Toronto. It was the third Jewish house of worship targeted in the city in a matter of days.
During Moed’s visit, he was guided by Rabbi Daniel Korobkin and synagogue president Yaakov Adatto, both of whom voiced the growing concerns of their congregants. The front doors of the BAYT were still shattered from the gunfire as a cold morning breeze crept through the building. Yellow police markers were posted beside the broken glass, marking the bullet holes. Adatto said ten shots hit the synagogue.
Ambassador Moed compared the attack to an “organized crime” hit, intended to send a signal of intimidation to Canadian Jews. Korobkin agreed and called on national leaders to take action.
“What our message needs to be to our leaders is that if nothing is done, then you’re sending a message: ‘They can go ahead and go to the next level,’” the rabbi said.
“It’s the literal broken windows theory,” Adatto added, referring to the idea that failing to enforce minor crimes leads to increased lawlessness.
The Jewish community leaders also spoke about a growing wave of Canadian Jews who have moved to Israel, also known as “making aliyah,” from within their congregation. Korobkin said that he and his wife were planning on emigrating in 2027 to lead a congregation in Jerusalem. Adatto mentioned that his parents had also recently left and moved to the Israeli capital. Moed was heartened to hear of congregants moving to Israel, but underscored that another priority remained to advocate for the Canadian Jewish community at home.
“We don’t want this to become France,” Adatto said near the end of the tour.
French Jews have experienced some of the highest levels of antisemitism in diaspora countries, and the situation has only gotten worse since October 7. Since 2000, more than a tenth of the Jewish community has left the country, many bound for Israel.
Following his tour, the ambassador sat with the Post for a brief conversation in the BAYT basement as old Jewish men studied in nearby classrooms and his security team waited in the hallway.
Although Moed previously served in the Netherlands , his country of birth with a bad reputation for antisemitism, he said his experience in Canada has been jarring. As he approaches his third year in the post, he called his tenure in Canada, and the threats faced in the country, “incomparable to anything in the past.”
He thought his time in Canada would be spent working through the standard ambassadorial rotation of business development, community relations, expanding trade and strengthening bilateral ties. However, the harassment of Canadian Jews and Israelis in the country shook him.
“The concern for security is something that’s completely unprecedented. I never thought that would be an issue that we’ll be dealing with at such a level in Canada. Unfortunately, it is, so what I’m doing about it is to draw the attention of all relevant governments: federal, provincial, municipal.”
The Bondi Beach terror attack in December, which claimed the lives of over a dozen Jews at a Chanukkah celebration, is front of Moed’s mind. He called the shooting a “wake-up call for the whole world” and commended Prime Minister Mark Carney’ s government for quickly condemning it.
“Part of my visit here,” he said, “is to share with (Canadian political leaders) our grave concern, to share with them our perspective, that we see a clear escalating trend. We see that all the red lights are blinking. We see that all the warning signs are there. We are not sure that we’ve seen the end of this.”
He underscored that Israel remained eager to assist Canadian authorities in any way possible, whether through intelligence or technology, to help combat antisemitism. Moed said that the federal government was open to collaboration and mentioned later on Thursday he was scheduled to visit Ontario Premier Doug Ford to discuss the situation in greater detail.
“This is sort of a global trend, and its expressions in Canada are one of the worst,” he said. “Today we are speaking about the country (Canada) where most shooting incidents took place against Jewish institutions in the world. We are talking about (the) community which is the fourth largest diaspora that feels terrorized. It feels abandoned.”
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