Canadian Jewish organizations condemn Colorado attack, call for action against antisemitism at home

In the wake of another antisemitic attack in the U.S., organizations representing the Canadian Jewish community condemned the incident and renewed their call for governments to take concrete steps to prevent more like it. On Sunday in Boulder, Col., eight people were injured, some with serious burns, when 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly used Molotov cocktails and an improvised flamethrower on a small group of people assembled to raise attention for the remaining 58 Israeli hostages in Gaza. He reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” as he did so. Soliman has since been charged with federal hate crime and other charges, and the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Abraham Global Peace Initiative CEO and founder Avi Benlolo said he was saddened by the incident, but “not surprised.” It’s the byproduct, he said, of demonstrators becoming “much more hostile, much more desperate” in an effort to seek attention. And he thinks it’s only going to escalate. “I think we’re going to see more Colorados,” he told National Post Monday. In a post to X, B’nai Brith Canada called it “a cowardly act of hate filled violence” and suggested this and other recent antisemitic attacks “are emblematic of what happens when radical extremism is allowed to flourish and when hatred is incited without consequence.”

B'nai Brith Canada stands in solidarity with the Jewish community in Boulder, Colorado. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack.Targeting a group that was peacefully gathered to call for the release of the hostages is a cowardly act of hate filled…— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) June 1, 2025

Less than two weeks ago in Washington, D.C., two Israeli Embassy staff members — Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26 — were shot and killed by a gunman who later yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested. Hamas’s infiltration of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — during which 1,195 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage — and the Israeli military’s response have led to a wave of antisemitic attacks in Western countries, including Canada. And while there haven’t been any hate crimes resulting in the deaths of Jewish people in Canada, there has been a marked increase in other offences in the 19 months since hostilities began with the terrorist group in Gaza. In 2023, of the 1,284 hate crimes targeting a religion — a jump of 67 per cent from 2022 — 900 were against Jewish people, that’s over 70 per cent of all hate crimes and a 71 per cent increase over the previous year, according to Statistics Canada police-reported hate crime data. There were more than four times as many antisemitic hate crimes as the second-most targeted religious minority, Muslims. In Toronto, antisemitic hate crime spiked 76 per cent in 2023 over the year prior, with almost 68 of the 146 occurring after October, per the Toronto Police public safety data portal. That figure climbed 20.5 per cent in 2024 with 176 reported hate crimes targeting Jewish people, which represented 81 per cent of all religion bias hate offences. That includes three shootings at Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School in North York — which was unoccupied at the time — and vandalism at the Kehillat Shaarei Torah synagogue , among other unpublicized incidents. In response to Sunday’s events, Toronto police said Monday officers would continue to maintain a heightened presence around places of worship, community centres, schools and other faith-based locations as they have since the Washington attack. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, police data from December 2022 to December 2023 showed a 62 per cent increase in antisemitism , while officials in Montreal accounted for 212 in the calendar year following Oct. 7, 131 of which were reported before January 2024, per The Canadian Jewish News. In March, the city’s Congregation Beth Tikvah was hit with a firebomb just over a year after being damaged in a similar attack that included a fire at a nearby Federation CJA building. Benlolo conceded the attacks on both sides of the border are adding to unease felt by Canadian Jews, but he said “mobs of people” more radicalized than their southern counterparts partaking in extremist activism is a clear and present danger. “If you’re in Florida, as an example, you’ll never see these kinds of rallies and obstruction of Jewish events. The authorities and, basically, the community just won’t allow it,” he said, comparing the sometimes violent anti-Israel demonstrations to those seen in Germany before the Nazis rose to power. “They are marching through Jewish neighbourhoods. They are obstructing Jewish businesses. They are trying to shut down events. They’re calling venues and trying to shut them down. So, there is a complete and utter obstruction of daily life if you are a Jewish person. It feels like we’re back in the 1930s.” He said Ottawa needs to start taking growing antisemitism more seriously as a threat within Canada. As it stands, he said Jewish people feel abandoned by the federal government. “And that’s been leading to us feeling now, and that feeling is growing, that there is tacit approval, particularly by this incoming government, that we haven’t seen the condemnations that you would think, and the action taken that you would think,” Benlolo said. “Sadly, it feels like a political decision by the government.” While Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a critical stance on Israel’s war efforts, he condemned the Washington shootings on X, at which time he also reiterated a campaign promise “to introduce legislation to make it a criminal offence to intentionally and willfully obstruct access to any place of worship, schools, and community centres; and a criminal offence to willfully intimidate or threaten those attending services at these locations.” B’Nai Brith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also called for action in separate posts to X. “We call upon Canadian leaders to confront the extremism and incitement compromising the vitality of our society and to take immediate action to ensure the well-being of all Canadians,” CJIA posted. “Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish radicalization is a growing threat in North America that demands a forceful response from authorities,” B’Nai Brith wrote. “We need decisive action to protect our community and all Canadians.” — With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.