‘Canada used to be a beautiful country’: Jewish community shaken by Bondi Beach attack, rising antisemitism at home

Jewish communities across Canada are on high alert following the deadly attack in Australia and the rise in hate crimes at home. Andrew Johnson explains.

Shock and grief are being felt across Canada after the deadly attack on Australia’s Bondi Beach, with members of the Jewish community already shaken by increased antisemitism, which they say they are seeing in their daily lives.

At Sabra Kosher Bakery in Vancouver, owner Shimon Kahlon said he couldn’t take his mind off the overnight attack and spent hours watching news coverage before opening his shop the next morning.

“I didn’t sleep all night,” Kahlon said. “I just watched TV and came in with sadness.”

While the attack happened on the other side of the world, Kahlon said it reflects the new reality he is seeing in Canada, which has shifted greatly since he first opened the bakery in the early ‘90s. He said antisemitism has become more visible over the past two years, claiming his bakery has been targeted by verbal abuse and confrontations.

“People come here screaming about Jews and they try to throw chairs,” he said. “I have a couple fights here … my wife, she holds me back,” Kahlon said, describing multiple tense encounters. “Canada used to be a beautiful country. Today it’s not.”

Customers at the bakery said they too have noticed a shift.

“I feel it here, like it’s an undercurrent, but it’s coming to the top,” said Andrew Kay, a member of Vancouver’s Jewish community. Kay said his mother came from Germany during Adolf Hitler’s reign as German chancellor, and she always feared there would, some day again, be a rise in antisemitism.

He sees the Australian attack as an attack on all humanity.

“What’s going on in the world right now is just not very nice,” he said.

In Winnipeg, Rena Secter Elbaze, executive director of the city’s most historic synagogue, said immediately following the attack, she felt anger.

“I felt they were taking our moment of joy. I didn’t feel afraid, but I felt that we had to somehow get the light back, not to allow the darkness to seep in and take over.”

Police services across the country have increased their presence around Jewish spaces and events. Vancouver police boosted security at a downtown menorah lighting Sunday, while in the Greater Toronto Area, officers set up command posts and increased patrols in Jewish neighbourhoods.

Sarah Lefton, the chief development officer of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, said the added police presence is welcome but stressed more must be done.

“It doesn’t start and stop with the police,” Lefton said. “We need support from all levels of government, and we need our peers — non-Jewish friends, colleagues and allies — to step up. When one religious group is threatened, we’re all threatened.”

Hanukkah celebrations are continuing across the country. Organizers say the tone may be more sombre as communities reflect on the overseas attack and ongoing safety concerns at home.

Secter Elbaze said now is the time to gather as one community.

“Come en masse. We want you. We are going to celebrate. Our holiday will be joyful. We have many wonderful celebrations coming up in the next few days.”