The authorities reported that the number of antisemitism incidents in Toronto, Canada, has been increasing, with 78 hate crimes since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Friday. About 37 hate crimes were reported in the same time frame in 2022.
Police chief Myron Demkiw announced that there were currently 78 hate crimes reported between October 7 and November 20. He said the actual number was undoubtedly higher since many people hesitated to come forward.
Increasing Hate Crimes in Toronto
He said that he had received fourteen calls related to hate crime incidents between October 7 and October 19 at the Toronto Police Service board meeting on Thursday. He also visited members of the Palestinian and Jewish communities over their safety concerns.
According to CBC News, the fourteen reported incidents include 12 incidents related to antisemitism, and the other two were related to anti-Muslim events.
Currently, the number of reported antisemitic hate crimes almost increased to 38 from 13 last year. However, Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab populations leaped to 17 from just one in 2022.
Furthermore, Demkiw said that hate crimes could traumatize not just victims but all members of the targeted community and beyond.
Toronto police have temporarily boosted the unit investigating hate crimes to 29 teams from the usual six. The police said that since the October 7 attack in southern Israel, 25 people have been arrested with 64 charges concerning the reported hate incidents.
"We have responded with an all-service state of readiness and have directed a high visibility state of patrols and deployments across all divisions with a focus on places of worship including synagogues, mosques, schools and community centres," he said.
Demkiw told in a televised news conference that the impact of the events in the Middle East on their city was still ongoing and has escalated since October 7.
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Antisemitic Incidents
John Michael Graves, a resident walking out of his Moishe House, a cooperative group home for Jewish young adults living in Seattle, noticed half a dozen antisemitic flyers posted onto poles near the unmarked building's gate on October 24.
He said he ripped all the flyers and was shocked as to how they knew it was Moishe's house. The flyers read, cursing Israel with crossed-out Jewish stars.
Graves was scared, but he and his fellow residents did not report the incident to the Moishe House movement. Instead, they considered the flyers regular paper, not just some active death threat.
Since the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Moishe House movement has provided new resources to its community builders around the world to access emotional support services.
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spokesperson Jake Hyman noted the new university project was the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), which was welcomed to any student, family, faculty, or staff member. CALL would accept report incidents of antisemitic discrimination, intimidation, harassment, vandalism, or violence that may necessitate legal action.
