"We Canadians need to have each other’s backs and stand up against hatred of the other," writes Marsha Lederman. A man holds a sign in support of the Jewish community in Australia during Toronto's annual Hanukkah Menorah lighting at Mel Lastman Square in North York, Dec. 15, 2025.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
On the first official workday of 2026, heading into the final weekend of what we would loosely call the holidays, Winnipeg’s oldest synagogue, Shaarey Zedek, was vandalized with, among other things, swastikas spray-painted on its beautiful front doors. This was not an isolated incident.
Even with all the global festive cheer and goodwill, antisemitism managed to cloud the holiday air. As the world teeters toward disturbing instability, with Donald Trump’s imperialist actions and ambitions, these international acts not only add to feelings of insecurity for Jewish people, but should be disconcerting for all – as any racist actions would be.
A shed on the property of Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Andreas Buttner, was set on fire on Sunday. And an inverted red triangle (a symbol used by Hamas indicating a target) was painted on the front door of the house where Mr. Buttner was with his family. “This attack represents a massive escalation. It is directed against me personally, against my family, and against my home,” he posted on social media. “At the same time, it is an expression of hatred and intimidation.”
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Hatred and intimidation have also visited doorways in Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto, with about 100 mezuzahs removed from apartment entrances in a building near Bathurst and Steeles a month ago, and more taken on Christmas Day from a condominium complex near Bayview and Finch. (A mezuzah is a small case containing a scroll with scripture that Jewish people affix to their doorposts.) “I feel sad and frightened,” Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger, who lives in the condo building, told the Canadian Press.
On Boxing Day, shoppers looking for bargains at the Eaton Centre found themselves amid a raucous anti-Israel protest, with protesters calling for “Intifada right now.” Instead of holding it at the Israeli consulate, the protest took place outside Indigo, the bookstore chain that has been a major target of the movement; its Jewish owner, Heather Reisman, separately funds a scholarship for former Israeli lone soldiers. On the Saturday before Christmas, Indigo was hit with an economic protest, with books returned en masse.
Viewers watching CBC’s New Year’s Eve celebrations may have noticed anti-Israel signage in the crowd behind its Toronto co-hosts, including a sign that said Israel’s New Year’s resolution was to “kill more babies.”
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One could say these protests targeting Israel have nothing to do with Jews. But ask Jews how they felt about seeing that on TV or being caught in the Eaton Centre with people screaming for an Intifada. Not exactly secure, or reassured.
On his first day in office, Zohran Mamdani, New York’s progressive new mayor sworn in with the New Year, reversed his predecessor’s ban on city agencies that boycott Israel and rescinded the executive order accepting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism (accepted by many governments, including Canada – which calls it the most authoritative and comprehensive definition of antisemitism in the world today – although there are valid questions about this definition).
Over in jolly old England, in the early hours of Boxing Day, a Jewish camp leader and child returning from a hospital visit were thrown out of an Uber on a country road, after the driver initiated a conversation about Judaism and Israel, according to local police.
One response to all of this might be: so what? Tossing a child out of an Uber in the middle of the night is nothing compared to what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
There is no question that the war in Gaza has been catastrophic. But Jews around the world deserve to live without discrimination. No other form of racism would be justified in this manner. Nor should it. All Jews are not responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. Nor are all Israelis. Just like all Americans are not responsible for what Mr. Trump is doing in Venezuela (which the acting Venezuelan president, by the way, said had “Zionist undertones”) – and may be about to do elsewhere.
Back to Winnipeg. Two days after the synagogue incident, a Palestinian-owned restaurant was also hit with hateful vandalism. Its front windows were smashed, and there was a disturbing note: “Leave our country terrorists.”
I wish I was in Winnipeg right now so I could walk through the front door of the Habibiz Café, order a hummus and shawarma plate and tell its owner, Ali Zeid, how sorry I am that this happened. We Canadians need to have each other’s backs and stand up against hatred of the other. As the world around us darkens, this is one thing we can do together.