What Toronto Jews Can Do In Response To Hate

Three synagogues in the city of Toronto were shot at this week.

For Jews in Toronto and the GTA, this experience has become routine. It is normalized. Luckily, no one has been hurt or killed yet. But many are unable to sit and wait for help anymore. As I wrote in the end of my article post Bondi Beach:

“Jews, no one is coming to save us. We must stand up for ourselves, or we risk being pushed out. It happens in every generation, a great test of our peoplehood. That test is here now. Will you rise to the occasion?”

So, three months later, with another escalation and major threat to our safety - I want to know what can we actually do.

To help find answers, I went to a large Toronto Jewish Facebook group and asked the following:

“Friends, we are all disturbed by the shootings at our houses of worship. There is no question that this is unacceptable. There is no question that we need to act. The question is what can we actually do to effect change?”

Reading through the over one hundred responses, allow me to summarize andsort out the ideas. Here they are:

The Good Ideas

These are the best ideas—the ones that need to happen and are most likely to be effective. They stay within the guardrails of civil society. They continue on the course that the Jewish community has already taken. They rely on existing institutions and protocols and share the belief that we already have the means to effect change; we simply need to leverage them.

Help from Provincial & Federal Law Enforcement

In addition to Toronto Police (TPS), the city of Toronto falls within the jurisdiction of the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police), CSIS (Canada Security Intelligence Service), and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). The key point is that there are multiple layers of law enforcement that could step in and help. The threat has increased; these shootings are happening across jurisdictions and should be classified somewhere between hate crimes and acts of terror. Lobbying these groups to get involved and protect citizens is paramount.

Enhanced Security & Surveillance

Jewish organizations are already forced to spend a tremendous amount of money on private security. So what’s a little more? It’s clear that there needs to be better monitoring outside these institutions to help catch perpetrators. Flood lights and high‑definition cameras seem like a good place to start.

Have Police Enforce Existing Hate Crime Laws

As Jesse Brown noted in his recent “What Is Happening Here?” podcast—hate crime laws already exist. We need to start enforcing them.

Letter‑Writing to Politicians

This is simple and extremely easy to do. Citizens can send emails to politicians in mere minutes. I did this after the incident at TMU last fall, and it at least got me a response and a phone call from the city councillor. We can ramp up the pressure on the current officials and make them prioritize this even more.

Train Ourselves in Volunteer Security

Organizations like the Jewish Security Network already exist for this purpose. They have the training and resources available to help educate Jews on how to enhance security, combat hate, and make our communities safer.

Organize a Rally

Come out en masse and make our voices heard. Large Jewish organizations can organize protests the way the Toronto Persian community recently has regarding Iran. These rallies create publicity; they signal to bystanders that something serious is happening. We can stand outside city hall and make it impossible for our plight to be ignored. The key is to do this peacefully and civilly. With the weather turning, this needs to happen.

Influence the Upcoming Municipal Election

There is a municipal election in fall 2026. We can effect change by supporting candidates who are crystal clear on this issue. Municipal elections are extremely winnable. The Jewish community would do well to organize around candidates who make it known that they will prioritize public safety above other issues. Moreover, we need to

Create a Civil Cause of Action — a Tort of Incitement

An excellent idea from Adam Hummel: establish a new civil cause of action that allows victims of hate‑motivated crimes to sue organizations that materially contributed to a perpetrator’s radicalization.

The ideas that are well meaning but ineffective

These ideas are the ones that don’t actually solve the problem.

Emigrate

By far the most common suggestion was for Canadian Jews to emigrate to Israel or the United States. This would mean abdicating our position in society and letting the judeophobes win. It is a reasonable course of action for any individual, but if it became a trend, it would be a disaster. It would be a silent Jewish genocide—the erasure of a population that has been contributing to Canadian society for a hundred years.

Go to Battle on Social Media

This takes many forms: sharing posts, spreading information, or publicly shaming individuals who glorify violence. The issue is that we are completely out‑resourced here. Social media is a battleground that Jews in the West have lost, for now at least. That doesn’t mean we can’t engage at all, but it is unlikely to be effective.

Vote Out Our Elected Officials

Many respondents noted that current elected officials are not doing enough to stop these vile acts. While politics matter, and we should elect officials who hold Jewish security top of mind, this is unlikely to move the needle much at the federal or provincial levels. This issue is not going to matter to 95%+ of politicians—it simply isn’t relevant to what makes them electable. As Mélanie Joly once said when asked about her foreign policy: “Thomas, have you seen the demographics in my riding?”

The Reckless Ideas

These are extreme ideas that I do not endorse. But if nothing changes, they will become more and more mainstream. If the situation continues to deteriorate, these begin to seem like the only option. I list them here because we need to be aware of where the conversation is going. When people are scared and angry, this is where their thinking goes.

Fight Back. Perhaps Even Start Shooting Back

This is the most jarring idea on the list. It would be a total disaster if it came to this. Yet, the idea of fighting back is becoming more and more common. When the ideas in the above buckets fail, private citizens start to consider this kind of thinking. We have all heard or seen Jews discussing the idea of arming themselves. Many have lost hope that Canadian institutions will protect them, so they feel they are left with no choice. Arming ourselves is likely to cause more harm than good however. Escalation is not the way.

Stalk Politicians or Camp Outside Their Homes

The logic goes: make them understand the fear we are living with by putting it in their faces and making it impossible to ignore. If protesters are allowed to march down residential streets in Jewish communities with no consequences, then some argue we should do the same. For those people, this feels like the only way politicians will truly understand what we are going through. This is immoral however, it is unacceptable and we cannot sink to the level of the judeophobes.

Sue the Government

Embroil ourselves in a legal battle with the government to make them pay for their inaction. You can’t attack the government you are trying to have help you and expect them to treat you right. It’s a waste of resources.

So there they are, the good and the bad. But at some point we need to try something, because an attack on one of our institutions is an attack on all of us. We cannot sit idly by. So pick one of the good ideas, and execute it. Show up. Speak up. Make a difference. Rise to the occasion.

Get in on the conversation:

At accordingto.ca, We Believe in Rebuilding the Missing Middle.

If you believe in what we’re doing:

Subscribe. It’s free, and it tells us you’re with us.

Share. If something moves you, pass it on. Help us grow.

Contribute. Know someone who should be writing for us? Tell them. Or tell us.

We’re building something here. And we can’t do it alone.