OTTAWA, Canada | Canadian Jewish leaders are entering the Jewish New Year warning that antisemitic pressure remains deeply embedded in public life, even as they point to recent government and law-enforcement actions as evidence that sustained community advocacy can produce results.
In a Rosh Hashanah message published Sept. 11, Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs CEO Noah Shack described Canadian Jews as confronting what he called a โtidal wave of antisemitism,โ attempts to exclude Jews from public life and government action that he believes increasingly isolates Israel.
University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist separately argued that synagogues, Jewish schools, community centers and Jewish-owned businesses continue to be treated as proxies for Israel, leaving Jewish Canadians to bear the consequences of anger directed at a foreign government.
Both pieces are advocacy or commentary rather than new statistical reports. Neither establishes a new antisemitic incident or presents new official hate-crime data.
They still offer a snapshot of how prominent Jewish voices are assessing the state of Jewish life in Canada as Rosh Hashanah begins.
Shack Says Community Action Has Produced Results
Shackโs message, titled A New Year. A New Chance to Act, combined a warning about antisemitism with an argument for greater Jewish civic engagement.
โAs we approach a new Jewish year, we do so at a time of enormous challenges: a tidal wave of antisemitism, growing efforts to push Jews out of public life, and, as we saw this week, attempts by our own government to isolate Israel,โ he wrote.
The reference to Israel followed Canadaโs participation this week in international measures targeting trade involving Israeli communities, a decision CIJA strongly condemned.
Shack argued that the scale of the challenges facing Jewish Canadians can make individual action appear insignificant, but said recent developments demonstrate that collective pressure can influence governments, institutions and law enforcement.
CIJA cited increased federal funding for the Canada Community Security Program as one example.
The organization says Jewish community advocacy helped persuade Ottawa to more than double federal funding for the program to $135 million over five years. The program supports security measures for vulnerable community institutions, including personnel, equipment and protective infrastructure.
CIJA also pointed to the passage of the federal Combatting Hate Act, legislation the organization supported on the grounds that it provides additional tools for police and prosecutors confronting hate-motivated conduct.
Toronto Arrests Cited as Example of Enforcement
Shack also referred to arrests following an earlier Toronto demonstration that CIJA characterized as a hate protest involving Nazi-era propaganda and imagery.
โThousands demanded stronger enforcement,โ Shack wrote, adding that Jewish organizations had jointly urged authorities to enforce existing laws.
According to CIJA, authorities have since arrested and charged eight people in connection with the broader matter.
The charges themselves remain allegations and have not been proven in court.
CIJA presented the arrests as evidence that public pressure and community advocacy can help move authorities toward enforcement.
The organization also cited political advocacy in Montreal, where it says public mobilization contributed to significant amendments to a controversial city council motion, and a campaign supporting a Vancouver venue that resisted calls to cancel Boy George after the singer expressed solidarity with Israelis.
Shackโs broader message was that Canadian Jews should respond to the current environment by becoming more active rather than withdrawing from public life.
He urged community members to vote, engage politically, speak with neighbors and colleagues, and participate in organized advocacy.
โOur work is far from finished,โ Shack wrote. โHate crimes remain at unacceptable levels. Institutions continue to be weaponized against our community by extremists.โ
Geist Compares Post-9/11 Response With Post-Oct. 7 Canada
Geist approached the issue from a different direction.
In a Sept. 11 commentary marking 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the University of Ottawa professor compared how Canadian and other institutions responded to 9/11 with their reaction to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack in Israel and the antisemitism that followed.
Geist argued that after 9/11, mainstream institutions largely accepted the factual basis of the terrorist attacks even while debating the appropriate security response.
He contrasted that with the environment following Oct. 7, pointing to public statements celebrating โresistance,โ disputes over documented atrocities, false-flag claims, destruction of hostage posters, and what he described as institutional reluctance to confront antisemitism.
His essay is explicitly commentary and reflects his assessment of how institutions have responded.
But one element of his argument concerns a phenomenon repeatedly documented since Oct. 7: Jewish institutions in Canada being targeted in connection with events in Israel.
โSynagogues, Jewish schools, community centers, and businesses have been targeted as proxies for a foreign state,โ Geist wrote.
He argued that holding Jewish Canadians or Jewish institutions responsible for decisions made by Israel is itself antisemitic.
Security Remains Part of Jewish Religious Life
Geist also connected that environment directly to the High Holy Days.
He wrote that the consequences of antisemitic targeting include Jewish Canadians concealing their identity and Jewish institutions erecting greater physical security.
โThis weekend it will mean High Holiday services with security measures that few other communities face,โ he wrote.
That observation aligns with a broader security reality already acknowledged by Jewish organizations and government officials.
CIJA has repeatedly highlighted shootings at Jewish institutions, threats against synagogues, and harassment directed at Jewish neighborhoods as evidence that Jewish security concerns extend beyond political rhetoric.
Official Statistics Canada figures released earlier this year recorded 788 police-reported hate crimes targeting Jews in 2025, according to CIJAโs summary of the federal data. Jewish Canadians remained the countryโs most frequently targeted religious group in police-reported hate crimes.
Those figures are separate from the Sept. 11 statements and provide broader context, not new data released for Rosh Hashanah.
Israel Remains Central to the Debate
Both Shack and Geist also addressed the relationship between antisemitism and hostility toward Israel.
CIJA has sharply criticized Ottawaโs latest sanctions policy involving Israeli communities, arguing that discriminatory treatment of Israel can have consequences for Jewish Canadians.
In its Sept. 8 statement, the organization said the measures reinforced what it considers a double standard toward Israel at a time when Canadian synagogues are already increasing security for Rosh Hashanah.
Geistโs argument is narrower.
He did not suggest that criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. Rather, he argued that antisemitism occurs when Jewish people or institutions in Canada are treated as responsible for the actions of Israelโs government.
That distinction is important.
Political criticism of Israel, including opposition to Israeli government policy, does not by itself constitute antisemitism.
Targeting Jewish schools, synagogues, businesses or individuals because of Israeli government actions, however, treats Canadian Jews as collective representatives of another country.
A New Year Focused on Action
Shack framed Rosh Hashanah not only as a moment to assess the Jewish communityโs circumstances, but as an opportunity to determine how it responds.
He invoked the Jewish concept of teshuvah, traditionally associated with reflection, repentance and change during the High Holy Days, and applied it to civic engagement.
His message was deliberately forward-looking: individual actions may appear small, he argued, but coordinated participation can affect laws, policing, municipal policy and public institutions.
โHelp our community become the most involved in Canadian civic life,โ Shack urged.
Geist ended on a more somber note.
Twenty-five years after 9/11, he argued that society still accepts extensive security measures to address the threat revealed by those attacks, while many institutions have failed to respond with comparable seriousness to the harms experienced by Jews since Oct. 7.
For Jewish Canadians entering 5787, the two messages arrive at essentially the same conclusion from different directions.
The pressure has not disappeared.
Neither has the determination to remain publicly Jewish, politically engaged, and unwilling to accept antisemitism as a permanent feature of Canadian life.
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