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June 30, 2021 12:14 pm
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Canadian Jews Faced ‘Highest Ever’ Number of Antisemitic Incidents in May, Says Jewish Group in Report

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Pro-Palestinian protesters are held back by police separating them from a small group of Israel supporters in front of city hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada May 15, 2021. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

Canada’s Jewish community “came under assault on multiple fronts” during the month of May, a leading Jewish group charged Wednesday, in a report that collected data on recent antisemitic incidents across the country.

B’nai Brith Canada said that it was aware of at least 250 such incidents during May, a month that saw the 11-day conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror group and the wave of antisemitic invective and attacks that followed.

Those 250 incidents — the highest ever reported in a single month by B’nai Brith since the group began collecting data in 1982 — included 154 incidents of harassment, 51 incidents of vandalism, and 61 incidents of violence. The figure did not include “many other online incidents” still being reviewed.

“One alarming finding that has not been sufficiently publicized is the degree of antisemitism present at anti-Israel rallies. In almost every city where such rallies took place, Jews were singled out and targeted for abuse by angry mobs of demonstrators,” the group said.

“These rallies were not the typical kind of civil and lawful political protests with which most Canadians are familiar. Many of these events devolved into open hatefests with blatantly antisemitic, obscene, and violent rhetoric.”

It cited several, specific “noteworthy” incidents, including a rally in Montreal at which Jewish demonstrators were attacked with rocks; death threats hurled at an Israeli restauranteur in Vancouver; and public calls for violence against Jews made by protesters driving through Calgary.

“The dangerous rise of antisemitism in the month of May must serve as a wake-up call to all Canadians,” B’nai Brith said. “If, as a society, we stand united against hate, then we must also stand united against antisemitism. If left to fester, the hatred of Jews will lead to the fraying of the very foundations of our civil society.”

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