To the surprise of almost no one in Canada’s Jewish community, or in police hate crime units, newly released figures show that antisemitism rose dramatically in 2023. According to B’nai Brith Canada’s annual audit of antisemitic incidents, published last week, there were 5,791 documented acts of violence, harassment and vandalism targeting Jews last year. That is more than double the total in 2022.
As if surging antisemitism wasn’t bad enough, adding insult to injury, some non-Jews arrogantly tell Jews what antisemitism is and isn’t. They also earnestly insist their fierce so-called “anti-Zionism” has nothing to do with antisemitism and accuse Jews of trying to shut down criticism of Israel by labelling it antisemitic.
