From Auschwitz, Holocaust survivor issues urgent warning over rising antisemitism in Canada

AUSCHWITZ: A Holocaust survivor from Canada has warned about growing antisemitism in his country, calling on the nation's leaders to take action against perpetrators.

Nate Leipciger spoke at the annual March of the Living at Auschwitz in Poland on Tuesday as thousands gathered to commemorate those killed in the Holocaust against a backdrop of growing antisemitism in the world. 

The 98-year-old said he was recently targeted in Toronto when mezuzahs (sacred parchment scrolls) were forcibly removed from apartment doors in his building. 

The violence increased in March when his synagogue was also targeted in a drive-by shooting. "The front doors and lobby were destroyed. It is terrible that we have lost our sense of security," Leipciger told Fox News Digital. 

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"Once you lose that, you no longer know when or where the next attack might occur. It is deeply troubling to live in a free, democratic country — where everyone is meant to have equal rights — and to be persecuted in this way," he added.

Born in Poland in 1928, Leipciger was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. He survived multiple camps and a death march before being liberated in 1945, later immigrating to Canada in 1948.

The only way to prevent history from repeating itself, he said, is to advocate for the truth and confront deception and lies.

"The running is over. For centuries, we ran. We have to stand up for our right to live as Jews in any country, including Israel, as free citizens enjoying the fruits of Western culture, of which we are part," he added.

Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Canada has seen a sharp rise in antisemitism, with B’nai Brith Canada reporting 6,219 incidents in 2024 — more than double the number recorded in 2022.

While figures for 2025 have yet to be released, Public Safety Canada noted that from April to June 2025, "Among hate crimes targeting religion… the majority were directed at the Jewish community (69%)."

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Canadian Jewish communities are "extremely concerned" about a surge in antisemitism, a reality conveyed by Israeli officials both privately and publicly to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.

"We are aware of extreme concern among Jewish communities in Canada about their safety and well-being, both as individuals and as communities, including their institutions," Israeli Ambassador to Ottawa Ido Moed told Fox News Digital. "Israel views the recent attacks against synagogues as very serious and considers Canada among the high-risk countries in terms of shooting incidents."

Moed said Israel has offered to expand cooperation with Canada across areas including education and security coordination, and has initiated roundtable discussions on policy, regulation and best practices.

U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Yehuda Kaploun told Fox News Digital at Auschwitz that leadership accountability is critical to confronting antisemitism.

"It is incumbent upon law enforcement in various countries to designate terrorist organizations, as we have done with certain aspects of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The world should do so collectively, and America is leading the way in that battle," Kaploun said.

Earlier this month, shots were fired at a Jewish-owned restaurant in Toronto during Passover. In March, Israel’s minister of Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, sent a letter urging Ottawa to increase efforts to protect Jewish communities after three synagogues in the Toronto area were hit by gunfire within just one week.

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Richard Marceau, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and general counsel at the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, noted that Jewish Canadians are 25 times more likely than any other group to be victims of hate crimes.

"What we have seen in Canada is an all-level systemic failure to address Jew-hatred," he told Fox News Digital.

"Confronting this crisis is essential not only to protect the Jewish community, but to safeguard the future of the Canadian way of life," he continued. "All levels of government must do more to protect Canadians, including ensuring robust and consistent enforcement of existing laws, improving transparency in prosecutorial decisions, strengthening support – including financially – for community security, and addressing the drivers of radicalization in Canada."

SanJaya Wijayakoon, an RCMP superintendent in Vancouver who joined a global law enforcement delegation on the March of the Living, said engagement with the Jewish community is central to policing.

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"A big part of our work is to build contacts and maintain strong relationships through which we can receive information, provide advice and guidance on ensuring safety, and, if something crosses the line into criminality, investigate it fully," he said.

"I think as the years pass, fewer and fewer people within the police understand what happened in 1945 in Europe. Being in this program and on this march allows us to return and speak to our people about what I learned and observed, and they can apply it in their day-to-day work," he added.

Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel Region, pointed to the recent synagogue shootings in Toronto and criticized the government's response as insufficient.

"I would like to see the prime minister properly define the problem and stop pussyfooting around, pretending radical Islam does not exist," Adams said.

"We are under attack. Foreign actors are operating in Western countries in three areas: they are sending radical imams into mosques, they are investing massive amounts of money in educational systems and they are targeting us on social media. I find the response by Western leaders, with the exception of President Trump, to be entirely lacking," he said.

"Everyone in the West needs to wake up. They are trying to take away our freedom. It starts with the Jews but never ends with the Jews," he added.