2026 'Most Violent Year in Recent Memory' for Canada's Jews, B'nai Brith Warns

Less than five months into 2026, Canada's Jewish community has already experienced more violent antisemitic attacks than during all of 2025, putting it on track to be the most violent year for the Jewish community in recent memory, B'nai Brith Canada warned on Friday, May 8. The organization's League for Human Rights has recorded 11 violent antisemitic incidents nationwide since January 1, surpassing the ten violent incidents documented during the entirety of 2025.

On Thursday night, May 7, three Jewish people were shot at with a replica firearm from a passing vehicle as they exited the Chasidei Bobov synagogue on Bathurst Street in Toronto. The attack followed numerous other synagogue incidents recorded in recent months. "These brazen attacks on Jewish Canadians are a sign of a crisis of antisemitism that has spiraled out of control," said Simon Wolle, chief executive officer of B'nai Brith Canada. The organization is calling on the federal government to establish an emergency task force to combat antisemitism.

B'nai Brith took the unprecedented step of releasing preliminary 2026 figures because of the rapid escalation in violent acts, said Richard Robertson, the organization's director of research and advocacy, warning that "Jewish Canadians are being terrorized." Last year Canada recorded a record 6,800 antisemitic incidents—the highest since the organization began tracking in 1982—translating to an average of 18.6 daily incidents and a 9.3% increase over 2024's previous record. The 400,000-strong Canadian Jewish community has been among the hardest hit by antisemitism since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

(TOI/VFI News)

Our Heavenly Father, we cry out to You on behalf of the Jewish community in Canada, which is enduring an unprecedented surge of violent antisemitism. We pray in Yeshua's Name that You protect every Jewish family, synagogue, school, and institution from harm, and that You frustrate the plans of those who would do violence against Your covenant people. Move the hearts of Canadian leaders to act decisively against this hatred, and pour out Your Spirit of comfort upon all who feel terrorized. May Your love and truth dispel every lie that fuels antisemitism.